dharmatalks

In light of the rather extensive reconstructive surgery, which doctors are considering a "calculated risk", I thought I would take this opportunity to address a common question asked of me by those who are "concerned". Now I am not talking about the kind of concern that hopes the risks associated with the procedure are not manifested, or those who are concerned about the couple weeks of even more intense pain that may follow. What I mean are those who are concerned that my belief system doesn’t include the kinds of superstitions and fundamentalism that bring them comfort.

You can be sure that among those who love me most dearly, are a number of folks who simply cannot conceive of why I continue not to accept their idea of a personal god or saviour… and why I don’t find such things important or comforting. "What if God gets mad at him for not believing, and lets him die, and he will never be saved?" they wonder, and chat among themselves. "Oh, I am so worried that he’s turned his back on God and religion…" others whisper, "it just breaks my heart."

What these genuinely warm, wonderful and loving individuals don’t comprehend is that my philosophy and spirituality has changed very little, aside from deepening, from the time I was fifteen or sixteen. Following a spiritual experience or what commonly gets labelled as a "vision" (waking dream) on the Feast of the Pascha, in 1979, I suddenly realised that all of the religious figures were metaphors for the Ground of Being… and that you and I are too.

The Greek word, eucharistia, means thanksgiving. I have always found my spirituality to be a eucharistically-centred spirituality. True peace and gratitude are not the feelings of "comfort" that people get from clinging to their idea of the Great Cosmic Babysitter or Yahweh the Punishing Nanny concepts. True spiritual peace — an unshakable calm, emptiness, is a way of interpreting the world. For an authentic follower of the Buddha or the Christ, there is a simple awareness that although it is difficult to change the world, it is always possible to change the way we perceive the world. By starting with perception, we can transform entire universes. And that awareness makes it virtually impossible to move from a base of shear gratitude.

For this reason, I don’t feel the need to turn my understanding of the Void, or the Stillness, as the mystics and saints have called it, into a caricature… a reflection of the hostilities, intolerance, selfishness and insecurities we experience as individuals, and then elevate (egotistically) as our "god". Instead, I live in the only moment any of us ever has… right here, right now… and try to touch the wonders that exist within and without, realising that those wonders are all part of the cosmic dream, and I am both the dreamer and the dream itself.

When we don’t place such artificial importance on ourselves, there is no need for that "safety net" that believes God or Goddess will save you, us, them, and punish the ones who don’t walk the same path. In fact, if there were a God that resembled the God of any of the Abrahamic religions, I would not want to be anywhere near it, because frankly, I would have to consider that God, according to the descriptions, to be a real asshole!

Instead, I am content with the awareness that what the primitive minds conceive as "God" is actually Love, and I believe in Love. Love allows me to cultivate a mind that neither clings nor repels, and thereby allows me to move through the experiences of happiness and pain, accomplishment and failure, success and frustration, without losing my balance for long.

So instead of worrying whether I will survive the 4-6 hours of surgery, I am more content simply sitting with the awareness of how fortunate I am to have the love of my parents, my family (both biological and extended), an incredible companion and partner, good friends, wonderful students and thousands of readers, who desire the best for me in any given moment. And of those folks, rather than wringing your hands and hearts on Monday, and instead of worrying about why I don’t embrace your particular religious beliefs, do something that will really help me to "make it"…

Do something nice for someone on Monday, for no reason at all. That kindness will transform the world. And healing is always easier in a more loving environment.

I will be fine, no matter what the outcome. And I will go into surgery with a heart filled with love for each of you, and all sentient beings, truly believing that whatever pains I endure can be offered as a substitution for the pains of others. Even if nothing more than an exercise in compassion and awareness, I believe it too, will help transform the world.

Namasté!

– dharmacharya gurudas sunyatananda

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Over the course of the past few weeks, we’ve lightly bantered about over the belief some of my students and monks hold that I should return to wearing either a Franciscan, Camaldolese or Buddhist monastic habit, because of my “position” in the Order. They would like their spiritual leader to be recognised as such, and feel that my being most commonly seen in jeans and a t-shirt diminishes the perception of others, who might take our spiritual paths more seriously.

They also believe that I should take a softer “public” approach on social justice and religious accountability issues, so that the former benefactors, who have essentially financially destroyed our community in the past four years, might change their views and begin supporting us again.

