Category: Essays

There are two fundamental modes of action: responsive or proactive. It is important to step into the mode that best suits the situation. Most people only know how to behave in one of the two modes – and they apply that mode to all circumstances. This leads to frustration for yourself and others.   Responsive […]

There are states of being that need no justification. There are moments in our lives when questions of meaning don’t arise, don’t exist. Beauty, the experience of heartfelt perfection through visual form, needs no arguments. Beauty can nourish the soul, it is love itself. Beauty quiets the mind. Beauty makes you breathe deeper. Beauty makes […]

Music is the fastest mood enhancer. Mood influences thoughts. Thoughts influence behavior. Thefore designing a mood enhancing list helps have an optimal average day. The following lists contain songs for each of the states I strive to enter daily. In parenthesis you can see the activity that accompanies each state. Enjoy! ~ LOVINGKINDNESS (metta) –Mahamrityunjaya […]

I’m on a 12 hour flight between Tokyo and London, mysterious Norway lights below me. Uninterrupted time for reflection, for taking stock of the year, for simplifying. Your input will influence which creative projects I ditch or cultivate next year. Here’s to our end of year being full of reflection and gratitude, Miguel Mayher — CREATIVITY: ArtMaking How challenging […]

Having a predefined baseline of security allows your mind to walk through the unknown. CREATIVITY IN THE DESERT The sandstorm started to quiet down. Still sitting cross legged, I opened my eyes and looked straight ahead: my goggles were as dusty as my lips. I got up and started walking slowly towards camp. Or where I […]

  Up at 4am. Two meals per day. No talking, no reading, no writing. Hour after hour, one concern: to observe reality as it is, within the framework of your body. Through a ramification of events I found myself in the outskirts of Bodh Gaya, the village where Siddartha Gautama became enlightened 2500 years ago, […]

I saw one key pattern among almost all my graduate school teachers: a healthy allowance for doubt in all their statements. Intellectual humility strikes me now as a paramount quality of clear thinking. This is so far removed from the stereotypical overconfident bright person peddled in all media. Thoughts are nothing personal. They are just […]

As a human being you were born with a hidden compulsion. A transparent inclination, like your constant breathing. Most people spend their whole lives without noticing it. I call it the compulsion to fill voids. When we encounter stretches of silence in conversation, a lightweight suitcase, or a big plate in a buffet… something inside […]