It seems to me that real living requires at least three strong ongoing relationships – a relationship with God, a relationship with self, and relationships with others.  Sadly the two that are most often overlooked and/or ignored appear to be the first two – God and self – and I believe that it is not really possible to have a strong ongoing relationship with others unless a person first has a strong ongoing relationship with both God (or Higher Power) and self.

Early on in my time as a musician I was taught that it takes at least three people to have music – a creator (the composer) – a re-creator** (performer) – and a receiver (listener).  I have often experienced all three of those roles during my life as a musician – in fact, on numerous occasions I was indeed all of the three people.  The process, however, is much more satisfying when others are involved because that process involves the process of living in community, and living in community is the way The Creator intends for us to live.

Many of our problems – and most certainly those that lead toward the addictive process – become present in our lives during times of personal isolation.  And those times of isolation are often the experiences that cause us to ignore our relationship with God and with self.

Earlier today I was reading more pages from Divine Therapy and Addiction* by Father Thomas Keating and Tom S.  It was a section where Father Keating is explaining the power of Lectio Divina, and he writes: “To get the full benefit of a sacred text, you need to be in the situation where somebody else is reading the text and you are just listening.” (186)

It seems to me that is also true of day to day ordinary living.  We are not created for isolation but for living in relationship.  Thanks be to God!

*Divine Therapy and Addiction based on interviews with Father Thomas Keating, OCSO, conducted by Tom S.  New York: Lantern Books, 2009.

**It is meaningful to me that re-creation and rec-reation are in essence the same word and it causes me to ponder if recreation leads to re-creation – more on that topic in a later post.

With great gratitude to Eckhart Tolle* who has profoundly influenced my thinking concerning the necessity of living in the present:

“Enlightenment conciously chosen means to relinquish your attachment to past and future and to make the Now the main focus of your life.  It means choosing to dwell in the state of presence rather than in time.  It means saying yes to what is . . . choice implies consciousness – a high degree of consciousness.  Without it, you have no choice.  Choice begins the moment you disidentify from the mind and its conditioned patterns, the moment you become present.  Until you reach that point, you are unconscious, spiritually speaking.  This means that you are compelled to think, feel, and act in certain ways according to the conditioning of your mind.  That is why Jesus said: ‘Forgive them, for they know not what they do’ . . . the mind, conditioned as it is by the past, always seeks to re-create what it knows and is familiar with.  Even if it is painful, at least it is familiar.  The mind always adheres to the known.  The unkown is dangerous because it has no control over it.  That’s why the mind dislikes and ignores the present moment.  Present-moment awareness creates a gap not only in the stream of mind but also in the past-future continuum.  Nothing truly new and creative can come into the world except through the gap, that clear space of infinite possibility.” (226-227)

We will continue this discussion thread in the coming posts.  I hope you will join the conversation.

Grace and peace

*Tolle, Eckhart.  The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment.  Novato, CA:  Namaste Publishing and New World Library, 1999/2004.

A significant portion of my current thinking about living as a human being in a manner that God intends us to live can be traced back to the writing of Dr. Gerald G. May in his wonderful book Addiction and Grace.*  He begins with these great words of truth:

After twenty years of listening to the yeaings of people’s hearts, i am convinced that all human beings have an inborn desire for God.  Whether we are consciously religious or not, this desire is our deepest longing and our most precious treasure.  It gives us meaning.  Some of us have repressed this desire, burying it beneath so many other interests that we are completely unaware of it.  Or we may experience it in different ways – as a longing for wholeness, completion, or fulfillment.  Regardless of how we describe it, it is a longing for love.  It is a hunger to love, to be loved, and to move closer to the Source of love.  This yearning is the essence of the human spirit; it is the origin of our highest hopes and most noble dreams. (1)

*May, Gerald G.  Addiction and Grace.  San Francisco:  Harper and Row, Publishers, 1988.

The second step of the AA Twelve Steps states that we come to believe that a power greater than ourselves is able to restore us to sanity.  For many people coming to believe is an ongoing process rather than an event.

I very much like the words of theologian Daniel Migliore*:

According to one classical definition (St. Anselm), theology is “faith seeking understanding” (fides quaerens intellectum) . . . in the writings of Augustine it takes the form, “I believe in order that I may understand.”  According to Augustine, knowledge of God not only presupposes faith, but faith also restlessly seeks deeper understanding . . . for Anselm, faith seeks understanding, and understanding brings joy.

Karl Barth contends that theology has the task of reconsidering the faith and practice of the community, “testing and rethinking it in the light of its enduring foundation, object, and content . . . what distinguishes theology from blind assent is just its special character as ‘faith seeking understanding.'”

Christian faith prompts inquiry, searches for deeper understanding, dares to raise questions.  How could we ever be finished with the quest for a deeper understanding of God? (2)

*Migliore, Daniel L.  Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology.  2nd ed.  Grand Rapids:  William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2004.

One of the most important elements of being human is our need to have a living and vital relationship with our Higher Power, and a key part of that relationship is prayer and meditation.

Father Thomas Keating, in his Divine Therapy and Addiction, offers some valuable insight in learning to pray.  He writes: “Silence is a great common denominator between people and also between us and God.  God’s first language is silence.  Everything else is a poor translation . . . the main discipline is to sit down and shut up . . . letting go of your usual stream of thoughts and the endless interior dialogue that does on most of the day and night about what happens to us, or about people entering and leaving our lives.” (151-153)

Amen!

My name is Tom – and I am a human being!

The next few posts on this blog will form an introduction to the idea of Human Beings Anonymous.  This idea comes with great gratitude to the family of Anonymous Twelve Steps organizations that have helped save lives around the world for many years.

My process started with the idea of writing a Twelve Steps program and book for people who believe that they do not suffer from any addictions.  The original working title was “Living as Mustard Seeds in Cracked Clay Pots” but over time it became very clear that we are ALL human beings anonymous.

Much of my early thinking in this area was profoundly influenced by the writing of Gerald G. May, M.D. in his book Addiction and Grace where he states: “I am not being flippant when I say that all of us suffer from addiction . . . the same processes that are responsible for addiction to alcohol and narcotics are also responsible for addiction to ideas, work, relationships, power, moods, fantasies, and an endless variety of other things.  We are all addicts in every sense of the word.  Moreover, our addictions are our own worst enemies . . . they can bring us to our knees.” (3-4)

As we continue this journey together I hope that many of you will join in the conversation.

Dear World

This post marks the beginning of a new portion of my journey.

The posts on this blog will cover a variety of topics most of which will focus on living lives as human beings at various points along the road of working to understand what it means to live life in a manner intended by our Creator.

It is my intention to post a new entry every other day.  I promise to do my best to stir our imagination and creativity, and I hope you will join in the conversation.