Island Heart!

So in the recent past it seems that I've been enthralled with the seeming transcendence of the Island Peoples in the world, at least the ones to which I've been exposed. Maybe that has something to do with the microcosmic nature of living on an island and maybe the fact that the populace is primarily an indigenous culture, less commercialized or westernized, probably both. Anyhow this heightened awareness of the natural world seems to be in line with some of the writings of Richard, and others, regarding the need to reconnect with our roots and value the interconnectedness of all creation. We all started there and then went the path of "civilization" which had plenty of advances for homo sapiens but also had the egotistical downside of us "creating" God in our image.

Just finished a couple of books by Robert Roskind, a self proclaimed ex-hippie, a researcher of indigenous peoples and their messages of One Love. The two books deal mostly with the Rasta movement of Jamaica as well as the Hopi and other North American First Nations Peoples of the American Southwest and the Mayan civilization of Central America. The connections and common message speak very well of this movement toward transcendence, forgiveness, and universal Love. He also recognizes that the movement is slow but consistent, kind of like yeast.

Think I'll post a couple of the passages I found in the books which I found very impactful. One of the Rastas which Robert spent time with in Jamaica spoke of "Love AND Respect" as follows and I find this to be very important. "Respect is a thing that people should have in abundance so they can give it to other people because you can't run out. Respect is the foundation of holiness and is not a word to just speak easily. You have to have it confirmed in the heart because that is where the Love vibe starts from." (Rasta Heart, pg.221).

As part of his "reasoning's" with the Jamaicans Robert pointed out that being forgiving and practicing "One Love" is not so easy on a personal level. To which the thought occurred to me that "sometimes it's easier to "One Love" the world than it is to "One Love" your Brother".

Reggae and the Rasta movement certainly have their paradoxical elements and were not totally framed in the "One Love" model all the time and from the get go. However they seem to have taken that focus in recent years and are a consistent voice for Peace and Love in the world. Of course there are the adherents which are just into the movements for the sex, drugs, and music. One of the finest artists in the field, Luciano, has a line which bears sharing. "I look around in the world today, I see the children are going astray. I try to teach them how to kneel and pray and let your love be the only way." Beautiful!

As the end of this post I will enter a few paragraphs from Roberts book "2012-The Transformation" (pg 60-61). It is interesting how his thoughts are reflecting the "duality" comments from Richard Rohr. "It has been a journey into duality, into right/wrong, good/evil, win/lose thinking that has offered humanity much pain and little peace---emotionally, spiritually or physically. This age of duality is marked by delusion and deception, exploitation of the weaker, seeking happiness outside ourselves, and the two ever-present unconscious manifestations of the mistaken belief in separation---the ego and the desire for dominance over others in all their various and twisted forms.

This cycle ends on December 21,2012. It is the "end of life as we have known it for the last 5125 years" and good riddance to it! As it ends, the age of duality awakens to oneness and a new age of unity unfolds. In the past, so often peoples answer to their problems was power. Now it will be Love. This will be a planetary event and, like a rising tide rises all boats, it will touch everyone as the love of power is supplanted by the power of love. As always, every living being will be offered the opportunity to change.

As the new World Age of Unity dawns, we have the free will to choose. As Mayanist John Major Jenkins writes in "The Mystery of 2012: Predictions, Prophecies & Possibilities:"

"...What we actually experience depends on our choices--- whether we cling in fear to familiar illusions or open to Love and trust to the great mystery that seeks to transform and elevate us...And here's the nub of the sacrifice doctrine: our goal is not the sacrifice of literal hearts. bodies, or even our egos (think 1st half of life here)(Richard's thought), but the sacrifice of our illusions. In that surrender, we loose nothing real but gain everything worth having: our true selves...the galactic alignment of the era-2012 [is] a great opportunity for spiritual seekers to reconnect with the source of perennial wisdom. But we shouldn't wait until 2012, for we are in the alignment zone now [1980-2016]. The time, as always, is now."

When duality started to express itself starting in 3113BC with the founding of the first city-states in Babylon, Sumer and Egypt, it spread across the globe. As it did, because of its exploitive and domination-driven worldview, as well as its advanced weaponry, it quickly conquered and then absorbed into itself all the unity-based indigenous cultures it encountered. It was the same in Asia, Europe, Australia, Africa, and then finally in North and South America. Now it is time to re-invigorate this ancient holistic worldview (without throwing out the baby with the bathwater)(me).

