CALL TO SILENCE :
OPENING DIALOGUE
SOLO: Peace Be With You.
UNISON: Acquire My Peace Within you.
Solo: Where are you from?
Unison: We have come from the place where Light is produced from itself.
Solo: Where is that place?
Unison: It’s a mystery.
Solo: But can you say you image the light?
Unison: Yes, indeed. We carry the light within.
Solo: And the peace?
Unison: Yes, also the peace.
Solo: How do you know of such light and such peace?
Unison: The sign is the feeling.
The sign is the movement from within.
The sign is the passion for the well-being of all.
Solo: What are your other signs?
Unison: Our recognitions of injustice and hatred and oppression
Throughout the globe, of power struggles and violence
That seem unending.
Solo: Can we turn those around?
Unison: We must seek to do so.
Solo: Are you willing to spread your light and your peace?
Unison: We are eager to spread them.
They spread just as love spreads.
: Solo: The kingdom spreads out on the earth, just as love spreads.
Union: But some people are not aware of it.
Solo: Yet you are aware.
Unison: Yes, indeed.
We are aware of the light and the movement and the peace.
And we cannot stand back.
We will step forward.
We will overcome the violence, the domination, the hatred,
And spread love.
Readings:
Genesis 1:1-5
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Blessed Be The Wind
Without the wind, most of Earth would be uninhabitable. The tropics would grow so unbearably hot that nothing could live there, and the rest of the planet would freeze. Moisture, if any existed, would be confined to the oceans, and all but the fringe of the great continents…would be desert. There would be no erosion, no soil, and for any community that managed to evolve despite these rigors, no relief from suffocation by their own waste products.
But with the wind, Earth comes truly alive. Winds provide the circulatory and nervous systems of the planet, sharing out energy and information, distributing both warmth and awareness, making something out of nothing.
All wind’s properties are borrowed. Our knowledge of it comes at secondhand, but it comes strongly. And this combination of a force that cannot be apprehended, but nevertheless has an undeniable existence was our first experience of the spiritual. A crack in the cosmos that widened to let the tide of consciousness flow through.
We are the fruits of the wind---and have been seeded, irrigated, and cultivated by its craft.
Lyall Watson
With every breath, I am grounded in the awareness of the one life that lives, breathes and has its being through all things, both seen and unseen. I know that I am an individuation of this universal creative intelligence and a perfect conduit for the divine energy flow that explicitly manifests as right action toward the fulfillment of highest good for all life. Through this sublime realization I claim for myself and for the entire planet: a healing from any imbalances born of separation consciousness, environmental reclamation, good stewardship of natural resources and the restoration of balance with respect to greenhouse gases in our planet’s atmosphere. It is with an open and most grateful heart that I accept this good as my divine inheritance, that I bless this opportunity to know and experience the Godhood that is the truth of my being, that I joyfully accept my place on this planet at this time by divine appointment, and that I rejoice in the ecstatic fulfillment of these words as they impress upon the law. I blissfully release this prayer and surrender these words to the immutable process that is God and simply let it be. And so it is.
Science of Mind
Nature’s Beauty
A priest was in charge of the garden within a famous Zen temple. He had been given the job because he loved the flowers, shrubs, and trees. Next to the temple there was another, smaller temple where there lived a very old Zen master. One day, when the priest was expecting some special guests, he took extra care in tending to the garden. He pulled the weeds, trimmed the shrubs, combed the moss, and spent a long time meticulously raking up and carefully arranging all the dry autumn leaves. As he worked, the old master watched him with interest from across the wall that separated the temples.
When he had finished, the priest stood back to admire his work. “Isn’t it beautiful,” he called out to the old master. “Yes,” replied the old man, “but there is something missing. Help me over this wall and I’ll put it right for you.”
After hesitating, the priest lifted the old fellow over and set him down. Slowly, the master waked to the tree near the center of the garden, grabbed it by the trunk, and shook it. Leaves showered down all over the garden. “There,” said the old man, “you can put me back now.”
Zen tale
A Reading from the Gospel of Mary Magdalene
And she began to speak to them these words: I saw the Lord in a vision and I said to Him, Lord I saw you today in a vision. He answered and said to me, Blessed are you that you did not waver at the sight of Me. For where the mind is there is the treasure.
Prayer:
It is lovely indeed, it is lovely indeed.
I, I am the spirit within the earth.
The feet of the earth are my feat;
The legs of the earth are my legs.
The strength of the earth is my strength;
The thoughts of the earth are my; thoughts;
The voice of the earth is my voice.
The feather of the earth is my feather
All that belongs to the earth belongs to me;
All that surrounds the earth surrounds me.
I, I am the sacred works of the earth
It is lovely indeed, it is lovely indeed.
Son of the Earth Spirit. Navajo Origin legend
Closing Dialogue:
Solo: Are you aware of the light and the peace within you?
Unison: We have the feeling and the movement..
The passion for the well-being of all.
Solo: Light spreads, just as love spreads.
Are you willing to speak your feeling of light?
Unison: Yes, indeed, we must speak the feeling.
We must act the peace.
Solo: Let us practice the feeling.
Let us practice the peace.
Unison: Let us dance the feeling.
Let us dance the peace.
Let us dance from the light.
Solo: Let us move together
In the light and the peace.
Unison: Let us go forth in the power of the Spirit.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Call to Silence & Opening Meditation
"Once you experience [God's] presence in all beings, all debate comes to naught!"
from the Indian mystic Kabir quoted from One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths, by Matthew Fox (New York:Jeremy P.Tarcher/Penguin,2000),17
"The worship of the different religions,
which are like so many small streams
move together to meet God, who is like the ocean"
from the Indian mystic Rajjab, quoted as above from Matthew Fox,page 18.
Readings from the Gospel of Philip
(trans. from the Coptic by Jean-Yves Leloup, The Gospel of Philip, Rochester,Vermont:Inner Traditions, 2003)
Light and darkness, life and death, right and left, are brothers and sisters. They are inseparable. This is why goodness is not always good, violence not always violent, life not always enlivening, death not always deadly. (logion 10:1-5)
The Truth makes use of words in the world because without these words, it would remain totally unknowable. The Truth is one and many, so as to teach us the innumerable One of Love. (logion 12:7-10)
It is impossible for anyone to see the everlasting reality and not become like it.
The Truth is not realized in the world:
Those who see the sun do not become the sun; Those who see the sky, the earth, or anything that exists, do not become what they see.
But when you see something in this other space, you become it. If you know the Breath, you are the Breath. If you know the Christ, you become the Christ. If you see the Father, you are the Father.
Those who say that the Lord first died, and then was resurrected, are wrong; for he was first resurrected, and then died. If someone has not first been resurrected, they can only die. If they have already been resurrected, they are alive, as God is Alive. (logion 21)
A Reading from the Gospel of Mary (Leloup trans.)
Peter said to him: "Since you have become the interpreter of the elements and the events of the world, tell us: what is the sin of the world?"
The Teacher answered: "There is no sin. It is you who made sin exist, when you act according to the habits of your corrupted nature; this is where sin lies. This is why; the Good has come into your midst. It acts together with the elements of your nature so as to reunite it with its roots." Then he continued: "This is why you become sick, and why you die; it is the result of your actions; what you do takes you further away.
Those who have ears, let them hear."
Call to Conversation:
We ask for your comments/thoughts to continue our Sunday conversation. Thank you.
"Once you experience [God's] presence in all beings, all debate comes to naught!"
from the Indian mystic Kabir quoted from One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths, by Matthew Fox (New York:Jeremy P.Tarcher/Penguin,2000),17
"The worship of the different religions,
which are like so many small streams
move together to meet God, who is like the ocean"
from the Indian mystic Rajjab, quoted as above from Matthew Fox,page 18.
Readings from the Gospel of Philip
(trans. from the Coptic by Jean-Yves Leloup, The Gospel of Philip, Rochester,Vermont:Inner Traditions, 2003)
Light and darkness, life and death, right and left, are brothers and sisters. They are inseparable. This is why goodness is not always good, violence not always violent, life not always enlivening, death not always deadly. (logion 10:1-5)
The Truth makes use of words in the world because without these words, it would remain totally unknowable. The Truth is one and many, so as to teach us the innumerable One of Love. (logion 12:7-10)
It is impossible for anyone to see the everlasting reality and not become like it.
The Truth is not realized in the world:
Those who see the sun do not become the sun; Those who see the sky, the earth, or anything that exists, do not become what they see.
But when you see something in this other space, you become it. If you know the Breath, you are the Breath. If you know the Christ, you become the Christ. If you see the Father, you are the Father.
Those who say that the Lord first died, and then was resurrected, are wrong; for he was first resurrected, and then died. If someone has not first been resurrected, they can only die. If they have already been resurrected, they are alive, as God is Alive. (logion 21)
A Reading from the Gospel of Mary (Leloup trans.)
Peter said to him: "Since you have become the interpreter of the elements and the events of the world, tell us: what is the sin of the world?"
The Teacher answered: "There is no sin. It is you who made sin exist, when you act according to the habits of your corrupted nature; this is where sin lies. This is why; the Good has come into your midst. It acts together with the elements of your nature so as to reunite it with its roots." Then he continued: "This is why you become sick, and why you die; it is the result of your actions; what you do takes you further away.
Those who have ears, let them hear."
Call to Conversation:
We ask for your comments/thoughts to continue our Sunday conversation. Thank you.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Call to Silence & Opening Meditation
Readings
A Reading from Parker Palmer
When my first grandchild was born, I saw something in her that I had missed in my own children some twenty-five years earlier, when I was too young and self-absorbed to see anyone, including myself, very well. What I saw was clear and simple: my granddaughter arrived on earth as this kind of person, rather than that, or that, or that.
As an infant, for example, she was almost always calm and focused, quietly absorbing whatever was happening around her. She looked as if she "got" everything-enduring life's tragedies, enjoying its comedies, and patiently awaiting the day she could comment on all of it. Today, with her verbal skills well honed, this description still fits the teenager who is one of my best friends and seems like an "old soul."
In my granddaughter I actually observed something I could once take only on faith; we are born with a seed of selfhood that contains the spiritual DNA of our uniqueness-an encoded birthright knowledge of who we are, why we are here, and how we are related to others.
We may abandon that knowledge as the years go by, but it never abandons us. I find it fascinating that the very old, who often forget a great deal, may recover vivid memories of childhood, of that time in their lives when they were most like themselves. They are brought back to their birthright nature by the abiding core of selfhood they carry within- a core made more visible, perhaps, by the way aging can strip away whatever is not truly us.
Philosophers haggle about what to call this core of our humanity, but I am no stickler for precision. Thomas Merton called it true self. Buddhists call it original nature or big self, Quakers call it the inner teacher or the inner light. Hasidic Jews call it a spark of the divine. Humanists call it identity and integrity. In popular parlance, people often call it soul...
What we name it matters little to me, since the origins, nature and destiny of call-it-what-you-will are forever hidden from us, and no one can credibly claim to know its true name. But that we name it matters a great deal. For "it" is the objective, ontological realty of selfhood that keeps us from reducing ourselves, or each other, to biological mechanisms, psychological projections, sociological constructs, or raw material to be manufactured into whatever society needs-diminishments of our humanity that constantly threaten the quality of our lives.
"Nobody knows what the soul is" says Mary Oliver; "it comes and goes/like the wind over the water." But just as we can name the functions of the wind, so we can name some of the functions of the soul without presuming to penetrate its mystery:
The soul wants to keep us rooted in the ground of our own being, resisting the tendency of other faculties, like the intellect and ego, to uproot us from who we are.
The soul wants to keep us connected to the community in which we find life, for it understands that relationships are necessary if we are to thrive.
The soul wants to tell us the truth about ourselves, our world, and the relation between the two, whether that truth is easy or hard to hear.
The soul wants to give us life and wants us to pass that gift along, to become life-givers in a world that deals too much death.
All of us arrive on earth with souls in perfect form. But from the moment of birth onward, the soul or true self is assailed by deforming forces from without and within; bu racism, sexism, economic injustice, and other social cancers; by jealousy, resentment, self-doubt, fear, and other demons of the inner life.
Most of us can make a long list of the external enemies of the soul, in the absence of which we are sure we would be better people! Because we so quickly blame our problems on forces 'out there,' we need to see h ow often we conspire on our own deformation: for every external power bent on twisting us out of shape, there is a potential collaborator within us. When our impulse to tell the truth is thwarted by threats of punishment, it is because we value security over being truthful. When our impulse to side with the weak is thwarted by threats of lost social standing, it is because we value popularity over being a pariah.
The power and principalities would hold less sway over our lives if we refused to collaborate with them. But refusal is risky, so we deny our own truth, take up lives of 'self-impersonation,' and betray our identities. And yet the soul persistently calls us back to our birthright form, back to lives that are grounded, connected, and whole.
From A Hidden Wholeness (Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Imprint, San Francisco, 2004)pages 32-34
A Reading from the Gospel of Mary
"Then I said to him:'Lord, when someone meets you in a Moment of vision, is it through the soul[psyche]that they see, or is it through the Spirit[Pneuma]?' The Teacher answered:'It is neither through the soul or the spirit, but the nous between the two which sees the vision..."
"And Craving said:'I did not see you descent, but now I see you rising. Why do you lie, since you belong to me? The soul answered: 'I saw you, though you did not see me, nor recognize me, I was with you as with a garment, and you never felt me." Having said this, the soul left, rejoicing greatly.
(LeLoup translation as quoted in The Magdalene Mystique)
Call to Conversation
Readings
A Reading from Parker Palmer
When my first grandchild was born, I saw something in her that I had missed in my own children some twenty-five years earlier, when I was too young and self-absorbed to see anyone, including myself, very well. What I saw was clear and simple: my granddaughter arrived on earth as this kind of person, rather than that, or that, or that.
As an infant, for example, she was almost always calm and focused, quietly absorbing whatever was happening around her. She looked as if she "got" everything-enduring life's tragedies, enjoying its comedies, and patiently awaiting the day she could comment on all of it. Today, with her verbal skills well honed, this description still fits the teenager who is one of my best friends and seems like an "old soul."
In my granddaughter I actually observed something I could once take only on faith; we are born with a seed of selfhood that contains the spiritual DNA of our uniqueness-an encoded birthright knowledge of who we are, why we are here, and how we are related to others.
We may abandon that knowledge as the years go by, but it never abandons us. I find it fascinating that the very old, who often forget a great deal, may recover vivid memories of childhood, of that time in their lives when they were most like themselves. They are brought back to their birthright nature by the abiding core of selfhood they carry within- a core made more visible, perhaps, by the way aging can strip away whatever is not truly us.
Philosophers haggle about what to call this core of our humanity, but I am no stickler for precision. Thomas Merton called it true self. Buddhists call it original nature or big self, Quakers call it the inner teacher or the inner light. Hasidic Jews call it a spark of the divine. Humanists call it identity and integrity. In popular parlance, people often call it soul...
What we name it matters little to me, since the origins, nature and destiny of call-it-what-you-will are forever hidden from us, and no one can credibly claim to know its true name. But that we name it matters a great deal. For "it" is the objective, ontological realty of selfhood that keeps us from reducing ourselves, or each other, to biological mechanisms, psychological projections, sociological constructs, or raw material to be manufactured into whatever society needs-diminishments of our humanity that constantly threaten the quality of our lives.
"Nobody knows what the soul is" says Mary Oliver; "it comes and goes/like the wind over the water." But just as we can name the functions of the wind, so we can name some of the functions of the soul without presuming to penetrate its mystery:
The soul wants to keep us rooted in the ground of our own being, resisting the tendency of other faculties, like the intellect and ego, to uproot us from who we are.
