In The Spirit of Truth

A key relationship which could save the world

Every February we celebrate relationships of love. Relationship: the state of being connected. We have relationships with people. We also have relationships with things. Our cars. Our homes. Even ourselves. When doing dishes, I am in relationship with the water, the soap, the plates.

Ignore them, neglect them, and things fall apart.

I propose that there is one bottom-line key relationship that has been seriously neglected by most people. I propose furth that fixing this one relationship could help restore everything, the entire network of connections to lots of others.

You’re probably thinking I’m going to say the key relationship is with God. Nope. Not this time.

The key relationship I’m talking about? Death.

That’s right. Whether we think about or not, we all have a relationship with Death.

Think about all the beings you know. What living being–man, woman, child, dog, cat, tree, planet, solar system–is not going to die? Can we at least agree that Death is an inevitable fact that will happen to every person? And to every living thing?

While we may have varying beliefs about life AFTER death, this is only about Death itself. You and I, and everyone you see, everyone you know, will some day, face Death.

Death is real. Death walks with me and with you, every single day of our lives. Death is sitting, right now, there in the room with you, perched on your left shoulder. You were born with your Death. Your Death is always there, at arm’s length.

Yet the vast majority who walk the earth act as if that fact, that truth, is not true. That Death is never going to happen to them, to those they love, or to their children. Sigmund Freud observed that “at bottom, no one believes in his own death…. Every one of us is convinced of his own immortality.”

Because of our neglected relationship with Death, most of us are stuck within the first four stages of grief as identified by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. You may recall the stages, so well stated by Roy Scheider in Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and finally, Acceptance.

What is your relationship with Death?

Are you in Denial? Do you just close your eyes, surround yourself with physical comforts and pleasure, and pretend it’s not there?

Are you in Anger, which is simply fear outwardly expressed: always running away, forever washing your hands, arming yourself to the hilt, erecting walls, building fortresses, protecting yourself?

Are you into Bargaining with Death? Do you see and live life through the lens of the cold, rational, scientific mind, trying to talk your way out of the relationship?

Or are you Depressed, which is simply fear turned inward: sad, forlorn, deflated, and with barely enough energy to get out of bed? Does the thought of Death tend to take you down into a pit of despair?

Most of the world is stuck in Denial and Anger. Think about the wars and the misery caused by Denial and Anger’s children: rivalry, nationalism, hoarding and fear. When we create the ideas of national borders, of possessions, of “resources,” of money, of material wealth, we are doing so out of Denial of Death. Think about the misery inflicted by cold calculating intellectual minds in the pursuit of knowledge, a form of Bargaining: If we breed the perfect human, if we build a bigger ship, if we can just crack the code of the human genome, maybe we can live forever. We think we can engineer our way out of the Truth that Death is a fact of Life.

So where are you in your relationship with that little guy sitting on your left shoulder? Do you even have a relationship with Death at all–or are you stuck in Denial, Anger, Bargaining or Depression? Instead of seeing Death as an enemy to be avoided at all costs, could you possibly entertain the idea that Death–mortality–is actually a precious gift for which to be thankful? That Death is actually a serious Ally? Ask anyone who has had a near-death experience: Death enhances the value of life. Death renews, motivates, and infuses energy into our every endeavor. Death brings us back to the powerful present moment. Death touches our hearts. Think about it.

What would your world be like if you let go of your fear, your denial, your sadness, moved into Acceptance of your own mortality, and then went beyond it — to Gratitude? What would the quality of your Life be like, if you had a positive relationship with Death? A loving relationship, even?

Steve Jobs did it. He embraced Death. Death was his greatest ally. It empowered him. It inspired him to live life to the absolute fullest in every moment. Even on his death bed, he was trying to improve the equipment in his hospital room, to make life better. Mahatma Gandhi did it. He faced down legions of armed soldiers, with Death as his ally, in order to bring about peace, to save lives, to make life better. And the man, Jesus Christ, whether you believe who he says he was or not–He went willingly to death, without fear, to demonstrate that you can’t kill God. He came not to conquer, but to make life better. As did mass numbers of His followers. (We Orthodox say, He conquered death by death, and set us all free. But that’s another story.)

Life is a gift, a precious gift! And Life is never more precious than when we cultivate our relationships with those we love. Right? Well, what if we recognized one major key relationship in our lives–our relationship with that little guy who came with the package, who’s sitting perched on our shoulder, who’s been there every day, since conception?

Let’s change our minds, change our paradigm about Death. Let’s take our hands away from our face, wipe away the tears, and look Death right in the eye. Let us see Death as a gift, an Ally, to empower us, to inspire us, to make Life incredibly richer.

Think about what would happen to our politics, our economy, our environment– if we were ALL to stop chasing the fantasy of immortality?

Truth bestows freedom. Nothing in Life is more true than Death. We can run, we can hide, we can crawl into a hole. But is that really the best way to live? Freedom from denial, anger, fear, bargaining and depression, here and now, in this world, is true freedom. Treating our own Death as a friend, may prove the most key relationship of all.

A Human Need: The Purpose, Benefit and Value of Worship

Of all the differences between people, belief in God is one area in which we are almost all in accord. Contrary to widespread perception, only 1.6% of Americans self-identify as atheists, and only 2.4% as agnostics. The remainder, 96%, believe in the existence of a higher power in some fashion or another. A full 78% self-identify as Christian. Belief in God is “absolutely certain” for 71%, religion is “very important” for 56%, and frequent participation in religious services–weekly worship–happens for 39%. (This all according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.)

Could it be that human beings have an intrinsic and enduring need for God, much like they need companionship, food, clothing, and meaningful work? For a field that has not been studied or promoted in public schools for over 50 years, clearly the subject matter of divinity remains important and relevant for the vast majority of Americans.

Yet in the diverse marketplace of religions available to Americans today, many remain dissatisfied: 28% of adults report having made a major change of religious affiliation since childhood, such as moving from atheism to Christianity or vice versa. Within the ranks of Christianity itself, a full 44% have jumped ship from the faith in which they were raised. What is triggering all this movement? Clearly some needs are unfulfilled. Is there an inherently correct way to worship that best fills the need, and incorrect ways that do not?

