Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Spiritual Combat

  • The Dangers of Psychic Phenomena on the Spiritual Quest

    The thoughts of Paul Brunton well presented in a short video. I have been reading him for years. Like Thomas Merton, the man is at his best in his journals. I have read and re-read all sixteen volumes. For some extracts see my Brunton category. 

  • Rod Dreher on Fr. Carlos Martins, Spiritual Warrior

    Dreher quotes Martins: Between these two goals—tempting man and gaining him for eternity—there is another evil desire that the Devil aims to satisfy: the possession of his victim. Possession is the state where the victim is under demonic control from the inside. The demon takes over the body of the one he possesses. During possession, a…

  • Sorry, Buddhists

    Ultimately, there is no spiritual 'self-help.' Proximately yes, ultimately, no. We need exogenic assistance in beating back the demons, and we need grace.

  • Unseen Warfare

    Because unseen, easy to doubt, dismiss, deny.  At your own risk.

  • Two Worries about Meditation

    Substack  latest

  • The Christian ‘Anatta Doctrine’ of Lorenzo Scupoli

    Buddhism and Christianity both enjoin what I will call moral self-denial. But Buddhism is more radical in that it connects moral self-denial with metaphysical self-denial. Thus Buddhism denies the very existence of the self, whereas Christianity in its orthodox versions presupposes the existence of the self: Christian self-purification falls short of eliminativism about the self.…