When I was a teenager, I was not happy with my mind. Fifty years later, I think I see that there’s a natural rhythm in awareness, a rhythm that Gautama identified as his “way of living”. In particular, mindfulness of the cessation of habitual or volitive action with regard to the movement of breath allows a natural rhythm in ...
The Tree of Knowledge
In the Old Testament, God instructs Adam:
Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.
(NKJV Genesis 2:16-7)
Adam did eat, and he didn’t die, but he did find himself cast out of the garden.
In the Gospel of John, ...
Letter to the Author of “The Dark Side of Dharma” (Anna Lutkajtis)
I am currently reading your thesis, The Dark Side of Dharma- Why have adverse effects of meditation been ignored in contemporary Western secular contexts, and I’ve arrived at your characterization of the relationship between concentration and insight:
Concentration (or calm abiding) practices (Pali: samatha) ...