Last Words of the Year

Aware of what I am not and what I truly am – one with spirit and all that is – I am released from the prison of who I thought I was and constantly tell myself I am. . . . I am left with a compassion for all those imprisoned in the illusion of false images about themselves. I yearn that they experience their true nature at the heart of this great spirit journey. ~jpc, from http://johnpcock.homestead.com/TrueNature.html (revised as “Self-transcendence Practice . . . of One’s True Nature” – you might consider the practice)

It was a very good year. Namaste.

image: "Duel between Reality and Illusion," by Elsie Porter www.elsieporter.com/photo_gallery.htm

Sunday Dialogue LXXXIV

Journer: Where is spirit in our lives?

Nez: My student* said there is external, internal, and spirit consciousness.

Journer: How does spirit consciousness relate to the other two?

Nez: Since spirit is at the heart of all that is, there are only two, the inner and outer, and they are one.

______
* David Bohm

image: "Sunset Beach," by Diane Romanello http://www.art.com/

Celebrate One Blue Sky

[Pete Seeger] sang . . . a 1967 song that has become something of an anthem . . . of late. ~Andrew C. Revkin, “Pete Seeger and the ‘One Blue Sky Above Us,’” dotearth.blogs. nytimes.com, 12/10/2007 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2YqAZ0Jmfc&feature=related to listen to Seeger and children sing this Earth anthem:

One blue sky above us,
One ocean lapping all our shore,
One Earth so green and round,
Who could ask for more? . . .

Celebrate one Earth, one sky, one spirit. Namaste.

image: Nick Shepherd www.bbc.co.uk/devon/content/image_galleries/t...

Theologize

Blog Comment: From my brief exposure to _______, I would describe his work as intuitive theology. Sounds good, but I’m not sure it can be supported.

jpc: I’m not sure what you mean by “supported.” Theology is a story about our meaning “under God.” It’s our poetry about our perceptions of reality based on our experience and all the input we’ve picked up on our journey? We are always asking the big questions and doing our best to articulate our big answers.

It is natural to theologize. Namaste.

image http://tinyurl.com/2eopby

That Same Jesus

[Jesus’] words and deeds open onto [another] reality . . . that . . . encourages me to celebrate life, to suck the marrow out of existence, to explore, and probe, and experiment, to venture into uncharted seas, without fear of a tyrannical and vindictive God. He does not set limits on my curiosity, or my drive to challenge every axiom. That same Jesus prompts me to give myself to tasks that exceed, even contradict, my own self-interest. ~Robert Funk, Just Call Me Bob, p. 12

Would that all were opened up by their tradition rather than enslaved in it. Namaste.

image www.insects.org/ced4/freedom.html

Post-Christmas Vision Statement

I want to teach people how to see God everywhere, to see Him [sic] in all that is most hidden, most solid, and most ultimate in the world. ~Teilhard de Chardin, via All Saints, p. 162

And to think Teilhard was silenced by the Roman Catholic Church some three decades. ~jpc

Till we figure out what to teach people, Teilhard’s statement will do. Namaste.

image home.austarnet.com.au/gerhardy/epiph0_05.htm

"Glory Here and Now"

stranger is
pointing to
other world
in this world
that we too
be strangers
glory bound
here and now

not the glory
of success
nor riches
but glory
of pointing
others to
the glory
here and now

be present
to stardust
to caring
for the earth
its creatures
evolving
the glory
here and now

~jpc

Namaste.

image: "Moon Glory" by Arabella Decker www.art.net/TheGallery/calm/Juried2002/index.htm

For Unto Us A Child Is Born

Not flesh of my flesh
Nor bone of my bone,
But still miraculously
My own.
Never forget
For a single minute:
You didn't grow under my heart
But in it.

~Fleur Conkling Heyliger

All God’s sons and daughters
are sent, adopted, and on loan –
to be loved, raised, given back
to care for all when on their own.

~jpc

Namaste.

note: the baby was born November 1

Sunday Dialogue LXXXIII

Journer: What is the real meaning of Christmas for anybody?

