In the late 1980’s when I started seeking in earnest you could work with a number of different spiritual teachers. The Indian sage J Krishnamurti and the Tibetan master Trungpa Rinpoche had already died, but … Read More
Goethe’s Method of Doing Science
Although Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is best know as a towering literary figure he was also a scientific genius. His method of doing science was in some ways diametrically opposed to the methods of many of … Read More
Everything Exists in Relationship
Things do not exist unless they exist in relationship with something else. In fact, things do not exist at all. Relationships exist. There are no individual things. The existence of anything is always contingent upon … Read More
The Emergence of a New Reality of Relatedness
What do we mean when we say ‘reality”? One simple way to think about reality is that it is that which we can’t do anything to change. The fact that I will age is reality. … Read More
Staying Inside Our Relationships
This is my final post in a series exploring what it means to “stay on the inside of life.” What we are exploring is some of the philosophical/psychological challenges of extreme objectification. When the world … Read More
From Inter-Faith to Trans-Lineage
Over the past couple of years I have become increasingly interested in a growing conversation about what a trans-lineage spiritual tradition would be. And over that time I have watched that conversation grow and spread … Read More
Everything Exists in Relationship
Things do not exist unless they exist in relationship with something else. In fact, things do not exist at all. Relationships exist. There are no individual things. The existence of anything is always contingent upon … Read More
The Subjective World of William James
My last post inspired me to want to do a series of posts in which I share some of my favorite philosophy passages, and this week a passage from William James’ Varieties of Religious Experience compels me. … Read More
What comes first, mind or matter?
First there was mind – absolute intelligence, pure consciousness. From this mind came the world and the universe and all forms of living beings. This would be the position of an idealist and Samuel Taylor … Read More
“To Thing”: A New Verb
Thing (v). to thing, thinging. 1. To create an object by defining a boundary around some portion of reality separating it from everything else and then labeling that portion of reality with a name. One … Read More
Embedding Consciousness Back Into The World
It seems to me that one of the great philosophical projects of our age is the effort to re-embed human consciousness into nature. This would be the antidote to some negative ramifications of another great … Read More
Are We On the Outside of the Universe Looking In?
It might be that the representational model of mind is the source of the existential feelings of separation, isolation and alienation that are so common in our world. Let me explain, most of us would … Read More
Riding the Currents on the Ocean of Mind
I can describe the beautiful image that built in my mind as I read John Dewey’s book “Experience and Nature” by describing a vision of reality as currents in the ocean of mind. Think of … Read More