Christmas And Traditions of Light

SOLSTICE “SUN STANDS STILL”

The Winter Solstice is perhaps the most ancient holiday. Anthropologists suggest it may go back 30,000 years. When daylight diminished days shorter and colder people built bon fires and had rituals to induce or seduce the Sun to come back and bring light and life back to earth. Tradition of decorating our homes and trees with lights is passed down from those ancient bon fires of calling for the light.

In ancient countries and civilizations they built sacred structures to welcome the light. Stonehenge and other henges were arranged to receive early rays midwinter sun

BRUG NA BOINE New Grange, Ireland,

AN LIAMH GREINE “Cave of the Sun” there is man made cave dark all year but around Winter Solstice light from rising sun passes through narrow slot above doorway and sweeps down 80 foot long passageway into the heart of the central chamber striking back wall it illuminates a series of intricately carved spirals and solar discs… for 17 minutes then dark again.

Holly became symbol of male plant with bright red berries and sharp prickly leaves while Ivy, clinging and gentle perceived as female.

Greek Myth gives story of the girl who danced before the god Dionysus with ardor of a flame – only to fall dead at his feet. Dionysus moved by her passion placed her spirit and thus her name on the plant which bore her name (nature) it clung and embraced everything to which is came close.

NATIVE AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS

In CHACO CANYON in New Mexico a Native American Shaman sat on roof top for days/nights until he felt it was solstice “SUN STANDS STILL” now we find Solstice sunrise creates shape of two daggers flanking a spiral cared into a cliff face.

Also Zuni SHALAKO Hopi have Sun-Rites Sun Chiefs

At Chichen Itza in Yucatan, Mexico light of rising sun crawls down steps of Kukulkan pyramid forming shape of a serpent (a sacred animal to ancients).

ASIAN CIVILIZATIONS/CULTURES

Solstice is also in China, Dec 22^nd Emperor led annual sacrifices to the god in Temple of Heaven. When monarchy fell in 1912 this ended.

In Japan known as TOJI marks time when days grow longer/ nights shorter sacred to farmers. People take holidays, light huge bonfires encourage return of the sun and attend ceremonies at Temple to celebrate their ancestors.

When we lived in Tokyo, Japan 1974 we had Banzai Tree as Christmas Tree.

In Taiwan, blend of China and Japan bigger reception. Dish called “Tang Choeh I or “Winter Balls” served red or white, as cherries – Big Feast.

Roman God Saturn associated with Midwinter Roman Saturnalia Festival. Roman presence in Britain from second century B.C.E. Romans suppressed many of older practices of the Celts. Solstice part of Celtic Wheel/Calendar. Saturnalia developed from older rituals of Midwinter into riotous assemblage of fun, laughter and gift giving. From this we have gift giving. Saturn was Roman god of Agriculture.

SPIRITUAL TRADITIONS

CHANUKAH is Jewish Festival of Dedication. After years of oppressive occupation by Assyrian rulers, 168-65 rebellion led by Priest Mattathias and his son Judas the Maccabee (the Hammer) over-through rule of Antiochus IV (Epiphanes=”the risen god”). In rededicating the Temple found one cruise of oil that lasted for 8 days and 8 nights. Dedication of Light. Only Jewish festival associated with war and only one not in Bible, Original Testament.

Rabbis of School of Hillel wrote in Talmud that lighting of another candle each evening of Chanukah symbolizes that we should strive to increase light and joy in the world.

RAMADAN is Moslem time of a month of purification and dedication. Fasting, giving alms to poor, up to 20% is given away… Dedicate to God.

KWANZAA, African American Observance began 40 years ago by Dr. Manlengo Kareng. Based on ancient history and culture from African countries, the roots of African Americans… to Celebrate themselves.

Seven Principles and guidelines for year-round living:

1. Unity – gathering together for communal activity, ritual, sharing

2. Self Determination

3. Collective Work and Responsibility

4. Cooperative Economics

5. Purpose

6. Creativity

7. Faith

Number Seven significance African Culture, KWANZAA 7 letters. Last 7 days or the year. 7 Principles.

DIWALI – HINDU FESTIVAL OF LIGHT

Bringing in the Yule. In Sweden the Midwinter festival begins December 13^th “Little Yule” also known as “St. Lucia’s Day” when young queen Lucia came out of the sea with crown of candles. Now every year “Queen Lucy” chosen from among young women of villages of Sweden and in US towns and cities.

MITHRAS, God of the Morning

Originally and Iranian/Persian deity dating back to sixth century B.C.E. Like Apollo, Mithras was solar deity sent to earth by the supreme God of Light to slay a huge bull whose blood was source of all fertility on earth. Roman Emperor Aurelian declared Dec 25 Mithras birthday. Constantine follower of Mithras until he adopted Christianity after his conversion.

Now enters another theme of Christmas. Santa Claus. Complex origins.

One is of Saint Nicholas of Patara, a third-century Bishop of Myra, near present-day village Demre in Asia Minor, born in Turkey in 270 C.E. he became well known for his anonymous gifts to the poor. Tradition has it he left gifts of money or food in shoes of children, sneaking in at night.

Good Old Saint Nick, 1200 years later Middle Ages.

Nagogeorgus the author of Latin Vita Sant Nicolai

The mothers all their children on the eve do cause to fast,

And when they every one at night in sense sleep are cast,

Both apples, nuts and prayers they bring and other things beside, As caps, and shoes, and petticoats, with kirtles they hide, And in the morning found, they say: “St. Nicholas this brought.”

From a verse of: The Longparish Mummers’ Play

In Comes I, Old Father Christmas. Welcome – or welcome not,

I hope Old Father Christmas Will never be forgot.

The ancient Shaman’s drum and bells are recalled by Santa’s jangling reindeer harness.

TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

0 Christmas Day: Birthday of Jesus, Mithras, Attis, Aion, Horus, Dionysus and the Unconquered Sun.

1 Day 1 St. Stephen’s Day, Boxing Day, Day of the Wren

2 Day 2 Mother Night and St. John’s Day: (Frau Holle-Goddess)

3 Day 3 Holy Innocent’s Day: Childremass

4 Day 4 Feast of Fools

5 Day 5 Bringing In The Boar: “Then the grim boar’s head frowned on high, Crested with bay and rosemary.” Sir Walter Scott

6 Day 6 New Year’s Eve: Hogmanay… Scottish tradition more import

7 Day 7 New Year’s Day: The Kalends of January- riotous fun festival

8 Day 8 Snow Day: pay respects to snow

9 Day 9 Evergreen Day

10 Day 10 St. Distaff’s Day William Shakespeare

”Some say that ever gainst that season comes wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated, the bird of dawning singeth all night long.”

11 Day 11 Eve of Epiphany, Festival of Three Kings

12 Day 12 Epiphany Twelfth Night Calends of January

Saint Nicholas Day, December 6^th honors Nicholas, pilgrimage to Jerusalem at 17 sailing home beset perfect storm off coast of Lycia near Myra Nick prayed storm abated he at once found church to give thanks for safe delivery.

Old Bishop retiring, having convocation one of his people had vision in which next day new Bishop would appear named Nicholas

“Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born, If He’s not born in thee, thy soul is all forlorn.” Angelus Silesius

All of the Traditions of Light and Holidays and Festivals bring us to one thing, the birth of the baby Jesus, the Christ Child, born in us today.

Jelaluddin Rumi:

“CHRIST IS THE POPULATION OF THE WORLD,

AND EVERY OBJECT AS WELL.

THERE IS NO ROOM FOR HYPOCRISY

WHY USE BITTER SOUP FOR HEALING

WHEN SWEET WATER IS EVERYWHERE?”

THE LITERATURE OF CHRISTMAS: GIFT O MAGI

CHARLES DICKENS’ “CHRISTMAS CAROL”

WHAT I DIDN’T KNOW TIL LIVED IN ENGLAND WAS THAT IN OCTOBER 1843 DICKENS CALLED UPON WRITERS AND JOURNALISTS LIKE HIMSELF TO WRITE ABOUT AND EXPOSE UNFAIR PRACTICES AND CUSTOMS/TRADITIONS THAT WERE COOMONLY ACCEPTED FOR CHILDREN AND POOR, SUCH AS CHILDREN & ADULTS WORKING IN POOR HOUSE LIKE SLAVES

SERIES OF STORIES THE LIKES OF OLIVER TWIST , A CHRISTMAS CAROL AND THE CHIMES

WHAT ABOUT CHRISTMAS?

AS WITH OTHER THINGS I ASK HOW DOES IT APPLY OR WORK IN YOUR LIFE?

BIRTH OF LIGHT, AWARENESS, LOVE, HEALING

· ONE THING AT CHRISTMAS HERE IS SALVATION ARMY BELL RINGERS, WHICH I HAVE COME TO LOVE AND REALLY APPRECIATE

· FOR ONE THING, AFTER KATRINA DISASTER, SALVATION ARMY CAME TO THE RESCUE IN GREAT FORM AND COMPASSION.

·

IN ENGLAND, UNITY SCHOOL OF CHRISTIANITY, WE HELD FOUR RETREATS A YEAR. FOR ONE IN SUMMER WE WERE ASKED BY OFFICERS OF SALVATION ARMY IF THEY COULD DO PRESENTATON OF GRATITUDE MET SANDRA & PAUL IN TEWKSBURY

SANDRA HAD BEEN ILL THOUGHT WAS CANCER CHERRY, LOYAL VOLUNTEER SUGGESTED CALL SILENT UNITY… GOT WELL

· I ASKED OBVIOUS QUESTION, HAVE TROUBLE WITH UNITY METAPHYSICAL/PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY?

· PAUL SAID HE WAS “SALVATIONIST – BUT WHEN HE UNDERSTOOD WE WERE TALKING ABOUT CHRIST WITHIN, SAME CHRIST, SAME GOD, SAME TEAM.

· THEY CAME TO SUMMER RETREAT AT CHELTENHAM HOUSE EDGE OF COTTSWALDS, DID P.P./MUSIC PRESENTATION AND IN THE END WE WERE ALL CRYING TEARS OF JOY…

· HEALING IS CHRISTMAS

CHRISTMAS IS NOT ABOUT GOD BEING SANTA GRANTING ALL OUR WISHES, PETTY DESIRES

LAST WEEK WE MET GREG MORTENSON

AUTHOR THREE CUPS OF TEA AND NOW

STONES TO SCHOOLS.

GREG DEMONSTRATES MODEL OF CHRISTMAS GIVING … BUILDING SCHOOLS FOR CHILDREN, ESPECIALLY GIRLS, IN AFGANISTAN / PAKISTAN

1. LOVE IS GIVING TO OTHERS,

2. EVEN LOVING YOUR ENEMIES, AS MASTER SAID

3. NOW HAS BUILT 131 SCHOOLS

4. SHOWED PICTURE OF WOMAN WHO BECAME HEALTH CARE WORKER, AND SINCE SHE DID NO DEATHS IN CHILD BIRTH… BEFORE WAS 1 IN 3

DAD … CAROL … VISITED IN U.K.

TOOK THEM TO EAST ANGLIA, WINGFIELD VILLAGE. TOURED ST ANDREWS COLLEGATE CHURCH AND WINGFIELD COLLEGE BUILT 1362

THEN ON DEC 23^RD I WENT BACK WITH FRIEND TO ST ANDREW’S CHURCH FOR CAROLS BY CANDLE LIGHT… THEN MINCE PIES & MULLED WINE… MET LONG LOST KIN, WHO NEVER LEFT VILLAGE, ANCESTORS BUILT CASTLE, 800 YRS…

I FELT ACCEPTED AND INCLUDED, A PART OF THAT COMMUNITY, FAMILY.

