Black Like Me

I was reminiscing today and two memories collided.  An early one was when I was in elementary school.  I tried out for the sixth grade play at Park Hill Elementary School (Denver).  It was 1963.  I was twelve.  By 1969, a senior at East High School, we were featured in a Life magazine article as the only fully integrated high school in the country.  East High was a model of integration in a battle over civil rights and my high school was closed and all students sent home when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.  I had a black girlfriend.  But back in 1963 things were still quiet, I guess, I was just twelve and trying out for  the school play. Years later as an adult I would recall this memory with amazement and horror and also some humor.  The role I was given was of the Black porter at the train station.  I had to put black-face make-up on and talk with a dialect.  The script called for it. 

The-years-later-recollection-as-an-adult had me realizing that I stood before an integrated audience of blacks and whites, children and adults in black face.  What amazed me was - I wasn't stoned.  Either by the audience or by being on drugs.  I never was aware of any reverberations, no riots.  It amazed me that in 1963 my teachers had a play with a black porter at the train station and a white kid in black face. I still can't quite "get my mind around it."

Black Like Me the non-fiction book by journalist John Howard Griffin was first published in 1961. Griffin was a white native of Mansfield, Texas and the book describes his six-week experience travelling on Greyhound buses (occasionally hitchhiking) throughout the racially segregated states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia passing as a black man. Sepia Magazine financed the project in exchange for the right to print the account first as a series of articles. Griffin kept a journal of his experiences; the 188-page diary was the genesis of the book. In 1959, at the time of the book's writing, race relations were particularly strained in America; Griffin's aim was to explain the difficulties facing black people in certain areas. Under the care of a doctor, Griffin artificially darkened his skin to pass as a black man.  And a little white kid at Park Hill Elementary School (Denver) put black face on for the 6th grade play.

The other recollection that came back recently was from my 10 day intensive Centering Prayer retreat at St. Benedict's Monastery, Snowmass, Colorado. It was 1989.  I was a Presbyterian minister working for the Archdiocese of Denver and my boss was a Catholic nun.  One morning at 2 a.m. I was hiking up the dirt road from the farmhouse to the Monastery for Vigils.  Walking beside me was a new friend, a black City-Councilwoman from Rochester, New York.  As we walked along she suddenly blurted out, "My God, man, you've got rhythm!" Somehow it was a great validation for me.  It was as if she said, "My God, man you've got SOUL!" 
Dr. Laura Schlessinger got in big trouble for using the 'N" word recently.  I have some suggestions for her.
And you?
Got Soul?

Understanding yourself

"Meditation is the freedom from thought, and a movement in the ecstacy of truth."


"Belief is so unnecessary, as are ideals. Both dissipate energy which is needed to follow the unfolding of the fact, the "what is." Beliefs and ideals are escapes from the fact and in escape there is no end to sorrow. The ending of sorrow is the understanding of the fact from moment to moment. There is no system or method which will give understanding; only a choiceless awareness of a fact will do that. Meditation according to a system is the avoidance of the fact of what you are; it is far more important to understand yourself, the constant changing of the facts about yourself, than to meditate in order to find god or have visions, sensations and other forms of entertainment. - J. Krishnamurti

People! Who needs People?

I office at McDonald's, some of you know; two hours twice a day everyday, for 22 years now.  I read.   I also journal what I read.  Sometimes I read one paragraph in two hours.  I am also reading, very slowly, Metaphysics by Borden Bowne (1884), and Powers of Mind Adam Smith (1975) when I am at home.  I have on my next to read shelf The Syllogistic Philosophy by Frances E. Abbott (1906).  Consciousness is the theme of all my reading.

  When I journal, I draw pictures to myself of what my ideas look like, so I need highlighters.  At Mcdonald's I spread my highlighers and markers over a big table with my many notebooks since right now I am collating the ideas of two different scientists of consciousness.  People walk by on the way to the restrooms and most ignore me.  Sporadically, some one stops and makes a snide comment, a put-down.  I realized it is almost always old white American males.

  This morning I overheard an old lady sitting in eyeshot from me telling an old white American male that it's "time we take our country back from the 'negroes'."  Not much stops me, I learned to absorb my concentration and lose sense of my surroundings about 20 years of the 22 years ago.  But I stopped.  Since the afternoon before she had a conversation with a young employee and they slapped each other on the back because they love Jesus and are "good Christians". I have had some experiences with these "good Christians".  Some I even told it was obvious to me that they had never read the New Testament and didn't catch the ethics of Jesus.  They're the ones who write books like "What Would Jesus Do?"  and have bumper sticker likes "What would Jesus think, say, eat," etc?

   If we take our country back from the "negroes" do we send them back to Africa?  Or do we reclaim them as our slaves?  Did Jesus have slaves?  And if he was Middle-Eastern and not American didn't he probably have dark skin and not the light-colored Roman-like complexion of the old lady "good Christian?"

   I read a book on the history of NewThought once that talked about the violent conflict between the theologies of John Calvin and Michael Servetus.  Calvin, who had the backing of the prince in Geneva,  had Servetus burned at the stake for "heresy."  That was before the concept of separation of church and state.  But I wondered, "Who did Jesus burn?"  When Jesus said in Matthew and Luke
"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple."  (Luke 14:26), do these Bible literalists take that literally?  Everything Jesus said is open to interpretation.

