What do you serve?

Can't serve both money and God, you will love one and hate the other. -Jesus the Anointed (Christ)

My work has three parts. The first and most rewarding is to spread and practice good news. This part is really simple:

You will be loved unconditionally. You will be fed, clothed, and sheltered. You will live in peace. You will have work that you enjoy. You will grow and learn. You will party. You and your people will thrive. Everyday will be a celebration. You will fear nothing, not even death.

How do I know this is true? Because I live it daily.

Of course, none of this is possible as long as money is a priority. The love of money corrupts the very best of us. Yes, money is a tool but it is a tool that demands you worship it; that you conform your life to having it. And why not? With money we buy the necessities and luxuries of life. Money seems to give life.

The second part of my work is to tear down the idol of money. I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy this as well. I was made for it. Like a lion stalking its prey, I'm here to devour this illusion. Money will never set you free.

See even if you manage to grab a hold of the American Dream, you'll be prospering while your neighbors suffer. If you want to walk the path of liberation and healing, if you want a limitless life, if you want a true revolution, then this is an open invitation to join.

Now here's the twist, I do not want your money. I am not asking you to join a religion. I am not fund-raising for a non-profit. This is a spiritual movement, and as such it needs to make sense to you.

The point is I want you to spread your gifts and resources around your community, if you aren't already. Find groups, projects, people who are doing things you want to support. Does a friend have a business idea? Help them launch it. Is someone sick and can't afford their bills? Help them pay it. Is someone having a hard time finding a job? Check your networks and see if you can make a connection. Is someone sad or lonely? Plan a party and invite them to join you. These are some of the most radical things you can do.

This is important because the structures that worship money have been crushing people under them for centuries. Don't believe me? Then listen to the evening news or read the paper. How much of what you find there is good?

Right now there is a party going on, but it's an underground party. The third part of my work is to help you find the door. If you haven't found it already, all you need to do is ask and I'll come show you.

The Forgotten Firefighter

There was once a country that did not have firefighters. Although they had many fires and many lives were lost, they were too afraid of getting hurt. When one of their wooden houses or buildings caught fire everyone fled. Those who were caught unaware or who were unable to escape died in these periodic conflagrations. Usually they were the most vulnerable: the sick, elderly and very young.

Different solutions were implemented: A few instituted an early warning system; watchmen who rang bells to alert people of danger. Others created laws to identify how a fire started and strict punishments for those responsible. And many built shrines to appease the gods who they felt were condemning their society. Yet, neither the piety of the people, nor the number of watchtowers, nor the threat of imprisonment slowed the death toll.

There was much despair and frustration, but what could they do? It was the way of the world.

One day a young man passed a burning building. (The fires were so frequent it was common for pedestrians to merely cross the street and continue on with their business.) He heard the cries of a child and unable to ignore it, rushed into the building. The crowd was shocked at this act of apparent suicide. 'He has gone mad with grief, perhaps it was his own child.' But they were stunned when he returned several minutes later with the child in his arms. They were even more amazed when he said the child was no relation to him.

Many praised him, others mocked him, and a few dismissed him as a lunatic.

Both he and the child recovered and at first many praised him as a hero. Until he did it again.

'You will anger the gods. They will destroy you,' many warned him, agitated.

Others counseled him, 'This is the established order. Don't be reckless. Come we will give you work that is safe and you still be helping the people.

And a few scorned him, whispering, 'He is only doing it for the attention. He does not care about anyone but himself. He makes us look like cowards.' This group were the watchmen.

When asked what made him act so foolishly, he replied, 'I can no longer stand by and watch as people burn.' His use of the word watch, enraged the watchmen. They felt he was mocking them directly.

For the next several days they publicly denounced him and his motivations. They were very persuasive because it was easy to portray the young man as arrogant. A town meeting was called to cast him out of their community. During the debates he said nothing, and indeed very few voices spoke out in his defense. The trial ended and it seemed the next day the young man would be exiled.

