Here’s what’s HOT this week:

»VIDEO: “False Self to True Self” (on YouTube.com) by Father Thomas Keating and Ken Wilber

In this fantastic video (which is titled “Religious, But Not Spiritual?” on YouTube), Father Thomas Keating and Ken Wilber talk about the transformational journey from false self to true self and the important role of contemplative practices in the journey. I deeply appreciate Father Keating’s inclusiveness, and he does a great job pointing out that all major religions talk about — and try to help facilitate — this transformational journey from false self (or ego) to true self. It seems to be a universal journey or path, though the major religions have their own way of describing it. I think you’ll love this video. Father Keating is precious (and brilliant!).

»ARTICLE: “Why Be Christian?” an interview with Marcus Borg (on Beliefnet)

This is one of the best and most important articles/interviews I’ve read in a long time. Bible scholar Marcus Borg answers questions about the paradigm shift that’s happening in Christianity, the meaning of “salvation” and being “born again,” the afterlife, and more.

Borg notes, “I don’t want to deny the uniqueness of Christianity. I want to speak of the uniqueness of Christianity, as well as Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, and Hinduism. They are all unique in the sense that they are not exactly alike. But what I’m affirming is that beneath their differences is this common path of transformation [of being "born again," of dying to the false self and being born into the true self]. For me, seeing that all the major enduring religions know this path of transformation gives Christianity much more credibility than if it were to claim to know something that no other religion had ever known.”

Here’s what’s HOT this week:

»WEBSITE: beliefnet

Supposedly the largest spiritual website, beliefnet is packed with great resources. There’s so much to explore and enjoy, including guided meditations from Christian and Buddhist faith traditions. I deeply appreciate some of the Christian columnists on beliefnet, such as Marcus Borg, Sue Monk Kidd, Barbara Brown Taylor, and Bishop John Shelby Spong. You can now view short video clips of each of these columnists talking about various aspects of the spiritual journey, Christianity and religion. (To view video clips, just click on a name above.) For example, don’t miss Borg answering the question “How Do I See Jesus?” or Spong talking about “God’s Love” or Taylor answering the question, “How Should I Respond to People of Other Faiths?“

»MAGAZINE & WEBSITE: What Is Enlightenment? (WIE)

If I could work for any magazine, I’d probably choose this one. WIE engages and covers spirituality in a smart, wholistic and inclusive way. WIE asks big, hairy and fascinating questions, such as: Is God All in Your Head?; What Is the Role of Celibacy On the Spiritual Path?; and How Has Enlightenment Evolved? WIE is written by and covers some of the brightest thinkers and deepest souls in the world of spirituality, such as Father Thomas Keating, Ken Wilber and Eckhart Tolle. Enjoy exploring some of the sections on the site, such as: The Evolution of Spirituality; Science, Consciousness and the Soul; The Future of Religion; and Contemplative Christianity. Have fun!

Here’s what’s HOT this week:

»EVENT: Thich Nhat Hanh Speaking in San Diego
Thich Nhat Hanh is a beloved and revered Buddhist monk, poet, and peace activist. On Oct. 2, he’s the keynote speaker at the University of San Diego’s Social Issues Conference. If you live anywhere near San Diego, don’t miss him. Buy a ticket and join me!

»WEBSITE: Spirituality and Practice – Resources for Spiritual Journeys
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat do an amazing job publishing this website, which includes everything from spiritual exercises to book reviews to e-courses. Believe it or not, their current 40-day e-course is Practicing Spirituality With Thich Nhat Hanh, which you can still sign up for. Have fun exploring this site! I subscribed to their email newsletter because I’m finding their stuff to be really helpful as I journey.

»ARTICLE: “Mystical Christianity” by Lynn C. Bauman
Bauman does a great job explaining mysticism and pointing to the mystical roots of Christianity. “If Christianity is not mystical,” she writes, “then it is nothing at all, or at least there is little or nothing left of its origins.” Also, don’t miss Bauman’s other great articles — and have fun exploring the Praxis website!

Each week I’m gonna try to post “What’s HOT,” a brief list of things (e.g., articles, podcasts, books, bands, etc.) that I think are worth a smooch. I hope “What’s HOT” becomes a helpful resource for you! (If your lips get chapped from smooching too much, sue me.)

Let’s get started. Here’s what’s HOT this week:

»ARTICLE: Mother Teresa’s Crisis of Faith (Time)
The article provides a great overview of the much-talked-about new book, Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light (Doubleday), which consists primarily of correspondence between Teresa and her confessors and superiors over a period of 66 years. According to Teresa’s letters, for the last nearly half-century of her life she felt no presence of God whatsoever — or, as the book’s compiler and editor, the Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, writes, “neither in her heart or in the eucharist.”

