Grin

You aren’t much, I said
one day to my reflection
in a green pond,
and grinned.

~Mary Oliver, from “The Moths”

Guided by the Disasters of My Life

I got pushed by the disasters of my life onto the course, the course that I wouldn't have chosen.

~Karen Armstrong via Dharmalingam Vinasithamby

We, along with a couple of thousand others, heard Karen Armstrong last night here in Greensboro. I was heartened that so many are responding to her spirit journey, as though they too had joined a convent of tradition which they later left, renouncing a god that did not make sense to them, and that they too are putting their spiritual lives back together and seeing the possibility of a meaningful journey. She helps us see that spirit or whatever-you-call-it is leading us on an incredible course, often seemingly against our choice. ~jpc

Karen Armstrong 

Armstrong's Forthcoming Book

Karen Armstrong’s April 2006 book, The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions. Here is an excerpt:

In our global world, we can no longer afford a parochial or exclusive vision. We must learn to live and behave as though people in remote parts of the globe were as important as ourselves. The sages of the Axial Age did not create their compassionate ethic in idyllic circumstances. Each tradition developed in societies like our own that were torn apart by violence and warfare as never before; indeed, the first catalyst of religious change was usually a visceral rejection of the aggression that the sages witnessed all around them. . . .

I Know

There is nothing but water in the holy pools.
I know, I have been swimming in them.
All the gods sculpted of wood or ivory can’t say a word.
I know, I have been crying out to them.
The Sacred Books of the East are nothing but words.
I looked through their covers one day sideways.
What Kabir talks of is only what he has lived through.
If you have not lived through something,
it is not true.

~Kabir, “Five,” trans. Robert Bly

The Plane Comes in Low

Sun burning. The plane comes in low
throwing a shadow shaped like a giant cross that rushes over the ground.
A man is sitting in the field poking at something.
The shadow arrives.
For a fraction of a second he is right in the centre of the cross.

I have seen the cross hanging in the cool church vaults.
At times it resembles a split-second shot of something
moving at tremendous speed.

~Tomas Transtromer, trans. Robert Bly

Decisions, Decisions! 

Whence Strength?

You’re not born with strength. Strength comes from what you’ve been through.

~Shelethia Murray via Lynda Cock, “Finding Hope, Fighting Drugs,” news-record.com

Possibility and Necessity of Democracy

Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible; but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary. ~Reinhold Niebuhr via Terry Bergdall

Sheer Gift

If I live to be a hundred, I will have had over 36,000 days as sheer gift – nothing I created or earned. So let me open the gift, pick it up, get into it, and go to the dance, admission free. ~jpc

The Transformed Ego

[T]he ego occupies himself with his My: my . . . [kind], my race, my works, my genius.

~Buber, I and Thou, trans. Kaufmann

The transformed ego, in response to spirit, occupies itself with “Our”: our universe, our earth, our great work, our mutual genius. ~jpc

What Split?

What I have learned from Thomas [Berry] is that the split between the sacred and the profane is artificial.

~Bob Powell, meeting of the Center for Ecozoic Studies, June 2005, Greensboro, where Thomas spoke

Bob, via Thomas, puts his finger on the essence of Christianity, Judaism, and all religions I know anything about. As far as we know, the sacred -- along with everything else -- is only found in the profane universe. Holiness happens here and now, as Moses and Jesus came to remind us. Here's a good definition of "profane": holiness happens outside the temple. We go to the temple to ritualize what's really going on in this awe-filled universe journey. ~jpc

God Has No Name

Thesis 90: "God" is only one name for the Divine One. There are an infinite number of names for God and Godhead, and still God "has no name." ~Matthew Fox quoting Meister Eckhart

What is your most meaningful name for God that has no name? ~jpc

"I Didn't Forget You"

Simon Wiesenthal is dead at 96. He hunted down Adolf Eichmann and the man who arrested Anne Frank – and so many other Nazis.

"You're a religious man," Wiesenthal told his friend. "You believe in God and life after death. I also believe. When we come to the other world and meet the millions of Jews who died in the camps and they ask us, 'What have you done?' there will be many answers. You will say, 'I became a jeweler.' Another will say, 'I smuggled coffee and American cigarettes.' Another will say, 'I built houses.' But I will say, 'I didn't forget you.'"

