l in you and you in me

''The master idea of Christianity is coinherence--participatory awareness."
-Richard Rohr, speaking today @ the Southwest Region of AAPC

A Taoist Perspective

In our world of cultural saturation, where western ideas and ideals flood us from the mass media, it is easy to forget that there have been other perspectives--perhaps wiser perspectives like the ones outlined in this passage from the Tao Te Ching (30).

Whoever relies on the Tao in governing humanity
doesn't try to force issues
or defeat enemies by force of arms.
For every force there is a counterforce.
Violence, even well intentioned,
always rebounds upon oneself.

The Master does her work
and then stops.
She understands that the universe
is forever out of control,
and that trying to dominate events
goes against the current of the Tao.
Because she believes in herself,
she doesn't try to convince others.
Because she is content with herself,
she doesn't need others' approval.
Because she accepts herself,
the whole world accepts her.

Brave words from the past that shed ancient light on contemporary landscapes.

Image of a Future

"... I have, an image of a future in which a new brand of spirituality has fully emerged, a spirituality that takes the entire world as its starting point, that marries inner and outer work, that cultivates stillness and compassion in the midst of active, engaged lives. This spirituality is a slow dance of evolution, a tender response to the pulsing heartbeat of the universe. It builds upon – but ultimately goes beyond – traditional belief systems to create a unique path, marrying ancient wisdom, scientific and philosophic truth, and personal insight. It is a spirituality that honors periods of withdrawal, of inner contemplation, as equally as it honors the active and passionate life. It recognizes a sublime Ground, ultimately beyond all manifest form, while it also sees the realm of manifest form as the playful and ecstatic dance of that very Ground. Its God is to be found both in prayer and in lovemaking, in meditation and in mountain climbing. It sees every moment as an opportunity: for learning, for giving, for expressing a truer nature. Perhaps more than anything, it is a spirituality built upon adventure, a plunge into the unknown."

--Steven Dinan, Radical Spirit

The Magic of Maya

The Lord, who is the supreme magician,
Brings forth out of himself all the scriptures,
Oblations, sacrifices, spiritual disciplines,
The past and present, the whole universe.
Invisible through the magic of maya,
He remains hidden in the hearts of all.

-Shvetashvatara Upanishad

A Secret Place

The cactus hides its spring within.
You, my friend, have learned to hold your water well.

I know a dry land where seven waters fall.
Three hundred and sixty three fish-faced children,

all wet squeals and goosed by grace,
wait for us to come dance in place with them.

Drop everything. Find the map enclosed.
Meet me tomorrow morning under the wimpling falls.

I turn green. You turn from blue. Once wet
the world never dries off. The soaked man wakes,

shivers, catches cold. What drowned now drinks.
The belly remembers laughter. You taste the salt of tears.

--Dan Miller

This poem was awarded honorable mention in the 2006-2007 Presence poetry contest. (Presence is the journal of Spiritual Directors International.)

"The tinest house of time"

In response to one of my recent postings (Four Great Powers) a friend sent me this beautiful quote as his comment: "And there is no object so soft but it makes a hub for the wheel'd universe...." W.W.

This sensitive seeing of the tiniest particular as central to the mode of universal existence—as somehow its hub, is reflected in the poetry of India’s Kabir:

Are you looking for me?
I am in the next seat.
My shoulder is against yours.
You will not find me in stupas, not in Indian shrine rooms, nor in synagogues, nor in cathedrals:
not in masses, nor kirtans, not in legs winding around your own neck, nor in eating nothing but vegetables.
When you really look for me, you will see me instantly—you will find me in the tiniest house of time.
Kabir says: Student, tell me, what is God?
--the breath inside the breath.
(translated by Robert Bly)

I Will Not Shy Away From Sorrow

SOMETIMES, YOU DON’T know what hit you
and sometimes life seems pointless and cruel
and more than your share of disappointments
just seems to be the rule
and we don’t have satisfactory answers
and we may think things make no sense
but it never makes us happy
just to build a higher fence.

for the darkness harbors many secrets
and the harvest craves the rain

for to stuff them in some closet
would be to bottle up a flame.

Now we all know that life’s a winding river
Brimming with deaths and rebirths
but we don’t know if there’s any intention
when it hits you where it hurts
now some say that we’re like cosmic magnets
and some espouse a common consciousness
but there’s no denying the contentment
when you can see all of life as blessed.

I’ll not swallow the tears of tomorrow
nor mute the truths of today.

I will keep my heart wide open
I will sing all of life’s refrains
as I honor my soul’s journey
in the sunshine and the rain.

Will Danforth, from “I Will Not Shy Away from the Sorrow”

Power of thought

"There is a thought in your mind right now. The longer you hold on to it, the more you dwell upon it, the more life you give to that thought. Give it enough life, and it will become real. So make sure the thought is indeed a great one."
-- Ralph Marston

"Man is made or unmade by himself. In the armory of thought he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself. He also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy and strength and peace."
-- William James

Four Great Powers

The ancient tradition of Taoism perceives the embedded hierarchy of four great powers, which are the matrix of interconnectedness in which we live. It is easy to see ourselves as individual units separated and alone from the rest of existence, but we are not that. Our sense of alienation is only a form of blindness, which has deeply affected our common culture.

