Posted inPersonal/Stories Radha Soami Satsang Beas

What’s in a name?

Jesus. Buddha. Mohammed. Moses. Sankara. It’s interesting that each of these great sages of Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, and Hinduism is known by one name. Ditto with God, Allah, Brahman. In spirituality, simple names seem to go with profound people and ultimate concepts. This came to mind after I got an email message from a Indian man in England with whom I had previously corresponded. He apparently had read my “God’s here, but I’ve got to go” post where I reminisced about having to pee really bad while sitting in the midst of tens of thousand of devotees attending a…
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Posted inBooks Mystics

Five books to support the churchless

Come December all kinds of “Best Whatever” lists pop up. Best Movies, Best Albums, Best TV Shows, and many more. Maybe that’s why I feel the spirit to list my favorite five books to support the churchless, those who are spiritual but don’t belong to an organized religion that has its own pre-selected holy writings. These are books that I read and then re-read. These are books that I could read a thousand times and still feel like I am reading them for the first time. Why? Because I’ll never plumb the depths of their mystical-spiritual messages. Or perhaps I…
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Posted inMiracles

O Miracles, where art thou?

For many people this time of year is a time to celebrate miracles. For Christians, Jesus’ virgin birth and resurrection. For Jews, a one day supply of temple lamp oil that burns for eight days. Christians seem to have the edge in the miracle department—birth and death being more dramatic than a burning lamp—but I never fail to wonder, “Where have all the miracles gone?” Never, ever, not even once, has there been a thoroughly documented miracle worthy of a National Academy of Sciences stamp of approval. Most miracles worthy of their name are reputed to have occurred hundreds of…
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Posted inPolitics Science

Religious values have no place in politics

“I won’t curse in your church if you won’t pray in the polling place.” This saying, freshly coined by yours truly, never will be as well-known as a similarly phrased pithy epigram. But I wish it would. For the problem of people peeing in pools pales in comparison to the problem of religious believers polluting politics by voting on the basis of faith-based values. U.S. News & World Report conservative columnist John Leo argues just the opposite in his November 29 piece, “Don’t discount moral views.” Per usual, much of his column makes little sense. But the last part of…
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Posted inGod Religions Spiritual practice/meditation

You’re religious, but are you right?

Most religious believers live in their own version of Lake Woebegone. In Garrison Keillor’s mythical locale all the children are above average. Similarly, in these believers’ mental habitation everyone is right about God. This is truly strange. And what is even stranger is that so few people stop to consider its strangeness. Religious Tolerance.org cites a survey of churches and religions that finds 19 major world religions subdivided into 270 large religious groups and many smaller ones. The four largest religions are Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. The fundamental beliefs of each one are incompatible with the other three. Even…
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Posted inHumor Personal/Stories Radha Soami Satsang Beas

God’s here, but I’ve got to go

If Jesus returned to earth and you were part of the multitudes listening to him preach in person, what would you do if you had to go to the bathroom? This is the sort of deep theological question that we love to consider here at the Church of the Churchless. It also was a deep experiential quandary for me back in December of 1977 when I made my first visit to India. I went to see the guru, Charan Singh, who had initiated me by proxy six and a half years earlier. I had never seen Charan Singh in person,…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus Fundamentalism

How to talk to a fundamentalist

This is both an important question, and the working title of a book that a bunch of us are hoping to get Bill Long, a recovered evangelical Christian, to write. Bill understands the fundamentalist mindset much better than I do, so I’m looking forward to reading his thoughts on this subject. Here are a few of my own, stimulated by watching a few minutes of a recent Larry King show. King was interviewing Rick Warren, a minister and author of “The Purpose Driven Life.” This is a best-seller that Warren’s web site says will help “readers understand God’s incredible plan…
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Posted inBasics of our faithless faith

Our Creedless Creed

Note: to make this Creed more readable, some qualifiers have been omitted. So "God" signifies God/ultimate reality/final truth, not just a personal divinity. And "religion" signifies religion/spiritual path/philosophy, not just a mainstream theology. There is no objective proof that any religion knows the truth about God. If there were such proof, most people on Earth would have converted to that faith long ago and all scientists would be believers.Spirituality thus is an individual affair. Proof of any metaphysical realities that exist will be subjective, not demonstrable to others.Every person has the right to pursue their own spiritual quest without interference,…
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Posted inBasics of our faithless faith

Church symbol

[Note: This post refers to a previous Church of the Churchless symbol, shown below.] Our church's symbol is part of the Ten Oxherding Pictures that express the essence of Zen Buddhism. This picture is number eight in the series. In the words of Kakuan Zenji, it represents an evolved Zen realization: This "I" (person) which had been seeking, and the essential self (ox), which has been the object of our search, did not exist at all. Click on the link above to read the whole story of the Ten Oxherding Pictures. What I like about this stage, number eight, is…
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Posted inBasics of our faithless faith

How do I join?

We all want to belong. The Church of the Churchless welcomes those who feel like they don't belong, even if they are members of an organized religion or spiritual faith. You can be a member and not belong. You can sit through a communal service, sermon, celebration, or cermony, and still say to yourself: I don't belong here. You are going through the outward motions of what it means to be a member, but deep down you know that somewhere else is your real spiritual home. A lot of people feel this way. No one is alone in feeling alone.…
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Posted inBasics of our faithless faith

Just have faith

Faith is wonderful. Faith is all we need to be spiritual. Just faith. Faith alone. So we shouldn't have faith in anything other than pure, naked, empty faith. What is faith stripped of thought, emotion, perception, expectation, imagination? Whatever it is, that's what we are seeking. Such is the message at the mystical core of every deep spiritual teaching. A few examples: Christianity: "Be silent therefore, and do not chatter about God, for by chattering about him, you tell lies and commit a sin....Also you should not wish to understand anything about God, for God is beyond all understanding....If you…
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Posted inBasics of our faithless faith

Spiritual non-practice

"Practice makes perfect." Usually a true slogan.But not when it comes to perfecting spirituality.Here at the Church of the Churchless we don't believe in spiritual practice.We believe in spiritual non-practice. Let me explain. Practicing basketball isn't going to make you a practiced piano player. You have to practice the activity you want to become good at, not some other activity. But is this what most members of religions and supposedly spiritual paths do? No, they assiduously practice worldliness, not spirituality. Don't be deceived by the outward appearance of religiosity; a bank robber wearing a nun's habit as a disguise isn't…
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Posted inAbout this site--start here

Welcome to the Church of the Churchless

If you are spiritual but not religious, If you don't belong to an organized faith but sometimes wish you did, Or if you do belong but sometimes wish you didn't, Welcome to the Church of the Churchless. If you are tired of dogma that divides rather than unites, That demands blind faith rather than open-eyed investigation, That proclaims "You'll see when you believe" Instead of "You'll believe when you see," Welcome to the Church of the Churchless. You can browse the Church messages, or posts, in various ways. The ten most recent posts are in chronological order on the home…
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