Not My Wisdom - But Thine....
September 2009
Br. Daniel Chapin
ULC Monastery Vice President
________________________
This month allow me to recap on some Great wisdom - Brief, but Meaningful Teachings & General life "Smarts" obtained from Years of Experience & Struggle, Victory & Defeat, Joy & Sorrow, Young & Old, Traditional & Not So Traditional...
So, please, take a moment, grab a cup of tea & read on - You won't want to miss these pearls... You might even recognize some of them. Oh, did I forget to mention that this compilation did not come from my own vast wisdom??
(I jest here of course)
You see, I will always have my own personal stage form which to submit upon & preach from; but many go unnoticed or forgotten. It is to these that I relinquish sermon stage to this month. It is my hope that they might rekindle something within each of you - And perhaps, prompt within you what the great poet, Walt Whitman, once challenged:
"What will your verse be?"
In fact, That's a good place to begin - Mr Whitman, your opening remarks....??
_________________________________________
"O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring;
Of the endless trains of the faithless--of cities fill'd with the foolish;
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light--of the objects mean--of the struggle ever renew'd;
Of the poor results of all--of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me;
Of the empty and useless years of the rest--with the rest me intertwined;
The question, O me! so sad, recurring--What good amid these, O me, O life?
Answer.
That you are here--that life exists, and identity;
That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse."
(Walt Whitman, Poet)
__________________________________
"We understand the vision, religious freedom; we have the vehicle to attain this freedom, the Universal Life Church; we must begin to teach people who they are. Religion does not make people free, it only binds them down. Politics does not set people free, it only ties them down. The only way to set people free is to awaken their consciousness to the fact that they were born free. We must show mankind who God is, where God is, and what God is. We must teach mankind that this planet, Earth, belongs to us, all people, and that we must set up a kingdom of peace, joy, and love; the Kingdom of Man.."
(Rev. Kirby J. Hensley. Founder of the ULC 1959 - 1999)
__________________________________
"Christians? Christians have all too often become famous for what we oppose, rather than who we are for..."
(David Kinnaman, The Barna Group_
____________________________________
"Before Enlightenment, Chop Wood - Carry Water... After Enlightenment, Chop Wood - Carry Water.."
(Buddhist Parable)
___________________________________
"Forgiveness is not so much about forgetting; rather it is about letting go of another's throat..."
(WM. Paul Young, The Shack)
___________________________________
"Nine Tenths of the news, as printed in the papers, is pseudo-news, manufactured events. Some days ten tenths. The ritual morning trance, in which one scans columns of newsprint, creates a peculiar form of generalized pseudo-attention to a pseudo-reality. This experience is taken seriously. It is one's daily immersion in "reality." One's orientation to the rest of the world. One's way of reassuring himself that he has not fallen behind. That he is still there. That he still counts! My own experience has been that renunciation of this self-hypnosis, of this participation in the unquiet universal trance, is no sacrifice of reality at all. To "fall behind" in this sense is to get out of the big cloud of dust that everybody is kicking up, to breathe and to see a little more clearly..."
(Faith & Violence, University of Notre Dame)
____________________________________
"There is only one vocation. Whether you teach or live in the cloister or nurse the sick, whether you are in religion or out of it, married or single, no matter who you are or what you are, you are called to the summit of perfection; you are called to a deep interior life perhaps even to mystical prayer, and to pass the fruits of your contemplation on to others. And if you cannot do so by word, then by example..."
(The Seven Story Mountain, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich)
_____________________________________
"One of the first things to learn if you want to be a contemplative is how to mind your own business. Nothing is more suspicious, in a man who seems holy, than an impatient desire to reform other men. A serious obstacle to recollection is the mania for directing those you have not been appointed to direct, reforming those you have not been asked to reform, correcting those over whom you have no jurisdiction. How can you do these things and kep your mind at rest? Renounce this futile concern with other men's affairs! Pay as little attention as you can to the faults of other people. And none at all to their defects and eccentricities...."
(Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation)
____________________________________
"I've had it with you! You're hopeless, you Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but manage to find loopholes for getting around basic matters of justice and God's love... You're hopeless, you Pharisees! Frauds! You love sitting at the head table at church dinners, love preening yourselves in the radiance of public flattery. Frauds! You're just like unmarked graves; People walk over that nice, grassy surface, never suspecting the rot and corruption that is six feet under." (One of the religion scholars spoke up saying, "Teacher, do you realize that in saying these things you are insulting us?")
He said, "Yes, and I can be even more explicit. You're hopeless, you religion scholars! You load people down with rules and regulations, nearly breaking their backs, but never lift a finger to help...."
(Jesus Christ, The Message Bible)
______________________________________
"If one loves Krishna, he must love Lord Jesus also. And if one perfectly loves Jesus he must love Krishna too. If he says, "Why shall I love Krishna? I shall love Jesus," then he has no knowledge. And if one says, "Why shall I love Jesus? I shall love Krishna", then he has no knowledge either. If one understands Krishna, then he will understand Jesus. If one understands Jesus, you'll understand Krishna too..."
(Srila Prabhupada - Room conversation with Allen Ginsberg, May 12, 1969 Columbus - Ohio)
___________________________________
"Wicca is a religion that teaches connections to Nature and to the forces behind Nature ( the elements ). Its purpose is to align an individual with the flow of energy on this plane and to teach rapport with deity. In most cases, it involves worship of both a goddess and a god and reverence of the natural world, although there are some Traditions which revolve around the worship of a singular deity. It is not a Satanic-worshipping religion, as Satan is a creation of the Judeo-Christian culture, whereas Wicca is not. We believe in the sacredness of life, not in the willful destruction of it.."
(Donald Perry, Wicca Wisdom)
________________________________________
God said: "The religionists would have you believe that I created you as less than Who I Am so that you could have the chance to become Who I Am, working against all odds--and, I might add, against every natural tendency I am supposed to have given you. Among these so-called natural tendencies is the tendency to sin. You are taught that you were born in sin, that you will die in sin, and that sin is your nature. One of your religions even teaches.....there is only one way to heaven (salvation) and that is through no undertaking of your own, but through the grace granted you by God through acceptance of His Son as your intermediary. Once this is done you are "saved." Until it is done, nothing that you do--not the life you live, not the choices you make, not anything you undertake of your own will in effort to improve yourself or render you worthy--has any effect, bears any influence. You are incapable of rendering yourself worthy, because you are inherently unworthy. You were created that way. Why? God only knows. Perhaps He made a mistake. Perhaps He didn't get it right. Maybe he wishes He could have it all to do over again. But there it is. What to do..."
Neale said:"You're making mock of me."
God said: "No. You are making mock of Me. You are saying that I, God, made inherently imperfect beings, then have demanded of them to be perfect or face damnation. You are saying then that, somewhere several thousand years into the world's experience, I relented, saying that from then on you didn't necessarily have to be good, you simply had to feel bad when you were not being good, and accept as your savior the One Being who could always be perfect, thus satisfying My hunger for perfection. You are saying that My Son--who you call the One Perfect One--has saved you from your own imperfection--the imperfection I gave you. In other words, God's Son has saved you from what His Father did. This is how you--many of you--say I've set it up. Now who is mocking whom?
No one else will judge you ever, for why, and how, could God judge God's own creation and call it bad? If I wanted you to be and do everything perfectly, I would have left you in the state of total perfection whence you came. The whole point of the process was for you to discover yourself, create your Self, as you truly are--and as you truly wish to be. Yet you could not be that unless you also had a choice to be something else. Should I therefore punish you for making a choice that I Myself have laid before you? If I did not want you to make the second choice, why would I create other than the first?
This is a question you must ask yourself before you would assign Me the role of a condemning God."
