Drawing Us Near

We listened to Henri Nouwen’s The Return of the Prodigal Son on the way back from New York yesterday - a wonderful companion on a long journey home. Here is an excerpt in which Father Nouwen tells us that God is longing to bring us closer. Will we let God draw us near and embrace us?

****
For most of my life I have struggled to find God, to know God, to love God. I have tried hard to follow the guidelines of the spiritual life — pray always, work for others, read the Scriptures — and to avoid the many temptations to dissipate myself. I have failed many times but always tried again, even when I was close to despair.

Now I wonder whether I have sufficiently realized that during all this time God has been trying to find me, to know me, and to love me. The question is not “How am I to find God?” but “How am I to let myself be found by him?” The question is not “How am I to know God?” but “How am I to let myself be known by God?” And, finally, the question is not “How am I to love God?” but “How am I to let myself be loved by God?” God is looking into the distance for me, trying to find me, and longing to bring me home.

--From The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming by Henri J. M. Nouwen (New York: Image Books, 1992).

A Writer's Lament

"Violent obsessions sometimes lay hold of a man: he may, for instance, think day and night of nothing but the moon. I have such a moon. Day and night I am held in the grip of one besetting thought, to write, write, write!

"Hardly have I finished one book than something urges me to write another, and then a third, and then a fourth—I write ceaselessly. I am, as it were, on a treadmill. I hurry for ever from one story to another, and can't help myself. Do you see anything bright and beautiful in that?

"Oh, it is a wild life! Even now, thrilled as I am by talking to you, I do not forget for an instant that an unfinished story is awaiting me. My eye falls on that cloud there, which has the shape of a grand piano; I instantly make a mental note that I must remember to mention in my story a cloud floating by that looked like a grand piano. I smell heliotrope; I mutter to myself: a sickly smell, the colour worn by widows; I must remember that in writing my next description of a summer evening. I catch an idea in every sentence of yours or of my own, and hasten to lock all these treasures in my literary store-room, thinking that some day they may be useful to me.

"As soon as I stop working I rush off to the theatre or go fishing, in the hope that I may find oblivion there, but no! Some new subject for a story is sure to come rolling through my brain like an iron cannonball. I hear my desk calling, and have to go back to it and begin to write, write, write, once more. And so it goes for everlasting.

"I cannot escape myself, though I feel that I am consuming my life. To prepare the honey I feed to unknown crowds, I am doomed to brush the bloom from my dearest flowers, to tear them from their stems, and trample the roots that bore them under foot.

"Am I not a madman? Should I not be treated by those who know me as one mentally diseased? Yet it is always the same, same old story, till I begin to think that all this praise and admiration must be a deception, that I am being hoodwinked because they know I am crazy, and I sometimes tremble lest I should be grabbed from behind and whisked off to a lunatic asylum.

"The best years of my youth were made one continual agony for me by my writing. A young author, especially if at first he does not make a success, feels clumsy, ill-at-ease, and superfluous in the world. His nerves are all on edge and stretched to the point of breaking; he is irresistibly attracted to literary and artistic people, and hovers about them unknown and unnoticed, fearing to look them bravely in the eye, like a man with a passion for gambling, whose money is all gone.

"I did not know my readers, but for some reason I imagined they were distrustful and unfriendly; I was mortally afraid of the public, and when my first play appeared, it seemed to me as if all the dark eyes in the audience were looking at it with enmity, and all the blue ones with cold indifference. Oh, how terrible it was! What agony!"

from The Seagull, by Anton Checkov.

Anton Apocalypse Seagull

"O, ye time-honoured, ancient mists that drive at night across the surface of this lake, blind you our eyes with sleep, and show us in our dreams that which will be in twice ten thousand years!...

"The curtain rises. A vista opens across the lake. The moon hangs low above the horizon and is reflected in the water. NINA, dressed in white, is seen seated on a great rock.

"NINA. All men and beasts, lions, eagles, and quails, horned stags, geese, spiders, silent fish that inhabit the waves, starfish from the sea, and creatures invisible to the eye—in one word, life—all, all life, completing the dreary round imposed upon it, has died out at last. A thousand years have passed since the earth last bore a living creature on her breast, and the unhappy moon now lights her lamp in vain. No longer are the cries of storks heard in the meadows, or the drone of beetles in the groves of limes. All is cold, cold. All is void, void, void. All is terrible, terrible—

[A pause]

"The bodies of all living creatures have dropped to dust, and eternal matter has transformed them into stones and water and clouds; but their spirits have flowed together into one, and that great world-soul am I! In me is the spirit of the great Alexander, the spirit of Napoleon, of Caesar, of Shakespeare, and of the tiniest leech that swims. In me the consciousness of man has joined hands with the instinct of the animal; I understand all, all, all, and each life lives again in me.