At Death to the World is an excellent piece entitled In Spirit and Truth which answers these vexing existential questions succinctly, by going back all the way to the common beginning shared by Christians, Jews, and Muslims. In today’s fast-moving society where the cycle of human technological obsolescence grows increasingly shorter, seeking guidance from old ways seems oddly counter-intuitive. Particularly to those whose religious focus has been on more modern religious practices, checking in with ancient history seems foolish, awkward, and irrelevant, the author writes.

“This seems like death to those who love toe-tapping worship, but in fact the Life of God is hidden in these ancient forms and they very much need to be brought back in our day.”

Speaking from personal experience, having been one of those dissatisfied seekers who searched far and wide over several decades for spiritual truth, embracing ancient ways has lead to fulfillment far exceeding anything I thought possible.

In exploring the story of Cain and Abel, as recorded by Moses in the book of Genesis, we see that the earliest humans understood that to worship is to give away something of value to God. Similarly, Indigenous Native Americans practice the Giveaway Ceremony, and the Potlatch Ceremony (from which our tradition of potluck dinners hails.) Giving things away brings us closer to a fulfilling our need for relationship with God.

But in the story of these two brothers, the first generation after entering the world to begin the long lesson of learning from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, one brother’s worship practice of giving away is done correctly, and other’s is not.

“If we understand that true worship is as much a correction of the worshipper as anything else, then what we see in this story is that Cain was not willing to be corrected. He stubbornly wanted God to accept what he thought was good enough, rather than to learn from God what would constitute true worship. Cain was therefore a false worshipper.

“Throughout the history of Israel, we see God being very specific about true worship, not only in terms of what makes a true offering, the construction of the altar it should be offered upon, the Temple in which it should be offered, but even right down to the details of which incense to burn before Him. Once again, these instructions are given for man’s benefit, not for God’s. He who owns the cattle on a thousand hills does not need the blood of bulls and calves to be offered to Him. But man needed to offer them in order to humble himself before God, recognize his own sinfulness, and to glorify God as the Maker of all things and man’s only Redeemer.”

Many thanks to Archpriest Micheal Reagan for this excellent homily exploring these questions, as well as to the monks who have recently given one of my favorite sites a new makeover. Death to the World began as an extraordinary print publication in the early 1990s. A lifesaving vehicle produced with great loving care using traditional paste-up, then photocopied and hand-distributed person-to-person throughout the Christian punk rock underground, its circulation amazingly reached a pinnacle of tens of thousands. It is truly a blessing to find Death to the World given new life today, online. I encourage all Truthseekers to explore it in depth.

In reading and study, may the Holy Spirit of Truth touch your heart. And may Death to the World continue helping bring about the precise type of death that is necessary in order to find true spiritual life and fulfillment.

http://deathtotheworld.com/articles/zine-articles/in-spirit-and-truth-issue-13/

Blessed are the poor in spirit

“The poor” have become a topic of wide discussion lately, publicly and online. In a recent email exchange with a church-going Protestant conservative friend, he speculated about God’s proclamation in the Beautitudes:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”

“Why would God single out the poor for special attention? This thought has always puzzled me,” he wrote. He listed 8 possible reasons why God would show special favor to a class of people identified by their lack of material wealth, concluding that the poor are basically those who are desperate.

But “poor in spirit” does not refer to people who lack material wealth. “Poor is spirit” refers to those who attain an attitude of humility, a way of walking with the recognition that all things come from God and not from self. It is an attitude of emptiness of material concern, being devoid of all pride and reliance on own’s own ideas, opinions and desires. It is attaining a deliberate lack of trust in one’s own individual spirit. It is diminishing one’s ego, getting one’s self out of the way, and becoming an empty vessel. It is only by being empty of worldly, material spirits that one can then be filled with God’s divine spirit.

As it says in Jeremiah 23:17 and Romans 1:21, to be poor in spirit is to be liberated from “vain imaginations” of one’s own heart.

The violation of this spiritual attitude is in fact original sin, and the source of all sorrow. We Orthodox uphold and honor as the best model of poverty in spirit the Theotokos, the bearer of God, as the most perfect human being to have ever lived. For her choice, her attitude of poverty, emptying herself and becoming a living and loving chamber of God incarnate, she redeemed all mankind. By giving away her self, Christ was able to manifest on earth, and ultimately die to set free from death Adam and Eve and all of us.

And, of course, Jesus himself was poor in spirit, as well as physically. As He said:

“If anyone loves this world, love for the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.” (I John 2:15-17)

This is why the monastic life is so vital. The monastics give up this world, empty themselves and become filled with God’s spirit. The life of a monastic is very very difficult; yet the holy elders acknowledge the even more difficult is the life of a worldly person, with a family, who can attain such spiritual poverty and become filled with God’s spirit. Saints, whether monastic or in the world, link us to the heavenly realm for our benefit. Whereas our distracted prayers are like raindrops and trickles of water in a dry desert, their prayers are like firehoses.

Fr. John Hainsworth gives insight into the original Greek that has been translated into “the poor.” It is common to envision “the poor” as a beggar, as my friend has done. But more accurate is the image of a child.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit”

From the beginning of the beatitudes, we have a challenging claim. Sometimes this beatitude is read as meaning that we will be blessed and truly full of joy if we are fully aware of how insignificant we are, how truly meaningless our state is before God, if we cower in our state of spiritual poverty. But is this so?

The word used for poor is ptokos, and it describes an emphatic state of poverty: not that of a low-income wage earner, but that of someone who is without a wage at all, and indeed must ask for everything he receives. Commentators often use the image of a beggar to describe ptokos, but this is misleading. Disciples of Christ are not beggars; they are children, and beloved children as well, ones sought out by God even to death on the Cross. The more appropriate image of one “poor in spirit” is a child.

