What a gift it was to listen to this morning’s post in the car as we traveled from northern Italy, 🇮🇹 through Austria 🇦🇹 , and into Zurich 🇨🇭on our last day in Europe before returning home to the United States. 🇺🇸🙌
Experiencing such different cultures firsthand adds even more perspective to what you are writing about regarding religious beliefs. Churches abound all around us, amid the many languages being spoken. It’s fascinating to reflect on how we share so many of the same prayers and spiritual convictions across such diverse people and cultures.
Here are a few photos from the road to punctuate the serendipity of reading your words with such divine timing. Sending gratitude to you for your brilliant and thought-provoking work. May many blessings be returned to you for the gift you share so freely with the world.🌏
Thank you for this beautiful message—and what a journey you're on! It sounds like a dream. I love that you were listening to the essay while crossing borders and seeing churches in so many different landscapes. And I'm humbled and honored, too. :) So glad the timing felt serendipitous. That means a lot to me.
And thank you for attempting to send the photos here—but it looks like they didn't come through on my end, and I would truly love to see them, so you can just message them to me when you have time.
Blessings right back to you for your kind words and encouragement. Knowing the work lands with people like you is what keeps me going.
Wendy, through the last months, you've taken me on a journey I didn't know I wanted or needed. A gift received with deep gratitude. I'm confident your readers have been similarly touched. Today's piece was magnificent in its outpouring of love and desire to provide a genuine understanding of the message that Jesus meant for us. I'm praying for you and that God answers your prayers for guidance on your journey forward. Ask and you shall receive.......
Thank you, Barbara, for receiving my writing as a gift with deep gratitude. Yes, I’m just remaining open and signaling "openness," because I think it makes opportunities move more smoothly. As you’ve just expressed, being open means being able to receive even what we didn’t see coming and never anticipated. To write something every week, I have to stay open. It’s all part of the process. It also means taking things that could close doors and using them to inspire and prop those doors open. Life is a daring adventure in every sense of the word. And a beautiful home.
Thank you for writing this Wendy - properly thought-provoking. And I think that making these links is very much “right brain” activity? I also wonder about the left brain use of language and the difference between ‘sense’ and ‘non- sense’, experiences like the sublime, awe, the oceanic, flow (all nonsense from a positivistic perspective), all beyond language to capture (because language can only re-present experience). Too compressed - I’m rambling - but, is this why Jesus taught in parables, rather than with (unambiguous) rules, to emphasise the experiential, the relationing, the involved, rather than the dispassionate, ‘analytical’?
And thank you for commenting. You are following the right threads here. To answer your question, here's a little excerpt from a book I'm writing....
Why Parables?
The word "parable" comes from a Greek word meaning "to throw alongside." A parable sets two things next to each other—a story and a meaning, an image and an invitation. It doesn't explain; it illuminates. It doesn't argue; it opens.
Why did Jesus teach this way?
The disciples asked him that very question. "Why do you speak to the people in parables?" Jesus answered: "You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving." Then he said something remarkable: "But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear."
The parables are not designed to hide truth. They're designed to reveal it—but only to those willing to enter them. The left brain wants information it can process, categorize, and store. The parables refuse. They demand participation. They require you to become part of the story.
Think about what happens when you hear a parable. Your mind lights up with images: seeds falling on rocky ground, a woman sweeping her house for a lost coin, a father running to embrace a prodigal son. Your left brain tries to extract the "point." But the point won't stay extracted. It keeps drawing you back into the story.
This is the right-brain way of teaching. It doesn't argue you into the kingdom; it invites you in through the back door of imagination and wonder. The left brain wants propositions it can analyze. The right brain offers stories you can inhabit.
The religious leaders, with their systems and categories, heard the parables and understood nothing—because they were trying to manage them. The crowds, with their open hearts and hungry souls, heard the same stories and felt something shift—because they were willing to enter them.
This is how truth works when it is no longer information but invitation. It doesn't demand assent; it offers participation.
From parables, Jesus moves to questions—and the movement is natural because both are invitations. Both require something of the listener. Both refuse to leave you passive.
Jesus taught with parables and healed with touch. He asked questions and gave signs. He spent thirty years in hiding and three years in public. He withdrew to the mountain and returned to the crowd.
