Posted inMystics

Why be shy about sharing mystical experiences?

I'm an admirer of Taoism. I resonate with these lines in the Tao Te Ching:The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.Those who know do not talk.Those who talk do not know.Makes sense. How could the essence of the cosmos be encompassed by words? The human mind wasn't around at the big bang some 14 billion years ago, so it's difficult to see how a verbal explanation could capture the fullness of ultimate reality.But silence has another side: speaking. Yin and yang are manifestations of the Tao. Too much of anything, for too long, is unnatural. We've…
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Posted inReligions Spiritual practice/meditation

Why every religion and spiritual path is wrong

I've just finished reading my bajillionth (more or less) spiritual, mystical, religious, or philosophical book. You could call me a slow learner, but today I had a mini-enlightenment. It dawned on me -- more clearly than ever before -- why every religion and spiritual path is wrong. More precisely, wrong for everybody but one person: the guy or gal who had the initial religious or spiritual experience that led to a claim that it is right for everybody. A personal experience is just that: one person's experience. End of story. But if that person shares his or her tale with…
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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…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Deconversion is as natural as conversion

I enjoy hearing deconversion stories -- how people changed from being religious believers into atheists or agnostics. But "conversion" and "deconversion" are two sides of the same coin. Everybody who is converted to a faith, such as Christianity, was simultaneously deconverted from some other philosophy, belief system, religion, or point of view.Our lives are ever-changing. When change stops, we're dead. So it's natural to convert, deconvert, convert, deconvert... for as long as we're alive. I converted to mueslix for a while, then deconverted to granola. Now I've converted to raisin bran. (Leaving out many other earlier cereal choices, such as…
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Posted inReality

Church of Reality is a good place to worship

Ask, and you shall receive. A few months ago I wrote "Wanted: a religion that reflects reality." Recently someone left a comment on that post pointing me toward The Church of Reality. It's worth browsing around. I like the tagline, If it's real, we believe in it! Also, We are realists practicing realism, winning souls for Darwin!Welcome to the Church of Reality. Welcome to the Real World. That's our church greeting. Thank you for visiting our web site. If you are frustrated with the current state of the religious world and looking for some sanity, you came to the right…
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Posted inVedanta/Advaita Wu Project

Non-dualism is non-sensical, but I like it

Many things in life don't make sense, yet are enjoyable. Lost, the TV series, comes to mind. After every episode my wife and I look at each other and say, "What the heck was that all about?" Most of the time we've got no idea what's going on. It's an entertaining ride on the Confusion Express, though.I feel similarly about nondualism, as noted in a recent post. This is the "not two" (but also not one) mystical philosophy that underlies Vedanta, some forms of Buddhism, and various other faiths.I'm enjoying a book I've started reading: "Everything is God: The Radical…
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Posted inHumor Reality

The universe is a paper bag turned inside out

Some forty-two years ago, back in 1968, I had a revelation: The universe is a paper bag turned inside out. Now, at the time I had some reasons to doubt the veracity of this insight into ultimate reality, since it was fueled by mescaline and dissipated the following day. But another guy and I intuited this truth at the exact same moment. Far out. Today I've gotten confirmation that, indeed, the universe is a bag turned inside out. Tucson, a regular Church of the Churchless visitor, left a comment on this blog post that said, in part:Our perception is like…
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Posted inFundamentalism

Faith healing kills another Oregon child

Last year the father of Ava Worthington was convicted of criminal neglect for allowing his child to die rather than seek medical attention. Ava had the misfortune of being born to parents belonging to Oregon's Followers of Christ church, where children die at an alarming rate because of crazy faith healing beliefs.An investigation by The Oregonian claimed that at least 21 out of 78 minors found to be buried in the church cemetery died of preventable causes, including simple infections which would be easily treated with routine antibiotics.Now, make that 23. The parents of teenager Neil Beagley (grandparents of Ava)…
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Posted inBooks Vedanta/Advaita

Non-duality both appeals and repels (appropriately)

Here's my bottom line on non-dualism: it's either (1) the best take on ultimate reality that humans have ever come up with, or (2) a total crock of shit. Of course, if (1) is the case then seemingly both (1) and (2) are true -- since either/or distinctions don't have much of a place in non-dualism.I got to pondering this stuff after Amazon sucked me in this morning with one of their irritatingly accurate emails. (If there is a God, his name is Jeff Bezos).Amazon apparently looks at the books I buy and then correlates them with other books favored…
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Posted inGod

If God punishes people with earthquakes, to hell with God

When I heard Christian fundamentalist Pat Robertson say that the Haitians "have been cursed by one thing after another" after they made a pact with the devil (actually voodoo), at first I vowed to ignore his idiocy -- not wanting to give him any publicity even in criticizing him.But Lisa Miller's recent interesting article in Newsweek, "Why God Hates Haiti: the frustrating theology of suffering" brought me to change my mind.In his narrow, malicious way, Robertson is making a First Commandment argument: when the God of Israel thunders from his mountaintop that "you shall have no other gods before me,"…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Gurinder Singh’s remarks on Sam Busa’s death

