Brian’s Reflection: Friday, June 1, 2007
The first truth is that nothing is lost in the universe. Matter turns
into energy, energy turns into matter. A dead leaf turns into soil.
A seed sprouts and becomes a new plant. Old solar systems
disintegrate and turn into cosmic rays. We are born of our parents,
our children are born of us…… We consist of that which is around us.
If we destroy something around us, we destroy ourselves.
- from the “Truths” of Buddhist teaching
Do you recognize this??
I do. Instantly
Paramahansa Yogananda says, “When God comes, where is sleep? Where is the body? Nothing matters but His intoxicating presence”.
St. Diadochos of Photiki (circa 400-486 CE), says, ….. “the soul is drunk with the love of God and, with voice silent, delights in His glory”.
"Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth". This is the Hasidic yihud.
Rumi says, “One I seek, One I know, One I see, One I call. He is the first, he is the last, he is the outward, he is the inward; I know none other except "O he" and "O he who is."
Thomas Merton says, ” he attains to communion with the Freedom Who is the source of all actuality. This Reality, the Freedom, is not concept, not a thing, not an object, not even an object of knowledge; it is the Living God, the Holy One”.
Yes! Heaven. Union with the Divine. I know we have always been and shall always be. My body shall decay, but I shall Exist. From my life new life grows. As I live, I give life to others, on many levels. We are part of each other, with that Mystical Energy that creates and sustains all things.
As Jesus did, we “ascend” to union with the Godhead. I don’t need the harps and emerald streets. I know the Intoxicating Presence, the kisses. Good enough.
Brian+
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, May 31, 2007
Facing west from California's shores,
Inquiring, tireless, seeking what is yet unfound,
I, a child, very old, over waves, towards the house of maternity,
the land of migrations, look afar,
Look off the shores of my Western sea, the circle almost circled;
For starting westward from Hindustan, from the vales of Kashmere,
From Asia, from the north, from the God, the sage, and the hero,
From the south, from the flowery peninsulas and the spice islands,
Long having wander'd since, round the earth having wander'd,
Now I face home again, very pleas'd and joyous,
(But where is what I started for so long ago? And why is it yet unfound?)
- Walt Whitman, acclaimed American poet,
born in West Hills, Long Island, 1819
What can I say? I love Walt Whitman. I could stand on the California shore and gaze out and conjure up in my mind and heart all of the Hindustans and Vales of Kashmeres that I have seen in my life. Unlike Whitman, I do not feel that I have a “home” in the World - nor do I want one in the physical sense. I am a typical Cancerian - I make my home wherever I find myself. I have lived in many places in my years – and almost always I go to bed at dawn with every picture hung and every carpet placed and every candle lit before a holy icon or two. My “home” is within my inner sight. It exists in my imagination. No place I have lived has disappointed me, I miss none of them (ohm except perhaps Montfort), and I have forgotten the details of most of them.
But Oh I can relate to the poet’s last words! “But where is what I started for so long ago? And why is it yet unfound?”
I started for the Mystery called God decades ago, without even knowing what “God” was/is. I am not disappointed that It is yet unfound! That is the nature of the Mystery.
I shall keep “facing home”. Facing within. Like Whitman, I am a wanderer.
Brian+
Facing west from California's shores,
Inquiring, tireless, seeking what is yet unfound,
I, a child, very old, over waves, towards the house of maternity,
the land of migrations, look afar,
Look off the shores of my Western sea, the circle almost circled;
For starting westward from Hindustan, from the vales of Kashmere,
From Asia, from the north, from the God, the sage, and the hero,
From the south, from the flowery peninsulas and the spice islands,
Long having wander'd since, round the earth having wander'd,
Now I face home again, very pleas'd and joyous,
(But where is what I started for so long ago? And why is it yet unfound?)
- Walt Whitman, acclaimed American poet,
born in West Hills, Long Island, 1819
What can I say? I love Walt Whitman. I could stand on the California shore and gaze out and conjure up in my mind and heart all of the Hindustans and Vales of Kashmeres that I have seen in my life. Unlike Whitman, I do not feel that I have a “home” in the World - nor do I want one in the physical sense. I am a typical Cancerian - I make my home wherever I find myself. I have lived in many places in my years – and almost always I go to bed at dawn with every picture hung and every carpet placed and every candle lit before a holy icon or two. My “home” is within my inner sight. It exists in my imagination. No place I have lived has disappointed me, I miss none of them (ohm except perhaps Montfort), and I have forgotten the details of most of them.
But Oh I can relate to the poet’s last words! “But where is what I started for so long ago? And why is it yet unfound?”
I started for the Mystery called God decades ago, without even knowing what “God” was/is. I am not disappointed that It is yet unfound! That is the nature of the Mystery.
I shall keep “facing home”. Facing within. Like Whitman, I am a wanderer.
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Aloneness simply means completeness. You are whole; there is no need of anybody else to complete you. So try to find out your innermost centre where you are always alone, have always been alone. In life, in death - wherever you are - you will be alone. But it is so full! It is not empty; it is so full and so complete and so overflowing with all the juices of life, with all the beauties and benedictions of existence, that once you have tasted your aloneness, the pain in the heart will disappear. Instead, a new rhythm of tremendous sweetness, peace, joy, bliss will be there.
- Osho, formerly Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, Indian spiritual teacher (“Osho” means “Unambiguation”)
I believe this. Everything has to start with us being us. Oh, we humans need others for a variety of things on the way to blossoming, unfolding. But we do not need anyone else to complete us. “Complete” is the critical word here. Free us. Illumine us. Guide us. Advise us. Teach us. Challenge us. Confront us. Love us. Yes. Towards the completeness that we simply Are. I deeply believe that the more we have found our innermost centre and our radical aloneness, the more we are able to create community which diminishes no one.
Pain in the heart is not essentially caused by others. It is caused by our self-inflicted incompleteness, by our cowardice before the Mystery of who we are.
God gave it to us in the beginning, for the taking. We must give it to ourselves, with all its juices and beauties and benedictions. Then we become a true blessing to the World.
Brian+
Aloneness simply means completeness. You are whole; there is no need of anybody else to complete you. So try to find out your innermost centre where you are always alone, have always been alone. In life, in death - wherever you are - you will be alone. But it is so full! It is not empty; it is so full and so complete and so overflowing with all the juices of life, with all the beauties and benedictions of existence, that once you have tasted your aloneness, the pain in the heart will disappear. Instead, a new rhythm of tremendous sweetness, peace, joy, bliss will be there.
- Osho, formerly Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, Indian spiritual teacher (“Osho” means “Unambiguation”)
I believe this. Everything has to start with us being us. Oh, we humans need others for a variety of things on the way to blossoming, unfolding. But we do not need anyone else to complete us. “Complete” is the critical word here. Free us. Illumine us. Guide us. Advise us. Teach us. Challenge us. Confront us. Love us. Yes. Towards the completeness that we simply Are. I deeply believe that the more we have found our innermost centre and our radical aloneness, the more we are able to create community which diminishes no one.
Pain in the heart is not essentially caused by others. It is caused by our self-inflicted incompleteness, by our cowardice before the Mystery of who we are.
God gave it to us in the beginning, for the taking. We must give it to ourselves, with all its juices and beauties and benedictions. Then we become a true blessing to the World.
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, May 29, 2007
The basic problems facing the world today
are not susceptible to a military solution.
- President John F. Kennedy, born on
this day, 1917 (He would have been
90 today.)
When Judas and the soldiers arrived in the garden to arrest Jesus, Peter cut off the ear of Malchus, the High Priest’s servant, with his sword. Jesus told Peter to put his sword away. He healed the man’s ear. Before Pilate, Jesus reminded everyone that His Kingdom was not of this World. Jesus understood that the basic problems of the World, then and today, are not susceptible to a military solution. Not without purpose did He teach His followers to pray, “Thy kingdom come”. And not without purpose did he stand silent before Pilate, before the soldiers who mocked and beat Him. After He was raised from the dead, He greeted His disciples with the words “Peace be with you”.
Peoples and leaders are often faced with the stink of war, with the taunt to use military might, with the temptation to think that military force will solve problems, with the seeming impossibility of avoiding war.
God, however, does not want or condone war, on any level, by anyone. I feel and think theologically very strongly about this. Nor does God permit His/Her name to be co-opted in the support of war. To dare to enlist God on the side of war, no matter how much you/we may think it “justified”, is to blaspheme. Jesus did not bless the makers of war, only the makers of peace.