I’ll be the first to admit that the attire I am personally most physically comfortable, since I am not a big fan of clothing in general, wearing my Benedictine (Camaldolese) habit. But the fact is that having lost a considerable amount of weight, due to my medical condition, the one I have is too big, and being white, it was more practical in a traditional monastic setting. My work takes me out on the streets too often now, so white ends up filthy by the end of a single day.

But there is another reason I resist wearing it… and that reason is more important to me…

It’s all about fighting against appearances. I dislike and disapprove of the way in which we treat those in religious or spiritual garb “better” than we treat the guy in “grunge-wear” from the local biker’s club. My message is post-denominational and post-religious… so wearing religious attire can be counter productive in most settings.

This week, after making the decision to disassociate myself from a self-described Buddhist discussion group, in which I found far too many armchair-gurus, and not enough substantial conversation going on; and in which I was tired of having to deal with the vitriolic bullshit of one woman, who felt it was disgraceful “fence-sitting” for me to consider myself a successor to the apostles, a Franciscan and a Buddhist monk/lama, I began to consider addressing our judgmentalism based on appearances.

Appearances get us in trouble. Last week, we talked about the legendary resurrection, and how the ultimate message, I believe, was that death could not kill the love that became incarnate in the Christ, and which lives on in his disciples. In the Buddhist tradition, although Buddha Sakyamuni no longer appears to be living corporeally, the Buddha-Mind (Christ-Consciousness) lives on in the Sangha.

Last Saturday night, hundreds of thousands of Britons tuned-in to watch the programme that gave way to the U.S. hit, American Idol, and watched incredulously, as an apparently frumpy, physically unattractive woman told the judges, she wanted to become a professional singer.

Watch the video clip below, and then consider how you and I allow appearances to cause us to forget that our perceptions are nearly always mistaken, and little more than our opinions and judgments. Consider what you can do to finally allow for a new awareness to awaken in you… a Divine Mercy, if you will… a mindfulness of the Oneness that is the Ultimate Reality, and awareness of our responsibility to show compassion, support and kindness toward every being.

I was deeply moved by this video clip, and applaud Susan Boyle for being a remarkable teacher… and encourage you to watch what happens to the judges throughout the clip. It’s a sight we don’t often see in the U.S. version, but even Simon Cowell clearly shows a depth of emotion that is stirring and humbling.

Click here to watch the video clip (opens in a new window).

– Gurudas

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Copyright ©2008, Dharmacharya Gurudas Sunyatananda (Dr. F. Gianmichael Salvato). All rights reserved. This article may be reproduced, blogged, quoted or distributed, provided the entire blog, including by-lines, contact information and this copyright remain intact. It may NOT be altered in any way, without express written permission.

Meister Eckhart once noted that "(A)ll the names we give to God come from an understanding of ourselves."

Once we fully grasp the meaning of this concept, it becomes easier to respect the divergent spiritual paths of others.

If you find someone whose life and awareness are open, compassionate and giving… someone who seems to overflow with love for others… that person, if they are inclined to believe in theistic concepts, will be someone who embraces a loving God(dess). A quick look around at the comments on my blog, and you will encounter many such persons.

Others, who live quiet lives of service and caring for those in need will often embody the example of the Living Christ, as captured in the scriptural mythos. For these people, their God-concept, if they entertain such ideas, will be one of service and nurture.

And then, of course, there are those whose theology is the most saddening and disgraceful of all… those who interrupt discussions with their religious fundamentalism, and notions of their imaginary, spiteful and vengeful God… the God of the primitive Palestinian, Arabic and Judean peoples. The mean-spirited and punitive God of the Old Testament, Yahweh (or for the theological illiterate, "Jehovah"). It is unfortunate that quite often, those who embrace this Cosmic Bitch of a deity are often those who are themselves petty, punitive and judgmental.

The ego of the ancient writers tried to distract from the evidence, pretending that their god created us in "his" own image; when in reality, it was primitive humanity, who creates its gods in their own images.

It does not really serve a useful purpose to try to convince a person for whom theistic ideas are part of their spiritual path that such ideas are immature, unwholesome or unhealthy. Perhaps such things are so for us, but we cannot truly know what is right for them, unless we truly understand everything about them, and few of us have such an ability. I certainly don’t!

Master Thich Nhat Hanh reminds us, "You cannot talk about apple juice to someone who has never tasted it. No matter what you say, the other person will not have the true experience of apple juice. The only way is to drink it."

