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Skating on Thin Ice
You can choose one as a slogan to work with each day. As you go through your day, hold it in your mind and use it to deepen your experiential understanding of what your life is about.
· The path is about being with our life as it is, not as we would like it to be.
· The path is about becoming free of the slavery of our self-judgments and our shame.
· The path is about increasing awareness of who we are and what our life is.
· The path is about learning to be a lamp unto ourselves.
· The path is always about returning to the true self.
· The path is about the growing ability to say “thank you” to everything that we meet.
· The path is about the clash between what we want and what is.
· The path is about increasingly entering into Love – not personal love, but the Love that is the nature of our Being.
· The path is about turning from a self-centered view to a life-centered view.
· The path is about willingly residing in whatever life presents to us.
· The path is about appreciating our preferences without making them demands.
· The path is about perseverance – the ability to continue in our efforts even though life doesn’t please us in the ordinary sense.
· The path is about learning to live from the open heart – the heart that only knows connectedness.
· The path is about learning to say ‘Yes’ to what’s happening – Yes, I’m willing to experience this in this moment – even when we hate it.
· The path is about giving ourselves to others, like a white bird in the snow.
· The path always comes back to the willingness to just be.
· The path is about finally understanding the basic paradox that although everything is a mess, All is Well.
Answers to the Question “What Is the Path of Self-Realization?”
Living with Uncertainty
We like to think of ourselves as being somewhat in control of our lives. But events and circumstances often conspire to set us off course. In periods of economic crisis, war and political chaos, and widespread cultural change, uncertainty and insecurity make our journey feel ever more stressful and dangerous.
Magazines and websites still publish listings of the "safest cities" or the "safest vacation spots" but we know there is no guaranteed safety anywhere. That is why spiritual teachers from all traditions counsel us to let go of our need for control as we learn to deal with whatever shows up in our lives. They also warn us to realize that despair is a natural part of the human drama and is as commonplace as hope. We need to honor the unknowable as part of our adoption of an all-inclusive perspective. Being grateful to be part of the mystery is a path that offers a way through a period of great anxiety.
Spiritual practices can help us change our habitual ways of dealing with uncertainty. They can give us valuable experiences of living with different attitudes and understandings. This turbulent period of history is a very good time to work with these practices.
Recovery programs say that it takes three weeks to break a habit or establish a new practice. So this e-course is designed to run daily for three weeks, but if you wish, you can also schedule the sessions to be mailed to you at less frequent intervals. You will receive 21 emails, each with a teaching from a spiritual book about how to live with uncertainty plus a way to practice that idea.
We invite you to welcome big mind, build safety into your life, outlast despair, hold your expectations lightly, be generous, and adopt other strategies for living fully without fear in our world today.
Reminders and tools that help you make room for anything to happen.
Nevada Barr, Seeking Enlightenment. . . Hat by Hat
As long as I thought of God as a cross between Superman and Santa Claus with a cell phone and myself as a lobbyist for my own needs, I was doomed to atheism, confusion and resentment.
Now I pray for things of the spirit: compassion, strength, guidance. I pray for the spirit to sustain me when the world sucks and to grace me with humility and generosity when I hit a winning streak.
Now I pray for things of the spirit
Spiritual Revolution in Our Democracy
Editors James Langford and Leroy S. Rouner include Karen Armstrong’s essay on the growing importance of compassion in a post-9/11 world in their collection, Walking with God in a Fragile World. In “Seeing Things as They Really Are,” Armstrong writes:
"These are desperate times and the world seems a dangerous place. But for the vast majority of human beings, who are not fortunate enough to live in the First World, it has always been desperate and dangerous. Very few could dream of the security and power symbolized by the towers of the World Trade Center. Now we have joined the dispossessed, but instead of resenting this, we can see it as an opportunity to effect the spiritual revolution which alone can save our troubled world."
Reflect on the populations of Second and Third World countries or other people you consider “dispossessed.” Take as much time as you need to imagine a day in their life. Consider the availability of clean water, healthy food, safe and sanitary shelter, etc.
Now consider your own spiritual values as well as the values and virtues you associate with democracy in the U.S. Is creativity important to you? How about generosity? Compassion? Forgiveness? Justice? Peace?
Brainstorm on how you can apply your values to economics, education, employment, the environment, etc. Jot down your ideas as you brainstorm. When you feel complete, circle one to three items to follow through on, and commit to doing so.
An invitation to reflect on the lives of the dispossessed, our values, and how we might apply them.
