Musings

Epiphany in a Box

 

Years ago, my dear wife, Roberta Maran, came up with an idea at Christmas that enchanted me.  “In addition to other presents, let’s give people Christmas boxes that have nothing inside of them – except messages that are deep and pithy!”
 
So we got busy and made a bunch, and gave them to family and friends.
 
This past Sunday, I revived her idea and employed it in worship at the church I serve as pastor – the United Church of Christ of Simi Valley CA.  We knew that turnout would be sparse on Christmas morning, after our full sanctuary on Christmas Eve.  So I put slips of paper into little Christmas-ey boxes and put them on the altar.  We sat in a circle, and I passed them out to the congregants to present to the person next to them and then open and discuss with each what they found on their slips of paper.  Lively conversations ensued.
 
Try this practice for Epiphany Sunday, Jan 6 – the day we mark on the Christian calendar to remember the Three Wise Men – representing the nations of the world – appearing in Bethlehem to offer gifts to the baby Jesus.  It’s the day we celebrate the emergence not just in Israel, but throughout the world, of the higher consciousness of unconditional love that the sacred myth of Christmas expresses. 
 
In our culture, we make a big deal about giving tangible gifts to each other at Christmas.  That’s nice.  But better yet are the intangible gifts we give and receive – gifts of time, listening, insight, wisdom, care, compassion, curiosity, wonder, awe.  These intangibles, motivating us into action, then manifest in tangibles:  food for the hungry, healing for the sick, homes for the houseless.
 
So have fun with this at church or at home!  Into Christmas-ey boxes, pack slips of paper with intriguing messages.  Share them with each other and let them become fodder for conversation.  And then see what ways you can make tangible the intangibles inside those boxes!
 
A list of messages you can put in the boxes (send me your messages to add):
 

• A supply of spare time
• The afterglow of a smile
• A positive attitude
• A strong dose of imagination
• A message from your dreams
• The egos of Jesus and Buddha
• All the nothing you ever wanted
• A day’s supply of laughter
• A sigh of relief
• A groan of ecstasy
• A secret memory
• A hint of your destiny
• An opinion you need to release
• A bright idea
• An argument extinguisher: in a relationship emergency, put this box over your face and breathe deeply
• A unique experience
• A beginner’s mind
• A creative spirit
• A new beginning
• A serendipity
• A blend of 25% kindness, 25% patience, 25% forgiveness, 20% hope, 5% brilliance – open in a spiritual emergency and breathe deeply
• Enough oxygen to inflame your deepest passion
• Nothing you can’t live without
• Nothing that matters
• The silence between notes that makes music beautiful
• The sound of Jesus meditating for 40 days in the wilderness
• What is left when you strip away all your illusions about who you are
• The soul of Rumi’s spiritual friend, Shams of Tabriz
• The sound of Buddha meditating at the Bodhi Tree
• Confirmation of your inner wisdom
• A scoop of wind from the top of a mountain
• The true meaning of Bob Dylan’s song lyrics

What epiphanies await your discovery?
 

Joseph's Dream

Dreams are portals into our souls!  Taking them seriously can lead us to the wisdom that lives within us.  Each element of our dreams can have many different meanings.  Likewise, the Christian religion as a whole is 'dreamlike' - full of stories and poetry and imagery with many possible meanings for our lives.

Many of the most potent and helpful dreams I have ever had have come to me in times of particular challenge or crisis.  When the conscious mind has exhausted itself on all the possible rational outcomes of different decisions, then it is time to sleep, and let the unconscious mind work it through at a different level.  It appears this is what Joseph did when, according to the sacred myth of the gospel, he discovered that Mary was pregnant – and not by him. 

What dream did Joseph dream?  Taking the voice of Joseph, here’s my conjecture: 

I dreamed that I was lost in the desert.  It was a glorious landscape of endless sky, piling up into thunderhead clouds over distant mountains.  I was walking along a steep cliff of stone, banded yellow and red and blue-gray.  The sun was beating down on me, a hot ball of blazing light, radiating heat off of the face of the cliff.  I walked along, making my own trail up and over dry wash gullies, past pinon and cholla cactus and sagebrush, my shoes leaving deep prints on the soft dirt, powdering the leather with fine red dust.  I didn't know where I was or where I was going -- it was exciting, but then it got scary, because I was getting hungry and thirsty, and I had no provisions at all, and could detect no sign of water or human habitation for as far as my eyes could see.  I walked along, growing more and more concerned, then scared, then panicked as I felt my tongue sticking to the roof of my mouth, the sweat beading on my forehead, and no relief in sight. 

 

I stumbled over to a shady spot below the rock cliff to rest and gather my wits.  When I caught my breath, I heard a trickling, gurgling sound, and there, at the base of the cliff, was a spring of water dripping out of a crack in the rock into a pool in a basin of stone, shaded by willow trees, glittering in the diffused light.  I approached it, and then suddenly noticed that someone was sitting against the cliff next to the water.  The reflected light from the pool shimmered on the man's peaceful face.  Next to him was an old leather backpack and a walking stick.  Looking at him, I could not tell his age -- was he a weathered young man, or a very lively old man?  I approached, and we greeted each other.  He pulled a cup out of his pack and filled it with water from the pool and handed it to me.  I drank, overwhelmed with relief and gratitude, as if he had created the pool of water himself. 

Without a word he reached into his leather backpack again and pulled out something wrapped in paper, and offered it to me – a big piece of some kind of cake.  I eagerly accepted.  It was something like baclava – sweet, flaky, with honey and crumbled nuts in it, it seemed.  “Thanks!”  I exclaimed.  “It’s delicious!  What is it?”  I asked.  He smiled, his teeth shining in the glimmering light from the little pool in the basin of red rock.  “Manna,” he said, with a bit of a laugh.  “Manna from heaven.”  Something about the way he said it was reassuring to me.  He looked me in the eyes, and I felt a calm come over me. 

“I’ve been waiting for you,” he said, still smiling.  “I’m glad you have arrived.”

Well, I’m very glad you are here, believe me!  I was getting pretty scared out there, all alone with nothing to eat or drink!  I’m Joseph, and who are you, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Gabriel,” he replied.

“And what brings you out here into the middle of nowhere?”

“I live here.  This is my home,” he said, waving his arm out toward the desert emptiness.  “And what brings you here?” he asked.

I didn’t know what to say.  I had no idea how I got there, or why, or where I was going.  “I guess I have forgotten, if I ever knew in the first place!”  I said, and he just laughed again.

“Come with me.  I want to show you something,” he said.  And, having no reason yet not to trust him, I followed.  For about 45 minutes we scrambled up a bank of soft dirt against the face of the cliff, and then hauled ourselves up a pile of rocks in a big crack in the cliff, to the top of the mesa.  From the top, the view was spectacular.  I could see the whole range of distant mountains far across the plain.  Below them was a wide river that snaked out of the mouth of a big canyon.  Behind us was yet another cliff, with another level of mesa above it.  “We’re going up there,” he announced.  “Up to the top.”  It took two hours to pick our way across the lower mesa and carefully work our way up the next cliff, precariously wedging ourselves in cracks and crevasses, fumbling for finger and toe holds.  Finally we got to the highest mesa, and there, to my amazement, was a town, set back from the edge of the cliff where no one could see it from below.   It looked like a Native American pueblo – beautiful buildings of stone, heavy wood posts, and adobe.  People – of every shape and color and age -- dressed in simple but colorful clothes, walked and gathered in shops and stalls along the streets, greeting us warmly as we passed.  There was obviously great wealth in this community, but it was understated.  The town had streets of carefully laid native stone, laid out in elaborate geometric patterns.  No homes appeared to be in disrepair:  every one, each with a somewhat different design, had an open gateway leading into a garden courtyard.  In the center of the town was a circle with a garden in the middle – carefully tended, with many herbs and flowers growing in it, and a fountain cascading water that flowed under the street through a culvert, and then down a stone watercourse on the other side of the street, through a park that flanked it.  There were no cars, just horse-drawn carts of a clever design I had never seen before. 

         “Where are we?” I asked.

         “Heaven,” he said, matter of factly. 

         A jolt of both fear and joyful thrill tingled up my spine.  And also great shock.  It was all so – well, real.  It was like a real place on earth, only much nicer than anywhere I’d ever been.  More beautiful, more peaceful, more creatively inspired, and, well, more civilized by far.  And yet still so real – I could smell sweat on the people I passed, I saw red dust on their shoes, I heard dogs barking and chickens clucking as they roamed loose on the streets.

         “This is heaven?”  I wasn’t really asking the question – I believed Gabriel.  The place really was heavenly, though in a way I never would have predicted.  He gently touched my shoulder.

         “Here’s proof, Joseph!” he said with a laugh.  “Look – here is the bakery where I got the manna!”  I smelled that wonderful aroma coming out of the shop a few doors down the stone sidewalk.  “Let’s go in – I’d like you to meet the baker.”

         We went inside.  It looked like a normal bakery, except it was a particularly welcoming place, with people happily sharing bread and wine at heavy long wooden tables, with racks of fresh warm bread and, yes, a lot of manna, formed into square cakes and wrapped in thin paper.  The woman at the counter greeted Gabriel with a hearty hello, and Gabriel introduced me to her.  “Joseph, this is the one who made your manna that you enjoyed so much today.”  She greeted me with a toothy smile.  She was a big woman, about 50 years old, it seemed, with a beautiful, warm, peaceful face and curly grey hair.  I thanked her for cooking such a wonderful delicacy, and she happily accepted the compliment.  “I am so glad to meet you,” she said, “I really hope you’ll come back sometime!”  I felt so welcomed, so accepted by her – love radiated from her like the aroma of bread fresh from the oven.  I told her I certainly would be back for more of that manna – it really was divine, I told her.  Back outside, I asked Gabriel:  “What was her name?”

         “God,” he replied. 

         I turned around, stunned.  That was God?  A baker in a little shop in a small town centrally located in the middle of nowhere?  The bakery was an extremely charming and hospitable place, with particularly wonderful baked goods on display, but – it was just a bakery, and not that big of a place, and there was no effulgence surrounding it except a nice aroma—of manna --  oh yes, the manna…..

         We kept walking until we got to a little park in front of an open stone gate wreathed in vines.  Beyond it was a staircase leading down into a narrow canyon.  “This is where we say goodbye, Joseph,” said Gabriel.  “Sit with me here for a moment.”

         “You must return home now,” said Gabriel.  “But first let me ask you this.  Is there anything about Heaven that you think could not happen everywhere else on Earth?  Do you think that what you just saw is impossible to create back where you came from?”  He fixed his eyes on mine, and waited for my thousand thoughts to congeal into an answer.

         “All of it seems – so real!  – all of it seems possible to create back home.  This place could be anywhere -- it is earthy, earthly, and yet - it is heavenly!"

         Gabriel put his hand on my shoulder again.  “Joseph, I've got good news for you.  Heaven is already on earth.  It is hidden now, but it is coming into being.  And it isn't just happening up here, on top of this distant mesa.  It is happening wherever two or three people gather in unconditional love.  That's how it happened here -- because a few people here truly loved each other, their love spilled over to others, who then truly loved each other, as well, and thus they were able to create this lovely community, with all its homely beauty and peace.  The people here love each other with the same kind of love that you share with your fiancee, Mary." 

         And then it all came flooding back to me.  Where I was from, what had been happening in my life before I found myself wandering in the desert.  I had fallen in love with Mary, and we were so happy together, and we had decided to marry -- and then I found out that she was pregnant by someone else.  In my country, in my town, that was a terrible thing-- I would be expected to be angry, I would be expected to punish her at least by humiliating her in front of everyone else for cheating on me.  But even though she did what she did -- I still love her.  I just couldn't humiliate her, or hurt her in any way.  My love for her is... well, it is unconditional.  No, I can't marry her now, but yes, I still love her... even though it breaks my heart.  I explained it all to Gabriel, and he listened quietly and carefully.  "If this is what you mean by unconditional love," I said, "if this is what brings heaven to earth.... I don't know.  It is so painful!" I cried.

         Gabriel nodded.  "Your love for Mary was - and still is - a beautiful thing.  Worth all the pain.  God knows it -- because God IS unconditional love.  God has sent me to you, to tell you of the significance of your love for Mary.  That child that Mary is carrying -- he needs a father.  This child needs you.  Without you, this child cannot become the person he is meant to become.  Without you, he will not know unconditional love, a love that is infinitely stronger even than the bonds of blood relation.  You need to get married to Mary, so that you can shower unconditional love on this child, as you still shower it on Mary.  Raise this child as if he was your own, as much as any father raises his own child.  Because, remember, all children are children of God -- your son, even if he was of your flesh, is not your possession, but God's.  Love him not just because he is the son of your beloved Mary, love him because is a son of God.  And out of your love for each other -- you, Mary, and this child -- heaven will grow on earth.  Because of your love, this child will be called Jesus-- savior; Emmanuel -- God with us.  Because you act as his father, even though he is not of your flesh and blood, he will learn how to become the greatest teacher of love that your world has ever known."

         "Love has brought you this far, Joseph," Gabriel continued, "and now it is up to you to take the next step, to follow unconditional love where it leads you next.  I know how hard this will be for you -- how much it goes against all the rules of your polite society, and how hurt your heart must be at what seems like Mary's betrayal of your love and trust.  But you know that there is a higher law, a higher calling.  Mary wants you, this child needs you, and the love that is God stirs within you to take this next step.  Go back home, Joseph, and follow the law of love!  You go with my blessing, and with all the blessings of Heaven."

