Mike Farley

About being awake Oddly enough, I do mean just being awake, now; not planning to wake up, not undertaking to awaken after sufficient steps (hours, certifications) have been acquired. Joan Tollifson, writing in Explo…

About being awake - a new post on An Open Ground: anopenground.com/2025/10/15/a...

All it comes down to All that practice comes down to, in the end, is acceptance: that open stillness that listens to the unsaid, watches quietly for the opening of the undifferentiated ground beneath all that is, the I…

All it comes down to - a new post on An Open Ground: anopenground.com/2025/10/14/a...

Being still To remain still is one of the fundamental conditions of contemplative practice, and yet it is also one of its fruits. Many of us will remember how hard it was to stay still as children, even &#8211…

Being still - a new post on An Open Ground: anopenground.com/2025/10/08/b...

Breath - a new post on An Open Ground: anopenground.com/2025/10/05/b...

A vast and shining presence Silence and stillness sometimes seem as though they are, or should be, the same thing – but, as Leigh Anderson of the Spiritual Naturalist Society points out, this is not quite so in the cont…

A vast and shining presence - a new post on an Open Ground: anopenground.com/2025/10/01/a...

“The zero on which all other numbers depend” Faith is not the same as belief. Faith is what Jay Matthews described as staying at the center with God. In my lexicon, God is simply another word for wholeness, awareness, presence, unconditional …

"The zero on which all other numbers depend" - a new post on An Open Ground: anopenground.com/2025/09/27/t...

On prayer The Tibetan Buddhist teacher Anam Thubten writes: It might be wonderful if we all prayed now and then. Prayer is a very powerful method. It is a means of inner liberation. Sometimes prayer is our l…

On prayer - a new post on An Open Ground: anopenground.com/2025/09/25/o...

Mountains and rivers remain Should spiritual people avoid politics? Some of my friends say things like, “We are supposed to be in the world, but NOT of the world,” or “We are uniters, not dividers.” Agreed.  Th…

Mountains and rivers remain - a new post on An Open Ground: anopenground.com/2025/09/17/m...

Inseparable In her ‘Daily Nonduality’ newsletter, Kat van Oudheusden touches on very much the  point I was groping after yesterday, in her typically direct and no-nonsense way: Waking up to ou…

Inseparable - a new post on An Open Ground: anopenground.com/2025/09/15/i...

In the way In her recent Substack essay, ‘Is Spirituality an Escape?’, Joan Tollifson writes: I don’t want to ignore the world or turn away. But I don’t want to be pulled down into the madness of …

In the way - a new post on An Open Ground: anopenground.com/2025/09/14/i...

Antinomian? Antinomianism (Ancient Greek: ἀντί [anti] ‘against’ and νόμος [nomos] ‘law’) is any view which rejects laws or legalism and argues against moral, religious or social norms (…

Antinomian? - a new post on An Open Ground: anopenground.com/2025/09/12/a...

Get fair about farming: Help support British farmers | Sustain Tell your MP to join the call to protect farmers from unfair dealing by supermarkets.

Ask your MP to sign the Early Day Motion for Farmers, growers and the supermarket supply chain, calling for better regulation and fairer treatment for the people who produce our food:

A pathless land Jiddu Krishnamurti, in his famous speech dissolving the Order of the Star in the East – the organisation formed by the Theosophical Society to prepare the world for the arrival of a reputed m…

A pathless land - a new post on An Open Ground: anopenground.com/2025/09/09/a...

“The evil that is in the world always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence, if they lack understanding.”

Albert Camus

What’s love got to do with it? In All About Love, bell hooks writes (p.239): Love heals. When we are wounded in the place where we would know love, it is difficult to imagine that love really has the power to change everything. …

What's love got to do with it? - a new post on An Open Ground: anopenground.com/2025/09/06/w...

Ordinary lives in quiet places Eve Baker, in Paths in Solitude: The solitary is the bearer of the future, of that which is not yet born, of the mystery which lies beyond the circle of lamplight or the edge of the known world. Th…

Ordinary lives in quiet places - a new post on An Open Ground: anopenground.com/2025/09/04/o...