Lao-Tzu saw this:

The Tao is great
The universe is great
Earth is great.
Humankind is great.
These are the four great powers.

Humans follow the earth.
Earth follows the universe
The universe follows the Tao
The Tao follows itself
--Tao Te Ching 25

We are each embedded within the dynamic chaos of living humanity. We exist within that organic unit, and humanity itself is held within the dynamic balances of earth as a living system. The earth is embedded within the forces of the universe, and the universe lies within the Ocean of Consciousness ( or Conscious Intention) which defines the Tao. If we could see and respond in this way, rather than as single egoic units, we would perhaps begin to live purposefully.

Esoterism and the Order

What Seyyed Hossein Nasr writes concerning the relationship of Sufism to the tradition of Islam applies, I believe, to the work of the Oriental Orthodox Order in the West. We are attempting to create (and recover) a new relationship to the exoteric tradition of Christianity as it has been expressed over the centuries in the West. Our model uses both Sufism as a more recent example, but more importantly, Oriental Christianity as it was expressed beyond the Occident. That model is one which informed early Christianity, and guides us now.

Since it is based upon the social and juridical teachings of Islam, Sufism is meant to be practiced within society and not in a monastic environment outside the social order. But the attitudes of monastic life are integrated with the daily life lived within the human community .... Sufism is the way of integration of the active and contemplative lives so that man is able to remain receptive inwardly to the influences of heaven and lead an intense inner contemplative life while outwardly remaining most active in a world which he moulds according to his inner spiritual nature, instead of becoming its prisoner as happens to the profane man. (Shi'ism and Sufism, 37).

A Feminist Response to the Pope's Faux Pas

In response to the recent uproar over the Pope's remarks concerning Islam, a distinguished feminist theologian, Dr. Rosemary Radford Ruether, a Professor at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois and a pioneer in feminist theology for over three decades, has responded in words the Pope might have said, and I am quite sure should have said instead. I couldn't agree more with her civil and timely speech.

link

Science: An Issue of Trust

We live in a time when interest in science is at its highest, but trust in science is at its lowest. Polls and other investigations show that the public is aware of the important role that science has taken upon itself, but that they are concerned about its increasing commercialisation, the way it is presented in the media, and they would also like to have more influence on what the scientific endeavour chooses to research. The question arises: to what extent should we place our trust in science?

link

The Divine Milieu

We need the constant reminder of what the true nature of our soul's envirnoment actually is. It is easy to imagine that the world around us is all the "native home" we can possibly know. Yet, as Mechthild of Magdeburg (1210-1297) reminds us we are far more than earthly beings, though we rejoice in the privilege of being a part of earth's unfolding.

A fish cannot drown in water,
A bird does not fall in air.
In the fire of creation,
Gold does not vanish:
The fire brightens.
Each creature God made
Must live in its own true nature;
So how can I resist my nature,
That lives for oneness with God?

Conscious intention

Intention is the core of all conscious life. It is our intentions that create karma, our intentions that help others, our intentions that lead us away from the delusions of individuality toward the immutable verities of enlightened awareness. Conscious intention colors and moves everything.-Master Hsing Yun, "Describing the Indescribable"

Intolerance

“Souls don’t have races or sexes or religions. They are beyond artificial divisions.”

-- Brian Weiss

Intolerance of differences always exists in people who don’t know who they are, people who don’t have a strong sense of their own authentic self, the soul within. Intolerance is rooted in fear.

The basis for having a strong sense of self-esteem is to replace our unconscious idea of basic unworthiness with a conscious knowing of our fundamental inherent goodness. As Matthew Fox argues in Original Blessing, the notion of ‘original sin’ must be replaced with the truth of ‘original blessing.’

Being in touch with our essential goodness, we can see the essential goodness in others as well.

“Beliefs separate. Loving thoughts unite.”

-- Paul Ferrini

Seeing detail

Brian looked at the quick outline I'd drawn of Scull's Angel by John Chamberlain.

"Good," he said. "You've done a great job simplifying the shapes." [Unspoken commentary: which is not what I asked or expected you to do.]

"Now," he said, "try to capture what you see--all the idiosyncrasies, the imperfections."

The sculpture's basically a crushed car, man--everything about it is idiosyncratic.

My drawing, however, had reduced it to smooth, generic, almost geometric lines.

With one comment, this teacher identified what's demanded these days--and what I fight with--in my writing, my scholarship, my clinical work, my spirituality, my relationships:

Get specific. Fill in the details. Know one thing intimately. Don't generalize.

For the rest of that particular exercise, I focused on allowing the pencil to create the precise curves, warps, and crinkles in the metal; in the next exercise, on tearing sheets of paper to resemble the exact strokes of a Motherwell masterpiece.

Seeing and communicating detail is nothing like capturing the perfect, objective, almost-Platonic form I automatically look for "behind" or "within" what's in front of me.

Yet that's what accuracy requires--in thinking about Jesus, in relationships with those who are different, in simple sketches meant to get us out of our heads and into the world.

Seeing detail, being mindful of what's in front of us, can be difficult to do.

