Most versions of this question assume death is a doorway to somewhere else, a place you travel to and wait. But look at that assumption before you answer it. What if there is no “after” at all, because there is only life?“God is of the living”There is a moment in the Gospels where the apostles keep asking Jesus what happens after we die, and he gets short with them: God is of the living. Read...
Faith is not believing something hard enough. It is closer to the opposite. Belief is settling on an answer so you can stop feeling uncertain. Faith is being willing to stay in the uncertainty without grabbing for an answer at all.That distinction sounds small. It changes everything.Belief is often just fear wearing a nice coatWhen someone says “you just have to believe,” look at what belief is...
Start with an uncomfortable question: what is it, exactly, that you’re afraid will end? Not the body, when you look closely. It’s the story. The name, the history, the accumulated idea of “me.” That’s the thing the fear is protecting. And that idea was never the reality of you in the first place.“God is of the living”There’s a moment in the Gospels where the apostles keep asking Jesus what...
Because you’re relating to an idea of yourself, and comparing it, all day, to your idea of everyone else. That gap, between the “me” in your head and the “them” out there, is the feeling of separation. It’s not a defect in your personality. It’s a side effect of taking the self-story literally.The loneliness is the resistanceHere’s the part almost no one says out loud: everyone feels alone at the...
Nonduality is the recognition that there aren’t actually two of anything: no real line between you and the world, between the observer and the observed, between “me” and “everything else.” The division feels total. But look for the exact edge where you stop and the rest begins, and you won’t find it. That edge is an idea, not a fact.That’s the whole thing. Everything else is detail.The easy...
It’s one of the most-assumed claims in Western culture, and when you actually read the text, it’s shakier than almost anyone realizes.Here’s the crux most people never notice. The line everyone reaches for is John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.” But look at who’s speaking. Read in context, Jesus’s own words end a verse earlier, at 3:15. Why would he...
Short answer: no. And the harder you try, the more stuck you get.Almost every corner of modern spirituality tells you the ego is the villain. Kill it, dissolve it, transcend it. But think about what that instruction actually creates: now there’s a “you” working hard to get rid of a “you,” judging yourself on how well it’s going. That’s not freedom. That’s the same self...
When people hear “you are God,” they usually recoil. It sounds like the most arrogant sentence a person could say. But that reaction comes from a particular idea of God: a separate being in the sky, keeping score. Drop that idea for a second, and the statement means something much plainer, and much harder to argue with.Here’s the short version: the “you” you think you are...
Living for yourself is advice that appears everywhere. It shows up in self-help books, motivational speeches, therapy sessions, and social media captions. It sounds empowering, almost obvious. Yet for many people, it is one of the most confusing pieces of advice they ever receive. What does it actually mean to live for yourself? Does it mean ignoring everyone else’s opinions? Becoming...
What Winston Churchill, Psychology, and Everyday Life Can Teach Us When life becomes overwhelming, our instincts often tell us to wait. Wait until you feel motivated. Wait until your energy returns. Wait until your anxiety settles. Wait until your depression lifts. Only then, we tell ourselves, will it make sense to begin. It sounds reasonable. Unfortunately, it is often the opposite of what...
