Enlightenment roadmap: Unfolding the consciousness of sunlight on a cloudless summer's day

Enlightenment means many things to many people. To me it is the state of awareness in which we merge with the Great Unknown and our identification with the self fall away.

The process of awakening takes many paths but here is the general roadmap.

First, you must be aware of the need for something greater than your personal consciousness. You ask questions such as: "Who am I? Where did I come from, where am I going? What is the meaning of life?" When these questions persist, it indicates that you are ready to go on the path that culminates in the answer to these questions. In other words, these questions show that you are thirsty for the water of life. Enlightenment quenches that thirst.

This thirst is insatiable. It can be filled only with the Ocean of Divine Love. Nothing else does it. Not fame. Not wealth. Not power. Not sex. Only union with the divine beloved.

A major step in this process occurs with a triggering event.

The event may be a crisis, illness or an encounter. The event may be external to you or within you or both. For example, an external event will be meeting someone who has experienced the awakening. You will not become awake immediately. But you could. Nothing is impossible. However, in general, it takes a lot of adjusting to peel off the traps of the ego, the false programming in which we identify with the body, our emotions, our thoughts rather than the pure consciousness that we truly are.

The external trigger forces you to go within to discover who you truly are. That is the role of pain and suffering in the world. Once you return to the source within, you learn to connect with the Inner Teacher.

The Inner Teacher guides you and shortens the journey by bringing you the necessary events and circumstances that will assist you in the unfolding. For example, instead of making "ten mistakes" before you understand a spiritual truth, with the Inner Guide, you will not have to make those "mistakes." Well, there are really no mistakes. There are only experiences.

Remember the movie Groundhog Day? The Inner Guide helps us to not go through the same pattern over and over and over again.

Working and trusting this Inner Guide is one of the most important landmarks in our evolutionary consciousness. The Inner Guide can lead you to new people, new resources, and offer insight into puzzles in your life.

Once you develop this internal tracking system, the next step is a gradual letting go of the patterns that cover the Sun of consciousness like dark clouds. When the clouds are gone we become "Enlightened," we become awake.
This awakening is a continuum. In other words, just as there are various levels of sleep and wakefulness, there are different levels of spiritual awakening.

The reason for this is that we peel off in gradual stages the structures of the wrong programming of the self like onion layers until we reach the center. Many religious doctrines, dogma and concepts are not true. When we believe them, they limit our spiritual growth because they conflict with the direct experience the Inner Guide is teaching us. The conflict between dogma and the Inner Knowing can cause confusion until we learn to trust the truthfulness of the Knowing from within.

The Inner Knowing must be tested. In other words, you must develop a process where the Inner Knowing is put to the test so that you are not misled by tricks of the ego. Some authorities call this testing process discernment. If there is any warning to be heeded on the path, this is it. Put your Inner Guides to test before you trust them.

In summary, the awakening or enlightenment begins with an insatiable desire to understand the mysteries of life. This desire is intensified at times by pain, suffering or an encounter with a divine soul. The divine soul or Spiritual Master, through entrainment –
a process which resembles harmonic resonance – can activate the seed of spiritual unfoldment or the enlightenment can happen immediately. Or you can develop a deeper relationship with your Inner Guide. You learn to work with your Inner Guide through discernment, cutting short the sleep-walking stage most people are in at the moment.

Enlightenment is the consciousness of the Sun shinning at noon on a cloudless summer's day. Waking up to the Sun consciousness is what life on earth is all about

Beyond belief

Do not believe any word you are about to read. Life offers more than what the eyes see, more than what the ears hear, more than what the body antennae perceive.

Do not believe their stories. Those who say they have merged with the All, who have observed the space within the atom without electron microscopes, who have described the rings of Jupiter before the probes, those who have crossed the void and have survived and now can read your mind like a movie, the future like a documentary, the past like a museum, the Enlightened Ones are here with us.

If you live here long enough you will see, hear, and touch one of them. Maybe you have already. Maybe not because after the enlightenment everything remains the same: The beaten old car, the mansion, the work in the mines, the kids, the boss and the chores. Everything remains the same. Except now only the observer perceives. And you ask, now what? Don’t bother to know.

If you desire it enough, you too can live their stories. And it is your tales that others will tell.

But do not believe me. Maybe you should find out for yourself.

On being there

Over the past weeks, I’ve noticed I’m coming to an understanding of a way of relating to others. I call it "being there."

Being there is a state of mind. An emptying of the self so that the other may be filled. A decreasing of the little self so that the greater Self may increase. Being there is being lived. I used to be the marker that wrote on the board. Now I’m becoming the board on which the markings are etched and cleaned because I’m learning to be there.

Ratatouille and the Inner Guide

On Sunday August 12, 2007, we watched Ratatouille at the Loews Alderwood Mall theatre. Brad Bird directed this multi-layered Pixar Animation Studio movie.

On the surface, Ratatouille tells the outlandish story of intrigue at a leading Parisian restaurant. Its distinguished owner, Auguste Gusteau, had died because of a foodie’s harsh review. Remy, a sensitive rat and who has a flair for cooking, contacts the deceased restaurant owner, who reveals to him his culinary secrets. Linguini, the garbage boy, is forbidden to cook because he is clueless about cooking and has not yet gone through the rigorous training required. Unknown to everyone, though, he is Gusteau’s son. Remy and Linguini become friends. The movie is about this unusual alliance.

On a deeper level, Ratatouille dramatizes the challenges of communicating with an inner source of knowing. Throughout human history, sages have told us we all have our Inner Guides. In Plato's Symposium, Diotina and Socrates discuss the idea of a daemon that “great spirit…who interprets, between gods and men, conveying and taking across to the gods the prayers and sacrifices of men, and to men the commands and replies of the gods.”

In the New Testament, Jesus promised to ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit to his disciples when he is gone. "I will talk to the Father, and he'll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can't take him in because it doesn't have eyes to see him, doesn't know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you!"

In Hawaiian mysticism the Inner Guide is the Aumakua, an “utterly trustworthy parental spirit” The Aumakua is “your spiritual guide who has access to all the resources you could ever need to accomplish your goal.”

In Ratatouille, Remy symbolizes the Inner Guide, the daemon, the Holy Spirit and the Aumakua. He hides in Linguini’s torque where he directs him in the same way that the Inner Guide is invisible to others. Linguini becomes a superb chef by simply following Remy’s guidance just as those who have established the connection with their Inner Wisdom know that their genius is not the result of their own efforts.

Many stories surround the origin of the chef’s torque. It has been used as far back as 1500. The torque has functioned as protection for the chef’s head from falling grease in badly ventilated medieval kitchens as well as falling hair from bald chefs. It is believed that the torque functioned as a symbolic crown, signifying the important role cooks play in the royal court. It is in that symbolic torque sitting on top of the head, where Hindus locate the Atman or High Self, that Remy hides.

Trusting our intuition, a form of the manifestation of the Inner Guide, does not come easily. Our intellect and cultural domestication squelch the Inner Guide and it is shameful in Western society to admit that one has an Inner Guide. The struggle that comes with this partnership with the conscious mind and the High Self is clearer after watching Ratatouille.

The power of the movie resides in the transformation that occurs when Linguini realizes that he owes his success at the restaurant to Remy. Until an individual has developed trust in the functioning of the Inner Guide, the will to revert to the logical mind remains a tempting alternative. With time, when the Inner Guide has proved itself, we are willing to risk everything because we know that the Inner Guide does the work. “It is not I but the Father in me who does the work,” Jesus said.

Many of my friends work successfully with their Inner Guides but it is not easy to explain to others how the process works. Ratatouille helps us understand in a funny way the mysterious psychological and spiritual phenomenon of connecting with something greater than ourselves living within us. Beyond the comedy and the fantasy, Ratatouille is a dramatization of a powerful spiritual process, which explains the satisfaction it gives because it points to the deep truth of the peace and confidence that comes from connecting with the well of wisdom within. There is a Linguini in each of us as we struggle to survive in our Father’s restaurant, called life on earth.

Plato's Symposium
Aumakua
History of the Torque
How to contact your Inner Guide: Inner Guide Meditation: A Spiritual Technology for the 21st Century.
Jesus on the Holy Spirit inner Friend

On Grace

As we tour this sacred site called Earth, we work hard to visit many spaces, to make the best of our pilgrimage. I remember going on a vacation one summer with a friend a couple of years ago to Victoria, British Columbia. We walked to many of the tourist sites, we visited the museum in the building that looked like the British Parliament, listened to music on the waterfront and explored the Butchart Gardens. The experience remained unforgettable but tiring. I thought vacation was meant for rest.

