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June 23, 2013 in Uncategorized

IASP will be taking a bit of a break this week.

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June 23, 2013 at 8:59 am

Tress

It is time to thank you again.
and to wish you a happy relaxing break!

June 23, 2013 at 2:07 pm

Jennifer

Yes, I enjoy reading this blog very much. Happy break!

June 23, 2013 at 3:04 pm

jaqueline

Happy Break from me too!

July 5, 2013 at 10:58 pm

Kimgye

I disagree that the writer is speaking of taking a break as you all assume. I think we are to think of space in the larger picture. Note that the acronym for the International Space Station is ISS. I think that’s pretty close and clearly not coincidence. I think I left an extra space at the beginning of the last sentence too. Space.
If Christopher has been taken by an alien spaceship, this could be a covert way of calling for help……………………..of course if the aliens can read this, I have blown his cover! Oops, I’ve ,done it again. Well, my point is, we may not know for sure until he returns.
Anybody onto occupying IASP in the meantime? I have a killer Curry recipe. Also, you wouldn’t believe the image I saw on my wall yesterday!

Really!, please you guys, don’t go. Just a minute………….,lets talk…………..come on! Okay, no recipes, I promise. Whadda ya say?

July 6, 2013 at 7:23 am

Jennifer

Lol! I wouldn’t mind seeing that recipe!!!!

July 6, 2013 at 10:26 am

Lindsay

*laughing* What would you like to talk about, Kim?

July 27, 2013 at 10:02 pm

kimgye

How about a question to ask ourselves? My suggestion for discussion might be: What do I do in my life to keep from being present?

What do you think? Want to do this, or maybe another question?

July 28, 2013 at 4:33 pm

Lindsay

What a wonderful question, Kim! I also like the corollary: What do I do in my life to keep being present?

July 8, 2013 at 6:37 am

jaqueline

withdrawal…………back away from the blog…..one. step. at. a. time…..
Easy now………..no, no, don’t worry about the shaking, or the sweats…over in no time……

July 28, 2013 at 6:49 am

Steve

Since his “bit of a break” has been going on for over a month now, I am growing concerned for Christopher. Does anyone know where he is or what has happened? It’s not that he owes anyone an explanation but rather that it is out of character for him. Last time he offered a lengthy rationalization for his “break” but this time it seems like it is something not planned for. I am just wondering if maybe he is ill or has had a family emergency. In any case, my prayers are with you Christopher.

July 28, 2013 at 8:24 am

kimgye

I think he is just fine Steve. He has lots of family commitments like the rest of us this summer, but more likely he is recharging his writer’s batteries for the fall. He has taken similar breaks before.

August 3, 2013 at 10:58 am

jaqueline

Hi Steve….his grand kiddies have been top most priority.
July here has been too beautiful ( just as well since August has decided to replenish our water supply )
and he has been giving ripper sermons.
We have had a number of Christopher sightings and he seems to be bright eyed and bushy tailed.

August 4, 2013 at 1:34 pm

Lindsay

Hey Steve, if you want to catch some of Christopher’s sermon’s you can find them posted here http://stphilipvictoria.ca/resources/multimedia/

July 28, 2013 at 3:26 pm

Jennifer

In answer to Kim’s question…for me it is not a matter of doing..but the fact that I don’t have enough being to keep me present. What does being present mean?

July 28, 2013 at 4:09 pm

Steve

I say the answer to both questions is that being and doing are both about connectedness to self, to others, and to God. When we are connected we are our at our fullest, manifesting the best of our humanness, our God nature. A recurring biblical injunction is eliminating all those things from our lives that separate us from the love of God, i.e. cut off your right hand (not literally please) if it causes you to sin, sin being that which cuts us off from the love of God.

So, all these things we become preoccupied with to the extent that we put love of self, neighbor and God in the background are in essence idols or false Gods. That is to say we fool ourselves into thinking they do or will bring us happiness or fulfillment when in fact they do the opposite, they only bring temporary pleasure and frequently they benefit only self but not always.

So I say “being present” is about being connected, being our highest human self, being sensitive to needs of others around us, to the beauty around us, experiencing the beauty of holiness.

I get sad when I think how much of my life I have spent being “absent”.
I am at a stage of my life where I think about things like that a lot.

Leave it to me…comments and criticisms are welcomed.

July 28, 2013 at 6:47 pm

Jennifer

I think connection to self and others and God is a huge part of being present…..thanks.

August 3, 2013 at 11:00 am

jaqueline

“A recurring biblical injunction is eliminating all those things from our lives that separate us from the love of God, i.e. cut off your right hand (not literally please) if it causes you to sin, sin being that which cuts us off from the love of God.”

that is not an injunction…that is a example Jesus gives of how hopeless it is to rid ourselves of sin and that our actions are useless and not to take the law literally.

July 28, 2013 at 6:52 pm

Jennifer

In answer to Lindsay..what to do to keep being…or remain present? Suffering certainly keeps one present. To keep being…probably in the words of Jesus, we must lose our life in order to gain it. I feel most alive when I am gardening, cooking, walking, having coffee with a friend and singing chants to The Beloved. These are the positive things that keep being. The suffering seems to create being. Both neurotic suffering and non neurotic suffering seem to be doorways to presence.

July 28, 2013 at 7:23 pm

Steve

“Both neurotic suffering and non neurotic suffering seem to be doorways to presence.”

They can be doorways but they can and frequently do lead to withdrawal, isolation and despair. Herein lies the essence of belief, faith, hope etc.

