Pathwalks

Faith

2011-11-08T22:27:00.003-05:00

My faith is sometimes a very difficult subject to put into words. I believe that the Divine -- or "God" -- is the living universe: the sum total of all that exists. I find comfort in this belief, as I have studied many of the world's religions for some time and I find that this is the simplest explanation to account for all their differing perspectives. For the theologies of the world vary, from a single God to many, from a God with form to God without form, and from personal Divinity to impersonal -- or even absent -- Divinity.

I find, that a living universe is a simple large organism we may call the single God. I find that It is manifested by the various beings and forces of which It is composed: God the many. I find that It exists as both the many formed parts which we can see and measure, and the abiding unity which binds it all together. I find that It can be personal in our relationship to It or impersonal in the larger view of Its everyday existence.

And I further find this echoed in the various traditions of the world. I hear the Tenrikyo faith say that "any and everything is all the body of God". I hear the words of Mohammed in the Koran: "wheresoever you turn, there is the face of God." And I hear the words of the Greek mathematician Empedocles: "the nature of God is a circle whose center is everywhere, and whose circumference is nowhere."

I find that this starting point opens us up to a much broader world of spiritual understanding. For we cannot remove ourselves from the Cosmic equation, as we are want to do. Rather, we find that we are part of the living universe; that we are part of the body of God! We find that each and every thing is part of the body of God, and therefore every thing has a tiny piece of God with it: Cosmic DNA, if you will. That is to say that that which makes God holy and sacred: a piece of that is contained within us all. And so we each have that Holy Spirit within us. There are no worthless or useless people. There are simply people who fail to live up to their potential.

As we each contain a piece of God within us we find that we should love our neighbor as we should love ourselves, for "wheresoever we turn, there is the face of God!" We may find God in nature, or in a stranger, or the eyes of a child, or in our own mirror.

We also discover that we are not the separate beings we appear to be. We are all interconnected, interrelated, and interdependent. How can we be as cruel to one another as we are? For we simply harm ourselves when we harm others.

And so I shake my head as I watch the ways people treat one another daily, from abuse and disputes and murder to the saber-rattling and wars around the globe. So many people want to destroy so many others. And we treat each other and our world as useless and disposable.

Perhaps we would get along better if we could only see ourselves in the eyes of others.

Childhood

2011-04-05T18:51:00.002-04:00

Look how screwed up our culture is! We rob our children of their childhood and then we wonder why they fail to act like children! We expose them to killing without teaching them that all life is sacred. And we wonder why they are killing each other without remorse.

Many argue that we need to teach our children values. But they use this as an excuse to push their own religious agendas. I say that we can teach them values without forcing a particular religion on them.

We need to teach them that all life is sacred. Instead, we teach them that killing is good, killing is fun, killing is sport.

We need to teach them that all people have value. Instead, we teach them that some people are "better" than others. We divide people into upper-class/lower-class, first-class/second-class, good-Christian/evil-atheistic or Satanic. We need to teach them that all people have good in them, and that we should never underestimate the goodness of another.

We need to teach them self-worth. Too often we allow our children to be victimized by those who are serving their own self-interests. We allow them to have low opinions of themselves and to grow up unable to be responsible for their own actions -- after all, they can always blame those who have control over them, right?

We need to teach them responsibility. When they screw up we help them blame it on someone else, or we try to protect them from the consequences. We need to let them take the blame for their missteps. We need to let them know that everything they do has a consequence -- everything they do makes a difference.

Myth and "Myth-understanding"

2010-11-14T19:32:00.003-05:00

Your religion is full of myths.

Now that I have your attention, let me explain further:

Many of the religious stories we take for granted are myths. Now, many people assume that myths are simply "fairy tales" -- that they are pointless made-up stories. However, this is not the case.

"Myth" is a writing style -- like a fable, or a letter, or a poem, or a parable. In fact, parables and legends are very similar to myths. A myth is simply a stylized story which is meant to teach us a spiritual truth.

Myths are not meant to be taken literally, however. They use symbols and metaphors to convey their message. Often the symbols used in myths are the same as those used in symbolic dreams, and rightly so: they both come from the sub-concious mind. Their message is hidden just below the surface.

For example, in the Gilgamesh story,Gilgamesh faces one of the greatest troubles of his life as his good friend Enkidu lies dying. He seeks out Utanapishtim, the oldest man in the world, for help. The old man had once built a great boat to escape the floods which destroyed the world. The old man was successful in helping Gilgamesh find a remedy which could save his friend.

In many myths water represents the world -- the current state of affairs of people. "Troubled waters" represent problems with the state of things -- in fact, we still use the term today! In this story, Gilgamesh faces his own "troubled waters", so he seeks help from someone who has defeated similar problems. Perhaps this is a message for us, the readers. Maybe, the author(s) of the Gilgamesh story want us to understand that we can get help with our crises from others who have faced similar problems.

In other myths a person may command the "troubled waters" to become silent -- which they do. This shows us that this person is able to solve the problems simply by speaking or teaching. These myths hold greater meaning than they, at first, appear to. A spiritual leader may walk upon the waters, or build a great boat to remain alive as Utanapishtim did in the story above. By rising above the waters the leader is able to keep from drowning in the troubles of his time, as we are supposed to do – being the audience for the myth.

Still other myths may teach us to avoid getting bogged down in the trappings of tradition. A spiritual teacher may attend a festival, when suddenly those holding the festival run out of wine. Well, according to tradition, the festival may require wine. And so the teacher may instruct them to use water instead – the water becoming wine. The purpose of this story is not a literal miracle where the water turns into fermented grapes, but rather that the water symbolically becomes as wine. The point of the myth is that the celebration of the festival is important, not whether there is enough wine to go around or not.

A multitude may approach a teacher to hear his words of wisdom, and those with the teacher may notice that they are unable to fee them all. The teacher may simply state “I will satisfy them”. The multitude leave satisfied, not because the teacher miraculously turned into a taco stand, but because he gave them what they came seeking: spiritual food. Again, the point of the myth is lost if it’s take literally, but becomes apparent when we examine the symbols.

Every faith contains myths. These are the stories that help illumine our spiritual lives. They teach us about our spiritual teachers, our relationship to the world around us, and about ourselves. If we only dig at them a bit more deeply to understand the symbols and metaphors contained within them we can gain a much better spiritual understanding.

A Matter of Perspective

2010-09-04T10:18:00.004-04:00

I believe that religion is shaped by our perspectives. If I live in the desert and you live in the jungle our views of the world would be quite different. I may believe that God is a fierce and demanding God. You may believe that God is bountiful and always-giving. Yet each view would be true, from our certain points of view.

When I began searching for spiritual meaning I began to examine the various beliefs people have concerning God. These can be classified into various ways of conceptualizing the Deity. Some believe God is one. Some believe God is many. Some believe the Spirit of God flows throughout the universe. Some believe that each person, each animal, each plant, each inanimate object -- that all things have a spirit associated with them. Still others believe that God doesn't exist: at least not in a form that can easily be recognized. I examined these beliefs and wondered how they could all be true. I wondered why people would have so many vastly differing beliefs as to what the Deity is.