Between too much walking and sleeping throughout this pilgrimage called life, emerges a middle way. As we reflect on what the spiritual life entails: overcoming our human weaknesses, taming our animal tendencies, living mindfully and uniting with the divine in the process, serving ourselves in others, and the list goes on and on, this thing called spiritual practice can assume the dimensions of tedious work served us by a cruel taskmaster.

If we forget one great secret, that is. Spirituality is all about grace. If we meditate for hundreds of hours without the touch of the Master, in vain we practice. In vain we punish the body through fasting and vigils, through torture of any kind, in vain the struggle to overcome our faults if we fail to invite the Unknowable One to sanctify it all, if we refuse to allow the All-knowing to do the work in us.

Around February 2007, I noticed a particularly devastating planetary configuration in my partner's natal and progressed charts involving the planet Saturn. The aspects would be in force for about four months. I didn't know what to do.

I told her: "Please, please, please, do me a favor in the next months. Pray, meditate, connect with your high self." I have come to understand that when people have challenging aspects, the solution is for them to raise their spiritual vibrations.

Sure enough, in early spring Saturn knocked at our door asking for Dawn bringing her fear at work, rejections, depression, and more. I was tempted to do the work for her.

I remember one morning just when the four-month ordeal started. I had finished assisting her with a particularly powerful meditation. When she left I had this insight from within me that said: "Let go and let her work through this herself. Just be there for her. Don't do anything on her behalf."

I listened. Every day, for weeks, I heard one work trouble to the other. All I did was listen. It was so difficult.

Let me cut a long story short. She came back home one day almost four months after it all began, I think it happened the week after her birthday. She came home and said she had an amazing insight that brought her relief. All her troubles seemed to have melted away. Someone who made Dawn’s work particularly difficult resigned that same week.

Dawn's story reveals the power of surrender. The power of grace in our spiritual paths. The power of trust in the Great Mystery we call God. She helped me understand this spiritual secret: it's all grace, the path is God's work.

As we allow ourselves to be the living temples of the divine, God will walk with us through the darkness and through the abyss. God is on our side as we climb to the spiritual mountaintop. The spiritual path is an effortless journey of surrender to the power of God's grace.


To read Dawn's account of her experience, please visit: http://www.thelongarc.blogspot.com/

This chance

I talked about the suicide to my colleagues. They described these conversations as "most terrible and hideous." And I tell them, well, at some point we have to face the dark side of life which is our shadow.

Of the human shadow, Carl Jung wrote: "Unfortunately there can be no doubt that man is, on the whole, less good than he imagines himself or wants to be. Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. If an inferiority is conscious, one always has a chance to correct it. Furthermore, it is constantly in contact with other interests, so that it is continually subjected to modifications. But if it is repressed and isolated from consciousness, it never gets corrected."

Ignorance of the shadow gives it power because once it comes to our awareness we begin to face it. Its power disappears gradually.

As I talk to close friends and family about it, I was surprised to know the number of people who have friends and relatives who have chosen this way to leave the world. In fact one of my very dear friends told me she had attempted suicide so many years ago.

A companion on the path wrote to me: "Suicide leaves everyone guilty of neglect… And beyond the guilt, I think we all recognize in our subconscious the extreme wish to "get out and do it now". It is focusing on the primal instinct of survival that blocks the human process of exploring suicide."

I feel blessed to be surrounded by friends with different experiences and who offer me such insights at times like this. I don't feel guilt about my colleague's decision to take her life. I feel a terrible sense of loss and waste. And as I reflect on this loss, I remember the words of Yun-Men Wen-Yen a Chinese Zen master who lived more than a thousand years ago.

"Life is precious; if you miss this chance, it may take a billion eons before you receive a human body again. If even a worldly man like Confucius said, "He who realizes the Tao in the morning can die content in the evening,"...Please do your best, and take good care of yourself."

Redeeming Takemoto

While the news was breaking about my colleague's death on Wednesday July 26 in Washington State, another tragedy was unfolding in California.

Danny Takemoto forgot his 11-month-old son in a Honda Odyssey minivan and went to work for more than five hours in Concord. The temperature exceeded 80 degrees. The day care called the baby's mother to report her son’s absence. When she called the husband at a little before 4 pm, he rushed to the minivan. He found the child strapped in his seat, dead.

Takemoto, who was sent to Contra Costa County Jail in Martinez, worked for a Siemens AG division.

We don’t know what caused Takemoto to forget his son in his car. Might this be stress related?

In 1992, a United Nations Report labeled job stress "The 20th Century Disease" and in 1996, the World Health Organization said it had become a "World Wide Epidemic."

The American Institute of Stress reports that “In California, the number of Workers' compensation claims for mental stress increased by almost 700 percent over eight years and ninety percent were successful with an average award of $15,000 compared to a national average of $3,420”

The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health relates the experience of David in a manufacturing plant. He speaks for many American workers when he says: "Since the reorganization, nobody feels safe. It used to be that as long as you did your work, you had a job. That's not for sure anymore. They expect the same production rates even though two guys are now doing the work of three. We're so backed up I'm working twelve-hour shifts six days a week. I swear I hear those machines humming in my sleep. Guys are calling in sick just to get a break."

Northwestern National Life survey reports that 40 percent of workers say their job is “very or extremely stressful.”

The tendency to blame Takemoto for his carelessness is high. Empathisizing with Takemoto should reveal the horror he is going through. How is he facing his wife? How is he going to ever forgive himself?

And when we look at this event in its wider context, might this be the visible effects of what organizations are doing to the psyche of their employees?

In this specific case, I wonder what Siemens offering daycare to its employees will do to reduce stress for their workers? It is ironic that such a tragedy should happen on Siemens campus because the company is noted for its life-saving products.

Management should find out how much stress its employees are now experiencing. Many other Siemens employees may be silent victims of the effects of the same stressful workplace: reorganizations, meeting deadlines, and profitability. This should be a reminder that the geese that lay the golden eggs should be adequately taken care of. Takemoto’s innocent child's death will not have been in vain.

The news source
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
AIS on Job Stress

Suicide

We entered seminary together in the fall of 2003. Over the years I took several classes together with her.

I wrote a joint paper with her in the winter of 2005 when we took the last UU Polity course that Peter Raible taught.

I remember her forthrightness, her humor, her heart for the poor. She volunteered at Tent City on several occasions. She participated in her church where she touched many lives.

She was a single mother of a 12-year-old boy. I remember she showed me her son's picture and told me how much she loved him.

I was at the grieving ceremony on Thursday night at the Woodinville UU church where I lighted a candle for her.

I am sad that she chose that final and absolute way to leave this world. I hope that her death will not be in vain. That through her death we will go deeper in our understanding of what it is to be there for one another, what it is to be a true community, in a suicide economy.

The Eagle/chicken

A farmer found an eagle's egg and put it in the nest of a backyard hen. The eaglet hatched with the brood of chicks and grew up with them.

All his life the eagle did what the backyard chickens did, thinking he was a backyard chicken. He scratched the earth for worms and insects. He clucked and cackled. And he thrashed her wings and flew only a few feet into the air.

Years passed and the eagle/chicken grew older. One day he noticed a magnificent bird far above him in the cloudless sky. It glided in graceful majesty among the powerful wind currents, with scarcely a beat of his strong golden wings.

The eagle/chicken looked up in awe. "Who's that?" he asked.
"That's the eagle, the most magnificent of all the birds," said one of the backyard chickens. "The eagle belongs to the sky. We belong to the earth—we're chickens."

Then the eagle/chicken became surprised. “How did I become an earth-bound bird?” he asked. He looked at himself for the first time and discovered that he looked different from the chickens. He saw that he had stronger claws and a larger spread of wings than the chickens in the farm.
He desired intensely to fly like the eagle, magnificent above in the sky. But he was frightened.

“Look, I am used to scratching the earth for worms and insects. Where will I find the worms and insects to feed myself?" he asked himself. He was immensely terrified at the prospect of being free and flying into the unknown alone. Then again, he thought about his previous experience. He could fly only two or three feet into the air. “I can't fly like this eagle in the sky,” he said in despair to himself.

