Here's further evidence that the shaman--a mystical indigenous prophet and healer--has achieved sufficient allure to get featured in a top dollar fashion shoot. Click here, if you must, to see a dark, tattooed man (who at least appears to have special powers) next to a bikini-clad fashion model in Saks Fifth Avenue's spring 2006 catalog. (How'd I land on this list? I doubt it was my subscription to The Utne Reader!) Again, I don't know that this man's the real thing, and the advertising copywriters don't explain. But fashion is all about illusion anyway. Saks's back cover features a photo of the same gentleman from the rear with full buttocks in view. Words fail me.
How much do you think he paid for that loin cloth?
Well, the Olympic Games are over, but I can't get skier Bode Miller out of my head.
"Mom, I think you have a crush on that guy," said one of the impish Chattering boys.
"No, no, that's not it," I protested. (I didn't volunteer that I HAD seen a photo of Miller shirtless, and that he didn't look so good. He had the unbelievable nerve to show up in Turin overweight and out of shape.)
I drove home from the boys' school drop-off thinking that I should find a Jungian analyst. Not for myself. Just for my blog. The sports writers describing Bode Miller's free fall from rebel medal hopeful to unrepentant boozing loser, were still missing something, something a Jungian therapist with knowledge of archetypes and the hero's quest could fill us in on. The story of a downhill racer who is first exalted by the press for his idiosyncracies, then pilloried and hated for his adherence to them, really resonates. I think we all wonder what it would be like if a media spotlight ever illuminated us. What would mere mortals do with the power? Would we be true to ourselves? Would we deliver anything meaningful to others?
As I prepared to meditate, I wondered if I should just write about Miller as a problem drinker. His scathing remark over the weekend that "I got to party and socialize at an Olympic level" seems unforgivable, the quip of an addict who hasn't bottomed out yet. Maybe that's the angle to plunder. My Chattering Mind raced: oh, but would calling him a budding alcoholic be libelous? Probably not at this point.
Then, THE TRUTH (ta-da!) came to me. From the recesses of my brain that years ago read German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche: Bode is a man struggling to balance the forces of Apollo (the sun god, artist, dreamer) and Dionysus (the intoxicated reveler, the god of secret rites). And Miller played out his effort to reconcile the split in the public eye on Mt. Olympus.
In the end, the personality of Dionysus, the God of Wine, dominated and destroyed the promising athlete. Miller let his more noble, virtuous Apollo fly out his trailer window. Or more likely--Apollo never made it to the Olympics at all. Miller then became the hapless groom who stood his country up five times in a row. He forgot to bring presents! Self-absorbed bore! We are furious with him.
He could have done better, we know he could have. But he didn't.
Here's a convoluted but still interesting paper written by college professor Bart Bryant on the subject of Nietzsche's work on the tension between Dionysus and Apollo. When the forces of the two are in balance, Bryant writes, "We have a god who, while fully grounded in himself, can nonetheless aim beyond himself...and see more. We have, it seems, a more Apollonian Dionysus."
Excerpts from a nice interview with Richard Gere on why he thinks we should all care more about Africa and AIDS aired Sunday on ABC's "This Week." If you missed it, you can catch it here.
In case you missed it, renowned Buddhist authority, spiritual activist, and Beliefnet.com columnist Lama Surya Das was on "The Colbert Report" with Stephen Colbert earlier this week.
True, his holiness the Dalai Lama has appeared on both Barbara Walters's and Larry King's programs, but Lama Surya Das's courageous interaction with the mischievous Colbert is something of a milestone.
Colbert, if you've been going to bed at ten lately or don't have cable, is the hottest late-night talk show host these days. No doubt a hip and cool progressive fellow in real life, he plays a right-winger in the O'Reilly mode--pompous, dismissive, the whole works. Colbert is, in fact, the ultimate in Jungian tricksters, and I think his brilliance comes from showcasing featured guests while at the same time revealing his always-missing-the-point character to be the ultimate horse's ass.
With the Lama, I think Colbert pushed his character's resistance to Buddhism's teaching a tad too far, by saying, among other things, that anger is what really helps him get ahead, and that a face lift can get rid of wrinkles better than enlightenment. Hard to say. I might be too close to this to give it a perfect read. Surya Das hung in there, calmly representing Buddhism to millions. Passing down centuries of wisdom in a four-minute clip isn't easy--even for someone who has spent 35 years steeped in spiritual inquiry, eight years of which he spent in cloistered retreat.
It takes terrific gumption to move Buddhism beyond the meditation hall, for the public square can be surprisingly cold, mocking, and unreceptive. So I applaud Lama Surya Das for his appearance. More spiritual activists need to come out of the calm and cozy closet.
Colbert ends the interview by halfway recognizing his own Buddha nature, so that's a good beginning.
Gosh, the posts about Beliefnet's homepage reorganization and the naming of the "Spirituality" department were just fantastic. So many good people with really smart ideas. The decision will take some time, and we will keep you posted, but we are currently warming to "Holistic Spirituality" (suggested by loyal readers chanteuse and Mary). "Holistic Spirituality" is easy to understand, and it seems to intuitively include alternative health.
We also like the introduction of the word "metaphysics," but that is not as inclusive. "New Thought" was mentioned, but it's already its own thing. Here's a Beliefnet.com page that describes its central tenets.
"What I now realize, from my study of the different religious traditions, is that a disciplined attempt to go beyond the ego brings about a state of ecstasy. Indeed, it is in itself ekstasis. Theologians in all the great faiths have devised all kinds of myths to show that this type of kenosis, or self-emptying, is found in the life of God itself. They do not do this because it sounds edifying, but because this is the way that human nature seems to work. We are most creative and sense other possibilities that transcend our ordinary experience when we leave ourselves behind."
I heard Randy Cohen, author of "The New York Times" ethical advice column, recently say on NPR that throughout human history, the conduct of "believers" has not been all that different from the conduct of "non-believers." Intrigued, I found an interview with him on a website for clergy where he happily elaborates upon this point.
COHEN: As I think is apparent, I'm a secular guy, and I think the historical effect of organized religion on American life through the history of this country is pretty checkered. There are many examples of the church as a force for good, but there are 10 times as many examples where it is not. So I have not seen the clergy as a particularly virtuous coterie of people. It's always especially striking if a policeman breaks the law, or a clergyman is caught in a love nest. Again, we all love hypocrisy. It's as entertaining as anything you might watch on TV.
The trendy, high-in-antioxidants pomegranate (read all about it in The Bible and Qu'ran!) now occupies a place of status alongside the reliable lemon, lime, and cherry. Polar Beverages is peddling a nice pomegranate-flavored seltzer. I saw it in the grocery store last week.
Actually, what I've been getting is organic, unrefined, unsweetened pomegranate juice (look around, there are several brands). Then I pour a generous splash of it into a large glass of organic kefir in the mornings. This sometimes passes as my pre-blogging breakfast of champions. Throw in some ground flax seed and you're doing even better. I got this idea from the best-selling author and anti-aging guru Dr. Nicholas Perricone. He says you'll keep down the calories by flavoring the kefir with only a tablespoon of pomegranate juice; I have to admit, I'm pouring in a good quarter cup. Delicious.
