Karen Armstrong on Religion as Unknowing

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.




In this wonderful lecture, Karen Armstrong tackles the big questions and determines that there are no answers -- not if you're doing it right. As I wrote yesterday, embracing unknowing is a key to dismantling oppressive hierarchy and abuses of power. And willingness to embrace mystery is the pathway to God.

What is God? The former nun recalls the answer she learnt in catechism: "God is the supreme spirit who alone exists of himself and is infinite in all perfections." That answer, while far too heady for an eight year old, is still too limiting to be meaningful. Instead Armstrong turns to the teachings of Maimonides, Avicenna, and Thomas Aquinas whose thoughts on the matter she paraphrases.

God is not the supreme spirit. God is not the supreme being. God is not a being at all. God is being itself.

What is religion? Again, there is no simple answer according to Armstrong. Religious experience shouldn't be definable. It should defy explanation.

In the pre-modern world, good theology was meant to tip you into a moment of transcendence and silence where you realized that you'd gone beyond the reach of words and concepts. Because our minds are tuned to transcendence.

In the modern world, she argues, we've turned religion into a "head trip" rather than the experience of living myth and mystery. Scripture can't be read as literal truth. But myth does not mean falsehood. It is, she says, "more than history." When we enact myth in ritual and ceremony we internalize the power of those myths and are fundamentally changed by them.

Armstrong's lecture was part of a program on the compassion initiative she spearheaded in 2009. I'll be the first to admit that I when I first learned of the Charter for Compassion I thought the idea might be too abstract to have any practical impact. But according to Armstrong the project has exceeded expectations in numerous arenas around the globe.

One of my personal favorites is the prison reform project that trains prison officers to treat inmates with more respect and care. When it was put into practice in a jail in Washington State, the goal was to decrease violence by 2.5 percent; in fact the project was so successful that violence was decreased by 100 percent. Now the creators are evaluating just what the federal government could save by implementing this program across the United States. Additionally, Louisville Kentucky and Berkeley California are just two of the cities exploring restorative justice programs as part of their cities' compassionate programs.

Among our partners are both scientific and medical researchers. Stanford University's Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education is conducting research into mapping compassion in the brain and developing compassion training programs; for adults. In Holland, an impassioned group of medical students have written a charter focused on medical ethics and compassion in healthcare. They are working to make compassion training a required part of the medical school curriculum.

We are connected by the Internet in a fashion as never before. To take advantage of that opportunity we have launched a new website. It will provide practical tools and a meeting place for people from all over the world who are interested in creating and sustaining a more compassionate world. If we all became active upholders of the Golden Rule in our daily lives, in our political lives, in our cities, we could combat the voices the extremisms and hatred that are tearing us apart and endangering us all. We could create a better, more just, more respectful society and world. We can do it and we must do it.

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Time Monk Clif High on Release Language Waves

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

According to Clif High we are, indeed, in a prolonged release language period as predicted. Here he characterizes that language as being indicative of the breakdown of the societal hierarchy. This little lecture is long on pontification and short on specifics in terms as to how these changes are showing up in the linguistic data. However, it's an interesting exercise and I certainly would like to believe it's true that this is what's occurring. If you had asked me in the 80s and 90s what I thought the near future held, you would have heard me say that it would be the breakdown of the patriarchal, hierarchical structure and the reemergence of more matriarchal patterns. There were certain astrological precursors which I was following in the 90s, specifically a grand cross in 1999 that I was observing very closely -- and experientially -- that was predicted by some astrologers as initiating the breakdown of the most entrenched and hidebound institutions. (Something about how it impacted Taurus. Bear with me. I'm not an astrologer.) Anyway, that is precisely what occurred throughout the aughts, and began in earnest following 9/11. So, according to High, we've reached a certain threshold or critical mass point in this process and that is what the release language is all about. And, as discussed, he previously pointed to the Kony 2012 phenomenon as an indicator.

There is much that jibes with my perceptions in this particular rumination of High's, which is certainly not always the case. I do not buy into his paranoid fear of Masons and the like, but then I never do.

