Recent content by HCSpiritual

Actually a well-chosen sample of 1000 is a sufficiently representative sample for a poll with a normal margin of error. See www-pollingreport-com/ncpp.htm (I can't yet post links so you will need to cut and paste, and replace - with .). That's not to say that it couldn't have been wrong for...

Sorry for the delay in responding here. I've had a bit of medical excitement here (it isn't every day you get a cancer diagnosis), and I had to pick which of two threads I'd get to first. I don't think you understand what I mean about an implicit disrespect in an approach which tolerates...

I see spirituality as a Great Tree, which has many branches all of which draw their nourishment from the same, nameless, trunk. The world's great spiritual traditions are those branches. They exist in the form of religion, of communities, because the sap of the Tree is love, and it is...

Yes, but to get to humility involves a ferocious battle with oneself, culminating, more or less, in the shock of getting a good look at oneself and not much liking what one sees. Culminating, in fact, may not be the right word here, because while there may be "big" moments where one understands...

I like to use shocking language to establish a contrast with the language of private bliss (which dominates spiritual discourse these days). When I'm not being deliberately hyperbolic, I'd say that sacrifice, not personal fulfillment, is the essence of spiritual development. Correct (and ...)...

I have difficulty with a tolerance which declares that if person X believes belief Y, then belief Y is true for them. My problem is that such an assertion contains hidden within it the assumption that there is nothing objective about spirituality -- that spirituality is a game some people play...

Greetings all. Thomas, I think you are (nearly) entirely right about the Pandora's Box of spirituality. When I see someone talk about deep spirituality as if it is all rainbows and unicorns and cotton candy clouds, I know they haven't a clue of what they speak. "Blood on the tracks" would be a...