spiritual progress

This Isn't Helping Either

2003-12-15T17:06:00.000-05:00

'White Trash' Remark Decried by Group's Leader
By Yolanda Woodlee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 14, 2003; Page C01

In a meeting that erupted into a shouting match, members of the Ward 8 Democrats voted yesterday to table a motion to remove the group's first vice president from office for calling a new member "poor white trash."

Eugene Dewitt Kinlow, president of the political organization, read aloud a statement disassociating the group from the slur used by Mary Cuthbert at a meeting last month.

"These comments are embarrassing," Kinlow said. "Our party welcomes everyone. We are aware there are increasing tensions between newcomers . . . and blacks and whites in our ward, as in other wards across the city."

But instead of defusing the controversy over Cuthbert's comments, yesterday's meeting produced more tension.

As Kinlow read his statement, several in the crowd of about 80 people yelled that he was out of order. Cuthbert and Sandra Seegars, the group's second vice president, said Kinlow was wrong because the executive committee had directed him to make the statement at its next general meeting, on Friday. Yesterday's gathering was not a general meeting, but a special session to take a straw poll on the candidates running in the District's Jan. 13 nonbinding Democratic presidential primary.

As soon as Kinlow finished, the group's recording secretary, Cynthia Kain, made a motion to start the process of removing Cuthbert. The group's bylaws call for officers to be notified by certified mail two weeks before they are to be removed for cause.

But opponents of the motion said no action should be taken until Friday's meeting, and the measure was tabled.

"I move that Kinlow be recalled," Seegars then shouted. "I'm getting out of here. This is a joke."

Others said that all the organization's officers were at fault for not condemning Cuthbert's comments sooner and for letting the controversy fester.

"How about all of you be recalled?" Rahim Jenkins asked.

"All y'all need to get to stepping," Joyce Scott chimed in. "Anyone who supports that kind of hatred needs to go."

Cuthbert made her comments during a Nov. 22 meeting at which Kinlow nominated Kirsten Burgard, who is white, to the group's legislative and issues committee and she was elected to head the panel.

Cuthbert called Burgard "poor white trash" and "poor white trailer trash."

In an interview after yesterday's meeting, Cuthbert said she regrets her statements and has decided to apologize to Burgard, who is the first white person to serve on the group's executive committee.

"It's wrong," Cuthbert said outside the meeting at the Washington Highlands Branch Library in Southwest Washington. "I know it's wrong. When the time comes, I will do my apology."

She reiterated to other members, however, that she will not resign over the incident.

Just feet away from Cuthbert, Burgard handed out Howard Dean presidential campaign stickers. Cuthbert did not address Burgard, who was not at the meeting during the contentious debate.

Kinlow last week called on Cuthbert to step down and said he feared that the episode would cause members to stop being as active in the group.

But Calvin Lockridge, a founder of the group, said after yesterday's meeting that although he was not pleased with Cuthbert's comments, he wanted to ensure that she be treated fairly.

"Do I get along with Mary Cuthbert?" Lockridge said. "No, I don't. But I'm not going to allow her to be railroaded by this organization."

Lockridge said that he understood Cuthbert's frustration about Burgard's nomination and that the group should empower black people economically and politically.

"Why would you appoint a white person to be head of your legislative and issues committee?" Lockridge said. "White people don't understand our issues."

Lafayette Barnes, who ran against Kinlow's Unity Slate in the group's September election, said anyone who supports bigotry does not represent the Democratic Party.

"This is not a personal attack," he said. "This is about principle. The Democratic Party has always been about civil rights and human rights."

After the meeting, Barnes told Cuthbert that he loved her but that she must step down.

"I don't have to step down," Cuthbert answered.

How is this helping anything or anyone?

2003-12-11T13:52:00.000-05:00

In 1854, H. Lehman & Brother, a Montgomery, Alabama-based company bought a slave. It is unknown whether the slave worked for the company or not.

One-hundred and forty-nine years later (that’s seven score and nine years), Lehman Brothers announced this fact (because it was supposed to under a Chicago city ordinance).

Then there’s an alderman in Chicago named Dorothy Tillman who attacked Carole Brown, an African-American senior vice president at Lehman, for saying that ''the Lehman Brothers in the 1850s is not the company that it is today.'' By saying, ''She should have kept her mouth shut and said, ' I'm not going to speak against my people,' "
''Who is she to say that things have changed?'' Tillman ranted. ''Things have not changed. The economy for blacks in this country is just as bad as it was under Jim Crow.''
Tillman is demanding that Brown either apologize to the black community for her grave insult or resign from her position as chairwoman of the CTA board. ''If she's that insensitive as an African-American woman not to understand the effects and residues of slavery, she certainly can't represent us on the CTA board.'' In other words, Brown is a lackey for whitey. Brown has wisely stayed mum. The Harvard-educated executive is by all accounts a sharp and savvy professional.

So, a company that follows the rules and reaches back a century-and-a-half in its historical archives to find the tiniest speck of dust in its closet and has the 21st century savvy to have an African-American Senior Vice President is going to get held up by “the reparations movement.”

Tillman is not alone. During the debate over the reparations law, 34th Ward Ald. Carrie Austin voiced her support by declaring, ''I want 40 acres and a Lexus. You can keep the mule.''

Be our glory, let us be loved for your sake

2003-12-10T08:57:00.000-05:00

The only Son of God was to come to earth, to become a man, and in this nature to be born as man. He was to die, to rise again, to ascend to heaven, to sit at the right hand of the Father, and to fulfill his promises among the nations.