[The will-o-the-wisps flicker out along the lake shore.]

"... I am alone. Once in a hundred years my lips are opened, my voice echoes mournfully across the desert earth, and no one hears. And you, poor lights of the marsh, you do not hear me. You are engendered at sunset in the putrid mud, and flit wavering about the lake till dawn, unconscious, unreasoning, unwarmed by the breath of life. Satan, father of eternal matter, trembling lest the spark of life should glow in you, has ordered an unceasing movement of the atoms that compose you, and so you shift and change for ever. I, the spirit of the universe, I alone am immutable and eternal.

[A pause]

"Like a captive in a dungeon deep and void, I know not where I am, nor what awaits me. One thing only is not hidden from me: in my fierce and obstinate battle with Satan, the source of the forces of matter, I am destined to be victorious in the end. Matter and spirit will then be one at last in glorious harmony, and the reign of freedom will begin on earth. But this can only come to pass by slow degrees, when after countless eons the moon and earth and shining Sirius himself shall fall to dust. Until that hour, oh, horror! horror! horror!

[A pause. Two glowing red points are seen shining across the lake]

"Satan, my mighty foe, advances; I see his dread and lurid eyes...He longs for man..."

from The Seagull, by Anton Checkov.

Celtic Blessings and Prayers.

Celtic Blessings and Prayers

Traditional Gaelic Blessing

May the road rise up to meet you.

May the wind be always at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your face;

the rains fall soft upon your fields

and until we meet again,

may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Blessed Be

(ancient Celtic blessing)

May the blessing of light be on you - light without and light within.

May the blessed sunlight shine on you like a great peat fire,

so that stranger and friend may come and warm himself at it.

And may light shine out of the two eyes of you,

like a candle set in the window of a house,

bidding the wanderer come in out of the storm.

And may the blessing of the rain be on you,

may it beat upon your Spirit and wash it fair and clean,

and leave there a shining pool where the blue of Heaven shines,

and sometimes a star.

And may the blessing of the earth be on you,

soft under your feet as you pass along the roads,

soft under you as you lie out on it, tired at the end of day;

and may it rest easy over you when, at last, you lie out under it.

May it rest so lightly over you that your soul may be out from under it quickly;

up and off and on its way to God.

And now may the Lord bless you, and bless you kindly.

Amen.

Celtic Blessing

May you have -

Walls for the wind

And a roof for the rain,

And drinks bedside the fire

Laughter to cheer you

And those you love near you,

And all that your heart may desire

An Old Wedding Blessing

May God be with you and bless you.

May you see your children's children.

May you be poor in misfortune, rich in blessings.

May you know nothing but happiness

From this day forward

Traditional Blessing

May there always be work for your hands to do.

May your purse always hold a coin or two.

May the sun always shine upon your window pane.

May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain.

May the hand of a friend always be near to you and

May God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.

from Celtic Blessings and Prayers.

Wisdom of Rabindranath Tagore

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.
------

Never be afraid of the moments - thus sings the voice of the ever-lasting.
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Religion is not a fractional thing that can be doled out in fixed weekly or daily measures as one among various subjects in the school syllabus. It is the truth of our complete being, the consciousness of our personal relationship with the infinite; it is the true center of gravity of our life.
------

Religion, like poetry, is not a mere idea, it is expression. The self-expression of God is in the endless variety of creation; and our attitude toward the Infinite Being must also in its expression have a variety of individuality ceaseless and unending. Those sects which jealously build their boundaries with too rigid creeds excluding all spontaneous movement of the living spirit may hoard their theology but they kill religion.
-------

I believe in a spiritual world - not as anything separate from this world - but as its innermost truth. With the breath we draw we must always feel this truth, that we are living in God. Born in this great world, full of the mystery of the infinite, we cannot accept our existence as a momentary outburst of chance drifting on the current of matter toward an eternal nowhere.
------

Matter and force are unmeaning unless related to something infinitely personal, whose nature we have discovered, in some measure, in human love, in the greatness of the good, in the martyrdom of heroic souls, in the ineffable beauty of nature...

