Breathing

The most important thing to learn in life is the lesson of breathing. Everything else about the universe comes from this one lesson.
For every breath in must be balanced by a breath out. And so everything is life is kept in balance. Breathing is the art of balance: the skill of taking in and giving back.
We live in a modern world of give and take; a world where it is better to give than to receive. Yet, we receive the moment we are born. If only we should give back later. We receive the gift of life. And we should give back the gifts of living. Perhaps we will also create life. Perhaps we will aid the living. Perhaps we will teach, or share the lessons we have learned. In any case, as with breathing, we take in and we give back.
As in breathing the universe exists in balance. Every law, every property, all is defined by balance. For every action there is an opposing reaction. Matter and energy are neither created nor destroyed, but they can change form. All remain in harmony with one another.
The Eastern philosophers have known for many centuries that all the mysteries of the universe can be understood through breathing. Understanding begins with but a single breath!

All We Need To Know Is How To Breathe

Breathe in...
Breathe out...
We do it every moment of our lives, from the moment of birth to the moment of death.
Breathe in...
Breathe out...
We are doing it now. And we've done it all day.
But how often to we stop to realize what a truly spiritual event breathing really is?
Breathing does many things for our bodies: it adds all-important oxygen to our blood and our cells, it helps cool the heat our fragile bodies produce, it helps us remove unneeded or harmful gases from our bodies, and so forth. And all of these physical processes are important to our physical well-being.
But if we examine the process of breathing we learn a number of important things about our relationship to the web of life.
First, breathing is the process of taking in. It is an inner path of taking from the rest of the world, for our air is truly shared with all other life around the globe.
Second, breathing is giving back.

Blessed Be & Blessed Do!

Blessed Be.
In the modern neo-pagan family of faiths, the phrase "Blessed Be" has come to be used much as the Judeo-Christians use the word "amen". But its origins go back far in history to the Hindu poem "The Bhaghavad Gita". In this epic poem, young Prince Arjuna is asking the mighty God Krishna about the nature of life. In the poem, Krishna bestows the phrase "Blessed Be" on the young prince, possibly as a well-meaning wish.
When I've heard the phrase these days, I've often taken it to be a command to be a blessed person; that is, to find the sacred in oneself. And this has often left me feeling that it is an undone thing. For this is an internal process.
But we live in a world where we must interact with the external world around us. And so I have added the command "Blessed Do" to this ancient phrase. This tells us that it is not enough to simply find the holy within ourselves, but to bring it out of ourselves and to do holy things:
"Blessed Be & Blessed Do!"

The most important lesson I can teach anyone today is the lesson of breathing, for this says more subtly all that I have just stated. We breathe in. We breathe out. We take from the world around us, and we give back.
The ocean of air we breathe is shared by all on our world. It has been breathed by all who have gone before us as long as life has lived on the earth. And it will be breathed by all who will come after us.
And it is breathed by people who look differently from us, who believe differently from us, who live differently from us, and who love differently from us. And yet it is still the air that sustains us all.
Even those who transcend the boundaries of this world carry it with them into space, and bring it back when they're through. We share the air, we share the water, we share the things of the earth, we share the things of the spirit.
We can learn a lot from breathing.
Blessed Be & Blessed Do!

Evolutionary Baggage

We carry with us the baggage of countless millenia of evolution. And this heritage brings us to an odd place. For, on the one hand, we are animals driven by our instincts and emotions. And on the other hand we strive to be rational creatures, basing our judgements on our rationality.
We threw our own selves "out of the garden". For a long time since our branch of the evolutionary tree grew out from the rest of the animals we lived with them in harmony, surviving by our instincts and our emotions. But somewhere along the line we began to think rationally: basing our reactions on the questions we have about the world around us. By becoming rational creatures we separated ourselves from the animals and began to consider ourselves superior. And so we lost paradise.
Today, this evolutionary baggage creates many of the problems in our world. We still have greed, aggression, and fear. And these threaten to destroy everything we've created. Our greed drives us to accumulate ever more -- depriving others of their basic needs. Our aggression makes us hostile to one another at every turn. And fear drives the strongest wedge between us -- begetting anger and hatred among our societies.

