 by Rev. Tess Pender, M. Div. Ministers in New Age Spiritual Centers are familiar with the visits of “seekers” – people who spend their weekends visiting churches and centers, looking for the perfect teacher, the right teaching, the best spiritual practice. They won’t “settle” for just any place, but relentlessly travel and do comparison shopping among all the spiritual goods on display. Jack Kornfield, a Buddhist teacher, wrote: "Spiritual transformation is a profound process that doesn’t happen by accident. We need a repeated discipline, a genuine training, in order to let go of our old habits of mind and to find and sustain a new way of seeing. To mature on the spiritual path, we need to commit ourselves in a systematic way. My teacher Achaan Chah described this commitment as “taking the one seat." He goes on: “Achaan Chah’s description is both literal and metaphorical, and his image of taking the one seat describes two related aspects of spiritual work. Outwardly, it means selecting one practice and teacher among all of the possibilities, and inwardly, it means having the determination to stick with that practice through whatever difficulties and doubts arise until you have come to true clarity and understanding.” (“Take the One Seat” - Jack Kornfield, Tricycle, Summer 1993) Advancement on a spiritual path requires that you let go of the role of “seeker” and embrace being a disciple. Instead of searching for a perfect teacher, the work begins when one sits down and says, with the old Civil Rights anthem, “I will not be moved." There are teachers everywhere, and prospective students can spend a lifetime looking – or can sit down and choose to actually begin a practice that will lead to connection with the Divine. Finding the right place and teacher are important, but never more important than beginning to practice.
Find a space and teacher that:
Of course, there are cults and those who would abuse your trust. Run away from a place or teacher that:
In Buddhism these principles are stated as the three refuges: “I take refuge in the Buddha (the teacher) the Dharma (the teachings), and the Sangha (the community).” When all three are in place, spiritual practice and growth are supported and become possible. The Teacher (Buddha) is ideally someone who lives the teachings in daily life. Avoid the trap of searching for the Buddha himself – remember the Buddhist adage, “if you meet the Buddha on the road, KILL HIM!” The Buddha is long gone, and anyone claiming to be him is an imposter, trying to take advantage of your spiritual longings. Commit to a teacher with integrity, experience, and love of spiritual practice. If the Teachings (Dharma) are some you are familiar with already, fine. If you must learn a new structure, names, titles, name for the Divine – that can be fun, and offer a whole different experience of spiritual work! There may be a sense of “coming home” when the message resonates at a deep level. There is no one “right” path for everyone – explore enough to find the one that feeds your soul, make a commitment, and SHOW UP! The Community (Sangha) is where discipleship grows. In the community, there are many teachers, examples of life lived well, and people to offer support and guidance through the weeds. The community provides new friendships, partners, role models and help. Most of all, the community is a refuge, a place to find comfort when life brings pain and despair. Becoming a disciple is more emotion than logic! The soul recognizes its home, and breathes a sigh of relief when the resting place appears. The guidelines for making a selection are simple and easily met, and to begin does NOT require a long study – though proficiency certainly will require mental effort and courage. Expect to encounter doubt, confusion, and disappointment. The journey is long and never easy, though it is joyful and satisfying – and in the end, the entire reason for this visit to Earth!
