dharmatalks

For some months, I have been subtly trying to guide our conversations in a particular direction… trying to tease out some of our deepest concerns, biases, fears and attachments to this particular topic. Only five of our monks have known what I was doing in this process, which sometimes put me in the firing line with a number of folks. However, it was critical that I do all I could to get us ready for what I believe is an historic moment for us.

"The essence of all religion is compassion." Karen Armstrong said, at the beginning of her speech at the Vancouver Peace Summit this afternoon, continuing to say, "The essence of all morality is compassion."

It’s been no secret that I’ve long felt that the polarising attitudes of religious exclusionary dogmas and traditions have had a devastating effect on the world in which we live. Often, I’ve thought that it would be better if there were no religions in the world. I’ve frequently pointed out that religion, as it now exists, does little to alleviate suffering.

But realistically, we know we’re not going to see an elimination of religion, since so many rely on this phenomena for support — healthy or not. And so there must be a way to, as Gandhi said, "become the change we wish to see in the world."

History was made today, leading up to an even more historic day in November, when we will succeed in dramatically contributing to a shift in consciousness and awareness worldwide. On February 28, 2008 Karen Armstrong won the TED Prize and made a wish: for help creating, launching and propagating a Charter for Compassion. Since that day, thousands of people have contributed to the process so that on November 12, 2009 the Charter will be unveiled to the world.

In her vision, we would use the suffering we see in all of society as impetus to give rise to greater compassion, to let it "break out hearts and inspire our minds to find a solution for the betterment and happiness of humanity." Building on the Golden Rule, the Charter for Compassion is courageous and visionary, because it comes at a time of great difficulty in our world. The Golden Rule requires that we use empathy — moral imagination — to put ourselves in others’ shoes. We should act toward them as we would want them to act toward us. We should refuse, under any circumstance, to carry out actions which would cause them harm. And the Charter challenges us to consciously choose compassion, interaction and interspiritual cooperation between religious traditions.

This is about practical action… and it cuts to the heart of who and what the Spiritus Project is all about. It’s about bringing to the forefront the idea that compassion is creative, dynamic and engaged.

On November 12th, the Spiritus Project and Contemplative Monks of the Eightfold Path will be unveiling an entirely new website, an online centre for compassion, and will be working with singular focus on engaging and advancing the objectives of the Charter for Compassion.

My hope is that a lot of the fears, biases and other ideas that have arisen on these forums, will inform us, challenge us, inspire us to take a deeper look at what we can do to find the common ground among the world’s spiritual and religious traditions… to look beyond the shortcomings, superstitions, histories and tragedies of religion, toward a day in which we learn to listen to the personal stories of those with whom we journey.

This is the moment for which I have lived my whole life. I know that sounds cliché, but indeed strikes deeper at the core of who I am, why I dedicated my life to the contemplative, monastic life, and which drives me on, despite personal pain, physical weakness and great personal losses. It’s about focus, as His Holiness the Dalai Lama reminded us today. And now that focus is becoming laser-refined.

What I ask now, is that each of you join me in going to http://charterforcompassion.org and join us.

I will be sharing more with you as we draw closer to November 12th. For now, I ask you to give your attention to those who are heading up the effort, whose videos are on the site.

I am without words, because the expansiveness, the momentus importance and potential of this moment is beyond words. As Mpho Tutu reminded us, "Love is not about what we feel, it’s about what we DO."

This weekend, I was humbled by the generosity of two individuals, whose kindness allowed us to pay off the back rent, staving-off eviction once again, and putting food on our table. So it has been a moving… deeply moving weekend.

Know that you are all in my thoughts, and I send my wishes for peace for us all.

Spirituality and religion. Far too often, I would suggest, we accept the notion that these two phenomena are both complementary and necessary for the other to exist.

Spirituality concerns itself with the individual. Spirituality, in and of itself, has nothing to do with gods or goddesses, or any religious beliefs and practices. Spirituality, in its simplest and purest of senses, is the individual’s quest for meaning, peace and growth. Therefore, it is possible for a person, such as myself, who finds no particular need to adopt theistic concepts or irrational superstitious “beliefs” in this god(dess) or that, to still consider myself deeply and richly spiritual.

In humanity’s quest for answers, both individually (spiritually) and anthropologically, the primitive cultures relied on myths and legends to explain those things that were not yet explained by science and reasoning. Thus, melting of polar icecaps became the legend of the Deluge. Thunder became the anger of the god(s). The seasonal changes became the result of Persephone’s quest for her daughter, and so on.