Waverly Fitzgerald, the mind behind the one-of-a-kind website School of the Seasons, has a paid semi-monthly newsletter that this month offers the following great idea for preparing for Lent. I encourage you to subscribe to this worthy project if you are interested in religious rituals and calendars, since Fitzgerald knows the history of religious observances backwards and forwards, and she always makes old ideas contemporary. She writes:
The week before Lent begins is called Butter Week in Russia, where everyone indulges in the rich, fatty foods (in Russia, primarily blinis; in Austria and Germany, cream-filled pastries) that are forbidden during the fasting of Lent. Of course the week culminates in that festival of excess known as Mardi Gras (this year Tuesday, February 28.)
If you are going to participate in Lent, and I highly recommend this practice. Make this your week to indulge in whatever substance or habit you intend to give up. People usually think of giving up a substance like tobacco or alcohol or sugar, and these are worthwhile things to try. After all, Lent is only six weeks, short enough so that you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but long enough to acquire a new habit. But also consider giving up anything that you feel is impeding your growth or stunting your health. It could be worrying or nagging. It could be doing for others what they can do themselves. It could be watching TV (or a certain kind of TV show). It could be over-working (in which case you might want to set up a quantifiable bottom line--I'll only work eight hours a day; I won't work after 5 PM). Are you giving up dairy products? Then indulge in ice cream, cheesecake and cheese blintzes. Maybe you're giving up computer games? Play as many as you like for the next week.
The church Chattering Mind was raised in didn't make a big production of pre-Easter sacrifices (which commemorate the forty days Jesus fasted in the wilderness), so count me in as a beginner here. This year, it is my intention to give up all white refined foods--that is, any flour and sugar. To prepare for my upcoming Lenten period then, I took the Chattering boys to a fudge shop, and happily ate two caramels dipped in white chocolate. The first is always better than the second, isn't it?
Beliefnet.com has some marvelous Lenten material archived. Here's the full index. And here's a wonderful conversation between Anne Simpkinson and Father Thomas Keating on "Lent as a Divine Journey."
Editors at Beliefnet.com are reorganizing Beliefnet's homepage, and in the process, they have come to me with a question I have not been able to answer. For the purposes of helping folks navigate the site, they need to give "New Age" readers a name, but they don't really want to use the term New Age. "Spiritual-but-not-religious" seems off the mark and anti-religion. Labels like "Omnireligious," "Transreligious," or "Metrospiritual" seem inadequate, or even ridiculous. "Mind/Body" seems an odd category to plunk anyone in. Earth-based Pagan people might share our interests in the environment, authenticity, wholeness, and ritual, but they are also their own thing with a long history.
Who are we anyway? LOHAS (which stands for Lifestyles Of Health and Sustainability) is the latest marketing term for the growing tribe of individuals who religiously (pun intended) recycle their glass bottles, meditate, practice yoga, read spiritual books, shop at Fresh Fields-type places, crave spiritually-directed vacations, and would buy an organic mattress if they could afford one. That's pretty much me! But do I really want to be called a "lohasian?"
The buzzwords "East-West," "Complementary," "Integral," "Oneness," or "All One," are interesting but not understandable in isolation, without context. Buddhism and Hinduism will have their own separate labels and departments on the redesigned site, though Beliefnet is aware there are many overlapping practices and interests. It is sometimes assumed we are all politically liberal, but I'm not even sure that is true.
The closest expression of who we are is "Holistic," and that's nice because it seems to encompass an interest in alternative medicine. But "Holistic" doesn't sound so spiritual. It seems to have its own limits, and will everyone get it? In short, it feels there is no right term, no way to contain it all within a few words, and yet there needs to be some way to help newcomers find articles on Feng Shui, health and healing, meditation--all currently housed in our "Spirituality" department.
Having a "Spirituality" section of Beliefnet, as it is now currently labeled, hasn't been a disaster, but apparently the term sometimes confuses conservative Christians who click on over, assuming that it refers to Christian spirituality.
So, which of these speaks best to you?
--"spiritual, not religious" --holistic --New Age --Lohasian --integral (a category associated with the integral spirituality of Ken Wilber)
Are there others that work better? I will try to post your best suggestions, and I am eager to hear them.
Writer and now pen pal Nell Minow, author of "The Movie Mom's Guide to Family Movies," sent me a link to her own blog post about the pleasures of re-reading favorite books from childhood. At the end of that piece, she describes how she and her extended family once held a family book exchange. I think this is such a wonderful idea that I'm sharing with you here how she and her family successfully spanned the generations with good books. She writes:
On this summer's vacation with my extended family, each of us was asked to bring a book we loved and share it with the group. One night, all eleven of us -- ranging in age from 13 to 79 -- sat down together to describe our books and swap them around. The enthusiasm was so infectious that my serious lawyer father who can't tell Mick Jagger from Steven Tyler ended up reading my college senior son's selection -- Frank Zappa's autobiography. I loved my daughter's description of Natalie Babbitt's wonderful "The Search for Delicious" so much, I am on the list to reread it as soon as my sister is finished with it. My daughter borrowed her uncle's copy of the new Jonathan Safran Foer book, "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," and her uncle took my copy of Connie Willis' book, "Bellwether." I can't wait to begin my niece's "The Gammage Cup," by Carol Kendall, which she read because it was her much older cousin's favorite childhood book. She promises me it is completely engrossing.
I look forward to trying this with the extended Chattering clan!
I just need to chime in, being a "Jane Eyre" scholar and a big fan of Chattering Mind. Bertha Rochester, as she is named in Bronte's novel, is indeed the "madwoman in the attic," but as contemporary Jane Eyre scholars like myself have noted, she is silenced, suppressed, and remains the dark "other" in contrast to Jane Eyre's Anglo "goodness."
"Wide Sargasso Sea" is one novelist's way to try to give voice to the supposedly "mad" woman who is suppressed so that Jane can win her man and her fortune. I do love "Jane Eyre," but I am also very sensitive to how non-Anglo women are portrayed in 19th century novels. We can enjoy Bronte's novel while also acknowledging the class, race and "prettiness" issues that divide the women in this novel in ways that tell us volumes about how social relationships were constructed in the Victorian age. Just some food for thought on a provocative novel that we all enjoy.
Last week, British actress and dancer Moira Shearer died at age 80. Although her most famous film may still be analyzed in college women's studies classes, many of you young pups may not know it, which is why I want you to watch it when you can. Released in 1948, it's called "The Red Shoes," and it's a vivid retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's tale of a ballerina whose bewitched red shoes overpower her. When I was a girl, I would watch this melodramatic film and, like a lot of girls back then, utterly drink it in. It may even have led me into feeling, by the time I was a teenager, that I was destined for a nervous breakdown. (Happily, the big breakdown never came.)
