“A deity synonymous with Nature … (Emily Bronte’s) poem of faith … finds its affirmation not through anthropomorphic rendering but in a pantheistic (and multiverse?) vision of Deity’s universal immanence.”
RJ’s analysis of Emily Bronte’s poem is both instructive and inspiring. Check it out at the link below.
Below are excerpts from a delightful post by Myojin on the purpose of religion and why Zen is different.
Hope you enjoy this as much as I did.
For some it’s the belief in an all-powerful, all-knowing God, who cares about our lives.
For others it’s about a better way to live, through morality, devotions, spiritual practices; prayer, meditation. Be the aim union with divinity, greater connection to others, to live more fully in the moment
Any practice is based on the premise that there is a better way to live than the way we are living now.
If zen is a religion it’s the religion of getting up in the morning and brushing our teeth. It’s the religion of ordinary things, stripped of fantasy and exposed to stark truth.
Zen is making up our minds that since we are here anyway, living life, we may as well do it well.
Blind faith? Faith can move mountains? Faith of our fathers? Author Richard Fast offers a critique on faith worth reading, I think.
“I’m NOT trying to sell Atheism … “God” forbid. I’m selling the concept of searching and finding your faith.”
Check out an excerpt from Richard Fast’s provocative article recently published in Backyard Church
The more I searched for answers outside myself, the more frustration and anxiety I felt.
I didn’t require a God or a particular faith to settle my tormented soul. With total peace of mind, I could accept that there doesn’t have to be a God. The universe could just be a beautiful mystery.
I didn’t have to invent or conjure anything to calm my soul. I didn’t have to force myself into mental contortions to follow someone else’s belief; I could happily accept that there are many questions to which I will never know the answers, and I’m okay with that.
If history has taught us anything, there’s very little we can honestly know. Finding faith is a uniquely human experience that makes the challenging road of life a little easier to travel.
But many years of searching, thinking, deep introspection, and an acceptance of Atheism (the unknowable) have finally given me peace of mind.
I’m NOT trying to sell Atheism … “God” forbid. I’m selling the concept of searching and finding your faith.
Whatever that may be, I sincerely hope that you find your faith, as I’ve finally found mine.
I am the author of The Challenge of Choice … how to make a “good” decision when it REALLY matters!
I hate to wait and that has been a life-long challenge for me. Below is an excerpt from a recent Lion’s Roar article that helps me better understand why.
Valerie Mason-John, M.A. is a public speaker and master trainer in the field of conflict transformation, leadership and mindfulness, the author of ten books and the Co-Founder of Eight Step Recovery, an alternative to the 12-step program for addiction.
http://www.valeriemason-john.com
To free ourselves from habitual patterns, says Valerie Mason-John, we need to see how they have become part of our identity.
VALERIE MASON-JOHN 8 MAY 2024
Watch your thoughts; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become stories.
Watch your stories; they become excuses.
Watch your excuses; they become relapses.
Watch your relapses; they become dis-eases.
Watch your dis-eases; they become vicious cycles.
Watch your vicious cycles; they become your wheel of life.
We transcend our habits by allowing a part of our superego to die.
For more from Valerie Mason-John check out these two websites:
http://www.lionsroar.com/how-to-free-yourself-from-the-7-obsessions/
Are you lovable? Do you have a perspective worth sharing? Is the world better off for you being here?
Today’s meditation from the Center for Action and Contemplation includes a challenge from Jacqui Lewis to “really see.” See an excerpt below and read the full meditation on cac.org.
jacquilewis.com
A Heart-Centered Revolution Excerpt
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis writes of the solidarity necessary to transform our culture and our world:
In order to live a moral life, a good life, an ubuntu life, we must commit to a life of love that means seeing all the things ..…
Friend, you are the only one standing where you stand, seeing what you see, with your vantage point, your story. You are right there for a reason: to have, as my dear friend Ruby Sales says, “hindsight, insight, and foresight.” I want us to learn to see, with our eyes wide open, how best to be healers and transformers. I want us to really see, to fully awaken to the hot-mess times we are in and to the incredible power we have to love ourselves into wellness….
