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Category Archives: Bodhisattva

Incarnational Living

L. Dwight Turner

If we aspire to live an incarnational lifestyle, the starting point must be with Jesus. Jesus gives us the perfect prototype for incarnational living. We can learn so much for studying the life of the Master and through the blessings of the age in which we live, we have so many resources at our very fingertips that such study can be as broad and as deep as we wish. However, there is one caveat – one central fact that we have to understand and act on before we can become immersed in our study of the incarnational lifestyle of Jesus Christ. The central fact we must address and internalize may come as a surprise, but if you are a renegade, a radical, and a ragamuffin, it should not catch you off guard. If we want to truly become incarnational Christians we must:

Forget everything we have ever been taught about Jesus Christ.

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To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. [1 Peter 2:21]

Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. [1 Cor. 11:1]

Jesus boldly commanded his listeners to take up their crosses and follow him. In the scriptural passages above, both Peter and Paul stress our divine calling to emulate the example of Jesus. This goes far deeper than the “What Would Jesus Do?” teaching of a few years ago. What Jesus, Peter, and Paul are telling us is that we not only need to behave in the ways that Jesus did, we need to become the type of person Jesus was.

Although this teaching may seem a bit overwhelming, it is what it is. Just because something seems exceedingly difficult for us to pull off; just because something seems beyond the pale of possibility for us to achieve – does not mean that the Master really didn’t mean what he said, or perhaps meant something else. To assume such a thing, and believe me, many Christians believe just that, is a mistake of tragic proportions. So right here from the get go know this: Jesus, Peter, Paul, and the Apostle John all meant exactly what they said about these things. There are no hidden, arcane Gnostic secrets here. We are to work diligently to become the kind of person Jesus was and is.

Michael Frost, in his wonderful book entitled, Exiles, says that in emulating Jesus in living an incarnational lifestyle, we should begin by following his attitudes regarding the world and the ego. Frost says we begin with a pair of principles that helped Jesus inaugurate and perpetuate his mission. These principles involve his ongoing commitment to identification and relinquishment.

…to follow Jesus’ example means that we should share his profoundly humble identification with sinful humankind. Second, those of us who wish to emulate Jesus should be aware of his equally humble willingness to empty himself and make himself nothing for the sake of God’s redemptive purposes…..

Back in the mid-90’s I was involved in the development and implementation of a radical and innovative program to address the issue of homelessness in Dade County, Florida. Appropriately named Community Partnership for Homeless, Inc. – our goal was to open three “Homeless Assistance Centers” at strategic locations in the Metro Miami area. As the group’s name implies, the concept of partnership was at the core of the entire project. One such partnership was between CPHI and the local faith community. Local churches signed on to provide meals for the residents of the Homeless Assistance Center and, in addition to providing and preparing the meal, would also serve the food.

The various churches were an integral part of the success of the homeless project and continue to make positive contributions in the present. I noticed several interesting things as I often welcomed the church members to the center and helped them get started in the kitchen. Often, these volunteer cooks, servers, and dishwashers served out of a genuine heart of love. Their actions spoke of a real sense of partnership with Jesus, the Master they gladly served. The expressions on their faces, the tones of their voices, and even the way they carried themselves all flowed easily from a genuine heart of Christian compassion.

Other groups, however, seemed to have a more mixed bag of motives. Rather than exhibiting behaviors consistent with a heart-felt desire to be servants of the Light, these folks seemed like something less sublime was spurring them on. Conversations with these Christians, most of them well-meaning and genuine, often revealed that they were serving out of feelings of pity, condescension, and even guilt. The difference between these believers and those described in the preceding paragraph was both drastic and noticeable. You can imagine which group had the more positive interactions with the residents. Further, those who brought a genuine heart of proactive compassion to the kitchen and dining room were more likely to gain the trust and the ears of those residents who desired assistance in finding a meaningful relationship with God.

Experience in a wide variety of service settings has consistently revealed that feelings like pity, guilt, and other negative emotions toward the recipients of Christian service provides little in the way of positive impact. Conversely, these feelings tend to create what we in the field of sociology term “barriers of resistance” on the part of those receiving assistance. Again, let’s listen to Michael Frost:

Pity, condescension, or paternalism misses the mark; only a compassion that acts is acceptable in incarnational ministry.

Frost then goes on to list four central aspects of the incarnational Christian witness:

An active sharing of life, participating in the fears, the frustrations, and afflictions of the host community. (Here it should be noted that for Frost, we Christians now live in a post-Christian world and we are therefore “exiles.” The culture at large is the “host community.”)

An employment of the language and thought forms of those with whom we seek to share Jesus.
A preparedness to go to the people, not expecting them to come to us.
A confidence that the gospel can be communicated by ordinary means, through acts of servanthood, loving relationships, good deeds; in this way the exile becomes an extension of the incarnation in our time.

Frost’s third point is perhaps the most telling and the most crucial. The Body of Christ can no longer afford to remain aloof from the struggles of the real world and the all-too-real people who live in it. We must go out to these people because they are not going to come to us. More to the point, we need to go to these people because that is exactly what Christ did. Again, the Master set us the perfect example of what it is we are to do as “Followers of the Way.”

The old Bob Dylan song repeats the refrain, “The times, they are a’changin’.” Indeed they are my friend and more significantly, they already have.

The Essence of Spirituality: Radical Compassion

14 Mar

L. Dwight Turner

Jesus Christ was not a man of compassion; he was a man of radical compassion. From his voluntary mission to this broken world, to his mysterious ascension back into the heavenly realm, there was no theme he stressed more in both word and deed. From his opening salvo quoting Isaiah about bringing release to the captives and good news to the poor, to his dying plea of, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do,” Jesus exemplified a compassion far beyond what the world had seen before. Indeed, it was and is a radical compassion.

Jesus’ stories about the Prodigal, the Good Samaritan, and his treatment of the woman caught in adultery all point to the need for a compassion that transcends the normal boundaries defined by contemporary culture, then and now. Indeed, it was and is a radical compassion.

Radical compassion is compassion with legs; radical compassion is a verb. Just as the Bible tells us in the Letter of James that faith without works is dead, also, compassion without concomitant action is a lifeless phenomenon. Many sincere aspirants have the mistaken notion that the ultimate goal of the spiritual path is enlightenment. Although a sincere desire for motivation is one of our most treasured possessions, it is actually penultimate. The real aim of the spiritual journey is simply this – Sacred Service. All that we do is dedicated to the greatest good of all beings in all the worlds. Our gain is their gain, our loss is their loss, our advancement is their advancement, and it is to this sacred reality that we offer our benedictions at the end of our times of meditation and prayer.

In the Christian faith especially, personal enlightenment takes a back seat to serving others, spiritually and materially. Perhaps no where in the sacred writings of the world is this reality presented so directly as in the 13^th Chapter of the Gospel of John.

Imagine for a moment that you are one of Jesus’ twelve disciples and you, your band of rag tag friends, and the Master arrive at the Upper Room after a long, tedious, dusty day going about your business. You sit for a moment to catch your breath and unwind a few moments before you go wash up for the evening meal. You close your eyes for a few minutes, only to feel something or someone taking off your sandals. And to your utter disbelief, kneeling in front of you is the Master Jesus with a basin and a towel. Incredible….

The Master taught his disciples, and all of us who have read of this amazing episode, a clear and concise example of the essence of spirituality: selfless service with a heart of humility. If only more of us, especially those who claim to be followers of Jesus, would take this lesson to heart, our world would have much less pain.

The Kingdom of God is a divine realm of proactive compassion. This is the message that Jesus came to deliver and through his actions as well as his words, he delivered it consistently. In all that he did and he said, Jesus revealed to us the nature of God. This incarnational revelation was hinted at in the Master’s magnificent prayer in John 17. In the 21^st verse the Master says:

I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one – as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.

In the Bible’s most well known verse, John 3:16, it is stated that for God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life. (NLT)

Now, to make this even clearer, let’s look at one more verse in John 17. In verse three John records:

And this is the way to have eternal life, to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth. (NLT)

Putting all this together, Jesus gave us a powerful but very real theology in this prayer and his disciple, John, fully caught its significance by saying in 3:16 that God loved the world so much that he sent his Son to save it. On God’s part, this was a perfect example of “proactive compassion” or what we often call “grace.” Motivated by the purest form of love, God was moved to have compassion on we fallen creatures, even in our blind ignorance, and he literally gave that compassion flesh by sending us the Master Jesus.

In order for compassion to become more than just a nice idea or a sentimental feeling, it must flow out of the internalized wisdom of the ages, particularly as related to the reality of “interconnectivity.” The idea of interconnectivity, now confirmed by the field of quantum physics, has been around for many centuries and is at the core of interspiritual mysticism, that one aspect of world religion that seems to transcend culture, time, and especially theology. It is a mystical connectedness that promotes compassion and engaged action to make the world a better place for all who dwell here. In essence, it is a deep wisdom that gives flesh to grace. The great spiritual writer Kahil Gibran spoke of this interconnected reality when he said:

Your neighbor is your other self dwelling behind a wall. In understanding, all walls shall fall down. Who knows but that your neighbor is your better self wearing another body? See that you love him as you would yourself. He too is a manifestation of the Most High.

In India, for example, we have the story of Indra’s Net, which is strung throughout the universe with a precious jewel at the places where the cords of the net intersect. These jewels, in turn, reflect all of the other jewels. Similar to the modern discovery of the hologram, the image of Indra’s Net is filled with symbolic wisdom depicting the interconnectivity of all that is. Gary Zukav, in his groundbreaking book entitled, The Dancing Wu Li Masters tell us:

…the philosophical implications of quantum mechanics is that all things in our universe (including us) that appears to exist independently are actually parts of one all-encompassing organic pattern, and that no parts of that pattern are ever really separate from it or from each other.

In the Christian tradition, the writings of the great mystic teachers echo these same truths, often in symbolic and metaphorical ways. Julian of Norwich especially comes to mind as well as Hildegard of Bingen and Madame Guyon. The writings of Saint Theresa of Avila and the life and work of St. Francis also point to the interconnectivity of all life and the necessity of having a heart of radical compassion.

The great Romantic poets like William Wordsworth and Percy B. Shelley have voices that ring loudly with the sense of the interrelated aspects of the natural world and their American counterparts, the Transcendentalists, in the writings of Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman, also echo this theme of divine connectivity. And then there is the work of that master of the arcane, William Blake who spoke of the mystic’s ability:

To see a World in a grain of sand,

And Heaven in a wild flower,

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,

And Eternity in an hour.

The world that we interact with each day only appears to be solid. In point of fact, it is an intricate dance of sub-atomic waves and particles that obey none of the traditional or expected moves of predictable choreography. At its core level, our apparently solid, material world is less like classical music and more like jazz. Just when we think we have a handle on how things are, these very things change, morphing into something totally unexpected and often totally mysterious. Someone wise, I forget who, once said the life is not a riddle to be solved but a mystery to be lived. How true, and the sooner a person grasps this fundamental truth, the less frustration will appear in his or her life.

It is not my intention to travel too far down this road of quantum physics at this juncture. Suffice to say that contemporary science is increasingly coming to grasp the same fundamental truths that mystics and shamans have voiced for many centuries. Simply put: Everything is interrelated and interdependent and when one part is affected by something, at a very core level, every other part is also impacted.

In teaching about the interrelated aspect of the universe, I often use a simple analogy that explains these principles in a basic way. I use the example of raisin Jell-o. Imagine you have concocted a delicious tub or raisin Jell-o. Choose your favorite flavor if you like. The raisins are the important thing, here. Now, what happens when you take your index finger and thump one of the raisins? All the raisins move. Crude as this metaphor is, it makes the point that all the raisins in the bowl are connected and if one raisin moves, they all move. This is what the mystics, and the quantum physicists, are talking about when they speak of interconnectivity.

It should not be too difficult of an intellectual jump to see why this concept of interrelated reality should lead to a true and radical sense of compassion. What happens to me in the ultimate sense, happens to you and vice versa. When a child dies of hunger or disease in a poverty stricken nation, some part of each of us dies. We may not feel it, understand it, or even recognize it. Still, it is a fundamental spiritual and quantum truth. It is wise to remember the words of the 17^th Century poet John Donne as he spoke of the custom of the time which involved ringing the town’s bell whenever someone died:

Any man’s death diminishes me, for I am involved in mankind;

Therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;

It tolls for thee.

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Posted by Mick Turner on March 14, 2009 in Bodhisattva, Buddhist Dharma, Celtic Christianity, Christian Kindness, Christian Meditation, Christian Mission and Calling, Christian Mysticism, Christianity, Church and Culture, Church Renewal, Compassion, Contemplation, Contemplative Spirituality, Cosmic Christ, Creation Centered Spirituality, Culture, Discipleship, Divine Mind, Emerging Christianity, Global Church, God's Kingdom, God's Love, God's Story, Gospel, Grace, Holy Spirit, Inner Light, Interspirituality, Issues in Transformation, Jesus, Jesus' Teaching, Kingdom of God, Meditation, Ministry, Mission and Calling, Missions, Morality and Values, Mystical Experience, Mystical Spirituality, Mysticism, Nature Mysticism, Paul's Teachings, Personal Epiphanies, Personal Growth, Prayer, Purpose, Quaker Spirituality, Sacred Center, Sacred Mind, Sacred Silence, Service, Spiritual Disciplines, Spiritual Formation, Spirituality, World Religions, Worldview

Tags: Christian Mysticism, Compassion, Interconnectivity, Kahil Gibran, Mysticism, Personal Ethics, Quantum Physics, Service, Spirituality

The Blessings of Mindfulness

17 Jan

L. Dwight Turner

Mindfulness is not a strong suit in western culture. A fast-paced, hectic lifestyle joined at the hip to myriad responsibilities creates an environment where the pursuit of mindfulness is at best a pipe dream for most people. Our minds are scattered between work, family, finances, and a plethora of other pressures contending for our attention. It is little wonder that most of us feel stressed, overwhelmed, and on the cusp of burnout most of the time.

The irony here is that mindfulness may very well constitute the solution to this ulcer-inducing way of life that most of us call “normal.” The fact is, once we really learn to be mindful and fully attentive to what we are doing, we become more efficient and able to accomplish more while expending less energy. Further, my personal experience has taught me that when I am truly conscious of my actions, my feelings, and my thoughts – I am less likely to feel overwhelmed and stressed. I find that I can remain at least marginally centered in spite of conflicting pressures and voices jockeying for my attention.

Mindfulness is at its core a spiritual issue. Although all faith systems stress mindfulness to some extent, nowhere is it a more central theme than in Buddhism. Mindful living is one of the central components of the Noble Eightfold Path described by Gautama Buddha as the path out of human discontent. I have found that when I make a consecrated commitment to work on mastering my monkey mind through consistent meditation practice and make efforts to become more mindful, life becomes generally better. Nothing really changes externally – the same pressures, responsibilities, deadlines, and stress – they are all still there. But something gradually begins to change internally as a personal anchor of centeredness begins to take shape. Although I am not perfect at it and certainly I am a long way from the calm demeanor of a Mahatma Gandhi, I am less likely to appear as a trance channel for Yosemite Sam.

Personally, I find it hard to wrap words around the full array of positive qualities that emerge from the practice of meditation and becoming more mindful. Perhaps that is one of the reason I appreciate the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn, a pioneer in the use of mindfulness and meditation practice in health applications. Kabat-Zinn, in his book Coming to Our Senses, gives one of the best descriptions I have encountered:

More than anything else, I have come to see meditation as an act of love, an inward gesture of benevolence and kindness toward ourselves and toward others, a gesture of the heart that recognizes our perfection even in our obvious imperfection, with all our shortcomings, our wounds, our attachments, our vexations, and our persistent habits of unawareness. It is a very brave gesture: to take one’s seat for a time and drop in on the present moment without adornment. In stopping, looking, and listening, in giving ourselves over to all our senses, including mind, in any moment, we are in that moment embodying what we hold most sacred in life. In making the gesture, which might include assuming a specific posture for formal meditation, but could also involve simply becoming more mindful or more forgiving of ourselves, immediately re-minds us and re-bodies us. In a sense, you could say it refreshes us, makes this moment fresh, timeless, free up, wide open. In such moments, we transcend who we think we are. We go beyond our stories and all our incessant thinking, however deep and important it sometimes is, and reside in seeing what is here to be seen and the direct, non-conceptual knowing of what is here to be known, which we don’t have to seek because it is already and always here…..In words, it may sound like an idealization. Experienced, it is merely what it is, life expressing itself, sentience quivering within infinity, with things just as they are.

From Kabat-Zinn’s description, it is obvious that coming to live in the present moment, to be mindfully attentive to what is happening in front of our eyes, is a spiritual experience of high significance. On rare occasions, we may be granted by grace a glimpse of this unadorned reality of “just what is” beyond our ideas about what is. These moments are personal epiphanies, always remembered and transformational in nature.

As special as these moments are, they rarely come frequently unless a persons prepares the soil for their coming. That is where meditation comes in. Teachers from all faith traditions stress the importance of spending time in meditation and/or contemplation. For some reason not completely apparent, the more time we spend in proximity of the “Sacred Silence,” the more likely we are to experience these divine moments of pristine clarity. Meditation, whatever form it may take, appears to prepare the soil of our being for the coming of these special times when we actually see what is before us. Meditation and mindfulness are the twin practices that increase our capacity to be receptive to these divine gifts of the Spirit.

In my own experience, those forms of meditation that lend themselves to the quieting of the mind have proved the most beneficial when it comes to opening up to the kind of special encounters described above. My preference has been the utilization of techniques involving focusing my attention on my breathing as an anchor to which my often skittering mind is tethered and brought under at least a modicum of control. For others, mediations involving visualization, chanting, or mantra may be more conducive to the experience we are discussing. Whatever the technique, the important component is regularity of practice. The more we meditate, the more mindful we will become. This is a simple equation, but it has been consistently verified.

I am of the firm conviction that the more mindful people become, the more they will be able to master themselves and by doing so, behave in ways that are less problematic and more harmonious. Meditation is the pathway to mindfulness and mindfulness is indeed, a great blessing to one and all.

Tags: Buddha's Teaching, Buddhism, Global Religion, Interspirituality, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Meditation, Mindfulness

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Category Archives: Bodhisattva

Incarnational Living

The Essence of Spirituality: Radical Compassion

The Blessings of Mindfulness

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