I then began looking at how the universe works together. I looked at how things are organized. I saw the atoms as reflections of solar systems and galaxies -- spinning as greater and greater wheels. I looked at how our bodies work: how the cells of our bodies do the many things that they do in order that we may survive. And I looked at the thoughts of other pioneers in the religious, spiritual, and scientific worlds. I looked at the works of Carl Sagan, Joseph Campbell, and Stephen Hawking. I looked at theories such as evolution and the Gaia Hypothesis. And, as always, I looked to the patterns which shape the world we live in.

Perhaps the greatest revelation I had came to me one night as I contemplated these various views of the world and of God. I thought for a moment about how the many parts of the universe work together as the cells of a living body: all interconnected and all interrelated. I thought about how a tiny pebble thrown in the ocean ripples across the entire ocean, even as small as the ripples become. I wondered how God could be one and many, formed and formless, spirit and host. And the conclusion I came to was a radical one indeed: that all this is God. My solution was a simple statement: the universe is alive!

I began to understand the universe a living organism -- in fact, the largest conceivable organism. And I began to think of God, not as a being outside and in control of the universe, but as the living and creative force within the universe itself.

And here is where my re-conceptualization of divinity began to make a lot of sense. All of a sudden the many different ideas about God began to fall into place.

God is one: the largest organism which exists. All things are contained within the universe. In fact, "universe" means "one word" -- the one word which describes everything, both the known and the unknown. The Living Universe has countless parts to it: all which effect all else in a continuous chain of actions and reactions.

God is many: the many faces and voices of which the Living Universe is composed. Every person. Every animal. Every plant. Every grain of sand. Every drop of water in every ocean. Every distant star. Every force of nature. All are different aspects, or faces, of the Divine.

God is formed. For all that exist are parts of the body of God.

God is formless. For as all things which exist are part of the body of God, so do all things have part of that Divine Whole within them. That is to say: just as the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle each have a piece of the whole picture in them, so also does each piece of the Living Universe. Just as each cell within a living body contains DNA: the blueprint to that organism, so also does each thing existing within the Living Universe contain a piece of that (w)Holiness. So it stands to reason that every place, every thing, every plant, every animal, and every person -- we each have that same Sacredness within us which is a part of the Body of God. And so there is Holiness every where if we but look for it!

In the Q'uran it is said "everywhere you turn, there is the face of God!" And rightly so. If we can but find it ourselves, our neighbors, and our world perhaps our future history may be a bit less bloody...

The Web of Being

2010-08-02T20:00:00.001-04:00

When we are children we learn about the food chain: the fact that life feeds on life and that some life even feeds on death. We learn that nothing is truly created or destroyed, but that everything simply changes form. And so, we learn that the process of transformation is at the heart of the universe and that everything is connected.

Often in life-affirming religions, we learn about the Web of Life: that all life affects all other life. We learn that the ties which bind one to another transcend the food chain; that is to say, our actions and interactions affect all others. It is as though each action we take is a drop in a great Pool of Life, and whose ripples gradually touch every other drop in the Pool.

However, I believe even this is a narrow view of reality. For I see our interactions as affecting not only life, but also those things which we do not normally consider as living. I see the Web as extending beyond our world, including all things everywhere. It is as though a great candle sits at the center of the universe and all things are touched by its light. For even in the turbulent storm of Creation there is peace at the center.

One

2010-06-26T10:03:00.003-04:00

God is One.

One beginning. One Being. One universe. One reality.

God is Many.

Many choices. Many possibilities. Many people. Many faces.

God is Peace.

Peace of mind. Peace of heart. Peace and joy. Peace and love.

God is Harmony.

Harmony of Thought. Harmony of Being. Harmony of Rest. Harmony of Action.

Some Pantheist-oriented Quotes From The World's Religions

2010-06-26T09:47:00.004-04:00

"I am easy of access to that ever steadfast seeker who constantly meditates on Me and gives no thought to anything else."

Hinduism, Bhagavad Gita 8:14

"Pray without ceasing."

Christianity, Bible I Thessalonians 5:17

"Know Thyself."

Greek, Socrates

"The Supreme Reality exists WITHIN."

Hinduism, Bhagavad Gita 6:5

"One who knows the inner self knows the external world as well. One who knows the external world knows the inner self as well."

Jainism, Acarangustra 1.147

"The Kingdom of God is WITHIN you."

Christianity, Bible II Corinthians 6:16

"Know that you are God's Temple and that God's Spirit lives IN you."

Christianity, Bible I Corinthians 3:16

"As a mother with her own life guards the life of her own child, let all-embracing thoughts for all that lives be thine."

Buddhism, Khuddaka Partha, Metta Sutta

"I am the Self, seated in the Hearts of all creatures."

Hinduism, Bhagavad Gita 10:20

"All you under heaven! Regard heaven as your father, earth as your mother, and all living things as your brothers and sisters."

Shinto, Oracle of Atsuta

"Even in a single leaf of a tree, or a tender blade of grass, the awe-inspiring Deity manifests itself."

Shinto, Urabe-no-Kanekuni

"Any and everything of this universe is all the body of God."

Tenrikyo, Ofudesaki 3.40

"Everywhere You Turn, There Is The Face Of God."

Holy Q'uran, 2:115 (translated)

"Undivided I am, undivided my soul, undivided my sight, undivided my hearing, undivided my in-breathing, undivided my out-breathing, undivided my diffusive breath, undivided the whole of me."

Hinduism, Atharva Veda 19.51.1

"God needs no pointing out to a child."

African Religions, Akan Proverb (Ghana)

"The nature of God is a circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere."

Greek, Empedocles

"Jesus said to them, "When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor the female female; and when you fashion eyes in the place of an eye,and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, and a likeness in place of a likeness; then will you enter [the Kingdom]."

Christianity, Gospel of Thomas 22 (Gnostic)

En Tota

2010-06-26T09:37:00.005-04:00

God is the universe. And here, by "universe" I mean the word as it's component parts suggest: "uni" + "verse" = "one" + "word", the one word which describes everything everywhere, including those things we know of and extending to those things we cannot even begin to imagine. In short, God is part and parcel of all that exists.

And so, to put it simply, as we ourselves are part of all that exists, each of us is also a part of the body of God. That is to say, we each contain but a small part of that Sacredness within us. And so do all people, and all things everywhere.

We need only look within ourselves to find God, or in the mirror, or the eyes of a child, or to the birds, the rocks, the oceans, or the stars. Everywhere we turn we find God. And so, as it is said in the Tenrikyo religion: "Any and everything of this universe os all the body of God." Also, the Greek Empedocles said: "The nature of God is a circle, whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere." God is within us all, if we will but look.

We find God within ourselves, within others, within nature. Sacredness is everywhere; everything is Sacred. And the only profanity comes from what we do, or what we think. We can choose to bring forth the Holiness within ourselves. We can choose to be a part of the greater picture.

"God within,

God without,

but never without God!"

Of Bullies and Moguls

2010-03-29T15:25:00.000-04:00

After watching the political and financial dramas of our time I find my self looking backward to childhood, for those same old patterns are repeated anew in our adult lives. Many of us had to deal with those other kids who would bully us; attack us; torment us; control us. And though we have escaped the pain of these experiences their scars still run deep.

