Bible

Since I am in what is sometimes called the advancing years and sometimes the declining (no wonder we Geezers get confused), I am looking to give back to the community what I can before I kick the bucket, throw in the towel, buy the farm, fall into grave disorder. 

The "what I can" part is my take on various realms. I've already given my comments on the application of martial art principles to daily life, on the Gospel of Thomas, on the Bhagavad Gita, and on the Tao Te Ching, so why not dive into the Bible? After all, I cut my eye teeth on it, having grown up as a Baptist in the deep South.

So despite and even because of the heaps of excrement thrown these days at folk who follow the teachings of holy books, here I go!

Turn in your Bibles to Micah 6:8. 

This is a verse that brought me much comfort during my existential angst back-of-hand-to-brow years. I had pretty much soured on all churches, but still derived some understandings and some heart glow from this verse in Micah. 

The latter part of that verse: "what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" gave me direction..

I read that and thought, okay, I can do this or at least keep at it as a spiritual practice. All that is required is to do justly (heck, I learned that in the scouts -- Scout Law: A scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.), to love mercy (that's a deep one, I'm still understanding what that means), and to walk humbly with thy God (a continuous practice).

That latter one snags a lot of people who think of God as some kind of floaty creature out there who doesn't have the sense of a billy goat in heat and has screwed up the world something terrible. 

It didn't take me long to realize that what that ("God") means is my source, our Source (whether you capitalize It or not). The Great Mystery, The Wellspring, The Eternal Mother, Father, The One Who Breathes Us, The Original Kin.

And it doesn't say I have to walk humbly with people. I am only required to walk humbly with God. 

The rest takes care of itself.

Sufi Sunday at the Zen Baptist Church

"Today we have a visiting minister. A Sufi joins our Zen Baptist journey. I would like the congregation to welcome Nasruddin, who has the sermon for today. Take it away, Naz!"

"Thank you, George. How many of you here know what I am going to say?"

Silence. Then murmuring. Then finally a response. "None of us do."

"If you don't already know what I am going to say, then the situation is hopeless, and there is no need to proceed further. Back to you, George."  And Nasruddin sits down.

George stands up. "Well, that's it, folks. You had your chance and blew it."

"Wait! Wait! Please give us another try."

"Okay," says Nasruddin. How many of you here know what I am going to say?"

"We all do!" they exclaimed.

"Then I need say nothing." And Nasruddin sits back down.

Now the people are starting to get into this thing. They had been sitting like empty vessels waiting to be filled, for Nasruddin to unscrew their tops and pour clear wisdom into their containers. Now they are getting a little riled up and beginning to be who they really are. Some are grinning. Some are perplexed. Some a little angry.

They confer amongst themselves.

"Give us one more try," they say.

"Okay," says Nasruddin. "How many of you here know what I am going to say?"

"Some of us do and some of us don't!" was the instant reply.

"Fine," says Nasruddin, "Let those who know tell the others."

And he and George walk out into the sunshine and the beautiful day singing one of their favorite songs (composed by their buddy Rumi), "Whoever brought me here will have to take me home."

the Bible

The Bible is the story, the mythos, the journeying of my own soul. It tells of internal dynamics. All its voices are the voices within me, within us. The soul's struggles with being born, its journeyings toward understanding, embroil within its pages.

The Bible is not about "out there." The Bible is about "in here." A delicate yet profound truth is that in here is out there, but out there is not in here. Out there cannot touch in here, but in here continuously touches and transforms out there.

Amen, Selah, and Yes Indeed.

gate way

"Lift up your heads, O ye gates!" (Psalm 24:7)

Stop just plowing along on the horizontal. Open to the vertical.
Lift up your spiritual head. Aspire to the Above!

You are a gate between two worlds, two fields. You are a gateway to the Divine.

Be a gateless gate. Come unhinged.
Drop the snug little identity you have created for yourself,
your little cocoon of self satisfaction.

Open to Full Awareness! Allow the visible and the invisible,
the physical and the spiritual, the exoteric and the esoteric to be as one!

Lift up your heads, O ye gates!

consigned

"For God has consigned all men to disobedience so that He may show mercy to all." (Romans 11:32)

I know this verse is conventionally interpreted with the focus on the latter part of the verse: God's mercy.  I understand that and greatly appreciate the mercy of the Cosmos, of the Tao, of the Source, of God.

Yet, when one reads these words without the supporting frame of conventional Christian doctrine, they portray a quite different scenario. We humans are CONSIGNED to disobedience. Why? So God may have the quality of mercy. Without us, God could not be merciful. Our disobedience (to which we have been consigned) is essential for the bringing into existence of a distinct quality of God. In other words, we are co-creators of God and with God.

