In Yoke

The more I sit with the wisdom of the ages, and study the mystics, the more congruence I begin to sense. One philosophical congruence is the concept of the power of NOW—as Eckhart Tolle has popularized. Approximately 500 years before Christ’s advent in the Middle East, the life of Siddhartha Gautama emanated in Nepal and Northern India. His noble eightfold path and his words and teachings still ring true. Many of the concepts of his teachings are not at all incompatible with the capacity we are given through life in Christ. The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, not to worry about the future, or not to anticipate troubles, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly. -The Compassionate Buddha Eknath Easwaran comments: “When the mind is at rest, we are lifted out of time into the eternal present. The body, of course, is still subject to the passage of time. But in a sense, the flickering of the mind is our internal clock. When the mind...

One of my favorite quotes of Fr. Richard Rohr, the Franciscan catholic prophet can be disturbing to the semi fundamentalist ears of Baptists: The way of the cross looks like a way of failure. In fact, you could say that Christianity is about how to lose and win, how to let go creatively, how the only real ascent is a true descent. We need to be concerned with following Jesus, which he told us to do seventeen times, and less with worshipping Jesus--which he never told us once to do. What? Do what he says as the way to worship, not just simply to worship? Yes. The essence of being "in yoke" implies simple trust in his path, his way. Is it easier to place Jesus up on a pedestal-on the front of the sanctuary and worship his doings, his sacrifice, his example as an object worthy of our worship... rather than seeking to obey and follow him with all our heart and soul, as the way to worship the Father? But, then again, the way of descent, is never choosing the easy way, is it? My ...