“If you had been here, my brother would not have died!”   John 11:32, RSV

Anxiety and depression are common diseases in America.  About 7 percent of us, of all ages, suffer depression in our country.  Maybe more since the election since anxiety often leads to depression.  About one third of our country’s mental health costs go for anxiety and depression.  Women suffer twice as much as men while many children also struggle.

Depression increases with age!  However, it tends to decrease after age 70, but us older folks with depression or anxiety are also less likely to get help.  It’s safe to assume a good share of us experience some anxiety and depression and probably are not getting needed help or treatment.  (http://www.adaa.org/about-adaa/press-room/facts-statistics)

The biblical account of the raising of Lazarus tells a story about anxiety and depression.  (John 11:1-45) It is not a story about literally raising someone from the dead whose name was “Lazarus.”  The story links to a 5000-year-old one from ancient Egypt.  Such discoveries, found through the 1799 discovered Rosetta Stone, revolutionized the understanding of many “miracles” from what we call the New Testament.

The word “Lazarus” begins with the divine “El.”  “El” combined with “asar” is the divine name “Lord Asar.”  Lord Asar has gone to sleep!  The town’s name, “Bethany”, means “house of light.” But since the Lord went to sleep, the lights have gone out!  The two sisters, Martha and Mary, are ancient Egyptian names for those considered divine teachers, “Meri and Merti.”  The  teachers and pastors have also lost hope.  Jesus comes as the one who awakens the “Light.”  He represents the outside messenger of hope, the Christ Bearer who had been lost.  In ancient Egypt, his name was also known as “Usus.”  (Tom Harpur, The Pagan Christ; Recovering the Lost Light, 2004, Thomas Allen Publishers.)

So how can we “awaken” from our moments, or days, weeks and years of anxiety and depression, our discouragement and inner loneliness?  How can we awaken when it seems our God hope has left or forgotten us, when loved ones die, and 4000 churches close each year and 300 pastors and participants leave each month.  (Latest Pew Foundation report.)

We could begin with the idea or theory that God, Christ, or Spirit is incarnated within each of our lives and bodies.  It could be called “Spirit” or our “soul.”  It is the “infinite within the finite.”  How might we reclaim and experience this lost awareness, hope, and feeling?

We might begin by being aware of our negative feelings.  We will not deny we might be aboard a sinking ship.  But we will identify with these negative feelings as our True Self.  We may feel like the scolded child taking a “time out” in the corner.  We will sit and observe our anxiety or loneliness without judgment.  We will still claim our “family name;” “I am not my body, I am not this anxiety or depression but I am happiness, hope, and positive.”

It’s sort of like driving a car.  We can remain conscious of steering, accelerating, braking and stopping while at the same time having a conversation with a passenger.  However, don’t text on your phone while doing this!

I once heard the late Tony De Mello describe this.  He was both a certified counselor and ordained Jesuit priest.  People often came to him with a serious problem.  They would greet him with, “Hi Fr. De Mello!  How are you doing?”  He might answer saying, “Oh, I am having a bad day of anxiety but never mind, how can I help you?”  Sounds nuts, doesn’t it??

It’s like an unmarried minister who lived with his mother.  One Sunday he was very discouraged and tired.  He said to his mother, “I am not going to church today.  I am sorry we moved here, I’m discouraged, the people don’t like me and I don’t like them!” His mother looked him in the eyes and said, “Son, you are 40 years old, they have called you to be their pastor, and it is your duty to go.  And remember, they pay you to do it!”

Somedays are like that.  I have them.  Our negativity or tiredness wants to take over.  Still, we won’t identify with it.  Just do it anyway along with your sadness, or whatever.

A minister once told he me coped with depression and anxiety by taking little naps!  He would excuse himself at set times and just go someplace and take a 20-minute nap.  He awoke feeling better.  I have been known for the ability to do that.  It’s good for body and mind!

