I barely understand a new way to publish and get feedback called Ask Me Anything. But I am signing up under a Religion and Faith category (mine being Ecological Religion) and posting a "proof" photo here as part of that process. Evidently, I'll be hosting an event related to this process this Thursday, May 3, at 3 PM. (I assume 3 PM Pacific Time.) Hopefully, this will connect me with interested parties also using the AMA system. If anyone from AMA comes here, look around at…
Gurus My first night in Bombay, sleeping on the woven mat cot, a small lizard dropped on my forehead. “Yeow!” I jumped. “What happened?” I heard from the other room. “A lizard landed on my head!” “Very auspicious,” they said, laughing. In the hot summer of 1971, at age 26, I had left my seminary to tour India with my guru/friend, Dr. Vasavada, and to meet his guru, the Blind Saint of Vrindivan. By the time I got my funeral director’s license in 1967…
Bodies I saw life and death in bare detail working for a funeral home. The dead body, having festered for four days, reeked. The stench of its rotting flesh filled the embalming room and, unavoidably, my breathing. Fortunately, in such situations, our smell system overloads and goes numb after a half hour. When a person dies, their body dies gradually. At first, the stagnant blood turns blue and the body heats up. Rigor mortis sets in after about four hours, lactic acid locking the muscles. …
First, some preamble, then the story, a totally true story that wends its way into a metaphor. The unveiling of Ford’s new mystery car, the Edsel, was to have been a momentous occasion. Instead, it was a big embarrassing flop that would mark a change in the car capital of the world – Detroit. All the cars in the world seemed to come from Detroit. During the Second World War, Ford Motors had produced one B-24 an hour out of its massive Rouge River Plant,…
Radhaa Nilia shared her new book with listeners via an interview on KSKQ radio, Ashland, Oregon, on November 21st, 2017. Quan Yin is the goddess of compassion. Radhaa has published a workbook to help women and men cultivate this goddess energy within.
I and Jason Houk interview Dr. Todd Miller, author of "Storming the Wall - Climate Change, Migration and Homeland Security at KSKQ radio in Ashland, Oregon on November 14th, 2017. Miller discusses the militarized over-reach of the Trump government, out 100 miles from our southern border, effectively creating a surveilance state and a standing army on American soil, a Trumpian "constitution-free zone." This project uses a 12 fold increase in funding, from $1.5B to $20B, more than what the FBI gets. When the Berlin Wall…
How easy it is to take the goods of life for granted. I realized this in the usual way – by having something injured. Who notices how well their thumbs work? I don’t; they just do. But bang it a few times and infection sets in, making it throb with highly noticeable pain, and you’ll realize all the ways there are to bump it again and again doing ordinary things. Put a key in the lock? Ouch! Open a package? Oww! Type a sermon? …
Because I’m a minister long-concerned for the ethics of how we get and use energy, my recent trip to tour the Tesla factory to the San Francisco bay area (Fremont) had an inspiring feel to it, like going on a pilgrimage to a shrine. Tesla doesn’t advertise or use dealerships, yet it is rapidly transforming the car world. This isn’t just for money. CEO and early investor Elon Musk’s life-intention has a “massively transformative purpose.” Above the doorway to the factory it reads, “Our Mission:…
Jessica Simmons is interviewed by Byron Carrier at KSKQ radio in Ashland, Oregon. She remembers her military family lifestyle growing up in North Carolina and how she has grown to fulfill a priestess role, creating ceremonies of drumming, chanting, and meaningful moments.
The Reverend Michael Dowd, pro-future evangelist, and I talk shop and religious philosophy for almost an hour. Michael Dowd, author of "Thank God for Evolution," has a refreshingly similar philosophy as I do: Nature is our primary access to ultimate Reality. If religion is an accurate and fruitful relation with Reality, being religious is living well in our bodies on our precious earth. Too much, religion in humanity directs us to afterlives and instead-of-lifes, to a distant and vague God instead of the "stuff" of…