Blog Stats
- 2,667,655 readers since June 2008
Recent Comments
- Marcos Borges on Judge William Adams Alludes to the Bible as He Beats His Daughter, Hallie
- Roy West on Bearing Witness to the Holocaust: Stacked Corpses
- Blue Beazley on In 1935, Were Cary Grant and Randolf Scott Sex Partners? No, But These Images Look Rather Camp
- Gabry on Michael Jackson Pedophile Reality Check: Is It Mean to Suspect that Michael Jackson Might Have Been a Pedophile?
- Dave on Dissipation-Driven Adaptive Organization: Is Jeremy England The Next Charles Darwin?
- Chris on Dissipation-Driven Adaptive Organization: Is Jeremy England The Next Charles Darwin?
- Oliver Stark on Matthew 27:51-53: The Bible’s “Night of the Living Dead” Passage
- Oliver Stark on Matthew 27:51-53: The Bible’s “Night of the Living Dead” Passage
- Oliver Stark on Matthew 27:51-53: The Bible’s “Night of the Living Dead” Passage
- Michael Rehkop on Fraudulant Attribution: Gilgamesh, Moses, the Apostle Matthew—and Ancient Authorship
- Terry on Fraudulant Attribution: Gilgamesh, Moses, the Apostle Matthew—and Ancient Authorship
- Anonymous on Emily Dickinson, Lesbian?: Her Letter to Susan Gilbert, in June of 1852, Might Tell Us Less Than You Think
- Anonymous on Emily Dickinson, Lesbian?: Her Letter to Susan Gilbert, in June of 1852, Might Tell Us Less Than You Think
- Yes She Was on Emily Dickinson, Lesbian?: Her Letter to Susan Gilbert, in June of 1852, Might Tell Us Less Than You Think
- Bret Stephens and Andrew Sullivan: A Not-So-Dynamic Duo ~ Full Magazine on Andrew Sullivan Apologizes for Comparing Larry Summers to a Christ Killing Jewish Moneylender in a Hieronymus Bosch Painting
Top Posts
- Emily Dickinson, Lesbian?: Her Letter to Susan Gilbert, in June of 1852, Might Tell Us Less Than You Think
- How Crazy is Dr. David Jeremiah?
- What, Exactly, Is Wrong With Bestiality?
- Clit Rubbing Bonobos: A Clue to the Evolutionary Origin of Human Homosexuality?
- Ludwig Wittgenstein for Beginners
- Matthew 27:51-53: The Bible's "Night of the Living Dead" Passage
- What is a Human, Really? Thinking about Definition via Aristotle
- What is an Etiological Narrative? And Might Confusion About Its Nature Be the Source for Fundamentalist Religion?
- In 1935, Were Cary Grant and Randolf Scott Sex Partners? No, But These Images Look Rather Camp
- Chile's earthquake and a simulation from the National Geographic Channel
-
Recent Posts
- A Mini-Course In Rhetoric For Writers. Concept 2.10: Emerson’s “Circles”
- A Mini-Course In Rhetoric For Writers. Concept 2.9: Imitation And Emulation With An Eye On Competition
- A Mini-Course In Rhetoric For Writers. Concept 2.8: Selection And Editing
- A Mini-Course In Rhetoric For Writers. Concept 2.7: Audience And Rhetorical Strategy
- A Mini-Course In Rhetoric For Writers. Concept 2.6: Moving From First Sentence To Thesis
Recent Haiku Tweets
- AOC says it well. twitter.com/CNN/status/108… 4 months ago
- nytimes.com/interactive/20… 9 months ago
- RT @mrchan: So much has changed in America, and yet so much hasn't https://t.co/x2mthUr4Kc 11 months ago
- Perfect. twitter.com/newsundayheral… 2 years ago
- RT @goldenglobes: At tonight's #GoldenGlobes we honor Hollywood legend Meryl Streep with the prestigious Cecil B. Demille Award. https://t.… 2 years ago
Tag Archives: meditation
Three Things I Think Are True
At this point in my life, I think there are three things that are true–the first one being rather obvious: I am a limited being, embedded in the system I’m trying to explain. This means I cannot be wholly confident that … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged atheism, Buddhism, God, life, meditation, now, philosophy, psychology, truth
2 Comments
Practicing Angry
Hmm.
Your Genes Made You Do (Half) Of It
Relax a bit. Much less than we probably imagine is really under our control. Note this quote, for instance, from two psychologists recently summarizing at Slate some findings on genes vs. environment: “Genes influence not only our abilities, but the environments we … Continue reading
Are Fussy Egg Handlers Rational?
