Edward Hays ~ Author, Artist & Storyteller
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Saint Saichi, the Shoemaker

1/28/2015

 

Saint Saichi, the Shoemaker 

Picture

Dear old and new friends,

     The quantum theory which we touched on in the last reflection is difficult to understand and has scholars saying, “If you understand the quantum theory, you do not know it! Yet it is not impossible to grasp some of its amazing influence in our lives, as is often the case in a story.”

     So ponder the story of the poor Japanese man named Saichi who was a devote Shin Buddhist. His lowly occupation was crafting wooden shoes the Japanese called “Geta.” While making his beautiful Getas, Saichi did so as an expression of his Buddhist spirituality. It was said that whoever wore his beautifully sandals did so with a sense of new joyfulness, with the same delight that Saichi experienced in making them. In those days it was common when a neighbor or friend was sad and gloomy for his or her friends to say, “Go, and get a pair of beautiful Getas made by Saichi!” 

     Quantum physics tells us that what appears as solid and inert to us, such as wooden sandals or a wooden kitchen table, aren’t lifeless. Place any fragment of either of them under a powerful microscope and you will see that it is alive, a literal sea of swirling pulsating particles. In 1920 Einstein called these particles “energy packets,” or quanta, and understood them to be a fundamental aspect of nature. Yet they resisted being defined for certain as either particles or waves of energy, while today they are understood as nonlinear waves. At the sub-atomic level these electrons are living energies that make up the wood of the table or the sandals, your body and everything else in the universe. Your wooden kitchen table also contains the sweat, feelings and emotions of those who built it, as well as the energies or emotions of those who have eaten at it. These energy waves or particles have an unconscious effect on those who sit or work at your kitchen table, just as the wooden Getas made by Saichi radiated upward his joy to those who wore them. 

     Pierre de Chardin said in his The Divine Milieu, “There is nothing profane here below for those who know how to see.” He saw the Divine present in all the Cosmos—from the least quantum particle of matter to the entire universe. If you and I don’t perceive God as present in creation and in the lowly labors of our hands it is because we are not looking for God there…but rather in holy places. Science today tells us we are intimately united with our work, each other and our world. As we are impoverished by every death, so our hearts are enriched by the joyous happiness of newlyweds that we absorb—to the degree our hearts are hungry and open to communion with all humanity! 

     So remember Saichi, the saintly shoemaker, who by his deep but unassuming holiness influenced the lives of many. If you seek the secret to a spirituality of humble holiness like Saichi’s, then seriously consider this similar teaching of the fourteenth-century German mystic Meister Eckhardt: “Wisdom—holiness—consists in doing what you have to do, doing it with your whole heart, and finding delight in doing it.”

Childhood First Great Commandment

1/21/2015

 

Childhood First Great Commandment

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 Dear old and new friends,

     Religious scholar Dr. William Dinges has written, “Humans are deeply implicated in the massive ecological destruction we are seeing…we can’t continue to think and act as if we are ecologically segregated from the rest of creation.” I agree with him, and the issue is how do we respond to climate change, global warming or the pollution of the air, water and the earth? Typically we blame this crisis on pollution created by big industry, giant power plants and “other” car owners. But in our participatory interconnected universe there are no neutral observers; we are either co-creators or co-destroyers! Today it is important to remember that first great commandment of childhood, “You made the mess…you clean it up.” 

     The moon landing in 1969 radically changed our perception of our Planet Earth. When photographed from space we saw the Earth as a bluish-green globe devoid of border lines separating countries and peoples. It appeared as a living entity floating in space instead of an inert object of matter. Since 1984 quantum theologians have proposed we consider the world as God’s body! Now along with the Corpus Christi—the Body of Christ—we had to reverence the Corpus Dei—the Body of God, a sacramental reality to handle with holy care. 

     Ecology, once a scientific concern, must be seen today as a spiritual issue that requires we begin to live a new ethics of our morality. Quantum physics today proclaims what mystics in all religions have said when it teachers that at the microscopic level all creation, all life, is dynamically connected. The major sin of our time say quantum theologians is speciesism—the human assumption that we are the ultimate life form under God and are entitled to lord it over the rest of creation.  

