+ The meme here comes from the Spirituality
& Practice 12s Gallery on BEING PRESENT.
+ What a great gift the human body is. Cherish it. Enjoy it. Celebrate it. It's Good News.
What else can you claim as Good News as you live in your
life in your body today?
BEING PRESENT
+ 5 of my favorite BEING PRESENT quotes >
+ I like to think of JOY as a constant in our lives
breath after precious breath no matter what is going on in and beyond our
personal lives. In a
blog post on Being Present, Patricia Ann Farmer reminds us that Being
Present can even be terrifying and we certainly can't be happy when that
happens. But deep within us the JOY remains and that can keep us going no
matter what.
+ OK, sisters and brothers, the time has come for us to have a topic to focus on and that topic is FAITH.
You may remember that I once called my idea for an emerging community of faith THE NEW CHURCH FOR THE NEW AGE. That was my guiding idea as I worked on Abundancetrek.com and on forums and blogs during the first decade of this new millennium. I forget exactly when I decided to move away from NEW CHURCH to NEW FAITH and from NEW AGE to NEW EARTH. The reason for the change is that I became committed to promoting and sharing InterSpiritual wisdom and practice which meant that the very friendly but too narrow confines of CHURCH no longer was what I wanted to focus on. You can still see what I said about THE NEW CHURCH FOR THE NEW AGE on the Abundancetrek.com home page. You don’t have to scroll down very far. I wrote:
THE NEW CHURCH
FOR THE NEW AGE is:
non-hierarchical, free, open, loving, caring, compassionate, healing,
energizing, inclusive,
humble, non-judgmental, fun, creative, yours, mine.
Christ never
meant for the church to be a closed, hierarchical, authoritarian, nationalistic
and denomination-alistic institution.
I still believe that but I now apply it to other Communities of Faith so it now reads:
THE NEW FAITH FOR THE NEW EARTH is:
non-hierarchical, free, open, loving, caring, compassionate, healing, energizing, inclusive, humble, non-judgmental, fun, creative, yours, mine.
Christ never
meant for the church to be a closed, hierarchical, authoritarian, nationalistic
and denomination-alistic institution. Same for the Faith Communities following
The Buddha, Muhammad, Moses, Lao-Tse, and other Great Spiritual Teachers.
The book I associate most with this change in my thinking is The Future of Faith by Harvey Cox. But other books have also been significant including Credo by William Sloane Coffin, The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a Life of Faith by Marcus Borg, Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience by Sharon Salzberg and Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics by Diarmuid O’Murchu.
Let me try to whet your appetite for this discussion. How about reading excerpts from those five books. You can easily find the S&P review by clicking on the title of the book. There you will find an excerpt link.
I would love to know how you define Faith and what teachers or teachings have influenced you the most.
Here are some quotes from my collection of quotes on Faith:
Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase. -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
. . . faith is not belief; faith is courageous trust in life. — Brother David Steindl-Rast
Questioning means longing to know the truth deeply, and insisting that we can. — Sharon Salzberg
Faith is, above all, openness: an act of trust in the unknown. -- Alan Watts
Faith his not being sure where you're going but going anyway. -- Frederick Buechner
Hope is hearing the melody of the future; faith is dancing to it today. -- Rubem Alves
Faith is the courageous confidence that trusts in the Source of all gifts. -- David Steindl-Rast
Water of Your Love by Snatam Kaur | Lyrics
These two artists are renowned for their spiritual inspiration. I have found plenty of peace and inspiration sitting by streams. Here at home I like to listen to mantras and chants and songs focusing on our deep connection to nature. Our Amazing Journey is made so much more amazing as we connect to nature in any way we can.
Here are links to more information about these two artists:
S&P review Of Snatam Kaur CD Sacred Chants for Healing
MY GRANDMOTHER'S HANDS is the emphasis here for a while. Our Amazing Journey will get far more amazing if and when we finally deal with the horror of white body supremacy.
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. -- Brother Wayne Teasdale in The Mystic Heart
This quote does not come from MY GRANDMOTHER’S HANDS but I share it here because I think Brother Wayne got right to the heart of the depth of the crisis we are facing due to centuries of oppression, trauma, fear, prejudice, ignorance, denial and confusion. I like the comprehensive approach of MY GRANDMOTHER’S HANDS. We need a new way to deal with this crisis, a way which is spiritual and rational and thorough. I urge us to take this book very seriously as a way forward filled with hope but not denying of the past and present and possible future. It’s real.
You are invited to join the Interfaith Coalition of Greater Utica Facebook Group studying this book. Here's the link > https://www.facebook.com/groups/533211157757483
+ This is a post I intend to offer in several places on the web with the hope of encouraging people to participate in a group doing a study of MY GRANDMOTHER’S HANDS by Resmaa Menakem.
