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Oneness
Guru Nanak: A Sage Warrior
In an interview for the Daily Meditations, Sikh activist Valarie Kaur tells a brief story of Guru Nanak (1469–1539), founder of the Sikh faith:
The story goes that every morning a man named Nanak sat by a river and meditated on the world and took the pain of the world into his heart until it crescendoed inside of him. One morning he did not return from the river. People thought him a dead man, a drowned man. The sun rose and the sun fell. The sun rose and the sun fell. And on the third day, a figure was spotted, seated in a cemetery covered in ash. It was Nanak, but not Nanak. He had been rebirthed in those waters and his first utterance was “Nako Hindu. Nako Musliman.” There is no Hindu. There is no Muslim. This was more than treat your neighbor as you would yourself. This was more than taking in the stranger. This was: There is no stranger. There is no you-against-me at all. We constitute each other. [1]
Kaur describes how his followers transformed their culture:
[Nanak] began to sing powerful mystical poetry, accompanied by a Muslim bard. For twenty-four years, Guru Nanak traveled in each of the cardinal directions on foot…. Everywhere he went, his songs held a vision that landed in people’s hearts: We can all taste the truth of Oneness, and when we do, we are inspired to care for one another, and fight for one another. Perhaps what was most powerful about Guru Nanak is how he distilled the mystical heart of all the world’s wisdom traditions into its essence: love.
Guru Nanak’s followers were called Sikhs, seekers or students…. Sikhs believed that people of all castes, genders, faiths, races, and places were equal…. It was a radical experiment that rebelled against the caste hierarchy and feudal order of the era, a mysticism that inspired revolutionary social change…. The ideal archetype in the Sikh tradition became the sant sipahi: the sage warrior. [2]
Kaur’s grandfather’s example shaped the trajectory of her work:
My grandfather was the first sage warrior I knew…. Papa Ji tied his turban every day, clasped his hands behind his back, and surveyed the world through the eyes of wonder. When he listened to kirtan, sacred music, he closed his eyes and let the music resound wondrously within him; he wrote poetry in his garden….
As I fell asleep each night, Papa Ji would sing the Mool Mantr, the foundational verse that opens the Guru Granth Sahib, our sacred canon of musical wisdom. It begins with the utterance “Ik Onkar,” which means Oneness, ever-unfolding. “All of Sikh wisdom flows from here,” Papa Ji would say. All of us are part of the One. Separateness is an illusion: There is no essential separateness between you and me, you and other people, you and other species, or you and the trees. You can look at anyone or anything and say: You are a part of me I do not yet know. [3]
Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations
From the Center for Action and Contemplation
CAC and Richard Rohr January 5 – January 10, 2024 Sunday
The church is at its greatest vitality as the “Jesus Movement,” and the institution is merely the vehicle for that movement.
—Richard Rohr Monday
Jesus began a movement, fueled by his Spirit, a movement whose purpose was and is to change the face of the earth from the nightmare it often is into the dream that God intends.
—Michael Curry Tuesday
Church, do you realize we are on the cusp of a new Great Awakening? God’s new thing is networked, exponential, Spirit-breathed, decentralized, a vast planting of small communities of faith. It is very much the work of laypeople, and it is emerging as a natural progression out of the church that used to be.
—Elaine Heath Wednesday
Many Christians keep Jesus on a seeming pedestal, worshiping a caricature on a cross or a bumper-sticker slogan while avoiding what Jesus said and did. We keep saying, “We love Jesus,” but more as a God-figure than as someone to imitate.
—Richard Rohr Thursday
We cannot enjoy the spirituality that truly is of God unless we are enjoying the struggle for justice-love, compassion, nonviolence, and forgiveness in the world. And we cannot stay in the struggle unless we are drawing personal strength from God whom Jesus loved, however we may experience and image this sacred power.
—Carter Heyward Friday
Dare we believe that this contemplative work and exploration and study that we’re engaged with is not to just make us happier people, but rather to help us be partners together in loving action?
—Brian McLaren Week Two Practice :Stir It Up “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you. For this reason, I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you…. For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.”
—2 Timothy 1:5–7 Inspired by Paul’s letter to Timothy, Rev. Yvette Flunder encourages us to use our own gifts in the service of others: Paul is talking to Timothy about the gift of God placed in Timothy by God. Apparently some thing or some string of things has caused Timothy’s gift to die down. It is there, but barely distinguishable. Paul is encouraging the young Tim to stir it up. The metaphor literally means to kindle anew the flames of fire … to shake the ashes off the God-given fire that is already in you so a new blaze of fire can be clearly seen…. Stir it up: You cannot stand off from a fire that has died down and command it to flame up. You must get involved with it. Move it around, see what is there, and assess what is needed…. Knock the ashes off to reveal the hot spots. Challenge yourself. Search around internally and externally for your gifts. Tune up your ear to listen for the voice of God…. Tune out those voices and choices that stand in opposition to the voice and will of God for you. Find your creativity again … dream again … vision again. Don’t let traditional things be a barrier to stirring up the gift of God in you—things like age, time, physical disability, and lack of resources. Your destiny is in those coals. They are still burning, passion is still there; you just need to shake off the ashes and stir it up…. Power, courage, and strength alone can be devastating, selfish, and destructive. Love, sensitivity, and charity can be sentimental, codependent, and misdirected. A sound mind, good sense, and self-discipline can be self righteous, academic, and analytical. But together these qualities temper each other and are the foundation for our gifts to come forth and enable us to do great exploits for God! Stir up those gifts, reach out again for your destiny without fear and with full assurance of faith, knowing that God’s Spirit will grant the power, love, and self-discipline to accomplish it.
