I enjoy studying other religions, particularly Buddhism. Today, I spoke to a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism, and though we used different jargons of Buddhism, we achieved a tranquil bond of understanding.
He criticized the monastic path of Buddhist traditions, and my thoughts turned to my disruptive view of institutions--religious and secular. There is profit behind maintaining the institution, he described, as he viewed this idea as part of negative karma. Immediately, I thought of the Daoist's distrust of government and Jesus dismantling a Greco-Roman-Jewish temple. "This is my Father's house," Rabbi Yeshua/Jesus said.
My friend spoke of the "Clear Light" he has received through meditation, where the delusion of reality disappears and only bliss remains active.
As an ethical monotheist (not claiming a specific religious tradition), I have experienced clear light or what I might call God illumination. Since I believe God is both immanent and transcendent, human beings are, too.
The Tibetan Buddhist uses the body to release from physical manifestation into a level of bliss or nirvana. In other words, the delusion of the body plays a significant role in releasing self into clear light, where ego no longer exists and the entire bliss of others merge.
My life with God is similar. From my perspective, however, I believe in the relevance of God's immanence. He created the earth, the universe, that which we do not know, etc. God is not in the grass, but he architected it. Therefore, God's divineness is embraced by all of our senses; we should not view the earth as a delusion but our sacred mother. Our senses smell, taste, touch, feel. We were born to embrace the earth, the wind, the rain, and the sky, "for God said it was good."
Though I don't believe in a literal interpretation of the Garden of Eden story, the Jewish tradition communicates the significance of man and woman communicating with each other and God in a beautiful garden. How beautiful my "clear light" rises within me when I see God's scientific principles creating a rainbow or blowing a wave against the rocks at Lake Hefner. How beautiful are my children and the growing sunflowers in my front lawn as representations of life.
On a quiet night, I look at the stars and then look inward: God's divine consciousness representing within me. I call out his name: Adonai. I pray in the darkness of my own front lawn; everything fades except for what Martin Buber states as a book title: I and Thou.
In this moment of space and praise, I embrace the blissful image of God within me. It is sometimes a physical emotion trapped in the physical, but other times, I fade into a quiet realm of silence and listen to the stillness comfort me.
Bliss arrives. I am caught in what the Daoists call non-doing, non-judgment, and effortlessness. Am I here or there? It matters not to ask any questions because no matter what pain and suffering exists now in this earthly state, there is a continuous cycle and purpose for the future. Without thought, I see it clearly as an open portal challenging me to embrace my divinity now and share it the best I can through language.
To conclude, the Tibetan Buddhist and I have different paths to the clear light. Our practice in seeing bliss may be different, but today we shed our creeds for something real. We lit a candle symbolically as the smoke rises into the unknown mysterious beyond the physicality of self!
Does God exist or not? For us, only communication and transcendence mattered.
--Jinglett
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Thursday, August 6, 2009
10 Commandments
We in the United States live according to a secular government, but our personal laws stem from all the great religious and secular systems. Reading the Bedside Torah (Artson) today, I was reminded once again the significance of the Ten Commandments. Can we follow these commandments and make our society a more just one?
1. I am Adonai your God.
My viewpoint is simple. The Jews brought to our vision the system of ethical monotheism. There is one God. I refer myself to this pattern, pray to one God, do not ask Angels or Jesus or other people to bless me. I have a direct relationship to Adonai, the one God of the universe, according to my opinion.
2. Worship no idolatrous images.
People used to bow down to golden calves and incite some power or magic. I don't see this commandment relevant on a shallow level, but we are still slaves to our own corporations, governments, ideologies, homes, television, and other images possessing our interest more than the focus on the first commandment. "You cannot serve both God and money," it says. If a cell phone becomes more significant than my relationship with a divine, transcendental, and immanent being I refer to as the Supreme Mover of the Universe, then I must reject these materialistic "golden calves."
3. Do not swear falsely by the name of God.
Do not swear at all, because swearing is an oath. If we make a promise to another person, we must keep it. If we take the Lord's name in vain, then we are rejecting his authority of justice and freedom in our lives. Why drive away the very being that brings us rain and life to this earth? Uplift others positively because they are a representation of the divine image, too.
4. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.
I do not like participating in organized religion, and my friends and family realize this issue, but I do find time during the week when it is God and me alone in a room or in my brain talking to one another. Sometimes I just shake my head in solitary confinement because I do not know how to be holy, but I do my best. The Sabbath is also a time to honor the community and family, and I have yet to overcome my goal well because I like to be alone. I have no issues honoring God's glory, the natural elements, and my own life, but seeing the holiness in human beings and spending time with them is a goal I hope to reach soon. That holiness will be returned in the afterlife!
5. Honor your Father and Mother.
Honor your ancestors, too! We have lost this reality, to some degree. Do I respect the authority of my elders? I tend to buck the system and forget about the wisdom of people like Moses, who at the young age of 85, led the Israelites to a new settlement beyond Egypt. He was an old man and chief justice of the community. I must look to my elders for advice and direction. I must praise them fully. I plan to follow this commandment with more fervor and honesty.
6. You shall not murder.
Many people might say, "No problem." However, people die around the world. Food poisoning. Reckless driving due to DUIs. Drug overdoses leading to self-suicide. Anger at another country for bombing and retaliation pending. We are surrounded with such violence, yet on a personal level, I feel helpless to speak out on such an easy commandment. Respect one another. Love one another. We are all human beings with the same purpose for freedom. Do not place ideology above anybody's human life, including a starving child in another country. And, if you are having a child and your life is in trouble, know that abortion does not make you a murderer. Jewish law claims that the mother is more significant than the child. It is better to save the mother so that she can have more children. There are difficult questions to be asked under this commandment, I realize.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
I hope to keep off the television as long as possible. Every reality show I see breaks this commandment, and when I see a beautiful woman in a store, I lust as everybody does. I need to work on this commandment, too, and treat human beings as my brothers and sister and place my wife on a different level, for she represents a union manifested between two divine souls. We are one, and if I cannot bring this passion of unity within my marriage, then how do I create that same passion of unity between the Supreme Mover and me. Marriage is a sacred act or union between two human beings, and it should be treated as such. If two gay men find this unity as well, I see no reason why God will not place his hands upon them and love them, too!
8.You shall not steal.
This one drives me crazy because all I see surrounding the United States is greed. Corporate greed. Government greed. Ideological Greed. Everything is a negotiation, and even a negotiation itself is a form of greed to me. Let's stop negotiating rules to provide this country or that country with a little more or less until a compromise is reached. Let's look at what is right. Moses did not negotiate out of greed with the Pharaoh. He stuck to the terms. He said, "Let all of my people go." Men, women, elderly, and children. All slaves leave. All slaves deserve their opportunity for success. What a message of truth Moses brings to us today! How do we replicate that truth in a world that steals?
9. You shall not bear false witness.
Do not lie. Tell the truth. I follow this one closely, and I realize that people do not like to hear the truth. It hurts their feelings, but the truth may unravel a psychological pattern that needs to be evaluated. Telling the truth does not mean you do not love a fellow human being. It does not mean you are being critical. It simply means that you care about a person, but we must be careful catching ourselves in some game of ego madness. We should be asked our opinion and deliver it carefully to the other person with great thought. And, we should not gossip!
10. You shall not covet.
I mentioned materialism already, and I and the rest of the world struggles with this idea. I believe this idea of protecting the U.S. against terrorist threats can lead to a kind of coveting. We want to covet our freedom. Freedom, however, is a wonderful thing to protect, but we have to be careful how we talk about freedom to ourselves and other countries. Otherwise, we might end up in a war that seems endless where people die for a cause that could have been solved in different directions. We are coveting the stock market at the moment, too. We are coveting an economic recovery. Yes, people are out of work, and the richer of us needs to step up and give up their gold to the poor. This is our shining moment, but I am afraid we will always latch on to the current political environment instead of loving each person equally beyond corporate commodities.
--JINGLETT
1. I am Adonai your God.
My viewpoint is simple. The Jews brought to our vision the system of ethical monotheism. There is one God. I refer myself to this pattern, pray to one God, do not ask Angels or Jesus or other people to bless me. I have a direct relationship to Adonai, the one God of the universe, according to my opinion.