But in the middle of the night he woke up surrounded by flames. His entire building was sure to collapse at any minute. He ran through the flames to the nearest exit. Miraculously, he made it downstairs and out to the street.

Just then he heard the cries of his elderly neighbors from the third floor. Still wrapped in his blanket he ran to the gathering crowd. Giving five of them the blanket and quick instructions he ran back into the building, all but naked. With amazing speed he appeared in the window next to the old couple. He ordered the five to hold the blanket taut, but they were too afraid to even approach the building as it was about to collapse. Despite all his urgency, they were still frozen in place when the supports finally gave way.

Many were silent, some were ashamed and a few were secretly glad he was gone.

Despite the tragedy or perhaps because of it, the people never spoke of it again. To this very day they live in the fear of fire.

Know thyself

And God, the creator and sustainer of life, urged the Prince to perform his duty as a warrior. But the Prince cried out, 'How can you, the protector of the living, tell me to go forth and kill?' And when the Prince looked up the life giver changed form and appearance. God spoke then, 'Behold now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' -From the Bhagavad-Gita

It is hard to read the Bible passages where God commands the Israelites to go out and kill, to commit acts of genocide. How do we reconcile the God who claims to be love, with the God who at best condones and at worst causes wholesale destruction to happen?

Even if we have an answer to that, there is the problem of suffering. How does a loving God allow suffering and injustice to exist? Job and Jonah, in the Old Testament, ask similar questions and the only response they receive is: Who are you to question me? Do you know what my plans are for you? Can you even imagine all that I am doing?

It is intriguing to remember that humanity is made in the image of this particularly mysterious and unpredictable God. The above passage from the Bhagavad Gita seem to re-enforce this contradiction. How can we can be at the same time a lover, a Father, a Mother, a protector, and also be a liar, a thief, a destroyer, a killer?

The Old Testament ecclesiastical writer also notes this apparent contradiction in ourselves in the verses which say: there is a time to plant and a time to uproot, there is a time to kill and a time to heal.

Where is the comfort here? Ecclesiastes is full of mourning and despair. And when we think about the atrocities that occur daily between people, we ask where is justice?

If God is an unfathomable, chaotic god, then nothing matters, everything is meaningless. If we are made in the image of chaos then morality, good and evil, right and wrong, law and order has no foundation.

Except we are always given a choice. We have the freedom to choose who we are and how we act. We are not predestined to be good or evil, to create or destroy, to heal or to kill. We might go through periods where we do good or evil, where we plant or pull up, where we build or tear down. But ultimately those ups and downs, those cycles do not limit us, unless we resign ourselves to our fate, unless we give up. But even giving up is a choice. We can choose to fight or to surrender. Nothing we do is without choice.

The Prince in the Bhagavad Gita is struggling with his choice to be a warrior. On the eve of a great battle, where he must go and kill, he is chickening out. Perhaps he enjoyed the life of luxury of being a Prince, perhaps he liked the prestige of giving orders and leading men. But when faced with the reality of war, he cries out: This is wrong! We can't know why he is having a sudden awakening of conscience. And why God orders him to go and kill is a mystery. Why doesn't the life giving God, who first approaches him, validate the Prince's moral objections? Why does this God later reveal himself to also be the taker of life?

The mystery is that God is urging him to make a choice which makes no sense to the Prince. God, if we assume God has supreme control over events, put the Prince on this path. The Prince is free to depart the battle, God is not forcing him to take part, nevertheless God is urging him not to turn back from his duty, no matter how repulsive. (The reverse is also true; God does tell a killer to go out and heal. I think specifically of God calling Saul of Tarsus to stop persecuting and executing Christians. Saul later changed his name to Paul, and became the famous 1st century Christian saint.)

The question then is a matter of faith. Can I, the Prince, have faith that God is leading me in the best possible direction? Am I sure that my actions are the healthiest and most proper? How can I tell when it is the time to kill and when is the time to heal? Do I have faith that the path I am on is the most beneficial path?

