In the search for a Sacred Masculine, we inevitably encounter a God-like ability to train our inner gaze clear THROUGH the difficult surface aspects of life in order to find the sacred core - the true self - hidden there. This is precisely what I experience in the wilderness, where the sunlight, spaciousness and silence of the landscape pierce through my quirks and flaws into order to uncover my truest self. In the West, this kind of energy is often called the "gaze of God" which is able to bring us to life in fresh ways. "We exist because You GAZE upon us with love" is the revolutionary principle of Renaissance mystic Nicholas of Cusa in his book "The Vision of God." True to a sacred Masculinity, this loving gaze is steady and unwavering, and is thus incredibly powerful in its ability to empower others to become who they really are. We might, in fact, call this gaze "penetrative," and in so doing, uncover the true meaning of male phallic energy. Unfortunately, because our culture is so literal and our males so unspiritual, we tend to interpret sexual drive in its most unenlightened way. Thus, young men often may think that bedding as many women as possible is proof of real manhood. But unbeknowst to them, what they are REALLY seeking deep within their spirits is a capacity to incarnate the lovingly penetrative Gaze of God - one that is able to see through to the divine core in all of life, and especially to find the Goddess dwelling within each and every woman they encounter in the course of daily life. When a man learns to embody the Divine Masculine in THIS way, he will treat all women with the utmost respect and awe. I pray for a renaissance in our time of this powerful and liberating aspect of the Sacred Masculine. May it be so. Aho :) Photo: The sun, ice formations and open water on Horsetooth Reservoir, Larimer County, CO, January19, 2016 Please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/
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"I see you in me and I see myself in you . . . Inside interbeing, we remove all kinds of discrimination, of suffering." Thich Nhat Hanh Vietnamese Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh coined the term "interbeing" to describe how all things "inter-are"; that is, how each being is an integral part of every other being. On this Martin Luther King Day, I am reminded of how true this is in regard to myself and African-American culture. I grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia in a family that had a somewhat stiff, formal, almost "British" feel to it. However, when I went to school, I was especially appreciative of the personal traits I absorbed from my Black friends, who made up perhaps a quarter of the student body. This was also the case in the Cub Scout and Boy Scout troops I was a part of. When I spent time with my African-American friends, I felt like there was an honesty about emotions, an attractive informality in human relations, a groundedness that I also wanted to embody in myself, especially as it contrasted with the atmosphere of my own family. I also loved how Black males often seemed more free to express affection toward one another, which was so different from the way it was at the time in typical White culture. In music, I was very influenced by what is now called "The Philadelphia Sound," a combination of Black Soul, disco and jazz that eventually morphed into Smooth Jazz, which is still one of my favorite kinds of music. I also could not get ENOUGH of Stevie Wonder's bright, ebullient, optimistic sound. When my daughter asked me to pick a song for the Father-Daughter dance at her wedding several years ago, I chose "Isn't She Lovely?" I guess what I'm saying is this: through my African-American friends, I got in touch with the Black part of my own soul, without which I would not truly be myself. Black culture, combined with the hippie movement that later would emphasize a similar kind of honesty and informality, together worked to make me the person I am today. Now - if only I had enough HAIR to regrow the "fro" I used to wear in those early days! Photo: Light and dark patterns in the snow at sunset together make the landscape more beautiful; Vedauwoo Recreation Area, Medicine Bow National Forest, WY, January 13, 2016 Please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ Over and over again I'm hearing women lament over the fact that many men these days are intimidated by strong, intelligent females. For decades, men have been told by feminists to drop the old, destructive, macho attitude. Many have, but they haven't yet replaced it with a true, more liberating version of masculinity. Honestly, it is well past time for a new Men's Movement, one that will help males get in touch with their own sacred masculine core. Parallel to this, we need a new image of God to replace the old jealous, arrogant, judgmental, controlling model with one that is more creative, adventurous and life-giving. We need "God-work" to balance women's Goddess-work. Men, are we up to the task? Photo: Ice patterns on The Loch, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, January 18, 2016 Please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ In the book on Interspirituality and "The New Monasticism" I've been reading, a lot of attention is given to an evolutionary view of human consciousness and world spirituality. Under the influence of philosopher Karl Jaspers and theologian Ewert Cousins, authors Rory McEntee and Adam Bucko speak of Three Ages of World Consciousness: 1. The Pre-Axial Age, before 800 B.C.E. Here, human consciousness was more or less fused with both Nature and the tribe. 