2. Worship no idolatrous images.
People used to bow down to golden calves and incite some power or magic. I don't see this commandment relevant on a shallow level, but we are still slaves to our own corporations, governments, ideologies, homes, television, and other images possessing our interest more than the focus on the first commandment. "You cannot serve both God and money," it says. If a cell phone becomes more significant than my relationship with a divine, transcendental, and immanent being I refer to as the Supreme Mover of the Universe, then I must reject these materialistic "golden calves."
3. Do not swear falsely by the name of God.
Do not swear at all, because swearing is an oath. If we make a promise to another person, we must keep it. If we take the Lord's name in vain, then we are rejecting his authority of justice and freedom in our lives. Why drive away the very being that brings us rain and life to this earth? Uplift others positively because they are a representation of the divine image, too.
4. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.
I do not like participating in organized religion, and my friends and family realize this issue, but I do find time during the week when it is God and me alone in a room or in my brain talking to one another. Sometimes I just shake my head in solitary confinement because I do not know how to be holy, but I do my best. The Sabbath is also a time to honor the community and family, and I have yet to overcome my goal well because I like to be alone. I have no issues honoring God's glory, the natural elements, and my own life, but seeing the holiness in human beings and spending time with them is a goal I hope to reach soon. That holiness will be returned in the afterlife!
5. Honor your Father and Mother.
Honor your ancestors, too! We have lost this reality, to some degree. Do I respect the authority of my elders? I tend to buck the system and forget about the wisdom of people like Moses, who at the young age of 85, led the Israelites to a new settlement beyond Egypt. He was an old man and chief justice of the community. I must look to my elders for advice and direction. I must praise them fully. I plan to follow this commandment with more fervor and honesty.
6. You shall not murder.
Many people might say, "No problem." However, people die around the world. Food poisoning. Reckless driving due to DUIs. Drug overdoses leading to self-suicide. Anger at another country for bombing and retaliation pending. We are surrounded with such violence, yet on a personal level, I feel helpless to speak out on such an easy commandment. Respect one another. Love one another. We are all human beings with the same purpose for freedom. Do not place ideology above anybody's human life, including a starving child in another country. And, if you are having a child and your life is in trouble, know that abortion does not make you a murderer. Jewish law claims that the mother is more significant than the child. It is better to save the mother so that she can have more children. There are difficult questions to be asked under this commandment, I realize.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
I hope to keep off the television as long as possible. Every reality show I see breaks this commandment, and when I see a beautiful woman in a store, I lust as everybody does. I need to work on this commandment, too, and treat human beings as my brothers and sister and place my wife on a different level, for she represents a union manifested between two divine souls. We are one, and if I cannot bring this passion of unity within my marriage, then how do I create that same passion of unity between the Supreme Mover and me. Marriage is a sacred act or union between two human beings, and it should be treated as such. If two gay men find this unity as well, I see no reason why God will not place his hands upon them and love them, too!
8.You shall not steal.
This one drives me crazy because all I see surrounding the United States is greed. Corporate greed. Government greed. Ideological Greed. Everything is a negotiation, and even a negotiation itself is a form of greed to me. Let's stop negotiating rules to provide this country or that country with a little more or less until a compromise is reached. Let's look at what is right. Moses did not negotiate out of greed with the Pharaoh. He stuck to the terms. He said, "Let all of my people go." Men, women, elderly, and children. All slaves leave. All slaves deserve their opportunity for success. What a message of truth Moses brings to us today! How do we replicate that truth in a world that steals?
9. You shall not bear false witness.
Do not lie. Tell the truth. I follow this one closely, and I realize that people do not like to hear the truth. It hurts their feelings, but the truth may unravel a psychological pattern that needs to be evaluated. Telling the truth does not mean you do not love a fellow human being. It does not mean you are being critical. It simply means that you care about a person, but we must be careful catching ourselves in some game of ego madness. We should be asked our opinion and deliver it carefully to the other person with great thought. And, we should not gossip!