As these legends became intertwined and more widespread, they gave rise to the phenomena known as religion. Today, thousands of years later, there are still adherents who cling to these same superstitious and irrational explanations for things that might otherwise be explained through science and reasoning. But perhaps the most unfortunate part of the phenomena is that many people seem to have selective blindness with regard to religious superstition.

As a Christian literalist what they think of the great gods of the Roman or Norse legend, and they will tell you that those are myths. Ask them about Mithra, the famous hero-son of the Persian god, or Horus, the great Egyptian Sun-God and they will tell you the same thing. But when those same story-lines are overlaid upon the narratives of the historic and revolutionary Rav Yeshua – the Nazarene therapeute, called Jesus – their response incredibly changes. Suddenly, these otherwise intelligent people revert to the primitive and irrationally superstitious cults of almost seventeen hundred years ago, when Emperor Constantine succeeded at introducing the myths and legends of Sol Invictus into the traditions of a peaceful Jesus Movement. Of course, these interpolations were occurring elsewhere, for about 150 years prior to Constantine’s conquest, as often occurs with religious mythos, but the emperor “stepped up the game” considerably.

As someone once noted, “Faith doesn’t provide any answers; it simply discourages you from asking questions.” Religion attempts to explain the unknown by obfuscation. As David Brooks writes, in The Necessity of Atheism, “To explain the unknown by the known is a logical procedure; to explain the known by the unknown is a form of theological lunacy.”

It is unfortunate that many people, when making the mature and logical choice to disengage from religion, seem to think that they have to abandon their spiritual quest simultaneously. Perhaps that occurs, because their spiritual quests were never really personal… never really about themselves… but all about the external legends, saviours and myths. In such a case, these individuals never engaged in a mature quest for spiritual growth, but were captives of fear.

I would suggest that the wounds, both emotional and spiritual, caused by religion, can only be healed by reinvigorating one’s spiritual quest, and discovering that spirituality never had anything to do with religion – that religion often attempts to co-opt spirituality, and nothing more. Thomas Paine described religions best, I think, when he said, “All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.”

While religions can metaphorically be seen as ideological tumours, for which we must continue to hope for a cure; spirituality offers the greatest opportunity for humanity to reclaim its potential, and awaken.

Spirituality seeks answers to the important things… not who created the world, or whether the sun revolves around the earth or vice versa… but how can I avoid suffering, and what can I do to prevent others from suffering? At the foundation of spirituality is compassion and a desire for peace.

Spirituality is a facet of human nature; while religion is an invention of human design. Idealistically, religion intends to help one advance on their spiritual quest, as we can see in the intentionality of many of the spiritual leaders of the past two or three thousand years. But once a religious tradition seems to go from the organic stages of midrashic teaching, to the dreaded “organisational” stage, it seems that all hope for good is often lost.

I would suggest that there are relatively few religions today, in which the good has been maintained and perhaps even outweighed the drawbacks of institutionalism. Among the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) this might be true, save the minor unfortunate schisms and divisions that have occurred over the role of the bible or the tendency for some to overlay the common Christian myth of a saviour into an otherwise sound and balanced spiritual approach to life. For Hindus, the tendency toward institutionalisation has largely been avoided, and their spiritual traditions have remained organic and unfettered by hierarchy and its machinations.

Among Druids, Wiccan and Celtic practitioners of the “Old Religion”, descendants (as are the Jews and Muslims) of the old shammanite spiritual path, we find relative freedom from dogmatism, censorship and the tendency not shared with shammanite offshoots in the Jewish and Muslim sects, toward non-violence.

Some would tend to want to include Buddhism in this list, yet I will refrain from doing so, as a Buddhist monk, because I believe that among those for whom Buddhism has retained its authentic and pure essence – that is as a philosophy and way of life – the Dharma is not a religion. And among many who have corrupted the tradition, superimposing their cultural and religious superstitions, myths and legends upon it, and those who adhere to rigid literalism in their interpretation of the Buddhist canon, then those folks have created a religion like any other, and have unfortunately used and abused their religion as a means of controlling people, extorting from those in their control, and as a means of justifying violence and intolerance, even on the most subtle levels.

In Buddhism, we teach that the object of Buddhism is not to create Buddhists, but to create Buddhas. In this spirit, Sri Chinmoy, the Bengali guru and spiritual leader, wrote:

“The essence of religion:
Fear God and obey God.
The quintessence of spirituality:
Love God and become another God.”

Spirituality is not concerned with the past. It regards the past as part of our personal heritage, and allows the experiences of the past to inform us and remind us, but it recognises the only moment we have in which to grow is right now. Where fear is the domain of religion, love is the domain of spirituality. Where worship is the feature and expression of religion, spirituality is about respect and interior renewal.

