Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Return to the Source via Parkour (nature, not God)

Hey, this looks like a fine Church of the Churchless video "sermon" to me. Get whatever meaning you like from it, as I did. From my 64 year-old perspective, this parkour'ing guy reminded me of what it felt like to be young, fearless, and wildly energetic. I guess we never really lose those qualities, psychologically speaking. But physically... I'll leave what this guy does to him. (Thanks to David Chapman for sharing the video via a tweet.)  
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Posted inReality Spiritual practice/meditation

How likely is it that your supernatural beliefs are true?

About seven years ago I wrote a blog post called "What are the chances you're right about God?" It's a great question. I started off the post with: More and more, for me spirituality comes down to two basics: “What are the chances?” and “The odds are pretty good.” The first question points me toward humble skepticism, the second toward energetic inquiry. Here’s what I mean: What are the chances…?--That my chosen religion or philosophy, out of the thousands of religions in the world, just happens to be the one that is right about God, while the others are wrong.--That…
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Posted inHumor

A woman’s shapely body proclaims the glory of the Lord!

Once in a while I find some Christian beliefs that I can heartily agree with. Such as this excerpt from Sharon Hodde Miller's "How 'Modest is Hottest' is Hurting Christian Women." Second, we must affirm the value of the female body. The value or meaning of a woman's body is not the reason for modesty. Women's bodies are not inherently distracting or tempting. On the contrary, women's bodies glorify God. Dare I say that a woman's breasts, hips, bottom, and lips all proclaim the glory of the Lord! Each womanly part honors Him. He created the female body, and it is…
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Posted inScience

Uncertainty principle doesn’t support observer-created reality

I wish I could create reality through my intention. Believe me, I've tried. After the Mini Cooper (modern version) was released, I put a lot of time and energy into visualizing a Mini manifesting in our carport.  I even promised whatever god might be hearing my "prayer," that if he/she/it made a Mini Cooper appear, along with a clear sign of the god's identity in the driver's seat (holy book, divine icon, other form of sacred communication), I'd make a highly public conversion and start worshipping that god. Alas, no luck. Eventually I did get a Mini Cooper, but only…
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Posted inScience

Your brain on drugs is like your brain NOT on drugs

Even though I used lots of psychedelic drugs in my college years, my brain is able to readily remember the War on Drugs campaign that featured the slogan, "This is Your Brain on Drugs." Along with a photo of eggs sizzling in a pan.  Ooh! Scary! If I take drugs, my brain will be cooked! Well, not really, because I functioned just fine before, during, and after my drug years. Here's an even better non-anecdotal neuroscientific reason: the brain is always on drugs. If the brain wasn't, it couldn't function.  So explains Steven Johnson in his book, Mind Wide Open.…
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Posted inBuddhism

Jet-setting money-hungry fugitive Thailand monk

It's good to see that Buddhist monks are getting into the scandal business. For too long they've pretty much gotten a pass on the can you believe they did this?! front. Way behind Catholic priests, for sure. But thanks to someone who emailed me a link to this story, I'm now aware of a Thailand monk who breaks the traditional Buddhist mold. He's known as Thailand's jet-setting fugitive monk, and his story has riveted the country with daily headlines of lavish excess, promiscuity and alleged crimes ranging from statutory rape to manslaughter. Until a month ago, 33-year old Wirapol Sukphol…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories Reality

Be confident in what you believe, knowing you could be wrong

In one of Huston Smith's books he mentions a Zen friend who has a new koan: "I could be wrong." I loved those words when I came across them.  This is the crux (or at least one of the crux's... or cruxii?) of being human.  We have to go through life confidently. Dithering is a poor excuse for genuine living. And dancing. I learned this early on when my wife and I started taking ballroom dance lessons. The man usually is the leader. It's much better if he decisively does something wrong, then hesitate while the beat of the music…
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Posted inScience

Science (and common sense) finds no sign of the soul

I'd happily believe that I have, or am, a soul if there was any good evidence that soul animates the body. Instead, it's pretty damn clear that the physical human brain is the source of notions about the soul.  A nice fantasy, because almost everyone likes the idea of living on after the body dies. However, Stephen Cave's article in Skeptic magazine, "What Science Really Says About the Soul," demolishes familiar arguments for the existence of a non-material me. I was pleased to see that Cave makes many of the same points that I have in posts about the brain/soul.…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Osho Robbins’ Sant Mat 2.0

Today I came across a Twitter tweet by Osho Robbins which reminded me of the post I put up in 2011 about his three videos that describe Sant Mat 2.0. I re-watched the videos shared in "How Sant Mat is moving from duality to oneness." Liked them even better second time around. Even if you don't know much about the updated and original versions of the Sant Mat philosophy Robbins talks about, his basic distinction between duality and oneness is quite universal. Realization-wise, there's nothing to do if reality is one, because there is no independent doer nor anything outside…
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Posted inBooks Spiritual practice/meditation

The supreme fiction of Wallace Stevens

Following up on my previous post about John Gray's "The Silence of Animals," here's some passages from another part of the book that I liked a lot, a section called The Supreme Fiction.  This is pretty much how I've come to look upon spirituality: believing in a fiction that we know to be such. Not true, but attractive.  When I read a well-written fictional book, I can get so absorbed in the tale that I forget this is just a story. Likewise with an engrossing movie. What makes such books and movies so enjoyable is their capacity to transport me…
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Posted inBooks

