connection

What You Will Find in Meditation

December 13, 2022

You can meditate if you believe in God or if you don’t. Either way, meditation/contemplation is a hopeful practice. We meditate because we believe there is something “out there,” or “in here” (inside us), or “way down at the bottom of everything.” You are attempting to connect with that thing. If you practice meditation on a regular basis, you will find something. For some of us, it helps to imagine that the universe has consciousness and personality. We might call that God. You might also call it good Goodness, Meaning, Existence. Or you might not call it anything. Read More

Grace is Pervasive

March 27, 2021

When I said I was deeply Christian, I wasn’t just saying that. Grace is the number one reason. Most of my life, I have been captivated by the phenomenon of grace in the Christian story. Maybe it’s because I was a guilty child, but maybe it’s because grace is a revolution in thinking for all of us. Maybe we are just built to be big containers for grace. When you drink from that well, a big reservoir opens up inside you and grace is the only thing. Read More

The Practice of Silent Contemplation

September 12, 2020

We must practice this inner contemplative work to connect more deeply with our reality. Especially now, there is a strong tendency for us to focus on and get involved with things external to us: policy, politics, the current crises, and the others around us – some friend, some foe. If we are to engage with others and our environment in an effective way, however, we must work toward becoming non-violent, peaceful and powerful within ourselves, which will happen when we are able examine and resolve our own internal conflicts. I’m not saying I’ve got it figured out. I’m saying I hope we can be on this journey together. We all always have this inner work to do, and the degree to which we engage in it will be the degree to which we will be able to be part of solutions. Read More

The Foundational Spiritual Practice Of Receptivity

January 12, 2019

As I outline some foundational spiritual practices, I think it is important to note that I tend to approach the spiritual life from an utilitarian perspective. Rather than attaching myself to specific prescribed rituals from specific traditions, I try to abstract the meaning and essence from some common spiritual practices and reduce them down to their most translatable forms. I believe spiritual practices should be repeatable and customizable to many different lifestyles – not prescribed, rigid or ritualistic. To me, a successful teacher conveys “the idea” and allows the student to find ways to apply it in various settings. Therefore, the ideas and concepts to which I continually return are general practices which are hopefully adaptable to diverse lifestyles and traditions, even to people of different faiths or who do not subscribe to a particular faith at all. Read More

Growth through Connection

October 26, 2017

The only real way to grow is through connection. Sometimes we think we need to pressure, prod, or push growth by telling people what to do or making a plan to which they must adhere. The only real growth in the natural world around us, though, is through cells connecting with one another. There is no real laid out plan for how plants should grow (except maybe their DNA – the plans are encoded within), and there is not someone there demanding they straighten themselves up and reach out further toward the sun. The cells just come together and through some magical interaction, plants grow. Read More

Transformative Repentance

May 3, 2017

Living in a perpetual state of repentance is the way to change. We are always in brokenness and there is nothing that keeps our hearts tender like saying we’re sorry, turning around and repenting for the things we have done. It is true you make mistakes every day. Why would you not want to live in repentance? The alternative is to not pay attention to the things you are doing wrong or to rationalize and try to convince yourself and others that the things you have done are not that bad. When you put it that way, it seems like there is only one option. Read More

#WhiteHelmets

January 2, 2017

I am captivated by this story about the white helmets (watch the first 12 minutes of the video above). This takes place in a different world than the one in which most of us live. It is a different culture and a different political climate: a dictatorship in which the dictator seeks to bomb his own subjects into submission. People are not even safe in their own homes. This is not the first regime of this kind in the Middle East, but it is a far cry from the relative comfort we enjoy in the west. Yet compassionate humanity is juxtaposed with the darkest violence and cruelty.

What strikes me about this group of rescuers is their willingness to risk their own lives for the chance to save others. This is not the only story of humans giving up their lives for one another. I write about all who have chosen to risk life and limb for others. Anyone who has put themselves in the position to sacrifice for others has reached a level of spirituality to which we can all aspire: they have given their most precious life for something they believe in. As they sacrifice their lives, they say to us, “There is something that exists beyond life that is more important than life itself.” This is what gives our lives meaning. We might be tempted to think they are foolish to risk their lives depending on their cause, but we can also not help being inspired: “Could I be that brave?” The unmistakeable meaning that is demonstrated in such selfless sacrifice is that love trumps all. Our connection with one another is worth dying for. Read More

Connections

January 31, 2016

Our connections with one another are all that matter. When everything is stripped away, what will be left is your essence and my essence (who we are) and the connection our essences can have – on the soul level. There are so many things in this life which present barriers to our souls connecting: our defenses that keep us from having intimacy, our covetousness, our hatred, our possessions, even the physical barriers of skin and geographical location. And yet, there are moments in this life when we connect with each other on this deep level. It is very satisfying and can even give us the feeling of ecstasy on a momentary basis. Those are the moments I (and likely you) cherish. They are windows into the next life. Read More