Your World Religions

2011-11-05T21:10:00.000-07:00

Welcome to World Religions
Welcome to the fascinating study of the world’s religions. Most college textbooks focus on history and doctrine rather than religious experience. This site supplements textbook knowledge with experiential literature and art. Consider the following statement by the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhist leader and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. In 'The Art of Happiness,' he writes:

"We each have a physical body, a mind, emotions. We are all born in the same way, and we all die. All of us want happiness and do not want to suffer. Looking at others from this standpoint rather than emphasizing secondary differences such as color, religion, or cultural background, allows me to have a feeling that I'm meeting someone just like me."

Studying the world's religions can open our eyes to the depths of our common humanity, or build walls of separation between us. It's our choice. I hope the readings in this site build bridges, not walls.

In an attempt to be objective about world religions, scholars are being objective about what is essentially a subjective experience! Therefore we should supplement our scholarly study with contact with the subjective experience of people who practice these religions. Let us remember that each religion is dear to the heart of its followers. People worship in fervent devotion to their most beloved form of deity. If these readings spark your interest, don’t stop here: go on to cultivate friendships with people of other faiths whenever you can.

Creation Stories

2007-08-10T13:35:00.000-07:00

(Jewish, Genesis 1)
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. The Spirit of God was moving over the waters. And God said, Let there be Light!. And there was light. And God saw that the light was Good.

(India, The Rig Veda)
When there was neither Being nor Not-Being, no sky, no heaven, nor what is beyond, what did it encompass? Where? In whose protection? What was this ocean of the deep unfathomable? Neither death nor immortality was there then, no sign of light or darkness. Only the One, who breathed, by its own power, and became Desire, first seed of mind....

(Enuma Elish, Ancient Babylon)
When there was no heaven, no earth, no height, no depth, no name; when Apsu, the fresh water, was alone, the first parent; and Tiamet, the salt water, had all in her womb; and there were no gods; the sweet and bitter were mingled together, no reed was woven, no rushes in the muddy water. The gods were nameless, natureless, futureless. Then, from Apsu and Tiamet, in the waters gods were born.

(Ancient Persia, Zoroaster's Zend Avesta)
The Light was above and the Darkness was below, and between the two was the Void. Ahuramazd was in the Light and Ahriman in the Darkness. The Lord of Light knew of the Lord of Darkness and his preparations for battle. But the Lord of Darkness knew not of the Lord of Light... Then, by the pure Word of the law, Ahuramazd overpowered Ahriman and hurled him back into the Darkness.

(Ancient Greek, Hesiod's Theogony)
Chaos was first of all, but next appeared broad-bosomed Earth, sure resting place for all the gods who live on snowy Mt. Olympus... Then from Chaos came black Night and Erebos, who soon gave birth to Day and Space. And Earth meanwhile, bore starry Heaven from her womb.

(Christian, John's Gospel)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through the Word. In Him was life, and the life was the light of humanity.

(India, Upanishads)
In the beginning was the sacred word, Om. All that ever was, all that is, and all that ever will be, was created through the sacred word, Om.

(Marshall Islands, South Pacific)
Long ago there was no land at all, only the ocean. But there was a God named Lowa who came down and made a magical sound, "Mmmmmmmmmmmmm", and all the islands were created.

(Mayan, Central America)
All was in suspense, calm, motionless, silent and still. The sky was empty... Then came the Word of Tepu and Gucamatz, the Forefathers, who were in the waters surrounded by light, hidden under green and blue feathers. They were great sages... They created the Earth. "Earth!" they said, and instantly it was made.

(Maori, New Zealand)
Io dwelt within the breath of immensity. All was in watery darkness, no glimmer of dawn. And he said: "Darkness, become a shining darkness!" And at once, light appeared.

(Scandinavian, The Kalavala)
Of old there was nothing, no sand nor sea nor cool waves. No earth, nor heaven above. Only the yawning abyss. The sun knew not her dwelling nor the moon his realm. The stars had not their places.

(Hebrew Psalms)
By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all their hosts from the breath of his mouth.

(India, Puranas)
In the beginning, this universe was only the Self. He looked around and saw nothing but himself. Then he cried out, "I am He!" ("Ham'Sa"), whence came the name, I Am. That is why even today, when one is addressed, one answers, "I am..." and then announces the other name that one goes by. He was afraid. That is why people are afraid to be alone. He thought, "What am I afraid of? There is nothing but myself;" then his fear was gone.... He was unhappy. That is why people are unhappy when they are alone. He wanted a companion. He took the form of a woman and man embracing. He divided this form, which was himself, in two. From that came husband and wife...

(Africa)
In the beginning nothing was here where the world is now, nothing but darkness, water and wind. There were no people, only the spirits. It was a lonely place. Then the spirits made the earth and the sky. They made the earth in the form of a living woman and called her Mother. They made the sky in the form of a man and called him Father.

(Fulani tribe, Mawi)
In the beginning there was a huge drop of milk!

(Fon tribe, Africa)
The world was created by one God who is both male and female, whose name is Nana-Buluku. Nana-Buluku gave birth to twins who were named Mawu and Lisa, who ruled over the creation. To Mawu, the Woman, was given command of the Night. To Lisa, Man, command of the Day.

(Chinese)
At first there was nothing at all. Time passed, and nothing became Something. Time passed, and Something split in two. The two were Male and Female. These two produced two more, and these two produced Pan Ku, the first being, the great Person, the Creator.

(Japan)
At first, Heaven and Earth were not separate. The Yin and the Yang, the female and the male, were not divided. They were a formless mass, like an egg. The light clear part of the egg gradually became Heaven. The thick yolk gradually settled down and became Earth.

(Eskimo)
In the beginning, when there was nothing but water, God and the first Man moved about in the shape of two black geese over the ocean.

(Huron tribe, Native American)
In the beginning there was nothing but water, a wide sea, where spirits of animals lived before the earth was created. A woman fell from the sky. She was divine. Two loons, who were flying over the water, looked up and saw her falling. To save her from drowning, they placed their bodies beneath her. They called other animals to help. A turtle came and took her onto his back. Other animals, like frog and beaver, dove into the waters and brought up mud to make an island for her on the turtle's back. Thus they created this world, which is called Turtle Island.

Creation according to modern physics:

"The cosmic religious experience is the strongest and the noblest driving force behind scientific research." Einstein

"The vacuum of physics contains in its faculties everything that the laws of nature will permit. It fluctuates - the virtual particles come and go. The only thing they are missing is the energy it would take to make them appear as real particles. All that can appear in reality must be present as a possibility - as a state of virtual particles - in the vacuum. Add energy to the vacuum and those virtual states may appear as particles." (24)

"The physical vacuum... carries within itself the possibilities of everything that can exist in the physical world. Once we attain true knowledge of the vacuum, we will have a comprehensive knowledge of everything, including the laws of nature. It is as in the thinking of the ancient philosophers. The knowledge of the void, the "nothing," is intimately connected with the knowledge of the "something."... We take it as a matter of course that empty space is not really empty." (32)
_____________________________________________
Henning Genz, Nothingness: The Science of Empty Space, Perseus Publishing, Cambridge, Mass. 1998
(Genz is professor of theoretical physics at University of Karlsruhe, Germany)

Physics & Creation

2007-08-10T13:30:00.001-07:00

Quotes From The Great Physicists...
These too are creation stories!

"I am a scientist: I trace the lines that come from God."
(Einstein, letter to Gandhi)

"The cosmic religious experience is the strongest and the noblest driving force behind scientific research." (Einstein)

"The most beautiful system of the sun, planets and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being." (Isaac Newton)

"All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force... We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Mind. This Mind is the matrix of all matter." (Max Planck)

Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are a part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.” (Max Planck)

"God forever does geometry." (Plato, according to Plutarch).

"Nature's great book is written in mathematical language". (Gallileo)

"Modern physics has definitely decided for Plato. For the smallest units of matter are not physical objects in the ordinary sense of the word; they are forms, or in Plato's sense, Ideas, which can be unambiguously spoken of only in the language of mathematics." (Werner Heisenberg)

"The Great Architect of the Universe now begins to appear as a pure mathematician... The universe begins to look more like a great thought than a great machine." (Sir James Jeans, early founder of Quantum Theory)

".... a world created out of pure intelligence." (Sir James Jeans)

"All through the physical world runs that unknown content which must surely be the stuff of our consciousness.... The stuff of the world is mind-stuff." ( (Sir Arthur Eddington, early founders of Quantum Theory and president of the Royal Academy of Science - and a Quaker)

I assert that the nature of all reality is spiritual, not material nor a dualism of matter and spirit... I contemplate a spiritual domain underlying the physical world." (Arthur Eddington)

"The next revolution in physics will occur when the properties of mind will be included in the equations of quantum theory." (Eugene Wigner)

“For those of us who believe in physics, this separation between past, present and future is only an illusion.” (Einstein)

"The universe does not exist out there, independent of us. We are inescapably involved in bringing about that which appears to be happening. We are not only observers. We are participators. In some strange sense, this is a participatory universe." (John Wheeler)

"There is nothing in the world except empty curved space. Matter, charge, electromagnetism, and other fields are only manifestations of the curvature of space." (John Wheeler)

"Behind it all is surely an idea so simple, so beautiful, that when we grasp it we will all say to each other, how could it have been otherwise? How could we have been so stupid?"(John Wheeler)

"If you haven't found something strange during the day, it hasn't been much of a day." (John Wheeler)

John Wheeler, who died in 1995, was one of the 20th Century's most important teachers of physics, at Princeton and the University of Texas.

"The cosmos is also within us. We are made of stars. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself." (Carl Sagan)

"If you want to make an apple pie, you first have to create the universe." (Carl Sagan)

"The vacuum of physics contains in its faculties everything that the laws of nature will permit. It fluctuates - the virtual particles come and go. The only thing they are missing is the energy it would take to make them appear as real particles. All that can appear in reality must be present as a possibility - as a state of virtual particles - in the vacuum. Add energy to the vacuum and those virtual states may appear as particles." (Henning Genz) *

"The physical vacuum... carries within itself the possibilities of everything that can exist in the physical world. Once we attain true knowledge of the vacuum, we will have a comprehensive knowledge of everything, including the laws of nature. It is as in the thinking of the ancient philosophers. The knowledge of the void, the "nothing," is intimately connected with the knowledge of the "something."... We take it as a matter of course that empty space is not really empty." (Henning Genz) *
_____________________________________________
* Henning Genz, Nothingness: The Science of Empty Space, Perseus Publishing, Cambridge, Mass. 1998 (Genz is professor of theoretical physics at University of Karlsruhe, Germany)

Native American Experience

2007-08-10T13:25:00.000-07:00

1. Native American Christmas Story

Gather round children and let us teach you a song that helps us to remember the sacred things of our Grandfather and the reasons that He came to walk our Land, clothed in Red Dirt. We are excited to learn the things He accomplished for us, among us, and through us. We are most excited that all the ways we have walked before now pointed us to this moment, when we mere humans would be able to walk as sons and daughters of the Most Holy One.

Day #1

On the First day of Christmas, Grandfather gave to me... an Eagle sitting on a cedar tree. Remember children, the eagle climbs the highest and takes our prayers to the High places, and the eagle is Jesus, the One who was able also to climb to the sky world.

Day #2

On the second day of Christmas, Grandfather gave to me two wise owls Remember children that the owls represent both death and sacred messages from the Holy places… and in this song they represent the Old Testament and the New Laws that brought transformation and mercy.

Day #3

On the third day of Christmas, Grandfather gave to me three sacred drums: for the drums beat out the sound of our Mother Earth while we pray to the Grandfather. As you hear them beat, hear the Word creating the earth and the heavens.

Day #4

On the fourth day of Christmas, Grandfather gave to me four talking feathers: for the feathers remind us that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were given the talking feather by the Grandfather Himself, to tell His story to us all.

Day #5

On the fifth day of Christmas, Grandfather gave to me five prayer bundles (leather pouches of sacred leaves and herbs to hold while you pray), for we must remember that the Law did not vanish, and though we live by grace, the Law of Nature is still to be followed, and we humbly submit it as we offer our prayers.

Day #6

On the sixth day of Christmas, Grandfather gave to me six hawks a laying (For we celebrate the creation of our mother earth, and thank Him for giving us all life, through our prayers, often using the feathers of this creature to smudge ourselves in preparation of that prayer time).

Day #7

On the seventh day of Christmas, Grandfather gave to me seven stones for sweat lodge (For we must remember the gifts of the Spirit are seven fold, and we learn how to walk in these gifts through our awe and love of God, we do this praying in our lodges)

Day #8

On the eighth day of Christmas, Grandfather gave to me eight great buffalo. For we want to remember the beatitudes, the blessings of Jesus. The buffalo represent His provision for our health, our very existence, as did the blessings He invoked on the people, the meek, those who weep, and the poor.

Day #9

On the ninth day of Christmas, Grandfather gave to me nine precious elders. For as we sit at the feet of our elders we hear how we can walk in the fruits of the Holy Spirit. They have always taught these truths: we just didn't know that they were the same truths taught by the talking leaves the white men brought to us.

Day #10

On the tenth day of Christmas, Grandfather gave to me ten eagle dancers. For our eagle dancers sacrifice for the people during the Sun Dance, to protect the people, to keep the people in wholeness, just as the ten commandments were given to keep the people whole.

Day 11:

On the eleventh day of Christmas, Grandfather gave to me eleven braids of sweet grass sage. For as we light it and send the smell of sweet grass to the heavens, it invites those who dwell in the realm of the Grandfather to enter our world and help us. In this we remember the faithful disciples who stood ready to do His will and work.

Day 12:

On the twelfth day of Christmas, Grandfather gave to me twelve drummers singing. For the sacred drums cannot help us to pray if they do not have four drummers each to beat out the heartbeat of the earth to our God; and when our people are on the drum, we call it singing, we call it praying, because it is much more than just drumming.

Merry Christmas to all my relations! Ho!
____________________________________

2. The Vision Quest: Experience of Black Elk,
Lakota Sioux Warrior and Prophet

A Vision Quest is an experience of deeper understanding of Nature and Spirit. It is a ceremony practiced by American Indians. To prepare for this "insight" one must first cleanse the body and mind by going through a Inipi or sweat lodge. Then with the help of a Holy Man, the quester is given instructions for fasting and prayer. Then the quester must go to a sacred place in the wilderness, usually on a holy mountain, and stay 2 or 3 days. During this time no food is eaten and one does not sleep but spends the time in deep prayer and observation. Many times, but not always, there is a vision. This vision is then shared with the Holy Man to help learn of its meaning. The vision often provides a direction for the coming life, and a new adult name for the quester. Sometimes the meaning is not shown for several years afterward.
_________________________________________________________

This is part of a vision quest I was told to share with all who may be interested.
Once, I went to pray at the top of the sacred mountain of my ancestors.
As I climbed to the top I heard voices singing as the wind blew the leaves.
At the top I saw, made from many stones, a large circle with a cross inside.
I knew from my teachings that this represented the circle of life and the four directions.
I sat down by the edge of this circle to pray.
I thought this is only a symbol of the universe.
"True," a very soft voice said.
"Look and you will see the Center of the Universe.
Look at every created thing."
As I looked around I saw that every created thing had a thread of smoke or light going from it.
The voice whispered, "This cord that every created thing has is what connects it to the Creator.
Without this cord it would not exist."
As I watched I saw that all these threads, coming from everything, went to the center of the circle where the four directions were one place (the center of the cross).
I saw that all these threads were tied together or joined here at this spot.
The voice spoke again, "This is the Center of the Universe. The place where all things join together and all things become one. The place where everything begins and ends. The place inside everything created."
That's when I understood that all of creation, the seen and the unseen, was all related.
The voice spoke one last time, "Yes, now you know the Center of the Universe."
I pray to the four directions.....hear me.
I pray to the West which gives us rest and reflection.
I thank you for these gifts for without them we could not live.
I pray to the North which gives us patience and purity.
I thank you for these gifts for without them we could not live.
I pray to the East which gives us energy and emotions.
I thank you for these gifts for without them we could not live.
I pray to the South which gives us discipline and direction.
I thank you for these gifts for without them we could not live.
Grandmother, share with me your wisdom, and I thank you for this gift.
Grandfather, share with me your strength, and I thank you for this gift.
________________________________

3. The Navaho's Harmony with Nature
(from Willa Cather's 'Death Comes for the Archbishop')

When they left the rock or tree or sand dune that had sheltered
them for the night, the Navajo was careful to obliterate every
trace of their temporary occupation.  He buried the embers of the
fire and the remnants of food, unpiled any stones he had piled
together, filled up the holes he had scooped in the sand.  Since
this was exactly Jacinto's procedure, Father Latour judged that,
just as it was the white man's way to assert himself in any
landscape, to change it, make it over a little (at least to leave
some mark of memorial of his sojourn), it was the Indian's way to
pass through a country without disturbing anything; to pass and
leave no trace, like fish through the water, or birds through the
air.

It was the Indian manner to vanish into the landscape, not to stand
out against it.  The Hopi villages that were set upon rock mesas
were made to look like the rock on which they sat, were imperceptible
at a distance.  The Navajo hogans, among the sand and willows, were
made of sand and willows.  None of the pueblos would at that time
admit glass windows into their dwellings.  The reflection of the sun
on the glazing was to them ugly and unnatural--even dangerous.
Moreover, these Indians disliked novelty and change.  They came and
went by the old paths worn into the rock by the feet of their
fathers, used the old natural stairway of stone to climb to their
mesa towns, carried water from the old springs, even after white men
had dug wells.

In the working of silver or drilling of turquoise the Indians had
exhaustless patience; upon their blankets and belts and ceremonial
robes they lavished their skill and pains.  But their conception
of decoration did not extend to the landscape.  They seemed to have
none of the European's desire to "master" nature, to arrange and
re-create.  They spent their ingenuity in the other direction;
in accommodating themselves to the scene in which they found
themselves... It was as if the great country were asleep, and they

wished to carry on their lives without awakening it; or as if the spirits

of earth and air and water were things not to antagonize and arouse.

When they hunted, it was with the same discretion; an Indian hunt was

never a slaughter.  They ravaged neither the rivers nor the forest,
and if they irrigated, they took as little water as would serve their needs.

The land and all that it bore they treated with consideration; not

attempting to improve it, they never desecrated it.

_______________________

4. From A Soldier In Iraq

My wife is Native American, Iriquois and Cherokee. She is Christian. Some of her ancestors converted. Her grandmother, on the other hand, did not. My wife's grandmother used to, before we ate, pray to the spirit of whatever animal we were eating. She would give thanks to the animal for letting us kill and eat it. It was a very spiritual time, eating that was.

I grew up in a town where everyone hunted and fished. And every season, her grandmother would put a blessing on us that we would come out with good game.... Each time she did that, we came out with some of the biggest deer or fish we have ever hunted or caught before.

Which brings me to my next question: Who are we to say that animals don't have a spirit? They are born and die the same way we do. Just take a look around. Sharks, turtles, rats, and certain reptiles have been around for millions of years. So who is to say that we are the "superior" race? Not a person if you ask me. Until we have survived as long as some animal species, we have no right to say that we are advanced. Yes, we might have a larger brain or that we have opposable thumbs, but who says that is superior? I guess we will all have to wait until the next chapter in our life to find out. If there even is a next chapter.
__________________________________________

Creeds for Daily Living

2007-08-10T13:20:00.000-07:00

Below are moral commandments and creeds representing the Bible, Buddhism, Hinduism, American Deism, the 17th Century European Enlightenment, and the Quakers in America.

1. The Bible: Ten Commandments

The Decalog, or Ten Commandments, occur with some subtle differences in both Biblical books of Exodus and Deuteronomy. Scholars have disputed over their precise division and numbering, particularly with regard to commandments one and two. But they remain, in their simple power, guide posts and stop signs to keep humanity on the path of Life.

* Do not have any god but God
* Do not worship a graven image
* Do not dishonor the Name of God
* Do not murder
* Do not steal
* No not lie
* Do not commit adultery
* Do not covet
* Keep the Sabbath
* Honor Father and Mother

2. Hinduism: Yamas & Niyamas of Astanga Yoga

The Yoga system has eight "limbs", according to the sage Patanjali. They must all be practiced together in an integrated system of physical, moral and spiritual growth that encompasses the whole person. The eight limbs of Yoga ("astanga Yoga") are: Moral restraints and commandments, Postures, Breath control, Sense control, Concentration, Meditation, and Union with God.

The Yamas (restraints) and Niyamas (commandments) are very close to the Ten Commandments of the Bible. These moral rules are intended to accompany physical and spiritual practices.

5 Yamas

* Sexual abstinence (except in marriage)
* Non-violence
* Non-lying
* Non-stealing
* Non-coveting

5 Niyamas

* Truth
* Study of scriptures
* Devotion to one's chosen form of God
* Self-discipline
* Contentment

3. Buddhism: The Five and Ten Precepts

Every Buddhist lay-person must follow the Five Precepts. Buddhist monks and monks must add to these another five, making the '10 Commandments' of Buddhism.

Five Precepts

* No sexual impurity (sexual intimacy only in marriage)

* No lying

* No stealing

* No killing (violence can be used only in self-defense)

* No intoxicants

Five Additional Precepts for Monks and Nuns

* No gossip or malicious speech
* No self-display (jewelry, luxurious clothes or sensual behavior)
* No eating after noon (fasting)
* No defaming of the Three Jewels**
* No accepting of money

** The Three Jewels are the basic vows of Buddhism, repeated every morning to honor:
(1) The Buddha (both the historical Teacher and the Buddha-nature within each person)
(2) The Dharma (teaching of the Buddha)
(3) The Sanga (Buddhist community)

4. Rock Edict of King Ashoka (300 BC)

The first and only Buddhist emperor was King Ashoka, who ruled the Mauryan Empire in India. He inscribed his ordinances on rock monuments. The 12th 'Rock Edict' contains the world's first political expression of religious tolerance.

"The Beloved of the Gods (the king) honors all religions with gifts and various forms of recognition. But the Beloved of the Gods does not consider gifts or honors to be as important as the advancement of the essence of all religions. This essence takes many forms, but its basis is the control of one's speech, so as not to extol one's own religion by disparaging another's.... On each occasion one should honor another person's religion, for by doing so one increases the influence of one's own and benefits that of the other's; while by doing otherwise one diminishes the influence of one's own religion and harms the other's.... Therefore, contact between religions is good. One should listen to and respect the doctrines professed by others. The king desires that all should be well-learned in the good doctrines of other religions."

5. A Deist's Creed (Ben Franklin)

Jefferson, Franklin, Paine, Washington and other Founding Father's of the U.S. were influenced by "Deism," the rationalistic and empirical philosophy of the 17th Century Enlightenment. Like the Greek philosophers, they viewed God as universal Reason, who creates the world and allows it to operate by natural rules, including ethical as well as physical laws. The good life is a life of rational action in harmony with these eternal laws. The good life does not depend upon prayer, sacrament, or belief in a personal God.

True believers tried to convince Jefferson, Franklin, and Paine that they must attend church and be baptized. But they never yielded their spiritual independence to an institutionalized religion. At the age of 84, Franklin wrote down the following "Deist's Creed," which he said was all he needed for a "religion":

"This is my creed:
I believe in one God, the Creator of the universe;
That he governs it by his providence;
That he ought to be worshiped;
That the most acceptable service we render him is doing good to his other children;
That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this one."

6. Civil Religion (Jean-Jacques Rousseau)

Written in 1762, 'The Social Contract' by Jean-Jacques Rousseau had a profound influence on the founders of the United States. Our very concept of liberal democracy derives from that book. In it, Rousseau defines 'Civil Religion': the limits of common religion that should be supported by the state. Beyond these limits, religion should be left to the individual and to private denominations, free of state influence. ('Social Contract' 1v. 8)

"The subjects then owe the Sovereign an account of their opinions only to such an extent as they matter to the community. Now, it matters very much to the community that each citizen should have a religion. That will make him love his duty; but the dogmas of that religion concern the State and its members only so far as they have reference to morality and to the duties which he who professes them is bound to do to others. Each man may have, over and above, what opinions he pleases, without it being the Sovereign's business judge them; for, as the Sovereign has no authority in the other world, whatever the lot of its subjects may be in the life to come, that is not its business, provided they are good citizens in this life. There is therefore a purely civil profession of faith of which the Sovereign should fix the articles, not exactly as religious dogmas, but as social sentiments without which a man cannot be a good citizen or a faithful subject....

"The dogmas of civil religion ought to be few, simple, and exactly worded, without explanation or commentary.
* The existence of a mighty, intelligent and beneficent Divinity, possessed of foresight and providence;
* The life to come, the happiness of the just, the punishment of the wicked;
* The sanctity of the social contract and the laws:

"These are its positive dogmas. Its negative dogmas I confine to one: intolerance. Those who distinguish civil from theological intolerance are, to my mind, mistaken. The two forms are inseparable. It is impossible to live at peace with those we regard as damned... Now that there is and can be no longer an exclusive national religion, tolerance should be given to all religions that tolerate others, so long as their dogmas contain nothing contrary to the duties of citizenship."

7. A Quaker Statement of Faith (John Woolman)

The 17th Century American Quaker, John Woolman, wrote one of the world's classic spiritual autobiographies. He was instrumental in the founding of the American anti-slavery movement. Quakers have no official creeds, for each is encouraged to work out his or her own relationship with God, through the Inward Light of the heart. Yet Quakers such as George Fox, William Penn and Woolman have expressed their personal faith in writings that inspire many. This is Woolman's famous statement concerning the divine spark in every human being.

