12 posts from April 2008

You Can Taste It

Apr 28, 2008
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INFINITE THOUGHT

"Undergoing a seriously bad bout of insomnia/jetlag coupled with excruciatingly unpleasant dreams, I start to wonder what cinema would look like if dreams were not a common feature of psychic life. Dreams are extraordinary lies: the death of a friend, the disintegration of teeth, the taste of blood, the guilt felt at the accidental death of someone in your care are real, physically felt phenomena. The tears cried in dreams create the same exhaustion as tears cried in waking life, and the unpleasantness and terror that lingers after witnessing a violent death or spending what seemed like several hours wondering around with a mouth filled with vomit, blood and broken teeth remains with you during the day. You can taste it. Just as the false movement and emotional wrench of much cinema creates a kind of depthless empathy and pity for the reflection of a world which doesn't exist, dreams too invent pathos for a nonreality, but one which is unfortunately, and tiresomely, caught between the confines of your own skull. The combined boredom and discomfort of listening to the dreams of another is a kind of fear of this confined subjective illusion, the infinite space of a claustrophobic...nutshell."

***

DNA

Apr 28, 2008
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Dna

This is pretty cool.

***

From Father Jake Stops the World:

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Some Resources for the "Nature and/or Nurture" Debate

In a recent discussion, Peter O. left this comment:

I'm not asking you to defend your sexuality. I'm asking others to defend their assertion that homosexuality is a biological/genetic phenomena.

First, for us less scientific types, IT sets the stage:

...As a professional geneticist (although not one who studies homosexuality; my gig is cancer research), and a professor who teaches the subject, may I point out YET AGAIN that someone does not understand genetics.
Almost no complex traits can be traced to a single gene. Okay? NONE. Not even blue eyes/brown eyes, although they are pretty close. Certainly nothing as complex as behavior.
Even in fruitflies.
Nothing complex is solely nature or nurture, but both. You may have the genes to be 7 feet tall but if you aren 't eating a good diet you won't get there.
There are plenty of studies showing that human sexuality exists on a continuum, not a binary. It's extremely complex.
However, there are also plenty of studies showing a very strong genetic component to homosexuality; it may not be the single gene absolute concordance that the conservatives want (see preceding) but it is vastly, vastly higher than chance.
Go read Pubmed if you want the citations...The VAST majority of medical and psychiatric opinion is clear on the subject...

With that in mind, here are a few resources that were mentioned in that discussion, as well as additional items that have been suggested in this thread:

Developmental Biology, by Scott F. Gilbert.

Quirks and Quarks,: Searching for the Gay Gene, by CBC Radio.

What Mental Health And Medical Experts Say About "Curing" Gays, by Outfront.

The Robert Spitzer Study by the Rainbow Alliance.

TVC Presents Deceptive and Misleading Information about the APA, by the Rainbow Alliance.

On "left handedness," from Barry and IT.

Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity, by Bruce Bagemihl.

Evolution's Rainbow and A Plea for Diversity, by Joan Roughgarden.

This is just the beginning, of course. Suggest resources in the comments, and I'll add them to this list.

J.

Posted by Jake

ALSO

For anyone interested in learning more, I recommend the animated site DNA from the beginning which is free on line from Cold Spring Harbor (a mecca for genetics). This is a great intro to classical Mendalian genetics (the monk and his peas) as well as molecular genetics and cytogenetics.
IT

***
MORE FROM COMMENTOR 'IT'

Okay, let's talk about left-handedness. It's a very useful analogy in many ways.

As a behavior, it's much much less complex than sexuality, but still exists on a continuum, with a few people being truly ambidetrous, and most being either strongly left or strongly right in their preference. The rate of lefthandedness are low, and reasonably constant across popuulations as best as can be told (although given the strictures against it this isn't completely clear).

Handedness also occurs in animals, by the way, with some species of flatfish preferring to go on their right side, some on their left. most parrots are left-footed when they hold food to eat, but again, there are exceptions.

There has been traditionally a strong bias against lefthandedness, and still is in some cultures. we know in our own culture, people were punished for being left handed, and forbidden from using their left hands, which in many cases caused severe sequelae. For example, stuttering was often associated with enforcing right-handed usage on a left-handed child.

Thankfully, this forcible "reprogramming" has been rejected by the medical profession and doesn't happen in the west any more.

However, there are still strong social strictures against left handed usage in many other cultures, so it seems prudent to expect abuses still continue.

