1. About this book

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Matthew 11:28-30: Jesus said,

Come to me, all ye who labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; …
and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

All my life, I have been concerned for people who seemed to me to have a harder lot than they deserved — who were loaded down with heavy burdens.

In time, I came to see that I likewise carried needless heavy burdens.

Life is difficult enough even without them. Jesus speaks here of a way to live without them. Life’s inherent difficulties cannot be avoided. Needless difficulties can be avoided, and one’s life will be far more pleasant as a result. I humbly believe I have come to understand what Jesus meant, and that is what I seek to set forth here. Continue reading 1. About this book →

2. Meditation

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Meditation is not the whole of the Way, any more than flour is the whole of cookies. If you want cookies, you must also have butter, sugar, and perhaps eggs, in addition to flour. Flour is essential, however. Likewise as to the Way, meditation is so essential, as to move me to say this: if you have any interest in learning the Way, and do not now have a discipline of meditation, you should start one now — right now — before even reading the rest of this book. Continue reading 2. Meditation →

3. Application

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We are considering the human being as having, so to speak, three intimately interconnected “bodies:” (a) a material, physical body of flesh, that engages in behavior and acts on other material objects; (b) a body that thinks, is composed of and acts on ideas (ideation), which we may call the “mind;” and (c) a body of emotions, or feelings or “affects” (all the same thing), which we may call the “soul”.

Our thesis is that a single set of disciplines, involving all three “bodies,” can yield a state of being I have called “peace of mind,” which is tantamount to what Jesus called “the Kingdom;” and, in short, maximize one’s opportunities for tranquility and happiness in life. Continue reading 3. Application →

4. Serotonin and the individual

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Living as Jesus taught actually changes your physical body, in desirable ways.

I will focus just now on body chemistry, and specifically one chemical, serotonin.  Dozens of chemicals are probably involved, and I don’t mean to exaggerate the importance of just one.  However, it happens that, on the one hand, serotonin plays a major role in the challenges I have personally faced in my life; and on the other hand, it has profound ramifications for how well anyone does in life. Continue reading 4. Serotonin and the individual →

5. Serotonin and society

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The serotonin levels of the members of a community profoundly affect the degree of harmony and prosperity (shalom) in that community. Continue reading 5. Serotonin and society →

6. Sales pitch

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← 5. Serotonin and society Home  7. Mooring oneself in What Is→

Friday, November 3, 2017

This message is principally addressed to me, myself. After a couple weeks of doing pretty well at The Way of Peace, I’ve come again to a juncture where I seem to have tired of being happy, and am inclined to let go of this Way and return to, frankly, the way most people live.

Related: Learning curve

I may need to reason with myself, to persuade myself that self-management (1) is really worth the effort and (2) deserves to be a “First Thing” — a concern to be given priority, and to be held more important than other concerns. Continue reading 6. Sales pitch →

7. Mooring oneself in What Is

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← 6. Sales pitch Home  8. Heart and soul →

Hold to God’s unchanging hand.

When not at sea, a boat is normally tied, or moored, to a dock.  The waves rise and fall, the winds blow this way and that, but the boat is stable and secured because it is moored.

The storms of life buffet us this way and that, and one can lose oneself in the chaos and confusion.  Managing, coping, requires that one have some mooring somewhere.  Some folk moor themselves in a concept, a dogma, such as Biblical inerrancy or the dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church.  Others moor themselves in the dogmas of an ideology, such as Progressivism or identity politics; or a cause, such as environmentalism; or even a romance (a particularly bad choice).  I propose instead mooring oneself merely in What Is.

Everything else is subject to change or question or dispute.  There is no disputing What Is.  And the underlying principles, the principles that underlie existence itself, never change. Continue reading 7. Mooring oneself in What Is →

— Life with OCD

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Everyone’s this way a little bit.
It’s adaptative to check the door two or three times to be sure it’s locked.
It’s not adaptative to check it fifty times.

I have Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

I talked some about its physiological basis, and treatment, in a previous chapter.

I will tell more, and about my own experience, now. Continue reading — Life with OCD →

8. Heart and soul

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“Purity of heart is to will one thing.”
— Soren Kierkegaard

This post has been on tap for years; I’ve come to feel the time to write it is now.  On the one hand, however, I hardly feel I know what I’m talking about.  I can see the goal, I can point to it, I can admire it, but I hardly have any idea how to get there.  On the other hand, there are multiple directions from which to approach the subject, which fact doesn’t lend itself to the linear-sequential proneness of written words.

So, this may not be the best presentation.

In question is a dynamic that has profound pertinence to the effectiveness of one’s desires, the effectiveness of one’s prayers, the effectiveness of one’s life. Continue reading 8. Heart and soul →