Jazz

“God has wrought many things out of oppression… the capacity to create… sweet songs of sorrow and joy…Jazz speaks for life. The Blues tell the story of life's difficulties… they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph. This is triumphant music… When life itself offers no order and meaning, the musician creates an order and meaning from the sounds of the earth which flow through his instrument… Much of the power of our Freedom Movement in the United States has come from this music. It has strengthened us with its sweet rhythms when courage began to fail. It has calmed us with its rich harmonies when spirits were down. And now, Jazz is exported to the world. For in the particular struggle of the Negro in America there is something akin to the universal struggle of modern man. Everybody has the Blues. Everybody longs for meaning. Everybody needs to love and be loved. Everybody needs to clap hands and be happy. Everybody longs for faith. In… Jazz, there is a stepping stone towards all of these.” ~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Our Mission

To paint the globe with the message of A Love Supreme, and in doing so promote global unity, peace on earth, and knowledge of the one true living God.

Come calm the mind and tune into the spirit as you are guided through a meditation on the testimony and music of Saint John Coltrane's A Love Supreme. Great for old time Coltrane lovers and new listeners as well. Join us and experience the power of this anointed sound...the music and wisdom of Saint John Coltrane.


We encourage everyone to participate in the services by singing along, clapping your hands, and dancing. If you play an instrument, bring it. Get your praise on! Mass consists of Confession, the Coltrane Liturgy, Scripture readings, Hymns, Spirituals, and Preaching.

Radio Ministry

Hosted by Pastor Wanika K. Stephens

In the midst of the week and the thick of the work day tune in for musical upliftment and renewal with the healing sound of St. John Will I Am Coltrane. Be inspired by interviews and commentaries and enlightened with Coltrane quotes and occasional interviews from the Coltrane archives.
Every Tuesday from 12-4pm PST on 89.5FM KPOO
Available World Wide via the TuneIn Website and App or via KPOO.com

2097 Turk Street

San Francisco CA 94115

 

(415) 673-7144

Office Hours: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday

10 am to 2 pm

Be Ye Holy

"Be ye holy." … God requires that I should now be holy… Knowledge is conviction… “We have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things freely given to us of God."  On coming to this decision, the blessed Word, said to her heart, "Stand still, and see the salvation of God." she was led by a "way she knew not;" so simple, into the "way of holiness," where, with unutterable delight, she found the comprehensive desires of her soul blended and satisfied in the fulfillment of the command, "Be ye holy." ~ The Way of Holiness, Mrs. (Phoebe) Palmer.

“Christian perfection is the name given to various teachings within Christianity that describe spiritual maturity or perfection. The ultimate goal of this process is union with God characterized by pure love of God and other people as well as personal holiness or sanctification. Various terms have been used to describe the concept, such as "Christian holiness", "entire sanctification", "perfect love", the "baptism with the Holy Spirit", and the "second blessing". Certain traditions and denominations teach the possibility of Christian perfection, including the Catholic Church, where it is closely associated with consecrated life. It is also taught in Methodist churches and the holiness movement, in which it is sometimes termed Wesleyan perfectionism.” ~ Wikipedia

“Phoebe Palmer was born in New York City in 1807, into a family steeped in Methodist spirituality. Religiously inclined since childhood, she knelt with husband Walter C. Palmer, a homeopathic physician, during the Allen Street Methodist Church revival, pledging her life to the promotion of holiness. At some point in the year 1837 Phoebe Palmer experienced what she called “entire sanctification.” Her family experienced this "sanctification" soon thereafter. Phoebe testified to the sanctifying grace and afterward emerged as the leader of the prayer meeting, now known as the Tuesday Meeting for the Promotion of Holiness and held in the parlor of the Palmers’ home. In 1839, men were admitted to the Tuesday Meetings, and Mrs. Palmer’s circle widened to include Methodist bishops, theologians, and ministers, as well as lay men and women. Soon the cradle of renewal gently rocked all of American Methodism.

Phoebe and Walter Palmer began an itinerant ministry that took them from churches to camp meetings and conferences throughout the Northeast. Conventional and inordinately modest, Phoebe Palmer insisted that her talks were not “sermons”; she styled them, rather, as “exhortations.” Simply put, she preached. Drawn into his wife’s expanding network of activity, Walter Palmer periodically put aside his medical practice to travel and assist her ministry. In time, he also gained repute as a lay preacher, though his fame never exceeded that of his wife’s.

Phoebe Palmer played a major role in the holiness movement’s expansion to national and international scope. Her impact was increased by her writing and editing. Her articles appeared in Methodist organs such as the Christian Advocate and Journal. Among the leading books: The Way of Holiness, Faith and Its Effects, and Promise of the Father. Publications extended her influence into Southern as well as Northern states and into Canada, where the Palmers ministered personally. In 1859, the couple assumed a transatlantic role as the British Isles became the scene of their labors for the next four years. Upon their return to the United States, they purchased the Guide to Holiness, and during her tenure as editor greatly stimulated the rise of the broader Wesleyan-Holiness press.

Her broad influence was exerted in still other ways: through the New York Female Assistance Society for the Relief and Religious Instruction of the Sick Poor, of which she was the corresponding secretary; through the Methodist Ladies’ Home Missionary Society, in which she was active; and on a host of influential people. To her, more than any other personality of her century, the holiness movement owes its existence.” ~ Wesleyan Holiness Women Clergy

Isherwood

Swami Prabhavananda & Christopher Isherwood's Bhagavad Gita is easy to read and absorb.

“Christopher Isherwood was multifaceted… celebrated writer… “connoisseur of people” who, as host, mixed disparate people with the skill of a master chemist… college drop-out who became a distinguished lecturer and teacher of literature and writing and generously mentored aspiring writers. 

Less (well known) is his role as an early practitioner of Vedanta in America… Jeffery Paine writes, “Only little by little did he (Isherwood) realize he was in fact participating in one of the larger religious reinterpretations in history. Something unprecedented was being given birth to, and he was, so to speak, part of the labor pains.” And within Vedanta circles, his tremendous guru-bhakti; his life as one of the original Vedanta Society of Southern California monks; and his reverence for the shrine, the ritual worship, and the relics may come as a complete surprise… The autobiographical My Guru and His Disciple, “To live this synthesis of East and West is the most valuable kind of pioneer work I can imagine.”

Christopher Isherwood was born in 1904… grandson and heir of an English squire… Moreover, his father took an interest in Buddhism; and his mother, Kathleen, was enthusiastic about Indian culture and had attended lectures by Jiddu Krishnamurti long before Chris encountered Vedanta… Isherwood wanted to explore life, including coming to terms with his homosexuality, in a more socially liberal environment than England’s, which he found constraining.  

