From one perspective, the month of December signals the arrival of that part of the year after the crops have been harvested, the trees and vines have yielded their ripened fruits, and the leaves have all withered and fallen to the ground. The light of day is at its shortest duration, and the longest periods … Continue reading Majesty and Misery, Miracles and Mystery
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.—Ralph Waldo Emerson Many times, when I am fully engaged in stillness and practicing my own personal version of mindfulness—giving up my normal attention to the present living moment—it’s almost like drifting back through time; with eyes … Continue reading The Universe Is Alive
Recently, I have been reviewing the collections of photographs and other memories from my journey of discovery which began more than forty years ago now, and several pieces of the puzzle have started to be filled in with particular memories, which have sparked new levels of awareness about just how important some of the events … Continue reading A Teachable Travel Moment
“If your everyday practice is to open to all of your emotions, to all of the people you meet, to all of the situations you encounter, without closing down, trusting that you can do that—then that will take you as far as you can go. And you’ll understand the teachings that anyone has ever taught.” … Continue reading Necessary and Urgent: Where The Heart Goes
"At the turn of the last century, people's hope was in science, technology, and modern progress. As we approached this millennium, we realized the extent of that progress, and that it hasn't taken us far enough. There is a part of us that still has a spiritual hunger. We have spent the past century looking … Continue reading A Spiritual Hunger
As the ever-changing fall weather begins to manifest into cooler nights and milder days, this particular change of seasons nearly always finds me looking backwards in time. The inspiration for this rearward journey has its roots in both my personal history, and in the relentless search for understanding that has occupied me for decades. It … Continue reading Three Hundreth Blog Post; Falling Back
After a tumultuous series of experiences in late 1973 and early 1974, and after a sufficient amount of time had passed to regain my bearings, I was able to complete my advanced training in Massachusetts, and was reassigned to a duty station in Monterey, California for training as a linguist. I didn’t know it at … Continue reading Tumultuous Transitions
Watching out my window this evening as the sky slowly abandoned the light of day, fading slowly into twilight, my heart was following along as the sky darkened. In some ways, my heart knows me better than my mind. Within the realm of thoughts and emotions, thoughts have always seemed to eventually defer to my … Continue reading The Fading of the Light
When I began this blog in earnest back in January of 2011, my general goals were to share my decades-long journey of personal development, to express what I had learned while researching the nature of the events which occurred in my youth, and to invite my readers to join me in considering some of the … Continue reading Looking Back and Looking Forward
The actual quote from Dostoevsky’s “Notes From The Underground,” goes as follows: “And yet I think man will never renounce real suffering, that is, destruction and chaos. Why, suffering is the sole origin of consciousness. Though I did lay it down at the beginning that consciousness is the greatest misfortune for man, yet I know … Continue reading Origins of Consciousness
John's Consciousness 