Author: william

Science is built on the principle of repeatable experiments: at least in the hard sciences one can repeat any of its experiments and verify the results for oneself. (In the 'softer' sciences like geology, however, it may be a little harder to reproduce results requiring millions of years!) But suppose one actually wanted to take…

When I hear the phrase "that old time religion", my thoughts turn to ALL the way back to the first century or so after Christ — as old as Christianity gets! And at that time a very allegorical approach to Scripture was popular if not the norm. Because, for them, the point of Scripture is…

"Nine-tenths of the news, as printed in the papers, is pseudo-news, manufactured events. Some days ten-tenths. The ritual morning trance, in which one scans columns of newsprint, creates a peculiar form of generalized pseudo-attention to a pseudo-reality. This experience is taken seriously. It is one’s daily immersion in “reality.” One’s orientation to the rest of…

Inner Dialog is that ongoing conversation we have with ourselves in our heads. Narratives are those ideas and stories we tell ourselves about who we are and our place in the world. Apparently some people say they don’t experience an Inner Dialog (see this article). But we all certainly have Narratives about ourselves: “I am a…

"Our ego would rather cling to what is known rather than let go and set itself free Why follow the path? to silence the redundant noise to stop the monotonous drone to starve the relentless ego to drop our pretentious programming and finally to find freedom — Carlos Castaneda

One approach to our inner dialog/monkey mind is to try to shut it down altogether (essentially the Buddhist approach). Another might be to keep the monkey occupied with something — at least that way it isn’t charging off all over the countryside wreaking havoc. It seems to me that mantras serve that purpose, including repeating…

The 'Jesus Prayer' is a short formulaic prayer advocated especially within the Eastern churches: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." The prayer is particularly prominent in the Orthodox Church. It is often repeated continually as a part of personal ascetic practice, and was particularly esteemed by the fathers and…

Trio Sonata in G J.S.Bach (1685-1750) [HARPSICHORD] Susan Addington (flute) and Amy Gano (oboe) "Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus" Improvisation An ever popular exercise for people watchers is to compare what folks say with what they actually do. As true as that is for individuals, it’s also true for cultures. How they do Art, and…

Chaconne in Dm Buxtehude (1638-1707) “We Gather Together” Improvisation The idea of building a piece on a repeating pattern (eight bars long, say) has been around since time immemorial. Baroque era versions of that would be the "passacaglica" and the "chaconne" ("shah-CONE"). Two modern applications of that idea would be Taizé (a Christian meditative musical…