We journey together on a quest for mental, emotional, and spiritual freedom. We have a Wide range of conversations, but they are typically about getting free from manipulative and abusive forms of religion, and ways to get centered and maintain spiritual practices beyond dogmatism through various contemplative and philosophical teachings and methods, such as that of the Tao Te Ching.
In these hardened times, the idea of a “soft touch” in this chapter seems counter-intuitive. But at least it’s what we seem to need at the moment. Yin medicine. Fighting hatred and aggression with love and tenderness. And yet there is also a fear that we could get too cozy in the embrace of Mother Earth without wondering who’s going to push back the monsters that might consume us.
Read MoreAn overview of the history and contemporary landscape of yoga. Is it something worth considering for folks who are wary of uncritical religious ideas, cults, or worship of strange deities? Is it bad for your health or wholesome? What about terms associated with Hinduism like namaste, used in most practices? What forms of yoga are there? How might yoga help me with anxiety, health, spirituality, and weight loss? Join us even if you’ve already made up your mind or don’t care about yoga in particular, since it is representative of so much more than just one practice.
Read MoreWe explore the historical background of the dietary traditions and rules of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, AKA Mormons. Learn about fry sauce, root beer, and dirty soda, along with some general background on the history and development of a quintessentially American religion, and its well-known food and beverage practices.
Read MoreJeff discusses the positives and pitfalls of the liberal arts, the Western classical tradition, and anarchist ideas about schooling, then shares the audio of his opening convocation address this week at Concordia University Irvine, in which he shares ways in which church related universities can offer a liberating experience, given the right commitments. If you want to skip to the convocation address, that starts half an hour in.
Read MoreWe got wind of an odd idea in American evangelicalism: some are provocatively and or implicitly saying that empathy is a sin. It leads, it seems, to too much tolerance and not enough doctrinal purity. We discuss this, a negative article written about Jeff and his views on science at church related universities, and why we had to take bit of a pause for the last few weeks of our road trip down from Portland.
Read MoreReflection on Stacie’s hypothesis that American Christian beliefs about hierarchy and inequality in the home are negatively affecting the sex lives of evangelicals and others whose ideologies or theologies reject the basic equality of all partners in a sexual relationship. Also a discussion of why people fight at campsites and the conditions in which people can be genuine friends.
Read MoreTwo outsiders’ assessment of initial inquiry into this ancient Indian esoteric tradition related to using food as medicine. We seek valuable wisdom from the tradition but also note the problems of ideological and religious dogmatism, the nutritional dangers of uncritical acceptance of authority, and the scientific evaluation of ancient Indian principles. We come from a Christian and Western background as non-specialists who are interested in the possibilities and possible pitfalls of the tradition.
Read MoreThe Tao births them. Then Te nurtures them. Stuff affects them. Life events complete them. There’s not a single living thing that doesn’t exalt the Tao and proclaim Te’s glory. They exalt the Tao and proclaim Te’s glory not through coercion, but spontaneously, because of who they are.
Read MoreAbout a 1/4 of the world’s population has a religious restriction against pork. For other cultures, pork represents a sustainable way to find food independence, apart from empire. We discuss scholarly and intuitive hypotheses related to the reason why the Hebrew Bible and later rabbinic and Islamic traditions refrain from eating certain animals. We end with a discussion about the importance of integrating our lives in such a way that ethics, spirituality, and diet are aligned, whatever our values may be.
Read MoreWe discuss some ways in which a macrobiotic diet-- which consists of consuming locally sourced, organic, sustainable produce commonly in the form of brown rice, fruit, vegetables, seeds, soy products, buckwheat noodles, beans, etc.--expounded for Westerners via George Ohsawa (1893-1966) & adapted in an allegedly criminal way by Italian food cult leader Mario Pianesi.
Read MoreDiscussion of news stories reporting on allegations of sexual assault, misconduct, and mismanagement of a hyper sexualized culture at Concordia Preparatory School, near Baltimore. We laud the courage of the young women who have spoken out bravely about their experiences. How does this demonstrate system justification theory? What lessons can concerned parents school administrators learn from this tragic situation, one that is all too common at schools around the country? CW: sexual assault
Read MoreIn the course of life and death, three in ten focus only on getting what they can from this life. Three in ten focus on death and what might be beyond it. Three in ten try to play life safe within in the status quo but actually veer toward death. Why is this? By worrying too much about staying alive and consuming life’s treasures, they never truly live, yet death catches up with them.
Read MoreThe Sage is not closed-minded but considers what ordinary folks have on their minds. I am good to those who are good. I am good to those who are not good. This is the goodness of Te. I hope in those who are hopeful. I hope in those who are hopeless. This is the hope of Te. The Sage is engaged with the world. She brings balance to the world by carefully uniting her heart with it. Ordinary folks, hearing her wisdom, turn their attention to her actions. So she sets a wise example for them, as if they were her own children.
Read MoreA discussion of the spirituality of art and whether we ought to pay attention to art created by narcissistic creeps. We discuss the differences between Dalî and Bosch, and between his possible nihilism and what we find wholesome about Taoist artistic depictions of nature. This discussion comes on the heels of our visit to a Dalí exposition in Monterey, California.
Seek academic knowledge and you can accumulate facts day by day. Seek the wisdom of the Tao and you’ll release junk from your life, day by day. Let go of more and more so you can surf the Tao. Surfing the Tao allows you to accomplish anything without forcing everything. If you want to flourish in the world don’t try to control the world. Indeed, if you try to control the world you aren’t ready to flourish in it.
Read MoreWe introduce our theme which is about the spirituality, ethics, religious guilt, and joys of food and what we take into our bodies. We discuss our almost vegan diet experiment, with the definite exception of oysters. We preview some future topics which will include food cults, fasting, dietary regulations in religious texts, booze, and pharmaceuticals. This season will be about untangling healthy practices and tastes from the ideologies that trick us into eating slop figuratively and literally.
Read MoreThe last in our 12-part series takes us to the question of whether we can heal the world. If we can help heal the world—even as we can’t control it or remake it according to our own clever designs—then how is this to be accomplished by a Taosurfer? We go long because this is our concluding discussion of all we’ve been wrestling with throughout the season and we don’t want to leave anything out. Turns out part of the plan of action for the Tao Te Ching is a form of anarchism. We’ll explain a bit about what that misunderstood meant for the ancient Chinese context.
Read MoreYou can know the world
without walking out your door.
You can glimpse the celestial Tao
without looking out your window.
The further you run from yourself
the less you will know.
So the Sage gains insight
without needing to travel abroad,
knows what’s up
before the official story gets published,
and wins without playing games.
Peace, joy, happiness & whether we’ve been so focused on bad guys in religious circles that we might be only hostile to institutional religion. After a brief discussion of a student question, we focus (starting min 40) on a poignant email exchange with Tim, who was kind enough to let us reply to his emails verbally, so we could give it the attention it deserves. His main question: aren't we taking the heart out of folks by our incessant negativity about church abusiveness?
Read MoreWhen nations surf the Tao resources are used for human flourishing. When nations lose touch with the Tao resources are built up and set aside for war.
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