We live at a time when we can use our rational nature to counter our dominating instincts. We can learn to think calmly when faced with fear. We can learn to live more simply -- making wise choices to reduce our consumerism. And we can channel our aggressive energies in more productive ways.
Chief among the changes we need is a new ideology. We need to understand ourselves, each other, and our world better. We need to understand that our sense of individuality leads to our isolationism, and we must seek out the ties which bind us all together. We must understand that we are all interconnected through the Web of Life.

We Are Animals

The most important fact to remember is that we are animals. Everything we do is governed by this. Everything we are. And as much as we try to believe otherwise, this fact will always haunt us.
Being animals, much of what we do is based on instincts and reactions. We live by emotions, and often we don't think about what it is we're doing. And so, to understand human behavior we need to understand animal behavior.
Perhaps the first thing we must consider is just what it is which distinguishes us from all other animals. We may believe it to be our ability to communicate. But all animals communicate in one form or another. We may consider it to be out ability to use tools. Yet, many animals, especially primates, use tools to obtain food or for protection. I would suggest that the deciding difference is our ability to ask questions: to behave based on reason rather than instinct -- we have "eaten of the tree of knowledge", so to speak.
And so our dilemma becomes more complicated. For we are torn between our thoughts and our emotions. We aspire to leave our animal heritage behind us, and to be rational creatures. Yet this evolutionary baggage is still within each of us.

People

In truth, we are no different than our animal cousins, yet we still try to view creation without ourselves. We talk about how nature works, labelling our own actions as "unnatural" -- and yet, we are a part of that natural order. We try to understand how animals interact amongst themselves if humans are not around, and we remove ourselves from the equation. We call ourselves human, as if this title somehow negates the "animal" nature we share; as though we are somehow alien to the natural world in which we find ourselves.
In fact, one of the most distinguishing factors about us is that we prefer to distinguish ourselves from our world. We speak of "natural" and "unnatural" actions, as though anything we do could be unnatural. And so we deny our connection to the world; our evolutionary heritage. Instead, we pretend that we are something much nobler.
For so long in our dominant culture we have denied our animal nature. Instead, we describe our animal behavior using words such as "sin". We fail to understand that being animal is an essential part of being human.

Welcome To The Human Condition

Welcome to humanity! Welcome to the race of thinkers and dreamers. Welcome to that group of living beings who pride themselves as being the highest species on the planet Earth.
Welcome also to millions of years of evolutionary baggage which threatens to destroy our race, and many of our animal and plant brothers. Welcome to the legacy of survival instincts which we've never learned to live with in our enlightened mindset. Welcome to fear, denial, and greed. Welcome to excessive pride and apathy. And welcome to the glass walls we build between ourselves in our increasingly smaller glass house we call home.
We carry within us the ability to be great thinkers and doers. And in our genes we still retain the programming to be feelers and reactors. We are the rational human and the irrational beast: the angel and the devil, constantly at war.
And in the midst of all this we live in a world of great riches, for the fortunate, and terrible atrocities for the not-so-fortunate. We have the resources to feed, house, and clothe everyone on the planet, if we would choose. Yet, we continue to squabble over the limited resources of our home world in so many wars.
We kill our brothers and don't even think of them as our brothers. We kill for land. We kill for oil. We kill for food. We kill for belief. We preach that killing is wrong, and we kill those who disagree with us. And we take such satisfaction in each candle of life that we snuff out.
We have been sent teachers to teach us how we should live: spiritual teachers who can help us understand ourselves better and perhaps make a better world for ourselves and our children. We have recorded their words for many, many generations. And we can still read their words today.
Yet their sayings have fallen on deaf ears. For our world is still divided by belief, by class, by color, by everything we can find to disagree about. Our spiritual teachers have taught unity. And all we have learned is division. Clearly, we have not listened.
Or perhaps we have simply not understood.