I wouldn't have acknowledged it until this afternoon, but too often, I--like many (Western, white, male, modern?) people--want to find the universal in the specific, the abstract in the particular, the essence in the idiosyncratic.

For me, it's a desire to identify and possess the perfect, but to keep my distance at the same time.

Too often the results (in art, in theology, in writing, in human interaction) are like a huge, shiny, deep red, supermarket apple that tastes like Styrofoam.

(cross-posted at www.spondizo.net)

Faces of God

GOD CHANGES APPEARANCES every second. Blessed is the man who can recognize him in all his disguises. One moment he is a glass of fresh water, the next, your son bouncing on your knees or an enchanting woman, or perhaps merely a morning walk.

Nikos Kazantzakis

Ego and Self

The ego and the Self dwell as intimate friends in the same body, like two golden birds perched in the same tree. The ego eats the sweet and sour fruits of the tree, while the Self looks on detached. For as long as you identify with the ego, you will feel joy and sorrow. But if you know you are the Self, the Lord of Life, you will be free from suffering; the supreme source of light; the supreme source of love. You will transcend duality and live in a state of Oneness.

-Mundaka Upanishad

Faith

Real faith is having complete trust in God. "It is the belief in the wisdom which comes from the Unseen." Such certainty can only be attained through the knowledge that emerges with divine help.

-Al-Hujwiri

Partnership with God

To exalt oneself is to claim partnership with God.
Unless you have died and become living through Him,
you are an enemy seeking to hold the power.
But when you have come to live through God,
that which you have become is in truth He:
it is no longer copartnership, but absolute Unity.


-Rumi, "Mathnawi"

Peace

Just understand that birth-and-death is itself nirvana. There is nothing such as birth and death to be avoided; there is nothing such as nirvana to be sought. Only when you realize this are you free from birth and death.

-Dogen, "Moon in a Dewdrop"

Soul-Work

Its all soul-work in this life on the planet. This means that everything related to Spirit and the vertical axis is designed to assist in the restoration and completion of the soul on its horizontal journey through space-time. There has always been a tendency to avoid the soul and its evoltuion in favor of "spiritual experiences" which take us away from the heavy-duty work of soul-making. Often focus on the development of consciousnes, and more importantly perhaps, being, was avoided in order to have transcendent experiences away from the day-by-day work that the soul must undertake.

It is certainly true that Spirit assists soul, for without such assistance, soul-work becomes narcissitic at best--a kind of myopic "navel gazing." But wisdom tradition recognizes that as we live our daily experience, what must be in focus is our praxis in the now that leads to the slow but inevitable evolution of the soul's journey into fullness of being and consciousness.

The Completed Human is one in whom that work has been done, and the soul is "saved" (or restored), vertical and horizontal axes held together in dynamic equilibrium. The contemporary sages who assist us on this pilgrimage are such writers and teachers as Pema Chodron, Kabir Helminski, Cynthia Bourgeault, and Eckhart Tolle. Each in his or her own way point to this essential and unremitting task giving us windows of insight into our own interior work. We are blessed to have their guidance.

Layers of Self-Consciousness

We are self-conscious creatures, and various spiritual traditions, among them Sufism, describe levels of self-awareness in interesting and important ways. Traditionally, Sufism describes seven levels of self-awareness (consciousness) in the following ways:

Nafs al-ammara: The commanding or obsessive-compulsive self, known in the Christian tradition as the "carnal mind," which is governed by our desires, passions, and instincts.
Naf al-lawwama: The accussative or blaming self which occurs when conscience is awakended and realizes the extent to which its actions are controlled by the first level.
Naf al-mulhama: The balanced self which marks the beginning of genuine spiritual integration when a person is freer from the tyranny of the ego and begins to be balanced by spiritual energies.
Naf al-al-mutma'inna: The tranquil self, or self-consciousness which experiences peace as a dynamic equilibrium, attaining a degree of detachment from the world and deeper awareness of the divine Presence.
Naf al-al-radiyya: The fulfilling self which is being is being filled with spiritual Presence, the prelude to union with divine Consciousness.
Naf al-maridiyya: The self of deep satisfaction because, in total submission, God is merging into the individual's consciousness.
Naf al-kamila: The completed self because consciousness is in a state of full union with the divine Presence, having attained cosmic or universal consciousness.

It is easy to imagine that as each of these layers is added, the rest would somehow disappear, but this does not seem to be the case. Each layer of conscious awareness does not disappear when one grows into the next, but continues to exist as a latent "operating systems" (Cynthia Bourgeault) that can be activated by certain triggers. What is difficult is that when they are triggered and come alive, in an activated state they wield influence over self-awareness once again. They were "dead" (not operating) perhaps for a time, but now they seem to have a life of their own. Indeed, this appears to be exactly the experience the Apostle Paul is describing in the seventh chapter of his letter to the Romans.

A spiritual and growing human being reflects this difficult complexity. Higher states of consciousness in a certain sense "complicate" our lives, and yet the passageway into a stable state at the higher levels of self-awareness is crucial if we are to become "completed" human beings, the full anthropos that the early Christian tradition talked about.