Context:
Avatar is a Hindu term that originally means an appearance, a manifestation of a deity in a visible form, an embodiment of the ideal.

Philosophically, the term Avatar could be understood as synonymous with Form (form-based manifestation of Essence).

Psychologically, the term Avatar, in my opinion, is interchangeable...

When you lose everything it might seem that loss is all that's left to identify with. Loss is a situation not a state of mind. Just like you weren't what you had, you aren't what you lost. Nor are you what you owe. Indenture isn't identity. A financial obligation does...

Gift shopping, gift wrapping, gift exchange, gift returns, gift disappointments - the logistics of this holiday endeavor are overwhelming and are part of the very stress that we are so much trying to avoid each and every holiday season. If you are still looking for ideas on how not to...

By the time we get out of kindergarten we have a sneaking suspicion that there is more than one take on reality. This realization (that things are not black and white) pretty much crystallizes by the time we get out of the high-school. What starts out as a clear-cut case...

This is a short-attention-span/pattern-interruption post for the minds on the go. Simple format: five pattern-interruption thoughts to, perhaps, further shorten your already short attention span downright to... now.

Here we go:

1. Love is the ultimate bias.

2. Whenever your nervous system learns all of the known false alarms, you...

The act of giving thanks is more than just a gesture of gratitude. It is a unique teaching moment. Indeed, by expressing appreciation for this or that we teach the world about what matters to us, about what is existentially significant for us. With this in mind, let me ask...

Being Means Being in Time

A sense of being involves a degree of separateness from the rest of the world. After all, the verb "to exist" literally means to stand out. When you are present, your awareness of your own existence happens against the backdrop of time. Recall that time...

People talk. We listen. We think about what they are saying. As we consider the thoughts that other people verbalize, their thoughts stream through us and become our thoughts, at least, for the time being, while these thoughts remain under our consideration.

Basic stuff, right? Nothing to it. It's...

As a perfectionist, you think of perfection as a state. As you clean your kitchen or your car or your desk, you fantasize about preserving the state of perfection that you have accomplished. If you can only get it right, then it'll remain perfect from then on. You believe that...

We all like smooth sailing, for things to go just right, without any friction. And, yet, friction can be a nice wake-up call. Gurdjieff encouraged his students to give up "something valuable" but "not forever," in order to create a constant "friction between a 'yes' and a 'no'" (1). So,...

Herrigel's thought that "the archer ceases to be conscious of himself as the one who is engaged in hitting the bull's-eye which confronts him" ("Zen in the Art of Archery," 1948) can be understood to mean that it is not you that is involved in the outcome but the arrow....

Syadvada is a practice of tentativeness in expression that is associated with the ancient Jain tradition of India (Radhakrishnan & Moore, 1957). In Sanskrit, the word syad means "perhaps" or "maybe" or "in some ways." Syadvada system consists of a total of seven propositions that were designed specifically to counteract...

Everything that can exist - at any given moment - exists. Reality is entirely complete. It has no holes. Nothing, absolutely nothing is amiss. The discrepancies that we see are the differences between the ideal reality that we have dreamed up and the actual reality that has manifested at a...

140 Character-long Formula of Happiness:
Ever seen a wagging tail? If you have then you've seen happiness.
Get a dog. Get happiness. Let a dog's tail wag your mind. Simple, huh?

140 Character-long Commentary on the 140 Character-long Formula of Happiness:
The advice above constitutes the so-called...

What is inoculation? Inoculation introduces an organism to a nominal threat with the purpose of hardening the organism. Motivational inoculation is a series of challenges (in the form of questions) that help crystallize intrinsic, fail-proof motivation. Here's some motivational inoculation for weight management.

Inoculation 1: What is my stated motivation...

You've heard of the "clean plate club." Some of us grow up with moralizing parents who instill an eating ethic of wasting no food. But there's more to this than just cultural programming. The "clean plate" syndrome, at least in part, has to do with how our minds work, with...

Two birds with fair wings, inseparable companions,
have found a refuge in the same sheltering tree.
One incessantly eats from the peepal tree;
the other, not eating, just looks on.

This verse is from Rg Veda (or Rigveda), an ancient Indian text of sacred hymns....

Perfectionism is akin to insatiable hunger, to a relentless striving on a feedback loop. In striving for perfection, what have you been actually craving? As I see it there are 3 types of perfectionistic hunger:

- Approval/validation hunger

- Reflection/attention hunger

- Control/certainty hunger.

Approval/Validation Hunger Perfectionism:

You have two options in regard to emotional eating: you can try to eliminate it altogether or you can try to make better use of it by making emotional eating more conscious. The latter would be consistent with the goals of harm reduction, a humanistic form of psychotherapy that offers...

When you compare yourself to somebody else, you are comparing you to not-you. But uniqueness is beyond comparison. Sure, you and so-and-so might be very similar, but similarity isn't sameness. For you to score like they do (whoever they might be), look like they do, earn like they do, talk...