What’s Happening Right Now?

This Moment

Everything is happening right now. There is no other time. Freedom, peace, joy, suffering, sadness, birth, aging, sickness, and death are all found in this moment. In order to understand your life and yourself, you must first come to this understanding.


A Fool’s Guide to Actual Happiness
Mark Van Buren

What Was “In The Beginning”?

In the Beginning

In the beginning was not the word; that much is clear. Not that the universe of the living was ever simple, quite the contrary. It was complex from its inception, four billion years ago. Life sailed forth without words or thoughts, without feelings or rea­sons, devoid of minds or consciousness. And yet living organisms sensed others like them and sensed their environments. By sensing I mean the detection of a “presence”—of another whole organism, of a molecule located on the surface of another organ­ism or of a molecule secreted by another organism. Sensing is not perceiving, and it is not construct­ing a “pattern” based on something else to cre­ate a “representation” of that something else and produce an “image” in mind. On the other hand, sensing is the most elementary variety of cognition.


Feeling and Knowing: Making Minds Conscious
Antonio Damasio

How Can We Transform Our Mind?

Transforming Our Mind

We can transform our mind by thinking on these four topics:

  • Love.
  • Compassion
  • Sympathetic joy.
  • Equanimity.

These attitudes are essential ingredients for our own happiness, peace of mind, and health, as well as for beneficial, satisfying relationships and interactions with others.

Cultivating these thoughts diminishes our habitual attitudes of self-grasping and self-centeredness, which disturb our peace of mind and lead to problems such as hatred for enemies, envy for rivals, and clinging to family and friends.


Awakening the Kind Heart
Kathleen McDonald