Posted inPersonal/Stories

My further descent (or ascent) into strangeness

My newest passion -- to Strange Up Salem (Oregon) -- nicely harmonizes with this here blog's churchless theme of spiritual independence. So you're invited to peruse the Strange Up blog post I wrote today. At the risk of sounding like a phone sex line... I know what you want. You’re hungry for it. You’re hot for it. You’ve gotten tantalizing glimpses of what you lust for, but it’s been frustratingly out of reach. Not God. Not religion. Not enlightenment. Strangeness. Along that line, during the past few days I've been amazed to see myself turning from Facebook-apathetic to a Facebook…
2
Posted inPersonal/Stories

“How are you?” stimulates a blog post reply

It's dangerous to ask a blogger a simple question. Four words, "How are you, Brian?," can lead to a much longer reply. Not only can: they are. A few days ago Suzanne ended her comment on a post with: How are you, Brian? It's lovely to see you continue to blog so enthusiastically! Apparently, you are thriving. Suzanne (and anyone else who cares), you're right. I am indeed thriving. Each and every day I prove to myself that believing in God or any other form of religiosity is absolutely unnecessary for living a happy, meaningful, satisfying, and productive life. I…
16
Posted inPersonal/Stories Science

Finding enlightenment through a colonoscopy (and propofol)

I want to get as much philosophical mileage as possible out of the colonoscopy I had a few days ago. After all, I had to sacrifice eating solid food for almost two days. That isn't exactly a major ascetic accomplishment -- certainly not Gandhi'an -- but since I'm a vegetarian habituated to frequent food browsing, the colonoscopy prep period was a shock to my culinary system. This wasn't the most interesting part of the procedure, though. Just as with the colonoscopy I had two years ago (a benign polyp was found, and the prep wasn't perfect, so the doctor wanted…
21
Posted inPersonal/Stories

Klondike solitaire — a fine philosophy of life

My churchlessness has evolved to the point where playing an iPhone game app is my last sacred gesture before I meditate each morning. I go with a classic, Klondike, the Mobility Ware version of which is generically called "Solitaire" (for many people, including myself, Klondike is the beginning and end of solitaire games). It'd be a short book, but I could easily write Everything I Learned About Life Came From Playing Solitaire. Well, I might be doing that right now. Just before I meditate, I fire up my iPhone and click on the Solitaire app after reading for a while,…
1
Posted inPersonal/Stories

Prayers are urged for a most worthy recipient

I'm not at all into praying, but will make an exception today. Someone dearly beloved to me is facing a difficult challenge. And even though I don't believe that God or any other higher power exists -- hey, there's a slight chance she/he/it does and can help my friend. Who is the University of Oregon football team that's playing for the national championship this afternoon. A simple loving, compassionate, heartfelt prayer is all that's needed. Like... May the blessed Oregon Ducks stomp the unholy crap out of the despicable Auburn Tigers, and may Auburn's Cam Newton & Nick Fairley have…
1
Posted inPersonal/Stories

Don’t make resolutions for the New Year — just live it

When I was in my lengthy religious phase -- three decades plus a few years -- periodically I used to vow to do better. Meditate more concentratively. Follow the precepts of my faith even more attentively. Love God and his earthly emissary, the guru (the non-Christian equivalent of Jesus) more devotedly. The start of every New Year was an opportunity for me to rev up my resolution engine. I'd get all enthusiastic about making great spiritual progress through the energetic efforts I was going to put in. Now, I'm just about at a standstill when it comes to self-improvement vows.…
4
Posted inPersonal/Stories Radha Soami Satsang Beas

I’m churchless. And as “spiritual” as ever.

Today a friend asked me to explain my current attitude toward spirituality. We haven't talked as much about godly, mystical, and meditational matters as we did back when I was an active member of an India-based religious organization, Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB). It's always interesting for me to hear what I have to say in response to such a query. I didn't have to think much, if at all, before answering him. After all, writing posts for this blog keeps me attuned to how I feel about spirituality now, as opposed to my previous true-believing past. But talking face…
8
Posted inPersonal/Stories Spiritual practice/meditation

Dance, and live, like nobody (even God) is watching

Last night my wife and I went dancing. It was a Salem Big Band night at Mission Mill Museum, a beautifully restored woolen mill dating from the late 1800's. When we walked in, about half an hour after the festivities had started, I could tell that my thoroughly intermediate dancing skills were going to be stretched. The piece being played was energetically cool, but I couldn't place it in my stylistic repertoire. Foxtrot? No. Waltz? Definitely no. Latin style? Absolutely not. Swing? Sort of, but not really. Yet couples (and some uninhibited child singles) were dancing away with abandon, clearly…
3
Posted inComments Personal/Stories

Can’t resist some churchless thanksgiving’s

OK, I give up. I've tried my best to resist the onslaught of thankiness here in the United States. Today is Thanksgiving, a national holiday. It has something to do with being thankful (obviously), but even Wikipedia can't explain the origins of what often is called Turkey Day. For my wife and me, it's Wheat Gluten Day, as we're about to put a meatless Celebration Roast in the oven. We don't celebrate Thanksgiving in a traditional fashion. However, there's nothing wrong with keeping "thanks" part of the day. So, that's what I'll do: say thanks to those who visit this…
8
Posted inPersonal/Stories

Thanking an unknown “God”

Neuroscientific researchers tell us that it's natural to personify impersonal phenomena. Our brains essentially are hard-wired for a "supersense" which discerns supernatural forces even when there is no evidence for them. As churchless as I am, and as science-loving as I am, I still find myself talking to the cosmos as if someone could hear me. (I also talk to our dog as if she could understand me, and when the #1 Oregon Ducks football team was gritting out a 15-13 victory last Saturday, I entreatied the television as if the players could hear me -- even weirder, I'd recorded…
1
Posted inPersonal/Stories Radha Soami Satsang Beas Spiritual practice/meditation