"There is a principle that is pure, placed in the human mind, which in different places and ages has had different names. It is, however, pure, and it proceeds from God. It is deep and inward, confined to no form of religion, nor excluded from any where the heart stands in perfect sincerity."

Poems of Mystical Love

2007-08-10T13:15:00.000-07:00

from The Song of Songs (The Holy Bible)

For the first 1500 years of Christianity, the Biblical book of ancient wedding songs, called The Song of Songs, was interpreted by Christian saints and theologians as a dialog between Christ and the soul. Christ is the beloved Bridegroom, and the soul is his lover, the mystical bride. The sensual union of bride and bridegroom was regarded by ancient poets as a sacramental sign, signifying the union experienced in deep contemplative prayer. This Biblical poetry of the Mystical Marriage reflects the same symbolism found in the spiritual poetry of India and Persia, the mystics of Hinduism and the Sufis of Islam.

*

The Beloved Speaks:
Your love is sweeter than wine,
and your name is perfume poured out.

The Lover Speaks:
A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse,
a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
A fountain of gardens, a well of flowing waters,
and streams from Lebanon.

The Beloved Speaks:
Let my beloved come into his garden
and eat his pleasant fruits.
I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine;
he feedeth among the lillies.
He brought me to the banqueting house
and his banner over me was love.
I sat down under his shadow
and his fruit was sweet to my taste.

The Lover Speaks:
Thou art all fair my love, there is no spot in thee.
The joints of thy thighs are like jewels,
the work of a cunning workman's hands.
Thy stature is like to a palm tree,
and thy breasts to clusters of grapes.

Until the day break and the shadows flee away,
I will get me to the mountains of myrrh
and the hills of frankincense.
I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine.

At night on my bed I longed for my only love.
I sought him, but did not find him...
I sleep, but my heart wakes.
Listen! My lover knocking:
"Open my sister, my friend,
my dove, my perfect one!
My hair is wet, drenched with the dew of night."
I rose to open to my love,
my fingers moist with myrrh,
sweet flowing myrrh on the door bolt.
I opened to my love, but he had slipped away.
I sought him everywhere, but could not find him.
I called to him, but he did not answer.
Swear to me, daughters of Jerusalem!
If you find him now, you must tell him:
I am in a fever of love...

Come, my beloved,
let is go out into the fields
and sleep all night among the flowering henna.
Let us go early to the vineyards
to see if the vine has budded,
if the blossoms have opened
and the pomegranate is in flower.

There I will give you my love.

'O Sweet Irrational Worship,' by Thomas Merton

(Merton was a 20th C. Trappist monk from Kentucky who introduced Buddhist meditation into the Catholic Church)

Wind and a bobwhite
And the afternoon sun.

By ceasing to question the sun
I have become light,

Bird and wind.

My leaves sing.

I am earth, earth

All these lighted things
Grow from my heart.

A tall, spare pine
Stands like the initial of my first
Name when I had one.

When I had a spirit,
When I was on fire
When this valley was
Made out of fresh air
You spoke my name
In naming Your silence:
O sweet, irrational worship!

I am earth, earth

My heart's love
Bursts with hay and flowers.
I am a lake of blue air
In which my own appointed place
Field and valley
Stand reflected.

I am earth, earth

Out of my grass heart
Rises the bobwhite.

Out of my nameless weeds
His foolish worship.
________

Jnaneshwar (b. 1275, India)

I honor the God and Goddess,
eternal parents of the cosmos.
The lover out of boundless love
takes the form of the beloved.
What beauty!
Both are made of the same nectar,
and share the same food.
Out of supreme love
they swallow each other up with longing,
but separate again
for the joy of being two!
They sit in one place, petals of the same blossom,
covered in one garment of light.
From the beginning of time
they have been together like this,
reveling in divine love.
I am the difference between them,
which they have created to enjoy this world!
But with one glimpse of their intimacy
I merge back into the bliss of their union.
Without that God, there is no Goddess;
without that Goddess, there is no God.
How sweet the nectar of their love!
The entire universe is too small to contain them:
yet they dwell happily together
in my heart, and in
the tiniest particle of this world!
_____

Jnanadeva, Chapter 1 of Amṛta Anubhāva, Experience of Bliss-Nectar

Out of pure emptiness
She gives rise to the entire world.
Everything depends on Her.
Yet She exists only because
Of Him.

Her form is the whole world,
It is the glory of God made manifest.
God Himself created Her form,
God Himself became that form.

Seeing Herself beautifully adorned,
She could not bear that He
Might have less then She.
And so She adorned Him
With every Name and Form in the universe.

Merged in unity
There was nothing to do.
So Shakti, the bringer of good fortune,
Created this world for the sake of divine play.

She reveals His splendor
By melting Herself and becoming everything;
And He glorifies Her,
By hiding Himself completely.

Out of His great love to see Her
He becomes the Seer of the universe.
If He could not watch Her play,
He would have no reason to exist.

To meet Her call
He takes on the form
Of the whole universe;
Without Her He remains naked.

He is so mysterious and subtle
That while apparent,
He cannot be seen.
It is by Her grace alone
That He comes into being.

She awakens Him,
And serves Him a feast
The size of the universe.
With great delight
He swallows up every dish
And also the one who serves Him.

While He is sleeping,
She gives birth to all that exists
And all that does not exist.
While She is sleeping,
He has no form at all.

Look!
He is hidden,
And cannot be found without Her.
For they are mirrors,
Each revealing the other.

Embracing Her,
Shiva enjoys His own bliss.
Though all the joy
Of the world belongs to Him,
There is no joy without Her.

She is His very form,
But Her radiance comes from Him.
Blending into one,
They enjoy the nectar of their own union.

Shiva and Shakti are one,
Like air and the wind,
Like gold and its luster.

Shiva and Shakti cannot be separated.
They are like musk and its fragrance,
Like fire and its heat.

In the light of the Sun
There is no difference between day and night
In the Light of the Supreme Truth
There is no difference between Shiva and Shakti.

Shiva and Shakti envy the Primordial Sound "Om"
because they are seen as two
while the sound Om is always regarded as one.

Jnanadeva says,
"I honor the union of Shiva and Shakti,
who devour this world of Name and Form
like a sweet dish.
All that remains is the One."

Embracing each other
they merge into One!

Mahadeviyakka (12th C. India)

"On Her Decision to Stop Wearing Clothes"

Coins in the hand can be stolen,
but who can rob this body
of its own treasure?

The last thread of clothing
can be stripped away,
but who can peel off Emptiness -
pure Nakedness covering all?

Fools, while I dress
in the Jasmine Lord's morning light
I cannot be shamed.
What would you have me hide under silk
and the glitter of jewels?

Mirabai (b. 1498 India)
Mira left her royal home to become a wandering poet, in love with Lord Krishna.

No one knows my invisible life.
Pain and madness for Rama.
Our wedding bed is high up
in the gallows.
Meeting him, the dark healer,
is a world of hurt and joy!
I love the man who takes care of cows.
Cowherd and dancer.
My eyes are drunk,
worn out from making love
with him. We are one.
I am now his dark color.
People notice me, point fingers at me.
They see my desire,
since I'm walking about like a lunatic.
I'm wiped out, gone.
Yet no one knows I live with my prince,
the cowherd. The palace can't contain me.
I leave it behind.
I couldn't care less about gossip
or my royal name.
I'll be with him
in all his gardens.

* * *

I am mad with love
And no one understands my plight.
Only the wounded
Understand the agonies of the wounded
When the fire rages in the heart.
Only the jeweler knows the value of the jewel,
Not the one who lets it go.
In pain I wander from door to door,
But cannot find a doctor.
Says Mira: Harken, my Master,
Mira's pain will subside
When Shyam, the beautiful blue-eyed Lord,
comes to heal me.

* * *

Mira danced with ankle-bells on her feet.
People said Mira was mad;
My mother-in-law said I ruined the family reputation.
Rana sent me a cup of poison
and Mira drank it laughing.
I dedicated my body and soul at the feet of Hari,
my Beloved, Krishna.
I am thirsty for the nectar of his glance.

Publish Post

* * * *

O friend, understand.
The body is like the ocean, rich with hidden treasures.
Open your innermost chamber
And light its lamp,
Within the body are gardens,
Rare flowers, peacocks; the inner music;
Within the body a lake of bliss,
On it, the white soul-swans take their joy.

Rabia (she was one of the first Sufis, 8th C, Bhagdad)

O Allah! If I worship You

for fear of Hell, then may I burn there!

If I worship You in hope of Paradise,

may I never find it!

But if I worship You

for Your Own sake,

let me be filled

with your eternal

Beauty!

* * * *

In my soul there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church.

Prayer should bring us to an altar where no walls or names exist.

Is there not a region of love where the sovereignty is illumined nothing,

where ecstasy gets poured into itself and becomes lost,

where the wing is fully alive but has no mind or body?

In my soul there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church

that dissolve, that dissolve in God.

* * * * *

Would you come if someone called you
by the wrong name?

I wept,
because for years He did not enter my arms;
then one night I was told a
secret:

Perhaps the name you call God is
not really His, maybe
it is just an
alias.

I thought about it,
and came up with a pet name
for my Beloved I never mention to others.

All I can say is-
it works.

____________

Hafiz (Islamic Sufi, Persia, 1320 - 1390)

"You are dawn: I am only a candle!"

Just sit there right now.
Don’t do a thing.
Just rest.
For your separation from God
is the hardest work in this world.
Let me bring your trays of food
and something that you like to drink.
You can use my soft words
as a cushion for your head.

I have learned so much from God
That I can no longer
Call myself
A Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim,
A Buddhist, a Jew.
The Truth has shared so much of Itself
With me
That I can no longer call myself
A man, a woman, an angel,
Or even pure
Soul.
Love has
Befriended Hafiz so completely
It has turned to ash
And freed me
Of every concept and image
My mind has ever known.

*

The earth braces itself for the feet
of a lover of God
about to dance.

The sky becomes timid
when a saint starts waving his arms
in joy;
for the sun, moon and planets
could all wind up
rolling on the floor.

My dear, the world and its laws
are such a minute part of existence,
should not all our suffering be like this:

Something just dropped
from an infant's palm,
sleeping against the breast
of God?
*

If I've left the mosque for the tavern,
don't preach to me:
the ceremonies go on far too long,
and life is short!

Now its Spring:
the gentle breeze
will scatter seeds in the barren earth
and the old will become young again!

Minstrel, sing your melodies
for this feast of love.
No more chatter of the past or future:
only Now!
*

The real Love I always kept a secret,
all my words sung quietly at night,
outside her window.

And when She let me in,
I took a thousand oaths of silence.
But then She said,

O yes, God said:
"What the hell, Hafiz!
Why not give the whole world
my address?"

*
Don't surrender your loneliness so quickly.
Let it cut more deep.
Let it ferment and season you....

Something missing in my heart tonight
has made my eyes so soft,
my voice so tender,
my need for God
so absolutely
clear.
_______________

Rumi (12th C. Creator of the Islamic Sufi tradition)

The way of love is not
a subtle argument.

The door there
is devastation.

Birds make great sky-circles
of their freedom.
How do they do it?

They fall, and falling,
they're given wings.

*
If anyone asks you
how the perfect satisfaction
of all our sexual wanting
will look, lift your face
and say,

Like this.

When someone mentions the gracefulness
of the night sky, climb up on the roof
and dance and say,

Like this.

If anyone wants to know what "spirit" is,
or what "God’s fragrance" means,
lean your head toward him or her.
Keep your face there close.

Like this.

When someone quotes the old poetic image
about clouds gradually uncovering the moon,
slowly loosen knot by knot the strings
of your robe.

Like this.

If anyone wonders how Jesus raised the dead,
don’t try to explain the miracle.
Kiss me on the lips.

Like this. Like this.

When someone asks what it means
to "die for love," point
here.

Like this.
________

What is to be done, O Moslems? For I do not recognise myself.
I am neither Christian, nor Jew, nor Gabr, nor Moslem.

I am not of the East, nor of the West, nor of the land, nor of the sea;
I am not of Nature’s mint, nor of the circling heaven.

I am not of earth, nor of water, nor of air, nor of fire;
I am not of the empyrean, nor of the dust, nor of existence, nor of entity.

I am not of India , nor of China , nor of Bulgaria , nor of Saqsin.
I am not of the kingdom of ’Iraqian, nor of the country of Khorasan

I am not of this world, nor of the next, nor of Paradise , nor of Hell.
I am not of Adam, nor of Eve, nor of Eden and Rizwan.

My place is the Placeless; my trace is the Traceless;
’Tis neither body nor soul, for I belong to the soul of the Beloved.

I have put duality away; I have seen that the two worlds are one;
One I seek, One I know, One I see, One I call.

He is the first, He is the last, He is the outward, He is the inward;
I am intoxicated with Love’s cup, the two worlds have passed out of my ken;

If once in my life I spent a moment without thee,
From that time and from that hour I repent of my life.

If once in this world I win a moment with thee,
I will trample on both worlds; I will dance in triumph forever.
__________

Shall I tell you our secret?
We are charming thieves who steal hearts
and never fail because we are
the friends of the One.
The time for old preaching is over
we aim straight at the heart.
If the mind tries to sneak in and take over
we will string it up without delay.
We turn poison into medicine
and our sorrows into blessings.
All that was familiar,
our loved ones and ourselves
we had to leave behind.

Blessed is the poem that comes through me
but not of me because the sound of my own music
will drown the song of Love.
__________

Grind yourself, strip yourself down
to blind loving silence;
stay there, until you see
you are gazing at the Light
with its own ageless eyes.
__________

The grapes of my body and mind
can only become wine
After the winemaker tramples me.
I surrender my spirit too, like grapes
to his trampling
So my inmost heart can blaze
and dance with joy.
Although the grapes go on weeping blood
and sobbing "I can bear no more anguish,
no more cruelty,"
The trampler stuffs cotton in his ears:
"I am not working in ignorance.
You can deny me if you want,
you have every excuse.
But it is I who am
the Master of this Work.
And when through my Passion
you reach Perfection,
You will never be done
praising my name!"

Islamic Poetry & Philosophy

2007-08-10T09:15:00.000-07:00

This site contains mystical poetry of Rumi and Hafiz, plus an article by a Muslim scholar on the meaning of 'Jihad.'
____________________________

The Sufi sect of Islam grew out of the mystical love poetry of Rumi and Hafiz, written in Pharsee, the ancient Persian language. This sect has deep affinities with mystical Christianity and Hinduism, and its love poetry shares the same symbolic language that we have seen in the poems of Hindu Bhakti and the Song of Songs of the Bible. Sufism is very popular in America today and offers a loving, spiritual, open-hearted form of Islam that we usually don't see in the media. It is quite opposite in spirit to the fundamentalist Islam that breeds terrorism. Sufis were often persecuted by more conservative fundamentalist Muslims. The picture above portrays one of the spiritual practices of the Sufis, a dancing meditation.

Sufi Poems of Rumi (1217-1273)

There is some kiss we want
with our whole lives,
the touch of Spirit on the body.

Seawater begs the pearl
to break its shell.

And the lily, how passionately
it needs some wild Darling!

At night, I open the window
and ask the moon to come
and press its face against mine.
Breathe into me.

Close the language-door,
and open the love-window

The moon won't use the door,
only the window.

____________

Look at Love...
how it tangles
with the one fallen in love

look at spirit
how it fuses with earth
giving it new life

why are you so busy
with this or that or good or bad
pay attention to how things blend

why talk about all
the known and the unknown
see how unknown merges into the known

why think separately
of this life and the next
when one is born from the last

look at your heart and tongue
one feels but deaf and dumb
the other speaks in words and signs

look at water and fire
earth and wind
enemies and friends all at once

the wolf and the lamb
the lion and the deer
far away yet together

look at the unity of this
spring and winter
manifested in the equinox

you too must mingle my friends
since the earth and the sky
are mingled just for you and me

be like sugarcane
sweet yet silent
don't get mixed up with bitter words

my beloved grows
right out of my own heart
how much more union can there be?

___________

The sound of salaams rising

as waves diminish down in prayer,

hoping for some trace of the one

whose trace does not appear.

If anyone asks you to say who you are,

say without hesitation, soul

within soul within soul. There's a pearl diver

who does not know how to swim!

No matter, pearls are handed him

on the beach. We lovers laugh

to hear, "This should be more that

and that more this," coming

from people sitting in a wagon

tilted in a ditch. Going in search

of the heart, I found a huge rose

under my feet, and roses under

all our feet! How to say this

to someone who denies it?

The robe we wear is the sky's cloth.

Everything is soul and flowering.

_________

I start out on this road, call it love

or emptiness, I only know what’s not here—

resentment seeds, back-scratching greed,

worrying about outcomes, fear of people.

When a bird gets free, it doesn’t go back

for remnants left on the bottom of the cage.

Close by, I’m rain; far off, a cloud of fire.

I seem restless, but I’m deeply at ease.

Branches tremble, the roots are still.

I am a universe in a handful of dirt,

Whole when totally demolished.

Talk about choices does not apply to me.

While intelligence considers options,

I am somewhere, lost in the wind.
___________

No one knows what makes the soul wake up so happy!

Maybe a dawn breeze has blown the veil from the face of God.

A thousand new moons appear. Roses open laughing.

Hearts become perfect rubies like those from Badakshan....

There's no answer to any of this. No one knows the source of joy.

A poet breathes into a reed flute, and the tip of every hair makes music....

___________

What is praised is one, so the praise is one too,

many jugs being poured

into a huge basin. All religions, all this singing,

one song.

The differences are just illusion and vanity. Sunlight

looks slightly different

on this wall than it does on that wall and a lot different

on this other one, but

it is still one light. We have borrowed these clothes, these

time-and-space personalities,

from a light, and when we praise, we pour them back in.

_____________

On the day I die, when I'm being carried

toward the grave, don't weep. Don't say,

He's gone! He's gone. Death has nothing

to do with going away. The sun sets and

the moon sets, but they're not gone.

Death is a coming together. The tomb

looks like a prison, but it's really

release into union. The human seed goes

down in the ground like a bucket into

the well where Joseph is. It grows and

comes up full of some unimagined beauty.

Your mouth closes here and immediately

opens with a shout of joy there.

_________

Sufi Poems of Hafiz (Persia, 1320 - 1390) 

"You are dawn: I am only a candle!"

 *

I have learned

So much from God
That I can no longer
Call myself
A Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim,
A Buddhist, a Jew.
The Truth has shared so much of Itself
With me
That I can no longer call myself
A man, a woman, an angel,
Or even pure
Soul.
Love has
Befriended Hafiz so completely
It has turned to ash
And freed me
Of every concept and image
My mind has ever known.

The earth braces itself for the feet
of a lover of God
about to dance.

The sky becomes timid
when a saint starts waving his arms
in joy;

for the sun, moon and planets
could all wind up
rolling on the floor.

My dear, the world and its laws
are such a minute part of existence,
should not all our suffering be like this:

Something just dropped
from an infant's palm,
sleeping against the breast
of God?

*

If I've left the mosque for the tavern,
don't preach to me:
the ceremonies go on far too long,
and life is short!

Now its Spring:
the gentle breeze
will scatter seeds in the barren earth
and the old will become young again!

Minstrel, sing your melodies
for this feast of love.
No more chatter of the past or future:
only Now!

*

The real Love I always kept a secret,
all my words sung quietly at night,
outside her window.

And when She let me in,
I took an thousand oaths of silence.
But then She said,

O yes, God said,
"What the hell, Hafiz!
Why not give the whole world
my address?"

*
Don't surrender your loneliness so quickly.
Let it cut more deep.
Let it ferment and season you....

Something missing in my heart tonight
has made my eyes so soft,
my voice so tender,
my need for God
so absolutely
clear.
_________________________

Jihad in Islam
By Dr. Mohammed Ahmad

(This article was presented at the Symposium on “Islam and World Peace” held in Columbus Ohio, July 31, 2004)

“There shall be no compulsion in religion” (Koran 2:256).

The True meaning of Jihad
If one were to pick up an ordinary dictionary of the Arabic
language, the meaning of the word Jihad could have been
easily understood. Imam Raghib (famous lexicologist)
explains that the word Jihad is derived from jahd or juhd
meaning ability, exertion or power. Jihad and
Mujahida mean the exerting of one’s power in repelling the
enemy. The same authority then goes on to say: “Jihad is of
three kinds; viz., the carrying on of a struggle: 1. against a
visible enemy, 2. against the devil,and 3. against self (nafs).

According to Lane’s Lexicon, jahada properly signifies the
using or exerting of one’s utmost power, efforts, endeavors
or ability in contending with an object of disapprobation;
and this is of three kinds, namely a visible enemy, the devil,
and one’s self; all of which are included in the term as used
in the Kuran. The word Jihad is, therefore, far from being
synonymous with the word war. The meaning of Jihad
as “war undertaken for the propagation of Islam”, which
is supposed by many Western writers to be the primary sig-
nificance of the word, is unknown equally to the Arabic lan-
guage and the teachings of the Holy Qur’an.

We will discuss this subject in light of the Quran and
Hadith to clarify this misrepresentation.

Jihad in The Holy Quran
It is clear from the Qur’an that the word jihadhas has been
used therein to mean ‘striving’ or ‘exerting’. For instance:

• “Those who strive (jaahada) for Us, We guide them
in Our ways”(26:69). Here the meaning is to carry
on a spiritual struggle to attain nearness to God.

• “Whoever strives (jaahada), he only strives for
his own self” (29:6). The meaning here again is
struggle for self-purification.

• “We have enjoined on man to do good to his par-
ents. But if they strive (jaahadaa) with you to
worship that of which you have no knowledge
[i.e. false gods], then obey them not”(29:8). Here
the meaning is that of ‘arguing’ or ‘disputing’
with unbelievers.

• “Strive for God a true striving (jihad).”(22:78);
“Obey not the unbelievers and hypocrites, and strive against
them a mighty striving (jihad) with it [i.e. the Qur’an]”(25:52).
Both of these verses give the command to conduct jihad. The first
refers to a jihad for attaining nearness to God. The second mentions
a jihad against the deniers of Islam, not by the sword, but by means of the
Qur’an itself. It is called a “mighty jihad”, and is a constant duty.

Example of The Holy Prophet At Makka
The Holy Prophet Muhammad had received revelations
ordering jihad while he was still a resident of Makka and
before the emigration to Madina [“Strive for God a true striving
(jihad)”(22:78); “Obey not the unbelievers and hypocrites,
and strive against them a mighty striving (jihad) with it
(i.e. with the Qur’an)”(25:52)]. But Mohammed did not raise the
sword against the unbelievers who were bitterly persecuting him
and his followers. Yet he was certainly conducting a jihad in Makka
in obedience to these verses. This was a jihad of following the word
of God and propagating the message of Islam. This mode of conduct
clearly proves that jihad was not equivalent to war in the Holy
Prophet’s eyes. During this period of persecution at Makka,
when some of his companions asked permission to fight, the
Holy Prophet said: “I have been commanded to forgive, so do
not fight” (Hadith collection Nasa’i, Book of Jihad).

Example of the Holy Prophet At Madina
The Muslims emigrated to Madina and took refuge there,
yet their enemies from Makka did not leave them alone.
They threatened the then chief of Madina, Abdullah Ibn
Ubayy, in a letter as follows:

“O people of Madina, you have given refuge to our
adversary. We swear by God that if you do not fight
them or expel them, we shall come against you and
kill your fighting men and capture your women” (Abu
Dawud, vol. ii, p. 495).

Then the unbelievers of Makka decided to attack Madina
and annihilate Islam and the Muslims by the sword. It was
then only that God permitted the Muslims to conduct jihad
with the sword, because not to do so would have meant
suicide for the Muslims.

Therefore, in year 2 of the Hijra (emigration to Madina)
the following Quranic verse was revealed:

“Permission to fight is given to those upon whom war
is made, because they have been wronged — and
God is well able to help them: those who have been
expelled from their homes unjustly, only for saying,
‘Allah is our Lord’. And if God had not allowed one
group of people to repel another, then there would
have been pulled down cloisters and synagogues and
churches and mosques, in which God’s name is
remembered” (22:39, 40).

Four Conditions for Permitting Jihad by the Sword

Four conditions are given here for allowing jihad by
the sword: 1) Fighting has to be initiated by the unbelievers,
as is clear from the words “those upon whom war is
made”; 2) There has to be extreme persecution of the
Muslims — “because they have been wronged”; 3) The
aim of the unbelievers has to be the destruction of Islam
and Muslims’ freedom of worship, as is clear from
the words “there would have been pulled down cloisters
and synagogues and churches and mosques in which God’s
name is remembered.”; 4) The object of the Muslims must
only be self-defense and protection, as shown by the words
“if God had not allowed one people to repel another”.

The only other verse allowing fighting in the Quran states:
“Fight in the way of God those who fight you, but do not
go over the limit”(2:190). Hence, the command in the Holy
Quran to fight, or conduct jihad with the sword, is subject to
the above conditions.

Jihad in The Hadith (Holy Sayings of the Prophet)

Just as the Holy Quran has used the word jihad in a very
wide sense, so too is it’s use in Hadith. For instance:

• The Holy Prophet said: Do jihad against the idolators with your wealth,
lives and tongues (Mishkat, Book of Jihad, ch. 1, sec. 2).

• A group of Muslim soldiers came to the Holy Prophet [from a battle].
He said: Welcome, you have come from the lesser jihad to the greater
jihad. It was said: What is the greater jihad? He said: The striving of a
servant against his low desires (Al-Tasharraf, Part I, p. 70).