2. The First Axial Age (800-200 B.C.E.), when individualized consciousness and the ability to think apart from the tribe was first developing. Here, Lao-Tze and Confucius arose in China, The Upanishads, The Buddha and others were revolutionizing religion in India, Zoroaster founded a religion in Persia, the Jewish prophets (especially Jeremiah) were bringing a new understanding of justice and righteousness to Palestine, and Socrates, Plato and Aristotle began emphasizing individual reflection as the basis of the Western world. An intensifying of this individualized consciousness then occurred in the era of the Protestant Reformation (when terror over the fate of one's individual "soul" came to the fore) and during The Age of Enlightenment, which gave birth to the modern view of democracy. The disadvantages of the First Axial Age are many, especially a hardening of the distinctness of individual consciousness into SEPARATION, especially the separation of humanity from Nature, which is a major root of the present environmental crisis. 3. Occurring now is a Second Axial Age, when all of the distinctions, different religions and various philosophies that came to birth in the First Axial Age are being brought together as different puzzle pieces composing a Grand Whole. This is not an unconscious fusion with the Whole (a characteristic of the Pre-Axial Age) but a conscious and intentional uniting of all of the various distinctions born during the First Axial Age into a new cosmic "super-organism," where each philosophy, religion and individualized consciousness has its own part to play in the greater Whole. The authors point out that the shamanic form of consciousness that predominated in the pre-Axial Age is needed now in order to bring the Second Axial Age to fruition. Accordingly, we need: ". . . the shamanistic gift of passing over into different 'worldspaces' or states of consciousness and then returning to the tribe with gifts and wisdom to share. Ewert Cousins refers to a 'shamanistic faculty' where 'we can leave, as it were, our distinctive forms of consciousness and enter by way of empathy into the consciousness of others. In so doing we enter into their value world and experience this from the inside. Then we return enriched, bringing into our own world these values and a larger horizon of awareness. Cousins calls this a 'shamanistic epistemology,' 'a faculty whereby we can pass over into the consciousness of another religion, gather new insight and return enriched to our own.' This would of course include the ability to pass over into the consciousness of plants, animals, landscapes, skyscapes and seascapes in order to resonate with the values and forms of awareness present there. For this, we need the help of traditional indigenous peoples, who excel at this kind of awareness. May all of us find our place in bringing to birth this Second Axial Age, and so bring healing to our world, and an enriched consciousness to the Divine! Photo: Ice patterns on The Loch, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, January 18, 2016 Please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ In my experience, one of the chief qualities of the Sacred Feminine - the Goddess, Sophia, Aphrodite, Gaia, Grandmother Earth - is that of FLOW. The this-worldly river of life which she IS has a seamless quality, just like the vast and sky-like beyondness, transcendence and spaciousness that is the chief quality of the Sacred Masculine - God, Tunkashila, Father Sky, Dharmakaya. Like a river, the Goddess is ever seeking to weave together the various individuals, personality types, genders, races, cultures, philosophies, religions, species and landscapes into a single multifaceted Whole, in which every part realizes that it needs every other part. As you might imagine, we are each called to actualize this interweaving FLOW in our own unique way. For me, the interweaving of Nature - especially wilderness - and Humanity is one major way I am called to do this. I pray that each of us may discover our own part in embodying this sacred Flow :) Photos: Ice and snow patterns on the North Fork of the Cache la Poudre River, Eagle's Nest Open Space, Larimer County, CO, January 16, 2016 Please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ "Rocks have a kind of life perhaps not so different from ours as we imagine." The Contemplative John Muir Photo: Lichen-covered rock with Eagle's Nest Rock in the background; Eagle's nest Open Space, Larimer County, CO, January 16, 2016 Please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ Yesterday was my first Naropa University Contemplative Christianity class of the semester.1/16/2016 