Reality seldom ends us being even remotely similar to our concepts. That is why we have to let go of those concepts, including the concept of wondering whether theism, non-theism, atheism or pantheism are useful. Concern yourself with whether they are useful for you, in this moment. Don’t worry about tomorrow, or five minutes from now. Forget about the past. Let the past inform you, but realise that only time that truly matters is what you do with the moment.

Bring compassion and mindfulness to the moment, and neither the problems of the past, nor the risks of tomorrow will have any power over you.

Let others lead small lives, if they so choose. That should not interfere with your ability to love them.

It’s a fact… some people will always believe things we don’t understand, don’t agree with, don’t wish for them. Let go and love them. That is enough.

And so is this.

Namasté!

– dharmacharya gurudas sunyatananda

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Easter is a time when the disciples of Paul (who imagine themselves to be, and describe themselves as "Christian"), believe that their God, after allowing (or requiring?) his son to be beaten mercilessly, tortured and murdered, magically made him rise from the dead (after, of course, making all the savage wounds and signs of the torture go away… well, except for the dramatic "holes" in the hands and feet, which might be useful later, in case anyone wanted to claim they had the burial cloth, etc.)

It saddens me that during the time of year that the message of the Christian scripture becomes the most powerful and compelling, most of them get lost in their superstition, their literalism and their fundamentalism.

In the Christian narrative, we find an expression that I think describes this phenomenon quite well… in fact, we heard Jesus using the expression two weeks ago, in the story of his entry into the Temple, when he called the Pharisees "whitewashed tombs".

In a previous Dharma talk, I discuss how we are all, at times, like these whitewashed tombs… especially those entrusted with the spiritual care and nurturing of the people. You can read that reflection here: http://blog.dharmadudeunplugged.com/?p=16

When I see the majority of self-described "Christians", including many of the clergy I consider to be friends, I am filled with sadness over their seeming to miss the importance of the real Paschal Message entirely. They believe it was necessary for their mythical "god-man" to be murdered, and then do the whole zombie thing, in order to "save" humanity. It’s the kind of errant theology that one can understand arising in a primitive and uneducated culture, among people unfamiliar with the myths of Attis, Horus, Osiris, Mithra and so many other sons/suns of the gods. But it’s a hollow theology, believing in a mythical god who is so impotent that "he" would have to sacrifice his "firstborn son" in order to forgive his own creation.

I’m sorry, but that smells of a crock of primitive, superstitious, fundamentalist bullshit!

The entire myth that was overlaid upon the true Message of the Christ was one in which the temple built of stone and marble would be replaced by the temple built of Love Incarnate — revealed in the person of Jesus Himself. The institutional religion was replaced with the "religion" (or more appropriately put, the PATH of unconditional love. Unfortunately, even some of His followers missed the point, and simply replaced the old institutional religion of Judaism with a new institution.

The Paschal Message is a message in which we find that the impermanence of the body does not destroy the eternal law, which is Love. If we accept the possibility that Rav Yeshua (Jesus) was murdered, then the symbolism of the resurrection mythos is one in which we discover that they could kill the man, but not the Message. Love truly does (always) triumph over death.

True compassion and love are beginningless, and really defy our ability to completely describe, explain or quantify them. For me, this is what I call "the Ground of Being". Often, we imagine our emotional attachments as being "love", and while true love may actually be present in that relationship, it is usually buried beneath the baggage of what we think love is — sexual attraction, desire, emotional attraction, neediness, co-dependence, possessiveness, and so forth.

For the sake of clarity, whenever I write of this Ground of Being, I use upper-case letters, and do so with its equivalent "Love". It is indescribable really, because it is both the ground of being, and groundlessness… it is what we call "sunyata" — Emptiness.

Teresa d’Avila and John of the Cross recognised this and wrote exquisitely about it, as did Merton, de Mello and other Catholic mystics. But in the eyes of those who prefer their superstitions, it will always be the more fanciful stories of those whose egos were as big as the legends they told that will capture the attention of such folks.

The Buddha said that those with a small mind want a small Law. In modern parlance, we understand that could also be taken to mean that those with limited spiritual maturity want a limited spiritual experience. And we must respect that, because it is where those folks are. Simply, and simple.

