I am very glad I started this challenge. I believe it imparted a greater sense of general equanimity in my life. Here are some specific insights:

• Walking meditation is heavenly – Prior to this month, I’ve only seriously done walking meditation in the context of a retreat. Like many good things, it is an acquired skill. Walking very slowly can make you feel unbalanced and incredibly self-conscious. However, as you start to accept those feelings and work with them instead of fight them, a transformation occurs. I feel it is also easier to bring this energy into regular life than with seated meditation.
  
• Deep breathing is a terrific default – Of course, I knew this implicitly, but having it as part of the challenge made it feel more significant and grounded. I truly am amazed at how many unskillful emotions and urges are eliminated or seriously abated by simply taking 3 super long breaths. I think 10-count breaths feel about the perfect length for this.
• Targeted, deliberate mindfulness is necessary to set a general tone – Meditating and adopting Buddhist-flavored beliefs is a great start to mindful living, but it will only take you so far. For the mindfulness to percolate throughout your routines requires deliberate focus. In short, mindfulness requires SLOWING DOWN, at least initially. For those used to a default speed of high, this will feel forced and awkward. Let it. Believe in the practice and the results will come in their own time.
• Listening without responding is hard – Maybe it is because as a teenager, I was incredibly socially awkward and fearful, I still associate being able to speak confidently as a skill, while being able to listening empathetically as a choice. However, at this point, the opposite is true. Speaking confidently I can fairly easily turn on and off at will. To really listen, however, not as a launchpad for responding, but simply to understand and validate, is difficult.

I have a feeling I will conduct modified versions of this challenge in the future, perhaps focusing on slowing down and bringing mindfulness to specific areas of life. For now, I am content to just breathe in, breathe out, and release life to unfold in its own messy and perfect way.

Namaste.

One of the philosophy zoom meetings I attend is the Denver Philosophy Group on meetup. After each monthly meeting, the host gives an opportunity for each participant to share what they have been reading or thinking about. Many times, the only authentic share I have is from podcasts and I wish I had an actual book to talk about.

This month’s challenge is fairly simple: I want to physically read and listen to audiobooks every day. The specifics:

• Read a physical book for at least 15 minutes each day – I am going to start the first week by continuing to read 2 books that have been on my shelf for a while: Cringeworthy by Melissa Dahl, and How We Live Is How We Die by Pema Chodron.

• Listen to an audiobook for at least 15 minutes each day – I just signed up for a free month-long trial of Audible and used 1 credit to download Mel Robbins’ book: The Let Them Theory. I will start this week with that.
• Every Sunday, start a new book and audiobook – Whether I am finished or not, I want to keep moving on; if the book was really engrossing, I am sure I will want to finish it on my own time; if not, maybe just skimming the rest is best.

I recently signed up for a HOTWORX fitness studio membership which is a 10-minute drive from where I live, so I should have plenty of opportunities to fit in the audiobook time. As for the hands-on part of the challenge, reading in bed for 10-15 minutes is a great last-resort option and also tends to help me mentally unwind, provided the book isn’t a fiction thriller.

I live very close to the Longview Public Library, so acquiring physical books should not be a problem. I went yesterday prepared to buy a new library card (I couldn’t locate mine) and someone had serendipitously found it on the sidewalk and returned it!

Namaste.

I could have titled this ‘a month of increased mindfulness.’ However, I really want to capture the intention of just taking things more slowly.

Here are the specifics:

• Only listen to audio at a regular speed – I frequently listen to podcasts or other media at 1.5x speed or faster. I find it more engaging plus I can then get through more podcast episodes. In the interest of embracing the moment, I will suspend this tendency.
• Practice daily walking meditation – Probably the most visceral way of slowing down is by purposefully walking slow. Outside of meditation retreats, I rarely practice walking meditation. This can be in lieu of my seated practice so it doesn’t have to be an extra item on my schedule.
• At specific times, intentionally take 3 super long breaths – I have started prescribing 30 seconds of meditation at key transition moments throughout the day that have been instrumental in regulating my emotions. I want to do the same thing but with deep intentional breaths. Also, breathing can be utilized even when meditation could not.
• Speak slower or not at all – I want to speak less and be okay with it. Take time to consider the five considerations for Buddhist speech: Is what I am saying true? Kind? Helpful? Timely? Gentle? If not, simply refrain.
• Choose one activity each day to move slowly through – This could be the same thing every day or different things on different days. Treat each action as though it is part of a solemn ceremony. No motion is rushed or thought of as insignificant. What this means practically is that I need to budget at least twice as much time as I normally would.