One day, the eagle/chicken noticed that he could fly a little faster than the chickens in the farmyard. He hurried to a short tree nearby, steeled himself and tried to fly. He flew about ten feet. He discovered that he enjoyed staying in the air, even if it was only a few seconds longer. Something within the eagle/chicken propelled him in the air. Unfortunately, he got tired too soon and fell down to the ground.

The chicken in the farm saw him. "We saw you fly. You looked like the magnificent eagle we saw the other day. Sooner or later, you are going to fly away into the deep blue sky, away from us," the chickens said. The eagle/chicken remained silent, not knowing what to say about such an unexpected comment. Encouraged, he went back a few days later, and while he tried flying again, he saw a wild eagle who took him in his wings. The wild eagle taught eagle/chicken the ways of eagles. Eagle/chicken learned to fly like all eagles do, hunt mice in the forest and fish in the river. After this encounter, eagle/chicken perched on the tallest tree, with a gentle wind blowing over him. He pondered how, as an earth-bound chicken in the farmyard, his life was incomplete and his potential was unrealized. "I am glad I discovered who I really am,” he said with teary eyes to himself. “I am glad I followed my dream."

On Inner Peace

What's wealth, power, and fame without peace of mind?

Ananse was in his mid-thirties. He had a wife and two children. He had worked his father’s farm. No matter how hard he worked, he remained in debt. He decided to end his financial troubles. He traveled to a far away village to consult a medicine man.

The medicine man asked Ananse for the name of a dear family member. Ananse gave him his wife’s name. The medicine man performed a ritual and told Ananse that when he returned home, money would be in his closet. He also told him that he should not weep for anyone who died when he was away.

When Ananse got home he discovered his wife was dead. His wife’s sudden death shocked and saddened him but he obeyed the medicine man. He did not weep for his wife. He discovered that his wife died on the same day and at the same time that the medicine man asked him for her name.

Ananse opened his closet. He found boxes of hundred dollar bills. Ananse became wealthy overnight. Ananse built many houses. He remarried. He became a respectable member in the society. But Ananse was not happy. Every night, as he closed his eyes to sleep, he would see his wife, weeping, pleading to be set free.

Ananse could not drive his wife’s spirit away. Gradually, the wise men and women in the village found out what Ananse had done. They did not banish him. They allowed him to stay in the town but no one had any dealings with him. Although Ananse had all the money he wanted, he lost his relationship with his family and the community. He did not have peace of mind.

Many of us are like Ananse making the choice unknowingly between what the world promises us and our peace of mind. If you knew you could be the richest person in the world and lose your friends and family and your peace of mind, what would you do? And if you knew you could be the most famous person and most powerful individual but would lose your family and friends and your sanity what would you do?

Peace springs within us in a well that does not dry. Access to that peace is independent of what happens to us from the outside world. Our spiritual Elders have told us about a priceless diamond within us that we must all mine. They have reminded us over and over again that we should desire this peace within us above everything else. For some this peace within is synonymous to the presence of God and to the Kingdom of God.

I leave you with the words of Joel S. Goldsmith as he describes the process of obtaining this inner peace. As you meditate on these words, you may substitute God with the word peace. See what happens when you spend some time in this frame of mind. Shalom!

“If I desire God with all my heart and with all my soul and with all my mind, do I have room left to desire anything else and is there anything for me to desire after I have given my whole desire to God? I desire only God - to know You rightly - to live consciously in Your presence. This is my desire and all other desires I surrender to You. No longer do I have any desire but to know You rightly. Ambition? What ambition is there? What is there that I could be ambitious for after I have known God? Is there something in the world of greater value than God? Is there something of greater benefit than God? No. No. Knowing God, having God, I can have no further ambition, and I can surrender my ambition unto You. Hope, desire, ambition, fear. All these I surrender. And now, there is nothing left in the external world for me to be attached to.”

For a complete text of this meditation visit: http://www.beyondprayerandmeditation.com/bd010a2.htm

Compassion II

I am you are that.

I am you and you are That.

I am you receiving the medal in Australia. I am you staying home to take care of your new born baby angel. I am you in Stuttgart, and Brussels, and in Paris. I am you as you savor the wonders of the world.
I am in your buds tasting exotic foods and wines. I am you watching sunset on the Pacific and sunrise over Kilimanjaro. I am you watching the birds in spring, watching the animals come to the river at dawn. I am you saying goodbye to your hosts in Kenya and Peru and China.
I am you proud of your daughter's new job, new creation, new home, new husband. I am you smelling the flowers in the Bellevue and Butchart gardens and the garden cities of the world.
I am in you listening to the summer music on the beaches and parks. I am you swimming with the dolphins in Kona in Hawaii.
I am you sobbing at night, cursing sunrise.
I am you planning to take away your life. I am you ashamed of your body, ashamed of your life, guilty that your grand daughter has been molested. That your son is in prison. I am you unappreciated at work, at church and at home. I am you watching your husband die slowly. I am you mourning mother’s death. I am you afraid of the next attack.
I am you lost in the forest of life without a path to come back home.
I am you.
I am with you in the joy.
I am with you in the despair.
You are not alone.
I am you and you are that.

Only God

Prayer of the 246 million child laborers,
250,000 infected with HIV/AIDS every month,
and 300,000 child soldiers



Only You can heal
The wounds in our hearts
Only You can hear
The cry of our spirit
Only You can breatheLife into the dead bones
Only You can set us free
Only You can sustain our world
Bringing together all people
Into one peaceful family
Only You, God, Can
It is in your name,
El Elyon,*
We trust.

Kwami E. Nyamidie,
Seattle, July 12, 2006









*El Elyon is Hebrew for Most High

Glimpses of a New Age

For Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev

Devoid of lust shall float weightless,

Man's body, flying falcons in the sky.

Visible to all like cloths men wear,

Naked intentions

Secret thoughts.

Washington and Moscow partners

In quest of the earth's survival shall be:

Dissolve the South and North.

Poverty-stricken lands become royal estates

A mighty sun rises

In a land now oppressed,

In a land once deemed dark,

Uncivilized.

The Bhagavad-Gita in Christian temples shall be read,

The Bible in mosques with zest displayed,

Sikhs and Hindus shall live in peace;

Shall be enemies Jews no more of any race.

Of murderous crimes, deadly diseases

The earth shall be wiped clean.

Shall be keepers of the poor the rich

Divergent ideologies shall reconcile;

Of their union shall be born a maiden;

The mother of new conceptions of reality.

Terrorist threats shall there be no more

Tyrannical thrones shall there be no more

Injustice, inequality and poverty no more

When man's body shall float, flying falcons

In the sky, weightless, devoid of hatred

Devoid of lust.

Kwami Nyamidie

Port Harcourt, 1990

With love to Astrid Ganz

Love for women has inspired great works of art, music and literature. Yoko Ono influenced John Lennon's music; Hester Thrale's letters inspired Samuel Johnson's writing; the Russian-born psychotherapist Lou Andreas-Salomé enthralled Rainer Maria Rilke, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, and Sigmund Freud. Ludwig van Beethoven dedicated the Moonlight Sonata to his pupil, the 17-year-old Countess Giulietta Guicciardi. Charlotte Buff inspired Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther and Beatrice Portinari was an inspiration for Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. Romantic love has served as a catalyst for creativity.

Like the women who have inspired great works of the past, an American woman, Astrid Ganz, is the inspiration for Soul On Fire , by Snow Eagle (aka Peter Calhoun). This is a collection of stories about the spiritual transformation of an Episcopalian Priest turned shaman.

“I dedicate this book to Astrid Ganz, my earthly partner and twin flame. No matter how many people you touch with your joy, laughter, and healing hands, no one will ever be touched more deeply than I. With all the miracles in my life, none can compare with how you stepped out of my dreamtime into my waking life to love and restore me.”

Snow Eagle was the ordained minister of St Jude’s Episcopalian church in Alabama for ten years, until the spring of 1968 when he left the ministry because he wanted to be true to himself.

“I would have been walking a paradox if I had remained in the church,” writes Snow Eagle. “My beliefs had changed so radically that I could not, in good faith, continue teaching the catechism, creeds, and doctrines that I had vowed to uphold at the time of my ordination.”

