Questions

We would often find that having many questions and few answers is an undesirable state. This is good since it drives us to find answers but also bad since it encourages us to ask less questions to have a smaller problem to begin with... In my opinion, we are far better off if we acknowledge …

Truth

It is easy to say and it feels right to say that we should seek truth. Truth is one of the key tenants of the Enlightenment movement. Rather than following superstitions and other socially constructed concepts, the early scientists of the enlightenment sought out truth which may be obtained by measurement, experiment and by application …

Practice: Healing Compassion

I have already written about a practice centred on the powerful emotion of compassion. However, today I came across an interesting variation of a practice on compassion (in the book Happiness by Matthieu Ricard): one that reflects our own suffering onto others, and helps us heal from our own suffering. This practice works as follows: …

Practice: Irrelevance and Impermanence

The universe is very big. We are very small. The universe exists for an immeasurably long time. Our lives are very short. These are simple facts that we often forget. An omission which easily leads us to overestimate the importance of our life, actions and feelings in the greater context of existence. Western culture is …

Practices for Enlightenment

I believe we all have moments in which we become the best versions of ourselves; moments in which we are ever so slightly closer to true and deep enlightenment. Unfortunately, these moments are rare and we digress from whatever insights we have gained easily. For instance, we might realise that binge watching television brings little …

Practice: Forgiveness

I think it is human nature that we are constantly disappointed with ourselves and others. One fundamental driver for this is our struggle between altruism and selfishness. We are programmed to be supportive and helpful to those around us but we are also programmed to look out for our own interests. Which ones of these …

Struggle and Ease

I think the tension between the difficult and the easy, between that which we can do only with struggle, and that we we can do with ease, is an important dimension to consider for how we design our lives. We have a natural tendency to seek out the easiest path to accomplish what we need …