William Edelen: Mothers Day and the Bible

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
The Contrary Minister

Mother’s Day once again is here with the Sunday sermons filled with clichés, platitudes and banalities. So perhaps it is time to take a good, hard look at what the bible and the church have actually done to degrade women. The treatment of women in the bible is characterized by such indecency and utter contempt that it is total travesty to call this book the “word” of God.

Dr. Gerald Larue, Distinguished professor emeritus of biblical history and archaeology at the University of Southern California, wrote these words: “The Bible has been one of the most powerful social weapons in the arsenal of those who restrict and curtail the freedom of women. No matter what Bible you use, the message is the same: WOMEN ARE INFERIOR. Their inferiority is, moreover, ordained by God. How long are we going to let people who lived and died thousands of years ago dictate the way we live and think today?”

The bible is man-made, written BY men FOR men and promoting the ludicrous party line that they are taking orders from a male God.

A brief history lesson:
In the year 584 A.D. there was held the Council of Macon in Lyons, France. Sixty-three Catholic Bishops met to engage in a serious debate on this subject: “ARE WOMEN HUMAN?” The vote was finally called for. Thirty-two voted “yes”. Thirty-one voted “no”. Women were declared “human” by only one vote.

William Edelen: To Embrace The Silence

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
The Contrary Minister

People often ask me…”what are you…what do you believe?” When I answer that question seriously I tell them that I am within the historical stream of mysticism. That orientation, world view, cosmology, or philosophy of life is the same, whether one lives in a Taoist society, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, Hindu or secular. Mysticism has nothing to do with sitting in a cave looking at your navel. You can be a mystic in the busiest office in downtown Los Angeles or Chicago, and many are.

Mysticism is entering into the Silence. Finding harmony within yourself and your surroundings. It is as Twylah Nitsch says it in Language of the Trees: “I listen and HEAR the silence. I listen and SEE the silence. I listen and TASTE the silence. I listen and SMELL the silence. I listen and EMBRACE the silence…” People in the Lakota tradition of the American Indian believe profoundly in silence, as do the vast majority of Indian traditions. Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind and spirit. If you ask them what the fruits of silence are, they will say: “self control, true courage, endurance, patience, dignity. Silence is the cornerstone.”

To embrace the silence is the key to living in the world of mystical thought and experiencing the NOW, the immediate. It is to recover intuition and feeling. It has nothing to do with PAST or FUTURE. Mysticism refuses to deify Reason or Rationalism. It is Carl Jung writing that “reason and rationalism are the two major diseases of our time.” He wrote that in his autobiography.

William Edelen: Ancient Texts Define A Zen Christianity

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
Toward The Mystery (1983)

In 1945 an Arab peasant in the upper Egyptian desert near Nag Hammadi made a spectacular discovery. Buried in earthenware were 52 Papyrus texts, some dating from the beginning of the Christian era and presenting a Jesus that said things that could have come out of the mouth of a Zen Master, or even the Buddha himself.

Professor Helmut Koester of Harvard University has made the observation that one of these gospels in particular, the Gospel of Thomas includes traditions even older than the Gospels of The New Testament, earlier than Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. They are known as the Gnostic gospels, from the Greek word gnosis — meaning ‘to know,’ to know oneself, to have an insight into oneself in an intuitive sense.

“To know oneself is to know God,” says Jesus in these gospels. The self and the divine are identical and one. The living Jesus in these gospels speaks of enlightenment, the same type that is taught by Zen Masters and Taoists. Jesus is never presented as Lord, but rather as a spiritual guide. The living Buddha could easily have said, and did, everything attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas and other of the texts.

William Edelen: Poetry, Puppies and Pleasure…

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
The Contrary Minister

On the 17th of July, coming up fast, I will have been on this earth 91 years. On that date in the West Texas town of Stephenville a star danced and I made my entrance into this world in 1922. That city is known today as ‘the cowboy capital of the world.’” Those lazy, hazy days of summer for me will be filled with the pleasure of  poetry and my two four legged soul mates who share my home with me… I named them TAI and CHI. Brown and white Shih-Tzu’s, litter mates, brothers. Abundant joy and the celebration of life is constant in their presence.

They will compliment my other hours relishing good poetry and poets who, to me, are the language and breath of life. It is as Octavio Paz has written “there is more truth to be found in poetry than in all the philosophy ever written” …and again “when you say ‘life is marvelous, you are saying a banality.’ But to make life a marvel, that is the role of poetry.”  That opinion from a Nobel Prize winner in Literature and Poetry, from a poet called “the soul of Mexico” touches my mind and heart and receives from me a solid YES in affirmation.

William Edelen: The Power of Poetry

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
The Contrary Minister

With all of literature, I think it has been great poetry that has influenced my life and thought as much as any other. “There is more truth to be found in poetry than in all the philosophy ever written” wrote Octavio Paz, Nobel prize winner in Literature and Poetry, who was called “the soul of Mexico”

A perfect example is Pablo Neruda. This last week was the exhumation of his body to see if he was murdered. Neruda was a giant among the worlds great. His poetry was a monumental masterpiece of truth in the political life of Chileans. He is the poet of the eternal present. LIfe cannot be repressed, he whispered in everyone’s ear. He may have been killed for that. But the message lives on in his poetry.

Poetry is language in its most exalted, delighted and concentrated form. Maya Angelou has said; “Poetry is music written for the human voice” Again, Octavio Paz put it this way: “when you say life is marvelous, you are saying a banality. But to make life a marvel, that is the role of poetry”.”When you listen to poetry being read well, you are a witness to the marvel, you are experiencing the marvel.

Against the vulgar images of advertising that daily infect us, against the barbaric rhetoric of politics, poetry stands as a beacon to human feelings and senses, as well as the human imagination. Stanley Kunitz, twice Poet Laureate of the United States, wrote: “a word is a utilitarian tool, and we have to re-create it to make it magical.”

The New York Times recently wrote this about the subject: “Poetry readings have moved out of the smoky cafes to become a staple of the cultural scene. Poetry readings are held at over 150 places in the New York area alone. The renaissance of public poetry is over the entire nation.”

Jesus Was a Great Humanist…

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
The Contrary Minister

The fact that Jesus was one of civilization’s greatest humanists must be like a burr under the saddle blanket for those who spend mindless hours blabbing about the “evils” of humanism.