After that he was to come again to execute his threats against the wicked and to reward the just as he had promised.

-- St. Augustine's Commentary on Psalm 110, 3

Prayer: Lord, we are your little flock; we belong to you. Spread your wings that we may take refuge under them. Be our glory, let us be loved for your sake, and let your word be feared in our midst.

-- Confessions 10, 36

We shall soon be having Christmas at our throats

2003-12-06T12:12:00.000-05:00

ORANGE CITY, Fla. -- A mob of shoppers rushing for a sale on DVD players trampled the first woman in line and knocked her unconscious as they scrambled for the shelves at a Wal-Mart Supercenter.
-- Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- In sorting out the sociological significance of the fact that rival shoppers, according to the trampled woman's sister, "walked over her like a herd of elephants," note that elephants do not behave that way to others of their species, even when they are stampeded by a 6 a.m. siren announcing, on the famously anarchic day after Thanksgiving, open season on a finite supply of $29 DVD players. But, then, elephants do not have Christmas celebrations.

Conservatives, in their simplistic way, will blame the Florida trampling on facets of human nature to which the Christmas story pertains -- mankind's fallen condition, meaning original sin. Liberals, being less judgmental and more alert to the social causes of things, will blame Wal-Mart. They already blame it for many flaws in creation, from low wages in Asia to America's "loss of community," by which liberals mean the migration of shoppers from large-hearted Main Street merchants to the superior variety and lower prices at the Wal-Mart on the edge of town.

But at the risk of sounding like Ebenezer Scrooge, who was not the character in English literature who said, "We shall soon be having Christmas at our throats," consider a possibility. Perhaps, as liberals like to say, the "root cause" of modern Christmas discontents is the ruinous success of Puritanism -- ruinous, that is, to Puritanism.
That Christmas-at-our-throats fellow is a character in a novel by P.G. Wodehouse, who was as sweet-tempered as Scrooge was not. If the Christmas season, as it has become, could cause the preternaturally amiable Wodehouse to pen such a dark thought, how did it come to this?

That God works in mysterious ways is not news, but it is particularly puzzling that the birth of Jesus occurred when Romans, who then set the tone of the times, were celebrating Saturnalia -- think of a Wal-Mart at 6 a.m., plus wine, women wearing less than those little Wal-Mart vests and songs that are not carols. Songs that would not have been amusing to Oliver Cromwell, whose piety caused him to ban the celebration of Christmas.

He did the right thing for the wrong reason. A Puritan scold and a killjoy, he thought Christmas had become too much fun, which is not our problem today, unless getting trampled at a mall is your idea of merriment.

Today's problem, in addition to the toll taken on the body by seasonal wassailing and gorging, is shopping that includes stocking up on "retaliation presents." They are used to counter unexpected gift-giving by persons not on your list, which by now includes family, friends, the stockbroker who got you out of Enron in time and the person who cleans your gutters.

The first Americans included a number of Cromwell's fellow travelers, who, like him, saw the long arm of the papacy behind Christmas festiveness. It was, they thought, a short slide down a slippery slope from liturgical "smells and bells" to jingle bells and mulled cider. But in a delicious dialectic, the modern hedonistic Christmas emerged from the cultural contradictions of Puritanism.

Puritanism inculcated Scrooge-like asceticism, deferral of gratification, green-eyeshade parsimony and nose-to-the-grindstone industriousness. But those led to accumulation, investment of surplus capital and, in time, prodigies of production and a subversive -- to Puritanism -- cornucopia of material delights.

Soon there were department stores, those cathedrals of consumption. Against their plate glass windows -- prerequisites of "window shopping"; precursors of the holiday shopping catalog -- were pressed the noses of the Puritans' descendants.

Those noses no longer detected a sulfurous stench of damnation wafting from the stores' perfume counters. Those counters, you may have noticed, are strategically placed on the stores' first floors, to start the shoppers' pleasure synapses firing.

The Wal-Mart stampede style of Christmas was a long time coming. It was, for example, not until 1885 that federal workers were even given Christmas Day off. Which, come to think about it, is odd. Here in modern Washington, Christmas Day is one of the minority of days that are not like Christmas elsewhere -- not devoted to the lavish disbursal of gifts.

At least a portion of the government's largess can be considered a gift because part of the cost is debt that will be paid by others. By future generations. They are not consulted, but surely they will pay cheerfully, in the Christmas spirit.

-- George F. Will

good both going and coming back

2003-12-05T10:54:00.000-05:00

...So was I once myself a swinger of birches;
And so I dream of going back to be.
It's when I'm weary of considerations,
And life is too much like a pathless wood
Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs
Broken across it, and one eye is weeping
From a twig's having lashed across it open.
I'd like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over.
May no fate wilfully misunderstand me
And half grant what I wish and snatch me away
Not to return. Earth's the right place for love:
I don't know where it's likely to go better.
I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.
That would be good both going and coming back.
One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

-- Robert Frost

more gratitude

2003-12-05T10:01:00.000-05:00

1. snow - while it's falling
2. Luther Vandross' God-given voice
3. how long fresh cut flowers can last
4. elevators
5. Bill W. and Dr. Bob
6. All Kinds Of Time - fountains of wayne
7. how, the more we learn, the universe seems less like a divine mechanism and more like a divine thought
8. the (almost) universal availability of the Gospel
9. reminders from the Holy Spirit not to give up
10. 5 senses -- failing, faltering, unpredictable, unreliable, imperfect senses

page 417 (formerly page 449)

2003-12-04T11:15:00.000-05:00

When I stopped living in the problem and began living in the answer, the problem went away. From that moment on, I have not had a single compulsion to drink.

