Category Archives: Spirituality

Two Poems by Rumi

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I don’t know why, but I seem to think of Rumi in July.  In my second post, just over a year ago, I used his poem, “Story Water,” as a way of reminding myself of what I thought I was up to on this blog.  https://thefirstgates.com/2010/07/01/story-water/

In “Story Water,” this 13th century Persian poet, whose language leaves you speechless, suggests that most of the time we cannot apprehend truth directly – we need stories and poems as intermediaries.  They serve as messengers that both hide and reveal.  Here are two more of my favorite poems by Rumi.

***

“Love Dogs” speaks of the dark nights that contemplatives of all faiths experience in the quest to move beyond other people’s truths to direct experience.  Here it is in two forms – in the text, from the definitive translation by Coleman Barks, and read aloud by Barks to music – the way poetry was originally meant to be experienced.

The Essential Rumi - trans. by Coleman Barks with John Moyne

“Love Dogs” by Rumi.  Translated by Coleman Barks

One night a man was crying,
“Allah, Allah!”
His lips grew sweet with the praising,
until a cynic said,
“So! I have heard you
calling out, but have you ever
gotten any response?”
The man had no answer for that.
He quit praying and fell into a confused sleep.
He dreamed he saw Khidr, the guide of souls,
in a thick, green foliage,
“Why did you stop praising?”
“Because I’ve never heard anything back.”
“This longing you express
is the return message.”
The grief you cry out from
draws you toward union.
Your pure sadness that wants help
is the secret cup.
Listen to the moan of a dog for its master.
That whining is the connection.
There are love dogs no one knows the names of.
Give your life to be one of them.

***

“The Seed Market,” defies almost any attempt to describe it.  I can’t think of anything else in all of literature that paints such a sweeping truth in such simple, everyday language.  Solemn and joyous at once, I read “The Seed Market” when I gave a eulogy at my father’s memorial service, and yet this poem never makes me sad.  Quite the contrary.

“The Seed Market” by Rumi.  Translated by Coleman Barks

Can you find another market like this?

Where,
with your one rose
you can buy hundreds of rose gardens?

Where,
for one seed
you get a whole wilderness?

For one weak breath,
the divine wind?

You’ve been fearful
of being absorbed in the ground,
or drawn up by the air.

Now, your waterbead lets go
and drops into the ocean,
where it came from.

It no longer has the form it had,
but it’s still water.
The essence is the same.

This giving up is not a repenting.
It’s a deep honoring of yourself.

When the ocean comes to you as a lover,
marry, at once, quickly,
for God’s sake!

Don’t postpone it!
Existence has no better gift.

No amount of searching 
will find this.

A perfect falcon, for no reason,
has landed on your shoulder,
and become yours.

Kalachakra For World Peace: In Washington, DC and in Sacramento

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Did you know that the Dalai Lama is currently engaged in an 11 day ceremony in Washington DC, called  “The Kalachakra for World Peace?” Did you know that a Sacramento organization, the Lion’s Roar Dharma Center is giving a parallel ceremony from July 23, to July 30?  Please read on for the details.

Kalachakra Sand Mandala

Kalachakra, meaning Wheel of Time, is philosophy and set of practices that “revolve around the concept of cycles and time from the cycles of the planets, to the cycles of human breathing.  It teaches the practice of working with the most subtle energies within one’s body on the path to enlightenment.”  Kalachakra also refers to a Tibetan Yidam or meditational deity, who represents a Buddha.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalachakra

Yidam practice is complex and widely misunderstood, but here is a quick analogy: a kid who pretends to be Luke or Leah or Yoda is doing something similar – invoking a figure who represents and inspires bravery and wisdom.  Perhaps the child experiences an inflow of those qualities – except it is not really an inflow because it is already there, in seed form, inside all of us.  Imagination can awaken these latent potentials in a child and in a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism.

I used to pretend to be Davy Crockett for the same reason.  There was never any real confusion, although my mother looked at me strangely the day I asked her to pick up some bear meat the next time she went shopping – but I digress.

