Antelope Valley Interfaith Council

This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press
Friday, May 2, 2008.

By NORMAN SHOAF
Valley Press Religion Editor

LANCASTER - “There is no faith unless it is interfaith,” Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak told a gathering of approximately 60 listeners Thursday evening at the Antelope Valley Interfaith Council National Day of Prayer Service at the Antelope Valley Church at the Center of Light .

By turns cordial and confrontational, keynote speaker Beliak praised Valley efforts at religious inclusion - and condemned what he called the hijacking of the National Day of Prayer by the Christian Right.

Beliak is a leader of the organization JewsOnFirst, whose proclaimed mission is to protect the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and lobby for an inclusive National Day of Prayer.

“How can National Day of Prayer leaders have their day year after year when they exclude all but fundamentalist Christians?” Beliak said. “God speaks in many languages, nationalities and cultures. This is a wonderful banquet.

“You’re not here to convert me, and I’m not here to convert you,” Beliak said of the multiple religions represented at the fifth annual event. “But are you an honest representation of God’s love.”

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The New Thought/Metaphysical teaching gives no thought or credence to luck, be it the Irish luck of kissing the Blarney Stone, or in any other form. Luck is associated with coincidence which is likewise not held in New Thought. Rather New Thought teaches that we are guided by Source to a serendipity which brings us to our good by our willingness to recognize the good within the circumstance.

New Thought is a teaching based in the teachings of Jesus, acknowledging that God is all, which makes God the Source of all prosperity, be it financial, health, relationships or in any circumstance. Since God is the Everpresent Source of all abundance, we as It’s creations have only to tap into that abundance in our own lives and claim it as our own—in the highest good of all concerned- exactly as a buffet table of food where we choose what and how much we will place on our plate.

With Spirit as our Source, our participation is in self-responsibility for how we use our empowerment to align with Source and therefore become open vessels for accepting our inherited abundance. This means that our job is to remove negative self-talk, negative thinking, negative expectations-which are all blocks to accepting prosperity. As we become positive open loving thinkers and actors, giving good in any form to life, Life responds by filling us with good, often good beyond our greatest expectations, which also need to be free flowing. One of these positive thoughts and exceedingly freeing is GRATITUDE- for gratitude for what is opens up pathways to prosperity beyond what we are experiencing at the moment.

So at the bottom line, realizing that God is our Source, the actual actualization of prosperity in our lives is an inside job. I trust you will choose to take on your footwork on the pathway to realizing your prosperity.

Happy moving toward March Prosperity.

Rev. Maxine Schiltz
Revealing Truth-a metaphysical center

by Maxine Schiltz

The greatest need of human beings is love, the feeling of belonging and not being abandoned.
Love expands as it is expressed,
Our ideas of love are minescule in comparison the the Consciousness of God’s Love.
Love is a blending of all that is good–in thought, choice, feeling, commitment and action.
All love begins and ends in the origin of God’s Love.
Our expressions f love are God’s expressions through us.
All we do, think,and want is a call for love.
Love is the act of feeling good. To be loved in return is a bonus. When we cut ourselves off from loving we cut ourselves off from feeling good.
Stifled love is dis-ease or death.
And finally love is not a choice to be with the people you love. We can love people from an appropriate distance, chosen by the receiver of the loved persons affect on you. To quote John Bradshaw–”To love a monster, you don’t need to be with the monster”.

Happy Love Life!!

I have received a hundred slabs of steamed rice cake and a basket of fruit. New Year’s Day marks the first day, the first month, the beginning of the year, and the start of spring.* A person who celebrates this day will accumulate virtue and be loved by all, just as the moon becomes full gradually, moving from west to east, and as the sun shines more brightly, traveling from east to west.

