Mormon Women Protest by Wearing Pants

In a move to assert their rights in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and to bring attention to gender inequalities, Mormon women put out a call to wear pants to church. We may think of women as having achieved parity in many sectors of American society, but in religious institutions women often find themselves caught in the backdraft of ancient traditions and historical precedents.

In my own Jewish tradition, for example, women have found themselves arrested by Israeli police simply for wearing a prayer shawl (talit) while praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. In fact, there is nothing in Jewish law that would prevent women from doing this: it’s simply a custom that men in authority don’t like.

This is another example of religious institutions trailing behind other sectors of society in promoting economic and social progress. In the modern world, organized religion has in fact mostly stood as an impediment to the expansion of freedom and to cultural advancement. In contrast, spiritual thought and practice is much more attuned to the unfolding consciousness that is very gradually bringing humanity to a higher state of awareness and living.

Thanks to these Mormon women for helping humanity move forward just a little bit further.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/20/us/19mormon.html?_r=0

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/20/us/19mormon.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20121220&_r=1&

 

 

 

Looking at Myself

When I meditate, I look at myself. I watch myself breathe, sit, listen. So who is the one breathing, sitting, listening? Who is the one watching all this? I realize that I am neither the doer nor the watcher. I am the one who contains both the watcher and the doer. I exist somewhere else in another place, in another home, of which all this is but a small part.

We are each so small and so large, so near and so far. No/thing contains us, and we contain all that is.  We are right next to ourselves, yet an eternity away. We are bodies and DNA scrolls crossing space and time, conveying new stories as we compose poetry in energy, condensing and scattering, then reformulating ourselves in new patterns and structures, like a living kaleidoscope.

Thinking is a Scion of Feeling

Thinking is a scion of feeling, one of the senses, a metaphorical, symbolic realm filled with the vibrant colors of awareness, the smells of memory, the voices of inspiration, the touch of knowledge, and the light of clarity.

Shalom

Where do we find shalom? Inside ourselves, then exhaled as life-giving breath for others.

Being in Becoming

Being and becoming, two halves of a whole.  Most of us search for essence, for permanence, but forget that we only arrive there through movement, through change.  We must first learn to still ourselves while moving:  to be while becoming.

“God”

Instead of using a word for “God,” perhaps we should simply form an out breath–a glottal stop, like the Hebrew letter, “alef.”  When you want to say “God,” just speak with an exhalation.

Lunch in Erice

There are those moments–moments when you enter a gateway, and you feel the presence of God.  I remember Erice in Sicily:  eating a meal at a local restaurant, lingering, savoring the garlic, the olive oil and the pasta–and most of all the wine–cold, white, shimmering, crisp–Ambrosia, the best wine I ever tasted, the same for Dianne and for our friend Tony. Was it the wine, the town, the restaurant, or the moment with my wife and our friend? I don’t know, but it felt like heaven:  like a dream in which my senses put me deep underwater, gliding effortlessly, with no particular goal, just living fully.

Bodies in Flux

Who are we? Definable bodies? But human bodies are composed mostly of water and space. We are descendants of beings who lived in oceans, lakes, rivers, and streams. Our bodies are not solid, but fluid and open. Every day the cells in our bodies are born and die. Every seven years, we are composed of entirely new sets of cells. Why do we fix ourselves into an illusion of isolation and rigidity, as concrete form, frozen images, as if we are separate things? In fact, we are permeable, protean, one composed of many, continually transforming. Made in the image of God, we are no/thing, one through many, colored glass turning in a kaleidoscope, always in flux, movement in form.

Breathing

Rather than working to breathe, let yourselves be breathed. Then you’re not an I, but a We.

Earth Energy

Tapping into the earth’s energy is a lot easier than creating our own.

Lost in the Woods

When we’re lost in the woods, we can use a compass or follow a stream. When we’re lost in our lives, we can use the intuition of our gut and heart through which our true self and the Source speak.

Who is Adam?

Who is Adam? An androgynous being created from the earth’s soil. We are all Adam, part of the earth.

Health as Way of Life

Health is not a state of being, but a way of life.

Holding Your Breath

Holding your breath is a way of putting your life on hold.

Feel Your Heart

Feel your heart, its beat, its warmth, your mind’s energy source.

Breath and the Life Force

To feel your breath is to feel the life force not only inside you, but inside all that is.

The First Adam

Gen 1:27: The first Adam was both female and male, bi-gendered, whole, integrated, one.

Breathing

Breathing is a rehearsal for both living and dying.

Find Your Own Rhythm

To live in rhythm is to dance to the beat of the Source. Find your own rhythm; it’s like no one else’s.

Breath, Words, Creation

Breath + words = creation (Gen 1)

Life and Death in Every Breath

There is life and death in every breath.

Rest

We all need to rest, and so does the earth. That’s why we have shabbat and why the earth has a sabbatical year.

Thought

Thinking is a part of feeling.

Body and the Self

The more you are aware of your body, the more you feel the energy that shapes your greater self.

Full Breath

Full breath means full life.

Adam’s Breath

The Source breathed life into Adam (Gen 2.7). Every time we exhale, we also bring life into others.

Cells in the Universe

Each of our cells contains a universe. We are each a cell in another universe.

Body and Mitzvah

Jewish tradition says that every part of our body corresponds to a mitzvah (a commandment). So, when our body is in proper attunement, we will then feel the presence of the Source and act accordingly.

Searching for Answers

Searching for answers is the heart’s way of leading you back to it.

An Atom Contains a Universe

Each atom contains a universe. Each cell contains millions of atoms. Each person contains millions of cells. We each carry an infinite number of worlds inside ourselves.

Breath of the Earth

There is always a humming sound even in the quietest places: this is the breath of the earth.

Jacob’s Ladder

Jacob’s ladder:going up-going down; inhaling-exhaling; holding-letting go; receiving-giving; living-dying (Gen 28.12).

Inhaling, Exhaling

Inhale-Exhale: breathe in-breathe out; go down-go up; hold-let go; receive-give; live-die.

Breathing

Breathing is three-dimensional: depth, height, width. So is life fully lived.

Our Greatest Accomplishments

Our greatest accomplishments are invisible to the eye, but felt by the heart and mind.

What Ultimately Matters

The most magnificent buildings and career accomplishments pale in significance before a smile, a hug, kindness, love, learning, wisdom.

Humans are Earth Beings

Humans are earth beings (Gen 2.7), created from millennia of terrestrial DNA. To connect with our bodies is to connect with our primal origins.

Breath

Breathing is life. Breathing is words. Conscious breathing draws us closer to creation.

Waking Anesthesia

Under waking anesthesia, life moves as a dream does. Time contracts. Moments take on greater meaning. Events do not flow from one to another, but from symbol to symbol, forming a poem and a painting.

What Underlies Existence

A beating heart, light breathing, oxygen, carbon, the earth, a puff of wind, the hum of life, gravity, quantum waves, dark matter: that which inconspicuously allows existence to exist.

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