Author: SeekerFive

Spirituality

The Four Divine Dwellings, or Heavenly Abodes- A Moderately Detailed Overview of Loving-Kindness, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy, and Equanimity

This post explains the four important mind-states or heart-states known as “divine dwellings” or “heavenly abodes” (brahmavihara). It doesn’t assume any prior knowledge, but it does get into a bit of interesting detail. First I’ll explain what type of thing they are generally, then we’ll consider each of the four specifically. What Sort of Thing Are the Divine Dwellings? The things identified by the Buddhist … Continue reading The Four Divine Dwellings, or Heavenly Abodes- A Moderately Detailed Overview of Loving-Kindness, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy, and Equanimity

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Personal Development

Pete Walker’s Four Grieving Processes: Angering, Crying, Verbal Ventilating, and Passively Feeling

In this post, I write about four processes that deserve more attention and are applicable to regular life, to philosophy as something lived, and to recovery from Complex PTSD (Cptsd). We might, I think, refer to these “grieving” processes as “emotional processing” processes. Pete Walker, however, is employing the term “grieving” in a somewhat broad sense. It doesn’t only relate to death in the literal … Continue reading Pete Walker’s Four Grieving Processes: Angering, Crying, Verbal Ventilating, and Passively Feeling

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Spirituality

Four Ways Our Common Understanding of Meditation Needs to Change

Far too often, I think, meditation is perceived, taught, practiced, sold and marketed in ways that obscure and distort it, depriving it and us of its power and functions. I’m considering this in the context of Buddhist meditation practices and a Buddhist understanding what is even meant by the word ‘meditation’, but I think much of what follows may be more widely applicable beyond a … Continue reading Four Ways Our Common Understanding of Meditation Needs to Change

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Creativity

Gratitude Shaming: Using the Idea of Gratitude to Harm

A few weeks ago I posed the question: How can gratitude go wrong? Today I’ll suggest some answers of my own. I’ll also bring in some observations by author and psychotherapist Pete Walker. Shaming (Wrongfully) Accusations of ingratitude, or assertions that one ought to be grateful (and is not), can be used to shame someone abusively or inappropriately. Statements such as “You should (just) be … Continue reading Gratitude Shaming: Using the Idea of Gratitude to Harm

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Creativity

Non-Pharmaceutical Anti-Depressants and Environmental Causes of Depression: Johann Hari’s Lost Connections

Updated Dec. 2023: Johann Hari’s book Lost Connections: Why You’re Depressed and How to Find Hope, is one of the very best things I’ve read in recent years. It’s one of those unusual gems you find, … Lost Connections fascinates in part because its central topic is several specific, environmental causes of depression, as well as corresponding remedies. Continue reading Non-Pharmaceutical Anti-Depressants and Environmental Causes of Depression: Johann Hari’s Lost Connections

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Creativity

Pete Walker’s Five Key Features of Complex PTSD

This post will list and explain five key defining features of Complex PTSD, and point you toward the work of Pete Walker. This of course is not medical advice. Complex PTSD, by the way, is one example of what Johann Hari classes as a psychological cause of depression, within his division of depression causes into social-environmental, psychological, and biological. See my post Non-Pharmaceutical Anti-Depressants and … Continue reading Pete Walker’s Five Key Features of Complex PTSD

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Creativity

Question of the Day: How can gratitude sometimes go wrong?

Please don’t misunderstand. Gratitude, and the cultivation of gratitude, are wonderful. What I am asking is whether there are ways in which gratitude, or messaging about gratitude, or the cultivation of gratitude, can go wrong? How can gratitude go wrong? Have you ever experienced or seen this? (This image thanks to Pexels) Continue reading Question of the Day: How can gratitude sometimes go wrong?

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Health and Wellbeing

Interesting Things I Didn’t Know About Nasal Congestion Either

There was an interesting article about nasal congestion published not long ago. It’s by Sarah Zhang, called “Everything I Thought I Knew About Nasal Congestion Is Wrong,” and published in The Atlantic. Zhang explains some things I wasn’t fully aware of, and which seemed useful as well as kind of interesting. In this post I’ll share some of the major points. The bit of knowledge … Continue reading Interesting Things I Didn’t Know About Nasal Congestion Either

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Creativity

Autumn Sky Artwork- First Release of a New Photographic Project

Today I’m going to depart from my usual topics in order to talk about and show you some photographic artwork I’ve been working on. I’m including a digital image, plus the same print under two different lighting conditions. The photograph, or artwork, that I’m showing you in this post belongs to a specific project I began about a year and a half ago. The piece … Continue reading Autumn Sky Artwork- First Release of a New Photographic Project

