The following phenomenological reflections on anxiety are being updated. These notes will be removed from this post as they are added to new articles ..read more

The following phenomenological reflections on the lived experience of other people are being updated. These notes will be removed from this post as they are added to new articles ..read more

Phenomenological reflections on the relationship between self awareness and social awareness. Other people are not an optional dimension of our experience. We find ourselves as already a participant in the customs of a people. We become members of a society by attuning ourselves to the norms and customs of people who precede us. Our perspective/subjectivity becomes a determinate identity by way of these norms and customs. In other words, we obtain identities in communities—we become persons—by way of these social, cultural, familial, linguistic, etc. customs and norms. I did not invent these c ..read more

The following existential reflections on prakṛti, puruṣa, and our existential situation are being updated. https://youtu.be/-WgZaGUIFUsYOGA: PURUSHA + PRAKRITI You cannot escape certain terms of your experience. You live at a certain moment in history, born to a particular set of parents in a particular place. You became a functioning member of your society as you attuned yourself to the demands and norms of particular environments (familial, cultural, linguistic, social, etc.). On a personal level, you find yourself naturally interested in certain things and not interested in others, inclined ..read more

In yoga, what you do is far less important than how you do it. https://youtu.be/kVGK7q9qhwcDESIRE, LACK, SELF-INTEREST: THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING Your (individual, independent) self craves a sense of wholeness/completeness/purity that would permanently eliminate its inner sense of lack, so it can (finally) be “at peace”, never compelled to strive for anything ever again. The separate self wants to rid itself of the feeling that “something is missing in me” or “I’m incomplete”. It is always searching for ground—something stable and permanent—upon which it can secure itself (e.g., money, status ..read more

The following phenomenological reflections on anxiety in yoga are being updated. Yoga just is no longer fleeing yourself. No longer fleeing yourself, the ego becomes transparent. As the ego becomes transparent, the soul is set free. This is yoga. The practices of yoga are just varieties of not fleeing yourself. ‘No longer fleeing yourself' means simply sitting with your anxieties rather than reinforcing the habits you've inherited and developed in order to avoid your anxieties, and to avoid the people and situations that produce your anxiety. Being able to sit with your anxiety means that your ..read more

The following phenomenological reflections on the notion of the absolute are being updated. These notes will be removed from this post as they are added to new articles. the practices of yoga are simple. you always already have the only thing you ever need: your attention. everything else is nonessential. in yoga, transformation is not optional; who you become, however, is not up to you. yoga is when “I” am not. never finished, always complete. this is yoga. attention paying attention. this is yoga. sensation, untranslated. this is yoga. no clinging. not even to no-clinging. this is yoga. an o ..read more

What is the relationship between desire and suffering in spiritual traditions? The following phenomenological reflections on the problem of desire in yoga are being updated. What the ego finds most troubling is that its reality—i.e., the extent to which it ‘matters’ in the real world, its sense of itself—depends on the will and recognition of other people. To ‘matter’ in the real world means mattering to other people; its reality—i.e., the extent to which it ‘matters’—depends on others. It could never be ‘self-sufficient’ or ‘self-existing’. It has no control over what others choose to recogni ..read more

The following phenomenological reflections on the notion of the absolute are being updated. These notes will be removed from this post as they are added to new articles ..read more

The following phenomenological reflections on self-awareness and relationships are being updated. Other people are not an optional dimension of our experience. We find ourselves as already a participant in the customs of a people. We become members of a society by attuning ourselves to the norms and customs of people who precede us. Our perspective/subjectivity becomes a determinate identity by way of these norms and customs. In other words, we obtain identities in communities—we become persons—by way of these social, cultural, familial, linguistic, etc. customs and norms. I did not invent the ..read more