Reality

Transience and limits are at the core of our nature, and you can consider that a curse or a blessing. Our lives are less than atomic flickers on the scale of the cosmos, but they would be equally infinitesimal if they lasted 10 million times longer, and they would still be infinitely precious to us. You have the chance to enjoy some morsel of the 10 (to the 14th power) years that the sun and the stars will last. You should.

--John Rennie

Grief

This morning, in Gary O'Connor's "Thought For the Day" he sent the following list which is most instructive:

"Our sadness is an energy we discharge in order to heal. …Sadness is painful. We try to avoid it. Actually discharging sadness releases the energy involved in our emotional pain. To hold it in is to freeze the pain within us. The therapeutic slogan is that grieving is the ‘healing feeling.’"-- John Bradshaw

"To weep is to make less the depth of grief."-- William Shakespeare

"There is no despair so absolute as that which comes with the first moments of our first great sorrow, when we have not yet known what it is to have suffered and be healed, to have despaired and recovered hope."-- George Eliot

"Seek not happiness too greedily, and be not fearful of unhappiness."-- Lao-tzu

"When the heart grieves over what it has lost, the spirit rejoices over what it has left."-- Sufi epigram

The Self

Know the Self as lord of the chariot,
The body as the chariot itself,
The discriminating intellect as charioteer,
And the mind as reins.
The senses, say the wise, are the horses;
Selfish desires are the roads they travel.
When the Self is confused with the body,
Mind, and senses, they point out, seem
To enjoy pleasure and suffer sorrow.

-Katha Upanishad

Praxis

One of the things I like to do first thing in the morning, before I even open my eyes is to say to myself, "Well, John Calvi, congratulations; you have another day in your life. What's your gut response to that?" I know that I'm at the top of my spiritual health and emotional well-being if my response to that is "Thank you", and if my response is not "thank you", I know I have some homework to do before I offer anybody anything. It's a good barometer; it lets me know how I'm doing.

Each of us has things that keep us strong. It's very important that we know what they are and that we make a daily practice of using them. People use all kinds of different things to keep themselves strong. Some people use running and swimming. Some people use playing bridge or playing chess. Some people use particular friendships or going to movies, going for walks. There are all different kinds of things we can use to stay strong.

You can use just about anything you want to give you joy and strength, but it should have two qualities to it. First it should be cleansing. Whatever it is you are using as a regular practice to stay strong must relieve you from you the burdens of that day. You need to let things go, to set aside the work of the day. This is absolutely vital. One of the nice things about swimming laps is that you cannot be called to the telephone to get called back to work! Sometimes this is very important!

Also, your practice must increase your capacity for concentration. As we become tired in the face of life's wounds, one of the first things that will be taken from us is our capacity to discriminate and deliberate and focus. It's absolutely vital that you increase your capacity for concentration so you can tell when things are not going well, so that you can tell the difference between your stuff and someone else's stuff, and so you know whether or not you're dealing with an actual crisis or just fear.

John Calvi, (edited) from The Dance Between Hope and Fear

Illusion

Our true nature is beyond all categories. Whatever you can conceive or imagine (about yourself) is but a fragment of your Self. Hence the real you cannot be found through logical deduction or intellectual analysis or endless imagining.

....Zen Master Yasutani Roshi

We live an illusion, the appearance of things. But there is a Reality. We are that Reality. When you understand this, you see that you are Nothing, and being Nothing, you are Everything.

....Kala Rinpoche

I am the ocean.
All the worlds are like waves.
This is the truth.
Nothing to hold on to,
Nothing to let go of,
Nothing to dissolve.

-Ashtavakra Gita

Spiritual Intelligence

This morning Randy Tieszen brought this wonderful interview to my attention, remarking that it showed an increasing interest in spirituality and spiritual intelligence in our age. It is an exchange with Charles Taylor who has just won the Templton Prize for contribution to religion in 2007. The whole interview is worth reading, but here is an exceprt.

