Who Do You Say I Am?

Everyone you question, has a different tale to tell
Some say I don't know him, some say I know him well
Some say he's a prophet
Some say his presence gives vision to the blind
Some say I never met him, still he's a friend of mine
Some say I don't' know him, some say I know him well
Everyone who sees him sees whatever they desire
Some say crucify him, some say he cannot die,
Some say he lives forever within the heart and mind

Oh what the others have to say has never been concern for me
For it's the word of God alone, that always sets me free
And it is faith in God alone that brings eternal life
By faith I am persuaded my brother is the Christ and what about you
What about you
What about you
Who do you say I am

(Lyrics excerpted from Who Do You Say I Am, by Carlos and Johnny)

Who is Jesus, and why does it matter? This Sunday we begin a new series entitled, Jesus and the Awakening to God Consciousness based upon the book, The Third Jesus by Deepak Chopra.

Chopra makes the case that there are three distinct images of Jesus. The first is the Jesus of history, that is, Jesus, the man who walked the earth 2000+ years ago. Second is the Jesus of the traditional Christian faith that Chopra says was appropriated by the Church, esteemed as God's only begotten son who died for humanity's salvation. The third Jesus, which is the one the book and our series is about, is the "Christ" who Chopra asserts we cannot-and must not- ignore."

In Unity, we do not ignore the Christ. It is central to our belief in the Divinity that indwells all humankind. While we recognize the Divinity in Jesus, and acknowledge his mastery in awareness and exemplification of his divine nature, we see him as the great example,
not the great exception. We see Jesus as one who clearly saw the path of spiritual awakening and took it all the way to his enlightenment, leaving us a way to follow that we might also come to know what he knew. Of course, this interpretation is radically different from traditional Christian doctrine, yet it is merely a logical extension of our belief in Oneness. Because we hold the view that there is only one presence and power that is in all, and through all, expressing its fullness at every point in space and time, it follows that It must also be in us. The omnipresence of spirit allows for an individualized expression of God, which is the Christ in you and me.

When Jesus asked his disciple Peter, Who do you say I am, he was inviting Peter to look beyond the human form, the fleshly appearance before him, the story about him, and behold his true nature. This invitation is ours as well.

Jesus knew he was the light of the world, and said you are the light of the world as well. His life teachings and demonstrations were rooted in an almost unfathomable, unflinching depth of love beyond human comprehension. The depth of his love and devotion to God was equaled in his love for everybody he met, friend, stranger or crucifier. He beheld the Christ in everyone he met, and called forth their hidden perfections, resulting in extraordinary transformations of body, mind and spirit. This kind of love, so pure that it fosters a kind of immaculate perception, did not die with Jesus. It is as viable, vital and relevant as ever. To those who can look through this lens of love today can still restore sight to the blind, reclaim hope to the lost, and bring peace to our world.

Aloha, On Earth As In Heaven

You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. So why bother in the first place? Just this: what is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen. There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions when one can no longer see, one can at least still know. ~ Rene Dumal

Denese and I have just "come down from the summit", that is, we have just returned from 10 glorious days and nights on the beautiful island of Maui. Since returning we have been trying to re-enter reality (small r)--- emptying the sand from our shoes, while grasping at the memories of the blissful moments we shared while away.

We are filled with gratitude for the privilege of this time away, and truly feel refreshed at many levels. Humanly, we are dealing with some re-entry discomfort, as we quickly recognize the challenge of generating and maintaining the peace, joy and loving energy that bubbled up in us so effortlessly on the island.

Maui is shameless in its unbridled seduction of the senses. It's hard to not take all the exhilarating beauty very personally. When every wave that breaks upon the shore feels like it was designed just to soothe you into peaceful surrender, and every brilliant flower seems commissioned by your vision of beauty and every bird song the melody that soothes your mind, separation does not come easy. When each breeze caresses your face like a mother's embrace, and each sunset makes the heart burst with the majesty of a palette of infinite color and beauty, one does not depart easily. As you can tell as I wax on poetically about our time away, that we really were carried away, and thoroughly blissed out.

Now we have returned, and the message for us, and you, this Sunday is how it is possible to generate those feelings on the mainland where we live and move and do our work. The ego mind would have us cling to the notion that Maui is the place for our peace, and the land of our love, and the island of our joy. We can be seduced by that illusion, or we can return to the Truth that assures us that all that we experienced in Maui was an inner response to outer conditions. Herein lies the key to heaven, in our response-ability. Every master has revealed that this key is within our reach and accessible to all who are willing to return home mindfully and open heartedly.

