Unnatural Way of Presence

Walked into a bookstore. 
Found a lovely looking book about 
"simple teachings for being present".
Opened it - 
totally complex language and ideas.
All words about presence - 
but no presence.
Streams of non-stop words.
The natural way of being
was lost.
Forget, forget, forget books 
and essays (such as this one)
you are reading now.
Look! Look! Be! Just be. 

Counting money

Count the money you have, not the money you don't have.

Bohmian Dialogue - Working Through The Word Together

Socratic dialogue has a center, a facilitator. Bohmian dialogue, however, has no center or leader, rather everyone is responsible. It is a working through the word together. Listening, suspending judgement, and sharing happen. There is no "topic". The topics emerge as participants speak, listen, respond or stay quiet. A Bohmian dialogue group is from ten to forty members. Because of its open ended format, it truly reflects a microcosm of the wider culture.

Glimpsing the Universe

One of the greatest miracles - the emerging maps and images of the structure of the whole universe. All this knowledge is tentative. We will never get to the bottom of it all. Among the greatest human-cosmic adventures. 

Filaments represent strings of galaxies across the universe. 

The Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics

Nothing Permanent In The Mind, Except Consciousness

There's nothing permanent in the mind, 
except consciousness.

Almost impossible to talk or think 
our way into this realization.

An easier way is through 
meditation or silent prayer.

Some say that 
nature is emptiness;

others say that it is God.

It’s up to you 
to realize mind's true nature.
Or, perhaps, you are granted grace 
and it just happens!

Riding the bus into work this morning

We recently received this letter in the email. Worth sharing. Writer gave permission for republishing in the Philosopher-at-Large blog.

Americ,

Riding the bus into work this morning I looked around at all my fellow patrons. Wondering, my eyes meet with the only other person not looking down at an electronic device. We share a moment in a smile. As I scan around at everyone else, they are only shadows of people. Physically near but consciously lost in other universes. It made me want to break down and cry in the middle of the bus. I wanted to grieve for something modern humanity seems to have lost.

Not that I don't love technology and it's awesomeness. But I can just imagine the raw power that would exist within this bus if all these people were present to one another - the ideas that would spread like wildfire, the shared experience of one another. It seems almost revolutionary almost radical.

I looked back at the woman, she smiled again, knowingly.

Anyway, I wanted to share.

Liliana Caughman

Giving Is Having

You know you 

have something 

when you give it away. 

By giving, having 

suddenly becomes real.