The Pageless Book

Several different and competing views concerning the nature of the Divine seem irreconcilable. The dichotomy that I want to tackle in this article is of the intimate relationship with the Divine and the claim that the Divine is ultimately beyond human knowledge and understanding. How can we be intimate with something so vast and alien as God? The Divine is to our logical minds as a mainframe computer is to a dog’s mind. We simply cannot grasp its full measure.

At least, that is one way of seeing things. It also happens to be the way I’ve presented the Divine throughout my articles thus far. Will I continue to argue that God is unknowable? Of course, but the real question is, do I also believe that we can be intimate with something so far beyond our intellectual capabilities? Yes.

It may seem impossible to some, but I believe that we as humans are intimate with the strange and unknowable all the time. Stargazers are intimate with glimmering points of light in the night sky, and call them by name. Sailors feel intimate with the sea, and feel her call. Travelers, not content merely to read about other places, seek out these places for personal new experiences. It is the unknowable quality of these things that drive them to want a relationship with them. It is that unknowable quality that keeps the conversation going.

In Christianity, particularly Protestantism, followers are encouraged to have a personal relationship with Jesus. We have given Jesus Christ a personality, a voice, and a face; this is not an unknowable God, but a very intimate person with whom you can break bread and share wine. The Bible contains his words, with which you can learn more about whom he was, and what he was like. We make the Divine personal in this way, so to seem knowable. Isn’t that preferable to an unknown and distant God?

The problem is that this is a man-made image of God; Jesus Christ is the golden calf of Christianity. What you have isn’t a personal relationship with God, but instead you have a personal relationship with an idea of what God might be like. You think you know God, so you stop asking questions. It’s like falling in love with the idea of love. We are assuming that object of your affection is not merely an idea, but a real person despite how little you know of that person. How do you build a personal relationship with someone we don’t know? Through interaction.

How do we build a personal relationship with God? Interaction, of course. Just because you cannot know the nature of God does not mean you cannot commune with God. How can we interact or communicate with God? Through prayer and meditation, but even more important, through living your life fully aware of your circumstances and the consequences of your actions.

The Divine speaks though your life, in my experience. The Gated Emptiness pointed out to me you gain a deeper an understanding of the Divine with the more attention you pay to living your life in the best manner possible. Your relationships will be richer, your successes more fulfilling, and your failures will become new opportunities.

Try it yourself. It isn’t easy, but it can be done. Living perfectly may be impossible; by being more aware of the life you are living, you may learn to enjoy it more, regardless of any hardships. That is how you become intimate with the Divine.

Top Photo by Kenneth Freeman. Middle Photo by Gisela Giardino. Final Photo by Katie Tegtmeyer. Originally Posted October 22nd, 2007

Photo Above by Meyshan. Photo Below by Jaqian, of sculpture titled “Aspiration” by Rowan Gillespie.
Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of meditation and prayer on the subject of my aspiration and hopes for the future. Now, I’m not the type of person to believe that prayer was meant making requests of the Divine, but rather clarity in how to approach those things you want in your life. At this time in my life, the resources I need to pursue my passions are scarce. While I know that in the future I will be free to pursue bigger and better things, right now I’m frustrated with my current situation.

I am meant to do something important with this life. Constantly, I am reminded that I am meant for something greater. Not fame or fortune, but something that actively makes this world a better place. There is a lot to love in this world that often goes unrecognized and unappreciated. It is as if I see potential where others see only profit, greatness where others see poverty, and beauty everywhere while my fellow human beings walk about with glazed over eyes.

This is what I want from life… I want open eyes, create, heal, and learn. I want to be a father to my children, a husband to my wife, and a brother to all people. I want to be artistic in the way I live my life. I want to start a revolution in humanity’s perception of itself. I want to pry into God’s eye and see deeper into the truth than ever has been seen before. I want love for myself, for those around me, and for those in pain. I want to be the person who makes all difference in the world.