CHRISTMAS PRESENCE IS HEART OPENING TO OTHERS TO LET INTO YOUR HEART…

ALL FAMILY

CHRISTMAS PRESENCE IS AN EXPERIENCE OF THE HEART / YOUR HEART TO SOFTEN RIDGES AND ARMOR AROUND IT AND FEELING ONE, CONNECTED, CARING, WHOLE.

Christmas is coming

Cold swept in the other night on an artic wind that came down and blew the trees about, shaking out the deadwood, loose branches and bows. Chimes rang with the wind song. The cold stayed the week but the artic wind went on, over many mountains, rivers, prairies and the plains. In the Mid West it reached up and touched the moisture in columns of clouds, pulling them down to cover the ground with snow. The cold wind continued to blow on over hills and dales to the East coast. I remember years ago when, as a young family, we caught the train in San Luis Obispo and rode the Starlight Limited to Seattle. We arrived on Christmas Eve when it began to snow and the snow extended from the summit of Snoqualmie, all the way to Boston.

Clear and cold. I move slower, perhaps everyone does, except the birds, flying from tree to tree to bush to find food. Two eagles sit atop a giant fir with a grand perspective of the Salish Sea and the peninsula and mountains all around.

Snow came on Sunday, just a trace, just a tease before Christmas. Rain came back last night and it’s here to stay, til Easter, or even May. Ice on the pond is swimming under rain water. The creek is swollen again. Just back from a walk

and I’m soaked. But I’m a man and I can change… I must.

As we are preparing for Christmas and enjoying the holidays, I would like to share with you from Words to Live By from Eknath Easwaran, for December 15^th.

“We needn’t rule out the exchange of useful, thoughtful gifts at Christmas, but when we expect something in return, it’s not a gift, but a contract. Using this strict definition, we might wonder if all those gifts under the Christmas tree are really gifts.

Rather than giving expensive, perhaps not really useful gifts, there are really so many meaningful things that all of us can give. If you have been a smoker, you can give it up – not as an act of self-denial, but as a loving gift to your family. It will be a most precious, most treasured gift. If you have been drinking heavily, you can give up alcohol as an act of love. It is a gift that will keep on giving. If you have been overeating, you can start eating nutritious food in temperate quantities, and exercising regularly. It’s a beautiful gift for everybody in the family. These are real gifts.”

Thomas A Kempis wrote: “He does much who loves God much, and he does much who does his deed well, and he does his deed well who does it rather for the common good than for his own will.”

Gratitude

Thank you God for everything! Thank you for the cedar and fir trees that bend and bow in the autumn breeze. Thank you for the leaves that fall with the winds and rain and make me wonder, which will be the last to let go – and then dance to the ground and become the earth from which they arose. Thank you for the rose budding on the bush for one last blossom of beauty. Thank you for the deer that live in the woods around us, even though they come into our gardens at night and eat the roses, blue berries, raspberries and other tasty morsels. They remind us that they, wildlife, were here before us and this earth is their home too, for us to care for as good stewards and not just be exploitive consumers as we are led to believe.

Thank you for enemies or those we have enmity (bad feelings) with, for they call us to love. As the Master said, “Love your enemies;” be they terrorists, bullies, politicians, power mongers, corporate executives or the next-door neighbors. Thank you for those who cause us to look deep within ourselves to see the pain and the lost little child longing for love and to make it home.

Thank you for all those people who protect and defend us the police, fire fighters, EMTs, nurses, doctors, care providers, military and peace workers. Thank you for all who have served.

Thank you for the blessings of being born in this country with loving and supportive parents and brother who raised me well, gave me all they could and not always understanding, opened their arms and let me fly. Thank you, I am so blessed. Thank you for the wonderful wife and children that have come into my life and been my beloveds, teachers and friends. Thank you for all my relatives and in-laws who have called me to be understanding and loving with all our diversity, thank you for all my relations.

Thank you for our cat, who challenges me to love and be who I think and say I am, even when she spits up on the floor or tracks her stuff around leaving smudge marks that I can get down on my hands and knees to clean up, learning humility, patience and kindness. Thank you for all my teachers. Four legged and two legged. Thank you for all the dogs in my life.

Thank you for all the suffering in the world, that calls me to compassion and service. Thank you for those suffering from AIDS and famine for they call us to understand that those are unnecessary and unacceptable and that we can and must change the systems, behaviors and beliefs which perpetuate unnecessary suffering. People don’t have to suffer and go without in order for us to have what we want.

Thank you for this moment and this breath, animating my body. Thank you for all the moments and things I’ve gone through, lessons I’ve learned, places I’ve been, things I’ve seen and done and gone through to get to this moment.

Thank you for the eyes reading these words and the minds and hearts taking in the truths they echo. Thank you.

Praise God! Yeah God! Thank you God for everything.

continued from page one below

A large brown leaf floats down onto the road beside me; fallen from the large maple tree that stands watching, along the side of the road. They are watching. Trees, deer, foxes, coyotes, raccoons, squirrels, hawks, cougars, bears, eagles, whales, manatees, sparrows and dolphins are all watching. We are latecomers to this world, only a few hundred thousand years ago, perhaps a few million by some accounts. And we have made such as mess of it. But we can clean up the mess. We can correct our mistakes, change our ways and do it right.

‘No one else can do it for you,’ as the song goes. The government, corporations, even God won’t do it for us. We are stewards of the earth and all its bounty. It is up to us to make the change we want to see happen, over the next 50 days and 50 years. Change from outer gratification to inner meaning, wellbeing, peace.

It is time for us to turn with the season from outward self-satisfying indulgence to inward self-fulfilling intentions. It is time to learn and let learn. It is time to grow and let grow. It is time. It is time to love and live and cease with the distractions that are so confusing and distracting. It is time to turn.

It is time to have fun. Enjoy life. Live in love and share the joy of living. The leaves falling remind me of all the blessings that constantly come to us, they don’t fall from above but flow continually as streams through the universe. The beauty all around us in so rich and vivid, in the water, the rain, the wind, all living things. And love, love is in everyone, whether they/we know it or not. Whether they/we realize it, give it and live it or not, love is here. For that is what we are.