July 28, 2013 at 8:50 pm

Jennifer

True Steve.

July 28, 2013 at 7:34 pm

Kimgye

Well, if I were to start a list………….
I watch tv. I read. I talk about the weather with others. That kind of stuff. Anything to avoid being alone with ……..me. I have a drink or three. I watch hockey. I listen to others. All these, but not simply being aware in the moment of what it is like right this minute to be Kim. If I were present, I would notice what I felt like. Physically, maybe emotionally or spiritually. Just noticing what arises without judging it. I just don’t seem to be able to just let it be there without commenting on whether its right or wrong. Of God or not. Justifying what has arisen. It’s a challenge for me. This is why silent contemplation is both a chore and a blessing I guess.

July 28, 2013 at 8:24 pm

Steve

Welcome to the human race Kingye. In times past, when people lived on farms with no TV, radio, internet, magazines, cars, absolutely nothing to do but work, cook, sleep and if you wanted entertainment or distractions you had to… well, talk to people, whoever you happened to be around. I think they were more “present” back then. I think they understood the joy of service, it was almost impossible to be an island, disconnected from the rest of humanity. They better understood their interdependence. We postmoderns face an especially daunting challenge and is it any wonder why so few people know true faith. With the wealth we have, insurance, retirement income, welfare and all the modern conveniences we just don’t need it that much, or so it seems. We are impoverished rich people. Jesus talks about being rich in poverty.

July 28, 2013 at 8:51 pm

Jennifer

…a blessing and a curse! LOL!

July 28, 2013 at 8:52 pm

Jennifer

That last was in reply to KIm…

July 29, 2013 at 12:37 am

Lindsay

Yesterday I was listening to a lady talking at our Aboriginal Neighbours meeting. She was telling us how she came to be involved as part of the support team in the ‘Run for Justice’ back in 1988 and while she was talking she started to cry.

The energy in the room changed the instance she started to cry. We could feel her sorrow, understand her struggle.

She described how most of her life she couldn’t understand why it was she wept so easily, until someone pointed out to her she is a traditional Crier, apparently an ‘official’ calling, and how after it was explained to her role is to be a Crier, all her crying suddenly made sense to her in a very profound way, and did to us too, listening to her.

Another lady in the audience then spoke up explaining how as a child in residential school she and her schoolmates were not permitted to cry, and how she has not been able to cry even when her family members passed away. She talked about the importance, the need, for a Crier … for her people, many of whom find it difficult to cry on their own …

For some of us stoicism might be a spiritual practice, for others of us not so much … for some of us silent contemplative practice might be a spiritual practice, for others of us not so much … if I feel like I am suffocating, and I lash out, diva style, am I being more honest in that moment than if I ‘suffer in silence’? I don’t know … but what I do know is that my outburst is seldom the last word, whatever happens as a result …happens as a result. And I’m seldom entirely detached, even though I might want to be … sometimes the justifying and soul searching can lead somewhere … and sometimes it does help talking about it … like the lady who is a traditional Crier … she might not have realized the significance of her role if she hadn’t cried and if her others had not responded or reflected back to her about it …

July 29, 2013 at 5:08 am

Steve

There is a saying, “When you cry you cry alone, when you laugh the whole world laughs with you.” It expresses a truth, people do not care to hear your whining but they gladly will laugh with you. When you think about it, laughter is contagious as is a good positive attitude, a thankful and non complaining disposition, not unlike that of a child. When we cultivate that kind of disposition we end up giving those around us a little gift, an uplift just as a smile does. Interestingly, back when I did technical support over the phone, we were taught to smile while we were talking. A smile, it seems, can actually be transmitted through a wire.

But this conventional wisdom misses something. There is crying out of self pity that is best withheld but then there is, as you point out, crying for another person or people. This is an expression of compassion and I don’t think it is a downer for others like self pity is. Like you say, perhaps that person serves a purpose in society, they spread compassion to those lacking it or are simply unaware. Crying is a strong and moving human expression and part of our God nature. Like all other gifts, they can be used or they can be misused. Crying as God meant it to be, I think is a form of edification. God, on the other hand, makes no provision for self pity. It is an ungodly expression of faithlessness.

Don’t tell anybody but I cry at the drop of a proverbial hat. But it’s not a result of emotion, it just wells up in me and frequently I don’t even know why. But because we, men especially, are taught that it is a sign of weakness to cry I hold it in if I can. It sounds like, from what you are saying, in some cultures crying is given value and held up as a gift.

Lindsay, you have a different cultural orientation from me and because of that you frequently stir me to think about things I never thought about or to see them in a different light. I guess we don’t realize how culturally conditioned we are until we meet someone who is conditioned (or not) differently.

July 29, 2013 at 9:50 am

Lindsay

Hey Steve, you raise a good point … does self-pity help or hinder us from being present? Personally I can see that for myself my own self-pity does have a tendency to keep me from being present, and goes hand in hand with fear … fear of the known, fear of the unknown. So, I guess for me the corollary – to keep being present – is I need to recognize and accept when I’m feeling self-pity, or fearful … kinda focus a bit more attention to what these feeling are indicating … I’m not sure I’d go so far as to say self-pity is an ‘ungodly expression of faithlessness’. What if everything we do … everything, … is an expression of faithfulness? of being alive? even some things that at first glance seem to be in the negative? For instance, sometimes I think self-pity can be a necessary stepping stone towards compassion, empathy or social justice. Or if many people in a community are depressed, this might be a sign that something else is seriously out of wack …

July 29, 2013 at 8:58 am

Jennifer

What a beautiful story Lindsay, and a profound affirmation for the Crier.