The End Of Suffering

The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. - Zen quote

Why do we suffer? Some would say, It 's the bane of human existence. Some would say it's the life of punishment we earned for something that Eve did with an apple a long time ago. Some would say that it is God's way of testing our faith (remember the story of Job in the bible?)

One of my favorite spiritual teachers, Byron Katie, who cuts right through the dogma with laser clarity and insight, says, the only time we suffer is when we believe a thought that argues with what is. If you want reality to be different than it is, you might as well try to teach a cat to bark. You can try and try, and in the end, the cat will look up at you and say, "Meow." Wanting reality to be different than it is is hopeless. You can spend the rest of your life trying to teach a cat to bark.

Why in the world do we argue with "what is", why do we cling with stubborn tenacity to our preferences for how life should and could be and resist everything that shows up that does not match our desires. To resist life's twists and turns that deviate from our preferences is the way of suffering; clearly counterproductive to the way of peace and enduring happiness. Wisdom implores us embrace life on its terms, with the equanimity of one who chose all that arises.

This is fundamental understanding in Buddhism. The Buddha's first discourse following his enlightenment contained the Four Noble Truths, the first of which stated that life is, or leads to, suffering (dukkha) in one way or another. Our suffering is said to be caused by craving or attachments to worldly pleasures of all kinds, clinging to a certain sense of self, or to the things, people, or circumstances that we consider the cause of happiness or unhappiness.

Jesus taught from the same well of wisdom, imploring us to avoid judgments based on appearances, dualistic thinking, and clinging to things of the world. Jesus noted that rain falls on the just and the unjust, that a man was born blind not as karmic comeuppance, rather to bear witness to a greater reality through him. In this greater reality, (that he called the kingdom of heaven), we will find a lasting treasure that does not deflate or disappoint.

Buddha did not leave us without an answer to the inevitable suffering of the human condition. The Fourth Noble Truth says there is a way out of suffering, a path to help us develop insight into the nature of things and to eradicate greed, hatred, and delusion.

Compassion

What if the mightiest word is love?
Love beyond marital, filial, national,
love that casts a widening pool of light,
love with no need to pre-empt grievance.
(excerpt from the poem by Elizabeth Alexander read at Barack Obama's Presidential Inauguration)

Like many of you, I imagine, Denese and I were glued to the TV coverage of the Presidential Inauguration ceremony on Tuesday morning. I was surprised by my emotional reaction. I did not think I would be so moved. I sniffled through the whole ceremony, Denese finally handed me a tissue. I didn't even plan to watch it, not live anyway. Denese felt the opposite, passionate about being a witness to this powerful historical moment as it happened. I thought, that's interesting, the election was the momentous part, this is just a ceremony, a ritual. But something grabbed me as I watched and witnessed the changing of the guard in the White House, and my heart opened wide. I'm not certain what all was behind my emotional response but here's what it felt like. It was not about the victory of a political agenda, or race, or personality, not a matter of blue, red, black or white. It was more a deep feeling of witnessing a culmination of our deepest ideals, of seeing the manifestation of unity and long repressed virtue taking its place in our process; of seeing at last that what unites us can and will rise above what divides us. For me this evoked hope, hope for the whole human family.... for my children, for all children.

I also think that at some level of my being I have embodied some of the pain and suffering and guilt of racial prejudice in America, and this event feels like a great weight of injustice lifted from our collective conscience, a ratification of what America really stands for.

Indeed it was an amazing moment to witness and weep and hope as an integral nation. That freezing morning in Washington DC where millions of diverse Americans stood huddled in hope for a better tomorrow must have felt a powerful interconnectedness. In those moments, we were witness to a powerful spiritual idea. Beyond the many differences that made up their individual lives, their hearts were open and joined ( in Obama's words ) having chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

What unites us; what moves us beyond our differences, beyond the narrow specter of our personal difficulties, supports our deepest spiritual longing for connection to Being, and being together. This is the heart of compassion; the ability to simply be with ourselves, and one another with open hearted presence.

Buddhism teaches that we are interconnected with all beings, all things, all of life. Out of this inherent connection, compassion naturally arises. Compassion, has been described in some texts as "the quivering of the heart in the face of pain, as the capacity to see our struggles with kindly eyes."