As Germany was preparing for World War II, Isherwood’s anti-war feelings grew stronger… The election of Adolph Hitler as Chancellor made the war inevitable… Heard and Huxley left England for America; and Isherwood and his companion, W.H. Auden, left Germany for the Far East… Auden stayed on the East Coast and Isherwood eventually drifted to Hollywood, where he found that both Heard and Huxley had shifted their focus from politics to religion, specifically Vedanta, under the guidance of Swami Prabhavananda. 

In 1939, at Huxley’s but especially Heard’s urging, Isherwood met and then made an appointment with Swami Prabhavananda. Isherwood was, however, determined to reveal his homosexuality from the start. If Swami’s reaction was unsatisfactory, there would be no need to ever see him again, but if Chris felt good about the response, he would give it a chance. He writes of that first appointment, “I wasn’t at all discouraged by the Swami’s reply…What reassured me—what convinced me that I could become his pupil—was that he hadn’t shown the least shadow of distaste on hearing me admit to my homosexuality.” He goes on to write that Swami’s position was that it is lust itself of any kind, regardless of the object, that is the spiritual impediment.  

In July of 1940, Isherwood’s uncle died, making him the recipient of the ancestral home, Marple Hall, and the family fortune. Isherwood renounced the inheritance in favor of his younger brother, Richard. Isherwood was by no means financially set at that time; his fortunes were to vacillate throughout his life.  

Isherwood was initiated by Swami Prabhavananda on Holy Mother’s birthday in the winter of 1940. Years later, he wrote  of the initiation: “I had just entered into a relationship with this little Bengali and his establishment which was far more binding and serious than a marriage–I who always had an instinctive horror of the marriage bond! Would I have involved myself in this way if I had clearly understood what I was doing? Not at that time, I think… the tie between the guru and his initiated disciple cannot be broken… until the disciple realizes the Atman within himself and is thus set free…”

Isherwood’s approach was dedicated and from the heart. He writes, “…the guru-disciple relationship is at the center of everything that religion means to me. It is the one reality of which I am never in doubt, the one guarantee that I shall ultimately surmount my own weakness and find knowledge of eternal peace and joy.” 

In My Guru and His Disciple, Isherwood frequently writes of the co-existence of the divine power and the human within the being of the guru, speculating on when one appeared over the other and noting that as Swami aged, the balance increasingly tilted toward the divine. However, Isherwood loved both aspects, relishing his guru’s humanity, enjoying the man himself. Isherwood writes: “…Gerald offered me discipline, method, intellectual conviction. But the Swami offered me love.” When Heard died, Isherwood wrote, “[the world] has lost one of its few great magic mythmakers and revealer of life’s wonder.”   

As the war went on, Isherwood writes: “… the Swami was urging me to apply to the draft board for re-classification as theological student, 4-D…The Swami had a frankly admitted motive for keeping me out of the forestry camp. He wanted me to come and live as a monk at the Vedanta Center, as soon as he could make arrangements to accommodate men there. This might take several months. But he also had an occupation for me which I could begin work on immediately. He had just finished a rough translation of the Bhagavad-Gita and needed me to help him polish it.” I told him I doubted very much that the [draft] board would agree to reclassify me when I was already good as drafted. Why should they take the trouble to do the extra paperwork? The Swami giggled and said, “Try.” To my ears, there was a slightly uncanny quality in this giggle; it sounded as if he knew something about the situation which I didn’t.  

Isherwood moved into the monastery in 1942… went to work on his the translation of the Bhagavad Gita.  Swami Prabhavananda wrote, “I translated and Chris edited… Aldous said, “No, that is not right yet. Forget that Krishna is speaking to the Hindus in Sanskrit. Forget that this is a translation. Think that Krishna is speaking to an American audience in English… Chris rewrote the whole eleventh chapter of the Gita following Tennyson, I think. He produced the book in a week. He was inspired." Isherwood was not a Sanskrit scholar... “every moment of it was worthwhile… the slow, thorough-going process… considering all the significance of each word and often spending a day on three or four verses—is the ideal way to study, if you have a teacher like Prabhavananda”

The Prabhavananda Gita introduced many Sanskrit terms into the American vocabulary. Isherwood writes “My prejudices [against religion] were largely semantic. I could only approach the subject of mystical religion with the aid of a brand new vocabulary. Sanskrit supplied it. Here were a lot of new words, exact, antiseptic, uncontaminated…Every idea could be made over.” From the Preface we read: “Extremely literal translations of the Gita already exist. We have aimed, rather at an interpretation. Here is one of the greatest religious documents of the world… It has something to say, urgently, to every one of us...” ~ American Vedantist

How Swami Prabhavananda's translation came about:
"Once I was away for a rest in Palm Springs I had a Gita translation with me. When I read the twelfth chapter, I felt that the meaning had not been brought out; I saw deeper meaning in it. So I started to translate, and then Chris helped me.
"I translated and Chris edited. When Peggy Kiskadden came, she read what we had done and could not understand it. Then we went to Aldous. Chris read aloud, and Aldous listened. Aldous said, 'No, that is not right yet. Forget that Krishna is speaking to the Hindus in Sanskrit. Forget that this is a translation. Think that Krishna is speaking to an American audience in English.'
"Then Aldous told Chris which style  to use for verse. Chris rewrote the whole eleventh chapter of the Gita following Tennyson, I think. He produced the book in a week He was inspired."

Excerpts from The Bhagavad Gita: The Song of God

Let him who would climb
In meditation
To heights of the highest
Union with Brahman
Take for his path
The yoga of action.
Then when he nears that path of oneness,
His acts will fall from him,
His path will be tranquil.
...
When goodness grows weak
When evil increases
I make myself a body.
In every age I come back
To deliver the holy,
To destroy the sin of the sinner,
To establish righteousness.
....
Whatever wish men bring me in worship
That wish I grant them.
Whatever path men travel
It is my path:
No matter where they walk
It leads to me.
It is my path:

Photos  ~ Christopher Isherwood & Swami Prabhavananda
~ Prabhavananda, Aldous Huxley & Christopher Isherwood
~ Swami Prabhavananda at the Hollywood Temple
~ Monastic women and men, whom Isherwood referred to as “The Family” in front of the Hollywood Temple.

The Community, many are monastic women and men, whom Isherwood referred to as “The Family” in front of the Hollywood Temple, c. 1952-53. Left to right, Top: Richard Liebow, Lee Bailey, Dell Grover, Christopher Isherwood, Henry Dennison, John Yale (Prema, Sw. Vidyatmananda), John Schenkel, Swami Yogeshananda, Ramdas, Michael Barrie. Middle Row, seated: Ujjvala (Ida Ansell), Swami Aseshananda, Swam...i Prabhavananda, and Gerald Heard. Steps (upper row): Baradaprana, possibly Jnanada or possibly Maria, Prabhaprana, Amiya (Countess of Sandwich), Sarada, Anandaprana, Khunki. Bottom Step: Yogini (Yogaprana), Pagli.

