"‘Thou shalt not' might reach the head, but it takes ‘Once upon a time' to reach the heart." Phillip Pullman

Do you ever get lost in a good story? Okay, I admit it. When I read Ludlum's "Bourne Identity", I find myself looking over my shoulder on subways and wiping prints off cookie jars. Getting lost in a story is a great way of finding yourself. Immersing yourself in characters, real and fanciful, is a great way of perceiving your life as part of a wider story.

The Bible is a collection of stories, real and fanciful; the Judeo/ Christian contribution to the Cosmic story. The problem is that you have been thumped over the head with it for so long that your vision is impaired. Reclaim the Bible as story. Lose yourself in its timeless imagery and themes, knowing that it never had to be true in order for it to always be true.

It's liberating to remember that many of those who compiled the Bible understood the distinction between events and the meaning of events, what Karen Armstrong called "logos and mythos". Logos sees things as they are. Mythos finds meaning in things. Logos says "Its raining". Mythos says "I am enlivened by falling rain." Logos is rational. Mythos is imaginative. Logos says, "this event happened". Mythos says "this event is remembered this way, or recorded this way to invite questions about the author's experience."

Karen Armstrong expresses this well-

"In the pre-modern world, people had a different view of history. They were less interested than we are in what actually happened, but more concerned with the meaning of an event. Historical incidents were not seen as unique occurrences, set in a far off time, but were thought to be external manifestations of constant, timeless realities. ..... To ask whether the Exodus from Egypt took place exactly as recounted in the Bible or to demand historical and scientific evidence to prove that it is factually true is to mistake the nature and purpose of this story. It is to confuse mythos with logos." From The Battle for God - by Karen Armstrong (p. xvi)

As you move into another Christmas season, it's a great time to lose yourself in the meaning of mythos without getting trapped in a literal logos.

The gospels are less interested in proving the pure blood lines of Jesus than they are in pointing to Jesus as the "New Moses" who is passionate about feeding the spiritual hunger of people in the wilderness.

The gospels are less interested in whether Mary's baby was literally fathered by the Holy Spirit than they are in pointing to Mary as a "goddess of fertility", manifesting the divine feminine, birthing hope in barren lives.

The gospels are less interested in stars that transcend the natural order than they are in Persian gentiles whose imaginations were so excited by the universal possibilities of a "New Moses" that they followed an inner calling to look level eyed into the face of God.

That's just a sampling of Christmas mythos. There are at least two broad themes to the mythos of Christmas.

1. Personal transformation- what is being born in your life this Christmas? Is it a new perspective, a new clarity, a new question, a new delight? Is it a sense of waking up to the possibilities that surround you?
2. Social transformation- what is being born in our world this Christmas? Is it counter cultural trends towards love and abundance rather than fear and scarcity? Is it new networks of blessed unrest? Is it a tidal change of global connectedness? Is it a belief in the impossible dream of peace in the midst of horrendous conflict?

These are the questions that have been asked for all time, and in all stories. This is the timeless spiritual longing. Elizabeth Lesser said it like this-

"Spiritual longing came before religion. Step into a limestone cave in France where Cro-Magnon people left their paintings and ritual markings, and you will find your own questions and yearnings engraved on the walls."

You are a word of God. Words don't die when they are spoken, nor are they born at their initial utterance. They have a history, a context, and after being spoken their life is still just beginning. Your life is part of a divine script, where you get to play the part of your heart's desire with no pre determined ending. No matter how ordinary it feels, no matter how uncertain it seems, your authentic part in the cosmic play speaks of a greater story that is timeless.

Don't recoil when you hear your story echoed in ancient stories. It's the voice of God beckoning you to your true calling.

There is a Hasidic proverb that says "Give people a fact or an idea and you enlighten their minds; tell them a story and you touch their souls"
Let me offer you a Hasidic story that will touch your soul.

Rabbi Zusya was a famous 18^th century Rabbi. As he was dying, he began to weep before the disciples gathered around his bed.

"Why do you weep?" they asked.  "Because I am afraid," said Rabbi Zusya.  "I am afraid of what God will ask me when I die.  I know God will not ask me, 'Why were you not like Abraham?' -- for who am I next to the man who first recognized the Almighty?  And I know God will not ask me 'Why were you not like Moses? -- after all, I am not a great prophet or leader.  But when God looks upon me and says, 'Zusya, my child -- why were you not Zusya?'  What shall I say then?"

Don't be distracted by a literal "judgment" day as you reflect on the story. See it as mythos. You are confronted by God every day and God's calling whispers in the wind and the bird's tune, the Bible, the Christmas story, all stories, your story! Ultimately they are all leading you to a deeper realization of who you are and what your place is in the world. Such a realization will open up worlds of meaning and lead to transformations beyond any expectation.

This Christmas at C3, you have some exciting opportunities to locate your story in a larger story, and sharpen your vision for transformation, both personal and social.  There is one opportunity that we are offering to all of our friends and participants, near and far. We are launching our very first E-Course. Over 15 days, you will have the opportunity to walk through Matthews Gospel in the lead up to Christmas. Integrating the themes of Joseph Cambell's "Heros Journey", Matthew's' story will come alive for you. You will find your own life more powerful and purposeful as you locate your own experience in ancient mythos.

Simply go to this page and follow the directions to subscribe to the e-course
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Peace and Love! Ian


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What is so often lost in this new debate on accountability and oversight is this fact: private contractors now outnumber regular soldiers on the Iraq battlefield. The military–with its massive bureaucracy–has been unable or unwilling to effectively monitor the actions of its soldiers and prosecute them for crimes. Who will effectively oversee the 180,000-strong shadow corporate army?" --Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army



A telephone operator in a small Cape Cod town received a daily call from a man who asked the exact time. This went on for many weeks. Finally the operator asked the caller why he called every day requesting the right time. "Because," responded the caller, "I am the man responsible for blowing the whistle at noon each day."

"Well, that's a coincidence," the operator replied, "because every day, exactly at noon. I set my clock by your whistle."

It’s a simple story, but teaches a profound lesson. We are dependent on one another, and each action has more far-reaching effect on others than we often realize.

