The Secret Beauty of Their Hearts

Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God's eyes. If only they could see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time, there would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed... I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other.

[Christian mystic, Thomas Merton]

Gone Beyond

Beyond the senses are their objects, and beyond the objects is the mind. Beyond the mind is pure reason, and beyond reason is the Spirit in man.

Beyond the Spirit in man is the Spirit of the universe, and beyond is Purusha (God/Godhead), the Spirit Supreme. Nothing is beyond Purusha: He is the End of the path.

The light of the Atman, man's Spirit, is invisible, concealed in all beings. It is seen by the seers of the subtle, when their vision is keen and is clear.

[from the Katha Upanishad]

Most of the time I'm content to stay within the realm of the very first level - the level of the senses. There's not much depth - just getting by in life, spinning from this project to that project, feeding my belly and doing things that feel good.

Oh how much we miss when we choose not to delve deeper. As Deepak Chopra says, perhaps Jesus' condemnation of "the world" and worldliness is not so much a disdain for the things of this world, but rather an invitation to see outer things as a trap that keeps us from going within to deeper realities.

This is why the Buddhists say:

"Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha"

or

"Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone completely beyond, oh what an awakening!"

The Third Jesus: Book on the Way

It's been a little while since I've been excited about a new book that is being released. I don't tend to be ahead of the curve that much and only pick up books that have been out for a while. That said, I happened to open an email from Amazon.com about some new releases and found this. As a fan of Mr. Chopra's work (generally) and as someone who is always looking for fresh and ever-widening ways to understand my Christian faith, I'm very much excited to dive in. Watch for a review in the coming weeks.

The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore (Deepak Chopra)

From Amazon.com's book description:

"Who is Jesus Christ?

In The Third Jesus, bestselling author and spiritual leader Deepak Chopra provides an answer to this question that is both a challenge to current systems of belief and a fresh perspective on what Jesus can teach us all, regardless of our religious background. There is not one Jesus, Chopra writes, but three.

First, there is the historical Jesus, the man who lived more than two thousand years ago and whose teachings are the foundation of Christian theology and thought. Next there is Jesus the Son of God, who has come to embody an institutional religion with specific dogma, a priesthood, and devout believers. And finally, there is the third Jesus, the cosmic Christ, the spiritual guide whose teaching embraces all humanity, not just the church built in his name. He speaks to the individual who wants to find God as a personal experience, to attain what some might call grace, or God-consciousness, or enlightenment.

When we take Jesus literally, we are faced with the impossible. How can we truly “love thy neighbor as thyself”? But when we see the exhortations of Jesus as invitations to join him on a higher spiritual plane, his words suddenly make sense.

Ultimately, Chopra argues, Christianity needs to overcome its tendency to be exclusionary and refocus on being a religion of personal insight and spiritual growth. In this way Jesus can be seen for the universal teacher he truly is–someone whose teachings of compassion, tolerance, and understanding can embrace and be embraced by all of us."

A new commandment I give you: Love one another.

While driving home last night and scanning the radio stations for something to listen to, I stumbled upon a preacher on the local Christian radio station. He was talking about Islam so I thought I'd take a listen.

In front of what seemed like a very large congregation - not to mention anyone listening over the airwaves - he was doing his damnedest to both negate their faith and make them look like "the bad guys."

The majority of his message was how Islam flourished because they were converting people "by the sword" and how violent their scriptures are. Similarly, anytime he got to a passage where it said Allah is "forgiving and merciful" he had to make a comment like "well, ya, only if you do what He says."

What he failed to mention was his own tradition's horribly violent past, including similar conversion techniques (the Crusades and Native Americans ring a bell?) and graphically violent scriptures (anyone read the Old Testament?)

I'm not dogging Christianity or Judaism. It just sucks that people of power are able to turn groups of people against other groups of people using false information and misguided truths.

Perhaps the appropriate way Christians can learn about Islam is to invite Muslims to speak at their worship services. God forbid we actually seek to understand each other and reach common ground.

Psalm 23

Putting aside my mild uneasiness with teaching kids to quote scriptures from memory that they don't even fully understand yet, this video is just too cute.

The Sacred Heart of Kalli

Something about her hands, stance and gaze in this picture made me think of an Orthodox Icon of Jesus.

Bossy

In a recent post, Jon (from "The Wild Things of God") said:

The perception that God is there to do things for us is perhaps the strongest barrier to divine presence.

This reminded me that sometimes in our church worship I feel like all we're doing in prayer and in song is bossing God around. "Hey, do this, make me clean, open my heart, give me strength, hear me, love me, hear us, love us, do this for someone else" - as if we would ever say that to "God" if "God" were actually standing in front of us (so to speak).

