Tag: service

UNITING EASTERN AND WESTERN RELIGION

The truly mature attitude is to stop fighting/

trying to eliminate your own shadow

and learning to accept and work with your shadow-energies –

all saints know they are sinners

and all sinners think they are saints

with no shadow.

 

All world religions including Catholicism and Protestantism

strive for greater spiritual freedom

but the opposite, for example

the Third Buddhist Precept on Sexuality: self-restraint –

what western religions call “chastity” –

is also meant to free individuals and society –

so many children/adults/couples

have been destroyed by sexual misconduct

and enslaved by sexual trafficking.

 

Many of the same teachings but using different words

are found in all the great religions:

chastity = sexual restraint

karma = sowing and reaping

but the challenge for western pioneers in eastern mysticism

Thomas Merton/Bede Griffiths/Raimundo Panikkar

was uniting Asian meditation

with a deep commitment to Jesus/Scripture/Tradition.

 

These pioneers who led us into the future

accomplished this union by reaching into the past

rediscovering the Desert Fathers/Mothers

and apophatic mystics like Meister Eckhart/Johannes Tauler/

Teresa of Avila/John of the Cross.

 

All these mystics, those in the West

and mystics in the East: Gandhi/Aurobindo/Rabindranath Tagore

knew that solitude and service are reciprocal:

true prayer results in service

and true service must be grounded in prayer/solitude.

 

In both East and West, small base communities

focused on spirituality and political activism

hold great promise for individual/social transformation –

all it took was the smallest base community –

twelve men and their Leader

to transform history and the entire world.

BABY BOOMER AGING

There is a huge shift going on: the Boomer Generation is moving into old age, so this is a big issue for them.

Aging can be approached positively or negatively: as harvest not winter, fulfillment not loss, freedom from work not limitation of income, soul-time not more self-time.

If you have aged well you are now an elder and have some wisdom to share with the younger generation. You know that life is about service, not just more winning. In this regard, Jesus said “I came to serve not be served” and the Twelfth Step from Alcoholics Anonymous is “I give my life away.”

If you have aged well you know that the first half of life is your “survival dance” and the second half is your “sacred dance.” You had a lot to prove in the first half. Now that you have done it, as Frank Sinatra sang “It all seems so amusing.” You don’t have to prove anything to anyone, including yourself, anymore.

A good book on the second half of life is Richard Rohr’s Falling Upward.

www. brucetallman.com, Facebook: “Bruce Tallman – Spiritual Director and Marriage Coach”