------Rabindranath Tagore

From Selected Quotes

Wisdom of Rumi

Love rests on no foundation.
It is an endless ocean,
with no beginning or end.
----

Out beyond ideas of rightdoing
and wrongdoing
There is a field.
I will meet you there.
----

Observe the wonders as they occur around you.
Don't claim them. Feel the artistry
moving through, and be silent.
----

I can't stop pointing
to the beauty.
Every moment and place says,
"Put this design in your carpet!"
----

There is a community of the spirit
Join it, and feel the delight
of walking in the noisy street,
and being the noise.
----

All day I think about it, then at night I say it. Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing? I have no idea. My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that, and I intend to end up there.
----

from Rumi - Wikiquote

Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi or مولانا جلال الدين محمد بلخى Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273) was a Persian philosopher, theologian, poet, teacher, and founder of the Mevlevi (or Mawlawi) order of Sufism; also known as Mevlana (Our Guide), Jalaluddin Rumi, or simply Rumi.

Slow Down, You Move Too Fast

"Slowing down is a conscious choice, and not always an easy one, but it leads to a greater appreciation for life and a greater level of happiness.

'Here’s how to do it.

'1. Do less...Focus on what’s really important, what really needs to be done, and let go of the rest...

'2. Be present...be mindful of whatever you’re doing at the moment...

'3. Disconnect...Being connected all the time means we’re subject to interruptions, we’re constantly stressed about information coming in, we are at the mercy of the demands of others...

'4. Focus on people...with conscious effort you can shut off the outside world and just be present with the person you’re with...really connect with people rather than just meeting with them...

'5. Appreciate nature...

'6. Eat slower...

'7. Drive slower...

'8. Find pleasure in anything...Whatever you’re doing, be fully present … and also appreciate every aspect of it, and find the enjoyable aspects. For example, when washing dishes, instead of rushing through it as a boring chore to be finished quickly, really feel the sensations of the water, the suds, the dishes...

'9. Single-task...Focus on one thing at a time...

'10. Breathe...By fully focusing on each breath, you bring yourself back to the present, and slow yourself down. It’s also nice to take a deep breath or two — do it now and see what I mean. :)..."

Read more in this post from Zen Habits from which the foregoing was quoted

a Prayer for the World

Let the rain come and wash away
the ancient grudges, the bitter hatreds
held and nurtured over generations.
Let the rain wash away the memory
of the hurt, the neglect.
Then let the sun come out and
fill the sky with rainbows.
Let the warmth of the sun heal us
wherever we are broken.
Let it burn away the fog so that
we can see each other clearly.
So that we can see beyond labels,
beyond accents, gender or skin color.
Let the warmth and brightness
of the sun melt our selfishness.
So that we can share the joys and
feel the sorrows of our neighbors.
And let the light of the sun
be so strong that we will see all
people as our neighbors.
Let the earth, nourished by rain,
bring forth flowers
to surround us with beauty.
And let the mountains teach our hearts
to reach upward to heaven.

Amen.

a prayer for the world - rabbi harold kushner - 2003

from World Prayers - Prayer Archive (prayers from all traditions)

Never One More Drop

There was in Thule olden
A king true till the grave,
To whom a beaker golden
His dying mistress gave.

Naught prized he more, this lover,
He drained it at each bout;
His eyes with tears brimmed over,
As oft he drank it out.

And when he came to dying,
His towns and his lands he told,
Naught else his heir denying
Except the beaker of gold.

Around him knight and vassal,
At a royal feast sat he
In his fathers' lofty castle,
The castle by the sea.

There the old pleasure-seeker
Drank, standing, life's last glow,
Then hurled the sacred beaker
Into the waves below.

He saw it plunging, drinking,
And sinking in the sea,
And so his eyes were sinking,
Never one drop more drank he.

Song by Margarete in Goethe's Faust

Gift of the Spirit

"The source of all love is God's unlimited, unconditional, perfect love...This love is not far away from us but is the gift of God's Spirit dwelling within us."

"The Spirit reveals to us not only that God is 'Abba, Father' but also that we belong to God as his beloved children. The Spirit thus restores in us the relationship from which all other relationships derive their meaning.

"Abba is a very intimate word. The best translation for it is: 'Daddy.' The word Abba expresses trust, safety, confidence, belonging, and most of all intimacy. It does not have the connotation of authority, power, and control, that the word Father often evokes. On the contrary, Abba implies an embracing and nurturing love. This love includes and infinitely transcends all the love that comes to us from our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, spouses, and lovers. It is the gift of the Spirit."