In "The Red Shoes," Shearer plays the dancing star who has fallen in love and is, in today's parlance, trying to balance family and career. Like in the fairy tale, life doesn't turn out so well for her ("you can't have it all!" seems to be the message), but as you watch her flail, you'll identify with the difficulties of holding onto what is most dear.
The fabulous, fiery Jungian psychoanalyst Clarissa Pinkola Estes has really put the spotlight on this story of a woman's destruction, and revealed it to be a parable that must be surmounted instead of adopted. Here's an audio tape of Estes--herself a great powerhouse--lecturing on "The Red Shoes" and the fight for the soul.
Based on what I've read in the obituaries, it sounds like Shearer had a fulfilling life: she married a journalist who was later knighted by Queen Elizabeth, raised four children, continued to speak and act. She always thought "The Red Shoes" offered a preposterous story, and she felt that no wrenching decision between art and life was truly necessary, for her at least. In this interview, she says, "...I've always found my marriage and my children infinitely more important than any career, so no great decision had to be made."
"Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by a difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought most to be deprecated. I was in hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy, which has marked the present age, would at least have reconciled Christians of every denomination so far that we should never again see religious disputes carried to such a pitch as to endanger the peace of Society."
--George Washington, in a letter to Edward Newenham.
Now that we've all calmed down and heard Vice President Cheney admit that the day he peppered his friend with birdshot was one of the worst of his life, I have a book to recommend. It's called "The Blessing," and it was written several years ago by Gregory Orr, a professor of English at the University of Virginia (my alma mater). When Orr was twelve, he accidentally shot and killed his eight-year-old brother on a fateful father-son hunting trip. As you might imagine, Orr was haunted by this incident for decades, finding meaning in his existence only when he became a writer. But even then, it was tough. I eagerly read this book when it first appeared in 2002 because I knew a fair number of Orr's students in college who spoke of the hunting mishap in compassionate, hushed whispers. Also, the book's title reference to a blessing led me to think I could interview Orr for Beliefnet, and find the inspirational message behind the trauma to share with readers. In the end, however, hard as I looked, I really couldn't find the blessing in "The Blessing." I even wondered if Orr's publisher had placed an upbeat title on this tortured, honest, painful memoir as a way to sell copies.
That's what I found myself thinking, anyway. You can explore this fine book for yourself. And now it's timely.
This afternoon, I tried to meditate with our fluffy black cockapoo Chester according to the instructions given in James Jacobson and Kristine Chandler Madera's book 'How to Meditate with Your Dog.'
I started by playing meditative flute music on the boom box (I don't know how to operate the kids' iPod unit yet). Then I sat cross-legged in a sunny spot on the dining room floor. Interested, Chester happily pranced over to me with a tennis ball in his mouth. Then the mailman dropped some magazines through the mail slot. Oh boy. This is Chester's favorite part of the day. So he barked a lot, and I just sat by myself in the sun, breathing and breathing. When Chester calmed down, I peeked at him. He was chewing some rawhide he'd never touched before. I closed my eyes again. Thoughts were coming, sure. Thoughts I've never had before. Thoughts like: "Why the bleep won't my dog meditate with me?"
Okay, time to change position. I went into the living room and sat on the couch. Chester eventually followed, but he chose to sit in the upholstered chair opposite so he could just watch. I got up and gently carried him to the couch. Then I wrapped my left arm under his belly and massaged his head with my right hand. He relaxed, and we finally got a little something going. Here's what I noticed when I tuned into his breath. He takes a long inhale and then exhales with a little huff. We sat and sat, listening to the flute music. I think I felt him let go of something. Or go to sleep. Jacobson says dogs spend a good part of their day in a meditative, not-sleeping, not-waking state.
Sounds like I'm making fun, but I actually find a lot of merit in this. It's good for the dog, and yet another way to get yourself to sit. Plus, it's really interesting to expand your awareness to encompass another living being's patterns of breath. You connect with the miracle of it all. The little gasps, the stomach churning, the beats of the faithful heart. Here's the book's website.
posted by Chattering Mind @ 10:22 PM | Permalink |
I love the reader who volunteered this helpful correction:
"Having just read 'Jane Eyre' a couple months ago (for the first time, at age 37), I have to comment that the madwoman in the attic was named Bertha Mason. Grace Poole was her alcoholic keeper--though I'm sure she didn't look too great in the morning either."
I might add that it is wonderful to read or re-read books for young people when in full adulthood. I've been wanting to re- read Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' 'The Yearling.'
posted by Chattering Mind @ 11:48 AM | Permalink |
On Wednesday, I mentioned Sam Harris's blog post about scientists partaking in a group meditation retreat. Later that afternoon, I spied a provocative article by Harris called 'Taking the Religion Out of Buddhism' touted on the cover of the March 2006 Shambhala Sun (an incredibly good magazine, by the way). Shambhala Sun's website doesn't yet feature this excellent piece, so look for it on newstands or in your local health food store. So rich in fresh thinking is this article, it was hard to pull out a few excerpts, but here are two:
"The wisdom of the Buddha is currently trapped within the religion of Buddhism. Even in the West, where scientists and Buddhist contemplatives now collaborate in studying the effects of meditation on the brain, Buddhism remains an utterly parochial concern. While it may be true enough to say (as many Buddhist practitioners allege) that 'Buddhism is not a religion,' most Buddhists worldwide practice it as such, in many of the naive, petitionary, and superstitious ways in which all religions are practiced. "
"...once we develop a scientific account of the contemplative path, it will utterly transcend its religious associations. Once such a conceptual revolution has taken place, speaking of 'Buddhist' meditation will be synonymous with a failure to assimilate the changes that have occurred in our understanding of the human mind."
Fascinating material. Please check it out.
posted by Chattering Mind @ 10:25 AM | Permalink |
A reader recommended the works and website of Maria Cilley, a.k.a. "Fly Lady," many weeks ago. Wow. What a reservoir of quirky but sensible advice on how to organize your home for maximum health and effectiveness. While the tips on Fly Lady's website are not overtly spiritual, Cilley and co-author Leanne Ely make it abundantly clear that your precious spirit will not flourish if your house--or any hot spot within it--is clutter-filled and out of control. They're Feng Shui ladies with a down-home, just-do-it attitude.
Once on Fly Lady's site, you'll read her bylaws (or "Baby Steps"), which are different from the household laws your mom may have passed down. First, Fly Lady believes you should never go to bed at night without first cleaning and polishing your kitchen sink. That's a biggie. Fly Lady says that you will not fly high in life if your sink is holding you back. I've been incorporating some sink polishing into my own practice, and the glisten of it really does give me a boost at six-thirty in the morning.
Every month, Fly Lady dictates a household mission. She's also got morning and evening rituals that will help you care for clothes, pay the bills, and keep it together day after day. Bad news for Chattering Mind: Fly Lady thinks women should put on a little makeup in the a.m. as part of their greet-the-day ritual. On most mornings, I'm avidly plain and unadorned. In fact, I show up in our school principal's office some mornings, to ask him a question, looking like Grace Poole, that crazy lady who lived unacknowledged in Jane Eyre's attic.
