Fragments

my very high recommendation on this point:

The Spirit of the Disciplines,

by Dallas Willard

Please tell me about this God you don’t believe in

When the subject of “religion“ arises, my experience is that most people will simply call themselves “spiritual.“ I am in the habit of asking such people if they can define for me what a “spirit” is. No person that I have asked this question has ever been able to give any answer, whether accurate or inaccurate.

I conclude that what people mean when they call themselves “spiritual“ is something like “there are things about me that are really great, and sometimes I think about or do things that seem connected to that greatness.” There might be some reference to some kind of “higher power” – also without any real clarity of meaning, or genuine motivation to go further.

In my view, this sort of lazy thinking, protected by a wall of culturally approved trivial distractions, is both toxic and dangerous.

There is at least one Spirit that has been rightly called Holy. I recommend caution for all other spirits with which one can be consciously or unconsciously connected.