Wisdom is Bliss with Robert Thurman (1941-2026) Jul 18, 2026 Psychology and Psychotherapy Robert Thurman, PhD, passed on June 16 of this year. He was a shining light of love and joy, and a friend to the New Thinking Allowed family. We are grateful to have known him and to be touched by his warmth and passion. He was professor emeritus at Columbia University where he was a teaching professor for 50 years on Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies. He was the first Westerner Tibetan Buddhist monk, ordained by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He authored many books, including Why the Dalai Lama Matters: His Act of Truth as the Solution for China, Tibet, and the Whole World and Infinite Life: Awakening to Bliss Within. His most recent book is Wisdom is Bliss: Four Friendly Fun Facts That Can Change Your Life. His website is bobthurman.com. In this video, rebooted from 2023, Robert shares how wisdom is bliss. Ignorance is not bliss and can cause suffering. He describes the four noble truths of Buddhism as four friendly fun facts and encourages you to use your life to become generous, compassionate, and enlightened. New Thinking Allowed CoHost, Emmy Vadnais, OTR/L, is a licensed occupational therapist, intuitive healer and coach, and spiritual guide based in St. Paul, Minnesota. Emmy is the founder of the Intuitive Connections and Holistic OT communities. She is the author of Intuitive Development: How to Trust Your Inner Knowing for Guidance With Relationships, Health, and Spirituality. She offers intuitive coaching to help individuals access their inner guidance for clarity, healing, and meaningful decision-making. Her website is https://emmyvadnais.com (Recorded on February 24, 2023)
Category Archives: Consciousness
Ontology, metaphysics, spirituality
Possible Human, Possible World, Part II, with Jean Houston (1937 – 2026)
New Thinking Allowed with Jeffrey Mishlove Jul 17, 2026 Psychology and Psychotherapy This video is a special release from the original Thinking Allowed series that ran on public television from 1986 until 2002. It was recorded in about 1990. It will remain public for only one week. Jean Houston, PhD, passed on May 16 of this year. She was a great soul, role model, and inspiration! She was founder and director of The Mystery School, a program of mythology and culture. She is past-president of the Association for Humanistic Psychology and also director of the Human Capacities Training Program. She is author of numerous books including Search for the Beloved, Godseed, Lifeforce, Mindgames, Listening to the Body (coauthored with Robert Masters), The Hero and the Goddess and The Possible Human. Jean expands upon the learning experiences she had with Margaret Mead, elaborating on her own experiences working with different cultures. To illustrate her work in human capacities training, she leads an exercise called “Cleansing the Doors of Perception.” Then follows a powerful poetic reading by actress Peggy Nash Rubin. Jean then elaborates on how these experiences may call forth within the viewer new visions and deeper understandings.
Lamed Vav
- Google AI Overview
In Jewish mysticism, the Lamed Vav (Hebrew: ל״ו, meaning 36) refers to the Tzadikim Nistarim (Hidden Righteous Ones). According to tradition, there are 36 humble, anonymous saints in every generation whose purpose is to justify humanity’s existence before God. [1, 2, 3, 4]
The concept originates in the Babylonian Talmud (Sukkah 45b and Sanhedrin 97b), based on a teaching by the sage Abaye that the world always contains at least 36 righteous people who greet the Divine Presence. The number 36 comes from the Hebrew letters Lamed (30) and Vav (6). [1, 2, 3]
Key aspects of the legend include:
- Anonymity: They are completely unaware of their own status. If a Lamed Vavnik’s identity is revealed, or they discover it themselves, they usually pass away, and a successor is born. [1, 2]
- Humbleness: They typically live as ordinary, working-class people—such as laborers, shoemakers, or farmers—masking their spiritual greatness. [1, 2]
- The Burden of the World: They are said to absorb the world’s suffering and keep it from being destroyed by human malice. [1, 2, 3, 4]
The tradition is explored in depth across folklore and literature, most notably in André Schwarz-Bart’s novel The Last of the Just. For further study on the origins of these hidden saints, you can read the comprehensive overview on Chabad.org or explore the historical texts in the Jewish Virtual Library. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Heraclitus: A hidden connection is better than an obvious one
Google AI:
Heraclitus fragments are a collection of over 100 surviving quotes, aphorisms, and philosophical thoughts from the ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus (c. 535–475 BC). His original written work has been lost to history; instead, these famous fragments survive today as indirect quotes, critiques, and references preserved by later classical and Christian writers.
