From Buddhism: Extra Religious Practices To Take care of Grief

This previous 12 months a really high quality guide got here out with a title that appears to talk to our state of affairs at this time.  It’s known as We Had been Made For These Instances: 10 Classes for Shifting By Change, Loss, and Disruption. 

Its creator is Kaira Jewel Lingo who was a nun in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Buddhist neighborhood for 16 years.  Her reflections are drawn on that custom, however she additionally consists of teachings from Meister Eckhart and Thomas Merton and different Christian mystics.

Kaira Jewel is African American and her father was a minister who labored with Dr. King and the Southern Christian Management Convention.  He grew to become a “devoted pupil of Thich Nhat Hahn” and was ordained a Buddhist Dharma trainer in 2008.  She cites her father: Once we see ourselves as victims, that’s the separate self.  Once we see ourselves as beloved, that’s no-self.

Within the identify of transparency, I confess that Kaira Jewel is a buddy of mine now and he or she married my good buddy Adam Bucko, with whom I co-authored the guide, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Imaginative and prescient For a New Era, and who’s an Episcopal priest within the diocese of Lengthy Island.  I used to be current for his or her memorable and ecumenical marriage ceremony they usually share a typical imaginative and prescient for an ecumenical monastery that’s devoted each to activism and to contemplation.  

They’ve acquired a former Russian Orthodox monastery property positioned about 45 minutes north of New York Metropolis the place they’ll put their imaginative and prescient into follow. In the meantime, they’re lively in contemplation/motion networking.

Is it true that, with all the priority and doom unleashed by election 2024, “we’re made for these occasions”?  One hopes so.  One hopes we are able to rise to the problem and develop each the deep spirituality and the good and savvy political consciousness that may flip this lemon into lemonade.  That we are able to take part in a re-doing of democracy and the way we do it and put the brakes on local weather denial and appeals to hatred and vengeance and stand as much as an totally corrupt and compromised unsupreme court docket and senate and media and bogus faith and value-free training and extra.

One argument that we’re “made for these occasions” is that this: We’re right here.  Every of us was born in these occasions of shifting from fashionable to post-modern, from the age of Pisces to the age of Aquarius, from a time of faith to a time of spirituality.  The truth that we’re here’s a fairly good argument that we’re made for these occasions.

Joanna Macy, in her 90’s, attended a gathering I used to be half of some years in the past and when handed the microphone, stated: Isn’t it great that we’re alive at this important time for planet Earth and our species?  What a privilege to be so chosen.  All of us.

Tomorrow we’ll share some helpful practices from Kaira Jewel for coping with our grief and empowering us for the duties forward.  For at this time, let me go away you with only one which is known as a “Remembrance” of our mortality and that of our establishments, all issues being impermanent.

Breathe in: All that’s expensive to me will change.
Breathe out: No escape from being separated from these I like.
Breathe in: My actions are the one factor I take with me.
Breathe out: There’s no escape from the implications of my actions. 
Repeat: My actions are my solely true belongings.
I can not escape the implications of my actions.
My actions are the bottom on which I stand.*

*Kaira Jewel Lingo, We Had been Made For These Instances: 10 Classes for Shifting By Change, Loss, and Disruption, pp. 90, 70.

See Matthew Fox, “Meister Eckhart Meets Buddhism through Thich Nhat Hanh,” in Fox, Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior for Our Instances, pp. 35-56.

And Fox, One River, Many Wells: Knowledge Springing From International Faiths, “From Fromlessness, Nothingness”; “Meditations and Mindfulness,”, pp. 157-170, 189-217.

And Rev. Matthew Fox and Lama Tsomo, The Lotus & The Rose: A Dialog Between Tibetan Buddhism & Mystical Christianity.

And Fox, A Means To God: Thomas Merton’s Creation Spirituality Journey. 

And Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Imaginative and prescient For a New Era.