         Out of his backpack he pulled another cake of manna.  "Take this with you -- give it to Mary!  She'll need it, and so will that baby she is carrying," said Gabriel.  He hugged me, looked me in the eyes, and said, "I love you, Joseph!"  Tearfully I thanked him, turned, and walked through the gate and down the stone stairs, headed home.       

          

 

 

The Meaning of Membership

 

Once was a day when there was an expectation in the wider society that proper folks would make the commitment of membership in their chosen houses of worship.  And it was presumed by members that once a new person got involved a congregation, surely they’d take the next steps to make it “official”. 
 
Religious affiliation has gone down precipitously in America.  Church, temple, or mosque membership is hardly a social norm any more.  But congregations are still in the habit of expecting that new folks will become official members. 
 
Membership needs a re-think... and a re-feel.
 
A person can belong fully to a congregation without ever becoming an official member.  Whether members or not, all are invited to enjoy and participate and serve and financially and practically support the community. 

Membership, by contrast, should be a calling.  A special vocation of service.
 
It would make little sense to expect or even hope that everyone should go to college and seminary for seven years and then go through an arduous ordination process.  That’s a choice of a distinct kind of professional vocation.
 
Likewise, membership should be welcomed but not expected of everyone who belongs to a faith community.  Membership is a sacred and noble decision to share responsibility for the mission of a congregation, and to serve the wider world on its behalf. 
 
Congregational members take on the joyous and serious responsibility of caring for the community and those who belong to it, working for its spiritual and practical sustenance and growth.  Today, more than ever, membership is a high calling – because it is counter-cultural to make this kind of commitment in a society so atomized and disconnected. 
 
If you are a member of a congregation, know that your service is honored and appreciated.  Know that your calling to extend radical compassion into the community and the world is esteemed. 
 
If you are considering membership, ponder its significance and responsibilities with opened inner eyes.  Search your heart to see if this vocation is right for you.
 
If you belong but aren’t a member, may you be in solidarity with the members who serve your congregation, by offering your participation and financial support.

It's the time of year for giving to the causes and communities that matter to us - not just financially, but through time and effort and spiritual engagement.  A time to be clear about what it means to belong, and what it means to be a member....

Stair Into the Air

 

Stair Into the Air

 

Ambition piled in rotting heaps

The ego ate its fill

The future was so magnetized

The past could not sit still

The limousines of vanity

And truckloads of desire

Careened into the gulch of greed

And crashed and caught on fire

 

Flames glow against the hypnotists

Who led us to believe

That money’s more than an illusion

Wishful thinking will conceive

Addictive tricksters conflagrate

Behind our shining screens

They’ll keep us hooked until we look

Inside their twisted schemes

 

Give me a place in inner space

Where fate’s a mystery

And there’s no plot for every thought

That’s freed from destiny

I’ll roll my soul out of this hole

Awash in pointless tears

I’ll climb that stair into the air

Above this vale of smears

Votivator: How I'm Voting 11/8/22

Votivator – November 8, 2022

Dear friends:

We must be partisan for the Democrats, for a nonpartisan reason: saving democracy.  Every other issue pales in comparison.  None of the great questions of our time can be addressed meaningfully if democracy is destroyed by the believers, repeaters, and condoners of the Big Lie.

Our country needs at least two political parties, to inject healthy competition into our system of governance.  But one of them has gone completely off the rails.  So the Republican Party must be humiliated with massive defeat at the polls – and not just by a simple majority, unfortunately - if there is to be any hope of it reforming itself. 

So I’m voting a straight Democratic ticket.

I sent money to the campaign of Christy Smith for Congress in the CA 27^th (used to be 25^th) district (Antelope Valley – Santa Clarita – Simi Valley).  https://secure.actblue.com/donate/2021_website_christy  Last time she lost by only a few hundred votes to Mike Garcia, a Big Liar who voted against certifying the last presidential election. 

Here are my picks for Nov 8:

State Initiatives:

1:  Yes – to codifying abortion rights in the CA constitution.

26:  No – to an unfair gambling scheme

27:  No – to making online gambling more ubiquitous

28:  Yes – to more funding for arts in public schools

29:  Yes - changed my mind on this one.  Michael Hiltzik's article in the LA Times was persuasive:  https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-10-27/column-dialysis-firms-spend-millions-to-defeat-prop-29-tighter-regulations  - if the dialysis for-profits can afford millions for their "no" campaign on this initiative, they can afford to give higher-quality care---

30:  No – I’m with Gavin Newsom and the LA Times on this one.  It is well-intentioned re: expanding electric vehicle charging stations and funding wildfire prevention… but the devil, as always, is in the details…  the governor sees it as over-reach…

31:  Yes – to banning flavored tobacco products

Governor:  Gavin Newsom

Lt Governor:  Elena Kounalakis

Secretary of State:  Shirley Weber

Controller:  Malia Cohen.   She has a good track record as a SF County/City Supervisor and Board of Equalization member.  Her opponent, Lanhee Chen, is also very qualified and a reasonable candidate – but I cannot vote for any Republican for any public office today, given the nightmare that this party is now inflicting on our country. 

Attorney General:  Rob Bonta

Insurance Commissioner:  Ricardo Lara

Board of Equalization Dist 2:  Sally Lieber

State Superintendent of Schools:  Tony Thurmond

US Senate (vote twice for current and next term):  Alex Padilla

US Congress, 24^th District (Ventura, etc):  Salud Carbajal

State Assembly, Dist 38:  Steve Bennett

 

Judicial, State:

State Supreme Court, State Court of Appeal:  “Yes” on all candidates.  These are the rec’s from the LA Times, which I always take seriously.

 

Los Angeles:

I’m no longer following much in LA, but I do feel very strongly about electing Karen Bass as mayor and Robert Luna as County Sheriff.  I’ve been very impressed with Karen Bass for many years, since she was the Speaker of the State Assembly.  I had her speak every year to my Public Policy course I taught at the USC Social Work grad school, and was always so amazed by her candor and competence.  Caruso makes a big deal about turning USC around after its scandals, but he was on the USC Board of Trustees, asleep at the wheel, while the scandals were happening.  Think of the actual good he could have funded instead of blowing $100 million on his vanity campaign for mayor!  Luna should replace the scandal-ridden, gangster-ish current sheriff, Villanueva. 

My friend and fell0w member of Mt Hollywood UCC Church in LA, Graciela Martinez, is a very community-active public defender.  Here are her picks for the LA judicial offices:  Office No. 60 Anna Slotky Reitano - Office No. 67 Elizabeth Lashley Haines - Office No. 70 Holly Hancock - Office No. 151 Patrick Hare - Office 90: Melissa Lyons – Office No. 118: Melissa Hammond

 

Ventura County:

Ventura Board of Education: Rachel Ulrich, incumbent

 

Ojai:

School Board:  Jim Halverson.  A community-active doctor – endorsed by Ventura Democratic Party

Ojai Mayor:  Betsy Stix.  Her opponent is Anson Williams from “Happy Days” – a vanity candidate.   As far as I can tell from my research, Betsy's been doing a fine job. 

Ojai Treasurer:  Steve Olsen, incumbent, unopposed.

Ojai Measure L:  Yes - return to having the mayor chosen by rotation among City Council members – we have a weak mayor system anyway, so electing a mayor is just electing another Council member. 

Ojai Measure M:  Yes – gives the City the option of having ranked-choice voting for City Council elections.  This may well enable us to give up our current districts for City Council, imposed on CA cities by the courts.  In a town this small and this un-segregated culturally/racially, districting is counter-productive to the court ruling’s intent of ensuring minority representation on city councils.   Ranked-choice voting can enable us to have an at-large Council with more likelihood of minorities being elected.

 

To You

(with homage to Rumi, the Sufi poet)

You, the pollen on the bee's leg
That made my flower a pomegranate,
You, the haze of yeast on the grapes
That made the wine
That inebriated Shams of Tabriz,
You, who made the clay birds fly,
You, who cleansed the soul of "I".

You, the reason that shattered my logic,
You, the object of my subjectivity,
You, who broke and poured me
At the climax of your mass,
You, the incense that burns me,
You, Magdalene to my Jesus.

You, the laugh that lasted
After I studied you to death,
You, the stone in the desert
That Jacob used as his pillow,
You, the ladder that he saw
Reaching up to you,
You, the dream I forgot in the morning.

You, the lives taken
In your vainly-taken names,
You, the tent of black felt,
Shared by Sarah and Hagar,
You, the DNA
Shared by Isaac and Ishmael,
You, the gay lover
The fundamentalist preacher hid from his church.

You, the road that Rumi took
In search of Shams,
You, the time it takes
To remember you again,
You, the ink I used
To write about you,
You, the space between the words
Of this poem.

What's Not in the Bible

 

As election campaign season nears, it's good for progressives to be aware of some basics when it comes to the use of religious/spiritual rhetoric.

A lot of conservative candidates use phrases that they either assume are from the Bible, or know they're not but use them anyway. Here's a list -- call 'em out when you hear these:

 

What's Not in the Bible

“When God closes one door, He always opens another.” 

“A person’s got to lift himself up by his own bootstraps.”

“If you give a man a fish, he’ll be hungry tomorrow, but if you teach him to fish, he’ll never be hungry again.”

“God doesn’t give us anything we can’t handle.”

“God helps those who help themselves.”

“Hate the sin, love the sinner.”

“Everything happens for a reason.”

“Charity begins at home.”

“God works in mysterious ways.”

The list of the “Seven Deadly Sins” is not to be found in the Bible.

Jesus said nothing at all about abortion or homosexuality.

There is nothing in either the Hebrew or Christian scriptures that supports the idea of unregulated free-market capitalism: in fact, charging interest is forbidden according to the Hebrew Bible.

 

What IS in the Bible - pertaining to social justice:

These passages are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, which we recommend.  The NRSV is an academic translation into English of the most historically verifiable ancient texts.  Many Christians, particularly evangelicals, quote from English versions that really should be classified as interpretations rather than translations.  These include the Good News, Philips, New International Version, New Living Translation, and the New King James Version.  Some of these Bible interpretations are colored with theological and social or political perspectives that are not true to the original texts.  Many of these Bibles include footnotes or inserted boxes with biased commentary that presumes to be definitive on the meaning of the text.

It is most inspiring and effective to cite Bible passages that offer a positive vision of the society we want to build, rather than passages that condemn or decry injustice.  Faith rhetoric is at its best when it describes the “beloved community” that we want to create in our country and in our world.

Isaiah 1: 17: “...learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.”

Jeremiah 29:7:  “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on is behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”

Amos 5:24: “…let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”

 Micah 6:8: “ …what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

Matthew 5: 14-16: “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

Matthew 5: 43-47: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?”

Luke 4: 16-30: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Romans 8: 24-25: “Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”

I Corinthians 12:4-7, 14-26: “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good... For the body does not consist of one member but of many… But God has so composed the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior part, that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.”

James 2: 14-17:  “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?  So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”

I John 4:16-21:   “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgement, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say, ‘I love God’, and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.”

Revelation 21:22-26:  “And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light shall the nations walk; and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it, and its gates shall never be shut by day—and there shall be no night there; they shall bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.”

Other passages:

Prophetic Justice: Isaiah 2:2-4, 11:1-3a, 6-9; 40:1-11; ch's 27-31; 61:1-2; 65

Jesus: Beatitudes: Matthew 5:3-10

Jesus: The Good Samaritan:  Luke 10: 25-37

Mary:  Magnificat: Luke 1:46-55

Jesus: Golden Rule: Luke 6:27-31

Jesus: Law of Love: Luke 10:27

Jesus: Love One Another: John 13:34-35

Paul: Hold Fast to the Good: Romans 12:9-12

Paul: The Love Chapter: 1 Corinthians 13

Paul: Be Kind: Ephesians 4:25-32

Paul: Put on Compassion: Colossians 3:12-17

James: Doers of the Word: James 1:19-25

 

Faith Rhetoric for Progressive Campaigning

 

Despite the remarkable religious and spiritual diversity of America, and the concurrent decline in religious affiliation and participation, the people of the US are still deeply attuned to rhetoric that springs from the Jewish and Christian traditions. Creatively employ Judeo-Christian imagery and brief references to Bible stories, poetry, proverbs, and parables that express cross-cultural values of compassion for the vulnerable, fair-play, respect for differences, social justice, and social inclusion (see appendix). You do not need to indicate the source of the phrase or quotation. In many cases, leaving out the source is best, to avoid alienating non-religious people: religious people will recognize the quote from scripture. Avoid making reference to passages that focus on doctrine, dogma, or details of belief.

• Use religious and spiritual rhetoric in a positive and emotionally authentic way. “Angry appeals… do little to win the hearts of voters, and in fact, there is little difference in how religious committed and uncommitted voters responded to angry religious messages… Interestingly, candidates who conveyed anger through religious rhetoric actually tended to be evaluated less favorably by the electorate as a whole as a campaign progressed.” (Religious Rhetoric and American Politics, Christopher Chapp, 2012, P 100.) Use religious rhetoric to inspire people to build a better America, to express a vision of the good society. Avoid using it to condemn personal or social sins.

