The Re-Awakening of Compassion ...

Take a little trip back in history with me ... not all the way back to 6,000 years ago this time ... just a wee bit back (relatively speaking), into the early 18th century ... the early 1700's. Let's pick England, as it was considered to be "quite civilized" at that time.

You and I would be utterly shocked at the utter void of compassion that was displayed at that time, in that "advanced" place. Executions were spectator sports ... "hanging day" was a banking holiday, with people showing up in droves, to witness the killing of another person (who had committed such petty crimes as pickpocketing, vandalism, or indebtedness). People were branded on their cheeks, to indicate what crimes had been committed ... including begging, or starting fights. Children were treated beyond-cruelly ... infants who were unwanted were thrown into open drains and sewers ... parents would even maim/cripple their children so that they could be better beggars. Animal torture was prolific, with cock-fighting, and ratting. People with disabilities were considered to be "possessed with evil spirits" ... babies with deformities (as well as their mothers!) were often killed, or exiled. Charity was rare .... seen as absurd.

Compassion was scarce, if in evidence at all ...

Compare that with today. Now, by no means am I claiming that we don't still have cases of cruelty happening ... but it's seen as abhorrent by most ... and we speak out. We no longer hang children for stealing ... we don't allow for animal cruelty, and a large number of people give regularly to charity. We have compassion. We've got a long way to go, to be sure, but we've come a long way in just under 400 years.

So, what happened? What changed, between 1700, and now..?

What is compassion? It's a product of the imagination -- being able to "put ourselves in another's shoes". Feeling what another feels ... feeling *with* them. Compassion is transcending ego-isolation -- connecting with another. Tapping into a shared identity with others.

As Steve Taylor eloquently puts it:

"... this new spirit of compassion can be seen as the expression of a collective psychic change that seems to be taking place within human beings: a gradual movement beyond ego-separateness. The first wave was something that individual human beings made happen, but this -- the second wave -- is something that seems to be happening to us... Whereas the first wave was a tiny undercurrent,the second wave is a mass movement, involving a sizeable proportion of the human race."[emphasis mine]

Going back to our portal into the 18th century ... from 1750 or so on, it was a tremendously transitional time to be alive ... for 6,000 years, slavery had been taken for granted, as a human "right". But in the 1700's, it began to be questioned ... is this good? And the anti-slavery movement was born. So too, it was unquestioned that some humans were *better* than others ... but it was being re-thought ... is it true? And a new model of democracy began to spread. For almost 6,000 years, it was unquestioningly assumed that men were superior to women -- that women were vastly inferior and fit to be beaten. But during this transitional time, the women's rights movement was birthed. The question of the rights of animals to live free from cruelty was pondered ... and the SPCA was formed. The treatment of criminals was reformed ... branding was outlawed, stocks/pillories were abolished, along with flogging and the rack, along with all forms of torture. Corporal punishment of children was opposed ... a sense of empathy for the suffering disabled children grew ... with a growing realization that we needed to care for everyone, including the very young, and the very old.

It wasn't perfect - not by a long shot (for instance, the "enlightened" founders of the USA only considered while male landowners to be free to vote ... and certainly the abysmal treatment of the Native Americans attests to the prevalence of the egoic/separate psyche). BUT ... something was happening ... transformation was observable.

Also during this era, the artists, authors and musicians began to demonstrate a profoundly new attitude toward nature, including the body. Romance literature emerged ... with poetry reflecting the inner life, not just the brute/logical conquests of conquerors. The artists were becoming aware of Something More than meets the senses. Catch the beauty of Wordsworth's poetry:

And I have felt a presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:
A motion and a spirit, that impells
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.

This newfound (remembered!) sense of empathy extended to all living things, and to all of nature ... rather than being merely detached observers of the world, they participated in it..!

War also changed ... rather than being merely a conquest for land ... it became more about liberating others from oppression. WWI was the last war to be openly welcomed by those who participated in it ... and because it was so devastating, the League of Nations was established, to ensure that nothing like it ever happened again. Unfortunately, such harsh punitive measures were taken against Germany, this led to them instigating what led to WWII.

