A simple thank you will suffice
November 30, 2008 by Bill
You must know by now that one of my heroes was that giant mystic Meister Eckhart (1260-1327) who was light years ahead of his time. He was the father of German philosophy and the sharpest thorn in the side of the Christian church. He told them “to go around looking for God is like sitting on an ox looking for an ox to ride.”
Seven hundred years ago he wrote this: “if the only prayer you say in your entire life is “Thank You”…that would suffice.”
To me that is one of the most profound statements in the spiritual literature of humankind. Put it on your fridge door in five colors. That has been my first conscious act of the day for more years than I can remember.
What am I thanking? Not a “him”…or a “her” or any anthropomorphic ‘God’ “out there”. But to the Ultimate energy beyond the Mystery…to the ineffable…incomprehensible beyond the Mystery…to the Wonder behind the miracles of existence…”thank you” is the only prayer we need as we begin the celebration of a new day. Every moment is a new arrival. How do we respond to this marvel? In the exaltation of existence. It is one of the rewards of being human.
“I thank you for most this amazing day…for the leaping green spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky…and for everything which is natural…which is infinite…which is yes…” wrote the poet E. E. Cummings.
My favorite things
November 23, 2008 by Bill
One of my all time favorite songs is from “The Sound of Music”. It is “My Favorite Things”. I never listen to that without feeling joyful. It always brings forth a smile. As I write these words at the beginning of the month for Thanksgiving I let my calendar of the soul take over and my head and heart are filled with gratitude for so many of my favorite things…that make life so good and the days so sparkling.
1. Great hugs from those you love…and who love you. (this also lowers cholesterol we are told. It beats Oak Bran).
2. The wild flowers of a rainy Spring…and the grasses of a showery summer. The solitude and silence of the winter months when the mountains are covered with snow…and our Mother Earth sleeps a while.
3. Choosing a great book for morning reading with the winter rain falling outside my study window…and a hush covers the earth.
4. Sitting mesmerized at night in our living room before a wood burning fire that draws me like in the days of the Cro Magnon caves when the fire kept us secure and safe…I have never understood how anyone can have an artificial fire with fake logs.
5. A freshly opened bag of Peets coffee in the morning to start the day on a high and noble plane.
Respect for ignorance…a disease
November 16, 2008 by Bill
H.L. Mencken was one of the most respected scholars, writers and nationally syndicated columnists in American journalism. He wrote for the Baltimore Sun. His observations on “religious opinions” should be on everyone’s fridge door.
“The most unbelievable social convention of the age in which we live is the one to the effect that all religious opinions should be respected, no matter how ignorant.”
The insidious and seductive cliche that seems to saturate our society is…”you should not be critical of another person’s religious belief…they all deserve “respect”. No matter how ignorant…how bigoted…how ugly…how destructive…how false…how cruel…how superstitious…they all deserve “respect”.
It reaches the absurd point where a person cannot even write a scholarly critique on a religious belief without being labeled and attacked. Distinguished scholars such as Joseph Campbell, or Dr. James Bennett Pritchard who was the biblical advisor to National Geographic magazine and Time-Life books, write about the myth of the Hebrew patriarchs and the monumental exaggeration of Old Testament events and they are immediately attacked as being anti-semitic.