The modern world grows smaller every day. For the first time in human history we can reach out to people everywhere on the planet. We can visit them. We can send them telegraphs, or speak to them on the phone. And we can share ideas in a moment through the Internet. Communication has become an essential part of who we are.
Yet we are still troubled by what we learn through our exchange of ideas. Many of us are descended from those who lived in more isolated parts of the world at one time. We carry the beliefs they shaped of the world they saw. And today we believe that our beliefs are the only "true" ones. Yet, our neighbors have different views shaped by their ancestors' knowledge of the world as well, and they belief their beliefs are "true". And so we are left with a quandary. For many times our beliefs are at odds with those of our neighbors. We need some way to cut through all this mess and make some sense of our world.

I propose that we can learn from the beliefs of our ancestors: all our ancestors. I believe that their beliefs are short-sighted because they are formed from the limited view what our ancestors saw of the world. Yet, I believe there is valuable insight to be gained from each view of the world. I believe we can discover the world through the many eyes of the many faiths we come from.
And perhaps our future history will be a bit more complete, and a bit less bloody.

The Human Condition

The one unique thing we do as humans is to question. Every other thing we do is mimicked by at least some other animal. But it is the entire questing process which separates us from every other species on the planet. We seek, we find, we make informed decisions based on the answers. And so we are able to change our environment and ourselves.
Our questioning is based on six basic questions: Who are we? What is life / existence? Where are we? When are we? How do things work / are things put together? and Why: What is the meaning of it all?
To answer each of these "Great Questions" we have devised several disciplines, or studies. To answer the Who? question we have Biography -- we create fantastic family trees and histories of famous persons in an attempt to try and understand who creates and shapes our reality. To answer the What? question we have Philosophy -- we try to understand just what reality really is. To understand Where? we have Cartography -- we map everything to try and be rid of the unknowns in our space, and to find our physical place within it. For How? we have History -- we map out causes and motivations to help us understand the events which shape our world. How? is perhaps the question we spend the most time understanding: here are the Sciences -- Astronomy, Chemistry, Astronomy, Mathematics, Medicine, Physics -- we take things apart to understand how they are put together and how they work. Finally, we ask the Why? question to try and find meaning for our lives, and so we create Religion.
Religion is our feeble attempt to understand the universe around us and our place within it. It is the process of answering the Why? question of existence, and the attempt to create meaning for our lives.
Religion is the discipline which can lead to spirituality. It is, therefore, a "spiritual toolkit" which can enable us to find spiritual meaning for our lives.
Religions generally contain some sort of focusing mechanism to help their followers gauge their behavior. Such codes as the Ten Commandments and the Wiccan Rede help to define how one should behave if living a spiritual life. These are generally not so much rules to live by as guidelines as to how a spiritual person behaves.
Now, religion and spirituality differ a bit. Religion is the "toolkit" and spirituality is the experience. But persons who follow only the religious code, persons of "religious habit", differ greatly from spiritual persons. A religious person behaves the way they think they are supposed to. It is as though they are following a list of do's and don'ts whenever they do anything. But a spiritual person does things because they feel they should -- there is no cognitive process. A religious person may decide that they should help someone cross a street, whereas a spiritual person may help someone with their groceries "out of the goodness of their heart". Love is the motivating factor here, as we'll see later.

