A local talk by Bishop John Shelby Spong came at just the right time for me as I have recently begun to struggle with my view of Christ as mentioned in my posts on Easter and April 12th. At one point he shouted "Don't tell me Christ died for my sins!" Here is a quote I got from his his internet site.

"We were not created perfect, as the Bible contends, only to fall into sin through an act of rebellion, which necessitated a rescue operation, by an intervening savior. We are evolving creatures. What we need is the positive power that enables us to become more deeply and fully human. This new perspective necessitates a whole new Christology."

The noticeably-elderly audience was very enthusiastic as he spoke on the Abundant Life, Love, and Being. I have been favorably impressed with him before having seen him on church videos where he was one of the people being interviewed about a topic. I had no idea how radical his view were though.

Syncretism - April 2006

Syncretism . .

But if one plunges with both feet into yogic spirituality while also pursuing a conventional faith, one risks what theologians call syncretism—or "riding two horses at once," as Needleman puts it. "It's very hard sometimes to try to be a deep Christian contemplative and at the same time be a Hindu—a Vedantan, let's say," he notes. "Not because they disagree but because the imagery sometimes is so conflicting."

Reconstructionist rabbi Sheila Weinberg also believes that syncretism is a real danger for yoga students. . . . . "I think you have to choose a community and history and identity that's going to be your home," she says. "And then I think it's possible to borrow really excellent, valuable practices that can be seen as nondenominational from other traditions. [But only if] we don't start getting confused in terms of belonging to many different communities, because then everything will be dissipated."

Huston Smith cautions anyone who mixes yoga and religion to consider the ego that does the mixing. Many people, he notes, approach their spirituality "salad bar" style, as if saying to themselves, "Oh, I think I'll take a little hatha yoga for my body and a little vipassana for my meditation." Observes Smith: "As [late Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chˆgyam] Trungpa said, the error there is thinking you know what you need. But if you knew that, Trungpa concluded, you would already be at the end of the spiritual path instead of the beginning."

From Reconcilable Differences
The question on everyone's mind: Does yoga conflict with my religion? Yoga Journal

The Urban Legend site, Snopes, has an interesting explanation of how Easter was named. "The name for this holiday comes from much older times whose customs we're now not all that familiar with. Many old religions had a Spring Goddess, a special deity who breathed life back into the world, both by banishing Old Man Winter and by encouraging growing things to grow and living things to mate. She went by many names . . . and those who lived in the region that is now Germany knew her as Eastre.

I have always thought Easter is kind of overblown. Pentecost was a more important day in the life of the church and seems so much more authentic.. Both Easter and Christmas became important only later as Christianity spread.

Happiness lies at the intersection between pleasure and meaning. Whether at work or at home, the goal is to engage in activities that are both personally significant and enjoyable. When this is not feasible, make sure you have happiness boosters, moments throughout the week that provide you with both pleasure and meaning.

Advice from Tal Ben-Shahar

Finding Happiness in a Harvard Classroom
All Things Considered, March 22, 2006 ·

I bought "The Way of Zen" by Alan Watts for $6.50. Copyright 1957, cover price - $1.95, I remember I was enthralled when I heard him speak at my college in the 70's. I feel like I have come full circle in some ways or maybe I never left. In the preface, he says "the various wisdoms of the West, do not offer much guidance to the art of living in the modern world where familiar concepts have dissolved and we find ourselves adrift." I have rediscovered my interest in eastern thought and practice. Recently I have come face to face with my lack of interest in the Christian story of salvation. I love Jesus and what he did and said but don't care much for the structured system of theology that climbed to the top of the heap from early Christian beliefs.