Edward Hays ~ Author, Artist & Storyteller
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The Resurrection of May Dancing

5/13/2014

 

The Resurrection of May Dancing


Dear old and new friends,

    Once there was an Abbot of a Zen Monastery who vowed never again to walk across the bridge that spanned the deep chasm between his monastery and the outside world. One day two old friends came to his monastery to visit him, and the three had a big feast with many cups of Saki. When it was time for his friends to leave, the abbot walked with them down to the bridge. The three friends were merrily recalling old times and before they realized it, they had crossed the bridge! Laughing his friends shouted, “Hey, you just broke your vow!” The abbot joined them in their giddy hilarity as the three hugged one another to keep from falling into the gorge.             

    Instead of being deep in remorse and guilt at breaking his vow the abbot responded humorously at how Life often is triumphant over our human plans. His ability to laugh heartily at himself and at life’s incongruities was an expression of the Zen principle of “Mu.” It teaches whenever our plans are overturned we should embrace that reality as simply being part of Life’s spur-of-the-moment dance. Daily life isn’t some well-organized parade; it is an unscheduled lively dance even in chaotic events. Am I saying that when things go wrong we should just go with the flow? No, only dead fish go with the flow! Whenever next the rug is pulled out from beneath you, don’t get angry or accept the calamity stoically, instead dance a lively polka with your predicament.

    Since ancient times the month of May and dancing have been lively companions. A young slender tree with its branches pruned except for a green bunch of them at the very top became the May Pole of a spring fertility ritual. For continuous centuries during May a multicolored striped pole was erected to which long colorful ribbons were tied. The ends of these ribbons were held by young people as they merrily danced around and around the pole celebrating the explosion of new life in creation. The Mechanized Age judged May Poles incompatible! Rare in our times are May Pole dances except in a few kindergartens, since the custodians and celebrants of ancient rituals are small children.

    Regardless how old or arthritic we are, let us revive the prehistoric pleasure of dancing, even if only symbolically. Friedrich Nietzsche said, “You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star”—to which I add, “Chaos in your life should give birth to you as a dancing star.” Chaos equals the unexpected, accidents, setbacks and even falling in love—anything that causes havoc and disorder. In creative ways the chaos of change is crucial to a new and unique creation.

    So when next Life throws a monkey wrench into your plans you can echo the Scottish poet Robert Burns, “The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men gang aft a-gley (often go astray)” while you do a brief Scottish reel, Irish jig or tango.

A New Easter

4/18/2014

 

A New Easter

PictureGalaxy photo taken and shared by my friend Dr. Joe Daglen
   
    In the gospels reporting the death and resurrection of Galilee’s Teacher, Jesus, time is telescoped into three acts. Act One: Friday he dies, and just before sunset his limp body is buried. Act Two: Saturday is the day he is entombed. Act Three: Sunrise on Sunday his disciples find his tomb empty and exclaim, “He has been raised!”

    The first written account of Jesus’ life is Mark’s Gospel which in its original text ends with a mystery: the tomb of the dead Jesus is found empty! In another gospel, that of Luke, a clue is given to this mystery of the empty tomb in a unique promise of Jesus. Dying on his cross he turns to the kindhearted rebel prisoner being executed next to him and says, “This day you will be with me in paradise.”

    Since childhood we have seen countless images of the Easter Risen Jesus coming forth out of his cave tomb. Later additions to Mark’s Gospel, along with other Gospels, report sightings of the Risen Jesus that solves the mystery. Yet, let’s return to his extraordinary promise to the rebel dying near to him as we prayerfully ponder the possibility of yet another account— the Easter Gospel.

     The Easter Gospel begins shortly after the dying Jesus’ promise to the rebel, when total darkness covers Jerusalem and the earth, as Jesus breathes his last breath on the cross. Instantaneously, his dead limp body explodes into a blinding blaze of light. From him a luminous tsunami streaks outward filling all the earth, then races upward into the billions of shimmering stars and on into the hundreds of billions of galaxies, then outward beyond them into an ever-expanding universe.


    Witnesses report that those with Easter eyes now see every yellow flower as a saint abloom with the Risen One. They see all rivers shimmering with a sacred brilliance, and ordinary shrubs and bushes ablaze, and every animal, small or large is haloed as blessed. Stunningly, each of us discovers that we have been Easter-Canonized as saints, more alive now than ever before. Easter’s challenge is to see all things as new and to daily respond accordingly to the wonder of being incorporated into that Easter Cosmic Event.