“And the leaves of the Tree of Life are for the healing of nations.”

In the Rumi room we read:

“Inside water, a waterwheel turns. A star circulates with the moon.

We live in the night ocean wondering, What are these lights?

You have said what you are. I am what I am.

Your actions in my head,

my head here in my hands with something circling inside.

I have no name for what circles so perfectly.

A secret turning in us makes the universe turn.

Head unaware of feet and feet head.

Neither cares. They keep turning.

This moment this love comes to rest in me, many beings in one being.

In one wheat grain a thousand sheaf stacks.

Inside the needle’s eye a turning night of stars.

Keep walking, though there’s no place to get to.

Don’t try to see through the distances.

That’s not for human beings.

Move within, but don’t move the way fear makes you move.

Walk to the well.

Turn as the earth and the moon turn, circling what they love.

Whatever circles comes from the center.

I circle your nest tonight, around and around until morning when a breath of air says, Now, and the Friend holds up like a goblet some anonymous skull.

No better love than love with no object,

No more satisfying work than work with no purpose.

If you could give up tricks and cleverness,

That would be the cleverest trick!

Some nights stay up til dawn, as the moon sometimes does for the sun.

Be a full bucket pulled up the dark way of a well,

then lifted out into the light.

I am so small I can barely be seen.

How can this great love be inside me?

Look at your eyes. They are small but they see enormous things.

When you feel your lips becoming infinite and sweet, like the moon in a sky,

When you feel that spaciousness inside, Shams of Tabriz will be there too.

The sun is love.

The lover, a speck circling the sun.

A spring wind moves to dance any branch that isn’t dead.

Something opens our wings.

Something makes boredom and hurt disappear.

Someone fills the cup in front of us.

We taste only sacredness.

Held like this, to draw in milk, no will,

tasting clouds of milk, never so content.

I stand up, and this one of me turns into a hundred of me.

They say I circle around you.

Nonsense, I circle around me.

I have lived on the lip of insanity,

Wanting to know reasons, knocking on a door.

It opens. I’ve been knocking from the inside!

Real value comes with madness, matzub below, scientist above.

Whoever finds love beneath hurt and grief

disappears into emptiness with a thousand new disguises.

Dance, when you’re broken open.

Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off.

Dance in the middle of the fighting.

Dance in your blood.

Dance when you‘re perfectly free.

Turning

Walking down a country road between waves of rain storms rolling in off the ocean, I was enjoying the turning of seasons. It’s turning from warm to cool, dry to wet, turning from green to yellow, red, brown and gray. Autumn, right in the midst of it. Then someone came out from a lane and walked along the other side of the road. As we passed I said, “hi.” He responded with a nod, “how ya doin?” I said, “Good, how are you?” “School, same sh*t, ya know.” He looked like a Greener (college student), kicking along with a little facial hair, curls sticking out of his beanie. I turned and said with a smile, “You are so lucky! I wish I could go to college. Enjoy!” A bit taken aback he said, “thanks.” And we went on our ways.

Now, I wish I could say that I turned his head around, but I probably didn’t. People in our society today are so bored, young people who have grown up on video games, computers, cell phones and now texting, twitter, FB. What’s next? Feathers? And older people who have had it the way they want. There is even a TV series on HBO entitled Bored to Death. Thanks, Larry David. Where’s Mr. Kastanza to rail at us when we need him? Reruns. Boredom. Apathy.

People in our country, in our society are so blessed and have so many good opportunities laid out before them. All the kids in Pakistan and Afghanistan and all the other places who do not have access to the public education, opportunities and basic choices we take for granted. Greg Mortenson (Three Cups of Tea), has helped build over 300 schools in Pakistan. This is to especially help educate girls to become women with choices for self-determination and not simply continue in the same ways of tradition, culture and conformity they have today. Greg is threatened, not by Pakistanis but by American reactionaries who are incensed, they say, because he is helping the enemy. But who is the enemy? Is it the ones who bomb schools and universities? Is the enemy those who control and manipulate women and children in opposition of learning, growing and unfolding to the beautiful universe beyond borders of religion, race, culture, clan, tribe and tradition. Hitler had books burned. Most totalitarian rulers oppose or oppress education and learning on behalf of control, conformity and blind obedience. Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Ivan the Terrible.

Convergence of Hearts

We spent Labor Day weekend in my hometown with family, my relatives, going to old haunts. Riding bikes along the Columbia River we rounded Columbia Point, across the confluence of the Yakima we enjoyed the colors and textures of grasses, cat tails, sage, trees and the ever present wind. We stopped in the riverside park where a folk festival was happening, Tumbleweed Festival. We discovered that some friends were playing so we got to enjoy their good swing, folksy and Celtic music, along with the wind.

From there we drove down the river, stopping 15 miles east of Portland to see a new installation work by Maya Lin. Maya Lin, you may recall is the artist/architect who designed the Viet Nam War memorial in Washington D.C. We pulled off I-84 at the Lewis and Clark Park into a earthy parking lot at the Sandy River. Turned out to be land cared for by the Nature Conservancy. At the confluence of the Columbia and Sandy Rivers we walked across the alluvial delta where many dogs brought their humans to walk, and run. At the end of the trail we came to the installation, the Bird Blind, a cylinder of vertical oak 2x4s, with names of various species found during the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1803-06. Presumably taken from the naturalist field notes of Meriwether Lewis engraved in the 2x4s were species/names of birds and animals and indications if they are threatened, endangered or extinct since then. Roosevelt Elk, black tail deer, gray wolf, red fox, polecat (skunk), bald eagle, winter wren, loon, and many more.

It was impressive to think of all the beautiful birds and animals they found over 200 years ago when the expedition traversed the continent. The raw beauty they found. The civilization that followed has drastically changed all that. That was just the beginning of the American empire. Manifest destiny it was called, wherever we could manifest our will and destiny would be ours. Perhaps those days are coming to an end, as witnessed in Viet Nam, now Iraq and Afghanistan.

