Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Jordan--the Fourth Quartet

If its neighbor to the West, Israel, is tense and restless, then across the famous rift valley of the Jordan River, is its mirror opposite. Jordan, that little jewel of peace and stability, was also awash in flowers and Spring green displaying its beauty and progress as we visited its people and some of the most majestic archaeological treasures in the Middle East.

The country of Jordan is a charming place and a refuge for millions of displaced Palestinians and Iraqis who have been welcomed there without complaint, but putting a real strain on its fragile economy. Jordan has accepted these displaced people and tried to maintain positive economic growth in the face of such overwhelming challenges to a small nation.

Its present and past leadership, Kings Hussein and now Abdullah II, has been visionary and set the pace so that Jordan has become a stable state of progressive policies that has brought prosperity to the region and to its peoples.

We loved Jordan. Not only was it beautiful and friendly, it was also historic and full of wonder. Jordan was a part of the larger biblical lands of the ancient world, and so much that we read about happened there. Jacob wrestled with God near one of its northern rivers. Moses died and is buried there. Jesus was baptized there and traveled to many of its small towns.

Amman, the beautiful, “White City”, like Jerusalem, sits on seven great mountainous hills and gleams in shining marble and limestone. We visited ancient Jerrash, the commercial capital of the Romans in that region. Saw Black Irises growing wild. Toured the mosaic makers of ancient and modern Madaba, and became pilgrims to the magnificent ruins of Petra carved into the sandstone mountains of the South—a dramatic and breathtaking experience for all of us.

We were able to stand on Mount Nebo where Moses stood, on a clear day, and see the sweep of the Jordan Valley and the Mountains of Israel frm the Dead Sea nearly to the Sea of Tiberius. Again, breathtaking and visually stunning. On almost our last night in the Middle East we ate Bedouin style the national dish of lamb, rice and yogurt standing around large trays of food with our hands, and with our Jordanian hosts watching and applauding our efforts. Magnificent and priceless experiences.

Labels: , , , , ,

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The place of suffering

We fail to see the place of suffering in the broader scheme of
things. We fail to see that suffering is an inevitable dimension of
life. Because we have lost perspective, we fail to see that unless
one is willing to accept suffering properly, he or she is really
refusing to continue in the quest for maturity. To refuse suffering
is to refuse personal growth.
- Henri J. M. Nouwen

Monday, March 29, 2010

Heaven or Hell?

The wicked see this universe as hell, and the partially good see it as heaven, while the perfect beings realize it as God Himself. Only when a man sees this universe as God does the veil fall from his eyes; then that man, purified and cleansed, finds his whole vision changed.

~Vivekananda

The Golden Rule--from the east

What good is a man's knowledge unless it prompts him to prevent the pain of others as if it were his own pain? Any actions which a man knows would harm himself, he should not inflict on others. The supreme principle is this: Never knowingly harm anyone at any time in any way.

~Tirukkural

Israel--the Third Quartet

“Jerusalem, O Jerusalem,” the lament spoken by the Master, Yeshua, rang through my soul as we crested the mountains into the ancient City of Peace (lessness).

We entered the third quartest, Israel, in a dramatic fashion. Our bus and guide from Israel met us in the depths of the Jordan Valley, at the Alleny Bridge, and we climbed and climbed through the Judean desert into the mountains of central Israel. It was very dramatic visually, a steep ascent, and as we climbed the mountains grew green and vibrant. Just as we entered the City and our bus made its final turns into the City, our guide pointed out the window, “Look, the wall,” and there like a scar, a knife edge the high concrete barrier being built by the Israelis to separate the Jewish population from the Palestinians marched across the landscape. It hurt to see it. It really hurt—the barbed wire topped barrier, so reminiscent of an earlier Berlin Wall cut across the hills—the wall, a he scar, a knife-edge, not only tears the landscape and beauty of Jerusalem, it tears my soul. I carry it, somehow, inside now.