(Shame never helps -- it always harms.)

It's interesting that Europe has been peaceful for the past 60 years ... after centuries and centuries of previously ceaseless fighting ....

Obviously, we have a long way to go regarding war..!

What else has been changing, in this "second wave" of compassion...?

- Attitudes toward sex and the body - our sense of shame has been fading.

- Gender boundaries ("what men do" and "what women do") have been blurring ... giving rise to empowered women, and "new men" (those who seem less influenced by the power of the fallen-ego, who are more sensitive, more empathetic, and less aggressive -- more secure in being, than in doing).

- More empathy toward nature ... a growing number of people becoming vegetarian/vegan ... animal rights ... a connection to all life, a reverence for life ... and a growing sense of responsibility/stewardship for the planet we all share.

- The decline of theistic religion ... more openness to what the Eastern/mystical religions/mindsets have to offer ... less focus on "consolation" and more emphasis on "transformation."

- A desire for reparation ... repairing the past harms done against indigenous peoples ... a desire for correcting injustices.

None of this paints a false picture of a Utopia. That's not even the goal (really - think about it -- it would bore the snot out of all of us). We have much work to do, much awakening to experience ... we're still in the "pig sty" coming to our senses ... never before have we seen such rampant materialism/greed being manifested ... never before have we seen such damage done to the environment ... and every day we hear of atrocities committed by humans, against humans.

And YET -- for the first time in the past 6,000 years of history, we are experiencing a growing movement away from the pathologies of the fallen/egoic psyche ... even if it is still, admittedly, a minority. We appear to be experiencing a shift -- moving from a "dominator" society into a "partnership" society ... a clear indication that humans are changing *on the inside* ... just as they first changed on the inside, 6,000 years ago. The signs of increasing empathy strongly suggest that the "walls of separation", borne of the egoic fall, are coming down...!

Why is this happening to us?

It appears that, in order to survive (even ourselves), we are becoming *more alive* ... that we are evolving into a higher consciousness (yeah, I'm well aware of how "woo-woo" this may sound -- stay with me!).

It may be happening because it *has* to ... otherwise, we may destroy ourselves. The built-in capacity for survival, built into this universe, may be kicking in ... doing what needs to be done to keep life itself going.

It almost seems as if a Plan were unfolding ...! ;)

Next ... I'll wrap up this book-study ... looking at how we've come, in a sense, full circle ...

Shalom, Dena

Realization...

Going to be out and about today, but I wanted to pass on this little gem -- it's an answer for someone else here today ... not just me!

If you want it [realization], it will come. There is
no qualification necessary, except wanting it.
That is the only qualification. If it is not wanted,
it will not come. It comes when it is wanted,
but wanted wholly, not a little.


- Swami Krishnananda

Shalom, Dena

Thinking Out-loud...

I'm mid-flux in so many ways ... having old-think replaced with new-thing, and, as is its penchant, old-think keeps sneaking up in my brain and shang-hai-ing my thinking, sucking me back into what I am shedding... this is indeed more of a process, than a sudden aha-moment of permanent change ... at least in my experience. Many of my awakenings occur in the brilliance of hindsight...!

So very many messengers *appear* to be in conflict, even as they sharing the same message. I think we're all taking stabs at it, articulating the inexplicable with feeble attempts with words ... and often, as is our human habit, often making an "absolute" out of something that makes sense to us, for now.

Perhaps truth is more both/and, than either/or? Perhaps apparent dichotomies and contradictions are just nuances of the same, larger-than-perceived Truth...?

I was thinking that even in declaring that I *have* an ego, that I'm back into duality ... I am Spirit, but I have an ego, and there's this implied struggle going on. Light vs. darkness. duality.

Perhaps ego is world-think, which comes AT me, rather than arising from within me...?

Perhaps it's only when I take that suggestion into me, and hold it, and accept it, that it takes on any power (but only in my mind, but within duality, my MIND is ALL)...?

I like the dotted line imagery ... above the dotted line all is singular - ONE. Below the dotted line is the world of physicality/duality, where we see things as either/or. I think the goal of life is to transcend the dotted line, to "invade heaven" (beyond the veil of the seen, into the unseen), and then BRING that heaven-consciousness back to "earth" ... to see all things as new, all things as God ... God being all in all ... bringing light into darkness, wholeness to the broken, life into death, truth to replace lies.

The physical world is not to be denied, dismissed, or despised ... it's to be treasured as a GIFT -- when we see it from God's perspective, it becomes MORE important, MORE precious, MORE valuable ... as we week first the Kingdom of God, ALL these other things (including the joys of physical life) shall be ADDED unto us ...

That's how I'm seeing it at this point ... more revelation to come!

Shalom, Dena

Waking Up ...

Part of the process of waking up is to see things for what they are. This is crucial ... and then comes the time to say, with Jesus, "forgive them, for they know not what they do."

They don't know what they are doing, because they don't yet know who they ARE.

We are in Him, and He is in us ... until we have come to taste the depths of that truth, we are building our concepts upon a foundation of shifting sand ... Christianity does not teach us the truth of who we are in Him, and who He is in us ... even though the clues and messages are right there, in scripture, under our noses.

The traditions of man (which includes Christianity) nullify the word of God ... which is not the Bible, but the still, small Voice within us, speaking to us ... the kingdom of God/heaven is in our midst -- within us.

As a wo/man thinks in her/his own heart, so is s/he ... we choose what we believe, and thus what we experience ... but, we can repent (choose again), and enter the Abundant Life that has always been here, for us to experience and enjoy, if we have eyes to see beyond the *appearance* of things (judge not, we are told, by appearances).

Questions are good, so question everything ... Truth can withstand all manner of scrutiny ... and if a thing should fall, due to scrutiny, good. If it falls, it wasn't truth, and this is good to know.

Remember, always remember ... the Spirit IS leading us into all truth ... and the truth sets us free.

Shalom, Dena

The Seduction of Spiritual Striving ...!

There are SO many good blogs "out there" -- so many folks are seeing wonderful things, and putting glorious insights into spirit-infused words ... but rarely do I feel compelled to take an entire blog entry, or an article, and put it here in my own blog.

Well, today is one of those rare days ...!

My good friend Kevin Beck is a profoundly good writer -- he is able to transmit thoughts and nebulous concepts into provocative words -- and yet, in a way that invites conversation, more than "conversion." His words invite us to enter and consider another perspective, to try it on for size, and walk around in it for a bit, just to see how it fits. I've rarely met such a compassionate, understanding, gracious and real human being. I am blessed by his friendship, and I hope to bless all of YOU with what he writes here ... I'll share what he wrote first, and then include my comments, which burst out of me in a symphony of joy, in response to what I read...!

Parousia
August 3, 2009


Behold! The dwelling of God is with humanity.

Spiritually Undisciplined

"The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it but cannot tell where it comes from or where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the spirit."
~ Jesus of Nazareth

You feel something is amiss. You want to develop your spiritual self, but you have a nagging sense that something isn't right -- that you aren't right.

Would a spiritual person have unsavory feelings, base urges, and lingering struggles? Spiritual people don't laugh at juvenile jokes, think about sex, or lapse in their religious practices. Do they?

You know the advice. Shape up spiritually. Exercise your inner self. Whip yourself into becoming a better person, into being the person you believe you ought to be.

It's common to harbor some laughably unrealistic assumptions of what constitutes spirituality. You must do, think, feel, and act in prescribed patterns. You must avoid specific places, emotions, and behaviors.

Spiritual people teach profound truth. They walk slightly above the ground, speak infinite wisdom, and spend an inordinate amount of time in an otherworldly trance. Spiritual people wear spiritual clothes, eat spiritual food, and eliminate spiritual waste through their spiritual bowels.

To achieve this advanced spiritual condition we've assumed that we must quell our humanity. Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle. If you set aside all of your lower desires, you can eventually obtain your higher ones.

How do you learn the method of relinquishing your supposedly inferior longings? You might engage in what has been bizarrely called spiritual disciplines.

These alleged spiritual disciplines come in several flavors. Fasting, reading, poverty, self-flagellation are just a few. Theoretically, if you exercise your spiritual will properly it will develop enough strength to overcome your carnal will. When that finally occurs, you will achieve a breakthrough and receive an awakening that will transform you into what you've always wanted to be.

Unfortunately, none of this striving equates to a spiritual awakening.

Of course, if you perform certain activities you will undergo changes and perhaps even attain ecstatic states. There is too much evidence -- anecdotal and experimental -- to suggest otherwise. For example, scientific studies have conclusively shown that the brain changes in and after meditation.

But that does not amount to spiritual attainment. In fact, your spiritual disciplines may deceive you into thinking that you're becoming more spiritual when you are fully spiritual already.

Consider the so-called spiritual discipline of fasting. If you go several days without eating, you will feel great hunger. And if you refrain from food in hope of receiving some enlightenment, you will likely interpret your intensifying hunger as a sign of your spiritual development. If you go long enough without eating, your hunger may trigger experiences that you interpret as spiritual epiphanies.

The same holds true for the innumerable other disciplines. It is akin to the placebo effect. If you believe that activity X will cause a spiritual incident, your expectation will probably be fulfilled when you engage in activity X.

But is there any reason to assume that spiritual disciplines must be physically painful? Does intentionally imposed physical distress trigger spiritual development? Can't there be paths to illumination and inner development that do not involve customary formulas?

Joseph Dispenza is a former monk who eventually renounced his vows when realizing that spirituality can transcend traditional procedures. He writes about his spiritual life in the book God on Your Own. "Poverty, chastity, and obedience formed the foundation of our monastic way of life. The objective was to be free to concentrate completely on the life of the spirit without allowing anything to interfere."

Dispenza makes a brilliant observation. We often suppose that the life of the spirit can be obtained only (or primarily) through an arranged methodology. And to achieve that lofty goal one must not permit any lower distractions. Normal sensations like hunger and libido must be overcome, and this usually involves a certain amount of physical or emotional strain.

Why does spiritual discipline feel like spiritual punishment?

Conventional approaches to spiritual awakening make unnecessary and unhelpful divisions. An individual is set against himself in the attempt to achieve spiritual attainment. Do we really think that the outer life is a hindrance to the inner life? Have we divided ourselves into so many warring factions that we believe that we can have peace only by killing off one or more of our splinter groups?

An unnecessary dualistic separation between secular and spirit overlooks the fact that all is spirit. The physical body is not bad. Hunger is not evil. Sex is not immoral. Natural desires and impulses are not stumbling blocks to be overcome. They are integral features of your existence to be welcomed.

Paradoxically, the desire to achieve spiritual success involves the same act of will that it hopes to quash. If it is assumed that the will is wicked, the will can't be employed to overcome itself without utter failure. Exerting the "spiritual will" to defeat "fleshly will" is still an act of will. It is simply substituting one will (and one desire) for another. The will is still at work, and the false identity is the primary actor.

This approach makes the faulty assumption that the will is evil and human desire must be conquered. If you consider your will and your instincts to be problematic, you may try to kill, destroy, or suppress them. Ironically in this attempt of self-domineering, you practice what you seek to extinguish.

Exerting the will to attain a spiritual goal indicates unawareness of greed, voracity, and craving. Greed is greed whether its desire is wealth, fame, power, sex, or spiritual ascendancy.

For this reason, Jesus reminded his followers, "Beware of covetousness."

When you already have what you long to attain, you are unaware of your abundance. If you try to become what you already are, you are unconscious of your true self. Your thinking about what stereotypical spirituality looks like drives you to grasp for the wind. Spirituality has nothing to do with formulaic practices or hackneyed appearances. It has everything to do with you being you.