This is just an observation, really. I'm not sure what my point is in all this, except to say that the image of God as the Cosmic Vending Machine is still very prominent in church corporate worship. This, of course, is a fine and acceptable first-stage approach to the Divine and yet my hope would be that Christian spiritual communities would continue to provide opportunities for growth and surrender into deeper experiences and understandings of "God."

Jon concludes, "It works for a while, but dropping the demands of our neediness is essential to experience the divine later on in the journey as the soul matures." But don't pay too much mind to this regurgitated post... swing over and read Jon's original post HERE.

Light of the World

"YOU are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house." {Jesus}

How can you give your light now/today so that the world becomes brighter instead of darker?

Nada te turbe

Lines written in the breviary of Saint Theresa of Avila:

Nada te turbe,
Let nothing disturb you,
Nada te espante,
Nothing frighten you,
Todo se pasa,
All is passing,
Dios no se muda,
God does not change,
La paciencia
Patience
Todo lo alcanza;
Attains to all;
Quien a Dios tiene
One who holds to God
Nada le falta:
Lacks nothing:
Solo Dios basta.
God alone is enough.

(As translated by John S. Dunne in The Homing Spirit)

starving jesus

a very short film about "letting go" (By: Blaine)


Get this video and more at MySpace.com

Ken Wilber interviews Brother Wayne Teasdale

From IntegralNaked: If, as historian Arnold Toynbee put it, the introduction of Buddhism into the West "may well prove to be the most important event of the 20th century," we might also argue that the re-discovery of the contemplative roots of Christianity will be equally important. And as we enter the 21st century, it stands to reason that the recognition of a common mystical ground between Buddhism, Christianity, and the other World Religions will be the most important event of all.

In this clip, Brother Wayne Teasdale and Ken Wilber discuss the revelation of your Ultimate Identity as God, and the relationship of this "Supreme Identity" to your everyday life.

Thoughts from a Christian Mystic

As I continue to read more from Catherine Doherty, I find myself continually blown away by what she has to say. In particular, I love how universally resonating her message is; how, stripped of its Christian phraseology, it actually sounds like it could belong to any tradition's mystical experience:

ONE: "When you enter the poustinia (inner desert) you enter the orbit of God. You hold on to his coat. A thousand hands try to pull his coat out of your hands. You are free to give in to the temptation, to flee from the poustinia, or to resist. It's because of this freedom that a poustinik has no rules. There is nothing to guide yourself by except what is within. This is where discernment comes in. Among the variety of things that people want you to do , you have to discern from your heart what to do. Your life ought to be a life of service to the community. There is only one thing you do not do: satisfy your own ego."

TWO: "Christianity moves into 'nothingness' and finds God. There comes a moment in this movement toward nothingness which seems to be a moment of nonexistence. It appears idiotic, positively idiotic to say such a thing. But it's true. It's a moment when you are nonexistent as far as being a person is concerned. Everything has disappeared. You are not even cognizant that 'you are.' You are only cognizant of darkness. Whether you are in depths or heights is unimportant; you are not even cognizant of that. But there is a moment of nonexistence out of which you come. And when you come out, prayer begins."

...and finally...

THREE: "The desert is an altar on which moment by moment you bring the offering of yourself. For self-will is the obstacle that eternaly stands between me and God. We decide that we are going to do such and such a thing. God comes along and says, 'No, do this.' It's a matter of doing what he wants us to do, not because we are afraid of him, or afraid of dying, but because we are in love with him, and because we enter the poustinia to really do his will and not ours. The poustinia is there to form that attitude in you. The poustinik must finally come to understand that he has to become as empty as God became for him."

[all selections from Catherine de Hueck Doherty's book POUSTINIA]

Rooted

A few of us bloggers (Andrew and Julie in particular) have been discussing ways to still find our home in our native Christianity, while not feeling trapped in exclusive language and also having the freedom to have unorthodox experiences and conversations. If the many religions, paths, and traditions are like wells that lead to the mighty underground river, we can either choose to make many and varied shallow wells or follow one or two very deeply.

I know I've mentioned this before, but this is one site that ya'll may want to check out: The Center for Progressive Christianity.

Also, I was reading a little Catherine Doherty this morning with my coffee and thought I'd share:

"When I say 'God begins to speak,' I mean that the mind is purified, the heart is at peace, and out of the depths of both come forth the gifts or the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Quietly, imperceptibly, out of this overshadowing of the Holy Spirit comes a word, a thought, a sentence, as the case may be. Someone might say, 'All this sounds very mystical.' There is a difference between what the East means by mystical and what the West means. I think the East would call normal many things that the West might term mystical. If you are in the poustinia (internal "desert" or solitude) and God knocks on your door and speaks to you, that doesn't sound mystical to me; it sounds quite normal."

