Parinama

Along this spiritual path, we are invited to live with “open hands”.  Hands that are open to receive life’s unfolding, to let go of what is no longer needed, to give into the bounty of life and receive it back in a new form. I have found it nearly impossible to live with open hands but not entirely. At some point in the struggle to accept what is happening, life itself wrenches my close palms open so that I might find a way through to the new life.  When crossed into thresholds of loss, the first human reaction, instinctual, is to grip, to hold on more tightly to what is being lost, to try and salvage the old life.  How could we do otherwise?  What has kept us, loved us, restored us is slipping away and with it our sense of solidity, vitality, strength, protection. There is for me an experience of being thrown into a new and foreign land, the tools I used to plow my fields no longer work in this new place.  The brick I used to make my house doesn’t exist only re...

We were made in the image and likeness of God. Genesis What does it mean to be made in the image and likeness of God? For many theologians, this text from Genesis points to our human capacity to become more “like God” in the world, which is to say more loving, compassionate, caring, and less driven by our smaller, self-absorbed and reactive selves. We do this through practices which helps us detach our self-worth and identity from the outer fluctuations of the things and experiences of life.  Living with more awareness and presence, in the deeper parts of our consciousness, we gain the wisdom and wherewithal to act in ways that heal not harm, repair not fractured, protect not violate.  In his book “Bread in the Wilderness,” Thomas Merton describes this process of becoming like God as,  It is the end of a long process of spiritual transformation in which the soul, perfect in charity, detached from all created things, free from the movements of inordinate passion, is able t...

"The one thing necessary is a true interior and spiritual life, true growth, on my own, in depth, in a new direction. Whatever new direction God opens up for me. My job is to press forward, to grow interiorly, to pray, to break away from attachments and to defy fears, to grow in faith, which has its own solitude, to seek an entirely new perspective and new dimension in my life. To open up new horizons at any cost. To desire this and let the Holy Spirit take care of the rest. But really to desire this and work for it." — A Year with Thomas Merton True growth...is not what the ego thinks it is.  The ego likes to make itself big by accumulating things, people, power, money, by acting as if it could wrap its arms around the whole world and eat it. The ego hijacks the longing in our hearts, reorienting our life’s work and energy towards the veil of things, away from what is life giving, integrating, healing. It takes discipline, strength, courage, and surrender to deflate the ego ...

“Let mutual affection continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”- Hebrews 13: 1, 2 Persons are not known by intellect alone, nor by principles alone, but only by love. It is when we love the other, the enemy, that we obtain from God the key to an understanding of who they are, and who we are. Thomas Merton My neighbor down the street put this flag up the day after the bombing in Iran began “God, Guns, and Trump.”  It disturbed my contemplative walk down a rural road by the still snowy hills and the rivers just beginning their spring melt. Thoughts spinning in my head interrupted my peace…Not my God! What does God have to do with Guns? Trump? I wonder why they put this flag out when they know it must disturb many of their neighbors?  What, I wondered, is the message beneath the message? The few pro-Trump signs in my small town are put up by people who seem to be living on the margins. Some live ...

"We who live in the illusion of control and self-sufficiency must learn true joy, peace, forgiveness, and love from our poor brothers and sisters… It is as important for the rich to be converted by the poor as it is to share their wealth with the poor. As long as we only want to give and resist becoming receivers, we betray our desire to stay in control at all costs. Thus we remain in the house of fear."  Henri Nouwen How do I become a receiver so that I might leave the house of fear?   Our lives are changed through illness, depressions, addictions, old age. Fear of these losses before they happen can rob us of joy.  When they happen, we can experience a terrible isolation from the world, lost to us now, that gave us sustenance and pleasure. It is frightening when care become a necessary lifeline, and we don’t know where it will come from.   My grandmother Philly spent the last ten years of her life in a nursing home.  She required care for her most ba...

 “Loose the cords of mistakes binding us, as we release the strands we hold of others’ guilt.”  Neil Douglas-Klotz, Prayers of the Cosmos “There is a vitalizing action between muscles and mind, which creates space in the body for the seer to look within and enter the body without obstructions.” BKS Iyengar, Core of the Yoga Sutras Breath is forgiveness, forgiveness is prayer. Forgiveness is a cornerstone of the Christian tradition. The first words that Jesus spoke in three of the four Gospels was “Repent” while in some of his last he forgave those who persecuted him. When he visited his disciples after the resurrection, he told them there work now was to go out and forgive people. In his Aramaic translation of the Lord’s prayer, Neil Douglas-Klotz sheds new insights on how Jesus understood and practiced forgiveness and why it is essential to his teaching and our experience of God. Aramaic is the language that Jesus and the people of his time spoke.  Exploring what Jesus s...