Posts on religion/spirituality and man’s search for meaning.
The previous articles in this series discussed the importance of giving some account to the reality of evil. If we do not grapple with this reality, we merely increase the likelihood of becoming evil’s victim, instrument, or both. But wrestling with the reality of evil is no easy task. One reason for this, quite simply,…
An important first step in addressing the problem of evil involves the definition or description you give to it. From my observations, evil is a force that corrodes and eats away at the human spirit in whatever way and to whatever degree it can. It delays, derails, or puts an end altogether to the natural…
This article is the first in a series addressing the topic of evil. It is important for all people, I believe, to strive to give some accounting to evil—what is it, why does it exist, what is its role in our lives, how can we protect ourselves from it, etc.—for unpleasant though the subject may…
The night before his first psychotherapy session to address marriage and spirituality issues, a man dreamed: I am on a sailboat with some other people. We are on the ocean or a very large lake and it has become stormy. The mast on the boat breaks. The next thing I know I am in the…
Have you ever done a “good deed” only to find out it harmed more than it helped? Perhaps you lent money to a relative, then discovered it was put towards an addiction you didn’t know they had. Maybe you pursued a career for idealistic reasons, later realizing it wasn’t a good match for you, and…
A woman in her 70’s dreamed: “I’m getting off of a tour bus that has come to a halt on a snowy mountain pass. It may be a rest stop or perhaps a ski area. It reminds me of Donner Summit. Around me and the other passengers who have disembarked is deep snow piled high…
It is a fundamental rule of the psyche that if the ego does not serve the Self, or God, it will inevitably serve only itself. Just as the gravity of the sun holds the planets to their orbits, the Self is meant to be the anchoring center of the total personality. But in a state…
Within a week of the death of our much-loved dog, Kody, my wife and son had dreams of him. Susan dreamed of seeing Kody in different rooms of the house. Noah would see him lying on the floor, much as he did in the weeks leading up to his death by lymphoma. In his dreams,…
The older I get the faster time seems to progress. The holiday season is fast approaching and it seems like just a short time ago it was Thanksgiving 2014. Intellectually, I know that there have been many days in-between, and yet, in terms of memories and feelings, it was just yesterday. What accounts for this…
The crowning moment of the annual Burning Man festival in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert is the setting afire of a huge wooden sculpture shaped as a man. What many “Burners” may not realize is that the image of a man (or woman) being burned by fire has a long spiritual history. For instance, it is…
