The Ten Commandments-- Two or One?

Comedian George Carlin in his recent book When Will Jesus Bring the Porkchops?, reduced the Ten Commandments to two, stating that having ten is outdated and unnecessary, and should be stated in a more positive voice ("Thou shalt" as opposed to "Thou shalt not"). What are the two commandments of Carlin? Drumroll, please (or a rimshot if you prefer)!

1) Thou shalt always be honest and faithful, especially to the provider of thy nookie.
2) Thou shalt try real hard not to kill anyone, unless, of course, they pray to a different invisible avenger than the one you pray to.

Did Carlin go too far this time? Actually, I don't think Carlin went far enough! He didn't go nearly as far as Jesus did, who reduced the Ten Commandments to one:

Love the Lord, your God, with all of your heart, soul, strength, and mind; and, love your neighbor as yourself.

In rabbinic fashion, Jesus welded together two separate commandments and made them one, as if to say, "Love God, whom you cannot see, by loving your neighbor, whom you can see.

And, as if to take it one step farther, Jesus changed the second part of that command:

Love one another as I have loved you.

And there it is! The One Commandment!!

Could it be time to shelve the Ten in favor of the One? I hope the answer is "Yes!" The apostle John did:

We love because he first loved us.

Truth be told, I prefer Carlin's "Tips For Serial Killers" over his bit on the commandments. Hilarious!

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'nuff said!

Never Afraid

I don't think Jesus was ever afraid of anything, even crucifixion. I know it's tempting to read about his praying in the Garden of Gethsemane with sweat like drops of blood as an example of being frightened. But when I consider his actions at Gethsemane in light of the overall narrative of Scripture I see something else going on.

I go back about 600 years earlier when Jerusalem was being besieged by the Babylonians. The prophets, especially Jeremiah, had warned the people not to resist the onslaught. But they did. They rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, they rallied, they fought, they died, and they were carried off against their will into exile in Babylon. Not once did the people, the leaders, or the king ask God to let the Babylonian invasion pass. Instead of resisting they should have relied completely on the Lord.

I think that's what Jesus was doing at Gethsemane. He was about to be carried off to his own "exile", crucifixion, and he placed himself firmly into the hands of his Father. This was not fear. This was fulfillment. Jesus did what the people of Judah and Jerusalem should have done when facing invasion, and perhaps what the inhabitants of Jerusalem in his own day should have been doing instead of stoking the flames of rebellion against Rome.

It's interesting how we think Jesus was scared in Gethsemane. We think that way because "afraid" is something we would be if we were faced with impending death. Since we would be afraid, we think Jesus would've been afraid also. Somehow it makes us feel better if we think Jesus was afraid like would be, and oftentimes are. Fascinating how we project ourselves onto Jesus so that he becomes "just like me".

But Jesus was not afraid. He had no fear, not because he was brave or courageous or macho. It was because of love. His heart was full of love for the people. And being so filled with love, any fear he could have experienced would not have found any place to exist. Jesus loved because he knew he himself was loved completely and unwaveringly by his Father.

If only we could understand that as Jesus did.

The Secret

Just think-- you can have anything you want if you ask for it and believe on an emotional level that you already have it. Anything-- money, health, possessions, love-- you name it! And then, poof!, after a while the thing you wanted shows up magically at your doorstep. Sounds exciting, doesn't it? Thousands of people will tell you that it really works and that you just have to try.

This is the claim of the new self-help rage called The Secret. It's been endorsed by some big names, not the least of which is Oprah. The books and DVD's are just flying off of the shelves. Apparently people are hungry for this kind of stuff.

The Secret posits the believe that if you truly want something (or someone), and if you ask for it sincerely, and if you act like you already have what you've asked for, the universe will adjust itself to give you exactly what you want. How the producers of The Secret convince people of this is by, first of all, playing up the individual existential angst that is prominent in our day. Life has lost it's meaning, God has run out of things to do (and God isn't helping anything anyway), so it's up to you to create your own reality. In fact, as the claim goes, you do create your own reality all of the time. If your life is terrible, there's only one explanation: you keep wanting bad things to go away instead of asking for good things to come toward you. It's called The Law of Attraction, and it states that you attract to yourself things you ask for, consciously or unconsciously. If, for instance, you want cancer to go away, The Law of Attraction says you will continue to have cancer because it is as if you're asking for it to stay. We attract negativity through not wanting something, and it just snowballs the more desperate or angry we get. In order to get The Law of Attraction to work in your favor, you need to start asking for things you want rather than things you don't want. For instance, instead of not wanting cancer, start wanting health. Instead of not wanting depression, start wanting happiness. Instead of not wanting bills in the mail, start wanting checks to come in the mail. See how that works? The Law of Attraction says that you will attract to yourself what you want if you follow three simple steps: 1) Ask 2) Believe and 3) Receive.

