Monday, March 12, 2012
Sermon: Who are you, now?
Delivered March 11, 2012 at First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh, sans microphone due to technical difficulties.
(For some reason blogger is goofing up the font size. To increase/decrease, press "Control" and "+" at the same time.)
I chose today's Time for All Ages reading “the Very Hungry Caterpillar” for a couple reasons. First, I see an underlying hunger in the common human spirit to know itself, to know its world, and to know the nature of divinity. And there is a hunger in the common human spirit to be or become itself, to aid the world in becoming its true self (whatever that is!), and to become one (or at least closer) with the divine nature.
To become. To be. The statement “I am!” resounds through sacred texts across time. The applied interpretation of “I am” remains somewhere between unanswered, and open to our own determination. Because genuine identity searching can be difficult and trying, I want to preface the rest of the sermon with some advice from a fellow minister: “If you feel uncomfortable, it doesn't necessarily mean anything's wrong. That's just how its supposed to feel sometimes.”
My second reason for sharing that story with the kids is because it's a caterpillar, in the process of becoming a butterfly. I can't think of much less comfortable than being closed into a cocoon after going through a transformation, impatiently waiting to break through the fibers, unfurl wings, and fly. That boxed-in uncomfortable feeling doesn't necessarily mean anything is wrong.
Picture if you will, Lewis Carroll's Alice approaching the Caterpillar....
She stretched herself up on tiptoe, and peeped over the edge of the mushroom, and her eyes immediately met those of a large blue caterpillar, that was sitting on the top, with his arms folded, quietly smoking a long hookah, and taking not the smallest notice of her or of anything else.
The Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other for some time in silence: at last the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth, and addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice.
“Who are you?” said the Caterpillar.
This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, “I—I hardly know, Sir, just at present—at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have changed several times since then.”
Thankfully, Alice's intense day in this story is of a different nature than most of our day-to-day lives. But here's the thing--We change! And we forget who we are.
We are our grandmother's prayers. We are our grandfather's dreamings. A morning star rises and sings to the universe who we are. That helps set the record straight. Actually, does it? Or is that just a beautiful story? Is everything we tell about ourselves ALL just a beautiful story, or in some cases, a fearsome story?
One evening I was playing with my toddler son Henry and thinking about what he might be like at age 80. Hopefully not the same as his 2 and a half year old self! A few weeks ago when the Rev. Jay Abernathy was preaching here, I wondered what he might've been like as a toddler. Certainly he didn't begin his life as the upstanding orator we saw last month! [pause] Nor is this minister before you now an orator of that caliber—although I aspire to one day be, so I work to change in that direction. Our lives are constant gradations of change. If we step back and really look at our history and our hopes, we see our lives follow a great arc. But in the moment, people generally tend to forget who they are. This forgetting (and when we are mindful, remembering) occurs on many levels. The first is the simple level of applying names and descriptive words. This is especially so when we are told and tell ourselves many times a day who we are. Each time this happens, it works both toward empowerment and toward limitation. Naming is defining. It is a way of claiming who we are. Or alternately, it's a way of slapping a label onto somebody.
[slow] Speaking of labels and specifications, I need to mention something that's been troubling me. Here is the scenario. I walk into church on a Sunday or another day, and people come up to me and say, “Hi Joel.” You might be a long-time member, or here for just a few weeks, and if you don't have a nametag on, odds are good I'm not going to be able to address you by name, even if you've told me before, twice. Or three times. I'm a more visually-oriented person, so if I don't see a name, it will take many encounters to stick in my head. The feelings start to come, even though I have a practice of dealing with them. I feel a bit inadequate, and worry about how you perceive me. You know my name, and I don't know yours. Should I ask AGAIN? I wonder will you be offended if I ask, or if I don't ask and just address you as YOU? In this state of bafflement, I am a deer-in-the-headlights. Perhaps I should follow the practice of Zsa Zsa Gabor. She says, “I call everyone 'Darling' because I can't remember their names.” I don't know if I can get away with that, or if I would want to. Besides, she's an order of magnitude more glamourous than me.
I'm thinking to myself right now, you're probably thinking about your own nametag right now. There's likely a reason you're wearing it today, or not wearing it, and I won't attempt to guess the diversity of reasons for your choice. I will say that as a new member of the community, not knowing people's names, and not having my name recognized (were I not up here and known as a minister), I might feel less connected, like an outsider. And I doubt that's the impression we want newcomers to feel, if we get right down to it. I want you to know my name, and I want to be known on deeper levels as well, when the time is right.
Then again, maybe some of you here today DON'T want to be known, perhaps some brand new folks who just came in to investigate, and are hoping to scoot out the side door as soon as the service is over. I get that. I studied mathematics and psychology at the University of Minnesota for my undergraduate degree, with a student population of 50,000. One reason I chose that school was the anonymity. I wanted to reserve my time and space for myself and not have too many people calling on me, wanting to connect with me.
Fast forward twenty years later, and I've changed my tune. I believe that knowing each others' names helps with community, helps with being known, and eventually there is a need to be known. Some lyrics from English alternative rock band Love and Rockets have guided my thinking on this: My world is your world / People like to hear their names / I'm no exception / Please call my name.
Ahem. This causes me all the more internal consternation as I'm meeting someone again whose name I should know, because I want to call you by your name. I will do my best to learn it and use it, nametag or no.
But enough about names. I've said what I wanted to say about nametags, and really, our name, though important, is only the most superficial level of our being. The caterpillar would give Alice a quick tut-tut if she tries to answer “Who are you?” by offering her name.
On a deeper level, we forget and remember ourselves by our activities. I am a minister, I minister to, for, and with people. I used to play volleyball and hope to again sometime soon. I recently crossed dog-walker off my list of avocations on my resume, because our beloved dog Maggie passed away. I used to work in software. I love playing guitar and listening to all sorts of music. I like to listen to Gene Autry when I'm writing because it's mellow and not too engaging. As for my social location, I'm a heterosexually-identified, white-appearing Scandinavian American, with male appearance. I'm fortunate to be married to a woman I consider lovely, and that our love is sanctioned by the state. I'm a father to a toddler, a son to senior citizens, and a brother to two sisters. I drink too much soda, though I avoid caffeine like the plague. Is that me? Not completely. I've done massage work for the poorest people of San Francisco. I am a peacemonger. I also have something going on with my rotator cuff in my left shoulder. I identify as our family's primary grocery shopper.
Perhaps you identify with some of these labels as well, and we have something in common. One thing we all do have in common is that any list of identities is going to be incomplete. We are so much more. We limit ourselves and each other when we focus only on superficial labels such as “woman,” “man,” “straight,” “gay,” “person of color,” “white person,” “client,” “barrista,” “plumber,” “crime survivor,” “wealthy,” “homeless,” or any other category.
I believe that beyond these,... in each of us is an astounding amount of nameless potential. Within myself, I imagine there are hundreds of thousands of angels waiting to get out. These angels are messages. I imagine they are in you too. In my view, we wouldn't be human if we lacked the capacity to deliver and receive each others' angels—to and from wherever they are needed.
Let's take a moment and revisit the question. I invite you to step into Alice's shoes, and let the caterpillar ask, [slow and pausey] “Who are you... at this moment?” “Who have you been?” and “Who are you aiming to be?” While you're considering that, I want to share a meme that's been going around the Internet.
View your life with kindsight. Stop beating yourself up about things from the past. Instead of slapping yourself on the forehead and asking “What was I thinking?” Breathe, and ask the kinder question, “What was I learning?”
Now, one more time... [quick, quiet] Who are you? [30 second pause]
I encourage you to remember well the parts of yourselves that resonate best, the parts that warm you. The parts that hold you down, the parts that bring grief, hold them too, and know they may be teaching something.
To a large part, we get to determine our own identities. However, we have identities put upon us daily. I feel that all too often, we are categorically referred to as citizens, or unfortunately, simply as consumers. These words include us into a context we might not choose. But I want something more for us all, because the title “consumer” deletes most of the story and distorts the rest. We are people who need certain things to live, who choose certain things according to our passions, and who are persuaded into desiring much more than that. From the advertising alone, I often feel like the hungry caterpillar after that big Saturday binge. The advertisements, the culture of commercialism, the shiny neon and conveniences make us forget our deepest selves.
At our root, we are life. We are the universe witnessing itself making music. We are creation creating. In Thursday's recent adult faith development class session, we discussed Ralph Waldo Emerson's divinity school address, in which he excoriates ministers for missing the point of life, working from the words of the book, and not the heart. He says “If a man dissemble, deceive, he deceives himself, and goes out of acquaintance with his own being.” [pause] I believe what Emerson was trying to drive home was the risk of carelessly deceiving ourselves about who we are and living according to that deceit.
I see in this age of too much information, not enough space, so much alienation, and a loss of place, the people of the world are largely out of acquaintance with their underlying being. I hope we can change that in our communities by putting our roots down deeper. We're in the midst of a flood of information, and a hurricane of false winds in the media. Only by knowing ourselves truly, can we steel ourselves, and transcendentally fix ourselves to the ground our truest being.
And what is that? It starts with a rejection of the stories put upon us, and a search for our determined spiritual selves. As I was writing this, I was reminded of a quote from Jesuit priest (Peeyer Tayard d' Shardeh) Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
I've remembered and forgotten this quote MANY times since I learned it about five years ago. We are from the Sun, we are made of stars. The matter that each of us are composed of could have been rocks, trees, clouds, a circuit board, gas in the upper atmosphere, anything. But that matter became us, and we are self-aware—sometimes more aware than others around us, and more aware at some times than other times, and never are we anywhere near omniscient. Even our greatest awareness barely touches the surface of all that happens--even in our immediate vicinity. And yet still we are here, now, and capable of determining ourselves and our world. As Marianne Williamson reminds us, “Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.” Underneath this facade of separateness, we know we are all connected. When we remember how deeply connected we are, we remember our power, no longer deceived about who we are, no longer—as Emerson says—out of acquaintance with our own being. As we become acquainted with our being, we come into our power, a power beyond measure.
I used to be afraid of that power. I was afraid that I would use it as “power-over” others. Just over a year ago, during my chaplain residency at a downtown San Francisco hospital, my supervisor explained to me that I needed to step into my six-foot-five tall self, and be that powerful presence. He told me that there are more kinds of power than “power-over”—specifically, there is “power-with” or “power-for” others who need us to claim it. People need us to be our powerful selves. May we overcome the fear of that power, and KNOW that our power used rightly can be for good. And may we be ever mindful that power used rightly begins and ends with love.
