Reza Aslan's three questions about faith

Posting this here for reference ... it's Reza Aslan's three questions on faith ("faith is a choice, but it's not an irrational choice") from Oprah's Super Soul Sunday.

1. Do you believe that there is something beyond the material realm?
2. If yes, do you want to experience that thing? To commune, to feel it?
3. If yes, how? Through religion, through relationships, through nature or awe? The how is a personal choice.

So for Aslan, it's "all about deciding whether you want to or not. It's not about needing proof."

This is one of the things that has propelled me on this journey (along with Pope Francis). As a liberal elite intellectual who was raised Catholic but been lapsed for 40-some years, the answer to both #1 and #2 is yes.

But #3 is proving to be a bit more difficult to answer, save for the belief that the answer includes Jesus.

Thinking and living

Love this quote on thinking from Richard Rohr. I'm so working on this! #toomuchleftbrain

Martin Sheen on spirituality and community

This is a very interesting interview with Martin Sheen! My fave part (emphasis mine):

Yeah, the love that I longed for and, I think, all of us really long for, is knowing that we are loved — a knowingness about our being that unites us to all of humanity, to all of the universe; that despite ourselves, we are loved. ...

You know how so often people say they go on this journey — and I said it too, that I’m looking for God. But God has already found us, really. We have to look in the spot where we’re least likely to look. And that is within ourselves. And when we find that love, that presence, deep within our own personal being — and it’s not something that you can earn or something that you can work towards, it’s just a realization of being human, of being alive, of being conscious. And that love is overwhelming. And that is the basic foundation of joy. And we become enviable joyful.

Persistent, consistent

Love this!

Hurt people hurt people

Heard this from the leader at last night's CR meeting:

He also shared this which is oh so relevant to me right now:

Resentment is unexpressed anger.

On this note, I recently took the Enneagram. I want to keep in mind Cynthia Bourgeault's "love-hate relationship" with this tool and particularly her concern that people use it as another way "to get themselves further stuck in identification."

That said, I found this pretty interesting re type 9 and addiction:

Over-eating or under-eating due to lack of self-awareness and repressed anger. Lack of physical activity. Depressants and psychotropics, alcohol, marijuana, narcotics to deaden loneliness and anxiety.

Hmm. I suppose this could describe lots of folks. But it's pretty spot on for me.

Chesterton on Christianity

G. K. Chesterton's famous quote on Christianity, from his book What's Wrong with the World?

Being free

Today from Richard Rohr's Daily Meditations:

In order to be free for life, we must quite simply be free from our small selves. [Saint] Francis knew that Jesus was not at all interested in the usual “sin management” task that many clergy seem to think is their job. He saw that Jesus was neither surprised nor upset at what we usually call sin. Jesus was upset at human pain and suffering. What else do all the healing stories mean? They are half of the Gospel! Jesus did not focus on sin. Jesus went where the pain was. Wherever he found human pain, there he went, there he touched, and there he healed.

Francis, who only wanted to do one thing—imitate Jesus—did the same. But you cannot do that, or even see it, unless your first question is something other than “What do I want?” “What do I prefer?” or “What pleases me?” In the great scheme of things, it really does not matter what I want. We are not free at all until we are free from ourselves. It is that simple and that hard.

The Eight-Point Program of Passage Meditation

Filed for now ... Eknath Easwaran's Eight-Point Program of Passage Meditation:

1. Meditation on a Passage 
2. Repetition of a Mantram 
3. Slowing Down 
4. One-Pointed Attention 
5. Training the Senses 
6.  Putting Others First 
7. Spiritual Fellowship 
8. Spiritual Reading

My Serenity prayer

I like the longer version of the Serenity prayer they use in CR. But this version works better for me, since I'd rather avoid anthropomorphic expressions of God when I can.

Jesus, grant me the Serenity
to accept the things I cannot change.
The courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.  

Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace;
Taking, as You did, this sinful world as it is;
Not as I would have it;  

Trusting that You will make all things right
if I surrender to Your will;
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with You forever in the next. 

AMEN  

 --Reinhold Niebuhr

The Power of Powerlessness

I think the rest of the steps will be a cakewalk for me compared to the first. Note to self re powerlessness from Richard Rohr (emphasis his):

The way of the Twelve Steps is remarkably similar to Jesus’ Way of the Cross, St. Francis’ Way of Poverty, and St. Thérèse of Lisieux’s Little Way. These and many other saints and mystics teach the power of powerlessness either directly or indirectly. ... Many did recognize that it is the imperial ego that has to go, and only powerlessness can do the job correctly. If we try to change our ego with the help of our ego, we only have a better-disguised ego.

And this:

It is just as Jesus, St. Francis, John of the Cross, and Thérèse of Lisieux teach us: there is incredible power in powerlessness! The quickest ticket to heaven, enlightenment, or salvation is a willingness to face our own smallness and incapacity. Our conscious need for mercy is our only real boarding pass. The ego does not like that very much, but the soul fully understands.

Links to much more on the Twelve Steps from Fr Rohr after the break.

Marking this date

I took one of these tonight.

According to the CR tradition, taking a blue chip:

can signify any number of positive steps, including a commitment to tackle a new life issue, a return to recovery after a fall, a determination to do the right thing knowing a particular challenge is coming up, or our first admission that we need God to handle our hurts, habits or hang-ups.

For me, it was a pretty much all of the above. But I also stopped drinking today too.

The Eight Principles / Beatitudes

Celebrate Recovery's eight recovery principles are based on the Beatitudes: the statements Jesus made at the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:3-12).

There will be lots more on this later, but for now, I want to leave a note with Cynthia Bourgeault's treatment of the Beatitudes (for the Center for Action and Contemplation) here:

Only through a point of nothingness can we enter the larger mind. As long as we’re filled with ourselves, we can go no further. (Sunday)

Only when we have dealt directly with our animal instincts, and the pervasive sense of fear and scarcity that emerge out of our egoic operating system, are we truly able to inherit the earth rather than destroy it. (Monday)

Jesus promises that when the hunger arises within you to find your own deepest aliveness within God’s aliveness, it will be satisfied—in fact, the hunger itself is a sign that the bond is already in place. (Tuesday)

Mercy is not something God has so much as it’s something that God is. Exchange is the very nature of divine life; all things share in the divine life through participation in this dance of giving and receiving. (Wednesday)

When your heart becomes “single,” when it can live in perfect alignment with that resonant field of mutual yearning we called “the righteousness of God,” then you “see God.” (Thursday)

When the field of vision has been unified, the inner being comes to rest, and that inner peaceableness flows into the outer world as harmony and compassion. This is what we mean by contemplative engagement. (Friday)

Hello, world!

Last night I attended my very first Celebrate Recovery meeting. And tonight I'm going to another. Pretty amazing considering my lifelong distaste for the 12-step movement. So amazing that I feel compelled to use a blog to keep a record of it.

Stay tuned. 😇