Category Archives: jacks corner

A few days ago I tried to remember the name of an old friend. Nothing came. Most of us have  had this kind of experience. In psychology, it’s call a tip-of-the-tongue experience. This time, though, I noticed another layer. I … Continue reading →

I’m back from a three-day trip to New York, where I presented Guna Foundation’s excellent new film, The Great Transmission, at the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art. Unusually for me, I took a day off. I had no special plan … Continue reading →

There’s an essay in today’s New York Times by a philosopher named Robert Burton on how we all seek meaning in life, and how this relates to our reliance on reason. Early in the essay, he writes, “a visceral sense … Continue reading →

There’s an article in this Sunday’s NY Times called “The Useless Machine.” http://tinyurl.com/gpdvqbh. It’s about a battery-operated machine that ‘s just a box with a lever. Flip the lever, and the machine whirs, the lid opens, and a small hand … Continue reading →

Jack Petranker is Founder and Director of the Center for Creative Inquiry and the author of When It Rains, Does Space Get Wet? (Dharma Publishing 2006). He offers classes, retreats, and online programs, and explores ways to transform the ways … Continue reading →

Many years ago, I did a little bit of local community theater acting, and even did a class or two. It was around the time that I had started studying meditation, and it often struck me that the acting exercises … Continue reading →

Most of our education, at least in the school system, happens at the conceptual level. So the question arises: what does it mean to learn a concept? I’m not trained in the theory of education, but my sense is that … Continue reading →

I’m teaching a course right now for Mangalam Research Center on the Rhetoric of Experience and its relation to the practice of meditation. This has me thinking a lot about experience. There is something like a “cult of experience” in … Continue reading →