   Borden P. Bowne was professor of philosophy at Boston University and a Methodist minister. He categorized his views as Kantianized Berkeleyanism, transcendental empiricism and, finally, Personalism, a philosophical branch of liberal theology, of which Bowne is the dominant figure. His masterpiece, Metaphysics, appeared in 1882 (which I think is wonderful!) and he was contemporary with the writings of Mary Baker Eddy which I use in my study of consciousness. Bowne towards the end of his life was tried for heresy by the Methodist Church, but acquitted.

   Frances Abbot was was an American philosopher and Unitarian theologian who sought to reconstruct theology in accord with scientific method. He was a contemporary of Bowne and Mrs. Eddy.  His ministry proved controversial, and in 1868 New Hampshire's highest court ruled that the Dover, New Hampshire, First Unitarian Society of Christians' chosen minister was insufficiently "Christian" to serve his congregation. Abbott is was said, once preached that:

Whoever has been so fired in his own spirit by the overwhelming thought of the Divine Being as to kindle the flames of faith in the hearts of his fellow men, whether Confucius, or Zoroaster, or Moses, or Jesus, or Mohammed, has thereby proved himself to be a prophet of the living God; and thus every great historic religion dates from a genuine inspiration by the Eternal Spirit.

He was removed from his ministry. 

And then there's Anthony DeMello.  a Jesuit priest and psychotherapist who died in 1987. At the end of this post is a link to a you-tube presentation of his that I recommend to you.  I found it when a Facebook question from a young friend showed up and I wanted to respond. Her question was

Wondering why it has to be sooooo hard sometimes to let certain people go in our lives, even when it's the "right thing to do..." - and this includes friEnds that have moved on in their lives, for whatever reason, and leave us behind.

DeMello's books and materials were banned by the Catholic church and his teachings called "dangerous."  I guess beliefs are also so-o-o-o-o hard to let go, too.  Who did Jesus ban?

Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFdjBjBfPfc

Traveling Bible Teachers

A friends writes:
with the bible folks that travel door to door.

A wonderful way to see/feel my growth/understanding since the last visit.
Always interesting to remain steady with that which I no longer believe with honor and respect for my visitors and their present understanding.
I remained longer than usual to see how they fielded my questions and/or responses were received.
I recommend it.
Do you all have these visitors where you now reside?

So I responded:
Friend - We have the Jehovah's Witness here and they are quite active. Also seen a few Mormon boys on bicycles. I've had several extended conversations with one or two Jehovah's. Not good. Helpful to my learning curve. Reading Dorsey helps more. Today for example - "I have grown increasing understanding of any so-called common tongue as necessitating a systematic unconscious self-belittlement in its linguist, thereby necessitating (in protest) an augmenting, systematic unconscious symptom formation in its linguist. By habitually overlooking myself in my wording I become increasingly anaesthetic to the sensation of selfness in my language." This I think is the purpose of institutional, dogmatic religious non-thinking, which Dorsey calls "self-helpfulness." I see all educational organizations, with memberships (common tongue) as self-help groups having limited value to those who join them and severly restricted value to one seeking enlightenment (self-discovery). Margaret encouraged folks to "go back to church" in the 70's as a helpful way to discover no value in the church. peace. Rob

The Trouble with Religion

The Undiscovered Self


by Anthony de Mello, SJ

Somebody came up to me once during a conference and asked, "What about 'Our Lady of Fatima'?" What do you think of her? When I am asked questions like that, I am reminded of the story of the time they were taking the statue of Our Lady of Fatima on an airplane to a pilgrimage for worship, and as they were flying over the South of France the plane began to wobble and to shake and it looked like it was going to come apart. And the miraculous statue cried out, "Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us!" And all was well. Wasn't it wonderful, one "Our Lady" helping another "Our Lady"?



There was also a group of a thousand people who went on a pilgrimage to Mexico City to venerate the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe and sat down before the statue in protest because the Bishop of the Diocese had declared "Our Lady of Lourdes" patroness of the diocese! They were sure that Our Lady of Guadalupe felt this very much, so they were doing the protest in REPARATION for the offense. That's the trouble with religion, if you don't watch out.

WORDS

From TALES OF POWER: "I told Don Juan that his explanation did not satisfy my senses, although I was in complete intellectual agreement with it." "That's the flaw with words," he said in a reassuring tone, "They always force us to feel enlightened, and we end up facing the world as we always have, without enlightenment...Whenever the dialogue stops...extraordinary facets of ourselves surface as though they had been heavily guarded b our words."

"Inscribed on The Believing Mind."

"The Perfect Way knows no difficulties
Except that It refuses all preference.

If you would see the Perfect Way manifest
Take no thought either for or against It.
To oppose what you like and what you dislike,
That is the malady of the mind.

Do not try to find the truth,
Merely cease to cherish opinions,
Tarry not in dualism.

As soon as you have good and evil
Confusion follows and the mind is lost.

When the unique mind is undisturbed
The ten thousand things cannot offend it.

When no discrimination is made between this and that
How can a biased and prejudiced vision arise?

Let go, leave things as they may be.

If you wish to follow the path of the One Vehicle
Have no prejudiced against the six senses.

Whereas in the Dharma itself there is no individuation
The ignorant attach themselves to particular objects.

The enlightened have no likes and dislikes.

Gain and loss, right and wrong,
Away with them once and for all!

Everything is void, lucid, and self-illuminating
There is no strain, no effort, no wastage of energy.
To this region thought never attains.

In not being two all is the same.
All that exists is comprehended therein.

It matters not how thing are conditioned,
Whether by 'being' or by 'not being.'

That which is is the same as that which is not.
That which is not is the same as that which is.

If only this is realized,
You need not worry about not being perfect.