Are you a fussy egg handler, quickly washing your hands after touching raw eggs and never, never licking batter from a spoon or bowl if a raw egg has been mixed with it (for fear of salmonella)? In terms of … Continue reading
Love Your Hippocampus, Don’t Eat It
This should motivate you to manage your stress better. In The New York Times this past weekend was the following on hippocampus research: Peter Gianaros, a neuroscientist at the University of Pittsburgh, […] found that, among a group of 48 … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Buddhism, exercise, fitness, health, hippocampus, meditation, psychology, stress
Leave a comment
A Good Reason For Meditators To Exercise A Lot (And Not Just Sit On Their Asses)
Want to be a calm Buddha with a highly attentive and awake “diamond mind?” New research suggests that maybe you should get out from under that Bodhi tree you’re sitting under and put on some running shoes instead, for exercise, … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged anxiety, Buddha, Buddhism, depression, exercise, health, meditation, therapy, yoga
1 Comment
Alan Watts Sings
Sort of.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged alan watts, Buddhism, meditation, no self, philosophy, the self
Leave a comment
What’s the Point of Having a Buddhist Meditation Practice?
Is the goal of the Buddhist meditator the same as the scientist (the breaking of spells and the dispelling of ignorance)? Ron Liefer, psychiatrist and Buddhist meditator, in his book The Happiness Project (Snow Lion 1997), writes the following (14): … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged acceptance, atheism, Buddha, Buddhism, meditation, psychology, science, therapy
2 Comments
An Atheist Speaks From The Heart About Aging
Try not to cry. __________ One of Maurice Sendak’s books is here.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged aging, atheism, atheist, death, fitness, friends, life, love, meditation, yoga
2 Comments
Coffin Therapy?
I’m down with this. __________ More on coffin therapy here. Carpe diem.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged carpe diem, coffin therapy, death, life, love, meditation, poetry, yoga
Leave a comment
A Good Shakespeare Quote for Meditating on Death
Hamlet speaking in Act V, scene ii of Hamlet: If it be now, ’tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged critical thinking, death, life, meditation, Shakespeare, yoga
Leave a comment
If You’re Angry, And Words Fail
Don’t shoot! Try gesture: . Or, how about this? (Buddhist equanimity.) . The above painting is from a Laotian monastery. It’s an image of the Buddha leading monks through a treacherous path. He is silent and calm, walking through … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged anger, Buddha, Buddhism, grace, Hinduism, life, light, love, meditation, revenge, truth, yoga
Leave a comment
Two Paths to Self-Control: The Buddha and Jesus vs. Ulysses and Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor
Dan Ariely, a professor of psychology at Duke University, has an interesting recent blog post on self-control, which he frames as a dual dilemma: should we intensively train ourselves to be serene Buddhas, indifferent in the presence of immediate pleasures that might undermine our larger … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Buddha, crucifixion, Jesus, life, meditation, psychology, sailing, self control, sin, sirens, temptation, Ulysses
1 Comment
Are You Sitting Down?
Maybe you shouldn’t be. The below chart was at Andrew Sullivan’s blog this morning, but I don’t know how accurate it is. It claims that long hours of sitting is deadly. Intuitively, this seems plausible. The information—if it is information and not, … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged death, disease, exercise, fitness, health, life, meditation, running, sitting, spring, walking, yoga
4 Comments
Neurons That Fire Together Wire Together: The New York Times Says 8 Weeks of Meditation, 30 Minutes a Day, May Change the Brain
More study is needed (obviously), but the New York Times, in its Health section, has a startling article on meditation’s apparent ability to literally change how the brain wires itself up, and that after only 8 weeks of very modest (30 minutes a day) meditation … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Buddhism, fitness, Hinduism, meditation, neurons, neuroscience, psychology, quantum physics, the brain, vipassana, yoga
16 Comments
Change Your Mind, Change Your Brain?
This was in the Los Angeles Times this past month: For the Trappist monks at the Abbey of New Clairvaux, life follows a pattern centuries old. They spend their days in the field and their nights in silence. They gather in prayer … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Buddha, Buddhism, Christianity, discipline, habits, hypnosis, Jesus, meditation, prayer, religion, Sartre, zig ziglar
Leave a comment
Talking about Love Some More
It seems to me that George Harrison’s song, “Within You, Without You,” says a lot of true things in a short space. Here are the lyrics: We were talking about the space between us all, and the people who hide … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Buddhism, dialogue, george harrison, Hinduism, Jesus, life, love, meditation, muhammad, talking, yoga
Leave a comment
A Swami for a Sunday
Swami Satchidananda is my all-time favorite Hindu guru. His name consists of a combination of three terms that, taken together, sum up rather nicely the Hindu spiritual quest: that which is (sat); that which is consciousness (chid); that which is bliss (ananda). … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Bhagavad Gita, death, flow, gurus, Hinduism, life, meditation, philosophy, Swami Satchidananda, yoga
1 Comment
The Tortoise Shell, the Umbrella, and Hindu Meditation
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says to Arjuna (Barbara Miller’s translation, pt. 2 stanzas 55-58): When he [the yogi] gives up desires in his mind, is content with the self within himself, then he is said to be a man whose insight … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Arjuna, aversion, Bhagavad Gita, Buddhism, desire, freedom, happiness, Hinduism, krishna, meditation, vipassana, yoga
1 Comment
