Evolution

The real surprises, which set us back on our heels when they occur, will always be the mutants. We have already had a few of these, sweeping across the field of human thought periodically, like comets. They have slightly different receptors for the information cascading in from other minds, and slightly different machinery for processing it, so that what comes out to rejoin the flow is novel, and filled with new sorts of meaning. Bach was able to do this, and what emerged in the current were primordia in music. In this sense, the Art of Fugue and the St. Matthew Passion were, for the evolving organism of human thought, feathered wings, opposing thumbs, new layers of frontal cortex.

— Lewis Thomas, from Lives of a Cell

Alchemy of Spirit

Our work in this world is about the transmutation of energies—the alchemy of Spirit. We are given the crucible of life and our own being within it to do this work—as in a laboratory. The energies we are given to work with are the vicissitudes of our own interior “climate” and our personal response to the world around us. For example we experience the emotions of anger, fear, sorrow, loneliness and anxiety. These are the “normal” reactions that we have in our intimate dealings with a troubled world—we cannot but have them. The transformation of these energies (the raising of them from a higher to a lower state), however, is the practice of the alchemy of Spirit. Such practice, however, can only take place in a new environment, that of Presence which we enter deeply within the chambers of our own hearts. When we willingly and voluntarily enter unconditioned Presence there, the possibility exists of a transmutation (or “vertical shift”) where, as John Welwood says, “… one moves from personality into a deeper quality of being, as a fixed constellation of observer/observed dissolves, along with all reactivity, contraction, or striving” (Toward a Psychology of Awakening, 120). Out of engaging such Presence anger can be transmuted into energies of strength, sorrow into compassion, fear into courage and groundedness, loneliness and anxiety into spaciousness and peace. It is in these different ways that pure Spirit is manifest in the human soul in daily life, right in the midst of our own experience.

Light

I observe the Buddha's treasury of light producing all oceans of lights: Whether sage or ordinary mortal, animate or inanimate being, none are not endowed with this body of light and openly demonstrating the function of this light. Root and branches are completely included, withdrawal and expansiveness are uninhibited, self-help and helping others are inexhaustible.

-Liao-an

Slovenia's Gandhi

Once in a while an individual comes to public attention that stands the values of contemporary culture on its head. Slovenia’s President, a recluse, is one such individual. Told he had cancer, Janez Drnovsek moved alone to the woods and embraced his inner spirituality. His Government despises him but he is has become a hero to his people. It is not often that you ask a European head of state whether he has "lost it," but in the case of Janez Drnovsek, Slovenia’s reclusive President, the question seems almost unavoidable--and his answers are interesting. They have to do a lot with our work.

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Thoughts on the End of the World

Here is an interesting article reflecting on the "End of the World" as a prophetic idea. It articulates well the ambiguity and the clarity of this sense that many traditions have had prior to our difficult age.

Mayan apocalyptic theories suggest that the end of the world is imminent. The multi-calendar society of the Mayan Empire predicts that December 21, 2012 will be doomsday. On winter solstice, for the first time in 26,000 years, the sun will align with the center of the Milky Way and some people believe that this will cause a reversal in the magnetic fields of the sun, causing a chain reaction on Earth. Possible results range from the Earth's rotation change causing massive floods, to the magnetic poles' reversal on Earth, which could act as a catalyst for many natural disasters that could destroy the planet.

Would you classify these doomsayers as utterly delusional? Keep in mind the moral message behind the apocalypse story, which is to treat nature better and achieve the honorability of leading a green life. There are so many outrageous beliefs today, ranging from UFOs to the end of the world as we know it. Why are we as a society so ready and willing to believe in theories? My take is that we want to believe. Not saying that all of society is as gullible as yours truly, but many of us want to have faith in the seemingly impossible.

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Conditions for Happiness

As long as there is a lack of the inner discipline that brings calmness of mind, no matter what external facilities or conditions you have, they will never give you the feeling of joy and happiness that you are seeking. On the other hand, if you possess this inner quality of calmness of mind, a degree of stability within, then even if you lack various external facilities that you would normally consider necessary for happiness, it is still possible to live a happy and joyful life.

-His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Yellow Meme?

All my life I have refused to be for or against parties, for or against nations, for or against people. I never seek novelty or the eccentric; I do not go from land to land to contrast civilizations. I seek only, wherever I go, for the symbols of greatness, and as I have already said, they may be found in the eyes of a child, in the movement of a gladiator, in the heart of a gypsy, in twilight in Ireland or in moonrise over the deserts.

— Robert Henri from The Art Spirit

The Spiraling Motion of Daily Life

In a remarkable book on the teachings of Ibn al-'Arabi there is this wonderful statement about the spiraling motion of daily life that we all experience. This teaching comes in a particular focus on discernment and how it is that we discern and come to see the signs of divine Guidance within the everyday, mundane details of living. Morris says that we are often blinded by the vast array of unconscious, unexamined, socially reinforced assumptions about what is or is not "spiritual."

For the act and the expression of spiritual discernment involves a constant interplay of seeking, then of receptivity and contemplation ("listening"), reflection, appropriate action, and then further observation and reflection on the consequences of that action and the challenges of the next destined situation of testing and learning--and so on, in a never-ending, yet never identical repeated ascending spiral. And this process is not something mysterious and esoteric, but something that we necessarily constantly practice, from infancy onward--most obviously and subtly, perhaps, in our intimate daily interactions with all other souls around us.
--James Winston Morris, The Reflective Heart, 180-181.

Orbs--What Kind of Reality?

If you pay any attention to "interest phenomena" then you probably have heard something about orbs--unexpected images that turn up on film. At first one would imagine that it is some sort of lens distortion, or other explainable contaminations to an otherwise good photograph... but it appears to be more complicated than that. "Earthfiles" has an interesting discussion of the phenomena that you might want to examine. It has implications for lots of things we are interested in as a community.

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Questions

The question from agnosticism is,
Who turned on the lights?
The question from faith is,
Whatever for?

--Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Convergences

Duane Bidwell, friend of this community, sent me the following link which describes a convergence between Christianity and Sufism taking place in a Disciples of Christ church in Seattle. For our purposes it is an interesting illustration of the meeting-points between traditions and how they can influence and shape one another.

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Religion vs Spirituality

I believe there is an important distinction to be made between religion and spirituality. Religion I take to be concerned with belief in the claims to salvation of one faith tradition or another--an aspect of which is acceptance of some form of meta-physical or philosophical reality, including perhaps an idea of heaven or hell. Connected with this are religious teachings or dogma, ritual, prayers and so on. Spirituality I take to be concerned with those qualities of the human spirit--such as love and compassion, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, contentment, a sense of responsibility, a sense of harmony, which bring happiness to both self and others.

-His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Who Am I?

Neither this body am I, nor soul,
Nor these fleeting images passing by,
Nor concepts and thoughts, mental images,
Nor yet sentiments and the psyche's labyrinth.
Who then am I? A consciousness without origin,
Not born in time, nor begotten here below.
I am that which was, is and ever shall be,
A jewel in the crown of the Divine Self,
A star in the firmament of the luminous One.

--Seyyed Hossein Nasr