And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing, or situation -- some fact of my life -- unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing, or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment. Nothing, absolutely nothing, happens in God's world by mistake... unless I accept life completely on life's terms, I cannot be happy. I need to concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world as on what needs to be changed in me and in my attitudes.

-- "The Big Book" of Alcoholics Anonymous

The whole thing can be found here.

Whoever comes to me becomes humble

2003-12-03T16:54:00.000-05:00

I came in humility, I came to teach humility, I came as a model of humility. Whoever comes to me is incorporated in me. Whoever comes to me becomes humble; whoever adheres to my will will be humble, for such a person does not perform his or her own will, but the will of God. And therefore he or she will not be cast out.

-- John 25: 16

Prayer. Lord, you exist without care for your own security, but are full of concern for us.

-- Augustine Confessions 9, 3

Do people talk against you?

2003-12-03T09:43:00.000-05:00

People who change their way of life and begin to think about making spiritual progress also begin to suffer from the tongues of detractors.

Whoever has not yet suffered this trial has not yet made progress, and whoever is not ready to suffer it does not even endeavor to progress.

-- St. Thomas of Villanova Province, Commentary on Psalm 119

It's not about you.

2003-12-02T11:48:00.000-05:00

The purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness. It's far greater than your family, your career, or even your wildest dreams and ambitions. If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God. You were born by his purpose and for his purpose.

The search for the purpose of life has puzzled people for thousands of years. That's because we typically begin at the wrong starting point--ourselves. We ask self-centered questions like What do I want to be? What should I do with my life? What are my goals, my ambitions, my dreams for my future? But focusing on ourselves will never reveal our life's purpose. The Bible says, "It is God who directs the lives of his creatures; everyone’s life is in his power." -- Rick Warren

Paul's advice to the Galatians: concern yourself with what matters

2003-12-01T17:17:00.000-05:00

As for me, God forbid that I should boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world died long ago, and the world's interest in me is also long dead... What counts is whether we really have been changed into new and different people. May God's mercy and peace be upon all those who live by this principle. They are the new people of God. From now on, don't let anyone trouble me with these things (that don't matter).

Gratitude List

2003-12-01T12:08:00.000-05:00

No particular order

1. Eric Clapton's live recording of Robert Johnson's Walkin' Blues on Unplugged.
2. Johnny Mercer wrote Baby It's Cold Outside - a sweet, sexy holiday classic.
3. American Dreams
4. I have five senses, but the one I have most in mind is hearing for all the wonderful music in the world
5. I have a job that pays me well.
6. My children are healthy, reasonably happy and doing well in school.
7. I have a wonderful wife who is also reasonably happy.
8. I have a borrowed electric bass I get to play whenever I want.
9. I get to go back to Dallas this Christmas.
10. God looks out for me, even when I'm getting in my own way.

Staying Connected

2003-11-25T15:55:00.000-05:00

We Christians can easily become isolated from our unchurched friends. What is your capacity and sensitivity to connecting with people outside the walls of your church? Here are my top three suggestions to improve your “Connection Capacity.”

Available
Have you made yourself available to God? God is more interested in your availability than your ability. Could God be prompting you to make a decision that could strategically place you exactly where He wants you? Have you yielded to these invitations?

Be sensitive to what God might have in mind for you and pray something like this: “God, what would you have me do so you can accomplish your will in my life?” Be available.

Aware
Are you aware of the opportunities around you? Are you sensitive to where God is leading you? If you want to really turn up the spiritual temperature in your life, start thinking in terms of partnering with God on a secret spiritual mission. Daily, ask God what he has in store for you. Who does he want you to engage with? Where are the spiritual opportunities? How can you work with him to change lives?

Think of every phone call, every new acquaintance, each business meeting, the person serving you at Starbucks, the person next to you on the plane, every knock on your door as a situation God has orchestrated—full of spiritual potential. Regardless of how seemingly insignificant the event, be aware God can use you. And be ready to take action.

Act
Even in casual conversations, I find myself asking God, “Does this person have a church? Where is he spiritually? God, where do you want me to go with this?” If you sense a leading to ask a spiritual question or drop a risky word into a conversation, go for it! More often than not you’ll find God has prepared the way. Even if you don’t see immediate results, know that God has used you. At a minimum, you may be the first link that leads that person to Jesus Christ. And that individual may feel safe to engage in a follow-up conversation with you in the future.

Finally, to expand your spiritual reach you need to maintain friendships outside of your church. Don’t exclude your unchurched friends from social and family events. Stay in touch with old friends and be sensitive to how God might want to use you.

Availability. Awareness. Action. Tune in to God. Be bold. There’s nothing like partnering with God and watching him accomplish his will through you!

God takes care of us

2003-11-25T13:29:00.000-05:00

Even when we go in a direction we shouldn't be going. I was off on a tear in an ungodly was, full of resentment, and He sent me here.

Thanksgiving are due, indeed. He's an on-time God.

2003-09-21T12:37:00.000-04:00

A Prayer of Thanksgiving

For earth, we give you thanks, O God. For work, we give you thanks. For blue heavens, we give you thanks. For meaning that is simple and sacred, for bonding of family and friendship and church, for the possibility to hope and live into the future, we give you thanks. For the light of day and the darkness gentle in the night, for the turning seasons of the year and the celebrations by which we mark our time, we give you thanks. For the gospel story, for the the salvation of souls, for the promise of eternal life, we give you thanks and praise, God of holiness and splendor, even as we gather together in the name of the One who makes all love incarnate, Christ Jesus. Amen.