Second, there is no "gene" for left handedness. the inheritance pattern does not clearly follow simple genetics. Although there is an inherited tendency, with some families having a high frequency of lefties, lefthanders also arise spontaneously in otherwise right handed families. but it doesn't follow a binary left-right inheritance pattern of a simple trait.

One intriguing speculation to explain the frequency of lefthanders and the inheritance pattern is that there IS a gene for right handedness. However, if you do not inherit this trait, you are not necessarily left handed. Rather, your handedness is randomly assgined, so you may end up either right or left. So the phenotypic choices are right handed, or random. The preponderance of right handedness in the population represents the allelic frequency of that right-handed allele.

Now, add to that the complications of human genetics including multi-factorial traits, epigenetics, variance in expressivity, penetrance, enhancers, and suppressors, and you may get a small idea of why simplistic views of genetics simple can't work.
IT

****
My own family is 'liberally' salted with both homosexual and left-handed people. Also, left handed homosexuals.
Also migraine sufferers and schizophrenics and alcoholics. Knowing that and providing peer support (in a manner of speaking) among the siblings and offspring has been interesting and helpful all around.

We are spiritual beings, not in a vague 'new age' kind of fuzzy way, but right down to the roulette going on in our inmost parts. We are in communion with our God and with each other. With and through one another we are wending our way amidst this mine field of the many stranded wilderness.

Metaphor doesn't mean imaginary. It's just another level at which stuff is true.

Eyes Wide Open

Apr 25, 2008
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Eyes Wide Open

http://edoc.vox.com/library/photo/6a0...

More than 400 pairs of boots representing US troops from California who have died in the war in Iraq were placed on Grace Cathedral's labyrinth.

Enneagram Resources

Apr 25, 2008
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Enneagram

Enneagram test

Enneagram Institute
Don Richard Riso & Russ Hudson's website.
Enneagram type descriptions, online test (RHETI), articles and discussion board.

Helen Palmer's website

Ennea Graphs
Images and a compilation of type descriptions by several authors.
The Enneagram Handbook
Booklet by Chris Wright (PDF-file).
The Trouble With Typing
Pitfals in using the Enneagram system (written by Thomas Condon).
Enneagram Test
Determine your Enneagram personality type.

Enneagram type One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine
Descriptions of the personality types.
Instinctual variants
The self-preservation, the sexual and the social instinct.
TYPE CORRELATIONS

Cherished

Apr 22, 2008
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Landscape_tula_telfair

Psalm 139 (English Standard Version)

Search Me, O God, and Know My Heart

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

1 O LORD, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
   you discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down
   and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
   behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
5 You hem me in, behind and before,
   and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
   it is high; I cannot attain it.

7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
   Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
    If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning
   and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
   and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me,
   and the light about me be night,"
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
   the night is bright as the day,
   for darkness is as light with you.

13 For you formed my inward parts;
   youknitted me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works;
   my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,when I was being made in secret,
   intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance ; in your book were written, every one of them,
   the days that were formed for me,
   when as yet there was none of them.

17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 If I would count them, they are more thanthe sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.

****

REFLECTION

We reflected on

what kind of a world was described in this psalm?

Is it a world without free will? If God has searched us and known us, and knitted us together in our mothers' womb, is this a God who denies us choice and will? Does this God manipulate and control or grant ultimate freedoms to his creations?

Or -- is it more that this world is a world in which God is constantly present with us, amidst all the events of life, both good and bad? Is 'Presence' more the nature of God than God who looks like and acts like a human being?

Is this world like the world in which the parent watches over the child, and anticipates what the child will choose or will do? In that world the parent seeks to be present, even though the parent allows the child to explore freely and make mistakes and missteps.

Another point from which to view might be to see that , 'wherever I go I am there' -- that if I seek to live with the truth, I cannot ever get away from myself entirely. I must be present for all of the events of my life. As the Sufis say, our Presence is also implicate of the Presence of God within us as us.

Perhaps this is the world of exhilarated contact with God as the creative spirit, the Creator God in whose image we are made. When we are filled with this 'graced' presence of God, we can see that this Grace is always present, even though we cannot always see it or be aware of it.

The world of this psalm speaks of a world of companionship and a world of Grace.

***

WHAT IS A CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION IN THIS WORLD?

