Chasing Demons
I ran into this quote online: “Buddhist teacher Pema Chödrön… describes how Milarepa reacted when he came home to find his cave filled with demons. First Milarepa tried reasoning with the demons. But they ignored …
Category: Perspective
Sofia Panel Discussion
During the Science and Nonduality pre-conference, Rick Archer organized a large panel discussion at Sofia University. From the left: Laurie Moore, Susanne Marie, Mariana Caplan, Dana Sawyer, Francis Bennett, Craig Holliday (speaking), Kristin Kirk, Rick …
On Knowing
Due to the BATGAP interview and SAND talk, this blog is attracting many new readers. Some are coming in search of concepts that can help them make a better story about enlightenment. This is natural …
Nondualism and the Fallacies of Panpsychism and Artificial Sentience
I met Bernardo Kastrup in the San Francisco airport. He had just arrived from Amsterdam and a group of us were car pooling to the Science and Nonduality conference. I mentioned enjoying his talk there, …
Our Natural Potential talk @ SAND15
In October, I gave a Stages in Consciousness talk at the Science and Nonduality conference. Here is the talk synopsis. I was introduced by Rick Archer of Buddha at the Gas Pump fame. His talk …
The Divinity of Brahman
How does one describe a quality of divinity that is beyond consciousness, beyond existence, beyond even the subtlest division? We can use the word Divinity itself. True Divinity. Totality. A profoundly “exquisite delicacy” that is …
Brahman is Conscious
As the saying goes, Brahman is the knower of Brahman. And as I’ve noted, consciousness arises in Brahman. But Brahman is also beyond consciousness. The key here is the distinction between conscious and consciousness. Conscious …
Ecstatic Surrender
I’ve spoken here before about the layers of bliss. The bliss kosha or layer of being is already universal but as we settle deeper into higher stages of development, we shift out of experiencing ourselves …
BATGAP Interview Live
The Buddha at the Gas Pump interview is live on Youtube now and will be live on the BATGAP site shortly. If you didn’t see it, here’s a little context for where the interview is …
The Seeing Seer (Cognition)
Occasionally on this site I’ve touched on the nature of cognition, a form of experience where all knowledge about the object of perception is known. Not just the surface of the object facing us but …
Efforting
There is a subtle but profound difference between simple acting and efforting. Hawkins called this Power vs Force. Our culture celebrates individual effort but does not discriminate between these. The result is many people trying …
Why Creation?
This question and some related ones came up in a discussion forum and I thought it worth sharing here. Edited a bit for content. The question of why the divine would create is one answered …