July 29, 2013 at 10:04 am

Lindsay

Yes, as Steve expressed beautifully … “you have a different cultural orientation from me and because of that you frequently stir me to think about things I never thought about or to see them in a different light. I guess we don’t realize how culturally conditioned we are until we meet someone who is conditioned (or not) differently.”

July 29, 2013 at 10:04 am

Jennifer

I ve come to see every emotion as a doorway to the Divine. The Divine knows anyway. It boils down to what we end up doing with self pity or anger or apathy…etc. When I am able to be completely myself in front of God, then God seems to be able to work with that material. And as Paul said, in my weakness, you are my strength.

July 29, 2013 at 10:08 am

Jennifer

Lindsay, culturing and conditioning plays a huge part in our personality based being. In our true essence, is where we all meet, I suspect. And each essence, like a fragrance in a garden…not competitive, but sharing space.

July 29, 2013 at 10:24 pm

Lindsay

*like*

July 30, 2013 at 7:55 am

Lindsay

If we can’t meet each other in serving the poor, or social justice, perhaps we can meet here … in our true essence … ?

July 30, 2013 at 8:16 am

Jennifer

Lindsay, what if we met each other in our true essence while serving the poor, who are also in their true essence? How would that look different?

July 30, 2013 at 9:15 am

Lindsay

I wish I could take you by the hand and show you what I see …

July 30, 2013 at 11:15 am

Jennifer

🙂

July 31, 2013 at 10:32 pm

Kim

You go girls!
I’m certainly not going to throw a pail of water on you! 😉
Christopher’s not going to need to be in any hurry to come back.
Thanks for the great insights both of you.

August 1, 2013 at 8:31 am

Lindsay

Hopefully Christopher is enjoying his time off … it must be hard to get up at some ungodly hour every morning and write enormous, profound words of wisdom every day … if I were Christopher, I’d be catching up on sleep 🙂
I guess we’ll all just need to ‘dob’ in the meantime.

Talking about ‘pails of water’ did you know that in Poland and Slovakia on Easter Monday the boys throw pails of water at the girls? It supposed to make girls youthful, energetic and beautiful … so I’m thinking, hey, it might not be all that bad to have pail of water thrown on us? Right Jennifer?
“And as a sign of gratitude, girls rewarded the boys by giving them beautiful hand-decorated Easter eggs, chocolates, liquor, or even money.” Ha!
http://www.slovakcooking.com/2011/blog/easter-in-slovakia/

What I’m wondering is why Jack and Jill went uphill to fetch a pail of water when everyone knows water flows downstream?

August 1, 2013 at 7:49 am

Jennifer

Well I’m off most of today…but here is a question that I have been struggling with. What is prayer?

August 1, 2013 at 8:36 am

Lindsay

Jennifer, this is a most wonderful question … where have you got to in your struggle so far?

August 1, 2013 at 4:47 pm

Jennifer

Well, I am not sure how to do intercessory prayer…as it seems presumptuous that I could possibly know what is in anybody’s best interest. Yet, years ago I had a serious illness and I could feel the palpable effects of people praying for me…and also when they stopped. I could feel it. My relationship with the Divine and Jesus has been turned inside out and I am not sure how to relate to the Divine or Jesus. I cannot even say the prayers that I said thousands of times through my life. They seem phony. I feel the Divine in absence…and I am not sure how to relate to the Divine who is present in absence. And you?

August 1, 2013 at 11:53 pm

Lindsay

Jennifer, I know what you mean about intercessory prayer…”as it seems presumptuous that I could possibly know what is in anybody’s best interest” … I’ve also struggled with this for quite a while.

The thing is to remember the times, even if a while ago, and what it was like when you could feel the palpable effects of people praying for you … and also when they stopped. Remember what it was like “when” and “when not” … “when” and “when not” … and ask yourself whether these good people’s prayers effected you and what the actual effect was … and wonder … marvel. Then think about the people who were praying, whether you knew who they were or not … Were they exemplary paragons of virtue? Saints? Did they have a direct line to God? Or were they regular folk like you and me? And ask yourself what words they might have been praying? And what it was they held most closest to their hearts for you? And ask yourself, considering the palpable effects their prayers had on you, if they were being presumptuous? Does this help?

Your question .. “what is prayer?” is wonderful! I’ve been thinking about it all day and I don’t know the answer … the best I’ve been able to come up with so far is it’s kinda like a conversation, not necessarily in words, not necessarily instantaneous … kinda like sending a letter out by snail mail, rather than SMS, and the response might come back today, or tomorrow, or next month, or in a few years … to my mailbox or to someone else’s mailbox … wherever it’s meant to go … a hummingbird, a physician, a gust of wind, a person dialling the wrong number on a telephone …

I like the 1st 3 lines of this prayer I stumbled across yesterday … “Inscription for Hope” …

I believe in the sun, even when it is not shining
And I believe in love, even when there’s no one there
And I believe in God, even when He is silent

August 2, 2013 at 8:15 am

Jennifer

Lindsay,
Thank you for your thoughtful response. I’m heading out again for the day, but I wanted to do a quick reply. Thinking about my friends prayers…I believe that the energy was an intense injection of love. And yes, they are all ordinary people…no canonized saints among them…including me. I know prayer is about relationship. For years I felt the presence of God. For the last five years, God has been silent…like your prayer suggests. At first I felt it was like some sort of punishment. Now….I feel like God has said if you want to know me intimately…then this is Me. And are you still on board? Yes. I’m still on board. I’m committed to YOU….even if the outward forms I showed that commitment shifted. Hmmmm…this is a long response. LOL. More later….. Bless your day!

