Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Spiritual Exercises

  • Can an AI System Meditate?

    Resolute meditators on occasion experience a deep inner quiet. It is a definite state of consciousness. You will know it if you experience it, but destroy it if you try to analyze it.  If you have the good fortune to be vouchsafed such a state of awareness you must humbly accept it and not reflect…

  • Play to Win . . .

    . . . but with complete detachment from the outcome.  So I tell myself, while playing chess, for example, but not only in such competitions, but in all the affairs of life. Be like the lotus leaf that floats on the water but does not become wet! (Bhagavad Gita 5:10) But does the self-admonition refer…

  • Heaven and Hell: the Looming of the Last Things at the End of the Trail

    A friend of mine, nearing the end of the trail, afflicted in body and soul, writes:   A question, my friend. Can you imagine someone on his deathbed saying, "Well I never really believed I'd meet Jesus, but the possible reward (eternal salvation) was so great that I was persuaded to be a believer so…

  • 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. 

  • From the Mail Bag: Old-Time Reader Swims the Tiber

    This just in from Russell B.: Long time no talk. I hope you’re doing well. I have been thinking about your work on existence over the past 3-4 years very seriously. So seriously, in fact, that it has made me swim the Tiber (well, I was born and raised Catholic so did I actually leave?).…

  • On Corporate Prayer and Institutionalized Religion

    Substack latest. Ecclesiolatry is one of the topics discussed.

  • Idle Talk and Idle Thought

    If you aim to avoid idle talk, then you ought also aim to avoid idle thought. A maxim to mind: Avoid the near occasion of useless conversation. This applies both to conversation with others and with oneself. The latter is avoided by internal situational awareness which is classically enjoined by: Guard the mind. Not easy.…

  • Grades of Prayer

    Substack latest.  A partial list of the rungs on an ascending ladder.

  • “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”

    Physical bread or meta-physical bread?  Top o' the Stack.

  • Could a Jew Pray the “Our Father”?

    I return an affirmative answer at Substack. It dawned on me a while back that there is nothing specifically Christian about the content of the Pater Noster. Its origin of course is Christian. When his disciples asked him how they should pray, Jesus taught them the prayer. (Mt 6:9-13) If you carefully read the prayer…

  • Intercessory Prayer

    A friend inquired, Never understood how your prayers can benefit me. Do you? I wrote back, If you have  no trouble understanding petitionary prayer, why should you have a problem understanding intercessory prayer?  He responded, Prayer is hard to understand. In a legal proceeding if my testimony can exonerate some one, I see the relevance.…

  • A Salutary Spiritual Exercise for the Month of Gratitude

    November is gratitude month around here. One way to start the day right is by finding five things to be grateful for. Example: I slept well. All household systems are fully operational. The cats are happy and healthy. And so is the wife. ("Happy wife, happy life.") Nature is regular and reliable: coffee goes down,…

  • 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.

  • Grace

    Between phenomenology and theology. Stack leader.

  • An Impediment to Meditation

    Substack latest.