Overcoming that fear means learning who we are, and claiming that identity at every level. Then we must find a balanced authentic relationship with others, and let our little lights shine like the stars we come from. If all else fails,... share your name, love your neighbor, and smile knowing you are loved as well. Amen.
(For some reason blogger is goofing up the font size. To increase/decrease, press "Control" and "+" at the same time.)
I chose today's Time for All Ages reading “the Very Hungry Caterpillar” for a couple reasons. First, I see an underlying hunger in the common human spirit to know itself, to know its world, and to know the nature of divinity. And there is a hunger in the common human spirit to be or become itself, to aid the world in becoming its true self (whatever that is!), and to become one (or at least closer) with the divine nature.
To become. To be. The statement “I am!” resounds through sacred texts across time. The applied interpretation of “I am” remains somewhere between unanswered, and open to our own determination. Because genuine identity searching can be difficult and trying, I want to preface the rest of the sermon with some advice from a fellow minister: “If you feel uncomfortable, it doesn't necessarily mean anything's wrong. That's just how its supposed to feel sometimes.”
My second reason for sharing that story with the kids is because it's a caterpillar, in the process of becoming a butterfly. I can't think of much less comfortable than being closed into a cocoon after going through a transformation, impatiently waiting to break through the fibers, unfurl wings, and fly. That boxed-in uncomfortable feeling doesn't necessarily mean anything is wrong.
Picture if you will, Lewis Carroll's Alice approaching the Caterpillar....
She stretched herself up on tiptoe, and peeped over the edge of the mushroom, and her eyes immediately met those of a large blue caterpillar, that was sitting on the top, with his arms folded, quietly smoking a long hookah, and taking not the smallest notice of her or of anything else.
The Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other for some time in silence: at last the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth, and addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice.
“Who are you?” said the Caterpillar.
This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, “I—I hardly know, Sir, just at present—at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have changed several times since then.”
Thankfully, Alice's intense day in this story is of a different nature than most of our day-to-day lives. But here's the thing--We change! And we forget who we are.
We are our grandmother's prayers. We are our grandfather's dreamings. A morning star rises and sings to the universe who we are. That helps set the record straight. Actually, does it? Or is that just a beautiful story? Is everything we tell about ourselves ALL just a beautiful story, or in some cases, a fearsome story?
One evening I was playing with my toddler son Henry and thinking about what he might be like at age 80. Hopefully not the same as his 2 and a half year old self! A few weeks ago when the Rev. Jay Abernathy was preaching here, I wondered what he might've been like as a toddler. Certainly he didn't begin his life as the upstanding orator we saw last month! [pause] Nor is this minister before you now an orator of that caliber—although I aspire to one day be, so I work to change in that direction. Our lives are constant gradations of change. If we step back and really look at our history and our hopes, we see our lives follow a great arc. But in the moment, people generally tend to forget who they are. This forgetting (and when we are mindful, remembering) occurs on many levels. The first is the simple level of applying names and descriptive words. This is especially so when we are told and tell ourselves many times a day who we are. Each time this happens, it works both toward empowerment and toward limitation. Naming is defining. It is a way of claiming who we are. Or alternately, it's a way of slapping a label onto somebody.
[slow] Speaking of labels and specifications, I need to mention something that's been troubling me. Here is the scenario. I walk into church on a Sunday or another day, and people come up to me and say, “Hi Joel.” You might be a long-time member, or here for just a few weeks, and if you don't have a nametag on, odds are good I'm not going to be able to address you by name, even if you've told me before, twice. Or three times. I'm a more visually-oriented person, so if I don't see a name, it will take many encounters to stick in my head. The feelings start to come, even though I have a practice of dealing with them. I feel a bit inadequate, and worry about how you perceive me. You know my name, and I don't know yours. Should I ask AGAIN? I wonder will you be offended if I ask, or if I don't ask and just address you as YOU? In this state of bafflement, I am a deer-in-the-headlights. Perhaps I should follow the practice of Zsa Zsa Gabor. She says, “I call everyone 'Darling' because I can't remember their names.” I don't know if I can get away with that, or if I would want to. Besides, she's an order of magnitude more glamourous than me.
I'm thinking to myself right now, you're probably thinking about your own nametag right now. There's likely a reason you're wearing it today, or not wearing it, and I won't attempt to guess the diversity of reasons for your choice. I will say that as a new member of the community, not knowing people's names, and not having my name recognized (were I not up here and known as a minister), I might feel less connected, like an outsider. And I doubt that's the impression we want newcomers to feel, if we get right down to it. I want you to know my name, and I want to be known on deeper levels as well, when the time is right.
Then again, maybe some of you here today DON'T want to be known, perhaps some brand new folks who just came in to investigate, and are hoping to scoot out the side door as soon as the service is over. I get that. I studied mathematics and psychology at the University of Minnesota for my undergraduate degree, with a student population of 50,000. One reason I chose that school was the anonymity. I wanted to reserve my time and space for myself and not have too many people calling on me, wanting to connect with me.
Fast forward twenty years later, and I've changed my tune. I believe that knowing each others' names helps with community, helps with being known, and eventually there is a need to be known. Some lyrics from English alternative rock band Love and Rockets have guided my thinking on this: My world is your world / People like to hear their names / I'm no exception / Please call my name.
Ahem. This causes me all the more internal consternation as I'm meeting someone again whose name I should know, because I want to call you by your name. I will do my best to learn it and use it, nametag or no.
But enough about names. I've said what I wanted to say about nametags, and really, our name, though important, is only the most superficial level of our being. The caterpillar would give Alice a quick tut-tut if she tries to answer “Who are you?” by offering her name.
On a deeper level, we forget and remember ourselves by our activities. I am a minister, I minister to, for, and with people. I used to play volleyball and hope to again sometime soon. I recently crossed dog-walker off my list of avocations on my resume, because our beloved dog Maggie passed away. I used to work in software. I love playing guitar and listening to all sorts of music. I like to listen to Gene Autry when I'm writing because it's mellow and not too engaging. As for my social location, I'm a heterosexually-identified, white-appearing Scandinavian American, with male appearance. I'm fortunate to be married to a woman I consider lovely, and that our love is sanctioned by the state. I'm a father to a toddler, a son to senior citizens, and a brother to two sisters. I drink too much soda, though I avoid caffeine like the plague. Is that me? Not completely. I've done massage work for the poorest people of San Francisco. I am a peacemonger. I also have something going on with my rotator cuff in my left shoulder. I identify as our family's primary grocery shopper.
Perhaps you identify with some of these labels as well, and we have something in common. One thing we all do have in common is that any list of identities is going to be incomplete. We are so much more. We limit ourselves and each other when we focus only on superficial labels such as “woman,” “man,” “straight,” “gay,” “person of color,” “white person,” “client,” “barrista,” “plumber,” “crime survivor,” “wealthy,” “homeless,” or any other category.
I believe that beyond these,... in each of us is an astounding amount of nameless potential. Within myself, I imagine there are hundreds of thousands of angels waiting to get out. These angels are messages. I imagine they are in you too. In my view, we wouldn't be human if we lacked the capacity to deliver and receive each others' angels—to and from wherever they are needed.
Let's take a moment and revisit the question. I invite you to step into Alice's shoes, and let the caterpillar ask, [slow and pausey] “Who are you... at this moment?” “Who have you been?” and “Who are you aiming to be?” While you're considering that, I want to share a meme that's been going around the Internet.
View your life with kindsight. Stop beating yourself up about things from the past. Instead of slapping yourself on the forehead and asking “What was I thinking?” Breathe, and ask the kinder question, “What was I learning?”
Now, one more time... [quick, quiet] Who are you? [30 second pause]
I encourage you to remember well the parts of yourselves that resonate best, the parts that warm you. The parts that hold you down, the parts that bring grief, hold them too, and know they may be teaching something.
To a large part, we get to determine our own identities. However, we have identities put upon us daily. I feel that all too often, we are categorically referred to as citizens, or unfortunately, simply as consumers. These words include us into a context we might not choose. But I want something more for us all, because the title “consumer” deletes most of the story and distorts the rest. We are people who need certain things to live, who choose certain things according to our passions, and who are persuaded into desiring much more than that. From the advertising alone, I often feel like the hungry caterpillar after that big Saturday binge. The advertisements, the culture of commercialism, the shiny neon and conveniences make us forget our deepest selves.
At our root, we are life. We are the universe witnessing itself making music. We are creation creating. In Thursday's recent adult faith development class session, we discussed Ralph Waldo Emerson's divinity school address, in which he excoriates ministers for missing the point of life, working from the words of the book, and not the heart. He says “If a man dissemble, deceive, he deceives himself, and goes out of acquaintance with his own being.” [pause] I believe what Emerson was trying to drive home was the risk of carelessly deceiving ourselves about who we are and living according to that deceit.
I see in this age of too much information, not enough space, so much alienation, and a loss of place, the people of the world are largely out of acquaintance with their underlying being. I hope we can change that in our communities by putting our roots down deeper. We're in the midst of a flood of information, and a hurricane of false winds in the media. Only by knowing ourselves truly, can we steel ourselves, and transcendentally fix ourselves to the ground our truest being.
And what is that? It starts with a rejection of the stories put upon us, and a search for our determined spiritual selves. As I was writing this, I was reminded of a quote from Jesuit priest (Peeyer Tayard d' Shardeh) Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
I've remembered and forgotten this quote MANY times since I learned it about five years ago. We are from the Sun, we are made of stars. The matter that each of us are composed of could have been rocks, trees, clouds, a circuit board, gas in the upper atmosphere, anything. But that matter became us, and we are self-aware—sometimes more aware than others around us, and more aware at some times than other times, and never are we anywhere near omniscient. Even our greatest awareness barely touches the surface of all that happens--even in our immediate vicinity. And yet still we are here, now, and capable of determining ourselves and our world. As Marianne Williamson reminds us, “Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.” Underneath this facade of separateness, we know we are all connected. When we remember how deeply connected we are, we remember our power, no longer deceived about who we are, no longer—as Emerson says—out of acquaintance with our own being. As we become acquainted with our being, we come into our power, a power beyond measure.
I used to be afraid of that power. I was afraid that I would use it as “power-over” others. Just over a year ago, during my chaplain residency at a downtown San Francisco hospital, my supervisor explained to me that I needed to step into my six-foot-five tall self, and be that powerful presence. He told me that there are more kinds of power than “power-over”—specifically, there is “power-with” or “power-for” others who need us to claim it. People need us to be our powerful selves. May we overcome the fear of that power, and KNOW that our power used rightly can be for good. And may we be ever mindful that power used rightly begins and ends with love.