Egotistical? You bet it is. It is the main occupation of my ego to wish bigger and better things for myself. I’m not content to remain a cog in the machine; I’m tired of going around in circles. While I am still young, I can’t help but feel that time is slipping away from me. It just doesn’t feel like I’m moving forward.

I know, I know - enough of this incessant angst! I have a lot to be thankful for, not the least of which is my loving wife, family, and friends. I’m also thankful to have a place where I can speak my mind on spiritual and religious topics - a place to think and be heard. Perhaps I should spend sometime focusing on the positive and remembering that I am blessed. I still have sixty-some-odd years of life ahead of me; my adult life accounts only for eight of my soon-to-be twenty nine years.

…It’s too early for a mid-life crisis.

Photo Above by ButterflySha. Photo Below by Steve Evans.

“If the only prayer you ever say in your whole life is ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.”
- Meister Eckhart, 1260– 1328.

I don’t remember the exact time it first happened, but I do remember it was during a gathering with my in-laws. My wife was seated on my right, and her grandmother was on my left side. On one end of the table was my father-in-law, and on the other end was my mother-in-law. Across from us was my brother-in-law, his wife, and between them sat Samantha, my niece and god-child. Food, glorious sustenance, was set out before us. Before anyone could lay one hand on a roll, Samantha said, for the first time of what would become a tradition at such gatherings, “We need to say the words!” My wife and I looked at each other in mild displeasure.

Why displeasure, you may ask? What exactly was it that I have against saying grace? It is because I felt excluded. Many non-Christians feel singled out when called upon to pray in public. Think of the position we are placed in: we can either pretend to pray with everyone else, betraying our own beliefs while insulting the integrity of the beliefs of others, or we can stand there in awkward silence, feeling out of place and perhaps a little bit ostracized. That may not be the intention of the practice of public prayer, but it is often the effect.

Non-Christians often develop a negative attitude in regards to prayer in general, due to our Christian brethren’s insistence on public prayer. In all honesty, this negativity may be part of what fuels the debate on school prayer. It is this reluctance to pray that concerns me - not only my own resistance to prayer, but the lack of prayer among non-Christians in general. The problem is that prayer is so much apart of the Christian experience, than when a person leaves the Christian religion, they feel they must leave behind this deeply spiritual practice as well.

The truth is, prayer has always been a meaningful method of communing with the Divine and has existed since the dawn of civilization. No one group of people can lay claim to this practice as being exclusively their own. As people of alternative spiritual paths, we need to recognize that it is everyone’s inherited right to communicate with the Divine through prayer. We need to reclaim prayer as our own and find a meaningful way in which people of all faiths can pray together.

So how will I reintegrate prayer into my spiritual practices without alienating my Christian in-laws? By requesting a silent prayer when in public, and praying in earnest when alone. Ironically enough, that is exactly how Jesus recommended that his followers pray. In Matthew 6:5, Jesus instructs his followers saying, “And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men.”

This passage in the Bible leads me to believe that perhaps even the early Christians felt excluded because of the practice of public prayer in ancient Rome. It does no one harm to gently remind them of that possibility. Next time I am at a gathering with family, perhaps I will do just that.

Originally posted September 29th, 2007.

Above Photo by Francisco Antunes. Photo Below by Prakhar Amba.

Over the past several weeks, I’ve been feeling out of touch with myself spiritually. I really needed to push everything aside and give myself some time to reconnect. If you haven’t guessed it by now, my recent absence is due to this reason. Despite writing about spirituality almost everyday, I’ve realized that alone doesn’t make me feel spiritual. I needed a time without distractions to focus on my spiritual well-being. It isn’t easy finding that time, but it is important that we each try to do so.

Although there are many important advantages to our culture becoming more secularized, there has been one important disadvantage - the loss of the Sabbath day. Whether you attend church or not, I think everybody can appreciate a full day of rest. Not only did this day serve as a time of spiritual reflection, but also served as a chance for family members to reconnect. We are an incredibly busy people; without a mutual day of rest we have the tendency to lose touch with the people we care about.

