Joy to the World

I've been thinking about how light figures into our celebrations this time of year.  The lights twinkle on the Christmas tree, we light the candles of the Advent wreath each Sunday, the menorah is lit for Hannukah, the Magi followed the light of the star to Bethlehem, in other cultures bonfires are lit on the winter solstice.  It must be that, because winter has come, the nights are long and dark, the days are often dreary with little sunlight, and we miss the light of summer.  

The night must have held many terrors for our primitive ancestors.  Our vision is poorly adapted for the darkness of night, and the sounds of the night must have been very frightening.  The light of a fire during the long nights of winter would have kept those invisible terrors from being quite so frightening.  So, perhaps the need for celebrations of light in the dark of winter have been with us for thousands of years.

As you and I take part in this season of light, my prayer is that we are reminded that the lights symbolize freedom from fear of both the literal and figurative darkness, that we feel confidence that life is not something to be feared but rather something to be embraced with joy.

Great Creator, Still Creating, Teach Us What We Yet May Be

I have continued sending the members of my family notes during each weekday in Advent, and last Friday I sent them a note about my most basic beliefs, those beliefs that form the basis by which I try to live. Here's what I wrote about "my life":

First, I'm not sure that "my life" is a realistic expression.  Life isn't about "me'" Life is, and if there is an "I," that "I" is a part of life.  I believe that there is a great Creator that is the source of everything that is and who is a part of everything that is.  I don't believe that this Creator is a puppet-master pulling the strings of each individual life, but rather that natural laws are in motion, and we are free to live in harmony with those natural laws or to interfere with them and live out of harmony with the Creative force that is inherent in everything.

I believe that within all creation, a part of the God who created everything is present, that in each of our hearts, God resides.  Evil comes when we fail to listen to that of God that is within is.  I believe that all life is good; it is when we refuse to listen for the voice of Good within us that we become less good.

I believe that we are part of Creation and have a responsibility to live so that the beauty of Creation is preserved.  Our highest calling is to serve and honor the creative force that brought everything into being, and because that Creator caused all things to be, we do reverence to the Creator by serving and honoring that which was created.  "Whoever would be great among you, must become a servant," is perhaps the most true thought one can ever have.

In a few paragraphs, those are my most basic beliefs.  My prayer today is that I will live a life that is consistent with those beliefs, and that if you find some truth in them, that your life is also lived according to the truth you hold in your hearts.

O Christmas Tree

One of my Christmas joys is decorating our Christmas tree. My wife takes care of the other decoaring in the house, but the tree is my special contribution to the Christmas decor. To be more precise, once I've hung the ornaments, my wife puts the finishing touch of placing a set of candy canes in just the right places to finish the tree off. This year, our son helped with the tree, and that made my joy even more complete.

As I stood in the kitchen a few days after we completed hanging the ornaments, I was looking into the den at our Christmas tree, thinking how it represents a lifetime of memories.  There are the elves that are like an elf that we have displayed elsewhere in the house that was MY elf when I was very small.  Most every ornament has some signficance, and as it's put on the tree, I recall that this one was from this trip or that trip, this one was given to us to remember one of our children's birth, one of the children made this one, these are the ones that we painted sitting at our kitchen table early in our married life, and so on.  How wonderful it is near the end of the year and during this hurried, harried, magical season to be reminded of what's important in life--the sharing of our lives with each other.

I hope that each of us can find some time to look back on the many wonderful memories and experiences that we've shared with those we love most, these accumulated events that have made us who we are.  What a wonderful life we've been given!

Of All Mankind the Servant

Here's one of my favorite quotes (from the Dalai Lama):  “This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness."  While sacred buildings and communities of like-minded people who are struggling with the same problems and questions are helpful as we try to figure why we're here and what we should be doing with our lives, I have to agree with the Dalai Lama's statement.  If our basic philosophy is to be kind to one another, even those who are not kind to us, we are fulfilling our mission in life.  For me, kindness is the embodiment of everything I believe.I hope that today, each of us will be treated with kindness, and that each of us will treat everyone we encounter with kindness.  If we slip up and react in anger or mean-spiritedness to someone who treats us badly, my prayer is that we'll forgive ourselves and them and resolve to return to "the philosophy of kindness." Happy second Tuesday in Advent.

What Can I Give Him, Poor As I Am?

