Author Archive
Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
Neale Donald Walsh will be having more conversations with God… about plagiarism.
The ArtsBeat Blog - NYTimes.com reported today that the author of ‘Conversations With God’ plagiarized a recent story on beliefnet:
Neale Donald Walsch, author of the best-selling series “Conversations with God,” recently posted a personal Christmas essay on the spiritual Web site Beliefnet.com that was nearly identical to a 10-year-old article originally published by a little-known [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Writing by Michael McAlister
Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
Extreme Faith in Divine Divisibility
“We can actually know that God who makes the snow we ski on in a personal way.”
1 Comment » - Posted in Fundamentalism, Video by Michael McAlister
Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
Our Kosmic ‘hood
Wow. We’re as big as Andromeda! How could I ever be worried about whether my socks match?
It’s worth the wait to expand this picture.
No Comments » - Posted in Photos, Writing by Michael McAlister
Monday, January 5th, 2009
Teachers Out of Balance
I had a person ask about the topic of “teacher idiocy” and I thought I’d repost something I’d written:
Many people from many different spiritual communities have had to live with the collateral damage that their leaders’ missteps have caused. Any teacher from any tradition may have a profound teaching to offer, but just because they [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Theory & Practice, Writing by Michael McAlister
Friday, January 2nd, 2009
The Emotional Aspect of the Sacred
Miriam Greenspan’s article, The Dark Side of the Sacred, comes to us from integral praxis.
Emotions live in the body. It is not enough simply to talk about them, to be a talking head. We need to focus our attention on emotions where they live. This willingness to be present allows the emotion to begin to [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Chapter 4 - Perspective, Theory & Practice, Writing by Michael McAlister
Friday, January 2nd, 2009
A Cup of the Javanese Please
The Guardian’s John Pitcher offers some expat insight on Indonesian religious tolerance:
Where a church is used for the initial wedding ceremony Muslim family members sit with Christians or, if they feel uncomfortable, they sit outside near the door and join in that way; all, regardless of formal religious faith are Javanese and what binds them [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Chapter 7 - Clarity, Interfaith, Part II: The Summit, Theory & Practice by Michael McAlister
Wednesday, December 31st, 2008
What to expect next year in faith..
Wapo’s On Faith asked some folks to make some predictions about what the world’s religions have in store for us next year. Here are some excerpts of their commentary.
Susan Jacoby says:
Why should we expect anything different from religion in 2009? Conservative Muslims will continue to make trouble for secular governments in nations with large Muslim [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Fundamentalism, Politics, Writing by Michael McAlister
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008
Podcast from InfiniteSmile.org - Practicing with Fear and Desire
Here’s a recording of a recent Dharma talk.
ISmile201 - Practicing with Fear and Desire.
No Comments » - Posted in Podcast by Michael McAlister
Monday, December 29th, 2008
The Interdependance of Terrorism
Deepak Chopra offers some geopolitical advice.
In a broad sense I agree with his points.
Money quote:
…if terrorism is like cancer, let’s treat it that way. Cancer is universal, endemic, and never entirely eradicable. For this generation, terrorism is the same. Our goal should be to keep it in check, with a final vision of healing it. [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Politics, Writing by Michael McAlister
Friday, December 26th, 2008
Dogen’s Debut
If only my Japanese was a little better… guess I’ll wait for the subtitled version. Still, this ought to be an interesting cinematic ride.
This trailer got to me first from Dosho Port at Wild Fox Zen, then Rev. Danny Fisher talked about it. Finally, Rod Meade Sperry over at Shambhala Sun Space mentioned it, so [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Writing by Michael McAlister
Friday, December 26th, 2008
Swimme-ing into the Future
Over at integral praxis, they posted a vid that incorporates nice imagery with the thought-provoking words of Dr. Brian Swimme. Two notes:
1. I know of few individuals with a more interesting view of the comprehensive whole than Brian Swimme. He gets the big picture and can articulate it brilliantly in small ways.
2. Because of this, [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Chapter 3 - Fear, Writing by Michael McAlister
Friday, December 26th, 2008
Right here, right now…
3.0 for 2008 - Newly Revised Edition Created by Karl Fisch, and modified by Scott McLeod; Globalization & The Information Age. Adapted by Sony BMG at an executive meeting they held in Rome this year. Credits are also given to Scott McLeod, Jeff Brenman.
1 Comment » - Posted in Video by Michael McAlister
Thursday, December 25th, 2008
Sing It, Girl!
Jonathan Bartley over at the guardian.co.uk points out how the Virgin Mary might have looked better in red.
There is a tendency to think of Mary as a victim – a slightly passive but worthy virgin, chosen to bear the god-child because she has wouldn’t hurt a first-century fly. But Mary’s response is not one of [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Writing by Michael McAlister
Wednesday, December 24th, 2008
A Bigger Story
There is a great post by Noah Millman over at The American Scene where he takes on several issues relating to religion, all of which are entertaining. I’m most partial to his description of how religion works:
…most of us who are in any meaningful sense religious are members of corporate bodies extending through time and [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Chapter 6 - Practice, Fundamentalism, Podcast, Theory & Practice, Writing by Michael McAlister
Wednesday, December 24th, 2008
Divine Dualism from the Pope
Might God, as Pope Benedict seems to articulate, see the world as dualistic? Andrew Sullivan offers up his view:
You’ve read the press accounts in which the Pope allegedly spoke of protecting the rainforests from destruction in the same vein as protecting heterosexuals from homosexuality. The actual text, brought to us by Rocco, is more complex, [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Fundamentalism, Writing by Michael McAlister
Wednesday, December 24th, 2008
Book Talk
The San Francisco Chronicle is being nice.
1 Comment » - Posted in Writing by Michael McAlister
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008
Beer for Buddhists
Gerald, over at The Level 8 Buddhist takes on the use of alcohol:
As the Buddha taught, alcohol and intoxicants cause heedlessness. The more you drink, the more heedless you become. It’s not that you become heedless after X number of drinks only, any amount will impair mindfulness and make it harder to practice Buddhism on [...]
4 Comments » - Posted in Theory & Practice, Writing by Michael McAlister
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008
The Whole Bird
Over at the washingtonpost.com, E. J. Dionne Jr. makes the point in his column that:
By inviting Pastor Rick Warren to give the inaugural invocation, President-elect Barack Obama has alienated some of his friends on the left. By accepting, Warren has enraged some of his allies on the right.
Obama and Warren have helped each other in [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Writing by Michael McAlister
Monday, December 22nd, 2008
Partial Enlightenment
If it feels like I’m picking on Deepak Chopra a lot, pleas know that this isn’t my intention. It’s just that he’s so prolific that he leaves himself vulnerable to spiritual nit-pickers like me.
Over at IntentBlog, Deepak endeavors to define “enlightenment” as:
… the transformation of personal consciousness to universal consciousness. According to the wisdom traditions [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Writing by Michael McAlister
Monday, December 22nd, 2008
Testing: not-one, not-two
There is a brief piece over at Tricycle talking about Martin Seligman’s test for Authentic Happiness at UPenn.
I think this is all well and good, except for the fact that happiness is a state that ebbs and flows in time and because of this it is by nature temporary. So an “authentic” state, be it [...]