My Favorite Things by Julie Andrews for AARP
My Favorite Things sung by Julie Andrews for AARP
Botox and nose drops and needles for knitting,
Walkers and handrails and new dental fittings,
Bundles of magazines tied up in string,
These are a few of my favorite things.
Cadillacs and cataracts, hearing aids and glasses,
Polident and Fixodent and false teeth in glasses,
Pacemakers, golf carts and porches with swings,
These are a few of my favorite things.
When the pipes leak, When the bones creak,
When the knees go bad,
I simply remember my favorite things,
And then I don’t feel so bad.
Hot tea and crumpets and corn pads for bunions,
No spicy hot food or food cooked with onions,
Bathrobes and heating pads and hot meals they bring,
These are a few of my favorite things.
Back pain, confused brains and no need for sinnin’,
Thin bones and fractures and hair that is thinnin’,
And we won’t mention our short shrunken frames,
When we remember our favorite things.
When the joints ache, When the hips break,
When the eyes grow dim,
Then I remember the great life I’ve had,
And then I don’t feel so bad.
God’s Love Includes Imperfection by Richard Rohr
On The Cosmic We podcast, Richard Rohr explores on how opening ourselves to the flow of God’s unconditional love allows us to pass it on:
We’ve failed to communicate the unique nature of divine love. Divine love is infinite, but the notion of infinity cannot be conceived by the human mind. We can’t help but turn back to adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, one of my favorite Catholic mystics, shares, “There is a science about which [God] knows nothing—addition!” [1] What she was trying to say was that once we dive into infinity, which is God, any notion of adding, subtracting, meriting, losing, being worthy, is all a waste of time. God’s love is infinite, a concept the human mind cannot form. The divine notion of perfection isn’t the exclusion of imperfection, but the inclusion of imperfection. That’s divine love.
Human love thinks we have to exclude imperfection to love a person. But I’m old enough to know there’s no perfect people around. They don’t exist. We’ve all learned to keep hidden our little secret or shadow self. But divine love includes imperfection, which is what makes it divine love. Without the grace of God, we cannot do that. We pay attention to the imperfection: “I saw him do that. I heard her say that.” Then we have identified our reason not to love and we can feel superior and even “damn” the other person. That’s what I mean when I say Jesus became a scapegoat because he knew that the human pattern of scapegoating always makes someone else the problem instead of ourselves. Christianity is not about changing other people—it isn’t! It’s nice if people do change, but that’s God’s work. It’s about changing ourselves, and that never stops. I’m 80 years old and I’m still trying to change myself.
In one of his letters, Paul says, “The yes is always found in Christ,” the yes to reality (see 2 Corinthians 1:20). We are living in love if we can maintain a daily yes. That doesn’t mean we don’t recognize injustice and stand against it, but we don’t let our hearts become hardened and our minds become rigid in its judgments. Love is always a yes. Even though we might see little or big problems, we don’t let it stop the yes. I find in my old age that I’ve eventually had to forgive everything. Everything! Myself, my parents, the Catholic Church, the United States of America.
The Timing of Spiritual Journeys Varies Drastically
The timing of each person’s spiritual journey is unique. We may pray and ask for the same things, but our spiritual needs may take us through other aspects of the journey before the timing is right.
Recovering alcoholics have a lot of support at each stage. The average Christian isn’t necessarily open to the same helps. Jesus came to free sinners by sharing the Love of God with them. Those that know they need the grace of that Love are more likely to embrace it and cling to it. Those who are managing to live by the basic ten commandments may still feel they are earning that Love. Sadly the “do nots” are not all that Jesus was about. If unconsciously we are still trying to earn God’s Love we miss out not only on the joy, but the call of the Beatitudes which is a whole different ball game, but is the way to greater freedom and openness to the grace of joy.