In religious humanism, people are the first and primary consideration. People are more important than authoritarian, dogmatic, brittle, religious laws, creeds, rules, theologies, beliefs and man-made doctrines. In a very blunt and direct attack on such absurdities, Jesus placed humans front and foremost.

Nothing so infuriated him as to see religious doctrine become more important than people. It was against the religious law to feed or heal a person on the Sabbath. With scathing words.Jesus let them know that “the sabbath was made for people… people were NOT made for the sabbath.” (Mark 2:27)

Religious laws and institutions are not sacred. Creeds are not sacred. Theological dogma is not sacred. Man-made doctrines are not sacred. Jesus attacked authoritarian religion at every turn, replacing it with a humanitarian, humanistic religion.

Jesus’ insistence that “the kingdom of God is within you,” as well as many other biblical passages, is a clear expression of a non-authoritarian position.

The spirit behind his parables and teachings is totally humanistic with a blinding emphasis on the importance of human beings, their needs, their potential, their divinity — pointing the way toward the full development of the human potential for excellence, love and brotherhood.

The vast majority of the evils inflicted upon humankind today are the product of dogmatic, religious authoritarianism — not humanism.

William Edelen: What Makes You Cry?

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
The Contrary Minister

Albert Speer was the most trusted of Hitler’s inner circle. In reading his “notes” lately I came across this scene.  The war is over. Speer is in prison. An intelligence “counselor” is in his cell. The counselor confronts Speer with this question: “Speer, tell me what is it that makes you cry? Have you ever cried Speer? I want to know “what makes you cry?” Speer gave no answer.

That question haunted me. What makes us cry is a clue to who we are and what we are as a human being. My mind went to a statement by Albert Schweitzer that has also haunted me over the years: “A man is moral, and ethical, only when all of life is sacred to him, that of plants and animals as well as that of his fellow man.This is the absolute principle of the moral and ethical.”

So, I knew, I know, one thing… what it is that makes me cry. I know when I cry.

I CRY… reading about a “fighting dog” wandering along a highway in intense pain, with his head split open by an ax by a “so called” human being, who could no longer use him for fighting.

I CRY… when I see dead whales and dolphins washed up on shore as a result of the Sonar testing by the Navy… testing that has been well documented as not needed.

I CRY… when I see big, strong, “brave” men clubbing a little precious baby seal to death. While the baby is crying they are pounding  his little head into mush… while they laugh at this “celebration” of baby seal clubbing.

William Edelen: Using the Bible to Justify Views…

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From WILLIAM EDELEN (2002)
The Contrary Minister

We are always making God our accomplice so that we can legalize our own inequities. -Henri Frederic Amiel

Those adhering to a strict interpretation of the bible are most often the ones who use the Church and the bible to justify and condone their social, political and moral views. At the same time they inflict these views on others as “gospel,” the only truth.

The abortion or pro-life issue is a good example. If a person wants to simply say “I do not like abortion, I am against it,” that is fine. That is their opinion and they have a right to express it.

It is when they start using the bible and the Church to justify their pro-life position that I cringe. They apparently do not realize how inane and unhinged they appear when thy march around carrying signs quoting the commandment “Thou Shalt Not Kill,” or equally absurd signs using the Church, bible, or God for justification.

After Moses told the people that the “Thou Shalt Not Kill” order came from God, he then proceeded to give some of the most vicious commands in the history of civilization, telling the Hebrews to kill just about everything that walked or moved. Moses told them that God blessed all of this barbaric slaughter. He gave commands for genocide, to kill babies and children. Thousands were slaughtered as a result of the commands of Moses. Quite obviously the commandment not to kill was not taken seriously or literally by the man who presented it to the Jews.

Christians who try to justify the pro-life position and are breaking into clinics should read the history of their church. The church has one of the most horrible, unjust and cruel records in the history of our species, from Constantine through the Inquisition to the Salem witch horror. The torture chambers of the Christian Inquisition were filled with instruments that stagger the human mind and sensibilities: racks, thumb screws, iron maidens, knives, whips, scourges, fire, tongs and hoists. It is painful to read how these were used on innocent human beings. Those using the Church and the bible for justification of the pro-life position condemn abortion as “murder of the unborn,” while the Church itself has a 1600-year history of horrible and brutal murders of the “born.” I would suggest that those mindlessly waving banners, .

William Edelen: Red Slippers… Red Blood… A New Hope

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
The Contrary Minister

The Media has fully covered the Red Slippers of the retiring Pope… Red Silk for indoors… Red Leather for outdoors… with the name of the designer and all related facts.

My mind went into a re-wind on the Red Blood that has soaked the earth by that same “Christian” organization. When Alfred North Whitehead was the Chair of Philosophy at Harvard University, he made this observation. “Christian Theology has been the greatest disaster in the history of the human race.” Was he correct? A brief review:

391 A.D. Christians burn down one of the world’s greatest libraries in Alexandria that housed over 700,000 scrolls.

1099: Christian crusaders take Jerusalem and massacre Jews and Muslims. In the streets were piles of heads, hands and feet. Millions were killed as a result of the Crusades.

1208: Pope Innocent orders a Crusade against the French Cathars. Over 100,000 were killed by Armaud’s men at Beziers.

1231: Pope Gregory IX establishes the Inquisition. Inquisitors were given license to explore every means of horror and torture and cruelty. Victims were rubbed with lard or grease and slowly roasted alive. Ovens built to kill people, made famous by Nazi Germany, were first used in the Christian Inquisition of Eastern Europe. The gruesome tortures

‘Bible’ Christians…

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[Did you know that Richard Roberts can heal the sick and perform miracles just like dear old dad, Oral? -DS]

From WILLIAM EDELEN
The Contrary Minister

I don’t know of any phrase that is more meaningless and nonsensical than “a bible Christian.” You constantly hear it or else read it in letters to the editor.

To illustrate the point, I used to invite representatives from ten different Christian groups to speak to my university class about their beliefs.

Usually I would start with a Christian Science practitioner (who was always the best prepared). Next would be the Jehovah Witnesses (who always came in threes). Then: Seventh Day Adventists, Mormons, Pentecostals, a Roman Catholic priest, a Unity minister, Greek Orthodox, a Unitarian minister, Missouri Synod Lutheran and Methodist and/or Presbyterian. They all quoted from the bible to affirm and justify their positions. The students soon realized they were listening to ten totally different religions, all calling themselves “Christian” and all reading from the same book, to prove their beliefs.

