Real Compassion

Last week the Dalai Lama said, “I knew a Tibetan monk for a long time. He was taken away to a Chinese gulag and kept there for 18 years. When he was released he fled to India, along with other Tibetans, for refuge.” He continued calmly, “I met him and asked him about his experiences in prison.” The monk replied, “At times I was in great danger.” “What kind of danger?” asked the Dalai Lama. “I was in danger of losing my compassion towards my Chinese captors,” he replied. “Now, that,” spoke the Dalai Lama, “is Buddhism.” ~Sagari Chhabra, Times of India, 1/20/07, via Koshin (Bob Hanson)

We pray for deep compassion. Namaste.

image: I thought of Bonhoeffer praying for his captors before being hanged www.ushmm.org/bonhoeffer/b1.htm

Love Is Between

Feelings dwell in a person; but a person dwells in love. That is no metaphor, but the actual truth. Love does not cling to the I . . . but is between the I and Thou. . . . Love is responsibility of an I for a Thou. ~Martin Buber, I and Thou (tr. Smith), p. 14-15 (adapted)

Love is more a relationship than a feeling. It is a state of being related, and where we see love we see mutuality happening – be it between humans, a human and the earth, or an I and eternal thou. ~jpc

If you love me you won’t use me or try to possess me. Namaste.

image: cousin Martia Bennett leading an Asheville area event

Filling 'er Up and Pouring 'er Out . . .

Huston Smith writes about the four stages of life according to Hinduism (Illustrated World’s Religions, pp. 40-1): first, student; second, focus on family-vocation-community; third, retirement (after first grandchild, working out one’s philosophy of life); fourth, renunciation (can live any-where). In the final stage, say past 60, one begins to see through knowing and doing to the good (holy) life. ~jpc

Filling ‘er up and pouring ‘er out, four times over. Namaste.

image: painting by longtime friend Nora Robinson McNeill

Sunday Dialogue (XXXVIII)

Journer: How can we believe “anything’s possible” when global warming, terrorism, HIV/AIDS, nuclear buildup, and poverty are confronting us daily?

Nez: My student* wrote, “I dwell in possibility.”

Journer: I wish I did.

Nez: The Sun will not come up tomorrow, Journer, because it never goes down.

______
* Emily Dickinson, “I Dwell in Possibility” (c. 1862)

image: Sun www.laughtergenealogy.com/.../thumbs-ss.html

Bow To and Evolve What Is

There are two principles inherent in the very nature of things, . . . the spirit of change, and the spirit of conservation. There can be nothing real without both. ~Alfred North Whitehead, Science and the Modern World, p. 201, via Herman Greene

To “bow to” what is and to “evolve” what is are our two ways to be deeply human. ~jpc

We’ll never run out of something to do. Namaste.

image: "Evolve" keiththeriot.com/artwork/Evolve.htm

Sudden, Messy, Wonder-filled

After standing for nearly a century, the twenty-five-foot Saguaro cactus appeared to be history – over three tons of once vertical, lime green flesh now lies prone in our side yard. . . . Our community’s Green Team has wisely chosen to let the giant decay naturally. . . . We have been privileged to witness life, death, after life, and new life writ large in our side yard. Thanks be for continuing reminders of the sudden, messy, wonder-filled way life is. ~Judy Lindblad (on this list), EarthRise reflection, 1/22/07

I immediately thought of how life keeps changing forms and never going out of being. I have lived long enough to know that my death, too, will be a “sudden, messy, wonder-filled way life is” event. Hope they scatter some of my ashes in the side yard. ~jpc

Eternal life – past, present, and future. Namaste.

The Likes of Whom

2008 [Presidential election] will represent a hinge moment . . . because this will be the first cycle when a whole new range of issues . . . will be front and center: Iraq, the war on terror, global warming, energy, technology and globalization. ~quote of Chris Lehane in “Shushing the Baby Boomers,” John M. Broder, nytimes.com, 1/21/07

We need leaders who can galvanize our fractured nation and whose style of leadership will demonstrate we will serve the globe. Candidates for President should have the leadership style, the deep appreciation of diversity, and the global experience of the likes of a _____________. Who heads your list at the moment and why? ~jpc

Let us start praying for/working to elect leaders our nation and our globe need and will follow. Namaste.