John Kennedy had to deal with the World’s military madness. Perhaps no leader has been exempt. But I believe his quoted words are correct. Before anything else, Christians are called to build, with God, the Peaceable Kingdom. That God’s will may be “done on Earth as in Heaven”. The basic problems facing the World today - as ever - can only be solved by respecting the dignity of every human being (baptismal vows) and serving in love.
Attempts at “military solution” can only be a pathetic stopgap. The work of human problemsolving is the work of that which God loves - a broken and contrite heart.
Brian+
The basic problems facing the world today
are not susceptible to a military solution.
- President John F. Kennedy, born on
this day, 1917 (He would have been
90 today.)
When Judas and the soldiers arrived in the garden to arrest Jesus, Peter cut off the ear of Malchus, the High Priest’s servant, with his sword. Jesus told Peter to put his sword away. He healed the man’s ear. Before Pilate, Jesus reminded everyone that His Kingdom was not of this World. Jesus understood that the basic problems of the World, then and today, are not susceptible to a military solution. Not without purpose did He teach His followers to pray, “Thy kingdom come”. And not without purpose did he stand silent before Pilate, before the soldiers who mocked and beat Him. After He was raised from the dead, He greeted His disciples with the words “Peace be with you”.
Peoples and leaders are often faced with the stink of war, with the taunt to use military might, with the temptation to think that military force will solve problems, with the seeming impossibility of avoiding war.
God, however, does not want or condone war, on any level, by anyone. I feel and think theologically very strongly about this. Nor does God permit His/Her name to be co-opted in the support of war. To dare to enlist God on the side of war, no matter how much you/we may think it “justified”, is to blaspheme. Jesus did not bless the makers of war, only the makers of peace.
John Kennedy had to deal with the World’s military madness. Perhaps no leader has been exempt. But I believe his quoted words are correct. Before anything else, Christians are called to build, with God, the Peaceable Kingdom. That God’s will may be “done on Earth as in Heaven”. The basic problems facing the World today - as ever - can only be solved by respecting the dignity of every human being (baptismal vows) and serving in love.
Attempts at “military solution” can only be a pathetic stopgap. The work of human problemsolving is the work of that which God loves - a broken and contrite heart.
Brian+
Monday, May 28, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, May 29, 2007
The basic problems facing the world today
are not susceptible to a military solution.
- President John F. Kennedy, born on
this day, 1917 (He would have been
90 today.)
When Judas and the soldiers arrived in the garden to arrest Jesus, Peter cut off the ear of Malchus, the High Priest’s servant, with his sword. Jesus told Peter to put his sword away. He healed the man’s ear. Before Pilate, Jesus reminded everyone that His Kingdom was not of this World. Jesus understood that the basic problems of the World, then and today, are not susceptible to a military solution. Not without purpose did He teach His followers to pray, “Thy kingdom come”. And not without purpose did he stand silent before Pilate, before the soldiers who mocked and beat Him. After He was raised from the dead, He greeted His disciples with the words “Peace be with you”.
Peoples and leaders are often faced with the stink of war, with the taunt to use military might, with the temptation to think that military force will solve problems, with the seeming impossibility of avoiding war.
God, however, does not want or condone war, on any level, by anyone. I feel and think theologically very strongly about this. Nor does God permit His/Her name to be co-opted in the support of war. To dare to enlist God on the side of war, no matter how much you/we may think it “justified”, is to blaspheme. Jesus did not bless the makers of war, only the makers of peace.
John Kennedy had to deal with the World’s military madness. Perhaps no leader has been exempt. But I believe his quoted words are correct. Before anything else, Christians are called to build, with God, the Peaceable Kingdom. That God’s will may be “done on Earth as in Heaven”. The basic problems facing the World today - as ever - can only be solved by respecting the dignity of every human being (baptismal vows) and serving in love.
Attempts at “military solution” can only be a pathetic stopgap. The work of human problemsolving is the work of that which God loves - a broken and contrite heart.
Brian+
The basic problems facing the world today
are not susceptible to a military solution.
- President John F. Kennedy, born on
this day, 1917 (He would have been
90 today.)
When Judas and the soldiers arrived in the garden to arrest Jesus, Peter cut off the ear of Malchus, the High Priest’s servant, with his sword. Jesus told Peter to put his sword away. He healed the man’s ear. Before Pilate, Jesus reminded everyone that His Kingdom was not of this World. Jesus understood that the basic problems of the World, then and today, are not susceptible to a military solution. Not without purpose did He teach His followers to pray, “Thy kingdom come”. And not without purpose did he stand silent before Pilate, before the soldiers who mocked and beat Him. After He was raised from the dead, He greeted His disciples with the words “Peace be with you”.
Peoples and leaders are often faced with the stink of war, with the taunt to use military might, with the temptation to think that military force will solve problems, with the seeming impossibility of avoiding war.
God, however, does not want or condone war, on any level, by anyone. I feel and think theologically very strongly about this. Nor does God permit His/Her name to be co-opted in the support of war. To dare to enlist God on the side of war, no matter how much you/we may think it “justified”, is to blaspheme. Jesus did not bless the makers of war, only the makers of peace.
John Kennedy had to deal with the World’s military madness. Perhaps no leader has been exempt. But I believe his quoted words are correct. Before anything else, Christians are called to build, with God, the Peaceable Kingdom. That God’s will may be “done on Earth as in Heaven”. The basic problems facing the World today - as ever - can only be solved by respecting the dignity of every human being (baptismal vows) and serving in love.
Attempts at “military solution” can only be a pathetic stopgap. The work of human problemsolving is the work of that which God loves - a broken and contrite heart.
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Saturday, May 26, 2007
Art is not necessary at all. All that is necessary to
make this world a better place to live in is to love –
to love as Christ loved, as Buddha loved.
My motto - sans limites.
- Isadora Duncan, dancer, born on this day, 1877
Well, Isadora certainly lived her creed! Sans limites! Scandal and atheism and accidently drowned children (from 2 different men neither of whom she was married to) and Montparnasse and dancing at 5am in the Luxembourg Garden in Paris and being bisexual and baring her breasts on stage in (horrors!) Boston and having her faced painted and carved on the walls of the Theatre des Champs-Elysees and public drunkenness ……….
What a character! Many would deign to disapprove.
Maybe she was “sans limites”. But (let’s give her the benefit of the doubt, which most of us given our behavior would also need today) she “saw” that love is all that is necessary to make this world a better place.
Would that more did, especially world leaders and politicians.
Brian+
Art is not necessary at all. All that is necessary to
make this world a better place to live in is to love –
to love as Christ loved, as Buddha loved.
My motto - sans limites.
- Isadora Duncan, dancer, born on this day, 1877
Well, Isadora certainly lived her creed! Sans limites! Scandal and atheism and accidently drowned children (from 2 different men neither of whom she was married to) and Montparnasse and dancing at 5am in the Luxembourg Garden in Paris and being bisexual and baring her breasts on stage in (horrors!) Boston and having her faced painted and carved on the walls of the Theatre des Champs-Elysees and public drunkenness ……….
What a character! Many would deign to disapprove.
Maybe she was “sans limites”. But (let’s give her the benefit of the doubt, which most of us given our behavior would also need today) she “saw” that love is all that is necessary to make this world a better place.
Would that more did, especially world leaders and politicians.
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Friday, May 25, 2007
He alone loves the Creator perfectly who
manifests a pure love for his neighbor.
- The Venerable Baeda (Bede), monk of Jarrow,
on his feast day (b. 672, d. 735), author of
“A History of the English Church and People”
Imagine! Bede was sent to the monastery when he was three years old! He rarely left his monastery, led a simple scholarly and physical life. On the day of his death, he was writing and translating a Gospel of John. His helper said there was one last sentence; Bede spoke it. The boy said it was finished. Baeda said, “Thou hast spoken truth!”. Singing the Doxology, sitting on the floor of his cell, he died peacefully.
I have always loved the First Epistle of John because of its simple, clear statement: “No one can love God and hate his neighbor”. It is the core point of the Incarnation - God dwells in every person’s being. If we hate that being, we hate God. How wise was Jesus when He taught (in the parable of the sheep and the goats) that when we ignored or abused our fellow human beings, we ignored and abused Him.
Love God. Love your neighbor as yourself. It’s on that path that, when death approaches, we can sit calmly singing and giving thanks to God.
Sounds OK to me.
Brian+
He alone loves the Creator perfectly who
manifests a pure love for his neighbor.
