Every new year, new day, new breath is a new beginning. May we enjoy the present moment more often this year.
Below is a repost of today’s daily meditation from the Henri Nouwen Society. https://henrinouwen.org/meditation/
May we be inspired and re-energized for the moments to come.
“What makes us human is not our mind but our heart, not our ability to think but our ability to love.” Henri Nouwen (https://henrinouwen.org/)
Dear Friend,
Thanks to the generosity of many people like you who value the difference that grateful living makes in your life and in the lives of all sentient beings, please consider a gift to your local animal shelter or Humane Society International: https://donate.hsi.org/page/112649/donate .
Your support today will truly help. Please join me with a gift of any size. Your support helps protect all animals—including those suffering in laboratories, on factory farms and those abused in the wild.
You can help stop animal cruelty. Please give today.
Today’s senryu: Make A Difference
make a difference –
if you can’t adopt a pet,
adopt a shelter
Please remember, together we can make a difference in our local community and for the planet as a whole.
Magical Thinking by Matthew Hutson – Why a little magic is good for you, Psychology Today Magazine
“We look for patterns because we hate surprises and because we love being in control. Emotional stress and events of personal significance push us strongly toward magical meaning-making.”
Matthew Hutson, science journalist and former news editor for Psychology Today Magazine, continues in his delightful and informative article (referenced above), “Often we don’t even register our wacky beliefs. Seeing causality in coincidence can happen even before we have a chance to think about it; the misfiring is sometimes perceptual rather than rational.”
Hutson identifies 7 key principles of magical thinking:
Finally, Hutson’s article offers a couple of provocative quotes:
“You can be a believer in astrology and still be a good astronomer.” Eugene V. Subbotsky
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Arthur C. Clarke
Inanimate objects will become more responsive, interactive, and intentional, TechGnosis author Erik Davis says, “so it will make sense to have a degree of magical thinking just to be able to deal with these devices.”
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I’ve really enjoyed Matthew Hutson’s work; especially this article. For more information about Matthew and his work check out these links:
https://www.science.org/content/author/matthew-hutson
Matthew Hutson New Yorker, Bio, Wiki, Age, Height, Wife, Salary, and Net Worth
https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/matthew-hutson
Matthew Huston @ science.org
“The bell is the voice of the Buddha”
“This is My body and My blood.”
“Step on a crack, you’ll break your mother’s back.”
Key Definitions:
Truth – that which is true or in accordance with fact or reality (from Oxford Languages)
Metaphor – a thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else, especially something abstract (from Oxford Languages)
Magical Thinking – a set of related reasoning errors that are commonly associated with religionistic practices. (from Wikipedia)
WTF: I need another cup of coffee
Beautiful message from John Castellenas and singer Melanie. Check out his website at https://johncoyote.wordpress.com/
I was a soldier once and I didn’t paint the face of war. I attempted to forget the damn wars with the good drink, the kind women and the ancient cities.
A pretty Auburn hair Texas gal in Belton asked me. Johnnie, Johnnie. Are you drinking again? I told her. I am drinking more, laughing more and dancing some. Sometime dear Brigid, we can reach the dead-end. She laughed at my words and she knew. Hell-board spirits ain’t seeking happiness, till they decide they need some kindness.
I told her. Old poet, the old drunk cannot see the good no-more. I believe Bukowski told us. Never truth a man or women, who don’t drink. The non-drinkers tell us, God will save us. Where was God when my friends were killed in far-away wars? Where is God today? Killing women/children and…
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Great post from Lynn J Kelly on the Buddhist/Stoic concept on the “illusion of control.” Check out Lynn’s blog at https://buddhasadvice.wordpress.com/
A foundational practice in both Stoicism and Buddhism is the idea of understanding and accepting that there are some things we can control and many things we cannot.
Once a bridge teacher said to me: “You can only choose from the available choices.” He was talking about bidding in a bridge game, but it occurred to me that this was a valuable mantra, essential when we are struggling to make a decision. We can spend some time and list out, mentally or in writing, what our actual choices are, and changing someone else’s behavior is never on this list. What we want to have happen and what we might do to bring about the desired result are two separate things. Our words and actions are what we do have control over.
As an example, in bridge, you can only bid based on the cards you hold in a particular hand. You…
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If you’re setting goals for 2023 it’s important to identify meaningful and achievable targets. Beware of magical thinking (e.g., 10x results over last year) AND beware of win/lose dualistic thinking (e.g., I will only be successful if I outperform the previous year).
Quick tangent: Dualism is the concept of two opposed or contrasted aspects. For example, to say something is tall there must be something that is short. To say something is up, there must be something that is down. Either/or, better/worse, win/lose. Another of the most common dualistic thoughts is the mind/body separation (e.g., promising more than you can deliver).
