Matt Cardin's Blog, page 8

Writers: Embrace the Unknown

“What we hope for is to proceed from the known to the known. We are not enthused about abandoning the known and engaging the unknown.”

These words from the late nondual writer Robert Wolfe about spiritual awakening (in Living Nonduality, Ojai: Karina Library, 2009, 325) apply equally to writers. Our default comfort zone is to feel as if we know what we’re doing when we start putting words on the page. We commonly assume that the order of progression for producing a completed work is something lik...

Paradigms of Madness and Meaning

Dear Living Dark reader,

For years I have been witness to extended philosophical and spiritual dialogues unfolding in my thoughts. These are mostly or, on occasion, wholly spontaneous. That is, they drive themselves. I don’t so much compose or articulate them as observe them, like an eavesdropper listening in on someone else’s conversation. Sometimes there is an external stimulus that sparks one of these conversations, something that I have seen, heard, or read that kick-starts my internal dialog...

Phantoms in an Empty World

Dear Living Dark reader,

A very short shot for today:

You know the peace of unpopulated landscape photos and paintings? Or the enticing calm of post-apocalyptic visions of empty cities? Or the delicious hush of ancient ruins where the people who once lived there are long gone?

You know the lovely serenity of the whole “world without us” idea that grew so popular a few years ago? That enticing, wistful vision of a harmonious earth after humans?

Those things are all real right now. It’s not necessary...

Oswald Chambers: Sacred Unleader

Oswald Chambers, circa 1906.

Dear Living Dark reader,

Today’s post is unlike any that I have shared with you before. Though I previously published one of my unpublished academic papers, what I give you today is a bit of a “higher stakes” piece than that: the entire first chapter of my Ph.D. dissertation on Oswald Chambers, which I think and hope may prove of interest.

If the name “Oswald Chambers” doesn’t ring a bell, this is unsurprising, for reasons the chapter itself makes clear. I myself first ...

What No Eye Has Seen or Screen Has Shown

Dear Living Dark reader,

Here on the first day of the new year, it occurs to me that some words of Jesus and Paul, drawn from Isaiah, could stand an update for our current American age of total saturation by and utter obsession with media, money, consumerism, entertainment, jobs, politics, drugs, education, and religion. Of course the same basic situation also obtains elsewhere in many nations and cultures around the globe. But it’s America that I know the best.

In the Gospel of Thomas 17, Jesus s...

Confessions of an Idea Addict

Dear Living Dark reader,

As someone who loves books and music and art, I have to perpetually remind myself how critically necessary it is for me to make a deliberate practice of touching the earth. I mean that both metaphorically and literally. And the fact that I’m noting it here a few days before the new year doesn’t mean I’m putting it forth as a resolution that I intend to adhere to through force of disciplined will in 2024. Rather, it’s an ongoing realization that has presented itself to me ...

Read Less

Dear Living Dark readers,

This morning I read an online article that was presented in that familiar format where only the first few paragraphs were initially visible, accompanied by a “Read More” button at bottom that I could click to see the rest. I clicked it and finished the article. Then I scrolled back to the top, and as I did so, I came across a section heading that I hadn’t noticed during my first reading. It said “Read Less.” I thought, “Oh, I missed that part!” and paused to read it. The...

Monsters, Magic, Doomscrolling, and Unthinkable Peace

Dear Living Dark readers,

Here are four unconnected items—two trains of thought that have worked their way through me in recent days and weeks, plus a couple of quoted passages from a book review, plus a transcribed portion of a video podcast episode that struck me deeply when I came across it today—that I have decided to stitch together and send to you in a single post. I offer no explanatory through line for grouping these items and presenting them this way, though I’m perfectly happy to hear y...

Monsters, magic, doomscrolling, and unthinkable peace

Dear Living Dark readers,

Here are four unconnected items—two trains of thought that have worked their way through me in recent days and weeks, plus a couple of quoted passages from a book review, plus a transcribed portion of a video podcast episode that struck me deeply when I came across it today—that I have decided to stitch together and send to you in a single post. I offer no explanatory through line for grouping these items and presenting them this way, though I’m perfectly happy to hear y...

Invite the Lightning

Dear Living Dark readers,

A well worn bit of Zen wisdom has it that although enlightenment is a total accident, meditation practice can make you more accident-prone. Nobody is quite sure who first said this, but many members of the modern Zen community have been suggested. It may have been Shunryu Suzuki. Or Robert Aitken. Or Richard Baker. Or it could have been someone from outside the Zen tradition, such as Rajneesh/Osho or J. Krishnamurti. Or it might have been two or more people in combinatio...