True Self in the Real World

It sounds a bit odd, but even though you’ve been around for a while, it’s possible that you are just now waking up. To use one of my favorite metaphors, it takes some time asleep inside its cocoon before the butterfly is ready to emerge. I’ve placed you there in my diagram, right at theContinue reading “True Self in the Real World”

Ascending the Cosmic Mountain

The illustration above captures in a single image a grand view of the Whole Shebang. It is the dialogical product of our two traditionally complementary systems, science and spirituality. Unfortunately, the metasystem of religion which historically served to hold these two in coordinated balance and mutual support, made the fateful mistake of defending a literalContinue reading “Ascending the Cosmic Mountain”

The Spiral Path

Many teachings on wisdom spirituality assume that their audience is comprised of individuals who are ready for a revelation or breakthrough. In fact, many are only interested in home improvement and not an entirely new living situation. In a sense, conventional religion is something of a compromise in this regard. Somewhere in there are goldenContinue reading “The Spiral Path”

Making Our Way

In this blog, I am intent on doing my part toward correcting and clarifying the conversation around religion. Instead of identifying it with one or another of its historical examples, I’ve urged the importance of defining religion itself as a system of symbols, stories, sacraments and practices that link us back (Latin religare) to theContinue reading “Making Our Way”

God for Everyone

If you believe in a god who loves you, perhaps in a “heavenly Father” who is loving, gracious, compassionate, and merciful, a divine or supernatural personality who is happy with your obedience but gets angry or disappointed when you mess up or fall short, what you likely have there is not God but an idol,Continue reading “God for Everyone”

A Case for Human Progress

A “meditational hologram” – that’s what I’m calling what you see above. More than a mere infographic, it arranges things in a way meant to guide a deeper meditation. A large Diamond in the background, a diamond-shaped formation of smaller diamonds in the foreground, and the zig-zag pattern of arrows at midfield, all provide distinctContinue reading “A Case for Human Progress”

Free to Shine

In Clarity and Brilliance I offered a way of conceptualizing the dynamic integrity of human consciousness across its four types of intelligence: rational (RQ = mind), emotional (EQ = heart), visceral (VQ = will), and spiritual (SQ = soul/spirit). The validity of these four is well-established in the psychological literature, with our spiritual intelligence mostContinue reading “Free to Shine”

All the Way Through

Treatment for anxiety will be a multi-billion dollar enterprise this year, up from previous years and expected to continue its rise for the foreseeable future. We want the inner peace of a relaxed body and calm mind, but we settle – actually we pay a lot – for feeling a little less anxious, if itContinue reading “All the Way Through”

The Four Human Force Fields

At some point along life’s way we feel an attraction, or perhaps metaphorically we hear a calling from beyond the boundary of what we know and who we are. Paradoxically, the source of this attraction or calling is not “out there” exactly, but “in here,” deeper within ourselves, a Beyond in the midst of ourContinue reading “The Four Human Force Fields”

Living Religion

After rescuing spirituality from dysfunctional religion, its proponents have sometimes gone way to the other extreme, turning spirituality into a catch-all for anything mystical, metaphysical, magical and spoon-bending. In their rejection of religious tradition, institution, and orthodoxy, they “rescued” something of a shapeless blob of experience, which has been branded in countless ways and soldContinue reading “Living Religion”