REFORMED AND ALWAYS BEING REFORMED -- 2

+ Spirituality and Practice offers a book review of A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions that are Transforming the Faith by Brian McClaren.  Here's an excerpt from the review: "We've been very impressed with what is coming out of the Emergent Movement, and we welcome the prospect of its growing momentum as more and more seekers find a spiritual home that speaks to their faith, openness to other religions, need for practice, and passion for mending a broken world. Certainly McClaren's books, lectures, and buoyant spirit provide a light to show the way into the hopeful and holy future!"

S&P also offers an excerpt from the book.

+ Click here to see all of my "Reformed And Always Being Reformed" (Semper Reformanda) posts.

INTERSPIRITUAL WISDOM -- 5

+ In the Practice Circle of the E-retreat on InterSpiritual Wisdom I offered the following:

FORGIVENESS AND REPENTANCE
I think many of us Christians have long treated the idea of forgiveness as a task to accomplish rather than an inward change of mind and heart. (Romans 12:1-2 comes to mind). All of the wisdom shared this week has helped me understand more than ever that forgiveness is a state of being (a heavenly state always available in the here-and-now moment).

I have been re-reading MYTH AND RITUAL IN CHRISTIANITY by Alan Watts (THE book which made it possible for me to stay in the Christian Wisdom Tradition after I discovered and embraced the Perennial Philosophy, or mysticism). Watts writes:

" ... the redemption of captive Israel, liberation from Hades, the forgiveness of sins, release from the self-love of Lucifer, from the 'old Adam', and from the bondage of 'Egypt' and 'Babylon' is in every respect a deliverance from the past. Salvation is always the ending of the mind's fascinated identification with the dead and unchanging image of what it was. It is a complete reversal of the 'natural' order of things, a metanoia -- the Greek word for 'repentance' meaning precisely a 'turning-around-of-the-mind', so that it no longer faces into the past, the land of the shadow of death, but into the Eternal Present."

Watts states that our human personality is totally based on memory. So, our Holy Forgetting is not so much a task to be accomplished but an orientation change, a heavenly attitude, a connection with the divine which is beyond our knowing and understanding.

+ You can see all of my posts on Interspiritual wisdom here.

INTERSPIRITUAL WISDOM -- 4

+ The E-retreat on InterSpiritual Wisdom has begun.  You can sign up at any time.  Now is a great time!

+ The theme for Week One is Forgiveness.

+ I have reflected for years on The 12 Pathways to Higher Consciousness offered by Ken Keyes Jr. which you can find at http://community-2.webtv.net/babaluie/LivingLoveThe/page3.html 

Number 5 and number 6 seem to contradict each other but not really and maybe this is what forgiveness is all about. Here they are:

5) I take full responsiliblity here and now for everything I experience, for it is my own programming that creates my actions and also influences the reactions of people around me.


6) I accept myself completely here and now and consciously experience everything I feel, think, say, and do (including my emotion- backed addictions) as a necessary part of my growth into higher consciousness.

My own thinking about these things over the years has led me to conclude that ...

We are intimately, intricately and infinitely connected by a matrix of unconditional, unlimited and uniting LOVE which is miraculous, mysterious and marvelous.

+ You can see all of my posts on Interspiritual wisdom here.

MESSAGE FOR THE TREK -- 5

+ I wrote the following MESSAGE FOR THE TREK on 9/4/02:

+ ABUNDANCETREK and THE NEW CHURCH FOR THE NEW AGE are just words. Hopefully, the ideas that are associated with these words are useful for the greater movement of faith, hope and love which is happening on our planet today.

+ All of the Messages for the Trek I wrote between 2002 and 2007 can be seen at www.abundancetrek.com/mftt.

INTERSPIRITUAL WISDOM -- 3

+ The E-retreat on InterSpiritual Wisdom has begun.  You can sign up at any time.  Now is a great time!

+ The theme of the first week is FORGIVENESS.  Here is some powerful wisdom from Shantideva, Way of the Bodhisattva, Chapter Eight, "Meditative Concentration", verse 129:

All the joy the world contains

has come through wishing happiness for others.

All the misery the world contains

has come through wanting pleasure for oneself.

+ I am continuing my exploration of the website of The Spiritual Paths Foundation.  I found "Mystical Experience or Unitive Seeing?" by Cynthia Bourgeault, one of the teachers of the E-retreat. It begins: "In my own spiritual practice I’m more and more clearly seeing the need to distinguish between two closely related but distinctly different phenomena: mysticism and unitive seeing. Much of the “bad rap” that mysticism has unfortunately gained in the mainstream Christianity of the West comes from a failure to distinguish between these two terms."

