Letting Go is perhaps the greatest book I’ve ever read. Let me show you why.
Spirituality
I made a comic! For the first time ever. It involves an angst-ridden human and a sorta-Zen tortoise and plenty of strangeness. I’ll leave it at that. I hope you enjoy. A version of this essay was first published at HighExistence. Refine The Mind is now on Patreon. For the cost of buying me a [...]
I find myself returning again and again to the writings of Rainer Maria Rilke, a Bohemian-Austrian poet who passed away in 1926. There is something in Rilke’s words that strikes me as the highest quality to which a writer or artist can aspire. It’s a clarity and a purity that communicates something more than the [...]
About three weeks ago, I went on a camping trip to Yosemite National Park. I’d never been to Yosemite. Of course I’d heard whispers of its legendary beauty, and I’d probably seen pictures of it here and there. But prior to departing, I made a point not to ask Google to show me 5,000 images [...]
“Zen Buddhism is a way and a view of life which does not belong to any of the formal categories of modern Western thought. It is not religion or philosophy; it is not a psychology or a type of science. It is an example of what is known in India and China as a ‘way [...]
“Astonishment is the proper response to reality.” — Terence McKenna There’s a certain feeling—a feeling that’s also kind of an experience and an idea and a way of seeing. This feeling is central to my perspective and my shifting identity, my perpetual becoming. And I always want to articulate it, but I can never seem [...]
A friend of mine — let’s call him Huck — was walking to a tattoo parlor recently with the intention of getting some new ink, or as he might prefer to think of it, inscribing a new linguistic artifact upon the canvas of his skin. Huck had almost arrived at the tattoo shop when, in [...]
Kick, push, kick, push, coast. Kick, push, kick, push, coast. I reach the crest of a hill on my longboard and pause. The wind is a gentle hand at my back, an encouraging friend. The sun gleams in the sky, imbuing my spring-green surroundings with a delicate sparkle. I breathe deeply through my nose and smile. [...]
Think back with me for a moment. Remember when you were child, playing outdoors? Remember how you would run, jump, and gallivant around without a care in the world? You might have to strain your memory to think back to those days, but most of us spent a good deal of time outside as youngsters. [...]
A few weeks ago, my sixteen year-old cousin asked her Confirmation advisor whether people who don’t believe in Catholicism go to Heaven. “No,” he replied. “They go to Hell.” My cousin was deeply troubled. She went home and told my aunt, “I don’t know if I can believe in a God who would send friends [...]