God is Love

John 20:1-18    

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?”   Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Holy Week is always rough for me. Partly because of what is happening in Judaeo-Christianity during this time and all that is represented. But personally I have had some extremely rough times during this week that got indelibly engraved on my heart because it was Holy Week, I can't unremember when they happened. This year is one such year.  I'm thankful that there were more opportunities in this week the read and hear teachings, they always bring me back to life and love by Easter. Here are some of highlights from this year and my thoughts:

"Love is unconditional. We love even those who betray us, we love even those who deny us, we love even those who abandoned us.  And we are called to love with the same extravagance as Mary Magdalene.  We are called to love even in the face of difficulty and death because we know at some point in life we are Judas, and at some point in life we are Peter, at some point we are the disciples that scatter, and at some point we love darkness more than light.  And yet Jesus never abandons us.  He still serves us, still forgives us, still washes us clean. And then bids us to do the same; to serve, to forgive, to engage in the cleansing act of loving neighbor.  Even when they or we are at our worst." -Fr. John Herring

Start at 27:30:

This. No matter how angry or sad I get, love is always available.  How wonderful to experience both. As I stated last week it is hard to deeply appreciate love without having had the opposite experience.  If all you have ever experienced is love, then where is the appreciation of love, the deepness of love, the understanding of exactly what it means to be loved or to love? God is love and where true love is God is there.

"Easter reminds us dramatically that when it’s God’s will, you can betray it, arrest it, whip it, spit on it, push nails in it, hang it on a tree until it dies and bury it underground and still, shockingly, God will defiantly resuscitate it...The center holds because love is the most durable substance in the world. And, God’s way to reveal the center, the real center, is to dismantle by love and with love everything that is not love. Now that’s power! True power! God is love. And since love-power is energy, it generates energy. We call that energy hope. And since, everything but love ultimately is frail and failed, we are right to hope in God. So we apply God’s words and ways to our real lives" -Bishop Wright.

To me this also points out a big wondering I've always had. What is the difference between resurrection and reincarnation? I think it boils down to energy and body. In resurrection the miracle is the body and "love-hope-energy" returning. In reincarnation there is no body only "love-hope-energy".   How can we define this love-hope-energy further? Perhaps there is a movement of energy into another or something else. As discussed in Thích Nhất Hạnh's text on the Heart Sutra*, surely, as the physical body decomposes naturally, we see that transformation to other life. But what about the energy?  I like to think that it goes into our children, grandchildren, our friends, co-workers, the work we created, the love we shared, etc. as love and memories. Our love and influences on others continue forward as part of our own energetic reincarnation or partial resurrection. It is up to each of us to decide how much of ourselves goes forward beyond the body. It is up to us to love.

Namaste and Happy Easter

 

*The Heart of Understanding: Commentaries on the Prajñaparamita Heart Sutra by Thich Nhat Hanh

 

Inter-Being and the Trinity

Gate’ Gate’ Paragate’ Parasamgate’ Bodhisvaha.  This is a popular Mantra in Yoga and is part of the Prajnaparamita or the Heart Sutra.  Mantra is a popular word in the west. Often debated is its pronunciation.  But never debated is its usefulness in life.  At times of trouble we all have our go to mantra or collection of sounds repeated to aid in concentration or meditation.  Words can be healing; sound and vibration can be healing.  Sanskrit is thought to be a language of sounds and vibration.  You can understand the meaning of the words by the way they make you feel, not knowing what the words are. Try experiencing it before we discuss its meaning… I was singing this mantra at the exact moment my father died, go here to experience https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-dRyzwv2jw .  I was not with him.  He was in Myrtle Beach, SC and I was in Rome, GA. I knew his death was imminent, but not the exact moment it would come.  I called to check on him as I finished singing and was told he had just died.