Thanks to Bishop Craig Bergland, who wrote this reponse to yesterday's post about my son, who worries about whether he believes in God, and whether he can be a Jewish Buddhist.
Buddhism has been a very significant part of my own journey, and I believe you are completely accurate when you say that a Buddhist practice or a Buddhist-influenced spirituality does not mean that one must convert to Buddhism or cease being a member of their own religious or spiritual tradition.
In fact, several Buddhist authors are very intentional in saying that Buddhist thought and practice should be used to make you the best Jewish/Christian/other person you can be. Buddhism is somewhat unique in that it is not a tradition that evangelizes of seeks to convert people.
The issue of whether or not Buddha intended to develop a religion is difficult to determine historically, but it would make sense that he didn't. For that matter, Jesus never intended to establish a new religion either.
As we mature in our spiritual views beyond the notion of a punishing super-human God who lives just beyond the clouds, the insights provided by a non-theistic spirituality such as Buddhism are invaluable to that process. As our children grow and seek to find their own spiritual home, it would be my hope that all parents could provide the support and encouragement you suggest!
My son is Jewish-Christian. He was Bar Mitzvah'd at 13 and is being confirmed at 14. But he has also been exposed to all the world's religions and lives in a house filled with images from all faiths. He looks at Jesus, the Goddesses, and God as friends. He has never really questioned the presence of God in his life or assigned God to one religion. (Although I certainly understand young Chattering's concerns, and bless him for sharing them with you!) Regardless, or perhaps because of his exposure to spirituality, my son seems to most truly connect to the divine through sports. And we have encouraged him to be free to pick his own religion of preference. That would be baseball. He calls his personal practice "sportuality."
"I don't worry about the right-wingers on AM radio. They are talking to an audience that is stuck in rush-hour traffic, in whom road rage is mounting, and the talk shows divert their rage from the road to the liberal conspiracy against America. Instead of ramming your rear bumper, they get mad at Harry Reid. Yes, the wingers do harm, but the worst damage is done to their own followers, who are cheated of the sort of genuine experience that enables people to grow up."
One of the Chattering boys has been worried that though he is Jewish, he's no longer sure there's a God.
"I don't want to be an atheist, and I actually think I might be a Buddhist. I don't know what to do," he said recently, appealing to me for direction and help. You may chalk this up to him being a product of a Christian-Jewish marriage with Buddhist influences, but no--we have worked hard to give him a Jewish identity. Mr. Chattering and I are taking this seriously.
Here's one fact I did manage to articulate to my son yesterday (though it doesn't immediately address the main question): you can practice Buddhism, or be interested in Buddhism, and still be Jewish (or anything else for that matter). Buddha himself didn't teach Buddhism or any other 'ism.' Many people who follow Buddhist teachings choose not to call themselves "Buddhist" because they want to avoid an us-them mindset.
If you ever hear anyone say, "Oh, I'm a Buddhist," you might politely point this out to them. Or, well, no...I take that back. It is probably best to just notice your need to say it and then add nothing. Here's a link to a long and fascinating article by Paul Fleischman that says it was never the Buddha's intention to create a religion, dogma, or ontology.
Helping my son learn to know God, rather than just believe in God, is a long, loving, and quite absorbing project. I would love to hear from any of you who have raised children during their journey from belief in a mythic God-in-the-sky to something deeper and more intimate.
Here's a wonderful project: a website that is slowly gathering photographs of all the different Hatha Yoga postures. Some positions aren't commonly taught and are beautiful to behold.
Sam Harris, author of "The End of Faith," has a blog item that's well worth reading on "The Huffington Post." It's about the anguish and the insights gained by a group of scientists during a weeklong silent meditation retreat.
Many of the scientists found the experience grueling. Some said it was the hardest week of their lives. Indeed, many had not known that they would be consigned to total silence for the first six days of the retreat, and asked not to read, or to write, or to make eye-contact with the other retreatants. One neuroscientist reported that on the second day of the retreat he hit "a wall of grief," in the face of which even the most trivial memories -- of drinking a cup of tea, of shaving his face -- precipitated profound feelings of sadness, simply because they testified to the inexorable passage of time. It is, of course, natural to brood about time when one suddenly has too much of it on hand. Heaven help the meditator who gets a song like "Cats in the Cradle and the Silver Spoon" stuck in his head. He will surely die by his own hand.
If you or your kids missed it, click here, and look for the NBC-Olympics video marked "Zhang Wins Silver After Nasty Fall." It is one of those poignant Olympic come-from-behind stories for the books. Increasing the intensity of this paired skating competition is the fact that the Chinese coach skated for his country's team back when its floundering members had to learn all the moves from still photographs. NBC has reported that Olympic crowds once laughed at him.
No one is laughing now, only crying in honor of their courage. See if you can keep a dry eye. As you watch Zhang Dan recover and skate here, marvel at her ability to stay in the moment. She kept her mind from racing and shaming, and that's what makes the performance truly brilliant.
Nothing is weaker than water, But when it attacks something hard Or resistant, then nothing withstands it, And nothing will alter its way. Everyone knows this, that weakness prevails Over strength and that gentleness conquers The adamant hindrance of men, but that Nobody demonstrates how it is so.
New York City got twenty-odd inches of snow on Sunday, and the city's plows have thrown tons of white powder off the streets and onto our parked cars. Five-foot banks of snow have settled on either side of the sidewalks too, and our dog Chester is confused. Nothing smells familiar.
I avoided the snow nearly all day. The Chattering boys went sledding in the park with their father after breakfast, and I stayed busy in the house managing laundry, bills, homemade Valentine's cookies, hot chocolate, and meals. I kept thinking--in my chattering way--that I should climb though the hatch and sweep the snow off the skylights on our roof. The last time we had a snow this deep, water leaked through. But when I never managed to get up there, I just figured, like Scarlett O'Hara: oh well, "tomorrow is another day."
Later, as the clouds turned pink at dusk, I walked our dog down the middle of the street. The clarion bells of the nearest church began to play "Be Thou My Vision," which stunned me because it's a hymn I love.
"Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart; Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art."
Only then, did I take a deep breath, my first of the day. Earth to Amy: Tune in! My 91-year-old father is still not well. Two weeks ago, just two days after I left South Carolina, he fell backwards down concrete stairs. The pain in his lower back is excruciating now, he says. He struggles to get out of bed, and though he went to his church today, he stayed seated for all the hymns. If it were me, I'd have my gang of new age healers at my bedside, laying on their hands. But Dad's not into any of that stuff. So he's been on muscle relaxers and Excedrin P.M.
"Heart of my own heart, whatever befall, Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all."
I realized at that moment, listening to the bells and walking the dog, that all day I had been worried about my father, but that I'd effectively disguised my distress to everyone, even myself. I'd spent a whole day draped in a busy Mom's disguise.
Meditation teacher Reggie Ray has an "earth breathing" meditation on his excellent "Meditating with the Body" CD set. As I walked, I tried to recollect it. I tuned into the peace of the earth under the snow, first at a depth of one foot, and then down several feet more. I began to think about the soil, and the coming spring, about how a hard freeze and big snow like this is good for the trees and flowers. I breathed my awareness of the soil up into my abdomen, then sent my awareness back down.