• The Holy Prophet said: The greatest jihad is to speak the word of truth
to a tyrant (Mishkat, Book of Rulership and Judgment, ch. 1, sec. 2).

• The Holy Prophet said: Do jihad against your desires as you do jihad
against your foes (Mufradat, under root j-h-d, p. 100).

• The most excellent jihad is the Hajj (Pilgrimage to Mecca).
(Bukhari, Book of Sacrifices, 25:4)

• The mujahid [one engaged in jihad] is he who strives against
his own self to obey God.

These hadith make it clear that jihad means to exert oneself to the utmost,
whether by means of one’s wealth or tongue or hands or life, whether it is
to God or to propagate the word of God. To summarize, the Holy Quran
of jihad: 1) A great jihad; 2) The greatest jihad; 3) A lesser jihad.
The first two are to be undertaken constantly, while the third,
which includes jihad by means of the sword, is only undertaken
if specific conditions are satisfied.

Hadith to be interpreted in light of the Quran

Misinterpretation of Hadith has occurred due to the disregard of the
most fundamental rule of Hadith interpretation; that is, interpreting it
himself laid down this rule: “My sayings do not abrogate the word of Allah,
but the word of Allah can abrogate my sayings”(Al-Mishkat al-Masabih 1:6, iii).

Disregarding this principle rule can lead to misinterpretation and misdeeds.
This is well illustrated by the Bin Laden statement referred to earlier:
(Quotation from “Unveiling Islam”) “Considering the fate of one of the
willing martyrs of that operation, Bin Laden quotes the Hadith: ‘ I was ordered
to fight the people until they say there is no god but Allah, and his prophet Muhammad.”

Let us closely look at this Hadith and then study it in light of the Holy Quran.
The Hadith states:

“Ibn Umar reported, The Messenger of Allah (peace
and blessings of Allah be on him) said: ‘I have been commanded
that I should fight these people till they bear witness that there is
no god but Allah and keep up prayer and pay zakat. When they do this,
their blood and their property shall be safe with me except
as Islam requires, and their reckoning is with Allah’ (B.2:16).”

It should first of all be noted that the hadith begins with
the words, “I have been commanded”, and the command to
fight is contained in the Holy Qur’an in the following
words: “And fight in the way of Allah with those who fight
with you and do not exceed this limit”(2:190 Holy Qur’an).
Muslims, therefore, could not resort to fighting unless an
enemy was the first to assume hostilities. Keeping this in
mind clearly indicates that what the hadith means is that
fighting begun under these conditions is to cease when the
enemy accepts Islam. Bukhari himself hints at this when he
quotes the hadith under the heading: “But if they repent and
keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, then leave their way
free,”i.e., cease fighting with them.

Misinterpretation of this Hadith clearly shows the willful ignorance
of both parties, i.e., Bin Laden and the hostile evangelical composers
of the Book, “Unveiling Islam.”
________________________________________

Jewish Stories & Poems

2007-08-10T09:11:00.000-07:00

The Beloved Speaks:
Let my beloved come into his garden
and eat his pleasant fruits.
I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine;
he feedeth among the lillies.
He brought me to the banqueting house
and his banner over me was love.
I sat down under his shadow
and his fruit was sweet to my taste.

The Lover Speaks:
Thou art all fair my love, there is no spot in thee.
The joints of thy thighs are like jewels,
the work of a cunning workman's hands.
Thy stature is like to a palm tree,
and thy breasts to clusters of grapes.

Until the day break and the shadows flee away,
I will get me to the mountains of myrrh
and the hills of frankincense.
I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine.

At night on my bed I longed for my only love.
I sought him, but did not find him...
I sleep, but my heart wakes.
Listen! My lover knocking:
"Open my sister, my friend,
my dove, my perfect one!
My hair is wet, drenched with the dew of night."
I rose to open to my love,
my fingers moist with myrrh,
sweet flowing myrrh on the door bolt.
I opened to my love, but he had slipped away.
I sought him everywhere, but could not find him.
I called to him, but he did not answer.
Swear to me, daughters of Jerusalem!
If you find him now, you must tell him:
I am in a fever of love...

Come, my beloved,
let is go out into the fields
and sleep all night among the flowering henna.
Let us go early to the vineyards
to see if the vine has budded,
if the blossoms have opened
and the pomegranate is in flower.

There I will give you my love.

_____________________

Hassidic Tales

RABBI SHLOMO OF ZEVILL

Rabbi Shlomo of Zevill was a great hasidic rebbe of the last generation. There is a photograph of him on the cover of his Hebrew biography, Tzaddik Yesod Olam (The Tzaddik Who is The Foundation of the World). The moment you look at this photo of his holy face, you become his disciple.

Rabbi Shlomo, who was a great rebbe in Zevill, Russia, went, in the middle of his life, to live in Israel and chose to become anonymous. Eight years later, someone who was visiting Israel from the Zevill area recognized him and told everyone, "This is the famous Zeviller Rebbe!" From then on, many people came to him and he was once again a big rebbe. Following are some anecdotes about him.

* * *

The Rebbe's Cats

The Zeviller Rebbe was compassionate not only to humans but to animals. He cared for a number of cats in his home, something very unusual for a hasidic rebbe! The hasid who wrote the Rebbe's biography mentions that he collected many tales about "the Rebbe's cats," but that they are too shocking to put in print! That he did not do so is our loss. Here is one tale, though, that he does record:

The Zeviller Rebbe, like some other holy people, never asked any human of flesh and blood for help. He always trusted in and relied on God alone. Once, when he was lying on his bed, he asked a hasid who was in his room to hand him a book. This hasid knew that the Rebbe never asked anyone to do anything for him, and became worried; perhaps the Rebbe was sick! So he asked him.

The Rebbe explained that he was not sick. He simply did not want to wake up the cat that was sleeping on the bed with him!

* * * Ecstasy From Tefillin

Tefillin are leather phylacteries, little boxes containing scriptural verses handwritten on parchment that men wear strapped on to their head and arm while reciting the morning prayers. According to the hasidic rebbes, tefillin symbolize and induce d'vekut, God-consciousness, being attached to God in a tight bond of love. And d'vekut produces bliss. Since tefillin are holy objects and a person is supposed to be in an elevated state of consciousness while wearing them, there are certain restrictions relating to their use, for example, that one may not sleep while wearing tefillin.

The Zeviller Rebbe was attached to God every minute of the day, heart and soul, and experienced ecstasy from his d'vekut. His ecstasy deepened when he donned tefillin. When he was living in Jerusalem anonymously, the Zeviller used to pray in a certain synagogue and no one knew who he was, that is, they did not know that he was anyone special or that he had once been a famous rebbe. But when he said the Sh'ma, the "Hear O Israel" prayer, during the morning prayer service, he always went into an ecstatic trance. He would nod out.

Once, someone noticed him, and said, "Hey! You're not allowed to sleep in tefillin!"

Occasionally, hasidic tales, such as this one, tell of simple people and even some sophisticated religious people who did not realize that a rebbe had entered a state of d'vekut, a God-conscious trance, and instead thought that he had fallen asleep or fainted.

The Zeviller Rebbe once told his hasidim that he "knew someone" in Jerusalem who got more pleasure from putting on tefillin than the most lascivious person got from his lewd behavior. The hasidim later realized that the Rebbe was talking about himself.

* * *

Learning Patience

Hasidic rebbes have a custom to eat Sabbath meals communally with their hasidim in the synagogue, particularly the third Sabbath meal. Some rebbes conduct a Sabbath meal where everyone is quiet and meditative. The rebbe might teach Torah and there might be singing of Sabbath table hymns, but there is no conversation; everyone sits silently and eats in a holy meditative awe.

The Zeviller Rebbe would often be in a meditative trance at his table. But, as is the way of the world, there were a few crude people who did not under- stand what was proper in such a holy setting, and would converse -- even about secular matters, which is actually forbidden on the Sabbath!

Once, one of the Rebbe's closest hasidim, a very pious and spiritual person, turned to the Rebbe, when some people were talking at the table. He was disgusted and said, "What's the point of having a tish, a holy meal, together, when this goes on!"

"At the table," said the Rebbe in a soft voice, "you can learn . . . patience."

* * *

The Baker's Donkey

A certain Jewish baker in Jerusalem used a donkey to deliver his bread. Some friends told him that they had seen some suspicious-looking Bedouin Arabs eyeing his donkey. But he paid them no heed. Shortly after that his donkey was stolen. He searched for it everywhere, but could not find it. He went to the police, who said they would investigate, but nothing came of it.

Then, he went to Rabbi Shlomo of Zevill and told him what had happened. What was he to do? He had no money to buy another donkey! How would he earn his living? He was distraught.

The Rebbe calmed him and told him to say over and over throughout the day the traditional pious phrase when something bad happens, "Everything that God does is for good." Wherever he was, he should whisper constantly, "Everything that God does is for good."

The day passed, and the donkey was not found. The next day, he went back to the police, who told him that a short time earlier an Arab had suddenly appeared, leading a donkey that he tied up to a post in the square behind the station. The man went out, looked, and found that it was his donkey.

This tale would suggest to a hasid that the Zeviller Rebbe's prescription to utter the pious saying worked a miracle. The true spiritual interest of the tale is not, however, in its miraculous ending, but in the Zeviller Rebbe's lesson about trust in God -- to utter the pious saying that "everything that God does is for good" not only once-- as pious people normally do-- but to repeat it over and over, like a "mantra," for when a person is troubled by anxieties and worries, his mind returns to them continually, and to counter that disturbing effect he needs also to express his faith and trust in God again and again and again.

* * *

Three Anecdotes About The Rebbe's Holy Dancing

(1) The Zeviller Rebbe's holy dancing at family weddings was famous, for he danced ecstatically, with great joy and d'vekut. Sometimes, after one round of dancing, he would enter a trance and fall to the ground in a "faint."

(2) On Simhat Torah (The Celebration of the Torah) people dance with the Torah scrolls in circles around the synagogue. Since there are many more people than Torah scrolls, the dancing is done in groups so that each person gets a chance, and it takes a fair amount of time.

Once, on the day of Simhat Torah, a Russian army unit composed of Jewish soldiers showed up in Zevill, returning from the front during the First World War. The Rebbe was anxious to see that these hungry soldiers had kosher food to eat, so they could celebrate the holiday. He entered the group of dancing hasidim and told one of his closest hasidim to take a sack and go out to the Jewish houses and collect holiday challah bread for the soldiers.

The dancing was just then beginning, so the hasid was waiting for it to finish, which could take hours, before he began the task the Rebbe had assigned him. But the Rebbe saw him and called out, "The Torah can rejoice without you, but these soldiers are hungry and need food now, so they can celebrate the holiday!"

The hasid immediately left the synagogue and went to collect the bread. After some time, as the dancing was ending, he returned with a large sack full of loaves of challah. The Rebbe was so happy! He took the sack of bread and, instead of a Torah scroll, danced with it around the synagogue!

(3) Whenever the Rebbe danced at some holy celebration, the whole town of Zevill used to come to watch. And people wept from joy as they watched him. His biography says that they did not know why they were weeping....

Why were they weeping? Because their dream had come true. Watching someone like the Zeviller Rebbe rejoice, seeing his holy ecstatic dancing, they realized that there surely is a God. So they wept for joy....

___________

Serving Coffee

When the Baal Shem Tov was younger, but already a holy man, he once traveled to be with Rabbi Yitzhak of Drohobitch to offer him personal service, for personal service to a sage purifies the soul. When he was in Rabbi Yitzhak's house, the Besht brought Rabbi Yitzhak coffee in a pot and served him. After Rabbi Yitzhak drank the coffee, the Besht removed the coffee pot, the cup, and spoon from the table and brought them into the kitchen.

Rabbi Yitzhak's son, Rabbi Yehiel Michal of Zlotchov, asked the Besht, "Holy Rabbi, I can understand why you wanted to serve my holy father. But why did you also trouble yourself to carry out the dirty dishes?"

The Besht replied, "carrying out the spoon from the Holy of Holies in the Temple was also part of the service of the High Priest on Yom Kippur."

Everything we do should be God-aware, even cleaning up.

Coffee Medicine

Once the father of a young hasid had a heart attack and he couldn't find a doctor, so the hasid ran to the Tzanzer Rebbe and told him the situation.

What should he do? The Rebbe told him, "give him coffee!" Now everybody knows that coffee is bad for a heart condition, but since the Rebbe said to give it to him, he did. And, thank God, his father got well.

A year later, his father again had a heart attack. This time the hasid thought he knew what to do, so he gave his father coffee and his condition became even worse! Oy! So he ran to the Rebbe and told him what he had done. The Tzanzer yelled, "don't you know that coffee is the worst thing for a heart condition!"

"Rebbe, what should I do!" cried the hasid.

"Give him coffee!" said the Tzanzer.

_____________

Hindu Literature & Ethics

2007-08-10T08:18:00.000-07:00

Bhakti: Poems of Mystical Love

Jnanadev (b. 1275, India)

I honor the God and Goddess,
eternal parents of the cosmos.
The lover out of boundless love
takes the form of the beloved.
What beauty!
Both are made of the same nectar,
and share the same food.
Out of supreme love
they swallow each other up with longing,
but separate again
for the joy of being two!
They sit in one place, petals of the same blossom,
covered in one garment of light.
From the beginning of time
they have been together like this,
reveling in divine love.
I am the difference between them,
which they have created to enjoy this world!
But with one glimpse of their intimacy
I merge back into the bliss of their union.
Without that God, there is no Goddess;
without that Goddess, there is no God.
How sweet the nectar of their love!
The entire universe is too small to contain them:
yet they dwell happily together
in my heart, and in
the tiniest particle of this world!

Jñānadev's 'Amṛta Anubhāva'
(Experience of Bliss Nectar) Chapter 1

Out of pure emptiness
She gives rise to the entire world.
Everything depends on Her.
Yet She exists only because
Of Him.

Her form is the whole world,
It is the glory of God made manifest.
God Himself created Her form,
God Himself became that form.

Seeing Herself beautifully adorned,
She could not bear that He
Might have less then She.
And so She adorned Him
With every Name and Form in the universe.

Merged in unity
There was nothing to do.
So Shakti, the bringer of good fortune,
Created this world for the sake of divine play.

She reveals His splendor
By melting Herself and becoming everything;
And He glorifies Her,
By hiding Himself completely.

Out of His great love to see Her
He becomes the Seer of the universe.
If He could not watch Her play,
He would have no reason to exist.

To meet Her call
He takes on the form
Of the whole universe;
Without Her He remains naked.

He is so mysterious and subtle
That while apparent,
He cannot be seen.
It is by Her grace alone
That He comes into being.

She awakens Him,
And serves Him a feast
The size of the universe.
With great delight
He swallows up every dish
And also the one who serves Him.

While He is sleeping,
She gives birth to all that exists
And all that does not exist.
While She is sleeping,
He has no form at all.

Look!
He is hidden,
And cannot be found without Her.
For they are mirrors,
Each revealing the other.

Embracing Her,
Shiva enjoys His own bliss.
Though all the joy
Of the world belongs to Him,
There is no joy without Her.

She is His very form,
But Her radiance comes from Him.
Blending into one,
They enjoy the nectar of their own union.

Shiva and Shakti are one,
Like air and the wind,
Like gold and its luster.

Shiva and Shakti cannot be separated.
They are like musk and its fragrance,
Like fire and its heat.

In the light of the Sun
There is no difference between day and night
In the Light of the Supreme Truth
There is no difference between Shiva and Shakti.

Shiva and Shakti envy the Primordial Sound "Om"
because they are seen as two
while the sound Om is always regarded as one.

Jnanadeva says,
"I honor the union of Shiva and Shakti,
who devour this world of Name and Form
like a sweet dish.
All that remains is the One."

Embracing each other
they merge into One!

_________
Mahadeviyakka (12th C. India)

"On Her Decision to Stop Wearing Clothes"

Coins in the hand can be stolen,
but who can rob this body
of its own treasure?

The last thread of clothing
can be stripped away,
but who can peel off Emptiness -
pure Nakedness covering all?

Fools, while I dress
in the Jasmine Lord's morning light
I cannot be shamed.
What would you have me hide under silk
and the glitter of jewels?

Lalla Dev (14th C. India)

When my mind was cleansed of impurities,
like a mirror of its dust and dirt,
I recognized the Self in me:
When I saw Him dwelling in me,
I realized that He was the Everything
and I was nothing.

Mirabai (b. 1498 India)

I am mad with love
And no one understands my plight.
Only the wounded
Understand the agonies of the wounded
When the fire rages in the heart.
Only the jeweler knows the value of the jewel,
Not the one who lets it go.
In pain I wander from door to door,
But cannot find a doctor.
Says Mira: Harken, my Master,
Mira's pain will subside
When Shyam, the beautiful blue-eyed Lord,
comes to heal me.

__________________________________

Mahavishnu dreaming the universe on the Ocean of Milk: The Universal theme that life is dream-like and illusory is also found in Shakespeare....

"Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep. "
Shakespeare, The Tempest, 4.1
_______________________________________

Gayatri Mantra: 'Lord's Prayer' of India

"We contemplate the glory of Light illuminating the three realms: earth, heaven, and Spirit. We worship the life-giving power, love, radiance, and grace of God. We pray for the divine light to illumine our minds and guide us in right living."
_______________________________________

Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2: Duty as Devotion

Arjuna, warrior and prince of ancient India, is on the battlefield in his chariot, surveying the troops before the fight. He is overcome by a wave of grief, and like Homer's Achilles is tempted to become a pacifist. But Arjuna's grief is not for those who have died: it is premonitory grief for those who are about to die. This should not be misinterpreted as cowardice. The Lord in the form of Krishna appears in the warrior's chariot and instructs him on the eternal Self (Atman) which does not perish even when the body perishes. He also teaches the essential Hindu doctrine of Dharma: Duty. There is no sin when a righteous warrior does his or her duty. In fact, doing one's duty with a mind established in the peace of God is the purest path to liberation. And this is as true for the warrior as for the "holy man."

Arjuna said: My heart is overcome by the weakness of pity, and my mind is confused about Dharma (Duty). I request You to tell me, decisively, what is better for me. I am Your disciple. Teach me who has taken refuge in You. (2.07)
I do not perceive that gaining an unrivaled and prosperous kingdom on this earth, or even lordship over the gods will remove the sorrow that is drying up my senses....(2.08)
I shall not fight! (2.09)
Then Lord Krishna, as if smiling, spoke these words to the despondent Arjuna in the midst of the two armies:(2.10)

You grieve for those who are not worthy of grief, and yet speak the words of wisdom. The wise grieve neither for the living nor for the dead. (2.11)

There was never a time when I, you, or these kings did not exist; nor shall we ever cease to exist in the future. (2.12)

Just as the Atma acquires a childhood body, a youth body, and an old age body during this life, similarly Atma acquires another body after death. The wise are not deluded by this.

The contacts of the senses with the sense objects give rise to the feelings of heat and cold, and pain and pleasure. They are transitory and impermanent. Therefore, (learn to) endure them, O Arjuna. (2.14)

Because the calm person, who is not afflicted by these feelings and is steady in pain and pleasure, becomes fit for immortality, O Arjuna. (2.15)

There is no nonexistence of Sat* (Truth) and no existence of the Asat (Illusion). (2.16)

Know that Truth, by which all this universe is pervaded, to be indestructible. No one can destroy the indestructible. (2.17)

Bodies that house the soul may cease, but the soul itself is eternal, imperishable. Therefore, fight, O Arjuna! (2.18)

The one who thinks that Atma is a slayer, and the one who thinks that Atma is slain, both are ignorant, because Atma neither slays nor is slain. (2.19)

The Atma is neither born nor does it die at any time, nor having been it will cease to exist again. It is unborn, eternal, permanent, and primeval. The Atma is not destroyed when the body is destroyed. (2.20)

O Arjuna, how can a person who knows that the Atma is indestructible, eternal, unborn, and imperishable, kill anyone or cause anyone to be killed? (2.21)

Just as a person puts on new garments after discarding the old ones, similarly Atma acquires new bodies after casting away the old bodies. (2.22)

Weapons do not cut this Atma, fire does not burn it, water does not make it wet, and the wind does not make it dry. (2.23)

This Atma cannot be cut, burned, wetted, or dried up. It is eternal, all pervading, unchanging, immovable, and primeval. (2.24)

The Atma is said to be unmanifest, unthinkable, and unchanging. Knowing this Atma as such you should not grieve. (2.25)

If you think that this (body) takes birth and dies perpetually, even then, O Arjuna, you should not grieve like this. (2.26)

Because, death is certain for the one who is born, and birth is certain for the one who dies. Therefore, you should not lament over the inevitable. (2.27)

All beings, O Arjuna, are unmanifest before birth and after death. They are manifest between the birth and the death only. What is there to grieve about? (2.28)

Some look upon this Atma as a wonder, another describes it as wonderful, and others hear of it as a wonder. Even after hearing about it no one actually knows it. (2.29)

O Arjuna, the Atma that dwells in the body of all (beings) is eternally indestructible. Therefore, you should not mourn for any body. (2.30)

Considering also your duty as a warrior you should not waver. Because there is nothing more auspicious for a warrior than a righteous war. (2.31)

____________________

Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 18: The Secret of Surrender
The secret of devotion, revealed at the end of Krishna's conversation with the warrior, Arjuna, on the battlefield of Keshetriya.

Chapter 18, Verse 45.
By following his qualities of work, every man can become perfect. Now please hear from Me how this can be done.
Chapter 18, Verse 46.
By worship of the Lord, who is the source of all beings and who is all-pervading, man can, in the performance of his own duty, attain perfection.
Chapter 18, Verse 47.
It is better to engage in one's own occupation, even though one may perform it imperfectly, than to accept another's occupation and perform it perfectly. Prescribed duties, according to one's nature, are never affected by sinful reactions.
Chapter 18, Verse 56.
Though engaged in all kinds of activities, My devotee, under My protection, reaches the eternal and imperishable abode by My grace.
Chapter 18, Verse 57.
In all activities just depend upon Me and work always under My protection. In such devotional service, be fully conscious of Me......
Chapter 18, Verse 58.
If you become conscious of Me, you will pass over all the obstacles of conditional life by My grace. If, however, you do not work in such consciousness but act through false ego, not hearing Me, you will be lost.....
Chapter 18, Verse 61.
The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.
Chapter 18, Verse 62.
O scion of Bharata, surrender unto Him utterly. By His grace you will attain transcendental peace and the supreme and eternal abode.
Chapter 18, Verse 63.
Thus I have explained to you the most confidential of all knowledge. Deliberate on this fully, and then do what you wish to do.
Chapter 18, Verse 64.
Because you are My very dear friend, I am speaking to you the most confidential part of knowledge. Hear this from Me, for it is for your benefit.
Chapter 18, Verse 65.
Always think of Me and become My devotee. Worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend.
Chapter 18, Verse 66.
Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Do not fear.
___________________________________
Chandogya Upanishad: Creation from Nothing

There lived once Shwetaketo. To him his father Odalaka Aruni said: "Shwetaketo, go to school; for no one belonging to our race, dear son, who, not having studied, is a Brahman by birth only"
Having begun his apprenticeship when he was twelve years of age, Shwetaketo returned to his father, when he was twenty-four, having then studied all the Vedas,-conceited, considering himself well-read, and stern.
His father said to him: "Shwetaketo, as you are so conceited, considering yourself so well-read and so stern, my dear, have you ever asked for that instruction by which we hear what cannot be heard, by which we perceive what cannot be perceived, by which we know what cannot be known ? "
"What is that instruction, Sir?" he asked.
"Fetch me a fruit of the Nyagrodha tree."
"Here is one, Sir."
"Break it."
"It is broken, Sir."
"What do you see there?"
"These seeds, almost infinitesimal."
"Break one of them."
"It is broken, Sir."
"What do you see there?"
"Not anything, Sir."
The father said: "My son, that subtle essence which you do not perceive there, of that very essence this great Nyagrodha tree exists.
"Believe it, my son. That which is the subtle essence, in it all that exists has its self. It is the True. It is the Self, and you, Shwetaketo, are it. "
"Please, Sir, inform me still more," said the son.
"Be it so, my child," the father replied.
"Place this salt in water, and then wait on me in the morning."
The son did as he was commanded.
The father said to him: "Bring me the salt, which you placed in the water last night."
The son having looked for it, found it not, for, of course, it was melted.
The father said: "Taste it from the surface of the water. How is it?"
The son replied: "It is salt."
"Taste it from the middle. How is it?"
The son replied: "It is salt."
"Taste it from the bottom. How is it?"
The son replied: "It is salt."
The father said: "Throw it away and then wait ..on me.
He did so; but the salt exists forever.
Then the father said: "Here also, in this body, you do not perceive the True, my son; but there indeed it is.
"That which is the subtle essence, in it all that exists has its self. It is the True. It is the Self, and you, Shwetaketo, are it."
___________________________________

Yamas & Niyamas of Astanga Yoga

The Yoga system has eight "limbs", according to the sage Patanjali. They must all be practiced together in an integrated system of physical, moral and spiritual growth that encompasses the whole person. The eight limbs of Yoga ("astanga Yoga") are: Moral restraints and commandments, Postures, Breath control, Sense control, Concentration, Meditation, and Union with God.

The Yamas (restraints) and Niyamas (commandments) are very close to the Ten Commandments of the Bible. These moral rules are intended to accompany physical and spiritual practices.