Basically, for thousands of years visionaries and unity thinkers have been swimming against the prevailing current of duality. On December 21, 2012, the current changes direction. Unity will be going with the prevailing current. How exactly this shift will manifest on the planet is still unknown but what is clear is that the more our "sails of Love" are extended, the more wind we will catch as this age transforms from the love of power to the power of Love.'

Pax Christi! Roberto

One Love-One Heart!! - Respect!!

The last couple of weeks I've been immersed via a book and two "Gatherings" focused on the Rasta movement. This ties into the last post as this movement is very intimately connected to the One Love / Agape Love essence. This posting will again take a while as the book referred to has several quotes I wish to post and comment upon. I needed to put this "Sherita's Labyrinth" picture on here as this day is the third anniversary of her passing over into the next dimension. I choose to not drag this posting on right now as I want to put this picture out there. I will quote one reference and make two quick comments. It is interesting that two of the best examples of Love in a culture, in spite of poverty and isolation, are observed in island nations. Maybe because they are island cultures? In my experience that would be Hawaii and Jamaica. You have the Aloha Spirit of Hawaii and the "One Love""Rasta" Spirit of Jamaica. More on that later. In addition to Love there is another element absolutely essential to the effective practice of Love. That would be the responsibility to share Love and the need to respect anothers perspective within a spirit of understanding. Two elements I suppose but they are related and intertwined. Similar I suppose to "Namaste" in the Hindu tradition is the Rasta practice of crossing both arms across ones chest and saying "Love and Respect"! Without respecting one anothers position and rights then saying that you "Love" them seems to be pretty hollow.

"The power which you possess is but one side of the coin; the other side is responsibility. There is no power or authority without responsibility, and he who accepts the one cannot escape or evade the other." Emperor Haile Selassie I.

The greatest power one can possess in this life is to Love! Pax Christi! RV

A Circle of Love!

This posting may take a while to unpackage as it is felt to be a summary of where I've been coming from and going to during the past few years. I will attempt to make the picture clear. But as in the picture to the left one can see that all of creation is so connected but very hard to always understand the innerconnectedness. Yes, I know that the proper word here would be interconnectedness, but I'm attempting to recognize that the inter is actually very inner! In just viewing the "Passion" flower we can see different interpretations of its parts as a portion of the Christ mystery but the best interpretation is to just wonder at the beauty of the total picture.

Peace, Blessing, and Wholeness to you All! The Ol Man who is this Roberto Vincente sometimes can be pretty errant in his ways. I am very thankful for second chances, third, fourth..... It seems that in the final analysis the Beatles may have really had the answer when they sang that "Love is all you need". I believe that, but it gets a little messy when you start throwing semantics into the equation. We have the different forms of Love. If you define God as Love, as John the apostle did, and don't allow the ego to hijack the simplicity of unconditional Love, then the community of the world could do just fine. The problem is that when our human ego starts redefining Love then we have the same problem we've ended up with by redefining God, to fit Our image, not the other way round as was intended. It seems to me that as a species we do need to differentiate different forms of Love for social interaction but it is very important to subjugate any of them to the litmus test of the Love of God, focusing on peace and respect for all. In various approaches I feel that the posts contained herein touch on this underlying theme. So as the previous post, a resource list, may guide one to much love of wise teachers I am prayerful the end result of this post will be to outline some of these aspects of Love as represented in my somewhat scattered approach.

Most of connectedness can be seen as a relationship between the ego and love. Not really a battle between them but more of a realization and balance of and between the two, or two hundred. When I speak of love I would like to note a variable. I choose to use the upper case L to denote Agape Love and lower case l to denote the more rudimentary, evolving, human forms of love.

Writing about love is just about as silly an original concept as one can imagine. What thinker, songwriter, philosopher, or advertising mogul hasn't done so. Love, or one persons concept of it, is what gives our world texture and excitement. One can find all manner of definitions of Love in any given culture. Much of our life force is spent finding, defining, defending, hiding from or expressing it. Love can be found in the science of life as well as the mind, emotion, and soul of life. So why am I even delving into such an area which has been so heavily studied, sung about,analyzed and promulgated? I'm not writing anything new and I'm not sure I'm even writing this to anyone but myself. Primarily I am of the prayer this post will help me to better understand Love, and its relationship to this Emergent movement.

Richard writes of a transcendence, rebirth, transformation, from one phase of life to another as a result of "Great Sorrow" or "Great Love", when your ego loses control of your destiny. And many times the great sorrow is experienced as a result of the loss of the great love. So Love is not just a state to which we aspire, or sometimes run from, but also the verb or action by which our movement occurs.