I have no problem at all with being a person that likes to move quickly. However, I equally value being able to thrive in stillness. My meditation practice alone is not enough to counteract my natural nervous energy and fidgety body. Hopefully this month’s challenge will.

Namaste.

One of my favorite listening pastimes while biking is Chris Williamson’s Modern Wisdom podcast. His interests of evolutionary psychology, fitness, dating, communication, and mental health are closely aligned with mine. However, 5-10 percent of the time, he brings on a guest to discuss political ideas and this is where I would start pulling my hair out if I had any left.

This visceral reaction on my part raises some questions. Why do I react like this? Is it simply because most of the political guests are more right-wing than I am? What does this even mean? Should I just not listen to these podcast episodes when they pop up in my feed? Would this refusal be admitting defeat: that I cannot even tolerate listening to a different perspective?

All of these questions are interesting and worth exploring. However, I think the biggest problem is a linguistic one. Specifically, I am referring to the use of words like left, right, liberal, and conservative as useful categorizations in a broad sense. What does it mean to be ‘on the right’ or ‘on the left’? Is there some magical line that distinguishes between the two? Making a ‘center’ option just compounds the problem, because now I have to draw two lines instead of just one.

Also, the idea that one word could even approximately capture an individual’s ideas on foreign policy, healthcare, fiscal policy, and social policy, just seems absurd. Even if it could for a particular person, it would not generalize to a large group of people in any useful way.

Is the solution to just excise words like left, right, liberal, and conservative from our vocabulary? That is one option, but I believe there is a less radical approach that can avoid a lot of the hasty generalization inherent in the usage of these words. Here are a few simple rules that will help:

1. Use these words sparingly – When possible, just talk about specific issues and circumvent these broad categorization words entirely. Instead of saying, “The left’s view on healthcare is crazy,” say “I think there are major problems with a universal healthcare system.” Instead of saying, “The right’s immigration policy is barbaric,” say “I believe deporting long-standing residents with no criminal record is wrong.”
   ⠀
2. Only use general words to refer to one specific spectrum or concept – For example, when using the words “left” and “right,” I am only referring to the socialist-capitalist spectrum and nothing else. If this is unclear, I will modify it to economically left and economically right.
   ⠀
   
   ⠀
   If using the the terms “liberal” and “conservative,” I will always define in as simple terms as possible what I mean before using them. I’m also happy to completely discard these labels if I feel there is any tension with them in a particular context.
   ⠀
3. Generally refrain from using these words in an objective sense – Instead, use them relatively. For example, “Bernie Sanders is further left than Chuck Schumer.” This avoids the problem of whether Sanders or Schumer are truly ‘on the left.’ I think we can objectively say that Sanders is to the left of Schumer. Alternatively, we could say that Schumer is to the right of Sanders. Both of these communicate the same relative truth.
   ⠀
4. Only apply labels to people that they apply to themselves – A lot of people will initially balk at this rule. “I can’t call him a “fill-in-the-blank” when he clearly is one?” I would say no. What you can do is quote specific things the person supports and let the listener make up their own minds on “what they are.”
   ⠀
   As someone that rarely fits neatly into labels, there definitely is a personal element to this rule. I can experience intense frustration when someone uses a word to describe me that I would not use. Therefore, I am happy to give everyone the same courtesy I would ask for myself.
   ⠀
5. Don’t use the phrase ‘self-described’ – Even with the best of intentions, this easily comes across as patronizing or dismissive. A better alternative is simply “identifies as,” if you don’t feel like using the label a person calls themselves without a qualifier.