Jerusalem, our center for three days is beautiful, but troubled. It is a vortex, a swirl, and tense. Joe Bidden had just been there when it was suddenly announced that new buildings were going up on the Palestinian side to house Jews. A new synagogue in the old city was being dedicated the days were there, and security was everywhere, in particular, because a group of extremist Jews had also applied to lay a cornerstone on the Temple Mount for the rebuilding of the “Third Temple” (a project that evangelical Christians are egging on so that, in the end it too can be destroyed in the final battle of Armageddon so that Christ can then return).

So Jerusalem is like a lens, a microscopic lens—forces and theologies are all focused magnified on this one small spot on the earth, where tensions are high, and agendas of every kind swirl around challenging each other.

Despite everything we enjoyed what we saw and experience which was quite a lot. We spent a precious day in Galilee, visiting the home-sites of Jesus, which I will tell about later. We ate by the Sea of Galilee. We visited Nazareth, and Capernaum, and in Tiberias the tomb of the Jewish Philosopher, Maimonedes. We traveled back to Jerusalem that evening down the long miles of the Jordan valley, the ancient pathway taken by pilgrims and Jesus on their journeys to Judea and Jerusalem.

We toured the “the Holy” (al Quds) as the Arabs call Jerusalem, the next day, and got to know its ancient pathways, streets and quarters around the Temple Mount. We visited holy sites for the three Abrahamic faiths. We were swarmed with other pilgrims from around the world—Africa, Asia, South America, North America and Europe. It was a true United Nations experience on one small piece of land and intense.

The next day we left the swirl of the city and its pressures and tensions and went South into the Judean desert past Jericho, to the Dead Sea and the archaeological site of Qumran. At last it felt quiet and peaceful—I knew why our ancient ancestors left the populations and made their home in the peace of those wilds. We could feel our monastic roots there and the reasons for them. We, took, of course, the requisite swim in the briny and bitter waters of a shrinking Dead Sea. Making our way then, back up into the Mountains again, and to the wondrous outdoor market of Jerusalem, Mahane Yehuda, to feast our way through its falafel stalls and fruit sellers. Jerusalem, O Jerusalem!

Labels: , , , , , , , , ,

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Syria--the Second Quartet

Most of us in the West know of mysterious Syria, but it remains dark, enigmatic, even forbidden, and we are often told (or imagine) that Americans are unwelcome there. Nothing could be further from the truth.

If Lebanon is West and occidental, then Syria is East and oriental, and for us, offered an exciting opportunity for deep exploration. Early Christianity likewise had an East and a West, and so much of what is obscure and unknown in the West to us now happened there in oriental Syria.

We may remember that Abraham and Sarah traveled slowly down through Syria on their journey into Palestine. In fact, the city of Aleppo (meaning “white” or “milk”) gets its name from an incident remembered from the ancient past when Abraham gave needy residents there milk from his white camel.

Early Christians fled persecution in Jerusalem to find refuge in Damascus, only to be pursued by Saul-Paul who mysteriously met the presence of Jesus on the road there and was welcomed by Christians in that city. Followers of Jesus were first called “Christianos” in Antioch of Syria, and the oriental Gospels of Thomas, Mary Magdalene and Philip were apparently penned there. Present day Syrian Christianity thrives there to this day, and some towns and villages, among them Ma’lula, which we visited, still speak the ancient language of Jesus (Aramaic) there.

Syria welcomed us with open arms. Its people, generous, gentle, and warm, made us feel entirely at home and safe there. Full of sights and sounds that carry quintessential Middle Eastern flavors linger around every corner of Damascus, Aleppo, Homes, Hama, and many other towns, regions and villages, and made us want to stay and explore everything.

