Tag Archive for "universe"
Why is it hard for many people to accept miracles in a religion other than theirs? Very normal, logical and sane people accept that Jesus walked on water, changed water to wine, healed the sick, brought Lazarus back from the afterlife and rose himself three days after his own death; but these same people think miracles in other religions are myth and fable.
Maybe I am able to suspend reality and accept imagination better than others? Perhaps I am equipped to see divinity in people where others can not? I don’t know, I do however know that it bothers me that many Christians can not accept that the divine can choose to show itself to any one anywhere.
Why can some people not understand that what they call God might show itself to others as gods, or devas, or angels or whatever it is that a person or people might need to experience? If a mother from the amazon prays and begs for the forest spirits heal her child, why would the divine not intercede and do just that? Just because she uses a name other than Jesus, or Yahweh or Allah or Buddha; don’t we think that the divine can hear all?
OK, I will stop ranting now…
This all started because I am reading a book right now called Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramahansa Yogananda. I am not far enough in to the book to offer anything like a review or insightful comment, but I know that the book describes the lives of many yogis from India and the Himalayas. I know that it describes men and women that could heal the sick, float over rivers and become non-corporeal with thought.
I can buy all of that. I believe that Jesus did the works associated with his ministry, and I can accept that there might be others who can do many if not all of those same miracles, even today; all by faith in themselves and faith in the divine. I have faith that the divine creator of the universe can manifest itself anywhere in any time. To do otherwise would be to limit the limitless, to contain the universe in my own box. I can’t do that, can you?
I know that I cannot be considered an orthodox Christian any longer, nor could I be counted among the orthodox Buddhists, but I am comfortable with my own beliefs. I see the divine in others and myself, I see the divine in the world around me and I welcome it and call out to it. I also know that we all have eternal souls that suffer because we are mired in delusion.
I am no Bodhisattva, but I pray, I meditate and I smile. I try to be compassionate and mindful at all times, though I do fall short sometimes. “Loving kindness is my religion,” His Holiness the Dalai Lama said that once, but I will use it from now on as my own statement of faith.
So for now I am back to work, love you.
Matt
Last night my cat, Guru, brought a present in to the laundry room for my wife. Guru very proudly trotted in and at my wife’s feet dropped a field mouse. That alone is enough to cause my wife concern, but when this little brown mouse got up, scamped towards the door to the pantry my wife reacted in a way that endears her to me.
She screamed.
When my wife screams I pay attention, this time was no different, but I was in the attic cleaning out the dryer vent. So down I hurry, trying not to kill my self on the way, taking only a quick moment to make sure my flip-flops land on the rungs of the ladder as I go.
By the time I made it to the laundry room my youngest is in the room too, watching this little terrified mouse as it tries in vain to burrow in to the kitty litter… sad really.
I pick up the whole litter box, my wife hands me the scoop and I walk in to the garage with Guru in tow meowing that I am not to disturb his toy. I walk to the edge of the garage, staying out of the rain, and then I threw the little mouse out in to the darkness.
Of course Guru was not too happy with the turn of events, so I patted his little gray head and went back in to the house.
This morning my wife finds Guru sitting with the little brown mouse outside. The mouse is dead, probably from a heart attack. I am sure Guru played with it until his little brown mouse heart just gave out and he died.
I don’t think Guru meant to kill his toy. I don’t think he meant to do any harm at all. When Guru is sitting with me at night while I read he is noble. He is kind and sincere and loving sitting there on my lap, occasionally pawing the book to get my attention.
When he does this I say the Mani to him and then I go back to my reading. In my mind he is teaching me. Something. No idea what he is teaching me, but in my mind he is a guru and he has Buddha-nature.
He is Guru.
I keep hearing this question over and over, like a mantra that others are praying for me. Kind of starts to get laughable when you hear it in strange places from people you don’t even know. Catching it in conversations you over hear in restaurants, the question being posed to someone on a podcast, an old friend emailing you to say that he wants to know the answer.
How can I get paid doing something I love?
Soon you start wondering what exactly the universe is telling you. Is it intended for you? This question is a statement about your life, not just a passing question you overhear in the sushi bar.
But then you need to decide what it is you love to do. Not what you can do and enjoy to make a living, but the thing you love most.
Mine might be writing. Fiction, non-fiction, poetry… I just love to write. When I am stressed I sit down and put those words in prose or add a little more to the same story I have been writing for a decade. I like to think about mindfulness and who I am, where I am going and how I am getting there. I am trying to be a better person too. Trying to slow down, to make less of a signature on my environment.
I used to get paid for writing. A decade ago I was a reporter for a few small-town papers in Oklahoma. I covered the state capitol for these little papers and I loved doing it. I quit because I was greedy. I needed money to start my life with the girl I wanted to marry.
So I left journalism to pursue a career dictated by the dollar. You might enjoy what you are doing and you are getting paid for it; but do you love it?
I do enjoy what I do for a living, I am lucky there. I love the people I work with, again, lucky there. But, I don’t love it. I don’t miss my profession when I am away for a vacation. I miss the people and the experience, but not the actual job.
Would I want to own a dojo and meditation center and work on my chi? Perhaps. Would I want to get paid to write? Sure. (Let me know if you want to make a donation to the Keep-Matt-Writing find.) Could I be a life-coach? Greg might think so, but no one else I am sure. (I tell Greg to think that.)
Really, what do I love enough to do that as a way to live?
Maybe if I keep asking myself the same question pretty soon I will answer it too.
What about you?