Spirituality for Living

People speak of temptation when they experience instinct and they say it is a distraction. This nature. Why supposedly is this nature unholy? This instinct. Why supposedly is there no wisdom in it? I think that it is our clearest wisdom. Who needs a religious cannon? The bible itself says that the word of god [...]

Because of the dissonance in this world, it is deafening. The world screams in pain, and I hurt. There is not many problems, there is only one and it is this we are discussing today. To abstain from it is the code of harmlessness. Love is god and god is omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient. All [...]

No one goes anywhere. There isn’t any need. It’s merely a change of state. A parallel existence if you want to use the scientific paradigm. There is no such thing as loss. Sometimes the way someone looses this form entails suffering. It can happen prematurely, and this isn’t good when it does, but there is [...]

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 [...]

Inner deaths. Those little changes that represent a growth period, but do end a facet of your existence. When it feels like an iron door has slammed shut, but was it really “abandon all hope ye who enter here”? For me it was more of an entering into the world, and in a way more [...]

We have had terrible things happen in our lives. Things we did not choose. These terrible things aren’t necessarily your karma. You don’t exist in a void. For example, you do not choose another’s suicide. They do. If someone chooses to jump off a cliff, I can’t really stop them. It is the same with karma. [...]

The Norse saw there as not being one world, but nine. Perhaps corresponding to the chakras of eastern mysticism, and these nine worlds rested on ygrdassil the world tree not unlike the Jewish tree of life. Modern physics also have a theory of ten dimensions, but seen from our point of view it might seem like [...]

Would humans behave better if they knew God was not there to intervene? No, humans would make a god when they believe there is none. Used to be king makers, now we make gods.  Scientism prevents its own ideal of no hierarchy or equality among the masses. Many scientism supporters have spoken of founding a [...]

Mortification of the flesh to what purpose, disidentification? Yes indeed.  When people still undertook it with the proper intent, but it has no merit if it’s merely a self destructive act.
Are there not other ways less destructive to disidentify? Yes, and ’destructiveness’ is a key concept. It is not the key concept of self mortification. [...]

So, are you advocating for self-mortification? No. I am advocating experience. No one practice. When you are impassioned, and begin cleaning house despite physical fatigue, you restructure your whole living space. You ache miserably after pushing yourself so hard, but from somewhere not explained by your body something moved you. Experience of this I see [...]

Is religion a new addiction of self image? Often times it is from my observation. This is why modern organized religion is so troubled. In one case I was taking my son to a daycare, very religious people and thought they could be trusted. They were in the atonement cycle. Turns out the male of [...]

The shamans knew about the full mind. Do everything counter to the way that everybody else did. This is the path of the Heyoka. Sacred clown. They support their tribe by showing them how things are undone, keeping them alert. They were tricksters, but because they went backwards. They just “undid” things. People kept aware [...]

The biggest complaint everyone has is the lack of energy. I hear it constantly. We as a culture are told to control ourselves. To subdue our feelings and motivations, and then wonder why we have no motivation. Energy doesn’t come from what we are supposed to do, that saps energy. We have to re-route energy [...]

There can be said to be two paths in the world. In the Cabala they are called the pillar of mercy, and the pillar of severity, but in fact there are three points.  They are only opposed in the minds of those who oppose them. My own path is more in keeping with the pillar of [...]

We heal by knowing why we are where we are, and maybe discovering how that can change. For all our pursuit of light, we still fall into darkness. It is a part of the cycle. The right hand is strong. The left hand is sensitive.
In general, we live with people who are eager to see [...]

Inner nature is love. God is love, and we are God. We are in Gods image. Children of the whole unified spirit. It can be a choice, but it’s really a realization. The hatred was never a choice. What moved you to hatred was an idea of an absence of love, or a powerlessness of [...]

There is another side to life and we all live in it, but some of us are not left to the wonderous gift of lethe. The numb balm of forgetting. You can say that my statements are delusion, but there is another way of viewing the world. Possible for some, not even a choice for others, [...]

Buddhism isn’t what many perceive it to be. It is a very old “faith”, but doesn’t center on concepts of worship as most understand them today. It’s primarily concerned with a path of seeking, and a body of practices with a code of conduct. The code of conduct is referred to as the eight fold [...]

When I give my talks I tend to just go with the flow of inspiration, regrettably it means I sometimes “leave no trace”, even in my own mind.
I like the format of these discussions, going with the flow. It gives all a chance to talk and is more interactive. People learn by doing, not by [...]