Meditation: The Royal Evolutionary Road

How many books read, retreats attended, sages heard, and personal experiences had before we acquire some fundamental, perennially-affirmed Life Practices as permanent acquisitions? What have we been waiting for? Perhaps we have been waiting for the non-judgmental, hilarious recognition that we don’t know what the reason is that we have been waiting so long. I [...]

Exercise and the Brain

Stronger, Faster, Smarter Exercise does more than build muscles and help prevent heart disease. New science shows that it also boosts brainpower—and may offer hope in the battle against Alzheimer’s. by Mary Carmichael Newsweek Magazine, http://www.newsweek.com/2007/03/25/stronger-faster-smarter.html, March 26, 2007 The stereotype of the “dumb jock” has never sounded right to Charles Hillman. A jock himself, [...]

The Message of the Mystics: Ken Wilber

The mystics ask you to take nothing on mere belief. Rather, they give you a set of experiments to test in your own awareness and experience. The laboratory is your own mind, the experiment is meditation. You yourself try it, and compare your test results with others who have also performed the experiment. Out of [...]

The Kosmos Will Be My Witness

Leaves of Grass by American poet Walt Whitman is in my experience one of the finest expressions in the kosmos, and I have been reading Whitman – and enjoying the freedom and fullness of his mysticism – since I was on the road during a sabbatical from college at the age of 20. Whitman is [...]