I am absolutely with him on the importance of "unknowing." I've been been pushing for a Socratic "I know that I don't know" model for a very long time. I absolutely agree with him that the desire for certitude leads ultimately to abuses of power. This is something I contemplated a great deal when I was blogging the James Ray sweat lodge trial and what High posits as the dangers of cults of personality was exemplified about perfectly in that tragedy.

"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer." ~ Rainer Maria Rilke, from Letters to a Young Poet

High also talks about how trauma is used by the "powers that be" as a tool of manipulation. There is definitely some truth in this. How much of it is deliberate, I can't say. But the effects of trauma cause enmeshment at the microcosmic and macrocosmic levels. And the emotional wounds of unhealed trauma make people much easier to exploit by those who might be inclined to exploit them -- like, say, James Arthur Ray.

Coincidentally, Christina Pratt's most recent broadcast addressed the issue of healing trauma. It is a brilliant, must-hear show on how unhealed trauma weakens us as individuals and how ill-equipped the western model is to deal with it, as compared to indigenous cultures. So many of us are limping through life because of trauma that was  not well handled at the point of origin and most of our accepted therapeutic models say straight-out that things like PTSD and sex-abuse issues are difficult to treat and can never be completely healed -- a position Pratt dismisses as simply unacceptable.

One thing I have yet to see addressed by High -- perhaps I've missed it -- is any explanation of the data gap which was predicted to hit the hard wall on March 15. I will say this though. I can't help noticing that High's servers were down during this period due to his associate "Igor" moving or something. He's been gradually getting his spiders going again as demonstrated in these little "wujo" lectures. So there certainly was a gap in his gathering of data this month. How that relates to the increasing holes over the coming months I can't say. High not running his spiders for whatever reason was always one possible explanation for the data gap. But it could also turn out to be a number of different things and I wouldn't rule out solar flares or other causes as we move forward. I, for one, am glad we still have the Internet, writ large, but I'm also not willing to get too comfortable on that score.

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Around the Web, Around the World

"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Shamanism and Healing from Trauma

The ancients understood that soul loss could occur as a result of trauma, warfare, sorcery, accidents, or abuse. So simple and deep was this understanding that soul retrieval was often the place to start the healing process. Today, soul retrieval is often the last resort when nothing else succeeds and the individual is desperate to clear the energy of a past trauma before they lose everything that they hold dear in life. Uncleared trauma becomes a chronic trigger for our fight or flight fear response, creating a host of real physical diseases and pains. Uncleared trauma shapes our outlook on life in a way that leads to inaccurate decision-making, addiction, mental unwellness, and self-destructive behaviors that wear at our most intimate relationships and destroy our connection to our true self. But what is trauma really? And why are we so resistant today to giving our selves what we need to heal the traumatic events of our lives? Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt as she explores a variety of ways shamanic healing effectively repairs what is set asunder in trauma and the rich variety of effective clearing work offered today to restore the body and soul to unity and wholeness.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012 at 11:00 AM Pacific

Log on to Listen
Why Shamanism Now? on Co-Creator Network
Questions? Comments? Call: 1-512-772-1938

All episodes are now available in the iTunes Podcast Library.

Just Energy Radio

Scott Alan Roberts: The Untold Story of Fallen Angels

Scott Alan Roberts joins Dr. Rita Louise on Just Energy Radio where he will discuss the Nephilim - the fallen angels.

About Scott Alan Roberts
Scott Alan Roberts is the founder and executive editorial director of Intrepid Magazine, a journal dedicated to politics, science, and unexplained phenomena. He is a radio show host, popular public speaker, and stand-up philosopher. He attended Bible college and theological seminary, working toward his master's in Divinity, but left for a 33-year career in advertising and publishing h. He is the author and illustrator of The Rollicking Adventures of Tam O'Hare, a historical novel set in Tudor England, Ireland, and Scotland. He lives in rural Wisconsin with his wife and children.

Fri, Mar 30, 2012 03:00PM ET

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/just-energy-radio

Awake: Now What?

