Noah Levine and Brian Welch 2

And to any nay sayers who think that Noah, being a Buddhist and all, could not possibly be heading (let alone leading others) in the right direction, I say...that's silly. Isn't it right there in The Shack? In the same conversation yesterday's quote originated.....

Jesus: “Who said anything about being a Christian? I’m not a Christian….. Those who love me come from every system that exists. They were Buddhists or Mormons, Baptists or Muslims… I have no desire to make them Christian, but I do want to join them in their transformation into sons and daughters of my Papa, into my brothers and sisters, into my Beloved.”

So there you have it...from the lips of the Jesus character in the Shack. And from scripture?

Isaiah 65:1 "I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, 'Here am I, here am I.

Hosea 2:23 -"I will sow her for Myself in the land. I will also have compassion on her who had not obtained compassion, And I will say to those who were not My people, `You are My people!' And they will say, `You are my God!' "

And then Paul repeats these verses in Romans:

Romans 9:25 - As He says also in Hosea, "I WILL CALL THOSE WHO WERE NOT MY PEOPLE, `MY PEOPLE,' AND HER WHO WAS NOT BELOVED, `BELOVED.' " 26 -"AND IT SHALL BE THAT IN THE PLACE WHERE IT WAS SAID TO THEM, `YOU ARE NOT MY PEOPLE,' THERE THEY SHALL BE CALLED SONS OF THE LIVING GOD." NAS

Romans 10:20 - And Isaiah is very bold and says, "I WAS FOUND BY THOSE WHO DID NOT SEEK ME, I BECAME MANIFEST TO THOSE WHO DID NOT ASK FOR ME." NAS

My belief is that all knees will bow to Christ. All tongues joyfully proclaim that he is Lord. Scripture says so. It refers to Jesus as "the name above all names"...above Mohammed, above the Buddha. Christ is the the head of the body but we are all part of the body...Mohammed, Buddha, Noah Levine. He is a missionary of a different sort...

More tomorrow....

Noah Levine and Brian Welch....

One of my favorite quotes from the Shack takes place during a conversation between Mack and Jesus.

'Does that mean,' asked Mack, 'that all roads will lead to you?'
'Not at all,' smiled Jesus... 'Most roads don't lead anywhere. What it does mean is that I will travel any road to find you.'

And there is no example of Jesus' ability and determination to travel any road to find us that is more perfectly illustrated than in the stories of two men I happened upon during my cyber trips this weekend.

Noah Levine and Brian (Head) Welch. Two very different guys...yet strikingly similar. Two very different paths but again, strikingly similar. I have no doubt that God is using both of these men to reach people who would not respond to someone more traditional and mainstream. These two guys both lived in the "worlds" they are now trying to enlighten...punk rockers and heavy metal fans...those walking on the dark side of both of these similar, yet distinct, worlds. Noah and Brian were both prisoners of the dark side.

A Beliefnet article written about Brian Welch earlier this year sums it up:

On the outside, things seemed great for guitarist Brian "Head" Welch. He was a member of one of the most popular heavy metal bands of the '90s, Korn, he had lots of money, and he was partying with some of the biggest names in the music industry. But behind the fame, Grammy Awards, and Billboard hits, Welch was battling many demons--an addiction to crystal meth, depression, and what he described as evil of a spiritual kind. It was only after hitting rock bottom that he found what he believed was missing in his life--God.

About Noah Levine Wikipedia says:

....as a youth he had several periods of incarceration. His first book, Dharma Punx, in large part details Levine’s teenage years filled with drugs, violence, and multiple suicide attempts - choices fueled by a rebellious nature and identification with punk rock and culture. His substance abuse started early in life - at age 6 he began smoking marijuana - and finally ended in a padded detoxification cell in juvenile prison 11 years later.[ It was in this cell where he hit “an emotional rock bottom” and began his vipassana practice “out of a place of extreme drug addiction and violence.” While incarcerated, he saw for the first time how the practice his father taught him gave him the tools to relieve the fear and uncertainty that pervaded his life.

Noah Levine is a Buddhist teacher who studied under Jack Kornfield and other well known Buddhist teachers. His father is also a fairly well known Buddhist teacher.

And they have both written books about their experiences....\

Noah Levine is the author of two books:

Against The Stream

and Dharma Punx

 

 

Brian Welch has written a memoir about the story of his life with Korn and his conversion to Christianity. The book is called

Save Me From Myself

More about these guys to follow....

To My Friend Brian...