Our Dual Nature

Many people today miss the points of their own mythology. Interestingly enough, the Creation/Evolution debate becomes nonexistent if we examine the Biblical Creation stories in their mythological context.
Perhaps the most telling tale in the Bible is the "Garden of Eden" story. This story is unique to Judeo-Christiandom, as the "6 Days of Creation" story is a copy of the Babylonian Enuma Elish. The "Garden" myth focuses on the origin of suffering, for in this story all is in balance until mankind eats of the Tree of Knowledge and is then cast out of the garden.
Sadly, many believe this story is a literal tale, and so they miss the whole point of the myth. As myths use metaphors to tell their story, much of the "Garden" story becomes very clear when we but try to understand the symbols.
The Garden, it seems, is a peaceful and perfect place. This is where the animals and plants are. Here is where all is beautiful and in balance. Here is where the Tree of Life is. Here, also, is where God walks.
The Garden represents a time when we were in balance with the animals. It is a metaphor for a time when we were no different from animals. A time when we were emotionally-driven creatures -- not the somewhat rational creatures that we are today.
In the Garden we were cautioned not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge. But the serpent, long a symbol of transformation and rebirth, encouraged us to do otherwise. And so, by eating of the Tree of Knowledge we were transformed from reactive creatures into active ones. That is to say that we went from lives of simply reacting to instincts and emotions to lives of active change. And so we began to shape the patterns of our own lives.
And so the "Garden" story represents the moment when we separated ourselves from the Animal Kingdom -- the time when we became human.

In truth, we are no different than our animal cousins, yet we still try to view creation without ourselves. We talk about how nature works, labelling our own actions as "unnatural" -- and yet, we are a part of that natural order. We try to understand how animals interact amongst themselves if humans are not around, and we remove ourselves from the equation. We call ourselves human, as if this title somehow negates the "animal" nature we share; as though we are somehow alien to the natural world in which we find ourselves.
In fact, one of the most distinguishing factors about us is that we prefer to distinguish ourselves from our world. We speak of "natural" and "unnatural" actions, as though anything we do could be unnatural. And so we deny our connection to the world; our evolutionary heritage. Instead, we pretend that we are something much nobler.
For so long in our dominant culture we have denied our animal nature. Instead, we describe our animal behavior using words such as "sin". We fail to understand that being animal is an essential part of being human.

The most important fact to remember is that we are animals. Everything we do is governed by this. Everything we are. And as much as we try to believe otherwise, this fact will always haunt us.
Being animals, much of what we do is based on instincts and reactions. We live by emotions, and often we don't think about what it is we're doing. And so, to understand human behavior we need to understand animal behavior.
Perhaps the first thing we must consider is just what it is which distinguishes us from all other animals. We may believe it to be our ability to communicate. But all animals communicate in one form or another. We may consider it to be out ability to use tools. Yet, many animals, especially primates, use tools to obtain food or for protection. I would suggest that the deciding difference is our ability to ask questions: to behave based on reason rather than instinct -- we have "eaten of the tree of knowledge", so to speak.
And so our dilemma becomes more complicated. For we are torn between our thoughts and our emotions. We aspire to leave our animal heritage behind us, and to be rational creatures. Yet this evolutionary baggage is still within each of us.

Much of our Western Heritage has viewed sex as horrific. I believe this is because sex is an act which reminds us that we're animals. When we have sex we bring a great deal of our primal instincts to the surface -- parts of ourselves we often try to hide.
Again, this is an item which brings back our evolutionary lineage. So often we try to think of ourselves as something much nobler than the other animals. Yet, our passions are a slap in the face for the deified vision we have of ourselves. They are a cold reminder that we still live and breathe.
We should learn to balance our passionate side and our noble side. For without the noble side, we are no more than the others animals. And without passion we lose our connection to the universe.

We carry with us the baggage of countless millenia of evolution. And this heritage brings us to an odd place. For, on the one hand, we are animals driven by our instincts and emotions. And on the other hand we strive to be rational creatures, basing our judgements on our rationality.
We threw our own selves "out of the garden". For a long time since our branch of the evolutionary tree grew out from the rest of the animals we lived with them in harmony, surviving by our instincts and our emotions. But somewhere along the line we began to think rationally: basing our reactions on the questions we have about the world around us. By becoming rational creatures we separated ourselves from the animals and began to consider ourselves superior. And so paradise was lost .
Today, this evolutionary baggage creates many of the problems in our world. We still have greed, aggression, and fear. And these threaten to destroy everything we've created. Our greed drives us to accumulate ever more -- depriving others of their basic needs. Our aggression makes us hostile to one another at every turn. And fear drives the strongest wedge between us -- begetting anger and hatred among our societies.

