Servant-Builder Rule of Life
Is there not an heretical imperative implicit in the Gospel-Tao, and in our absolute amazement in awakening to the core teaching of Yeshua bar Alaha (Jesus of the Beloved): the Kingdom of Heaven is within you-us-everywhere-everyone! Everything in the Universe is the work of this to-the-root-coherence: from particles of possibility to the all the wonders of the Earth, from a solitary human being to the universal evolutionary hunger for connection... for coherence... and for compassion...
Is it not true that the Gospel-Tao, and the Heart of Every Religion, is an invitation to build, with a radical faith and hope, intentional communities rooted in the Mystic-Abode of the Kingdom, of a "pan-sacramentalism"? Is it not true that the Gospel-Tao, and the Heart of Every Religion, calls us to live lives of prayer, cooperation, compassion, service, justice, simplicity, and nonviolence (a Beatitude life)? Is it not true that the Gospel-Tao, and the Heart of Every Religion, calls us to save Planet Earth by living in such a way that we serve all species and the re-generation of our Home? Is it not true that the Gospel-Tao, and the Heart of Every Religion, calls us to gender / race / and class equality, in the Divine Equality of the Personhood of All Human Beings?
Is it not true that the Gospel-Tao, and the Heart of Every Religion, calls us to the inward journey of contemplative prayer, gratitude of mind, availability and vulnerability of heart, and a harmony of body, mind, and soul? Is it not true that the Gospel-Tao, and the Heart of Every Religion, calls us to surrender to the Holy Wisdom of the Feminine, in the Holy Mother of the Way, Mary, for the conscious cultivation of the Growing Christ: our human and planetary evolution? And finally, is it not true that the Gospel, and the Heart of Every Religion, are roadmaps of the Eternal Way into a Living and Greening identification with the Christ Consciousness of the Kingdom of Heaven (within us and within everyone and everywhere)?
-- Questions for a Servant-Builder Rule of Life
In the Key of Reverence...
In my life-long and passionate study of World Religions and religious philosophy, the inter-faith key always boils down to reverence... An increasingly popular word in the West, and coming from the East, is that of namaste: taking it a tad bit further than that of most English translations, I render it as "The Divine in me adores the Divine in you"... Now, we are firmly situated in the key of reverence...
Reverence and adoration and surrender are always the by-words of the mystic-intuition-practice. The way of life indicated by these words can be described as the root-of-the-root of every religion. Until one descends into these roots, one is, at best, dilly-dallying on the surface of which-ever religion. Jesus was never really about "love". Rather, he was very much into loving... there is at least a solar system of difference between the two! The Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount and the Plain, and the Parable of the Last Judgment in Matthew 25 are each "angles" on loving-in-action (which is the only way that love can be identified as real)...
I practice the Kriya Yoga of Paramahansa Yogananda; I practice the "surrender" teachings of the Sufi master Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan; I pray the Benedictine Divine Office and regularly read the Celtic Prayer books of the Northumbria Community; I study the poetry of Rumi and Hafiz (two Sufi poet-masters); and for now over fifty years I am a student of the Tao which, not surprisingly to me, unites the ancient mystical East with modern quantum physics and theological thought. Again, the unifying "key" to this is reverence... And most essentially, I am a devotee of the Divine Mother: my faith and my life revolve around Her always compassionate presence...
One could very well say that this "reverence" that I speak and write about may be likened to the great experience of falling in love. It is not for nothing that Rumi wrote "How you make love is how God will be with you"... New lovers explore the minds of one another, and as the attractions deepen, proceed into the mutual exploration of one another's bodies: everywhere is a good place to look, to touch, to kiss, and to lick: only by such an exploration can another body be truly and joyfully revered... in mutual adoration and surrender... Reverence, adoration, and surrender has nothing to do with any idea of "needing perfection"... Instead, it is pure gift, pure giving, with no need to control or manipulate for one's own power-over... sacred sex is a door way into apprehension of the Divine...
The Tao reminds: embrace simplicity, put others first, desire little... focus your life-breath... love the whole world as if it were yourself... let yourself become broken... let yourself become twisted... let yourself become empty... let yourself become old... keep to the feminine... do not shun the disgraced... embrace the world with compassion... the world is a sacred vessel... using force always leads to trouble... those who know they have enough are truly wealthy... if you want to possess something you must first give it away... the Tao never acts with force... the great view the small as their source... meditate in silence... become one with the dust... the Tao is the tabernacle of creation... enjoy the plain and simple... and compassion is the protector of Heaven's salvation...
This brief journey through the Tao Te Ching is, what I call, Broken-Vase Taoism... the Taoist "way" is that of the cultivation of satisfaction, of contentment, and of reverence... how one makes love is how one washes the dishes is how one walks down the road is how one serves and lives in stewardship: which is sort of like the answer to the question that I would ask of new volunteers in our Soup Kitchen: who would you most like to see come walking through our door for lunch: Michelle Obama? Dua Lipa? Brad Pitt? George Clooney? Your mother? Your long-lost brother? Perhaps even Jesus Christ? Serve whomever / everyone exactly as you would serve the person you would most like to see... This is applied Gospel-Tao... good stuff... Remember Rumi's insight: how you make love is how God will be with you... and making love is everything that you do: this is the religion that matters because it is the religion, the Way, of Jesus Christ: the Kingdom of Heaven is within you... so every moment is pan-sacramental... BOO! Surprise!