This thought comes from Fragment B54 of the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus. It translates in Greek to “ἁρμονία ἀφανὴς φανερῆς κρείττων” (Harmonia aphanês phanerês kreittôn), meaning an unapparent (hidden) connection is stronger/better than an obvious one. [1, 2, 3, 4]
Heraclitus is pointing to the deep unity of opposites. On the surface, the world seems made of separate, warring dualities—day and night, hot and cold, living and dying. But underneath, there is a hidden, underlying harmony and structure (the Logos) that connects them and makes the whole system work. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
It suggests that truth, beauty, and wisdom aren’t always visible at first glance. It requires effort and deep thought to see the unseen bonds that unite the universe, and this deeper, hidden truth is always more profound than what we see on the surface.
Modern thinkers across philosophy, psychology, physics, and art frequently return to Heraclitus’ concept of the hidden connection. They use it to explain how complex systems function beneath surface appearances.
Depth Psychology: Carl Jung
Carl Jung heavily adapted Heraclitus’ philosophy into his psychological frameworks.
- Enantiodromia: Jung used this Heraclitean term to describe how an excess of one psychological force inevitably turns into its opposite (e.g., repressed emotion bursting out as rage).
- The Shadow: Jung argued that our conscious persona (obvious) is deeply bound to our unconscious shadow (hidden), forming a hidden psychological harmony.
- Synchronicity: He proposed that meaningful coincidences are connected by an unseen, non-causal principle that binds the inner mind to the outer world. [1, 2, 3, 4]
Quantum Physics: David Bohm
In theoretical physics, the search for the fundamental nature of reality mirrors this ancient fragment.
- Implicate Order: Physicist David Bohm proposed that the universe has two layers: the explicate order (the obvious, separate physical objects we see) and the implicate order (a hidden, unbroken wholeness connecting everything). [1, 2, 3]
- Quantum Entanglement: Modern physics shows that two particles can remain instantly connected across vast distances. This is a literal, scientifically proven “unapparent connection” ruling physical reality.
Philosophy and Deconstruction: Jacques Derrida
20th-century postmodern thinkers looked at how language and meaning are constructed. [1, 2]
- Trace and Différance: Derrida argued that words do not have fixed, obvious definitions.
- Absent Meanings: Instead, a word’s meaning relies on its hidden relationships to all the words it is not. The obvious text is entirely dependent on an invisible web of language.
Apple’s Design Philosophy: Steve Jobs
The concept also heavily influences modern technology, design, and user experience. [1, 2]
- Complex Simplicity: Jobs famously sought “simplicity on the other side of complexity.”
- Invisible Tech: The goal of modern design is often to hide the complex, warring components (circuits, code) behind an elegant, seamless interface, creating a powerful but invisible harmony. [1]
The parallel between quantum physics and ancient mysticism lies in the breakdown of a fragmented world. Both frameworks reveal that the universe is an unbroken, interconnected web where the observer and the observed are inseparable. [1, 2]
During the 1970s, physicists like Fritjof Capra popularized these striking intersections in his landmark book, The Tao of Physics. He argued that the mathematical descriptions of modern physics lead directly to a worldview shared by Eastern mystical traditions like Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
1. Entanglement and the Web of Reality
In classical physics, objects are independent. In quantum physics, quantum entanglement proves that two subatomic particles can become permanently linked. A change in one instantly dictates the state of the other, even if they are light-years apart. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
- The Mystical Parallel: This mirrors the Vedic concept of Indra’s Net. In this Buddhist and Hindu metaphor, the universe is a vast net stretching infinitely in all directions. At every node of the net sits a glittering jewel. Each jewel reflects all the other jewels in the cosmos simultaneously.