10. You shall not covet.
I mentioned materialism already, and I and the rest of the world struggles with this idea. I believe this idea of protecting the U.S. against terrorist threats can lead to a kind of coveting. We want to covet our freedom. Freedom, however, is a wonderful thing to protect, but we have to be careful how we talk about freedom to ourselves and other countries. Otherwise, we might end up in a war that seems endless where people die for a cause that could have been solved in different directions. We are coveting the stock market at the moment, too. We are coveting an economic recovery. Yes, people are out of work, and the richer of us needs to step up and give up their gold to the poor. This is our shining moment, but I am afraid we will always latch on to the current political environment instead of loving each person equally beyond corporate commodities.
--JINGLETT
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Indifferent Freedom
I can only speak of selfish places
Like reading your histories in bookstores
Peace talks from Egypt and Palestinian ghettos.
Israel and Palestine, you are precious stones
Waiting for your family reunion to place
Emphasis on your price for family gold,
But a spectator this season, I read alone
The novel of your consistent anger.
Should I keep holding your striking pages
Or turn to more familiar books:
Hollywood endings with predictable hooks?
--Jinglett
Monday, May 25, 2009
The Divine Pool
I am ready to swim in the divine pool. We are made in the image of our Creator, and that image is a bountiful lake of love.
Sometimes we stand on the earth too long looking at the waves as detterents to our destiny. The sand warms our feet to watch to swim!
Cultures place rules upon our lakes: no fishing. Or, the oil companies and other corporations poison our rivers and oceans and once clear springs. Our vision is murky, and we no longer stare at the lake's endless beauty. Nor can we feel the intensity of light and rain above us expressing themselves as rainbows across the polluted horizon.
But, a rainbow will spread on a clear-coming day!
"Come," they say, "the water is fine!"
Upon death, I will swim like a fish. Become the diving dolphin. Shift into the golden eagle and fly beyond earth's hemisphere. There, I will surpass the rain and lightning to cross over a waterfall of the sky's boundless falling away.
There, I meet my image--the Creator and the water--and God, with no figure, urges me to join his rainbow trout without scuba gear. I, then, am breathing the water's oxygen through the gill's of my formless energy.
I am swimming in God's pool of divine love. Naked and unafraid!
--Jinglett
Sometimes we stand on the earth too long looking at the waves as detterents to our destiny. The sand warms our feet to watch to swim!
Cultures place rules upon our lakes: no fishing. Or, the oil companies and other corporations poison our rivers and oceans and once clear springs. Our vision is murky, and we no longer stare at the lake's endless beauty. Nor can we feel the intensity of light and rain above us expressing themselves as rainbows across the polluted horizon.
But, a rainbow will spread on a clear-coming day!
"Come," they say, "the water is fine!"
Upon death, I will swim like a fish. Become the diving dolphin. Shift into the golden eagle and fly beyond earth's hemisphere. There, I will surpass the rain and lightning to cross over a waterfall of the sky's boundless falling away.
There, I meet my image--the Creator and the water--and God, with no figure, urges me to join his rainbow trout without scuba gear. I, then, am breathing the water's oxygen through the gill's of my formless energy.
I am swimming in God's pool of divine love. Naked and unafraid!
--Jinglett
Sunday, May 17, 2009
She is the Dao
A true Daoist does not know she is a Daoist! For, how could she?
A Daoist lives in the moment, and as soon as the moment is clarified, she is no longer living in the moment!
She is limitless like the wind sometimes calm and other times exciting like the beginning of a tornado!
She reaches her hands to us all and touches us with grace, even though she knows nothing about her gift only we breathe on our own accord.
She cannot be exhausted, though she is exhausted without knowing why.
She looks at work as a mysterious gloom, for work is hierarchy and division and superiority--all things that Dao is not!
Wisdom rests in her without distinction, without division, without hierarchy. She is the Dao of the Dao!
She owns her inner power like a dancing machine resolving inaction with action and twirling circles around the room to good music or the thoughts in her head.
She is like a feather falling from the sky as the wind moves it in every direction. And, though her brain cannot tap into the twists and turns, she allows the focus to focus itself, for controlling it too much only causes the feather to fly away!