If we want to learn the path of integrating a healthier approach to (and use of) religion, we can turn our attention to the great saints and mystics of the historical narrative – Buddha, Rav Yeshua, Rav Hillel, Francis d’Assisi, Teresa d’Avila, Ernest Holmes, Catherine Ponder, Rumi, Hafiz, Shirdi Sai Baba, Gandhi, Emma Curtis Hopkins and Mother Teresa of Calcutta – and find in them, the potential that exists for adherents to religious traditions to integrate such practices into an holistic and healthy approach to spirituality.

Religions, it has been said, are founded upon the fear of the many and the guile of the few. H.L. Menken observed that “religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind–that its modest and greatly overestimated services on the ethical side have been more than overcome by the damage it has done to clear and honest thinking.”

I am inclined to agree, and offer the simple, unremarkable lives of the Contemplative Order of Monks of the Eightfold Path and its non-monastic equivalent, The Spiritus Project, as evidence that those seeking fellowship and support on their personal spiritual quests can do so without religion, without gods or goddesses, and without hierarchy or dogma.

Namasté

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Drawing on the essential teachings of the great spiritual teachers, philosophers and freethinkers throughout time, Dharmacharya Gurudas Śunyatananda (retired Archbishop Francis-Maria Salvato, O.C.) has been regarded as a provocative, revolutionary “voice of reason” within the field of religion and spirituality, since 1983. Having the distinction of being one of the few openly non-theistic, openly-gay and post-denominational thinkers ever to serve as Bishop-Exarch and spiritual leader of the autocephalic Eastern Catholic Franciscans in North America, Gurudas is the author of more than 600 articles, eight books and currently serves as the spiritual advisor for a non-theistic, intentional spiritual community, The Spiritus Project. He can be reached at: http://dharmadudeunplugged.com

Tonight, a number of our monks and friends listened my being interviewed for the radio program, Expanding Your Faith, hosted by Bishop Gregory Godsey and Father David Jennings, on BlogTalkRadio.com.

Bishop Godsey and I have been friends for some time, and he was genuinely interested in the ideas that come from a lifetime of scholarship, contemplative spiritual practice and work in two seemingly divergent traditions – Eastern Catholic mysticism and the upayayana tradition (crazy wisdom or feral wisdom school) of Buddhism.

I think the interview went well, given that my pain level was fairly high, and I needed to take a muscle relaxer just before the show. So there were a few moments when I could not readily or accurately quote some of the various passages in the Buddhist and Christian scriptures, but otherwise, I think we were able to convey a message that encourages others to rediscover the work and message of the historical Rav Yeshua, and consider ways in which it parallels the teachings of his predecessor, some 500 years earlier.

My hope was to foster a deeper inquiry in the hearts of the listeners, while challenging them to recognise the need for compassion in action, regardless of one’s philosophical or religious beliefs. This, I believe, was the message of the historical Jesus.

Often misrepresented as “Jesus of Nazareth” – an inaccurate portrayal, since Nazareth didn’t even exist at the time Rabbi Jesus walked the earth – Jesus was a Nazarene – a wisdom teacher and healer, in the Essene tradition. The Essenes, many believe, learned a great deal of their healing arts from the Egyptian therapeutae, in Alexandria. And these therapeutae were, in fact, Tibetan monks. If we believe the narrative in which we are told Jesus’ family lived in Egypt for some years during his childhood, it is conceivable that he would have learned or at least been exposed to these wisdom school concepts and philosophies.

All of this was somewhat of a precursor to one of my next books, which will look deeply at the teachings of the Christ – both historically and cosmically.

Later this week, I am also honoured to have been asked to submit an article on the difference between spirituality and religion, for Subversify – a terrific thinking-person’s online magazine.

So it has been a busy week. We’re hoping that our friends will continue to spread the word about our webdesign services; and are offering a rather incredible introductory deal, in which folks can get up to a ten page website, with a free year of webhosting, up to ten email accounts, a blog, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter integration, AND receive a free mini-laptop (netbook) computer for about $1.85 per day!

Our hope is that we can sell just four of these per week, which will considerably defray the operating expenses of the Order, and make it possible for us to pay our rent.

The radio interview didn’t cover that project, but did plug my books briefly, so that is another plus.

If you’re interested in listening to the radio program, you can check it out at: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Archbishop-Godsey/2009/09/23/Expanding-Your-Faith

Well, it’s now 4:30 in the morning, and the pain meds have not kicked in, so I am going to return to meditating, and try to relax enough to get a few hours of sleep.

Peace my friends!