No other religion studied by historians has been — or is — so completely fragmented and splintered as the one we call Christianity. Protestantism alone has disintegrated into more than 400 different denominations, all quoting from the bible to prove or validate their beliefs. Can you see why the phrase “bible Christian” is nonsensical?

William Edelen: Worship of the Bible — A Malignant Disease

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From WILLIAM EDELEN (2002)
The Contrary Minister

For a great many the bible itself has become a object of worship, an idol. Perhaps the most malignant disease in the Christian church today, I believe, is biblical literalism: believing that every word is to be read as the divine, without error, word of God.

The Oxford Universal Dictionary defines Christian fundamentalism in these words; “…strict adherence to a literal inerrancy of the Bible.” Inerrancy means “without error.”

The irony of all this is that anyone with exposure to church history knows that a great many of our more eminent church fathers, theologians and biblical scholars have either thrown out, or ignored, various sections of the bible as not being authentic or worthy of canonization.

Martin Luther, the father of our Protestant Reformation, called the book of Esther a ringing tale of sex and slaughter. His loathing of the Jews was an extension of his view of the Old Testament, which he did not regard as divine. He called the Book of James in the New Testament a “book of straw,” and he would have nothing to do with the Book of Revelation, viewing it as beyond human reason or comprehension.

I could continue through church history with similar illustration. The stupidities of Biblical literalism defy the imagination. Example: if I wrote a column stating that we, as human beings, are nothing but animals, like all other animals, and nothing more, I would be excoriated as a “secular humanist,” a blasphemer, an atheist and one who did not believe in the bible.

And yet God’s “without error” word tells me just that. In Chapter 3 of the Book of Ecclesiastes, God tells us: “…the sons of men may see that they are but as beasts. For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same: as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath

William Edelen: The Moon of the New Grass

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
The Contrary Minister

My brothers and sisters of the Lakota and Cheyenne people called this time of year in their calendric system, “the moon of the new grass… new life… new renewal.” They knew this, naturally, living so close to the rhythms of the natural world.

Within those rhythms we are moving now into the month of March, of new grass, new life and new renewals. I have my calendar of the soul that is far more accurate than the printed one on my desk. It tells me that nature says the new year is here, with bursting buds and warm earth and fresh new leaves dancing and quaking on bare winter branches.

I am not alone in calling this “moon of the new grass” and renewal the beginning of my new year. The ancient Jews, Egyptians and Greeks all had early March as the beginning.

It is the time of year when “Hyla crucifer” begins to call. The little peeper makes a calculation which would baffle a meteorologist. He takes into consideration humidity, temperature, length of light and darkness, and knows when the rhythm of renewal has come. He inflates a little bubble in his throat and sends out a clear note audible for half a mile. At that point, something older than any mythological god has risen. THE EARTH IS ALIVE AGAIN. ALIVE, with new grass, new life, new beginnings.

Where is it that I most fully experience this glorious new time of the earth coming to life? For the entire twenty years of my full time residence in Palm Springs, I have never been able to say “thank you” enough for the glorious gift of the sacred canyons of the Cahuilla Indians as a spiritual retreat that truly “transcends language.” When you drive through the gate and enter a magical and mystical world of the sacred earth… with no fences… no telephone poles… no visual pollution… and go sit by the stream with the tranquil sounds of water bubbling and trickling, you can rewind… REWIND your mind/brain/soul/spirit back into another time frame. Where the flow and rhythms of the universe, the seasons of the new leaves quaking over new grass… the seasons of spring and fall equinox, the winter and summer solstice and the times of the full moon still nurture the land, the four-leggeds and two-leggeds, the feathered ones

Christian Fundamentalist Terrorism…

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
The Contrary Minister (2002)

A friend has worked for Planned Parenthood for a good many years. She lives in a major American city. She called recently and asked me to tell my readers about Christian terrorism right here in the United States.

She said: “Do your readers have any idea what it is like to go to work day after day wondering if there is some Christian nut waiting with a bomb or gun for you?”

Listen to Jerry Falwell: “The idea that church and state should be separated was invented by the devil to keep Christians from running this country. I really believe that the pagans… and the abortionists… and the feminists… and the gays and lesbians… as well as the ACLU and the People For The American Way… all of them… should take the blame for God allowing this to happen. I point my finger in their face and say that to them.” (talking about the Trade Center bombing.)

My subject is Christian terrorism in America. Are you aware of how convicted bomber Mahmud Abouhalima, a Muslim, and Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Billy Graham’s son, Franklin, all sound exactly alike using the same kind of terrorist language?

Do you understand what my friend is talking about? What she fears daily, with Christian fanatics on the loose in our society? Forget about the Muslims for a day or two and become concerned and informed about the Christian terrorists in every state in America.

If an alarm is not going off in your head… you must be sound asleep or else living in a make believe world of fantasy.

William Edelen: Cults and Real Religion…

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
The Contrary Minister

Psycho-ceramic (crack pot) ideas sometimes spew out of politicians so fast it is almost impossible to keep up with them. The “faith-based” circus that totally destroys the line between church and state must be one of the most insane. Some of the TV evangelists have screamed “You can’t give money to cults… but only to real religion… like us…”

Many have asked me the question: “What is a cult… and how can you tell the difference between a cult and a real religion?” Hey… easy question.

A Cult: Believes in heavenly signs such as comets and gateways to heaven and other mentally deranged ideas.

A Real Religion: Believes in heavenly signs such as stars in the East at their leaders birth and the “Sun standing still” for an entire day. (Joshua 10:12) and other mentally deranged ideas.

A Cult: Believes they have found the truth while all others are deceived.

A Real Religion: Believes they have found the truth while all others are deceived. “Salvation is only through Jesus.”

A Cult: The leader says, “Believe me and you will go to heaven.”

Is there a God out there?

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
The Contrary Minister

In the play Suddenly Last Summer by Tennessee Williams, there is a character who says, “We are like children in a kindergarten trying to spell the name of God with all of the wrong blocks.” I don’t know of a better illustration. Practically every leading Christian denomination has done studies asking sixth graders and adults in their church schools how they think of God. The answers come out the same. “God is a wise man… God wins battles for us when we’re good… God makes miracles happen… God punishes us when we’re bad.”

We still use childish words that impede the intelligent quest for a mature spirituality and for the divine mystery. We must search for the right alphabet blocks to spell out the name of God. Ignorance, magic, superstition, hatred, anger, jealousy, vindictiveness, threats and fears must first be deleted from the alphabet of divinity.