My little daughters are utterly dependent on me for everything. If I did not feed them, they would starve; if I did not clothe them, they would freeze; if I did not give them a house to live in, they would be totally exposed to the elements. A child, at least in circumstance, is ptokos. An adult is too, at every level of his or her existence. We forget our total dependence on God, the degree to which God permeates our reality. We forget this, or we just don’t know it. So, if we want to understand what poverty truly means, the first beatitude demands that we acknowledge from the beginning God as Creator of heaven and earth.

So, to inherit God’s kingdom, be like a child or like a beloved dog, who depend upon us, who look to us with humility, submission, and unconditional love. Our beloved children and pets remind us of the way that we are to look to God, and to find Him.

Christianity and Politics

FOR DECADES, the GOP has claimed to have the high moral ground, waving the Bible and painting itself the party of God. Their message in a nutshell:

WE are the party of Christianity and Judaism. WE are the “moral majority.” All others not with us are to be feared and despised as immoral, evil, Godless baby-killers, not to be listened to, trusted, or heeded. WE are perfect, righteous, never wrong, and must take all power away from THEM; WE the only way America can be restored to its moral decency–decency which has been lost, all because of THEM.

Let’s look to the book so frequently cited to justify the GOP’s claim to moral superiority. In St. Paul’s second letter to the young church at Corinth, which in those early days was not getting it quite right and needed correction, Paul identifies seven “marks” or “signs” of true apostles of Christ. Let’s examine these seven qualities and see which party today most closely mirrors the ideals set forth by St. Paul, who himself met the risen Christ, personally, on the road to Damascus.

The first sign of a true apostle is the ability to endure discomfort gracefully. A rare but beautiful quality, true leaders embrace persecution, even “take pleasure” and “rejoice” when reproached, persecuted, and thrust into need for the sake of God or for others, St. Paul writes. For they know God lives within them. The lure of comfort is very powerful. That’s why Christ said it is difficult for the wealthy to get into heaven; it is rare for a rich person to part with his comforts. Mr. Romney, with his 7,000 square foot home and riches beyond comprehension, holds to his luxuries so tightly he cannot even bring himself to endure the discomfort of public scrutiny of his tax records. By contrast, Mr. Obama has faced public humiliation by the GOP, disrespectful boo’ing and hissing and spreading of lies about him. He has been falsely accused of everything from forging his birth certificate to plotting to turn the U.S. into a communist state to being a Muslim. His achievements have been met with criticism and disdain, credit withheld for anything done right. Yet he has remained, for the most part, gracious and humble, not returning the personal attacks, and, as best he could, laughing them off.

The second mark is humility — consciousness of one’s own “nothingness,” one’s frailty and vulnerability. Humility is attained through having endured, repeatedly, deprivation, exhaustion, danger and near death experiences, which strip away self, revealing that true strength comes from God. The most humble leader in the GOP in recent years is John McCain. Draft dodging, insulated rich folks like Mr. Romney have not tested their mettle in the way of suffering. War, of course, is not the only way to suffer and possibly find God. Mr. Romney was invited by Catholic nuns to come and serve the poor with them, so he could feel what it was like. He declined. Living in and near poverty, seeing, caring for those less fortunate, and suffering intense hatred of others, as Mr. Obama has all done, is another test of humility. To truly play the blues you have live the blues. Mr. Obama has been there, done that. Mr. Romney, not so much.

The third sign is personal constancy, tenacity, patience, and perseverance, in the face of all kinds of difficulties. Mr. Romney is one of the least constant leaders to ascend the GOP ranks in recent history. His record is one of shifting positions to suit his needs — a series of 180 degree turns in core values, from supporting and then denying support for his own state health care system, to his turn from pro- to anti-choice. Mr. Obama by contrast has been consistent in his values of caring for others throughout his career, and any compromises he made, such as with the health care industry in drafting reform legislation, were done in promotion of those values.

The fourth sign of a true apostle is a spirit of non-materialism. They work without thought of pay or reward, “very gladly spend and care,” become “spent up” for other people. While Mr. Romney has been generous in his tithing, his career focus and the focus in the GOP on supporting corporations and tax policies that favor profit over the health and lives of people, acquisition of vast quantities of personal rather than public wealth, evading taxes by moving accounts offshore, and love of luxury, all clearly have a materialistic spirit. In making his tax records pubic, Mr. Obama has revealed no excessive pre-occupation with materialism, and often speaks of the best things in life being the love of his family — not his possessions. Democratic initiatives have always put people above profit.

The fifth sign is sacrifice. True Christians, St. Paul said, act like parents who sacrifice, who go without in order that they may “lay up for their children.” The GOP and Mr. Romney embrace and encourage their ranks to display stubborn unwillingness to sacrifice any tax dollars, even to take care of injured war veterans, hungry children, students, or to care for the elderly and disabled. Which is not surprising since they are avowed followers of the money-worshipping, anti-Christian Ayn Rand. Their hearts are clearly with their ample treasures. This is antithetical to God’s commandments. Mr. Obama and the Democrats, by contrast, support shared sacrifice of all.

The sixth mark of a true apostle is love. Love is the bottom line in all things, St. Paul says. You can tithe, you can heal people, you do all of the above, but without the spirit of love, it means nothing. God loves a cheerful giver. God loves those who are compassionate and desire to alleviate the suffering of others. God loves those who hate sin, but who still love the sinner no matter what. The biggest display of love, of course, is the willingness to lay down one’s life. Draft dodging aside, for the sake of love of money over people, the GOP and Mr. Romney display no love in their willingness to harm the economy, to take our country to the brink of financial ruin, and to cut vital services to the poor even if it will result in peoples’ additional misery and even death–all for the sake of defeating the president. Mr. Obama, by contrast, has prioritized in line with St. Paul, putting peoples’ lives and health first, then livelihoods, and then wealth. For this reason, health care was reformed in a way that would not only save money, but lives. And already, the fledgling Obamacare has done so.

