Many have extolled the value of gratitude. “If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough,” said Meister Eckhart. In Rumi’s words: “Gratitude is the wine for the soul. Go on. Get drunk.” In our own times, Willie Nelson noticed that “When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned […]
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Concentrating the Mind
We usually think of ‘concentrating the mind’ as focusing our attention on some experience — a process that can take effort and discipline, particularly if we are trying to keep the mind concentrated. While this approach can be useful at times, I find another interpretation of concentration equally valuable. The Latin root of ‘concentrate’ is […]
Continue readingDoing and Being
Why do I keep going into the doing mode? Moving from one task to another with hardly a break. Or when I’ve nothing urgent on, looking for something to do — check emails, or the news (again). Deep down, I must unconsciously believe that I will, in one way or another, feel better for getting […]
Continue readingAnchored in the Ground of Being
As many of you who’ve followed my thinking know, I’ve long been concerned with the unforeseen consequences of exponential growth, and the various crises it could lead to. And here we are in the middle of one – or rather the early days of one. We are witnessing an exponential escalation such that no one […]
Continue readingThere’s no such thing as ego.
There’s no such thing as ego. That doesn’t mean you and I don’t get caught up in egocentric thinking and behavior, but we are mistaken in thinking of the ego as some separate individual self, some “thing” in the mind. When I observe my own experience, I notice an unchanging sense of “I-ness” that has […]
Continue readingStephen Hawking
We always knew when Stephen was coming to dinner. It was 1966, my first year studying mathematics at Cambridge, and I happened to be in the same college as Stephen – Gonville and Caius, College. One of the prescribed parts of college life was dining together. We all sat on long tables in the Great […]
Continue readingOur Blind Spot on the Future
We can all see how the pace of life is speeding up. Technological breakthroughs spread through society in years rather than centuries. Calculations that would have taken decades are now made in minutes. Communication that used to take months happens in seconds. And we feel it in our own lives. Remember when you used to […]
Continue readingLoss and Revival of the Timeless Wisdom
The following is from the Preface I wrote for the new edition of Rupert Spira’s book, The Transparency of Things We live in unprecedented times. Science is answering age-old questions about the nature of reality, the birth of the cosmos, and the origins of life. We are witnessing technological advances that a century ago would […]
Continue readingWhat is Wisdom?
Humanity is too clever to survive without wisdom. — E.F Schumacher What is wisdom? We hear the word a lot these days—the need for wisdom, the wisdom traditions, wisdom schools. We each would like to have more wisdom. And for others to have it as well. Too much human hurt and suffering comes from lack […]
Continue readingLove in Las Vegas
Las Vegas is not my first choice of US cities. Glittering casinos are not my cup of tea. Nor is a city built in the middle of the desert. But I’d been invited by a good friend of the Cirque de Soleil to attend the opening of their new show “Love” — a tribute to […]
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