We also can spend time each day in solitude and quiet.  It can be called our quiet or devotional time.  When I first joined the Baptist Church, they told me to spend time each day in “devotions.”  In the 80’s I wrote a dissertation for San Francisco Seminary on the importance of practicing solitude.  Jesus did it all the time.  I still have favorite trails near our home on which I use to take prayer walks.  My, dog now deceased, would go with me.  I also have a special area in our home to sit mornings and evenings.  I have it set up with a little altar, complete with a picture of wilderness with Buddhist prayer flags.  I use a little electric candle since I once almost burned the house down!  Psalm 46:10; “Be still and know I am God!”  It works.  It worked for Jesus, for Elijah of old, and it still works for us.  “Be still,” in the Hebrew word means, “stop thinking, become dumb” (dumas) and you will know!  Clear your mind, become “mindful” of the noise, and let it go.

To fight anxiety, loneliness and depression, we can also join together with another or others.  Remember, you don’t need a church building to be a church.  “The church is not the building, the church is not the steeple, the church is its people!” as the old Avery and Marsh song went.  Gather in homes, read some scriptures, listen, meditate and pray for each other.  Today, It’s a growing phenomenon.  Continue as friends, even if they are few.  Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: “He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, but he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere!”

Yes, sometimes relief doesn’t come instantly.  We may need to make changes in our lives. We may need a few weeks or months of counseling or to learn more patience.  We may need to suffer long enough so we truly decide, “I want to change!”  In the gospel story, they complained Jesus took so long to come.  “If you would have been here, he would not have died. Now he already stinks in the grave!”   Sometimes must endure a waiting season.  Quick fixes not always help.  We need to take “time outs” and go sit and make new decisions and resolutions.

I heard a story about a man guiding his donkey who pulled a cart load of produce to the market.  The donkey would suddenly stop and move no further.  This behavior occurred several times and the man worried about arriving late to sell his goods.  Finally, when the donkey balked again, the man got off his seat and taking a small stick, went up to the donkey and whacked him three times over the head!  He climbed back on the seat, picked up the reins and continued.  He wife asked, “Why did you do that, whacking the poor donkey three times?”  The driver answered, “I needed to get his attention!”

Sometimes life makes us suffer long enough to finally get very sick of our behaviors and attitudes.  We all want “quick fixes,” not a new orientation about life and where we are going.  Some may need to spend a few weeks in a hospital, or find themselves without our family, or a spouse, or job, or a friend before they “wake up” and listen.

So, don’t spin your mind or wheels too long when in despair and depression, feeling discouraged and alone.  Wake up to the Divine, the Christ of whom we are in our essence.  Don’t wait for the complete bottom to fall out.  Learn and practice to check your negative thought habits.  Keep a journal and write your progress down.  Make positive affirmations and go over them every day, morning and night.  Begin taking actions toward what your heart tells you to do.  And climb out of the graves of your life which are only barring you from the sweetness and hope Divine Peace which is yours, and within you.

Breathe on me breath of God, fill me with life anew,

That I may love what Thou does love, and do what Thou wouldst do.

– Edwin Hatch, 1886

“As people think in the heart, so are they….”  Proverbs 23:7

            Everyone prays, whether they realize it or not.  Healthy people pray, sick people pray, parents pray, children pray, race car drivers pray, atheists pray, and certainly, politicians pray!  But what is prayer?  How could we improve and use our praying?  Does prayer change anything?  Why would one consciously practice it?

The word “think” comes from an old English word which means, “to make or cause to appear.”  If we don’t like things as they are, we can begin to change them by thinking!  In a study, many years ago at New York City Seminary, the leader said, “If you don’t know where you are going, then any road will get you there!”  For as we think, so we become.

The Greek word for prayer in the Bible is pros euchomai, meaning to think and express wishes.  You can wish to change things around you.  You can think of how to change people in how they act or treat you.  All thinking is a form of prayer.  “As we think, so we become.”  (Proverbs 23:7) So, if we don’t like what we see or experience, we can change our thinking!