Overcoming that fear means learning who we are, and claiming that identity at every level. Then we must find a balanced authentic relationship with others, and let our little lights shine like the stars we come from. If all else fails,... share your name, love your neighbor, and smile knowing you are loved as well. Amen.
Labels: metaphor, Process Thought, sermons, theological sources
Monday, January 25, 2010
Euler's Identity may be key
.
I can't believe I somehow missed this beautiful piece of mathematics from Leonard Euler. Perhaps I just wasn't ready for it at 21.
Today, while perusing modblog, I came across this beautiful piece
that some guy decided to print on his back (the hard way).
For about a decade, I've thought that when we figure out the connection between pi and e, we would be able to get a handle on the nature of the universe, since both of them are transcendental numbers. The fact that this knowledge has existed for centuries already obviously means either that I was wrong, or that we haven't dug deeply enough into this secret. I am actually amazed, almost tearful, at the beauty of this equation, because not only does it have e and pi, but it also has 0, 1, and i, which are pretty much the other top three starting/continuing points of the mathematical universe.
Just... wow. I guess I'm just behind the times. Now, to study up. It might take a lifetime or more to figure this one out. Maybe I'll get lucky. Then again, I still haven't learned circular breathing for the didgeridoo either.
lyrics:
"A torus is a geometer's thing.
It's a ring encircling a ring.
They come in many sizes and shapes.
And they have wings.
The ring torus, most common, is king.
The spindle torus has a football-shaped thing.
The horn torus has deep meaning.
A single point in the center,
Where everything comes together.
At a special place called the origin.
Where at every instance we always begin.
At this nexus we're creating our spirit
Our here and our now touching everything near it.
The pictures are denser than poetry knows,
So I'll try and explain it less densely in prose.
colors:
mood: busy.
chant/prayer/mantra: Revelation is not corked.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
I can't believe I somehow missed this beautiful piece of mathematics from Leonard Euler. Perhaps I just wasn't ready for it at 21.
Today, while perusing modblog, I came across this beautiful piece
that some guy decided to print on his back (the hard way).For about a decade, I've thought that when we figure out the connection between pi and e, we would be able to get a handle on the nature of the universe, since both of them are transcendental numbers. The fact that this knowledge has existed for centuries already obviously means either that I was wrong, or that we haven't dug deeply enough into this secret. I am actually amazed, almost tearful, at the beauty of this equation, because not only does it have e and pi, but it also has 0, 1, and i, which are pretty much the other top three starting/continuing points of the mathematical universe.
Just... wow. I guess I'm just behind the times. Now, to study up. It might take a lifetime or more to figure this one out. Maybe I'll get lucky. Then again, I still haven't learned circular breathing for the didgeridoo either.
lyrics:
"A torus is a geometer's thing.
It's a ring encircling a ring.
They come in many sizes and shapes.
And they have wings.
The ring torus, most common, is king.
The spindle torus has a football-shaped thing.
The horn torus has deep meaning.
A single point in the center,
Where everything comes together.
At a special place called the origin.
Where at every instance we always begin.
At this nexus we're creating our spirit
Our here and our now touching everything near it.
The pictures are denser than poetry knows,
So I'll try and explain it less densely in prose.
colors:
mood: busy.
chant/prayer/mantra: Revelation is not corked.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Labels: Math, metaphor, personal bookmarks, Process Thought, theology
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Rough Draft for a Future Sermon: Unreckonable Gratitude
.
Thank you!
For reasons that I am not even fully aware of, and from the bottom of my heart, I am compelled to repeat, "Thank you!"
To each of you here sitting in this space, most of whom I have yet to fully meet and get to know, to an indefinite number of people who have come before and left traces of beauty in this life for me to enjoy, and to all of the plants and animals, this Earth, the Sun, Moon and stars, and to all of the energy and matter in the universe that has come together to make this moment and every other moment, I just want to say, "Thank you!"
My list of blessings in this life has been long. The gift of life from our parents is something each of us were granted through no doing of our own, as far as we know or could attempt to prove. We just arrived here into life. I don't even know who all to be grateful to for this life. My parents were most directly responsible, but for all I know I might want to thank my father's employers for giving him a raise, or my older sisters for both being girls, or perhaps the quality control person at the condom factory for being lax in their duties because it was a Friday.
It's not just the simple gift of life to be grateful for, but to be born into this time and this place. To have the privileges of a family with enough money, that values education; to be born into this world by chance male and white and "straight" in a time and place where those attributes often carry benefits.
And I'm grateful not just for the gift of life, but the gifts that have sustained life. To be born on a planet with the right molecular mix in the air, soil and water--where plants grow easily from seeds, with water and a little care, and to be born into a time with domesticated livestock and to be raised to find them tasty.
I'm grateful to those who have created social systems and technologies that have helped to boost up the quality of life for me, even when those social systems and technologies have caused harm to our environment and to the quality of life of others. And I am grateful to the environment and to those people who have been oppressed for suffering through the damage caused by the inherent evils (or evil byproducts) of those same social systems and technologies.
So many blessings have come to me, and to many of us here, and I think it's of utmost importance that we acknowledge those blessings in all their fullness, even if that stings sometimes. Because by being in life, whatever lot we've received, we are each blessed in fundamental ways just to be alive and aware in the universe--as the universe experiencing itself!
That acknowledgment is critical. The gratitude that we can put forth is critical, because it changes our state of being. The existence of gratitude changes our attitude.
----
In Boy Scouts, in order to use a knife or saw or axe--anything with a blade, it was important to have your "Totin' Chip" card, which meant you'd passed basic safety training. One of the critical piece of knowledge I recall learning was how to safely pass a sharp item from one person to another. When the person receiving the bladed tool had safely gotten a grip on the item, they said "Thank you," as a sign to the giver that the transaction had taken place.
----
The person who does not say "thank you" in this case is dangerous, because the acknowledgement of an exchange is rather unclear. In a similar way, when we fail to acknowledge the benefits we have (or the detriments we avoid), our danger becomes one of ingratitude, of entitlement. Without changing our attitude to one of gratitude, we may continue to expect that more benefits should be heaped upon us.
Incidentally, how many over the course of the last decade have noticed the patriotic phrase "God Bless America" in speeches or on bumper stickers? Has America not already been richly blessed in so many ways? "Astoundingly so!" a reflective person might say. And yet the prevailing attitude of our country has been one of expectations of greater wealth and economic growth, with little acknowledgment of the blessings thus far received.
As a nation--and equally as important, as individuals--our change to a state of gratitude has the potential to work miracles. When we realize what we have been given, our modus operandi changes. The recognition of our wealth turns us away from habits of acquiring and consuming, and away from resistive re-gifting, and toward generosity. The fundamental gift of life calls us to give and to pass it on. Not simply by giving life to new human babies, but by spreading greater life, energy, and love to all the people and beings with which we come into contact.
By acknowledging the privileges obtained by virtue of having a certain gender, race, class, sexual orientation, ability, or nationality, we become aware of clear paths for re-gifting gifts that never ought to have been bestowed unjustly in the first place. Our privileges can be powerful tools for creating equality. Whenever greater equality is achieved and recognized, the gratitude becomes a chain and the world becomes richer.
We each are given the gift of one life, and we each have whatever time, ability, and energy left to do what we will in the world. Some people have become great leaders and turned their lives into amazing works of justice--people like Jesus, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, MLK, Cesar Chavez, and Dorothy Day. But for every one of those well-known saints, there are thousands of people playing supporting roles in those movements. And for every preeminent social movement, there are thousands of unrecognized or anonymous movements that support the lives of smaller communities, families and individuals.
So...you may be blessed with the skills and opportunities to be a great leader. Or you may be blessed with money, energy or time to re-gift toward important projects. Or you may be blessed with a mind, a heart, a voice, hands, and a body, each of which you can create new gifts.
Whatever gifts you have been given, receive them and acknowledge them.
And then let your life be a Thank You!
lyrics: "If the Sun refused to shine, I would still be loving you."
from Thank You, by Led Zeppelin
colors: Green and gold. (A lush grass-green, and real gold, not Green Bay Packer green-and-gold.)
mood: grateful
chant/prayer/mantra: thanks.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Thank you!
For reasons that I am not even fully aware of, and from the bottom of my heart, I am compelled to repeat, "Thank you!"
To each of you here sitting in this space, most of whom I have yet to fully meet and get to know, to an indefinite number of people who have come before and left traces of beauty in this life for me to enjoy, and to all of the plants and animals, this Earth, the Sun, Moon and stars, and to all of the energy and matter in the universe that has come together to make this moment and every other moment, I just want to say, "Thank you!"
My list of blessings in this life has been long. The gift of life from our parents is something each of us were granted through no doing of our own, as far as we know or could attempt to prove. We just arrived here into life. I don't even know who all to be grateful to for this life. My parents were most directly responsible, but for all I know I might want to thank my father's employers for giving him a raise, or my older sisters for both being girls, or perhaps the quality control person at the condom factory for being lax in their duties because it was a Friday.
It's not just the simple gift of life to be grateful for, but to be born into this time and this place. To have the privileges of a family with enough money, that values education; to be born into this world by chance male and white and "straight" in a time and place where those attributes often carry benefits.
And I'm grateful not just for the gift of life, but the gifts that have sustained life. To be born on a planet with the right molecular mix in the air, soil and water--where plants grow easily from seeds, with water and a little care, and to be born into a time with domesticated livestock and to be raised to find them tasty.
I'm grateful to those who have created social systems and technologies that have helped to boost up the quality of life for me, even when those social systems and technologies have caused harm to our environment and to the quality of life of others. And I am grateful to the environment and to those people who have been oppressed for suffering through the damage caused by the inherent evils (or evil byproducts) of those same social systems and technologies.
So many blessings have come to me, and to many of us here, and I think it's of utmost importance that we acknowledge those blessings in all their fullness, even if that stings sometimes. Because by being in life, whatever lot we've received, we are each blessed in fundamental ways just to be alive and aware in the universe--as the universe experiencing itself!
That acknowledgment is critical. The gratitude that we can put forth is critical, because it changes our state of being. The existence of gratitude changes our attitude.
----
In Boy Scouts, in order to use a knife or saw or axe--anything with a blade, it was important to have your "Totin' Chip" card, which meant you'd passed basic safety training. One of the critical piece of knowledge I recall learning was how to safely pass a sharp item from one person to another. When the person receiving the bladed tool had safely gotten a grip on the item, they said "Thank you," as a sign to the giver that the transaction had taken place.
----
The person who does not say "thank you" in this case is dangerous, because the acknowledgement of an exchange is rather unclear. In a similar way, when we fail to acknowledge the benefits we have (or the detriments we avoid), our danger becomes one of ingratitude, of entitlement. Without changing our attitude to one of gratitude, we may continue to expect that more benefits should be heaped upon us.
