Category: philosophical counseling
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The Freedom to Be with What is Happening
Each time one converses with whomever one converses to not be attached to the conversation going in any preset direction. Can we meet that challenge, embracing it, or would we find it too demanding and dangerous to try, for who knows where it would go, when it will end, or how it will bring itself to…
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Annoyances and Endearments
It can happen that another person’s annoying tics or habits can become, in the eye of the viewer, terms of endearment. Puzzlingly, the person may have done nothing to modify her behavior, may not even be consciously aware of such tics or such a disposition, and nothing observable may have happened in the life of the percipient, yet…
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Callousness Toward the Stranger and the Good Samaritan Today
When the stranger lies bleeding along the side of the road, is it our first instinct to go toward him and ask what he needs? Or do we pass by him, murmuring, “What is that man to me?” I grow weary and heavy due to the callousness of modernity. Severed from true friendships, we have become strangers…
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Are We Actually Meditating During Meditation?
How much of our attention during any one meditation is actually meditative? Are our meditations truly meditations? Sadly, I had this thought on two mornings set aside for meditating. Once one has devoted oneself to having a regular meditation practice, it is easy to become complacent with oneself. The first hurdle was even being able to sit quietly…
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There Shall Be No Home For Us
All these years I’ve carried around with me the idea that I’ll ultimately find a home and that I’ll stay there for as long as my days will allow. This despite the fact that since I turned 18 I’ve not lived anywhere for longer than two years at a time except for the three and a half years…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 