There are three common types of I want: Egoic desire: I want to be X, whereby X can be any physical, psychological, or social state.Possessive desire: I want to have Y, whereby Y can be any material possession or abstract ownership.Motivational desire: I want to do Z, whereby Z can be any choice or activity. But whatever I want to have I ultimately want because of the state I expect the possession to put me in; e.g., I want to have a fulfilling job in order to be happy, or I want to have a … [Read more...]

"What is the meaning of life?" is a nonsensical question because it combines two concepts into a construction that has no (semantic) meaning. It's like asking, "What is the color of sight?" or "What is the size of space?"—a category error. Meaning is what humans experience when they feel a sense of purpose and significance. But life itself does not experience and thus cannot have meaning. Rather, life is what makes experiences of meaning possible, similar to how sight makes experiences of … [Read more...]

Who are you? If you have a ready answer, you are not in a state of mindcoolness. Because what could your answer be? Are you perhaps your status in society, your family role, your gender, your ethnicity, or your affiliation with some other group? Are you your skills, your hobbies, your occupation, your professional calling, your purpose in life? Maybe you are your values, your religion, your philosophy, your moral convictions, your political opinions? Or do you identify with your … [Read more...]

The concept of reality spans a broad spectrum of levels of description. On the one extreme, that of pure quantitativeness, reality may be a mathematical structure such as an intricate quantum graph. On the other extreme, that of pure qualitativeness, reality may be what we experience when we rid ourselves of all conceptual thinking in a state of mindful awareness. Between the extremes, our levels of descriptions have different degrees of conceptuality and objectivity: from philosophical … [Read more...]

Science and spirituality have something important in common: both center on the process of observation. In science, we observe nature in its concreteness and then move towards causes, abstract concepts, generalizing theories, experimental repetitions, mathematical descriptions, and statistical models. In spirituality, we too observe nature in its concreteness, and with similar curiosity, but we then move no further. Instead, we keep observing—the breath, the friend, the water flowing down … [Read more...]