- The Venerable Baeda (Bede), monk of Jarrow,
on his feast day (b. 672, d. 735), author of
“A History of the English Church and People”
Imagine! Bede was sent to the monastery when he was three years old! He rarely left his monastery, led a simple scholarly and physical life. On the day of his death, he was writing and translating a Gospel of John. His helper said there was one last sentence; Bede spoke it. The boy said it was finished. Baeda said, “Thou hast spoken truth!”. Singing the Doxology, sitting on the floor of his cell, he died peacefully.
I have always loved the First Epistle of John because of its simple, clear statement: “No one can love God and hate his neighbor”. It is the core point of the Incarnation - God dwells in every person’s being. If we hate that being, we hate God. How wise was Jesus when He taught (in the parable of the sheep and the goats) that when we ignored or abused our fellow human beings, we ignored and abused Him.
Love God. Love your neighbor as yourself. It’s on that path that, when death approaches, we can sit calmly singing and giving thanks to God.
Sounds OK to me.
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, May 24, 2007
Now I am forty.What should I say about my life? That it's long and abhors transparence.Broken eggs make me grieve; the omelet, though, makes me vomit.Yet until brown clay has been rammed down my larynx,only gratitude will be gushing from it.
- from “May 24, 1980”, by Joseph Brodsky, Russian poet,
Nobel Laureate (1987), born on this day, 1940
[ If you want to read the whole poem: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/may-24-1980/ ]
How could I resist! A man born May 24, who wrote a poem called that! I read a lot of Brodsky’s poems a few years ago. I “liked” them - primarily because I could understand them. I hate poems that are so weird that they are unintelligible, like many of the poems in the New York magazine used to be ………. they’ve gotten better, according to my no doubt low-life standards. Unintelligible poems are a contradiction in terms.
What should I say about my life? Brodsky was dead at 55; I’m still alive at 60 - after drop-foot (wore a brace for 6 months), amoebic dysentery (rectal bleeding and severe pain, ugh), malaria, 2 broken arms, a replaced aortic valve, a cardiologist who punctured my aorta (“If it had gone up, you’d have been dead in 10 seconds.”), sucked-out gall bladder, ruptured colon (diverticulitis - pay attention to gut pains!), septic e-coli bacterial infection, colostomy, reversal of said, abdominal abscess (open wound for 10 weeks), a hole in my heart (still have it) ….. I don’t hold a candle to some I guess, but!
Yet, until brown clay has been rammed down my throat, only gratitude will be gushing from it. That’s my intention anyway. I haven’t spent over 40 years of my life standing at altars offering Thanksgiving for Life and Salvation and Freedom and Creation and Love for nothing!
By the day I die, I hope that every other bitterness and anger and whine and self-pity and resentment and negativity will have fallen away. And only gratitude will be left ….. a soft smile beneath eyes shining with the transparence Brodsky said he abhorred.
Wish me luck. And thanks for all the help along the way.
Brian+
Now I am forty.What should I say about my life? That it's long and abhors transparence.Broken eggs make me grieve; the omelet, though, makes me vomit.Yet until brown clay has been rammed down my larynx,only gratitude will be gushing from it.
- from “May 24, 1980”, by Joseph Brodsky, Russian poet,
Nobel Laureate (1987), born on this day, 1940
[ If you want to read the whole poem: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/may-24-1980/ ]
How could I resist! A man born May 24, who wrote a poem called that! I read a lot of Brodsky’s poems a few years ago. I “liked” them - primarily because I could understand them. I hate poems that are so weird that they are unintelligible, like many of the poems in the New York magazine used to be ………. they’ve gotten better, according to my no doubt low-life standards. Unintelligible poems are a contradiction in terms.
What should I say about my life? Brodsky was dead at 55; I’m still alive at 60 - after drop-foot (wore a brace for 6 months), amoebic dysentery (rectal bleeding and severe pain, ugh), malaria, 2 broken arms, a replaced aortic valve, a cardiologist who punctured my aorta (“If it had gone up, you’d have been dead in 10 seconds.”), sucked-out gall bladder, ruptured colon (diverticulitis - pay attention to gut pains!), septic e-coli bacterial infection, colostomy, reversal of said, abdominal abscess (open wound for 10 weeks), a hole in my heart (still have it) ….. I don’t hold a candle to some I guess, but!
Yet, until brown clay has been rammed down my throat, only gratitude will be gushing from it. That’s my intention anyway. I haven’t spent over 40 years of my life standing at altars offering Thanksgiving for Life and Salvation and Freedom and Creation and Love for nothing!
By the day I die, I hope that every other bitterness and anger and whine and self-pity and resentment and negativity will have fallen away. And only gratitude will be left ….. a soft smile beneath eyes shining with the transparence Brodsky said he abhorred.
Wish me luck. And thanks for all the help along the way.
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Christ has been done to death
in the cold reaches of northern Europea
thousand thousand times. Suddenly bread
and cheese appear on a plate
beside a gleaming pewter beaker of beer.
Now tell me that the Holy Ghost
does not reside in the play of light
on cutlery!
- from “Dutch Interiors” by Jane Kenyon, State Poet
of New Hampshire at the time of her death age 47
of leukemia, born on this day, 1947
Oh Jane, She does, She does!
We’re rushing up on Pentecost
and I am tired, really tired,
of all these longers after flames of fire
dancing around on peoples’ heads, weary
of people frantically looking around
for a speaker in tongues
to authenticate Her sacred holy Presence.
Fed up with Christs done to death
a thousand thousand times
in a parody of honouring
while most ignore His teachings
and panic at the thought
that we might actually be transformed
into His into Her likeness.
Oh the Holy Ghost She does indeed
reside in the play of light on cutlery –
in the setting of a place at the table
for the dispossessed!
And Christ, oh Christ rises from painted death
in the bread and cheese and beer
set out for the hungry of body and soul.
Come Holy Ghost our souls inspire,
kindle us with celestial fire
to care, to heal, to love.
Brian+
Christ has been done to death
in the cold reaches of northern Europea
thousand thousand times. Suddenly bread
and cheese appear on a plate
beside a gleaming pewter beaker of beer.
Now tell me that the Holy Ghost
does not reside in the play of light
on cutlery!
- from “Dutch Interiors” by Jane Kenyon, State Poet
of New Hampshire at the time of her death age 47
of leukemia, born on this day, 1947
Oh Jane, She does, She does!
We’re rushing up on Pentecost
and I am tired, really tired,
of all these longers after flames of fire
dancing around on peoples’ heads, weary
of people frantically looking around
for a speaker in tongues
to authenticate Her sacred holy Presence.
Fed up with Christs done to death
a thousand thousand times
in a parody of honouring
while most ignore His teachings
and panic at the thought
that we might actually be transformed
into His into Her likeness.
Oh the Holy Ghost She does indeed
reside in the play of light on cutlery –
in the setting of a place at the table
for the dispossessed!
And Christ, oh Christ rises from painted death
in the bread and cheese and beer
set out for the hungry of body and soul.
Come Holy Ghost our souls inspire,
kindle us with celestial fire
to care, to heal, to love.
Brian+
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, May 22, 2007
The Life of Faith is filled with endless horizons.
- a young seminarian, who graduated from seminary
on this day 34 years ago
I did just OK academically in seminary (I went to GTS in 1970, age 24). I was interested in most of the things I studied. But then and now, I am most interested in Mystery. I seem to spend a lot of time “looking for answers”. But Rilke would be proud that I am most interested in Questions, and in the Journey. I could die tomorrow - but that isn’t an issue for me. What matters is every day I awaken to. What will hove up on the horizon? Of my mind, or heart, or spirit, or body. Of the World in all it’s amazing beauty, often sad beauty. Of people in all their amazingness, their dimension of surprise, their strangeness - though I am repulsed by cruelty and flee it, especially my own frightening flashes, mostly of the mind.
Faith, for me, is essentially grounded in the intentional belief in new possibilities, new revelations. It is not belief in the Improbable - that to me is Magic. It is belief in the Unknown as yet to come into view on the horizon if I am willing to sail on into the wonder that beckons, without prejudgment. In this, one cannot let fear rule - and it was the Christ’s “Do not be afraid!” that most enticed me to walk the Path.
It has been an interesting 34 years. I look forward to many more ports of Mystery.
Brian+
The Life of Faith is filled with endless horizons.