The soul wants to keep us connected to the community in which we find life, for it understands that relationships are necessary if we are to thrive.
The soul wants to tell us the truth about ourselves, our world, and the relation between the two, whether that truth is easy or hard to hear.
The soul wants to give us life and wants us to pass that gift along, to become life-givers in a world that deals too much death.
All of us arrive on earth with souls in perfect form. But from the moment of birth onward, the soul or true self is assailed by deforming forces from without and within; bu racism, sexism, economic injustice, and other social cancers; by jealousy, resentment, self-doubt, fear, and other demons of the inner life.
Most of us can make a long list of the external enemies of the soul, in the absence of which we are sure we would be better people! Because we so quickly blame our problems on forces 'out there,' we need to see h ow often we conspire on our own deformation: for every external power bent on twisting us out of shape, there is a potential collaborator within us. When our impulse to tell the truth is thwarted by threats of punishment, it is because we value security over being truthful. When our impulse to side with the weak is thwarted by threats of lost social standing, it is because we value popularity over being a pariah.
The power and principalities would hold less sway over our lives if we refused to collaborate with them. But refusal is risky, so we deny our own truth, take up lives of 'self-impersonation,' and betray our identities. And yet the soul persistently calls us back to our birthright form, back to lives that are grounded, connected, and whole.
From A Hidden Wholeness (Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Imprint, San Francisco, 2004)pages 32-34
A Reading from the Gospel of Mary
"Then I said to him:'Lord, when someone meets you in a Moment of vision, is it through the soul[psyche]that they see, or is it through the Spirit[Pneuma]?' The Teacher answered:'It is neither through the soul or the spirit, but the nous between the two which sees the vision..."
"And Craving said:'I did not see you descent, but now I see you rising. Why do you lie, since you belong to me? The soul answered: 'I saw you, though you did not see me, nor recognize me, I was with you as with a garment, and you never felt me." Having said this, the soul left, rejoicing greatly.
(LeLoup translation as quoted in The Magdalene Mystique)
Call to Conversation
Monday, July 14, 2008
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Call to Silence & Opening Meditation
Readings
A Reading from One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springs from Global Faiths, Two Quotations
Nicolas of Cusa:
"Humanity will find that it is not a diversity of creeds, but the very same creed which is everywhere proposed...Even though you are designated in terms of different religions yet you presuppose in all this diversity one religion which you call wisdom."
(Nicolas of Cusa was a fifteenth century theologian and scientist and cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church)
The Dalai Lama:
"I believe deeply that we must find, all of us together a new spirituality. [Interviewer: Which wouldn't be religious'?] Certainly not. This new concept out to be elaborated alongside the religions, in such a way that all people of good will could adhere to it. [Interviewer: Even if they have no religion or are against religion?] Absolutely. We need a new concept of lay spirituality. We ought to promote this concept with the help of scientists...[but] everything starts with us, with each of us. The indispensable qualities are peace of mind and compassion. Without them its useless even to try. Those qualities are indispensable; they are also inevitable. I've told you: We will surely find them in ourselves, if we take the trouble to search for them. We can reject every form of religion but we can't reject and cast off compassion and peace of mind."
Both quotations from One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Spring from Global Faiths, Matthew Fox, Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguine, New York, 2000, page 3.
Readings from A Conversation on Science and Theology
[from Belonging to the Universe: Explorations on the Frontiers of Science and Spirituality (HarperSanFrancisco, 1991)pages 46-49. The conversationalists are David Steindl-Rast, Thomas Matus, both members of the Benedictine Community in Big Sur, California, and Fritjof Capra, physicist and systems theorist and founder of Elmwood Institute, an ecological think tank in Berkeley, California.]
David: Do we agree then that there is a paradigm shift in theology that is comparable to that in science?
Thomas: I certainly agree that there's a paradigm shift in theology today, but whether and to what extent it is really comparable to the one in science is still not clear to m e.
Fritjof: In science, in order to sustain the development, whether its the gradual development in the periods of normal science or the revolutionary development in periods of paradigm shifts, you have to continually do this systematic observation that is part of the scientific method. It would seem that in theology, if you want to refine your dogmas and your understanding of faith, the reflection on religious experience, you would also have to rely on continual religious experience. Now, as far as a I can see, this is not the case today. ;And maybe I could even make a stronger statement and say that in Christianity this was never a strong point. ;The mystic were always soft of marginalized and often persecuted.
Thomas: I think you have to nuance this with regard to the different epochs of what we're calling paradigms in Christian theology.
Fritjof: Could you give us a short summary of these paradigms?
Thomas: During the first thousand years of Christianity, it was generally recognized that theology had to be the fruit not only of a profound intellectual conviction but above all of an intense personal experience of faith. This as the epoch of the "Fathers" of the Church - excuse the sexist language, but practically all the early Christian writers were men! There is hardly one of these Fathers whom you wouldn't also call a mystic: think of Origen and Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory Nazianzen in the East, Ambrose and Augustine and Pope Gregory the Great in the West.
The crisis of mysticism and deep religious experience in Christianity coincides with the emergence of the great scholastic paradigm. This as the period of Thomas Aquinas adn Bonaventure in the thirteenth ceantury, and the energy, you might say, of the Scholastic paradigm continued on into the sixteenth century...[since] that time there has been a constant tension between the theologian as the professional scholar of the contents of Christian teaching and the spiritual person who is trying to life this teaching on a deep level of practice and experience.
David: Are you saying that, roughly, before the thirteenth century, the mystic were the theologians, and vice versa?
Thomas: Certainly, in principle at least, it was axiomatic that the two were inseparable. And the attitude of the theologian was first of all that of a listener, a person of faith who is searching for adequate ways to explain the Christian experience and connect it with other knowledge...What is basically the same view of theology's purpose: to initiate the believer into a genuine gnosis, an experimental knowledge of God. Not a purely intellectual knowledge, but one that totally transforms and, as many early writers say, 'divinizes' the believer.
Fritjof: And from the thirteenth century on, you were saying, there was this tension between the theologians on the one hand and the mystic on the other.
Thomas: It was the paradigm itself that imposed this division and almost forbade the theologian to become too mystical. He had to remain on the intellectual level. Let me add, though, that the crisis of mysticism was something that happened largely in the West. The Eastern Church continued, for the most part, in the lime of holistic theology. But by then the two churches had excommunicated each other.
Fritjof: This makes it, of course, very difficult for this whole parallel between science and theology. If religious experience has not been the ground of theology in the theological establishment for the past seven centuries, how do we expect new-paradigm thinking to emerge if it does not come with a renaissance of religious experience?
David: It must come with a renaissance of religious experience, and it does come today with a new explicit appreciation of religious experience. The sense of a deep inner communion with God was thought not long ago to be the privilege of 'mystics.' Today this sense of inner communion is widespread. Today we recognize that every human being can be a mystic of sorts. Of course, we should not forget that countless Christian throughout the ages were living in the strength of the divine life at the core of their being. Thus they were truly mystics. People like Meister Eckhart of Jakob Bohme of Julian of Norwich or John of the Cross, people whom we label mystics, were often those who gained notoriety by getting in trouble with the establishment. Countless others were nourished by sources of mystical life within their hearts and may have never even reflected on it. What keeps faith alive is always experiential knowledge of God's spirit within us.
A Reading from the Gospel of Mary
"...This is why I tell you 'Be in harmony...'If you are out of balance, take inspiration from manifestations of your true nature.
Those who have ears, let them hear."
After saying this, the Blessed One greeted them all, saying:"Peace be with you-may my Peace arise and be fulfilled within you!
Be vigilant, and allow no one to mislead you by saying:"Here it is!" or "There it is!" For it is within you that the Son of Man dwells.
Go to him, for those who seek him, find him.
Call to Conversation
Readings
A Reading from One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springs from Global Faiths, Two Quotations
Nicolas of Cusa:
"Humanity will find that it is not a diversity of creeds, but the very same creed which is everywhere proposed...Even though you are designated in terms of different religions yet you presuppose in all this diversity one religion which you call wisdom."
(Nicolas of Cusa was a fifteenth century theologian and scientist and cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church)
The Dalai Lama:
"I believe deeply that we must find, all of us together a new spirituality. [Interviewer: Which wouldn't be religious'?] Certainly not. This new concept out to be elaborated alongside the religions, in such a way that all people of good will could adhere to it. [Interviewer: Even if they have no religion or are against religion?] Absolutely. We need a new concept of lay spirituality. We ought to promote this concept with the help of scientists...[but] everything starts with us, with each of us. The indispensable qualities are peace of mind and compassion. Without them its useless even to try. Those qualities are indispensable; they are also inevitable. I've told you: We will surely find them in ourselves, if we take the trouble to search for them. We can reject every form of religion but we can't reject and cast off compassion and peace of mind."
Both quotations from One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Spring from Global Faiths, Matthew Fox, Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguine, New York, 2000, page 3.
Readings from A Conversation on Science and Theology
[from Belonging to the Universe: Explorations on the Frontiers of Science and Spirituality (HarperSanFrancisco, 1991)pages 46-49. The conversationalists are David Steindl-Rast, Thomas Matus, both members of the Benedictine Community in Big Sur, California, and Fritjof Capra, physicist and systems theorist and founder of Elmwood Institute, an ecological think tank in Berkeley, California.]
David: Do we agree then that there is a paradigm shift in theology that is comparable to that in science?
Thomas: I certainly agree that there's a paradigm shift in theology today, but whether and to what extent it is really comparable to the one in science is still not clear to m e.
Fritjof: In science, in order to sustain the development, whether its the gradual development in the periods of normal science or the revolutionary development in periods of paradigm shifts, you have to continually do this systematic observation that is part of the scientific method. It would seem that in theology, if you want to refine your dogmas and your understanding of faith, the reflection on religious experience, you would also have to rely on continual religious experience. Now, as far as a I can see, this is not the case today. ;And maybe I could even make a stronger statement and say that in Christianity this was never a strong point. ;The mystic were always soft of marginalized and often persecuted.
Thomas: I think you have to nuance this with regard to the different epochs of what we're calling paradigms in Christian theology.
Fritjof: Could you give us a short summary of these paradigms?
Thomas: During the first thousand years of Christianity, it was generally recognized that theology had to be the fruit not only of a profound intellectual conviction but above all of an intense personal experience of faith. This as the epoch of the "Fathers" of the Church - excuse the sexist language, but practically all the early Christian writers were men! There is hardly one of these Fathers whom you wouldn't also call a mystic: think of Origen and Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory Nazianzen in the East, Ambrose and Augustine and Pope Gregory the Great in the West.
The crisis of mysticism and deep religious experience in Christianity coincides with the emergence of the great scholastic paradigm. This as the period of Thomas Aquinas adn Bonaventure in the thirteenth ceantury, and the energy, you might say, of the Scholastic paradigm continued on into the sixteenth century...[since] that time there has been a constant tension between the theologian as the professional scholar of the contents of Christian teaching and the spiritual person who is trying to life this teaching on a deep level of practice and experience.
David: Are you saying that, roughly, before the thirteenth century, the mystic were the theologians, and vice versa?
Thomas: Certainly, in principle at least, it was axiomatic that the two were inseparable. And the attitude of the theologian was first of all that of a listener, a person of faith who is searching for adequate ways to explain the Christian experience and connect it with other knowledge...What is basically the same view of theology's purpose: to initiate the believer into a genuine gnosis, an experimental knowledge of God. Not a purely intellectual knowledge, but one that totally transforms and, as many early writers say, 'divinizes' the believer.
Fritjof: And from the thirteenth century on, you were saying, there was this tension between the theologians on the one hand and the mystic on the other.
Thomas: It was the paradigm itself that imposed this division and almost forbade the theologian to become too mystical. He had to remain on the intellectual level. Let me add, though, that the crisis of mysticism was something that happened largely in the West. The Eastern Church continued, for the most part, in the lime of holistic theology. But by then the two churches had excommunicated each other.
Fritjof: This makes it, of course, very difficult for this whole parallel between science and theology. If religious experience has not been the ground of theology in the theological establishment for the past seven centuries, how do we expect new-paradigm thinking to emerge if it does not come with a renaissance of religious experience?
David: It must come with a renaissance of religious experience, and it does come today with a new explicit appreciation of religious experience. The sense of a deep inner communion with God was thought not long ago to be the privilege of 'mystics.' Today this sense of inner communion is widespread. Today we recognize that every human being can be a mystic of sorts. Of course, we should not forget that countless Christian throughout the ages were living in the strength of the divine life at the core of their being. Thus they were truly mystics. People like Meister Eckhart of Jakob Bohme of Julian of Norwich or John of the Cross, people whom we label mystics, were often those who gained notoriety by getting in trouble with the establishment. Countless others were nourished by sources of mystical life within their hearts and may have never even reflected on it. What keeps faith alive is always experiential knowledge of God's spirit within us.
A Reading from the Gospel of Mary
"...This is why I tell you 'Be in harmony...'If you are out of balance, take inspiration from manifestations of your true nature.
Those who have ears, let them hear."
After saying this, the Blessed One greeted them all, saying:"Peace be with you-may my Peace arise and be fulfilled within you!
Be vigilant, and allow no one to mislead you by saying:"Here it is!" or "There it is!" For it is within you that the Son of Man dwells.
Go to him, for those who seek him, find him.
Call to Conversation
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Call to Silence & Opening Meditation
"In the Beginning," The Magdalene Mystique: Songs from Within, c2005 Anita Kruse, track 6
"In the beginning was the word...and the world was...God"
word...logos...light of the world...creative force...living presence...ordering principle...underlying harmonic pattern of creation...universal vibration sound?
Is everything connected by the threads of sound
Intertwining interweaving here and now?
Is every cell and every pulse
Every heart in each of us
Vibrantly connected by the waves of sound?
Is everything connected in the here and now
Intertwining interweaving threads of sound?
Is every breath and every thought
Every found and every lost
Perfectly connected by the light of sound?
Is everything connected some way some how
Intertwining interweaving here and now?
Is every spark and every beam
All the dark and all the dreams
Vividly connected by the ways of sound?
Is everything connected in the here and now
Intertwining interweaving lost and found
Is every tear and every being
Every single living thing
Harmonically connected by the God of sound?
"In the beginning was the world..and the world was...God"
word...logos...light of the world...creative force...living presence...ordering principle...underlying harmonica pattern of creation...universal vibration sound?
Readings
A Reading from I Remember Union
In the beginning was the word. And the word was god. And all was one.
And all of the knowledge of all time was held within the core of the source, called god.
And there were no people
The people were but a vision of a time which had no dimension and no form.
And god brought forth the vision, and the people rose to bring the word to the land and to
the generation of people which would follow.
And so the journey into form began.
The form became separate from the vision and from the source of the word, called god.
With the separation fear was born. And the separation was the breaking apart
of the vision into soul: male and female.
The separation created the need to reunite--to return to the vision and to the source.
So the people traveled through time and space to approach a land where
the form could be used to bring forth the link to the source and to their
essence, called "soul."
Planted into the memory of man and woman was the knowledge of the source called spirit,
called, in a word, GOD.
God planted within the souls of men and women a seed,
which housed the memory of their divinity and of their birth into form.
And within the seed is the image of God, and man and woman, and all manner of life
belonging to the same family, and to the same soul, and to the same way of the word.
And there was instilled a memory of a time when all were one and when all would be one again.
ALLWOULDBEONEAGAIN
When all is one, there is a marriage of God and man and woman and the word
and the people and the vision and the form and the essence and the spirit.
And there is order created from this marriage within and without which reflects the same
reality, and is called "the truth."
Now is the time for the calling to be remembered.
