Posted inComments

I’m also surprised I’m not dead yet

I enjoy getting comments from readers of this blog, even those who want me dead. Can't resist making some observations on what Kaur said. Looks like President Trump's oft-repeated "fake news" lie has made its way to India. On behalf of all rational journalism-loving Americans, I apologize for this export of ours. Here's some real news. Actually, I started this blog in 2004 because Christian religious fundamentalists played a big role in re-electing George W. Bush as president. And, I'd come to see the downsides of all religions.  Thanks for the compliment about me being shrewd. And for spelling it…
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Posted inBooks Death/Rebirth

What sustains us is caring in time, not detachment in eternity

I was wrong. In my blog post about a review of "This Life: Secular Faith and Spiritual Freedom," I said that because the book is over 400 pages, it would take me a while to write about it after I'd started reading "This Life" following my Amazon purchase.  But here I am, writing about Martin Hägglund's book, because I'm loving it so much, I can't help but share my enthusiasm. For me, this truly is a life-changing book. I'm understanding what life is all about in a clearer fashion. I'm acting differently toward the loved ones I'm in daily contact with,…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

RSSB guru identified as beneficiary of fraudulent funds

As has been evident to those of us who have been following the saga of the Singh brothers and Gurinder Singh Dhillon (the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas), the trail of money that was fraudulently siphoned out of public companies is leading right to Dhillon's pockets. Here's a Business Today story that someone told me about today. It's short, so I've copied it in below. I couldn't resist boldfacing the parts that point to Dhillon's legal culpability in this financial mess.  I've been wondering how long it would take until investigators in India would focus on the ultimate beneficiaries…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Religious believers aren’t happier than everybody else

Hard on the heels of a great blog post comment I shared a few days ago in a post of its own, here's another great comment that was left on that post.  Nice! We've got a Great Comment Breeding Ground. I heartily agree with everything "J" says below. This matches with my 35 years of going to meetings of Radha Soami Satsang Beas devotees, and talking with countless (almost) RSSB believers during that time. As a wise RSSB representative used to say -- recall it was Roland deVries -- satsangis, meaning RSSB initiates, are just ordinary people. For sure.  Here's…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Thoughtful criticisms of Sant Mat

Ned just left a comment on a recent post that was so thoughtful and well-written, I wanted to share his criticisms of Sant Mat right away. Thanks, Ned. You expressed yourself beautifully. I heartily agree with the three conclusions in your comment: I was initiated when I was a kid and hadn't had much to do with Sant Mat for a long time (decades). I spent the last month doing an experiment, doing Surat Shabd Yoga meditation for long periods of time, reading the old literature, and so on. I also went to one of Ishwar Puri's talks. I really…
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Posted inDeath/Rebirth Personal/Stories

Our dog likely is dying, but we had a good time today

Life is difficult. Sometimes really difficult. Like when someone you love likely is going to die soon. Our dog, ZuZu, is in the late stage of chronic liver disease. Her vet has told my wife and I that ZuZu probably has weeks or months left to live, not years. So the WillaMutt Strut event ZuZu and I went to today was poignant for me. (It's put on every year by the Willamette Humane Society, where my wife is a volunteer dog walker.) Here's photos of what likely was ZuZu's last time at the event. She enjoyed herself, as did I.…
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Posted inBooks Death/Rebirth Politics

Maybe it isn’t eternity we long for, but quality time in this life

Is eternity really so great? I've always thought so. Well, not really for "always," since that would be the same as eternity, and I'm definitely not eternal.  Rather, I meant for as long as I've been pondering death and the likely end of this one-and-only life we're all enjoying.  After reading a review by James Wood in The New Yorker of a book by Martin Hägglund, "This Life: Secular Faith and Spiritual Freedom," I ordered it from Amazon.  Given that the book consists of 464 pages of quite intense philosophizing, I may not be writing blog posts about it for…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Sunil Godhwani, close associate of RSSB guru, detained at Delhi airport

Interesting news in the financial fraud case involving the Singh brothers and the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, Gurinder Singh Dhillon. Sunil Godhwani, who has been described by a RSSB insider as the personal treasurer and right-hand man of the Guru, was detained at the New Delhi airport by the Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi police. Here's the CNBC TV18 story: Former Religare Enterprises chief Sunil Godhwani was stopped at Delhi Airport from flying overseas on Thursday. Godhwani has been taken into custody by Economic Offences Wing. It is learnt that Godhwani was flying to the US to…
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Posted inFundamentalism Religions

Religious fantasies are different from ordinary ones

Fantasies are fun. They're a big part of being human. Fictional books, movies, dreams, music, paintings -- all these and so much more is founded on imagining an alternative reality to that which surrounds us now.  Other animals may also fantasize (our dog seems to have "cat/squirrel chase dreams" where she makes excited noises and moves her paws), but we humans are the top fantasizers on our planet. Problems arise, though, when fantasies are mistaken for reality. Or, taken too seriously. Recently my wife and I were transfixed by the Netflix film, "Homecoming," which shows Beyonce's astounding performances at Coachella…
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Posted inOpen Threads

Open Thread 21 (free speech for comments)

Leave a comment on this post about anything you want to talk about. Remember that I'm moderating comments, so it could take a while for your comment to be published. Almost every comment submitted to an Open Thread will be approved. Personal attacks devoid of substantive content are an exception. Though I haven't been doing too well on this, I'll try to remember to always have an Open Thread showing in the Recent Posts section in the right sidebar. If one isn't showing, I've added an Open Threads category in, naturally, the Categories section. You can always find an Open…
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Posted inBuddhism Spiritual practice/meditation