+ MY GRANDMOTHER’S HANDS by Resmaa Menakem is a very important book. So, the Interfaith Coalition of Greater Utica is making a study of this book an emphasis for 2022. There will be Zoom meetings on the third Monday of each month. There will be discussion on a Facebook group which has already begun but, don't worry, you haven't missed much yet.
It is our hope that this study will go a long way in helping us to overcome the deep wounds which have been inflicted on our bodies and our society due to centuries of White Skin Supremacy. The etymology of the word STUDY reveals that it comes from the Latin word studium meaning dedication, zeal and painstaking effort. So, let's study this book with this understanding and this commitment to making a painstaking effort toward healing these deep wounds which have inflicted our bodies and our society for far too long.
There are practices offered in the book which are powerful, joyful and sometimes painful. Many readers have said that there is emotional and even physical trauma associated with some of these practices which require time and effort and mental breaks for the transformation to take place. But not avoiding the trauma is the main point of this book. The book offers many practices aimed at white people, black people and police people with an awareness that the trauma is different for these three groups.
Here are some quotes from the book which can begin to focus our discussion:
·
Years as a healer and trauma therapist have
taught me that trauma isn’t destiny. The body, not the thinking brain, is where
we experience most of our pain, pleasure, and joy, and where we process most of
what happens to us. It is also where we do most of our healing, including our
emotional and psychological healing. And it is where we experience resilience
and a sense of flow.
·
The answer to why so many of us have
difficulties is because our ancestors spent centuries here under unrelentingly
brutal conditions. Generation after generation, our bodies stored trauma and
intense survival energy, and passed these on to our children and grandchildren.
Most of us also passed down resilience and love, of course. But, as we saw with
my grandmother—and as we see with so many other human beings—resilience and
love aren’t sufficient to completely heal all trauma. Often, at least some of
the trauma continues.
·
A key factor in the perpetuation of
white-body supremacy is many people’s refusal to experience clean pain around
the myth of race. Instead, usually out of fear, they choose the dirty pain of
silence and avoidance and, invariably, prolong the pain.
Perhaps this excellent review in Goodreads can also help
> Lawrence's
Review of My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Mending of Our
Bodies and Hearts. You can read more about this reviewer at his website >
lawrencebarrinerii.com
All of the rituals that Buddhists do, the chants and repeated actions, the sitting quietly, the slow movement, are techniques to help us develop the capacity to be fully present in each moment of our lives. They can lead, ideally, to a reverence for all the tasks and difficulties, the suffering, the opportunities for joy of daily life. — Sandy Boucher in Opening the Lotus by Sandy Boucher
As Jacob Boehme puts it, “I am a string in the concert of God’s joy.” . . . We need to experience our own personal aliveness as part of that greater cosmic aliveness. When I become “a string in the instrument of God’s joy,’” I am “sounded through” by the music, and in that sounding, a harmonic resonance with all the other instruments, is revealed both my irreplaceable uniqueness and my inescapable belonging.” — Cynthia Bourgeault, The Wisdom Way of Knowing
This quote was offered by One Spirit on 11/12/21.
I think that affirming our “irreplaceable uniqueness” and “inescapable belonging” has to do with claiming our birthright.
Here is how Ken Keyes, Jr. put it in The Handbook to Higher Consciousness:
I am perceiving everyone, including myself, as an awakening being who is here to claim his or her birthright to the higher consciousness planes of unconditional love and oneness. (Twelfth of the 12 Pathways to Higher Consciousness)
I often recite all 12 of these pathways. Pathways 7 to 9 are particularly devoted to our relationships:
7. I open myself genuinely to all people by being willing to communicate my deepest feelings, since hiding in any degree keeps me stuck in my illusion of separateness from others.
8. I feel with loving compassion the problems of others without getting caught up emotionally in their predicaments that are offering them messages they need for their growth.
9. I act freely when I am tuned in, centered and loving and if possible I avoid acting when I am emotionally upset and depriving myself of the wisdom that flows from love and expanded consciousness.
So, strive to reach that level of consciousness where you don’t have to hide but can gently, sensitively and honestly be yourself as you engage in your relationships. Share your “irreplaceable uniqueness” in wise and compassionate ways.
+ Please join THE NEW FAITH FOR THE NEW EARTH facebook group where you can offer and read comments > https://www.facebook.com/groups/567789840446209
-- Maya Angelou
+ Please join THE NEW FAITH FOR THE NEW EARTH facebook group where you can offer and read comments > https://www.facebook.com/groups/567789840446209
To perceive the soul of the Earth requires a sense of what the Taoists call the way of life, the fact that everything in our world is in relationship to everything else, that nothing is itself without everything else, and that anything that seems to be a distinct thing is actually an element or strand in a larger pattern.
