Illusions always arise with respect to a referent: they are compared to what is believed to be real and on the basis of the comparison are found lacking in some fundamental way. That is how we determine whether an object or experience will be labeled “real” or “illusory.” However, at the moment of experience, illusionsContinue reading “More on Illusion and Reality”
Author Archives: Sean
Spirituality as Equality
This observation underlies a lot of my thinking and practice, half-assed as it is: “Spiritual” is in some important sense the equivalent of perceiving all being as “equal” or even “same.” This is the miracle of creation; that it is one forever . . . Though every aspect is the whole, you cannot know thisContinue reading “Spirituality as Equality”
On Helping Others
(A brief essay categorized under “Things Sean Is Learning Really Really Slowly And Should Probably Be Cautious About Sharing Publicly”) If we do not recognize that everybody needs help, then we will not be able to help anybody. Important corollary number one: knowing that another body needs help, does not mean that that we knowContinue reading “On Helping Others”
On Love, Semantic Preference, Insight and Violets
Hilary Putnam suggests that “What is wrong is that Nature, or ‘physical reality’ in the post-Newtonian understanding of the physical, has no semantic preferences.” That is, there is no one way or right way or best way to speak/write. There are only more or less helpful ways and they are all contingent on context. ThisContinue reading “On Love, Semantic Preference, Insight and Violets”
Thinking Out Loud About Desire
We know anything because we can distinguish it from what it is not. Distinctions are being; they are existence. You can look at a maple tree and see how it is a maple tree and not a flower or a sky or a passing car. Maple tree and not-maple tree are how maple tree appears.Continue reading “Thinking Out Loud About Desire”
Getting Beyond “Know Thyself”
Perhaps we are moving beyond a space of needing to “know thyself.” Perhaps we are entering a new space where it is enough to realize the process of knowing, without getting hung up on knower and known and so forth. The self seems to be that which has certain identifying data (name, birthday, place ofContinue reading “Getting Beyond “Know Thyself””