Hopeful Thinking

    Dignity is a somewhat mysterious thing. It’s entangled with the concept of perfection, but more on that in a bit. The origin of the word dignity comes from the Latin dignitas meaning worthiness. Efforts to retain our dignity go far deeper than just keeping up appearances. They go to the core of our self-worth. Our sense of individual value to the world.     It’s easy to see that when someone wishes to demoralize another they almost always first seek to undermine their dignity. Hitting someone ‘below the belt’ is just such an exercise. But similarly, governments can accomplish the same through underfunded education and healthcare. Entire societies are transformed into tsunamis of refugees from war fleeing toward a shred hope of dignity in other lands. Often only to be turned away there as well. Of what value must these people feel that they retain in the world?  Very little by the way they are often regarded.     And of those w...

Meditation: The Trees are Connected       Science has concluded that forests are networks of communication. The trees talk to each other. Different species collude with one another to take over in ways that include forms of conversation and awareness. If we were to define hearing as an awareness response to a sound made, trees hear. If we define a sense of touch based upon an awareness response from coming into contact with something other than themselves, trees feel and can sense difference. If they alter themselves in some way when around people, they know we are here.       Take a deep breath and enter with me into the forest. Picture the light as it filters through the leaves. The particular shade of green. The sound of the leaves as they gently clack together in the breeze. The soft creaking of branches and limbs at sway.       You find a comfortable seat in the forest and just observe it. Inhale it. Im...

    If we were to forgive Christianity—which is really to say forgive those who have mislabeled themselves Christian—we might find the grace we seek for ourselves. If we maintain compassion and even hospitality for those who have found in their religious sect what they thought was a safe harbor from the world they fear so much, they might give themselves permission for the scales to fall from their eyes. Surround fear with love. That’s what the teachings say. Even when fear comes from the teachers themselves. Ignore convention. Listen to someone’s heart, not their mouth. Heal their wounds, don’t judge them for their scars. Frightened people make terrible choices. Sooth their fears. Keep them safe. Build their health. Educate them. Eventually they will make better decisions. Jesus’s teachings ask us to be proactive in reaching out to people who are sick, alienated, rejected, judged. These are the very people who claim to know exactly whom God hates and why. They are...

    It’s fair but unfortunate to say that many people have been hurt by religion. But allow me to be more specific. People have been hurt by those who have misused religion. Spiritual guidance has been misappropriated by power structures ranging from popes to pastors to parents. We live in an age where a form of Christianity has evolved that speaks more of fear masquerading as hate than compassion and hospitality. How much of our airwaves have been taken up by those demanding their so-called religious freedom to exclude? From what Bible are they taking their teachings? None that I have ever read.     But there is a message inside the jewel-encrusted bottle we have been taught to worship. The teachings.     Regardless of his parentage, Jesus of Nazareth was first and foremost a teacher of a practice. The practice is what really got him into trouble. Rome wanted to be in charge. The teachings taught us that we are in charge of ourselves...

Thank you for whatever It is. It doesn’t matter what makes atoms hold together. It’s not important what reality created or sustains us. I am grateful for whatever the confluence of circumstances it is which makes it possible to exist. Some believe It is a being named God or Allah or Adonai. Maybe they are all correct. Maybe they aren’t. I have no ability to confirm or deny it. I personally believe in God by many names, but I can’t impose that belief upon anyone else. It may be that spending our time fussing over a definition of “God” is the exact opposite of what we are made to be doing. Or perhaps we were not 'made' at all. Does that thought change anything? However, gratitude remains essential. It connects us with the fullness of experience. It creates a tendency for even more things about which we can be grateful to gravitate towards us. We become a vacuum of abundance. Religion shows us a way to make gratitude, a.k.a. praise, a part of our daily habit. It is correct to...

    Make a decision. Do no harm. It’s simple enough. Don’t wreck anything. Don’t hurt people, things, or life. Don’t make a mess unless you have the courage to both learn from and clean up the results. It’s okay to break things, especially rules. Yet still, try to do no harm.     Then comes the contemplative part. Spend some time to sit with the thought of it. Mull it over. What does it mean to do no harm? How creative can we get? How far do we go? There are monks of some orders who pluck the hairs from their heads rather than run the risk of having to someday kill lice. Mother nature is doing the job for me, thankfully. I’m glad I managed to dodge that bullet. But I still have to decide what impact I am willing to make upon the world. Even the gentlest of footprints alters the landscape. It’s impossible to leave no trace of our existence on this planet. Is there a distinguishable line between what’s ethical and what’s practical? We see nature and ...