Jesus had two core concerns:
1. blowing the whistle on imperialism and especially the unchecked power of the Roman Empire
2. offering an alternate vision of communities of interdependence

There are many parallels between Rome and current day America. By drawing these parallels, those who share the vision of Jesus might similarly blow the whistle on the unchecked power of the US and recommit to an alternate vision of interdependence, otherwise known as democracy.

Privatization of just about everything was a key strategy for Rome, as it is for the US. For example:
The election process- Rome did away with elections altogether. In the US, the voting system has been privatized; from the electronic machines to the software to the counting of votes. In other words, democracy itself has been handed over to private control.
Tax collection- There has been a return to the Roman Empire's system of tax collection contractors. Tax farming was open to tremendous corruption and injustice then, and there is no assurance that the modern equivalent would be any less corrupt. No collection agency is as accountable as the IRS. Again, the privatizing project tends to remove public functions from democratic control.
Perhaps most significant is the privatization of the military. Rome shifted towards private mercenaries to enforce her will at a time when there weren’t enough soldiers and it was seen as more efficient to use private contractors. In the end, it could be argued that it was the lack of control that Rome had over these private forces that brought about the fall of the Roman Empire.

Hopefully, it’s not too late for the US. No one wants to see the fall of the US “empire”, just a renewed check and balance on her power.

Blackwater is the best known example of the privatization of war, but there are others. Halliburton and Bechtel are other companies that employ massive numbers of contractors in Iraq. Apparently there are more contractors in Iraq than soldiers and marines and they are there at a higher cost. These employees come from all over the world, making money that is extravagant in many of these countries.

Iraq barely exists as a unified country. The Kurds have set up a de facto state in the north, the Shiites control most of the south, and Blackwater has the center. Two million Iraqis have fled their homes and are internally displaced. Another 2 million have left the country. Jordan now has more refugees per capita than any country in the world. Iraq is in a state of anarchy and because of the widespread violence, assistance is almost impossible. American occupation forces, and the private contractors, are just another source of terror alongside the suicide bombers, kidnappings and mass executions.

The American plan has failed and is getting worse. The use of private contractors has exacerbated the problem. The effort is less united, less accountable and less measurable. Who could say what the casualty rate is on either side? What is the motivation for an organization such as Blackwater to seek the end of war if there is more money to be made from continuing it? How will the world be protected from the personal crusades of religious conservatives like Erik Prince if they have unequal access to the military machine and public funds to finance their agendas?

The privatization of war places democracy itself under threat. It's time for all of us who share the vision of Jesus and the Hebrew Prophets before him, all of us who care about democracy, all of us who believe that our wellbeing is related to the well-being of Iraqi citizens, to blow the whistle on Blackwater and their ilk.

Jesus urged people to recognize their interrelatedness. Sickness wasn’t just a matter of personal blame. It was a tragedy shared by communities and healing was found in community awareness. Table fellowship wasn’t just about eating. It stretched boundaries of class, gender and tribe in the interests of human solidarity. Religion wasn’t concerned with beliefs or an afterlife, as much as sharing values of mutual love and respect in this life.

Jesus was passionate about creative social resistance; action steeped in self awareness, self awareness poised for action. Social justice is the self and the world in harmony. The essence of Jesus teaching was that we set our clocks to each other’s heartbeat, and that means everyone.

Mark Twain wrote a satire of religious fervor mixed with patriotic zeal in 1904. In it, he described a church scene the day before the troops were leaving for battle. The preacher was in full flight-

"Bless our arms, grant us the victory, O Lord our God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!"

While he prayed, a man came and stood silently by him, then addressed the congregation. He came with a message from God. God would grant their prayers for victory, but first wanted them to understand the full implications of their prayer. The stranger then put words on what he said was the silent intent of the preacher’s prayer for victory.

"O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail….. Amen."

Every action is related to every effect. If we stand idly by, we silently affirm injustice and death. If we blow the whistle on the unchecked powers of a privatized military, we set our clocks to a human vision of peace and justice. This has gone on for too long. May we not go the same way as Rome before us, and take the world down with us. There are no winners in war.

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"When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim, or a Christian, or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition it breeds violence." - Krishnamurti

A 1950’s film called “The Burmese Harp” tells the story of a Japanese man in Burma at the end of WW2. His task is to inform his unit that Japan has surrendered and that they should now return to Japan to rebuild their ravaged country. They refuse, preferring to fight to the death, and Mizushima is the only survivor. Mizushima then dresses as a monk and travels across the country honoring and burying the dead. He chooses to stay in Burma and continue his mission of bringing peace to the dead, rather than returning to Japan. It is a powerful story of one person’s connection with his fellow humans. This became his spiritual practice of peace.

Mizushima is one in a long line of peaceful activists in Burma, many of whom have suffered and died for their principles. The world community must now stand in solidarity with the people of Myanmar, support the protests of the monks, and most importantly learn from their staunch commitment to non-violence and spiritual connectedness.

The monks have displayed courage and wisdom that calls to mind the Jesus revolution of 2000 years ago. Jesus didn’t preach pacifism. He encouraged non-violent resistance; the kind of resistance that forced the aggressor to make choices that they would prefer not to make; choices that would bring them dishonor. Jesus was a creative agitator for change, exposing unjust structures and critiquing the domination ideology of his day.

The author of the letter to the Ephesians describes this as a struggle against “principalities and powers” and “cosmic powers of darkness”, which could be translated as structures and ideologies. The way to win that struggle is to live creative non-violence.

The barefoot, saffron robed monks of Myanmar have shown the way. As they marched through the streets last week they held their begging bowls before them. But instead of asking for their daily donations of food, they held the bowls upside down, the dark surfaces reflecting the light. This was shocking and powerful in a devoutly Buddhist nation that has as many monks as it has soldiers. The monks were refusing to receive alms from the military rulers and their families — effectively excommunicating them from the religion that is at the core of Burmese culture.

It was a reminder that the soldiers may have military force, but the monks retain ultimate moral authority. The military unleashed its troops to shoot, beat, arrest and humiliate the monks, and in the process the military alienated itself from the very monks whose support gives it the most basic legitimacy. The monks forced the soldiers to make a choice that they would have preferred not to make. The army generals and soldiers, steeped in a superstitious worldview, would be very uncomfortable “crossing” the monks.

