Friday, May 29, 2015

Oneness, Dharma and Logos and Natural Order



When in harmony with the nature of things, your own fundamental nature, you will walk freely and undisturbed.
However, when mind is in bondage, the truth is hidden, and everything is murky and unclear, and the burdensome practice of judging brings annoyance and weariness.
What benefit can be derived from attachment to distinctions and separations?

If you wish to move in the One Way do not dislike the worlds of senses and ideas.
Indeed, to embrace them fully is identical with true Enlightenment
The wise person attaches to no goals but the foolish person fetters himself or herself.
There is one Dharma*, without differentiation.

~The Dhammapada

* Dharma (Sanskrit) or Dhamma (Pali) in Buddhism is a word with a wide variety of meanings.

1. The natural order of the universe, both physical and moral.

2. The teachings of Buddha of universal law

3. Internal and external perceiving and judging (psychological processes) of the human in relationship with her reality.

Dharma is closely related to the Christian term, Logos, which means "word," "speech," "account," "to reason." The Greek philosopher, Heraclitus (525-475 BC) used Logos to mean the universal principle of order and knowledge. Both of these concepts, order and knowledge, are dependent upon a person's psychological abilities to reckon with their reality. The term, Logos, like Dharma, was used in different ways: the sophists used it to mean reasoned discourse (knowledge communicated); the Stoics used it to describe the divine animating principle of the universe.

The early Jewish philosopher, Philo (c. 20 BC – AD 50) adopted Logos in his writings and the evangelist, John speaks of Logos as word made flesh, in others words, the divine animating principle of the universe incarnated. Further, the "Word," as it is written in John's Gospel, can be traced back to the Greek term, "Logos" and Hebrew, "dabhar," or "creative expression."

One can see how these words, Dharma and Logos, are related to universal order, the order of our mind's thoughts and emotions, the way we express those thoughts and emotions in words and in action, and how our expressions of thought determine our relationship with others and the universal reality, in general. One can see how the use of these words may mean "law" at one time and "wisdom" at another, as they always contain both the physical world external to us and the psychological world, within us: thoughts, emotions, memories, all intimately connected to the body's physiological mechanisms through the autonomic nervous system.

This is what the first phrase of the quotation from the Dhammapada refers to.

"When in harmony with the nature of things, your own fundamental nature, you will walk freely and undisturbed. However, when mind is in bondage, the truth is hidden, and everything is murky and unclear, and the burdensome practice of judging brings annoyance and weariness."

The mind is in bondage when we identify strictly with our thoughts and are not aware of the influences of our memories and emotions on those thoughts. If we can watch the ways our memory and emotions influence our thoughts, we realize that not all thoughts are true. Some are defensive responses to the way the situation makes us feel. Some are judgments we conjure to justify our feelings.

Dharma is to cultivate the knowledge and practice of laws and principles that hold together the fabric of reality, natural phenomena and personality of human beings in dynamic interdependence and harmony.   ~Msr Ayyanagr
One could use the same definition for Logos, realizing that the way we use it is to call it God incarnate, Jesus the Christ, to understand our selves as Christians as "Jesus followers," in thought, word, and deed.

"If you wish to move in the One Way do not dislike the worlds of senses and ideas. (thoughts and emotions)
Indeed, to embrace them fully is identical with true Enlightenment (Christ-mind)
The wise person attaches to no goals but the foolish person fetters himself or herself.
There is one Dharma*, without differentiation."

Our psychological sensing and thinking, and our external reality are One, constantly in dynamic relationship. Know this and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

With love and a prayer for One Mind, One Heart, One humanity, One planet!
_/\_Peggy at Ecumenicus


Saturday, May 9, 2015

Contemplating Art - The Beauty of Perfect Imperfection

I gazed around the quiet museum gallery feeling the intensity of ancient struggle and overcoming. Mother Mary, holding the legs of her beautiful child, Jesus, the remainder left on a beach at Normandy; Thomas Aquinas, with one eye gleaming from the bridge of the nose, the other sunken into his temple. Then there was wooden Jesus, hanging crucified huge as life, and missing the pinky fingers on his left hand. 











They all stood stoic among the other artifacts, bearing their chips and gouges as a palpable witness to life. Bearing, not only the lives whose images they bore, but the years they had lived in posterity, as the earnest work of artisan hands. The tour guide said, ”Gaze at the artwork in this room and notice what draws you, what speaks to you.” All I could see were the perfect imperfections. All I could feel was the fierce wild and loving tenderness of those relics, the lives they endured so patiently and the grace that flowed from their wounds.

All I could feel was beauty.

 

“The beauty that emerges from woundedness is a beauty infused with feeling; a beauty different from the beauty of landscape and the cold perfect form. This is a beauty that has suffered its way through the ache of desolation until the words or music emerged to equal the hunger and desperation at its heart. It must also be said that not all woundedness succeeds in finding its way through to beauty of form. Most woundedness remains hidden, lost inside forgotten silence. Indeed, in every life there is some wound that continues to weep secretly, even after years of attempted healing. Where woundedness can be refined into beauty a wonderful transfiguration takes place.” 


This is the truth. I have no right to significant woundedness at all. My life has been privileged, successfully industrious, primarily joyful and immensely fulfilling. Sure, I've had ups and downs, in relationship and in health. I can't imagine anyone who hasn't. I lived through them and I am who I am because of them!  When you are diagnosed with cancer, for example, others who have endured that challenge encourage you with their  stories of survival; stories you never heard before your diagnosis. Survivors of cancer are numerous. Same with addiction, miscarriage, sexual abuse, betrayal, discrimination, and more. 

"Love and suffering are portals to opening the mind space and the heart space, breaking us into the breadth and depth of communion." says Fr Richard Rohr. Suffering opens the mind space and then the heart space. Indeed, when we experience wounding beyond our control we have have no choice but to find the courage it takes to live through it without controlling it! And we join the community of souls who have done likewise. We learn, through the fear that comes with wounding experiences, who we are in God (our Higher Power) and we open our minds and hearts to the reality that we constantly live in the tension of vulnerability and strength. The beauty of our humanness is our frailty and our staying power!

Alfred North Whitehead said, Beauty = intensity + harmony. The most intense times of our lives are when we are fearful or in love. An illustration of this dichotomy, John 4:18 reads, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear." When we pick up the broken pieces of our wounds and bind them back together in love, through the realization that we are stronger than than we knew, we (re)harmonize our being at a new level of awareness and empathy. We make friends with fear and transfigure it into Love. We accept our vulnerability and acknowledge our inner strength in order to  channel them into personal equanimity and social compassion. We make the "imperfection" perfect. And that is beautiful.

With the grace and peace of perfect imperfection, may you find your harmony every day, resting in WHAT IS with wisdom, balance and compassion.

_/\_Peggy @ Ecumenicus