Sam Harris on Spirituality without Religion, Happiness, and How to Cultivate the Art of Presence by Maria Popova “Our world is dangerously riven by religious doctrines that all educated people should condemn, and yet there is more to understanding the human condition than science and secular culture generally admit.” Nietzsche’s famous proclamation that “God is dead” is among modern history’s most oft-cited aphorisms, and yet as is often the case with its ilk, such quotations often miss the broader context in a way that bespeaks the lazy reductionism with which we tend to approach questions of spirituality today. Sam Harris by Bara Vetenskap Harris begins by recounting an experience he had at age sixteen — a three-day wilderness retreat designed to spur spiritual awakening of some sort, which instead left young Harris feeling like the contemplation of the existential mystery in the presence of his own company was “a source of perfect misery.” Harris writes: Our minds are all we have. It would not be too strong to say that I felt sane for the first time in my life. Donating = Loving
Rethinking the Placebo Effect: How Our Minds Actually Affect Our Bodies by Maria Popova The startling physiological effects of loneliness, optimism, and meditation. In 2013, Neil deGrasse Tyson hosted a mind-bending debate on the nature of “nothing” — an inquiry that has occupied thinkers since the dawn of recorded thought and permeates everything from Hamlet’s iconic question to the boldest frontiers of quantum physics. That’s precisely what New Scientist editor-in-chief Jeremy Webb explores with a kaleidoscopic lens in Nothing: Surprising Insights Everywhere from Zero to Oblivion (public library | IndieBound) — a terrific collection of essays and articles exploring everything from vacuum to the birth and death of the universe to how the concept of zero gained wide acceptance in the 17th century after being shunned as a dangerous innovation for 400 years. As Webb elegantly puts it, “nothing becomes a lens through which we can explore the universe around us and even what it is to be human. Illustration by Marianne Dubuc from 'The Lion and the Bird.'
10 Most Zen-Friendly Websites to Keep You Calm and Productive at Work Do you feel like you can no longer cope with the stress of meeting your deadlines? Does the lack of concentration stop you from focusing on your goals? Are you stuck or stressed out? Then put your headphones on. Try using some of the most Zen-friendly websites on offer that really work wonders for keeping your cool in the workplace. There are so many more sites like this out there, but — for the purposes of this article — I have included 10 of them that I use myself. 1. Yes, that’s exactly what you should do for the next two minutes. 2. Calm.com also challenges you to sit still and quiet your mind. You can choose from the many calming atmospheres that are available — gentle waves, fields, waterfalls. 3. SimplyNoise uses white, pink and brown noise. 4. SimplyRain belongs to the SimplyNoise website and it simply plays the rain sounds for you. 5. This one’s my favorite and the one I use most often when I write. 6. You can’t afford spending every morning at Starbucks? 7. naturesoundsfor.me
Jack Kerouac on How to Meditate 20 Ways Sitting in Silence Can Completely Transform Your Life “Silence is a source of great strength.” ~Lao Tzu For over two years I spent one out of every four weeks in silence. At the time I was living at a Zen Monastery and every month we would have a week-long silent retreat. During this retreat we sat meditation in silence, ate in silence, worked in silence, and only communicated through hand gestures and written notes. At first living like this was hard, but over time I learned to grow to appreciate silence. What did silence teach me? 1. I used to think I needed to watch TV every night. Silence taught me to be happy with less. 2. When you can only talk by writing a note, you only say what’s important. Silence taught me that a few simple words well spoken have more power than hours of chatter. 3. Being able to speak makes life easy, but when I couldn’t talk I learned how much I relied on others. Silence taught me to appreciate the value of relating to others. 4. Several times at my first retreat I thought my phone was vibrating. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
How Buzz Aldrin's communion on the moon was hushed up | Matthew Cresswell Neil Armstrong will be remembered at Washington National Cathedral today. It's a good moment to look at one eccentric Apollo story: the tale of Aldrin's hushed-up communion on the moon. Before Armstrong and Aldrin stepped out of the lunar module on July 20, 1969, Aldrin unstowed a small plastic container of wine and some bread. He had brought them to the moon from Webster Presbyterian church near Houston, where he was an elder. He then ate and drank the elements. He also read a section of the gospel of John. The story of the secret communion service only emerged after the mission. After the Apollo 8 crew had read out the Genesis creation account in orbit, O'Hair wanted a ban on Nasa astronauts practising religion on earth, in space or "around and about the moon" while on duty. O'Hair's case against Nasa eventually fizzled out, but it dramatically changed the tone of the Apollo 11 landing. And as for O'Hair? But in a sense, she need not have worried.
