Journey Reflection

Is-ness of Responsibility

2009-07-11T00:01:00.000-04:00

My current take on the responsibility-obedience-freedom relationship in Bonhoeffer’s “Freedom” essay [in his book Ethics] is an ontological rather than a moral one – obedience (from obedio = listen) means listening to the connected world, and freedom means how I respond in the solitariness of my decision-making. ~Frank Bremner, 4/30/09 e-mail

I decide on my own, finally, but my decisions influence the inter-connected community of life. Like it or not, I am responsible for the way the world is and turns out. ~jpc

The world IS my responsibility. Namaste.

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image: the world in Polar azimuthal equidistant projection (wikipedia.org)

No Going Back

2009-07-10T00:01:00.000-04:00

For the very first time in all of consciousness development and evolution, we have a worldcentric and global perspective. What a long journey! …It is an irreversible shift…. You can never go back. ~Ken Wilber, A Brief History of Everything, p. 187

We are fighting this new paradigm culturally, religiously, politically, and economically. But it is not a new perspective that can be replaced, for we know that the Earth community is our real world – not a nation or region. ~jpc

This is the world we have. Namaste.

image: Earthrise, about 40 years ago, photo by Wm. Anders, astronaut on Apollo 8, December 24, 1968 (wikipedia.org)

They Speak to Me

2009-07-09T00:02:00.000-04:00

Kids on college campuses these days who consider themselves religious will take a little bit of Thomas Merton, a little bit of Gandhi, a little bit of Mother Teresa, a little Elie Wiesel, Václav Havel, and they put it all into a mix. You say, “Hey, these are very different traditions.” And they’ll shrug their shoulders and say, “Well, maybe they are, but they speak to me.” ~Alan Wolfe in The Life of Meaning, p. 344

Who are five or so names speaking to you these days? ~jpc

Let the dialog deeply prod and sustain. Namaste.

image: from book cover of Great Peacemakers: True Stories from Around the World (2008) by Ken Beller and Heather Chase (many secular-spiritual leaders of college students have been peacemakers)

"The Life of Meaning" Book Quotes

2009-07-09T00:01:00.001-04:00

Note: During some of the remaining days of July, we will reflect on snippets from The Life of Meaning: Reflections on Faith, Doubt, and Repairing the World, Bob Abernethy and William Bole (2007, and now at books.google.com http://tinyurl.com/nbewxu). This book helps us to think “ecumenical” in a more real way, adding a deeper and wider dimension to the profound journey. Get a copy. ~jpc

Composing Meaning

2009-07-08T00:01:00.000-04:00

[M]eaning doesn’t come in the genes, he said; you compose it. You compose it out of your own past … out of the experience of humankind … out of the things you believe in, out of the things and people you love, out of the values for which you are willing to sacrifice something. The ingredients are there, he said; you are the only person who can put them together into the unique pattern that will be your life. ~eulogy by Bill Moyers at John Gardner’s memorial service, 4/17/02

The stuff of meaning is all around us to compose into a life. Namaste.

image: human embryo (Getty Creative Images) http://tinyurl.com/n3ejzk

Edge of Christianity

2009-07-07T00:01:00.002-04:00

The edge of Christian reconstruction has shifted from the theological to the sociological, from clarifying the gospel to constructing new forms of Christian community. ~Gene Marshall, “The Reconstruction of Christianity,” p. 6

And the new forms of Christian community are in being to care for the whole Earth community, especially since other religions are moving as slowly or more slowly – but thankfully they’re moving – to pick up this supreme mission. ~jpc

Community on behalf of the greater community. Namaste.

image http://www.artscare.org/peacepals.1.shtml

"What's Your Problem?"

2009-07-06T00:01:00.001-04:00

What you focus on as being “the problem” is simply the outward manifestation of whatever else is going on beneath the surface. It shows up in your life as a symptom – but it isn’t the real problem. To get to that, you need to go deeper. ~Linda Binns http://tinyurl.com/nddeud

Or as an old guru said, “Your situation is not your problem. It’s your situation. If you think you have a problem, figure it out and deal with that.” ~jpc

At the deepest level, you have no problem. Namaste.

image http://tinyurl.com/nx2wfz

Sunday Dialog CLX

2009-07-05T00:01:00.000-04:00

Nez: My student* said, “Trees and birds get to vote” through our representation.

Journer: So we humans are “representatives” in the Earth community’s legislature.

Nez: And we haven’t been earning our keep.

Journer: We’ve got to do better or lose our job as human carekeepers.