Now is the time for the truth to be remembered.
And in the remembering is the vision accomplished.
The form and the source are then one again.
And the journey is finished.
The vision and the form and the people and god are again
One
Now is the time.
"The Word," I remember Union: The Story of Mary Magdalena, Flo Aeveia Magdalena, All Words Publishing, Putney, VT, 2005, pp21-25
A Reading from The Dialogue of the Savior
He took Judas, Matthews, and Mary to show them the final consummation of heaven and earth, and when he placed his hand on them, they hoped they might see it. Judas gazed up and saw a region of great height, and he saw the abyss below.
Judas said to Matthew, "Brother, who can ascend to such a height or descend to the abyss below? For there is great fire there, and great terror.
At that moment a word issued from the height. As Judas was standing there, he saw how the word came down. He asked the word, "Why have you come down?" The child of humanity greeted them and said to them, "A seed from a power was deficient, and ti descended to the earth's abyss. The majesty remembered it, and sent the word to it. The word brought the seed up into the presence of the majesty, so that the first work might not be lost."
His disciples marveled at everything he told them, and they accepted all of it in faith. And they understood that there is no need to keep wickedness before one's eyes.
"The Dialogue of the Savior," The Gospels of Mary: The Secret Tradition of Mary Magdalene
the Companion of Jesus, Marvin Meyer, HarperCollins, 2004, pg.57
A Reading from Pistis Sophia
When Jesus finished saying these things, Mary Magdalene stepped forward and said, "My master, my enlightened person has ears, and I accept all the words you speak. Now, my master, this is what you said: 'All souls of the human race who will receive the mysteries of the light will be first in the inheritance of the light, before all the rulers who have repented, before the entire place on the right, before the entire place of the treasury of light.' Concerning this saying, my Master, you once said to us, 'The first will be last and the last will be first.' That is to say, the last is the whole human race that will be first within the kingdom of light, before the inhabitants of the places on high, which are first. For this reason, my master, you have said to us, 'Whoever has ears to her should hear.' In other words, you wanted to know whether we have grasped all the sayings you spoke. My master, this is the word."
When Mary finished saying these things, the savior marveled greatly at the answers she gave, for she had become entirely pure spirit. Jesus answered and said to her, "Well done, Mary, pure spiritual woman. This is the interpretation of the world."
"Pistis Sophia," The Gospels of Mary: The Secret Tradition of Mary Magdalene the Companion of Jesus, Marvin Meyer, HarperCollins, 2004, pp 68-69
A Reading from the Gospel of Mary (Karen King translation)
When the Blessed One had said these things, he greeted them all. "Peace be with you!" he said. "Acquire my peace arise within yourselves! Be on your guard so that no one deceives you by saying: 'Look over here!' or 'Look over there!' For the child of true humanity exists within you. Follow it! Those who search for it will find it.
Call to Conversation
We ask for your thoughts/comments to continue our Sunday conversation. Thank you.
"In the Beginning," The Magdalene Mystique: Songs from Within, c2005 Anita Kruse, track 6
"In the beginning was the word...and the world was...God"
word...logos...light of the world...creative force...living presence...ordering principle...underlying harmonic pattern of creation...universal vibration sound?
Is everything connected by the threads of sound
Intertwining interweaving here and now?
Is every cell and every pulse
Every heart in each of us
Vibrantly connected by the waves of sound?
Is everything connected in the here and now
Intertwining interweaving threads of sound?
Is every breath and every thought
Every found and every lost
Perfectly connected by the light of sound?
Is everything connected some way some how
Intertwining interweaving here and now?
Is every spark and every beam
All the dark and all the dreams
Vividly connected by the ways of sound?
Is everything connected in the here and now
Intertwining interweaving lost and found
Is every tear and every being
Every single living thing
Harmonically connected by the God of sound?
"In the beginning was the world..and the world was...God"
word...logos...light of the world...creative force...living presence...ordering principle...underlying harmonica pattern of creation...universal vibration sound?
Readings
A Reading from I Remember Union
In the beginning was the word. And the word was god. And all was one.
And all of the knowledge of all time was held within the core of the source, called god.
And there were no people
The people were but a vision of a time which had no dimension and no form.
And god brought forth the vision, and the people rose to bring the word to the land and to
the generation of people which would follow.
And so the journey into form began.
The form became separate from the vision and from the source of the word, called god.
With the separation fear was born. And the separation was the breaking apart
of the vision into soul: male and female.
The separation created the need to reunite--to return to the vision and to the source.
So the people traveled through time and space to approach a land where
the form could be used to bring forth the link to the source and to their
essence, called "soul."
Planted into the memory of man and woman was the knowledge of the source called spirit,
called, in a word, GOD.
God planted within the souls of men and women a seed,
which housed the memory of their divinity and of their birth into form.
And within the seed is the image of God, and man and woman, and all manner of life
belonging to the same family, and to the same soul, and to the same way of the word.
And there was instilled a memory of a time when all were one and when all would be one again.
ALLWOULDBEONEAGAIN
When all is one, there is a marriage of God and man and woman and the word
and the people and the vision and the form and the essence and the spirit.
And there is order created from this marriage within and without which reflects the same
reality, and is called "the truth."
Now is the time for the calling to be remembered.
Now is the time for the truth to be remembered.
And in the remembering is the vision accomplished.
The form and the source are then one again.
And the journey is finished.
The vision and the form and the people and god are again
One
Now is the time.
"The Word," I remember Union: The Story of Mary Magdalena, Flo Aeveia Magdalena, All Words Publishing, Putney, VT, 2005, pp21-25
A Reading from The Dialogue of the Savior
He took Judas, Matthews, and Mary to show them the final consummation of heaven and earth, and when he placed his hand on them, they hoped they might see it. Judas gazed up and saw a region of great height, and he saw the abyss below.
Judas said to Matthew, "Brother, who can ascend to such a height or descend to the abyss below? For there is great fire there, and great terror.
At that moment a word issued from the height. As Judas was standing there, he saw how the word came down. He asked the word, "Why have you come down?" The child of humanity greeted them and said to them, "A seed from a power was deficient, and ti descended to the earth's abyss. The majesty remembered it, and sent the word to it. The word brought the seed up into the presence of the majesty, so that the first work might not be lost."
His disciples marveled at everything he told them, and they accepted all of it in faith. And they understood that there is no need to keep wickedness before one's eyes.
"The Dialogue of the Savior," The Gospels of Mary: The Secret Tradition of Mary Magdalene
the Companion of Jesus, Marvin Meyer, HarperCollins, 2004, pg.57
A Reading from Pistis Sophia
When Jesus finished saying these things, Mary Magdalene stepped forward and said, "My master, my enlightened person has ears, and I accept all the words you speak. Now, my master, this is what you said: 'All souls of the human race who will receive the mysteries of the light will be first in the inheritance of the light, before all the rulers who have repented, before the entire place on the right, before the entire place of the treasury of light.' Concerning this saying, my Master, you once said to us, 'The first will be last and the last will be first.' That is to say, the last is the whole human race that will be first within the kingdom of light, before the inhabitants of the places on high, which are first. For this reason, my master, you have said to us, 'Whoever has ears to her should hear.' In other words, you wanted to know whether we have grasped all the sayings you spoke. My master, this is the word."
When Mary finished saying these things, the savior marveled greatly at the answers she gave, for she had become entirely pure spirit. Jesus answered and said to her, "Well done, Mary, pure spiritual woman. This is the interpretation of the world."
"Pistis Sophia," The Gospels of Mary: The Secret Tradition of Mary Magdalene the Companion of Jesus, Marvin Meyer, HarperCollins, 2004, pp 68-69
A Reading from the Gospel of Mary (Karen King translation)
When the Blessed One had said these things, he greeted them all. "Peace be with you!" he said. "Acquire my peace arise within yourselves! Be on your guard so that no one deceives you by saying: 'Look over here!' or 'Look over there!' For the child of true humanity exists within you. Follow it! Those who search for it will find it.
Call to Conversation
We ask for your thoughts/comments to continue our Sunday conversation. Thank you.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Call to Silence & Opening Meditation
On Mother's Day, we explored love in many of its facets in honor of the first person from whom we learn love. A father's love is no less important. In order for us to become "fully human," it is important that we embrace the masculine aspect of ourselves, just as we must embrace the feminine, as embodied in father and mother. For some, this also means seeking a more balanced view of the divine, one that is both/neither father-god/mother-god.
The idea for creating a day for children to honor their fathers began in Spokane, Washington. A woman by the name of Sonora Smart Dodd thought of the idea for Father's Day while listening to a Mother's Day sermon in 1909. Having been raised by her father, William Jackson Smart, after her mother died, Sonora wanted her father to know how special he was to her. It was her father that made all the parental sacrifices and was, in the eyes of his daughter, a courageous, selfless, and loving man. Sonor's Father was born in June, so she chose to hold the first Father's Day celebration in Spokane, Washington on the 19th of June, 1910.
In 1926, a National Father's Day Committee was formed in New York City. Father's Day was recognized by a Joint Resolution of Congress in 1956. In 1972, President Richard Nixon established a permanent national observance of Father's Day to be held on the third Sunday of June. Father's Day was born in memory and gratitude by a daughter who thought that her father and all good fathers should be honored with a special day just like we honor our mothers on Mother's Day.
Readings
What Makes A Dad
God took the strength of a mountain,
The majesty of a tree,
The warmth of a summer sun,
The calm of a quiet sea,
The generous soul of nature,
The comforting arm of night,
The wisdom of the ages,
The power of the eagle's flight,
The joy of a morning in spring,
The faith of a mustard seed,
The Patience of eternity,
The depth of a family need,
Then God combined these qualities,
When there was nothing more to add,
He knew His masterpiece was complete,
And so, He called it ...Dad
Author unknown, http://www.morningglow.com/holidays/father/father.html
Quotations about Fathers
When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at h ow much he had learned in seven years. Mark Twain, "Old Times on the Mississippi," Atlantic Monthly, 1874
Dad, you're someone to look up to no matter how tall I've grown. -Author unknown
There's something like a line of gold thread running through a man's words when he talks to his daughter, and gradually over the years it gets to be long enough for you to pick up in your hands and weave into a cloth that feels like love itself. -John Gregory Brown, Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery, 1994
Never raise your hand to your kids. It leave your groin unprotected. -Red Buttons
http://www.quotegarden.com/dad-day.html
Readings from the Gospels
Matthews 5: 16, 45, 48
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
...so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 12: 50
For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, and sister, and mother.
John 20: 17, 21
Jesus said to her, "Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father , to my God, and your God."
Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you."
A Reading from the Gospel of Mary (LeLoup translation)
After saying this, the Blessed One greeted them all, saying: "Peace be with you-may my Peace arise and be fulfilled within you!
Be vigilant, and allow no one to mislead you by saying: "Here it is!' or 'There it is!' For it is within you that the Son of Man dwells. Go to him, for those who seek him, find him. Walk forth, and announce the gospel of the Kingdom."
Call to Conversation
On Mother's Day, we explored love in many of its facets in honor of the first person from whom we learn love. A father's love is no less important. In order for us to become "fully human," it is important that we embrace the masculine aspect of ourselves, just as we must embrace the feminine, as embodied in father and mother. For some, this also means seeking a more balanced view of the divine, one that is both/neither father-god/mother-god.
The idea for creating a day for children to honor their fathers began in Spokane, Washington. A woman by the name of Sonora Smart Dodd thought of the idea for Father's Day while listening to a Mother's Day sermon in 1909. Having been raised by her father, William Jackson Smart, after her mother died, Sonora wanted her father to know how special he was to her. It was her father that made all the parental sacrifices and was, in the eyes of his daughter, a courageous, selfless, and loving man. Sonor's Father was born in June, so she chose to hold the first Father's Day celebration in Spokane, Washington on the 19th of June, 1910.
In 1926, a National Father's Day Committee was formed in New York City. Father's Day was recognized by a Joint Resolution of Congress in 1956. In 1972, President Richard Nixon established a permanent national observance of Father's Day to be held on the third Sunday of June. Father's Day was born in memory and gratitude by a daughter who thought that her father and all good fathers should be honored with a special day just like we honor our mothers on Mother's Day.
Readings
What Makes A Dad
God took the strength of a mountain,
The majesty of a tree,
The warmth of a summer sun,
The calm of a quiet sea,
The generous soul of nature,
The comforting arm of night,
The wisdom of the ages,
The power of the eagle's flight,
The joy of a morning in spring,
The faith of a mustard seed,
The Patience of eternity,
The depth of a family need,
Then God combined these qualities,
When there was nothing more to add,
He knew His masterpiece was complete,
And so, He called it ...Dad
Author unknown, http://www.morningglow.com/holidays/father/father.html
Quotations about Fathers
When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at h ow much he had learned in seven years. Mark Twain, "Old Times on the Mississippi," Atlantic Monthly, 1874
Dad, you're someone to look up to no matter how tall I've grown. -Author unknown
There's something like a line of gold thread running through a man's words when he talks to his daughter, and gradually over the years it gets to be long enough for you to pick up in your hands and weave into a cloth that feels like love itself. -John Gregory Brown, Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery, 1994
Never raise your hand to your kids. It leave your groin unprotected. -Red Buttons
http://www.quotegarden.com/dad-day.html
Readings from the Gospels
Matthews 5: 16, 45, 48
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
...so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 12: 50
For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, and sister, and mother.
John 20: 17, 21
Jesus said to her, "Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father , to my God, and your God."
Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you."
A Reading from the Gospel of Mary (LeLoup translation)
After saying this, the Blessed One greeted them all, saying: "Peace be with you-may my Peace arise and be fulfilled within you!
Be vigilant, and allow no one to mislead you by saying: "Here it is!' or 'There it is!' For it is within you that the Son of Man dwells. Go to him, for those who seek him, find him. Walk forth, and announce the gospel of the Kingdom."
Call to Conversation
Sunday June 8, 2008
Call to Silence & Opening Meditation
"There is a spirit that pervades everything, that is capable of powerful song and radiant movement, and that moves in and out of the mind. The colors of this spirit are multitudinous, a glowing, pulsing rainbow...
This spirit, this power of intelligence, has many names and many emblems.
She appears on the plains, in the forests, in the great canyons, on the mesas, beneath the seas."
"Grandmother of the Son" by Paula Gunn Allen
Readings
A Reading from the Dalai Lama
To feel true compassion for all beings, we must remove any partiality from our attitude toward them. Our normal view of others is dominated by fluctuating and discriminating emotions. We feel a sense of closeness toward loved ones. Toward strangers or acquaintances we feel distant. And then for those individuals whom we perceive as hostile, unfriendly, or aloof, we feel aversion or contempt. The criterion for our classifying people as friends or enemies seems straightforward. If a person is close to us or has been kind to us, he or she is a friend. If a person has caused us difficulty or harm, he or she is a foe. Mixed with our fondness of our loved ones are emotions such as attachment and desire that inspire passionate intimacy. Similarly, we view those whom we dislike with negative emotions such as anger or hatred. Consequently, our compassion toward others is limited, partial, prejudicial, and conditioned by whether we feel close to them.
Genuine compassion must be unconditional. We must cultivate equanimity in order to transcend any feelings of discrimination and partiality...
A way of cultivating equanimity and transcending our feelings of partiality and discrimination is to reflect upon how we are all equal in our aspiration to be happy and overcome suffering. Additionally, we all feel that we have a basic right to fulfill this aspiration. Who do we justify this right? Very simply, it is part of our fundamental nature. ..my aspiration to be happy and overcome suffering is part of my fundamental nature, as is it part of yours. If this is so, then just as we do, all others have the right to be happy and overcome suffering simply because they share this fundamental nature. It is on the basis of this equality that we develop equanimity toward all. In our meditation we must work at cultivating the attitude that "just as I myself have the desire to be happy and overcome suffering, so do all others, and just as I have the natural right to fulfill this aspiration, so do all others. We should repeat this thought as we meditate and as we go about our lives, until it sinks deep into our awareness.