Realizing You're Enough Instead of Trying to Fix Yourself “If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” ~Oprah Winfrey Seven years ago I discovered a world of healing, energy, and spirituality. It came at a particularly hard time in my life. Everything that could go wrong seemed to have. First, I picked up a bug while travelling, which left me unable to hold down food for over eight weeks, and doctors told me there was nothing more they could do. Then, there were secondary infections, which I learned I might have to live with for life. I was being bullied at work and then walked away from my friends. The first twenty-five carefree years of my life exploded in my face, and confusion set in. In a desperate quest to find answers, happiness, and peace again I went searching, and what an awesome world I found! It started with discovering kinesiology and developed into a learning of healing foods, chakras, and energy healing. And all for a good reason—each of these disciplines was quite literally changing my life.
If our Founding Fathers were to write the Second Amendment today, how would they phrase it? Fear of Silence I have the impression that many of us are afraid of silence. We’re always taking in something—text, music, radio, television, or thoughts—to occupy the space. If quiet and space are so important for our happiness, why don’t we make more room for them in our lives? One of my longtime students has a partner who is very kind, a good listener, and not overly talkative; but at home her partner always needs to have the radio or TV on, and he likes a newspaper in front of him while he sits and eats his breakfast. I know a woman whose daughter loved to go to sitting meditation at the local Zen temple and encouraged her to give it a try. We can feel lonely even when we’re surrounded by many people. What are we so afraid of? Practice: Nourishing When feeling lonely or anxious, most of us have the habit of looking for distractions, which often leads to some form of unwholesome consumption—whether eating a snack in the absence of hunger, mindlessly surfing the Internet, going on a drive, or reading.
Thoreau’s Body of Knowledge Thoreau’s Body of Knowledge by Liam Heneghan Walking is a foundational practice, amounting in natural history to methodology. Thoreau’s walking is not, of course, mere exercise, nor is the essay Walking an instructional treatise though it does tell us something of the where (”the West”) and the how (“...shake off the village...”) of walking. For all of his talk of permanent leave-taking there is Thoreau claimed, a “harmony discoverable between the capabilities of the landscape and a circle of ten miles radius, or the limits of an afternoon walk, and the threescore years and ten of human life.” Thoreau makes the connection between walking and epistemology more transparent in his discussion of what he described as “beautiful knowledge”, a type of knowledge "useful in a higher sense". None of this is to suggest that Thoreau eschewed traditional scientific knowledge or theorizing. Be that as it may, there is nonetheless, a general recognition of affiliation between the city and philosophy.
Where’s Waldo? Last February, Harvard’s Belknap Press issued the final volume of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Collected Works, a project that had taken over 40 years. It was conceived at the beginning of what is now called “The Emerson Revival.” Before the 1970s, Harvard professor Lawrence Buell remarks, “even specialists could not be counted on to treat Emerson as anything better than an amateur warmup act.” Poststructuralism, however, provided a paradigm for “Emerson’s fragmentary, self-reflexive prose,” and as its star rose, so did Emerson’s. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1845) Interest in Emerson has been going strong ever since. But now that his Collected Works is complete, I’d like to suggest that we close the book on the Emerson Revival. Most people agree that Emerson is not a philosopher. It’s odd to think of “my own body” as “not me,” but let’s move on. How about Emerson’s much-lauded practical wisdom? Other sayings are downright troubling. His central idea, of course, is “Trust thyself.” Read that again.