Spiritual stuff I put online over the past few months: book reviews, quotes, my grandfather’s book and more. From All Considering: Spirituality and Madness – aka are the mad really prophets? (11) What are you devoted... Read More...
Spirituality and Madness – aka are the mad really prophets?
I received a digital review copy of The Spiritual Gift of Madness: The Failure of Psychiatry and the Rise of the Mad Pride Movement recently and I must say: I have rarely read a book in which I highlighted so much… However, instead of doing a... Read More...
What are you devoted to?
I have wanted to write about devotion ever since I first went to that Lam Rim course last year. However, I didn’t feel sufficiently qualified. I don’t know if I’m sufficiently qualified now, but at least I’ve seen a lot more of... Read More...
How not to get lost in spirituality – or Ariadne’s Golden Thread
When I was in my early twenties I was deeply involved in turning myself over, diving into spiritual/emotional transformation head first. I loved the image of Ariadne who had to find her way through a maze. I took that maze to be the maze of emotions... Read More...
The unity of observer and observed – various perspectives
To my surprise my previous post gave rise to a comment claiming to be Advaitin, yet expressing an opinion that I could hardly see as such. So let’s start with that. For the purpose of this post it should be enough to say that according to... Read More...
Anatma, no Soul, Buddha Nature, Vedantins vs Buddhism
One of the toughest aspects of Buddhism, from a metaphysical perspective, is the ‘no soul’, ‘anatma’ (or anatta) doctrine. Buddha didn’t mean that we’re soulless machines or anything like that. What he meant was that... Read More...
Chittamatrin, LOA, Desire and The Path
Overview of my posts online over the past month or so: All Considering: Our experienced reality – aka Buddhism and The Secret (1) How desire feeds on itself (6) Guru yoga, freedom of belief, women’s rights,... Read More...
Our experienced reality – aka Buddhism and The Secret
Ever since I started teaching the topic of Buddhist Philosophy about ten years ago, I’ve used the Law of Attraction (aka The Secret) to explain the Chittamatrin view (*). However, there are important differences and that’s basically what... Read More...
How desire feeds on itself
I almost bought a new laptop this week. I use my laptop as a desktop, in conjunction with an external screen, mouse and keyboard. The external screen has been turning yellow for weeks now. Very annoying. And since my business is to be online and work... Read More...
Guru yoga, freedom of belief, women’s rights, compassion
I’m doing something in this post I haven’t done in a while: share stuff I’ve been inspired by that you may not have seen if you don’t follow me on twitter or facebook. Not that I’m very active on the latter, however my... Read More...