Spirituality for Living

The language gets sketchy. Is mind thinking? Isn’t thinking just an action? Awareness goes beyond thinking. The mind as we know it comes after, not before. It’s automatic and it is why people get so tripped up. They are told to control your mind. Free yourself from your mind. Like somehow you can lobotomize yourself [...]

With any facet of life, in the light of awareness there is a mirror image. For every truth, an equal and opposite truth. We often revile the negative as destructive. We say that is the opposite of what we want, when in fact it’s a mirror image of the thing desired. This is why attachment [...]

Some would embrace their dreams and deny their nightmares, and say that they know what it is to dream. They will indulge in pleasure and shun pain, and say they know what it is to feel. But when confronted with the reflection of what they seek, its mirror image, they ask “why do I experience [...]

Mortification of the flesh means putting the flesh to death. It has been and is still practiced in all cultures in some way across the world, though the exact intention and result is often different. There is a lot of speculation in today’s world about what motivates it. Meditation is an act of mortification, yet [...]

There is no Satan necessary. You are your own Satan. In old catholic terms, the demons that run the pits of torment are called the kindly ones. People think they are on their own side by being in control, doing what they choose to do, by getting what they think they want. We are our [...]

Resentment is an effort to address what has passed, and you cannot influence. It keeps you very much trapped in ego, and keeps you from maintaining much of what you value and want to keep in life, let alone new things.
Resentment is an effort to undo something in your past. Something you can’t undo. Even [...]

The “natural” to some, that is really unnatural, arises from judgment. It is still a process of thought. When we accidentally brush our stove, do we hesitate and say “Is this a good pain or a bad pain?”. Nope, nor do we need to. Nature has provided us a very accurate, and adequate way for [...]

Why is it we can be open with a lover, but not with a parent? I have learned not to tell my Mom anything. Actually, that’s simple. It is one of the dark truths I don’t talk much on, because people get really inflamed. Are you familiar with Freud or Jung? They both sort of [...]

The core belief in Sikhism is that you should seek truth in all things.
They don’t have a concept of the unforgivable. They have no leg to stand on in their doctrine to “guilt trip” sinners, and no concept of hell. The Sikhs do have a saying and it isn’t a hate message. Their saying is [...]

Just learning to be ok with change can challenge some of us. This is true, it can be a challenge. But there is an old Arabic curse, “May your every wish be immediately fulfilled”.
In all of your struggling to resist change, what if you said nothing can change? You just don’t like change, so from [...]

There is a missing element that modern Stoics don’t usually embrace. The Hegemon, or logos, is still alive and aware in the world. The world is itself possessed of intelligence in the original Stoic view.  They saw life as a constant dialogue, a “debate” if you will, with that intelligence. They did believe in adhering [...]

You know the healing power of a baby!? It is big! Yes, babies are examples of human nature in its pure form. Taoism says this. Buddhism says this though less bluntly. Many of the pagan faiths have the divine child symbolism, which was also taken up by Christianity, and many see the “Christ child” as [...]

In seeing the illusion you can see the reality behind it, but many stop there. They see how they, and their teaching, was mistaken, and that attachment is the source of suffering. Then they become detached, and stop there. They bring a spirit of detachment to the world, and when confronted with attachments they won’t [...]

Abstinence can be freeing in a way. It leads to greater indulgence, and allows for informed choice. Abstinence lets you really feel and understand your own being, and how you are letting it reflect in the world anyway, but it needn’t be compulsory. Rather than “never do this” and “always do that”, maybe it can [...]