Remember that line from John Lennon’s song, “Imagine”, which became somewhat of an anthem for people who long for peace around the world. The second verse suggests we, “imagine there’s no countries, it isn’t hard to do, nothin’ to kill or die for, no religion too…” Can we? Can we really hold that thought? Imagine no countries and no religions, that inform us on the necessity to fight, destroy and even eliminate entire peoples who differ from us. Can we do that? Power struggles carried out in the name of religion and nationalism have been so destructive and wasteful during my lifetime, let alone over the past two centuries.

We of European stock nearly wiped out the indigenous peoples of this continent, in our holocaust, when we stormed in to take it over. And those people who survived were called Indians and labeled as savages, not recognizing their spiritual and cultural values so we could justify treating them less than dogs and penning them up in “reservations”.

We cannot change the past. But we can change the present and how we hold the past and how we intend to co-create the future, one day at a time. We can recognize and take responsibility for the mistakes we have made and get on with it. We can let it be, as another great song we sing suggests. We can clean up our act. Personally and collectively.

And we can offer up our highest and best intentions as a prayer to each other and the Divine Mind, to unify our minds and hearts as one. This is the time. This is the day, this is the hour. 9-9-09. We can join in Unity World Day of Prayer 9-10-09 and pray for peace, healing, justice and equality for all. It’s Good to be Alive!

Fly and be free

The other day we were busy getting ready to go to the cabin for our family get together when Connor called out that a bird had hit the window. He was standing in our living room taking pictures when a little bird swooped through the open door and crashed into one of the picture windows looking out onto our back garden. I rushed in to find a little black cap chickadee crumpled in a heap on the white carpet, one wing outstretched beneath the tiny-feathered body.

It’s eyes were closed but not with X’s over them, so I took a page from our friends at Unity House in Maidenhead, England. I wrote about that in a previous message. Connor got a shoe box while I held the little bird in my hands, concentrating on giving it Reike energy. Connor then formed the paper in the box into a nest shape. As I placed the little bird on the paper nest in the box I noticed it’s eyes and beak were open. Then I put the bird in the box out on the back deck and said a prayer over it and a blessing and stepped inside. A few minutes later I walked out onto the deck and spoke again to the bird, which sat on the nest in the box with wings out stretched, mouth and eyes open, “I honor the Divine in you.” Startled, it jumped right out of the box, bumping into the side of the house, this time beneath the window. So I encouraged it, “No. Fly into the sky, go the other way!” And it flew away.

The window which we humans enjoy because it allows us a lovely view of the garden and towering trees as well as containing the house in climate control through all seasons. But for the bird, which naturally flies free and soars, the window was an invisible barrier. Reminds me of the plate glass used to depict an invisible shield to ‘protect you from cavities’ in an advertisement of a popular toothpaste in years past.

We too, who like the bird long to be free and soar in life, have to watch out for invisible shields and barriers. What are the invisible shields in our lives? Look deep in yourself? What are they? Fear? Anger? Pain? Which lead to confusion and uncertainty? These are common things that we learn and use to protect ourselves in certain situations as we adapt, learn and grow. But there comes a time, a shift in our consciousness, when what served to protect and help us, becomes an invisible shield which we can break ourselves on.

And it is at those times when we need each other. When we run into our own barriers and limitations it is so helpful to have a friend, or to have someone who can hold us in compassionate support. It may be a loved one, a Mother or an impersonal yet passionate group like Silent Unity. It may be your closest friend. It may be your dog. (Remember, dog is really God spelled for the dyslexia minded).

We all aspire and long to be free. Let’s help one another to avoid invisible barriers and pick ourselves up when we hit them. Meister Eckhart wrote: Tell me, where is the soul’ abode? Upon the pinions of the wind. We are all capable of flying like the little chickadee or soaring like the great eagle in the limitless sky of love. But most of the time we content ourselves with staying on the ground. Plato said: We ought to fly away from earth to heaven as quickly as we can: and to fly away is to be come like God, as far as this is possible; and to become like him, is to become holy, just and wise.

Just be yourself and be free.

Peace, John

Fine Seeds, Divine Seeds

From the Heart of John Wingfield V3H7

Queen Anne’s Lace is standing and dancing in the summer wind. Not to be confused with Gray’s Lovage or Little Pipsissewa, or Queen Anne herself. The Queen Anne’s Lace is of the Parsley Family and related to the wild carrot. Seeing many, many Queen Anne’s Lace along my walk today I kept thinking of it as St. Anne’s Lace. And that took me to a painting in the National Gallery, which frames the north of Trafalgar Square in London. It’s not a painting really, rather it’s a cartoon, a prototype or sketch prior to the finished painting by Leonardo da Vinci. It depicts Mother Mary and the baby Jesus with St. Anne, Mary’s Mother and another baby, perhaps the one who will be called John the Baptist.

The amazing thing about that da Vinci is the profound depth it reaches into you. At least it did into me. The cartoon is in brown tone with Mary seated on Anne’s knee, extending her arm with the baby. What strikes you, or it did me every time I beheld it, was the flow of oneness, there is no separation between Anne, Mary and the Christ Child. Only the other infant is a bit off to the right, as an observer of the incredible movement of oneness into the mystic.

Queen Anne was the last Queen of England, Scotland, Ireland and France, at the beginning of the eighteenth century. And of course, for locals, Queen Anne remains a prominent hill in the heart of Seattle with a commanding view of the surrounding mountains, the Sound and cities.

Huckleberries are ripe on the delicate bushes of the lowland forest. They flourish where the ancient cedar used to grow, like an echo of another age gone by. A very good tasting echo. And those little green apples that God made are bulging on the branches in the miraculous process of becoming delicious apples.

