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
I’m
becoming my favorite book
Be
a spiritual rebel!
German
translation reflects my transformation
“God
Laughs and Plays” but doesn’t go to church
Churchless
books and sites to explore
Recommended
spiritual reading lists
Be your own book
Finding my Way in the Bodhi Tree bookstore
“Wholly Spirit” searches for a plausible God
Spiritual reading list — new and improved
First atheist author: Baron d’Holbach

Buddhism
Centering
in on “The Supreme Doctrine”
Western
religions holding back stem cell research
Being
religious without a religion
Going
with the flow
Wave
relaxing into ocean. Ahhhh… .
Buddha
enlightens Jesus about the self
On
Buddhist meditation practice
Open
presence meditation
Dalai Lama is on Maui too. Is compassion contagious?
Rocks in the thought-stream are natural too
Finding my original face in packing for a weekend trip

Christianity
Eckhart:
Detachment
Brother
of Jesus ossuary hoax
Why
I’m not a Christian
The
Cloud of Unknowing: Devotion
Helping
out the Second Coming
Jesus’
resurrection–does it matter if it happened?
Jesus
wasn’t a Christian
Talking
with a churchless Christian
How
does Jesus save?
The
Chronicles of Narnia: a myth about a myth
God
is born in everybody, not just Jesus
Limbo
on the way out
The
greatest heretic of all
Losing
faith in the fiction of Jesus
Gospel
of Judas casts heresy in a new light
I’m
arming for the War on Easter
Dear
devout Christian, thanks for the offer but…
Bible
and The Da Vinci Code are both fiction
“Be
Still and Know that I am God” DVD–not still enough for me
Emerson’s
sacrilegious Divinity School address
The
Pope isn’t infallible. Oh my God!
Jesus
camp: turning kids into Christian soldiers
Sam
Harris shakes up a Christian nation. And, me.
Struggling
to comprehend the Christian mind
Don’t
spam God
Almost
time to celebrate the Christianity meme
“The
Pagan Christ” looks at Christmas differently
I
condemn myself to hell. For a free DVD.
Lost
Tomb of Jesus story shows shakiness of Christianity
Unbelievers should want the Bible taught in public school
Pope says hellfire is real and eternal
Christians admit their religion is based on hate
Creation Museum displays Christian credulity
Is it negative to be anti-Christian?
Mother Teresa’s crisis of faith

Death
“The
Big If,” a kindred weblog
Maui
musings on the Pope’s passing
The
gift of a classmate’s death
Assisted
suicide is moral, Scalia isn’t
Death
and the primal fear of non-existence
More
thoughts about the fear of non-existence
Rumi,
love, and non-existence
Living
in the now
Keeping it real: facing death without God
Coping with death and the fear of non-existence
“Body Worlds 3” helps death lose some of its sting
Salvation isn’t so serious to me anymore
Death no big deal to most over 50

Fundamentalism
How
to talk to a fundamentalist
Fundamentalism
is religious racism
Christians
say God punished New Orleans
Cartoons
of Muhammad create huge uproar
Amazing!
I agree with William Bennett.
Eastern
fundamentalism
Mel
Gibson’s passion of drunken anti-Semitism
Not
seeing is believing
My oven’s “Sabbath Feature” shows idiocy of keeping kosher
Swarm theory supports spiritual independence
Religion’s dangerous certainty
“God’s Christian Warriors” shows crazy side of religion

