Aging: An Acquaintance With Absence
[Exploring Life] Absence is an emotional state of awareness in which we feel a deep sense of loss; the death of a loved one or friend invokes the deepest sense of loss. The feeling of absence originates in the poignant contrast between the presence of someone or something and the impossibility of ever being able [...]
Spiritual Endeavour: Dark Night of the Soul – 4
[Exploring Life] When we receive an education we are placed into a system of prerequisites that have been determined by an amorphous agency. By definition, education is an experience that is predetermined, imposed, rigidly structured, and bound to a self-reinforcing system of evaluation. The essence of the education system originates in automation, mechanization, generalization, and [...]
Nature of Belief: Escaping Cultural Confinement
[Exploring Life] Culture may be viewed as a universal tendency for people within stable geographic populations to create sets of beliefs, values and expectations that serve to create a sense of social coherence. It may be that culture is an offspring of the innate human need to belong. Perhaps culture originated as groups of people [...]
Emotional Terrain: Anxiety – Fear in Search of a Cause
Patricia Pearson defines anxiety as fear in search of a cause. Fear is an immediate emotional response to a perceived threat, which results in potent feelings of apprehension, dread, terror and panic. In its most intense form, the fear response is specific to a time, place, moment, circumstance, or situation. In the midst of a [...]
Spiritual Endeavour: Learning to Trust the Flow of Ancient Rhythm
[Exploring Life] We are immersed in a culture that confuses education with learning. More precisely, we ritually submit ourselves to courses that have been prepared by someone else and trust that the instructional delivery these courses will inspire learning. In a bizarre twist, we sometimes incorrectly think of education as being synonymous with learning. Learning [...]
Spiritual Practice: Religion – Emergence of a Third Way
Religious belief is often characterized as being inflexible and closed. The source of the beliefs that give rise to a religious system lies within the interpretation of “sacred” doctrine that in some manner originates in an all powerful being, or God. The doctrine is considered to be an untouchable, while the interpretation of it may [...]
Mental Degradation: Caffeinated or Decaffeinated Learning?
Caffeine is an addictive substance that produces stimulative effects in the body and mind. Caffeine simultaneously affects our body and mind and therefore influences how we think, feel and act. If we developed a diet based on the principle of do no harm to body or mind, then caffeine would be eliminated. If we developed [...]