Yamas
* Sexual abstinence (except in marriage)
* Non-violence
* Non-lying
* Non-stealing
* Non-coveting

Niyamas
* Truth
* Study of scriptures
* Devotion to one's chosen form of God
* Self-discipline
* Contentment
____________

Hindu Ethics: Five Types of Suffering
(A talk by Vedic Pundit Shri Shri Ravi Shankar)

These qualities are the sources of misery and the obstacles to knowing God, the obstacles to peace and light within. They are the five Kleshas: 1) ignorance, 2) egotism, 3) craving, 4) aversion, 5) fear.

1) The first cause of suffering is ignorance or avidya.
When your consciousness is filled with ignorance, then there is restlessness, dull-minded unhappiness, and anxiety. Misery is because of ignorance. Ignorance is giving importance to something not worth the importance. Ignorance is thinking something that is changing to be permanent or imagining something to be joyful which is not joyful.

Just like, when someone passes a comment about you. It is just a word that came from the person´s mouth and vanished. But thinking it is a permanent thing, keeping it in your mind is ignorance.
2) Asmita means "me, I" and is the second cause of suffering.
What people think about me? What do I want from them? How do I take advantage of them? Do they think I am good or bad? All these concerns are asmita. They give nothing but misery. They give you misery because of not being one with your own real existence. This asmita eats you up. That is the cause of your suffering.

3) The third is raga or craving.

4) Fourth is dwesha, meaning aversion or hatred.

5) Fifth is abhinivesha or fear.

These are the five sources of misery. But there is a pure consciousness deep down in you that is devoid of these five factors. Though outwardly you are miserable, and you are craving for outward things, if you really go to the core of your existence, deep down, in the very center point of you, you are free from that misery, completely free.

You may be hating somebody on the outside, but from the center of your existence there is no hatred. There is fear only on the outside. There is ignorance only on the outside, but when you come to the core of your existence, there is no fear. There is no ignorance there. In fact, there is no you there: no ego crying, "Me, me! Mine, mine!'

When these Kleshas are eliminated even from the outer body, then whatever is in the center becomes eminent, so obvious. The Lordship in you blossoms. God in you is manifested. So God is that purusha, that being which is devoid of sufferings or misery.
______________________

Guru Paduka Strotam

Stanzas to the Feet of the Guru, by Adi Shankara

(A devotional classic of Hindu literature written by Indias greatest philosopher.)

Anantha samsara samudhra thara nauka yithabhyam guru bhakthithabhyam,
Vairagya samrajy adha poojanabhyam, namo nama sri guru padukhabyam.

Salutations and Salutations to the sandals of my Guru,
Which is a boat, which helps me, cross the endless ocean of life,
Which endows me, with the sense of devotion to my Guru,
And by worship of which, I attain the dominion of renunciation.

Kavithva varasi nisagarabhyam, dourbhagya davam budha malikabhyam,
Dhoori krutha namra vipathithabhyam, namo nama sri guru padukabhyam.

Salutations and Salutations to the sandals of my Guru,
Which is the ocean of knowledge, resembling the full moon,
Which is the water, which puts out the fire of misfortunes,
And which removes distresses of those who prostrate before it.

Natha yayo sripatitam samiyu kadachidapyasu daridra varya,
Mookascha vachas pathithamhi thabhyam, namo nama sri guru padukhabyam.

Salutations and Salutations to the sandals of my Guru,
Which make those who prostrate before it,
Possessors of great wealth, even if they are very poor,
And which makes even dumb people in to great orators.

Naleeka neekasa pada hrithabhyam, nana vimohadhi nivarikabyam,
Nama janabheeshtathathi pradhabhyam namo nama sri guru padukhabyam.

Salutations and Salutations to the sandals of my Guru,
Which attracts us, to lotus like feet of our Guru,
Which cures us, of the unwanted desires,
And which helps fulfill the desires of those who salute.

Nrupali moulee brajarathna kanthi sariddha raja jashakanyakabhyam,
Nrupadvadhabhyam nathaloka pankhthe, namo nama sri guru padukhabyam.

Salutations and Salutations to the sandals of my Guru,
Which shine like gems on the crown of a king,
Which shine like a maid in the crocodile infested stream,
And which make the devotees attain the status of a king.

Papandhakara arka paramparabhyam, thapathryaheendra khageswarabhyam,
Jadyadhi samsoshana vadaveebhyam namo nama sri guru padukhabyam.

Salutations and Salutations to the sandals of my Guru,
Which is like a series of Suns, driving away the dark sins,
Which is like the king of eagles, driving away the cobra of miseries,
And which is like a terrific fire drying away the ocean of ignorance.

Samadhi shatka pradha vaibhavabhyam, Samadhi dhana vratha deeksithabhyam,
Ramadhavadeegra sthirha bhakthidabhyam, namo nama sri guru padukabyam.

Salutations and Salutations to the sandals of my Guru,
Which endows us, with the glorious six qualities like sham,
Which gives the students, the ability to go in to eternal trance,
And which helps to get perennial devotion to the feet of Vishnu.

Swarchaparana makhileshtathabhyam, swaha sahayaksha durndarabhyam,
Swanthachad bhava pradha poojanabhyam, namo nama sri guru padukhabyam.

Salutations and Salutations to the sandals of my Guru
Which bestows all desires of the serving disciples,
Who are ever involved in carrying the burden of service
And which helps the aspirants to the state of realization.

Kaamadhi sarpa vraja garudabhyam, viveka vairagya nidhi pradhabhyam,
Bhodha pradhabhyam drutha mokshathabhyam, namo nama sri guru padukhabyam.

Salutations and Salutations to the sandals of my Guru
Which is the Garuda, which drives away the serpent of passion,
Which provides one, with the treasure of wisdom and renunciation,
Which blesses one, with enlightened knowledge,
And blesses the aspirant with speedy salvation.

Hindu Art Images: Vishnu

2007-08-10T02:05:00.000-07:00

Hindus worships God beyond form, Brahman. Yet Hindus love imagery and art to express the endless divine qualities of Brahman. This is precisely the opposite of Islam and Judaism, where it is considered sinful to picture God.

Hindu art pictures God in countless human forms, and God takes incarnation as a human avatar whenever the righteous yearn for him, or when unrighteousness prevails and a corrective is needed.

It is essential to understand that all these forms are symbols of the One who cannot be represented in actual form. And all the "gods" are aspects of the One Light of Brahman. In fact, the word translated as "god", Deva, means "shining one." The Hindu gods are the shining beans of Brahman, who is one. In the words of the Vedic scripture, "Ekam sat viprah, bahudha vedantahih." "Truth is One, but the wise have called Him by many names."

In this site, we will penetrate into the qualities of God, according to Hinduism, by examining the forms of the Devas in Hindu art.

I. VISHNU

1.Vishnu Reclining on Sesha, the cosmic serpent
"We are the stuff that dreams are made of," wrote Shakespeare. The universe is born from Pralaya, cosmic sleep, and the Creator, Brahma, awakens, sitting on a lotus growing from the navel of Maha-Vishnu. Brahma is dazzled, his head facing in all directions at once. Not even the Creator understands the mystery. He too is part of Vishnu's dream. When we dream, we are asleep. When Vishnu dreams the creation, he is awake, watching, enjoying the dream.

2. Vishnu's Dream (contemporary painting)
He dreams countless universes, like bubbles in the Milk Ocean. Each universe has its own Brahma, or Creator. Vishnu holds the mace, the conch shell, the discuss, and the lotus. What do they represent?

3. Brahma, the Creator
Brahma sits on a lotus that grows from the ocean of Vishnu's dream. It is said that "Bahma does not know Brahman." What does this mean?

4. Lakshmi: Goddess of Prosperity and Beauty
She is the feminine aspect of Vishnu. Her Festival of Lights, Divali, is a most popular Hindu holiday in November, when the rainy season comes. In Hindu thought, earthly sensual beauty and material abundance are simply the outward sign of inward spiritual radiance. Thus, Lakshmi is pictures on a celestial lotus, yet she pour forth money! She bestows 200% of life: fullness of the spiritual and the physical.

Om Shrim Hrim Klim Maha-Lakshmi Devyai Namaha!

5. Sarasvati
She is the feminine aspect of Brahma, and far more popular in Hindu devotion than Brahma himself. Hindus don't pray to God through Brahma, but they pray through Sarasvati, Goddess of creativity. She presides over the arts, poetry, music and learning. She is the Goddess of students and their discipline. As Saraswati plays a vina or sitar, her other hands hold a scroll of literature and a rosary. She sits on a white lotus with the swan, Hamsa. Hamsa also means 'soul'. Music and poetry soothe and inspire the soul.

Sanskrit Hymn to Saraswati by Agyastya (w. translation)

6. Krishna and Arjuna (Bhagavad Gita)
In the great epic of the Mahabharata, the central chapter is the Bhagavad Gita, one of the world's most popular scriptures. Lord Vishnu descends as an avatar to guide the righteous on earth in times of trial. Hindu history records his descent as Lord Krishna around 14 thousand years ago. He taught the philosophy of Yoga to strengthen the noble warrior, Arjuna. Their conversation, which takes place on the battlefield just before the battle, is recorded in the Gita. In this picture, Krishna helps Arjuna call the troops, blowing the conch horn. He rides in the chariot next to the prince of warriors. Here they are summoning their troops by blowing conch shells, the instrument that is akin to the trumpet in Biblical symbolism. It is the sound that awakens the soul to duty.

Does a divine helper ride in your chariot to guide you through the battles of life? The image of God as charioteer is also used by Plato, at the source of Western philosophy, in his greatest work, The Republic. The chariot driver is the divine in us. The reins represent the mind, controlling the charging horses who are the senses. They pull the body, the chariot. Without a wise charioteer and strong reigns, the horses of sensuality will pull the body off course.

7. Krishna and Radha
After helping Arjuna defeat the unrighteous rebel army, Krishna removes his royal crown and goes to the garden of Vrindavan, where he acts the part of a young cowherd boy engaging in playful acts, called Lilas, with the herder boys and girls. Krishna calls his friends with his flute. The Gopi girls fall in love with him. But one of them is his special lover, Radha. She represents the heart of a devotee, yearning for the Lord. The love poetry about Radha and Krishna is sensual and sweet, much like the poetry in the Biblical Song of Songs.

Krishna in this role is also called Gopala and Govinda. 'Go' can mean 'cow' in Sanskrit. But it also means 'knowledge.' These names of Krishna can mean, 'Protector of the Cows', an image similar to that of Shepherd in Christian symbolism. But the names also mean, 'Protector of Knowledge.' To know Krishna's loving protection is to be at the source of knowledge. In Hindu devotion, all knowledge leads ultimately to that goal: being in devotional relationship to the grace of a loving personal Lord.

Sarva dharman parit-yajya,
Mam ekam sharanam vraja,
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo
moksha-yishami, ma shucah.

"Give up all other religious duties and just surrender to Me. I will deliver you from all your sins: don't worry!"

8. Radha-Krishna
Some of India's most beautiful art consists of miniature paintings depicting the lilas of Radha and Krishna. In spiritual symbolism, Radha and Krishna are really one. They are two aspects of one divine love. She is the heart's yearning, while he the union of the heart with God. Bhakti, or devotion, is the endless rhythm and throb of longing and fulfillment. The secret of Hindu Bhakti is that our very longing for God is God in us. This theme is reflected in St. Paul's statement, "it is the Spirit of Jesus in us who cries, Abba! Father!" (Romans 8:15)

9. By the River Jumna
With the following pictures, we will hear Krishna's words from the Bhagavad Gita on the mystery of devotion. How do these words affect you? Have you heard any words like these in other traditions?

"He who offers to me with devotion only a leaf, or a flower, or even a little water, this I accept from that yearning soul, because it was offered with love from a pure heart." (Gita 9:26)

10. Under the Shade of a Banyan Tree
"Whatever you do - whether eating, working, serving, or offering adoration - let it be done as an offering to Me; and whatever you suffer, suffer it for Me. Thus you shall be freed from all sin, all karma, and come to Me." (Gita 9:27)

11. The Mystery of Divine Union
"Those who worship Me with devotion, they are in Me and I am in them." (Gita 9:29)

12. Swing Lila
"Even if the greatest sinner worships me with all his heart, he must be considered righteous, and he shall reach everlasting peace. This is my word of promise: he who loves Me shall not perish." (Gita 9:30)

13. Radha and Her Bridesmaids
"In the midst of his work, whatever his activity may be, my devotee takes refuge in Me, and by my Grace, reaches the imperishable abode of eternity." (Gita 18:56)

In Hindu Bhakti, one is not saved by acts of devotion or moral duty, but simply by prashad, the Grace of the Divine. After one has surrendered to Grace, then one's ordinary daily actions are an opportunity for self-offering (sharanam). In the state of Bhakti, everything we do, at work or at home, becomes a sacrament.

In the picture above, all the Gopis want to dance with Govinda. How can many souls have a personal intimate relationship with one and the same God? As in the Biblical 'Song of Songs', the Lover and his Beloved are surrounded by her bridesmaids. Does God only choose one special soul among us for union with Him?

14. Rasa Lila
The greatest mystery in the sacred garden of Vrindivan is the Rasa Lila (Playful Wedding Dance). Here Krishna replicates himself for the Gopis, becoming a personal dance partner for each girl. Just so, every human soul can dance with the supreme Godhead, enjoying an intimate personal relationship with universal Being. God does not lose transcendence or universality when He appears as a human form, a personal Beloved, in the yearning heart of each particular soul.

II. BRAHMAN

15. Brahman Is Beyond Form
Let us not forget that all the Devas are just rays of one divine Sun, sparkles of the formless light of Brahman. The Devas may be more powerful, but are no different in essence, from the human soul (Atman). Atman also a ray of Brahman. In the end, gods and souls are one light, one consciousness, one truth, one Self.

Confusion often arises about the words Brahman, Brahma, and Brahmin. The obviously come from the the same Sanskrit root, which means "beginning" or "first." Yet the student of Indian culture must understand their different meanings. Brahmin signifies the first caste in the ancient Hindu social system, the Brahmins. Brahma, as we have seen, is the creator god. But Brahma does not know Brahman. Brahman is the absolute unchanging Truth of unity, the Self in all sentient beings, the One behind the many.

Gayatri Mantra
The most sacred Hindu prayer, the 'Gayatri Mantra', goes directly beyond the Devas to Brahman:

Om bhur bhurva suvaha
Tat savitur varenyam
Bhargo devasya dhimahi
Dhiyo yonah prachodayat

We meditate on the effulgent light divine,
Who creates both heaven and earth,
Who is worthy of worship,
Who embodies wisdom,
Who removes all sin and ignorance:
May He enlighten us!

Om Shantih, Shantih, Shantih.... Peace, Peace, Peace.
___________________________

Link to Hindu art images of Shiva.

Hindu Art Images: Shiva

2007-08-07T02:07:00.000-07:00

5. Shiva-Shaki: A Modern Rendition

6. Prambhanam Shiva Temple, South India

7. Dance of Parvati Shakti
In India, the body is sacred, and sexuality is sacred when used for procreation, in marriage. The sensual images in a Hindu temple are expressions of Shiva as life-energy and creative power.

8. Dance of Kali Shakti
Kali is Shakti in her wild and purifying personification. She is difficult for many Westerners to comprehend. Yet the Bible also has its terrible and wrathful images of God. "Our God is a consuming fire... It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God!"

Kali is nature's destructive force. Creation cannot occur without destruction. The old must be cleansed for the new to be born. There is pain in birth. In every religious tradition, God must at some point resort to violence in order to slay the wicked, defend the innocent, and restore order in the world. The terriflying image of Kali is beloved by many Hindus, because she protects the righteous by destroying sin. She holds the sword of Shiva, a mace, a bow, a trident, a discuss and other weapons. She wears a belt of severed skulls (representing demonic powers, not human victims) and she treads on a conquered demon who represents the ego, the 'demonic.' selfish side of every human personality.

9. Ganesh: Son of Parvati and Shiva
Ganesh is a chubby mischievous boy who played with his father's sword and accidentally cut his head off. One should not play with knowledge one is not ready to handle! So Shiva took the head of the wisest and most elderly animal, put it on the body of the boy, and created a delightful form, combining the elder's wisdom with the boy's innocence. As each Hindu God has an animal symbol, Ganesh's companion is a mouse. Sometime's he rides the mouse!

10. Household Doorway: Statue of Ganesh
Ganesh protects the household. Every traditional Indian home has an image of Ganesh guarding its door, like the statue below. And the household usually has a mouse or two guarding its pantry! The mouse is humble and quiet, but gets its work done efficiently. Like a good householder, the mouse is inventive, industrious, and always busy. These are some qualities of Ganesh.

11. Interpretation of Ganesh by Shri Shri Ravi Shankar
"An elephant's trunk has the strength to uproot a tree as well as the finesse to pick up a needle. Ganesha's trunk symbolises the fact that the wise person has both immense strength and fine discrimination. Ganesha has large ears. The wise person hears all. He has four hands. In one and he holds a lotus, the symbol of enlightenment. In the other hand he holds a hatchet. That means, the old karma, the accumulated good and bad of past deeds, gets cut when enlightenment comes.

"The third hand holds laddus, the round sweet-meats. They are the rewards of a wise life. Ganesha is never shown eating the laddus. The wise man never partakes of the rewards of his deeds. He is not attached to them. The fourth hand is shown blessing the people. The wise man wishes the best for everyone.

"Ganesh has only one tusk; the other is shown broken. The symbolism of the broken tusk is that the wise person is beyond duality. We tend to think that we end when our bodies end in the material world. We are the first person. All else is different. This duality is created by the mind which creates the ego to help us survive in this world. This 'me-other' duality is the screen keeping us from realising our real Self, which is beyond body and mind. Once we transcend this duality, we see the entire universe as a single whole and we become aware of our true Selves. The single tusk of Ganesh symbolises this non-duality. Wisdom allows us to see all as one and ourselves an integral part of the whole.

"Ganesh is shown sitting with one foot on the ground and the other resting on his knee, above the ground. The wise person is of this earth, yet not entirely of this earth.

"Ganesha is shown seated on a rat. The reason for saying that Ganesh 'rides' on the rat is that the rat is among the greediest of all animals. It will keep nibbling at whatever is available, eating everything it can. Scientifically, too, the rat's teeth keep growing and it has to keep chewing on something to keep these within limits. The rat is a symbol of our senses, which are never satisfied. They crave new experiences, new tastes. Left uncontrolled, they keep growing forever. The wise person rides on his senses. He keeps them under control.

"Ganesha is often shown seated in front of a tray of sweets. In these images the rat is shown sitting in front of Ganesha, perhaps a bit to one side, looking up at him. The senses of the wise person are under his control and the rat dare not eat the sweets without the permission of Ganesha.

"Ganesha is the son of Shiva and Parvati, the God governing the life-force and the earth-mother. This symbolizes the spirit and body of the wise person. Finally, the wise person has the dignity of an elephant.

"When we say Aum Ganeshaya Namah before starting anything, what we are saying is, in what we are about to do, let wisdom be our guide. In a sense, Ganesh is our most powerful god, and he is usually remembered before starting any rituals for other Devas."

12. Interpretation of Shiva Symbols from the Upanishads

Lord Shiva represents the destructive aspect of Brahman. 'Destructive' here means, 'destructive of ignorance, of that which binds the soul.'

That portion of Brahman that is enveloped by Tamo-Guna is Lord Shiva who is the all-pervading Isvara (Person of God) and who also dwells in Mount Kailas. He is the Bhandara or store-house for wisdom. Siva minus the Goddess (Parvati or Kali or Durga) is Nirguna Brahman Himself: the Absolute without form. With Maya-Parvati, He becomes the Saguna Brahman (God with form) for the purpose of devotion. Devotees of Vishnu must worship Lord Shiva for 3 or 6 months before they take to worship of Rama or other Vishnu forms. Rama Himself worshipped Lord Siva at the famous Ramesvaram. Lord Siva is the Lord of Ascetics and Lord of Yogis, robed in space (Digambara).

His Trisul (trident), held in His right hand, represents the three Gunas—Sattva, Rajas and Tamas (creativity, energy, and destruction). These are the impulses that sustain the universe and combine to form the elements. The Trisul, containing all three, is the emblem of Shiva's sovereignty. He wields the world through these three Gunas.

The Damaru (drum) in His left hand represents Sabda Brahman, the sound-current that creates the universe, pulsating in waves of rhythm. That cosmic drum-beat arises from OM, out of which all languages are formed. It is Shiva who formed the Sanskrit language out of the Damaru vibration.

In the view of the Yogins, the Sanskrit language was never invented by man (though it was finally written down at a much later time). Sanskrit was cognized by the rishis as inner sound vibration in subtle layers of consciousness. This occurred during Sat Yuga, when the earth's atmosphere was pure enough to sustain such cognition, innumerable aeons ago.

Shiva is Trilochana, the three-Eyed: in the center of His forehead is the third eye, the eye of wisdom. The crescent moon indicates that Shiva has controlled the mind perfectly, for moon symbolizes mind. The flow of the Ganges emanating from Shiva's seat represents the nectar of Immortality. Shiva is portrayed with certain animals: Elephant represents pride: His wearing elephant skin denotes that He has controlled pride. Tiger represents lust: His sitting on tiger skin indicates that He has conquered lust. His touching a deer with one hand indicates that He has removed the Chanchalata (tossing) of the mind, for the deer is nervous and jumps from one place to another. His wearing of serpents denotes wisdom and eternity. Serpents shed their old skin and live on.

He is Shivam (the good, the pure), Sundaram (the beautiful), Kantam (the effulgent). “Shantam Shivam Advaitam,” declares the Mandukya Upanishada: 'Oneness is the peace of Shiva.'

'I bow with folded hands again and again at the lotus-feet of Lord Shiva, who is One without a taint of duality; who is the Adhishthana, or ground of creation and all minds; who is Sat-Chit-Ananda (Truth, Awareness, Bliss); who is the Antaryamin (Supreme Ruler); the Sakshi (silent witness of every thought); who is self-effulgent, self-existent and self-contained as Pari-purna (Supreme Fullness); who is the remover of the primitive Avidya (ignorance); and who is the Adi-Guru (first teacher). That Lord Shiva is my very essence. That Lord Shiva I am. Shivoham, Shivoham, Shivoham!"

_______________________

Link to Hindu art images of Vishnu.

Breath as Prayer in Christianity

2007-07-20T21:04:00.000-07:00

Introduction

In both the Hebrew and Christianscriptures, there is a primordial link between breath and Spirit. The word forSpirit and breath are exactly the same, in both Hebrew and Greek. The breathcan attune us to the primordial rhythm that was there in the silence of theCreator, before God said, Let there be light.

In the early Church, this link between breath and Spirit was a concretepractice. But as time went by, Spirit became a mere intellectual concept, andwas no longer rooted in the practice of the breath. Let us revive this ancientChristian practice, and meet God’s Holy Spirit in our breath.

I. Biblical Tradition

In Hebrew, ‘Spirit of God’ isruach elohim, which also means breath ofGod. The Greek ‘Holy Spirit’ is haggia pneuma, sacred breath. The Hebrew ruach can mean Spirit, breath, or wind, just as the NewTestament pneuma means Spirit,breath, or wind.

The Gospel of John even puns onthis triple meaning of pneuma. In John 3:8 Jesus says, “The wind/breath blows where it pleases. You hear the sound of it, but don’t know where it comes from or whitherit goes. So it is with all those who are born of the Spirit.” In this pun,Jesus tells us that when we touch the Spirit-Breath, we touch the mystery atthe source of creation. We are re-created and reborn.

Note that this passage mentions the“sound” of the Spirit –Breath. Hebrew tradition describes the Word of creation,or Logos, in conjunction with the divine breath. God breathes the Word.

In the very first verses ofGenesis, creation is born out of a deep silence vibrating with the breath ofGod. This vibrant void precedes even the Word. So the first verse of the Bibleshows us: “In the beginning, when God was creating heaven and earth, the earthwas a formless vacuum (‘tohu wa bohu’) and the breath of God (‘ruach elohim’)was stirring the primordial waters.” It is out of this subtle breath that theWord of creation arises: “And God said, Let there be light.”

This essential relationship betweendivine Breath and divine Word is carried throughout Hebrew tradition. Psalm33:6 declares: “By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all theirstarry hosts by the Breath of his mouth.” Jesus carries on this tradition, hisWord imbued with Spirit-Breath, his breath empowered by the divine Word. Inanother Johannine pun, the Gospel tells us that Jesus “breathed upon them andsaid, Receive the holy Spirit.” (John 20:22)

Indeed, the Holy Trinity itself canbe seen as the link between Silence, Word, and Breath: Father, Son, and Spirit.

II. The Intellectualizing ofBreath

These great Biblical passages pointnot only to a theology, but to a practice of healing and regenerationthrough the breath. Tragically, theBiblical relationship between Spirit and Breath was lost as theologiansintellectualized pneuma into an abstraction, and lost itsconnection to the body. When the risen Lord appeared to the disciples at theend of John’s Gospel, John’s majorpoint was the bodily nature of the resurrection. Jesus was incarnate, and his resurrection is a resurrection of the body. Jesus’ breath not only heals the soul, but thebody. When Jesus breathes on them and pronounces his Word, “Receive the HolySpirit,” John is telling us that we can open our own bodies to the Breath ofGod.

It is time for the Christian church to recover the bodily roots of prayer. DidPaul the Apostle not write, “Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit-Breath…Therefore glorify God in your body.” (I Corinthians, chapter 6))

We glorify God in our bodies byinviting Spirit into us through the healing breath.