~Adam Bernstein, washingtonpost.com, 9/20/05

The "Creation" Debate

[Dr. Scott] hopes to combat the idea that people must choose between science and faith – "that you are either a good Christian creationist or an evil atheist evolutionist."
~Cornelia Dean, “Challenged by Creationists, Museums Answer Back,” nytimes.com, 9/20/05

The Melting Pot of Salvation

[We all need the fundamentalists,] non-fundamentalists, mystics, ecosystem activists, unprogrammable artists, agnostic humanitarians, incorrigible writers, truth-telling musicians, incorruptible scientists, organic gardeners, slow food farmers, gay restaurateurs, wilderness visionaries, pagan preachers of sustainability, compassion-driven entrepreneurs, heartbroken Muslims, grief-stricken children, loving believers, loving disbelievers, peace-marching millions, and the One who loves us all in such a huge way that it is not going too far to say: [we all] need [each other for our] salvation. ~David James Duncan

First Non-believers' Lobbyist

In a recent Pew Research Center poll, 11% said they do not believe in God but do believe in a "universal spirit" or "higher power"; 3% said they do not believe in God or a spirit or power. In a separate question, 1% said they are atheists (those who believe there is no God), 2% said they are agnostics (those unsure whether there is a God), and 11% said they have no religious preference.

The no-preference category includes people "who may not be ready to declare themselves atheists or agnostics," Pew Director Andrew Kohut says.

Herb Silverman, president of the Secular Coalition for America, counts them as non-believers – part of "a 30-million-strong constituency that is informed about the issues and votes." [Now they have one lobbyist among tens for believers. Democracy is a strange and fascinating thing. ~jpc]

~Jill Lawrence, “Non-believers Raising Voice in Capital,” usatoday.com, 9/19/05

Gandhi's Religion and Patriotism

[M]y religion and my patriotism, derived from my religion, embrace all life. I want to realize brotherhood or identity not merely with the beings called human, but I want to realize identity with all life, even with such things as crawl on earth. . . . [A]ll life in whatever form it appears must be essentially one. ~Gandhi, article in Young India, 1929  

Storm's a coming!

Local Economic Development

A quick note on local economic development:
1. Assess what local resources and skills you have to start with.
2. Do field visits to look for markets, what is in demand and with in reach.
3. Start small to demonstrate success, to test the idea & build confidence.
4. Require investment of time, money, materials from the people themselves.
5. Then, supplement with small amounts of capital to learn economics.
6. Build support and accountability among a small group of venturers.
7. Be looking for and expect a breakthrough...when it comes, Move!
8. Don't let the effort depend on you. Pass on all responsibilities asap.
9. Connect the local effort to others in the area for economies of scale, globally for motivation, and the environment for sustainability.
10. Pray a lot...especially over the viability and integrity of the effort.

~Sherwood Shankland

Love Is a Relationship

Worldly wisdom thinks that love is a relationship [among humans]. Christianity teaches that love is a relationship between: [human]-God-[human], that is, that God is the middle term. ~Kierkegaard, Works of Love

I would say “human-spirit-creation, that spirit is the middle term.” ~jpc

Truth and Reconciliation

The only hope of breaking cycles of violence is by public acknowledgement of such violence and the exposure of those responsible for it. . . . Forgiveness cannot be granted without knowledge; and without forgiveness, there cannot be any meaningful reconciliation (adapted).

~Richard Goldstone, involved in the South African truth commission, and the war crimes tribunals in the former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda, from the Truth about Truth Commissions by Heather S. McHugh, Senior Research Analyst, March 1996

Wesley's Secret Formula for a Long Life

At age 85, John Wesley reflected in his journal on why he had enjoyed such a long and energetic life.

“To what cause can I impute this, that I am as I am? . . .

4. To my having constantly, for about sixty years, risen at four in the morning?
5. To my constant preaching at five in the morning, for above fifty years?
6. To my having had so little pain in my life; and so little sorrow, or anxious care?”

~The Journal of John Wesley

Eulogy for Robert Funk

In a world in which people's fears are increasingly expressed through fundamentalist religion, and in which killing hostility in the name of God is regularly hurled at one's enemies, Bob Funk called Christians to a new vision of what this faith can mean in the twenty-first century.

Few people have had both the ability and the energy to push the boundaries of traditional religious understanding the way Bob Funk did. With the Religious Right now dictating the policy of the White House and an inquisitional mentality firmly established in the Vatican, the work of Robert Funk and the Jesus Seminar has been a light in this new religious Dark Age.