Being alive, having spirit, energy, enthusiasm, vision, vitality, connection. It is a celebration of each person as having their own special-ness. I am who I am no matter what. What I do doesn't necessarily change or impact the Being-ness that is me. I have knowledge of my own nature, and I see it reflected in the world around me. We might use the metaphor of air -- we are surrounded by it and permeated by it, and yet we might not be specifically aware of it as it connects to us in a moment-to-moment kind of way.

MAKE CONNECTION WITH YOUR OWN EXPERIENCE (ACTION).

Each person who wished to gave examples from their life, of having this kind of experience, and where it seemed to come from. Often, it was, indeed, 'graced' in that the person couldn't connect it to having 'done' anything in particular, it just came to them unsought in the midst of ordinary life.

CULTURE ?

In our world we are used to thinking in 'pairs of opposites' in terms of either/or. Our nervous system is binary, and we tend to see ideas in relationship to or opposed to other ideas. In this Psalm we might look at it as being coaxed into more of a both/and point of view. It's not that God knows us completely and is always with us in a claustrophobic way, as if God were a human being. How else can we evaluate except to measure how we know something, that is in human terms. God can know us completely and be present for us and to us in all of them events of life AND we can also be completely free.

INSIGHTS ? IMPLICATIONS FOR ACTION ?

This (life that we have been given . Now. ) is It. Everything that we need is here in the life that we have right now. There is nothing missing or absent. We always have the knowledge that Larger Life is there, somewhere available to us.

Several people had the insight, voiced in different ways, that its good to be present, to be open. Staying open to the possibilities before us seems to be important.

We also voiced gratitude for the poet/ psalmist. That it's good to celebrate the writings and insights of others.

There are constant distractions to Mindfulness. that our own relationships and practices might be helpful towards maintaining greater mindfulness.

COLLECT

GOD YOU ARE ALWAYS THERE
NO -- HERE
YOU ARE WONDERFULLY MADE.

WE PRAY THAT WE KEEP OUR
EARS AND EYES OPEN TO YOU
EVEN IN JAIL.

SO THAT
WE MEND OUR BUTTERFLY NETS
WE STRENGTHEN WITH LAUGHTER
WE FEEL YOUR PRESENCE.

AMEN

****

Abundance is Seeking....

Apr 16, 2008
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Int'l Women's Day- bern Suisse

ABUNDANCE IS SEEKING THE BEGGARS AND THE POOR;
JUST AS BEAUTY SEEKS A MIRROR.
BEGGARS, THEN , ARE THE MIRRORS OF GOD'S ABUNDANCE,
AND THEY THAT ARE WITH GOD ARE
UNITED WITH ABSOLUTE ABUNDANCE.

RUMI

***
Anne led our reflection tonight, based on Rumi's poem "Abundance is Seeking"...

We began by asking "what kind of a world is this? " in which abundance is seeking the beggars and the poor?

We had to start with asking how 'abundance' is used in this poem.   Perhaps abundance is speaking about a state of awareness, or a graced state where we know and understand our connection with others in a broader more inclusive way....

We receive when we honor those with whom we share.   But then again,   it seems that we come back again and again to polarity, the economic differences between classes, cultures, between rich and poor. Our discussion of abundance was contentious, debating the different senses of 'abundance' that Rumi might be talking about...

Perhaps people with wealth want to buy 'beauty' (art , decor, etc).   Perhaps abundance is more about an appreciation of what you have. Perhaps abundance is the potential of the individual. What does Rumi imply, concerning an absolute abundance? Would it be that all would have material needs met, or is he talking about something else? Perhaps absolute abundance has to do with caring for all people.

Rosa shared a story that she had heard that implied that when one has debts, one is carrying a lack of forgiveness. So, in that case, would forgiveness bring wealth as it's natural consequence?
Does both debt and abundance have life force in and of itself? Do these qualities pursue all of us equally, if we allow ourselves to open to receive?

Do these qualities seek their opposites? For example, a hungry person would seek having their hunger satisfied. So would abundance then naturally seek a beggar?

What would count as negative in this world?

We decided that it would be to turn one's back on need, or refusing to see need.
Abundance doesn't count the cost , so would true abundance have any waste?

We talked about stewardship, about recycling, that there aren't 'infinite' resources, that taking care of what has been entrusted to us is also part of the world of abundance.

What does the tradition say about this world?

