C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

    Lately, my life has been pretty awful, and yet pretty awesome at the same time.  And, although most of the awfulness in this case is because of my own stupid choices, I think most of our lives are like this most of the time.  But that doesn’t mean that my life is just a mixed “blob” of these two ways of living - in other words, I truly mean that it’s both awful and awesome at the same time.     Many years ago, and in much better - not to mention cleaner - prose than I could ever hope (in the first case) or want (in the second case) to ever write, the pretty-much awesome writer of great Catholic apologetics, GK Chesterton, wrote that Christianity loves red, and it loves white, but it has a healthy hatred of the pink.  You see, good, healthy religion - and I think this can apply to Zen as well as Christianity, although Christianity at its finest is the best example - is never a blending together of opposites.  Nor...

This afternoon, I came home from work, sat down to do some loving-kindness meditation, then decided to open up the book “Being Zen: Bringing Meditation to Life” by the modern day Zen master Ezra Bayda. Since I had just finished some loving-kindness meditation, I thought I would turn to the chapter entitled—simply enough—“Loving Kindness” and see what Bayda had to say. I was glad I did. As a Christian, the chapter touched me when Bayda discussed prayer, and so I thought I would share with you some of what he had to say: “We can also access and touch loving-kindness directly. The “Way of the Pilgrim” is the story of a simple pilgrim who walked across nineteenth-century Russia. He carried only dried bread and two books—the Bible, and an early Orthodox Christian text, the Philokalia—to sustain his body and his practice. With a genuine homesickness for God, his only aim was to learn to pray without ceasing. “Although we’re unlikely to ever be pilgrims in ...

     Tonight I went to the movie theater to behold—I think that's the only word that does justice to the film's power—the movie "District 9".  The movie was definitely a sight to see—equal parts allegory, tough-as-nails action movie, and deft tale of human transformation—but it was also extremely  violent.  I am usually not apt to enjoy a movie quite that violent, but I thought that the underlying messages of the movie at least partially excused all of the gore.    Nonetheless, I was looking for some quiet time—some moments of contemplative silence to recover from the in-your-face ness of the movie—and so I went to the local Books-A-Million.  The bookstore is always quiet on a weeknight—rather like the silence of a library—due to the fact that most people in town seem to hang out at the local (and louder) Barnes & Noble.  I wanted to peruse the theology and philosophy bookshelves just to see if there might be anything new—not to mention good—that had recently ar...

     The following post comes from a very progressive Christian pastor named Ian Lawton.  He is the pastor at Christ Community Church.  If you like what you read below, I would suggest visiting Christ Community's website .  It has a lot of great sermons just like this one.  (By the way, if you're of more of a Buddhist or a Vedantist, you'll still find plenty to like in his sermons.) No More Second Hand God The practice of being spiritual is not exactly a precise science, is it? Spirituality dwells in the realm of mystery, metaphor and inner growth which are all so hard to measure. I equate it to watching the weather channel. If you use language that is ambiguous enough and statistics that are pliable enough, you can prove anything. The weather channel says there is an 80% chance of rain. Great. They can’t lose. If it rains, it’s the 80% chance. If it doesn’t rain, it’s the 20%. Did you know that 42.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot? I read a great example of this...

     One of my heroes is Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  A martyr if there ever was one, Bonhoeffer was killed by the Nazis only weeks before Hitler committed suicide.  A Lutheran minister and theologian in the "Neo-Orthodox" tradition, he wrote several books on theology and living a Christian life.  His most well-known book, "The Cost of Discipleship", also happens to be his best.      In the book, he discusses the differences between what he calls "costly grace" and what he calls "cheap grace."  Most believers—or most followers of the major religions that base their religion on "faith"—live by what Bonhoeffer calls cheap grace.      But cheap grace is not the way to go.  Cheap grace is the road to hell, the path that forever keeps you from Nirvana.  If you reach the fork in the road, cheap grace is not  the path least taken.      If you want to live a life of Divine Fullness, a life of egolessness  (if we are to use Buddhist terminology), then ...

     I have been a little late this week in getting any posts out.  This is because I have been at work on an article for a bodybuilding magazine, and because I have been at work on the following essay.  The following essay is dear and near to me.  I hope that you find solace and support in whatever ways it might offer. Integral Life Practice Simplified Part One: Cultivating Spirit      Ultimately, religion and spirituality should be about practice, not about belief.   One reason that many people in the West turned toward Eastern religions—and then toward Integral philosophy/spirituality—is because they were upset with the way Christianity was/is practiced in our country.   Christianity was/is too often practiced as a way of believing as opposed to a way of being .   (And, of course, it doesn’t have to be this way.   Contemplative Christianity is still one of the best ways in existence.)   However, it seems to me that too many Integral practitioners—because of their interest in ...