Henri Nouwen

Holy Land Pilgrimage Video

Reflections in pictures taken by me and a fellow pilgrim on a Holy Land adventure in Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories during May, 2009.

Nine Tantric Stages and Five Dhyani Buddhas

The Nine Tantric Stages and Five Dhyani Buddhas in Nyingma Tibet
by Mike Brooks through Professor Rev. Dr. James Kenneth Powell II, opensourcebuddhism.org This presents the evolution of a being from entrance to the Buddhist path, to the peak position at the Nine Stage of Tantric Practice, culminating in visions of the Five Dhyani or Meditated Buddhas. Just beautiful to watch.

The Tibetan Book of the Dead: Liberation through Hearing
The Tibetan Book of the Dead: Liberation through Hearing in the Intermediate Zone by Joe Schaeppi through Professor Rev. Dr. James Kenneth Powell II, opensourcebuddhism.org We receive an introduction to the stages of death, dying and rebirth and the process of attaining liberation through hearing - while dead - from a long line of Indian and Tibetan literature.

From this Buddhism Video collection.

the Perennial Philosophy

"At the core of the Perennial Philosophy we find four fundamental doctrines.

"First: the phenomenal world of matter and of individualized consciousness--the world of things and animals and men and even gods--is the manifestation of a Divine Ground within which all partial realities have their being, and apart from which they would be non-existent.

"Second: human beings are capable not merely of knowing about the Divine Ground by inference; they can also realize its existence by a direct intuition, superior to discursive reasoning. This immediate knowledge unites the knower with that which is known.

"Third: man possesses a double nature, a phenomenal ego and an eternal Self, which is the inner man, the spirit, the spark of divinity within the soul. It is possible for a man, if he so desires, to identify himself with the spirit and therefore with the Divine Ground, which is of the same or like nature with the spirit.

"Fourth: man’s life on earth has only one end and purpose: to identify himself with his eternal Self and so to come to unitive knowledge of the Divine Ground."

--Aldous Huxley's introduction to the Bhagavad Gita

Dharmadude unplugged

Ten affirmations of Dharmacharya Gurudas Sunyatananda,

"I am abundant in every aspect of my life
I have abundant energy, vitality and well-being.
I follow every breath with gentle awareness.
I bring awareness to my body. When I sit I know I am sitting. When I eat, I know I am eating.
When the mind is still, the Silence will guide me.
Om bhur bhuva swaha, tat savitur varenyam, bhargo devasya dhimahi, dhiyo yonah prachodyat
I am responsible for my own Spiritual Growth.
My inner vision is always clear and focused.
I radiate love and happiness.
When someone needs me to listen, I listen with empathy and understanding."

Explaining the sixth affirmation:

"That affirmation is actually called the Gâyatrî Mantra, and was first recorded in the Rig Veda, about 3000 years ago; although it has more likely been used for hundreds of years further back than that.

The word Gâyatrî is a combination of Sanskrit words: gaya (vital energy) and trâyate (that which preserves or leads to Enlightenment). Thus, the words “Gâyatrî Mantra” might be translated as: an instrument of thought that awakens the vital energies and gives liberation.

Sri Aurobindo, in Hymns to the Mystic Fire, wrote:

"We have to invoke the gods by the inner sacrifice, and by the word call them unto us - that is the specific power of the Mantra, - to offer to them the gifts of the sacrifice and by that giving secure their gifts, so that by this process we may build the way of our ascent to the goal... We give what we are and what we have in order that the riches of the Divine Truth and Light may descend into our life."

"A literal translation from the Sanskrit would be:

"Om - Om (Sunyata, that which is inexpressible and Is the Numenal Reality)
tat - that (referring to Savitri, Paramatma, the Divine Essence)
savitur - (mw1190) - Savitri, the Spiritual Sun (the all-pervading Consciousness)

"'O nourishing Sun, solitary traveler, controller, source of life for all creatures, spread your light and subdue your dazzling splendor so that I may see your blessed Self. Even that very Self am I!'
-Isa Upanishad (16)

"varenyam - most excellent, adorable, fit to be worshipped, venerable, worthy of being sought
bhargo - radiance, effulgence, splendor (the light that bestows understanding)
devasya - divine essence
dhîmahi - we meditate upon... or may we meditate upon, reflect upon, be devoted to
dhiyo - prayer, noble thoughts, intuition, understanding of Reality (buddhis)
yo - the one who
nah - our, of us
prachodayât - may it energize, direct, inspire, guide, unfold...

