Friday 9 February 2018

When The Spirit Calls


When The Spirit Calls

I awoke at 2 a.m. one night and spontaneously wrote out these lines. They are the unfiltered musings from my unconscious that have no logical message. Rather they are a window looking into a foreign land where even the colours are strange and mysterious.

There are no punch-lines or meanings here, other than the ones you choose to create.


I

It is what existed before anything, or anytime, existed -

what was before the Universe was and what will be when the Universe dies.

It is magic, belief, faith, love, all that is intangible and indefinable.

The spirit is the void, it is the potential of all that is, and could be.

It is the space between the notes music from which all was and is created,

 the nothingness from which all is born.

It is timeless, it is all that can become.

It is the air we breathe and water fish swim in, the invisible all around us which we never even notice,

and yet it gives us life.

It is all becoming, all awareness, all life that senses “I live!”.

It is total wakefulness, total honesty, total pain, total joy, all suffering it is the TO BE.

It is a state in which you are totally over-whelmed, where your sense of sense has vanished, absorbed like a   drop of water in an ocean. You are gone, and yet you are still there, only now you are not separate but part of the all.

It that union which transforms two to eagerly become one flesh.

It is all that cannot be named, all that cannot be known.

It has infinite power, but can do nothing directly by itself, because it is everywhere and nowhere and in no-time.

We live but to die.

Death is the ultimate cruelty, or is it?

It is birth and death - Spirit is at the centre of all transformations.

It is what ‘is’ when two become one.

It is what is created in the space of when you lose yourself in the beauty of a sunset,

it is that realization that we only have each other in a lonely  and uncaring universe.

All that we can do when we recognize the Spirit is love and cherish each other because all life feels that same sense of loss and isolation and despair that you do -  knowing that we all doomed to die.

And yet… and yet… hope springs eternal and the crocuses bloom through the melting winter snow.

It is what remains after the answer and before the question.

 

 

 

 

II

 

When you cry out at another’s joy or another’s potential pain, the Spirit it there.

Deep, deep within, the Spirit is what you feel when you can shake your fist at the heartless night sky full of beautiful and cold stars and ask; “Why, or why did she have to die?” 

That is a hint of the spirit, for it is all that is shared, which is ALL.

All we ever know or feel or experience is but a whiff, a faint aroma of the spirit.

We exist in space and time, this is not the reality of the Spirit, as the Spirit knows no space, no time.

To smell this intangible Spirit we must lose ourselves, for when we lose what is most dear we open up our souls to the great unknowing, the truth far beyond knowing, a truth to fearsome for most, if not all, of us to every face, without, perhaps, going slightly mad.

A holy madness?  A joyous madness?

Or perhaps a madness that is sane while all the rest of, cocooned in our shells of materialism and logic are truly insane.

When all is gone: our health, our strength, our child or our spouse, only when we have lost everything, even a sense of time and space and self – only then do we have access to the Spirit.

The Spirit is beyond good and evil, so that we risk accessing evil or good, destruction or unity, when we call upon the Spirit.

Thus the Spirit is the ultimate danger, the ultimate secret weapon from which we have no defence.

Which Spirit we experience depends upon how and who we are: what we are like when we  launch ourselves into the Spirit world.

If you seek violence you will find violence and be justified is returning a message to your fellow men that violence is the key to the Truth,

If you seek bliss, you will find that too, for the Spirit contains all.

It is the more dangerous, more sublime, more beautiful and more terrible than your worst nightmare or most inspiring dream.

We get what we choose when we search the Spirit World, and when we return the Spirit within us can unleash upon the world anything, any terror, any blisss.

It depends upon our discipline - for we create the thoughts and actions that transform what may be and what could be into what is.

All other life, all keys to the material world, is unleashed when a conscious being lets the unformed Spirit into the Universe of matter and energy.

Loneliness is the key to this unleashing. If loneliness is our greatest fear, it is also our greatest friend.

Spirit is loneliness yet you are actually never alone – all that IS is also you, for all that is created is Spirit, including and especially you.