Here's some more from the book I'm writing.... He speaks in parables. He does not argue. He does not build logical cases. He tells stories. Seeds and soils. Lost coins and found sheep. Fathers and sons. Vineyards and workers. The parables are not moral fables with tidy lessons. They are narrative incursions—right-brain truths invading a left-brain world. They don't prove points; they re-contextualize everything.
Consider the parable of the prodigal son. It is not primarily a lesson on repentance, though the younger son does "come to himself." It is a devastating exposure of the older brother—the one who stayed, who worked, who obeyed, who now stands outside the feast because his relationship with the father has always been transactional. "All these years I've slaved for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends." The older brother is the left-brain incarnate, keeping score, calculating debts, demanding his due. And the father's response—"You are always with me, and everything I have is yours"—reveals that the transaction was never necessary. The gift was always there, waiting to be received.
Or consider the Good Samaritan. It is not a lesson on kindness, though kindness is certainly shown. It is a grenade tossed into the ideological categories of "neighbor" and "enemy," "clean" and "unclean," "insider" and "outsider." The priest and the Levite—the religious professionals, the ones who know the categories best—pass by on the other side. The Samaritan—the heretic, the half-breed, the one the left brain's categories have already dismissed—stops. He sees. He tends. He pays. The story shatters the boxes with which the left brain organizes the world, replacing them with a right-brain vision of unexpected, covenantal mercy.
Jesus speaks in a language the left brain can hear—stories, characters, images, scenarios—to convey truths only the right brain can understand: unconditional love, non-linear grace, the priority of presence over performance, of relationship over rule.
The left brain wants answers. The right brain asks questions. The left brain wants to close cases. The right to open hearts.
Thank you - looks like a book I'll want to read. Do we know whether Jesus might have encountered syllogistic logic? Paul's 'logic' has always seemed to me forced & unsuccessful
This highlights an interesting contrast between Jesus and Paul. Jesus' logic was typically deployed in direct, face-to-face confrontations with opponents, rooted in oral communication. In contrast, Paul's letters—which employ the technology of writing—present complex, rhetorical arguments crafted for fledgling churches facing specific crises.
As another commenter observed, written language shifted us further into left-brain dominance, explaining that "the brain took a shortcut and started to think in language instead of the 5 senses." Following this logic, it would make sense that oral traditions draw more heavily from right-brain processing. From what I've seen, Jesus' oral arguments are consistently logical and rational, yet they are not syllogistic in form. Instead, he frequently uses reason to counter challenges and expose hypocrisy.
Yes!! You've come up with a similar perception as I have.
The second coming is through us and Jesus/etc is a template of a person who isn't left brain dominant.
Written Language is what shifted us into left bias as words replaced reality. The brain took a shortcut and started to think in language instead of the 5 senses.
"I believe humanity's foray into fiction began with the breakdown of the bicameral mind, and the insertion of meaningless symbols in between the subject and the seer. In short, back when people used pictographic alphabets, we were limited to discussing things we could actually see in the real world. The invention of phonemic alphabets like this one, which are comprised not of representative pictures but of meaningless letters, provides the opportunity to invent an endless stream of non-sense, the greatest of these being spelled with just a single capital letter."
They even portrayed this left brain issue in the sci-fi epic Battlestar Galactica with a contrast between two different types of AI. One is hybridized with the human brain which is where we are headed, a reconnection of intellect to the body.
Thanks, Rob. Fascinating stuff! I hadn't thought deeply about the language elements, but true. I'll listen to the youtube videos later, as I don't have much time today to do so. I'll also try to watch Battlestar Galactica; it looks good. More later this week. Have a great rest of your weekend. And thank you again for this.
So interesting....I already wrote my post for this Sunday on "Where is Mother?" in the Trinity, and then I started watching Dr. Leonard Shlain - What the Alphabet Engenders / The Alphabet vs the Goddess (from your post). While I didn't incorporate the alphabet, I'm intrigued. Thanks for sharing this. And there's plenty of overlap in my piece.
Wendy,
What a gift it was to listen to this morning’s post in the car as we traveled from northern Italy, 🇮🇹 through Austria 🇦🇹 , and into Zurich 🇨🇭on our last day in Europe before returning home to the United States. 🇺🇸🙌
Experiencing such different cultures firsthand adds even more perspective to what you are writing about regarding religious beliefs. Churches abound all around us, amid the many languages being spoken. It’s fascinating to reflect on how we share so many of the same prayers and spiritual convictions across such diverse people and cultures.