2003-09-03T17:34:00.000-04:00

We must always do our best to encourage others in their own paths to God

Even if that challenges what we practice and believe. Even if that seems counter to our own path. Even if the person reviles us and our beliefs. We must support the path they are on if they sincerely want to grow closer to God.

2003-08-27T10:00:00.000-04:00

Everything That Rises Must Converge: More From Teilhard - Care of comparative-religion.com

According to Teilhard, there exists, beyond the laws of physics, another fundamental principle of organization of the universe, another dimension: the infinitely complex.

Starting from the simplest to the most complex, all matter can be put in allignement along an axis, from the most elementary particle to the most complex organism.

In this progression towards an ever increasing complexity, of which the human being is the highest grade, evolution is not linear but proceeds by a series of quantitative then qualitative leaps.

When a level of complexity reaches its point of maximum complexity, it jumps to a new different level and organization of its wholeness.
The more matter becomes complex, the more it approaches to awareness.

The propellent force of this evolution comes from the cosmic and all-encompassing physical-moral force of Love.
With the human being, Love begins to actualize in tangible form its potential.

Yet the human being is only one of the stages: the unification of humanity on a world scale coincides with the emergence of noosphere, the world of thought, the global consciousness.
This process is inevitable: should it not happen, humanity would dissolve.

There is no doubt though:
"Willingly or unwillingly, all our directions and needs converge to the same place".

We all converge to the final goal, everything is directed towards the Omega point, humanity's natural point of convergence, of access, through the second coming of Christ in glory, to the creative unification of the world in God.

2003-08-14T13:32:00.000-04:00

God is the friend of silence

The beginning of prayer is silence.

If we want to pray we must first learn to listen, for in the silence of the heart God speaks. And to be able to see that silence, to be able to hear God we need a clean heart; for a clean heart can see God, can hear God, can listen to God; and then only from the fullness of our heart can we speak to God. But we cannot speak unless we have listened, unless we have made that connection with God in the silence of our heart.

Prayer is not meant to be torture, not meant to make us fell uneasy, is not meant to trouble us. It is something to look forward to, to talk to my Father, to talk to Jesus, the one to whom I belong; body, soul, mind, heart. Therefore we shall take as a special point silence of mind, eyes, and tongue.

First there is the silence of the mind and of the heart: our Lady "kept all these things in her heart." This silence brought her close to our Lord, so that she never had to regret anything. See what she did when St Joseph was troubled. One word from her would have cleared his mind; she did not say that word, and our Lord Himself worked the miracle to clear her name. Would that we could be so convinced of this necessity of silence! I think then the road to close union with God would become very clear.

Then we have the silence of the eyes which will always help us to see God. Our eyes are like two windows through which Christ or the world comes to our hearts. Often we need great courage to keep them closed. How often we say, "I wish I had not seen this thing," and yet we take so little trouble to overcome the desire to see everything.

Silence of the tongue will teach us so much: to speak to Christ, to be joyful when with others, and to have many things to say. Christ speaks to us through others and at meditation He speaks to us directly.

God is the friend of silence.

We need to find God and He cannot be found in noise and restlessness. See how nature, the trees, the flowers, and the grass grow in perfect silence - see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence. The more we receive in silent prayer, the more we can give in our active life.

Silence gives us a new outlook on everything. We need silence to be able to touch souls. The essential thing is not what we say but what God says to us and through us.

Jesus is always waiting for us in silence. In that silence He will listen to us, there He will speak to our soul, and there we will here His voice. In silence we will find new energy and true unity. The energy will be ours to do all things well. The unity of our thoughts with His thoughts, the unity of our prayers with His prayers, the unity of our actions with His actions, of our life with His life.

- Mother Teresa

2003-08-12T15:36:00.000-04:00

Paul's Letter to the Ephesians, Chapter 4 Also Call Us To Imitate God

There must be a spiritual renewal of your thoughts and attitudes. You must display a new nature because you are a new person, created in God's likeness--righteous, holy, and true. So put away all falsehood and "tell your neighbor the truth" because we belong to each other. And "don't sin by letting anger gain control over you." Don't let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a mighty foothold to the Devil. If you are a thief, stop stealing. Begin using your hands for honest work, and then give generously to others in need. Don't use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them. And do not bring sorrow to God's Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he is the one who has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of malicious behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

Chapter 5 goes on to say:

Follow God's example in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love for others, following the example of Christ, who loved you and gave himself as a sacrifice to take away your sins. And God was pleased, because that sacrifice was like sweet perfume to him.

2003-08-11T09:36:00.000-04:00

The Imitation of Christ We Are Called To Perform

We come to you, holy God, with our many needs. Some of us are people in authority with weighty decisions to make. Some of us are fighting battles we cannot win. Some have faced unexpected losses that tear at the very fabric of life. There are broken relationships among us, feelings we do not want to admit, realities we do not want to face. There are also joys we have not really celebrated, reasons to give thanks to which we have never given voice. We come, O God, to be lifted out of our ruts and routines, seeking instead to find fullness of life with you. Amen.

If God should mark iniquities, who could stand? If God counted our sins, how would we ever find forgiveness? Yet, the attitudes and actions that build barriers among us and shut God out of our thinking and decision-making can be overcome. God is ready to help us.

