Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Getting real at a coffeehouse Sunday “service”

I don't go to the Radha Soami Satsang Beas version of church (satsang) anymore. But in a way, I still attend a service. And it's a lot more real and satisfying than the one way "sermons" I used to listen to, and give, back in my true believing days. Yesterday I got together, as usual, with my Sunday coffeehouse conversing bunch. Most have had, or still have, a connection with RSSB. We're not dogmatic, though, and that makes all the difference. Most of the time it was just me, Lynette, and Hans huddled at a table, sipping expresso and munching…
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Posted inTaoism/Tai Chi

“From Taoist to Infidel” – sounds like me

It's too damn hot here in Oregon today (100 degrees!) to slave over a hot laptop trying to cook up a blog post. So, thanks to Marcel Cairo, my favorite after life medium (also, the only one I know), I've got a readymade Church of the Churchless sharing for this over-heated Saturday. Marcel emailed me a link to Richard Carrier's "From Taoist to Infidel," titling his message It could be you. Yes, indeed. I saw a lot of myself in this essay. And I'll bet a lot of visitors to this blog will see themselves similarly reflected in Richard's journey…
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Posted inPlotinus

Platonic Zen exercises

Not many people find a connection between Zen and Platonism. I do, though these themes are more implicit than explicit in my book about the Neoplatonist philosopher, Plotinus. So it was a pleasure to hear from someone who resonates with a Greek'ish blend of rationality and mysticism. That would be Nicholas Coleman, head of religious education at Wesley College in Melbourne, who wrote to me recently. He had kind things to say about "Return to the One," which attracted me to him right off the bat. Thank you very much for writing Return to the One. The margins of my…
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Posted inPolitics

Dobson’s illogical attack on Obama

"Illogical" and "fundamentalist" are so closely associated, it isn't big news when a closed-minded evangelist says stuff that makes me go Huh? But James Dobson has broken new ground in crazy ass theological reasoning, as described in a CNN story: "Evangelist accuses Obama of 'distorting' Bible." Dobson is righteously pissed at Obama for making terrific religious sense. In comments aired on his radio show Tuesday, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson criticized the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee for comments he made in a June 2006 speech to the liberal Christian group Call to Renewal. In the speech, Obama suggested…
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Posted inTaoism/Tai Chi Wu Project

Lowering our spiritual center of gravity

I was walking along the Metolius river in central Oregon, semi-lost in thought. Which isn't unusual for me. Like most people, I spend a lot of my day focused on what's going on inside my head. That's as far from earth level as my six foot bodily consciousness can rise. Since I've been reading "Tajiquan Theory" in the morning before I meditate, some Taoist lessons came to mind. Breathe. Focus on your abdominal center, the lower dan tian. Simply be aware. Without thought. I've heard this in each of the Tai Chi classes that I've been taking for three and…
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Posted inGod

Are you God? Take the test.

Lots of people believe that God can manifest in a human form. So, why not yours or mine? Speaking for myself (though if I'm God, I'm really speaking for everybody), I'm hugely attracted to the notion that I'm worthy of worship. Unfortunately, other people aren't as attuned to my potential divinity. Notably, my wife. For eighteen years I've been trying to convince her that the way I load the dishwasher is The Way It Should Be, by divine decree. For some reason she can't recognize my husbandly perfection. So today I was excited to see a post on the Radhasoami…
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Posted inReligions

Faith healing is child abuse

Religions are dangerous. Nowhere is this more obvious than in cases of child abuse. The Catholic Church is #1 in this area, but to me killing children in the name of faith healing is even more abhorrent. You can recover from sexual abuse. You can't recover from dying. Yesterday an Oregon boy died of a urinary tract blockage. A radio news report I heard this afternoon said it's an exceedingly painful way to die. A catheter probably would have saved him. I hope his Followers of Christ parents rot in hell. I don't believe in hell, but if it exists,…
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Posted inTaoism/Tai Chi

Feeling the spirit…via body or soul?

