Category Archives: The Church of What’s Happening Now

Joseph Campbell said, “Foster your virtues, don’t dwell on your sins.” The old (Classic) Taoists made nothing of sin, and everything of living in accord with our original/essential nature aligned with our innate virtues. Virtues here are to be understood, not as the opposite of vices, but as the peculiar characteristics, qualities and traits thatContinue reading “December 11-A, 2022”

We have to learn to live for something beyond our desire and fear (Joseph Campbell). But. We are sure there is nothing beyond our desire and fear. The First Death is letting go of our desire and fear. It is the first of many deaths all the way up to the Last Death, which isContinue reading “December 10-B, 2022”

What form does your protest take? I strive to see things as they are and keep going, keep looking– in an “Anyway, nevertheless, even so” kind of way. It is like this: If this is the best we can do as a species over time, we should be ashamed. And, if this is not theContinue reading “December 09-A, 2022”

My advice about what to do with Christianity is to keep the metaphors and symbols and throw away the theology. God, for instance, is a metaphor, not a fact. A metaphor for “More than words can say.” Like the Tao, in that “The Tao that can be said/told/defined/explained, is not the eternal Tao.” Or, perhapsContinue reading “December 08-B, 2022”

Being empty is the best way I know to find your way through whatever is in your way. Overwhelmed is the end of the way. Emptying ourselves of all that is overwhelming is the beginning of the way. No one ever found their way through overwhelmed by being overwhelmed. We find our way through overwhelmedContinue reading “December 08-A, 2020”

Partnering with our unconscious mind is largely a matter of making ourselves available to it in a routine and regular way, simply by being aware of the presence of “the other” within. Carl Jung referred to the unconscious as “The ten million year old person within.” That “person” is not primarily verbal but communicates viaContinue reading “December 07-A, 2022”

The Practice is emptiness, stillness, silence, sitting, waiting, watching, listening, looking, for something to stir to life, arise, emerge, occur, fall into place, as realization, comprehension, understanding, hearing, seeing, knowing, calling us to rise and do what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done, as often as it needsContinue reading “December 06-B, 2022”

Unconscious and conscious have to get together, singing the same song, walking the same path, living in conjunction with one another, one mind, one body. For conscious to live at odds with unconscious is to be cut off from the wellspring of life and to wander without guidance and direction through the wasteland of discontentContinue reading “December 05-A, 2022”

Growing up is changing our mind– particularly about what is important. Growing up is changing the way we think. Changing the way we look at things. Changing the way we see things– seeing everything as though for the first time all of the time. Growing up is waking up some more again every day. TheContinue reading “December 03-B, 2022”

Doing things differently changes everything. Changing our mind about what is important changes everything. What is as it needs to be in your life? What holds it in place? How does making something better somewhere else mess with what is just right as it is? How can you make things better without making them worse?Continue reading “December 02-B, 2022”

Finding people we can trust who know more than we do about what’s what and what the rules are governing what to do about it is our life’s task through all of the stages of life, and there be many. Who, okay, whom, do you trust? How many people belong to your circle of trust?Continue reading “December 01-B, 2022”

The tides and the seasons, going and coming. My wife and I are reaching the end of our lives, and we have a great-granddaughter due in April. It doesn’t end. Our genes and our influence continue to impact life long after we are gone. Marcus Aurelius (121 – 180 CE) said: “Cold or warm. TiredContinue reading “December 01-A, 2022”