What omens do snow storms offer? Spring will come, I know. Many things about me, my family, and my father's future are guaranteed, but how they'll play out specifically is such a mystery.
Inside the house, coverage of the Olympic Games--so loud and garish--was on TV. The "earth breathing" had been effective in grounding me, making me real, but as I went in, I wasn't sure if I'd maintain my newfound authenticity, or even if I wanted to hold onto it.
I didn't see the recent film in which Reese Witherspoon plays some kind of girlfriend who comes back from the dead, but I happen to remember that the editors of Beliefnet.com deemed it "paranormally incorrect."
Do not despair! If you're still in the mood for a spiritually complex, but highly romantic life-after-death film for Valentine's Day, I'd rent "Truly, Madly, Deeply," staring British actors Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman. It's the thinking man's "Ghost," (though "Ghost" was no disgrace).
Of course, there's always Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon in the world's most seeringly romantic epic of eternally-locked souls: "Wuthering Heights."
But that one ends so sadly. I do adore it though--for it holds fast to the poet Rumi's correct belief that "lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They are in each other all along."
This week, we commemorate the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth. I found a revealing passage, quoting several biographers who've tried to make sense of Lincoln's religious belief system.
...Lincoln believed some form of providence was at work in the universe, but was unable to believe in a personal God or in Jesus as his saviour. That amounted to Unitarianism, but Lincoln had no interest in that liberal denomination.
...Lincoln combined two classic strains in American culture. He personifies the hope that in a market-oriented democracy the poorest citizen can prosper through ambition. But in addition, Americans "want our mobility linked to a lofty set of principles, not just profit," says Guelzo, and Lincoln also represents firm moral commitments.
For instance, on principle he helped conquer Protestant Whig and Republican elements that despised Catholic immigrants. And, after some struggle, he came to see slavery not as a pragmatic problem, but a moral blight.
Early in the Civil War, with the North's effort sputtering, Lincoln came to believe that defeat was inevitable if the war was being waged only to save the Union, not for a higher moral cause.
At a crucial cabinet meeting after the Battle of Antietam in September 1862, Lincoln astounded his colleagues by saying he had made a vow to himself and - he added after a pause -"to my Maker": If God allowed the North to repel Lee's Confederate invasion, it would then be Lincoln's duty to abolish slavery.
This prewar skeptic was now Guelzo writes, "offering as his reason for the most radical gesture in American history a private vow fulfilled in blood and smoke by the hand of God."
When the Emancipation Proclamation was issued the following January, Lincoln added this conclusion, at the prompting of Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase: "Upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favour of Almighty God?"
When Mary Lincoln, the daughter of Kentucky slave-owners, questioned the president about abolition, he looked heavenward, son Robert recalled.
"I am under orders," Lincoln told his wife, "I cannot do otherwise."
The National Cathedral in Washington D.C. has a wonderful website with broadband selections that keep growing in significance. It's marvelous that a gothic cathedral can also have the latest in computer tech. Look at the menu of offerings: A filmed revival service called "The Rebirth of New Orleans," a three-woman conversation on caring for the vulnerable, Jan Karon speaking on "writing from the heart," Marion Woodman lecturing on the "spiral of body-soul wisdom," and Jean Bethke Eishtain asking "what is effective faith-based political engagement?"
"Once, years ago, I emerged from the woods in the early morning at the end of a walk and--it was the most casual of moments--as I stepped from under the trees into the mild, pouring-down sunlight I experienced a sudden impact, a seizure of happiness. It was not the drowning sort of happiness, rather the floating sort. I made no struggle toward it; it was given. Time seemed to vanish. Urgency vanished. Any important difference between myself and all other things vanished. I knew that I belonged to the world, and felt comfortably my own containment in the totality. I did not feel that I understood any mystery, not at all; rather that I could be happy and feel blessed within the perplexity--the summer morning, its gentleness, the sense of the great work being done though the grass where I stood scarcely trembled. As I say, it was the most casual of moments, not mystical as the word is usually meant, for there was no vision, or anyting extraordinary at all, but only a sudden awareness of the citizenry of all things within one world: leaves, dust, thrushes and finches, men and women. And yet it was a moment I have never forgotten, and upon which I have based many decisions in the years since."
"Everyone makes mistakes..and yogis are no exception!" says the February issue of "Fit Yoga" magazine. An article by Susi Aldous Hately then proceeds to relate the eight ways yoga students injure themselves during yoga workouts. Number one: Failing to relax. Number two: Not thinking about the spine. Number three: Not connecting movement between the spine and the largest joints.
Here's my A-number-one reason why people occasionally get hurt doing yoga. It's called NOT HAVING A YOGA TEACHER WHO CORRECTS YOUR FORM. That's the chief failure of yoga teachers, and this semi-silly article neglects to report it. Stop blaming the victim, please!
Many teachers look gorgeous, can chant until big tears stream down your cheeks, or demonstrate handstands that will make you say, "oh, if only I could...." But their job, dear reader, first and foremost, is to demonstrate each pose and then walk around the room, gently laying hands on students to make subtle corrections, and also demonstrate the sometimes tiny differences between right and wrong alignment. This is their holy work! It's the most important part of their job!
Mr. Chattering and I once went to a lively party, and suddenly, as if guided by a force much larger ourselves, everyone there started talking about allergies. Cockroach dust. Mushrooms. Mold in the house.
After a few minutes of this fascinating prattle, I turned to Mr. Chattering and gushed, "Oh, these are my people." I felt so happy.
Actually, I was only super-allergic to everything when pregnant. I was that one in one hundred women who comes down with full-blown asthma in pregnancy. Rattling like a tea kettle in my 12th week, Mr. Chattering made me go to a hospital emergency room where they plied me with all varieties of chemicals for one full midnight shift. Then I escaped.
"I've got to put you on cortisone," said my all-too-conventional allergist.
"I won't take it," I said.
"Your obstetrician and I believe that your not being able to breathe is worse for the baby than being medicated for a time."
True, tough choice. This remark sent me on an alternative health odyssey that I won't recommend to you here because I was still asthmatic enough in my eighth month to cough a rib out of place. But I was fixed that same day by a wonderful chiropractor we drove to visit in the midsts of a scary ice storm. Then, after our healthy baby boy was born, my allergies ebbed away (with the support of a homeopath, acupuncturist, and God's love, I guess).
Anyway, this experience left me with a real fondness for people sensitive to the fluffiest dust bunny! I know what it is like when the body turns on itself. I know what it is to fight for every breath.
So I was happy to discover yesterday a mass market magazine for people with food sensitivities called "Living Without."
Odd title, I know, and sort of pessimistic too, but when polled, the magazine's readers said they liked the "Living Without" name and wished to continue with it.
Inside this issue, you'll find articles and interviews, many with a spiritual or inspirational tenor. The publsher, Peggy Wagener, cannot digest gluten, a byproduct of wheat found in viritually all packaged foods, as well as almost all breads, cakes, and cookies. Phew. The gluten allergy is a ruthless one, but something all too familiar to folks diagnosed with celiac disease, a complete inability to digest wheat. Ads for gluten-free baked goods crowd this magazine's glossy pages.