Bringing this back to my podcast dilemma, I believe starting those podcasts is a good idea (don’t dismiss them out of hand). If it becomes clear early on that the focus will be on left vs right generalizations, then skip it. On the other hand, if it delves into discussing the pros and cons of specific policies, regardless of whether you see things differently, give it a curious listen.

Walking the line between being selective about what you listen to, while also making sure you are hearing opinions and perspectives radically different from your own, is a tough act. The above are my initial thoughts on navigating these treacherous waters.

Namaste.

I am incredibly reluctant to discuss my thoughts and beliefs relating to metaphysics, specifically the nature of the divine, consciousness, and the sense of meaning and purpose one might derive from their understanding and experience of these perspectives. I think my biggest hang-up is the seeming inability to communicate coherently on these topics.

I unreservedly will call myself a mystic, because the essence of mysticism is simply the experience of the divine, without borders. There is no necessity in mysticism to explain anything, simply to promote divine experiences, however you want to define them. I believe most people would benefit greatly from pursuing mystical experiences in their lives.

However, while I don’t claim any hard and fast beliefs about the nature of the divine, I do enjoy playing with and trying on ideas. My grounding in these mental pursuits is always direct experience. Sometimes the beliefs themselves, while not essential, are a helpful on-ramp to the experience.

With all that in mind, I want to develop the confidence to speak on this topic (my tentative beliefs about the divine, not just my experience) without feeling inadequate or defensive or invoking these reactions in others. I think the first step in this endeavor is finding a broad label that encompasses most of the belief systems in this arena, and using that as a launching pad to dip into more specific ideologies.

In my research, I couldn’t find any formal label that fits the bill. They either were too specific (e.g. panpsychism, pandeism), or used unknown or uncommon terms (e.g. immanentism). So, I’m settling on pan-spiritual. Spirituality is the process of seeking and finding meaning, purpose, and a connection to something larger than oneself. As a Greek prefix, pan means “all,” “every,” or “entire.”

Spliced together, pan-spiritual means something along the lines of, “the process of seeking and finding a universal sense of meaning and purpose that is larger than ourselves while at the same time intricately connected to our inner being.” I would also nest pan-spirituality under the topic of mysticism. You can be a mystic without being pan-spiritual, but not vice-versa.

With that extended preface out of the way, what specific form of pan-spirituality do I find compelling at this time? That would be transpersonal panendeism. I will save a full exposition of this for a later post, but here is a brief overview:

• Trans = beyond
• Personal = person/self
• Pan = all
• En = in
• Deism = the Divine (non-interventionist)

Put together, this is a belief that the Divine both permeates the universe while also transcending it, and has attributes that go beyond the boundaries of a unified person. In other words, there are at least 2 main conceptions of God that are both true: a universal substance (maybe consciousness, but not necessarily), and an intelligent presence (maybe with the omni attributes, but not necessarily).

What this means practically for me is a few things:

• The ways to conceptualize the divine are infinite – Since God is transpersonal, the divine can be approached as a he, she, or an it; as a guru, friend, or lover; as a still small voice or the majesty of nature. We are in God and God is in us.
• The experience of the divine is possible in every moment – Everyone and everything is part of the divine fabric. Therefore, experiencing the divine simply involves waking up to this perspective. It can be as fundamental as purposeful breathing or as exotic as an out-of-body experience.
• These experiences ground meaning and purpose – What are some things that the omni-version of God cannot experience? If you are all-powerful, you cannot experience the satisfaction of building skill. If you are all-knowing, you cannot experience the thrill of discovery. If you are all-present, you cannot experience the gift of awakening. By having these experiences, we add to the God-concept.
• There is no need to fear chaos and destruction – It is not on me or even on humanity to save the world or end pain or fill-in-the-blank. I can trust in the structure of the divine tapestry and simply act with presence. I can have confidence that striving for these or other goals is its own reward even if I don’t see objective outcomes.

I will leave you with the first line from the Tao Te Ching:

“The Tao that can be named is not Tao.”