Loving kindness is the heart of Buddhist spiritual practice. It was, of course, the heart of Jesus teachings as well, as he implored us to "Love one another, even as I have loved you. and love your neighbor as yourself." It is also the most difficult of spiritual practice in this human journey. On the flip side of difficulty, compassion offers us a most potent way to heal from what divides us inside and what divides us with one another. Compassion draws from an infinite wellspring of love within us: it is the "mightiest word" made flesh, that bears all things, and given its sway, casts a widening pool of light upon our world.

Misplaced Attention

When we shift attention from experience to the spacious consciousness that knows- wisdom arises. - Jack Kornfield, A Wise Heart

If I had to name the drama of this past week of my life using the title of a popular TV show, it would be Lost. No, I was not lost; I have the GPS to keep track of where I am in the cosmos at any given moment. Over the course of the week, I ended up 'losing' my wallet and the book we are using in this series. Of course, my greatest concern was for the wallet, with its valuable contents of credit, membership cards, ids, etc. I went through the usual drill of retracing my steps from the last moment that I "had it" and narrowed down the possibilities of when and where the dispossession may have occurred. Of course, I looked in every conceivable place, many times over. The thought that I may have dropped it outside raised my concern that somebody may have found it and could be on their way to a carefree shopping spree.

Denese was the voice of prudent caution with a daily admonition to report the credit cards as lost. I resisted that notion because I had such a strong intuitive sense that it had not fallen into the hands of another, that it simply was somewhere safe in our home and that I just had not looked in the right place yet. By the end of the week, I still had not found the wallet and then the book, A Wise Heart, was missing. I knew that I'd had it the day before and hadn't taken it out of the house. This time though, with the frustration of the missing wallet still nagging me, I bypassed my intuition and went straight to judgment! I was convinced Denese had taken it (mistakenly) and I began rifling through her bookcase. Denese calmly assured me that she only had her copy and hadn't seen mine. I was not convinced and went back to her bookcase several times to be sure.

Well both dramas ended happily. Nathan spotted my wallet peeking out from behind the couch in our family room (where Denese and I had looked several times) and the book was found between the bed and my nightstand. Both items had fallen through the cracks into a place that I could not see, or at least a place where I did not look.

I was struck by the parallels between my losses of the material kind, and the manner in which I often lose my hold on spiritual truth. When we are connected to our true nature, when we are centered in Big Mind, we experience wholeness, and nothing is missing in us. But there are cracks in our awareness that we fall into and lose awareness of our wholeness. We go around with sense of incompleteness, looking for something to make us whole and happy. We look to others to blame for what's missing in us (suspecting Denese had my book) when in truth it is with me all the time. What never really leaves us is that intuitive sense that there is more to us, a treasure buried within us, that spark of the divine, which is capable of meeting all our needs. If we retain a state of mindfulness, when facing seeming losses in our life, it's possible to remain centered in an abiding sense of well being, be slow to judge, in trust that the indwelling presence will reveal its fullness in time. What seems to be missing turns out to be a case of misplaced attention. We seek and do not find, because we look amiss. When we change our perspective of loss, by panning out from the appearances, they diminish in significance, as we become aware of the larger context of wholeness in which we live and have our being.

As we practice mindfulness, it becomes easier to forestall the rush to panic or judge by the appearances of loss, remain in witnessing mode long enough to allow for the realization that Truth abides with us always.

One That Follows the One

Truth is one; sages call it by different names. (Rig-Veda)

On our altar each Sunday at Unity Center of Davis, we display a picture of Jesus, alongside a statue of the Buddha. What do these symbols of two faiths say about our beliefs you may wonder. Are we Christian Buddhists? Do we alternate between these two faiths from lesson to lesson, and are we exclusive followers of these faiths to the exclusion of all others? Reasonable questions. The answer is none of the above.

We are a spiritual community that embraces universal spiritual principles as they express in a number of different spiritual paths. We are not much interested in religion, doctrine or dogma. Unity offers us the opportunity to recognize universal principles that are not unique to Unity, that we do not claim to own, that you don't have to join Unity in order to understand and follow. We look for and celebrate universal principles wherever in the world they are expressing, because anytime, anywhere anybody makes a choice based upon spiritual principle, it is good for all of us.

Truth (God) can never be contained to any one person, one story or one religion. If it divides people and leads to hatred, it is a false spirituality. If it unites across all differences, then it is a true spirituality. May we always seek the truth that unites and heals.

