thoughts on life

The cycles of birth and death in nature fold into the timeless present as I sit on the bank overlooking the stream. When thought completely stops in undirected attention, nature…

Two women on horseback, about 30 meters away, were riding by as I rejoined the narrow path after long sitting at creekside this morning. In a meditative state, I stood…

The man-made ecological crisis includes climate change, oceanic pollution and depletion, and the “Sixth Extinction” of animals and plants, among other devastations. This crisis defines our age, and threatens to…

Many Americans these days believe they have absorbed Eastern wisdom and are all but enlightened. But the Eastern graft onto the Western mind has been superficial and unfruitful. To be…

It’s a commonplace that religious experience is deeply private. Not because we are separate individuals, but because inner phenomena, by their very nature, are not social phenomena. When someone does…

Neuroscientists and cutting edge computer developers are in the early stages of building a “bridge between flesh and chip.” Chillingly, promoters speak of a “brave new world” of thought-controlled machines–in…

It’s a day that will reach 40 degrees Celsius. Walking in the morning through the brown grass in the canyon beyond town is at once exhilarating and enervating. One cannot…

Mary Magdalene seems to be all the rage these days with women such as Kayleen Asbo, who gives compellingly clear and evocative lectures such as “Gnostic Gospels Image of Mary…