One of the aspects of spiritual development is that of excellence, which is a challenging goal to aspire to. It is of course much easier to strive for spiritual excellence when one is part of an institution that promotes it. Let’s go for an extreme example: being chaste is a lot easier in a nunnery… Read More Striving For Excellence Without Guilt Tripping in a Morally Lax World
Rigidity and narrow mindedness are not good, but moral laxity isn’t, either. While religious fanaticism is wrong, it doesn’t mean that religion in itself deserves to be demonized. The current demonization of religion is often an excuse people use to allow themselves, in the name of freedom, to do things that run completely counter to… Read More How Religion Does Not Restrict Freedom, or How Nasty Would it be to Drive without Traffic Lights in Manhattan?
So-called nice people are usually considered a pleasure to work with, because they will rarely, if ever, say something that makes others uncomfortable. They will often do everything they can to not intentionally insult anyone or bring up sensitive topics that might upset others. But this niceness can be superficial, and create festering passive aggressiveness,… Read More Am I Actually Being Mean? Not Judging Our Actions Solely by Other People’s Reactions
I just wrote a post about prayer for The Journey West, which should be posted sometime today. In it, I reflected about how our understanding of prayer evolves with time. And it really is incredible how the same prayer, which you have perhaps said a thousand times, suddenly looks completely different – that’s when you… Read More The Light of Truth and The Fire of Denial
I have come a long way when it comes to mantras. At first puzzled by what they were and how they were used, I became curious and starting researching them. As I read and heard about some interesting experiences both strangers and friends had had using mantras as part of their personal spiritual development, the… Read More Mantrafying Ego Management
… And my personal questions: why, and what does it imply? America become less Christian, survey finds America is a less Christian nation than it was 20 years ago, and Christianity is not losing out to other religions, but primarily to a rejection of religion altogether, a survey published Monday found. Three out of four… Read More From CNN: America becoming less Christian
I spend a lot of time during the Christmas holidays (and perhaps some time after, too) wondering where the spirituality of the celebration went, and if anyone can find it in between the presents, the turkey and the decorations. And it seems that I am not the only one questioning the place of religion in… Read More Obama’s Inauguration and a post-Christmas debate
It never made sense to me, that people would fight for a reason that is supposed to bring them together. A wise friend of mine once told me that as humanity evolves and matures, it will come to realize what religion is really about, and will learn to use it as a tool to bring… Read More No more excuses: Religion doesn’t condone terrorism in its name