It makes me wonder if he is banned from writing whatever he wants in articles and essays based on his contract with the Kennedy campaign. It certainly seems that way, especially with the manner he dances around criticisms of Trump in a way he would not have done in the past.
'The universe is not split in two. The export of sacredness onto a non-material, spiritual realm is what allows us to treat the material as if it were not sacred. But actually, sacredness folds into everything. Spirit folds into matter. The soul folds into the body. Every cell, every atom is infused with it. Every cell, every atom, is it.' YES. YES. Thank you. (I write about this too.)
This paragraph reminds of the anatomist Gil Headly as he looks at the heart muscle and unwinds it. He does a heart dance as he is demonstrating the mechanism. I think of that dance, as he demonstrates the folding in and drawing together as the muscles, as the foundation of the sensory impulse of life. The sacred impulse folded in on itself. I love the idea that we are the children of life's longing for itself.
Charles, I really appreciate your sincere writings from your pure, beautiful soul. You step outside the polarizing thought patterns of today and try to bring people together through an honest contemplation of your truth. I can always count on you for your messages of love and harmony. Thank you!
Charles, I don’t think you need to be more or less spiritual or more or less political. I think you need to be less of a self proclaimed “thought leader”. I think you should return to your roots and write more about the non-duality of spirit and matter and share your thoughts about how that plays in everywhere - including economics and politics.
Write without an audience in mind. You don’t need to “lead” our thoughts - share yours and let us form our own. I would love it if you went back to writing books. There was a tangible quality there that’s missing in this medium.
Real change will come from a melding of ideas bubbling up through the collective consciousness - not from a forced dissemination of thought from a “leader”. That truly is the old story.
As far as the Sanity Project. let it die. It was awful the first time around. The Sanity Pods were a great idea, but in practice there was almost no interest within NAAS in real interaction between people. They were all interested in having direct interaction with you. For me it was a sad commentary on the state of things - so many people still cling to someone they want to be their guru, rather than seizing their own power.
I didn’t participate in the Sanity Project, but I did participate in NAAS, and I was actually there to make connections with people who wanted to talk about the things Charles writes about— because no one in my real life was very interested in talking or thinking about those things with me. I met someone local on NAAS and our friendship has been really meaningful in my life. Tomorrow, my son and I are headed over to do a little work in her garden with her. I also have a couple of “pen-pals” from NAAS that I still keep in touch with. I guess I’ve been too burned by religion to expect a guru in Charles or to expect perfect wisdom. I don’t really read his writing as direction or leadership, but instead, as that of a fellow traveler and seeker. I’m just so glad he continues to write about these things.
Write whatever you want Charles. I read you not because I think you are a person to 'follow' but because you and I share a like minded felt sense of knowing that we are both trying to live And articulate . We are kin. You do it in your unique way which I deeply appreciate and I can learn from this while I like many others here have my unique way of expressing this story. I write and share sometimes but for me my journey is in the lived experience of being within creation the earth forest and in so Being I lay down a footprint in consciousness. I look around me and truly I inhabit a beautiful world a new and ancient story as you named it. It is here for those who wish to switch off the box and tune in to the deeper reality .
That was an absolutely incredible experience. Usually I meditate to connect to the spirit world or my guides or something…connecting to others in the same meditative state all around the world opened up something in me. I felt like a coral reef in mass consciousness.
Then I thought of all of us ALSO in presence with all of our guides in this field at the same time and I thought wow here we all are together. And RIGHT THEN you said “and maybe the beings of synchronicity are watching.” !!!
The best way to combine the "physical with the spiritual" is to measure everything through the standard of Compassion.
What if we were to focus on Justice with Compassion? or Legislation with Compassion? Or Finance and Economics with Compassion?
Compassion is the third leg of Love. Sympathy, the first leg meaning "feeling the same as another peron". Empathy is the second leg meaning "understanding what and why a person thinks and feels the way(s) that they do. And Compassion is the third leg which is action towards another person based on Empathy. This covers our feelings, our ration/understanding, and our acts of compassion to define what we mean by "Love". Love of spouse, children, neighbor, community, country, and even love of our enemy and especially love of ourselves.
Compassion is the compass we need to direct our actions (Ethics) and our reactions to others (Justice).
