The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.

The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.

Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.

Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.

Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.

Chapter 1 of Tao Te Ching (written by Lao-tzu)

I have let go of the bright lights and frill that folks pull out of their hats to paint a picture of comfort, ease and healing when it comes to god, religion and faith. It is within our self interest to think of god as bridging our weaknesses and sinfulness. By thinking of god or religion in this way it allows people to pass over their faults, flaws and sinfulness. It allows people to think they are right or understand something that others do not. It places people; organizes and sorts them.

It also re-creates sin into something that should be avoided; something that can be avoided. And so we organize our beliefs (whether consciously or unconsciously) around this tenant. Faith and salvation become something that can be found at Barnes and Noble in the ’spirituality’ aisle rather than a recognition of what, in my opinion, really makes us children of god; the recognition of our sinfulness. To even begin to believe in the light of and comfort of god, in my eyes, involves the absence of such things in my faith. When we anoint ourselves with god’s comfort, peace and ease and we take away his power to provide these things for us.

Contemporary christianity seems consumed by the idea of a comfortable faith where god’s role is the bringer of light, victory and salvation. There now even exists a theology of monetary return, the more you give to the church the more god will give to you – a quid pro quo faith.

Maybe, in the end, I am realizing I am less of a ‘christian’ than I originally figured…mabye it would be best to leave this title alone, to forget it exists; I do not want its connotation, I do not want to waive its flag. I cannot believe that god wants me to waive it either.

If you overesteem great men,
people become powerless.
If you overvalue possessions,
people begin to steal.

The Master leads
by emptying people’s minds
and filling their cores,
by weakening their ambition
and toughening their resolve.
He helps people lose everything
they know, everything they desire,
and creates confusion
in those who think that they know.

Practice not-doing,
and everything will fall into place.

Chapter 3 of Tao Te Ching (written by Lao-tzu)

Step 1 – Uniformity of Chaos

[1] Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. [2] As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

[3] They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. [4] Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

[5] But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. [6] The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. [7] Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

[8] So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. [9] That is why it was called Babel-because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

-Genesis 11

Step 2 – Diversity of the Tongue

[1] Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy. [2] For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit. [3] But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort.

-1st Corinthians 14

Step 3 – The Beauty of Incompleteness

It is just because we can go no further, because speech so marvelously fails us, that we experience the certitude of a divine meaning surpassing and enfolding ours. What lies beyond man’s word is eloquent of God.

-George Steiner

Step 4 – The Removal of Self

It is in deep solitude that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brothers. The more solitary I am the more affection I have for them…. Solitude and silence teach me to love my brothers for what they are, not for what they say.

-Thomas Merton

Therefore, as you go, disciple people in all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

International Standard Version ©2008

If I am not mistaken (or wikipedia), the word disciple is derived from a Greek work that means something close to the equivalent of learner or a learner. When I read Matthew 28:19 I do not see some great plea from the lord to go out and christianize the world, but instead to learn from the world and those who inhabit it. And maybe, just maybe the baptism that Matthew is speaking about involves us dipping or plunging ourselves into these nations rather than the reverse. I do not think it is entirely improbable to believe that by submersing ourselves into others we aren’t carrying out a kind of baptism.

Maybe it is that simple; put others before you, love them on their own terms and invest yourself in understanding and trust rather than suspicion and some sort of absolutism of what is right and good. The strength of a logical persuasion, in my opinion, has no place in god. God’s most logical persuasion, to me, is one of our least practiced actions, his unrequited love. And maybe, if we were all to understand that we really can’t understand that which is god and just let god be god, we would all be the better for it.

Unlike wikipedia, god doesn’t have answers. In fact, god can’t answer our prayers…especially when we pray with the answers already in hand; there is nowhere for god to take us. God answers prayers with questions that will lead us to amazing abstractions of faith. His goal is not to provide us with the comfort of salvation, but with the wonderment of confusion. And while there are people whose faith is much like their neatly maintained backyards, it is the weed ridden yards that allow for god’s message of hope. The hope that this world is outside of our control; the hope that our thorough mismanagement of earth can serve as a reminder that theoretical boxes where never meant to be packed or carried or stored away for later use…the hope that we cannot save ourselves.

It is not the potential glory of god that holds me; it is not the benefit of having him as a personal savior or a pathway for eternal life. All these reasons for having god in our life are just that, reasons. I would like to believe, if I am not fooling myself, that god has found his way into my life not because of a promise of more, but a realization of less. It is the lesser sides of me that allow for god’s unconditional love to become real, it is my ability to turn away from god that allows me to be one of his children. I do not find god at the apex of my strength, but in the abyss of my weakness. It is in the resignation my self that I fully realize my inherent sinfulness. I work my way down to god, not up.

Glory eyed christians, however, tend to go blind from looking toward the heavens and have a habit of amassing large congregations to assure them that their vision has not entirely failed. They seek the concrete because it is reflective of their faith. Their A + B = C theology deconstructs god into a human vernacular, a human culture and ultimately puts god on the cross for the second time, because they do not believe the first time was for everyone and they do not want to be left behind. And so, these gloried eyed Christians have deconstructed the bible into an instruction manual for building ladders that can reach the heavens.