So what's wrong with this? Let's start with narcissism, or what philosopher Ken Wilber calls Boomeritis. "I can tell the universe what to do," very quickly becomes "Nobody can tell me what to do!" This kind of thinking leads one to become a miserable cur, and it's one of the many side effects of The Secret. The reports are starting to come out that The Secret is leading people to become more self-absorbed than ever. That was the problem in the first place, and The Secret seems to be compounding the problem.

Now let's go to our relationship with the universe. The universe does not bend to our whims. The belief that it does is nothing more than the primal impulse to project ourselves to the skies. The Secret claims that its wisdom is ancient and was known by some of the great minds of the modern world-- Socrates, Newton, Shakespeare, Freud, Einstein, Edison, Ford-- just to name a few. This may or may not be true. But this, per se, doesn't justify the claims it makes. Many ancient civilizations believed that they could manipulate the gods to bring rain to their crops through fertility rites and offerings. But that doesn't mean they were correct. It just appeared that way because they performed their rain dances, and look!, it rained! Never mind that it happened to occur during the rainy season!! Truth be told, the universe just is. It does what it does without your consultation or permission. Wishing it to be different than it is is insanity. As Ken Wilber so eloquently explained in his critique of the movie What The Bleep Do We Know? (which incidently holds to many of the same principles as The Secret), "People do not create their own realities. Psychotics do."

How does God play in all of this? My recollection is that The Secret makes no mention of God, but has instead made The Universe the unwitting substitute. I would say that this is almost correct, but I believe God is greater than the physical universe. God is the Ground and Source of all Being, physical and non-physical. It is in God that we all live, and move, and have our being. The depths of this are unfathomable, especially for a blog entry. But, as is The Universe, God just is. God cannot be manipulated according to human whim, but instead acts according to divine will. God doesn't ask for permission or consultation.

Well, that's my take on this. In my humble opinion, save your money. If you want to watch the DVD I have a copy. Just ask. I don't mind people watching this. Just don't believe it.

The Alchemist

I've finished reading The Alchemist last night. Wow! What an inspiring novel! It isn't like The Secret at all. My concerns were unfounded.

I want to have a Personal Legend. Correction– I have a Personal Legend. Doesn't everyone? It's just that some never discover it. They see the omens, they ignore the omens, and then the omens no longer speak because it is too late.

The part of the novel that touched me the most was when Santiago and the alchemist were traveling through the Sahara Desert and they found a seashell. The alchemist told Santiago that the desert used to be ocean, and as Santiago held the seashell up to his ear he could hear the echoes of ocean contained in the shell. The alchemist then explained that that was the ocean's Personal Legend.

As I pondered that it struck me that we leave echoes of ourselves in the hearts and souls of others– echoes that say, “I was here!” We exist in many places at once, much like the ocean still exists in the chambers of the seashell. And even though the ocean wasn't visible, it was in a sense still one with the seashell. Perhaps that is the conspiracy of the universe. Everything is connected, albeit through distant echoes– The Soul of the World! Invisible, but very real!

I want very much to become lost in this Soul. Honestly, my heart aches for it, and I believe that this is what integral is all about. For as we leave whispers and echoes in the heart chambers of others, the whispers and echoes of others are left in ours, for better or for worse. Give and you shall receive! How wonderfully playful this universe we live in!

Will the sea cover the desert, the Beloved, once again? Will Santiago return to Fatima at the oasis? In the Language and Soul of the World, these questions are asking the same thing.

“I'm coming, my Beloved!”

A Short Lesson on Parables

Jesus told parables to help people understand what it was he was trying to do. Most of the parables of Jesus being with the words "The Kingdom of God is like...", using simile to introduce some very important images and metaphors.

The Parable of the Sower is quite interesting because we often think that the odds of being "good soil" are very slim. For those who want to be exact, Jesus appears to give us a 25% (1 out of 4) chance of being soil that accepts the seed of the Word of God that produces a harvest. Therefore we have a 75% chance of being doomed. So the odds appear to be stacked against us. Honestly, that's a spiritually emaciating way of reading this parable. How, then, can we read this parable?

Isaiah 6 serves as the backdrop for this parable, and so it's important to understand Isaiah 6. This chapter is Isaiah's call into the prophetic ministry. His message will have the effect of either giving sight or making blind, or of giving hearing or making deaf. These are just metaphoric ways of saying, "Some people are going to believe my message, while others won't." What was Isaiah's message? In a nutshell-- God's people have violated the Sinai Covenant and God was going to inflict the covenant curses upon them for disobedience, namely, destruction of their land and temple by a foreign army and exile from the promised land.

Back to the parable. The Parable of the sower is a parable about parables and the effect that they will have on people. It will have the same effect as Isaiah's message had in his day. Jesus' message was going to be almost the same as the prophets-- you have violated the covenant and therefore are ripe for destruction. The parables will have the effect of exposing what's really going on in the hearts of people when the light of the Kingdom begins to shine. Is it any wonder that many people got defensive when Jesus spoke? When you threaten destruction because of disobedience, people will lash out at you. They would lash out at Jesus to the point of sending him away to crucifixion.