+ You can see all of my posts on Interspiritual wisdom here.

INTERSPIRITUAL WISDOM -- 2

+ The E-retreat on InterSpiritual Wisdom has begun.  You can sign up at any time.  Now is a great time! 

+ A major resource on the theme is the website of The Spiritual Paths Foundation.  This statement in the Overview section gets to the heart of the matter:

Humanity stands at a crossroads between horror and hope. In choosing hope, we must seed a new consciousness, a radically fresh approach to life drawing its inspiration from perennial spiritual and moral insights, intuition and experience. We call this new awareness Interspiritual, implying not the homogenization of religion, but the recovering of the shared mystic heart beating in the center of the world’s deepest spiritual traditions. -- Wayne Teasdale, Mystic Heart

+ You can see all of my posts on Interspiritual wisdom here.

MESSAGE FOR THE TREK -- 4

+ I wrote the following MESSAGE FOR THE TREK on 9/4/02:

Real abundance has nothing to do with making lots of money. Indeed, making lots of money can get in the way of the awareness and appreciation of abundance.

+ All of the Messages for the Trek I wrote between 2002 and 2007 can be seen at www.abundancetrek.com/mftt.

CHRISTIAN-MUSLIM DIALOGUE -- 1

In a letter to Moslems written “on behalf of World Evangelical Alliance” by Dr. Geoff Tunnicliffe, International Director, I found this troubling sentence: “We urge you to realize that the problems of the Western world are not because of Christianity but because of the West’s increasing rejection of it.”

I must profoundly disagree with this statement. I think it would be pretty hard to convince most Moslems of that statement and I’m certainly not convinced. Europe has been a battleground for centuries. When Christianity really did dominate Europe, many things were far worse than they are today. A good case can be made that Christian Europe has exhibited far more violence, injustice and hatred than Islamic Africa, The Middle East and Islamic Asia for many centuries.  Also, I wonder when Dr. Tunnicliffe thinks that the “increasing rejection” began.  In many ways the Western world has increasingly embraced the values of Christ even as it has turned more secular.  I urge "Evangelical Christians" and everyone else to be far more aware of our history.  I suspect most Moslems have a very different perception of our history and are possibly better informed and closer to the truth than a lot of Christians.  A really good conversation about our current difficulties requires this awareness.

The letter is one of many responses to A Common Word between Us and You which you can find at the Common Word website. It is an important and powerful initiative by Moslems to find common ground and build trust and reduce violence, hatred and misunderstanding.  While the response of the WEA is encouraging at some levels, I was delighted to find many far more positive responses by other Christians including my Presbyterian Church (USA) and several Ecumenical and Reformed and Interfaith organizations and leaders.  The Common Word website offers them all.  This is well worth your time and energy.

There is more in the WEA letter that I find troubling which I intend to address in future posts.

INTERSPIRITUAL WISDOM -- 1

+ Spirituality and Practice is offering an E-retreat on InterSpiritual Wisdom beginning this Sunday.  It will be led by Shaikh Kabir and Shaikha Camille Helminski, Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Swami Atmarupananda, Dr. Ed Bastian, Rev. Cynthia Bourgeault, Spiritual Paths Institute; Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality & Practice.  I'm signed up.  How about you?

+ You can see all of my posts on Interspiritual wisdom here.

MESSAGE FOR THE TREK -- 3

+ I wrote the following MESSAGE FOR THE TREK on 9/4/02:

I believe we are living during an era that I like to call THE GREAT EVOLUTIONARY LEAP FORWARD. In other words, we are changing our collective mind about a lot of things. The Human Being is becoming the Heavenly Being. We are learning how to accept Heaven's gift of Abundance. This is fantastic. It's fascinating. It's wonderful. It is also an adventure which includes a lot of pain and doubt and uncertainty. Courage is required. Colleagues are essential. We are in this thing together. The goal is a global village based on love. The means is a global village based on love.

+ All of the Messages for the Trek I wrote between 2002 and 2007 can be seen at www.abundancetrek.com/mftt.

