Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Seeking the truth is better than finding it

This morning I came across an intriguing quotation in the final chapter of Christopher Hitchens' "God is Not Great." I've always thought how terrific it'd be to know the truth about life, the universe, God or unGod—in short, everything. But Gotthold Lessing, an 18th century German writer and philosopher, says that even if you could possess truth, you'd be better off perpetually seeking it. The true value of a man is not determined by his possession, supposed or real, of Truth, but rather by his sincere exertion to get to the Truth. It is not possession of the Truth, but…
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Posted inMiscellaneous

Invitation to write a churchless “sermon”

Over on the left sidebar you'll find a new "Posts Compendium" section. I managed to take the assemblage of Church of the Churchless posts that I proudly called my blogistic compendium magisterium and transfer them from Google Page Creator to Typepad—my blog host. Typepad now has the ability to create web pages in addition to posts, so it seemed preferable to keep the compendium as part of this blog rather than over on Google. Browsing through my numerous posts, which date back to November 2004, I was reminded of how many words I've written. And also, of how much I…
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Posted inReality

Maybe the meaning of life is…life

Given how philosophical I've been for so many years, it's sort of surprising to me that I'm losing interest in pondering the meaning of life. More and more, living life is meaningful enough. Adding something called meaning seems like decorating a cake that's already nicely frosted. It can be done, but what's the point? How many layers does life need? I do keep reading about the meaning of life, though. This morning it was the final chapter in Nicholas Fearn's book about the latest answers to the oldest questions: "The Meaning of Life and Death." I liked this passage: A…
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Posted inUncategorized

Compendium of Church of the Churchless posts

A compendium magisterium of my blogistic compositions(in other words, all my blog postings in one place) --currently up to November 2007-- Categories: Introductory, Books, Buddhism, Christianity, Death, Fundamentalism, God, Humor, Miracles, Miscellaneous, Morality, Mystics, Personal/stories, Politics, Radha Soami Satsang Beas, Reality, Religions, Science, Spiritual practice/meditation, Taoism, Universism, Vedanta, Wu Project The posts are in chronological order within each category, earliest first. Introductory Welcome to the Church of the Churchless Spiritual non-practice Just have faith How do I join? Church symbol Our creedless creed Discussion group Books Five books to support the churchless  Plotinus: Vision "The Supreme Doctrine," thirty-six years overdue…
Posted inDeath/Rebirth

“Body Worlds 3” helps death lose some of its sting

Yesterday afternoon I spent two hours looking at dead bodies. Plastinated ones, so skillfully presented and preserved the smallest nerves and tendons could be seen. I got tickets to Body Worlds 3 at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) in Portland because it was my wife's birthday. Laurel wanted to see the exhibition. I wasn't as wild about the idea, given that I've got this decided preference for existing rather than not-existing. I've also been known to ask our estate planning attorney, "Instead of saying When Brian dies…, could you substitute When Brian gerbils…? We'll know what you…
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Posted inPolitics

“Wall of Separation” looks like an American history con job

It's a plain and evident fact that the United States' founding fathers were deeply concerned about this country becoming a religious theocracy. That's why we have a godless constitution—the title of a book I'm reading. So given what I know about how strongly George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and other leaders of their era felt about keeping religion out of government, my ears perked up when I heard mention of a PBS pseudo-documentary, "Wall of Separation," that suggests the wall may really have been an open door. The PBS web site says: But is this conventional wisdom of "secularized"…
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Posted inReality

What is reality?

That's a great title: "What is Reality?" It gets right down to the nitty-gritty of what life is all about. Being real. Whether we live only once, or have an opportunity to live another physical or metaphysical existence, making the most of these precious human moments means really living them. So I leapt to open an issue of New Scientist magazine that had "The Big Questions" emblazoned on the cover. "What is Reality?" is the biggest of the big in my opinion. And seemingly that of the magazine's editors also, since they featured Roger Penrose's essay on this subject in…
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Posted inGod

Spinoza’s God is Einstein’s God. And, mine.

I'm a long ways – a very long ways – from sharing Albert Einstein's understanding of the universe. But when it comes to Einstein's religious bent, we're almost soul brothers. Just as, I suspect, many other churchless people are. As described in a TIME article, "Einstein and Faith," in 1930 Einstein wrote a credo called "What I Believe." It ended with this oft-quoted passage about what he meant when he called himself religious. The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of all true art and science. He…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories

Finding our energetic groove

The past few days haven't been real cheerful for me, save-the-world (or 137 acres, at least) wise. My wife and I have been leading a fight against a proposed subdivision on groundwater limited farmland adjacent to our neighborhood. Wednesday we got screwed by a purely political decision by our county Board of Commissioners. They ignored an independent hydrogeologic assessment and their own Planning Commission. That night I had trouble getting to sleep, as travesty of justice visions kept running through my brain. Thursday I got to vent to a television news reporter. That made me feel a bit better, even…
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Posted inReligions

What’s the favorite “religion” of the religion-less?