III. Eastern Orthodox 'Prayerof the Heart' : Writings from the Philocalia

When we turn to the Masters of thePrayer of the Heart in the Orthodox tradition, who collected their teachings as a great book called the Philocalia, we find the primordial practice ofprayer as breath, united with word. Theseteachings give us living proof, from the heart of Christian tradition, that inthe early Church, the Spirit was not simply a theological concept,but a breath practice. Indeed, the grace of prayer comes through the breath.

7th C: St John Climacus ('TheDivine Ladder')

•"(Prayer is) constantremembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ, quietly led into the heart by way ofbreathing and again led out, without anyextraneous thought or imagining."

• Monologistos eucharistos, "One-word Prayer"; Iesou euche: "Jesus Prayer": These terms were firstused by John Climacus. Prayer was reduced to a single word or phrase, alwaysaccompanied by breath (See note below*** )

8th C. - St. Hesychius ofJerusalem, "On Watchfulness and Holiness"

• "Constantly breathingJesus Christ..."

• “...The heart's silence, unbrokenby any thought. In this silence the heart breathes and invokes without ceasing only Jesus Christ, Sonof God."

13th C. - Nichodemus of theHoly Mountain (Mt. Athos)

• "Let Jesus be yourbreath."

14^th C. - TheMonks Callistus and Ignatius, Mt. Athos, "Directions to Hesychasts"

* "After sunset, having askedthe help of the all-merciful and all-powerful Lord Jesus Christ, sit you downon a low stool in your quiet and dimly lit cell; collect your mind from itscustomary circling and wandering outside, and quietly lead it into the heart byway of breathing, keeping the prayer... connected with the breath."

20^th C. - Fa.George Maloney (contemporary Orthodox), “Breath of the Mystic”

• "God was meant to beman's breath. Man was meant to be healthyand full of life by breathing in the loving power of God."

*** " 'Have mercy on me' wasadded by the holy fathers chiefly for those who are still beginners... For theadvanced and the holy in Christ are content with any of the shorter forms,'Lord Jesus', 'Jesus Christ', 'Christ Son of God', or even with one word,'Jesus', which they kiss and embrace as the complete doing of prayer,sufficient to fill them with ineffable bliss and joy exceeding all mind, allvision and all hearing." (The Monks Callistus and Ignatius, 14th C.)

Heart Space

2007-06-29T10:28:00.000-07:00

The Heart Center is a very real neurological matrix in the body, which is also a focus of electromagnetic and spiritual energy, as significant in our intelligence as the brain. The following quotes and videos touch on the practice of shifting awareness from the brain to the heart, opening deeper levels of human creativity and communion. These statements come from spiritual masters, philosophers, artists, poets, physicists, and medical researchers, both ancient and modern.

"The heart’s electromagnetic field, by far the most powerful rhythmic field produced by the body, not only envelopes each cell of the body but extends in all directions into the space around us. IHM Research suggests that the heart's field is an important carrier of information." (Dr. Rollin McCraty, Institute of Heart Math)

"In the mid-1970s, the benchmark Framingham Heart Study found that suppressed anger could help predict the incidence of heart disease." LINK

"The souls ability to nourish itself lies in the heart." (Aristotle, one of the founders of Western philosophy)

"Let the mind descend in to the heart." (Philocalia, Eastern Orthodox classic on Prayer of the Heart)

"After sunset, having asked the help of the all-merciful and all-powerful Lord Jesus Christ, sit you down on a low stool in your quiet and dimly lit cell; collect your mind from its customary circling and wandering outside, and quietly lead it into the heart by way of breathing, keeping the prayer, 'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me,' connected with the breath." (The Monks Callistus & Ignatius, Directions to Hesychasts, 14th C. Orthodox)

"Prayer is constant remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ, quietly led into the heart by way of breathing and again led out, without any extraneous thought or imagining."(ibid.)

“Breathing out and breathing in, relinquish your mind and enter your heart, the lotus where the energy that creates the universe flows”. (Vijnana Bhairava, Medieval Yoga scripture of India)

Hridayeh chitta-sanghattad drishya-svapa-darshanam: "When the mind merges into the heart, one perceives the true nature of the external world as the dreamlike projection of consciousness." (Shiva Sutras, Kashmir)

"If the mind remains in the Heart, the I or ego which is the source of all thoughts will go. Then the Self, the Real Eternal I, alone will shine. Where there is not the slightest trace of the ego, there is the Self." (Ramana Maharshi, Vedanta Master)

"I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart: I am. I am. I am." (Sylvia Plath, poet)

"The heart has reasons that reason cannot know." (Pascal, Enlightenment mathematician)

"If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing." (Marc Chagall, 20th C. Russian painter)

"A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge." (Thomas Carlyle, 19th C. English humanist)

"Don't dismiss the heart, even if it's filled with sorrow. God's treasures are buried in broken hearts." (Rumi, Islamic Sufi poet)

"When the bud breaks, it becomes a flower. When the heart breaks, it becomes divine." (Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, contemporary master of yoga & breath)

Prayer of the Heart

2007-06-20T18:15:00.000-07:00

Eastern Orthodox Icon of the Heart Center

I. Three Jewels
There are three precious jewels which you were given in your mother's womb. I am only going to remind you of their value, for you have let them get tarnished. Once you understand the value of what you already have, you will experience the deepest meditation and the highest form of prayer just by breathing. Before you set out on this life, your Inward Teacher gave you these three talismans to take on your journey: Breath, Heart, and The Present Moment.

The human body itself is a holy sacrament. When you are fully embodied, no further sacrament is needed. If we would but attend to this body with as much devotion as we attend to church buildings, we would enter the temple right where we are.

As the center of the temple is the Holy of Holies, the center of the body is the Heart. The Heart is not merely a physical organ, but the matrix of our consciousness. Aristotle wrote: "The heart is the perfection of the whole organism. The soul's ability to nourish itself lies in the heart." (Aristotle) The ancient Shiva Sutras of North India declare: "The true yogi establishes the mind in the heart." Likewise, the early manual of prayer from Orthodox Christianity begins its instruction: "Let the mind descend into the heart." We often take the heart as a symbol, but these instructions point to the heart itself, that beating organ at the center of the body which is so much more than just a muscle or a pump. In fact, recent medical research has classified the heart as an endocrine gland, and even as a "heart brain," with a radiant electromagnetic field far more powerful than that produced by the brain.

The heart is like a radio, constructed out of physical matter, but in such a way as to receive invisible energies, turning them into information. We can attune our hearts to God just as surely as we can set our radio to our favorite channel. In this form of meditation, the Prayer of the Heart, we quite literally rest our awareness in the heart. Prayer is a sacrament: spiritual presence apprehended through a physical sign. When your attention rests in the Heart, you pass through a tiny golden portal to the Kingdom of God. Eternity dwells as a tiny spark at the center of your Heart. Entering that infinitesimal door, you discover yourself in the vast expanse of divine consciousness. This what Jesus meant when he said, "I am the door." The I Am at the center of your Heart is the portal to God-Consciousness.

*

Down through the door of the Heart flows the Breath, the carrier of all that nourishes and heals. Breath is the unacknowledged physician in every human body. It cleanses each cell, enlivens each atom. If we would employ the power of our breath, we would worry much less about the growing costs of health care. As our Heart is the physical sign of the soul, so our Breath is the physical sign of the Spirit. The Biblical authors knew this. In the Hebrew and Christian scriptures they used the same word to express both spirit and breath. The double meaning of the Hebrew ruach and the Greek pneuma corresponds to the double reality of our own breath. Breath is both the vehicle for oxygen and the host for spiritual energy. Each great religious tradition acknowledges this subtle energy in the breath: it is called chi in China, prana in India, spiritus in the West.

When we do it with awareness, simply to breathe is the purest form of prayer. What turns ordinary respiration into worship is our mindfulness of it. I discover that each breath is a gift. I am not breathing: I am breathed by the Almighty. Inhalation is grace. Then, when I exhale, I have an opportunity to surrender. I need to alter, no sanctuary for this sacrament. Breathing in, breathing out: grace and surrender. Merely to observe this graceful process transforms mechanism into sacrament.

*

Our third birthright is the jewel of Presence. We can also call it the jewel of Silence, for when we are fully in the present moment, observing what is, just as it is, the mind is silent. Silence is always here, now, beneath the static chatter of our thoughts. To enter this healing, peace-giving Silence is to enter the Kingdom of Heaven on earth: the Kingdom of the Present Moment. Silence is the space where God dwells as eternal presence. God is never in the future, never in the past. Only when we enter the spacious silence of the present moment can we encounter the divine Being.

"Take no thought for tomorrow," Jesus declared. He always brought his listeners into the Kingdom of Now. They asked when the kingdom would come and he replied, "The kingdom of heaven is right here, in the midst of you!" He declared, "Before Abraham was, I Am." The whole spiritual journey is from here to now. Those who aren't ready for this journey study old maps.

*

Then how do we dwell in silent presence without being swept into the past and future by a flood of thoughts?

First, we acknowledge the fact that thinking creates time. The past and future only exist as thoughts. We carry past and future in our heads, but our hearts always beat now. Our hearts are always in the Kingdom.

Failure to acknowledge presence is the seed of suffering. Regrets of the past and anxieties of the future are actually physiological stresses carried in the neurons of our brain. Time is a neurological phenomena, a chemical-electric activity in the cortex. Time is anxiety, and anxiety is time.

The solution to the problem of time is simply to become aware of time as a sensation in the brain. Watch time forming inside you as a knot of thoughts, fears, desires. See how you label this knot past and future. Instead of being mesmerized and absorbed by mental images, inner movies about what happened or what might happen, become aware of these thoughts as minute physical impulses. The moment I become aware, "Ah, this passing thought is just a chemical activity in my brain," the thought loses its binding power. I can observe the sensation that underlies the thought, without converting it into a mental picture. Then, penetrating that sensation without resistance, I can rest in the silence that is always here, behind every thought. This silence is the pure awareness that observes thoughts, but is never a thought itself. Pure awareness is the still space where thoughts arise and dissolve. This still space is the real me. I am the watcher. Thus Jesus taught, "Watch and pray." The watcher, not the thinker, finds God.

The silence that watches thoughts come and go is always in the present. Silence is the end of time.

Let each breath be an anchor that moors you to the silence of the heart. Follow your exhalation from the mind into the heart. At the very end of the exhalation, you will discover a moment of complete emptiness, just before inhalation begins. In that emptiness, there is no thought, no mind, no time: just silent emptiness. This is Christ's kinosis, or self-emptiness. "He emptied himself" (Philippians 2). Rest in that measureless empty stillness at the end of the exhalation, where this little stream of soul returns to the ocean of Spirit.

From that depth will rise the inhalation, your next breath, a gift. Yes, you will discover that this breath is not really yours. It is the gift of the infinite.

Heart Mandala with the seed syllable, "Hum". This syllable is practiced in Tibetan, Yogic, Sufi and Hebrew mystical prayer. 'Hu' is one of the names of God in the Hebrew scriptures.

II. Practice
These meditation instructions should be practiced, not analyzed. With eyes closed, practice each step for awhile until it becomes natural and easy. Then move to the next step. Don't try to force your way through the whole sequence at one time. Use the instructions that work. Own them. In the end, they flow together as one simple process carried out, not by your effort, but by Grace: the Grace of your Inner Teacher. There is no major religious tradition in the world that does not contain this practice.

• Close your eyes and observe the breath. Observe with gentle attention, not forced concentration. Let the breath flow naturally from the nostrils down to the abdomen. Be aware of it all the way.

• As you breathe out, let go of tension. Let go of any subtle holding in the muscles of the shoulders, chest, or belly. As you release tension through the exhalation, let go of grasping thoughts in the mind. What unconscious holding are you doing in the region of the solar plexus? Breathe out this tension. Along with it, drop the mind! Breathing out tension of your body, you can breathe out the tension of time past.

• Allow awareness to sink from the head to the heart, quite literally. Gaze down into your heart and feel it beating. Give it room to beat. Feel its warmth. With awareness in the heart, observe whatever sensations come, without analyzing or labeling the sensation "good" or "bad," "pain" or "pleasure." You may have denied your heart for a long time. Attention here can release strange feelings: heat, cold, fluttering, anger, fear, sadness. These words are just labels. Feel the sensations as energy without words. After regular practice, eventually you will experience a causeless glow of happiness in the heart.

Don't let this quiet joy confuse you, asking, "What right have I to be joyful?" The innate joy of the heart has no cause. In Sanskrit it is called anahatta, meaning unstruck causeless sound. The heart is called the anahatta chakra. The gracious gift of undeserved happiness is your birthright. You don't have to accomplish anything in order to deserve a song in your heart! As Jnaneshwar sang:

"The moment the energy of Spirit (kundalini shakti) enters the heart region, the self-begotten divine unstruck music begins to play."

• Now you are simply breathing in the heart. At the end of your exhalation, notice the stillness, the silent emptiness, the still point. This is the door. Here, surrender. This is the boundless space from which creation arises, the formless void mentioned in the first verse of the Bible. It is here already, even before God says, Let there be light.

• After spending some time observing the exhalation and resting in silence, become aware of the inhalation. Observe each in-breath as a stream of living energy, flowing into your heart.

• Receive the inhalation with gratitude. Note its effortlessness. The breath is given. It is not something you work for. With this awareness, you will feel a soft thrill, a warmth deep in the heart. This is the outward and physical sign of Grace. Life is a gift.

• Continue for as long as you wish, just resting and breathing through the heart. Nothing could be simpler. Nothing could be more profound. With every inhalation, receive. With every exhalation, offer. Breathing is the whole story of salvation: the gift of God and the soul's response. Your breath is Holy Communion on the heart's alter.

The Holy Breath is the Holy Spirit, consecrating and trans-substantiating your body into the Host of God. Adam was created out of dust (adamah) by the breath of God (ruach Elohim) to become a living soul (nephesh). Nephesh also means breath in Hebrew, an individual breath descended from the divine breath of the Spirit. So in the prayer of the heart, you become the new Adam: humanity reborn with every breath.

Of course, this is just the description in Western and Biblical terms. Exactly the same experience is described in the sacred literature of the Sufi mystics, the Buddhist masters, and the devotional saints of India. The Upanishads teach:

"The breath goes out with aham (I am) and comes in with Sah (God). Within everyone this natural meditation of ham-sah is happening."

III. The Divine Name
When I find myself gazing into the radiance of my Heart, which is the radiance of every Heart, I have become a silent Mary brooding over the manger. I give birth to the Christ Light in the very center of my heart. The 17th Century Lutheran mystic Angelus Silesius wrote: "I must be Mary to give birth to God." 14th Century mystic Meister Eckhart often pointed out in his very popular sermons that the birth of God in Bethlehem is not of much use to us if it doesn't take place at the center of our souls! In this prayer, a strange and wonderful sensation is born in our heart's core, a sensation both physical and spiritual. It is truly the innocent child of God in us, and it is the one we have been seeking. All other desires are but shadows of this yearning for the birth of Christ-Consciousness within. As Augustine wrote, "Our hearts are ever restless till they find their rest in Thee."

Christ is born in the womb of the Heart as an Inward Light. The Spirit who begets this offspring of God is the Breath. The Heart is the manger, for there is no room in the busy inn of the mind.

It sometimes happens that, even when we plunge into the ocean of silence, the Heart is so filled with gratitude that it needs to cry out, to express the beauty it bears. This requires no more than a single word of prayer, what the Orthodox masters called eucharistos monologistos: one-word prayer. Please remember that this word is the effect, not the cause, of prayer. The word is not a technique but an effulgence. A prayer word is the gift of silence.

A prayer-word is felt, not spoken. As a bird, soaring in a current of wind, only beats its wings with an occasional pulse to sustain its air-born flight, so we invoke our prayer word softly, gently, effortlessly. (This image is from the autobiography of St. Theresa of Avila.)

Breathing out or breathing in, gently and without effort hear the Name. Let the Name arise on the breath of silence as foam arises on the crest of a wave. Touch the Name with your awareness as gently as a feather touching a bubble.

Praying the divine Name with the breath folds the mind into the heart, like sugar stirred into cream. As the Divine Name dissolves into the breath, its subtle but powerful vibration infuses every cell of the body, thrilling each electron. This is how the word of prayer becomes the Word of creation, which God speaks in the genesis of heaven and earth. "In the beginning was the Word.... all things were created through Him." (John 1) So the Indian Mandukya Upanishad declares, "The syllable Om is the eternal Godhead, and is the universe. Whatever was, whatever is, whatever shall be, is Om." When the Divine Name vibrates in the Heart, we are attuning our individuality to the universal Logos, the conscious power of creation.

The ancient masters of Christian prayer experienced this epiphany through the name of Jesus. By means of the breath, Orthodox masters carried Jesus into their hearts. The believed that the creative power of God was alive in that very name. St. Hesychius of Jerusalem (4th Century) spoke of "breathing Jesus Christ." In the 6th Century, St. John Climacus wrote, "Let the Name of Jesus be joined to your breath: then you shall know the use of silence." A later saint, Nichodimus of the Holy Mountain, wrote, "Let Jesus be your breath."

But the early Christian masters also used such mantras as Kyrios (Lord), Christos (Christ or Anointed One). You may follow the tradition of India and use a word of prayer such as Ram, which was Gandhi's prayer word. Perhaps an authentic Guru has initiated you and given you a mantra. I invite you to listen to God's Breath in your heart. The Spirit will reveal the prayer-word appropriate for you.

*

Prayer is not your work. It is God's work in you. When your breath centers to a single fiery seed of love in your heart, the silence vibrates with the thunder of God's Name. The Word incarnates in your body. Though you are not aware of its true amplitude, the Word sends forth a wave of healing that ripples through every photon of light, every atom of creation, regenerating not your flesh alone, but all humanity. Every particle of your body is inter-woven in one quantum field with each child in Darfur, every mother in Haiti. This principle is known as Bell's Theorum in physics, and has been verified experimentally. In the words of founding quantum physicist, Sir Arthur Eddington, "When the electron vibrates, the whole universe shakes." You are truly part of the "universal body of Christ." Every breath you breathe through the Heart is a healing for the world.

IV. The Culture of Prayer
We need to confess that there is a spiritual void in our hearts. Most of today's social and economic problems arise from our denial of that void. We deny the void by stuffing it: filling it with alcohol, stimulants, fast food, nerve-pounding music, instant sex, even violence. The busy-ness of work is also a way to stuff our inner void. So is shopping! Strolling through the mall, we buy not out of necessity, but despair. Our national economy of consumerism thrives on spiritual emptiness.

Ironically, the solution is right where the problem is: the empty space in the heart. Nowhere but here will we find the antidote to our angst and the dryness of our workdays. If we would only take a little time each morning and evening to enter the Heart through prayer, it might be "the little leaven that raises the whole loaf." Renew your world by renewing your Heart!

This prayer is not a flight from darkness: it embraces darkness. Not a flight from emptiness: it embraces emptiness. Prayer of the Heart accepts our inner emptiness as sacred ground. When we embrace emptiness, we become the vast space of compassion. When we embrace darkness, we hear the silence say, "Let there be light!"

Buddhist Literature

2007-06-18T18:25:00.000-07:00

Japanese Buddhist Haiku Poems

Issa (1763-1827)

Ah, sacred swallow -
twittering out from your nest
in great Buddha's nostril!

My old father also
looked long on these white mountains
through lonely winters....

This dewdrop world:
it may be a dewdrop.
and yet, and yet...

Buson (1716 - 1783)

Lighting one candle
with another candle -
Spring evening.

Around the small house
struck by lightning,
melon flowers.

They end their flight
one by one -
crows at dusk.

Butterfly
sleeping
on the temple bell.

The camelia -
it fell into the darkness
of the old well.

Basho (1644 - 1694)

Still old pond,
frog jumps in,
Plop!

The dragonfly
can't quite land
on that blade of grass.

The sadness of it....
Under the hero's helmet,
tarnished now, a cricket.

Cicada shell:
it sang itself
utterly away.

A bee
staggers out
of a peony.

A crow
settles on a bare branch -
Autumn evening.
_________________

Basho's Notes On Poetry Writing

Learn about pines from the pine, and about bamboo from the bamboo...

The secret of poetry lies in treading the middle way between the reality of the world and the emptiness of the world....

First, one must concentrate the mind fully on an object. Once your mind attains unbroken concentration on the object, the space between yourself and the object disappears. Then the essential nature of the object is perceived. But you must express it immediately. If you begin to think about it, it will vanish from the mind.

Composition must occur in an instant, like a swordsman leaping at his enemy, or like slicing a ripe watermelon with a sharp knife.
_______________________________

BUDDHIST SCRIPTURES

Metta Sutta (Sutta Nipata I.8)
The Buddha's Meditation on Loving-Kindness

What should be done by one who's skilled in wholesomeness
To gain the state of peacefulness is this:

One must be able, upright, straight and not proud,
Easy to speak to, mild and well content,
Easily satisfied
And not caught up in too much bustle,
And frugal in one's ways,
With senses calmed, intelligent, not bold,
Not being covetous when with other folk,
Abstaining from the ways that wise ones blame,

This mindfulness one should always hold:
"May beings be happy and safe.
May their hearts rejoice within themselves.
Whatever may breathe the breath of life,
Whether they be frail or strong, visible, or invisible,
Whether they dwell far or near,
Those who are here, those who have departed,
Or those seeking to be born in this world,
May all beings rejoice within themselves.
Let no one bring ruin to another.
Let none despise another in any way or place.
Let them not wish each other any ill."

Just as a mother would risk her life
To love and protect her child, her only child,
So one should cultivate this boundless love (Metta)
For all who live in the universe,
Extending sublime consciousness of compassion
Upward, downward, and across the world,
Untroubled, free from hatred and from craving.
Peace, Peace, Peace.

And while one stands and while one walks and sits
Or one lies down still free from drowsiness
One should be intent on this mindfulness
This is divine abiding here they say.
And when one lives quite free from any view,
In virtue, with perfect insight won,
And greed for sensual desires expelled,
One surely comes no more to any womb.
______________________________

Heart Sutra (Prajna Paramitta Sutra)

When the Bodhisattva
Was practicing Deep Prajnaparamita of Wisdom
Perceived the five skandhas
He saw them to be, in their own self-nature,
Utterly empty;
And He Was delivered from all suffering and misery.
He said:

"Oh Sariputra, Form is emptiness, Emptiness is form.
Form is the same as emptiness, Emptiness is the same as form.
That which is formed is empty, that which is empty has form
So it is also with sensation and thought and activity and consciousness.

Oh Sariputra! All things are empty:
They are not born, They are not annihilated.
They are not impure, They are not pure.
They do not increase, They do not decrease.

Therefore, Oh Sariputra:
In emptiness there is no form, no sensation, no thought, No activity, No consciousness.
No eye, nor nose, nor tongue, Nor body, nor mind.
No form, nor sound, nor color, nor taste, nor touch, nor objects.
No element of hearing. No element of vision, no element of smelling,
No element of tasting, no element of touching, No element of consciousness.
There is no knowledge and no ignorance.... No old age and No death,
And no extinction of old age and death.

There is no suffering, No accumulation, no annihilation,
No Path!

There is no Knowledge, no attainment and no realization!

Because there is no Attainment in the mind of the Bodhisattva,
There are no obstacles.
Going beyond all views, beliefs and opinion, He is Nirvana!

All Buddhas of the Past, Present and Future depend on this Prajna Paramita
To attain the Highest Perfect Enlightenment.
Therefore know that Prajna Paramita is a Great Spiritual Mantra,
Great Bright Mantra, Supreme Mantra, aUnequaled Mantra.
It removes all suffering; it is genuine and not false.
That is why the Prajna Paramita Mantra was spoken. Recite it like this:

Gaté Gaté Paragaté Parasamgaté: Bodhi Svaha!

("Gone, Gone, Gone Beyond, Gone Beyond Beyond: Hail the Goer!")

__________________________

Taking Refuge in the Three Jewels

(This fundamental practice is chanted every morning).

I take refuge in the Buddha. May I absorb myself in the living source of understanding, faith and compassion, awaken to the boundless Pure Land here and now. (bell & bow)

I take refuge in the Dharma. May I be submerged in the depths of the Teachings, in the revelation of the Present Moment, gaining wisdom as deep as the ocean. (bell & bow)

I take refuge in the Sangha. May I live in harmony with this community, and in harmony with all beings,

in the spirit of universal compassion, the spirit of unity, freed from the bondage of selfishness. (bell & bow)

____________________________________________

The Precepts

Every Buddhist lay-person must follow the Five Precepts. Buddhist monks and monks must add to these another five, making the '10 Commandments' of Buddhism.

Five Precepts

* No sexual impurity (sexual intimacy only in marriage)

* No lying

* No stealing

* No killing (violence can be used only in self-defense)

* No intoxicants

Five Additional Precepts for Monks and Nuns
* No gossip or malicious speech
* No self-display (jewelry, luxurious clothes or sensual behavior)
* No eating after noon (fasting)
* No defaming of the Three Jewels**
* No accepting of money

from Hakuin's 'SONG OF ZAZEN'
Hakuin was the Medieval Japanese founder of the Rinzai school of Zen Buddhism in Japan. He was also a great poet and artist of Sumi-e ink paintings.

"All sentient beings are essentially Buddhas.
There is no ice without water:
Apart from sentient beings, there are no Buddhas.
Not knowing how close the truth is, we seek it - what a pity!
We are like one who, bathing in a fresh mountain stream, cries out in thirst.
All moral duties come down to just being here.
How vast and wide the unobstructed sky of the heart!
How bright and clear the perfect moonlight of wisdom!
In this moment, what more need we seek?
Here, in the eternal tranquility of Truth,
this very place is the Land of Lotuses;
This very body is the body of the Buddha.