My deep understanding and love for this mantra began not only with Deva Premal’s beautiful voice but also with the poetic and beautiful teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay) a Vietnamese Buddhist Monk that Martin Luther King, Jr. once nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work during the Paris Peace Talks. He still lives but in a post-stroke world, contributing what he can.  His mere presence is a joy to me.  But, as I have learned from Thay, he will always be present. As the law of the conservation of mass states: Matter cannot be created nor destroyed (Lavoisier). This scientific concept is at the root of Thay’s beautiful interpretation of the Heart Sutra in the small text The Heart of Understanding.  I reread it this weekend and took a deep dive. If I were to sum it up in a word that word would be a new one Thay uses in this book, “Inter-be.”  To inter-be means you understand the connection between all living things.  He lays out example after example of this: A piece of paper contains sunshine, trees, a logger, his breakfast, his parents, all the things that contributed to that making of the sheet of paper.  Or if a glass is empty it must be empty of something, therefore, is it empty? Or your body/form had a life long before you [son] remember it, it came from your parents [father], grandparents, great-grandparents, the plants and animals [Holy Spirit] you consume to make up your present form, the former lives of those plants and animals. Meditate on your face, before you were born. A leaf is both child and mother to the tree. Nothing is born or dies, everything is, we all inter-are.  Here are my rough notes sequentially taken as I re-read this weekend….

Notes on the Heart of Understanding

Paper. Inter-be. Empty of what? Nothing. No separate self. Full of everything. Penetrate or be that which we want to understand. Emptiness is impermanence. Everything is changing. Nothing is born or dies. Dharma/things are changing - form changes - forms of being are different - forms have history beyond this form that we don't know anything about. To say you don't know is the beginning of knowing. Do you see the link between you and me? If you are not there, I am not here.  As I leave… I will wave… I will see you very soon. Life IN, not OF [“I am IN the Father and the Father is IN Me” John 14:11]. Emptiness is an optimistic word. No longer subject to fear. You Have always been here. Rose and garbage: transform into each other, inter-are. Wealth and poverty: inter-are. Good and evil: inter-are. A speck of dust contains the whole universe. Understanding made of non-understanding. Buddha made of non-Buddha. Buddha and Mara (devil­). Mara wanting to be Buddha, Buddha it's not all great to be me. Understanding interbeing is liberating, removes fears, allows Nirvana. Gone-gate’-empty. Empty of what? No separation, just change, enlightenment alleluia. Everything is interconnected what I do affects you.  Gone Gone Gone all the way over, everyone gone to the other shore, oh what Enlightenment! Hallelujah! Gate’ Gate’ Paragate’ Parasamgate’ Bodhisvaha.

It is my opinion that on some level St. Stephen understood this Heart Sutra and that is was led to his stoning.  In the first few verses he mentions trinitarian concepts, perhaps for the first time all together.  No one understands Stephen, therefore they stone him to death.  But did he die? Would St. Stephen consider himself dead?  He repeats words very similar to Jesus’ last words. In saying “receive my spirit” is there an implication of inter-being?

This week’s readings use the concept of stones, rocks, houses, places, and dwellings in various ways.  At one point even using the term “living stone.” We don’t think of stones as living.  But as Thay points out there is no birth or death, we simply change forms. We inter-are with everything.  With all the mass that makes up this Earth.

Here is my own, not so poetic metaphor: This week I will participate in a webinar in which my anatomy teacher will be leading us through an unfixed dissection of a human teacher, or FORM. We will watch this form begin to transFORM.  Some of this form will stay with me. Some will stay with everyone participating in this experience. Some will be cremated and continue the journey of this form to its next form, its next dwelling place or room or rock or living stone.

I struggle very little with the concept of the Trinity.  Looking at the conservation of mass – earthside, beautifully interpreted by the Heart Sutra, seeing the connection of all, makes it very easy to see the connection of God in the Trinity in the father, son, and holy spirit. The inter-being of all, “the way, the truth, and the life.”

 

Acts 7:55-60

Filled with the Holy Spirit, Stephen gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he died.

 

Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16

1 In you, O Lord, have I taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; * deliver me in your righteousness.

2 Incline your ear to me; * make haste to deliver me.

3 Be my strong rock, a castle to keep me safe, for you are my crag and my stronghold; * for the sake of your Name, lead me and guide me.

4 Take me out of the net that they have secretly set for me, * for you are my tower of strength.

5 Into your hands I commend my spirit, * for you have redeemed me, O Lord, O God of truth.

15 My times are in your hand; * rescue me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me.

16 Make your face to shine upon your servant, * and in your loving-kindness save me."

 

1 Peter 2:2-10

Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture: “See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner”,  And “A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.  But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

 

John 14:1-14

Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

 

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”

 

The Heart of Understanding PDF by Thich Nhat Hanh https://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/Thich%20Nhat%20Hanh%20-%20The%20Heart%20of%20Understanding.pdf