If you hope to get spiritual by doing certain deeds, you are practicing greed, and you will not get what you seek to obtain. If you do a deed for its own sake, you will find the presence of God therein. That's why to find, you must stop seeking.

Instead of longing to get a little spiritual something-something by paying the right price, participate in the spirit of the present. This moment is saturated with divinity, and you have done nothing to cause it. Each moment is uniquely spiritual.

The spirit blows where it wishes, and that doesn't sound especially disciplined. Wendell Berry reverentially describes God as "the wildest being in existence." You can't control an undisciplined spirit regardless of how disciplined you think you are.

To live in the fullness of this moment, you may need to unlearn spiritual disciplines. You may need to become spiritually undisciplined in order to experience the kingdom of God as a little child. Living with spontaneity, gratitude, and attentiveness today is discipline enough without greedily looking to get more in a future that never arrives.

BRILLIANT, BRILLIANT, BRILLIANT, Kevin!!!!!!!

Oh, I could just kiss you! In a wholly-holy, completely spiritual, utterly spouse-approving way, of course...!

YES! My whole being reverberates with a YES to all you've said here!

I've been reading/dabbling in the teachings of many spiritual teachers ... and while there's much good insight there (as with almost everything), something has felt "amiss" ("you must go deeper, you must meditate rightly, and more, and often; forsake what you see, it's all an illusion") ... and lo and beHOLD, it's the age-old seduction of "trying harder, striving, thou shalt suffer to attain" message that keeps on sneaking into everything -- we just can't seem to stay on the level of "God is enough, I am enough, it is good, here and now - so BE (it)!!!

Oh, my heart sings at that, my spirit does back-flips, and my poor, long-maligned body dances at the thought of being enjoyed, honored and CELEBRATED!!! My (egoic/unrenewed) mind may continue to yammer a bit, but it's ok ... I can laugh with it as it keeps catching up with the "too good to NOT be true" reality...!

How I sense God delighting when we *get* this...! I can "see" His head thrown back in exuberant laughter, arms thrown open wide, as the universe is filled with His joyous welcome: "Yes! You see, you see! Join the dance, celebrate this life as your gift, your unearned, unstriven-for, un-yank-awayable inheritance! Just because you're MINE -- and you're ALL mine!!!"

What an assault to our "watch-me-earn-this" egos! What an undermining to the system of meritology & believe-the-RIGHT-theory-ology that permeates the institutions (& the unrenewed minds!) of this collectively-blind consciousness! What a shock to our carefully-constructed-and-maintained sand-castle foundations! What an uber-LIBERATION to all of humanity, all of our planet, all the universe!

Mmmmmmm-WAH! Thou art kissed!

(can ya tell that I liked it?!?)

Shalom, Dena


P.S. If you like what Kevin wrote (and of course you do!), you can subscribe to his weekly Parousia e-newsletter, and/or send comments and/or kisses here: kevin@presence.tv

Narratives of the Bible: The Story of Exile and Return

Exile ... like the exodus-from-bondage story, the exile story is one rooted in our individual and collective consciousness. Whether it be as "simple" as being sent into the exile of a disciplinary "time-out", or whether it be the all-too-common trauma of being cast out of the "popular crowd in school, or whether it be as insidious as being out-cast from a spiritual fellowship ... exile is part of the human experience.

Let's hear what Marcus Borg unpacks - my comments will follow:

- Like the exodus story, the story of exile and return is grounded in a historical experience. The exile began in 587 BC, when, after Jerusalem and its temple were conquered and destroyed by Babylon, some of the Jewish survivors were marched into exile in Babylon some eight hundred miles away. There they lived as refugees, separated from their homeland and under conditions of oppression. Next to the exodus, this experience of exile and return was the most important historical event shaping the life and religious imagination of the Jewish people. It seared itself into their consciousness and became for them a metaphor for their relationship with God.

- It is an experience of separation from all that is familiar and dear. It usually involves powerless and marginality, often oppression and victimization. As a life of being separated from that to which one belongs, exile is often marked by grief. This feeling of being separated from home and longing for home runs deeply within us.

(I can attest to the power of this experience ... while I was never marched for hundreds of miles, I experienced the pain of moving many times, as an "army brat" ... I moved 25 times in my life, most of them in my growing-up years ... 3 high schools ... numerous times of having to leave those I loved, back in the days when the hand-written letter was the only affordable means of communication. Even worse, however, is when a religious community moves from being a 'safe haven' to the ones who oppress and cast out a member ... shunning is alive and well within a great number of Christian churches and fellowships/ministries ... if one cannot sign a "statement of beliefs", or if one's perspective changes, or if one points out a problem, one *becomes* the problem ... the system, seeing the system as more important than those within it, will self-protect ... humans become disposable elements, so that the system can continue ... and yet, this very experience can be a blessing-in-disguise, as it shockingly reveals what is *not* "home" ... we cannot know and experience the truth, while enslaved to a counterfeit ... there are times when we turn to God while being shaken, only to discover that it is GOD who is doing the shaking! But ... I'm getting ahead of myself!)

- In our own lives, the experience of exile as estrangement or alienation can be felt as a flatness, a loss of connection with a center of vitality and meaning, when, one day become very much like another and nothing has much zest. We yearn for something that we perhaps only vaguely remember. Life in exile thus has a profound existential meaning. It is living away from Zion, the place where God is present. Indeed, exile is central in the symbolism of the Garden of Eden story in the book of Genesis. The garden - paradise - is the place of God's presence, but we live outside of the garden, east of Eden. If the problem is exile, what is the solution? The solution is, of course, a journey of return. Thus, like the exodus story, the story of exile and return is a journey story. It images the spiritual life as a journey to the place where God is present, a homecoming, a journey of return.

(So many things come to mind here ... I think of the prodigal's story ... his exile was self-imposed ... in chasing after what he *thought* would make him happy, he found himself in a place of ruination and exile. He was not led to the pig-sty by an external captor, but by an internal one ... his own ego told him how to find happiness, and he believed that small voice, rather than the Voice of truth. He had lived with the Voice of Truth - symbolized by his won father - for all of his life ... it had always been there for him. But he didn't recognize this truth until he had traveled far from it. This journey, then, this exile, was required -- he had to get far enough away, and to "lose" that which he'd not known he'd had, in order to wake up, come to his own senses, and finally *begin* to SEE what he'd always had. It took what it took - and the wise father let him go ... knowing the value of the experience was well-worth the monetary "loss" of his inheritance. It was worth forfeiting his fortune, in order to discover that which is priceless: his true identity as a Son. He returns from this self-imposed exile while still in the midst of confusion ... still rehearsing his speech, still very filled with mixed-motives. He is not yet clear, in his mind, of his identity ... he is willing to settle for less. However, his heart knows the way home, and so he goes ... even as his mind is yammering about how to justify this offense. I love how the father - who personifies God - brushes aside the rehearsed speech, and simply embraces and celebrates -- the son has returned! The father's heart has never left the son ... the Father never forgets who we really are, even while we are deluded ... the Father knows that there is no separation, that the separation is only in the mind of the one who has listened to his own fear- and shame-based egoic thinking. It is the *ego*, and only the *ego* that imagines, and thus experiences, the separation. The Father sees the Truth, from the Higher/Deeper perspective. The Father continues to watch and to love -- waiting for us to come to our senses, to awaken to His reality, to re-turn home to Him, and to who we really are. So too, does God deal with the "obedient" one who always held to the law, and never rebelled, and YET, never appreciated, nor experienced, what he always had ... whether we come to the end of ourselves through rebelling, or complying, the awakening, and the embrace of the Father is the same.