I have been on email lists with Brian for about four or five years now.  Without the miracle of the internet, the odds would have been overwhelmingly against us ever knowing each other.  He lives in Ireland.  I live in Pennsylvania.  Like I said, odds would not have been good. 

I first met Brian on the Wider Universalist Fellowship...and have been on several other lists with him.  He is a moderator on Emerging Universalist, group annie and I started about 2 years ago. It has been a pleasure to share cyber space with him. I've never seen him get pissy..or flame anyone...or demean anyone's beliefs.  He is quite knowledgeable, well read and a very likeable guy.  He has a twin here in the US...born of a different mother, of a different race...but that is a joke between Brian and the other Brian...B2...who has also hung out on the same e-lists for the past few years.  They often express very similar beliefs, nearly identical beliefs...and so the joke about being twins was born.  Oh...they are also about 20 or so years apart in age...but no matter...they are spiritual twins.  

So, my life has been enriched because I've known him.  But there is one thing I am especially grateful to him for.  He has faithfully prayed for Beth the past few years...and been an encouragement anytime I turned to my "buds" on the list for some uplifting.  ( A disclaimer here...I am also very grateful to all my wonderful EU friends who have been so supportive during these tumultuous times with Beth. It has been a rough few years)  In his responses about Beth, he often said he had a soft spot in his heart for her...and sometimes he closed by saying he was holding her "in the light." It usually brought tears to my eyes.  It is bringing tears to my eyes right now.  He sent the following post to the list during what I hope was the worst of the Beth saga....

Haven't been online for a couple of days, Cindi, so I'm just reading this now. I'm glad you found Beth and that she's OK. This is such a long, hard journey for you guys, and to be honest I didn't think it would turn out anything like as rough a ride as it has. From thousands of miles away, there's not much I can do except offer verbal empathy and support and of course keep all of you in my prayers. Beth is surrounded by a network of people who love her and are looking out for her, even if they aren't sure precisely how to help her...and there's a wider community of folk here who will make sure that Beth's heavenly father doesn't forget his beloved daughter.

More than ever, I'm holding our Beth in the Light...

Brian

Today, when I was reading through the google preview of Letters To My Friends by John Conley, the following excerpt from one of the letters immediately made me think of Brian.  And I post it here on my blog, with appreciation to John Conley for writing it...and to my friend Brian for faithfully holding Beth in the light of God, in whom there is no darkness....

The Stillness is a healing breath. Does your loved one hurt? Close your eyes now. Breathe deeply. Breathe slowly. Be comfortable. Now imagine your loved one with all her pain, all her sorrow standing before you. Breathe in her pain deeply and slowly. Hold her pain in the Stillness at the end of the in breath.

Now, as you breath out, surround your beloved in light—radiant, bright light. Send it through your eyes. Send it through your heart. Send it through every fiber of your being.

Again breathe in the pain and sorrow of your loved one. Notice your own pain and sorrow rising to meet that of your loved one. You see resentment. You see disappointment. Anger. Perhaps you even see loathing or hate. It is nothing compared to the Stillness. Breathe all the pain, yours too, into the Stillness at the end of the breath. Now, again, breathe out light—healing, radiant light to your loved one.

Keep doing this, and you will feel the Stillness deepen in your heart. You will grow calm as your heart, mind, and body meld into the Stillness. Now, instead of breathing in the sorrow of your loved one, see her radiating light back to you and see yourself breathing in the light she sends. Now sit in Stillness, healing and being healed, as long as is comfortable.

This meditation is one of the most power I know. It can turn my pain into joy, even when the outward circumstances of my life are not all that I would like. This mediation is ancient, probably more ancient than I know. I read that a Buddhist monk first taught a version of it a thousand years ago. But I imagine he may have have heard if from someone else who heard it from someone else who heard it from Stillness. Make it your own and you will come to know that even though you may have but little control over your life, you have control of your heart’s response to life.

Rabbit Trails...

Oh, for more time to listen/view/read/do all that piques my interest!!  But there is only so much time and as much as I would like to, I can't.  I think about being more disciplined. Perhaps if I could muster up a bit more discipline, I would get more done...but the rabbit trail method has worked so well for me up to now.  God has taken me on quite the diverse, eclectic journey via google. I've seen many sites along the way and learned so much. I doubt a more disciplined approach would have birthed the theology I now hold (with a light grasp) and I wouldn't know the God I know. 

