A good friend and Army veteran passed along the image on the left...and his morning...mourning offering inspired these contributions into our collective collection basket...My intention here is to stir up the compassion in OUR hearts...not the arguments in OUR opinionated heads...
Most people - and I am part of "most" - most people prefer the apparently simpler choices offered by what's called DUALISTIC thinking: black or white...good or bad...either/or...thinking...and are unwilling to STOP to SEE if there are other ways to more fully appreciate what's in front of US...And a key reason is that we've never been taught HOW to SEE more deeply (Non-dually)...than our own and others' opinionated/DUALISTIC minds...An explanation of these terms follows...
To get a clearer perspective of US - WE the people he came to help - Jesus, Dr. King, Mother Teresa and all people like them...
...balanced their efforts in the city with restorative times on the mountain...
Richard Rohr is and has been for most of my adult life, the person who has helped me to pay attention to HOW I'm seeing...and this directly affects WHAT I'm seeing. In one of his Daily Meditations/Medications...He included this wisdom:
Learning to SEE...more Deeply...
Dualistic and Nondual Thinking: Weekly Summary
Click links for full meditation
The dualistic mind cannot process things like infinity, mystery, God, grace, suffering, sexuality, death, or love. (Sunday)
Nondual consciousness is a much more holistic knowing, where your mind, heart, soul, and senses are open and receptive to the moment just as it is, which allows you to love things in themselves and as themselves. (Monday)
The broad rediscovery of nondual, contemplative consciousness gives me hope for the maturing of religion and is probably the only way we can move beyond partisan politics. (Tuesday)
“A good deal of the confusion over the meaning of nonduality has emerged as folks have tried to discover what, if anything, in our Western Christian experience most closely corresponds to what the East is intending by nondual.” —Cynthia Bourgeault (Wednesday)
“I believe the West’s key contribution to the understanding of nondual perception is that this highest-order (“third tier”) level of consciousness is not a mere extension of the mind. It implies and requires the shift to an entirely different operating system, which is anatomically located in the heart—or better yet, in the mind in entrainment with the heart.” —Cynthia Bourgeault (Thursday)
“I cannot make moments of nondual consciousness happen. I can only assume the inner stance that offers the least resistance to being overtaken by grace.” —James Finley (Friday)
Time in the City...
…as Paul and Art sing it, helpers...healers...go where they are needed most...
“seeking out the poorer quarters
Where the ragged people go
Looking for the places only they would know..."
[from the description] 'The Boxer' Bob Dylan with Paul Simon live at Starplex Amphitheater Dallas, Texas 1999, Sept 18" The Boxer" is a song written by Paul Simon, recorded by the American music duo Simon & Garfunkel from their fifth studio album, Bridge over Troubled Water (1970). Dylan’s love for boxing is well known. Bob covered the song on his Self Portrait album. In 1999, after completing the European summer tour, Dylan returned to the United States to perform a thirty-eight date tour with Paul Simon. The first leg of this two-part tour came to a close in Wantagh, New York (Jones Beach) on July 31. The tour picked up again at West Palm Beach, Florida on September 2 and traveled throughout the southern states coming to a close on September 18 in Dallas, Texas.
On 3 June 2016 at his concert in Berkeley, California, Paul Simon stopped singing partway through "The Boxer", to announce in one sentence breaking news:
"I’m sorry to tell you this in this way, but Muhammad Ali passed away."
He then finished the song with the last verse modified as:
"In the clearing stands a boxer and a fighter by his trade..."
[tOM] The sad truth is...and to be honest...at times, I am that man...
"Still, a man hears what he wants to hear...
...And disregards the rest..."
Time on the Mountain...
Francis of Assisi: Beyond the Birdbath...A Different Way to See...