So, explore your loneliness, be quiet, be still, stop thinking, don’t feel, just experience, and eventually, with training and discipline, the Spirit, for better or worse, who is always with you, will become manifest within you. And then you will either become free or a slave, depending upon who you are and what you choose.

Then you will either be truly and completely alive, go insane, or die.

 

III

Life is dangerous, the Spirit even more so.

When you put it all on the line you create an intensity and focus that is gives you unparalleled focus and creativity.
That intensity is what life is all about, it is what makes life worth living.
You live once and then you die.
But death is not the enemy, it is your best friend.
A friend who makes sure you put it ALL on the line, so you may totally and completely and unabashedly live.
Anything that takes away that intensity is the enemy.
Thus our enemies are drugs, fear, complacency, ignorance, and shame:
not death.
Death should be your best friend, your constant companion.
Rather be afraid of those who make us afraid of dying so that you don’t live –
         they are the enemy.
They are against whom the Spirit struggles.
They, be they ideas or emotions or ideologies or people -
they are who you fight every day of your life.
And when you quit fighting, your soul dies.
Your body may live for a little while, but that essential spark placed within, the you that is the Spirit of all that could be,
is quenched.
Then it is time to cry,
then tears like a river should flow.
So cry, cry tears like a river
for all those who are not living in the Spirit
Cry that they may find the holy fear and holy bliss that is our only companion in a dark and lonely Universe.
Cry out for the Spirit, to the spirit in each every person you meet.
Each of them a precious splinter of the light.
Each of them an infinite treasure.
Cry tears of gladness. Cry out. And never stop until your very last breath.

Wednesday 7 February 2018

Is Joy the Missing Ingredient in our Fight with Climate Change?


Is Joy the Missing Ingredient in our Fight with Climate Change?
The surprising upside of low-carbon living

 

When you fill your life with optimism, love and joy there is no room for despair, fear or regret.

 

Joy, our third note as Franciscans, has been a challenging command for me. While I have had too much rational education as an engineer, and experience as a physics teacher, to avoid facing the sometimes brutal harshness of our world, my duty as a Christian and new Franciscan has forced me to find a way to transform that harshness into joy. The struggle to integrate this excessive rationality with our Franciscan note of Joy has led me, at times agonizingly, into my current vocation as environmental writer, inspired always by my beekeeping. Beekeeping has been a catalyst in this process as it has helped me realize how little we are ‘ìn control’ of Nature, how much we are part of Nature and especially how our choices that result in killing bees also risk killing us in the long term. Nature, like the bee pictured on my finger above, is not a threat if we have knowledge and treat it with kindness and respect. In the next few paragraphs I hope to inspire you to also find a way to face honestly and respond joyfully to the harsh realities of Climate Change.

 

Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.

Forgive, and you will be forgiven.               Luke 6:37

 

If you write you also know that sometimes the right words just flow from your fingers, while at other times you have to dig deep down into your soul to find them. This is such a time. I have struggled with finding the right words to express the hope and joy I know is ‘out there’ in spite of the sad reality of a world seemingly rushing towards the precipice of destruction. Today, just as the Church had lost its moral credibility at the time of St. Francis, our worldwide consumer industrial civilization has lost all contact with its moral foundation; the bedrock truth that all of life is God’s creation, for when we destroy this creation we destroy ourselves. But I am not here to condemn. My message, inspired by Christ’s teaching  does not condemn but rather seeks to bring hope by showing that there is another way to live, a better way, a way that brings life instead of death, a way that partners with rather than attempts to masters God’s creation. That way is the path of Joy.

If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity,

you have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.      St.Francis

 

