The Mind and the Heart

I really do think that mainstream religion, with a few notable exceptions, does screw people up. I sat with a friend today who suffers and understands partially the nature of his suffering, but not the part of it that makes it worse. I heard someone say something really profound, which is that it's the desire to be good that makes one make so many mistakes. The desire to get the brownie points with . . . . who exactly?

I must give thanks for my parents' unceremonious disabusing me of the notion of "religious tolerance." It's really rather an oxymoron. Think of it this way: Churches are really religious corporations. They have absentee owners, central banks, the franchises are run and different manager-types jockey for favor ultimately with the Central Office as represented through National and Regional Centers of influence. So. In keeping with the corporate theme, is there such a thing as "Corporate tolerance?" Does Coke "tolerate" Pepsi? No. Coke would really rather see Pepsi obliterated from the face of the earth. And vice versa. The companies only tolerate each other the way that two hungry wolves tolerate each other when there's an elk carcass in the middle of a clearing.

While there are people of faith across the various "sectual preferences" who put aside their dogmas in favor of the language of the heart and follow a deep ecumenicism, for the most part the people who cry the loudest about "religious tolerance" are the people for whom religious tolerance means "convert to my religion or die, and if you complain about my vampiric behavior, I'll scream about you being an anti-religious bigot." (O Driest Alcoholism! thy name is James Dobson!)

That being said, I listened to my friend discuss the nature of his spirituality and I felt pained for him. He grappled with the language of the Heart, which I think most spiritual people do actually long for, wish to put into the speech of their eloquent actions. Yet, he was in this place of separation that so many orthodox-tending (read: fear-based) people repeat by rote, that I did wince inside even as he spoke about what he honestly believed, what he honestly hoped for. As I write this paragraph, I remember my own highs from being in that religious superiority zone-out. I was of the glazed eyes myself, and I could be again tomorrow. I feel blessed to be trying out a tradition of Earth-Based Religion that emphasizes my own spiritual authority to question, question, question and to hold my own in negotiating with anyone, deities included.

It's tough to be right-sized, so tempting to allow myself to inflate into a puffed-up ego, or to slack off into deflation as well. I have compassion for my friend and I affirm that he is where he is and that he has lessons for me and for others, though he probably has no earthly idea of the lessons he has for me. At one point he shared this judgmental idea about "this world" vs. the spiritual, and I had to offer a different way of looking at it, that it was "the Mind" rather than "this world." The Mind, or really rather Ego is what creates a lot of the ugliness around us. When you say "this world," you're lumping a lot of valuable stuff into it that perhaps you wouldn't want to throw out. (Also, the spiritual needs to incorporate the soulful, but I didn't say this at the time. I was heading toward my bedtime as I conferred with my friend. I wish I had the thought to say that it's not either-or but both-and, and also that the mind is about separation but the heart is about integration and unity, nonduality. But that will have to wait.) Do you really want to throw out this beautiful spring day we're having? Isn't there a spiritual value in living with the weather, even during a hurricane? In the world of the Ego, however, all seems to revolve around one's not being right-sized--it thinks it can tell the ocean to stop being wet and it thinks it's the sole reason the world is such an awful place. Which in an odd way is true because the ego has a habit of selective focus where reality is concerned.

The Ego/Mind does have a place. It's just not at the center of all things. The Heart is at the heart for a reason, after all. It's centrally located in our bodies and it is the source of all that we value and cherish. The Ego/Mind needs to support and feed the Heart's desires. The aspect that is "The Brave Soldier" needs to be honored and given new work rather than defending ourselves against illusory attackers. When faced with a real attack, it can catapult into action if it's necessary. Which it turns out isn't as often as we would think. The brave soldier needs to work for the Heart's Desires. This world is only a vale of tears if we choose to hold onto this reality as the be-all and end-all. And it passes by so quickly, it seems. It only makes sense to be in the Sacred Heart, the Black Heart of Innocence.

Don't pick up my addictions, stay connected, help others. That's what it all comes down to. Simple, but oh what a challenge. I even forget to add that into my prayers each day, this from which all goodness flows. It's so much easier to focus on the juridicidal maniacs, the homophobic wannabe-butchers out there. But I get to shine my Excalibur of Light on them and seek out the Divine Children within these confused and woozy folk. Guess it's what I signed up for, though I don't have any idea how it's going to happen.

More to be revealed.