It is best to cultivate the feeling of equanimity by first focusing on relative strangers or acquaintances, those for whom you have no strong feeling one way or other. From there you should meditate impartially, moving onto friends and then enemies. Upon achieving an impartial attitude toward all sentient beings, you should meditate on love, the wish that they find the happiness they seek. The seed of compassion will grow if you plant it in fertile soil, a consciousness moistened with love. When you have watered your mind with love, you can begin to meditate upon compassion. Compassion, here, is simply the wish that all sentient beings be free of suffering.
from An Open Heart: Practicing Compassion in Everyday Life. (109-114)
A Reading from Alice Walker's The Color Purple
Here's the thing, say Shug. The thing I believe. God is inside you and inside everybody else. You come into the world with God. But only them that search for it inside find it. And some times it just manifest itself even if you are not looking, or don't know what you looking for. Trouble do it for most folks, I think.
A Reading from Matthews 9: 9-13, 18-26
As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax office; and he said to him, "Follow me." And he rose and followed him. And as he sat at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" But when he heard it, he said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this mean, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."
While he was thus speaking to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him, saying, "My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live." And Jesus rose and followed him, with his disciples. And behold, a woman who had suffered from a hemorrhage for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment; for she said to herself, "If I only touch his garment, I shall be made well." Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, "Take heart, daughters, your faith has made you well." And instantly the woman was made well. And when Jesus came to the ruler's house, and saw the flute players, and the crowd making a tumult, he said, "Depart; for the girl is not dead but sleeping." And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose. And the report of this went through all that district.
A Reading from the Gospel of Mary
Peter said to him: "Since you have become the interpreter of the elements and the events of the world, tell us: What is the sin of the world?" The Teacher answered: "There is no sin. It is you who make sin exist, when you act according to the habits of your corrupted nature; this is where sin lies. This is why the Good has come into your midst. It acts together with the elements of your nature so as to reunite it with its roots." Then he continued: "This is why you become sick, and why you die: it is the result of your actions; what you do takes you further away. Those who have ears, let them hear."
Call to Conversation"
"There is a spirit that pervades everything, that is capable of powerful song and radiant movement, and that moves in and out of the mind. The colors of this spirit are multitudinous, a glowing, pulsing rainbow...
This spirit, this power of intelligence, has many names and many emblems.
She appears on the plains, in the forests, in the great canyons, on the mesas, beneath the seas."
"Grandmother of the Son" by Paula Gunn Allen
Readings
A Reading from the Dalai Lama
To feel true compassion for all beings, we must remove any partiality from our attitude toward them. Our normal view of others is dominated by fluctuating and discriminating emotions. We feel a sense of closeness toward loved ones. Toward strangers or acquaintances we feel distant. And then for those individuals whom we perceive as hostile, unfriendly, or aloof, we feel aversion or contempt. The criterion for our classifying people as friends or enemies seems straightforward. If a person is close to us or has been kind to us, he or she is a friend. If a person has caused us difficulty or harm, he or she is a foe. Mixed with our fondness of our loved ones are emotions such as attachment and desire that inspire passionate intimacy. Similarly, we view those whom we dislike with negative emotions such as anger or hatred. Consequently, our compassion toward others is limited, partial, prejudicial, and conditioned by whether we feel close to them.
Genuine compassion must be unconditional. We must cultivate equanimity in order to transcend any feelings of discrimination and partiality...
A way of cultivating equanimity and transcending our feelings of partiality and discrimination is to reflect upon how we are all equal in our aspiration to be happy and overcome suffering. Additionally, we all feel that we have a basic right to fulfill this aspiration. Who do we justify this right? Very simply, it is part of our fundamental nature. ..my aspiration to be happy and overcome suffering is part of my fundamental nature, as is it part of yours. If this is so, then just as we do, all others have the right to be happy and overcome suffering simply because they share this fundamental nature. It is on the basis of this equality that we develop equanimity toward all. In our meditation we must work at cultivating the attitude that "just as I myself have the desire to be happy and overcome suffering, so do all others, and just as I have the natural right to fulfill this aspiration, so do all others. We should repeat this thought as we meditate and as we go about our lives, until it sinks deep into our awareness.
It is best to cultivate the feeling of equanimity by first focusing on relative strangers or acquaintances, those for whom you have no strong feeling one way or other. From there you should meditate impartially, moving onto friends and then enemies. Upon achieving an impartial attitude toward all sentient beings, you should meditate on love, the wish that they find the happiness they seek. The seed of compassion will grow if you plant it in fertile soil, a consciousness moistened with love. When you have watered your mind with love, you can begin to meditate upon compassion. Compassion, here, is simply the wish that all sentient beings be free of suffering.
from An Open Heart: Practicing Compassion in Everyday Life. (109-114)
A Reading from Alice Walker's The Color Purple
Here's the thing, say Shug. The thing I believe. God is inside you and inside everybody else. You come into the world with God. But only them that search for it inside find it. And some times it just manifest itself even if you are not looking, or don't know what you looking for. Trouble do it for most folks, I think.
A Reading from Matthews 9: 9-13, 18-26
As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax office; and he said to him, "Follow me." And he rose and followed him. And as he sat at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" But when he heard it, he said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this mean, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."
While he was thus speaking to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him, saying, "My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live." And Jesus rose and followed him, with his disciples. And behold, a woman who had suffered from a hemorrhage for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment; for she said to herself, "If I only touch his garment, I shall be made well." Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, "Take heart, daughters, your faith has made you well." And instantly the woman was made well. And when Jesus came to the ruler's house, and saw the flute players, and the crowd making a tumult, he said, "Depart; for the girl is not dead but sleeping." And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose. And the report of this went through all that district.
A Reading from the Gospel of Mary
Peter said to him: "Since you have become the interpreter of the elements and the events of the world, tell us: What is the sin of the world?" The Teacher answered: "There is no sin. It is you who make sin exist, when you act according to the habits of your corrupted nature; this is where sin lies. This is why the Good has come into your midst. It acts together with the elements of your nature so as to reunite it with its roots." Then he continued: "This is why you become sick, and why you die: it is the result of your actions; what you do takes you further away. Those who have ears, let them hear."
Call to Conversation"
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Call to Silence & Opening Meditation
“Who looks outside dreams. Who looks inside awakens.”
Carl Jung, as quoted by Glynda-Lee Hoffmann, page 7
The Secret Dowry of Eve: Women’s Role in the Development of Consciousness
Readings
Mythologically, Genesis is about our neurology, not our history, and its depiction of human neurology can now be verified by solid scientific fact. Rather than depicting outer events, the imagery of Genesis depicts the inner realm of neurological structure and function. What is more, it may be telling us that the power of our own awareness can affect, alter, and even enlarge our neurology.
This is the power of personal transformation. It is determined not by events observed in a laboratory, but by events observed within one’s own mind. It is quantum mechanics at the personal level, because it involves observing the behavior of light – inner light – in the processing of information. “Man, know thyself: were the words chiseled into the Delphic Oracle. How can we know ourselves if we do not observe our inner world? Ironically, for “man,” the inner world is the realm of the feminine, and it is the woman in Genesis who imitates the journey into this inner world. On our own journeys we must not allow ourselves to be put off, diverted, or deluded by interpretations from various authorities. Remember: There is no better authority on your inner world than you.
The Secret Dowry of Eve, page 26
A reading from Genesis, 1:1-3
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void;
and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light –
and there was light,
And God saw the light, that it was good:
and God divided the light from the darkness.
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.
And the evening and the morning were the first day.
As quoted in The Secret Dowry of Eve, page 36
A Reading from Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
The woman and the man ate of the tree: While the man is passive, the woman actively seeks knowledge and tests the limits.
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it you shall die.”
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die, for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
As quoted in Remembering the Women, page 33
A Reading form the Gospel of Mary – (Karen King translation, as quoted in The Magdalene Mystique)
When the Blessed One had said these things, he greeted them all, “Peace be with you!” he said. “Acquire my peace within yourselves! Be on your guard so that no one deceives you by saying, ‘Look over here!’ or ‘Look over there!’ for the child of true humanity exists within you. Follow it! Those who search for it will find it.
A Reading form the Gospel of Mary – (Esther de Boer translation, as quoted in The Magdalene Mystique)
Mary answered and said, “What is hidden from you I shall tell you.” And she began to say to them these words: “I”, she said, “I have seen the Lord in a vision and I said to him, ‘Lord, I have seen you today in a vision.’ He answered, he said to me, ‘Blessed are you, because you are not wavering when you see me. For where the mind is, there is the treasure.’
Call to Conversation
Closing Meditation
The secret dowry that is buried within each of us is the psyche’s germ that has the potential to grow indefinitely until we discover all of life’s riches, especially happiness, healing love, and wisdom. This germ is the power to see and recognize the integrative pattern of life as the interplay between opposites. Like Adam and Eve, each of us must eat and digest the fruit of the tree of knowledge …, transforming its misbegotten interpretation of good and evil. In that transformation we discover that it is actually the fruit of the tree of knowledge of sacred opposites, the basis of wholeness. This is the truth that opens our eyes and sets us free to view life in a whole new way.
“Who looks outside dreams. Who looks inside awakens.”
Carl Jung, as quoted by Glynda-Lee Hoffmann, page 7
The Secret Dowry of Eve: Women’s Role in the Development of Consciousness
Readings
Mythologically, Genesis is about our neurology, not our history, and its depiction of human neurology can now be verified by solid scientific fact. Rather than depicting outer events, the imagery of Genesis depicts the inner realm of neurological structure and function. What is more, it may be telling us that the power of our own awareness can affect, alter, and even enlarge our neurology.
This is the power of personal transformation. It is determined not by events observed in a laboratory, but by events observed within one’s own mind. It is quantum mechanics at the personal level, because it involves observing the behavior of light – inner light – in the processing of information. “Man, know thyself: were the words chiseled into the Delphic Oracle. How can we know ourselves if we do not observe our inner world? Ironically, for “man,” the inner world is the realm of the feminine, and it is the woman in Genesis who imitates the journey into this inner world. On our own journeys we must not allow ourselves to be put off, diverted, or deluded by interpretations from various authorities. Remember: There is no better authority on your inner world than you.
The Secret Dowry of Eve, page 26
A reading from Genesis, 1:1-3
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void;
and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light –
and there was light,
And God saw the light, that it was good:
and God divided the light from the darkness.
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.
And the evening and the morning were the first day.
As quoted in The Secret Dowry of Eve, page 36
A Reading from Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
The woman and the man ate of the tree: While the man is passive, the woman actively seeks knowledge and tests the limits.
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it you shall die.”
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die, for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
As quoted in Remembering the Women, page 33
A Reading form the Gospel of Mary – (Karen King translation, as quoted in The Magdalene Mystique)
When the Blessed One had said these things, he greeted them all, “Peace be with you!” he said. “Acquire my peace within yourselves! Be on your guard so that no one deceives you by saying, ‘Look over here!’ or ‘Look over there!’ for the child of true humanity exists within you. Follow it! Those who search for it will find it.
A Reading form the Gospel of Mary – (Esther de Boer translation, as quoted in The Magdalene Mystique)
Mary answered and said, “What is hidden from you I shall tell you.” And she began to say to them these words: “I”, she said, “I have seen the Lord in a vision and I said to him, ‘Lord, I have seen you today in a vision.’ He answered, he said to me, ‘Blessed are you, because you are not wavering when you see me. For where the mind is, there is the treasure.’
Call to Conversation
Closing Meditation
The secret dowry that is buried within each of us is the psyche’s germ that has the potential to grow indefinitely until we discover all of life’s riches, especially happiness, healing love, and wisdom. This germ is the power to see and recognize the integrative pattern of life as the interplay between opposites. Like Adam and Eve, each of us must eat and digest the fruit of the tree of knowledge …, transforming its misbegotten interpretation of good and evil. In that transformation we discover that it is actually the fruit of the tree of knowledge of sacred opposites, the basis of wholeness. This is the truth that opens our eyes and sets us free to view life in a whole new way.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Call to Silence & Opening Meditation
“We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are.”
from The Talmud, as quoted by Elizabeth Lesser, page 130
“No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it.”
Albert Einstein, as quoted by Elizabeth Lesser, p 131
Readings
“The ego wants to be a ‘Republican’ or a ‘liberal,’ a ‘New Yorker’ or a ‘Midwesterner.’ It wants to judge things as right or wrong. It wants to be ‘for’ something or ‘against’ something. It does not want to delve more deeply into the full picture of reality.” (page 146)
“If we regard spirituality as a fearless investigation of reality, then we’ll find that all of our experiences is within its boundaries.” (43)
“... my meditation practice is simple. While it is surely informed by all of my study and experiences, I would be mocking the real meaning of meditation if I represented it as an exotic journey. Immersion into so many forms of meditation has led me deeper and deeper into the most essential core of all of them: mindfulness – a nondenominational form of practice that teaches moment-to-moment awareness, a kind of falling in love with naked reality.” (93)
“I have found that no matter where my searching has taken me, it always leads me back to my need to face my own true nature, and since I am a human being, my human nature. We may choose a beautiful and moral way to know God, replete with an interesting theology, an engaging community, and a well-conceived set of practices. We may look far from our own culture and adopt a path that includes ancient wisdom, meditation, and foreign mantras and dress. Perhaps we look closer to home, and embrace a religious tradition that teaches more familiar prayers and concepts. It doesn’t matter what path we take toward spiritual realization. If we by pass our humanness, each path leads back to the same question: What are we hiding from in ourselves and in each other?” (37)
“Opening up the secret of our human nature, revealing to ourselves and to each other our deep and soulful longings, our fear and sadness, our joy and wonder, is the critical step on the spiritual path. It is the step that makes the difference between living our own, real spirituality and just acquiring someone else’s beliefs…Thus a critical step on the spiritual path, and one that we will take over and over, is to let ourselves experience spiritual hunger long enough and deep enough to follow it to its source…the Source of our spiritual hunger resides in a place deep within us. It is a quiet and faithful place and if we learn how to access its powerful wisdom, it can become our most dependable friend.” (37-38)
A Reading form the Gospel of Mary – (Karen King translation)
When the Blessed One had said these things, he greeted them all, “Peace be with you!” he said. “Acquire my peace within yourselves! Be on your guard so that no one deceives you by saying, ‘Look over here!’ or ‘Look over there!’ for the child of true humanity exists within you. Follow it! Those who search for it will find it.
Call to Conversation
The Opening Meditation is inspired by Elizabeth Lesser, co founder and senior adviser of the Omega Institue in Rhinebeck, New York.
The Readings are found in Lesser's The Seeker's Guide: Making Your Life a Spiritual Adventure (New York: Villard) 1999.
“We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are.”
from The Talmud, as quoted by Elizabeth Lesser, page 130
“No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it.”