We start is with ourselves.  The ancient Hebrew word for prayer is hitpalel, which means to “observe or judge oneself.”  The idea is different from what most practice.   We want to change how others think and act so we can be happy.  We judge how others treat us: what they do, or where they go.  The Hebrew word is more inward; “Who am I?  How am I feeling?  What do I want?  How can I find peace and success?”   The process thus becomes a more conscious one.  We sit and mediate, observing ourselves; “What do I want?  How am I feeling?  How can I change?”

Such thoughts are powerful.  They have built buildings, including churches.  With thinking, we change appearances; get a new haircut or buy new clothes.  Everything in this room around began as a thought or idea.  Scientists even have said without thinking, there would be no world!  To say nothing about this sermon.

Much of my understanding prayer expanded as I read and learned about Einstein’s discovery of quantum energy, the smallest particle of “substance.”  A quantum is light energy and it radiates itself.  This quantum moves at double the speed of light.  It creates energy, a lot of it!  Einstein called it “the spooky part of the universe.”  It can be used to heal or make bombs which powerfully radiate heat and kill hundreds, thousands, and millions.

I have a brother in law with a Ph.D. in biological science.  Years ago, I asked if he could explain quantum mechanics to me.  He said, “Dave, when you look and gaze upon the moon, you will be changed.  And so will the moon!”

Two years ago, I attended a summer seminar of the Theosophical Society near Chicago.  One of the presenters was named “Amit Gotswami.”  A brilliant scientist from India, for years he has taught physics at the University of Oregon for 30 years.  He has become known for his work and writings in Quantum Mechanics.  Several years ago, he married another native of India who moved to America.  She amazed him with her “meditations” as she described them.  Amit wanted to investigate what was happening from a scientific viewpoint.  He became convinced she was connecting with her deepest self, a self even separated from her body, a Self which could communicate with the universe!  Now the two of them conduct seminars combining science and meditation.

Thinking and mediation affect people around us.  Experiments show how thoughts change people miles and continents away!  A writer, named Lynn McTaggart, has studied and written books on this phenomenon.  In 2011, she helped put together a group called “The Intention Experiment.”   She and her helpers brought together thousands of people from 75 countries, including people of several faiths including Muslims with thousands from Arabs of the Gulf states.  For 8 days, beginning with September 11, they prayed for violence to be lowered in two of the deadliest provinces in Afghanistan, Helmand and Kandahar.  Then they waited three and a half months to see if there were any effects.  They found that attacks in these two providences had dropped 29 percent during that period.  And during the 8 days of concentrated prayers in September, attacks dropped by 790 percent!  Prayer can change things.  (For more details, see The Global Peace Intention Experiment by Lynn McTaggart.)

The late well-known psychologist, Wayne Dyer, believed, lived and taught this idea after discovering it.  Raised his first 10 years in an orphanage, he discovered the power of positive thinking.  It thoroughly changed his life and over the years, his teachings and lectures help change millions of lives.  Dyer believed living with unconditional, positive love will be manifested in those around us.  He believed our thinking affects not only one’s own family and community, but the whole world.  Over the years, I’ve read many of his books, being introduced to them by a church Elder in Pennsylvania.  A few years ago, through a survey of the top spiritual teachers in the world, Wayne Dyer rated in the top 5!  Number one I believe was the Dalai Lama.  Number 2 or 3 was a scientist named Eckhart Tolle.  It was amazing that none of these recognized leaders spoke in churches!

However, negative thinking and prayer also has effects.  Ancient Plato, philosopher and founder of the Academy in Athens, recommended death for anyone using negative spells, charms, incantations and sorceries for purpose of mischief!  We see examples of such negative use in the Bible.  In the Old Testament, Elisha placed a hex on children who made fun of him and his looks!  Two bears came out of the woods and ate them!  (2 Kings 2:23-24) Now you know why I don’t take everything in the Bible seriously!   Clergy, as Naomi and I have experienced, can scare the daylights out of people by threatening eternal hell fire and damnation if they “don’t believe!”

