Hints And Guesses

We use the word love for sports teams, friends, partners, food, and even God.  What are we talking about?  What is love?   And how might we grow into more loving people?  Here are a few hints and guesses about romance, love of self, love of the other, and the possibility of divine love.  Inspiration for this podcast come from John O'Donohue's book Anam Cara, Robert Johnson's books He and She, and St Paul's letter to the Corinthians.  Enjoy!

There are many ancient stories about making a deal with the Devil.  What happens when we no longer take these seriously?  What is lost?  What are we missing?  I'd like to explore the consequences and opportunities in taking seriously what happens when we make a deal with the Devil through stories of the Handless Maiden, Faust, and the Temptation of Christ.  Enjoy!   

Here's a conversation with Quique Autrey, therapist, author and podcaster, about his new book Green Flags.  What does it look like to become a person who's a little more like a "green flag" than a red flag? Where does one even start with "depth psychology?"   Quique's highlights a number of accessible ways to turn the gaze inward, toward a healthier relationship with ourselves, which seems necessary in order to be a more generative presence in the world.  You can find out more about Quique, and buy the book, at https://www.quiqueautrey.com/ Hope you here a hint or guess for your own path.  

The word sermon implies a threading together, and I'd like to thread together some lines from St Paul, T.S.Eliot, and Jung.  I hope you'll find some encouragement and challenge from these voices, who in their own way, point beyond themselves to the transcendent, to God.  I can't think of anything more important in our age of mistrust.  

Here are few thoughts on feeling stuck, big storms gathering at the window, what it's like when our stories and imagination seem disconnected from the present, a few musings on intuition, the still small voice, the melody below the melody, being defeated, and less metaphorically, moving back to Michigan.  The poems that I quote are from Rilke and Annie Lighthart.  Enjoy!

What's the difference between mood and feeling?  Between emotions and values?  How do we grow our capacities for relationship, for deep values, in other words, how do we access the "feeling function" (Jung)?  This episode is an exploration of the feeling function, the common wounds associated with it, and some possibilities for developing a healthier "masculine" psyche.  I pull mainly from Robert A. Johnson's book He: Understanding Masculine Psychology, but also a little from Jung, and from my own experience.  Thanks for supporting this podcast.  I hope you hear and hint, a guess, for your own life.  Enjoy!

I'd like to explore the mystical, not as an expert, but a student.  Lately I've been inspired by Evelyn Underhill's insights in her book, Mysticism: A Study in Nature and Development of Spiritual Conscious which I quote in this podcast.  My sense is, that despite the darkness of the age we live in, something of the Absolute wishes to break in, to rearrange our consciousness.  When this happens, the old dream and the young see visions.  What might it look like for modern people, spiritual - religious - not-so-religious, to open up to the possibility of the transcendent, so that our present mode of consciousness, our small egoic frame, might grow?  What if Reality is not what we thought?  The mystics left us a few clues for how to listen and how to be.  

Here's a followup to Religious Problems, Religious Medicine, a further exploration of the tension between Law and Spirit, tradition and innovation, which seems to be natural and important.  I also have a few musings on the Wandering Desert God of the Hebrew people, as a kind of symbol for the religious outsider.  And I turn again to Jung's highly unusual sense for "God," which might open a few doors to the transcendent.  Enjoy!

I want to explore some religious questions that have been troubling me lately, where I've gotten things wrong over the last few years, and some hints and guesses about what's calling my name; namely some very ancient invitations...worship, prayer and sacrifice.  Enjoy!

We discuss Tony's new book, which is great (reverendhunter.com). Enjoy! 

I hope you'll appreciate this conversation with Jason Adam Miller about his new book on Jesus' most paradoxical and misunderstood words at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.  I loved this book, When the World Breaks.  I've not read anything so personal, rich and thought provoking on the Beatitudes.  It's worth your time, especially if you're interested in a way of being, more than a way of believing, a way that might well upend our frames and call us into a deeper life. Jason Adam Miller is a pastor in South Bend and someone worth paying attention to (www.jasonadammiller.com)  Enjoy! 

Here's another shorter podcast in my series Eat This Scroll, where I turn to poems, prayer, passages that have been important to me.  I hope you'll hear your own hints and guesses.  This week, we turn to Mary Oliver's classic, The Journey.  Enjoy!

I'd like to explore the possibilities, the postures, and the terrain, of feeling lost, a certain kind of lostness.  Rather than being prescriptive, I hope to just describe a little of what it's like, and a few hints and guesses from the poets and mystics, that I hope you'll find meaningful, and possibly helpful.  Enjoy.

Here's another shorter mediation on Rilke's passage about leaving home, about following a calling, the cost and terrible possibilities hidden in walking toward the East, toward a church forgotten, a sacred place ignored.  Enjoy.

For my 100th episode, I'm introducing a new dimension of the podcast, shorter mediations based on poems, passages, and prayers.  Thanks for all your support, can't believe I've made 100 episodes.  I hope you'll hear some hints and guesses in this David Whyte poem, Coleman's Bed, or in my own reflections.  Stay tuned for more shorter episodes, as well as my longer format contributions and interviews.  Special thanks to Jonas Dobson, my son, for the music.  Enjoy!

In this episode, we turn our attention again to the language of dreams, particularly the ways in which the dream experience seeks to have an effect on the dreamer.  This is really part 2 of a podcast series on dreams, the first episode being called The Language of Dreams.  Special thanks to my friend Emma who was willing to share her dream in a such a public place.  We hope it serves you in some way.  Thanks for listening and supporting.  Enjoy!

On the longest night of the year, I'd like to explore dreams, dreamwork and surrendering to the intelligence of the dream.  "We have forgotten the age old fact that God speaks primarily through dreams and visions" (C.G. Jung).  Enjoy!

Eloise Skinner's new book is called, But Are You Alive? How to Design a Life Worth Living.  In this conversation about her book, we discuss existential therapy, ancient practices, work life, monastic possibilities, and questions of meaning.  You can find her on Instagram, or through her website www.eloiseskinner.com I hope you hear some hints and guesses for your own everyday spiritual life. Enjoy!

Here's the second conversation with my wife Mandy about Israel, about the troubling questions we think this conflict raises, the hyper-charged language being used, a bit of historical context, the cultural climate of oppressor and victim, plus a few hints and guesses about deception and the power of seeking the truth.    

Here are a few thoughts and reflections about out life in Israel with my wife, Mandy.  We thought we'd share a few personal reflections about out time there, what we learned, and a bit of what we find troubling, plus a few things we've found helpful.  "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem."