Interfaith Spirit Quest

Accountability

From:  Ask the Real Jesus

The New Gospel.  Book I.  The choice to be

Accountability

1. Human beings are reluctant
to accept accountability
for their own situation.
It is so much easier
to blame that situation
upon someone or something
outside of yourself.
However, if you do not accept accountability,
then you give away your power
to personally change your situation.

2. You cannot control the world,
and you cannot control other people.
You cannot control God,
and you cannot control fate.
Therefore, if you think
that such external forces created your situation,
then you have no way to change your situation.
You are a victim of forces beyond your control,
and you will remain a victim
until you decide
to accept personal accountability.

3. The moment you consciously accept
that you have created your own situation,
at that very moment
you are empowered to change that situation.

4. You cannot change that
which you have not created.
However, you can change that
which you have created.

5. Changing what you have created is so simple.
You created imperfection out of ignorance.
Ignorance caused you to make imperfect choices.
Simply decide to strive for enlightenment,
and you will attain the foundation
for making better choices.

6. Overcoming imperfect choices
from the past
can be done by making better choices
in the present

 

Counteract Negative Thoughts by Developing Positive Characteristics

The way we think impacts the way we perceive the world, thereby affecting our actions, our daily living and even our health.  How does your brain work? 

Consider the following personality characteristics expounded upon in this Live Science article: 7 Thoughts That Are Bad For You - and then ask yourself if your perception of the world, viewed through your _________ (fill in the blank) personality is impacting your actions, your daily living, or your health: 

7 Thoughts That Are Bad For You:

1. Stress out easily, prolonged state of stress
2. Gloomy, distressed or inhibited
3. Jittery, highly frazzled 
4. Disorganized or lack of self control
5. Fretting, constantly worried or anxious
6. Lack of meaning or sense of purpose
7. Cynicism, suspicious or mistrustful of others

What if we counteract these negative thoughts by developing more positive characteristics?  You might be surprised at what positive thinking or positive psychology can do for your life:  

1. Relax, meditate, take a walk on the beach and feel the sand between your toes.  Don't take everything so seriously, give up control and take care of yourself instead.
2. Let go once in a while, develop a hobby you enjoy, find something to do so you're not always into everyone's business.
3. Why so nervous?  Be mellow.  Relax, listen to calming, soothing music.  Re-wire yourself to be this way
4. Learn to discipline yourself through repetition, in other words, repeatedly perform the positive characteristic you want to develop in yourself, until you have re-wired your circuits.
5. Use worry constructively - if by worrying you think of something you can do to change the situation - then change it, but stop thinking about it then.  You might not be able to change the whole world, but you can learn to cope with it better.
6.   The purpose of life is to develop a well-balanced and majestic personality.  This means we should be actively pursuing and developing the higher, better, and supreme qualities of ourselves. 
7. Let loose a little, determine in advance whether something is physically or mentally harmful and if it is, stay away, if it's just someone's opinion of a thing, have an open mind and listen - they'll love you for it and who knows, you might even learn something.  The world isn't as scary as we make it out to be. 
   

Life is meant to be lived and experienced - enjoy the journey. 

Philosophy & Spirituality

Philosophy consists of generally incomplete or closed theories and ideas and can be with or without any spiritual component at all.  Being philosophical is the act of thinking out and/or arguing or discussing ideas, and posing problems for which is may or may not proffer solutions.  Philosophy is very dry, detached, and not worshipful, with no awe or reverence.   Philosophy can be a gateway to the soul.  People who are philosophical are at least interested in higher ways of thinking, but philosophy gives no true meaning to life.

The Wikipedia entry for Philosophy:  Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language.  Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions (such as mysticism or mythology) by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned argument.  Philosophy comes from the Greek φιλοσοφία [philosophia], which literally translates to "love of wisdom".

Spirituality is about making a connection to a higher power and way of thinking.  Our religion is the way we experience or practice connecting with people in a spiritual way, with certain attributes of divinity.  People can be spiritual without being philosophical, they may have no particular theory, form or grounding and may appear flighty and floaty, their spirituality is based on feelings and not reality or actual experiences.  Religion is the practice of our faith.  One of the main questions for the spiritually minded to answer is the issue of explaining to non-spiritual or purely philosophical or science minded individuals, the supernatural state of being.  Spiritual Philosophy must bring about a rational explanation for the born-again, mountaintop transformations so many people of faith have experienced; a rationale behind their faith.  Until the spiritual philosopher can successfully accomplish this feat, people will still feel compelled to follow the non-spiritual path, often a purely philosophical or science minded path. 

Questions:  Consider the following philosophical questions from a spiritual perspective - borrowed from a website that collects not only the deep philosophical questions, but also the humorous ones.    

1. What is more difficult for you; looking into someone’s eyes when you are telling someone how you feel, or looking into someone’s eyes when they are telling you how they feel?
2. Think of the last time you were REALLY angry.
3. You are on a flight from Honolulu to Chicago non-stop. There is a fire in the back of the plane. You get enough time to make ONE phone call. Who would you call?
4. You are at the doctor’s office and she has just informed you that you have approximately one month to live. a) Do you tell anyone/everyone you are going to die? b) What do you do with your remaining days? c) Would you be afraid?
5. You can have one of the following two things: trust or love.  Which do you choose and why?
6. You are walking down the street on your way to work. There is a dog drowning in the canal on the side of the street. Your boss has told you if you are late one more time you get fired. What do you do?

7. What is the meaning of life?

For more questions - please visit the Random Philosophical Questions List people. 

Albert Einstein on God, Superhuman and Human Purpose

Selected quotes from Albert Einstein (with my comments in brackets):

A human being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

(Where does this freedom come from?  Our thoughts?)

~

The human mind is not capable of grasping the Universe. We are like a little child entering a huge library. The walls are covered to the ceilings with books in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written these books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. But the child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books - a mysterious order which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects.

(...ah, but what a great attempt at grasping we attempt.)

~

One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life. The most important motive for work in school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result, and the knowledge of the value of the result to the community.

~

The point is to develop the childlike inclination for play and the childlike desire for recognition and to guide the child over to important fields for society. Such a school demands from the teacher that he be a kind of artist in his province.

~

It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.

(The solution to the problems within the education system?  Life is beautiful - that's what we should teach!)

~

Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.

(oooh, I wonder what that age is - am I too old too read?)

~

Let us not forget that knowledge and skills alone cannot lead humanity to a happy and dignified life. ... I claim credit for nothing. Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insects as well as for the stars, Human beings, vegetables or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.

~

I want to know how God created this world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts; the rest are details.

(...oh-oh, he seems contradictory here, or at least opinionated.)

I do not believe in immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it.

(...those darn ethics.)

~

I believe in Spinoza's God, who reveals Himself in the lawful harmony of the world, not in a God Who concerns Himself with the fate and the doings of mankind.

(Me thinks those doings are mankind's responsibility while we occupy in this space.)

~

Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to a divine purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: That we are here for the sake of others...for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day, I realize how much my outer and inner life is built upon the labors of people, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received.

~

The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It's the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and science. Whoever does not know it can no longer wander, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed.

~

I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.

(...ah, but you cannot see it (the imagination), can you?)

~

Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.

~

If my theory of relativity is proven successful, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew.

(Well, being neither, I will just call you brilliant, and a citizen of the universe!)

Albert Einstein

Spirituality and Comedy: Finding the Messiah on the Frigidaire

Mixing comedy and religion - is that OK?  How about if you add some thick Southern accents and a refrigerator? 

Remember a while back when someone on eBay was selling a piece of Toast that appeared to have the image of the Virgin Mary burned into it?  Or copycat toast-makers who claimed to have toasty images of the Last Supper and Elvis?  They went too far with that Elvis thing. 

But anyway, now we have the theater department at Jackson Community College of Jackson, Michigan presenting a play entitled "Messiah on the Frigidaire". 

