We are stardust  
Billion year old carbon  
We are golden  
Caught in the devil's bargain  
And we've got to get ourselves  
back to the Garden 

-Joni Mitchell

The story of the garden of Eden is an "origin" story. My view is that within this "origin story" we may be seeing clues about the origins of the structure of the psyche, how those structures came into being, and also how they are manifest in the outer world. This inner and outer structure then become a feedback loop, and perpetuate the other's…

When I say “silence” or “stillness” I am essentially talking about the same thing — which is the “quieting” of the ruminating mind. In other words the cessation of the “ruminative” thoughts. This mode of thought is useful at times, but it can also become an unconscious habit. The platform for this manner of thought is the “awareness” or “stillness” that is always there. So, as an analogy we could think of the mind as having two “modes” of thought.

• The “ruminative” mind — (takes energy) - calculating…