The seventh sign of a true apostle is edification. He leads for the sake of building up his followers, particularly their moral character. Mr. Obama, as the quintessential role model of father and husband to young men of all colors, leads by example, demonstrating all of the foregoing qualities. Unlike a “hireling,” said St. Paul, a true father “does not own the sheep,” leaving them when his shift is up, to go party. He “neither flees nor abandons the flock” but cares for them and their development. Yet the hoards of Republicans erupted into cheers of approval when Clint Eastwood told them “you own America.” Mr. Eastwood followed up saying, we all own America, including Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. But his clarifying statement was lost on the crowd, who cheered themselves silly as righteous “owners” seeking to maximize their profits. I don’t think righteous means what they think it means.

The message repeated throughout the Bible: we are to strive to learn, act, and become like God, do as He did. We are to look upon ourselves as servants, serving others, as He did. We are not to act as owners, but as loving brothers and sisters, as He did. We are not to be owned, for we are His children, not His servants. Most important of all, we are to love each other, as He did.

By the standards of St. Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians, one party has lost the moral high ground. Despite its sins, which He said we are not to judge, the party today that is acting, behaving, leading and standing most clearly in league with Christ God, according to St. Paul, is President Obama and the Democratic party.

The Kitchen Sink

Do not take for granted the kitchen sink
Bath water it once held to clean baby’s soapy feet
Repository of crumbs and water to wash
the plates off which we eat.

Although stained dirty with soap scum and coffee
and must be scrubbed for the white to shine anew
the kitchen sink is a luxury
our ancestors never knew.

Running water from a spiggot still remains a dream
for millions who trek after rising from their beds
a mile or more with 40 pounds of dirty water
sloshing and perched atop their dusty heads.

Pavement instead of mud we have.
Blankets and soft beds instead of stone we have.
Endless entertainment at button’s touch instead of painful toil we have.

Yet, what do we appreciate?
Our voices, our hands, our papers and ink?
Do we live in gratitude for this and more?
Or do we disdain and take for granted the dirty kitchen sink?

Would our ancestors approve our slothful despair
and ever-yearning lust for more? Our annoyance at not having enough?
Would they, schooled in the rich biography and teachings
and practiced in the worship and in true communion
with Him who gave His life for us,
shake their heads, wag their fingers, and cluck their tongues
at our childish tirades when we judge and cannot share with neighbors
at our sleeping in on Sundays
at our amassing of wealth
at our poisoning of drinking wells and swimming holes
at our irreverence and forgetfulness of THEIR graves
and our OWN souls?

Do they pray for us now?
How long has it been since we prayed for them?
How long has it been since we remembered with gratitude and humilty
the blessed souls on whose shoulders we all stand?

And what of our fear?

My daughter brought home from the fair last week
a tiny creature with sharp seeing eyes in a shell
and put it in a plastic box no bigger than a shoe.
Unable to turn round in its tiny prison
Unable to stretch and climb and dig and seek
It retreats in fear and sits sadly in a corner
depressed.
Instead of crawling happily on our hands
It pinches our fingers with fear when we draw near.
We’ve lost its trust by making it prisoner.

Yet what else can we teach but what we ourselves know?
We who have imprisoned ourselves in fear?

Each day we put on fear when we put on the news.
Each day we put on fear when we lock our doors.
Each day we put on fear when we judge our neighbors as different than us.
Each day we put on fear when we judge ourselves as not having enough.
Each day we put on fear when we arm ourselves with guns.
Each day we put on fear when we rely upon ourselves for our daily bread
instead of thanking Him.

Each day we lather our lawns with poison in fear of a little yellow flower.
Each day we lather our sinks with poison in fear of a few invisible lifeforms.
Each day we entrust corporations to pasteurize and lather with chemicals our food in fear of disease.
Each day our bodies choke with fat inflamed to protect us from the toxic poisonous chemicals we spread in fear and which we now breathe and wallow in.
Each day our bodies choke with fat inflamed to protect us from the dead and sterilized and non-digested fermenting slop in our guts which the corporations call food and with which we stuff ourselves insatiably.
Each day we hate ourselves for being fat.

Each day we trade bravery for comfort
wisdom for entertainment
freedom for security
gratitude for disdain
love for fear.

Our ancestors who trekked alone, thousands of miles over sea and land,
with little more than the clothes on their backs,
they put on faith instead of fear.
Our elders who walked miles in the snow and wind and rain to school each day, and
endured the droughts, and picked the fields, and faced the straw bosses, and accepted the draft and enemy gunfire–
they knew how, each day, to put on faith instead of fear.

It takes courage to shake off this cloak of fear, this false security, and replace it with His shroud.
To put on Christ.

All this I ponder this morning, washing dishes, at the kitchen sink.

Thoughts on the massacre in Colorado

I AM TRULY BLESSED to have many dear and beloved friends, many of whom favor expansion of gun-carrying rights. These friends suggest that the massacre in Colorado proves the need for right-to-carry laws, that if only there had been someone in that theater packing a gun, they could have taken down this crazy man and saved lives.

The underlying premise is that we need to be vigilant to dangers like this, “out there” in the world, and that we need to protect ourselves. And guided by this premise, this belief, we keep erecting insane systems of protection…airport “security” with random strip searches, campus “security” with metal detectors, and now, expansion of gun laws, vigilante laws, and “concealed carry” — all designed for our “security.”

Yet — do we feel safer? Are we actually any safer? And what is the consequence, the logical extension of this thinking? Will we now have to endure metal detectors and be frisked when we go into a movie theater?

The traditional American ideal of justice, “innocent until proven guilty,” has been replaced. More and more the world assumes the guilt of all, and the results are bars. Bars to our freedom, to move, to speak, to associate.

Good Lord, and dear friends, is this legacy of a prison we are creating for our children, for our world, what You want for us, what we truly want? And how is this happening, that we keep trading our freedom for insanity? How can we find true security, in a world which grows less secure by the minute?

As a person who strives to find truth, the bottom line in all things, I suggest examining this need for protection. I am reminded of a powerful lesson from A Course in Miracles. Well, they are all powerful, but this one speaks so clearly to this issue. It is called “In defenselessness my safety lies.” Below I have copied the lesson in full for you to ponder.

