Category Archives: Awakening

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 Eventually, this desire was superseded by the recognition that what actually mattered was helpfulness.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”

One thing about the present moment is its fullness – which is also a kind of emptiness. Everything is there and nothing is there. There is only thing in the present moment and it has no name and yet everyone knows what it is. You can’t carry anything into the present. It is fascinating toContinue reading “Stillness and Presence”