Copyright Vedanta Society of Southern California All rights reserved, Collection of The Vedanta Archives

Huxley

To me, Aldous Huxley's 'The Perennial Philosophy' is important because it connects those who have a direct spiritual knowledge of the Divine.

"... the metaphysic that recognizes a divine Reality substantial to the world of things and lives and minds; the psychology that finds in the soul something similar to, or even identical to, divine Reality; the ethic that places man's final end in the knowledge of the immanent and transcendent Ground of all being; the thing is immemorial and universal. Rudiments of the perennial philosophy may be found among the traditional lore of primitive peoples in every region of the world, and in its fully developed forms it has a place in every one of the higher religions.

A version of this Highest Common Factor in all preceding and subsequent theologies was first committed to writing more than twenty-five centuries ago, and since that time the inexhaustible theme has been treated again and again, from the standpoint of every religious tradition and in all the principal languages of Asia and Europe...

If one is not oneself a sage or saint, the best thing one can do, in the field of metaphysics, is to study the works of those who were, and who, because they had modified their merely human mode of being, were capable of a more than merely human kind and amount of knowledge...

The Perennial Philosophy is expressed most succinctly in the Sanskrit formula, tat tvam asi ('That thou art'); the Atman, or immanent eternal Self, is one with Brahman, the Absolute Principle of all existence; and the last end of every human being, is to discover the fact for himself, to find out who he really is."

"The Perennial Philosophy," Aldous Huxley writes, "may be found among the traditional lore of peoples in every region of the world, and in its fully developed forms it has a place in every one of the higher religions."
With great wit and stunning intellect—drawing on a diverse array of faiths, including Zen Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Christian mysticism, and Islam—Huxley examines the spiritual beliefs of various religious traditions and explains how they are united by a common human yearning to experience the divine. The Perennial Philosophy includes selections from Meister Eckhart, Rumi, and Lao Tzu, as well as the Bhagavad Gita, Tibetan Book of the Dead, Diamond Sutra, and Upanishads, among many others.

- Aldous Huxley

 "Huxley had an extensive association with the Vedanta Society of Southern California, founded and headed by Swami Prabhavananda. Together with Gerald Heard, Christopher Isherwood, and other followers he was initiated by the Swami and was taught meditation and spiritual practices.

In 1944, Huxley wrote the introduction to the "Bhagavad Gita: The Song of God", translated by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood, which was published by The Vedanta Society of Southern California.

From 1941 until 1960, Huxley contributed 48 articles to Vedanta and the West, published by the society. He also served on the editorial board with Isherwood, Heard, and playwright John van Druten from 1951 through 1962.

Huxley also occasionally lectured at the Hollywood and Santa Barbara Vedanta temples. Two of those lectures have been released on CD: Knowledge and Understanding and Who Are We? from 1955. Nonetheless, Huxley's agnosticism, together with his speculative propensity, made it difficult for him to fully embrace any form of institutionalized religion.

In the spring of 1953, Huxley had his first experience with psychedelic drugs (in this case, mescaline). Huxley had initiated a correspondence with Dr. Humphry Osmond, a British psychiatrist then employed in a Canadian institution, and eventually asked him to supply a dose of mescaline; Osmond obliged and supervised Huxley’s session in southern California. After the publication of The Doors of Perception, in which he recounted this experience, Huxley and Swami Prabhavananda disagreed about the meaning and importance of the psychedelic drug experience, which may have caused the relationship to cool, but Huxley continued to write articles for the society's journal, lecture at the temple, and attend social functions." - Wikipedia

Friends

"The testimony of simplicity is... that a person ought to live a simple life in order to focus on what is most important and ignore or play down what is least important.

Friends believe that a person’s spiritual life and character are more important... being more concerned with one’s inner condition than one’s outward appearance and with other people more than oneself."

Everyone is always welcome at a Quaker worship.
In worship Friends gather into silent, expectant waiting. We hold ourselves open to the Light and reach for the divine center of our being. We know the center to be a place of peace, love, and balance, where we are at one with the universe and with each other.

Quakers practice a religion of experience, a contemporary, simple, and radical faith.  Quakers are also called Friends.

Quakers believe . . .

• Every person is known by God and can know God in a direct relationship.
   
• The Quaker faith has deep Christian roots. Many Quakers consider themselves Christians, and some do not. Many Quakers find meaning and value in the teachings of many faiths.
   
• Quakers strive to live lives that are guided by a direct encounter with the Divine, more than by teachings about the Divine.  Quaker terms for the Holy include God, the Seed, the Light Within, and the Inward Teacher, among others.
   
• Testimonies are ways that Quakers have found to express our experience of the Divine in our lives.  Some of the best recognized testimonies include simplicity, integrity, equality, community, and peace.

Quaker worship . . .

Quakers gather in the silence and wait expectantly to come into the presence of the Divine and to be guided by the still, small voice by which God speaks to us from within. During the silence anyone—child, woman, or man—may feel moved to offer a simple spoken message (vocal ministry) that is inspired by this holy encounter.  Following the message, the silence resumes.  A period of worship may include several messages or none.

Quakers include . . .

There are Quakers of all ages, religious backgrounds, races and ethnicities, education, sexual orientations, gender identities, abilities, and classes.  You can find Quakers on all of the world’s continents. Approximately one-third live in the United States and Canada."

Photos - Whidbey Island Quakers

Women Tribe

“Friendship between women is different than friendship between men. We talk about different things. We delve deep. We go under, even if we haven’t seen each other for years. There are hormones that are released from women to other women that are healthy and do away with the stress hormones. It’s my women friends that keep starch in my spine and without them, I don’t know where I would be. We have to just hang together and help each other.”

In ancient times women shared a lot more than they do today. They shared care of their babies, gathered food and cooked together. The women and the children shared their lives intimately, and were a source of strength and comfort to each other on a daily basis. Traditions like the Red Tent, where women came together during menstruation to be together, often with synchronised cycles, were a beautiful time for nurturing, sharing women’s business and keeping each other resilient and happy.


Today, women are a lot more isolated in their own homes and lives and more separate from each other. The opportunities for coming together are much more limited and the time spent together in this way greatly reduced. Because of this women miss the beautiful healing and nourishment that comes from being with other.

Red Tent women’s circle

Creating a Cycle of Nourishment

Women are at the centre of family life, the pillars of a family, providing care for children and often the wider community. Other women fill the emotional gaps in the intimate partnerships women have. They strengthen these relationships, as a support and assurance that one person cannot be everything to you. Being with other women helps you to be a better mother, and the moral support, physical, emotional and mental support and stimulation create a beautiful harmonious environment for children to thrive.


Women are natural nurturers and empathic givers. It is vital for them to receive and be nourished as continual giving out ends in depletion, an increasingly common health problem. Women instinctually know how to nourish each other, and just being with each other is restorative.

