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I am a philosopher in the graduate program at Stony Brook University in New York. I decided to go back to school to earn a PhD after thirty years working in the software industry because I saw a need today to be able to engage philosophical ideas directly from an informed perspective that also encompasses a clear understanding of nondual reality. While philosophy itself tends not to be held in high regard since philosophers seem content to endlessly argue over the details of concepts that appear to be far removed from our daily lives, it is clear to anyone who pays attention that the ideas of philosophy permeate our societies – for good and for bad. The ineffable nature of nondual reality is not encompassed  in the mainstream of thought today, so the ideas which frame and structure the daily lives of most people are far removed from what many intuitively feel to be true. What is now worse, and the reason why I feel it is so important to talk about nonduality today and what it means for being human, is the ever-growing onslaught attacking the idea that there is anything more to reality than just an empty void filled with celestial bodies, hanging like Christmas ornaments. The choice being presented to us is between “ignorance”, as any differing understanding is framed, and an acceptance that we are nothing but biological computers running our genetic program to its ultimate end.

The greatest danger facing humanity today, I believe, is the application of the idea of Mechanism as an explanatory device for all of reality and especially of Human life. By focusing in this way on the natural unfolding of existence and treating it as if it were nothing more than the progression from one steady state of a purely mechanical process to another steady state, we are robbing ourselves of that which makes our lives the precious opportunity for our full development as living, knowing-beings - our experience of this unfolding and the power that each of us has to make our way in the world, and through that, to come to an understanding about the source of all that we experience, including that which is most intimate for us - our selves.

For years my interest was automated problem solving – computers programming themselves – during which I was constantly being confronted with the intuitive, and therefore non-procedural, way in which people solve problems. This led me on a long path to where I have arrived today, understanding that the intuitive nature of thought and our affective responses (visceral feelings) are manifestations of a grander nature that encompasses all of Reality. How I arrived at this understanding is not important, nor frankly is it even describable. What is important is that I have come to it and it has allowed me to undertake a radical re-analysis of our most basic understandings about ourselves and our world that I wrote about in my first book, and which I continue to explore in my ongoing writing. 

I have not studied with any particular spiritual teacher, nor do I adhere to the work of any particular philosopher or school of philosophy, although I continue to research many different philosophical and spiritual systems looking for confirmation of what I see as a perennial wisdom. I am intrigued with how similar all conceptual systems ultimately are, in that they are merely constructions of thought that attempt to model a certain understanding of reality, just as the programs I designed for computers modeled certain business problems. Which is to say that no conceptual system has, or can capture the Truth of Reality. Words are just not up to the task. Yet words can point the way, even though they cannot take us all the way, to a complete understanding. They can also become a dogmatic prison for us. Thus I have come to realize that these conceptual systems can be both a help and a hinderance for people who are trying to find their own way in life. Ideas intrude into our thoughts and keep us locked in endless loops of speculation if we misinterpret their purpose. The intent of this website is to share with others how these conceptual systems are just human constructions and not the Truth; yet how they all share common, eternally recurring ideas that point the way to the truth, and to present my own understanding of Reality. I believe that if we understand that these conceptual systems are merely tools that can assist us, and not the Truth itself, that we will be better able to use them rather than getting attached to them. But my purpose is also to counter a prevalent prejudice within nonduality communities against systematic thought of any kind. Systematic thought is a fact of human existence and I feel it is better to engage it fully, like any other aspect of our experiences in life, rather than attempt to suppress it, as if it has less validity than other aspects of our being.