Category: Spiritual Hygiene
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Soul Food
A Substack sermon.
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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.
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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.…
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Worldly Success and Spiritual Growth
Worldly success can easily ensnare, and most will fall into the trap. But for some, worldly success has the opposite effect: it reveals the vanity, the emptiness, of worldly success, and thus subserves spiritual advance. One is therefore well-advised to strive for a modicum of success as defined in the worldly terms of property and…
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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.
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Two Worries about Meditation
Substack latest
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Safe Speech
Top o' the Stack.
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Spiritual Mountebanks
Substack latest. Hold onto your wallets, muchachos! The world is full of hustlers and charlatans who prey upon spiritual seekers. One ought to be suspicious of anyone who claims enlightenment or special powers. The acid test is whether they demand money or sex for their services. If they do, run away while holding onto your…
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Alain on Keeping to the Present
Substack invited me to re-post this from a year ago. For an old man, a year is nothing; for you young whippersnappers, an ice age. So that's my excuse.
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Unusual Experiences and the Problems of Overbelief and Underbelief
Substack latest. One day, well over 40 years ago, I was deeply tormented by a swarm of negative thoughts and feelings that had arisen because of a dispute with a certain person. Pacing around my apartment, I suddenly, without any forethought, raised my hands toward the ceiling and said, "Release me!" It was a wholly spontaneous cri de…
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Tongue and Pen
Top o' the Stack. Christ has harsh words for those who misuse the power of speech at Matthew 12:36: "But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." But what about every idle word that bloggers blog and Substackers stack? Must…
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Detachment and Renunciation
The Notebooks of Paul Brunton, Volume Two, The Quest, p. 130, #242: Detachment from the world is an absolute necessity for the man who seeks authentic inner peace, and not its imagined counterfeit. But renouncement of the world is not necessary to any except those who have an inborn natural vocation for the monkish life.…
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A Contemplative Nun on Thomas Merton
This just over the transom from Karl White: Hope you're well. May be of interest. ‘I have never met a real contemplative who found Merton useful’: Letters reveal Sister Wendy’s ambivalence about Gethsemani’s famous monk | America Magazine July 30, 2018 Dearest Robert, I feel about [Henri Nouwen] as I do about Thomas Merton. There…
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Downplay Both
If you downplay your wins, downplay your losses. The pain of defeat is worse than the pleasure of victory is good. But you have the power to regard them as equal. In some measure the pain of loss can be lessened. The Stoic therapy is no cure, but it is a palliative. If our predicament…
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Two Worries about Meditation
One Christian friend worries that his meditation practice might lead him in a Buddhist direction, in particular toward an acceptance of the three marks of phenomenal existence: anicca, anatta, dukkha. He shouldn't worry. Those doctrines in their full-strength Pali form are dubious if not demonstrably untenable. As such, they cannot be veridical deliverances of any…