Also, to remember for The Grace in Aging class!
~revjim
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Grace in Aging class starts September 18th Online at Spirit Education
As the Charlottesville incident is still fresh in our minds,I have to ask myself, Why?
First, why is there such a visceral reaction in me to this senseless violence , and second, what is it in me that creates a space that allows this to happen?
To the first, I just can’t understand what it is in people that brings them to such a place of loss that they see no other option than to do harm to another child of God. Where is the thought process that says this is an acceptable solution? In this country especially, where the standard of living, even for the poor and disadvantaged is so much higher than so much of the world, there is still a disconnect so deep that people would rather listen to others opinions, rather than discern any truth for themselves. Even self-proclaimed Christians seem to abandon the teaching of the man around whom the religion was born to resort inane acts, so out of character with their savior. Instead, they engage in hate mongering, acts of violence, discrimination, and other base acts of horror, in the name of religion.
Today, this is stretched to a breaking point by an ignorant, misogynistic and arrogant @POTUS and a militant, violence spouting media, that seems to have lost perspective as to their job of delivering the facts and instead incites discontent. This is not limited to the so-called alt-right. All the unknowing media is contributing to this base rhetoric of hate. Their opinions become the opinions of the unread, and self-absorbed everywhere and their untruths become rallying cries.
To the “What;” what can we do to alleviate suffering and maybe encourage a new and more loving behavior going forward?
To this, I can only speak for me. I can look inward to what it is in me that creates this reaction in the first place. I can look at my own thoughts of bigotry and hatred, however benign or repressed they might be. They must be there for me to react in the ways I do. I need to not only look at them, but I need to be aware that they are obviously somewhere in me, and in my awareness of them, do a healing process to bring them into my consciousness, so I can begin to release these thoughts.
In the Christian faith, Jesus’ teaching bring us to recognize the God within us, which is always there to guide us toward Love. In the Muslim faith, there is the inner struggle, jihad, which is our guide to bring us into the Love of God. In Buddhism and Hinduism, there is the desire to achieve selflessness, which brings us into communion with the universe.
Whatever the teaching, they are always toward Peace, inner and other. As Thomas Merton says, without a balance of the spiritual and the human, we are incomplete, not a “Whole Person.”
What does this mean for me? It means I need to do the deeper interior work every day. I need to be in greater awareness of all the exterior things that “effect” me, and I need to remember the Spirit moves in, through and as every living thing, always. If I can remember and live these principles, then I can remain in tune with the infinite, and I tune with Love, which God is, and I AM.
“To forget the self and its pettiness is to actually show up, open and embracing, in the present moment’s play of form and formlessness.
~ Kathleen Dowling Singh, Grace in Aging
from Love, in Peace,
rev jim
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It goes a long way in healing your soul.
~revjim
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“We will never get anywhere unless we can accept the fact that politics is an inextricable tangle of good and evil motives in which, perhaps, the evil predominate but where one must continue to hope doggedly in what little good can still be found”.
-New Seeds of Contemplation, Thomas Merton
Richard Rohr also talks about the complete person being beyond the “broken world” and, in a broader dialog, that without spirituality we are incomplete, not a whole person. This is a similar to what Thomas Merton speaks to in his writings about the whole person being a balance between the ego-driven human self and the spiritual, higher self. Then we can see beyond the politics and we can go from “Who has the power here?” to, “How can I serve here?” First, we have to find ourselves and then we can be happy with whatever the world throws at us while asking “how can I help?”
~jtstarke
“the mere ability we human beings have to sing the praises of love and compassion is a most precious gift.”
-Dali Lama, Ethics for the New Millennium, Ch.5
As I facilitated a course based on the Dali Lama’s book, I saw this as a timely issue, because both ethics, and compassion are based in Love.
Without Love, we lack the ability to have empathy and therefore compassion. We live in relationship with others out of common needs and desires for ourselves and those around us. When we are separate from love, which starts with self-love, we can’t possibly care for others, because we live from fear. As we begin to accept ourselves as we are in the present moment, we move into that place of greater self-acceptance and love becomes an outer expression of that.
Then, as we open to a discourse with someone we don’t know without attaching labels, we tend to find commonality, and when that happens the separation dissolves and the ability to feel compassion for ourselves and others becomes a possibility.
from Love, in Peace,
~rev jim starke
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-rev jim
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Merton study, coming soon
Recreate your life from Love and Compassion.
#agnt #peace
Spirit-Edu.com Explore Principle
Our Diversity Supports Our Individual Freedoms… While your societies continue to try to dictate and enforce human behavior to please the majority – because of your diversity, it continues to be an uncomfortable struggle that, again and again, falls of its economic weight. There simply is not enough money in the world to buck the natural currents of individual freedom and independence of thought.
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