Existential Psychology | 360 Degrees of Mindful Living

Existential Psychology Articles

Becoming vs. Being: Ego-Centricity of Self-Search

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

“Becoming and being have no relationship with each other, they move in entirely different directions,” asserts J. Krishnamurti in “Asceticism and Total Being.” Indeed! Becoming and Being are as different as Anchorites and Eremites. An anchorite ...

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Pros & Cons of Mindlessness: Lessons from a Sea Squirt

Monday, September 28th, 2009

A (hopefully) intriguing tale about status quo (inspired by a passage from Stuart Brown's book "Play"): "The sea squirt is an ugly creature. In its adult form it has a tubular shape that resembles a sponge ...

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Similarity Isn’t Sameness

Monday, September 21st, 2009

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 ...

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“It Is What It Is” is the Only Truth, the Rest is Interpretation

Saturday, September 19th, 2009

By trying to avoid mistakes and trying to do the “right” thing, we are using a set of personal commandments of what should and should not be. The problem is that by accepting one part of reality ...

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Self-Liberation: Liberation of Self or Liberation from an Illusion of Self?

Thursday, September 17th, 2009

"The bamboo-shadows move over the stone steps as if to sweep them, but no dust is stirred; The moon is reflected deep in the pool, but the water shows no trace of its penetration." –D. T. Suzuki, "An Introduction ...

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The Equation of Significance: an Essay About Nothing Important

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

We search for significance… in all the wrong places. Significance is a sign that a given manifestation of reality equals: __________________ (your mind fills in the blank). Indeed, significance is an equation between something outside of you ...

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The Thin Ice of Presence

Friday, September 11th, 2009

Meaning is an association of what is now with what once was... Take a look at any object in your immediate environment: say, you are looking at a "so-called" (I'll explain the "so-called" parenthetical in a ...

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From Psychology of Disease to Psychology of Choice

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

Addictive or compulsive behavior (whether it's substance use or overeating) is experienced as feeling un-free: a substance user feels compelled or driven to use. Compulsion is experienced as a state of being enslaved in a ...

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Fear Not Paper Tigers

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

Two prehistoric apes stand in the tall grass. One points a finger in a certain direction to alert the other to a crouching tiger that is about to prey on them, as if to say: “Watch ...

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Transparence of What Is

Friday, August 28th, 2009

Coat a stick with red paint and look at it. What are you seeing, a red stick? Not really: the actual stick disappeared under a coat of red paint. You are looking at a particular distribution of red ...

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