A belief rooted in felt presence rather than evidence.

If you don't believe then you can only worry. It depends how you want to be in the world – joyously or anxiously.

The transition out of willing into Gelassenheit is what seems to me to be the genuine difficulty.
—Martin Heidegger

MEDITATION
Thinking nothing
Feeling everything

What distinguishes us moderns from the ancients is our neurotic need  to control all aspects of life. This is what drives our obsession with technology. Then our only response to things we can't control is worry & anxiety. Ancient man naturally trusted in his own spirit and as a consequence was continuously releasing (letting go) into the future. Heidegger calls this Gelassenheit (generally translated as releasement or letting-go-ness) and he assures us that it is the most pressing concern for modern man.

We lead our common lives, but all around there are hunches and intimations and whisperings of something else. These small, softly spoken suggestions are enough for me to feel that there is some enigmatic otherness to be experienced, and that’s where my belief lies.

—Nick Cave

a magical equilibrium

Wake up the tail.

(Not just the coccyx but the spine down from the ming men:  L3, L4, L5, S1, S2, & beyond.)

MEDITATION
Becoming placid
(serene & untroubled)

In the '60s & '70s John Cage kept a journal of anecdotes, observations & koanlike tales. He called it:

Diary: How to Improve the World
(You Will Only Make Matters Worse)

Heed the call of conscience. It's as close to God as most of us get.

Develop a new image of thought:
neither rational nor dogmatic
but intuitive & imaginative

Il faut être léger comme l’oiseau, et non comme la plume.

—Paul Valéry

Silence is an intimate thing. Most people don’t understand because the default mode is to surround oneself with noise.

When students ask me what spirit is I just say PIXIE DUST and then point them to the scene in Peter Pan where Peter teaches Wendy and the boys to fly (still my favourite scene from the movies – always makes me cry).

Spirit is the magic ingredient that makes the impossible possible. And, when you think about it, what could be more impossible than LIFE.

Love is a state that I would like to exist in continuously.

—Nick Cave

We live in a culture that constantly bombards us with one message: Money solves all problems. As we get older we begin to suspect that this message is largely false and that deep problems can only be solved with LOVE. This is why the culture endeavours to keep us infantile – safely locked in as cogs in the machine. The only way to break free is to quiet the mind & open the heart.

There's a story of an Indian master visiting England in the 1930s and meditating in a house that recently had electricity installed. Afterwards he commented that it would now be impossible for people to quieten their minds.

Spend as much time outdoors, away from electricity & electronic devices, as possible. And this includes smartphones.

Work out of your work.
Don't work out of anybody
else's work.

Art, for the most part, is about
concentration, solitude
& determination.
—Richard Serra

For me the most radical & revolutionary work one can engage with is the urgent task of quietening the mind. If your mind is not quiet then it is captured by the machine – the workings of culture & society – all designed to rob us of our real vitality for the sake of baubles.

A little sparrow on the eave drainpipe
My heart flutters

—Jack Kerouac

When the mind quietens & the heart opens (which it will in time) a whole new world opens up: a world of connexion & energy where literally everything sparkles with spirit. We call this world LOVE.

Technology
produces
a godless
world

Or rather
the machine
becomes
the god

Some have to go back
before they can
go forward

The Kingdom of God is that which appears when the mind quietens. And remember: there's quiet & there's quiet.

In most spiritual traditions, otherworldly experiences (visions, out-of-body, universal merging...) are frowned upon until the adept is humble enough for the experiences not to go to their head.