Back in the early 90s when I was making my living as a stand-up comic, I met a fellow comic named Arj Barker. He cracked me up on all sorts of different levels. He just seemed to look at the world differently and irreverently but was never offensive. He scored high on the likability scale everywhere we performed together.
Anyway, I just came across this video he made and it brought up great memories.
Enjoy.
(Bows, WorstHorse)
I enjoyed reading Mark Morford’s SF Chronicle piece today. Made me laugh… in a Kosmic way, of course.
What God really loves is meddling and poking and maybe forgiving, and also psychoanalyzing and scrutinizing and prying, gossiping and complaining and moderating, sighing and punishing and condemning, all while He shakes His big, shaggy head in your general direction at your various petty sins and misbehaviors every single day regarding pretty much every single thought you have.
If God did care about our dalliances, wouldn’t this imply that he is somehow separate from each of us? If He is separate from us, then He can not be Infinite. Hmmm.
(Bows, Digital Dharma)
Click on the player below, in order to listen to Michael’s talk.
Get the most recent iTunes software and subscribe to this podcast from the Buddhist and/or Philosophy sections of the Religion & Spirituality list.
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In this evening’s talk, Michael discusses the perils of centering one’s practice on faith. While there is mystery in practice, it is critical that we nurture our ability to skilfully question our teachers, our preferred teaching, and our spiritual friends as we progress along the Path.
So very interesting…
The People’s Daily Online reports:
According to an interview with People’s Daily Online, professor Shen Weirong, director of the Research Center on Han-Tibetan Buddhism at Renmin University of China, and expert on Tibet, said that the Dalai Lama’s wishes to select his successor through “democratic election,” but this procedure neither accords with religious regulations nor historical traditions.
UrbanMonk.Net offers up a great post on how we can be big babies.
Is it possible that we are all giant babies in our own way? Even as adults, we cling and grasp to something, anything, in order to stay in our fantasy, to keep these fears at bay. Take a moment to think about your attachments now – what are you trying to block off? Existential psychologists theorise that our main fears are meaninglessness, death, loneliness, and responsibility for our own lives and choices. Is it possible that these fears come rushing back into our awareness when we lose our attachments? No wonder losing something relatively minor can cause such disproportionate pain!
At the encouragement of c4chaos, I read a post by Alan Chapman of Open Enlightenment. Chapman offers us an interesting bit of writing on how he’s evolved after becoming enlightened. Admittedly, I spend a great deal of time with my own sangha cautioning about this kind of language since it implies that one has awakened to the Truth beyond name and form, personally, when there is nothing personal to be found in any authentic awakening. But before any of us dismisses Mr. Chapman’s potential and actual missteps, I would recommend letting his words in.
For example, I liked the digs he throws at those of us who unconsciously cloak ourselves in spiritual arrogance:
I’ve been on the wrong end of a patronising postmodernist a few times, and I’ve been so enranged [sic] and sickened by his or her unexamined smugness, that I’ve responded by informing them that, actually, I’m at a level of development above and beyond theirs, and so they’re just incapable of understanding me. Ha!
Of course there’s more than a little egoic clinging shown here for someone who’s enlightened, but his point should be soberly considered.
He then takes on Spiral Dynamics and suggests that it isn’t a very accurate map of human development. In some cases I agree with sentiments like these. However, it’s easy to see how someone like Mr. Chapman, who obviously finds his chosen practice of “Magick” maligned as something that merely supports partial awakening. And yet based on his article, this is what we find. Partial awakening, not fully integrated.
Click on the player below, in order to listen to Michael’s talk.
Get the new iTunes software and subscribe to this podcast from the Buddhist and/or Philosophy sections of the Religion & Spirituality list.
____
In this evening’s talk, Michael discusses how we can recognize the we are continually called to practice. Stillness, like any exercise, sharpens itself and our being whenever we engage in it consciously. Repeatedly making space for meditation in our daily lives then allows for all things, all relationships, and all activity to inform our walk along the Path.
This issue came up over the weekend as I spoke with someone about their desire to leave their community.
Individuals with these false Awakenings fill the spiritual marketplace. They may be charismatic, brilliant, and disarming. Yet as teachers they perhaps haven’t fully dealt with the shadow elements of their personalities, thus leaving spiritual gaps in what would otherwise be an integrated whole. To be fair, all of us need to pay attention to this. When we stand in the light of awareness, shadows are revealed. No matter how hard any of us who lives in the world tries, we can’t escape them. We can only use the practice to undercut the power that our shadows hold over us. Looking honestly at all of our darkness, at all of our negativity, at all of our unconsciousness, and never flinching as we meet all of it diminishes our shadow’s subconscious hold. Unfortunately the traditions don’t always do a good job of helping this revealing process take root in their communities. Sex scandals, criminal activities, and financial improprieties show up all the time in the spiritual arena. Most likely all of this will continue as long as spiritual leaders and their communities collectively let their egos grasp onto all of their glowing press releases. A good dose of Western psychotherapy in conjunction with deep spiritual work might do a better job at preventing this kind of abuse. Authentically integrating what is best from spiritual traditions along with what is best from psychotherapy might prevent further destruction of communities by enlightened egos that always lose sight of their most sacred responsibility: to not cause harm.
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