I don't know much about this deeply sad story, but I'm put in mind of the killings by ICE and CBP in our country as being very much political events, and ones that we in the U.S. have yet to treat as deserving full cultural justice.

I've had some life-changing altered state experiences along the way. But more and more these days meditation for me involves allowing a "touching"—an embrace with and from—whatever state is at hand. Not a "looking" at it, and not a conceptually evaluating it. But a being held as an expression of it.

Academics often label talk of "unknowing" and "unseeing" in contemplative/meditative texts as "paradoxical." But such talk is a straightforward consequence of the mechanics of experience that's matter-of-factly before words. Language isn't booted up there, so the descriptions are going to be poetic.

Tonight's meditation was like being in this forest — quiet, matter-of-fact — and allowing an embrace from a naturalness ... with a sense that, in that naturalness and as that naturalness, the practice is ... "just don't decide." That not deciding isn't about being absent; it's about being present.

David seemed a sweetheart. I was facilitating an SFZC-influenced sitting group in Austin when he was on a book tour for *Crooked Cucumber.* As he was signing books after giving a fun talk, I mentioned my group. He insisted on putting a flier for the group on his desk while he signed more books. 🙏 ❤️

I am reminded of how in modern times psychologist of religion Gordon Allport spoke of religiousness as either extrinsic (dogmatic) or intrinsic (non-dogmatic). And Harvard religionist Wilfred C. Smith, a professor of mine, similarly distinguished between dogmatic "belief" versus open-minded "faith."

after the Olympics finale

snow corgi, redux (outside Asheville this morning)

When you're in a forest, and things get really quiet, the forest doesn't go away. The trees and the sky and the forest floor—they don't disappear when it's quiet. In fact, of course, as things get quiet and natural, it's as though the forest is more there. That's what tonight's meditation was like.

the Carolina mountains aren't expected to get a great deal of snowfall in the current weather that is affecting the Northeast ... but I'm seeing a few snowflakes ... against a wooded, blue sky ... and a barking corgi ... and the sound of a wind chime 🙂

good morning

... put another way, meditation for me these days is less about achieving a certain experience, and more about allowing an embrace with the fact that there is such a thing as experience. 🙂 🙏

The meditation I do is mostly more immediate than words. So things I say about it are a bit metaphoric and poetic. Having said that — Tonight it was less about some part of me figuring out what was going on in the meditation, and more about how what was going on was what was doing the meditation.

I'm house-sitting for some doggies, outside Asheville, and have a door open to the porch outside. One of the dogs has come in, circumambulated the room, and gone back out ... four times (twice clockwise, twice counter-clockwise). Clearly a ritualized greeting to the coming of spring. :)

Tonight's meditation wasn't so much about an experience I was having, but something more immediate. Something simpler, and in a way not so amenable to the usual language-and-thought posture and frame — rather than about me having an experience, it was about how the sense of me is an experience.

In tonight's meditation the sense was that for me these days it's less about how physically relaxed or cognitively quiet I can be, and more about how experientially honest I am.

Everything that you are feeling, name it love. ~ Andrea Gibson #quantumField #coherence #mahamudra

Tonight's meditation was conscious experiencing. :) ... that's all

as part of a discussion of a prospective aptitude for the productive study of philosophy...

The anonymous 13th c. author of *The Cloud of Unknowing,* talks about contemplative practice as a coming to rest in a naked, blind feeling of our own being, and letting go of the concept that it is ours (and in his Middle English, "concept" was spelled "conceit").

I'm a longtime contemplative (meditator), and look to stay careful about what I know and don't know. But there's no denying experiences of having other's able to feel it when I'm meditating (and me feeling them) — including animals. I've had cats I've never met come sit with me when I meditate.

