Sample Readings

Click on "Read More..." to open a sample from Falling Upward.

  • This strong one-liner of Jesus feels rather amazing and largely unheard. ... [Indeed] it is not a sign at all, but more an anti-sign. It demands that we release ourselves into the belly of darkness before we can know what is (Read More...)

 

  • Some have called this principle of going down to go up a "spirituality of imperfection" or "the way of the wound." It has been affirmed in Christianity by St. Therese of Lisieux as her Little Way, by St. Francis (Read More...)

 

  • By denying their pain, avoiding the necessary falling, many have kept themselves from their own spiritual depths-- and therefore have been kept from their own spiritual heights. First-half-of-life religion is almost always (Read More...)

 

  • We grow spiritually much more by doing it wrong than by doing it right. That might just be the central message of how spiritual growth happens; yet nothing in us wants to believe it... (Read More...)

 

  • You cannot avoid sin or mistake anyway (Romans 5:12), but if you try too fervently, it often creates even worse problems. Jesus loves to tell stories like that of the publican and the Pharisee (Read More...)

 

  • Some kind of falling, what I ... call "necessary suffering," is programmed into the journey. All the sources seem to say it, starting with Adam and Eve and all they represent. Yes, they "sinned" and were cast out of the Garden of Eden, but from those very acts came "consciousness," conscience, and their own further journey... (Read More...)

 

  • The soul has many secrets. They are only revealed to those who want them, and are never completely forced upon us. One of the best-kept secrets, and yet one hidden in plain sight, is thatthe way up is the way down. Or, if you prefer, the way down is the way up... (Read More...)

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