MSI Press Blog

  At the small gas station in San Juan Bautista , home to MSI Press, a simple mix‑up became a perfect illustration of how trust works in a close-knit town. Yesterday, a traveler had paid cash for pump #1, but the clerk accidentally applied it to pump #5 — an empty pump I drove up to. My credit card behaved oddly, and the pump shut off at exactly twenty dollars. Odd, I thought, because usually when you fill up, it ends up with some cents after whatever dollar level you reach, but $20 approximately was what I figured the tank would hold.  While I was pumping the gas, my son and grandson had gone into the store to buy a couple sodas, and I went looking for them. As I approached the door, a lady, a stranger (I know just about everyone in town) approached me.  "Excuse me," she said tentatively. Did you just use $20 on pump 5?" I affirmed. "That was my $20," she explained, seemingly unsure how I’d react. She may have assumed I might shrug, drive away, or insist it w...

  Arthur Yavelberg, author of the award-winning book,  A Theology for the Rest of Us , was recently interviewed on the Daily Soul Bytes podcast: "Exploring Definitions in Authenticity." 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. Yo...