Joe Cecil

We forget meaning by default

(or: meaning is antimemetic) I'm lying in my living room and my coffee table's freighted with stuff. Lots and lots of books, loose notecards, baggies, coasters, a hat, a plastic bag, a notebook, a water bottle, an XBOX controller, a couple shoe horns. So very much

I want connection: Curiosity-driven skillful relating which communicates curiosity and results in a particular feeling

I. Defining connection I seek connection but I don't know what it is and I want to. At a meditation retreat this summer, I attended a series of classes or workshops about "spacious connection." I've attended other similar courses with this group before. I&

Discovering one can be happy with all outcomes enables free (non)action

On a flight recently, I found myself talking to the passenger next to me. It took me a while to initiate; I wanted to speak up and had plenty of opportunity, but something held me back. But I did end up talking to him, and I found a particular approach

Book review: Searchless Responsiveness

I read a fair number of meditation books. In the last three years since I started meditating, I read about 15-18 such books. Searchless Responsiveness is one of the densest. It has five "interstitials" — stream -of-consciousness interludes between themed sections. These are a page or two long, with

I can't fix wretchedness, I can only be with it, and that sucks

Some people are hard to love in the sense that they do not believe or accept love when it is offered. I've known people like this and I know other people report similar experiences. They are (in Visa's sense) wretched, down bad, not forever but at

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