Ahimsa: Agreeing to Disagree

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Solomon 2:8-13

The voice of my beloved!
Look, he comes,
leaping upon the mountains,
bounding over the hills.
My beloved is like a gazelle
or a young stag.
Look, there he stands
behind our wall,
gazing in at the windows,
looking through the lattice.
My beloved speaks and says to me:
"Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away;
for now the winter is past,
the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth;
the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtledove
is heard in our land.
The fig tree puts forth its figs,
and the vines are in blossom;
they give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away."

James 1:19-21 You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God's righteousness. Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.

Mark 7:14-15 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”

Sometimes the best any of us can do is agree to disagree.  In the excerpts from this week's scripture reading above we find a call to listen and not speak, and without anger. To be meek in all of this. We are reminded that the things that come out of us are what can defile. And all of this starts with a great reminder to love, this reminder to love touched me so much that I selected it to be read at my wedding 38 years ago. The other two passages do reflect the nature of communication within a marriage.  You won't always agree, but listen and learn, then slowly speak.  Reactive fighting accomplishes nothing.  This can be widened out for use in all our communication.  To me is summed by the idea of responding not reacting, as discussed in the Tara Brach Video below. Her three invitations guide me away from anger often: “1. Please don’t believe your thoughts, 2. Please pause and come back to presence, 3. Please remember love.”

It is very hard to live in a world where members of one family can all have different opinions about the issues of the day. But if we can find a way to always remember love even though we disagree then we can still find our way back to family or friendship.  In the heat of the moment though it is easy to feel powerless to find a road to navigate. “Feeling powerless leads to outward aggression in the form of frustration and anger, or withdrawal inward into depression and victimization. We fear our own power and we often feel trapped at our sense of powerlessness. By powerless, I mean those times we feel like we’ve run out of choices. We’ve run out of options and we are feeling totally incompetent to deal with the challenge at hand. At these times, we may feel like a caged animal, trapped and ready to spring. Whether we respond with anger, withdrawal, frustration, or resignation, there is a way in which our mind shuts down, as if we are riding a train through a dark tunnel and we can’t see anything but darkness and anxiety.

Ahimsa, or nonviolence, invites us to question the feeling of powerlessness rather than accept it. When we feel powerless, we have forgotten how much choice we really have. We have a choice to take action and we have a choice to change the story we are telling ourselves about our powerlessness. Instead of sulking in the feeling of powerlessness, we can ask, “What do I need to do right now to feel competent to handle this situation?” During these times, we can also jumpstart ourselves by remembering past times when we successfully handled a challenging situation while remaining loving and whole and then trying to find that feeling.

I have found three ways of thinking that shift me out of a feeling of powerlessness: practicing gratitude, trust in the moment, and thinking about others.” (Adele) All three of these ways are expressed in the Song of Solomon or in the three invitations.

To all those I may have been reactive to in the past, instead of responsive, I am profoundly sorry.

Namaste

 

Adele, Deborah. The Yamas & Niyamas : Exploring Yoga's Ethical Practice, Created from berry on 2021-08-29 19:16:16.

Photo from Wedding Program for Beth and Terry Hughes

 

 

Agape Namaste

Easter 6 Year B

John 15:9-17

Jesus said to his disciples, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”

Easter 7 Year B

John 17:6-19

Jesus prayed for his disciples, “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.”

Please excuse my absence last week. To make it up this week I have presented last week’s and this week’s Gospels together.  Both are from the Gospel of John.  Historically, “The congregation [that wrote John] was engaged in the task of defining themselves with regard to other Christians, the Jews, and the world at large. There are signals that the church has felt forced into adopting a defensive and competitive posture. Still, they are committed to being a community of love in an environment where they are hated and persecuted by others.”*  The similarities to the present day is noticeable.  We are still defensive, competitive, hateful, and persecuted, yet ever striving for love.

The first Gospel, from Chapter 15, focuses on Agape Love.  From Wikipedia “Agape (Ancient Greek ἀγάπη, agapē) is a Greco-Christian term referring to unconditional love, "the highest form of love, charity" and "the love of God for man and of man for God".”  In John’s timeline this chapter falls during the Last Supper. “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” This is a foreshadowing of events to come, the Crucifixion of Jesus, the ultimate gift of love Jesus gives to us all. Yet even this does not end our evil ways.

The second Gospel is Jesus’ final prayer for his disciples.  In this Gospel it is the last time he addresses the whole group of disciples.  Jesus draws parallels between his connection to God the Father, Jesus and the disciples, and the disciples and all the people of the world. Jesus even says, “All mine are yours, and yours are mine.” The idea of agape love toward others comes shining through in these connections.  In my love of the Venn diagram I visualize this as circles all overlapping in various ways, yet all contained within one circle as Jesus’ view of a connected loving world.  No matter our religion, Jesus loves us.  His example during his life of love for the sick, diseased, male and female, prostitute, eunuch, Samaritan, Gentile, Roman, and Jew show us he does not separate people on the basis of race, sex, nationality, or even religion. Jesus loves us all. If his prayer is to be followed then we are not to be “taken out of the world” but to stay in the world, spreading and following Jesus’ example of agape love.  But somewhere along the way we as individuals always lose sight of this. We even judge and separate ourselves within Christianity.  

In my work as a yoga therapist, I don’t judge anyone on the basis of anything, and that is hard as I tend to be a judgmental person.  But when I am working all of that goes away.  You are a person worthy of my help no matter what you bring into the session.  I leave my prejudices at the door.  I am doing my part “to protect them from the evil one” by bring health and healing through yoga.

Like most people though, I fight my own prejudices outside of work.  The church I have chosen is one of the most welcoming of Christian denominations. I struggle with those that do not fully welcome all.  I struggle even with my own denomination not welcoming non-Christians to the table, although we don’t ask either (*wink wink*). I struggle with inhuman treatment of animals too. But I had to give up vegetarianism for health reasons. We live in a world where survival of the fittest is the mantra. But what if we all raised each other up and treated all with dignity?  What if we all really viewed ourselves as part of one world circle of unity rather than a bunch of sometimes overlapping circles of segregation? I don’t have any answers, but I try to lead with love. Namaste - the good in me bows and honors to good in you.

*Introducing the New Testament by Mark Allan Powell P176

 

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