My Julian’s take on religion was that if your do right list is greater than your do wrong list, you get to heaven. He only experienced that joy in the last year of his life when he was fighting cancer and could no longer do the things he thought he needed to do. Unconditional love has no pride in it. It’s pure grace. And it’s part of the journey along with using our gifts to help others. Our talents and strengths are gifts from God. We didn’t earn them and some of us are not born with the inner drive and confidence to use them…..whether for all others or even mostly ourselves and family. Some of us need the constant grace of the Love of God. We lack the gift of focus and perseverance. You can see the difference early in children. Some need the grace of God much sooner than others. The older strong and dutiful brother of the prodigal son didn’t know he needed the grace of humility that frees us to love the unlovable like Jesus did. And that’s the unlovable in both ourselves and others. At some point our journey will take us to the “without one plea” point of openness to the Amazing Grace of God’s unconditional Love fleshed out in Jesus. Many Of the Saints reached it pretty early in their journeys, because they were not naturally good, or focused or persevering.
1hr “Richard Rohr on The Awakening of Spirit, Part 1 | Archival Recording (1987)” on YouTube – Beginnings of his Center for Action and Contemplation –
I don’t know if you can listen to this, but the still quite young Richard Rohr’s expression of spirituality covered my fifty-five years of spiritual journey. But, this oneness has not been limited to contemplation. I experienced it several times when alone in nature, but also when tired and irritated, I put my husband’s need for physical affirmation and oneness ahead of my own needs. It brought a oneness in spirit with the oneness in body and morphed into an overwhelming oneness with ALL. This is the heart of spirit……we are all one….what we do to anyone, we are doing to all, including Jesus. This is the Spirit of God within us connecting us to LOVE, which is God the Father and God the Son.
Christian Meditation/Spiritual/Mystic Interests
Interests
Fr Richard Rohr speaks extensively about the right side of the brain, and how modern technology has made it possible for Science to discover more things about the right side. His discussion exposes the violent evil of Psychiatry regarding what is sometimes called “Psychosurgery” or “Surgical lobotomy”. This surgery destroys the right side of the brain through the invasive procedure and actually removes a certain portion of the right side of the brain. Many people use cruel or derogatory words such as “vegetating” for the mental condition of people who have had such violence done to their brain. They are a testimony to the fact that the right side of the brain is necessary for body wholeness. The body and mental functioning is severely diminished by this unnecessary surgery that violates the purpose of the Creator of the human body for the spirit and the soul to be in harmony…
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My Short Version of Christianity. What’s Yours?
Christianity is about experiencing the unconditional Love of God fleshed out in Jesus with both our heart and our mind.
Christianity is about forgiveness.
Christianity is about passing on that Love.
Christianity is about loving people more than loving being right.
Christianity is about the awesome God of the universe being within each of us.
Christianity is about accepting that we are all “earthen vessels,” which means we are all probably at least slightly “cracked.” So, though we are Spirit filled, we leak!
Christianity is about recognizing that Jesus is a well where we can go to refill.
Christianity is about realizing that the Spirit of God works differently in diverse people, maybe like a geyser, or a brook, or even an underground river.
Christianity is about valuing the fruit of the Spirit: peace, love, joy in whatever wrapping or label it wears.
Christianity is about Jesus showing us that this life is not all there is.
Christianity: A Movement, Not an Institution
Jesus Started a Movement
I really don’t think we can ever renew the church until we stop thinking of it as an institution and start thinking of it as a movement. —Clarence Jordan, letter, 1967
Michael Curry is the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church and is passionate about the church rediscovering itself as a movement of Jesus:
Jesus did not establish an institution, though institutions can serve his cause. He did not organize a political party, though his teachings have a profound impact on politics. Jesus did not even found a religion. No, Jesus began a movement, fueled by his Spirit, a movement whose purpose was and is to change the face of the earth from the nightmare it often is into the dream that God intends. . . .
That’s why his invitations to folk who joined him are filled with so many active verbs. In John 1:39 Jesus calls disciples with the words, “Come and see.” In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, he asks others to “Follow me.” And at the end of the Gospels, he sent his first disciples out with the word, “Go . . .” [. . .] As in, “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15). . . .
If you look at the Bible, listen to it, and watch how the Spirit of God unfolds in the sacred story, I think you’ll notice a pattern. You cannot help but notice that there really is a movement of God in the world.
Curry identifies several characteristics of the Jesus movement [1]:
First, the movement was Christ-centered—completely focused on Jesus and his way. . . . Long before Christianity was ever called the Church, or even Christianity, it was called “the Way” [see Acts 9:2]. The way of Jesus was the way. The Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of God, that sweet, sweet Spirit, infused their spirits and took over. . . .
The second mark of the movement is this: following the way of Jesus, they abolished poverty and hunger in their community. Some might say they made poverty history. The Acts of the Apostles calls this abolition of poverty one of the “signs and wonders” which became an invitation to others to follow Jesus too, and change the world. . . . It didn’t take a miracle. The Bible says they simply shared everything they had [Acts 4:32–35]. The movement moved them in that particular way.
Third, they learned how to become more than a collection of individual self-interests. They found themselves becoming a countercultural community, one where Jews and Gentiles, circumcised and uncircumcised, had equal standing [see Acts 15:1–12].
Curry continues, taking inspiration from the early church for our own moment:
Ministry in this moment . . . has to serve more than an institution. It has to serve the movemen
