Who among as at some point has not felt ‘offended’? Someone says something rude to us, something to belittle us or make fun of the way we look – or does something just to make themselves feel superior by making us feel inferior. We’ve all been there, haven’t we? Think of the people in your life who must always be correct, have the last word, or elevate themselves by being seen as the wise teacher (even though everybody else just thinks they’re a fill-in-the-blank!).

Recently someone did this with me – it wasn’t as much what they were saying as much as it was something I felt they were projecting – giving me ‘credit’ (of sorts) for thinking something I wasn’t even thinking. And so the more I thought about what I wasn’t thinking about…well, the more offensive to me it became. And as this person has been a friend for some time, there was ample baggage I could heap on the issue. I wanted to tell this person, as a roommate of mine in college used to say, ‘Hey, don’t throw your muck in my backyard!’ I wanted to say ‘deal with your own stuff but leave me out of it.’ Continue reading…

The other day I read a statement from a spiritual teacher who said that “The great teachers of humanity become streams of love.” As I believe that love is the greatest power in the universe, this statement obviously caught my attention. Of course, this echoes Jesus’ promise that those who trust in him (that is, the Way and path that he opens up into the Infinite) will flow “rivers of living water from your innermost being.” The more I reflected upon this, the better it seemed and the more it grew on me.

For one thing, this opens the door for all of us to become great teachers of humanity. Each of us, in our own ways (and within our own ‘gardens’) always has the option of being such a stream. The people who cross our paths are often in need of love – the ultimate ‘water of life’ for those parched souls not quite sure how best to find refreshment and quench their thirst. Continue reading…

As a follower of the Jesus of history – as best he can be known – I often spend time contemplating the wonderful paradoxes of his teaching. I even see paradox where he might not have intended it to be found. For instance, I love his teaching about only focusing on today, which, he claimed, has enough problems of its own. If one thing is true, certainly it’s the idea that none of us knows what tomorrow holds. Things change. Quickly. Radically. And not always for what we perceive to be ‘the better.’

For those of us who tend to first think and respond via the ego, the false-self, I think there is true irony in living for today; the one place the ego doesn’t do well is in the present moment. It takes a past and a future for the ego to really sow its self-centered seeds of fear, anxiety and displacement. Continue reading…

For those who are familiar with the teachings of Jesus (also as repeated by his followers), there was a certain over-arching paradox to what he referred to as ‘the kingdom of heaven.’ While it’s fairly common to hear Christians today still speak in terms of a ‘kingdom,’ I think if Jesus were among us teaching in more contemporary terms he’d probably use a phrase like ‘the nature of oneness’ or ‘the ecology of God’ or some such metaphor. Not many of us, especially in the West, live in a priestly setting within occupied territories we hope to gain back – it made more sense in Jesus’ day than in ours.

At any rate, his focus was often on helping others see how he and the one he called ‘father’ were one. His famous prayer in John 17 was that all of his followers and even all who would come after his time here on earth would know that they were also one with the father. This was his revelatory message. Oneness was the revelation of Jesus the Christ. Continue reading…

There are times when it seems that the whole of the Christian message is about ‘why Jesus died.’ In many ways, one would think that Christianity is about providing for a better death, rather than life.

In this season of celebrating the birth of Jesus, it seems to me that the real question we should be asking is not ‘Why did Jesus die,’ but ‘Why did Jesus live?’ This, for me, is the issue at hand. It is the real question because it provides me (and you too I think!) with the real reason for why we live. Continue reading…