God
Start
worrying about your religion if…
Prayer
is irreverent
Flee
from the fear of God
The
paradox of prayer
The
loving “I” of god
A
churchless song: “When God Made Me”
If
God is mysterious, so are we
Nirguna
and saguna, two visions of God
God,
go to hell
Is
God really watching me?
A
personal relationship with God, good or bad?
Mine
disaster shows absurdity of prayer
What
are the chances you’re right about God?
God
calls me a fool. I agree.
Does
God play favorites? I doubt it.
How
can you be sure there is no God?
With
God, from “I believe” to “I know” is a huge step
Possible
and impossible gods
What’s
up with worship?
We
are all atheists
Hey,
God, shut up! No more conversations
God
wants to be forsaken
Letting
go of God. And Uncle Fred.
When
the gods stopped speaking to us
I’m
accused of being God
Prayer
can be criticized
Eliminate
the middleman between you and God
Does
God exist? Science says no.
God-shaped hole is as big as our beliefs
Is God real?
Atheists crush Christians at “Does God Exist?” debate
Spinoza’s God is Einstein’s God. And, mine.
Fifty proofs that God is imaginary
Embracing God in my brain

Humor
I
announce my impending satori
Search
for self called off
Become
a religion of one
Prize
for proof of superior religion
Unusual
churches. We’re one of them!
Kissing
Hank’s ass, the essence of religion
I
establish a new religion, Galobet. Believe!
Take
your dose of Daily Afflictions
Get
your Armor of God PJs
Proofs
that God exists
Stephen
Colbert’s Ecu-Menace sermon
Blasphemy
Challenge video proof
Demotivation
heals my overly positive soul
Puppetji gives a YouTube socksang
Online confessions — ideal for the churchless
Flying Spaghetti Monster gaining religious credibility   

Miracles
O,
Miracles, where art thou?
Pray
for me, I need a Mini Cooper
Atheists
in foxholes do exist
Million
dollars says there’s no evidence of the supernatural

Miscellaneous
Truth
Comment
housekeeping
I
get mail
A
British churchless blogger
Evolution.
Further.
Marcel
the medium takes on Julia the atheist
Be
natural
I make some new web friends
My blogistic compendium magisterium
Invitation to write a churchless “sermon”
Here’s how to follow a comment conversation

Morality
Evil:
made by man or God?
Thumbs
down to the new Pope’s moral absolutism
Be
loyal to yourself, not a group
Animal
lovers don’t eat meat
In
defense of uncertainty
On
deciding for oneself
A
Playboy moral lesson
Revel
in your selfishness
The
virtue of a Playboy philosophy of life
Morality
comes from nature, not God
Morality
isn’t what God wants
Life is fair. Here’s why.
When it isn’t good to do good
True culture of life has to be godless
Morality has nothing to do with religion
Finding my inner self in a light beer
Grace & mercy or cause & effect?
—

Mystics
Mystery
is omnipresent
The
Neoplatonic Church
Kabir,
a patron saint of spiritual independence
The
nothingness we fear is the everything we are
Simple
spirituality
Plotinus
and I make so much sense

Personal/stories
A
Christmas memory of my mother
Touching
the void
Live
your own life
Sunset
over Spring Lake
Mystical
dreams and experiences
Consistency
is foolish
The
boots at the top of the stairs
Hitting
all my conversational buttons
In
praise of divorce
An
old koan rises from my past
Dance
to your own music
I
meet a true guru
Breaking
free of family influences
I’m
alive. Wow!
I
get a glimpse of Tango Zen
Musings
on the Metolius
Soul
is still lost, but I’ve found my keys
Nice
to belong with those who don’t belong
I
go to a Hollywood medium, Marcel Cairo
Dancing
free, not to a pattern
Skepticism,
cynicism, and science
Loud
siren is a wake-up call
What
makes for a nice day?
Thank
you, Church of the Churchless visitors
Silent
snow has a lot to say
The
metaphysics of a really shitty job
Evidence of my steadily declining divinity
“Nobody is going to come.” So I killed him.
Finding our energetic groove
Me talk Spinoza on BlogTalkRadio today
Balanced between belief and doubt
Thanks for the chlorine gas, Mom (cough, cough)
Help expand recognition of my divinity

