Posts

True Compassion

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 I’ve been expressing a lot of anger lately about the current state of affairs in America. I fear for the future, and we all know that anger is based on fear, so I’m angry. However. The Path teaches Compassion, which is similar to freeing a raccoon from a trap. The animal doesn’t understand your intentions; it is afraid of you. To be Compassionate means dodging the claws and tending to the wounds. It’s easy to be kind to those of your tribe, isn’t it? Whenever anyone gets killed, one side cheers and the other side weeps. No difference in the level of Compassion there. We cannot be kind or empathetic towards our tribal rivals. It may be hard to believe, but billionaires are miserable. Look at their faces. Neither Musk nor 47 can even smile properly. Musk can’t even play his own video games; he hires people to play for him so he can brag about his high-level characters and equipment. How sad is that? What a lot of people don’t know is that there is what’s called a diminishi...
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On the Other Hand

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You all know how I feel about xianity as a whole. I’m not a big fan of the mythology or the ones who believe in it. However, there are xians, and quite a few of them, who actually do what their jesus character told them to do as it comes to charity. They are instructed to give in secret instead of announcing their generosity to be admired by other people, so they do. I got this information from a few posts that popped up on my Facebook feed. (I get a lot of religious content.) There really are xian ministries who teach their adherents to actually care about other people and help those who may be struggling. I think this is something to admire no matter what mythology one adheres to. So let’s take a moment to be glad these churches exist. They may be few, but even a few is enough to be grateful for.  
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Stop Trying

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 People have been "trying" to help the homeless for decades. There was even a War on Poverty, but that didn't seem to get very far. Let me tell you what "trying" looks like: Trying is packed shelters with no transition to stable housing. Trying is a five-dollar-a-night, bedbug- and cockroach-infested flop house.  Trying is leaving homeless veterans to fend for themselves. Trying is walking past tents all over the downtown sidewalks. That's trying. Now, why don't we actually do something, since trying isn't working? I know the problem is money. So why not provide some kind of incentive for developers to create some low-income housing? Something that balances out the money they get for more expensive apartments that would sit empty, anyway, since nobody can afford them. Also, a note about "anti-homeless architecture." It is used to refer to those arms in the middle of bus benches and bolts imbedded in the concrete around doorways to make it u...
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A Stoned but Somehow Relevant Thought

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  Wheels Upon Wheels The Wheel of the Virtues and the Wheel of Ka. The wheel of the seasons, the wheel of years. The wheels that measure the globe of Earth, horizontally and vertically. The wheel of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. The cycle of the phases of the moon can be expressed with a circle. The cycles of life and death and rebirth. Then there are the cycles of the Chinese and Solar Zodiac signs. Even the pattern of a single rotation of Earth describes a wheel. Everywhere you look, there are wheels or circles or cycles. What does all of this mean? The most likely explanation is that I am stoned and seeing patterns in the Universe that I cannot see while I am sober. Does this invalidate the whole thing? I do not think so; now that I see it, I cannot stop seeing it. Just an interesting thought. 
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Living a Good Life

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  Marcus Aurelius says: “Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.” There is literally no downside to being a good person, or at least trying your best to be a good person. You do not lose anything. In fact, you gain a great deal, including Serenity and Enlightenment. When you know you do your best to be kind, to be benevolent, to be a good friend to many but an enemy to none, you feel a sort of peace that somebody who carries anger and resentment in their heart will not know. This is where Patience comes in. We must remember that everyone we meet or interact with may be dealing with pain we know nothing about. This also turns Pascal’s Wager on its head. ...
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What the Path is, and what it is not

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The word "religion" comes from the Latin "religare" which means "to tie fast." The word "philosophy" comes from the Greek words "philo" meaning "love" and "sophia" which means "wisdom." And wisdom, as we know, leads to Enlightenment. A good friend of mine described the Path as a "Humanist Spiritual Philosophy" after reading both the Book of the Path and 40 Years in the Desert. I can live with that.  If that is what he got from it, then my work here is done.  The first thing anyone who is interested in the ideas presented in the Book of the Path should know is this: The Path is non-dogmatic by design. You are free -nay, encouraged- to pick it to pieces so you can figure out what ideas you agree with. The most important suggestion, of course, is to try your best not to be an asshole. Once you have that down, you have half the Path in the bag. Obviously, nobody can be one hundred percent good all the...
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The Minister Goes on Sabbatical

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 Hello, my friends.  Starting this week, I will be on a six-week sabbatical for medical reasons. I may still post the occasional thought, but there will not be a weekly sermon.  If you like my sermons, you may like my books. For those of you who want to support me through a rather challenging time in my life, just buy one of my books and then leave a glowing review. My two fiction books are Perspectives and Reflections, two collections of very different short stories. They have proven popular so far. My nonfiction works are The Book of the Path, about the religion I basically wrote myself, & 40 Years in the Desert, which is a collection of essays about things like finding the meaning in life and how the American justics system is broken. Quite a few of those essays are based on sermons I've posted here in my weblog, plus some exclusive content.  I shall return. Keep the light on for me.  Cheers, Reverend CJ Carlin
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