Heaven and Hell

I've been wanting to write about Meister Eckhart for sometime (after I finally get my lazy ass to do so though. . . )

Anyway, a movie back in the early 1990's called Jacob's Ladder made a reference to him. It was a supernatural drama about a man being troubled psychologically by his personal crises and dreams. 

The scene below is when a very helpful chiropractor aides the main character "Jacob" not just physically but also spiritually from the teachings of Eckhart.  

The Tao Of Yao (Ming)

"How does a single blade of grass thank the sun?"


"It is not a violent strength like fire or something aggressive. It is like the ocean, very peaceful, very quiet when you look at it. But you can never underestimate the power that is in there."

The Dalai Lama On Facing Adversity

His Holiness, The Dalai Lama, the spiritual and inspirational leader of Tibetan Buddhism sharing his insights along with a bit of his humor. What he says beginning 2:03 is so simple, it's profound.  

A Blessed Vesak Day To All

Tomorrow May 17th, here in most parts of South and South East Asia, we commemorate the birth and life of one of humanity's greatest spiritual teachers: the Buddha, who was born Siddhārtha Gautama in what is now Nepal half a millenium before Jesus Christ.

While I don't consider myself an actual follower of the Buddhist religion, I find that the lessons he revealed in what he calls "The Middle Way" and his teachings dispelling ignorance, finding a righteous yet practical way to life and to cope with its difficulties and spread compassion to the world made my own life more meaningful.

May all things find happiness!

World's Oldest Man Dies. . .

(Photo from NYDailynews.com)

. . . and imparts a lifetime of lessons, some of them earned during war and hard times.

Even though he's an Americano, the things he shares are universal and applies to whomever in the world. RIP lolo.

Click below -

Walter Breuning at 114

Religion: An Endangered Institution?

Just read about this study and the comparison it inevitably draws between rich and poor countries.

If you pause to consider it though, it does make sense. Reminds me of a passage in Neil Gaiman's "American Gods"  when he referred to America as a "bad place for Gods" (and if you've been hanging out and reading this humble blog of mine, you'll probably know how I can't wait for "God" to be irrelevant and unnecessary).  

Your beliefs are your own though. Just don't be a fanatic, please!  

A Perspective On Religious-Based Conflicts

Author Michael Baigent's name might sound familiar; in 1982 along with co-authors Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln, they wrote the highly controversial, albeit speculative book The Holy Blood and Holy Grail. The writing in it drew varied reactions all-over, with obvious disapproval especially from Christians. Having read it myself, I found it interesting yet not really "shaking the foundations" of my beliefs since like I said, it was rooted much in speculation. They basically started the book with a proposition and ran away with it. It however was enough of an influence to inspire a later, more famous novel following a similar theme: author Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code (which became a Hollywood film later).

Baigent recently wrote another book and this video was an interview to promote it. It's a three-parter but I only focused on the third part which to me is the core of what his message seems to be.

In today's world, the nexus point of  conflict between the three major world religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam (the Abrahamic beliefs) is the city of the city of Jerusalem in Israel. The danger here is that one could look at it from a devout or even extremist believer's point of view as the culmination of eschatology or fulfillment of divine revelation from all three religions. Hence, its uneasy status as the source of potential conflict. Baigent offers insight into the possible way to solve this; a reverting to the  "inner" or mystical dimensions found in all three religions. By observing our beliefs this way, we break free from the rigid conventions or institutions that divide and isolate us from one another.

Hollywood Comedy Director's Turnaround

Tom Shadyac on the set of Evan Almighty taken from http://www.thecinemasource.com/

We all have our own ways of "returning" to the great source so to speak. Just got this bit of NEWS and rather than post in TV/Movies I think it's more appropriate here. What he said about competition and how we've somehow taken it too far leading to egotism and selfishness was something I found insightful.

He was the director of Jim Carrey's hits like Ace Ventura, Bruce Almighty, Eddie Murphy's Nutty Professor and Robin William's inspiring Patch Adams.

I, Metatheist

Frankly speaking, I have no religion per se but like the majority brought up in this country, I was brought-up Roman Catholic and all the traditions and morés that that entails. Regardless of what it is, if your religion is a central or a valuable aspect in your life, live it well then. I feel though that it should not define the individual. Rather, it is we who should define it.