Ahhh, to the fight oligarchy campaign - fight clubs and thought leaders everywhere- the real fight is for love the real club is compassion, fierce alive honest thanks, David
"And the realization was that the reunion of these two realms, the spiritual and the practical, is central to my work in the world. This was a major theme in my early books—healing the artificial separation of spirit and matter. The universe is not split in two. The export of sacredness onto a non-material, spiritual realm is what allows us to treat the material as if it were not sacred. But actually, sacredness folds into everything. Spirit folds into matter. The soul folds into the body. Every cell, every atom is infused with it. Every cell, every atom, is it."
This is why I am a reader here, because I find that ending this separation is a central theme of the times we are living through, of my own life, of what I feel called to write. Although some might find reasons to criticize, I am also impressed by your ability to dive deeply into one or the other of these realms, in an attempt to facilitate a fusion or a shift or to build bridges. Perhaps, as you said in your last essay, we have reached a point at which no bridges can be built, and we must allow the larger polarity to play out as it will. And yet, for each individual soul, there comes a moment of stepping outside of the story, and as the old stories collide and collapse there will be many more of these awakenings, some more graceful and some more painful. I appreciate your commitment to standing outside of stories and yet firmly inside of a greater reality, holding space for the gestation of something new.
I would share some of my own writing on this theme here, not as promotion but in the hope of contributing to this reunion, this healing of separation.
I would love to do the sanity project with you! Count me in. And I appreciate that you are bridging worlds. It’s all a reflection of our nature and something we all must contemplate if we are to remember and awaken
Charles, I am so grateful that you try to bring the spiritual back into the politics, economy and ecology as well as all "earthly" things. I am with you that there is no other way for a holistic survival of society and its unity and inter-beingness.
I always battle to find the words to express the implicit explicitly. Like right now! But I feel like it’s your superpower.
And I have long since felt, discovering some of your work a year or two ‘late’, immense gratitude that it exists ‘out there’, waiting for the ears to hear it, the heart to feel it. And I trust the energy flows back to you, particularly in the moments you need it most.
This first part you write made me laugh because I was part of the Sanity Project and then you lost me when becoming ‘too political’. Not with any judgement, but with you being, at that time, on the front line of politics the frequency starkly changed. After the authenticity and quite anarchist nature of the Sanity Project, the online chapter following that in spring of last year just didn’t speak to me in the same way. I’m curious though about a possible return of the Sanity Project, or something of similar intent. For me, that experience contributed to, along with my other support networks and personal practices, my integrating the spiritual with the material.
I was initially drawn to you not because you were a ‘thought leader’, but because you seemed to be voicing things which resonated with what I was already feeling and experiencing. This at a time when I couldn’t express it openly myself..amongst these the story ‘The Gathering of the Tribe’. Yes, it’s time.
Bravo Charles, I so admire how you stand in your integrity and share your thoughts, ideas, and beliefs with us, in spite of criticism from others. Thank you!
I’ve been following you since early Covid years, and you have helped ground me via your essays, and your talks. You literally helped me keep my sanity. I am thrilled beyond words that you were thinking of resurrecting the Sanity Project. We need it now more than ever.
At the risk of sounding corny, you are the only voice I listen to these days that can bring me a sense of calm with all of the madness that surrounds us - reminding me who we are - a collective. Through the years, I have found a thread in all of your talks and essays, you remain constant with the theme that there is no separation.
Struck by this opening line: "This isn’t an article or essay, so I can write whatever I want."
Write whatever you want, regardless!
It makes me wonder if he is banned from writing whatever he wants in articles and essays based on his contract with the Kennedy campaign. It certainly seems that way, especially with the manner he dances around criticisms of Trump in a way he would not have done in the past.
That was a strange opening where what prevents him from writing whatever he wants to write needs to be identified.
Yup.
Erin Reese, If this isn't an essay, then what is the definition of an essay that makes this piece "fail the test" of an essay?
Sometimes when you’re casting a spell, you have to clear the space first.
'The universe is not split in two. The export of sacredness onto a non-material, spiritual realm is what allows us to treat the material as if it were not sacred. But actually, sacredness folds into everything. Spirit folds into matter. The soul folds into the body. Every cell, every atom is infused with it. Every cell, every atom, is it.' YES. YES. Thank you. (I write about this too.)
