The Pageless Book

Image Above by Hyun Lee. Photo Below by Kah Zanon.

You wouldn’t know it by all the theological terms used and violence done under the banner of one religion or another, but the heart of spirituality is child-like. We, as adults, try to take all the fun out of spirituality. Why are we so disappointed when we dissect poetry for literal meaning? How can we expect to have a feeling of awe and mystery when we debate, analyze, and label every aspect of our religions? Are we so caught up in our own insecurities - our own arrogance - that we seek to control even that which gives succor to our very soul?

The heart of spirituality is filled with awe, curiosity, gratitude, and hope - all are attributes we characterize as being child-like. These are also attributes of vulnerability. When we are in awe of something, whether it be nature, life, love, or God, we are giving up our power over that thing. When curious, we discard our assumptions and open ourselves to learning something that might contradict what we currently believe. In times when we show gratitude, we give recognition to those aspects of our life which we don’t control, yet still sustain us. Finally, when we hope, we trust that the future will give us the opportunity to make a better life for ourselves, despite the fact that there is no way of knowing.

Adults don’t like to be vulnerable, yet we cannot overlook the fact that true, deep, abiding spirituality demands it. So how do we instill in ourselves those child-like qualities? Personally, I look to my god-child and niece for inspiration. From the day I first held her, I’ve been learning to see the world through a child’s eyes. One of the things that has always characterized my relationship with my niece is laughter. Even when she was an infant, I would talk in a funny voice to her and she would laugh hysterically.

These days, at the mature and noble age of five and a half, she is always remarking how silly I am. And I am silly. I am willing to play the fool in any situation to remind her of what is and isn’t important in life, while constantly learning the same from her. I think it’s important for all adults to have a child or child-like person in their life to provide perspective. We need those experiences to make it easier to see ourselves as children of God. I know that sounds trite, but it rings true that our spiritual experiences comes from that place of a child’s love.

Jimmy Hendrix’s song “Little Wing” recalls a young girl who embodies all the hope and curiosity of youth. In that song, all things fanciful are in no short supply - she can have anything - yet all the girl wants is to fly on the wind. We call a young girl with such a free heart “innocent.” If it was a older woman which such a free heart, we would call her wise. Why is that? I don’t think there is that much of a difference.

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written by John \\ tags: Childhood, Inspiration, Life, Love, Spirituality

Above Photo by Joka2000. Photo Below by Alan Turkus. Final Photo by Joel Friesen.

Of Sandalphon, the second part of The Gated Emptiness, changes in tone and language from the rest of the text. The perspective shifts from third person to first person; little doubt is left as to whom is speaking. God speaks to us directly in these passages in a strangely humble demeanor.

I must remind the reader that this is filtered through my own consciousness. While I have perceived God speaking in a humble manner, it might be a result of my own discontent with the demanding God of the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions. This means nothing as to the true personality of God; it is my understanding that our concept of personality is meaningless when compared against true divine consciousness. The text reads:

I am confusion. I am confused as you are. I am you.

Now, these three statements pose a significant problem - God isn’t suppose to be confused. Isn’t the Divine suppose to have some plan? Theologically, this can be pretty disturbing. However, there is more here than what is on the surface. The word “confusion” comes from the Latin word “confundere” which means to pour together. In the word’s evolution, it has also passed through old French as meaning “to overthrow”, before coming to the English language as meaning “mental perplexity or disturbance”.

All three of these definition play a part in understanding the meaning of this text. First, we are told that God embodies confusion. We are confused as to the nature of God, as it is beyond our ability to comprehend. What does it mean, however, to say that God is the embodiment of overthrowing? This becomes more clear with the second statement; saying that God is “overthrown” implies that God changes. Like we do, God evolves and learns through alternating between confusion and realization.

Yet this leads us to another question - why does God need to evolve or learn? With the third and final statement in conjunction with our third definition, this answer is laid to bare; we are apart of God. Just as we are several things “poured together” into human form - muscles, organs, cells, proteins, and atoms - God is also the admixture of several things; the only difference is that God’s “things” encompasses all. The text continues:

You will not be rid of me. You might shred off the fat and skin of your body, skewer your flesh with your own bone and I will be in pain with you. If you should love yourself, I would love you.

Well, if God is inherent in all things, and all things in God, it makes sense that we could not get rid of God. When we suffer God would suffer, just as when we cut our finger, we feel the pain with our finger. Should we choose to love ourselves, God would love us in return as we are apart of God. Only when we become hateful does the Divine become hateful towards us, just as we would hate cells that turn cancerous within our own body. Yet God is not done speaking about his love for us; the text continues:

Innumerous are the ways in which I love you. I love you with death and I love you with life. I love you with pain and with ecstasy. I love you with the blue empty sky and the full brown earth. I shall not save you from my love; I made you to see, and you shall see it all.

