Posted inCurrent affairs Philosophy

Choking on communion

Looking back, I believe it was a sign from God that I almost choked on the wafer that was put in my mouth at my Catholic first communion. When you’re eight or nine years old this is embarrassing stuff, gagging after the priest put the wafer on my tongue. It stuck to the roof of my mouth when I tried to swallow it and wouldn’t go down. I remember hoping to God (still on my knees, of course) that I wouldn’t spit out the wafer and have it end up on the floor, an inglorious way to treat the body…
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Posted inNeighborhood Philosophy

There is no boat in this photo

I snapped this picture of Spring Lake about half an hour ago during my evening dog walk with Serena. There is no boat in this photo. Yesterday there would have been: a shiny aluminum rowboat upside down at the far end, barely visible, but irritatingly present. Boats left at our communal (common property) lake here in Spring Lake Estates are supposed to be locked to a cable near the picnic area. That rowboat wasn’t. Every time I walked around the lake it bothered me to see it beached in a place it shouldn’t have been. In my eyes it was…
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Posted inHome life Philosophy

Running so fast to become motionless

In my soon-to-be-published book about the Greek philosopher Plotinus, I quote Marsilio Ficino, a fifteenth-century devotee of Plato—who wrote about the folly of men who seek to find rest through motion: “Because of their ceaseless longing for what is to come, they do not enjoy what is present. Although movement has to be stilled for there to be rest; yet those men are forever beginning new and different movements, in order that they may one day come to rest.” All too true. The older I get, the more I realize how much time I’ve wasted in circuitous efforts to be…
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Posted inHome life Philosophy

A fresh techno-fantasy

I’m writing this on my new best friend: a too-wonderful-for-words emachines M6809 laptop. “Emey” (pronounced ee-mey), as he wants to be called, is going to change my life in two ways, one shallowly technological, the other deeply philosophical. At least, that’s the spin I’m putting on Emey’s purchase with my wife, Laurel, who could buy a heck of a lot of $10 fused glass earrings on Ebay for Emey’s $1,390 Best Buy cost ($1,640 - $250 in rebates). On the technological side, I don’t think there is a better price/performance deal on any laptop, though Emey’s sibling, the M6805, is…
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Posted inBooks Philosophy

Still trying to set my hair on fire

I was sitting outside on our deck this afternoon, working hard at avoiding doing anything productive, when that damned voice in my head spoke words that I’ve been hearing way too frequently lately: “This moment will never come again.” The message was so clear it almost made me go back to my computer and get back to compiling the footnotes for the rewrite of my first book. Almost. Because, with a little more pondering of the Unfathomable Mystery that is our cosmos, I was able to tell myself: “So what matters is the moment, not what transpires in it.” Hence,…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Philosophy

Is George Bush really doing God’s will?

Watching the interview with Bob Woodward on last Sunday’s “60 Minutes,” we were horrified to see a clip of Bush implying that going to war with Iraq was God’s will, and he was praying for continued divine guidance. There are so many theological and philosophical problems with this perspective it’s hard to know where to start picking it apart. So I guess I’ll begin, as humbly as possible, criticizing my own Godly misconceptions and then move on to how Bush has it wrong as well. In yesterday’s posting, “I’ve become the person I warned myself about,” I wrote about my…
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Posted inBooks Home life Philosophy

I’ve become the person I warned myself about

Partway through my martial arts class last night the head instructor, Master Allen, showed us some alternative moves in a kata that we had been practicing—it’s called Kanku Dai in Japanese, Kong San Goon in Korean. He said, “There is no one Way. There always is more than one Way. Anyone who believes there is one Way is limiting himself.” Music to my ears, now. But it would have been heresy to my ears, then, during the nine years I was studying traditional Shotokan karate. In Shotokan karate there is one way to perform a kata: the sensei’s way, the…
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Posted inPhilosophy

Could everything really be all right?

Once in a while an intuitive news flash speaks itself in my mind: “Everything is all right. Repeat, everything. There’s no need to stay tuned for further developments. This is the way it always has been, and this is the way it always will be. Now. Then. Here. Everywhere.” One of those moments happened today when Laurel, Serena, and I sat down on the banks of the Metolius, as close to the head of the spring-fed river as it is possible to walk on the side of the river we were on. I leaned back against the bark of a…
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Posted inHome life Philosophy

Kona coffee and the meaning of life

Does Kona coffee hold the key to the meaning of life? I certainly hope so. For the past few days, starting on Maui and continuing here at home in Oregon, I’ve been working my way through an eight ounce bag of 100% Kona coffee, which Mark Twain praised as “having a richer flavor than any other.” I wholeheartedly agree. This is the best coffee I’ve ever had, the only downside to Kona coffee being it’s $20 + price per pound. But, you get what you pay for. And part of what I’m paying for here is an aid to finding…
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Posted inBooks Philosophy

“He is risen!” No, almost certainly not

Once again I brought too many books to Maui. Back in Oregon I forgot how enjoyable simply sitting on the beach is. I picture myself reading much more than I end up wanting to do. However, I’ve slowly been making my way through a wonderful book, “Think,” that I started reading several years ago, re-discovered on a shelf, and decided to throw into my suitcase. With Easter tomorrow, I figured it would be appropriate to share some thoughts from the chapter on “God.” Simon Blackburn, the author of "Think" is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina.…
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Posted inPhilosophy

