Something that’s been on my mind off and on for years, so I’m sending this question about it to Shinzen Young, a fabulous meditation teacher….
Just left you a phone message. To preview what’s puzzling me – I’m a writer, and it helps me to get things out on paper – it’s the idea I’ve come [...]
I’m engaged in some discussion with other parapsychologists about a spiritual outlook vs a materialistic one, and related topics. Here is an example of what I’m thinking about – without having come to a nice conclusion. If you find it stimulating, maybe you can tell me where I should end up!
Identity, Self, Karma, Buddhism, Survival [...]
Continue reading about Identity, Self, Karma, Buddhism, Survival of Death, Etc….
Recently I received an email from a scholar who will be reviewing my The End of Materialism book for a journal. He noted that:
In the book you say: “….genuine science [shows] that a wide variety of traditional religious views about reality are factually wrong; they just don’t stand up to empirical tests.” Can you [...]
Continue reading about Science and Religion, Fit and Non-Fit
I’ve just come back from a 10-day retreat in the Sierra with Sogyal Rinpoche, very deep.
One of the things Rinpoche frequently mentions is how the Buddha summed up all his teaching in just three lines. My memory is not the best, but it’s something like to end our suffering
Do absolutely no harmful [...]
Continue reading about When is it Education, when is it Preaching?
Dr. Charles T. Tart, Mindfulness, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology,
Lecture 3, Part 3 of 13 parts. To start class from beginning, click here.
Student: I’ve been having really lucid dreams as well. It’s really been helping my dream states. I mean, last night was sweet. I was playing bike polo the whole night.
(Laughter) [...]
Dr. Charles T. Tart, Mindfulness, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology,
Lecture 3, Part 1 of 13 parts. To start class from beginning, click here.
(Lively discussions going on before class)
CTT: All right. Steady. Okay.
There are some times, like this moment when I feel rather scattered, that I feel very hypocritical in teaching the mindfulness course. [...]
Continue reading about How does Zen compare with Vipassana? and Body signals and pain
Dr. Charles T. Tart, Mindfulness, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology,
Lecture 2, Part 15 of 15 parts. To start class from beginning, click here.
Student: If Buddha said that this was the way to enlightenment to him, then why do these different branches of Buddhism have all these crazy different practices that they’ve got? Like Tibetan Buddhism, [...]
Dr. Charles T. Tart, Mindfulness, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology,
Lecture 2, Part 10 of 15 parts. To start class from beginning, click here.
11 of 15
This is best done, using the instructions in the previous posting, rather than just read]
CTT: We’ll assume that you already learned in concentrative meditation that you’ll be able to bring a little [...]
Dr. Charles T. Tart, Mindfulness, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, Lecture 2, Part 3 of 15 parts. To start class from beginning, click here.
Student: I wanted to go back to your original comment about context and culture. [Transcription of next sentence unclear] Jon Kabat-Zinn says we need to approach this area using life lessons and [...]
Dr. Charles T. Tart, Mindfulness, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, Lecture 2, Part 2 of 15 parts. To start class from beginning, click here.
CTT: The particular thing that made me think of this as I was driving down here was remembering something I do regularly, but I never teach anybody because I’m afraid I would be [...]
Continue reading about Contextualizing Intentional Practices