These are questions that can't be answered hypothetically or in a vacuum. The can only be engaged in the moment, and through conversations with others, with ourselves, and with God.

Ultimately, we can never know what is good or evil. Even Jesus, in two different accounts, corrected a follower who called him good, saying: No one is good except God alone.

We can only choose a path and walk it boldly. Faith says that God is in control and that even when we make mistakes they are not final.

I titled this entry know thyself, because ultimately knowing thyself is not about discovering a concrete identity. It is about being infinitely complex, ultimately unknowable, and continually flexible. Know thyself in this context means to know thy actions. And to accept the consequences of those actions irregardless of the outcome.

And no matter what that outcome is, we believe God has the last word and that word is and always has been good.

Return to the Beginning

Since I started this blog, nearly 3 years ago, I haven't voted for, believed in, nor put much energy into anything that came out of the US federal government. (I do support, listen to and challenge, when necessary, local and state governments.) I refuse to participate in something that is so profoundly broken. I didn't trust the whole '08 election frenzy of change and promise, sounded too much like false prophecy to me.

This entry isn't to pat myself on the back now that the economy is faltering and times are scary uncertain. I have no interest in saying I told you so. My desire is to state that I've found, and am still discovering, what I was looking for all those years ago.

I've learned what true allies and friends look like.

In short, know your community: when the recession deepens, when the depression gets at you, when you are wholly disillusioned, when your plans fail, when there seem to be no viable choices, when there are no options, when there is no way out, put away your pride and your quest for independance. Find the true community. True friends will give you work that satisfies, food that is filling and love that will quench your thirst.

Now you don't have to wait until rock bottom, although many will hold onto this dying system for as long as possible. Which is too bad, because the communities I'm describing are living now, partying now and are creating heaven on Earth for everyone they encounter. They are all around us; in every city and town and rural area.

There is no healing to be found anywhere else in this world or the next. My prayer is that you seek them out sooner rather than later and find the kind of freedom and liberation that is your birthright.

Arc

She came to the gate.

The old man on the other side did not acknowledge her. Behind the bars, behind him stood the Temple no one entered and where only he worshipped.

He coughed.

She cleared her throat, 'You know it is time.'

She sat down in the dust and waited; directly in front of him, the gate, the temple.

She neither drank nor ate as the days passed. But she was neither still nor silent. She paced and urged the old gatekeeper to let her pass.

On the 7th day, she died.

He left her lie there just as a street sweeper leaves debris behind.

His eyes flickered on the morning of the 8th... when she rose again.

Scowling, accusatory, vindicated she sat there for another week.

Again she died and rose.

And again the next week.

'Women suffer for the mistakes men make!' she cried out.

Still he did not move.

Finally, near the end of the 6th week he unlocked the gate and beckoned her into the Temple; where no one entered and where only he worshipped.

In the nave they waited.

Three days later, the old man fell asleep and would not wake.

As was custom, she took his robes and laid him in a tomb.

Alone then she approached the darkened shrine, the Holy of Holies; where no light shined and where only she could see.

Water, oil or something else?

On the first Tuesday in May a rally for a responsible budget was held outside the capital building in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. (The rally was organized to prevent cuts in funding for home healthcare workers and teachers.) The steps were jammed; sandwiches and drinks were passed out. And between speakers the crowd chanted, ‘We Are One!’

Over and over it was chanted energetically, ‘We Are One!’ It was a single phrase ripe with meaning:

we are all cells in one body,
we are all united in our wants, needs and desires,
we are not on separate sides.

Spiritual values, humanitarian values, boundary-crossing values all wrapped into three words.

Many will tell you our nation is sick, our world is suffering, and that society and civilization are crashing down around us. Don’t be afraid of this story, it is only partially true. The truth always begins and ends with us. It starts or stops depending on our reaction.

