SUNDAY LECTURE | It's Not Jesus but a Squirrel

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

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Summary of Ordinary Life for March 10, 2024

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Dear Ones -

This week’s Ordinary Life talk begins with my telling three examples of “children’s sermons” given in churches that turned out to be “horror stories.” One child responded to a question put by the minister giving the children’s sermon by saying, “I know the answer is Jesus but it sounds like a squirrel.” This is an example of how the church teaches people what to see and not how to see.

Gaining clarity about Jesus and his teachings is an important part of living in the Sacred Stream. People at the mythic level of consciousness can be upset by scholarship about Jesus. However, it is only when we transcend the levels of tribalism that we ever experience renewal.

Jesus’ opening statement in his ministry was, “Change your level of consciousness.” What we know about who Jesus was and what he said and did gives us a model of how to be in the world. People need people to be Jesus to them and, perhaps more importantly, to be Jesus in their behalf. I called the talk -

It’s Not Jesus But a Squirrel

That’s a brief summary of this week’s time in Ordinary Life.

The audio version of the talk has some differences from the text I spoke from. You can find the text of the talk, the presentation slides and the audio version of the talk using the links below.

Our podcast, “In Between,” can be accessed through the Ordinary Life web site.

If you would like to know how to make a contribution to Ordinary Life, click here for video instructions.

Be well and much love,

Bill Kerley

In order to read or download the text version of the talk, click here.

In order to view or download the presentation slides, click here.

In order to view or download the announcement slides, click here.

To listen to or download today’s class, use the audio player below.

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

WEEKLY PODCAST | In Between.155

Are you conscious of the myths you live by or the worldview that shapes you? If so, are you satisfied with it, or do you think it needs revising?

We talk about the myths around which this country seems to operate and lament that most are shaped around individualism. How do we reshape our language to encompass “we-ness” and move away from the singular, separate self? We must be willing to do two things to get to the reality of interbeing (this is Thich Nhat Hanh’s word for interconnectedness). One is to allow the false self - the one that criticizes, feels afraid, or judges others - to die. The other is to break the rules just a wee bit. We must be willing to challenge the status quo, even if we are protected by it. This is part of what it means to move from mythos to logos. Myths are designed to deepen our understanding of reality, not become our reality.

So here is the challenge. Examine your personal and collective myths. Ask yourself which are still relevant and whether they promote or inhibit growth and greater belonging. If they don’t, are you willing to let them go?

Thanks for listening!

SUNDAY LECTURE | Living Beyond the Mythic Level in a World That Doesn't

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

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Summary of Ordinary Life for March 3, 2024

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Dear Ones -

In the teaching I gave in Ordinary Life this week I state that one of the reasons our country is so divided is because some people live at a “mythic consciousness” level and some live at cognitive levels beyond that. How do people who have moved to “rational consciousness” or to “vision-level consciousness” live in a society that is divided by such cognitive dissonance? I make numerous suggestions all of which might be summed up by our deciding to live s if we were in training to be the next Dali Lama. I called the talk -

Living Beyond the Mythic Level In a World that Doesn’t

That’s a brief summary of this week’s time in Ordinary Life.

The audio version of the talk has some differences from the text I spoke from. You can find the text of the talk, the presentation slides and the audio version of the talk using the links below.

Our podcast, “In Between,” can be accessed through the Ordinary Life web site.

If you would like to know how to make a contribution to Ordinary Life, click here for video instructions.

Be well and much love,

Bill Kerley

In order to read or download the text of the talk, click here.

In order the view or download the presentation slides, click here.

In order the view or download the announcement slides, click here.

To listen to or download the audio recording of today’s talk, use the audio player below.

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

WEEKLY PODCAST | In Between.154

Due to some technical snafus, I have been unable to upload a podcast for the last few weeks! Last week, AT&T had major outages that I think interfered with my ability to save the file, and this week, zoom didn’t seem to want to cooperate with my computer. So we are a bit late on the download, but here nonetheless!

I am, perhaps because of an upcoming birthday, perhaps because of midlife, perhaps because several people close to me are right smack in the midst of late-stage aging, acutely aware of micro and macro changes going on in the body and in the world. On the personal level, we are changing constantly and all the time. In our political and social worlds, things are changing in intense ways. And change seems to unearth conflict. We are seeing that play out in our country and in the world. Some of us might be seeing that in our personal lives, too.

Teilhard de Chardin believed that pain, suffering, and a kind of groaning are necessary to usher us into higher levels of consciousness. Change and suffering are inevitable in the process of transformation. This conversation today is bookended by musings about aging, but deeper than that we are puzzling through this cosmic birth-death-rebirth process.

Thanks for listening! Oh! You can’t leave without a book recommendation. See below.