Kalachakra is one of the most advanced Tibetan practices, but because of his perception of the urgent need for non-violence in the world, the Dalai Lama opened this series of teachings to anyone who was interested.  A Tibetan Sangha in Sacramento, the Lion’s Roar Dharma Center, is offering a similar series of classes, beginning with an introductory lecture, July 23, from 7:00-9:00pm, followed by classes and empowerments from July 24-July 30. http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=rnxs8gcab&oeidk=a07e3puot1u6e5e5f26

Finally, here is a description of the ceremony by , a Tibetan nun who has been working in Washington since May, 2010 to prepare for the Dalai Lama’s performance of this ritual, which is now in progress.

http://www.npr.org/2011/07/14/137848121/in-washington-a-ritual-for-world-peace?ft=1&f=1003

A Retreat with Anam Thubten Rinpoche

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I recently heard the results of a poll that I found surprising: 50% of Americans report having had a “spiritual experience,” but of that group, 80% say they never want to have another. That was exactly the opposite of the 70 or 80 people who gathered on Saturday for a daylong retreat with Anam Thubten Rinpoche, sponsored by the Sacramento Buddhist Meditation Group.

Anam Thubten Rinpoche

Rinpoche is a Tibetan word meaning, “precious one,” and is usually only applied to those recognized as reincarnations of spiritual leaders or teachers of the past, most famously, the current 14th Dalai Lama.

I first attended a retreat with Anam Thubten in December, 2005 and have been fortunate enough to get to a half-dozen more since then, for his home and teaching center, the  Dharmata Foundation in Point Richmond, CA, is not far away.  In the years since I first heard him, the clarity, resonance, and joy contained in his teachings have brought him greater renown:  his book, No Self, No Problem, originally published by the Dharmata Foundation, has been picked up by Snow Lion Press (a self-publishing success story!), and he was chosen to kick off the ongoing series of online retreats at Tricycle.com

In my own efforts to write of the concept of no-self last December, I quoted Anam Thubten for his simple, experiential way of presenting the concept:  “this ‘I’ is a fictitious entity that is always ready to whither away the moment we stop sustaining it.  We don’t have to go to a holy place to experience this.  All we have to do is simply sit and pay attention to our breath, allowing ourselves to let go of all our fantasies and mental images”

It should be clear that any culture like Tibet, that believes in Rinpoches, is not using the concept of “no-self” to tell us we don’t exist or that life does not continue after death.  In Anam Thubten’s vision, “no-self” means an end to the painful illusion of seperation, an end to isolation, an end to living in a friend-or-foe, fight-or-flight world.

Yet although he mentioned this concept, which first drew me to his teachings, on Saturday he had a different focus, “Primordial Mind,” the unconditioned and indefinable base of what we are, prior to concepts, prior to ego, prior to all delusions.  The experience of this spacious mind is surprisingly near if we are willing to let go of fixed concepts, and practice a simple meditation technique, and if we are motivated by devotion, by longing for union with the absolute the way a thirsty man longs for water.

Anam Thubten’s book elaborates the concepts we need to let go  of as well as his favorite meditation practice – the simple but difficult art of learning to relax and let go of effort, even the effort to meditate “well.”  This longing – for God or the guru or Buddha; for oneness, or emptiness or, selflessness, or enlightenment – however we conceive of the ultimate good, is finally a longing for love, he said, and this is what remains when our fixed ideas break down.  In Anam Thubten’s teaching, God is love, or Buddha Nature is love, as it is in the words of many other spiritual masters.

My description is close to being new-agey, which is why Anam Thubten is the teacher and I am not.  He didn’t gloss over the difficulty and struggles involved in a serious spiritual search, and in his quiet and understated way he noted that if one is not receptive, “this talk will be very strange.”

