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Martin LeFevre - Meditations - Latest News [Page 2]
There’s No Muddling Through This Terrible Transition
Monday, 22 January 2024, 11:20 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Taking a meditation on the patio at sunset on a gray, wet and chilly day, there came, unexpectedly, the feeling of space and sacredness that is always new. Sunset was barely discernible, just a deepening dusk. The branches of the two tall pines ... More >>
Neuroscience And The Mind In Meditation
Friday, 19 January 2024, 10:52 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Neuroscientists are discovering more and more how the human brain works, even as they seem to understand less and less the mind in meditation. For example, they’ve discovered something called “aphantasia,” an apparently inherited neurological ... More >>
It’s The Zeitgeist Stupid
Friday, 12 January 2024, 11:03 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Though I’ve been writing about the underlying conditions giving rise to fascism in America since George W. Bush’s presidency, well before the “hope and change” president was elected, this encounter bears retelling. About a year after 9.11, I ... More >>
Experiencing The Silent Ground Of Being
Wednesday, 10 January 2024, 11:26 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
The afternoon was gray and chilly, with only the saddle-shaped opening to the canyon visible beyond town. For a few precious minutes however, the sun poked through as it neared the horizon in the western sky. Brilliant orange light then flooded the ... More >>
Contemplating And Communing With Death
Friday, 5 January 2024, 11:15 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
It’s the first day of the New Year, and the morning breaks clear, cloudless and bright, despite the predicted fog. Though chilly, the sun warms as it rises over the rooftops. An hour after sunrise, it’s windless and still, so calm that not ... More >>
The Peace Beyond Nation-States
Monday, 1 January 2024, 12:11 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
It’s rare for someone of high political position in any nation to tell it like it is about the international system. However Margus Tsahkna, Estonia’s minister of foreign affairs, comes closer to telling the truth about the world (dis)order ... More >>
Christmas 2023: Crucifying Christ Again
Monday, 1 January 2024, 12:09 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Before the pandemic I initiated a series of dialogues with a group of Trappist monks at New Clairvaux Abbey, twenty minutes north of town. The abbot, Father Paul Mark, graciously invited me into the cloistered area, and attended all six of the talks. ... More >>
A Psychiatrist’s Mishmash Posing As Psychological Insight
Friday, 22 December 2023, 12:19 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
The underlying, unexamined premises of Western psychology are contributing to confusion and alienation in postmodern people everywhere. An essay in Psychology Today, entitled “Making Effective Choices in the Timeless Present Moment,” epitomizes the parlous ... More >>
Moments Of Timeless Peace Surpass Lifetimes Of Time-Bound Thought
Monday, 18 December 2023, 1:21 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
It’s a cloudy but bright Sunday morning. An inconsiderate neighbor on the street in back is playing country music in his house so loud you can hear the lyrics. The infernal noise stops, and a pervasive quietness is instantly palpable. It’s so ... More >>
The Interfaith And Multi-Faith Movement Is A Dead End
Monday, 11 December 2023, 10:19 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
There are two meanings to the word ‘faith.’ The first pertains to belief systems and gives primacy to organized religion; the second pertains to trust and confidence, and gives primacy to those essential qualities within and between individuals. Belief ... More >>
The Crooked Line From 9/11 To Israel’s War On Gaza
Monday, 4 December 2023, 10:19 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Speaking of unregenerate war criminals after Kissinger’s death, if journalists could be tried for crimes against humanity, Thomas Friedman would top the list. He coined the phrase “war of choice” against Iraq in 2003, and was an indefatigable ... More >>
Cop28 And Man’s War On The Earth
Friday, 1 December 2023, 10:36 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
The Cop climate conferences have become a farce. This year the host nation, the United Arab Emirates, chose an oil company executive, Sultan Al Jaber, to preside over Cop28. And surprise surprise, he’s been lobbying delegates from around the ... More >>
Two Kinds Of Consciousness
Monday, 27 November 2023, 2:49 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Autumn comes late and lasts long in northern California, but the leaves are dropping in droves now. Brown leaves are stacked on rocks in the stream, some jutting straight up and looking like little stupas. At the apex of the afternoon, an intense stillness ... More >>
One Thought At A Time
Friday, 24 November 2023, 11:33 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
A writer recovering from a traumatic brain injury writes: “It’s strange not remembering the moment that changed my life, that altered my work and vocation, that disrupted the me-ness of me. ” What on earth does “the me-ness of me” mean? ... More >>
The Real And Present Danger Of AI
Wednesday, 22 November 2023, 10:42 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
In the end, as in the beginning of new cultures or technologies, philosophy matters most. The philosophical conflict in the murky world of AI development, over the so-called doomers versus the ‘accelerationists’/commercializers, has spilled out onto the ... More >>
Humankind’s Place In The Universe And Lack Of Fit On Earth
Monday, 20 November 2023, 11:01 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
The first step in meditation is to end the observer. Sitting beside the stream in town on a magnificent autumn afternoon, a meditative state deepened after the observer/self dissolved in attentiveness. The continuity of thought ended, and with it psychological ... More >>
What Will “The New Form Of Religion” Look Like?
Friday, 17 November 2023, 10:05 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Invited to Russia on business as the Soviet Union was collapsing at the beginning of 1990, I was surprised, in the avowedly atheistic USSR, by a question that Russians asked me everywhere I went: “Are you religious?” I gave a terse, truthful response: ... More >>
Is Knowledge Destructive To Discovery?
Friday, 10 November 2023, 12:16 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Fall is in full leaf in northern California. The sun illuminates the yellow leaves of a tree just upstream, but at first I have no eyes for the beauty that surrounds me. It takes 20 minutes of remaining with the turmoil within for one to simply be ... More >>
Where Did Man Go Wrong, Revised
Friday, 3 November 2023, 11:48 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Where did man go wrong? The question sounds almost as anachronistic as asking about original sin. It’s a right question though, even essential toward understanding what the hell is going on in the world. Why? Because core insights into the causes ... More >>
Technology Has Not Advanced Human Civilization
Wednesday, 1 November 2023, 11:46 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
At times like these, one returns to first principles, or reverts to absurd worldviews. Our views of human nature, nature, and the universe form the core premises of how we see the world. With few exceptions they are unexamined. False humility is worse ... More >>
