Articles

Jeff’s new articles can now be found over on his Substack community, Home Base. Each week, he writes about some aspect of life, accompanied by a short guided audio meditation on the same theme.

How Zen Masters Die

Posted on January 25, 2015 | By Jeff Warren | 5 minute read
Meditation and other contemplative practices seem to accelerate the aging-gracefully gradient. They are ways of thinning out in the prime of life - a kind of dying in the midst of the everyday. Then when death does come, there’s nothing to fear, for - as Bertrand Russel wrote - "the things we care for will continue."

Enlightenment’s Evil Twin

Posted on February 16, 2014 | By Jeff Warren | 10 minute read
The benefits of mindfulness meditation have very quickly become one of the good-news mental health stories of our time. But meditation also has a shadowy seam. Is there a link between some forms of mental illness and the freedom promised at the heart of meditation? My column on the infamous "Dark Night of the Soul"

The Neuroscience of Suffering and Its End

Posted on February 16, 2014 | By Jeff Warren | 8 minute read
Fourteen years ago Gary Weber’s thoughts disappeared, and all his suffering vanished with them. Was it the disappearance of his thoughts that saved him, or is something else going on?

Whales Are People Too

Posted on June 22, 2012 | By Jeff Warren
This piece on whale consciousness and animal personhood won a Gold and a Silver medal at the 2012 Canadian National Magazine Awards. Whales are people too; the science proves it. Are humans ready to see them as equals?

Animal Empathy – There’s an App for That!

Posted on August 10, 2013 | By Jeff Warren | 6 minute read
Communications technology is often accused of dissociating us from the natural world. A little thought-experiment that explores how the next generation of “augmented reality” technologies might close this gap, and help us hear like an elephant and think like a squirrel.