The Book of Exodus can be divided into three parts: First, we witness the power of the Lord as he extends his arm against Pharaoh, sending the ten plagues and finally parting the Sea of Reeds, which swallows up Pharoah and his army, letting Moses and the Israelites escape into the wilderness. In the second part, Moses will ascend Mount Sinai and receive the law (Torah). The final section of the book is devoted to the construction and description of the tabernacle, or the portable temple the Israelites will carry with them over the next 38 years they spend in the desert.
A three-part division is also seen in the Sinai episode where the people are gathered at the bottom, the elders are partway up, and Moses is on top speaking with God. We see a similar tripartite division in the third section’s description of the tabernacle with its courtyard, Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies.
Later mystics and teachers would use these three-fold divisions to describe the soul’s journey to God, labeling the stages with terms such as ‘purification,’ contemplation,’ and ‘union’.
In this episode, Christopher and Riley contemplate good and evil from the loss of paradise in the duality of the fall to the regaining of paradise in a return to unity in the mystery of the conjunction of opposites and the sacred marriage of heaven and earth. In the course of the conversation, Riley and Christopher ponder the problem of evil postulated by Epicurus and the theodicies, or solutions to this problem, offered by philosophers and theologians from antiquity to modernity, and thus the purpose of good and evil from the fall of humanity into duality to its redemption in unity. ...
In this episode, Riley and Christopher explore the promise to peacemakers in the Beatitude, “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God (Matthew 5:9), with guest, Lindsey Ohlin, co-founder of Latter-day Peace Studies. Lindsey shares her transition from politics to peace, how she was able to find her “true self” as a daughter of God, and what that realization has meant to her. Lindsey, Christopher, and Riley discuss what it means to “see God” in themselves and in their fellow human beings. They revisit the importance of righteousness, understood as “right relationship,” whereby “great things [are] brought to pass” by “small and simple things” we do within ourselves, our homes, and our communities as peacemakers. Also, check out Lindsey Ohlin’s article where she describes her journey, “From Politics to Peace.” ...
In this episode, Riley interviews Christopher on his journaling practice. Christopher keeps seven different journals, including a Morning Pages journal inspired by Julia Cameron, a templated journal inspired by Michael Hyatt, a Five Minute Journal, a feelings journal, a food journal, a reading journal, and even a garbage journal. Each one of these serves a unique contemplative purpose for Christopher. Riley asks Christopher probing questions about journaling, some of which were submitted in advance by listeners like you. While the usual context for journaling in LDS circles is for the purpose of family history, Christopher and Riley explore journaling for the purpose of getting to know oneself. ...