JTF: In your 2007 Templeton Prize statement you spoke of "the deafness of many philosophers, social scientists, and historians to the spiritual dimensions." What do you think accounts for this deafness? Where is that deafness coming from?


CT: Well, we can go back and back and back ... the immediate cause is that people bought into a very simple narrative of secularization. Modernity – however you want to define it, be it economic growth or urbanization or science and technology, or the whole package – makes religion shrink. But that's not sufficient to explain it intellectually. For a long time people tried to explain the Reformation in economic terms, which is the same kind of deafness. So they buy very deeply into this narrative and I think we all live by narratives. And always have

link

Peace in Nature

EYES CLOSED, I let my ears take over,
giving full attention to sound:
crickets, birds, traffic in the distance,
wind through cattails,
even the soft in and out of my own breath
as it slows to nature’s pace.

I open my eyes to green—so many shades,
and the dried, golden color of hay,
cut and bound into large, tight rolls,
scattered about the field
like giant grazing beasts.

The gentle breeze on my skin,
the lumpy field beneath my feet,
the pure burst of sunlight in my mouth,
as I bite into a tomato fresh from the vine.

This is when life makes sense.

—Chris Heeter

Too Beautiful For Words

link

Death as an Advisor

The following is an excerpt from an article
on a near death experience by Julia L.

I was in my early thirties and had already acquired influence within the system, but then my auto accident intervened. I was on my way to a meeting. My friend Robin was driving. We were developing a deep friendship. It was a wonderful ride. It had been raining and was overcast. We were on the New York Thruway and suddenly this huge, eighteen-wheel truck backed up on the shoulder of the road into our lane. We were almost on top of it by the time we saw it because of the fog. We both knew at the same second. I could see from Robin’s actions that she knew there was no way we could avoid hitting the truck. We were going at highway speed, seventy miles an hour.
I didn’t have a life review, but I was certain I was going die. We were in a little Dodge compact car. I may have screamed, I don’t know. Robin swerved the car to the left to get away from the truck. The car went out of control and spun all the way around, hitting the truck on Robin’s side. I was told afterwards that she was killed instantly. The last thing that I remember was a loud noise, panic and then nothing.
Next, I found myself in a cave-like tunnel. I knew it was a cave because it had rocks and green moss on the bottom. And I knew it was a tunnel because there was light coming in from a great distance at both ends. We were in the coolness of what seemed like a long, underground cavern. And we were pretty much in the middle of the cavern. Robin and I were both there, and there was a presence there with us. It had no form but we were both aware of it. It felt safe, loving and wise.
We were shadowy. It felt like I was in and out of my body at the same time. I wasn’t talking to Robin. The presence communicated with us simultaneously, but without words. It described the experience we were about to have, told us that we were going to rise higher up than we could possibly imagine. We were going to go to a place that was beautiful and peaceful beyond what we had ever experienced on Earth. And we were going to be very happy there and without pain.
The presence also indicated that one of us was going to have to come down, and it was going to be very, very painful. Only one of us was going to have the strength to make that trip. I realized that it meant returning to the body. I wanted it to be me, but I felt guilty about that thought. Robin was a fabulous human being and I felt bad that I would return and she would not.
Then suddenly we were suctioned up like magic out of the cave until we were floating weightless in space. The water, air, and sun were flowing through us, between us, and all around us. We had no bodies, no pain, no past, no future.
It was a sensation beyond the senses. At the point that we were outside of the cave and into the light, we didn’t have bodies anymore. There was no shadow, nothing. Suddenly we were pure energy and pure light. It was white, healing, loving energy, and it was all embracing. It was also a perfectly comfortable temperature of water and air with everything flowing through and around us. Everything was part of everything. It was bliss.
There was nothing distinguishable, except the energy that had been Robin and the energy that had been me were connected in the light. I felt her peace. I had no memory of the tunnel, I had no memory of life, and I had no sense of time. So I couldn’t tell you how long I was there. While it was happening, it was just complete and utter oneness, stillness, peace, and nirvana, like being in the womb. It really is beyond description. It’s like nowhere on Earth.
So I no longer feel guilty for leaving Robin in that light. She was peaceful. I know that with absolute certainty, and I’ve been able to convey that to her mother. Whatever Robin had to do in her life, she had completed it. But I obviously wasn’t finished. I still had more work to do and more to learn. But it was not revealed to me. I think part of my work was to make that discovery for myself.
The Healing
My recovery has been an arduous process full of pain and confusion. But the payoff has been huge. It ultimately led to a transformation of my perspective on reality, my values and priorities, my sense of who I am, my connection to Creation, and the place within myself from which I take action in the world. So, though I never would have or could have chosen it for myself, the journey has been worth the price.
.....I was clear that I had a glimpse of God. I’m using the word God for lack of a better word, but I don’t mean the Judeo-Christian God. My experience is closer to an Eastern or Native American view of the circularity, balance and connectedness of the energy in Creation. I am clear to this day that I was in the presence of God. I had never had that experience before. Nor was I one of those people who felt the need for it. But suddenly there I was with this certainty deep within my being. I wondered what I was supposed to do with it.