What we discovered were ancient Mosques and Churches, which welcomed us in. We visited shrine sites and the tombs of Ibn al-‘Arabi, and the Prophet Muhammad’s great granddaughter, Roqayya, where we met Iranian pilgrims visiting there. We chanted in ancient places of worship and prayer where the sounds of our own harmonies spilled over to be enjoyed by others. We ate the most delicious Middle Eastern foods imaginable (among them camel kebob), and spent time exploring markets and bazaars and souks, and citadels. It was a magical swirl for us to be highlighted by a special invitation into the home of our Guide, Walid, where we shared a delicious Syrian meal with new friends. We bought brocades and head-dresses, rugs, spices, desserts, and fruits, and want very much to return to this new “oriental home” of ours.

Labels: , , , , , , ,

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Lebanon--the First Quartet

I had seen Lebanon years ago when it was considered the Crown Jewel of western culture on the shores of the Mediterranean and the Arab world. Then, before the civil war which tore it to pieces, it was the capital of western luxury and decadence, where the rich from the Middle East and Europe went to play.

But even then, beneath the surface and the façade of this “little jewel,” Lebanon seethed with tension and intrigue. It had been created as a colonial protectorate when it was seized by the French from Syria after the first world war. It was a polyglot nation supposedly half Christian and half Sunni Muslim, with the Christian arabs in the driver’s seat, from which one vast population (the Shiite minority) were excluded and shunted aside and forgetting. All of this was a “fiction” maintained by political ambition, and a small spark set the volatile mix into an explosion of civil war that lasted for more than a decade. It is now almost two decades since the war subsided and the pieces completely rearranged.

Lebanon has settled into anew, more equitable configuration. It has rebuilt itself remembering the lessons of power, balance, and equity. It would say it has recovered itself and its identity and now sees itself proudly as a nation of disparate peoples, cultures, religions and factions learning to live in a new balance.

Today there are Christians Muslim, Druse and even Jews living together with a new respect for one another. Lebanon is a microcosm of what the western world, in its idealism, must continue to be--eastern and western pluralism, created by the ideals of a secular democracy managing the inevitable paradoxes and tensions. Its face is to the West, but it remains a Middle Eastern country aware of its past, but moving into the future as a kind of wise, modern guide-star.

We not only enjoyed the new Lebanon, the Churches meeting all over the city on Sunday morning—entering into more than one liturgy, and then the Mosques which opened and invited us in, but also the layers of history and civilization going back ten millennia to the roots of our Phoenician ancestors living on the shores of the Mediterranean basin at the ancient site of Byblos. Later we visited the mysterious and magical site of Baalbek, now a Roman ruin, built with great power high in the Mountains, on a platform of stone left by “someone” who moved the largest hewn stones in the world (some 1,200 tons each) and erected a platform upon which the Romans later built. We left that sight in awe and wonderment, and crossed the borders into the second quartet.

Labels: , , , , ,

Friday, March 26, 2010

The Four Quartets of Middle Earth

I want you to imagine our recent pilgrimage through the Middle East (or Middle Earth) as a journey through “four quartets” (to use T.W. Eliot’s image). Our travels took us through the first quartet, Lebanon, the second, Syria, the third, Israel, and the fourth, Jordan. If you set these up as a grid, taking a square and dividing it into four blocks—the upper left block is Lebanon (1), the upper right block is Syria (2), the lower left, is Israel (3), and the lower right is Jordan (4)—which is the order we explored these quartets. And if you imagine the left half (1 and 3) to be “occidental” in nature, and the right half (2 and 4) to be “oriental” in nature, you would begin to have a feel for what we experienced.

These divisions, though somewhat arbitrary, actually do, in fact, correspond to a cultural and historical reality that we find reflected even in our most ancient spiritual and biblical texts. The Abrahamic faiths, and in particular Christianity, exhibits just these characteristic features—an upper and lower “occidental” nature, and an upper and lower “oriental” nature. As we traveled, I realized that in some interesting way we were, in fact, recapitulating and experiencing these aspects in real time as “flavors” of our own faith tradition.