Much has been made in literature and plays and movies and sermons and poetry of "The Fall" of humankind as an explanation for our situation.   This is not just a Christian motif, but can be found worldwide across cultures.

But if we rely on this verse as stating a truth, whether we call it a fall or disobedience, we are serving an important role in the Cosmos. Through our very nature, consigned or no, we call mercy into existence.

christ-directed buddhism

This imagery, a painting (Christ Our Pilot) by Warner Sallman, had powerful effect on me as a boy and young man. I looked at it from time to time, feeling its power and directive. Only in looking back decades later could I see its deep message: I was to head for the shores and seas of Buddhism. As the young man in the painting, I would eventually firmly grasp the eight-spoked Buddhist Wheel of Life with its strong core and center. This would be done under the direction of Christ my pilot. I was on my way to becoming a Zen Baptist and did not know it.

How interesting too that the Wheel became the symbol I used in my first book, Embodying Spirit: The Inner Work of the Warrior, for framing the eight principles and practices for applying the martial arts to daily life (nine, including the Wheel center). I did that unconsciously with understanding coming later.

I am so grateful for the Mystery that unfolds within us.

the harrowing of hell

(Excerpt from "The World's First Ever Baptist Crime Novel")

In his deep inner being, Gregor knew that he had doomed himself into his current condition, a remarkable insight for a demon. He had been, even more than now, a rebellion hellion. But Gregor carried a small glimmer of light, a teeny sliver of hope, even though hope and light caused his dark heart burning pain. 

Oh, it was still easy for him to lapse into blame of others for his devilish predicament. He had full access to and continued to wallow in the seven deadly sins of Christianity, to cultivate the unwholesome mental factors and cognitive afflictions warned against in Buddhism, to delight in the infidel status ascribed to him by the Quran, and to enjoy being the poster demon child warned against by all religions and spiritual paths.

But Gregor knew that the Universe has an excellent recycling program. These bursts of insight came from a unique event – the visit of Jesus to Hell. Gregor had been present when the visit occurred and his future had changed forever.

In the church bulletin all had received from the diligent ushers at the little church’s front door, they saw that Gregor’s sermon was entitled “Rescued From Hell.”

After the required prayers and announcements and hymn singing and the taking of the offering, Gregor took the pulpit. His deep bass voice rolled through the congregation.

Have you ever been in that place where life itself is like a living hell? I’ll bet everyone here has felt that at one time or another. (Nods of agreement) Well, I’ve been in that place a lot. In fact at one time I was a prisoner there.

(He had their attention right away with that remark.).

But I wouldn’t be talking with you here today if that was all there was to it. You know how they say that in the darkest night a candle glows? (Amens were spoken.)  And every cloud has a silver lining?

I’m here to tell you that there is a little bit of heaven in the depths of hell! (Not a single amen on that one. It went against popular theology. But Ted began to smile.)

Now you might not be used to thinking that way. I hope I can make it clearer to you here tonight.

My life was once in the pits! But something happened and I stand before you now. I think you will be startled by my story.

Will you please turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 24:22?

It says, “And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit,

and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.”

That’s the pit I’m talking about! Imagine yourself down in that pit milling around in the foul waste of yourself and others, sleep-deprived, taken out and tortured, agonizing over your unknown fate.

(Junior nudged Thelma, “Is he one of those Ay-rabs we captured?” “Hush, Junior! Just listen!”)

And then, wonder of wonders, totally unexpected, you get a visitor!

I don’t know if you grasp the full implications of that. You are alone, without hope, the only thing keeping you going is some kind of stubbornness deep inside that won’t give up. Days and nights go by indistinguishable from each other. All you know is suffering and uncertainty and fear.

Then you notice a difference in the atmosphere. The pit-keepers seem both agitated and excited. You are taken with the others and hosed down with cold water, washing away your filth. Clean prison garb is given.

The word is in the air. Visitor! A visitor is coming! All of a sudden you are reminded that there are worlds other than the hell you are in. Your head lifts up a little bit. Something begins to stir in the numbness – the numbness that has allowed you to survive.

It’s like when your arm has gone to sleep from laying on it the wrong way and that feeling like tingling painful needles that shoot through when it begins to wake up.

Except that now it’s not your arm, it’s your soul. The familiar numbness can seem more like your friend than this painful awakening.

(The congregation gave him full attention now. They knew exactly what he was talking about.)

The Visitor was unlike anyone I have ever met. He was powerful, of radiant heart and mind. His eyes were piercing but emanated a force, an energy I knew little about. His gaze would have been unbearable except for his deliberate softening of its intensity. For the first time in my life, I knew mercy. I knew love.

(Eyes were tearing up. Tissues were retrieved from purses, handkerchiefs from pockets.)