"Translated into a non-theistic, universal and postmodern language, the mantra says:
'We meditate upon the radiant Divine Light of that adorable Sun of Spiritual Consciousness; May it awaken our intuitional consciousness.'

"As with all spiritual practices, this is a vehicle for intent. The stronger and greater the intent, the stronger and greater the results."

A Mother's Anguish

"The heads of Nisus and his friend he shows,
Rais'd high on pointed spears- a ghastly sight...
Soon hasty fame thro' the sad city bears
The mournful message to the mother's ears.
An icy cold benumbs her limbs; she shakes;
Her cheeks the blood, her hand the web forsakes.
She runs the rampires round amidst the war,
Nor fears the flying darts; she rends her hair,
And fills with loud laments the liquid air.

'Thus, then, my lov'd Euryalus appears!
Thus looks the prop my declining years!
Was't on this face my famish'd eyes I fed?
Ah! how unlike the living is the dead!
And could'st thou leave me, cruel, thus alone?
Not one kind kiss from a departing son!
No look, no last adieu before he went,
In an ill-boding hour to slaughter sent!
Cold on the ground, and pressing foreign clay,
To Latian dogs and fowls he lies a prey!
Nor was I near to close his dying eyes,
To wash his wounds, to weep his obsequies,
To call about his corpse his crying friends,
Or spread the mantle (made for other ends)
On his dear body, which I wove with care,
Nor did my daily pains or nightly labor spare.
Where shall I find his corpse? what earth sustains
His trunk dismember'd, and his cold remains?
For this, alas! I left my needful ease,
Expos'd my life to winds and winter seas!
If any pity touch Rutulian hearts,
Here empty all your quivers, all your darts;
Or, if they fail, thou, Jove, conclude my woe,
And send me thunderstruck to shades below!'"

--Virgil, The Aeneid, Book IX, Dryden translation

A Bug in a Bowl

Man, living in the dust
is like a bug trapped in a bowl.
All day he scrabbles round and round,
but never escapes the bowl that holds him.
The immortals are beyond his reach,
his craving has no end,
while months and years flow by like a river
until in an instant he has grown old.


Another Translation:

Man’s life in this dust-clouded world
Is just like a bug in a bowl
He spends all day going round and round
But he does not leave that bowl
The Gods and undying he cannot reach
Unnumbered illusions afflict him
Years and months are like water that flows
And then, in an instant, he is old

--Han Shan Cold Mountain

The Art of Happiness: Audio by HH Dalai Lama

Download, share.

The Wisdom of Rumi

"The poetry of Jalal ad-din Muhammad Rumi speaks the universal language of love, faith, and tolerance, and he has been hailed by numerous literary authorities as one of the greatest poets of all time. His words have rung out for more than 800 years, resonating with readers around the world and transcending all religions with his common themes of unity and faith in God’s will.

"Millions turn to Rumi’s words for inspiration, strength, and peace. Rumi, a follower of the mystical Sufi branch of Islam, presented visions of the world centuries ago that hold true today. Whether you’re looking for a soul-inspiring image or for wisdom on human nature, Rumi’s poetry has something for you."

Beliefnet.com has chosen some of the most beautiful and wise Rumi quotes to share with you, including the following:
1.
It is love that brings happiness to people.
It is love that gives joy to happiness.
My mother didn't give birth to me, that love did.
A hundred blessings and praises to that love.
2.
Vain, boastful talk repels acts of kindness
and tears the branch of mercy from the trunk of the tree.
Speak honestly or else be silent,
and then behold grace and delight in it.
-- Mathnawi [III, 751-752]
3.
By the mercy of God, Paradise has eight doors —
one of those is the door of repentance, child.
All the others are sometimes open, sometimes shut;
but the door of repentance is never closed.
Come seize the opportunity: the door is open;
-- Mathnawi [IV, 2506-2508]

Prayer for Australia

'For all around the world who stumble across this post, please pray for the hundreds of folks who have been displaced after their homes have been destroyed. And also for all who have been injured or passed away during these tragic circumstances (including their family members and friends).