I find this excerpt both beautiful and humbling. It reminds me to always evolve in my understanding of the divine, to learn from the perspectives of others, and to ground all of my spiritual beliefs in personal experience.

Namaste.

Last month, I completed a challenge that I didn’t blog about. I started the challenge a couple of days into the month and made up for the days missed. The essence of the challenge was incredibly simple: each day, have a structured topic that I think about anytime I have downtime. The biggest source of this downtime was driving, but other opportunities included grocery shopping and laundry.

The topics repeated each week, with each day devoted to a particular area. There are 4 biological macromolecules that I remember and teach to my students using the acronym ‘PLNC’ for proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, and carbohydrates. Each of these occupied one day. Here is a list of all the topics, In order from Sunday to Saturday:

1. Core values and Opposite-to-Emotion action steps – I have identified 24 core values that I hold, a sampling of which includes purposeful passion, thorough expression, and functional health. Opposite-to-emotion action is a DBT skill useful for managing uncomfortable emotions that I have found incredibly effective.
2. Buddhism Basics – This includes the four noble truths and the eightfold path. I have a simple mnemonic that I use to remember and talk about the eightfold path: ‘Understand This: Speaking And Listening Effectively Mandates Concentration.’ This stands for Understanding, Thought, Speech, Action, Livelihood, Effort, Mindfulness, and Concentration.
3. Proteins – For each of the biological macromolecules, I used the acronym: SPA DAME MP3. This stands for Structure, Production, Acquisition, Digestion, Absorption, Metabolism, Energy Utilization, Major Functions, and 3 types of Pathology – deficiency, toxicity, and dysfunction.
4. Lipids – Ditto above.
5. Nucleic Acids – Ditto above.
6. Carbohydrates – Ditto above.
7. Top-to-Bottom Human Systems – These include the 8 overarching organ systems, 4 tissue types, 6 stem cell types, and 5 non-stem cell types. I call it top-to-bottom because I arranged the systems in the order they would appear if traveling from the top of the head downward.

Most of these areas I knew extremely well and it was just a matter of choosing to focus on them during downtime instead of my semi-regular toxic rumination. For the macromolecules, I did spend some time the first week of the challenge fleshing out a few details which I used the subsequent weeks to occupy my mind.

I smashed the challenge and mostly loved the process. The technique of just switching to pre-planned thoughts to occupy the mind I found to be incredibly effective, especially when I am tempted to ruminate unproductively about some recent event. Since the challenge has ended, I do enjoy not feeling the need to think, but if I’m not careful I can easily default to unskillful mental churning.

Going forward, I think what would constitute Middle Way in this area is to have something I plan on thinking through completely, but is simple enough that I could easily do it in a few minutes. Once I got into the process, I could expound and explore it further if I so desired.

I would love to just totally be with whatever activity I am involved with. To be fair, I feel like I am much more present now than I have been in a long time. However, in most situations, there is a steady hum of reaction, analysis, and judgment that exists in the back of my mind.

I choose to accept the hum, show myself compassion, and find skillful ways of managing it when it grows too loud.

May your thoughts be peaceful and may you be at peace with your thoughts.

Namaste.

For ethical reasons, I would like to become fully vegan, both in diet and lifestyle. Currently, I am 80% pescetarian and have been for several years. Without getting overly analytical, I don’t view the avoidance of causing indirect harm to vertebrates as a moral imperative, though I do view it as a very important moral good.

Hunting and killing vertebrates, even if done solely for food purposes (and not just sport) is causing direct harm and something I wouldn’t do. However, buying and eating meat products is not directly harming anything. In fact, I would wager that if I entirely stopped buying and eating meat products today, the direct amount of harm caused to animals wouldn’t change at all.

For both of these reasons, I don’t feel a moral necessity to not eat meat, though I would like to start moving more in that direction. To that end, this month’s challenge will be focused on exploring vegetarian meals, snacks, and supplements that provide all of the nutrition I want while also rivaling the taste of fish (if that is possible).