Negative thoughts and prayers destroy relationships, churches, civic organizations and countries.  Hitler used negative thoughts about people, mesmerizing people to destroy millions of Jews and “undesirables.”  It happened in history many times; Russia, China, and of course, in our own country with the slaughter of Native Americans and the enslavement of Africans sold in slavery!

Today some of us worry about the negative campaigning which elected our new President.  I’ve never heard such mean descriptions of other races, promises to build high walls to protect our border, deport people seeking escape from poverty and brutal governments, and talk of stopping Muslims from entering from several countries with “extreme vetting.”  It often frightens me, as it does others.  As written, hatred toward Native Americans and Africans forced into slavery were historically practiced, and the attitudes still linger in the vow to “make America great again.”

Change, however, brings consequences.  Some will be good and some not.  Medical doctors such as Larry Dossey, have used and written of the power of meditation and prayer.   Dossey wrote several books including, “Be Careful What You Pray For, You Might Get It!”   He described a woman psychiatrist who prayed with her mental patients in a Vermont hospital.  The administration stopped her since it gave her patients “unfair advantages!”

Have you ever decided to better yourself only to find things worse?  Most find this in marriage, or a chosen career, or moving to a new area.  We discover everything and place has “its own poison.”   Spiritual teachers suggest we adopt a more “acceptance of the present” attitude and find contentment with what we have.  Count your blessings.  A Bible verse goes, “…. I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.” (Philippians 4:11)

Positive prayer, however, is loving and kind, wishing the best for oneself and all those around him or her.  To obtain this state, most of us need hours, days, and years of routine self-reflection.  The word in ancient Hebrew from prayer, hitpalel, basically means “self reflection.” One becomes conscious of his or her own thoughts and actions.  I practice daily meditations and prayers, as I described in my memoir.  Finding this practice in 1979, it remains a staple of mine today.

In 33 years at Wayside, people helped me incorporate, I believe, a deeper understanding and practice of prayer.  We prayed for people who requested it during services.  We offered the laying on hands, not only by myself, but by others with the anointing of oil.   We trained people to visit homebound and hospitalized people, offering them communion of wine and bread as a sign of Divine Energy within them.

As a 9 year old boy, I remember going to Daytona Beach races in the early 1950’s.  Then then was a two-mile track on which drivers raced cars south on pavement and then around a curve to roar another mile  north on the beach sand!   Occasionally, we attended smaller races around our home in Sherman where in the 1950’s cars were raced in an abandoned gravel pit by the feed mill and milk plant.  Once, early in our marriage, I went with my father to a race near Jamestown where one of my high school friends was a mechanic on one of the cars.  During the race, I noticed a bright red car that looked new.  It was one of the most powerful cars in the race, one of the early “Dodge Challengers.”  But the driver always held back, staying away from the front or other cars.  I was told he never won a race.  “Why?” I asked.  “Because he doesn’t want to damage his new car!”  Seemed kind of silly.

Without daily inventory of our minds and directions, we could be moving around our bodies without reaching our potentials of deeper peace and fulfilment.  Minds are powerful.  They are the engines which drive our lives toward goals of joy and deep peace.  I urge you to often drive them “wide open and awake!”  Spend daily time in silence and meditation, go over your goals and intentions, and watch them become manifested in your lives!

One of the first expressions I remember in my early church years was, “Jesus Saves.”  There was even a song sung called, “Jesus Saves!”

“We have heard the joyful sound: Jesus saves! Jesus saves!

Spread the tidings all around: Jesus saves! Jesus saves!
Bear the news to every land, climb the mountains, cross the waves;
Onward! ’tis our Lord’s command; Jesus saves! Jesus saves!”

What does it mean, however?  Saves us from what?  Primarily I remember I would be saved from punishment for my sinful nature.  And be permitted to enter a place called “heaven” after I died.  It could mean more during our early lives.  I could be saved from worries, my trials and tribulations, things like finding a job, recovering from losing a job, dealing with my eventual death or with deaths of loved ones.  But how does Jesus save us?  How does he turn fears and tears to joy, losses into gains?

