by Leigh Anderson I love to take a walk in nature with the purpose of spending part of the time in observation of the natural world, and part of the time in meditation. It isn’t as easy as it sounds to meditate in nature, though. I thought this was something that should come naturally. It took several attempts at practicing meditation in nature for me to feel I was becoming more successful at it. It doesn’t always come easy and remains... Read more
by Thomas Schenk There is a German expression, werder was du bist, which roughly means “become what you are.” It’s a rather odd notion – what else could we be or become than what we are? Yet most of us, at least some of the time, feel that we are not what we truly are. So what stands in the way? There are at least two senses in which a person might say “I don’t feel that I now am that which... Read more
by Thomas Schenk In his recent article “Okay, Not Okay,” James Jarrett writes: “For many of us, to be human is to experience a sense that something is missing. Something is just not quite right.” This statement is undoubtedly correct, but I have also experienced that we can do something about this. For me, the great value of spirituality is that through it I can feel whole, I can feel that nothing is missing. And, through naturalistic spirituality, I can do... Read more
by SNS Guest (This article is by guest writer Leigh Anderson. For a short bio, see below.) Lately I become distracted often. This tendency has only increased in a world where people read and write in 140 characters or less. I’m old enough to know that living life in brief bursts of activity doesn’t help develop wisdom. Shouldn’t increasing our wisdom be a major goal in our life? If I plan to become wiser I should attempt to make better use of my... Read more
by SNS Guest (This article is by guest writer Gregory Gronbacher. For a short bio, see below.) One of the greatest challenges facing civilization in the twenty-first century is for human beings to learn to speak about their deepest personal concerns – about ethics, spiritual experience, and the inevitability of human suffering – in ways that are not flagrantly irrational. – Sam Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation The Shift in the Western Worldview Over the past 400 years, the basic worldview... Read more
by James Jarrett Photo by Elizabeth Makes Photos “I’m Not All-Right, and You’re Not All-Right, But That’s Okay—THAT’s All-Right!” — Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketchum (1) Are you okay? What’s wrong? How are you feeling? How is your pain? Anxiety level? How are things going for you? What’s on your mind today? My answers to these kinds of questions span a spectrum from “Terrific!” to “Terrible!” with varying degrees of “Okay” to “Okay-ish” to “Not Okay” in between. Many of us... Read more
by DT Strain Last month, in “Is A Spiritual Practice Too Much?“, I talked about notions of an “ideal” spiritual practice butting up against the realities of our busy lives. I said I would be exploring what I call “integrated practices” and asked for your input. Thank you to everyone who wrote in. Toni said, when dealing with the stress of work during the day, he sets a reminder bell to recenter by breathing deeply. When needed, he goes to the... Read more
(This article is by guest writer Buck Marchinton. For a short bio, see below.) Rituals are, among other things, tools that help us process change. – Sasha Sagan As an adult, Sasha Sagan makes her living as a writer, editor, and producer. As a child, she was instilled by her parents with a joy for the wonders of the cosmos and an unshakable respect for evidence over fantasy, speculation, or myth (her father is the late Carl Sagan). Her communications... Read more
by Eric Steinhart As we struggle through the dark days of the coronavirus pandemic, it will be helpful to remind ourselves that spiritual naturalists have many powerful resources for coping, surviving, and flourishing. First of all, we believe in the importance of truth, and truth-telling. We don’t spread rumors or tell lies. We check before we click. We know that honesty is the best policy for getting through any crisis and solving any problem. And this truth-telling extends to science. Science and... Read more
by Thomas Schenk I was reading an article on Ralph Waldo Emerson the other day that called his metaphysical view “objective idealism.” I don’t share Emerson’s idealism, objective or otherwise, though his essays have been a great source of inspiration to me. Though I believe the world is matter-like rather than idea-like, I’ve never been comfortable with materialism, either. It’s not just that materialism has the connotation of being focused on material things, but that materialism doesn’t really explain the complexity... Read more
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