See, I thought I was so clever borrowing this concept from natural history to describe the human condition, and just last month came across a delightful Meditative Story, “Writing the Main Character” by Franklin Leonard, using “punctuated equilibrium” in exactly the same way. Great minds, I guess. Still, I thought I was so clever. To… Continue reading Punctuated Equilibrium
Our attention is all we have. You’ve maybe heard, “Time is all we have.” That’s not exactly right. I’ve spent plenty of time doing something and paid zero actual attention to it – watching TV, petting the cat, spending time with family – and had it pass by without me truly noticing it. It’s right… Continue reading Time and Attention
Worry, my friend always says, is a useless emotion. I worry a lot – I ruminate over problems I can’t solve because they haven’t happened. I spin off into future problems like how I will respond when I miss deadlines I haven’t missed yet. I wring my hands over decisions I will have to make… Continue reading Stopping the Rain
Finding compassion for people who you feel are contributing to your suffering is really hard. Unless we are very enlightened, all of us have that person, or maybe several persons, whose behavior makes us grind our teeth, and our deepest wish for them is a lifetime of having their vanilla pudding turn to mayonnaise on… Continue reading Let’s Get Metta-Physical
Our animal friends don’t move through life with the benefit of understanding what their life is. They just live in it. They just exist and do their animal thing. They haven’t studied eye cells to understand how they work; they just see and respond. They haven’t examined musculature; they just move. They don’t know how… Continue reading Animals or Scientists?
“We live submerged at the bottom of an ocean of air.” – Evangelista Torricelli There was a time before air. There was a time when what we saw around us between the ground and the sky was a void, comprised of absolutely nothing. We still kind of see things this way – in her wonderful… Continue reading The Science of Nothing
Sam Harris has these great lessons on his app (highly recommended) that cover a range of ways you can be a happier and more mindful person. One of my favorites is, “Don’t Meditate Because It’s Good for You.” This lesson makes a lot of good points – that the science, for instance, asserting that meditation… Continue reading Serving the Silver Liger
