Your Spiritual Journey

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Meaning, Consciousness and the Sacred

for People Who Think Critically and Feel Deeply

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Like Being Awake for the First Time

What is De-Construction?

In a builder’s world, it means to take a structure apart one piece at a time. It’s the opposite of construction. In religious deconstruction, you are the house. Decades of building suddenly stop, and you find yourself removing ideas, opinions, and mindsets that you once held sacred.

In recent years, my religious views have changed drastically, but I find that I’m still seeking truth. What is the nature of reality? Is there a god? Can we even know that?

Seeking these kinds of questions about reality, divinity, consciousness and my place in this arena remains to be a central core of my life.

If these questions interest you, you can find My Story here.

My Faith Journey
John Daugherty Profile Pic
Meditation

A Regular Practice Of Meditation

One of the most transforming spiritual experiences I’ve ever experienced happened in the desert on a Saturday morning.

I had driven out to the Saguaro National Forest and found a rock to sit on that overlooked miles of the natural beauty of the place. I did this with regularity on Saturday mornings to gather my thoughts and practice meditation.

On this particular morning, as I allowed my mind to settle and focus, I was overcome with the feeling of compassion for everything and everyone. It was so powerful that I looked at a bug crawling across the sand and I just loved that creature with everything in me. I heard a bird, and again, compassion welled up like it was long lost friend.

I don’t know how to explain this experience, but I felt like every creature in the universe was connected in a huge network, like we were all parts of a larger whole. I was one with that bug, and he with me. There was no separation between us.

This sort of transcendent experience has been described by meditators for millennia, but to experience it yourself is incredibly life-altering. I left that rock in what I can only describe as a spiritual high. For three days, I was on the verge of tears at any given time. Imagine participating in a meeting at work and welling up with compassion for everybody at the table.

Eventually the emotional response faded, but the effect that this experience had on me has never left me. In all my years of church life and worship services, I’d never experienced something so powerful. It solidified in me a longing to understand what I came to know that day. We ARE all unified in something. What that is remains to be explored but I now know that the ancient sages were onto something real.

We’ll explore ideas surrounding Meditation and its many varieties. It’s one of those areas that holds promise for any of us who puts in the work.

The Nature Of Reality

Do we live in a simulation? Maybe we’re in the Matrix.

You may not be aware of it, but questions similar to these have been asked by philosophers for thousands of years. What IS the Nature of Reality? Does what we see accurately represent the truth? And what’s fundamental to reality?

Physicalists say that matter is fundamental. Idealists say that consciousness is fundamental. Others fill the spectrum between these two viewpoints.

As I was awakening from my narrow worldview, I started diving into these ideas of the universe and our place in it. A part of this adventure into Spirituality for the Real World is to peer into the nature of the real world itself. We’ll talk about these ideas and what they may mean for us.

We’ll also explore other scientific ideas that have challenged me. Maybe they’ll challenge you too.

Saturn
Torah Scroll

Rethinking the Bible

Researching the Ancient Near East was quite eye-opening for me. I discovered motifs in the literature of Israel’s neighbors that were adopted by the writers of the Israelite scriptures themselves.

The entire ancient Near East held a Flat Earth Cosmology. This isn’t the same idea as the current revival of flat-earthers today, but many of today’s adherents chose to gravitate toward this view because the Bible is written through this lens. Their doctrines of the Bible’s inerrancy and divine revelation won’t stomach the idea that the ancient prophets were simply mistaken.

Of course, there are more challenging ideas than a flat Earth to consider about the Bible’s viewpoint. I had to wrestle with the topics of the Divine Council, Apocalypticism, textual criticism, and archeology, among others.

I plan to share some of these challenges in the hope that I can help others who also wrestle with these ideas.

It’s important to understand that I’m not attacking the Bible. I have great admiration for the Bible in its proper context. I simply believe that we can do a better job of understanding it within the context it was given.