Re-turn implies that we were there to start with ... that we go back to where we began. So too with reconcile - to be reconciled is to imply a previous conciliation. I see our exile, in whatever form, is just as illusional and self-imposed as that of the prodigal -- indeed, I believe that that's one of the messages of the parable, if we only have eyes with which to see at that higher/deeper level.

So, too, with the narrative of the Garden ... I notice that when the humans chose to disobey, that though *they* hid, God came looking for them ... though our tradition tells us that they fell from grace, that relationship with God was severed, the text does not say so, nor does it imply so. God came to find them, to talk with them, to explain to them the consequences (not punishment!) for their choices, and then to provide for them. God knows, as a good Father, that His children had to strike out on their own, with their egoic-inheritance of shame and fear, to live it up and spend that inheritance, until they, too, would come to the end of all they had, wake up in whichever pig sty they'd find themselves in, come to their senses, remember who they really are, and return Home, to God.

It takes what it takes ... both individually and collectively. But people, and even cultures, do indeed awaken. It's happening, on both a micro and macro scale.

We, too, can realize that Home was always available, that God was always present, that we were always loved, always spoken to, always provided for. That only our own delusional/egoic perspective stood in the way of us *seeing* what there was to see.

We, too, can wake up, remember who we really are, and return Home.)

Tomorrow ~ Narratives of the Bible: The Priestly Story

Shalom, Dena

Women, Men & Biblical Equality - a Response

I received a most-gracious response from my worthy "opponent" (opponent only in perspective -- not in reality). While he affirms our mutual respect, he stands his ground.

Additionally, I received an email from another gentleman ... someone who read the interchange, and shared his own comments -- they're worthy of consideration, and so I'll post them at the end of this message. Isn't it glorious to live in such an age, that we can inter-connect in this way, and all benefit...? LOVE it!

First, the response from my male/female-hierarchical-minded friend:

Dena:

Your input is excellent, and you have a unique way of presenting your views. Thanks. I agree with a lot, perhaps more than a lot, of what you wrote.

Yes, I agree, God did not issue a command to Eve about leadership. He issued a fact. And that fact has borne itself out throughout the history of God's people. Take Sarah, for example. She called Abraham "lord." And if God intended that the leadership role change under the grace era to place women on the same leadership level as the man, as it was centuries prior, Paul would surely have instructed Timothy and Titus to choose both male and female shepherds to lead His people. And I think he would also have changed his wording in Ephesians 5:22.

Yes, I understand that culture and traditions have much to do with how we apply the scriptures. But understand again that in all cultures prior to the grace era, and we're talking about thousands of years, the male was the foremost leader—in the home and elsewhere. Was this God's doing? Certainly.

The husband and wife should mutually love, respect, and honor one another. However, where two or more people are involved in a common cause, leadership is essential, whether formal or informal. So in this vein, leadership cannot be equally mutual. The male has been given this role.

I highly appreciate your comments. I will evaluate any reply you wish to make—in a spirit of love and respect. God bless you.—XXXXXX.

I SO appreciate his heart-attitude! How refreshing is that?!?

One one hand, he's affirming my observations -- on the other hand, he stands his ground -- he desires to affirm and maintain relationship - beautiful! His plumb line seems to be the traditional understanding of Scripture -- my plumb line is "how does this line up with the God I've come to know and experience." I no longer assume that Scripture is inerrant (for it never claims to be), but that it's an unfolding understanding of who God is, and who we are, in Him.

I do see a practical need for leadership within the egoic system of this world. As long as we continue to see ourselves as separate and therefore competitive, leadership and structure prevents utter metldown. However, given what God has done (in both His Story, and in the demonstration of history), I'm seeing that we no longer have a "need" for human leadership, in the Kingdom. There is no male or female, no Greek or Jew ... all are equal, all are One. We are each and all led by the Spirit within, whether we yet *know* it or not. The Kingdom is not about accomplishment, but about awakening. We believe before we can see. Once we know Whose and Who we ARE, the need for leadership falls away, as moot. Inter-relatedness and unity trump all manner of systemic organization. Unfortunately, our illusion of separation so permeates our thinking, we've super-imposed that upon our view of the Kingdom ... and so we imagine that God has inspired our egoic tendencies ... rather than realizing that our egoic thinking is the very thing that must fall away and die, so that the Mind of Christ can emerge.

