24 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
Our Relationship to Our Thinking
I invite you to pay attention to anything—the sight of this text, the sensation of breathing, the feeling of your body resting against your chair—for a mere sixty seconds without getting distracted by discursive thought. It sounds simple enough: Just pay attention. The truth, however, is that you will find the task impossible. If the lives of your children depended on it, you could not focus on anything—even the feeling of a knife at your throat—for more than a few seconds, before you...Folksonomies: thinking mindfulness meditation
Folksonomies: thinking mindfulness meditation
Sam Harris on mindfulness in the many religious traditions.
28 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
Religion is a Solution to a Non-Problem
At the 2005 World Religions Conference, I was asked to represent atheism, sitting on the stage with a Buddhist, Muslim, Christian, Jew, Sikh, Hindu, and Native American spiritualist. (I accepted the invitation only after making it clear that atheism is not a religion, and they agreed to include it as a “world philosophy.”) The theme of the conference was “salvation,” and each of us was asked to summarize our respective positions on that topic. After pointing out that “sin” is a re...Folksonomies: atheism
Folksonomies: atheism
It's like a doctor going around cutting people in order to heal them.
02 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
Where We are Born Determines Our Religion
...the accidents of birth and geography determine to a very large extent to what faith we belong. The chances are very great that if you were born in Pakistan you are a Muslim, or a Hindu if you happened to be born in India, or a Shintoist if it is Japan, and a Christian if you were born in Italy. I don't know what significant fact can be drawn from this -- perhaps that we should not succumb too easily to the temptation to exclusiveness and dogmatic claims to a monopoly of the truth of our pa...Desmond Tutu makes a thoughtful point about how our parents determine our religion, which means we should not claim a monopoly on truth by our own faith, which was determined by accident.