The Self

The Self cannot be known by anyone
Who desists not from unrighteous ways,
Controls not his senses, stills not his mind,
And practices not meditation.
None else can know the omnipresent Self,
Whose glory sweeps away the rituals
Of the priest and the prowess of the warrior
And puts death itself to death.

-Katha Upanishad

The great teacher Prajapati said: “The Self is pure, free from decay and death, free from hunger and thirst, and free from sorrow. The Self desires nothing that is not good, wills nothing that is not good. Seek and realize the Self! Those who seek and realize the Self fulfill all their desires and attain the goal supreme.”

-Chandogya Upanishad

It is but few who hear about the Self
Fewer still dedicate their lives to its
Realization. Wonderful is the one
Who speaks about the Self; rare are they
Who make it the supreme goal of their lives.

-Katha Upanishad

Do not form views in the world through either knowledge, virtuous conduct, or religious observances; likewise, avoid thinking of oneself as being either superior, inferior, or equal to others. The wise let go of the “self” and being free of attachments they depend not on knowledge. Nor do they dispute opinions or settle into any view. For those who have no wishes for either extremes of becoming or non-becoming, here or in another existence, there is no settling into the views held by others. Nor do they form the least notion in regard to views seen, heard, or thought out. How could one influence those wise ones who do not grasp at any views.

-from the Sutta-nipata

Wabi Sabi

There is a tradition in the Far East and centered in Japan that honors the sacred nature of the natural order in its imperfection and incompleteness. It is called in Japanese wabi sabi. One definition of this aesthetic is the "beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete ... a beauty of things modest and humble ... a beauty of things unconventional" (L. Koren). But it is more than a definition or even an aesthetic, it is also a way of life connected to the art of living in a Zen way. Its roots are in traditional Taoism which honors the natural order as a sacred path. Its contemporary expression is in the teaching of Zen Buddhism. Here is a quote epitomzing that way of being which moves the aesthetic from the outside to the inside of our own being.

Instead of just grumbling about one's dire straits, detesting one's poverty, or even struggling to free oneself of this want, to conversely take such extremes of material hardship and to not be constricted by the material side, transforming it all the more into a new-found realm of spiritual freedom, to not get caught up in worldly values, but to enjoy a tranquility beyond the everyday world, this is the life of the true devotee to wabi -- Haga Koshiro

Thoughts on Fear

The horizontal axis of space-time is not an easy place. Often it is quite frightening. In reading Pema Chodron's excellent guide to life on this plane, Comfortable With Uncertainty, she makes the case that we are meant to "lean into our fears" instead of running away from them. As "Warriors of Compassion" we are asked to hold the fears we experience as a form of praxis. It is often difficult work. This morning Gary O'Connor posted his good "thought for the day" and I it stimulated the thinking and reflection I myself have been going through. Here are his excellent "thoughts" for your consideration:

