Every human being has a favorite subject: him or herself. This is only natural since it is the “I” who experiences the world and there is no subject that any of us know so well as ourselves. Right? But what if this conceit is, in fact, wrong? What if we know absolutely nothing about ourselves and that as a result everything we know about the world also is wrong? Furthermore, what if our ignorance of self is not only the…
Most days when I fetch my 8-year-old from school I arrive early, situate my car in the parking lot and pull out a book to read for a few calming minutes before, quite literally, all hell breaks loose as hundreds of elementary-aged children swarm…
A key conceit of spiritual study is that we don’t really exist – at least not in the sense most of us imagine, which is to say a distinct body, name, personality, history, beliefs, etc. There is no “me,” per se, just a share…
It takes some discipline but I’ve discovered the home-brewed serenity possible in simply watching one’s thoughts vs. identifying with them. This is one of those recommended steps en route to awakening but is easily overlooked. Thoughts arise and disappear in an continuous flow, like…
There is nothing like a spiritual crash to teach a person the meaning of the word “humility.” Indeed, I think it safe to say that a man or woman cannot reach rock bottom unless the basic concept of humility has been forgotten (or never…
For reasons not entirely clear to me, I’ve got an unusually large number of friends suffering from a variety of crises. One in particular is having a tough go of it with a wife who suddenly announces her desire for a divorce (she is…