Digital Addiction and Smartphone-Related Youth Suicide | Book Excerpt   To understand the widespread disease of digital addiction, we have to differentiate between behavioral and substance addictions. A substance addiction to alcohol or drugs (or any substance with psychoactive compounds) can directly change your brain chemistry, leading to a vicious dependency on a substance. Substance addiction was the only form of addiction considered until recent stud ...

Honoring Thich Nhat Hanh: The Buddha of the Modern World   I knew this day was coming, but I never wanted it to come. For the sheer selfish reason that a world with Thich Nhat Hanh in it is a lot better than one without him in it. In 2014, when I heard the news of his brain hemorrhage, I was deeply saddened and I couldn’t digest the thought of his eventual passing at that time. But when I heard the news of Thich Nhat Hanh’s passing, I was sad, but then my sadne ...

Political Correctness is Unnatural    We are developing an over-the-top political correctness in the world which we all know deep down is not natural. It has a certain stench about it. The stench of political correctness infects our mind, producing individuals who have disconnected from their intrinsic nature and beauty. These individuals we all know too well. They are the over-the-top social justice warriors and righteous people in general, who brandish their own personal agendas on the wor ...

An Artificial Problem in a Natural World | Book Excerpt   We currently live in a culture where we believe we should know “everything,” or at least have access to the possibility of knowing everything. Our culture also ingrains in our mind that we should be “popular” and “relevant.” This mix implies that we should be a popular version of Einstein, maybe close to Neil deGrasse Tyson, but even cooler, more popular, and smarter. Think of a hip version of Iron Man.   Our modern culture of popular ...

Why the World is Always in Conflict   There is so much hatred in the world. So many people banding together based on group identification. Our fear of one another is so heightened that we lack the awareness to listen to one another and ultimately understand one another. Our personal view of life, based on our own beliefs and agendas, is the only perspective of life. Our personal narrative is the narrative. But it has always been this way. Our hatred and fear towards each other are nothing ne ...

Lao-tzu’s Wisdom on Artificial and Natural Desires    In the Tao Te Ching, Lao-tzu makes a distinction between “the desires of the eye” and “the desires of the belly.” He recommends that we revert back to one over the other. In chapter 12 of the Tao Te Ching Lao-tzu explains: The five colors blind our eyes. The five notes deafen our ears. The five flavors deaden our palates. The chase and the hunt madden our hearts. Precious goods impede our activities. This is why sages are for the belly an ...

Why the East Avoid Debate and Why You Should too    Avoiding debate is a hallmark of Eastern thought, especially in countries such as Japan. This mentality is hard for a lot of Westerners to comprehend. In the West, we are encouraged to debate so that we can come to a conclusion on a matter. This Western way of thinking is incorrectly believed to be universal. Many Westerners believe the way they think is the same for everyone in the world. This way of thinking is a clumsy way of viewing the ...

The Life and Teachings of Ramana Maharshi    Many people have heard the name Ramana Maharshi, but surprisingly most of them don't know who he was and why he was one of the most important figures of the 20th century. Personally, his teachings thrust me on the path of spirituality at a young age. He was one of the great sages who opened the door of Eastern wisdom for me. I hold Ramana Maharshi in the highest echelon of sages who graced the Earth. I believe he belongs in the honorable company o ...

Go Beyond Everything (Turiya)    In the great Eastern spiritual traditions there is a special importance given to going beyond everything, essentially going beyond the world and even your own mind. This is the spiritual ideal of the great sages and teachings of the East. But this ultimate goal is something that frightens most people because they are not willing to truly give up their sense of “self.” People who become interested in spirituality forget this ideal. Sadly, people often subtly u ...

The Nature of Siddhis in the East   The word siddhi is a Sanskrit noun which means attainment, accomplishment, perfection, power, realization, or success, in the sense of liberation or attaining magical powers. Siddhis are the magical powers or paranormal abilities attained through rigorous spiritual practice. In the Hindu sect of Shaivism they define siddhis as the “Extraordinary powers of the soul, developed through consistent meditation and often uncomfortab ...

Yugas: The Hindu Map of Time   The Eastern view of time is completely different to the Western view. A perfect example of this is the Hindu time system called the Yugas. The word yuga in Sanskrit means age, cycle, or world era. The yugas are a complex world-age doctrine of four ages. The yugas map the cycles of change within the universe and consciousness. The yugas build a solid framework for understanding how we experience time and eternity, and how they are ...

Understanding Flow – Part 3 Intelligent Spontaneity   The story of Cook Ting is about how we effectively move through the world with skill and not feel resistance. Reaching your optimal potential is also the same, meaning you attain expert skill in your desired craft and that extends into life in general. This feeling of effortlessness, or flow and wu-wei, is a state of psychological ease we feel through our whole body.   The goal of wu-wei, then, is to effecti ...

Understanding Flow – Part 2 Ancient Philosophy   The embodied model of the self was the primary viewpoint during the Warring States period of China, and also other parts of Asia. But it was in China especially that we discover the embodied mind model. During the Warring States period there were numerous philosophers and sages whose names we still know today. Most notably Lao-tzu, Confucius, Mencius, and Chuang-tzu. Though their philosophies may somewhat differ, ...

Understanding Flow – Part 1 Modern Science    What is the nature of being in a flow state of consciousness? How and why do we experience flow? What truly is flow? The term flow was first coined and popularized by Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi who is a Hungarian psychologist. He wrote a fascinating book called Flow back in 1990. When we think of flow we think of an athlete, musician, writer, craftsman, or any artist when they appear to have this laser-like focus and precision which is equated with t ...