In honor of the day. 💕

There can of course be different levels and understandings, but I'm reminded of being in a lot of pain as a kid when resuscitated after nearly drowning — everything hurt, but it was beautiful because anything at all was happening.

again in tonight's meditation allowing and appreciating a sense of "me" and "mine" as an experience, rather than as a something having and possessing experience

🙏 🙂 ❤️

In tonight's mediation the sense was ... with a bit of a chuckle ... that for me these days it's not so much about attaining a certain experience, and more about the fact that there is such a thing as experience.

tonight's sunset, outside Asheville

from some writing I'm doing ... 🌈 🙏

sunset this evening from my front steps, outside Asheville

Phrased a little lyrically, tonight's meditation was like... What's more immediate and basic and original than a thought? Let that be the meditation. . (Alternative "lyric"...) What's more immediate and basic and original than a thought? Let that have you.

There was 7 inches of snow in my yard a couple days ago ... and today there are little Persian speedwell flowers in the lawn (which I'm seeing described as a "winter annual weed").

Put only slightly playfully, tonight's meditation was about allowing an embrace from something that's more original than I am. 🙂 🙏

If approached in metaphysically conceptual terms, "God is transcendent" means God is, like, on a plane outside this world. But if understood in practical, experiential terms (and we ask how such a statement *works*), it's akin to how our experience of sleep transcends our waking & thinking process.

Reading a book on apophaticism (a fancy word for letting go of words) and see statements like "[The Divine] is essentially incomprehensible." As a basic, if over-educated, meditator person, it seems more to the point that what gets called the Divine is just too basic and immediate for our concepts.

Nicholas of Cusa (15th c.) suggested "idolatry ... gives to an image that which belongs only to truth itself." Could say the same about our concepts and ideas—they're better appreciated as poetry. Especially given our waking, thinking, "wording" mind isn't the starting place— it, too, is generated.

from my walk up the hill just now, outside Asheville

1/x I've been in a couple conversations lately with persons who hold the view that there are no experiences that aren't pre-shaped by conceptual frameworks (and thus there are no real cross-cultural commonalities in contemplative/ meditative experiences).

for fun, here's some of the Cloud author's Middle English (I've kept most of the original spelling, but I've modernized the lettering — Middle English [= Chaucer's time] had a couple letters that we don't use anymore, namely, the thorn, “þ,” for “th”, and the yogh, “ȝ,” for “y” or “gh”)

tonight's sunset, outside Asheville

good morning the moon setting, from my kitchen window (8°F)

1-8 I'm a longtime contemplative (meditator). I'm also a bit of an academic. I'm writing a book addressed to my daughter on the nature of contemplative experience, and considered across cultures. Here looking at a passage from the contemplative philosopher, Plotinus, I've indulged my academic side.

snowy sunset just now, outside Asheville

good morning, from outside Asheville

Snow falling, and having just written about Plotinus' portrayals of all manifest things as a "dance" of a One truth and source, I'm reminded of this Zen image of all things-and-one: reed flowers in the snow. Reed flowers are white. Snow is white. Neither being erased, they're together in suchness.

I am a white man, born in Selma in the late 50's. The words Christopher has posted pretty much sum up her 1.5 min interview ... and they got me 😭. These are of course brutally unethical times. We all need to step up for one another.

this morning's view from my front door (outside Asheville) ... 5 seconds' video, at the end of which you can just hear that the neighborhood rooster is still greeting the morning

"It's as though she's holding the moment between her thumb and forefinger." ~ John Berger talking about a Vermeer painting, but feeling appropriate here... #Photography, The Nara period. Detail of the companion figure in the Yakushi-ji, Nara (1958) #art #sculpture

in fond memory of Catherine O'Hara ... an all-time favorite SCTV skit (7.5 minutes) www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dtr...

1/4 from writing I'm doing on Plotinus, regarding some of the ways he portrays and gestures towards contemplative experience that's more immediate than thoughts and words (and is, hence, effectively "selfless," given how our concept of self is a generated thing)

In tonight’s meditation there was a sense for how phrases like “awakening is through the body” and “awakening is realized in suchness” can get too conceptual and wedded to ideas. Here “body” and “suchness” are terms for “honesty”—an honesty more immediate, wonderful, and matter-of-fact than words.