Soul on Fire is the unbelievable but true story of Snow Eagle’s thirty year quest as a shaman. Prepare to suspend disbelief as you read miraculous story to mysterious account of the author’s experiences: from making sticks spontaneously combust to making rain fall after a long spell of drought; from communicating with bees and asking them to leave a house they were taking over to having dreams that materialized in the physical world.

Snow Eagle had a recurrent dream about a woman. One day at a workshop he met a woman who looked exactly like the person he had been seeing in his dreams. “Twin Flame” tells the story of their coming together. Astrid Ganz entered his life when Snow Eagle’s health was failing. Astrid brought him hope, love and healing.

Soul on Fire is a story of the transformation of consciousness through the shamanic vision quest. It is the story of the magical world we live in. And it is the story of one man’s search for and discovery of true love.

To read more about Astrid: http://www.petercalhoun.com/AboutAstrid.htm
To get your own copy of Soul on Fire: http://www.petercalhoun.com/index.htm

The Fearless Life

The night before her annual mammogram in the summer of 2003, Jan Frazier said a prayer. "Could I maybe do this [mammogram] tomorrow without being terrified?"
Jan, who turned fifty that summer and had endured three breast cancer scares in her early thirties and forties, was afraid of an early death.
This is understandable. In 2003, the U.S. Cancer Statistics Working Group reported that one out of every four women diagnosed with breast cancer dies.

"The specter of a possible young death put fear in my face, the ugly thieving monster of it," Jan writes in her soulful story of spontaneous awakening: When Fear Falls Away.

The following morning when this mother of two teenagers went to see her radiologist at a Jamaica Plain hospital, in Massachusetts, she noticed a change.

"I really was not afraid today. I couldn't get over it. After the films were taken and then the waiting began, I watched myself sit comfortably in the waiting room, reading my magazine, paying attention to what it said, instead of how it always was in the past, looking at the pages but not really seeing them."

When Fear Falls Away is a "testimony to a life transformed – an ordinary, fully suffering life transformed." It is about a middle class American woman’s victory over her worries about children, guilt, others' opinions, health, money, and fear of death.

There's so much suffering in our world. Even those who appear to have everything going for them are hurting deep within. The big cars, mansions on beaches, and the latest electronic gadgets do not in themselves satisfy our deep yearning for inner peace. When Fear Falls Away tells of the ocean of joy that is possible for all of us when we turn within to the inner consciousness. Material joy is like a drop in that vast expanse of deep peace.

Theravada Buddhism teaches that "enlightenment consists of the complete eradication of craving and attachment." In Zen Buddhism, it comes through emptying of the mind. In Western Christian literature, enlightenment is union with God. In Orthodox Christianity, it is divinization, or the process of becoming God.

Many doors lead to enlightenment's interior castle and include various forms of spiritual practice: meditation, devotion, and prayer. Mathematical or philosophical abstraction and being in the presence of enlightened individuals are other doorways. Enlightenment can also happen spontaneously.

These experiences are ineffable, difficult to express in prosaic terms. In Western Culture the enlightened individual can be misdiagnosed as mad if the individual experiencing this breakthrough in consciousness is not sophisticated enough to check himself or herself. At a diner while she was having breakfast with Peter, her significant other, we see Jan struggling to control her overwhelming urge to go out to tell everyone eating: "Do you know how lucky you are to be alive?"

Enlightenment is the most sublime change any individual can experience.

"The world has not changed. It is the looker who has changed. But I keep having to hit myself upside the head to believe the world is its same self. I cannot believe it. It's like I want to say, What? It's been this way all along? You mean, I could have lived my whole life this way, spared myself all that pointless anguish?"

I have borrowed a copy of When Fear Falls Away from the local library for my significant other who is reading it. I have bought two copies: There are some books you skim and forget. There are some books you read to remember. And there are some books you study and keep. For me, Jan Frazier’s book is a book I will read and reread, marking it, making notes, getting clues and tracking down all the influences that have prepared Jan for this most wonderful of human experiences.

Here is a like to Jan Frazier's website

More reflections on SICKO

I imagine that unless you are a beneficiary of the current healthcare system, it's impossible to remain unmoved after watching Michael Moore's SICKO. The main thrust of the movie is that America as the world's most prosperous nation has failed to provide a healthy environment where everyone can continue to produce and benefit the society.

The movie shows that in America, life is OK when you are healthy and greater when you are wealthy and can afford to dole out the thousands of dollars to pay for surgeries and medical emergencies yourself. What SICKO is calling our attention to is that the way the current healthcare system is set up isn't working well for most Americans.

Since the healthcare industry is such a big part of the American economy, and because of its powerful interest groups, it's going to be a daunting task to get beneficiaries of the current system to let go of their stranglehold. "It can't happen in America," I've heard many people say after hearing about or watching SICKO.

I believe that it can happen here in America. Despite the enormous challenge and opposition we must anticipate let's not despair. Let's have hope.

We don't know how it will happen, but if America needs a miracle, let that miracle happen now that Michael Moore has set the ball rolling by generating enormous public awareness about a national malaise. This awareness needs nurturing with hope in our hearts sustained by wisdom of the ages that what we can conceive individually and nationally we can achieve.

Once Americans set their mind on something and decide to solve a problem nothing stands in their way. When this miracle is all done, the healthcare system in America will be one of the top seven in the world, which is America's natural position in international affairs. This is exciting.

Most Americans believe that there's a Higher Power that intervenes in human affairs. This is the time to call upon that Higher Power to bring the positive changes in the healthcare system for the benefit of all concerned under grace in perfect ways.

I don't know how this miracle will occur. What I know is that I’ve peace and the most wonderful feeling in my heart as I dream that every child, man and woman in this great country lives without fear of having to go to see a doctor, and that the healthcare available for every American is as secure as it is in Canada, Britain and France, and better than in poor Cuba.

How long, O God?

How Long, O God?
Out of the depths I have cried unto Thee, O Lord! Lord, hear my voice.
-Psalm 130

Set yourself to rest in this darkness as long as you can, always crying out after him whom you love
-The Cloud of Unknowing

How long, O God,
Will this last?

This yearning
Of the bride for the bridegroom,
This merging of water droplet that I am
Into the boundless ocean that God is,
The fusion of this little
Candlelight of awareness
Into the limitless sunlight
Of the all-pervading consciousness?

How long, O God,
The tearing apart of this blinding
Inner darkness,
The peeling away of what is not?

When shall I see what is
Beyond my own blindfolds
Beyond blindfolds from others
Beyond the cloud of unknowing

To behold the Sun
That never sets
The Divine Light within?

How long, O God,
Will this darkness last?

How long, O God?

Winter 2006

Michael Moore's SICKO and Mother America's Tasteless Healthcare Meals

“If you haven’t tasted the meals other mothers have prepared, you think your mother is the best cook,” says an African proverb. Michael Moore’s movie SICKO shows us how tasteless Mother America’s healthcare meals have been.

Last night (Saturday June 23rd) we were among a packed audience at Seattle's AMC Pacific Place Theatre that watched a sneak preview of Michael Moore's comedy about 47 million unisured Americans with no healthcare in the richest country on Earth and the insured who are denied their benefits when they most need them.

From one horrifying healthcare story to the next, SICKO documents the miserable plight of countless Americans the US government has betrayed to the American Medical Association, health insurance agencies, HMOs and pharmaceutical companies.

Human life, for these powerful businesses and interest groups, appears worthless, and all that seems to matter is the multi-billion-dollar profit they make off the people's suffering, pain and blood. It’s like a hen sucking the yolk out of its own eggs.

SICKO unmasks the glaring hollowness of American economic prosperity, military superiority, and democratic ideals. What's a nation's wealth or worth if it fails to care for its sick children, if it fails to heal its wounded in the line of duty and if it fails to aid its helpless elders, widows and pregnant women?

Is this the America George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and the other founding fathers had in mind? Is this the beacon of democracy, the land of milk and honey, of freedom and justice under God for all?

In SICKO Moore juxtaposes emotionally wrenching scenes with generous and entertaining humor that sow the seeds for an open and honest discussion of the shameful state of America’s healthcare system.

If free universal healthcare is good for Canadians, the French and even Cubans why is it not good for Americans?

With SICKO Moore establishes himself as a master social critic who informs the people and lets them decide.

Since imagination is everything, the next step for the US is to visualize Mother America as the best cook on the block. Visualize universal healthcare for all Americans. Imagine that all the good things about the French and British and Canadian healthcare systems are right here in America, because energy follows thought! Being able to imagine the health care system we desire is the next step toward making this dream a reality.

