Atlanta Unitarian

I think my personal turn towards a more dedicated spiritually seems puzzling to many people in my life.  People who value reason and science see spirituality as linked with superstition, dogma, and irrationality.  People who value practicality see spirituality as a waste of time, perhaps even self-indulgent. But for me the path I am currently following is logically necessary based upon an understanding of my personal experiences.  What I have observed about my own experience is that there is no external event of any magnitude that of its own force can bring me joy or meaning, unless it is suffused with spirit from the inside. A delicious meal; a monetary windfall; a major achievement; goals attained; a shower of praise.  Any of these events from my experience can be either fulfilling or empty.  From one point of view each of these items can seem disconnected, small, precarious, isolated, and temporary.  Or from another point of view these same items can...

Sometimes I wonder if our forward-looking culture does not underestimate the value of making and cultivating memories. We have so many catch phrases for focusing on the future. What's past is past. We need to focus on the task at hand. We need a plan for going forward. Just do it. But life at any stage is composed at least as much by memories as by opportunities, by the path we have followed as much as the path we have ahead. In fact, we are much more likely to discover ourselves by looking backwards than by looking forward. Life has a way of revealing through experience things that would never occur to our imaginations alone. What rituals, what practices, what customs do we have to cherish memories? Our holidays commemorate our civic history, but what about our personal history? Do we use birthdays to reflect backwards? Anniversaries? Graduations? Are we afraid that if we look backwards we will see opportunities missed, rather than life lived? If life is worth living, ...

With the nation embroiled in talk of recession - the media, investors, politicians - Americans seem desperate to avoid entering this dreaded state. Congress and the President rushed to pass a $100 billion + stimulus package. Pundits spin every day about whether or not we are in a recession, and what it would mean if we are. It is my sense that the obsession with recession reveals the dark side of the infamously optimistic American character. What is this desperate state that is so awful that we must try anything to avoid it, and that is so horrific that even if we are in it we had better not go about and acknowledge it? It reminds me very much of someone in the early stages of a depression, when there is still opportunity for denial and distraction. It's like a depressed person who thinks he can put off depression if he can just go on enough ski vacations consecutively. All kinds of denial and avoidance are preferrable to looking the depression squarely in the face. Perhaps, ...

Look to what you care about deeply that in no way concerns your self interest; there you will find your faith. Now do not seek to understand this irreducible force within you; instead seek to live it and embody it fully. You may find that it grows and that every day you stand upon firmer ground.

It's not a new idea, and it's not an original idea, but I'm very enamoured with this idea that has been rekindled in me recently thanks to the help of a dear friend. The idea is to find our vocation or calling by seeking where our personal gifts happen to meet the worlds' needs. It's a balancing act - looking outside to see what the world is needing, but also looking inside to see what it is you have within you that is inherently generous. I like this idea so much because it's a concept of service that is based on abundance rather than guilt or obligation. I think there is a natural abundance of the spirit that overflows and creates great gifts if we cultivate it. It's very important that we pay attention to the world, that we see it clearly, so we can see the great needs that are out there to be met. We do have an obligation to see the world clearly and not in a self-serving way. But we serve the world best by listening to our own inner needs for self-...

Inspired Thich Nhat Hanh' s ideas on inter-being, I have developed a related idea of non-duality. The main concept is to see others as essentially similar to yourself, especially when you have the impulse to distance yourself from them. It's an interesting but difficult practice for me. A number of times each day, I see someone who I pronounce a judgement on in the quiet of my own mind. I decide that they are mean, or selflish, or stupid, or inconsiderate. This is almost a relfex action. It comes from my very well developed sense of wrong and right, which others are continually violating. When someone else violates my sense of right, I judge them, I feel disappointed from them, and then become estranged from them. I decide that it's better if I avoid them. The principal of non-duality says to me that the flaw which I see in them is also somehow in me, if only in a small and hidden way. Even if I do not agree with what they do, I can see the human feeling or impulse...