Healing The Divide

May 12, 2019 Bill Kerley

ORDINARY LIFE - Thoughts and Ideas to Help You Live a Happier Life

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Summary for May 12, 2019

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Dear Folks -

I began this talk with a line from one of Mary Oliver’s best loved poems -

Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

Then I attempt to show how information and knowledge about religion and religious matters has been evolving over time. Until recently the focus of religion, especially religion in the West, has been on telling people what to see and not teaching them how to see. Now, because of data from a number of relatively new disciplines we are able to see that there has been an evolution in religious thought itself. This has been an “evolution of rightness.” There is a right way for us to contribute to the future. We have something valuable and viable to offer.

That is a very brief summary of the talk.

You can read or download the text from which I spoke, view the presentation slides, listen to the audio of the talk and/or watch the video of the talk using the links below.

If you are reading this, I want you to know how grateful I am for and to you.

Be well and much love,

Bill Kerley

To read or download the text of the talk, click here.

To view or download the presentation slides, click here.

To listen to or download the audio version of the talk, use the link below.

To watch the presentation, please use the video player below.

Sit! Stay! Heal!

May 5, 2019 Bill Kerley

ORDINARY LIFE - Thoughts and Ideas to Help You Live a Happier Life

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Summary for May 5, 2019

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Dear Folks -

I called the talk I offered this week -

Sit! Stay! Heal!

Though it is a continuation of talking about a technique of spiritual practice, it is also an introduction to one of the tough questions about how we are to live lives of trust in the present moment. If we don’t develop some practice of awareness and growth. It is possible to live our entire life and never meet and know the person who is living that life. I distinguish in the talk between transactional religion and relational spirituality. I also assert that there are two mistaken notions that create most of the problems in both our personal lives and in the world: First, the notion that there is something wrong with us. Second, the belief that “God” is somewhere “out there” separate from us. I ended the talk with one of my very favorite Zen teaching stories - filling a sieve with water.

That is a very brief summary of the talk.

You can read or download the text from which I spoke, view the presentation slides, listen to the audio of the talk and/or watch the video of the talk using the links below.

If you are reading this, I want you to know how grateful I am for and to you.

Be well and much love,

Bill Kerley

To read or download the text of the talk, click here.

To view or download the presentation slides, click here.

To listen to or download the audio version of the talk, use the link below.

To watch the video of today’s talk, use the player below.

The Gift of The Luminous Pause

April 28, 2019 Bill Kerley

ORDINARY LIFE - Thoughts and Ideas to Help You Live a Happier Life

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Summary for April 28, 2019

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Dear Folks -

No matter who you are, no matter where you are, I am so grateful for you. I am grateful for those of you who showed up in person in Ordinary Life this week, almost 200!, and grateful for those of you who joined viewing via live-stream. Already I have heard from people in places far and near. I am grateful to and for each of you and for the technology that makes it possible to share Ordinary Life in so many ways to anyone who wants it.

Carl Jung said that “life is a luminous pause between two mysteries that are yet one.” I have come to see that our lives are made up of innumerable “luminous pauses.” These pauses are “gifts” to us. Between whatever stimulation comes to us and our reaction to it, we have the opportunity to pause and choose how we shall react to it. Shall we bring into the situation peace, love and joy? Or, some action that contributes to division, anger and other destructive emotions or behaviors? I called the talk -

The Gift of the Luminous Pause

I believe that the audio version of the talk is better than the text. One of the issues I raise is whether, in light of the new discoveries being brought to us, like the photograph of the black hole, we can honor the mysteries of the universe and develop the courage to let go of the requirement of maintaining allegiance to claims and beliefs from 2,000 or more years ago.

That is a very brief summary of the talk. In my opinion the audio version is better than the text.

You can read or download the text from which I spoke, view the presentation slides, listen to the audio of the talk and/or watch the video of the talk using the links below.

Be well and much love,

Bill Kerley

To read or download the text of the talk, click here.

To view or download the presentation slides, click here.

To listen to or download the audio version of the talk, use the link below.

To watch the video of the talk, use the player below.

The Personal Process of Global Transformation

April 14, 2019 Bill Kerley

ORDINARY LIFE - Thoughts and Ideas to Help You Live a Happier Life

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Summary for April 14, 2019

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Dear Folks -

As I am preparing this to post, I have discovered about the fire that has destroyed much of Notre-Dame Cathedral. For reasons inexplicable to me, even as a very small child I was drawn to gothic architecture. I have visited and worshipped in Notre-Dame numerous times over the years. This destructive fire is felt almost like a personal loss. One of the world’s iconic structures has been taken from us. Not to acknowledge this would be amiss.

I gave the talk I offered this week in Ordinary Life this title -

The Personal Process of Global Transformation

The talk begins with the information that in the past week we were informed about the first ever photograph of a black hole. This is important because it reveals to us more information about the nature of the energy field in which we live. This new knowledge is causing us to rethink everything we thought we “knew for sure” about religious matters. Similar discoveries have been taking place in the field of religious, biblical and theological studies. They seldom make headlines. But, they are, at least to some of us, of equal importance. In light of all of this knew knowledge and information, how are we to understand one of the basic teachings of all religions - don’t judge?

That is a very brief summary of the talk. In my opinion the audio version is better than the text.

You can read or download the text from which I spoke, view the presentation slides, listen to the audio of the talk and/or watch the video of the talk using the links below.