Now I don’t embrace the belief that Love is a person, and don’t believe that Love created the universe. In fact, I don’t ascribe any kind of faith toward that Love at all. I don’t try to explain it, define it, quantify it or contain it. And one reason for that is simply that I don’t believe it’s necessary to do so, because for me, Love is all there is.

There is an ancient story celebrated today by many people of different backgrounds and faiths. On this day, the story tells us that the tomb was found to be empty…

Love is not only beginningless, it’s also endless. And so it makes sense that if Love were to have become incarnate, it would live on — beyond the appearances and illusions of this phenomenal world.

In the twelfth century, a Muslim holy man, named al-Ghazali, wrote a book entitled, Revival of the Religious Science, in which many of the sayings of Yeshua the Nazarene (Jesus) are contained; among them:

"Store up for yourselves something which the fire will not devour… Compassion." (Ch. 3:178)

Inscribed above the body of the crucified Christ, on Catholic crucifixes, we find the letters, "INRI". Two days ago, we mentioned some of the meanings these letters have, including the meaning that makes the most sense in the context of the mythos itself, in which the Jewish priests recognised that they slaughtered a holy man… a prophet and son of their god.

But there are two other meanings for those letters, all of which first appeared in artwork in the medieval period.

One is the meaning that is found in the use of those letters on the Jesuit insignia, "Iustum Necar Reges Impios" – meaning: "It is just to exterminate or annihilate impious or heretical kings, governments, or rulers". The Jesuits and the hidden portion of the Jesuit Rule/Handbook deals specifically with such things as working to overthrow those who would undermine the institutional church.

But of greater significance is the meaning these words have for students of the Mystery School, which included all of those who were part of the original community of Jesus’ Disciples in Jerusalem and in India. For them, INRI meant "Igne Natura Renovatur Integra" – By fire nature is restored in purity.

Our spiritual community, the Contemplative Monks of the Eightfold Path, celebrate an ancient liturgical rite, beginning at fifteen minutes before midnight, on Eretz Pascha (the night before Easter). And fire plays a major role in that liturgical celebration.

We bless the sacred fires that will be used in the coming year’s pujas and liturgical rites… the fires that are used to light the incense and candles we use in meditation… and symbolically, the fires which purify us on that night, to "begin anew".

It is also a time when we distribute the oils used for liturgical rites, and by the fire of a single butter lamp, we read and reflect on the words of several of the various resurrection myths, including the one from the Christian tradition.

As in years past, I intentionally prepared no dharma talk in advance for this night, and sat in complete silence, contemplating the words of the various Christian, Persian, Egyptian, Greek and Syrian resurrection narratives, all of which were said to have occurred on this particular morning.

I could not help but think about something Ramakrsna wrote, as I thought about the imagery of that empty tomb:

"He who finds not the Eternal in himself will never find it outside himself, but for the one who sees the Eternal in the temple of his own soul, the Eternal can be found also in the temple of the universe."

What struck me that for so many years is that for my clergy friends and many of their literalist followers, the emphasis of the resurrection narrative has been placed on where the embodiment of Incarnate Love or Light was not… missing the point of the story entirely.

The tomb would always be found empty, because one cannot bury Love. Love never dies, because it is not a phenomenon. Love exists as part of the numenal world.

The cover story of Newsweek this week features a story on the wonderful decline of Christianity in the United States. I say wonderful, because it means people are starting to think, rather than let their religious leaders and institutions think for them. What is happening is that people are recognising that they don’t need religion… that spirituality is about the journey inward, where the Truth has always been. They’re discovering what the Christ taught — that the "sovereign domain of the Truth is within you." That all one need to do is to ask, to seek, and to knock.

And so, my dear friends, the lesson for us on this sacred morning is that we will never find the Incarnate Love by looking outside of ourselves, because that Love is not in a tomb… but in the temple of the Still, Small, Silence of our Hearts. Only when we recognise that, can we see with the eyes of enlightenment. Because then, Emptiness fills every space, and we recognise that this so-called Emptiness is the Sacred Love that has incarnated itself in Avilokitesvara, in Ereshkegal, in Krsna, in Christ, in His Blessed Mother, in Kuan Yin, in Diana/Venus, Mithra and in you and me.

The Anointed One is alive! Risen from the ashes of death! The tomb is empty! (And YOU are that Anointed One… and so am I.)

Allelujah! Allelujah!

Namasté!

dharmacharya gurudas sunyatananda
   (servant-father francis-maria of the immaculata, o.c.)