I no longer believe that male-domination was God-inspired ... but that it's a result of the egoic thinking and misogynistic scape-goating that occured once man "fell" into dualistic thinking ("it's the fault of that woman You gave me!"). Separation again. Rather than seeing ourselves as One, men and women have been under the delusional thinking that we're separate and competitive. And so man seeks to dominate, and woman seeks to usurp. What we miss is that God created them as ONE, and took her out of him (she was in there already, created in him on the 6th day & removed on the 8th day -- and ever since man has come forth out of woman -- bringing the relationship full-circle). This full-circle is symbolic of how we are made in the image of the Male/Female God. It's only together that we best and fully function as One (& this is the beauty and power of the act of sexual intercourse ... we again join as one, demonstrating unity -- hence, why sex is so easily corrupted and tainted, rather than fully enjoyed and celebrated, when that power is misunderstood and abused).

We also miss that God told them both, with no hint of any hierarchy, that they were to have dominion (stewardship) over all of creation - together. We further miss that "helpmeet" is the same word used to describe God, who is our *helper*, and the Holy Spirit, who is our *helper*. It's far from a subservient, secondary calling.

Regarding the wording of Ephesians 5:22 -- I find it ironic that the biblical translators were the ones who indeed *changed* the wording, adding "hupotasso/submit" into the text...! Can we not see the agenda at work here, altering the text to support the traditions of man? It's not about being placed on the same "leadership level" (an utterly moot concept!), but about recognizing what God intended in the first place -- the mutuality-celebrated-within-diversity demonstrated in how One lives face-to-face, in order to experience community...! Love kept within stagnates, while love given and received is dynamic.

It's both hard and painful to shed our old, familiar paradigms. Male-dominance has had a stronghold on this planet for millennia ... and the catastrophic results are obvious. Men have been responsible for 90-some-% of all the violence on the planet, including crime, rape and war. Would God, knowing this penchant, really say, "I know - I'll put man in charge!"...? I no longer believe that that was God's purpose. Neither am I advocating for women to be "in charge" ... I'm advocating for mutual respect, mutual submission, mutual honoring of all other humans on the planet ... finally awakening to the truth that we're all One, and that there is enough of everything to go around (including water, food, land, resources, opportunity, love, and access to God). What sort of world would we experience if we all believed that...? What sort of world can *I* experience if *I* believe that NOW...? It's my choice to discover that.

(I will share the other gentleman's response in a following comment)

Shalom, Dena

Transformation ...

The Chick Being Born

When in the midst of great change, it is helpful to remember how a chick is born. From the view of the chick, it is a terrifying struggle. Confined and curled in a dark shell, half-formed, the chick eats all its food and stretches to the contours of its shell. It begins to feel hungry and cramped. Eventually, the chick begins to starve and feels suffocated by the ever-shrinking space of its world.

Finally, its own growth begins to crack the shell, and the world as the chick knows it is coming to an end. Its sky is falling. As the chick wriggles through the cracks, it begins to eat its shell. In that moment - growing but fragile, starving and cramped, its world breaking - the chick must feel like it is dying. yet once everything it has relied on falls away, the chick is born. It doesn't die, but falls into the world.

The lesson is profound. Transformation always involves the falling away of things we have relied on, and we are left with a feeling that the world as we know it is coming to an end, because it is.

Yet the chick offers us the wisdom that the way to be born while still alive is to eat our own shell. When faced with great change - in self, in relationship, in our sense of calling - we somehow must take in all that has enclosed us, nurtured us, incubated us, so when the new life is upon us, the old is within us.

(From "The Book of Awakening" by Mark Nepo)

Shalom, Dena