Anxiety

Anxiety: millennial residue; protection, also subversion; when transformed, a gateway to self-discovery, community renewal.

Calm

Calm: Long-sought after, so difficult to attain, yet right in front of us.

Opening Our Eyes

Opening our eyes is often difficult, but worth it.

Meals as Holy

The Source is an honored guest at every meal. Show it hospitality by taking pleasure in good food and by eating with gusto (Gen 18).

We are not our Habits

We are not our habits, our patterns, or our roles. We are something else altogether.

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.

Crackling Fire

The crackling fire inside you is your passport.

Oneness

Many paths, many truths, One Source

Gulf of Mexico Disaster

Gulf disaster: When we wreak havoc on the earth, she vomits back.

Stability

Maintain stability in the face of volatility.

Learning Another Language

Learning another language is an acting exercise. You practice feeling yourself in another’s skin and move to a new beat.

Languages and Rhythm

Languages echo the pulsating rhythms of life. To speak or read another language is to feel another rhythm.

Life Pulses

Life pulses to a medley of rhythms.

Dreams Flow

Dreams flow from the warm currents of an unseen ocean.

Happiness in the 21st Century: Dalai Lama

http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2010/05/20/4315193-dalai-lama-21st-century-will-be-much-happier

An Oasis in the Wilderness

Sometimes I wander in a desert looking for an oasis. Other times, I have too much water to drink. Now I see: Staggering in the dry sand, I give the desert time to prepare my refreshment.

Breath

When I feel my breath, I feel the presence of the Source. Awake and asleep, I inhale and exhale divine scents.

Flexibility and Perservance

Flexibility–Perseverance: two sides of the same coin

A Door

Sometimes the door is open. Sometimes the door is closed. Sometimes you have to knock. Sometimes you have to open the door yourself. Sometimes you have to force the door open. Sometimes you have to find another door.

Light in Darkness

Even in the darkest places, there are little slivers of light. Seek them out and begin to heal the world.

Moving from Fragments to Wholes II

Integration and wisdom usually come from the experience of fragmentation, making “mistakes,” and feeling disappointment and pain. I don’t know of many integrated and wise persons who have not gone through a lot in life. So, in that sense, fragmentation is a gift that allows us to experience, or re-experience (if we are speaking from a karmic perspective), the learning of integration and wisdom.

Aleph

‎”Aleph” is a soundless Hebrew consonant. Perhaps it preceded Genesis 1:1, which is when the Kabbalists believed creation actually began–in silence before the light was scattered. The Bible actually begins with a “bet,” which is our “b” sound–the pressing and parting of lips.

Dream Symbols

Twisting subterranean hallways where symbols merge with life as we know it. A dream showing us the way.

Oh to be a Mountain

Oh to be a mountain calm in the midst of every storm!

Longing, Yearning

Longing, yearning, desiring for no longing, no yearning, no desiring. Just being.

Reviving the Dead

“I could revive the dead, but I have more difficulty reviving the living” (Rabbi Simcha Bunim and Menahem Mendl of Kotzk).

The Illusion of Certainty

We crave the illusion of certainty, but in reality even the smallest acts are a roll of the dice. Life itself is a calculated gamble. No outcome is guaranteed. Risk is an integral part of creation. Order and disorder coexist, as Torah describes right from the beginning of Genesis.

A Buddhist View of the Environment and Evolution

http://www.shambhalasun.com/sunspace/?p=16105

“In his recent book, The World We Have: A Buddhist Approach to Peace and Ecology (2008), the great Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh asserts that Buddhism, as a robust type of humanism, allows people to learn how to live on our planet not only responsibly, but with compassion and lovingkindness. …”

Meditation and Awareness

Meditation is awareness.  That’s all there is to it.

The Imperfection of Love: A Eulogy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nw0s4C0g5SM&feature=player_embedded

“‘Funeral’ is a new TV commerical launched by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) which looks at relationships in a different light, through a woman at her husband’s funeral. Ultimately, the TVC celebrates the beautiful imperfections that make a relationship perfect. …”

How to Build Neighborhoods

What if we built our neighborhoods around curves rather than straight lines?

The New Temple

Sacrifice at the Temple no longer happens. Rather it takes place inside us when we redirect our destructive urges toward healing and hope.

You and I

You and I: Where does one end and the other begin?

Words

Words are kindling for the fire that melts meaning into our being.

Are Religions Different Paths to the Same Wisdom?

Below is an interesting piece by Stephen Prothero. I agree with a lot of what Prothero says. The goals of different religions are not the same. Eliding the differences inevitably leads to misunderstanding others. For example, talking about who will be saved is a Christian question, which most in the world do not even share, because they are not interested in salvation at all. Christians are focused on the person of Jesus Christ, while Jews and Muslims are focused on texts and words. Talking about God makes no sense to many Buddhists. Many influenced by New Age approaches desire reincarnation, but Hindus want to liberate themselves from it, and Buddhists view it as ultimately an illusion. Confucians uphold political and social order, while Daoists are political and social minimalists. Plus the goal of sameness is not a goal that all share. Jews view themselves as different, and Christians and Muslims want others to be like them.

Where I disagree with Prothero is his idea that “God” or “wisdom” is not one. The fact that there are different goals and multiple truths does not negate the oneness in which we dwell. Oneness does not mean that we don’t share fundamental values (e.g. the Golden Rule) and share important spiritual outlooks. Further, the fact that we have different goals and purposes does not negate oneness. It just means that our definition of “oneness” and “unity” is too limited and narrow, since it does not make room for multiple truths, paradox, and contradiction. There are not two choices–difference or sameness. That’s a false dichotomy.

Idolatry is making an object, a person, or an idea into a fetish. That is what both sides of this debate do. The “lumpers” privilege commonality and sameness, while the “splitters” privilege separation and difference. In so doing, they end up defining “God” or a “higher power” or the ultimate energy or “nirvana” or “heaven” or “nature” or “wisdom” in simplistic and objectifying language. They cannot envision unity as complex, multivalent, or chaotic. But perhaps that is what the oneness of “God”–or whomever or whatever you prefer call it–is.

There is not one path or one truth, but many paths and many truths held together in a paradoxical unity.

In this regard, mystical approaches offer a lot, because, with the loss of the ego/self, paradox is not a problem to be solved, but a dynamic energy in which to live.

©Laurence H. Kant

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/04/25/separate_truths/?page=full

Rivalry

Rivalry misdirected leads to chaos. Rivalry channeled leads to civilization. Rivalry transformed leads to a new dawn.

Learning

We are here to learn.

Abraham Unaware

Why did it take Abraham so long to see the ram (Gen 22:13)? If he had looked up before he tried to slaughter Isaac, he would have seen the ram. Intent on his task, he was unconscious. If we stay awake, we will always see the ram.

Shabbat

Shabbat: Letting go of time.

The Senses

Grasp with your feet. Walk with your hands. See with your ears. Hear with your eyes. Think with your heart. Feel with your mind.

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