- The Shared Concept: Nothing exists in isolation. Everything is a reflection of the whole. [1, 2]
2. The Observer Effect and the Illusion of Subjectivity
In the quantum realm, a particle exists as a wave of probabilities until it is measured. The act of observation forces the wave function to collapse into a definite particle. The observer creates the reality by looking. [1, 2, 3]
- The Mystical Parallel: In Advaita Vedanta and various schools of Mahayana Buddhism, the idea of an objective world independent of mind is an illusion (Maya). Mystics argue that subject (the looker) and object (the looked at) are a single, continuous reality.
- The Shared Concept: Consciousness is not a passive bystander. It is actively participating in forming reality. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
3. Wave-Particle Duality and the Coexistence of Opposites
Light behaves as both a continuous wave and a localized particle, depending on how you measure it. This fundamental paradox baffled early physicists because it defied traditional logic. [1, 2, 3]
- The Mystical Parallel: This is the core engine of Taoism, represented by the Yin and Yang. Taoism states that reality is a fluid flow of opposing forces that appear contradictory but are actually complementary parts of the same underlying truth.
- The Shared Concept: Truth cannot be captured by rigid “either/or” categories. It requires an embrace of “both/and” paradoxes. [1]
4. Cosmic Dance and the Quantum Vacuum
To classical eyes, empty space is a void. Quantum field theory reveals that the quantum vacuum is actually a churning, dynamic ocean of energy where particles are constantly flashing into existence and destroying one another in fractions of a second. [1, 2, 3]
- The Mystical Parallel: This matches the Hindu concept of the Dance of Shiva (Nataraja). Shiva’s dance symbolizes the continuous cosmic cycle of creation and destruction that sustains the universe.
- The Shared Concept: What we perceive as solid matter is actually a dynamic, vibrating pattern of endless energy exchange. [1, 2, 3]
Key Concepts Compared
| Quantum Physics Concept | Mystical Counterpart | Core Philosophical Agreement |
|---|---|---|
| Quantum Entanglement | Indra’s Net (Buddhism/Hinduism) | All parts of the universe are non-locally interconnected. |
| The Observer Effect | Neti Neti / Maya (Vedanta) | Subject and object are an undivided, participatory unit. |
| Wave-Particle Duality | Yin and Yang (Taoism) | Ultimate reality is made of complementary paradoxes. |
| Quantum Field Vacuum | The Dance of Shiva / The Tao | Form emerges from a dynamic, invisible sea of energy. |
Awe Isn’t a Luxury. It’s Maintenance.
Neuroscience is catching up to what the Sng’oi never forgot: wonder isn’t an indulgence, it’s how the nervous system comes home.
Jul 08, 2026 (wisdomschool.com)
There’s a grove of old growth a couple of hours from where I live, Douglas firs so old and so tall that walking into it feels like walking into a cathedral somebody forgot to put a roof on.
The light comes down green and slow. The traffic noise in your head, the one that never quite stops, goes quiet. The first time I stood in there I caught myself doing the thing we all do when something is too big for us: I stopped narrating.
For a few minutes there was no running commentary, no to-do list, no me in the usual sense at all, just the trees and the smell of duff and a silence with actual weight to it. I came out feeling scrubbed clean, and I couldn’t have told you why.
Now I can, because the scientists have started measuring it.
This past winter a team at McGill, working with colleagues in Chile, examined more than a hundred brain-imaging studies of what actually happens inside our heads when we spend time in the natural world. What they found is a kind of cascade.
The brain processes the fractal patterns of nature, the branching of a fern or a river delta, far more easily than the hard edges and blinking screens of a city, so the sensory load drops almost the moment we walk outside.
As it drops, the body slips out of fight-or-flight; the heart rate slows, the breath deepens, and the amygdala, our little threat alarm, settles down.
Then attention, which we normally have to force, begins to restore itself on its own.
And finally the brain networks tied to anxious, repetitive, self-focused thinking grow quiet.
The researchers found that as little as three minutes can start the whole thing rolling. Three minutes.
