Is it really Love? Spiritual Way of the Six Loves

Last time we looked at the idea of the Kingdom of God as being a country or an institution to which people can belong. In this episode we will consider the Kingdom of God as heaven or the afterlife. When we die, only the good people get into the kingdom and will spend eternal life there. The kingdom as being heaven in the afterlife is the opposite, even a rejection, of the kingdom as an earthly institution. People who take this approach often point to the politics and corruption of earthly institutions, saying that any human organization eventually falls into these problems. How could the true kingdom suffer such things? So the kingdom must be found only in the afterlife, not in earthly life.

Each of these two approaches has a very different understadning of salvation, this earthly life and God's relation to this world. We explore the differences between these two understandings of the kingdom. Is there some middle position between these two views? We will look at that in the next episode.

To see more Craig's books and music, go to www.craigowen.net

In this episode we will look at a very old idea of what is the Kingdom of God. It is the belief that the kingdom is a specific geographic location such as a specific tribal or political region. What ever is the religion of the king or queen of the land, that becomes the relgion of all the people. If you live within the borders of this area, you are in the Kingdom of God. If you are outside the borders, you are not in the true Kingdom of God. In later centuries, this understanding grew into the belief that the Kingdom of God was a particular institution rather than a specific location. For example, within Christianity some believe that the Roman Catholic Church or the Eastern Orthodox Church would be the true kingdom of God.

Each of these approaches to the Kingdom, whether location or institution, has strengths and weaknesses. On the plus side, it is very concrete, and shows the need for some sort of boundaries so people can know if they truly belong to a specific religious tradition. On the negative side, viewing outsiders as less worthy than true believers can lead to religious violence against outsiders.

In the next episode we will look an another understanding of the Kingdom of God, where the Kingdom is not of this world.

To learn more about Craig's books and music go to www.craigowen.net

What is the Kingdom of God? This is a central concept in the monotheistic traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. What you may believe about the Kingdom of God will affect other religious beliefs we hold. For example, how do we think of God, as aloof or present in our daily lives? How do we understand salvation? Is it mainly about the life to come or is it more about our l ife in this world? What is the nature of faith? All of these are interconnected and affected by our beliefs about the Kingdom of God.

We will look at several possible meanings of the phrase 'Kingdom of God' in tne next few epoisode. Utimately, we will see if this basic idea can offer some common ground between the various religions traditions.

To see more about Craig's books and music, go to www.craigowen.net.

Last time we looked at the emotional hole that each of us is carrying around inside and how we chase fears and anxieties about things that do not exist in an effort to fill up this hole. In this episode, we will look at how do we take apart this emotional hole? The key is understanding how the different virtues counteract their opposite vices- how generosity counters greed, self control counters gluttony and self confidence counters sloth or spiritual sadness. The delusional thinking that underlies these and other vices comes from this emotional hole we have within us. In learning to practice the virtues we free up emotional energy that has been wasted on the delusional thinking behind the vices. And we will not fall victim so easily to the fear mongers and hate mongers who try to manipulate us through our emotional holes.

In the next episode we will start in a new direction on a different topic.

To learn more about Craig's books and music, go to www.craigowen.net

A few episodes back I quoted Ghandi, the great Indian leader and philosopher. Ghandi had once said that the greatest freedom we could achieve is not political or economic, but freedom from the fear in our minds. In this episode we explore what Ghandi may have meant.

A crucial step toward freedom from fear is to learn about the emotional hole that each of us carries around inside. We look at the story of Sam, who had a very demanding and rather angry parent in his father. Without knowing it, Sam developed an emotional hole in himself, a hole in the shape of an angry fist. Sam spent many years trying to fill that hole before he learned it was there.

Each of us has our own unique emotional hole. When we are unaware of it, we can be easily manipulated by others who take advantage of our ignorance about our own emotional hole. All the more reason for us to wake up!

In the next episode, we will look at the mechanics of how we dismantle the emotional hole we carry arind inside of us.