Here are the specifics:

• Buy or acquire a vegetarian cookbook – At this point, I am focused on ovo-lacto vegetarianism, meaning I’m not worrying about my egg and yogurt consumption. Therefore, any type of vegetarian cookbook will be fine.
• Spend 15 minutes each day researching – I am specifically trying to maximize my protein and omega-3 fatty acid intake. Also, I really enjoy the taste of fish, and want to look for vegetarian alternatives that are as satisfying as a filet.
• Have 2 fully vegetarian days each week – Primarily, this would involve packing a different lunch option (maybe a salad), and trying out a vegetarian recipe for dinner or eating out and buying vegetarian.
• Be fully pescetarian by the end of the month – This is a highly attainable goal. The only major shifts it would require is substituting lunchmeat for something else, and communicating to family and friends that I am officially pescetarian. This may require extra planning when visiting others to ensure I have adequate dining options.

I feel like this type of challenge is long overdue, and I expect several more related challenges within the next couple of years. One of the most basic moral principles in Buddhism is “Don’t cause pain.” I expect this to be a successful first step in fully actualizing that foundational principle in my consumptive habits.

Namaste.

I experienced a bout of major depression this summer. It followed a scare I had about possibly refracturing my left foot. As it turns out, no damage occured other than a strain. However, even after this confirmation and the pain receding, I felt incredibly gunshy about doing anything remotely stressful with that foot.

My reaction to this situation was 100x worse than when I actually fractured my foot and ended up in a boot. Even though it was much worse then, I was able to radically accept that current situation and acknowledge that my period of recovery was temporary. When I had the scare this summer, I quickly descended into a cascade of what-ifs:

What if I keep fracturing my foot?
What if I can never run again?
What if this worsens my already negative body image?
What if this makes me less desirable?

My rumination was also accompanied by a large dollop of shame and guilt. “Really, you fractured it AGAIN after just being out of it for a little over a month? What kind of an idiot are you?” This has been my pattern for as long as I can remember. An experience triggers a strong negative emotion, and my first thought is almost always “I effed up,” or “I’m just a loser.”

I’ve done practices and challenges that have greatly reduced the frequency of these critical thoughts, such as my Month of Transforming my Self-Talk. However, the intensity is still pretty strong when some aspect of my physical health or functionality is directly concerned.

I gave a speech in July that I titled “Anti-Stagnation Recipe” which centered on what to do when you just feel trapped, demotivated, and are cycling through the same bad habits and emotions. There were three main ingredients I presented:

1. Get on a very simple time paradigm.
2. Establish and stick to 1 or 2 basic healthy habits.
3. Make a spiritual connection.

It’s this last ingredient that has really been a game-changer for me recently. I developed the seeds of the spiritual beliefs I hold today after my first major depressive episode back in 2018. However, for a couple of years following that, they remained mostly conceptual, not experiential.

Since my mini-breakdown this summer, I have been practicing consciousness focusing regularly. The highlight of this practice is proclaiming your emotional addictions and your desire to be free of them with as much emotional voltage as possible, utilizing any means possible, including yelling, crying, and gesturing.

I found a clearing in a wooded area next to a bridge overpass near where I live that has been mostly perfect for this practice. The one downside is there can be a LOT of bugs if I end up going too late in the day. The first couple of times I engaged in this practice, I felt incredibly self-conscious and doubtful. However, after pushing through that initial resistance, the liberation and power I experienced afterwards was palpable, and the sessions are only 15-30 minutes long.

Upon entering my car, however, I became a bit melancholy that this practice wasn’t feasible during everyday life when people were around. It was then I realized what was at the heart of this practice: spirit breath. In fact, I noticed that a not insignificant portion of the practice involved very intentional powerful breaths, where I welcomed presence, welcomed spirit, and welcomed universal self while expelling negativity and self-doubt. This simple intentional awareness of presence is always available at all times, even if the dosage varies.

Since that realization, I have been able to capture some of this energy at various times throughout the day simply by remembering my practice and intentionally and powerfully welcoming spirit into my interaction of the moment. A few breaths later and the disturbing event/emotion combo feels more like a challenge to be explored rather than a threat to be survived.