Politics
Religious
values have no place in politics
Lincoln,
Bush, and God’s will
“God’s
Politics” a timely book
Religious
zealots run amok in Terri Schiavo case
Jeb
Bush’s neurologist has no credibility
More
about Terri Schiavo
Unitarian
Jihad needs to get rolling
Take
a stand, don’t go to church tomorrow
John
Roberts’ religious faith matters
Keep
religion, individual morality out of lawmaking
One
nation under God?
Beware
of the Christianists
“Thou
shalt doubt,” the first commandment
Bush’s
stem cell veto harkens back to the Middle Ages
Texas
governor says non-Christians are going to hell
Christopher Hitchens rips on Rev. Falwell — and religion
“Wall of Separation” looks like an American history con job
God-o-Meter rates religious candidates’ religiosity
Blind belief in religion and politics: bad, bad, bad
—

Radha Soami Satsang Beas
God’s
here, but I’ve got to go
What’s
in a name?
Religious
questioning is natural
Lighter
shades of ego
A
particular Way isn’t the only Way
Did
I see God in first class?
Wise
beyond her years
Cults,
religion, and science
“I”
is a humble word
More
criticism of Radha Soami Satsang Beas
An
honest embrace of faith
Become
one to know the One
My
religious unconversion
I’ve
been fired
Do
you need to kill the Buddha?
How
writing a book rewrote me
Gurus
and disciples–masters and slaves
Another
soul says “RSSB not for me”
Become
spiritually stronger, not weaker
Sant
Mat, version 2.0
Religion
should make us more humane, not less
Who
is the guru?
Go
ahead and believe
More
skepticism about Sant Mat
Theology
vs. reality in the RSSB teachings
I
don’t go to satsang, yet I do
Another
perspective on Sant Mat, version 2.0
God-man
or Asshole? The guru conundrum.
The
downside of guru bhakti
Going
beyond religious concepts
A
nasty truth, naked and rough
How
I wrote a holy book
Saying
“the end” to Sant Mat fairy tales
Top
ten signs you’re a fundamentalist satsangi
Who’s
afraid of this big bad blog?
Believers,
I’m even more deluded than you think
Gaining
an ear for religious disharmonies
Balancing
Sant Mat faith and doubt
A
thoughtful “no thanks” to Radha Soami Satsang Beas
Another
RSSB initiate sees the light
Churchless
doesn’t mean anti-church
Put
up or shut up, supposedly enlightened ones
A
memory of Roland deVries, the man who churched me
J.R.
Puri commits plagiarism in a RSSB book
Shabd
is a power, not a person
Blind
obedience a hallmark of cultish religion
How
would Jesus have us pee?
Sant
Mat looks like a religion
Some
South African Sant Mat questioning
Servitude,
sand, and satguru
Is Sant Mat a non-dual spiritual practice?
Sant Mat doesn’t make much sense to me anymore
Why I’m justified in complaining about Sant Mat
A message from an agnostic satsangi
Some Radhasoami UK Facebook excerpts
Ridiculing my own religious fundamentalism
I return to church. And sit through a sermon.
Sant Mat’s “five holy names” aren’t so holy
A koan for all guru-based faiths
Spirituality: following fences or bursting barriers?
Some darn good advice
Faith or falsehood? “I can’t wait to die”
RSSB’s strange fear of praise
When the old sermon doesn’t soar anymore
Thanks to thankfulness on Thanksgiving
Another RSSB initiate bites the dust
Liberalists vs. fundamentalists in Sant Mat
—

Reality
Reality
is shades of gray
Best
religion: reality. Worst religion: faith
Secret
of the universe
Existence
exists. Amazing!
Filtering
reality
Truth
comes in two guises
Something’s
happening here: Existence
Reasons
why “you” don’t exist
What
if this is all there is?
The
best one-sentence metaphysics ever written
Let
skepticism blossom
Humility
is being in touch with reality
Reality
or belief: which are you seeking?
The
changing face of faith
Hope
is the present moment
Reality
is a terrible thing to waste (on religion)
Deepening the mystery of existence
World picture puts a frame around reality
What is reality?
Maybe the meaning of life is…life
Getting down to rock-bottom reality
The positivity of unbelief
—