Questions and Answers:
What, in your mind, is the single greatest problem that humanity faces?
Rather than to begin with an issue, I'll directly answer your question of "greatest problem". As I see it, our greatest problem is simply that too many people neither know how to think nor realize that they need to learn. Most people assume that because they experience, every day, a constant stream of thoughts that that stream equates to thinking. Random thoughts invade our minds much like the airwaves are flooded with sound-signals that we can receive by tuning our radios. So too, thought-signals constantly surround us: these thought-signals are neither good nor bad, but they are distractions that complicate our lives. When certain thought-signals are latched onto, they can become habitual: then there is a problem in that we lose our ability to discern their quality and we can slip into unhelpful modes of thought and action. In other words, we become prey for propaganda, advertisements, and illusions and then we are no longer free human beings. It takes discipline to truly think as a free being!
How does one begin to learn to think?
Genuine thought requires steady acts of rebellion! Doubt everything that someone is trying to sell you! The Dominator Paradigm makes use of what I call the Unholy Trinity: Privilege, Profit, and Power. Genuine thought is simple, kind, and nurturing, and lends itself to the beautiful, the just, and the compassionate. Genuine thought has little interest in "style" but a strong resonance with the well-being of the least person among us. Unlearning is a quality of a working mind. Systems that serve privilege, profit, and power always want you to surrender to comfort and conformity. On the other hand, a free human being lives in the balance between service and stewardship: values of true community and the good of all.
Here is an issue that confounds religion, culture, and politics: what should we make of the now, increasingly frequent, desire to "transition into another gender"?
There are layers of thought required in the consideration of this topic. Perhaps the first and most important layer is the primacy of the person. The individual person and that person's liberation into the fullness of their being should be our first consideration. The person is more than a gender identification. The person should be the fulcrum upon which the whole of every society should orient itself. From the outside looking in, we can make any number of assumptions and assign to those assumptions a hierarchy of importance. But, from the inside looking out, each of those assumptions may be of no importance whatsoever. So society should tread very carefully!
Consider the now-frequent acquisition of bodily tattoos. It wasn't all that very long ago that tattoos were far from the mainstream. Now, nearly everyone accepts tattoos as a personal use of the body as an artistic "canvas". Could we not also consider gender as an aspect of our personal artistic "canvas"? The essential point is the well-being and full development of the individual person, linked of course, to the well-being of all. If one is interiorly distressed with their "assigned" gender, should we not all bow in humble adoration of the courage it takes to re-create one's individual identity and one's personal relationship with one's own given body? A society of mutual aid and compassion would always walk with its members toward the fullness of their being. If tattoos can be removed, changed, or enhanced according to the desires of the individual person, why not gender?
Finally, unlike rape and all forms of sexual assault and harassment, transitioning into another gender should be received as a gift to both the individual person and society: any increase in contentment, satisfaction, and delight benefits everyone. However, the seriousness of such transitioning needs the support, guidance, and counsel of a network of caring persons: this could become a professional career and vocation!
Society only functions at a high level when individual persons are functioning at their own highest levels. In addition to all of this, it is important to note that the people who are raping, assaulting, and harassing are seldom, if ever, from the "trans" community.
Any thoughts on War and Peace?
One look at my white hair should certainly indicate that I've been around for awhile... and it truly seems that in all my life there has never been a time in which there has not been a war: and more than likely, the United States has or is, in one way or another, been involved. The United States
is the largest arms merchant from among all the nations of the world. There will never be a time of peace so long as business can make a profit off weapons of war: indeed, if not for the arms "industry", the economies of the world would crash: weapons production is the foundation of capitalism. Waging peace should become the intentional responsibility of everyone. Waging peace, from among many possibilities, first means to resist the propagandists for the absolute necessity of war. Study the lives of peacemakers, nonviolent creatives, and alternative economics. Step away from lifestyles that require conspicuous consumption. Eat simply. Garden and grow something that you will eat. Celebrate delight and sacred pleasure. Peacemaking is conscious living, humble actions, and building communities of peaceable-possibilitarians. As Thich Nhat Hahn has said, "There is no way to peace for peace is the way."
For clarity I must add, it is a serious error in both judgment and thought to conclude that any system that relies upon violence for its survival is somehow "civilized" or of the "natural order". Mutual aid and the natural desire for connection and coherence are the driving and leading forces of evolution. Evolution of the heart-mind is toward nonviolence and compassion: men who "think" they can justify harm to others are profoundly mistaken.
I take it then that you believe in the equality of men and women?
Equality of persons is the foundational principle of both spirit and life: to live otherwise is to serve the demise of humanity on this precious blue planet. Without the religious, cultural, political, and economic conviction of equality between men and women there is simply no way that we will recover from the madness that is driving climate change. Mother Earth is worthy of our service and reverence: equality likewise serves the liberation of our minds from systems of abuse, exploitation, and power. Climate change and the oppression of women are inextricably intertwined: they are one and the same issue!