Over the years I have been influenced by the nuances of Zen, Taoism, Hinduism, aspects of Islam and snippets from other beliefs, even the mind-boggling frontiers of theoretical physics and quantum mechanics (of what little I could understand of it of course). I then decided to involve myself in spirituality which has always been a journey of sorts. A spiritual journey that has taken many since long ago to venture far-off for a while, yet the return to oneself has always been the destination.

Spirituality and its pursuit has always been a matter of one’s faith and not religion. Religion is nothing more than a human societal construct called an institution. As with many other institutions, it develops and matures only as man does. It is restricted to man’s continual evolution or devolution, as history has time and again proven. Religious institutions since time immemorial have tried to preach that their way was the only way, of reducing everyone distinctly as believers and infidels, of “us” who know the way to salvation and “them” who don’t. Even now, wars and conflicts are still being fought over it.

Unlike religion though, faith is a matter of personal expression to the divine and it should be far bigger than what your religion expects you to do. Religion prescribes, your faith is your own. Religion excludes, faith considers. Religion bounds, faith liberates. Religion divides, faith integrates and unifies. As religion only asks the question, your faith is your response. Don’t let religion get in the way of you knowing God. Furthermore, do not let the idea of "God" get in the way of you BEING.

It seems that a poignant reality of humanity is that it looks at the world narrowly thru an unfortunate orientation; himself. Think about it, why do we anthromorphize things, living or otherwise, around us? Why do we name our modes of transport, usually with a woman’s name? Why do we try to talk to them even though we know they do not have the facility of language or comprehension? Why do we “see” our apparent likeness in the randomness of everything? At one extreme, why do we imbue human attributes to our pets, treating them like human children?

After all, can you blame Leonardo da Vinci, one of humanity’s greatest thinkers, to come up with this idea, as if haughtily raising himself (man) “as the measure of all things”?

If we are to consider the universal concept of God as the “supreme being”, I believe this would be an awkward endeavor. Though supreme, he would still be but a mere “being” leading once again to our natural disposition of trying to define the personhood of God. This is “embodied” in the familiar and often baffling Catholic doctrine of the Holy Trinity who are/is comprised of “three persons in one God”. After all, isn’t a person something we could all relate to? This person would, as expected, be framed within our familiar reference of the images of a father, shepherd, judge, law-giver, provider, etc. Again, mere aspects of man “himself”.

God is not actually a “He” or even a “She” as espoused by some, like the early Christian Gnostics. We can not reduce God into a being. If we are to believe that God is everything we hope “It” to be, it can not be appeased by prayer. It can not be bribed or bought by good works. It can not be jealous or insecure with our lesser attempts of worship. It can not be prodded to choose just one side and disregard the other. It does not reward eternity only to its faithful ones and render harsh judgment on those who have no belief in it. It does not make distinctions between great or small, major or minor. God is far above all these lesser attributes and emotions we have rendered upon it. As Lao Tzu who was dazzled by the dao said: "Heaven and earth are ruthless, and treat the myriad creatures as straw dogs".

Attempting to define God is a lost cause, virtually impossible by the mere reckoning of our limited intellect. Regrettably, it is our frail knowledge that attempts to bring its understanding towards us when it is we who should come to it. God is the source (Alpha) and conclusion (Omega) of everything. Thus, to know God is to be one with God.

If we are to believe in the idea that there is some great, noble purpose for our lives, it would be seeking to return and be united with the absolute of God. As the Hindu sages have taught us, we being the small spark of “atman”, the individual self, must return to the great immutable fire of the “Brahman” or the great self. It is then a matter of aligning or attuning ourselves to that greater frequency, of allowing ourselves to go with the flow of the great river and just as Islam’s true meaning would move us to do: to submit or surrender ourselves to God.

Ultimately, I would want for “God” to be irrelevant and unnecessary. As an act of great evolution by our species, we need to transcend this current idea of who God is into something much, much more.

The Light from Rumi

Poet, philosopher, theologian and mystic, Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi or simpy Rumi was born in 13th-century Iran and is a leading voice in the Sufi faith and traditions. His works however, as with all great spiritual guides, have become world-renowned as they have within them great wisdom that transcends religions and cultures.

From his teachings sprouted the order known world-wide for their "whirling dervishes" where the dancers are described to feel connected and attuned with the frequency of the universe in their spinning.