"Living Without" provides healthy recipes as well as articles explaining how long it can take to get diagnosed with allergies to foods the rest of our culture ingests routinely. Sufferers turn eating well into a transformational quest. There's an excellent testimonial in the most recent issue by Suzanne Peterson, a woman with a peanut allergy that could kill her if she's not careful. Even if you don't have any food allergies in your immediate family, the mag provides highly interesting articles by writers who describe the pain of being out of the mainstream, on the edge, vulnerable to seemingly harmless things. Then the talk always turns to how they all grow in their awareness, locate true sustenance, and build their sensitive bodies up again. Fascinating reading!
The Jewish commemoration of the world's trees--Tu B'Shevat--(also known as the birthday of the Tree of Life) falls on the full midwinter moon, this February 12th. If you care to celebrate this holiday with your children (who will be immediately responsive to the notion that trees are important) or if you are planning any kind of school presentation on the subject of trees, here's the best resource. It's the most spectacular website on trees I've ever seen (not that there are that many of them). It's called Spiritoftrees.org, and here you'll find folktales about trees from dozens of countries, as well as a long list of tree preservation groups and trusts. The site was created through the funds and spunk of storyteller/folklorist Cristy West.
The Mulla was resting under a huge oak tree next to a field of melons. As he lay there, he thought, "Hmm, everyone says that the Creator has a grand plan, but look at this majestic oak tree with its ridiculously small acorns, and these spindly melon plants, with their huge fruits. I'd say the Creator made a mistake on this one."
Suddenly an acorn fell right on his nose.
"OH! Now I understand the wisdom of the Creator!"
From "Nasrudin and the Trees: Seven Tales," an Eastern European compilation of stories about trees, retold by Priscilla Howe at SpiritofTrees.org.
"The homemakers of old had an instinctive knowledge of the helping elemental beings, of the protecting penates and the spirituality of a household, which the human being today has lost.
"But since the household organism is a real world, the human being can and must acquire this knowledge again. For these beings live in processes, live in events. And the homemaker stands in the midst of such events. For housework consists of processes of different kinds, and in these jobs the homemaker continually influences the life-spheres of elemental beings. If she experiences the household as an organism, then she has an initial basis for a path of knowledge. She revitalizes her work through thinking about it each day. Processes, which had been unconscious before, now become visible--she begins to wake up."
From a fabulous slim book with a title that will never ever land it on "The New York Times" bestseller list: "The Spiritual Tasks of the Homemaker" (scroll way down), by Manfred Schmidt-Brabant, 1996, published by Temple Lodge Publishing, a wonderful Rudolf Steiner press.
You may be seeking deeper intimacy. Spiritual intimacy. You may be wanting to be known more deeply and seen more truly--by your partner or by your own gorgeous self. You may want to be relished, ravaged, broken open, loved for who you truly are.
What a coincidence--Valentine's Day is coming up.
Here is what the Chattering Mind suggests: the best present to give any loved one is the work of writer David Deida.
Deida's writings and lectures on men, women, sexuality, wholeness, and spirituality now come in several forms. I quote a couple of charteristically passionate passages from his book "Blue Truth" below. Have a look.
As a founding associate of the Integral Institute, Deida has taught and conducted research at the University of California's Medical School in San Diego, and the University of California at Santa Cruz. He preaches sexuality as a spiritual practice, as a rite of passage, as a sacred act. He says a lot of us are going through the sexual motions, but there is so much more we can learn from our partners and from our own sexual development.
If you're shopping for a man in your life, study the write-up for "The Way of the Superior Man," which you might have to buffer with a box of chocolates so you don't look like you're trying to change him. Because you're not! You want him to know himself, so he can love from his deepest, truest resevoirs.
If you're shopping for a woman, the book "Dear Lover" is a wonderful choice. It provides astonishing perspectives on the love that comes from a full and open heart. An ideal gift for two people in love to give themselves, would be the new Deida audio course on "Enlightened Sex."
I once met a man at a party who said he was getting a divorce.
"Oh, I'm so so sorry," I said.
"It's okay," said he. "I didn't really know my wife."
Then I lamented, "Oh! Well! Who's to say anyone ever really knows anyone these days!"
"No, really," the man insisted."We were married in a sports stadium at one of the Unfication Church's mass wedding ceremonies. The Reverend Sun Myung Moon presided. My wife and I were perfect strangers!"
"Naive youth gets lost in the brief rush of pleasure. Depressed grown-ups linger in the not-enough of vacant embrace. The truth is that every moment is tangibly insubstantial. The true lover surrenders beyond all hold, as naked life is.
"But to get to this point requires outgrowing your grasp on feeling good--or bad--about sex. Early in your sexual life, enjoy the thrill of romance and fascination for as long as it lasts. Then, frolic in the middle days of unsatifying but decent sexual routine.
"Eventually, when hope has worn away, when you have no other choice, relax in the coat of emptiness you already wear. Don love's open bliss. Bear edgeless luminosity. Sex is a revelation of what is, intensely."
"Modern-day spiritual culture tends to be a lukewarm miasma of stiffened women and spineless men--very efficient and quite prudent. Once you have balanced your inner masculine and feminine, after you have achieved self-sufficient wholeness, you may naturally desire to outgrow the boundaries of a merely safe and comfortable life.
"Deep down, would you rather settle for safety and comfort, or open so wide you live as love's tremendum, sometimes shouting, sometimes fighting, always unprotected, your heat exposed as a free gift, your body quaking with the force of love unbound?"
Chattering Mind is now on an e-mailed Beliefnet newsletter called GLOW that can rest peacefully within your virtual inbox of work memos, love letters, and spam, gently beckoning you to open it up and savor its helpful contents. "Helloooooo. Find peace. Open GLOW." Don't you hear the music? Don't you already feel more relaxed?
Actually, it's not just me that can come--like an angel--fluttering into your sacred cyberspace directly, it's a truly excellent five-day-a-week roundup of inspirational material. The GLOW newsletter includes: cool audio lessons from top spiritual authors (provided by publisher Sounds True); daily spiritual guidance, uplifting quotes, quizzes, discussions and other tools for your journey. And then of course, me, Chattering Mind, yours truly. I am flattered.
I caught the tail end of PBS's program on Deitrich Bonhoeffer last night, and I was so moved by the quote used to end the program, that I ran to my desk to find the paragraph online. Actually, what's interesting, is that this famous passage from a letter to Bonhoeffer's wife is often condensed. And it's much more universally appealing in its condensed form, though many people, Christians especially, will see how Bonhoeffer's Christian passion is mislaid in the edits. This letter was written the day after the 1944 conspiracy to assassinate Hilter had failed, a day Bonhoeffer was aware that the Nazis would soon find and arrest him.
