'Pyrapshere' began as a sketch for a variety show I produced called 'A Pretty Good Show.' My partner, Andersen Gabrych, and I expanded it into a full-fledged faux-religion, including a list of 21 tenets, sacred symbols, testimonials, and even a clothing line. Many people believed it was a real thing and wanted to join.

Maggie Rowe

Categorized in : Good Partner Sketch People

Using phrases or mantras to encourage and comfort myself has been a powerful practice for me. For years, I would say to myself 'Remember the purple sky' when I was feeling anxious, which to me meant remember a sense of internal spaciousness and kindness toward myself.

Maggie Rowe

myself me kindness sky

My parents were wonderful Christians. They were religious, but they were not fanatical in any way. I was the one who took it to the extreme. I was told in Sunday school that you had to accept Jesus into your heart if you didn't want to go to hell. So of course I did that a thousand times. But the catch was you had to mean it with all of your heart.

Maggie Rowe

parents you heart school

The eulogy virtues are the ones that are talked about at your funeral - whether you were kind, brave, honest or faithful. Were you capable of deep love? I want to foster eulogy virtues when I'm in a yoga class or meditation session or any spiritual gathering. Especially if I'm lying in corpse pose. It just makes sense.

Maggie Rowe

you brave spiritual love

Today, I regularly attend two Buddhist organizations, the Zen Center of Los Angeles and Against the Stream, but I also attend certain Christian functions. I try to cultivate a generous, kind spirit and am open to anything to help get me there.

Maggie Rowe

help try me today

I continued to suffer from anxiety and obsessive thoughts, although the thoughts stopped centering on hell. I moved into an ashram called the Himalayan Institute after college and studied meditation, which made an enormous difference.

Maggie Rowe

thoughts hell anxiety college

There was a verse that said if you are lukewarm rather than hot or cold, God will spit you out of his mouth on Judgment Day. And I felt like, I mean, I don't know. I'm lukewarm.

Maggie Rowe

day you god hot

I'm not on fire for the Lord, so I tried to make myself generate this fire for the Lord.

Maggie Rowe

tried myself lord fire

When I went to college, I was so focused on this new experience of my life that I really just pushed down all of my fears of hell and damnation.

Maggie Rowe

my-life hell experience life

I've been able to sell a number of pilots. Most have been based on my personal experience, so basically, my pitches have been like 'Sit-'n-Spin' pieces.

Maggie Rowe

personal been like experience

My spiritual evolution I would describe as journey from literalism to figuratism. I now see all religious texts as pointing to an ineffable truth.

Maggie Rowe

see journey truth spiritual

In high school and college, I did not have any Christian friends except my best friend Sarah, who I actually 'brought to Jesus.'

Maggie Rowe

best friends best-friend school

I know career motivation and encouragement up the ladder of success have their place in the world. But I don't want them anywhere near my spirituality.

Maggie Rowe

place encouragement success world

I want to have my desperate need for personal success shrunk, not enlarged.

Maggie Rowe

need personal want success

The term 'personal ambition' immediately puts me off. It feels like finding a sliver of onion in my ice cream. There's nothing wrong with a sliver of onion, but I don't want it in my ice cream.

Maggie Rowe

nothing me ice-cream ambition

I have slavishly dedicated myself to the construction of an image that nobody but me sees. Nobody but me is pondering the question: How does Maggie Rowe stack up against others as an overall human being?

Maggie Rowe

nobody myself me construction

How is Maggie Rowe compensating for her decision to not have a child? Is what she is doing instead enough to justify that decision? What is she doing instead, and why can't she be better at it? What's keeping her from getting a better overall existence score in comparison to an arbitrary sampling of other human beings?

Maggie Rowe

doing better child decision