First of all, as to the question of where exactly hell and the Buddha exist, one sutra states that hell exists underground, and another sutra says that the Buddha is in the west. Closer examination, however, reveals that both exist in our five-foot body. This must be true because hell is in the heart of a person who inwardly despises his father and disregards his mother. It is like the lotus seed, which contains both blossom and fruit. In the same way, the Buddha dwells within our hearts. For example, flint has the potential to produce fire, and gems have intrinsic value. We ordinary people can see neither our own eyelashes, which are so close, nor the heavens in the distance. Likewise, we do not see that the Buddha exists in our own hearts. You may question how it is that the Buddha can reside within us when our bodies, originating from our parents’ sperm and blood, are the source of the three poisons and the seat of carnal desires. But repeated consideration assures us of the truth of this matter. The pure lotus flower blooms out of the muddy pond, the fragrant sandalwood grows from the soil, the graceful cherry blossoms come forth from trees, the beautiful Yang Kuei-fei was born of a woman of low station, and the moon rises from behind the mountains to shed light on them. Misfortune comes from one’s mouth and ruins one, but fortune comes from one’s heart and makes one worthy of respect.

The sincerity of making offerings to the Lotus Sutra at the beginning of the New Year is like cherry blossoms blooming from trees, a lotus unfolding in a pond, sandalwood leaves unfurling on the Snow Mountains, or the moon beginning to rise. Now Japan, in becoming an enemy of the Lotus Sutra, has invited misfortune from a thousand miles away. In light of this, it is clear that those who now believe in the Lotus Sutra will gather fortune from ten thousand miles away. The shadow is cast by the form, and just as the shadow follows the form, misfortune will befall the country whose people are hostile to the Lotus Sutra. The believers in the Lotus Sutra, on the other hand, are like the sandalwood with its fragrance. I will write you again.

Nichiren

The fifth day of the first month

Reply to the wife of Omosu

(Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, p. 1137)

New Year’s is the time for a new beginning, moving forward, and making fresh starts. As Nichiren says, my life may be as dirty and mucky as the muddy pond, but it can bloom just as the lotus blossoms. In fact, maybe it’s all that muck that will propel me forward to new and better things.

There is so much depth in this letter, but a line that stands out for me is this:

Misfortune comes from one’s mouth and ruins one, but fortune comes from one’s heart and makes one worthy of respect.

That’s a reference to Right Speech, part of the Eightfold Path the Buddha preached to eliminate suffering. (The Eightfold Path consists of Right View, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Meditation.)

Right Speech is avoidance of deceit, gossip, slander and verbal abuse or dishonesty, and speaking only to benefit others and reveal the truth.

In this new year, my resolution is to be more mindful of my speech, and endeavor to speak in a manner that will bring fortune to myself and others rather than causing misfortune.

Michele Chavez
Nichiren Buddhist student

*According to the Japanese lunar calendar, spring begins with the first month.

We look at the meaning within the story to find the messages and lessons which we can use to enhance our own lives, to live the message and live in the highest consciousness–the best for all concerned.

The Christmas story itself is a fairytale of love and virtue winning over the negative, a common theme in the arts. It helps to stabilize people in a world of anxieties and distractions, giving hope in the invisible, and credence to the need for each of us to work on our anxieties and fears. The story reawakens our inner longing for trust, miracles and believing in something bigger than ourselves. The child within each of us years for seeming magic, truly miracles, security, hope and faith.

The story itself is a metaphor–The Virgin Mary symbolizes willingness to receive and nurture truths. Joseph represents the intellect and the search for truth, preparing for the birth of newness. The journey to Bethlehem stands for our need to return to the point when in turmoil we separated from Our Maker and fellow men. The struggle to find a bed is the human ego’s struggle to hold on to its fears, prejudices and and resentments. The birth of Jesus depicts our birth/rebirth to what we call the Christ Consciousness–the Judeo-Christian teachings and value system-yearly the opportunity to reassess and recommit. The Wise Men are our movement toward the light of the Truth of our being.

So we see the Nativity Story of Christmas as a metaphor of the messages showing our journey to heaven on earth. We are the Christmas Story.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Rev. Maxine Schiltz
Revealing Truth–a metaphysical center in Lancaster