michal's musings

Keating says that fear doesn't help to create a relationship with G-d and that role of religion is to help to create that relationship. For centuries religion created fear in people. Sometimes religion can be an obstacle to the relationship with G-d. And yet, it can be the best way to help someone to have that relationship.

Cosmic Christ is Christ’s hospitality … Christ means anointed. Christ’s hospitality means anointed hospitality – hospitality of relationship. I and you are together in union for the moment of being in the presence of each other. Anointed hospitality means that we are in the presence of each other all the time. You and I are that hospitality. That hospitality has been manifested in the person of Jesus Christ. This is what I get from Fr. Thomas Keating 

There are some of us who like to live in a box. And, there are some of us who like to put others into box.  As a religious person I need to make sure I don't do this with my teachers and with my religion and especially with G-d that I believe in. By the definition my believe in G-d does not make sense - One in three plus human and divine. My believe in G-d is above any definition. 

"Jesus of Nazareth, himself, was not a Christian (a simple fact that I’ve seen folks turn somersaults trying to contradict). And Jesus of Nazareth, that wondrous and mystifying Palestinian Jew whom some of us believe was none other than the Christ of God, died a victim of political, religious and imperial violence." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-jinkins/call-it-what-you-want-but_b_9562406.html? This is a very interesting article. It makes us think about Jesus, America and Muslims and violence

It is great that on the land of the Communist Cuba two religious leaders could meet. It didn’t happen in Europe. Perhaps, it is good that they meet in Americas. (I am not claiming that Americas are not about religious wars. Europeans brought religious wars and conflict there too.) Europe is full of religious conflict. It has been between different Christians, between Christians and Jews and between Christians and Muslims, between believers and atheist.   I don’t believe that religion is about conflict. But, it has created conflicts and wars.  Most of the religious texts contain some violence and promote wars and killings: Bible, Quran, Hindu texts, Mormon Book, etc. However, secular texts do this same. Let’s learn from the religious and secular texts what is best in them and not repeat the history they talk about.   

Bernie Sanders speaks about the separation between religion and terrorism. My comments: Sometimes, it can be difficult to be critical of Israel and not be called anti-Semite if one is non-Jew. Similarly, it can be difficult to criticize Muslim terrorism and not be called anti-Muslim if one is non-Muslim. No matter what, we need to be honest even though we might not be politically correct. 

Today I had a conversation about Muslims with one of my Students. He said something very interesting: “They have to defend and separate themselves from the terrorist Muslims before non-Muslims start to protect Islam.”   After the terrorist  attacks done by Middle Eastern Muslims in the U.S., France, U.K., Belgium and other places around the world we are experiencing that the Islamophobia is being more present in the world. People are becoming afraid of Islam which in my opinion is understandable.   It is a time that the local Western Muslims become very vocal about the terrorism and the situation in the Middle East. Every day and every Friday during prayers in the mosques there should be talk against the sin of terrorism.  Western Muslims have to prove that they are different than Isis so that the Western world can trust them.  That’s the truth that is not politically correct but has to be spoken. As a Christian I write: As-salaam Alaikum! 

First, I am not a big supporter of Mr. Trump; however, I like his honesty and not being politically correct. I think he is an important person to our political discussion and without him our politics and presidential campaign 2016 would be very different.  However, as much as I like Trump to be part of the campaign I am not planning to vote for him.  Second, few days ago the Pope in conversation about Mr. Trump made a comment that people who want to build walls are not Christians.  Well, Mr. Trump wants to build a physical wall between Mexico and the U.S.; however, the Pope is building invisible walls between people by making statements like that. The invisible walls are harder to break. Sometimes I think, there might be no difference between Pope and Trump. If we are honest with ourselves, there might not be a big difference between Trump, Pope and us either.  Is this something to be sad about? I don’t know. I only know, it might be a reality of many o...

When I was in Israel the first time in 2006, I attended a lecture at the Great Synagogue.   The topic of it was Iran.    During the break I spoke with an older gentleman about the 6 Day War. He said it was a miracle that Israel was able to win that war and I agreed with him.      Israel was attacked my all the surrounding countries.    This attack changed the mentality of Israel for ever.   During this war Israel learned that it needed to defend itself and that all the neighbors were not friendly to Israel and they desired the destruction of it. The 6 Day War was the biggest mistake of the Israeli neighbors and a support for the Palestinian people.   In my humble opinion, on one hand, there is no way how one can justify 6 Day War and on the other hand not to call it a political and militaristic miracle.  It looks like for the Palestinians that war never ended.  They became the victims of that war which w...

Each time I see and hear about stabbing In Jerusalem my heart is broken. I do not worry about going to Jerusalem or Israel. I am an American. I look like an American Western Boy.  Nobody can think that I am an Orthodox Jew or a member of Israeli Army.  I am a tourist.   However, I feel bad for the Orthodox Jews and Israeli Army. When they are near Old City they have to be very careful. They can be wounded or killed by some angry and frustrated young Palestinian. One can say or write that it is Israel’s responsibility that the Palestinians are angry. Here, I am not going to discuss this situation. Why? Because life is important no matter whose life it is.  The Talmud says that saving one person is like saving the whole nation. I truly believe in that saying. The stabbings in Jerusalem and other places could never be justified.  Innocent people are being hurt.  It is the fault of politicians and generals that Israel and Palestine are in conflic...

