nevermind the bricolage

Pew

A large article in the Los Angeles Times today revealed that the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has finally released the results of a massive survey about spirituality in America. Some early results, released in February, showed that Americans were switching religious affiliations in record numbers and that many more were abandoning ties to organized religions altogether. The more specific results released yesterday have some interesting pointers about California. Firstly, it really is different from the rest of the country, particularly with regard to religious practice. Californians apparently, are less religious and much less certain about the existence of God than the rest of the nation. They don't pray as much, are less inclined to take scripture literally, and are much more pluralistic, embracing more than one way of interpreting religious teachings. Californians are also more accepting of homosexuality than the rest of the country

Dharma Punx

Noah Levine is out to start a spiritual revolution of his own. A lifelong punk, he has furnished his spiritual life with a deep well of surprising and insghtful explorations of Buddhism in America using his punk-past as a launching pad. I have been to hear him teach and lead meditations a few times and find him to be a really compelling speaker and all-around radical. His group, Dharma Punx, have recently launched a new venture, a Buddhist meditation center here in LA called, Against the Stream (the title of his last book), a place where he intends to reframe Buddhist thought and practice. His/their philosophical approach is decidedly Western, this is buddhism contextualized for a new audinece of disctinctly western practitioners, and the site (www.againsthtestream.org) will give much more detail about who they are and what they are up to.

Dear GoD

From the coolhunter comes a new and provocative site dedicated to spirituality in the 21st century. Dear-God is a new approach to web-based spirituality, a sort of post-secret confessional destination. The intention is to get people from around the world to unburden their lives, coolhunter says, "Dear God is completely non-denominational and the term god is used in the broadest sense – encompassing every religion’s concept of a higher power; be it a Christian god, a Muslim god or simply a fluid idea of universal energy. In its first week, the site has sparked an organic revolution, with people all over the world embracing the opportunity to unburden themselves, to share their hopes and fears with others in an effort create hope, healing, inner peace and clarity." The site comes from a trend spotting site with a keen eye for both cultural  desires and focus, but also with a sharp sense of design. I have been saying for a while that design will eventually make a significant contribution to spirituality in the 21st century and here is perhaps another signifier.

Resurrection Alchemy

"He was all gold when he lay down but rose/ all tincture." John Dunne wrote this about the resurrection and we used it as a starting point for our gathering Sunday evening. Dunne was evoking images of alchemy--the search for the tincture that would turn based metals to gold. The idea being that the resurrected Jesus turned lives he touched into gold--the post-Easter gospels deal with doubt, uncertainty and, particularly this week, Thomas (the doubter). I think that poetry can be helpful in engaging with the stories of Jesus, and are really helpful with issues like doubt. Alchemy and poetry, magic and mystery. In one of those moments that you can't plan, my friend Dominic showed up and read a poem--that used the words alchemy and gold--almost like we planned it!!

The Next Buddha?

Michel Bauwens has a really interesting article on RealitySandwich entitled, The Next Buddha Will Be A Collective, an essay about the future of belief that is worth some reflection. His basic argument is that religion, or spiritual expression as he terms it, is always embedded in social structures, and given that we have experienced a major shift in social structuring over the past twenty years, we are likely to express our beliefs in new ways. The emergence of peer to peer platforms as a major new social structure will contribute to this, leading away from the largely hierarchical structures of the great faiths to a more 'egalitarian' shared spirituality in the future.
"The Protestant Reformation and its offshoots took on the many democratic aspects which corresponded to the rise of a new urban class under merchant and industrial capitalism, and the many offshoots of the new age movements

Liberating!

I found this on the street in Venice. It is a card for a play called, Liberating Jesus. There is some interesting copy--"He's back..He's onstage...And He wants to set the record straight." The bottom of the card reads, "Not just a play but an event in consciousness." I get the feeling that this is not a 'Christian' play, in fact, there is a warning on the back of the card saying as much, "This play is very powerful. If you are a Christian who adheres rigidly to traditional beliefs, you probably should NOT attend this play." I think I might have to go and see this!!

This!

This says it best.

Boasts, Banquets and Betrayals

We decided to do something around Leonardo's famous painting as an entryway into Holy Week. The emotions and dynamics of the last supper story in the gospels are intense and easy to miss when attempting to dissect the events in a linear fashion, so we resorted to poetry. In fact, I don't think that it is really possible to grasp the intensity of the moment without poetry--prose is not the best help when it comes to the events of that night--it is rife with chaos--no one is clear who will betray, they all do in the end--and it all begins so well. We used Brendan Kennelly's wondrous epic poem, The Book of Judas, as a launch pad for our own night of reflection. We interspersed readings from his poem with music and a video edit of Scorsese's Last Temptation, and then we ended with a recreation of Leonardo's painting with volunteers from our gathering playing the various roles--words were spoken, bread was broken, wine was offered, and holy kisses exchanged. The kiss that doomed Jesus was the underlying thought behind our night, that tender, intimate human act of love that turned the world on it's ear.
We capped all this with a feast---lamb, middle eastern foods, homemade bread, cheese, chocolate, wine, the list went on and on--delicious. On the way out a bowl of sour candy--the last taste of the evening a reminder that the night left a sour taste in every mouth that was gathered to celebrate with Jesus...

Silence

We've been exploring characters who spent time in the desert as part of our Sunday evening gathering--using them as starting points for our own journeys as we make our way through Lent. This week we looked at Elijah, and the theme of silence that marks his 'moment' in the desert--the idea that we can connect with the sacred through silence rather than noise. So we spent much of the evening in various states of quiet--some breathing meditation, some body prayer, background sounds of rain and thunder leading to complete 'communal silence'--very cool experience actually. Because of the Academy Awards our crowd was pretty light (LA is a bowling alley on Oscar night!) so we were able to generate a greater sense of intimacy than usual. We ended by watching scenes from Kurosawa's Dreams without sound, we looked at the Van Gogh section, which ends with Van Gogh walking into his 'crows' painting, echoes of the ravens that fed Elijah filling the screen--the carriers of death bringing nutrition and life to us all.

Remember

We wrote in charcoal on the floor of the church this Ash Wednesday. The footsteps of those coming forward for the imposition of ashes smudging the words and filling the sanctuary with dusty footprints. "Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return,"  carried out into the night on the soles of the feet  of all who committed to the Lenten journey. It worked quite well--we didn't explain, so some people stepped over it out of politeness, but most people seemed to pick up on the idea and connect.