Here I am, someone who's pursued spiritual practices for almost forty years, and I can't tell you what "spirit" is. Go figure. But seemingly such figuring is impossible, because whatever spirit is (assuming that word means anything at all), there's general consensus among mystics, meditators, and metaphysicians that it's something beyond the bounds of rationality, explanation, experimentation. Just like life, consciousness, and existence – which to me are pretty much synonymous with spirit. Meaning, the foundational aspect of the cosmos, that which there is no deeper which'er. Or, that'er. For those inclined to going off the deep end, a club…
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Posted inPolitics

Obama recognizes limits of faith

This is a great speech by Barack Obama on the proper place of religion and faith in public policy. He should get the churchless vote with these sentiments. Obama certainly has mine. I just wish he'd repeat it now, saying the same things he did in 2006, since he has a much bigger audience as the Democratic presidential candidate. For the broadband impaired (I'm not aware of a transcript of this video), here's some of what Obama said in the five minutes. These aren't quotes, just a summary of main points. --This is a nation not only of Christians, but…
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Posted inUncategorized

Hope I don’t have a brain tumor

That was the thought that went through my mind as I exited Border's bookstore today, hands empty, after browsing through the religion and metaphysics sections for quite a while. Because this was unusual behavior for me, notwithstanding my periodic bursts of fasting from spiritual reading (see "I abandon all hope in my book shelves"). Today, though, whatever title I touched felt lifeless, hypothetical, detached from reality. I couldn't even muster up much interest in the Atheism, Taoism, and Buddhism sections, where something usually turns me on. What struck me after fifteen minutes or so of half-hearted page-thumbing was the same…
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Posted inReality

Doubt, darkness, digging deep

I keep thinking about John Shanley's lines from my previous post. Each of us is like a planet. There's the crust, which seems eternal. We are confident about who we are. If you ask, we can readily describe our current state…Your answers are your current topography, seemingly permanent, but deceptively so. Doubt is a recognition that personal earthquakes happen. Magma can erupt at any moment. Continents shift. Fast, not requiring eons to reshuffle the contours of our existence. Yet each of us erects belief structures upon this unstable ground. We're drawn to do so by the same natural forces that…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Doubt shall set you free

I just came across a nice paean to doubt. Certainly, I like it.

I took part of the doubt quiz, then jumped to the study guide for “Doubt,” the play. The playwright, John Patrick Shanley, says:

Each of us is like a planet. There’s the crust, which seems eternal. We are confident about who we are. If you ask, we can readily describe our current state. I know my answers to so many questions, as do you. What was your father like? Do you believe in God? Who’s your best friend? What do you want?

Your answers are your current topography, seemingly permanent, but deceptively so. Because under that face of easy response, there is another You. And this wordless Being moves just as the instant moves; it presses upward without explanation, fluid and wordless, until the resisting consciousness has no choice but to give way.

Read on for more from Shanley about embracing tectonic shifts.

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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Artifacts of my non-heretical heresy

My wife found some note cards when she was cleaning out a drawer. "Here," she said, handing them to me. "They're yours." No doubt. My handwriting is distinctive, in the sense of unreadable. But I can decipher my own scribblings. Most of the time, at least. (I've been known to hand a store clerk my grocery list and ask, "Can you tell me what I wrote down here?") I thumbed through the cards and realized what they were: an initial attempt to organize themes for the talks that I used to give regularly at meetings of Radha Soami Satsang Beas…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Having a revival by yourself

I used to go to an Indian mystic meditation group's version of "church" every Sunday to have my faith renewed. Well, sort of. Actually, what I enjoyed the most was getting together with friends after the service (a.k.a. satsang) was over. We'd go out for coffee and talk about all sorts of stuff, including how unsure we were about what we supposedly believed in. Now on Sundays I skip the service and head right for the coffee klatsch. But some days I still have a lingering longing for a revival. Problem is, I don't know what I'm trying to bring…
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Posted inReality

Blast the religious loonies into oblivion

Passion. Religious believers consider that they're the only ones with it. For example, they have "The Passion of the Christ." It fills Christians with energy, conviction, determination, zeal. Well, there's also "The Passion of Reality." It fills me with exactly the same feelings. Just as fundamentalists are driven to rid the world of Satanic influences (including pagans like me), when I come across nonsensical dogmatic blathering my reality-loving blood begins to boil. I get fired up to defend the ramparts of truth against the neo-barbarian hordes who want to substitute superstition for science (and a scientifically founded spirituality). This morning,…
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Posted inDeath/Rebirth

Death is a marvelous backdrop for life

First, kudos to Edward for his comment on my "Finding Meaning in Meaninglessness" post. Like follow kudo'er Adam, I love the line, I have found that my life is none of my business. A comment excerpt: There is no reason to be sure of anything. My certainty changes nothing of how I engage the world. Even being sure that I know nothing actually impedes my effective participation. I have found that my life is none of my business. I get that there are (at least) two things going on: what I think is happening; and what is happening. These coincide…
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