- a young seminarian, who graduated from seminary
on this day 34 years ago
I did just OK academically in seminary (I went to GTS in 1970, age 24). I was interested in most of the things I studied. But then and now, I am most interested in Mystery. I seem to spend a lot of time “looking for answers”. But Rilke would be proud that I am most interested in Questions, and in the Journey. I could die tomorrow - but that isn’t an issue for me. What matters is every day I awaken to. What will hove up on the horizon? Of my mind, or heart, or spirit, or body. Of the World in all it’s amazing beauty, often sad beauty. Of people in all their amazingness, their dimension of surprise, their strangeness - though I am repulsed by cruelty and flee it, especially my own frightening flashes, mostly of the mind.
Faith, for me, is essentially grounded in the intentional belief in new possibilities, new revelations. It is not belief in the Improbable - that to me is Magic. It is belief in the Unknown as yet to come into view on the horizon if I am willing to sail on into the wonder that beckons, without prejudgment. In this, one cannot let fear rule - and it was the Christ’s “Do not be afraid!” that most enticed me to walk the Path.
It has been an interesting 34 years. I look forward to many more ports of Mystery.
Brian+
Monday, May 21, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Monday, May 21, 2007 (Victoria Day, Canada)
The Queen is most anxious to enlist everyone
in checking this mad, wicked folly of 'Women's Rights'.
It is a subject which makes the Queen so furious that
she cannot contain herself.
An ugly baby is a very nasty object –
and the prettiest is frightful.
- Queen Victoria, as Canada celebrates Victoria Day
Well, I am sure that her Imperial Majesty must have said some profound things. Being an ardent monarchist (constitutional, of course), I certainly hope so. We’ll give her the benefit of the doubt. She certainly looks very Imperial in the fine and massive statue of her in Dominion Square (am I remembering the name correctly after 40 years of living in the USA?) in Montreal – a statue I saw practically every week as a young person. Victoria Day is terribly important of course. Otherwise, how would we know when we could start wearing white trousers?! Or safely plant things?? Anyway: a salute to our Canadian neighbours!
God is a Constitutional Monarch, despite the claptrap that is often spread about that God is an Absolute Monarch. “Almighty”, as applied to God, is relative. Relative to freedom, and to love. When you love, and when you create free, you have self-limited any absolute control. God advises, God “warns” - God does not force. Ever. God has abdicated that power. And rather likes it like that, despite the resentment often sent His way. Very mature, is God.
Oh. in my opinion, God, unlike Queen Victoria, is in favour of “Women’s Rights”, and thinks that all babies are perfectly charming!
Brian+
The Queen is most anxious to enlist everyone
in checking this mad, wicked folly of 'Women's Rights'.
It is a subject which makes the Queen so furious that
she cannot contain herself.
An ugly baby is a very nasty object –
and the prettiest is frightful.
- Queen Victoria, as Canada celebrates Victoria Day
Well, I am sure that her Imperial Majesty must have said some profound things. Being an ardent monarchist (constitutional, of course), I certainly hope so. We’ll give her the benefit of the doubt. She certainly looks very Imperial in the fine and massive statue of her in Dominion Square (am I remembering the name correctly after 40 years of living in the USA?) in Montreal – a statue I saw practically every week as a young person. Victoria Day is terribly important of course. Otherwise, how would we know when we could start wearing white trousers?! Or safely plant things?? Anyway: a salute to our Canadian neighbours!
God is a Constitutional Monarch, despite the claptrap that is often spread about that God is an Absolute Monarch. “Almighty”, as applied to God, is relative. Relative to freedom, and to love. When you love, and when you create free, you have self-limited any absolute control. God advises, God “warns” - God does not force. Ever. God has abdicated that power. And rather likes it like that, despite the resentment often sent His way. Very mature, is God.
Oh. in my opinion, God, unlike Queen Victoria, is in favour of “Women’s Rights”, and thinks that all babies are perfectly charming!
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Saturday, May 19, 2007
“I ask ….. that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you,
may they also be in us ….. so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them
and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me ….. so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
- Jesus, from the Gospel of the Johannine community, chap 17
One. In the knowledge of God’s unfathomable Love. All humanity. Not all,Christians. Not all Muslims. Not all Jains. Not all Jews. Not all …………. One in Love.
Get it?
Brian+
“I ask ….. that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you,
may they also be in us ….. so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them
and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me ….. so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
- Jesus, from the Gospel of the Johannine community, chap 17
One. In the knowledge of God’s unfathomable Love. All humanity. Not all,Christians. Not all Muslims. Not all Jains. Not all Jews. Not all …………. One in Love.
Get it?
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Friday, May 18, 2007
A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou.
- Omar Khayyam, Persian poet,
born on this day, 1048
Now, doesn’t that sound nice! So simple.
One early morning in the summer sunshine, a priest friend of mine and I walked down the ancient paved narrow street leading from the hilltop apartment we were staying in – a building that was first inhabited in the 14th century - in Menton in the south of France. The air was cool, the scent of the lemons for which Menton is famous drifting in the air. We stopped half-way down to stand in line for the baker to open her doors – and purchased a hot loaf of freshly baked bread, which we popped into our sack. Then to the bottom of the hill into the lower town, where we bought a jug (well, a largish bottle with a straw hoop to carry it) of a local red wine. Then we gilded the lily a bit, with a small bottle of dark olive oil and a little terrine de lapin (rabbit). We hopped on the local train, journeyed down the Mediterranean coast until we came to a favourite place near the sea, and there we spent the day.
Late afternoon, the loaf and jug became the Eucharist, and we felt like the disciples eating with Jesus on the shore. We both commented that we felt no separation - the bread and wine and the sacramental use we put them to were of one piece in feeding the whole of who we were. A nice reminder.
Who needs Alain Ducasse to be blissfully happy!
A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou. Wise man, Khayyam.
Brian+
A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou.
- Omar Khayyam, Persian poet,
born on this day, 1048
Now, doesn’t that sound nice! So simple.
One early morning in the summer sunshine, a priest friend of mine and I walked down the ancient paved narrow street leading from the hilltop apartment we were staying in – a building that was first inhabited in the 14th century - in Menton in the south of France. The air was cool, the scent of the lemons for which Menton is famous drifting in the air. We stopped half-way down to stand in line for the baker to open her doors – and purchased a hot loaf of freshly baked bread, which we popped into our sack. Then to the bottom of the hill into the lower town, where we bought a jug (well, a largish bottle with a straw hoop to carry it) of a local red wine. Then we gilded the lily a bit, with a small bottle of dark olive oil and a little terrine de lapin (rabbit). We hopped on the local train, journeyed down the Mediterranean coast until we came to a favourite place near the sea, and there we spent the day.
Late afternoon, the loaf and jug became the Eucharist, and we felt like the disciples eating with Jesus on the shore. We both commented that we felt no separation - the bread and wine and the sacramental use we put them to were of one piece in feeding the whole of who we were. A nice reminder.
Who needs Alain Ducasse to be blissfully happy!
A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou. Wise man, Khayyam.
Brian+
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, May 17, 2007
It is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God, and the custom
of the Primitive Church, to have public Prayer in the Church, or to
minister the Sacraments, in a tongue not understanded of the people.
- Article XXIV of the Articles of Religion, revised by
Archbishop of Canterbury Matthew Parker, who died
on this day, 1575
Being a priest who often refers to God as “She” (balance, you know), I have always delighted in Article I which states, “There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts, or passions …”. No human being God – and certainly not male any more than female – but actually neither! This is, I think, important to remember. Lest we make God in our own image.
As did, in my opinion, Jerry Falwell. I never heard a word come from that man’s mouth that in any way resembled either my experience of God nor anything remotely resembling the Gospel. I certainly wish him Rest in Peace. But I feel the world will be better off without his voice, and hopefully without the ignorance, bigotry and division he engendered.
Speaking of “a language not understanded of the people”, the modern day version of this is literalism. Literalism may as well be ancient Sumerian in terms of revealing anything intelligent about the Mystery of God. Literalism in terms of understanding faith and Scripture is about as useful as a bandaid on third degree burns. Literalism sounds “understanded”, but barely scratches the surface of meaning or truth. The soul will soon die of starvation.
The tongue that is “understanded” is Reason. Let’s have a little more.
Brian+
It is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God, and the custom
of the Primitive Church, to have public Prayer in the Church, or to
minister the Sacraments, in a tongue not understanded of the people.