The Franciscan Way: Weekly Summary (click link for full meditation)
Saturday, September 9, 2023
Sunday Francis’ starting place was human suffering instead of human sinfulness. His Christ was cosmic while also deeply personal, his cathedral was creation itself, and he preferred the bottom of society to the top. In general, Francis preferred ego poverty to private perfection, because Jesus “became poor for our sake.” —Richard Rohr
Monday Religion is no longer a spectator sport, an observing of some distant, far-off truth, but it’s an observing of what is true in me, and what is true in me is true of the cosmos. It’s all one reality. —Richard Rohr
Tuesday The Franciscan view creates a coherent and positive spirituality, which draws us toward lives of inner depth, prayer, reconciliation, healing, and universal at-one-ment, instead of any notion of sacrifice, which implies an angry God who needs to be bought off. —Richard Rohr
Wednesday Encountering the impoverished, walking for a while in the world of the marginalized, and being with the have-nots of our world is a necessary aspect of the discipleship journey. Our souls are touched by the encounter as well, and sorrow over the pain and injustice of impoverishment and marginalization fills the crevices of our being. —Marie Dennis, Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, Joseph Nangle, and Stuart Taylor
Thursday Love, not knowledge, allowed Francis to enter into the great mystery we call “God.” As he entered into this mystery he discovered two principle features of God—the overflowing goodness of God and the humility of God. —Ilia Delio
Friday A Franciscan Renaissance would help us “redeem”—which means to re-assess and revalue—everything, so we rediscover the priceless beauty of the earth and its creatures, including our neighbors and ourselves. —Brian McLaren and Patrick Carolan
Franciscan Lectio
Father Dan Riley presents a Franciscan way of practicing Lectio Divina:
The “school” I come from—the Franciscan way—found most of its classrooms and books in marketplaces and in the faces of the poor; on the hillsides in mountain seclusion and in the eyes of lepers; in big cities, small towns, and universities; in sacred spaces and everyday places. Whether it was one person, one place, or one moment, the Franciscan disposition is that the reign of God is always at hand; the richness of God’s glory is present here and everywhere. Each creature is a vestige of God’s creative action and an expression of God’s loving Word. This is the blessing of Franciscan Lectio…. Lectio is about reading or focusing or listening long enough and deeply enough so that beauty, depth, and connectivity emerge; peace and freedom inspire action and service.
St. Bonaventure describes justice as “the returning to its original beauty that which has been deformed.” [1] Franciscan Lectio inspires us to see original beauty more clearly and then to live out of that truth more naturally over time. I think that true freedom flows out of our rootedness in beauty….
Francis was reading and learning about God everywhere, beyond the church or the classroom, and responding to the Word as it was alive in everything…. Word and world—indeed this is our home, and we are finding ways to choose to live here together with one another. We need to pick up the Bible and at the same time our world, holding them and letting them hold us, tenderly and gently opening and beginning to page through them, but only as they offer themselves to us. We need to look everyone and everything in the face and be amazed at the face of God looking back at us.
Remembering Dr. King
I've been to the mountain top speech (see article for links)
"I've Been to the Mountaintop" is the popular name of the last speech delivered by Martin Luther King Jr.[1][2][3]
King spoke on April 3, 1968,[4] at the Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ Headquarters) in Memphis, Tennessee.
The speech primarily concerns the Memphis sanitation strike. King calls for unity, economic actions, boycotts, and nonviolent protest, while challenging the United States to live up to its ideals. At the end of the speech, he discusses the possibility of an untimely death.
With renewed EYES, let's take these dreams...intentions...into the streets of our lives...
[Verse 1: Miten]
Ever been lonely?
Ever felt out of place?
Ever cried yourself to sleep at night
Praying for descending grace?
Ever danced alone in the moonlight?
Dancing like there's nobody there
The whole world lookin' on, but
What do you care?
[Chorus: Miten & Deva Premal]
Humaniversal
We're all reaching for
The stars in the sky
Humaniversal
You and I
You and I
[Verse 2: Miten]
Ever been to India?
Seen the world from ground zero?
Thirteen-year-old mother with a baby in her arms
Knockin' on your taxi window
Lights change
And leave her standin' in the road
Still her eyes come back to haunt you
Wherever you go
[Chorus: Miten & Deva Premal]
Humaniversal
We can all hear
Her baby cry
Humaniversal
You and I
[Bridge: Miten & Deva Premal]
And after all
It's only life
We come and go
In the wink of an eye
We say hello
We say goodbye
That's all
(Ah)
That's all
(Ah)
(La la la la)
(La la)
[Verse 3: Miten]
And what about the Dalai Lama?
What about that smile?
A simple monk from the roof of the world
Living in exile
And he can't go back
And he can't go home
What does that say to you and me?
Speaking of love and compassion
Even towards his enemy
[Chorus: Miten & Deva Premal]
Humaniversal
(Ooh)
Say a prayer for his people
When you're driving home tonight
Humaniversal
(Ooh)
Say a prayer for him
When you turn out the light
(Ah)
Tonight
(Oh, ah)
[Outro: Miten]
Humaniversal
You and I
You and I
You and I