Albert Einstein was not only a genius in physics but a spiritual genius as well. Most people have not heard of that part of the human being, Einstein.

His suggestion was that teachers of religion have the courage to let go of belief in the archaic doctrine of a personal God which has placed vast power in the hands of clergy and priests.

William Edelen: Free of the Biblical God…

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
The Contrary Minister

Blessed are the Atheists, Agnostics, Deists, Mystics, Humanists, Free Thinkers, Taoist, Buddhist and all others who do not have an archaic, primitive God in their mind/brains.

Blessed are they for they do not believe that a God is on their side.

Blessed are they for they do not participate in holy wars, Jihads or Crusades.

Blessed are they for they would never be martyrs for the “Glory of God.”

Blessed are they for they do not condemn others as heretics or infidels.

Blessed are they for they do not conduct inquisitions nor slaughter millions of women as “witches.”

Blessed are they who do not participate in sectarian violence, nor harass little Catholic school girls

William Edelen: The Ten Commandments — A Cultic Code of Taboos…

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
The Contrary Minister

No one has so put the Ten Commandments in perspective better than the famous actress Ruth Gordon, probably without even realizing it. she said to an audience: “There is one commandment I have never broken… I can assure you I have never coveted my neighbor’s wife.”

Perhaps few other parts of the bible have been so misused, misinterpreted, misunderstood as have the Ten Commandments. They were a cultic taboo code written by Hebrew men for Hebrew men. Nothing more and nothing less.

Sir James Frazer in his classic The Golden Bough writes: “These commandments of Israel are taboos of a familiar type in primitive religions disguised as commands of the tribal god.” Dr. Ernest Colwell, former Dean of the Theological Seminary, Chicago University, writes: “These were prescriptions written only for the Hebrew cult. They acquired authority due to their association with the rites of the cult.”

All “thou shalt not kill” meant is that thou shall not kill another Hebrew. The giver of the commandment, Moses, quite obviously totally ignored it with everyone except the Hebrews. And all with the jealous tribal God’s blessing.

William Edelen: The Female Supreme Being (The Goddess) and the Continuing Destruction of the Female…

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
The Contrary Minister

At first, in primal times. there were only the forces of nature and the unknown power behind it all. Gradually there evolved the concept of a Supreme Being, a female, a She, a Goddess who created the Universe and all of its laws. She was the ruler of Nature, Fate, Time, Eternity, Truth, Wisdom, Justice, Love, Birth and Death. And so, for 25,000 years, there was only the Goddess. Yes, that is 25,000 years.

The earliest agriculture grew up around the shrines of the Mother Goddess, and became social and economic centers as well as holy places. These places were the germs of future cities. Growing cities evolved around these sacred centers, built to honor the divine Mother, the mother Goddess, the Creatress of all life.

The poet and religious historian Robert Graves put it in these words: “the whole of neolithic Europe had a remarkably homogeneous system of religious ideas based on the Mother Goddess. The Great Goddess was regarded as immortal, changeless and omnipotent. The concept of a father God was unknown in religious thought. In Europe, the Great Goddess was thought of as the sole omnipotent deity. Fatherhood was not even a part of religious thinking.”

This same Goddess worship existed much earlier in those areas we know today as Iraq, Iran, India, Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Turkey, Greece and Italy.

William Edelen: The Breath of Life

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From WILIAM EDELEN
The Contrary Minister

The Lakota people have a beautiful and profound symbol for the “BREATH OF LIFE.” Most American Indian traditions have a similar symbol for that vital “breath” that sustains our existence. It is Feathers. Feathers are the image of the invisible breath that fills our lungs with the energy to function as a human being.

A recent immediate crisis in my own life, with loss of breath, led me to the feathers. I had to respond without delay to the panic in my own life. I was breathless… literally. I reflected on the feathers available to me.

A first feather: The Western medical approach.
Second feather: Eastern approach, with meditation, acupuncture, herbal.
Third feather: Taoism and Zen… very comfortable for me.

I made the choice and selected the first feather, with many parts of the second and third feather as support for my condition.

Over the last 18 years the condition has been accumulating and came to a crisis where my breathing was impaired at my last Symposium on December 2nd. My local physician referred me to Dr. Himelman, a cardiologist.

After a trip to the Emergency Room at Desert Regional, Dr. Himelman performed

William Edelen: Joseph Campbell, Religion and Myths…

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
The Contrary Minister

Bill Moyers had two interviews with Joseph Campbell for his national television program, Bill Moyers Journal. In his introduction Moyers said “Joseph Campbell is one of the world’s foremost scholars of mythology.” Anyone having an interest in becoming religiously educated and enlightened will be helped by insights from these interviews.

Campbell brings out, of course, that mythological themes or motifs such as flood, virgin birth, resurrected hero, “heaven” concepts, a sacred meal (or ritualistic cannibalism) have a world-wide distribution and are everywhere. They are organized and ritualized according to local needs. In the Moyers’ interviews, Campbell said, “When people try to interpret a spiritual symbol (in mythology) as though it referred to a concrete fact, you have lost the message.”

Moyers: “Give me an example.”

Campbell: “Well, the image of the virgin birth is perfect for an example. This is a motif that occurs in all the mythologies of the world. There are virgin births all over the place in all religions. ‘Virgin birth’ is symbolic of the birth of the spiritual life, and so with resurrection themes or motifs. Misunderstanding consists in reading spiritual mythological symbols as though they were references to historical, factual events.”

Other observations by Campbell in the interviews include the following: “The ‘hero’ in mythology is always the founder of something, a new religion, a new age, a new way of life. The ‘hero’ founders of all religions usually go on their vision quest. The Buddha went into solitude and sat beneath the tree of Immortal Knowledge; Jesus goes off into the desert for 40 days; Zoroaster goes off into the desert, and so it goes.

William Edelen: Christmas Myth, Legend and Folklore

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
The Contrary Minister

We are buried this time of year in mythology, legend and folklore. It’s good to get it all in perspective by rediscovering a few historical facts.

I have lost count of the thousands of time that we have been told that Christmas celebrates the origin of Christianity — which, of course, is false. Christmas was around for eons before Jesus was born.

The winter solstice comes from two ancient words, sol, the name of a sun god, and stice, meaning still, or the day that the sun stands still, the shortest day of the year.

