» true/false self

Abuse of Power 3: Abused and Not Even Knowing It

NRCC — Sun, 29 May 2011 16:09:19 +0000

We ignore the teachings of Jesus, Paul, and saints and sages from several religious traditions. Consequently, we are rooted in a worldview of separateness. We do not see ourselves as one with God, or one with other human beings. Our instincts and experience insist that you are you, and I am me.

But the same is true of our emerging view of the universe. Our instincts and experience tell us that matter is matter and energy is energy. But Einstein’s theory of relativity, and subsequent experimental verification tell us that it is only our descriptions that make things different. In fact the essence of the universe is a oneness.

Jesus’ and Paul’s teachings do the same. They tell us we are oneness. However, we tend to listen to the common sense of our instinct and experience. As such, we live in worlds of competition and pecking orders.

And these become so normative, we don’t even see them as the abuse of power. They just seem like the way of the world. We wish it could be better, but this is the world we live in.

Jesus didn’t think so.

Have a listen.
Doug.

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Abuse of Power 2: Oneness vs. Two-ness

admin — Sun, 22 May 2011 16:01:44 +0000

As we begin to think about why power is so abused among us, a starting point is our very view of reality. We tend to think of ourselves as separate from one another, separate beings, separate entities, organized into separate categories.

We feel this in our guts, so it must be true, right?

Maybe not. Maybe our sense of separateness is a function of a story we tell ourselves, more than it is an objective reality. In this lesson we’ll think about the teachings of Jesus and Paul, as well as the scientific framework of Einstein.

Maybe we’re not a two-ness. Maybe we are a one-ness. And if so, that will change the power dynamics between us considerably.

Have a listen.
Doug

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The Clutch of Death (part 6)

NRCC — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 17:06:01 +0000

One of the ancient spiritual paths goes by an old name…
“mortification.”

It means to put to death. Once we see that our false narratives, our faulty Life-Stories are strangling the life out of us, we want to turn the tables and put that clutching instinct to death itself. Historically, spiritual people have done that by killing off the passions they associate with those attachments.

The traditional use of the practice is always voluntary. But what about those times when we are involuntarily forced into being without this thing, that person, or the other circumstance that we have come to believe we cannot be happy without? Can we apply this ancient practice to an involuntary season of “Lent?”

Have a listen,
I’ll talk about a friend of mine who has involuntarily been forced into a “vow of poverty” by an extended season of unemployment. Can he benefit from involuntary mortification, just as the ancients tell us we can from a voluntary one?

Doug

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The Suffocating Power of Self (part 4)

NRCC — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 16:56:30 +0000

Last week, we made the outrageous claim that God’s judgment is a good thing. Who knew? This week, we go further by asking how we can invite this judgment upon ourselves. Not only are we claiming to want God’s good judgment, now we’re paying a pretty steep price to get it.

Have a listen.
Doug

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The Suffocating Power of Self (part 3)

NRCC — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 16:19:24 +0000

Ps. 98 says the the judgment of God is a good thing. Go figure! How could coming up short, and then hearing about it from God be good?

In this lesson, we see that we’ve really misunderstood the whole idea of “the judgment of God.” It’s a gift, it’s a treasure, and it’s something our natural human experience yearns for and needs. Really! Trust me!

Have a listen.
Doug

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The Suffocating Power of Self (part 2)

NRCC — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 16:10:13 +0000

We continue thinking about what we can learn from Jesus’ story of the Good Samaritan, and his cryptic remarks about “eternal life.” What is eternal life? How does one access it? Turns out, it has very little to do with the afterlife as so many assume.

Have a listen.
Doug

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The Suffocating Power of Self (part 1)

NRCC — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 16:09:35 +0000

In the last lesson, we looked at “the suffocating power of stuff.” An extension of the same thinking that went into that lesson applies to this one. In this lesson we look at how we orient ourselves to life by looking through the lens of what’s good for me, what’s going to work for me. We find that counter-intuitively, this way of thinking leads us into a prison for the soul. Jesus’ teaching seems always to be working toward our freedom.

Have a listen,
Doug

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Tending Our Souls (Introduction)

admin — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 16:18:46 +0000

by Doug Hammack

Today we lay a foundation for a series of lessons about tending the gardens of our souls. To become the kind of people other people want to be around, indeed the kind of people we ourselves want to be around, requires attentiveness to spiritual growth. In this lesson we look at why this is so, and suggest a motivation for being diligent in following the ancient spiritual paths.

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Sabbath Consciousness: Our Descriptive Selves (part 4)

admin — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 17:28:21 +0000

by Doug Hammack

beach sunrise

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As we’ve seen these last two weeks, “the descriptive self” is a faulty and inadequate way of seeing ourselves. In this final lesson in the series we consider how our sense of self keeps us from remaining present to the moment, keeps us from peace, keeps us from inner tranquility.

Sabbath Consciousness: Our Descriptive Selves (part 3)

admin — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 21:06:46 +0000

by Doug Hammack

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Continuing our discussion of sabbath-consciousness…