All posts tagged: Suffering

Choice and Consequence Part 4: Benevolence

January 29, 2022
by Michael
comments 16
Course Ideas / Reflections

Part 3 of the series is here. Last time I wrote about the distinction between unity and separation—the two possible cornerstones of our individual thought systems. Each of these serves as the organizing factor for all that follows in our perceptual navigation of experience. In describing the transition from the state of perfect communication within the primordial state of being—which is unity—to the condition of separation, I noted that “the experience of being separate was granted, […]

The Need For Better Questions

August 8, 2018
by Michael
comments 23
Course Ideas / Reflections

Lately I’ve been listening to a few more podcasts and reading a few more op ed pieces in the media than I ever have before, and one really interesting observation has become clear to me. We are (all of us) biased in ways I think would surprise us were they actually understood. While it may seem obvious, nevertheless this had the feel of real discovery to me. And I think there is a reason for […]

Navigating to Joy

July 3, 2016
by Michael
comments 39
Course Ideas

Things that appear to be so under one set of conditions, are often found to be quite different under another.  It is for this reason that most of our conclusions formed historically, in the context of separation consciousness, are erroneous.  What’s remarkable about the experience of life is that we can be completely incorrect about ultimate reality, and have a very real and vivid experience of our own false conclusions up to and even through […]

After the Memories

March 6, 2016
by Michael
comments 54
Christ / Course Ideas

Our pain is bound up in our memories.  We don’t see what’s in front of us, we just see strange reenactments of our past.  It’s not really our past even, just the things we concluded from our past.  Our conclusions travel with us wherever we go.  This is what Jesus calls learning.  It’s our loyalty to all the stuff we made up.  We keep these little statues woven to the inside of our coats to remind […]

Every Step of the Way…

October 14, 2015
by Michael
comments 38
Creative

This post is part of the Time Machine Blogging Challenge hosted by Linda Litebeing… When I reflect on my life, the realization that emerges is that I’ve been guided in ways both more subtle and far-reaching than I would have imagined were possible in the moments when I was grappling around within the question of it.  That’s not to say my past isn’t peppered with opportunities to have lived differently.  There’s a business or two that didn’t […]

Heaven’s Front Yard

August 20, 2015
by Michael
comments 32
Christ / Poetry

Staggering through the dim light of Heaven’s front yard, slinking into the greenish shadows of distant outdoor halogens as if to hide forever, and ranting silently about the burden of makeshift woes and ramshackle postulates with which I’d saddled myself– including my favorite one about the  pending arrival of something hellish but indeterminate in nature that no being should ever have to face– why wouldn’t I accept the cocktail napkin and the nice sandwich offered to me […]

An Insight… A Cliché… A Knowing…

May 30, 2015
by Michael
comments 35
Christ / Course Ideas

I’ve been thinking lately about things I have no business thinking about, like how to reconcile the capital-‘S’ Self from A Course of Love with what I’ve glimpsed of the Buddhist teaching of anatta, or no-self.  Let me say right at the outset that this is not purely an intellectual exercise.  One of the great miracles of starting this blog has been the dialogue with people whose words, and possibly (though it remains hard to […]

Unity and Relationship

May 13, 2015
by Michael
comments 40
Course Ideas

A little over a week ago Linda nominated this blog for an award, and being Award Free here I graciously declined but expressed my appreciation for the recognition.  Linda’s intent was clear and heartfelt, however, and revolved around expanding relationships and the threads of connection in this virtual realm.  I felt I wanted to honor the intention in some fashion.  So, I’ve been thinking since then off and on about relationship in general, and the […]

A Secret About Me

May 5, 2015
by Michael
comments 43
Christ / Poetry

It’s only been a few days, but I’m back for more. The life of an addict. My moments have become cracked glass, but there is a hint of honey in my tears. It’s been a bittersweet epiphany: I’m not cut out to be the person I’ve been being. I’m a crash test dummy careening into the wall of nothing whatsoever. For a moment I was full and clear, a moment without the traffic, unfettered, remembering what […]

The Cheering Section

April 8, 2015
by Michael
comments 30
Poetry

Three frogs were sitting together under a newspaper watching the typhoon of unnecessary human ordeals roll across the sky from one side to the other like an entire model year of locomotives wrestling for the glory. It was Fantastic. Thunderous. Unpredictable. Insane. And I was in that sky– whirling, pounding, placating, admonishing, wounding, encouraging, listening, stinging, consoling, worrying, wishing, dashing, leaping. Suffering, basically, all the madness of that turbulent fury. What I eventually noticed, in a […]