Nez: My student* said, “You come out of the energy that gave birth to the universe; it is your beginning.”

Journer: Is that Christian doctrine?

Nez: That is the primal stuff all doctrine rises out of.

______
* Brian Swimme

image: photo by Ellen Howie of Gerber Daisy with creche

Saintly Word

We can only live in faith and assurance, you out there at the front, and I in my cell. . . . May God keep the light of faith burning in our souls. ~Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, from his reflection on December 22, 1943, p. 119

This is one way the word about life comes, through the witness of saintly journers. ~jpc

“Come, come, ye Saints, no toil or labor fear; / But with joy wend your way. / Though hard to you this journey may appear, / Grace shall be [all] your day. . . . / All is well! All is well!” Namaste.

image: Fifth City Iron Man, Westside of Chicago, from cover of new DVD's from the Institute of Cultural Affairs: International, moderated by Ben Kingsley and Oprah Winfrey (order: info@ica-international.org/ & http://www.ica-international.org/)

Birth New Soul

I begin to think that my function is probably simply that . . . of John the Baptist . . . one who presages what is to come. Or perhaps what I am called on to do is simply to help in the birth of a new soul in that which already is. ~Teilhard de Chardin, via All Saints, p. 162

Is this not the reason we’re all born, to help birth a new soul in what is? Namaste.

image: notecard of "Red Dress Dancing" by Anna Oneglia, with quote by Ann Lamott: "And she is going to dance, dance hungry, dance full, dance each cold, astonishing moment, now when she is young, and again when she is old," via Amara Gilbert Oden http://www.thepeacecompany.com/store/prod_women_posters.php

According To Thy Word

Watching a Christmas concert last night, I came away with a few words that I reflected on till sleep: “the soul felt its worth” (from “O Holy Night”). Christ-mas happens when I feel my worth deep down, when I know beyond doubt that my life is good just as it is, nothing else needed, except unending thankfulness for just being. At such moments the personal peace that Christmas promises is real. ~jpc

“Be it unto me according to thy word.” Namaste.

image alibabs.blogspot.com/

Christmas: Double Paradox

Tillich, citing Luther, speaks of Christmas as “this mystical paradox of the smallest and most helpless of all beings having in himself the center of Divinity.”* The double paradox: not just Jesus, but also us. We’re all virgin born to manifest divinity that shines in darkness. Christmas means to me we’re all sons and daughters on a divine mission in this divine realm. ~jpc (*“Luther’s Christology. . . ,” Lecture 34)

All are centered in divinity. Namaste.

image: sunrise on the Outer Banks, NC, by Dick Howie

A Great Light

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned (Isaiah 9:2).

This is what “advent” means, the coming into being of the light that illumines all. Not just any light, but the light that reveals the darkest secret, the light that transforms the living dead, the light that cannot be put out, forever dawning. ~jpc

We celebrate in darkness the coming of light. Namaste.

image www.dpchallenge.com/profile.php?USER_ID=5237

Wonder and Mystery

The blocking of one’s capacity for wonder and the loss of the capacity to appreciate mystery can have serious effects upon our psychological health, not to mention the health of our whole planet. ~Rollo May, The Loss of Wonder, “Dialogues: Therapeutic Applications of Existential Philosophy,” 1(1), 1992, via Ed Mendelowitz, “The Mystery of Being”

What is our capacity quotient for wonder and mystery – a learned art, though always in our senses and heart? ~jpc

May this season be a big leap for us in the most essential capacity. Namaste.

image: "Silence and Mystery," photograhic print www.art.com

Sunday Dialogue LXXXII

Journer: What is your doctrine of God?

Nez: My student* wrote, “Jesus did not have a doctrine of God; he had only experience of God.”

Journer: What’s wrong with a doctrine of God?

Nez: Nothing, if it’s based on your experience of reality. If it’s based on what religious persons tell you to believe, be careful.

