Brian’s Reflection: The Weekend, Sat, July 31, 2010

"The farm of a certain rich man produced a terrific crop. He talked to himself:
'What can I do? My barn isn't big enough for this harvest.' Then he said, 'Here's
what I'll do: I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I'll gather in all
my grain and goods, and I'll say to myself, Self, you've done well! You've got it
made and can now retire. Take it easy and have the time of your life!' "Just then
God showed up and said, 'Fool! Tonight you die. And your barnful of goods—
who gets it?' "That's what happens when you fill your barn with Self and not
with God."

The Gospel called “Luke” 12 [the Gospel reading for this Sunday,
Aug 1 – RCL; The Message]


Here’s a story about we human beings getting stuck in a severely flawed , diminished understanding of ourselves, of who we “are”. Dr. Peterson is a mystical master; I think this is why I read his version of the Scriptures so avidly . He understands the “hidden” meaning of this story. Look what he says at the end, in complete understanding of what this parable is about; “"That's what happens when you fill your barn with Self and not with God." This is not a story about hoarding material things; it’s a story about not recognizing the true Mystery of our human nature: our Oneness with all things, including what we call the Divine Soul of the Universe.

So: Jesus responds to the man who asked him to be a judge and get his brother to give him his part of the inheritance. He intended the story to be a kick in the pants! He in effect says to the man, “Stop wallowing in such a limited view of who you Are! Stop spending all your energy seeing Life as a contest of accumulating “stuff” that doesn’t enlarge your Humanity. Step into the Mystery of your Oneness with “God” and All Things. Then you’ll really be rich.”

Staying stuck in an impoverished Humanity is Death.

Choose Life.

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, July 330, 2010

I'll walk where my own nature would be leading:
It vexes me to choose another guide.

Emily Bronte, author, (“Wuthering Heights”)
born on this date, 1818, in Massachusetts


Now, there’s a self-confident woman! And a wise one too.

The interesting things to me is that we each must decide to trust and value our own nature. We can be taught all kinds of things, read all kinds of things. But I have discovered after 84 years of Life that there is no “proof” that any one path or religion or philosophy is the “right” one. If anything, all contain some aspect or dimension of Reality. In the end, something has to “tell us”, from deep within, what makes Sense.

I’ve considered all that I have read and learned and “been taught”. And I’ve come to my own conclusions and made my choices about Life and “morality” and “truth” and “God”. I’ve chosen what principles I wish to live by, principles which promote Peace and Compassion and Kindness and Respect and (a word and concept I find weak) “tolerant”. I’ll admit to one problem though: living in America and in the World today as a Gay man makes it very hard to stick to those principles! I struggle all the time.

Prompted by a friend, I’ve begun to follow the advice I’ve often given to others: Don’t feed yourself with Toxicity! I’ve eliminated everyone and every cause (even including the Human Rights Campaign!) that just get my anger up. I’ve accepted my friend’s advice that there indeed things I can’t control or change. That I need to concentrate on being loving and doing and supporting loving things and people.

So, we’ll see how far I get! Meanwhile, I’ve noticed how often my neck and shoulders are scrunched in tension, and my chest aches. Time to start relaxing!

The hardest part? To “believe” that God is at work in the World and that somehow Good and Justice and Caring for the poor and underserved will prevail. I have my doubts that it will in my lifetime, frankly. Pessimistic, I know. My friend also pointed out that those born under the sign of Cancer are prone to be obsessed with the idea that all the horrible things will never get better! Yep, that’s me. Christianity doesn’t seem to have done a damn thing about it for 2000 years, nor any religion for that matter!

Oh well. “I’ll walk where my own nature would be leading: it vexes me to choose another guide”. I feel the one I’ve developed over 60 years can be trusted.

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, July 29, 2010

The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the
beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.

Joseph Campbell


I’m with Joseph Campbell.

As I understand and indeed experience it, human beings are profoundly connected with the natural world, with Nature. We are part of the “animal kingdom”, however much we think we enhance our being “spiritually”. But let’s not be dualistic about this! “Nature” is not just “material”. Nature is both material and spiritual, if indeed we can limit Life to such a black and white division – and I certainly think we would be silly to do so.

Granted, a lot of nonsense has been written about how the lunar and solar cycles, the tides, etc., affect us human beings (like other animals). But the nonsense aside, I believe those cycles do speak to who we are in various ways. The daily sun “setting” and sun “rising” is a very central and powerful metaphor about the central reality of human development: our coming to the consciousness that we are One with the life-giving energy or “Divine Soul” of the Universe. The setting sun represents the “descent” of that Divine Life into materiality; the rising sun, the conscious rise to the realization that we share in the Life of that which gives life to all things. St. Paul described it as coming to understand that we are “Christ/God in us, the hope of glory”.

Separating ourself from the Natural World causes us to despise the World in which we live and are inextricably intertwined with. We mistreat it, as we have been doing, and “wound” it. We see it in our World today. What we need to see, i.e., become fully conscious of, is that in doing this, we are also doing this to ourselves. I think that the destruction of the human being is equally evident in our modern World.

One of the great gifts that my childhood in Montfort, at my grandmother’s summer cottage, gave me was the deep sense and experience of my intimate oneness with the World in which I lived. I knew this reality when I was very young – and it has never left me. In turn, that understanding gave me a return gift: it showed and continues to show me a path to wholeness.

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, July 28, 2010

All outward forms of religion are almost
useless, and are the causes of endless strife.
Believe there is a great power silently working
all things for good, behave yourself, and never
mind the rest.