Messiah's Job

The Messiah’s job is to break . . . ritualized institutional containers to bring the savage immediacy of God back into reality. This is why you constantly have religious reformations. Buddha, when he came along, was clearly rebelling against a highly institutionalized Hinduism that had lost its verticality. Jesus, at the time, was rebelling against a very horizontal Judaism in which there was the law, but the spirit was gone. ~Robert W. Godwin interview, “The Only Journey There Is,” WIE magazine, Jan-Mar 2007

“Messiah” is about reuniting us with “God,” – whatever you call that mysterious power – in spite of religious institutions, even. ~jpc

Thankful that messiah never stops coming. Namaste.

image: the Buddha Tree, Thailand, c. 1300's http://www.philip-sen.com/graphics/114.jpg

Supernatural Election

This isn’t natural selection; I call it supernatural election. That’s how the vertical operates. . . . “I’m picking you. . . .” ~Robert W. Godwin interview, “The Only Journey There Is . . . ,” WIE magazine, Jan-Mar 2007

Vertical grace, in the midst of our horizontal physical existence, often lets you and me know we are chosen. ~jpc

When was the last time you were chosen, and knew it? Namaste.

image: Dr. Paul Farmer in Haiti http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1472188

Physics and Abounding Grace

Just like the horizontal contains energies – the energies of physics – the vertical contains energies – the energies of shakti, grace. Any spiritual practice is about opening up to that vertical energy. ~Robert W. Godwin interview, “The Only Journey There Is,” WIE magazine, Jan-Mar 2007 http://www.wie.org/j35/godwin.asp?page=1

Amazing grace, ten thousand times,
has touched the heart of me;
I once was lost but now am found,
was blind but now I see. . . .

When we’ve been journeyed all our days
by grace till breath is gone,
we’ll no less yearn to sing its praise
than when we’d first begun.

~John Newton, adapted by jpc (By Cosmic Design: Spirit Poems, 2006)

Namaste.

image www.wholeo.net/Trips/Art/MR/glass/mrExpCons.htm

Sunday Dialogue (XXXVII)

Nez: The past is approved.

Journer: How do we begin to believe that? Is the death of 6 million Jews at the hands of the Nazis approved, for goodness sake?

Nez: My student* wrote, “You will come to see that all evolves us.”

Journer: Evolution exacts an absurd price sometimes.

______
* Rumi, “That Lives in Us,” in Love Poems From God, Daniel Ladinsky

image: mass grave at Bergen Belsen concentration camp 1945

One Who Has Come Through . . . Again

I watched in horror as ego-self sabotaged meditation
and tried to do a flanking maneuver on Ultimate Silence.

Once again it sought a mental construct,
a world view that made sense,
that allowed it to “know good and evil,”
and to be able to pass judgment on all experiences and encounters.

Ego-me sought after a sure way to know the length of my life
and the reputation I would leave as my legacy.
When such knowledge would not come,
ego-me took refuge in despair and cynicism. . . .

I repented and embraced once again
the absolute unknowable nature of life in every NOW moment
that is not bound by the past or doomed to some planned future. . . .

Even at the moment of my death,
let me embrace and be embraced by unswerving trust
that Life as it was, is, and ever shall be is good. . . .

~Harold Slater (on this list), from his meditation on Psalm 30, 1/5/07

Namaste.

image http://www.flickr.com/photos/blainedavis/146954831/

A Humanly Divine Act

. . . Forgiveness lets go of
our self’s (ego’s?) sense of
brokenness, separateness, and violation –

Restoring
our Self’s sense of
mystery, greatness, and depth. . . .