Women instinctively know how to nourish each other

The Power of Female Friendship

The true benefits of friendship are immeasurable. Friends make our lives better and studies show that friendship has a bigger impact on our physical and psychological wellbeing than family relationships

Women share a special bond; they bare their souls to each other, support and encourage one another. The author Louise Bernikow said:

Female friendships that work are relationships in which women help each other to belong to themselves.

The power of female friendships has also revealed some of its secrets to science. Researchers have found that the hormone oxytocin is, for women especially, the panacea of friendship and, by extension, health.

Women share a special bond, they bare their souls to each other

How Friendships reduce Stress

A landmark study has found that women respond to stress differently than men. This fact has significant health implications. When people experience stress, the fight or flight response is triggered and releases hormones such as cortisol. Oxytocin – a hormone studied mainly for its role in childbirth – is another hormone that is secreted by both men and women in response to stress. In women, it buffers the fight or flight response and encourages them to protect and nurture their children and to gather with other women.


Drs Laura Klein and Shelley Taylor refer to it as the “tend and befriend” pattern, and it happens with not only humans, but also the females of many species. When we actually engage in tending or befriending, even more oxytocin is released, further countering stress and calming us down. Until fairly recently many research studies on stress focused on males, Taylor said. “Women were largely excluded in stress research because many researchers believed that monthly fluctuations in hormones created stress responses that varied too widely to be considered statistically valid.”

Tending and befriending can reduce stress

Men produce high levels of testosterone when they’re under stress, and according to Dr Klein, it reduces the calming effects of oxytocin. They are therefore more likely to deal with stress with aggression (fight) or withdrawal (flight). A woman on the other hand, produces estrogen that enhances the effects of oxytocin and compels them to seek social support.


Aggression and withdrawal take a physiological toll, whereas friendship brings comfort that diminish the effects of stress. “This difference in seeking social support during stressful periods is the principal way men and women differ in their response to stress, and one of the most basic differences in men’s and women’s behaviour,” Dr Taylor said. This difference alone contributes to the gender difference in longevity.


A 2006 breast cancer study found that women without close friends were four times as likely to die from the disease as women with 10 or more friends. And notably, proximity and the amount of contact with a friend weren’t associated with survival. Just having friends was protective.

Women with close friends are less likely to die from disease

Sisterhood

Jane Fonda, activist and actress says: “Friendship between women is different than friendship between men. We talk about different things. We delve deep. We go under, even if we haven’t seen each other for years. There are hormones that are released from women to other women that are healthy and do away with the stress hormones. It’s my women friends that keep starch in my spine and without them, I don’t know where I would be. We have to just hang together and help each other.”
Fonda and her close friend Lily Tomlin did a TED talk on the importance of female friendships, and likened women’s friendships to a renewable source of power:

It’s because our friendships – female friendships are just a hop to our sisterhood, and sisterhood can be a very powerful force, to give the world … the things that humans desperately need."

Watch: Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin

Punchline

What if death is a punchline?..

All that fear and suffering just taking ourselves too seriously?

And death not seriously enough?

"No funny. Discriminatory against seniors. Actually dead, unfortunately, can happen during any stage of your life for multiple reasons we all know."

"In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." -- Benjamin Franklin
Ben was probably laughing when he wrote those words."

"Its called humor. Sometimes its a little dark lol."

"I'm the director of a senior center. Everyone there would think this is hilarious."

"As a senior citizen I also found the humor in it, we lie saying, oh, that's okay I am not afraid of death, but for sure we be running if we hear it counting. lol!"

"What if you die and never know you ever were?
What would that actually ruin?"

"If death is the punchline then is the joke the fact that we are born with a survival instinct that makes us desperately want to avoid death?"

"Yes. We laugh because we must."

"If I am not laughing when death comes, I never got the joke."

Friends with Death

“… I had a friend who was dying of breast cancer that had spread throughout her body. Over the course of her last year, she had many close calls. People would gather around to pay their final respects, but she would always bounce back. What I noticed is that when I went to see her, I would put on what I assumed to be a proper demeanor for paying final respects. I am not sure how I cooked up the idea of what that demeanor should be; maybe from the movies. Since my friend kept not dying, I was eventually able to see what I was doing. The mask I was putting on was completely phony. I had no humor.

Thanks to the erratic course of my friend’s illness, by the time she did die, I was able to walk into her room with my humor and humanity intact. I had seen through the contrivances of my imagined proper deathbed scene, and at that point, a glimmer of humor broke through. Something lifted. I was able to be more present and also more ordinary, more raw in the presence of death. I have always considered that insight a great gift my dying friend gave me.

When we lose our humor, our whole demeanor changes—our tone of voice, how we move and carry ourselves, our facial expressions. This may sound strange, but it happens. We may be trying to help, but when we approach sick or dying people in that way, they do not feel better; they feel weird. They pick up on the fact that the people around them are acting strangely, walking on eggshells, oddly quiet, trying not to disturb or upset anyone. It is sad, because without humor, there is no room for ordinary interaction. Everything is “heavy.” We can’t have a normal conversation with someone anymore because all we can focus on is his death. “Forget about wanting to know whether Cleveland or New York won; you should be beyond all that now.”  We want no frivolity; we want profound communication only. But that is not all that helpful—in fact, it is insulting.

Sick and dying people do not exist on a separate plane from the rest of us. I think we try to put them in a special category because it distances us from the experience of sickness and death. It is a way of protecting ourselves by focusing on how different they are from us rather than on how similar we are. In contrast, humor maintains a sense of ordinary life and simple human contact.

Our understanding, behavior, attitudes, and emotions all have an effect on the environment around us. Handing out advice, letting our mind run wild, creating an atmosphere of lies and deception, giving up on communication, being too complicated, chattering nervously, confusing pain and suffering, freaking out, micromanaging, smoothing things over, giving in to politics and bureaucracy, maintaining an atmosphere of heavy-handed solemnity, denying the ordinariness of death—these are just a few of the many ways we affect the environment for the worse.

But it is also possible to affect the environment for the better. We could look into the harmful patterns to which we fall prey and cultivate our ability to be simpler, less judgmental, and more aware of our mental and emotional state moment to moment. Then, as these obstacles arise, we might recognize them and be able to let them go.”

~ Judith Lief’s book, Making Friends with Death: A Buddhist Guide to Mortality

Spirit House

My friend Steve Roizen is in Thailand and sent these photos:

"The Erawan Shrine was originally erected in 1956 during the construction of the Erawan Hotel because the property’s spirit house wasn’t able to appease spirits disrupted by the building work. Spiritual advisers suggested building a shrine dedicated to the four-headed image of Lord Brahma, and since its investiture, Phra Phrom has become renowned for bringing good fortune. Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok, together with the Than Tao Mahaprom Erawan Hotel Foundation, make offerings to the Erawan Shrine every year on the 9th November."

