In chapter five of his book Buddha Is as Buddha Does, dharma teacher Lama Surya Das offers this fascinating insight into the nature of mindfulness:
According to Tibetan Buddhist tradition, there are four kinds of mindfulness. First comes average mindfulness-the attention that springs naturally and spontaneously through our own interest in a ( Read more... )

A reader wrote to me recently:
Hello, I am interested in becoming a Christian Mystic. However I am not sure if I can join a monastery due to being a Baptist Christian. If you know any monasteries that I could join while being Baptist, please let me know. Also, I would like to know other ways to become a Christian Mystic besides joining a monastery ( Read more... )

Two of the most meaningful books I’ve ever read are Evelyn Underhill’s Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness and Thich Nhat Hanh’s Living Buddha Living Christ. I discovered Mysticism the summer after I graduated from High School, when a friend gave me a copy after I had an unsettling, but deeply spiritual, ( Read more... )

Friends, I am heartbroken to share with you that Father Thomas Francis Smith, OCSO, of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit passed away early this morning. He was 96 years old.

I met Father Tom in 2005 when I attended a Centering Prayer introductory workshop at the Monastery. He wasn’t the first monk I had met at the monastery, but we struck up a ( Read more... )

Twice in recent days I’ve had conversations with people in ministry about their spiritual life, and the idiomatic phrase “seeing how the sausage is made” got used. Here’s a (paraphrased) example;
After I became a minister and saw how the sausage is made, it changed my relationship to the church.

I love idioms, although as a vegan I suppose this one ( Read more... )

Recently I read Laura E. Anderson’s When Religion Hurts You: Healing from Religious Trauma and the Impact of High-Control Religion. Anderson, a psychotherapist specializing in trauma and herself a survivor of high-control religion, offers an unflinching look at the many ways that religion can cause harm, even (and especially) under the guise of ( Read more... )

Hi friends, I’m so pleased to announce the title - and cover art - of my forthcoming book! It will be published in 2025 by Broadleaf Books and represents my third book with Broadleaf (they also have re-published several of my older books). Even though it’s not being published until next April, you can pre-order the book now through major online ( Read more... )

More than once on this blog I have quoted an amazing few words from the American mystic Howard Thurman, who had this to say in 1939:
Acts of worship must be tested by the degree to which they remain living channels for the direct release of God into the life of the worshipper. When they become institutionalized they are apt to become dead so the ( Read more... )

Allen, who is a reader of this blog, recently sent me a thoughtful email; here are some excerpts from what he wrote:
I have a profound connection with the teachings of Jesus, yet I struggle with certain aspects of Christian fundamentalism, particularly the exclusivity that sometimes accompanies it… For me, life seems to be about recognizing that we ( Read more... )

A reader named Paul wrote to me with the following question:
Why is there more often than not such an intolerance, condemnation and even hatred between the different faiths and denominations ? Is it the Devil causing this?

Paul, thanks for your question. Before I get into it, I must say that I think “The devil made me do it” is the ultimate cop-out ( Read more... )