August 2, 2013 at 8:55 am

Lindsay

🙂

August 5, 2013 at 1:22 pm

Lindsay

Can we talk about the Lord’s Prayer for a bit?

For me the Lord’s Prayer has always been the one robust ‘structure’ that holds Christian life together … what I mean is, it didn’t really matter what denomination of church I visited … the Lord’s Prayer was what we all had on common … the words might have been sung or said a bit differently, eg. in our Roman Catholic churches, we didn’t say ‘Forever and ever’ … the beautiful version of Lord’s Prayer we sing at the 9.00am service is very different from the way we chant the Lord’s Prayer at some of the 11.15am services … which is like a drum beat and haunting (it’s not the right word, but I can’t think of another word for it) and evokes visual images of large echo-y bare halls and monasteries and convents filled with monks and nun’s praying … Every time we say the Lord’s Prayer, I feel connected to God, to history, to the past, the present, the future … and geographically across space to people in China, the Phillipines, South America, Africa … it’s electric, and powerful and comforting … This is why when Christopher was saying in one of this sermons that the Lord’s Prayer is not only a prayer for Christians, but for everyone who follows a spiritual life, I find this idea gripping and intriguing … because this opens the door of the Lord’s Prayer so much wider … I’m wondering if anyone else feels the same way?

August 5, 2013 at 2:04 pm

Lindsay

Going back to your original question, Kim, the Lord’s Prayer when it’s said out loud the way it is said in church by the congregation … has a way of snapping me to attention … like the world stops for that moment …

August 6, 2013 at 7:06 am

Jennifer

Lindsay,
It is a beautiful prayer…And I’ve probably recited it thousands of times in my lifetime…and these last two years, I find that I can go as far as the word Our…and then I stop. It has become too heavy and no longer feels like a threshold for me to go through to the Divine…..

August 7, 2013 at 8:22 pm

Lindsay

Jennifer, just letting you know I’ve seen your comment, and am pondering on what you’re saying and fragments of thoughts and senses and feelings with question marks behind them …

August 16, 2013 at 8:53 am

Lindsay

Hey Jennifer, after Christopher’s most excellent and brilliant sermons on the Lord’s Prayer, I’m not sure there is much more that needs to be said …

But, eh, because this is me, and because I apparently like to babble away sometimes … here goes … from the other end … the horizontal plane …. it’s about how we how we try to assign identity to each other, to ourselves and how we eventually figure it out sort of by happenstance … kinda like this in the China zoo … http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/08/16/lion-outed-as-dog-at-chinese-zoo-after-barking-outfit-had-dog-in-wolf-cage-fox-in-leopard-enclosure/

Insist

She snatches the cake
and re-arranges the icing to display his birth data,
And the cake becomes his cake,
Momentarily assigned his identity.
And then he eats it,
And it becomes him,
And not him,
And he wants to soar and say:
I am an eagle and a bottom feeder,
I am a poet and a logistician,
I am a woman and a fish.
But she ties him to the ground
with the extension cord,
and all the things that need to be fixed.
And he becomes the imaginary worm and burrows
through the centre of that yellow lemon,
grimacing at the sour taste,
And grinning because he did it.

🙂

August 16, 2013 at 11:40 am

Jennifer

Lindsay,
That is one awesome poem! Did you write it? I love the last line. That clinches my spiritual journey of the past few years. The other night before I went to sleep I was addressing Holy One….and then thought…that holy One separated again. So now Oneness seems better. Holy One seems like one right way…where as Oneness is what is. Maybe if the Lord’s Prayer started with our Oneness, who resides everywhere and nowhere…..
Our Oneness
Who Resides everywhere and nowhere
You are name able and un name able and holy
The universe and multiverse is
Your willingness is
Here and now
In our impermanent state of humanity, let us know care for all our needs
And help us to gentle our humanity as all require gentleness
And when we mess up, deliver us from unhealthy shame.
amen

That probably needs a lot of tweaking but was fun to do.

August 16, 2013 at 7:51 pm

Lindsay

Hey Jennifer,

Wow!

As someone who has been known to er, have a minor apoplexy on finding ‘Thou’ changed to ‘Your’ and ‘art’ changed to ‘is’ when I came to St Philips after being out in the world for over 20 years, it’s probably fair to say I have had more than a little resistance to tinkering with the words of the Lord’s Prayer all this time. … Oh, my goodness, Jennifer, the prayer ….your version of the Lord’s Prayer … beautiful! I could quite happily say your version of the Lord’s Prayer, it goes beyond capturing the essence and is powerfully meaningful … if I were to tweak anything at all, it would be simply to add back ‘Thou art’ … call me a traditionalist 🙂

August 17, 2013 at 4:21 pm

Lindsay

Oh, Jennifer, … the Lord’s Prayer … I would love to do this …You saying the words of your prayer into a microphone and the choir and congregation responding with the traditional version and the music of the 9am service … Can you imagine? I can hear this so clearly in my mind …

J: Our Oneness
Who Resides everywhere and nowhere

Choir: Our Father who art in heaven

J: You are name able and un name able and holy

Choir: Hollowed be Thy name

J: The universe and multiverse is

Choir: Thy kingdom come

J: Your willingness is

Choir: Thy will be done

J: Here and now

Choir: On earth as it is in heaven

J: In our impermanent state of humanity, let us know care for all our needs

Choir: Give us this day our daily bread

J: And help us to gentle our humanity as all require gentleness
And when we mess up, deliver us from unhealthy shame.

