What Is The God Beyond God?

Meister Eckhart, one of the greatest mystics, said that he prays to God to rid him of God, to make him free from God. That is a memorable formulation of a mystical atheism and of radical theology. 

The God Eckhart is trying to free us from is a God of our own construction, a God cut to fit the size of our images and concepts, propositions and arguments, not just the God of philosophers but also the God of theologians, of anything and anything we can say of God. But getting rid of that God does not spell the simple end of God for Eckhart, but the beginning, the genuine entry or breakthrough into the depths of God — the God to whom Eckhart is praying, let us say the God beyond God, the God without God. This God is not beyond and above, but in the “ground” of the soul, where God is lodged in our hearts or minds. 


The Folly of God
John Caputo 

How Is Meditation Practicing Who We Are?

Meditation involves simply being aware in the timeless flow of experiencing. When we meditate, we notice hearing, feeling, sensing, all arising in and inseparable from being. We realize that we can disengage from the stories in our mind and stay as awareness as we experience the urge to act. We can fully and lovingly welcome our feelings. Eventually, we realize that meditation isn’t something we do — it’s effortlessly being who we are.


The End of Self-Help
Gail Brenner

Does Living Well Require Religious Belief?

The conservatives confirm that religion requires believing fantasies. The progressives confirm that living well has little or nothing to do with believing in religion’s supernatural beings and codified doctrines. Indeed, far from being sustained by such beliefs, living well is actually impeded by it and too often results in leading furiously reactionary, intolerant, exclusionary, avaricious, mean-spirited, science-denying and anti-modern lives.


Hoping Against Hope
John D. Caputo

Transformation vs Enlightenment

Transformation is much more important than enlightenment or liberation or realization. Transformation is both experiential and intellectual, so whether we experience enlightenment or whether we understand enlightenment, if it does not transform who we are and how we live our lives, then it is just an interesting experience or an insightful understanding.


The Way: Meaningful Spirituality for a Modern World
Larry Jordan