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As we learn to read the sacred texts of various spiritual traditions with a more mindful and awakened eye, recognising that most traditions repackage ancient myths, stories and legends, as we see in the Buddhist, Hindu and Christian sacred texts, we also learn to spot those areas in which a little bit of the "real story" might bleed through the mythology, and catch our mind’s eye.

In the gospel attributed to Mark, we find a description of Rav Yeshua’s agony in the Garden of Gethsemane; and while we cannot know whether the actual crucifixion narrative actually occurred with any responsible scholarship, we can readily understand how someone teaching the Dharma of Compassion, as Rav Yeshua did, would provoke the ire of the authorities — both religious and secular.

Therefore, I am not unconvinced that the disciples and particularly Rav Yeshua (Jesus) could have very well been arrested and put through remarkable trials and tribulations. And although I am unwilling to categorically state that I believe that he was actually crucified, I am similarly unwilling to categorically state that he was not. It’s simply not something I consider important, because I do not believe that the resurrection motif, borrowed from the older sun-god mythology, was ever intended to be taken literally.

But there is an element of deeply stirring imagery in the Markan story of the agony in the garden, in which we find Jesus sweating blood, and visibly shaken — terrified, if you will — of the possibility that he may be called upon to sacrifice his life for the sake of those who suffer from ignorance, superstition and a lack of love.

"Can none of you stay awake with me?" he asks. The scriptures have a tendency to be as whitewashed as the ancient tombs of their day, as translators try to remove the human element and emotion from the text. But you can imagine, I am sure, the greater likelihood of Yeshua saying something that would have sounded more like, "Yo, assholes! What’s your problem… I am freaking out here, and you bitches are just sleeping?!?" In the vernacular of the kids in my Dharma class, it was a major "WTF! Moment".

Scientists know that at times of extreme terror, people can literally sweat blood. The condition is called hematidrosis, which is usually accompanied by high blood pressure and extreme stress. It’s interesting that the Markan gospel doesn’t mention this, in fact, the only place we find mention of the phenomenon is in Luke’s text. Given that the author of Luke’s text was a physician, it would make sense that such a detail was of interest to him.

Yesterday, we talked about Yeshua (Jesus) being a Bodhisattva — another term for one who’s entire life is devoted to alleviating suffering, and who commits to return to this life through enless ages, until all suffering is eliminated in all sentient beings. Buddha was another Bodhisattva, as I believe were Gandhi, Mother Teresa, St. Theresa Lisieux, Francis and Claire of Assisi, Thomas Merton and Oscar Romero. The biblical story of the life of Yeshua ben Yosef is one in which we find the metaphor of the divine (Love, Emptiness, or Ground of Being) becoming incarnate, so that It could end suffering and ignorance. This is a common motif found in the older stories of Osiris and Isis, Horus, Attis, Buddha, Krsna, Vsnu, Kali, Brigid and many of the Native American stories about the Great Spirit.

I think the details shared in that Garden of Gethsemane, however, portray a Great Teacher and Bodhisattva, who experienced the same fears and uncertainties all of us face at times, when we are unsure that we will be safe, if we continue along the road we know is right. To imagine someone having so vast and undeterred a love for all life, that he was willing to suffer and be tortured is awe inspiring… and it is something that we have seen repeated in more recent history, in the lives of people like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, in the courage of President John F. Kennedy, and in the fearlessness of the Tibetan monks, living under Chinese oppression, as well as the young protestors in Tien a Min Square, during that great massacre.

Love always conquers that which appears to be opposed to Love. I find greater inspiration in my personal belief that if Jesus was indeed crucified, he died. Period. No magical, Dawn of the Dead scenarios… no ghosts walking through walls…

I am moved and inspired by the truth, not the fairy tale. The truth is that Love Incarnate… and alive in each of us… could not be silenced by crucifixion, a gunshot wound, or a smear campaign. And after the natural period of shock, pain and fear, which loved ones of a slaughtered Bodhisattva would surely experience, the Essence of Love rose again, and lived, and was recognised among them, as the story says, "in the breaking of the bread".

Good Friday is a day I particularly find powerful, in that it is the one day in the year, during which there is no celebration of the Eucharist… no traditional Mass celebrated. Instead, a liturgical rite replaces the Mass, turning our awareness toward the reality that we must become mindful of the good that is around us, for one day, it will, like all things, be gone… and we will feel the pain and grieve the loss of not having it there.