______
* Robert Funk, Just Call Me Bob: The Wit and Wisdom of Robert W. Funk, p. 3, via David Rebstock

image: Salvador Dali, "The Birth of a God" www.art.com

"I've Resolved to Keep It Simple"

This year I’ve resolved to keep it simple. Okay, simpler. And, if I’m brave, I might even give something that’s been used. A recycled gift? That’s right. Why not at Christmas? Why do gifts have to be brand new? The best? In vogue? Voluminous? Why is bigger and cooler and costlier the better gift on Jesus’ birthday, the one who made a life of recycling, making old life new? He offered love to the unloved, home to the homeless, health to the lepers, sight to the blind, hope to the hopeless, forgiveness to all sinners. ~Ben Crocker, from talk, 12/11/07

Looks like Ben’s got the spirit of it. ~jpc

May we all keep our giving simply profound this year. Namaste.

image www.aburn.org.uk/images.php?tag=landscape

Gore's Speech from Bali

Summary of the speech by Al Gore at the Cimate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia (about 9 minutes on YouTube)

http://www.environmentalleader.com/2007/12/14/al-gore-speech-from-bali/

Not a Driverless Spaceship

Gaia, [James Lovelock] added, offers an alternative to the “depressing picture of our planet as a demented spaceship, forever traveling driverless and purposeless around an inner circle of the sun.” ~Jeff Goodell, “The Prophet of Climate Change: James Lovelock,” rollingstone.com, 10/17/07 http://tinyurl.com/

“Que sera, sera” (whatever will be will be) in this context means if we go out of being, we go out of being. ~jpc

People of freedom say, “Best we help drive this ship in a different way.” Namaste.

image daveginsberg.net/SpaceshipEarth/story.htm

Genuine Revelations

. . . If you’re on a mission from God, sent to rebuke a city

or to redeem a nation,

where by cannon-makers you’re ranked may be inconsequential.

Nor is the voice within you

any less authentic for not having a distant echo.

Seers of the world, be heartened.

Even minor prophets can have genuine revelations.

~Michael Lind, "The Minor Prophets," Parallel Lives, writersalmanac.publicradio.org, 11/9/07

Revelations to sensitive and responsive souls make the world go round. From such is the mighty “mission from God” created and sustained. ~jpc

Namaste.

image: ICA: Nepal sponsors leadership training event, 2/07

Ready Or Not

A lot of us feel, “I’m not ready yet.” But if we stand back a little, we see that this is actually a ludicrous position to take, because life is already happening and we’re already in the middle of it. . . . [W]hen you awaken . . . and begin to experience a passionate sense of care about the evolution of consciousness and culture, . . . you find a way to bear . . . your own life, while always [sometimes] being ready now to shoulder . . . the evolutionary process forward. ~Andrew Cohen, from Quote of the Week, 12/4/07

Ready or not, the future is always now. Namaste.

image: “Wonder” by Philip Mix www.keystoneartgallery.com/dynamic/artwork_di...

Pieces of Us Cannot Do

. . . Our decision brought us to this place
Where all the wholeness each of us can bring
Complements, collides, creates an energy explosion
Such as pieces of us cannot do. . . .

~Janice Ulangca, “In Praise of Face to Face,” 10/ 7/07

Without universal effort we will not go forward toward the mighty purpose demanded of us in these times. ~jpc

By mutuality the universe works. Namaste.

image: “The Creation,” by Angelo F. Sabal ( a.k.a blue2x) blue2x.50webs.com/lufurticous/page2.html

Al Gore's Speech

Gore's Nobel Peace Prize 2007 speech (in English):

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2007/gore-lecture_en.html

True Joy

This is the true joy in life: Being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one, being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community. . . . ~George Bernard Shaw, attributed as from a “speech at Brighton,” via Jerome Hunter

I’d say we of the universe are devoted to making happiness. ~jpc

Together we have a mighty purpose. Namaste.

image: Jeremy Traum, in essay by Dennis Overbye, “The Universe, Expanding Beyond All Understanding,” nytimes.com, 6/5/07

Sunday Dialogue LXXXI

Journer: What do you think about all that’s happening on earth today?