Meet Dianne Collins, VIsionary, Author, Quantum Thinker

“My entire life has been devoted to the question: what is the access to creating the results we truly desire? From studying everything from physics to metaphysics I made a few life altering discoveries that led me to create the QuantumThink® model—a system of thinking comprised of principles and practices that make it quick and easy for anyone to live the wisdom of science and spirituality in everyday life—not just to know the principles—to embody them.” – Dianne Collins

Dianne Collins is a modern visionary, an original thinker, an authority in new world view thinking and the creator and author of the QuantumThink® system of thinking, an unprecedented body of knowledge based in the principles of quantum science and universal laws applied as practical wisdom in all areas of life. Her highly acclaimed new book, Do You QuantumThink? New Thinking That Will Rock Your World is achieving popular viral status; as was stated by renowned attorney, Roy Black, “This book should be required reading by all literate human beings.”

Dianne is a graduate of the University of Miami in Philosophy and Psychology and a lifelong student of Siddha Yoga and numerous leading edge modalities and models that make life better and more joyful. Her varied experiences as a Fortune 100 corporate manager, an award-winning photographic artist, a video producer, and currently as a consultant to business executives and entrepreneurs, all contribute to her extraordinary gift of originality and ability to express complex universal subjects in clear and powerful ways that benefit people instantly. She provides a big picture view that makes sense of the changes all around us and makes it entertaining and enjoyable to think effectively in sync with today’s world.

For more information go to http://diannecollins.com/

Sun, Apr 1, 2012 06:00PM ET

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/awake

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Earthquakes and Earth Weirdness

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

The earth seems to be shaking, rattling, and rolling in both explained an unexplained ways with increasing frequency. A week of major earthquakes -- Mexico (7.4), Chile (7.1), Fiji (5.1), Japan (5.2), Australia (5.6), Turkey (5.2), Russia (5.3) Indonesia (6.2) New Guinea (6.6), etc. -- while not thoroughly surprising in the wake of recent solar storms, is concerning all the same. If I lived in a seismic area, like say California, I'd be really on edge.

Stranger than the quakes are new reports of the metallic, rattling sounds that have been the subject of discussion for some time. Posted above is a Dreamland interview with Linda Moulton Howe who has a very detailed report on an off-the-charts sound experience in Wisconsin and something very similar in Georgia. Howe interviewed city administrator Lisa Kuss who gave a very thorough rundown on everything that was not the cause of the extremely loud booming and banging noises that had rattled residents in their shoes. But after methodically discounting every possibility from earthquakes to water systems to mining to military activity, Kuss did a complete turnaround at a local meeting and blamed a 1.5 earthquake some 30 miles away. It is a laughable suggestion. But it sounds like the price tag for the research into the phenomenon was getting a tad high, which could explain the urgency to put the matter to rest.

I learned this morning that there was 3.1 quake not 40 miles from me last night. I felt and heard nothing. To put it another way, if a 1.5 quake could cause days of ongoing sounds like trains colliding, as one resident described it, the state of California would be unlivable for the continuous racket.

A typical day in California

At least for me, the matter remains without satisfactory explanation... kind of like the spate of dead birds which plummeted from the skies a little over a year ago. The final explanation offered on that one? Impact. With what? Who can say? Maybe the 1,000+ birds that all died at once in Arkansas did so after they flew into various things because they were so upset by fireworks, and that's official. No one had ever set off unlicensed fireworks in Arkansas before, I guess. And only in Arkansas are birds so freaked out by them. Other birds are pretty impervious to fireworks, hence the paucity of sudden bird deaths every other New Years Eve and Fourth of July. This stuff just insults my intelligence.

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Paul Levy on the Collective Shadow

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

I've referenced Tibetan Buddhist and healer Paul Levy before -- notably in my review of The Secret. Levy's essays are available on his site Awaken in the Dream and in his book The Madness of George W. Bush: A Reflection of our Collective Psychosis. In his newest book Wetiko, Levy continues to explore the projected shadow as a collective phenomenon and the Native American mythical embodiment of it known as wetiko to the Cree. Years ago, I watched a movie called Wendigo, another Algonquian name for the same phenomenon. It's a haunting film that brilliantly captures the sense of doom we experience at those times when life is turned upside down leaving us at the mercy of an unfolding fate that seems to have its own agenda. As Levy explains, we actually animate this darkness run amok from our suppressed shadow. The more in denial of our shadow we are, the more inevitably we will confront it as a seemingly alien entity in our reflective world.