(Note: You can only leave Anonymous comments for now. See why.)

A Challenge to "Big Productions"

As part of the Worship Team at our church, I'm constantly planning and working on the services for Sundays. The funny thing is how big of a "production" it's all become ("contemporary" worship, anyway). Today I got my "Technologies for Worship" magazine with page after page of articles on lighting and sound with complimentary glossy ads showing "Worship Leaders" proudly singing with their new Sure In-Ear Monitor system.

While glancing through the magazine, I was reminded of a chapter in a book called "Sabbath" by Wayne Muller (one of my favorite books). Here are a few excerpts:

• Liturgical ritual is meant to be repeated. We are not supposed to do it right the first time, and then be done with it. This year's Easter does not have to be new and improved, more dramatic and moving than last year's. The perfection is in the repetition, the sheer ordinariness, the intimate familiarity of a place known because we have visited it again and again, in so many different moments...
• This is not about progress, it is about circles, cycles, and seasons, and the way time moves, and things we must remember, because with ever-faster turnings of the wheel it can become easier to forget...
• When liturgy is ensnared by progress, all these quiet, mystical qualities are replaced by responsibility and obligation. I have been part of so many little churches paralyzed by the assumption that we must make this year's Christmas pageant better, more dramatic, more impressive, more spectacular than the last. I have seen parents, children, and youth ministers frantic, desperate, frusterated, and overwhelmed as they try to make the "perfect" representation of an event that was, at its origins, quiet, unassuming, unpredictable, sloppy, and invisible.

Center

Voltaire said, "God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere."

What does that mean to you (if anything)?

Why Be Good? (Post 3 of 5)

What a wonderful group of comments yesterday! Here's Jon (from The Wild Things of God) and his take on this subject.
_________________________________

I asked my teacher a while back, with tears coursing down my cheeks, "why is good better than evil?" He said, gently, "who's to say it is?" NOT the answer I wanted to hear! But he loved me enough to tell me the truth.

Whenever considering spirituality, there's always the two points of view to consider: the Unknowable, Ultimate, Absolute, Unmanifested, Godhead, Brahman on one hand, and the intimate, present, relational, manifest, "Son", Atman on the other. Creator and creation.

God as Creator knows no-thing, is no-thing, God as creation knows everything by being everything. And one thing all creation informs him about is pain. So in Buddhism, the "moral imperative" isn't so much that at all, but a practical directive to eliminate dukkha. All creation experiences dukkha, anicca, and anatman, and all creation says "this sucks." So the Son is about redemption, love, honesty, and recognizing that the same Self is in all bodies and minds, regardless of which little one your locus of experience is associated with.

Yet on the other hand, there is the Absolute, from which all things come. The Old Testament is very honest in talking about evil coming from God as well as good--on almost every page. What happens, happens ultimately through God. This is monstrous when God is viewed as a "person.": Why did the six million Jews die?

But the Absolute is Nothing. Everything comes from Something, and that Something is Nothing. This is even more difficult to talk about.

From encountering this no-thing, even in the safe, veiled, temporary vehicle called meditation, we can see that no-thing is no conflict, no harm, no ill, well, nothing at all. It is peace, because peace is natural in no-thing.

So the Absolute perspective, has a foundation of Good... but it is absolutely (pun!) not the Good of good and evil, but simply that fact that evil can only occur where there is care, differentiated selves to have self-interest, and desires and fears.

But God doesn't have care. (Once my teacher startled me by saying, "God doesn't care if you believe in Him or not!")

I'd say there's also the individual aspect. If I am not free to rape, murder and destroy, then I am not free to love, heal and build. We are born free, then become conditioned through morality (most of us, anyway, thank God!). But then even morality becomes a shackle as well, and our love is less free giving than conditioned response. Our freedom needs to be felt anew, realized anew, though it does not *need* to have all aspects acted out!

Neither Paul nor Jesus comprised this teaching. Paul said simply, ALL things are permissible, not all are beneficial. Jesus routinely challenged the edges of the system. I love the story about the fish and the coin. When the collectors of the Temple tax came, he asked his disciples if kings tax their kids or others. Others, they said. Jesus answered, then their own kids are exempt, implying that none of them owed the tax.

He paid the tax, but didn't take a coin out of the group's treasury, but out of fish's mouth!

The paradoxes cannot be resolved: it's just the way it is. And "bad" guys and situations are needed for the "good" to work against and work through. When you see that, it becomes easier to love your enemy. All are necessary. The game is no fun without challenge. You want a rollercoaster to make you scream as well as laugh.