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by Rev. Tess Pender, M. Div. Donald Trump was inaugurated as President of the United States! What shall we tell our children about this? Members of the ACA (Adult Children of Alcoholics) Anonymous 12-Step Program spend much of their meeting time talking about their lifelong fight to discern reality; to discover the truth underlying all the “white lies” they were fed as children: Mommy’s tired and that’s why she’s sleeping; Daddy hit you because you are bad. Reclaiming reality is an important part of recovery, even when painful (no, mommy sleeps all the time and daddy hits you because they are drunks!) Children instinctively know when they hear lies. They see that the truth is hidden, and they are driven to discover it. And when they do find it, they are not nearly as damaged by the ugly truth as they are by the pretty lies! So, the answer must be, we tell the children the truth! She was 12 in 1978, the year the Briggs Initiative was on the ballot in California. Sleepy and grumpy, she asked her mother at the end of another meeting planning ways to defeat the homophobic initiative, “Why do you care? You aren’t gay, and even if you were, you aren’t a teacher, so why do you care about this?” (The Briggs Initiative would require that gay teachers be fired.) When her mother explained the reasons for her activism, the child painstakingly wrote in calligraphy the answer and posted it on her bedroom wall. Her mother explained with this quote from Martin Niemoller: “First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out-Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out- Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out- Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me-and there was no one left to speak for me.” Many years later, her twin teen-aged daughters told their grandmother, “Our friend’s grandparents voted for Trump.” Grandma (she of the quote) said, “I’m so very sorry for your friend that her grandparents are racists." They replied, “No, they aren’t racist, they are just old.” Grandma replied, “Ruth Bader Ginsberg is old. I’m old. People who vote for someone who despises women and Muslims are not old – when they knowingly cast their precious ballot for an avowed racist – they are racists. Now is your time to show the courage of the suffragettes, the Underground Railroad heroes, the Civil Rights marchers who ended segregation. This is your time to fight evil and to have the courage to stand up for your beliefs. Wear a safety pin and promise you will always stand up for the rights and dignity of vulnerable people.”  The twins returned to school and talked to their friends. They decided they wanted to work for women’s and human rights. See the Women’s March in Sacramento? There they are, marching with their classmates, wearing the “pussy hats” they knitted. What shall we tell the children? We shall tell them that this man full of hate was NOT elected by anywhere near a majority of people in this country, so they needn’t be consumed with fear. We shall explain that he is only in the White House because of a law passed long ago, during slavery, designed to give extra power to the slave-owning states. Assure them that we, the decent people who are the majority in this country, are even now working to put a fair system in place, so we will never again be ruled by someone who appeals only to the hatred of a few. Point to how the entire country has become more loving and accepting, and explain that this “president” is an anomaly!
 by Rev. Tess Pender, M. Div. Is God male or female? Is God good or evil? Is God judgmental or accepting? If there is an answer to any of these questions, then God is “with qualities.” That is, God is a being with qualities, just like any other being on earth. This God, one “with qualities,” is very comforting. One can find pictures of this God, tell stories of God’s wrath or forgiveness, and in general, can relate to God like one relates to any famous entity. Like us, God gets dressed in the morning, controls His temper (or doesn’t) and feels anger and sadness. This God can look like “me”! There is another concept of God that says that the questions above have no answers. In fact, they make no sense! In that version, God has no qualities–and male, female, good, evil, judgmental and accepting, are all qualities. The God with no qualities is much harder to worship. Praying to a God with no qualities really makes no sense, since most prayers are appeals to some perceived quality of God (mercy, fairness, justice, omnipotence). No statues or pictures are possible. The God without qualities appeals to cerebral types–people who are intrigued by an idea of God that insists on mind-bending thinking! How can one create an altar to a God without qualities, and should one? Does the need for worship also go away when the qualities disappear? Do we worship to make ourselves happy, or God? A God without qualities will not care, so worship becomes a purely self-satisfying process, much like appreciating a lovely landscape. The land gains nothing from our appreciation, but we feel uplifted by the act of recognition and honor. The advantages of choosing a God with qualities are evident. One can select a God who shares many of our same qualities (sex, race, appearance) and thereby we understand our own proximity to the Divine. We can seek comfort from a merciful, all-knowing, and ever-present God, and turn to this God in times of stress and disaster. We can even be angry with such a God, and rail against Its mistakes and cruelty. It is much harder to find the payoffs in choosing a God without qualities. With no worship, no prayer, no intervention, God becomes an It, distant and uninterested. One may wonder why we need such a God! This God can be a useful “first cause” who started the universe, created the laws of nature, and in some way, keeps the whole ‘world thing’ going. This God demands that we accept responsibility, define our own ethics and morality, and recognize our desire to impose meaning and value on nature. We claim all religious activities as simply rituals invented to make ourselves happy. We must release our hopes of an afterlife spent in the company of a loving God. In fact, we must release the loving God! Those who choose a God without qualities say that this “is” provides comfort of a different kind. There is comfort in being a co-creator, an active participant in creating a morality that is chosen for rational reasons, rather than one that was inherited. There is power in the choice to live without the comfort of an all-powerful being. There is pleasure in assigning meaning, rather than discovering it. Releasing the God with qualities creates a freedom that is new. Of course, it also demands intellectual rigor to examine and decide to accept or reject virtually all inherited and learned beliefs!
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