'Becoming Stillness' - Richard Rohr ; breathe, the word God...

Oh my, where have I been for so many years? If you have the time, listen, think, feel... there will be several golden nuggets to put in your pocket. Peace

Sept. 7, 2013 journal entry:

'Naïve Nonsense' 

(on site at the US Open tennis, NYC / definitely a 1ST World venue).  

In lieu of another US-led killing war, let us watch and learn from an epic battle between two countries / sovereigns / powers / spaces ::  

DJokovic vs Wawrinka  

Can we try a US-led peace? Put the armaments on garish-boastful-proud display if we must, if it will help to intimidate the world into peace, but don’t feel WE [USA] can be intimidated into using those weapons of destruction. Walk forward on the tough God-like path to peace. I don’t think Allah is pleased with killing his creations, and I don’t believe my God is either. So all this killing must be the product of human ego, fear, pride, greed, anger, envy, jealousy, sin sin sin … I’d rather struggle peacefully, non-violently for peace. 

Here I am, in a 'first world' arena, watching two ‘warriors’, as the commentators call them - Novak and Stanislas, battle it out on the ‘court’ of competitive tennis … while the Syrian Spector of Killing looms in my mind, my heart … I naively ponder-dream, if a Serb could battle a Swiss on a tennis court for dominance, for control of a title (i.e., 'property', domain), for control (i.e., political, religious), then why not Syria versus the UN on a similar court ? If not a tennis battle, an epic chess tournament... 

Well, I did premise my thoughts with ‘Naive Nonsense’. 

But then (semi-rhetorically), what would we [the world] do with the HUGE HUNGRY POWERFUL weapons industries? What economic incentive could be offered? What profitable, job-saving trade off to turn guns & violence into food & peace? Or, are these industries TOO BIG to FAIL?  

diversionary thought – does the above train of thought (a tennis battle instead of a war) almost support the logic of the Hunger Games plot and its context's political premise? … Do we have a Neanderthal's Choice (my cliché', no offense intended to Neanderthals) here? Sacrifice a few young innocents in some vile game of bloodletting, or, sacrifice thousands in an atrocious political vengeance reaction?

peace...please

"The Yahweh Prayer II" Richard Rohr, Drew University Soul Work Conference

Interesting article, and though I'm a little ashamed to continue the silly 'CUP' conversation, this peek at a historical perspective on the Christmas holiday is enlightening. How often a broader view of a subject allows for a less 'dualistic', dogmatic, and narrow point of view - do I dare to label such a broader view as, almost, a bit, somewhat closer to a 'God-view'?

http://thefederalist.com/2015/11/10/nobody-is-actually-upset-about-the-starbucks-cup-stop-saying-otherwise/

...hope this works...PEACE

End of life, beginning of love

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/28/my-faith-what-people-talk-about-before-they-die/

A sweet perspective on God's children.

Coffee Shop Harangue (Sweet Jesus - Sweet Donkey !)

Coffee Shop Harangue (Sweet Jesus - Sweet Donkey !) - bringing together three of Roman Catholic upbringing with more recent evangelical immersion, one of Caribbean heritage, and one rebellious fundamentalist...all prayerful, respectful, searching men...but oh, the mysteries uncovered by thoughtful conversation! Uncovered, but remaining, often, most often, unexplained, still mysterious. Each his own journey unfolding. Each his own spiritual road map crumpled, over-folded, worn and faded, stained and torn, and yet more than vaguely readable. When is it time to update that road map? When, and how, will a new, more current, more accurate edition of those road maps be published? Hmmm, maybe the metaphor of road map needs tweaking. Or not. 

Does fear play too large a part in our world view? Does fear drive us into our defensive corners to suit up with apologetic armor, building barriers to keep out the 'others'? When does faith give us the ability to love an enemy? When does faith open our ears to listen without fear of falling into an abyss of evil and no return? When does faith give us the key to open the doors to all? 

Can't I lay claim to God's creation, as a creature of God's creation? Can't I lay claim to the God in me of whom I am made? Can't I lay claim to God's 'I Am', and still humbly love my neighbor, and still truly love my enemy? I want the simplicity, the complex simplicity being of God and of man to wash me daily. I want to bathe constantly in the spirit of this vast universe, of my breath of life, my gift of position of son-ship. What an inheritance we have. Sons of God. Creatures of the Creator. Receivers of life, and givers of life through creation. Receivers of love, and givers of love through the Creator.  

More, later. PEACE

How fortunate to converse over hot chocolate and coffee with a struggling mentor. Initials, used to protect the unattributed. All thoughts are mine, or paraphrased as I think I heard and understood the conversation:

'How a dualistic worldview (religious-faith view) can cause constipation dreams (nightmares)': BB thinks "...a lot of Christians are like BL...they just hang onto a narrow view of faith and christianity...they don't worry about large parts of the bible...is that correct [right]...is that how we should be?...". Then the dreams of constipation begin. What a metaphor for holding on to stuff from your past, for being stuck with ideas you were fed while growing up, for not moving on, for having an impacted system of thought and spirit. 

Here's an intelligent, faithful man who is searching for spiritual truth, and yet he struggles daily with his past teachings. He wants to, and thinks he should, cast off [deficate, if you will, to continue the metaphor] these past influences and teachings and beliefs that cause him to stumble in his ability to Love God and Love His Neighbor.  

A man with a large family. A large family of many children with many spiritual dispositions. "...they love their neighbors even better than I do..." he has admitted. But his stumbling block is that his family doesn't hold tightly to the same traditional christian teachings and beliefs that he has held for decades; that his parents, siblings, religious neighbors, his valued religious institutions hold. That his family, whom he has felt semi-estranged from for decades, whom he has felt the cause of that estrangement, the family whom he loves and respects, whom he doesn't want to condemn as once would have been his religious obligation, the family whom he knows loves and respects him, that that family is as Godly and saved as he thinks he might be... 

This good, generous, and respected family man of octogenarian years struggles in his 'apologetic' thinking. His need to be 'right', spiritually and rationally, his need to explain his rightness, his desire to explain others' [though different in thinking from his way] rightness [insert 'righteousness' here?]. We humans [at least in my tribe], for the most part, have all been instructed to be 'right', not 'wrong'. That there is no honor in wrong, and only salvation in being right – MY right, not yours. Be it giving the right answer on a scholastic test when we were growing up, or, having the right answer to your spiritual position. 

It is ingrained in us that there is a right answer, to everything, especially everything holy and spiritual (and of course scientific) - 'just look up the answer in the bible...it's all right there' says the common christian religious instructional cliché. 

And therein lies another paradox he [the family man] confronts in religious thinking. He would see this 'look in the bible' as a 'cop-out', as a technique whereby the defender of the tradition can pick and chose – usually out of context – a favored passage for defense of the tradition, always ignoring paradoxical passages. Whereas, 'letting go and let God', 'put that paradox, that question, into the mystery basket' also seems a 'cop-out', albeit an opposing one to tradition. The paradox confounds his rational mind, his emotional needs. And, alas, the traditional cop-out presumes the mystery cop-out as unfaithful, weak, liberal, lukewarm at best or 'headed for hell' at worst.  

Love God and love your neighbors. He doesn't want that to be a cop-out. He wants that to be the simple, faithful, righteous totality of Godliness, without any need for guilt, or emotional desire to be defensive. That God is love, that man is a love creation, that God loves all, that all God's children are loved before-during-after life as we know it, that all God's creatures will always be God's creation, and will always be loved as God's first born.  

My straying from a strict path of dual versus nondual conversation may require a change of this blog's title. 

PEACE