Tag: Christian

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St. Martin

Today marked the 40th anniversary of assassination of one American who was truly blessed. Martin Luther King, should be elevated to sainthood. His life and his writings give testimony to his powerful spirit. I was fifteen years old and whenever I loved him then. My father whom I loved, was a bigot and he hated Dr. King. At one time in my life I was stationed at the Naval Air Station in Albany, Ga. where Dr. King was once jailed. I remember listening to his famous speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and being deeply moved. Martin Luther King was a prophet in every sense of the word. He really lived the Jesus message and like Mahatma Gandhi used Christian principles of non-violence and non-cooperation with evil to bring this nation to its knees.

Like Christ and later Gandhi, he was killed by powerful forces that feared him. The FBI infiltrated the Civil Rights movement because J. Edgar Hoover feared that Dr. King was a Communist sympathizer. That proved to be false, but the FBI used information it gained in its surveillance in an attempt to discredit Martin. He was 39 when he was murdered April 4, 1968 in Memphis, TN. God bless Dr. King and his memory.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0FiCxZKuv8]

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Conjectures of Thomas Merton

In looking for another famous quote from Thomas Merton’s, Seven Storey Mountain, I happened upon a quote from Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander which is just a powerful and insightful given the current political and cultural climate.

For myself, I am more and more convinced that my job is to clarify something of the tradition that lives in me, and in which I live: the tradition of wisdom and spirit that is found not only in Western Christendom but in Orthodoxy and also at least analogously in Asia and in Islam.” –Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, Thomas Merton.

I have been reading and listening to the Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra and I’m impressed at this analogue as Merton calls it. A contemplative heart and soul resides in all mystics regardless of their faith tradition. It is a point on which we could all agree.

Merton spoke of this when he referred to Thich Nhat Hanh as “my brother.”

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Non-violence or non-existence

Today I came across a story of healing for a Vietnam war veteran who was so traumatized by that experience that he still bore the scars thirty years after the fact. I sent that story on to some friends today. I read the entire book three Christmases ago. Now, we learn that our president wants to start another war. He’s saying the that we need to bring peace through bombs and bullets. Its just pure bull. Continue reading “Non-violence or non-existence”

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The Way

A while back I purchased Wayne Dyer’s, “Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life.” It’s only the second or third audio book I’ve ever purchased. I’ve really enjoyed listening to it when I’m out driving around. I listen to very little radio and very little television. I even read very little news on the Internet with the exception of Linux, open source, and technology blogs. I’ve found through this experience that I’ve become even more contemplative and I hope more peaceful. Last week I started re-reading the Te of Piglet which has been quite interesting to read again a book I first read four or five years ago. I know that Dr. Dyer’s book which is based on the Tao te Ching has really caused me to do this.

A couple of weeks ago I visited Abbey of the Genesee and while there I picked up Thomas Merton’s, “The Way of Chuang-Tzu“. I found it interesting that Merton’s interest in the Tao was much like mine. I have found many parallels in the Gospels with the Tao te Ching. My reading and listening has invited me to be more contemplative and more sensitive to my surroundings.

Literally interpreted the Tao is “the way” and that same phrase was one of the early descriptions of Christianity.

The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.

The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.

Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.

Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.

Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.–Tao te Ching,Chapter 1

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Christmas displays

Recently Olean, New York and the surrounding area has been driven into a frenzy at times over the public display of a nativity set on the lawn of city hall. I’ve read with interest the articles pro and con in the local newspaper defending or condemning the decision. Politicians and other scalawags use religion as a method to divide the electorate and it’s become so common that we fall for it without question. Is this really the spirit of Christ or even Christmas? Continue reading “Christmas displays”

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Weeping Jesus

Here’s a well written piece that echoes some of what I’ve been thinking lately. Cultural conservative is really polite speak for bigot and hate monger.

an irrational hatred of gays, a suppression of women’s rights, the assertion that only they are going to heaven and that all those that don’t embrace their particular permutation of Christianity will burn (among other things) in Hell!

Read the whole article on Huffington Post here.