 "Buddhism in Thailand is largely of the Theravada school, which is followed by 93.6 percent of the population. Buddhism in Thailand has also become integrated with folk religion as well as Chinese religions from the large Thai Chinese population. Hinduism played a strong role in the early Thai institution of kingship, just as it did in Cambodia, and exerted influence in the creation of laws and order for Thai society as well as Thai religion. Certain rituals practiced in modern Thailand, either by monks or by Hindu ritual specialists, are either explicitly identified as Hindu in origin, or are easily seen to be derived from Hindu practices. While the visibility of Hinduism in Thai society has been diminished substantially during the Chakri Dynasty, Hindu influences, particularly shrines to the god Brahma, continue to be seen in and around Buddhist institutions and ceremonies. Folk religion—attempts to propitiate and attract the favor of local spirits known as phi—forms the third major influence on Thai Buddhism. While Western observers (as well as Western-educated Thais) have often drawn a clear line between Thai Buddhism and folk religious practices, this distinction is rarely observed in more rural locales. Spiritual power derived from the observance of Buddhist precepts and rituals is employed in attempting to appease local nature spirits. Many restrictions observed by rural Buddhist monks are derived not from the orthodox Vinaya, but from taboos derived from the practice of folk magic."

"The Dhammakaya Movement is a Thai Buddhist tradition which was started by Luang Pu Sodh Candasaro in the early 20th century. The tradition is revivalist in nature and practices Dhammakaya meditation. The movement opposes traditional magical rituals, superstition, folk religious practices, fortune telling and giving lottery numbers, and focuses on an active style of propagating and practicing meditation. Features of the tradition include teaching meditation in a group, teaching meditation during ceremonies, teaching meditation simultaneously to monastics and lay people, teaching one main meditation method and an emphasis on lifelong ordination."  .................................................................................................................. "Maechi Chandra (1909–2000) became strongly interested in meditation when she was still a child, after she was cursed by her drunken father. After he died, she wished to reconcile with him through contacting him in the afterlife. In 1935, she went to Bangkok to work and find a way to meet Luang Pu Sodh. After she met Maechi Thongsuk and learnt meditation from her, she ordained at Wat Paknam. She later became a prominent meditation student of Luang Pu Sodh. After Luang Pu Sodh's death, she became instrumental in introducing Dhammakaya meditation to Luang Por Dhammajayo and Luang Por Dattajivo, with who she later found Wat Phra Dhammakaya."

Vanishing Tribe

"I grew up in the 40s in a white house that my father built in a cornfield north of Minneapolis, a stone's throw from the Mississippi, with my parents and five siblings. We were fundamentalist Christians – members of the Plymouth Brethren. We believed in separation from the world and in the divine inspiration of the Bible; every word and every comma. So we read these texts very closely and memorised passages of scripture for recitation, which gives a person a love of language and especially the grand cadences of the King James rolling off your tongue. Family and faith were merged into one loving world of certainty and fervour, until I reached the age of scepticism and pulled away and left home...

GK: … My mother’s family, the Denhams, came from Glasgow, where grandfather was a bookkeeper for the railroad. He came in 1905, with a wife and four small children, and was a Brethren adherent when he came, though I’m not sure how far back it went. Once here, he attended an Open meeting for a year before he went to the Exclusive group that I grew up in.
DB: How far back does your family go in Brethren?
GK: My grandfather James Keillor and his father and other relatives established a meeting in Anoka, Minnesota in the 1880s, the result of work by an itinerant Brethren labourer. The family has roots in the Baptist church in Canada, and grandfather married a Methodist. In the early days of the Brethren in Anoka, they would accept grandmother’s Methodist relatives to the table for the breaking of bread, until another labourer persuaded them not to.
DB: There are some different branches of Exclusive Brethren. Do you know to which group your family adhered?
GK: Our group was known as the Booth Brethren, to distinguish us from the Ames Brethren, after a particularly disastrous split in 1948. Most of my father’s family went with the Ameses and we went with the Booths. It was the result of an argument over the Glanton Brethren, who were in fellowship with
us, whom the Ameses accused of harbouring Raven tendencies, or at least of not proving themselves to be clear of Ravenism, and so when some Brethren refused to cast out the Glantons on the basis of these accusations, the accusers broke off with us.
DB: Why did you choose to refer to them as ‘the Sanctified Brethren’ in your fiction?
GK: Sanctified Brethren makes more sense than ‘Plymouth Brethren’. In America, Plymouth is a car.
DB: Have you ever had acquaintance with any other kinds of Brethren, e.g. Open Brethren?
GK: I haven’t, to be perfectly honest. Our Brethren had such a strong distaste for the Open meetings that it was a closed subject among us and I knew more about Lutherans or Anglicans or even Catholics than about Open Brethren. The elders found it painful to discuss the divisions that had taken place over
the years, and so I never was clear about Ravenism, for example, what the Kellys believed that was different from our beliefs. And Openism was a vast mystery…
DB: Are any of your relations still members of the Brethren?
GK: My parents are, and my younger sister has been in and out in recent years, drawn to the Brethren by her faith in their principles and her affection for them but repelled by the intransigence of older brothers on the subject of women’s participation in Bible readings, for example. And resistance to
change in even very small matters.
DB: If so, what are their attitudes to your productions as a broadcaster and writer?
GK: As you know, no self-respecting Brethren family would ever want a child of theirs to go into entertainment or literature. But they’ve gotten over the shame, for the most part, enough so that they can enjoy the performances, up to a point. They would never brag about me, of course. But they don’t mind being seen at my shows now and then. And my mother seems to get a kick out of my reminiscences of childhood.
DB: Were you ever a recognized member of a Brethren meeting? Did you break bread?
GK: I was baptized when I was fourteen and did not do as my contemporaries did and ask to be received into fellowship. The thought of coming before a panel of elders to be examined in my faith was a fearful prospect, and also, I had a strong feeling that the Brethren was not a hospitable place for me.
DB: At what age did you leave the company of Brethren?
GK: I was twenty.
DB: Do you find any encouragement toward humour in the Bible?
GK: I feel that comedy is based on the gospel, fundamentally. But there is a playfulness in comedy that is found, perhaps, only in some of the Psalms, in Proverbs surely, and in few other places. This makes me feel that it has been edited severely by men and that it may not represent God’s final word. God’s
love of comedy is abundantly clear in life, it seems to me. God’s creatures are endowed with it, even cats and dogs.
DB: You have been heard to justify the writing of fiction by reference to Jesus’s use of parables. Is this seriously intended?
GK: Well, up to a point. Jesus chose to teach through the telling of stories that are understood to be not literally true. But the real justification of fiction, I think, is the admonition of James that we should confess our sins to each other. Brethren don’t do that. They believe confession would weaken them.
They believe in presenting a staunch countenance to the world. They were, I believe, the worst storytellers I ever met. Everything was heavily edited and much was suppressed. They aspired to a towering solemnity that was truly frightening to small children.
DB: One gains the impression from your writings that you must have heard and absorbed a lot of Bible teaching in your childhood and youth. How did this come about?
GK: We didn’t read the Bible much in our home—my parents had their hands full trying to raise six children and earn a living and keep things afloat—but we went to meeting every Sunday for the full Brethren programme, Sunday School, the Lord’s Supper, the afternoon Bible study if a labourer was in
town, Young People’s, and an evening gospel meeting. And for a few years in my teens, I was an avid reader of Scripture on my own. So a great deal of teaching got drummed into my head. Even today, in my doddering state, verses keep coming back to me, the Bible speaks in all sorts of situations.
DB: Do you think your knowledge of the Bible has been a good thing on the whole (a) for your writing; (b) for your life?
GK: Yes, certainly, and I don’t divide writing from life. The Bible is the source of what spiritual life I have, and writing, as an act of the spirit, must be directed by that.
DB: Have you any thoughts about the Brethren’s penchant for dispensationalism and charts of the ages?
GK: I have the Chart of Time from Eternity to Eternity hanging in my upstairs hallway and it’s a comfort to have it around. It reminds me of a time when I was thirteen or so, attending a lecture on the Chart by a labourer, and while gazing at the Chart was filled with a great sense of certainty that I, a mere
child, understood All Things That Ever Were of Will Be. I don’t get that sense often anymore.
DB: What do you think when you hear people state, ‘The Bible is the word of God?’
GK: Well, it is, of course, but it depends on who the people are. Usually they are trying to sell me their slant, and I am a resistant buyer. I edge away, with apologies.
DB: Can modern literature be to us in any sense the word of God?
GK: I believe that genius comes from God, and that it is up to men and women to use it well, and that we can each be the judge of that. I believe that when the human heart is poured out, when the anguish and sweetness and music and anger of life is lavished upon the page and when language is used
artistically to bring us into the life of another, that this may be God’s doing. I feel that Christians should read great literature. There are gifts to be found there.