Death and life, pain and pleasure, all that is above and all that is below - all of our individual experiences are manifestations of God’s love for us. Our purpose in life is to find meaning within those experiences, to learn, and to evolve. We cannot be asked to be spared heartache, pain, and suffering; we would be in affect asking to remain unchanged, uninspired, and ignorant. Worse yet, we would be asking God to remain unchanging, uninspired, and support us like some parents support basement dwelling men and women in their early twenties.

I suspect that some would disagree with what I have written here, considering that my interpretation of this text amounts to answers for long-held insurmountable questions. To think that a few sentences are enough to answer the question “what is the meaning of life” or “why does God make us suffer” would be foolish on my part. However, I dare to suggest that what I am getting at is a fairly good guide towards answers for those questions. Like a finger pointing to the moon, it is important not to misinterpret that which points to the truth for the truth.

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written by John \\ tags: Death, God, Holy Text, Life, Love, Questions

Above From Photo by Jeff Hitchcock. Below From Photo by Jayel Aheram. Final From Image by Blake Emrys.

It boggles my imagination how much hate people attribute to God. Historically speaking, every group of people that I can think of who have used God’s name in hate has failed. The Inquisition, American slavers, the Klan, Hitler… Republicans - all of these groups claimed to be working under God’s authority and all failed in their mission. So, when a small church in the middle of nowhere begins proclaiming that God hates homosexuals, I’m more inclined to mark my calendar than worry. I think “This, too, shall pass.”

But then I have to ask myself why so many people feel the need to validate their hatred using God. When I really think about it, God seems the obvious choice for justifying irrational arguments, on which hatred is usually based. God is the highest authority and is widely believed to be unavailable for comment should anyone think to ask for her opinion. All one would need to do is quote text, which may or may not be inspired by God, take it out of context and declare your own interpretation as the correct interpretation, and hope that no one is smart enough to think for themselves. Unfortunately, there are enough people in this world who would rather have someone else think for them than think for themselves that this tactic can work for a short period of time.

I’ve recently had the pleasure of listening to author and musician Daryl Davis speak about his experiences with racism, that eventually lead him, a black man, to write about and interview members of the Klu Klux Klan. He explained how, even though he didn’t originally set out to do so, he became friends with high ranking Klan members, many of whom eventually quit the Klan entirely due to his influence. Mr. Davis has the robes of these former Klan members to prove it, which he took out during his lecture. How can a black man manage to persuade members of an organization based upon the hatred of black men to become his friend and confide in him? His answer was simple; it was by listening.

Listening to one another, even when what is being said is the most hurtful thing you’ve ever heard, is a spiritual act. Mr. Davis listened to these Klan members and became an instrument of Divine love. Hatred cannot exist in the presence of divine love, because hatred can only thrive where there is no love. We each can embody that love through listening to each other and choosing to be simply courteous towards one another, regardless of another person’s hatred.

I don’t want you to confuse emotional love with divine love - they are different, although the difference is subtle. Emotional love which you feel for your friends, family, or significant other, is the direct opposite of hatred. It represents understanding and appreciation, where as hatred feeds on ignorance and disrespect. Divine love, however, is beyond understanding and ignorance. It represents a condensing the ego and a deep connection with the universal presence which some call God. Divine love confronts a person abruptly, forcing a person to look at themselves and their life, regardless of whether they want to or not.

Hatred is a form of ignorance - whether this ignorance is cause by not wanting to see or simply not seeing, it makes no different. The Divine does not allow for ignorance in any form. The idea that God would hate anyone or anything is totally foreign to me, as a God ignorant of his own creation cannot be the true God. If the Divine hates anything, it is hatred.

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written by John \\ tags: God, Hatred, Life, Love, Racism

“The North is to South what the clock is to time,
There’s East and there’s West and there’s everywhere life,
I know I was born and I know that I’ll die,
The in between is mine; I am mine.”
- Pearl Jam, I Am Mine.

Photo by Mats Lindh

I want to wish you all a Happy New Year. By the time you are reading this, I will most likely be quite inebriated - I only wish that I were celebrating with all of you. May peace and love keep you in 2008 and for many years to come.

Namaste.

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written by John \\ tags: Blogging, Current Events, Holidays, Love, New Year

Just before this Christmas Holiday, Cathy Crovis from RipplesofImprovement.com tagged me for this rather morbid task of writing my own eulogy. I am supposed to write it to reflect the goals and dreams I have for the future. The purpose of this endeavor is to give focus to what I want to accomplish in my lifetime. Instead of using this opportunity to poke fun at myself and the task at hand, I thought it would be a nice change of pace to actually take this seriously. Well, not too seriously; after all, there is a point at which this could become depressing rather than enlightening. So, with no further explanation needed, and far too much given already, I present to you…

The Eulogy of John Michael Pageless

Photo by Maciej Lewandowski

Reverend John Michael Pageless lived a full life of joy, love, and worthy accomplishments in the field of religious tolerance and spiritual exploration. John Pageless, the son of Albert and Marie Pageless, began life in a lower-middle class family in the Baltimore County suburbs of Maryland. Although he and his family did struggle through economic hardships during his childhood, he still learned from the experience of his mother’s candor and open-minded views, as well as his father’s sensibilities and sense of humor. These traits would later become the hallmarks of a great man.

