MSI Press Blog

  Gravity is one of the most fundamental forces of nature.  If you remove it, you are left with gravy. The following is a guest post from Arthur Yavelberg, author of the highly regarded book,   A Theology for the Rest of Us ,  No, no quote from Rumi or passage from The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Even so, every mystic, as far as I know, expresses a deep gratitude for the presence of the Divine in all that is.  So, seventh grader at heart that I am, I caught myself laughing quite heartily at this. I dismissed it as just another example of my sophomoric nature. I even had the thought of how silly, maybe even insensitive, it was in the context of a world of such horrific suffering--suffering that has gone on for years and years and years and years.  But then I realized that I not only laughed, but that I am deeply grateful for the laughter and the ability to laugh. Of course, that does not minimize the suffering. As the comedian, Jim Gaffigan, observes: "Laughte...

  NO JUDGMENT “Mercy triumphs over judgment.” --I James 2: 13   “Love is a many-splendored thing,” the popular song celebrates. Romantic love arises from the heart and expresses its beauty. St. Paul echoed these sentiments when he described God-like love (agape): “Love is patient; love is kind. Love is not jealous, it does not put on airs, it is not snobbish. Love is never rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not prone to anger; neither does it brood over injuries. Love does not rejoice in what is wrong but rejoices with the truth. There is no limit to love’s forbearance, to its trust, its hope, its power to endure. Love never fails….There are in the end three things that last: faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love.” (I Corinthians 13: 4-13) Love is such a profound, unspeakable mystery, that its definitions often include what it is not. Love is like a beautiful tapestry with many colorful threads. These threads, carefully woven together, are the man...

  The following is a guest post from Arthur Yavelberg, author of the highly regarded book,   A Theology for the Rest of Us ,  This is the essence of Hinduism--that we are all part of the dream of Brahman/God. That needs to be properly understood. It doesn't mean, for example, that we "don't exist" and that we "disappear" when Brahman "wakes up." Having been "dreamt" ("created," to use Western terms) by Brahman, we become part of his consciousness--which is eternal. In that context, when the material part of us recognizes its eternal source, our realization and  Brahman's are two sides of the same coin. Put another way, just because our dreams are "dreams" doesn't mean they don't "exist." Such dreams become a part of us and may even be expressions of our natures and unconscious that, until the dream, of which we are not aware. You could say we then recognize that we are both fully human and fully d...