Struggles are always won and lost around a balance of interests. As long as there is more to be gained from violence, then violence will prevail. When non-violence unveils its vision of inner peace and outer harmony, peace will prevail.

In Iraq, as long as it’s in the interests of private contractors such as Blackwater for the war to linger, then violence will linger. As long as there are groups that profit from death and destruction, death and destruction will escalate. When these groups that profit from war operate out of a Christian basis, the crisis is profound for all of us who identify with the Jesus tradition that sought justice through non-violent means.

As long as the prevailing ideology in American is Christian patriotism, then there will be no peace at home or abroad. While Christianity is implicated in mantras such as - "Semper fi. Do or Die. Death Before Dishonor. My country, right or wrong. Might is Right. Fellowship in Fascism. Pay me enough money and I'll go anywhere, kill anyone and believe anything you tell me to...", then Christianity has moved far away from its creative non-violent roots.

As long as Myanmar’s two regional giants, India and China remain supportive of the military regime there will be no end to the violence. India and China’s interest in oil and natural gas reserves are trumping its long held Hindu and Taoist traditions that not only advocate non-violence but see non-violence as profoundly effective for social change. Just as a prolonged war in Iraq suits Blackwater’s bottom line, so the US sanctions against Myanmar suit China who currently has no competition for imports to Myanmar. However China, who is supplying weaponry to the Myanmar Junta, would do well to recall that the US provided Iraq with weaponry in the 1980s and then again in 2004, only to have these same weapons used against US forces. The cycle of violence always ends in tears for all involved.

Blackwater, with its Christian foundation, represents the fall from grace of a faith that began as a social revolution against domination ideologies. The progressive Christian movement must reclaim the Jesus story, unmask the powers that betray it, and tell the story afresh.

The military junta in Myanmar, and their Indian and Chinese cohorts, represent the fall from grace of their faith traditions. Progressive Buddhists, Hindus and Taoists, inspired by Burmese monks, must reclaim their story and unmask the pretenders who distort Buddhism from behind the barrel of a gun.

We can learn so much from the Burmese monks about self awareness, non-violence and social change. We can learn from all activists who understand the sacred connection of life.

Brian Wilson lost both his legs in California when a train carrying munitions for repressive Central American regimes refused to stop for the demonstrators on the tracks. Reflecting on his experience, he said, “I think nonviolence is not so much a tactic as a way of experiencing the world within yourself, of understanding the sacred connection with all of life. It's an understanding of how everything is interconnected in a continuing state of interrelationship. We are going against our own nature when we start disrespecting all the others parts of life: people, plants, animals, water, sunlight, clouds. Nonviolence is an attitude and way of life with a spiritual ecological dimension.”

What a marvelous vision. Everything is connected- all religions, all people, all nations. If we disrespect another religion, another person or nation, we disrespect ourselves. Non-violence is a way of life and a spiritual practice. May it be a quality of life and a spiritual practice we all develop.

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"Hozho hogahn ladin nasha woyen... In the house of harmony there I wander"... -- Old Navajo saying

The essence of the Navajo way of living is captured in the word hozho. It is impossible to translate into English, but words like beauty, peace and wholeness come closest. Hozho is to be one with the situation, to be in harmony with nature, to act appropriately according to the context. Hozho speaks of the beauty of relationships; people to people, people to nature, past to present.

Hozho is shopping at a Farmers Market and being sold a tomato as if its a new born baby; grief at the separation, but joy that it will have a good home. Beauty, peace and harmony!

Hozho is the person who survived falling in a torrent of water, and said "I accommodated myself to the water, not the water to me. Without thinking, I allowed myself to be shaped by it. Plunging into the swirl, I came out with the swirl. This is how I survived." Beauty, peace and harmony!

Hozho is recalling the words of a teacher or loved one, as if they are infinitely present with you, guiding you in tough times. Hozho is being hugged and receiving an eternal imprint on your body. Beauty, peace and harmony!

Hozho is eating nourishing food and knowing that you will use the good will that bought the food to you to serve others, because life is a cycle of intentions. Beauty, peace and harmony!

Hozho is hope; an inner strength that is not shattered by conflict or difficult circumstances. Death can defeat your bodies and minds, but hozho simply merges with the universe and lives forever.

Hozho is an internal quality of peace that manifests as action, even impatience and indignation, when called upon.

Hozho goes by many names; the Tao; Christ consciousness, Buddha nature. Big Mind/ Big Heart, the Holy Spirit, compassion, peace and love, yin and yang, yesh and ayin, just to name a few.

We have declared a year of peace at C3/CCC. Finding the beauty and harmony in life and paying it forward is our intention. Singing in tune with nature's symphony, knowing that even if we are tone death, our song makes a difference; this is our commitment.

At peace with the past; at peace with religious and human difference; at peace with the earth;

Being the peace we wish to see in the world; demanding the peace which is the nature of Life, spreading peace with good intentions and loving kindness. May we dwell in beauty, peace and harmony all our days!

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"You are an extension of God as a branch is an extension of a tree. You are the way God manifests in your place and time." -Rabbi Rami Shapiro


For me it was becoming a parent; a wondrous creative expression. I had given birth to the world. Well, at least I had done my part. For me, parenthood was more a state of mind and spirit than biology. Conversations about who looks like whom never interest me. What matters to me is that each new birth reflects the universe. We all give birth to the world in our various ways. Whether it’s social workers empowering people to rebuild their broken lives, teachers educating students, adoptive parents embracing their children for the first time, or artists and poets giving birth to word and image, life is a divine, creative act.

Powell Davies said, “God is what the soul ‘breathes’ as the body breathes air.”

You are a manifestation of God in your creating and living. You are the way God experiences sibling rivalry and oedipal struggles. You are the way God builds bridges and tears down walls of hostility. You are the way God experiences success and failure, joy and sorrow. You are God imploding in narcissism and God intoxicated with human community.

