The Unclad Soul

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Spirituality requires humility. The kingdom of heaven is intended to be a place within us where arrogance, superiority is put aside. To be truly spiritual is to let go of the need to control life, people, fate, circumstances. It’s not about religion or going to church. It is about seeking an attitude in life that transcends selfishness, greed, power. Poverty of spirit is really healthy self-awareness, the longing and the ability to see and accept others without exceptions. ~ TM

I was out recently in the Christmas crowd shopping for my grandchildren. They don’t really need a thing. They have so much. They fortunately live within the amazing care of a dad and mom who adore and cherish and abundantly provide for them. I wanted to just package up some hugs and kisses and send those as my gifts. Wouldn’t that be enough? It would, for them. They would be perfectly fine with such gifts. But I followed the rest of the holiday legion to Target and elsewhere to lend my effort to our society’s commercial Christmas mania. There is that line in Dr. Seuss’ famous “The Grinch That Stole Christmas” that nudges me this time of year: “ Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store? What if Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!”   Well, there’s an old fashioned idea for you. A sadly archaic thought buried beneath the nearest mall’s concrete foundation conveniently silenced far beyond the...

Fundamentalism in religion is primarily the result of a literal interpretation of a sacred text. This is where it starts. This is how it is fueled. It is an approach where compromise is unacceptable, where the whole text has dominance over any individual passage. Consequently, in the fundamentalist’s mind, everything in their sacred text is pure, r ight, and infallible. The Christian Bible, the Muslim Koran, the Jewish Torah or Old Testament, are the three primary sacred texts that are often taken by their individual groups of believers as literally true in every word. Hindus have the Bhagavad Gita but they do not worship it in the sense these other religions do their Books. Buddhists have no holy text but instead are guided by sutras or the sayings and teachings of Buddha. Rarely do you see fundamentalists among Hindus or Buddhists. I have read from all of these sacred texts. The Bible is the only book I have read completely through and it seemed to take me forever to do it; wh...