The teachings of Jesus, the saints, and sages do the same.  They give us descriptions of reality as it is, that make no common sense.  When Jesus tells us to love our enemies, and walk away from the “getting-a-win” way of relating to them, it makes us vulnerable, unsafe, and it goes against every survival instinct we have…  so we tend to ignore Jesus.

But maybe it’s our common sense that is skewed, not the ancient wisdom.

Have a listen.
Doug

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Today we do a thought experiment together, and see how our ability to use our imagination is profoundly different  when we are dealing with a friend and with a rival.  For the teachings of Jesus to make sense, it will require we grow in our ability to extend the same moral imagination to rivals that we do to our friends.

It’s a pretty good lesson!
Have a listen.
Doug

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If we Westerners would love our enemies, the Muslim states come to mind.  If we see them as a “them,” and us as an “us,” well it’s pretty hard not to see a loss for us as a victory for them, and visa versa.  However, if we see them as part of a whole, of which we are a part, it become clear pretty quickly, that serving Muslim interests serves Western interests. Have a listen, I’ll show you how.

The same is true between the upper and lower classes, between friends and family members in conflict, neighbors, churches, and so forth.  When we see the whole of which we are part, it changes how our instincts inform our actions.

And it makes it possible for us to grasp the teachings of Jesus about loving self, neighbor, and enemy.

Have a listen,
Doug

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But the same is true of our emerging view of the universe.  Our instincts and experience tell us that matter is matter and energy is energy.  But Einstein’s theory of relativity, and subsequent experimental verification tell us that it is only our descriptions that make things different.  In fact the essence of the universe is a oneness.

Jesus’ and Paul’s teachings do the same.  They tell us we are oneness.  However, we tend to listen to the common sense of our instinct and experience.  As such, we live in worlds of competition and pecking orders.

And these become so normative, we don’t even see them as the abuse of power.  They just seem like the way of the world.  We wish it could be better, but this is the world we live in.

Jesus didn’t think so.

Have a listen.
Doug.

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In Luke 14, several paragraphs after Jesus introduced the idea of the death clutch, he talked about how the love of “our people,” often wraps us in a set of belief and behaviors that condemn us to keep chasing the attachments and agendas that suffocate true life.

Few things inform our unconscious instincts as deeply as the primal relationships from which we come. “The Way Things Are,” usually comes to us in the voice of father, mother, or some other person of visceral importance in our lives.

To be truly free, we must come to a place where we see these beliefs for the beliefs they are. We may continue to hold them, or we may decide to set them aside. However, we can do neither, until we see our beliefs as beliefs. What we believe, we can decide to un-believe. But as long as we can’t see them, they remain powerfully deterministic programs running in the background of our lives.

Have a listen.
Doug

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Doug

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The themes of this lesson are very personal for me. The bulk of last week’s digression-lesson was a personal story, and this week is too. It was embarrassing 15 years ago, now it is one of my most cherished memories.

Have a listen.
Doug

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This digression will expand what I said last week, and I’ll spend the lion’s share of our time telling you a story from my own life. It’s a story of love for people, and how without it, we cannot give our gifts to one another, and consequently, we fall short of our destinies.

Have a listen.
Doug

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“The Big Three,” pride, lust, and greed, are a part of the human condition.   Though we Americans have been schooled in individualism, and independence, solitary spirituality leaves us anemic in the face of these persistant forces.  This lesson suggests heeding the ancient wisdom of team tackling the big three with a community of spiritual friends to strenghten and encourage us along the way.

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Continuing our look at good and bad power, we turn to how one comes to be a user of the former. How do we become good-power people? Jesus had a lot to say about power, and critical to his teaching was an understanding that successful people, in-group people, tend to become so inwardly focused, they miss the big issues, and trip into the use of bad power. Have a listen.

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