Welcome

Have you ever wondered "who am I?" or "What am I doing here in this life, anyway?" If so, you're not alone. This website is dedicated to those of us who have asked life's most important questions. Here you'll find some ideas and some answers, although there is no guarantee they're right! You're not going to find any dogma, rules, judgments, or self-righteous proclamations about "Truth" here. I hope you will find thoughtful questions, possibilities to consider, and a wealth of ideas to expand the horizons of your consciousness.

Namaste

Mark

A Place to Start

The way I see it, I don't need all the money in the world, the fastest car or biggest house. I would like to feel loved, to feel a sense of deep inner peace and a passion and joy for life. It's clear that those of us who have the most material possessions are not the happiest and most joyful--sometimes the opposite is true. And we know that some us who have only meager possessions exude the most wonderful sense of inner peace and feel the excitement of being alive.  I think we're all alike in that we all want to feel connected, accepted, and loved.

So the good news is, peace doesn't come at a cost. No sacrifice is involved. You already have everything you need.  I have discovered that it is possible to go from a place of being out of peace (angry, annoyed, afraid, bored, or whatever) to a state of peace is as simple as 1) being aware that you are in that state and 2) changing your mind about it. Simple, yes, but not always easy.

The first step can be tricky; many people go through their entire lives without actually realizing what they are thinking. They fly through life on autopilot. Who is flying the plane? No one really; it's programmed to react to whatever might try to throw it off course, just like the machinery in a airplane's autopilot. The first time we are able to step back from our own minds, observe, and ask "what am I thinking?" is a magical moment. Sometimes this observer can only look, powerless, upon what it sees. This is a great first step.

Eckhart Tolle, one of the great teachers I have found, speaks of the state of mind where we are aware of our thoughts as feelings, observing non-judgmentally, accepting "what is." He calls that state "Presence." For him (and me, too), the goal is to spend every waking moment in the state of Presence.

Some Assumptions  

One possibility is that this whole thing we call "life" is just a random collection of rocks and trees, people and air, and there is really no intrinsic meaning behind it. It's sort of like "life sucks, then you die." The "big bang" was just a big accident, and by some quirk of nature we just happen to be aware of our own existence. That would certainly explain why God doesn't seem to be here anywhere obvious, why bad things happen to good people, why you can still feel like a victim when you know you didn't do anything to deserve it, and why most of your prayers (even the heartfelt and sincere ones) don't seem to be answered.

Another possibility of course, is that there is actually real meaning to each of our lives. We are here for some reason, it is important to be asking these questions, and we are in some way are experiencing a purposeful life, even at those times when the purpose is far from obvious.

One concept that I think is hard to disagree with is that truth exists. Something has got to be true. Let's call the real truth, "Truth" (with a capital "T"). So, if our eyes are open and we're looking for Truth, some ideas will lead us to a clearer understanding of it, and others will confuse us and lead us away or be a big waste of time in our journey. It's also clear that unless our eyes are open to look for Truth and be aware of it when it is in front of our face, we'll certainly overlook it.

Mini-Essays

Here are some short writings to get the juices flowing:

Namaste,

Mark