For me, that means losing touch with my wife. I didn’t have off this Valentine’s Day and I knew that lately we haven’t spent as much time together. This offered me another compelling reason to give this blog a rest for a few days. More importantly, my resistance to the idea of letting go of tending to my blog for a week signaled for me that I was becoming increasingly sucked in by the digital world, while neglecting the intrinsically human experience of spirituality.

And it isn’t just the on-line world that sucks away at our souls; television, video games, music, work, and even books or literature can serve to distance ourselves from our friends, our family, and the self. At times it is necessary to push all of this away, cut ourselves free from our preoccupation with entertainment or success and focus on each other. Too much of anything can have a negative impact on our lives and reliance on any one thing as an escape from reality can become an addiction.

All these reasons show why in the book of Genesis God rests on the seventh day of creation. The writers of Genesis were setting an example for humanity to follow. We humans, as a society or as individuals, make a thing holy or secular; the Sabbath day was once holy and can be again for those who choose to make it so. However, it would take the agreement between many different spiritual paths, including those who are not religious, to make a mutual day of rest a reality again. That isn’t likely to happen again for a long time; such is the marching beat of progress.

Can we, however, hold one day a week holy just for ourselves? We each only try for ourselves.

About a month ago, I had an idea to write a post regarding art and spirituality. I knew one of my frequent visitors was an artist, and had asked her for some input, and perhaps if I could use some of her art in my post. Her response was enthusiastic, but due to the Christmas season, she was unable to give the issue her attention. Earlier this week, she e-mailed me with an entire post’s worth of content! Well, I’m not one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

I would like to introduce to you Kelly Naylor. She is a true artist and I’m proud to have her as my first guest blogger here on The Pageless Book. The following article is written by Ms. Naylor, and each art piece used is her original art work. The above work is titled “Dragon Rising.”

In most of the places around the internet where I display my art, I mention that I create art because I can’t not create art. This compulsion, by the way, extends to my writing and singing as well. I do it all because I must. While reading a line in Autobiography of a Yogi about 15 years ago where Paramhansa Yogananda equates song to prayer, I realized the absolute Truth of that statement. It has always been true, and always will be true, that when I say “I will pray for you,” what I mean is “when next I finding myself singing, I will be holding you in my heart and mind and sending a request to Spirit to do the same.” (By the way, any song can be a prayer… from Shubert’s Ave Maria to The Beatles Lady Madonna to kd lang’s Crying.) So singing is my half of a conversation with Spirit.

My visual art, on the other hand, is what Spirit says to me. Very little of my art comes from my head (and the stuff that does isn’t really as interesting… to me, anyway). Most of my art comes from my heart. In fact, a lot of times I’ll put a DVD in the player and let my mind play “over there” while my heart and hands are playing “over here.” Half the time I’m not even sure what the paintings mean after I’ve created them. Perhaps the messages aren’t meant for me. I create abstract art because abstracts allow the viewer to see what they think is in the painting. On a mundane level, I could (and do) say it allows the viewer to become part of the art, part of the story. But more than that, it allows each individual to interpret the message of Spirit in their own way. Some of the pieces I create are profound, while others just flat out make me laugh. There are messages of hope, peace, love and joy… and yes, even a few about sorrow and mourning.

I think it’s important to note that I only started on this artistic path after my daughter Mackenzie died. She was born on Christmas Eve in 2000, and lived for four days. I sang (prayed) a lot, I wrote a lot, and I began dabbling with various artistic media. I went through all the stages of grief, some of them many times over. During the course of several years, I listened to Spirit. For Mackenzie’s fifth birthday, I was able to declare: I am an artist. My art honors and celebrates Mackenzie’s life.

I’d like to share one particular painting that has a powerful message for me; it’s one of those profound paintings. I was going through some employment-related difficulties at the time I painted it. Touchstone, shown right, emerged during an episode of The X-Files (where I had sent my mind to play). I was finishing up the painting just about the time Mulder tells Scully she is his touchstone (hence the name of the painting).