Beatrix Potter, author of “Peter Rabbit”.
born on this date, 1866, in London


I’d like to think that Beatrix Potter was unusual in whatever her Life experience was that created such a position on “religion”. I don’t think it is the case however. My own experience with my family, my friends, and my ministry in the Episcopal Church showed me for how many people – especially former Roman Catholics – Potter’s experience with religion was strongly negative.

My father and his eleven siblings were raised Roman Catholic – and of those who lived all left; this was in the early decades of the 20th century! By the time I retired from full-time ministry in the Episcopal Church, over 80% of new Episcopalians were former Romans. They believed in a “great power silently working all things for good”; they “behaved themselves”; and they were glad to leave “the rest” behind.

If you find out what lay behind Ms. Potter’s feelings about “religion”, let me know!

I’m not going to rant. I just want to say this. If one is involved with a “religion”, we need to remember that “religion” is meant to be a handmaid of the Religion’s basic principles. “Religion” is the stuff we do to stay close and intimate with God, with Holiness, and with our vision of the deepest and most authentic Humanity. If your church’s “religion” doesn’t do that, you have a profound responsibility to try and change it.

If you can’t change it, then I advocate leaving it. We’re talking about your Soul here, so we’re talking about everything that is at the heart of becoming one with the Holy, of becoming our true Self, of knowing we are one with every human being and with all Being.

Love. Be kind. Treat others as you wish to be treated. As Jesus said, “My yoke is easy, and my burden light”.

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Home life is no more natural to us
than a cage is natural to a cockatoo.

George Bernard Shaw


By “home life”, I assume that Shaw means being around other people, which is only intensified by such things as family, spouses, close friends.

I think he has something here. If he is saying that human beings are essentially unique, solitary beings, I think I agree. I don’t think that Shaw is just being cynical.

Think about “Adam and Eve”. Adam was at first alone. On the whole I think he was doing just fine! Sounds idyllic to me, from my own rather “monastic” temperament! Craving, and getting, Eve as a companion really made a mess of things.

But the story remember is teleological: it is an attempt to “explain” something “backwards”, as it were. In this case, it is trying to have a go at explaining why human relationships are so messy! We may indeed be solitary beings, but we in fact live in relationship – with other humans, or animals, or the land, whatever. It seems that “home life” is a given, on some level.

“Natural” is not the normal living state of human beings. “Unnatural” is. Being “human”, like it or not, is the product of our uniquenesses rubbing up against each other.

The secret is learning how to make “home life” enhance us, not diminish us. Such is the art of Life.

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Monday, July 26, 2010

Abraham confronted [God], "Are you serious? Are you planning on getting rid
of the good people right along with the bad? What if there are fifty decent people
left in the city; will you lump the good with the bad and get rid of the lot? …..
[ 40, 30, 20, 10 ] ….. What if you only come up with ten?" "For the sake of only ten,
I won't destroy the city."

from Genesis 18 [The Message] – The Gospel reading for Pentecost IX



The story of Abraham we hear today reveals what I think is the most exciting dimension of the Mystery called Prayer.

Most people think that this is a story about God. About God being convinced to “change Her mind”.

It isn’t. It’s a story about us. It’s about our Journey into the depth of Mystery of God and the Mystery of our true Selves - which ultimately, so the mystics tell us, are the same thing. It’s about us changing our minds, our perceptions, our understanding. It’s Abraham who sees, step by step, deeper into the Mystery of God’s Justice and Compassion, deeper into the Mystery of what it means to be Human.

I have no doubt that Abraham would have worked God down to 1, maybe even none!. Perhaps that he only got to 10 is a sign to us that the Journey into God and Self never ends. There is always a deeper layer. Step by step, Abraham was challenging himself, opening himself to a fuller and deeper understanding and experience of the Mystery we call God.

Abraham – and we – are exploring the Question: “Just how extravagant, how generous, is God’s love and compassion for us?” This story asks us to contemplate the Mystery of both God’s and our infinite capacity for Compassion.

Brian+

Brian’s Reflection: Friday, July 23, 2010

Never think you've seen the last of anything.

Eudora Welty, author; she died on this date,
2001, age 92



Well, I guess I’m glad to have that bit of wisdom ….. though I’m not at all sure. At least there are two sides to it. I am desperately sick of the way the World is at the moment ….. bombings and killings and racism and religious extremism and political corruption and millions of refugees and people dying of hunger and disease, and militarism and drug-runners, and Swiss bank accounts stuffed with billions stolen by elected officials (including Americans, of course) ….. and on it goes. It is so depressing. So discouraging. So disgusting. It isn’t the last of it, either ….. and I suspect from History that it will go on forever.

But. There are indeed loving kind and generous and honourable people who are doing their best to care. The political and economic elites aren’t, alas, among them. And it crushes me to think that most often we have put them in their positions where they can exploit and enrich themselves. I look at the American Congress today and I am sickened by their flagrant self-serving and aggrandizement.

“Never think you’ve seen the last of anything” says Eudora. She’s right. It will get a lot worse.

Be kind, generous, loving, compassionate, thoughtful, caring. That’s what all the truly great teachers of the Soul tell us.

Better take a deep breath and live those principles. I hope Karma will eventually turn the tables. We can only be true to the Christos within us. And to those who share our hope.

Brian+

p.s. I said that Rufus Wainright wrote many operas. I was mistaken. Apologies.