Religions
You’re
religious, but are you right?
Religion
should unite, not divide
Hell
joke’s serious side
Reason
unites, faith divides
Why
don’t religions evolve?
No
religion in National Spelling Bee
Why
I embrace unorganized religion
We
all believe in jihad
Religious
Americans: tolerant but gullible
Religion
is bad for societal health
What
are the odds?
Barbara
Walters special may be closest I’m getting to heaven
Throwing
stones at the devil–idiotic!
Jesus
says, “Beware of religion”
Tuning
in to religion-less religion
Yoism,
an open source religion
On
being spiritually lost
Are
you religious or spiritual? Take the test.
If
a religion can’t be wrong, it surely is
Americans
see four faces of God
Religion
as poetic expression
Sam
Harris makes “The Case Against Faith”
Hard-wired for religion
Being fuzzy is fine
Virginia Tech killer compared himself to Jesus. Crazy?
Viewing life through a narrow bandwidth of ideology
Going beyond “I am a (fill in the faith)”
What’s the favorite “religion” of the religion-less?
Religions aren’t alike. I think I know why.
On getting rid of those little men in your TV set
What’s wrong with me is wrong with religion
Scrupulosity, a religious mental illness
Krishna consciousness isn’t churchless
Religion as an art form
Religion, watch out for a grizzly bear with an EEG!
Religion’s desperate search for causes
Religion needs to dance – freely
What is religion?
—

Science
Reality
is the best religion 
Scale
of the universe
Creationism
is blasphemy
Big
bang stretches the mind
Knowledge,
belief, and feathered dinosaurs
A
witty rebuke to creationism
Science
is flexible, religion is rigid
Embracing
the oddness of everything
The
Vatican gets it right (for once)
Intelligent
design is creeping me out
Doubt
differentiates science and religion
Evolution
triumphs over intelligent design
Compared
to the cosmos, you’re nothing
Prayer
doesn’t work. It’s a fact.
Worshipping
at the altar of science
Poised
on the pivot point of uncertainty
Wisdom
from Carl Sagan: A pale blue dot
Evolution
is sacred, religion is profane
Intelligent
design believers settle for second-rate God
Science
shows God does not exist
God
vs. Science: guess who wins?
Digging
into the hard problem of consciousness
Global
warming and God’s will
Science is more spiritual than religion
Christian quantum gobbledygook
Science takes the honest path
Science keeps painting religion into a corner
Boltzmann brains can blow your mind
What reality is really made of
Arousal and quiescence in the mystical brain
Paul Davies’ “Cosmic Jackpot” comes up empty
—

Spiritual practice/meditation
Feeling
close to God 
All
masters but one are false
Meditating
like an extra-terrestrial
Lessons
in living from the Moken people
Spiritual
diversification, a sound salvation strategy
Spiritual
investing takes nothing
What’s
wrong with faith?
God,
can you hear me now?
Celebrate
your spiritual independence
Support
for the churchless
Uncertainty:
Be sure of it
What’s
your God experiment?
Seeing
clearly now
Don’t
believe, just have faith
Bursting
belief bubbles
I
reveal my mystical experiences
Dismantling
the golem project
Mantra
meditation: does God make it better?
Mantra
meditation: what’s in a word?
Mantra
meditation: it’s all about melting
Meditation
strengthens the brain
The
joy of uncertainty
Don’t
just do something, stand there!
Meditation
and space-time diagrams
Tell
yourself your spiritual secrets
Meditation
isn’t dog training
On
becoming the person you warned yourself about
Trust
your gut, not your thought
As
the steps disappear behind you
Start
erasing your spiritual blackboard
Freeing
ourselves from religious fantasy
Mantra
meditation: wax on or wax off?
Let
go. Then let go of letting go.
Spiritual
nomads
Turn
on, tune in, or drop out?
Wings
of love fly in two directions
Yes,
there are agnostics in dentist’s chairs
Adyashanti
bursts my orgasmic bubble
Unlearning
ventriloquism
Watch
out! The Discourager of Hesitancy is behind you
Flowing
vs. forcing: why religion strips my screw
Keeping
consciousness simple
Abandon
hope, all ye who seek
Stages
of spiritual growth: skeptics top believers
Meditation
teaches the brain new tricks
My
review of “The Secret” DVD points to a super-secret
Meaningful meaningless meditation
U-turns often lead to a better direction
Flowing with waves while sitting on the beach
Turn back, if you’re on the wrong road
Meditation is waking up to life
David James Duncan’s “In Praise of No Guide”
Seeking the truth is better than finding it
Skepticism is the fruit of knowledge
Blink! Don’t think. “Religion is…”
Wanting. Do I want it?
Ceaseless prayer: Christian vs. Sant Mat
Better to be truly real than falsely perfect
Ken Wilber’s “Integral Life Practice Kit” looks like a scam
“Into the Wild” an inspiration for churchless roamers
Loosening the bounds of “I am”
Time to fire our gurus
Don’t be a metaphor of yourself
—