Undoubtedly, if we continue to deny our unity, if we continue to live in isolation, if we continue to fight for space and wealth, then yes, our time as a civilization is most likely at an end. Yet, there is more to the story.

We are alive as long as we learn from our mistakes. Once we stop learning, once we stop adapting, once we stop avoiding obstacles, we become dead. While living things grow big and multiply, dead things shrink and decay. Alive we expand, in dying we contract. Where water cycles from gas to liquid to solid, so too life cycles through birth and death. And it is this cycle that binds us and traps us.

Unless we free ourselves.

We have reached a tipping point. If we tip one way, then we will become a footnote, perhaps a chapter, in the ‘Rise and Fall of Civilizations.’ Tip the other way and we step off the treadmill of history and start down a new path. The momentum lies with us.

I pray we tip towards the unknown path, because it will lead us into a new story. Our ancestors dreamt this story. The prophets predicted this story. It is the story of a life abundant and limitless.

How then do we escape this endless cycle? We must become perfectly human. The perfect human is aware of when they fail and does not hesitate to ask forgiveness. We can only free ourselves if we become perfect in our honesty. When we openly admit our failures and work to correct them will we become perfect. It is only in our humility that we can liberate ourselves. Only by realizing our humanity will we break the chains that now threaten to pull us under.

Others might answer with a choice between revolution, reformation, or religion. But I tell you no method, no theory, no philosophy once established will recuse itself. Its inherent flaws will only be revealed once it is put into practice. These flaws will lead to the creation of a new or updated system. Yet, no one can create a system in which people do not have to be perfect. We will always find a way to break the rules. Throughout the ages this lie of progress has not perfected the way to peace. This mechanical solution is, at its root, the same cycle of history repeating.

Unless people become perfect neither the machine, nor the corporation, nor the religious institution, nor the revolution, nor the university, nor the State, nor the financial institution will admit failure. It will rumble and shake itself to pieces before admitting wrong doing. We have seen this time and time again throughout the ages. This is why none of these things on their own will ever be humane, life-giving or perfect; they will never bring us freedom.

We the people must first change and become perfectly human, before we can hope for a perfect revolution, a perfect institution, or a perfect world.

Do not be afraid. This is not impossible; history has prepared us for this next step. The signs are all around us. The flow of time has brought us to this point just as a river carries a branch downstream. So too we have been brought here.

To sum up, these are the greatest questions facing our generation: Can we become perfectly humble? Can we be forever open to change? Can we treat our neighbor as ourselves? Can we seek to be reconciled with one another regardless of the cost? Can we live fearlessly?

How we answer will lead either to endless suffering and separation or perfect joy and union. How we answer will determine if we are like oil and water, forever apart. Or if there is truth in the chant, ‘We Are One!’

It was 4am...

When I woke up thinking about the popular movements across the Middle East. I also thought about Valentine's Day and love. From where does the desire for something new, something better arise? What motivates us to take risks, to challenge authority? What causes us to fall in love and then against all odds to remain in love?

Two years ago I learned about the etymology of the word Passion. The Latin root of passion is to suffer. So when we say we are passionate about an ideal, a movement, a sport, an art form, a group of people or a person it is possible to also say we suffer for them.

We wrestle with our passions, think about them, and learn from them. Ideally, our passions help us to grow and mature. Passion in this sense is a radical concept because part of our brain is wired to fight against or run from any possible threats we encounter. This reflex exists to prevent us from experiencing pain. At the same time it is contrary to passionate action.

The fight or flight response might be the best immediate option but in the long term it will either harm our relationships or prevent us from developing our gifts. When we are truly in the throes of passion, we are choosing a third option. What our instincts label as a threat due to fear, we accept as ultimately beneficial due to love.

Therefore, be radical. Be passionate. Neither run nor lash out. Rather choose the third option and suffer for what you love. This is how the world is changed.

TLDR; No pain, no gain.