Visit SICKO web site

Serving others is the answer

I’m not a fan of Thom Hartmann per se but I met him when he came to Seattle last year on a book signing tour. I think he’s a cool guy. Most everything I know about Thom, from the magical stories of Master Stanley and Herr Muller and of the mountain dwellers in South America warning the developed world to change the course of impending doom they are on in The Prophet's Way, to what I know of his radio talk shows on Air America, I learned from my significant other.

I woke up yesterday with a desire to skim, yes, skim Servers of the Divine Plan, a book I bought about a month ago. I had no idea why I had that feeling, but I followed it anyway. I flipped through the pages and what caught my attention was the story of “The Sheep and the Goats” from The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ.

As I read it, I wondered how it would fit into my reflection of yesterday on "What Matters Most." I finished the blog without adding it because it didn’t seem to fit.

My significant other comes back from dropping our son at school. She’s excited and tells me about what she’s just heard on Thom Hartmann’s radio talk show.

Thom had a man on who was talking about growing up a Southern Baptist Christian. He said although Matthew Chapter 25 is a pivotal message of Jesus , his church downplayed that message while growing up. Thom Hartmann and his guest were talking about politics and Christianity and they used the parable of “The Sheep and Goats” to show that ultimately the Christian life is about serving others.

Needless to say I was shocked. I had just finished reading the same passage. I felt as if God was speaking directly to me. What was God telling me? I asked myself.

This passage comes after Jesus and his disciples “were lost in prayer for seven hours” on Mount Olivet. It was a special day because “the curtain had parted” and they stepped “beyond the veil into the secret courts of God.” Because his message of the day was particularly important he whispered and called the hidden name of God. The parable of the “Sheep and Goats” was one of the teachings of that unique moment.

“The curtain had parted” and “the secret courts of God” may mean that Jesus and his disciples entered what is often described as the liminal zone, or the non-local universe, that space where time ceases and distance collapses. They were together in the void, in a state of pure consciousness, in the Kingdom of God.

Throughout that chapter, Jesus repeated more than thrice the need to be prepared: “be ready every moment of the day and night” he told his disciples. When they least expected the coming of the Lord, he would appear.

For me, the “coming of the Lord” means the day I’m called back to God. Jesus said that when that time comes my actions and thoughts will come to scrutiny. What will matter most, then, will be service to the race.

In The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ, The parable says that there will be a judge who will separate the sheep from the goats. The judge will tell the goats: those found unprepared and wanting:
“Your life was full of self; you served the self and not your fellow man, and when you slighted one of these, you slighted and neglected me.”

And those who qualified to be in sheep camp the judge will say, “You served the sons of men, and whatsoever you have done for these, that you have done for me”

This, of course, is a parable. Since I’ve been wrestling with what matters most, it seems to me that here’s another layer, another answer to my struggle. What matters most, then, is service to others. That service must be selfless. It must be with the attitude that I am serving the Creator through them.

I hope that this blog I’m posting here, the work that I do, and my life will be of service to others. Because I desire to be ready and to hear the judge tell me on that day: “You served the sons of men, and whatsoever you have done for these, that you have done for me.”


If you need more information follow these links:

Two Versions of the Parable of the Sheep and Goats
From The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ. Section XVI Chapter 158 verses 33-48

From The Message Matthew 25, 31-46
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2025;&version=31;
Servers of the Divine Plan http://www.thenewcall.org/book_sdp.htm

Rebecca Dawn

What matters most?

I have two friends named Ed: one a UU Minister, the other a religious contemplative, a monk in the world. As I think about their lives and what is going on in our world, I wrestle with the all-important question we all must answer “What matters most in my life?”

As I reflect on Rev. Dr Ed Brock's ministry, the lives of the people around me, the spirit of the age, and my own life, I deal with a nagging question. I hear it when I wake up in the morning. I hear it during the day. I hear it as I go to bed.

"What matters most to you?"

Time is flying. So many sunsets to see, so many bird songs to hear, so many flowers to smell, so much honey to taste, so much to touch and feel.

I work part time in a library. Every day, hundreds of books, DVDs, compact disks, and other media pass through my hands. I barely have time to read even the titles. For someone who grew up in an African village without libraries, someone who loves books, this is like being a child in a candy store--my wildest dream come true.

What I've learned handling this amount of media is that I can't read or watch or listen to everything. Here, too, the nagging question arises: "What matters most to you?"

Last Sunday, a friend, Ed Del Arroyo (the other Ed) took his vows to become a Peace Pilgrims monk. I met Ed three years ago at Seattle University's School of Theology and Ministry. It was at one of our reflection days where seminarians gather to prepare for the coming quarter. He, another student and I formed a triad for the "Shalem process." Ed had been a Benedictine monk, a mental health nurse, a TM practitioner, and had been to India. He came to STM for a graduate degree in theology. For over a year now, Ed and I, with Karen and Deb, two other STM students, have been meeting once a month in each other's homes.

After the ceremonies in what the Right Rev. Father Alan Kemp of the Catholic Apostolic Church of Antioch Malabar Rite in Gig Harbor called the cathedral in nature in the middle of pine trees without walls, we had a reception for Ed at Deb's house where we wished him well. We ate and drank and talked. And we asked ourselves: What matters most?

We agreed that connecting with and maintaining a constant communion with our inner selves was the most important task for us and for the world. We said that all our actions should be premeditated and intentional. Without constant union with the Spirit within, our lives are shallow. Next come meeting our basic needs followed by our own service to the world.

I've experienced peace and disquiet simultaneously recently. Peace because all my life, I’ve worked to connect with my inner spirit for guidance and strength. Disquiet comes since there's so much to do to live from this center, to meet basic needs and leave the world a better place.

This disquiet alarms me as I perceive the conundrum of the age. We're the generation most likely to leave this world worse than we found it. We have made the greatest scientific discoveries but we've used these inventions for the most part to deaden the spirit, enslave others and destroy the earth.

What matters most for me, then, is reconnecting with my inner core, and with those who have connected with their inner spirit to create a positive global consciousness to take us out of the nightmare of the age.

Shalem Institute

Seattle University’s School of Theology and Ministry

Peace Pilgrim

The Catholic Apostolic Church of Antioch: Malabar Rite

Environmental Issues

Ed, We wish you the best

In winter 2003, Rev. Dr. Ed Brock asked me to study all information we could find on small groups in churches. He wanted to adapt what was known about small group ministry in other churches to the Edmond Unitarian Universalist Congregation.

After three months of research, I designed a small group ministry model for EUUC. In summer 2003, Rev. Dr. Ed Brock asked me to coordinate the Covenant Groups we were forming. From summer 2003 to fall 2005 I was the Covenant Group Coordinator at EUUC.

We started with three groups and when graduate school work and my part-time work did not permit me to continue doing the work well I handed over twelve groups to Sylvana Rinehart. More than fifty people were active members in these groups that met twice a month. In this tribute, Sylvana describes how Rev Dr Ed Brock worked with her to coordinate small group ministry activities at EUUC.

In the second post, Richard Penny writes about how Rev Dr Ed Brock with assistance from church growth consultant Alice Man helped the church to move from a pastoral size congregation (50 – 150 active members) to a program church (150-350 active members).

Covenant Groups at EUUC
Sylvana Rinehart

In September of 2003, Ed started the Covenant Groups at EUUC because he knew that for the church to grow, new members had to experience a close network of friends within a year of being at the church. It was a good place to mix “old” and “new” people from the church. Ed was attracted to the Covenant Group model and its success in other churches.

He invited the congregation to participate and 15 members attended a workshop at a local UU church and thus the foundation was established.

Then along came our beloved Kwami Nyamidie who did a lot of research on CG and he became the first CG leader.


Over the past 4 years, we have had several cycles of groups. One has been meeting since the early days and I think its success comes from its host, Virginia Miller. She serves wine!

I’ll always remember with fondness our meetings at Ed and Alphise’s home in the evening to go over the model and training of facilitators and co-facilitators. Ed made it a point to be present and to go over Covenant Group ground rules. I will never forget coming back from a trip to Spain & Portugal and still being on jet leg and Ed and Kwami casually naming me the next coordinator because Kwami needed to dedicate all his time to his theological studies. How could I refuse under such persuasive charm?