Just as in the apple, also in the wild flowers, there are seeds just waiting to be taken and spread out across the land to spread the fruit and flowers. So too in you and in all of us, there is a seed, a divine seed, which is represented by Mary and Anne, extending forth the expression of the Christ Child in our gifts of life, to life. The divine seed in us contains DNA of love, understanding, vision, balance, wholeness, justice and peace.

Let’s plant the seeds with joy.

From the Heart Message

 

Walking down the road today I was taken back by the song birds singing from the forest, from telephone wires, from tree tops, from all around. I was taken back to a story shared with me by my friends in Unity House, Great Britain.

Swifts migrate from the tropics each year, flying and darting about eating insects. Swifts, the most aerial of birds, fly nearly all the time, up to 200,000 km, they dart about collecting flies and other delicacies for them and their young.

 

Recently someone in Unity House discovered a swift had gotten tangled in some old wiring high up near a gable in the back of the Edwardian house. It was caught and could not get free. So they rang RSPCA, that usually takes care of these situations, but they were busy and could not get to it in time. So, being Unity House, where Silent Unity is happening, they prayed.

 

Then someone thought of calling Richard, the gardener who comes round when he can to care for the gardens and helps where he can. They rang him up and asked him to come quickly with his ladders. He climbed up to the gable with Steve holding the ladder and was able to cut away the old obsolete wires. While he was cutting away the wires, amazingly other swifts flew very close to the house as if giving support and encouragement to the bird. They were overjoyed to see the precious bird in Richard’s hands when he climbed down.

 

They were advised by RSPCA to place the little bird in a box in a dark place for it to settle down after the ordeal and get over the shock. After this they found the little guy was barely lifting its head, as if it had given up. The Silent Unity team stood in a circle and prayed. They placed the box out on the veranda on the first floor. After several minutes the bird did not move nor show interest in moving. Then, as Silent Unity Director, Kimerie Mapletoft mused to Jane Gough, Director of Daily Word, several swifts flew near and around him. He lifted his head, spread his wings and flew away.

 

Sometimes we feel like that bird, tangled up in old wires that we got into without really knowing how or why. And in the tangle we can’t sort it out and sometimes can’t find our way. But then someone comes along, or calls or offers something that breaks the spell. “It was a powerful moment,” Kimerie wrote of the lesson, “reminding us that we cannot fly alone – we all need each other to fly and soar and be the living and free expressions of God we truly are. So next time you have a problem, don’t try to sort it out all alone. Call on your friends, your family, Silent Unity, and above all call on the divine presence of God and know that together we can fly.”

 

Today, July 14, is Bastille Day, marking the end of feudalism in France. Let it end everywhere In relationships. In religions. In homes. In hearts. May all be free. 

A B C

 

I believe we are here to learn, grow and be what we are designed to be. Developing what is inherently within us and giving it expression in our lives is part of learning and growing. And when we are expressing and experiencing who we are and what we are then we are more fully functioning as human beings. We each have a purpose, a reason for being, which probably is not what we do for a living.

 

Years ago HH the Dali Lama spoke in Portland, OR. After a while of chanting and mounting anticipation among the throng of people filling Pioneer Courthouse Square, His Holiness walked out on the platform and said: “Every human being has the potential to be happy.” That is so simple and so elegant. And it is true. We, in the United States of America live in a society with the hallmark of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

 

If we develop a unified state of mind then we can consciously co-create happiness. There are certain areas of our lives that are critical for our well-being and our happiness that we will discuss in this essay. Health for one is so important for most people’s happiness. Attaining or maintaining good health is possible. Relationships that are healthy is vital as well. Relationships that work and serve you and others, rather than just getting along are important for well-being and happiness. And having enough; enough money, enough time, enough energy, enough love are all important to being a happy, healthy and whole human being.

 

With the “cult of success” in post modern America there was a reversal of priorities that began to shift around 1970. Placing money, status, power and outer appearances of success above and beyond ethics, honesty, responsibility and human dignity which all came down like a house of cards in autumn of 2008 with the global economic melt down and subsequent great recession. There is such stress for success in today’s society and with that comes the outfall of stress on relationships, personal health and one’s own state of mind.

 

Perhaps there is a better way than what is taught in most schools and colleges and what is practiced in most businesses, public thorough-fairs and homes that will result in the kind of conditions we really want: good health, happiness and having enough to enjoy life.

 

There is a better way, a way that has been developed and shared down through the ages by masters and teachers, sages and saints of many traditions. From Jesus to Buddha, Buckminster Fuller to Baba, and many thinkers of all ages we can gain great insights and wisdom to live fully alive and happy lives.

 

In order to attain and maintain a state of mind and heart in which we live as happy, healthy and whole human beings we need to combine two things. Principles and Practices which lead to the inner Work for happiness.

 

From the Heart Message - Part 2

What would you do? What would you do? If you were the President, or were in any situation where you could decide what to do to make our economy strong and vibrant? What would you do to make our health care system just, reasonable and comprehensive? What would you do to secure peace and security in our country and our world? While Iran is convulsing in after shocks to their presidential elections. While North Korea is behaving like a junk yard dog as their leadership is being handed from father to third son. While Israel is struggling to find alignment within and with the international community as well as with Palestine. While AIDS still runs rampant in Africa and the Roman Catholic Church still stands in opposition to birth control, family planning and safe sex. What would you do?  I was telling you about Earthstewards and Danaan Parry during the tense days of the 1980s, Cold War et al. Interest rates soared around 16-19%, everywhere was in a slump...

Danaan Parry and many others who worked directly with him went on for years to plant seeds for peace. He led the effort of citizens’ diplomacy during the 1980s, to break the dreadful wall of fear dividing us from the people behind the iron curtain and other citizens of the world. Planting peace trees became a critical activity as they went to Russia, India and then here in the United States.

Eknath Easwaran wrote: The great Hindu scriptures say that God is absolute truth, absolute joy, absolute beauty. A scientist who is seeking the absolute truth, as Einstein did, is seeking God. Anyone seeking absolute joy, whether in a tavern or in the shopping mall or in Monte Carlo, is seeking God. And anyone who is seeking beauty – on a canvas or a stage or a mountaintop – is seeking God. What lovers of beauty seek in paintings, in sculpture, in dance, in music is just a reflection of the absolute beauty that is God. The real source of all beauty is God, the Beloved.

