September Museletter

Jan Phillips · September 12, 2007

Freeing our thinking from the limitations of its biological form is essentially a spiritual undertaking.

Ray Kurzweil

The more evolved you are, the more of the universe is in your view.

Yasuhiko Kimura

This hour in history needs a
dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The spiritual life cannot begin until people allow themselves to be invaded by the reality of suffering, realize how fully it permeates our whole experience and feel the pain of other beings, even those to whom we do not feel congenial.

Karen Armstrong

Adoration is the essential
preparation for action.

Evelyn Underhill

Mysticism leads to the
transcending of all limits.

Leonardo Boff

Stop learning, start knowing.
Rumi

Engage with joy in all the sorrows of the world.

Buddha

If the whole world would hold hands, God would go back together again.

My 8 yr old nephew Noah

Ever age has to redefine its reality, that's what writers and historians are about; we're all revisionists.

To look at your life in this way is a way of creating it, a way of controlling it, so that the mythology shall spring from the life and not the life from the mythology.

Shirley Abbott

Earl

In Sitka, because they are fond of them,
People have named the seals. Every seal is named Earl because they are killed one
after another by the orca,
the killer
whale; seal bodies tossed left and right
into the air.

"At least he didn't get
Earl," someone says. And sure enough,
after a time, that same friendly,
bewhiskered face bobs to the surface.

It's Earl again. Well, how else are you
to live except by denial, by some
palatable fiction, some little song to
sing while the inevitable, the black and
white blindsiding fact, comes hurtling
toward you out of the deep?

by Louis Jenkins, from North of the Cities. © Will o' the Wisp Books, 2007.

Greetings!,

A pagan went up to a rabbi and said he would convert to Judaism if the rabbi would explain the whole of the Torah to him while he was standing on one leg. The rabbi was incensed and sent the man off immediately. The pagan then went up to Rabbi Hillel with the same proposal, to which the great rabbi said: "What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow human being. That is the whole Torah. The rest is the commentary. Go and study."

The Jewish High Holydays, the upcoming Ramadan season and the Christian Eucharist have a lot in common. For the Jews, the season from Rosh Hashanah (sundown tonight) through Yom Kippur (Sept 22) is a time of making amends, reviewing one's life, determining where one needs to grow and setting goals to get there. The lamb of God that they sacrificed in order to achieve at-one-ment with God is the same lamb the Christians refer to when they say, "Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us."

Ramadan, a Muslim time for fasting and prayer starting tomorrow, is derived from the word ramd, meaning "to burn". Since each of these traditions are derived from Abraham, it seems like a good time to give thanks for our common heritage, make amends, determine where we need to grow, and burn away the self-doubts that keep us from our magnitude and the real reason we're here.

I had a facilitator training here this weekend and it was almost miraculous to watch six women find that place where their "deep joy met with the world's deep hunger." And having found it, to design a life where that work would be the source of their sustenance and the focus of their attention. We are here to do the work that excites us and inspires others. As Rumi said, "The eyes are here for seeing, but the soul is here for its own joy."

I am extending my reach into the world by offering longer retreats both here in San Diego and at my lodge on Lake Bonaparte in upstate New York. The announcements for these workshops follow, and I hope to share this joyful work with many of you during the year.

Blessings and love across the miles,

Jan

Reboot Camp at Lake Bonaparte

cottage