For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

– Matthew 6: 32-34 (verse 33 is underlined)

Om. I have spent the last few years reading many world scriptures and can safely say that Matthew 6: 33 is my favorite scriptural passage. And if I didn’t think that doing so would upset my mother I would probably have gotten it tattooed on my body long ago (how’s that for spiritual courage?).  To me, it poetically crystallizes the goal of my life and also is one of the most powerful promises of God ever uttered by a prophet on the Earth.

Part of the reason I like this particular scripture so much is its positive spin on God.  Seeking God (who is bliss Itself) is not something we “should” do and not something we will be punished for not doing.  Rather, if you truly understood the bliss of God you would naturally seek it first, for you would understand that nothing else in life even compares to it.  And, ironically, if we do seek Him first we will not only gain the limitless bliss that He is, but “all else will be added to us.” God’s cherry on top of His ice cream sundae of Love is His unbreakable promise that even our natural desires will eventually be fulfilled if they are temporarily renounced for the infinite joy we have always been seeking.

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“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life.”

                 -Matthew 6: 25-27

Om.  An American religious studies professor (I can’t remember who) recently gave his students an assignment to create their own religion.  The resultant tenets of these religions were as diverse as the students that conceived them, but the professor discovered that there was a common thread all of them shared; each religion, without exception, involved some form of stress reduction.

This wasn’t surprising to me. We live in the most technologically advanced age that has ever existed.  This undeniably has many benefits (duck tape, for instance!) but one of its by products for nearly everyone is stress.  With so many choices it’s hard to know which ones to make.  There is so much to remember: social security numbers, updating your license, credit cards, car maintenance, and, most significantly which one of the 200 breakfast cereals to buy at the store (Unrelated fact: A grown man can still eat Fruity Pebbles and have high levels of self-respect).

And to make matters worse our culture is founded on the unrealistic paradigm of infinite improvement.  People feel constantly stressed because they compare themselves to photo-shopped cultural standards they never seem to meet.  There is always someone richer, better looking, smarter, more creative, and more productive than you.  Our culture constantly tells you what you need to posses to become whole, not that you already are whole in God!

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“We should bend to the great task of reinterpreting all the Christian traditions…and since it is a question of truths which are anchored deep in the soul….the solution of this task must be possible.”

-Carl Jung

Om. I often get asked if I am a Christian, and- as if I were talking about a beloved woman I am in an undefined relationship with– I tend to say, “well…its complicated.”  I was born into a Jewish family and converted unthinkingly to Christianity when I was around 8 years old.  As I grew up I gradually lost all interest in religion until I encountered Zen Buddhism, lived for 6 months at a Zen monastery, and had experiences in meditation that convinced me beyond doubt that an eternal God exists.

These days I believe in the unity of all religions and of a single nameless Source they each symbolically express.  Yet in spite of this I have pictures of Jesus in my car and next to my bed.  I read and love the Bible perhaps more than any other book, frequently attend churches, often dream in Christian symbolism, and sometimes refer to God as Jesus when I pray.  My friends can all attest to the fact that I annoyingly quote the New Testament all the time. So am I a Christian?  Like I said, its complicated! But after much reflection I now say yes, but not exclusively. Christianity particularly moves me, but as a son of the One True God I may equally be considered a Muslim, a Hindu, or a Jew.

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Introduction

Om.  It seems that many people these days feel that the discoveries of modern science have somehow “disproven” the existence of God and branded the path to God as an infantile superstition.  These arguments typically are, in my opinion, based on the view that religion is identical with the monotheistic traditions that currently dominate the spiritual terrain of the Earth.  In these traditions (popularized Christianity, for instance) God is something separate from the physical universe that can be approached by faith but not experienced directly, created the world in 7 days without evolution 6000 years ago, is often portrayed as male, and created human beings separate from animals.

These descriptions of God are unarguably antithetical to the recent scientific discoveries of evolution and the cosmic age of the universe.  It is now clearly known that humans slowly evolved from less complex animals, that the Earth is billions of years old, and that beyond the clouds no “heaven” exists where the righteous go after the death of the body.

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“The more I sit in silent meditation, the more I believe in God.”

Len Swanson

There are two factors that typically inspire people to seriously pursue a spiritual path:  suffering, and the reality of death.  This was certainly true in my case.  My senior year in high school was the most difficult period of my life so far.  I had some family issues from the past I was dealing with, and was generally freaked out by the absurdity of life in general.  Why am I on this tiny planet with seven billion other people who continually attempt to destroy each other?  Why do I and these infinite galaxies even exist at all?  What is the point of doing anything if in the end it is taken from us by the impersonal wrecking ball of death; if the sun itself explodes in due time, forever making a mockery of civilization and all its flamboyant pageantry?

When I was 18 I resolved to begin meditating everyday in response to a personal crisis I wont elaborate on in this post.  So I cleared out my room, resolved to read the Dhammapada (which means sayings of the Buddha), and began my spiritual journey.  A few hours later, as I was moving my dresser into the attic to clear a space for meditation, my leg fell through the ceiling and went directly into my father’s room (which luckily he was not in at the time!).  It left a hole the size of a basketball and an even larger hole in my savings account.  God, you will learn, has a sense of humor.

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Lord Ram gave Hanuman a quizzical look and said, “What are you, a monkey or a man?” Hanuman bowed his head reverently, folded his hands and said, “When I do not know who I am, I serve You and when I do know who I am, You and I are One.” -Tulsidas Ramayana.

Aum.  The world of cyberspace is filled with millions of blogs.  Most of them would probably embarrass any self-respecting human being if read by an alien from another planet.  Dining on a verandah overlooked by seven multicolored moons on a planet millions of light-years hence, a three-eyed being with a seemingly meaningless tail on its face would ask me: “Is this what you guys are really like?  Do you simply bitch about things you can’t change, or ramble endlessly about how amazing your children are, or tell the whole world about how you stubbed your toe on Friday morning?”  I would then say, “Some of us take the matter of life and death seriously.  We write blogs to humbly reflect on the glory of the living God. And when offered ice cream when we are full, we politely decline.”  This blog, of course, is one of the latter types.

It has two main purposes.  Firstly, it will help me reflect on my own spiritual life in order to deepen it. Secondly, it will hopefully introduce people to spiritual practices, books, and concepts which have deeply benefited me.  Practically, I will write about my experiences with meditation, prayer, scriptural study, and relationship building with God. These practices are very potent, and as the Lord in the form of Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, “Even a little of this practice (of meditation) will save you from great fear.”  We are spiritual beings, and without a fruitful spiritual life I believe we are missing out on the truest source of love and joy.

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