Incidentally, how many over the course of the last decade have noticed the patriotic phrase "God Bless America" in speeches or on bumper stickers? Has America not already been richly blessed in so many ways? "Astoundingly so!" a reflective person might say. And yet the prevailing attitude of our country has been one of expectations of greater wealth and economic growth, with little acknowledgment of the blessings thus far received.
As a nation--and equally as important, as individuals--our change to a state of gratitude has the potential to work miracles. When we realize what we have been given, our modus operandi changes. The recognition of our wealth turns us away from habits of acquiring and consuming, and away from resistive re-gifting, and toward generosity. The fundamental gift of life calls us to give and to pass it on. Not simply by giving life to new human babies, but by spreading greater life, energy, and love to all the people and beings with which we come into contact.
By acknowledging the privileges obtained by virtue of having a certain gender, race, class, sexual orientation, ability, or nationality, we become aware of clear paths for re-gifting gifts that never ought to have been bestowed unjustly in the first place. Our privileges can be powerful tools for creating equality. Whenever greater equality is achieved and recognized, the gratitude becomes a chain and the world becomes richer.
We each are given the gift of one life, and we each have whatever time, ability, and energy left to do what we will in the world. Some people have become great leaders and turned their lives into amazing works of justice--people like Jesus, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, MLK, Cesar Chavez, and Dorothy Day. But for every one of those well-known saints, there are thousands of people playing supporting roles in those movements. And for every preeminent social movement, there are thousands of unrecognized or anonymous movements that support the lives of smaller communities, families and individuals.
So...you may be blessed with the skills and opportunities to be a great leader. Or you may be blessed with money, energy or time to re-gift toward important projects. Or you may be blessed with a mind, a heart, a voice, hands, and a body, each of which you can create new gifts.
Whatever gifts you have been given, receive them and acknowledge them.
And then let your life be a Thank You!
lyrics: "If the Sun refused to shine, I would still be loving you."
from Thank You, by Led Zeppelin
colors: Green and gold. (A lush grass-green, and real gold, not Green Bay Packer green-and-gold.)
mood: grateful
chant/prayer/mantra: thanks.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Labels: interconnected web, paradigm shift, Process Thought, restorative justice, sermons, theology
Friday, December 12, 2008
Oooooga!
Well, I'm exhausted. I'm writing a 25 page paper for the "Christ, Krishna, Buddha: Towards a New Theology of Divine Embodiment" course, and it's been trying. I've been resisting doing it, and getting enough done at each stage to make it come into being, but it's been DIFFICULT, as if I'm taking the resistive energy from ancient sources. The paper is supposed to plum the depths of ontological grounding, and the nature of the flux between ultimate reality and the story we (as experiencing subjects) tell about it. It's due today at 5 pm. I hope it's done by then, and not too slipshod... I've got several good sources to draw from, and the quotes already pulled into an outline, and I've been chewing down the outline into the written sections.
lyrics:
The sun burned hot, it burned my eyes
Burned so hot I thought I'd died
Thought I'd died and gone to hell
Lookin' for the water from a deeper well
I went to the river but the river was dry
I fell to my knees an I looked to the sky
I looked to the sky and the spring rain fell
I saw the water from a deeper well
-Emmylou Harris, Deeper Well
colors: Green, Red, Brown, and White (trying to get into the Xmas spirit, don't ya know?)
In other news, we found an artificial Christmas tree still in-box, with a tag saying "free" on it, sitting on the corner the other evening while we were walking the dog. It looks just fine in our living room.
mood: Soul-tired.
chant/prayer/mantra: Simply for strength, for myself, to finish this paper. And for all the others who need to finish papers, now or in the future.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
lyrics:
The sun burned hot, it burned my eyes
Burned so hot I thought I'd died
Thought I'd died and gone to hell
Lookin' for the water from a deeper well
I went to the river but the river was dry
I fell to my knees an I looked to the sky
I looked to the sky and the spring rain fell
I saw the water from a deeper well
-Emmylou Harris, Deeper Well
colors: Green, Red, Brown, and White (trying to get into the Xmas spirit, don't ya know?)
In other news, we found an artificial Christmas tree still in-box, with a tag saying "free" on it, sitting on the corner the other evening while we were walking the dog. It looks just fine in our living room.
mood: Soul-tired.
chant/prayer/mantra: Simply for strength, for myself, to finish this paper. And for all the others who need to finish papers, now or in the future.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
Labels: Christianity, christology, heaven on earth, Multitheticalism, personal religion, Process Thought, theological sources
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Concrescence - a series of discrete atomic events following one another, or a wave traveling along parametric vectors?
--
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[edit - i will note that the above was while reading about Alfred North Whitehead's thoughts on concrescence, and after reading some dictionary definitions, maybe this word doesn't fit what i was thinking about as well as i'd like. i might still be in search on this hard-to-find word.]
Labels: Process Thought, theology
Friday, November 16, 2007
An "LOL" Revelation, regarding predicates, syntax, and programming
The other day, I got a recall notice from the library where I work for this M.A. thesis I checked out regarding a connection between Alfred North Whitehead's notion of "concrescence" and Virginia Woolf's novels. It got recalled, which means now I'm reading it. In the first chapter, the author, Grete Stenersen, quotes Whitehead "All modern philosophy hinges round the difficulty of describing the world in terms of subject and predicate,..."
Heck, I didn't remember what a predicate was, so I looked it up on Google -- "define predicate".
At the Google link, I came to realize that the term "predicate" is also used in programming language, and that the use of written language is syntactical in nature. Yes, that may be obvious, but for somebody who used to growl at command prompts in junior high when all the computer knew to say was "syntax error," I had deep associations of syntax being something that computers use, not people.
But NO... Syntax is also for language, and the idea of predicate has crossed over from written language into computer language.
My laugh out loud was (and this involves coming all the way over into my world if you want to get it the way I did).... What if our written language has been too underdetermined, and the "code" that we've been writing, vis a vis sacred text (whichever you ascribe to, whether its the Bible, the Qur'an, the Book of Mormon, the Upanishads, or the script for the Flintstones)... What if that code we've (writers of sacred text) been writing is actually extremely buggy, and the syntax used there does "compile" for cultures, but just because something COMPILES doesn't mean that it runs as it was designed. In other words, we're inside the debugger, still hammering this program out.
Complicating matters is the fact that every single person who reads any given text has their own internalized instruction set. Just as running a program written for an Intel Pentium II chip, just as running that program on an Intel Pentium 3, or a motorola, or any of hundreds of different chips out there,... Just as running a decent program on a certain chip might produce desired results, running that same program on a different chip could either not work at all and crash/stall/freeze, or appear to work, but come up with something spectacularly unexpected.... Just as that is the case, trying to apply a sacred text (that truth be told, other than allowing for Author's conceit that God wrote it and made no mistakes, is likely fraught with errors that only a person with a mote in their eye could ignore them)... Trying to directly apply a sacred text across cultures is often a Bad Thing(tm).
But I've digressed. I didn't mean to deal with the cross-culture/cross-platform issues. The simple issue of getting a pattern of logic together that can be compiled and work on one specific processor is tough enough. [note upon reread: the words that follow are dense, inchoate, and confusing. sorry i'm not cleaning them up just now. i'm just going to get them down for myself to ponder for later] So... If the subject (the reader/agent) is the processor, the sacred text is the logic path, the code to be followed, what is the data? Is the data the object in the sentence? What happens when we start spooling in complex data? And every word must be carefully defined, so that the results of the program are predictable. And the code has to be tight, really TIGHT, so that it's not open to exploits, anywhere along the chain, whether in the chip design, when running the compiled code as intended, or in a way not intended.
side-note 1: the processor is the subject (each of us), the code is our system of assumptions and beliefs about how to act in the world, and the world is the data, or the object which we spool into our assumptions/code, and then act on based off of those assumptions
side-note 2 (not necessarily consistent with side-note1): in the real world, the data set, the compiled code, and the compiler are all one. the one's and zero's on the hard drive, the subatomic particles/waves in the universe (including all aspects, not just material), are all capable of being elements to be acted upon, of being that which acts upon, and of being elements which determine how other elements will act upon each other (within bounds -- for example, we still can't change the gravitational constant, etc.). Any element can at any given time act more like an object, or as a subject, or as a programming subject, and often will be a combination of the three.
But we're not starting out with tabula rasa in any way, shape, or form. Everybody's already got embedded instruction sets. How about creating a dual-boot? By creating a small metal-level compiler within the original system, and creating a simple instruction set to boot to, is it possible to boot up a boot-strapping system that can unpack and recompile itself into a flowering system of logic that holds together, and form a truly common base of religion?
I think using the English language -- or any other written language --might prove to be too fraught with exploitability. It will need to be in the universal language of mathematical logic, based on postulates and axioms (assumptions, beliefs, deep cognitive structures), leading to theorems (actions, habits, norms, laws, commandments, suggestions, resulting from the axioms) . (and if we're not working from the same axioms, we're not able to have a legitimate conversation about appropriate theorems/corollaries at all. sometimes i think the larger argument really is all about the axioms.)
E.g., Axiom 0: There exists a subject. (IOW, I am. I think therefore I am. I doubt therefore I am, etc.)
Axiom 1: There exists an object. (IOW, there is a world different than, or beyond, the subject. From a non-duality/unity viewpoint, this one would be thrown out. But as a multitheticalist, I'll be keeping both dualistic and monistic views around for comparison.)
Axiom 2: There exists a predicate. (which describes the subject, explicating its features, its spirit, and its character)
Axiom 3:...
.
.
.
Start with
Null : 0
Space : 1
Space^2 : 10
Space^3 : 11
Anyway, people don't like to think of themselves as being programmed (even though we are, from birth) and the above is so inchoate as to be embryonic meanderings. And the above, if readable at all (certainly fraught with syntax errors and doesn't compile at the present moment) is painfully dry, so there's a long way to go before its ready for prime time. In addition, there's the ever-present -- and IMHO opinion, ever-important -- proposition of free will, allowing our spirit to flower naturally rather than being too tightly bound by some spiritual fascism. Ah, the middle way....
lyrics: "Why shouldn't I?" by the Bob Manor band.
colors: black(1), white(2), blue(3), orange(4),....
mood: at the beginning of this post, chuckling. at the end of the post, baffled and overwhelmed. i think i should just go back to reading about whitehead's concrescence for a while and leave it at that.
chant/prayer/mantra: xboot.exe, blah blah blah.