History of the Monarchical View | Book Excerpt from Enlightenment Now   Tracing our history back to pre-agrarian culture, humanity was a people living in and with nature. We existed in small tribal and shamanic communities taking only the necessities of life, rather than whatever we wanted. Those archaic cultures did not have to seek equilibrium with the environment because they were already naturally harmonious. They perceived nature in all of its glory, as an ...

The Way of the Warrior and Path of the Sage | Book Excerpt from The Science and Practice of Humility   A human has two primary states of awareness or modes of being. As we have mentioned there are those who are drawn into the daily dramas of life and those who have an elevated perspective, capable of seeing a fractal harmony within all life. These two states of awareness run parallel with the conscious state of the false ego and the true self, respectively. The ...

The Skill of Martial Arts is Yin Over Yang | Book Excerpt from Effortless Living    The science and practice of martial arts are based to some degree on the science of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). This is evident in the fact that TCM focuses on how our body is a miniature inner universe. When we know and understand this inner universe, we begin to know the greater, outer universe and see how both function the same. Martial arts make use of this idea through movement methods that are s ...

Harmony of Nonconformity | Book Excerpt from Effortless Living   In a linear world, the external order dictates an artificial way of life to the individual, creating a conformist society and forcing us to relinquish our power to a machine that is unnatural and devoid of life. This passive conformity can be traced back to the origins of the Vedic Hindu caste system and the feudal system under medieval Western Christianity. When a settled agrarian culture such as these is born, it tends to bui ...

The Evolution of Human Cognition | Book Excerpt from Fasting the Mind   As the human species began to move to different locations on the planet, our minds naturally adapted to the environments and circumstances that we confronted. This is highly significant in regard to which parts of the brain were in function and the worldview that was shaped accordingly. This is evident when we explore Asiatic and Western cultures from before the Common Era. When we go back to the first two millennia BCE ...

The Ancient Eastern Science of the Nervous System | Book Excerpt from Fasting the Mind   The spiritual path of Buddhism came into existence as a result of this yearning to completely slow down our nervous system so we can experience real freedom. In Sanskrit such freedom is called nirvana, meaning extinction, freedom from suffering, and ultimately the unconditioned eternal reality that we experience as enlightenment. In the story of Gautama the Buddha, he sought methods of practice and philo ...

From a Western perspective the mind of the East has always appeared peculiar. The Eastern way of thinking, their philosophy and spiritual beliefs, run counter to Western thought. Today, in the modern world, the Western view of life has become the norm, even in the East. The Western approach of radical individualism has spread all around the world, while the Eastern view of holism and collectivism is taking a backseat while each and every individual tries to reach the top of the social heap by tramping over others. A result of this striving for ‘success’ is that we have become excessively busy, and …

Enlightenment in the East: Misunderstood & Misinterpreted   Enlightenment in the East is often misunderstood and misinterpreted. It is completely different from the philosophical movement known as “the Enlightenment” in Europe during the 18th century. Eastern enlightenment is often studied but never experienced. It is usually viewed through our Western and modern linear view of life. Yet the Eastern view of life is built on the natural world’s foundation of a nonlinear view, inclusivity rath ...

Humility: A Sage's Ultimate Reality   The effortless universal virtue of humility is what evokes enlightenment in life. The big problem with this mystical virtue is generally we only have fleeting moments of its power, as we constantly get sucked back into the subjective dramas of the world in our mind. As a result, we revere the sage for their sustained absorption in the lowest and paradoxically most powerful state of humility. A master absorbed in the humble and most refined state of consc ...

The Trap of Devotion to God and Guru   We fear nothing more than being truly independent. True independence does not mean in the social context in regards to individual job titles, nor does it mean in the collective sphere of nationalistic independence, though both may be derivatives. Real independence is spiritual sovereignty, meaning the individual truly lives psychologically from the Heart with no agenda and is free from the attachment to social, cultural, and religious programs which imp ...

The Evolution of Perception   In any attempt to save the world we are in one sense an immense help in changing the world, and in another sense paradoxically we are a hindrance and destructive burden upon the world. The world which most people seek is invariably based upon their own sense of pleasure with the exclusion of pain. The socially accepted freedom that we value and associate with liberation, the one that drives most us to change the world, is a separatist effort to impose our own in ...

The Artificial Human   The destruction of an organism depends upon an element of that organism becoming neurotic to its place within the natural order of organic life. If a species builds their perspective of life only within a linear conception, that very species would naturally have a propensity to fall into an artificial disposition. Could we say that the human race has fallen into this artificial disposition?   Humanity surely must admit that they have lost contact with the nonlinear cir ...

Cosmic Dance   The way we perceive power and strength in this world is beginning to change. For thousands of years we have viewed strength and power in the physical sense which is one of the reasons why our world has been constantly dominated by men, but this view of reality is seen with blurry vision. If strength and power is truly in the physical presence then why is our world in a state of fragility? If this was true then wouldn’t we be on an upscale of evolution instead of a process of g ...

Weight of the World    When most people feel under stress they often say, “It feels like the weight of the world is on my shoulders.” It is a very common phrase used amongst English speaking nations. But behind this one phrase is a quintessential truth, because when one is on a path to self-transformation they realize that the weight of the world is truly on their shoulders, so it is up to them to change it. Yet this whole phenomenon of being the change has become confusing to many and in so ...

The Space Between   How do we close the gap? The gap that we believe exists between you and I. What would it take for humanity to acknowledge space in a higher sense? We have all learned from birth that the space between you and me, the planets and throughout the universe is just emptiness, nothing. But is all this space truly empty, or is there a deeper understanding? What is the space between?   When we see external objects, animals, people, etc., we just perceive the forms and not the for ...