Around eleven o’clock in the evening, Brandon raced out of the house and soon was on the highway, driving towards the city. Nia’s words still echoed in his head, “You absentminded ducky.” His wife always had a sense of humor in such situations, while he remained acutely self-conscious and irritable....

At the University Of Sofia, Bulgaria, I played several roles during the course of almost 10 years. I was a student (Bachelor, Master, and PhD), a researcher, and a teacher. I learned and taught, applied for funding, did field work, lab work, and data analysis, and wrote research papers, a Master’s, and...

I learn about the American 19th century author Henry David Thoreau from speakers such as Wayne Dyer and Les Brown and through popular quotes you may also have heard of like: “If one advances confidently in the directions of his dreams and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet...

I have in my library a 700 page volume with the selected works of the French author Anatole France, yet to my shame from it I have only read Thaïs. This work was suggested by Alan Watts in one of his lectures as an example that illustrates how asceticism cannot lead to enlightenment, but rather to a...

  Arthur was on a coding rampage. For most of the week, the keyboard tapping was interrupted only by his most urgent necessities, some of which were done in front of the screen. All these sacrifices would be worth it – the lack of leisure and sleep, the stiffness of the neck and shoulders, the constant...

Along came a centipede One day I got up to write early in the morning, and for an hour or so this was my only occupation as the last shades of night were fading and the dawn illumined the sky. I was working on a novel, researching the works of Albert Camus and Alan Watts. The text flowed meekly onto...

Nathen checked the time it was 12:20 PM. They still had 40 minutes left from their lunchbreak so he left his phone on the table and continued to explain: “All of these office dwellers, from the office assistants to the CEO himself, have one thing in common. They are constantly looking for a way out”,...

Great despair prompted my travel to Tibet in search of truth. Even greater despair came in seeking out a Guru named Wangdue, a hermit and sage who was able to become invisible whilst meditating. While hiking and camping in the Tibetan mountains for months on end, I got only two glimpses of what seemed...

This book was my first major introduction into Zen Buddhism. Its author Alan Watts (see dedicated author review here) started as an Episcopal priest, but soon after joined the American Academy of Asian Studies and consequently wrote many books on Zen Buddhism, on Taoism, Hinduism, Christianity, conscientiousness,...