I've also thought of getting more organized and methodical in my writings.  I read many of the blogs online devoted to writing and blogging. Many recommend an outline as the first step when writing a post, complete with bullet points, opening paragraph, ending paragraph etc. You know, decide what it is you want to say and put it down on paper. I've thought about doing that...and still may.  I usually lecture my kids about doing just that when they have a paper to write for school; however, I seldom (never) practice what I preach.  I usually just go with the flow with writing, with research, with reading and listening.  I start typing and see where I end up.  Like Alice, I  just follow the rabbit down the hole to wonderland and follow him where ever the rabbit trail leads.  There is no plan or rhyme or reason to what I read/do/listen/view.  I will probably continue to use that same method to write...in spite of good intentions to get more organized. 

This post is a good example of the rabbit trail method.

Last night before I konked out, I picked up Eckhart's book, Stillness Speaks, which was in the basket by my bed.  I read it a few months ago...but most of Eckhart's books can be read in snippets....perhaps they are better read in snippets with time to reflect on what he says.  I read the two page introduction.  A sentence jumped out at me. You know that feeling...that quickening...when something resonates with your spirit?  So this morning I got up before 6:00 (ever the early riser...even on weekends...and truthfully, 6:00 is sleeping in a bit because during the week I am up about 4:40ish) and looked something up on google about stillness...in order to write a blog post about it. 

And from there I was off and running.  First,I found a delightful book on google books, which is posted there almost in its entirety.  It is called "Letters to My Friends" by John Conley.  I will post some of the thoughts from the book later.  Then from there I visited other blogs and websites and came upon a really interesting character named Noah Levine.  He is a former punk rocker/rebel/drug addict/prisoner/convicted of three felonies by the time he was 17. Out of desperation, he turned to meditation (his dad was a Buddhist teacher) and has become an unconventional teacher with a prison ministry.  Pretty cool.  I may write about him too. 

Damn...I love the internet :)

Richard Rohr's Thoughts on Eckhart

While doing a bit of research on Richard Rohr for the last post, I realized that I have run across him before in my Internet travels.  He wrote an article entitled Eckhart Tolle and the Christian Tradition. It was a well balanced article...and Fr. Richard stated that rather than something new age, as many Christians believe, Eckhart is teaching something quite old...

The process—and that is what it is—that he is teaching, can be traced through the Greek and Latin traditions of contemplation, the apophatic tradition in particular, and the long history of what was sometimes called “The Sacrament of the Present Moment” (Brother Lawrence, OCD, Francisco de Osuna, OFM, Jean Pierre de Caussade, S.J.).

So why does it seem so new age? Fr. Rohr explains that the church got off track in the years around the Reformation of the 16th century, and after the Enlightenment of the 17th-18th centuries. The focus became more about being right (and proving it)and less about the more spiritual aspects of religion.

So for at least 400 years, we have had neither an understanding of infused nor acquired contemplation! It is such foreign terrain to almost all Protestants, and most Catholics and Orthodox that they immediately think it is heresy or even pagan, when in fact, it is the solid tradition of the first 1400 years of Christianity!

Following are a few assorted (very balanced) thoughts of Fr. Rohr about Eckhart, his purpose and what he is trying to teach us. The question is; are we ready to learn it. 

• Eckhart Tolle is teaching a form of natural mysticism or contemplative practice.
• He is teaching a morality and asceticism of recognizing and letting go of “the self that has to die” (Matthew 16:25), which he calls ego and Jesus calls the “grain of wheat” (John 12:24) ; so that another self can be born, which he would call “consciousness” and we would call the person born again in Christ, or something similar.
• He is giving us some practices (Similar to how John Wesley gave “methods” or Ignatius gave “exercises”) whereby we can be present to the grace of the moment and stop the “passions,” the “egocentric mind,” or the “prideful self” which keeps us from true goodness (or God, as we would call it). Each tradition uses different language for what is to be overcome, but it is always
  some form of “un-love” and selfishness (which he calls ego).
• He does assume and imply a worldview that is foreign to many, if not most Christians. 
• Tolle is probably not pantheistic (all things are God) as much as panentheistic (God is IN all things).
• His brilliant understanding of the “pain body,” as he calls it, is actually very close to the Catholic notion of Original Sin.

Fr. Rohr believes that Eckhart provides Christians with

.....an opportunity for us to understand our own message at deeper levels.

He goes on to say that he is

....willing to hear truth today wherever it comes from, as long as it does not compromise the Gospel.

Me, too.....

Because It Is Holy? Part 3

I ended the last post in this series with a quote from Bill Chappelle:

Wow. ... That's a good question. ... Is `I don't know' an acceptable answer?”

