July 17, 2022

This morning I gave a Sunday Zoom talk on "Coming Into Agreement." The talk will be posted in a couple of weeks with the audio files on our website: hillsidesource.com but I am posting a segment here to consider today.

One of the great world myths found in the Bible (Genesis) and other religious sources, addresses this issue of why humans have such trouble with agreement: The Tower of Babel. t is a story of how God decentralized the great kingdom of Babylon's power and authority. We are told, the people of this kingdom, at a time of great renown, all spoke one language, and in Genesis, this extends to whole of the earth or at least the known earth. A popular movement arose with the idea of building a tower to that would reach to Heaven. The fame and power of the Kingdom would expand, and it's people would never leave. But God 'came down' and saw that if they achieved it, nothing could restrain their power; they would do anything without his command, so he vowed to confuse language so they could no longer understand each other, and then he scattered them across the Earth.

Various versions are found in other texts. In the Torah, which gives more details, the Tower is spearheaded by Nimrod, the great grandson of Noah, with some interpretations suggesting Nimrod was resentful of the Flood and didn't trust God, so he strove to expand his own power. A Greek version, 'Apocalypse of Baruch' details a vision by a scribe and disciple of the prophet Jeremiah. In the vision, he sees the punishment of the builders of the “tower of strife against God,” who "smote them with blindness and confusion of speech." In the Qur’an there is mention of an official called Haman who built a great tower in Egypt with miraculous bricks under orders of the Pharaoh, who wanted to reach God. Because Islam's teaching that language is a sacred gift and that God taught Adam all languages, with Arabic as the most sacred of the Qur'an, the Genesis story of the Tower of Babel is seen as false. From Sumerian culture, within a story of two warrior-kings building competing temples, there is the story of a rivalry of gods in a utopian past, where multi-ethnic peoples of Mesopotamia all spoke the same tongue and worshipped the same deity, Enlil. Possibly out of jealously, the god of wisdom and mischief caused humanity to separate and speak in varied tongues.

In this myth, the root of disharmony is differing languages. We know people identify with their language as a fundamental structure of their culture, and take offense when someone refuses speak it, or ridicules it. What a metaphor for our emotions and our belief systems, our points of reference, our own sense of relationship or competency. Even within a culture and shared language, we misinterpret another's words and meaning. Learning another language is humbling; you make mistakes; others--the foreigners-- know more than we do. Yet, the need to speak another's language, pushes us to enter, to some degree, another's mind-set, different from ours.

The world's story is still in process from the various ancient myths of the Tower of Babel to 2022; perhaps this myth is not all punishment. To me, it is about the beauty and necessity of diversity. Nature exhibits diversity, an overwhelming abundance of variation of whatever theme is expressed. The people of the Earth too, come in abundant varieties. Diversity doesn't just separate; diversity provides a rich field of exchange and exchange increases our options for creativity, adaptation and survival. The tellers of the myth left out a crucial piece of meaning, the gift hidden in the scattered and divergent. The global scientific and medical exchange of the Pandemic--flawed and limited it may be--has saved lives. The global climate change debates and negotiations is another exchange in process. These kinds of efforts toward world-wide problems are not about coming into some universal collective mind, or world religion, or even unification. We are of one planet, but with diverse minds. It's astounding when you think of the varieties of microbial, plant, and animal life on Earth, and then turn to human expectation and demands that we all look alike, think alike, believe alike, or that we can rank the rich resource of variety that is humanity. What appeared as one thing centuries ago, may be something entirely different in life's unfolding. Scrambling the language and scattering the people was a good move. (Susan Nettleton)

July 10, 2022

Summer is now in its fullness. The last few weeks has been an interweaving of the shocks of change across America, as the concern of the Pandemic reappears and elections push to the forefront, crossing the threads of the Way of Spiritual Peace. Daily life continues and summer blossoms with intense heat, reminding us of global climate change. There is a pressure of coming events, a kind of bracing against a future wind, that humanity seems to carry. And then there is the Peace of the moment, the stillness of a summer afternoon, and the quiet of deep night that balances longer, erratic days.

This week, I find myself reflecting on the philosophy of Emerson: "To finish the moment, to find the journey's end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom." How in this July 2022, can we live the "greatest number of good hours"? For Emerson, that "good" must incorporate the Good; we learn to live in a way that integrates, undulates and often alternates, the reality of our present world with our spiritually transcendent one. As he put it, we learn to live in "the mid-world". There we find all the material needed for who we are to expand and grow a larger spiritual ground. "Face life as it really is. That is forever practical." "Save on the low levels and spend on the high levels. That is forever practical".

And particularly for Sunday, "Do not craze yourself with thinking, but go about your business anywhere. Life is not intellectual or critical, but sturdy...To fill the hour--that is happiness; to fill the hour and leave no crevice for a repentance or an approval." Let your Sunday, be filled with hours of Good. (Susan Nettleton)

"Human strength is not in extremes, but in avoiding extremes."

