I have a lot of diverse interests, and enjoy finding the connections between them. Everything I love seems to reside inside of a prism, with the light and color of one topic bouncing off and informing the meaning of other topics. At the core of everything I believe in authenticity and living life to the fullest, of reaching one’s fullest potential. I believe that the underlying purpose of reality itself, the Ground of Being, contains a deeper, spiritual meaning - a beautiful, infinite, Mystery - which at its source is supreme love and compassion. I believe that life is fundamentally about waking up to that Mystery which requires transforming out of the small, constricted space of our ego - shaped and imprinted as it is by our experiences, inherited cultural and familial beliefs, conditioned habits, and attachments to our stories of suffering. The ego serves its purpose for a time, as a shield to protect us and as a tool for our day-to-day animal-needs / survival in the world, but at its worst it is a veritable prison of our own unconscious-making and can hold us back from realizing our fullest potential and true nature.

Here is a list of some of the major topics I will be exploring:

• Mysticism as the direct experience of ultimate reality, and which resides at the core of all of the world's great religions and philosophies
• Deep concepts and connections between Catholicism, Buddhism, Advaita, Fourth Way, Taoism, and other spiritual traditions, and how their concepts and practices could help us become better human beings
• Music, Art, Architecture, History, Astronomy, Genealogy
• Ideas for personal transformation, growth, healing, particularly from psychology and logotherapy
• Meditation practices and technologies
• Big comprehensive theories of everything, like Integral Theory; Arnold Toynbee on history; and perspectives on the world's mythologies from people like Joseph Campbell and Mircea Eliade
• Making sense out of suffering, and transforming sufferings and traumas
• Experiencing life from different perspectives, especially through the use of symbolism and metaphor

Susan's Blog

September 7, 2020 | Starting again and coming back to my purpose