Fourteen years ago I got very sick. It was four years before I was strong enough to return to work part-time, and I was, as you would expect, a changed man. I now felt very mortal and decided I would not live a life with regrets. I had experienced the destructive power of regret at that time and ever since has made certain that I consciously make a daily choice to think and act in ways that leave no regrets. Part of that desire resulted in the recognition that I needed to make life changes so that could serve as an example for my children.  My life would become a living example of a joyous way of living that did not destroying either the Earth or exploit the poor. Rather I would be a small, flickering candle of hope in the dark forest of our self-centred, materialist world. But given that I am married  (and wanted to stay so!) these changes had to be made in ways that my wife and children could buy into and feel good about. The following summarizes most of our investments and life style changes made over the past 10 years to become (almost) Zero Carbon, that is, without producing any carbon dioxide in our daily lives:  First, we put solar panels on our roof, converted our oil heat to a geothermal ground source heat pump (Ontario electricity is 99% carbon free) then we raised chickens, worked hard weeding our gardens to grow healthy food, I started beekeeping. We have worked hard to reduced our garbage by 80%, we drive two electric cars, and I have stopped flying. I am not listing these efforts to draw attention to myself but, rather to show that there are many changes we can all make that reduce our carbon footprint. For me these choices became part and parcel to what it meant to be a Christian steward, while simultaneously improving our family’s quality of life.  Others are sharing this journey with me. Peter Kalmus, a NASA scientist who now emits about 1 ton of carbon dioxide per year (down from 19 tons per year, about the U.S. average) said: “What surprised me is how much happier I am. I’ve discovered that the rewards of living with less fossil fuel are huge.” Another living the ‘low carbon lifestyle’ is Karl Coplan, who has a blog where you can follow the family efforts at LiveSustainablyNow.  Visit the family and take a moment to be inspired! Even better, watch the new documentary ‘A Quest for Meaning’ at https://filmsfortheplanet.com  . Their message? Only JOY will save us from ourselves as we face Climate Change.

 

The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.     Robert Swan

 

Zero Carbon Living is also about having less stuff. Some would say this means being Monastic, others Minimalist, I would say it’s just common sense. When you have a lot of stuff you don’t own the stuff, rather, it owns you. If you want to learn and be entertained at the same time as to why less stuff will help both you and the planet watch these short clips on you tube: ‘The story of stuff’  by Annie Leonard and the skit ‘Stuff’ by the brilliant comedian and social commentator George Carlin. Both of these people emphasize that the fact that YOU can do something, none of us is helpless and that life gets better when you experience happiness by being really connected with people who matter to you – in other words, you are not alone and you are loved. This leads to another insight in finding a joyous filled response to climate change.  In the words Naomi Oreskes: it's not about the facts, not about the science. Underneath all of this is a fear that capitalism has failed. That new rules and regulations and carbon taxes to fight climate change are somehow an assault on our freedom and liberty — that we'll become Communists. That's why environmentalists are called "watermelons", green on the outside, red on the inside. Hard to believe, but that's the core of the resistance." In other words only persuading people to change the way we live is not all about pleasure; it’s also about understanding ourselves as a collective as well as individuals. It seems that many American Christians who think only in terms of individual rather than corporate salvation are also resistant to the message that climate change is real.  My joy was quashed when I read this recent headline:  Are Christians becoming more environmentally conscious? A new study says no.” (Indystar, Jan, 17, 2018)

 

Making a big life change is scary. But know what’s even scarier? Regret.

 

Climate Change should thus not primarily thought of as a physical battle but rather as a spiritual one.  This spiritual battle is being waged in all our souls. Our enemies are fear and despair and ignorance but with love in your hearts, knowledge in your head and a smile on your face can shine the light of joy and hope for all to see and dispel the despair so many feel. Becoming a Franciscan has helped arm me for this battle by confirming and supporting the efforts we have made by forcing me to bring into my response the vital ingredient of joy. Nobody likes a party pooper who points a finger of guilt by saying things like:  “You are condemning your grandchildren to a dying Earth” for I have observed that trying to shame others into changing their ways is not only hopeless but is one of the quickest ways to lose all your friends!  Rather, we have chosen to quietly and slowly put our money where our mouth is by living less materialistically, and investing our cash and talents to reduce our Carbon footprint and to live a life with more joy.  We believe that by being an example we (and that includes you if you so choose) can inspire others to do the same.

Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are travelling the dark journey with us. So, be swift to love, make haste to be kind.       Henri F. Amiel

I don’t want to give the impression that we spent our way to happiness – quite the contrary! As you can see in this picture of our children they lived a simpler life free to play: we had dogs and chickens and turkeys and bees and they helped weed our gardens where tomatoes, garlic, beans, lettuce grew and lots and lots of flowers for the bees! These changes also forced us to be creative. Live in a smaller house did not mean we moved, rather, we transformed our basement into an apartment, rented it to a church friend and once our children left home my mother in law move in.