»ARTICLE: Homosexuality and the Bible by Dr. Walter Wink
The debate about homosexuality rages on in the Christian world, and Wink does an amazing job of looking at both sides of the issue, especially in light of what the Bible says (or doesn’t say) about homosexuality. Especially important — and funny! — in this article is the brilliant way that Wink illustrates the different ways that people interpret the Bible, especially the passages about sexuality. (Does the Bible say anything about “smooching”? I’m just asking.)

»SONG: “The Truth About Jayne” by Jeff Winkle
This new song by Wink (not the same Wink as above) is about a friend of his who has been struggling with life for a long time. To listen, visit Wink’s MySpace page.

Last night I attended a celebration honoring women who recently went through a Woman Within training weekend.  One reason I attended (the main reason?) was to find a hot chica who’s doing her “internal work” and on the road toward emotional and spiritual health.  I wanted a date!  Well, that didn’t pan out, mostly because I chickened out.

More seriously, the main reasons I went were to learn about the Woman Within organization and to listen to women describe some of the healing they experienced during their training weekend.  Overall and primarily, Woman Within (WW) is about women helping women heal and grow.  I’ve heard good things about WW and was very impressed last night.  I deeply appreciated listening to the women share pieces of their stories.  It was a powerful and inspiring evening (even though I left without a date).

My sense is that WW is active in most major cities.  So if you’re looking for deep community and a safe place to continue doing your “internal work,” I highly recommend exploring WW.  WW offers much more than training weekends, including workshops and on-going weekly small groups.  If you check it out, I’d love to hear about it!

One of my favorite authors — and someone who has become a mentor to me through his books — is David Benner. Benner is a psychologist and spiritual director and writes about counseling, spiritual direction and the integration of psychology and spirituality. He’s a very smart, clear, engaging writer with a knack for making complex ideas easy to understand. If you want to dive into Benner’s books, I highly recommend starting with his trilogy: Surrender to Love, The Gift of Being Yourself and Desiring God’s Will. I think those three books, which describe the process of deep spiritual and emotional transformation and growth, are absolute must-reads. I’d start with Surrender to Love.

Being a huge fan of Benner, I was thrilled to discover that back in 2003 he helped create a journal called Conversations: A Forum for Authentic Transformation, which is focused on the deep spiritual and emotional transformational journey with God. Some of the other people involved in this publication are: Larry Crabb, Gary W. Moon, Dallas Willard, Richard Foster, Margaret Guenther, John Ortberg, M. Basil Pennington and Jeannette Bakke.

Conversations comes out twice a year (spring and fall), and the spring 2007 issue, entitled “Spiritual Direction,” is now available. You can check out the table of contents and order a copy (for $15) on the website.

To get a good feel for what Conversations is all about, read a couple of the free articles from back issues. I’ve loved what I’ve read thus far! I highly recommend reading the first issue, the spring 2003 issue, which is available for free in PDF format. I think that’ll really help you get a feel for what Benner and friends are trying to do through Conversations. And that first issue includes an interactive review by Benner of Richard Rohr’s book Everything Belongs, which is one of my favorite books. Also, definitely consider reading the second issue, the fall 2003 issue, which is entitled “True Self / False Self .” Excellent stuff! And also free.

I’m finding Conversations to be a great resource as I journey with God, myself and others. I hope it’s helpful to you, too!

I love communing with God through the practices of centering prayer and contemplative prayer. On Saturday, the San Diego chapter of Contemplative Outreach hosted a fabulous workshop called, “The Art of Stillness: Reflections and Practical Refinements to Enhance One’s Centering Prayer Practice.” It was my first experience with Contemplative Outreach, and I met some wonderful people. (I feel so at home in a group of contemplatives!)

Contemplative Outreach is an international organization, and one of its main goals is to help people form contemplative prayer groups. For example, through the help of Contemplative Outreach, San Diego now has dozens of contemplative prayer groups. I plan to check out a group that meets five minutes from my house.

If you’re interested in checking out a group in your area, check out the list of Contemplative Outreach chapters. Most major cities have a chapter. For my friends in Denver, Chicago and North Carolina, I did a little work for ya. Click on the following links: Denver, Chicago, North Carolina.

If you check out a group, I’d love to hear about it!