Matthew Hutson, a New York City science journalist and former news editor of Psychology Today, tells us that “Several studies show that people who think more intuitively are also more susceptible to magical thinking. One intuition that’s been proposed as a foundation for religious thought is Cartesian mind-body dualism, the idea that a mind can exist independently of a body.”
Hutson continues, “Dualism (is) the strongest predictor of the three types of supernatural belief. It’s the foundation for belief in God, a disembodied mind. It’s also necessary for belief in spirits, part of the paranormal package. And it may encourage belief in life’s purpose because people see disembodied intentionality acting everywhere, or because belief in the afterlife enhances life’s meaning.”
Take another look at the diagram above. It’s worth noting that at the entrance of that maze of boxes and lines haunted with ghosts and witches and talking trees is one simple item: mentalizing. Which means that if you’re a fully developed human, with an understanding that minds exist, then through one path or another you’re probably going to end up in magic-land.” http://www.magicalthinkingbook.com/2013/09/all-paths-lead-to-magical-thinking/
Today’s senryu: Beware Mind/Body Separation
consult the Divine,
stars, life coaches, blog stats … just
don’t forget to walk
It’s that time of year when many review their calendar-year-end success and decide what goals or priorities they will have for the new year. Logic might suggest simply continuing what worked in the past and extrapolating some improvement by doing a little more, a little more effectively.
For example, if you made $40k this year then shoot for $42k next year. This incremental success seems reasonable, and, with focus and effort, a 5% increase can be achieved, unplanned-for calamities notwithstanding.
But let’s face it, logic isn’t sexy. For real inspiration, magical thinking can light up our imagination with dreams of 10x performance. Wouldn’t you prefer to earn $400k instead of $42k?
So, with the upcoming Chinese New Year of the Rabbit and Saturn leaving Aquarius to enter Pisces, I plan to explore magical thinking over the balance of 2022.
Today’s senryu: Magical Thinking for 2023
another year ends
a new year tempts us to dream
stay frosty out there
With all the different holidays being celebrated this time of year, I wanted to find something to share that might appeal to the beautiful and diverse group of people who read this blog. Below is something I read earlier this week written by Rabbi Rami Shapiro that appealed to me. I sincerely hope it offers something to you as well.
Spirituality & Christmas from the most recent issue of Spirituality & Health (https://www.spiritualityhealth.com/blogs/roadside-musings/2020/12/21/spirituality-and-christmas)
“I love Christmas. My neighbors love Christ. This is not the same thing.
To me Christmas heralds the Very Good News that if a first century rabbi could realize the Truth at the mystic heart of his and every religion—“I and the Divine are one” (John 10:30)—then so can we. This is the same Very Good News taught by sages before and after Jesus:
To me Christmas is hopeful: a time to celebrate the potential for God-Realization in all of us. To my neighbors Christmas seems fearful: a time to circle the wagons and bemoan how besieged Christians are—not in countries where they are actually persecuted such as the People’s Republic of China, North Korea, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia but in the most Christian friendly country on earth: the United States of America.
As I walk through my neighborhood and exchange friendly shouts of “Merry Christmas” with my neighbors, I take pleasure in seeing houses draped with Christmas lights and lawns taken over by manger scenes. So, you might forgive my confusion when my neighbors tell me that their right to openly affirm their religion is being denied them, and that they are shunned for saying “Merry Christmas,” and that this War on Christmas gets stronger every year.
To me the War on Christmas is an odd but understandable response to the success of Christianity in the United States. Christians aren’t meant to be successful: Blessed are the poor, the meek, the hungry, the thirsty “who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:10). The problem for my neighbors is that they aren’t poor, meek, hungry, thirsty, or persecuted. Indeed, they are often seen as the persecutors. And because they aren’t persecuted, they fear their place in the Kingdom of Heaven is iffy at best.
The obvious solution—obvious to me at any rate—is for them to take up the causes for which Jesus died: the cessation of othering, injustice, and oppression, and doing right by “the least” among us (Matthew 25). As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. showed us, it doesn’t take long before this Christian message threatens the Powers That Be in America and one becomes “persecuted for righteousness’ sake.” Sadly, it is easier to imagine a War on Christmas instead.
I refuse to engage with the War on Christmas. I choose instead to celebrate the Very Good News that You are God (Tat Tvam Asi and Alles iz Gott as we say in Sanskrit and Yiddish). And when I wish you “Merry Christmas” know that what I am wishing you is this: May your celebration of the birth of Jesus birth your own awakening to the joyous fact that you and God are one.
Merry Christmas.”
Rabbi Rami Shapiro is an award-winning author, essayist, poet, and teacher. In the print version of our magazine, he has an advice column, “Roadside Assistance for the Spiritual Traveler,” addressing reader questions https://www.spiritualityhealth.com/authors/rabbi-rami-shapiro
May peace be with all of us this holiday season _/\_
With many thanks to Jackson Browne and The Chieftains for this alternative holiday message from “a heathen and a pagan.”
Life Matters 