Namasté

- gurudas

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Drawing on the essential teachings of the great spiritual teachers, philosophers and freethinkers throughout time, Dharmacharya Gurudas Śunyatananda (retired Archbishop Francis-Maria Salvato, O.C.) has been regarded as a provocative, revolutionary “voice of reason” within the field of religion and spirituality, since 1983. Having the distinction of being one of the few openly non-theistic, openly-gay and post-denominational thinkers ever to serve as Bishop-Exarch and spiritual leader of the autocephalic Eastern Catholic Franciscans in North America, Gurudas is the author of more than 600 articles, eight books and currently serves as the spiritual advisor for a non-theistic, intentional spiritual community, The Spiritus Project. He can be reached at: http://dharmadudeunplugged.com

Zora Neale Hurston keenly observed that a society’s gods most often behave like the people who created them. I suppose that is why so many irrational, narrow-minded, socially irresponsible and ill-informed (completely gullible) people – you know, the kind who get their news from the Fox Network, never miss a Bishop’s Appeal Sunday and who’ve never heard of Dorothy Day, Bishop Thomas Gumbleton or Oscar Romero.

These folks come in all flavours in the Baskin Robbins of Religion – Roman Catholic, Missouri Synod Lutherans, African-Bishop affiliated Anglican Separatists, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Pentecostals and a dozen or so other offshoots of offshoots. The trouble isn’t that they embrace a personal god, as a literal reality, like so many of the adherents of the major Abrahamic traditions. While such beliefs might be viewed by some as primitive or spiritually immature, they are not the source of the real pr0blem in our society.

The source of that real problem is the culture of intolerance, exclusivity. homophobia, racism, gender inequality and indifference that arises from the phenomena of these religious cults turning their gods into reflections of their own pettiness, greed, anger and hostility.

When I began taking a more vocal stance against this spiritual disease in our society, suddenly everyone from family members to friends, colleagues to other recognised spiritual leaders were up in arms and claimed to be “concerned” for my welfare. It’s not that they were worried that the fringe lunatics of the fundamentalist sects would hurt me, but that they imagined their petty, hateful and frankly disgusting versions of “God” would condemn me to imaginary realms of “hell”.

Suddenly, this was a “new religion” I espoused, in their minds. Never mind that I have been teaching the same thing for 29 years, and had only made the decision to distance myself from the hypocrisy of institutional and denominational religion “formally” in 2007… in their minds, I abandoned their God (in whom I never believed other than as a metaphor for Numenal Love or Intelligence), and I was attacking their precious religions.

Now the saddest part for me was seeing some of those I love most dearly, who appear to have difficulty telling the difference between their “faith” and their “church”. These same folks mistake and confuse the difference between the Church (capital “C”) and the institutional church as well.

The Church is the people… the commonwealth of the faithful, if you would. Seldom have I found that the vast majority of faithful in any tradition are hateful, exclusionary or intolerant, to the degree that their denominations are. For example, recent polls showed that 78% of Roman Catholics have no issues with same-gender couples choosing to enter into marriage relationships; 84% didn’t believe it was necessary for non-Catholics to abstain from receiving the Eucharist; 92% said they doubted Jesus would exclude anyone from the Table. These people “get it”… so why don’t the “good ole’ boys” in the frilly lace dresses get it??

Put simply, because their company… their “business”… is built on manipulation, control, and Machiavellian priniciples, and has been since it was started in the third century C.E.

And it’s no different for the hatemongers who run the Missouri Synod Lutherans, the AME Methodists, the Mormons, the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the other fundamentalist sects.

The people in the pews may know better. They may actually know a gay person, or someone living with AIDS, or someone who would be able to walk if stem cell research were advanced… so they realise that what they religious leaders are teaching is wrong. But they are afraid to dissent, because they rely on and were brainwashed into accepting the notion of an external “God”, who is this mean-spirited, jealous and vindictive tyrant. And they are afraid that this Cosmic Asshole is going to consign them to suffer for all eternity, if they don’t kiss “His” temperamental ass.

How absurd is that? Why would anyone with even half a brain (allowing for Republicans to be included in this equation) even consider worshipping someone who is that fucked up? Hell, if your God is that insecure and prone to tantrums, KEEP HIM… and suggest that he look into munching out on some St. John’s Wort for goodness sake!

These unfortunate souls believe that their God is punishing people who defend the Constitutional right of Americans to live in a society where there is a legal protection in place to prevent others from imposing their religious beliefs on the State. They don’t understand that allowing “God” in school or in the courtroom is only the first step, and fails to define who or what God is… opening us up to every manner of abuse and theocracy.

They also forget that the neighbourhoods hit with flooding in Atlanta and Baltimore include many of their church-going pals, so why would their God punish them? Besides, didn’t their Abrahamic God promise He would never send a flood again? So does that mean their God is a liar, not just a drama queen?