I have many fond memories of growing up in the meeting. Of the gentleness of people, of the transparency of their faith, of their devotion to the Word and to Scripture study.” But, he says, “I don’t miss the humourlessness, the lure of legalism, or the snares of the invisible liturgy. . . . If the Pharisees were to come back, they’d come back as Brethren. Seeking the manners of godliness over the love of God, going through the motions, genuflecting in all the little ways Brethren do. This spirit of fearfulness is so contrary to the spirit of artistic freedom and joyfulness, whether in literature or music or painting, in which we aspire to transcend ourselves. I never met Brethren who felt that the arts were a gift of God. The Brethren I knew felt quite the opposite, that the arts were a pretense for individual pride...

I’m working on a memoir, so I’m trying to put my parents down on paper, and I’m trying to put this Fundamentalist group, the Plymouth Brethren, that I grew up in down on paper. It’s dying out, so it’s like writing about some vanishing tribe, but somebody needs to, and I am writing in a sympathetic way about it, and a little bit about certain strokes of good luck that can propel a push forward, whether you have any particular gift or not. I believe in luck, I really do, you see it when it’s there and you just grab hold of it, and you ride it, that’s really how you do it. It’s nothing rational, there’s no planning involved. Hard work can dig you deeper down, as well as doing something good, but I believe in luck, I really do...

JW: When you hear your parents’ voices in your head, what are they saying?

GK: My mother is saying, “Be careful.” My dad is saying, “What are you waiting for?”

JW: If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself as a kid growing up in Minnesota? What did he learn? What would he like to do over?

GK: I’d tell him to learn carpentry and plumbing and go find work. Skip college and just read the classics. Get a life and then maybe try his hand at writing.

JW: What are you most grateful for?
GK: Grateful to be alive. Life is good. Every day, even the bad ones."

- Garrison Keillor, author of Lake Woebegone.

Photos,~ Garrison Keillor with his daughter, Maia: “I am even more interested in longevity now that she is 15 and I am 70."

Indian Shakers

“John Slocum (Squ-sacht-um) had died from sickness in 1881 when he revived during his wake reporting a visit to heaven, where he was told by an angel that, "you've been a pretty bad Indian", and where he received instructions to start a new religion.  When Slocum became ill again several months later, his wife, Mary, began to shake and tremble uncontrollably in prayer. Soon afterward, Slocum recovered and his healing was attributed to Mary's convulsions. The religion is thus named for the shaking of members during religious congregations. The shaking is reported to have healing powers. The story is told that Mary had sent for a casket. John was dead. The casket was brought by canoe, down the river. The casket was just coming around the bend in the river when John revived....and told the people he had met Jesus and what they were to do.

The Indian Shaker Church: Unrelated to the better-known Protestant sect of the same name, this was a messianic, healing religion founded in the Pacific Northwest. Indian Shakers originally rejected the Bible and all other written scriptures and instead relied on direct communication between God and the individual. Such Shakers believe that the experience of the Gospel does not require a book, but rather is encoded in the mind and soul in accordance with the will of God. The religion began to be practiced by many unrelated peoples along the Northwest Coast of North America, such as the Klallam, Quinault, Lower Chehalis, Yakama, Hoh, Quileute, Wiyot, Yurok, and Hupa, among others.

Practices reflecting Catholic influence include the use of hand-held candles, the ringing of individual hand bells (to a very loud volume), and the sign of the cross (usually repeated three times). Protestant influence is shown in public testifying and confession of shortcomings. Native elements include brushing or stroking to remove evil influence, counter-clockwise movement of service participants around the room (often with loud stomping), and spontaneous reception of songs from the spirit. Church members are expected to refrain from using alcohol and tobacco. Carefulness, kindness, and supplication to God for help are emphasized.

The new religion encountered much opposition and hostility from Euro-Americans. As had happened with the Ghost Dance, there was much misunderstanding and Anglos feared an Indian uprising. For a time, all Indian religious practices were banned by law and the Indian Shakers were included. Many members were imprisoned and chained for their practices. In the 1960s, a break occurred among Indian Shakers in which one "conservative" faction continued to reject written religious material while another "progressive" faction was more tolerant of the use of the Bible and other written material. Indian Shakers continue to practice on the Northwest Coast in Washington, Oregon, California, and British Columbia.” ~ Wikipedia

“Shaker Church Marysville, Washington. The Indian Shakers say their religion took root in 1881. Since 1923, there has been a church on this property, but in 2007, the structure became so dilapidated that the locals could no longer meet there. The decision was made to completely rebuild the church and dining hall. Following a ceremonial burning of the historical structure, work was done to rebuild the church to mimic the previous structure.”

