Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Don’t just do something, stand there!

This topsy-turvy notion came to me today as I was pondering how every religion or spiritual path claims that it, and it alone, has the map that leads to the Treasure of All Treasures, variously termed salvation, nirvana, enlightenment, and so on. There are countless maps. Bible, Koran, Talmud, Dhammapada, Upanishads, Tao Te Ching, Adi Granth, many others. Believers in these supposedly sacred writings consider that they contain directions to a spiritual treasure chest. All you have to do is follow a particular way and eventually you’ll get the holy goodies. The problem, though, is that these maps lead every…
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Posted inUniversism

Salem Universists fail to answer life’s big questions

No answers, but great conversation about the questions. That’s how our Salem Universists monthly get-together went last night at the Blue Pepper coffee house. A couple of new members (who are a couple themselves) joined us: Eva and Matt. As Eva says on her Meetup member page, she and Matt recently escaped from Roseburg. Progressive, open-minded, and non-religious people that they are, living in Roseburg turned out not to be a good fit for these ex-San Diego residents. Eva noted that in southern California diversity is embraced; in most of rural Oregon, Christian conservatism is the accepted norm. Here are…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas Religions Science

Doubt differentiates science and religion

Here’s a simple way of determining whether you’re scientifically or religiously inclined: how do you feel about doubt? If you’re opposed to doubt, or even, well, doubtful about doubt, then you’re a religious sort. If you’re open to doubt, then you’re a scientific type. I got to thinking about the pros and cons of doubt after thumbing through the August 2005 issue of “Spiritual Link.” This magazine is published by Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), an organization based in India that also is referred to as the Science of the Soul or Sant Mat. I came across an article titled…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus Religions

The Chronicles of Narnia: a myth about a myth

Christians are getting excited about the release this week of “The Chronicles of Narnia,” a movie based on C.S. Lewis’ “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” fantastical allegory. Newsweek reports that “preachers are reportedly urged to give ‘Narnia’-themed sermons and invite non-Christians to see the movie with the congregation.” Well, when my daughter, Celeste, was young I read “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” to her. I don’t remember thinking, “Ah, how Christ-like is Aslan the lion.” Of course, maybe if I had been a Christian the allegory would, let’s say, have leapt out at me. A few…
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Posted inHumor Religions

Prize for proof of superior religion

Do you believe that your religion is The One, the most fabulous faith in the whole wide world? Do you have a convincing reason why your belief should be believed? If so, you’re on the inside track to winning 25,000 yen, courtesy of The Huge Entity’s “Can You Prove Religious Superiority?” competition. Now, before you get all excited about the new car you’re going to be able to buy, I should point out that according to the XE.com currency converter your prize will be a not-so-huge $207.51. But, hey, that would buy a bunch of Bibles, Torahs, Korans, Dhammapadas, Adi…
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Posted inGod Miracles

A personal relationship with God, good or bad?

I continue to think about whether I even want a personal relationship with “God” (leaving that term suitably vague and undefined, per my churchless bent). As I observed recently, the idea that God is right by my side, watching everything that I do, is creepy and voyeuristic, similar to fears about what the Department of Homeland Security might become, except a lot more omnipresent and omniscient. Omnipotent too. Because most conceptions of a personal God presume that He/She/It can intervene in the affairs of the person with whom God has a personal relationship. This makes sense. How can you have…
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Posted inGod Radha Soami Satsang Beas

Is God really watching me?

The notion of a personal God who sees everything that we’re doing, and intervenes in our lives when He/She/It feels like it, seems increasingly strange to me. It just sounds too much like “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” He’s…gonna find out who’s naughty and nice…He sees you when you’re sleeping. He knows when you’re awake. He knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake! Also, for the sake of getting presents on Christmas Day. Just as believers in a personal God expect that they’ll be rewarded after death with salvation for being such a…
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Posted inMystics

Kabir, a patron saint of spiritual independence

I love Kabir. He was a fifteenth century North Indian poet and mystic who “preached an abrasive, sometimes shocking, always uncompromising message exhorting his audience to shed their delusions, pretensions, and empty orthodoxies in favor of an intense, direct, and personal confrontation with truth.” That quote is from the back cover of Linda Hess’s masterful treatment of “The Bijak of Kabir.” There are many sides to Kabir. He’s impossible to pin down. Yet various religions and spiritual paths—such as Sikhism and Sant Mat—try to make him into one of their own. A relentless critic of organized religion, Kabir would have…
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Posted inBuddhism Spiritual practice/meditation Taoism/Tai Chi

The joy of uncertainty

Admittedly, uncertainty is in a different league than sex. Yet it is as valid to praise the joy of uncertainty as the joy of sex. They both promise prodigious pleasure to those willing to take some risks and leave the familiar boundaries of the known. When I speak of uncertainty I’m mainly referring to the spiritual variety: the embrace of mystery and not-knowing, opening yourself to higher truths in any sort of form they may present themselves, casting aside rigid programmed beliefs in favor of surprise me! But you can’t confine uncertainty. It’s everywhere. It’s part and parcel of life…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus Science

Intelligent design is creeping me out

I just read an anecdote about the visit of an intelligent design advocate’s son to Disneyland. It creeped me out. Not only because I feel sorry that this boy’s critical thinking ability is being squashed, but also because the story reveals how Christian fundamentalists want to usurp science, and indeed the whole American culture, for their own ends. Yesterday I wrote on my HinesSight weblog about how intelligent designers are out to Christianize America. This morning I read a few more chapters in the book that my post was based on, “Signs of Intelligence.” Actually, it should have been called…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation Taoism/Tai Chi

