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”

Thresholds

In Higher Nature I explored the major stages of human development as they correlate to our experience of wellbeing and fulfillment over a lifetime. Wellbeing is a more stage-specific value of how aligned our development is to where we ought to be at that point, while fulfillment measures our degree of self-actualization with respect toContinue reading “Thresholds”

Figuring It Out

More than any other time in human history, we are obsessed with personal identity. This isn’t to suggest that people in earlier times were ignorant or indifferent to it. Research into human psychological development strongly suggests that identity formation is universal. We all go through it. Quite a few of us, however, don’t get throughContinue reading “Figuring It Out”

The Anatomy of Belief

We rightly give attention to scrutinizing a belief’s claim and its object, i.e., what it asserts (or claims) about something or other (its object). As a perspective on its object, we should be able to check reality for evidence to determine whether the object is well-grounded. Once confirmed, we can then move on to considerContinue reading “The Anatomy of Belief”

Idols, Pacifiers, and Demons

In a post entitled Out of Depression I proposed a kind of psychospiritual developmental map, composed on the foundational theory of human intelligence as comprised of four distinct “threads” – visceral (VQ), emotional (EQ), rational (RQ), and spiritual (SQ). This “quadratic” (fourfold or four-dimensional) intelligence is complex in nature, with each thread engaged with itsContinue reading “Idols, Pacifiers, and Demons”

Two Things About the World You Need to Know

In The Story That Got You Here I reviewed the developmental journey that started with your physical attachment to Mother, gave way to emotional attachment to your mother and other family members, and continued to advance with your intellectual attachment, in the form of beliefs, to the worldview of your tribe and larger culture. ThisContinue reading “Two Things About the World You Need to Know”

Beyond Happiness

The fact that happiness is such a dominant theme in modern life reveals two significant things about us: (1) that the progression threshold of human evolution at this point in time is firmly stationed on the pivotal questions of personal identity, meaning, and purpose; and (2) the probability that we are stuck in this stageContinue reading “Beyond Happiness”

Your Life In (Maybe) Five Steps

Just before you got going on this journey of life, you were whole and complete in your essential nature as a human being. Even though it would take a lot of experience and many years for you to really appreciate the dual capacity of your consciousness, in opening outward to the sensory-physical realm around youContinue reading “Your Life In (Maybe) Five Steps”

Becoming Aware

To call something an “illusion” commonly assumes that it was somehow designed to deceive or mislead us into believing what isn’t true. To believe an illusion is to live in delusion, and no one wants that. What we want is the pure and simple meaning of things, without any spin or labels or partisan agendas.Continue reading “Becoming Aware”

Wisdom’s Long Journey

The spiritual wisdom traditions teach that every human being is somewhere in the process of waking up, that we are each emerging from a long, deep sleep. We’re not yet fully awake, most of us, but a new way of being – what Paul Tillich named the New Being – is even now available, andContinue reading “Wisdom’s Long Journey”