(all quotes from "The Gospel of Emerson" by Newton Dillaway, 13th ed. Unity Books, 2nd ed. 1978)

July 5, 2022

Our next Zoom talk on "Coming Into Agreement" by Susan Nettleton will be Sunday, July 17, at 11:00 a.m. Mountain Time, 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time. If you would like to receive an email invitation with the link for the talk, please message your email address, or email at hillsideew@aol.com, or leave as a phone message at 505-254-2606

July 3, 2022

Tomorrow is the 4th of July, America's celebration of Independence from British colonial rule and the Freedom that the new nation won. This historic drive for freedom included freedom of religion, incorporated into the U.S. Constitution in the Bill of Rights. The first amendment states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

But religious freedom has never been an easy road in America or anywhere else. Religious fervor is a powerful human emotion that can be wielded to motivate action for positive change in one's own life and inspire collective action. But religious fervor can also be used to manipulate the individual by weaving destructive collective delusion. The history of religion, including American history, amply demonstrates this. When the social order has no religious freedom, or when spirituality is dictated and coerced, our innate individual capacity as well as our collective capacity to grow, discover, and expand life withers. No single human being, no school of thought, or religion has the complete, ultimate, final truth on Life or God. Life resonates with diversity in a weaving beyond our capacity to grasp its totality. This is the root of spiritual humility.

One of the great blessings of the 21st century is the availability of information and communication of varying viewpoints, including a vast array of ideas of spirituality, world wide religious history, ancient, foreign, and newly emerging concepts of Life--all of which can potentially contribute to a greater realization of transcendence and our own religious practice. Even the ideas we discard, shape and hone our understanding of our own beliefs and spiritual experiences. If we are courageous enough to grow beyond the safety net of fixed ideas and rigid belief systems, we enter a time of expanding consciousness where we (individually and collectively) just might find new answers and solutions to the problems we have created. Doing that requires freedom.

Let this Sunday reveal your own sense of spiritual independence and freedom. Consider the path you have taken and the role that freedom and independence has played. Keep it in your heart for the 4th of July, 2022. (Susan Nettleton)

June 26, 2022

This week past week has brought more political upheaval in America and sadly feeds further religious and spiritual conflict, along with other cultural divisions. This same week, the summer solstice arrived, the peak point of daylight and the shortest period of night. It is the point when summer as a seasonal event begins. Yet, this peak is also the beginning of decline in terms of daylight. In the I Ching (Book of Changes) we are reminded that peak conditions are not maintained permanently, rather they are cyclical and wisdom teaches us to move with the ebb and flow of what is named a "time of abundance", the peak stage of any process. "Therefore a sage might will feel sad in view of the decline that must follow. But such sadness does not befit him. Only (one) who is inwardly free of sorrow and care can lead in a time of abundance... be like the sun at midday, illuminating and gladdening everything under heaven. " Perhaps this is why the phrase "June is the Joy of God" came to me in this week of changes.

It seems strange with all the current events rocking the country and the world to consider Joy.

But the line is actually the title of this poem, by Larry Morris:

"June is the Joy of God"

"God's love is the warmth-shedding June

don't think

smell the lilacs

don't fret

let the crickets fill your ears

with love songs

from God"

This Joy is not about human fantasies of God's 'opinion' on social and political structures. Yes, we are active participants in society, but individual spirituality means stepping outside social structures for interior guidance on the ways in which we personally participate. Take this Sunday as a day to both recover from the shocks of recent events and to discover deeper levels of what is here and now. There is renewal in turning to nature's summer gifts (yes, even with the extreme heat and worry about what that means). Within the Joy, the giving way to summer, this summer season right here, new ideas are being formed, energy for fresh action is being generated. That applies to your individual, daily life as well as our shared collective life. This is Nature's season of Light. Let it be a summer of light for you that naturally lifts you and others. We begin by letting go of the struggle of thought today and turn to our senses and our hearts. This is the power of Nature's renewal. (Susan Nettleton)

For poet Wendell Berry's sense of Sabbaths, follow the link:

https://thesquattingsasquatch.wordpress.com/.../sabbaths.../

Follow this link for Rabindranath Tagore's exquisite reminder of universal Love:

https://intrinsicheart.com/unending-love/

June 19, 2022

"When you give up, when you enter into complete despair with hopelessness after hopelessness, just before despair and laziness take you over, you begin to develop a sense of humor." Chogyam Trungpa (Illusion's Game, The Life and Teaching of Naropa, pg. 62)"

In this quote, Tibetan Buddhist Teacher Chogyam Trungpa (1939-1987) is speaking on a particular kind of spiritual hopelessness that seizes those who struggle for spiritual Awakening, beyond the identification of a separate self or ego. I find this insight on humor helpful in humanity's, collective and individual struggle with despair and hopelessness. Humor is a form of spiritual salvation.

This Sunday, I encourage you to follow the humorous. Like beauty, humor is sprinkled about. It often takes us by surprise (surprise is one of it's qualities), but also like beauty, it is more likely to find us when we are open to it. Most people can't just make themselves laugh, but we can give way to it when it happens, from mild amusement to uncontrollable delight.

The great Hasidic Master, the Baal Shem Tov (1698-1760), expressed humor as "that thing that ushers a person's mind from a place of constricted consciousness to a place of expanded consciousness." Despair and hopelessness are rooted in constricted consciousness, where life seems hemmed in, framed in rigid barriers of limitation. Those barriers may have their concrete reality, but ultimately life is not bound by our emotions or concepts or social construction (including religious beliefs). Humor is one way that life bursts free--crossing polite boundaries, breaking collective barriers cemented with rules that prescribe what we can talk about and what we are supposed to ignore--we encounter the paradoxical, the irreverent, the outrageous, and we can heal when we learn to poke fun at ourselves and our situation.

There are many studies that show the psychological value and healing quality of laughter, but the point here is not to analyze humor but affirm it. Today, consider the comedy of life. Find something funny, or let its expanding, healing power find you. Don't be afraid to laugh. (Susan Nettleton)

For a bit of Larry Morris' spiritual humor from our website, follow the links below.

https://hillsidesource.com/daily.../2018/6/14/who-is-it?

https://hillsidesource.com/daily-thoughts/2018/6/14/ask

https://hillsidesource.com/dai.../2018/6/14/explain-yourself

https://hillsidesource.com/.../3/19/spiritual-and-worldly

June 12, 2022

This week I re-read a book of poetry edited by Robert Bly, "The Soul is Here for it's Own Joy..." It's a book I know well, but this time I was struck by a counter theme I had not sensed before: facing the reality of the burden of human life as we seek a more Transcendent Reality. There is a certain thread in many religions that separates worldly life from the spiritual life. Worldly life carries the weight of burden--fear, illness, struggles for survival from one threat or another, the struggle to fit into the social order, the responsibility for and dependency on others, the uncertainty of death. Religions and spiritual teachings offer meaning in the face of the burden and the potential promise of relief.

As the poet Friedrich Holderlin wrote, the spiritual process itself is one of living in the world with it's difficulties, while our vision expands and we learn to move with the flow of life: "...And many things have to stay on the shoulders like a load of failure..." "Let us learn to live swaying, as in a rocking boat on the sea.” (see link below for the poem)

Rumi's poem, "Night and Sleep" offers the vision of a parallel, perhaps simultaneous, Reality: the freedom of the spiritual life in sleep that brings nightly healing and a reassuring balm:

"At the time of night-prayer, as the sun slides down,,

The route the senses walk on closes, the route to the invisible opens...

I think one could say the spirit goes back to its old home;

It no longer remembers where it lives, and loses its fatigue.

It carries around in life so many griefs and loads

And trembles under their weight; they are gone, it is all well." (excerpt)

Margaret of Navarre's (1491-1549) poem, "Wind Will Blow It All Away" gives the perspective of time to worldly conflicts and confusion.

"If someone insults you,

Go on, with light heart;

If they all do it, pay

No heed to what they say.

There's no new art

In talk of that kind.

Wind Will blow it all away...

And if the world itself

Should come, money, castles,

Great sweets in its hand, just say,

"I have enough today."

For worldly things

Return whence they came.

Wind will blow it all away..." (excerpt, see link below)

Prayer and meditation are the cornerstones of navigating the burdens of the world, but we each approach that in our own way. Turning toward the inner pull brings what is needed to lighten our load and opens our understanding and hearts to our own joy right here, in this world. Let today be a time of lightening --even dissolving--the burden. (Susan Nettleton)

(all quotes from "The Soul is Here for it's Own Joy, Sacred Poems from Many Cultures", edited by Robert Bly, ECCO Press, "Night and Sleep" pg. 235, "Wind Will Blow It All Away", pg. 22-229, "All the Fruit", pg. 247, 1995. )

https://www.goodreads.com/.../116512-all-the-fruit-is...

http://warpandwolf.blogspot.com/.../wind-will-blow-it-all...

June 5, 2022

"Beings are numberless, I vow to save them

Desires are inexhaustible, I vow to end them

Dharma gates are boundless, I vow to enter them

Buddha's way is unsurpassable, I vow to become it."

In my years of spiritual practice and meditation, I have spent time in various Zen centers and retreats, where some variation of the Bodhisattva Vows, translated above, are recited. The vows are the core of Mahayana Buddhism and the idea of bodhicitta. Bodhicitta is defined as a spontaneous wish and compassionate mind to attain Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings, rather than just one's own personal salvation. Our current times that include mass shootings in America, war between Russia and Ukraine, the global Pandemic and continued international issues of poverty and oppression naturally bring an inner call to help somehow, somewhere. Compassion is a human response and this week has me recalling the line, "Beings are numberless, I vow to save them."

In times of chanting with a group as an "outsider" and a psychiatrist, I often found myself pausing at that line, questioning the wisdom and logic of vowing to "save" the numberless beings of the world. Like wrestling with a koan, my mind would wrestle with the rationale of vowing the impossible, even though I knew very well that the point of Zen and indeed religion, is not rationality. Then one evening it hit me, and I understood. The only way you save all beings is to awaken to Truth: There are no numberless beings to save; there is One Life. To know your Self, as Self is to liberate all.

That in no way is to dismiss human suffering and help. We live on two (or more or many) planes. We live in this concrete world where concrete action has its purpose. But that action is far more wise and healing when fed by the transcendent awareness. Jesus put it this way, "And I, if I be lifted up from the Earth, draw all people unto me." Metaphysically, when we know the Transcendent, we too are lifted up from the Earth and thereby free others. What we touch in those moments, we carry with us as a shared blessing with all, even in the whirlwind of daily life. Those moments bring new peace and renewed action. (Susan Nettleton)

“We will develop and cultivate the liberation of mind by lovingkindness, make it our vehicle, make it our basis, stabilize it, exercise ourselves in it, and fully perfect it.” The Buddha

“Whatever living beings there may be — feeble or strong, long, stout, or of medium size, short, small, large, those seen or those unseen, those dwelling far or near, those who are born as well as those yet to be born — may all beings have happy minds.” The Buddha

(ref: O'Brien, Barbara. "Bodhisattva Vows." Learn Religions, Aug. 25, 2020.)

May 29, 2022

Memorial Day is rooted in the national honoring of US military who died in service to America and that remains its focus. Over the years though, the weekend has expanded in different areas as an opportunity to recognize other sacrifice to the greater good for those who have died in service to society in other ways. Yet this Memorial weekend brings the news of another mass shooting with more tragedy and cultural divide to this country. The murders of so many young children and heroic educators casts a deep shadow of grief and loss which simply cannot be understood or explained away or ignored. No one is able to emotionally process or even absorb the impact of immense tragedies like war and mass murder in the time span that society often demands; to pick up, regroup, carry on, or to take immediate action to "make things right". It is not possible. Raw hearts must find some solace first.

Today, follow the pull of whatever brings you personal peace and comfort. Then consider the quotes below that sum up my own spiritual approach to moving forward in the face of tragedy:

A New Thought maxim, "Don't fight the dark, turn on the light."

From the I Ching (Richard Wilhelm translation),

"...the best way to fight evil is to make energetic progress in the good."

Robert Pirsig (reference to Plato's "Phaedrus" (dialogue with Socrates):

"And what is good, Phaedrus, and what is not good. Need we ask anyone to tell us these things?"

There is wisdom and intelligence within each of us. We have within us, right at hand, a directive toward the good. This is a time to listen, You have your part, your way to feed the light and progress the good. (Susan Nettleton)

For poetic reflections, follow the links below.

https://leocadia-cafenowhere.blogspot.com/.../nothing-is...

https://hellopoetry.com/poem/14511/just-now/

May 22, 2022

As both Covid-19 and flu cases continue to rise across the country, it seems a good time to consider the incremental nature of both growth and healing. With the digital age, the pace of world-wide events, news in general and targeted advertising, information is non-stop and must compete with multiple voices, to be recognized and absorbed. It's easy to feel a sense of urgency and drama about most information. In fact, that urgency and drama is cultivated to capture your attention where resources and markets are highly competitive. In the long run though, we undermine ourselves because we simply cannot absorb everything all at once. In some ways, this only confuses our collective sense of growth and healing, at a time when we need to make careful and wise choices.

It's not a very exciting contemplation on the surface, but today I urge you to reflect on the incremental. Some things are urgent. Certain core issues around the globe are urgent. But most of daily life is not. With constant exposure to urgency, our expectations and reactions are skewed. Consider the time it took for Life to grow you. Think of the gradual small shifts and adjustments that happened over time. Consider the time it takes to repair, to heal, to settle into a new way of being. Allow yourself to act incrementally, one small step at a time. Trust the Intelligence of Nature and of Time. It is one way to restore a sense of balance. (Susan Nettleton)

Follow the links below for further perspective from our website.

https://hillsidesource.com/daily.../2018/6/20/time-enough

https://hillsidesource.com/.../6/16/excellence-takes-time

https://hillsidesource.com/.../2018/3/24/from-worry-to-peace

May 15, 2022

As frightening fire continued to speed across northern New Mexico this week, I began to think about transitions. There are many ways to describe the time period we live in, 22 years into the 21st century, but today it seems to me that 'transition' is a significant one. The years of Pandemic and the years that stretch ahead are collective transition years, where much remains unsettled. We are trying as a society to move beyond the Pandemic, while at the same time to be watchful of Covid variants. We have also become aware that new viruses and micro organisms will continue to arise, as boundaries between the animal world and the human world shrink. But learning to adapt to mutating viruses is just one of the shifts of these times. We are entering a new kind of direct encounter with nature, the changes that human development has brought, and the renewed necessity to come into right relationship with our environment. As fire information officer Ryan Berlin said of the Calf Canyon-Hermits Peak Fire, "...we need a little help from Mother Nature to shut the wind down, and a little rain." The tone of his words in the midst of the fierce wind and heat, the unrelenting focus and skill required of the fire fighters, and the tragedy of lost homes and potentially lost lives, seemed strangely gentle. But perhaps that gentleness is what is needed in our coming into some new alignment with Nature. Certainly gentleness is a balm to those who face loss. And calm gentleness toward ourselves and in prayer, opens our hearts to receive guidance.

Times of drought and fires are not foreign to New Mexico or the southwest in general. Neither is an appeal to Mother Nature for intervention and prayer. But the impact of the fires, and other future weather events goes far beyond the local level. The world is watching this fire. Perhaps along with courage and skill, we can offer it gentleness. (Susan Nettleton)

For poetic perspective on times of struggle that point to gentleness, follow the links below.

https://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php%3Fdate...

https://wordsfortheyear.com/.../the-cure-by-ginger-andrews/

May 8, 2022

Today is Mother's Day traditionally celebrated as an opportunity for family to recognize and express gratitude for the works of mothers in raising the children. Originally, families honored mothers by attending church with them, underscoring the spiritual aspects of motherhood with a focus on selfless love and sacrifice at the center of the home. Eventually, the holiday became commercialized and embedded in secular culture. As our culture has evolved over the years, our construct of Mother has grown beyond ancient archetypes and the American vision of the early 20th Century mother. Still, some type of Mother's Day continues around the globe with various practices and dates. It retains a spiritual aura in cultures where the maternal aspects of God, or a feminine God, or a female companion to a masculine God is woven into the religion.

This year, it occurs to me that the 21st Century has entered a time of not just questioning rigid concepts of women and their roles and right in society (debated for centuries and surging in 19th century America to present day), but as some now demonstrate, gender identity itself can be deconstructed and abandoned. Does this leave us without mothers or is this the opportunity to stretch and grow beyond our ingrained ideas into a consciousness that is more fluid and adaptable. Over the centuries circumstances have required caring people of either gender and any age range to sometimes act as mother and sometimes as father; we shift roles as times demand. There are no clearcut forever answers in the flux of life; except no one and nothing is left out. Whatever your family background or identity, take time today to reflect on how you mother life around you, as life in turn, mothers you. (Susan Nettleton)

for poetic glimpses of mothering, follow the links below:

https://thevalueofsparrows.wordpress.com/.../poetry-that.../

https://poets.org/.../i-am-much-too-alone-world-yet-not...

https://www.masamemory.com/.../blog-post-title-three-jgpza

May 1, 2022

Divine Timing

We are

thankful

that the universe

is a

vast

possibility

of

good

showing up

when

least

expected. (by Larry Morris)

Today is May Day, a holiday that has ancient roots in Europe, but is still known in America. This tradition celebrates the seasons as winter continues to fade into spring, and spring opens into summer. May Day is the midpoint between spring and summer. While we recognize the natural cycles of the seasons, life and its seasons have never been precisely predictable; there is a flow of one season into the other. Life is movement and surprise as one event flows and transforms into another.

Paradoxically, we have the term 'Mayday', communicated 3 times, as a call for help in life threatening emergencies. That cry of "Mayday" is understood internationally, and those who can respond, do. The code-word was coined from the French term for 'help-me' and is unrelated to the playful festival of May Day. Yet, the homophone has me reflecting on the spiritual life as a continual flow of Good, that we simply fail to grasp. Perhaps our spiritual code-phrase is "the unexpected"; the solutions we seek are "the unexpected". During the years of Pandemic, the seasons have come and gone; we had our times of relative normalcy, jolting changes, and life threatening emergencies. We've had times of great loss, but also tremendous discovery. Now that life is opening, why not reflect on an expectation of Good coming in unexpected ways? Why not open to a responsive Universe?

Whether we frame it as 'openness', faith, positive thinking, newness of life, or human capacity for ingenuity and adventure--or serendipity, synchronicity, or simply surprise--it is our space for the unexpected that gives a living quality to the spiritual life. In any given situation, we can stretch our expectations by considering a list of positive possibilities, then having primed the pump, jump into the void of unknown potential, which is God. While the practice of affirmation and visualizations has its psychological impact (lifting our mood and confidence), a rigid repetition of our insistence that life mold to our specific desire, can be exhausting. Such mental demand carries us further and further away from a deeper spiritual trust and a greater Intelligence. Let this May Day impart a positive trust of God's Good, bringing you unexpected insight, solutions, where-with-all, connection, and joy. (Susan Nettleton)

For more ideas on opening to unexpected Good, follow the links:

https://hillsidesource.com/.../3/16/unfamiliarize-yourself

https://hillsidesource.com/affirmation-prayer-for-freedom...

April 24, 2022

Smile O voluptuous cool-breath’d earth!

Earth of the slumbering and liquid trees!

Earth of departed sunset—earth of the mountains misty-topt!

Earth of the vitreous pour of the full moon just tinged with blue!

Earth of shine and dark mottling the tide of the river!

Earth of the limpid gray of clouds brighter and clearer for my sake!

Far-swooping elbow’d earth—rich apple-blossom’d earth!

Smile, for your lover comes.

(from Song of Myself, by Walt Whitman)

This Sunday follows Earth Day 2022, celebrated each year on April 22. So today I am asking you to consider your personal relationship with our planet. Collectively, we are grappling with the knowledge that the climate of Earth is undergoing a dramatic and life threatening shift of increasing and erratic temperatures, extreme storms and other natural disasters, and disappearing species that have consequences for the human food chain and the ecosystem in general. The road to healing the planet remains full of conflict, with struggles of battling interests, and often bitter negotiations. Yet, there are successful strategies that have already been slowly introduced in society, such as cleaner power plants, local initiatives to monitor and limit pollution and CO2 emissions, developments in the control of methane, new standards for appliance efficiency, improvements in farming, more acceptance of environmental practices in businesses--down to the individual level--and continued international debate in recognition that climate and environmental practices must include global cooperation.

Today though is a day for spiritual consideration, not a day of fear, anger, or hopelessness. We can all remind ourselves and each other that our own lives as individuals are called to see how lifestyles and behaviors affect the natural environment around us, just like they impact the people with whom we live and work. We deepen that understanding when we consider our personal relationship with our planet. There's no one right definition or description of that. For some, we are the "owners" of nature, of Earth--we can use it in any way we want. Unfortunately, with a rigid idea, we easily ignore the problems we create until they become highly dangerous. For some, we are "stewards" given the tasks to care for the natural world and learn what that means in various contexts. For still others, we are aliens to earth; we belong somewhere else in the cosmos or we look to a new location in some science fiction alternative that space travel may provide. Philosopher Alan Watts said, “We do not come into this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree. As the ocean waves, the universe peoples. Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe." For Walt Whitman, well, he was a lover of Earth.

Spend a little time today away from the human-made environment, if only by traveling in your imagination, and consider your personal relationship to Earth. What does that relationship require of you and what does the Earth give back? (Susan Nettleton)

For a poetic perspective from Larry Morris' book "On This Sweet Earth", follow the link:

https://hillsidesource.com/gifts-of-the-forest

April 17, 2022

Today is Easter Sunday, celebrated by over 2 billion Christians around the globe as a deeply sacred event. The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the path of sacrifice and forgiveness promising eternal life, remain the cornerstone of Christianity and the Holy week of Easter. Yet, the holiday carries traditions rooted in ancient rites of Spring that recognized the rhythm of the seasons, cycles of life, and the amazing re-emergence of life that follows winter, or illness, or war and calamity. Out of these traditions, modern society has created an alternative celebration of secular and commercial Easter. If it were possible to trace all the roots and branches of the story and meaning of Easter attributed to our collective history, there would be no space large enough to illustrate or visualize it--layer upon layer of history, myth, analysis, revelation, pageantry, vision and mystery.

This Easter, I offer you one aspect of the story to contemplate: Our human need to put a face on God. True, we all have to reckon with the inevitability of death and therefore, many turn to Christianity because of it's belief in a path to "eternal Life". But the mystery of death is just one of the enigma's of life that propel people to a spiritual search. Birth is a mystery; existence itself is a mystery--pain and suffering, beauty, love and even sacrifice are often perplexing. Modern science and psychology offer some degree of understanding, but sometimes, the more we understand, the more mystery we discover in this phenomenal puzzle of life. The human heart has those moments of awe that open us to more transcendent awareness, yet not many can truly satisfy our personal well of gratitude, longing and love with an abstract 'God' of 'Allness'. A God with a "face", with "skin", with form, gives our psyche a bridge, allowing human perception to stretch to the imperceptible.

The Easter story revolves around Jesus as God (or Son of God; i.e, out of God) made flesh. Human yet Divine, he becomes a God of identification. He too suffers; he too is treated unfairly, he too has his time of doubt and turns to prayer, he too loves and despite it all, forgives.

A God with a face, is not only found in Christianity of course; many religions have tales of God (or gods) walking among the people, assuming human identities for one purpose or another-- Christianity absorbed the religious history of other traditions. For some, the saints, great mystics and teachers provide the bridge. A face that has transcended the confusion of life, reconciled, given way to the Allness, grounds us in a different kind Love, a different kind of Strength and Courage, as we stretch beyond ourselves to the Unknown. Happy Easter! (Susan Nettleton)

In this poem by George Herbert, the "face" of God is simply "Love". Follow the link:

https://www.poetryoutloud.org/poem/love-iii/

April 10, 2022

"There is a guidance for each of us, and by lowly listening we shall hear the right word. Why need you choose so painfully your place and occupation and associates and modes of action and of entertainment?... Place yourself in the middle of the stream of power and wisdom which animates all who it floats...." Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

This week the household dryer broke, which in a busy home with children, is not a small thing. While waiting for a repair person to rescue us, I decided to set up a rudimentary clothes line. I found an old 20 foot cord that would do, but it was a tangled mess. So I began the tedious work of untangling which gave me the time to once again reflect on human problems as tangles, and to recall the solution: never begin to tackle a knotted mess by trying to think which piece to move where. Rather the trick is to loosen the knots and twists. Loosen, Loosen Loosen.

With seemingly daily upheavals, the world and each of us as individuals continue to face the puzzles and tangles of complex beliefs and complex lives. Often in a life-puzzle, we have the pull of spiritual guidance, but we (sometimes unconsciously) ignore it in confusion. The idea of guidance is fundamental to human beings. It is a large component of learning and adaptation to new situations where we apply learning, knowledge and experience directly to work, relationship, health and wellness, finances, and various decisions of daily life. When we are younger, we turn to parents, or older siblings and relatives and then in school, teachers. In work, we may rely on supervisors or consultants; as patients, we may need specialists of one form of another. This need is part natural and part social/cultural structure. Yet there is an element here of something more fundamental--human intelligence--some recognition that there is an aspect to sorting out life that requires a source of knowledge beyond our own. It is an intuitive awareness that some actions in specific situations are more useful and productive than others, and that action in one direction, inevitably impacts other aspects of our life.

That gnawing sense of the "better way" is our own spiritual nature, tugging at us toward an inner guidance system we can term spiritual Guidance. While we may sometimes sense the opinions or experiences of other people as spiritual Guidance, it is our own inner response that opens and determines who and what we pay attention to and take seriously. Ultimately, the Guidance system resides within. Recognition and experience fine tunes that Guidance system over time. But, modern life is complex and quickly tangles in cross currents. Our actions impact others. There is the constant cross-fire of seeming opposing opinions and needs. Confusion in decisions, masks our fear of consequences. The way to spiritual Guidance is to loosen, not break, not struggle, certainly not tighten, the tied-up mess of relationships, opinions, emotions and yes, even consequences, that jam the flow of Intelligence and "lowly listening" to Guidance. The day the dryer stopped, when the cord's tangles were loosened, the knots simply fell apart. I had my clothesline. Oh, and the repairman expertly fixed the machine. (Susan Nettleton)

April 3, 2022

"There is a morning inside you waiting to burst into Light." Rumi

This week I found Spring. It had gotten lost in the general upheaval of life both personal and collective. But an unusual meditation the night before sparked my vision --I woke up to sunlight and a sense of excitement and gratitude to have the time for an early morning walk. After two days of gloomy (though much needed) rain and chill, the morning had broken free. Plants and trees, and even the air were cleansed and nourished by rain. There were flowers all along the sidewalks, and I was almost dizzy with the color show. I drank in the scarlet bottle brushes, softly hanging from green limbs. They had to be touched, as I thought of all the baby bottles I have washed during the Pandemic years. Surely our brushes were modeled after nature's creative leap in these strange, soft flowers. There were dancing sunflowers, sunrise pink oleander blossoms, creamy magnolias, daisies, purple crepe myrtle, multicolored camellias, tiny white alyssum and roses of every possible shade. Oranges and lemons with their perfume hung low on the trees. Of course the birds where excited; their songs over-rode a few cars idling at the stop signs while I crossed streets. I didn't mind the cars--I was grateful for mine-- on this day, the boundaries between living and inanimate dissolved.

To love life is to love the essence, the building block, the unformed, even emptiness that give rise to all form, however you conceive it. We learn to love by loving form, whether that is people, animals, places, things, even ourselves. The problem is such love is incomplete. Form changes. Form passes. Form does not always reciprocate. Form can wound. But when we discover the root, the ground, the Source of all form, then loving life is loving That, and That is All. (Susan Nettleton)

As Rumi put it:

God's joy moves from unmarked box to unmarked box,

from cell to cell. As rainwater, down into flower bed.

As roses, up from ground.

Now it looks like a plate of rice and fish,

now a cliff covered with vines,

now a horse being saddled.

It hides within these,

till one day it cracks them open.

For Lao Tzu's expression, follow the link: https://www.dailygood.org/pdf/ij.php?tid=475

March 27, 2022

Today I am continuing to reflect on last weeks' topic of "Your Armor of Light" and the importance of understanding vulnerability and protection spiritually. I have spoken about the metaphor of armor as a way to cultivate a consciousness of protection as we move beyond Covid-19 fear, cope with yet another variant and wrestle with global climate struggles and war.

A spiritual perspective give us a way to appreciate the natural protections of the human body; these along with the practice of prayer and the social protection of community (last week's posts) are components that can be nurtured and practice to lift fear, offer comfort, and live our lives with deepening peace. But there is still another factor to consider as a spiritual practice, removing the armor of a false sense of self. Chogyam Trungpa in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition writes of this with the idea of the Spiritual Warrior as one who's worldly armor has dissolved.