O Holy Spirit, how we have grieved you! How often our words have been bitter, filled with malice and anger. How easily have we uttered lies of pretension and self-protection. How readily we take for ourselves the rewards of another’s labor! Forgive all that is false and evil within us and among us. Free us from the self-justifying excuses that keep us from reaching out to one another. We want to believe, to trust, to live as imitators of Jesus Christ. Help us, gracious God. Amen.

2003-08-05T21:16:00.000-04:00

Meditation Dos and Don'ts from jayesh.net

1. Fix a time and place and meditate at the same hour everyday. Early in the morning or before going to bed at night are considered the best periods in the day.
2. Leave a time gap after eating before you mediate. Energy gets divided between Meditation and digestion if too early after a meal.
3. Avoid Meditation if you are over-stimulated with caffeine or alcohol.
4. Do not meditate when you are depressed. Meditation could make you concentrate on these negative thoughts and make you feel worse.
5. Gradually lengthen the amount of time you meditate. Regular short sessions are better than infrequent long sessions.

2003-08-05T21:01:00.000-04:00

The Eternal Christ
John 1:1-5

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

- King James Version

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

- Revised Standard Version

In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God. He was in the beginning with God. He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he didn't make. Life itself was in him, and this life gives light to everyone. The light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

- New Living Translation

In this philosophically difficult passage about the Eternal Christ, the comprehensible language of the New Living Translation makes the most sense and loses none of the poetic beauty. I am struck by the sense differences, however, in verse 5 - "comprehend it" does not put darkness in opposition to light necessarily; whereas "overcome it" and "extinguish it" clearly do. The various translations of this passage make for what promises to be a fruitful, quiet meditation. Perhaps for a long time to come. - dh

2003-08-05T08:24:00.000-04:00

An obscure Jesuit priest, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, set down the philosophical framework for planetary, Net-based consciousness 50 years ago.

Teilhard de Chardin finds allies among those searching for grains of spiritual truth in a secular universe. As Mario Cuomo put it, "Teilhard made negativism a sin. He taught us how the whole universe - even pain and imperfection - is sacred." Marshall McLuhan turned to Teilhard as a source of divine insight in The Gutenberg Galaxy, his classic analysis of Western culture's descent into a profane world. Al Gore, in his book Earth in the Balance, argues that Teilhard helps us understand the importance of faith in the future. "Armed with such faith," Gore writes, "we might find it possible to resanctify the earth, identify it as God's creation, and accept our responsibility to protect and defend it."

From the '20s to the '50s, Teilhard de Chardin drafted a series of poetic works about evolution that has reemerged as a foundation for new evolutionary theories. In particular, Teilhard and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Vernadsky inspired the renegade Gaia hypothesis (later set forth by James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis): the global ecosystem is a superorganism with a whole much greater than the sum of its parts. This vision is clearly theological - suddenly everything, from rocks to people, takes on a holistic importance. As a Jesuit, Teilhard felt this deeply, and a handful of cyberphilosophers are now mining this ideological source as they search for the deeper implications of the Net.

Teilhard's philosophy of evolution was born out of his duality as both a Jesuit father ordained in 1911 and a paleontologist whose career began in the early 1920s. While conducting research in the Egyptian desert, Teilhard was scratching around for the remains of ancient creatures when he turned over a stone, dusted it off, and suddenly realized that everything around him was beautifully connected in one vast, pulsating web of divine life. Teilhard soon developed a philosophy that married the science of the material world with the sacred forces of the Catholic Church. Neither the Catholic Church nor the scientific academy, however, agreed. Teilhard's premise, that rocks possessed a divine force, was seen as flaky by scientists and outright heretical by the church. Teilhard's writings were scorned by peers in both camps.

Throughout the '40s and '50s, the Catholic Church was on the verge of excommunicating Teilhard. But the philosopher was committed to his perspective, refusing to stop writing or to leave the Church. As his problems with the Church escalated, Teilhard became something of a cause celebre within his small circle in Europe. The Church responded by forbidding him to publish and posting him to China, where he lived in a state of semi-exile, trekking through the Gobi desert and developing his philosophy in isolation. (His paleontological studies continued to circulate and was highly regarded.) The rest of his work was not published until after his death on Easter Sunday, 1955, when it caused a small stir in the theological world; it was read widely for only a short time. In the postmodern climate of today's theology, Teilhard is once again out of favor among theologists, evolutionary biologists, and scientists, who view his work with derision. "Teilhard de Chardin gets too little credit for the quality of his insights," says Ralph Abraham, one of the founders of chaos theory and co-author of The Web Empowerment Book, a World Wide Web primer. "He was successfully deprived of his influence by the popes."

Teilhard described three types of tangential energy. In inanimate objects, he called it "pre-life." In beings that are not self-reflective, he called it "life." And in humans, he called it "consciousness." As Teilhard began to observe the world described by science, he noticed that in certain things, such as rocks, the radial energy was dominant, while the tangential energy was barely visible. Rocks, therefore, are best described by the laws that rule radial energy - physics. But in animals, in which tangential energy, or life, is present, the laws of physics are only a partial explanation. Teilhard concluded that where radial energy was dominant, the evolutionary process would be characterized by the traditional scientific laws of necessity and chance. But in those organisms in which the tangential energy was significant, the forces of life and consciousness would lead the laws of chance and natural selection.