Agape & Biblical Concepts of Love

2007-06-18T18:22:00.000-07:00

The following notes make it clear that the concept of "love" covers many different aspects of human experience. As we explore the Western tradition, we find that philosophers and theologians have found it helpful to delineate several different kind of love, motivated from very different aspects of the human person.

The Greek philosopher Plato distinguished the "Heavenly Aphrodite" (Urania) from the popular Goddess of sexual love (Pandemos). The higher Aphrodite represented mystical union of the soul with the divine Logos. (Plato, Symposium, 180)

In the Hebrew tradition, there is a distinction between the emotional center of the heart (racham) and the spiritual will (ahav). In the Qur'an of Islam, the very first prayer delineates the feminine aspect and the masculine aspect of God's love: God can express both Rachman and Rachim: the fiery active power of love, and the compassionate comforter.

Jesus taught in the Greek language, a rich language of philosophy which bequethed to the great Teacher three distinct concepts of love: (1) Philios, the natural love based on biological kinship of family and tribe; (2) Eros, sexual yearning that also can symbolize the yearning of the soul for spiritual or aesthetic delight; (3) Agape, the distinctly Christian term of the Gospels, used rarely before Jesus' time, signifying the grace-filled heart of compassion and forgiveness, a love for the entire human community, even for one's enemies.

I. OLD TESTAMENT HEBREW

1) RACHAM
Also related to RACHIM (compassion) and RECHEM (womb)

Gen 43: Then Joseph made haste, for his heart (womb) yearned for his brother and he went to his chamber and wept.

Ps 103: Like a father who pities his children.

Ps 119: Let thy tender mercies come unto me.

Is 49: The Lord will have mercy upon his afflicted.

I Kings 3: Her womb yearned for her son.

2 Chronicles 30: Your children shall find compassion.

2) AHAV (Hebrew: Commitment of the Will)

Lev. 19: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

Deut. 6: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.

Song of Songs 3: I found him whom my soul loveth.

Isa. 56: To love the name of the Lord.

Psalm 119:
O how I love thy law!
Therefor I love thy commandments.
Consider how I love thy precepts.

II. NEW TESTAMENT GREEK: 3 KINDS OF LOVE

PHILIOS: filial emotional bond (translates Hebrew Rechem)

EROS: yearning to possess the object of passion

AGAPE: graceful commitment of the will (translates Hebrew Ahava)

Agapate ‘eleilous: "Love one another."

III. ARAMAIC

This is the language of the common Jewish people of Jesus' time, derived from Biblical Hebrew. In this language, the Gospel's AGAPE would be translated as HAV: which meant not only love, but the motion of ebb tide flowing back into the sea!

Matthew 5: “Sermon On the Mount”

21“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment…

38-39 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, Do not resist the evil one. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also."

40 "And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you."

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven."

Jesus Arrested, Matthew 26

47 While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived. With him was a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people. 48 Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: “The one I kiss is the man; arrest him.” 49 Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed him. 50 Jesus replied, “Friend, do what you came for.”

Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him. 51 With that, one of Jesus' companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear.

52 “Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword."

Question: What manner of love would empower us to transcend all that we would define as "human nature," loving even our enemies? is this kind of love possible? Is it dangerous? Is it unnatural? Can it have any practical value?

Death and the Afterlife

2007-06-15T13:37:00.000-07:00

The following readings on death and the afterlife are excerpted from some of the most important works of literature and scripture in world history. One is a contemporary account of a near-death-experience by a psychiatrist. Look for similarities as well as differences. They include the following:

1. Near Death Experience of Dr. Dianne Morrissey
2. Buddhism: Tibetan Book of the Dead
3. Christian Resurrection: I Corinthians, Chapter 15
4. Ancient Greece: from Homer's Iliad and Odyssy
5. Greek Philosophy: Reincarnation in Plato's Republic & Phaedo
6. Greek Mythology: Geography of the Afterlife
7. Rome: The Elysian Fields & Reincarnation in Virgil's Aeneid
8. Dante's vision of Paradise. (Paradiso, Canto 33)
9. Indian Philosophy: Reincarnation & Salvation in Bhagavad Gita
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1. Near Death Experience: Dr. Dianne Morrissey

When Dianne Morrissey, PhD, was twenty-eight years old, she was electrocuted and had a very profound NDE: near-death experience. Modern medicine has shown increasing interest in this phenomenon, and we shall see in Plato an ancient account of the NDE.

Some take such accounts as verifying a consciousness surviving outside the physical body. Others believe the entire experience is a benign effect of the brain's chemistry at the time of death.

"I was electrocuted by 119 volts and dead for forty-five minutes. The doctors said they were amazed that I ever woke up.

When I first came out of my body I noticed that I was transparent and wondered how I could see so good without my glasses, because I saw them on the floor next to my lifeless body.

I moved through many dimensions and at one point I knew I was dead. I met an angel-like woman on the other side who explained much to me I will never forget the love that surrounded me at that moment, or the joy that ran through me.

In this rapturous place, I recognized that there were two aspects of "me." My soul was my consciousness, everything that had made me who I had been and what I had become. My spirit, on the other hand, was the part of me that was now transparent and glowing, dressed in white.

Within the light, I knew that everyone and everything is connected to it. God is in everyone, always and forever. Within the light was the cure for all diseases."
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2. The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo Thodol)

These instructions are read, or chanted, to the one just dead, whose subtle body can still hear, though the physical body is dead. At the moment of death, it is believed, there is a moment of bright white Light and clarity. If the soul can enter that Light and merge with it, he or she will be free from the cycle of rebirth and enter into the blissful radiance of the supreme Buddha Nature for all eternity.

The term Bardo refers to the "state in-between" death and rebirth. The term Dharma-Kaya means "truth-body," the very body of the Dharma. One who is liberated need not return to a physical body or even a subtle spiritual body in one of the many heaven worlds, for one simply recognizes the pure truth of supreme Consciousness, limitless and all-pervading, as one's only form.

"O nobly-born, that which is called death has come to thee now. Resolve thus: 'O this now is the hour of death. By taking advantage of this death, I will so act, for the good of all sentient beings, peopling the illimitable expanse of the heavens, as to obtain the Perfect Buddhahood, by resolving on love and compassion towards them, and by directing my entire effort tothe Sole Perfection.'

"Shaping the thoughts thus, especially at this time when the Dharma-Kāya of Clear Light [in the state] after death can be realized for the benefit of all sentient beings, know that thou art in that state; [and resolve] that thou wilt obtain the best boon of the State of the Great Symbol, in which thou art, [as follows]:

"'Even if I cannot realize it, yet will I know this Bardo, and, mastering the Great Body of Union in Bardo, will appear in whatever [shape] will benefit [all beings] whomsoever: I will serve all sentient beings, infinite in number as are the limits of the sky.'

"Keeping thyself unseparated from this resolution, thou shouldst try to remember whatever devotional practices thou went accustomed to perform during thy lifetime.

"In saying this, the reader shall put his lips close to the ear, and shall repeat it distinctly, clearly impressing it upon the dying person so as to prevent his mind from wandering even for a moment.

"After the expiration hath completely ceased, press the nerve of sleep firmly; and, a lāma, or a person higher or more learned than thyself, impress in these words, thus:

"Reverend Sir, now that thou art experiencing the Fundamental Clear Light, try to abide in that state which now thou art experiencing.

"And also in the case of any other person the reader shall set him face-to-face thus:

"O nobly-born (so-and-so), listen. Now thou art experiencing the Radiance of the Clear Light of Pure Reality. Recognize it. O nobly-born, thy present intellect, in real nature void, not formed into anything as regards characteristics or colour, naturally void, is the very Reality, the All-Good.

"Thine own intellect, which is now voidness, yet not to be regarded as of the voidness of nothingness, but as being the intellect itself, unobstructed, shining, thrilling, and blissful, is the very Buddha, the All-good Buddha, the essence of pure Consciousness itself. That thou art!

"Thine own consciousness, not formed into anything, in reality void, and the intellect, shining and blissful, -- these two, -- are inseparable. The union of them is the Dharma-Kāya state of Perfect Enlightenment.

"Thine own consciousness, shining, void, and inseparable from the Great Body of Radiance, hath no birth, nor death, and is the Immutable Light -- Buddha Amitābha.

"Knowing this is sufficient. Recognizing the voidness of thine own intellect to be Buddhahood, and looking upon it as being thine own consciousness, is to keep thyself in the [state of the] divine mind of the Buddha.

"Repeat this distinctly and clearly three or [even] seven times. That will recall to the mind [of the dying one] the former [i.e. when living] setting-face-to-face by the guru. Secondly, it will cause the naked consciousness to be recognized as the Clear Light; and, thirdly, recognizing one's own self [thus], one becometh permanently united with the Dharma-Kāya and Liberation will be certain.

(English translation by Lāma Kazi Dawa-Samdup, Edited by W. Y. Evans-Wentz)

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3. Christianity: The Resurrection of the Dead

I Corinthians, Chapter 15

12But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

20But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 24Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27For he "has put everything under his feet."[c] Now when it says that "everything" has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. 28When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.

29Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them? 30And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? 31I die every day—I mean that, brothers—just as surely as I glory over you in Christ Jesus our Lord. 32If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for merely human reasons, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."[d]

33Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character." 34Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame.
The Resurrection Body
35But someone may ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?" 36How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. 39All flesh is not the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. 40There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. 41The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.

42So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being"[e]; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. 48As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we[f] bear the likeness of the man from heaven.

50I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."[g]

55"Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?"[h]

56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

58Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

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4. Greece, 8th Century BCE

"Even in Hades some ghostly shade remains, but our true being is not there."

Homer's Iliad (book 23)

Achilles, the Greek's greatest warrior, mourns the death of his dearest friend, Patroclus, and orders elaborate funeral rites. The battle with the Trojans is suspended for the funeral. At night, the shade of Patroclus visits Achilles, perhaps in a dream. Achilles takes this as sad proof that there is life after death, though shadowy and hardly satisfying for the soul.

* Why is it crucial for the soul that funeral rites be performed?

* Does this passage give us any insight into how we should treat the dead even in the midst of combat?

When sleep took Achilles and eased his aching heart
by sweetly flowing round him—for his splendid limbs
were tired out from hand-to-hand combat with Hector
by wind-swept Ilion—then poor Patroclus
came to him as a ghost, looking exactly like himself
in all respects—in stature, handsome eyes, and voice.
He stood there, above Achilles' head, body covered
with the same clothes he used to wear over his skin.
The ghost spoke to Achilles, saying:

"You're asleep, Achilles.
You've forgotten me. While I was alive,
you never did neglect me. But now I'm dead.
So bury me as quickly as you can.
Then I can pass through the gates of Hades.
The spirits, ghosts of the dead, keep me away.
They don't let me join them past the river.
So I wander aimlessly round Hades' home
by its wide gates. Give me your hand, I beg you,
for I'll never come again from Hades,
once you've given me what's due, my funeral fire.

We'll no more sit together making plans,
separated from our dear companions.
The jaws of dreadful fate are gaping for me,
ready to consume me—my destiny
from the day that I was born. You, too,
godlike Achilles, you have your own fate,
to die under the walls of wealthy Troy.
I'll say one more thing, one last request,
if you will listen. Achilles, don't lay your bones
apart from mine. Let them remain together,
just as they were when we grew up together
as best friends when we were boys....
So let the same container hold our bones:
that gold two-handled jar your mother gave you."

Swift-footed Achilles then replied:

"Dear friend, why have you come to me here,
telling me everything I need to do?
I'll carry out all these things for you,
attend to your request. But come closer.
Let's hold each other one short moment more,
embracing, weeping together."

Saying this, Achilles reached out with his arms,
but he grasped nothing. The spirit had departed,
going underground like vapor, muttering faintly.
Achilles jumped up in amazement, clapped his hands,
and then spoke out in sorrow:

"Ah! It's true!
Even in Hades' house some ghostly shade remains,
but our true being is not there at all. This night
the ghost of poor Patroclus stood beside me,
weeping, lamenting, asking me to do things,
in every detail—amazingly like him."

Achilles' words stirred the desire to keep mourning
in all his soldiers. When rose-fingered Dawn appeared,
they were still lamenting by that cheerless corpse.

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Homer's Odyssy, Book 11

Odysseus must go down to Hades and consult the dead prophet, Teiresias, to gain his directions for getting home to Greece as he returns from the Trojan War. He makes a blood offering to the dead, for they are lost in shadowy forgetfulness. But when they taste the animal's blood, they temporarily revive and briefly remember their previous lives....

* What is the significance of the fact that the hero must enter the realm of death before he can learn the way home?

Here Perimedes and Eurylochus held the victims, while I drew my sword and dug the trench a cubit each way. I made a drink-offering to all the dead, first with honey and milk, then with wine, and thirdly with water, and I sprinkled white barley meal over the whole, praying earnestly to the poor feckless ghosts, and promising them that when I got back to Ithaca I would sacrifice a barren heifer for them, the best I had, and would load the pyre with good things. I also particularly promised that Teiresias should have a black sheep to himself, the best in all my flocks. When I had prayed sufficiently to the dead, I cut the throats of the two sheep and let the blood run into the trench, whereon the ghosts came trooping up from Erebus - brides, young bachelors, old men worn out with toil, maids who had been crossed in love, and brave men who had been killed in battle, with their armour still smirched with blood; they came from every quarter and flitted round the trench with a strange kind of screaming sound that made me turn pale with fear.

When I saw them coming I told the men to be quick and flay the carcasses of the two dead sheep and make burnt offerings of them, and at the same time to repeat prayers to Hades and to Proserpine; but I sat where I was with my sword drawn and would not let the poor feckless ghosts come near the blood till Teiresias should have answered my questions.

Then came the ghost of Teiresias with his golden sceptre in his hand. He knew me and said, 'Ulysses, noble son of Laertes, why, poor man, have you left the light of day and come down to visit the dead in this sad place? Stand back from the trench and withdraw your sword that I may drink of the blood and answer your questions truly.'

So I drew back, and sheathed my sword, whereon when he had drank of the blood he began with his prophecy.

You want to know,' said he, 'about your return home, but heaven will make it hard for you....

'This,' I answered, 'must be as it may please heaven, but tell me and tell me true, I see my poor mother's ghost close by us! She is sitting by the blood without saying a word, and though I am her own son she does not remember me and speak to me. How I can make her know me?'

I sat still where I was until my mother came up and tasted the blood. Then she knew me at once and spoke fondly to me, saying, 'My son, how did you come down to this abode of darkness while you are still alive? It is a hard thing for the living to see these places, for between us and them there are great and terrible waters.....'

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5. Reincarnation In Greek Philosophy:

(A) The Myth of Er, from Plato's Republic (Book 11)

Plato died in 348 BCE. He ends his great masterpiece of philosophy, The Republic, with a 'myth' that is the earliest recorded NDE (Near Death Experience) in Western literature. The soldier, Er, is left for dead on the battlefield. But he revives to tell his story, having seen into the afterlife. The doctrine of Reincarnation is clearly taught here as part of the Western tradition. Reincarnation is also mentioned in Pindar and attributed to Pythagoras. Herodotus also references the doctrine of Reincarnation, stating that the Greeks learned it from the Egyptians. We will see the doctrine again in the Roman Virgil's Aeneid.

* Why do you think the very rational Plato would end his greatest political and philosophical treatise with this 'myth'?

"This is the tale of a warrior, Er, the son of Armenius, by race a Pamphylian. He once upon a time was slain in battle, and when the corpses were taken up on the tenth day already decayed, was found intact, and having been brought home, at the moment of his funeral, on the twelfth day as he lay upon the pyre, revived, and after coming to life related what, he said, he had seen in the world beyond.

"He said that when his soul went forth from his body he journeyed with a great company and that they came to a mysterious region where there were two openings side by side in the earth, and judges were sitting between these, and that after every judgment they bade the righteous journey to the right and upward through the heaven with tokens attached to them in front of the judgment passed upon them, and the unjust to take the road to the left and downward, they too wearing behind signs of all that had befallen them, and that when he himself drew near they told him that he must be the messenger to mankind to tell them of that other world, and they charged him to give ear and to observe everything in the place...

"For he said that it was a sight worth seeing to observe how the several souls selected their lives. He said it was a strange, pitiful, and ridiculous spectacle, as the choice was determined for the most part by the habits of their former lives. He saw the soul that had been Orpheus', he said, selecting the life of a swan, because from hatred of the tribe of women, owing to his death at their hands, it was unwilling to be conceived and born of a woman. He saw the soul of Thamyras choosing the live of a nightingale, and he saw a swan changing the choice of the life of man, and similarly other musical animals. The soul of Ajax, the son of Telamon, because it remembered the injustices of battle, was unwilling to become a man. The next, the soul of Agamemnon, likewise from hatred of the human race because of its sufferings, substituted the life of an eagle.

"Drawing one of the middle lots, the soul of Atalanta caught sight of the great honors attached to an athlete's life and could not pass them by, but snatched at them. After her, he said, he saw the soul of Epeus, the son of Panopeus, entering into the nature of an arts and crafts woman. Far off in the rear he saw the soul of the buffoon Thersites clothing itself in the body of an ape.

"Then the great soul of Odysseus drew the last lot of all. From memory of its former toils, having flung away every ambition, it went about for a long time searching for the life of an ordinary citizen who minded his own business. With difficulty this fate was found lying in some corner, disregarded by the others. Upon finding it, the soul of Odysseus said that it would have chosen this same destiny even if it had drawn the first lot. He chose it gladly...

"After the souls had chosen their lives in the order of their lots, they were led to the daughters of Necessity, the Three Fates— Lachesis, Clotho, and Atropos, whose spindle wove each their web of destiny. Then they journeyed to the Plain of Oblivion and drank at the River of Forgetfulness. And after they had fallen asleep and it was the middle of the night, there was a sound of thunder and a quaking of the earth, and they were suddenly wafted thence, one this way, one that, upward to their birth like shooting stars. Er himself, he said, was not allowed to drink of the water, yet how and in what way he returned to the body he said he did not know, but suddenly recovering his sight, he saw himself at dawn lying on the funeral pyre.

"And so the tale was saved. And it will save us if we believe it. We shall safely cross the River of Lethe, and keep our soul unspotted from the world. And guided by wisdom, we shall believe that the soul is immortal and capable of enduring all extremes of good and evil, and so we shall hold ever to the upward way and pursue righteousness with wisdom always. Let our souls be dear to ourselves and to the gods both during our sojourn here and when we receive our rewards, just as victors in the games gather theirs. Thus, both here and in that journey of a thousand years, we shall fare well."

(Republic, Book X: 614b-621d)

(B) From Plato's Phaedo, 13-14

Plato also gives a vision of the afterlife and judgment of the dead in his dialog, The Phaedo. Here we see an elaborate system of subterranean rivers that carry the dead to various realms of judgment, and back again to the outer world. At the deepest level is the abyss of Tartarus. These rivers and realms of judgment will be adopted by the medieval Christian poet, Dante, infused with Christian moral meaning, in his poem, The Inferno.

* Can you find in this vision some roots of Church concepts such as heaven, purgatory, and hell?

* What is the destiny of those who have lived the best kind of life? How do they attain the highest abode?

"Now when the dead have come to the place where each is led by his guiding spirit, first they are judged and sentenced, as they have lived well and piously, or not. And those who are found to have lived neither well nor ill, go to the River Acheron and, embarking upon vessels provided for them, arrive in them at the lake, There they dwell and are purified, and if they have done any wrong they are absolved by paying the penalty for their wrong doings, and for their good deeds they receive rewards, each according to his merits.

"But those who appear to be incurable, on account of the greatness of their wrongdoings, because they have committed many great deeds of sacrilege…are cast by their fitting destiny into the lowest abyss, called Tartarus, whence they never emerge.

"Those, however, who are curable, but are found to have committed great sins--who have, for example, in a moment of passion done some act of violence--must needs be thrown into Tartarus, and when they have been there a year, a wave casts them out: the homicides by way of River Cocytus, those who have outraged their parents by way of River Pyriphlegethon. And when they have been brought by the current to the Acherusian lake, they shout and cry out, calling to those whom they have slain or outraged, begging and beseeching them to be gracious and to let them come out….

"And if they prevail, they come out and cease from their ills. But if not, they are borne away again to Tartarus and thence back into the rivers, and this goes on until they prevail upon those whom they have wronged; for this is the penalty imposed upon them by the judges.

"But those who are found to have excelled in holy living are freed from these regions within the earth and are released as from prison. They mount upward into their pure abode…And of these, all who have duly purified themselves by philosophy live henceforth altogether without bodies, and pass to still more beautiful abodes which it is not easy to describe, nor have we now time enough."
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6. Greek Mythology: Geography of the Afterlife

Hades

"I'd rather be a day-laborer on earth working for a man of little property than lord of all the hosts of the dead." --Achilles, in The Iliad

Hades was the universal destination of the dead in Greek religion until the latter half of the 5th century BCE. Hades was a cold, damp and dark realm that was guarded by the god of the same name. The "gates of Hades" were guarded by the fearsome hound Cerberus, who wags his tail for new arrivals but does not allow anyone to leave. Without proper burial, one cannot enter the gates of Hades. The river Styx is the boundary between earth and Hades, but Hades has other rivers as well (e.g. Phlegethon, Acheron, Cocytus). A similar concept is found in Japanese Buddhism in the Sanzu River, which the dead must cross on the way to the afterlife.

Tartarus

In Greek religion, Tartarus was the deepest region of the underworld, lower than Hades. Hesiod wrote that it would take an anvil nine days to fall from heaven to earth and another nine to fall from earth to Tartarus. Hades, not Tartarus, is the place of the dead but some especially wicked characters have been imprisoned in Tartarus to be punished. It is where Sisyphus, thief and murderer, must repeatedly push a boulder up a hill for eternity; where Ixion, who killed his father-in-law, is attached to a flaming wheel; and where Tantalus is kept just out of reach of cool water and grapes for sharing the secrets of the gods with humans. Tartarus is also where monsters and other enemies have been cast after being defeated by the gods, including the Cyclopes, the Titans and Typhus. In Roman mythology, Tartarus was the eternal destination of sinners in general.

Elysium

Elysium (also called Elysian Fields or Elysian Plain) was a paradise inhabited at first only by the very distinguished, but later by the good. Elysium first appears in Homer's Odyssey as the destination of Menelaus. It is located at the western ends of the earth and is characterized by gentle breezes and an easy life like that of the gods. Closely related to Elysium is Hesiod's Isles of the Blessed, mentioned in his Works and Days, which was located in the western ocean.

Reincarnation

The notion that the human soul enters another body upon death, though unfamiliar in popular Greek religion, was widespread in Greek philosophy. The doctrine of transmigration is first associated with the Pythagoreans and Orphics and was later taught by Plato (Phaedo, Republic) and Pindar (Olympian). For the former groups, the soul retained its identity throughout its reincarnations; Plato indicated that souls do not remember their previous experiences. Although Herodotus claims that the Greeks learned this idea from Egypt, most scholars do not believe it came either from Egypt or from India, but developed independently.

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7. Rome: The Elysian Fields & Reincarnation in Virgil's Aeneid, Book 6.

Some scholars insist on seeing this passage from Book 6 of the Aeneid as a purely literary invention to give the hero a glimpse of future Roman heros, Caesar Augustus among them, waiting to be reborn out of the Trojan heros of the past. But is it not too complete a doctrine and too well developed to be a mere device? Like Odysseus, on whose Homeric quest Virgil based the Aeneid, Aeneus must descend into the underworld to learn his destiny from one who sees the future. In Odysseus' case this seer is the prophet Tiresias, but in this story it is Aeneus' own father, Anchises.

According to Anchises, the after-life is a time of purification for the soul. All living creatures in this solar system share a single soul-element, spiritual fire. This fire is the spirit of the whole world, 'spiritus mundi.' The noblest souls are purified so completely in the after-life that they are transformed from fire into the highest element, air. There they dwell forever as "pure ethereal thought and the brightness of air." But most souls suffer appropriate punishments for their earthly sins to gain only the purity of fire again. Then they drink from the river Lethe to forget the past and return to life in a body.

In the 13th Century CE, Dante based much of his 'Inferno' on Virgil's version of the after-life. He elaborated the punishments of the soul, but expunged any doctrine of reincarnation, which had been banned by the Church at the Council of Chalcedon.

From this Virgilian passage, Western Christianity has derived much of its vision of heaven as a pastoral delight. We must remember that, before writing the Aeneid, Virgil wrote pastoral poems centered on the art and lore of agriculture. Our vision of heaven as a flowery field in spring may have more to do with Virgil's 'Georgics' and 'Eclogues' than any verses in the Bible!

Aeneus answered: ‘Father, your ghostly image visited me

so often, and drove me to reach this threshold:

My ships ride the Etruscan waves. Father, let me clasp

your hand, let me, and do not draw away from my embrace.’

So speaking, his face was also drowned in a flood of tears.

Three times he tries to throw his arms round his father’s neck,

three times, clasped in vain, that semblance slips though his hands,

like the light breeze, most of all like a winged dream.

And now Aeneas saw a secluded grove

in a receding valley, with rustling woodland thickets,

and the river of Lethe gliding past those peaceful places.

Innumerable tribes and peoples hovered round it:

just as, in the meadows, on a cloudless summer’s day,

the bees settle on the multifarious flowers, and stream

round the bright lilies, and all the fields hum with their buzzing.

Aeneas was thrilled by the sudden sight, and, in ignorance,

asked the cause: what the river is in the distance,

who the men are crowding the banks in such numbers.