I suppose techinally, this spirit breath is eternally available. However, I have found it much more difficult to access and appreciate if I haven’t practiced consciousness focusing in the last several days. It opens up a channel that allows spirituality to move from head to body.

The best part is that you can easily adapt the practice to accomodate whatever brand of spirituality you subscribe to. Happy breathing!

Namaste.

In the emotion regulation section of the DBT Skills Training Handbook, every uncomfortable emotion has aftereffects of ‘narrowing of attention’ and ‘rumination.’ This is great when the troubling emotion is preceded by a truly life-threatening situation. However, in my life, this is rarely the case.

In addition, as someone with INTJ tendencies, rumination is my default operating system. When my mood is generally optimistic, this can be a wellspring of insight and motivation. Lately, this has not been the case. My attitude noticeably worsened a couple of weeks ago with confirmation of the delayed healing of my fractured foot.

First, I want to define what rumination is. Rumination means having constant and repetitive thoughts about a problem, its cause, and consequences. In my experience, it manifests as a cluttered and unfocused mind, with catastrophic undertones. I often find myself addicted to the process, while at the same time recognizing its futility in the current moment.

Here are the specifications of the challenge:

• Default to direct action or meditation – This is the principal and most important objective. If I feel I really “need” to ruminate, then set a timer for 3 minutes. After that time, wholeheartedly take some action. A brief meditation session is always an option, assuming the situation allows it. I also want to encourage casting lots, which has proved effective for me in the past.

• Smile whenever I am walking – It is much more difficult to ruminate when smiling. There are so many things I can occupy my mind with, from observing the present moment to meditating upon the 4 noble truths to reviewing the components of each system of the human body. When I push past the urge to remain stuck in my own drama, there is always joy or at the very least a sense of release at the other end.
• Commit to honoring 20 minutes of planned social time each day – I have felt more depressed generally over the last month. This drives me to more rumination, even though I know it is mostly unhelpful. Socializing is a tonic, but sometimes I don’t feel I have the energy to attend a 1-hr or longer event. I can always show up, however. That is doable. Oftentimes, just doing so overcomes the activation energy and the rest is energy-generating.
• Make one impulse buy each week – I inherited a sense of extreme frugality from my parents, which in a general sense is fine. However, it can cost me an enormous amount of time and energy to even make small purchases. I want to short-circuit that some this month. I will limit the amount to under $50 per purchase for my own peace of mind.
• Budget in wasted time each week – Time efficiency is a core value that I hold which can easily became toxic. I easily get frazzled when I feel I or others have “wasted” my time, all the while acknowledging that what counts as wasted time is completely subjective. Each week, I will force myself to “waste” 2 hours. Either this will happen to me throughout the week, or I will go on an unnecessary outing on the weekend.
• Send at least one message per week without any thought – I have severe FOPO: fear of people’s opinions. It is so bad that I often reread simple text messages or emails several times before sending them. At least once each week, I want to type out a response and immediately hit send without looking back.

Toxic rumination often leads me to engage in unskillful and destructive habits like binging TV shows to escape the mental quagmire. With my successful reduction of TV show consumption (which I intend to completely eliminate over the next month), being proactive about engaging my mind in productive ways is critical.

I feel this month is extremely overdue, but was also incredibly nervous to begin. I am nearly one week into the challenge and can already report less depression and more joie de vivre.

Namaste.

I have avoided discussing any of my spiritual beliefs at length in a public setting, and don’t even divulge much in more private settings. I think one of the main reasons for this is that I can’t really do so without getting into epistemology, which is not a light topic to dive into and can jeopardize the very essence of the beliefs themselves: as tools for mystical experiences.

After listening to a presentation a couple weeks ago at the Unitarian Universalist fellowship I attend in Longview, I became very interested in the concept of mysticism. I realized my attachment to finding credible explanations for spirituality distracted me with concepts about the nature of reality or the attributes of God, when what I really seek is simply the experience of the Divine, without borders. I think this is what mysticism is at its core.