~ Botesch, Nash & Hall has continued to thrive under the leadership of Andrew M. Hall, AIA

Akiane

“A vision is like an oasis in a desert. You can’t have it all the time, as you need to keep on continuing your journey through the desert of life experiences, full of faith trials… I am not so concerned about waiting for a vision to appear because I know it will come to me when I least expect it… I still do have visions that inspire my work…

I remember splitting into a myriad fragments, hundreds upon hundreds of eyes that could see in all directions and participate in many imperative planetary and extra-planetary proceedings all at the same time. Then, after many long hours, I reappeared in the midst of numerous eye-witnesses, right by the windows in the crescent shaped corridor of our house. Neither my family, nor the officers, nor I could comprehend what had really happened, nor did we discuss it any more as it carried rather distressing and inexplicable association… This voice was following me, guiding me through these galaxies; and then I asked him, 'Do you know, Who are you?' And then I started calling him God…

"Today I met God," Akiane whispered to her mother one morning. "What is God?" I was surprised to hear this. To me, God's name always sounded absurd and primitive. "God is light-warm and good. It knows everything and talks with me. It is my parent." "Tell me more about your dream." "It was not a dream. It was real!" I looked at her slightly puffed eyes, and in complete disbelief I kept on asking her questions. "So who is your God?" "I cannot tell you." Akiane lowered her head. "Me? You cannot tell your own mom?" "The Light told me not to." She was firm.

“You know, I have to tell you, we went through almost everything. We went from being Christian to to being Catholic, we studied Buddhism… but at this particular point, I think every single [one] of my siblings, they have their own path, their own spiritual enlightenment they are reaching. I have my own, my parents have theirs, and my brothers have theirs. I cannot say what they believe in or what path they are choosing, but for me, I can say I am the same person [as] I was when I was four years old… I am spiritual.”

"At age 6 Akaine was asked by her Lord and Savior, Yeshua, to share the real face of Jesus with the world by painting a portrait of Jesus that would capture His compassion and His love of all mankind. With her parents’ help, Akiane began to search in earnest for someone on earth who’s facial features resembled the images of Jesus she had experienced in her heavenly encounters with Yeshua, Jesus our Messiah. Desperately wanting to paint portraits of Jesus, Akiane spent endless hours in malls, stores, and public events searching for the right face. Her search went on for over a year – no one she saw resembled Jesus! Totally undone and frustrated, Akiane asked her family to pray with her as she went to God for help. She prayed, 'I can’t do this anymore, God. This is it. I can’t find anyone by myself. I need You to send me the right Model.'

"The very next day, Akiane’s prayers were answered! "The doorbell rang. The visitor was a bearded man, over 6 feet tall, with strong hands and a warm smile. His demeanor was a balance of meekness and poise. He was a modern-day carpenter! Akiane said in Lithuanian, “Tai jis! – This is He!” The mysterious carpenter God had sent to Akaine was available for only 3 days (John Roth, a carpenter from Sandpoint, Idaho), yet Akiane was so thankful! She sketched him from every possible angle. Then, at age 8 and in just 40 hours, the Jesus “Prince of Peace” painting was created! This was over a decade ago. Today the internationally acclaimed “Prince of Peace” painting is recognized by believers around the world as the Real Face of Jesus.”

~ Akiane Kramarik, now age 22, is a self-taught Lithuanian-American poet and painter. She became known as a child prodigy after her artwork of Jesus Christ, as well as other pieces, gained international attention. She began drawing at the age of four.

'I was so young but started having these visions and impressions of the world, I was just so surprised at the impeccable images I had in my head that I just had to express them in some sort of physical matter. So I began sketching on anything and I remember these drawings scattered around the dirty shack we used to live in.'

Tissot

“… In the mid 1870s James Tissot met Kathleen Newton (1854-1882), an Irish divorcee with a distinctly colourful past. She had formed a sexual relationship with a man on a voyage to India to be married, and borne his child. Kathleen became his model, muse, mistress, and the great love of his life. Tissot's paintings of his lady tell any observer of sensitivity of his love for her. Many other successful men kept mistresses in St John's Wood, but they did not, like Tissot, live openly with them in adulterous relationships. This situation forced the painter to chose between his social life and Kathleen.

To his credit he chose his lady. It would be wrong to think that Tissot became something of a hermit, as he and Kathleen Newton entertained their more bohemian artistic friends at home. But Tissot's days as a man-about-town were over, and he and Kathleen seem to have settled into a quiet life of domesticity. Kathleen's two children lived close by with her sister. Kathleen Newton was an extremely attractive young woman, and appeared in many of Tissot paintings at this time. In the late 1870s her health started to decline, with the onset of that great 19th century killer Tuberculosis.

Tissot remained devoted to her. It is likely that the Roman Catholicism of both painters would not allow them to contemplate marriage. In 1882, the desperately ill Kathleen cheated consumption by committing suicide, and, as a result was not able to be buried in consecrated ground. With one week Tissot left his home at St Johns Wood, and never returned to it. The house was later bought by Alma-Tadema.

Tissot was devastated by his loss, and never really recovered from it. Tissot seemed unable to accept the enormity and permanence of it. It is rumoured that he considered marriage to other women later in life, but these affairs came to nothing. Like many English people at this time Tissot became interested in Spiritualism, and on a number of occasions tried to contact the dead Kathleen. The exotic French artist and his fallen women-one of the great 19th century English love stories. Initially Tissot carried on working back in Paris, in much the same manner as in London. Tissot produced a series of paintings of attractive, beautifully dressed women in sumptuous surroundings. These paintings were, for a time, extremely fashionable. Following this Tissot experienced a profound religious experience, and became increasingly devout…” ~ World Classic Gallery

“According to his own account, Tissot, at around age 48, saw a vision during Mass in the Church of St. Sulpice in Paris.” (Figured in Dan Brown)  “… he had a 'vision' in which he saw the Savior and two men sitting in the rubble of a building that looked like what we later saw in pictures of World War I," Wright says. "He saw it as a witness of the Atonement for all men. And he decided the rest of his life would be devoted to religious painting." “After his mystical experience, Tissot’s work changed markedly. His next painting, “Inward Voices,” depicts his vision: an impoverished couple sit on the rubble of a building in ruins; beside them sits Jesus—scourged, bleeding and wearing a crown of thorns, yet present to comfort them. Tissot’s religious experience at St. Sulpice resulted in a lifelong directional shift in his artistic work…

Four years later, after his vision, Tissot undertook an artistic project that led him to study archeology and the Bible, and he traveled three times to the Middle East, where he filled sketchbooks with images of the people and places he observed… Tissot was bound by the beliefs of his time. His is a single, harmonized Gospel story, untroubled by the questions that modern biblical scholarship has raised and the contradictions it has pointed out. Mistakenly, he thought the culture of the Middle East had not changed much since the time of Jesus and so worked diligently to capture the similarity on paper before modernity could erase it.

