Brian’s Reflection: Friday, May 1, 2009

It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect.
The more perfect we are the more gentle and quiet we
become towards the defects of others.

- Joseph Addison, English essayist, poet & dramatist,
born on this date, 1672


In other words, “What you would like people to appreciate and respect about you, appreciate and respect about them!” Some version of the “Golden Rule” always applies. No wonder some version of it can be found in every point of written moral history.

In this country, we get a LOT of “complaints” from so-called “moral” people about the way we live our lives. Addison’s words remind us that those complaints are coming from imperfect people - for the simple reason that such people are either unaware of, or deliberately suppress, their own often radical imperfection. It is a sure sign of such shallow self-unawareness that the Imperfect cluster together and displace their inability to deal with the reality of themselves onto others. It is called Hypocrisy. Jesus was particularly harsh about Hypocrites, with good reason. Hypocrisy is a sure sign of Ignorance on many levels.

Moral righteousness tends to lead to contempt, judgmentalism, and a lack of Compassion - not surprising, since it stems from a complete lack of self-awareness, of Humility. We know where that leads - to intolerance and to its handmaiden, Callousness.

Are you “gentle and quiet”? I’m asking myself the same question. Because if we aren’t, we have been trapped by our Imperfection. The result can only be alienation, prejudice, discrimination, bigotry. And we know where that leads. Alas, we can experience it all around us these days in American (and other) culture.

There is a phrase in the Gospel that has often confused people: “Be ye perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” “God” is always “gentle and quiet … towards the defects of others”. At least, the “God” who has revealed Herself to me. Why else would the Christian God give of Her Life to make ours possible??

Let us revel in our imperfection. It means we understand both our true selves and the true “God”.

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, April 30, 2009




St. Nectan: He went from Wales to seek his ideal location for the simple life. This turned
out to be Hartland Point in Devon. The serenity turned sour when a couple of thieves ran
off with his two cows. He chased after them and attempted to convert them (the thieves, that
is, not the cows). The two miscreants just laughed and sliced his head off. We imagine they
stopped laughing when our hero calmly picked his head up and carried it back to his homestead,
leaving a trail of blood drops. He then dropped his head into his well and presumably expired.
Wherever his blood fell, foxgloves appeared. So on his feast day a procession of children carry
foxgloves to the well. We don't know what happened to the cows.


Do you not love this! Hagiography! And what I love about “hagiography” (Google this if you don’t know the term) is its implausibility. And then, the implausibility frees us from the shackles of literalism to see the Truth in the metaphor, in the Imagination.

This was perhaps to be a “Christian” story. But it is essentially a Pagan story, a story from pre-Christian times overlaid with a Christian attempt to “Christianize” it. But it clearly succeeds!. Thank ‘God”.

Foxgloves! Here they are! (see above)

What do I like about this? It is an example of the exquisite human imagination. Where did foxgloves come from??? Out of the glorious human imagination comes an answer: St. Nectan’s Blood! It is the same with Jesus: out of the shedding of His blood comes the Flower of Freedom - in our tradition the Passion Flower, and the Crown of Thorns. But here is the wonder - that in Nature we find metaphors and symbols of the deepest longings of our heart, of our deepest longing to understand what Life is all about, where it begins, and where it goes, and what its meaning is.

Do you live anywhere where Foxglove blooms? Seek them out (or plant them). Meditate on them. They reache out to you and ask you – whether you are Christian or not - Do I catch a glimpse of the Truth that “God gives Her Life so that I can have My Life”?? Do they remind you that we are all part of the Divine, that is: Creation cannot fulfill its destiny until we claim our true nature and our part in it?

Each of us is a Foxglove. A drop of the Divine Blood. People try to kill that in us, in various ways. We do it to ourselves. But where our blood falls a flower of “God” grows. Our true Self. Keep an imagine of the Foxglove in your heart. Remember it when you are tempted to abandon our true nature. Pluck it – and breathe in its life-giving power. It’s scent will expand your spirit, You will become the "Christ" you were destined to be.

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, April 29, 2009

"O Trinity, eternal Trinity! Fire, abyss of love . . .

Was it necessary that you should give

Even the Holy Trinity as food for souls? . . .

You gave us not only your Word

Through the Redemption and in the Eucharist,

But you also gave yourself

In the fullness of love for your creature."

- Catherine of Siena, on her feast day in
the Episcopal Church Calendar


Beautiful, isn’t it! Leave aside the theological/doctrinal bits – they are a “given” for someone who lived in that time and culture.