But we must pity those who bully. We must pity that mogul, or that over-bearing politician. For their desire to gain is not based on a desire to have or to access those things they gain. Rather, they are such frightened people that they must control everything around them, lest it all controls them. This greed, of money, power, and influence, is based on extreme fear. And so we never hear of their happiness at their prosperity. Oftentimes we only hear of their sorrows.

Acts Of Worship

2010-03-20T10:53:00.002-04:00

Worship is an integral part of spirituality. Yet people often seem to think that it consists largely of talking and praying and singing. In worse cases people believe it consists mainly of groveling!

Worship is an act of faith -- a "payback" to that which we revere -- a fulfillment of our pledge to the Divine. Worship is how we do our duty to the Divine -- trying to live the way our God wants us to. Do we really believe that God wants us to sing and grovel and sermonize? Perhaps we should instead concentrate on those "little things" of the Spirit which give meaning to life.

We should worship by lying in the grass; by helping the lady to her car with her groceries; by helping someone who's hurting; by simply listening to someone who needs to talk. We should worship from our hearts, and not from our mouths. We should worship through the acts of the Spirit, not the expectations of the mind!

Doing good things is an act of worship. Do good things not because you think you should, but because you feel you should. Worship should be a spontaneous act, not rehearsed -- it should flow freely from the heart. How we live our lives should be a Holy Sacrament. And everything we do should reflect the Sacredness within us!

A Kind Word...

2010-03-20T10:48:00.002-04:00

Our world is so screwed up today. Each day, as our world gets smaller, we build walls between ourselves. We hurry off to our workplaces in a mad competition. We focus only on the things which make our lives unpleasant. We lash out at strangers on the street -- and the ones we love!

Our mindset is based on the belief that we are the separate beings we appear to be. And yet this is far from the case.

Spiritual teachers have been trying to teach us for millenia that the Divine -- that is, that God -- is to be found within each of us. From the Hindu teaching of "That Art Thou!", to the words from the Holy Q'uran: "everywhere you turn, there is the face of God!", to the teaching of Empedocles: "The nature of God is a circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere!", -- and from many other teachings -- we learn that God is everywhere we turn, even in the face of a stranger, even in the face of the mirror. If we could simply embrace God wherever we turn we could learn that we are all a part of that much greater Divine Power.

A smile. A kind word. A thoughtless gesture. Giving what little we have, or even giving a little of what we have. So long as our actions come from the heart perhaps we can put an end to this senselessness!

Pathwalking

2010-02-17T08:34:00.002-05:00

Each one of us walks a path. Our path determines who we are and what we will become. This path is shaped by our choices and by fate.

A path is a means of getting from here to there. In our spiritual lives we walk a path which can lead us to our spiritual goal -- whatever that may be. We may be walking the road to heaven, or to Nirvana. We may be searching for completion, or simply looking for meaning in our lives. Whatever it may be, our spiritual path can lead us there, if we will but let it.

The road to Spirituality can be travelled in a number of ways. We create religions as vehicles to help is travel it. Religions are methods we use to help us reach or spiritual goals. As they are created and shaped by people, religions offer spiritual tools based on a particular mind-set, or point of view.

The danger in religion is focusing on the vehicle, rather than the road; focusing on the religion, rather than the spiritual goal. This is akin to a person who has a car he is very proud of. He invites friends over to look at his new car. He revs the motor and turns on the radio. But his car never leaves the driveway! He focuses on the car, but forgets the road entirely. He will never get to work. He misses the point of the vehicle entirely.

Religions contain tools we can use to reach our spiritual goals. These come in two forms: personal and community processes -- or Inner and Outer processes. Inner processes focus on the individual. And Outer processes focus on the community.

Inner processes focus on personal spiritual development and interaction. These include meditation and prayer, among others. Through these processes the individual has a very personal spiritual experience which can have the effect of shaping his/her spiritual growth. These processes work spirituality on the individual level.

Outer processes include worship services and other community rituals. These are the processes where the individual "gives back". These processes work on the community level.

Inner and Outer processes are like the breathing process: we take in and we give back, just as we breathe in and back out. On a spiritual path we first experience our own spirituality and then we share it with others. That is, we connect with the Sacred and then we help others to connect with it, also.

Peace

2010-01-01T10:34:00.004-05:00

Oftentimes people wonder why I'm "always so happy" -- even when I'm not feeling well. It makes me wonder sometimes. And the only answer I can offer is that I have a positive outlook on life.

I try to understand the complex interrelations of all things: how we are all interconnected and interdependent. I understand that the Web of Life sustains us all and helps us to grow. I know that there are no worthless, no useless, lives lived within the Web.

I know that life is not a game of heaven or hell determined by our ability to follow a list of arbitrary rules. Rather, we create our own heavens and hells as we live, for we are the most critical judges to our own behaviors.

I understand that the universe works through balance. I know that for every pain there is a joy -- and vice versa. I know that for every breath in there is a breath out, and for everything given, something will be taken away.

I understand that the Divinity -- that God -- is the living universe. I understand that all things which exist everywhere make up the body of God, and that we are all a part of It. And so we each contain a piece of Holiness -- of Holy Spirit -- within us. That is not to say that we are gods, but that That which makes God Sacred and Holy -- a Piece of That is within us all! And so I ask, how can we treat each other with such disrespect as we do? How can we be so hateful and hurtful?

Each of us is programmed with the survival instincts of millions of years of evolution, and therefore selfishness and fear are at the core of our being. Yet we can overcome both with compassion and understanding. We are no longer simply another animal species, but we have yet to transcend our animal nature. We like to think of ourselves as higher than angels, and yet we treat one another as though we are worse than devils.

So long ago, we came down from the trees, we stood upright, and we began to make sense of the world around us. We stopped simply reacting to the world -- as animals do -- and started acting on the world: making changes to everything we touch. We stopped thinking of ourselves as animals, and thus we threw ourselves out of that Garden of Eden. And so, instead of simply existing, we began living in a state of blisses and pains.

And now we are governed by passions and by rationality. We feel and we think. Too often we let either our feelings or our thoughts overwhelm us. We react too easily. We fail to show compassion. And the world is a darker place for our dilemma. It seems that until we lose sight of our own self-centeredness we will never really achieve peace.

Paranoia

2010-01-01T10:28:00.003-05:00

During the Cold War, there was a sense of paranoia created by a world now living in the uncertainty of the nuclear age. The space age was opening up and two superpowers were constantly at odds, trying to decide the politics of an entire planet. The natural reaction to this was simple: the public became paranoid.

First, the Roswell Incident made people suspicious and fearful about alien creatures. Then in the 1950’s and 60’s the science fiction and horror movies made their fears seem more concrete. In fact, during the height of the Cold War the science fiction media was obsessed with bug-eyed monsters who were bent on the destruction of the world.

As calmer times emerged in the 1970’s the public’s paranoia began to turn to conspiracy theories: often involving the government. Such beliefs as the hiding of secret technologies from Roswell, conspiracies involving the Bavarian Illuminati, and so forth, ran amok. And today, many of these conspiracy theorists abound: especially in our modern world filled with the uncertainty of terrorism we’ve been introduced to in the past decade.

As with any conspiracies, I always have to ask those who believe such things: “To what end?” If our government is lying about Roswell, or the 9/11 attacks, then why? If a small group of scientist-minded individuals has been countering the Catholic Church in secret for millennia with a bent on destroying the world: then to what end? And what will they do next?