Choir: Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil

J: amen

Choir: Amen

August 7, 2013 at 5:09 am

Space | In A Spacious Place

[…] Space […]

August 17, 2013 at 7:45 am

Jennifer

Now Lindsay….did you write that beautiful poem?

August 17, 2013 at 4:22 pm

Lindsay

Yes

August 17, 2013 at 6:20 pm

Jennifer

Lindsay….that is a really amazing poem…you are one creative soul. That needs to be published. I have no idea how that happens…msybe it already happened? When I read it I tried to google the author…because I thought it was so wonderful. You have a gift!!!

August 17, 2013 at 7:07 pm

Lindsay

The person I wrote it for is someone I care about. He isn’t much into poetry. 1 Corinthians 13 … Why is it so tough?

August 17, 2013 at 6:23 pm

Jennifer

I love your idea of putting the two prayers together with a choir. It is fun to imagine these kind of things…..

August 17, 2013 at 6:55 pm

Lindsay

Do you think we could gatecrash a choir practice and get them to do this for us? It could be so much fun. When is choir practice, do you know?

August 17, 2013 at 7:02 pm

Jennifer

Lindsay, I live in the interior of BC…..so that might be a little difficult. Lol…

August 17, 2013 at 7:08 pm

Lindsay

Oh, I didn’t realize … do you have any choirs where you are?

August 17, 2013 at 8:39 pm

Jennfier

Lindsay, I don’t belong to a church at this time. I attend a community from time to time that is more humanist than religious. It does not meet in the summer and is very very small. However, I am looking at changing that in the fall. Still discerning. I may attend a morning centering prayer group as my Christian piece. My Christian piece has been very challenging for me in the past few years.

August 17, 2013 at 8:40 pm

Jennifer

Lindsay, I am not sure I understand your question, why is it so tough?

August 17, 2013 at 9:54 pm

Lindsay

lol, I was hoping you wouldn’t ask me that … Not tough so much as complicated, not complicated so much as confusing …. and then again not confusing as much as … er, ‘I don’t want to’ …………………………… surrender, I guess, ……. but then being patient, kind and gracious doesn’t necessarily equate to surrender either … yes, it’s a tall Self, wee self kinda thing …. though one does sense at some point these 2 blend and become interchangeable … Phew! Now you might be wondering why you asked the question … 🙂

August 18, 2013 at 7:14 am

Jennifer

Lindsay,
I’ve learned that truly I cannot do anything on my own. Even my desire to surrender to something bigger, my small self cannot….and my larger Self already has in the multiverse. I must stay in a state of humble awareness of the limitations of my humanity and trust in the goodness of the Oneness.

August 18, 2013 at 9:26 am

Lindsay

Yes, what you say makes sense, Jennifer. Thank-you for this

August 31, 2013 at 3:16 pm

Lindsay

Hey Jennifer, when I wrote this it wasn’t intended as a add-on to this conversation or the other bit, but kinda came out that way … it seems the other one wasn’t quite finished … then this one probably isn’t finished either 🙂

The Cabinet Maker
————————

His heart-pace practiced is set to run alongside
upward grains of another master craftsman.
Whose life breathes.
Embedded in this pulsating amber resin
in these knobbled, naked hands.
Breathing inward, palms downward.
A continuum that holds him,
Even as joy seeps out and spreads
through the rusty hinges
And doors which don’t quite close.
Rising ancient sweet aromas of woodchip peel
and mulled perspiration blend outward, evenly,
as he sets his muse to hover in the air around him.
Moving as he moves, stopping when he stops.

August 31, 2013 at 8:11 pm

Jennifer

Lindsay,
Not that I am an expert on Zen Buddhism…but that poem is very zen, in my estimation. Beautiful.

September 1, 2013 at 11:46 pm

Lindsay

I didn’t know it was Zen-like … cool! Thanks for this, Jennifer 🙂

I’m trying to think what I know about Buddhism … not so much … and trying to think who the Cabinet Maker reminds me of … a few people actually … for example Sister Rhona, the tiny Catholic nun who taught me Latin one-on-one and my grandfather … and long distance marathon runners … oh, and a Buddhist friend I once knew … Yes, a bit obscure …

A few weeks ago my colleague was telling me about some research the CIA did on alpha, beta and delta brain waves, so I went to online to google it. I never did find the links he was talking about but instead found this about the Dalai Lama doing research with neuroscientists on neuroplasticity … I don’t know much about neuroscience either come to think of it … but found this interesting about the gamma waves and how our thoughts, hopes, beliefs and emotions can change the physical shape of our brain.