Below are some distillations from his works:

Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.

How shall we seek real knowledge? By renouncing knowledge. How shall we seek salvation? By renouncing our own salvation. How shall we seek existence? By renouncing our existence.

Christian, Jew, Muslim, shaman, Zoroastrian, stone, ground, mountain, river, each has a secret way of being with the mystery, unique and not be judged.

This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet.

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there.

Silence is the language of God, all else is a poor translation.

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.

A Merry Christmas From the Grove!

If you're a Christian, this season is probably the most anticipated and most celebrated of the entire year, more so to us Filipinos who unofficially start if from September!

For Christians as the story goes, GOD in his supreme compassion for us, sent his "only begotten son" down into this world and humanity to be born in a small, obscure and impoverished part of a suffering nation. His parents weren't all that lucky either. Just an ordinary couple who didn't have much going for them; his father Yosef, a middle-aged carpenter and woodworker who worked with his hands and had a simple disposition in life. His mother was Miriam, a young girl barely out of her teens. Nothing set them up to be remarkable or different from the thousands of other poor families in rural Israel at that time.

Then comes the interesting or bewildering part of HOW he was born. As Robert Fulghum imaginatively narrated in one of his books, could you just imagine yourself in Yosef's shoes after hearing for the first time about certain upcoming events from your soon-to-be wife:

Miriam: Yosef, I'm pregnant. . .

Yosef: YOU'RE WHAAAT?!

Miriam: He's going to be GOD'S son. . .

Yosef: SO IT'S NOT MY SON BUT WHOSE???

(Thinks and after a brief pause)

Yosef: OK AND YOU'RE SAYING YOU WERE TOLD ALL OF THIS BY WHOM?!??

Miriam: An Angel named Gabriel told me this. Isn't it exciting?

ROFL!!! It's got a hint of John and Marsha comedy doesn't it? Guess what though, things turned out well in the end. The child grew-up and 2,000 years later, he is looked upon with reverence and faith by followers world-wide numbering more than a billion.

So just in case we forget, it's NOT about this guy who's being pushed by big business' commercialism and the media -

Two words: liposuction and exercise. Is he legally entering countries with a valid passport? Is he following labor policies and the rights of the elves he's employing to make all those toys? Does he have the proper permits to own flying reindeer which maybe endangered? You expect me to believe that red sack of his contains only toys?!
Hmmmm. I smell a terrorist!

It's also NOT about this -

Frankly, if we had trees like that here in our country, turning it into firewood or panggatong would be better instead. Also, we wouldn't have to feel obliged to put gifts under there to satisfy childhood greed or try to keep-up or compete with the neighbors for better-looking decorations.

We do have our own, uniquely Pinoy symbol of the season after all -

Cheap, stimulates creativity, traditional, cost-effective, environment friendly. O di ba mas OK?

Ultimately, it's about a certain birth that happened a long time ago that changed everything.

The Heart Sutra

A sutra in Buddhism is the equivalent of scripture in the Bible for Christians. Both function to preserve certain religious teachings and point to a greater message or truth. It comes from the Sanskrit word meaning "thread" or something to mean topics or subjects that are strung and held together for a common theme. This is usually because it is constructed to include certain background details describing elements like where it happened, what was the occasion, who was listening and such.

The Heart Sutra is said to be the most well-known and popular of Buddhist scriptures that have managed to come down to us, much like the 23rd Psalm is for Christians. Contained in it is the seemingly confounding but beautiful teaching of nothingness or emptiness. It is one of those things that are best understood or arrived at not with the brain trying to decipher its meaning. When you've achieved stillness and become more calm from absorbing it, then it gets better to understand. . . even if you still really don't!

As with many ancient writings, there have been many translations. I like the simple one below taken from this link -

http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/heartsutra.html

The Heart Sutra

Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, meditating deeply on Perfection of Wisdom, saw clearly that the five aspects of human existence are empty, and so released himself from suffering. Answering the monk Sariputra, he said this:

Body is nothing more than emptiness,
emptiness is nothing more than body.
The body is exactly empty,
and emptiness is exactly body.

The other four aspects of human existence --
feeling, thought, will, and consciousness --
are likewise nothing more than emptiness,
and emptiness nothing more than they.

