Believe it or not, when I was staying at a Benedictine monastery, I was never told to read the Bible. No, only book I was recommended (by a monk who enjoyed listening to heavy metal) was the Bhagavad Gita, a Hindu classic. It was fitting that a monk who enjoyed metal would recommend it to…

I want to try something a little bit different. Usually whatever I post here is nothing more than a fanciful thought that I’ve lingered on more than another for a short period of time. Other times, they are questions that have beguiled me for some time, and so writing is my means of processing those…

I would like to begin today’s reflection with this, a pondering of a Biblical verse that I mentioned last week: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13) I expect most people would read this anachronistically, supposing that Jesus is referring to his death on the…

God knows I have my gripes with this country (politically-speaking); however, the American Constitution states that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” and I believe that is a fine statement! Indeed, for the time…

One of the best books I’ve ever read (without a doubt) is Eugen Herrigel’s Zen and the Art of Archery. The book is a short tale about the author’s time in Japan as he studied a special kind of Japanese archery under a Zen Master, who emphasised its spiritual aspect. For him, hitting the bullseye…

The glory of God is a human being fully alive and to be alive consists in beholding God. Saint Irenaeus I am sometimes amazed at the lengths to which people will go in order to become “fully human” or “fully alive”. Gurus, saints, sinners, and seekers have all sought ways to attain this sort of…

Why do people pray? I don’t mean whether we should pray or whether prayer is effective, but why do people pray? What’s the logic? Prayer is something that sometimes doesn’t make sense in an immediate way. We often hear things like, “I’ll pray for you,” or, “I’ll pray for such and such a thing.” Maybe…

I’m a bit of a perfectionist. For those who know me, this might come as a surprise. I can imagine them asking, “How can you justifiably call yourself a perfectionist when your room looks like that?” It’s a fair point, well made, so perhaps I should be a little more specific. While I’m not the…

I had a professor who pretended to be a Zen master, and asked our class what 2+2 is. Of course, some genius said that the answer is “4”, and instead of a gold star, he got five “whacks” with a stick, since Zen masters have been known to whack their disciples with sticks for giving…