 

 

Really, it’s all about making choices. My choice to stop flying has been the most provocative, however the math speaks for itself: in the Paris Accord target a world average carbon budget is 1.6 tons/yr. while one flight to visit my sister in Australia is five tons! We have cleaned out many closets – to the great benefit of the Salvation Army. Strangely, the hardest change has been to try to live ‘zero waste’. That means, no garbage, no food going bad in the fridge, no plastic bags, no throw away coffee cups – this has been very difficult, and we have not yet met that target, but we are getting better! Perhaps the best evidence that our efforts were lived out with joy is that our children are imitating us and look back fondly on their childhood. They had no TV, no computer games, no cell phones and they had to help weed the gardens, bring the chickens to the abattoir, harvest the honey and dig out the garlic but mostly they had the freedom to play with their friends and let their imaginations run free. We did not talk to them about the threat of pollution, the 6th great mass extinction or Climate Change, rather we armed with them with confidence and optimism. Others have chosen to tell children ‘the facts’: it is claimed “that in the UK that half of young children surveyed aged 7 to 11 are anxious about the effects of global warming, often losing sleep. This is grotesquely harmful.” (The Guardian, 15 June2009) This report confirms to me joy is the essential ingredient to all we do in life and especially when we discuss Climate Change.

 

No passion so effectually robs the mind of its powers of acting & reasoning as fear.  E.Burke

 

Our post 9-11 Age is filled with fear. Few would disagree that fear robs us of joy. Fear of terrorists, fear of being bullied, fear of finding a good job, fear of food laced with toxins, fear of pain. The media are using that fear to sell to us things we don’t need while  politicians and corporations use the same fear to make ‘us safe’, but the actual result is that they now have greater control of our lives. Fortunately we, as Franciscans, have chosen another path, for Christ’s path is one of freedom. However to be free requires the courage to act upon one’s convictions. The Bible tells us that to endure this courage must be based in love: love of all life in Earth. As we are told in 1 John 4:

 

There is no fear in love, for perfect love drives out fear.

 

When I talk with young people they feel helpless about climate and thus afraid of the future. They need examples, examples from older people, to demonstrate that they are not helpless, that they can act, and that fear has no control over their lives. All of us can escape the trap of fear but we all need examples. If you are older I have a challenge for you. Help dispel the fear experienced by our youth - be an example of a life filled with optimism AND with knowledge. Dare to learn as much as you can about Climate Change. Be joyful as you face and act upon the very real threats of Climate Change. Live as close to Zero Carbon and Zero Waste as you can. Be a climate champion.. Smile a lot. Be optimistic and let your joy be infectious. I leave you with a final gift: the gift of a smile on your lips as you see to the joy of these children in South America as they call out to ‘Buen Vivir!’  Let us all try to emulate the same joy they have!

 

http://enpositivo.com/2012/12/cultura-para-vivir-bien/


The Spirituality of Beekeeping I


I am delighted to share a beautiful piece of writing from Anne Marie Vencill's reflection on the spirituality of beekeeping.

"In those moments when I am trapped in pain or feeling sorry for myself or need to get out of my head, I wander back to the hives. They are a place of calm and peace. As I watch bees flying in and out, my heart rate slows. My mind focuses on something other than me. I marvel at the beauty and complexity of the bees, and the mystery of the One who created them. I can observe bees for hours without distraction or boredom. I talk to the bees. I move more deliberately and slowly, with care. I’ve been stung too, a wake-up call to be more mindful.
Maybe the bees call me to do this with my own life: To stand back, observe, marvel, and be mindful. To set aside my preconceived agenda and ebb and flow with the natural cycles of family and aging. To give myself permission to take flight and explore where I am at this moment. To move deliberately and slowly, taking time to enjoy what is."

http://abbeyofthearts.com/blog/2018/01/24/monk-in-the-world-guest-post-anne-marie-vencill/