- Article XXIV of the Articles of Religion, revised by
Archbishop of Canterbury Matthew Parker, who died
on this day, 1575
Being a priest who often refers to God as “She” (balance, you know), I have always delighted in Article I which states, “There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts, or passions …”. No human being God – and certainly not male any more than female – but actually neither! This is, I think, important to remember. Lest we make God in our own image.
As did, in my opinion, Jerry Falwell. I never heard a word come from that man’s mouth that in any way resembled either my experience of God nor anything remotely resembling the Gospel. I certainly wish him Rest in Peace. But I feel the world will be better off without his voice, and hopefully without the ignorance, bigotry and division he engendered.
Speaking of “a language not understanded of the people”, the modern day version of this is literalism. Literalism may as well be ancient Sumerian in terms of revealing anything intelligent about the Mystery of God. Literalism in terms of understanding faith and Scripture is about as useful as a bandaid on third degree burns. Literalism sounds “understanded”, but barely scratches the surface of meaning or truth. The soul will soon die of starvation.
The tongue that is “understanded” is Reason. Let’s have a little more.
Brian+
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
to say: Be kinder to yourself
but you were sick and would not answer
The waste of my love goes on this way
trying to save you from yourself
I have always wondered about the left-over
energy, the way water goes rushing down a hill
long after the rains have stopped
or the fire you want to go to bed from
but cannot leave, burning-down but not burnt-down
the red coals more extreme, more curious
in their flashing and dying
than you wish they were
sitting long after midnight
- Adrienne Rich, poet, born on this day, 1929, in Baltimore;
she refused the National Medal for the Arts in 1997
Good advice. “Be kinder to yourself.” Have you sat before a glowing fire and asked yourself what might save you from yourself? I have. I remember being in a wonderful place on the northeast coast of Brasil, gone there for a respite, run by guys who (a) ran a coconut plantation – it requires waiting, and (b) had all graduated from the Gordon Bleu. For a ridiculously little amount of money they fed me gourmet food, all from the local area. I would lie in a hammock looking out over the sea between South America and Africa and wonder: What do I want to contribute to Life? To the understanding of God?
You have to sit long after midnight. It is then the mind and heart become quiet. You will know no one else can save you from yourself. Only you. You must choose the path. “Be kinder to yourself”. It will lead you to kindness for all of confused humanity. You will call others on the telephone and say, “Be kinder to yourself!” Your heart will overflow with sadness for the human community.
Love of self opens you to all. This will change the World.
Brian+
- Adrienne Rich, poet, born on this day, 1929, in Baltimore;
she refused the National Medal for the Arts in 1997
Good advice. “Be kinder to yourself.” Have you sat before a glowing fire and asked yourself what might save you from yourself? I have. I remember being in a wonderful place on the northeast coast of Brasil, gone there for a respite, run by guys who (a) ran a coconut plantation – it requires waiting, and (b) had all graduated from the Gordon Bleu. For a ridiculously little amount of money they fed me gourmet food, all from the local area. I would lie in a hammock looking out over the sea between South America and Africa and wonder: What do I want to contribute to Life? To the understanding of God?
You have to sit long after midnight. It is then the mind and heart become quiet. You will know no one else can save you from yourself. Only you. You must choose the path. “Be kinder to yourself”. It will lead you to kindness for all of confused humanity. You will call others on the telephone and say, “Be kinder to yourself!” Your heart will overflow with sadness for the human community.
Love of self opens you to all. This will change the World.
Brian+
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, May 15, 2007
I shall try to tell the truth, but the result will be fiction.
- Katherine Anne Porter, born Callie Russell Porter
on this day, 1890, in Indian Creek, Texas
(author of “Ship of Fools” and “Pale Horse, Pale Rider”)
Many think that fiction is the opposite of truth. Wrong. I have often said that I read a lot more fiction than I do “theological” texts in my line of work, simply because in well-written fiction is where I hear the truth spoken most plainly and most eloquently. I read both of Porter’s novels mentioned above as a young person, and remember nodding my head and saying to myself, “This is Life as it really is”.
The truest Creation stories in “scripture” and in human cultures are fiction. They flow from the cultural consciousness and imagination, based upon experience and reflection and curiosity - and equally from prejudice and fear and other deep human realities. Therefore, we who come upon them later must grapple with them. The “fiction” is just a vehicle for the deep truths with which all human persons and cultures engage. It is not the details that matter. Talking snakes and forbidden apples offered by Eve are fictional tools that attempt to speak truth - that human beings make choices which either ennoble us or demean us. I accept that truth, and reject the anti-female prejudice and fear of woman that came with it.
Porter said, “It is such a relief to be told the truth”. And she said truthfully, “Love must be learned, and learned again; there is no end to it”. She said it in many ways in her fiction.
After you and I have died, may people tell stories about us that may not be factually true ………. but which are true to the facts about who we were in truth. Just like we tell stories about “God” that are mostly fiction, but in deepest essence, true.
Brian+
I shall try to tell the truth, but the result will be fiction.
- Katherine Anne Porter, born Callie Russell Porter
on this day, 1890, in Indian Creek, Texas
(author of “Ship of Fools” and “Pale Horse, Pale Rider”)
Many think that fiction is the opposite of truth. Wrong. I have often said that I read a lot more fiction than I do “theological” texts in my line of work, simply because in well-written fiction is where I hear the truth spoken most plainly and most eloquently. I read both of Porter’s novels mentioned above as a young person, and remember nodding my head and saying to myself, “This is Life as it really is”.
The truest Creation stories in “scripture” and in human cultures are fiction. They flow from the cultural consciousness and imagination, based upon experience and reflection and curiosity - and equally from prejudice and fear and other deep human realities. Therefore, we who come upon them later must grapple with them. The “fiction” is just a vehicle for the deep truths with which all human persons and cultures engage. It is not the details that matter. Talking snakes and forbidden apples offered by Eve are fictional tools that attempt to speak truth - that human beings make choices which either ennoble us or demean us. I accept that truth, and reject the anti-female prejudice and fear of woman that came with it.
Porter said, “It is such a relief to be told the truth”. And she said truthfully, “Love must be learned, and learned again; there is no end to it”. She said it in many ways in her fiction.
After you and I have died, may people tell stories about us that may not be factually true ………. but which are true to the facts about who we were in truth. Just like we tell stories about “God” that are mostly fiction, but in deepest essence, true.
Brian+
Monday, May 14, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Monday, May 14, 2007
We are all tied to our destiny and there is
no way we can liberate ourselves.
- Rita Hayworth, actress, who died on this day, 1987,
of the complications of Alzheimer’s disease
Depends. That sentence can mean a lot of different things, right? And raises lots of issues and conundrums.
1. Is there such a thing as “destiny”?
2. Is it inevitable? Preordained?
3. Does choice mean that nothing can be preordained?
4. Is choice only the “crooked way” to an inevitable end?
5. Etc.
I believe that nothing is preordained. Nothing is predestined. I believe that we make our own destiny – and that it changes moment by moment, as we think, choose, change. We are never “tied” to anything, unless we choose it, refuse to exercise our humanity. We may get into places, ruts, situations that we can’t liberate ourselves from on our own – that’s when others. and the Mystery we call God, come in. We need help – and help comes in many forms. Our destiny is connected, yours and mine, all of us.
Is there some Force that can “set” our destiny, and nothing we can do, no choice we make, can change that outcome? No.
There’s one possibility I do entertain: no matter what we do, we cannot avoid the reach of Divine Love. I believe we are destined to know Love’s grace, somehow, somewhere, sometime.
Brian+
We are all tied to our destiny and there is
no way we can liberate ourselves.
- Rita Hayworth, actress, who died on this day, 1987,
of the complications of Alzheimer’s disease
Depends. That sentence can mean a lot of different things, right? And raises lots of issues and conundrums.
1. Is there such a thing as “destiny”?
2. Is it inevitable? Preordained?
3. Does choice mean that nothing can be preordained?
4. Is choice only the “crooked way” to an inevitable end?
5. Etc.
I believe that nothing is preordained. Nothing is predestined. I believe that we make our own destiny – and that it changes moment by moment, as we think, choose, change. We are never “tied” to anything, unless we choose it, refuse to exercise our humanity. We may get into places, ruts, situations that we can’t liberate ourselves from on our own – that’s when others. and the Mystery we call God, come in. We need help – and help comes in many forms. Our destiny is connected, yours and mine, all of us.
Is there some Force that can “set” our destiny, and nothing we can do, no choice we make, can change that outcome? No.
There’s one possibility I do entertain: no matter what we do, we cannot avoid the reach of Divine Love. I believe we are destined to know Love’s grace, somehow, somewhere, sometime.