• Liberally use spiritual adjectives, while being conservative about the use of religious nouns. “We gather with divine gratitude” is an alternative to “We thank God”. This evokes spiritual values in a way that feels gentler to the many Americans who are “burned-out” on organized religion.

• Occasionally employ imagery and short references to scriptures and traditions of other faiths, again focusing on passages that reflect universal values. Again, in many cases it may be best not to tell the source of the quotation. (See Appendix under “Scriptural References”.)

• Occasionally use “code” terms that speak positively to particular religious communities without insulting or denigrating any other traditions. Examples of evangelical Christian “code”: “have a heart for—hedge of protection —blessed and favored—name and claim—iron sharpens iron—wonder-working power”.  Code terms inspire specific audiences without catching much attention from people outside those groups.  Here's a LIST.

• Have simple answers when people ask you about your faith. Be honest about it, of course, but in the context of public life, avoid references to dogma and doctrine that might have the effect of alienating people needlessly. Some examples: “Do you believe in the Bible?” Answer: “I believe every word is worth reading.” “Do you believe every word of the Bible is true? Do you believe the Bible is without error?” Answer: “I believe that God, who inspired it, is without error.” “Do you believe in God?” Answer: “The Bible says God is love, and I try to put love into practice.” “Do you take Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior?” Answer: “Jesus asks me to follow his way of love and justice. I believe in that way, and I am committed to following it!”

• Know enough about the Bible to know what’s not in it.  Here's a LIST.  For example: Jesus said nothing at all about abortion or homosexuality. “Give a man a fish and he’ll be hungry tomorrow, teach a man to fish and he’ll never be hungry again” is not in the Bible. There is nothing in either the Hebrew or Christian scriptures that supports the idea of unregulated free-market capitalism: in fact, charging interest is forbidden according to the Hebrew Bible.

Evangelical Christian Code Terms for Progressive Campaigns

 

"Code" terms and phrases inspire certain audiences while remaining “off the radar” for others. Theologically progressive Christians, and many other religious people, primarily situate themselves in the “mainstream” culture. They use jargon specific to their faiths, but mostly only in the context of their faith communities. However, evangelical and fundamentalist Christians often use “code” language publicly to mark their identity as a distinct subculture in contrast and often in contradiction with the “mainstream” culture. Using this code language in public rhetoric can be powerful in making an emotional connection with people who are part of this subculture, while signifying little for those who aren’t.

 

Evangelical/Fundamentalist Christian “Code Terms”

God laid it on my heart

I have a heart for (“I have a heart for the special needs of the elderly”)

Let’s invoke a hedge of protection

I have discerned

I have a word of the Lord for you on that (an interpretation of scripture, or an opinion that feels like it came from God)

Let’s love up on people (“We need to love up on our school teachers”)

Let’s get prayed up (common in African American churches)

Let’s press into God (“Let’s press into God in prayer for….”)

Afterglow (after a spiritual moment)

Bathe it in prayer (“Let us bathe this decision in prayer”)

Missional (“My missional imagination is activated for making health care available to all Americans”)

Walk the aisle, pray the prayer

Blessed and favored

Name it and claim it (popular in “prosperity gospel” churches)

Christ-follower (rather than Christian – a current popular conception among evangelicals is that Christianity is not a religion – emphasizing that it is a way of life)

Set me on fire (for a cause, for a mission)

Put on the armor of God

Iron sharpens iron

Freedom in Christ

Wonder-working power (of the blood of Christ – from an old hymn)

 

Mormon (Latter Day Saints) Code Terms

A type and a shadow (something foretold or suggested from scripture or other tradition)

Nourish and strengthen (used in prayers and blessings)

Long and suffering  (enduring something)  --  Sustain --  Endure to the end

Heavenly Father (for God)

Good for our bodies -- Wholesome

Wherefore --  It came to pass

In the fullness of time

The more we give the more we will receive

Calling from God

Tender mercies

Bear testimony (telling one’s story)

Lengthen your stride  (do more to help)

Magnify your calling (take on a task)

Provident  (beneficial)

Unrighteous dominion  (abuse of power)

Softened heart (open to accepting or doing something)

Ritual Resources for Campus Religious and Spiritual Life

--- and for many other settings, as well!

 

 

Resources for Campus Religious and Spiritual Life

For ceremonial occasions

and for religious/spiritual life programming

By Rev. Jim Burklo

Executive Director, Progressive Christians Uniting - ZOE: Progressive Christian Life on Campus national network

Senior Associate Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life,

University of Southern California (retiring 9/22)

 

As I go into “entirement”, I joyfully pass along these resources to my colleagues at the University of Southern California and in the wider community of religious and spiritual life professionals at colleges and universities.  I would be delighted for you to use and adapt these resources freely, asking only that you give attribution when you use them in print/online form.  I have written everything in this collection unless otherwise indicated.

Most of these resources are “interspiritual” or otherwise usable in secular or interfaith contexts.  Feel free to “translate” into secular language any of my resources that are specific to my tradition of progressive Christianity.

My books:

Tenderly Calling: An Invitation to the Way of Jesus

Mindful Christianity

Souljourn (interfaith novel)

Deeper Love: Faithful Rhetoric for Progressive Change

Hitch-Hiking to Alaska: The Way of Soulful Service

Birdlike and Barnless: Meditations, Prayers, and Songs for Progressive Christians

Open Christianity: Home by Another Road

My website:  Souljourning.org

My weekly blog:  MUSINGS  -- email me to get on the list:  [email protected]edu

My online resources 

Words for Special Events

 

Openings/Invocations:

Feast and Fast

Let us feast on simple pleasures, and fast from all that gets our bodies and souls out of balance. 

Let us feast on kindness, and fast from sarcasm. 

Let us feast on compassion, and fast from holding grudges. 

Let us feast on patience, and fast from anxiety. 

Let us feast on peace, and fast from stirring up needless conflict. 

Let us feast on acceptance, and fast from judgment. 

Let us feast on joy, and fast from jealousy. 

Let us feast on faith, and fast from fear. 

Let us feast on creativity, and fast from all that deadens our souls. 

Let us feast on social justice, and let us fast from negligence of the most vulnerable. 

Let us feast on service to others, and fast from selfishness. 

Let us feast on delight, and fast from despair. 

So that our lives might be sufficient, fulfilled, complete, whole, enough. 

Amen!

Call to Celebration

Hungry for meaning?

Welcome home.

Thirsty for purpose?

Welcome home.

Yearning for comfort?

Welcome home.

Burning for challenge?

Welcome home.

Ready for learning?

Welcome home.

Eager for serving?

Welcome home.

And welcome to (event/community/group)…..

Opening Prayer for Staff Awards Ceremony

Dear One, cosmic essence of kindness, Source of the urge to serve, we celebrate the ways your divine love is manifested in work that goes above and beyond the call of duty by the staff of our Trojan family.  We pay prayerful attention to your transcendent Spirit that motivates us to make USC an ever-better university and an ever-more closely-knit community.  We take time today to celebrate those who have served the University in especially notable ways.  But we also take this time to open our hearts and minds and celebrate the countless beautiful acts of creativity, service, and kindness shown by USC staff members every day.  Through reflective contemplation, through the discipline of humility, may we fight on to conquer self-centeredness.  Through selfless cooperation, let us become so much more together than we could ever become separately.  Amen!

 

Graduation Invocation

Let us prayerfully prepare ourselves for this time of celebration, when we delight in accomplishments earned, revel in relationships forged, and honor discoveries made.  As parents mark their children’s height with pencil lines ascending on the wall, your graduation marks a new, very high level of learning.

But unlike your physical height, your potential for intellectual, spiritual, and moral growth never ends.

You are not graduating from.  You are graduating into.  Today you carry with you the precious learning and the priceless relationships you gained at USC, and graduate into life-long growth in compassion, curiosity, and commitment to your profession.  

Let us honor what is sacred in this long-awaited moment, with gratitude for family and friends who have sustained you, body and soul, through your years and labors at USC.  With humility before the cosmic Sustainer - source, center, and aim of our lives - let us mark this happy moment on our hearts forever.  Amen!

Alumni Event – Invocation

 

Dear God of all, in us all, let us be here - all the way here, as you are here.  Let us be spiritually present as we are physically present for this joyful occasion.  Let us all breathe – and pay attention – and prayerfully honor the relationships, the memories, the community, the accomplishments, the web of life-affirming connections that this gathering of alumni represents.  Let us invoke divine gratitude for the University of Southern California for bringing us together, for forming our hearts and minds then and sustaining our relationships with each other now.  For the whole Trojan family – students, staff, faculty, colleagues – let us give thanks.  Let us invoke an uninhibited spirit of holy hallelujia as this gathering begins – Amen!

Invocation for Social Work School Graduation

Dear Source and Center of life, we take deep breaths as we turn to you in prayerful awareness of Love.  It’s time to celebrate good and hard work, great academic and professional growth and achievement, good social work.  It’s time to breathe big sighs of relief and yell hard and happy for making it through all those classes and all those papers!  It’s time to party hearty – yes, with the heart – time to cut loose and enjoy with gusto all the ways that we have changed in the past two years – and go wooo-hoo about the fact that we are not the same people we were two years ago – we are more sensitive, more aware, stronger, more fully alive, more fully who we are meant to be.  Let’s party soulfully, looking each other in the eyes and celebrating not only the end of school but celebrate becoming more fully who we are meant to be, with holy gratitude to all who’ve helped us through and made it possible.  Amen, and time for pachanga!

 

 

Medical School Graduation - Invocation:

Let us be not only physically present, but spiritually present, fully awake to this wonderful moment, as we join in prayerful meditation.  Dear One, source and purpose of life, mother of our urge to learn and grow, father of our desire to heal and serve, we gather with humble and grateful hearts to reflect on the long, hard road these graduates have walked to reach this time and place, and we gather to enjoy the fruits of all that time, effort, study, and care.  May we appreciate not only the happiness of this occasion, but also its sacredness.  May our delight in accomplishments earned be intensified by our awareness of the precious trust that comes along with these degrees.  May our awareness of your divine presence heighten the heartiness of our celebration today.  Amen!

Medical School Graduation - Invocation:

Let us breathe – and pay attention – and be as spiritually present as we are physically present for this sacred and joyful occasion.  Let us prayerfully honor the effort, time, thought, and sleep deprivation that it has taken for these graduates to make it to this moment.  Let us invoke divine gratitude for the web of relationships that engaged and sustained our graduates – family, friends, staff, faculty, patients, fellow students, colleagues.  Let us invoke a spirit of holy joy as this ceremony begins – Amen!

 

 

Closings/Benedictions:

Peace Benediction

May peace surround you

Like the trees of the forest

May peace warm you all over

Like the sun in the sky

May peace swell and roll over you

Like a wave in the sea

May peace fill you

Like the cool wind

May peace be with you, till we meet again.

 

Medical School Graduation - Benediction:

Let us savor a silent moment together as this ceremony ends.  Let us prayerfully and thankfully direct our souls toward our graduates, feeling the satisfaction and fulfillment of their achievement with them.  O Source and Center of life, may all our graduates resolve now to hold their degrees as a sacred trust employed to fight on for the greater health and well-being of each human life they touch, directly or indirectly.  And may all our hearts overflow with a spirit of holy hallelujia!  Let’s go and celebrate!  Amen!

 

 

Memorials/Celebrations of Life

 

Memorials for students or staff who have died can be occasions for profound emotional and spiritual healing.  (In cases of suicide, care must be taken to avoid contributing to contagion – there have been studies that suggest that memorials for students who die of suicide can contribute to “chains” of suicides as vulnerable students are triggered by such services.)

These services need not be elaborate productions.  The officiant’s role is to make a space for all forms of grieving: sadness, humor, numbness, regret, celebration.  Grief is love, in all its seemingly contradictory manifestations.

A typical order:

• Ringing of meditation bowl/bell
• Opening words by officiant
• Meditative/reflective readings (optional)
• Pre-arranged short talks by people close to the person who died
• Time for others to speak briefly
• Closing words by officiant – ringing of bowl/bell
• Show slide show, musical offering, etc. (This can be done as a presentation or as background while people are mingling after the service)

 

Memorial for a Professor

 

Invocation:

We’re here to form a circle around our memories of the life of Michael.  We circle around his family and friends and colleagues, offering loving support.  We gather to share how his life affected us, how his death touches us, how our emotions rise and fall in the waves of grief that sweep over us: with sudden, unbidden tears sometimes, with an empty feeling sometimes, sometimes with laughter.  We’re here to form a circle of gratitude for a life well-lived, for a career fulfilled, for family and friends well-loved.  Gratitude that we’ve known him and loved him so well for so many years.  Sadness, wishing we had more time with him, so much more time.  In words, and also in the silences between words, we bring the fullness of our hearts into this circle to remember and honor Michael, and to honor all our experiences of grief at his death.

Grief is full of experiences that might logically seem contradictory.  Laughter, deep sadness, blank numbness, anger, frustration, humor, tears.  On the surface of things, it might seem like grief and celebration don’t go together.  But here, they most certainly do.  We celebrate Michael with gusto because we loved him with the same love that flows out of us now in our grief at his passing.  We can only grieve because we love.  We can only celebrate because we love.  Grief is love.  So in this spirit let’s let it all out, all the jumbled emotions that we are experiencing because we loved Michael so much and for so long.  Let the celebration begin….