'All things look to you, O Lord;
to give them their food in due season:
look with mercy on your people, made in your image,
and hear our prayer for those whose lives and possessions
are threatened or have been destroyed
by these terrible floods in northern Queensland and bushfires in rural Victoria.
In your mercy restore your creation and heal our land.
For those in the emergency services,
give them physical and moral strength in their tasks that lie ahead.
And guide and bless your people and this land,
in these dark days ahead,
that we may look forward to the future
where we may once again enjoy the fruits of this earth
and give you thanks with grateful hearts.'

from Fides Quaerens Intellectum.

God's Unconditional Love

What can we say about God's love? We can say that God's love is unconditional. God does not say, "I love you, if ..." There are no ifs in God's heart. God's love for us does not depend on what we do or say, on our looks or intelligence, on our success or popularity. God's love for us existed before we were born and will exist after we have died.

God's love is from eternity to eternity and is not bound to any time-related events or circumstances. Does that mean that God does not care what we do or say? No, because God's love wouldn't be real if God didn't care. To love without condition does not mean to love without concern. God desires to enter into relationship with us and wants us to love God in return.

Let's dare to enter into an intimate relationship with God without fear, trusting that we will receive love and always more love.

---Henri Nouwen

Our Birth is but a Sleep

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar

from Intimations of Immortality by William Wordsworth

A Buddhist Bible

"One of the favorite books of the Beat writers, particularly the ultimate 'Dharma Bum' Jack Kerouac, A Buddhist Bible has had a huge influence on the growth of Buddhism in the English-speaking world in the 20th century and beyond. This etext was scanned and proofed from an autographed copy of the first edition.

"The first edition, which was tightly focused on source documents of Zen Buddhism, was self-published in Vermont by Goddard and had 316 pages. Subsequently, a second revised and greatly enlarged edition of 677 pages was published in 1938 by E.P. Dutton (New York), and later republished by Beacon Press. The second edition, which has been in print ever since, covers a much wider range of Buddhist texts including Southern Buddhism, some related documents such as the Tao te Ching, and modern texts. The reprint also includes introductions by Robert Aitken and Huston Smith.

"Goddard, particularly in this first edition, took the best available translation of key documents and edited them heavily to eliminate repetitious passages and extraneous material. So this is a readers edition, not a critical edition, of these texts. However, he did nothing to water down or simplify the message of the sutras; quite the contrary. One can read this book repeatedly and still come back with new insights on each reading."

Native American Prayers

Prayer to the Great Spirit

Oh, Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the wind,
Whose breath gives life to all the world.
Hear me; I need your strength and wisdom.

Let me walk in beauty,
and make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset.

Make my hands respect the things you have made
and my ears sharp to hear your voice

Make me wise so that I may understand
the things you have taught my people.

Help me to remain calm and strong
in the face of all that comes towards me.

Let me learn the lessons you have hidden
in every leaf and rock.

Help me seek pure thoughts
and act with the intention of helping others.

Help me find compassion
without empathy overwhelming me.

I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother,
but to fight my greatest enemy,
Myself.

Make me always ready to come to you
with clean hands and straight eyes.

So when life fades, as the fading sunset,
my spirit may come to you without shame.


As I Walk with Beauty

As I walk, as I walk
The universe is walking with me
In beauty it walks before me
In beauty it walks behind me
In beauty it walks below me
In beauty it walks above me
Beauty is on every side
As I walk, I walk with beauty.

---Traditional Navajo Prayer


Cherokee Prayer Blessing

May the warm winds of Heaven
Blow softly upon your house.
May the Great Spirit
Bless all who enter there.
May your moccasins
Make happy tracks
in many snows,
and may the rainbow
Always touch your shoulder.

from this buddhistfaith.tripod.com page

On Spiritual Contemplation

"In many traditions, the word "spirit" refers to life-force, the basic energy of being. Symbolically, spirit is the breath of life. The Hebrew ruah, Greek pneuma, Latin spiritus, and Sanskrit prajna all mean both "breath" and "spirit."

"Traditionally, this life force is seen as manifest in our love--in the passions and inspirations that motivate us and connect us with the world and with one another...the fundamental propelling forces of our lives, our most profound loves, passions and concerns...the source of our deepest desires, values and dreams...the fundamental energy source that fuels all our emotions, relationships, work, and everything else we consider meaningful...like a deep ocean current, often unseen, but flowing through all our experience, moving us to seek fulfillment and connectedness, impelling us towards truth, goodness and beauty...

