Posted inChristianity/Jesus

Lost Tomb of Jesus story shows shakiness of Christianity

Sunday the Discovery Channel will broadcast a documentary, "The Lost Tomb of Jesus." James Cameron claims to have found evidence that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and fathered a son named Judah. And that he didn't ascend bodily to heaven, since his body was buried. Lots of Christians and scholars are in an uproar, for different reasons. Scholarly types are critical of how the archaeological evidence has been interpreted. True believers are offended that anyone would try to demolish the foundation on which Christianity is built. For the bodily resurrection is one of the essential doctrines of the Christian Faith. Here's…
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Posted inTaoism/Tai Chi

Seven secret sayings of God

Just as I was sitting down to dash out a Church of the Churchless post before leaving for an Academy Awards potluck, where I will selflessly share one of the last Now & Zen Unturkey's left on earth, I got an email from a friend, Joelle. I liked it so much, I'll share her words today instead of mine. Which leaves me free to see more of the Red Carpet arrivals. From Joelle to me to you, Alan Watts' "Seven Secret Sayings of God." I like them. ---------------------------------------------------From Joelle Martin Leath: You know when a verse or lyric or book pops…
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Posted inHumor

Demotivation heals my overly positive soul

After watching "The Secret," which urged me to frolic in an orgy of positivity, I felt unbalanced. So I prescribed myself fifteen minutes of negative rehab and headed over to Despair, Inc. for some demotivation. Reading the slogan on The Pessimist's Mug got me started on the road of recovery: "This glass is now half empty." Ah, truth simply spoken. I was sorry that, being retired, I didn't have any employee morale to crush, as "The Art of Demotivation" looked like an appealing book. What really got me back to feeling my normal uninspired self, though, was a terrific line…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation Universe

My review of “The Secret” DVD points to a super-secret

Yesterday I found a free way of watching "The Secret," so immersed myself for 90 minutes in an ocean of New Age platitudes. On a pad of paper I jotted down such pearls of positive thinking wisdom as: Thoughts become thingsThe Law of Attraction will give you what you want every timeWhat you think about, you bring aboutYou are the designer of your destinyLife is meant to be abundant The universe must have wanted me to see "The Secret." (A hugely popular book and DVD, as noted in this TIME article). But not spend $4.95 to watch online. Which raises…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Servitude, sand, and satguru

Catherine's questioning of Sant Mat, including the possibly detrimental consequences of "mitti seva" (volunteers moving dirt by hand at India's Dera Baba Jaimal Singh), brought to mind the two weeks I spent at the Dera in December 1977. "Seva" means service. Serving the guru was a big part of the daily routine both for Western visitors and Indians. While I was there, mitti seva was in full swing from about 3:30 to 5:00 in the afternoon. In Radhasoami Reality, Mark Juergensmeyer describes the scene: One of the most dramatic examples of ritual humiliation in Radhasoami is mitti seva, the service…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Some South African Sant Mat questioning

Here’s some thoughts from Catherine, all the way from South Africa. Like me, she’s a Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) initiate. Also like me, she’s come to look upon this faith with fresh eyes.

I’ve shared several of her email messages below. They’ve been mildly edited, mostly to correct a few typos and inject some explanatory links. I’ve also generally Americanized her English, to keep my spell checker happy.

Many people who read this blog are familiar with the RSSB philosophy and practices. Many others aren’t. I realize that some of what Catherine writes about will elicit a huh? from the latter group.

But the broad issues she addresses should be of interest to everybody concerned with being churched vs. churchless; with accepting religious authority vs. choosing for oneself; with remaining firm on a chosen path vs. meandering off to greener pastures.

Click on the continuation link to read Catherine.

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Posted inTaoism/Tai Chi

When pushing hands, or minds, relax the tension

There's a lot of pushing on this blog, as elsewhere on the Internet. People read something they don't like. They push back. The pushed take affront and return the favor. And so it goes. That's life. It's natural to resist having our psychological space invaded. Nestled comfortably in the four walls of my beliefs, someone bursts in and starts sledge hammering. Hey! Stop, you stupid fuckhead! Got to defend the territory. Some recent Church of the Churchless comments have been directed at seemingly overly aggressive language by a blog visitor who would go unnamed if I didn't mention that his…
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Posted inMorality

Morality isn’t what God wants

Here's a thought-provoking passage from Plato's "Euthyphro" that you can throw into your next coffeehouse conversation about the meaning of life (you do have them, don't you?). Socrates says: The point which I should first wish to understand is whether the pious or holy is beloved by the gods because it is holy, or holy because it is beloved of the gods. This is the Euthyphro dilemma. I ran across it for the first time while reading "The Top 10 Myths About Evolution." The authors, Cameron M. Smith and Charles Sullivan, were making the point that morality is a natural…
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Posted inTaoism/Tai Chi Wu Project

Beneath buckets of thought, a formless thinking pool

Taoism shuns thoughts, while adoring thinking. Flowing along further with Thomas Cleary’s Taoist Meditation, a focus of my previous post, here’s some additional Taoist sentiments. Thinking about the Way is correct; thinking about things is error. The Way is inherent in us; when you think about the Way inherent within us, thinking itself is the Way…Thinking is a door of entry into the Way, whereas thoughts are roots of obstruction of the Way. “I think, therefore I am.” Cogito ergo sum. As noted before, Descartes had this much right. If he’d stopped with his Meditations at this point in his…
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Posted inHumor Taoism/Tai Chi

Comic strip and a Chinese sage both say: “Do it!”

When in doubt, don’t doubt. Unless you’re sure you want to doubt. Then doubt ferociously. Life is meant to be lived full throttle. Which can mean being absolutely still. Or, rocketing across the salt flats. Turning to one of my favorite sources of inspiration, Funny Times, I came across this “Maxine” comic in the February 2007 issue. My heart said, yes. (click on the image to enlarge) Confusion, indecision, uncertainty: that’s part of life. But we magnify that part when we fail to recognize what we already know. In the sphere of spirituality, that counts for a lot. Indeed, it…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Sant Mat looks like a religion

Sam emailed me today from the United Kingdom. He has an interesting perspective on Sant Mat and Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), looking as he does from the outside rather than as a true believer. Myself, I’m sort of in the middle. I used to be a true believer and so can’t say that I’m able to view Sant Mat and RSSB from as detached a position as Sam can. So I found his ideas interesting. He left them as a comment to a post, which I’ve copied (and mildly edited) below. He makes some excellent points. Even in the…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories

The metaphysics of a really shitty job

I spent six hours this weekend pulling disintegrated insulation out of the crawl space above our garage. There are difficult jobs. There are nasty jobs. And then there are really shitty jobs. Like what I just did. Serendipity is perusing the comments on your blog and finding just what you need to give a boost of profundity to the post you were planning to write. Thank you, Edward, for the Richard Feynman quote: "A poet once said "The whole universe is in a glass of wine." We will probably never know in what sense he meant that, for poets do…
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Posted inScience

Global warming and God’s will

The science is settled. Global warming is happening. Humans are very likely the cause. “Very likely” means with 90 percent certainty, according to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. That’s up from “likely” in the panel’s 2001 report. You can bet that the next report will say “extremely likely.” Unfortunately, scientific near-certainties get muddied up when theological guesses are thrown in. I like to listen to conservative talk radio. Hearing gibberish makes me appreciate truth more, just as a string of cloudy Oregon days produces an Ah! when the sun finally comes out. This week I’ve heard both Michael…
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