Taoism
The
Rambling Taoist
Wu chi, empty fullness
Kung
fu meditating
The
journey between two steps
Three
laughers at the tiger ravine
Believing
in problems may be our only problem
Taoism–a
philosophy for fools
Taoism’s
Secret of the Golden Flower
Being
a blockhead has its pluses
Comic
strip and a Chinese sage both say: “Do it!”
Beneath buckets of thought, a formless thinking pool
When
pushing hands, or minds, relax the tension
Seven
secret sayings of God
Wine, women, and enlightenment
It takes two to Tao (and Tango)
Taoism’s “Mysterious Pass.” You’re in it, now!
Taoism wants us to be holey, not holy
Taoism’s empty hub vs. religion’s transcendent seal
Beyond religion’s No to Yes, Yes, Yes
Taoism and the Trinity
—

Universe
Who
should I thank on Thanksgiving?
Consider
a cosmos with no consciousness
Consider
a cosmos that is only consciousness
Hubble photo of deep space is naturally divine
No beginning. No end. The universe simply is.
—

Universism
Universism,
a kindred unfaith
Salem
Universists
Plunging
deeper into Universism
Greetings
to Salem churchless and churched
Salem
Universists meet, noisily
Our
churchless discussion group
Universism
makes front page of LA Times
Salem
Universists fail to answer life’s big questions
Herding
cats, Universism’s challenge
A
friendly critique of the Universist movement
I
abandon Universism
Death
of a religion: Universism’s strange demise

Vedanta
Vivekananda:
Strength 
Ramana:
Simplicity
Spirituality
in one word
Gangaji,
Eli, and Neo-Advaita hypocrisy
Worship
at your own doorstep
Surrendering to nothing outside myself

Wu Project
The
Wu Project
Wu
or Mu? I talk with a cow fancier.
Tracking
the trajectory of my Wu Project
Best
answer often is “None of the above”
Spiritual
emptiness: it’s a good thing
I’m
working on my Wu
Religious
knowledge totals exactly zero
The
glory of being spiritually lost
To
find God, get off the mind road
St.
John of the Cross: “nothing,” “nothing,”
“nothing”
The
joy of nihilism
Wu
is the way
When
nothing is something: God
Boundless existence — the backdrop to life’s meaning
My quest for the meaninglessness of life
Honoring the mystery that is me (and you)
You’re a strange loop (and that’s OK)
If I’m not an “I,” what am I?
Soul is superfluous
Me finding myself. And Van Morrison.
Sheer absence of soul reveals its nature
Wu t-shirt leads to philosophical conversations
Ibn ‘Arabi on the impossibility of becoming nothing
Absolute unitary being — nothing that’s really something
Nowhere to go, nothing to do, no one to become
—