The name “Jesus” is mostly a symbol.  Jesus symbolizes to us in the Christian faith or tradition God’s presence.  Jesus could be another name for Holy Spirit.  Jesus is a name representing our link to God, the one who supposedly created us and all there is.

What does calling upon God in the name of Jesus?  How does it save and heal?  How does it save from worry, grief, and the constant fear of losing, of deep loneliness?

I refer to the first lesson in today’s service.  Isaiah 49:1 reads, “The LORD called me before I was born, when I was in my mother’s womb he named me.”  Thus, we have always been known as part of God, beyond limitations of time.  Our actual identities are not mortal bodies, liable to wear, tear and loss.  We can grow to see our identities as Spirit, connected in One Spirit with the God of the universe.  Spirit is everywhere, unbound by time or place.  Spirit is in every moment we breathe, think and move about.  It is a basic tenant to spiritual beliefs.  We are not bound by a mortal body but as Spirit, we are united in one with all.

In spirit timelessness, there is no world or planets or physical universe.  Spirit is beyond that.  The world and universe we see and peer at through microscopes and telescopes is temporary, ephemeral.  Some thus say, “It isn’t real.  It is an illusion of reality.” That seems quite scary.  For if I am not my body, I may feel afraid!  Who am I?  But consider, who are you?  Are you really your body?  Which one?  If we had our choice, we’d probably chose the one which was the most healthy, strong, and confident.  The younger version!  In our short time-bound lives, we were once suckling babies, small children, adolescents, young adults, and parents, grandparents, retired, old, frail and near the end!  We’d like to keep our young version, like the once new car we had but now is rusty with faded paint!  Yet throughout all these changes in time, in body form, we remained the same “I Self.”  Note: we always talk about our bodies from the observer viewpoint.  We say, “My arm, my eye, my head, my body, my feet, my stomach.”  It’s always body parts identified body in the “third person,” as the observer.

In the gospel of John, we read Jesus telling his disciples, “Unless you drink my blood and eat my body, you have no part of me!”  His disciples, of course, were shocked.  How could they eat and drink his body like a bunch of hungry cannibals?  But Jesus explained, “The Words that I speak to you are spirit and life!  It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless.”  (John 6:63)

So, the first step in being “saved” is to understand your Higher Self is not of this world.  As we read from 1 John, “Do not love the world or the things in the world.  The love of the father is not in those who love the world; for all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches—comes not from the Father but from the world.  And the world and its desires are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever!”  (1 John 2:15-17)

One of the earliest songs I heard in the church was called, “This World is Not My Home,” made famous by Jim Reeves back in the 1950’s.

“This world is not my home I’m just a-passin’ through

My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue

The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door
And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.”

So, the first step in finding healing through Jesus is to consider thinking what millions have found: “We are not our bodies, we are immortal Spirit, One with God!”

The second way “Jesus Saves” is the acceptance that all our sins and mistakes have been forgiven!  In John’s Gospel, chapter 1, verse 9, John the Baptist declared when seeing Jesus, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!”  Or, there is no reality called sin.  Sin is simply part of the errors we make while living in mortal bodies.  Sin is “missing the mark,” or the inability to make perfect judgment.  In the eyes of Eternity or Spirit, “sin doesn’t count!”  There is no sin.  How is this possible?

Again, it in understanding how we see ourselves in a new way.  In this earthy, linear way of thinking and living, we have bodies.  We are “stuck with them” in time and space.  Yet in another view, another choice of seeing, we understand the body and mind judgments as filled with errors or sins, but they don’t mean anything in Eternity!

Early Christians understood this as “an awareness,” or understanding of the duality of our existence in a physical, earth revolving, time based, light and dark world.  “The Kingdom is within you!” Jesus taught.  Yes, we all make mistakes in our identities.  We forget, or may even deny them, but that’s okay.  If you enjoy yourself and are having lots of fun and success in life, I have nothing to say to you.  But times suddenly seem lonely, sad, or empty to you, when parents, children and friends die, or you know you are close to it, you might want to consider another option, the one the scriptures offer!