MESSAGE FOR THE TREK -- 2

+ I wrote the following Message for the Trek on September 4, 2002:

I have come up with nine words which I believe describe Heaven: Abundance, Joy, Wisdom, Beauty, Love, Truth, Peace, Justice, and Freedom. Please note that Love is the centering word, the most important word. These 9 words also describe The New Church for the New Age. The New Church for the New Age is realized when Heaven is realized. Let's paraphrase that slogan again: "There is no way to The New Church for the New Age (Heaven). The New Church for the New Age (Heaven) is the way." In other words, Heaven is now here. Heaven is an attitude, an awareness, an awakening, a decision, a faith, a commitment, a movement, a journey, an adventure, a way of life. I believe that Heaven goes on forever. It is an illusion that we are ever anywhere else. The law of Heaven always apply. It is the law of love. Love is free and abundant. God is Love and everything God has ever created is Love. Anything we experience to the contrary is an illusion, a deceit, an unreality.

The TV shows, the books, the movies and the conventions associated with STAR TREK often but not always point to many of these Heavenly characteristics. The global village based on love is an important vision of STAR TREK.

+ All of the Messages for the Trek I wrote between 2002 and 2007 can be seen at www.abundancetrek.com/mftt.

MESSAGE FOR THE TREK -- 1

+ This is my first Message for the Trek which I offered on September 1, 2002:

Franz Kafka brilliantly offers this simple technique for getting in touch with our ultimate reality:

You do not need to do anything; you do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. You do not even need to listen; just wait. You do not even need to wait; just become still, quiet and solitary and the world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked. It has no choice. It will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

+ All of the Messages for the Trek I wrote between 2002 and 2007 can be seen at www.abundancetrek.com/mftt.

SUPPORTING THE PALESTINIANS -- 9

+ Boycott Israeli Goods is a UK organization devoted to educating the world about the illegal and immoral occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.  "Why Boycott Israel?" is found on the homepage.  Here's why:

The Palestinian people are experiencing their 42nd year of military occupation. The siege by the Israeli army and the economic blockade have devastated their daily lives so that 'normal' life is impossible.

Israel operates an entrenched system of racial Apartheid against its own non-Jewish inhabitants and has been illegally occupying Palestinian land in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights since 1967. It has sought to further annex these lands and has systematically transferred its own civilian population into these occupied territories in contravention of international law. Israel continues to build the illegal Apartheid wall, annexing vast swathes of Palestinian land in the West Bank and creating Palestinian ghettos, despite the ruling of the International Court of Justice that it is illegal.

REFORMED AND ALWAYS BEING REFORMED -- 1

+ My friend Ralph Clingan offers this great contribution to our understanding of "Reformed and Always Being Reformed," the Presbyterian motto:

Dearly beloved! A few years ago I did an inventory of my library. My career as an activist pastor, professor and theologian started in 1961, so I have amassed a large collection of books. The largest single segment of my library consists of books about music, prayer and spirituality. I have a book, The Background of Passion Music (London: SCM Press Ltd, 1957) by Basil Smallman late Musicologist of Nottingham University. I may have cited this wee tome before, but in the wake of the demise of beloved feminist, out and proud Lesbian theologian Mary Daly, Smallman's words reminded me of the importance of such passionate workers among us. Jacob Spener (1635-1705), a Reformed pastor and theologian educated at Strasbourg, spent a year in Geneva. Spener found that "the Calvinist branch of the Reformed Church showed ramarkable humanism in the emphasis laid on practical Christianity, on the expression of faith by good works rather than by the strict observance of doctrinal minutiae." His Pia desidera (1675) contained six proposals to guide his students and colleagues:

i The Bible should be studied in private, small group meetings;

ii The laity should regain their position as a common priesthood and their rights to share in the spiritual governance of the church,

iii A new emphasis be placed on practical Christianity,

iv Unbelievers should be approached with greater sympathy and understanding,

v Increased value should be attached to the cultivation of spiritual life in theological education, and

vi A more direct and emotional type of preaching should be encouraged.

As we enter the last year of the first decade of 2000, I found Smallman's citations from Spener a good reminder of how enduring a legacy is ours. Aluta continua ...

Thanks Ralph.  Defintely something worthy of consideration as Christians struggle to work out our identity in a new millenium. 

+ Click here to see all of my "Reformed And Always Being Reformed" (Semper Reformanda) posts.

TODAY IS THE FEAST DAY OF BROTHER LAWRENCE

Spirituality and Practice offers a "Feast Day of Brother Lawrence" resource including two great Brother Lawrence quotes:

• "The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer; and in the noise and clutter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the Blessed Sacrament."
• "Get a habit of entertaining yourself with God."

