As we observe the fiftieth anniversary (on August 28th) of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and Martin Luther King’s transcendent “I Have a Dream” speech, I am reminded of the quiet power and effectiveness of nonviolent collaborative community effort directed towards achieving common goals. Nonviolent action achieves its objectives without using violence, but rather through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, and other means. The modern form of non-violent resistance was most notably practiced by Mahatma Gandhi, and subsequently followed … [Read more...]
The Light Shines Through Many Windows
I got to thinking recently about belief systems after listening to a radio interview with writer and director Kenneth Lonergan (about his film Margaret, now out in an extended DVD version). What caught my attention was his description of himself as a “committed atheist,” and more particularly his explanation of why. In his view, all religions are creations, stories, myths, that are constructed as a way of trying to understand something that is not comprehensible. In other words, we create belief systems to help us wrap our minds around things we can not understand. Things like why are we … [Read more...]
Struggling to Arrive
I have had an interesting collective of dreams and inner messages over the last few weeks, each addressing the difficulties we face in finding comfort and balance in the world. Remarkably, one of the dreams included an instruction to me to write about this and to title this post “Struggling to Arrive”. So, here we go! It is not easy being human in a world that is inequitable and seems to become more so all the time. It is as if there are different worlds, multiple and uneven playing fields, indeed, parallel universes, right here in our own surround. The spaciousness of spiritual awareness … [Read more...]
Why Do We Choose Life?
I have a new granddaughter, a 6-pound bundle of perfect incarnation, not yet 2 weeks old. As I hold her I am not only reminded of the ineffable wonder of creation that produces a new life, but I have also been contemplating the why of it, why we souls become embodied. Why do we choose this physical experience? Why are we here? Many traditions teach that we come into life to learn, to develop ourselves and our ability to love and serve, to express compassion and to understand truth and integrity. Human incarnation--our visceral physical presence-- allows us the experiences of ego and … [Read more...]