Please note that this is lesson 153, about five months into a year-long Course. For more information, find a complete copy of ACIM at http://acim-search.miraclevision.com/std-second-edition-and-supps/index.html. I found its search engine not working so well but you can scroll down the hyper-linked Table of Contents on the left to find your way through. Click Workbook Part I for the numbered daily lessons. I’ve found the Workbook Lessons easier to grasp than the headier Text, which is recommended for group discussion. Visit also the Foundation for Inner Peace, the non-profit which holds the copyright to A Course in Miracles: http://acim.org

Anyway, here it is. [Note the the emphasis on certain thoughts shown below is my own.]

Lesson 153 (beginning day 153)

In my defenselessness my safety lies.

You who feel threatened by this changing world, its twists of fortune and its bitter jests, its brief relationships and all the “gifts” it merely lends to take away again; attend this lesson well. The world provides no safety. It is rooted in attack, and all its “gifts” of seeming safety are illusory deceptions. It attacks, and then attacks again. No peace of mind is possible where danger threatens thus.

The world gives rise but to defensiveness. For threat brings anger, anger makes attack seem reasonable, honestly provoked, and righteous in the name of self-defense. Yet is defensiveness a double threat. For it attests to weakness, and sets up a system of defense that cannot work. Now are the weak still further undermined, for there is treachery without and still a greater treachery within. The mind is now confused, and knows not where to turn to find escape from its imaginings.

It is as if a circle held it fast, wherein another circle bound it and another one in that, until escape no longer can be hoped for nor obtained. Attack, defense; defense, attack, become the circles of the hours and the days that bind the mind in heavy bands of steel with iron overlaid, returning but to start again. There seems to be no break nor ending in the ever-tightening grip of the imprisonment upon the mind.

Defenses are the costliest of all the prices which the ego would exact. In them lies madness in a form so grim that hope of sanity seems but to be an idle dream, beyond the possible. The sense of threat the world encourages is so much deeper, and so far beyond the frenzy and intensity of which you can conceive, that you have no idea of all the devastation it has wrought.

You are its slave. You know not what you do, in fear of it. You do not understand how much you have been made to sacrifice, who feel its iron grip upon your heart. You do not realize what you have done to sabotage the holy peace of God by your defensiveness. For you behold the Son of God as but a victim to attack by fantasies, by dreams, and by illusions he has made; yet helpless in their presence, needful only of defense by still more fantasies, and dreams by which illusions of his safety comfort him.

Defenselessness is strength. It testifies to recognition of the Christ in you. Perhaps you will recall, the text maintains that choice is always made between Christ’s strength and your own weakness, seen apart from Him.

Defenselessness can never be attacked, because it recognizes strength so great attack is folly, or a silly game a tired child might play, when he becomes too sleepy to remember what he wants.

Defensiveness is weakness. It proclaims you have denied the Christ and come to fear His Father’s anger. What can save you now from your delusion of an angry god, whose fearful image you believe you see at work in all the evils of the world? What but illusions could defend you now, when it is but illusions that you fight?

We will not play such childish games today. For our true purpose is to save the world, and we would not exchange for foolishness the endless joy our function offers us. We would not let our happiness slip by because a fragment of a senseless dream happened to cross our minds, and we mistook the figures in it for the Son of God; its tiny instant for eternity.

We look past dreams today, and recognize that we need no defense because we are created unassailable, without all thought or wish or dream in which attack has any meaning. Now we cannot fear, for we have left all fearful thoughts behind. And in defenselessness we stand secure, serenely certain of our safety now, sure of salvation; sure we will fulfill our chosen purpose, as our ministry extends its holy blessing through the world.

Be still a moment, and in silence think how holy is your purpose, how secure you rest, untouchable within its light. God’s ministers have chosen that the truth be with them. Who is holier than they? Who could be surer that his happiness is fully guaranteed? And who could be more mightily protected? What defense could possibly be needed by the ones who are among the chosen ones of God, by His election and their own as well?

It is the function of God’s ministers to help their brothers choose as they have done. God has elected all, but few have come to realize His Will is but their own. And while you fail to teach what you have learned, salvation waits and darkness holds the world in grim imprisonment. Nor will you learn that light has come to you, and your escape has been accomplished. For you will not see the light, until you offer it to all your brothers. As they take it from your hands, so will you recognize it as your own.

Salvation can be thought of as a game that happy children play. It was designed by One Who loves His children, and Who would replace their fearful toys with joyous games, which teach them that the game of fear is gone. His game instructs in happiness because there is no loser. Everyone who plays must win, and in his winning is the gain to everyone ensured. The game of fear is gladly laid aside, when children come to see the benefits salvation brings.

You who have played that you are lost to hope, abandoned by your Father, left alone in terror in a fearful world made mad by sin and guilt; be happy now. That game is over. Now a quiet time has come, in which we put away the toys of guilt, and lock our quaint and childish thoughts of sin forever from the pure and holy minds of Heaven’s children and the Son of God.

We pause but for a moment more, to play our final, happy game upon this earth. And then we go to take our rightful place where truth abides and games are meaningless. So is the story ended. Let this day bring the last chapter closer to the world, that everyone may learn the tale he reads of terrifying destiny, defeat of all his hopes, his pitiful defense against a vengeance he can not escape, is but his own deluded fantasy. God’s ministers have come to waken him from the dark dreams this story has evoked in his confused, bewildered memory of this distorted tale. God’s Son can smile at last, on learning that it is not true.

Today we practice in a form we will maintain for quite a while. We will begin each day by giving our attention to the daily thought as long as possible. Five minutes now becomes the least we give to preparation for a day in which salvation is the only goal we have. Ten would be better; fifteen better still. And as distraction ceases to arise to turn us from our purpose, we will find that half an hour is too short a time to spend with God. Nor will we willingly give less at night, in gratitude and joy.

Each hour adds to our increasing peace, as we remember to be faithful to the Will we share with God. At times, perhaps, a minute, even less, will be the most that we can offer as the hour strikes. Sometimes we will forget. At other times the business of the world will close on us, and we will be unable to withdraw a little while, and turn our thoughts to God.