This research done on the differences found in the brain waves of buddhist monks makes me think about how we choose to live our lives, like the profession we choose for example, and how this becomes self fulfilling after a while with practice. Like say I chose to practice being patient and gentle for 4 hours a day, for example, after 10,000 hours (about 6.8 years) there’s a good chance I’d actually be more patient and gentle because my brain matter would have been modified to be this way … or if I chose to be fearful, short-tempered, callous or uncaring, my actual physical brain matter would change to reflect this too … It adds a whole new slant on being mindful about what we choose to love …

http://www.dalailama.com/news/post/104-how-thinking-can-change-the-brainxcept

September 2, 2013 at 8:26 am

Jennifer

PS….hmmm…cannot get your link. Here is a link on neuro theology…

http://www.npr.org/2010/12/15/132078267/neurotheology-where-religion-and-science-collide

September 3, 2013 at 7:08 pm

Lindsay

Oh, it looks like the link I posted had a few more letters than it should.
Try http://www.dalailama.com/news/post/104-how-thinking-can-change-the-brain

The link you posted is very interesting … also the piece about differences in MRI’s of older individuals who were experiencing memory problems … Wouldn’t it be funny if science pointed to prayer as an answer to illnesses like dementia, Parkinsons, fybromyalgia, depression to name a few ….

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_wave

September 7, 2013 at 10:57 am

Lindsay

Oh, it looks like the link I posted had a few more letters than it should.
Try http://www.dalailama.com/news/post/104-how-thinking-can-change-the-brain

September 7, 2013 at 3:57 pm

Jennifer

Lindsay,

Regarding the article about neuro plasticity….so exciting. I think we live in such exciting times with reference to discoveries made by science and the fact that in some quarters, eg. Buddhism, scientists are invited and asked how Buddhism could help with the study of the mind. Wouldn’t it be interesting if the Pope would do the same?

There is only one thing that concerns me about all of this….that people take up meditation as a self help…and it does help the self…but true and radical prayer’s goal is not to alter the brain, even though it does…

That’s why neurotheology is really needed…IMO! 🙂

September 7, 2013 at 10:58 am

Lindsay

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_wave

September 2, 2013 at 8:23 am

Jennifer

Good Morning Lindsay!
I don’t know a lot about neuroscience either. I am going to read your article. I have heard of a new thing called neuro theology…which is how religion can make meaning of the very thing you are talking about.

For some reason your poem reminded me of a movie I had watched called How to Cook Your Life. It is a documentary following a Buddhist monk teaching cooking classes and zen at the same time. Somehow, your poetry woke up the feeling that movie provided as well. Zen for me means calmness, simplicity of lines and dedication. I guess it means congruency.

September 4, 2013 at 12:21 am

Lindsay

You know how it is often that each of the struggles we entertain end not so much with resolution but with acceptance … so each struggle loses it’s grip? It seems perhaps it is the same with this struggle between the Big Self/small self dichotomy … and this calmness, simplicity of lines, dedication …congruency … vulnerability, joy, effortless effort … comes from this place … ? Kinda like a long distance runner reaching an adrenalin high, but without the muscle lactic acid build-up that goes along with prolonged strenuous exercise …. 🙂

September 4, 2013 at 5:15 pm

Jennifer

Great metaphors for the journey, Lindsay. I said to a friend this week that I’ve been meditating a long time and still find “letting go” not really working. It feels like resignation. I’ve been finding “letting be” much more helpful for me. Letting be doesn’t have the lactic acid buildup that letting go seems to bring…..who knows??????

September 5, 2013 at 12:32 am

Lindsay

Ooh, Jennifer, yes, brilliant, I love it! … thank-you for this!

September 5, 2013 at 7:20 am

Jennifer

Glad that was helpful Lindsay! Letting go felt also, like I had to cut off the thing that was bothering me, while letting be allows whatever is the source of suffering to continue as is, while I clearly figure out what is a sensible way to deal with it….and it might be cutting off…or letting go…

And letting be leaves the problems as Gods business. And even with our small self stuff…we need to learn to let be with our painful, shadowy, pieces too! :). Then comes the whole idea of grace….

September 5, 2013 at 8:53 am

Jennifer

PS Lindsay….I cannot claim let it be as my own….it comes from Mary when asked to take on the whole mystery of the incarnation….let it be done unto me….which I shortened to let it be…..

September 5, 2013 at 11:52 pm

Lindsay

September 6, 2013 at 7:46 am

Jennifer

That is one movie I didn’t see. Beautiful music. Disturbing images. Did you go to the movie?

September 6, 2013 at 9:15 am

Lindsay

I saw the movie when it first came out but have no recollection of it. These parts showing Mary and her relationship to Jesus and music edited together like this … they help me understand Mary a bit more and a relationship many people have with her, like, for instance, why many Catholics prayer to Mary for intercession … It is disturbing … and at the same time causes me to want to convert to Catholicism … not that I’d necessarily convert, just how it causes me to feel …

I keep thinking about what you are saying about “letting be” and wondering how it was for Mary after Jesus died … I mean, he would have appeared in person to his mother too, wouldn’t he? Or was their relationship to each other and to God so strong that he didn’t need to come to her in person and comfort her?

So much of our culture revolves around the resurrection … the transformation, the motif of the caterpillar transforming into the butterfly, for instance … like we expect something to change, something inside ourselves or external to ourselves … to resolve .. to let go …but “letting be”, as you point out, isn’t the same as “letting go” … or “being let go of” if considered in a more passive sense ….

September 6, 2013 at 2:44 pm

Jennifer

Lindsay,
Mary isn’t exclusive to Catholicism. Mary is there for all. How that works for each individual….I have no idea. If Mary was human…and she was…then her experience of losing a child would be like any mother who loses a child. And her experience would be the same as those mothers who have children who are political prisoners…I suspect. Powerlessness. Helplessness. Grief. This is why the gospels are so powerful. They document our own journey with those same feelings and experiences.

I don’t know if Jesus appeared to Mary in person, or how that played out. But something happened to reassure her. When I was 19 my mother died. A month after her death I had a very real dream where she called me from “heaven” to let me know she was fine and all was well. That dream carried me then and carries me now.