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Saturday, May 12, 2007
Hitler and Mussolini were only the primary spokesmen for the attitude
of domination and craving for power that are in the heart of almost
everyone. Until the source is cleared, there will always be confusion
and hate, wars and class antagonisms.
- Jiddu Krishnamurti, philosophical writer and speaker,
in Mandanapalle, India, born on this day in 1895
Krishnamurti was “discovered” by leaders of the Theosophical Society on a beach in India - one of whom saw an around him “the most wonderful aura he had ever seen, without a particle of selfishness in it”. He was “adopted” and educated by the Theosophists to be the “vehicle” of a coming World Teacher.
Krishnamurti soon rejected that, but he did become a world traveler and teacher himself, primarily teaching people of the need to transform themselves, and hence society, through self knowledge, by being aware of their thoughts and feelings in daily life. His teachings transcend all man-made boundaries of religion, nationality, ideology, and sectarian thinking. You can see why I was attracted to him after having read some of his works and meeting him one day for a few moments in an orange grove in Ojai, CA. I don’t know about auras, but he had a peaceful, quiet face.
Have you looked inside? Or at how you have lived your life? Have you seen and acknowledged the times when “the attitude of domination and craving for power” have driven what you have thought, said, done? Pondered how they have shaped your life, your relationships, your happiness or lack of it? I have. And I see how they have marred my development as a “child of God”. If it had not been for the message of the God of Love, for the love seen in Jesus (and others), I would have made a good Nazi.
If we want peace, community, justice, compassion, freedom from fear, we must clear the source. And as the hymn says, “Let it begin with me”.
Brian+
Hitler and Mussolini were only the primary spokesmen for the attitude
of domination and craving for power that are in the heart of almost
everyone. Until the source is cleared, there will always be confusion
and hate, wars and class antagonisms.
- Jiddu Krishnamurti, philosophical writer and speaker,
in Mandanapalle, India, born on this day in 1895
Krishnamurti was “discovered” by leaders of the Theosophical Society on a beach in India - one of whom saw an around him “the most wonderful aura he had ever seen, without a particle of selfishness in it”. He was “adopted” and educated by the Theosophists to be the “vehicle” of a coming World Teacher.
Krishnamurti soon rejected that, but he did become a world traveler and teacher himself, primarily teaching people of the need to transform themselves, and hence society, through self knowledge, by being aware of their thoughts and feelings in daily life. His teachings transcend all man-made boundaries of religion, nationality, ideology, and sectarian thinking. You can see why I was attracted to him after having read some of his works and meeting him one day for a few moments in an orange grove in Ojai, CA. I don’t know about auras, but he had a peaceful, quiet face.
Have you looked inside? Or at how you have lived your life? Have you seen and acknowledged the times when “the attitude of domination and craving for power” have driven what you have thought, said, done? Pondered how they have shaped your life, your relationships, your happiness or lack of it? I have. And I see how they have marred my development as a “child of God”. If it had not been for the message of the God of Love, for the love seen in Jesus (and others), I would have made a good Nazi.
If we want peace, community, justice, compassion, freedom from fear, we must clear the source. And as the hymn says, “Let it begin with me”.
Brian+
Friday, May 11, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Friday, May 11, 2007
I do not paint a portrait to look like the subject, rather
does the person grow to look like his portrait.
- Salvador Dali, artist, born on this day, 1904
Well, I am quite sure that I would not like to grow to look like any “portrait” that Dali painted!
I would, however, like to grow into the image of God. At least the God I now know. Occasionally I ask myself if I would really like to be a Christ-like person. Aside from the fact that I would want to travel more than He did, and have more fun that He seems to have had (“Too much work makes Jack a dull boy.”), yes, I would. I would like to be wise, a healer, insightful, compassionate, a visionary, a radically free soul, fearless.
When I became a monk, I had no real idea why. When I look back, I became a monk because my “archetype” of a holy (i.e., Christlike) person was a monk, seen through the perspective of an idealized Middle Ages! Then I discovered that monks held up a sign – that holiness could be anyone’s , in any path of life. I’m happy to be a priest in this one – and if there is another, I want to be a holy singer-pianoplayer in a bar in Florence, Italy!
The “portrait” of the Divine Lover infuses existence. Dali has a good point.
Brian+
I do not paint a portrait to look like the subject, rather
does the person grow to look like his portrait.
- Salvador Dali, artist, born on this day, 1904
Well, I am quite sure that I would not like to grow to look like any “portrait” that Dali painted!
I would, however, like to grow into the image of God. At least the God I now know. Occasionally I ask myself if I would really like to be a Christ-like person. Aside from the fact that I would want to travel more than He did, and have more fun that He seems to have had (“Too much work makes Jack a dull boy.”), yes, I would. I would like to be wise, a healer, insightful, compassionate, a visionary, a radically free soul, fearless.
When I became a monk, I had no real idea why. When I look back, I became a monk because my “archetype” of a holy (i.e., Christlike) person was a monk, seen through the perspective of an idealized Middle Ages! Then I discovered that monks held up a sign – that holiness could be anyone’s , in any path of life. I’m happy to be a priest in this one – and if there is another, I want to be a holy singer-pianoplayer in a bar in Florence, Italy!
The “portrait” of the Divine Lover infuses existence. Dali has a good point.
Brian+
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, May 9, 2007
The metaphor is perhaps one of man's most fruitful potentialities.
Its efficacy verges on magic, and it seems a tool for creation which
God forgot inside one of His creatures when He made him.
- Jose Ortega y Gasset, PhD, Spanish philosopher, author, humanist, poet
who was born on this day, 1883, in Madrid
y Gasset may be speaking a little tongue in cheek. With the image of a doctor botching an operation, he is implying that God did not intend that we humans should have such a brilliant capacity to be like God and create. I think y Gasset is indeed speaking tongue in cheek ….. and I can just see the wicked little smile on his face! From my perspective, and y Gasset’s, there is a little fun in thinking that God “made a mistake” – but that allows us to see the supposed tension between us and God (think Tower of Babel) as a humourous game between God and us. I like the picture!
Obviously I choose quotations that allow me to ride my hobby horses. Naughty I. However, I will say that I prefer Grimm’s Fairy Tales and Aesop’s Fables and most Aboriginal Creation myths as metaphors on Life to the Book of Genesis. For one thing, few things are more tiresome to me than patriarchalism. A very stunted experience of humanity that has misshapen us for millennia and still does. Not only misogynist but boring.
How about trying your hand at “magic” - at creating a metaphor about how male and female came into existence? God didn’t make a mistake. God left that tool there on purpose.
Bear fruitful potentialities! I’ll publish some. Have fun! Play with God.
Brian+
The metaphor is perhaps one of man's most fruitful potentialities.
Its efficacy verges on magic, and it seems a tool for creation which
God forgot inside one of His creatures when He made him.
- Jose Ortega y Gasset, PhD, Spanish philosopher, author, humanist, poet
who was born on this day, 1883, in Madrid
y Gasset may be speaking a little tongue in cheek. With the image of a doctor botching an operation, he is implying that God did not intend that we humans should have such a brilliant capacity to be like God and create. I think y Gasset is indeed speaking tongue in cheek ….. and I can just see the wicked little smile on his face! From my perspective, and y Gasset’s, there is a little fun in thinking that God “made a mistake” – but that allows us to see the supposed tension between us and God (think Tower of Babel) as a humourous game between God and us. I like the picture!
Obviously I choose quotations that allow me to ride my hobby horses. Naughty I. However, I will say that I prefer Grimm’s Fairy Tales and Aesop’s Fables and most Aboriginal Creation myths as metaphors on Life to the Book of Genesis. For one thing, few things are more tiresome to me than patriarchalism. A very stunted experience of humanity that has misshapen us for millennia and still does. Not only misogynist but boring.
How about trying your hand at “magic” - at creating a metaphor about how male and female came into existence? God didn’t make a mistake. God left that tool there on purpose.
Bear fruitful potentialities! I’ll publish some. Have fun! Play with God.
Brian+
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, May 8, 2007
- Gustave Flaubert, French author (“Madame Bovary”),
who died on this day, 1880
Aphrodite rose from the foam that gathered around the castrated genitals of Uranus (Heaven) which his son Cronos had cast into the sea. She is associated therefore with Creation, and is also known as a goddess of pure and spiritual love. She is the source of human passion, and therefore is at the heart of human existence.
