I believe we can more easily give up effort, or at least question its necessity, when we know there is something else doing the work for us. This is very much what my work is about, being that this mindfulness practice has evolved from my experience as an Alexander Technique teacher where the primary focus […]
Tag: Determinism
Sand Castles and Streams
In the spirit of writing something down, I will free associate today. Since early March, I have been generating a clear message on the blog almost each day, wondering how long that would last. It was a surprise when it came on, as I had previously only been posting something a few times a month. […]
All That Is Possible
All that is possible is that which takes place. Nothing other than what occurs was ever possible. This includes our actions, i.e., our physical bodily movements in real time. Many people view possibility differently than this, but I do not. I mentally align with the reality of what is physically possible for me because it […]
Decision-Making Guaranteed
If we are alive, then we are in activity for the continual stream of time that is our life. This means our brain makes ongoing decisions for us about how we spend our time, barring not even a millisecond. This is relevant because we struggle over the concept of how to make decisions, and, moreover, […]
The Future Is Effortless
I am in the future now, the future of one second ago, one minute ago, one hour ago, one day ago, one month ago, one year ago, 10 years ago, 50 years ago. That is all the future is; it is now because now is the future of the past. This is a great perspective to […]
Sam Harris on Free Will
As my work puts forth the pronouncement that all human behavior is involuntary, i.e., automatic and choiceless, it overlaps with the age-old issue of free will discussed by philosophers, cognitive scientists, and neuroscientists. I reference many of these in my second book, “The Myth of Doing.” Sam Harris, both a philosopher and a neuroscientist, wrote […]
Preface to My Second Book, “The Myth of Doing: Managing Guilt, Shame, Anxiety, Regret and Self-Judgment”
After completing my first book, Body Over Mind, I was propelled into research around the findings of neurophysiologist Benjamin Libet who in 1983 discovered that a volitional signal for action shows up in the brain before a person is conscious of the intention to act. This moved me into exploring the neuroscientific studies that have […]
Interview with Susan Blackmore
I am sharing this youtube interview with you all as I greatly appreciate Susan’s work in the world. She succinctly expresses my sentiments on these issues, and both of my books directly mirror the opinions shared in this video. She is a nondualist trained in psychology, Zen Buddhism, and environmental psychology, who writes extensively on philosophy, […]
This (a poetic experiment)
Why this? It’s all there is. This is such a basic realization. Meanwhile, we spend our life negating it, doubting it, looking elsewhere. I have no choice but to be where my body is. I watch. Touch your face to see that you are here. You can see your face with your eyes, parts of […]
One Action
Because we cannot divide time into segments, our body is really in one stream of physical movement from the moment it is conceived (and of course continuous with the moment before that). There is no beginning or end to our activities even though we identify them in our mind as specific individual actions. In the […]
Jill Eng 