PHILIP GOLDBERG
Author - Spiritual Coach - Public Speaker

________________________________________
INTERFAITH EVENT: April 19, 2009, Santa Monica
"Hearing Each Other, Healing the Earth"
I'm speaking at 2:30 and 3:45 on the theme of my upcoming book.

AMERICAN VEDA: Hinduism’s Impact on the Spiritual Landscape
The influence of Hinduism – in particular the Vedanta and Yoga traditions – has been far greater than is generally realized. We will briefly review the history of India-to-America transmission: from Emerson to Vivekananda to the Beatles retreat on the Ganges to today’s yoga boom, as key principles have seeped into the culture, often in subtle but powerful ways. We will examine the Vedic imprint on American religion as a whole, citing data, with special emphasis on the interfaith movement.

525 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, CA, 90403Registration and information: http://socalparliamentofreligions.org

______________________________
WORKSHOPS AND OTHER EVENTS
I have been so focused on the book I'm working on -- the most complex, time-consuming and utterly absorbing work I've ever done -- that I have not actively pursued public events all year. If, however, you would like to invite me to speak or lead a workshop, I would be more than happy to entertain the possibility of breaking away from my keyboard and being among other human beings.

_________________________________

**NOW IN PAPERBACK**
ROADSIGNS ON THE SPIRITUAL PATHLiving at the Heart of Paradox
Recently released by Sentient Publications with a gorgeous new cover and a title that better reflects the nature of the book, this is an indispensible resource for spiritual veterans and newcomers to the path -- any path. For more information, click on the title in the left-hand column.

**RE-RELEASED**
THE INTUITIVE EDGE
The definitive book on intuition, finally back in print. Click on the title in the left-hand column

_________________________________
RADIO SHOWS
On December 23, 2004, I was a guest on “Air Talk” which airs on an LA public radio station. The other panelists were Professor Edmund Gibbs of Fuller Theological Seminary and Jack Miles, author of "God: A Biography." A fascinating discussion on contemporary religion and spirituality, it's archived on the KPCC website. Click on the link below (or paste into your browser), click on Archives, then on 2004, then on December 23.

Links to other audio interviews are on the right panel. I can't guarantee that they are still archived.

SITE GUIDE
In the right panel are announcements and links to information and other sites.

In the left panel is a selected list of my books. For a synopsis of each, click MY BOOKS in the menu. For details about a specific book -- description, reviews, ordering copies, etc. -- click on the title.
______________________________________

CLICK ON LINK TO LEARN ABOUT:

EXODUS: THE REST OF THE STORY
It’s that time of year when the Judeo-Christian world recalls one of its most sacred and powerful stories. It is not just Jews at their Passover seders who are influenced by the tale of Moses leading the Hebrews out of slavery, but also Christians and Muslims and secularists and, in fact, everyone who is raised and educated in the Western world. Whether one takes it literally, as actual history, or metaphorically, the saga evokes the human instinct to escape political or psychological bondage; it inspires hope for achieving freedom; and, for the religious, it describes a particular kind of interaction between the human and the divine. For all those reasons and more, it is a world-shaping archetype.
But we seldom hear what Paul Harvey called “the rest of the story.” At a time when religiously motivated terrorism is a daily concern, it might do us well to contemplate what happens in the sequel.
When the Exodus story is told in homes, synagogues and churches, it is rendered with a neat beginning, middle and end, with the enslaved underdogs, led by a heroic figure and aided by supernatural forces, overcoming impossible odds and arriving at their prophesied homeland. To make the happy ending as poignant as it is satisfying, their leader dies before he can enter the Promised Land.
What happens next? That’s the part we have kept in the closet. Do we imagine that the Hebrews went to the offices of Milk and Honey Real Estate to purchase a parcel of land? Did they scope out some choice properties and offer the owners market value? Nope, they invaded. They conquered. They pillaged. Driven by what they regarded as God’s promise, they crossed the river Jordan and laid waste to Jericho. As described in the Book of Joshua, “The army advanced on the city, every man straight ahead, and took it. Under the ban they destroyed everything in the city; they put everyone to the sword, men and women, young and old, and also cattle, sheep, and asses.”
In the aftermath, the Bible informs us, God tells Joshua, “I deliver the king of Ai into your hands, him and his people, his city and his country. Deal with Ai and her king as you dealt with Jericho and her king.” And so he does. “The number who were killed that day, men and women, was twelve thousand, the whole population of Ai.”
There is no sweetening the barbarism. Nor does it stop there. In a series of massacres that would take Jerry Bruckheimer or Mel Gibson a full miniseries to depict, Joshua takes on every tribe in the region, and “he left no survivor, destroying everything that drew breath.” Nor is there any denying that the invaders, like today’s suicide bombers, acted on what they considered God’s will. Those who stood in their way “were annihilated without mercy and utterly destroyed, as the Lord had commanded Moses.”
It is understandable that parents and religious leaders would choose to end the story before the bloody denouement, just as schoolteachers used to depict the westward march of American settlers without the inconvenience of slaughtered Indians. But it does not serve us well to forget that disturbing chapter of biblical history, or to deny it. Not when the dark side of Islam is in the forefront of our minds. Not when certain religious leaders use isolated passages from the Koran to back their claim that Islam is, by its nature, a violent religion, and that the prophet Muhammad was “a terrorist.”
Every religion points to the light, and every religion has a shadow. It is tempting to ignore it, but what we keep in the dark has a way of poisoning our psyches like undigested toxins. It might be healthier to shine a light on the hidden elements of the Judeo-Christian heritage, from the imperial conquests of the ancient Hebrews to the Crusades, the Inquisition and other atrocities, large and small. The more honest Jews and Christians can be about the dark side of their past and the potential for flawed human beings to misuse sacred texts, the more likely it is that peace-loving Muslims, no doubt the vast majority, will be honest about theirs. Then, perhaps, we will be able to stand on common ground in the light.