Generosity
Generosity is an act of moral beauty, one that has intrinsic rewards like the high we get from helping others and the caring connections we build. Even when we give in secret and do not know the rewards, we can be sure that we are chipping away at our own greed and selfishness, which cause us sorrow, and that kindnesses we share will continue to ripple outwards into the world. One generous deed gives birth to another and another in a chain that may be generations long.
On these pages we have gathered spiritual practices, articles, books, films, quotes, and more to help you strengthen your practice of generosity. You can access them through the "Latest Content" link and the icons on this page. We have also put together a sampler of this topic, "The Spiritual Practice of Generosity: A Collection of Inspirational Thoughts."
You will see as you read that generosity is for everyone. It doesn't take money to smile, share your wisdom, or listen nonjudgmentally. And when we are generous, we feel rich no matter how wealthy or poor we are, because we have loosened the chains that keep us from recognizing we belong to the whole world.
Practices, articles, books, excerpts, quotes, and more about giving from the heart.
The Book of Joy
In April 2015, Archbishop Desmond Tutu visited the Dalai Lama's home in Dharamsala, India, to celebrate His Holiness's eightieth birthday. Out of their dialogues emerged this book on joy. These two spiritual teachers have struggled with suffering and pain: the Dalai Lama has been in exile from his home in Tibet for 50 years and the Archbishop felt first-hand the sting of racial hatred during apartheid in South Africa.
Yet both of them are known for their smiles, their laughter, and their deep sense of joy. They have shown with their words and deeds that this spiritual quality is a natural result of peace, resilience, and equilibrium; it is far richer and deeper than happiness. During their week together, author, editor, and literary agent Douglas Adams guided their dialogues and wove their ideas into a cogent narrative filled with meaning and fresh insights.
The Book of Joy contains three main sections. In "The Nature of True Joy," the two spiritual leaders share their experiences of suffering, pleasure, and great joy. In "The Obstacles to Joy," they take a sobering look at such challenges as anxiety, anger, sadness and grief, despair, loneliness, envy, illness, and fear of death. The third section deals with their assessments of "The Eight Pillars of Joy." These emanate from the mind -- perspective, humility, humor, acceptance -- and heart --forgiveness, gratitude, compassion and generosity.
Here is a sampler of quotations from these two spiritual elders:
"The more time you spend thinking about yourself, the more suffering you will experience."
— His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
"Much depends on your attitude. If you are filled with negative judgment and anger, then you will feel separate from other people. You will feel lonely. But if you have an open heart and are filled with trust and friendship, even if you are physically alone, even living a hermit's life, you will never feel lonely."
— Archbishop Desmond Tutu
"There are going to be frustrations in life. The question is not: How do I escape? It is: How can I use this as something positive?"
— His Holiness the Dalai Lama
"We are fragile creatures, and it is from this weakness, not despite it, that we discover the possibility of true joy."
— Archbishop Desmond Tutu
"Taking care of others, helping others, ultimately is the way to discover your own joy and to have a happy life."
— His Holiness the Dalai Lama
"Discovering more joy does not save us from the inevitability of hardship and heartbreak. In fact, we may cry more easily, but we will laugh more easily too. Perhaps we are just more alive."
— Archbishop Desmond Tutu
An illuminating dialogue on the spiritual practice of joy and its eight pillars.
The Great Spiritual Migration
Brian McLaren describes himself as a Christian thinker, a global activist, and a public theologian. His range of interests and commitments has been demonstrated in more than a dozen books. A former pastor with a background in literature, McLaren is an Auburn Senior Fellow and a board chair of Convergence. We have profiled him in the Living Spiritual Teachers Project.
In the first chapter of The Great Spiritual Migration, McLaren calls the Christian community to see themselves as "people in motion." The Bible is filled with stories of migration, and Jesus was "perpetually in motion" as he took his mission and message on the road.
Reading that, we were reminded of Mark Riddell's description of God in Godzone as "a Mover and Trailblazer, a Dancer and a Groundbreaker." All around us, everything alive is moving: "Novas explode, amoebas wiggle, winds stir, oceans heave, gazelles leap, ants scurry." They are all part of evolution. And, Riddell says, we are also moved by the Spirit who creates the winds of change. Every time an infant is born, a friendship is forged, a group of individuals are banded together to serve others —creation is going on! McLaren is right in sync with this understanding and that is why he calls us to conversion — or a radical rethinking of the nature and intent of our faith.
