Parakalein

Years ago I always thought that when God came into the garden of Eden after Adam and Eve together ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he was full of wrath and they were deserving of punishment.  The part of me that thought that way saw punitive angry God.

Today, my perception is different.  From a heart that has been healed of its hurt, anger and punitiveness I see with clarity full and complete compassion.

Humanity did one wrong thing.  That part of humanity was seen through the lens of God's love and grace not thru the lens of human anger, hurt, and punitiveness.  Thankfully God is not like us.  When we see God as God is, God invites us to become more like God is.

God sees the part that reached for something out of a desire to not miss anything.  So what humanity missed was that we already had all we needed inside we just did not know it so were not satisfied.  Dissatisfaction with what we had and desire for more couples together to create "unhappiness and discontentment".  God on the other hand was and is eternally and internally happy and content regardless of anything. God enters the Garden that Day as God is, full of peace and love, contentment and compassion.  The apostle Paul years later would speak of this state as what we all can mature into, "Godliness with Contentment as great gain".  It shifts perspective form the stuff that happens to the source of contentment and compassion inside.  Had Adam and Eve been able to step out of their hiding, punitive and self punitive parts they would have known the presence of the God of Love and Compassion.

So God stepped out of the human role of judgment, hurt, and punishment into the role of compassion and care.  God asked, "What can I do to help them, who I created, to be more appreciative of all that I have given them?  They had taken all God had provided for their being for granted as they did what they thought they needed to do.  They shifted from "human beings" to "human doings".  They shifted from enjoying who they are to "doing something" to feel better about who they were.  What happened is that what they did made them feel bad about who they are/were.  In doing they sacrificed their being.  So what they needed to learn is how to sacrifice their doing and embrace their being.

The doing of Adams work once a delight was now going to be hard work.  The doing of Eve's birthing would now be with pain.  This was not as many have interpreted it to be out of anger and punishment but as a way of helping Adam and Eve to learn to never take anything for granted, to increase appreciation through hard work and pain.  So the entreatments and instrument of work, pain and suffering are intentionally present in life not to create a negative or punitive presence but to invite us to appreciate and embrace all the experiences of life with contentment and Godly perspective.

Compassion is the key always and in everything.  Compassion is the quality of the image of God in us all and when we unveil compassion we see through the lens of compassion not only a different world but with difference we live in the world.  We live as beings who do, not as doers constantly frustrated in our being.

Just as faith without works is dead and works without faith is meaningless so too doing without being is dead so being without doing is lifeless.

Be all God made you to be full of grace and compassion and you will do all that God wants you to do in and with compassion, contentment.  The veil, of the temple and in our eyes, once removed allows the lens of compassion to be visible.

The cross, the intersection of being and doing, is the Garden of Eden (Man's doing/God's being), and the Garden of Gethsemane (God's being/ Man's doing).  The Cross invites all to step from the well of pain and suffering into the well of compassion.  The well of compassion is already in us and will spring up into internal and eternal compassion (John 4).

Martin Buber
"It is solely by virtue of ones power to relate that one is able to live in the spirit"


21st Century expanse
"It is dually by virtue of one's power to be vulnerable without self- extinction and one's power to be victorious with distinction that one is able to live in the spirit and in a mutually rewarding and sustainable relationship"

When God described self-identity as "I AM" it was proscriptive, prescriptive, and descriptive.
I was at a Psychotherapy and Meditation Conference and the panel debate was over the construct of self.
Self Compassion and Lovingkindness were at the core of everyone's agreement or nearly everyone.  So one of the panelists concluded that we, all the presenters (10) had agreed on one thing that Self is not a noun as it is constructed to define what the self needs to do, or what frustrations create the self as in self-compassion or self-indulgent.  When self as a thing is spoken of it is the label of frustration.  When we think of Self as developing energy than it is more like a verb, flowing energy and beyond being a thing but stimulating things, bringing them into being.

Internal Family Systems a model of therapy in which I practice creates in my mind a different idea as in that system, Self is itself energy, a thing, bigger than all humanity but present in every human person and beyond.  It is a thing.

The last presenters had presented a model of I am, we are, me is as a way of working with couples.  I am had been referred to during the conference in various ways.  Dr Willoughby Britton had responded to a questioner who quoted Hegel in "I am, therefore I am" (as a question for her comment) with the comment, "Why cannot we say just :"I AM."

I went to the microphone.  There was a part of me that wanted to talk about IFS and defend that model but felt that would be agenda driven so provoking.  Another part of me wanted to go "spiritual preacher" part, not so helpful.  Another part wanted to challenge the thought process of the moment in a thought invoking way.  Another part of me knows it is not about how much you say but about what you say and how it is received.

I said, "My comment that can invite each panel to comment is 'I AM' is a noun and a verb not either a noun or a verb".

I am at a conference on Meditation and Psychotherapy sponsoired by Harvard Medical College in Boston.
The brain according to one of the presenters the brain is hot wired to compassion.  They began to be asked about the violence and hostility.

I began to muse about the images of lion and lamb.  These arch type images suggest that while there is a part of us that are hot wired to violence and anger there is another part that is hot wired to compassion.

The vicarious suffering of the lamb leads to taking on the sufferings and hurt of humanity only to transform that in the courage of the Lion that swallows up the fear of death.  As CS Lewis stated "Jesus suffered not so we would not have to suffer but to teach us how to ( the role of) suffering to embrace the lamb and empower the lion.