John Gray’s “The Silence of Animals” rejects humanism as a myth

This book, "The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Myths," is as wonderfully strange as its title. It was fitting that I was led to buy it in a strange way. After reading a highly critical review of it by Thomas Nagel in the New York Times. Nagel started off his review in this fashion: John Gray’s “Silence of Animals” is an attack on humanism. He condemns this widely accepted secular faith as a form of delusional self-flattery. “In the most general terms,” he tells us, “humanism is the idea that the human animal is the site of some…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Two good New Scientist letters about our inner voice

Last month I blogged about an article in New Scientist regarding inner speeech, inner dialogue, the voices inside our heads, or whatever you want to call it. In the June 22 issue there were two interesting letters about this article. Here's the first one: From Brian Reffin SmithYour article on inner voices was fascinating (1 June, p. 32). I often solve problems or rehearse a text, such as a lecture, in my head. Saying it out loud destroys the moment, with just fragments remaining from some beautiful yet fragile structure. It seems, in that moment, so simple to see the…
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Posted inGod Spiritual practice/meditation

We can feel soulful…without a soul

I enjoy feeling spiritual. But I don't believe in spirit any more. I know what it's like to be soulful. But I don't believe in soul any more. I like to talk to God. But I don't believe in God any more. I'm not crazy. Nor at odds with myself. Nor out of touch with reality. I'm just a normal human being, living a normal human life.  As noted in my previous post, the brains of Homo sapiens' have come up with all kinds of amazing concepts. We are creative thinkers. Unlike other mammals (so far as is known), people…
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Posted inScience

There isn’t any science of the soul

Being scientifically-minded and liking the notion of an immortal soul (dying and living forever beats dying and being gone forever), I used to believe that a "science of the soul" was possible. Meaning, we humans could experiment with our own consciousness -- tweaking normal ways of thinking, perceiving, feeling, and such until evidence of soul'ness was unmistakable. Mostly this would happen through closed-eyes meditation, "going within" one's self until the essence of consciousness, soul, was separated from the non-essential aspects. Dualism, of course, is the basic philosophical premise of a science of the soul. Soul is distinct from body; spirit…
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Posted inBuddhism Spiritual practice/meditation

Good article on mindfulness meditation

As sort of a counterpoint to a recent post, Buddhists are wrong about a "witnessing mind," check out How Meditation Works. This story in The Atlantic is a good overview of mindfulness meditation from a secular scientific perspective. I still wonder what it means to watch thoughts arise or be aware of emotions blossoming. Hard to believe that our consciousness is outside of the brain where all of this stuff is going on. Thus it sure seems like being "mindful" of what the mind is doing is another activity of the mind that we can be mindful of. And, of…
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Posted inBooks Christianity/Jesus

Eben Alexander’s “proof of heaven” has been disproved

Well, it turns out that my skepticism about Eben Alexander's so-called "proof of heaven" (title of the book he wrote) was well-founded.  An investigation by Esquire magazine found all kinds of problems with Alexander's tale, including his credibility. The resulting article, The Prophet, costs $1.99 to read if you're not an Esquire subscriber.  I paid up. After reading the well-written piece, I feel like I got my money's worth. The four "don't believe him!" posts I've written about Alexander, here, here, here, and here, now are shown to have been valid, while Alexander's claims are either deusional or worse --…
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Posted inBuddhism Spiritual practice/meditation

Buddhists are wrong about a “witnessing mind”

OK, admitted: my previous post about a Speculative Non-Buddhism essay was pretty damn intellectually intense for summer reading.  I thought of writing about something lighter today, but decided to make another attempt at conveying what I like about what little I know about what those guys at Speculative Non-Buddhism seem to be up to. (Hope that last sentence conveys my uncertainty about what their goal is; these are the most articulate, deep, philosophically-sophisticated Buddhists-who-aren't-really- Buddhists I've ever come across; hard to fathom them after just a little reading.) First, a note about my own split personality toward Buddhism. Part of me…
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Posted inBuddhism

Interesting take on how Shin Buddhism supports social activism

I don't claim to fully understand Tom Pepper's "The Radical Potential of Shin Buddhism." But then, I don't claim to fully understand anything.  The vestiges of other-worldly mysticism remaining in my mind have found Pure Land Buddhism both utterly unbelievable and also strangely compelling. After all, what's not to like about reciting Namu Amida Butsu and earning a ticket to Nirvana Land? Sure beats other forms of Buddhism that require you to engage in all sorts of arduous practices, including back-breaking, mind-numbing meditation for ever and ever (almost).  But Pepper presents a view of Shin/Shinran Buddhism that tosses out its unbelievable…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Recollections of Sant Mat and Charan Singh

Here's a mildly edited email message that I received recently from someone whose connection with Master Charan Singh, Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), and Sant Mat started about the same time mine did. I added some links and bracketed explanations of terms. His thoughts brought back memories, and stimulated some new ideas. He gave me the OK to share his message in a blog post. It's an interesting rendition of how someone can be converted to a faith, and then deconverted. Dear Brian: Reading your blog evokes recollections that have long been dormant. What a compendium of experience I long since…
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