It seems paranoia is a quick attempt to lay the blame at another’s feet when things don’t go the way we want them to, or when we’re fearful about the future. Over the years, I’ve known many in my own life who have had the same reaction on a more personal level. I’ve known a man who believes the government (or a secret organization) is secretly sabotaging his life and his employment prospects. I’ve also known a woman who believes many people who used to be a part of her life are constantly plotting against her. In each case I have to ask again: to what end? Do people such as this honestly believe that the government, or former friends and family members have so much free time on their hands as to constantly be turning their attentions to causing the misfortunes of another? Is there some form of coherent evil at work here that would drive a group to get some sort of sick pleasure out of causing such pain?

In each of the cases above, and in other similar cases, I have been close enough to the individual in question to make a few discrete observations. It seems that these people simply make bad choices in their lives. And when things take a sour turn, they look for a scapegoat to blame these bad decisions on. They may believe the world is plotting against them. Or perhaps they are cursed!

In any case, the most successful curse is one placed upon oneself. And the countercurse is just as simple: if things in your life are not turning out the way you want them to, look at the patterns in your life. Look at the choices you are making. Are you doing the same things over and over expecting better results? Are there ways to break out of those “bad” patterns and make better decisions. Are you hanging out with the wrong people, or dating the wrong kinds of people? Are you turning down jobs that aren’t good enough, waiting for the perfect one to fall into your lap rather than taking what’s available until something better comes along? Are you letting other people tell you what you should be doing in your life rather than making decisions on your own?

The only way out of a mess of our own making, is an escape path of our own doing.

Greed

2009-11-15T16:05:00.001-05:00

One of the defining moments of our species is the moment of greed we so often feel. What greater proof is there of evolution than the many animal traits we carry with us -- traits which too often dominate our lives?
Greed is an outgrowth of the survival instincts which help preserve us. Yet, it is this instinct run amok. We seek to have enough things to ensure our survival. And yet, too often we find that we want more than we need, or we want things that we don't need.
In a world of unlimited resources, we could each have all that we desire. However, there is a balance in the real world which must be maintained. Every time we acquire something we run the risk of depriving someone else.
There are so many people who think single-mindedly about their our preservation. And so, they forget that we are all interconnected. They allow their own selfishness to dominate their world-view and they don't try to maintain the balance of the Web of Life.
It's no wonder our world is so far out balance with the natural world -- it is simply a reflection of the ideology of our society. For we try to pretend that we did not evolve here and, therefore, that we do not have any animal within us; any part of the natural world. And so man fights against nature: both the natural world around him and the natural world within him. And we all suffer for this struggle. The denial of evolution is a travesty to us all.
And so, the desire to have grows out of proportion. We forget it is a basic part of each of us, but that we should temper it with knowledge of our interdependence. For only compassion can fight the selfish monster who lives within us.

Divine Will

2009-09-14T09:36:00.003-04:00

There are patterns in the ways our lives are lived. I have devoted much of my life to observing and trying to learn from them. The patterns are repeated in everything from the organization of the universe to the makeup of our bodies and the subatomic particles which make up all things.
Yet the patterns do not stop simply with the physical organization of things. There are patterns of belief among the often-warring religions of the world. There are patterns in the ways our lives are lived and in the history of people. And there are patterns in the ways our lives flow and interact, one with another.
I concluded long ago that I do not believe in coincidences. For too many "random chance" happenings seem to populate my life, much more than I could account for as being simply "random". At one point I believed, as so many do, that a human-like God was orchestrating the many melodies of my life in strange and sometimes surprising ways.
And then, the world stopped making sense.
When I decided that the faith I had been raised in made little sense in the modern world, I lost the simple explanation for the "Divine plan" which guided my life. My spiritual journey took me through an understanding of many faiths. And I eventually concluded that all this, and perhaps more, is the Divine Being; that is, God is not separate from the universe: God is the living universe.
This revelation brought with it baggage all its own. For the question of Divine Will again became an issue once again. I had concluded that the Divine was not conscious in a way that we can easily understand. I had concluded that it is interested in our well-being as we each are interested in the health of our various body parts. But the "Divine Plan" idea died terribly.
Yet there are still these patterns, as currents in the river of time. Perhaps they are just as sentient as that river. And perhaps there is more.

A Pantheist Song...

2009-08-03T17:32:00.003-04:00

We were treated to this at the Unitarian Universalist Church this past Sunday morning. Every so often I find a song which is directly on target for my beliefs. Here it is!

Alchemy Revisited

2009-07-28T06:54:00.002-04:00

The ancient alchemists believed that the world was composed of only a few elements: earth, air, fire, and water. Modern chemistry tells us that there are literally hundreds of different elements making up our world. Yet physics breaks these down into a few particles which, when rearranged, can become anything. Further, this elemental physics only defines matter. But energy is also seen as a component of things.
I would argue that the ancient alchemists were right, but concerning physics rather than chemistry. For our universe seems to have two major components: substance -- of which everything is made -- and fabric -- the fabric of space: a canvas on which substance is painted. I would further argue that substance can exist as solid, gas, energy, or liquid (earth, air, fire, or water), and that it can change back and forth between them. Substance is anything we can measure and affect directly.
Many people also consider spirit to be a major component of things. In many religious traditions spirit is that which binds all things together. It can also be one of the most elementary components of all substance. Seen this way, it can be argued that everything which exists has a spiritual nature.

One and the Same

2009-05-27T07:00:00.001-04:00

I believe that what is above and what is below are one and the same.
I believe that what is within and what is without are one and the same.
I believe that everything, everywhere, is one and the same.

No one great spiritual teacher has a monopoly on spirituality. Only now -- as the world grows smaller and we begin to understand each other a bit better -- do we even begin to see the whole picture with regards to the spirit. And there is so much more yet to discover!
But we do understand enough to know that all the larger things are made up of the smaller things. That the universe is simply made up of many many simple things. And we can know that the universe makes much more sense than it at first appears to.
Everywhere we look -- in chemistry, physics, astronomy, medicine, any of the sciences -- we see the same patterns repeated. The arrangements of atoms and molecules looks no different than the arrangement of stars and galaxies! And so, also, are our bodies arranged.
Some time ago a philosophy called "The Gaia Hypothesis" became popular. In this world-view it was assumed that the earth is a living organism who maintains herself -- that is, that the environment is a living entity with all the repercussions that life entails.
I believe this idea helps to explain the way we find the earth. But I believe it does not go far enough.
I believe the entire universe functions as a life form: the universe is alive! Not in the way we normally conceive life to be. Rather, I believe the universe maintains itself and grows and does the many things which make itself complete.
I look at the universe as the ultimate form of life. And I tend to believe that it is That which we call God. I find that this is perhaps the best explanation to reconcile the various god-interpretations of the many world religions. For there are some who believe that God is one (the universe as a whole), and some who believe God is many (the various parts which make up the universe). There are some who believe God is a formed being (matter/people/the many parts which make up the whole), and some who believe that God is spirit (the unifying force behind creation). There are some who believe that all things have a spiritual nature to them; that is to say, they believe that everything has a spirit associated with it. This is easily explained in that, as we are each a part of the universe, and therefore a part of God, we each contain a tiny piece of that Great Spirit within us.
And here is the great charge: as we each contain a piece of God within us, we should each treat one another with the same respect and love we would have for God -- and for self. We are not the many separate beings we appear to be. In fact, we are both interrelated and interconnected. We must work together in harmony for the body of the universe -- the body of God -- to function well. Therefore, it is important to "do unto others as we would have them do unto us".
And so we discover that we are part and parcel of the Body of God, and so is all else. We live in a sacred place; a holy temple. Everything here is sacred. We simply must look for the Holiness -- for God -- wherever we turn.
God creates, preserves, and destroys: to recycle and create again. The Hindus have long understood this, as their trifold groupings of deities demonstrates. As an example: Brahman creates the universe, while Indra preserves it, and Shiva destroys it. And the universe works in cycles of creation, preservation, and destruction. Brahman opens his eyes and the universe comes into being, and as he closes them it is destroyed. Again, and again, the cycle repeats itself. So we see the cycles in our world. Seasons come and go, to repeat the following year. Lives are lived, and new births for those which will take their places. And also stars are born and destroyed and reborn. It is no wonder the Hindus place such an emphasis on reincarnation. Although, I believe we are not recreated as we are today, I believe that all the makings of our bodies are recycled.
Many times we are fearful of others because they look different, or believe differently, or live differently, or love differently. But we should be more accepting because they are and they do believe, and they do live, and they do love -- as we all do.