It  didn’t take me long to understand the purpose of His visit. You can read it for yourself in Isaiah 42:7.

(Gregor allowed folk time to find it. Many of them being good Baptists and having participated in Sword Drill in the Sunday evening Training Union found the passage immediately.)

I will read it aloud.. “To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison,

and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.”

(People began murmuring. Who was this preacher? That verse they just read was generally interpreted as referring to Jesus. Was he saying he was there when Jesus visited hell?)

Some in our group stayed in their numbness, not ready to hear what he had to say. Others, like me, attuned to him right away.

I know what you are thinking. Is this true? Did Jesus really preach to those in hell?

First Peter 3: 18 through 20 says that after Jesus’ crucifixion, he was “quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, ….”

Jesus had just gone through hell on earth. Tortured in the worst way possible. Abandoned by everyone. By everyone! So he knew what hell was. And when he came to visit, we knew he knew. That made all the difference. In a sense he was one of us.

(People were spellbound now, not knowing what to think. You could hear the sparking fizzle of minds short-circuiting.)

Now I know you are going to be judging me, once all this sinks in. Not only is it the nature of humans to pass judgment, though Jesus taught not to do so, but in this case, my case, it is foretold in the scripture I am about to read.

My last Bible text for this preach-off sermon (Gregor was reminding people where they were, bringing them out of the hell-visitation imagery to the here and now) is I Peter 4:6.

“For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.”

Jesus visited hell to preach the gospel, the “good news.” And some of us heard it and some of us didn’t. Those of us who heard stayed behind and talked with him a little more.

He told us many things. I share two with you. He said that we had done so much wrong that we would always be judged harshly by most people. We understood that and accepted it. But he also said that we were not to be taken down by those judgments.

And this is the really good news! We did not have to stay in hell but could “live according to God in the spirit!”

And if that is true for demons in hell, think how true it is for you!

Brother Ted, will you lead us in prayer?

“Heavenly Father, we are thankful for this message we have heard preached here tonight. We ask your blessings on the one who delivered it. Everyone of us here has been in one hell or another in our brief lives here on earth. And we greatly appreciate your mercy and lovingkindness in visiting us there. We know that we are the ones who give ourselves hell, not you. All we get from you is life and breath and forgiveness and joy. Thank you for you, Dear God. Amen!”

crucial

We exist on the cross of time and space, nailed to the spot. And yet we are eternally resurrecting, forever transforming. The I we are today is not the I of yesterday nor even the I of a few seconds ago. Crucifixed and resurrecting, the crux of the matter and no matter at all.

anything but that, o lord, anything but that

After the Minister of Music had done his job of assisting the individual consciousnesses of the folk showing up for Sunday morning service to move from scattered personal interests to a more unified attentiveness through the singing of hymns, and the announcements made, the tithes and offerings collected, and a rousing rendition by the choir of "Jesus Saves," he arose and stood behind the pulpit.

Many had their Bibles in their hands ready to turn to the text he would announce.

"I am going to do something different today," he said. "Some of you are not going to like it. But I ask that you listen to the spirit of what I am saying and you will recognize the same spirit that flows through the orthodox version of the Bible.

"I wish to tell you a story that comes from the Acts of Thomas, a beautiful work that contains the powerful 'Hymn of the Soul.' It is not the Hymn of the Soul which I wish to address today. I will do that at a later time.

"A little background first. Many writings of the early Christians exist which were not included in the writings selected by the group of men that set themselves and their choices up as orthodox and all others as heretics. We are beginning to see their short-sightedness. They threw out many precious babies with the rejected bathwater. The Acts of Thomas is one.

"I could have told you the story I am about to tell you without telling you its source. I even considered telling it to you and revealing its source later, but that felt too much like trickery. I am up front with you and always will be.

"The disciples were gathered together in Jerusalem after Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection to determine who should go where in the world to carry out Jesus' commandment to go into all the world and preach the gospel, the good news. India fell, by lot, to Thomas.

"We know Thomas, right? He had a stubbornness in him that we might recognize in ourselves. He was the disciple who said he would not believe that Jesus had come back from the dead unless he could touch the wounds in Jesus' hands and put his hand in Jesus' wounded side. So it is not surprising that his response to going to India was this: "but he would not go, saying that by weakness of the flesh he could not travel, and 'I am an Hebrew man; how can I go amongst the Indians and preach the truth?'"

"Sound familiar? Not only do I recognize this same reluctance in myself and all us humans to not follow what we are called to do, I am also reminded of the story of Jonah and his refusal to obey what he was asked to do. We know how that turned out.

"Thomas went home firmly resolved to not go. He was not let off the hook so easily. Jesus appeared to him that night and said: 'Fear not, Thomas, go thou unto India and preach the word there, for my grace is with thee.'

