Category: Meaning

We search for peace as if it were the highest goal. We try to remove suffering and agitation, hoping to find a state of satisfied equilibrium. But suppose we did achieve that state, would it be enough? The last article in this series described how aligning ourselves with the universal good produces existential well-being. The…… Continue reading When Love Overflows: why the source of reality must be personal

Few doctrines have done more to diminish faith in a loving God than the idea some people will suffer eternally with no hope of redemption. For many people, this isn’t an abstract theological puzzle, this is the image of a loved one lost forever. The doctrine’s moral repugnance and its prominence in the Christian tradition…… Continue reading You’re Already in Hell, and Why That’s Good News

Curing the dis-ease of your soul. When we come to the point of extreme disappointment with this material world, our authentic spiritual life can begin. We accept the futility of searching for lasting joy in a world of suffering and death. When we have the courage to accept that harsh truth, we stand on the…… Continue reading The Authentic Spiritual Life

Naturalism’s magic bubble. One of my readers on Medium recently posted an article asking two questions: Does it matter if any God or gods exist? And more importantly, does it matter to them that “we” exist? In all these discussions about God, we assume we’re using the word God to mean the same thing, but…… Continue reading Does it Matter if God exists?

Embracing the idealist worldview. What does it mean to say the substance of the world is conscious? Is idealism just an interesting philosophical theory with no practical relevance? Or does it turn our view of the world inside out, and illuminate the path to a fulfilling life? The dynamic life of consciousness Consciousness is a…… Continue reading The Dynamic Life of Consciousness

When some people hear that God is love, it arouses the image of a benign old gentleman. An inoffensive chap who is insipidly polite and agreeably kind. This superficial idea comes from the dogma of materialist thinking. We’re accustomed to think of love as an emotion, a feeling evoked by an object in the world.…… Continue reading God is Love

The will is the power which moves everything in the conscious world. How you choose to move and interact with the world is determined by your will. While our limited sphere of influence moves according to our will, the entire reality moves according to God’s will. God is omnipotent, his will is all-powerful. There is…… Continue reading The Perfection of Free Will – Voluntary surrender to divine love

The human search for meaning. Human life is an existential crisis. We do what we can to avoid it. We try to ignore it, outsource it, delegate it, divert our attention from it or deny it exists. But they’re all feeble and futile attempts to avoid the unassailable law of our being, the essence of…… Continue reading The Silence of the Cosmos is the Sound of Freedom

In the spiritual view of reality, the inner dimensions of the world are primary. The foundation of the world is consciousness. Instead of the naturalist view that consciousness is a state of matter, the idealist view is that matter is a state of consciousness. Matter is an idea. When we limit our view of the…… Continue reading Heaven is not a Geographical Location

The doctrine of karma is sometimes interpreted as a system of cosmic justice. God is the chief prosecutor enforcing his laws through reward and punishment. Suffering is divine retribution for sin, and sin is disobeying God’s commands. With this interpretation of karma, it follows logically that people deserve to suffer. Their suffering is a just…… Continue reading The Law of Karma – cosmic justice or natural law?