Jim Burklo

I was shopping for a college to attend and my school counselor gave my name and address to Immaculate Heart College. Just old enough to realize my heart was not immaculate? How could this be the right college for a young leftish wannabe political activist Who spoke no Catholic?

"How does the Truth fare with thee?" Early Friends asked each other by way of greeting.

One of my favorite haunts is the Theology Room of the Ghost Ranch Library ... There I sat, contemplating the nature of divinity, and the divinity of nature.

Because the earth is all around The earth I cannot see Because I use my eyes to look My eyes are lost to me

This is an excerpt from a book Jim Burklo is writing this summer: MINDFUL CHRISTIANITY. The research he's doing for this project has taken him deep into the history of Christian spirituality. According to Jim: "The more I learn, the more I have to learn!"

God is my personal consultant. I have it made. She lets me kick back and relax, knowing that with her guidance, everything will go smoothly. She gives me a much-needed boost.

  "If faith communities lead the way in honoring the reality of same-sex marriage, the law will eventually follow." -- Jim Burklo, BIRDLIKE

In this guide to soulful service, Jim Burklo draws from his deep well of experience working with homeless people, leading service-learning programs for university students, and pastoring churches. With touching stories, poetry, and parables, Hitchhiking to Alaska illustrates universal principles about the spirituality of helping relationships.

In my pocket, all my waking day, I carry a device that enables me to communicate instantly with practically anyone around the globe. I'm a cog in a vast international system of manufacturing, trade, and consumption. Sure, we're all connected in these ways. But in our face-to-face encounters with other people, or when we walk in wilderness and commune personally with other living beings, we sense this connection in a much deeper way.

Starting today, 5/4/15, I'll be at a conference nearby at Pomona College called Seizing an Alternative: Toward an Ecological Civilization, which will draw

Legalization of marijuana and decriminalization of other drugs won’t solve the problems of drug use and abuse. But such a change in policy would reduce the sum of the harm caused by drug use and the war against it. A careful reading of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount reveals what divine love asks of us: a drug policy based on mercy, not on perfection.

  Seven years ago, Cat Moore (on the right, with a cup) took her cappuccino, sat down at a table in the Starbucks

We praise you, God, with rousing song, we answer at your call Your Word creates the universe, We praise you, God of all Your Word creates the universe, We praise you, God of all

Kleinbard's idealism is tempered by realism accrued in his tenure as the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Congress's Joint Committee on Taxation. Having seen Congress in action and inaction, he understands that some things he'd prefer are pies-in-the-sky. In his book he makes a strong economic case for the US to adopt European-style universal single-payer health care, but does not factor this into the proposals in his book. The super-heated right-wing ideology that dominates Congress today has taken off the table the obvious solution to runaway costs and fundamental injustice in our health care system.

On this evening, the discussion turned to the question of what people of different religions do when they lose things. One of our Muslim students spoke up right away. “When I lose my keys, or something else, I do what other Muslims do. I repeat the phrase “ya seen” forty times. And then very often I find what I lost!” I couldn’t help asking: “What does ‘ya seen’ mean?”

  Pluralism Sunday - a project of ProgressiveChristianity.org - was on May 3, 2015   Churches around the world celebrate that other religions

Sanctuary for All Life hallows humans' relationship to the earth in words that point to a realm beyond words, a Peaceable Kingdom beyond the thrall of kings and states, living a law that trumps all written codes because it is "in your mouth and in your heart" (Deuteronomy 30:14). To show the way, Corbett obstinately synthesized the disparate disciplines in which he had steeped himself, from analysis of the range-grasses of the Sonoran desert to dissection of the finer points of the medieval Jewish mysticism of Spain. But what else could we have expected from a Quaker cowboy with a masters in philosophy from Harvard?

The God of Genesis was almost omnipotent. But his extreme potency and his immortal nature prevented him from having the one ability he needed most in order to fully experience and enjoy the companionship of the human beings he had created: vulnerability.

(This is adapted from emails I sent to students, faculty, and staff in the course on mindfulness I'm teaching at the USC Keck

"... remain here, and stay awake with me." Jesus, Matthew 26: 38 One night of our dog's life lasted for just a few

I’ve spent a certain amount of my life with my head stuck in a jug, convinced that the whole world is dark. For me, mindfulness meditation practice has been the means by which the jug gets pulled off and I'm able to wake to the light.

There is one "Musings" reader whose perspective matters particularly to me. Her name is Roberta Maran, and she happens to be my wife. She read my post last week and when I asked her what she thought, she told me she was disappointed.

The word God evokes highest aspirations. It suggests the whole, and what makes me whole. It delivers me into the rich darkness of mystery, the allure of the unknown. It provokes possibility. It aims beyond what I can explain. The word God invites me beyond what I can imagine. The word God hints at the personality of the universe. It touches me with all-surpassing Love. The word God invokes curiosity, creativity. My uncertainty about what the word God means spins me into a healthy, humbling disequilibrium. It leaves me giddy.

In the beginning is the Word W-O-R-D And the Word is with God And the Word is God And the Word is the bird That Jesus talked about