This podcast is based on my new book, Why Are We Here? which can be viewed at www.craigowen.net

Last time we looked at the question, to what are we ultimately committed in our journey of spiritual transformation. I had suggested that we should be committed to a specific process of spiritual transformation. But this runs into a problem very quickly. There are many competing traditions of spiritual transformation in the world. How should this situation be approached? How can we avoid the all too common animosity and hatred between competing traditions that often leads to violence? In this episode I offer three suggestions on how to deal with this complex situation.

A few episodes back, I quoted Ghandi, who had said that the greatest freedom people can achieve is to remove the fears that dominate their minds. A major reason for doing this is to stop the way politicians and other leaders manipulate people through their fears. Healthy spirituality can show us how to remove the fear that dominates our minds. How this is done will be explored in the next episode.

This series is based on my new book Why Are We Here? Information on how to obtain a copy of the book can be found at www.craigowen.net

In our journey of spiritual transformation, to what are we ultimately committed? Many people would answer that question by saying "My ultimate commitment is to God," but what does that mean in concrete terms? We look at three possibilites of things to which we might be ultimately committed: beliefs, institutions and specific process of spiritual transformation. While beliefs and institutions are important, many abuses occur when people are to committed to either of these. How can we be ultimately committed to a process of spiritutal transformation and avoid fanaticism? Even if we are committed properly to a process of spiritual trnasformation, what do we do about so many competing forms of spiritual transformation? We will look at this last question next time.

This series is based on my new book, Why Are We Here?, which can be viewed at www.craigowen.net

Why bother with spirituality at all? It seems that many, even most people do not bother with it. Why work so hard at such things as humility, compassion and self-control when these do not seem to be valued by society? I offer a couple of reasons why we should pursue spirituality.

First, imagine what our world would look like if more people practiced true humility? Would there not be less malice, envy and jealousy? Are these not the very things- envy, malice and jealousy- that create so many problems in politics today? What would the world look like if more people practiced self-control, caring and generosity?

Second, we consider the story of Mhatma Ghandi, who lead widespread demonstrations to create the independent state of India in the early twentieth century. Many of Ghandi's followers said that political freedom was the most important kind of freedom- no more British rule, but elections by and for Indians to choose their own destiny. Ghandi argued there is a freedom that is even more basic than political freedom- freedom from fear in our own minds. Politicans and governments use peoples' fears to manipulate and control them. What might the world look like if people were free of fear in their minds, and politicans and governments could no longer manipulate them because of their fears?

Next time we will look at the question, to whom and what are we ultimately loyal in our spiritual journey?

This series is based on my new book Why Are We Here? which can be viewed at www.craigowen.net

In this episode we look at the vice called 'sloth' and its matching virtue of caring. Sloth is a very old word, usually it is described as laziness or lack of motivation in modern terms. Someone who is slothful or unmotivated does not want to do much with themselves or their life. But there is more going on here than just laziness. One writer describes sloth as a 'spiritual sadness' where people have basically give up on life. This can describe many people we may have encountered. The usual virtue for sloth is listed as caring, but I suggest that this is not enough to counteract spiritual sadness.

We have now looked at several vices and virtues- Greed and its virtue generosity, Gluttony and its virtue of self-control, now sloth and its virtue of caring. In the next episode we will ask the question "Why bother with the virtues in the first place?" It is a lot of work to learn and practice the virtues. The answer might surprise you.

This series is based on my new book Why Are We Here? which can be found at www.craigowen.net

In this episode we look another key value for healthy spirituality, self control, and its corresponding vice of gluttony. Gluttony is an old english world that is hardly used anymore. Usually it is understood to refer to an obsession with food. However, such overindulgence can apply to many other things such as alcohol, the Internet and other activities. As we saw with the problem of greed, there is an underlying issue of self-delusional thinking with gluttony. This brings us right back to the false self. Once the problem of self-delusional thinking has been identified, we can begin to unravel the false self, and our ability to maintain self control will increase.

Next time we will look at the key value of caring and its corresponding vice of sloth or apathy.

This series is based on my new book, Why Are We Here?, which can be viewed at www.craigowen.net