Yesterday I taught my first Naropa class of the semester - Contemplative Christianity, with ten students. The class meets in a Buddhist meditation hall with Vajrayana banners and photos of Tibetan teachers hanging on the wall. I love it because I'm able to place my icons - which yesterday consisted of one of Christ, one of Mary Magdalene, and a Georgia O'Keeffe painting of a nighttime Ponderosa Pine - on a Buddhist altar. For me, that's a symbol of the path of Interspirituality if there ever was one! What always impresses me is how many students have negative experiences of Christianity in their history. They've felt judgement, oppression, heavy-handededness and bigotry from a religion that was originally founded on love. As one student said, some churches have even jettisoned the term "Christian" altogether, and instead speak simply of being "Jesus Followers." As I see it, one of my tasks in teaching the class is to offer the students a Mystical Christianity that focuses on Christ as a radiant warmth which unites all things in love, the Sophianic or feminine dimension of insight (the "aha! experience felt in the body), nondual union as a realm experienced BETWEEN I and Thou (or rather between thou and Thou), an attitude of listening for God's presence as it hides within the core of ALL beings, the divinity of matter, and the tradition's present-day "greening," a trend that is occurring in all of the major world religions. Accordingly, when I teach contemplative prayer, I use canyon or old-growth forest imagery, and when I share the practice of Christian Insight Meditation, I use sky and echo symbols. We'll see how it goes! Photos: Horsetooth Reservoir, Bellvue Dome and Bierstadt Lake, Larimer County, CO, January, 2016 In the book on Interspirituality I've been sharing lately - "The New Monasticism" by Rory McEntee and Adam Bucko - there is a lot of discussion about the dangers of mere ego-gratification when one is crafting one's own unique spiritual path. For example, when the authors talked to Andrew Harvey, who has long been traveling an interspiritual path of universal mysticism, Harvey advised: "I think it's so important what you're doing. You're offering people a permission to listen to their unique hearts. But, there is a danger in this offering of permission. And that is that it is very difficult often to tell the difference between the authentic guidance of the heart and your own confused desires. So unless you develop a deep discernment and have some inner experience of the difference between the you that is driven by ego and the you that arises in spaciousness and love when you are free from ego, it's going to be hard to hear what your true voice is saying." This, of course, is precisely one of the pitfalls of much modern pop spirituality, which tempts us to use "The Law of Attraction" and an emphasis on "manifesting" what one desires in service of the constricted ego-self rather than for the sake of the vast and universal Divine Self which is seeking to become conscious in and through the world. It is for this reason that the authors consistently recommend having a spiritual director or mentor - especially one who engaged in an initial training in one of the classical mystical traditions - as a means of circumventing these egoic roadblocks. Thus, McEntee and Bucko explain: "This is one reason we put such a foundational emphasis on solid mentorship as one becomes established on a path. Mature spiritual mentors can watch over us and safeguard us from many of the dangers on the path. Through mentorship one is able to protect oneself from simply latching on to different spiritual practices that flatter the ego while avoiding those that bring a sense of danger - even death - to the ego's many layers." However, "This also requires that our spiritual elders take seriously this new [interspiritual] way. They must not feel that one has to fully enter into or commit to THEIR tradition [or path] in order to receive mentorship. In this way they can pass on the lived experience of where their tradition or path has taken them, rather than focusing on theological or dogmatic formulations. Thus they can pass down their wisdom and traditions in such a way that it allows questions, insights, and revelations from a new generation to be present, creating spaciousness for the synergistic work of the Spirit, allowing new spiritual intuitions to dawn, and facilitating novel articulations of timeless truths." When I give spiritual direction, I work consistently to help a person discern precisely where the Spirit is ALREADY leading them. Then I recommend a lifestyle and set of practices which will foster and advance the seeker's unique development, while helping them at the same time to gradually dismantle the constricted ego-self that is the cause of so much suffering. Photo: Sagebrush and rocks, Vedauwoo Recreation Area, Medicine Bow National Forest, WY, January 13, 2016 Please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ "Too often [the interspiritual path outside traditions] has been dismissed as being selfish, flaky, a spiritual Esperanto [artificially constructed language], or arising out of an