Benediction:

This circle may disperse for now, as we close this time of remembrance – but our circle of love for Michael will remain unbroken.  We will remain awestruck that such a person came into our lives, shared with us his grace and gifts.  There will never be another like Michael.  He leaves a hole in our world that nothing and nobody can fill.  As we part from this place, may we wake up to the wonders of each person around us.  Every single person here is irreplaceable, unique, full of marvels for us to notice vividly and enjoy more fully.  Michael’s life and death wake us up to celebrate the supreme, sublime sacredness of each human life we encounter.  For who you were and still are to us, for the love you inspire in us today, thank you, Michael! 

 

Memorial for a Student

Opening words: 

We gather to grieve Whitney’s death.  We gather to honor and remember her.  We gather to support each other in our grieving and cherish the memory of her presence among us at USC. 

We open ourselves to our grief, which rolls in waves through our bodies and souls.  We open ourselves to all that goes with this grief that is so full of contradictions –the pain, the sadness and the anger and frustration of losing her.  But grief also includes the laughter that arises in our happy memories of Whitney, and grief also includes the sense of numb emptiness.  We open ourselves to our grief in all its forms, by letting it be, giving it room and time in our lives to run its course.  It arises in intense moments but it remains deep within us even when the intensity passes.  

Let us reflect on the reality that grief, in all its seemingly contradictory forms, is an experience and an expression of love.  Whitney has died, but our love for her is very much alive.  Her love for us echoes powerfully within us.  Love transcends death, and our grief is proof. 

And now let us share our reflections and our memories of Whitney ---

Closing words:

Let us end our time together by keeping silence, breathing mindfully, sensing and honoring the sacredness of Whitney’s life, and of our own.  As she was absolutely unique, so each person here is irreplaceable and supremely valuable. 

Let us leave this place with deep, deep gratitude that we knew and loved Whitney as we did, and leave this place with a keen awareness of our love and appreciation for each other.

May the grief that is love bring us closer together than ever in support of each other, as Whitney would have us do…. So be it.

Memorial for a student who committed suicide

 

We gather on the occasion of the death of ____, beloved member of the Trojan family.  And though it is a very sad time for us all, it is still right to call this moment a celebration.  A celebration is an event when we are more awake to life than usual.  A moment when we break out of our routines and for at least a little while stop taking life for granted.   We’re here to form a circle around the sacred memory of her life.  Here to circle around her family and friends and colleagues, offering loving support.  Here to form a circle around each other – a safe circle where we can tell the truth.  The truth about how her life affected us, how her death, and the nature of her passing, touches us, how our emotions rise and fall in the waves of grief that sweep over us: with sudden, unbidden tears sometimes, with an empty feeling sometimes, sometimes with laughter.  We’re here to form a circle around things undone and unsaid and unknown.  A circle of compassion for a fellow human being who accomplished so much for the common good in such a short time, while trying hard to care for herself, too.  We’re left wishing we had known her a lot better.  Wishing we had more time with her, so much more time. 

But we are here to celebrate, and now that means to be fully awake to life itself.  Hers and ours.  To celebrate is to be awestruck that such a person came into our lives, shared with us her grace and gifts.  It is to be fully aware that there will never be another _____. She leaves a hole in our world that nothing and nobody can fill.  To celebrate now is to be amazed at her singular combination of talents and qualities, a combination that shall never exist in this world again. We’re here to be awestruck at each other, and at ourselves.  Every single person here is irreplaceable, unique, full of marvels for us to celebrate – for us to notice vividly.  Now is the time for us to discover and enjoy these marvels in the people around us, as much as we can. ____’s life and death wake us up to celebrate the supreme, sublime value of each human being we encounter.

 

Right now we gather near USC’s libraries, full of stored knowledge about the inner and outer workings of people.  ________’s life and her death remind us that for all we know, there is so much more to know about each other.  There are not enough computer hard drives on the planet to store all the mysteries that one human being carries within herself or himself.   Her life and her death remind us of her commitment to the pursuit of knowledge and understanding about the challenges that people face, including grief itself.  Let this be a time to recommit ourselves to this pursuit as academics.  But let it also be a time to recommit ourselves to the daily acts of kindness and caring, the occasions we can find to listen deeply to each other and reach out to each other as we go through the passages of life, be they narrow or wide, making room for more of each others’ mysteries. 

Vigils

Holding a vigil for victims of a disaster, war, or other major event can offer support for students and staff directly or indirectly affected, as well as being an occasion to show solidarity.  Generally, the focus should be on honoring the impact that the event had on people – not on taking a political stand.

Vigils can take many forms.  It is best to keep them under an hour in length in order to give more time for students and staff to mingle and reflect afterwards. I often urge participants at the end of a vigil to find one or two people they don’t know, and ask them why they came to the event.  This makes the vigil an occasion for deeper connection and community-building. 

I usually use the same order as a memorial service for a vigil.  I urge speakers to be brief and I’m not afraid to step forward to gently urge a speaker to close their remarks if they go on too long.  I always include some form of 100% participation:  writing a name or intention or prayer on a stone and putting it on a pile below an altar, writing on cards with strings on them to hang from a tree, lighting candles by passing the flame among people in the crowd – each lighting a candle for the next person, etc.  The cards and stones can be available on a public altar before and after the vigil, so that students can engage over time.

Opening or Closing Prayer for a Vigil:

Dear One, Source and Center of our being, Goal and Way for our lives, we turn to you in prayer.  In silence we honor your sacred gift of life.  We prayerfully remember the preciousness of every life lost, and every life touched, by the tragedy this past week.  May you, Divine Spirit, guide us through our grief, give us the gifts of courage, of patience, of forbearance.  Through you may we find the way of reconciliation, the way of peace, the strength of nonviolent action to make this world a better reflection of your will and purpose.  May we find you in each other, may we find your presence in people we don’t yet know or understand.  So be it:  Amen, Amin, Nama Ste.

Vigil for the Covid Pandemic, at the Medical School:

The words of the prophet Isaiah:

Look away from me,
    let me weep bitter tears;
do not try to comfort me
    for the destruction of my beloved people.

We gather to rest in grief and in hope, to lament the our lives and the life-time swept away in this pandemic.  We gather to show humble gratitude for the selfless service of medical professionals, first-responders, and essential workers.  After labors long and hard, we gather to rest in our feelings – sitting with them and letting them be what they are, as they are… together.

Resting in the heart of the northern New Mexico mountains, el Santuario de Chimayo sits in silence.  For over 150 years, pilgrims have made their way to this humble church, bringing with them their prayerful hope for healing of body and soul.  In the back of the old adobe church, in a little room with an adobe floor, is a hole full of powdery dirt.  Pilgrims rub it on whatever part of their body ails them.  They scoop it up and take it home to share with their ailing loved ones.  Let us join the pilgrims at Chimayo in making these grains of dust sacred – let them be the dried tears we’ve shed for the suffering of those we’ve served, and for our own suffering.  With this dust let us pour out our hearts in this time of rest and reflection together…..

Fellow pilgrims, seeking healing for our heavy hearts, Let us rest…. (ring meditation bowl)

Let us rest with eyes closed and hearts opened, in silence…. Rest in loving attention… attention to the rhythm of our breath…. attention to the sensations of our bodies…. attention to our emotions…. Attention to our thoughts…. Let us rest in our grief…. Let us rest in gratitude…. Let us rest in hope…  And let us rest in awareness of each person who has participated in this gathering today, seeking and giving solidarity and support.  So it is, so be it, Amen, Amin, Om….

Closing words for vigils/memorials, etc:

The Gift of Grief

I’m grateful for the love I've lost

For love is worth the pain it cost

For giving me this heart to feel

The gift of grief that it reveals

Closing Reflection

Let us rest with eyes closed and hearts opened, in silence…. Rest in loving attention… attention to the rhythm of our breath…. attention to the sensations of our bodies…. attention to our emotions…. Attention to our thoughts…. Let us rest in our grief…. Let us rest in gratitude…. Let us rest in hope…  And let us rest in awareness of each person who has participated in this gathering today, seeking and giving solidarity and support.  So it is, so be it, Amen, Amin, Om…. 

Interfaith readings for memorial services and vigils:

Islamic (Sufi):

The Guest House -  by Rumi

This human being is a guest house.

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

some momentary awareness comes

as an unexpected vision.

Welcome and entertain them all.

Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,

who violently sweep your house

empty of its furniture,

still treat each guest honorably.

He may be cleaning out

for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame.

the malice meet them at the door laughing,

and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,

because each has been sent,

as a guide from beyond.

Native American:

The Wisdom Prayer (author unknown)

O Great Spirit,

Whose voice I hear in the winds;

And whose breath gives life to all the world, hear me!

I am small and weak,

I need your strength and wisdom.

Let me walk in beauty, and make my eyes

ever behold the red and purple sunsets.

Make my hands respect the things you have

made and my ears sharp to hear your voice.

Make me wise so that I may understand the

things you have taught my people.

Let me learn the lessons you have hidden

in every leaf and rock.

I seek strength, not to be greater than my

brother, but to fight my greatest enemy – myself.

Make me always ready to come to you with

clean hands and straight eyes.

So when life fades, as the fading sunset,

my spirit may come to you

without shame. 

Secular/Interfaith:

 

Give Thanks – by Max Coots

Let us give thanks for a bounty of people:

For children who are our second planting;

and though they grow like the weeds

and the wind too soon blows them away,

may they forgive us our cultivation

and fondly remember where their roots are.

Let us give thanks: for generous friends...

with hearts and smiles as bright as their blossoms;

For feisty friends as tart as apples.

For continuous friends, who, like scallions and cucumbers,

keep reminding us we've had them:

For crotchety friends, as sour as rhubarb and as indestructible;

For handsome friends, who are as gorgeous as eggplants and

as elegant as a row of corn:

And the others, as plain as potatoes and as good for you;

For funny friends, who are as silly as brussel sprouts

and as amusing as Jerusalem artichokes;

and serious friends, as complete as cauliflowers

and as intricate as onions;

For friends as unpretenious as cabbages,

as subtle as summer squash, as persistent as parsley,

as delightful as dill, as endless as zucchini, and who,

like parsnips, can be counted on to see you through

the winter;

For old friends, nodding like sunflowers in the evening time,

and young friends coming on as fast as radishes.

For loving friends, who wind around us like tendrils and hold us,

despite our blights, wilts amd witherings;

And finally, for those friends now gone, like gardens

past that have been harvested, and who fed us in their times

that we might have life thereafter.

For all these, we give thanks.

It Is a Fearful Thing to Love – Chaim Stern

 

It is a fearful thing to love

what death can touch.

A fearful thing to love,

hope, dream: to be --

to be, and oh! to lose.

A thing for fools this, and

a holy thing,

a holy thing to love.

For

your life has lived in me,

your laugh once lifted me,

your word was gift to me.

To remember this brings a painful joy.

'Tis a human thing, love,

a holy thing,

to love

what death has touched.

Christian:

The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

 

Lord, make me an instrument of your  peace 

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury,  pardon; 

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair,  hope; 

Where there is darkness, light;

O Divine Master,

Grant that I may  not so much seek to be consoled as to console; 

To be understood as to  understand; 

To be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive. 

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.

It is in dying that we are born to eternal life. 

Taoist

Tao Te Ching,  #12 

 

Colors blind the eye.

Sounds deafen the ear.

Flavors  numb the taste. 

Thoughts weaken the mind.

Desires wither the heart.

The  Master observes the world 

but trusts his inner vision.

He allows things to come and go. 

His heart is open to the sky.

Buddhist:

 

By Thich Nhat Hanh

Do not say that I'll depart tomorrow
because even today I still arrive.

Look deeply: I arrive in every second
to be a bud on a spring branch,
to be a tiny bird, with wings still fragile,
learning to sing in my new nest,
to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,
to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.

I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,
in order to fear and to hope.
The rhythm of my heart is the birth and
death of all that are alive.

Jewish: 

Mourners’ Kaddish

 

Glorified and sanctified be God’s great name throughout the world
which He has created according to His will.

May He establish His kingdom in your lifetime and during your days,
and within the life of the entire House of Israel, speedily and soon;
and say, Amen.

May His great name be blessed forever and to all eternity.

Blessed and praised, glorified and exalted, extolled and honored,
adored and lauded be the name of the Holy One, blessed be He,
beyond all the blessings and hymns, praises and consolations that
are ever spoken in the world; and say, Amen.

May there be abundant peace from heaven, and life, for us
and for all Israel; and say, Amen.

He who creates peace in His celestial heights,
may He create peace for us and for all Israel;
and say, Amen.

We Remember Them – Rabbis Sylvan Kamens and Jack Riemer

In the rising of the sun and its going down,

We Remember Them.
In the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter,

We Remember Them.
In the opening of the buds and in the rebirth of spring.

We Remember Them.
In the blueness of the skies and in the warmth of summer,

We Remember Them.
In the rustling of the leaves and in the beauty of autumn.

We Remember Them.
In the beginning of the year and when it ends,

We Remember Them.
When we are weary and in need of strength,

We Remember Them.
When we are lost and sick of heart,

We Remember Them.
When we have joys and special celebrations we
yearn to share,

We Remember Them.
So long as we live, they too shall live, for they are
part of us.
We Remember Them.