The journey between two steps

My Tai Chi class is a wonderful mix of Taoist movement and philosophy. I loved this phrase as soon as it left a fellow student’s lips: “the journey between two steps.” Thank you, Josette. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around what it means, but intuitively it strikes me as being the key to almost everything. We’re always on the way to somewhere, taking the next step on our life’s path. Even before we’ve fully settled into the place we’ve just reached, our intention is making plans for moving to another location—whether it be physical, mental, or spiritual. Goals,…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Meditation strengthens the brain

Here’s some good news for meditators from Massachusetts General Hospital researchers: meditation seems to thicken the brain and might slow down age-related atrophy. I’ve done a lot of meditation over the past thirty-six years. I can’t point to any conclusive evidence that all those hours spent trying to concentrate have brought me spiritual benefit, but it’s encouraging to learn that I might well be doing positive things to my physical brain. The subjects in the Mass General study were practitioners of Buddhist insight meditation. Their focus was “mindfulness,” following the breath, sensations, and mental states in a non-judgmental manner. I’ve…
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Posted inUniversism

Universism makes front page of LA Times

The faithless are rising! At least, they’ve risen to the front page of the Los Angeles Times, where “Doubt is Their Co-Pilot” raised the national profile of Universism, a national movement that I’m proud to be a part of. The founder of Universism (Ford Vox) told me that he’d given my phone number to the LA Times reporter but she never called. Sigh… However, the article does mention Salem, Ore as one of just a handful of Universist discussion groups in the United States, so I sort of made the front page of the Times. You just have to read…
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Posted inPlotinus

The Neoplatonic Church

A few days ago I heard from Eric Grainger about a recently formed Neoplatonic Church. It’s a great idea. The world needs more Neoplatonism and less fundamentalism, that’s for sure. Eric wanted to post my “Become One to know the One” essay about Plotinus’s spiritual teachings on the Church’s web site. I told him, sure. It’s now on the Meditation and Contemplation page. Plotinus’s Neoplatonism is a marvelously appealing blend of rationality and mysticism. Some philosophies and religions are highly rational; others are highly mystical. But if someone wants a spirituality that embraces both reason and mystery, nothing can beat…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Mantra meditation: it’s all about melting

All these words in my head forming such marvelous conceptual structures, thought turrets soaring into an abstract sky. How wonderful to feel them melting down, icy stuck ideas turning into smooth flowing mystery. For me, that’s what mantra meditation is all about: dissolving the mental temple where we worship our notions about God, not the real deal itself. I believe in being churchless. But it doesn’t do any good to stay away from physical religious institutions if we’ve got rigid beliefs firmly instituted in our own minds. As I’ve been writing about recently in my (now) three-part post series on…
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Posted inGod Spiritual practice/meditation

God, go to hell

Cursing God is my response to Pat Robertson’s warning to Pennsylvania voters of divine wrath after they ejected a school board that ordered creationism lessons. Being scientifically minded, I feel that an experiment is in order: if there’s a God who gets ticked off just by creationism/intelligent design supporters being voted out of office, then he, she, or it should really become peeved at my telling him, her, or it to go to hell. So either me or whoever will inherit this Church of the Churchless blog (should I fail to survive this test) will let you know if anything…
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Posted inBuddhism Spiritual practice/meditation

Mantra meditation: what’s in a word?

If I had a penny for every time I’ve repeated a mantra during the thirty-six years I’ve been meditating, I’d have something to show for all the words I’ve spoken in my head. But I don’t. So, what’s in a word? What’s the point of saying a mantra over and over, whether it be during a designated meditation period or at other times during the day? Christians use mantras. “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me” was endlessly repeated by the Russian whose tale is told in “The Way of a Pilgrim.” Buddhists use mantras. “Namu amida butsu” (I take…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

Mantra meditation: does God make it better?

“Love, love, love.” “ God is love, God is love, God is love.” “I am love, I am love, I am love.” Three mantras that could be repeated in meditation. Which is better? This question was addressed in research reported in the September 3, 2005 issue of NewScientist. The conclusion was that “If meditation is good, God makes it better.” After randomly assigning students to three groups, researchers found that the spiritual meditation group (which concentrated on a phrase such as “God is love” or “God is peace”) showed greater reductions in anxiety and a higher pain tolerance than a…
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Posted inReligions Science

The Vatican gets it right (for once)

My thanks to Steve, a Church of the Churchless reader, for letting me know that the Vatican says the faithful should listen to science. Since it is likely that a majority of U.S. Supreme Court justices soon will be Catholics, maybe this will help spur the court to make a correct decision if an Evolution v. Intelligent Design case comes up. It was encouraging to hear that at least some Vatican functionaries have a decent understanding of what differentiates evolution and intelligent design/creationism: proof. Monsignor Gianfranco Basti, director of the Vatican project STOQ, or Science, Theology and Ontological Quest, reaffirmed…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories Radha Soami Satsang Beas

How writing a book rewrote me

A few days ago I got around to looking through a bunch of unanswered emails. I came across a message in which someone asked me to elaborate on a quote from my July 14 post on “Filtering Reality.” An aside: it’s sort of ironic (or, some might say, karmic) how I began working on a book that ended up changing how I viewed Radha Soami Satsang Beas and, more generally, my whole approach to spirituality. Radha Soami Satsang Beas, or RSSB, is the India-headquartered spiritual group that I’ve been associated with for some thirty-five years. The “ironic” aspect of the…
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