She judges not, nor enters the realm of disagreement or delusional thinking, for in the world of worlds, there is anger, frustration, and conflict all hurdling itself at pain instead of divine wisdom of joy within herself!
She has a name and no name, too, for she is the indefinable no-name we long to hear! She walks the circle of life looking and touching the flowers and not calling them daisy, peonie, or lily. For, naming the nameless resolves the beauty of touching it completely!
She is vital energy, the life force and matter within herself, driving in a direction with pure energy from the heart and soul. She lifts up others to our vital energy, and we fly along like birds with her divinity!
She is the divine feminine--the yin within ourselves humbling coming to the surface to celebrate our dreams as the moon fills up and empties from cycle to cycle or from one lunar year to the next without counting time once.
She is perfect harmony like an algebraic equation or some Einsteinian vision of light and optics we dare not understand, though we all know the formula.
She demands no riches and lives simply in her boundlessness without rules and with the reciprocity of love binding us all to her gravity springs!
She is the dao and does not know it!
--JINGLETT
A Daoist lives in the moment, and as soon as the moment is clarified, she is no longer living in the moment!
She is limitless like the wind sometimes calm and other times exciting like the beginning of a tornado!
She reaches her hands to us all and touches us with grace, even though she knows nothing about her gift only we breathe on our own accord.
She cannot be exhausted, though she is exhausted without knowing why.
She looks at work as a mysterious gloom, for work is hierarchy and division and superiority--all things that Dao is not!
Wisdom rests in her without distinction, without division, without hierarchy. She is the Dao of the Dao!
She owns her inner power like a dancing machine resolving inaction with action and twirling circles around the room to good music or the thoughts in her head.
She is like a feather falling from the sky as the wind moves it in every direction. And, though her brain cannot tap into the twists and turns, she allows the focus to focus itself, for controlling it too much only causes the feather to fly away!
She judges not, nor enters the realm of disagreement or delusional thinking, for in the world of worlds, there is anger, frustration, and conflict all hurdling itself at pain instead of divine wisdom of joy within herself!
She has a name and no name, too, for she is the indefinable no-name we long to hear! She walks the circle of life looking and touching the flowers and not calling them daisy, peonie, or lily. For, naming the nameless resolves the beauty of touching it completely!
She is vital energy, the life force and matter within herself, driving in a direction with pure energy from the heart and soul. She lifts up others to our vital energy, and we fly along like birds with her divinity!
She is the divine feminine--the yin within ourselves humbling coming to the surface to celebrate our dreams as the moon fills up and empties from cycle to cycle or from one lunar year to the next without counting time once.
She is perfect harmony like an algebraic equation or some Einsteinian vision of light and optics we dare not understand, though we all know the formula.
She demands no riches and lives simply in her boundlessness without rules and with the reciprocity of love binding us all to her gravity springs!
She is the dao and does not know it!
--JINGLETT
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Friday, May 15, 2009
Peace in Middle East
Interesting Solution. No, I have never heard this one before.
Peace in the Middle East needs to come from the MIDDLE EAST.
Not Obama.
Not the Pope.
Not the Europeans.
Yes, I seem naive. Wouldn't that wipe out Israel? Uh, no!
There are intelligent people in the Middle East.
There are Christians, Muslims, Jews, Bahai's, Zoroastrianisms, etc.
There are scientists, historians, artists, filmmakers, politicians, and smart people.
Yeah, I know you are surprised by that!
Many have an ethnocentric bias.
Remember the Muslims saved Greek philosophy and science and invented Algebra!
Peace in the Middle East needs to come from the Middle East.
Did I just repeat myself?
Peace in the Middle East needs to come from the MIDDLE EAST.
Not Obama.
Not the Pope.
Not the Europeans.
Yes, I seem naive. Wouldn't that wipe out Israel? Uh, no!
There are intelligent people in the Middle East.
There are Christians, Muslims, Jews, Bahai's, Zoroastrianisms, etc.
There are scientists, historians, artists, filmmakers, politicians, and smart people.
Yeah, I know you are surprised by that!
Many have an ethnocentric bias.
Remember the Muslims saved Greek philosophy and science and invented Algebra!
Peace in the Middle East needs to come from the Middle East.
Did I just repeat myself?
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