Christians have described this as “incarnation”. God became flesh, and dwelt in the midst of life in all its grit and grind. This was radical new teaching in an age when flesh was just a temporary cage for an immortal soul. Body was inferior and ungodly. Jesus’ teaching turned this notion on its head. He didn’t just teach it. He lived a flesh affirming life. Just think of his engagement with the long haired, ‘Avon Lady’. She massaged his flesh, the flesh of the Son of God, with her indulgent perfume and luscious hair. Jesus said “she has done a beautiful thing”, i.e. the Son of God enjoyed the sensual touch of a woman.

The stage was set by the teaching of Jesus for a full embrace of humanity. Mind you, his teaching took some time to take root. He was clearly ahead of his day. First, the early church would claim incarnation with a tight grip of institutional ownership. For the early church, the holy had become human in one place and time only, in order to bring a message to a single chosen people. This message concerned parts of the human experience, in particular the salvation of the “soul” for another world.

The holistic essence of Jesus teaching remains largely hidden in churches today. Classical music is still more holy than contemporary music, silence more golden than sound, grand words more uplifting than daily conversation and sexuality is still left in the sacristy closet. The church remains irrelevant to so many modern people because it speaks concepts of yesterday in language of yesterday, and continues to separate everyday human experience from “spiritual” experience.

The progressive movement is exciting as it begins to include all of the Kosmos and the whole of humanity in the embrace of incarnation. We can do this with integrity knowing that the ministry modeled by Jesus was a ministry concerned with flesh and blood. We can celebrate along with Mary Oliver that “The spirit likes to dress up like this: ten fingers, ten toes, shoulders, and all the rest.”

We can declare that the universe is God’s body. The universe is constantly incarnating God in humming birds and human beings, stars and stray dogs, cells and cedar. All of life is a revelation of divinity, a language of reverence, a vision of reality that contains within it the sources of an ethical, transcendent self-understanding.

The Buddhist notion of the Bodhisattva is similar to the Christian notion of incarnation. Particularly in Mahayana Buddhism, compassion is valued over wisdom. The one who is about to arrive at the gates of Nirvana vows and freely chooses to turn back and assist all others to get there as well. There is a common saying- "If I know how to swim, and even one other being cannot, then it is right to remain behind in this world to assist them until they know how to save themselves from drowning."

Buddhism, like Christianity, has been through a process of opening up the embrace of the Bodhisattva. The goddess Tara is a multifaceted deity within Tibetan Buddhism. Tara originated in Indian Hinduism as the Mother Creator, and spread to Ireland and Indonesia under many different names.

The inspiration of Tara is that she insisted on remaining in a female body while functioning as a bodhisattva, even though Buddhism was predominantly a male religion. While taking the bodhisattva vows, Tara refused to pray for rebirth as a male, as was the custom. Instead she vowed always to take female births. Tara’s vow was to save all beings, regardless of gender. She had extended the embrace of the Bodhisattva.

It’s no coincidence that Christianity and Buddhism share such similar concepts, and no doubt the Avatar in Hinduism could be included in this discussion. There is a universal striving for a more holistic embrace of humanity. A fuller experience of humanity is such a marvel that nothing less than divine poetry can come close to capturing Life’s miracle. God takes on flesh and enters humanity. Nirvana takes on form and embraces humanity. Each tradition will have its own language and concepts to describe the same universal yearning.

You manifest God in your flesh. You are nirvana on earth. How marvelous!

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"More wars have been waged, more people killed, and more evil perpetrated in the name of religion than by any other institutional force in human history. The sad truth continues in our present day." --Charles Kimball

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A statue of a Hindu God near Kathmandu has been sweating. I mean literally! Hundreds of people have been flocking to see this moist miracle, a dripping demiurge, and they fear the worst. Many believe it perspires as a sign of impending peril, like it did before an earthquake in the 1930s and before the royal massacre in 2001. So why does the ancient stone stigmata have high fever right now?

Maybe it's dripping with the blood, sweat and tears of centuries of world-wide religious rivalry. Nepal remains a wonderful example of religious pluralism. Its majority population of Hindu and Buddhist, and minority population of Christian and Muslim, are all living in relative peace. We should look to Nepal for inspiration, and maybe we should look to the sweating Hindu God as a warning.

The onus is on each person and community to devise a way to draw the best from their tradition, without asserting their truth to be the only truth. To make that same point positively, the core truths of each tradition celebrate life and diversity. As I drove to a recent day of dialogue between Hindus and Christians, the happy song came on the radio, "Why can't we be friends?" That really sums it up.

But we don't find it easy. How can we find a deep motivation to be friends across religious tradition?

The movie, Gandhi, offers a wonderful pluralism parable. The scene in India at the time the move is set is volatile. It was 1947, just after independence from Great Britain. Civil war was in full flight! Muslims were moving to Pakistan in droves, while Hindus and Sikhs were migrating to India in large numbers. Hindus and Muslims were slaughtering each other. The newly formed governments were completely unequipped to deal with the massive migration and violence that occurred on both sides of the border.

In the middle of this chaos, the Hindu leader Gandhi was fasting in the hope of jolting people out of their prejudice and violence.

He was near death from starvation when a crazed man, a Hindu, arrived with food that he insisted Gandhi must eat. This is their conversation.

The Hindu man demands, "Here! Eat! Eat! I'm going to hell - but not with your death on my soul!"

Gandhi replies, "Only God decides who goes to hell."

"I killed a child!" the man confesses. "I smashed his head against a wall!"

Gandhi asks, "Why?"

"Because they killed our son... my boy! The Muslims killed my son!"

Gandhi gently tells him, "I know a way out of hell. Find a child, a child whose mother and father have been killed - a little boy - and raise him as your own. Only be sure that he is a Muslim..."

That seems like the punch line, a perfect solution. After all, what better way to make up for poor choices than to offer hope to a poor Muslim orphan. That would surely restore equilibrium; one life lost, one life regained.

However, what Gandhi demands of the Hindu man takes the motivation to a deeper level. This is not a zero sum game. What is demanded is that he respond to the situation in such a way that the world is left a better place; not just left as you arrived in it, but better.

Gandhi says, "And you must raise him as a Muslim."

The Hindu man dropped to his knees and sobbed. He now had to search for profound levels of forgiveness within himself.

Nothing less than this level of celebration of diversity is required of you and I in this hurting world of fear. Tolerating religious diversity is an inadequate response. Live and let live is too passive in the light of horrendous religious rivalry and violence. Nothing less than a willingness to let go of the need to be right and celebrate the other person's perspective will suffice.