_____
* Thomas Berry, “Teilhard in the Age of Ecology,” interviewed by Jane Blewett, produced by Lou Niznik (1988 dvd)
image http://tinyurl.com/m7c4zr

America's Call

2009-07-04T00:01:00.000-04:00

Throughout its history, America has given hope, comfort and inspiration to freedom’s cause in all lands. The reservoir of good will and respect for America was not built up by American arms or intrigue; it was built upon our deep dedication to the cause of human liberty. ~Adlai Stevenson, Call to Greatness (Harper), from the Godkin Lectures, “A Troubled World,” Harvard, March 17-19, 1954

May we give more inspiration, hope, comfort, and freedom to planet Earth. Namaste.

image: (December 1972) Harrison H. Schmitt photographed next to United States flag (not upside down but turned around) – highest part of the flag points toward planet Earth (photo by astronaut Eugene A. Cernan, Apollo 17 commander)

All Is Well

2009-07-03T00:01:00.000-04:00

I’ve borrowed a mantra from Julian of Norwich, who wrestled with her own demons and famously concluded, “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.” Whatever I’m processing in my mind can wait until tomorrow. Tonight let me just embrace the faith that whatever the outcome of my concerns, “All is well.” ~Catherine Welch, EarthRise reflection (adapted), 6/12/09

“When I’m worried and I can’t sleep….” Namaste.

image: “Moonlight on the Water,” Tracy Longacre

"Namaste" before Dying

2009-07-02T00:01:00.000-04:00

The whole world … seemed to fall into the heart of Mahatma Gandhi, not only on the day he said, “I am a Christian, I am a Hindu, I am a Muslim, I am a Jew,” but on the day he proved the depth of his declaration when, after receiving two fatal bullets from a fundamentalist [Hindu] zealot, he blessed that zealot with a namasté before dying.* ~David James Duncan, God Laughs and Plays, pp. xxv-xxvi (books.google.com)

Gandhi embodied ecumenical spirit. Namaste.

* Note: a rendition of Gandhi’s last words

image: Gandhi's last steps http://tinyurl.com/ox6rwy

Jesus' Evangelism

2009-07-01T00:01:00.003-04:00

Evangelism as embodied by Jesus does not remotely suggest the closed-minded zeal of proselytizers…. It implies, on the contrary, the kind of all-embracing love evident in Mother Teresa’s prayer: “May God break my heart so completely that the whole world falls in.” Not just fellow nuns, Catholics, Calcuttans, potential converts. The whole world. It gives me pause to realize that, were such a prayer said by me and answered by God, I would afterward possess a heart so open that even hate-driven zealots would fall inside. ~David James Duncan, God Laughs and Plays, p. xxv (books.google.com)

Jesus’ evangelism of love is big. Namaste.

image: http://tinyurl.com/c4p39q

Fruit of the Leap

2009-06-30T00:01:00.000-04:00

When all is known that can be known, the responsible core of the will in the man [sic] has still to yield. He must act, he must choose, he must risk, he must make the leap…. Only by this leap on faith could one know the release of guilt, the sense of commitment, the acceptance of a vocation, of a calling in whose service is perfect freedom. ~Douglas Steele, “Translator’s Introduction” to Kierkegaard’s Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing, p. 16

Kierkegaard says there is finally no faith without a conscious leap. ~jpc

And the fruit is sweet. Namaste.

image www.thegreatleapforward.com/

Being One With

2009-06-29T00:01:00.000-04:00

I have this habit of becoming what I see. I become one with a kite soaring in the sky, to see the wonderful vista below through its eyes. It’s the same looking at a tree, unless I become the tree I will never be able to experience the insect life teeming under the bark … the lizard, the squirrel, or the bird relaxing under the shade of the leaves. This is equivalent to being one with the Universe, one energy … one of the highest forms of meditation. ~Stephen Isaac, taxi driver in Bangalore, India, 5/25/09, via Jack Gilles

Amazing what imagination can do, especially if I am a bird inspecting this limb. Namaste.

image http://tinyurl.com/n3m8ax

Sunday Dialog CLIX

2009-06-28T00:01:00.000-04:00

Nez: My student* said, “Have you made up your own mind that your occupation is your real calling?”

Journer: You mean, have I been called by spirit, ancestors, grandchildren, and evolution?

Nez: The question is, Have you made up your mind?

Journer: I’m working on it.

_____
* Søren Kierkegaard, Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing, p. 199

image http://tinyurl.com/km6qox

We Seem To Be

2009-06-27T00:01:00.001-04:00

We seem to be always passing on
but when we think about it
we are always in the same relation
with that which never passes on
but is forever present here and now

So I know you are in good hands
that you’re at the right place and time
that you’re being led by that presence
that will never let you go
who is now and forever with you

Journey on with this truth of truths
lean back and breathe deeply
till your breathing is transformed
into eternal expression of the power
who is your end and your beginning

Journey on, my friend

~jpc: written before David McCleskey's passing (8/7/08); and now for my brother, Glenn, who has just passed into another phase of eternal life (6/23/09): “All is well. All is well.”

image: “Blue, No. II,” Georgia O’Keeffe www.tfaoi.org/okeefe/okeefe.htm

The One Thing

2009-06-26T00:01:00.000-04:00

[H]e that asks what it is that endures has already passed through; he has already gone over from the time order to eternity, although he is still alive [p. 120]…. Commitment to the Eternal is the only true salvation. ~Søren Kierkegaard, Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing, p. 168

