(All Pictures are mine unless otherwise noted.)
The trees are donning their spring clothes,
soon, through the miracle of change
they will become the green finery of wondrous leaves
(Picture taken last week)
Today, Easter Sunday, Lee and I went to St. Matthew's Church for Mass. The church was jammed and we got the last two seats that were available. The overflow crowd went to the basement to experience Mass on closed circuit television. Christmas, Ash Wednesday and Easter draws so many who seem to sense an urgency to get whatever may be necessary to satisfy some requirement for maintaining status in the Church - perhaps also in the afterlife as a few points may be gotten. I am sure that a few, perhaps many more, received a Call to return home - to start the journey to return Home. One never knows when the Hounds Of Heaven will strike in order to move women and men to a deeper sense of "self" as well as surer footing in knowing God's intentions for their lives.
My own ponderings and observations can be sized down to perhaps this - most people seem to celebrate the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus while paying little attention to the life and teachings of of the man from Galilee. I, for one, have come to understand that I want more of the "Teachings" of the Gospels and less of what I now perceive as non-essential overlays on the path God is leading me on. This is not to say that I am right and others are wrong, that would be against what I now believe was Jesus' most important teachings on non-dualism, which is to say that compassion and love can only exist in an atmosphere where judgement of others ceases to exist.
"Love one another as I have loved you."
The question that arises is simply, "How did/does Jesus love all he encountered, and still encounters, as one other." If I am to have a teacher my responsibility is to honor that person and to learn all that I can, first in order to grow, and secondly to be useful in mentoring others in the instructions I have gained by way of work, study, and Grace. But first and foremost I need to follow the teacher, listen, ask questions, and experience the full impact of what is being offered to me free of judgements and bias.
Following Jesus is not simply traveling the roads trailing behind him, ( I would be soon tired of seeing donkey butt in my face) it means for me to get ahead of him so I would have "face time" with my instructor, my mentor. . the one knows more than I do ... the one who also tells me that I have worth - even nobility as an ongoing human concern - seen in the eyes and heart of someone who loves me for who I am, and the person I am working toward becoming.
Follow and learn, follow and utilize, follow to the door that is the entry to the Kingdom of God within each and every human heart.
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If one cannot soar like an eagle
flying like a gull will certainly be enough
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Here is a fine two minute video narrated by David Attenborough who recites the lyrics from
"It's A Wonderful World" Click on: http://www.flixxy.com/wonderful-world-david-attenborough.htm
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Here is a short talk by a remarkable teacher in the Buddhist tradition on loving the Dharma, which directly translates to loving the Teachings. Thanissaro Bhikkhu is an ordained Buddhist monk (Bhikkhu) who is a teacher worthy to learn from.
Click to hear: Love For The Dharma - http://www.box.com/s/21ab71984bf50bc2e25f
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Where tools for fixing and growing can be had.
A list of what you need is available from your teacher.
On June 5, 2008 Christina Tibbot of PBS interviewed Arnold Eisen the Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary in NYC asking him to speak on Abraham Joshua Heschel, who was one of the 20th. centuries finest teachers. Heschel taught at the seminary for some 25 years and is available today, long after his death, by way of many books he wrote and through the memory of those alive who were deeply impacted by him either through personal experience or by way of the written word.
Here is an excerpt from that interview which may give some understanding as to how a teacher/mentor can influence those who enter their sphere of radiating knowledge.
Heschel in one of my mentors over the years through his books and articles. To me he is a Poet/Philosopher/Mystic/Teacher of the highest order. I put a book recommendation on the right sidebar list of a tome that continues to support my journey. I will always be a student of this great man.
Here are a few words from another student:
Mr. Eisen:
Heschel was a mystic. And you'll find a lot of mystics throughout the ages — Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu — who believe they have an experience of God that goes beyond language, that goes beyond culture, that proves to them the unity of the Divine and then they understand various religious traditions as ways, as it were, of putting this experience into words. And the words always fall short. And one of the things that enabled Heschel to be so open to people of other faiths and to feel real kinship with them was this fundamental mysticism, this sense that the experience of God goes beyond any individual tradition, is greater than any individual tradition, as it were, encompasses all of them.
And then there was the personal experience, and here was the man who was able to see in other human beings that he met, for example, the Pope and the cardinals that he met in encounters through Vatican II, Martin Luther King, Reinhold Niebuhr. He encountered other people of faith and I think was open enough to see in them depths of religious, as it were, belonging. That they too live in the presence of God and therefore they have kinship with him. And these encounters reinforce one another and grow in him this sense of a mystery beyond any tradition's capacity to fully understand it.
So there's Heschel out there in the world marching in Selma sure that those people marching with him are no less children of God, full of insight into God, than he is. This is rare in a contemporary world. Even with all of our talk about pluralism and all of our religious dialogue, the deep conviction that we need to be open to others because we have something important to learn from them. This remains rare. And it's one of the things that Heschel had to teach that I'm most grateful for.
Ms. Tippett:
Now, are we treated as something that we have to navigate, things that we have to bring together? But being deeply Jewish and being a bold interfaith leader we're organically connected for Heschel, right? That's what's so fascinating. I want to read this passage from his speech at Union Theological Seminary in 1965, and I know this is an important passage for you too, from his speech called "No Religion is an Island." He wrote, "I suggest that the most significant basis for meeting men of different religious traditions is the level of fear and trembling, of humility, of contrition, where our individual moments of faith are mere waves in the endless ocean of mankind's reaching out for God, where all formulations and articulations appear as understatements, where our souls are swept away by the awareness of the urgency of answering God's commandment, while stripped of pretension and conceit we sense the tragic insufficiency of human faith."
Mr. Eisen:
Pure Heschel. Pure Heschel. And those words, you're right, are especially meaningful to me. You know, we're in the midst of a political campaign …… where it's often been pointed out one's not allowed to be wrong. I mean, it's very hard to admit mistakes, and candidates do it from time to time where it seems to suit them, but the notion that one might be incapable of solving a problem is unheard of. And yet this is the fundamental human situation, as we all know. There are certain things that are beyond our reach even if we're commanded to try and achieve them. Our lives, as the rabbi said long ago, are too short. I mean, the day is long and the work is great and we're not commanded to finish the work, but neither are we allowed to desist from it. That's one of my favorite passages from the Talmud and I think one of Heschel's.
And there is Heschel constantly reminding us of the human situation. And we know our frailty, we know our insufficiency, we know our sinfulness, and these are not words that are readily spoken in polite company beyond the most intimate of circles. Sometimes even in our closest friendships, in our marriages, it's hard to admit them.
And there is Heschel putting them out there in public debate as a great religious leader, instructing us that, no, these are essential words in our vocabulary. These feelings are essential.
Ms. Tippett:
And that knowing the insufficiency of our ideas is, in fact, a virtue.
Mr. Eisen:
Knowing it because unless you admit your own insufficiencies, you have no chance of doing anything correctly. And that is a lesson that all of us struggle to learn. I certainly do.
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And the cartoon as we also need humor and perhaps a comparison to dualistic thinking which we may want to avoid. Wiley the cartoonist of Non Sequitur lives in Maine, somewhere ...
Peace until next week,
Bill Lagerstrom, who lives in Maine, somewhere.....