     As individuals we feel powerless to heal our pollution-sick planet. The global size of the problem causes us to mown, “How can I, a lone individual, reverse the rapidly increasing shrinkage of the polar ice caps or clean up the pollution of our rivers? Even while feeling impotent, we have a moral, ethical and spiritual responsibility to be personally involved in correcting climate change and the pollution of the air, water and earth. To begin this holy work we need make an act of faith: we are not impotent. Because each personal action to rescue our planet, while appearing small and ineffective, is connected with countless millions of other such actions as part of a global web of ecological salvation. 

     You can begin this new vocation by acknowledging that each act of recycling is spiritual and sacramental. Each time you perform the simple act of turning off an unnecessary electric light, say “Amen” (aware we use this word to conclude prayers and sacred actions) to remind you that saving electricity is a spiritual prayer-action. Each time you pick up a piece a trash from the street or recycle a newspaper or plastic item, say “Amen.” By such holy actions of saving God’s Body we are saving our own for we and all the Earth are intimately united as one. 

     Be politically involved in the salvation of the Earth by voting for candidates who promise to promote strict ecological legislation. An example is the present proposed Keystone Pipeline XL project that is a potential ecological threat to our nation’s farm lands. A present crisis is the very process of fracking by which the oil is being extracted in the tar sands industry of Canada. It in itself is a massive polluter of air and land that cannot be supported by those who are seriously ecologically committed. Most important is praying daily for your beautiful and poisonously-polluted Earth, which really is praying for yourself!

Pinhole In Time

1/14/2015

 

Pinhole In Time

Picture
                                                  
                         Skimming the surface of life,
                              my eye fixed on a tiny pinhole of Now,
                                   stopping for a second
                                        as my watch’s minute hand sped ahead full speed.

  Peering into the pinhole
     I was intrigued,
took a deep breath,
     descending into the needle-thin tunnel of the Now.

  With each new breath I fell,
      rather was pulled downward,
   face first into the bluish emerald waters
of clouds of swirling seeds of things to come,
   of dreams yet undreamt
      when chaste voices sang,
         “This is the moment!”

Terrified as I sank even further down
     into now yellowing orangish waters,
   dreading I’d never find my way up,
an enthralling voice said,
    “Make all your days, Now-a-days.”

   Resisting my heart’s urging
to turn back, I felt ensnared
    in the ever-hotter waters turning
        reddish orange to scarlet flaming red,
    and saw ahead a faceless image with
   a thousand faces within
       and a formless shifting shape
     veiling every form and shape.

   My hands reached out lovingly
      as primitive erotic love dragged me
     passionately, uncontrollably
                         into an ever-increasing encompassing
                                   thunderhead cloud of blackest darkness;
                                it felt menacing yet affectionate
                                      as I vanished
                                           realizing
                                               I was drowning
                                                   in God.

Where Are You Going?

1/7/2015

 

Where Are You Going?


Dear old and new friends, 

    On January 7th I entered an airline terminal which was crowded with passengers departing on their flights and arriving from others. I curiously noticed a large crowd of travelers not in line at the ticket counters—or seemingly any line at all—but rather just milling around in a circle in the center of the terminal. Like other travelers they had large wheeled suitcases that they aimlessly pulled behind them or were seated on.

   Around this stationary group swirled the crowds of incoming passengers from various flights busily on their way either to other flights or heading for the exits. As hours passed I continued being fascinated by those in the center of the terminal who didn’t seem to be going anywhere. I wondered if they were waiting for someone…or something. Naturally a curious person, after observing them more I couldn’t resist going over to these intriguing travelers and asking, “Where are you going?”

Picture

     The first ones, either embarrassed or thinking my question was inappropriate coming from a total stranger, said nothing and continued staring around aimlessly or at their iPads and phones. On my fourth attempt I asked that question to a man sitting on his baggage. He smiled and looked up at me saying, “I haven’t decided yet. Why do you ask?” Others in the group around him nodded their heads in agreement. I could have replied (but didn’t), “You and the rest of your group all have luggage and appear to be heading somewhere, but nobody seems to be going.” Leaving the airport I wondered if I returned on this same day, January 7th, in 2016 would I find them all still here, except for one or two who had died?

As we enter the new days of this year CE 2015 are we going anywhere...
or as usual just skimming over the surface of life?


    Edward Hays


    Picture
    Haysian haphazard thoughts on the
    invisible and visible mysteries of life.

    Picture

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