A Community Journey Using psychedelics for spiritual enlightenment and emotional healing has a long history among human beings. The practice is tied to rituals designed to open our hearts to the whole, to bind our souls to the holy. Cultures of old understood that we and the earth are one. We are not something set apart, not the pinnacle of some creative scheme devised by a humanoid deity. Along with the whale, the cockroach, the rose, the coronavirus, the sea anemone, the many kinds of mosquitoes, we are one of life’s creatures. Together, we are bound, flying through this universe that is sacred and eternally old. When our minds open…
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Listening to Be Changed
When We Disagree In trauma circles, they say, “Don’t ask, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ Ask, ‘What happened to you.’” In other words, all those people who seem crazy and wrong—the addict, the mentally ill, the homeless, the timid, the broken-hearted, the person imprisoned by cell walls or greed or an unacknowledged emptiness of heart—are not crazy or wrong. They are wounded. But what if that person is Republican, or Democrat, or Libertarian, or Socialist? What if he worships a different god than we do, or no god at all? Do we dismiss him as deluded, ignorant, or even evil? Does it make sense to wonder what happened to make her…
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Changing into Fire, Merging with the Tao
Changing into Fire In the latter part of the third century, an Egyptian monk named Anthony was inspired by a sermon to sell his belongings, give the money he raised to the poor, and move into the desert where he could seek communion with Jesus. Paul the Hermit already lived there, surviving on palm fruit and bread delivered by a kindly crow, but it was Anthony who gathered monks and nuns around him to live an ascetic, isolated life of devotion to Christ. [1] Over time, these religious men and women compiled sayings and stories. One of these, adapted from Joan Chittister’s book In God’s Holy Light, speaks of turning…
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Facing Our Shadows
A Seed Needs Darkness Though it is still January, the daffodils are sprouting. Buds are opening on the viburnum, the kale is thrusting forth new growth. It’s been weeks since the bird bath froze. What sort of winter is this? Obviously, we’re caught in the throes of a greenhouse effect, but no matter how warm the days, the pre-dawn darkness remains. I wake before sunrise to exercise the dog, relishing the silver glow of moonlight, the few stars that peek out from behind clouds, the hulking shadows of trees black against the steel sky. A stillness hangs over the morning. Darkness invites reflection, and reflection invites growth. For some people,…
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From Suffering to Love
Seeking Relief from Suffering “Why shouldn’t people suffer?” one of our members asked during a sharing circle. “Maybe that’s why they’re good people.” The question of why suffering exists often comes up as we explore together what it means to be human, ponder how we can better serve the common good, and consider how to help our hearts grow in empathy. Suffering can help us develop kindness and compassion, but that doesn’t mean we like it. If God is real, and if She has anything to do with love, we wonder how She can allow her creatures to experience so much pain? It may be, as our group member suggested,…
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High Holy Days and Redemption
High Holy Days Religions teach us about contemplation, stillness, and prayer. They remind us that some days are holy and should be set aside. During Yom Kippur, for instance, observant Jews avoid work. They fast and pray together, spending the day at their synagogue. They apologize for the sins they have committed that year and seek forgiveness. The day’s liturgy encourages inner reflection and renewal. One day at the hospital, shortly before Yom Kippur, a staff member stopped me to share a dilemma she faced. She had mixed up the calendar and forgotten to ask to have Yom Kippur off from work. Every year on this holiday, she fasted and…
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Easter and Earth Day
Easter and Dominion I write this on the day before Easter. Tomorrow, Christians around the world will celebrate the resurrection of a man who, by his act of being reborn, rendered death meaningless. Instead of life being an illusion, death became one. Most religions describe an afterlife, some continued existence for our souls once our bodies are gone. Many people find comfort in the belief that death is not the end. The story of an Easter that takes away death’s sting brings a similar sense of peace. Without a fall, however, there would be no resurrection. Once upon a time, Adam and Eve lived as if one with nature. Knowing…
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Choice, Transformation, and Love
The Nature of Reality Each January, as the year turns, we move into something new. We cross a threshold. We transition from memory to hope. The future spreads out before us, and possibilities abound. Many of us eagerly plan our resolutions, hoping they will transform turn us into the person we always wanted to be. Unfortunately, our plans rarely play out the way we expect them to. According to my elder son, this is because we have less control over our life than we like to think. For him, existence is an intricate interplay of events, occasions, thoughts, and experiences that weave and develop in ways beyond our comprehension. As…