Albert Einstein, as quoted by Elizabeth Lesser, p 131
Readings
“The ego wants to be a ‘Republican’ or a ‘liberal,’ a ‘New Yorker’ or a ‘Midwesterner.’ It wants to judge things as right or wrong. It wants to be ‘for’ something or ‘against’ something. It does not want to delve more deeply into the full picture of reality.” (page 146)
“If we regard spirituality as a fearless investigation of reality, then we’ll find that all of our experiences is within its boundaries.” (43)
“... my meditation practice is simple. While it is surely informed by all of my study and experiences, I would be mocking the real meaning of meditation if I represented it as an exotic journey. Immersion into so many forms of meditation has led me deeper and deeper into the most essential core of all of them: mindfulness – a nondenominational form of practice that teaches moment-to-moment awareness, a kind of falling in love with naked reality.” (93)
“I have found that no matter where my searching has taken me, it always leads me back to my need to face my own true nature, and since I am a human being, my human nature. We may choose a beautiful and moral way to know God, replete with an interesting theology, an engaging community, and a well-conceived set of practices. We may look far from our own culture and adopt a path that includes ancient wisdom, meditation, and foreign mantras and dress. Perhaps we look closer to home, and embrace a religious tradition that teaches more familiar prayers and concepts. It doesn’t matter what path we take toward spiritual realization. If we by pass our humanness, each path leads back to the same question: What are we hiding from in ourselves and in each other?” (37)
“Opening up the secret of our human nature, revealing to ourselves and to each other our deep and soulful longings, our fear and sadness, our joy and wonder, is the critical step on the spiritual path. It is the step that makes the difference between living our own, real spirituality and just acquiring someone else’s beliefs…Thus a critical step on the spiritual path, and one that we will take over and over, is to let ourselves experience spiritual hunger long enough and deep enough to follow it to its source…the Source of our spiritual hunger resides in a place deep within us. It is a quiet and faithful place and if we learn how to access its powerful wisdom, it can become our most dependable friend.” (37-38)
A Reading form the Gospel of Mary – (Karen King translation)
When the Blessed One had said these things, he greeted them all, “Peace be with you!” he said. “Acquire my peace within yourselves! Be on your guard so that no one deceives you by saying, ‘Look over here!’ or ‘Look over there!’ for the child of true humanity exists within you. Follow it! Those who search for it will find it.
Call to Conversation
The Opening Meditation is inspired by Elizabeth Lesser, co founder and senior adviser of the Omega Institue in Rhinebeck, New York.
The Readings are found in Lesser's The Seeker's Guide: Making Your Life a Spiritual Adventure (New York: Villard) 1999.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Call to Silence & Opening Meditation
You must close the eyes and waken in yourself that other power of vision, the birthright of all, but which few turn to use. (a saying from Plotinus)
“I saw my Lord with the eye of my heart, and I said: who art Thou? He said: Thou.” (al-Hallaj, Persian Sufi at Baghdad, d. 922)
The Yogi, whose intellect is perfect, contemplates all things as abiding in himself [herself] and thus, by the eye of Knowledge (Jana-chakshus) s/he perceives that everything is Atma. (Sri Sankaracharya, Hindu metaphysician, leading exponent of the doctrine of non-duality, 800 AD)
Readings
Luke 4: 42-43
At daybreak he departed and went into a deserted place. And the crowds were looking for him; and when they reached him, they wanted to prevent him from leaving them. But he said to them, ‘I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also; for I was sent for this purpose.’ So he continued proclaiming the message in the synagogues of Judea. [Galilee]
Luke 8: 1
Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Johanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources.
Luke 9: 1-2
Then Jesus called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God, and to heal. He said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money – not even an extra tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there, and leave from there. Wherever they do not welcome you, as you are leaving that town shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” They departed and went through the villages, bringing the good news and curing diseases everywhere.
Luke 10: 1-9
After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go....Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.'
Luke 11: 20
[Jesus said] If it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you.
Luke 12: 32
[Jesus said] Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Fathers’ good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Luke 17:20
Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact the kingdom of God is among [within] you.
Gospel of Mary
After saying this, the Blessed One greeted them all, saying: “Peace be with you – may my Peace arise and be fulfilled within you! Be vigilant, and allow no one to mislead you by saying: ‘Here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For it is within you that the son of Man [child of true humanity] dwells. Go to him, for those who seek him, find him. Walk forth, and announce the gospel of the Kingdom.
Call to Conversation
Closing Meditation
You must close the eyes and waken in yourself that other power of vision, the birthright of all, but which few turn to use. (a saying from Plotinus)
“I saw my Lord with the eye of my heart, and I said: who art Thou? He said: Thou.” (al-Hallaj, Persian Sufi at Baghdad, d. 922)
The Yogi, whose intellect is perfect, contemplates all things as abiding in himself [herself] and thus, by the eye of Knowledge (Jana-chakshus) s/he perceives that everything is Atma. (Sri Sankaracharya, Hindu metaphysician, leading exponent of the doctrine of non-duality, 800 AD)
Readings
Luke 4: 42-43
At daybreak he departed and went into a deserted place. And the crowds were looking for him; and when they reached him, they wanted to prevent him from leaving them. But he said to them, ‘I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also; for I was sent for this purpose.’ So he continued proclaiming the message in the synagogues of Judea. [Galilee]
Luke 8: 1
Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Johanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources.
Luke 9: 1-2
Then Jesus called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God, and to heal. He said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money – not even an extra tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there, and leave from there. Wherever they do not welcome you, as you are leaving that town shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” They departed and went through the villages, bringing the good news and curing diseases everywhere.
Luke 10: 1-9
After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go....Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.'
Luke 11: 20
[Jesus said] If it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you.
Luke 12: 32
[Jesus said] Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Fathers’ good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Luke 17:20
Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact the kingdom of God is among [within] you.
Gospel of Mary
After saying this, the Blessed One greeted them all, saying: “Peace be with you – may my Peace arise and be fulfilled within you! Be vigilant, and allow no one to mislead you by saying: ‘Here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For it is within you that the son of Man [child of true humanity] dwells. Go to him, for those who seek him, find him. Walk forth, and announce the gospel of the Kingdom.
Call to Conversation
Closing Meditation
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Opening Music –
Call to Silence & Opening Meditation – Manifesting Love
Last week we explored belonging. It seems that the natural progression is to manifest our belonging with love. For most of us, the first love we learn about … and learn from … is that of our mother. The readings for this Mother’s Day are about love in all its forms.
Opening Prayer – Invocation to the Cosmic Mother, by Judy Sion
Oh, Great Mother, divine feminine, birther of the cosmos, lover unto Spirit, Creatrix of all matter and queen of all worlds within worlds and those without, we call you to us in this hour.
We are your children; hear our call.
We are the daughters and the sons of your divine union, the flesh of your passion for life. You, who lay with Spirit, our Father, in the beginning of time, and brought us forth from the blessed union of Spirit and Matter, we are your children, the sons and daughters of your flesh and your heart, and we remember your touch and the fragrance of your essence, and we long for you.
Come to our hearts and gift us the remembering. Come to our minds and open our genius.
Enlighten us with your presence.
Draw back the veils that we might see, and harken the doors to open, that beauty and ecstasy may live in our homes and hearts more fully.
This is our hour of greatest need. We call you through fire and water, through earth and wind, through all that bears your name. We call all your lineages and all your names. Come unto us. Come into us. So be it.
The Magdalen Manuscript, by Tom Kenyon and Judi Sion.©2002, Sounds True, Inc., Boulder, Co.
Readings on Love
Love by Tagore
Love adorns itself;
it seeks to prove inward joy by outward beauty.
~
Love does not claim possession,
but gives freedom.
~
Love is an endless mystery,
for it has nothing else to explain it.
- Rabindranath Tagore
The Love Religion, Ibn Arabi
The inner space inside
That we call the heart
Has become many different
Living scenes and stories.
A pasture for sleek gazelles,
A monastery for Christian monks,
A time with Shiva dancing,
A kaaba for pilgrimage.
The tablets of Moses are there,
The Qua’an, the Vedas,
The sutras, and the gospels.
Love is the religion in me.
Whichever way love’s camel goes,
That way becomes my faith,
The source of beauty, and a light
Of sacredness over everything.
Divine Love: Looking For Your Face, Rumi
From the beginning of my life I have been looking for your face but today I have seen it.Today I have seen the charm, the beauty,the unfathomable grace of the face that I was looking for.Today I have found you and those that laughed and scorned me yesterday are sorry that they were not looking as I did.I am bewildered by the magnificence of your beauty and wish to see you with a hundred eyes.My heart has burned with passion and has searched forever for this wondrous beauty that I now behold.
I am ashamed to call this love human and afraid of God to call it divine.
Your fragrant breath like the morning breeze has come to the stillness of the gardenYou have breathed new life into me I have become your sunshine and also your shadow.My soul is screaming in ecstasy. Every fiber of my being is in love with you. Your effulgence has lit a fire in my heart and you have made radiant for me the earth and sky.My arrow of love has arrived at the target I am in the house of mercy and my heart is a place of prayer.
From Rumi, Hidden Music (translated by Azima Melita Kolin & Maryam Mafi, 59.)
With love you cannot bargain
There, the choice is not yours.
Love is a mirror, it reflects
only your essence,
if you have the courage
to look in its face.
A Prayer of St. Francis
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith
Where there is despair, hope
Where there is darkness, light
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love:
for it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, It is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.
1 Corinthians, 13
1) If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2) And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3) If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4) Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful;
5) it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
6) it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.
7) Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8) Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
9) For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect;
10) but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away.
11) When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
12) For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood.
13) So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Call to Conversation
Closing Meditation & Music:
Call to Silence & Opening Meditation – Manifesting Love
Last week we explored belonging. It seems that the natural progression is to manifest our belonging with love. For most of us, the first love we learn about … and learn from … is that of our mother. The readings for this Mother’s Day are about love in all its forms.
Opening Prayer – Invocation to the Cosmic Mother, by Judy Sion
Oh, Great Mother, divine feminine, birther of the cosmos, lover unto Spirit, Creatrix of all matter and queen of all worlds within worlds and those without, we call you to us in this hour.
We are your children; hear our call.
We are the daughters and the sons of your divine union, the flesh of your passion for life. You, who lay with Spirit, our Father, in the beginning of time, and brought us forth from the blessed union of Spirit and Matter, we are your children, the sons and daughters of your flesh and your heart, and we remember your touch and the fragrance of your essence, and we long for you.
Come to our hearts and gift us the remembering. Come to our minds and open our genius.
Enlighten us with your presence.
Draw back the veils that we might see, and harken the doors to open, that beauty and ecstasy may live in our homes and hearts more fully.
This is our hour of greatest need. We call you through fire and water, through earth and wind, through all that bears your name. We call all your lineages and all your names. Come unto us. Come into us. So be it.
The Magdalen Manuscript, by Tom Kenyon and Judi Sion.©2002, Sounds True, Inc., Boulder, Co.
Readings on Love
Love by Tagore
Love adorns itself;
it seeks to prove inward joy by outward beauty.
~
Love does not claim possession,
but gives freedom.
~
Love is an endless mystery,
for it has nothing else to explain it.
- Rabindranath Tagore
The Love Religion, Ibn Arabi
The inner space inside
That we call the heart
Has become many different
Living scenes and stories.
A pasture for sleek gazelles,
A monastery for Christian monks,
A time with Shiva dancing,
A kaaba for pilgrimage.
The tablets of Moses are there,
The Qua’an, the Vedas,
The sutras, and the gospels.
Love is the religion in me.
Whichever way love’s camel goes,
That way becomes my faith,
The source of beauty, and a light
Of sacredness over everything.
Divine Love: Looking For Your Face, Rumi
From the beginning of my life I have been looking for your face but today I have seen it.Today I have seen the charm, the beauty,the unfathomable grace of the face that I was looking for.Today I have found you and those that laughed and scorned me yesterday are sorry that they were not looking as I did.I am bewildered by the magnificence of your beauty and wish to see you with a hundred eyes.My heart has burned with passion and has searched forever for this wondrous beauty that I now behold.
I am ashamed to call this love human and afraid of God to call it divine.
Your fragrant breath like the morning breeze has come to the stillness of the gardenYou have breathed new life into me I have become your sunshine and also your shadow.My soul is screaming in ecstasy. Every fiber of my being is in love with you. Your effulgence has lit a fire in my heart and you have made radiant for me the earth and sky.My arrow of love has arrived at the target I am in the house of mercy and my heart is a place of prayer.
From Rumi, Hidden Music (translated by Azima Melita Kolin & Maryam Mafi, 59.)
With love you cannot bargain
There, the choice is not yours.
Love is a mirror, it reflects
only your essence,
if you have the courage
to look in its face.
A Prayer of St. Francis
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith
Where there is despair, hope
Where there is darkness, light
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love:
for it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, It is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.
1 Corinthians, 13
1) If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2) And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3) If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4) Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful;
5) it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
6) it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.
7) Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8) Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
9) For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect;
10) but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away.
11) When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
12) For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood.
13) So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Call to Conversation
Closing Meditation & Music:
Monday, May 12, 2008
Sunday, May 3, 2008
Call to Silence & Opening Meditation – Theme: “Exploring Belonging”.
Music: We All Belong ©2008 Ann S. Bugh
Where do I belong?... What do I belong to?... What belongs to me?
When the rhythm’s wrong, what can I do to bring back harmony?
Open your eyes. Open your mind, with a grateful heart.
You will see the web of life and how to play your part.
There’s a place where we all belong--we were called to life by LOVE.
There’s a point where the picture forms if we step back far enough.
Like a million threads in a tapestry of interwoven destinies—
You… and you… and you…and me—we all belong.
You… and you… and you…and me—we all belong.
You… and you… and you…and me—we all belong.
Ripples from a stone, spread across a pool to reach the farthest shore.
Every single thought, every single word--actions even more—
Leave their tiny marks (be they light or dark); no one walks alone.
Each of us must make his way, but we walk each other home.
There’s a truth that includes us all when judgment fades away.
There’s a love deep in every heart nothing can betray.
Like a million notes in a symphony that’s echoed since eternity—
You… and you… and you…and me—we all belong.
You…and you…and you…and me—part of everything we see--
You…and you…and you…and me—we all belong…we all belong…we all belong.
Readings:
MYSTIC BELONGINGS
“The Perfect Way is only difficult for those who pick and choose;
Do not like, do not dislike, then all will be clear.
Make a hairbreadth difference—and heaven and earth are set apart.”
–Seng-ts’an (600AD, Chinese Buddhist)
“Jesus struck the ground with his hand and took up some of it and spread it out and behold, he had gold in one of his hands and clay in the other. Then he said to his companions, ‘Which is sweeter to our hearts?’ They said, ‘The gold.’ He said, ‘They are both alike to me.’ “
--Christ in Islam by James Robson (citations in Muslim literature)
”’Who is my mother and who are my brothers?’ he replied. And stretching out his hand toward his disciples he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, and sister and mother.’”
- Matthew 12:46-50
The “Divine Love” in every person lives not as a part, but in the whole—as a universal spirit of love, a spirit of the whole. Thus, divine love—though indivisible--shares its life in each person. In the unity of the whole, that spirit comprehends all things and, with strictest tenderness embraces each self as itself, as one self.
–paraphrased from Peter Sterry, Platonist (1613-1672)
“To whom God is dearer in one thing than another, that man is still a child. He to whom God is the same in everything has come to man’s estate…Every creature has a stake in the eternal….We love ‘God’ with his own love…Awareness of that deifies us.”
–Eckhart (German Dominican theologian & contemplative of Christian Gnosis)
TRIBAL BELONGINGS
Humans are programmed with a deep need to belong. It drives us to form and join groups. While some species live alone, humans have learned that if we form a tribe, we can share work and live more safely. Living in a tribe has its costs. We have to abide by shared rules and cannot do whatever we want; however, evolution has shown that survival benefits outweigh the costs.