We live at a time when we can use our rational nature to counter our dominating instincts. We can learn to think calmly when faced with fear. We can learn to live more simply -- making wise choices to reduce our consumerism. And we can channel our aggressive energies in more productive ways.
Chief among the changes we need is a new ideology. We need to understand ourselves, each other, and our world better. We need to understand that our sense of individuality often leads to isolationism, and we must seek out the ties which bind us all together. We must understand that we are all interconnected through the Web of Life.
We must learn that there is Sacredness within all. We must find it in ourselves, in others, and in the world at large. Perhaps then we can truly learn respect for life.
Respect, compassion, and harmony: these things will be the keys to our survival.

The "Garden of Eden" is a mindset, not a physical place. The Garden represents a time when we made no distinction between ourselves and the other animals. It represents a time when we reacted based solely on our instincts.
The universe exists in a state of balance. For every action there is an opposing reaction. Life creates life and life destroys life.

Duality

Much of what we have come to believe in the world today comes from a belief that everything is one way or the other. That is to say, the belief that there are only two different ways things can be. This is most popularly espoused by our concepts of good and evil: eternally opposed, but the only possible choices.
This dualistic approach to the universe seems to come from the product of our evolution. So often we try to separate ourselves from the world in which we live. Many of our religions deny that we are products of our environment; that we are products of evolution, that we are animals.
Yet, even if we acknowledge that we are an animal species we must somehow understand that something separates us from the other animals on this planet.
Animals are governed by passions and instincts. They react to things as they happen to them: to hunger, to greed, to fear, to lust. These are all survival instincts deeply programmed into every animal. Animals simply react to things as they happen to them.
But humans make changes. We have the capacity to reason: to ask questions and act accordingly based on what answers we discover. The difference between us and the animals is knowledge: the ability to ask questions and seek answers.
In a moment of our prehistory, we began our quest for knowledge, and we began to think of ourselves as different from the animals of this world. This was the moment we stopped being simply another primate species and we became human.
Interestingly enough, the Judeo-Christian religions capture this moment very elegantly in their mythology. For in the second Creation Myth of the Tanakh and the Bible (Genesis 2) is the story of humankind, living in a garden paradise with the other animals. Only when he "eats of the Tree of Knowledge" does he manage to evict himself from the garden paradise. The Garden of Eden is a time, not a place. It is a time before we were truly human.
Being human, we have the ability to reason, but being animals we are governed by our passions. So here is our dilemma: we are trapped between two worlds -- thought and emotion. Just as the character Spock on Star Trek, so must we find our own path between these two. This helps explain why we humans like to think of ourselves as mightier than angels, while we treat each other worse than devils. Angels and devils are simply metaphors for the dual parts of our nature.

Selfishness

Selfishness is perhaps the greatest evolutionary holdover to be overcome. It permeates most of our society and threatens to destroy all the good things we create.
Selfishness is simply an instinct: the desire to have things in order to survive. Like squirrels we want to store away enough food to last the winter. We want a warm place to stay. And we are not content with our wanting. We continue to acquire food, clothing, transportation, entertainment, and money. We are never satisfied with having more. The instinct is there to ensure our survival in the harsh realities of the natural world.
Yet, our technology has progressed to the point where we don't need to store away food and clothing for hard times. Our grocery stores are stocked with food year-round. Our homes are heated and cooled. Our transportation is unbelievably reliable. We can buy new clothes at any time. We live in a world of riches, where our basic needs are met, and much of our desires are for entertainment.

The Squirrel Mentality

So much hustling about, acquiring anything that isn't nailed down. So goes much of our world. People willing to snatch anything they can get their hands on. Trying desperately to get the almighty dollar, or to cheat someone out of something.
It seems too often we are dominated by our animal passions. We are driven by the selfish desire to collect. We place our own wants ahead, even, of the needs of others.

