2012.06.05 _ 56

I watched a video about atheism and death today, a talk given by Sam Harris, and was surprised that he made the crowd of 5000 atheists do a period of mindfulness meditation in the middle of the talk! All connected to the way major religions focus in the promise of life after death instead of helping people to live more fully in the present moment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITTxTCz4Ums&feature=share

just checking in.

My father was a humanist, caring for others and putting them before himself right up to the moment of his death. My mother was a kind of mystical Christian, impossible to label. Not really surprising, perhaps, that I turned out how I did!

My father thought I would turn out to be a humanist, and he was right - though not a secular humanist. There is a lot in common between Buddhism and Humanism. It therefore does not surprise me that atheists might wish to try mindfulness meditation and benefit from it.

Today was the transit of Venus. As I write this the is barely 10 minutes to the start of egress. In Denver we have 300 sunny days a year and 65 non-sunny days. Guess which this was! ;-) Never mind, I watched the transit broadcast live on the web from Norway, where there was a black dot against the Midnight Sun. :)

And karuna-metta meditation - nearly forgot to mention! :))