Spiritual Wisdom for Secular Times

The search for meaning and faith.

by Dr. Larry Culliford

Spirituality for Beginners 7: Dualist Thinking and Holistic Awareness

Dualist thinking can only reflect parts of something in relation to each other, while holistic awareness grasps their integration and the greater wholeness they combine to produce. Although people may be more familiar and comfortable with the former, the latter - associated with holiness, wisdom and spirituality - is equally essential. Read More

Spirituality for Beginners 6: Two Halves Make Everything Whole

The spiritual dimension is all about wholeness. This cannot be emphasized enough. Spirituality is about an understanding of everything as absolute, total, complete, indivisible, seamless, pure and already perfect. Read More

Spirituality for Beginners 5: Who Are We (Together)?

From the spiritual perspective, the universe itself is sacred, a sacred whole, and human beings form a vital and intimate part of that seamless totality. Read More

Spirituality for Beginners 4: Who Am I?

Think about when you first meet someone. What do you want to know about them, and what do they want to know about you? Social markers provide many of the criteria by which we tend to group ourselves. Read More

Spirituality for Beginners 3: What is a Person?

Thinking about 'What is a person?', it is natural to think about biological, psychological and social elements, but to get the whole picture, a spiritual dimension must be considered as well. Read More

Spirituality for Beginners 2: Questions

To begin exploring spirituality, it is better to start with open questions, and questions on subjects that you already know something about. Then you can build on that knowledge. Read More

Spirituality For Beginners (1): Exploring New Territory

Spirituality is not like some lifeless object to dissect and analyse. You really have to experience it for yourself. Read More

Sorrow: A Valuable Emotion

Feeling bad is not so much the problem. Feeling bad about feeling bad: that's the problem! Read More

Whatever Heaven Sends Is for the Best

My friend Raven Jones developed a good-sized tumor on his knee. Amputation was advised, but Raven thought, "There must be some other way", so he refused both surgery and chemotherapy. Read More

What is Spirituality (2): Updating ancient wisdom

Nothing in science invalidates ancient wisdom about a pervasive and subtle essence or spirit inhabiting the universe. Read More

Church Attendances Down: A Sign of Spiritual Maturity?

Many religious people say it's their own moral views, not those of church leaders, that matter. Read More

Conflict and Resolution in America: A Problem of Inadequate Resources

The best leaders are sufficiently engaged to care, while sufficiently detached and patient to appreciate the whole picture. Read More

My Grandfather's Dying Gift

Perhaps he meant that I would be the next one in the family to die. I wasn't ready. I was only twenty-seven at the time. Read More

Learning from Death and Detachment

Being part of destructive events that cost lives, even witnessing them remotely and repeatedly through the media, can change a person's attitudes and alter the trajectory of their spiritual journey. Read More

Lessons from Dying Patients: Darren

I looked around the room at their faces, and saw in each one a picture of grief. Fortunately, my training allowed me to remain hopeful, and the heavy atmosphere gradually began to lighten. Read More

Lessons from Dying Patients: Mrs Cruikshank

I came to realize that there is a special kind of work to do in medicine, in addition to attempting simply physical cures: work involving the promotion of emotional healing and the fostering of personal growth. Read More

Helpful Encounters with Death

When sorrow fades, we are left calmer and more cheerful, wiser and more resilient, bolder and more spontaneous. As we let go and our emotions heal, we grow. We cannot help it: we mature. Read More

Spiritual Maturity: The Case of Etty Hillesum Part 3 - Final Days

"Everywhere things are both very good and very bad at the same time. The two are in balance, everywhere and always... Everything is fine just as it is." Read More

Spiritual Maturity: The Case of Etty Hillesum Part 2

"The radio has reported that 700,000 Jews perished last year alone in Germany. I know about everything and am no longer appalled by the latest reports. In one way or another, I know it all. And yet I find life beautiful and meaningful... The only certainties about what is right and wrong are those that spring from sources deep inside oneself." Read More

Spiritual Maturity: The Case of Etty Hillesum (1)

Etty Hillesum achieved remarkable spiritual maturity in the face of extreme Nazi persecution, showing how conditions of severe and prolonged adversity offer considerable opportunity for spiritual growth. Read More

Contemplation: Accessing the Source of Life Energy, Compassion and Wisdom

A few moments of contemplation can help when, like Peter in conflict with his new boss, we discover that being angry does not always mean we are completely in the right. Read More

Compassion in Action: Ways of Giving

Work, especially where teamwork and devotion are involved, counts as spiritual practice. Read More

Advancing on the Spiritual Path 3: Secular Spiritual Practices

Many people intuitively engage in regular activities that fulfil the function of a spiritual practice. Read More

Advancing on the Spiritual Path 2: Religious Spiritual Practices

Spiritual practices often form an important part of someone's daily or weekly routine. Impulses of devotion and duty arising from within are frequently accompanied by a willing sense of personal dedication, of deliberately making space and time to honour them. Read More

Advancing on the Spiritual Path 1: Spiritual Skills

It is important to remember that our ability to help others involves giving adequate priority to our own welfare - and each others. Read More

Good and Bad Psychiatry in Film - Review of Marco Bellocchio's Vincere

Dr. Cappelletti advises his patient to become an actress, to put aside her anger at wrongful incarceration and behave as if normal. Only then can he find a way to release her. Read More

Sex, Drugs & Education: The Spiritual Perspective

Sex and drugs divert people away from the true goal of what may be characterised as an essentially spiritual mission, the quest to discover and hold true to a deep-seated inner compass, a true-self or ‘soul', and to be guided in life by fellow-feeling, wisdom, compassion and love. Read More

Spiritual Leadership: The Case of Barack Obama Part 3*

"Those stories - of survival, and freedom, and hope - became our story, became my story. Our trials and triumphs became at once both unique and universal..." There is no reason to assume that Obama excluded anyone from this conclusion: black, white, Latino, Asian, or anyone. Read More

Spiritual Leadership: The Case of Barack Obama Part 2

Sorrow is an important gateway to healing and growth, to personal, psychological and spiritual maturity, to the 'here' and the 'now' of your life. Read More

Spiritual Leadership: The Case of Barack Obama Part 1

At nineteen, Barack Obama shows a prophetic grasp of humanity’s interconnected universality. Although he tried denying what was already clear to others, his leadership journey had already begun. Read More

Larry Culliford, Ph.D., is the author of the Psychology of Spirituality and a psychiatrist in Sussex, England.

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About Spiritual Wisdom for Secular Times

Spirituality knows no boundaries. Even so, it has been segregated from psychology for far too long. Larry’s blog reunites them. His wisdom stories are both illuminating and entertaining. Wisdom differs from factual knowledge. It is kind of sacred - the knowledge of how to be and behave - and its value increases as social evolution proceeds. Timely stuff!