And Release Judgement — What judge of art could ever create art? What judge of life could ever create life? Life as Art Despite the limitations society might press on us, life is limitless, creative, and our deepest urge is to express ourselves in our own way and be heard. …

Gilles Deleuze and Creative Philosophy — Fulfillment What if life could be continuously fresh and new, light and free? What if even during our most difficult moments we had a light source within, a strength that could help us see beyond the darkness? What if every day we woke up, we could live life in the open…

Buddhist Philosophy: Emptiness and Becoming — The Radiance of Becoming The resonance between the Buddhist conceptions of impermanence, dependent origin, emptiness, non-self and suffering and western conceptions of immanence, temporality, difference and a process of becoming should now be coming in to view. Impermanence is not a lack of realness. Impermanence is first and foremost a rejection of universal abstractions…

Buddhist Philosophy: Emptiness (continued) — Emptiness vs Nihilism Notwithstanding the middle way as articulated by Nagarjuna, the concept of emptiness carried with it a negative connotation that was susceptible to devolving into nihilism. A subsequent Mahayana school of thought, the Yogacara school, sought to articulate the concept of emptiness further so as to remove the danger of universal…

Buddhist Philosophy: Emptiness — Essence vs Impermanence From one perspective, Buddhism arose as a response to the Vedic traditions that dominated India at the time. In particular, Buddhist thought was an answer to the Vedic concepts of Atman and Brahman. Atman is the unchanging true self, beyond the phenomenal self, and Brahman is the ultimate reality, that…

Buddhist Philosophy: Introduction — Ignorance and Illusion Buddhism is one of the major religions of the world and includes a set of teachings, traditions, beliefs, spiritual practices and philosophy that has developed since the time of the Buddha, born Siddhartha Gautama, sometime in the 5th century BCE. Buddhism has its origins in India, but over time spread…

Ecosophy Part Two — Felix Guattari In 1989, Felix Guattari put forth his views of what an ecosophy might entail in his book, The Three Ecologies. Guattari rejects a dualistic man vs nature view of reality, but instead posits a monism and pluralism that permeates all of the biosphere. For Guattari, eco-philosophy is the study of…

Ecosophy Part One — Nowhere is there a need to openly explore our concepts and values more than in relation to the current environmental issues we face collectively. The drastic reduction of biodiversity, the accelerating overpopulation of the planet and the marching onslaught of climate change threaten to destroy the planet’s current ecosystem once…

Problems and Effects — Situation vs Creation We are historically situated. We are creatures that think in terms of language. We are born into a social and linguistic heritage and inhabit social formations that carry meanings we did not create. But to participate in a process of becoming is to radically create, to open the door on…