Hindu: 

Gayatri Mantra

God, who gives life, who removes pain and sorrow, who bestows happiness; Creator of the universe, may we receive your light which takes away all pain and wrong-doing, and may you guide our minds aright.

Special Ceremonies

Warrior Circle for Veteran Students:

by Jim Burklo and Army Chaplain Nathan Graeser

(Held outdoors on a large grassy field) 

Today, we honor both the sacredness of the warrior in society as well as the role of society to receive them.

Let us begin by asking those people who have served in the military to form a circle facing out in the center of the room. Civilians, you can form a circle around them. All servicemembers begin in society, connected to the place they serve. Veterans/ servicemember, your sacrifice and dedication has often brought you away from the people who care about you. Servicemembers and veterans- stand and move past the circle of civilians facing out. As you move past each other, notice the difference feelings you have as they move away. As they get farther away. Those in the center, notice the difficulty it is to talk and connect with these warriors. Those in the circle, notice the seriousness these warriors take their posts.

Chief marks each of their heads with two stripes- The first stripe is for the visible sacrifices and wounds of battle.- the physical disabilities, health challenges. The second is for the invisible sacrifices and wounds of battle- The missed birthdays, anniversaries and special moments and the moral and psychological injuries.

But, all deployments come to an end- soldiers, marines, airmen, sailors must return home. There is always an end to military service. These warriors must return home to our communities. Warriors, at this time turn and face the friends and community you have served. Notice the difference, you can now talk to them, embrace them, ask them questions about what they saw and experienced. They have stripes. Warriors, notice how different it is to turn around. You have faced out for so long in service.

Warriors slowly begin to move to the center of the circle. As you move, notice that you are out of the circle. You must re-enter. Those in the circle, notice how you may have to move over to allow them back into the circle. Now Warriors, as you move back into the circle of community, share with them or mark them with one stripe on the forehead as they too now must bear the burden of the invisible wounds.

At this time, the civilian community, turn around to face them to return to your place. Notice that you have returned to the same position as before. Warriors are now back in the circle. Yet, there is a difference. Notice the marks of battle upon each others faces. It is our shared experience now. While some may carry more stripes, all of us now share in the sacrifices and burden of war.

Prayer Reading/Burning:

At USC, I started what has become a precious tradition for our Office of Religious and Spiritual Life: the twice-annual reading and ritual burning of prayers written on slips of paper by students throughout the year, deposited in a box in our Little Chapel of Silence on campus.  In the chapel is an altar with a box and a stack of paper slips and some pens.  Students and staff write their meditations, prayers, and intentions – reflecting all the religions of the world as well as none – and slip them into the slot on the box.  Weekly, I retrieve them.  In fall and spring semesters, we hold a ceremony open to all students/staff in which we take the stack of prayer slips, hand them out to participants in front of a fire pit, and then participants read them aloud and place them in the fire.  The prayer slips are windows into the soul of our University, reflecting the hopes, fears, and aspirations of our community.  Some are sad, some are funny, some are profound.  Participants always come away from the reading/burning ceremony with a sense of having shared a sacred moment together.

 

Blessing of the Smart Phones:

 

As all of us at colleges and universities will agree, smart phones are both a blessing and a bane for our students.  Part of our work in religious and spiritual life is to nurture a culture of conscious use of smart phones on our campuses.  To that end, I came up with this ceremony.  We used it at Convocation last year – with thousands of students holding up their phones on the quad!

With a gathering:  “Lift up your smart phones!”  With an individual:  “Hold out your smart phone!”  (celebrant puts hands around it and around the hand of the owner of the phone)

Blessing:  “Let us take a moment of silence to be mindful of the role this device plays in our lives….. (several seconds)….  Source of needed information, means of communicating personally and professionally, platform for our education, provider of entertainment, and so much more.  We are grateful for this marvel of human ingenuity, for connecting us as one human family around the globe as never before.  And we take time now to be mindful of its power over our lives.  We contemplate which uses are of benefit, and which are obsessions that do not serve us or others well.   In what ways have we become slaves to its beeps and flashes?  Do we have the discipline to turn it off for extended periods in order to have more face-to-face interaction?  Do its social media posts seduce us into unhealthy comparisons of our lives with those of others, and into the commodification of our identities?  Or do we use it to maintain deep relationships, ask sincere questions, and stay close to people we know and trust?  On it, do we seek out reputable news sources, or do we just believe whatever it feeds us?  Do we let it amplify our prejudices, or do we use it as a tool for critical thinking?   Do we passively accept the preferences of the corporations behind this device and its applications, or do we claim control of our digital footprints as engaged citizens?  Prayerfully, let us lift up our intentions to make wise use of our smartphones, and ask daily for inner guidance about when to turn it on and when to turn it off.  Amen!”
 

Blessing the Hands that Vote:

Democracy in America is in crisis.  Part of that crisis is the frightfully low level of voting participation by young people.

Voting is by its nature a ritual.  Emphasizing and enhancing its ritual aspect can be a powerful motivator for people to participate in it.

Around the time of elections, at gatherings of students and staff, ask: "With which hand will you vote in the upcoming election?"  With both of your hands, clasp that hand, close your eyes, and say:  "May the love of God guide your hand to vote for the common good.  Amen!"  Alternative wording for the non-theistic:  "May love guide your hand to vote for the common good."

This simple ceremony gets the recipient of the blessing to make not just a verbal commitment, but a physical one. There is strong evidence from social psychology of the efficacy of this kind of practice.  The ritual also makes voting a matter of the heart.  In the midst of an electoral season of breathtakingly crude behavior and rhetoric, this simple ritual - which can be performed anywhere - redefines voting as an act of love for one's neighbors, near and far.  It casts voting as an act of faith, an expression of the soul and the spirit. 

An added embellishment to this ritual is to anoint the backs of the hands that vote with oil.

Also, encourage people to do their own “blessing of the ballot” ceremony at the polls or after filling out an absentee ballot at home:

Repeat this prayer, silently or aloud, after voting: “I thank God (or “I give thanks”) for all Americans who risked their lives defending my sacred right and duty to vote.” Then imagine saluting the ballot box, or saluting your ballot when you put it in the mail.  As you salute, imagine the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the signing of the Constitution. Imagine the joy of southern slaves upon learning of their emancipation. Imagine the joy of women when they won their long fight for the vote. Imagine civil rights activists registering voters under threat from the KKK.  Imagine Martin Luther King, Jr. saying “I have a dream!” at the march on Washington…..

 

Reflections on Ritual: Rules of Thumb

Rituals have great healing power!

Recent research demonstrates that the “placebo effect” works even when the subjects of the research are told that the medication they are taking is indeed a placebo.  Believing that the pill is real medicine, even when it is not, is not required.  It appears that the “active ingredient” of the placebo effect is going to the doctor, getting attentive care, getting a prescription, and taking the pill.  “This is the specific effect of the ritual of medicine,” says a reseacher, Ted Kaptchuk, at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School in Boston.  

It is fair to extrapolate from his findings that there can be a similar positive effect from many other rituals!

Here are some tricks of my ritual trade: 

1)    Entry and Sacred Space.  In Christopher Alexander’s seminal book on human-centered design, “A Pattern Language”, he offers a recipe for the architecture of ritual entry:  “successive entrances and chambers of increasing privacy and effort to enter.”  This describes the ancient portable Tabernacle of the people of Israel, as well as the later Temple in Jerusalem, which were courts within courts, each for smaller subsets of people, culminating in a Holy of Holies entered only by the High Priest, held by a tether so he could be extracted remotely were he to collapse in holy dread.  Churches and temples and mosques follow this pattern, with narrowing archway entries, large, heavy doors, and layers of access to the altar.   This sense of entry into holy space is heightened by ritual elements such as taking off shoes, putting on scarves, genuflecting, and touching holy water.  These ritual elements can be replicated anywhere.  “Smudging” with burning sage by marking the four directions, and passing the sage stick around those who enter – making temporary archways or successive entry structures – greeting people at the entry with bows or handshakes – all these can be employed to give people the strong sense that they are entering a set-apart place and time.

2)   Time.  After decades of officiating weddings, I’ve learned a “rule of thumb”:  weddings (and many other rituals) should last between 13 and 55 minutes.  Before 13 minutes, the end of a wedding seems abrupt and incomplete.  After 55 minutes, people begin to fidget and check their phones.  Between 13 and 55 minutes, in a good wedding, most people lose all sense of clock time.  They enter eternity – fully experiencing the present moment, absorbed in the ritual.  Each wedding is every wedding.  Each memorial service is every memorial service.  Each vigil is every vigil.  In ritual, past, present, and future merge into the eternal now.  Rituals are ends in themselves.  They deliver us into a place where we need to be – a zone beyond clocks, a location beyond geography.

3)   Repetition.  Adding elements that repeat, usually in a slow or deliberate manner, is a powerful way to enhance a ritual.  This can take the form of repeating musical chants, repeatedly striking bells or gongs, and repeatedly making certain ritual motions.  The processionals and recessionals in weddings are great examples:  a couple walks slowly to the altar, then another, then another, leading up to the procession of the bride (or, in many cases now, the bride and groom, or bride and bride, together).   

4)   100% Participation.  A good ritual is not a performance.  It rather is a co-creation of all who are part of it, including those who might otherwise think of themselves as the “audience”.  This is what makes rituals immersive and incarnational:  all who are there are seized by its spirit and are the means by which its spirit is manifested.  So create simple ways for everyone to be involved in the ritual.  In many of the weddings I officiate, I include a time for people to bless the wedding rings before the couple exchanges them.  We tie a ribbon around the rings and pass them through the crowd:  each person holds the rings and offers a silent blessing.  Some people look the couple in the eyes as they do so, and the effect is intense.  When I receive the rings at the end of this process, they feel hot with spiritual energy.  At the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert every fall, everyone is told that the event is about 100% participation.  Everybody gives and everybody receives and everybody engages in what is going on.  There are no “pew potatoes” in a good ritual. 

5)   Intentional vagueness.  Not everything in a ritual needs to have a clearly-stated meaning.  Indeed, leaving the meaning-making up to the participants can make the ritual more powerful.  Over a decade ago, I had the serendipity of getting to know the late Larry Harvey, the founder of Burning Man.  I invited him to preach in the church I served in Sausalito, and later asked him to come to the University of Southern California, where I interviewed him about ritual and spirituality at Burning Man.  In our public conversations, Larry repeated a question that people still ask him all the time:  “What does the Burning Man mean?”  What is the true significance of the huge structure shaped vaguely like a human, which is ritually burned to the ground at the end of the festival?  His answer:  “Whatever it means to you!”  Larry talked about the annual Temple at Burning Man.  Every year, David Best, a notable artist, gathers a team to create a huge open structure out of junk wood.  Each year’s Temple is unique, and each is given a name.  The Temple of Mind, the Temple of Tears, the Temple of Joy, the Temple of Honor.  That’s all.  No other meaning or purpose is initially ascribed.  Burners go to the Temple and create their own uses and rituals for it and in it.  As the festival progresses, the Temple gains more and more spiritual power and significance.  Then at the end of the festival, it, too, is burned down.  In those chats with Larry, I shared that it is my hope that the philosophy of Burning Man will permeate our churches.  So let us release fixed meanings for our rituals and allow people to relate to them in ways that are powerful for them, on their own terms.   

6)   Words for Rituals.  Some of us are prolific in this regard, but if you’re not, you should feel free to borrow the words of the prolific! That’s what makes a ritual a ritual:  a good ritual is in the public domain.  It’s not something anyone can “own”.  It is archetypal and universal and timeless in nature.  So I’m more charmed than bothered by people “cribbing” from my sermons and musings.  And I think other writers like myself mostly feel the same way.  Check out the brilliant poetic work of Gretta Vosper, an atheist pastor of a Christian church in Canada, and the wonderful words of the 19th century agnostic orator, Robert Ingersoll.  Their work is particularly appropriate for university religious and spiritual life.

7)   The Judicious Use of Dead Air.  Silence is powerful – up to a point.  I often make time for mindful meditation in rituals, but I also inject silence into the ceremony in other ways, pausing between sentences, pausing between elements of the ritual to let people absorb and reflect. 

8)   Integrating Elements.  A ritual needs artistic cohesion.  It is best if it does not appear to be the product of a committee.  The visuals and the sounds and the movements and the words need to fit together in a pleasing, meaningful, and meaning-making way. 

9)   Creating Your Own Ritual Toolkit.  I have a set of ritual supplies in my office, ready for action.  I have a brass “singing bowl” which I strike with a thick wooden stick covered on one end with a piece of bike inner tube.  I often use it to open and close vigils and memorials.  With twine, I tie bundles of sage I collect on my weekly wilderness hikes: Artemisia sage, and black, purple, and white sage.  These bundles, when dried, can be burned as “smudges” for rituals.  I have a baggie of fine black charcoal ash, ready for Ash Wednesday.  I have small bottles of ceremonial water from Lourdes and from the Jordan River, given to me by students after their travels: drops of this water I add with more water in the singing bowl for use in conducting baptisms.  I have small bottles of olive and argan oil for anointing people on the forehead as a sign of prayerful intentions for physical and emotional healing.  I have a jar of dust from the banks of the holy Ganga in India. I keep a big jar of powdery dirt from a dirt-floored room in the back of the Santuario de Chimayo in New Mexico, an old adobe Catholic parish, where pilgrims have come for a few hundred years to use the “polvo” for healing.  I go there annually to collect a supply of the dirt and offer my own prayers.  Whenever my students experience a crisis, or whenever they set forth on some kind of adventure, I either anoint them with the dirt or I give them a small vial of it to carry with them.  (Hmmm -- their parents spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on tuition, and all their kids get is some dirt?)  I’ve always got a big stash of tea-light candles and small glass holders for them, ready for vigils that we hold when tragedies or crises happen on campus or in the world. 