But this “mistake” accounts for some of the admirable documentary detail of his work: the patterns of rugs, tiles, lattices, textiles, capitals and costumes; and the precise rituals and pageantry, including the segregated society of men and women. Jesus walks through narrow passageways; sits in dark, moonlit rooms; strides down stone streets; and when not on the sea, traverses a pink, gold or blue landscape with oases of palms and olive trees that is starkly beautiful—its rock piles casting gray and mauve shadows. At times one also sees the Jerusalem of Tissot’s day—its red-and-white striped buildings bleached white in the gleaming sun.

Tissot’s people are dynamic and lifelike. Tissot’s cast of characters extends beyond the leading roles to include townspeople whom viewers can recognize throughout the series... Although Tissot strove for historical realism, his images of spirits, angels and demons are highly imaginative, as fantastic and modern as a still shot from James Cameron’s “Avatar.” In one of the temptation scenes, “Jesus Transported by a Spirit Onto a High Mountain,” a huge, shadowy figure lifts a shimmering, white-robed Jesus upward, as in flight, through a purple sky. Tissot’s images blend realism and romanticism in a Victorian style that still appeals to many museumgoers. They do not startle the viewer as they once did but now look familiar.

Indeed, Hollywood epics have been based on them. And scenes of the suffering of Jesus from Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” and the appearance of the Ark of the Covenant in Steven Spielberg’s “Raiders of the Lost Ark” both owe a debt to Tissot. After years of intense labor, Tissot exhibited his work in Paris, then in London and the United States. Viewers responded with reverence, awe and tears. Crowds were hushed. Most reviews were laudatory, though not all; one likened the realistic style of the work to a Baedeker guide. When the series was published, the Tissot “Bible” became an international best seller.

In 1896, at age 60, Tissot returned to Palestine to begin a similar series of illustrations of the Old Testament. He completed 95 watercolors and many drawings before his death in 1902. That collection is currently held by the Jewish Museum in New York City.

To believers, Tissot’s images reveal something more: signs of a vibrant Christian imagination. He did more than represent the land where Jesus walked. Tissot saw himself as a spiritual pilgrim. He reflected on each image and seems to have placed himself in the scenes as the various characters, much as St. Ignatius Loyola recommends in the Spiritual Exercises: as a prodigal son, a child of Jerusalem, a Roman soldier, a mother with a sick child, a condemned thief, a woman at the empty tomb and a convinced follower. Tissot’s visionary images can also help viewers to do the same.”

"Degas complained that Tissot was no fun since he 'got religion,' " Wright says. But his work was shown in the State Salon in Paris, and reports talk of the clergy coming in record numbers, and of women kneeling before the paintings weeping, she says… She can relate to the women of the Paris exhibition. "I've had my moments here," she says. But what's so fun, she adds, is that "it's like a little detective game. Every time you look, you find interesting little facts, new things. He really captured a sense of what the Holy Land looked like. It's so interesting to see how he depicts divine things, to look at the details in the rugs and furnishings."

Tissot shows a younger Joseph than many painters. He used a rare saffron color for the robes of the Magi. The sojourn in Egypt shows a reddish-haired boy at the docks. A young carpenter carries a wooden plank in a way that foreshadows his fate. He wears traditional Hebrew clothing as he reads scrolls in the synagogue. At Bethesda, mystical hands stir the water. There are so many interesting details, Wright says. As Tissot wrote in one of his commentaries, "I have chosen from amongst the scenes of the public life of Jesus, those which best illustrate not only what He is, but what He was, and what He ought to be to us. Especially those which, being more suggestive than others, are a better starting-point for the imagination in its effort to rise to the comprehension of that incomprehensible ideal which is the Christ."
~ The Artist as Believer

Tempted by Delusion

“Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.”  ~ Matthew 4:1-11

"Adya: … the whole temptation of the devil is basically, in lots of different ways Saying: "Use your powers for self-centered reasons." And he's always rejecting that at every...whether it's power, or to show off, or to test God, or to prove his own enlightenment. Anything that's self-serving, He's basically saying, "No, I won't use any of my powers for any of that." That's a teaching that dovetails with all the miracles you'll see, because all the miracles you'll see are not self-serving miracles. The devil, everything he wanted Jesus to do was always egoically utilizing that power. And I've always seen those two teachings dovetailing each other really quite well.

Rick: That's interesting because a lot of spiritual teachers have perhaps succumbed to that temptation.
Adya: Sure, perhaps
Rick: From the devil. "Guru" is almost a dirty word because so many gurus have tripped up when tempted by this, that, and the other thing.
Adya: Sure, well, power's a dangerous thing, any kind of power, whether it's just power somebody gives you as authority, whether it's spiritual power, any power is. Anybody that thinks they're beyond the temptations of power, have already begun to succumb to it. You know, it's a potentially very dangerous thing to play with, and I think that's why all the traditions talk about what it is to wisely utilize power. Whether you call it, in Buddhism "right action," or you see it in the devil tempting Jesus, or however you do that, there's always an acknowledgement of the dangers of power, and the necessity to be able to use it in a wise and compassionate - basically a selfless way, because that's part of waking up. You become a more powerful person, it's part of the deal.
Francis: And it's the insight too, isn't it, that you don't own that power? There's nobody really to be enlightened, in a certain sense. You don't own enlightenment; there's just clarity of vision, there's clarity of seeing. It doesn't belong to anyone. You can't claim it and say, "Oh, you know, that's something that will give me something to talk about at cocktail parties now. I'm not only a millionaire at 35, but I'm also enlightened."
Adya: And Jesus, when he would often, always say, basically, "I'm not doing this; it's the Father that's doing it."
Francis: Exactly.
Adya: His reference was always to something larger than his humanity. And I think that's another important counterbalance to certain other forms of spirituality. Even forms of our own insight, where we can forget that on a human level, that it's really wise to have some sort of sense of something bigger. That's the paradox. It's like, I am That, I am the All and I'm a human being. And I have to be in a correct relationship to the All because it is me, and in one sense, it's also bigger than me. And I think that if it gets out of balance, that you're only in relationship, then you're never fully awakened. If you just go, "It's all me," and you fall out of any human relative relationship with what's bigger than you, then...
Francis: You're a megalomaniac.
Adya: You're a megalomaniac, yeah, yeah. Your enlightenment has unfortunately deluded you…”

~ Adyashanti & Francis Bennett on “Resurrecting Jesus” - BATGAP Interview

Paintings by Jacques Tissot (1836 – 1902), was a French painter and illustrator. He was a successful painter of Paris society before moving to London in 1871. He became famous as a genre painter of fashionably dressed women shown in various scenes of everyday life. He also painted scenes and characters from the Bible.