Since all cultures have been so dependent upon the seasons, the four major festivals centered on the summer and winter solstices and the spring the autumn equinoxes. An equinox — equi, meaning equal, and nox, meaning nights, or equal nights — occurs midway between the winter and summer solstice, when days and nights are equal in length.

Those are the four corners of the celestial year. But with the return of the sun to once again warm the earth and bring forth a resurrection of life, the winter solstice became the greatest of all the festivals.

The ancient festival in Rome was known as the Saturnalia. The emperor Aurelian established an official holiday called “Sol Invecti,” meaning “unconquered sun” in honor of the sun god, Sol. It was held Dec. 24 and 25 and established Dec. 25 as the official solstice. All the other religions that worshiped sun gods also took Dec. 25 as their fixed date for their festivals.

Abe Lincoln loved preacher jokes…

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
The Contrary Minister

The movie out now on Lincoln is one of the most magnificent movies I have ever seen. It has motivated me to write about Lincoln, with perhaps another side that the public will not see in the movie.

Lincoln has been portrayed in more books and articles, and in more languages in more countries than any other American. He almost idolized Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson and studied their writings in exhaustive detail.

Lincoln refused to be baptized or to join any Christian church. His wife said: “My husband is not a Christian… but he is a religious man, I think.”

Lincoln wrote these words: “I have never united myself to any church, because I could not give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian doctrine and dogma which characterize their articles of belief. When any church will inscribe over its altar…as the sole qualification for membership, only the Great Commandment to love God and neighbor that church will I join.”

Following the death of Lincoln, the most eloquent eulogies came from the Jewish community. Rabbi Nathan Krass, in Buffalo, New York, used these words:  “It is said that Mr. Lincoln was no churchman… and we know that is true.

William Edelen: Christmas as poetry…

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
The Contrary Minister

There was always one worship service, above all others, that I loved doing in my church. It was the Christmas Eve candlelight service at 8:00 and 11:00 p.m. with standing room only. In my Congregational church I made it a celebration of the human spirit, with song and dance, poetry and literature, meditation and joy.

I will never forget the spectacular ballet dancer doing Tai Chi to Gounod’s “Sanctus” as sung by Jessye Norman. The dancer said that the first time she practiced it she just stopped and cried, it was that moving for her.

We always closed with all lights out and everyone holding candles and singing “Silent Night, Holy Night” led by guitarists playing in the balcony, like the original Tyrolean alpine folk melody. The organ would then come in with such glorious chords we all had a near “out of body” experience. Some skeptics would always say to me “I can’t sing that stuff. I don’t believe any of that.” And I would tell them, and the congregation, “I don’t believe it either as factual or historical theological statements. That’s not what it is all about. You miss the point if you do not experience the beauty of the myth, a solstice myth that goes back by thousands of years before Jesus was ever born.”

William Edelen: More Robert Ingersoll…

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
The Contrary Minister

One of the joyful rewards of writing a column is to receive the delightful letters that arrive in response, with often developing new friendships. After my column on Robert Ingersoll, many wrote, or called, saying the column brought back a bit of nostalgia, because “I remembered how my father (or grandfather, or mother) used to rave about Robert Ingersoll… and I had forgotten.

Since my last column was primarily introducing the man to those who had not heard of him, I did not have space to give examples of the gems that flowed from his pen.

Women: “The men who declare that woman is the intellectual inferior of man, do not and cannot, by offering themselves in evidence, substantiate their declaration. Husbands as a rule, do not know a great deal, and it will not do for every wife to depend on the ignorance of her worst half… It is the women of today who are the great readers. No woman should have to live with a man whom she abhors. I despise the man that has to be begged for money by his wife. ‘Please give me a dollar?’… ‘What did you do with the 50 cents I gave you last Christmas?’ he asks.”

Government: “I despise the doctrine of state sovereignty. States are political conveniences. Rising above states as the Alps above valleys are the rights of man, the sublime rights of the people… Nothing is farther from democracy than the application of the veto power. It should be abolished… I do not believe in being the servant of any political party. I am not the property of any organization, I do not believe in giving a mortgage on yourself or a deed of trust for any purpose. It is better to be free.”

Church and state: “Church and state should be absolutely

Robert Ingersoll

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
The Contrary Minister

What is surprising is that Robert Ingersoll is so little known in our time. He lived from 1833 to 1899 and was internationally known as the “great Agnostic,” one of the most brilliant thinkers, lawyers, orators, debaters and authors of his day, or any day. Twelve volumes of his works are still available and are a collector’s treasure. He lectured all over the United States and abroad to standing-room-only audiences.

He spoke on many subjects, but thousands upon thousands turned out to hear him demolish the absurdities of orthodox religious dogmas. He found them repugnant due to the damage they did to the human mind and spirit. He and Thomas Jefferson shared similar views regarding organized religion. And yet, on a deep and profound level he had a sense of the mystery that was breathtaking.

I can tell you that without exception his funeral eulogies are the most beautiful that I have read in the English language. The poet laureate of the universe, Walt Whitman, said that only one man could speak at his funeral, and that man was Robert Ingersoll.

Carl Sandburg said of Ingersoll’s eulogy of Whitman, “It was a most precious treasure.”

The Theology of Laughter

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JC

From WILLIAM EDELEN
The Contrary Minister

My title is borrowed from the writings of that beautiful Persian poet, Rumi.

At one of the most serious times of the war, Abraham Lincoln turned to the members of his cabinet and said, “Laugh, gentlemen… laugh or you will go mad.” Lincoln’s favorite stories were what he called his “preacher jokes.” Needless to say, the clergy of that day did not find them amusing or funny.

Too many forget that laughter is a sacred gift that can refresh the soul. There is no humor in the entire bible except one priceless scene in the Old Testament when Abraham and Sarah, both of them, laugh at God. God wants to know, “what’s so funny?” Abraham and Sarah thought it was hilarious what God wanted of them at their age. Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 90 years old and here God wanted them to have a child. The height of optimism  and humor.

Abraham fell down on  his face, rolling with laughter at God, and said: “Do you mean that we can have a child at our age?  Do you know how old we are?” They laughed, even at God. Would we not all be better off and far healthier spiritually and emotionally if we would, even as Abraham, laugh at God more often? And laugh at our own religious pretensions?

Why were, and are, so many of our Church “fathers” opposed to laughing at much of the church and the clergy? Do they sense that laughter might weaken the somber, grim, fabric of their creeds, doctrines and dogma? Laughter was even punishable during periods of church history. Maybe they knew, deep within their hearts that they were in some sense laughable.Laughter can strip away excessive dignity and presumptuous titles.