Most interfaith dialogue that I have experienced is at best a zero sum game. Respect each other, and don't rock the boat. What is needed in our world is a new golden rule. Do unto others far more than you have ever had done to you, be more humane than you have ever imagined possible.

Maybe an example would be reverse evangelism. Just picture it; Christians going into the Middle East as reverse evangelists, not to teach Christianity, but to encourage people to be more deeply Muslim. What the world needs is more humanity across the religions, less attachment to religious particularity, greater compassion and genuine inter religious harmony.

There is a beautiful example of this new golden rule out of Afghanistan. In May of 2001, the Taliban destroyed two of the world's oldest Buddha statues. For more than 1500 years, the Buddha's towering figures had stood on the cliffs of the Bamiyan Valley on the ancient Silk Route that linked Europe and Central Asia.

A year later, when the Taliban had been defeated, Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's new leader, announced that the people of Afghanistan would rebuild the larger of the two Buddha statues that had been destroyed. When you consider that Islam is deeply opposed to religious idols, this is staggering that a Muslim nation would rebuild a Buddhist statue. Karzai understood that an action equal to and opposite from the action that destroyed the statues was necessary. The rubble of the smaller statue was left untouched as a reminder of the devastation of religious bigotry.

This Sunday has been declared Pluralism Sunday by the Centre for Progressive Christianity. We are joining communities around the world in celebrating all traditions this Sunday. Pluralism Sunday will be meaningful if it moves beyond the zero sum game of politically correct talk fest that usually passes as interfaith dialogue, and becomes a genuine embrace of diversity. This is about the inner journey from separate self to interdependence. It is about the move from tolerance regardless of difference to celebration in the light of difference.

The gods are sweating on the choices we make. Gandhi and Karzai are models for a form of pluralism that practices the new golden rule; the other perspective, the other religion has even more to offer than my own. Without the new perspective I am less human. I am willing to be changed by new perspectives. I am open. I drop to my knees and sob. I search for profound levels of forgiveness within myself.

Will you join me in crafting new religious perspectives that let go of the need to be right and true? Can we build one humanity based on a celebration of diversity, united by the common virtues of peace and compassion that are shared at the heart of all traditions?

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"We oscillate wildly from confidence in individuals to pushing the government into their decision calculus. When it came to Cho's personal heath situation, Congress vested in him the ability to determine who has access to his status and information, even though that choice could, and did, endanger the lives of others. By contrast, the Court disempowered women by no longer permitting them to make their own health and reproductive decisions, even though the outcome to the fetus is the same whether it's terminated via dilation and evacuation (the permissible approach) or intact dilation and evacuation, the now impermissible method." --Adam Hanft

http://www.christ-community.net/ezinesignup.htm

Death is Sometimes Necessary to Preserve Life By: Ian Lawton Many people have been inspired by the story of the Virginia Tech lecturer, Liviu Librescu, who was shot and killed in the doorway of his class room. He had used his body as a human shield to allow his students time to flee out the windows. Librescu was a Holocaust survivor, who then escaped communist Romania in the 1970s before arriving in America in 1985. It brings to mind the famous line from Schindler's List- "He who saves one life, saves the world entire." Librescu prioritized the lives of his young students over his own. His act of bravery was spontaneous, yet profound. He exercised the part within all of us that knows the value of life, and knows that sometimes death is necessary to preserve life. That's the central truth of the Christian Easter story. Interestingly, while the media was saturated with images from Virginia Tech, some other very significant world events were almost completely lost to public attention. The same week saw the death of hundreds in Baghdad bombings, and hundreds in fighting between Ethiopian and Somali rivals. Those deaths numbering in the hundreds were deemed less newsworthy than 33 deaths in Virginia. This is not in any way to minimize the loss of the 33 in Virginia, nor to minimize the issues the shootings raised. However the lack of attention on other significant events raises questions about the culture that has evolved in the West. What does this say about how we value life and prioritize death? Important news about abortion in the US passed almost without notice. The US Supreme Justices voted 5-4 to legislate that it is now a crime for doctors to perform "partial birth'' abortions, allowing the first nationwide ban on the procedure. The legislation doesn't make any exceptions for pregnancies that pose a risk to the mother's health. Under the law, doctors may be put in prison for two years and fined up to $250,000 for partially delivering a living fetus and subsequently killing it "deliberately and intentionally.'' They may also be liable for monetary damages for psychological injury to the woman's husband or parents. This law passed quietly into existence, drowned out by a morbid fascination with the Virginia Tech shooter's incoherent video rants. Once again, the Supreme Court decision and the choices of the media say much about how life is valued and death is prioritized. The events of last week make me wonder whether, like Librescu, a mother should retain the right to choose the life of her unborn fetus over her own. Should she also be free to choose her own survival, on the basis that her unborn fetus is not yet a life or is not a viable life? Should the mother have the right to work with her doctor to ensure that her choice is respected, whatever the choice? What would it look like for the State's right to legislate to be balanced with the choice of the mother and the protection of the doctor? Religions have struggled with questions of life and death and when a life begins. We shouldn't expect traditions that grew out of a different age to offer absolute guidance on modern issues like abortion. They lacked the science that we have, and had different legal, social and family structures. Children were disposable in many ancient cultures, as were women, and women's rights were a low priority. While religions have little reason to be making moral pronouncements on issues such as abortion, their stories and parables pose important questions that help us reflect deeply on the relative value of life and death. Take, for example, a parable in the Talmud about a building that collapsed on the Sabbath. The rescue crew does not know if anyone is trapped under the rubble or not. And even if someone is trapped, they may already be dead. Despite these doubts, they push aside the restrictions of Sabbath in order to dig out the rubble - on the chance that it may result in the prolonging of even one human life. The point is that saving one life, even a doubtful life, is saving the entire world. But which life takes priority? That can't be dogmatized. It has to be discerned in the context. The final question raised in the parable is the balance of personal choice and "law". Sabbath in this case could be analogous to the Supreme Court. The Sabbath creates a framework for service to the earth and humanity. So should the Supreme Court. A passage in the Mishna, a second century Jewish text, is intriguing. It suggests that if the partial life of the fetus is weighed against the full life of the mother, precedence should be given to saving the full life. Partial and full life are defined- "...a baby...becomes a full-fledged human being when the head emerges from the womb. Before then, the fetus is considered a 'partial life.'" Again, this is pre-scientific and not normative for our age, but it is an open statement and more open than most religious comments on abortion. It is certainly more open than the new Supreme Court ruling would leave it. Judaism leaves plenty of room for personal choice. In the Christian tradition, Jesus similarly opened up the possibilities for freedom according to circumstance. Jesus opened up the definition of "murder" to include dark and hostile thoughts. He raised the bar on motivation, where intent is the spirit of the law, and lessened a literal dependence on the letter of the law. The Sermon on the Mount is a profound statement of personal responsibility that is a balance of freedom and accountability. It frames the question as "What is the most loving response in a given situation?" Bottom line- I see nothing in the Judeo- Christian tradition that outright condemns abortion. Rather than offering an absolute position on the issue, it's a tradition that poses the questions in such a way as to encourage personal discernment. Carol Gilligan wrote a book called "In a Different Voice." In it she outlines the development of personal discernment on this issue. Gilligan poses the question, "Should a woman be allowed to have an abortion?" and traces the response of a group of women over the course of time. She notices that there are three general answers- Yes, because what an individual says is right, is right. No, because what society says is right, is right. Yes, because there are larger principles at stake that are a blend of individual and societal rights and obligations. Gilligan, and other "integral" theorists suggest that people and societies move through these general stages of moral development, from individual authority to external authority to integral authority. Integral authority balances inner motivations and outer obligations, individual values and group norms, biology and social structures. This balance comes together in a discernment that could be called "fully integrated, freely functioning, Big Mind and Big Heart." My deep hope is that as individuals and as a society, we can stretch towards this integral response to life and death. Maybe Virginia (and Iraq and Somalia) are our modern day parables, posing the question with no absolute answers about our valuing of life and our prioritizing of death. There is a real life parable that motivates me. The situation is etched in my mind. It was the day I arrived to conduct a funeral for an elderly woman. It was a typical grave yard scene, dark and cold. But this one was different. Not even one person attended the service. It was just me and the funeral directors, and we wondered if there was any point continuing with the service. We decided that we had to, and we did. We prayed, we sang and we eulogized as if there were a thousand people present. This life that was ending in such isolation would be given all the respect and honor we could muster. Her name was Joan, and when we honored Joan we were honoring the entire world. What is the real life situation that motivates you? Where do you get your priorities to value life and death? What do you think? Should a woman be allowed to have an abortion? Should the State be able to legislate the choice away? Will you allow the media to determine your priorities? You have a Big Mind, larger than you could ever imagine. It's large enough to hold all the complexities of the circumstances without being blinded by prejudice or partial perspective. You have a Big Heart, larger and more open than anything you could imagine. It's large enough to hold all the pain and tragedy of life and death and not be destroyed by it. With your Big Mind and your Big Heart, you have all that you need to make the discernment. Integrate them and function freely. All else will then become clear.

