“Sometimes Plan B can have the same desired outcome, but a different path for getting there.” Quote by Ben Casnocha
“Taking on short term risk can involve switching jobs, joining new groups / associations in the area, launching a personal blog, running an experiment within your existing job. These are some practical ways to inject volatility into your life, and thus some risk.” RunningTermRiskShort Term Author:Ben Casnocha
“One theme that fascinates me is cognitive enhancement. It seems only a matter of time until we live in a world where steroids for the brain are readily available to all. And once we come to grips with that reality, I suspect the debate over the ethics will be much more heated than the debate over steroids in baseball or any other sport, where the use is limited to a select group of freakish athletes.” WorldRealitySportsBrainEthicsBaseballAthleteDebateSelectSteroid Author:Ben Casnocha
“The process of inner self-examination brings about a knowledge that is as rigorous and supported by evidence as anything science has to offer. At the same time, this point of view redefines faith as a knowledge that is attained not only by intellectual means, but also through the rigorous development of the emotional side of the human psyche. Such emotional knowledge is unknown to the isolated intellect and has therefore been mistakenly labeled as "irrational."” MeanEmotionalIntellectualEvidenceIntellectPoint Of ViewIrrationalInner Self Author:Jacob Needleman
“This "new" idea of God proposes that all the characteristics traditionally attributed to the purely external God are, in an important sense, attributes of this inner force of consciousness. When this inner energy of higher consciousness is experienced, it then becomes clear that such an energy permeates the entire universe. In this way, it is through self-knowledge that the existence of an external God is verified and understood.” ImportantUniverseEnergyExistenceConsciousnessPropose Author:Jacob Needleman
“In order to teach a course in the history of Western religious thought, I had to do a great deal of research in the writings within the Judaic and Christian traditions and I was astonished to find in those writings philosophical thought of great power and sophistication. These writings completely blew away all my opinions about what I had taken to be the irrationality or immaturity of religious ideas, opinions which were and still are fashionable in many intellectual and literary circles today.” WritingTodayChristianReligiousOpinionTeachTakenIntellectualTraditionPhilosophicalWesternFashionableGreat PowerSophisticationImmaturityIrrationality Author:Jacob Needleman
“As my personal explorations continued, I experienced this quality of inner reality more and more and could no longer doubt that the meaning of God lay in this direction. At the same time, these undeniable experiences lit up and were in turn illuminated by all the philosophical and historical knowledge I had by then amassed and I began to understand in an entirely new way the teachings of both Judaism and Christianity as well as the teachings of Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam.” RealityQualityChristianityDoubtTeachingBuddhismPhilosophicalHistoricalIslamExplorationHinduismJudaismLit Author:Jacob Needleman
“The differences between religions are only differences involving the pathways that lead toward the practice of directly experiencing higher levels of perception and understanding. All religions are paths to a metaphorical mountain-top variously named Wisdom, enlightenment, self-realization, the kingdom of heaven, righteousness, etc. Differences that lead to violence and persecution are based on a corrupted relationship to the teachings and practices of religion.” HeavenUnderstandingPathViolenceTeachingPerceptionEnlightenmentRighteousnessPersecutionMetaphorical Author:Jacob Needleman
“The work of cultivating experiences called "peak experiences" or "mystic moments" or "breakthroughs" until they become more accessible is part of the essential nature of genuine spiritual discipline. These are moments, at the very least, of approaching the experiential verification that there does exist something Higher within and perhaps also outside of ourselves. Moments at the very least of approaching what the religions call God.” MomentsSpiritualDisciplineBreakthroughMystic Author:Jacob Needleman
“Our modern world-view tragically misperceives and wrongly defines what it is to be human. We are conditioned by our society to believe happiness comes from pleasure, or from getting things or power over people or money or fame or even health and survival. None of these sometimes very good things can bring ultimate meaning to our lives. We are born to be deeply conscious, inwardly free and deeply capable of love. The longing for these things is the definition of what it means to be human.” PeopleBelieveMeanSometimesPleasureModernFameSurvivalCapableConsciousUltimateLongingGood ThingsVery Good Author:Jacob Needleman
“At the present moment in our culture this yearning for meaning and consciousness, this yearning to give and serve something higher than ourselves, is breaking through the hard crust of our widespread cultural materialism and pseudo-scientific underestimation of what a human being is meant to be together with an equally tragic overestimation of what we human beings are capable of in our present everyday state of being. The intensity of the present confusion about the nature and existence of God is a symptom of this yearning within the whole of our modern culture.” GivingMomentsTogetherCultureExistenceConsciousnessModernCapableEverydayConfusionTragicMaterialismPresent MomentMeant To BeYearningExistence Of God Author:Jacob Needleman