May your nights ne filled with wonder and love, and may every breath remind you that the myths might or might not contain "real" events… but the Love they detail… an Incarnate Love that overcame even death is not only real, but is your very nature.

Namasté!

– dharmacharya gurudas sunyatananda
   (servant-father francis-maria of the immaculata, o.c.)

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Today is the most solemn observance in the Catholic tradition, whose mythology and scripture tells the heart-wrenching story of the Suffering Servant, the Great Rabbi Jesus, whose love for humanity compelled him to accept the suffering and torture described in the texts, for the "remission of sins".

Far too often, people become distracted by the extremes — either focusing on a mistaken and literalist interpretation of the story, imagining that these things, for which there is no credible historic evidence, actually occurred; or focusing entirely on the absurdity of those who believe such myths to be literally true… in either case, missing the point of these days of sacred contemplation.

In the Satasáhasriká Prajñapáramitá, we learn that a true Bodhisattva shows his or her compassion by choosing to suffer the pains, torments and passions… even the agony of death, so that he or she might lead all beings to perfect Enlightenment. Such a person, we are told, becomes consumed with grief over the suffering he or she sees among others, and desires to take such suffering upon himself or herself, for the sake of freeing others… literally, saving them, from torment.

This description could perfectly describe the two central figures of the Passion narrative of the Christian faith: Jesus and his Blessed Mother, Mary.

Both Jesus (Rav Yeshua) and his Mother (Miriam) willingly surrender themselves to great suffering — both physical and emotional — out of an overwhelming sense of longing to free the world of suffering and death for innumerable æons.

For the Catholic-Buddhist, the story of Good Friday and Easter can be seen through the lens of the ancient mystery traditions, which recognise the stories as a ways to fill in the gaps science leaves with symbolism and myth, for the purpose of illustrating the importance of the gaps themselves — those empty spaces in which ultimate truth (Emptiness) exists.

The apostle wrote that his desire was "to decrease, so that the Christ Consciousness in him could increase". This consciousness of which he speaks is the awareness or awakening that Buddhists call "Enlightenment". It is an awareness of the ineffable, ungraspable, groundless reality, which the primitives called "God", and which the mystics and Desert Fathers knew could never be named or quanitified.

For me, the Liturgy of Holy Thursday, in which we strip the altar of its linens, its candles and empty the tabernacle of the sacramental presence that usually resides there, has always been a powerful and emotional symbolism. I’ve always returned, as was the case of the elders (episkopi) in the early Jesus Movement, to sit in silent contemplation in that empty church… and turned my awareness to the profound experience of that emptiness.

The period of time from that Paschal meal that Rav Yeshua would have shared with his disciples and their families… during which his Mother must have been keenly aware that something was troubling Her beloved son… bring a mindfulness that there is a pain inherent in being alive. We read about the "agony in the garden", and find the tremendous sadness and agony Christ experienced, when contemplating the suffering of others, and during which he seems to have resolved to identify solely with that sovereign value in the identification of one’s own suffering with the sufferings of all beings.

This ethic of sacrificial compassion is at the heart of the Bodhisattva ideal. And I find meaning in contemplating not only the staid story of Rav Yeshua and his passion and death, but the frequently overlooked, and equally courageous role of the co-redemptrix, Mary, his Mother… who becomes, by adoption, the Mother of Us All. For a mother to stand by and watch her child suffer must be a terrible thing. I know that when my late partner was dying, who for the last year of his life, was more like my child than my lover, it was one of the most emotionally heartbreaking experiences I had ever known. Yet to compound that experience of watching a loved one die with watching them die a savage and brutal death is even more extreme.

A Mother, barely older than Her Child, stands on the step, watching as Her Son is ridiculed, beaten by a crowd, tortured and hanged upon a tree. These words seem inconceivable, and we imagine that is because they are part of an ancient legend… a sacred myth… and that is why we cannot begin to understand. But those words were not a description of our Blessed Mother at Calvary… they were the words used to describe the experiences of a 23 year old Black woman, in Selma, Alabama, who watched her son being beaten and hanged by a mob of racist terrorists in 1962.

Suddenly, when the context changes, our hearts begin to feel the terror, the agony and the grief.

