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It’s an important question we don’t ask ourselves enough. Should we be full of mind or should we be focused?
The external world is unreliable, it will not avail us, especially when we are using an untrained monkey mind to interact with it. Training is the only answer, the only pathway to liberation which begins within, inside our own minds, the scariest and most dogmatic place of all!
I hope you enjoy today’s sermon. In honor of its theme, we’re listening to Manuel Göttsching’s E2E4—an hour-long song that gives new meaning to slowing down.
As always, keen discernment is a golden key that can unlock many doors.
Three supplementary items here: a photo of where I was sitting when I wrote today’s sermon, a photo of the Bohemian cemetery mentioned, and a video by Sadhguru explaining the way the mind is a reality-creation-factory we must train so we can consciously and consistently manifest peace, joy, and love.
Vyšehrad Cemetery
Nice place to sit and write!
How can we rescue ourselves from indoctrinated ideas that limit our ability to be in direct communion with the divine?
We’re often blown off course when we see the success and wealth of others and start to feel bad about ourselves. But for those seeking wisdom, the slow maturation process of a tree is a better image to emulate.
We have to be careful what we covet. For every action, there is a reaction.
The 2021 Fates & Graces Mythologium was held this weekend and I presented a new paper about the archetypal significance of the pair being twins, among other things.
Ever since Nietzsche wrote The Birth of Tragedy, people have been laying their grievances about the patriarchy and its over-emphasis on rational thought at Apollo’s feet. But to me, Apollo cannot be separated from the imaginal attributes surrounding his myth. In my view, it is really Aristotle we should be complaining about.
Anyway, I turned my conference presentation into a Youtube video which is now moonlighting as this week’s sermon. The work is certainly preachy at times so I think it qualifies as a religious sermon.
This week’s music mix is also recycled because I have been listening to it nonstop since last week. I realized that I’ve had Artemis and Apollo on the brain for a while now and last week’s mix is really about the two of them. See if you can identify which songs invoke Artemis and which Apollo. There’s an epic one that’s really about both of them.
This week’s verbal sermon is short but packs a serious punch. I had to listen to it myself several times, and each time I was transported. The music, too, is powerful and there are many gods and goddesses in there, inviting us to leave silliness behind and enter into true profundity. There is nothing like mythopoetic language and powerful music to transport us directly into connection with the divine.
I have discovered recently that people other than those I have reached out to personally have discovered my sermons and have been listening to them every week, so, for those who are interested or have the need, I wanted to announce that I now offer mentoring services: https://luminositymentoring.com/
Enjoy the week and do your best to stay conscious. xo
I explore the story of Jesus being nailed on a cross between two thieves this week.
And the music is a mix of some of my favorite songs from past mixes for a demo tape. I was planning on becoming a broadcaster at a radio station in northern California, but they wanted me to keep inserting inane little advertisements into my music every three seconds and I realized it wasn’t my thing.
I’m working on mixing music with sermons in a new podcast-style thing which is more in tune with my spiritual and creative obligations.
So much of our thinking requires reexamining and I would argue that the role of fathers in society is definitely one of those things.
Master Shi Heng Yi gave a Ted talk about the five hindrances to total awakening. I thought they were fascinating because of their psychological specificity. All of the hindrances begin in the mind which is why I often talk about how liberation (for ourselves, for our species, and for the planet) must begin with an internal and personal struggle for freedom.