Thursday, July 27, 2017

Art, Empathy, and Ministry: Sword fighting with poets.

In the parochial model, the desire for deep life is addressed by “Stewardship Campaigns” and  “Stewardship Campaigns” encourage people to give of their  “Time, Talent and Treasure.”  Willing volunteers sit on a number of committees, ...
More »

Monday, July 24, 2017

Why I'm a Pluralist, and Other Travelogues.

Paradox is the silence of God.  In the silence of God, as the heart sutra says, form is emptiness and emptiness is form.  All times are now, all places are here.  Interbeing is a real thing: everything is part of everything else, ...
More »

Thursday, July 20, 2017

Biff, Kapow, Thwapp: A Study in Contemplative Attention

On a deep level, it was probably my messed up Mind-Body-Soul connection that got me back into meditation.  In the years after the monastery I’d given up prayer entirely, and overused the typical methods of self-extinction.  Full of a ...
More »

Monday, July 17, 2017

Kairos, Koans and Conversion 7: John 3:31, Jesus, John and the teaching of Mu

There are images, phrases and stories in the gospel that function as Koans for us, and a certain number of Gospel interactions that qualify as Koans for the people involved.  The Samaritan woman at the well is an example of the latter, and we ...
More »

Thursday, July 13, 2017

Six: Sacraments, Vulnerability, and Mindfulness

When the bell rang, I started class the way I had, so often, over the last few weeks “What do we call this corner I’m standing in?”

Ralph Cain, without raising his hand, said “Isolation.”

“And what, Fatima, is the Acronym we use for the ...
More »

Monday, July 10, 2017

Kairos, Koans and Conversion 6: John 3:11-21 Belief and Acceptance

Genesis says we’re “Made in [God’s] image and likeness.”  And again, John 3:11 says “We speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen, yet you do not receive our testimony.  If I have told you about earthly things and you do not ...
More »

Thursday, July 6, 2017

Five: the steps of deliberate thought and the eight honest virtues

Fatima Garcia approached me before the bell rang.  “Mr. Warner, your class reminds me of Mr. Sanchez’s psychology class.  When we talk about addiction, we talk a lot about compulsive thought.  I never thought about all this before ...
More »