M.J. Rose

There is something incredibly magical about traveling the 2,200 mile Appalachian Trail in 5 minutes…

Green Tunnel from Kevin Gallagher on Vimeo.

We all want it. We all have trouble achieving it. What is the great mystery about relaxation and why does it elude us so? Leave it to the Buddhist scholars to clue us in on the secret…

Two Ways of Learning Relaxation

by Shinzen Young

There are two ways of learning relaxation, because there are two distinct levels at which a person can relax. I speak of top-to-bottom relaxation versus bottom-to-top relaxation. “Top” refers to the surface conscious mind, “bottom” the deep unconscious.

Top-to-bottom relaxation is what most people think of when they think of relaxation. It’s voluntary relaxation, like a progressive relaxation where you make an effort to relax. When a person sits to meditate I think it is good to do whatever possible to relax the overall body. I usually try to get an overall sense of the body relaxing. I call it a “settled-in” sense. For example, I notice that during sitting sometimes my shoulders will come up, so I’ll relax them as an act of conscious intention…

For the complete piece click here to go to iJourney.org.

Stephen hawking says that heaven is a fairy story – what do you think?

Noted physicist Stephen Hawking calls heaven “a fairy story”

“There is no heaven; it’s a fairy story,” says Stephen Hawking. In an interview published in the Guardian on May 15, the renowned physicist said he does not fear death and dismissed the notion that there is life after it:

“I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I’m not afraid of death, but I’m in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first. I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”…

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