SPIRITUALLY LITERATE RESOLUTIONS FOR 2010

+ updated at 1:34pm EST, January 6, Epiphany

+ I am very impressed with the Spiritually Literate New Year's Resolutions Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat offer us.  They are the very wise and knowledgeable couple behind the amazing resources of Spirituality and Practice.  Themes covered in their ten resolutions include: Living in the here-and-now; Making Connections; Paying Attention; Gratitude; Hospitality; Working for Peace and Justice; Reverence; and, Life-long Learning.  The link is to a PDF formatted document.  You can print it and hang it up somewhere.

+ Spirituality and Practice is always offering fantastic E-courses for very reasonable fees. I have signed up for "Catalysts for Change" which begins tomorrow, January 7 and continues to January 27.  Maybe the following promotional material will motivate you to sign up:

You've probably started many a year with a set of New Year's Resolutions — large and lofty goals covering all aspects of your life — and then watched them fall to the wayside one by one. Perhaps you've written your spiritual aspirations for the future or set an intention at the beginning of a new project . . . and you've missed the mark on these, too, as old habits, addictions, fixed ideas, and other resistances have blocked the road ahead. So how do you change you life?

Change is a fundamental premise and promise of the spiritual life. As Sam Keen put it: "The great metaphors from all spiritual traditions — grace, liberation, being born again, awakening from illusions — testify that it is possible to transcend the conditioning of the past and do a new thing."

Sometimes this transformation is dramatic, but more often it comes through small steps. We shift our perspective, for example, and those irksome resistances become pointers to where we need to work. Our challenges become our coaches in perseverance. We seek advice and learn from the experiences of great spiritual teachers about other approaches. What are the best catalysts for change? Daily, simple, and consistent spiritual practices.

Recovery programs say that it takes three weeks to break a habit or start a new practice. Start 2010 by joining us for a 21-day journey on the path of change. Each day you will receive an email with a short reading from a spiritual teacher and a spiritual practice to do to help you firm up your resolve and make small steps for change. Then login to our online Practice Circle to share your progress, get support during times of difficulty, and enjoy the insights of a community of spiritual companions from around the world.   

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Happy New Year. May this be a year when more and more people realize we must act boldly to prevent a climate catastrophe.

TIS THE SEASON TO BE JOYFUL

Spirituality and Practice offers a variety of resources on the spiritual practice of Joy.  Here is an excerpt from Clowning in Rome: Reflections on Solitude, Celibacy, Prayer, and Contemplation by Henri J. M. Nouwen:

Our difficult and very urgent task is to accept the truth that nature is not primarily a property to be possessed, but a gift to be received with admiration and gratitude. Only when we make a deep bow to the rivers, oceans, hills, and mountains that offer us a home, only then can they become transparent and reveal to us their real meaning.

A friend once gave me a beautiful photograph of a water lily. I asked him how he had been able to take such a splendid picture. With a smile he said, "Well, I had to be very patient and very attentive. It was only after a few hours of compliments that the lily was willing to let me take her picture." < http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/books/excerpts.php?id=13524

SPREADING THE JOY OF CHRISTMAS AT A SCOTTISH PUB

Ecumenical News International offers "You might meet Jesus in a pub, says Scottish minister" by Trevor Grundy. Excerpt: "(Rev. Bryan Kerr) told The Scotsman newspaper on 22 December that the church had looked at new ways of getting the Christian message out beyond the confines of the church. In addition to the carol service, the pub's management will be serving a special beer brewed for those bursting with goodwill and festive song - Greyfriars Kirk Christmas Ale."

COPENHAGEN CONFERENCE ON GLOBAL WARMING -- 4

Democracy Now! offers "Leading Climate Scientist James Hansen on Why He’s Pleased the Copenhagen Summit Failed, 'Cap and Fade,' Climategate and More."  You can see the video, hear the audio or read the transcript.  It begins:

AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Hansen, start off with why you weren’t at Copenhagen. I mean, this is your thing. It was the global warming summit of summits.

JAMES HANSEN: Well, they were talking about having a cap-and-trade-with-offsets agreement, which is analogous to the Kyoto Protocol, which was disastrous. Before the Kyoto Protocol, global emissions of carbon dioxide were going up one-and-a-half percent per year. After the accord, they went up three percent per year. That approach simply won’t work.