Understanding a spiritual teacher, a spiritual philosophy or a popular spiritual idea can be difficult. It helps to understand the tradition the teacher or idea develops from as well as the underlying assumptions about the nature of reality. These essays try to put spiritual teachers and ideas in their larger tradition.
My name is Joseph Waligore. I currently have a part-time job teaching philosophy and religious studies at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. More information about me can be found at my MySpace profile or my Facebook profile.
MY SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY
As I have written lots of words wondering about other peoples’ spiritual teachings, it is only fair that I put my spiritual philosophy out there so people can get an idea of where I am coming from.
In order to do well in the world, we need to make our connections. These are people, activities, groups, or places that we have a special relationship with and thus are more important to us than others. They might be on the same wavelength with us, or give us what we need, or take us to the next step in our lives. They help us get a job, learn a skill, or introduce us to new ways of doing things. They can help us in very mundane ways or be so wonderful they are like God intervening to help us in the world.
We cannot succeed just through hard work and belief in our dreams. If we want a good life, we need to do well with these special relationships. Making your connections and doing well with them is also a spiritual practice. You do better with them if you get out of your ego and understand your temporary intertwinedness or interconnectedness with them. When you have trouble with them, you also do better if you learn from the lessons they are revealing to you.
On another website of mine, http://makingyourconnections.com/about/ I have posted significant portions of a book that I am currently writing with many practical hints and examples of how to recognize your connections and fix messed- up relationships.
Copyrighted 2010
There is a Facebook group called Flowing. People interested in meeting other people who are interested in these ideas and/or participating in discussions about these ideas are invited to join the group.
Many people reach this site through keyword advertisements. It might be of interest that Joseph got the money for these ads through his daytrading profits.
This website is one of four websites I have. Another one, www.followingtheflow.com is for spiritually oriented people and discusses very similar ideas from a more spiritually oriented perspective. Another one, www.josephwaligore.com is for academically or intellectually oriented people. It has my writings about spiritual philosophies such as Stoicism, Socrates, the Deists, the Enlightenment period, and the rise of modern science.
SUBMISSIONS
If you have some essay or an idea about an essay that you think could be published on this site (especially on a spiritual teacher that is not discussed yet) please send me an email and we can discuss it. If it fits into what this site is about, you will get writer’s credit, a modest writer’s fee of $50 to $100, and possibly an advertising budget.
when u criticize an author or books… it must all be based accdg to the Book the Bible.. from there you will know if it was all lies or speaking/teaching the truth…
when u criticize an author or books… it must all be based accdg to the Book the Bible.. from there you will know if it was all lies or speaking/teaching the truth…
Hi
Good words , thats all any human being can say so weather a guru or not the question is what is it that drives the words. see more words again and when every one leaves the planet earth that is every one you and i know from now to 100 years , you could say a new planet new earth and all we did was to die. as i see it the world is ok its the people who live on it sometimes get lost. to save the world cant be done , all we can do is to save self its that simple.ther is only one guro thats yourself. oh by the way there is no path or spiritual jurney, just words writen by humans .
Michael.
I have been on a spritual quest since birth and possibly in my past 2 lives. I stumbled onto your website looking for critiques of Wilbur who I have read extnsively.
I agree with your comments on his later works , but have you read “Spectrum of Consiousness”? His later works seem to have lost some of the clarity he had ,especially after his wife died.
Have you read “Stalking the wild pendulum” Issac Bentov or “Crack in the cosmic egg”? author slips my mind at this point.
I liked your step about “doing your spirit work” -made me feel good as I have taught school at a “treatment facility” for 15 years on minmal pay as previous to that I worked as an sales engineer.
Glad to hear that you think it is worthwile- no sarcasm intended.
-I’ll read more of your critiques and get back to you as well as invite my friend who has PHDs in psychology and theology for his observation.
Joe,you are extremely well-informed,and the standard of writing is excellent.I particularly enjoyed the article on the history of the New Age movement.
Many thanks and kind regards,
Lucia.
sir, your criticim is good.
Joseph,
Very wise and profound, your 12-point summary looks spot on the money for me. I have often thought that many New Age gurus have approached the Truth but seem to bounce along the surface – ending up saying things which appear profound but are actually glib. Atheists, sceptics, materialists, on the other hand see only part of the human equation.
I have also been on a quest to sort our truths from the Truth but have absolutely no idea how close I have come. If you have time read the conclusion of my site
Sensacional… compartilho das mesmas idéias sobre a verdade. Para mim ou ela está em todos os lugares ou em lugar algum. Por isso procuro a minha verdade dentro de todas as verdades apresentadas.
ur “spiritual philosophy” has 12 parts, I notice. do you carry all 12 in your head at once? Or do these just arise one by one as reality dictates. sounds like a heavy conceptual cross to bear. rest your mind.
No I think he studied too much philosophy. A study for the sake of talking. You don’t need God haha to tell you to drop out from college/have children. How about asking your higher self who am I, the Ron, and report to us? Lets see if you can get any answers.
u seem to believe u know everything.. how blissfully eluding
@Joseph Waligore.. u deleted my post without giving it much thought.. ok as u wish.. guess ur intuition isn workin anylonger.
so u mean God is the universe? I do agree too but also believed that God can intervene sometimes in our lives!!!
Glad you enjoyed the article!
RE: Thank God I found this site. I found the article of Pema Chodron very eye-opening. I will delve deeper. Thank you for this site.