–summarized from Changingminds.org
SOCIAL BELONGINGS
Abraham Maslow outlined 5 fundamental, hierarchical human needs: survival; safety; belonging; esteem; and self-actualization. Belonging is one of the more basic, just above health and safety. Humans are social creatures. We crave connection with others. Once our survival needs are met, we become aware of a need for love, affection, and belonging. In the absence of other humans, we feel loneliness. We long for a partner or children. We strive for acceptance among groups we value. Our “love” need requires both giving and receiving in order to be fulfilled. Our “esteem” needs are also tied to others. We require a healthy degree of self-confidence and self-esteem, but we are also emotionally nurtured by respect and recognition from others.
--summarized from Lifescript.com
PSYCHOLOGICAL BELONGINGS
In the psychology of Carl Gustav Jung, the “collective unconscious” belongs to us all. It is present in and accessible to each of us. It contains symbols for the shared experiences of mankind, the content of “archetype”. Archetypes are like frames that remain constant, while the image that appears inside the frame depends on the individual in which the archetype is triggered. Archetypes by themselves are neutral, without value judgments attached to them, but they can be interpreted positive, negative or neutral ways.
Jung’s concept of “Individuation” describes a process of self realization during which each of us must integrate the contents of our own psyches as we become conscious. While the process is universal, each man’s journey is a unique search for the totality of Self. Yet the person who accepts the contents of his unconsciousness and reaches the goal of the individuation process, becomes conscious of his relationship with everything that lives, with the entire cosmos.
Individuation is a natural, inherent process in man that grows from the inside. The first step is integration of all aspects of the personality; the second phase--what Jung called the transcendental function—involves realizing the unity of the archetype of the Self. The process of individuation is not easy for Westerners because we have difficulty with paradoxes. It requires us to accept both the superior and the inferior, the rational and the irrational, order and chaos, light and darkness, yin and yang. The Self, according to Jung, is not “universal consciousness”. It is rather an awareness of our unique nature and our intimate connection with all life--not only human but also animal, plant, mineral, and the entire cosmos. Completing this process gives us a sense of ‘unity’ and acceptance of life as it is.
--Summarized from www.soul-guidance.com/houseofthesun/individuationprocess
EXPLORING BELONGING
Most people spend much time and energy balancing the various “external” groups to which they belong. They may put a family group first, then a work group, then a larger community, then a country, then the human race, the planet earth, etc. This external balancing act is never simple. Many belongings “overlap”;others “conflict”. Inherent in 99% of “external belongings” is a degree of separation—i.e. each group includes something while excluding something (or someone) else.
In synchronicity with all these external belongings, each of us is continuously challenged to balance and rebalance on our inner journey toward “where we belong”. This inner search for integration happens at a deep level, ever flowing and changing like the energy of an underground stream. What is important on the inner search for belonging is conscious presence and awareness. Caroline Myss, in The Anatomy of the Spirit traces spiritual growth as a series of spirals. She describes how we evolve, level by level, physically, emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually as we realize the potential, the full power of who and what we are. Energetically we expand like an intuitive blue print that unfolds as it directs what we manifest and feel connected to. This inner journey is often reflected in the external belongings that support or challenge us along our way. Exploring belonging teaches us lessons about control, surrender, attachment, connection, harmony. Ultimately, the belonging of “coming home to ourSelves” brings us full circle to the certain knowledge that “there’s a place for us here”. It comes with the recognition that we belong wherever we are in every moment (in the words of Anita Kruse and Sandy Stewart) in the “peace that passes all human understanding” and the “love that holds us all.”
Call to Conversation
Closing Meditation & Music:
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour. --William Blake
There’s a Peace © 2006 by Anita Kruse & Sandy Stewart , from the CD The Magdalene Mystique
there’s a peace that passes all human understanding
there’s a hope that offers a hand in the dark
there’s a light that’s shining with grace inside me
and I think it’s riding the wings of my heart
there’s a love that leads me
there’s a love that frees me
there’s a love that heals me when I fall
there’s a peace that passes all human understanding
there’s a love that holds us all
when the world seems shattered and faith unraveled
when the ground is shaking and lives torn apart
there’s a light still shining with grace inside me
and I know it’s riding the wings of my heart
there’s a love that leads me
there’s a love that frees me
there’s a love that heals me when I fall
there’s a peace that passes all human understanding
there’s a love that holds us all
Music: We All Belong ©2008 Ann S. Bugh
Where do I belong?... What do I belong to?... What belongs to me?
When the rhythm’s wrong, what can I do to bring back harmony?
Open your eyes. Open your mind, with a grateful heart.
You will see the web of life and how to play your part.
There’s a place where we all belong--we were called to life by LOVE.
There’s a point where the picture forms if we step back far enough.
Like a million threads in a tapestry of interwoven destinies—
You… and you… and you…and me—we all belong.
You… and you… and you…and me—we all belong.
You… and you… and you…and me—we all belong.
Ripples from a stone, spread across a pool to reach the farthest shore.
Every single thought, every single word--actions even more—
Leave their tiny marks (be they light or dark); no one walks alone.
Each of us must make his way, but we walk each other home.
There’s a truth that includes us all when judgment fades away.
There’s a love deep in every heart nothing can betray.
Like a million notes in a symphony that’s echoed since eternity—
You… and you… and you…and me—we all belong.
You…and you…and you…and me—part of everything we see--
You…and you…and you…and me—we all belong…we all belong…we all belong.
Readings:
MYSTIC BELONGINGS
“The Perfect Way is only difficult for those who pick and choose;
Do not like, do not dislike, then all will be clear.
Make a hairbreadth difference—and heaven and earth are set apart.”
–Seng-ts’an (600AD, Chinese Buddhist)
“Jesus struck the ground with his hand and took up some of it and spread it out and behold, he had gold in one of his hands and clay in the other. Then he said to his companions, ‘Which is sweeter to our hearts?’ They said, ‘The gold.’ He said, ‘They are both alike to me.’ “
--Christ in Islam by James Robson (citations in Muslim literature)
”’Who is my mother and who are my brothers?’ he replied. And stretching out his hand toward his disciples he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, and sister and mother.’”
- Matthew 12:46-50
The “Divine Love” in every person lives not as a part, but in the whole—as a universal spirit of love, a spirit of the whole. Thus, divine love—though indivisible--shares its life in each person. In the unity of the whole, that spirit comprehends all things and, with strictest tenderness embraces each self as itself, as one self.
–paraphrased from Peter Sterry, Platonist (1613-1672)
“To whom God is dearer in one thing than another, that man is still a child. He to whom God is the same in everything has come to man’s estate…Every creature has a stake in the eternal….We love ‘God’ with his own love…Awareness of that deifies us.”
–Eckhart (German Dominican theologian & contemplative of Christian Gnosis)
TRIBAL BELONGINGS
Humans are programmed with a deep need to belong. It drives us to form and join groups. While some species live alone, humans have learned that if we form a tribe, we can share work and live more safely. Living in a tribe has its costs. We have to abide by shared rules and cannot do whatever we want; however, evolution has shown that survival benefits outweigh the costs.
–summarized from Changingminds.org
SOCIAL BELONGINGS
Abraham Maslow outlined 5 fundamental, hierarchical human needs: survival; safety; belonging; esteem; and self-actualization. Belonging is one of the more basic, just above health and safety. Humans are social creatures. We crave connection with others. Once our survival needs are met, we become aware of a need for love, affection, and belonging. In the absence of other humans, we feel loneliness. We long for a partner or children. We strive for acceptance among groups we value. Our “love” need requires both giving and receiving in order to be fulfilled. Our “esteem” needs are also tied to others. We require a healthy degree of self-confidence and self-esteem, but we are also emotionally nurtured by respect and recognition from others.
--summarized from Lifescript.com
PSYCHOLOGICAL BELONGINGS
In the psychology of Carl Gustav Jung, the “collective unconscious” belongs to us all. It is present in and accessible to each of us. It contains symbols for the shared experiences of mankind, the content of “archetype”. Archetypes are like frames that remain constant, while the image that appears inside the frame depends on the individual in which the archetype is triggered. Archetypes by themselves are neutral, without value judgments attached to them, but they can be interpreted positive, negative or neutral ways.
Jung’s concept of “Individuation” describes a process of self realization during which each of us must integrate the contents of our own psyches as we become conscious. While the process is universal, each man’s journey is a unique search for the totality of Self. Yet the person who accepts the contents of his unconsciousness and reaches the goal of the individuation process, becomes conscious of his relationship with everything that lives, with the entire cosmos.
Individuation is a natural, inherent process in man that grows from the inside. The first step is integration of all aspects of the personality; the second phase--what Jung called the transcendental function—involves realizing the unity of the archetype of the Self. The process of individuation is not easy for Westerners because we have difficulty with paradoxes. It requires us to accept both the superior and the inferior, the rational and the irrational, order and chaos, light and darkness, yin and yang. The Self, according to Jung, is not “universal consciousness”. It is rather an awareness of our unique nature and our intimate connection with all life--not only human but also animal, plant, mineral, and the entire cosmos. Completing this process gives us a sense of ‘unity’ and acceptance of life as it is.
--Summarized from www.soul-guidance.com/houseofthesun/individuationprocess
EXPLORING BELONGING
Most people spend much time and energy balancing the various “external” groups to which they belong. They may put a family group first, then a work group, then a larger community, then a country, then the human race, the planet earth, etc. This external balancing act is never simple. Many belongings “overlap”;others “conflict”. Inherent in 99% of “external belongings” is a degree of separation—i.e. each group includes something while excluding something (or someone) else.
In synchronicity with all these external belongings, each of us is continuously challenged to balance and rebalance on our inner journey toward “where we belong”. This inner search for integration happens at a deep level, ever flowing and changing like the energy of an underground stream. What is important on the inner search for belonging is conscious presence and awareness. Caroline Myss, in The Anatomy of the Spirit traces spiritual growth as a series of spirals. She describes how we evolve, level by level, physically, emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually as we realize the potential, the full power of who and what we are. Energetically we expand like an intuitive blue print that unfolds as it directs what we manifest and feel connected to. This inner journey is often reflected in the external belongings that support or challenge us along our way. Exploring belonging teaches us lessons about control, surrender, attachment, connection, harmony. Ultimately, the belonging of “coming home to ourSelves” brings us full circle to the certain knowledge that “there’s a place for us here”. It comes with the recognition that we belong wherever we are in every moment (in the words of Anita Kruse and Sandy Stewart) in the “peace that passes all human understanding” and the “love that holds us all.”
Call to Conversation
Closing Meditation & Music:
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour. --William Blake
There’s a Peace © 2006 by Anita Kruse & Sandy Stewart , from the CD The Magdalene Mystique
there’s a peace that passes all human understanding
there’s a hope that offers a hand in the dark
there’s a light that’s shining with grace inside me
and I think it’s riding the wings of my heart
there’s a love that leads me
there’s a love that frees me
there’s a love that heals me when I fall
there’s a peace that passes all human understanding
there’s a love that holds us all
when the world seems shattered and faith unraveled
when the ground is shaking and lives torn apart
there’s a light still shining with grace inside me
and I know it’s riding the wings of my heart
there’s a love that leads me
there’s a love that frees me
there’s a love that heals me when I fall
there’s a peace that passes all human understanding
there’s a love that holds us all
Monday, May 5, 2008
Sunday 3-30-08
A Reading from Genesis 1:1-5, Tanakh
When God began to create heaven and earth--the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind (spirit) from God sweeping over the water--God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. god called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, a first day
.CALL TO SILENCE AND OPENING MEDITATION
A Reading from the Gospel of Philip 53:14-23, NHL
Light and darkness, life and death, right and left, are brothers of one another. They are inseparable.Because of this neither are the good good, nor the evil evil; nor is life life, nor death death.For this reason each will dissolve into its original nature. But those who are exalted above the world are indissoluble, eternal.
(from An Uncommon Lectionary by John B. Butcher, pg 81, 2002)
Ode 8: 1-12 (read responsively)
Open your hearts to the exultation of the Lord And flow your love from your heart to your lips in a holy life. Carry fruit to the Lord. Talk and look in his light.Stand up with your shoulders back, You who sank low.Your who were silent, speak, Your mouth has been opened.You were despised. Now feel uplifted. Your goodness is high.The right hand of the Lord is with you. The Lord will help you.[Christ begins speaking ]"Hear the Word of truth Drink knowledge I offer from the Most High. Your flesh cannot know what I say to you, Nor your garments what I show you.Keep my Mystery. It keeps you. Keep my faith. It keeps you.Know my knowledge, you who know me in truth. Love me tenderly, you who love.I do not turn my face from my own.. I know them."
(from An Uncommon Lectionary by John B. Butcher, pg 81-2, 2002)
A Reading from Julian of Norwich
All shall be well, And all shall be well, And all manner of things Shall be well.
(as quoted in The Seeker's Guide, by Elizabeth Lesser, pg. 387, 1999)
A Reading from the Gospel of Mary, pages VIII (11-24) and IX (1-20)
...The Blessed One ... greeted them all saying, 'Peace be with you-- may my Peace arise and be fulfilled within you! "Be vigilant, and allow no one to mislead you by saying, 'Here it is!' or "There it is!'"For it is within you that the Son of Man dwells. Go to him, for those who seek him, will find him.""Walk forth, and announce the gospel of the Kingdom. Impose no law other than that which I have witnessed."Do not add more laws to those given in the Torah, lest you become bound by them."Having said all this, he departed.The disciples were in sorrow, shedding many tears, and saying: "How are we going to go among the unbelievers and announce the gospel of the Kingdom of the Son of Man?"They did not spare his life, so why should they spare ours?" Then Mary arose, embraced them all and began to speak to her brothers:. "Do not remain in sorrow and doubt, for his Grace will guide you and comfort you. Instead let us praise his greatness, for he has prepared us for this. He is calling upon us to become fully human." Thus Mary turned their hearts toward the Good, and they began to discuss the meaning of the Teacher's words.
(from The Gospel of Mary Magdalene by Jean-Yves Leloup, pg. 27-9, 2002)
CALL TO CONVERSATION
CLOSING PRAYER AND MEDITATION (in unison)
Dear Divine One:May there come over the earth a great and glorious light. May we remember Heaven.May all who suffer feel pain no more.May sorrow depart, may disease end, may war stop, may doubts cease, and all hearts gladden.May we remember Heaven.May every child and every man and every woman now, this instant, feel sure release from the bondage of their past. Amen
(Adapted from Illuminated Prayers by Marianne Williamson, 1997)
When God began to create heaven and earth--the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind (spirit) from God sweeping over the water--God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. god called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, a first day
.CALL TO SILENCE AND OPENING MEDITATION
A Reading from the Gospel of Philip 53:14-23, NHL
Light and darkness, life and death, right and left, are brothers of one another. They are inseparable.Because of this neither are the good good, nor the evil evil; nor is life life, nor death death.For this reason each will dissolve into its original nature. But those who are exalted above the world are indissoluble, eternal.
(from An Uncommon Lectionary by John B. Butcher, pg 81, 2002)
Ode 8: 1-12 (read responsively)
Open your hearts to the exultation of the Lord And flow your love from your heart to your lips in a holy life. Carry fruit to the Lord. Talk and look in his light.Stand up with your shoulders back, You who sank low.Your who were silent, speak, Your mouth has been opened.You were despised. Now feel uplifted. Your goodness is high.The right hand of the Lord is with you. The Lord will help you.[Christ begins speaking ]"Hear the Word of truth Drink knowledge I offer from the Most High. Your flesh cannot know what I say to you, Nor your garments what I show you.Keep my Mystery. It keeps you. Keep my faith. It keeps you.Know my knowledge, you who know me in truth. Love me tenderly, you who love.I do not turn my face from my own.. I know them."
(from An Uncommon Lectionary by John B. Butcher, pg 81-2, 2002)
A Reading from Julian of Norwich
All shall be well, And all shall be well, And all manner of things Shall be well.