We talked about the story of the woman who washed Jesus' feet with her hair and lavished him with perfume, and the disciples disapproved, and felt that it was wasteful. But Jesus' response was to honor her gift. That this lavish expression of love came from an abundant and overflowing heart. That a good many of the parables Jesus told had to do with upsetting the ordinary order of things, they were about turning reality and social respectability on its head. We might assume that we know the answers and the right responses, but we might not. We have to look at what brings us closer to communion with God and with other human beings.

We see or we know this beauty, and we reflect it.. Abundance is anyone who has something to give. Who has a gift or something to offer. When a person knows that they have a lot to give, a lot to contribute to others or to the society, then they begin to share out of that great abundance of God's generous gifts to us.

So, sharing is true abundance, and potential is then 'infinite' ....

COLLECT;

GOD YOU ARE INFINITY AND ABUNDANCE

WE PRAY THAT WE MIRROR THAT IN OURSELVES
AND HAVE GIFTS TO GIVE TO OTHERS

SO THAT WE MAY UNITE WITH GOD
WITH FULL HEARTS IN
ABSOLUTE ABUNDANCE

AMEN

*****

Enneagram

Apr 15, 2008
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FREEDOM

The Sufi Enneagram or Sign of the Presence of God

In the work of Dr. Laleh Bakhtiar Ph.D, the origins of the Enneagram symbol (see illustrations) are traced from within the Sufi Tradition of Central Asia. The Islamic Sufi tradition incorporated wisdom from past traditions including Pythagorean, Platonic, Jewish, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist and Zoroastrian Religions as long as that knowledge did not contradict the principle of Unity or belief in the Oneness of God. The Sufi tradition inherited a sacred tradition of psychology which existed in the past but was the first to develop this psychological teaching into a system based on the nine points, particularly in the work of the 13th century Islamic scholar Nasir al-din Tusi. It was this same traditional psychology that G.I. Gurdjieff encountered through the Sufis in Central Asia which led to his use of the Enneagram symbol in his teaching during the 1920's. The modern typological interpretation of the enneagram (by Riso, Ichazo, et.al.) does not originate from this primordial tradition and is in fact something quite different.

In her three-volume work entitled God's Will Be Done (1993, Kazi Publications, USA) Dr. Bakhtiar describes in print for the first time the form and meaning of the Enneagram symbol as understood from within the Sufi-Islamic tradition in relation to traditional psychology.

'...Everything in nature but the human 'self' perfects its own nature, to the extent that life allows, by unconsciously submitting to the Will of God...the area with which we are concerned is the completion of nature in its mode of operation...

God breathed His Spirit into human forms so that they gained the powers of consciousness of 'self', which includes consciously following one's conscience and free will. The completion of the perfection of nature becomes a question of choice - to do or not to do...'

God's Will Be Done volume 1

There are a lot of Enneagram locations up on Google. This one has a test and general information about each type.

Enneagram Central

I personally like the Myers Briggs test and typing site which is:

Human Metrics

Take the tests, I like how Enneagram Central says that if you don't agree with the evaluation, take the test again.

They are only maps for reflection, after all, based on your own answers. Sometimes, it's what just happened or what kind of mood you are in when you take the test. But try it out, and see what you come up with.

*****
Similar Minds offers a different Enneagram test, the result for me came out differently.

Image Icon results:

Main Type	Overall Self

Take Free Enneagram Personality Test

Scale (|||||||%) results:

Enneagram Test Results

Type 1	Perfectionism	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	42%
Type 2	Helpfulness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	58%
Type 3	Image Focus	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	62%
Type 4	Hypersensitivity	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	54%
Type 5	Detachment	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	78%
Type 6	Anxiety	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	58%
Type 7	Adventurousness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	38%
Type 8	Aggressiveness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	58%
Type 9	Calmness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	70%

Your main type is 5
Your variant is self pres

Take Free Enneagram Personality Test

a week away

Apr 8, 2008
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asana; surrender

Our Women's Group will not be meeting this Friday (which is April the 11th)

We will resume again next week (April 18th) and will be talking about the Enneagram.

Watch this site for links to online tests, and more information.

Some vacation quotes for you.