Man and Woman, Adam and Adama, rise from the dust at the command of God. They are the mythological parents of the human race.
Stories. Stories. There are countless like them – for the human mind and heart and spirit are infinitely fertile of imagination and power, as is the great Mystery at the origin of all Being.
All true inventions, from the Latin invenire, to “come from within”. All “exact a science as geometry”. All true in their poetry.
I read the “poetry” of the human race and I am amazed and filled with wonder at the Truth that rises up in the art and imagination of the human community – and even more by the Source of it all.
I am grateful for them all.
Brian+
All one's inventions are true, you can be sure of that.
Poetry is as exact a science as geometry.
- Gustave Flaubert, French author (“Madame Bovary”),
who died on this day, 1880
Aphrodite rose from the foam that gathered around the castrated genitals of Uranus (Heaven) which his son Cronos had cast into the sea. She is associated therefore with Creation, and is also known as a goddess of pure and spiritual love. She is the source of human passion, and therefore is at the heart of human existence.
Man and Woman, Adam and Adama, rise from the dust at the command of God. They are the mythological parents of the human race.
Stories. Stories. There are countless like them – for the human mind and heart and spirit are infinitely fertile of imagination and power, as is the great Mystery at the origin of all Being.
All true inventions, from the Latin invenire, to “come from within”. All “exact a science as geometry”. All true in their poetry.
I read the “poetry” of the human race and I am amazed and filled with wonder at the Truth that rises up in the art and imagination of the human community – and even more by the Source of it all.
I am grateful for them all.
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Monday, May 7, 2007
Any person seasoned with a just sense of the imperfections of
natural reason, will fly to revealed truth with the greatest avidity.
- David Hume, Scottish philosopher, historian, economist and essayist,
born on this day, 1711
I have long considered the question of so-called “revealed truth”. In religion, the popular understanding of “revealed truth” is that God dictated it to a scribe who faithfully recorded it, or, wrote it Himself - like the tablets of the Ten Commandments.
I have become convinced, theologically and philosophically, that there is no such thing as such “revealed truth”. Truth, like History, is always filtered through the human mind, however it gets there. The human mind makes judgments on a vast set of variables (imagination, prejudice, intellectual attitude, culture, etc), and records its own version of “revealed truth”. Read any Scripture. For myself, Truth is always the product of the interaction of “God” with a receptive human mind(s) and heart(s).
“Revealed truth” is an invention of those who understand the gullibility of those who are not able to live with the reality of the “imperfections of natural reason” - often including themselves. For myself, I choose the “imperfections of natural reason” as a more trustworthy guide to Truth. Especially as I look around me at religion in the World today and see the havoc raised by those who “fly to revealed truth with the greatest avidity”.
Hume said, It is not reason which is the guide of life, but custom. Reason, even imperfect reason, would tell you that imagination and change applied to long-valued spiritual principles and goals would enhance spiritual growth and worship. But most often spiritual growth is stifled by “custom” - i.e., We have always done it this way! Sigh. At times I am certain I am in the wrong line of work!
Ah well. It’s fun to wrestle with Hume. Pardon such heavy stuff on a Monday morning. Meanwhile, how about we practice charity and kindness - with avidity!
Brian+
Any person seasoned with a just sense of the imperfections of
natural reason, will fly to revealed truth with the greatest avidity.
- David Hume, Scottish philosopher, historian, economist and essayist,
born on this day, 1711
I have long considered the question of so-called “revealed truth”. In religion, the popular understanding of “revealed truth” is that God dictated it to a scribe who faithfully recorded it, or, wrote it Himself - like the tablets of the Ten Commandments.
I have become convinced, theologically and philosophically, that there is no such thing as such “revealed truth”. Truth, like History, is always filtered through the human mind, however it gets there. The human mind makes judgments on a vast set of variables (imagination, prejudice, intellectual attitude, culture, etc), and records its own version of “revealed truth”. Read any Scripture. For myself, Truth is always the product of the interaction of “God” with a receptive human mind(s) and heart(s).
“Revealed truth” is an invention of those who understand the gullibility of those who are not able to live with the reality of the “imperfections of natural reason” - often including themselves. For myself, I choose the “imperfections of natural reason” as a more trustworthy guide to Truth. Especially as I look around me at religion in the World today and see the havoc raised by those who “fly to revealed truth with the greatest avidity”.
Hume said, It is not reason which is the guide of life, but custom. Reason, even imperfect reason, would tell you that imagination and change applied to long-valued spiritual principles and goals would enhance spiritual growth and worship. But most often spiritual growth is stifled by “custom” - i.e., We have always done it this way! Sigh. At times I am certain I am in the wrong line of work!
Ah well. It’s fun to wrestle with Hume. Pardon such heavy stuff on a Monday morning. Meanwhile, how about we practice charity and kindness - with avidity!
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Saturday, May 05, 2007
Love one another as I have loved you.
- Jesus of Nazareth (from the Gospel reading for Easter V C)
Focus.
Servant of giving birth to deeper humanity.
Sharing wisdom.
Leaving free.
Living holiness.
Speaking truth gently.
Accepting uniqueness.
Not judging.
Sounds like a plan!
Brian+
Love one another as I have loved you.
- Jesus of Nazareth (from the Gospel reading for Easter V C)
Focus.
Servant of giving birth to deeper humanity.
Sharing wisdom.
Leaving free.
Living holiness.
Speaking truth gently.
Accepting uniqueness.
Not judging.
Sounds like a plan!
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Friday, May 4, 2007
People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed,
revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone.
- Audrey Hepburn, actress, good-will ambassador,
born on this day, 1929 (She was 63 when she died)
People want to have happen to them everything that Audrey says - if they have any sense, any normal human longings and hopes. And people “invent” a God that meets those needs. Here, I am using “invent” in the “old” Elizabethan sense - to “go/find within”.
Oh, the guilt and the dark side comes out, of course. The gods/goddesses/God always have a dark side, a negative side. Look at Yahweh, Allah, Vishnu, etc. Yahweh is often presented as murderous and revengeful. But this, I believe, is primarily an expression of the human anxiety about our own capacity for evil projected onto God.
God, in my view, is useless if God is just conceived as a policeman. The Universe doesn’t need a divine policeman - the unpleasant consequences of our behavior probably have more police power. I have never believed that Divine Anger accomplished anything essential in terms of human behavior. People may hesitate, but their hearts don’t change. And the Change of Heart is what God – Yahweh, anyway – desires.
I’d rather give over my life to restoring, renewing, reviving, reclaiming, redeeming. Like Audrey, I know how much I and all of us need it. The true God is the God Who loves in this way. “I will be with you always, even unto the end of the Ages.”
Brian+
People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed,
revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone.
- Audrey Hepburn, actress, good-will ambassador,
born on this day, 1929 (She was 63 when she died)
People want to have happen to them everything that Audrey says - if they have any sense, any normal human longings and hopes. And people “invent” a God that meets those needs. Here, I am using “invent” in the “old” Elizabethan sense - to “go/find within”.
Oh, the guilt and the dark side comes out, of course. The gods/goddesses/God always have a dark side, a negative side. Look at Yahweh, Allah, Vishnu, etc. Yahweh is often presented as murderous and revengeful. But this, I believe, is primarily an expression of the human anxiety about our own capacity for evil projected onto God.
God, in my view, is useless if God is just conceived as a policeman. The Universe doesn’t need a divine policeman - the unpleasant consequences of our behavior probably have more police power. I have never believed that Divine Anger accomplished anything essential in terms of human behavior. People may hesitate, but their hearts don’t change. And the Change of Heart is what God – Yahweh, anyway – desires.
I’d rather give over my life to restoring, renewing, reviving, reclaiming, redeeming. Like Audrey, I know how much I and all of us need it. The true God is the God Who loves in this way. “I will be with you always, even unto the end of the Ages.”
Brian+
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, May 3, 2007
Down through the centuries, this trick has been tried by
various establishments throughout the world. They force
people to get involved in the kind of examination that has
only one aim and that is to stamp out dissent.
- Pete Seeger, singer, American patriot, born on this day, 1919
In the human sphere, it’s far far too often about control. Pete, whom I spent a day with on the sloop “Clearwater” and found to be fascinating and egocentric, refused to be controlled by McCarthy during those awful un-American days - and it was McCarthy who was being viciously un-American, not those he was persecuting. Joe McCarthy was the classic controlling megalomaniac. Pete had too much humanity and self-respect and respect of others and of his country to capitulate to that twisted mind.