One of the things that struck me in this Red Ice Radio interview is Levy's anecdote about a New Age bookstore that wanted him to appear but not talk about all that shadow stuff. They wanted it to be "positive." It put me in mind of another author who dared to write about the painful side of spiritual growth; Rabbi Yonassan Gershom who wrote about Holocaust reincarnates.  Said Gershom:

Then in 1984 I was invited to speak on Jewish mysticism at the annual Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship (SFF) retreat at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. SFF is an eclectic group of spiritually oriented people who are interested in psychic phenomena, and most believe in reincarnation. Here, I thought, would be a receptive audience for these case histories that I had been gathering. So I suggested "Cases of Holocaust Reincarnation" as my topic.

I was turned down flat. The SFF representative explained that the theme of the retreat would be "I Am the Light," and they wanted to focus on uplifting, positive material because that's what people expected. The Holocaust was just too heavy and depressing, and might upset people, even if I were talking about reincarnation. Couldn't I do something more inspiring, like a Sabbath liturgy?

This relentless focus on the upbeat and cheerful is not just naive. It's dangerous -- something I've written about ad nauseam, ad infinitum. And as Levy has been explaining brilliantly for years, it can unleash terrors beyond our conscious imagining.

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Reflections on the Vernal Equinox

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

First Robins of... um... February

This year I'm just finding the first day of spring a little weird. Mainly because we had no discernible winter and it's been spring for weeks. March has been marked by temps as high as the mid '80s, high humidity, and the need for air conditioning. The flowering trees in our neighborhood are in full bloom. My daughter has been running around in her summer clothes for weeks and merrily snapping pictures of flowers and birds.

As the cherry blossoms in the nation's capital are hitting a bizarrely early peak, school was closed in Flagstaff Arizona because of a blizzard that also closed parts of the interstate. Marine Corps friends of ours in the Southern California desert have also been having snow this week. Weird, weird, weird.

Hyacinth Blossoms ~ Early March

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Around the Web, Around the World

"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

A Field's Guide to Shamanism with Colleen Deatsman

"Shamans cannot undertake personal healing, action in the world, and service to the community using only their personal life-fore energy; they must harness the more powerful energies of nature, spirit and the nonordinary worlds," explains our guest, Colleen Deatsman. "To practice shamanism in modern culture and our own home environment, we need only wake up to our awareness of self, nature, life-force energy, and spirit and reap the rich experience available to us in each moment." Join host, Christina Pratt, and the author of The Hollow Bone: A Field Guide to Shamanism as we explore self-healing, the unintentional things we do to disempower it, and how we can better support others in their own self-healing. Colleen has explored health, well-being and shamanic practice for 25 years and is the author of five books. She is our next guest for the Society of Shamanic Practitioners sponsored interview series. In this series we explore how contemporary shamans are meeting the challenge of their world where the relations of things are profoundly out of balance. It is the ancient role of the shaman in all cultures to tend the balance of things. How are these shamans meeting this extraordinary need today?

This week's guest:
Colleen Deatsman

Colleen Deatsman has been exploring health and wellness, self-healing, personal growth, spiritual development, and shamanic practice for over 25 years, earning a wide array of degrees, certifications, and licenses for numerous healing forms. She is the author of five books including The Hollow Bone: A Field Guide to Shamanism and Seeing in the Dark: Claim your own Shamanic Power Now and in the Coming Age. She offers trainings, workshops, and online classes in shamanism which can all be found through her website.

As a healer, Colleen knows from personal experience what it is like to be devastatingly ill, fatigued, depressed, frustrated, and lost. For ten years, Colleen was one of the hopeless who suffered from a chronic illness that traditional medicine could not effectively treat. Determined to live life fully again, she embarked on a journey of self-healing and spiritual awakening that led to complete recovery and a comprehensive program that benefits all who follow it.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012 at 11:00 AM Pacific

Log on to Listen
Why Shamanism Now? on Co-Creator Network
Questions? Comments? Call: 1-512-772-1938

All episodes are now available in the iTunes Podcast Library.