Build your own kit!  And as you do so, you’ll feel more inspiration to use it for the transformation of hearts through creative ritual.

Programmatic Resources

These resources and events are ones I’ve created in a variety of religious and spiritual life settings on campus.  They include spiritual practices, conversation-starters for interfaith groups, and creative group activities.

Contemplatio:  Interfaith Mindfulness-Based Contemplative Prayer

A 12th c French Catholic Christian monk, Guigo II, described the spiritual life as climbing a ladder.  The steps were lectio, meditatio, oratio, and contemplatio – reading, meditation, prayer, and contemplation.  This “ladder” has defined Catholic Christian spiritual discipline ever since.  An ancient practice, employed increasingly today in churches both Catholic and Protestant, is called “Lectio Divina”.  It follows Guigo’s four steps.  

Contemplatio is an adaptation of Lectio Divina for use by people of all faiths or no religious background. 

Lectio/Visio:  Read aloud a short passage from the scripture or wisdom literature of your choice.  Release any interpretation or opinion you may have about this passage as you read it.  This list of the questions of Jesus from the Gospels is a good source of Christian texts for Lectio.  In place of, or in addition to, the reading you can do “Visio Divina” – sacred seeing – gazing at an icon, image, or object, while releasing assumptions or judgments about it.

Meditatio:  Close your eyes and let the passage or object “sink in” for two minutes.  Sit with it.  Hold it lightly – don’t force any attempt to interpret it.  Attend to it without judgment or preconception and with an open heart. 

Repeat Lectio/Visio and Meditatio four times.

Oratio:  Pray aloud:  “May I receive from the scripture (or object) what my soul needs for today, so that I may compassionate towards all whose lives I touch.”

Contemplatio:  For 10-20 minutes, get into a physical position in which your body will be comfortable but you’ll be unlikely to fall asleep.  (The “lotus position”, seated with legs crossed and tailbone slightly elevated on a little pillow, is just one way to achieve this balance.)  Begin with mindful meditation:  close your eyes, and in silence, observe whatever arises to take your attention.  The object of your observation can be anything at all.  A thought.  An idea. A sensation – something your body feels, something you hear.  A memory.  A scheme for the future.  It can be an urge – a desire – a sense of needing or wanting to do something.  Let it all be; don’t try to change your thoughts or experiences.  (Wait until after your Contemplatio practice to consider ways you want to change your thoughts or actions.)  Watch all that arises and passes, observing with non-judgmental, caring attention.  Be a quiet presence with these experiences, like a friend who stays close in silence with a loving attitude toward you.   Ask yourself:  how does the lectio/visio enlighten your self-examination, or vice-versa?

With practice, you will reach a point in Contemplatio where you have so thoroughly and lovingly observed yourself – your thoughts, emotions, urges, sensations – your body, your mind, even your personality – that you will ask a profound question:  is that which is being observed doing the observing?  Who or what is watching and paying attention within you?  The mystical and philosophical traditions of the world have different ways of expressing this sublime awareness.  In Buddhism, this is the moment of enlightened, pure consciousness that there is no self.  In Hinduism, this is the moment expressed in the Sanskrit phrase:  “Tat tvam asi – I am that" - one with the Ultimate Reality of Brahman.   In Christianity, it is the moment of awareness that God is the loving observer within us.  It is the moment of mystical union with the Divine, which St Paul described: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me.”  Non-religious people sometimes describe it as the moment of awakening to being one with the universe or with nature as a whole.

Seven Principles of Interfaith Engagement

Here I offer some basic guidance about how people of different faiths can engage with each other in meaningful and productive ways.  I offer it here as a conversation-starter for interfaith groups on campuses.

1)  The world's religions are different from each other. That ought to go without saying, but there are many people who believe that each religion is just a different path up the same mountain, or that they are different languages to express the same experiences.  They can be forgiven for this, because indeed there are threads and themes that look familiar across the lines of faith.  My colleague at Stanford, Robert Gregg, former Dean of Memorial Church, once wisely said that the world's religions are many paths up many different mountains.  But when you get to the top of any of the mountains, you can admire a beautiful mountain range.  In interfaith conversations, it's a lot safer and also a lot more interesting and productive to presume that the religions of others are pretty different than one's own.  Then, when you discover striking similarities, you can be surprised pleasantly.  But we do best to remember that lurking even in the similarities there may be really interesting differences.  For instance, prayer beads show up in the devotional practices of Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, and Muslims.  The Buddhists learned it from the Hindus, the Muslims copied the Hindus and the Buddhists, and the Christians copied the Muslims.  But in each tradition, the devotee is doing something inwardly different than the others when they finger the beads in roughly the same outward ways.  

2)  The differences between religions are different.  The difference between Hinduism and Islam is not analogous to the difference between Christianity and Judaism.  Furthermore, these faiths have substantially different endogenous definitions of religion.  Judaism as a religion is quite different than Christianity as a religion.  For one thing, Judaism has an intrinsic ethnic identity that Christianity lacks.  The failure to account for the differences between the differences results in deep misunderstandings in interfaith contexts.  An example is the website "Belief.net", one of the earliest attempts at interfaith engagement online.  The very title of the website reflects a Protestant Christian bias.  For evangelical Christianity, religion is defined first and foremost by belief. But many other faiths are defined more by rituals and practices than by doctrinal assertions.  

3)  Religions, and sects of religions, have different ways of understanding religious differences.  But these differences don't necessarily impede interfaith engagement.  Diana Eck of the Harvard Pluralism Project defines three general ways that religions relate to each other.  Pluralism is the idea that other religions may be as good for others as mine is for me.  Inclusivism she defines as the assumption that other religions may have truth and value worthy of engaging, but whatever is good in them is but a lesser reflection of the ultimate, authoritative good of my own tradition.  Eck defines exclusivism as the assumption that other religions are wrong at best and evil at worst, and that my faith is the only true one.  Some folks believe you have to be a pluralist in order to have substantial relationships with people of other faiths.  They assume that interfaith engagement is primarily a sport for theological liberals like myself.  But I have witnessed close working relationships and deep friendships between people who hold exclusivist views within their different faiths.  Sometimes, conservatives of differing traditions get along better with each other than they do with their liberal, pluralistic co-religionists.  One of the favored places for conservative Middle Eastern Sunni Muslims to send their kids to college in America is Brigham Young University in Utah, a Mormon school.  I do think that pluralism makes more room for appreciating the faiths of others than does inclusivism or exclusivism.  But these latter two approaches still can allow for very rich interfaith conversations. 

4) Different issues make for surprising interfaith bedfellows!  Understanding the nuances of different faith perspectives on social issues is important for those who want to promote interfaith cooperation, to seek common ground where possible, and make room for disagreement where possible.  An important example is "religious freedom".  In America today, the theologically progressive branches of Christianity, Judaism, and some other faiths tend not to perceive any threat to the free exercise of their faiths.  Meanwhile, some of the more conservative manifestations, particularly in Christianity, feel that their religious freedom is under attack as social norms and laws have changed..  These conservative religious groups define "religious freedom" to allow their organizations and their followers to discriminate against people who violate their faith-based norms.  They believe that religion should not just be freely exercised, but also given a privileged status by the government to influence the wider society.  But some faith communities that share this view may disagree about other definitions of religious freedom.  For instance, they may agree that a company owned by a person whose religion forbade birth control should not have to offer employees health insurance coverage that included contraception.  But they might disagree about churches keeping their tax exempt status if their preachers endorsed political candidates from the pulpit.  Understanding the historical and theological reasons for these differing views will help greatly in promoting interfaith engagement.

5)  It's good to know something about the world's religions: at least enough to know just how much you don't know!   Most of the numerically significant religions have enormous troves of texts and rituals and traditions.  I have spent my entire life studying my own tradition, Christianity, and the more I learn, the more I discover there is to learn.  The older I get, the more boggled I am by its depth and breadth.  I can only presume that this is the case for the other faiths, too.  I've studied many of them in some depth, but only enough to be aware of the depth of my ignorance of them.  Effective interfaith leadership requires curiosity and humility.  It requires the constant assumption that regardless of your level of education in world religions, there is so very much more to know that could affect your relationships with people of other faiths.  Ask questions, and then ask more questions based on the answers.  

6)  In America today, "innerfaith" exploration is part of interfaith engagement.  The trend in religion in the US is toward increasing heterodoxy.  Catholics are doing yoga.  Evangelicals are going to tarot card readings.  Jews have been practicing Zen meditation for decades.  Even people who profess strong traditional religious identities are engaging in the practices of other religions and cultures, mashing them up as they follow their own personal spiritual paths.  Just because somebody says they are a Zoroastrian, and you happen to know a lot about that tradition, that doesn't mean you know what that individual believes or practices. With enormous amounts of religious information now accessible on the internet, people are trending away from reliance on their pastors and priests for authoritative knowledge about matters spiritual, and are claiming their own authority.  Some folks who get involved in interfaith dialogues have no firm or fixed religious identity, but are taking their own "innerfaith" journeys.  They can cause frustration for those who want to engage with serious practitioners of different historic traditions.  But as the number of religiously unaffiliated people grows rapidly, we need to make room at the interfaith table for them.  We need to make room for overt atheists, too.  We need to ask questions.  Where and how do you find support from other people for your spiritual journey?  How do you experience spirituality, and what practices do you employ to evoke or express it?   

7) You can grow in your own faith tradition through deep exposure to other traditions.  One reason to get involved in interfaith work is to look more critically at your own faith, take it more seriously, and become more curious about it.  This has been my own experience.  Learning and practicing Buddhist meditation methods led me to explore the rich meditative and contemplative mystical traditions of my Christian heritage.  Learning about other faiths from their practitioners has heightened my interest in their similarities and differences with my faith.  Any risk of temptation to switch religions is outweighed by the benefit of going deeper in one's faith as a consequence of interfaith dialogue.

The Varieties of God

I offer here another conversation-starter for interfaith groups on campus.  It is a categorization and listing of ways that people think about God.  It's far from complete.  Some categories overlap with each other.  This list is a meditation inspiring humility in all of us who claim to be religious or to have any clue about the nature of God.  Is your God on this list? 

Supernatural Theism

God is a divine personality who is either outside of the universe or otherwise not one and the same with it, and who intervenes miraculously in the cosmos for his/her purposes.

The God Dude or Dudette.  Technical term:  anthropomorphism.  This is the very human, earthy God who walked in the Garden of Eden with Adam.  This a kind of God found in many cultures of the world: a superman or superwoman with amazing powers, intervening sometimes capriciously in human affairs, yet with very human flaws and foibles. 

The Local God.  Technical term:  henotheism.  God is a supernatural, anthropomorphic being who has supreme power only within a circumscribed geographic area.  In the Hebrew Scripture, the Syrian general Naaman believed that the God of Israel had sway only over the land of Israel - so when he went back to Syria after his healing in Israel, he took a load of dirt from Israel with him so that he could turn to the power of the God of Israel again.  It's clear that the people of Israel believed this about their God in one period of their history.  Henotheism is associated with the idea of God as protector and benefactor of a particular tribe or nation.

The Specialist God.  Technical term:  polytheism.  This is a collection of Gods, each with particular jobs:  The Creator, The Destroyer, The Luck-Bestower, The Wise One, The Trickster, The Loyal Sidekick.  While each god in the "pantheon" may have a unique character and role in intervening in human affairs, in some religions each may also be understood as a manifestation of the one, ultimate God.  Each god can be worshiped separately, or be seen as a member of a heavenly "court" or "Godhead" - a board of directors of supernatural beings headed by a high God.  The Greeks had a pantheon of "specialist" gods headed by Zeus, who was more powerful than the other gods, but not categorically distinct from them.  In the Hebrew Book of Job, God consults with his cabinet, including Satan, to determine Job's fate.  This early biblical version of God lies somewhere between the polytheistic and monotheistic understandings of divinity.

The God above gods.  Technical term: monotheism.  There is only one God; all others are figments of the imagination or are categorically lesser spiritual beings. The biblical commandment not to have other gods before God reflects that the Jews assumed there were other gods, but they were inferior to the God of Israel, or at least not to be worshiped as supreme in Israel.  A variation of this idea shows up in references to "spirits" in the New Testament.  Early Christians assumed that there were spiritual entities other than, but inferior to, the one and only true God.  In the establishment of Islam, a pantheon of "specialist" gods gave way to just one God, Allah, whose 99 names refer to his varied qualities and roles.

The Perfectible God.  The Mormon faith suggests that God once was a man who went through a process of spiritual perfecting until he became divine, and that human beings can follow the same kind of path.  One way to read the Bible is to see it as the development of the character of God from a vengeful, jealous, capricious man-God, into a cosmic, indescribable Creator and Sovereign, and ultimately into divine Love. 

