Recently I had a rather unpleasant interaction with a woman who was one of these new-agey, hippy types. You know, one of these people who feels that they have a deep understanding of the universe and thus are superior to you. Now, currently I’m reading what my be considered a new agey book: “A New […]
In my various adventures in reading about the brain and mind, I’ve come across a few mentions of Eckhart Tolle. He’s a spiritual guru who claims to have achieved a kind of inner peace overnight. He’s described the experience as follows… I couldn’t live with myself any longer. And in this a question arose without […]
I have been talking here, of late, about how computers and brains process information and know things. And the gist of my observations is that only conscious beings (e.g. humans and other living creatures) can “know” anything, or derive meaning from the world. Computers can process information, in a sense, but they don’t know the […]
Having finished Sam Harris’s tome on meditation, “Waking Up,” I’ve decided to re-read the first Ekhart Tolle book, “The Power of Now” which explores similar themes, albeit from a point of view Harris would probably criticize as unscientific (although Tolle largely avoids ethereal, new-agey content.) Both Harris and Tolle would say, I think, that our […]
Less than a year ago I read the Eckhart Tolle book “A New Earth” and talked about it here. Now I’m reading what is considered his main text, “The Power of Now.” Tolle’s main point—one that hardly originates with him—is that “egoic” thinking is the source of a lot of unhappiness. Egoic thinking is “I” […]
I’d like to think I’ve become less materialistic over the past couple years. By this, I mean less attached and in need of stuff. I’ve even made a point of getting rid of a lot of the crap I’ve been dragging around for years – albums, cassette tapes, VHS movies, comics and mummified heads of […]
When I think about the core argument made by Eckhart Tolle (and Buddhism in general), I think it would break down to this: you are insignificant. You are a meaningless pee stain in a moldy corner of the universe and your life will ultimately be flushed down the toilet of history. You are nothing. Tolle […]
As I’ve repeated over and over around here, I’m not a spiritual man. So when I hear hippies and assorted scum argue that “everything is connected” I’m liable to scoff at them and set them on fire. Nonetheless, I find when I think about reality, there’s no denying there is some truth to this. We […]
An interesting point I find floating around in Eckhart Tolle and others’ writing has to do with the notion of striving. We seem to live in a world that places great value on striving and struggle. For example, if you ask two people what their plan is for the day and one answers, “Well, I […]
I recall years ago when I was in high school and first learning to play guitar. I was talking with these other kids and they were talking about all this guitar gear – this effects pedal or that amp – and I didn’t get it. I remember thinking “why aren’t you talking about playing as […]