Turning the Spirit Inside-Out

2009-03-22T00:06:00.000-04:00

Our spiritual paths work both ways: inward and outward. We focus on our own spiritual development and then we share our discovery with others. We find it in ourselves and we make it manifest!
Baptism demonstrates how this process works. First, the person is immersed in their chosen faith. Then the person comes out of it and goes forth into the world. This ritualized "cleansing of soul" is necessary before we can bring our message to the waiting world.

We work on our spiritual nature first. We look within ourselves, we change and we grow, and we find the spirit within. We nurture our own spirituality.
We then manifest spirituality. We act on our beliefs, including protecting the Web of Life, finding the spiritual nature in others, and celebrating our uniqueness. We bring it out of ourselves.
And so we find the spirit within, we turn it inside-out, and we celebrate it. We find the balance-point between taking in and giving back. The answer is as simple as breathing: for what is taken in, the same amount is given back. We take from the world to nurture our spirit, and we give back from our spirit to the world.

Matters Of Spirit

2009-02-07T23:13:00.000-05:00

Religions are constructed around Spirituality.
Now, Spirituality is a universal thing. It is not a thing that can be learned or fully described. It is something which must be experienced. It is a moment of clarity, a moment when we "plug in" the Holy "puzzle piece" which is within each one of us. It is a moment when we see things with infinite perception. It is a thing William James described as "mysterium tremendum". It is variously described in religions as: "the filling of the Holy Spirit", "Enlightenment", "drawing down the moon", and so forth. It is an overwhelming moment of absolute clarity of purpose -- when everything makes sense to us.
This moment is something which must be felt, and not thought about. For the moment we think about it -- the moment we realize it's happening and we try to understand it -- it fades. It is a moment of perfection, and perfection is so difficult to hold on to.

Spirituality is a fulfillment of purpose. It gives meaning to our lives. It answers questions and gives direction. It is a moment when we exist in harmony with the universal whole. It is a time when we understand it all, for the briefest of moments.
And Spirituality is the moment we take the Sacred within ourselves and connect it with the Sacred outside ourselves. For the Sacred exists within all things. And through our connection with all things we are made more complete.

No Bad People

2008-12-19T06:50:00.002-05:00

There are no bad people.
Oh, there are ignorant people: people who just don't know; people who just don't understand. There are people who are full of fear. There are angry people. There are hateful people. And there are desperate people.
But there are no bad people.

Give and Get

2008-12-19T06:46:00.001-05:00

In our world, so much emphasis is made on having things. It is leftover from the instinct to conserve -- like squirrels gathering nuts to survive the winter that never comes.
But we live in a world where our basic needs are filled. We can survive quite comfortably. And yet, we still try to fill that desire to simply "have".
Once again, our "evolutionary holdover" instinct sets upon us, and we endanger ourselves and others. For all this wanting is greed -- a desire to have no matter what the consequences to oneself or to others.
Greed is the very basis of our society. So much selfishness. And so many suffer for the extreme selfishness of so few.
We celebrate our holidays by teaching our children to want even more. And we spend ourselves into debt trying to fill the hunger we've created in them. The cycle goes on from generation to generation.
And we forget how to conserve at all!

Where is the compassion? Where is the love? How can we continue to think only of ourselves?
How can we forget that we are all interconnected through the Web of Life?

Revisiting the Garden

2008-10-12T10:20:00.000-04:00

"Season of Blood"

2008-09-11T08:52:00.000-04:00

Four birds dropped from the sky,
And the twin brothers fell.
The eagle was wounded to the heart,
And the air stank with the dark stench of death.

Stunned Silence.
Fear. Anger. Hatred.
Retribution.

Holy War: Profane Peace.
Comfortless Caves: Contemplation. Conviction.

Traitors to the Nation.
Traitors to humanity.
A torrent of tears
in a Season of Blood.

Suicide bombers
to defeat the Undefeatable.
Fear. Bigotry. Retaliation!
No Peace! And no Justice.

Mothers cry,
And their children can't play together...
In peace.

To The Terrorists

2008-09-11T08:50:00.000-04:00

To the terrorists I say: Who gives you the right to decide who should live and who should die?
You claim to be killing infidels, but in fact you are killing your own siblings! You claim Holy War, yet there is nothing holy about war.
You kill those you believe do not share your beliefs and yet the dead can never learn your beliefs.
You do not see the sacredness of life or understand its gift. And so you make yourselves, not the holy martyrs, but the damned!

Religion is Not the End-all

2008-09-11T07:59:00.000-04:00

Religion is not the goal: it is the journey.
Religion is not the answer: it is the process.

Religion is the discipline we use to answer the great question of "Why?" It is a toolkit with which we try to get at spirituality. And the spiritual moment is the goal of our whole endeavour.

Religion and Spirituality

2008-09-11T07:54:00.000-04:00

There is one question we all ask: "why?" This is one of the great questions of humanity. We want a reason for our existence. We want to know what our place is in the universe. And so we create religion as a methodology -- a tool -- to help us find this answer.
Spirituality is the meaning we seek. Religion exists to help us find spirituality. And this answer is an experience which cannot be fully described by words. It is the answer we find when we "plug in" to our proper place.
The problem in religion comes when people become blind-sighted to the machine -- religion. They look to their religion as the "end-all". They get caught up in the behaviors and habits of their religion, and they miss the spirituality altogether! They behave in certain ways because the believe they are supposed to. They live their lives as though they are following some sort of cosmic checklist. And they believe that their actions can purchase their spiritual goal for them.
In sharp contrast, spiritual people find the same experience no matter what their religious tradition. They behave in certain ways because they feel moved to. And they are much happier people. Although they may differ as to the specifics of their religious practices they agree on matters of the spirit. They find the same strengths and the same faults in humanity.