At the beginning I want to make it clear that I love Israel and I love and I am proud of my Jewish roots. Last Christians I spent some time in Tucson, Arizona.  I have some Christian and Jewish friends there and I go to the Reform Synagogue there for the Study and Services. Last time when I was there we discussed the topic of how could we be critical of Israel and not be called by some name.  Most of us agreed that it would be very difficult. We said that if one was Jewish and anti or critical of Israel one was being called: “self hate Jew.” When one was non-Jewish and was critical of Israel, one was being called “anti-Semite.”  The conclusion of our discussion was that it was almost impossible to be critical of Israel and not be called something that one is not.    I was in Israel twice. I spend almost six months there. No, I do not consider myself an expert on the Jewish State or situation but I do not think that Israel should be treated diffe...

Buddha and Christ are the teachers…. They teach about salvation.  They both give and teach the way of salvation but they always point into something greater than themselves. Buddha is teaching about this eternal Buddha. The Buddha exists in each one of us.  Christ teaches us about g-d the Father and points into the Kingdom of G-d that is among us.  Both of them are my teachers. I look at Buddha through the experience of Christ and I look at Christ through the experience of Buddha. Buddha means enlighten – knowledge. Christ means anointed – holy. What do I desire? I desire to be enlightened and anointed.  

Time with god… Sometimes I wonder who and what is god. I know, I am a Catholic priest and I should know the answer to this question but I don’t know it. I know what my church teaches about it. However, from my experience god is bigger than what my church wants me to believe about him/her/it/them/us. As a Christian I look at god from my experience of Jesus. He is in the center of the way I relate to god. Why Jesus? Because I was born Catholic and this is my faith. If I would be born in the Middle East I would be Muslim. If I would be born India I would be a Hindu. If I would be born in the Jewish household I would be a Jew. If I would be born in Japan I would be Shinto/Buddhist.  If I would be born in an atheistic family I would be an atheist, etc…   I challenge myself as a Christian to appreciate other views of g-d and other ways of relating to him/her/it/them/ us.  So, what do I do with g-d? 1)       I try to discover g-d in m...

“Intimate love is the true temple that we all desire. This longing seems to be hardwired into our beings in spite of our survival instincts. You have to want to love and to be loved very badly or you will never go to this strange temple and will never find your True Self. So God obliges and creates you in just that way, with a bottomless and endless need to be loved and to love. Today, the Feast of Epiphany, is symbolized and enacted by three important men who fell to their knees, finding themselves seduced by the vulnerability of God—sleeping in straw among the animals. (Richard Rohr, OFM) ” http://cac.org/intimacy-2016-01-06/ Loving oneself is one of the hardest things for me to do.  I just do not know how to do that. I need to learn or start practicing with few simple actions: 1)       spending more time with and by myself 2)       be patient and learn how to love spending time with myself 3)    ...

“Intimacy is another word for trustful, tender, and risky self-disclosure. None of us can go there without letting down our walls, manifesting our deeper self to another, and allowing the flow to happen. Often such vulnerability evokes and allows a similar vulnerability from the other side. Such was the divine hope in the humble revelation of God in the human body of Jesus. My mind and mouth stumble to even imagine it or dare to think it could be true. Yet Christians dare to claim this reality. Such human intimacy is somewhat rare and very hard for all of us, but particularly for men and for all who deem themselves to be important people, that is, those who are trained to protect their boundaries, to take the offensive, and to be afraid of all weakness or neediness. God seems to have begun thawing this glacial barrier by coming precisely in male form as Jesus, who then exposes maleness itself as also naked, needy, and vulnerable. Most cultures would say that is mind-blowing, hear...

Usually when I think about addiction I think about sex, porn, alcohol, food, drugs, etc. I think about things that come from outside of me. However, watching and studying about codependency I have leaner that codependency can be an addiction, too.  It comes from insight. It is the way how we think about ourselves and others. Yes, it is being created by the external environment. In that sense it is similar to other addictions.  But this one can be only controlled from within. Yes, one can say/write that all addictions are controlled from within. This is true. They all start from the combination of something dysfunctional between the outside world and insight world/experiences.  And, all of them need healthy external and internal boundaries.  So, perhaps addictions are not that different from each other.  Codependency is a very interesting topic for me.  It is something I might be/am struggling with. 

Time for oneself… We give times to others. We spend time with other. We do things for others. I feel guilty when I am by myself.  It feels and it looks selfish. But, it is not. Also, spending time with oneself looks like wasting time. It doesn’t look productive and it does look and feel boring. Time for oneself can be the most important investment we can make.