Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it. —-Jesus of Nazareth One of the quickest ways to turn off many an atheist or agnostic Read more…
The funny thing about truth is the fact that while I think that I am living it, the real truth may be trying to inform me otherwise. It is always a revelation to hear the truth (about whatever?), and the automatic response is usually “Oh yes, I already know that”, Read more…
I devote this chapter to my wife, Sharon White. Sharon is younger at age 72 than when she was at age 42, when I first met her. The lessons of love learned while with my wife Sharon could encompass an entire book of its own.. On July 4, 1989 I Read more…
In 1987, I met Marie Schmidt, a practitioner of Joel Goldsmith’s The Infinite Way, which is a movement involved with mysticism and spiritual healing.. She was a woman about 87 years old, who taught every Sunday at the old YWCA on 10th Avenue in downtown Portland. I had seen a Read more…
I have always known that there is something fundamentally wrong with the way that we, as humans, live our lives, and communicate with each other. I have not always known what the source of my own disease was, however. My disease of misunderstanding drove me to the brink of death, Read more…
In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart. —Mahatma Gandhi Our brains have incredible capabilities, and their co-existence with the human mind creates an infinite capacity for human experience. One of the more profound abilities of the brain is its capacity Read more…
A person who has thoroughly investigated human collective consciousness would find that there are many unconscious or unwritten rules for engagement between all members of society, in addition to the conscious and/or written ones.. The unconscious rules have been with us from the beginning, well before the introduction of mega-cities Read more…
All That Is Gold Does Not Glitter All that is gold does not glitter,Not all those who wander are lost;The old that is strong does not wither,Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken,A light from the shadows shall spring;Renewed shall be Read more…
All That Is Gold Does Not Glitter All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows Read more…
It may not be “common knowledge” for all Americans, yet in certain extreme religious circles, as well as within diseased individuals or secular tribes of dysfunctional people, some men just want to watch their worlds burn. There are many examples in modern day world life where rationality and love have Read more…
. . We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It’s easy to say ‘It’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.’ Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes. — Fred Rogers Read more…
Each and every one of us has the capacity to be an oppressor. I want to encourage each and every one of us to interrogate how we might be an oppressor and how we might be able to become liberators for ourselves and for each other. — Laverne Cox The Read more…
“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…