But! “See” what it says about the understanding of “God”. This is what I love about people like Catherine of Siena. And my awe is not diminished by having walked, many years ago now, into the Duomo in Siena, and seeing at an altar the skull of Catherine draped in her monastic veil! I have to admit, I rather like the whole “relic” thing - simply because it deftly integrates human and divine. Think about it!

Just wonder at the words - and more importantly at the vision behind the words. Catherine got it right! She understood that All Things are One with “God”. She also got it right that the human spirit innately comprehends this Mystery! This is the blessing of those we call “mystics”. They remind us that all that Exists, in every dimension, comprehensible and incomprehensible, visible and invisible, is connected and woven together.

Our “modern” world has deeply dulled this intuitive understanding. Even worse, dull, narrow modern (and usually “religious”) minds have dulled the complex Mystery of Being. Catherine of Siena was not cowed by rationality. She understood at the level of the “soul” that human life is infused with the Divine Mystery – Word, “Sacrament”. The Heart’s “bottom line” is to say Yes to our Union with all things. Including with “God”.

Perhaps today, a prayer of longing for the grace to Say Yes would be a special gift to ourselves?

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Fascism is a religious concept.

Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism
because it is a merger of state and corporate power.

- Benito Mussolini, killed near the Swiss
border on this date, 1945


Well, boys and girls: have we learned our lessons??? Somehow, I doubt it. Sigh.

American suffered a form of Fascism between 2000 – 2008, made possible by our American naïveté, and by our appalling indifference to participation in our democracy - and perhaps as well by our ignorance of the principles on which America’s life is founded. Thirty years ago, a friend told me that we would be fascists in 30 years – and he was right. We had eight years of thuggery, and the cold callousness which washes out any tinge of justice or dignity. The State colluded with Corporatism, greed and money (i.e., idols) reigned, and millions of American citizens will as a result continue to grovel in poverty and sickness, both of body and spirit, for I suspect a very long time to come.

Many Americans today worship a Fascist God. What we call Fundamentalism is a fascist religious concept, supported by the power of a corrupt State. Tight control of others, intimidation, fear tactics, authoritarianism – this is what many religious people of all stripes both in America and in the World have twisted Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Evangelicalism etc. into, portraying God as the Ultimate Fascist wielding power in pursuit of ultimate control. In the process, making a grotesque parody of the God of Love. It is a joy to me to see that the number of people in America claiming to be atheists or of no religion is increasing. It gives me some hope that some human beings have managed to retain their essential humanity.

“God” is not a Fascist controlling Humanity. “God” lives in each of us, suffers with us, and raises us to Glory – all from a position of utter vulnerability. That vulnerability teaches us that serving others in love is the path to wholeness and peace. To those who learn the lesson comes Freedom and yes, ecstasy.

Let us reclaim both the State and Religion from Fascism. That, for a Christian, is the true meaning of “taking up the cross” and following the Christ.

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Monday, April 27, 2009

Hindu Trinity (Trimurti)
Three Faces of Divine
Three Cosmic Functions of the Supreme Lord
Creation + Preservation+ Dissolution
Generator (Brahma) + Operator (Vishnu) + Destroyer (Shiva) = GOD

- The Hindu Trinity


Well, I guess we are all trying to sort out the whole business of who we are and where we came from and how we manage Life and Death and what blessings there are in living Life and what we need to know in order to manage this whole enterprise, right?

The Hindus aren’t the only ones besides Christians to have a “Trinity” to try and sort out the nature and working of “God”. The Egyptians had one too. And some other World religions have a kind of Trinity, or multiples of Trinities in a hierarchy of Gods/Goddesses. Christianty has tried to maintain that its Trinity “makes more sense” than others. I find that to be grasping at straws. Unnecessarily.

I have been re-reading “Siddhartha”, by Herman Hesse. (Read through in one go; I recommend it.) After his long journey and search, in which Siddhartha disagrees with the Buddha in His teachings, Hesse has Him say to Govinda: “… here is a doctrine at which you will laugh. It seems to me, Govinda, that love is the most important thing in the world. It may be important to great thinkers to examine the world, to explain and despise it. But I think it is only important to love the world, not to despise it, not for us to hate each other, but to be able to love the world and ourselves and all beings with love, admiration and respect. ….. [Govinda says] ….. that is just what the Illustrious One called illusion ….. he preached benevolence, forbearance, sympathy, patience – but not love ….. [but Siddhartha said] ….. how could he not know love, he who has recognized all humanity’s vanity and transitoriness, yet loves humanity so much that he devoted a long life solely to help and teach people?”

