
Suffering Passed On: Child Abuse
Check this out... Only one third of abused children go on to become abusers. Revealingly, the majority of that group deny they had been...


Developing originality
First a Story: When I was in third grade our teacher gave us a weekend assignment: Come back on Monday with as many ways to use a...

Educating Compassion
In this world, worthy things don't come easy. Candy is sweeter than carrots and selfishness seems like a more direct path to happiness...

Quora: Wouldn't it be better to avoid suffering altogether?
Question: Some think one should suffer to develop compassion for others, but isn't it better to learn to avoid pain through wisdom and...

metta
When I still called him “my rat-bastard-cheating-whore-ex” I wrote the following words on a post it and stuck it on my chest over my...


A just so story
The reason for life is ineffable, but here's a story I like: Life exists to experience limitation. Let's say you are an omniscient god....

Spiritual Bypass & Spiritual Materalism
There are two spiritual games I play, rackets as Alan Watts might say, as meaningless and diverting as solitaire on my phone. One is...

Event vs Capacity
There are two ways to respond to suffering - one is to focus on the event, the other is to focus on the present-moment distress. Pity is...

Delivering facts not opinions
As a person who has to deliver some hard facts at work, I have thought a lot about how to deliver unpleasant news. If my "honesty" is...


Quora: How can I explain to my toddler about our pet dog dying?
First, I'm so sorry about the loss of your dog. As you go through this, there are probably some good opportunities to parent. Three...