THEOLOGICAL PURITY

I'm doing a kind of virtual Snoopy happy dance.
Here's why:
I love when someone reads my book and is struck by one of the reflections.
AND I love it when they let me know what the impact was AND then let me post it here AND the author happens to me my adult nephew. Good and good and good.



Here is the reflection and his comments:

243

Theological purity causes so many ills
Do you know

How many religious hairs can be split
In how many books

Over how many centuries?
Which came first?
Prayer or theology?

Experience or concept?

I honestly felt I could have no prayer life

Until I knew what was 'true'

Thought C.S. Lewis could tell me

Or Thomas Merton

Maybe ancient mystics had the key

No such luck

Sometimes you just have to dive in

Here is my nephew's response:
—Randomly flipping through your book today, the words "Theological Purity" jumped out at me. Yes, I am praying, yes I am back in church, yes, my spiritual hunger has been rekindled, but my theological views are certainly not what many would consider pure.

I believe in...Something. There is something greater than ourselves in the universe. Is that the Abrahamic God, or the Native American Great Spirit, or the Wiccan Earth Mother, or the God of Sikhism, or an even less definable energy as viewed by some mystic traditions? Why can't there be some degree of truth in various belief systems?

I fall back on Christianity because it is what I know and am most familiar with but...

I believe that theological purity is a byproduct of avoiding theological certainty—

Hey you readers!!!
Do the same.
I will soooo happy dance and post me doing it on Facebook.
Do I mean that?
Yep.

SPIRITUALLY CRANKY

It happens. 
I'm living up to the dedication in my book--"to those who can't grab on but won't let go".
And I'm irritated by it.
I wrote a book about my own spiritual ambivalence and confusion.
Who wants to read that?  As they say in marketing, "what is the reader's problem and what is your solution for it?"  
Duh.
I dunno.

Then again. Maybe I write for those of us who just can't say a full blown yes to a theology that no longer makes sense. I am so not talking only Christian. Maybe I write for those who have given up any spiritual aspect in their life and don't know they want it and need it. Maybe I write for those of us who are willing to talk about our confused time in history and have some fun talking God, faith, doubt, prayer, updating spiritual words, affirming mystery, and experimenting with something transcendent. Who knows.

By the way, while I'm cranky, I hate the word "spiritual". Give me some alternatives please!!

So here I am in an irritated moment. I do know this will pass because as I sit here I am still interested in the stack of books surrounding me. This topic of prayer and transcendent energy will not leave me alone. And I will take some time right now to do my kind of prayer and it will probably right my ship.

Hang in there with me.

TELL EVERYONE--"YOU ARE OFF THE HOOK"

I'll take wisdom wherever it comes from

—Tell everyone you know: "My happiness depends on me, so you're off the hook." And then demonstrate it. Be happy, no matter what they're doing. Practice feeling good, no matter what. And before you know it, you will not give anyone else responsibility for the way you feel -- and then, you'll love them all. Because the only reason you don't love them, is because you're using them as your excuse to not feel good—

Excerpted from Asheville, NC - Saturday, April 30th, 2005
Our Love,
Esther (and Abraham and Jerry) Hicks

This is what I call a spiritual practice, meaning it takes awareness and emotional discipline to get back to a place of love "NO MATTER WHAT".  Ugh. Just thinking about few of my own examples makes me want to rebel. (If you really knew how awful she is, you would be on my side. She makes me so mad, sad, disgusted, irritated, outraged, shocked, frustrated. See what I mean. Not an easy practice. Have to stop and adjust your feelings to a good place BEFORE anything can come right. Then go forth and love.  Sounds bass-ackwards, right?

Anyway, I think there is wisdom here.
This kind of love is hard work. Extreme love. Grand master love. Olympic quality love.

LET'S TALK ABOUT THE SOUL

Am I wrong or is it relatively easy to talk about the soul. If I say, "oh, that hurts my soul", I think you get it. Or if I say, "Makes my soul dance", you would probably also get it.
Talking about soul doesn't seem to make as much of an immediate divide. 
Mmmmm, now I'm curious. Was going to write about beauty but soul caught me.

I want to hear from you about soul.
Do you think you have one?
What is it?
Do you think everyone has one so less to argue about even though it's a spiritual element?
Do our souls exist
Is it a lot easier to talk about soul than it is about the existence of God or life after death?
If so, is this a place to start looking for common ground?
Does soul play any part in good and bad?


Let's play (some quotes)
—the soul is the incorporeal essence of a living being.

—Other religions (most notably Hinduism and Jainism) hold that all biological organisms have souls, as did Aristotle, while some teach that even non-biological entities (such as rivers and mountains) possess souls. The latter belief is called animism.^[5]

—Physicist Sean M. Carroll has written that the idea of a soul is in opposition to quantum field theory (QFT). He writes that for a soul to exist: "Not only is new physics required, but dramatically new physics. Within QFT, there can’t be a new collection of 'spirit particles' and 'spirit forces' that interact with our regular atoms, because we would have detected them in existing experiments."^[98]

—In 1901 Duncan MacDougall made weight measurements of patients as they died. He claimed that there was weight loss of varying amounts at the time of death, he concluded the soul weighed 21 grams.^[105][106] The physicist Robert L. Parkhas written that MacDougall's experiments "are not regarded today as having any scientific merit" and the psychologist Bruce Hood wrote that "because the weight loss was not reliable or replicable, his findings were unscientific."^[107][108]

—Liah Greenfeld is the author of Mind, Modernity, Madness: The Impact of Culture on Human Experience
In this book she proves empirically the physical existence of the soul!!!

Here is where I start:
I feel like I have a soul. I don't know it, I sense it.
I trust my own experience.
I don't think my body lives after death.
My soul might. But what would it be like?
I used to laugh and say we will all be a bunch of soul blobs bouncing around in eternity like
unleashed helium balloons begging not to be put back in a body. 
(PS--never talk about God or soul or life after death of theology with anyone who does not have a sense of humor!!!!)

Send me thoughts, quotes, experience, you know--stuff