How then should we live?
The ancient Tao of Lao Tzu suggests: "Embrace simplicity. Put others first. Desire little." This is a prescription for sanity, satisfaction, contentment, and happiness. Building intentional communities, like the first followers of Jesus, living by his core teaching of "the kingdom of heaven is within you", is an awakening into the Beatitudes-for-Life... Enlightenment is daily life. Self-realization is the happiness that flows reducing the distractions that prevent or inhibit the heart from loving without limits. Frida Kahlo put it this way: "Make love. Take a bath. Make love again." Engaging in work for perhaps four hours a day, mostly in education and community service, would allow for the pursuit of imagination and creative endeavors: all at the service of the well-being of oneself and for all. Re-ordering our religious, economic, and political lives toward service and stewardship would naturally open doors to untold possibilities for both science and mysticism. Surprising "quantum flowers" are waiting to grow and bloom!
Now, what about religion?
Right off the bat, religion without science, equality with women, and a deep reverence for nature is not a religion that is worth a plug-nickel. One cannot pretend to "love" a "Creator" without loving active minds, every other human being, and all creatures and the wild, natural, world. Religion must sit in adoration, reverence, and compassion or it sits nowhere. Religion is not conformity with rot. Religion is both self and social transformation: it is all about the experience of connection. Religion that does not lead to an awakening into the necessity of a practiced justice, equality, and nonviolence is a servant of privilege, profit, and power. "Submission" is a core teaching of genuine religion: submission not to an unrealized authority or doctrine, but a submission that leads to the taming of the ego, to the point of annihilation. "Submission" to the possibility of disappearing into loving without limits. Real religion is poetry and joy, service and stewardship. Real religion has little (or nothing) to do with tired ritual, but everything with the imitation of the Christ-Idea, as the Mother, as St. Mary Magdalene, as St. Francis, as Rumi and Hafiz, as St. Dorothy of the Gutter Beautiful... one can align with the Holy Buddha, with the glory of Radha-Krishna, with the Divine Shakti, with the Untamed Mother, or with the Wild Non-attachment of a Mountain Mystic... all paths lead Home if followed with honesty, truth, humility, and unwavering compassion and nonviolence. Real religion is the practice of a simple lifestyle that supports home-making: gardens, the clutter of books, the sounds of music, the comfort of sensual pleasure, the gathering of friends and neighbors, the safety of a ready mutual aid, and the surety of compassion in need... Real religion is sacred pleasure... The dailiness of real religion is an invitation, not a rejection slip...
So, without explicitly saying so, you do believe in "God"?
"God" is a word that I very rarely use. As often as not, it is used as a sort of "shotgun": bang-bang you're going to hell... bang-bang you're an
infidel... bang-bang this and bang-bang that. It is really quite nauseating, isn't it? Out of the implicit combination of order and chaos, there is clear evidence of intelligence or perhaps better, information at work all the way into the sub-atomic level: everything is on a quest for connection and coherence... Humans have always developed conceptual frameworks for a better understanding of our place in the Web of Life on Earth, and by extension, our place in the universe or cosmos... It is an undeniable miracle that pond scum should have evolved into "receivers" of consciousness... and once again, by extension, both mystics and quantum physicists have some sort of awakening as to the fundamental Reality of consciousness Itself as the Real Reality...
Consciousness as Real Reality is just a hop-skip away from an affirmation of Cosmic Consciousness ("God") and that hop-skip is intentionality. Is consciousness, as the Real Reality, self-aware, self-motivating, and self-actualizing? If so (even as a possibility) that puts that "Being" way above our pay grade! The Hindu "conception" of "God" is Sat-Chit-Ananda or Being-Consciousness-Bliss. The Taoist jumps that and lands into a "Dark Enigma and Valley Mother" wherein ego-annihilation and a surrendered life on the margins of acceptable society is the doorway into the natural-before-the-divisions-required-by-concepts... The monotheistic religions pretend to have jettisoned the natural for the supernatural: in their gross simplifications, there is a "God" and as often as not "He" is not happy with the performance of His creations: so religion then becomes a quest, not for awakening, but simply for salvation...
All of this is a simple evasion of your simple question, is it not? But for me, it is all-important to understand my conviction: there is a Real Reality intertwined with our limited perceptions: this Reality is available as a Good Mother: She doesn't come with a book or rules but with an intentional urge to evolve, always, into something brand new, with us... She lives within us (all creation everywhere) as imagination-information-intelligence... She is the Witch-Weaver of Quarks, Fractals, Gravity, Waves and Particles of Possibilities, and Continuous Fields of Energetic Information intentionally ordered by a driving need for Connection and Coherence... For simplicity's sake, I reference Her as Mother, as Christ-Consciousness, and as the Womb-like structure of the Energy and Matter of the Universe... When you run out of breath, you can call Her "God" or, like me, "Mama"... The Christian Taoist might say, "Immaculate Conception" while the old lady hobbling to Mass will whisper "Mother Mary"...
(To be continued...)
Deep Life@ the intersection of the Beautiful, the Mystical, and the Personal