Death has come up into our windows, it has entered our palaces, to cut off the children from the streets and the young men from the squares.
-Jeremiah 9:21

Finding Yourself in Tragedy


By: Ian Lawton

There are many people asking, “Where is God?” after the shootings in Virginia. It’s a natural question to ask, and the heart of the question speaks of how to make sense of innocent suffering. How do you make sense of suffering, your own and others, without becoming bitter and cynical? How do you keep your faith in God and goodness in the face of atrocious suffering?

Maybe the question “Where is God?” is an attempt to manage the pain, and keep it at arms length. Maybe a more productive question is “Where are you in innocent suffering?’ and “How are you manifesting a God-like, wide and deep compassion in the face of suffering?”

Another question to ask is “How do our structures and laws reflect a God-like compassion for the most vulnerable in society?” Many people are again wondering about the radically “liberal” gun laws in this country. If 33 innocent dead is not enough to bring about change, what on earth ever would?

Eleven years ago in Australia, a devastating shooting spree left 35 people dead. This tragedy led to a prohibition on automatic weapons and handguns and toughening of licensing and storage restrictions. How else can a society respond to such tragedy? The shooter, vulnerable to delusional depression, should be protected from his own inclinations. The victims should certainly be protected, and no one should have to fear for the safety of their children and friends on campuses. Weapons simply should not be readily available.

British gun laws are so strict that even the country's Olympic pistol shooting team can’t practice on British soil. In Sweden, civilians can acquire firearm permits only if they have a hunting license or are members of a shooting club and have no criminal record. In China, firearms are forbidden for private citizens.

Lax gun laws seem to translate into greater casualties in America. According to the 2006 book, “The Global Gun Epidemic; From Saturday Night Specials to AK-47s”, the U.S. rate of firearm deaths per 10,000 people is just over 10 people, while in Australia it is 1.6 and in Britain it is 0.38. The difference is even more severe when it comes to children under the age of 15, where the U.S. has 12 times the rate of firearm deaths of any other industrialized nation.

America’s lax gun laws are out of step with much of the world and there should be no surprise that tragedies occur. Gun laws in the U.S. are an accident waiting to happen. There is no reason for lax gun laws and there is every reason why the tragedy in Virginia should become an opportunity for tightening of gun laws. That would be one practical way to make sense of the horror and honor the lost lives.

Tighter gun laws would be one answer to the question, “Where is God in suffering?” and those of us who feel strongly can exercise a God-like, wide and deep compassion by agitating for the necessary changes. One death from firearms is too many. Thirty-three is an outrageous indictment on the values and priorities of a society. One thousand killed around the world every DAY calls into question the very term “civilization”.

