Friday, November 27, 2009

More Living and Loving

Dan Brown in his most recent book talks about noetic science, the science of the mind-body connection. The Human Spirit is proven to actually have mass by one of the main characters. She demonstrates scientifically that the body loses a very small amount of mass at the time of death as the spirit leaves the body. Why not? Is that so inconceivable?
Essential to the understanding of the mind-body connection is that the body and mind are one during life and the chemicals with which the mind connects to the body and with which it communicates to the body are present in every fiber of the body. Mind and body protect and nurture each other. For a deeper explanation see the movie What the Bleep Do We Know. How do we build and maintain a healthy mind and body?
Consider selflessness. Selflessness is actually selfish because it makes you feel good. Treating others with love brings the love of others to you. Kindness begets kindness from others. The love of life produces a life of love. Loving living makes for a life of loving. Why? Because loving living radiates from your demeanor and attracts the love of others. Its a circle of giving that brings with it receiving.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

About Living and Loving

Out of my struggles with life as a gay man and survival as an HIV positive person I have emerged from a crucible with a significantly altered conception of the meaning of living and loving. Certain Kabbalistic and noetic notions prevail in my Weltanschauung. Kabbalah teaches that when Adonai or Shaddai or Eloheinu (God or Maker of the Universe or Universal Spirit) whatever you may choose to call this force set existence, as we know it, in motion. I choose to believe that He, She, It decided to make our universe because He needed us. The Zohar says that in order to make space for us He took a deep breath and then began filling a vessel with Light. He did it with such force that the vessel could not contain it, and the vessel broke into shards of Light that spewed everywhere. That sounds like The Big Bang to me. The tale goes on that it is our job to collect these shards and repair The Universe, and this activity is called Tikkun Olam in the Jewish faith, translated "to fix the (broken) Universe". This notion of repair and service is central to my spirituality. This is accompanied by a sense of awe about the infinite complexity of this creation and the vast limitation of my ability to understand it. My favorite prayer in Hebrew and English begins: Michamocha baielim Adonai, Michamocha nedar bakodesh, nora t'hilot, osei feleh. Who is like you Oh God, Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in splendor, working wonders.