Here is the famous passage as often quoted:
"I discovered later, and I'm still discovering right up to this moment, that is it only by living completely in this world that one learns to have faith. By this-worldliness I mean living unreservedly in life's duties, problems, successes and failures, experiences and perplexities. In so doing we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God, taking seriously, not our own sufferings, but those of God in the world. That, I think, is faith."
And here is the passage from the letter verbatim. I've put the deleted sentences and phrases in italics.
"I discovered later, and I'm still discovering right up to this moment, that is it only by living completely in this world that one learns to have faith. One must completely abandon any attempt to make something of oneself, whether it be a saint, or a converted sinner, or a churchman (a so-called priestly type!), a righteous man or an unrighteous one, a sick man or a healthy one. By this-worldliness I mean living unreservedly in life's duties, problems, successes and failures, experiences and perplexities. In so doing we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God, taking seriously, not our own sufferings, but those of God in the world — watching with Christ in Gethsemane. That, I think, is faith; that is metanoia; and that is how one becomes a man and a Christian (cf. Jer. 45!). How can success make us arrogant, or failure lead us astray, when we share in God's sufferings through a life of this kind?"
I find this next Bonhoeffer quote of great interest to people sometimes described as "spiritual, but not religious." Actually, I am a Presbyterian who writes on contemplative spiritual matters that might appeal to those of emerging or blended faith. Despite my interests, I feel vaguely disconnected from the vocally religious, sensing more of a loving kinship with those open to faith but perplexed by it too.
Here's what Bonhoeffer said. This is also from 1944.
"I often ask myself why a Christian instinct frequently draws me more to the religionless than to the religious, by which I mean not with any intention of evangelizing them, but rather, I might almost say in brotherhood. While I often shrink with religious people from speaking of God by name--because that Name somehow seems to me here not to ring true, and I strike myself as rather dishonest (it is especially bad when others start talking in religious jargon; then I dry up completly and feel somehow oppressed and ill at ease)-with people who have no religion I am able to speak of God quite openly and as it were naturally."
"The nanny is very consistent, judicious, and kind, which are all good things to be. But the most important thing she does is create space in which people can make the decision to change. She's very much like a Zen master in this respect. She'd not touched by anything; she can't be made angry. I certainly wish I had her patience."
"It is a shame more parents don't know about the affects of dyes and flavorings on children. I ran into this problem with my son when he had constant ear infections. Unfortunately for him, all of the antibiotics came with dyes and flavorings to make them palatable. What happened was that I thought he was allergic, but really it was a reaction to those additives. The pharmacists were sympathetic, but their hands were tied. We had to endure hyperactivity, wetting the bed sometimes, and a completely different child until he reached the age where he could take pills/capsules without the extra junk. I would never have known about this had another parent experienced it as well and passed the info on to me."
I know, I know. Pass the word. So many of these reactions are particular to the constitution of the individual child. But here's a study that implies very young children develop skin rashes less often after antibiotic use when the antibiotic is uncolored and dye-free.
"Right now, and in every now-moment, you are either closing or opening. You are either stressfully waiting for something--more money, security, affection--or you are living from your deep heart, opening as the entire moment, and giving what you most deeply desire to give, without waiting.
"If you are waiting for anything in order to live and love without holding back, then you suffer. Every moment is the most important moment of your life. No future time is better than now to let down your guard and love.
"Everything you do right now ripples outward and affects everyone. Your posture can shine your heart or transmit anxiety. Your breath can radiate love or muddy the room in depression. Your glance can awaken joy. Your words can inspire freedom. Your every act can open hearts and minds.
"Opening from heart to all, you live as a gift to all. In every moment, you are either opening or closing. Right now, you are choosing to open and give fully or you are waiting. How does your choice feel?"
I have such admiration for Mothering Magazine's founding editor Peggy O'Mara. For twenty-seven years, her heroic periodical has published articles that have raised the nation's consciousness on our routine vaccination of infants with compounds that contain mercury. In this month's issue, O'Mara writes a history of her tireless crusade (well, I'm sure she got tired). She also publishes a thrilling article by Amy Lansky, Ph.D., about how she and her husband turned their son's autism diagnosis around through dietary changes, homeopathy and osteopathy (a winning combination). Lansky's book on the subject is called 'Impossible Cure: The Promise of Homeopathy.'
In a couple of weeks, the kids and I will give dozens of heart-shaped sugar cookies as gifts to their teachers and classmates, and this year, we'll ice them in frosting that's a lovely shade of all-natural red! Finally. As steady readers may recall, I believe that conventional red coloring--Red Dye #40--makes some kids hyperactive and difficult to love. But this year, my food coop is stocking Seelect's Red-Strawberry food color made from the condensed juice of black currants. Look for it in health food stores.
For more information about how dyes and preservatives could well be one of the causes of your child's learning delays and manic behavior, I am happy to introduce you to the Feingold Diet and its marvelous website.
Combine the spiritual backdrop of the South African a cappella group Ladysmith Black Mambazo with the lovely top note of Emmylou Harris, and Lord, Lord, you've got one beautiful version of the old standard "Amazing Grace." It's on Ladysmith Black Mambazo's new album "Long Walk to Freedom," which features other nice cameos from Sarah McLachlan, Taj Mahal, and Zap Mama.
Incidentally, a whole book was written on the history and significance of "Amazing Grace." And here's a link to an online biography of the lyricist, John Newton.
Last weekend, I attended a two-day workshop on Ken Wilber's integral philosophy. It will take me quite awhile to feed you all the teachings, links, and wonderful contacts I made. The Integral Institute's teaching crew came in from Boulder, Colorado. They are all experienced practioners of the integral method, as well as thoughtful, seasoned meditators. The workshop was attended by about one hundred people from all walks of life, some of whom had traveled great distances.
What does the term "integral" mean? Well, if you apply integral thinking to the world's religious and spiritual traditions, you would vanquish all religious hostility, all personal preferences for one over another, and you'd look at the religious landscape anew to find what is common, what is helpful, and what works. You would assume that every tradition is "true." If you were to apply the integral philosophy to medicine, for another example, you would integrate Western symptom-based methods with whole-body healing practices, the traditional with the new. Integral thinking is NOT saying, "Oh, just put a bunch of varied viewpoints into a blender and mash them up!" It's a method that teaches you how to see your own mind as a kind of multiple personality, and shows you how to attend to all your interior voices, thank them, and then integrate a purposeful world view and peaceful life practice.
The philosophy can be applied to politics, psychotherapy, the arts, business, all things where conflict resides. Like the word "integral" suggests, the method helps people find wholeness through an integrated study of everything available and sustainable. It is "integral" to consider what unites, rather than what divides.
This balanced philosophy touches me deeply, and helps me appreciate myself for being someone who always contained a lot of contradictory ideas and messages as a young girl. Family members would argue and advocate. I would hold many views simultanelously; I'd listen to a debate, feeling frightened and horrified. Everybody's right! Everybody's wrong! I was constantly trying to ferret out all the truths, all the theories, every opinion. This quality served me well later on, both as a friend and as a magazine journalist. But it has also left me feeling speechless too often, with so much going on inside.