inability to commit. Sadly, these are greatly mistaken notions. As we have been strenuous in insisting, this path is founded on commitment. It is about fidelity to the inner impulse that arises within one, and courage to commit to it with all of one's being. It is a shift from reliance on gurus or dogmas or institutions, as helpful (and harmful) as they can be, to the depths of one's own guiding light. Beverly Lanzetta is one of the foremost articulators of the divine authenticity of this emerging spiritual impulse. She says: '"In naming it 'revelatory,' my intention is to emphasize that this multi-religious spiritual focus emerges as a faith experience of the utmost seriousness that compels each person. It is born of prayers and tears. It is not a superficial entertainment or a naive belief. Thus global spirituality is not a personal construction but an inflow from the divine, a re-vealing of a new way of being religious. It is a faith experience, a call from God, to become more loving, to become more holy." "We ask for our traditions and elders to recognize this impulse as genuine, to help authenticate it as nothing less than the breath of the Holy Spirit blowing once again upon the waters of humankind. They must open their eyes to what is happening. Once they do, they can bathe in it, give birth to it, participate in it. If they refuse this grace, closing in upon themselves in fear of that which is new, they may tragically become increasingly isolated from the next generation. While yearning to become a catalyst for the blossoming of the human family, they may instead become an impediment. "For those who feel that a mixing of divergent spiritual practices can only result in confusion, discord, and spiritual abeyance, we emphatically affirm that the 'mixing' on this path is woven under a Wisdom greater than ourselves, one which was there when the Divine 'drew a circle on the face of the deep,' who knows 'what is truly God's,' and whose primary manifestation is of harmony . . . This path does not invoke the freedom and guidance of the Spirit for the sake of freedom itself - it has a purpose. It is the newest yet most ancient way, as it lies at the origin of all our wisdom traditions." "The New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Living," by Rory McEntee and Adam Bucko Photos: Vedauwoo (WY), Rocky Mountain National Park (CO), and The Poudre River (CO), January, 2016 What is Stephen Hatch's unique form of "ego"? Ha - I KNEW that question would spark your interest! My typical stance in life has been that although I know I'm important to The Beloved - that is, to both God and Goddess - and that my contributions to spirituality are needed in a cosmic sense, I've generally thought that I really don't matter much in the world of people. Accordingly, I've always had the sense that I'm an "oddball" in society. However, over the past six months, I've realized increasingly that this stance has resulted in my hurting quite a few people. When I think I don't matter to others, I am then NOT THERE for them. Recently, I've realized this particularly with my two younger brothers. I grew up as a spiritual adventurer in a conservative, fundamentalist Christian family, and my parents made sure I knew that my perspective did NOT belong in the family. (And, to be honest, I think THEY felt rejected by my "liberal," adventurous stance). I therefore distanced myself from family because it hurt too much to engage constantly with the sense of not belonging. Unfortunately, in the process I failed to realize that my two brothers, even though they too have remained a bit closer theologically to my parents than I have, actually NEED me to encourage them on their path and to highlight, value and compliment their character strengths. In other words, they need me - especially as the pioneer and eldest sibling in the family - to serve as a loving and positive mirror. I have not done this as I should, and I have also probably made them feel judged for not measuring up to MY standards - which, ironically, is the very thing my parents did to me! My father passed away several years ago, and my mother - still living - really doesn't know how to make others - including her sons and daughters-in-law - feel good about themselves. I'm realizing therefore that I am needed, and that my life-long detached stance has actually hurt my family. Indeed, thinking I don't matter to others (and thus detaching myself from them) is just as much an embodiment of ego as acting puffed up and thinking I am "God's gift to the world"! For both are an instance of the constriction of the vast and spacious true self into the narrow confines of the small, overly-defended false self. And that is NOT - I am now realizing in a fresh way - how I am called to live! Photos: Vedauwoo (WY), Rocky Mountain National Park (CO) and the Poudre River (CO), January, 2016 Please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ |
AuthorStephen Hatch, M.A. is a spiritual teacher and photographer from Fort Collins, Colorado. His approach is contemplative, inter-spiritual, and Earth-based. Archives
June 2016
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