In the end, it is the person of the teacher himself that does the convincing.  Is this person really what he seems – genuinely centered, full of peace and compassion?  I believe Anam Thubten really is a man of peace and joy and I trust his message that what he has found is accessible to anyone willing to look and make the effort.   More information and his teaching schedule can be found at the Dharmata Foundation website,  http://www.dharmatafoundation.com/

Dharmata is a word that means, “the way things truly are.”

The Royal Wedding, Rowan Williams, and Generosity

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Having declined the invitation from a British friend to watch the Royal Wedding live, Mary set the DVR, and we watched the event when we were home during the day.  I was busy with other things, but looked up at several points, for there is something hopeful and compelling about such a pageant.  At the same time, I’d watched Helen Mirren in The Queen the previous week, so I couldn’t help but think of Diana.  You have to wish this couple a happier fate.

What really caught my attention – and we backed this up to hear it again – was the homily delivered by Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, after the vows were taken.  The gist of it was, as faith in God or a Higher Power has receded, we do a disservice to our marriage partners by demanding of them a fulfillment another human being cannot provide.

I searched online this morning but could not find the sermon.  I did find this interview with Williams conducted before the ceremony.  The word I most often heard him use was “generosity.”  He hoped that watching this service might renew our sense of generosity to ourselves and to others.  It’s a very nice way to think of the Royal Wedding.

Any priest or minister conducting a wedding is bound to feel a huge sense of privilege.  You’re invited into some intimate places in people’s lives.  You’re invited to take part in a very significant moment, a moment of hope; a moment of affirmation about people’s present and future.  And I’ve felt very privileged to be part of this event for those reasons.  Here are young people sending a message of hopefulness, sending a message of generosity across the world.  And it’s my privilege to be able to bless that in the name of God, to witness it in the name of God, and to send them on their way. – Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury

http://www.youtube.com/user/lambethpress?blend=23&ob=5

Spiritual Bypassing: An Interview with John Welwood

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John Welwood has studied, taught, and written about the relationship of psychotherapy and spiritual practice for thirty years.  He is currently the editor of the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology and author of Journey of the Heart.

In an interview in the Spring issue of Tricycle, Welwood discusses the concept of “spiritual bypassing” which he presented three decades ago:  http://www.tricycle.com/interview/human-nature-buddha-nature.  According to Welwood, spiritual bypassing is the “tendency to use spiritual ideas and practices to sidestep or avoid facing unresolved emotional issues, psychological wounds, and unfinished developmental tasks.”

Both eastern and western world views implicitly or explicitly elevate spirit over flesh, absolute truth over relative truth, and the impersonal over the personal.  Welwood says such an attitude is fraught with danger:  “One might, for example, try to practice nonattachment by dismissing one’s need for love, but this only drives the need underground, where it is likely to become acted out in covert, unconscious, and possibly harmful ways.”

We’ve all seen that dynamic play out in headlines of scandals involving both eastern gurus and western clergy.  Other consequences of an exclusive focus on the transcendent are less dramatic but far more pervasive.  I once attended a talk presented by a large organization that teaches eastern spiritual practice.  The group is well regarded – never a hint of scandal.  During the Q&A following the talk, one young woman said, “I cried when cat died recently.  Was that okay?”  Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief when the speaker said yes.

Is it all right to be myself?  Is it all right to think what I think and feel what I feel?  Not if the focus of practice is transcendence of all that is messy in the human condition.  Welwood has seen a lot of this in his therapeutic practice and says:

One Indian teacher, Swami Prajnanpad, whose work I admire, said that “idealism is an act of violence.” Trying to live up to an ideal instead of being authentically where you are can become a form of inner violence if it splits you in two and pits one side against the other.

For anyone interested in or engaged in spiritual practice, this is a worthwhile article to consider, as John Welwood tries to articulate the vision of a spiritual discipline that aims to fully develop both “poles” of our nature, the human and the divine.

A Few Good Online Meditation Resources

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In my previous post, I talked of the need to step away from our stories, drop the persona from time to time.  One of methods I use on a daily basis – and have for three decades – is meditation.

