Posts in Personal
Spirituality

Whether or not they identify as “spiritual” or “religious,” this site encourages everyone to engage in self-development, especially concerning overcoming or controlling oppressive domination and submission. Many people consider this self-improvement to be spiritual, but others do not. 

For instance, some humanists don’t embrace the concept of a “god,” “supreme being,” or “higher,” transcendent order. They identify as atheists or agnostics and reject the notion that a spiritual path is necessary for personal growth or making a positive impact on the world. This site respects these views.

Insisting on the use of certain words is idolatry. Worshiping specific abstract concepts is problematic. Such dogmatic beliefs lead to rigid ideologies. 

This site instead focuses on exploring and understanding concrete experiences and fosters a non-dogmatic and open-minded approach.

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Why do we want to dominate or be subservient to another?, Krishnamurti

It is essential, is it not?, if one is to resolve any of these problems of our life, to tackle them oneself directly, to be in relationship with them, and not merely rely on specialists, experts, religious leaders, or political givers of panaceas. …

One of the problems, amongst others, which most of us have not very deeply and fundamentally faced, is the question of domination and submission. …Why is it that we dominate, consciously or unconsciously? … 

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August 2023 Editor’s Note

By Wade Lee Hudson

I know it’s not all about me. Nevertheless, “Let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late (Bob Dylan).” At times, I’m sad, mad, lonely, and determined...

After facing these realities, the melancholy lifts and I feel liberated. I concentrate on making the website as good as possible before I die. (Suggestions for additions and offers for help are welcome.) It may take a decade to put the site together as I envision, but someday, maybe many more people will find it useful. 

My focus is on quality, not quantity. I work as if this work will someday strike a nerve broadly. I believe everyone should be interested — and committed to implementing these ideas. I think I’m basically right. I may be tilting at windmills; if so, I hope the world will be better for it. I may be pushing the rock up and down the hill like Sisyphus; if so, I’ll try to do it with a smile on my face, chuckling at the Absurd.

I cherish occasional nuggets of connection, such as two responses to the question I posed to the FromWade list: “In what way (if any) do you work on unlearning oppressive domination/submission social conditioning?”

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PersonalWade Lee HudsonPersonal Growth Comment
From "The Transcendentalist," by Ralph Waldo Emerson

NOTE: In this lecture, which Emerson delivered at the Masonic Temple, Boston, in January 1842, he vividly describes the young Transcendentalists of his day with great sympathy. However, toward the end, he voices some criticisms of “ all these of whom I speak (who) are not proficients; they are novices;…”

But he concludes with:

Will you not tolerate one or two solitary voices in the land, speaking for thoughts and principles not marketable or perishable?... The thoughts which these few hermits strove to proclaim by silence, as well as by speech, not only by what they did, but by what they forbore to do, shall abide in beauty and strength, to reorganize themselves in nature, to invest themselves anew in other, perhaps higher endowed and happier mixed clay than ours, in fuller union with the surrounding system.

Following are excerpts.

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…Although, as we have said, there is no pure Transcendentalist, yet the tendency to respect the intuitions, and to give them, at least in our creed, all authority over our experience, has deeply colored the conversation and poetry of the present day; and the history of genius and of religion in these times, though impure, and as yet not incarnated in any powerful individual, will be the history of this tendency.

It is a sign of our times, conspicuous to the coarsest observer, that many intelligent and religious persons withdraw themselves from the common labors and competitions of the market and the caucus, and betake themselves to a certain solitary and critical way of living, from which no solid fruit has yet appeared to justify their separation.

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Crucifixion-Resurrection

Dear Chat GPT:
Please translate the Crucifixion-Resurrection myth into contemporary language.

.In a metaphorical sense, the Crucifixion-Resurrection myth can be understood as a symbolic representation of the challenges and transformations that we can experience in our own lives. Here are some ways you can apply the myth to your own life:

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The Rise of Therapy-Speak

How a language got off the couch and into the world.

By Katy Waldman

First, let’s survey the situation. It’s as though the haze of our inner lives were being filtered through a screen of therapy work sheets. If we are especially online, or roaming the worlds of friendship, wellness, activism, or romance, we must consider when we are centering ourselves or setting boundaries, sitting with our discomfort or being present. We “just want to name” a dynamic. We joke about our coping mechanisms, codependent relationships, and avoidant attachment styles. We practice self-care and shun “toxic” acquaintances. We project and decathect; we are triggered, we say wryly, adding that we dislike the word; we catastrophize, ruminate, press on the wound, process. We feel seen and we feel heard, or we feel unseen and we feel unheard, or we feel heard but not listened to, not actively. We diagnose and receive diagnoses: O.C.D., A.D.H.D., generalized anxiety disorder, depression. We’re enmeshed, fragile. Our emotional labor is grinding us down. We’re doing the work. We need to do the work.

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PersonalWade Lee HudsonPersonal GrowthComment
The Tension Between the Individual and the Community

The exercise of free will, personal responsibility, and individual agency are powerful. Enhancing self-determination is important. Individuals can dedicate themselves to self-development, prepare themselves for more effective collective action, and engage in moral actions that ripple through society in unpredictable and unknown ways. Once again, it’s not either/or, but both/and. Strong communities need strong individuals and strong individuals need strong communities.

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PersonalWade Lee HudsonPersonal GrowthComment