One of my oldest crusades is against the distinction between thought and feelings… which is really the basis of all anti-intellectual views: the heart and the head, thinking and feeling, fantasy and judgment. We have more or less the same bodies, but very different kinds of thoughts. I believe that we think much more with [...]

LIBERATION LEADS TO LIBERATION. These are the first words of truth — not truth in quotation marks but truth in the real meaning of the word; truth which is not merely theoretical, not simply a word, but truth that can be realized in practice. The meaning behind these words may be explained as follows: By [...]

It seems to me that understanding that our theories are the source of all our conflicts would go a long way in helping people with different belief systems to get along. – Michael Gazzaniga

The Analects of Confucius [论语]

The Fine Young Man A young man should be respectful to is parents in the home, and to his elders outside. His words should be cautious and trustworthy. He should care for people in general and seek company of benevolent men. If having accomplished these he still has energy to spare, he should study. Understanding [...]

Shankara’s Crest-Jewel of Discrimination by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood

No object, no kind of knowledge, can be absolutely real if its existence is only temporary. Absolute reality implies permanent existence. When the truth is known, we are no longer deluded by the appearance. A God who transforms Himself into the visible universe is Himself subject to transformation and change – He cannot be regarded [...]

Vedanta Philosophy by Swami Vivekananda

The word which is “creation” in English language is in Sanskrit exactly “projection.” Western Creation: Something that coming out of nothing. Vedanta Creation: Projection of that which already existed. We are all one, and the cause of evil is the perception of duality. As soon as I begin to feel that I am separate from [...]

The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are by Alan Watts

This feeling of being lonely and very temporary visitors in the universe is in flat contradiction to everything know about man (and all other living organisms) in the sciences. We do not “come into” this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree. As the ocean “waves,” the universe “peoples.” Every individual [...]

The Web Has No Weaver: Understanding Chinese Medicine by Ted J. Kaptchuk

Medicine East and West The Western physician starts with a symptom, then searches for the underlying mechanism – a precise cause for a specific disease. The physician’s logic is analytic – cutting through the accumulation of bodily phenomena like a surgeon’s scalpel to isolate one single entity or cause. The Chinese physician directs his or [...]

Decent Living by Krishnamurti

Questioner: The problem of earning a decent living is predominant with most of us. Since economic currents of the world are hopelessly interdependent I find that almost anything I do either exploits others or contributes to the cause of war. How is one who honestly wishes to achieve right means of livelihood to withdraw from [...]

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

This mitigating circumstance prevents us from coming to a verdict. For how can we condemn something that is ephemeral, in transit? …reveals the profound moral perversity of a world that rests essentially on the nonexistence of return, for in this world everything is pardoned in advance and therefore everything cynically permitted. But is heaviness truly [...]