I have not meditated in maybe a month. Though tough times are particularly good times for meditation, I have trouble bringing myself to sit. Just sit, and it's strangely too much for me. I awake, tell myself I'll do it soon, or not even think of it, or, as has largely been the case, tell myself I'm too busy for that ten minutes. Strange.
My response to stress and pressure is often to become somewhat manic. (Feel driven, unable to stop working, unable to get whatever the stressor might be out of my mind.) This can be a very useful attribute. I get a lot done. But it has a down side. For instance, it can be very stressful for those around me. And my quality of life suffers as well.
I would like, then, to rededicate myself to meditation. I wonder if it will feel like starting over...
In other news, I went to a Catholic service over Memorial Dat weekend. I normally would have avoided it, but I though a little spiritualiy could be good, whether or not I agreed with the dogma. Well, it was a real shame what I encountered. I got sort of a demonstration of the worst of the religion. The priest was bored, seemed to be going through the motions, reduced all the theater of the ritual to a dumb show without content. Worse still, the content of his sermon was hateful. The message was 1. The church will tell yo what to do. Do not try to figure it out yourself. He used as an example that it took him years in seminary to discover why contraception was, in fact wrong. Therefore, just take our word for it. 2. Gays should not be allowed to marry, and homosexuality is an abomination. 3. The DaVinci Code is not true.
The last point was not especially hateful, just a bit silly.
3 comments:
Sorry you got an earful of hate. Not all Catholic priests are so small-minded. The priest who officiated at our wedding, for example, had both compassion and tolerance. He must have had the latter since he agreed to officiate at a wedding between me, an atheist, and my wife, a catholic. He even tailored the ceremony, inserting phrases like, "God and the forces of nature." He was incredibly respectful of my viewpoint, even though I must have come across as a blundering hothead. He also tried to help us out as much as he could with advice about married life, but he didn't overdo it, and he didn't lecture. I really liked the guy.
Yeah. Apparently the other priests at this church are much better. I happened to catch the reactionary/conservative.
Did you know that in Leviticus(?) where it proclaims homosexuality an abomination, it also proclaims shellfish an abomination. How come people aren't up in arms about shellfish?
In a different vein, there must be a Buddhist sitting group in the city you can attend. This weekend I am going to attend a Buddhist retreat with several other people from my local sangha. It's being led by the Khenpos, two Tibetan monks now living in Nashville. I've heard a lot of good things about them.
Incidentally, this past Sunday is celebrated by many Buddhists in honor of the Buddha's birth, enlightenment, and nirvana. The month following this past Sunday is also sacred, and it has been said that any good actions you perform during that time period are multiplied a millionfold.
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