Sam Busa, the South African representative of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (an Indian spiritual group) for some 55 years died recently. The current guru of the organization, Gurinder Singh Dhillon, sent this message to Busa's family.Dear ______, I was informed about Sam's passing. Rest assured Sam is in a much better place now, free from all suffering and concerns.  His guidance and help which he gave tirelessly to the sangat in South Africa for so many years will be greatly missed. He lived a full and complete life.  He is once again united with his beloved Master. Though you will all…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Float gently on a stream of consciousness

Since I've become churchless -- a convert to no-religion -- one of the more ridiculous things I hear from true believers is: So you've given up on finding the truth.No! That's entirely untrue. I've simply realized that the most fundamental questions about life, reality, and what, if anything, lies beyond the physical can't be answered via blind faith, dogma, preconceived ideas, or rigid ritualistic practices.Here's some questions that I find fascinating:What is the essence of consciousness?Does a "soul" exist separate, or separable, from the body?Are humans part of a larger whole, or just a part?Is our usual view of reality…
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Posted inBooks Science

“Natural Reflections” shows how science is superior

I've finished reading Barbara Herrnstein Smith's "Natural Reflections," which I blogged about before on the basis of a New York Times review.Smith's main thesis is that science and religion are, well, natural reflections of each other. This is a seriously scholarly book and I'm not crystal clear about what she means by this. But her final two paragraphs summarize her case in an agreeable fashion.Scientists share cognitive tendencies, achievements, and limits with nonscientists; religious believers share them with nonbelievers. Although each may put the world together and conduct his or her life in ways that are at odds with or…
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Posted inMiscellaneous

The spirituality of “Avatar” (the movie)

My wife and I saw "Avatar" last night in all of its 3-D, Dolby Digital glory. I loved the movie. It inspired me politically, but Avatar's spiritual message is even more powerful -- and more universal.I mean, right-wingers don't like the movie's anti-corporate, pro-environmentalism theme. But who doesn't resonate with the all is one philosophy of the Na'vi, the indigenous people of Pandora whose beautiful earth-like moon is threatened by human invaders seeking a precious mineral, Unobtainium. Even a Christian minister could get behind the Na'vi nature-based spirituality.The Na'vi (per Indigenous tradition) are incredibly spiritual, sharing a connectedness hard to describe.…
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Posted inMystics

There’s no “Perfect living master” or “God man”

Most religions believe that it's possible for a perfect human being to walk the Earth who is intimately connected with divinity, if not identical with it. (Almost always they're male, so this is why I said God man in the title to this post.)As noted in a previous post, there are numerous candidates for this supremely elevated GIHF (god in human form) position. As some Vedanta folks point out, there are quite a few historical contenders for a GIHF appellation. Jesus, Buddha, Rama, Krishna, Moses, Muhammad, Chaitanya, Ramakrishna are cited, though some of these names are questionable candidates. (Buddha didn't…
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Posted inHumor

Non-dual cartoons point way to enlightenment (or, not)

One of the favorite people crazed cartoon characters I follow on Twitter is MonkMojo. I've learned a lot about non-dualism and Zen from reading his clever tweets. Saying that, of course, means that I haven't learned a thing. But who gives a shit? A smile is close to enlightenment, which is one of the idiotic cliches that MonkMojo enjoys demolishing. Here's some sample MonkMojo tweets. (RT means a re-tweet; what follows the || is MonkMojo's add-on).RT @Yojinbo: wasn't impressed w/ the response I got from Houston Zen Center when I was in prison: no response. || Sounds pretty Zen 2…
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Posted inGod

The Last Bread: how to find God

A. Mohit emailed me a link to his short essay, "The Last Bread." Nicely said. I agree with most of the "live now and reject religion" sentiment. Mohit has written "One God in You and Me: Freedom from Religion."
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Posted inReligions Science

Science and religion are so different, they aren’t at odds

Who worries about reconciling the deep philosophical meaning of rap music and bird watching? Or professional basketball and quantum physics? Or motorcycle maintenance and ballet dancing?Maybe science and religion are similar to these examples, because they are so different. Not only that, perhaps all the vigorous debates over the centuries about whether science or religion is closer to ultimate truth misses the point:There isn't any #1, alpha dog, primo, unsurpassed approach to knowing reality. All we have are various ways of dealing with reality. This is, more or less, what the central theme of Barbara Herrnstein Smith's recently released book,…
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Posted inReligions

Memorial service shows sad side of religion

Recently I attended a memorial service for my sister. She died about a month ago. I was sad the day I learned the news, but had largely come to terms with her death. I didn't expect the service to be a laugh-fest, but its rather gloomy nature surprised me. Religion seemingly was to blame. My sister wasn't at all religious, but the memorial service was held at a funeral chapel that reeked of religiosity. Walking in with my wife and brother-in-law, we were met by the black-suited proprietor who gravely, so to speak, said: "I'm so sorry for the pain…
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Posted inMorality

Obeying God is immoral

When we were little children, we had to obey our parents. Conversations like this are common:Child: "Why do I have to clean my room?"Parent: "Because! Now go clean your room!"Religious fundamentalists haven't progressed out of this child-like authoritarian morality. If God or a representative of the Big Man Upstairs (such as a guru, preacher, or whoever) says to do such-and-such, that's the end of the story.Obedience is valued above ethics. And that's weird, as evangelist turned atheist Dan Barker says in his book, "Godless."When someone tells you to do something it is natural to ask, "Why?" Why remember the Sabbath?…
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