I was in high school when the Beatles went to India, and something about their trip to the east instantly resonated with me.  I wanted to learn how to meditate, but there weren’t very many resources – no centers where I lived, and just a handful of books.  The one I chose didn’t help very much – I now realize it must have been written by an academic, someone who was commenting on commentaries, probably without any personal experience.

Now the situation is just the opposite – an embarrassment of riches.  There is plenty of chaff in the wheat – how to sort it out?  I thought I would outline three classic styles of meditation, and provide some web links from reputable and expert sources.  One is the Buddhist practice of Vipassana, or Insight Meditation.  Two are ancient Christian practices, revived and restated for our times by such pioneers as Thomas Merton.  It is always an advantage to find a group of like-minded practitioners, and the links given below should lead to some of the centers that have sprung up, for those who are interested.

Vipassana or Insight Meditation

This is a Theravada Buddhist practice that consists of two steps, (1) learning to concentrate the mind by watching the breath, and (2) using the concentrated mind to observe the mind itself, attending to the sensations, thoughts, and feelings that pass through awareness.  It is non-sectarian.  It requires no profession of faith, or any belief whatsoever, aside from an acceptance that “Know Thyself” is possible and a good idea.

The most influential American teachers of insight meditation are Jack Kornfield, Sharon Salzberg, and Joseph Goldstein, who founded the Insight Meditation Society in 1975, and are still teaching.  An article by Kornfield and a recently published book by Salzberg are good starting places to explore.

“Doing the Buddha’s Practice” by Jack Kornfield.  Published as an article in the July 2007 issue of Shambala Sun, available as a free PDF download at the Spirit Rock website:   http://www.spiritrock.org/display.asp?pageid=484&catid=3 The site itself has a wealth of information, a list of classes, and hundreds of audio teachings.

Real Happiness:  The Power of Meditation by Sharon Salzberg

This book was featured in a 28 day online meditation “challenge” in February, 2011 on Tricycle.com.  People who register as supporting members ($30/year) can access month-long Q&A and discussions with the author.   In addition to the the text, which presents theory and practice over 28 days, there is a CD which includes nine guided meditations.

Christian Meditation.

The World Society for Christian Meditation, formed by John Main, teaches a simple practice of mantra meditation, similar to “the Jesus Prayer,” which was first documented by John Cassian in the 4th century.  The simple technique, local groups, a newsletter and a listing of classes are all available at this website:   http://www.wccm-usa.org/

Centering Prayer

In the ’60’s, Thomas Merton was dismayed to see scores of young people looking to eastern traditions for contemplative practice.  After years of meeting with Buddhist teachers, he realized a very similar tradition of contemplation for Christians was hiding in The Cloud of Unknowing, a 13th century anonymous tract.  There other monks in Merton’s order, Thomas Keating, Basil Pennington, and William Menninger organized Contemplative Outreach to spread the discipline they called, Centering Prayer.   http://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/site/PageServer

This is just a starting point for anyone interested.  Any number of contemplative groups from all denominations have discovered the power of the web to make their teachings available.  Anyone who wants to learn to meditate can use this medium to learn how to do so.

The World as Shapeshifter: A Hindu Parable

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Generalizations are dangerous, and here comes a big one:  western cosmologies posit a substantial world because God made it.  Eastern traditions declare the world to be illusory because God dreams it.  This naturally shapes traditional tales of the east, where the emphasis is not on sorting out truth and illusion, but waking up altogether.  As one online Zen teacher quipped, “Strictly speaking, the phrase, ‘true thought,’ is an oxymoron.”

Vishnu Dreams the Universe

Quips aside, the Hindu tradition asserts that nothing is more difficult or more important than waking up to the illusory nature of ordinary appearances, which makes true seem false and false seem true. The name for this cosmic illusion is Maya, beautifully illustrated in the following story, in which Krishna, an incarnation of God, gives his disciple, Narada, an experience of Maya.  The one thing worth noting at the outset is that Narada was already a fully enlightened being; the webs of illusion can even snare a sage.

