The Spirit Filling the Soul Leads to Wisdom

IF JESUS CHRIST HAD LIVED TO A RIPE OLD AGE, AS DID SIDDHARTHA BUDDHA, I think Jesus still would have become one of the greatest spiritual teachers in human history. Instead of falling prey to a tragic and brutal Roman execution after only a year or so of ministry, Jesus would have been able to …

Moving in Time with Life

Mist on a Breeze #14 It has been said that the highest wisdom lies in detachment, which means to have neither regrets for the past nor fears for the future; to let life take its course without attempting to interfere with its movement and change, neither trying to prolong the stay of things pleasant nor …

Different Roads, One Path

AS THE WAR AGAINST FASCIST IMPERIALISM REACHED ITS CLIMAX around the world in 1944-45, Aldous Huxley was in southern California publishing The Perennial Philosophy. The book, still in print and now a popular classic in the comparative study of religion, spells out what Huxley called the “highest common factor” in the world’s religions. While differences …

Hide and Seek

Alan Watts told a remarkable story about God playing hide-and-seek. It was a playful presentation of key ideas from Hindu philosophy. The Upanishads say, "You are That." Watts said, "You're IT!" The story goes something like this ...

Carried Away in the Watercourse

LEFT ALONE TO FOLLOW ITS NATURAL COURSE, CONSCIOUSNESS EBBS AND FLOWS like the tides, rises and falls like waves on the sea, rolls and tumbles like a mountain stream, wanders like a meandering river. Over the past month or so, I’ve re-read the Zhuangzi (also known as the Chuang Tzu) in two translations, one old, …

Forgotten Among the Lilies

WHAT IF WE GOT IT WRONG and the “dark night of the soul” is actually about the end of suffering? It’s become commonplace to call a painful time in life a dark night of the soul. But what if the metaphor points to the moment of breakthrough rather than to the suffering? This metaphor comes …