A hallucination is, I can put my hand through a chair because it’s not really there. There is no chair. But an illusion is, something is there but I am not seeing it. I’m seeing something else. I see a chair but it’s actually atoms. Or information. Or Jesus teaching me how to forgive theContinue reading “Distinguishing Between Illusion and Hallucination”
Category Archives: Separation
Beyond Thinking about Stillness
Stillness does not ask anything of us. Nor can it be misunderstood. It is given totally and unconditionally. Yet if we are thinking about stillness, then we do not know stillness. The problem is not thinking – thinking can be very creative and useful in context. The problem is “about.” “About” comes from an OldContinue reading “Beyond Thinking about Stillness”
After Idols
The various experiences for which we long are neither right nor wrong, good nor bad. It is the longing we must look at, not the object to which the longing attaches. That’s the error – to become focused on the object as if it were the problem (so often masquerading as the solution), rather theContinue reading “After Idols”
On Losing Religion and Gathering Joy
I do not think that religion is something one has to vanquish and bury in an anonymous grave, all in the name of love and reason, but I do think if one has not yet seen good reasons why it should be so vanquished and dispatched, then one is perhaps insufficiently religious. What do IContinue reading “On Losing Religion and Gathering Joy”
The Alternative to Defining God
The question of whether God exists as an object that can be defined and perceived by another object – i.e., a self apart from yet yearning to return to God – is not as helpful as it may seem. In effect, it reinforces the very confusion it purportedly aims to undo. “Purportedly” works here becauseContinue reading “The Alternative to Defining God”
The Sufficiency of Life
. . . and am reminded that when we die nothing really happens: the whole loveliness of the world continues, the whole sufficiency of life – of us, together, one within the other – continues. Our subjective experience of life ends, yes, but nothing is contingent on our subjective experience – it is merely awarenessContinue reading “The Sufficiency of Life”