Today, I was asked “What do we do about the problem of identity?” This is a really great question. My answer is to begin by directly realizing that nothing is separate from you. Things appear distinct and have distinct properties, but are not separate in their being — nothing stands alone, everything exists only in…
Month: March 2011
If You’re Going to Bother Doing Something, Do it Deeply
If you’re going to bother doing something, do it deeply. “Deeply” means mindfully and with great attention, focused emotion, and full awareness. It means acting with our full being, rather than only part or the surface of it. It means bringing our full awareness to whatever we are doing and being thorough. Live deeply, think…
Zen, Ideas, and the Zen Approach to Life
Zen says “don’t get caught in ideas,” but uses them. When ideas are seen to be none other than the One, what problem can they cause us? They are part of the human experience of this moment and are valuable and useful. But equally useful is calming the mind and tasting the food we are…
Treating People as Means Versus Honoring Them as Ends
Kathy Pratte pointed out that people very often use others. In her own words, “When someone wants something from you, they show you attention, do you favours, act like they really care about you. When you have fulfilled your “purpose”, or failed to do so, you’re no longer of any need to them. You become…
On The Teaching of Emptiness (Sunyata)
The teaching of emptiness (sunyata) declares that all things are empty of their own, separate being. Nothing stands alone with its own separate self-nature. All things are empty in this way. Emptiness is not an absolute truth, however; rather, it is a tool to get us to drop the illusion of separateness and self-existence. Once…
On the Real and Non-Illusory Nature of Distinct Times and Places
Ashleigh Grace Walkinshaw claimed that “while consciousness can position itself anywhere it likes, in Oneness there is no “anywhere.” This viewpoint invites some very basic and practical questions. I asked Ashleigh, if you say that “In Oneness there is no “anywhere,” then how are you able to find your way home? How do you know where…
Separateness vs. Distinctness and Nonduality
I find it helpful to distinguish between “distinctness” and “separation.” “Separate” means that two things are completely apart from one another; they are utterly self-existent and exist independently. “Distinct” means that things appear in such a way that they can be distinguished, but yet, are still united in their being. For instance, two arms on…
The Buddha and the Causes of Suffering
The Buddha realized that life as usually lived is characterized by an underlying suffering, malaise, sense of unsatisfactoriness, Kierkegaardian anxiety, Sartrean anguish or Heideggerian forlornness. However, where he diverges from the three latter thinkers is in refusing to claim that such a condition was necessary. The Buddha saw that everything at arises does so when…
Death as Transformation – A Personal Letter
One of my friends recently felt the impact of the death of his grandfather and was feeling the natural human grief that follows from losing someone he cared about. When we are confronted with real suffering, this is the type of moment that puts our contemplation and insights to the test. Our realizations about life…
Death as Transformation
One of my friends recently felt the impact of the death of his grandfather and was feeling the natural human grief that follows from losing someone he cared about. When we are confronted with real suffering, this is the type of moment that puts our contemplation and insights to the test. Our realizations about life…
Words from the Wind 