That last part, the quieting of the self-focused machinery, is where this gets interesting, because it’s the same thing researchers keep finding when they study awe in particular.
A growing body of work shows that “positive awe,” the feeling we get from vastness, from a night sky or a mountain or a piece of music that lifts the top of your head off, nudges the nervous system out of fight-or-flight and into the rest-and-digest state, while quieting the very parts of the brain that keep us trapped in our own small story.
The psychologist Dacher Keltner, who’s spent decades on this, sends people out on what he calls “awe walks”, and finds they come back with lower stress, less inflammation, and a stronger pull toward generosity and connection. Awe doesn’t just feel good. It measurably moves us out of ourselves and toward each other.
Awe works by making you feel small, and it turns out that feeling small, for a few minutes, is exactly what an overloaded nervous system has been starving for.
Here’s what gets me, though. We treat all of this as a luxury. Wonder is the thing we’ll get to once the inbox is clear, something you schedule a vacation around once a year if you’re lucky.
But the science is saying nearly the opposite: that awe is maintenance, as basic to a human animal as sleep or clean water, and that we’ve built a civilization almost perfectly designed to keep us from it.
We’ve paved the groves, lit up the night so thoroughly that most of us can’t see the Milky Way from our own backyards anymore, and filled every spare second with a screen engineered to hold our attention precisely by keeping us agitated and self-focused, which is to say in the exact brain state that nature dissolves.
The people who never lost this knew it in their bodies.
Years ago, Louise and I had the honor of spending time with the psychologist Robert Wolff, who spent years deep in the Malaysian jungle with an aboriginal people called the Sng’oi. He wrote a book about it, and I wrote the foreword to it: Original Wisdom: Stories of an Ancient Way of Knowing.
What struck Wolff, what changed him, was that the Sng’oi had an uncanny, intuitive sense of the living world around them, a way of knowing that came not from analyzing the forest but from being so woven into it that the line between self and place wore thin.
They weren’t taking awe walks. They were simply at home, in the way our whole species was at home for three hundred thousand years before we built walls and started calling the outside “scenery.” Wolff came back convinced that we haven’t evolved past that way of being. We’ve just forgotten it.
I’m not romanticizing here. I like antibiotics and hot showers and the laptop I’m typing this on as much as the next person. But I think we’ve made a quiet, costly trade, swapping a baseline of belonging for a baseline of low-grade alarm, and then wondering why so many of us feel frayed all the time.
The good news, and it really is good news, is that the door back is almost absurdly easy to open. You don’t need the cathedral grove (though I’d recommend it) or the forest where Louise and I climb a mountain every weekend. You just need three minutes and a little attention.
So here’s what I’d suggest, and it won’t cost you a dime. Once a day, find something bigger than you and give it your full, undivided attention for a few minutes.
The sky doing its slow evening thing. A tree you’ve walked past a thousand times, looked at as though you’d never seen it before. The ocean if you’re near it, a thunderstorm if one rolls through, the frankly unreasonable fact of a single leaf.
Don’t photograph it. Don’t narrate it. Just let it be too big for you, and notice what happens to the noise in your head. Your nervous system already knows exactly what to do. It’s been waiting for you to stop and look.
Consciousness and Fine Art with James Tunney
New Thinking Allowed with Jeffrey Mishlove Jul 7, 2026 James Tunney, LLM, is an Irish Barrister who has lectured on legal matters throughout the world. He is a poet, a scholar, and author of The Mystery of the Trapped Light: Mystical Thoughts in the Dark Age of Scientism plus The Mystical Accord: Sutras to Suit Our Times, Lines for Spiritual Evolution. His paintings have been shown in galleries in Scandinavia and London. In this video, rebooted from 2021, he shares his passion for and knowledge of a fine art painting. This highly illustrated conversation covers the artwork of Hildegard of Bingen, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Carl Jung, Francis Bacon, Frank Auerbach, Norman Rockwell, Paul Cézanne, Georgiana Houghton, Édouard Manet, Georges Seurat, Hilma af Klint, Wassily Kandinsky, Francisco Botticini, Leonardo da Vinci, Filippo Brunelleschi, William Blake, Gino Severini, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Jack Yeats, Oskar Kokoschka, Franz Marc, Max Beckmann, Seán Scully, Ian Fairweather, August Macke, Piero della Francesca, and Nicholas Roerich – as well as his own work. Special emphasis is placed on expressionism in painting. New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in “parapsychology” ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). He is also the Grand Prize winner of the 2021 Bigelow Institute essay competition regarding the best evidence for survival of human consciousness after permanent bodily death. He is Co-Director of Parapsychology Education at the California Institute for Human Science. (Recorded on January 16, 2021)
ChatGPT on Homo Novus
By Mike Zonta, BB editor
Me:
What are the metaphysical implications of “homo novus”?