Teilhard then moved this insight forward. As the balance of tangential energy in any given entity grew larger, he noticed that it developed naturally in the direction of consciousness. An increase in consciousness was accompanied by an increase in the overall complexity of the organism. Teilhard called this the "law of complexity consciousness," which stated that increasing complexity is accompanied by increased consciousness.

Teilhard wrote, "The living world is constituted by consciousness clothed in flesh and bone." He argued that the primary vehicle for increasing complexity consciousness among living organisms was the nervous system. The informational wiring of a being, he argued - whether of neurons or electronics - gives birth to consciousness. As the diversification of nervous connections increases, evolution is led toward greater consciousness.

Teilhard's complexity-consciousness law is the same as what we now think of as the neural net.

- Jennifer Cobb Kreisberg

2003-08-03T20:22:00.000-04:00

Tha^ya's 14 Precepts

Do not be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology, even Buddhist ones. All systems of thought are guiding means; they are not absolute truth.

Do not think that the knowledge you presently possess is changeless, absolute truth. Avoid being narrow-minded and bound to present views. Learn and practice non-attachment from views in order to be open to receive others' viewpoints. Truth is found in life and not merely in conceptual knowledge. Be ready to learn throughout our entire life and to observe reality in yourself and in the world at all times.

Do not force others, including children, by any means whatsoever, to adopt your views, whether by authority, threat, money, propaganda, or even education. However, through compassionate dialogue, help others renounce fanaticism and narrowness.

Do not avoid contact with suffering or close your eyes before suffering. Do not lose awareness of the existence of suffering in the life of the world. find ways to be with those who are suffering by all means, including personal contact and visits, images, sound. By such means, awaken yourself and others to the reality of suffering in the world.

Do not accumulate wealth while millions are hungry. Do not take as the aim of you life fame, profit, wealth, or sensual pleasure. Live simply and share time, energy, and material resources with those who are in need.

Do not maintain anger or hatred. As soon as anger and hatred arise, practice the meditation on compassion in order to deeply understand the persons who have caused anger and hatred. Learn to look at other beings with the eyes of compassion.

Do not lose yourself in dispersion and in your surroundings. Learn to practice breathing in order to regain composure of body and mind, to practice mindfulness, and to develop concentration and understanding.

Do not utter words that can create discord and cause the community to break. Make every effort to reconcile and resolve all conflicts, however small.

Do not say untruthful things for the sake of personal interest or to impress people. Do not utter words that cause diversion and hatred. Do not spread news that you do not know to be certain. Do not criticize or condemn things you are not sure of. Always speak truthfully and constructively. Have the courage to speak out about situations of injustice, even when doing so may threaten your own safety.

Do not use the Buddhist community for personal gain or profit, or transform your community into a political party. A religious community should, however, take a clear stand against oppression and injustice, and should strive to change the situation without engaging in partisan conflicts.

Do not live with a vocation that is harmful to humans and nature. Do not invest in companies that deprive others of their chance to life. Select a vocation which helps realize your ideal compassion.

Do not kill. Do not let others kill. Find whatever means possible to protect life and to prevent war.

Possess nothing that should belong to others. Respect the property of others but prevent others from enriching themselves from human suffering or the suffering of other beings.

Do not mistreat your body. Learn to handle it with respect. Do not look on your body as only and instrument. Preserve vital energies (sexual, breath, spirit) for the realization of the Way. Sexual expression should not happen without love and commitment. In sexual relationships be aware of future suffering that may be caused. To preserve the happiness of others, respect the rights and commitments of others. Be fully aware of the responsibility of bringing new lives into the world. Meditate on the world into which you are bringing new beings.

Do not believe that I feel that I follow each and every of these precepts perfectly. I know I fail in many ways. None of us can fully fulfill any of these. However, I must work toward a goal. These are my goal. No words can replace practice, only practice can make the words.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

2003-08-03T20:10:00.000-04:00

A Buddhist Poem of Meditation

Today we will learn a short poem together, young people and also less young people. We are going to use the pebbles to practice the poem also. It would be wonderful if you can memorize the short poem in order to practice. Many of you know it by heart already, but there may be a few of you who have not been introduced to the practice of this poem: “In, out. Deep, slow. Calm, ease. Smile, release. Present moment, wonderful moment.” I guess most of us can sing it already. Shall we sing?

In, out.
Deep, slow.
Calm, ease.
Smile, release.
Present moment, Wonderful moment.

Take care of your body in such a way. Allow your body to rest in whatever position you are. And later you will be able to take care of your spirit, your ailing spirit, in the same way. You have blocks of pain, of sorrow, of fear, of despair within yourself. You have to embrace these blocks of pain and sorrow exactly in the same way. Call on them to help.

The Buddha-to-be is not something abstract. The Buddha is very deep in me because I have learned the practice. I have learned to look in the way the Buddha looked. I have learned to breathe the way the Buddha breathed. I have learned to walk in the way the Buddha walked. On the Gridhrakuta Mountain where the Buddha stayed more than twenty years, I sat there and I contemplated the very sunset that he had contemplated. I was looking with my eyes and his eyes at the beautiful sunset.

You also are capable of looking with your Buddha eyes. In your daily life you are used to looking with your eyes, the eyes that do not have the energy of mindfulness and concentration behind them. But with your mindful breathing, you can generate the Buddha eyes in you. When you use these eyes to look, you will see things much differently. It is like having a pair of binoculars and if you bring them up to your eyes, you can see differently. So, you have the Buddha eyes transmitted to you by your teacher. Why don’t you use them? Just breathing in, breathing out, generates the energy of mindfulness and suddenly, you have the Buddha eyes. Looking with the Buddha eyes, you will not get angry. You will despair.