Important links to global gun reform group
http://www.iansa.org/index.htm
http://www.iansa.org/campaigns_events/gun-control-2006.htm

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If a religion leads to non-duality without insisting upon an end to
diversity; if it teaches compassion and how to manifest it; if it
demands holiness and points the way toward it, then it is good. But if
it holds its truth to be the only truth; if it insists that its
followers alone are holy; if it offers salvation at the edge of a
sword; if it promotes self without teaching selflessness; if its love
of God excuses hatred of others and betrayal of Creation, then it is a
an evil and dangerous faith. ~Rabbi Rami Shapiro

Religion is True, False, and Useful

By: Ian Lawton

Susan Jeffers wrote a powerful book called End the Struggle and Dance
with Life. In the story, an old woman is asked why she is always
cheerful. Her answer is beautiful. "Well, I wear this world just as a
loose garment." To wear the world as a loose garment means to embrace
life with passion, but neither to smother it, nor be smothered by it.
Wearing the world as a loose garment speaks of comfort with what lies
beneath, accepting life is it evolves, but not expecting it to stay
the same.

Wearing the world as a loose garment brings to my mind a cool summer
breeze, or a warm winter sun. It brings to mind a lazy evening
listening to music or pancakes and the weekend papers. It implies no
hurry, for there is nowhere else to be, no judgment for everything is
as it should be.

Wearing the world as a loose garment is a metaphor for holding the
balance between embrace and detachment, intimacy and autonomy, the
present moment and impermanence.

Narada, the disciple of Krishna, once asked his teacher about
impermanence. Krishna had Narada travel with him in a desert. After
walking for a while, Krishna told Narada to fetch him water since he
was very thirsty. Narada immediately left in search of water. He
reached a village where he met a beautiful young girl. He married and
lived with her for 12 happy years. Then a flood took Narada's wife,
children and all his possessions. He began to weep and wail. He then
heard a gentle voice behind him: "My child, where is the water you had
gone to fetch? I have been waiting for half-an-hour."

Impermanence is living 12 years as if only 30 minutes. Saint Paul said
something similar, "To the Lord, a thousand years are as a day!" All
the dramas, trials and struggles of life are real and tough, but in
the scheme of life they are fleeting. Why do we expect anything else?

Religion is also impermanent. What might it mean to wear religion as a
loose garment?

There is an expression- "To the Romans, all religions are equally
true. To the philosophers, all religions are equally false. To the
politicians, all religions are equally useful."

Let me suggest that all religions are true, false and useful.

All religions are true!

Your religion is a loose fitting garment that you wear around the
house. It's not so much that it fits. You make it fit. It feels
comfortable and familiar and so you rest in it. At certain times, it
begins to feel old and worn, so you find a new religion or else adjust
your religion to make it work. It's true insofar as it's what you need
to believe to make sense of your current circumstances. In other
words, its true for now.

As for the Romans, they just loved diversity. Religion for them was a
trip to the mall of human civilization; store upon store of color and
style. The Romans enjoyed pluralism, and said that all faiths were
equal. They integrated different worldviews and used them for the
advancement of the Empire.

On the other hand, not all truth is equal. One size does not fit all,
even with a loose fitting garment. There are times when the critique
of others can sharpen our religion. So we can enjoy our partial truth,
and learn from the partial truth of others.

Lastly, we can celebrate the perennial wisdom that emerges from all
religions. As our field of vision expands, more and more is included
until there is no outside and there is not even one who is looking.
All is One and integrated and interdependent.

All religions are false!

So for the Romans, all religions were true, that is unless they
threatened Roman rule. The philosophers were cynical for good reason.
When a religion claims to have exclusive truth, it becomes false.
Religions seem inevitably to end up making exclusive, dogmatic and
hateful claims.

There always comes a time to toss the loose fitting garment. It's like
Grandpa's slippers, full of holes. Religion that eschews science and
common sense is full of holes and needs to be upgraded.

When the loose fitting garment claims to be more than it is, or when
you hide behind a loose fitting garment for fear of allowing your
humanity to flourish, you move from comfort to false humility

Religion that is held onto too tightly, as if it will last forever, is
false.

On the positive side, the realization that our religion is partial and
ever changing is liberating beyond words. We can enjoy it, and then
let it evolve.

All religions are useful!

Religion is just a tool. The partial truth and the partial falseness
of our religion is a useful tool for inner transformation.

We've all seen people use their religion for good and ill. Do you
remember in the 2004 U.S. presidental debates seeing Bush and Kerry
jockeying for the religious vote? Their religions were different, but
they were wearing them on stage like lycra, hugging their policies
tight. The religious vote is useful, especially in this country.
Religious language and perspective has been convenient for leaders
looking to justify their agendas.

This is false religion, but not all useful religion is false.

Religion is useful when its used as a tool or a road map, a menu or a
pointed finger. It points to something beyond itself, to the peace
that passes understanding without avoiding conflict, to compassion
that ties the bonds of love without becoming enmeshed, to the
celebration of impermanence without escape from time.

Allan Watts warned against "sucking the finger for fear of following
it." If we try and eat the menu, we are left with a sour taste. If we
try and drive on the map, we are left with a big mess. If, on the
other hand, we use religion as the tool that it is, it will open up
treasures for us.

This last weekend, we celebrated the usefulness of religion. Rabbi
Rami Shapiro was superb; engaging, irreverent and profound. He drew me
back to Christianity, convincing me that Christianity is my baggy
sweater that shifts and sags according to my shape. He showed me the
truth of celebrating my tradition's images and history. He showed me
the falseness of holding too tightly to Christianity and urged me to
embrace "not knowing." Above all else, he inspired me that there is
much more to learn and so much more to experience. My religion will be
one tool that will direct me to dwell in possibility.

He came as a Rabbi, but stole not my religion from me. In fact he gave
me so much more. He showed me that there is nothing to steal, and
everything to gain.

Ryokan, a Zen master, lived the simplest kind of life in a little hut
at the foot of a mountain. One evening a thief visited the hut only to
discover there was nothing to steal.

Ryokan returned and caught him. "You have come a long way to visit
me," he told the prowler, "and you should not return empty-handed.
Please take my clothes as a gift."

The thief was bewildered. He took the clothes and slunk away.

Ryoken sat naked, watching the moon. "Poor fellow," he mused, "I wish
I could have given him this beautiful moon."

Rami came to our community as a Rabbi teaching us about Jesus. He
stole nothing. In fact, he gave us so much. He gave us no less than a
beautiful moon, shining light on the perennial wisdom of all things
being One.