And as a reminder, the thing that got me started on this blog post was the notion that our written/spoken common languages are so slackly put together compared to the deterministic programming done within computer languages.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
PS (added 1.13.08)- I just came across this post from the Logos Institute that speaks to this, regarding critiques of Orwell's thoughts on the necessity of precision of language.
Heck, I didn't remember what a predicate was, so I looked it up on Google -- "define predicate".
At the Google link, I came to realize that the term "predicate" is also used in programming language, and that the use of written language is syntactical in nature. Yes, that may be obvious, but for somebody who used to growl at command prompts in junior high when all the computer knew to say was "syntax error," I had deep associations of syntax being something that computers use, not people.
But NO... Syntax is also for language, and the idea of predicate has crossed over from written language into computer language.
My laugh out loud was (and this involves coming all the way over into my world if you want to get it the way I did).... What if our written language has been too underdetermined, and the "code" that we've been writing, vis a vis sacred text (whichever you ascribe to, whether its the Bible, the Qur'an, the Book of Mormon, the Upanishads, or the script for the Flintstones)... What if that code we've (writers of sacred text) been writing is actually extremely buggy, and the syntax used there does "compile" for cultures, but just because something COMPILES doesn't mean that it runs as it was designed. In other words, we're inside the debugger, still hammering this program out.
Complicating matters is the fact that every single person who reads any given text has their own internalized instruction set. Just as running a program written for an Intel Pentium II chip, just as running that program on an Intel Pentium 3, or a motorola, or any of hundreds of different chips out there,... Just as running a decent program on a certain chip might produce desired results, running that same program on a different chip could either not work at all and crash/stall/freeze, or appear to work, but come up with something spectacularly unexpected.... Just as that is the case, trying to apply a sacred text (that truth be told, other than allowing for Author's conceit that God wrote it and made no mistakes, is likely fraught with errors that only a person with a mote in their eye could ignore them)... Trying to directly apply a sacred text across cultures is often a Bad Thing(tm).
But I've digressed. I didn't mean to deal with the cross-culture/cross-platform issues. The simple issue of getting a pattern of logic together that can be compiled and work on one specific processor is tough enough. [note upon reread: the words that follow are dense, inchoate, and confusing. sorry i'm not cleaning them up just now. i'm just going to get them down for myself to ponder for later] So... If the subject (the reader/agent) is the processor, the sacred text is the logic path, the code to be followed, what is the data? Is the data the object in the sentence? What happens when we start spooling in complex data? And every word must be carefully defined, so that the results of the program are predictable. And the code has to be tight, really TIGHT, so that it's not open to exploits, anywhere along the chain, whether in the chip design, when running the compiled code as intended, or in a way not intended.
side-note 1: the processor is the subject (each of us), the code is our system of assumptions and beliefs about how to act in the world, and the world is the data, or the object which we spool into our assumptions/code, and then act on based off of those assumptions
side-note 2 (not necessarily consistent with side-note1): in the real world, the data set, the compiled code, and the compiler are all one. the one's and zero's on the hard drive, the subatomic particles/waves in the universe (including all aspects, not just material), are all capable of being elements to be acted upon, of being that which acts upon, and of being elements which determine how other elements will act upon each other (within bounds -- for example, we still can't change the gravitational constant, etc.). Any element can at any given time act more like an object, or as a subject, or as a programming subject, and often will be a combination of the three.
But we're not starting out with tabula rasa in any way, shape, or form. Everybody's already got embedded instruction sets. How about creating a dual-boot? By creating a small metal-level compiler within the original system, and creating a simple instruction set to boot to, is it possible to boot up a boot-strapping system that can unpack and recompile itself into a flowering system of logic that holds together, and form a truly common base of religion?
I think using the English language -- or any other written language --might prove to be too fraught with exploitability. It will need to be in the universal language of mathematical logic, based on postulates and axioms (assumptions, beliefs, deep cognitive structures), leading to theorems (actions, habits, norms, laws, commandments, suggestions, resulting from the axioms) . (and if we're not working from the same axioms, we're not able to have a legitimate conversation about appropriate theorems/corollaries at all. sometimes i think the larger argument really is all about the axioms.)
E.g., Axiom 0: There exists a subject. (IOW, I am. I think therefore I am. I doubt therefore I am, etc.)
Axiom 1: There exists an object. (IOW, there is a world different than, or beyond, the subject. From a non-duality/unity viewpoint, this one would be thrown out. But as a multitheticalist, I'll be keeping both dualistic and monistic views around for comparison.)
Axiom 2: There exists a predicate. (which describes the subject, explicating its features, its spirit, and its character)
Axiom 3:...
.
.
.
Start with
Null : 0
Space : 1
Space^2 : 10
Space^3 : 11
Anyway, people don't like to think of themselves as being programmed (even though we are, from birth) and the above is so inchoate as to be embryonic meanderings. And the above, if readable at all (certainly fraught with syntax errors and doesn't compile at the present moment) is painfully dry, so there's a long way to go before its ready for prime time. In addition, there's the ever-present -- and IMHO opinion, ever-important -- proposition of free will, allowing our spirit to flower naturally rather than being too tightly bound by some spiritual fascism. Ah, the middle way....
lyrics: "Why shouldn't I?" by the Bob Manor band.
colors: black(1), white(2), blue(3), orange(4),....
mood: at the beginning of this post, chuckling. at the end of the post, baffled and overwhelmed. i think i should just go back to reading about whitehead's concrescence for a while and leave it at that.
chant/prayer/mantra: xboot.exe, blah blah blah.
And as a reminder, the thing that got me started on this blog post was the notion that our written/spoken common languages are so slackly put together compared to the deterministic programming done within computer languages.
pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel
PS (added 1.13.08)- I just came across this post from the Logos Institute that speaks to this, regarding critiques of Orwell's thoughts on the necessity of precision of language.
Labels: Bible, computers, Math, Process Thought, religious community, sacred texts, theology
Monday, April 3, 2006
Monkeys Throwing Poo
music: nothing
colors: nothing
mood: tired, relieved.
thoughts: Here is a nice big hunk of dung I delivered today in my preaching class. The main feedback I got was that the sermon was a big buffet of very nice food, but that I need to deliver individual meals. Dang, it was way too long and with too many supporting messages to fit into the traditional 15-20 minute sermon format, but might work better here. The text might very well be good to read, but I was tired enough today that I wasn't really able to focus as much as I'd like so the delivery was kinda subpar. Anyway, read it at your caution:
Thoughts are Messages, Angels are Messengers (or 'Wrestling with Angels')
Good morning everyone. Today, I'd like to spend some time discussing the state of life in general, our lives in particular, and the critical role that our thoughts play in all of our triumphs and miseries. Here we are in the United States of America, on Earth, in 2006, gathered together in a community with kind and gentle people who are of like-minded persuasion in many regards.
In our daily lives, we are surrounded by the most - amazing - things. We have at our disposal complex and powerful technology that can enrich our lives to bring us a standard of living well beyond the dreams of our ancestors only a century or two ago. On any given morning, we may find ourselves eating processed cereal from a box, or low-fat apricot mango yogurt, perhaps microwaving our breakfast where at the turn of the 20th century, people cooked grains in a pot of water over a wood-burning stove or fire. We may drive to work in an automatic transmission car and pay for gas with a magnetized strip on a piece of plastic associated specifically to our person, where early American settlers walked or depended on horses, and bought horse feed by trading tobacco, shells or deerskins.
We may listen to tapes, CDs, MP3s, or the radio on our way to work, while driving past 20-story steel-reinforced buildings. Then we may park in a large yellow-line painted parking lot, enter into a security-controlled specialized work environment with phones, computers, copiers, fax machines, and email. From there, we can instantly connect with many people at once around the globe, where for our ancestors the best available means of communication was only person to person via pony express, or a runner carrying a message from Marathon to Athens.
We have electricity and water available at the clap or wave of our hands, mobile phones we could use around any sufficiently populated area, a media system which makes available instant humor, visual history, or lots of attractive and sexy celebrities; We have advanced plumbing and sewage-treatment systems, miracle-working medical facilities, Doppler radar for weather forecasts, ever more lethal military technology, an educational system with more knowledge than any person could grasp, and that only scratches the surface of our achievements. Much of this new technology could be supremely beneficial.
So what's impeding us from fully realizing these benefits? Why has our massive collection of human knowledge, along with our technology thus far failed to create the utopia we've been working toward?
The problem may simply be that we are only human, and prone to mistakes on many levels. And in the course of recorded history, we've brought some of the most grievous actions to life. This next part may seem a bit dark, so please keep in mind that in working through this, we will be creating the light at the end of this tunnel. And remember to keep breathing and we'll make it through.
OK..., regarding some of these grievous mistakes: though it may not be obvious at first, at an individual level we suffer because of our tendency to take advantage of these technological advances, - often taking them for granted without a second thought. In the process, many of these advances are taking advantage of us, or more specifically, allowing us to be taken advantage of. Despite the allure of having computers to make our lives easier, so that we can do our work in less time, we find ourselves working long stressful hours for corporate employers with deadlines. In the process of being pulled closer to our jobs, we suffer as we begin to feel more distant from the people we love, and may even come to resent ourselves for allowing that distance.
And every day, our senses are beckoned away from who and what we love, being bombarded by advertisements through television, radio, magazines, billboards, and now the Internet. These ads are often created by people with graduate degrees in marketing, sociology, or psychology. They have insidious effects on us, ungrounding us from our humanity, convincing us to consume their product specifically, or perhaps worse, convincing us -- or reinforcing the belief that -- our primary role here is to consume products, and that to accomplish that, we need to work hard for our paycheck. Breathe - the light is coming.
As a society we suffer because of an economic system which demands growth and artificially scarce resources to thrive, while devaluing people - and relationships - by putting us in the awkward position of supporting contemporary forms of slavery or servitude. By this I mean that the working class and working poor are exploited not only by business executives and corporate investors, but also by those of us who are working hard ourselves, and simply trying to save something for retirement through investing in mutual funds and IRAs.
In government, the apparently intractable corruption - in existence allows for our state and national capitals to become clearinghouses for trillions of tax dollars toward special interests, prisons, and war. This spending comes at great cost to our working poor, our homeless, our children, and future generations who are all given short shrift because they can't afford lobbyists or congressional advocates. Breathe. That great sucking sound at the capital clearinghouses vacuums up resources not only away from people today but leaves our unborn with a debt resulting from luxurious spending from their past which they will never have the opportunity to partake in.