Yet when we can, we will observe our trust as ministers of God, in hourly remembrance of our mission and His Love. And we will quietly sit by and wait on Him and listen to His Voice, and learn what He would have us do the hour that is yet to come; while thanking Him for all the gifts He gave us in the one gone by.

In time, with practice, you will never cease to think of Him, and hear His loving Voice guiding your footsteps into quiet ways, where you will walk in true defenselessness. For you will know that Heaven goes with you. Nor would you keep your mind away from Him a moment, even though your time is spent in offering salvation to the world. Think you He will not make this possible, for you who chose to carry out His plan for the salvation of the world and yours?

Today our theme is our defenselessness. We clothe ourselves in it, as we prepare to meet the day. We rise up strong in Christ, and let our weakness disappear, as we remember that His strength abides in us. We will remind ourselves that He remains beside us through the day, and never leaves our weakness unsupported by His strength. We call upon His strength each time we feel the threat of our defenses undermine our certainty of purpose. We will pause a moment, as He tells us, “I am here.”

Your practicing will now begin to take the earnestness of love, to help you keep your mind from wandering from its intent. Be not afraid nor timid. There can be no doubt that you will reach your final goal. The ministers of God can never fail, because the love and strength and peace that shine from them to all their brothers come from Him. These are His gifts to you. Defenselessness is all you need to give Him in return. You lay aside but what was never real, to look on Christ and see His sinlessness.

An Open Letter to President Obama

Dear Mr. Obama,

I write as a political independent and former city leader in the Campaign For Change in 2008. I campaigned night and day alongside hundreds of new friends, all inspired by your intelligence, wisdom, and heart. We saw in your candidacy hope for reconciliation and rebuilding of our just and great nation. Sadly over these past 3+ years we have watched the opposition master techniques of obstruction and propaganda, with demonizing lies circulated on a scale that previous generations would have called seditious.

Recently you came out in favor of gay marriage. I was deeply disappointed about this news, not because I judge people for their sexual orientation. I was disappointed because in the bigger picture, this was a seriously polarizing choice. We the people are all already a house divided. My heart just sank when this news came out, at what may come of this.

But then I thought of a way to reconciliation. I have a proposal I urge you to consider.

For hope of reconciliation and prevention of a new civil war, we must do what Thomas Jefferson did after 6 colonies rejected his first draft of the Declaration of Independence. To unite the colonies, to get consensus, he listened to the opposition and compromised on the key issue of the day: he deleted his flaming criticism of slavery. Today I urge you, Mr. President, to likewise compromise on the key issue of the day. You must, sir, honestly address the one issue that can reunite this country: Abortion.

Here is my proposal, for you and for all of us liberals. First we must look within, with true honesty, and see where we have missed the mark. We must admit the truth.

Think about it. Our children. The future of our nation. Unborn babies. Innocently growing in the womb. Killed. On its face it is time we admit that, yes, abortion is a sin. And that the millions of innocent American lives taken since 1974 is an absolute and utter TRAGEDY. It is time that we liberals admit that.

At the same time, recognize and affirm the greatest gift God ever gave to mankind: free will. And that free will extends to women as well as to men.

While there is a new innocent life involved, there is also an existing life involved, and to deny one over the other is not right. There has to be a middle ground. Why must this issue continue to divide us? Why can we not recognized BOTH?

Affirm that God gave us all free will and that includes women, but also stand up and say, firmly and with authority, that abortion, the taking of innocent life, is absolutely wrong. It is a sin, it is a national tragedy, and to keep abortion legal but extremely rare–BY CHOICE AND BY HELPING EACH OTHER. Not by guilt. Not by control. Not by force. But by doing it God’s loving way.

Announce a Democratic Initiative For Life, consisting of the following:

Full 100% paid maternity and well child care to all pregnant women and new mothers for the first 4 years of a child’s life, with education of unmarried single mothers a national priority. Pay for this initiative with taxes on the wealthiest Americans, with additional funding by donation. Replicate successful intervention programs like the one in Georgia that prevents teen pregnancy by taking loving care of teen mothers during and after their first pregnancy, so that instead of spiraling deeper into poverty by having a second, third, fourth baby by the time they hit 20, which is what has been happening for decades, instead they receiving intervention and child care and financial support to help them finish their education, disengage in sexual behaviors, and focus on building heir lives responsibly going forward, http://www.gcapp.org/ The initiative would also allocate funding to hire social workers tasked with streamlining the adoption process, to make adoption more affordable. Create a space on federal tax returns to give all Americans the choice to earmark an amount or percentage additionally on their taxes, to finance the Initiative’s Value All Life Fund, that will cover these expenses, and also provide grants to teach children to respect their bodies and stay chaste.

Affirm and support churches and other NGOs reaching out to women to teach them how holy they are, how holy their bodies are, how God loves them, how sin hurts them, and assisting women in crisis make the choice for life.
Establish the Responsible Fatherhood Initiative that has as its goal of inspiring absentee fathers to coming forth and commit to lifelong fatherhood and support of their children, with a small cash incentive for each child and mother acknowledged. Tie this program to a WPA type program that creates jobs like outdoor maintenance, road work, infrastructure repair and child care, with preference given to the married father. If they have children by more than one child, then it is time they stop their promiscuous behavior and settle down with one woman, while continuing to parent all of their children. The goal: end single parenthood.

Propose an Trinity Amendment to the Constitution that recognizes the rights of the unborn who are connected to their mothers on whom they depend for their lives, to be given every chance at life, that only human beings and not corporations are people, and affirming the Creator’s gift of free will to all mankind including women. Affirm the government’s interest in protecting the rights of the TRINITY of the mother, father and child.

Finally .. Issue a Life Support Challenge to surgeons the way Kennedy challenged scientists: we transplant hearts and kidneys and other organs — let’s make it a national priority to find a way to transport a fetus to another woman’s body.

All of us, coming together to affirm the rights of fathers, the mothers and children, will restore unity.

Keep abortion a safe and legal option, but make it an extremely rare, last option, by making the choice for life a GREAT option. By all of us putting our shoulders to the grindstone by supporting financially and socially the choice for life, we can do more than end the abortion crisis: we can herald in a new era that values ALL life as sacred – BY CHOICE. This is, after all, what God wants, right? He wants us to CHOOSE Him; we are his children, not his slaves. Let us HELP each other CHOOSE Him.

