Posts in Meditation

Author and poet Maya Angelou, in a 2011 interview on the occasion of her being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, said, “I’m always amazed when people walk up to me and say, ‘I’m a Christian,’” she paused reflectively. “I think, ‘Already? You already got it?’ I’m working at it, which means that I try to be as kind and fair and generous and respectful and courteous to every human being.”  I think about Dr. Angelou’s reflection a great deal as I, too, am trying to become a Christian. Some… Read More

By Rev. Cameron Trimble, CEO of Convergence “We need help forming a vision for our congregation,” the congregational leader told me. “Coming out of the pandemic, we seem lost, like we can’t figure out who we are or how to move forward,” he went on. “I don’t know how to lead us through this. I am just as disoriented as everyone else. It seems like it’s time for help.”  These are conversations we frequently have with congregational leaders at Convergence. We are living in post-normal times where it’s become difficult… Read More

I am thrilled that this month, my friend and colleague, Elaine Gibson’s new book, Your Family Revealed, is finally being published by Sounds True. Elaine has been a marriage and family therapist for over 50 years. She has decades of wisdom within her which she has disseminated into this book with the hopes that it will help all of us live in greater peace with our families, ourselves, and our world. I have read an early edition of the book, and I can’t recommend it enough. So, I hope you… Read More

Evolutionary anthropologist Dr. Brian Hare and Primatologist Dr. Vanessa Woods have spent years studying how animals think. Lately, they have explored why some primates form social groups around dominance and aggression while others intuitively form communities based on cooperation and mutuality. To do this, they studied Chimpanzees and Bonobo monkeys. These two species are nearly identical in genetics and lineage. In fact, humans share 99% of our DNA with them. They are more like us (or we are like them) than gorillas. But these two species have radically different social instincts. Their… Read More

We use the term “patriarchy” to hold the blame for much of what is hurtful and harmful in our culture today. We (men and women) “rail against the patriarchy” that privileges and protects male power at the expense of women, children, and creation. Especially in light of the Dobbs Supreme Court decision in the US, we are sensitive to how women are denied autonomy over their bodies. But it’s been a long road of injustice on many fronts that got us here.  In wrestling with how we find our way… Read More

Retired NYPD Detective James Shanahan recently told me the story of a young man in a desperate situation. He was a former Navy officer and had been out of the service for a few years. He was living with his mother and suffering from PTSD. None of the medical or psychological interventions seemed to make a difference. On this day, Detective Shanahan and this young man’s lives intersected because he decided his life wasn’t worth living. The young former Navy officer had climbed onto the ledge of a building and… Read More

In Zen Buddhism, teachers instruct their students to practice “wiping the mirror” of their minds and hearts. By this, they mean to intentionally clear away anything distorting the student’s ability to see life in its truest essence. The student should wipe the mirror of distorting thoughts, stories they tell themselves that may not be true, and biases they hold that create blind spots.  The Apostle Paul taught something similar when he said, “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face…. Read More

Over the past few years, we have developed a public narrative that the world is scarier than ever, we are hopelessly divided into political factions, we are powerless to create institutional change, and we’re on a perilous course to global destruction via climate change.  I may be overstating the case in your mind, but I wonder if some of what I’ve said resonates.  That narrative, which generates constant anxiety within us, is the direct result of an “attention economy.” Almost all forms of our current global media make their money… Read More

In his Book of Awakening, Mark Nepo tells this story:  Once an unhappy young apprentice came to an old master and told the master that he was deeply sad and asked for a solution.  The old master instructed the unhappy young apprentice to put a handful of salt in a glass of water and then to drink it.  Then he asked “How does it taste?”  “Terrible!” spat the young apprentice.  The master nodded and asked the young apprentice to take another handful of salt and put it in the lake. The… Read More

Native and South American tribes teach their young ones that when they are born, they carry within them a “Sacred knowledge bundle.” This bundle holds all that they are (essence), all they can be (potential), and all their ways of knowing, being and doing (wisdom). All people have sacred knowledge bundles. So do all other beings. Trees have them. Animals have them. Every being, created by the Sacred Spirit, carries within it unique gifts needed in the world. Those with Sacred knowledge bundles are responsible for sharing their gifts with… Read More