"When you encounter those who are wicked, unrighteous, foolish, dim-witted, deformed, vicious, chronically ill, lonely, unfortunate, or disabled, you should think: "How can I save them?" And even if there is nothing you can do, at least you must not indulge in feelings of arrogance, superiority, derision, scorn, or abhorrence, but should immediately manifest sympathy and compassion. If you fail to do so, you should feel ashamed and deeply reproach yourself: "How far I have strayed from the Way! How can I betray the old sages?" I take these words as an admonition to myself."
- Ryokan

"When you live your life at peace with every circumstance of your life, favorable or terrible, you situate yourself at the still point of the turning universe. Then you are the world of cause and effect itself, you become this. You become, with nothing between you and it, this precarious world. You are precariousness itself and so you are no longer subject to precariousness. When you live like this you are the master of precariousness, the master of cause and effect, and then everything is blessed, just as it is.

Interestingly, the root of the word precarious is "prayer," or "imprecation." When you fully enter precariousness, our ordinary human world of one mistake after another, you are "full of prayer," open to connectedness. Then you can see how a life of human limitation is also a life of grace."
- Susan Murphy
Upside-Down Zen: Finding the Marvelous in the Ordinary

Prayers for safe travel, rest, joyous adventures with children and new discovery and life.

Amen

***

Vocation and Call

Apr 8, 2008
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Orb-angelfrance

John de Beer

“A Biblical Framework for Vocation and Call”

Friday & Saturday
April 18 – 19
Episcopal Cathedral of St. Philip

“Your calling or vocation is to be your true self, to mature into the person in whom God delights. Vocation, identity, gifts and ministry are all interconnected. Too often the church has talked to you about your “ministries,” whether in the church or the world, without helping you to do the deeper work of discerning your vocation. Genuine vocation provides an authentic path that strengthens the sense of identity and freedom of those who respond to God’s call.”
-- John de Beer

In this course the Rev. de Beer will be leading us to do the deep work of discerning vocation. This course is for all who seek to reflect on their continued call to ministry. For Education for Ministry mentors, students and graduates, this is a unique option to enrich your experiences with Common Lesson 5, “Planning Your Ministry”. Each session will include presentations, individual reflection and group discussions.

Friday April 18
5:30 Registration opens
6:00 Dinner served
6:30 “Cherished and Called”
9:00 Adjourn

Saturday April 19
8:30 Coffee & Registration
9:00 “Gifted and Passionate”
12:00-12:45 Luncheon
1:00 -3:00 “Committed and Supported”
3:00-3:30 Q&A and Closing

The Rev. Dr. John de Beer is priest-in-charge of St. Mark's, Burlington, Mass. He received his Doctor of Ministry in Congregational Development, 2005, Seabury Institute, Evanston, Illinois; Master of Arts, Theology, 1969,University of Oxford, England; and B. Sc., Mathematics, Physics, 1966, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He is one of the developers of Education for Ministry (EFM), a national program of the University of the South, School of Theology, and co-author of The Art of Theological Reflection.

The cost is $65 per person and includes all meals and study materials.
Register securely online at www.episcopalinstitute.org or print a mail-in form.
Clergy will be awarded Six (6) Contact Hours.

For further information on the Institute, programs and scholarships, please contact:
Nancy Armstrong Linda Scott
narmstrong@episcopalatlanta.org lscott@episcopalatlanta.org (404) 601-5353 or (800) 537-6743

Chickpea To Cook

Apr 8, 2008
2 comments

Cooked

CHICKPEA TO COOK

A chickpea leaps almost over the rim of the pot

where it’s being boiled.

“Why are you doing this to me?”

The cook knocks him down with the ladle.

“Don’t you try to jump out.
You think I’m torturing you.
I’m giving you flavor,
so you can mix with spices and rice
and be the lovely vitality of a human being.

Remember when you drank rain in the garden.
That was for this.”

Grace first. Sexual pleasure,
then a boiling new life begins,
and the Friend has something good to eat.

Eventually the chickpea
will say to the cook,
“Boil me some more.
Hit me with the skimming spoon.
I can’t do this by myself.

I’m like an elephant that dreams of gardens
back in Hindustan and doesn’t pay attention
to his driver. You’re my cook, my driver,
my way into existence. I love your cooking.”

The cook says,
“ I was once like you,
fresh from the ground. Then I boiled in time
and boiled in the body, two fierce boilings.

My animal soul grew powerful.
I controlled it with practices.
and boiled some more, and boiled
once beyond that,
and became your teacher.”

