Existential Rehab (ER)

[resuscitating your inner life one insight/epiphany at a time]

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  • • 1/7/22

    Acceptance Cannot Be Taught

    Disillusionment is not all bad. Disillusionment is a loss of illusion and a gain of reality. Disillusionment is a liberating grief process that eventuates in seeing reality as it is.

  • • 9/2/22

    Dandelions of Significance

    On freeing ourselves from societal definitions of meaning and on taking personal control over what we consider to be significant (“existential nihilism”).

  • • 5/10/22

    Non-meditation

    True meditation, says JIddu Krishnamurti, is non-meditation.

  • • 3/11/22

    Stepping into the Unknown

    Fear not uncertainty or meaninglessness. Relax into it. Knowing how not to know calmly is a key skill of existentially vibrant living.

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    • 5/28/22

    Row Your Boat Gently Down the Mindstream

    One of my childhood sports (in addition to water polo) was rowing. Rowing alone on the river always felt very philosophical to me. This vignette is an existential musing on the theme of an old childhood song.

  • • 2/12/22

    Mindful Breathing

    This video about mindful breathing is likely to surprise you. It is about taking the "work" out of “breath-work.” The video gets at the existential rehab priority of learning to let go of our pretensions of control.

  • • 4/4/22

    Indifference is Forgivable

    Thrownness is a sense of "being thrown" into this world, into this existence. A kind of abandonment, estrangement, alienation amidst the world's "benign indifference." This "indifference" is but a shadow of "thrownness." As such, it is forgivable. Radical compassion is a key skill of existentially vibrant living.

  • • 5/21/22

    Grass of Oblivion

    This video reinforces the existential rehab priority on being here and being now. What is happening is happening once. But we will be re-living it again and again. What you say and do now stays with you and with your partner.

  • • 6/19/22

    Giving is Taking

    This video will help you “own your motive”. The idea here is to recognize that in choosing to do something for someone else we are choosing to do something for ourselves. This video reinforces one of the key existential rehab ideas that “compassion is self-care.”

  • • 6/25/22

    On Civilization

    We have to understand the jungle that we are in. In this video, we learn from Hermann Hesse. Hesse, in his novels, hides dark, dialectical truths about the world we live in. Here's what he says in "Beneath the Wheel," on the topic of civilization and education...

  • • 6/3/22

    Mind is a River

    A visually-guided/read-along meditation.

  • • 7/2/22

    Intimate Etymology (Words: Robot, Slave)

    Intimate Etymology Series is about learning about understanding human nature from how we use language. There is often an intimate connection between words, a secret life of sorts. Etymology is the investigative tool that helps us lift the veil of semantic mystery. In this video, we stand to learn about what it means to be free and what it means to be on autopilot.

  • • 8/8/22

    Intimate Etymology (Word: Obey | on Ear-worms and Superego)

    Intimate Etymology Series is about learning about ourselves from the words that we use. "There is often an intimate connection between words, a secret life of sorts. Etymology is the investigative tool that helps us lift the veil of semantic mystery." In this video I get into intuitive neuroscience and Jayne's theory of Bicameral Mind as we discuss the etymology of the word "obey."

  • • 5/18/22

    100% of You is Not You

    Atomic means indivisible. Atoms, as we think of them, are divisible. But oneness isn't. Oneness is atomic. A nondual perspective on who/what you are and aren't.

  • • 8/10/22

    Mushroom Mind: Mycelium of Nonduality

    "Are mycelial networks conscious? If so, would mycelial networks run on a software of duality or nonduality? Are we - so-called humans - mobile mycelial diaspora?" - pattern-break questions may lead to paradigm-shifting answers. This video is designed to provoke curiosity about consciousness and the concept of nonduality which is at the foundation of Eastern approaches to equanimity.

  • • 6/24/22

    About Freedom and How Jeans Won the Cold War

    What ended the Cold War - an ideological clash or Levi's 501? This video gets at the needs of ego and makes a curious point: “The forbidden apple is the one that is that is binged on…”

  • • 3/7/22

    The Monkey Business of Being Human

    We grow up thinking we are human. Humanity is just a concept. A dualistic concept that separates us from the animal kingdom.

  • • 6/25/22

    Mycelium of Nonduality

    "Are mycelial networks conscious? If so, would mycelial networks run on a software of duality or nonduality? Are we - so-called humans - mobile mycelial diaspora?" - pattern-break questions may lead to paradigm-shifting answers.

  • 1/15/22

    a Pattern-Breaking Think-Piece

    Mind is a pattern. Break it (to enable a new point-of-view).

  • • 6/28/22

    We All Slip - a Human Confession

    Miike Snow's song "Animal" - imho - is an anthem of Darwinian self-acceptance: we all slip... because we are all animals. "Humankind" is a construct.

  • • 6/20/22

    Vicarious Dog Walk # 1

    Have 3 minutes? Take a vicarious dog walk with Zoya down one of the Pittsburgh staircases.

  • • 7/16/22

    Vicarious Dog Walk #2

    A slow walk down the mostly forgotten steps of Pittsburgh's South Side Slopes.

  • • 7/7/22

    Vicarious Dog Walk # 3 (Trail)

    Join Zoya on another brief vicarious walk in the park. Sniff (vicariously) the moment. Perk (your vicarious) ears here and there. Wag your (vicarious) tail.