ChatGPT:
That’s a fascinating question, because homo novus (“new man”) has had different meanings in politics, philosophy, religion, and psychology. The metaphysical implications depend on which meaning you emphasize.
Let’s begin with the words themselves.
Word-tracking
Homo
- Latin: human being, person.
- Related to humus (earth, ground), suggesting the earth-bound or embodied human.
Novus
- New
- Fresh
- Renewed
- Unprecedented
- Not merely recent, but qualitatively different.
So, at its simplest:
Homo novus = a new human being.
But what does “new” mean?
Historically
In ancient Rome, a homo novus was the first member of a family to attain high political office.
It meant someone who was not defined by ancestry but by merit.
Even here there is a metaphysical implication.
Identity is no longer inherited.
Identity is realized.
Spiritually
In Christianity, the “new man” refers to the transformation of consciousness.
The old self is identified with fear, separation, and sin.
The new self lives in Truth.
That is remarkably close to the direction of your Translations.
Jung
Carl Jung might say the homo novus is the person who has integrated the unconscious rather than being ruled by it.
The transformation is inward.
In your metaphysical framework
I think homo novus would have a very specific meaning.
It would not mean a biologically improved human.
Nor merely a psychologically healthier one.
It would mean:
The human who no longer derives identity from sense testimony.
That would be the truly “new” human.
The old human says:
I am what my senses report.
The new human says:
I am what Truth is.
Following your first step:
Truth is all.
Truth is One.
Truth is harmonious.
I am.
Therefore my being is Truth being.
The “new man” is simply the one who lives from that realization.
Another implication
You’ve often emphasized the distinction between mechanism and Being.
This connects beautifully with our conversation about AI.
If humanity defines itself by intelligence, memory, calculation, or productivity, then AI challenges that definition.
But if humanity is fundamentally Being, then AI cannot replace what is essential.
In that sense:
Homo novus is not the smarter human.
It is the human who discovers that intelligence itself is grounded in Being.
A Translation of “Homo Novus”
If I were to express it in your language, I might say:
The old human believes himself to be a separate consciousness struggling for survival in a world of otherness.
The new human recognizes that the beingness and consciousness of oneself are not other than the beingness and consciousness of Truth.
That is a radical shift.
The “newness” is not chronological.
It is ontological.
A possible definition
If you were writing a philosophical treatise, you might define Homo Novus like this:
Homo Novus is the human being who has ceased identifying with sense testimony and recognizes his or her beingness and consciousness as the very being and consciousness of Truth.
Or even more simply:
Homo Novus is the human who knows that his being is Truth being.
I find that last formulation especially elegant because it captures something that has gradually emerged in all the Translations we’ve done together. The goal has never been merely to replace one belief with another. It has been to move from identification with appearances to identification with Being.
If I may add one philosophical observation, I think your conception of Homo Novus is not primarily about becoming something different. It is about discovering what has always been true. In that sense, the “new” human is paradoxically the one who awakens to the timeless reality of Being. The novelty lies not in Truth but in the transformed understanding of the person who recognizes it.