THE SEASON OF TRANSFORMATION
This week I will attend a Passover seder. On Sunday I will go to a church for Easter services. I honor both holidays because I see them as two limbs in a season of spiritual liberation.
I don’t much care whether the Red Sea actually parted like a curtain to let the Hebrews through to safety, or whether Jesus was actually resurrected. I’ll leave such issues to theologians and historians. For me, what matters are the stories that the holidays tell, profound stories rich with the promise of transformation.
The springtime festivities remind us that the nature of human beings is to grow toward the realization of our highest potential. The movement of the Israelites from enslavement to freedom, and of Jesus from imprisonment to spiritual rebirth, portrays, symbolically, the liberation of our own imprisoned spirits. Each step we take toward becoming wiser, more fulfilled human beings is, in a sense, an escape from bondage. As students on Campus Earth, each with our own individual curriculum, we matriculate from one level to the next by shuffling off the chains of the past, whether in the form of misperceptions, outmoded beliefs, harmful behaviors, or trouble-making emotional patterns.
Certain stories get repeated through the centuries because they resonate with the most fundamental tendencies of the human soul. In a sense, we each possess every element of those tales within our own psyches. Heroes and villains and incidental characters, plot points and motives and themes—they’re all embedded deep in our minds like minerals in the walls of a cave. The lasting stories, whether true or imagined, mine those resources for our enlightenment as well as our entertainment. And so, each year, when I once again listen to the saga of Exodus or the passion of Jesus, I set aside the literal meaning, forget about history, ignore two thousand years of sectarian squabbling, and go straight to the symbolism. I reflect on how the story elements play out in my life at this particular time.
What is the inner Pharaoh that keeps me enslaved? What Mt. Sinai must the Moses in me climb to find divine inspiration and power? What miracles must I perform to break free of my internal bondage? What is my equivalent of the Promised Land? What psychic wilderness might I have to traverse in order to get there? What is the manna that will sustain me on the way?
At Easter, the questions change but the nature of my contemplation remains the same: Is some Pontius Pilate in my psyche sentencing me to spiritual death? What demons do I face in my personal Gethsemane? What inner Judas betrays me? What cross must I bear as I wend my way to a higher destiny? What part of me needs to be crucified before my spirit can find rebirth?
Some years I learn valuable lessons and actually apply them; other years…well, I get an Incomplete and have to take the course over again. Sometimes the stories seem to apply to the mundane affairs of life—to issues of career, relationships, health and so on. But always, because these are sacred stories, they point mainly to the spiritual dimension of the human condition. Like the teachings in every wisdom tradition, our Judeo-Christian tales urge us to ponder not just how to live better lives but how to transcend the limits of ordinary existence, to expand the boundaries of our identities and come to know the divine essence that we share with each other and all of creation. If the holy days of spring can be said to have a single purpose, delivering that message would get my vote.
There are those who say I should celebrate only the holiday of my ancestors. But honoring both in my own idiosyncratic way feels more spiritually complete. I get my lessons where I can find them, even if I have to audit classes, so to speak, for which I’m not officially registered. There is another benefit to the twin celebration as well: it connects me to the totality of the Abrahamic tradition, not just the piece of it to which I was born, and it reminds me of our common heritage (the Last Supper was, after all, a Passover seder). It’s too bad there are no Islamic holidays this time of year. I’d celebrate them too. In this perilous time of tribalism, it’s good to remember that our Muslim brothers and sisters descend from the same lineage.

ELECTION REFLECTION
When I was in the 6th grade, my mother fought to make an African American woman president of the PTA at my school. It seems absurd now, but that small victory was a big deal in my neighborhood. Never mind that the black woman, Mrs. Mason, was the only college graduate among the candidates. Never mind that this was in multi-ethnic Brooklyn, where white and black people rode subways, went to school and sometimes worked with each other. Never mind that Jackie Robinson had already been playing for the Dodgers about 8 years at the time.

I wish my mother were here today. I wish my father were too, because Jackie Robinson was his hero on and off the field.