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Watch video of Saturday's lecture by Rabbi Rami Here 

Emptiness! Emptiness upon emptiness!
The world is fleeting of form,
empty of permanence,
void of surety,
without certainty.
Like a breath breathed once and gone,
all things rise and fall.
Understand emptiness, and tranquility replaces anxiety.
Understand emptiness, and compassion replaces jealousy.
Understand emptiness, and you will cease to excuse suffering and begin to alleviate it.

--Rabbi Rami Shapiro, The Way of Solomon

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Breakfast at Epiphanies

I always said that if someone found the remains of Jesus, I wouldn't even miss breakfast. Well, when I shared that thought with my evangelical Bible study group in the early 90s it led to a breakfast appointment with the local diocesan Gestapo. Now some documentary makers are claiming to have found Jesus' bones, up close and intimate with Mary Magdalene's bones and alongside the remains of their secret child.

Over the coming weeks, the reliability of this find will be debated. It may or may not be verified. At the very least, it raises the possibility that science will eventually disprove the historicity of the literal Christian story. It may do that now, or it may do it in the future. Here's my concern with a literal belief in the story. If the literal historicity of the story is necessary for faith, then archeology will forever loom like a dark cloud over the certainty of religious beliefs. If, on the other hand, the metaphoric value in the story is embraced, then its ‘breakfast at epiphanies' every day.

Thomas Mann once said that "a myth is a story about the way things never were, but always are." Resurrection is a metaphor, and if it's taken literally then one day it could disappear under the deconstructed rubble of human progress and end up being neither the way it was nor the way it is. Resurrection as a metaphor speaks to the power of life to recreate itself and the human spirit to persevere despite the worst odds. The empty tomb speaks to fleeting form and the rise and fall of life. This is always true. It always has been, but its truth is different in every context.

Religious followers have often been expected to literally believe in stories and doctrines even when the stories seem offensive to the modern mind. This is often called faith, but has more recently been called delusion. A metaphoric understanding of faith is quite different. Metaphoric faith is the belief in life even when surrounded by death. Faith is the humility that there's always more, the optimism that no emotion is final, and the imagination that no evolution is ever complete. Faith could be summed up in Zen with just two words- "Not always so!"

The truth of resurrection is that it can't be separated from death, and on closer inspection death and life are simply two sides of the same reality. This is a profound metaphor that is better visualized than theorized. The poet Keats described joy as "veil'd melancholy," and the opposite is just as true. In the face of struggle, we can either dive more deeply into the experience of grief or we can raise a fist of defiance in the face of death and embrace joy. Both approaches are valid, and both are based in metaphor.

Much to my dismay, some new age beliefs have fallen into the same trap as religious fundamentalism when they confuse meaningful metaphors with strict literalism. The hugely popular book and movie "The Secret" is a case in point. Amongst the treasures of this book are its emphasis on inner knowledge rather than external authority, the inter-connection of all spiritual traditions, and self-empowerment. The problem with the book is when it speaks literally rather than metaphorically. The book draws heavily on its version of the Law of Attraction, a basic prosperity message that says that we attract into our lives what we focus on.

This is from the book:

"The law of attraction is a law of nature. It is impersonal and it does not see good things or bad things. It is receiving your thoughts and reflecting back to you those thoughts as your life experience. The law of attraction simply gives you whatever it is you are thinking about."

Do you detect the contradiction in this quote? The first part of the statement is profound. Life is impersonal and doesn't distinguish between good and bad. Yes, life just receives our thoughts and actions, and yes, we often have our thoughts reflected back to us. The problem is with the last sentence. It can't be literally true, or else there would be no violence in the world, and no suffering. Life is impersonal. It doesn't make every situation a personal attack or a reward. That's our human preoccupation. Life doesn't think in terms of outcomes. Outcomes are just our false attachment to current outer circumstances. Life knows that circumstances are never permanent. We forget that all the time.

If "The Secret" is literally true, then people suffer from cancer because of a faulty mindset and people living in poverty just haven't tried hard enough to believe in wealth. This is socially naïve and personally debilitating. Some even claim scientific backing for their Law of Attraction. The problem with this is that, scientifically, it's more accurate to say that opposites attract. So it might be more effective to desire the opposite of what you really want and try a little reverse psychology on fate. This is called Murphy's Law.

Sometimes we reap what our attention sows and the Law of Attraction holds. Sometimes we suffer because of unjust social structures and sometimes illness strikes even when our attention has never considered the possibility. Law of Attraction? Not always so.

We have several people in our community who are suffering from cancer related afflictions. What I see in them is a beautiful groundedness; a balance of courage and perseverance for healing, and acceptance of that which is out of their control. I find the literal message of The Secret just as offensive in the face of their suffering as a belief in a literal, supernatural God. Their courage in refusing to allow difficult circumstances to define their reality is the miracle rather than any particular outcome. They have already risen from the dead and dwell eternally in heaven, even in the midst of pain and uncertainty.

I now find myself seeking out spiritual teachers who point to universal and metaphoric truths rather than doctrines that enforce an eternal moral code and an after-life. I seek spiritual teachers that speak to both the stark reality of life, and its transparent illusion. They point to the miracle and sufficiency of the present moment and warn against belief in belief and attachment to outcomes, whether the outcomes are a literal heaven or a pocketful of cash.

Rabbi Rami Shapiro is one such teacher, and he will be with us in just two weeks. He has written and taught extensively on the universal truths of Judaism, and all religions, that life is a miracle, and that holding lightly to any perspective is the path to freedom.

Follow this link to Rami's blog to read about how his Yiddish Grandma practiced Murphy's Law click here.

Read this one to get a sense of a spiritual teacher holding lightly to belief click here.

The Christian tradition is full of beauty and wisdom, but it's not a thing that can be held with a tight grip. It's a tool for spiritual awakening. When taken literally it becomes dogmatic and life denying. When taken metaphorically, it reveals treasures for a deeper engagement with life.

New formulations like The Secret are full of beauty and wisdom, but they are just as dangerous as traditional religion when taken literally. When taken metaphorically, they reveal treasures and unlock mysteries for a deeper engagement with life.

This is a journey of mystery and personal awakening. Come and be part of our exciting Rabbi Rami weekend, or else watch out for the DVD, as he unlocks the treasures of the life and teaching of Jesus and shows us how we can manifest God in our lives.

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