We suffer because the military advances purchased by our tax dollars have brought us new wars causing inestimable casualties, both physical and spiritual. Between the wars and our nation's complicity or tacit acceptance of genocide and deplorable living conditions in many developing countries, our nation suffers as its relational capital with the rest of the world continues to dwindle. Meanwhile, our nation's democracy, always reliant upon leaders with authentic integrity, on checks and balances, and a populace informed by a free press, now exists only - in – name. In addition, and perhaps most lasting, the mistreatment and contamination of our earth, water, and air is an embarrassment and a disgraceful legacy which we will leave behind for many generations to come. Breathe.
Meanwhile, many people in our nation follow the contemporary Christian church's biblical interpretation that Jesus is coming to save them, essentially hedging their bets in case there really is a heaven/hell afterlife. Rather, they would do well to hedge their bets that He may have actually been talking about our responsibility of stewarding in heaven on this Earth right here, and that their soul might carry on in this very world, breathing the same molecules they breathe now. In the meantime, we are watching our planet fall toward the very hell they're seeking to avoid. On the other extreme, our country has many people turned off to religion entirely by religious zealots who feel that their God has called upon them to put forth the angry narrow intolerance toward all that which offends God's ego.
Even in Unitarian Universalism, which we tend to hold in such high esteem for its free-thinking values, we have made, and doubtlessly continue to make, mistakes. These mistakes include walking on eggshells regarding any mention of Christian topics in our meeting houses, thereby alienating ourselves from our Christian roots and cutting short meaningful interfaith dialog. We also make the mistake of forgetting that our free and responsible search for truth and meaning calls on us to report, even sound out, the results of that search. Further, we unintentionally neglect the deep intricacies of the web of life when we come up with premature answers to problems so difficult that we may not - yet - even - be asking the right questions. Breathe, the light is coming up.
So here we are – together in our searching community, trying to get a handle on all these problems and more, searching for the right questions to ask about them, and then obtain some answers. Where to start....?
The method I'd like to apply begins by deconstructing the problems en masse, and asking, “From where does our technology, our knowledge, and our social fabric actually originate?” They all appear to have one thing in common – they began with thought, either conscious or unconscious. If you noted the title of the sermon in the bulletin, it also mentions angels, and I promise to shed some light on them shortly, and then begin to tie things together.
Before I go further, I feel compelled to make a quick note of inclusion regarding the forthcoming arguments. For those who were not here for my “God and Not God” sermon last month, it's important to note that while I am going to be making reference to God, through the process of associating various forms of the Divine with each other, which I refer to as “multithetical unity,” we allow for a translation from references of one form of the Divine to apply to others, to the degree that they possess similar qualities. If you're interested in finding out more, I will be offering an adult ed. class on this topic coming up in the fall.
OK, continuing on...
In Genesis, chapter 32, verses 24-28, we find the story of Jacob wrestling the angel. From the World English Bible, the story goes thusly:
Jacob was left alone, and wrestled with a man there until the breaking of the day. When he saw that he didn't prevail against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was strained, as he wrestled. The man said, "Let me go, for the day breaks."
Jacob said, "I won't let you go, unless you bless me."
He said to him, "What is your name?"
He said, "Jacob."
He said, "Your name will no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have fought with God and with men, and have prevailed."
Though in this story, the text says he wrestled with a man, it's generally understood to be an angel which Jacob wrestles. As noted in the reading, the angel also pronounces that Jacob's name shall be changed to Israel, which translates as “He struggles with God.” This particular angel was likely Uriel, one of the most powerful among angels, whose name translates, among other things as “God is light.” At one point, within the apocryphal texts, Uriel says “I have come down to earth to make my dwelling among men, and I am called Jacob by name.” Well, that's a lot of names - and associations - to take in, but be not confused. And be not afraid, and don't worry about the confusion, because we won't be charging headlong into a full deconstruction of how the identities and associations get interchanged between human and angelic entities here.
However, in order to make the next statement, it's necessary to note that the Greek translation of “angelos,” the root word of angel, means “messenger.” Suffice it to say then, that in this wrestling match, the angel, the man, the messenger and the message become so enmeshed - with each other that it's nearly impossible to distinguish them apart. Does that mean that Israel/Jacob wasn't actually struggling with God, or the angel, but rather with His message?
At this point, I'd like to bring a few more pieces of information into the mix, so that we can answer the question of Jacob's struggle, and also get to a point where we can understand a direct association between angels and thought, and then find a decent way to actually apply this to our lives, honoring our commitment to work against all this suffering.
First, let us consider that angels are messengers of light, and information is associated with light – for example, providing information is described as “shedding light on the subject,” and the phrase in the new testament about not hiding one's light under a basket refers to sharing the truth which one knows.
Second, thoughts are the basic means of expressing and organizing information within the mind.
Third, a branch of theology called “process theology” teaches us that at every infinitessimal moment, we are experiencing an event, influenced or informed by events we recall from the past. Every event's action, in addition to being informed by past events, is informed by a multitude of messages of potential courses of action, provided by the Divine. As each moment passes from the now into the past, we take an action, however small, even if its only a thoughtful reflection, which then informs further events, and the process then continues ad infinitum. For the record, process theology is actually a bit more complicated than that, but that's my attempt at a very brief distillation to make this point. At every single moment, God is presenting us with messages from which to choose to act on, which then affects what becomes manifest in the world.
Here's the question that I've been working toward. Who carries those messages?
Those messages must be carried by some type of messengers, so for the sake of argument, and looking back at the Greek word 'angelos,' we'll call those messengers angels. These messages are the thoughts that occur to us: from the definition of thought at selfknowledge.com, these thoughts may carry reflections, or perhaps a judgment or perception, or they could carry an intention or purpose. Reflections, judgments and perceptions are those ruminations which remain in the mind, whereas thoughts carrying intentions and purposes are more often interested in manifesting some change in our shared physical world. Intentions and purposes are the ones I'd like to focus on.
These thoughts exist on a continuum from being salvifically beneficial all the way down to being catastrophically detrimental. Knowing their potential effects, and the possibility they may be unleashed out in the world, and borrowing from standard religious parlance, we'll call the beneficial ones 'angels' and the detrimental ones – you guessed it – 'demons.' Originating as thoughts, the size of each of these at the outset is tiny – a potential answer for the age-old question: you could fit “quite a few” on the head of a pin. As they are reflected upon, released, discussed, expounded upon further, and their purpose implemented or their intention executed, they physically manifest among us.
If a thought takes hold and many others adopt it, add input to it, and modify it, it becomes not the cute little cherubic angels we see in the paintings of Raphael, or the human-sized crimson-red horned devil creature of legend, but they grow to carry the weight and momentum of a great, big, Mack truck going well above the speed limit, or even to hundreds of feet tall, able to nourish or devour entire cities or civilizations. This is how the problems we have before us today came into existence and grew over time to the size they have. And it is also the key to solutions. And this is why it is critical that we learn to exert judicious control over our thoughts, specifically the ones we allow to manifest from ourselves, or the thoughts of others we may allow ourselves to propagate.
I can't stress enough that every endeavor undertaken by humans, including our quest for gathering and storing intelligence, our quest to create new technologies, and the way our social systems have been shaped, including languages, economies, nations, national boundaries, governments, communities, religions, music, art and science – the list goes on and on – every endeavor is the result of our thoughts growing into fruition. If they've turned out amiss, we need look no further than to the root.
Our thoughts count.
What kind of tools, understanding, and knowledge do we need in order to tend to thoughts responsibly?
First, we must each recognize our role as personal gatekeepers. We can and must learn to control and operate our own thought processes, lest they be controlled for us by outside forces. If we can hone our ability to recognize the values and merits of our thoughts, along with their potential for good or bad, we can become adept at filtering out incoming or outgoing thoughts with purposes counter to our goals and aspirations, and at solidifying, releasing, and amplifying thoughts that support our goals and aspirations.
Second, we can recognize that problems can arise when two or more thoughts have purposes that run counter to each other, especially if their continued propagation appears to be mutually exclusive. In that case, especially in the case when one or more demons have been brought to life, we must find methods of elimination, realizing that depending on the size of the adverse thought, the amount of time required for elimination may range from instantaneous up to hundreds of years. Some methods of elimination include dissolving the thought by showing its end results, or creating an alternative thought to supplant the one gone awry, or to inoculate ourselves against the thought with preventative thoughts so that the unwelcome thought does not have fertile ground to grow on in the future.
Third, we can learn how to amplify and align our own thoughts. This can mean that we devote significant time and mind power to focus our individual or collective attention on developing a thought fully so it gains strength and momentum. It can mean getting others to start talking and propagating a thought. It can mean developing a culture for our community to think and share in, knowing that our thoughts are empowered when surrounded by the fertile soil of other amicable thoughts to grow side by side with. It can mean flooding the world, echoing our thoughts until everyone hears them and buys in. Such is the case with memes, which Australian Graduate School of Management professor Robert Marks defines as “A unit of cultural information that represents a basic idea that can be transferred from one individual to another, and subjected to mutation, crossover, and adaptation.”
Fourth, we can realize that thoughts do not exist in a vacuum. Logic and intelligence on their own can have a tendency toward being amoral. We must learn to trust our feelings and convictions as guides to provide direction, and to help us set up our filters regarding which thoughts deserve to live, and which the world actually may benefit from having be “no more.” This should not be construed as a vehicle for the cold compassion of censorship, but as an invitation for our spiritual knowledge, true compassion and reason to come together to nurture that which heals and to abandon that which damages.
Fifth, we can recognize that underdeveloped ideas can be among the most dangerous of all, especially if they're implemented before they're ready, or before their potential results are adequately considered. And we also can understand that an even more dangerous idea is the one that a thought is fully complete. In this instance, the angel starts to deliver the message, and is interrupted. We deny or cut off the rest of the message. Instead, we can understand that every thought is a revelation which is always capable of continually being built upon, saying “and, - and, - and.”
Sixth, we must allow ourselves freedom of thought. The philosopher Soren Kierkegaard once said “People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.” Just because we're disciplining ourselves about which thoughts we want to escape into the wild doesn't mean we need to confine the arena of thought in our own minds. Our minds are powerful playgrounds, in fact, they've been breeding grounds for some of the most horrific demons we battle today. But when we allow our divergent, artistic selves to shine, our minds are also capable of giving birth to benificent messages and manifestations truly worthy of the name 'angels.'
Now for real-life applicability: Using these tools, we can see that a thought put upon us that our job matters more than our home life needs to be filtered or countered. We recognize the thought within ourselves that we need to manifest to our families the thoughts we have had about wanting to be with them.