Now, for every person who believes in these absurd machinations and constructs of the evil, hateful and intolerant Republican God, there are those who understand and embrace God as Love. And these folks, like the others, have created a God in their own image. Their God reflects the open-mindedness and open-heartedness with which they approach life… the expectancy and equanimity with which they appreciate the spiritual path… the embracing diversity they celebrate in learning about other traditions.

There’s no fear of hell for these folks… no need for judgment… because where there is Love there can be no fear.

That is why I will stand here and defiantly say that the hateful and vindictive god of the Abrahamic cults is no god at all, but a petty fool, constructed in the hearts and minds of his believers; because if God is Love, then where there is God, there can be no fear… no hatred… no “punishment”. And when we see such things, we know they are coming from the people who created these monsters they call their gods…

Therefore, I am non-theistic. I prefer to focus on the things which alleviate suffering, not the concepts which cause it.

Some will not like that. And they will likely continue to respond to me with their vitriol and intolerance. That is understandable, because they reflect the idea of god that they embrace, and if that god is an asshole… well…

On the other hand, perhaps you’re someone who really knows deep down that God couldn’t be this intolerant jackass that you’ve always been taught. maybe you’re afraid to take a stand and say, “No more…” Maybe your husband or wife would leave you because you denied their precious and jealous god or religion. Maybe your religious leaders would excommunicate you, or your friends would shun you.

It’s OK… You can take a moment right now, and allow yourself to sit quietly and soak in the true Love that is really what this “God” concept was intended to be. Experience the Love that Christ knew and made flesh. Experience the Love that dispels fear and anxiety. Experience the Love from which all things are made and are One.

Let it be your secret that you no longer embrace this petty, hateful, make-believe God of your institutional religions. Recognise your religion for what it is… an exclusive and exclusionary social club, and by doing so, you’ll diffuse all the imaginary authority and power you’ve been brainwashed into imagining it has.

Replace fear with Love. Know that God is Love… nothing more, nothing less… a Greater Love than you’ve ever imagined or known… Greater than any of us can even begin to conceptualise. You don’t have to get your arms around it, because it is in you, through you and all around you. It is all that there is… the space between your breaths… the space between two atoms… Infinite… Perfect… Love.

If it’s true that our gods reflect the people who created them, rather than simply rally against the need for such superstitions, maybe we can lend a hand and encourage those who still believe they need such things to create one that reflects them… not their religious leaders.

At least then, we’ll have a lot more compassionate, gentle and loving gods (and goddesses) out there.

Namaste!

“I personally find it another reprehensible failure of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States to uphold the compassionate teaching with which it claims to have been entrusted,” I responded, when recently asked about my response to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ rejection of the President’s healthcare reform plan.

Pretending to be committed to social justice and the need to care for the poor, the sick and the dying, the USCCB defends its seemingly paradoxical behaviour on the basis of the myth that that healthcare reforms would advance the rights of women to have (already legal) abortions. The President clearly refuted this issue in his speech the other night.

What actually occurred was that the Roman Catholic Church violated the sacred trust, and entered into the political fray, using abortion as its “weapon” to coerce adherents into fighting against their opponent (namely rational thought, liberal ideology, real social justice, and reform), as they see personified in Barack Obama’s presidency. It’s disgraceful. It’s disgusting. And it’s not even remotely surprising.

The Roman Catholic Church as exposed its true lack of “respect for life” by refusing to broaden the scope of that “life” to include all life. By turning its back on healthcare reform, just as it has on AIDS care, prevention and education, stem cell research and so many other legitimate aspects of compassionate care, it continues to demonstrate the reasons why it, along with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints deserve to have their tax exempt statuses revoked, under the present IRS tax law.

When these institutions of superstition and mythology (i.e. churches) begin telling their people how to vote, and entering into the political dialogue, they are no longer eligible for a tax exempt status. The LDS Church violated that law as its elders and bishops openly defended the vitriolic Pete Knight Initiative — a piece of rabidly homophobic legislation that resulted in an untold (and often covered-up) number of suicides among young Mormons across the country. Similarly, the Roman Church, up to its ears in cover-ups and pay-offs, with more bankrupted or near bankrupt dioceses than any time in its 1700 year history (or its fabled 2000 year history for that matter), is guilty of overstepping its bounds in the previous election, and the years preceding.

I am reminded of the piece “Religion and Science“, appearing first in the New York Times on 9 November 1930, in which Albert Einstein said:

“It seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I cannot take seriously. I also cannot imagine some will or goal outside the human sphere. … Science has been charged with undermining morality, but the charge is unjust. A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.”

These recent failures by the Roman Catholic Bishops to take seriously the need for healthcare reform, when as many people die every 2-months from inadequate or inaccessible universal healthcare in the United States as perished on September 11th, 2001, in the Bush Cabal’s False Flag Operation/Massacre, are little more than evidence that the great Teacher, Gandhi was right in his assessment that “the most heinous and the must cruel crimes of which history has record have been committed under the cover of religion or equally noble motives.”  (Young India, 7 July 1950)

It’s time for the people to decry this behaviour. It’s time that those who value life… not just in word and ideology, but in fact and in action, do something about it.

Neither Buddha nor Jesus came to start a religion… they came to start a revolution. A revolution of compassion, service, social justice and healing. A revolution in which we let go of our useless superstitions, doctrinal beliefs and dogma, and begin to encounter what it means to be the awakened one, the enlightened one, the Christ for one another.

And the time for that revolution is NOW.

Namasté!

– dharmacharya gurudas sunyatananda

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There are those whose past experiences of hurt and difficulty might provoke them toward an animosity toward any religious practices, or toward a particular religious path. I can think of an experience, not long ago, when an individual demonstrated a vitriolic dislike for me, the moment she discovered that I was the highest ranking bishop (exarch) for the autocephalic Eastern Catholic Franciscans in North America. She didn’t know me or anything about me, so I quickly understood, she had likely been wounded by someone in the Church, most likely a priest or bishop.

Many people discover Buddhism as a means of escaping the strictures of organised religion. This discovery often proves fortunate for them over time, but initially is only a matter of looking for something externally to replace a void one imagines, after rejecting institutional religion and its mythology. And that substitution-effect is not helpful. In fact, more often than not, it leads people toward some of the more dogmatic and fundamentalist Buddhist sects, who have distorted the philosophy into a religion, complete with unhealthy attachments to certain scriptures, rituals and teachers.

I believe that we should allow ourselves to discover the Dharma in all things, including those traditions or practices that are personally meaningful to us.

As an Emergent Catholic (Post-Denominational) priest (because every bishop is always a priest first and forever), I find the celebration of the4 Eucharist (Mass) to be a particularly useful and enriching part of my spiritual practice. When we were forced to move into an extremely small and impractical apartment, I lost the space that once housed a chapel and meditation room — something I hope to regain in a future home. But even now, in the confines of our present place, I feel like a slumdog millionaire, whenever I celebrate the Liturgy, on a little wooden chest.

Similarly, the celebration of the New Moon and Full Moon are something I find personally satisfactory, as well as various forms of Hindu and Tibetan puja (ritual prayer and chanting). Among these is the creation of a mandala and the decoration of a dhuni (fire pit) with coloured rice. In both practices, one begins on the outermost edge, in silence, gradually and mindfully creating the picture by working inward, concentrically. By the time the centre is reached, the practitioner becomes completely absorbed in the work, and the ego-mind dissolves, opening the subtle mind to greater awareness.

All of these traditions are useful, if we approach them without the superstition or dogma that is often attached to them. Instead, we can use them as centering tools.

Also, it is important not to become deluded into believing that these practices themselves are “essential” as that is not true either. It is never enough to follow the spiritual traditions of any particular path. No scriptural book is the key to awakening. No ritual — not Mass, or puja, kraftwerk or chanting will bring you spiritual enlightenment. Awakening — the moment of eucharistia (gratitude) and communio (union with your divine self or self-realisation) only occurs when you cease to imagine a difference between “this” and “that”.

The Dharma is present in every day… in every moment… in every breath. Breathe in and the Way is there. Breathe out and you’ve just experienced the Dharma.

Some teachers manipulate their students, often with the best of intentions, teaching them that becoming brahmacharya (celibate students) will find themselves on a heightened or more expedient path spiritually. This is false. One’s attachments are the only thing that impede spiritual growth. Therefore, if one is attached to sex, or to the person or persons with whom one has sexual relations, then one will be impeded. Similarly, if one is attached to the delusion that because they are brahmacharya, they are going to achieve enlightenment faster, they are equally impeded. They replaced the attachment to sex with an attachment to no-sex!

Once, a very important spiritual teacher of mine called me into her office, where she proceeded to scream like a mad-woman, because someone told her that I was neither celibate nor monogamous. “What?” she screeched, “Don’t you know there’s an epidemic going on out there?”

Others backed down when confronted by this teacher, but that is not how I am wired. She was wrong. Her perception was skewed. And I was not going to pretend otherwise.

“Quite simply,” I reponded, “I don’t understand why you are surprised that I am neither celibate nor monogamous. I’ve written openly about that for eighteen years.” I explained that I find no value in the Abrahamic religions’ tradition of monogamy, and that love could not, in my opinion, be confined to something shared only between two people — otherwise it was nothing more than attachment. I also explained that sexuality was nothing more than another vehicle for the expression of life and personality. And so I celebrate that expression, and refuse to become attached to it to the point that it either consumes me, or that I have to buy into the superstitious and unhealthy delusions that celibacy would somehow make me free from the attachments to the physical world. The Tao exists in every moment… and that includes the moment of orgasm.

The Dharma reveals itself to us, even in the most mudane doings. Therefore, if there is a particular tradition, ritual or passage that brings you peace, calm and tranquility… do it. Allow yourself to celebrate love and you will find it easier to become absorbed by the Dharma.

Resistance to the natural course of one’s life is, as they say in the Borg, futile.

As for that teacher? She never approached the subject again. Some of her closest students have not liked me since that time, because they imagine that it is wrong to stand up to the guru. Perhaps they are right. Perhaps they are wrong. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that I will not compromise the truth of who I am, or allow myself to become intimidated by someone else’s lack of personal control and emotional outbursts. It strikes me as funny that most of the biggest proponents of celibacy have either never had sex or have never had a successful personal (intimate) relationship.

Don’t get me wrong, I mean no disrespect to that teacher or any other. I disagree with her on that point and on several others. But that does not diminish the value… intense and tremendous value… that I got as her disciple over more than a decade and a half. No does it diminish my gratitude and love for that gift.

What about you? What rituals, traditions or acts bring you calm and centering contemplation? What helps you on your spiritual path? Are there hurtful things from your past, which you’ve allowed to prevent you from enjoying some of the traditions that were once meaningful for you?

Dedicated to Mothers everywhere, especially my Mother, Cecilia Salvato, as it is through understanding and appreciating those who are our mothers now, that we can begin to understand the unfolding of the ancient narratives and spiritual stories.

In the Buddhist tradition, we believe that every being has, at one time or another, been our mothers, and as such we are to treat those beings with love and respect, gratitude and mercy.

Since the sixth century, the Church has celebrated the birth of Mary the Christotokos, whom St. Augustine of Hippo described as, “…the flower of the field from whom bloomed the precious Lily of the Valley. Through her birth the nature inherited from our first parents is changed.”

In today’s Eucharistic celebration, the opening prayer speaks of Mary’s nativity as “the dawn of our salvation” and asks for an increase in peace in our world.

In 1854, the Roman Pontiff Pius IX declared that Mary was conceived free from “original sin”. In his solemn declaration, Ineffabilis Deus, the pope explains that Mary was chosen to be the privileged vessel that would give birth to the Christ, and for that reason, was exempt from the so-called “stain of original sin”.

The notion of “original sin” is an unfortunate stain on the Christian tradition, and so I have always found it troublesome that we would, on this patronal feast day of the United States, relegate Mary’s significance to a tale of how She was born free from something that doesn’t exist in the first place. In fact, I found it downright offensive that we missed the significance of Mary’s true value in the role of humanity’s liberation from the cycle of conditional existence.

Sin is nothing more than the delusional state of imagining that there is something which could ever separate you or me from our Sacred Inheritance. In theistic terms, sin is acting in a way, through our thoughts, our words or actions, in which we act as though it were possible for us to be separated from God. It is simply another word for dualism.

As a young boy, sitting in the sacristy with Fr. Henri (who went on to become known as Swami Abishektananda — the head of the first Benedictine Ashram to teach a non-dualistic dharma of Christ) taught me about the non-dualistic nature of “God” and the universe. It was not only my first introduction to non-dualistic thought, but my introduction to a Eucharistic philosophy, which would become the central “core understanding” of my life.

Mary, who is known as the “splendour of an entirely unique holiness”, was enriched from the first instant of Her conception with a non-dualistic awareness. Because She knew that She could never be separated from the Divine, She lived a life that was free of ego-centric behaviour. In other words, from an Eastern perspective, She was born a Bodhisattva, and accumulated only positive or meritorious karma in Her life.

It was Mary’s sacred awareness, mindfulness and calm abiding, which made Her the perfect tabernacle or host for the Great Teacher, who would become known as the Christ.

Bringing the Divine Feminine aspect to Christian narrative, Mary represents the Co-Redemptrix aspect of that tradition — a tradition which would become obscured with layer-upon-layer of superstition, and the superimposition of more ancient myths of virgin births, deaths and resurrections, which would cause Her importance to be relegated to that of a status symbol in many’s eyes.

Yet in the early tradition, St. Anselm regarded Her importance in a less superstitious, dogmatic or restrictive sense, lovingly proclaiming:

Blessed Lady, sky and stars, earth and rivers, day and night – everything that is subject to the power or use of man – rejoice that through you they are in some sense restored to their lost beauty and are endowed with inexpressible new grace.

Mary represents the Mother of Divine Humanity and Human Divinity. In the Jewish tradition, whenever a sacred covenant was entered into with the Inexpressible One, it was kept in a special place — an ark or tabernacle made of stone or wood. In the Christ Narrative, we find that there is a New Covenant… a revelation that this “God”, whom the ancients regarded as jealous, spiteful, murderous and vengeful… quite a Cosmic Asshole really… was nothing of the sort… In fact, Rabbi Jesus would reveal that this bitchy and pissy personal god was not his “Father” at all, but in fact that “God is Love. And whomever abides in Love, abides in the Sacred, and the Divine abides in them.”

Mary, then was our First Example of Holiness. She lived the Dharma before Her Blessed Son would renew it in the hearts of his contemporaries. She was the New Ark of the New Covenant — not an ark made of stone or wood, as in ages past, but of grace and mindfulness. And because of Her own mindfulness, compassion, awareness and non-dualistic thought, She was a fitting Mother for the Christ… a Motherhood She extends to all of us, as the New Eve.

Had we been paying attention, we would have realised the mythos was telling us that we are no longer bound to the “old mythology” and manipulative tales of the Garden. We were no longer the sons and daughters of Eve, but instead the sons and daughters of Mary.

This is a theme that our pagan sisters and brothers readily recognise from their own myths and legends, but because so many of us are hung up on literalistic interpretations of everything we read in the narrative, we lose our connection to the larger human story. But the pagan influences can be seen in the imagery that was preserved. The Mother, standing on a crescent moon… the Madonna and Child… the ineffable ball of light she holds, or extends through Her hands.

Mary is our Spiritual Mother, an avatar, some would say, like the Buddha and the Christ. She is the Kuan Yin of our tradition and illuminates the potential that each of us possess to become Christotokos — Christ bearers.

This is the point that was missed by many of the Church’s great scholars, who hesitated to accept the idea of the Immaculate Conception — people like Tomas Aquinas and Franciscan St. Bonaventura, who argued that unless Mary was a “sinner like the rest of us”, She could not have been redeemed by the Christ.  The problem for these great and learned men was not so much that they didn’t understand our Mother, but that they were clueless about the real nature of “redemption” which was not some kind of magic trick, but a grace of awareness, which freed us from the karmic wreckage of our past.

It was through Mary’s surrender to the Truth (dharma) that She lived a life aware of the Sacred in Every Moment. When one lives with that kind of awareness, one lives according to a pure path of holiness… a holiness that each of us can attain. From the Buddhist perspective, this is called the Heart of the Boddhisattva… a being whose sole desire in life is to alleviate suffering in all beings, and surrenders to the Dharma path.

By celebrating our Blessed Mother, we celebrate the true message of the Dharma of the Christ, and the potential that exists for each of us to become bearers of the Light for the world. With the Eucharist as source and summit of our spiritual journeys, we become living tabernacles, as Mary did… we bring the Body of Christ to the world around us, because, as St. Peter was said to have noted, unlike other meals, in which what we eat becomes part of us, this Eucharistic Feast is one in which we become that which we eat… We become the Eucharist for those around us.

There is no hint of exclusivity or need for ritual, baptism or membership in a club here. The Light of Christ, like the Buddha-field on which it is based, is available to all, because it is already One with All.

Today we celebrate the story of a woman who already understood that from the moment of conception… and lived it Her whole life.

Ave Maria! Gratia plena!

Namasté!

– dharmacharya gurudas sunyatananda

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The language of spirituality is the metaphor. In their efforts to know the unknowable, the primitive minds of our ancestors created their religious myths and narratives. These are useful for those not yet ready to embrace the groundlessness of Pure Love as the ultimate reality.

Emptiness is the metaphor we use in the Dharma path. Redemption is the metaphor of the Abrahamic traditions.

Unless we learn not to grasp at these simple metaphors, we will become attached to them, missing the experience to which they point. Don’t allow yourself to become distracted by and obsessed with scriptures, sutras or the teachings of this guru or that. None of those things ultimately matter.

Sit in the Silence of your room or monastic cell and allow yourself to dissolve into the groundlessness and uncertainty that awaits you. This is worth far more than all your memorised sutras, scriptures, rituals and dogma, for out of this experience, we cultivate immense compassion for all beings.

Out of this experience, we are compelled to become Love (God/Christ/Spirit) for one another.

Namasté!

– dharmacharya gurudas sunyatananda

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