John Pageless was baptized Catholic, raised Lutheran and later non-denominational Christian, but was constantly infatuated with all the religions of the world. When he had become a teenager, he delved deeply into non-Christian religions, such as Buddhism and Qabalah, from which he would develop his views on God and religion now popularly known as Omnitheism.

In the fall of 2006, he married his best friend’s sister, Mrs. Pageless, with whom he would spend the rest of his life. He would later attribute his successes in life to Mrs. Pageless during her Eulogy, given only three years ago. He said, “Behind every good man, there is a great woman. It may be clique, but it wouldn’t have become a clique if it was not true. I am an example of such. One can hardly argue that we are both very successful in our later years together, but I would have to insist that her success was far greater than mine, as she was solely responsible for all of her own accomplishments, and a good portion of those attributed to myself. I would have never made it through seminary without her by my side…”

As a Minister of the Unitarian Universalist church, he became a staunch proponent of liberal religion and religious tolerance. With his inspiration, the Unitarian Universalist Association, in conjunction with other liberal churches and multi-faith organizations, challenged and defeated the political attacks on religious freedoms made by fundamentalists in the early part of the twenty first century. He also became known as America’s Minister, having written numerous best selling books on the subject of liberal religion, and was council for every president since Chelsea Clinton took office in 2017.

With his influence, John Pageless ensured equality for people of all peaceful religions - including the non-religious. He also reconfirmed the separation of church and state, and set up the United Nation’s World Religion Congress to promote interfaith dialogue on an international level. Yet despite his importance to the world at large, he never failed to place his duties as a husband and father ahead of his professional calling. He is survived by his son, David Alexander Pageless, and his daughter, Alexandra Diane Pageless, both of who have inherited their parents’ dedication to making the world a better place.

Rev. John Pageless had once said that he believed we each end so that someone else may begin. So as we reflect on the life of this man and mourn his passing, let us remember that his absence is a challenge to each of us to begin the journey to do great things. He invites us all to change the world as he did.

One thing this eulogy didn’t mention is how I would die. I want to have the privilege to reenact an ancient Sumarian ritual, recently found in the texts of the unearthed “Necronomicon.” After repeatedly assuring the audience that this ritual poses no danger, I would start the ritual that would result in the summoning of Cthulhu. This ancient demon-priest would then swallow me whole, leaving only my left foot for burial. My last words would be “I could be wrong.”

So that I am not the wet-blanket who ends this string of premature post-humorous remarks, I’m tagging Rev. Dan Harper of Yet Another Unitarian Universalist to write his own eulogy. I look forward to seeing what he writes and hope it involves another Mythos deity; after all, the world needs more H.P. Lovecraft references.

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written by John \\ tags: Career, Death, Family, Humor, Inspiration, Love, Religion, Religious Tolerance

Photo by Ward Levingston

I’ve recently made the decision to habitually use the word “Namaste” in my interaction with others in everyday life. It may be a touch eccentric for an awkward white guy like myself to use this word in casual conversation, but I just cannot find another word that fits what I mean to say. It’s the exactness of the word that I enjoy.“Namaste” is a Sanskrit word that is commonly translated as meaning “the divine within me honors the divine within you.”

Think about that for a moment, and you’ll realize just how intimate that sentiment can be. Not many people believe that they are divine, and among those who do not there are some who think very poorly of themselves. Some religious doctrine teach that we are each somehow broken or incomplete; the concept of “original sin” comes to mind. When I say to another person “Namaste,” not only am I recognizing them as an equal, but I am confronting the insecurities they may have.

Why choose this word over the phrases “God Bless You” or “Thank You?” First of all, neither of these are as personal.“God Bless You” has the disadvantage of being religiously charged. While saying “Namaste” may denote a recognition of spirituality, it does not suggest a particular spiritual belief. Saying “God Bless You;” however, insists upon the existence of one God - mine. Non-theists and individuals of other religions may not be comfortable with being blessed by my God. It wouldn’t be very tolerant of me to make that assumption. “Thank You,” on the other hand, is what you say to be polite; it just isn’t powerful enough for some situations.

Now, it could be argued that “Namaste” is New Age-ish and pretentious. Meh - whatever. I enjoy hanging out in New Age shops, so that really doesn’t bother me. As far as being pretentious? It’s only pretentious if I’m pretending. I try my damnest to say what I mean here on this blog. If one word is enough to shake someone’s trust in my sincerity, then that person probably didn’t think I was sincere from the start.

I am still wrestling to make this word into a habit. It doesn’t always occur to me to say that word when I should. I think the important thing is that it describes a feeling that I have on a regular basis; what is significant to me is that my heart has already made this word a habit.

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written by John \\ tags: God, Inspiration, Love, Religion, Ritual, Spirituality