I’m repeatedly told by confused religious people that without god or religion, one can not realize meaning in life, nor can one be moral. So, I want to address meaning first, and morality second.

Even if you are religious, no one can tell you what the meaning of your life is. Anything they say about this is going to be guesswork, or words that come from some old book. Needless to say, it’s not going to apply to you personally in any shape or form. You can go ahead and believe that what has been said is the meaning of your life, but how can you know this to be true? Continue reading “Morality and the Meaning of Life” »

Accept life on its terms and it becomes a lot more interesting. Keep believing there is more, and you are on a chase for your own tail that takes you nowhere. Yet, many of us, possibly most of us, end up on spiritual journeys that take up years, sometimes decades of our lives. Continue reading “The Selfish Circle of the Spiritual Quest” »

Redwoods

If you’ve ever walked in a redwood forest, you know firsthand the feeling of awe. The redwood reaches high overhead, sometimes hundreds of feet tall, their bases as wide as a car, sometimes wide enough for cars to drive through. There is no place more peaceful than a forest, no place that can take you so quickly out of the day-to-day nonsense and into the present moment. Continue reading “Nothing More Noble Than Trees” »

I am surprised by the number of people I meet in person and online who have never stopped to consider the nature of their thoughts or beliefs. What seems to be much more common is that people’s minds are dragging them around, back and forth through life experiences, and they assume that all those thoughts and beliefs that arise are correct, important, and worth defending. Continue reading “Exploring the Mental Experience” »

Recently we had a Zen teacher visit our local sangha to give a talk, and she mentioned that when we all meditate together, we can experience the oneness of our existence. As I listened to her, I felt a ring of familiarity in me, but not in the same context. Continue reading “Seeing Through the Ego” »