When Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson agreed on the phrase “Out of many, one” (in Latin e pluribus unum) for the Great Seal of the United States, their idea was of the new nation as a manifold unity of individuals. America’s diversity would be the secret to its success – particularly as thatContinue reading “E Uno, Plures. E Pluribus Unum.”
Tag Archives: philosophy
Mything Pieces
According to its etymology, religion refers to the process and cultural enterprise of putting together, linking back (Latin religare), or re-membering our wholeness as human beings. In reality, we never lost this centered integrity. And even now, despite our common – arguably universal – affliction of feeling off-center, dismembered, estranged, and alienated from our originalContinue reading “Mything Pieces”
How Things Seem
Reality is our code-word for What Is. If something is, it is real or has reality. We often speak of Reality as what stands beyond, or on the other side of, our veils of meaning – of what’s on our minds or only in our imagination. But what if there were no human minds orContinue reading “How Things Seem”
Sophia Perennis 3.0
As an infant and very young child, you were an animist. Experience was centered in your Body – technically the BodySoul, referring to your essential nature as a human (Body) being (Soul), although at that time the intuitive and introspective powers of your Soul were operating below the range of conscious attention. BodySoul is theContinue reading “Sophia Perennis 3.0”
Necessary Delusion
Check this out. Everything around you includes you in its higher wholeness, and what is within you grounds you in deeper oneness. Harmony and communion are the special terms designating these distinct dimensions of Reality – around and including you, within and grounding you. The concept of harmony requires you to be centered in yourself.Continue reading “Necessary Delusion”
Spiritual Fitness and Our Human Future
Just as we might go to a gym to work out, or into the hills for a hike, we have a basic understanding that improving our fitness requires immersing ourselves in environments where the activity is sufficiently strenuous but not too much to manage. Of course, if we never exercise, our muscles will lose toneContinue reading “Spiritual Fitness and Our Human Future”
Four-Square Spirituality
Ego sucks. I don’t mean that as a judgment, but as a simple statement of fact. I happen to believe that our separate center of self-conscious identity – ego (Latin for “I”) for short – represents a transformational breakthrough in the evolution of human consciousness, and we need it to get around in the world.Continue reading “Four-Square Spirituality”
Deckchairs on the Titanic
Are you familiar with that metaphor of arranging deckchairs on the Titanic? The message is that while we are busy piddling around with minor things, the really Big Thing needing our attention is going down – taking us and our trivial fixations with it. Besides being a helpful call-back to our priorities in business, family,Continue reading “Deckchairs on the Titanic”
Timeless Wisdom
It’s natural – or we should better say, it’s the expected outcome of our socialization as a self in a world – to find ourselves inside something that seems very real. From those early days, our tribe is busy orienting us to its worldview, beliefs, and way of life, instructing and shaping us into aContinue reading “Timeless Wisdom”
Endangered Species
It’s weird to think that humans are still on the journey to actualizing our full potential as a species. All other species, as far as we can tell, reach fulfillment in each generation, where the young develop to maturity as the adults nurture them along. For the most part, genetic codes and the drives ofContinue reading “Endangered Species”