Sam Harris
Book Bits

What Are We Calling “I”?

We often identify ourselves with the events that have happened to us and the things we have done, rather than the subjective center of experience itself. In an echo of the Buddhist teaching of the absence of a permanent self, Harris asserts that when the absence of this self is found, then 'the feeling of being a self disappears.'

Buddha Sabbasava Sutta
Sutra Excerpts

Which are the Unanswerable Questions?

Although the spirit of inquiry is at the heart of Buddhist practice, there are some questions that the Buddha deemed to be unanswerable, and discouraged his followers from asking. These are the deeply existential questions that seek answers about the nature of the self, the origin of the self and the state of the self… Continue reading Which are the Unanswerable Questions?

Book Bits

Aldous Huxley on Cleverness and the Perennial Philosophy

Aldous Huxley published The Perennial Philosophy in 1945, just after the end of the Second World War, sending into a divided world a much needed work of unification. His book is grounded in the idea of the 'philosophia perennis', the idea that all religions in the world have in common the human yearning to experience the… Continue reading Aldous Huxley on Cleverness and the Perennial Philosophy