Category: philosophical counseling
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How To Turbocharge Your Meditation Practice
Dear W., You asked about how to turbocharge your meditation practice. Well, you didn’t use the verb “turbocharge,” but that’s the gist of it. My answer falls into four parts: Motivation All of us need to find–deep, deep within–our reason for doing something and, indeed, for continuing to do something. At some point, most secular meditators will…
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The Energy Body And Open Awareness
To explore the “I am the body identity,” it’s best to take an experiential approach: Begin by dropping all the weight from individual body parts, thereby letting all heaviness sink into the earth. In this way, the body is completely discharged of density, solidity, and a sense of weightiness. Indeed, what is slowly being discharged…
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Should I Curb The Mental Chatter?
Question: During my self-observation, I’ve noticed what strikes me as needless mental chatter. Should I try to curb it? What I learned from Zen was to really sit with whatever was arising. My Zen teacher would suggest that I sit without a timer. Just sit for as long as possible. No doubt he had many reasons…
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Liberalism As “The Main Enemy”
In Manifesto for a European Renaissance (Aktos, 2012; originally published in 1999), Alain de Benoist and Charles Champetier state that liberalism is the “main enemy” of the political philosophy they’re seeking to unfold. Indeed, “Liberalism embodies the dominant ideology of modernity” (p. 14) and this in two senses: First, it develops an anthropology (i.e., a…
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Going Beyond One-way Street Relationships
Question: After a meditation and during a discussion, one man said: “I want my mother to love me, and I expect her to do so. But it’s a one-way street relationship.” (Note that the following reply comes in the context of one wishing to end all suffering. For this reason, it’s not a therapeutic reply.…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 