"Spirituality can be considered synonymous with love--not necessarily the feeling of love, nor the good works that spring from love, but the energy of love itself, before it is given any attributes or commentary...

"People express their spirituality...in the three main ways of knowing, acting and feeling. Christian philosophy associates these ways with attributes of God. God is ultimate Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, and these qualities of the Divine draw people along the Way of the True, the Way of the Good, and the Way of the Beautiful. Each of the ways find some expression in everyone, but at any given time an individual is likely to be more attracted to one than to the others.

"Each of these ways can be an authentic expression of love. The Way of the True...involves intimate knowing and clear understanding...

"The Way of the Good expresses love through action, doing the righteous thing, seeking to be of service and to promote justice...helping the poor, visiting the sick, peacemaking and social action...

"The Way of the Beautiful experiences love in the form of feelings and devotion...passion, empathy and intimacy...sensed experience of relationship with God...praise, thanksgiving, and adoration...the aesthetic and inspirational aspects of worship and the moving, heartfelt passages of scripture.

Contemplation

"Although the spiritual life may take many forms, it is always and foremost about love. Perhaps the most profound and pure experience of this love occurs in what the traditions refer to as contemplation...a particular kind of experience, usually occurring in the context of prayer. It is a sheer experience of loving presence...finding God in all things and all things in God...'the loving gaze that finds God everywhere'...directly perceiving and lovingly responding to things as they really are...an all-embracing quality of presence...all our thoughts and actions...joined together in prayerful openness and loving responsiveness...a simple willingness to be open to God's movements, leadings, and invitations..."

From this contemplative spirituality monograph of The Shalem Institute.

Contemplative Prayer: One Step Beyond

"Christian life and growth are founded on faith in our own basic goodness, in the being that God has given us with its transcendent potential. This gift of being is our true Self. Through our consent by faith, Christ is born in us and He and our true Self become one. Our awakening to the presence and action of the Spirit is the unfolding of Christ's resurrection in us.

"All true prayer is based on the conviction of the presence of the Spirit in us and his unfailing and continual inspiration...the Spirit prays in us and we consent. The traditional term for this kind of prayer is contemplation...

"Contemplative prayer is not so much the absence of thoughts as detachment from them. It is the opening of mind and heart, body and emotions - our whole being - to God, the Ultimate Mystery, beyond words, thoughts and emotions - beyond, in other words, the pychological content of the present moment..."

--- Father Thomas Keating in Open Mind, Open Heart

The Old Baltimore Catechism

If you grew up with the old Baltimore Catechism like I did, you may think of it as a timeless classic or as something else altogether. Either way, the Catholic faith that was believed when the Baltimore Catechism was written, is the same faith that is believed today. Its question and answer format catechism will be useful to anyone who wants to better know the faith of the Catholic Church.

An Introduction to the Baltimore Catechism
The Baltimore Catechism, Part 1
The Baltimore Catechism, Part 2
The Baltimore Catechism, Part 3

Exercises for Your Awakening

"We must be the change we want to see in the world." —Gandhi

The best way of assimilating the teachings of A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle is through reading and re-reading the book. As Eckhart says on page 6, "As you read, a shift takes place within you." Some people appreciate tools and practices to help them develop still and alert attention. The practices found at A New Earth: Exercises for Your Awakening can help you "be the change" that Eckhart describes in A New Earth.

Please remember that all practices are, as the Zen teaching says, "the finger pointing at the moon," and not the moon itself. Be easy on yourself (and with the people around you!) as you learn new practices and make changes in your life. All of the practices are suited for you alone, or they can be read aloud to a friend or in a group.

A Short History of the World

H.G. Wells’s two-volume Outline of History, published in 1920, was the first general history constructed on an evolutionary, sociological and anthropological basis. It was immensely popular and set the basis for this Short History of the World, which Wells created “to meet the needs of the busy general reader, too driven to study the maps and time charts of that Outline in detail, who wishes to refresh and repair his faded or fragmentary conceptions of the great adventure of mankind.”

Some excerpts:

"Gautama Buddha

"The Indian mind has always been disposed to believe that power and knowledge may be obtained by extreme asceticism, by fasting, sleeplessness, and self-torment, and these ideas Gautama now put to the test. He betook himself with five disciple companions to the jungle and there he gave himself up to fasting and terrible penances. His fame spread, 'like the sound of a great bell hung in the canopy of the skies.' But it brought him no sense of truth achieved. One day he was walking up and down, trying to think in spite of his enfeebled state. Suddenly he fell unconscious. When he recovered, the preposterousness of these semi-magical ways to wisdom was plain to him.