~from Bishop J. S. Spong's eulogy, 9/14/05

Love Is a Verb

Love decides day-by-day, action by action.
Love beautifies, wonders, and frees.
Love demands and toughens.
Love blesses, even when it does not feel like it.

~Glenda Hope via David Zollars, adapted

The Art of Progress

The art of progress is to preserve order amid change, and to preserve change amid order. Life refuses to be embalmed alive. ~Alfred North Whitehead via T.C. Wright, Process and Reality

It seems obvious to preserve order in the Katrina situation. What change needs to happen to enhance new life in that situation to keep from embalming the living? ~jpc

The new New Orleans

Or could the new New Orleans be the first city of a new era, in which the demands of development and commerce are carefully balanced against the good of the land and, in the long run, the good of its people? ~Anna Quindlen, Newsweek, Sept. 19, 2005

THE Question

“The Christ decision [is] an election for or against life itself. The negative answer [is] at bottom a rejection of human existence as it is constituted” [Joseph Mathews]. . . . The twist here is that we humans are seldom aware of existence as it is constituted; we cover it up because it is bad to us the way it is, essentially. Some dynamic of life must come along and uncover what we cover up. ~jpc, The Transparent Event

The “Christ question” is not “Do you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?” The question is not “Would you rather have life or not?” The question is “Do you love life, and your life, the way it is?” The answer is not “Maybe” or “I’m not sure.” It is “Yea” or “Nay,” as Jesus said, or “Either/Or” as Kierkegaard wrote. Our answer is our basic confession about life: I confess that life – and my life – is _______. ~jpc

"Our Reality-Situation"

The anthropocentric [“considering human beings as the most significant entity of the universe,” m-w dictionary] worldview has become as untenably anti-scientific as it is anti-religious. It distorts all perceptions of our reality-situation. ~Frederick Franck via Herman Greene, What Matters: Spiritual Nourishment for Head and Heart

The Great Blue Heron

Now, many times when I am contemplating the Mystery of Life, or when my husband or I have important decisions to make, the great blue heron appears and reminds us to be strong, determined, self-reliant and true. He demonstrates the freedom that will come from being able to stand alone, as he swooshes onto the pond and then takes off spreading his huge wings wide as he soars above the pond and the trees unencumbered, free to fly. ~Roseanne Sands, from chp. 5 of her forthcoming book

The Enduring Salute [to 9/11]

By Jerome Charyn
nytimes.com, September 11, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/11/nyregion/thecity/11feat.html?adxnnl=1&8hpib=&adxnnlx=1126440157-8FC4angPRFeEtEDinlT8iA

A Day of Rededication

Speaking in Geneva, July 9, 1965, Adlai Stevenson declared:

“We travel together, passengers on a little space ship, dependent on its vulnerable reserves . . . ; all committed for our safety to its security and peace; preserved from annihilation only by the care, the work, and I will say, the love we give our fragile craft. . . . No craft, no crew can travel with such vast contradictions. On their resolution depends the survival of us all.”

And from a poem by Amy, “Ode to a Nation”:

“immortal spirit
prevails, breaking through the
haze, signal of future to come”

Ode To a Nation

today is our darkest hour,
smiles and sunshine all but gone,
fear and rage consumes all thought,
falling deep into the abyss
total chaos abounds, spread round
the world, but immortal spirit
prevails, breaking through the
haze, signal of future to come...
the sun and smiles slowly return
and courage sustains us all....

~Amy Elisabeth Carey (Poetry.com)

Celestial Existence

There are two ways of reaching the house next door. One is to travel all the way round the globe; the other is to walk a few feet. There are two ways of finding the heavens. One is to journey upwards and upwards. . . ; the other is to realize . . . our planet is already one of the company of celestial bodies. ~Alan Watts

The Poor Are "No Longer Invisible"

What was that about a rising tide lifting all boats? What if you don't have a boat? ~Eugene Robinson, washingtonpost.com, 9/9/05

Six Senses

The most precious element in life is wonder . . . which we may call the religious element in all life, even in a flea: the sense of wonder. That is our sixth sense. ~D. H. Lawrence

Maybe it is more true to say wonder is the first sense, followed by the other five. ~jpc

Happiest Course of Study

Students of philosophy and theology are the most satisfied in higher education, results of an official survey suggest. ~www.newsBBC.co.uk