Danaan Parry had been a nuclear physicist and a member of the Atomic Energy Commission in his first career. He told the story, when we first met, that as a physicist he began searching for the truth, which he could not find in the atom, nucleus, proton, electron and not even the quark. Then he taught for a while in Berkley before developing Earth Stewards and teaching Warriors of the Heart training for peacemaking. This evolved from his doing individual assignments in Belfast, Bethlehem and across America to group exchanges and projects around the country and the globe. Peace trees.

They found that getting inner city youth together to plant trees for peace in Washington DC became an activity of whole learning. First of all, the young people did not know how to conduct a meeting with order and it would usually break down into fighting. So they taught simple procedures of how to have meetings and how to reach decisions with group agreements. Then they knew they had to provide rewards so they began the peace table of delicious and nutritious foods to celebrate a day’s work together. This was so successful they took it to Los Angeles and other cities.

And the final one was when a group of Earth Stewards was prepared to go to Viet Nam to plant peace trees in a location that had been cleared of deadly land mines from our war there decades earlier. And after the last meeting of planning the strategy to the finest detail, Danaan departed. On his way to the ferryboat on Bainbridge Island, his heart, that had carried so many people and cared for so many souls and given so much to the world, that had held so many (hugging Danaan you got a good bear hug like Yogi Bear), simply gave out.

But that was not the final one. Like many others, I have strived to be and to teach peace in what we do, in how we live. Peacemaking at home, in churches, in communities, in families and within ourselves is critical at this time. Learning and living the way of peace means we don’t just say that’s a good idea and then go on with life as usual. It means we deliberately live so we don’t express hurtful criticisms and destructive emotions to others, even those we don’t like. It means finding the common ground, in our humanness. This is doing what Jesus said: “Love one another, as I have loved you.” This is what we can do.

Jelaluddin Rumi wrote: All day I think about it, then at night I say it.Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing? I have no idea my soul is from elsewhere I'm sure of that,

And I intend to end up there. This drunkenness began in some other tavern.

When I get back around to that place, I’ll be completely sober.

Meanwhile, I’m like a bird from another continent, sitting in this aviary.

The day is coming when I fly off,

But who is it now in my ear, who hears my voice?

Who says words with my mouth? Who looks out with my eyes?

What is the soul? I cannot stop asking.

If I could taste one sip of an answer, I could break out of this prison for drunks.

I didn’t come here of my own accord,

And I can’t leave that way.

Whoever brought me here will have to take me home.

 

Peace,   John

From the Heart Message - Part 1

The other day, Jane and I drove up to Port Townsend. It was a soft overcast day creating subdued colors. Along the way we turned off 101 and drove up Mount Walker. I had not been there since 1971 when I took a bunch of kids from the UPS Group Home up there. And again the mountain was in full bloom with lovely pink rhododendrons lacing the steep forest hillsides. Wild rhodies are all that soft pink, I’m told. The blush of blossoms filled the forest and my heart with beauty.

Port Townsend was dancing with celebration as the Hood Canal Bridge had opened the day before after many weeks of closure for repairs. That meant the way was open once again for tourists to reinvigorate the shops and bookstores in the charming, historic town. A rock and roll band was playing next to a pier and people were dancing in the street to the good old tunes. After walking around, enjoying the shops and book stores we went over to Fort Warden for a bike ride.

Fort Warden, which was strategically placed for sea defense at the northeastern tip of the Olympic Peninsula, especially during the dreadful days of WWI and WWII. It has been converted into a rich cultural center for education and activities. It is now a state park and has offices and facilities for colleges, environmental and musical events of highest quality and Copper Canyon Press. After riding around a bit and coasting down to the beach we rode past the old officers quarters and back toward the car. Jane was drawn to the rhododendron garden and leaning my bike against a sign I walked into the garden with her. There, standing simply and looking a bit neglected and worn, was a Peace Pole in the garden.

I remember when we planted that Peace Pole. In 1986 we were part of a peace gathering there with Earthstewards. Our late friend and great teacher, Danaan Parry called us all together and hundreds of us held a sacred ceremony in placing the Peace Pole in the ground. It states let there be peace in English, Spanish, Russian and Chinese. We sanctified it and dedicated that place and ourselves at that time to the holy way of peace. Well that’s nice, you say, they planted a Peace Pole, so what came of that?

Remember, 1986 was the height of the cold war and we were pouring in millions and millions for nuclear and other forms of national defense. Remember the star wars defense touted by President Reagan and many others? And the secret wars of the CIA, the Iran Contra affair and such below the table tactics that were going on? It was also a time when farmers in Iowa and across the mid-west were sinking in debt and loosing everything and agribusiness was taking over. It was time for the people to do something for a better world than those at the control panel of power and greed.

We must alter our lives in order to alter our hearts,

for it is impossible to live one way and pray another.

William Law

I know of some good things that came of that. Later that summer I was working in Seattle and attended a special education event sponsored by John Denver and the Snowmass Institute. They placed a Buckminster Fuller geodesic map of the globe on the floor and had people stand on different locations representing different nations, food and energy consumption, food production and water availability. Resource distribution and consumption. John Denver’s songs were a great set up to prepare us to get it. After the event I ran into a couple that had been at the Earthstewards Gathering, they were busy collecting donations to take on an old school bus from Seattle to central Mexico. There they had already made an initial visit to an orphanage, run by a priest in a building, which had been a hospital but was severely damaged in an earthquake. The priest had moved in, secured the structure, cleared away the rubble and taken in homeless children. My friends had taken many things the first time and told me of what a simple gift could do, such as a skate board someone donated became a means for a little girl, born without legs, to get around with ease and great freedom. And they had many other stories.

