“Meditation is not a means to an end. It is both the means and the end.”
Category Archives: Spiritual Practice
St. Anthony
“The prayer of the monk is not perfect until he no longer recognizes himself or the fact that he is praying.”
Basho
“Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought”
Geddy Lee
“You can surrender without a prayer, but never really pray without surrender.”
Kabir
“Are you looking for me? I am in the next seat. My shoulder is against yours. You will not find me in stupas, not in Indian shrine rooms, nor in synagogues, nor in cathedrals: Not in masses, nor kirtans, not in legs winding around your own neck, nor in eating … Read more →
Philo
“Nothing is better than to search for the true God, even if the discovery of Him eludes human capacity, since the very wish to learn, if earnestly entertained, produces untold joys and pleasures.”
Deepak Chopra
“When you struggle against this moment, you’re actually struggling against the entire universe. Instead, you can make the decision that today you will not struggle against the whole universe by struggling against this moment. This means that your acceptance of this moment is total and complete.”
Mahatma Gandhi
“In spite of despair staring me in the face on the political horizon, I have never lost my peace. In fact, I have found people who envy my peace. That peace, I tell you, comes from prayer; I am not a man of learning, but I humbly claim to be … Read more →
What Would a UU Religious Order Look Like?
One of the first essays I ever wrote in seminary, and the first essay I ever had published, was on the need for Unitarian Universalism to develop integrated spiritual practices that can be shared and engaged by large groups of Unitarian Universalists. In that essay, I make the case that … Read more →
Introspection and the “Set Apart” Life of Ministry
There are times where the internal shifts necessary to be in a life of ministry in our liberal faith tradition are more obvious than others. As Unitarian Universalist ministers, we often emphasize a radical leveling in our ministries, and many UU ministers react against the classical understanding that ministers should … Read more →
The Fluidity of Identity and the Created Self
There are many amazing aspects about the process of meeting a new church. Of course there are the challenges of moving into a system that is already well established, of becoming subject to traditions and power-lines that are long established, and to engage congregational dynamics as they flow and shift. … Read more →
General Assembly Day 5: Passionate Arguments for Our Faith’s Center
I want to say on Celestial Lands what I said in person to many people about the overall “theme” for this General Assembly. In my most humble opinion, the overall theme was not the 50th Anniversary of the UUA. It was not where we will be as a religion in … Read more →
General Assembly Day 4: Universalism, Compassion, Spiritual Practice and Salvation
My experience of the fourth day of the 2011 General Assembly in Charlotte, NC, was framed around two lectures… the Murray Street Address by the Rev. Bill Sinkford… and the Ware Lecture by Karen Armstrong. For me, these two lectures swam in my personal pond through waters that have been … Read more →
The Purpose of Religious Communities
I always know I’m onto something when I can get a congregant to look at me cross-eyed. A few months ago I was having a conversation with a dear congregant from a corporate background about how our Fellowship here in Midland “did things”. How our committees and teams function, how … Read more →
Church Life, Alcohol, and Me
Every year at this time of year I end up having the conversation with someone (usually a congregant) about church life, me, and alcohol. There is a familiar flow to the conversation, and I thought this year, after having one conversation with a friend and ministerial colleague along these lines … Read more →
On Why I Write
Every year around the New Year I take a retrospective look at my writings of the past year… not just here at Celestial Lands, but my sermons, newsletter articles, and assorted other writings. I write a lot… it is part of my spiritual practice to do reflection upon life, the … Read more →
Liberal Faith’s Learning Lab
I recently had a series of conversations with ministerial colleagues that re-ignited a thought I have been working around for some time… What in the world do we do liberal religion for? What could justify all of the expenses of maintaining a church or a Fellowship? What makes the anguish … Read more →
The Liminal Space of Intentional Not-Knowing
The last month has been a liminal space for me, as I have intentionally stayed in a space of not-knowing when it comes to what the next few years will bring. Perhaps there is a key to understanding our faith tradition in such liminality. … Read more →
Dancing with Scripture
One of the aspects that I believe defines the religious liberal is the acknowledgement that we encounter the world and everything in it through our own lenses. These lenses are shaped by years of experience… by the people we meet, what we have read, and the journeys (literal and metaphorical) … Read more →
Symbols, Pre-Conceptions, and the Construction of Reality
In the discussion of a recent article of mine on the growth of the myth of a post-racial America, it became clear to me that the article depends upon a particular understanding of the nature of reality as we human beings have constructed it, and that I had never articulated … Read more →
All of the Things I’m Not Allowed to Write About
Every once in awhile, I get an email or a quiet conversation from someone asking why I had not said something publically on an issue. Most recently, it was an email challenging me to write something publically on my position on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the U.S. Military. What … Read more →
Deepening in the Principles workshop
Last Night (February 18th) I faciliated an evening workshop at the UU Society of Geneva, IL about deepening our understanding of the Unitarian Universalist 7 principles by looking at them through the lens of another traditions ethical guidence. As I said that night, I think this could be done with … Read more →
Self-Forgiveness and Zazen
For Christmas this year, my wife and I took a trip back to the closest thing I have to a hometown, Knoxville Tennessee. It was good to see my mother, and to visit some places that have deep meaning for me. We then went on to spend Christmas Eve and … Read more →
Realizations from Sesshin
