Photo by Lilian (click to enlarge) Your job is to love. Everything else is your occupation. Filed under: purpose Tagged: spirituality
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Writings of J. Todd Ring: The Lion’s Roar: Cutting through illusion to the heart of the matter
“There is no difference between theism and non-theism, basically speaking. Declaring an involvement with any kind of ‘ism’ turns out to be a matter of self and other. In fact, the whole question of self and other can then become very important. But if you really pursue any spiritual path,
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Country life, and the glory of silence
I say aloud to myself, “Ahh…it’s so quite here! Thank God I moved to the country!” And the words reverberate warmly through the room, their sound highlighting by contrast the rich, glorious silence which they flow through, like ripples on a shimmering lake, the glint of sunlight reflecting diamonds all
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Doctor’s Perspective On Quebec’s Proposed Charter
While the proposed Quebec Charter of Values has elicited a variety of strong responses, some decrying it as thinly-veiled racism, others hailing it as a bold blueprint for secularism, there is something that up to this point has been missing from the debate: the fact that, whether openly acknowledged or
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The Key of Keys
Egoless divine pride: the most glorious concept I have ever heard – from Tibetan Buddhism. The Uttara Tantra elaborates: There once was a prince, who lost his memory and forgot who he was. Lost in forgetfulness and confusion, he wandered aimlessly, and became a homeless beggar. Years later, a minister
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Friday Evening Thought
I came upon this excerpt of a much longer poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning on Owen’s blog this morning in his Daily Literary Quote section. … Earth’s crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God; But only he who sees, takes off his shoes,… Imagine the world if
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: Shaun Fryday, whose faith community emulates his personal hospitality, to be this year’s recipient of the Craig Chaplin Memorial Award
Rev Shaun Fryday has been selected by Montreal’s United Theological College to receive the award, established by my late brother, at the UTC Convocation on May 8th, 2013. Fittingly, the ceremonies will take place in Shaun’s congregation of Beaconsfield United Church. When he received the news, Shaun is said to
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Religion and Language: Quasi-Religious Terminology
There are a host of commonly used words in the English language which I like to call quasi-religious. Words like soul, spiritual, fate, mother nature, energy, and the like. These are words which have two sets of connotations, one which is spiritual and one which is largely secular, whose different
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: Two names to be added to Craig Chaplin Memorial Award
This spring’s presentation of the award in my brother’s memory will include a couple of firsts – two individuals are being cited and they’re from across the Canada-U.S. border in neighbouring Vermont. To be more accurate, one-half of the couple of Dr. Delores Barbeau and Carol Olstad, R.N. will be
Continue reading350 or bust: Take Time To Renew Your Spirit
On this post-COP 17 Sunday, with its indecisive outcome and the sad truth which that outcome reveals about the industrialized world’s myopia and its potentially lethal addiction to fossil fuels, let’s look to Albert Einstein for some wisdom. He said: We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if
Continue readingcartoon life: Buddha painting in progress III
Filed under: art, Buddhism, painting Tagged: acrylic, Buddha, canvas, in progress, painting, Siddhartha Gautama, spirituality
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The schizoid nature of the Western world: Overcoming the root paradox of Western civilization – and our own minds
The Western world is still trapped in a paradox and a self-contradiction of our own making: we are schizoid with regards to the body, the material world and to our physicality. On the one hand, we have, as people of the modern world, embraced our physi…
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Religion’s Changing Domain of Knowledge
Religion has long claimed ultimate Truth in two differing domains of knowledge: what is, and what ought to be; descriptive and normative; knowledge about the nature of the universe and knowledge of the morality of the universe. But these claims to know…
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: There is no hierarchy in grief: Of Norway and Amy Winehouse
Please read this from Scott Dagostino, whose writing makes me admire the way his mind works. Being someone who might preemptively describe myself as naive (which endears me to world-wise friends and the ne’er do-well-alike), I must say the title …
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