This paragraph reminds of the anatomist Gil Headly as he looks at the heart muscle and unwinds it. He does a heart dance as he is demonstrating the mechanism. I think of that dance, as he demonstrates the folding in and drawing together as the muscles, as the foundation of the sensory impulse of life. The sacred impulse folded in on itself. I love the idea that we are the children of life's longing for itself.
Lovely – and lateral – response to CE's paragraph! And yes, the children quote - Kahlil Gibran, wasn't it?
I believe so
Charles, I really appreciate your sincere writings from your pure, beautiful soul. You step outside the polarizing thought patterns of today and try to bring people together through an honest contemplation of your truth. I can always count on you for your messages of love and harmony. Thank you!
Charles, I don’t think you need to be more or less spiritual or more or less political. I think you need to be less of a self proclaimed “thought leader”. I think you should return to your roots and write more about the non-duality of spirit and matter and share your thoughts about how that plays in everywhere - including economics and politics.
Write without an audience in mind. You don’t need to “lead” our thoughts - share yours and let us form our own. I would love it if you went back to writing books. There was a tangible quality there that’s missing in this medium.
Real change will come from a melding of ideas bubbling up through the collective consciousness - not from a forced dissemination of thought from a “leader”. That truly is the old story.
As far as the Sanity Project. let it die. It was awful the first time around. The Sanity Pods were a great idea, but in practice there was almost no interest within NAAS in real interaction between people. They were all interested in having direct interaction with you. For me it was a sad commentary on the state of things - so many people still cling to someone they want to be their guru, rather than seizing their own power.
I didn’t participate in the Sanity Project, but I did participate in NAAS, and I was actually there to make connections with people who wanted to talk about the things Charles writes about— because no one in my real life was very interested in talking or thinking about those things with me. I met someone local on NAAS and our friendship has been really meaningful in my life. Tomorrow, my son and I are headed over to do a little work in her garden with her. I also have a couple of “pen-pals” from NAAS that I still keep in touch with. I guess I’ve been too burned by religion to expect a guru in Charles or to expect perfect wisdom. I don’t really read his writing as direction or leadership, but instead, as that of a fellow traveler and seeker. I’m just so glad he continues to write about these things.
He literally used the words “thought leader”.
Glad you had a good experience in NAAS.
YES to this: "Write without an audience in mind. You don’t need to 'lead' our thoughts - share yours and let us form our own."
Write whatever you want Charles. I read you not because I think you are a person to 'follow' but because you and I share a like minded felt sense of knowing that we are both trying to live And articulate . We are kin. You do it in your unique way which I deeply appreciate and I can learn from this while I like many others here have my unique way of expressing this story. I write and share sometimes but for me my journey is in the lived experience of being within creation the earth forest and in so Being I lay down a footprint in consciousness. I look around me and truly I inhabit a beautiful world a new and ancient story as you named it. It is here for those who wish to switch off the box and tune in to the deeper reality .
That was an absolutely incredible experience. Usually I meditate to connect to the spirit world or my guides or something…connecting to others in the same meditative state all around the world opened up something in me. I felt like a coral reef in mass consciousness.
Then I thought of all of us ALSO in presence with all of our guides in this field at the same time and I thought wow here we all are together. And RIGHT THEN you said “and maybe the beings of synchronicity are watching.” !!!
Thank you. Incredible.
The best way to combine the "physical with the spiritual" is to measure everything through the standard of Compassion.
What if we were to focus on Justice with Compassion? or Legislation with Compassion? Or Finance and Economics with Compassion?
Compassion is the third leg of Love. Sympathy, the first leg meaning "feeling the same as another peron". Empathy is the second leg meaning "understanding what and why a person thinks and feels the way(s) that they do. And Compassion is the third leg which is action towards another person based on Empathy. This covers our feelings, our ration/understanding, and our acts of compassion to define what we mean by "Love". Love of spouse, children, neighbor, community, country, and even love of our enemy and especially love of ourselves.
Compassion is the compass we need to direct our actions (Ethics) and our reactions to others (Justice).