We reflect on the meanings of the story… on the meaning of Pilate, the representative of the "great civilisation", which was threatened by the radical message of inclusion and equanimity being preached by this revolutionary Rabbi of Love. "What is truth," Civilisation (in the person of Pilate) asks of the Anointed One. In the end, Civilisation washes its hands of the responsibility to uphold social justice.

Then there are the high priests… the ones charged with upholding truth and who became caught up in the literalist interpretation, the ritiualistic practice, and the lust for power and authority that comes in every institutionalisation of spirituality. In the end, they too were threatened by the suggestion that compassion calls us to erase the lines the priests had drawn in the sand, dividing "us" from "them"… "pure" from "ritually unclean".

Afraid that doing the "right thing" might upset the status quo (Rome), the few priests with a conscience, retreated in silence, and let fear and manipulation win, just as we find those dedicated and compassionate priests in the Roman Church often doing, in the shadow of the oppression, injustice and intolerance their institutional dogma puts forward. They know that women, gay and lesbian persons, and people from other faiths are being dogmatically marginalised by their religion, and in their hearts, they do not embrace such intolerant ideas… but they do nothing about it… and like the Pharisees, stand by in silence, and watch the torture unfold.

Now there was, at the time of Rav Yeshua, a tradition during Pesach (Passover), during which every observant Jew would bring a lamb or a goat to the Temple for ritual slaughter. The priests would first bleed out the lamb (poorer families would use a goat), and then offer the first portion sacrificially to their vengeful and punitive god, Yahweh. The families would not be permitted into the Holy of Holies, and would have to stand in a waiting area (actually only the men were even permitted to stand in this section). So a name tag was placed around the necks of the animals to be sacrificed.

As we read the story of the Passion, we find that the Jewish priests were horrified and appear angry, when they looked up at the Cross, and see the sign Pilate had inscribed in Latin, Hebrew and Greek.

Many are familiar with the inscription that is often seen on crucifixes today, with the Roman "INRI" appearing above the head of the Corpus.

This sign would have actually contained the entire message "IESVS NAZARENVS REX IVDAEORVM" — meaning "Jesus the Nazarean, and King of the Jews" (contrary to the misinterpretation of many later scriptural texts, which claim it said "Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews", since there was no such place as Nazareth at the time of Jesus’ birth. The Nazarenes were a sect of Dharma adherents, who were trained in the healing arts by the Therapeutae — Alexandrian monks, trained as disciples of the Tibetan Buddhists). Back to the story…

The Pharisees subscribed to a metaphysical method of looking at all written words in Hebrew as containing a literal meaning, and then a numeralogical meaning, followed by a "hidden" Kabbalistic meaning, which was derived from taking the first initial of every word in a passage, and looking for symbolism or words therein.

When the words "IESVS NAZARENVS REX IVDAEORVM" are translated into Hebrew, the first initials of the words would have been "YHVH".

There, before the eyes of those who were charged with the responsibility to protect the truth, was a sacrificial lamb… above whose head was his "family name" the name of their mythical god, Yahweh, whose name in Hebrew is "YHVH".

On a deeper level, there were other more ancient assignations, dating back to the crucifixion myths that pre-date the plagiarised version found in the Bible, in which those letters mean, "IGNE NATVRA RENOVATVR INTEGRA" — "By fire is restored purity".

Thus we see in the story of Good Friday the Bodhisattva Path — which represents the inner fire of the spirit, regenerates and resurrects Love and Life… much like the sun regenerates the earth.

Regardless of your personal spiritual path, I invite you to consider and contemplate this exemplary story of the Bodhisattva Christ (Aviloketesvara) … and the Bodhisattva Mary (Kuan Yin).

Consider a love so great, that after becoming incarnate, was moved so deeply by the suffering of this world and others, that he gave his life in exchange (the Tibetan practice of tonglen) for the freedom of others. Each day, we too have an opportunity to take on the suffering of others, symbolically and in small ways, to alleviate the suffering they experience in some meaningful way.

We can let the desire for that pack of cigarettes die in us, so that the $5 can feed that homeless woman we pass on our way home from work. We can let the habit of Happy Hour with our friends die so that we can spend those couple hours visiting those in the coutnry home or cancer ward.

We can allow the need to be right die, and simply say, "I’m sorry", next time our wife or husband is bitching about something stupid.

And I’ll promise you this, my friends… three days later, you will discover that there has been something in you that is indeed "raised up"… restored to life… reinvigorated.