***

One day as they were out walking, Narada asked Krishna to explain the nature of Maya.  Krisha replied, “Narada, Maya cannot be explained, it can only be experienced.  Come with me.”

Krishna led them to a desert.  Narada asked what a desert had to do with anything, and Krishna said, “Just wait.”

They walked on until Krishna collapsed and said, “Narada, my friend, I can’t go any farther.  Will you get me some water?”

Narada walked on until he came to a village.  At the well, a beautiful young woman drew him some water.  Narada was so taken with her, he followed her home, and was welcomed by her father, the headman of the village.  Before long, Narada asked for her hand in marriage.  Her father agreed, on the condition that Narada stay in the village and live in the family home.

Shortly after the wedding, the girl’s father died, and Narada became headman of the village.  He prospered, and in time, four children were born, but just at the height of his success, a devastating cyclone blew through the land.  Narada put his family in a boat but it capsized in the flood, and his wife and children were lost.

The poor man crawled onto shore and collapsed in the mud, lamenting.  “My wife is gone, my children are dead!  How can I live without them?”

Just then he found himself at the feet of Krishna who said, “Narada, did you remember my water.”

***

It just seems wrong to add anything to a story like this, so I won’t.

Christmas Tree Facts and Legends

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I started out thinking of posting some kind of historical summary of Christmas trees but abandoned that notion after the first Google search.  Who knows when humans first noticed the start of the sun’s return at the darkest time of the year?  When did we first wonder why some plants stay green while others wither?

For a good overview, check out history.com: http://www.history.com/topics/history-of-christmas-trees. Rather than compete with the History Channel, I decided to simply post a few interesting tidbits and legends I happened across.

In Ancient Times:

The Egyptians did not have pine trees, but they did have palms, another evergreen tree, and they brought the fronds inside at the time of the winter solstice to celebrate the return of Ra, the sun god.

The prophet Jeremiah condemned the middle-eastern practice current in his time, of bringing trees indoors (often carved in the shape of a god or goddess) and decorating them.  Jeremiah 10:2-4 has often been cited by Christians who oppose the custom, even though the passage was written centuries before the birth of Christ.

As a Tool for Evangelism?:

Early Christians in Rome apparently set the date for Christmas to December 25 in an effort to convert members of the popular cult of Mithras, a dying and resurected god whose birth fell on that date.  Supposedly, these early Christians incorporated trees into their celebration, as an additional appeal to the Mithraic cult.

Mithras in a tree

Tertullian (160-230) a church leader and prolific writer, complained of those Christians who adopted the pagan custom of lighting lamps and hanging laurel wreaths at the time of the solstice.  With or without trees, Constantine ratified Dec. 25 as the birth of Christ, a move aimed at followers of both Mithras and Saturn, who had major holidays at the time of the solstice.

The Evergreen Vs. the Oak:

On a mission to the Germanic people in 725, St. Boniface, in an effort to stop human sacrifice, cut down Thor’s tree, a scared oak, supposedly with one blow of the axe.   A little fir tree appeared on the stump, which Boniface said was the tree of the Christ Child, and a symbol of eternal life.  He instructed the people to take such trees into their homes and place gifts at the base, “as symbols of love and kindness.”

The Paradise Tree:

Beginning in the eleventh century, one of the popular “Mystery Plays” depicted Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden.  The plays were presented in winter, so evergreens were the logical choice to represent the lush trees of the garden.  They were decorated with apples, the forbidden fruit, and over time, with communion wafers as well – the tree of knowledge became the tree of life.

This resulted in a very old European custom of decorating a fir tree in the home with apples and small white wafers representing the Holy Eucharist at Christmas time. These wafers were later replaced by little pieces of pastry cut in the shapes of stars, angels, hearts, flowers, and bells. http://www.eldrbarry.net/mous/saint/xmastree.htm

The First Written Record of a Christmas Tree:

1510, in Latvia.  Men of the Merchant’s Guild decorated a tree with artificial roses, set it on fire, and danced around it while it burned – well, okay, that might be just a little bit pagan… 

The rose was already a symbol of the Virgin Mary, which makes me wonder if they were using the smoke to send prayers or offerings to heaven.  Or maybe they just had a little too much mulled wine.