Looking at the painting later, I had a very clear, concise and powerful message from Spirit: You are not alone. You are loved. I am here. I love you. What is Spirit saying to you? I invite you to visit my galleries to see if Spirit has left any messages for you in other paintings.

Blessed be. Namasté.

“Some find God at church on Sundays, but where does God bubble up in our lives the Other 6 days of the week?” - Other 6, Welcoming.

Photo by Jeff Kubina

Spirituality is a social experience for many. There is something uniquely spiritual about sharing your feelings with another person and having those feelings accepted. Other 6 is a website designed to facilitate that social aspect of spirituality, creating a online community geared towards shared hopes and joys.

When you first enter this flash-based website, a burst of blue bubbles emerges from the center of the screen. Some of these bubbles are dark blue, while others are light blue; this is to determine what type of post the bubble represents. Darker bubbles are comments on where an individual poster had found God today - whether it was in a child’s smile, or in a friends laughter - while lighter bubbles are comments from individuals who feel a need for God to be in a particular aspect of their life. Move your cursor over one of the bubbles and a message box will appear, displaying the comment left by that bubble’s creator. Move to another bubble, a new comment will appear in place of the previous.

While it may be tempting to remain a voyeur, peaking in to see other people’s thoughts, the real purpose of the website is within the interaction. Double click on any one bubble, and a larger message box will appear on the right hand side of your screen and display a number of options. You can view comments left by other readers concerning that bubble or add your own comment.

When you get tired of reading the messages of the bubbles in front of you, there is an option just under the mass of bubbles that allows you to view a new set of messages. As you do this, you may notice that some bubbles are actually larger then others. This represents the number of comments left for that message. This tends to make the visitors gravitate towards the bubbles that have been commented on, so the website designers wisely chose to expose only messages that have not been commented on when you first enter the site.

If you want one of those message bubbles to be your own, you have a choice to make; do you want to talk about where you’ve found the Divine in your life, or do you need to express where you need the Divine in your life? By dividing the messages up into those two categories, the administrators of Other 6 can make sure that every visitor is exposed to a fair mix of both positive and negative. I think this is another good feature that deserves to be mentioned, because without it, you might be tempted to cycle through the bubbles until you only can see one type or another.

Other 6 also keeps your identity private; you only need to provide your city and state, as well as initials with which to identify yourself if you wish to post your own bubble. This allows for users to share deeper feeling and issues that you might not want to share publically. I find this to be a good feature as well; it’s hard to be truly spiritual when you have guard your words.

This website is the brain-child of Loyola Communications, a division of Loyola Press, which is the publishing arm of the Chicago Province of the Society of Jesus (a.k.a the Jesuits). While this means that this site is Catholic owned and operated, Other 6 is not geared towards one particular religion or another. They claim to push no particular agenda and welcome all “who seek God with a sincere heart.” I’ve tested the limits of what that means myself and believe that their open invitation is honest. That being said, Other 6 is mainly Christian, and you will encounter a few messages and comments that reflect the site’s Christian leanings.

I find Other 6 to be a refreshingly simple web page that achieves what its purpose through thoughtful design. I hope you give it a try… and while you are there, see if you can find my bubbles.

Today I learned something fairly shocking; my employer is holding the annual Christmas Party at a church. Just about every co-worker I’ve spoken to has regarded this as a bad move on our employer’s part - and not just the non-Christians. Many of my peers say that they will not be attending this year, in part due to its location. This situation has me seriously thinking about the role spirituality plays in the workplace.

It should be obvious what is and isn’t acceptable in regards to religion in the workplace. Any employer sponsored events or causes should be sensitive to the spiritual beliefs of their employees. Holding your yearly holiday party at a church is just one example of what isn’t acceptable. Nor are donations to religious organizations being made in the company’s name, management led prayer, or office nativity scenes acceptable. Unfortunately, an employee has little recourse besides resignation, which isn’t always practical.