I think of us as Prodigal Sons.  We grew up and one day said “Good bye to our parents” and struck out on our own.  For a while it was a wonderful time; we had a ball!  But then, life fell apart.  It happened to the prodigal son.  Losing his money, self-respect and confidence, he finally came to himself and thought, “Why don’t I just go back home and try again with my father.  I’ll be very contrite and tell him how sorry I am for messing up!”  So, he did and when he got back home, his father welcomed him!  He ever set up a great party to celebrate and let all by-gones be gone!

Fr. John Merganhagen, a friend of mine with whom I did a few retreats, once told participants, “let all your sins go!  Don’t dwell on them.”  Then he said, “I can see a picture of God sitting some evening listening to all ours sins of commission and omission.  Finally, God takes a big yawn and says, “Ok, that’s enough!  I’m tired now.  Go to bed in peace.  I will always love you as my own!”

Last, be patient with your learning process.  We are only here a few years but it takes time to let such “born again” thinking sink in.  Some never get it; perhaps they make many returns to figure it out.  It’s like, “Happy Birthday!  Have many happy returns!”

In today’s Psalm, we read in 40:1-3: “I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry.  He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog and set my feel upon a rock, making my steps secure.  He put a new song in my mouth!”

Often when sudden losses or calamities occur, we can blow pass them quickly.  Especially if they are miles or countries away from us.  But close to us, at home, we need patience.  Then we may need to take a walk, do something else, or just sit patiently with it.  It’s like learning a new sport.  I took up golf when I was about 50 years old.  I thought I could learn it quickly!  Boy, talk about practicing patience.  My friend used to say, after losing his swing and rhythm, “It’s like undressing in public!”

I have grandchildren who compete in sports.  Naomi and I love to join their families and watch their events.  Not to brag, but they do quite well!  They win races, events and get ribbons and trophies.  But somedays, they aren’t so good.  My daughter wrote me a while ago saying her champion son had an awful event!  “Couldn’t do a thing!”  So, it goes.

So, it goes with our lives.  Losing health, loved ones, jobs, or being sick unto death can be hard.  We must sit with it, be patient, wait for it to pass.  I remember a friend diagnosed with a terrible disease.  She was still young and vibrant.  Her family were hurt and saddened.  She got worse.  One day I went to visit her in the hospital and she said, “I’m okay.  I know it’s about time.  It will be okay.  I am okay.  I just waiting now.”  And she did, and died peacefully.

Yes, we all have bad days, bad games, and tough times.  But practice patience.  Own your losses.  Stay with them.  Let them feel part of you.  Embrace them, and they will lift more quickly.  Remember that in our essence, we are spirit.  This world is not our home.  A place of Spirit is where we are, at home, One with love, and with all there ever was or ever will be.  Amen.

In another marathon voting season, lasting at least two years, we may wonder who we ought to vote for, who will “save” our country from more of its evils and flaws.  We also might wonder if we could have a shorter season, like the Canadians, or the Brits, with just a few weeks.  And a lot less money.

When I find myself tense over possible outcomes with various candidates, I try to remember to take a deep breath and relax.  No one is going to “fix it.”  Fixes for myriads of social ills have been applied since time began and humanity began walking on earth.  Most reforms come from philosophical and religious viewpoints.  Some changes seem outrageous and evil, its leaders portrayed as evil, wicked, and deserving of death.  How then can we decide?

As one who has tried to live and teach “spirituality,” I often have asked how one’s choice or viewpoint can make a difference?  Throughout my career, I grew to accept certain candidates as more “Christian” according to my brand at the time.  Thus choices changed as I moved from fundamentalist, evangelical, and liberal Christianity into what I consider to be a more “spiritual viewpoint.”