You should not have any complex. The Buddha is enough, Jesus is enough. Jesus said so, “I am in the father, the father is in me, I am in you, and you are in me.” Very clear. You can’t deny that teaching in the heart of Christianity.

So, if the Buddha is in you, why don’t you call on him for help? You just breathe in and breathe out and Buddha will be alive, you can use Buddha eyes, Buddha hands. “Dear Buddha, please help,” and suddenly you have the hand of the Buddha available to you. How simple. What else do you practice? What else do you learn? This is very simple, easy to understand, and yet very deep. The healing that you want, you can provide by yourself. You are supported by the sangha, by the Dharma, by the Buddha, every moment of your daily life. If only you know this, you will realize that support is always available and then you will not feel alone and scared.

So today, in the Dharma discussion, please discuss this practice. Allow us to rest. Allow our body to rest. There are techniques of resting. You may not be used to them but they are good habits to learn. We have learned the other kind of habit of not resting, and now we have to learn a positive habit to be able to rest—bodily and mentally. And we have to share with each other the ways we do this to arrive at a relaxed state of the body and of the mind.

Walking is a way of resting, sitting is a way of resting, eating is a way of resting. Don’t struggle. We have struggled all our lives, we have gone nowhere at all. Stop the struggle and take care of our body, our mind. Practice resting and restoring ourselves and we’ll go very far.

We will get together and discuss this. We will share our experience of the practice of resting. There are brothers and sisters who have been in the practice longer, they can share their practice. You may ask questions. And we practice the first day, the second day, and then we’ll meet again and share again our practice. If you have any difficulties, if you have any questions, or if you have some success, some joy in your practice, please share these with other people.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

2003-07-30T17:10:00.000-04:00

to range oneself among the disciples

Far too often the Cross is presented for our adoration, not so much as a sublime end to be attained by our transcending ourselves, but as a symbol of sadness, of limitation and repression... This ends by conveying the impression that the kingdom of God can only be established in mourning, and by thwarting and going against the current of man's aspirations and energies.

In its highest and most general sense, the doctrine of the Cross is that to which all men adhere who believe that the vast movement and agitations of human life opens on to a road which leads somewhere, and that that road climbs upward. Life has a term: therefore it imposes a particular direction, orientated, in fact, towards the highest possible spiritualisation by means of the greatest possible effort. To admit that group of fundamental principles is already to range oneself among the disciples -- distant perhaps, and implicit, but nevertheless real -- of Christ crucified.

- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881 - 1955)
French paleontologist and Jesuit priest

2003-07-30T10:12:00.000-04:00

The Too Enlightened Mind

There are some which have a close connection with the objects of our satisfaction; and these again are received with certainty, for as soon as the soul has been made to perceive that a thing can conduct it to that which it loves supremely, it must inevitably embrace it with joy.
But those which have this double union both with admitted truths and with the desires of the heart, are so sure of their effect that there is nothing that can be more so in nature.
As, on the contrary, that which does not accord either with our belief or with our pleasures is importunate, false, and absolutely alien to us.
In all these positions, there is no room for doubt. But there are some wherein the things which it is sought to make us believe are well established upon truths which are known, but which are at the same time contrary to the pleasures that interest us most. And these are in great danger of showing, by an experience which is only too common, what I said at the beginning—that this imperious soul, which boasted of acting only by reason, follows by a rash and shameful choice the desires of a corrupt will, whatever resistance may be opposed to it by the too enlightened mind.

- Blaise Pascal

2003-07-30T10:09:00.000-04:00

Brethren

The doctrines of Christians and Jews are the closest of all the world’s religions. Particularly in the bearing of religious faith upon social, political, economic, and cultural concerns in this world, the vocations of Jews and Christians are remarkably analogous. Both are narrative religions. Both are religions of The Book. Both religions teach respect for this world, for the flesh, for the concrete. Both religions instruct their members in a vocation not merely to escape from this world but to change this world. Both find the historical task of modernization a challenge, yet a challenge to be taken up in faith and in hope. More easily than any other of the major religions both seem to adjust—although not without enormous struggle—to modern urban life. Both have a commitment to intellect in its rational and scientific parts as well as its mystical, poetic, and intuitive parts.

– Michael Novak

2003-07-28T21:19:00.000-04:00

By Means of All Created Things

All around us, to right and left, in front and behind, above and below, we have only to go a little beyond the frontier of sensible appearances in order to see the divine welling up and showing through.

But it is not only close to us, in front of us, that the divine presence has revealed itself. It has sprung up universally, and we find ourselves so surrounded and transfixed by it, that there is no room left to fall down and adore it, even within our selves. By means of all created things, without exception, the divine assails us, penetrates us and moulds us. We imagined it as distant and inaccessible, whereas in fact we live steeped in its burning layers. In eo vivimus.

As Jacob said, awakening from his dream, the world, this palpable world, which we were wont to treat with the boredom and disrespect with which we habitually regard places with no sacred association for us, is in truth a holy place, and we did not know it. Venite, adoremus.

- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

2003-07-27T21:50:00.000-04:00

Alcoholics Anonymous discussion of Step Eleven. Step Eleven reads "sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, prayinonly for knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry that out."

The passages on this step follow and I have numbered the suggestions made for my own benefit.