Throughout history we have seen what happens to people who challenge what was important to people, especially those who are in power. They start rolling out the tanks. Remember Tiannamen Square?

The challenges posed by the parables of Jesus were for a divine reason-- there was a new order dawning on the horizon, and it was going to come whether the people wanted it or not. But who wouldn't want it? The new order was peace with God and forgiveness of all sin. I guess that kind of thing would threaten anyone in the sin management business!

An Evening With Byron Katie

Last night I had the privilege of seeing, in person, Byron Katie. Her husband, Stephen Mitchell, was along with her. The venue was packed. Someone who is as loving as Katie will attract many people. I was struck by Katie's innocence. To me, she is the picture of free, the epitome of Original Innocence. She's good at life. Actually, we're all good at life, we just haven't noticed it yet.

I had a moment of epiphany when she was talking about a little boy and a tree. By nature, a little boy can look at a tree and not know that it's a tree. He doesn't know what it's called. He just knows that there's something he's looking at. It isn't until mom or dad say, “Look at the tree,” that the child begins to identify what he sees with a word. And then the child is told that the tree is “pretty” or “green” or “big”. The child believes what he is told. Pretty tree, green tree, big tree, etc. Katie went on to explain that all of our stress, all of our problems, stem from believing what we have been told.

I'm reminded of a funny little bit that Steve Martin used to do in his stand-up routines. He said that if you have a three-year-old kid and you want to play a dirty trick on him here's what you do: whenever you're around him, you “talk wrong”. So when the child has his first day at school and has to go to the bathroom, he raises his hand and says, “Ma'am, may I mow dogface to the banana patch?”The point? His parents showed him a bathroom and called it a banana patch. And he believed it. His parents also replaced the verb “go” with “mow dogface”. It's hilarious to think about, but it just demonstrates what Katie has been telling us.

Who am I? Doug. Can I be absolutely certain that that's true? NO!! It's what I've been called all of my life. It was taught to me, and I believed it. My name is Doug.

We look at something, say, a car accident, and we call it terrible and believe that it shouldn't have happened. First of all, how do we know that it's terrible? We were shown similar things in the past, and someone taught us that it was “terrible”. “Terrible” things should never happen. But what happens when they do? We label it as “terrible”, then we believe that it shouldn't have happened, which then leads to other grand theories on life. Once that's done, we've shifted away from reality, from what is, and it will hurt every time. Throughout our lives, we were taught that certain things are terrible, or scary, or ugly, or wrong, or whatever. We believed it, and we've lived our lives accordingly. What Katie says is to challenge those concepts by questioning them and notice what happens to you when you believe that they're true. On my drive home I started questioning concepts that give me stress: Traffic jam bad– is it true? Headache bad (I had a blistering one last night)– is it true? Dark sky scary– can I be absolutely sure that it's true? A feeling of peace welled up inside of me that I haven't felt in a long time, and it came in the midst of a traffic jam, a headache, and a dark sky. And that doesn't mean that I wasn't glad when I finally got home and took some Tylenol. But I could've been stuck on the freeway for hours, and it wouldn't have bothered me.

Katie autographed my copy of her new book. When I shook her hand, she told me that I looked very familiar to her and wondered if we had ever met. I told her I didn't think so, and she said that she was remembering a wonderful face that she had seen and I reminded her of that. I didn't know what to say, so I just said, “Thank you!” Anyway, I told her that I've begun using The Work in my ministry, but many times I feel I'm at a loss on when to use it and when to just be quiet. I asked her if she could give me any guidance on this. She said that as I become more familiar and grounded in the The Work it will become easier to discern when to use it. She also said that if people are open to it, then go for it with gusto. But if not, then have some tea!

A fitting ending for a wonderful evening!!

Deceiving Appearances?

You know what they say-- Appearances can be deceiving! But that's not really true. Appearances are what they are, and nothing more. Deception comes in when we attach our concepts onto something that appears. We look at something, we judge it as ugly, repulsive, beautiful, or whatever, and then we think we have to change it so that we can tell our stories of attractiveness.

Never judge a book by its cover, but don't we do that anyway? Maybe that's our job. It could be that we're supposed to be judges of appearance. But can we use our judgments so that they reflect a more balanced approach to things?

If we deem something repulsive, we will want to run away. But what's making us run-- the thing itself or our thinking, judging, and conceptualizing.

After you've determined that something is ugly and repulsive, ask yourself if it's really true. I know-- you've listened to all of the experts and seen all of the gorgeous models on the runway. But have you asked yourself? Have you looked into the deep recesses of your heart? It could be that you are the expert you need to talk to.

Question your stories. Don't try to block them or change them. Question them. Ask yourself if they're really true. You may find they're not true at all, and you stand the chance of losing them. Are you brave enought to have less and less of your stories?