Banner Picture: All issues are transient: younger monks clear the Hevajra Sand Mandala away, Tharlam Monastery, Boudha, Kathmandu, Nepal. Picture by Wonderlane on Flickr.

Queries for Contemplation

Are you past seeing your self as a sufferer and as a substitute seeing your self as a beloved?  What are the implications of that for working for social, financial, gender, racial and eco-justice?  Do you agree that your actions are your solely true belongings?

Advisable Studying

Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Time

Whereas Matthew Fox acknowledges that Meister Eckhart has influenced thinkers all through historical past, he additionally desires to introduce Eckhart to at this time’s activists addressing modern crises. Towards that finish, Fox creates dialogues between Eckhart and Carl Jung, Thich Nhat Hanh, Rabbi Heschel, Black Elk, Karl Marx, Rumi, Adrienne Wealthy, Dorothee Soelle, David Korten, Anita Roddick, Lily Yeh, M.C. Richards, and plenty of others.
“Matthew Fox is probably the best author on Meister Eckhart that has ever existed. (He) has efficiently bridged a spot between Eckhart as a shamanistic character and Eckhart as a post-modern mentor to the Inter-faith motion, to disclose simply how cosmic Eckhart actually is, and the way remarkably related to at this time’s spiritual disaster! ” — Steven Herrmann, Creator of Religious Democracy: The Knowledge of Early American Visionaries for the Journey Ahead

One River, Many Wells: Knowledge Springing from International Faiths

Matthew Fox calls on all of the world traditions for his or her knowledge and their inspiration in a piece that’s way over an inventory of theological place papers however a brand new approach to pray—to meditate in a worldwide religious context on the knowledge all our traditions share. Fox chooses 18 themes which are foundational to any spirituality and demonstrates how all of the world religious traditions supply knowledge about every.“Studying One River, Many Wells is like coming into the wealthy silence of a masterfully directed retreat. As you learn this textual content, you mirror, you pray, you embrace Divinity. Really no phrases can totally categorical my respect and awe for this magnificent contribution to modern spirituality.” –Caroline Myss, creator of Anatomy of the Spirit

The Lotus & The Rose: A Dialog Between Tibetan Buddhism & Mystical Christianity

How can we transfer away from “us vs. them” considering as our environment really feel extra divided and polarized than ever? Co-authors Matthew Fox and Lama Tsomo focus on how Tibetan Buddhism and Mystical Christianity reply this query from distinctive factors of view, with many commonalities and sensible instruments to interrupt down the limitations between us.
“The Lotus and the Rose is a rare instance of what can occur when religious leaders from totally different traditions open up and communicate from the center.” — Paul Chaffee, The Interfaith Observer.

A Strategy to God: Thomas Merton’s Creation Spirituality Journey

In A Means to God, Fox explores Merton’s pioneering work in interfaith, his important teachings on mixing contemplation and motion, and the way the imaginative and prescient of Meister Eckhart profoundly influenced Merton in what Fox calls his Creation Spirituality journey.
“This sensible and marvelous guide will profoundly encourage all those that love Merton and need to know him extra deeply.” — Andrew Harvey, creator of The Hope: A Information to Sacred Activism

Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Imaginative and prescient for a New Era

Authors Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox encourage us to make use of our abilities in service of compassion and justice and to maneuver past our damaged techniques–financial, political, instructional, and spiritual–discovering a spirituality that not solely helps us to get alongside, but in addition encourages us to reevaluate our traditions, remodeling them and within the course of constructing a extra sacred and simply world. Incorporating the phrases of younger activist leaders culled from interviews and surveys, the guide gives a framework that’s intentionally interfaith and speaks to our profound craving for a life with religious objective and for a greater world.
“Occupy Spirituality is a robust, inspiring, and important name to embodied consciousness and enlightened actions.”
~~ Julia Butterfly Hill, environmental activist and creator of The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Lady, and the Battle to Save the Redwoods