The Spiritual God.  This is the divine ultimate reality of people who call themselves "spiritual but not religious".  The term "God" is used less than Spirit.  The Spirit is is the force of "attraction" that is invoked by positive thinking or prayer, causing miracles that benefit people.  Often, it is understood to have force only if it a person is attuned to it through meditation or repetitive affirmations of one's intentions.  This view is associated with the belief that only Spirit, not matter, is fundamentally real - that nature is supernatural.

The Crucified God.  For many Christians, the person of Jesus is all they really mean by the word God.  Jesus is God in human form, who was born and died, served and suffered in the world, in order to save humanity from sin.  He continues to intervene in on earth, answering prayers and making miracles happen.  He will return to earth in a glorious form at the end of history.


Natural Theism

God is in nature, or is the same as nature, or is the creative and compassionate quality of the cosmos.  God does not intervene in nature through "miracles".  Science reveals as much or more about God than theology. 

The Outsourcer God.  Technical term: deism.  This is a bridge between supernaturalism and naturalism.  God is the eternal power that created the universe and the rules by which it operates, and then stays out of the way and lets natural processes take their course according to physical laws.  God does not intervene in history with "miracles".  God did the initial work, and then "outsourced" the rest of creation to nature.  This was the view of God shared by many of America's "founding fathers", and is somewhat similar to the view of Albert Einstein. 

The Everywhere God.  Technical term: pantheism.  It's a departure from supernatural theism that suggests that God is to be found in every entity in the universe.  William Blake expressed this viewpoint in his poem, "Auguries of Innocence":  "To see the world in a grain of sand, And heaven in a wild flower, Hold eternity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour."  It might be compared to the concept of the fractal, in which large-scale structures are mirrored at smaller scales. 

The Love God.  God is love - an experience that humans have toward each other and toward the cosmos.  God is action and attitude, rather than an abstract theological concept.  This view is associated with mystical, personal spirituality and is a way that many Christians use to express their faith outside of traditional dogma and doctrine.  Some folks with this definition of God think of love as a supernatural power that works miracles - others see love as part of nature.

The Process God.  Technical term:  panentheism.  Process theology and philosophy views God either as one and the same with the universe as a whole, or as the creative process of the universe.  This is a step beyond pantheism.  God is to be found in the whole, or in the process of emergence of all entities and events.  It suggests that God is not outside the universe, but effectively is one and the same with it.  God is the eternal, ever-creating essence of a cosmos without beginning or end.  Panentheism allows for the idea of God as the "person" who is the universe as a whole, compassionately "feeling" all the pain and joy and possibility in the cosmos.  It also allows for the idea of God as the impersonal, essential quality of creativity intrinsic to all events and entities in the cosmos.  A related idea is "naturalistic theism", seeing God and nature as one; some people with this view call themselves "religious naturalists".  But some "religious naturalists" are atheists with a religious impulse toward reverence.

Transcendent Theism

This is a view of God as beyond the reach of human consciousness to comprehend.  For some, this leads to abstention from talk about God altogether, or to refer to God in only highly abstract and non-specific terms.  For others, it leads to doubt or denial of the existence of any kind of God.

The God of Existence.  The theologian Paul Tillich called God the "ground of being".  God is "is" - existence itself.  This view is suggested in the book of Exodus, in which the burning bush tells Moses that its name is "I AM THAT I AM".  It is reflected in the sacred name/sound of God in Hinduism, "OM", which is probably a Sanskrit cognate of the verb "to be" - and may be linguistically related to the Hebrew word "Amen" - "so be it". 

The Ineffable ___.  God is so holy and divine that he/she/it is beyond the human capacity to describe, explain, or name.  In some religions, this viewpoint is expressed by abstaining from reference to God altogether, as in much of Buddhism.  In Judaism, it is expressed by avoiding the use of any name for God - such as writing G-d, or just saying the word "Hashem", which means "name" in Hebrew, and also by the biblical commandment to refrain from making "graven images" of the divine.  Many ancient Greeks and Romans thought the Jews and the Christians were atheists because they did not worship a God that could be described or visualized. 

The Questionable God.   Technical term: agnosticism, or, literally translated, "not-knowing" whether or not there is a God.  Some self-described agnostics are closer to the idea of the Ineffable God, others are closer to atheism.

The Nonexistent God.  Technical term: atheism.  This is a rejection of the existence of any kind of God.  In practice, however, it is usually a rejection of supernatural or anthropomorphic notions of God.  When I ask self-described atheists what God they don't believe in, every time they answer with a definition of God that I don't believe in, either - and I'm a Christian pastor!  Many atheists have a deep sense of awe and reverence toward the cosmos that is indistinguishable from sentiments associated with religion.

Ten Ways to Meet God (or Ultimate Reality)

1. 
   Watch your thoughts and feelings and urges.  Close your eyes, stay quiet for 20 minutes, and observe what is going on in your mind and your body.  What claims your attention?  What emotions and bodily sensations do you feel?  What ideas and plans and memories bubble up?  Simply be present for your experiences, like a trusted, caring friend, without trying to judge or change what you observe.  God is the one within you who observes all with loving attentiveness and acceptance.
   
   2.  Look at an everyday, unremarkable thing - anything at all - for several minutes, until you notice something beautiful about it that you never saw before.  That out-of-ego moment of wonder is God.
   
   3.  Look at another everyday, unremarkable thing for several minutes, very closely and intently.  Then release your attention to it, and notice what you experience.  That moment of expanded awareness is an experience of God.
   
   4.  Find somebody you don't like, and listen to them for at least half an hour.  As you listen, observe and then let go of any attachment you have to your opinions of this person.  Notice and then release of any judgment you have about how they are talking or what they are doing.  Act as if you love this person, until the moment comes when you begin to feel like you actually do.  That love is God.
   
   5.  Choose one public policy issue that has an important direct or indirect effect on vulnerable people - the young, the elderly, prisoners, the sick, immigrants, people with low incomes.  You probably don't have time to go deeply into every issue, so just pick one.  Seek information about that policy issue from the most reputable, objective, in-depth sources you can find.  Stay on top of current debates or events that relate to this issue.  Inform your friends and family about it when the right occasions arise.  Communicate with your elected officials and other policy-makers about your views on this issue, on a regular basis.  Every so often, show up at public events that may have a strategic effect on making things better for people affected by this policy.  The deep concern you feel for those people, expressed through your learning and your activism, is God.
   
   6.  Immerse yourself in nature.  Take a walk in the wilderness.  One word per stride, ask yourself:  "Am ... I... here?"- over and over, until you begin to feel present in the moment, noticing and appreciating the beauty around you, instant by instant.  The moment you can say "I... am... here" as you walk, you have arrived at God.
   
   7.  Watch a small child play.  Observe the child trying to do something he/she cannot yet accomplish.  Observe your urge to help the child do the task, and let go of that urge.  Let the child know you are there, paying attention, but don't intervene in his/her play until, and if, you sense a clear invitation to do so.  Imagine what the child is thinking and sensing, and begin to play with the child in the way that the child is playing.  The moment you give up your adult perspective and take on the child's perspective in play, you are playing with God.
   
   8.  Draw a picture.  Then look at the picture.  Observe what's there, but also observe your reactions to your picture.  Do you judge it somehow?  Do you have opinions about it?  Do you wish it were different?  Notice these experiences as you look at the picture.  Then draw another picture slowly, and do the same thing as you are drawing it - noticing your feelings and opinions about it as you go.  Look at the finished picture and again observe your reactions to it.  Do it again and again until you feel liberated from your opinions about it, and simply enjoy the process of drawing it and looking at it.  When that happens, you have drawn a picture of God.
   
   9.  Go to a house of worship - of any faith - and sit and listen to the liturgy or prayers.  Instead of focusing on the words being said or sung, or on their meaning, focus intently on the silences between the words and the sounds.  Notice and savor as many moments of quiet - some extremely short, others longer - as you can.  Let the silences be the focus of your worship.  Let the silences become the source of meaning for the sounds in the worship service.  When you feel enthralled by the sound of sheer silence, you are hearing God.
   
   10.  Take a walk in a familiar environment - one you see every day.  Look at everything around you and name it.  "Tree" - "house" - "car" - "dog".  Then start to do it another way:  "My idea of tree" - "my idea of house" - "my idea of car" - "my idea of dog".  Then, in the same way, start naming your emotions and feelings and thoughts alongside naming the things and events in your environment: "My opinion of dislike for that car" - "my feeling of pain in my foot" - "my thought of trimming that tree".  Do this until you are awakened to the fact that so much of your inner and outer experience is based on your ideas of things, rather than the real essence of them.  When you are awake to the possibility that the world around you has an essence that is beyond your ideas and opinions, you have awakened to God.

Write Your Own Ten Commandments

The ten commandments endure as a foundation for morality, after thousands of years.  But just like the American Constitution, from time to time we need to add amendments to them.  The ten commandments are a short list, and that is a very good thing.  They mostly tell us what not to do, giving us the freedom to do most everything else. 

But not everything else is so wonderful.  In every time, in every life, we need to make additional lists for spiritual and moral guidance.  Things we need to do, or to avoid, to amend our lives and mend our relationships. 

Here I offer a list of such amendments.  They are my own ethical “marching orders”:
 
1.  Thou shalt be amazed by the good in people.
2.  Thou shalt avoid judgment of others.
3.  Thou shalt not injure others with sarcasm.
4.  Thou shalt not jump to conclusions.
5.  Thou shalt attend to details in serving others.
6.  Thou shalt make realistic promises and keep them.
7.  Thou shalt have clear priorities for thy time and attention, for thy body, mind, and heart, and thou shalt act on these priorities.
8.  Thou shalt wait 24 hours before doing or saying anything negative about another person.
9.  Thou shalt not say “yes” when thou meanest “no”.
10.  Thou shalt ask before acting.

Each one of these amendments reflects my own failure to follow it!  The list reflects the ways my life needs to change for the better, in outward actions and inward intentions....

What's your list of "ten amendments"?

(And here's a list!  from my friend, Yanna McLaughlin:)

 1.Thou shalt honor and protect all of god's creations (nature and all living beings), air, water and soil

2. Thou shalt preserve the earth's crust (don't extract anything from below)
3. Thou shalt empower and share with those less fortunate than yourself

4. Thou shalt seek to partcipate in advancing your community's wellbeing

5. Thou shalt work with nature (and not against it)

6. Thou shalt teach everyone the things you know that help protect our and our children's futures

7. Thou shalt protect the climate and the world's ecosystems

8. Thou shalt believe in the good of people 

9. Thou shalt only borrow/take/own what you need for as long as you need it and ensure it keeps having a purpose when you are done with it

10. Thou shalt love life and share gratitude every day

(And another!  from my friend, Susan Kirsch:)

My ten Amendments for healthy living, taken from American folk wisdom and inspired by Jim Burklo:

1. Thou shalt take time to smell the roses.  
2. Thou shalt not sweat the small thing—and from the eternal perspective, it’s all small things.  
3. Thou shalt treat others like you want to be treated.  
4. Thou shalt be willing to initiate what you want in your life, relationships, careers, all things.  
5. Thou shalt not put off ‘til tomorrow what you can start today.  
6. Thou shalt be willing to make mistakes, try again, and keep risking and learning.  
7. Thou shalt be patient with yourself as you are patient with others.  
8. Thou shalt never let a moment for love pass with the deception “there’s not enough time.”  
9. Thou shalt celebrate lifetime courage to take baby steps.  
10. Thou shalt affirm the good and be unattached to the outcomes.  

Campfires for Conviviality

A few years ago, I started Belonging, an initiative on campus at USC to create the conditions for more conviviality and compassion on campus.  The central “meme” of Belonging @ USC is the campfire. 

A campfire gives people a focus while they hang out together.  There’s something elemental about it, no?  – going back to human pre-history.  A campfire encourages intimacy, but allows for quiet.  It allows for the back-and-forth flow of intensity and "air" in relationships.  The sight and sound of it are soothing, encouraging reflection – an ideal environment for making and keeping friends.

Nothing beats a real campfire, of course!  But here's a way to create one virtually.  Get a group together in a circle.  Put your all your laptops and/or smart phones (with phones in airplane mode) in the center, all playing this campfire video (no need to synch devices – the sights and sounds blends together).  Having all phones, etc, in the center, playing the campfire video, has the wonderful side-benefit of unplugging everyone for a while.  It gives the message that smart phones, etc, should facilitate face-to-face relationships rather than replace them.  You don’t need a special reason for campfires – any excuse is good!  The principle behind them all:  creating a convivial environment in which acquaintances can move toward real friendship. 

Here are some special reasons and ways to hold them. 

Questions Campfires:  circle around campfire video, and randomly ask a person to start.  Each person in the circle asks that person one genuine, non-leading question.  If the person doesn’t want to answer a particular question, they can pass.  Keep going around the circle until everyone has both asked and answered at least two questions.  Look here for a list of the questions Jesus asked in the gospels, for conversation and contemplation.  See lists of other great questions to ask here.

Drum Campfires:  Drumming around the campfire.  A way to connect deeply – without words.  We hold Drum Campfires at USC on the evening of every full moon, and a wonderful student community has formed around them.