The Religious Machine

2008-07-23T12:10:00.000-04:00

We all ask the great question: "Why?". We want to know why we exist, why things are the way they are, why the sky is blue... And we create methods to help us find the answers.
The moment when we find the answers we seek is something we call Spirituality. This is a moment of epiphany -- "born again" -- "enlightenment". Suddenly, everything makes since, although we have great difficulty explaining to others what these answers are. This is a state William James described as "mysterium tremendum" -- the great mystery, where we are "filled with the Holy Spirit" -- "the lights come on". Spirituality is the goal of our search for meaning.
The tool we use to find Spirituality is something called "religion". Religion is the method, the machine, which helps us find Spirituality. Now, religions are made by people, each from the perspective of its creator or creators. There are so many different religions in the world because we each see and understand the world a little bit differently. Yet each religion can lead to Spirituality.

The Religious Toolkit

2008-07-23T12:06:00.000-04:00

Many of our religions hold the idea that things were once harmonious and perfect. But something happened which upset the balance. And so today, they maintain, we are constantly searching for some way to recapture the peace which we've lost.
From a purely scientific viewpoint, we lost the harmony the moment we came down from the tree, stood upright, and began to reason. Previously, we had been like every other species on the planet: governed primarily by passions. And so, when we stop behaving primarily by our passions, we upset the balance. We "ate from the tree of knowledge" and separated ourselves from the natural order. We stopped being animals and we became human.
And so we are forever on a quest to recapture what we've lost: the peace, the harmony, the balance. We search for it as a species and we search for it as individuals. And because we are a reasoning people, we ask a great many questions in order to try and make sense of it all.
Our search follows the pattern of six very basic questions: who, what, where, when, how, and why. Since we are very young we ask these basic questions. And we have very specific tools to try and answer them.
We have created disciplines -- special thinking tools -- to help us answer these basic questions. If we wish to know who we are we consult a biography or family tree. To understand what life is we have created philosophy. Where we are is explained through cartography and astronomy. When we are is handled through the elaborate histories we write. In order to understand how things works we have created biology, chemistry, and physics, among others.
Religion is the discipline we use to understand why. Religion is simply a toolkit for opening the soul. And the meaning we find is what we call spirituality.
Spirituality is the moment when we "plug in" -- when we become enlightened, or "filled with the Holy Spirit" -- when everything falls into place and makes sense. Spirituality is not a thing which can easily -- if at all -- put into words. Spirituality cannot be taught, only discovered. It is a thing which can be pointed to, but never fully described. This is the moment when we regain the balance we so desperately seek.
No one religion contains "all the answers" and no religion should have its myths taken at face value. Religion is a set of tools which can lead us to spiritual freedom and rebirth, but only if we use these tools correctly. There is no guarantee that we will find spirituality if we only practice our religions for what they, at first, appear to be.
Myths are specialized stories meant to teach us spiritual truths. Since spirituality cannot be easily put into words, we rely on myths to help us find some spiritual meaning. At first glance, myths appear to be miraculous stories of gods or messiahs performing impossible tasks by supernatural forces. Modern-day skepticism teaches us that myths are simple "grand fairy-tales" which are entertaining, but best ignored. But for those who study myths they are treasure chests full of spiritual gold.
Myths are central to religions. They are written in a special form known as mythological language. In mythological language very little is what it appears to be. Symbolism is the language of myth, with many items being representative of something much greater. And often mythological images are the same as dream images. For example, in myth water often represents the situation of the world. "Troubled waters" represent turmoil -- an image we use even in our every-day language! When someone rises above these waters, either by boat or by foot, they transcend the problems of the world. Often, there are signs that the myths contain hidden meanings and are not to be taken literally -- either through their use of "miracles" or even through statements such as "the people did not understand what had just happened."

Religion Is A Toolkit

2008-06-23T07:15:00.000-04:00

Religion is simply a toolkit for unlocking the soul. Through religion we learn disciplines which can help us to lead spiritual lives.
Religions are composed of disciplines and myths designed to help our spirits grow. Often in religion, we are given examples of how one should live if he/she is a spiritual person. Many times we are given guiding principles to live by, and often we are even presented with a holy person to emulate.
So often in religion it is so easy to take the guidelines we are given and to use them as a checklist -- believing that we are successful so long as we do the things on this list. But when we do this, we miss the point of religion entirely. We become focused on the habits of religion rather than the rebirth of spirit. Often persons of religious habit grow very bitter and judgmental, because religion provides such little fulfillment as its own goal.
Often it takes conviction to find spirituality through religious practice. Religion offers guidelines, but cannot force a person to open his/her spirit. The spiritual journey must be undertaken by the individual. And so, each of us can find meaning in our lives through religious discipline, if we so choose.

There are so many different religions in the world. And each of these has been shaped around the culture in which it was born. This doesn't make any one religion more valid than any other. Rather, it offers differing viewpoints so that a person may choose what works best for him/her.
Among desert peoples religion often focuses on a harsh god or gods who demand strict obedience. But in the East, where life is not so harsh, often there are no gods in religion, and when there are they are often seen simply as embodiments of a greater all-pervading spiritual force.

Disciplines

2008-05-05T07:16:00.000-04:00

When discussing religion a good place to start is by defining what religion is. This is not as easy as it first seems. For many years people have tried to define what religion is and what it is not. Even today people argue whether the eastern religions are really religions or simply philosophies. Also, people of the Eastern beliefs argue that they cannot find religion in the Bible of the Western world. Clearly, there is no consensus for defining what religion is.
When I try to tackle this problem I go about it by trying to understand what drives us to have religions -- or, more simply, what function religions play in our lives. It is helpful to try to understand the history of religion.
Anthropology shows us that the many ways we have to understand things were originally all parts of the same thing. That is to say that there was no difference between science and religion or religion and history -- it was all the same. Each culture had its own version of what seemed to be the truth. But as time has gone by we have diversified our understandings.
Now, when did we become human? At what point did we begin to distinguish ourselves from the other animals on the planet? We notice that we began doing uniquely human things at about the time when religious artifacts began to appear in our burial sites. This is what anthropologists see as the first signs of religion. It seems that we became human when we began trying to explain what happens after death -- trying to explain the unexplainable. I would argue that the one thing which makes us human is simply our ability to question -- to seek -- to try and understand things. After all, we are not the only animals who communicate, or even who use tools. Yet, we seem to be the only ones who spend our lives trying to figure things out. Perhaps in our prehistory something happened which piqued our curiosity.
In any case, it seems clear that our questioning was pretty basic until about the time of Classical Greece, when we began to specialize the disciplines for answering our questions. The Greek thinkers advanced the schools of Science and Philosophy as their legacy. They were the first to discover that the world is round, for example. Sometimes they were sentenced to death for their varied ways of thinking and teaching.
Since that time we have continued to refine our disciplines to make our answers even more specific. In the past few centuries we have honed our questioning skills, so that now we can ask very specific questions and get very specific answers.
So what are the basic questions we ask? From the time of grade school we have had these six questions ingrained in our minds: Who? What? Where? When? How? and Why? These have become our most basic questions. And we have made disciplines to answer them:

