Beyond Belief Book Group - Segment 1D - Chapter 3

 

Chapter 3

As DL outlines our common human quest for happiness, he identifies 3 main sources of our happiness: 1) wealth/prosperity, 2) health, and 3) friendship/companionship. Do you agree with these three? Are there other primary sources of happiness for you? (Comment!)

He also identifies 2 levels of satisfaction – 1) satisfaction based on sensory stimulation and pleasure and 2) satisfaction based on an inner level, a peace of mind level. Can you think of daily experiences that create these two types of satisfaction? Can you think of other levels of satisfaction as well? (Comment!)

What do you most want to discuss from Chapter 3? (Comment!)

Beyond Belief Book Group - Segment 1C - Chapter 2

 

Chapter 2

As DL notes our tendency to identify ourselves through what distinguishes us or makes us different from others, he challenges and calls us to learn to identify ourselves through what we share, our common human characteristics. More specifically, he notes that we all have a body, a natural capacity for empathy, and a deep and fundamental equality. On the final page of this chapter he writes, “The time has come to start thinking and acting on the basis of an identity that is rooted in the phrase ‘we human beings.’”

Have you thought seriously lately about how you identify yourself? Are you willing and ready to re-identify yourself in the way DL advocates? What is the cost of such a re-identification? What grates against us re-identifying ourselves in this way? (Comment!)

What do you most want to discuss from Chapter 2? (Comment!)

Beyond Belief Book Group - Segment 1B - Chapter 1

 

Chapter 1

In the middle of chapter one, DL says that “humans can manage without religion but they cannot manage without inner values.” Speaking for yourself, do you have a hard time conceiving of an ethical system without religion? Can one be good without God? If so, how? From what source or place – if not from God – can such ethics and goodness come, as you see it? (Comment!)

Toward the end of chapter one, DL offers what he calls the “two pillars of secular ethics:” 1) our shared humanity and 2) our shared interdependence. If he is right? How might we foster these pillars in our own lives, in our children’s lives, in our schools, communities, and churches? (Comment!)

What do you most want to discuss from Chapter 1? (Comment!)

Beyond Belief Book Group: Segment 1A - Introduction

 

Welcome to the first session of our Living Vision cyber book group. We are reading the Dalai Lama’s (we’ll refer to him as DL from this point forth) newest book Beyond Religion. On Sunday afternoon, Feb. 5 at 5:00, we’ll “convene” by logging onto this particular blog entry to discuss its introduction and first three chapters.

To make your entry of comments easier and our organized discussion more pointed and effective, let me clarify a few things. Since there are four Sundays in February and each one will be a target date for 1/4^th of our discussion of the book, those Sundays and discussions will be designated numbers 1-4. But each of those four will have several blog entries attached to them. You'll remember that on Sunday, Feb 5 we will be discussing the introduction and the the first three chapters of the book. So there will be an entry labeled 1A which will cover and invite your comments for the introduction only. Entry 1B will cover and invite your comments for chapter 1 only. Entry 1C will cover and invite your comments for chapter 2 only, etc. This will enable us to keep our comments clearly focused on the same portion of the book and see everyone’s comments on that particular section in the same place. So by the time we get to the second Sunday in Feb, the 12^th, the entries we will have used to prepare for that discussion will be 2A, 2B, etc. It may sound confusing, but we'll manage it together.

So, since we are in entry 1A, here are some key things to think about and comment on in the comment section of the blog in preparation to our live discussion. It is your written comments that will deepen and expedite our Sunday afternoon interchange. Further, since some of you may not be able to make Sunday’s “gathering,” now is your chance to make your points and raise your questions.

Let’s begin…

Introduction

The clear thesis of the book is found toward the end of the intro and reads

as follows: “Any religion-based answer to the problem of our neglect of inner values can never be universal and so will be inadequate. What we need today is an approach to ethics which makes no recourse to religion and can be equally acceptable to those with faith and those without: a secular ethics.”

Do you see his point? Do you agree? Why/Why not? (Comment!)

What do you most want to discuss from the introduction? (Comment!)

The Practice of Spiritual Journaling - Session 3 - 1/24/12

We’ve been exploring the beauty and power of the spiritual practice of journaling. We’ve found that when we prayerfully write to God and then prayerfully listen, that we actually can be led to write divinely inspired conversation. Tonight we continue that practice and privilege but in a slightly different way.  

In the last two weeks in particular, I have laid out some of the obstacles people often experience when they first enter this practice. Some, for instance, feel that they lack the requisite writing skills to effectively engage in this practice. Hopefully, by now we’ve overcome that obstacle. Others tend to feel that God could never or would never speak directly to and through “me.” I think that last week, in particular, we saw that such a humble self-assessment ought not get in the way, and, in fact, does not get in the way of God speaking.

