Hold firmly enough so that it can’t fly away, but don’t squeeze so tightly that you kill the bird! This is a concept sometimes taught in meditation, where holding the bird is a metaphor for the use of attention. One should focus on the object of attention - the breath, for example - forcefully enough so that the mind does not wander, but not so forcefully that it … [Read more...] about How to Hold a Bird
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Come Back to Yourself
The world gets faster and crazier every day. More happens on a monthly, weekly, daily basis than ever before. I know I’m not the only one who feels it. There’s just so much going on. You could spend every waking hour reading news articles and end each day with thousands left to read. New discoveries, new technologies, new facts and opinions about those facts, new projects, … [Read more...] about Come Back to Yourself
How to Become a Better Person
This is the introduction to my new book Self Improvement in Practice The nature of this book - and of any reader-writer relationship - is such that I feel the need to tell you at least something about myself before we get started. In that sense we start off not so much on the wrong foot but a little off balance on the right one - because of course this book is not about … [Read more...] about How to Become a Better Person
Talking Better About No-Self
I first ran into this problem when I told my mom I had tried LSD. She took it surprisingly well, especially as someone who grew up during the peak of 1970s/80s drug war propaganda. But what preceded this admission was a long conversation, walking along the beach, where I tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to convince her that the "self" does not exist. The sense of self … [Read more...] about Talking Better About No-Self
Recreating the Psychedelic Experience in Virtual Reality
For some time now I’ve been interested in the prospect of recreating the psychedelic experience in virtual reality. This has led me to try several "consciousness" based VR experiences, mostly around meditation and most of which were unremarkable. Recently one VR experience stood out, called SoundSelf. SoundSelf involves chanting while the game creates a real-time feedback … [Read more...] about Recreating the Psychedelic Experience in Virtual Reality