~Don Bushman, 12/2006

Not only does forgiveness reunite us with ourselves, sometimes, but also with others . . . and with divinity. Is it any wonder that forgiveness is one of our holiest acts? “To err is human, to forgive, divine.”* ~jpc

We pray for the courage to forgive. Namaste.
______
* Alexander Pope, “Essay on Criticism,” I. 522

image: public forgiveness at truth and reconciliation gathering in Rwanda www.visiontv.ca/RememberRwanda/Photogallery/Pics/

Nothing More Beautiful

[M]y sense of the world as a gift, my sense of a grace operative in this world despite its terrors, propels me to allow the world to open my heart . . . even if the openness comes by breaking – for I have seen the whole world fall into a few hearts [Mother Teresa’s prayer: “May God break my heart so completely that the whole world falls in”], and nothing has ever struck me as more beautiful. ~David James Duncan http://www.oriononline.org/pages/om/05-4om/Duncan.html

Salvation does not come by keeping the law but maybe by such God-broken hearts that embrace creation as is . . . as good. ~jpc

Watch out praying for salvation. Namaste.

image nickys.web-log.nl/.../index.html

Evening Prayer

. . . I pause in this moment at the beginning of my old age
and I say a prayer of gratitude for getting to this evening

a prayer for being here, today, now, alive
in this life, in this evening, under this sky.

~David Budbill, from “Winter: Tonight: Sunset,” www.writersalmanac.publicradio.org, 1/03/07

Gratitude for coming this far, living this long, sure, but much more: a prayer of gratitude for “being here, today, now, alive in this life, in this evening, under this sky” – a prayer for this moment in this life. ~jpc

O to be alive. Namaste.

image www.commonprayer.org/offices/even.cfm

Miracle Word and Style

Helen Keller’s father: [Miss Sullivan,] I think you ask too much of her and yourself. God may not have meant Helen to have the eyes you speak of.
Annie Sullivan: I mean her to.

Helen’s half-brother: Sooner or later, we all give up, don’t we? Annie Sullivan: Maybe you all do, but it’s my idea of the original sin.
Half-brother: What is?
Annie Sullivan: Giving up!

~“The Miracle Worker” (1962 movie); William Gibson (play)

Helen’s father, half-brother, and others were not the miracle worker. Their word and style dared miracles to happen. ~jpc

O to be servants of miraculous power. Namaste.

image: Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke in the movie

Salute the Dawn

We flew millions of miles to be
Invited to live with the poor
Sitting at their feet to learn their
Secrets to living on the edge
Of mundane daily existence.

In many third world villages
They were not planning the future
So much as living in the now
Shooing animals and babies
While sweeping their dirt lawns till clean.

Though they lived many fewer years
And had much less education
Their spirits were not dependent
Upon the things of this world so
Much as the mystery of life

Which taught them to live the moment
To see the wonder and the gift
Of whatever they had at hand
While waiting for the sun to rise
To once again salute the dawn.

~jpc, 1/04/07

I am hardly as wise as they. Namaste.

image www.cafod.org.uk/.../sudanese_village_life_ks1

Sunday Dialogue (XXXVI)

Journer: Should I allow myself to think much about death?

Nez: My student* asked: “Have you built your ship of death . . . for you will need it.”

Journer: That sounds morbid.

Nez: Hardly, just a construction job every creature’s given at birth.

______
* D.H. Lawrence, “The Ship of Death,” DHL Selected Poems, p. 139

image: (courtesy Christie's) www.forbes.com/2001/09/26/0926pow.html

"Search For Love"

Those who go searching for love
only make manifest their own lovelessness,
and the loveless never find love,
only the loving find love,
and they never have to seek for it.

~D.H. Lawrence, DHL Selected Poems, p. 118

We all search for love, we all manifest lovelessness, we all never find love, we all find love, we all never have to seek for it. ~jpc

We are loved, loveless, and loving. Namaste.

image: Robert Indiana's "Classic Sky Love" www.allposters.com/-sp/Classic-Sky-Love-Red-G...

"We Are Transmitters"

As we live, we are transmitters of life.
And when we fail to transmit life,
life fails to flow through us. . . .

Give, and it shall be given unto you
is still the truth about life.
But giving life is not so easy.
It doesn’t mean handing it out to some mean fool,
or letting the living dead eat you up.
It means kindling the life-quality where it was not,
even if it’s only in the whiteness of a washed pocket-handkerchief.