In choosing not to outlaw abortion, explain that you cannot fix one evil with another. Given the nature of evil and mankind’s temptation to it, to empower the government, any government, to step in and make medical choices for anyone is also an evil. Your wife’s body and your daughter’s bodies does not belong to the state. For too many centuries women’s bodies belonged to men, and we must affirm and acknowedge the gift and a privilege to live in a country where people are no longer considered anyone’s property.

Does religion evolve?

I belong to an email discussion group called RightMeetsLeft, and recently one of the exchanges discussed the “wall of separation” between church and state. More on that, later. But one comment from a gentleman that rang out to me referenced “the evolution of religion in America.”

Does religion evolve?

According to Merriam-Webster, religion is defined as
1: the belief in a god or in a group of gods
2: an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to workship a god or group of gods
3 informal: an interest, a belief, or an activity that is very important to a person or group [ie., the Packers in Wisconsin.]

To evolve is “to change or develop slowly often into a better, more complex, or more advanced state.”

My question is, has religion in America evolved into a “better, more complex, or more advanced state?” Has it simply changed? Or, has it actually done the opposite — weakened, regressed, lapsed, decayed and degenerated?

Speaking from an Orthodox perspective, the church is a spiritual hospital, and its many “ceremonies and rules” are practices 1) given to us by God, not invented by men 2) tools to be used for spiritual and physical healing. As we respect God’s gift of free will, the use of these tools is utterly voluntary, and the results of their practice — movement towards God, healing, theosis — are directly proportional to the depth, sincerity and discipline of the application. Sort of like, going to the gym. What you put into it is what you get out. For us, it’s a spiritual workout. Thus, because of this understanding of what Orthodoxy is, not from man, but a gift from God, proven to work and yield results, very little in the Orthodox church has changed in 2000 years, with regards to theology, worship, and ascetics. To change the Divine Liturgy would be like deciding to get rid of the weights and treadmills and instead show movies at the gym–and then still expect to get a good workout. Doesn’t make any sense to us.

There is a joke:
Q: How many Orthodox does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Change???
We’ll just light a candle.

So, from the Orthodox perspective, Orthodoxy is far more than a religion, a belief, or a system of beliefs. It is a practice, a way of life, that informs everything we do. A good example of someone in the news who is devoted Orthodox is Pittsburgh Steelers safety, Troy Polamalu. God bless him and his wife, Theodora.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/why-nfl-star-troy-polamalu-abstains-from-sex-40-days-at-a-time/
http://www.myocn.net/index.php/troy-polamalu-showcases-orthodoxy-for-americanshtml.html
http://religionblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/02/religion-and-the-super-bowl-tr.html

Last year during the playoffs, we had the pleasure of hosting our beloved Bishop THOMAS, who is from Pittsburgh and celebrates Liturgy regularly with Troy and Theodora. On the last day of his weekend-long visit, at lunch after Liturgy, someone on our council presented him with the gift of a Packer’s jersey and a cheesehead. He politely thanked us, appreciating the gift, but said, to roars of laughter, it would truly be sacrilegious and possibly dangerous for him to wear it or even show it to anyone back home.

Occupy movement will fail without paradigm shift

For years I have wondered how we can achieve the positive future envisioned by Gene Roddenberry. So many elements of that future have come true — from wireless phones to iPads and even some medical procedures — books and college courses on the “science” of Star Trek abound. But Roddenberry’s societal vision of the future, in which money and its problems have been eliminated, elude us. His vision of peace, prosperity, intelligence, and sanity reigning on an Earth that has recovered its environmental health seems much further away. The idea of humankind rising to a place of honor, wisdom and leadership amongst other beings in the galaxy, and an overriding respect of all life as the “Prime Directive,” seems far away. He painted the picture of that positive future so beautifully, so concretely, you can just taste it. How on earth can we get there?

Could the “Occupy” movement possibly bring us towards a more idyllic, Star-Trek-like future?

I believe it is definitely possible. However, I predict that the Occupy movement will have little to no effect on the status quo without a major paradigm shift, internally, in a critical number of people, away from the addictive egocentricism that characterizes the modern post-industrial collective American psyche. Yet, with the rise of social media, the possibility for such a paradigm shift has never been more real.

For the Occupy movement to truly have an impact, what is needed is a radical redefinition of the concept of “bottom line.” So long as individuals seek happiness and center their lives outside of themselves, OUT THERE in the world, around material wealth, money, and profit, the movement will have no power to reform. Until mass numbers of individuals wake up to the inherent insanity of identification with THINGS, and particularly with the incessant counting of pieces of paper, round shiny bits of metal, sparkly stones, numbers on a screen, or any other objects, as a way of determining identity and value — all the protests in the world will not make a bit of difference. In fact, I predict that we simply will trade one corrupt group for another. “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” We are seeing that already in the Arab world, sadly.

Given the power imbalance that already exists today, the current Occupy movement at best may succeed at changing a few laws. They likely will lead to violence, revolution, and even regime change. But without internal, personal revelation on a mass scale, inward, the movement will fail to address the fundamental flaw that undergirds our entire global economic and psychological system: addictive egoic identification to form.

For genuine and lasting reform, we have to recognize the real bottom-line truth: we are all addicted to the erroneous belief that we are the sum of our bank accounts, our cars, our homes, our possessions, our material lives. And that we need “stuff” to be happy. None of that is actually true. We need to admit that so long as we’re driving or flying anywhere, burning fossil fuel, wearing clothing made in sweat shops or sneakers padded with rain forest rubber or synthetic plastic, eating food that’s been shipped from the other side of the world — we are interconnected to Wall Street, and are fueling the problem. We are as addicted to the false belief as the billionaire execs themselves. The only way for reform to make a difference is to take a long hard look in the mirror, look inside, and admit our addiction.