Human Nature

What an odd world we live in! People isolate themselves. When a stranger speaks to us, we see this friendly act as something strange and unexpected. People set space barriers around themselves -- a distance no one should invade. Paranoia rules. People fear a curious glance, a gentle touch, a helping hand. There is no room for compassion -- no reward for the meek!
Even in their music, people no longer listen to things which move their spirits. Instead, they listen to anything with a heavy beat -- anything, so long as it lets them feel something.
They are so wrapped up in anger. They spend their lives spending their lives. They can't see beyond themselves. And yet they wonder why they are so unhappy.
Selfish concern and lip service to the charitable. Life out of balance. Lack of love. Lack of compassion. Lack of connection. They live their lives without purpose. When they give, they give as little as possible. And they expect to receive back so much more.
They are full of evolutionary hold-overs. They work like animals to deprive the weak, or the poor. They are driven to get more by genetic promises of survival.
They scurry about like squirrels -- frantically getting more things in an attempt to fill the void within. But they reach the ends of their lives unfulfilled. Their quest for more is like a bottomless pail -- no matter how much it is filled it is still empty. Their thirst goes un-quenched. And they wonder why their lives seem so pointless.
They hide in such small, safe places -- always looking for an escape. They don't seem to realize that the escape lies within them. Nothing outside can fill the empty place inside them. Deep within them is a purpose -- a meaning for their meaningless lives. And peace is there as well.
Survival is no longer difficult. We have the resources to feed, house, and clothe everyone. Compassion is a human virtue. We have the ability to leap beyond our genetic programming. We can escape our evolutionary heritage.
It can be as simple as reaching out. Showing concern for others. Giving a little change to those who have none. Helping the old woman with her groceries. Giving the gift of time. Even simply listening to those who need a gentle ear.
Must we carry the heart of the world upon our shoulders? Must we cry for the miserable? Must we have courage for the down-trodden?

People these days are so obsessed with living longer -- preserving their bodies -- as the quality of life escapes them. They work on living longer -- as if quantity of life is more important than quality. And when they die they pump their bodies with preservatives so that their bodies, at least, will continue on . . .
But they miss the point of living entirely. They try to occupy their time with distractions when they should be concentrating on living.. When they die they should instead have their bodies cremated and their ashes scattered as fertilizer -- death becoming new life.
The purpose of life is to live it -- to find our function in the greater whole and to fulfill it. And when we no longer require our bodies we should give them up for new life. This obsession with the body must cease -- once we have left this life, caring for the body is like so much window-dressing. When we no longer need our body we should allow it to be recycled by other life. This is life after death -- something continues, whether or not it is our soul. The Web of Life must be protected and nurtured, and if we take our bodies out of it, we risk upsetting the entire Web!

Sacredness

People these days have no sense of the Sacred. They throw their cigarette butts wherever they please. They destroy the land, the skies, and the seas. They disrespect each other, treating their children and pets as property.
They have lost the ability to respect themselves. They simply go through the motions of life, having forgotten how to LIVE. And so they go from meaningless moment to meaningless moment in spiritual agony.
They are so empty of respect for others that they believe they can decide for others. They build their oppressive societies full of restrictions based on their dis respectfulness.
Daily we read the stories in our newspapers. Another shoot-out in a school. More dead children. Killed by people who don't hold a respect for the sacredness of life -- not even their own.
And so we live in a disposable society: where we believe nothing is sacred. We destroy our environment, our enemies, our friends, and ourselves. And so we miss the whole point of living.
We must rekindle the age-old idea that all life is sacred. And we must find that sacredness in everything around us: the people, the animals, the trees, the rocks, the stars! We must understand that this sacredness, both within us and without, connects all things together. And so you are a part of me, and I of you, and we connect to the environment, and the stars... Only when we rediscover this sacredness will we return to the harmony we've lost.

