Tag Archives: Presence

Appetites for darkness; befriending the shadow self.

Tuesday afternoon at the library, instead of doing anything on [church obligations], I spent time with several articles that could have been predicted to make me angry. I’ve forgotten specifics about them, and Net History from the library terminal isn’t available to me here. The deal is, I recognized an appetite for darkness; “The Itch.” Similarly yesterday, yesterday morning, once I realized I really had nothing to do that day, I became intensely angry and prone to look for ways to act out that anger; e.g. by finding more such articles to fume over. Went through some more of the same last night, albeit presence in the shower saw it all go away.

All this in the face of my goal of being perpetually happy and cheerful and an emanator of light and joy.

Continue reading Appetites for darkness; befriending the shadow self.

The Real Reason Why You Haven’t Healed Your Trauma/Depression/Heartbreak

At first I expected this author to affirm the “blame-your-past” orientation of “the prevailing psychological wisdom of our time.”  Instead, she sets forth an intriguing vision remarkably similar to my own, with, for me, remarkably intriguing ramifications that I want to consider further.

Her counsel is to accept What Is.

Continue reading The Real Reason Why You Haven’t Healed Your Trauma/Depression/Heartbreak

Podcast — The Way of Peace

I’ve just re-published my book.  Check it out!

The Way of Peace

Related:

Music:  Ringo Starr, “It don’t come easy”

Continue reading Podcast — The Way of Peace

6. Sales pitch

THE WAY OF PEACE

← 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

THE WAY OF PEACE

← 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

10. Strategies

THE WAY OF PEACE

← 8. Heart and soul Home  11. Tactics →

Strategies pertain to long-range goals, or a basic posture one means to maintain over a long period of time.  Tactics are plans of what to do from moment to moment.  In this chapter and the next I set forth the strategies and tactics known to me, that I personally use. Continue reading 10. Strategies

12. An examination of the Sermon on the Mount

THE WAY OF PEACE

← 11. Tactics Home 13. Two (or more) views of the Kingdom →

In the beginning, I claimed that all Jesus’ teachings have the goal of enabling a person to attain and maintain a state I said he called “the Kingdom,” which I call peace of mind; and that the principal means thereto is the practice of presence, keeping one’s attention on the here and now and on what one, oneself, can do.

The time has come to test that thesis. Continue reading 12. An examination of the Sermon on the Mount