Sri Aurobindo

It is a little known fact of Ernest Holmes life that one of his last teachers was the Indian mystic sage, Sri Aurobindo. The other night in the Troward class we were talking about the influences on Holmes life, beginning with Emerson at a time when Eastern philosophies were making their influence felt in America. AS a young man, working in California, holmes was inroduced to the lectures of Thomas Troward, the Queen's High Commissioner to India. Trowards work on Mental Science is clearly influenced by Hindu Cosmology. The clarity of his though is somewhat obscured by the Victorian language. A careful and sorry to say repeated exposure to it leads to a richness and a delicacy of thought and language that after repeated readings become like poetry. I have to say I rushed through it in ministerial training as just one more book to read, one more source, one more ...

Having taught the Edinburgh Lectures now ... many times. I love to jusy savour it. Anyway back to Aurobindo. We were having a conversation about all these influences the other day and on Saturday, one of my students who knew nothing of the conversation gave me a book on the "greater Psychology of Sri Aurobindo. Law of Attraction? Certainly not a co-incidence (No such thing). So here was Holmes steeped in the writings of Aurobindo at the end of his life in 1950.

So i've launched myelf into the Greatar Philosophy. If there is anyone else out there reading or thinking or studying Aurobindo ... think about sharing your thoughts with me

Until then ... Yoga hunh? hmmmmmm?

Finally season 5

I may have mentioned to you that I am a fan of “the Sopranos”. For those of you unfamiliar with it, over the last six years HBO has been showing a series on an Italian ‘mafia” family headed Tony Soprano, played by James Gandolfini. The Sopranos really is Tony’s story, of how one is a husband, father, son, friend and … mafia don; a story the delicate interplay of forces in one man’s life. When season 5 finally appeared in my local video store on Tuesday, I was there at 11AM to rent it. I’ve been watching the 13 episodes ever since.

What is my fascination with this story? What is our fascination with stories like this one in movies and on television, in books and on stages since art and literature became part of our cultural experience? What is it about stories, this story, all stories … my story?

Stories are an expression of my homesickness. Novalis, the 18th Century poet philosopher said “Art and story is really homesickness, it is the urge to be home everywhere.” The telling and re-telling of stories and the urge to hear stories is our desire to find our place somewhere, anywhere. Everyone of us is homesick. We are mythically on a journey away from some primal Garden of Eden as we first begin to lose our cherished experiences of lost childhood, move through a life of alienation constantly seeking in the words of William Wordsworth “God, who is our home”.

Stories are the way in to one another and to that mystery I call God. When I watch Tony Soprano struggle with his fears, his guilt and shame; when I see the choices he makes I am forced to say with Moses, Abraham, Isaiah, Mary, Jesus, ‘Here I am.” Art and Literature make me present to myself … to my surroundings …to Spirit …to Spirit present as me and as you.

There is a famous quote from scripture that says “Be still and know …” Sunday I'm really going to get into the role of story in my and it's funny that it leads me back to a spiritual practice inspired by the Centering Prayer of Dom Thomas Keating; a Dom and a Don … all in one blog. Well … you gotta admit I’m eclectic
"Wha ya gunna do?"

Rev.T

A moving Experience

Everybody wants to grow and change but nobody wants the transition. Is that true? Well it is if you think it is. I certainly proved that to myself over the last 2 years or 18 months. It is true that some people didn't want to move and when we hold that belief guess what. We gather around us people to dont want to change. They are drawn to us like flies to ... honey. We then start to feed off one anothers energy. the Universe if you haven't noticed supports change. If you put a lot of living things in a small space with no room to grow they die. The Universe supports change. In this case the change looks like destruction. I am convinced in our last months, year in the Chateau the Universe supported our shrinking because I was afraid to risk growing (me, you, the Centre) I am SO grateful to our wonderful landlord Marcia Cargill for listening to the promptings of Spirit and giving us the boot.

