When you were just an infant, your experience was, in the words of William James, a “blooming, buzzing confusion.” You had no language and hence no discrete categories of thought to label, classify, and organize your perceptions. Everything just swirled around you, bombarding your senses from every side. It was fascinating – and frequently overwhelming.Continue reading “Seeing the Truth”
Tag Archives: soul
5 Floors
Ego is just your “I,” the center of self-conscious experience that locates and manages a personal identity in the middle of everything. It’s not what is wrong with you, or the “obstacle” on your path to liberation, enlightenment, and wellbeing. In fact, none of those long-sought goals of salvation would be possible without your ego.Continue reading “5 Floors”
Crossroads
Part of me really wants to believe that human destiny holds something more in store for us than just more of the same. I mean, more than just strapping ourselves inside spaceships and taking our problems somewhere else. Human destiny will entail going beyond ourselves somehow, but populating some distant planet isn’t likely to bringContinue reading “Crossroads”
The Wonder of It All
What our planet of nations needs, almost more than anything else right now, is a shared image of existence – a sacred mandala that can guide a deeper contemplation of the universe and of our own human nature. If we had such an understanding of ourselves and all things, I am sure that most ifContinue reading “The Wonder of It All”
A Glossary of the Spiritual Life
It is common to assume that since religion is such a complicated topic, spirituality should be as well. The sprawling variety of deities, symbols, rituals, sanctuaries, traditions, customs and beliefs across the landscape and history of world religions might lead one to conclude that the spiritual life of humans is just as variegated. We mayContinue reading “A Glossary of the Spiritual Life”
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”
True Story
On one side are believers, who read the story of Jesus’ incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection as an account of revealed journalism. Everything in the narrative happened just as described, to the exact detail. How not? It’s the Bible, after all. On the other side are atheists and the general population of nonbelievers, including devotees ofContinue reading “True Story”
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”
Tracts of Revolution 