JCC students to present 'Messiah on the Frigidaire'(Jackson, MI)

A small South Carolina town is thrust into the national spotlight when what seems to be the image of Jesus appears on a refrigerator in a trailer park. The comedy and drama that follows provides the storyline for Jackson Community College’s production of “Messiah on the Frigidaire" by John Culbertson, being presented the last two weekends of October.

The discovery of the image by Lou Ann Hightower, her husband Dwayne, and her best friend Betsy, sets into motion a frenzy of conflict, communion and good old fashioned commerce. When the National Investigator turns the appearance into front-page headlines, their trailer park becomes a mecca for miracle seekers, soul searchers and disciples with a decidedly political agenda. At the urging of the town’s business leaders, Betsy pretends to get messages from the appliance-based apparition, and the crowds multiply like loaves and fishes. Through the ordeal, the three undergo an evolution in their relationships with each other, and they are forced to come to grips with their lowly status in the caste system of the rural south. In a region where religion is as much a part of life as grits and cotton fields, God surely moves in mysterious ways.   ....see full Press Release here

From a local news story: 

For the cast, half the fun of the show has been speaking in a Southern drawl and learning to pronounce "police" as "PO-leece," but they also like that there's more to it than jokes about trailer parks.

"It makes you think after you're done watching it, it really does," said Jimi Bommarito, who plays city Councilman Larry Williamson.

Well that's good, I'm glad to see there's a method to their madness, a moral to the story.  It sounds funny - if you're lucky enough to be near Jackson, MI (which I'm not), y'all check it out and then y'all come back now and tell us all about it, ya hear?  Speaking of refrigerators, I think I need to see what's in or on mine.....oh my goodness, it's Elvis!  Now I'm all shook up. 

Reinventing the Body - Your Body is on the Cutting Edge of Evolution

Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul: How to Create a New You

New Book Release by Deepak Chopra

Book Review:  In "Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul: How to Create a New You" a newly released book by famed spiritual author and guru, Deepak Chopra, he writes about Ten Simple Steps to Wholeness.  We learn that the day we were born, where we think physical evolution stops and death begins, a door has actually been left open; a door that opens the way to imagined possibilities, a door that allows your brain to adapt according to your thoughts and desires, a door that allows us to see the miracle of the mind-body connection. You are not yet hard-wired, your brain is fluid and flexible, ready to take on the world.  Even when you are older and have apparently developed hard-wired habits, you can still develop new connections, new circuits, you can remove limitations and boundaries placed on you by societal expectations.  Your body is on the cutting edge of evolution.

Table of Contents:

  Reinventing Your Body

1. Your Physical Body is a Fiction
2. Your Real Body is Energy
3. Awareness Has Magic
4. You Can Improve Your Genes
5. Time Isn't Your Enemy

Resurrecting Your Soul

1. There's an Easier Way to Live
2. Love Awakens the Soul
3. Be as Boundless as Your Soul
4. The Fruit of Surrender is Grace
5. The Universe Evolves Through You

Ten Steps to Wholeness

Conclusion:  "Who Made Me?"

Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul: How to Create a New You - by Deepak Chopra.  Released October 13, 2009 - Hardcover - 304  pages.  Buy it now here.

Publishers Weekly, starred review:  "Alternative medicine guru Chopra, author of more than 50 books, argues that the bond between body and soul has been severed; it's his hope that humankind is about to embark on a restoration project that will give the soul the attention it deserves. Chopra presents five 'breakthroughs' that address the body and five that address the soul. He also walks readers through a fascinating discussion of how energy affects spiritual and physical health, and includes a scored personal energy efficiency quiz. According to Chopra, when 'subtle energy' becomes blocked, awareness can act like an invisible force that turns unhealthy energy around (he also explains how the expression of genes can be altered by lifestyle changes). Chopra encourages readers to follow their inner guidance, to embrace a journey to higher consciousness, to expand awareness through meditation and other methods, to ask for guidance and then wait for it to appear, and to trust their instincts. By accepting the over-arching power of the 'invisible' or non-physical world, Chopra maintains that we can begin to nourish a state of wholeness in which there is no longer a disconnect between body, mind, and soul. Though Chopra offers 10 'simple steps' to wholeness (including focusing on relationships instead of consumption), this is a multilayered text to savor and study; readers will continue to contemplate the author's message long after the final page is turned." 

Critics suggest there is nothing new in this book, but any book that can tweak our thinking about our bodies, our souls, our spirit, is useful - while it may not speak to Chopra's critics, it might speak to you.

13 Things God May Not Be Singularly Responsible For

Are you asking God some of these questions?  Or should some of these questions be statements? 13 things God already does but may not be singularly responsible for: 

1. deal with the mass humanitarian crisis on another continent
2. feed all the hungry people in the world
3. give a dollar to a homeless person
4. conjoin socialism/capitalism/liberalism/conservatism
5. create an integrity minded society
6. help your friend or family member through a crisis
7. nurture and visit the sick
8. take care of the earth
9. keep people honest
10. love them
11. love me
12. help them
13. help me

There are many more 'things' we could ask or state or talk about, these are just a few that popped into my head today - some of them might sound weird and that's OK. :)  So are these accusatory questions for God or statements of our intentions? 

Are we asking God to snap His Holy Fingers or twinkle His Magic Nose and fix all this, or is God waiting for us to do something?  Certainly God has the Power, and certainly God does intervene, divinely - but could He be trying to tell us something?  Something like...

'You have the Power too, Sweet Child o' Mine.  Now go, and do My work in My place, in My image, be Me with skin on.'  

Does it say that in the Bible somewhere, some other book?  How dare you try to speak for God - is that what you're thinking?  Well I didn't write it or think it or make it up - it's just the truth staring us in the face.  We can live it or ignore it - this is our free will in action. 

Hysterical Charm of the Family

In every dispute between parent and child, both cannot be right, but they may be, and usually are, both wrong. It is this situation which gives family life its peculiar hysterical charm.
-- Isaac Rosenfeld

In family life, love is the oil that eases friction, the cement that binds closer together, and the music that brings harmony.
-- Eva Burrows

Like all the best families, we have our share of eccentricities, of impetuous and wayward youngsters and of family disagreements.
-- Elizabeth II

The family - that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor, in our inmost hearts, ever quite wish to.
-- Dodie Smith

The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together.
-- Erma Bombeck

Christianity 21 - The Emergent Christian Church

This past weekend I attended an Emergent Christian conference in Minneapolis called Christianity 21. It was billed as 21 speakers, speaking for 21 minutes, about 21 ideas, in the 21st century. Christianity 21 was a remarkable conference.

It seemed to me that it was about 21 speakers presenting 21 different ideas about what their Christian spirituality means for them, or what they would like it to be for others. People expressed a desire to have a safe place in which to connect with God and each other, to practice the 'religion of Jesus' as opposed to the 'religion about Jesus', also to explore their spirituality, and some said their bodies - not sure I understood that, but that's ok.

As an interfaith minister with a Christian background, I am delighted and overjoyed to see the Christian community exploring their spirituality in these new ways. After all, the religion of Jesus is the religion of the world - not an exclusive club for those who call themselves 'Christians'. All are encouraged, invited, and pursued to come and participate with Jesus in his religion. The religion of Jesus is to love God and to love each other as God loves us.

There is the Golden Rule - Do unto others as you would have done unto you.
Then there is the Platinum Rule - Do unto others as they would have done unto themselves.
and then there's this....
The Diamond Rule - as I've decided to call it: Love others as God loves us.

As far as I could tell, every speaker/presenter at the Christianity 21 conference would probably classify themselves as liberal or very liberal. It would be nice to see conservative, fundamentalist Christians involved in this or in similar movements. If they do not, I fear they may be 'left behind' (pun intended).

What about the exclusive statement that says Jesus is 'The Way, the Truth and the Life'? Is this true or is this just something to lure people in to an authoritarian religion of some sort, or is it something else? Well, it would seem that Jesus is the most efficient way to the promised land - the promised land being a place where we feel and know the truth, beauty and goodness of God and His love within our very beings; enabling us to embark upon one of the supreme purposes of life - that of developing a well-balanced and majestic personality.