It is, I think, impossible for the Western mind remotely to understand the Asian mind. I’m not sure Hesse did, or wanted to. He had been raised in Swabian piety, which he somewhat rejected; and he later studied Buddhism. Some would say that he was “rejecting” the Buddha’s teaching in the character of Siddhartha. I don’t think so. I think he believed that the message was the same in the Buddha and the Christ: Words mean little; how you act is critical. The Buddha gave His life over to helping people achieve full compassionate humanity; Jesus' life and death pointed to the same end.

I don’t pretend to understand Hesse well enough to know precisely what he was saying. He was, however, proposing that Love is at the core. I agree. Love is what we need to understand. And do.

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: The Weekend, Sat, April 25, 2009

"All things must end. Work hard for your own enlightenment".

- The Buddha (Siddharta Gautama)


I hesitate to say this, but, on the other hand, I believe in humility as correctly understood: so, (a) I believe that Enlightenment is like Freedom – it comes and goes and has to be constantly recaptured, and (b) I am Enlightened. This is nothing different than saying, if one is a Christian, (a) I am “saved”, and (b) I have to “work out my salvation in fear and trembling”.

Somewhere along the way in the Journey of my Life, I either grasped or was “gifted” with the understanding (or maybe it’s always both) that I am utterly integrated with All Being, human and non-human and – if there is such a thing – all things Divine. (My views on “divinity” have certainly expanded over the years!) I came to realize this from the comment that a friend and former parishioner made recently. She asked about my “childhood spirituality”, and its place in my Journey.)

I have “known” since I was a small child that I am utterly part of Nature. And part of “God”. I knew then that there was no separation. As I became involved in “organized religion”, my convictions began to be shaken. Christian teaching often tried to teach me that my being was somehow “broken” with Nature and with “God”. I struggled with it, but the essential Oneness that I experienced in my childhood never left me.

As I age, the sense of being woven into the connection of all things is reestablishing itself more and more powerfully and surely and confidently. Now, whenever I am accosted with religious principles or teachings which attempt to establish my estrangement from All Being, I smile and firmly but gently put them aside. I know who I truly am - and this I understand as “Enlightenment”. It is as an enlightened being that I engage with Life (though not always!).

“All things must end”, says the Buddha. Profoundly true. At this moment, as I gaze about our World, I realize that what must end is the fallacy of brokenness with each other and with Nature and with all the deepest Mystery that encompasses Life, including our body and sex and fun and pleasure.

I suspect that many of you comprehend that you are Enlightened. I encourage you to live it.

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, April 24, 2009

The poem is a little myth of man's capacity of making life
meaningful. And in the end, the poem is not a thing we see –
it is, rather, a light by which we may see …. and what we see is life.

- Robert Penn Warren, 1st Poet Laureate of the USA,
born on thus date, 1905

I agree - even if it sounds a little pompous of me to agree! The older I get, the more delighted I become over the human being and our capacity to struggle for understanding.

Now. “Holy Scripture” is just like “the poem”. In fact, they are poems. Imagination, seeking meaning. I like, for instance, looking at the Bible as an attempt of those two groups of particular human beings, Israelites and Jewish/Gentile “Christians”, from about 2000 BCE to 325CE, to throw light on what Life is.

Problem? What people think is weird. Gods/Goddesses, supposedly eternal spirits, don’t “talk” to human beings. Human beings enlist their imaginations to portray these divinities as “talking” to them. And onto these beings they project their hopes, dreams, wonder, ignorance, control issues, fears, needs for courage and support. Naturally, most of such projected deities end up being pretty screwed up beings! Just like the people who created them. Let’s face it: we humans are pretty weird dudes/dudesses!

I realize that I have spent the last 40 years of my Life unraveling the various cultural, time-bound projections of “God”. Bottom line: everyone has made up their own image of “God”. Some have been helpful, most not, in my opinion. So, I have decided to be bold! To do what all the rest did. I have distilled my own understanding of “God”, from various sources. Jesus remains central - because “He” (whatever “He” is) is a mythological Deity that makes sense to me! Compassion, generous love, understanding, delight. Just what a “God” should be! Or, just what I want a “God” to be. Forget the anger, the power, the vindictiveness, the pettiness, the judgmentalism, all the negative stuff. “God” should only have the nature that helps us human beings to disempower all the negativity and hate and show us how to be beautiful and caring and supportive of each other. And, sometimes against all odds, this is what I choose to believe we humans really are.

Friends: it is up to you to have the courage to reject any “deity” that is against humankind. If we can reject any projection of a “God” who sets us against one another, who punishes our weaknesses, who withholds the power we need to be loving and generous and kind, we will have, I believe, found something near to “the Truth”.

Take courage! Believe!

Brian+