A Kind Word...

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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!