Saturday, December 02, 2006
Blogger confusion
I'm trying to figure out how to put my very first post, My Summary of Why I Live Moneyless on the sidebar. It's my very first post, in the archives (click on March 31, 2006), and I want to always keep it titled and prominent in the sidebar, but I can't figure out how to do it. The Blogger help section isn't clear.
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Hey Suelo,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you enjoyed the "madness of money" article. Hopefully others have too.
I have a question for you. How confident are you that what you believe is truth? Do you still have doubts?
Secondly, you really should write a book. Blog posts just don't do justice to what you are saying. Although I wonder if what you are saying could effectively be communicated with words, no matter how many.
I also want to say that I too was raised evangelical. It is only within the last 9 months or so that have begun to question things that I never in a million years thought I would be questioning.
I dunno. Life...what a clusterfuck.
Here's to hoping you keep posting frequently.
JRL
P.S. - I have no idea how to fix that problem you're having with the blogger software, sorry.
Hi JRL -
ReplyDeleteso you're of Evangelical root, too, huh? And you likely know just where I'm coming from. I think maybe I'm directing all of this stuff to folks on the fringe of Evangelical Christianity, then to folks on the fringe of society -discontent with it all.
Yeah, I fall into times of total doubt - usually when I get into town & wrapped up in people's problems & opinions... when I get lost in my mind. But when I'm in stillness, usually in the canyon, I'm as confident as the stars and rocks & ants. The infinite universe outside our "civilized" bubble is totally unaware of credit & debt. But "civilization" in it's tiny tiny delusion thinks that it IS the infinite universe and can't imagine anything else. And I start believing it too when in doubt.
I feel like a little kid with shaky knees trying to stand up to the Man, because I still find myself believing in the Bogey Man. I feel I won't have the confidence to speak out enough until I outgrow the Bogey Man illusion that scares all of us.
Suelo amigo mio, I watched the short film "Moneyless in Moab" and found it interesting. It was also nice to see what you look like, a mid-40-ish Huck Finn.
ReplyDeleteI've already commented publicly and privately to you that I think most of what you say makes sense. After watching the film, seeing how you flesh out your philosophy, rounded up the rest of my thoughts on what you're doing and your radically faith-based existence.
Obviously, you're not the first person to live moneyless in a money-based society. You're obviously also not a typical hobo or bum, either; too well-kempt, well-dressed, well-fed, non-addicted and happy. But the existence you lead is also very childlike, and that has a value of its own, as testimony.
Mother Gavrilia was a Greek Orthodox woman practitioner of healing arts who lived moneyless, as moneyless as you live, for much of her adult life, from her 40's, I think, till near the end, in her 90's. She travelled widely and ministered to the sick, especially lepers, in India and in Africa. She alternated times of intense work (for free, she never took money, but lived wherever she was given a bed, and ate whatever food was available from the people she served) with intense "hesychia" or silence (living in the forest in the foothills of the Himalayas, for example). There's a book about her marvellous life, "Ascetic of Love", which I highly recommend. The biggest difference between you and her is that she was a quietly believing Orthodox Christian working for free among mostly non-Christians, and accomplishing the healing and betterment of suffering humanity. Much like Mother Teresa, except unknown, and alone, and moneyless.
What you have found out, and what you are expressing verbally, and how you are living, is kind of a foretaste of life in the Messianic age, when "Babylon has fallen, has fallen." Sort of an anticipation of the life of Paradise (not of the life of Eden, because we can't go back that way). Being an example of anticipation of life in the Messianic age, you are unique, and that's your part to play, to remind people of something that is coming, though you or I may not live to see it.
I wonder if your extensive knowledge and experience of other spiritual paths, though it has helped you see beyond the façade of "Churchianity in America", will ever lead you back to an exclusive and simple faith in Jesus Christ as the Only Begotten Son of God, the divine Logos of the Father. That is what happened to me, many years ago, and I am happy to have found in Eastern Orthodoxy the living spring and the tree of life that were hidden in western versions of Christianity. This is what happened to a large segment of spiritual seekers from the late 60's to 70's, in the Holy Order of MANS; they almost all found in holy Orthodoxy the true and enduring "eternal gospel" carried by the angel in the book of Revelation.
Brother, adelphos mou, hermano mio, I salute thee, and look forward to meeting you someday.
Go with God, dear brother, go with JAH.
Romanos, bro, very good reading your comments. I finally got a copy of “Moneyless in Moab” and saw it for myself just minutes ago. I had been nervous before seeing it, but am pleased how artistically Gordon put it together.
ReplyDeleteIt’s exhilarating hearing about folks like Mother Gavrilia, and I’m itching to find out more about her. One of my role models is Peace Pilgrim, cuz she not only lived moneyless, but she was doing it not too long ago here in the States. And she was an old woman.
Interesting what you say about going “back to an exclusive and simple faith in Jesus Christ as the Only Begotten Son of God…” Romanos, are you certain I am speaking of anything other than this exclusive and simple faith? Jesus himself said that the Great Commandment(s) was the Way to Eternal Life. Isn’t there exclusively only one truth, one life, one way to Loving God - through loving my Neighbor as my own Self? How can I love God whom I can’t see if I can’t love my Neighbor whom I can see? How can I love the Begetter if I can’t love the Begotten? Are you recognizing this mysterious theme of the letter of 1John? What does it mean to be Begotten Again if there is Only One Begotten? And how on earth can we practice the 2-in-1 Great Commandment (s): how can We love Our Neighbor as Our Self AND love God with 100% of Our Being if our Neighbor, Our Self, and God are not One?? And how can I love my Enemy if 100% of my love must go to God... unless...? How can we love Christ if Christ is not come in the flesh RIGHT NOW, present tense, RIGHT HERE in the form of our Neighbor? “I was hungry, and you fed Me, I was naked and you clothed Me.” Doesn’t the Bible say, “Christ is all and in all”? According to the Bhagavad Gita, isn’t the Enlightened Soul the One who sees the Lord in every creature, right here, right now, come in the flesh? Isn’t the Begotten the Only One who can see Himself in every creature, and love every Neighbor as His Own Self? Wasn’t this the core teaching of Mother Theresa? Isn’t this what we learn before we can speak, when we are on our mother’s breast, a faith that does not just come through written scriptures or church creeds? Isn’t this the Exclusive Gospel already preached to every created thing in the universe? This is the simple, simple, simple faith we all must return to, the faith of Every Religion, Every Created Thing. There is Only One Begotten and we must Become Him Again, by seeing the Only Begotten in front of our face, as our Neighbor, as Our Self. There is absolutely no other way to the Source, no other truth, no other life. “Love is the Law and the Prophets.” This is the Name above every name, the Name Unspeakable, the Fundamental of Christianity, of Hinduism, of Buddhism, of Taoism. One Faith.
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Thanks great bloog post
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