Delusion is completely convincing. This point can be difficult to acknowledge. When we suffer under a delusion we accept its rationalizations completely. We simply cannot see any incoherence in our outlook. We are certain. How then can we tell whether attending to coherence is not just another delusion?
Results for "We cannot see what we cannot see"
How do we change? part two…
Whenever someone challenges our valid sense of urgency we are compelled to repeat a litany of real and imagined aspects of the Enormity we all face. It’s as if to hear things are dire and, that for this very reason, we need to slow down; is just too much to bear. Anyone making this claim… Continue reading How do we change? part two…
How Do We Change?
Change begins when we let go and stop defending our existing condition.
A Great Wave
At the end of a ride on a great wave we find ourselves gasping and spitting, with the sharp tang of brine penetrating our sinuses, sand in our eyes. Our minds filled by a euphoric kaleidoscopic replaying of the ride’s thrills. Meanwhile, the next wave is about to land on us, pushing us down into… Continue reading A Great Wave
An Event Horizon
Most days follow on from the day before and are followed by another in such a way that at any given moment, and certainly in retrospect, the salient sensation we’re left with is of partaking in continuity. This is an aspect of the workings of the mind and is related to; and it might be… Continue reading An Event Horizon
On Faith
The question of bad faith begs us to consider, What is good faith? Both of these questions hover around the big one, What is faith?
Interdependence
How do we settle-down into coherence? We are perturbed and react out of our displacement. Coming to terms with futility, finding an emotional ground by accepting Grief, discovering our interdependence, we come to trust. Following this path internally we integrate our selves. Following this path in company we develop community.
The Amazon Is Burning
In case you haven’t been paying attention… As I write this the Amazon is burning. How do we respond?
The Edifice of Thought*
Thought shapes thinking. We cannot think differently unless we become aware of how thought shapes our thinking. There is a shape implicit in thought, forming a trajectory for our thinking, that is there as we gather a thought. Right there in the act of thinking itself. Technological thinking, institutionalized, taught thinking, what we call rational… Continue reading The Edifice of Thought*
Breathless
We are infatuated with the idea of The Future™. Breathlessly running through what appears to be a menu of options as if to be a Modern Human is to be able to sit in judgement, weighing our choices with delicate discernment, whether to accept a heaping helping of Techno Fantasy or dawdle over a tasting… Continue reading Breathless
Notes on Place
Everything comes back to the question of place. One of the fundamentals of Qi Gong, a practice that is all about fundamentals, is that we attend to where and how we are grounded. Not in some academic manner, parsing theoretical constructs or honing philosophical arguments; in Qi Gong the ground we attend to is this… Continue reading Notes on Place
The State of the Self
From Egoic Identity to an Integrated Self Cultures create, nourish, and defend modes of identity. An individual’s sense of self is dependent on the pathways to identity their culture allows. Cultures have always maintained a duality between its members and outsiders. The present dominant culture has blurred this distinction. But not in the way we… Continue reading The State of the Self
The question of Bad Faith
I must say that I find myself almost speechless with a sense that there is no form of communication available that has not been buried under an avalanche of disinformation. Like an avalanche this may have been initiated by a single and quite small, relatively inconsequential disturbance. Like an avalanche the resulting destruction has compounded… Continue reading The question of Bad Faith
If there’s just one thing…
If there’s just one thing I might suggest to you it is to cultivate your capacity to suspend judgment. If, as you read this statement your mind was set racing with all the reasons why you should not consider what is on offer then you are stuck in what may be a foundational trap. What… Continue reading If there’s just one thing…
Looking back at looking back, What Drives Me,
I’ve just re-read this essay: What Drives Me Confronting the double-bind, Growing up in a predicament we get past incredulity or we take refuge in madness.
Drawing Desire
However we approach our predicament we face a myriad of traps, evasions, and projections. It’s no different when we come to an opportunity to act within a practice. Except it is…. In a practice we interact with complexity outside the confusing complications that abound in our customary, conditioned state. Living inside our reactions it is… Continue reading Drawing Desire
Communion with the Sacred
Art and craft, these two simple words do a fine job of naming two of the three realms of living. I’ve had some difficulty finding an equally straightforward and simple term to describe and name the third. For a while I’ve latched onto John Michael Greer’s “Theosphere.” It is literal enough. It describes a realm… Continue reading Communion with the Sacred
More and more… it’s fragments…
More and more it’s fragments that feel true. Fragments show their edges. Edges that intrude into the illusion of completion. Edges that cannot be ignored. Fragments insist there is more we don’t see. Can’t see. Fragments show us how we “piece things together.” Even the smallest, most torn fragment leads us to fill-out its story.… Continue reading More and more… it’s fragments…
A Question of Purpose
My thoughts have been circling around what may best be described as questions of purpose. This might be considered central to any life led with some degree of introspection. As with most things of value this pursuit has been short-changed by our culture’s dominant modus operandi. It’s taken quite a while to sort this out.… Continue reading A Question of Purpose
Queequeg’s Coffin
I was fifteen when I first read Moby Dick in a 48 hour long marathon sick in bed with a bad cold in a hotel in the Northeast of Portugal, reading, sleeping, then reading some more. It deeply affected my world view. I’m still finding out what it means….