I would like to conclude this reflection by sharing with all of you the grateful news we received today, that the neurologist is certain that whatever the disabling neurological condition is that caused my accident seventeen months ago, and which continues to cause some deterioration in my health is *not* Parkinson’s Disease or ALS. For this I am thankful and relieved.

We are likewise thankful that the generous help from eleven of our readers allowed us to pay last month’s rent, and avoid being evicted, and that this month we are only $375 short of having the money we need for the electric, phone and rent. The District Attorney is at work at trying to get the man who caused these problems for us to make restitution, and tell us that within the next 60 days they will have resolved the problem. So progress is being made!

And our company — both the legal services division (http://prepaidlegal.comhub/fgsalvato) and the financial services company that I started (http://peoplesfinancialnetwork.com) are beginning to pick up enough momentum to start showing a profit 6-8 weeks from now!

For all of these things I am grateful… but most of all, for the times in my life when each of you has made sacrifices, in the form of a prayer, a smile, a donation or a kind word… and alleviated the pain and suffering of this simple monk.

May I find the strength, courage and awareness to do the same for you always!

In the Essence of the Paschal Experience,

Namasté!

– dharmacharya gurudas sunyatananda

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As we enter into the height of the Lenten Season, our focus this week is on what has come to be known as the "Palm Sunday narrative". In this story, Jesus makes his entry into Jerusalem, through the city’s famous Eastern Gate, riding upon a donkey. He is greeted by throngs of his followers, who wave palm branches and olive branches, shouting, "Hosannah!"

We might miss some of the symbolism in this story, which is important to understanding the reason behind it. This is a story of radically redefined sovereignty. At the same time that Jesus entered into Jerusalem through the Eastern Gate, at the beginning of Passover, Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor would have been entering the city through the Western Gate. Pilate, a representative of Caesar, would have been accompanied by his soldiers and officials, all on horses, and dressed in the refinery of the Roman dignitaries. Jesus, enters on a donkey, surrounded by his followers and supporters… a dramatically different kind of army.

Jesus’ message was a message of love. He redefined what the superstitious people imagined to be some sort of personal, jealous, vengeful and human-like being, they referred to as their God, instead telling them that what they imagined to be "God" is really Love.

The sovereignty embodied by Jesus was not the kind of "kingship" we saw in the courts of Caesar or Herod… it wasn’t the kind of "messianic kingship" the Jews were waiting for… it was the kind of sovereignty Jesus expressed, when he taught, "The sovereignty of the Divine is within you."

In the coming week, we will reflect on a story of tremendous pain… the mythical story of the arrest, torture and crucifixion of the Great Teacher, the Christ. We will talk about suffering, pain and the extraordinary way in which we find the Christ and His Mother overcoming and transcending suffering.

I was reminded of a book I read not long ago, called, "An Interrupted Life: the Diaries of Etty Hillesum". Etty Hillesum was a Dutch Jew, who was killed at Auschwitz, in 1943, when she was only 29 years old. Among the persecutions she suffered, Etty was accused of being a Christian, because her sentiments did not seem to reflect the traditional wisdom of the Jewish people.

Etty Hillesum was unfazed by these accusations, writing in her diary:

"All I wanted to say is this. The misery here is quite terrible, and yet, late at night… I often walk with a spring in my step along the barbed wire, and then time and again, it soars straight from my heart… like some elementary force — the feeling that life is glorious and magnificent, and that one day, we shall be building a whole new world. Against every new outrage and every fresh horror, we shall put up one more piece of love and goodness."

These are the words of a Bodhisattva. Like the story of Etty Hillesum, and the Chrisitian narrative of Holy Week, we are challenged to move through those "fresh horrors" of our time… the accusations that are levied against us… the dangers that await us from the intolerant and hateful… and to emerge having raised up one more piece of love and goodness.

Our reflection as we enter into a period of silent contemplation, until Holy Thursday, comes from the gospel attributed to John:

Then Jesus told them, “You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going. Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light.” When he had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them."  – John  12:12-36

Learning to find the truth hidden and sometimes obscured by our limited comprehension of ancient myths and sacred texts is an example of being lost without the light. We know that the gospel story is a story of Love becoming incarnate in the person of the Christ… something that occurs in each and every one of us. We need not seek external light, but instead, remember how to radiate the light that we are.

We are the light of the world.

Namasté!

– dharmacharya gurudas sunyatananda

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