Poem from Hildegard von Bingen

 I am the one whose praise echoes on high. 

I adorn all the earth.

I am the breeze that nurtures all things green.

I encourage blossoms to flourish with ripening fruits. 

I am led by the spirit to feed the purest streams. 

I am the rain coming from the dew 

That causes the grasses to laugh with the joy of life.

I call forth tears, the aroma of holy work. 

I am the yearning for good.

Hildegard understood God being everywhere, in all creation, and at the same time being transcendent.  

Currently, as has been said, we suffer nature deprivation. In the vast majority of earth time, humans have lived in nature, and they learned from it about many things, including about God.  Nowadays it's mostly the asphalt jungle. 

It seems to lead to a certain insanity, insanity that d eludes us and leads us away from connection to self, to others, to nature, and to God. Increasing numbers are led to a frenzy of violence and ugliness, to extreme immorality and cruelty. Some just escape it all into the matrix of electronics. 

We see civilization unravelling in so many ways. There is a crazed atmosphere in dark places that seem to grow as the evening shadows grow. 

If we are to turn this around, we need to turn and find the way back to wholeness, to holiness. 

Whether or not this wave of civilization can be turned and saved is not known. Many civilizations have come and gone.  

Higher Thought

 The usual thought about this and that revolves around common sense and nonsense. The essential spiritual truths are something other, and they cannot be fully spoken or written of. They are found by sincere seekers,  those with pure heart. These seekers try to speak of It or write of It, but can merely point toward. Just as if you have never eaten a mango, my words of description would not give you the actual taste. So too, we sort of need to open to the experience of God and prepare ourselves.

It seems that there is a continuum from our limited view to those who have touched the Highest, to a journey into the Infinite. Eckhart declared that God is no thing, not nothing, but no thing. 

Along the way, people often make God and the way to God into a thing or many things: a physical thing like a statue, an idol, an amulet; rituals and special activities; sequestered in special writings and creeds: and exclusive to their particular group.

But I suggest the Creator of the miraculous universes fits in no thing. Let us open ourselves to the magnificent, transcendent and immanent God. Let us let go of the old tiny God  

The Seed of my Quest ....Blast From the Past

 In 1958, when I started college, If began to examine my beliefs and realized many of them were not based on reality or facts. The first big kick in my beliefs came from a book with the forward by Albert Einstein, "Man and His Gods" by Homer Smith. In my later years, I found the science, history, and archeology had moved way beyond what was known by the end of the 19th century where this book ends. 

However, some of the basic ideas about religion broadly apply still. Humans across all of our history, possibly all 350,000 years of it, have felt and believed in something More. Myths, rituals, talismans, magic, sacrifices, art, and most traces of us show our propensity to seek A Higher Power, THE Higher Power,  or an array of Higher Powers . 

It was eye opening to me to discover all currently practised religions are very recent - Hinduism in various versions and the Vedic probably the oldest almost 4,000 years ago, Judaism perhaps starting with the Moses story about 3,200 years ago, Buddhism and Taoism 2,600 years ago, Christianity 2,000 years ago, and Islam 1,400 years ago. Compared to human history, all of these are extremely recent.

As a naive young woman, it had seemed to me Christianity had been here for a long long time. But it hasn't. We got a newly ordained woman as our youth minister. She told me I was so spiritual that I should go to Africa and save people. I said to her, Do you mean some woman who is a good person, A good wife and mother, is going to hell because she's not a Presbyterian? She told me that was the case and wasn't it sad? I told her it was crazy and took my membership out of the church. I was horrified that she also condemned to hell those who have been on this earth before 2,000 years ago -  all of our ancestors, no matter how good and kind they had been.  My mind was in a whirl. 

That was the seed of the quest I've been on ever since. It was the seed of this blog and the name I choose for it. Thank you so much for being on this quest with me!