The "moving experience" I refer to is week 1 in Seaquam. I ahve NEVER expereinced the level of enthusiasm for one another and for the spirit of how can I serve that was in the room on Sunday. I felt for the first time in three years that the people had taken ownership of their Centre. We took responsibilty for how it worked, we accepted accountability for everything in our experience that day and we took pride in the fact that we had a community and a Sunday experience that said we believe in growth. I want to let you all know that a group met at Starbucks immediately after we closed everything down to say "Ok what worked?" "What didn't and what can we make better?" Now that is commitment to growth and excellence!!!

Were you moved? I was. Are you moved? I AM.

Watch us grow!

Where we're at NOW!

well ... it been a while since i blogged here. So caught up in so many things. Synchronicity being what it is, I called my practitioner the other day to talk about how stressed I was feeling. The very best thing about getting a diagnosis from your Dr. that you are stressed, if your a Rel. Sc.is that he confirms that it is all in your head DUH!!!

It's one thing to be told you have cancer and be told it all started in your head and so now what are you going to do about it. Thanks Larry Dossey and all of the docs who taught us about heart disease and the connection to thoughts and emotions ... anyway. It is one thing to know your symptoms of liver dis ease and heart dis ease and so on are a result of what you think. It feels sometimes far fetched and a l o n g road back to health. But to told you have stress induced symptoms of heart attack ... well ... get over yourself!

Back to my practitioner ... she let me know that she too was moving her Centre after ...WOW ... 11 years in the same location... nd so could relate totally to where I am emotionally. What's the big deal ... well frankly ... there isn't any. It's all in my head.

Some people have spoken to me about missing my blog and how much they looked forward to reading them. I've been asked where I archive the abstracts of my Sunday lessons so people can go back to them. "It's really useful especially if you are doing a series, like now." "You know the summer school thang." (Thanks Rob) Frankly I'm flattered and ... well ... I enjoy writing them but got kind of side tracked. With the new location and just changes in the wind generally, I'm feeling more centred and ready to share more of what is on my mind ... and heart maybe.

so here goes ... here's the first in the series on Summer School ... Life 101 General Ed.

The next eight weeks of Sunday lessons offer Life Enhancement Courses designed to encourage you to look at where you are in your life NOW. Think of summer as the time when nature is at its most prolific. Yesterday morning a mother mallard duck swam past my window with nine ducklings in tow. Now if that ain’t prolific, I don’t know what is. This is the time for us to be at our most productive as well. It is time to open up your mind to where you would truly like to be.
Last night coming home on #10 Hwy … ALL traffic was stopped in both directions as a yet another mother lead her small brood of seven across the highway to the safety of the ditch on the other side. As I sat watching the spectacle unfolding before me, this bold yet fragile creature braving the danger of these gigantic vehicles and the smiles of delight and wonder on the faces of the drivers, I thought, “what gives this duck its pluck?”
Whatever it was it sure impressed all of us sitting patiently in the twilight of a Thursday evening.
I sat thinking of the fierce power at the centre of my life and how it has constantly pushed me to be more. In New Thought, thanks largely to Ernest Holmes, we talk about the interplay of evolution and involution as the cosmic encoding of our human existence. Holmes says of evolution. It is the passing of Spirit into form. It is the unfoldment of First Cause. Evolution is the time and process through which an idea unfolds to a higher state of manifestation and since ideas are Divine Realities, evolution will go on forever. Mother duck didn’t always have to consider cars on the fens of Ladner but when she had to she did. Involution on the other hand was what I observed on the faces of my fellow travelers that night. It was the dawning of an idea, the rising up of a kindness or a fellow feeling.
I become productive when I approach my life from a place of wonder and excitement; when I invoke involution; when I become involved. As I sat there watching and waiting in that moment of calm, I was involved and I thought …
What is my life about right now?
What do I desire to improve?
Why do I desire to improve it?
What is the experience I wish to have?
What would that feel like?
What am I willing to do to have this experience?
At that point I was aware I had already set something in motion. I had planted a seed of thought in the Creative Mind. Traffic started moving again. Mother duck stood proudly on the shoulder. Her little ones had disappeared into the ditch. And I knew that the evolution of my questions into answers had already begun.