I went to bed thinking I had some understanding of respectful, honest communication—even enough to write a book—and I woke up humbled. In my dreamtime, I was taken to a world where speech was considered so sacred that it consisted only of bare truth. I opened my eyes realizing that much of what I considered…
Do Yoga? Only in America
In Hinduism, yoga comprises one of the six main schools of philosophy, along with being integral to Buddhism and Jainism. Yoga is based on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, which were written in the first centuries CE and are part of Hinduism’s foundational text. Yoga is a system of achieving inner and outer peace through…
Just Start Writing
Some people think they need to have a prospectus, or at least an outline, before they begin writing. I just talked with someone who was agonizing over the process of constructing a two-page sketch of what she was going to write. I question whether such approaches can be called creative writing. Is not creativity the…
The Blindness of Desire
Here’s another Zen story to help break us out of our accustomed perspectives. What do you make of it? The gardener brings the king a basket of lush fruit ringed with perfumed flowers. He enjoys the fruits so much that he asks to see the orchard from which they came. In the center of the…
The Adornment Scam
Silky lingerie, lace, jewelry, revealing necklines—what happens when what is underneath the wrapping doesn’t match up to its promise? If I were attracted to a woman because she dressed up to present herself in an alluring way—exaggerating features beyond their normal shape, size, or appearance—I’d have both dehumanized her and bought into a dead-end fantasy….
Death of a Dream
I just got an emergency call from a man whose friends took him to the hospital because he was delusional. He said he was up all night, inundated with visions that brought past and future crashing together in the now. “It was 100 times more than I normally handle,” he said. The staff wanted to…
Do Children Need Religion?
Here’s an e-mail I recently received: We have a child due and we’ve been thinking a lot about education…there are things about the system that we both disagree with yet think it’s important for children to learn how to socialize and work things out with the citizen majority…. What we are more curious about is…
My Wild Side
Is the concept of wilderness any different than the self-image I create to meet my needs and values? Does my choosing to walk through a forest rather than the plowed field next to it change the landscape? If I were to call myself a backpacker rather than a sports fan, would I appear different in…
More on My Label
Someone who writes is inclined to call himself a writer. Attachment to the label brings with it concern for the reader’s response to what is written. This limits the writer’s freedom—in this case my freedom—to fully express myself, and to do it in my own truly personal way. As my writing progresses, I tend to…
Do I Read Anthropological Works? Not So Much.
For years I would gobble up anything that was filmed or written about hunter-gatherers: historical accounts, travelogues, archaeological and anthropological research, biographies, and even some fiction (Clan of the Cave Bear, yes; Mutant Message Down Under, no—blatantly farcical). Being academically trained, I put a lot of stock in scholarly works. That is until I started…