Posted inPersonal/Stories

How our non-easy-care yard enlightens me

I don't really believe in enlightenment. But I'd still like to be enlightened. Just seems like a cool state to be in. Akin to stoned, I suppose (a state of being I'm much more familiar with), but without having to imbibe psychoactive substances.  So I like to think that our yard is enlightening me, chore by chore. After 25 years of taking care of our non-easy-care property in rural south Salem, Oregon, I've had plenty of time to ponder the Meaning Of It All. For a long time I envisioned that what I was doing with all my mowing, fertilizing,…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories

Merry churchless Christmas. Here’s our non-Christmas Letter.

Through my religious-believing and atheistic days alike, I've always composed a Christmas letter to send with our cards. Well, my wife and I actually call it our Holiday Letter, since in many years I don't get around to writing it until after Christmas. So as long as it gets sent out before New Year's Day, hey, it qualifies as a holiday letter.  Yesterday I explained on my other blog why we don't have a 2014 Christmas/Holiday letter. Naturally it took quite a few words to do this, being as verbose as I am.  Here's a PDF file of my non-Christmas…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories

Ten years of Church of the Churchless blogging. I’m thankful.

With the Thanksgiving holiday coming up here in the United States tomorrow, I was trying to decide whether to write something thanks giving'ly for today's blog post.  Problem is, I don't like forced or expected expressions of any sentiment, including thankfulness. If it isn't spontaneous and natural, an emotion isn't truly genuine. At least, that's the way I feel. Telling someone, "Say that you love me" -- pointless. But then I thought about the month and year, November 2014, and realized that it's been almost exactly ten years since I started this Church of the Churchless blog. My first post…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories

My achieving Buddha-nature starts tomorrow

Tomorrow my wife, Laurel, is having shoulder (rotator cuff) surgery on her right shoulder. She's right handed, so for the six weeks she'll be wearing a sling, I will be her right arm.  Being (1) a woman, (2) a wife, and (3) someone who knows me well after our 24 years of marriage, this is pretty much Laurel's worst nightmare. Meaning, the surgery to repair a detached tendon is bad enough. Having to depend on my housekeeping, health care-giving, cooking, dog wiping (it's rainy season; we live in the country; trails are muddy), laundry, and other domestic "talents" for six…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories Spiritual practice/meditation

I’m asked a great question. Hope my answer is as good.

Below is an email message from a Church of the Churchless reader. My replies are indented further, in italics. Interesting questions and observations from this person. I tried to make my responses in kind. ----------------------------- Brian, just a few quick lines to let you know how much I (continue to) enjoy reading your blog. Hey, back at you. I enjoy reading your messages and comments. You write very clearly and make a lot of sense. In short, you remind me of me! I’m slowly, very slowly making my way through your archives, as well as reading your more current articles…
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Posted inDeath/Rebirth Personal/Stories

We will die one day. Good or bad news?

Religions thrive because people are afraid of dying and not being alive anymore. If death didn't exist, I doubt religions would either.  People can deal with other problems without religion. What gives life meaning? What is right and wrong? Is there an inherent purpose to the cosmos? But death... that's a problem with no solution. Everybody dies. Everybody. No exceptions.  So those who want to live on after their body dies have only one choice: fantasy, imagination, wishful thinking. Religions fulfil a desire for immortality which can't be met in any other way. Well, it can't be met through religiosity…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories

One hour with my father: a story with churchless subtext

Here's something different, Church of the Churchless blog post-wise. An audio recording of my ten-minute Stories from the Dark Side talk last month.  Click here. Then on the orange play/stop button, top left side, next to my name: Brian Hines (Brian Hart is one of the organizers of Stories from the Dark Side). The overall theme of the evening was Gone for Good. I blogged about it in "Telling a story from my dark side felt like church. Without the religion." At the time the audio recording of my talk wasn't available. Now it is.  I just stood at the…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories

A brief conversation with a newly churchless friend

Sometimes a lot can be said in a short time. It all depends on how honest and direct the conversing is. With Russell, a Tai Chi friend who I hadn't seen for quite a while after he stopped coming to classes, we covered a lot of philosophical ground in a few minutes after we ran into each other in a downtown Salem coffeehouse. He was chatting with the barista when I walked up to the counter to order. Russell greeted me in his usual wonderfully friendly manner. I told the barista, "I know Russell from Tai Chi. He's the only…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories Religions

Telling a story from my dark side felt like church. Without the religion.

Last night I was one of eight speakers who took part in the second Stories From the Dark Side event here in Salem, Oregon. I enjoyed myself. The organizers kindly provided a bottle of Jack Daniels and a couple of shot glasses in the Grand Theatre's "green room." Plus, Santiam Brewing Company had some dark stout on tap in the lobby. I managed to get myself in a great story-telling frame of mind via a balanced blend of coffee, beer, and whiskey. I talked about my one hour with my father. That is one of my favorite blog posts, mostly because I wrote…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories

I enjoy Kay Packard’s hand analysis of my “philosopher’s hands”

So what is irreligious, scientifically-minded, skeptical me doing holding prints of my hands that I was about to mail off to a person who does hand analysis -- and soon would tell me what those prints say about myself? Well, Kay Packard, founder of the American Academy of Hand Analysis, is an old friend. Kay was the "little kid" next door during my childhood growing up in Three Rivers, California (small town in foothills of the Sierras, the gateway to Sequoia National Park).  We've kept in touch over the years. Her mother, Rosemary, was an astrologer. Rosemary did charts for…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories

My mini not-really-mystical revelation

Hey, when you're as churchless and unreligious as I am, you take your revelations in any form they might appear. Today I was driving around, aimlessly switching channels on satellite radio, trying to decide whether listening to news stations or the music of Chill was better for my non-soul. CNN was still heavy into its obsessive coverage of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane. For a while I tuned into a discussion of the effort to locate the plane's black box device by picking up its battery-powered "pings."  An expert said something along the lines of, "The batteries should last 30…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories Reality

Relax. Everything is equally important.