We recognize that the advertisements and commercials on buses and television are amplifications of thoughts from marketers, convincing us to consume – thoughts that perhaps shouldn't have made it out into the world in the first place. We develop our own thoughts, that the buses, TV, and radio could all still exist just fine without commercials, and could be replaced with art for art's sake, to the benefit of the stifled culture in our country aching to be let out again, escaping the bonds of commercial oppression. We develop thoughts to counter the argument that says “How could television, radio, buses, and subways exist without advertising money to support them?”
We spread thoughts that our current economic system is only one opinion of a way to use natural resources and human labor toward producing and distributing goods and services among us. We focus our thoughts toward developing ideas and implementations of alternative systems of production and distribution. We also are able to recognize that the capitalist economic system, injustices to the exploited excluded, has indeed been very beneficial in many ways to the advancement of humanity in general up until some time in the mid 20th century, but with that in mind, we also recognize that sometimes our angels - go - bad, while we keep hanging onto them, wishing they were still good.
We realize (or make truly real to ourselves in our minds) that our feelings and convictions have been correct about the state of corruption in our government and the effect it has on us and our world. We understand that we need to empower ourselves by creating a culture which amplifies the thoughts necessary to bring about a way of salvaging and reworking the system that should manifests our ideals of democracy. And we may find ways to synthesize thoughts together to become new safeguards which make our system of government less corruptible.
We may find that the people of the world have all been searching for peace, and that by disempowering our economic systems, the military-industrial and prison complexes, and many other industries founded on the old system will discover that they no longer are needed. We will then find that those people who have worked in the sectors of the economy that have dissolved will have free time, while we still are able to provide the same real goods and services we have today to everyone, but can now do it more efficiently.
We may find that the staggering amounts of debt incurred by many nations and people are only socially agreed-upon numbers, and that if we erase them tomorrow, the world will have the same ten trillion hours of human labor available per year that it had today, only the control of that labor permeates throughout societies, rather than resting only in the hands of an elite few.
We may find that more and more people are out of work as we use our technology to develop robots to make our menial tasks happen automatically for us, and we'll find that those out of work people now have time to read the paper, or learn piano, or sit with their children, or under a tree.
We may find that the thought of true global security unleashed from someone's mind has developed and flowered to a point that it becomes unnecessary to worry about resources
for our childrens' education, or our individual health care, about nuclear warfare, or terrorism, or hostile corporate take-overs.
We may find that our fragile world begins to recover as we slay these demons – perhaps it will be a little worse for wear, but then it would give our descendants some worthy restoration goals to work toward. And we may find that the thought of heaven on earth unleashed from the mind of a bright thinker many centuries ago may still come to fruition as the bright angel its conceiver originally intended.
And may we also find that an all-inclusive - multithetically unified - system of religion waits there for us with open arms.
chant/prayer/mantra:
K.I.S.S.
pax hominibus,
joel
I intend to explain why I keep including this quote below, then dispense with always including it sometime soon.
"And so, Theodore Donald Karabotsos, in accordance with what we think your dying wishes might well have been, we commit your final mortal remains to the bosom of the Pacific Ocean"
colors: nothing
mood: tired, relieved.
thoughts: Here is a nice big hunk of dung I delivered today in my preaching class. The main feedback I got was that the sermon was a big buffet of very nice food, but that I need to deliver individual meals. Dang, it was way too long and with too many supporting messages to fit into the traditional 15-20 minute sermon format, but might work better here. The text might very well be good to read, but I was tired enough today that I wasn't really able to focus as much as I'd like so the delivery was kinda subpar. Anyway, read it at your caution:
Thoughts are Messages, Angels are Messengers (or 'Wrestling with Angels')
Good morning everyone. Today, I'd like to spend some time discussing the state of life in general, our lives in particular, and the critical role that our thoughts play in all of our triumphs and miseries. Here we are in the United States of America, on Earth, in 2006, gathered together in a community with kind and gentle people who are of like-minded persuasion in many regards.
In our daily lives, we are surrounded by the most - amazing - things. We have at our disposal complex and powerful technology that can enrich our lives to bring us a standard of living well beyond the dreams of our ancestors only a century or two ago. On any given morning, we may find ourselves eating processed cereal from a box, or low-fat apricot mango yogurt, perhaps microwaving our breakfast where at the turn of the 20th century, people cooked grains in a pot of water over a wood-burning stove or fire. We may drive to work in an automatic transmission car and pay for gas with a magnetized strip on a piece of plastic associated specifically to our person, where early American settlers walked or depended on horses, and bought horse feed by trading tobacco, shells or deerskins.
We may listen to tapes, CDs, MP3s, or the radio on our way to work, while driving past 20-story steel-reinforced buildings. Then we may park in a large yellow-line painted parking lot, enter into a security-controlled specialized work environment with phones, computers, copiers, fax machines, and email. From there, we can instantly connect with many people at once around the globe, where for our ancestors the best available means of communication was only person to person via pony express, or a runner carrying a message from Marathon to Athens.
We have electricity and water available at the clap or wave of our hands, mobile phones we could use around any sufficiently populated area, a media system which makes available instant humor, visual history, or lots of attractive and sexy celebrities; We have advanced plumbing and sewage-treatment systems, miracle-working medical facilities, Doppler radar for weather forecasts, ever more lethal military technology, an educational system with more knowledge than any person could grasp, and that only scratches the surface of our achievements. Much of this new technology could be supremely beneficial.
So what's impeding us from fully realizing these benefits? Why has our massive collection of human knowledge, along with our technology thus far failed to create the utopia we've been working toward?
The problem may simply be that we are only human, and prone to mistakes on many levels. And in the course of recorded history, we've brought some of the most grievous actions to life. This next part may seem a bit dark, so please keep in mind that in working through this, we will be creating the light at the end of this tunnel. And remember to keep breathing and we'll make it through.
OK..., regarding some of these grievous mistakes: though it may not be obvious at first, at an individual level we suffer because of our tendency to take advantage of these technological advances, - often taking them for granted without a second thought. In the process, many of these advances are taking advantage of us, or more specifically, allowing us to be taken advantage of. Despite the allure of having computers to make our lives easier, so that we can do our work in less time, we find ourselves working long stressful hours for corporate employers with deadlines. In the process of being pulled closer to our jobs, we suffer as we begin to feel more distant from the people we love, and may even come to resent ourselves for allowing that distance.
And every day, our senses are beckoned away from who and what we love, being bombarded by advertisements through television, radio, magazines, billboards, and now the Internet. These ads are often created by people with graduate degrees in marketing, sociology, or psychology. They have insidious effects on us, ungrounding us from our humanity, convincing us to consume their product specifically, or perhaps worse, convincing us -- or reinforcing the belief that -- our primary role here is to consume products, and that to accomplish that, we need to work hard for our paycheck. Breathe - the light is coming.
As a society we suffer because of an economic system which demands growth and artificially scarce resources to thrive, while devaluing people - and relationships - by putting us in the awkward position of supporting contemporary forms of slavery or servitude. By this I mean that the working class and working poor are exploited not only by business executives and corporate investors, but also by those of us who are working hard ourselves, and simply trying to save something for retirement through investing in mutual funds and IRAs.
In government, the apparently intractable corruption - in existence allows for our state and national capitals to become clearinghouses for trillions of tax dollars toward special interests, prisons, and war. This spending comes at great cost to our working poor, our homeless, our children, and future generations who are all given short shrift because they can't afford lobbyists or congressional advocates. Breathe. That great sucking sound at the capital clearinghouses vacuums up resources not only away from people today but leaves our unborn with a debt resulting from luxurious spending from their past which they will never have the opportunity to partake in.
We suffer because the military advances purchased by our tax dollars have brought us new wars causing inestimable casualties, both physical and spiritual. Between the wars and our nation's complicity or tacit acceptance of genocide and deplorable living conditions in many developing countries, our nation suffers as its relational capital with the rest of the world continues to dwindle. Meanwhile, our nation's democracy, always reliant upon leaders with authentic integrity, on checks and balances, and a populace informed by a free press, now exists only - in – name. In addition, and perhaps most lasting, the mistreatment and contamination of our earth, water, and air is an embarrassment and a disgraceful legacy which we will leave behind for many generations to come. Breathe.
Meanwhile, many people in our nation follow the contemporary Christian church's biblical interpretation that Jesus is coming to save them, essentially hedging their bets in case there really is a heaven/hell afterlife. Rather, they would do well to hedge their bets that He may have actually been talking about our responsibility of stewarding in heaven on this Earth right here, and that their soul might carry on in this very world, breathing the same molecules they breathe now. In the meantime, we are watching our planet fall toward the very hell they're seeking to avoid. On the other extreme, our country has many people turned off to religion entirely by religious zealots who feel that their God has called upon them to put forth the angry narrow intolerance toward all that which offends God's ego.
Even in Unitarian Universalism, which we tend to hold in such high esteem for its free-thinking values, we have made, and doubtlessly continue to make, mistakes. These mistakes include walking on eggshells regarding any mention of Christian topics in our meeting houses, thereby alienating ourselves from our Christian roots and cutting short meaningful interfaith dialog. We also make the mistake of forgetting that our free and responsible search for truth and meaning calls on us to report, even sound out, the results of that search. Further, we unintentionally neglect the deep intricacies of the web of life when we come up with premature answers to problems so difficult that we may not - yet - even - be asking the right questions. Breathe, the light is coming up.
So here we are – together in our searching community, trying to get a handle on all these problems and more, searching for the right questions to ask about them, and then obtain some answers. Where to start....?
The method I'd like to apply begins by deconstructing the problems en masse, and asking, “From where does our technology, our knowledge, and our social fabric actually originate?” They all appear to have one thing in common – they began with thought, either conscious or unconscious. If you noted the title of the sermon in the bulletin, it also mentions angels, and I promise to shed some light on them shortly, and then begin to tie things together.
Before I go further, I feel compelled to make a quick note of inclusion regarding the forthcoming arguments. For those who were not here for my “God and Not God” sermon last month, it's important to note that while I am going to be making reference to God, through the process of associating various forms of the Divine with each other, which I refer to as “multithetical unity,” we allow for a translation from references of one form of the Divine to apply to others, to the degree that they possess similar qualities. If you're interested in finding out more, I will be offering an adult ed. class on this topic coming up in the fall.
OK, continuing on...
In Genesis, chapter 32, verses 24-28, we find the story of Jacob wrestling the angel. From the World English Bible, the story goes thusly:
Jacob was left alone, and wrestled with a man there until the breaking of the day. When he saw that he didn't prevail against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was strained, as he wrestled. The man said, "Let me go, for the day breaks."
Jacob said, "I won't let you go, unless you bless me."
He said to him, "What is your name?"
He said, "Jacob."
He said, "Your name will no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have fought with God and with men, and have prevailed."