God, is also defined by some as Love. The mystery of God is seen as more than a noun as well. That is part of the mystery or the paradox of God. God, Jehovah, Yahweh, Jah is the creator of all, within all, the goal of all, and as well the life of all. Some call this the life and breath of God. Some call the mystery the Trinity.

The best word or clarification of the word Love I've experienced is Agape Love. Agape is defined as unconditional Love. This form I would define as being the best description of the Love which is God. There are many other words or descriptions of love which we use. As I see it these would be partial expressions or practices of the total, unlimited, unconditional Love which is God. Rob Bells book "Love Wins" essentially describes just how expansive this concept of Love is, how inevitable it is, and how hard it is to practice as humans. Agape would be the apex to strive for in each of these other, more human forms. Hence "Transformation" .

One form of love which arguably would not be love at all but the antithesis of Love is something called "conditional" love. "I will love you if you do....". In many situations we, in our human weakness, will tend to practice this form of (un) love. Good effective parents in loving their children will practice "tough" love. They will attempt to teach by attaching conditions, rewards, or punishment, to behaviors. These are usually necessary for young people to learn a socially accepted path within a culture. Such socialization techniques are just that and should not be confused with whether or not a parent loves their child. It is in withholding love, to achieve a desired behavior or result, where most self esteem issues yield a very dysfunctional human adult.
So Love which overshadows any "necessary" social and cultural mores is a goal of God Like institutions, which is what our institutions should strive toward. The defense of a humans basic rights will be a sign of such an institution.
The degree to which more carbon based forms of love strive toward the Agape God Love apex is a measure of that forms validity and authentication. Just as Jesus is my model and mentor, so Agape Love is my model for other expressions of this driving force of life. To not belabor this topic, as one could read for years if desired I just wish to briefly list what seems to be some of these other expressions of love. The Greeks seem to have given us most of the descriptions in the western world but other languages would be as valid, maybe more so as being less complicated.
In addition to (unconditional) (Agape) Love and Parental (Storge) love we have no less than five other subclassifications. The most difficult to understand and navigate within would be Sexual (Eros) love. This would be the one leading from passion to conjugal relationship. This is also the one which most directly challenges another form, Self (Narcissistic) love. Since one definition of love is "a desire for another to do well" then it will be very hard for a Narcissist to really love another and hence to be in a couple relationship. Narcissistic love is to conjugal love as Conditional love is to Agape Love. I feel the need to state here that Self-Esteem (necessary and inevitable when you realize You are a creation of God) is not the same as Self-love (to the exclusion of others) (Narcissism).
A subset of Parental (Storge) love would be Brotherly or Familial (Philia) love. Brotherly love would be the cement binding together a community or culture. This can lead to the cultural ego set which could be very dualistic and tribal which tends to remove a culture from the path toward Agape. Realizing we are essentially All related in the same creation would amount to being the re bar necessary to the cement of the Kingdom of God.
The last two forms I want to note are "minor" or microcosims of Agape Love. In a way they are easier to accomplish as they usually don't require as much release of ego as the other forms. Friendship (Platonic) love and Hospitality (Xenia) love would be these "baby steps" type of love.
I've certainly not exhausted this subject, and I certainly have not practiced these forms to the Glory of God. Maybe writing this down will help me do better. Keeping my eye on the goal!
Pax Christi! Agape! Aloha! Roberto Vincente

The Container Resource List!

Aloha! World! Richard Rohr's latest book is called "Falling Upwards" and unless you are on the space lab that probably sounds like it's against natural laws. It is a fine book with great wisdom for the individual and in my opinion can be seen as a blueprint for cultures the world over. It does reflect the paradox of mystery. It has been suggested by a very intuitive new friend that in this blog it may be good to have a resource list available at the beginning as well as the current posting. I like that idea a lot as the sequence which a person reads or listens to these teachers could have a major influence on the cohesiveness of the teachings. This is not an exclusive list but highlights the books or resources which I have found most impactful.

The numbers on the left side of this list are the suggested sequence of reading.

Brian D McLaren

www.brianmclaren.net/

1. "The Secret Message of Jesus"

2. "A Generous Orthodoxy"

5. "Everything Must Change"

Fr Richard Rohr - The Center For Action and Contemplation

www.cacradicalgrace.org/

3. The Emerging Church (cd)

4. The Cosmic Christ (cd)

6. We are the Second Coming of Christ" (cd)

9. Falling Upward (cd and book)

Marianne Williamson

http://www.marianne.com/

7. "Saving The Soul of America"

Rob Bell

www.robbell.com/

8. "Love Wins"

I would like to hope that these resources could be of great help in a reader/student being able to form a better lens within which to see the world during the first half of life and facilitate the vision to transcend into the second half (upwards, as Richard presents) Happy reading! Pax Christi! Aloha! RV PS- I was looking for a good picture to represent "The Container" of learning like a great library building. Then I came across the Hammock on a Beach (in Hawai'i?) and thought one could hardly find a better library to relate to the beauty and connectedness of all creation :o)

The Wonder and Connectedness of It All!

