I began my spiritual life with the Southern Baptist Convention, and came home every Sunday quaking in my little patent leather Mary Janes with certain fear of hell and damnation, and ended in my teens in the Northern Baptist Convention, where, my Mother whispered, "people smoke and drink wine." I liked my pastor there, Pastor Willis Reed, who had actually been to Seminary and not gotten a sudden vocation on the road to Damascus, and finally "went forward" to be baptized, so that my parents could rest assured I would join them in heaven (sounds better than "to get them off my back"). Pastor Reed actually enjoyed talking about spiritual matters, and he did not seem like a high-pressure car salesman, and I enjoyed "baptism class." Something seemed to be missing, however, so I read everything I could find on all different kinds of spirituality. All of these had one common theme, I began to notice: the present moment.
Welcome to Brothers and Sisters, the weekly meetup for prayer* and community at Daily Kos. We put an asterisk on pray* to acknowledge that not everyone uses conventional religious language, but may want to share joys and concerns, or simply take solace in a meditative atmosphere. Anyone who comes in the spirit of mutual respect, warmth and healing is welcome.
I had all and more of the angst of the young. I was certainly not what the stork had ordered for a woman of my time, my ideas of my life path and my feelings of isolation and frustration were the impetus for reading everything I could get my hands on. I felt blocked at every turn. I was flummoxed by the paradox that I was supposed to be useful, but that did not mean being my best. I could not contract and expand at the same time. My tactic was to ignore and go around obstacles as much as possible. Surely the whole world could not be like this, lol. I resolved to take good care of myself for when I found my "people." I found something else--the truth.
I started with Ram Dass's Be Here Now.
I went to Buddhism (all flavors). Here is a quote from one of my favorites, Ayya Khema, from Being Nobody, Going Nowhere
One of our human absurdities is the fact that we're constantly thinking about either the future or the past. Those who are young think of the future because they've got more of it. Those who are older think more about the past because for them there is more of that. But in order to experience life, we have to live each moment. Life has not been happening in the past. That's memory. Life is not going to happen in the future. That's planning. The only time we can live is now, this moment, and as absurd as it may seem, we've got to learn that...There's no other way to learn to live each moment except through meditation.
Don Juan, in Carlos Casteneda's books, called it "accumulating inner silence" which would lead to freedom. (I now understand these teachings in Casteneda's books to be Toltec in origin)
"Be still and know [that I am] God." Psalm 46:10 (I put the brackets there because that is how I understand the meaning of that quote)
Jesus' words: Peace! Be still! (to calm the storm on the water) Mark 4:39
From Eckhart Tolle's Practicing The Power of Now
More time can not free you of time.
...
Don't misunderstand: Attention is essential, but not to the past as past. Give attention to the present; give attention to your behavior, to your reactions, moods, thoughts, emotions, fears, and desires as they occur in the present. There's the past in you. If you can be present enough to watch all those things, not critically or analytically but nonjudgmentally, then you are dealing with the past and dissolving it through the power of your presence.
Thank you so much for coming by, and below, as your palate cleanser, is some of my best-loved music. Have a wonderful evening!
There are many versions of this to choose from, I chose this because it gives me great hope for the State of Georgia.
Geistliches Lied, Op. 30; Lass dich nur nichts nicht dauren
by Johannes Brahms
Do not be sorrowful or regretful;
Be calm, as God has ordained,
and thus my will shall be content.
What do you want to worry about from day to day?
There is One who stands above all
who gives you, too, what is yours.
Only be steadfast in all you do,
stand firm; what God has decided,
that is and must be the best.
Amen
text by Paul Flemming, (1609-1640)
Johannes Brahms A German Requiem, V. Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit, Kathleen Battle, Soprano
V. Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit
And ye now therefore have sorrow:
but I will see you again,
and your heart shall rejoice,
and your joy no man taketh from you.
(Choir: Thee will I comfort
as one whom a mother comforts.)
Look on me: for a short time
I have had sorrow and labour
and have found great comfort.
And ye now therefore have sorrow:
but I will see you again,
and your heart shall rejoice,
and your joy no man taketh from you.
I will see you again…
John 16:22,
Ecclesiasticus 51:27, Isaiah 66:13