Month: February 2016

• February 24, 2016

  A Whimsical Reading of ‘Turn the Other Cheek’

  I come back time and again to Jesus’s paradoxical claims in the Gospel. I want to distinguish between a hermeneutically responsible reading based on the text, an understanding of the historical context, and a grasp of theology and a whimsical reading that is literary in nature. I’m not asking, “What did Jesus (truly) mean?” but rather “How…
• February 19, 2016

  Spiritual Transformation Portraiture by Alexandra Lauro

  Alexandra continues to be moved and inspired by the process through which one passes in order to be spiritually transformed. This fascination lends itself to the paintings that she is currently working on. In these mixed media pieces on wood board, Alexandra’s aim is to portray “the false self” (in Trappist monk Thomas Keating’s words) or…
• February 18, 2016

  Meditation: Cold and Hot

  The mistake is to believe that meditation should cool you down to zero. That is to take meditation as a way of making you docile, into mere mush, a spongy pushover, just such a mellow dude and lady. I too had made that mistake, having become inordinately calm over the years. A mistake. Now I realize–that is, feel–how meditation,…
• February 13, 2016

  Strangeness Dwells Within Us

  This is what I’ve learned over all the years I’ve had philosophical conversations with all sorts of human beings: there is a great mystery at the heart of human existence, indeed at the heart of each of us. A creature may seem so plain, so ordinary, to live such an unadventurous and boring life, only…
• February 9, 2016

  The Need for Action and Vengeful Fantasies

  We need to act; otherwise, our mind will have its way with us, seeking its own, second-rate satisfactions while tearing us apart. When someone pushes us, we need to learn to push back in the right way. We had better not educate ourselves to give in. If we don’t push back in the right way,…