Category Archives: Awakening

The universe appears to us as a big, complex, beautiful and terrifying thing and, in a nontrivial way, we are as much a part of that universe as anything else. Black holes, falling stars, dark matter, homo sapiens, maple leaves and house flies. We are made of the same material obeying the same laws. It’sContinue reading “The Universe We Are”

The other day I mentioned on a not-uncommon tension in Christianity: God is unknowable and ineffable and yet also, somehow, knowable (as loving, just, generous, et cetera). Does this tension adhere to A Course in Miracles as well? I think it doesn’t, at least not in such an obvious way. With respect to God andContinue reading “Given the Sea, Swim”

For a long time I wanted to be right about A Course in Miracles. Eventually, this desire was superseded by the recognition that what actually mattered was helpfulness. If studying Gary Renard was helpful to someone, what did it matter if I thought he was peddling lies? A focus on helpfulness is sustainable because inContinue reading “Helpful Spiritual Junctures”

Life does not require rehearsal: it executes itself perfectly continuously, never pausing to reconsider, never begging a do-over. This does not mean that our response will always be one of pleasure or amusement or enjoyment; it might be the opposite. But our response is just more of life happening: whatever label we assign it, it’sContinue reading “Life Requires No Rehearsal”

When Brutus stabs Caesar, is this the same event as when Brutus kills Caesar? That’s a classic philosophical question used by thinkers studying the question of whether and how events are individuated – that is, separated from one another. Is it a question of time and space? Intention? Changes in the states of the actors/objects?Continue reading “The End of Individuation”

The point is always to find and utilize what is helpful, understanding that “helpfulness” is relative, contextual and subject to change. Basically, we are looking for a way to peacefully and creatively exist within an existence that seems to be independent of us. In order to discern what is helpful, we have to have aContinue reading “What Works is What’s Helpful”