(as quoted in The Seeker's Guide, by Elizabeth Lesser, pg. 387, 1999)
A Reading from the Gospel of Mary, pages VIII (11-24) and IX (1-20)
...The Blessed One ... greeted them all saying, 'Peace be with you-- may my Peace arise and be fulfilled within you! "Be vigilant, and allow no one to mislead you by saying, 'Here it is!' or "There it is!'"For it is within you that the Son of Man dwells. Go to him, for those who seek him, will find him.""Walk forth, and announce the gospel of the Kingdom. Impose no law other than that which I have witnessed."Do not add more laws to those given in the Torah, lest you become bound by them."Having said all this, he departed.The disciples were in sorrow, shedding many tears, and saying: "How are we going to go among the unbelievers and announce the gospel of the Kingdom of the Son of Man?"They did not spare his life, so why should they spare ours?" Then Mary arose, embraced them all and began to speak to her brothers:. "Do not remain in sorrow and doubt, for his Grace will guide you and comfort you. Instead let us praise his greatness, for he has prepared us for this. He is calling upon us to become fully human." Thus Mary turned their hearts toward the Good, and they began to discuss the meaning of the Teacher's words.
(from The Gospel of Mary Magdalene by Jean-Yves Leloup, pg. 27-9, 2002)
CALL TO CONVERSATION
CLOSING PRAYER AND MEDITATION (in unison)
Dear Divine One:May there come over the earth a great and glorious light. May we remember Heaven.May all who suffer feel pain no more.May sorrow depart, may disease end, may war stop, may doubts cease, and all hearts gladden.May we remember Heaven.May every child and every man and every woman now, this instant, feel sure release from the bondage of their past. Amen
(Adapted from Illuminated Prayers by Marianne Williamson, 1997)
Sunday, February 21, 2008
Call to Silence and Opening Meditation
Song Hiney Mah Tov u-Mah Nayim Shevet Achim Gam Yachad (How good and lovely it is for us to be together as brothers and sisters.)
Reader:
Before the gate has been closed,
Before the last question is posed,
Before I am transposed.
Before the weeds fill the gardens,
Before there are no pardons,
Before the concrete hardens.
Before all the flute-holes are covered,
Before things are locked in the cupboard,
Before the rules are discovered.
Before the conclusion is planned,
Before the closing of God’s hand,
Before we have nowhere to stand.
Bless us with peace.
Reader:
Grant peace, goodness and blessing, grace, kindness and mercy,
to us and to all Your people Israel, and to all who dwell on earth.
Bless us, our Creator, all of us together
through the light of Your Presence.
Truly through the light of Your Presence, Adonai our God,
You gave us a Torah of life—
the love of kindness, justice and blessing, mercy, life, and peace.
May You see fit to bless your people Israel
at all times, at every hour, with Your peace.
Praised are You, God, who blesses Your people with peace.
Song (“Sim Shalom,” by Julie Silver, text Jewish Liturgy):
Sim shalom, tovah, uv’racha, sim shalom, tovah uv’racha. (2x)
Chein va-chesed, chein va-chesed v’rachamim (2x) v’rachamim
Sim shalom, tovah, uv’racha, Sim shalom, tovah uv’racha. (2x)
Aleinu v’al kol Yisrael, Yisrael amecha, v’al kol yosh-vei tevel
Sim shalom, tovah, uv’racha, Sim shalom, tovah uv’racha. (2x)
(Grant peace and happiness, blessing and mercy, to all Israel, your people, and to all who dwell on earth.)
SEEK PEACE AND PURSUE IT
Two or more Readers:
Words there are and prayers, but justice there is not, nor yet peace.
The prophet said:
In the end of days, God shall judge between the nations;
They shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruninghooks.
Although we must wait for judgment,
we may not wait for peace to fall like rain upon us.
The teacher said:
Those who have made peace in their house,
It is as though they have brought peace to all the world.
Peace will remain a distant vision until we do the work of peace ourselves.
If peace is to be brought into the world,
we must bring it first to our families and communities.
The psalmist said: See peace and pursue it.
Be not content to make peace only in your own household;
Go forth and work for peace wherever men and women are struggling in its cause.
Reader:
God gave us
the power of speech, that magic gift
by which each soul, unique and separate,
yet shares its life with others.
Though each individual,
unaided and alone, is weak and helpless,
God’s gift of love brings us strength:
Not by might nor by power,
but by God’s spirit—
the thirst for knowledge,
the urge to create,
the passion for justice,
the will to give love and loyalty.
Sometimes we have lived at peace with one another,
but all too often we are deaf
to the divine wisdom within us,
preferring the law of the jungle,
preferring war to peace,
preferring evil to good.
Reader:
May we find peace with those we love,
growing together over time.
May we be at peace with ourselves
And with the labors that fill our days.
May we fashion peace in our world
With wisdom and gentle patience.
Song: (“Shalom Rav,” music by J. Klepper and D. Freelander, text Jewish liturgy)
Shalom rav al Yisrael am-cha tasim l’olam. (2x)
Ki Atah hu Melech Adon l’chol ha-shalom. 2x)
Shalom rav al Yisrael am-cha tasim l’olam. (2x)
V’tov b’einecha l’vareich et amcha Yisrael,
B’chol eit u-v’chol sha-ah bishlomecha.
Shalom rav al Yisrael am-cha tasim l’olam. (2x)
(O grant abundant peace to Your people forever, for You are the Sovereign of peace. May it please You to bless us and to bless all Your people with Your peace at all times and at all hours.)
Reader:
Let there be love and understanding among us. Let peace and friendship be our shelter from life’s storms. May God help us to walk with good companions, to live with hope in our hearts and eternity in our thoughts, that we may lie down in peace and rise up wanting to do God’s will.
Reader:
Give me no gift of weapons
nor feelings of victory.
I want no triumph.
Let me fight, but lose!
Give me heroic stubbornness in love,
unending heart,
to give friendship without measure,
to forgive without end.
Only grant me strong bright senses
to bring happiness, to help, to hear the needs
of even a pulse-beat,
the call of any person.
A Reading from the Gospel of Mary
(INSERT)
******
Song: (“Oseh Shalom,” music by Nurit Hirsch, text: Jewish liturgy.)
Oseh shalom bimromav, hu ya-aseh shalom aleinu v’al kol Yisrael, v’im’ru Amen.
Oseh shalom bimromav, hu ya-aseh shalom aleinu v’al kol yoshvei teiveil, v’im’ru Amen.
(May the One who causes peace to reign in the high heavens make peace for us, all Israel and all who inhabit the earth.)
Call to Conversation: (World poetry on peace)
“LET PEACE PREVAIL IN THIS WORLD” Ravi Sathasivam/Sri Lanka
When you look for peace
then the peace lies within you.
When you search for peace
then it is not hard to find.
When you want to keep peace alive
then you allow white doves to fly over you.
When you make peace with others
then the whole world lives in your heart.
When you let peace be in the world
then you live in a wonderful world.
When you allow peace to flow around the world
then your hateness will go and love will flow.
When you open the door for peace
then peace is welcome to your lives.
Let the peace prevail in our wonderful world.
“ALL TORAH’S PATHS ARE PATHS OF PEACE—PRAYER REFLECTION” Lewis Eron
True peace cannot be found on a one-way street.
It’s a bit more real on single-line rail tracks
If there are turn-asides to let trains pass.
Four-way intersections train us to take turns.
Stop signs and traffic lights and turning lanes and rest stops promote real peace.
Good rules and good feelings and a little sense
Make for safe driving.
But true peace can only be found when traffic moves smoothly
Through a crowded city,
Or quickly down an eight-lane freeway.
No grid jams, no fender benders, no blasting of horns
Granting the right of way, being alert, forgiving others,
Both hands on the wheel and not riding the brakes
Moving together, not bumping each other on our different journeys
To the same final goal.
That’s peace.
That’s coming home.
“IF THERE IS TO BE PEACE” Lao-Tse
If there is to be peace in the world,
There must be peace in the nations.
If there is to be peace in the nations,
There must be peace in the cities.
If there is to be peace in the cities,
There must be peace between neighbors.
If there is to be peace between neighbors,
There must be peace in the home.
If there is to be peace in the home,
There must be peace in the heart.
CLOSING SONG:
YIH’YEH SHALOM (There will be Peace) (by Rick Recht)
1) When we hear one another there will be peace in the world.
When we understand one another there will be peace in the world.
When we love one another there will be peace in the world.
Yih’yeh shalom, yih’yeh shalom ba-olam.
Yih’yeh shalom, yih’yeh shalom.
2) When we believe one another there will be peace in the world.
When we learn from one another there will be peace in the world.
When we work with one another there will be peace in the world. (CHORUS)
3) When we believe that peace will come, we can see the beauty in everyone
When we believe that peace can be, we are children of one family. (CHORUS)
Song Hiney Mah Tov u-Mah Nayim Shevet Achim Gam Yachad (How good and lovely it is for us to be together as brothers and sisters.)
Reader:
Before the gate has been closed,
Before the last question is posed,
Before I am transposed.
Before the weeds fill the gardens,
Before there are no pardons,
Before the concrete hardens.
Before all the flute-holes are covered,
Before things are locked in the cupboard,
Before the rules are discovered.
Before the conclusion is planned,
Before the closing of God’s hand,
Before we have nowhere to stand.
Bless us with peace.
Reader:
Grant peace, goodness and blessing, grace, kindness and mercy,
to us and to all Your people Israel, and to all who dwell on earth.
Bless us, our Creator, all of us together
through the light of Your Presence.
Truly through the light of Your Presence, Adonai our God,
You gave us a Torah of life—
the love of kindness, justice and blessing, mercy, life, and peace.
May You see fit to bless your people Israel
at all times, at every hour, with Your peace.
Praised are You, God, who blesses Your people with peace.
Song (“Sim Shalom,” by Julie Silver, text Jewish Liturgy):
Sim shalom, tovah, uv’racha, sim shalom, tovah uv’racha. (2x)
Chein va-chesed, chein va-chesed v’rachamim (2x) v’rachamim
Sim shalom, tovah, uv’racha, Sim shalom, tovah uv’racha. (2x)
Aleinu v’al kol Yisrael, Yisrael amecha, v’al kol yosh-vei tevel
Sim shalom, tovah, uv’racha, Sim shalom, tovah uv’racha. (2x)
(Grant peace and happiness, blessing and mercy, to all Israel, your people, and to all who dwell on earth.)
SEEK PEACE AND PURSUE IT
Two or more Readers:
Words there are and prayers, but justice there is not, nor yet peace.
The prophet said:
In the end of days, God shall judge between the nations;
They shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruninghooks.
Although we must wait for judgment,
we may not wait for peace to fall like rain upon us.
The teacher said:
Those who have made peace in their house,
It is as though they have brought peace to all the world.
Peace will remain a distant vision until we do the work of peace ourselves.
If peace is to be brought into the world,
we must bring it first to our families and communities.
The psalmist said: See peace and pursue it.
Be not content to make peace only in your own household;
Go forth and work for peace wherever men and women are struggling in its cause.
Reader:
God gave us
the power of speech, that magic gift
by which each soul, unique and separate,
yet shares its life with others.
Though each individual,
unaided and alone, is weak and helpless,
God’s gift of love brings us strength:
Not by might nor by power,
but by God’s spirit—
the thirst for knowledge,
the urge to create,
the passion for justice,
the will to give love and loyalty.
Sometimes we have lived at peace with one another,
but all too often we are deaf
to the divine wisdom within us,
preferring the law of the jungle,
preferring war to peace,
preferring evil to good.
Reader:
May we find peace with those we love,
growing together over time.
May we be at peace with ourselves
And with the labors that fill our days.
May we fashion peace in our world
With wisdom and gentle patience.
Song: (“Shalom Rav,” music by J. Klepper and D. Freelander, text Jewish liturgy)
Shalom rav al Yisrael am-cha tasim l’olam. (2x)
Ki Atah hu Melech Adon l’chol ha-shalom. 2x)
Shalom rav al Yisrael am-cha tasim l’olam. (2x)
V’tov b’einecha l’vareich et amcha Yisrael,
B’chol eit u-v’chol sha-ah bishlomecha.
Shalom rav al Yisrael am-cha tasim l’olam. (2x)
(O grant abundant peace to Your people forever, for You are the Sovereign of peace. May it please You to bless us and to bless all Your people with Your peace at all times and at all hours.)
Reader:
Let there be love and understanding among us. Let peace and friendship be our shelter from life’s storms. May God help us to walk with good companions, to live with hope in our hearts and eternity in our thoughts, that we may lie down in peace and rise up wanting to do God’s will.
Reader:
Give me no gift of weapons
nor feelings of victory.
I want no triumph.
Let me fight, but lose!
Give me heroic stubbornness in love,
unending heart,
to give friendship without measure,
to forgive without end.
Only grant me strong bright senses
to bring happiness, to help, to hear the needs
of even a pulse-beat,
the call of any person.
A Reading from the Gospel of Mary
(INSERT)
******
Song: (“Oseh Shalom,” music by Nurit Hirsch, text: Jewish liturgy.)
Oseh shalom bimromav, hu ya-aseh shalom aleinu v’al kol Yisrael, v’im’ru Amen.
Oseh shalom bimromav, hu ya-aseh shalom aleinu v’al kol yoshvei teiveil, v’im’ru Amen.
(May the One who causes peace to reign in the high heavens make peace for us, all Israel and all who inhabit the earth.)
Call to Conversation: (World poetry on peace)
“LET PEACE PREVAIL IN THIS WORLD” Ravi Sathasivam/Sri Lanka
When you look for peace
then the peace lies within you.
When you search for peace
then it is not hard to find.
When you want to keep peace alive
then you allow white doves to fly over you.
When you make peace with others
then the whole world lives in your heart.
When you let peace be in the world
then you live in a wonderful world.
When you allow peace to flow around the world
then your hateness will go and love will flow.
When you open the door for peace
then peace is welcome to your lives.
Let the peace prevail in our wonderful world.
“ALL TORAH’S PATHS ARE PATHS OF PEACE—PRAYER REFLECTION” Lewis Eron
True peace cannot be found on a one-way street.
It’s a bit more real on single-line rail tracks
If there are turn-asides to let trains pass.
Four-way intersections train us to take turns.
Stop signs and traffic lights and turning lanes and rest stops promote real peace.
Good rules and good feelings and a little sense
Make for safe driving.
But true peace can only be found when traffic moves smoothly
Through a crowded city,
Or quickly down an eight-lane freeway.
No grid jams, no fender benders, no blasting of horns
Granting the right of way, being alert, forgiving others,
Both hands on the wheel and not riding the brakes
Moving together, not bumping each other on our different journeys
To the same final goal.
That’s peace.
That’s coming home.
“IF THERE IS TO BE PEACE” Lao-Tse
If there is to be peace in the world,
There must be peace in the nations.
If there is to be peace in the nations,
There must be peace in the cities.
If there is to be peace in the cities,
There must be peace between neighbors.
If there is to be peace between neighbors,
There must be peace in the home.
If there is to be peace in the home,
There must be peace in the heart.
CLOSING SONG:
YIH’YEH SHALOM (There will be Peace) (by Rick Recht)
1) When we hear one another there will be peace in the world.
When we understand one another there will be peace in the world.
When we love one another there will be peace in the world.
Yih’yeh shalom, yih’yeh shalom ba-olam.
Yih’yeh shalom, yih’yeh shalom.
2) When we believe one another there will be peace in the world.
When we learn from one another there will be peace in the world.
