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+
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