Ed also encouraged us to hold a workshop at EUUC. He arranged to have the “father” of Covenant Groups in the Unitarian Universalist churches, Rev. Calvin Dame, come out and we had over 15 churches in the Pacific Northwest attend the Covenant Group Jamboree. At the time Covenant Groups didn’t have a budget, and Ed had me attend a meeting of the Puget Sound UU council and request funds. I don’t think it was thanks to my presentation we got funding – I know it was thanks to Ed’s involvement with the group and his power of persuasion that we were able to pay the bills for the Jamboree.



In closing, I think that the Covenant Groups have been a tremendous success at EUUC because Ed has dedicated time and effort to ensure that newcomers and old timers participate in this extended ministry of the church.

I’ll miss the 4x5 cards he hands out to people asking them to be part of a CG saying “want to be part of a CG – call Sylvana ….”

Would all the CG members please stand and join me in thanking Ed for his vision, leadership and participation in the CG...


From pastoral to program church
Richard Penny


I am pleased to have this opportunity to thank and recognize Ed Brock for his seven years of ministry to the church.


The list of specific accomplishments during Ed’s tenure is lengthy, and I know that others have and will say much about all the innovative initiatives that he has led and have resulted in a richer, more vibrant congregational life.


But I want to make a much larger point, and that is that Ed shepherded us through a transition from a pastoral to a program church. This is a huge and difficult transition to make. It involves not only an increase in the quality and variety of its programs, and numerical growth, but redefining the roles of the religious professionals and how we choose to organize ourselves.



Toward the goal of recognizing and successfully managing this transition, Ed organized and found the funding for a series of workshops led by nationally known church consultant Alice Mann about church development. These workshops were attended by our Learning Team and from participants from the entire District.



There are a number of initiatives Ed helped start that are now part of the fabric of our congregation. For example, Ed was an early an avid proponent of giving away our plate offering to causes outside our institutions. This program is now a flourishing and important part of our life as a congregation.



But I wish to end my comments by speaking about Ed’s character as human being. As I believe almost everyone in this group is aware, a few years ago Ed and Alphise decided to adopt children. And so over the span of several years they made two trips to China, returning with the infants Allie and Lilly. For many of us, the decision to have children, made in the early twenties, is done in the context of considerable ignorance of the difficulties involved. But Ed and Alphise adopted children as they approached the age of 50, an age when they were quite worldly wise. No doubt they understood the financial burdens of parenthood and the travails of childrearing. Nonetheless, Ed and Alphise chose to bring these children into their lives and into the lives of our congregation. These speak so loudly about their strength of character, their giving nature and optimism about the future.

On behalf of my family, I want to express our love, our appreciation and our best wishes for Ed, Alphise, Allie and Lilly. And as Ed advances to new roles in the Unitarian Universe, we are confident he will continue to work in wondrous ways. Ed, we wish you the best.

When I think about Rev Ed Brock

I’ve been posting the comments that some members of the Edmonds Unitarian Universalist Church made about Rev Dr. Ed Brock’s seven-year ministry. Tomorrow, I’ll post the comments that the Covenant Groups Coordinator made about Ed’s Leadership. Today, I’m posting the words of the President of the Board of Trustees. Sometime next week, I'll post my comments about the reasons for posting all these comments. I'll attempt to give my comments about the joys and challenges of being a Unitarian Universalist Minister.

“When I think of Rev Ed Brock”
Victor Place
President, EUUC Board of Trustees

When I think about the Reverend Ed Brock there are many things that come to mind.

I see the person Ed; I think about the role that he plays in peoples lives.

I think about the father, the husband, the son, the leader, the brother, the friend, the social activist, the minister, and the student, the man of good words and of good work.

I think about the man who for so many of our Sundays has worked to bring us words to contemplate during our week -- words to impact us, to remind us about being in the river of life; words to inspire us to appreciate, or to encourage us to act.

I think about being connected to what is alive in us.

I think about Ed modeling social activism in Florida during the elections and the search for personal truth in his interest in Non Violent Communication.

I think about a man who this congregation has watched create a family, who we watched become a father, a parent; who many of us could knowingly and warmly watch struggle with the tasks, and bathe in the bliss, of being a new parent. And while Ed was creating his family he also nurtured the life of this congregational family.

This congregation has grown and developed over these seven years with Ed as our minister. As it is in nuclear families, when one person changes or grows it effects the change and growth in the other members, so it is in the life of our church family.

We have, in collaboration with Ed’s leadership, and the will of the congregation, created new programs that reflect our values and principles.

Peace and Justice, Sustainability, Covenant Groups to name a few.

We have made efforts in being a Welcoming Congregation, we are working towards becoming a Green Sanctuary, and we have expanded our giving to our local and world communities. We are investing in our youth and the growth of our congregation.

We have all been moved, or inspired, or challenged, in some way affected by our relationship with Ed and I want to take this time to thank him for his gifts to us.

Religious education, music and summer services

Today, I share two presentations of Rev Dr Ed Brock’s ministry. Faith development of youth and children is one of the cornerstones of Unitarian Universalism. In his seven years' ministry at the Edmonds Unitarian Universalist Church, Rev. Dr. Ed Brock emphasized "helping children make meaning of their experiences." Cathy Liu Scott presents Rev Dr Ed Brock's impact on Religious Education at EUUC.

In the second presentation, Nancy Gladow’s highlights Rev Ed Brock’s contribution to a robust music program and his introduction of summer services.


Helping children make
meaning of their experiences
Cathy Liu Scott

Ed, two years into your ministry here at EUUC, our religious education program entered into a difficult time. The end result of this period of difficulty was that a Director of Religious Education who had been here for several years, and who was well liked by many, decided to leave.


During this time, you provided stability, support and encouragement for our religious education program as we were trying to find our way.


You saw how essential a robust Religious Education program is to the life and future of our congregation. You understood the importance of finding a seasoned professional to help set the tone and stage for a permanent DRE.

Toward that end you sought the highest caliber leadership in the role of interim DRE.

In that first year of search for the right person, you spend much time and effort recruiting Lena Breen, who was both a UU minister and a DRE with a national reputation. In the succeeding year, you spent much time and effort recruiting Lynn Bacon, a DRE with a national reputation, and a wealth of experience, as for years she had led the largest UU religious education program in the country.

Under the guidance of these two women, the quality, tenor, and size of religious education programs grew. The teen program was strengthened, a new Coming of Age program was launched, teacher recruitment was strengthened, and the quality of the entire program increased and broadened in different ways. You encouraged both Lena and Lynn to become an integral part of our worship services.

In these and other ways you have helped us see the role and potential of DREs in new ways. And this has led to results. Laura McNaughton has carried forward the new standard of excellence. And now, for the first time in the history of this church, we have begun a search for a new full time DRE.

Ed, thank you for playing your part in the development of the religious education program of EUUC, both what has been and what is yet to be.




Music, summer services and
empowering members
Nancy Gladow

I will begin by reflecting on two quite different ways Ed has influenced our congregation’s life.


Recognizing how important music is to worship, Ed worked with the Music Committee and the board over a period of several years to create a position of music director, a broader position than choir director; and to give the role both more hours, and a much broader scope. As a consequence we have had a music program that, as you see this morning, has grown in depth, breadth, and quality over the years. Some of the changes have been adding a children’s choir, opportunities for youth group members to perform, bringing in special guest musicians, and of course the pleasure of hearing our regular choir perform, regardless of what service we choose to attend.

Recognizing the need that some members of the congregation have to get together in the summer, Ed got us started having summer services for the first time in the history of the church. In the first and second year of their development Ed planned the services and John Park carried them out. Many members now look forward to the summer services as a chance to consider a broad range of topics in an informal atmosphere that provides ample room for discussion. This addition to our congregation’s life, has greatly enriched our community.

While today’s reflections will focus on how Ed has affected our congregation, it is important to remember that anything that happens needs many hands. Although Ed helped birth many programs and activities, he was also very good at finding people within the amazing pool of talent within the membership of EUUC with just the right skills to take them over. It is only through a partnering of a minister with members of the congregation that positive changes are sustained. Now, although Ed is leaving for other endeavors, these programs live on.

Thank you, Ed.