When we work with one another there will be peace in the world. (CHORUS)
3) When we believe that peace will come, we can see the beauty in everyone
When we believe that peace can be, we are children of one family. (CHORUS)
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Opening Monologue
The story goes that, after his enlightenment, Siddhartha Gautama-the historical Buddhawas walking down the road when he met a fellow traveler. The other man perceived a great radiance emanating from Siddhartha, so instead of asking,
“Who are you,” he asked, “Are you a god or a divine being? “No,” answered the Buddha. “Are you a shaman or a sorcerer?” “No,” answered the Buddha. “Are you a man?”
Again the Buddha answered, “No.” “Well, then,” the man said. “what are you?” The Buddha answered, “I am awake.” And, indeed, this is what “Buddha” means: one who is awakened.
Jesus told his followers that the answer was within themselves: “If those who lead you say the Kingdom of heaven is in the sky, then the birds of the sky will get there before
you do. If they say it is in the sea, then the fish will beat you there. Rather, the kingdom is within you… Every teaching, every word - no matter how profound - is only a guidepost along the way. Every seeker is a pilgrim, and every pilgrim travels alone.
If the words of certain teachers move us, and if we were to examine our thoughts while reading them, what often strikes us most is not that these teachers are telling us something new, but that they are reminding us of something we already knew but, perhaps, had forgotten! It is as if we had always known these truths at some deep level, so we respond with, “Aha!” “Yes, of course! I knew that all along!” These teachers
reveal the truth that has always been within us.
The Words of the Teachers
Jesus
The Kingdom is not coming with signs to be observed. The Kingdom of God is within you.
-The Gospel of Luke
Krishna
Those who seek oneness ceaselessly find the Lord
dwelling in their own hearts.
-The Bagavad Gita
Buddha
To begin the journey in the Way…First, set yourself straight. You are the only Master.
-The Dhhammapada
Lao Tsu
The Way is empty, yet contains all. Words cannot describe it. Better that one should look for it within.
-The Tao Te Ching
Second Monologue
The Way spoken of by the world’s great teachers is not one single path, yet all paths lead to the same destination. Traveled by the pilgrim, the Way is the path to Life. It is the quest for our own personal holy grail. The Way stretches out before us, endless. It leads beyond the horizon, yet it begins with a single step.
Once the Way is chosen, there is no turning back. We may stop and rest awhile. We may tarry here and there for as long as necessary. We may even fall asleep by the side of the road. But we will eventually awaken no matter how long we sleep. Then, recognizing that the day’s shadows are falling long across the path, we stir ourselves, cinch up our belts, and continue on.
The Words of the Teachers
Jesus
I am the way, the truth, and the life.
- The Gospel of John
Krishna
Many are the paths of men, though all those paths end in Me for those who love Me.
- The Bagavad Gita
Jesus
I am a beacon to those who see Me. I am a mirror to those who look at Me. I am a door to those who knock on Me. I am a Way to you the traveler.
- The Hymn of Jesus from the Acts of John
Krishna
I am the Way, and the Master who watches in silence – your friend, your shelter, your dwelling of peace. I am the beginning and the end of all things – the seed of eternity, and the treasure supreme.
- The Bagavad Gita
Buddha
The most supreme among humanity are those who have eyes to see. This is the Way, and there is no other that leads to purifying the intellect. Take that path!
- The Dhammapada
Lao Tzu
When the wise man hears of the Way, he works hard to apply it. When the mediocre person hears of it, he keeps it then loses it. But when the ignorant hear of it, they laugh. If they did not laugh, it would not be the Way.
- The Tao Te Ching
Jesus
The kingdom of God does not come in such a way as to be seen. No one will say: “Here it is” or “There it is!” Because the kingdom is within you.
- The Gospel of Luke
Buddha
The Way is not in the sky. The Way is in the heart.
- The Buddha
All readings and sayings are from Richard Hooper, ed. Jesus Buddha Krishna Lao Tzu:
The Parallel Sayings (Sedona, AZ: Sanctuary Publications, 2007)
A reading from the Gospel of Mary (trans. Karen King)
When the Blessed One had said these things, he greeted them all. “Peace be with you!” he said. “Acquire my peace within yourselves! “Be on your guard so that no one deceives you by saying, ‘Look over here!’ or ‘Look over there!’ For the child of true Humanity exists within you. Follow it! Those who search for it will find it.
Call to Conversation
The story goes that, after his enlightenment, Siddhartha Gautama-the historical Buddhawas walking down the road when he met a fellow traveler. The other man perceived a great radiance emanating from Siddhartha, so instead of asking,
“Who are you,” he asked, “Are you a god or a divine being? “No,” answered the Buddha. “Are you a shaman or a sorcerer?” “No,” answered the Buddha. “Are you a man?”
Again the Buddha answered, “No.” “Well, then,” the man said. “what are you?” The Buddha answered, “I am awake.” And, indeed, this is what “Buddha” means: one who is awakened.
Jesus told his followers that the answer was within themselves: “If those who lead you say the Kingdom of heaven is in the sky, then the birds of the sky will get there before
you do. If they say it is in the sea, then the fish will beat you there. Rather, the kingdom is within you… Every teaching, every word - no matter how profound - is only a guidepost along the way. Every seeker is a pilgrim, and every pilgrim travels alone.
If the words of certain teachers move us, and if we were to examine our thoughts while reading them, what often strikes us most is not that these teachers are telling us something new, but that they are reminding us of something we already knew but, perhaps, had forgotten! It is as if we had always known these truths at some deep level, so we respond with, “Aha!” “Yes, of course! I knew that all along!” These teachers
reveal the truth that has always been within us.
The Words of the Teachers
Jesus
The Kingdom is not coming with signs to be observed. The Kingdom of God is within you.
-The Gospel of Luke
Krishna
Those who seek oneness ceaselessly find the Lord
dwelling in their own hearts.
-The Bagavad Gita
Buddha
To begin the journey in the Way…First, set yourself straight. You are the only Master.
-The Dhhammapada
Lao Tsu
The Way is empty, yet contains all. Words cannot describe it. Better that one should look for it within.
-The Tao Te Ching
Second Monologue
The Way spoken of by the world’s great teachers is not one single path, yet all paths lead to the same destination. Traveled by the pilgrim, the Way is the path to Life. It is the quest for our own personal holy grail. The Way stretches out before us, endless. It leads beyond the horizon, yet it begins with a single step.
Once the Way is chosen, there is no turning back. We may stop and rest awhile. We may tarry here and there for as long as necessary. We may even fall asleep by the side of the road. But we will eventually awaken no matter how long we sleep. Then, recognizing that the day’s shadows are falling long across the path, we stir ourselves, cinch up our belts, and continue on.
The Words of the Teachers
Jesus
I am the way, the truth, and the life.
- The Gospel of John
Krishna
Many are the paths of men, though all those paths end in Me for those who love Me.
- The Bagavad Gita
Jesus
I am a beacon to those who see Me. I am a mirror to those who look at Me. I am a door to those who knock on Me. I am a Way to you the traveler.
- The Hymn of Jesus from the Acts of John
Krishna
I am the Way, and the Master who watches in silence – your friend, your shelter, your dwelling of peace. I am the beginning and the end of all things – the seed of eternity, and the treasure supreme.
- The Bagavad Gita
Buddha
The most supreme among humanity are those who have eyes to see. This is the Way, and there is no other that leads to purifying the intellect. Take that path!
- The Dhammapada
Lao Tzu
When the wise man hears of the Way, he works hard to apply it. When the mediocre person hears of it, he keeps it then loses it. But when the ignorant hear of it, they laugh. If they did not laugh, it would not be the Way.
- The Tao Te Ching
Jesus
The kingdom of God does not come in such a way as to be seen. No one will say: “Here it is” or “There it is!” Because the kingdom is within you.
- The Gospel of Luke
Buddha
The Way is not in the sky. The Way is in the heart.
- The Buddha
All readings and sayings are from Richard Hooper, ed. Jesus Buddha Krishna Lao Tzu:
The Parallel Sayings (Sedona, AZ: Sanctuary Publications, 2007)
A reading from the Gospel of Mary (trans. Karen King)
When the Blessed One had said these things, he greeted them all. “Peace be with you!” he said. “Acquire my peace within yourselves! “Be on your guard so that no one deceives you by saying, ‘Look over here!’ or ‘Look over there!’ For the child of true Humanity exists within you. Follow it! Those who search for it will find it.
Call to Conversation
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Opening Music
In the Beginning
"In the beginning was the word…and the word was…God”
word…logos…light of the world…creative force…living presence…ordering principle…underlying harmonic pattern of creation…universal vibration…sound?
Is everything connected by the threads of sound
Intertwining interweaving here and now?
Is every cell and every pulse
Every heart in each of us
Vibrantly connected by the waves of sound?
Is everything connected in the here and now
Intertwining interweaving threads of sound?
Is every breath and every thought
Every found and every lost
Perfectly connected by the light of sound?
Is everything connected some way some how
Intertwining interweaving here and now?
Is every spark and every beam
All the dark and all the dreams
Vividly connected by the ways of sound?
Is everything connected in the here and now
Intertwining interweaving lost and found
Is every tear and every being
Every single living thing
Harmonically connected by the God of sound?
“In the beginning was the word…and the word was…God”
word…logos…light of the world…creative force…living presence…ordering principle…underlying harmonic pattern of creation…universal vibration…sound?
Anita Kruse © 2005
Call to Silence and Opening Meditation
O God of Life and Creation,
Hear our Prayers of Silence, Sound, and Word.
And We Continue to Pray:
For the Peace of the World
And a Spirit of Respect Among All Nations
That our Divisions May Cease
That We All May Be One
That We All May Be One
That We All May Be One. Amen.
Readings
A Reading from The Wall Street Journal, Friday, February 8, 2008
Mitt Romney's campaign for the presidency brought more attention to the Mormon Church than it has had in years. What the church discovered was not heartening.
Critics of its doctrines and culture launched frequent public attacks. Polling data showed that far more Americans say they'd never vote for a Mormon than those who admitted they wouldn't choose a woman or an African-American.
A Wall Street Journal/N C News poll in late January revealed that 50% of Americans said they would have reservations or be “very uncomfortable about a Mormon as president. That same poll found that 81% would be “enthusiastic” or “comfortable” with an African-American and 76% with a woman.”
The Mormon religion “was the silent factor in a lot of the decision making by evangelicals and others,” says Democratic pollster Peter Hart, who conducted the poll. The Romney campaign ran into a “religious bias head wind,” Mr. Hart and his Republican polling partner, Bill McInurff, wrote late last month.
A Reading from Luke 10:29-37
But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus replied, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?”
He said, “The one who showed mercy on him.”
And Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
A Reading From the “New Testament of the Tao Te Ching”
“Love your neighbor as yourself,” said the Way.
Through love of neighbor do we enter into love of the Way:
For our neighbor is the image of the Way;
And thus the Way accepts what we do for our neighbor as if it were done for Him[Her].
When this realization is kept constantly in mind,
It become the source of the purest love for our neighbor.
“And who is my neighbor?” the Way was asked.
Our neighbor is whomever the Way puts before us:
Insider or outcast,
Faithful or unfaithful,
Friend or foe,
Help or burden,
Encourager or reviler,
Rescuer or murderer.
Therefore, said the Ancient Sage,
“Even if people be bad, why should they be rejected?
The holy man takes care of all people,
And in consequence there is no rejected person.”
Love for neighbor, then, is love for all equally,
And equally with ourselves.
Perfect love is the summit of detachment;
It knows no distinction between one's own and another's,
Between male and female,
Between black and white.
Such single, simple love has a single cause:
The Way Who is honored and loved in every neighbor.
Through love of neighbor do we enter into love of the Way:
And as the former grows in us, so does the latter,
Until at last the Way is all in all,
And we forget ourselves.
Then love becomes a depth of illumination,
A fountain of fire inflaming the thirsty soul.
Growth is added to growth.
Love is the progression of eternity.
Hieromonk Damascene's Christ The Eternal Tao (Valaam Books, 2004) 174-175
Call to Conversation
In the Beginning
"In the beginning was the word…and the word was…God”
word…logos…light of the world…creative force…living presence…ordering principle…underlying harmonic pattern of creation…universal vibration…sound?
Is everything connected by the threads of sound
Intertwining interweaving here and now?
Is every cell and every pulse
Every heart in each of us
Vibrantly connected by the waves of sound?
Is everything connected in the here and now
Intertwining interweaving threads of sound?
Is every breath and every thought
Every found and every lost
Perfectly connected by the light of sound?
Is everything connected some way some how
Intertwining interweaving here and now?
Is every spark and every beam
All the dark and all the dreams
Vividly connected by the ways of sound?
Is everything connected in the here and now
Intertwining interweaving lost and found
Is every tear and every being
Every single living thing
Harmonically connected by the God of sound?
“In the beginning was the word…and the word was…God”
word…logos…light of the world…creative force…living presence…ordering principle…underlying harmonic pattern of creation…universal vibration…sound?
Anita Kruse © 2005
Call to Silence and Opening Meditation
O God of Life and Creation,
Hear our Prayers of Silence, Sound, and Word.
And We Continue to Pray:
For the Peace of the World
And a Spirit of Respect Among All Nations
That our Divisions May Cease
That We All May Be One
That We All May Be One
That We All May Be One. Amen.
Readings
A Reading from The Wall Street Journal, Friday, February 8, 2008
Mitt Romney's campaign for the presidency brought more attention to the Mormon Church than it has had in years. What the church discovered was not heartening.
Critics of its doctrines and culture launched frequent public attacks. Polling data showed that far more Americans say they'd never vote for a Mormon than those who admitted they wouldn't choose a woman or an African-American.
A Wall Street Journal/N C News poll in late January revealed that 50% of Americans said they would have reservations or be “very uncomfortable about a Mormon as president. That same poll found that 81% would be “enthusiastic” or “comfortable” with an African-American and 76% with a woman.”
The Mormon religion “was the silent factor in a lot of the decision making by evangelicals and others,” says Democratic pollster Peter Hart, who conducted the poll. The Romney campaign ran into a “religious bias head wind,” Mr. Hart and his Republican polling partner, Bill McInurff, wrote late last month.
A Reading from Luke 10:29-37
But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus replied, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?”
He said, “The one who showed mercy on him.”
And Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
A Reading From the “New Testament of the Tao Te Ching”
“Love your neighbor as yourself,” said the Way.
Through love of neighbor do we enter into love of the Way:
For our neighbor is the image of the Way;
And thus the Way accepts what we do for our neighbor as if it were done for Him[Her].
When this realization is kept constantly in mind,
It become the source of the purest love for our neighbor.
“And who is my neighbor?” the Way was asked.
Our neighbor is whomever the Way puts before us:
Insider or outcast,
Faithful or unfaithful,
Friend or foe,
Help or burden,
Encourager or reviler,
Rescuer or murderer.
Therefore, said the Ancient Sage,
“Even if people be bad, why should they be rejected?
The holy man takes care of all people,
And in consequence there is no rejected person.”
Love for neighbor, then, is love for all equally,
And equally with ourselves.
Perfect love is the summit of detachment;
It knows no distinction between one's own and another's,
Between male and female,
Between black and white.
Such single, simple love has a single cause:
The Way Who is honored and loved in every neighbor.
Through love of neighbor do we enter into love of the Way:
And as the former grows in us, so does the latter,
Until at last the Way is all in all,
And we forget ourselves.
Then love becomes a depth of illumination,
A fountain of fire inflaming the thirsty soul.
Growth is added to growth.
Love is the progression of eternity.
Hieromonk Damascene's Christ The Eternal Tao (Valaam Books, 2004) 174-175
Call to Conversation
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