~D.H. Lawrence, DHL Selected Poems, p. 105-06

The question is not only “to be” or not, but “to transmit” or not, for that’s who we are, by cosmic design. Being transmitters is not easy until it dawns on us that it’s about kindling the life-quality wherever, whenever, in small ways and large. ~jpc

Transmit and kindle. Namaste.

image www.kindlemedia.com/

"Song of a Man Who Has Come Through"

. . . If only I let it bear me, carry me, if only it carry me!
If only I am sensitive, subtle, oh, delicate, a winged gift!
If only, most lovely of all, I yield myself and am borrowed
By the fine, fine wind that takes its course through the chaos of the world
Like a fine, an exquisite chisel, a wedge-blade inserted;
If only I am keen and hard like the sheer tip of a wedge
Driven by invisible blows,
The rock will split, we shall come at the wonder. . . .

~D.H. Lawrence, DHL Selected Poems, p. 74

At first the poem seems to be describing us as delicate. Then we become wedge-blades inserted into the chaos of the world, driven, and the chaos splits – our situation and creation are transformed – all by the wind that borrows us. ~jpc

We need only yield. Namaste.

image www.mos.org/sln/Leonardo/InventorsToolbox.html

Grief Makes Us Free

. . . I, who am worn and careful,
How much do I care?
How is it I grin then, and chuckle
Over despair?

Grief, grief, I suppose and sufficeint
Grief makes us free
To be faithless and faithful together
As we have to be.

~D.H. Lawrence, “Hymn to Priapus,” DHL Selected Poems, p. 62

Read the complete poem to get DHL’s situation, but we know like him that grief brings home the truth that we are both attached and detached; otherwise we’d be care-filled wrecks or uncaring slobs. ~jpc

Thankful for the mercy of grief. Namaste.

image: William W. Story's "Angel of Grief'" monument www.evanescencewebsite.com/FAQeng.htm

"The Pursuit of Happyness"

Positive psychology brings the same attention to positive emotions (happiness, pleasure, well-being) that clinical psychology has always paid to the negative ones (depression, anger, resentment). Psychoanalysis once promised to turn acute human misery into ordinary suffering; positive psychology promises to take mild human pleasure and turn it into a profound state of well-being. . . . Thus positive psychology is not only about maximizing personal happiness but also about . . . engagement and spiritual connectedness, hope and charity. “Aristotle taught us virtue isn’t virtue unless you choose it,” [Martin] Seligman [one of positive psychology’s founders] says. ~D.T. Max, “Happiness 101,” nytimes.com, 1/7/07

This article is worth the read, if for no other reason than to cause reflection on what makes one happy, happier, happiest relative to “The Pursuit of Happyness,” as the movie misspells it but is hot after it. ~jpc

Happiness is. Namaste.

The Power of Story

All sorrows can be borne, if you put them into a story. ~Isak Dinesen, via Jeanette Stanfield (quote in Brian Stanfield’s The Courage to Lead: Daily Journal for October 15)

Brian was one who knew the power of story to transform life and community. The story of his last days, finding peace in the crashing wave of life and death, has been inspiring. ~jpc

O to be storytellers who change individual, social, and planetary life. Namaste.

image www.malibuwater.com/OceanWaveEnergy.html

Sunday Dialogue (XXXV)

Journer: I’ve been thinking about “knowing, doing, and being” since hanging out with you.

Nez: I like how one* of my students put it: “They say you are what you eat. Oh, I hope not. But spiritually I am what I do, pray and think” – with the emphasis on “I am.”

Journer: I used to think I left out “doing.” These days I seem to be leaving out “being.”

Nez: Question: Who for you is the human who has best held the three together?

______
* Koshin (Bob Hanson)

image: Donald David www.allposters.com/-sp/A-Question-Mark-on-Sta...