It is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels. We are headed for trouble if we do, for alcohol is a subtle foe. We are not cured of alcoholism. What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition. Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God’s will into all of our activities. “How can I best serve Thee—Thy will (not mine) be done.” These are thoughts which must go with us constantly. We can exercise our will power along this line all we wish. It is the proper use of the will.

Much has already been said about receiving strength, inspiration, and direction from Him who has all knowledge and power. If we have carefully followed directions, we have begun to sense the flow of His Spirit into us. To some extent we have become God-conscious. We have begun to develop this vital sixth sense. But we must go further and that means more action.
Step Eleven suggests prayer and meditation. We shouldn’t be shy on this matter of prayer. Better men than we are using it constantly. It works, if we have the proper attitude and work at it. It would be easy to be vague about this matter. Yet, we believe we can make some definite and valuable suggestions.

1. When we retire at night, we constructively review our day. Were we resentful, selfish, dishonest or afraid? Do we owe an apology? Have we kept something to ourselves which should be discussed with another person at once? Were we kind and loving toward all? What could we have done better? Were we thinking of ourselves most of the time? Or were we thinking of what we could do for others, of what we could pack into the stream of life? But we must be careful not to drift into worry, remorse or morbid reflection, for that would diminish our usefulness to others. After making our review we ask God’s forgiveness and inquire what corrective measures should be taken.
2. On awakening let us think about the twenty-four hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day. Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives. Under these conditions we can employ our mental faculties with assurance, for after all God gave us brains to use. Our thought-life will be placed on a much higher plane when our thinking is cleared of wrong motives. In thinking about our day we may face indecision. We may not be able to determine which course to take.
3. Here we ask God for inspiration, an intuitive thought or a decision.
4. We relax and take it easy. We don’t struggle. We are often surprised how the right answers come after we have tried this for a while. What used to be the hunch or the occasional inspiration gradually becomes a working part of the mind. Being still inexperienced and having just made conscious contact with God, it is not probable that we are going to be inspired at all times. We might pay for this presumption in all sorts of absurd actions and ideas. Nevertheless, we find that our thinking will, as time passes, be more and more on the plane of inspiration. We come to rely upon it.
5. We usually conclude the period of meditation with a prayer that we be shown all through the day what our next step is to be, that we be given whatever we need to take care of such problems. We ask especially for freedom from self-will, and are careful to make no request for ourselves only. We may ask for ourselves, however, if others will be helped. We are careful never to pray for our own selfish ends. Many of us have wasted a lot of time doing that and it doesn’t work. You can easily see why.
6. If circumstances warrant, we ask our wives or friends to join us in morning meditation.
7. If we belong to a religious denomination which requires a definite morning devotion, we attend to that also.
8. If not members of religious bodies, we sometimes select and memorize a few set prayers which emphasize the principles we have been discussing. There are many helpful books also. Suggestions about these may be obtained from one’s priest, minister, or rabbi. Be quick to see where religious people are right. Make use of what they offer.
9. As we go through the day we pause, when agitated or doubtful, and ask for the right thought or action.
10. We constantly remind ourselves we are no longer running the show, humbly saying to ourselves many times each day “Thy will be done.” We are then in much less danger of excitement, fear, anger, worry, self-pity, or foolish decisions. We become much more efficient. We do not tire so easily, for we are not burning up energy foolishly as we did when we were trying to arrange life to suit ourselves.
It works—it really does.

We alcoholics are undisciplined. So we let God discipline us in the simple way we have just outlined. But this is not all. There is action and more action. “Faith without works is dead.” The next chapter is entirely devoted to Step Twelve.

2003-07-27T20:13:00.000-04:00

Prayer to the
Holy Spirit
Come HOLY SPIRIT, and create in me a renewed desire to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ boldly, yet lovingly, in my actions and in my words. Fill my heart with God's love so that I may share that love with others. Fill my mind with the wisdom of the Almighty so that my every word will be guided. Fill my soul with the presence of God so that I may know peace. May I join with all who labor to communicate the word of God, so that as one body, we may help to bring the Lord's light to all people.

HOLY SPIRIT, let everything that I think, everything that I see, every word that I hear, Every word that I speak, every action that I take be under Your control, Your Possession, Your guidance and lead me in all truth. Help me.

Amen and Amen.

2003-07-16T15:29:00.000-04:00

Enter Thou Into the Joy of Thy Lord

Imagine if all the tumult of the body were to quiet down, along with all our busy thoughts about earth, sea, air; if the very world should stop, and the mind cease thinking about itself, go beyond itself, and be quite still; if all the fantasies that appear in dreams and imagination should cease, and there be no speech, no sign: Imagine if all things that were perishable grew still - for if we listen they are saying, "We did not make ourselves; he made us who abides forever" - imagine then that they should say this and fall silent, listening to the very voice of him who made them and not to that of his creation; so that we should hear not his word through the tongues of men, nor the voice of angels, nor the clouds' thunder, nor any symbol, but the very Self which in these things we love, and go beyond ourselves to attain a flash of that eternal wisdom which abides above all things: And imagine if that moment were to go on and on, leaving behind all other sights and sounds but this one vision which ravishes and absorbs and fixes the beholder in joy; so that the rest of eternal life were like that moment of illumination which leaves us breathless: Would this not be what is bidden in scripture, "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord?"

St. Augustine

This is the essence of this web log. Celebrating prayer and meditation, taking the time and the effort to practice, appreciating and musing upon the mystical tradition, and affirming our call to draw closer to God. All traditions are welcome and will be honored and celebrated. The foundation and recurring tradition will be Christian. -dh