But is the third obstacle that we will confront head on in tonight’s practice.   The third obstacle we have discussed is one that operates mostly at the subconscious level. It’s so subtle that at times we aren’t even aware of it. It is the notion many of us carry that God, the Creator, the Spirit, the Ultimate Source is somehow disappointed with us, upset with us, not pleased with us. Deep down, in our quietest and perhaps weakest moments, many of us, regardless of religion, may feel this way, with the result that we may not really WANT to hear from God. For those of us growing up in American Christianity in particular, with its constant emphasis on sin, guilt, confession, and what John Calvin called “total depravity,” it shouldn’t be hard to figure out where we get our sense of being disappointing to God. But is that really the whole story? Is sin even supposed to be central to the story of who God is, who we are, and what the nature of relationship to the Divine is and is all about? Does the loving God who created all that is, does that Source of all energy and life really want us to feel that way about ourselves?

My hope is that tonight’s unusual and imaginative practice will at least begin to answer that question for us. It is an usual practice and it does ask a lot of your imagination. I am going to ask all of us to close our eyes in a few moments and imagine a scenario. Once I’ve painted the scenario and sounded our bell, I’d like us to keep silently present in the scenario for ten minutes or so. From there, eventually, I’d like us to write whatever we heard and sensed and felt throughout the imagination-based exercise. That is the journaling component of this evening’s practice. Now to give this imagined scenario as much flesh and bone as possible, I’m going to use the name and figure of Jesus in the description. But, if you would like to picture or work with some other divine manifestation or figure, that is fine too.  So let’s begin.

You’ll need to get comfortable, sitting with good posture, practicing good, deep but relaxed breathing, and, of course, close your eyes.

I want you to imagine that you are sitting in an incredibly beautiful, peaceful, natural setting…It could be a place you know and go to often, a park, a place on the shore or in a woods clearing. It could be a place you’ve never been but have pictured…But it is amazingly beautiful and profoundly peaceful….Absorb and take in the scene…  There you are…the sun is warming your face…listen to natures sounds…smells…aromas…

In your peripheral vision you see a figure off in the distance walking toward you. It’s a peaceful figure, moving easily, naturally, taking in the scenery as you are. He’s not in a hurry and is as relaxed as you are…He’s not a distraction from the scene but seems part of it… 

He draws closer and you begin to make out his features….He is smiling…He approaches and gestures as if to ask if he may join you, sit beside you, and you nod your consent….It is Jesus… He begins to speak with you…. Listen to what he says to you…and pay attention to your conversation with Jesus…

Living Vision – the Practice of Journaling – Week 2 – 1/17/12

 

Tonight we continue our exploration of conversing with the Divine through journaling. This is a practice that has a long and rich history in many religions and spiritual heritages. For Christians, this practice of prayerful journaling and recording one’s spiritual interaction with God is most often traced back to Julian of Norwich, who recorded her visions and conversations in the 1300’s.

We noted last week that, like all the other disciplines we’ve explored, this particular practice engenders some reservations in those of us who enter it. And just for the sake of reminder, this listening and writing oriented discipline is in NO WAY dependent on your writing ability. You can misspell every word and make a million grammatical errors and still have a profound experience tonight. So let that go.

The other reservation we noted with this discipline is that we are such humble creatures that we can’t imagine that any words WE write can possibly come from God or God’s spirit. Julian of Norwich – maybe. Jesus, Paul – sure. Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Rick Warren- perhaps. But not us! Not Annie or Toby! Well, not so fast. To me, if God doesn’t speak to and through common folk like us, particularly when we’re engaged in listening for God’s voice, then what are we doing here? What’s the point of being spiritually devoted creatures. We need to let go of this notion that we aren’t good enough to hear from God or that God isn’t still in the business of speaking to and through ordinary, common folks.

And finally, for this practice and discipline to work, we have GOT to believe and trust that this force and spirit we call God loves us…adores us…wants nothing more than to be with us. If we’re still clinging to the Old Testament, adolescent understanding that God is pissed at us and just waiting to punish us, then we probably don’t even WANT to hear from Him tonight or any night, through this prayerful discipline or any other one. We’ve got to let God love us tonight…We’ve  got to trust those prophetic words – “I know the plans I have for you, saith the Lord, plans for good and not for harm.”

So in tonight’s practice we are going to converse with God, both talk and listen to God, through the discipline of prayerful journaling.  We’re going to do this by drawing a vertical line down the middle of each page. On the left side we will write our thoughts, our questions, anything we want to direct toward God. The right side of the page will be reserved for whatever results from our listening. After writing the thoughts and questions we have on the left, we look each one over and we wait upon the Lord. If and when we get any sense of direction, any little nudges or possible responses, we write them down on the right side. Don’t question or criticize what emerges in your right column. Just trust it and write it. We’ll worry about evaluating what winds up in our right columns later.

Now there will be an ebb and flow to this. It might not be that for each thing we write on the left we hear or receive something for the right. It may wind up that we have 8 or 10 things on the left when our 25 minutes ends and only 1 or 2 things on the right. There’s no right or wrong here, no number or balance to shoot for. Just write what comes to you to write and trust the process. We’ll debrief the experience and what we’ve written later, ok?