Dream Campfires:  Our nighttime dreams are portals into the realms of the unconscious mind. Paying attention to them brings us to a higher level of consciousness, and can give profound guidance for our lives.  This suggested format is based on the work of psychotherapist Jeremy Taylor .  (I have led such groups for years, and the level of intimacy that results is remarkable.)  Participants are asked to keep a dream journal and to maintain confidentiality about what is shared in the group.  Circle around the virtual campfire.  First person shares a dream.  Questions (not comments) for dreamer – from anyone.  Questions should be “honest” – open-ended, not round-about ways of giving opinions or making judgments.  Then 3 min of silent mindful meditation on the dream.  Then, going clockwise around the campfire circle, each person answers:  “If it were my dream, this is the significance it would have for me….” – then others ask that person questions.  When circle is complete, first dreamer reflects on responses of the others.  Next dreamer shares a dream….

Clearness Campfires:  It's based on the old Quaker practice of convening Clearness Committees for discernment.  Ever feel bewildered in the face of a tough choice or confusing personal situation?  You are in great company.  And having some of that great company can make your decision-making process a lot easier.  That’s what Clearness Campfires are all about.  You write down the problem you’re facing – as succinctly as you can.  (You may be unclear about how to describe the situation that is before you – but do the best you can.)  You invite a group of people whom you respect to gather together as a temporary Clearness Campfire.  You text/email them your problem.  You send them this page and ask them if they are willing to follow these guidelines.  Those who agree gather and sit in a circle for between 1.5 and 2 hours with you around a laptop computer with the campfire video playing.  They choose one of them to be the “clerk” and take simple notes, which the “clerk” emails to you afterward.  They start asking you questions.  Only questions.  Honest questions for which they do not yet know your answers.  Questions that invite your reflection.  Questions that aren’t “leading” – questions that are not round-about ways of giving advice or opinions.  Questions that invite answers that will lead to yet more questions that will invite answers that lead to yet more questions.  There are times of silence, when only the campfire is crackling.  Times for reflection, for letting questions and answers sink in deeper.  When you are ready, 15 or so minutes before the agreed-upon ending time, you ask your circle to “mirror” what they heard and saw in your responses to their questions.  Again: no opinions, no advice – just feedback about what they noticed in you as the Clearness Campfire burned.  Then you shake hands with each of them and depart in soulful silence.  What happens at the campfire stays at the campfire – complete confidentiality.

Beading Your Way into Prayer and Meditation

Periodically at our USC University Religious Center, I hold bead necklace-making workshops for students.

Beads are an ancient, multi-faith way to enhance the experience of prayer and meditation.

The word “bede” in Anglo-Saxon means “prayer”.  Beads have been used for prayer for millennia, all over the world, in many religious traditions.

The Hindu mala is a necklace of 108 beads.  Each bead is fingered while repeating a mantra.  The Buddhists use mala beads in a similar fashion.

The Muslims may have copied the use of beads from the Hindus and Buddhists.  They have a rosary of 99 beads, each one marking one of the names/attributes of Allah – with a head bead for Allah.  An alternative form is 33 beads, used 3 times to complete the 99 names.  The Bahá'í faith uses a similar rosary.

The Catholic Christians may have copied the Muslims in creating rosary beads.  “Praying the rosary” involves a series of prayers marked by five “decades” of beads, with a cross at the head of the necklace.

Martin Lonnebo, a Swedish Lutheran bishop, created a bead bracelet called “pearls of life” as a means of meditation.  It's a modern Protestant Christian expression of the long, interfaith tradition of rosary bead.

Make your own prayer bead necklace of any number of beads, with a "head" or larger bead on it.  Here's a way to use it.

Hold the necklace in your hand.  Hold a bead next to the head bead in your fingers.  Get into a comfortable position where you'll stay alert.  Practice mindfulness: observe, one at a time, each thought, sensation, emotion, or urge that arises - with compassion and releasing judgment about it.  As a new experience bubbles up into awareness, roll a bead in your fingers until that experience naturally dissipates.  As the next experience arises into your loving, curious, open-hearted and open-minded attention, move to the next bead and roll it with your fingers.  When you get to the head bead, hold it in your fingers and savor the source and center of your attention itself.  Some call this pure consciousness or open awareness, some call it the experience of "no-self", others call it Atman or Brahman, others call it God or the Christ.... 

Make a Sand Mandala

We have a sandbox at our USC University Religious Center which we put in our courtyard occasionally, with materials for students to make mandalas.

Get a tray of fine "sandbox" sand, and at a craft store buy colored sand.  Take a turkey baster, remove the suction end, and use the tube as a funnel for drawing with colored sand on the surface of the regular sand.  Tap the tube gently to get a smooth flow of colored sand.  Or take a paper funnel or paper cone water cup and cut a 1/8" hole at the tip, fill it with colored sand, and tap the funnel gently over the sandbox to get a smooth flow. 

Begin making the mandala with meditation.  Observe your thoughts, emotions, sensations, and urges.  Attend to your highest and best intentions.  Watch your breath.  Then begin, and see what emerges on the sand.

The word “mandala” is Sanskrit for “circle”.   It is a tool for meditation and prayer in many different world religious traditions.  Generally, mandalas are visual portals into contemplative spirituality, facilitating the integration of inner experience into a harmonic whole.  In the Vedic religious traditions originating in India, it takes many forms, including Tibetan Buddhist “thangkas” and sand mandalas.  In Christianity, the rose window of a cathedral is a form of mandala.  Christian mystics like Hildegard of Bingen created mandalas to constellate visually the spiritual states to which they aspired.  Navajo Native Americans use sand to create mandala-like images to invoke healing and inner harmony.  A similar practice is found among the Aboriginal people of Australia.  The Swiss psychotherapist Carl Jung studied mandalas and painted them as part of his own spiritual practice, and Jungian transpersonal psychology continues this tradition.

In Jungian Sandplay psychotherapy, the client chooses objects and figurines to place in a diorama in a box of sand, while the analyst watches nearby in respectful silence.  When the client is finished, the client and therapist discuss what was created in the sand.  Developed by Swiss Jungian Analyst Dora Kalff, Sandplay is a form of therapy that gives both child and adult clients the opportunity to portray, rather than verbalize, feelings and experiences often inaccessible and/or difficult to express in words.  Sandplay helps maintain a place of internal integrity as well as a sanctuary for contact with the symbolic world out of which can emerge a healing experience.

Make an Altar

The urge to make altars is universal and innate!  Children quite naturally express reverence for life by making offerings.  Without prompting, they will place flowers in front of a dead bird on the ground, or they will offer food to inanimate objects for which they sense a personal relationship.  The impulse to make offerings as a way of expressing a felt connection with the world is deep and elemental.

Altars in varied forms appear in almost all the world’s spiritual traditions.  They are tables or spaces set apart for ritual observances of the relationships between people and Ultimate Reality. 

Make your own altar!  It can take any of many shapes:  a spot on a shelf, a separate table, or an entire corner of a room.  At USC we hold a special event in which students can build their own altars out of materials provided for them at the University Religious Center.

I suggest that you make it a living altar – one that makes room for events, seasons, and celebrations in your life and the lives of the students with whom you live.  There may be items on the altar that remain over time, but make space for new expressions.  And for new understandings or interpretations of the items on the altar.  Make room for spontaneous offerings or placements.  And make it a topic of conversation:  “What’s on the altar tonight?  What do the things on it mean?  How does it feel to stand in front of it now?”

You can put a prayer or meditation box on it.  Get a small box and put a slot in the top lid and put slips of paper by the box, with a pen available.  Students in your dorm or house can write prayers or meditations on the slips and put them in the box.  Periodically you can gather to mix up the prayer/meditation slips, hand them out randomly, and then read them aloud and ceremonially burn them in the fireplace or barbecue. 

The altar can be the spot where you put a bell or singing bowl which you can use to announce gatherings.  I would suggest being cautious about using the altar as a place to put trophies or certificates or other symbols of accomplishment, in order to avoid invidious comparisons.  The altar can be the spot where you keep your “ritual kit” – items you use for ceremonies.

Microaffections

Run a campaign on your campus to encourage students to engage in microaffections!

MICROAGGRESSION: a subtle but offensive comment or action directed at a minority or other nondominant group that is often unintentional or unconsciously reinforces a stereotype: microaggressions such as 'I don't see you as black.'" -- Dictionary.com

MICROAFFECTION: a subtle but endearing or comforting comment or action directed at others that is often unintentional or unconsciously affirms their worth and dignity, without any hint of condescension."  -- Jim Burklo

Part of the response to microagression is education.  We need to be intentional about preventing ourselves from unintentionally demeaning categories of people in ways that can make them feel marginalized.  We need to listen to those who are on the receiving end of such encounters, so we'll know not what not to say and not to do.

And another response is the cultivation of microaffection: priming ourselves for moments when, spontaneously, we go out of our way to make others feel like they are dignified, respectable, truly beloved members of society.  It takes forethought in order to be able to offer kindness without forethought.  It takes spiritual discipline to make it automatic for us to share warmth with people just because they're people.  

Microaffection came my way one day as I was riding my beach bike across campus.  My bike is called the OMbulance: I put a sign on the front of the basket, surrounded by the symbols of the world's religions.  In a spiritual emergency at USC, who ya gonna call?  As I was riding, one of my shoelaces got spun around in the pedal.  There I was, trapped on my bike at an obscure corner of the campus, unable even to dismount it to fix the problem.  A gentleman came along with a big smile on his face and asked if I needed help.  "Oh yes!" I answered, and before I could say more, he untangled my shoelace from the pedal and walked away, wishing me well.  He helped me in a way that reduced, rather than increased, my sense of embarrassment in my predicament.  

I have work to do, myself, to make kindness and respect so ingrained in my soul that they are automatic responses in moments of emotional challenge.  Universities and institutions of all kinds have work to do, also, to create atmospheres that inculcate this kind of mindfulness, to prevent microagression and to encourage microaffection.

Make a list of microaffections to practice! 

Here's a starter list from Karen, a colleague at USC:

Send an “I’m thinking of you with affection” text for no particular reason

Smile and give a friendly “hello” to anyone behind a cash register

Offer to take a photo when you see an in-progress group shot so nobody has to be left out

Ask someone to share the best thing that happened to them today

Thank a friend just for being themself

Offer to fill/empty the dishwasher when it’s not your turn

Meditation in Mud

Periodically, I conduct dorodango-making workshops at the USC University Religious Center.  Making them is a meditative exercise for our students!

El lodo, apartándolo del lodo, no es más lodo.

Mud, when it leaves the mud, stops being mud.  

– Antonio Porchia, 20^tth c Argentine poet

“Dorodango” is a Japanese word that means “mud dumpling”.  It is a Japanese art form that can be created in a variety of ways.  Dorodangos are made with nothing but dirt, water, and some time and effort with your hands.  I find the process of making them to be meditative.  It is a way of bringing myself fully into the present moment.  It is like making a miniature Earth out of the Earth.  There is something truly magical about making an almost perfect sphere just by slapping a ball of mud, rolling it around in one’s hands, and then polishing it till it develops a lovely sheen.

The method I share here is my own.  I do not make “hikaru” or “shining” dorodangos, which is a more elaborate process.  Mine are earthy and simple.  The finished product is very satisfying, but the process of making it is the real pleasure.

The kind of dirt you use makes a big difference.  Sandy dirt does not work well, because it tends to fall apart as it dries.  You need dirt that has a certain level of clay or organic content in order to hold it together.  You need dirt that has a gradient of grain sizes, so that tiny particles will work their way in between larger particles in order to get greater structural integrity.  (Isn't this why churches, and other communities, need all shapes, sizes, ages, colors, and kinds of people in order to hold together?)  The higher the clay content, the shinier the surface will become.  You can run your dirt through a colander and then through a mesh sieve or screen, to remove larger grains and other debris. 

Mix about 2 or 3 cups of dirt with water.  The amount of water will vary with the kind of dirt you use.  Mix with your hands and keep adding water until you get a doughy texture – like bread or pizza dough.  You don’t want any water to be oozing out of your mud ball… add more dirt if that is happening.  Slap your mud into a ball and roll it around in your hands.  If it is grainy or starts to crack, put a little water on your hands and roll the ball around and rub it to get it slippery.  Then keep working it until it is barely tacky to the touch.  You can “salt” it with fine dusty dirt if it is too mushy.  Keep slapping it and rolling it in your hands for a while until it gets smooth, with a consistent texture and density.  Wrap it in a cloth and put it in a bowl and wait for at least two to 12 hours.  The cloth slows and evens out the drying process.  Take it out of the cloth, roll it in your hands, adding dusty dirt on the outside if it is still “mushy”, then slapping and rolling it in your hands to get it as round and smooth and uniform in shape, density, and texture as you can.  It is amazing how round the dorodango will get without the use of any tools or measuring instruments: it is almost as if they "want" to be spherical.  Wait two to 12 hours and continue this process.  My pattern is to work on my dorodango twice daily for 4 or 5 days.  By the 4^th or 5^th day (or sooner, depending on the dirt), the dorodango is hard and smooth and round.  It may still feel cold and the surface may still have moisture in it.  When there is no more moisture on the surface, and the dorodango feels about the same temperature as the air, start polishing the dorodango with a soft cloth.  Put the cloth in the palm of your hand, and with the other hand, roll and rub the dorodango onto the cloth.  Do this for a few days until it gets a nice sheen on the surface, and you are done! 

PS:  Dorodangos are fragile.  They will crumble if dropped and they scratch easily.  Also, they will lose their shine and structure if they get wet.