"We can't fear the past. Fear is a future thing. And since the future’s all in our heads, fear must be a head thing."
-- Tom Payne

It helps to understand that fear is usually a projection into the future. We typically fear what MIGHT happen rather than what is happening now. Susan Jeffers notes that 90% of what we fear usually does not materialize. So replace your images of disaster on the TV screen in your mind with awareness of what is really happening. And don’t allow your thinking to change channels. "I have not ceased being fearful, but I have ceased to let fear control me."
-- Erica Jong

As Yeshua said to his students caught up in the midst of the stormy challenges of his day, "Peace! Shalom! Salaam!"

Unity

As the man and the woman in me
Unite in love,
The brilliant beauty
Balanced on the two-petalled lotus
Within me
Dazzles my eyes.
The rays
Outshine the moon
And the jewels
Glowing on the hoods of snakes.
My skin and bone
Are tuned to gold.
I am the reservoir of love
Alive as the waves.
A single drop of water
Has grown into a sea,
Unnavigable.

-Lalan

Descent Mysticism

The two complimentary halves of mystical experience along the vertical axis are ascent and descent. Naturally we look toward the hope of ascent (the attraction of upward gravity, as Cynthia Bourgeault expresses it), which is a part of our spiritual pilgrimage and the “hope of Glory” which shall be the end result of all our journeyings.

The complimentary half of descent, however, is crucial before one can fully know ascent. Descent has many aspects. One, of course, is the descent of Spirit, Logos, Light and Life from its Source at the headwaters of all being. We receive constantly the gift of such descent. We are its recipients on a daily basis.

But there is another aspect, and that is our own descent. From a visionary perspective, we have descended into time and space from our paradisiacal homeland. However, as Pema Chödrön tells us in her wonderful text, the Bodhisattva Warrior (the Warrior of Compassion) is called to descend further, deeper into the painful experience of this world. Deliberately choosing descent over ascent in order to taste the waters of compassion. She says in Comfortable with Uncertainty (p. 1-2):

On the journey of the warrior-bodhisattva, the path goes down, not up, as if the mountain pointed toward the earth instead of the sky. Instead of transcending the suffering of all creatures, we move toward turbulence and doubt however we can. We explore the reality and unpredictability of insecurity and pain, and we try not to push it away. If it takes years, if it takes lifetimes, we let it be as it is. At our own pace, without speed or aggression, we move down and down and down. … At the bottom we discover water, the healing water of bodhichitta. Bodhichitta is our heart—our wounded, softened heart. Right down there in the thick of things we discover the love that will not die.

In Christian terms, we are stepping out upon the pathway of kenosis, the self-emptying which was at the heart of the descent of the divine into human form. We also, with the Master, take that difficult pathway in space-time in order to bring the entire creation to the gates of Ascension.

Hidden Treasure

The most secure place to hide a treasure of gold
is in some desolate, unoticed place.
Why would anyone hide treasure
in plain sight?
And so it is said,
"Joy is hidden beneath sorrow."

-Rumi

Listening Practice

"The Kingdom of Heaven Is Within You"

All the answers to your questioning heart are right there inside you!

I offer here my methodology, which may work for you or you can develop your own:

You will need open-ended time with uninterrupted quiet.

Have a journal near you and a working pen.

Begin centering prayer, or any method for quieting the mind and body.

At some point once centered, enter into the Cave of the Heart.
One might envision this as a physical Temple, or Inner Sanctum,
into which one actually descends physically.
Envision the body actually entering this sacred space.

Begin to cultivate a receptive attitude of prayer in the Heart space.
Visualise a purification ritual, if you wish.
Generate a FEELING OF DEVOTION IN THE HEART:
GRATITUDE, FAITH, BLISS, PEACE.
Let these feelings flow from you as an offering of incense to the Lord.