A voice to tell us what we need to hear

Rev. Dr. Ed Brock is a Unitarian Universalist minister. Unitarian Universalists believe in the inherent worth of each person and the interconnected web of all life. Unitarian Universalists have shaped the course of justice in America and in the world in the tradition of inspiring ministers such as Theodore Parker who said in a sermon, "The arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

Sunday 10 June 2007 was the last day of Rev. Dr. Ed Brock as minister of the Edmonds Unitarian Universalist congregation. At that service, seven people spoke about Ed's ministry. On Monday, I posted my remarks. In this second installment, I share with you the email that John Tucker of the Peace and Justice committee wrote to Ed. John read this at the service and has granted me permission to share it.



Dear Ed:

I appreciate what you have done to bring the Edmonds Unitarian Universalist Church along the path from a pastoral church to a programchurch.

I appreciate the spiritual help with which you graced me and my family.

I appreciate the support that you gave to the formation of the Peace andJustice Committee.

I appreciate the fact that you took a stand against the invasion of Iraqand the diversion of focus away from the forces that attacked us on 9/11. That was in October 2002, five months before the invasion. You warned of "…urban battle in the streets of Baghdad with thousands of civilian casualties."

I appreciate the boldness with which you denounced the use of torture and extraordinary rendition by the United States.

I appreciate that you spoke out against the erosion of liberty in thiscountry, evidenced by the illegal detention of people, the denial of theright of habeas corpus, the assault on the Constitution, and the spying on US citizens.

Some of your sermons were not appreciated by the entire congregation. Some members even called them unpatriotic. While the sermons were not nationalistic, they were the height of patriotism. There is a world of difference between nationalism and patriotism.
With the wisdom of hindsight, it is easy for us to see that you were right, but you had the foresight and moral courage to speak out at a crucial time.

I will miss you on Sundays, but I hope to hear your voice in other venues, telling us the things that we need to hear.

John Tucker, Peace and Justice Committee

To read a selection of Rev. Dr. Ed Brock's sermons, follow this link : http://www.euuc.org/ministerspage/sermons.htm

A Dad's Final Words

I met Dan at a restaurant. We talked about his father, a World War II veteran, who appeared in a movie about the attack on Pearl Harbor. Dan's father said that his son needed to be strong so he turned the house into a prison camp. His father was the torturer and Dan was the prisoner. He believed that to survive any war, Dan needed to prepare for it. Torturing him was that preparation. When Dan's dad was about to die, here's what he said.

"Dan, I've been hard on you. I’ve caused you much pain. I don't want you to remember that about me.
"You've always asked me to go fishing with you. When you were young, we only went fishing together only once. That day you caught a fish. I saw the delight in your eyes. I was so proud of you. You made me happy.
"My son, when you think of me, forget the pain I caused you. Remember that day you and I went fishing together."
Then he passed away.

Farewell, Ed and Alphise

Sunday, 10 June 2007, was the last Sunday of the church year at Edmonds Unitarian Universalist Congregation. It was also Rev. Dr. Edward Brock's last day in the pulpit, ending his seven years as minister of this 330-member- liberal religious community.
"I believe...that my time for leadership here has passed. There is a need for new energy and talent to lead this wonderful congregation to even greater heights of achievement and service," Rev. Dr. Ed Brock wrote in a letter of 18 May 2007 he sent to Members and Friends of EUUC.
At the parting service, I was among seven people who spoke about Rev. Ed. Brock's legacy. Here's the full text of my talk.

Farewell, Alphise and Rev Dr. Ed Brock
Kwami E. Nyamidie

I was born in Togo, West Africa, a land far away....For someone from far away, it is important to find a welcoming community...

I found my community at this church...Being involved in this church changed my life. I came here through Alphise and you, and met Bruce, and one thing led to the other. I went to seminary and graduate school.

Now I am on my own course of ministry; my choices include becoming a minister or DRE. I have chosen a path that seems genuine to me, the work of spiritual direction. I am now building my spiritual direction practice.

One of our hymns speaks of how our community of faith gives us roots and wings. Roots ground us in what is firm and sure, and wings give us freedom. You have helped in giving me roots that ground my being; I am now preparing to take wing to rise as the spirit of life guides me.

Someone has said that we all have different needs at different stages of our lives. For me, this church, and you, Ed, have helped me make important decisions at a critical point in my life. For that I am deeply grateful.

Through this church and you, Ed, I have built relationships with some people here that will last a lifetime. For that also, I am deeply grateful.

As this congregation looks to its future, may you build a "community that nurtures spiritual growth, celebrates the interdependence of all life, and works to bring justice and compassion into every dimension of the lives of its members."

Ed, as you venture into your future, may you experience constant enrichment of your life and ministry.

Here is link to the sermons of Rev. Dr Ed Brock

On keeping new members

Visitors decide whether or not to stay in groups, organizations and religious communities by asking the following questions: “Will you remember my name? Will you accept me as I am? Will you listen to me? Will you care?”
Mind you, potential members don't ask these questions openly.
Established members would like to answer: “Of course, we will remember your name. Of course, we will accept you as you are. Of course, we will listen to you. Of course, we will care.”
But our visitors who never return are those who know what our answers were. Members of the group didn't remember their names. They didn't accept them as they were. They didn't listen to them. And they didn't care.

Rereading Croiset the Clairvoyant

I'm rereading the 1964 edition of J. H. Pollack's paperback on Gerard Croiset (1909 – 1980), who showed unusual psychic powers. "The Man Who Mystifies Europe" used his gifts to find missing objects, documents and people, repair machinery, and heal the sick, solve crimes. "The Dutchman with the X-Ray Mind" was one of the earliest "guinea pigs" of parapsychology and was the subject of Professor Tenhaeff at the University of Utrecht.

It's humbling to read what "the Miracle Man from Holland" did. It's more puzzling that some people are still so vehemently opposed to discussions and even mention of the things that Croiset and people like him have lived and died for. Totally baffling.

As I reread the life story of the man with the radar brain, an ordinary event in his life spoke most to me. It was in 1958. He was flying from Milan, Italy, to the Schipol Airport in Amsterdam. A heavy fog forced his plane to land in Brussels, Belgium. When the news of the landing was announced, "The Wizard of Utrecht" burst into a hearty laughter. The Dutch woman passenger sitting next him looked at him as if he were crazy.

"Why am I laughing?" Croiset asked the woman. "Here I am, the great Croiset, and I couldn't see that we wouldn't be able to land in Amsterdam!"

The author comments: "This ability to laugh at his own antics and to freely admit it when he is wrong are perhaps Croiset's most endearing qualities."

I'm still working on that.

Message from the other side

I met a young man today who told me that his mother had died ten months ago. Dan had asked his Mom to send him a sign if there's an afterlife. Here's Dan's story.

When Mom was getting ready to die, I had this conversation with her.

"Mom, I've had two near death experiences. You know the stories. The first one happened when I was 18. While playing football, I fell face down and was seriously injured. I saw my body lying on the field. The next thing I saw was my going through a spinning tunnel at the end of which a man in glowing white light took me through a door into a beautiful cave. He told me to go back to this physical plane to let people know that we should respect Mother Earth and all living things. You remember I told you this story after the accident, Mom?"
"Yes," she nodded.
"The second near death experience I had was when a Cadillac hit my car when I was coming back from the bank. Again I saw myself outside of my body. The man in white light who had taken me into the cave the first time appeared to me again and asked me what I was doing about the message he had given me. I said I was doing nothing with it. He then said I should return to my body and accomplish my life's mission."
I looked into Mom's eyes.
"Mom, sometimes it feels as if I've made these stories up. I'd really appreciate it if you could find a way to confirm to me that there's life after death when you're gone. That what I saw was true."
"How can I do that? Maybe there's no way to contact you when I'm gone."
"Do something extraordinary that will prove to me that you're alive in a different form on the other side."
After some brainstorming, Mom and I agreed that she would find a way to repeatedly turn the electricity off and on.
When the time came, my son was holding one of Mom's arms and I was holding the other.
"I said, Mom, if you need our permission to go, it's ok to go whenever you're ready. You're going to meet Grandpa and Grandma and your daughter who left us earlier. She might even come to escort you."
Mom's face beamed with a broad smile. She gazed into the ceiling as if she was looking at someone coming towards her. All of a sudden, my son and I saw her chest rise as if it was being inflated. When it lowered, she was gone. We felt a loosening of her hands in our palms.
"Oh my God,” my son exclaimed.
Mom died in the middle of November last year.
One May evening we were out on the other end of our farm getting ready for a barbecue with friends. From a distance we saw houses shining with interior light. Then my son said, "Look, Dad," as he pointed to our house about a mile away.
At first I didn't see anything. Then as I looked closer, I saw a dark cloud moving into the house. As it hovered over the house, the lights went off while every other house around still had electricity. There was nobody in the house.
The lights came back on again. Then off. And the dark cloud melted into the night.
A few days later I remembered what Mom and I had discussed.
Was it Mom coming to let me know that there's life on the other side of the curtain?

