“Being male is a matter of birth Being a man is a matter of aging. Being a gentleman is a matter of choice” —Vin Diesel There has been much discussion in the last several years about the differences between men and women. Books have been even written claiming that the Read more…
Many of the insights of the saint stem from their experience as sinners. —Eric Hoffer What if a real miracle was trying to happen in our lives, and too few people cared or were not even aware enough to attempt to look for it? This indifference or ignorance is the Read more…
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” ― C.G. Jung “The unexamined life is not worth living” Socrates “The unexamined life” refers to a life lived by rote under the rules of others without the individual ever examining whether or Read more…
“Our lives begin to end, the moment that we become silent about things that matter” Martin Luther King, Jr. I first experienced long term sobriety in 1987. With the onset of temperance, I did not have a whole lot to talk about, except while with other recovering individuals. With such Read more…
It is what it is, but it is not what it seems —Paul Hewson .To “follow new paths of consciousness”, while knowing that all objects of consciousness, or the “you can’t be real” phenomenon sets up quite a transformational dynamic within consciousness. If “you” can’t be real, then everything that Read more…
Powerlessness and silence go together. We … should use our privileged positions not as a shelter from the world’s reality, but as a platform from which to speak. A voice is a gift. It should be cherished and used. —- Margaret Atwood What is the relationship between the conspiracy of Read more…
Mental health has become an issue of national concern. I share in that concern at the deepest level. Throughout my life I have witnessed the oppression of our citizenry, and our collective mental illness, and to this day it continues to distress me. The repression of powerful aspects of Read more…
Three methods by which we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; And third, by experience, which is bitterest. ——Confucious All historical and personal writings are epitaphs, symbolic memorials to times that are dead or never existed in the first place. Such Read more…
We visited one of the places on earth where there is a true litmus test for one’s humanity, Hiroshima. A person who visits here and does not suffer with the Japanese people is already up to their neck in hell, and they are too dead to even know it. We Read more…
Religions exist to provide a template for its adherents to find their “higher power”. Far too many people despair of finding it, and end up accepting the husks discarded from other people’s minimal understandings of God, Truth, Buddha, Jesus, or whatever spiritual light seems to beckon to them. There is Read more…
We made it to the top of the Mt. Misen, on Miyajima island across from Hiroshima, where a legendary Japanese monk, Kobo Daishe, of long, long ago found enlightenment. We have found our own unique versions of the same. The trip down was a challenge, taking nearly 2 hours and Read more…
We spent a couple hours at the Zen Master’s museum today. In high school, Akiko studied Suzuki, as well as one of his disciples, Nishida. Akiko did not become conscious of Suzuki’s implications and teachings until later in life. I would have loved to study with Suzuki, and engage in Read more…
A little “secret” about each gate to a shrine, is that the guardian creatures always are in pairs, one with mouth open (alpha, or ah) and mouth closed (omega, or ohm). In the sacred silence, there is the internal humm of the energy of the universe, which busy minds just Read more…
“Roll out the barrel, we’ll have a barrel of fun, roll out the sake, we got the blues on the run . . .” We are back in Tokyo for this one. One final “shriner’s tour”, and there was enough donated French wine and Japanese sake stored on the two Read more…
These photographs are from a Tokyo inner city meditative garden. I purposely placed the beauty of nature against the background of Japan’s finest building technology and engineering. Our technology will always be with us, yet, so too must our appreciation for the infinite gifts of Nature, that Mother Earth provides Read more…
The following writing is about my perspective on aspects of the spiritual disease within American consciousness. It not just about Christianity, though I will write at length about aspects of present day political hijacking of the faith. I come from a Christian background. I have studied and practiced aspects of Read more…
Edit This has not been edited, but is published so that I can access it from another platform Marty and Me Over the years, I have become deeply disturbed by the developments within our shared world, within my individual consciousness, and the points of connection between self and other, through Read more…
Atomic weapons don’t kill people, people kill people. Guns don’t kill people, people kill people. These are equivalent arguments, only differing by the degree of devastation that their use creates. As a world civilization, we try to regulate our atomic weapons, yet we let other weapons of mass destruction run Read more…
(excerpt from my book) If it’s painful for you to hear my story, it’s OK. That’s part of the process because my story includes pain, so don’t stop listening because you are uncomfortable. If you would just move past your discomfort you might learn something about empathy and compassion and Read more…
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? — 1 Corinthians 3:16 Now the natural man doesn’t receive the things of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to him, and he can’t know them, because they are spiritually discerned—1 Corinthians 2:14 Prolific Read more…