Why Be Good? (Post 2 of 5)

To continue yesterday's post, here is my own response to the question. It is certainly a work-in-progress and as I've said before, I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything or make a universal statement - this is the conclusion that I have made... yours will be totally different.

The first thing that has struck me as odd is the word should. I find that to be absolutely the wrong word. No one says I should be "good." Believing there are "shoulds" heaps on unnecessary guilt when I break my own good/bad rules and stems from an ignorant starting point.

If all my bullet-points were true, then it's quite alright for one to be a total bastard. That, too, is a manifestation of Spirit and HAS to exist in order for everything else to exist. Can you have a coin without a "tails" side? That doesn't mean that there shouldn't be stern punishment for the "evil-doers" (in order to allow all to live in a civilized society), but rather they are allowed to be who they are (internally). Wow, how Ken Wilber was THAT!

That being said, there are way more than enough "unconscious" people who lean toward the dark side without those who are conscious choosing that path.

It's not about should. It's about choice.

Knowing that the universe is full of every type of person, every form of manifestation, every side of duality, at least SOME of us must choose (are called or chosen or fated?) to represent the white/light/good side. Just as there are Hitlers, there have to be Zen monks - and everything inbetween on both sides. This doesn't mean that the Light Team should, or even will win each battle, just that the teams are balanced.

If I feel a pull toward the Jedi side, then may I go for it! I am a manifestation of the Positive and Light side of the polarity. That has to exist too! With all of my might, I can give, serve, love, teach, BE, radiate, paint, see, sit, fight for the white side...

And, if there is indeed One Self, even if "I" in this place, in this life, choose to fully play for the Light team, I am not imbalanced, as there are other aspects of mySelf in the Universe that balance me out. It's the same reason one should not be covetous, but rather happy, at the fortune of someone else - that's yourSelf!

At the end of the day, I am realizing that what used to be a focus on morality is being replaced by a focus on compassion. Compassion for no other reason than ... easing pain and suffering (your own and others). On her radio show a few weeks ago, Zen teacher Cheri Huber said that compassion is acting to “free people from suffering. Not to fix them, not to change them, not to judge them, not to criticize them, not to beat them, not to believe they should be different, but just to save them from all that suffering they're feeling.” Does your own suffering and the suffering of others break your heart? Do you think misery "sucks?" Then be a kind and gentle person! Don't beat yourself up when you don't fully make that happen, but at the same time, enjoy the possibilties of compassionate awareness.

And as far as refraining from the "bad" things, it just comes naturally when you realize that the universal prohibitions - such as the Ten Commandments and the Buddhist Precepts, that say don't lie, don't steal, etc. - are just guidelines to keep you present and centered and from feeling like a separate self. Remember we (and others) are not punished for our "sin," but by our sin. But hey, if you or I choose to "be bad," to wallow in suffering, then that's our prerogative.

As for me, I'm finding that peace comes when I act not out of conditioning, but out of a compassionate centeredness - and from that, there is no good/bad, right/wrong - just the opportunity in THAT moment to act in the most appropriate way.

Great Lyrics for Your Friday

"It was love that set our fragile planet rolling,
Tilting at our perfect twenty-three.
Molecules and men infused with holy,
Finding our way around the galaxy.
And Paradise has up and flown away for now
But hope still breathes and truth is always true.
And just when we think it’s almost over
Love has the final move,
Love has the final move."

[from "The Final Move" by Chris Rice]

"Missing the Mark" is Right on Target

The other day, my radio passed by a Christian station and the guy on air said "We're ALL prone to sin!" to which I smiled and shouted out loud "Of course we are!" See, the man was saying that we are are inclined to sin, but it shouldn't be that way. This is why it made me smile.

Take time to seriously consider what your life - what this life - would be like if everything was good, right, and perfect. There would be no surprise, no drama, no excitement, no horror, no ecstacy, no trajedy, no mistakes, no sucesses, no failures, no life. A complete being is comprised of light and darkness - how could it be any other way?

Of course, intentionally causing suffering to others through our "darkness" is a rather elementary way to live and has never been considered a "good thing." But there is certainly no need to look down on ourselves for our blemishes, dark places, failures, and times that we "miss the mark" (sin) - that is precisely what makes life LIFE!

Afterall, as Ken Wilber puts it: "The Realization of the Nondual traditions is uncompromising: There is only Spirit, there is only God, there is only Emptiness in all its radiant wonder. All the good and all the evil, the very best and the very worst, the upright and the degenerate— each and all are radically perfect manifestations of Spirit precisely as they are...not a grain of sand, not a speck of dust, is more or less Spirit than any other."