They keep the Hindu funeral pyres burning, but at what cost?

For the men and boys of the Dom community in Varanasi, sacred cremations demand a lifetime of exhausting, dangerous labour

by Radhika Iyengar

What if animals find beauty in the world, just like we do?

Chimpanzees favour the colour red. Junglefowl prefer symmetry. Our shared capacity for aesthetic pleasure is cause for wonder

by Brandon Keim

Scarred

The highway I’d helped build stretched before me. For the first time, I saw clearly what we had done

by JShawn Guess

Find meditation really boring? You’re not the only one

Other practices like sermons, yoga and retreats can also trigger ‘spiritual boredom’. Here’s why it’s normal and even useful

by Thomas Goetz

Confessions of a teenage fundamentalist

My world was dark and scary. But beautiful things crept in, and threats of hell just couldn’t compete

by Liz Boltz Ranfeld

Complexity science can deepen your mindfulness practice

What if ‘stress reduction’ is the least interesting thing mindfulness does? Complexity science offers new ways forward

by Pavel Chvykov

Monet understood the elusive power of a place’s atmosphere

The gist of a scene or place can subtly alter our very sense of being, an affecting quality captured by Monet’s paintings

by Pablo Fernandez Velasco

A life-saving boredom

For years, I sought to escape my own mind. Once I became fascinated by it, getting high lost its allure

by Rafael Frumkin

African proverbs provide the blueprint for a meaningful life

Incorporating ancient African wisdom into wellbeing interventions could push positive psychology beyond its Western roots

by Richard Appiah

An Aboriginal painter depicts scenes from her youth in this beautiful short

A film by Grace Kemarre Robinya and Jonathan Daw

This sculptor finds deep weirdness – not divinity – in the human form

Directed by Ben Berman

We can live well, even though we don’t have a higher purpose

The novelist and poet Ursula K Le Guin shows we can reject nihilism and naive optimism by practising our collective freedom

by Alexis Shotwell

The birthday gift

In the Soviet Union, you’d never wish someone ‘S dnem rozhdeniya!’ without a proper present

by Margarita Gokun Silver

Is modern asceticism about conformity or quiet revolution?

From detoxes to slow food, today’s asceticism is often about fitting in. But we can rediscover its transformative power

by Iryna Mykhailova

The barbarians are at the gates in this electric Laurie Anderson performance

Video by All Arts

Psychedelics are philosophical tools for demolishing assumptions

By shaking up our sense of how things are, substances like LSD or psilocybin have the potential to promote deep learning

by David J Blacker