The First Lighted Candles on Christmas Trees:

One account credits Martin Luther, who was pondering a sermon while walking home, and happened to look up at a dazzling sky full of stars, shining through evergreen boughs.  As a result, he is said to have set up a lighted Christmas tree for his family.

Martin Luther's Christmas Tree

Another source claims the custom of lighted candles originated in France in the 18th century, but every other bit of European Christmas tree lore I’ve found is Germanic in origin, which makes me doubt that claim.

The First Christmas Trees in America:

On the night of December 25, 1776, while Washington led his rag-tag army across the Deleware in a driving snowstorm, unsuspecting Hessian troops in Trenton celebrated what they expected to be a peaceful Christmas night.  One source speculates that their Christmas trees, fueling nostalgia for home, helped draw them from their guard posts to go indoors and celebrate.  Hessians, including the mercenaries who fought with the British, are credited with bringing the custom in America.

The First Christmas Tree in a Church:

The prize for this innovation goes to Pastor Henry Schwan of Cleveland, OH, who decorated a tree in his church in 1851.  The congregation initially objected to this pagan practice, and Schwan received threats of physical violence, but “objections soon dissipated.”

The First Christmas Tree in the White House:

December, 1853, under the administration of Franklin Pierce.

The Christmas Tree Ship:

Thanks to Gordon Lightfoot, everyone knows of the Edmund Fitzgerald, a freighter that sank on Lake Superior in November, 1975, but an earlier disaster, “when the storms of November came early,” also captured the public imagination.  On Nov. 23, 1912, the Rouse Simmons (named for the industrialist whose name still appears on mattresses) was bound for Chicago with a load of Christmas trees.  She sank in a storm off Two Rivers, WI with fifteen men and one woman aboard.

The Rouse Simmons

Legend says the Rouse Simmons can sometimes be seen rising out of the fog on Christmas Eve.

The Christmas Truce:

To the later consternation of generals, peace broke out all along the western front on December 25, 1914.  There was no plan, no prearrangement, and it seems to have happened differently in different sections of the line.  In one account, the Germans began singing, Stille Nacht, the British responded with Silent Night, and men on both sides spontaneously climbed out of their trenches, hands in the air,  to meet in no-man’s land.  They traded cigarettes, food, and song.  When daylight came, they played soccer.  The story usually has hostilities resuming the next day, but in some parts of the line, the men were able to resist orders to resume fighting for several weeks.

British and German soldiers together, Dec. 25, 1914
In one account, on FirstWorldWar.com: Along many parts of the line the Truce was spurred on with the arrival in the German trenches of miniature Christmas trees–Tannenbaum. The sight these small pines, decorated with candles and strung along the German parapets, captured the Tommies’ imagination, as well as the men of the Indian corps who were reminded of the sacred Hindu festival of light.

Festivals of Light:

Light is what the solstice is about all over the world, in any number of ways. Hanukkah is the eight day Jewish Festival of Lights in early December.  Diwali is the five day Festival of lights in early December for Hindus, Sikhs, and Jains.  Both holidays celebrate the victory of good over evil, of light over darkness.

Until the 20th century, December 13, was thought to be the longest night of the year in Scandanavian countries.  December 13 is the feast day of St. Lucy, one of the few festivals of a saint celebrated in Northern Europe.  On Saint Lucy, or Santa Lucia’s day, young girls in march in procession carrying candles or even wearing crowns of candles in the north, and in Italy, Malta, and the Balkans.

Paramahansa Yogananda said it only takes one little flame to drive a thousand years of darkness out of a cave.  In this time of cold and darkness, may we consider the way that light and warmth manifest and can manifest in our own lives.