I have a whole different notion of heaven at my age which is quite different from the 19 year old version. Yet…

September 7, 2013 at 1:33 pm

Lindsay

Jennifer, yes, it seems Mary is universal this way … I guess I associated Mary with the Catholic Church myself more because of my past … but it doesn’t have to be this way … this love Mary and Jesus have for each other is universal, resonates with people across boundaries … time, language, culture … hardship, grief ….

My Mom believes there is no such thing as coincidence … everything happens for a reason … You know, she may be right … whichever way I look at it … whether it’s the wings of a butterfly in a forest impacting something on a physical, quantum level across the universe, or and event that hasn’t happened yet … it is in our nature, I guess, to try to understand causality … to make sense of it … to control it … to apply meaning … but whether we spend time analyzing these events, trying to get to the root of the cause, or not, are …

Even on a quantum level, we are never simply bystanders … whether we respond like crashing thunder or more subtly on a particle physics level, or on the level of brain waves, or subconsciously as a conduit … we are not ever not involved somehow …we are connecting with each other on all these levels … even, I believe, after our physical form passes away …

I like your Dr Andrew Newberg in the link you posted …

“For those individuals who want to go down the path of arguing that all of our religious and spiritual experiences are nothing more than biological phenomena, some of this data does support that kind of a conclusion,” Newberg says. “But the data also does not specifically eliminate the notion that there is a religious or spiritual or divine presence in the world.”

Because of that, Newberg says the success of neurotheology hinges on open-mindedness.

“One could try to conclude one way or the other that maybe it’s the biology or maybe God’s really in the room, but the scan itself doesn’t really show that,” Newberg says. “For neurotheology to really work as a field it needs to be very respectful and open to both perspectives.”

For myself, there’s been too many strange coincidences I can’t explain, … not that I haven’t tried … Nowadays I tend to see these strange coincidences as God at work in someone’s life … and my ‘To do’ Action item is to do as little as possible or facilitate when called to do so … try not to interfere … let my ego or my own conclusions take a backseat …. but I figure God knows my ego too … so when my ego bursts out in unsolicited advice … or heavy resistance to something (read: temper tantrum) … or sarcasm … I need to ask is there a better way to do this … to honour God … ? to honour the other person? … to “let be”?

God knows I don’t always get it right … my ego is integral to who I am, where I am, how I am … how I respond … Maybe I’m rationalizing, I’d like to think even the prickly bits can serve as an instrument to God’s work if placed in a situation that specifically calls for prickly bits … or at least I hope so … to be able to say something along the lines of … You know who I am … You know how I’m likely to respond in this situation, right now … I’m here if You need me. If not, please show me how to get out of here … I don’t know how … Please hold this other person … wrap them in Your presence … I can’t … I don’t know how …

September 7, 2013 at 4:06 pm

Jennifer

Lindsay,

Love reading your musings. I was taken with your last paragraph especially. Messing up is part of the human condition. Everyone messes up. I think Jesus messed up….(lightening insurance needed…lol). I think his anger in the temple, while justified, was not a divine action…and yet…out of that it set in motion the whole crucifixion…and then the resurrection. He used whips. He was violent. If you did that in your church at some injustice…and all churches have injustice….how would that be viewed?

So, if Jesus was human, then he had to work with his ego too. I see his…thy will be done as a growth from the temple scene. Without the temple scene…probably there would be no…thy will be done…or let be …or any of the whole story.

So with us. Dusting off when our temper tantrums are nasty, our reactions blind siding our good…dusting off….and getting up sgain and again and again…..

September 7, 2013 at 6:43 pm

Lindsay

We assume Jesus messed up … maybe he didn’t mess up ….

September 7, 2013 at 7:33 pm

Jennifer

Don’t know….

September 7, 2013 at 10:04 pm

Lindsay

Yeah, me neither 🙂
I think Christopher wrote something about Jesus in the temple … I’ll see if I can find it …

September 7, 2013 at 10:19 pm

Lindsay

Christopher’s blog from Dec 13, 2011 …

https://inaspaciousplace.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/clutter-busting-john-212-25/

September 8, 2013 at 6:38 am

Jennifer

How could a divine and perfect Jesus ever exhibit anger? My question would be how could a human person not at one time or another at least feel anger. Anger is a healthy emotion that tells us someone has crossed one of our boundaries…and then at least we can examine if that boundary is healthy, is valuable or neurotic…..

Jesus expressing anger and violence … Gives me hope. Cleaning up the act in the temple says Jesus had all the god cards in his hand…so of course there was no struggle with anger….he had passion or zeal…but not anger. If that is the case, then for me, why should I follow someone who doesn’t have the same struggles that I do….and found a way through them.

But that is just my own personal struggle with it all…..