Who are we? -- This question is best answered by Biography. We learn about ourselves by learning about those who have gone before us. We spend so much time tracing our family histories. We look to the people of the past to help us define the people of the present.
What is reality? -- This is the realm of Philosophy. The Classical Greeks invested a great deal of time asking this question. For centuries people have tried to understand what reality is and what it means. Views on reality vary from the very solid view most people have to the idea that everything is an illusion -- a shadow of the way things appear to be.
Where are we? -- Geography defines our location. We map everything: our states, our planet, and even the stars! We like to know as much as we can about our neighborhood and the distant places beyond.
When are we? -- History is the study of past decisions and actions. We look to the past for direction for the future. We try not to repeat past mistakes. But we do try to build on our past successes!
How does anything work? -- Here we ask the question of process. We attempt to understand the building blocks, rules, and actions which govern reality. These are the sciences. We look to Physics, Chemistry, and Medicine, among others, to understand our physical reality. We have become so good at asking How questions, in fact, that science has become broader than the other disciplines.
Why? -- Finally we ask the biggest question to plague humanity: Why are we here? Here is where Religion enters the picture. It seems that Religion is our way of answering the Why question. Or, for the purposes of this book, Religion is our feeble attempt to understand the universe around us and our place within it. That is to say: Religion is made by humans to try and make sense of everything. It is perhaps our greatest and most mysterious discipline. It has caused more happiness and more misery than any other thing in human history.
Religion is both a personal and a cultural thing. It is defined by how we see things. It depends on our environment, our history, the influence of our neighbors, and any number of random things happening in our lives. The very way we understand things is so fragile that one tiny mistaken idea can mess up the whole thing. We build upon the beliefs of others: often our parents, teachers, and friends. Any misunderstandings along the way get ingrained in religious teaching until they are almost impossible to correct. Centuries down the road our misunderstandings may be repeated as facts.
Perhaps the greatest problem in Religion happens when people try to use it to answer questions it is not suited to answer. For many years people thought the Earth was flat -- a broad, round circle. This is reflected in many religious teachings throughout the world. However, Geography has taught us that this is not the case. Still, many of our religions talk about "the circle of the Earth" or even "the four corners of the world"! A more disastrous thing happens when people use their religious teachings as History or Biography -- to answer other questions it is not able to answer. Religion often clashes with Science when it tries to answer the basic How? questions. We need look no further than the Scopes Monkey Trial to see the problem. This is echoed by those who would try to answer Religious questions with Science -- it doesn't work because these are not the questions it was designed to answer.
Religion exists because we want to make sense out of life. We create religion. It is not given to us on tablets written in stone, or on scrolls handed down to us by the gods. Religion is a human way of interpreting the most important questions of existence.
Religion uses some specialized tools to achieve its goals. Myths and rituals are perhaps the two biggest. The lessons we learn in our myths can fire our soul, and our rituals help us connect with that which we call Sacred. These are some of the ways through which can find our spirituality.

Being Human

2008-04-05T09:52:00.000-04:00

We like to differentiate ourselves from our animal brothers. But there really isn't that much difference between us. We share the same chemical composition as all other life on the planet. And we even share much of the same DNA with them as well, sharing more and more as we get closer in the evolutionary chain. Our behaviour is likewise very similar. Many times we accuse one another of "acting like animals". And there is a reason for that.
For we carry within us the baggage of millenia of evolution. The instincts and emotions which enabled our ancestor-creatures to survive are very much a part of us today. But in our modern world we are often held back in our development by what I like to call "evolutionary holdovers'' -- that is, survival instincts which are more of a hindrance than a help to us today.
We want peace and prosperity for ourselves and perhaps for all people. Yet we are constantly held back by strong emotions which rule our lives. And perhaps the strongest of these is fear.
Fear is an emotion and an instinct based on protection from things which may prove to be a threat. Fear responds to things which we know are a threat, things which we believe are a threat, and things which we don't know about. We can be afraid of people, animals, issues... even beliefs! And fear is an emotion that is easy to feed. Once fed, it grows first into anger, then hatred.
And strong fear requires a strong response from us: we can either fight against the thing which frightens us, or we can run away from it: fight or flight. Fear divides us one from another and helps build the world of mistrust and war in which we live.
So often fear is fueled by misunderstanding. We may believe the wrong things about other people, or perhaps we simply do not know anything about them, and so we fear them. As with all evolutionary holdovers fear is often irrational.

Now, we have seen how passions such as fear make us like our animal brothers. But just what is it that distinguishes us from them?
Many people would argue that it is our ability to communicate that makes us human. Yet, as anyone who lives with a pet knows, animals also communicate. Often their communication is through what we call "body language". But many times it may also be verbal. Animals have no trouble making their wishes and moods known!
Some may also argue that it is our ability to make and use tools that is the key to our difference. Yet, animals also use tools. I remember watching a nature special with an ape using a stick to ensnare some delicious locusts in a tree stump. Clearly a tool.
Is it our ability to build communities? We only need to look at the ants for that answer. For they are some of the most auspicious builders in nature.
Finally, we come to the argument that we are sentient. And that I can neither prove nor disprove, for sentience is not a concept we can measure. But there is a thing which I believe is key to the development of our thinking abilities.
It is clear that we think about things. More than think: we wonder. Our animal brothers are content to live life as it is handed to them. They react to the world as it changes around them. They respond to the stimuli of life. They do not make decisions about things as they happen, they simply respond to them.
Yet we act on our world. We do things because we want to, not because circumstances force us to do them.
And I believe the key to all this is our ability to ask questions. For this ability breeds the opportunity to not simply accept things as they are, but to try to understand them. We seek meaning. We seek understanding. And we base our actions on the answers we discover, whether they are correct or not. Questions unlock a whole world of possibilities for us that our animal brothers simply do not have.
Our questions tend to fall into six general categories. I call these the Six Great Questions. They are taught to us as early as grade school. They are: Who, What, Where, When, How, and Why. These questions help us to define the world in which we live and our place within it.
And for each Great Question we create a discipline: a method for answering the Question. Disciplines are like tool kits: they contain many tools we use to explore the Great Questions. And when we begin to ask more specific questions, we may change the tools in our tool kits in order to ask those particular questions.
Now, the disciplines for each Great Question fall into general categories of study. And we know these well.
For the "Who" Question, we use the Biography Discipline. We study our family trees; our family histories. We study the lives of our friends and people in our communities. And we learn all we can about the famous people who have shaped our world. For, their lives touch our lives. And they help to define just "who" we are.
The "What" Question is answered through the Discipline of Philosophy. We seek to understand the nature of reality. And many times we get more questions than answers. But the questions help us to define our personal philosophies of life, and help us to explore the nature of being human.
We use Cartography to understand the "Where" Question. We map everything. We map our living room to figure out where to put the sofa. We map our neighborhood to locate the nearest grocery store. We map our cities, our states, our countries, our world. And we map the stars! We need to understand where everything is in relation to where everything else is. And by locating ourselves we know which things will influence our lives.
Likewise, we map events with the answer to the "When" Question. This is the tool we call History or Time. We look at the past and how it influences where we are today and where we are going in the future. And we are swept along in time, just as if it were the currents of a great river. We have some control over where we end up, but the general currents sweep us in certain directions. And we believe by seeing where they've led us before we can control where they will lead us in the future.
The How Question is perhaps the Question we are the best at answering. This is the realm of science. We try to understand how things are put together and how they work. We have created many different toolkits to answer the many different questions we have in this area. We have physics and astronomy. We have chemistry and geology. We have biology and medicine. And we have even created sciences to help us understand things we've created. We have such things as astronautics and computer science for these.
Our final Question is the Why Question. And here is where Religion fits in. Religion is the process of trying to find meaning to the universe around us and our place within it. It is an attempt by us to understand the order of things.
As with any of the Great Questions, the discipline we use to understand it vary. That is to say, there are many approaches to it. And often, these are shaped by our own experiences: by our environment, those we encounter, and the changing circumstances in our changing world.