Ahhh, to the fight oligarchy campaign - fight clubs and thought leaders everywhere- the real fight is for love the real club is compassion, fierce alive honest thanks, David
"And the realization was that the reunion of these two realms, the spiritual and the practical, is central to my work in the world. This was a major theme in my early books—healing the artificial separation of spirit and matter. The universe is not split in two. The export of sacredness onto a non-material, spiritual realm is what allows us to treat the material as if it were not sacred. But actually, sacredness folds into everything. Spirit folds into matter. The soul folds into the body. Every cell, every atom is infused with it. Every cell, every atom, is it."
This is why I am a reader here, because I find that ending this separation is a central theme of the times we are living through, of my own life, of what I feel called to write. Although some might find reasons to criticize, I am also impressed by your ability to dive deeply into one or the other of these realms, in an attempt to facilitate a fusion or a shift or to build bridges. Perhaps, as you said in your last essay, we have reached a point at which no bridges can be built, and we must allow the larger polarity to play out as it will. And yet, for each individual soul, there comes a moment of stepping outside of the story, and as the old stories collide and collapse there will be many more of these awakenings, some more graceful and some more painful. I appreciate your commitment to standing outside of stories and yet firmly inside of a greater reality, holding space for the gestation of something new.
I would share some of my own writing on this theme here, not as promotion but in the hope of contributing to this reunion, this healing of separation.
https://dendroica.substack.com/p/convergence
The Divine is IN all things!!!
"Spirit folds into matter. The soul folds into the body. Every cell, every atom is infused with it. Every cell, every atom, is it."
YES!
Sending support and blessings to you and to your work.
I would love to do the sanity project with you! Count me in. And I appreciate that you are bridging worlds. It’s all a reflection of our nature and something we all must contemplate if we are to remember and awaken
one moment, two streams.
from the past, all is contingent
forces acting one upon the other
a karmic matrix, a seamless net
and nothing is left out.
from the future, all is purpose
calling forth through every form
attractors for self-organizing
the mystery that has no end.
entropy claims every system
whose "where" and "when" have been defined
everything already fated
nothing stands the test of time.
syntropy is ever-presence
ever open, ever free
not a thing, and not a nothing
just the flow of destiny.
the two meet at every point
neither one contains the other
no contradiction to be solved
love and loss, mind and matter.
Charles, I am so grateful that you try to bring the spiritual back into the politics, economy and ecology as well as all "earthly" things. I am with you that there is no other way for a holistic survival of society and its unity and inter-beingness.
I always battle to find the words to express the implicit explicitly. Like right now! But I feel like it’s your superpower.
And I have long since felt, discovering some of your work a year or two ‘late’, immense gratitude that it exists ‘out there’, waiting for the ears to hear it, the heart to feel it. And I trust the energy flows back to you, particularly in the moments you need it most.
This first part you write made me laugh because I was part of the Sanity Project and then you lost me when becoming ‘too political’. Not with any judgement, but with you being, at that time, on the front line of politics the frequency starkly changed. After the authenticity and quite anarchist nature of the Sanity Project, the online chapter following that in spring of last year just didn’t speak to me in the same way. I’m curious though about a possible return of the Sanity Project, or something of similar intent. For me, that experience contributed to, along with my other support networks and personal practices, my integrating the spiritual with the material.
I was initially drawn to you not because you were a ‘thought leader’, but because you seemed to be voicing things which resonated with what I was already feeling and experiencing. This at a time when I couldn’t express it openly myself..amongst these the story ‘The Gathering of the Tribe’. Yes, it’s time.
Thank you Charles 🙏
Bravo Charles, I so admire how you stand in your integrity and share your thoughts, ideas, and beliefs with us, in spite of criticism from others. Thank you!
I’ve been following you since early Covid years, and you have helped ground me via your essays, and your talks. You literally helped me keep my sanity. I am thrilled beyond words that you were thinking of resurrecting the Sanity Project. We need it now more than ever.
At the risk of sounding corny, you are the only voice I listen to these days that can bring me a sense of calm with all of the madness that surrounds us - reminding me who we are - a collective. Through the years, I have found a thread in all of your talks and essays, you remain constant with the theme that there is no separation.
With much love and admiration,
KP ❤️
Dr. Kathleen Perkins
Therapist - Educator