September 8, 2013 at 2:21 pm

Lindsay

Jennifer, I guess nowadays I tend to think about anger more in terms of outcomes. If I get angry or express anger at someone or at a situation someone is heavily invested in, it’s that micro-flash of betrayal or momentary hurt I see in the other person’s eyes that tells me straight away I’ve stepped over the line and have not honoured the other person in the way that I want to … or myself either. Sometimes, less often, the other person might be needling me, to try to get an emotional reaction, and when I lose it, I see a micro-flash of victory, triumph … which causes me to feel I’ve let myself and the situation down … like there’s got to be a better way to deal with the situation which is healthier for both persons and everyone else around …

Yet sometimes a situation is stagnant or so unhealthy and ingrained, that it calls for a mighty circuit breaker or corrective … perhaps like the money lenders in the temple … I don’t know if Jesus throwing the people out of the temple had any long term effect … except maybe give the powers-that-be another more concrete excuse, for wanting to remove Jesus from the scene permanently. Jesus was a threat already because of the sheer number of followers he had … so it was only a matter of time. It seems Jesus knew this …

I don’t know if Jesus was angry, ‘lost it’ or was filled with passionate zeal or what was going on in his mind … all we have is the outcome … a description of what happened … and an indication of why he did it … Most of us, I think,are able to understand and grapple with the reasons … as being justified or reasonable, I mean … A temple which is infused with usury, banking scams, etc puts the temple on another plain… much like the Vatican bank scandals, it degrades everyone … and breaks trust … We find it harder to see God, when all this other noise is going on … it destroys our humanity …

We see Jesus’ behaviour in the temple as being out of character, but perhaps it isn’t … everything Jesus said and did seems to be to open our pathway to God … ?

September 8, 2013 at 5:30 pm

Jennifer

Lindsay,

You gave wonderful examples about the duality of anger…your own experiences. On the one side, hurtful, a power over and one upping. The other side…simply a force or energy to move something that needs moving.

Checking fruits is always wise in discerning anything.

I feel that anything we do can also open our pathway to God….even the most horrible failures. In fact, those horrible failures….which God sees and knows, can be doorways to grace.

The last few years of my spiritual journey needed a human Jesus. Not a pretend human Jesus…who always got it right no matter what choice he made. I know that is heretical and blasphemous…but I don’t think it is when I consider the pre resurrection Jesus. After his resurrection…well…then the fully God piece comes into play. For me…it is important…if I am going to call myself a Christian…that the deck wasn’t stacked in favor of Jesus who didn’t have to grow, struggle with ego, make some choices that were not the greatest…such as choosing Judas, getting angry, disobeying his parents at age 12, telling his mom he wasnt ready to start his ministry, not showing up for his best friend Lazarus, who then dies, …….

September 8, 2013 at 5:31 pm

Jennifer

…..I know that my views on this are far from traditional…yet they comfort me more than Jesus getting it all right. This is the kind of Jesus I can sign up for.

September 8, 2013 at 6:54 pm

Lindsay

Yup, I know what you mean … for similar reasons I find it difficult to relate to the concept of a idealized, perfect Mary … Good thing they don’t burn heretics at the stake any more, else we’d both be fried 🙂

September 8, 2013 at 7:53 pm

Jennifer

Sizzle…lol!

September 8, 2013 at 7:31 pm

Lindsay

Going back to neuroplasticity and neurotheology for a bit … 10,000 hours seems to be a significant amount of time. Malcom Gladwell suggested even prodigies like Mozart or Bill Gates spent at least 10,000 hours practicing their craft. Same with these adept Buddhist monks who practiced non-referential compassion meditation for 10,000 hours, which causing their neural pathways to become fundamentally changed inside their brains.

So I’m thinking, if I spent 10,000 hours practicing patience and gentleness, for example … @ 1 hour per day, after 6.8 years I’d actually be more patient and gentleness. It wouldn’t just be a habit … my brain would have changed and I actually would be a more patient and gentle, based on a choice I’d made. So, if I valued patience and gentleness, say, this is something I could practice.

Then the corollary is perhaps also true … if I spend 1 hour a day being angry, resentful or impatient say, then after 6.8 years, my anger, resentfulness or impatience would be so ingrained in my brain matter physically … meaning it would no longer be a passing phase or circumstantial response any more … weird!!

September 8, 2013 at 8:00 pm

Jennifer

Not weird at all. Makes total sense to me. How would you practice gentleness and patience for one hour a day? Could you practice it towards yourself? My friend who “breaks” horses says that the new term is now called “gentling” horses. What a difference. What if we gentled the wild, angry, impatient parts of ourselves! What would our lives be like? Would we be like the meek….inheriting the earth….?

I’ve been thinking about neurotheology and how our thoughts actually produce different chemicals in our body. We have a pharmacy of really good drugs in our biology….drugs that help with stress, sleep, calmness….it’s so so so amazing!

September 8, 2013 at 8:16 pm

Lindsay

Yes, it is fascinating! How would you gentle a horse I wonder? Do you know? I think I saw somewhere a horse whisperer blowing into a horses nostrils. Somehow I don’t think my friends or kids would appreciate it so much if I started blowing air in their nostrils 🙂

September 9, 2013 at 8:28 am

Jennifer

I don’t know how one gentles a horse…yet simply using the word gentle vs. break would make the mind of he handler different. When I was raised it was the parents job to break our willfulness and stubbornness…and that was done in ways that were not gentle…..

And I chuckled out loud at an image of you blowing in your kids ears….how could you become a kid whisperer? A teenage whisperer????

September 9, 2013 at 11:19 pm

Lindsay

I enjoyed reading your article on gentling horses … it reminded me of Cesar Milan so watched him a bit on you tube … He is amazing the way he watches everything the dog does and reads its body language before he responds … like a dance.

On raising teenagers, it was a challenge for a while, it took them quite some time and but I’m pleased to say they now have me pretty well trained (most of the time). I know everything’s good when they pat me on the head 🙂

September 9, 2013 at 8:30 am

Jennifer

Article on gentling horses for the inexperienced…….

http://voices.yahoo.com/gentling-techniques-inexperienced-horse-owner-31340.html

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