Thank You If the only prayer You say in your entire life Is “Thank You,” That would suffice. — Meister Eckhart (1260-c.1329) (from Meditations with Meister Eckhart, Matthew Fox, Bear & Co., 1983) Thank you for reading my blog. If you enjoyed this post or found it insightful, please share it with your friends. And …
The Simplicity and Subtlety of the Way
THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT DAOIST THOUGHT AND WRITINGS THAT MAKES THEM APPEALING. Even though they seem simple, even simplistic, they nonetheless give one the sense that they are also subtle, inscrutable and profoundly wise. As I re-read the “further teachings of Lao-tzu” in Thomas Cleary’s translation of the Wen-tzu (a Daoist classic from the Han Dynasty, …
Life in a Neurotic Society
EVERY DAY, AGAIN AND AGAIN, THE NEWS SHOWS US HOW DIVIDED WE ARE and how hostile some of us have become toward the others of us who see things differently. What’s going on? How did we become so uncivil toward one another? Denial. If you understand the mechanisms and effects of a collective denial of …
Mist on a Breeze #11
The Way (Laozi) There is something before heaven and earth —An undifferentiated whole.It has no concrete form, only abstract images.It is deep, dark, silent, undefined.To give it a name, I call it Dao, the Way. Mountains are high, oceans are deepBecause of it.Animals run, birds flyBecause of it.Unicorns roam, phoenixes soarBecause of it.The stars run …
Perfection Isn’t Really All That Perfect
WHAT’S SO GOOD ABOUT TRYING TO BE PERFECT? Not much, according to the highly influential Jungian analyst, Erich Neumann. In 1949, Neumann published Depth Psychology and the New Ethic, arguing that the “old ethic” of perfection was doing so much damage to individual well-being and human survival, that it had to give way to new …
Moving Beyond the Literal Toward Wisdom
MODERNITY HAS HAD A BAD HABIT OF FORGETTING ITS FORERUNNERS. Too often, in our efforts to critique the status quo and pursue progress, we have cut off our cultural roots. Ironically, this problem is most apparent in the conservative Christian insistence on biblical literalism. In their attempt to return to what they imagine were the …
Mist on a Breeze #10
Grasping Screaming Eagle, Left alone to face illusion: "I AM !!! … b-b-b-but …" I am-not. What’s the confusion? Thank you for reading my blog. If you enjoyed this post or found it insightful, please share it with your friends. And feel free to invite them to follow the blog, too. Oh, and while you're …
Images Come Trailing Clouds of Mystery
THIS YEAR, I’M WORKING TO BRING A GROUP OF ORIGINAL SONGS TO LIFE, recording them with my band, BlueStoneMojo, and sharing the recordings online. Although organizational challenges have tended to dominate the project, it’s still a fundamentally creative process in which mysterious influences can manifest in unexpected ways. Here’s an example of what I mean. …
What Our God-Images Say About Us
IF YOU ASK PEOPLE TO DESCRIBE GOD, THEIR ANSWERS will tell you what they truly value most, what for each of them is their “ultimate concern.” For most of us, our god-images and the values they represent will be the ones generally held in the communities to which we belong. For example, the most traditional …
Soulfully, on the Edge
ON THE WAY HOME FROM A WEEKEND GETAWAY, my wife and I chose to drive one of Colorado’s most scenic mountain highways, one the AAA guidebook warns “should be traveled with caution.” During the weekend trip, we also went to see the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park. The highway and the dwellings both …
Soul Spirit Wisdom 