Sky gazing Occasionally, throughout my life, I have found myself gazing into the open sky, vast, unbounded; and I lying beneath, like an ant at the bottom of a measureless funnel of bright air. The first time…

Sky gazing - a new post on An Open Ground: anopenground.com/2025/09/02/s...

That's humanism Humanists make sense of the world through logic, reason, and evidence, and always seek to treat those around us with warmth, understanding, and respect.

Love this from Humanists UK! #Thatshumanism is the perfect introduction to the humanist approach to life, featuring four animations narrated by Stephen Fry, and brand new posters all about humanism for schools. Have a look for yourself! humanists.uk/thatshumanism/

That's humanism Humanists make sense of the world through logic, reason, and evidence, and always seek to treat those around us with warmth, understanding, and respect.

Love this from Humanists UK! #Thatshumanism is the perfect introduction to the humanist approach to life, featuring four animations narrated by Stephen Fry, and brand new posters all about humanism for schools. Have a look for yourself! humanists.uk/thatshumanism/

Mysterium Tremendum It is no surprise that we humans would deny death’s certain coming, fight it, and seek to avoid the demise of the only self we have ever known. As Kathleen Dowling Singh puts it in her groundbreaki…

Mysterium Tremendum - a new post on An Open Ground: anopenground.com/2025/08/30/m...

A very plain stillness Joan Tollifson, in one of her Substack essays, writes: This so-called awakening stuff is so slippery to talk about. Is there anything to do? There is nothing to do, and yet in a way, there is, but …

A very plain stillness - a new post on An Open Ground: anopenground.com/2025/08/28/a...

The nature of silence In Larry Rosenberg’s new book, he writes: There are many ways to quiet ourselves, all of which are valuable. There’s a silence that comes from reading a book filled with magnificent ideas. Th…

The nature of silence - a new post on An Open Ground: anopenground.com/2025/08/26/t...

That's humanism! We've teamed up with our patron Stephen Fry, to explore humanist ideas about some of life’s big questions in four animated shorts.

Love this from Humanists UK! #Thatshumanism is the perfect introduction to the humanist approach to life, featuring four animations narrated by Stephen Fry, and brand new posters all about humanism for schools. Have a look for yourself! humanists.uk/thatshumanism/

Studying philosophy does make people better thinkers, according to new research on more than 600,000 college grads Philosophers are fond of saying that their field boosts critical thinking. Two of them decided to put that claim to the test.

We're also funnier and better dancers, and have a pleasing natural odor

share.google/ZQAeU29ypR4B...

Vast, empty So it’s more about the recognition that the “me” who seems to be “doing” all of this [living and practice] is a mirage. It’s ALL a movement of this undivided whole. The vastness has space for every…

Vast, empty - a new post on An Open Ground: anopenground.com/2025/08/24/v...

One small room You need one small room for yourself. This is very true: when you can really find yourself in a small room, then there is you yourself, and the whole universe is there, and the whole universe makes…

One small room - a new post on An Open Ground: anopenground.com/2025/08/23/o...

A sensitivity to things not yet known We do not know, when we sit down to practice, what we shall find in the silence. It seems obvious to say it, but it is too easy to forget that practice is never routine: each time we are setting ou…

A sensitivity to things not yet known - a new post on An Open Ground: anopenground.com/2025/08/22/a...

Umwelten again, but cleansed The senses constrain an animal’s life, restricting what it can detect and do. But they also define a species’ future, and the evolutionary possibilities ahead of it. For example, around 400 million…

Umwelten again, but cleansed - a new post on An Open Ground: anopenground.com/2025/08/20/u...

A fictional philosopher reflects… … on the phenomenology of good. Isabel Dalhousie is thinking: The suggestion that we acted for the good because it was there was no answer, except, perhaps, in an intuitive system of ethics. …

A fictional philosopher reflects... - a new post on An Open Ground: anopenground.com/2025/08/16/a...

No one there In his brief introduction to Dzogchen, Sam Harris (Waking Up: Searching for Spirituality Without Religion), pp.18-140) writes, Think of something pleasant in your personal life—visualize the moment…

No one there - a new post on An Open Ground: anopenground.com/2025/08/09/n...