I want us open to revelation, not afraid of it, and open to the ways that it will provoke us to believe assiduously in how lovable we each are, and in the love between us and among us because, actually, believing is seeing. [2]
[2] Jacqui Lewis, “Apocalypse Now: Love, Believing, and Seeing,” Oneing 10, no. 1, Unveiled (Spring 2022): 44–45. Available in print and PDF download.
Doctor (and Sister) Joan Chittister shares her weekly Vision and Viewpoint newsletter today with her comments below on the importance of “living an integrated life.” You can learn more about her and the Benedictine religious community in Erie, Pennsylvania at this website: joanchittister.org/~joanchit/
“Do not lie, even to yourself
Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” Gandhi could have been a Benedictine. Humility is about living an integrated life, a life in which each part is in harmony with every other dimension.
The person who lives a lie, for instance, no matter how effective otherwise, is in tension every moment of the day.
The truth is that we are meant to be transparent.
Be what you say you are. Do not lie, even to yourself. Don’t live two lives
At the end, three things measure both our integrity and the harmony of our own lives: self-control, respect, and freedom from self-deception.
a process of slow and self-emptying transformation
enjoy the rest of the adventure called life, learning, becoming, growing as we go.
—from Radical Spirit (Random House), by Joan Chittister
joanchittister.org/books-page/radical-spirit-12-ways-live-free-and-authentic-life
Richard Rohr and the Center for Action and Contemplation offer another provocative post at their Daily Meditation site: cac.org/daily-meditations/the-departure-and-the-return/
Below are a few excerpts that especially interest me, and hopefully you as well.
“We are created with an inner drive and necessity that sends all of us looking for our True Self, our true home, whether we know it or not. This journey is a spiral and never a straight line. …
We dare not try to fill our souls and minds with numbing addictions, diversionary tactics, or mindless distractions. (We are) found, precisely in the depths of everything, even and maybe especially in the deep fathoming of our fallings and failures. …
If we go to the depths of anything, we’ll begin to knock upon something substantial, “real,” and with a timeless quality. We’ll move from the starter kit of “belief” to an actual inner knowing. This is most especially true if we have ever (1) loved deeply, (2) accompanied someone through the mystery of dying, or (3) stood in genuine life-changing awe before mystery, time, or beauty. …
Like Odysseus, we leave from Ithaca and we come back to Ithaca, but now it is fully home because all is included and nothing wasted or hated: even the dark parts are used in our favor. … What else could homecoming be?
Poet C. P. Cavafy (1863–1933) expressed this understanding most beautifully in his famous poem “Ithaca”:
Ithaca has now given you the beautiful voyage.
Without her, you would never have taken the road.
With the great wisdom you have gained on your voyage,
with so much of your own experience now,
you must finally know what Ithaca really means. [1] “
References:
[1] See C. P. Cavafy, “Ithaca,” in The Complete Poems of Cavafy, trans. Rae Dalven (New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1961), 36–37. Paraphrased by Richard Rohr.
“Let go of those activities that no longer serve.” And I might add, don’t be a slacker nor a martyr. There is a middle way.
Below is the link to Lynn J Kelly’s latest post that helps us better understand how our compulsions and lack of mindfulness are not serving us very well. It’s far better to choose wisely how we focus our attention.
Richard Rohr provides another provocative post about the examples provided by Saints Francis and Claire of Assisi.
One quote from the article link below that grabs my attention is:
“When we agree to live simply, we put ourselves outside of others’ ability to buy us off, reward us falsely, or control us by money, status, punishment, and loss or gain. This is the most radical level of freedom, but, of course, it’s not easy to come by. Francis and Clare created a life in which they had little to lose, no desire for gain, no debts to pay, and no luxuries they needed or wanted. Most of us can only envy them.“
Here’s another educational post from Lynn J Kelly. She reminds us of the value of being determined to:
buddhasadvice.wordpress.com/2024/04/30/determination-adhiṭṭhana/#like-19452
Life Matters 