Nez: My student* wrote, “The force that through the green fuse drives the flower/ Drives my green age.”

Journer: So you’re an environmentalist?

Nez: I’m in league with the driving force.

______
* Dylan Thomas, via Ellen Howie

image: “Visiting the Grave” by Kaj Bjurman; http://www.flickr.com/photos/bjurman/1890473709/

Mysterious Alluring

Thomas is speaking to Youth: All communities of being are created in response to a prior mysterious alluring activity. . . . [L]ove is a word that points to this alluring activity in the cosmos. This primal dynamism awakens the communities of atoms, galaxies, stars, families, . . . persons. . . . Love ignites being. ~Brian Swimme, The Universe Is a Green Dragon, p. 49

“Being isn’t just is. / It’s always on a mission of love.” ~jpc

Love is the answer to universal questions. Namaste.

image: "the dimensions of Friendship," by Ellen Howie, 2007

Big-time Recycling

God . . . can recycle even despair into possibility, even chaos into creation, and nothingness into something wonderful. ~Matthew Fox, Original Blessing, p. 165

These are words from a priest defrocked by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now the Pope. Fox has let loose a global movement of creation spirituality. If I were Pope I would find a way to include his understanding into the evolving wisdom of the church. What we defrock the lord of history frocks. ~jpc

Recycling is spirit business. Namaste.

image www.cultivatingconnections.org/projects.htm

While We Dream . . .

No great technology push is needed to implement a program of energy conservation. No technology push is needed to provide leadership for changing the unsustainable culture of the western world. No technology push is needed to implement programs to reduce the environmental impact of coal-fired electricity and petroleum-fueled transportation. What is needed is political will and shared sacrifice. And while we dream of a technology like no other ever invented, a technology with no unanticipated consequences and no environmental impact, the temperature goes up. ~Bruce Lierman, comment to dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com, 11/17/07, 6:21 pm

O for some leadership, but in the meantime. . . . Namaste.

image: jasontheaker's "What If the Earth Stopped Spinning?" http://www.flickr.com/photos/photoimage/

Another Mentor

I’d sum up Thomas Berry’s work (1914-20--) as telling the new story that unites and motivates the earth community. His story is a new cosmology that puts all within the context of the universe, with the numinous at the heart of it all. His key phrase is “the great work.” ~jpc

O to be a messenger of care for all. Namaste.

Note: We helped celebrate Thomas' 93rd birthday, 11/8/07.

A Mentor

I’d sum up Joseph Mathew’s life (1911-1977) as pointing to the other world in this world. The center of his knowing, doing, and being was the transparent event that makes all things new. His key phrase was “the contentless word.” ~jpc

O to be a messenger of new life. Namaste.

image: Rhudolph Wendelin, 1971 (from the cover of Brother Joe, by J. K. Mathews http://www.resurgencepublishing.com/)

To Die Is To Live

Are you willing to be sponged out, erased, cancelled,
made nothing?
Are you willing to be made nothing?
dipped into oblivion?

If not, you will never really change. . . .

~D. H. Lawrence, “Phoenix,” The Complete Works. . . , p. 72

O to be “willing to be made nothing.” Namaste.

image: "Phoenix," Angela Perry, Internet Ray Tracing Competition http://www.irtc.org/stills/2001-08-31/view.html

"Pale Blue Dot" (III)

Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel [“pale blue dot”] on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. . . . There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known. ~Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, pp. 6-7 (listen to parts I-III, and more, of Pale Blue Dot with earth images http://tinyurl.com/yqo2oc – via Jerome Hunter)

O “to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot.” Namaste.

"Pale Blue Dot" (II)

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe are challenged by this point of pale light [the “pale blue dot”]. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. ~Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, p. 7

We are on our own. Help only comes from our evolving universe, our solar system, our earth community, our human community, ourselves, and from transforming spirit at the heart of it all. ~jpc

Quite enough help. Namaste.