The Pocket Contemplative
The Pocket Contemplative
Latest Episodes
The Mystic's Mystic (History Corner)
Generations of people exploring contemplative spirituality, both in the Christian tradition (Thomas Merton) and outside of it (Thich Nhat Hanh) have gone back again and again to one brilliant and confounding teacher, the German academic and mys...
Finding Happiness after Regret or Loss
We talk about happiness every now and again, but how can we find it if we realize the things we'd been pinning our happiness on, our biggest dreams, just aren't going to happen? Or even if the bottom really seems to fall out, if we get a terrib...
The Monk Who Invented Psychotherapy (History Corner)
The connection between contemplative practice and psychotherapy is often noted, but how that came to be is a fascinating story. Dave Schmelzer offers a look at fourth century monk Evagrius of Pontus as a key example of what came out of desert s...
Why Getting What You Want Won't Make You Happy
Cutting to the chase, getting what we want won't make us happy because of what the researchers call "hedonic adaptation." The good news is that these same researchers tell us these desires for our lives absolutely can be central in helping us c...
When Christianity Gets Tied to the State (History Corner)
In another episode of Dave's "history corner," he looks at the cataclysm that happened when the emperor made Christianity the state's religion in 325. Where Christians had been poor, persecuted and few in number, it now messed with the heads of...