State of Grace

When we experience consciousness of the unity in which we are embedded, the sacred whole that is in and around us, we exist in a state of grace. At such moments our consciousness perceives not only our individual self, but also our larger self, the self of the cosmos. The gestalt of unitive existence becomes palpable. ~Charlene Spretnak

Everything Else Is Commentary

A certain non-Jewish "wise-guy" came to scoff at the Torah. . . . Hillel . . . responded. "No problem! The main idea of the Torah is 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' Everything else is commentary. Now, if you're really interested, go and study the commentary." ~OU.org

And Jesus replied, "Tell me who is not your neighbor." ~jpc

What We Love

The things that we love tell us what we are. ~St. Thomas Aquinas

Red-headed Sisters

"Let's Leave God Out of It"

Your God is one with whom I am not familiar. . . .

Your God is one who you seem to believe watches over you and blesses you, and brings good tidings your way, while simultaneously letting thousands of people watch their homes be destroyed, and perhaps ten thousand or more die, many of them in the streets for lack of water.

God doesn't care who wins the Super Bowl.
God doesn't help anyone win an Academy Award.
God didn't get you your last raise, or your SUV.
And if God is even half as tired as I am of having to listen to self-righteous bastards like you blame the victims of this nightmare for their fate, then. . . .

But let's leave God out of it, shall we?

~Tim Wise, author of White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son

Labor Day Weekend Quotes (4)

Have a good Labor Day weekend. The following four quotes come from One Taste by Ken Wilber, Shambhala Publications, 1998.

September 3 -- Great Big Egos, Plugged In (I)

The great yogis, saints and sages accomplished so much precisely because they were not timid little toadies but great big egos, plugged into the dynamic Ground and Goal of the Kosmos itself. . . . [T]he sage who engages life with gusto, lives it to the hilt, grabs each wave of life and surfs it to the end this deeply, profoundly disturbs us, frightens us, because it means that we, too, might have to engage life. ~Ken Wilber, One Taste

September 4 -- They Started Revolutions (II)

Saint Teresa was a great contemplative? Yes, and Saint Teresa is the only woman ever to have reformed an entire Catholic monastic tradition (think about it). Gautama Buddha shook India to its foundations. . . . [T]hese men and women started revolutions in the gross realm that lasted hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years, something neither Marx nor Lenin nor Locke nor Jefferson can yet claim. And they did not do so because they were dead from the neck down. No, they were monumentally, gloriously, divinely big egos, plugged into a deeper psychic, which was plugged straight into God. ~Ken Wilber, Ibid.

September 5 -- Transcending Ego (III)

There is certainly a type of truth to the notion of transcending ego: it doesn’t mean destroy the ego, it means plug it into something bigger. . . . The small ego does not evaporate; it remains as the functional center of activity in the conventional realm. As I said, to lose that ego is to become a psychotic, not a sage. Transcending the ego thus actually means to transcend but include the ego in a deeper and higher embrace. . . . And that means we do not get rid of the small ego, but rather, we inhabit it fully, live it with verve, use it as the necessary vehicle through which higher truths are communicated. Soul and Spirit include body, emotions and mind; they do not erase them. ~Ken Wilber, Ibid.

September 6 -- Ego, a Manifestation of Spirit (IV)

Put bluntly, the ego is not an obstruction to Spirit, but a radiant manifestation of Spirit. . . . It is not necessary to get rid of the ego, but simply to live it with a certain exuberance. . . . The big Self is indeed no small ego, and thus, to the extent you are stuck in your small ego, a death and transcendence is required. Narcissists are simply people whose egos are not yet big enough to embrace the entire Kosmos, and so they try to be central to the Kosmos instead. ~Ken Wilber, Ibid.

Spirit Is Happening

from the heart of creation
whether it be
dinosaur or the latest e-

vent that invades consciousness
whether it be
a birth or catastrophe

spirit is happening
whether it be
now or then in eternity

~jpc, At One with the Heart of Creation

No Cripple

Aretha Robinson, Ray Charles’ mother: “Always remember your promise to me. Never let nobody or nothing turn you into no cripple.” A promise he made as a boy when she sent him away to the blind school and later in his drug rehab as he made that promise again to her in a dream and finally was given the power to stop heroin until death forty years later.

I ask myself what is trying to turn me into a cripple and what promises I have made to remain the free person I am created to be. ~jpc