Compassion

It's really amazing how far from humane much of humanity is. Above all, we value compassion as one of the most humane things we profess. Yet, so many in our world live by the credo: "survival of the fittest." So many are so tightly wrapped up in themselves.
Why is the Sacredness within others so difficult for us to see? Why do we value ourselves so much more than them? Why do our religious teachers hand out lists of compassionate actions to perform, as though we are all void of feeling. And, judging by the actions of most of us, perhaps we are.
So often people are simply "looking out for themselves." They never stop to do even the simplest act of kindness for somebody else. Instead, they let other people "fend for themselves."
And people always expect the worst from one another. They are constantly suspicious of anything that seems out of the ordinary. Often, they make assumptions, branding others "guilty until proven innocent!" In fact, the crime lies in their hostility and paranoia.

Anger

Our modern world is set up perfectly to nurture anger, for it focuses on the dehumanizing element of greed. Everyone follows his self-preservation instincts. Everyone acquires. No one sacrifices. No one shares.
If we but show a glimmer of compassion, people regard it as extraordinary or suspect. Our corporations grow by cutting workers' hours and numbers; expecting their workforce to give more than is humanly possible, just to reach a bottom line goal.

Pattern Living

Our lives are governed by patterns. We understand the ways of the seasons and know when to plant and harvest our crops. And we know when to dress warmly and when to prepare for the summer heat. We know when a storm is coming because we've seen certain patterns in the clouds before. And we begin to understand the patterns of our lives, perhaps too late to do anything about them.
We study the patterns of our bodies and so are able to treat our illnesses. We can watch our weight for changes and adjust our diet accordingly. We can be prepared when our bodily rhythms change with time. And we can be prepared for growing old.
We can study the basic building blocks of all matter in the universe. We are better able to create new things, transform older things, and destroy obsolete things.
Patterns are everywhere in our lives. We can learn a great deal from them.

Patterns can tell us a great deal about the nature of the universe in which we live. And yet so often we simply rely on the earlier understandings of our forebears. Those who went before us, centuries ago, could only see the patterns in their immediate surroundings. And so their answers were incomplete. Today, we can see things on a much more global scale. And hopefully we can learn more about the nature of the universe by seeing the patterns with a much broader view.
For example, persons who lived in a harsh climate may have perceived God as a strict deity: easy to punish, and slow to appease. Yet, those who lived in a more lush environment may have seen numerous deities controlling the many life-giving forces of the world. But today we understand that the world has many different types of climate in every sort of range. The pattern is much broader than our ancestors could have ever imagined!

Every bit of understanding in the universe comes from seeing and understanding patterns. And some of the patterns are so clear.
The "birth, life, death, and silence" cycle is repeated throughout the universe everywhere. It plays itself out in our lives, and in the lives of stars. It governs the behavior of all elemental particles. And it also signals the recycling of raw materials from one life to the next.

Breathe

Breathe in slowly...
Feel what you take in. Feel the air slowly entering your body.
Now hold your breath for a moment. Feel the weight of it.
Then, gently breath out. Give back what was taken in...
Continue to breathe in slowly, and just as slowly breathe out. Feel the balance between what is taken in and what is given back.
And know that, throughout life, every breath taken in is given back in full...

"Hymn to the Divine"

(note: I wrote this as my beliefs were coming together at the end of my college years)

There is Something present in nature
some force which cannot be explained
It shapes and drives,
It sings and dances,
and through it all things are made Complete!

Where is this First Power?
It is all around us!
It shines and draws us near,
It sings and dances before us,
and to those who see and hear it, it gives substance.

When did It begin?
It has always been!
Why did It begin?
only It knows!

How did It begin?
with a Bang and a Whimper!

Which God is this Something?
"I am all that have been,
I am the Father,
the Mother,
the Son,
and the Daughter,
I am the East,
the West,
the North,
and the South,
I am the pool of water,
and the immovable mover,
I am That Which Is'!"