With that in mind, any spiritual beliefs I adopt have the sole purpose of creating a substrate upon which mystical experiences can become a natural outgrowth. The point is not to explain the experiences or use them to explain the world. However, if installing some beliefs allows these experiences to be more readily accessed, I am passionately in favor of that, both for myself and those around me.

The following are the guardrails I think can ensure spiritual beliefs accomplish this purpose, without becoming tools to judge other people.

1. Subordinate to scientific consensus – For me, this is the bare minimum of middle way with regards to curiosity and conviction. I want to stay infinitely curious about understanding how the universe behaves, while also forming deep convictions about my place and role within it. The ultimate goal is to arrive at an integrative understanding of spirituality from the realm of science.
2. Untethered from a particular historical or scientific claim – What comes to mind most prominently for me in this regard is the claim of Jesus’ bodily resurrection. When I was a Christian, all of my mystical experiences and related beliefs were wrapped up in this claim, and all of them got shattered when I lost my conviction in the veracity of this claim. What a waste! I could have saved myself half a decade of spiritual emptiness if I had allowed my experiences to be valuable for their own sake.
3. Divorced from objective moral judgments – Mystical experiences are the very definition of something that is NOT objective truth. I believe subjective truth is every bit as valuable as objective truth when it comes to our personal lives. However, to the degree that morality can be viewed as objective, it can only be done by using objective or logical metrics – like science and ethical theories.
4. Above argumentation – This is the last item on the list, because I reserve the right and even responsibility to do so at times when others don’t abide by the first three principles. If others disregard science because of their religious beliefs, I will challenge that. If others say their religious beliefs are the only truth because of some historical event, I will question that to learn more. If others use their spiritual beliefs to justify an action or a policy I believe to be unjust, I will challenge their framework. However, apart from these exceptions, I seek only to understand in a meaningful way the beliefs of others in order to validate them on their spiritual journey. I expect the same in return.

Now, if you have spiritual beliefs that follow all of the above, but there is no experiential basis that drives them, the whole enterprise is worthless. The POINT is the experience of the divine, however we understand that. From that experience, there will undoubtedly arise questions of a scientific nature that demand to be explored or simply a desire to more fully understand the science we know. The experiences will probably be heavily inspired by our historical and philosophical understandings of the world. They will also be a major input for what we believe to be moral in our personal lives.

If I had to limit myself to one quality that would guarantee a responsible approach to spirituality, it would be humility – the recognition that while the experience of the divine is real (perhaps the most real thing there is), any attempt to explain or ground it will necessarily be lacking. As the Dao De Jing so eloquently states:

“The mere fact of discussing Tao makes it not Tao.”

This doesn’t mean it’s wrong to try, just that any description will always be far from the real thing.

I think my approach to spiritual beliefs might be similar to the model advocated for by the late Stephen Jay Gould of non-overlapping magisteria, or NOMA. However, without more thorough research, I wouldn’t make a hard claim to that effect. I think figuring out how to navigate the relationship between spirituality and science might be the most difficult middle path to walk.

So, how can we talk about our spiritual experiences and beliefs honestly and authentically without descending into dogmatism. I actually think it is a lot simpler than one might think. It involves describing felt experiences instead of stating perceived facts. How? Insert “I feel like” at the beginning of any description of your mystical sensations or metaphysical conclusions.

NOT: “The Holy Spirit filled me with wisdom and understanding.”
Instead: “I felt like the Holy Spirit filled me with wisdom and understanding.”

NOT: “Healing energy flowed from my body to theirs.”
Instead: “I felt like healing energy flowed from my body to theirs.”

NOT: “Our physical bodies will die, but the eternal conscious mindstream will continue on.”
Instead: “I feel like our physical bodies will die, but the eternal conscious mindstream will continue on.”

Dropping the word ‘like’ might be warranted if describing a particularly potent experience or important belief. However, this should be done sparingly and with caution. I think it entirely possible and desirable for people with widely differing spiritual beliefs to nonetheless be able to learn from and validate each other. It requires a big dollop of humility, which can be difficult to develop, but is more than worth it in the end.

Namaste.