Protect Your Noggin

Bournes is a poet, hip hop artist & singer. He discusses his experiences in Long Beach public schools and later a conservative Bible college, laments some of the important elements that were lacking, and offers provocative but timely reflections on ways to reimagine education and other systems of society. This was recorded in front of a limited group of Micah at the Honors Living-Learning community at CUI. Micah has just released a book of poetry called Here Comes This Dreamer and is about to release a pop album with the artist Lucee. He reads two poems from his book and discusses a recent hip hop track which is included in this episode. For more about this compelling artist check out https://www.micahbournes.com.  [Apologies for the mic gain being too high at first but it smooths out after the first couple minutes] --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/support

The galaxies blast out from the center of the universe; wait for their fall back to the center. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/support

How internalizing virtue, and cultivating virtue in cultures is better than legalism, and how transcending legalism helps us to surf the Tao and evade religious and ideological manipulators. The three chapters we focus on for this lesson are 18, 27, and 38. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/support

This chapter offers a vivid picture of what it looks like to surf the Tao. This isn’t about mere appearances, façades, or false egos. It’s about the way in which a person of integrity acts as if he or she is being witnessed.The way we treat a delicate flower or helpless baby bird who’s fallen out of a nest, or our neighbor’s lawn when we walk our dog says something about our alignment with goodness, truth and beauty. It says something to ourselves, even when no one else can know. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/support

Look, but you can’t see it: it’s vague. Listen, but you can’t hear it: it’s silent. Reach, but you can’t grasp it: it’s intangible.  Yet these three longings to perceive lead back to the One. There’s no heaven more wondrous than this. There’s no shadowy world darker than this. It’s everlasting and nameless. Wave upon wave, threads of energy spool out from it.Then everything drifts back into the void. It is the shape of the shapeless. The portrait of the invisible. It’s incomprehensible. Greet it, and you’ll see it has no face. Chase after it, and you’ll find it has no backside. Master the ancient art of being present; recognize the timeless source of all existence: follow this ancient thread and you’ll discover the secret to surfing the Tao. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/support

The ancient Taosurfers were cool cats. They had poise. They demonstrated balance. They exuded integrity and compassion. But today, Taosurfers seem like bums to some. They seem not to be players. But maybe they’re playing a different game altogether. We discuss chapters 15, 20, and 67 of the Tao Te Ching. Jeff discusses how some racists in his world led him to lose his cool; Stacie applies Lao Tzu to the situation in order to explore more effective ways of being an antidote to a toxic situation instead of internalizing the poison of hate. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/support

What does it mean that praise and shame invite anxiety and fear? Praise puffs you up; shame tears you down. Trying to stay on top brings fear that you will fall. Fear of failure keeps you from rising up. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/support

12. Focusing on flashy things  blinds eyes to beauty.  Listening to a cacophony of voices makes it hard to hear the truth. Too many spices will dull your taste buds. Lust for luxury will drive you mad. Riches entice men to evil deeds.   Therefore, the Sage attends to essential nourishment instead of mind-numbing diversions. She selects healthy food, ignoring empty calories.   Reflection This chapter is especially relevant to our marriage. My (Jeff here) personality type is such that I love constant stimulation, spicy foods, loud music, and extroverted experiences. These can be fine for a time, but they definitely can overstimulate Stacie. Moreover, this chapter teaches that despite my penchant for overstimulation, I’m at my healthiest when I focus. It’s not that I need to lose flavor. Lao Tzu is saying that my problem might be that I’m failing to focus on the simple but deep flavors all around me. This can be understood in an emotional, professional, or spiritual way. But it is also literally true. I sometime

This show is dedicated listener question about what to do when you detect that a future pastor is a wolf pup, that is, a potentially dangerous clergy person in the making. How do we nip in the bud potentially abusive behavior without being too intrusive or outrageously in people’s business? We explore the value of asking the question: What are the wrong reasons I’m doing what I’m doing in my vocation? Topics of Discussion Shadow self in Carl Gustav Jung Megachurches What makes academics tick? What makes clergy tick? Seminary and psychological evaluations Religious vocations Jordan Cooper The Orange helmet Awards Alexander VI Jeff’s poem about the Order of the Great Pyrenees Lutherans for Racial Justice Micah Bournes   --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/support

Thirty spokes meet at a hub.  The empty space at the center is what lets the wheel go ‘round.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/support

Can you balance your mind and body and grasp the unity of everything? Can you soften your breath and become like a sleeping baby? Can you rinse from your eyes whatever is clouding your vision? --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/support

This episode is dedicated to a question from a listener who works in Christian education. They ask: How do I help change the culture of a church so that it's life giving & not authoritarian? In other words, how does one practically apply some of the themes we care about at Protect Your Noggin for the wellbeing of our kids? After minute 30, we give our actual interpretation of the Tower of Babel, & we discuss why non-Christians should want the Bible taught in public schools. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/support

For this episode, Jeff asks Stacie (a death doula, AKA, end of life doula) to take over the episode and offer comfort and wisdom to our whole society the way should would work with an individual who was facing his or her mortality. This comes from our realization that, while we want to promote hope in our times, we also don't want cheap hope, or the sort of shallow positivity that covers over injustice without remedying it.   taosurfers.com protectyournoggin.org --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/support

Overfill your cup: it will spill. Over-sharpen your sword: it might shatter, when it really matters.   Amass wealth: you can’t protect it. Excessive pride in riches and prestige will only leave you in disgrace. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/support

A discussion of moral injury, how it shows up in the Bible, & how we might read accounts war and violence in antiquity. Jeff interviews guest Dr. Brad E. Kelle is professor of Old Testament & Hebrew at Point Loma Nazarene University. His academic work focuses on the OT prophets, warfare in ancient Israel, trauma studies, moral injury, and the history of ancient Israel and Judah. He is author of The Bible and Moral Injury: Reading Scripture alongside War's Unseen Wounds (Abingdon, 2020). --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/support

To discover the greatest good flow like water. Water pours life into all creatures without striving. It pools in places men disdain. This is how it’s like the Tao. So make your home in low places. Draw from the deep well of the heart. Offer kindness to others. Let your words be sincere. Govern justly. Let your work be your art. Remain present with everyone you encounter. Live without striving and people won’t try to pull you down. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/support

…the sage puts herself last yet comes out ahead. She dies to her ego yet she finds life. See how this makes her selfless? And this is how she becomes her true self. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/support

Tao Te Ching chapters 3 and 12 We discuss the importance of being presence, attending to bodily needs, and the history of Western Christianity's move toward the idea that we can't do much about injustice so we should just focus on the life to come. At hour 1 or so we share the meaning of life. We end with some cooking tips from Lao Tzu. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/support

The spirit of the valley is deathless. She is called the Mysterious Mother.  The womb of the Mysterious Mother is called the source of heaven and earth. It flows endlessly, almost imperceptibly. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/support

The cosmos is unbiased, treating all living things like sidewalk chalk drawings. The sage is unbiased, treating all people like sidewalk chalk drawings. The atmosphere is like a bellows.Wind blows through seeming emptiness.It stokes fires, but never runs out of breath.  Yet when blowhards talk, everyone gets exhausted. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thepynp/support