by Jeff Worthy I have always liked to believe that specific places have a sort of power, a hold over at least those who are born and raised there. In truth, that “power” is just a familiar association with a place that gets ingrained in our memories; there isn’t actually some spiritual magnetic force that works to draw us back to those lands that once nurtured us. Oh, but I like to imagine that there is. I recently had the... Read more
by Thomas Schenk In the permanent collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA). there is a work called the Yamantaka Mandala (pictured here). The circumstances surrounding the museum’s acquisition of this work give it a somewhat paradoxical significance. It was created for the museum by a group of exiled Tibetan monks. The medium of the work is colored sand. In Tibet and Nepal, such mandalas are constructed with great care and effort over a period of several weeks. When they... Read more
by DT Strain There has been a small resurgence of interest in cults in popular media lately. The Hulu series “the Path” is an addictive story about modern families that live within a fictional religious movement (Meyerism) founded in the 1970s. On Netflix the new documentary series, “Wild Wild Country” covers the real life extraordinary events of the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (later known as Osho) and his followers. It is easy to see the pitfalls of cults: the dogmatism, the... Read more
by SNS Guest (This article is by guest writer Leigh Anderson. For a short bio, see below.) These days I am outdoors more often and around people much less often than in previous years. I look inward and read more books. I begin to wonder if I’m losing touch with a part of the world that used to make up much of my life, mainly my conversations with other people. Am I losing out on the wisdom that is gained by... Read more
by Thomas Schenk I live in a small house in the middle of St. Paul. The house has what is called “a three season porch.” In Minnesota, this means if you are lucky you might use if for a month of spring and a month of fall along with the summer. But with the help of a heating pad and lots of goose down, I am able to use it from April through November. I use the porch for my morning... Read more
by Thomas Schenk Death Most forms of spirituality are based on some notion of life after death, either an afterlife or reincarnation. Both of these require something that exists apart from any material medium, which is to say, something supernatural. My rejection of such an afterlife, however, is not based solely on the naturalistic perspective, which rejects the supernatural. It is also based on my experience of spirituality. In countless hours of meditation, I have observed the comings and goings of... Read more
By Gregory Gronbacher Holding the Tension of Two Views Spiritual naturalists live with the tension of two views, we inhabit something of a space in between. By this, I mean that most of those who ascribe to the notion of spiritual naturalism find value in a naturalist worldview based on reason, science, and evidential thinking, yet we also find value in spirituality and religion rightly understood. We spiritual naturalists tend not to wander into extreme positions regarding naturalism and spirituality... Read more
by Eric Steinhart (cc) Michael Shaheen I’m getting old and my body hurts in many ways. Much of that hurt comes from my psoriatic arthritis. Fortunately, my body responds well to easy treatments. For pain and inflammation, I take low-dose lexapro (escitalopram, 1mg daily) and bioavailable curcumin (Meriva, 500-1000mg daily). Without them, my joints burn constantly with horrific pain. I find it difficult to walk across a room. My feet can go into such agony that I cannot walk at all.... Read more
by Brock Haussamen “Where does suffering come from? Why do we suffer?” The questions open biologist Ursula Goodenough’s essay “The Biological Antecedents of Human Suffering” (in The Routledge Companion to Religion and Science (2012)). Through the ages, people have turned to religion for the answers, with no easy satisfaction. But under a biologist’s eye, the questions look more manageable. Goodenough proposes two categories of suffering, the biological and the experienced. Biological suffering comes to all living things. Bacteria, plants, and people all seek out what... Read more
by Daniel Shkolnik What’s the meaning of life? Seriously though. I don’t think it’s love. Or happiness. It’s not 42. And to the nihilists out there, I also don’t think it’s “nothing.” I really do think there’s a good answer to this question. The problem is that I don’t think it’s a good question in the first place. When we ask “What’s the meaning of life?” we usually don’t understand what we’re really asking about. What do we actually want to... Read more
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