Rhythms...

For so many centuries people have tried to make sense of the seeming chaos of the changing world around them. And they have shaped their views by the way the world has shaped them. As a result today we have a world full of many different interpretations.
Yet only in the modern world do we have the interaction necessary to see so many varied points of view. And to many of us, secure in the notion that we have those definitive answers, this may come as a rude awakening.
This "brave new world" of interaction allows us to see a wider point of view: to perhaps see the whole picture. We are only now able to look through the eyes of so many others. And from their perspectives perhaps we get a bit closer to the whole truth.
We live our lives confident that our answers are correct -- confident that we understand the way the universe works. Yet, when tragedy strikes we discover just how fragile that way of thinking can be.
Our faith carries us through the storms of life. But it can also be a hindrance if it is misplaced or if we have faith based on our own short-sightedness. True, it is arguably impossible to see the ''whole picture." Yet can we see through the eyes of others to understand our world better? Can we use the perception of strangers to see much further than our own small neighborhood?

My Beliefs

A good place to start is at the beginning...

How do I define my beliefs?
This is a question that tends to plague me very often. Many times people will come up to me and ask, “So what is it that you believe?” And so I am often left wondering how best to explain it to them.
Perhaps the easiest way to explain it is like this:

I believe that God is the Living Universe. I believe that It is continuously growing and changing and that, perhaps, It is conscious at a level very different than what we understand.
As each one of us is a part of the Living Universe I therefore believe that each one of us has a piece of that Divine Sacredness within us. Therefore I believe in the inherent worth and dignity of each person and every thing. I believe there are no useless or worthless people. Rather there are people who simply fail to live up to their potential.

There are many faiths around the globe. Many people have created their faiths based on their perceptions of the world. Today our world is filled with so many different beliefs. And they all seem so contradictory.
But the tools of our modern world help us understand where these beliefs come from. We can call someone with our cell phone and discuss these things. Or we can search the World Wide Web to understand the feelings and perceptions of people a world away. And perhaps we can begin to understand the broader picture.
For we each see only in part. But perhaps together we can make sense of it all.

Welcome to Pathwalks!

I've been writing for over 20 years now, what I expected to be a different sort of book on spirituality. From the more-conservative and traditional views I had as a college undergraduate to the more inclusive beliefs I now hold, the book has been the biggest constant. At times I've hoped the book would be a meal-ticket and lead to greater audiences, and at times I've stopped to consider that knowledge should be free, and freeing knowledge more so.
When I came to the beliefs I now hold dear, I began writing a book I still hope to someday publish, if only here in the pages on this blog. Some of my writings were circulated around among friends a few years back. And a couple friends of mine began to form a spiritual group, and then church, largely based on them. After several meetings and writings I discovered that we were on the same page (strangely, I hadn't realized how close our beliefs were. I was a bit thin-skinned at the time and I was too concerned with what I was doing to notice anything else).
And so, after a great deal of board (read: boring, technical, and sometimes downright scary with regards to synchronicity) meetings, we decided to lock one of our founders in the local Law Library for the greater part of a year. When she came out, she led us through the process of legal recognition, and thus was born Path of the Personal Divine!
A video ministry has been a pet project I've considered for a good deal of time as well. That is where I first came up with the name "Pathwalks". I even came up with a theme song!
But, more recently, I find that a blog is perhaps the route I wish to take with this project. After all, most of my writings are small articles and difficult to edit into a proper book. Also, my writing goes in cycles, much from observations I make during the day. Often, I find myself shaking my head at how people waste their lives concerned with the things we create in our lives that don't matter. I despair at the level of unproductive instincts people follow (things I often refer to as "evolutionary holdovers"). And I end up shaking my head at the sorry way people treat each other.

But my beliefs are not based on any dogmatic approach to the human condition. Rather I have examined the patterns of life, existence, and belief that occur and recur throughout the world, and I've sought to understand our relationship to all this.

And so what follows is what I've found...