Back Out Walking On Water

When you are blown away by an event
And gaze forlornly into emptiness
Sometimes you begin to see emerging
Images of possibility calling
You forth to new decision and action
On behalf of your own situation
Even the situations of others

I guess you can call it awakenment
Or impossibly being born again
Whatever you call it you are thankful
For another chance of living your life
Not as victim but as a free person
As one who’s never really without hope
Who’s about to walk on the waves of life

What else is there when you think about it
But the boat the water the walk the storm
And the great fear of drowning when someone
Reaches out to save you and you hear him
Say “Little faith, what made you lose your nerve?”
You look him in the eye and with new hope
Begin again to test your heart and will

Glad to be back out walking on water

~jpc, 12/20/06 (day after part of pension blew away
and few days after found out family member has cancer)

Namaste.

image www.worth1000.com/stories/contest.asp?contest...

"Imagining World"

And in my dream
the angel shrugged
& said, If we
fail this time, it
will be a failure of
imagination.

& then she placed
the world gently in
the palm of
my hand.

~Brian Andreas, image and story, via Beret Griffith

Angels say and do strange things. Namaste.

image (spp0105) http://www.davlinswoods.com/storypeople.htm

Transforming Cynicism

We have the power to make change on a global scale, to solve the problems we are facing today. We have the imagination and the ability to invent new ways of sustainable living in advanced, courageous, and open societies. ~Bruce Mau, “Imagining the Future: Why the Cynics Are Wrong,” The Walrus magazine, 12/13/06

Wayne Nelson e-mailed the article along with this intro (adapted): “Recently I watched the old movie, the ‘Gospel According to St. Matthew’ (1964), with Jesus tossing lines over his shoulder as he walked ahead of the disciples. The line that caught me this time was, ‘I come not to judge the world, but to save it.’ It reminded me that the focus on what’s wrong is not the place I really want to be looking.” ~jpc

May our cynicism be transformed into models for sustainable living for the whole earth community. Namaste.

image of Jesus from the movie http://uashome.alaska.edu/~jndfg20/website/stmatthew.htm

Repentance

In ethics [the Church] is the first to repent . . . on behalf of all. When it (1) becomes apparent that slavery [for example] is transgression of the divine commandment, then the Church repents of it, (2) turns its back upon it, (3) abolishes it within itself, . . . and (4) leads in the social act of repentance. ~H. Richard Niebuhr, “The Church as Social Pioneer” (numbers and italics added)

This four-step model of repentance is crucial to earth community transformation. Sometimes it begins in the profoundly simple way of asking forgiveness of someone or something (earth’s ozone layer) and meaning it. ~jpc

Repentance is key to meaningful spiritual life. Namaste.

image www.worldbook.com/.../aajourney/html/bh092.html

Co-Creation

Gregory of Palamos (c. 1338) – close paraphrase:

God’s true essence is utterly unknowable
and to assert otherwise is blasphemy;
by participating in the uncreated energies of God,
we can begin to understand.

~Samuel W. Crompton, 100 Spiritual Leaders Who Shaped World History, p. 47

Our leaders in the faiths were clear about the ineffable mystery at the center of creation and about “God’s uncreated” creation in which all of us participate. ~jpc

Participating in future creation. Namaste.

DAILY SPIRIT JOURNAL (vol III) continues

Past Year, New Year Reflection

Before starting, review your written reflections of a year ago. Next, contemplate images of 2006, maybe at http://photos.reuters.com/Pictures/default.aspx (scroll down to "Pictures of the Year 2006"). Using the lists below, reflect in your journal or computer file (whatever you can review next year). Happy 2007. ~jpc

2006

5 Planetary events of the past year
15 Events I participated in (maybe by months)
5 People I remember (beyond family/friends)
5 Places I visited, near and far
5 Books/poems/articles I read
5 Movies/TV shows/plays/sport events I saw
Key family event of the past year
Key personal event of the past year
Key community event of the past year
My key struggle of the past year
My key creation of the past year
What I learned about myself during the past year
What I learned about life during the past year
My name for past year: The Great Year of ________________

2007

Who I am, going into 2007
3 things I’m focused on for the new year (beyond self)
My prayer for the earth community for the new year
5 things I anticipate participating in during the new year

“You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” ~Eleanor Roosevelt
During the new year that “thing” is ______________________

I give thanks for 2006. I bow to 2007. Namaste.