Sunday, Dec. 30, 2007

Call to Silence and Opening Meditation

“How shall I grasp it? Do not grasp it. That which remains when there is no more grasping is the Self.”

---Panchandasi, from Richard Hooper, ed. Jesus Buddha Krishna Lao Tzu: The Parallel Sayings (Sedona, AZ: Sanctuary Publications, 2007)

Introductory Reading

When most of us use the word, “self,” we are usually referring to our ego identity---that persona, or mask, we wear to maintain our illusion of individuality. This small self includes our subconscious mind, our intuitive mind, and virtually everything else our brains produce that make us believe that we are separate and apart from every other thing in the Universe.

Krishna, Plato and Jesus, however, meant something entirely different when they used this word “self.” Self, to them refers to what lies beneath individuality. This Self is the core essence of what (not who) we really are: God, the Tao, Universal Mind. Self is what remains when the little self dies. Self is what discover when we are “born again.” Self is what appears when we cleanse our windows of perception. Self is what we recognize when we “wake up.” Self, really, is all that exists.

---from Richard Hooper, ed. Jesus Buddha Krishna Lao Tzu: The Parallel Sayings (Sedona, AZ: Sanctuary Publications, 2007)

Readings

Jesus: He who sees himself only on the outside, not within, becomes small and makes others small.
---Gospel of Mani

Krishna: The Self is hidden in all beings, but it is manifest only to those who have the intuitive ability to recognize it.
---The Upanishads



Lao Tzu: Some see the Self as wondrous. Others speak of it as marvelous. Others hear it and wonder. Still others hear it, but do not understand it at all.
---The Tao Te Ching

Buddha: He who experiences the unity of life sees his own Self in all beings, and all beings in his own Self, and looks on everything with an impartial eye.
---The Buddha

Jesus: You recognized Spirit, and became Spirit. You saw Christ, and became Christ. You saw the Father, and you became the Father. And yet, if you do not recognize these things as your Self, you will not become what you see. But if you recognize your Self, that which you see you will become.
---The Gospel of Philip

Lao Tzu: He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened.
---The Tao Te Ching

Jesus: That which you have will save you, if you bring it forth from within yourself. That which you do not have within you will kill you, if you do not recognize it within you.
---The Gospel of Thomas

Krishna: When one sees all beings in the Self, and the Self in all beings, he hates no one.
---Isha Upanishad

Lao Tzu: The man of Tao remains unknown. In perfect virtue he produces nothing. “No Self” is “true self.” And the greatest man is Nobody.
---Chuang Tzu

Jesus: I Am that which cannot be measured or known, but I reveal Myself as I wish . . . I am the All, since I exist in everyone.
---Trimorphic Protennoia

(Readings above from Richard Hooper, ed. Jesus Buddha Krishna Lao Tzu: The Parallel Sayings)


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

Closing Reading

But what precipitates the ego’s disappearance? What causes the thinking mind to cease its thinking? Lao Tzu might say that any attempt to answer such questions would require too much activity of the discriminating mind. Better to just shrug one’s shoulders and laugh.

---from Richard Hooper, ed. Jesus Buddha Krishna Lao Tzu: The Parallel Sayings (Sedona, AZ: Sanctuary Publications, 2007)


This service is offered in Thanksgiving for the love and prayers of Sr. Phyllis Horne, C.S.J.