Here are links to some of my longer posts in which I try to develop some of my key beliefs and thoughts about life, the universe, God, the state of the world, and all that:
Vipassana Meditation
A personal account of my first experiences practicing Vipassana meditation in the tradition of S.N. Goenka. I have attended several 10-day silent meditation retreats since writing this, but it remains an accurate picture of what the experience is like. The practice of meditation has had a powerful impact on my life, and this essay places it within the larger historical context of my own spiritual search.
State of the World Address: Part One and Part Two
An initial attempt to answer the questions “What have you learned about the world?” and “How has traveling changed you”? The effects of what has come to be known as “globalization” were evident everywhere I went in my travels. The world is changing fast everywhere, becoming more interconnected, more volatile, smaller. The combination of the power of computing with the global saturation of communications and information infrastracture is creating an entirely unique historical era. Never before has the local been so impacted by the global– for better and for worse. In spite of the terrible legacy of suffering and exploitation born of corporate globalization, my travels left me with reasons for hope. Part One and Part Two of my State of the World address are preliminary attempts to address some of these issues. There will be, hopefully, a lot more to come.
World Spirituality
I have been asking questions and exploring spiritual and religious practices for as long as I can remember, mostly within the context of Christianity. I even went so far as to pursue an advanced degree in Systematic Theology. The variety of religious practices I encountered in my travels, along with a new strong personal engagement with Buddhism, has led me to believe in a kind of Deep Ecumenism- a spiritual core at the heart of all truly transformative spiritual practice. In this essay, I try to articulate what I think it all comes down to.
Jesus
Taking a closer look at the relationship between Buddhism and Christianity, I focus on an interpretation of the particularly sticky and potentially enlightening matter of Jesus. What could the story of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus mean in light of the Buddhist critique of substantialist notions of self, other, world, and God?
The Orienting Question(s)
In which I take a look at what I think this world needs and then try to discern a calling.
Global Economic Crisis 101
How the global crisis is the predictable result of the abstraction of our economic life from the truth of our organic interdependent nature.