And this too might be out of our hands; and abstraction of faith delivered by the deliverer. I figure I will just wait till the exodus for the rest of us and settle for watching an army of heels climb toward the heavens as I sink into the soil upon their daring escape.

punched

till numb

filled to the point

of

only

being

able

to

empty

let me go hungry

The water is being poisoned. Daily, people, as a function of their positions, are being forced to sit down and listen to ridiculous presentations by money grabbing consultants who promise nothing short of the fountain of youth for our aging workforce.

Their campaign?

• All that is positive, optimistic and imbued with strength.

Their logic?

• Why think about those things that we struggle with when we can hone what we do well into something we do great.

Take for instance Dewitt Jones. Jones, a national geographic photographer, has made training videos for workplaces to use that addresses how to Celebrate What Is Right With The World. While Dewitt is celebrating the beauty of the world he fails to recognize all that is not. It is not that I seek to dwell on all that is wrong with the world either, but I do think there is a compromise. Mark Strand, former poet laureate (90-91), said it best when he referred to critics who characterized his poetry as being dark or brooding. Strand, however, said that he found his poetry to be “evenly lit” rather than brooding or dark. This, in my opinion, is what is wrong with celebrating what is right with the world.

Therapist Bill Doherty (University of Minnesota researcher) was recently interviewed about the institution of marriage in Minnesota Monthly. In the article he talks about how the stigma of divorce has pretty much disappeared, but expectations for marriage have skyrocketed. He was quoted as saying, “Marriage has weakened as an institution while the ideas for what is should accomplish have gone through the roof.” Doherty points to our consumer culture for this discrepancy; once the widget stops meeting your need you purchase another widget that can. I also think this has something to do with people who have become infected with the Dewitt Jones line of thinking. It should be noted that Dewitt’s most recent book was created alongside of Stephen Covey. Covey, for those that do not know, is one of the chief proprietors of this type of thinking.

Now, let’s look at Denmark; the happiest place on earth. While I do not pretend to know the details of how the study was conducted or its reliability, I do think one of the ideas that has emerged from the study is interesting. One of the explanations for why the Danes are so happy is they have lower expectations than the rest of us. By having lower expectations the Danes are better able to celebrate and appreciate the world around them. This, to me, illustrates the flaw in focusing on all that is positive, optimistic and imbued with strength.

All the positivity and optimism spun by these CONsultants is just an efficient guise of an ethic of care. There are so many other ways to better yourself…chief among these ways is to resign yourself to listening to the world around you rather than talking over it. I will leave you with a paragraph from one of my heroes -

“One fine day you decide to talk less and less about the things you care most about, and when you have to say something, it costs you an effort…You’re good and sick of hearing yourself talk…you abridge…You give up…For thirty years you’ve been talking…You don’t care bout being right anymore. You even lose your desire to keep hold of the small place you’d reserve yourself among the pleasures of life…You’re fed up…From that time on you’re content to eat a little something, cadge a little warmth, and sleep as much as possible on the road to nowhere. To rekindle your interest, you’d have to think up some new grimaces to put on in the presence of others…But you no longer have the strength to renew your repertory. You stammer.”

-Louis-Ferdinand Celine

what pulls
is followed

albeit
unknown

it will eventually
draw its force in tears

and you’ll sleep toward a morning
filled
with a
realization

All in all politics has taken on the same type of plots that I used to look forward to seeing when Randy the Macho Man Savage, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Hulk Hogan or Ted Dibiase, the Million Dollar Man appeared on the TV screen. On one hand I want to say that politics has sold its soul to the same type of ridiculousness that I used to watch on the WWF. However, I don’t think the WWF ever had the intention of being taken seriously. Yes, sure, wrestlers get hurt, it is a physical sport, but the story lines are supposed to be over the top, just like Sylvester Stallone. I watched the WWF as much for the bad stories as I did for Ted Dibiase to enact his signature move, the Million Dollar Dream….OH YEAH. So as I watched the democratic debates in South Carolina I couldn’t help but think that I was watching Clinton enact her version of the Million Dollar Dream on Obama. Hillary, however, should know that the Million Dollar Dream is not full-proof. Take the 1991 Royal Rumble for instance. Ted Dibiase might have won the tag team match with Virgil against Dusty and Dustin Rhodes, but this was the beginning of the end for him. It was instead, the awakening of Virgil and his fans. Virgil began at once to train with Rowdy Roddy Piper for WrestleMania VII. The match lasted 7 minutes and 41 seconds before Virgil claimed victory. How did he win? DiBiase was counted out…he left the ring to attack Piper. Some might say this wasn’t a clean win for Virgil, but I would say people like Hillary and the Million Dollar Man just like to attack those who cause them to feel threatened and deserved to be counted out.

Moral of the story, Rowdy Roddy Piper and Virgil should work together to root out the establishment. OH YEAH!

is much the same as combing your hair these days; both take effort to pull off properly; both are supposed to say something about you, as a person; both can be found with cans of hamm’s beer nearby.

And what do these two have in common? Well, a search for meaning in the abstract. So, here it is…a chance to write three nonsensical sentences and help create some conceptual art. This, by the way, will be harder than you think.

Click Here to write your sentences now. Stay tuned to see what emerges.