Reading this blog post, know that you are reading this blog post

If you're not into mindfulness meditation, the title of this blog post may seem like nonsense to you. But like I wrote last year, "Mindfulness has become my meditation." A frequently-heard saying in the guided meditations I listen to via iPhone apps is Breathing in, know that you are breathing in. In other words, bring mind and body into a state of harmonious relatedness. Of course, you don't have to always be aware of your breathing. But if your goal in a particular meditation session is to be aware of your breathing, then obviously you need to know that you are…
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Posted inBooks Personal/Stories

Praise Me! I’m writing a Church of the Churchless book

Well, the title of this post is accurate, but it needs some explaining. Actually, I've already written almost all of the Church of the Churchless book, since after I started this blog in November 2004 I've written 2,601 posts. Assuming each has around 500 words (likely more, so this is a conservative estimate), that's 1,300,500 words. Wow.  For quite a while I've been thinking I should fashion those posts into a book. Recently that thought became action. I've already gotten 58,000 words worth of blog posts selected and mildly edited. Mostly I've just been removing links and a bit of…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus

An ex-Christian talks about the uselessness of prayer

Here's another churchless guest "sermon" from someone who regularly emails me descriptions of his now religious-less life, after belonging to a fairly fundamentalist Christian denomination. Enjoy. He's a good writer with an appealingly honest style. Hey Brian, how are you?  I’m ok.  I’m just getting over a short bout of the flu.  I almost said, thank God it was a short bout. I am thankful for that fact, but it’s funny how the God stuff still hangs around.  We’ve talked about this before, but it’s interesting to me what still slips into my mind from my religious past.  Sometimes it’s…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

More details surface about financial fraud involving RSSB guru

I readily admit that it's difficult to keep track of the complex web of  financial wrongdoing that ended up with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of rupees being funneled into the pockets of Gurinder Singh Dhillon (guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas), his family, and close associates. But those interested in this Bollywood'ish saga  -- filled with tales of greed, a gurudom up for sale, death threats, family bickering, and much more besides -- will want to read a Bloomberg Quint story someone emailed me today.Download Bloomberg Quint Story The story provides more details  about the complaint filed by…
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Posted inMorality

Golden Rule is a poor guide to morality

Here at the Church of the Churchless we aren't big on rules -- especially the religious variety. Morality is an individual decision. If doing something works for you, and it doesn't harm other people, go for it.  Oh, but what about the Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Or words to that effect. Isn't this a non-religious rule that makes sense?  Sometimes. But not always. Maybe not even usually.  Frans de Waal explains why in his fascinating book, "The Bonobo and the Atheist," which I wrote about recently in A bonobo talks to…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Devotion to RSSB guru is less important than seeking truth of his wrongdoing

So if a religious leader you're devoted to is acting illegally, or at least unethically, should you pretend that behavior doesn't exist?  No, of course not.  Seeking truth is much more important than religious loyalty. Bad things happen when True Believers turn a blind eye to wrongdoing by supposedly "spiritual" leaders.  Child abuse by Catholic priests is a notable example. So is Jonestown, where devotees died by drinking poisoned kool-aid, their devotion to a crazed leader was so extreme. And there's plenty of examples of gurus acting badly in India, yet sometimes their followers riot after they've been convicted of…
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Posted inBooks Morality

A bonobo talks to an atheist about morality and religion

OK, the title of this post isn't literally correct. Bonobos can't talk, at least not in a human language. But Frans de Waal is an expert on bonobos and other primates, who are our closest evolutionary relatives. At the end of his book, "The Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism among the Primates, " de Waal imagines what a bonobo would tell an atheist.  This amounts to a good summary of the entire book, which I finished reading recently. Frans de Waal doesn't believe in God. He does, however, recognize that while religions are a human invention, they…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Fortis seeking money that ended up with the Dhillon family

It's been a while since the Indian financial press has reported on the financial fraud saga involving the Singh brothers, Malvinder and Shivinder, along with their cousin, Gurinder Singh Dhillon -- the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, whose family reportedly ended up with  close to a billion dollars worth of ill-gotten rupees. But recently someone emailed me a link to a LiveMint story,  "Fortis plans moving court to recover ₹403 cr from Singh brothers and promoters."Download Fortis plans moving court to recover ₹403 cr from Singh brothers and promoters Here's how the story starts out: Fortis healthcare Ltd is likely…
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Posted inConsciousness Reality Science

Science is our best guide to a possible supernatural reality

Here's another comment from David C. Lane on a recent post of mine that makes so much sense, I'm sharing it even before I've even lunch. Sometimes my hunger for transmitting truth is greater than my stomach's yearning for food.  Didn't someone  once say, man does not live by bread alone? (or Trader Joe's meatless chick'n tenders). Lane talks about his Remainder Conjecture in which supernatural claims should only be accepted after a rigorous examination of them through the lens of science. This fits with David Hume's observation, which I wrote about yesterday, that we have a tremendous amount of…
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Posted inMiracles Mystics

Placebo effect seems to explain most “miracles”

We humans love to believe in strange stuff. We're the only animal, most likely, with the ability to conjure up stories about what doesn't physically exist.  Sure, my dog does seem to dream, moving her paws and making noises while asleep, but I strongly suspect her mind is fantasizing about chasing a squirrel or cat, not about God, heaven, angels, or some other supernatural entity. Because religious stories are so deeply embedded in human culture, it's difficult for believers to find a detached vantage point to assess claims of miracles, extrasensory perception, mystical visions, and such in an objective manner.…
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