Genuine and lasting reform is not going to happen on Wall Street, in Washington, in state capitols, or even on Main Street–without this healing from our personal addiction. There is only one place, one direction of change that will make a true difference in the world out there: it is what the Native Americans called the 7th direction — within, internally, at home. It is what the Christian mystics call “metanoia” — changing our minds, turning towards the light of God within. It is the true definition of repentance, the true message of the voice on the wind of the Forerunner, St. John the Baptist.

From executives to shareholders to individuals living and now unemployed on Main Street, regardless of class, color, religious affiliation, or creed–reform can occur only when a critical mass of humanity can genuinely free themselves from the illusory Matrix-like rat-race we’ve all agreed to believe exists. Reform can occur when we stop looking to dollar bills to define ourselves and see instead the spark of the divine within ourselves and our neighbors, and see these pieces of paper as simply tools that work when they flow freely where needed, not to be held and hoarded in fear. That will be when the possibility of a Star-Trek-like future can occur. By genuinely turning to the Source of All, the Light that is the spark of creation, passed down from our ancestors that lives and shines within each one us — we invite Grace into our lives. It is that amazing Grace that sets us free — free of all fear. Fear of loss, fear of lack, fear of anything. Only then can the dream, the vision, that all of us dare hope, can be real. A future of genuine and lasting peace, true prosperity, without war or disease.

Just as Steve Jobs demonstrated with his brilliant Apple products, it is absolutely possible for one person, with vision and dedication, to transform the world for the better. I believe that if just 1% of the population can achieve genuine freedom from addictive egoic attachment, can achieve genuine metanoia, union with The Light within, they will affect a cascade paradigm shift in the other 99%.

How to do it?? As with kicking any addiction, the only way to succeed is to admit our addiction to egoic attachment to form, through a 12 Step Program. Call it Egoic Attachments Anonymous, or EAA.

Step 1. We admitted we were powerless over our addiction – that our lives had become unmanageable
Step 2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity
Step 3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God
Step 4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves
Step 5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs
Step 6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character
Step 7. Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings
Step 8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all
Step 9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others
Step 10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it
Step 11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry that out
Step 12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs

Has there ever been a civilization — a successful civilization — that had no addictive egoic attachment to form? Yes. I can think of two. Both the early Christian Byzantine empire which thrived for nearly 1000 years, and the pre-colonial indigenous cultures of North America, which thrived on the continent for tens of thousands of years, possessed belief systems that 1) did not recognize or significantly downplayed the concept of personal property 2) had well-developed systems that bestowed social value and political power based on humility and selflessness 3) valued freedom and free will as a divine gift and right of all of creation, and 4) recognized the spiritual truth of our interconnectedness to each other, and to a benevolent and loving God who provides all we need.

As it says in the Bible, the way to discern good from evil is by its fruits. These civilizations yielded many fruits. In the case of the indigenous North Americans, they thrived on the continent for hundreds of generations without damaging the environment, without overpopulating, without destroying the natural balance which causes dis-ease, and without prolonged and damaging wars. Sporting a functional system of shared political power across 5 nations, some even inspired the work of founding fathers Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin and others in designing our Bill of Rights and bicameral triune system of government. The many diverse yet interconnected cultures which communicated and traded effectively from one end of the continent to the other, endured continuously longer than that of any European culture, or even the habitation of the British Isles — with very little war, with preservation and sharing of natural resources, with respect of the rights of women and children, and with very little disease.

As for the Byzantine empire, a tiny piece of it still exists to this day, operating on its own clock and calendar, cut off from the world, on a very very remote penninsula, which has belonged to the Theotokos, the Mother of God, since the day she set foot on it, nearly 2000 years ago. Called Mt. Athos, it has been called a veritable “saint factory,” producing modern-day wonderworking saints with all the miraculous healing powers of Christ God Himself. Recently profiled on CBS’ 60 Minutes, Mt. Athos remains a haven for the practice of pure indigenous Christianity, and is revitalizing monastacism and Christianity in other parts of the world, including in the United States. (See link below.)

Today, we are living in a dystopian world, an imaginary place where people lead increasingly dehumanized and often fearful lives. Gene Roddenberry painted a fabulous picture of an opposite possible future — a utopian world, in which the love of power has been replaced by the power of love–love of truth, all life, and good for all. A Course In Miracles says there is only one problem and only one solution in all the world. The problem is the perception of separation from the Divine, from God, within. The solution is to remove the blocks to the awareness of the spark of Divine within ourselves, of God’s eternal presence within us all and in the world. One can only hope that through the gift of social media, a critical mass of people inspired by the Occupy movement and the Arab Spring, will turn within to seek the power to free themselves from the mass addiction, the mass delusion, that they in any way derive their identity from things. It will be in this way, that we can call into our lives healing from this addiction, that we can last at last find true freedom, and become the sentient, intelligent, wise race we have the potential to become. And which Roddenberry so clearly envisioned.

The paradigm shift is to move from our “bottom-line” mentality from looking at “things out there” to looking at thing “inside” ourselves. To succeed at true and lasting transformation to a better world, we need to occupy ourselves.

References/Resources for occupying ourselves:

Mt. Athos Special on CBS 60 Minutes, about the living remnant of the Christian Byzantine empire, unattached to material form
A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle, which explores the egoic attachment to form
A Course In Miracles including Workbook of 365 short daily lessons on removing the blocks to awareness of God’s presence
From I-Ville to You-Ville a great childrens chapter book on keeping the ego small

That Which is Bread

The Pithless Thoughts blogger recently took on his first desk job after years in the construction business. Among his good thoughts about what it takes to function in an office environment were these, which I’d be hard-pressed even to try to improve on:

Well, the good news is, people are people. The things that “work” in construction work in an office work at Church work in marriage work in driving on the freeway in rush hour work in a monastery work at the grocery store work on the street corner with the homeless guy with a sign… etc. What “works” is simple, really. Just be a saint.
Be silent. (My opinion isn’t a necessity.)
Speak with grace if speaking is a necessity.
Acknowledge people’s goodness.
Apologize sincerely even if the wrong is only perceived.
Don’t engage in nor take morbid interest in debates, disputes and gossip.
Go the second mile…

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