The first spiritual migration is moving "From a System of Beliefs to a Way of Life." Instead of being imprisoned or hunkered down in unchanging beliefs, it makes much more sense to focus on how we practice Jesus' way of love. McLaren gives us plenty of help. Each chapter ends with material for Contemplation, Conversation, and Action. We appreciated this action suggestion:
"Read 1 Corinthians 13 at least once per day. You may wish to record it, or to write it on a card that you place on your mirror, car dashboard, or computer screen. See what parts of the chapter speak most strongly to you and look for opportunities to put the chapter into practice."
McLaren heralds the growing number of churches that are making love their priority and developing curriculums of love to bring that goal to fruition. Now is the time for communities to express their love of God through care and compassion for neighbors, friends, strangers, and enemies. Schools of love seek out fresh ways of embedding love in rituals that enable human beings to flourish in body, mind, and spirit.
In a section on The Theological Migration, the author suggests moving "From a Violent God of Domination to a Nonviolent God of Liberation." That is followed by The Missional Migration "From Organized Religion to Organizing Religion." It is with a heavy heart that McLaren laments the toxins of supremacy, domination, and violence that have emanated from some sectors of Christianity. In its place, he envisions God 5.0 who will "lead us away from the precipice of cataclysmic war, save us from paralyzing polarization, and teach us to wisely revere and care for the earth upon which we all depend."
The migrations McLaren is suggesting are not only for one group of Christians. He admonishes progressives to set aside their criticism and complaints in regard to their conservative brothers and sisters and get moving together. With proper fanfare, he introduces a Charter for a Just and Generous Christianity. It is supplemented by "Fourteen Precepts of Just and Generous Christianity," covering such aspirations as humility, lifelong learning, gentleness, compassion, serenity, and communication.
As you read these documents, imagine that you have become "a social poet" using your spiritual faculties to bring peace, justice, and joy to a suffering and war-torn world. Work with new kinds of activism and open your heart and mind to the many possibilities available to you to serve others.
An inspiring and enlightening spur to movement, creativity, and activism within Christian communities.
McFarland, USA
In the opening scene of this emotional rich and resonant sports film, Jim White (Kevin Costner), the coach of a high school football team, loses his temper in the locker room and throws a shoe at a player, cutting him on the face. He is promptly fired. This is not the first job White has lost because of his Wild West personality. Leaving behind the suburban life in Boise, Idaho, he and his long-suffering wife Cheryl (Maria Bello), his teenage daughter Julie (Morgan Saylor), and preteen Jamie (Elsie Fisher) drive to McFarland, a poverty-stricken town in California's central valley where most of the population is Mexican-American.
Jim is still upset with himself and hearing a rooster crow to awaken them early in the morning, he is not sure whether he will be able to bear all the burdens and humiliations of being an Anglo coach in a farming community where his students pick crops, go to school, and then go back to work. Hired by the pragmatic principal (Valente Rodriguez), White alienates the head coach of the football team and is left with only a physical education class. But he notices that some of the students are always running from class to their jobs, and they are very fast. He decides to start McFarland's first cross-country team. He gets one of the students to help him put together a seven-man team.
White is immensely impressed with the stamina and the speed of Thomas (Carlos Pratts). The coach makes a special point of praising Danny (Ramiro Rodriguez), a chubby young adolescent who is deeply bonded with his two brothers, who are also on the team. At their first meet, however, they come in last, thanks to White's inexperience and the lack of suitable running shoes for the team. The coach adjusts their training program and they improve enough to make it to the state finals.
Working from a screenplay by Grant Thompson, Christopher Cleveland and Bettina Gilois, director Niki Caro proves once again that she has a knack for delivering rounded and uplifting portraits of communities as the testing ground for the forging of character. We still remember the struggles of the young Maori girl to step into a role of leadership in her chauvinistic tribe in Whale Rider. And Caro's depiction of a feisty miner in North Country trying to fend off sexual harassment at work in a small Minnesota community helped us to see the difficulties which must be overcome by those who are viewed as "outsiders."
It is fascinating to watch White as he slowly begins to bond with his cross-country team. At one point, to better understand the challenges they face every day, this middle-ager joins them in the fields picking crops. He accepts the gift of a chicken from the old woman who lives next door and befriends the owner of a shop in the village who becomes an avid supporter of the runners and arranges a very special ritual when Julie turns 15. His daughter had been the first to criticize the town but she adjusts well in school and starts dating Thomas. Meanwhile, Cheryl gets to know some of the women in the community. At one point she tells him that McFarland feels more like home than anyplace they have ever lived.