I think God is a democrat - though many in the Christian sphere would like to portray Him/Her as an autocrat. Ironically, they push God’s supreme power and control - but they are highly selective in where they allow God to rule in their own lives. When it comes to the ultimate authority of Love (the theme of the Gospel on this coming Sunday, Easter V) they play fast and loose.
God never tries to stamp out dissent. Think about the conversation with Satan over Job. Think of Jesus’ relationship with Judas Iscariot, or Pontius Pilate. Think of God’s conversation with Moses about the one righteous person. Oh, there are plenty of passages in the Judeo-Christian Scriptures where God gunches the nasties - but in my mind, those are instances that make clear where human nastiness overwhelms any true depiction of God. Oh, how we love to make God in our own image!
God delights in dissent – it means that God’s people are taking Life seriously, thinking. Democracy lives, survives authentically, on dissent. As soon as someone tries to stamp out dissent, be suspicious - democracy is sliding into autocracy.
Christians are, by nature. dissenters. When others try to suppress compassion, love, caring, respect, truth, Christians rise up and say “No”.
Say “No”. The world needs dissenters these days.
Brian+
Down through the centuries, this trick has been tried by
various establishments throughout the world. They force
people to get involved in the kind of examination that has
only one aim and that is to stamp out dissent.
- Pete Seeger, singer, American patriot, born on this day, 1919
In the human sphere, it’s far far too often about control. Pete, whom I spent a day with on the sloop “Clearwater” and found to be fascinating and egocentric, refused to be controlled by McCarthy during those awful un-American days - and it was McCarthy who was being viciously un-American, not those he was persecuting. Joe McCarthy was the classic controlling megalomaniac. Pete had too much humanity and self-respect and respect of others and of his country to capitulate to that twisted mind.
I think God is a democrat - though many in the Christian sphere would like to portray Him/Her as an autocrat. Ironically, they push God’s supreme power and control - but they are highly selective in where they allow God to rule in their own lives. When it comes to the ultimate authority of Love (the theme of the Gospel on this coming Sunday, Easter V) they play fast and loose.
God never tries to stamp out dissent. Think about the conversation with Satan over Job. Think of Jesus’ relationship with Judas Iscariot, or Pontius Pilate. Think of God’s conversation with Moses about the one righteous person. Oh, there are plenty of passages in the Judeo-Christian Scriptures where God gunches the nasties - but in my mind, those are instances that make clear where human nastiness overwhelms any true depiction of God. Oh, how we love to make God in our own image!
God delights in dissent – it means that God’s people are taking Life seriously, thinking. Democracy lives, survives authentically, on dissent. As soon as someone tries to stamp out dissent, be suspicious - democracy is sliding into autocracy.
Christians are, by nature. dissenters. When others try to suppress compassion, love, caring, respect, truth, Christians rise up and say “No”.
Say “No”. The world needs dissenters these days.
Brian+
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, May 2, 2007
A great wind is blowing, and that gives you
either imagination or a headache.
- Catherine the Great of Russia, born
on this day, 1729
Catherine was a woman of her times and station. She was also a woman who, like so many people in their relationship with “God”, were delusional. I can’t tell you the number of people I have met personally in my life who actually believe that God is their lapdog, who will meekly do their will, countenance their sub-humanity. Catherine is one of them. She said, “I shall be an autocrat, that's my trade; and the good Lord will forgive me, that's his.”
Wrong, lady. God is just – not a patsy.
However, people say interesting things. Great winds are always blowing. That is Life. Change is the only constant. Catherine is correct: one can either meet the Great Winds with imagination, or get a headache - and usually become an obstructionist and a crank. I vote for the Imagination. Global warming. Immigration. Global shifting of populations. Religious syncretism or religious war. Meeting of cultures and religions. Poverty. Classism. Fear of the “different”. We can see the possibilities of Imagination – see the possibilities for human evolvement. Or we can shrivel in fear and build our little enclaves and soon we will be holed up in our foxholes in animal skins and ignorance. Which future sounds good to you??
Catherine never did a thing for the poor, for the starving, for the enslaved, for the suffering.
Jesus died for them.
I know which path I choose.
Brian+
A great wind is blowing, and that gives you
either imagination or a headache.
- Catherine the Great of Russia, born
on this day, 1729
Catherine was a woman of her times and station. She was also a woman who, like so many people in their relationship with “God”, were delusional. I can’t tell you the number of people I have met personally in my life who actually believe that God is their lapdog, who will meekly do their will, countenance their sub-humanity. Catherine is one of them. She said, “I shall be an autocrat, that's my trade; and the good Lord will forgive me, that's his.”
Wrong, lady. God is just – not a patsy.
However, people say interesting things. Great winds are always blowing. That is Life. Change is the only constant. Catherine is correct: one can either meet the Great Winds with imagination, or get a headache - and usually become an obstructionist and a crank. I vote for the Imagination. Global warming. Immigration. Global shifting of populations. Religious syncretism or religious war. Meeting of cultures and religions. Poverty. Classism. Fear of the “different”. We can see the possibilities of Imagination – see the possibilities for human evolvement. Or we can shrivel in fear and build our little enclaves and soon we will be holed up in our foxholes in animal skins and ignorance. Which future sounds good to you??
Catherine never did a thing for the poor, for the starving, for the enslaved, for the suffering.
Jesus died for them.
I know which path I choose.
Brian+
I am "branching out". This is the "political" dimension of my thoughts of the Reflection for May 2:
Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, May 2, 2007
A great wind is blowing, and that gives you
either imagination or a headache.
- Catherine the Great of Russia, born
on this day, 1729
Catherine was a woman of her times and station. She was also a woman who, like so many people in their relationship with “God”, were delusional. I can’t tell you the number of people I have met personally in my life who actually believe that God is their lapdog, who will meekly do their will, countenance their sub-humanity. Catherine is one of them; George W. Bush is another. She said, “I shall be an autocrat, that's my trade; and the good Lord will forgive me, that's his.”
Wrong, lady. And equally, God will not forgive George Bush for taking God’s name in vain – unless of course George Bush repents. George Bush has no more a sense of what God is than Judas Iscariot did. And George Bush has blasphemed against God on every level. George Bush has re-made God in his own image. God is just – not a patsy.
However, people say interesting things. Great winds are always blowing. That is Life. Change is the only constant. Catherine is correct: one can either meet the Great Winds with imagination, or get a headache - and usually become an obstructionist and a crank. I vote for the Imagination. Global warming. Immigration. Global shifting of populations. Religious syncretism or religious war. Meeting of cultures and religions. Poverty. Classism. Fear of the “different”. We can see the possibilities of Imagination – see the possibilities for human evolvement. Or we can shrivel in fear and build our little enclaves and soon we will be holed up in our foxholes in animal skins and ignorance. Which future sounds good to you??
Catherine never did a thing for the poor, for the starving, for the enslaved, for the suffering.
Jesus died for them.
I know which path I choose.
Brian+
Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, May 2, 2007
A great wind is blowing, and that gives you
either imagination or a headache.
- Catherine the Great of Russia, born
on this day, 1729
Catherine was a woman of her times and station. She was also a woman who, like so many people in their relationship with “God”, were delusional. I can’t tell you the number of people I have met personally in my life who actually believe that God is their lapdog, who will meekly do their will, countenance their sub-humanity. Catherine is one of them; George W. Bush is another. She said, “I shall be an autocrat, that's my trade; and the good Lord will forgive me, that's his.”
Wrong, lady. And equally, God will not forgive George Bush for taking God’s name in vain – unless of course George Bush repents. George Bush has no more a sense of what God is than Judas Iscariot did. And George Bush has blasphemed against God on every level. George Bush has re-made God in his own image. God is just – not a patsy.
However, people say interesting things. Great winds are always blowing. That is Life. Change is the only constant. Catherine is correct: one can either meet the Great Winds with imagination, or get a headache - and usually become an obstructionist and a crank. I vote for the Imagination. Global warming. Immigration. Global shifting of populations. Religious syncretism or religious war. Meeting of cultures and religions. Poverty. Classism. Fear of the “different”. We can see the possibilities of Imagination – see the possibilities for human evolvement. Or we can shrivel in fear and build our little enclaves and soon we will be holed up in our foxholes in animal skins and ignorance. Which future sounds good to you??
Catherine never did a thing for the poor, for the starving, for the enslaved, for the suffering.
Jesus died for them.
I know which path I choose.
Brian+
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