KarmaCaffe Spiritual Hour

Turning Pressure into Prosperity with Jim Allen

Denying pressure is a mistake - overcoming pressure is joy and freedom!
Jim Allen will clarify the 7 specific types of pressure we face in life and how to transform that pressure through "deliberate practices" - one of which is Jumping for Joy!

For 30 years, Jim Allen has taught thousands of kids and adults how to walk tall, achieve natural health, develop loving relationships, and create a higher quality of living. As a coach and healer, Jim is certified in martial arts, qigong therapy and energy medicine and integrates the spiritual power of prayer to clear away unconscious negativity and false programming in order to experience peace and freedom.

Wed, Mar 21, 2012 05:00PM ET
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/karmacaffe

Suzanne Toro

Daughters of Gaia...Live Broadcast

Join Jasmin Starrchild, Laurel Kitten and Suzanne Toro for an in depth discussion about MODERN MENSTRUATION.

Topics include:

Mother and Daughter Rites of Passage

Further exploring ceremonial menstruation

reasons to embrace your flow
... the importance of sisterhood
red tent / moon lodge
inspiring stories
personal prayers
"Daughters of Gaia" 13 month global prayer

Tune in and ask your personal questions live.

Wed, Mar 21, 2012 10:00PM ET

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/suzannetoro

Just Energy Radio

Velikovsky: Ancient Catastrophes & Personal Boundaries & Yo

Dr. Rita Louise will be joined on Just Energy Radio by two guests. In the first hour she will be speaking with Laird Scranton about the Ancient Catastrophes identified by Velikovsky. In the second hour she will be joined by Michael A. Jawer and Marc S. Micozzi where they will discuss how your health can be affected by your personal boundaries.

About Laird Scranton
Laird Scranton is an independent software designer from Albany, New York. He has lectured at Colgate University on two occasions to classes studying his books. He was invited to write three articles for Temple University's upcoming Encyclopedia of African Religion, and has a published article on Dogon cosmology in Anthropology News.

About Michael A. Jawer
Michael A. Jawer, an emotion researcher and writer based in Washington, DC, has been investigating the mind-body basis of personality and health for 15 years.

About Marc S. Micozzi
Marc S. Micozzi, MD, PhD, a national leader in the field of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), is adjunct professor of physiology and biophysics at the Georgetown University School of Medicine. He was the founding editor-in-chief of the first U.S. journal on the subject of CAM (in 1994), and he organized and edited the first U.S. textbook, Fundamentals of Complementary & Alternative Medicine.

Fri, Mar 23, 2012 03:00PM ET

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/just-energy-radio

Awake: Now What?

LGBTQ: Empowered and Free: Shine Your Light

Empowering the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community to embrace their authentic selves and ignite the power within.

Shine Your Light, Stand in Your Power

· Do you know who you truly are?
· Do you know that you are lovable, good enough, whole & complete just as you are?

Embrace your true value and worthiness as both a spiritual and human being. Discover your strengths, gifts, and the beauty of your true spirit. Live in grace and ease as you flow naturally with your deeper essence.

Join us!

Have you ever wondered…
· WHY am I here?
· HOW can I get accepted by my friends, family, let alone society?
· WHEN am I going to find true love?
· WHAT can I do not to be living in so much fear, anger, and sadness?
· WHERE can I turn?
· WHO understands what I am going through?

Through this one-of-a-kind, revolutionary show…

· Discover your strengths and worthiness
· Free yourself from self-doubts
· Learn to love yourself from deep within
· Ignite your internal light and power within!

With:
Dr. Lisa Bufton, D.D. is a Spiritual Counselor, Angel Therapy Practitioner®, and cofounder of LGBT Wellness Conference. www.purespirithealing.com and www.lgbt-wellness.org

Courtney Long, MSW, LC, CHt, ATP® is a Guide to the Authentic, Author and Speaker. www.authenticandfree.com

Sat, Mar 24, 2012 01:00PM ET

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/awake

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