(while this post won't appear until tuesday, i a writing it on sunday morning as i sit in the home of my wife's sister and everyone else in the house is asleep.)  for christians, today is the first sunday in advent.  yesterday as i prayed about how to find meaning in this advent season, i sensed a leading to do something for the members of my family each day during advent.  perhaps it will be a small gift, a note, or kind action for my wife each day,  and for my children i will send a note of encouragement each day.  there may be days when i cannot follow through on my intentions, and i won't feel guilty if that is the case, but my desire is to give something extra of myself to those who are dearest to me throughout the season.

in our church, as in many christian churches, we light a special candle in an advent wreath each sunday during advent and have a special liturgy around the lighting of that sunday's candle.  this sunday the theme of the liturgy is "hope," so we say that we "light the candle of hope."  during my time of prayer and meditation this morning, i focused on hope.  in a sense hope removes us from the present and as such can be a means of ignoring the present.  it that sense, hope is not a good thing.  but hope is a word that conjures up positive thoughts for me.  it directs my thinking toward positive transformation, toward a pattern of development that says that the next moment will be even better than the present one because the present moment is so precious, that life is moving in a direction where suffering and want are diminished by actions that grow from hope in a better world.

there is an archaic meaning for the word hope that is related to the concept of trust, as in "Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD their God" (from psalm 146).  in that sense, hope takes on an even more positive meaning.  when hope is united with trust, we have a sense that the present and future are one, and our efforts, though faltering, will move us and the world in the right direction so long as our focus is on the right kind of effort, effort that flows from compassion and loving-kindness.

whether you are a christian, an adherent of some other religion, or a follower of no religion, my prayer during this special season is that despair gives way to hope, that hate gives way to love, and that indifference gives way to compassion.  may we seek transformation that brings us closer to the denial of our selfish attachments and the surrender of our lives to the well-being of others.

I Am Jesus' Little Lamb

a few days ago, i came across a statement attributed to john the baptizer in the third chapter of luke. john is condemnng the religious elite and tells them that God is able to raise up sons of abraham from the stones on the ground, thus debunking their claims of special status because they are part of "God's chosen people." upon investigating further, i found that matthew 3 contains this same incident. reading this caused me to think about our western philosophy of the uniqueness of each person. it seemed to me that john was suggesting that the idea that each person is "special," a soul created by God for a specific purpose, may not be how things really are.

the recent vote on "personhood" in the neighboring state of mississippi ties into what john said in his stinging rebuke to the religious leaders of his time. if we believe that God can create "sons of abraham" as john suggests, is each embryo that has the potential for development into a human life deserving of protection as an individual? is the "self" that we talk so much about in our culture real?

Jesus speaks of denying oneself, and we usually interpret that to mean that in doing so and taking up one's cross, we are to live a life of self-sacrifice. could Jesus be suggesting something more than that? are we part of a "collective self" that binds each of us inextricably together and links us to the God of creation? perhaps it is our own vanity that causes us to imagine that each of us is an independent "self" with a special mission and purpose.

i am not quite ready to abandon the belief in a "self" that is separate and unique, but i must ask myself the question of whether i am a "self" because i think i am such or is this "self" something i have created in my mind that doesn't exist in reality. one day i will have an answer to that question, but it may not come in this life. my prayer today is that each of will see our connection with those other "selves" that populate the world, will see that we could just have easily been one of those other "selves," and that our hearts are filled with joy and compassion for each "self" that struggles for understanding and compaasion.

Dona Nobis Pacem

in the united states, we are approaching thanksgiving day. like most families here, we are planning a time with extended family, a part of which will be a huge feast shared by several generations of family members. it will be a joyful time, as we celebrate with this large group, and it will be a stressful time of tolerating spoiled children and yelling parents. after it's all over, we'll look back and complain about the stresses and recall fondly the opportunity of being with all those that we see all too infrequently.

thanksgiving, at least for me, is a time of assessing the past year, and it's a time of reflecting on how my life has changed. i try not to write about me so much in this blog, except about how the teachings of christianity and bhuddism can be applied to my life. in this post, though, i want to write about the continuing transformation of my life as i study and contemplate those teachings, in keeping with the title of my blog.

to that end, here is the list of ways i believe my life has been transformed over the past few months:
i no longer have "bad" days. sure, there are frustrations that arise, and there are days when nothing seems to go right, but at the end of those days, i still can give thanks that everything was as it should have been.
i don't make "to do" lists. if something is not important enough to remember, it's probably not really that important to start with.
i don't have goals, other than to live each day trying to be mindful of what's and who's around me.
i wake up each morning at whatever time my body tells me to (usually around 6:00) excited about spending at least 30 minutes in meditation and prayer. this is, i guess, one of the greatest transformation in my life--to spend this time not as a duty but as an exciting opportunity.
i constantly remind myself that every task can be a joyful offering to god, and, in this way, even tasks that would otherwise have been onerous become pleasant.
i take things as they come, rather than becoming upset when my day doesn't work out as i had planned it.
i'm not as focused on things (possessions), but rather am more concerned about people and ideas.
i'm filled with joy and feel more at peace with myself and others.

i don't feel especially virtuous, and i'm filled with doubts about whether i'm doing as much as i ought to make the world a better place. despite my abandonment of establishing goals, making lists, developing action plans, forgetting about life missions and core values, i sense that my life is moving in the right directions. guilt and duty have been replaced by the realization that i'm not perfect and that it's ok not to be perfect. in short, life is good and getting better!

my prayer today is that my transformation continues and that each of us is in the process of being transformed into the joyful, peaceful, caring person that we are intended to be. shalom.