We cannot rely on our employers to be sensitive to our spiritual beliefs, but we can at least be sensitive to the spiritual beliefs of others. Eight hours a day, about half of the time we are awake, we spend at work. It’s unrealistic to expect employees to check their spirituality at the office door, but it is fair to expect that their religion should not interfere with their ability to work. Spiritual practices can be a great form of stress reduction, which is sorely needed in the work environment, yet can be a source of conflict if not handled appropriately. How do we go about striking a balance? Is adding a spiritual element to your work day even worth the risk?

Personally, I think spirituality in the work place is fine, as long as you keep your fellow co-workers in mind. It’s very easy to tell you what not to do, like so many other articles on this subject, but I find its more important to give you ideas of what you can do. This list is by no mean comprehensive, but it should give you a good basis from which to develop your own ideas on how to integrate your spiritual life with your work.

• Spiritual Quotes: Displaying inspirational quotes at your desk or your locker. You should focus on quotes that can be accepted by just about anyone, or quotes that focus on your relationship with the Divine. A good example of an appropriate quote. is Corinthians I 13:13, “And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.” The quote does not have to be a religious quote, either. For example, a good number of my favorite inspirational quotes are from the written works of Albert Einstein.
• Jewelry: Christians tend not to think that wearing a holy symbol to work is that big of a deal, in western culture. Jews, Muslims, and Neo-Pagans, however, would beg to differ. While few people think twice about wearing a cross necklace, wearing any other holy symbol is a sure way to draw uncomfortable attention and questions to yourself. Wearing a holy symbol underneath your clothing is a perfectly acceptable option, but is not a perfect solution. Each person will have to decide for themselves if wearing a visible holy symbol is appropriate for their circumstance. Personally, I have found that most folks are more understanding than what you would first assume.
• Knickknacks: Worry stones, small sculptures, and other small reminders of your faith and spirituality. Sometimes, it’s the small things that wordlessly offer a pick-me-up in the middle of the day that make all the difference.
• Holy Texts: This can, in some circumstances, be difficult. As with Jewelery, this has to be decided on a case by case basis. I have found, however, that most people avoid bothering anyone else about what they are reading.
• Prayer/Meditation: While praying aloud or chanting a mantra may not be appropriate in an office setting, silent prayer or meditation often can provide much needed stress relief in the middle of the day. No one needs to know that you are in silent prayer or meditation, just be willing to put up with occasional interruptions; inevitably, they will occur.
• Blessings: If you work in customer service, you know that occasionally you will come across a customer who closes every conversation with “God Bless You.” There is nothing that anyone can say about you returning in kind. Otherwise, taking a moment to intentionally and sincerely thank your customer isn’t just a good spiritual practice, but good customer service.
• Discussion: As with several of the ideas I present here, open discussion concerning your religion or spiritual practice requires some judgment on your part. However, if you can be genuinely open to hearing about another person’s spiritual life, discussing religion can open you to a new level of camaraderie with your co-workers.

I hope this article has been informative. If you should have any other ideas of how to integrate spirituality into your work day or wish to disagree with any of the points I make, I would love to hear from you. Do you have a story regarding your spirituality in your workplace? I’d like to hear about that as well. As always - Namaste.

Note: While originally I started doing a website review series called “Religious Tolerance Website Death Match,” I’ve decided that avenue might be a touch too silly for my blog’s subject matter. As such, I am starting a new series today called “Site in Focus”, to review websites that deal with religious tolerance and spirituality that my readership might be interested in. Silliness and humor is very much apart of my personality, however, so don’t expect that to disappear completely from my website. I’m not above poking fun at myself, religion, or even the Divine itself… as I suspect the Divine has quite a time doing the same to us.

World Prayers.Org is one of those websites that everyone should bookmark and visit for occasional inspiration. The objective of the website is straight forward enough: “to gather the great prayers written by the spiritual visionaries of our planet into an online database representing all life affirming traditions.” The beauty of the website, however, is in its usefulness and easy navigation.