I will explain this in subsequent entries, but for now imagine that the Christian West and the Christian East are like two halves of historic Christianity, and that their division from one another has run like a fissure throughout history and the faith. There differences are real and holding them together (like one might imagine the right and left hemispheres of the brain) makes a complete whole through which one can both think and experience a larger totality. It felt like that to me, and I was glad that we experienced the four in that order so there was plenty of comparison and contrast, not only between the various countries, but also between the historic and even current aspects of our faith. For me, at least, to see it through this lens made the trip metaphorically full as we traversed this sacred ground of “middle earth.”

As you wish to be

Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be
since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.
- Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471)

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Pilgrimage as Metaphor

Upon reflection, after the experience itself, it becomes perfectly clear to me that every journey we take as a conscious act is simply a metaphor for the larger fact of our own earthly pilgrimage as the “greatest journey of all.” We are making a sacred journey, called “Life-Pilgrimage” and because its so large, so intense, so all-encompassing it is all too easy to loose sight of the fact that it is the purpose for our existence here in space and time.

When you take a two-week plunge into another place, another culture, another history, another time, it intensifies the experience of what pilgrimage actually means. You leave home, the comfortable, the known, and you enter the unknown as a swiftly flowing stream of events over which you have very little control. You simply have to “move with the flow” of things and allow everything to unfold. You can stay rigidly tied to your set of personal expectations, or you can release yourself into the new and unexpected—allowing the new story of the adventure to open itself and carry you along.

In that state of openness what you see is that all journey, especially life itself, is a form of “intensification” – things become focused and intense. Things are no longer theoretical, it is this place, this moment, this time that brings you face to face with the realities of yourself. You real-ize existence; meaning, it becomes real inside of you. You internalize something. It becomes reified in-being… you are now carrying the experience within in a new way.

This was certainly true of our experience of the Middle East. It was no longer a theoretical construct, an abstraction. That place, that people, that culture is now inside of us. We carry it around, and it is real to us in a way that no reading about it abstractly or some theorectical teaching concerning it will ever encompass.

You see that’s what life is. We are already “on pilgrimage” here on earth … and we often forget that until we do something like “make a trip to the Middle East” – then we remember what is going on. So then, when we leave earth-experience, we will be carrying something precious and irreplaceable from this passageway. And it will even be more intense, more true and more real, if as we did these last weeks, “wake up,” reach out, take it as a conscious act, and make it our own.

As we journeyed together across these lands and days, I was powerfully reminded of “what the truth is” for all of us… and that wakefulness and attention to what is happening is an incredibly useful and precious element in the present pilgrimage called Life that we are each making.

What we ought to do next.

Only those who try to live near God and have formed the habit of
faithfulness to Him in the small things of our daily life, can hope
in times of need for that special light which shows us our path. To
do as well as we can the job immediately before us, is the way to
learn what we ought to do next.
- Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941)

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

God as Mother

“with the nurturing of a mother,
You wrapped my soul in warmth.
tucking me in safely,
Yyou reminded me to trust.
staying right beside me,
You allowed me to be.
gently guiding,
ever soothing,
You love me into living.”

~terri st. cloud

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Essence

I am the Word of God living through His Essence. I am the Food of the soul, the Spirit of purity. I am the Fountain of the Water of Life. I deliver the lovers of God from death. If your greed had not raised such a stench, God would have poured a remedy of water on your graves. I accept the warning of the Sage; I will not allow my heart to be sickened by ridicule.

- Rumi

Thoughts on Pilgrimage

Travel and pilgrimage of any kind, no matter where it is, is always a kind of metaphor--a metaphor of Spirit. We just returned from a "two-week" intensive on the art of pilgrimage which taught us much, not only about the Middle East, but about life itself. To the people the world over, pilgrimage is a sacred act, a spiritual exercise, a pathway to find the source of meaning or, perhaps, a place of healing or guidance. Always, it is a journey of both risk and renewal, for a journey without challenge has no meaning for us, and one without purpose has no heart or soul, says Philip Cousineau.

