The Web of Being

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.

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.

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!

In Part

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.

All We Need To Know Is How To Breathe

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

Human Nature

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

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