Here are a few photos from the road to punctuate the serendipity of reading your words with such divine timing. Sending gratitude to you for your brilliant and thought-provoking work. May many blessings be returned to you for the gift you share so freely with the world.🌏
Hi Susan,
Thank you for this beautiful message—and what a journey you're on! It sounds like a dream. I love that you were listening to the essay while crossing borders and seeing churches in so many different landscapes. And I'm humbled and honored, too. :) So glad the timing felt serendipitous. That means a lot to me.
And thank you for attempting to send the photos here—but it looks like they didn't come through on my end, and I would truly love to see them, so you can just message them to me when you have time.
Blessings right back to you for your kind words and encouragement. Knowing the work lands with people like you is what keeps me going.
With gratitude,
and love,
Wendy
Wendy, through the last months, you've taken me on a journey I didn't know I wanted or needed. A gift received with deep gratitude. I'm confident your readers have been similarly touched. Today's piece was magnificent in its outpouring of love and desire to provide a genuine understanding of the message that Jesus meant for us. I'm praying for you and that God answers your prayers for guidance on your journey forward. Ask and you shall receive.......
Thank you, Barbara, for receiving my writing as a gift with deep gratitude. Yes, I’m just remaining open and signaling "openness," because I think it makes opportunities move more smoothly. As you’ve just expressed, being open means being able to receive even what we didn’t see coming and never anticipated. To write something every week, I have to stay open. It’s all part of the process. It also means taking things that could close doors and using them to inspire and prop those doors open. Life is a daring adventure in every sense of the word. And a beautiful home.
Thank you for writing this Wendy - properly thought-provoking. And I think that making these links is very much “right brain” activity? I also wonder about the left brain use of language and the difference between ‘sense’ and ‘non- sense’, experiences like the sublime, awe, the oceanic, flow (all nonsense from a positivistic perspective), all beyond language to capture (because language can only re-present experience). Too compressed - I’m rambling - but, is this why Jesus taught in parables, rather than with (unambiguous) rules, to emphasise the experiential, the relationing, the involved, rather than the dispassionate, ‘analytical’?
And thank you for commenting. You are following the right threads here. To answer your question, here's a little excerpt from a book I'm writing....
Why Parables?
The word "parable" comes from a Greek word meaning "to throw alongside." A parable sets two things next to each other—a story and a meaning, an image and an invitation. It doesn't explain; it illuminates. It doesn't argue; it opens.
Why did Jesus teach this way?
The disciples asked him that very question. "Why do you speak to the people in parables?" Jesus answered: "You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving." Then he said something remarkable: "But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear."
The parables are not designed to hide truth. They're designed to reveal it—but only to those willing to enter them. The left brain wants information it can process, categorize, and store. The parables refuse. They demand participation. They require you to become part of the story.
Think about what happens when you hear a parable. Your mind lights up with images: seeds falling on rocky ground, a woman sweeping her house for a lost coin, a father running to embrace a prodigal son. Your left brain tries to extract the "point." But the point won't stay extracted. It keeps drawing you back into the story.
This is the right-brain way of teaching. It doesn't argue you into the kingdom; it invites you in through the back door of imagination and wonder. The left brain wants propositions it can analyze. The right brain offers stories you can inhabit.
The religious leaders, with their systems and categories, heard the parables and understood nothing—because they were trying to manage them. The crowds, with their open hearts and hungry souls, heard the same stories and felt something shift—because they were willing to enter them.
This is how truth works when it is no longer information but invitation. It doesn't demand assent; it offers participation.
From parables, Jesus moves to questions—and the movement is natural because both are invitations. Both require something of the listener. Both refuse to leave you passive.
Jesus taught with parables and healed with touch. He asked questions and gave signs. He spent thirty years in hiding and three years in public. He withdrew to the mountain and returned to the crowd.
Here's some more from the book I'm writing.... He speaks in parables. He does not argue. He does not build logical cases. He tells stories. Seeds and soils. Lost coins and found sheep. Fathers and sons. Vineyards and workers. The parables are not moral fables with tidy lessons. They are narrative incursions—right-brain truths invading a left-brain world. They don't prove points; they re-contextualize everything.
