Musings on Life, Love, Consciousness, Toxic Masculinity, Toxic Religion, The Sacred and The Profane

Chapter Five: Troubleshooting And Repairing A Broken System We are lost if we continue to ask the therapists, gurus, ministers, or best friends for emotional and spiritual assistance for the rest of our lives. It initially may appear disorienting and Read more

Chapter Four: My Search For Truth and an Answer I Found . “We don’t see the world as it is, we see it as we are.”—Anais Nin . I divorced my mentally ill first wife Donelle early in 1984.  In Read more

Chapter Three: Approaching Trauma More Consciously “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” ― C.G. Jung Traumatic wounding is more than just physical injury; it encompasses the deep psychological scars Read more

Chapter Two: Finding Ourselves in the Collective Consciousness “There are times shells, or walls, are necessary, but more often we can reveal ourselves by being who we are.  Neither hiding nor revealing ourselves will prevent our share of pain, but Read more

Chapter Two: Culturally Normalized and Institutionalized Trauma “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 Read more

Chapter Two (formerly Introduction-edited by Melinda) “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people Read more

(Excerpt from book #8:  No More Turning Away—-Breaking The Conspiracy Of Silence) In a therapeutic relationship, the therapist attempts to create a bridge image to the patient’s innate healing possibilities.  This bridge image is nothing more than an internalized representation Read more

It is sometimes a dangerous, though potentially enlightening, question to ponder. “What’s on your mind?” That is the Facebook question that opens every news feed post. Yes I have been blessed with yet another birthday, and, of course, I have Read more

NOTE: The following is another classic overshare from me.Curious minds need to know, though.I refuse to be a part of the conspiracy of silence! Are you hoping to see photos of colorful fall leaves or some cute grand babies? HAH, Read more

Excerpt from book #8

No More Turning Away—Breaking The Conspiracy Of Silence

Jesus, amongst many other real, or imaginary, wise people has stated that we must not judge others, lest we be judged, as well. On the surface, this sounds like good wisdom, doesn’t it? If I think someone is an asshole, and, they might really be an asshole, I risk being judged as one as well. Talk about the boomerang effect!

Yet, we can easily see the inbuilt fallacy of this perceptual admonition, if it is just taken out of context without other supporting wisdom. And, spiritual misunderstanding continues to aide and abet truly bad people in continuing their egregious behavior (see Donald Trump, amongst millions of others). Who wants to be judged as a Trump equivalent, at least spiritually, because we made an accurate and necessary call on a misbehaving fool and criminal?.

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Yet, my behavior towards judging, or not judging, others did not originate with Jesus Christ’s teachings. The “wisdom” originated as a self-protection mechanism for me. i don’t recall the exact first time this happened, but I do remember as a seven year old boy thinking that I will ignore X,Y, or Z’s misbehavior, hoping that they would in turn ignore my own. I dared not judge others, for fear that I would be judged. And whenever my father found out I had misbehaved, there was to be an ass whipping by his unforgiving belt, so the immature thought, which is more universal than we may care to admit, was to please turn away from my malfeasance and make no report of it to others, and continue to enjoy your own without fear of recrimination from me! (wink, wink, nod, nod).

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Did you ever wonder why some people would rather just watch the world burn, and prepare for Armageddon, than join the spiritual fire department and help douse the flames?

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Did you ever wonder why so many Trump supporters continued to support him, even after he showed his true darkest intentions?

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I don’t!

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People are more attached to wounded modes of past being, behavior, and experience than openness to the healing possibilities inherent within the present moment. They see reflected in Trump’s outward shenanigans aspects of their own unhealed and unawakened natures. They celebrate their dark hero, rather than feel ashamed,  because they have a champion who makes it OK to not be their best self.  They may appear indifferent or hateful to the rest of the awakening world, yet, in truth, they are only unwilling and incapable of honestly facing themselves.

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Of course, mutual non-reporting of offensive and unacceptable behavior is not conducive to positive change, growth, healing, or mindfulness, is it?

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No more turning away, folks. Do not fear your perceptual software but be prepared to add new algorithms to it to aid in more accurately representing our intentions to see truly in this often chaotic, wounded, and imbalanced world. There is still so much needless and unnecessary suffering in our world, yet if we are still suffering, we will remain under its dark controls and not be fully inspired to reduce its damaging influence, both on ourselves and on others.

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First, let us heal ourselves of our own glaring deficiencies, and traumas, so we no longer look through those fogged lenses at our world.

Then, let us look out at the world with a more coherent healing intent.

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No one likes being judged, especially by the person with so many glaring deficiencies of their own.

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Often, though, the judged deserve every bit of our assessments of their, and our own, once, or ongoing wayward behavior.

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Let us all now turn our wounds into wisdom.

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Here comes the judge, here comes the judge, here comes the judge. . . . .!

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Your Honor, what is your most accurate verdict?

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GUILTY?

INNOCENT?

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We are all guilty as charged, until we regain our lost innocence, and can see that innocence in others, as well.

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No more turning away from our wounds as suffering human beings.

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No more turning away from the inherent goodness and beauty that lies, often ignored, within the heart and soul of the other.

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“Remove that log stuck in your own eye, so that you may more accurately see the sliver stuck in another’s eye”—Jesus of Nazareth

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(more…)

To feel pain is to be alive, to feel another’s pain is to be human—-Leo Tolstoy Recovery And Spirituality Grandfather Great Spirit Revisited Published by Bruce on October 25, 2023 Like Anais Nin, I am a writer, and an explorer Read more

First photo is from 1973-1974 University of Portland student body card. The USAF ROTC was unimpressed with my hair, even with my near record score on their academic AFOQT scholarship and entrance exam (I walked away from it all later Read more

Bill Wilson of AA renown, 20 years after his own recovery from alcoholism in 1935, engaged in psychedelic therapy for his chronic depression, beginning in 1955. He believed that this therapy would be of great benefit to those recovering people Read more

It is heartbreaking work to be the primary caregiver for a family member or friend suffering from dementia. I cared for 6 years for my father, who suffered mightily, especially the final 18 months of his life. I had no Read more

Jim and Sharon,, I think we did much better for our lives, and for our Spirit, by not becoming yet another profit  centered ego passing as the latest minstrel of Truth, whether Western, or Eastern based in understanding. True guru’s Read more

FOOTBALL is everywhere, yet again.  It is the season to rally around our favorite teams, be they high school, college, or professional.  We tend to support the “home” teams (go Ducks, Beavers!)I never had a home professional team, being from Read more

I completed this phase of my week of tears and mourning, and smiles, joy, and celebration, around my upbringing and my entire school experience, The 50-year class reunion brought many hours of contemplation, meditation, and healing intentions and actions, and Read more

50-year Rex Putnam 1973 class reunion Saturday night and Sunday! Kudos to Steven Riddell for organizing the event! I really did not want to come to the reunion, yet I knew that it was required for some measure of healing Read more

Table Of Contents introductory/prologue/first chapter type of material. Part One Author’s Note Prologue  Revisiting a Troubled Past, Finding A Way To Live In The Present Introduction (2) or Chapter One Danny B.  And The Potential Cost Of Telling The Truth Read more