Most every day there is available from Richard Rohr a daily thought, prayer, meditation. It comes from the Center For Action and Contemplation. It is sometimes more impactful than others but they are all good. The address is http://www.cacradicalgrace.org/ . Of late I've been riding my bike on the path along Bear Creek. It is a good form of exercise but is also very connected to the birds, butterflies and all in the wetlands. And yes the other bugs and pollen as well. Everytime I find a butterfly in my path I remember the 100 or so we released at Sherita's memorial. A great example of trancendance and connectedness of nature and spirit and our human nature. Several of Richard's tidbits are especially lush statements of this reality as well. I will quote a few of them here but I will suggest signing up for his insights on a regular basis.

"Nature itself is the primary Bible; the world "as is" is the primary locus of the sacred.
Notice that Paul is not saying that Revelation started when the Bible was written. No, revelation started at the moment of creation, what we now call the Big Bang; and the primary Bible is reality, what is! The written Bible has only existed in a nanosecond of geologic history, and a very small part of human history.
Do you really think God had nothing to say until the last nanosecond--that God was completely quiet until we wrote the Bible? And we did. I'm not saying that it isn't inspired, but we wrote it, so we are more at home with something we wrote than with what God wrote in creation.
We are given a natural way to reconnect with God every day in creation. And it doesn't depend on getting a degree in philosophy or theology. It depends on being present!" (The Soul, The Natural World, and What Is, R.Rohr).

Of course, as with most things, there is a need for balance. There is no question, in my opinion, that the cognative reflection inherant in the areas of Language, Symbology, Art and Music truely are the most obvious traits we possess as being created "in the image of God". In his latest book, Falling Upward, Richard relates the balance between the two "halves" of life as being the best goal of a transcending being. I am begining to see that on a larger scale that transcendance could be in the offering for the whole of the human race. Maybe with the grace of God one day soon may see that tipping point toward a more Loving relationship with all beings within creation!

In another "Daily Meditation" Richard speaks of another philosopher, Bill Plotkin..."speaks of the first half of life as doing our "survival dance". The second half of life can then become our "sacred dance". Most of us never get beyond our survival dance to ask the deep concerns of the soul (we are too busy "saving" our souls, whatever that means!"....Come Sacred Come! I attended the screening of a new movie called "The Journey of The Universe" this past weekend. Very good movie but stopped short of delving into the more spiritual implications of creation. Well worth the viewing however. One speaker at the showing mentioned what should have been obvious to me. He broke down the word Philosophy into its roots of Love and Wisdom. The Love of Wisdom. Way better than most of the reliances we seem to have to the various "ologies" out there. Butterflies are beautiful but wouldn't be here with out the Caterpiller and Pupa stages. :O) RV

The Mystical Nature of the Ego!

