More Than Meat

Copyright 2015 Don Ray

Spiritual discussions:  don’t hear many of those in the workplace or locker room.  In fact, I do not recall many deeply personal spiritual discussions in church either.

In the modern, western world, “spiritual” discussion too often means nothing remotely personal, but more a political bludgeoning to convince the other person they are wrong.  Little wonder spiritual topics are taboo in polite company.  As for spiritual discussions in church and temple, what if your deeply personal spiritual experience is not exactly like everyone else’s, and worse, what if it is not in perfect lockstep alignment with authority and doctrine?!  No, church, temple, and mosque are no place for deeply intimate, spiritual expression.

Then there are various shamanic, new agey, ancient cum ultra-modern gatherings, but in those you better tow the line and not dare mention your traditional, doctrinal, monotheistic beliefs.

Meaningful, deep, complex, profound, open, personal, intimate, tolerant, welcome, accepting spiritual conversation….wow!….Wouldn’t that be great?!…..to talk about, and listen to, that which makes you more than meat?!

Temporally Senseless

Copyright 2016 Don Ray

Maybe after recent thefts I better understand Yeshu (Jesus) saying “the guy takes your cloak, give him your coat too”.

It is a great attitude, and it has not just to do with love and generosity as usually taught. It reflects a way of going through life, a realistic awareness that in this human world some people will try to steal from you, and your only choice and control is over your response to that situation. How much will you let it matter? Clearly I have a long way to go in that regard.

Yeshu’s radical statement, like so many of His radical statements, makes no sense in human terms because

Personalized Scripture

Copyright 2015 Don Ray

I think back on this week’s Lectionary study group meeting.

It is evident that the study of scripture is not to ferret out absolute, unequivocal meaning from verses and chapters.

Were it only that simple, by now all the meaning would have been long ago squeezed out and the vintage distilled from the fruit of the scripture, and we would simply have to choose from among a variety of expert opinions, seeking

The Antithetical Societal Solution

Copyright 2016 Don Ray

Can it be?!  A quiet Saturday morning at home alone?!  ‘Tasha holding me in the chair by the patio door as snow lightly falls?!  Oh joy, oh joy!  How many lifetimes have passed since I experienced this sublime joy!  And I experience it now only because of a wicked bad cold that I do not want others to catch. 

But oh this long forgotten, blessed morning state of mind and spirit!  Oh joy, long missed joy!  Unhurried!  Quiet!  Unpressured!  All because of a cold and a purring ‘Tasha kitty. 

‘Tasha also celebrates this rare, rare moment of quiet at home on a Saturday morning.  Such a blessing!

Ahhh, an unhurried morning….such a curse that such an experience should so rarely bless the modern man and woman.
I get to scruff a purring ‘Tasha kitty!  Thank You!  Thank You!  Thank You!...for the cold that made this possible!
Such joys and life await in contemplation!

How impoverished the life always busy, active, moving!

Heart Blindness

Copyright 2016 Don Ray

The following is written while outside an office I wait on courageous, emotionally devastated friends who two nights ago suddenly found themselves immersed in an incomprehensible tsunami of shocking, life-wrenching tragedies involving suicide, coroners, lawyers, custody, hospitals, court hearings, and God only knows what more.

Such madness besets this poor blinded humanity! Dear God, such madness! This surely testifies to there being far more to existence than mere reductionist physical and mechanical forms. Such madness contradicts the principles of evolution. No species would ever evolve into such madness. How evident it is that we must be blind, yet we know not to what we are blind. It is so painfully evident that we have lost contact with something critically important. 

Faith Crisis, Faith Freedom

Copyright 2016 Don Ray

Faith Crisis, Faith Freedom

Ever had a crisis of faith when you had to give up a dearly held belief?  I desperately dislike the wrenching torments of such crises, but eventually am inevitably grateful for them, whether addressing faith in a person, an institution, or a belief system. 

I’m sure they must afflict any open minded person, anyone willing to learn and grow, anyone questioning and searching.  I don’t think real faith has much strength without being exercised by crises of faith. 

In a crisis of faith, reality keeps slapping you in the face to wake you up to the fact that a core principle of your beliefs is clearly mistaken.  That in turns leads to the real problem.

 You are left asking if everything you believe is mistaken.

Beauty in the madness

Beauty in the Madness

Copyright 2016 Don Ray

On a recent sunrise contemplative walk, I experienced a most curious peaceful insight.  It arose in part in response to a recent afternoon spent at an acquaintance’s house where he had me watch innumerable old video clips of war in its innumerable forms, documentary video clips, movie excerpts, compilations, technology of weaponry, cavalry charges, black and white movies with handsome heroes charging into a wall of spears or a hail of bullets, etc., etc., a compendium of testimony to the madness of the human condition.