The Curious and Fascinating Process of Dying I have been close, real close to death twice; once in a drowning incident in Lake Erie when I was eighteen and once in a hospital emergency room when I was forty-two. Both times were very scary, but only up to a point before the most incredible... ( added 12 hours 17 minutes ago.)

Silent Prayer: Part 3 - How to Pray Silently While we are praying silently, we are going to let go of all the baggage we carry on our shoulders regarding the past and future. When thoughts of the past come up, whether it be who we are, what we have accomplished, what titles we have earned... ( added 3 days 2 hours ago.)

Silent Prayer: Part 2 - What Silent Prayer Is, and Isn't When we think about prayer, what comes to mind is some kind of request or solicitation of God . Maybe we are ill and ask to get better, or ask forgiveness, or maybe a little help with the lottery. These are the kinds of prayers that we mostly... ( added 4 days 2 hours ago.)

Silent Prayer: Part 1 - Why Should We Pray Silently? For two hundred years after Christ died, according to historical documents, many different and diverse gospels and ideas permeated Christianity, all competing for acceptance by the fledgling Church that was then organizing. One of these was the... ( added 5 days 10 hours ago.)

Why Are Americans So Angry? "All acceptance is the key to the gateless gate." (Old Zen saying). Good advice, especially when it comes to things we can't prevent or fix. And knowing the difference between the two; what we can fix and what we can't, is the beginning of wisdom.... ( added 7 days ago.)

Are We Truth? Over 4,000 different belief systems exist in the world, each with its proponents understandably claiming that people of faiths other than theirs are doomed. This is to be expected; otherwise, advocates would not feel secure within their beliefs.... ( added 7 days 3 hours ago.)

Waking Up By Yourself We know when it's not working; it's like a slap in the face. We thought that it was working but then something happens to remind us that nothing has fundamentally changed at all, and we find ourselves back at square one after all these years. We... ( added 9 days 1 hour ago.)

The Realities of 2012 As with most serious problems in our country, only a crisis of major proportions generates action. By the time action is taken, however, it is always a day late and a dollar short. This results in bad judgment and further serious consequences. But... ( added 9 days 8 hours ago.)

Getting to the Bottom of Our Discontent We complain about many things these days, things in our personal world, our nation, international controversies, and we have opinions on how to solve everything. Desperately coming up with conclusions and answers and fighting for our voice to be... ( added 9 days 9 hours ago.)

WARNING: Do Not Take This as Financial Advice The recent upturn in some of the indicators and the stock market is because of stimulus and businesses cutting expenses. This won't last. There is no stimulus left and nowhere else to cut except perhaps to go completely out of business and sell... ( added 10 days 4 hours ago.)

Extremist Christians, Muslims, and Jews - A Common Denominator of Violence The fundamentalist wings of Middle Eastern religions seem to have one thing in common - violence. All born from the same founder, Abraham, they appear to have a particularly destructive way of relating to anyone who doesn't believe as they do, or... ( added 11 days 2 hours ago.)

Is Conflict an Inherent Factor of Religion? One of the most difficult areas to get past in human relations is the idea that "my" religion or ideal is Truth and yours isn't. When someone says to you that your beliefs are all wet compared to his or hers, how does that make you feel?... ( added 14 days 9 hours ago.)

A Different Way to Live The way that we have been living is called the way of least resistance. This way involves emotionally and logically going after what we believe will make us happy. For the vast majority of us, this usually includes a career, a partner, then a... ( added 16 days 7 hours ago.)

Dont Fall For These Three Fallacious Debating Tactics These are three of the most common underhanded tactics used in debates.They come into play as an attempted deflection from the main argument that your opponent is usually losing and can no longer argue intelligently. If you watch out for them and... ( added 16 days 9 hours ago.)

How to End Stressful Relationships Stress in our relationships is something that we can no longer avoid. At one time we could keep it under control, but now that it is so difficult to make ends meet and to just plain survive, the stress can become unbearable. Since we vent our... ( added 17 days 11 hours ago.)

Locating God Hello, God? Are you there? HellOOoo. Are you listening? I know; you have a gazillion other things to do and billions of people to keep happy just here on earth, let alone all the people on all the planets around all the billions of stars in just... ( added 18 days 6 hours ago.)

GM, California, and Newspapers "As GM goes, goes the country," a phrase not even whispered around Wall Street these days but shouted out constantly in the heydays of leveraged buyouts and unrestricted Hedge funds. "California is the cutting edge of the rest of the country."... ( added 18 days 7 hours ago.)

Why Doesn't God Come Down and Say Hello? Well. Why doesn't he, or she? I guess that's the first problem, one of gender. The Bible is gender blind, I mean Adam kept all of his ribs but somehow his wife was created out of one of them instead of out of the earth from which Adam was created.... ( added 20 days 4 hours ago.)

Living Life Unconsciously Do you feel at times that you are just going through the motions, living life unconsciously? Did you know that this feeling is actually close to spirituality, more so than being entirely and endlessly enthralled with life? Now, there is a... ( added 21 days 1 hour ago.)

Rich? Poor? (Anything But Middle Class!) Nobody really trusts Wall Street anymore. It seems that a few smart people make out, but most of us just end up being suckers. We still have our money in 401ks with the average American investing about $10,000 in one way or another, hoping and... ( added 23 days 23 hours ago.)

Light Up Your Life! Where do we find our security? Where lurks our pleasurable experiences? What is it that we couldn't do without? Many things fall into this category; family, friends, careers, cars, homes; but especially close to our hearts . . . are our political... ( added 26 days ago.)

Making Smaller Footprints On my way up the mountain carrying some roofing materials, I stopped to catch my breath, and as I unconsciously gazed at a scrub cedar tree that I had trimmed a month earlier to clear the trail, an insight popped up. Insights happen like this - at... ( added 29 days 10 hours ago.)

Who Invented God? When we look back through antiquity it all gets a little fuzzy, but there seems to be a consensus about who invented God. As a matter of fact, middle eastern religions such as Judaism and Christianity can trace their roots directly back to this... ( added 33 days 11 hours ago.)

Meditation - What's the Point? Sitting quietly, doing nothing, what a waste of valuable time, right? You could be on the computer or cell phone talking with friends, or doing something really productive or fun. Why sit quietly? In life, two things separate successful people... ( added 35 days 10 hours ago.)

Spiraling Toward Oblivion Have you noticed, as you get older, that the months have turned into weeks, and the years into months? Time passes relentlessly, and as we look back on all the things that we have done, where is the significance? I was watching the WhiteTailed... ( added 36 days 2 hours ago.)