The Pulpit Needs Agnostics

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
The Contrary Minister

For more than 25 years the beloved Senior Minister of the famed City Temple of London (Methodist) was Leslie Weatherhead. His books have been read by millions.

In The Christian Agnostic he opens with this: Not for much longer will the world put up with the lies, the superstitions and the distortions with which the simple message of Jesus has been overlaid. The message of Galilee has been so overlaid with creeds, ceremonies and doctrines, that one can hardly catch the essential message.”

He goes on to say that any minister, standing in a pulpit, who is not an agnostic is dangerous. Why is he (she) dangerous? Because he pretends to have positive and absolute answers, that he does not have. He lives in the 20th [and 21st] century, parroting back a third century biblical mentality, as though nothing had been learned, thought or discovered in the last 2000 years.

As the religious historian Joseph Campbell put it: “The majority of ministers either do not understand their material or else are deliberately misrepresenting it, if they know better. They present myth and metaphor as historical literal events. The idea of virgin birth, for example, is presented as historical fact, whereas every mythology (and religious tradition) in the world has included the mythological motif of virgin birth in their legends and folklore. American Indian mythologies abound in virgin births.”

I commend another book of his to those of you who would like to become more knowledgeable in this area. It is The Inner Reaches of Outer Space.

William Edelen: The American Indian

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
Special to The Desert Sun

As one who has studied the Plains Indians at the Graduate level at the University of Colorado, and as one who is ordained in the United Church of Christ (Congregational) the farce of Friday nights “debate” combined with the ignorance of one of the participants sent my blood pressure to a new level.

The bigotry and obscenities inflicted upon the American Indians by Christian missionaries constitute one of the most repugnant periods of American history.  But among the more enlightened elements of the Christian church there have been signs of maturing spirituality. I refer to the recent requests for forgiveness to the Native American people. The warm and touching apology from Protestant and Roman Catholic leaders of the Pacific Northwest reads as follows:

“Dear Brothers and Sisters: This is a formal apology on behalf of our churches for the destruction of Native American spiritual practices. Your spiritual power can be a great gift to us. We ask for  your forgiveness and blessing.”

This was signed by the senior Bishops, or Executives, of the Roman Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal and Congregational churches.

The United Church of Christ (Congregational), the church of my ordination issued another apology of their own:

“We bear a heavy burden of responsibility for the ongoing injustice and religious imperialism that have been so disruptive of the spiritual values of Indian life and culture. The effect of the Christian missionary legacy, and the Christian influence has been the disparagement and undermining of the Indian culture and a spiritual impoverishment. The missionaries were blinded by a religious ethnocentrism. The depth of this tragedy is now being realized. We take full responsibility for our part in the ongoing atrocity, and we express to you, our brothers and sisters, a deeply felt sorrow and penitent spirit.”

William Edelen: Ancient Prophecy — Modern Ignorance

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
Toward the Mystery

Well, here we go again. We lived through the superstition of the Millennium and Armageddon, staggered by the onslaught of superstition and ignorance, masquerading under the phony and scary heading of “prophecy.” This virus of illiteracy even affected the Oval office. Then President Reagan’s weird and stupid speculations about an “imminent arrival of Amageddon in the Middle East” left intelligent people gasping.

Today we are playing that tape again with the gullibility of the American public. We are being smothered by radio, books, television and movies by those out to make a buck, about the disaster and world destruction waiting for us on Dec 21, 2012, when the Mayan calendar predicts an apocalypse for the end of the year, end of the world (they say). It will be open season on reason, rationality, normal intelligence and religious literacy. “Survival kits” are now being sold by the con men and fast buck operators. Sandra Noble, the Executive director of Mesoamerican Research Foundation, says: “portrayal of that date as doomsday is a total fabrication and a chance for a lot of slick people to cash in.”

But to refresh your memory about the “millenniumn, armageddon” circus for the gullible clowns that set the stage for the circus being replayed today under a different heading, what seemed to be missing from the brain/mind (I use the words loosely) is the fact that time is fiction. Time is man-made. A history of man-made calendars would enlighten many.

William Edelen: Jesus and Wives

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
Toward the Mystery

A very live and contemporary issue today, with many magazines and newspapers covering it, is the question “Was Jesus Married?” This is all due to a lost manuscript that has surfaced. An outstanding article in the New York Times for Sept 27th, was Fighting Over God’s Image. Please find a copy and read it if this is a subject that appeals to you.

A number of years ago when Dr. Robert Funk had his Jesus Seminar here in Palm Springs with over 100 leading New Testament scholars present, he asked me to give the lecture on The Sexuality of Jesus. The fear among many of pursuing this subject has been revealing and shocking. Also a number of years ago The Sexuality of Christ in the Renaissance Art and in modern Oblivion received rave reviews from all quarters. It was written by Leo Steinberg, who delivered the material at a Lionel Trilling Seminar at Columbia University and was honored by the College Art Association of America with its annual award. Some will find it offensive… those who find all expressions of sexuality offensive. The sexuality of Jesus is very obvious in the paintings.

Jesus was a Hebrew male, a man in the fullest sense and a sexual human being in the same sense that all men are sexual human beings. And yet, for some strange, neurotic and weird reason, many want to keep this subject

William Edelen: Dogs of Valor… Dogs of Eminence…

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
Toward the Mystery

In my 50 years of writing newspaper columns and essays, no other column has been such a “labor of love” as this one on the War Dogs of combat who brought many members of our fighting military home safely. My journey for this emotional and educational experience started with my personal friendship with world-renown sculptor, A. Thomas Schomberg and his wife Cynthia, who often attend my Sunday Symposium in Palm Springs. Thomas was the artist who did the War Dog Memorial in front of the Museum at March Air Force Base in Riverside, California.

It was built by the support of veterans and the public without one cent of government money, in an effort to honor each and every valiant war dog and their efforts to save lives and prevent countless casualties. In Tom’s own words: “It is to illustrate the sacrifice that these two figures have made under combat circumstances, and to illustrate the bond between humans and their canine friends.”

