First Reading: Portions of the poem “Instructions to Painters & Poets” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti from his anthology How to Paint Sunlight I asked a hundred painters and a hundred poetshow to paint sunlighton the face of life.Their answers were ambiguous and ingenuous,as if they were all guarding trade secrets. Whereas it seems to meall you have to dois conceive of the whole worldand…

First Reading: From Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die by John Izzo To live wisely we must recognize that there are two fundamental truths of a human life. The first is that we have a limited and undefined amount of time, it may be one hundred years, it may be thirty. The second is that, in that limited and undefined amount of…

Reading: “In a Mother’s Womb” (unattributed) In a mother’s womb were two babies. One asked the other: “Do you believe in life after delivery?” The other replied, “why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later.” “Nonsense,” said the first baby. “There is no life after delivery. What…

This is the second of a three week series on Progressive Theology. In a way, that is a misnomer, because it is really only one, specific version of Progressive Theology, namely my own. As I mentioned last week, some of you had pressed me a bit to come out with my own beliefs. You observed that I had spoken at some length…

Over the course of this first year with you, I have delivered sermons on a broad variety of topics. I mentioned in the beginning that my basic approach to life is that of a spiritual journeyer, and so my sermons have tended to focus on those themes. Lots of you have expressed appreciation for that, a couple of you have expressed a…

Welcome to the first of this three part series entitled “Life on the J-Curve” based on Dr. Richard Swenson’s two books entitled Margin and The Overload Syndrome. I want to say up front that much of what you will hear in this series is NOT my original work. These books are so compelling, and Swenson says it so well that much of what I have done…

If you have never seen the movie, “A Beautiful Mind,” I would highly recommend it. It is a biographical drama about a brilliant mathematician, John Nash, who has schizophrenia. The movie does an amazing job of capturing the long, slow process by which Mr. Nash finally comes to understand that his hallucinations, which are as real to him as this is to…

This is the third in what was to have been a three part series on Buddhism. But since I had no specific preaching plans for next week, and since the content has burgeoned beyond what I anticipated, I will be adding a fourth part next week. By way of summary, we had a basic introduction including the Four Noble Truths the first…

First Reading: The thought manifests the word The thought manifests the word; The word manifests the deed;The deed develops into habit; And habit hardens into character;So watch the thought and its ways with care,And let them spring forth from loveBorn out of compassion for all beings.As the shadow follows the body, as we think, so we become.” ― Juan Mascarov Second Reading From…

Reading 1 The greatest achievement is selflessness.The greatest worth is self-mastery.The greatest quality is seeking to serve others.The greatest precept is continual awareness.The greatest medicine is the emptiness of everything.The greatest action is not conforming with the world’s ways.The greatest magic is transmuting the passions.The greatest generosity is non-attachment.The greatest goodness is a peaceful mind.The greatest patience is humility.The greatest effort is…