Religion doesn’t add anything to human experience

Here's a big misunderstanding that most religious people make: when they feel good, they attribute those positive feelings to their religiosity -- not realizing that if they didn't have faith in God, Guru, Brahman, Allah, or whatever, they'd feel just about the same. I say this because I used to be such a person. For the thirty-five or so years I was an active member of an India-based religious organization I was almost always in a positive frame of mind. I was energetic, confident, productive, and happy. But this also describes how I was before and after my immersion in…
24
Posted inPersonal/Stories

Secrets of universe revealed…sort of

That's a rather humble title for a blog post. If it was on the cover of a book, a mediocre-seller would be almost guaranteed. But since I pay good money for the privilege of sharing my views, I figure that truth in blog post advertising is the right policy. I'm a firm believer in "sort of's," as contradictory as that might seem (I'm also into contradictions, except when I'm not.) The older I get, the more often I've been having aha! moments where a curtain lifts on... something I'm not sure about, and I get a strong insight into... something…
1
Posted inBuddhism Personal/Stories Radha Soami Satsang Beas

“Jaded old men,” identify yourselves!

OK, I'm demanding that you guys out yourself. No more hiding in the closet. Paul, who left this comment today on a previous post about Radha Soami Satsang Beas, has discovered that this blog is full of "jaded old men" who have forgotten the wonder of life. All I have to say is that I read Brian's writings as I have always found his thinking to be well thought out. I have read his books and his thinking inspired me. Well my opinion of this blog has changed. It has become a pathetic playground for people to bash other peoples…
24
Posted inPersonal/Stories

The spirituality of my sickness

I don't get sick very often. So the past five days -- during which I've been suffering through a feverish flu/cold gifted to me by my three year old granddaughter, who, as you can see below, doesn't look capable of such a dastardly deed -- have cast me into an unfamiliar state of consciousness. Ever eager to suck some philosophical insights out of any sort of experience, I wanted to share a few thoughts from the not-quite-well side of my psyche while I was still doing some serious coughing.What I've found most interesting about being sick is this: in many…
5
Posted inPersonal/Stories

If I’m a guru, where are my devotees?

A few days ago I got an email from someone who thinks that I've become a guru. That struck me as a strange thing to say. After all, I'm not aware of anyone in the world who views me that way (certainly not my wife, and definitely not my dog -- except when she wants to go on a walk or get her favorite chew stick treat, when she'll temporarily get a look of absolute devotion to manipulate me into doing her canine bidding).My correspondent asked for a blog response, so here it is. I've interspersed my comments in regular…
11
Posted inPersonal/Stories

Yeah, I’m enlightened. Deal with it.

After writing a couple of recent posts about boundless existence (see here and here), I've decided that it's time to reveal a truth that I've been reluctant to even tell myself.So let's learn it together: I'm enlightened. Ah, it feels so good to say those two words, "I'm enlightened." I don't know why its taken me so long to do this -- to embrace the realization that I know what's really real.For me. Which brings me to another truth that we need to acknowledge together: You're also enlightened, if you also know what's really real. For you.I have no idea what…
18
Posted inPersonal/Stories

Cirque du Soleil reflects great philosophy of life: openness

Usually I don't come away from a theatrical performance feeling that I've just been exposed to a marvelous philosophy of life. But usual and Cirque du Soleil aren't words that belong next to each other. Last Friday my wife and I journeyed up to Portland (Oregon) to see Kooza. It was our first Cirque du Soleil experience. And surely not the last. We loved the show, including the Tapis Rouge pampering that we ended up getting at no additional cost. I found Kooza deeply moving. Always eager to fire up my philosophical neurons, I've spent the past few days musing…
No Comments
Posted inGod Personal/Stories

Finding meaning in small things…without God

God has become too big for me. So has heaven. Along with more scientific notions like ultimate reality. No longer do I have an idea about what super-consciousness would be like. Or how merging my supposed soul with a supposed all-pervading Oneness would change things for me.Along with other religious true believers, I used to have some pretty damn grandiose spiritual plans. I was going to save my soul. I was going to meet God in heaven -- maybe in this very life! I was going to know divine truths that few people on earth had a clue about. I…
7
Posted inMystics Personal/Stories

The sheer strangeness of everything

Sanity is consensual. If there's someone else who sees the world in the same way I do, that gives me at least a little bit of confidence that I'm not way out in weirdo-world -- though I'm not saying that would be a bad thing.This morning I came across a passage in Stephen Bachelor's new book, "Confession of a Buddhist Atheist," that echoed sensations I have frequently these churchless days, and tried to describe at the end of my "Mysticism doesn't have to be mystical" post.Here's how Bachelor says it:One evening at dusk, as I was returning to my room…
2
Posted inPersonal/Stories Spiritual practice/meditation

The sweet taste of imperfection

Religions and most forms of spirituality strive for perfection. Or at least, improvement. They teach that we're fallen, sinful, deluded, enmeshed in maya/karma, ego-ridden, desirous, lustful, selfish.In short, imperfect. Well, yeah. That's what being human is. That's what being alive is. Perfection is an abstraction, a concept, an idea. Maybe it exists. Maybe it doesn't. Perfection is a state of mind. Sometimes we're filled with a sense of everything is just as it should be. Then that moment passes.And we're left with life in its everchangingness. Ups and downs. Happiness and sorrow. Good news and bad news. Smiles and frowns.This afternoon…
7