This is really a very important post for me to make. In a fashion this is really the crux of all that I've been trying to get to in this journal/blog. The nature of the ego is really at the center of the best and worst of our journey as human beings transcending to our divine nature within the image of God. We have started looking at the latest book by Fr Richard, Falling Upward. At the inception it seems that this is a book to support his talks and balance between the two halves of life. I am beginning to see that this communication actually goes far deeper into our human nature and how we must balance to move onward to transcendence. It may be applied to the Young and the Old, the Male and Female, our past Cultural and Religious History and Our Future. The picture attached to this post is that of a "Black Pearl". I try to find a picture for each of these inputs which will be "worth a thousand words". I found several in this computers archive including complex and beautiful flowers, butterflies, a French "Formal" Garden, and Gandhi. May not all seem to be related but I saw a message in each which points to the beauty and mystery of this pilgrims path we all find ourselves upon. A pearl is a very interesting gift of God. At first it is "merely" a mollusk in the sea. When it acquires an irritant within then it "transcends" into a prized jewel. Kind of a cool metaphor for the transcendence of a person into recognizing his or her divine nature within the kingdom of God. It follows after the failure or fall or irritation knocks us off our old ego driven mode of operation. Interesting that Sheritas middle name is Pearl.
The healthy balance of our necessary self image and confidence counterbalanced with a servants or stewards attitude of service to all of creation is really what we are all faced with on our path. We need both expressions of life but when one dominates to the exclusion of the other is when we spin out of balance, and miss the mark. Another name for sin.
The past few months have seen several momentous events in this ol life of mine. With Gods Grace I will learn from them. We have moved into some new books of the Emergent framework. I'm feeling an interesting correlation between Brians and Richards work relating to the connection of two, or more, phases of life. Richard has delved very nicely into the shared mystical nature of God espoused by many of the world spiritual leaders. And the degree to which we can appreciate that symbiosis is directly related to the level of spiritual atunement with which we have been blessed and awoken too. I choose to say atunement as opposed to the word achievement. I hope that the word atune hearkens toward recognizing an existence already there as opposed to the word achieve with hearkens toward something I'm doing. A big difference. One of Brians books ""A Generous Orthodoxy" approached, in my opinion, the same phenomenon, a mystical symbiosis, from the perspective of our "religious" history. Both of these gentlemen look at the past as being a necessary step of progress in our growth as humans. A past to be learned from, not condemned. I am feeling that Richards "Falling Upward" to be expressing such a growth in the personal life as compared to our cultural transcendence.
My eldest Daughter and her husband are expecting a boychild in October of this year, on my birthday as a matter of fact. Very cool. As a parent, I am of the opinion that having and raising a child is probably one of the most effective ways in which we as humans have the opportunity to learn stewardship, subjugation of the ego, and a firsthand appreciation of the "divine DNA" available in all of creation.
This month has also marked the graduation from SOU of my other daughter. A time of much joy and some stress as well. I am very proud of her accomplishment and movement onward. I started to say the next couple of sentences to her but chose not to as this was one of those necessary ego moments. A time of graduation is akin to a time of transcendence from ego to expansion. June 11th was all about you, but also marks your movement into a bigger Us. Even if transcendence is initiated usually by "Great Love or Great Suffering,(Fr Richard)" it can occur at a relatively young age and in increments. I recall with joy that this is the same daughter who made the reflection about the public demeanor after Osama Ben Laudens death. Happy Summer to All! Pax Christi! RV

Putting It All To Gather!

I composed most of these thoughts in this post while sitting poolside at the Treasure Island in Las Vegas. Sin City. An adult playground. Would this be a disconnect with a proclamation of Social Justice and the Cosmic all inclusiveness of Christ? I think not...maybe so, a little...but if so this would be one of the least of my sins of which I'm guilty of in this life of mine. And I know that Christ is present all ways and everywhere. I would like to close this message with a couple of long quotes from Rob's book. I'm playing a bit with the word Together in the title for a reason. I'm hoping to "gather" a bit of commonality I see and have tried to relate to the combined work of Bell, Rohr, and McLaren. To me it is much clearer to view a difference between Jesus and the Christ. We have the omnipresent Christ from the dawn of creation and the incarnation of the man/God Jesus into history. And then the Cosmic Christic Nature of the Resurrected Jesus leading us all onward and upward into the Kingdom of God. I really appreciate the message of Rob but it seems to be more clear to me when viewed with a difference between Jesus and Christ - Not that there really is a difference. Except when viewed with the hindsight of what We As A Species have done to creation in the name of Jesus. Subjugating the earth and her inhabitants in His name. We have the "Holy" Roman Empire, the "Holy" wars (talk about an oxymoron), "Purifying" inquisitions, witch hunts and the like. We created a Warrior King to the sorrow of the Prince of Peace. We can do so much better; In the Name and Spirit of Christ! Pax Christi! RV

"When people use the word "Jesus", then, it's important for us to ask who they're talking about...Are they referring to a token of tribal membership, a tamed, domesticated Jesus who waves the flag and promotes whatever values they have decided their nation needs to return to?....Are they referring to the supposed source of the imperial impulse of their group, which wants to conquer other groups "in the name of Jesus"? ...Are they referring to the logo or slogan of their political, economic, or military system through which they sanctify their greed for lust and power?

Or are they referring to to the very life source of the universe who has walked among us and continues to sustain everything with his love and power and grace and energy?

Jesus (I would say Christ) is both near and intimate and personal, and big and wide and transcendent."

"...a crown, much like a mansion or a car, is a possession. There's nothing wrong with possessions; it's just that they have value to us only when we use them, engage them, and enjoy them. They're nouns that mean something only in conjunction with verbs.....That's why wealth is so dangerous: if you're not careful you can easily end up with a garage full of nouns."

"When we baptize, we lower people into the water, and then bring them back up out of the water. The water signifies death; being raised up out of it signifies life." Interesting that the name Las Vegas means The Springs. It was an early watering stop for pioneers moving West and North. All things will be reconciled to Life..Love..Christ!