On finding a quarter and forgetting a towel

“Find a quarter. Forget a towel. Marvel at the mystery!” OK, it’s not exactly a haiku. Which isn’t surprising, since I can never remember the rules for making a haiku. Still, a haiku is just a pointer. Words gesturing toward what is outside the reach of words. That’s all I’m trying to do, as are we all, aren’t we? Trying to grasp the ungraspable via glimpses of the unseen. On my way to get a slice of pizza Saturday I saw a man sitting on the bench outside the Court Street Starbucks. He was holding a guitar case. Walking by…
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Posted inPhilosophy

I get myself thinking (and also, not-thinking)

This morning I kept hearing echoes of what I wrote in yesterday’s posting, “One thing the world desperately needs now is less religion and more spirituality.” I’m part of the world, so I’m talking about me. Before my habitual morning meditation-time I walked to a bookcase, searching for some spiritual inspiration. My eyes scanned the shelves holding the many books I’ve accumulated over the past thirty-five years or so: I’ve got several feet of Zen Buddhism, about the same of Rumi/Sufism, a yard of Sant Mat teachings in various guises, lesser but still substantial shelf space for mystical Christianity, Judaism,…
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Posted inBooks Philosophy

“I” for an “eye”

Last night we watched an hour and a half Oregon Public Broadcasting fundraising program about the photographer Jim Brandenburg, blissfully shortened through the magic of our PVR (personal video recorder), which took out all the fundraising moments. Brandenburg is a highly successful nature photographer who felt burnt-out after twenty years of traveling the world and working for National Geographic and other magazines. Searching for a way to rekindle his passion for photography (and, we must presume, life), he decided to do something amazing—for a professional photographer, at least. Rather than taking hundreds or thousands of photos a day and culling…
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Posted inPhilosophy

Heresy is heretical

Last night Serena and I took a walk in the dark on a (rare) rainless Oregon night. Down the trail, across the creek, through the woods, around the lake, and back home. One mile. Many inspirations. The moon was almost full. Not a cloud in the sky. Sparkling stars. Symphonies of frogs croaking in the distance. Few signs of humanity: me, of course; Serena’s red flashing LED collar; some house lights; occasional sounds of a passing car. Mostly, Serena and I experienced nature as it is now, absent people, and as it must have been, then, before Homo sapiens evolved…
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Posted inEntertainment Philosophy Plotinus

Plotinus and “The Passion of the Christ”

This is the first time I’ve commented on a movie without having seen it. But I’m pretty sure that Laurel and I won’t ever see “The Passion of the Christ,” so I might as well throw in my two cents now rather than later. We’d probably see the movie if either (1) we were Christians, (2) the film had a significant spiritual message, or (3) we relished watching people get tortured. Since none of these things is true, Mel Gibson will have to get along without our $16, or whatever outrageous amount Regal Cinemas is demanding for entry these days.…
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Posted inPhilosophy

Secret of happiness revealed

An editor of a (non-commercial) spiritual magazine asked me to write an article for the upcoming issue. A friend had suggested to her that some of my HinesSight postings might provide fodder for the article, and she found my Mini Cooper ravings, which she thought might indeed be massaged into something approaching a mixture of humor and wisdom—likely more the former than the latter. I took her advice and just finished my mini opus, “Secret of Happiness Revealed.” It ties together the gist of several of my postings into an examination of the deeper meaning of Mini Cooper longing. Much…
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Posted inPhilosophy

Marcus Aurelius and Microsoft

Recently I started reading The Inner Citadel by Pierre Hadot, which is a fairly scholarly commentary on Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations—retranslated by Hadot and Michael Chase. Marcus, you may recall, was the Roman Emperor featured in the movie “Gladiator.” He was shown writing (the Meditations, undoubtedly) in his tent during the campaign against the Germanic huns at the beginning of the movie. I had read Marcus (might as well call an emperor by his first name, since he isn’t around to throw me to the lions for impertinence) directly before, but Hadot provides a lot of meaty background information about the…
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Posted inPhilosophy

God, save us from “God”

If you read Meister Eckhart, and I certainly recommend that you do, you’ll find numerous references to freeing ourselves of “God”—the false thing— so we can truly get in touch with God—the real thing (there are lots of translations of Eckhart, this Penguin Classics book is my favorite). Here’s an example, where Eckhart praises genuine spiritual poverty: I said before that a poor person is someone who does not even will to perform God’s will, but who lives in such a way that he or she is as free both of their own will and of God’s will as they…
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Posted inEntertainment Philosophy

Joan of Arcadia: God Appears on Prime Time

We just experienced a miracle—the premier of a prime time network series that we actually enjoyed. "Joan of Arcadia"(CBS, Friday, 8:00 pm) is about a sixteen year old girl who starts to encounter God in all sorts of guises. First, just a voice. Then a shadowy figure who seems to be an old man. Then a hunky teenage boy. And finally a black woman, for the requisite non-sexist political correctness. Personally, I was rooting for God to always appear to Joan in the guise of a male, since this seems to me to be the most appropriate and natural form…
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Posted inPhilosophy

Need to revisit Life Plan for Happiness

Earlier in the week Laurel had prominently displayed page 99 from the September 8 issue of TIME magazine so I couldn’t miss the item called “No Price Tag on Happiness.” To make sure I got the point, she crossed out “Porsche” and wrote in “Mini-Cooper” on the item’s first sentence: “Think that Porsche and boat and beach house you have been dreaming of would make you happy? Think again.” Richard Easterlin, an economist, found that “while healthy people are generally happier than unhealthy ones and married people are happier than unmarrieds, increases in wealth and material possessions improve happiness only…
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