Consider the parable of the prodigal son. It is not primarily a lesson on repentance, though the younger son does "come to himself." It is a devastating exposure of the older brother—the one who stayed, who worked, who obeyed, who now stands outside the feast because his relationship with the father has always been transactional. "All these years I've slaved for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends." The older brother is the left-brain incarnate, keeping score, calculating debts, demanding his due. And the father's response—"You are always with me, and everything I have is yours"—reveals that the transaction was never necessary. The gift was always there, waiting to be received.
Or consider the Good Samaritan. It is not a lesson on kindness, though kindness is certainly shown. It is a grenade tossed into the ideological categories of "neighbor" and "enemy," "clean" and "unclean," "insider" and "outsider." The priest and the Levite—the religious professionals, the ones who know the categories best—pass by on the other side. The Samaritan—the heretic, the half-breed, the one the left brain's categories have already dismissed—stops. He sees. He tends. He pays. The story shatters the boxes with which the left brain organizes the world, replacing them with a right-brain vision of unexpected, covenantal mercy.
Jesus speaks in a language the left brain can hear—stories, characters, images, scenarios—to convey truths only the right brain can understand: unconditional love, non-linear grace, the priority of presence over performance, of relationship over rule.
The left brain wants answers. The right brain asks questions. The left brain wants to close cases. The right to open hearts.
Thank you - looks like a book I'll want to read. Do we know whether Jesus might have encountered syllogistic logic? Paul's 'logic' has always seemed to me forced & unsuccessful
This highlights an interesting contrast between Jesus and Paul. Jesus' logic was typically deployed in direct, face-to-face confrontations with opponents, rooted in oral communication. In contrast, Paul's letters—which employ the technology of writing—present complex, rhetorical arguments crafted for fledgling churches facing specific crises.
As another commenter observed, written language shifted us further into left-brain dominance, explaining that "the brain took a shortcut and started to think in language instead of the 5 senses." Following this logic, it would make sense that oral traditions draw more heavily from right-brain processing. From what I've seen, Jesus' oral arguments are consistently logical and rational, yet they are not syllogistic in form. Instead, he frequently uses reason to counter challenges and expose hypocrisy.
Yes!! You've come up with a similar perception as I have.
The second coming is through us and Jesus/etc is a template of a person who isn't left brain dominant.
Written Language is what shifted us into left bias as words replaced reality. The brain took a shortcut and started to think in language instead of the 5 senses.
https://robc137.substack.com/p/alphabet-vs-the-goddess
"I believe humanity's foray into fiction began with the breakdown of the bicameral mind, and the insertion of meaningless symbols in between the subject and the seer. In short, back when people used pictographic alphabets, we were limited to discussing things we could actually see in the real world. The invention of phonemic alphabets like this one, which are comprised not of representative pictures but of meaningless letters, provides the opportunity to invent an endless stream of non-sense, the greatest of these being spelled with just a single capital letter."
They even portrayed this left brain issue in the sci-fi epic Battlestar Galactica with a contrast between two different types of AI. One is hybridized with the human brain which is where we are headed, a reconnection of intellect to the body.
https://robc137.substack.com/p/left-brain-vs-whole-brain-in-battlestar
Thanks, Rob. Fascinating stuff! I hadn't thought deeply about the language elements, but true. I'll listen to the youtube videos later, as I don't have much time today to do so. I'll also try to watch Battlestar Galactica; it looks good. More later this week. Have a great rest of your weekend. And thank you again for this.
If you're short on time my post has the short videos of the characters showing left brain vs right whole brain activation.
Dr. Leonard Shlain is fascinating so far, esp. about the media.
So interesting....I already wrote my post for this Sunday on "Where is Mother?" in the Trinity, and then I started watching Dr. Leonard Shlain - What the Alphabet Engenders / The Alphabet vs the Goddess (from your post). While I didn't incorporate the alphabet, I'm intrigued. Thanks for sharing this. And there's plenty of overlap in my piece.
Here's another presentation he made.
This one is about Sex, time, and power.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=dT6t39MDGhA
That was good. Thanks. 🙏