 |
|
|
Archives
No One Ever Died from a Paper Cut
After telling us that the media have been too soft on Barack Obama, the pundits now want us to believe that two words — “bitter” and “cling”–are major gaffes that may sink his campaign. Is this really credible? Keep reading...
Tibet is not a Buddhist Litmus Test
As the violence in Tibet has continued, the Dalai Lama issued a stern statement that he could not align himself with insurrection in his home country. Buddhism rests on several pillars, one of which is
nonviolence. Tibet quickly became a kind of Buddhist litmus test. Keep reading...
The Bill Arrives for a Free War
Watching the troubles of the economy, some observers don’t want a bailout for either Wall St. or stressed homeowners who find themselves in over their heads. The phrase “moral hazard” is being tossed around as shorthand for “You took the risk, now take your lumps.” Keep reading...
The Shadow of the Season
It feels discomfiting and eerie to have plunged so deeply into the realm of the shadow, which is what happened last week. In mythic and psychological terms, the “shadow” is a place of darkness in each of us — and in society as a whole — where we hide feelings we are too weak or afraid to face. Keep reading...
The Messiah Virus
A month ago millions of people were discovering the allure of Barack Obama's charisma, and it made for a heady change in politics as usual.Caught on the wrong side of the charisma gap, Hillary Clinton applied the only remedy she knew -- more politics as usual -- and it seemed to work. Keep reading...
Memory and Machiavelli
There has been much decrying in the anti-war movement of deception and disinformation, accusing the Bush administration of using both tactics to fool the American people into the invasion of Iraq. Little has been said about the shallowness of political debate that allowed the public to be fooled in the first place. Keep reading...
Why We Need a Jesus
Searching for the real Jesus has been a growth industry and an obsession for several decades now. We read about “discovering” the tomb of Joseph and Mary the way medieval pilgrims heard that the head of John the Baptist had just surfaced in a French cathedral. Keep reading...
The Maharishis Years: The Untold Story
August 1, 1991 saw the publication of my book, Perfect Health, a popular guide to Ayurveda that came at the height of my involvement with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Although I had been meditating less than a decade in comparison with TM meditators who went back to the Sixties, my association with Maharishi quickly became personal. Keep reading...
The Three Maharishis
Even though I last sat with Maharishi more than ten years ago, he left an indelible impression, as he did on everyone. His extraordinary qualities are known to the world. Without him, it's fair to say, the West would not have learned to meditate. Keep reading...
The Soul Hypothesis
The current divisive atmosphere makes it appear that each of us must choose sides. In particular, a rash of books equating atheism and science poses the choice between rational materialism and organized religion — God or Einstein, in effect, despite the fact that Einstein himself made room for God in his worldview. Keep reading...
The Inconvenience of Democracy
The confusion around picking a Presidential candidate in both parties has led to a much more open nominating process. For the first time in decades the potential front-runners are spending huge amounts of time and money in small states, and crossover independent voters have a significant voice in picking the winner. Keep reading...
Why Political Optimism and Spiritual Optimism Are the Same
There was a collective moment of euphoria for many people when Barack Obama gave his victory speech in Iowa, followed by two weeks of steady deflation. New Hampshire and Nevada didn’t ride the wave of hope and optimism being generated that night. Keep reading...
Don’t Pass the Torch, Put It Out
One hears considerable talk, either with panic or jubilation, that no one is emerging as the bearer of the torch of Reaganism in the Republican party. Conservatives who have held sway since 1980, taking only eight years off during the Clinton era, can’t reach a consensus. Keep reading...
I Know I'm Right, So Why Be Fair?
This is an article forwarded to me by its author, the noted biologist and evolutionary thinker, Rupert Sheldrake. It’s about an encounter with the equally noted biologist and evolutionary thinker, Richard Dawkins. The subject isn’t atheism, Dawkins’ last hobby horse, but reason and science. Keep reading...
The War To End All Wars (For Real This Time)
In the aftermath of World War I, the horror of that conflict gave rise to a slogan that quickly turned into a bitter irony. “The war to end all wars” was only a prelude to more of the same, if not worse, with the arrival of World War II. Keep reading...
The Brain Without Wires
The notion that the human brain is “hard-wired” was a favorite theme even up to recently, because it helped explain how certain behaviors were determined by genes. We were told that depression, addiction, even obesity were not the result of choice or environment. Rather, these and a host of other behaviors were rooted in the brain and ultimately in a person’s DNA. Keep Reading...
It's Hard Being Purple
The polar ice is melting at an alarming rate, but the political ice jam in this country isn’t. While the public looks on with increasing disgust, a Democratic Congress can’t let President. Bush and his loyal Republicans to budge on any key legislation. Health care for children has been vetoed twice, war funding reaches new levels, tax reform is stalled, immigration reform is dead, and a government budget bill is being held hostage. Keep Reading...
Religion's Greatest Enemy?
Decades after Monty Python came to an end, John Cleese is dapper, intelligent, freethinking, and still funny. I heard him give an impromptu talk and came away with one of his best lines: “The biggest enemy of religion is spirituality.” The talk was in California among people who immediately applauded. On a certain level it’s only a quip, because spirituality, in its truest sense, has no enemies. The same can’t be said of religion. Keep Reading...
Curing the Post Colonial Hangover
You have to come from a post-colonial country, perhaps, to understand that the difference between the occupying power and those being occupied is psychological. In India, for example, the actual strength of the British army was minuscule, but their assumptions of superiority, their confidence and domineering attitude held sway over a society that lacked all these qualities. Keep Reading....
Science vs. Wisdom
James D. Watson, arguably the most eminent geneticist in the world because of his discovery, with Francis Crick, of DNA, has been causing a flap. Intent bloggers have also taken notice of these racial charged remarks . In the wake of his latest comments yesterday he resigned from his positions at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Keep Reading
Your Apocalypse or Mine?
Some time back I wrote a post entitled “The Seduction of Apocalypse” (April 7, 2006), pointing out the dark appeal of believing that the world is coming to an end. This seems like a good time for a follow-up, because in fact there are two versions of the apocalypse teetering on the brink, one Christian, the other Islamic. Keep reading...
With God Off Our Side
One of the bitterest complaints against both sides in the Iraq war is that religion has been a prime cause. When Pres. Bush proclaimed that the war on terror represented a clash of civilizations, he implicitly meant Christianity versus Islam, a view reinforced by his further claim that he was guided by God in his decision-making. No one supposes that a universal God spoke to him.
Keep reading...
Does Peace Have a Future?
If the pundits and pollsters are right, the American public has tuned out the Iraq War. It’s become a foregone conclusion that the conflict will grind on until at least Jan. 2009 when a new president takes office. Keep reading....
Your Genes Didn’t Make You Do It
It’s common with exciting breakthroughs in science that perception gets skewed and new facts lead to extreme interpretations. We seem to be in such a phase now with genes, which are being used to explain too many things in ways that are far too simple and mechanistic. It’s one thing to say that a child gets her blond hair genetically, but quite another to say that a child who is chronically shy received that trait exclusively by inheritance. Keep reading...
Buddha and the World
Since 9/11 there has been a pervasive sense of anxiety in the world, and at the same time a search for spiritual answers. Is violence an aspect of human nature that can be cured, or are we caught in an endless cycle of violence that will never end? One of the most optimistic answers to that dilemma came from Buddha more than two thousand years ago. In the light of what he taught, I wanted to post my thoughts about the Buddhist solution and what it means for you and me as we seek to live in a troubling world. Keep reading...