This Sunday we begin a series based loosely on the book, The Wise Heart, A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology by Jack Kornfield. For 5 Sundays we will explore the universal teachings of the Buddha; potent principles and practices for awakening our capacity for love, joy and unshakeable freedom in this new year.

You do not have to be a Buddhist to benefit from the teachings of the Buddha, anymore than you must be a Christian to be inspired by the teachings of Jesus. We look to Jesus and Buddha as the great examples of what's possible in a fully self realized human beings who took the complete journey from the false to the true self. We do not worship the individuals, nor build a box of exclusive righteousness around their teachings. Rather we follow their teachings that we might progress in our own spiritual aspirations, and carve out lives of greater equanimity, compassion, peace and freedom.

As we seek to know the depth of insights that Buddha attained, we will bring into question who we think we are. One of the great gifts of Buddhism is how it can move us forward in evolutionary fashion, to see beyond the separate self to the spacious realm of Being that is our true nature. You may called it Christ consciousness, or Atman, or Holy Spirit. By any name, it is the universal experience that opens us to joy in the midst of all that arises in life. This is what all masters know, and all true seekers seek. As we discover its veracity in new form, we reveal its universality, and deepen our faith in the omnipresence of the One. We come to see that a path with heart is not about looking in the right place but knowing how to look wherever we are. The Wise Heart, that Kornfield describes is the fruit of a sincere desire to grow beyond the surface mind, and enlarge our capacity to live in this world and still be happy. To be one that follows the One brings us to a place of unity and healing; where Jesus sits side by side with Buddha. It's what still ignites my passion for Unity.

Journey as Destination

Stay bewildered in God, and only that. Those of you who are scattered, simplify your worrying lives. There is one righteousness: Water the fruit trees, and don't water the thorns. Be generous to what nurtures the spirit and God's luminous reason-light. - Rumi On this opening day of 2009, I have been musing about this fresh slate of possibility, called New Year, and asking myself how I might approach life differently this year. What is calling me and where should I put my attention? I can't help but wonder about the state of the world, the economy, the new administration, and what will be the major events that will rock our world, individually and globally, this year. I wonder about Unity Center of Davis, our beloved community that is still an infant, full of possibilities, and yet already endeared to our hearts. What will it offer and ask of us as we nurture its growth and development. As I mused over the uncertainties, my thoughts turned to new goals for the year. Like many people, I choose the New Year to begin (or resume) positive, healthy practices for my body, mind and spirit. I have a list that is emerging, that I know will help to focus my energy and provide accountability in measureable terms over time. However, I also realize that goals, as worthy as they are to providing measureable results in human terms, are woefully inadequate in spiritual terms. What do I mean? Goals by definition are achievements that take place at some time in the future. In fact, effective goal setting demands a specific time in the future. While this is effective to attaining a result in the future, it often takes us completely out of the present moment. In other words, the very desirability of some future outcome exalts the future as superior to this moment in time. That focus, of course, takes us right out of God time, the only precious moment in which we can embrace life; embrace ourselves. Besides, we often find getting what we want, in terms of a result or outcome, is fleeting satisfaction, a treasure that loses its luster quickly in the insatiable ego mind that promptly seeks a new jewel beyond the horizon of the present moment. Now I am not advocating abandoning goal setting practices. It is still valuable to our progress in this world that measures linear accomplishment, but alone, this spiritually limits us. If we are to have a happy new year, our goals must be established in the present moment. In other words, the journey is the destination of the awakened spiritual traveler. When our goal is to embrace every step, every person, every obstacle on the path of our lives we partner with Spirit all the way to and through an uncertain future. When we keep our heart and mind open we encounter infinite possibilities to learn, grow, expand, deepen, and strengthen, along the way. We "water the fruit trees" of the kingdom that is at hand, instead of deferring enjoyment to a later time when goals are attained. While you and I are making goals, God graciously offers its hand of love, peace and joy. If we have the courage to open ourselves, and the patience to be present, we can reconcile our hearts with "what is" before us, take Spirit's hand, and walk mindfully and joyfully into every moment of this New Year. Anais Nin wrote: "And the day came that the risk it took to be tightly closed in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to bloom." Do you know you can open and bloom right now, where you are, and begin to live life in awe and wonder and gratitude? When you do so, your list of goals will no longer represent what's missing for you. They will be a way of moving forward in time. But you will know that in truth you have already arrived.