23 November 2025 Gods as a Subset of Love
The gods of man are a subset of love, as a blade of grass is a subset of the cosmos. Their creation might (or might not) be originally to express love - just as we create childrens’ stories to convey a teaching. They will never approach the universal expansiveness of love. Just as Walt Whitman was able to look at blades of grass and compose beauty, imperfect fables can be the basis of growth, if grounded in love.
Love Does no Harm
Paul of the New Testament could say that “God is love” and then advocate for slavery. This is not the way of love. The same deity ordered murder in the Old Testament. This is not the way of love. Some could build upon this deity to reach an understanding of love, just as some build upon this deity to destroy.
Love Within us
Love is kind, love is long-suffering, love is expansive. The way of love is within us all. Love is the divine within us - it is a gift, an honour and a responsibility.
Looking for Love
If you are looking for love, the first place you will always find it is within yourself. If you are trying to find love by shaming yourself or others, you are not turned to the light. First, look within yourself. See the goodness - the spark of the divine - within yourself. Once you nurture this flame, you will be a light to others.
You are love.
21 November 2025 Focus of Spiritual Practice
If you are living in scarity, you aren’t following the path. Sure, there will be things that you won’t want, because you have begun the journey - such as the flesh of other sentient beings - but if your focus is on what you cannot have, you are not radiating the light.
The light shines into darkness, into the corners. The light warms with its glow. The light and the path are not a series of locked doors. They radiate hope, opportunity and growth.
Prohibitions
If you think spirituality is that you cannot have a few reasonably spaced drinks with mates, you are missing the point. If you think spirituality is some sort of imposed sexual abstinence, you are missing the point. If you think spirituality is trying to impress people with these actions - you are truly missing the point.
Doing no Harm
We seekers do not abstain from consuming animals because we think this act makes us more spiritual. We refuse to consume others because our compassionate heart has grown to such a stage that we don’t want to hurt others. Our spiritual growth is from our growth in empathy, compassion and kindness - not from following rules for their own sake.
Consider This
Are you trying to follow rules, thinking that they will get you where you want to go on the spiritual path? Are you somehow trying to compete with others, thinking this is how you evolve? These are dead ends. Open your heart to compassion and the light will radiate the way.
20 November 2025 Recognising the Divine
You are divine. All sentient life is divine. There is no reason for any of us to bow a knee to another. There is no reason for any of us to use honorific titles for another. None are below any other. The divine spark is in all.
Elevating Others
When you elevate others with superficial cultural acts, you are lowering yourself. When you treat others as better than yourself, you perpetuate the artificial distinctions that are the basis of war, classism, genderism, sexism, racism, specisism, and so many more seeds of violence.
Live in the Divinity of All
Celebrate life by celebrating all life. Live in the joy of our interrelatedness. Live in the joy of the dependent arising we have all shared on this planet. When you elevate the divine in others, you never lower yourself - you are always elevated.
18 November 2025 Tired of Saying “Sorry”
I was at a meeting with other Australians the other day and one woman decided that she wanted to share with the group that she was, “tired of saying sorry to Aboriginals.” I fought my urge to respond sarcastically and searched for the words useful in the context, as I felt strong emotion want to take over.
People who think they are tired of discussing injustices are generally the people to whom these injustices did not happen. The wrongs you think of as former are still happening. When families are destroyed, there are transgenerational effects.
For thousands of years, Aboriginal Australians had structures for dealing with everything from family to conflict. That is, they had culture. We came in and undermined their societies and there are lasting effects.
The Aggressor Doesn’t Get to Decide
When the historic aggressors (white Australians, in this case) get tired of hearing about former wrongs, they don’t get to shift the subject. The issue is when the victims are ready to end a conversation about those things done to them - not when you are ready to move on. Restoration and repair don’t happen that way. You trying to force the end of someone else’s suffering is you continuing the control that started the suffering in the first place.
Current Wrongs
The wrongs have not ended. During my response to the woman in question, I remarked that, “When I arrived in Australia and stepped off the plane, I had more rights than people who had been here for 40,000 years.” There are systemic patterns in place that keep me as a white person dominant in Australia. This is a current acting out of the wrongs of the past. I have privileges that I shouldn’t necessarily have, just because I am not Aboriginal Australian.
If I was like this woman, I could have said something like, “I arrived in Australia in 1996, so I am not responsible for those attrocities!” The reality is, however, that as a white Australian, I share in the benefits of what was done to others. I also share in the responsibility.
Making Things Right
Do you want to make things right? Stop telling victims that they should move on. Try to understand in some small way the suffering and struggles they have endured. Look for ways to help another person.
You do not get to say when the conversations should end.
I am sorry.
06 November 2025 The Eternal Now
Paradise is here. It always has been. We only have to open our hearts to it. The abyss is also here, if our hearts are full of darkness. These are not locations - they are creations of our own spirits.
Creating the Kingdom
We lament the suffering in the world, but we create it. We imagine monsters, evil people and others are the cause of the world’s suffering, but we are ourselves the cause. We kill, torture and exploit other beings and wonder why this world is not paradise!
We have power to create the kingdom, here and now. The kingdom begins within ourselves and radiates out to others. Paradise is within us. That is where it has always been.
You want to create paradise on earth? End the suffering for which you are responsible. There are no devils but ourselves. There are no angels but ourselves.
Be heaven - don’t look for it. It is nowhere else to be found. Don’t wait for it - it is not in the future, but is right here, right now.
You are the key.