There is a lion and a lamb in all of us/  A seed of power to destroy and a seed of the willingness ot sacrifice/.  The brain is hot wired to anger and violence to protect, promote and preserve (fight flight fright) but also it is hot wired to compassion, to calmness,, and to curiosity. .

There is no "I" in team
Except the "I AM" who is with ALL, in All and for All

I was out for a long walk along the beach on Long Island Sound.  On my way home I walked by a beautiful old stone church and noticed a sign that read:

"I love all kids everywhere"
                                   -God

As much as I appreciated the Truth, I mused that there is more truth to be spoken:

"I love all kids, all people, all nature wherever and whatever"
                                                             -God

Truly while people put parameters, perimeters, and boxes of all kinds on people of all kinds, God simply and serenely LOVES everyone everywhere regardess of anything or anyone.

Since the early 1950's this country observed and the president proclaimed a "National Day of Prayer".  Today in the National Cathedral and throughout the country in small hamlets and in large cities and in places in between, people will gather to pray for God's guidance on our leaders.

Driving to work the other day I heard of a movement to ask the President to declare a parallel National Day of Reason.  While I know that whoever is behind that movement it is probably due to the nature of the national Day of Prayer having a "Christian agenda" and implying that God favors a nation that prays.
At the same time, prayer, that is calling on a power beyond, outside and yet alongside of me when in distress is a very reasonable thing to do.  It is a way of stepping outside of our problems into light and that is a good thing to do fro perspective shifts and perception changes.

Former President Bill Clinton said in a speech at the 2008 Democratic Convention, "The world is nto so impressed by the Presence of America's power in the world as they are impressed by the Power of America's presence in the world".  Prayer calls on our leaders to know that it is "presence" not "power" that turns the heads and hearts of humanity.  Prayer is a way of practicing the presence of a power greater than ourselves and who sees presence as true power.

This is not a day to call for God to bless America no matter what or to make America, God's favorite nation.  It is to ask for God's favor to come upon all of the citizens and the leaders of our nation so we might be a people, "under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all".  To this end we pray.

Romans 12 tells us to be "transformed by the renewing of our minds" over and against the "being conformed to this world".

People over the ages, wise sages have interpreted this passage in many different ways.  All have a point within the context of living.  Few factor in "sacrificing" as part of living.  The argument goes:  I do not need to sacrifice to you as I have my rights too.  You are not more important than me. You may have the right to have it your way but does that mean I have to live the way you define? I do not have to be a rug and let you walk all over me. These parts of you or me have a point and are true butt they are not willing to sacrifice what they think to the way someone else thinks and certainly do not see how to create a win-win orientation and reality to this polarity.

Enter the gates of sacrifice, rather the willingness to sacrifice, and find the light of love shining a beam of transforming light.  With our minds we often think it is about someone wanting me to conform to their way or me getting people to conform to my way.  One person's distinctive can create indignity for an other's.  Embracing another persons right to believe or behave differently demands a deference to without creating an agreement with the other person.  When our minds think in "over and against" or "win-lose" ways we choose to empower conformity and uniformity.  When we let out minds be transformed we move to an "alongside of and win-win" orientation we choose to embrace autonomy and authenticity.

When humanity was first created humanity knew and appreciated all it had.  All things were valued and all were welcomed without any agenda and with full acceptance.  There was no shame or blame or guilt.
When we renew out minds we move back into a state of "welcoming all parts in and around us as well as welcoming all parts in and around everyone".  With this renewed mind all are at peace.  There is balance and harmony.  There is love without limits and love that is willing to sacrifice all and everything for anyone and everyone.

Maybe this is what Paul meant and means.  Are we willing to sacrifice our right to have what we want or like, what our egos need to be satisfied for that which satisfies beyond our ego.  The egos thirsts for power, control and conformity is set aside and the ego embraces the internal living water which is a perpetual thirst quencher.  It is the "willingness to sacrifice in me" meeting the "willingness to sacrifice in you" which creates a mindset of mindfulness.  The win-lose mindset of the world that calls us to conform is transformed into the win-win mindset of Christ whose mind was the dichotomy of "living sacrifice" and the anatomy of humility and grace.

It is surprising what we could accomplish in the world if we did not worry about who gets the credit but just joined hands in a partnership propelled by a "renewed mind".

Today, we build the highest and most secure building in NYC on ground zero.  We believe in the power of rising above trauma, in resiliency of spirit, and in the embrace of all.  Higher, bigger or taller buildings may feed our egos, or declare our ingenuity, or represent our resiliency but the greatest expression of power is when we can honor all people who have suffered at the hands of people defending their or someone's honor,  when we can be honest with ourselves and defer to others, and when we can humble ourselves and choose to set aside agendas and accolades in exchange for embracing autonomy, authenticity, audacity, and acceptance.

Tolerance of others leads to acceptance of all parts of all people regardless of anything and that leads not to the illusion of peace but to the transformation to peace.

So what if while building a tall building to say we stand tall in the wake of tragedy, we also began to practice being together as one.  In our differences we can defer to one another.  In deferring to one another we expand our universe to be inclusive not exclusive, attentive not attention seeking, and an us not a me.  In deferring we embrace our differences and distinctives with respect and true reverence.

When we honor our differences, we are honest about our uncertainties, and we are humble and certain of only one thing:  we are one and so we ned to live as one with respect toward all.