thoughts on life

Even the most brilliant and careful scientist is susceptible to bias. As philosopher Daniel Dennett has said, “Nobody is immune to wishful thinking.” Is there an approach other than the…

We stood overlooking the volcanic gorge beyond town, an easy 2-mile walk from the gate along a streamside trail. Vultures soared a few meters over our heads, and the black…

Since a grasslands fire swept leapt the creek about a decade ago, the great sycamore on its banks has been slowly dying. Sitting under it now is a reminder that…

I don’t really like the word mystic; there’s something rather mystical about it. But for lack of a better term, mystics are simply human beings who have a tendency toward…

Two mallards, a multi-colored male and the rather nondescript brown female (except for a dazzling blue chevron on her wings) drift downstream. They are completely at home in the stream…

The word and work of consciousness have two very different meanings to me. They are so different the two states should have different names–conscious activity, and conscious awareness perhaps.

I’ve never been one for Zen koans. They’ve always seemed to me to be trick questions designed to produce insights that simple, undivided observation can engender. But here’s a kind…

A disturbing book that’s been touted in the major media in the United States is “The Case for Goliath: How America Acts as the World’s Government in the 21st Century,”…