Fr. Thomas Keating, the Trappist monk, said “Discernment is a process of letting go of what we are not.”
“Discernment” is yet another word, similar in meaning to enlightenment, awakening, salvation.
All of these words point to the process Read more
What is TRUE Spirituality?
For much of my Christian life, I confessed Jesus and so pursued some kind of spiritual life. It was not because I was all that interested in overcoming the self-centeredness that WAS my life…my up Read more
I was asked this morning by one of my Facebook friends from Australia, “Steve, what’s a Twinkie?”
At first, I thought he was joking. Who does not know, and miss, the Hostess Twinkie?
He wasn’t joking. He really Read more
Jean-Jacques Rousseau said, “Every man wants to be happy but in order to be so he needs first to understand what happiness is.” Understand “what” happiness is? Don’t we all know “what” it is? Maybe not. Ask people Read more
Maybe you don’t have any trouble with your thoughts, but I do. Thoughts pop into my mind without my permission faster than a mosquito bites my skin on a sweltering summer afternoon. And, equally without my permission.
Descartes, father Read more
Two little fish are swimming along in the ocean one day when they meet an older fish who casually asks them, “Hello fella’s, how’s the water today?”
They responded with equal casualness, “Fine, sir” and then, they swim on. Read more
How do I know when I am advancing on the spiritual path? What is a “sign” of spiritual maturity?
I would answer that question as many spiritual teachers like Jesus did when questioned…with a question of my own.
Must Read more
Nepo says that when he was young he talked fast and loud.
Sometimes, I still do.
What he did not realize until much later in life is that “I kept talking faster and louder to the world around Read more
I’m in a hurry and don’t know why…
I was on a flight yesterday morning from Louisville to Sarasota to visit with clients. Sitting on the plane just before takeoff, I looked out the window at the massive wing Read more
In the Song of Creation, otherwise known as the Book of Genesis, the writer says of the first two mythical representatives of the human race, “And God breathed into their nostrils the breath of life and humans became Read more
To a Taoist (pronounced “dow-oist” or something like that) “there is nothing to do and nowhere to go. Accepting this, we can do everything and go anywhere.”
What does this mean?
Nepo explains it this way: “To the Taoist Read more
I came across this saying and I’ve been thinking about it this afternoon. It was spoken by Sent-ts’an, Buddhist, around c. 700 C.E.
“If you want the truth to stand clear before you, never be for or against. The Read more
It’s the one thing everyone wants.
Few people seem to find it.
Fewer still know where to look.
For, happiness, that is.
I wasted more years than I wish to admit…
…wanting to be happy, …not certain, when I Read more
Balancing one’s dreams and drives with the harsh realities and circumstances of life can be a challenge, right? For most of my life, I have lived with big dreams. I have dreamt of being famous, of making history, of Read more
BLACK FRIDAY and the “Scarcity Effect”…
Black Friday’s success is based largely on what retailers call “the scarcity effect.” By creating the illusion in the minds of shoppers that a product is a “must have” item that is also Read more
I am always arriving, always en route, always going somewhere, am I not? Are you not?
Yet, whenever I finally get THERE I discover it’s only just another HERE. I suspect, when you and I can truly be HERE, Read more
This is so true, isn’t it?
Nepo nails me when he writes of himself: “I waste so many hours not just in trying to get published, but in hunting for the right publisher, one that will make me feel Read more
In a new book I must read, and you might wish to read as well, is T. E. Lurhmann’s When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God. In the book, the author tells of a Read more