Kevin Costner puts in a stellar performance as the flawed coach who teaches these Mexican-American youth to believe in themselves and to realize the extraordinary strength and discipline it takes to work in the fields, attend school, and then practice rigorous running routines. Best of all is Caro's vision of a flourishing Mexican-American community that stands by its own when they need encouragement and support.
McFarland, USA offers an engaging picture of Ubuntu ("I am because you are"). This traditional African expression reflects a philosophy of sharing, community, and generosity.
Special features on the DVD include McFarland Reflections.
An exciting sports film that also stands as an emotionally rich depiction of community, sharing, and generosity.
Life is Spiritual Practice
Generosity First
"When early scholars began the list of the perfections with generosity, they did so as a reflection of the way the Buddha offered his teachings. Numerous discourses record that the Buddha's first talk in a new community was often about generosity. When I first read this, I just assumed he wanted to make sure that he and his followers got enough to eat. Wrong. Generosity is a foundational building block of spiritual development. Perhaps the Buddha began with generosity because it is and has been so widely accepted as one of the most basic human virtues by so many cultures.
"In any case, when the Buddha went into a new community, he regularly used a particular sequence of teachings: he began with a talk about generosity, then spoke about morality, then about karma, then about the benefits of renunciation. When he felt that his listeners had understood all these teachings, only then would he give his first talk on suffering, its cause, and its end. He would explain that a universal condition of life is stress or suffering (dukkha in Pali and Sanskrit), and that the cause of suffering is clinging or attachment. Therefore, the end of suffering is nonclinging or nonattachment, and the path to liberation begins with generosity, the natural antidote to greed or clinging. The great value of generosity would become clear.
"Clinging or attachment — the source of suffering — cannot exist at the same time as true generosity. By cultivating generosity, we can bring an end to clinging, an end to attachment to stinginess, to material things, even to our most cherished ideas and sense of self.
"Many volumes have been written about the Buddha's teachings on generosity, but one strong cluster of teachings focuses on the way we can practice generosity: (1) By relinquishing external or material things — including one's belongings and even body and life — to benefit others; (2) by giving others the gift of freedom from fear; and (3) by giving others the Dharma: a complex term with many meanings, including natural law, truth, the Buddha's specific teachings, and each moment's experience."
Reflections on the first paramis, generosity, as a universal human virtue.
The Meaning of Nice
It's probably fair to say that most people are turned off by rudeness, selfishness, and greed. But in the cold-hearted scramble for success and perks, many justify their bad behavior in the marketplace as what's needed in a dog-eat-dog world. At the same time, those who feel more optimistic about human nature point to the upturn in volunteerism and the high that comes from helping others.
Joan Duncan Oliver is an award-winning magazine journalist, the author of four books, and the editor of an anthology. In this cogent tour though the complex world of nice, she draws on a variety of disciplines including philosophy and positive psychology.
Beginning with a witty assessment of the different meanings of nice down through the centuries to the present-day cliche of "Have a Nice Day," Oliver lands on a suitable conclusion: "The new nice is an estimable quality, a cloak of kindness to wrap around ourselves in a cold, cruel world. Something good to be — and good to be around."
Underneath the expression of niceness are the insights of writers and researchers in emotional and social intelligence. They have discovered that a nice person is kind, generous, compassionate, and caring. In addition, hopeful people who energize us with their vision and enthusiasm. Nelson Mandela is a shining example of this kind of person.
In a chapter titled "Why Manners Matter," Oliver refers to the seven magic words which are the essence of this practice: "Please. Thank you. Excuse me. I'm sorry." Whereas manners were center stage in the eighteenth century among the French aristocrats, it is a peripheral activity in today's society. Oliver notes: "Manners are a kind of diplomacy, a way of navigating through the endless loops and loopholes of our polyform, multicultural modern life."
We were glad to see the author's inclusion of the Sufi practice of adab in her discussion of manners. She makes reference to our Spirituality & Practice interview with Andrew Harvey on this "beautiful, courteous, refined conduct."
In order to regain its rightful place of honor in our daily lives, niceness needs to come alive in our intimate relationships, at work, and as a counterforce to the excesses of social media. In the last chapter, Oliver writes about the important role respect and inclusion play in the resurrection of niceness in our time. Or as she puts it: "The nicest people are simply those who haven't forgotten our essential kinship as human beings."
A cogent and enlightening tour through the complex world of being nice.