I wish they were here because they gave me spending money and their blessings when I went south in 1965, a few months after the Voting Rights Act was passed, to help register black voters. I piled into a car with five classmates and drove through the night to Georgia. We spent our Christmas vacation in a rural area somewhere near Athens, living with black families. Many of the residents were too afraid to go into town to register. When we started receiving death threats, the SNCC leaders told us to hold off on the registration efforts, so we used our time to help turn an abandoned building into a community center for kids. One day, a white woman in a shiny new car drove up and gave us a wad of bills to help cover the costs. She asked us not to tell anyone because her husband would beat her if he found out.

I hope that woman is still around. I’m betting that a lot of people like her voted for Obama yesterday and did not tell their spouses or their friends.

When my friends and I got back to New York, we raised some money and sent it to Georgia to help a young black activist named Bobby, who had been arrested on trumped-up charges to intimidate him. He was released. I don’t know what happened to him, but I hope he is cherishing this moment.

I hope the kids who grew up playing ping pong or checkers in that community center are telling their own children about the days when their parents and grandparents could not even vote.

I hope Mrs. Mason’s children and grandchildren know that a white woman helped her become the first black president of P.S. 144’s PTA.

One final thought: the child of a black father and white mother carried the state of Virginia. In 1961, when Obama was born, his parents’ marriage would have been illegal in Virginia.

______________________________________
WHAT "THE SECRET" LEAVES OUT

Now that “The Secret” has been revealed on “Larry King Live” and “Oprah,” it’s tempting to say it is no longer a secret. Millions of people are adjusting the contents of their thoughts to align their minds with “The Law of Attraction” and get the things they want. It seems to me this latest craze offers a good opportunity to contemplate some deep spiritual truths.

First, before I’m accused of being too critical, a couple of caveats:

1. I have no argument with the principles expressed in “The Secret.” Whether it’s accurate to call them “laws” the same way that gravity and thermodynamics are laws is arguable, but the idea that thoughts have power and energy is consistent with every metaphysical system I’m aware of. That the content of our thoughts has a strong influence on what happens to us in life is also consistent with spiritual teachings, not to mention common sense. Clearly, sick people who think they’ll heal are likely to do much better than those who think they’re doomed, and I’d rather invest in entrepreneurs who believe they’ll succeed than in someone who’s consumed by the fear of ruin.

2. I have nothing against material prosperity. Going after the good things in life is not, in itself, an impediment to spiritual fulfillment. It can even be a steppingstone.

What gives me pause about “The Secret” is not the secret itself but the hype surrounding it: specifically, the emphasis on getting rich, and the assertion that anyone who follows instructions can, should and will fulfill every one of their desires, guaranteed. The danger is that people will forget about the deeper spiritual laws and look for happiness in all the wrong places.

The secret that’s missing from “The Secret” is at the heart of every spiritual teaching, whether Jesus’s “lilies of the fields” sermon or Buddha’s Four Noble Truths: what you desire matters a great deal, as does the intensity with which you crave it and the degree to which you’re attached to having it.

In a culture that stokes the fire of acquisitive craving at every turn—to the detriment of the planet as well as our souls—it’s useful to remember what all the wisdom traditions teach: don’t pin your hopes for lasting happiness on sensory pleasures or material possessions; they are, by their very nature, impermanent, perishable, or incomplete. Every teaching, East and West, holds that feverish cravings are a setup for disappointment and frustration; whatever joy and satisfaction we gain from a desire fulfilled will inevitably fade, only to be replaced by another craving.

Not that we should stop wanting pleasure and prosperity and worthwhile achievements—as if we could—but rather that we should play those worldly games without any illusion that winning will give us what we’re really, truly searching for deep in our hearts: the imperishable peace and bliss that comes only from awakening to our divine Essence. Material wealth might make that search more comfortable, but it’s not a prerequisite and it can also be a distraction. Therefore, we are advised to direct the energy of desire first and foremost to the inner quest and enjoy the fleeting pleasures of worldly life as icing on the cake.

To their credit, the spokespersons for “The Secret” emphasize that one key to getting what you want is to be grateful for what you already have. This comes close to indicating the spiritual truth that the source of happiness, peace and fulfillment is present within us at the core of being, and it’s ours to access, whether we get the things we want or not. Awakening to that truth—not just intellectually but by direct contact—would seem to be the premiere goal, and a fine platform on which to use principles like “The Secret” to achieve worthy goals (seek ye first the kingdom, as Jesus put it, and all the rest will be added).

So, go for it. Think right, do right and get what you want. But while you’re doing it, keep some things in mind: 1) the satisfaction you gain from any fulfilled desire will be temporary, 2) don’t let yourself get overly attached to getting what you think you want, 3) be prepared to accept graciously what the universe delivers (to paraphrase Bob Dylan, your mind knows what you want, but God knows what you need), 4) seek the sublime union with the Sacred in the depths of your being, where the ups and downs of outer life can’t penetrate.

While you’re at it, think carefully about what you really want, beyond all the glitter and gold and ego gratification. “When all your desires are distilled,” sang the Sufi poet Hafiz, “you will cast just two votes: to love more, and be happy.” Why not adjust your desires upward, toward that which is most generous, noble and enduring? And why not apply some portion of your mind power for the good of others and our wounded planet as well?