— Geneen Marie Haugin
This was the One Spirit Daily Inspiration on 11/8/21
No one who achieves success does so without the help of others. The wise and confident acknowledge this help with gratitude.
— Alfred North Whitehead
This was the One Spirit Daily Inspiration on 11/3/21
+ It is so easy for us to feel separate from everybody else and everything else. It takes that surrender to the Tao or to a mystical awe which can overcome that separation. It doesn’t come easy. It can take years of practice but it is worth it. I am sure you know that.
++++++++++++
+ I get the One Spirit Daily Inspiration via E-Mail. You can also find them on their Facebook page > https://www.facebook.com/1SpiritOrg
+ Please join THE NEW FAITH FOR THE NEW EARTH facebook group where you can offer and read comments > https://www.facebook.com/groups/567789840446209
++++++++++++
+ Please join THE NEW FAITH FOR THE NEW EARTH facebook group where you can offer and read comments > https://www.facebook.com/groups/567789840446209
+ We continue with a focus on the importance of working on our relationships.
What is missing in mainstream consciousness is an awareness of ourselves as members of the human family, the Universe, and the Earth community. We tend to ignore that our cells and bodies are part of the creative history of evolution. That our atoms are part of the history of the Cosmos. Peace and gratitude arise naturally in our hearts when we take more time to reflect upon how we are each a part of a much greater whole. -- Albert Einstein
This is the One Spirit Daily Inspiration for November 5, 2021
Albert Einstein gets to the heart of our need for meaningful relationships. We are all in this together as one evolving creation. We need each other. We depend on each other. We must strive to appreciate and understand every person and every creature.
++++++++++++
+ Please join THE NEW FAITH FOR THE NEW EARTH facebook group where you can offer and read comments > https://www.facebook.com/groups/567789840446209
+ "All human beings are alone. No other person will completely feel like we do, think like we do, act like we do. Each of us is unique, and our aloneness is the other side of our uniqueness. The question is whether we let our aloneness become loneliness or whether we allow it to lead us into solitude. Loneliness is painful; solitude is peaceful. Loneliness makes us cling to others in desperation; solitude allows us to respect others in their uniqueness and create community.
"Letting our aloneness grow into solitude and not into loneliness is a lifelong struggle. It requires conscious choices about whom to be with, what to study, how to pray, and when to ask for counsel. But wise choices will help us to find the solitude where our hearts can grow in love." – Henri Nouwen in The Dance of Life
+ Our relationships are important. There are relationships which need our attention so that we can be truly humble and compassionate companions on the amazing journey of others. We do this best by using our times of solitude for that illuminating, mysterious, miraculous connection which creates more wisdom and compassion for our own amazing journeys and the amazing journeys of others.
++++++++++++
+ Please join THE NEW FAITH FOR THE NEW EARTH facebook group where you can offer and read comments > https://www.facebook.com/groups/567789840446209
I
hold this to be the highest task for a bond between two people:
that
each protects the solitude of the other.
-- Rainer Maria
Rilke
+
It is
in solitude that I find the deep gentleness with which I can truly love others.
— Thomas Merton
+
Language has created the word “loneliness”
to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word “solitude” to
express the glory of being alone. There is no place to which we could flee from
God, which is outside of God. –
Paul Tillich
+
Fortunately I have been blessed by a number of significant
relationships where my solitude has been protected. I cherish my solitude and I know that my
amazing journey benefits immensely when I move into a time and space of
solitude. But I also know that loneliness can come all too quickly and the joys
of solitude can quickly diminish. I need
you.
Whenever I do the Spiritual Styles Preference Tool which is offered by Spiritual Paths Relationships does not come out on or near the top. I prefer Wisdom, Contemplation, Imagination, Arts, Prayer and Mysticism. For some, Relationships come naturally and easily, If you are in that category and are also reading this, I suspect you know how important Solitude is and can appreciate what Rilke said here.
The twelve styles are:
· The Arts
· The Body
·
Contemplation & Meditation
· Devotion
·
Imagination
· Love
· Mystic
· Nature
· Prayer
· Reason
·
Relationships
· Wisdom
For illuminating descriptions of each style. please read Mandala: Creating An Authentic Spiritual Path: An InterSpiritual Process by Edward Bastian. Ed offers short videos on each style on the ISM app (InterSpiriuall Meditation App) which you can add to your devices. Search for ISM. I know that you don’t have to scroll down too far at Play Store before you get to it. But if you search for “Interspiritual” it comes up on top.
Ed has created the amazing Spiritual Paths website which offers two courses, InterSpiritual Meditation and InterSpiritual Mandala. I would love to be your InterSpiritual Mentor and guide you through one or both of these courses. It is easy to register and it is only $8 per month to be a member and have access to these 2 wonderful courses.