"Thomas replied: 'Whither thou wouldst send me, send me, but elsewhere, for unto the Indians I will not go.' A stubborn man. We might hear that echoed in ourselves: 'I will do anything you require of me, O Lord, but not that to which I am truly called.'

"I suppose Thomas thought that might be the end of it. But Jesus is far more stubborn than Thomas.

"This time Jesus appears at noontime; the time when earth's business is being carried on. He appears to 'a certain merchant come from India sent from the King Gundaphorous (an actual historical person who reigned over a part of India) to buy a carpenter and bring him unto him.'

"The plot thickens!

"Jesus, in human form, walked up to the merchant in the noontime  marketplace and said I hear you are looking for a carpenter. The man said yes. Jesus said: 'I have a slave that is a carpenter and I desire to sell him.'

"Now at this point in my initial reading of this story, I burst out laughing. The audacity of Jesus! Thomas, who has promised to follow Jesus everywhere and thus in one sense, the slave of Jesus (Jesus is his Master), is being sold by Jesus into slavery. Thomas is going to India!

"The story continues: 'And so saying he showed him Thomas afar off, and agreed with him..., and wrote a deed of sale.'

"Jesus then went to Thomas and led him over to the merchant who asked Thomas if Jesus was his master? Thomas said yes. At which point the merchant said I have bought you and we are going to India.

The preacher bursts out laughing once again and many of the congregation do the same.

"And guess what? Thomas said okay!

"The next morning, Thomas rose early, in prayer, and said: 'I will go whither thou wilt, Lord Jesus; thy will be done.'

"And Thomas left with the merchant bound for India taking nothing with him except 'his price,' the money the merchant gave to Jesus to buy Thomas. 'For the Lord had given it unto him, saying: Let thy price also be with thee, together with my grace, wheresoever thou goest.'

"Amen, And may it be so with each and everyone of us. Let's stand and sing the closing song: 'In the highways, in the hedges, I'll be somewhere working for my Lord.'"

And the congregation did. And the preacher was not run out of the church for using a non-canonical text for his sermon.

from where do we come?

From where do we come?

Some are not bothered by such a question. Nor ever want to be. Living in the here-now and/or in the buzzing arena of the mind and multitasking body is plenty enough, thank you. No curiosity exists about how all this came to be. Perhaps it has all been settled by their birth story, the story they were born into and accepted without little or further thought.

Fine. But as for me, I am interested. I enjoy opening my consciousness within such realms.

Where do we come from? (Forgive me, third grade teacher, for ending my question with a preposition.) Several stories exist: a large grouping of them (see the Laurasian story) with common themes. First there was nothing. The nothing (no thing) gave birth to all that is. All that is is continuously emerging.

There are variations on the story, different words for speaking it, and the use of capitalization to indicate importance. Here is one (the story I was born into):

The nothing (Godhead) gave birth to something (God) which gave birth to a plethora of somethings (gods, angels, humans, earth, earth creatures, the heavens, etc.). Then the humans screwed up, or one of the angels, or both or if you prefer, the something (God) was dissatisfied with the plethora of somethings and decided to erase the plethora like a child erasing a drawing of a tree and starting again. The story goes that there was some good stock in the brew and it was saved for further use. We are the descendents of that stock including some angel-human intermarriages along the way. The story continues that we are all going to get zapped one day but nobody knows exactly when that is. We can throw a lifeline to the something (God) and in doing so we have already swung to safety. Makes for some suspense, doesn’t it?

Now I am sure you have your favorite story, including a story of no-story. I recognize that. So don’t start jumping my case about I didn’t tell the story right or telling me that isn’t the right story at all. Unless you really want to. I’m always up for a good story.

stone casters

Saying for those with calcified spiritual kidneys:
Let those who are a paragon of virtue cast the first stone.

pope go

How does the Pope's resignation affect the Baptists? Hunh? What pope?

psalm 2

Read Psalm 2 this morning. Interesting difference between the Tanakh (Hebrew-English) and the King James (Christian) versions of verse 7. Tanakh: "You are My son." King James: "Thou art my Son." Note the difference in capitalization. The Tanakh emphasizes the one speaking, God. The KJB emphasizes the one spoken to, Son. Subtle but not so subtle differences in translation.

scout meetings

"And David danced  before the Lord with all his might"  (2 Samuel 6:14)

Each of us sets up our own little structure of what is right, what is wrong, and what we think we can get by with. We worship religiously within that structure. Christ consciousness blows up the church. Buddha consciousness evaporates the temple. Rumi consciousness dissolves the mosque. And so on. When all our walls fall down, so do our rigid rules and our playing of sanctimony. You do not know what is best for me nor I for you. Keep going to your Scout meetings if you wish but come on out here and dance!