Though in this story, the text says he wrestled with a man, it's generally understood to be an angel which Jacob wrestles. As noted in the reading, the angel also pronounces that Jacob's name shall be changed to Israel, which translates as “He struggles with God.” This particular angel was likely Uriel, one of the most powerful among angels, whose name translates, among other things as “God is light.” At one point, within the apocryphal texts, Uriel says “I have come down to earth to make my dwelling among men, and I am called Jacob by name.” Well, that's a lot of names - and associations - to take in, but be not confused. And be not afraid, and don't worry about the confusion, because we won't be charging headlong into a full deconstruction of how the identities and associations get interchanged between human and angelic entities here.
However, in order to make the next statement, it's necessary to note that the Greek translation of “angelos,” the root word of angel, means “messenger.” Suffice it to say then, that in this wrestling match, the angel, the man, the messenger and the message become so enmeshed - with each other that it's nearly impossible to distinguish them apart. Does that mean that Israel/Jacob wasn't actually struggling with God, or the angel, but rather with His message?
At this point, I'd like to bring a few more pieces of information into the mix, so that we can answer the question of Jacob's struggle, and also get to a point where we can understand a direct association between angels and thought, and then find a decent way to actually apply this to our lives, honoring our commitment to work against all this suffering.
First, let us consider that angels are messengers of light, and information is associated with light – for example, providing information is described as “shedding light on the subject,” and the phrase in the new testament about not hiding one's light under a basket refers to sharing the truth which one knows.
Second, thoughts are the basic means of expressing and organizing information within the mind.
Third, a branch of theology called “process theology” teaches us that at every infinitessimal moment, we are experiencing an event, influenced or informed by events we recall from the past. Every event's action, in addition to being informed by past events, is informed by a multitude of messages of potential courses of action, provided by the Divine. As each moment passes from the now into the past, we take an action, however small, even if its only a thoughtful reflection, which then informs further events, and the process then continues ad infinitum. For the record, process theology is actually a bit more complicated than that, but that's my attempt at a very brief distillation to make this point. At every single moment, God is presenting us with messages from which to choose to act on, which then affects what becomes manifest in the world.
Here's the question that I've been working toward. Who carries those messages?
Those messages must be carried by some type of messengers, so for the sake of argument, and looking back at the Greek word 'angelos,' we'll call those messengers angels. These messages are the thoughts that occur to us: from the definition of thought at selfknowledge.com, these thoughts may carry reflections, or perhaps a judgment or perception, or they could carry an intention or purpose. Reflections, judgments and perceptions are those ruminations which remain in the mind, whereas thoughts carrying intentions and purposes are more often interested in manifesting some change in our shared physical world. Intentions and purposes are the ones I'd like to focus on.
These thoughts exist on a continuum from being salvifically beneficial all the way down to being catastrophically detrimental. Knowing their potential effects, and the possibility they may be unleashed out in the world, and borrowing from standard religious parlance, we'll call the beneficial ones 'angels' and the detrimental ones – you guessed it – 'demons.' Originating as thoughts, the size of each of these at the outset is tiny – a potential answer for the age-old question: you could fit “quite a few” on the head of a pin. As they are reflected upon, released, discussed, expounded upon further, and their purpose implemented or their intention executed, they physically manifest among us.
If a thought takes hold and many others adopt it, add input to it, and modify it, it becomes not the cute little cherubic angels we see in the paintings of Raphael, or the human-sized crimson-red horned devil creature of legend, but they grow to carry the weight and momentum of a great, big, Mack truck going well above the speed limit, or even to hundreds of feet tall, able to nourish or devour entire cities or civilizations. This is how the problems we have before us today came into existence and grew over time to the size they have. And it is also the key to solutions. And this is why it is critical that we learn to exert judicious control over our thoughts, specifically the ones we allow to manifest from ourselves, or the thoughts of others we may allow ourselves to propagate.
I can't stress enough that every endeavor undertaken by humans, including our quest for gathering and storing intelligence, our quest to create new technologies, and the way our social systems have been shaped, including languages, economies, nations, national boundaries, governments, communities, religions, music, art and science – the list goes on and on – every endeavor is the result of our thoughts growing into fruition. If they've turned out amiss, we need look no further than to the root.
Our thoughts count.
What kind of tools, understanding, and knowledge do we need in order to tend to thoughts responsibly?
First, we must each recognize our role as personal gatekeepers. We can and must learn to control and operate our own thought processes, lest they be controlled for us by outside forces. If we can hone our ability to recognize the values and merits of our thoughts, along with their potential for good or bad, we can become adept at filtering out incoming or outgoing thoughts with purposes counter to our goals and aspirations, and at solidifying, releasing, and amplifying thoughts that support our goals and aspirations.
Second, we can recognize that problems can arise when two or more thoughts have purposes that run counter to each other, especially if their continued propagation appears to be mutually exclusive. In that case, especially in the case when one or more demons have been brought to life, we must find methods of elimination, realizing that depending on the size of the adverse thought, the amount of time required for elimination may range from instantaneous up to hundreds of years. Some methods of elimination include dissolving the thought by showing its end results, or creating an alternative thought to supplant the one gone awry, or to inoculate ourselves against the thought with preventative thoughts so that the unwelcome thought does not have fertile ground to grow on in the future.
Third, we can learn how to amplify and align our own thoughts. This can mean that we devote significant time and mind power to focus our individual or collective attention on developing a thought fully so it gains strength and momentum. It can mean getting others to start talking and propagating a thought. It can mean developing a culture for our community to think and share in, knowing that our thoughts are empowered when surrounded by the fertile soil of other amicable thoughts to grow side by side with. It can mean flooding the world, echoing our thoughts until everyone hears them and buys in. Such is the case with memes, which Australian Graduate School of Management professor Robert Marks defines as “A unit of cultural information that represents a basic idea that can be transferred from one individual to another, and subjected to mutation, crossover, and adaptation.”
Fourth, we can realize that thoughts do not exist in a vacuum. Logic and intelligence on their own can have a tendency toward being amoral. We must learn to trust our feelings and convictions as guides to provide direction, and to help us set up our filters regarding which thoughts deserve to live, and which the world actually may benefit from having be “no more.” This should not be construed as a vehicle for the cold compassion of censorship, but as an invitation for our spiritual knowledge, true compassion and reason to come together to nurture that which heals and to abandon that which damages.
Fifth, we can recognize that underdeveloped ideas can be among the most dangerous of all, especially if they're implemented before they're ready, or before their potential results are adequately considered. And we also can understand that an even more dangerous idea is the one that a thought is fully complete. In this instance, the angel starts to deliver the message, and is interrupted. We deny or cut off the rest of the message. Instead, we can understand that every thought is a revelation which is always capable of continually being built upon, saying “and, - and, - and.”
Sixth, we must allow ourselves freedom of thought. The philosopher Soren Kierkegaard once said “People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.” Just because we're disciplining ourselves about which thoughts we want to escape into the wild doesn't mean we need to confine the arena of thought in our own minds. Our minds are powerful playgrounds, in fact, they've been breeding grounds for some of the most horrific demons we battle today. But when we allow our divergent, artistic selves to shine, our minds are also capable of giving birth to benificent messages and manifestations truly worthy of the name 'angels.'
Now for real-life applicability: Using these tools, we can see that a thought put upon us that our job matters more than our home life needs to be filtered or countered. We recognize the thought within ourselves that we need to manifest to our families the thoughts we have had about wanting to be with them.
We recognize that the advertisements and commercials on buses and television are amplifications of thoughts from marketers, convincing us to consume – thoughts that perhaps shouldn't have made it out into the world in the first place. We develop our own thoughts, that the buses, TV, and radio could all still exist just fine without commercials, and could be replaced with art for art's sake, to the benefit of the stifled culture in our country aching to be let out again, escaping the bonds of commercial oppression. We develop thoughts to counter the argument that says “How could television, radio, buses, and subways exist without advertising money to support them?”
We spread thoughts that our current economic system is only one opinion of a way to use natural resources and human labor toward producing and distributing goods and services among us. We focus our thoughts toward developing ideas and implementations of alternative systems of production and distribution. We also are able to recognize that the capitalist economic system, injustices to the exploited excluded, has indeed been very beneficial in many ways to the advancement of humanity in general up until some time in the mid 20th century, but with that in mind, we also recognize that sometimes our angels - go - bad, while we keep hanging onto them, wishing they were still good.
We realize (or make truly real to ourselves in our minds) that our feelings and convictions have been correct about the state of corruption in our government and the effect it has on us and our world. We understand that we need to empower ourselves by creating a culture which amplifies the thoughts necessary to bring about a way of salvaging and reworking the system that should manifests our ideals of democracy. And we may find ways to synthesize thoughts together to become new safeguards which make our system of government less corruptible.
We may find that the people of the world have all been searching for peace, and that by disempowering our economic systems, the military-industrial and prison complexes, and many other industries founded on the old system will discover that they no longer are needed. We will then find that those people who have worked in the sectors of the economy that have dissolved will have free time, while we still are able to provide the same real goods and services we have today to everyone, but can now do it more efficiently.
We may find that the staggering amounts of debt incurred by many nations and people are only socially agreed-upon numbers, and that if we erase them tomorrow, the world will have the same ten trillion hours of human labor available per year that it had today, only the control of that labor permeates throughout societies, rather than resting only in the hands of an elite few.
We may find that more and more people are out of work as we use our technology to develop robots to make our menial tasks happen automatically for us, and we'll find that those out of work people now have time to read the paper, or learn piano, or sit with their children, or under a tree.
We may find that the thought of true global security unleashed from someone's mind has developed and flowered to a point that it becomes unnecessary to worry about resources
for our childrens' education, or our individual health care, about nuclear warfare, or terrorism, or hostile corporate take-overs.
We may find that our fragile world begins to recover as we slay these demons – perhaps it will be a little worse for wear, but then it would give our descendants some worthy restoration goals to work toward. And we may find that the thought of heaven on earth unleashed from the mind of a bright thinker many centuries ago may still come to fruition as the bright angel its conceiver originally intended.
And may we also find that an all-inclusive - multithetically unified - system of religion waits there for us with open arms.
chant/prayer/mantra:
K.I.S.S.
pax hominibus,
joel
I intend to explain why I keep including this quote below, then dispense with always including it sometime soon.
"And so, Theodore Donald Karabotsos, in accordance with what we think your dying wishes might well have been, we commit your final mortal remains to the bosom of the Pacific Ocean"
Labels: anti-oppression, favorite scriptural passages, Multitheticalism, paradigm shift, Process Thought, sermons, theology