World Prayers.Org features a randomized “prayer wheel” as well as a standard search option and categories. While it may seem a little hard to find the standard search option, I feel that this might be a feature of the website, rather then a flaw. The website seeks to promote religious tolerance through exposure to the prayers of different faith traditions. If the prayer wheel option was not more accessible than the standard search option, it would be easier to avoid reading the prayers of other faiths, defeating the purpose.

The prayers are divided up into four distinct groupings:

• Adorations: Prayers of devotion, surrender, love, praise and offering.
• Celebrations: Prayers of thanksgiving, initiation, affirmation and blessing.
• Invocations: Prayers of petition, supplication, calling forth and healing.
• Meditations: Prayers of reflection, contemplation, being and teaching.

World Prayers.Org is a non-profit organization, so it does make requests for donations. However, the requests for donations are not intrusive, leaving the website with a simple and pleasing design. And monetary donations are not the only methods of contributing to the website - you may also volunteer to help program the site, or suggest a prayer to be included on the website. Unlike many for-profit websites, there are no ads, scrolling texts, or flash elements to get in the way of enjoying it.

I do hope you give World Prayers.Org a try and tell me what you think. Below is a prayer I found, and I’m including it to give you a taste of what is available. Namaste.

When someone is full of Love and Compassion,
he cannot draw a line between
two countries, two faiths, or two religions.

- amma

I am not feeling myself today. In fact, I have not been feeling much of anything for the last few weeks. Yes, ladies and gents, ‘tis the season for seasonal depression. Your humble narrator is not up to writing a whole post about some obscure philosophy or the blending of religious traditions today, so I’m not even going to try to be profound.

I will, however, expound upon a theory I have about the future of Ministry. Soon, I believe that Ministry will have less to do regarding religion, and more to do regarding mental health. Many of you will take a look at the more extreme religious leaders today and shiver at the thought of receiving mental health care from their likes - as well you should. However, if you take a look at the more mainstream Christian authors, or just browse the Christian section of you local book store, you’re likely to find titles look like and read like self-help books. They are self-help books - they just happen to be written by Christian Ministers.

There are many functions that a religious leaders fills, from conducting ceremonies to championing important causes. However, the reason why his or her flock keeps coming back has nothing to do with activism or maintaining traditions, but rather the soothing effect of the act of worship and the support that the Minister provides to each individual. I would like to regard church as being preventative mental health. I have no doubt that this is the function that clergy will serve in the future. Even as I write this, mental health professionals are looking into the effects of spirituality on their patients. These two professions are becoming more interrelated.

Is it any wonder? Just think about the basic messages that religions teach. Buddhism teaches that suffering can be transcended. Christianity teaches that God will forgive us, if we only ask. Neo-Paganism teaches that all things are divine. The positive messages of these religions and others fortify our emotional well being against mental illness, stress, and gives us hope that tomorrow will be better.

It makes me feel better knowing that this is the profession I’ve chose to go into. In fact, I may have just managed to beat my blues for today by writing this article. I guess God really does work in mysterious ways, which leaves me with only one thing left to say - Thank you.

Yesterday, at work, I found myself trying my hand at prayer writing. I thought it would be nice to share what I wrote with you fine folks. The first one I titled “The Walker’s Prayer.”

I am worthy of this path and this path is worthy of me.
Though I stumble, I will not fail - Though it is far, I will not rest.
The way is my choice, and this choice is my life.
Amen.

My second offering is titled “Spirit Speaks”:

Flow through me freely, God,
My eyes to see proof,
My ears to see truth,
My heart to feel love,
And my mind to think of
The hand that I hold
And foot which had strode,
With mouth through which be
Blessings spoken to me.
Amen.

10/13/07 - “Spirit Speaking” suggested as a title for my second prayer by Kundalini, a poster and administrator at www.spiritualforums.com