(Conversations With God - Book I, Neale Donald Walsh)
___________________________________
September 2009
Br. Daniel Chapin
ULC Monastery Vice President
________________________
This month allow me to recap on some Great wisdom - Brief, but Meaningful Teachings & General life "Smarts" obtained from Years of Experience & Struggle, Victory & Defeat, Joy & Sorrow, Young & Old, Traditional & Not So Traditional...
So, please, take a moment, grab a cup of tea & read on - You won't want to miss these pearls... You might even recognize some of them. Oh, did I forget to mention that this compilation did not come from my own vast wisdom??
(I jest here of course)
You see, I will always have my own personal stage form which to submit upon & preach from; but many go unnoticed or forgotten. It is to these that I relinquish sermon stage to this month. It is my hope that they might rekindle something within each of you - And perhaps, prompt within you what the great poet, Walt Whitman, once challenged:
"What will your verse be?"
In fact, That's a good place to begin - Mr Whitman, your opening remarks....??
_________________________________________
"O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring;
Of the endless trains of the faithless--of cities fill'd with the foolish;
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light--of the objects mean--of the struggle ever renew'd;
Of the poor results of all--of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me;
Of the empty and useless years of the rest--with the rest me intertwined;
The question, O me! so sad, recurring--What good amid these, O me, O life?
Answer.
That you are here--that life exists, and identity;
That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse."
(Walt Whitman, Poet)
__________________________________
"We understand the vision, religious freedom; we have the vehicle to attain this freedom, the Universal Life Church; we must begin to teach people who they are. Religion does not make people free, it only binds them down. Politics does not set people free, it only ties them down. The only way to set people free is to awaken their consciousness to the fact that they were born free. We must show mankind who God is, where God is, and what God is. We must teach mankind that this planet, Earth, belongs to us, all people, and that we must set up a kingdom of peace, joy, and love; the Kingdom of Man.."
(Rev. Kirby J. Hensley. Founder of the ULC 1959 - 1999)
__________________________________
"Christians? Christians have all too often become famous for what we oppose, rather than who we are for..."
(David Kinnaman, The Barna Group_
____________________________________
"Before Enlightenment, Chop Wood - Carry Water... After Enlightenment, Chop Wood - Carry Water.."
(Buddhist Parable)
___________________________________
"Forgiveness is not so much about forgetting; rather it is about letting go of another's throat..."
(WM. Paul Young, The Shack)
___________________________________
"Nine Tenths of the news, as printed in the papers, is pseudo-news, manufactured events. Some days ten tenths. The ritual morning trance, in which one scans columns of newsprint, creates a peculiar form of generalized pseudo-attention to a pseudo-reality. This experience is taken seriously. It is one's daily immersion in "reality." One's orientation to the rest of the world. One's way of reassuring himself that he has not fallen behind. That he is still there. That he still counts! My own experience has been that renunciation of this self-hypnosis, of this participation in the unquiet universal trance, is no sacrifice of reality at all. To "fall behind" in this sense is to get out of the big cloud of dust that everybody is kicking up, to breathe and to see a little more clearly..."
(Faith & Violence, University of Notre Dame)
____________________________________
"There is only one vocation. Whether you teach or live in the cloister or nurse the sick, whether you are in religion or out of it, married or single, no matter who you are or what you are, you are called to the summit of perfection; you are called to a deep interior life perhaps even to mystical prayer, and to pass the fruits of your contemplation on to others. And if you cannot do so by word, then by example..."
(The Seven Story Mountain, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich)
_____________________________________
"One of the first things to learn if you want to be a contemplative is how to mind your own business. Nothing is more suspicious, in a man who seems holy, than an impatient desire to reform other men. A serious obstacle to recollection is the mania for directing those you have not been appointed to direct, reforming those you have not been asked to reform, correcting those over whom you have no jurisdiction. How can you do these things and kep your mind at rest? Renounce this futile concern with other men's affairs! Pay as little attention as you can to the faults of other people. And none at all to their defects and eccentricities...."
(Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation)
____________________________________
"I've had it with you! You're hopeless, you Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but manage to find loopholes for getting around basic matters of justice and God's love... You're hopeless, you Pharisees! Frauds! You love sitting at the head table at church dinners, love preening yourselves in the radiance of public flattery. Frauds! You're just like unmarked graves; People walk over that nice, grassy surface, never suspecting the rot and corruption that is six feet under." (One of the religion scholars spoke up saying, "Teacher, do you realize that in saying these things you are insulting us?")
He said, "Yes, and I can be even more explicit. You're hopeless, you religion scholars! You load people down with rules and regulations, nearly breaking their backs, but never lift a finger to help...."
(Jesus Christ, The Message Bible)
______________________________________
"If one loves Krishna, he must love Lord Jesus also. And if one perfectly loves Jesus he must love Krishna too. If he says, "Why shall I love Krishna? I shall love Jesus," then he has no knowledge. And if one says, "Why shall I love Jesus? I shall love Krishna", then he has no knowledge either. If one understands Krishna, then he will understand Jesus. If one understands Jesus, you'll understand Krishna too..."
(Srila Prabhupada - Room conversation with Allen Ginsberg, May 12, 1969 Columbus - Ohio)
___________________________________
"Wicca is a religion that teaches connections to Nature and to the forces behind Nature ( the elements ). Its purpose is to align an individual with the flow of energy on this plane and to teach rapport with deity. In most cases, it involves worship of both a goddess and a god and reverence of the natural world, although there are some Traditions which revolve around the worship of a singular deity. It is not a Satanic-worshipping religion, as Satan is a creation of the Judeo-Christian culture, whereas Wicca is not. We believe in the sacredness of life, not in the willful destruction of it.."
(Donald Perry, Wicca Wisdom)
________________________________________
God said: "The religionists would have you believe that I created you as less than Who I Am so that you could have the chance to become Who I Am, working against all odds--and, I might add, against every natural tendency I am supposed to have given you. Among these so-called natural tendencies is the tendency to sin. You are taught that you were born in sin, that you will die in sin, and that sin is your nature. One of your religions even teaches.....there is only one way to heaven (salvation) and that is through no undertaking of your own, but through the grace granted you by God through acceptance of His Son as your intermediary. Once this is done you are "saved." Until it is done, nothing that you do--not the life you live, not the choices you make, not anything you undertake of your own will in effort to improve yourself or render you worthy--has any effect, bears any influence. You are incapable of rendering yourself worthy, because you are inherently unworthy. You were created that way. Why? God only knows. Perhaps He made a mistake. Perhaps He didn't get it right. Maybe he wishes He could have it all to do over again. But there it is. What to do..."
Neale said:"You're making mock of me."
God said: "No. You are making mock of Me. You are saying that I, God, made inherently imperfect beings, then have demanded of them to be perfect or face damnation. You are saying then that, somewhere several thousand years into the world's experience, I relented, saying that from then on you didn't necessarily have to be good, you simply had to feel bad when you were not being good, and accept as your savior the One Being who could always be perfect, thus satisfying My hunger for perfection. You are saying that My Son--who you call the One Perfect One--has saved you from your own imperfection--the imperfection I gave you. In other words, God's Son has saved you from what His Father did. This is how you--many of you--say I've set it up. Now who is mocking whom?
No one else will judge you ever, for why, and how, could God judge God's own creation and call it bad? If I wanted you to be and do everything perfectly, I would have left you in the state of total perfection whence you came. The whole point of the process was for you to discover yourself, create your Self, as you truly are--and as you truly wish to be. Yet you could not be that unless you also had a choice to be something else. Should I therefore punish you for making a choice that I Myself have laid before you? If I did not want you to make the second choice, why would I create other than the first?
This is a question you must ask yourself before you would assign Me the role of a condemning God."
(Conversations With God - Book I, Neale Donald Walsh)
___________________________________