I love guided meditations. Most of the time they really help me connect intimately with God, myself and the world around me. Here are some great guided meditations available for free in MP3 format:

The Meditation Podcast: Jesse and Jeane Stern produce a new guided meditation each month. They do an amazing job — their words, tone and pacing are fabulous. These are simple, basic meditations, and each meditation is about 25 minutes long. Their most recent meditation is called “Falling Asleep,” and it’s wonderful to use right before bed.

To download the meditations from iTunes, search iTunes for “The Meditation Podcast,” then click on “The Meditation Podcast,” then find the meditations you wish to download and click the corresponding “Get Episode” button.

Or you can go to the download page on The Meditation Podcast website and follow the instructions.

Tara Brach’s Guided Meditations: Last week on my blog I mentioned Tara Brach, a psychotherapist and Buddhist teacher and meditation leader in the Washington, D.C. area. Her guided meditations are absolutely fabulous! There are two available on her website; one is called “Guided Metta Meditation,” the other is called “Guided Vipassana Meditation” — both are about 30 minutes long.

“Metta” meditation is “loving-kindness” meditation. It’s all about abiding in love, soaking in love, in a way that’s healing and transformational. Tara’s guided metta meditation — the one available for download — is focused on the theme of “forgiveness,” and I found it extremely powerful.

“Vipassana” meditation is “insight” meditation. It’s a more basic “centering down” practice, similar to basic centering prayer or contemplative prayer.

To download Tara’s guided meditations, visit the download page on her website and follow the instructions.

Of course I highly encourage you to try these meditations. If you do, I’d love to hear about your experience. If you feel comfortable, post your comments here on my blog.

Yesterday as I was surfing the Web, I came across a beautiful gift in the person of Tara Brach (in photo at left). Tara is a clinical psychologist and Buddhist teacher and meditation leader. She founded the Insight Meditation Community of Washington (IMCW).

(As a side note: One of the things I appreciate about Tara — besides her calming voice — is her psychology background and her experience practicing psychotherapy. I think any spirituality or religion, including Buddhism, benefits from the integration of good psychology.)

On the IMCW website, some of Tara’s teachings and guided meditations are available for download (for free) in MP3 format. The teaching I listened to last night is called “Without Anxiety About Non-Perfection.” I loved it! I listened to it twice; it was really helpful.

One of the things I love about Buddhism is its focus on silent meditation and contemplation. And I loved Tara’s approach to teaching because she mixed in some relevant spiritual exercises, which helped the teaching move to the “experiential,” heart level, thus a much deeper — and more transformational — level. Many Christian teachers have a lot to learn from Tara (and other Buddhist teachers).

In Tara’s teaching, “Without Anxiety Over Non-Perfection,” she addresses core shame — this feeling and belief that at my core “I’m bad; there’s something wrong with me; I don’t measure up” and thus “I’m not loveable.” Most people — probably everybody — deals with core shame on some level; I certainly deal with it. Core shame is a big deal because it’s a barrier to giving and receiving love (from God, others and ourselves).

I loved Tara’s teaching about dealing with core shame. It’s not comprehensive of course because core shame is a big, deep topic. But I think her teaching is solid psychologically and spiritually — and I found it really helpful and I deeply appreciated the way she integrated spiritual exercises. Perhaps you’ll find that Tara’s teaching helps you take yet another step on your transformational journey with God.

Tara finished her teaching with a relevant guided meditation and then closed with the following prayer: “We close with the prayer that our time together this evening, our reflections and meditations, might be a benefit to all beings. That all beings everywhere might touch the truth of Loving Presence, experience their nature as Loving Presence. That all beings everywhere might touch a natural and great peace. May there be peace on earth, may there be peace on earth, may there be peace everywhere. May all beings awaken and be free.”

While I was in Denver, a couple friends mentioned that they continue to work on the same old internal issues (such as “fear of anger” or “people pleasing”) — and they expressed their frustration with this.  I know all too well what they’re talking about!

The difficult reality is that the transformational journey is like peeling an onion — it seems that there’s always another layer to peel.  (For example, there’s always another layer of “people pleasing” to peel.)  And as each new layer is faced and is peeled, I usually experience some pain.  The good news is that as each new layer is faced and peeled, I experience more freedom, more life, more capacity to give and receive love (from God, others and myself) — and that’s worth all the facing and peeling!

I say all that to point you to an article titled, “Working On ‘The Same Old Stuff,’” written by the good folks at Shadow Work.  If you’re not familiar with the Shadow Work model and language (e.g., “Magician,” “Lover,” “Sovereign,” and “Warrior”), try not to get sidetracked by it.  I hope you find this article as helpful as I did.