I showed you mine a few days ago. Now you show me yours. Your favorite "religion." Which, because I put quotation marks around the word, could be: An honest-to-god (or godless) religion; a philosophy of life; a metaphysical system; a spiritual path; or something describable that's along these lines. What I believe is just a touch vague. If golf, NASCAR, romance novels, raising gerbils, or watching "24" reruns is your religion, that's nice. But I'd just as soon that you didn't extol it in a comment to this post. Because I'm sincerely – maybe even seriously – interested in finding…
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Posted inTaoism/Tai Chi

Taoism’s “Mysterious Pass.” You’re in it, now!

Taoism is my favorite non-religious religion. I like it for a lot of reasons, not least of which is that it's the only philosophy I know of that comes with a built-in self defense and health promoting exercise system: Tai Chi. When a philosophy can be expressed physically, that shows a pleasing rootedness in reality. I adore abstractions also, but like they say (or at least, I do) "Three bucks and a whole bunch of metaphysical concepts gets you a grande latte at Starbucks." This morning I was reading Thomas Cleary's translation of "The Book of Balance and Harmony: A…
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Posted inGod

Some Radhasoami UK Facebook excerpts

There have been some interesting recent comments from Osho Robbins, plus equally interesting comments on his comments.

One of which was mine, where I put up some links to a UK Facebook group that Osho Robbins posts on frequently. (See my June 9 comment on this post.)

I just realized that you have to sign up for Facebook before you can browse around the Radhasoami group. Since that is a bit of a pain, and some won’t be willing to do it, I’ll copy in one of Osho Robbins’ posts (see continuation below) on “The Nature of God–Oneness or Nothingness.”

I agree that whatever “God” or ultimate reality is, this supremely supreme whatever seemingly is beyond each and every concept about it.

However, I can’t help but wonder whether those concepts include the content of Osho Robbin’s post, what I’m writing now, and everything else we can say about what can’t be said.

That said, I agree with some of Osho Robbins’ take on enlightenment that I found on his web site.

But can you learn the secret of true happiness and living a fulfilled life from Osho Robbins via an intensive two-day workshop? Well, if you go let me know.

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Posted inMorality

True culture of life has to be godless

Religious types—Christians, mostly—like to talk about a "culture of life." This is shorthand for being against abortion, death with dignity, stem cell research, and other supposedly anti-life policies supported by godless secularists like me. I see things just the opposite. Religiosity is what's destructive of living life fully, devotedly, appreciatively, reverently. Here's why. Virtually every religion holds that earthly existence is just a prelude to something better: heaven, paradise, nirvana, god-realization. The life we're living now is to be looked upon as a springboard that hopefully will bounce us in the direction of divinity after death. Back in my science…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

David James Duncan’s “In Praise of No Guide”

It's about fly-fishing. And life. And spiritual practice. And just about anything and everything. Like I wrote about yesterday on my other blog, David James Duncan's marvelous three page essay, "In Praise of No Guide," hooked me on buying his entire book: My Story As Told By Water. Reading Duncan makes me want to believe in reincarnation so I can come back and be able to write like him. He's got, well, a way with words. Not to mention fishing. He was born in Portland and grew up here in Oregon. There are lots of other fly fishing maniacs in…
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Posted inWu Project

Wu t-shirt leads to philosophical conversations

Usually I just wear my Wu t-shirt to Tai Chi class or the athletic club. Yesterday was pretty grey in central Oregon, so I decided to brighten it up with my yellow Wu attire. Good decision. After a pleasant walk along the Metolius river, where this photo was taken, I had a couple of pleasant philosophical discussions stimulated by a "What does that mean?" When I started my Wu Project some fifteen months ago, I knew that what I needed most of all, and first of all, was a Wu t-shirt. What's a project without a t-shirt? I'm pretty sure…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

A message from an agnostic satsangi

Here's a mildly-edited email message that I got from a self-described Radha Soami Satsang Beas "agnostic." Like me, this person had started meditating many years ago with high expectations. The experiment of meditation was performed just as instructed. Only problem was, the predicted results weren't forthcoming. Yes, as the message starts off by saying, we're on a parallel journey. I especially enjoyed some lines near the end: "I still have a lot of respect and admiration for Charan Singh and Gurinder Singh [past and present RSSB gurus]. They may not be who we thought they were, but they are damn…
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