All things are empty:
Nothing is born, nothing dies,
nothing is pure, nothing is stained,
nothing increases and nothing decreases.

So, in emptiness, there is no body,
no feeling, no thought,
no will, no consciousness.
There are no eyes, no ears,
no nose, no tongue,
no body, no mind.
There is no seeing, no hearing,
no smelling, no tasting,
no touching, no imagining.
There is nothing seen, nor heard,
nor smelled, nor tasted,
nor touched, nor imagined.

There is no ignorance,
and no end to ignorance.
There is no old age and death,
and no end to old age and death.
There is no suffering, no cause of suffering,
no end to suffering, no path to follow.
There is no attainment of wisdom,
and no wisdom to attain.

The Bodhisattvas rely on the Perfection of Wisdom,
and so with no delusions,
they feel no fear,
and have Nirvana here and now.

All the Buddhas,
past, present, and future,
rely on the Perfection of Wisdom,
and live in full enlightenment.

The Perfection of Wisdom is the greatest mantra.
It is the clearest mantra,
the highest mantra,
the mantra that removes all suffering.

This is truth that cannot be doubted.
Say it so:

Gaté,
gaté,
paragaté,
parasamgaté.
Bodhi!
Svaha!

Which means...

Gone,
gone,
gone over,
gone fully over.
Awakened!
So be it!

That Famous Verse of the Letter to the Corinthians

For Christians, one of the a strangest and greatest cases of a complete turn-around of one's beliefs happened to St. Paul the Apostle. From being one of the most infamous prosecutors of those who believed in Jesus, the Christ from Galilee (Rabbi Yeshua Ben Josef to the Jews), he became a driven, courageous and defiant apostle in propagating the new faith. He labored for many years enduring many hardships and obstacles, including imprisonment. Yet he was resilient and proved to be a prudent spiritual as well as organizational leader.

As with most things that start out in the beginning though, it was often a struggle with confusion, distrust or the lack clarity and direction. The beginnings of the early Christian church at that time was no exception. The Bible records that he wrote several guiding and faith-sustaining letters to these newly established Christian communities. Once, he wrote a letter aimed at the church in Corinth as he was in prison and unable to be physically with them. He attempted to ease the troubles coming both from within the various Christian groups as well as from outside pressures. Part of his first letter to them became one of the most enduring and famous of his messages. Simply put, to me he was trying to say: "Guys, let's not do this. Let's not fight among ourselves. Remember what we believe in and what we're trying to be."

Today, we hear it often recited during weddings since the theme of it centers on LOVE.

1 Corinthians 13

13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

On The Middle Way

On realizing that the ultimate truth and freedom from the wold's ills is not found in the extremes of earthly pleasures of his former princely life, nor in the severe bodily mortifications of an ascetic, he overheard a master of the lute passing on the river remark:

If the string is too tight, it will break. If it is too loose, it will not play.

- Gautama Siddartha

The Buddha

Joy

(Note: Edited to accommodate a recent entry)

If you grew up in the Philippines, chances are like me you were brought-up Roman Catholic and according to some (it is said the French think so) we are the most rabid kind!

I'd like to talk about though what I remember though from the religion classes we were taught in school on "the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit". Ok, don't ask me what they all are off the top of my head. I can't give you an answer without having to "cheat" and look for them on Google!

That being said, I'd like to talk about one of them: the sense of joy.

What is joy? Well the simple man-on-the-street answer is that it is like happiness but of a greater kind. There is a sense of profoundness about joy as opposed to just plain being "happy". The thing about happiness though is that it is for itself alone. It is limited and self-centered. We can be happy for the wrong reasons can't we? Like when we see an enemy's defeat or someone whom we dislike suffer a misfortune. We can be happy only for ourselves and not share it with others. We can derive happiness from "substances" and abuses of the body too, but these are only temporary.

Joy however isn't concern with the "self". It is a genuine feeling that begets goodness and encourages it. It wants to be shared and passed on to others. It is deep and attaches itself to the soul and not just the fleeting moments of selfish motives. Thus, it is long-lasting and sustains us.

This is the real essence of joy. In his greatness, the Supreme Being shared this with us deep, transcendental feeling.

As Michael V. sang on a dish washing liquid commercial on TV: "I've got Joy deep in my heart! Deep, deep, down in my heart! . . ."