Commitment to that which does not pass away is our true salvation. We all know that salvation is not commitment to what passes away: for example, family, riches, knowledge, fame, or a long and healthy life. ~jpc

The one thing, the eternal, is never absent. Namaste.

image: "Submission," Lee Gass leegass.com/.../human-figures/submission/

Union of Within and Without

2009-06-25T00:01:00.004-04:00

There is a point where in the mystery of existence contradictions meet; where movement is not all movement and stillness is not all stillness; where the idea and the form, the within and the without, are united; where infinite becomes finite, yet not losing its infinity. ~Rabindranath Tagore, Personality, p. 44

…where we become aware of the wonder of union, whether we live at Machu Picchu or in Shanghai. ~jpc

Where has it been for you? Namaste.

image: Machu Picchu http://tinyurl.com/l336w5

Transform Institutions

2009-06-24T00:01:00.001-04:00

[Thomas Berry] taught me that a cosmology can serve as a guide to the four core institutions in our society – organized religion, the business sector, the government, and the education system. As Thomas memorably observed, “The churches are too pious. The corporations are too greedy. The government is too subservient to the corporations. And the universities should know better.” ~college student Malcolm Kenton’s remarks at Thomas Berry’s memorial service in Greensboro, June 3, 2009

Accelerating transformation within these core institutions is happening in spite of all resistance. Cosmology is like a river and its mini-movements like an ever-flowing stream … ~jpc

… until humans live in harmony with the Earth community. Namaste.

image: Yechezkel Streichman, "Ein Hod," 1956 http://tinyurl.com/n8mgp4

Real Courage

2009-06-23T00:01:00.004-04:00

[Within the courage to take the anxiety of meaning-lessness upon oneself,] all forms of courage are re-established in the power of the God above the God of theism. The courage to be is rooted in the God who appears when God has disappeared in the anxiety of doubt. ~Paul Tillich, last sentences of The Courage To Be, p. 190 (the book that helped “save my life” when I was 30)

Real God shows up when we are at the end of our tether. Real faith is most possible when the anxiety of doubt, even despair, seems about to destroy us. ~jpc

Real courage is always possible. Namaste.

image http://tinyurl.com/leghbj

How We Spend Our Days

2009-06-22T00:01:00.000-04:00

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives…. A schedule is a mock-up of reason and order … a lifeboat on which you find yourself, decades later, still living. ~Annie Dillard, The Writing Life, p. 32

Many shun a schedule. Annie says it can carry you and care for you on the long journey. ~jpc

Sail on, and don’t forget the inner trip. Namaste.

image www.thurso-lifeboat.org.uk/Present.htm

Sunday Dialog CLVIII

2009-06-21T00:01:00.000-04:00

Journer: Give me some advice on love, if you will.

Nez: My student* said, “Love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction.”

Journer: So I should find a mate and covenant with her or him to live together in common vocation?

Nez: And don’t forget to gaze at each other.

_____
* Antoine Saint-Exupery, via Ann Morrow Lindbergh’s The Gift from the Sea, p. 75

image: www.jasonmoon.org/wedding.html

3 A's to Live By

2009-06-20T00:01:00.001-04:00

Awareness: seeing beyond the visible, looking deeply into nature, self, others for what is hidden, the reality beyond the seen, the ground of being. Acceptance: taking everything that happens into yourself versus merely acknowledging it. Allowing each event, be it sad or joyous, to become an opportunity for growth. Appreciation: seeing every moment as God’s gift, as a holy moment, to be fully embraced and explored. ~Sandy Conant, EarthRise reflection, 5/2008

This A style can lead us to and sustain us in a S style of service. Namaste.

image: "Avery Learns to Write" http://tinyurl.com/kvwhvv

The Big "Who?"

2009-06-19T00:01:00.000-04:00

In today’s world, our neighbors are not just down the street or across town, they are across the world. We’re all in this dance together. ~Bill Gates, Sr., Showing Up for Life, quoted in The Costco Connection magazine, p. 29, May 2009, via LLC

And more, the whole Earth community is our neighbor, including its environment – all part of our neighborhood called Universe. ~jpc

“Who is my neighbor?” Namaste.

image: corboy.com/solar-system-model/index.html

Meditation Going Mainstream

2009-06-18T00:01:00.000-04:00

Once thought of as an esoteric, mystical pursuit, meditation is going mainstream. A government survey in 2007 found that about 1 out of 11 Americans, more than 20 million, meditated in the past year. And a growing number of medical centers are teaching meditation to patients for relief of pain and stress … students are learning meditation at school…. Very young brains may be more malleable. ~Marilyn Elias, usatoday.com, 6/8/09

Spiritual “development” is going on among all kinds and ages, thank goodness. Namaste.

image: fourth graders learning meditation through singing, breathing, and well wishes toward others (photo by Dan MacMedan, USAToday)