Then his father Anchises answered: ‘They are spirits,

owed a second body by destiny, and they drink

the happy waters, and a last forgetting, at Lethe’s stream.

Indeed, for a long time I’ve wished to tell you of them,

and show you them face to face, to enumerate my children’s

descendants, so you might joy with me more at finding Italy.’

‘O father, is it to be thought that any spirits go from here

to the sky above, returning again to dull matter?’

‘Indeed I’ll tell you, son, not keep you in doubt,’

Anchises answered, and revealed each thing in order.

‘Firstly, a spirit within them nourishes the sky and earth,

the watery plains, the shining orb of the moon,

and Titan’s star, and Mind, flowing through matter,

vivifies the whole mass, and mingles with its vast frame.

From it come the species of man and beast, and winged lives,

and the monsters the sea contains beneath its marbled waves.

The power of those seeds is fiery, and their origin divine,

so long as harmful matter doesn’t impede them

and terrestrial bodies and mortal limbs don’t dull them.

Through those they fear and desire, and grieve and joy,

and enclosed in night and a dark dungeon, can’t see the light.

Why, when life leaves them at the final hour,

still all of the evil, all the plagues of the flesh, alas,

have not completely vanished, and many things, long hardened

deep within, must of necessity be ingrained, in strange ways.

So they are scourged by torments, and pay the price

for former sins: some are hung, stretched out,

to the hollow winds, the taint of wickedness is cleansed

for others in vast gulfs, or burned away with fire:

each spirit suffers its own: then we are sent

through wide Elysium, and we few stay in the joyous fields,

for a length of days, till the cycle of time,

complete, removes the hardened stain, and leaves

pure ethereal thought, and the brightness of natural air.

All these others the god calls in a great crowd to the river Lethe,

after they have turned the wheel for a thousand years,

so that, truly forgetting, they can revisit the vault above,

and begin with a desire to return to the flesh.’

Anchises had spoken, and he drew the Sibyl and his son, both

together, into the middle of the gathering and the murmuring crowd,

and chose a hill from which he could see all the long ranks

opposite, and watch their faces as they came by him.

‘Come, I will now explain what glory will pursue the children

of Dardanus, what descendants await you of the Italian race,

illustrious spirits to march onwards in our name, and I will teach

you your destiny.
_____________________________

8. Dante's Paradiso (Canto 33)

The most sublime work on the afterlife in Western literature is Dante's Divine Comedy, written in Italian in the 13th Century. The work is in three parts, recounting the poet's journey through hell, purgatory, and heaven. In the final chapter, Dante enters into the beatific vision, the pinnacle of the soul's ascent to God. Here the soul quenches its spiritual thirst by gazing into the pure Light of God. The promise of eternal life is fulfilled because the soul rests forever suspended in this gaze.

At the very end of his vision, as the power of his gaze begins to fail him, for a brief instant Dante sees some transcendent form in the formless light. He sees three inter-penetrating circles, circulating in and through each other. Their relationship is a unity, yet they are three. This image is universally recognized now as a vision of the Holy Trinity, God the Father, Son and Spirit.

But there is yet a deeper mystery: Dante behold, superimposed upon these wheeling circles, a human form, and in the last moment before his vision fades, he becomes aware that his human heart and will are moved by the same force that guides the sun and stars.

Did Dante really travel into heaven? Or was he deep in contemplation? This is one of those works of religious literature where the vision of eternal life is, at the same time, the most profound experience of the mystic on earth.

.... My sight, becoming purified,
Entered more deeply into the ray
Of Truth's pure light: I mingled
My inward eye with Glory Infinite.
O grace abundant, I presumed
To fix my sight upon your Light Eternal.
I was consumed in pure seeing! I saw
In that groundless depth of Light
All the pages of the universe bound up
By love in a single book.
What seems so scattered in the world
Of multiple images is here refined
And focused in such singleness of seeing
That what I speak of is one simple light....
My mind this way was wholly suspended,
Steadfast, immovable, attentive, gazing
Where gazing kindles itself in deeper sight,
Because it is impossible to look away
When the good gathers all in One....
Within the deep and luminous substance
Of that single Light appeared to me three circles,
Of threefold color yet one dimension.
The first seemed reflected by the second,
As an eye within an eye, and the third
Seemed fire ignited equally by each.
O Eternal Light, dwelling wholly in thyself,
Knower of thyself, known unto thyself,
Loving and smiling on thyself through knowledge!
The circulation of these Three in One
Appeared in thee as a reflected light,
And seemed to me painted and colored
With a human likeness: all my sight
Strained to behold the beauty of that form.
As a mathematician tries to square
the circle and cannot discover how,
Even so I struggled to conceive
That new and wondrous apparition.
I wished to see how that form fit
Those circles, but the wings of vision failed
In vigor to remain aloft, and would
Have surely fallen were it not, in a trembling instant,
For a lightning flash of grace, that smote
My soul, and granted my wish to see.
My yearning and my will, it seemed,
Were turned as moving wheels are turned
By the Love that moves the sun and all the stars.

___________________________

9. Indian Philosophy

The following is a commentary on Indian philosophy as expressed in the Bhagavad Gita. It is obviously written by a Hindu believer. It is, at the same time, a very scholarly and thorough interpretation of key Hindu concepts. The words of Krishna, the Lord, are in red. These teachings on the soul and the body, death and reincarnation, have had a profound effect not only on India but on the West.

The most fundamental information about reincarnation appears in Bhagavad-gita, the essence of the Upanisads and of all Vedic knowledge. The Gita was spoken fifty centuries ago by Lord Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, to His friend and disciple Arjuna on a battlefield in northern India. A battlefield is the perfect place for a discussion about reincarnation, for in combat, men directly confront the fateful questions of life. death, and the afterlife.

As Krsna begins to speak on the immortality of the soul, He tells Arjuna, "Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be." The Gita further instructs, "That which pervades the entire body you should know to be indestructible. No one is able to destroy that imperishable soul." The soul -- here we speak of something so subtle that it is not immediately verifiable by the limited human mind and senses. Therefore, not everyone will be able to accept the existence of the soul. Krsna informs Arjuna, "Some look on the soul as amazing, some describe him as amazing, and some hear of him as amazing, while others, even after hearing about him, cannot understand him at all."

Accepting the existence of the soul is, however, not merely a matter of faith. Bhagavad-gita tries to appeal to the evidence of our senses and logic, so that we may accept its teachings with some degree of rational conviction and not blindly, as dogma.

It is impossible to understand reincarnation unless one knows the difference between the actual self (the soul) and the body. The Gita helps us see the nature of the soul by the following example. "As the sun alone illuminates all this universe, so doesconsciousness illuminate the entire body."

Consciousness is concrete evidence of the presence of the soul within the body. On a cloudy day, the sun may not be visible, but we know it is there in the sky by the presence of sunlight. Similarly, we may not be able to directly perceive the soul, but we may conclude it is there by the presence of consciousness. In the absence of consciousness, the body is simply a lump of dead matter. Only the presence of consciousness makes this lump of dead matter breathe, speak, love, and fear. In essence, the body is a vehicle for the soul, through which it may fulfill its myriad material desires. The Gita explains that the living entity within the body is "seated as on a machine made of the material energy." The soul falsely identifies with the body, carrying its different conceptions of life from one body to another as the air carries aromas. Just as an automobile cannot function without the presence of a driver, similarly, the material body cannot function without the presence of the soul.

As one grows older, this distinction between the conscious self and the physical body becomes more obvious. Within his lifetime a person can observe that his body is constantly changing. It does not endure, and time proves the child ephemeral. The body comes into existence at a certain time, grows, matures, produces by-products (children), and gradually dwindles and dies. The physical body is thus unreal, for it will, in due time, disappear. As the Gita explains, "Of the nonexistent there is no endurance." But despite all the changes of the material body, consciousness, a symptom of the soul within, remains unchanged. "Of the eternal there is no change." Therefore, we may logically conclude that consciousness possesses an innate quality of permanence that enables it to survive the dissolution of the body. Krsna tells Arjuna, "For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time... He is not slain when the body is slain."

But if the soul is "not slain when the body is slain," then what becomes of it? The answer given in the Bhagavad-gita is that the soul enters another body. This is reincarnation. This concept may be difficult for some people to accept, but it is a natural phenomenon, and the Gita gives logical examples to aid our understanding: "As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change."

In other words, man reincarnates even in the course of one lifetime. Any biologist will tell you that the body's cells are constantly dying and being replaced by new ones. In other words, each of us has a number of "different" bodies in this very life. The body of an adult is completely different from the body the same person had as an infant. Yet despite bodily changes, the person within remains the same. Something similar happens at the time of death. The self undergoes a final change of body. The Gita says, "As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones." Thus the soul remains entrapped in an endless cycle of births and deaths. "One who has taken his birth is sure to die, and after death one is sure to take birth again," the Lord tells Arjuna.

According to the Vedas, there are 8,400,000 species of life, beginning with the microbes, rising through the fish, plants, insects, reptiles, birds, and animals to the humans and demigods. According to their desires, the living entities perpetually take birth in these species.

The mind is the mechanism that directs these transmigrations, propelling the soul to newer and newer bodies. The Gita explains, "Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, .. that state he will attain without fail [in his next life]." Everything we have thought and done during our life makes an impression on the mind, and the sum total of all these impressions influences our final thoughts at death. According to the quality of these thoughts, material nature awards us a suitable body. Therefore, the type of body that we have now is the expression of our consciousness at the time of our last death.

"The living entity, thus taking another gross body, obtains a certain type of ear, eye, tongue, nose, and sense of touch, which are grouped about the mind. He thus enjoys a particular set of sense objects." the Gita explains. Further, the path of reincarnation does not always lead uphill; the human being is not guaranteed a human birth in his next life. For example, if one dies with the mentality of a dog, then he will in his next life receive the eyes, ears, nose, etc., of a dog, thus allowing him to enjoy canine pleasures. Lord Krsna confirms the fate of such an unfortunate soul, saying, "When one dies in the mode of ignorance, he takes birth in the animal kingdom."

According to Bhagavad-gita, humans who do not inquire about their nonphysical, higher nature are compelled by the laws of karma to continue in the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, sometimes appearing as humans, sometimes as animals, and sometimes as plants or insects.

Our existence in the material world is due to the multiple karmic reactions of this and previous lives, and the human body provides the only loophole through which the materially conditioned soul can escape. By properly utilizing the human form, one can solve all the problems of life (birth, death, disease, and old age) and break the endless cycle of reincarnation. If, however, a soul, having evolved to the human platform, wastes his life by engaging only in activities for sense pleasure, he can easily create sufficient karma in this present life to keep him entangled in the cycle of birth and death for thousands upon thousands of lives. And they may not all be human.

Lord Krsna says, "The foolish cannot understand how a living entity can quit his body, nor can they understand what sort of body he enjoys under the spell of the modes of nature. But one whose eyes are trained in knowledge can see all this. The endeavoring seekers, who are situated in self-realization, can see all this clearly. So strive for knowledge of the self!"

However, the final chapter of the Gita clearly explains that it is not our self-will or intellectual learning that overcomes the cycle of death and rebirth. It is surrender ("sharanam") to the grace of God ("prashad") that delivers us from sin and ignorance, and brings us to rest in peace and eternal joy with the Lord.

"Surrender utterly to the Lord who dwells within your heart. By His grace you will attain divine peace, the supreme and eternal abode."

"Abandon all other religious duties and just surrender to Me. I will deliver you from all sins: don't worry!"

Christian Contemplatives

2007-06-15T10:31:00.000-07:00

Walking the Labyrinth in Chartres Cathedral

I. PRAYER OF THE NAME

1. "The Still Small Voice"

Literally, “voice of murmuring silence” qol d’mama d’aqah (Hebrew, story of Elijah, 1 Kings)

Christian mystics have loved this passage describing the "still small voice of calm" within.

2. New Testament Period

'Hallowed be thy Name..." (Mat 6)

"Keep them in your Name that they may be one, as we are one... I have revealed your Name to them... so that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I may be in them." (John 17)

"No one enters the Kingdom of God except through the Name of his Son... The Name of the Son of God is great and boundless, and it is this Name that upholds the entire world." (Shepherd of Hermes, 3.9.12-14)

"He who possesses the Word of Jesus can hear his very silence and become perfect." (St. Ignatius to the Ephesians 3:21)

"Jesus is a secret Name... For that reason Jesus does not exist in any other language... There is only one Name which one does not speak out in the world, the Name which the Father gave to the Son. It is above everything."
(Gnostic Gospel of Philip)

"The Name which is above every Name..." (Philippians 2:9)

"Sons of the Name... in whom the Name of the Father is at rest, and they are at rest in his Name." (Gospel of Truth)

3. Eastern Orthodoxy: 'Prayer of the Heart' & the Name of Jesus

"Sinai Tradition" (4th - 6th C.)

* 430 AD - St. Niles of Ancyra speaks of the "Invocation of the Name of Jesus."

6th C. - "LIfe of Abba Philemon"

• Though recognizing shorter variants, this work gives for the first time the complete formula of the 'Jesus prayer': Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.

7th C St John Climacus ('The Divine Ladder')

•"(Prayer is) constant remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ, quietly led into the heart by way of breathing and again led out, without any extraneous thought or imagining." (45)

• Monologistos eucharistos, "one-word prayer"; Iesou euche: "Jesus Prayer" (terms first used)

8th C. - St. Hesychius of Jerusalem, "On Watchfulness and Holiness"

• "Constantly breathing Jesus Christ..."

• ...The heart's silence, unbroken by any thought. In this silence the heart breathes and invokes without ceasing only Jesus Christ, Son of God." (5)

• "The light of God begins to illumine the mind when it is freed of everything and totally empty of form. For this illumination is manifested in a mind that is pure, on condition that it is freed of all thoughts." (89)

13th C. - Nichodemus of the Holy Mountain (Mt. Athos)

• "Let Jesus be your breath."

14th C. - Philotheus, Mt. Athos, "Texts on Watchfulness"

• "Invoked in prayer, Jesus draws near and fills the heart with light." (29)
• "We must ceaselessly breathe God." (30)

14th C. - The Monks Callistus and Ignatius, Mt. Athos "Directions to Hesychasts"

• "After sunset, having asked the help of the all-merciful and all-powerful Lord Jesus Christ, sit you down on a low stool in your quiet and dimly lit cell; collect your mind from its customary circling and wandering outside, and quietly lead it into the heart by way of breathing, keeping the prayer, 'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me,' connected with the breath." (25)

• "(Prayer is) constant remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ, quietly led into the heart by way of breathing and again led out, without any extraneous thought or imagining." (45)

• "As regards the words, 'have mercy on me', added to the salvation-working words of the prayer, 'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God', it was added by the holy fathers chiefly for those who are still infants in the work of virtue, the beginners... For the advanced and the holy in Christ are content with any of the shorter forms, 'Lord Jesus', 'Jesus Christ', 'Christ Son of God', or even with one word, 'Jesus', which they kiss and embrace as the complete doing of prayer, sufficient to fill them with ineffable bliss and joy exceeding all mind, all vision and all hearing." (50)

19th C: "The Way of a Pilgrim" (anonymous Russian classic)

• "Sink down in silence into the depths of your heart and call more and more upon the radiant Name of Jesus. Everyone who does this will experience, at last, the Inward Light."

20th C: "Breath of the Mystic," (Fa. George Maloney, S.J.)

• "Ephesians 1:23 describes, 'The fullness of Him who fills all in all." By pronouncing the Holy Name of Jesus, we release this transfiguring power. We call Him into being to touch our suffering world groaning in travail. We ask Him to transform the universe."

• "God was meant to be man's breath. Man was meant to be healthy and full of life by breathing in the loving power of God."

4. Medieval Roman Catholic Mystics of the Divine Name

14th C. - "Cloud of Unknowing" (anonymous)

"Take but one short word of a single syllable and clasp it tightly to your heart."

16th C. - St. Theresa of Avila, "Way of Perfection"

• "The most we should do is occasionally and quite gently to utter a single word, like a person giving a little puff to a candle when it is almost gone out, so as to make it burn again."

_________________________

II. OTHER CHRISTIAN MYSTICS

Finding God In the Midst of Daily Life

From the Confessions of St. Augustine...
Our life came down to this our earth and took away our death... He came forth first into the Virgin’s womb, where humanity was wedded to him, our mortal flesh... Then he called to us to return to him into that secret place from which he came forth. By what he said and what he did, he called to us. By his birth, his life, his death, his descent and ascension, he called to us to return to him. Then he withdrew from our eyes, that we might return to our own heart and find him. For he went away and, behold, he is still here. He would not be with us long, yet he did not leave us. He went back to that place which he had never left, for the world was made by him... O children of men, how long will ye be faint of heart? Even now, when life has come down to you, will you not ascend and live?

Jean Pierre de Caussade (18th C.):
God in the Present Moment

'Each moment brings with it a duty to be faithfully fulfilled. On that duty the whole of our attention is fixed at each successive moment, like the hand of a clock which marks each moment of the hour. Under God's unceasing guidance, our spirit turns without conscious effort to each new duty as it is presented to us by God each hour of the day.... Everything is reduced to the complete and utter self-abandonment of the soul to God's will under whatever form it is manifested.

"There is no secret. The treasure is everywhere. It is offered to us at every moment and in every place... Divine activity floods the whole universe. It pervades all creatures. It flows over them. Wherever they are, it is there: it precedes, accompanies and follows them. We have but to allow ourselves to be carried forward on the crest of its waves.

"O bread of angels, heavenly manna, the pearl of the Gospels, the sacrament of the present moment!"

St. Bernard of Clairvaux (11th C.)

"You will find something greater in woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach you what you can never learn from schoolmasters."

Meister Eckhart (14th C.)

"Every creature is full of God, and is a book about God. Every creature is a word of God. If I spent enough time with the tiniest creature, even a caterpillar, I would never have to prepare a sermon. So full of God is every creature."

“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, 'thank you,' that would suffice.”

Hildegard of Bingen (11th C.)

"Holy souls draw to themselves all that is earthy."

"God hugs you. You are encircled by the arms of the mystery of God."

Teilhard de Chardin, The Divine Milieau....
God presents himself to us through the very work that we do. He does not blot out in his intense light the detail of our earthly aims, since the closeness of our union with him is in fact determined by the exact fulfilment of the least of our tasks... God incarnate is not far away from us, apart from the world we see, touch, hear, smell and taste. Rather, he awaits us every instant in our action, in the work of the moment. There is a sense in which God is at the tip of my pen, my spade, my brush, my needle - of my heart and my thought.... Try with God’s help to perceive the connection, even physical and natural, which binds your labour with the building of the Kingdom of Heaven; try to realise that heaven smiles upon you here and through your works draws you to itself; then, as you leave church for the noisy streets, you will remain with only one feeling: that of continual immersion in God!

SILENCE: FINDING GOD WITHIN

Dionysius the Aereopogyte, 'Mystical Theology' (5th C.)
'We pray that we may come unto that divine darkness which is beyond light, and without seeing or knowing, to see and to know what is above vision and knowledge, that we may know by Unknowing."

The Power of Silence: St Isaac of Ninevah (6th C.)
"Above all things, love silence. Out of your silence will arise something that will draw you into deeper silence. If you practice this, inexpressible Light will dawn upon you."

St. Maximus Confessor (9th C.)
"The only thing we can know about God is his infinity: and to know this No-thing is to pass beyond the knowledge of the thinking mind."

St. John of the Cross, 'Living Flame of Love' (16th C.)
"In true prayer, the soul must be attached to nothing, not even to any kind of sweetness, whether of sense or of spirit. For any thought or desire which the soul might have, or any pleasure to which it may be attached, would disturb it and introduce noise into the deep silence."

St. Paul
"If we think we are something, when in fact we are nothing, then we deceive ourselves."

Fa. Thomas Keating (Trappist Priest. founder of the Centering Prayer Movement)

"The spiritual journey is to go deeper and deeper into ourselves in order to make room for God... When we surrender our own desires, world view, self-image, and all that goes to make up the false self, we are truly participating in Christ's Kinosis (self-emptying) described by St. Paul in chapter 2 of Philippians. We are emptying ourselves or the false self so that our true self, which is Christ's life in us, may express itself through our humanity.

"Jesus said, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. What is this 'self' we must deny? It is our thoughts, feelings, self-image, and world-view. Jesus added, Whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever will lose his life for me will find it. That is, you will find eternal life, Christ's life, welling up within you."

ECSTASY

St. Theresa of Avila (Autobiography)...
"It pleased the Lord that I should… see beside me, on my left hand, an angel in bodily form… He was not tall, but short, and very beautiful, his face so aflame that he appeared to be one of the highest types of angel who seem to be all afire. They must be those who are called cherubim: they do not tell me their names but I am well aware that there is a great difference between certain angels and others… In his hands I saw a long golden spear and at the end of the iron tip I seemed to see a point of fire. With this he seemed to pierce my heart several times so that it penetrated to my entrails. When he drew it out, I thought he was drawing them out with it and he left me completely afire with a great love for God. The pain was so sharp that it made me utter several moans; and so excessive was the sweetness caused me by this intense pain that one can never wish to lose it, nor will one's soul be content with anything less…
if anyone thinks I am lying I beseech God, in His goodness, to give him the same experience.

Biblical Stewardship & Environmentalism

2007-06-15T10:28:00.000-07:00

1. Biblical Expectations for Human Stewardship

Genesis 1:26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

Isaiah 55: 12-13 . . .The mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. . . All this will be a memorial for the Lord, a sign that for all time will not be cut off.

Psalm 96:10,12 Let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy.

Psalm 104: 25, 30 In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number—living things both large and small. . . When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the earth.

Daniel 3: 74-81
Let the earth bless the Lord;
Praise and exalt him above all forever.
Mountains and hills, bless the Lord;
Praise and exalt him above all forever.
Everything growing from the earth, bless the Lord;
Praise and exalt him above all forever.
You springs, bless the Lord;
Praise and exalt him above all forever.
Seas and rivers, bless the Lord;
Praise and exalt him above all forever.
You dolphins and all water creatures, bless the Lord;
Praise and exalt him above all forever
All you birds of the air, bless the Lord;
Praise and exalt him above all forever.
All you beasts, wild and tame, bless the Lord;
Praise and exalt him above all forever.

Lev. 25:23-24 The land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants. Throughout the country that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land.

Ezekiel 34:2-4 Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not the shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you did not take care of the flock! You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally.

Ezekiel 34:17-18 As for you, my flock... Is it not enough for you to feed on good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet?

Isaiah 24:4-6 The earth dries up and withers, the world languished and withers, the exalted of the earth languish. The earth lies under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt.

Jer. 2:7 I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce. But you came and defiled my land and you made my inheritance detestable.

Hosea 4:2-3. Therefore the land mourns, and all who live in it languish; together with the wild animals and the birds of the air, even the fish of the sea are perishing.
____________________________________

2. St. Francis of Assisi: 'Brother Sun, Sister Moon'
(Praising God in and through nature)

All praise be yours, my Lord, through all that you have made.

And first , my Lord Brother Sun, who brings the day; and light you give to us through him.

How beautiful is he, how radiant in all his splendor. Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Moon and Stars; In the heavens you have made them, bright, and precious and fair.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Water, so useful, lowly, precious and pure.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Brother Fire, through whom you brighten up the night. How beautiful he is, how gay! Full of power and strength.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Earth, our mother, who feeds us in her sovereignty and produces various fruits and colored flowers and herbs.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through those who grant pardon for love of you; through those who endure Sickness and trial.

Happy those who endure in peace,
By you, Most High, they will be crowned.

_____________________________

3. Christian Mystics

St. Bernard of Clairvaux (11th C.)
"You will find something greater in woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach you what you can never learn from schoolmasters."

Meister Eckhart (14th C.)
"Every creature is full of God, and is a book about God. Every creature is a word of God. If I spent enough time with the tiniest creature, even a caterpillar, I would never have to prepare a sermon. So full of God is every creature."

“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, 'thank you,' that would suffice.”

Hildegard of Bingen (11th C.)

"Holy souls draw to themselves all that is earthy."

"God hugs you. You are encircled by the arms of the mystery of God."

_______________________________

4. Mission Statement of 'Christians For The Mountains'

(http://www.christiansforthemountains.org/)

We are people seeking to live our lives in accordance to the teachings and life of Jesus. Along with this is a passion for life, to love what God loves, to seek harmony and peace on this earth. “Thy Kingdom come on Earth as it is in Heaven…” (Matthew 6:10).

We are Christians whose love for God thus moves us to care for God’s creation, all of it, the people and their livelihoods and communities, the animals and plants, the air, water, soil, the memory of past generations and a promise for those yet to come, indeed the entire fabric of life.

We rejoice in the beautiful mountainous region of the southern and central Appalachians, in the people and their communities, in the lush landscapes and beautiful scenery, and in the myriad manifestations of God’s creation.

But we are troubled by decades of human exploitation and abuse to many of the people and much of the land, air, water, and living things. Some of this abuse is almost irrevocable, such as certain mining processes like mountaintop removal, and the sludge ponds, and the mine acid leakage into streams. Other abuses are slowly healing, such as the total clear cutting of the virgin forests of a past century.

Some of this abuse is due to ignorance. Much of it is due to greed. Jesus said in very clear terms, “You cannot serve God and wealth (Mammon)” (Mathew 6:24).