~Rumi

***
Donna began with this devotion this p.m. and so we took the poem into reflection on this text.

Notes on the text:
On the Sheikh

The existence of the beloved is not provable, nor is it fantasy. The Friend, as Rumi usually calls this presence within and infinitely beyond the senses, is elusive and nearer than the big vein on your neck; you need a mirror to see it. the sheikh is a mirror, a reminder of that presence, and a cook. The understanding that comes through a sheikh gives nourishment and transforming energy to many. Rumi's image of a disciple is a chickpea that sprouts and enjoys the rainy garden of sexual pleasure. It matures to its hardened form, then gets picked and thrown in the cooking pot. The cook's tending is careful and constant and, in Rumi's case, garrulous. Gradually the discipline softens and takes on flavors the cook adds. Eventually he or she becomes tasty enough to be appealing to those who in the sufi tradition are called the True Human Beings. So the chickpea moves from garden to cooking pot to a taste for the cook , finally to become sustenance for a mysterious community.

***
We begin by asking about 'The World of the Chickpea" -- What is this world like?

It's a world of initiations, of no control, of being at the mercy of the cook.... It's a world of flavorings and soakings. It's a world that is in process.

What counts as a negative in this world?

Process and the pain of boiling feels like a negative. There is also the possibility of not being chosen -- of being discarded.   The difficulty of no choice, no way out. Lack of compassion. The unknown.

What calls us up short in this world of the chickpea?

A bad teacher (bad cook)... The possibility of being 'half-baked' (which, in the case of both the chickpea and the human being, leaves one bitter.) Fear calls us up short. Jumping out of the pot . Becoming 'just a side dish'.
Only becoming hummus.   (joke)

What is cause for celebration in this world?

Fulfillment of one's destiny, the joy of growing beyond one's limited self.   The joy of taking on new flavors.
We talked about the idea of communing with one's food. Prayer or thanksgiving for food for sustenance.
We also celebrate being delectable in this world. We celebrate our imagination.

What does tradition tell us about the world of the chickpea?

Jewish tradition speaks in terms of 'chosen ones' ... Moses in the Wilderness has the feeling and experience of 'being cooked.'
Tradition speaks of John the Baptist as one who initiates, one who is both the cook, and one who gets cooked.
The tradition seems to tell us that is goes both ways. That the cook is also subject to being cooked in turn.
Jesus also gets selected, cooked and seasoned in the Wilderness.
In the Hindu tradition, we speak of initiation and the Kundalini experience, which is an experience of being 'cooked' at a level of the inner teacher.

At the level of action, the group members shared times in their lives when they experienced this undergoing 'being cooked' being initiated.

We talked about undergoing illness, divorce,   life changes brought about my either misfortune or our own choices rearranging our lives in ways that we didn't predict.   Whether injury, illness, life crises , or choice, we are brought to a 'rolling boil' -- an experience of helplessness and vulnerability where all of our external resources and insights can't help us.

INSIGHTS and IMPLICATIONS FOR ACTION

You can't necessarily write your own recipe. At some level , you are an ingredient.   Sometimes we make a choice to change something in our life, we make a list, we think that it'll all go according to plan.   But no matter how much we plan or attempt to remain in control of our circumstances, at some point , life takes over and we are presented with something or someone outside the realm of our own thinking and vision.   We think we are writing the recipe and then circumstances arrive that show us that , indeed , perhaps we were never really writing the recipe at all. Perhaps what we thought was our own self-determination was merely our own conditioning and habitual patterns and responses.   Now life has taken all of that away and we are left with the truth, that we are something different that we thought that we were.   Or someone else it.   Or life is.   The unknown and unplanned for is always waiting for us, and even though we seek to avoid this sort of 'baptism by fire' at some level, this is very good news.

The prophets and poets and writers of the scriptures seem to be telling us that this is the point when we truly encounter God, the Ground of our Being, Ultimate Concern, and Grace.

Some boiling seems to be necessary in each of our recipes.

COLLECT

GOD YOU ARE A GOOD COOK
WE PRAY THAT WE STAY IN THE POT LONG ENOUGH TO TASTE GOOD -
ABSORBING ALL THOSE FLAVORINGS

SO THAT WE MAY SUFFER WITH GRACE

AND SEASON OURSELVES
WITH SURRENDER AND LIFE.

AMEN

***

The Rumi poem is from "The Essential Rumi -- Translations by Coleman Barks with John Moyne"
published by HarperCollins publishers.

I'll put it up in the sidebar.

***

You Can Taste It

DNA

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Some Resources for the "Nature and/or Nurture" Debate

Eyes Wide Open

Enneagram Resources