Invoke ALIGNMENT with your higher self, your personal guides, and your spiritual masters (name them), Jesus Christ (Yeshua), and the Angelic Messengers, or Heavenly Host. This is a very important step.
One is asking to align one's vessel to receive these vibrations, these messages.

I often envision a doorway through which I go out into a forest scene to seek
my master, Jesus Christ (Yeshua), and enter into an enclosed space with other disciples.
Let visualizations vary according to need. Follow your intuition; it is very simple.

When you feel ready and receptive, open your eyes
and gently open your journal to a blank page.

Wait.
Listen.
Wait.
Listen.

In the silence a message may come.
It is rather akin to waiting for your eyes to become accustomed to
the dark: your spiritual ear becomes accustomed to the silence.

Write down what you "hear". As you write, the message will flow out of your pen, phrase by phrase.
Don't be discouraged if at first you only catch one word or phrase.
Practice opens the gates of communication incrementally.


Try not to insert yourself into the process. Let it flow.
Don't ask questions. Just trust that you will receive what you are meant
to receive. Your trust and faith like an incense rises.
Let the ego take a nap during this time. Don't rouse
the ego.

After practicing and getting good at listening to the still, small voice,
you can begin to ask questions you may have, and thus enter into a dialogue.
But don't at first. JUST LISTEN.

This is comparable to the same process an artist goes through when "downloading" an artistic vision, a poem, or anything creative.

Here is an excerpt from my journal concerning this process
as I was learning to become adept at listening:

February 28, 2002:

"Discipline the heart through listening practice--
the heart has its ear to the universe and knows the
true sound of My Voice. It is soft and barely perceptible,
but leads the Way to the doorways within. Be near, always near to Me
in thought, ear, feeling, and heart, for guidance is at hand....

...My child, you are most precious to Me.
The voice in the silence lies on the verge of being inaudible.
Make it audible, I pray you.
Carry the voices of the ethers into your heart and distill them.
Remember, your heart is the ear. The ear which is open shall hear.
Magnify the almost inaudible, so that it is once again audible
as it was in the heavens to all souls incarnate.
The incarnate soul must hear the songs of the silence.
The silence must resound with the vestiges of Spirit,
as it was in what is called the "Big Bang."
There is no true silence, just a continuum of vibrations
towards the most subtle. The more subtle the vibration,
the more beautiful it is, because it lies so close to silence,
which is holy and which exists only in God's presence.
The closer to silence is the vibration, then, the closer to God
it lies in bearing its truth, its witness to the holiness of the universe.
Search the subtle vibration--explore its range; use the
so-called "silence" to conjure the dreams of the soul's relationship
to God.
There is much uncertainty here--hence the need for purity--
purity of heart refines it as an instrument of listening:
the purer the heart, the closer to silence is its range of audibility.
Cast out uncertainties, therefore, and hear Me truly,
and truly I will speak to thee.

Go in peace and hear Me roar!"

Blessings of the silence be with you...

Awakening

As a blind man feels when he finds a pearl in a dustbin, so am I amazed by the miracles of awakening rising in my consciousness. It is the nectar of immortality that delivers us from death, the treasure that lifts us from death, the treasure that lifts us above poverty into the wealth of giving to life, the tree that gives shade to us when we roam about scorched by life, the bridge that takes us across the stormy river of life, the cool moon of compassion that calms our mind when it is agitated, the fun that dispels darkness, the butter made from the milk of kindness by churning it with the dharma. It is a feast of joy to which all are invited.

-adapted from the Bodhicharyavatara by Shantideva

Longing for the Divine

Our lifelong nostalgia, our longing to be reunited with something in the universe from which we feel cut off, to be on the inside of some door which we have always seen from the outside, is no mere neurotic fantasy, but the truest index of our situation.

C.S. Lewis