Perhaps you perceive yourself in a similar way. You can see the need to meditate, the call to meditate, to calm the chattering mind. Even the exercising of the body is different when managed "integrally." You have three bodies, actually: the gross, the subtle, and the causal, and each needs its own workout! (We'll address the three bodies at another time.)
At the workshop, we did exercises that helped us understand the disowned parts of ourselves--our "shadows." We met in groups to process specific difficulties in our lives. We found and owned our own interior voices: "the protector," "the seeker," "the follower of the way," etc.
The teachers and attendees all expressed concern about the polarized world in which we now find ourselves, and yet we were excited by the feeling that much could change. One attendee, who works within the government, said that integral thinkers in Washington have been meeting and wondering if they should call themselves "transpartisan," so fed up are they with the polarized right and left. "Transpartisan" is a fascinating term I know you'll hear more about. I think it has legs.
Ken Wilber himself has the clearest head on these subjects, of course, and when I was a producer for Beliefnet.com, I was blessed to be the handler of his articles, which you
can read here. If you want to read more, here's our guide to Wilber's work.
For information about upcoming integral conferences in various parts of the country, click here. Ken Wilber puts fascinating audio and video interviews on this site, his most marvelous and flamboyant current effort: IntegralNaked.
"The more you control your physical actions to minimize violence, possessiveness, and sexual obsession, the more alive you feel, the more free you feel, the more peaceful your inner feeling. With violent interactions with others lessened, the more you can open up your sense of interconnection with others, from which your life energy draws immense sustenance. With possessive bonds with other persons and things lessened, the more free you are to appreciate persons and things perceived as owning themselves. With your erotic feelings of love and connection made less dependent on external persons and objects, they are free to well up within you in sublimated--that is more sublime forms of creativity, or even simple well-being.
..."Full behavioral entry into the infinite lifestyle means dropping everything that reinforces habits of the terminal lifestyle, to free yourself for enjoyment of your expanded evolutionary path. The main lesson here is that lessening your entanglement in superficial concerns and interactions is caring for yourself, being loving toward yourself, and establishes the basis of justice and love toward others."
When I was traveling last week, I threw my copy of Robert Gass's CD "Ancient Mother" into my suitcase without its case (remember when we thought CDs were indestructible?). Anyway, of course it broke, and I'm having to re-order it from Amazon.com since I know this is one series of spiritual chants and anthems I cannot live without. It's an old choral album (Gass's chanting ensemble is called "On Wings of Song,") but it was new to me until recently. Reverend Laurie Sue Brockway gave me my copy because she had some extras, and when she did so, Barbara Biziou, author of "The Joy of Family Rituals" happened to be standing next to us. Barbara said, "Oh, boy, I have worn my copy of that out! I love it."
Enough spiritual-name-dropping! Just check this album out. It begins with choral chants to a generalized "ancient mother," then transitions to homage to the Hindu four-armed goddess Kali. It includes tributes to the West African goddess Yemeya (ruler of maternity), and has lovely contemplative Christian chants to Mary on it too. You'll note in the Amazon.com reviews that not everybody expected the inclusion of the Christian music. I find that it all rolls nicely together into a fittingly passionate tribute to the divine feminine. I could play this CD all day. It soothes and calls me to action.
Robert Gass was trained at Harvard and the New England Conservatory. His best-selling album "Om Namaha Shivaya" was hailed by New Age Journal as "one of the twenty most influential recordings of the last twenty years." Says the well-loved Bernie Siegel, M.D., author of "Love, Medicine, and Miracles," "Robert Gass’s music heals me over and over again. I play it during surgery in the operating room."
For a complete listing of Gass's work over a period of four decades, you can search Amazon.com or check out his web page at Spring Hill Media.
Thanks to the reader who pointed out something I'd missed. Earth-based religious faiths do not condemn masturbation. In fact, they form a rather strong consensus in favor of it.
Rather than viewing human sexuality as separate and often antagonistic to religion, many Wiccans integrate sexuality, faith, and practice. The Council of American Witches issued a statement about their religion during their Spring Witchmeet of 1974, held in Minneapolis, MN. It says, in part:
"We value sexuality as pleasure, as the symbol and embodiment of Life, and as one of the sources of energies used in magickal practices and religious worship."
They regard human sexuality as a gift of the Goddess and God. It is an activity to be enjoyed responsibly in accordance with the Wiccan Rede. One form of the Rede is:
"Do what you wish, as long as it harms no one, including yourself."
Neopagans carefully consider any act in advance, and avoid those that are harmful to themselves or others. Masturbation is no exception. It is not harmful to other people, because (by definition) it is performed while one is alone. Most Wiccans agree with the best medical information indicates that it is not harmful to the individual either, but rather offers many benefits.
The "Charge of the Goddess" is an instruction of unknown antiquity that is recognized by many Neopagans. One part of it reads: "All acts of pleasure are my rituals." We have communicated with one Wiccan coven which has modified the Charge to read "All responsible acts of pleasure are my rituals." Responsible, in this case, would mean a sexual act that is free of any negative outcomes like pregnancy or disease. And it would also need to be non-manipulative, non-dominating, non-controlling, non-coercive, and consensual. Some Wiccans engage in the Great Rite which includes sexual intercourse in private between a committed couple as part of a circle religious ritual. We suspect that masturbation by solitary practitioners also forms part of some solitary Wiccan rituals.
Chattering Mind is a blog on motherhood, aging, health and healing, yoga, whole foods, spiritual music, meditation, as well as the struggle to manage time and clutter.
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Last week, British actress and dancer Moira Shearer died at age 80. Although her most famous film may still be analyzed in college women's studies classes, many of you young pups may not know it, which is why I want you to watch it when you can. Released in 1948, it's called 
I started by playing meditative flute music on the boom box (I don't know how to operate the kids' iPod unit yet). Then I sat cross-legged in a sunny spot on the dining room floor. Interested, Chester happily pranced over to me with a tennis ball in his mouth. Then the mailman dropped some magazines through the mail slot. Oh boy. This is Chester's favorite part of the day. So he barked a lot, and I just sat by myself in the sun, breathing and breathing. When Chester calmed down, I peeked at him. He was chewing some rawhide he'd never touched before. I closed my eyes again. Thoughts were coming, sure. Thoughts I've never had before. Thoughts like: "Why the bleep won't my dog meditate with me?"
One of the Chattering boys has been worried that though he is Jewish, he's no longer sure there's a God.
New York City got twenty-odd inches of snow on Sunday, and the city's plows have thrown tons of white powder off the streets and onto our parked cars. Five-foot banks of snow have settled on either side of the sidewalks too, and our dog Chester is confused. Nothing smells familiar.
It's the thinking man's 
This week, we commemorate the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth. I found a 
Many teachers look gorgeous, can chant until big tears stream down your cheeks, or demonstrate handstands that will make you say, "oh, if only I could...." But their job, dear reader, first and foremost, is to demonstrate each pose and then walk around the room, gently laying hands on students to make subtle corrections, and also demonstrate the sometimes tiny differences between right and wrong alignment. This is their holy work! It's the most important part of their job!
