THE FOUR PRECEPTS

• Are We Essentially Divine? 22.02.2004
  The First Precept, Remember your Divine essence, is the sine qua non of the other three. If the meaning and purpose of our existence does not find its source and origin in that which IS Absolutely, we are of all men most miserable.

 
• Unconditonal Means Unconditional! 22.02.2004
  Dedicating ourselves to the Divine source and ground of our existence and giving first priority to the process of transcendental recollection, we sometimes expect certain material benefits in return. Such expectations reflect an immature attempt to manipulate the Divinity with a view to gaining some merely relative advantage in our material struggles.

 
• The Bridge to Our Highest Hopes 25.04.2004
  As strange as it may seem to those that are unfamiliar with him, the primary source of both the 2nd and the 3rd precepts, at least in terms of their explicit wording, is that old 'immoralist' and 'antichrist', Friedrich Nietzsche. In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, he writes: For that man be delivered from revenge, that is for me the bridge to the highest hopes and a rainbow after long storms (from 'On the Tarantulas' in Part II).

 
• Love and Do What You Will 25.04.2004
  Augustine wrote, "My love is my weight. Whithersoever I am moved, I am moved there by love. By thy gift, O Lord, we are set on fire, and are borne aloft: we burn, and we are on the way. We climb the ascents that are in the heart....With thy fire, with thy good fire, we burn and go on, for we go up to the peace of Jerusalem" (Confessions XIII, 9).

 
• The Essence of Sin 09.05.2004
  Kierkegaard suggests that the essence of sin is despair. This should not be confused with depression. The latter is something that happens to us, per chance, while the former is— at its most fundamental level —a choice.

 
• Bringing Our World into Focus 13.06.2004
  Taking our cue from Plato, let us think of the temporal world as a "moving image of eternity." If such is the case, then the course of our existence is-- as Plato elsewhere describes it --a relatively superficial reflection of a deeper reality that we may be more or less aware of and attuned to.

 
• With Reference to the Good 12.08.2004
  The admonition to Follow your Bliss is an affirmation of individual freedom under God. Or put another way, it is the affirmation of individual freedom with reference to the Good.

 
• Discovering Your Bliss 22.08.2004
  It has been twenty-some years since I first heard the great American mystic Joseph Campbell say that the secret of life was to "Follow Your Bliss". At the time, that simple little phrase seemed quite foolish to me. It seemed so selfish, so hedonistic. How can anyone just follow their bliss?? There's work to be done, bills to be paid, matters of consequence to take care of.

 
• The Origin of The Four Precepts 14.12.2004
  The thoughts expressed on this website are the outgrowth of the thought that began to occupy my mind in the early 1990's, toward the end of a long period soul-searching and self-questioning that followed in the wake of what was, for me, the death of God.

 
• The Function of Authentic Desire 22.12.2004
  Desire is so often problematic that some people imagine it would be preferable to be entirely free from any and all desires. But it would seem that we will always experience something akin to desire whenever we are moved in the slightest degree to initiate any physical activity.

 
• The Path with a Heart 23.02.2006
  To follow your bliss is, in the words of Don Juan, to follow the path with a heart. Such a path will be experienced as an end itself and not merely as a means to some more or less desirable goal.

 
• The Blessing of YES 21.04.2006
  i thank You God for this most amazing day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes