Faith: Our Response

The way I understand God has changed the way I do some things. It's caused me to be more intentional about the things I do, rather than just going with the flow of what's popular or easy (and our culture does so much simply because it's "easy"). 

Here are some things that I’ve been interested in, gotten interested in, started considering, changed in my life, care about because of who God is, etc. These are things that might (hopefully!) start popping up on the blog. These are things that may seem trivial or unrelated, but are tied up with my experience and understanding of God. 

• Fair Trade - if every person on this planet is God (and the author of the Gospel according the Matthew assures us they are), then every person deserves to be treated with dignity. They deserve to work reasonable hours, receive reasonable pay, and be safe on the job. 
• Organic food - Eating organic, for me, is not about nutrition. Studies show that organic foods don’t really have more nutritional value than other farming methods. I choose organic when possible because of the way it cares for the land. We should all care better for the land. It’s our home. For folks claiming Abrahamic religions, God said a lot about how to treat the land in the Hebrew Bible! 
• Minimalism - As I grow deeper in my understanding of God, the more I realize that STUFF won’t make me happy. We don’t need more stuff! Our consumeristic and throw-away culture tries to convince us that we need the newest stuff all the time - whatever bought last week isn’t good anymore so we should throw it away and buy this new toy! So people work themselves ragged to afford the new, cool stuff that they “need” to have, but no one’s happy with that. My goal is to do more with less. To spend less time working for money to buy stuff. To make enough money to buy what I need, and spend the rest of my time actually enjoying life, rather than running on the treadmill to get more things. 
• Low Waste - This kind of goes along with the previous point. A consumeristic culture is a wasteful culture. Our culture encourages us to throw things away at the first sign of wear (or even before that!) and buy something new. We mistreat our planet by taking more resources than we need, mass producing goods in factories creating pollution and abusing workers, and then dumping those good in landfills to buy the next thing. It’s ridiculous! Lately, I’ve been trying to reduce waste where I can. And surprisingly, it’s been easier and more unintentional than I intended! I might say the Holy Spirit is leading and encouraging me in the work - showing me simple ways to reduce waste. Really, it’s easier than I thought, and I find myself transitioning to low-waste alternatives almost without thinking about it!
• Feminism - If we’re all one, then men and women are one. We’re the same. That’s about it. Sushi rolls, not gender roles.
• “Natural” movement - We are gods and goddesses, y’all. Kings and queens. We are existence itself, we have the breath of the Almighty in our lungs. We have evolved over millennia into one of the most complex creatures on our planet (the most complex? I'm not a scientist). However you swing it, we are divine. I think our bodies pretty much know how to operate. I won’t say we’re perfect, because things DO go wrong. But for the most part, I believe that our bodies know what they’re doing. When we’re ill, I believe the power of our bodies to heal themselves. When we’re giving birth, I believe the power of our bodies and our babies to know what to do. When our body does something without us thinking about it - like heart beating or hair growing or uterine lining building up and being shed - I think it’s probably a wise thing for our body to do and that maybe we should let it do its thing. I believe in the power of living things to feed and heal other living things. I try to eat food and use “medicine” that’s as close to being alive as I can get it - fresh fruits and veggies (grown locally is ideal!), meat and from local farms, teas and other herbal remedies for minor illness. 
• Social Justice - This one is so broad. Some of the above bulletpoints can be included in this one (fair trade, feminism), but I need to include it because it encompasses so much more. Racism, economic inequality, and more. Biblical religions should be fighting for social justice because the Hebrew Bible so clearly calls for it. And religions like Hinduism or other indigenous traditions call for social justice in their claim that every person is a manifestation of God. We are called, whoever you are, whatever you believe, to care for others. And that can't always happen individually. Greed and pride have woven a system in our society, a system that benefits some at the cost of others. In order for a truly just world, these systems have to be broken down. We can't fix the problem simply by handing out sandwiches on street corners (though that is GOOD work and it is a vital part of the solution) - sandwiches are not the whole solution. The whole solution calls for people to come together and fight systemic injustice and work for the establishment of a new system. 

There’s more for sure, but that’s what I can think of right now. God, y’all. God has changed me. Believing in God and surrendering to the idea that I’M NOT IN CONTROL has been life changing. Understanding that we are all one and trying to live in a way that honors that belief has been life changing. 

I’m young and I haven’t been been doing this faith thing for that long. I know I have SO MUCH to learn. I know I won’t know it all even before I die. And that’s become an okay thing for me. I’ve surrendered my need to understand it all. 

Instead, I trust. I trust that there is a Ground of all Being. I trust the Way. I trust that what has happened was meant to happen. I trust myself to know what to do. I trust others to do what they need to do. I trust the universe to cradle me or break me as fate would have it. I trust the earth to provide my needs. I trust my body to heal. I trust my mind to learn, grow, understand, feel. I trust Jesus. I trust salvation. I trust that there is a salve for our hurts. I trust that there is saving from calamity. I trust that I AM my brother and sister’s keeper, that I am God to them. I am responsible for comforting them. And I trust that the God who is within my brothers and sisters will be the God I need in times of trouble. We are One. 

We are One.

And that makes all the difference. 

Faith: Emmanuel, "God With Us"

“In the beginning there was existence alone - One only, without a second. He, the One, thought to himself: Let me be many, let me grow forth. Thus out of himself he projected the universe, and having projected out of himself he entered into every being. All that is has its self in him alone. Of all things, he is the subtle essence. He is the truth. He is the self.”

Chandogya Upanishad

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. . . . God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them."

Genesis 1:1, 27

Hinduism, one spiritual teacher said, “begin[s] by assuming that ultimately the cosmos is a unified whole in which absolute reality and the relative manifestations are profoundly connected” (Living Religions, 77). They call this Absolute Reality, as said earlier, Brahman. But this is not the end! These teachers believed that Brahman resided within themselves. This is called “atman.” It is similar to a soul or spirit in the Christian traditions, but not exactly the same. The Hindu text quoted above describes how Existence, the formless absolute, projected forth from itself all that exists. All that exists is Brahman. But Brahman is the totality of existence. Everything else does not have all of Brahman, all of existence, but instead is a piece of existence. But everything together compromises Existence, the Absolute. 

When I started questioning my atheism a couple of years ago, I began with yoga (Western yoga, involving positions of the body and breathing techniques). Often our instructor would say something reminding us of our shared breath. I breathe out, and my breath goes around the room and is taken in by my neighbor, by the plants in the room, by my other neighbor. When these beings breathe out, I take their breath into my lungs, into my bloodstream, and something that was once a part of them becomes a part of me. We are one.

We have all heard someone say, “You are what you eat.” We often say this as a metaphor, but it’s true. When a child is growing, the matter that grows them taller is matter that was once food. The things we eat are broken down and literally become the stuff we are made of. We are all connected. We are one. 

The Absolute Reality, God, Brahman, is present in all of these things - in my breath, in my food, in my bloodstream. My breath is God. My food is God. My body is God. And the person next to me is God, too. 

“Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’"

Matthew 25:37-40

When I realized that God is really all around me, I started to rethink my actions. If God is the ground beneath my feet, what does it mean when I throw trash in landfills? If God is a fly, what does it mean when I kill flies who bother me? If God is my sister, what does it mean when I use unkind words? If God is a slave working long hours for little money harvesting cocoa, what does it mean when I casually buy a chocolate bar at the checkout? If I am God, what does it mean when I do anything to harm myself, body or mind? What does it mean when I eat food that is harmful to my body? What does it mean when I dwell on negative thoughts about myself?

If God is a flower, what would it mean to keep more plants in my home and office? If God is a tree, would I think more before using extra paper? If God is a chicken who died to feed me, to give me life, would I think twice before just throwing leftovers in the trash? If God is a man out of work at the traffic light, would I do more than hurry past? If God is my brother, would I spend more time listening to his stories? 

And God is. God is all of those things.

I want my faith to be wide enough to encompass all of these things. I want my faith to touch the food I eat, the plants I keep, the paper is write on, my relationships, my time, my everything. 

Going back to surrender. Daily I remember that I am not in control. I surrender that false idea that I am in charge of my life. I surrender the idea that I am separate or less than. Drink in the truth that everything around me is magic. Everything is connected, and everything is One. That is God to me. 

This understanding has changed the way I do some things. It’s changed the way I see things. It’s caused me to rethink the obvious. It’s caused me to be careful about what I buy, what I throw out, what products I use. 

In the future, I might write about some of the things that have changed in me. I phrase that passively because this was not something I necessarily chose, a decision to make a lifestyle change. I had a realization about the Ground of all Being, I surrendered to that truth, and little by little, my priorities shifted. The things I wanted and cared about changed. 

This post is part of a three-part series. Come back next Sunday for the next post!

Prayer: Reflections for Lent - Yoga

Most people associate yoga with sweat, butts in faces, and maybe farts. We in the West have no idea. 

Yoga is an ancient practice originating from the Hindu religions of India. The word yoga comes from a Sanskrit word meaning “to yoke” or “to link.” Think yoking, like Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you.” The whole point of yoga is to be linked and yoked - mind to body, thinking self to the true or inner Self, human to the Ultimate Power, to God. 

In the West, we think of yoga as physical, something you do in workout clothes at the gym. But this is only a small part of what yoga actually is.

Yoga is a collection of “spiritual disciplines designed to clear the mind and support a state of serene, detached awareness . . . [and] balance, purity, wisdom, and peacefulness of mind." 