Here armor is seen as the hardened protection of our egoistic self, a wall of self-importance and self sufficiency. Armor in this sense then, includes the daily tension we carry around, defending ourselves against life, our own vulnerability, and the suffering of others (whom we unconsciously identify with). Vulnerability means the awareness that anything can happen, the recognition that human life is susceptible to injury, illness, and attack. It is not necessary the same thing as fear; fear is the emotional response to an awareness of vulnerability. All the defense mechanisms of the psyche and ego defend then against a realization that this separate life we claim as our identity, is false. Christianity has a similar stream of thought that urges acceptance of our human vulnerability, because it opens a spiritual door. St. Paul's confession of the 'answer' that came as he prayed to overcome his own unnamed vulnerability, sums up the idea: "But he (Christ) said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'” So here is an affirmation of vulnerability that is a reversal of the building up of the self image, that is sometimes taken to an extreme of worthlessness. But the point is not to fight the ego, which only strengthens it. Rather face life and yourself as what is, accepting fear, accepting mistakes, accepting lack of control and your feeling nature, including the need for others, for help. We take off the armor of separation, no longer defending the self, but not groveling, not shutting down. The "spiritual warrior" moves with open hand, open heart, tenderness, meeting life as it comes, without bravado or artifice. This is not something to force on yourself, rather it is recognizing this vulnerability is another aspect of the spiritual process. To move beyond the self is not to become all powerful-- just the opposite. It is: "I cannot do this, I cannot do this alone."

This is really two sides to one process. We let go of one kind of armor and gain another, again and again, until our sense of separation dissolves. Then armor is irrelevant. We are all somewhere on this line of living, and trusting life and ourselves, and each other. (Susan Nettleton)

Follow the link to a poem with the flavor of a spiritual warrior, by Jane Hirshfield

https://www.brinkerhoffpoetry.org/poems/the-weighing

March 20, 2022

Today I am posting an excerpt from my morning Zoom talk, "Your Armor of Light".

I considered using the title, Our Armor of Light, rather than Your Armor of Light, because I saw that it's a little tricky in a time of war; to cross back into dualistic spiritual warfare and erode the armor of community. People have sought self protection through relationship, through the group, the family, the tribe since the dawn of humanity. Part of the resistance to Pandemic mandates was basically the fear and trauma of isolation, the fear of facing fear alone. Unfortunately, modern media has cultivated promoting division as well as community--growing through establishing community based on division. Maybe, hopefully, we are beginning to see the weakness of that. I maintain that the essential principle of life to be reckoned with this century, to a degree the world has not known before this time, is our interdependence.

The last two years are screaming interdependence--any progress we have made in the Pandemic has been through Global efforts, and yes what happens in Hong Kong, or Ukraine or Ethiopia or Venezuela impacts us. The rapid mobilization of world wide sanctions to stop a war is another example. The climate crisis is another than cannot be solved by without Global action. There is the armor of community, but there is also the threat from a larger playing field. For the armor of community to be armor of Light, we expand our awareness that the armor extends it's boundary. If you make it complicated you will only get more entangled in fear and threat. On the personal level, attend to your relationships as aspects of your armor of Light, spiritual armor extends beyond your own skin and as you can, let it expand beyond that. In God "there is no darkness at all", means no one and nothing is left out. What we accept for ourselves, we sooner or later grow to accept for everyone and everything, which ultimately is love. Remember the spiritual antidote to fear is love.

The mind wants to qualify and quantify, separate and categorize. What you can't do, you can't do, just give room for the idea that what you accept for yourself, in terms of peace, assurance, safety, comfort, you have room within you to accept for all. Don't try to work it out in your mind or be responsible or carry the load. Just have an the opening that your prayer, this armor of light, includes all. It's back to this adage: When you are afraid, you can fight the dark or you turn on the light. And if you can't reach the light switch, surround yourself with people who can -- or can hold the flashlight. If you must fight the dark take positive action. Better to take positive action than sit alone in fear. Writing your own commentary, donating time/money, signing a petition, joining a concerned community, starting your own prayer group--there are many possibilities--community activity does lower anxiety. It too supports your armor of Light. (Susan Nettleton)

for an unusual poem of encouragement from Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz (1911-2004), follow the link: https://wordsfortheyear.com/.../on-angels-by-czeslaw-milosz/

March 13, 2022

"Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you." Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)

Today in the U.S., daylight savings time begins; we have set our clock forward 1 hour and thereby shortened the day. This is a predictably disrupted day for many as our routine timing must shift. Time will be paid back in the fall, but the fall seems a long way off, and today is perhaps well spent in considering the value of 'wasting time'. With the mounting pressures of these days, the Russia-Ukraine war, the continued threat of Covid and rising inflation, it may seem ill-advised to consider a day of idleness or goal-less activity. Yet, periods of "wasting time" often precede creative leaps in many areas of life. This is another way of letting the mind rest and renew. It opens the space in routine, habit and willfulness that forces life to conform to our demand, rather than letting go and letting life reveal and express solutions, new concepts, new connections. A day of "wasting time" seen from a spiritual perspective, may give us a taste of what the great scholar of mysticism, Evelyn Underhill, described as the “leisure of Eternity." These moments come when we no longer have to push or force our tasks, rushing around with a feeling of constant pressure, but move steadily with deep assurance of inner spiritual direction. It is also a reminder that even when we feel we simply must use our time productively, we do not have to over analyze the results. Mistakes and imperfections are part of human efforts, and usually less likely when "take our time." (Susan Nettleton)

Follow the link for a contemporary poem on use of time by Canadian poet Issac Goolle.

https://hellopoetry.com/.../this-poem-is-a-waste-of-your.../