We undertook what many in the Middle East call a “haj,” the Arabic word for pilgrimage. It is not simply traveling to "another place" or a "new land," it is more direct than that. Journey as pilgrimage is a physical, mental, and spiritual act which takes us on a journey from mindlessness to mindfulness, from soulessness to the Heart. We made what was for us a transformative pilgrimage to sacred centers in the Abraham Traditions. We visited many holy sites associated with saints, sages, heroes, and gods in settings that are still known today for their spiritual power. The “art” of our pilgrimage together was not simply to visit these sites, but to connect with what is sacred there, which meant that on some level, at least, we prepared ourselves for a kind of knowing or experience that allowed us to "see" from an interior perspective, and not just from the obvious differences that appeared on the surface of things.

"Feed my sheep"

I wish they'd remember that the charge to Peter was "Feed my
sheep," not "Try experiments on my rats," or even "Teach my
performing dogs new tricks."
- C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), "Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer"

Monday, March 22, 2010

Highlights of An Amazing Trip

A group of twenty of us just returned from a full and fulling two-week trip to the Middle East visiting four countries: Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Israel. In the following days and weeks I will journal insights that I feel folk might want to hear about, or that seem important for our larger pilgrimage through life. But the experience of returning "home" to the Middle East for Jackie and me, at least were almost magical. Our immediate impressions were these:

* The trip exceeded our expectations in every way. Each country was a different experience and as we entered those lands and interacted with their peoples we learned and saw so much.
* The Middle East was visually beautiful and even dramatic. Winter rains had brought good water to the region and it was Spring and green, with wild flowers everywhere, so it was stunning to see, at times. Also I was impressed not only with the beauty, but with the dramatic vistas and elevations of land. We were in the heights of the Mountains of Lebanon, and visited the lowest place on earth at the Dead see. We could see miles after a day-long dust storm from Saudi Arabia had settled and a cold "Norther" had brought clear skies on Mount Nebo, where Moses had looked across to Palestine.
* The peoples of Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan were gracious and welcoming. Syrians especially were thrilled that we had come and kept saying, "tell your people" we would love to have more from your country visit us. We like Americans. There was never any sense of danger or threat, except for the tensions swirling in and around Jerusalem.
* Israel was tense, and less welcoming we felt, and it was interesting that as we came back to Jordan from Israel, we felt a sense of relief and being welcomed back into something more familiar. (More on Israel later).
* Our group had read Rick Steves' text: Travel as a Political Act which encourages travelers to not simply be tourists, but to enter the whole experience of a country and interact directly with its people in every way. Our group of twenty were amazing in that they did exactly that. We talked to folk everywhere, and felt their openness to us. People were curious about us too, wondering just who these "friendly Americans" were. One of our guides said that someone asked him, "Are you sure they are not Canadians?" We took that as a compliment.
* We felt the warmth of people, the deep human need for contact and personal interaction, and a spiritual drawing to many folk all along the way. Our conversations were intense and good... and in some ways our group became "good will ambassadors."

These are simply "first impressions" but wanted to put them out there as a context for what shall come later.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

I am a fountain, You are my water

By Zeynep Hatun
(15th Century)
English version by Murat Yagan

I am a fountain, You are my water.
I flow from You to You.

I am an eye, You are my light,
I look from You to You.

You are neither my right nor my left.
You are my foot and my arm as well.

I am a traveler, You are my road.
I go from You to You.

If you have not discovered it yet, I highly recommend The Poetry Chaikhana website, which is a huge repository of Wisdom poetry and other resources. Ivan M. Granger, who runs the site, is a man of deep wisdom. His commentaries on the poetry are amazing. I receive his (somewhat) daily emails, and they have been crucial to my spiritual journey over the last couple of years. www.Poetry-Chaikhana.com

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Reality and Meditation

Reality as it is becomes the right view of the meditator. Thinking of it as it is becomes the right thought. Awareness of it as it is becomes the right awareness. Concentration on it as it is becomes the right concentration. Actions of the body and speech are then aligned to reality as it is. In this way the meditator develops and is fulfilled.