There is another promising and encouraging development taking shape around the planet called Christian Universalism, which centers around the belief that God is bigger than any religion or movement, it's a faith that is breaking down barriers, uniting people from a variety of religious backgrounds and assisting them in their spiritual journey, it's a faith that invites all people to participate.

The CUA is having their 2nd annual conference November 6-8, 2009 in Nashville, TN.

See www.ChristianUniversalist.org (CUA)

The purpose of ministry is to empower people to change their lives, their communities and their world. Restating our purpose today, our purpose here at Interfaith Spirit Quest is to assist individuals in their efforts to become majestic and well-balanced personalities.

Connecting with God
Connecting with one another
Experiencing Truth, Beauty & Goodness
Discovering new ideas
Finding new meanings
Intellectual challenge
Spiritual growth and development
Studying difficult concepts
Experiencing a variety of viewpoints
Practicing our ability to adapt
Empowering yourself
Attaining Goals
Love and acceptance
Listening and sharing
Ministering to others
Experiencing Freedom
Freedom of self-expression
Enthusiasm and Joy
Critical thinking
Meeting new people
Live by the Diamond Rule: Love others as God loves us.

Our strength is renewed by God and oftentimes by caring individuals. Jesus is God's revelation of Love. Jesus did not need to die in order for God's purposes to be fulfilled. The grave did not hold Jesus and it won't hold you. No one is going to any hell other than the one they create for themselves here on earth. God is a Universalist. The Spirit of God dwells within each heart. God is just waiting for the unaware individual to emerge and open the door of their hearts to awaken to God's Spirit within. We love the God in you - the God within us and within you. God is always with us. God loves you even more than the highest sort of love imaginable. If you are too weak to accept this, then just act as if it's true, it's the one assumption in this life you can make without any repercussions.

We empower ourselves when we take initiative, when we act, when we develop confidence in our own capacities and abilities. We find value and new meanings in our spiritual pursuits when we study deeper, when we try to personally experience the spiritual. We practice freedom of expression when we allow others the freedom of speaking from their heart. True freedom comes from having no spiritual boundaries, boundaries keep you from experiencing God. We experience truth when we develop a deeper, closer connection with God and each other. We experience beauty when we give and receive kindness, mercy and grace. We experience goodness when we minister in loving service to humanity and creation. We can do all this because of God, because this is part of his purpose and plan for our lives.

World Shift 2012 - Are we all Doomed?

Part of the Declaration of World Shift 2012:  

"There is no doubt that we are now in a state of global emergency. This unprecedented worldwide crisis is a symptom of a much deeper problem - the current state of our consciousness: how we think about ourselves and our world. We have the urgent need, and now the opportunity, for a complete rethink: to reconsider our values and priorities, to understand our interconnectedness and to begin a new direction - living in harmony with nature and each other.”

Global emergency?  Crisis?  Deeper problem?  Urgent need?  My goodness!  Are we all doomed?  Well maybe not.

Climate Change - Global Warming is one of the issues World Shift 2012 is concerned about.  Here are my views on this issue:

• Climate Change - Global Warming:  Realize that the problem really has more to do with pollution than anything else and therefore must be dealt with and solved by the corporations that are manufacturing the problem.  Do not be fooled into thinking that if you just bring your own water bottle, you're solving Climate Change/Global Warming.  You're not.  The company that manufactures water bottles must stop making them and focus instead on creating a system of water stations where we can refill our own water bottles, our own unique, cool, sporty water bottle that we carry around with us everywhere.  If you don't bring a water bottle, you have to buy a new one on the spot - so you'll have seven water bottles at home before you get smart and start carrying one with you everywhere. 

This is just one example, but this philosophy should work well in most situations, at least from my viewpoint.  

So what can we, as individuals, do?

• Relax, God is in control of the big picture
• Pray, ask God to give you the wisdom and the courage to live as He wants you to live
• Be engaged, be the change you want to see, but be it in a God loving way
• Look for the root of the problem and make smart corrections