Category: philosophical counseling

• September 3, 2019

  The Long-ago Vanquished Or Vanished Hierophanies

  You don’t know what you’re doing. I’m not saying that you’re a fraud, a phony, or an imposture even though sometimes you might feel that way. I’m not saying that you’re walking around in someone else’s life. I’m saying, plainly, that you don’t know what you’re doing. That’s all. Hey, maybe none of us does.…
• September 2, 2019

  You Were Born Into A Mystery Whose Name Is Total Work

  You were born into a mystery. When you were born, you didn’t know you would be born into this. Neither did your parents. Nor did the rest of us. When and where you were born, so long as you were born less than 200 years ago somewhere in the West, wouldn’t make any difference to…
• August 31, 2019

  Not To Pass By On The Other Side

  That time when we were on the bus. Must have been, what, 11 years ago now. And the coldest winter I can remember. Maybe below 0 degrees Fahrenheit that morning not counting wind chill. The kind of cold that takes your breath away, the kind that causes your eyes to become glassy with tears. Did…
• August 30, 2019

  I Almost Cry Every Time I Hear Johnny Cash’s Hurt

  I almost cry every time I hear Johnny Cash’s cover of “Hurt.” Sometimes I do cry. Yes, the speaker’s voice contains so much pain. But it’s not just that. It’s not just the fact that his pain spilleth over nor is it just the history of his pain nor merely the enormity of his pain. Nor…
• August 29, 2019

  Yes And: Buddhism And Beyond

  In a recent Aeon article, “The Problem of Mindfulness,” graduate philosophy student Sahanika Ratnayake claims, among other reasonable claims she makes, that mindfulness, just because it rests upon a no-self (anatta) doctrine, promotes detachment from one’s thoughts and feelings and, in turn, nullifies one’s ability to deliberate upon one’s thoughts and feelings as well as, and more important…