In July, 1986, I met Fr. Anthony de Mello during a conference in Syracuse.  A Jesuit teacher from India, he was teaching “spirituality.”  In his mid-50’s with a sharp wit and gifted speaking ability, he said, “If you are detached and free, you will become ‘social action!’”  His words stunned me, as I tried to understand what he meant.  It was like seeing a new flower beginning to bloom and wanting to learn more about it.

When I was around 12 years old, I considered myself “born again” because I accepted Jesus as my savior.  In a few years, I was taught to associate this born again experience with voting for certain candidates.  I eventually campaigned for some with bumper stickers and phone calls.  What occurred over the years, however, was that my understanding of “born again” expanded and my views evolved to an expanded realization.

Today, I try to see others from more than a “human point of view.”  I tend to see them at a deeper level, beyond the outside identities and views they might have been taught.  I am more likely to see human bodies as temporary as I do the whole world: indeed, the whole universe.  For what we see outside ourselves as bodies and earth and universe, are all temporal.  They change and pass with time.

The Bible has a verse which goes, “…we regard no one from a human point of view.”  Further, “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see everything has become new!”  These are words from an early church writer named “Paul” in a letter he wrote called 2^nd Corinthians, chapter 5, verses 16 and 17.  Over the years, this idea has evolved and blossomed in me to see everything differently.  I have grown to see my body as only a temporary housing, with all its identities and actions.  The body, however, is not who I really am.  Paul wrote in the same chapter, “…we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heaven.”  It is one of my favorite Bible passages which I have read at many funeral services conducted over the years.

In “awakening,” we see our bodies not as who we are.  Contrary, we see our essence as spirit or Christ, or whatever name people have called it over the many centuries in different cultures.  There have always been teachers or “enlightened” people who discovered this, either through other teachers or in simple “awakenings.”  In this new awareness, or birth, we grow to see everything differently.  Earlier beliefs and teachings often are transformed or even discarded.  We can grow old seeing more deeply our bodies as temporary houses, used hopefully for some kindnesses to others before we move back into our “Eternal Oneness.”

How then, does this understanding affect my voting perspectives?  First, as spiritual teachers have often said, the outside world of form and matter is only temporary.  It comes and goes.  Beyond using this world to discover our deepest Selves, it can be seen as quite a crazy place!  Fr. de Mello taught, “Unless you see the outside world as mostly purposelessness and crazy, you will never be free!”  Or, as the Bible says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world.  The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; for all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride of riches—comes not from the Father but from the world.  And the world and its desires are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever.”  (1 John 2:15-17, NRSV)

Sri Ramana Maharishi, whose ashram I visited in southern India, once said,

“Discontent is due to the wrong identity of the Eternal Self with the perishable body.  The body is a necessary adjunt of the ego.  If the ego is killed, the  eternal Self is revealed in all its glory.  The body is the cross, Jesus, the Son of Man, is the ego or ‘I-am-the-body’ idea.  When he is crucified, he is resurrected, a Glorious Self, Jesus, the Son of God.  Give up this life if you wouldst live.”  (Talk 396 in “Conscious Immortality” by Paul Brunton)

How can I best vote and make an impact of positive help in a very angry and insane world?  By not taking it so seriously.  By staying detached with a healthy and detached distance.  Be not like the bee who came to the honey and got stuck!  Vote for the one who seems in your mind the most detached and loving, those who appear to love and reach out to those most discouraged, hungry, and in need of basic humanitarian help.  Yes, these are loaded words.  There will always be plenty of such need as long as this world exists.  Thus we remember the purpose of the world, a “classroom” to awaken to our Higher Christ Selves and then share the vision with others.

What if my favored candidate loses and all seems more scarier than before?  Remember, such is the cycle of the physical, time-bound world.  It is a scary place, but it will pass.  In reality, there is no death, only a moving on or back to our Source.  The Bible and “Holy books” are filled with such references.  People have learned to die with complete surrender and peace.

Thus, be detached from the things of this world, and you WILL be social action and change!  And being kind and forgiving to your neighbors who might vote differently, is a good place to start.