Another person among the Earthstewards owned a well digging business. He went to a Central American country and helped the people in a village to dig a well. Sounds simple enough, but for those people it was the first time in their history that their village could get fresh, clean water from the earth and not have to rely on surface (stream) water, carrying hosts of bacteria for many illnesses. Health, healing and happiness are natural outcomes of the holy way of peace.

May it be loving before us

May it be loving behind us

May it be loving above us

May it be loving below us

May it be loving all around us

In loving it is begun...

Navajo Prayer

Peace,    John 

Love, Dance, Live

Dive deep, O mind, dive deep

In the ocean of God’s beauty;

If you descend to the uttermost depths,

There you will find the gem of love.

                                   

                                    Bengali Hymn

That one I love who is incapable

Of ill will, and returns love for hatred.

Living beyond the reach of I and mine,

And of pain and pleasure, full of mercy,

Contented, self-controlled, of firm resolve,

With all his heart and all his mind given to me –

With such a one I am in love.

 

                                    Sri Krishna (Bhagavad Gita)

Most of us think of love as a one-to-one relationship, which is the limitation of love on the physical level. But there is no limit to our capacity to love. We can never be satisfied by loving just one person here, another there. Our need is to love completely, universally, without any reservations – in other words, to become love itself.

                                    Eknath Easwaran

Love all that has been created by God, both the whole and every grain of sand.

Love every leaf and every ray of light. Love the beasts and the birds, love the plants, love every separate fragment. If you love each separate fragment, you will understand the mystery of the whole resting in God.

 

                                    F.M. Dostoevsky

 

Dance as though no one is watching you

Love as though you have never been hurt before

Sing as though no one can hear you

Live as though heaven is on earth

Principle, Practice, Process

Each step of the way in spiritual growth, spiritual life actually, is based on these three aspects: principle, practice and process. Spiritual living is not determined by what one believes, although much of religious life is. Spiritual living arises from understanding universal principles and finding practices to integrate them into one's life. For example, the principle of the oneness connection is correlated to the practices of prayer and meditation. Affirmative prayer is the practice of affirming the truth in order to instill it in your mind, in your consciousness, so you know it is real. Meditation is the practice of quieting the mind and focusing to know the real depth of oneness within you with all of life. And the third aspect is process, which is the journey one takes and the amazing awareness one arrives at on the journey, over and over again. It's like traveling across the country, whether on foot, bicycle or by car and opening to the incredible journey, including all the unexpected lessons and discoveries. The poem, The Blue Sky, by Gary Snyder, describes it beautifully. Happy Trails.

LAWS OF MANIFESTATION

 

These universal laws are what we work with every day of our lives, for this is how the universe works, governed by universal laws. We understand gravity as a law that is consistent in nature. But these laws, described herein, based on the pioneering work of Charles Fillmore in his classic book Christian Healing, first published in 1906, describe how it works. By this I mean how we manifest things in our lives and in our world. Understanding this helps us to know that we do not have good health, success and quality relationships by sheer chance or mere luck: if we do then it’s a gift. But we can consciously apply the principles described below with certain practices and enter into the process and see it happen consciously. So let’s take a sample look at the Laws of Manifestation.

 

THOUGHT

Thoughts held in mind produce their kind. Thought creates.

“Whatever things are true and honest… think on these things”  Phil 4:8.

“As a man/woman thinks in his/her heart, so is he/she.” Proverbs

Thoughts are things, they have power, they have energy, they have life.

 

WORD

Word is the “Creative action of Universal Mind”

“And God said, Let there be light” Gen. 1:3

“In the beginning was the word and that word was with God” John 1:1

Affirmations of what is true instill in mind the truth that you deserve and can manifest in your life what is good, healthy and happy.

 

IMAGINATION

Imagination is the creative workshop of the mind.

“God created man in his own image” Gen. 1:27

Imagine what is possible for you as a child of God, a child of the Universe.

 

FAITH

Faith is the perceiving power of mind, the power to see what is possible.

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things unseen.” Hebrews 11:1

Faith is the connecting power of mind in that it connects you with the Source and draws upon the resources to manifest what you desire/deserve.

 

LOVE

Love is what you are, you were created in love, by love and as love.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your might and all your soul and love your neighbor as yourself.” Mat 22:37

Be the love you are.

 

WILL

Will is the executive power – it is the doer in you.

“Thy will be done” Matthew 6:10

Will is like the bus driver, like our personal ego, but it must take direction from headquarters.

 

APPRECIATION/GRATITUDE/PRAISE

Appreciation and gratitude express and enhance value

Express love, appreciation and gratitude and then let it be.

Praise God. Praise those you love. Praise the good in others.

“In all things give thanks.” I Thes. 5:16

 

Life is Consciousness

 

“Life is Consciousness” is commonly said in Unity and similar spiritual orientations today. But what does this mean, beyond rhetoric and platitudes? Consciousness means more than being alive or being awake. Consciousness means all the attributes and aspects that comprise the mind, both conscious and subconscious mind. Some of the aspects of the functioning mind are beliefs, opinions, attitudes and habits including mental - emotional conditioning.

 When we look at the world we live in, we know life is consciousness. Whether it is the mountaintop mining destroying the Appalachian Mountains or banks and brokers mining mortgages other financial resources we know the mind set of greed and expedient profits were involved. All the wars and resulting suffering and starvation, sickness and slavery are results of consciousness of fear, power mongering and control. These are not things that just happen our of the blue but as manifestations of consciousness. 

 Likewise when we look at the life of a beloved teacher who manifests love and touches the hearts and souls of all those open and receptive students, we know there is one living or manifesting the consciousness of love. A mother caring for her infant, watching it, holding it, nursing it, letting it play, even bump its head, is manifesting love consciousness. 

The world we see and experience is the result of all that we do, think, believe, feel, want and need. And the life we live is the outcome of all we believe, think, feel, want and need with a dash of attitudes, opinions and everyone and everything else.

Then he showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, 

flowing from the throne of God... and the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

Revelations