As you read my thoughts over the years, you know my heart and my life and how I live my life are all about The More, about striving to live as Jesus taught. Following his particular path for me is not about the superficial, it's about the goal of becoming as Christ-like as possible.  I believe fervently that if we lived his teaching, we would have peace and plenty for all. 

Two vs ONE

 Language can give us clues to spiritual truths.  Greek prefix dys- (as in dyspepsia) and the Latin dis- (as in dishonorable) are both derived from “duo” meaning two.  Dubious and doubt mean two minded. 

Great mystics speak of oneness. Scientists tell us of rapidly circulating atoms that make up everything visible. In one year 98% of the atoms in our body are different atoms.  Theoretically we have in us atoms that were once in every other person, animal, and plant that ever existed. 

At the cosmic/spiritual level we are One, one in Spirit, one in God. At the physical level we are one. It is our opinions, whether true or false or muddled, that seem to divide us. 

C.  S. Lewis spoke of people getting bent. The extremely bent are tipped over the edge by fiery and extreme language of the mistaken shouting hatred and horrid name calling.  

I call on humanity to pull back from the cliff of extremism and turn to dialogue that is civil. Remember our actual oneness. As a pebble thrown in a body of water makes outgoing ripples, so too our words and actions make ripples in the world.  Make ripples of love, of thoughtful and calm dialogue, of peace and kindness

If you say you are a Christian, follow Christ by striving to be Christ-like. If you admire Buddha, strive to be Buddha-like. The word Islam means peace and submission to God. The core of Judaism is One God. the Torah and ethical living.  The core of Taoism is harmony with nature and effortless living. 

None of the great religions teach twoness,violence, murder, strife as virtues. Let us turn to these higher truths and attune ourselves to them.

Freedom or Not?

 Epictetus makes interesting points about freedom. One example is a lion caught and in a cage. He is fed and given water and his basic needs are taken care of, but can he said to be free?  What cage or cages do we find ourselves in?

If we think we absolutely require something or someone, we are not free. That someone or something holds us captive. If we get upset and weep and wail, it could be a sign we are captive. 

It seems to me that quite a few people are captive to an unexamined idea adopted from others. Civility seems to be out of style, so it is difficult to have an honest and calm debate about ideas. 

I suggest that, if we get upset over an idea, that is a signal we need to look at all sides.  If we are sure of something, we are calm. A simple example My name is Marlene, I know that without a doubt. If someone calls me say Gertrude or more typically Marilyn, I simply correct them, or just carry on. If someone accuses me f something I am not,, and if I am at peace with who I am, I am able to respond rather than react. I might say something like That's interesting, how did you come to that conclusion? Or I might just ignore it. Their opinion is not putting me in their cage. 

If you value freedom, have the courage to unlock your cages. Cease being controlled by outside influences. Practise responding rather reacting. Think things through What God and you think of you is what matters. 

A Zen Thought

 The one Moon reflects itself wherever there is a sheet of water, And all the moons in the waters are embraced within the one Moon.

 In the 1980's I sat Zen, that is did Zen meditation. Many profound ideas touched me. I share the above idea with you today. 

So imagine with me it is a full moon overhead, and we are near several ponds, buckets, and puddles of water. We look in them and see a reflection of the moon. They are all the same moon. They seem separate, but are of the one moon. 

So it is with God and us. We may appear separate, but the light of God, the same God, is in us all. Our job is to clear ourselves of the debris of anger, hatred, ignorance, fear, ego, and so forth, so that the light of God shines back to God and to all. Let your light so shine that it glorifies your Father in heaven...

Finding Essence

 There is an ancient story of a father teaching a son, who puffed up by his education, thinks he knows all. The father first tells his son to look at a lump of clay and tells him if you know clay, you know all things made of clay. Then the father asks him to pick a particular fruit and to break it open. He sees tiny seeds. The father tells him to break open a seed and asks what he sees.  The son realizes that he sees nothing. The father says "Yet there is the essence of the tree."

So too with God, the essence of all, in all. You cannot dissect to find God, you must go within, be still, and let the knowing rise. Be still and know that I am God.