There are four basic types of yoga, or paths: raja, jnana, karma, and bhakti. 

Raja yoga is the path of mental concentration, or meditation. An ancient teacher of yoga describes eight “limbs” of yogic practice including moral codes, physical conditioning, breath control, concentration, meditation, and a “state of peaceful absorption.” The first limb, moral and ethical principles, are similar to what is found in spiritual paths worldwide - truth and honesty, not stealing, not coveting, devotion to God, and others. The second limb, physical conditioning, refers to asanas, or poses. This is what we Westerners usually think of when we think yoga. The other limbs refer to breathing, mantras, and other tools to focus concentration. 

It’s important to realize that at it’s core, yoga is for the mind and spirit - not the body. We often reduce yoga to a physical exercise, but in fact the physical portion is just a tool to achieve mental concentration, spiritual wisdom, and connection to the divine. 

Jnana yoga is the path of “rational inquiry.” While raja yoga attempts to transcend our rational mind to receive spiritual enlightenment, jnana yoga uses the mind as a tool to gain spiritual knowledge. This might be compared to philosophical or apologetic endeavors in Christianity. 

Karma yoga is the path of “helpful action in the world.” The two previous paths, raja and jnana, have been inward paths focusing on meditation and the self to gain enlightenment. Karma yoga grows closer to the divine by helping others. Mother Teresa is famous for acknowledge that she serves not the poor of Calcutta, but “Jesus in his most distressing disguise.” She knew that every action to those around her were actions done to Jesus - that is the path of karma yoga. 

Bhakti yoga is the path of personal devotion, and the most common among Hindus. This pathos one where the human is completely in love with and utterly devoted to a deity. One Hindu poem reads: “Thy Name is beautiful, The form is beautiful, and very beautiful is Thy love, Oh my Omnipresent Lord.” In this path, “the devotee’s whole being is surrendered to the deity in love.” This reminds me of the Hebrew “Song of Songs,” when it is interpreted as a song between the Lord and humanity, or of nuns who consecrate themselves as being “married to Jesus.” This is the path we follow when we sing songs of love and devotion:

“Heaven meets earth like a passionate kiss, and my heart beats violently inside of my chest, and I don’t have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way He loves us.”  

“Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending reckless love of God - it chases me down, fights till I’m found.”  

“Jesus, we love you, oh how we love you. You are the one our hearts adore. . . . Our affection, our devotion, poured out on the feet of Jesus.” 

“How we love you, how we love you, how we want you, how we want you. . . . Your love we can no longer keep inside. It’s opened up our eyes; It makes us want to sing.”

As we can see, these three yogic paths - jnana, karma, and bhakti - have parallels which we are familiar with. Thus, I will focus now on the spiritual discipline of raja yoga. We are familiar with the first limb, the moral codes. In the West, our religions certainly require certain moral action. 

We don’t often think about how the asanas (poses), breathing exercises, and mantras can be used to facilitate connection to the Divine. And truthfully, I don’t know if I can explain how this happens. Maybe that’s something that I love about it - I don’t know how it works but I know that it does. I know that when I do sun salutations in the morning, my mood is lifted. I know that when I take time to be still, I touch something deep inside of me that is the same essence of that which is central to the soul of the Universe (wow, sounds wacky). But really, when I engage in this practice, I’m surrendered. I can’t push my body to do things it can’t do, and there’s no reason to. This is an exercise in radical acceptance - of my body, of my self, of my circumstances, of the people around me, of the world. This is a place for me to acknowledge that I am not in control - and come to terms with that. The long inhales and exhales slow my heart rate, slow my thoughts, slow my anxieties. It allows me to let go of my worries and hand them off to the Person who “will generously provide all [I] need” (2 Cor 9:8). 

I know that sometimes I wake up and I don’t know what to pray. I feel lost and broken and without words. So I sit cross-legged and say to the Almighty, “Lord, here I am. Surrendered.” And then I proceed to use this body that is a “temple of the Holy Spirit” and breathe this breath that is not mine but belongs to every living being collectively. I am connected to everything else by this breath, which comes into my lungs after being used by someone else, and which will leave my lungs to give life to someone else. This practice reminds me that we are all One. This life force, this breath, this ruach - it comes to me from the Divine. It connects me to the infinite, it connects everyone else to the infinite, and it connects all of us to one another. 

With this humbling reminder, with this use of my body for something good and beautiful, I am calmed. I have prayed, I have connected with the Divine, and I have been changed by the encounter. 

All quotes are from Mary Pat Fisher, Living Religions.

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This post is the second in a series, Prayer: Reflections for Lent, which explores prayer in a variety of ways. Click below to read previous posts: 

Part 1: A Story, a Goal, and a Plan 

Part 2: A Path of Prayer

Part 3: Using a Journal

Come back on Thursdays during Lent for the next post!