Author Archives: Vincent Flammini

The following is a letter from a reader (Tim) that addresses a fundamental misunderstanding. I hope this article helps to clarify it. Tim: I never wrote to you before – read your blog occasionally. One thing I’m surprised at though is the fact that you take anxiety meds – I would have expected realizing “theContinue reading “Better Living Through Chemistry”

I am sitting on my porch on a sleepy summer afternoon here in Springfield. I close my eyes and listen to the house wrens and cardinals calling to one another. Now and then my dog, Shadow, barks at a biker or another dog barking in the distance. A truck rumbles by on the street atContinue reading “Let Your Senses Point You Hone”

There has never been any emotion, any thought, any sensation, any situation, that has remained the same. Never. Look into your own direct experience right now – this isn’t some grand, esoteric teaching. Whatever you were thinking, feeling, or sensing when you began reading this paragraph has changed by now. That incessant, effervescing flow isContinue reading “The Futile Attempt to Change What Is Already Changing”

If you are going to read this as theory, as something ‘interesting,’ do yourself a favor and go to another website. I don’t intend this to be mean or exclusive. What I am saying is that if you are just reading this out of interest, you won’t find it that interesting. If you are readingContinue reading “When in Doubt”

There is not KNOWINGNESS and the OBJECT of knowingness. SEEING and SEEN arise together. Has there ever been SEEING without AWARENESS of the SEEN? Has there ever been HEARING without AWARENESS of the HEARD? Has there ever been THINKING without AWARENESS of the THOUGHT? Do you see what the seeming multiplicity share? Awareness is theContinue reading “Not Two”

Awareness is inseparable from phenomena and phenomena are inseparable from awareness – they are different aspects of Being. There is no need to change anything that arises. Take refuge in Awareness. Awareness is always present. Rest there. Regardless of what is happening, we are what Sees it. We can either rest as the Seeing orContinue reading “Some Random Pointers”

What we who have been ‘seekers’ have sought is the very thing that watches the seeking, that watches the stopping of seeking, that watches the frustration, the resignation, the eggs cooking, the Monday Night Football game, the dog sleeping, the stomach gurgling, the cold feet, the uncertainty, the bad money management, the opinions, the beliefs,Continue reading “Trust It”

Nothing needs to change in the circumstances or particulars of our lives to rest as peace. In fact, the more we attempt to manipulate and alter the particulars of our lives in order to experience peace, the further we will (seem to) move from what we want. What to do? Nothing. Relax. Give up. ReleaseContinue reading “Nothing Needs to Change”

Our opinions, our beliefs, our certainties, our stories, our memories, our worries and projections – all of these make up the bed of nails on which we lie. Give them space – it is the solvent that dissolves them along with any idea of ‘me’.

If our sense of happiness and peace is dependent upon getting everything in our life ‘lined up’ just the way we want it, we’re screwed – that’s a Sanskrit term.