"the calm, strong currents of true spirituality"

Spiritual resource to share: putting trends into perspective

I am a self-proclaimed trendoid.  I am fascinated with new developments in thought, innovation, and the way social mores are formed.  I like to track what I consider to be the spiritual evolution of mankind, and in so doing, I read, collect and research what is meaningful in popular thought.

There is an important distinction, however.  Trends are an effect, not the cause of any spiritually significant progress. Similar to the way I don't look at a healthy body to determine my spiritual health, but seek to understand the supremacy of God, Spirit, and that understanding results in a harmonious body. 

So trends can be a sign, sometimes elusive, sometimes quite telling, that the spiritualization of thought is progressing. 

Mary Baker Eddy writes a bold, scientific statement of being  which says in part "...man is not material, he is spiritual."  And consciousness is slowly moving from a material basis to a spiritual basis.

Opinions, emotions, denominationalism drop away as we see the rational, logical and harmonizing influence of true spirituality.  It is our spirituality that propels us forward.  And progress requires us to continue to nurture our spirituality.  Mary Baker Eddy writes "the calm, strong currents of true spirituality, the manifestations of which are health, purity, and self-immolation, must deepen human experience, until the beliefs of material existence are seen to be a bald imposition, and sin, disease, and death give everlasting place to the scientific demonstration of divine Spirit and to God's spiritual, perfect man."

Albert Einstein, in an address at the Princeton Theological Seminary on May 19, 1939, and in an address presented at The Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion in 1940 said, “The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge.”

And that's what I look for when researching trends: the rational knowledge and practices that point to the spiritual evolution of mankind.

Another wonderfully good read:
Mark Swinney's The Next 90 Years from spirituality.com

Pangea Day ripples

Spiritual resource to share: your experience




"Our purpose now is to build a global community - to learn to view things from an international point of view." "We need peace without conditions."

Such were just some of the provocative ideas shared on Pangea Day last May 10th. For those of you who saw any or part of Pangea Day, you'll know what I am talking about. For those of you new to this idea, click here. This initiative is well-intentioned, intentions I really support and hope to grow.

My son and I caught the last hours of the four hour event at our nearest university. We saw clip after clip of films focussing on all that we have in common with the human condition: what is good as well as what is not.

As we were soaking this up, it reminded me of how Mary Baker Eddy defined the moral qualities of humanity, honesty, affection, compassion, hope, faith, meekness, temperance. She categorizes all of these qualities under the heading of transitional qualities. And all of these qualities showed up one way or the other in the films.

So what would the expression of these qualities be transitioning to? Mary Baker Eddy explains the next level as spiritual/as reality. The understanding of this includes wisdom, purity, spiritual understanding, spiritual power, love, health, holiness.

There was a lot to think about after the four hour film fest ended. It was quite hopeful. Peace and understanding take a lot of work, a lot of unselfishness, a lot of getting rid of ego toward a greater good. It was inspiring to hear people's stories and know that it can be done.

Pangea Day provided a stage for proactive peace-making diplomacy and understanding. It did much by bringing together our common hope for humanity: peace, progress, understanding. My hope is that efforts like this continue and grow, to transition into even more widespread actions for peace and progress.




To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.

how to change a culture

Spiritual resource to share: vision and achievement

"If my mind can conceive it and my heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it!" Jesse Jackson

"The devotion of thought to an honest achievement, makes that achievement possible." Mary Baker Eddy

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead

This is an ongoing blog about the dynamic of our community meetings. Just to sum up for those new to this blog, we are a group of people representing various voices in our community. We have been meeting to address the need to forge together a community that focuses on healthy kids, families and communities and in so doing, create a community wide prevention plan that alleviates or reduces racism, violence, and alcohol and drug abuse. These problems have been around a long time and lately have escalated.

We have come to an exciting junction in the road in these meetings. It started with people getting frustrated. At our last meeting (the eighth one) people had time to voice their concerns and opinions. It was feeling like we had little traction with what we had accomplished so far.

Several times "plans" had been presented as a way of organizing thought. Some of it has gelled, some have not. I love watching the dynamic of organization ebb and flow. And the meeting started out not flowing. I kept praying, establishing in my thought the oneness of Mind, intelligence, and recognized that it was being expressed with clarity.

This is what happened.

People stayed to the end of the meeting.
People's grievances were heard.
THEN came the boom. "We are trying to do too much. This is over-whelming." said one therapist who shared some of his reasons for saying this. "If we can't perceive what it is we are trying to do, we will never achieve it."

Yep. We had taken on trying to reverse a cultural footpath that has been so thoroughly documented and trod on, that it would appear to be an intractable rut. We were really asking now, how can we change a culture? How can we lift a culture of low expectations and abuse to a culture of tolerance, progress, and a celebration of diversity?

Then came the reversal of the boom: "HOWEVER", said a counselor who worked in a drug prevention program, "look at what happened with cigarettes! How did they do that? I don't know, but they did it. Now, everyone is aware of its health hazards. We can do this, too."

From there, various people commented on what worked in other programs, another recognized that success builds success, another saw how large of an umbrella we could be to give more focus to all those willing to buy in to the idea of building healthy communities.

A tribal elder commented, "In all the years we have been trying to tackle these problems, there has never been this many people willing to work for a solution. I've never seen this happen before now." He added, "By coming together like this, each of us from different walks of life, we form a formidable power. We are already having an impact. We are already moving forward."

Several agreed and a number of them mentioned certain steps that were taken in the high school that were progressive and responsive to the community - and were directly in line with what this group is hoping to achieve.

We are now on a success and possibilities track. This is good.

How do you change a culture? Culture is defined as the context of our human experience. To change the culture is to change the context. And changing the context from a limited, material basis of things (which breeds limitation, abuse and division) to a spiritual basis (which nurtures peace, unity, progress and innovation) is the way to change a culture. And it can be done.

Success in life depends upon persistent effort, upon the improvement of moments more than upon any other one thing. -Mary Baker Eddy

A deep sincerity is sure of success, for God takes care of it. -Mary Baker Eddy

With God, all things are possible. - Christ Jesus

....and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.... -The Book of Hebrews

To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.

A thought about St. Francis of Assisi as reformer

Spiritual resource to share: spiritual activism

St. Francis

Oh, it is that hospital prayer team again. Their monthly program of inspiration has hit again, giving me yet another thought-provoking look at another topic to blog about. This time it was about St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals and the environment.

There is much to say about him, but there was one thing in particular about St. Francis' work and mission resonated with me: he sought to reform the church from within the church, always working within its discipline. He was bold, uncompromising and true to God - consistently - without fear of failure or fear of being outcast. He spoke his truth and was not afraid to stay within the discipline of his chosen church. AND neither did his chosen church limit his truth.

The danger of organization is that it can get you to stop thinking and to go along with whatever is convenient. The power of organization is that it can unify thought toward a higher more spiritual purpose.

St. Francis' involvement must have been of that higher sort. He stirred thought - radically - and influenced an entire movement.

It's given me much to think about.





To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.