Fear and Meddling

2008-03-14T06:48:00.000-04:00

Many people wonder why some must spend so much time obsessed with the daily doings of others. It would seem that fear is once again the culprit. For fear of others drives us to become watchful of them -- monitoring their movements in case they might decide to attack us. Again this fear is counterproductive, driving us apart rather than together.

Fear

2008-03-14T06:46:00.000-04:00

Perhaps the greatest enemy we face today is fear. For it is an "evolutionary holdover" -- a survival instinct which is dangerous in the modern world.
Fear is the emotion which protects a living thing from dangers and potential dangers. Fear gives us the "fight or flight" reaction: we either face what we fear and try to defeat it, or we run away.
Many are protected by this instinct in the wild. But in our modern "tame" world, fear becomes an explosive commodity.
Fear works by making anything unfamiliar to us seem to be a threat. Over time that fear grows into anger for this threat, and still later it becomes hatred and rage. Much of the bigotry and injustice in the world today is the result of overgrown fears.

In Part

2008-02-28T08:17:00.000-05:00

God is known, in part, to all the religions of the world.
I say “in part” because our faiths have been formed by people who could only understand the world as they perceived it. Without a complete understanding of the diversity of our world it is impossible to fully understand our world. And likewise for understanding the Divine.
And so our world is full of people who lived in harsh climates who believed God to be an angry storm god. And in the prolific jungles, a mother-like spirit of fertility. In some places the divinity is understood as being many gods who influence the fate of the universe. And still others see no god-forms at all, but a unifying Whole to the universal whole.
I submit that our modern world of amazing communications makes it much easier to understand these many differing views of the Divine – and perhaps come up with a more complete view. For over a century we have been able to communicate with telephone and telegraph over incredible distances. And we have been able to travel by plane and boat to these places as well. More recently, we have been able to have images from distant lands on our televisions in our living rooms. And now we live in the information age. All one must do is touch the World Wide Web to hear the voice and thoughts of someone far away in the world. And we have access now to so many differing perspectives of the Divine.
And I believe it is now possible to gain a more complete understanding of “God” than our ancestors had. For religion is created by those who have lived before us. And they have only left us understandings of the world as they saw it.
Today, it’s like picking through a jigsaw puzzle of faith: trying to find out how all the pieces work together for a better understanding of the whole. I believe we can learn from our ancestors by understanding the many things that affected their world-view. If we can understand their climate and culture, and the peoples they interacted with, we can begin to unlock the mystery of why they believed the things they did.
And I believe that once we begin investigating, we won’t necessarily lose our belief in the Divine, but rather gain a stronger understanding. So many have believe that God is One, or God is Many; that God is formed, or that God is formless; that God is knowable, or that God is unknowable. And I believe that we can understand why they believed these things and maybe even understand how these things are not at all in conflict.
After many years of exploring these issues myself I came to the startling revelation one night that perhaps all these views are right after all. The solution I found was that God is the Living Universe: the sum total of all that exists. I came to understand that the universe is the largest living organism and that everything exists within it as a part of that much greater Body. God is One: the One of which we are all a part.
All the big things are made up of all the little things. Our bodies are made up of so many component cells. Our communities are made up of so many people. And our world is a diverse collection of many different living and non-living things. So too it is on the universal scale. For the universe is made of countless stars, worlds, and so much more. God is Many: the Many that we all are.
God is made of these many things: God is formed. And God is the Spirit which connects all these things together: God is formless. We can know this general view of God, but God is unknowable completely, for we are contained with it and therefore unable to see the whole picture.
The implications are enormous. Suddenly we are no longer the separate beings we appear to be: we are interrelated, interconnected, and interdependent. Many faiths use the phrase “The Web of Life” to describe this. Everything we do affects everything else everywhere. It’s like so many pebbles tossed in the Cosmic pond: the ripples may get smaller as they spread out, but eventually they reach every shore.
Another discovery is that we are all sacred people. If we are all a part of the body of God, then a tiny piece of that sacredness is in the heart of each one of us. There are no worthless or useless people. Indeed there are no truly evil people. Rather, there are misguided people, and those who fail to understand their potential and live up to it.

Inner And Outer Paths

2008-01-25T18:35:00.000-05:00

We travel our spiritual paths in inward and outward focused directions. We must first find the sacred within ourselves before we bring it out of ourselves into the world. We work on ourselves first and the world later.
Two of our greatest tools for spiritual development are meditation and ritual:
Meditation (or prayer) is an inner process. We look within ourselves for answers. We learn, we grow. We find the holy within us. Meditation and prayer are ways of connecting on the personal level with the Sacred.
Ritual (or worship) is an outer process. We put our faith into action. We practice compassion. We celebrate the chorus of life. We may gather for a formal worship service or we may simply "practice what we preach".
And these processes should be balanced in our lives. We take as we give, we give as we take. We breathe in, we breathe out -- since the moment of birth, every breath in is mirrored by a breath out. Balance is important. Balance creates the harmony of the world.

Balance

2008-01-16T18:09:00.000-05:00

We live in a closed system, where nothing is created nor destroyed, but simply changed. Everything is in balance. Everything which is constructed must one day be destroyed. Every birth must be balanced with a death.
We must understand this balance and work with it. For every action there is a reaction. For every breath taken in one must be given back. And so we should strive for balance to work with the greater whole.

This seems to be a difficult concept for us. For we are, after all, animals; the product of centuries of evolution. And we contain within us some very selfish survival instincts. We want as much as we can get, for our genetic programming tells us that there will be times of need on down the road. Yet, in our modern world our basic needs are so easy to fill. Our own selfishness drives us to want more than we need: more than we can use. And as a result many starve and freeze, due to our greed.

Breathing

2007-12-29T09:38:00.002-05:00

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

2007-12-29T09:37:00.002-05:00

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!

2007-12-29T09:34:00.001-05:00

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

2007-11-26T19:14:00.000-05:00

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

2007-11-19T21:06:00.000-05:00

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

2007-11-16T06:21:00.000-05:00

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

2007-11-15T08:37:00.000-05:00

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

2007-11-12T19:34:00.000-05:00

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

2007-11-04T00:17:00.000-04:00

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

2007-11-02T08:58:00.000-04:00

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

2007-11-01T18:20:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-31T09:36:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-31T09:33:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-31T09:32:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-31T09:30:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-31T09:29:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-27T23:11:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-26T21:04:00.000-04:00

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"

2007-10-25T11:09:00.000-04:00

(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...

2007-10-24T19:59:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-23T15:35:00.000-04:00

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!

2007-10-23T14:56:00.000-04:00

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...