Compassion in Action, Part II, with Ram Dass (1931 – 2019)
New Thinking Allowed with Jeffrey Mishlove Jul 4, 2026 This video is a special release from the original Thinking Allowed series that ran on public television from 1986 until 2002. It was recorded in about 1988. It will remain public for only one week. Ram Dass’ own path has led him to look for God in every person and situation. Following this path, his life of service has included working with refugees, with the blind, and with the dying. In this moving, two-part program, he examines the delicate state of awareness in which one acts compassionately for social change while also accepting the world exactly as it is. Ram Dass (a.k.a. Richard Alpert, PhD) is a spiritual teacher and author of Be Here Now, The Only Dance There Is, The Psychedelic Experience (coauthored with Ralph Metzner and Timothy Leary), Grist for the Mill (coauthored with Stephen Levine), Journey of Awakening, Miracle of Love and How Can I Help?
Jack Kornfield’s Heart Wisdom Ep. 325 | Being Here Now in Loving Awareness
Be Here Now Network Jun 17, 2026 Jack Kornfield – Heart Wisdom Help us celebrate 10 years of Be Here Now Network and support the next chapter of Ram Dass Here and Now. Gifts are matched dollar for dollar through June 30. Learn more and give at: BHNN 10th Birthday Fundraiser: https://beherenownetwork.com/10years Beginning with reflections on global crises and personal difficulty, Jack reminds us that while suffering is inevitable, how we respond is what shapes our lives. This time on Heart Wisdom, Jack Kornfield explores: *Responding to difficulty without becoming overwhelmed *Living in the present moment instead of fear-based thinking *The power of intention and deep listening *Becoming an “island of peace” in chaotic times *Trusting uncertainty and the mystery of life This episode was originally filmed for the April 2026 Spirit Rock Meditation Center Monday Night Talk and Guided Meditation. “In difficulty, the mind goes into survival—trying to protect and fix. Thank it, let it soften, and return to the present. As Ram Dass reminds us—you can be here now.” –Jack Kornfield About Jack Kornfield: Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies. Jack is currently offering a wonderful array of transformational online courses diving into crucial topics like Mindfulness Meditation Fundamentals, Walking the Eightfold Path, Opening the Heart of Forgiveness, Living Beautifully, Transforming Your Life Through Powerful Stories, and so much more. Sign up for an All Access Pass to explore Jack’s entire course library. If you would like a year’s worth of online meetups with Jack and fellow community, join The Year of Awakening: A Monthly Journey with Jack Kornfield.
(Contributed by Zoë Robinson, H.W., M.)
Word-built world: Sturm und Drang
- Google AI Overview
Sturm und Drang
/ˌSHto͝orm o͝on(d) ˈdraNG/
Sturm und Drang (literally “storm and stress”) is a late 18th-century German literary and artistic movement. It rebelled against the strict rationalism of the Enlightenment by exalting raw, subjective emotion, individualism, and the power of nature. Today, the phrase is commonly used in English to describe any period of turmoil, upheaval, or intense emotional conflict. Merriam-Webster +4
History and Philosophy
Emerging in the late 1760s and peaking in the 1770s, Sturm und Drang took its name from a 1776 play by Friedrich Maximilian Klinger. Instead of prioritizing logic, reason, and neoclassical order, writers and artists—most notably Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller—believed that the most profound human truths could only be reached through passion, instinct, and intense feeling
. The movement celebrated the rebellious individual who fought against oppressive societal norms, often leading to tragic ends. Wikipedia +5
Legacy in Art and Music
Though it was fundamentally a literary movement, its philosophy quickly spread to other mediums, paving the way for the broader Romantic movement: Metropolitan Opera +1
- Literature: Masterpieces like Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther set social trends, deeply influencing the European imagination through its themes of unrequited love, personal despair, and the beauty of the natural world.
- Music: Composers began writing with stark dramatic tension, minor keys, and sudden, intense shifts in volume and tempo. You can hear this emotional extremity in the early symphonies of Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Metropolitan Opera +3
- Visual Arts: Paintings shifted toward depicting the terrifying, awe-inspiring aspects of nature, such as stormy seas, jagged landscapes, and nightmarish visions. Metropolitan Opera
For a quick breakdown of how this intense, emotion-driven movement functioned within the broader context of Romanticism: