Spirituality has oft been reduced to just religion, religion further reduced to mere morality, and morality ultimately reduced to sexuality. This book is not about how to be "good," nor even "religious" but about being "mystical" - the only reason for the experiment that is life on planet Earth. Seán ÓLaoire is a Catholic priest, ordained in 1972. Born in Ireland, he was awarded a B.Sc. degree (major in Mathematics) from the National University of Ireland. He spent 14 years in East Africa working in Education, Agriculture, Preventative Medicine, Famine Relief, and Architecture and also with physically disabled children. He is multi-lingual and has an M.A. and a Ph.D. in transpersonal psychology. He is a co-founder and the Spiritual Director of a group of Bay Area Catholics, called "Companions on the Journey," who are attempting to find "a new way of being truly catholic." He is, also, a Licensed Clinical Psychologist with a private counseling practice in Los Altos. He lectures and conducts scientific research on the effects of prayer, and has his findings published in three different research journals. In 1984, while living in Kenya, he wrote a book entitled Ukweli Ni Nini? (What does Truth Mean?). INTRODUCTION I come from a story-telling culture. My grandfather, "Daddy Jim," was a "Seanachaí" (the traditional Irish storyteller). I spent 14 years living in East Africa, among story-telling peoples. My greatest hero, Jesus of Nazareth, was a storyteller. Understandably, I wanted to become a storyteller myself. This book is a collection of stories, fleshed out into mystical theology. It doesn't read like a book of written teachings, because it wasn't composed in written form. It is the transcripts of oral presentations to very-much-alive audiences, the members of the Companions on the Journey, a spiritual community based in Palo Alto, California. The book retains that storyteller quality, though the more annoying mannerisms of which the ear, but not the eye is so forgiving have been edited out. There is some repetition both within and among the homilies. This is done purposefully. I believe that a good story should be at once an entertaining and a learning event. If all a person wants is entertainment, then the movies are a better choice. If all a person wants is learning, then feel free to buy an unabridged dictionary. The reason Jesus was perceived as preaching "Good News " was that his stories were both good (appealing and entertaining) and new (involved learning and discovering). For the main part, homilies and sermons tend to be neither good nor new, but simply boring and reheated leftovers. Instead of Good News we got mostly Old Hat. An essential part of learning is repetition. Sometimes, this needs to be done formulaicly, using the same words or phrases exactly (like a mantra). At other times, employing new images, metaphors and stories for the same concept, idea or experience best does it. I mix these two techniques both within a particular homily and among the homilies. My single greatest intention, however, is not to entertain, not to teach new concepts, not to moralize, but to challenge people into having their own personal encounters with the transcendent. Wisdom traditions, East and West, once their advanced-soul founders die, inevitably reduce spirituality to religion, and then, reduce religion to morality. I am not interested in trying to make people "good," but in encouraging them to become mystics. Morality is to mysticism what the alphabet is to Shakespeare. The churches keep drumming the alphabet into us; they don't seem to experientially know anything beyond that. For the person, however, who discovers Shakespeare, the alphabet (together with grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation) will take care of itself. May you discover the mystic within you! Seán ÓLaoire Used Book in Good Condition