A veterinarian serving in Vietnam wrote: “Without these dogs there would be a lot more than 50,000 names on the Vietnam wall.” Dogs in warfare have a long history starting in ancient times. War dogs have been trained for combat and to be used as scouts, sentries and trackers. War dogs were used by Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Sarmatians, Slavs, Britons and Romans. Frederick the Great used dogs during the “seven years war” with Russia, and, of course, in  all American wars to the present day of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam. Captured Vietcong told of the fear and respect that they had for the dogs. The Vietcong even placed a bounty

William Edelen: A Mantis Experience…

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
Toward the Mystery

I recently spent two wonderful days at Ojai, California soaking up the spiritual center of the Krishnamurti home, library, and grounds, including the “pink moment” of the Ojai valley are sunset. For those of you who are regular readers of my columns or Symposium news letters known as “E Blasts From Bill,” you are well aware of the details of that remarkable visit. And you may remember what I described as a moment of mystery and magic. When I stepped out of my quarters to return  home, there waiting for me was a Praying Mantis. I have seen very few in my lifetime. My mind immediately went to all that I knew, and had read about this “manifestation of God come to Earth” in the thought and belief system of the African Bushman: A divine messenger.

When I returned home I went to my book shelves and pulled out A Mantis Carol by Sir Laurens van der Post. On the cover of this beautiful book are these words: “If you read no other book this month, this year, this decade, read this one. -The Christian Science Monitor (a paper many times voted one of the most outstanding newspapers in the U.S.) “Mantis” is the Greek word for “prophet” or “seer,” a being with spiritual or mystical powers. The praying Mantis shows the way.

In the Arabic and Turkish cultures a mantis points pilgrims to Mecca, the holiest site in the Islamic world. In Africa it helps find lost sheep and goats. In France, it’s believed that if you are lost the Mantis points the way home. “Follow Mantis” means putting that core aspect of yourself, your foundation of Spirit, at the helm and let it direct your intellect and ultimately your life.

“Meet the eye of a mantis and feel the presence of God. God looking at me through the eye of the Mantis.” The Mantis points the way and the path to relieving the “great hunger” in our lives. “The name of this great hunger was the hunger for love and for a way of life lived in love out of love for the love of it alone.” “This love, this calling for wholeness in life. The gratitude to life which comes flooding in over one as one experiences  again how pervasive and always  near is the mystery of love as though it were in the blood and bone of ourselves.”

William Edelen: Proud to be a Humanist…

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
The Contrary Minister

H. L Mencken, the renowned syndicated columnist for the Baltimore Sun, once wrote that he had no need ever to attend a circus. Why? Because he lived in a society that was a circus, with clowns everywhere. Mark Twain made similar observations. I always remember Mencken’s words when I read the rantings and ravings of those aiming their tirades at some mirage they call “secular humanism.”

I saw a wonderful cartoon recently. The picture is of a man and his wife dressed in puritan “do good” clothing. She is holding a book called The Book Hit List. He reading a newspaper. The man says “Holy Guacamole! Here’s a story about a school system that doesn’t pervert children’s minds with philosophy, literature, social studies, the arts, history and the rest of that secular humanism bunk.” The woman responds, “Hallelujua! Where is it?” The man answers: “Syria.”

How individual members of the fanatical right define “secular humanism” depends on where they are on a scale of 1 to 10 of brain constipation. An example. In a pamphlet entitled Is Humanism Molesting Your Child? a Texas parents group described “secular humanism” in these words: “a belief in the distribution of wealth, control of the environment, control of energy and its limitations, the removal of the free enterprise system, working for disarmament, the creation of world government.”

For some, attacking “secular humanism” means taking great literature out of our schools. It is called “book burning”… which they did in Nazi Germany. It means not exposing our young people to what a small group of parents have described as “obscene.” By their own standards and definitions, they will have to ban the bible from home and school libraries, for the bible is full of every obscenity known to the human race… rape, gang rape, sodomy, adultery, genocide, incest… and all in lurid detail.

William Edelen: Christian Mysticism

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
Towards the Mystery

Trying to read biblical material factually and literally is the ultimate in biblical illiteracy. The bible is saturated with mysticism and mythological continuity, or diffusion. The Hebrew scholar Rabbi Barnett Joseph, in a lecture on Aspects of Jewish Mysticism made the statement that “the bible is the world’s greatest classic of mysticism.”

Moses, the prophets, Jesus, Paul the author of John, ALL were mystics. The Psalmist of the Old Testament declared “You are gods… all of you.” (The Hebrew word here for “gods” is “Elohim,” which literally translates God.)

Space, of course, precludes documenting the thousands of passages from the Old Testament that are pure mysticism, but for those of you wanting to pursue this subject, I suggest you read the great work by Gershom Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism. The two major schools of Jewish mysticism

William Edelen: Hebrew Mysticism

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
The Contrary Minister
Towards the Mystery

Dr. Stanley Dean, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Miami, and editor of the book Psychiatry and Mysticism writes: “The study of mysticism should be a part of the curriculum of medical schools.” He defines mysticism as “knowledge or awareness that reaches a persons consciousness through channels other than those known to us at present.”

One of the major movements in Judaism today is a return to Hebrew Mysticism. I have chosen the following examples to indicate the strength and direction of this movement. Rabbi David Teutsch, Executive Director of the Federation of Congregations, writes: “We are moving toward a new Judaism. It will have as classical a shape when viewed a thousand years from now as biblical Judaism has now. A new, revitalized Jewish spirituality will emerge.” Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb describes the movement as experiencing “a freedom to take religion and Judaism out of its conventional forms and bring it back to the heart and soul of the earth.” It is a desire to create a new spirituality and physical unity with this planet.

Traditional Jewish services have been turned around and pointed in a new direction. Instead of sitting in orderly pews, facing East toward Jerusalem and reading from standard prayer books, the participants sit in a circle. The rationale is that, since God is within each one of us, it is better to look at your friend when you pray than to imagine an ancient Holy Temple. Liturgy and ritual have been invented and revitalized.

William Edelen: Physics and Mystics…

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
The Contrary Minister
Toward the Mystery

“I believe in mystery and that also we experience some of the most beautiful things in life in a very primitive form. In relation to these mysteries I consider myself to be a spiritual man. He who cannot stand in wonder and awe before the Mystery is as good as dead.” -Albert Einstein

What few realize is that the most brilliant of our Nobel Prize winning physicists were also mystics. Their writings on this subject are the most beautiful I have ever read. Mysticism and Physics are fraternal twins.

Students of both believe in a mystical world view that embodies the world as spiritual and material; classifications of organic and inorganic, animate and inanimate are archaic and invalid.

One of the most treasured books in my library is Quantum Questions edited by Ken Wilber, “the mystical writings of the worlds greatest physicists”.