- Majjhima Nikaya

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

A stranger and exile for the love of God

"I am Patrick, yes a sinner and indeed untaught; yet I am
established here in Ireland where I profess myself bishop. I am
certain in my heart that 'all that I am,' I have received from God.
So I live among barbarous tribes, a stranger and exile for the love
of God."
- St. Patrick

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Teach me to listen

Lord, teach me to listen. The times are noisy and my ears are weary
with the thousand raucous sounds which continuously assault them.
Give me the spirit of the boy Samuel when he said to Thee, "Speak,
for Thy servant heareth." Let me hear Thee speaking in my heart.
Let me get used to the sound of Thy voice, that its tones may be
familiar when the sounds of earth die away and the only sound will
be the music of Thy speaking. Amen.
- A. W. Tozer

Friday, March 05, 2010

In times of uncertainty

In times of uncertainty, wait. Always, if you have any doubt, wait.
Do not force yourself into any action. If you have a restraint in
your spirit, wait until all is clear, and do not go against it.
- Anonymous

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Being Unattached

It is hard to find a man who has desire for what he has not tasted, or who tastes the world and is untouched. Here in the world some crave pleasure, some seek freedom, but it is hard to find a man who wants neither. He is a great soul. It is hard to find a man who has an open mind, who neither seeks nor shuns wealth or pleasure, duty or liberation, life or death. He does not want the world to end. He does not mind if it lasts. Whatever befalls him, he lives in happiness, for he is truly blessed.

Ashtavakra Gita

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Global Shift



I apologize for this particular "Amazon" image, but I wanted you to get a visual sense of this very important new text. It was introduced to me by Michael Lilja in Minnesota a week ago. I purchased it immediately and have found it to be a very valuable resource in determining where we presently are, and where we are going as a community. I believe this text is the best summary I have seen, but is clearly reflecting many other texts and authors on the subject of the global shift that is occurring all around us. I highly recommend this text to you.

Monday, March 01, 2010

Asleep-Awake

We move through these two states on a daily basis. We know by experience what sleep is. We know also what it means to be awake. Traditional teaching, especially the teachings of Jesus, uses these two ordinary states of being and consciousness as metaphors for a higher reality—an inner reality of being and consciousness.

It seems to me, looking at our list of Jesus’ teachings and practices that everything else is dependent on the interior facts regarding these two spiritual states. To be spiritually asleep is also to be “dead to the Kingdom of Heaven.” When we are sound asleep at night people often say, “He or she is dead to the world.” That’s the truth. It is as if the other world, the wider world, the higher world of space-time does not exist for us. We are completely in thrall to our unconscious world. Consciousness and being are not awake to what is outside the unconscious and therefore cannot respond to or act within the world of space-time reality.

Thinking, then, of the list that we are pondering this year, I would make the case for this aspect of spiritual practice to be at the foundation of everything else, because everything else depends upon it. The question is, do we know what these two states mean for us in a practical way? What does it feel like to be “asleep” spiritually? What does “waking up” feel like inside our experience? Is this a once in a lifetime change, or do we go through cycles of sleep and awakening over and over again? How can we tell when we have fallen back to sleep? How would we define that inner state of being and consciousness spiritually? How would we be able to detect it in ourselves? What or who awakens us and how does that happen? How does one stay awake? Could you notice yourself going back to sleep? What are the signs? How can you help yourself stay awake? These are all aspects of spiritual practice, and very practical. We cannot have a significant understanding of the work of Jesus unless we have a significant grasp of what this means for each of us personally, perhaps even on a daily basis.

Give some serious consideration to these questions. Explore your practice.

Labels: , , ,