Posted inTaoism/Tai Chi

Tai Chi has taught me that flowing is way better than forcing

I've been learning Tai Chi for about thirteen years. That makes me a near-beginner in this oh-so-subtle "soft style" martial art. Before taking up Tai Chi I studied "hard style" martial arts for about the same length of time. So I guess I've reached sort of a balance point. My previous Tai Chi-related posts are here, on my other blog. For some reason I haven't written about Tai Chi for five years. This hasn't been from a lack of interest. It must be because Tai Chi is something I do and experience much more than I think about it.  Well,…
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Posted inReligions Taoism/Tai Chi Vedanta/Advaita

Indian and Greek thought are both dualistic. Chinese thought isn’t.

Oneness has a lot of appeal. It's simple. Nothing is simpler than one. (Well, maybe nothing is simpler, but since there is no way to know what nothing is like, since it doesn't exist, who knows?) Also, oneness has a lot in common with love. Love brings us together, which is a big step toward being one. Duality, on the other hand (a good phrase to use when talking about duality), posits two things that are inherently different. Like most people, I've had the idea that Eastern forms of spirituality are more into oneness that Western forms are. The cartoon…
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Posted inPolitics Spiritual practice/meditation

How this atheist feels about prayers after another mass shooting

Another day in America, another mass shooting. A lone gunman shot Rep. Steve Scalise and four other people at a park where Scalise was practicing for a benefit Congressional baseball game.  This is a tragedy. So are the tens of thousands of other gun deaths that happen every year in this country.  But after dramatic shootings like this one, there's a familiar ritual: "thoughts and prayers" are directed to the victims and their families.  I wrote about this in 2015 after the San Bernardino shootings. Here's an excerpt from "Another mass shooting. No more 'thoughts and prayers.' Gun control ACTION!"…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Good criticisms of Guru Gurinder Singh and his spiritual organization

I enjoyed this blog post comment from "reet" so much, I've made it into a post. These are some great criticisms of how the Indian spiritual organization Radha Soami Satsang Beas operates, and the lavish lifestyle enjoyed by the RSSB guru, Gurinder Singh, and his relatives. The RSSB guru travels in private airplanes and in high end cars with high level security, his son is the CEO of a multimillion dollar company, his wife has million dollar stocks to her name, his relatives are rich billionaires. It's totally fine if you're a businessman and doing all this with your "earned"…
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Posted inReality Science

It isn’t all about us. Humans aren’t special.

We have no option but to use our human ways of knowing to understand the universe. However, this doesn't mean that us Homo sapiens possess the capability of accurately answering all the questions about the cosmos that come to mind.  Or even being sure that we're able to ask the proper questions.  More and more, I'm embracing the conclusion that human consciousness likely isn't capable of grasping the Great Big Questions (notably including why the universe exists at all), much less the answers to them. Here's a letter from the June 2017 issue of Scientific American on this subject. I've…
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Posted inGod Reality

Believers, be clear about what sort of belief you want others to accept

Someone recently emailed me, asking if I read the many comments (223, currently) on a recent Church of the Churchless post. Here's part of my reply. I admit that I haven’t read the many comments on this post in much detail. In my current irreligious frame of mind it just strikes me as mostly meaningless to discuss/argue about subjective experiences as if they reflect some objective reality. There’s no way to tell whether someone’s supposed “mystical” experience is anything other than a projection of their own mind absent some sort of convincing demonstrable evidence.   Logical or reasonable arguments can…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus

Why we can’t rely on the Bible for social and moral progress

My avid-atheist wife just had her monthly anti-religion letter to the editor published in our local newspaper, the Salem (Oregon) Statesman Journal.  Actually, her letter was published twice on the opinion page in the print edition -- yesterday and today. I'm tempted to call that a miracle, a sign from God tbat She is pleased with Laurel's message. (But for obvious reasons I'll resist that temptation.) Here's what Laurel said. The paper titled her letter, "Why community must not rely on the Bible for social and moral progress." Most social and moral progress in Western civilization has been brought about…
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