Periodically my brain comes up with Profound Cosmic Observations. This weekend it is... (drum roll please)... Everything is equally important. Meaning, whatever we experience at any given moment possesses the same existential value. This applies both to me and other people.  In other words, whatever I'm doing, it's equally worthy of my awareness and attention. Ditto for what anyone else is doing. The experience of an Indian rickshaw driver is equal to that of a Wall Street options trader. I got to pondering this oh-so-ponderable notion yesterday as I was putting together some replacement bar stools for our kitchen counter.…
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Posted inBooks Personal/Stories

Why I like Don Miguel Ruiz’s “The Voice of Knowledge”

I feel like I need to defend my churchless cred. Yeah, a few days ago I put up a post that praised what the front cover says is A Toltec Wisdom Book, "The Voice of Knowledge."  Can't be sure, but I seem to recall reading one of Don Miguel Ruiz's earlier books. Maybe it was "The Four Agreements." There's a lot of Four Agreement stuff in The Voice of Knowledge. For whatever reason, Ruiz's message was more appealing to me this time around. Now, I readily admit that Ruiz engages in quite a bit of God-talk. Also, prayer talk (particularly…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories Spiritual practice/meditation

We are animals. March to the beat of your own beastly drummer.

Recently I got an email message from a woman who told me about some difficulties she is having with both her meditation, and with life -- she said her entire life has been turned upside down. She asked, "I need to connect with someone who understands. Do you think you could shine a little light this direction?" Here's my reply. I didn't give it a lot of thought, which is probably why I liked what I said when I re-read it. I've added a few links. Hmmmmm. I think I understand, because we all are so similar. Yet also, so…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories Reality

Great news! You are your brain.

My brain is following up on a previous blog post, "Brains are us: a fresh thought for a New Year." Now, I almost just wrote My brain is causing me to follow up... This shows how difficult it is to break the habit of assuming that there is a "me" and also "my brain." Slice my head open or put me in a MRI machine: evidence of the brain's existence will be clear. But evidence of a "me" existing -- where is it? Really, nowhere to be found. If you doubt this, pick up just about any Zen book. Or…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories

The 2013 Hines Christmas Letter — almost completely uplift free

Aside from the ending, I'm pleased to report that there is little possibility you'll feel spiritually (or otherwise) uplifted by this year's Christmas Letter. Which, per usual, my wife and I call a "Holiday Letter" to cover our procrastinating butts when the people we mail it to get the letter and card after Christmas. Yes, our Holiday Letter actually starts as paper. Ah, so deliciously archaic. Here's the PDF version: Download 2013 Christmas Letter PDF For those who like dark and twisted Christmas letters, here's a gift from my other blog,
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Posted inPersonal/Stories Spiritual practice/meditation

Stop talking to God… and other imaginary friends

I've decided that I talk too much. Not to other people. I do that just fine, in my opinion. Not too much, and not too little. Just about right. It's another type of talking I'm referring to. Talking to entities that aren't there, or can't understand me. For example... God. Our dogs. My dead mother and father. The now-deceased guru I used to follow. Myself.  Now, I don't really believe that any of these entities can comprehend what I'm saying, either because they don't exist (God, dead mother and father, guru) or don't have the ability (dogs). Myself is an…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories

Sorting out your wantings with a thought cloud

Obviously I don't know how your brain/mind works. Heck, I don't even know how my brain/mind works, even though so far as I, neuroscience, and Buddhism can tell, there is no difference between me and my brain/mind. (From here on out I'll just say "mind" instead of "brain/mind," since the mind is the brain in action.) Nevertheless, what I feel when I ponder some subject is that thought clouds, for lack of a better term, start to form and float around within conscious awareness.  Each is a concept of sorts. But maybe more like a feeling. Or an intuition. Regardless, they…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories

Almost-65 me is asked “what best prepares for old age?”

Longer ago than I want to admit (I dislike procrastination, even though I engage in it frequently), someone who was reading my book about Plotinus, "Return to the One," emailed me a good question about growing old. More recently, he reminded me of the question that I hadn't answered. Here's part of his email. Have you got around to putting any thought into my last inquiry...  “In light of Platonism and maintaining good mental health, what would you say might prepare a person best for old age, as in the interval between old age and death?” Even though I may…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories Spiritual practice/meditation

Finding joy in a meaningless life

A few days ago I was riding my bike in central Oregon. I was having a good time cruising around the dirt roads and nicely graveled bike paths in oh-so-charming Camp Sherman, where the Metolius River flows. Pedaling along, idly pondering the Meaning of It All, my brain ejected a marvelous thought that instantly struck me as having a great intuitive appeal. There's no meaning to life, which is absolutely freaking glorious! I felt like a weight had been lifted from my pondering psyche. Meaning is heavy, man. It isn't something you toss around lightly.  Even if you're no longer…
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