The Captivating Power of Your Surroundings

10/23/2013

 

The Captivating Power of Your Surroundings

Dear old and new friends,

     There’s an old saying we easily forget: “We shape our buildings and then they shape us!” It tells us that we unknowingly resemble our environments. Be it beauty or plainness, each is duplicated in those surrounded by them. Carl Jung said, “Every Roman was surrounded by slaves. The slave and his psychology flooded ancient Italy, and every Roman became inwardly, and of course unwittingly, a slave, because living constantly in the atmosphere of slaves, he became infected through the unconscious with the psychology. No one can shield himself from such an influence.” (Italics mine.) Seriously ponder his last sentence!

    Those ensnared deeply in poverty typically are accused of being just unwilling to work or lacking initiative. Yet it takes an Olympian effort for those who have grown up in ramshackle, trash-cluttered, dirty surroundings to prevail over the influences of their poverty. How different would be their prospects in life if they had been raised amidst order and the beautiful. Beauty is not a luxury; rather it is essential in every home, school, office and city because of its affect.

    To be surrounded by beauty does not require wealth, even the poorest can live in the beauty of creation. I recall years ago visiting a convent of women religious that I found to be bleakly devoid of beauty. Except for a lone crucifix, the severely bare rooms were as desolate as prison cells. I’m sure the sisters who lived there had been indoctrinated to believe their rooms reflected the spirit of poverty. Yet authentic Gospel poverty, like God, is never barren but rather as luxuriously rich as springtime creation.

    Whatever the denomination, examine the interior of your church with an honest critical eye to perceive how it shaping you and your religious beliefs. Do the stain glass windows that block any view of the local neighborhood and your environment proclaim your religion has little or nothing to do with the world and its activities?

    Most Roman Catholic churches, even brand new ones, have as their main focal point a large, realistic crucifix! For the past five hundred years the belief was that the source of redemption was the death of Jesus on the cross. Fifty years ago the Vatican Council declared that the source of our redemption wasn’t the crucifixion, but the Resurrection of Jesus! Should not the church declare a renovation of every parish church so it expressed and shaped the people in the hopeful, joyous victory of Easter instead of the agonizing and violent death of Good Friday?

    Protestant, Catholic or Muslim, we shape our worship spaces and then they shape us!

The Easter Stranger

4/3/2013

 

The Easter Stranger

Picture


Dear old and new friends,

    In this painting of the Emmaus meal by Philippine artist Emmanuel Garibay notice that the hands of the woman dressed in red are pierced! As you will recall it was at the village of Emmaus that the disciples of Jesus invited a stranger they met on the road to stop and share a meal with them. As the stranger broke the bread they recognized their Risen Jesus, even though they were unaware that Jesus had risen since they had departed Jerusalem before this was revealed.

    The Emmaus event echoes all the other post-resurrection appearances where the disciples and friends of Jesus failed to recognize their beloved friend and teacher-rabbi in the Risen Christ. Their teacher was not resuscitated to his former Galilean male body but raised up to a totally new existence. Garibay’s depicting the Risen Lord as a woman challenges all our mental images of the glorious, golden-haloed, white-robed Christ of religious art.

    This novel depiction of the Emmaus meal, however, is more authentic than previous images. It also has the power to awaken us not to be like those first disciples and fail to recognize the Risen One who promised to remain with us until the end of time. As Easter People who share in the resurrection, we need Easter eyes to realize—become conscious of—the Risen Christ in those we may encounter.

    Easter set Jesus free from the tomb…and also from tabernacles and church sanctuaries. The beer bottles and ashtray on the table in the painting depict the Emmaus inn as if it had been a tavern or bar and grill! Before his death Jesus indiscriminately loved to eat and drink with people, including sinners, prostitutes and religious outcasts—and continues to do so today.

    With Easter eyes see beyond the divine masquerade of the dark-skinned stranger, the elderly woman using a walker, the teenage youth, the café waitress, the Mexican undocumented gardener and the tattooed motorcyclist, to perceive the presence of your beloved Risen Christ.


    Edward Hays


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

    Picture

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