Byung Chul Han: Vita Contemplativa

Vita Contemplativa, or the Contemplative Life, by Byung Chul Han (2024), is his argument for choosing a life of reflection, intuition and inactivity, of 'not doing anything' in particular. He contrasts the lifestyle offered by Neoliberalism as a life of constant busyness, even when we are supposed to be resting or sleeping, with a contemplative …

The World According to Byung Chul Han

I've been covering the philosophy of Byung Chul Han on my other blog Engage!, but I would like to share his work here as well. The best brief introduction I've found to Han's body of work is in this video reflection, from a person who read five of his books. I am also about to …

The Bio-Techno-Zome

Bulgarian programmer Kristiyan Kirchev finishes his essay "Electronic Minds" with a vision of the unity of the bio-technological, as a living organism originating in nature and as a result of the ongoing evolution of life on Earth. Finally he concludes that electronic 'entities', and moreover, bio-technical entities, i.e. humans interconnected with technology, are living entities …

Less is Enough

Lose Your Consumerism. I was having trouble meditating, so I watched a video by Shozen Jack Haubner (Zen Confidential YT) on how he deals with the struggle to meditate. He suggested walking meditation, indoors in your own house if necessary. I tried this method and it definitely worked, especially for people like me who spend …

Cybernetic Buddhism

Electronic Minds (2010) by Bulgarian programmer Kristiyan Kirchev is a manifesto of cyberspace. He envisions the Internet, and all human-digital-connected media, as the natural outcome of evolution. He sees the digital world as the emergence of One Global Mind, a new kind of consciousness that connects all human and machine minds. And the peculiar thing …

Buddhist Recovery is Secular Buddhism

Secular Buddhism has come under fire by traditional religious Buddhists as an aberration of their religion, as Western colonialism, as cultural appropriation of Asian faiths, as a denial and subversion of "true Buddhism". Secular Buddhism has been denounced as "McMindfulness", serving as a salve for emotional injuries suffered under the capitalist system of exploitation. Has …

Merry [Un]Christmas

The difference between Christianity and Buddhism, is that Christianity expresses the desire to live forever in a body of some kind, but not the kind of organic body that dies. Buddhism expresses the desire to never be born again, to never again enter another human, animal or organic body of any kind. In Buddhism, one …

Collective Trauma and the Climate Crisis

I'm offering the latest contemplation by Jem Bendell on Collective Trauma and the Climate Crisis. Although I often disagree with much of what Jem Bendell says and does (anti-vaxxer, for one), this article goes deeper than anything else he's written, into the links between trauma, spiritual bypassing and the climate crisis. I will copy a …

Not for Nothing

Here we go again. 'Emptiness' is not "nothing." It is not non-being, non-existence, or non-presence. In the Western Buddhism that I studied, Americans often defined shunyata as "nothing", as total Void, as lack, as absence of anything. I no longer define shunyata that way. In fact, the literal definition of the Sanskrit shunyata is the …

The Only Way Out is Through

What is the possible path through the global crisis of catastrophic climate change? I have looked at every possible path, from "green techno-optimism" to localized or globalized "transition" economies; to "deep adaptation." My sense is that nothing will really change until human beings evolve in a fundamental way, learning to slow down and engage with …