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Nature

Early October Musings- Vital Sleep, Not Death; And The Marvel of Gray and Green

It’s northern hemisphere autumn, or at least it’s about to be. True, we’ve passed the fall equinox, which is why I say it’s autumn. Yet at the time I’m writing this (the first week of October), it hardly looks or feels like autumn. The color show, I think, is perhaps starting late this year, at least where I live. Mostly the foliage remains a normal, … Continue reading Early October Musings- Vital Sleep, Not Death; And The Marvel of Gray and Green

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Creativity

Recovering the Original Meaning of Philosophy

That we come to know of this ancient idea of the philosopher and philosophy is not trivial. I say “come to know” because it isn’t simply that we don’t pay enough attention to it. The idea seems somehow to be hidden and fairly unknown, even though it ought to be evident and well-known. This is all the more curious because… Continue reading Recovering the Original Meaning of Philosophy

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Creativity

Marcus Aurelius: What Is a Philosopher?

I think the claim that Marcus Aurelius would not have thought himself a philosopher is incorrect. At the same time, the way it is incorrect is very interesting. Exploring this will show us some important things about what philosophy and philosophers were in the ancient world, what they are perceived to be now, and how we might choose to regard and engage in philosophy going forward. Continue reading Marcus Aurelius: What Is a Philosopher?

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Creativity

Feed Your Appetite: An Unintentionally Honest Slogan?

Not that long ago, I found myself stopped at a traffic light, across from a rather pricey development combining shopping and dining. Next to the road was a large sign, advertising for the entire place. What caught my eye was the slogan for this place: “Feed Your Appetite.” I was partly amazed, partly amused, and partly disturbed. Of course, if what “feed your appetite” meant … Continue reading Feed Your Appetite: An Unintentionally Honest Slogan?

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Creativity

Compassion and Personal Boundaries: No Conflict At All

You might be under the impression that there’s some tension, or even conflict and contradiction, between compassion and personal boundaries. Although surely this is a widely shared, culturally pervasive impression, it could hardly be further from the truth. In this post I’ll elaborate on how and why true compassion and appropriate personal boundaries are intrinsically linked, drawing heavily on the words of two teachers and … Continue reading Compassion and Personal Boundaries: No Conflict At All

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Creativity

This Series of Posts Concerning Depression’s Social-Environmental Causes, Solutions, and Johann Hari’s “Lost Connections”

This post (or page), which will continue to be updated, organizes links to my series of posts relating to depression’s causes, possible solutions, and Johann Hari’s “Lost Connections” Continue reading This Series of Posts Concerning Depression’s Social-Environmental Causes, Solutions, and Johann Hari’s “Lost Connections”

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Creativity

Depression and Disconnection from Meaningful Work

One cause of depression turns out to be spending one’s time in work that isn’t meaningful. But what does “not meaningful” mean, and how and why does it contribute to depression? As I’ve written about previously, there are at least six types of social-environmental causes of depression, helpfully cataloged and discussed by Johann Hari in Lost Connections (read my post about the book here). One … Continue reading Depression and Disconnection from Meaningful Work

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Pointless Overthinking

Four ways we may stumble in attempting to live Stoically

Have you encountered these difficulties in attempting to live Stoically? (Living philosophically?) After a conversation I had, some time ago, about living as a Stoic philosopher, I found myself wondering what pitfalls and stumbling blocks a person is likely to encounter when they try seriously to integrate Stoic teachings and practice into their life. Four things came to mind almost at once. I’m going to … Continue reading Four ways we may stumble in attempting to live Stoically

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Creativity

Philosophy as an Art of Living

I often like to use the word ‘philosophy’ in a somewhat unusual way. What I mean is philosophy understood as a craft, skill, or art of living. This is, actually, how philosophy was originally understood and practiced, in the ancient Greek and Roman periods of what we now call Western philosophy. That understanding, and even that practice, has never completely gone away. It has, however, … Continue reading Philosophy as an Art of Living

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Work and Life

Right Livelihood: Is It More Than Not Harming?

One most often sees Right Livelihood, the fifth path factor of the Noble Eightfold Path, defined negatively, in terms of not causing harm. … This naturally may raise the question: Ought right livelihood to do significantly more than simply not harming and not impeding spiritual growth? Ought it not to go farther, and do something positively beneficial as well? Continue reading Right Livelihood: Is It More Than Not Harming?

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Personal Development

The Do-Something-for-Someone-Else Strategy: A Specific Anti-Depressant Re-Connection

In a recent post, I mentioned one specific non-pharmaceutical, anti-depressant strategy: This is, when you sense depression and anxiety beginning to grow, rather than attempting to cheer yourself up by doing something alone and directly for yourself, instead try to do something for someone else. … Today I’d like to reflect on that strategy. Let me start with some cautions, then move toward how get this strategy right, which has a lot to do with understanding it properly. Continue reading The Do-Something-for-Someone-Else Strategy: A Specific Anti-Depressant Re-Connection

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