Christians For The Mountains wants to walk with our fellow citizens to learn together how better to take care of the Earth and one another. None of us claims to know all or that we do everything right. But we want to live better. And that means we have to teach and be taught. We also want to speak clearly and prophetically to those who are so driven by greed or power that they willingly destroy the mountains and communities, that such destruction is a violation of the will of God, that it is sin. (Revelation 11:18).

We are Christians from various denominations, Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant. In certain areas we differ from each other, yet we are united together in our advocacy for God’s creation.

Labels such as conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat, right wing or left wing, are not going to divide us. We welcome diversity. Some of us will differ on strategy. We might not all walk together on some projects. Sometimes several approaches are necessary anyway. We unite in our common faith in Jesus Christ, from which derives our mandate to care for God’s creation. We do not impose a creedal statement or tenets of belief on those in our network, leaving those matters to each person and his or her own faith tradition and community.

Many people from various religious and non-religious beliefs understand the interconnectedness of all life and that humans need to live responsibly on this earth. In forming this network, Christians For The Mountains is not seeking to be exclusive or elitist. Rather, those in Christians For The Mountains want to live and act from the core of our very beings, and that involves our sincerely held religious faith. Through the foundations of our deepest beliefs we can be most effective. Furthermore, we are seeking to challenge and influence other Christian people and their churches and recognize that our being Christians may make our message more understandable.

However, we encourage the people of our network to work alongside people of other beliefs for taking care of creation. Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Native American, or other spiritualities or non-spiritualities have adherents who have deep concern for taking care of the earth. This is not syncretistic; this is responsible humanity. Indeed, earthkeeping is a common thread among essentially all religions. To our understanding, this is a primary task given by God to humanity (Genesis 2:15).

We warmly invite persons of non-Christian faith to attend our gatherings, offer insight into our work, and enjoy friendship one with another.

Please prayerfully consider walking with Christians For The Mountains for a time, and more intentionally joining us if you feel right. We are a network, so everyone is important, and there are plenty of jobs to do.

As Christians For The Mountains starts out our primary efforts will involve ending the ruinous mining method of Mountaintop Removal. But many other issues will surface and take hold as our network expands. This group is new and still taking shape as people join in together.

Thank you for taking time to learn about Christians For The Mountains. We hope we have helped you understand a bit about ourselves, and perhaps sparked your interest to pursue further involvement with us. We do wish you the peace and presence of God in your life.

'The Piper At The Gates of Dawn'

2007-06-15T10:12:00.001-07:00

Nothing in English so perfectly captures the ideal of God in Nature as Kenneth Graham's 'Piper At The Gates of Dawn.' It is chapter seven of his novel, The Wind In the Willows. Rat and Mole paddle out on the river under the full moon, searching for Otter's little lost son, Portly. When they find him at sunrise, he is cradled in the lap of Pan, who has called them there with the sound of his pan-pipes. In that idyllic spot, they experience the beatific vision. The description of their prayerful encounter resembles that of the greatest mystics in the world's religions. The entire chapter is found at this LINK.
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A bird piped suddenly, and was still; and a light breeze sprang up and set the reeds and bulrushes rustling. Rat, who was in the stern of the boat, while Mole sculled, sat up suddenly and listened with a passionate intentness. Mole, who with gentle strokes was just keeping the boat moving while he scanned the banks with care, looked at him with curiosity.

`It's gone!' sighed the Rat, sinking back in his seat again. `So beautiful and strange and new. Since it was to end so soon, I almost wish I had never heard it. For it has roused a longing in me that is pain, and nothing seems worth while but just to hear that sound once more and go on listening to it for ever. No! There it is again!' he cried, alert once more. Entranced, he was silent for a long space, spellbound.

`Now it passes on and I begin to lose it,' he said presently. `O Mole! the beauty of it! The merry bubble and joy, the thin, clear, happy call of the distant piping! Such music I never dreamed of, and the call in it is stronger even than the music is sweet! Row on, Mole, row! For the music and the call must be for us.'

The Mole, greatly wondering, obeyed. `I hear nothing myself,' he said, `but the wind playing in the reeds and rushes and osiers.'

The Rat never answered, if indeed he heard. Rapt, transported, trembling, he was possessed in all his senses by this new divine thing that caught up his helpless soul and swung and dandled it, a powerless but happy infant in a strong sustaining grasp.

In silence Mole rowed steadily, and soon they came to a point where the river divided, a long backwater branching off to one side. With a slight movement of his head Rat, who had long dropped the rudder-lines, directed the rower to take the backwater. The creeping tide of light gained and gained, and now they could see the colour of the flowers that gemmed the water's edge.

`Clearer and nearer still,' cried the Rat joyously. `Now you must surely hear it! Ah--at last--I see you do!'

Breathless and transfixed the Mole stopped rowing as the liquid run of that glad piping broke on him like a wave, caught him up, and possessed him utterly. He saw the tears on his comrade's cheeks, and bowed his head and understood. For a space they hung there, brushed by the purple loose-strife that fringed the bank; then the clear imperious summons that marched hand-in-hand with the intoxicating melody imposed its will on Mole, and mechanically he bent to his oars again. And the light grew steadily stronger, but no birds sang as they were wont to do at the approach of dawn; and but for the heavenly music all was marvellously still.

On either side of them, as they glided onwards, the rich meadow-grass seemed that morning of a freshness and a greenness unsurpassable. Never had they noticed the roses so vivid, the willow-herb so riotous, the meadow-sweet so odorous and pervading. Then the murmur of the approaching weir began to hold the air, and they felt a consciousness that they were nearing the end, whatever it might be, that surely awaited their expedition.

A wide half-circle of foam and glinting lights and shining shoulders of green water, the great weir closed the backwater from bank to bank, troubled all the quiet surface with twirling eddies and floating foam-streaks, and deadened all other sounds with its solemn and soothing rumble. In midmost of the stream, embraced in the weir's shimmering arm-spread, a small island lay anchored, fringed close with willow and silver birch and alder. Reserved, shy, but full of significance, it hid whatever it might hold behind a veil, keeping it till the hour should come, and, with the hour, those who were called and chosen.

Slowly, but with no doubt or hesitation whatever, and in something of a solemn expectancy, the two animals passed through the broken tumultuous water and moored their boat at the flowery margin of the island. In silence they landed, and pushed through the blossom and scented herbage and undergrowth that led up to the level ground, till they stood on a little lawn of a marvellous green, set round with Nature's own orchard-trees-- crab-apple, wild cherry, and sloe.

`This is the place of my song-dream, the place the music played to me,' whispered the Rat, as if in a trance. `Here, in this holy place, here if anywhere, surely we shall find Him!'

Then suddenly the Mole felt a great Awe fall upon him, an awe that turned his muscles to water, bowed his head, and rooted his feet to the ground. It was no panic terror--indeed he felt wonderfully at peace and happy--but it was an awe that smote and held him and, without seeing, he knew it could only mean that some august Presence was very, very near. With difficulty he turned to look for his friend. and saw him at his side cowed, stricken, and trembling violently. And still there was utter silence in the populous bird-haunted branches around them; and still the light grew and grew.

Perhaps he would never have dared to raise his eyes, but that, though the piping was now hushed, the call and the summons seemed still dominant and imperious. He might not refuse, were Death himself waiting to strike him instantly, once he had looked with mortal eye on things rightly kept hidden. Trembling he obeyed, and raised his humble head; and then, in that utter clearness of the imminent dawn, while Nature, flushed with fullness of incredible colour, seemed to hold her breath for the event, he looked in the very eyes of the Friend and Helper; saw the backward sweep of the curved horns, gleaming in the growing daylight; saw the stern, hooked nose between the kindly eyes that were looking down on them humorously, while the bearded mouth broke into a half-smile at the corners; saw the rippling muscles on the arm that lay across the broad chest, the long supple hand still holding the pan-pipes only just fallen away from the parted lips; saw the splendid curves of the shaggy limbs disposed in majestic ease on the sward; saw, last of all, nestling between his very hooves, sleeping soundly in entire peace and contentment, the little, round, podgy, childish form of the baby otter. All this he saw, for one moment breathless and intense, vivid on the morning sky; and still, as he looked, he lived; and still, as he lived, he wondered.

`Rat!' he found breath to whisper, shaking. `Are you afraid?'

`Afraid?' murmured the Rat, his eyes shining with unutterable love. `Afraid! Of him? O, never, never! And yet--and yet-- O, Mole, I am afraid!'

Then the two animals, crouching to the earth, bowed their heads and did worship.
______________________
Some morning very soon, why don't you and a friend take a walk by the river bank, along the meadow, to the edge of the forest?

Spirit of English Poetry

2007-06-15T10:12:00.000-07:00

I. Nature As Religious Inspiration

1. Shakespeare, 'As You Like It,' Act II. Scene 1

Duke Senior, exiled from the city by his brother, must live in the forest of Arden. Rather than lamenting his exile in the wilderness, he celebrates the innocence and rustic beauty of the natural and simple life:

Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile,
Hath not old custom made this life more sweet
Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods
More free from peril than the envious court?
Here feel we but the penalty of Adam,
The seasons' difference, as the icy fang
And churlish chiding of the winter's wind,
Which, when it bites and blows upon my body
Even till I shrink with cold, I smile and say
'This is no flattery: these are counsellors
That feelingly persuade me what I am.'
Sweet are the uses of adversity....
And this our life exempt from public haunt
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones and good in every thing.
I would not change it.

2. From Wordsworth's 'Tintern Abbey'

The day is come when I again repose
Here, under this dark sycamore, and view 10
These plots of cottage-ground, these orchard-tufts,
Which at this season, with their unripe fruits,
Are clad in one green hue, and lose themselves
'Mid groves and copses. Once again I see
These hedge-rows, hardly hedge-rows, little lines
Of sportive wood run wild: these pastoral farms,
Green to the very door; and wreaths of smoke
Sent up, in silence, from among the trees!
With some uncertain notice, as might seem
Of vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods, 20
Or of some Hermit's cave, where by his fire
The Hermit sits alone.
These beauteous forms,
Through a long absence, have not been to me
As is a landscape to a blind man's eye:
But oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the din
Of towns and cities, I have owed to them
In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,
Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart;
And passing even into my purer mind,
With tranquil restoration:--feelings too 30
Of unremembered pleasure: such, perhaps,
As have no slight or trivial influence
On that best portion of a good man's life,
His little, nameless, unremembered, acts
Of kindness and of love. Nor less, I trust,
To them I may have owed another gift,
Of aspect more sublime; that blessed mood,
In which the burthen of the mystery,
In which the heavy and the weary weight
Of all this unintelligible world, 40
Is lightened:--that serene and blessed mood,
In which the affections gently lead us on,--
Until, the breath of this corporeal frame
And even the motion of our human blood
Almost suspended, we are laid asleep
In body, and become a living soul:
While with an eye made quiet by the power
Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,
We see into the life of things.....

…… And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;
A motion and a spirit, that impels 100
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still
A lover of the meadows and the woods,
And mountains; and of all that we behold
From this green earth; of all the mighty world
Of eye, and ear--both what they half create,
And what perceive; well pleased to recognize
In nature and the language of the sense,
The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,
The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul 110
Of all my moral being.

3. I TASTE A LIQUOR (Emily Dickinson)

I taste a liquor never brewed,
From tankards scooped in pearl;
Not all the vats upon the Rhine
Yield such an alcohol!

Inebriate of air am I,
And debauchee of dew,
Reeling, through endless summer days,
From inns of molten blue.

When the landlord turn the drunken bee
Out of the foxglove's door,
When butterflies renounce their drams,
I shall but drink the more!

Till seraphs swing their snowy hats,
And saints to windows run,
To see the little tippler
Leaning against the sun!

4. Robert Frost, 'Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening'

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

5. William Cullen Bryant , 'To A Water Fowl'
(American poet, d.1878)

Whither, midst falling dew,
While glow the heavens with the last steps of day,
Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue
Thy solitary way?

Vainly the fowler's eye
Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong,
As, darkly seen against the crimson sky,
Thy figure floats along.

Seek'st thou the plashy brink
Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide, 10
Or where the rocking billows rise and sink
On the chafed ocean-side?

There is a Power whose care
Teaches thy way along that pathless coast—
The desert and illimitable air—
Lone wandering, but not lost.

All day thy wings have fanned,
At that far height, the cold, thin atmosphere,
Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land,
Though the dark night is near.

And soon that toil shall end;
Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest,
And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend,
Soon, o'er thy sheltered nest.

Thou 'rt gone, the abyss of heaven
Hath swallowed up thy form; yet, on my heart
Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou hast given,
And shall not soon depart.

He who, from zone to zone,
Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight,
In the long way that I must tread alone,
Will lead my steps aright.

6. GOD'S GRANDEUR, Gerard Manley Hopkins
(English poet and Catholic monk, d.1889)

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
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II. Remembrance of Childhood as a Religious Experience

1. e. e. cummings, In Just Spring

in Just-
spring when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman
whistles far and wee
and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring
when the world is puddle-wonderful
the queer
old balloonman whistles
far and wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing
from hop-scotch and jump-rope and
it's
spring
and the goat-footed
balloonMan whistles
far
and
wee

2. THE RETREAT, by Henry Vaughan

Happy those early days, when I
Shin'd in my angel-infancy !
Before I understood this place
Appointed for my second race,
Or taught my soul to fancy ought
But a white, celestial thought ;
When yet I had not walk'd above
A mile or two from my first love,
And looking back—at that short space—
Could see a glimpse of His bright face ;
When on some gilded cloud, or flow'r,
My gazing soul would dwell an hour,
And in those weaker glories spy
Some shadows of eternity ;
Before I taught my tongue to wound
My conscience with a sinful sound,
Or had the black art to dispense
A sev'ral sin to ev'ry sense,
But felt through all this fleshly dress
Bright shoots of everlastingness.
O how I long to travel back,
And tread again that ancient track !
That I might once more reach that plain,
Where first I left my glorious train ;
From whence th' enlighten'd spirit sees
That shady City of palm-trees.
But ah ! my soul with too much stay
Is drunk, and staggers in the way !
Some men a forward motion love,
But I by backward steps would move ;
And when this dust falls to the urn,
In that state I came, return.

3. Wordsworth, 'Recollections of Early Childhood' (excerpt)

There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
To me did seem
Apparelled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it hath been of yore;--
Turn wheresoe'er I may,
By night or day,
The things which I have seen I now can see no more.

The Rainbow comes and goes,
And lovely is the Rose,
The Moon doth with delight
Look round her when the heavens are bare,
Waters on a starry night
Are beautiful and fair;
The sunshine is a glorious birth;
But yet I know, where'er I go,
That there hath past away a glory from the earth…..

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:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!
Shades of the prison-house begin to close
Upon the growing Boy,
But He beholds the light, and whence it flows,
He sees it in his joy;
The Youth, who daily farther from the east
Must travel, still is Nature's Priest,
And by the vision splendid
Is on his way attended;
At length the Man perceives it die away,
And fade into the light of common day.
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Wage Peace, by Mary Oliver
(Poem written after the 9/11/01 attacks, influenced by Buddhist meditation)

Wage peace with your breath.
Breathe in firemen and rubble,
breathe out whole buildings
and flocks of redwing blackbirds.
Breathe in terrorists and breathe out sleeping children
and freshly mown fields.
Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.
Breathe in the fallen
and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.
Wage peace with your listening:
hearing sirens, pray loud.
Remember your tools:
flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers.
Make soup.
Play music, learn the word for thank you in three languages.
Learn to knit, and make a hat.
Think of chaos as dancing raspberries,
imagine grief as the outbreath of beauty
or the gesture of fish.
Swim for the other side.
Wage peace.
Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious.
have a cup of tea and rejoice.
Act as if armistice has already arrived.
Don't wait another minute.

Quakers, Mormons & Christian Science: Non-Conformist American Sects

2007-06-15T10:11:00.000-07:00

Mormon Settlers in Utah

1. Journal of George Fox, founder of the Quakers

While Fox lived in England, his Quaker followers came to America with William Penn to found the colony of Pennsylvania. There they instituted the first public sch0ols, the first penitentiary for prisoner rehabilitation, the first alms house for the homeless, the first mental hospital, the anti-war movement, and the anti-slavery movement. They taught that Christ is the "Inward Light" given to every person. We may have covered the light over with sin, but the purity of Christ's light is our real nature, if only we accept it consciously. Then we recover our original innocence.

Now I was come up in spirit through the flaming sword, into the paradise of God. All things were new; and all the creation gave unto me another smell than before, beyond what words can utter. I knew nothing but pureness, and innocency, and righteousness; being renewed into the image of God by Christ Jesus, to the state of Adam, which he was in before he fell. The creation was opened to me; and it was showed me how all things had their names given them according to their nature and virtue.

I was at a stand in my mind whether I should practise physic for the good of mankind, seeing the nature and virtues of things were so opened to me by the Lord. But I was immediately taken up in spirit to see into another or more steadfast state than Adam's innocency, even into a state in Christ Jesus that should never fall. And the Lord showed me that such as were faithful to Him, in the power and light of Christ, should come up into that state in which Adam was before he fell; in which the admirable works of the creation, and the virtues thereof, may be known, through the openings of that divine Word of wisdom and power by which they were made.

Great things did the Lord lead me into, and wonderful depths were opened unto me, beyond what can by words be declared; but as people come into subjection to the Spirit of God, and grow up in the image and power of the Almighty, they may receive the Word of wisdom that opens all things, and come to know the hidden unity in the Eternal Being.

(Journal, Chapter 2)

__________________________

2. Book of Mormon: Testimony of Joseph Smith

It would be presumptuous to give a short synopsis of such a complex religious revelation, foundation of the Latter Day Saints Church, also known as Mormons. In the pattern of Old Testament Prophets, Joseph Smith received the revelation of God and Brigham Young founded the settlement in Utah that is now the center of the LDS Church. The Mormon Church is Christ-centered but distinct from Christian orthodoxy. Following is the account of the first revelation to Joseph Smith.

“On the evening of the . . . twenty-first of September [1823] . . . I betook myself to prayer and supplication to Almighty God . . . .

“While I was thus in the act of calling upon God, I discovered a light appearing in my room, which continued to increase until the room was lighter than at noonday, when immediately a personage appeared at my bedside, standing in the air, for his feet did not touch the floor.

“He had on a loose robe of most exquisite whiteness. It was a whiteness beyond anything earthly I had ever seen; nor do I believe that any earthly thing could be made to appear so exceedingly white and brilliant. His hands were naked, and his arms also, a little above the wrists; so, also, were his feet naked, as were his legs, a little above the ankles. His head and neck were also bare. I could discover that he had no other clothing on but this robe, as it was open, so that I could see into his bosom.

“Not only was his robe exceedingly white, but his whole person was glorious beyond description, and his countenance truly like lightning. The room was exceedingly light, but not so very bright as immediately around his person. When I first looked upon him, I was afraid; but the fear soon left me.

“He called me by name, and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Moroni; that God had a work for me to do; and that my name should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues, or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among all people.

“He said there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang. He also said that the fulness of the everlasting Gospel was contained in it, as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants;

“Also, that there were two stones in silver bows—and these stones, fastened to a breastplate, constituted what is called the Urim and Thummim—deposited with the plates; and the possession and use of these stones were what constituted Seers in ancient or former times; and that God had prepared them for the purpose of translating the book."

__________________________

3. Mary Baker Eddy's 'Lord's Prayer'

A uniquely American form of Christianity, Christian Science is founded on the teachings of Eddy(1821-1910), who taught that spiritual mind, enlightened by the love of Christ, is the creative force that governs the material world. Spiritual mind can heal any sickness in the body.

Only as we rise above all material sensuousness and sin, can we reach the heaven-born aspiration and spiritual consciousness, which is indicated in the Lord's Prayer and which instantaneously heals the sick. Here let me give what I understand to be the spiritual sense of the Lord's Prayer:

Our Father which art in heaven,

Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious,

Hallowed be Thy name.

Adorable One.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy kingdom is come; Thou art ever-present.

Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Enable us to know,--as in heaven, so on earth,--God is omnipotent, supreme.

Give us this day our daily bread;

Give us grace for to-day; feed the famished affections;

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And Love is reflected in love;

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil;

And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.

For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over all, and All.

Science and Health, 16:7-17:15

The Spirit of Walt Whitman

2007-06-15T10:10:00.000-07:00

"Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take your hat off to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, reexamine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body."

_______________

BEING A HUMAN BODY AS RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE (Song Of Myself, 24)

Walt Whitman, a kosmos, of Manhattan the son;
Turbulent, fleshly, sensual, eating, drinking and breeding,
No sentimentalist, no stander above men and women or apart
from them,
No more modest than immodest…

I speak the pass-word primeval, I give the sign of democracy,
By God! I will accept nothing which all cannot have
their counterpart of on the same terms.
Through me many long dumb voices,
Voices of the interminable generations of prisoners and slaves,
Voices of the diseas'd and despairing and of thieves and dwarfs….
And of the threads that connect the stars,
and of wombs and of the fatherstuff,
And of the rights of them the others are down upon,
Of the deformed trivial, flat, foolish, despised,
Fog in the air, beetles rolling balls of dung.

Through me forbidden voices,
Voices of sexes and lusts, voices veil'd and I remove the veil,
Voices indecent by me clarified and transfigured.
I do not press my fingers across my mouth,
I keep as delicate around the bowels as around the head and heart,
Copulation is no more rank to me than death is.

I believe in the flesh and the appetites,
Seeing, hearing, feeling, are miracles,
and each part and tag of me is a miracle.

Divine am I inside and out, and I make holy whatever I touch….
The scent of these arm-pits aroma finer than prayer,
This head more than churches, bibles, and all the creeds.
If I worship one thing more than another it shall be
the spread of my own body!

The Spirit of Abraham Lincoln

2007-06-15T10:09:00.000-07:00

I. Meditation on the Divine Will, Washington, D.C. Sept, 1862
This fragment was found and preserved by John Hay, one of President Lincoln's secretaries, who said it was "not written to be seen of men." Some of the thoughts expressed here, written after discouraging days of personal sorrow and military defeats, also appear in Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address of 1865.

The will of God prevails.
In great contests each party claims to act in accordance
with the will of God.
Both may be, and one must be, wrong.
God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time.
In the present civil war it is quite possible that God's purpose
is something different from the purpose of either party;
and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do,
are of the best adaptation to effect his purpose.
I am almost ready to say that this is probably true; that God wills this contest,
and wills that it shall not end yet.
By his mere great power on the minds of the now contestants,
he could have either saved or destroyed the Union without a human contest. Yet the contest began. And, having begun, he could give the final victory
to either side any day.
Yet the contest proceeds.

II. Second Inaugural Address, Saturday, March 4, 1865

… Both (warring parties) read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses…." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away…

QUESTIONS;
1, How does Lincoln resolve the tension between divine omniscience
and human free will?

2. What is Lincoln’s theodicy (explanation for evil and suffering in
the creation of a perfect God)?

3. How might you apply Lincoln’s insights to today’s problems?

Spirit of Ben Franklin: A Deist's Creed

2007-06-15T10:08:00.000-07:00

A Deist's Creed

True believers tried to convince Jefferson, Franklin, and Paine that they must attend church and be baptized. But they never yielded their spiritual independence to an institutionalized religion. (See the link for 'Spirit of Thomas Jefferson.' ) At the age of 84, Franklin wrote down the following "Deist's Creed," which he said was all he needed for a "religion":

"This is my creed:
I believe in one God, the Creator of the universe;
That he governs it by his providence;
That he ought to be worshiped;
That the most acceptable service we render him is doing good to his other children;
That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this one."

Your World Religions

Creation Stories

Physics & Creation

Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are a part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.” (Max Planck)

Native American Experience

Creeds for Daily Living

Poems of Mystical Love

O friend, understand.The body is like the ocean, rich with hidden treasures.Open your innermost chamberAnd light its lamp,Within the body are gardens,Rare flowers, peacocks; the inner music;Within the body a lake of bliss,On it, the white soul-swans take their joy.

Rabia (she was one of the first Sufis, 8th C, Bhagdad)

* * * * *

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Just sit there right now.Don’t do a thing.Just rest.For your separation from Godis the hardest work in this world.Let me bring your trays of foodand something that you like to drink.You can use my soft wordsas a cushion for your head.

Islamic Poetry & Philosophy

Jewish Stories & Poems

Hindu Literature & Ethics

Hindu Art Images: Vishnu

Hindu Art Images: Shiva

12. Interpretation of Shiva Symbols from the Upanishads

Lord Shiva represents the destructive aspect of Brahman. 'Destructive' here means, 'destructive of ignorance, of that which binds the soul.'

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Breath as Prayer in Christianity

Heart Space

Prayer of the Heart

Buddhist Literature

Heart Sutra (Prajna Paramitta Sutra)

Agape & Biblical Concepts of Love

Death and the Afterlife

3. Christianity: The Resurrection of the Dead

I Corinthians, Chapter 15

Christian Contemplatives

Biblical Stewardship & Environmentalism

'The Piper At The Gates of Dawn'

Spirit of English Poetry

Quakers, Mormons & Christian Science: Non-Conformist American Sects

The Spirit of Walt Whitman

The Spirit of Abraham Lincoln

Spirit of Ben Franklin: A Deist's Creed

O friend, understand.
The body is like the ocean, rich with hidden treasures.
Open your innermost chamber
And light its lamp,
Within the body are gardens,
Rare flowers, peacocks; the inner music;
Within the body a lake of bliss,
On it, the white soul-swans take their joy.

Just sit there right now.
Don’t do a thing.
Just rest.
For your separation from God
is the hardest work in this world.
Let me bring your trays of food
and something that you like to drink.
You can use my soft words
as a cushion for your head.