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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…

According to Jesus, the requirement for being His follower is to follow Him. Here’s where He says so: “Come, be following me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people. (Matthew 4:19) Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross…

It seems to me that the first essential step to expressing Love is to focus attention. To not focus attention is to ignore, and ignoring someone or something is certainly not an expression of Love. Focusing attention is of course not always enough — putting Love into action may be necessary. But action isn’t always…

“The Harmony of Flowers” Zeitler [PIANO] "Immortal, Invisible God Only Wise" Improvisation The title of this week’s prelude was inspired by poetry by Christopher Smart (1722-1771). Christopher Smart was born to a moderately well-to-do family in England. When he was 11 his father died, and their estate had to be sold to pay off debts…

One of the main challenges and purposes of meditation is addressing the ‘monkey mind’, that inner dialog that just yakkity yak goes on an on. As we’ve discussed in an earlier post, a problem with this inner monologue is that when we’re paying attention to it, when we’re internally talking to ourselves, our ability to…