Unfortunately, many of us...and that includes me...think that we do have the answer.  THE answer.  And "I don't know" is usually not it. Once we are sure we have THE answer, that's where learning  and revelation stops,doesn't it? 

annie and I have talked about the difference between knowers and seekers...We both have a sincere desire to be seekers, but in a way, we are all knowers.  I guess part of the trick of being a seeker is holding our beliefs in outstretched hands...rather than clutching them tightly to our chest...and hanging on for dear life. 

debra, from EU, has been sending devotionals written by Richard Rohr. The one she sent the other day was entitled "How Deep Is Your Desire to See?"  He talks about this knower/seeker stuff.

We must never presume that we see. We must always be ready to see anew. But it's so hard to go back, to be vulnerable, and to say to your soul, "I don't know anything."

Try to say that: "I don't know anything."

So...then I don't know is an acceptable answer?  According to Fr. Rohr it is.  He goes on to say:

Maybe you could think of yourself as an erased blackboard, ready to be written on.

Well, there you go...not only will God write his laws on our heart, he will write his revelations on our blackboard..our erased blackboard.  

For by and large, what blocks spiritual teaching is the assumption that we already know, or that we don't need to know.

How about a third thing that blocks spiritual teaching...things we don't want to know.  Oh but sometimes that is because we are clutching our beliefs too tightly. We don't want to let go of what we already KNOW.

We have to pray for the grace of beginner's mind. We need to say with the blind man, "I want to see."

At one point in the Euthyphro, Socrates declares,

We must go back again, and start from the beginning to find out what holy is.

Sometimes, we do too.

Because It Is Holy? Part 2

The Euthyphro records a dialogue between Plato's teacher, Socrates and another young philosopher named Euthyphro.  The conversation is about holiness..piety. Euthyphro is in the process of prosecuting his own father for murder. One of the family's slaves killed another slave. Euthyphro's father had the (still living) slave bound and thrown in a ditch while he awaited advice from a seer about what to do with him. In the meantime, the slave in the ditch died from neglect.  In Greek society, slaves were truly a dime a dozen.  Fathers were revered.  Still, Euthyphro was convinced the gods were displeased and felt it was his duty to prosecute his father.  He seems quite confident in his ability to make judgements and act accordingly...not to mention he knows the will and opinions of the gods.  Euthyphro is certain he knows what piety is and what it demands.

I've known people like him. They see only blacks and whites, never any shades of gray.  Everything is either right or wrong and there are clear cut, no-brainer boundaries separating the two.  They see no extenuating circumstances, no reasons, no excuses. They are judge and jury and they know instantly if anyone has stepped across the line. There is no mercy of the court. There is little compassion, only judgement. In my life, I have seen them show up as believers and non-believers.

So Euthyphro is sure he is doing the right thing. He tells Socrates that this kind of decision is

"only for a man already far advanced in point of wisdom"

Sounds like a know it all to me....

And perhaps to Socrates as well because he continues to question how Euthyphro knows with such surety what is holy...what is pious.  Euthyphro replies:

"If I did not have an accurate knowledge of all that, I should be good for nothing, and Euthyphro would be no different from the general run of men"

Hmmmm, pretty full of himself!  

And so the conversation about holiness goes round and round...how to define it, what it is exactly...a discussion that never really reaches a conclusion or an agreement.  Euthyphro seems sure he has all the answers but Socrates, in his search for an answer, keep tripping Euthyphro up with questions.  At one point Euthyphro declares,

"I simply don't know how to tell you what I think.  Somehow everything that we put forward keeps moving about us in a circle, and nothing will stay where we put it." 

Must be very disconcerting for a guy who knows everything to not be able to keep track of the conversation.  He is ready to quit talking  and tells Socrates that he has a million things to do (getting ready for the prosecution and all) and he must end the conversation then and there...and they can continue "another time"....but Socrates declares:

"As for me, I will never give up until I know."

According the book I mentioned in yesterday's post, there are some questions that come up in the course of this dialogue between Socrates and Euthyphro; questions we need to ask ourselves. 

• What is the connection between God and goodness or holiness?
• Is God bound to some kind of moral code?
• If God commands torture (war/jihad/sacrifice) is it good? Is it wrong?
• If torture etc. is wrong regardless of whether God commands it, does goodness have an existence independent of God?
• Does the belief that God cannot violate a standard of goodness lessen his omnipotence?
• Does God limit himself because it is not his nature to command actions that are not "good"?

As the comedian Bill Chappelle declares:

Wow. ... That's a good question. ... Is `I don't know' an acceptable answer?”