January's Practice - Spiritual Journaling - Session I

The following is the introductory teaching material from the most recent Living Vision community gathering. We hope you find it edifying and we invite you to join us this coming Tuesday, January 17 from 7:30-8:30 at Yoga Root, when we will continue our exploration and practice of prayerful journaling. Peace.

Tonight we begin our practice of spiritual, prayerful journaling.  The “Mother” or chief source of this practice is Julian of Norwich, a famous mystic fromthe 1300’s, who wrote about her ecstatic experiences and encounters with God in prayer. But in another sense, anyone and everyone who has ever written about their relationship with God invites us into this practice. There is something about writing, particularly when in a silent, prayerful state, that puts us in touch with the Divine.

After a time of contemplation, silence, or prayer, it is often the act and discipline of writing about the experience that can lead us to greater clarity or understanding of it. But before we can begin the actual practice of journaling tonight, we need to address three specific barriers that can undercut and get in the way of this particular practice.

First, we THINK that the efficacy of this journaling practice must somehow be contingent on our writing ability…People say, “But I’m not a very good writer…I can’t do this discipline well.” Let me assure you that the value of this practice has absolutely nothing to do with our writing ability, nothing to do with our spelling, our grammar, nor our ability to come up with the “right” or best word. What matters about our writing is ONLY that writing cultivates two essential prayer skills – listening and noticing…And in this practice, as with all the others we’ve worked on, when we incline our ear to that still small voice of God, it may become more recognizable or audible through the discipline itself, in tonight’s case in and through the words that we are inspired to write.

A second huge and intimidating barrier that can undercut our buying into this particular practice is the notion people have that it’s already been done by people far more competent than we are. We already have the Bible and the Gita and the Koran. God has already spoken through others, hasn’t He?  So what could I possible add to this divine conversation? My response to this reservation is definitive and clear…If God ISN’T still speaking, ISN’T still inspiring, then what are we doing here? What are we doing in churches and religious communities? If everything God has to say has already been said and already written, then what are we doing here and why don’t we just hunker down in some library or monastery somewhere and do nothing but read God’s old words?  But IF we believe – TRULY believe - in a LIVING God, a LIVING, BREATHING Spirit, an OPERATIVE life force, then shouldn’t our lives be about seeking to hear THAT voice today, tonight? Friends, this is one of the key factors that led me OUT of the institutional forms of Christian practice, the fact that I didn’t feel Christians gave adequate attention to seeking to hear and respond to that LIVING voice, that PRESENCE here and now. That’s what I’m here for. That’s exactly why I started this Living Vision community and what I want the rest of my spiritual life to be all about, and I’m thrilled that you’re here with me in these kinds of endeavors.

The third barrier I want us to acknowledge is one that may actually be at play in ALL of the spiritual practices we’ve done and will do. We may NOT really want to hear directly from God because we may not trust Him. We may, deep down, still be clinging to a sense that God doesn’t love us, doesn’t accept us and is going to be harsh and condemning with us IF He comes to speak to us. If we are afraid of God and still carry that child-like  view that God is somehow angry with us or disappointed with us, we are likely to shut out His voice or at least prefer NOT to hear it in whatever form in comes to us. To this barrier and perspective I can only say what the writer of letters of John said in the Xn New Testament. “God is love.” Love is the essence of God’s nature. We must learn to trust both that God IS love AND that we ARE LOVED. We’ve got to trust that we ARE God’s own children, that we are loved with a love that surpasses even our love for our kids.

So tonight and in the next two Tuesdays, we’ll try three different approaches to journaling, in hopes that at least one of the three will really resonate with your heart and spirit. Each is designed to tune us in more closely to the living Spirit we call God.

1)    We’ll begin tonight by telling God our intention to be in God’s presence and to listen for His voice. Reminding ourselves and God of that intention and stating it is important in ALL our disciplines.

2)    Then we just begin writing thoughts and feelings we have about or in relation to God. They might be questions we have. They might be spiritual struggles we’re in the midst of. Anything that’s about God and your relationship with Him, as opposed to journaling about the days events or what your schedule is for tomorrow. There’s no real right or wrong here, but try to stick to your intention to write what’s on your heart or mind right now IN RELATION to God.

3)    Then we pause. We wait. We look at and read over what we’ve written and we restate silently our intention to be in God’s presence and listen to Him.

4)    If in this listening/waiting phase, we feel the desire to write more – by all means do so! This could be God’s nudging and way of conversing. The rhythm may be one of writing a little, listening and waiting a little, writing a little more, re-reading and listening a little more.

So let’s begin and see where this journaling exercise leads us….We’ll start with a chunk of about 20 minutes tonight. I’ll begin by offering a little prayer of intention for us, which you can follow up on in your own way as you begin…