+
+ Please join THE NEW FAITH FOR THE NEW EARTH facebook group where you can offer and read comments > https://www.facebook.com/groups/567789840446209
In times of deep darkness, we not only need light — we need to be light for one another.
-- Parker J. Palmer
+
Sometimes our light goes out, but is blown again into instant flame by an encounter with another human being. Each of us owes the deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this inner light.
-- Dr. Albert Schweitzer
+ I invite you to reflect on one or more of those sacred encounters which rekindled your inner light. And maybe you can think of one or more in which you did it for someone else. Our gratitude for our relationships is a foundation for the creation of more compassion, peace, justice and sustainable abundance for all. As we work on our relationships we shine brighter and brighter as individuals and as communities making a difference.
+ The Style of Relationships is one of the 12 spiritual styles of Mandala: Creating An Authentic Spiritual Path: An InterSpiritual Process by Edward Bastian which are are listed in SE206. We are all different and need to find our own paths.
+ Please join THE NEW FAITH FOR THE NEW EARTH facebook group where you can offer and read comments > https://www.facebook.com/groups/567789840446209
+
Silence is God's
first language;
everything else is
a poor translation.
In order to hear
that language,
we must learn to be
still and rest in God.
-- Thomas Keating in Invitation
to Love
There was a pause.
"Do you want
to talk about it?" asked Piglet.
"No,"
said Pooh after a bit. "No, I don't think I do."
"That's
okay," said Piglet, and he came and sat beside his friend.
"What are you
doing?" asked Pooh.
"Nothing,
really," said Piglet. "Only, I know what Difficult Days are like. I
quite often don't feel like talking about it on my Difficult Days either.
"But
goodness," continued Piglet, "Difficult Days are so much easier when
you know you've got someone there for you. And I'll always be here for you,
Pooh."
And as Pooh sat
there, working through in his head his Difficult Day, while the solid, reliable
Piglet sat next to him quietly, swinging his little legs...he thought that his
best friend had never been more right."
-- A.A. Milne
+ Don’t you just love Pooh and Piglet? What a wonderful story about the most basic requirement of a caring relationship: simply being there with a silence which is more powerful than any words. Silence in any relationship can be a real gift to each person involved.
++++++++++++
+ The Style of Relationships is one of the 12 spiritual
styles of Mandala:
Creating An Authentic Spiritual Path: An InterSpiritual Process by Edward Bastian which are are
listed in SE206.
We are all different and need to find our own paths.
+ Please join THE NEW FAITH FOR THE NEW EARTH facebook
group where you can offer and read comments > https://www.facebook.com/groups/567789840446209
+ This is the third post on the current focus: Relationships.
Everyone you meet knows
something you don’t know
but need to know.
Learn from them.
-- Carl Jung
Our Amazing Journey becomes more and more amazing and fulfilled as we discover and appreciate the wonderful blessing each and every person offers us.
Perhaps you can ponder an encounter you have had recently
where you learned something you needed to know as you continue on your amazing
journey of life. I am sure that over the years you have had many such
encounters which you may want to remember and give thanks.
++++++++++++
+ Please join THE NEW FAITH FOR THE NEW EARTH facebook group where you can offer and read comments.
+ The Style of Relationships is one of the 12 spiritual styles of Mandala: Creating An Authentic Spiritual Path: An InterSpiritual Process by Edward Bastian which are are listed in SE206. We are all different and need to find our own paths.
+ One important way to learn how to relate to others with compassion and appreciation is to seek wisdom from other cultures and traditions. For example, Ubuuntu is a wonderful way to build and sustain compassionate community:
In our country, we speak of something called ubuuntu. When I want to praise you, the highest praise I can give you is to say, you have ubuuntu — this person has what it takes to be a human being. This is a person who recognizes that he exists only because others exist: a person is a person through other persons. When we say you have ubuuntu, we mean that you are gentle, you are compassionate, you are hospitable, you want to share, and you care about the welfare of others. This is because my humanity is caught up in your humanity. So when I dehumanize others, whether I like it or not, inexorably, I dehumanize myself. For we can only by human, we can only be free, together. To forgive is actually the best form of self-interest. — Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu is a retired Anglican ArchBishop who played an important part in ending apartheid in South Africa. He made Ubuuntu come alive when he led the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which was a process of healing after the apartheid finally ended and the long oppressed black majority took power. We would all gain so much by learning and applying this process. Healing from centuries of oppression is needed by much of humanity in many places. The healing is needed by those who have
oppressed as well as those who have been oppressed. The world needs ubuuntu.
+ The Style of Relationships is one of the 12 spiritual styles of Mandala: Creating An Authentic Spiritual Path: An InterSpiritual Process by Edward Bastian which are are listed in SE206. We are all different and need to find our own paths.