Creating a world of magic through thinking and feeling

Thoughts are things. Strongly visualizing an event or object we desire tends to make changes happen or show up in our lives.

Sasha lived in Puschino, a small historic town with a population of 20,000. During a fierce dog and cat fight, a dog attacked Sasha, the Russian teenager when she tried desperately to rescue her cat.

The dog's sharp teeth and claws bored deep wounds into her right arm. Sasha's arm was swollen to her shoulder. She had been hospitalized for more than a week now. Her arm worsened. She couldn’t move her swollen fingers. Her hand turned blue, her arm-pit black blue, and dark patches covered her swollen arm.

The doctors in this small town noted for its scientific research discovered that she had blood poisoning. The doctors scheduled Sasha for surgery and possible amputation.
Sasha didn’t want her arms amputated.

In the second week in the hospital, Michael, a teenage friend and college student in Moscow traveled 75 miles home to visit her parents. He heard about what had happened to Sasha. He brought her three roses in the hospital. One of the roses was fiery red, the other had red and pink and the third was dark red. She loved roses; the beauty of these roses struck her in an unusual way. Was it because she secretly admired Michael? Sasha saw the perfection in the roses. Was she transferring her love for Michael to the flowers?

Sasha’s eyes were full of tears as she wanted the the same perfection in the roses to manifest itself in her. Throughout the evening until early dawn, she cuddled with the roses, kissing them, playing with the leaves and petals, loving them for what they were as well as what they symbolized. She felt deep peace and release. She became one with the roses.

When the nurses and the doctor came by in the morning to get her ready for surgery or possible amputation, they couldn't believe their eyes. Alexandra's arms took a turn for the better. The swelling had diminished. The wounds were healing and the color of her skin changed from dark blue to her normal skin. Roses marked a turning point in her healing. Sasha’s arm was not amputated.

Ten years later, Michael became a scientist and married Sasha, who became a teacher. The couple moved to the US, where Michael is a research scientist and Sasha works with children and volunteers with non-profit organizations in the Seattle area where they now live with their two children.

The power of the mind over the body and our circumstances may not be as dramatic for everyone as it was for Sasha. But the story points to the mysterious power of thought when it is energized with deep desire.

If thought is fire, then events and situations and all visible things are the smoke that that fire creates. Just as there's no smoke without a fire, there are no events, or circumstances in our lives without the thoughts that generated them in the first place. Strong consistent feelings are fuels that convert focused intention into physical realities.

When we act as if we know or believe or even suspect that what we think matches what we live, we are able to consciously trigger forces that bring about synchronicities and the miraculous in our lives.

Yet, the effects of thoughts on everything we do in our lives holds true for everyone whether we know it or not. In other words, even if we are unaware of the workings of this mysterious force, the process still works. I wonder if Sasha knew that contemplating the roses could contribute to her healing. It was something she did naturally. And I wonder if Michael brought the roses to heal Sasha.

We're the results of our thoughts and the compelling thoughts of others around us. In this story, Michael's thought was expressed as love for Sasha through the roses. We live in an interconnected thought field. Our thoughts flow through this field drawing what is similar to us and repelling away what is contrary to our usual thought patterns.

All manifesting techniques — prayer, treasure mapping, mental treatments, to name a few examples — have their basis in this uncanny understanding: Thoughts are things. When we have a handle on what happens in our mental workshop, we are able to gain a larger measure of control over what happens in our outer world.

Waking Up Together With Pachamama Alliance

"He who goes to the river alone, gets eaten," says an African proverb. In The Fire from Within don Juan tells Carlos Castenada about the cost to an individual whose dreambody gazes alone at the Eagle's emanations, the fluid in eternal motion behind all that is.

"Seers who gazed at the Eagle's emanations without their dreambodies died, and those who gazed at them with their dreaming bodies burned with the fire within. The new seers solved the problem by seeing in teams. While one seer gazed at the emanations, others stood by ready to end the seeing."

There's much talk today about global awakening. New Age groups and religious organizations are talking about waking up from our sleep. Scientists are uncovering greater mysteries of matter. One such discoveries is non-locality, the concept that at the subatomic level time and distance as we know them are inexistent. Ready or not events are calling us to challenge our assumptions and to wake up to new paradigms of reality.

Waking up involves a lot of dedication, understanding, and compassion for ourselves. But it also involves working in a group with others.

This Saturday, June 9, in Seattle, WA., Mill Valley, CA. and Arlington, VA., the Pachamama Alliance will be organizing a symposium called Awakening the Dreamer. This will be a great opportunity to meet and work with others who are also waking up from their dreams.

Visit the Pachamama Alliance http://www.pachamama.org/
For additional information about the symposium in Seattle visit: http://www.forthegrandchildren.org.

Visitations and learning from the least

Sun Lady has been hospitalized since Sunday. She had surgery. I visited her this morning. She's doing fine. But she says, "I can't go for a race now."
I said, "You've done some amazing things, like climbing Machu Picchu, Peru." She smiled.
Yesterday, a friend asked me what I thought about the earthworm as my totem.

I said, "No, not the earthworm. Too yucky."
Then my friend said, well, let's find out what an earthworm totem might mean.
As a totem the earthworm symbolizes regeneration, renewal, survival and rebirth. I said to myself, "I'm all for regeneration, renewal, survival and rebirth. Do I need to do anything to make the earthworm my totem?"

Your Health, Holograms and an Earthworm in a Plastic Jar

A friend and I were talking about the holographic universe yesterday. I said to her that the earthworm was an example of holography. The earthworm demonstrates the holographic principle of the "whole in every part." When you cut an earthworm into pieces each piece becomes a whole earthworm.

Just in case you need to refresh your concept of a hologram, here’s a quote from Michael Talbot's book The Holographic Universe:

"In the movie Star Wars, Luke Skywalker's adventure begins when a beam of light shoots out of the robot Artoo Detoo and projects a miniature three-dimensional image of Princess Leia. Luke watches spellbound as the ghostly sculpture of light begs for someone named Obi-wan Kenobi to come to her assistance. The image is a hologram, a three-dimensional picture made with the aid of a laser, and the technological magic required to make such images is remarkable. But what is even more astounding is that some scientists are beginning to believe the universe itself is a kind of giant hologram, a splendidly detailed illusion no more or less real than the image of Princess Leia that starts Luke on his quest.

Put another way, there is evidence to suggest that our world and everything in it -- from snowflakes to maple trees to falling stars and spinning electrons -- are also only ghostly images, projections from a level of reality so beyond our own it is literally beyond both space and time."

When I came back home yesterday, I learned that my fiancée and her eight-year son visited a friend who had a big yard with a stream. The boy found an earthworm which he brought home. They showed me the earthworm in a plastic jar. At first, I was unhappy that he brought the earthworm home because the earthworm was taken from its habitat and it's probably going to die. I hadn't reflected on my day. Also, I was thinking of my good friend who was going through appendicitis that night.

This morning, as I reflected on yesterday's event, I saw the synchronistic link between my observation during the day and the live earthworm at home.

When I was using the earthworm as an example of holography, I was a bit uncomfortable. I didn't know what scientists would say about it. I haven't read anything linking holography to earthworms.

Then I did a search on the Internet. After reading the Norwegian medical doctor Vilhelm Schjelderup's article "ECIWO Biology Institute of Shandong University: The Living Organism as a Biocybernetic Unity," everything made sense to me. ECIWO means Embryo Containing Information in the Whole Organism and is a new branch of biology founded by Professor Yinqing Zhang of Shandong.

The article describes the biological implications of the holographic universe and its application to acupuncture and other complementary alternative medicines.

I feel comfortable now about the analogy and I am grateful to my step-son for bringing home the earthworm to open my mind to the biological and medical applications of holography.

Read the article here: http://www.eciwo.sdu.edu.cn/h01.html