Alan Watts often said that in order to come to your senses, you have to get out of your mind. Watts was emphatic about self-realization and breaking through cultural and psychic barriers in order to live as a fully-fledged, fearless human being.
Category: Book Excerpts
Religion Without Science is Blind (Part 2)
Einstein goes on to explore definitions of science and religion and sees no fundamental conflict between them, except for when each try to encroach on the other's territory: science can only claim what is and not what should be, and religion can have no declaration of fact.
Thomas Merton on Solitude, Authenticity and Being
How can we stay connected through solitude and how can doing nothing enrich us? Thomas Merton explores the notion that 'all men are solitary' and what this really means.
What We Have Forgotten – Einstein on Science and Religion (Part 1)
Albert Einstein called for the scientific method to be accompanied by a deep humanism often grounded in religious practice. He argued that the role of religion would be to set into the emotional life of humans the means and ends of their rational endeavors.
Does Spirituality Need Religion? – Rabbi Rami
Rabbi Rami addresses the question of spirituality and its relationship to religion, and the way in which the two realities interact and support one another.
Sheila Heti – When Love Slips into the Death Drive
Sheila Heti's novel 'How Should a Person Be?' asks that candid and naive question with honesty, humor and sincerity. During the course of the book, she especially looks at love and all its difficulties, and in this passage she talks about the kind of obsessive sexual love that pushes us over cliffs and into the death drive, that longs for 'annihilation, comfort and death'.
E.E. Cummings – A Poet’s Advice to Students
E.E. Cummings' short missive to young poets in which he urges confidence in oneself and authentic expression. We must distinguish between thinking, believing, knowing and feeling, the latter being the territory of real art and poetry.
Expressing Yourself the Way That You Are – Shunryu Suzuki on Communication
Shunryu Suzuki always admitted his own difficulty with the English language, but also addressed the deeper problem of human communication, namely that 'when we say something, our subjective intention or situation is always involved.'
‘The Love Between Angels’ – C.S. Lewis on Friendship
Friendship transcends mere companionship to reach a more elevated goal - that of a shared vision or a common question.
Dear Oblivion – The Very Practical Matter of Faith
How do we pray if we can't be sure what we're praying to even exists? Christian Wiman explores faith and what it really means to not know.