Being Mindful In her book The Wisdom of No Escape, the Buddhist teacher Pema Chödrön describes a month-long meditation retreat in which participants focused intensely on sitting, walking, and eating meditation, on silence and stillness, and on contributing to the care and feeding of the community. Chödrön calls the experience “an alternatingly painful and delightful ‘no exit’ situation.” The meditators had “nowhere to hide” from themselves and their experience. They had no escape. [1] On top of that, distractions such as sex and intoxication were prohibited. Participants had nothing to do but notice the thoughts, sensations, and emotions that passed through their minds. Not an easy thing to do. Our minds…

Building Covenants Between Us At last Sunday’s Scripture Study, we looked at the difference between contracts and covenants. A contract is a legal document that outlines the expectations and responsibilities of all parties in a transaction. It often includes protective language to limit the liabilities of whoever drew up the contract in the first place. When negotiating a contract, we typically seek to get the most we can at the least cost. An example of a contractual relationship that was raised last Sunday was that of the doctor-patient relationship. Once upon a time, this relationship was more covenantal. Doctors lived in the same town as their patients, went to their…

The Origin of Autumn From the ancient Greeks we get the myth of Demeter and Persephone. On a simplistic level, the tale explains why we have the seasons. In Homer’s version of the story, Zeus gives Persephone to Hades, who overpowers the maiden and drags her to his home in the underworld. Although the young goddess cries out, no one hears her except for two distant gods. Only when the day is done and she expects her daughter home does Demeter realize the young woman is missing. The mother goddess looks all over for and asks everyone she sees about the young woman. No one knows where Persephone is. Demeter’s…

Awe and the Beginner’s Mind What inspires awe? What leaves us wondering and mystified? I think of nature, of all kinds of beauty, of childbirth, death, and the unimaginable vastness of the universe. Poetry can amaze us with language that sings and soars. Music and dance can take away our breath. Ideas, too, can sweep us up in amazement, and mystics dwell in the land of awe day after day. With all the opportunities we have to experience awe, you would think we’d wander around amazed and wondering all day long. Little children, unjaded by years of repeated exposure to trees and cats and ice cubes, often take delight in…

Seeking Within As part of our human desire to create meaning from our experiences, we seek Truth, that wisdom and knowing that surpasses all understanding. Most people I know have a sense that some Truth lies beneath the uncertainty and suffering of our existence, so we spend our lifetimes seeking it in the vain hope that we can rest, satisfied that our misery has some purpose. I’m not sure that, in this lifetime, we ever find the ultimate Truth. Religions, individuals, cultures all create their own understanding of life and death; evil and good. Our truths are different. Even one person holds different truths throughout a lifetime. Perhaps the answer…

As Merciful as God In his reflection, “Perfection of Wholeness,” Richard Rohr equates mercy with “God’s all-inclusive and impartial love.” He then explains that the biblical passage that calls us to be “perfect” as God is perfect should instead be translated as a call to be “merciful” as God is merciful. Therefore, to be merciful, we must be inclusively and impartially loving. That sounds pretty hard to me. Can we really be impartial? How do we include everyone when we dislike some people and others hurt us? How can we be infinitely merciful like God? We can’t be infinitely anything. Fortunately, this isn’t as difficult as it sounds. Whatever God…