Now that I have been home from my first Zen Sesshin for about a week, I feel I am able to write about the experience. I have tried to stay out of my discursive mind as much as possible this week, although that is challenging when you have final academic … Read more →
Ways that Zen Sesshin is Like Military Basic Training
During the Zen Rohatsu Sesshin (7 ½ Day Zen Meditation Retreat in honor of the Buddha’s enlightenment day) that I attended this past week, I began to notice some eerie similarities to my multiple experiences of Military Basic Training. Though this was my first Sesshin at the Zen temple where … Read more →
Quiet for Sesshin…
Celestial Lands will go quiet for the next week, as I am leaving this afternoon for a week-long Sesshin at the Empty Sound Zen Temple in Oak Park, IL. This is my wife’s Christmas present to me, and I have been looking forward to it for some time. A week … Read more →
Building a Just Peace
Below is an excerpt of and collection of resources for the speech on Building a Just Peace that I presented at People’s Church Chicago on November 22, 2008. I am thankful for all the wonderful engagement and questions, and look forward to continuing the conversations with those who were there, … Read more →
Blogging Best Practices
I would like to thank Shelby Meyerhoff and the UUA Blogging Resources Project for the effort to put together a survey and report on “best practices” in Unitarian Universalist Blogging. It was an honor to be asked to participate in the survey behind the report. It was also useful for … Read more →
A Personal Relationship with God
I am always amazed by how the spirit moves when I am in the pulpit. This past Sunday, during a sermon about the religious thought of Albert Einstein, I was moved to do several “drop-ins”, or to say a few things in the moment that were not in my text. … Read more →
Back to the Well of Faith
I have an institution in my life in which I must have faith, but it is sometimes hard to hold on to. We all have such organizations in our lives, be they schools, churches, community action groups, and even our families. Those of you who know me personally can probably … Read more →
Defining Religious Language: God
Some words have so many meanings that they become near incomprehensible, and almost unusable. When I use the generic word “meditation”, I usually mean Zazen meditation, or sitting on a cushion and following my breath. But “meditation” means about a thousand different things, from concentration on a passage of scripture … Read more →
A Picture for my Absense…
It has been a week since I have written anything for the blog, not for lack of material but for lack of time. I know there have been times when I have come out of my spiritual practice of Zazen because of that lack of time… this appears to have … Read more →
Not Misusing Intoxicants
A year ago, inspired not only by my Zen practice but also by wanting to better understand a friend, I made the commitment not to use alcohol for one year. Now, alcohol has never been a large part of my life, but I have enjoyed both a professional and personal … Read more →
Defining Religious Language: War and Peace
War simply is. It is not a choice, it is not a spectrum between pacifism and Just War theory. It is a basic fact of human existence, and will be so until human nature evolves. War is the result of a need for conflict that lies deep within human nature. … Read more →
Defining Religious Language: Faith
Faith is not about belief. Faith in fact has very little to do with what beliefs you hold, other than that it allows you to hold them. Faith is a sacred, deep, emotionally involved kind of trust. Faith is the kind of trust that you enter into with your whole … Read more →
To Live Life Whelmed
To live fully, to love wastefully, and to have the courage to be what you are called to be… this is what it means to live life whelmed. As I was putting together my calendar for the next two months, I remembered something a fellow ministerial intern said to me … Read more →
Principles as Spiritual Practice – Forgiving the Unforgiveable (1.3)
“I take up the way of affirming the inherent worth and dignity of every person.” For me personally, the hardest aspect of learning to live the first principle of Unitarian Universalism in my daily life has been learning to forgive… particularly learning to forgive those who seem to have done … Read more →
Principles as Spiritual Practice — Your Own Inherent Worth and Dignity (1.2)
“I take up the way of affirming the inherent worth and dignity of every person.” There are two key phrases in this principle, and the second one often gets overlooked though it is probably the more profound of the two. That phrase is “Every Person”. There have been creeds and … Read more →
Principles as Spiritual Practice — Those Not Known (1.1)
“I take up the way of affirming the inherent worth and dignity of every person.” The most common interpretation of the first principle that I have come across, and indeed the one that I primarily held for a long time, involves a commitment by myself to the ideal that everyone … Read more →
Principles as Spiritual Practice — Introduction
For those few hearty souls who read this blog from time to time, you could probably tell that writing has been a part of my spiritual practice for some time. Between the Celestial Lands Journal and now this new effort at regular theological and sociological blogging, part of my spiritual … Read more →
The Inherent Worth of Terrorists
In 1992 I saw a set of pictures of a village in Peru that had been massacred by members of the Sendero Luminoso, the “Shining Path”. It is hard for me even today to describe the brutality of those images. Hate is not too strong a word for the emotions … Read more →
Living Monkey Mind — Sermon by the Rev. David Pyle
Last preached on January 6th, 2008 When I gazed out the window on New Years morning, the overnight snows seemed like a blanket resting comfortably across the urban landscape, softening the edges of the buildings, blurring the lines between the road and the curb, and making the morning seem … Read more →
What inspires?
A friend of mine wrote to me today, someone I have been doing some theological exploration with on the topic of inspiration. Just what inspires someone? How is it that some people can inspire thousands to wonderful works in the world, while others spend their lives in activism that reaches only … Read more →
Writing and Spiritual Practice
As I begin this endeavor of actually keeping a blog (on top of writing regular essays, sermons, and contributions to the Celestial Lands Journal) it struck me just how much writing is a part of my personal spiritual discipline. I use the word discipline on purpose, because it is more … Read more →