"He horrified his companions by demanding ordinary food and refusing to continue his mortifications. He had realized that whatever truth a man may reach is reached best by a nourished brain in a healthy body. Such a conception was absolutely foreign to the ideas of the land and age. His disciples deserted him, and went off in a melancholy state to Benares. Gautama wandered alone.

"When the mind grapples with a great and intricate problem, it makes its advances step by step, with but little realization of the gains it has made, until suddenly, with an effect of abrupt illumination, it realizes its victory. So it happened to Gautama. He had seated himself under a great tree by the side of a river to eat, when this sense of clear version came to him. It seemed to him that he saw life plain. He is said to have sat all day and all night in profound thought, and then he rose up to impart his vision to the world....


"Confucious and Lao Tse

"Confucius was a man of aristocratic origin and some official importance in a small state called Lu. Here in a very parallel mood to the Greek impulse he set up a sort of Academy for discovering and teaching Wisdom. The lawlessness and disorder of China distressed him profoundly. He conceived an ideal of a better government and a better life, and travelled from state to state seeking a prince who would carry out his legislative and educational ideas....

"Confucius died a disappointed man. 'No intelligent ruler arises to take me as his master,' he said, 'and my time has come to die.' But his teaching had more vitality than he imagined in his declining and hopeless years, and it became a great formative influence with the Chinese people. It became one of what the Chinese call the Three Teachings, the other two being those of Buddha and of Lao Tse.

"The gist of the teaching of Confucius was the way of the noble or aristocratic man. He was concerned with personal conduct as much as Gautama was concerned with the peace of self-forgetfulness and the Greek with external knowledge and the Jew with righteousness. He was the most public-minded of all great teachers. He was supremely concerned by the confusion and miseries of the world, and he wanted to make men noble in order to bring about a noble world. He sought to regulate conduct to an extraordinary extent; to provide sound rules for every occasion in life. A polite, public-spirited gentleman, rather sternly self-disciplined, was the ideal he found already developing in the northern Chinese world and one to which he gave a permanent form.


"The teaching of Lao Tse, who was for a long time in charge of the imperial library of the Chou dynasty, was much more mystical and vague and elusive than that of Confucius. He seems to have preached a stoical indifference to the pleasures and powers of the world and a return to an imaginary simple life of the past. He left writings very contracted in style and very obscure. He wrote in riddles. After his death his teachings, like the teachings of Gautama Buddha, were corrupted and overlaid by legends and had the most complex and extraordinary observances and superstitious ideas grafted upon them... Both Buddhism and Taoism (which ascribes itself largely to Lao Tse) as one finds them in China now, are religions of monk, temple, priest and offering of a type as ancient in form, if not in thought, as the sacrificial religions of ancient Sumeria and Egypt. But the teaching of Confucius was not so overlaid because it was limited and plain and straightforward and lent itself to no such [changes]...

"The Teaching of Jesus

"...Jesus was a penniless teacher, who wandered about the dusty sun-bit country of Judea, living upon casual gifts of food..teaching a new and simple and profound doctrine—namely, the universal loving Fatherhood of God and the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven...He went about the country for three years spreading his doctrine and then he came to Jerusalem and was accused of trying to set up a strange kingdom in Judea; he was tried upon this charge, and crucified together with two thieves. Long before these two were dead his sufferings were over.


The doctrine of the Kingdom of Heaven, which was the main teaching of Jesus, is certainly one of the most revolutionary doctrines that ever stirred and changed human thought...a bold and uncompromising demand for a complete change and cleansing of the life of our struggling race, an utter cleansing, without and within...

"God, he taught, was no bargainer; there were no chosen people and no favourites in the Kingdom of Heaven. God was the loving father of all life, as incapable of showing favour as the universal sun. And all men were brothers—sinners alike and beloved sons alike—of this divine father...The whole kingdom of Heaven was to be the family of his followers...He stretched forth his hands towards his disciples, and said, 'Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.'

"...He was like some terrible moral huntsman digging mankind out of the snug burrows in which they had lived hitherto. In the white blaze of this kingdom of his there was to be no property, no privilege, no pride and precedence; no motive indeed and no reward but love...For to take him seriously was to enter upon a strange and alarming life, to abandon habits, to control instincts and impulses, to essay an incredible happiness."