In Sir Arthur Eddington’s Defense of Mysticism he writes: “A defense of the mystic would run something like this. We have acknowledged

William Edelen: The Cosmic Dance

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
Toward the Mystery

People often ask me “what are you?… what do you believe? Buddhist, Taoist, Christian… what?” In a joking mood I may tell them that I am a Druid, Taoist, Agnostic, Shaman.

But, when serious, I tell them I live within the historical stream of mysticism… and that world view, cosmology, or philosophy of life, is the same whether one lives in a Taoist society, Buddhist, Christian, or secular. With this consciousness, the ultimate reality (or God) is apprehended directly without any mediation. Subject and object become One in a timeless, spaceless act that is ineffable and gloriously joyful. Beauty and light and love are seen pervading the entire universe, including the individual self, now merged in Oneness with all creation. It is a “cosmic dance”.

The experience transcends the reach of any language. The Mystery is within us and every leaf, every atom, every molecule… with all. The universe is a totality and an interrelatedness of all things. For the cohesive Mystery within that totality, we use the word symbol “God”. It is creative love in a “cosmic dance”.

Many still want to apply the word symbol “God” to something “out there”, separate and distinct from us “down here” on this planet earth.

William Edelen: Depths of Truth…

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
Toward the Mystery

“The true mystic has insight into depths of truth that are unplumbed by the discursive intellect.” -William James

There is a system of thought that has been coming to me lately from many sources. It is known as Theosophy. Those holding this world view believe that truth about God and the world is revealed primarily through mystical insight, and that every religious tradition has this kernel of truth within it. Whether Christian, Hindu, Taoist, Buddhist or the American Indian, the mystical experience is the same. It was the experience of Lao Tzu, the old master of Taoism, Buddha, the Roman Catholic Meister Eckhart, and the Protestant Boehme. The words of Jesus “to have seen me is to have seen God,” and again, “I and the father are one” is pure mysticism.

Many letters, emails, have asked me to say more about Mysticism.

Here are some general observations for this is the “spine” that holds Theosophy together.

Mysticism is the recovery

William Edelen: Krishnamurti —The Sage of Ojai

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From WILLIAM EDELEN

Ojai, California is nestled in the radiant mountains just south of Santa Barbara. I say “radiant” because famous there is what they call their “pink moment” when every evening at sunset, all the mountains and valley are covered with a rich and bright “pink” color that is gorgeous to witness.

Ojai has a reputation of being one of the artistic and cultural centers of the United States. Many of the creative giants of the world beat a path to the “Sage of Ojai” Krishnamurti, a mystical genius who pointed their lives in a new direction: Joseph Campbell, Joan Halifax, Julian Huxley, Thomas Huxley, D.H. Lawrence, John Lennon, David Bohm (Nobel in physics), Jonas Salk, Charlie Chaplin, and too many more to name.

In my 18 years of my Sunday Symposium I have for some strange reason not spent an entire session on this “sage of Ojai” though often quoting him.

Based on my own life experiences, at 90 years old, I soon realized

Embrace the Mystery…

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
Toward the Mystery

When all the words have been written, and all the phrases have been spoken, the great mystery of life will still remain. We may map the terrains of our lives, measure the farthest reaches of the universe, but no amount of searching will ever reveal for certain whether we are all children of chance or part of a great design.

And who among us would have it otherwise? Who would wish to take the mystery out of the experience of looking into a newborn infant’s eyes? Who would not feel in violation of something great if we had knowledge of what has departed when we stare into the face of one who has died? These are the events that made us human, that define the distance between the stars and us.

Still, this life is not easy. Much of its mystery is darkness. Tragedies occur, injustices exist. Bad things befall good people and sufferings are visited upon the innocent. To live we must take the lives of other species, to survive we must leave some of our brothers and sisters by the side of the road. We are prisoners of time, victims of biology, hostages of our own capacity to dream.

At times it all seems too much, impossible to accept.

We must stand against this.

Bill Edelen leads quest to explore life’s mystery…

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From BRUCE FESSIER
The Desert Sun

[I first learned of Bill Edelen on the pages of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat years ago. Bill lived in Santa Rosa at the time and wrote a weekly column for the paper. I purchased and read his books. Then the column disappeared and I lost track of him until recently when Mark Scaramella over at the TheAVA.com posted a piece by Bill which I reposted here. One thing led to another and I was asked to take on producing Bill's blogsite which I happily accepted. I think of Bill Edelen as "The Contrary Minister" similar to old friend Gene Logsdon's "The Contrary Farmer" whose blogsite I have been producing from the start. I will be reposting some of Bill's weekly Sunday posts here on Ukiah Blog and hope you enjoy his wisdom on a regular basis... -DS]

People say Bill Edelen is an atheist; an agnostic.

They say the former Desert Sun columnist and resident sage of the Sunday morning symposiums at the Palm Springs Tennis Club doesn’t believe in God.

But the truth is, the English language doesn’t have a word for the god Edelen believes in. If he were to describe himself as a disciple of any deity

William Edelen: Reflections at age 90…

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From WILLIAM EDELEN
Toward the Mystery

On Tuesday, July 17th, I reach 90 years of age. As I reflect back on these years, it is fairly easy for me to find the thought, or thoughts, that have shaped my life, my outlook and attitudes, and guided my path regardless of criticism or attacks by those living in the boxes and cages they have chosen for their own confinement.

I realized that the key and path to MEDIOCRITY could be found in worry about the foolishness of public opinion, in “moderation,” in “convention” and “conformity.” Two giant thinkers helped and encouraged me on this path. KRISHNAMURTI, of whom Deepak Chopra said, “He made it possible for me to break through the confines of my own self-imposed restrictions to my freedom”; and a brilliant Aldous Huxley using almost exactly the same language.

And the other giant thinker was the Federal Judge LEARNED HAND, who in his career never had one word of an opinion changed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

My own thoughts were these before being encouraged by the writings of the two men mentioned. A most meaningless cliché is “moderation in all things.” Moderation is the key to mediocrity. Moderation is defined as: “staying within accepted limits.” Creative and uncommon people who are memorable and who use their time on this Earth to the fullest are usually most immoderate and never stay within the accepted limits.

The Sadducees and the Pharisees stayed within the accepted limits of Hebrew law. Jesus did neither. He immoderately loved those whom the Pharisees despised, and he immoderately shattered a great many of their rules and traditions. The most creative giants of civilization