Parinama

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 ...