Category Archives: Contemporary Sages

Remaining an Artist

16 Tuesday Feb 2016

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Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.

–Pablo Picasso

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A colleague of mine likes to tell a story of walking into a preschool classroom, and asking the kids; “Who can sing?” “Who can dance?” “Who can draw?” As you can imagine every hand in the room goes up on each question. He then walked over to a nearby college, and asked a class of graduate students those same three questions. Hardly a hand went up. He wryly remarked, “We call this process ‘education'”.

Many of us have had our creativity bred or beaten out of us. The need to conform, to fit in, to perform in a specific way, often leaves our creative selves along life’s roadside gasping for air.  I remember an acquaintance who told me felt he had to leave his poetry behind to succeed in business. How sad! He wound up in a battle with addiction before he rediscovered his soul later in life.

And most of us went to the same schools- long rows, neat desks, telling the teacher up front what she or he had just told us, parroting it back to gain a grade. A freeze dried model of success and achievement. Small wonder our creative selves were under assault!

I owe much of my creative path to a teacher in high school who sent a pass into study hall, summoning me and a dozen other boys to the chorus room. He offered to teach us to sing together, to create art with our voices. We took him up on it, all diamonds in the rough. It changed the trajectory of my life, sending me from music to theatre to human potential work. He opened a creative urge that has never quieted since, and that helps me every day in every endeavor, artistic  or mundane. He helped me learn to turn Life into Art.

How can you nurture the life artist within you?

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Pablo Ruiz y Picasso, (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973), was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer, poet and playwright.As one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore.

Joe Laur is a father, husband, naturalist, executive consultant, and a lowly rabbinic student. He can be reached at joe.laur@godsdog.net.

If Worrying Paid Off

12 Friday Feb 2016

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“If worrying did any good, all the rich people would hire worriers!”

-Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

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When I was in college, someone gave me a set of “trouble dolls”, six little figures in a box. I was supposed to tell them my troubles each night at bed, and let them carry them while I got a good nights sleep. There were only 6 dolls because I was only allowed to have that many troubles and no more! They were “worriers” I could hire for the night.

As Shabbat approaches each Friday night, my family and I review the week; the blessings and the struggles. As we ritually wash our hands before breaking bread, we wash away and release anything we need to let go of that would keep us from entering a state of peace and joy. And then we throw that water out onto the earth to be processed, recycled and renewed! This ritual allows us to put our worries aside for a day, and relax into the NOW. It’s a life saving break from woes. Repeat as needed.

What worries do you need to release right now to enter a place of peace?

Shabbat Shalom!

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Zalman Meshullam Schachter-Shalomi, commonly called “Reb Zalman“, (28 August 1924 – 3 July 2014) was one of the founders of the Jewish Renewal movement and an innovator in ecumenical dialogue and spiritual practice.

Joe Laur is a father, husband, naturalist, executive consultant, and a lowly rabbinic student. He can be reached at joe.laur@godsdog.net.

Keeping Score

10 Wednesday Feb 2016

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“Even after all this time, the sun never says to the earth, ‘You owe me.’
Look what happens with a love like that. It lights the whole sky.” –Daniel Ladinsky 

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Sometimes in our lives, we keep score. “I did this for you, why can’t you do that for me?” We give with strings, and feel cheated if our loving is not returned in equal measure. Ladinsky implies here, writing in the name of Hafez, the great Persian mystical poet, that limited love produces limited results.

But love given without measure, without expectation of return, freely and fully, light ups the whole sky. And probably yields more returns than conditional love to boot. Keeping our eyes on the scoreboard limits our ability to be in the game, to be fully present to who is before us. What’s at risk, if we love unconditionally, beaming our affection, admiration, friendship, blessing as a pure gift rather than a shrewd bargain? More importantly, what’s at risk if we don’t love like that?

Who can you love completely today, just for love’s sake?

Daniel Ladinsky (born 1948) is an American poet and interpreter of mystical poetry, born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. In introductions to his books, Ladinsky notes that he offers interpretations and renderings of poets, rather than literal or scholarly translations. His work is based on conveying and being “faithful to the living spirit” of Hafiz, Rumi, as well as other mystic poets.

Joe Laur is a father, husband, naturalist, executive consultant, and a lowly rabbinic student. He can be reached at joe.laur@godsdog.net.

Living Presence

08 Monday Feb 2016

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“Man sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies have never really lived.”- Dalai Lama

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Remember the old saying; “Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday?” Living in any moment but the current one is literally impossible, so it may be that whenever we are captured by past regrets or future worries we are not living at all, but merely holding space in the present. When we are absorbed in any moment but this one, people around us notice a vacancy; some of us live hours, days, lifetimes in that state.

When we are fully absorbed in the present moment however, we seem vibrant, younger, more alive. We are in the flow, in it and part of it. I led services with a local Jewish community one Shabbat morning. I very much wanted to make a good impression, to inspire and engage them, and I also wanted to try some new things musically, and to stretch into some more challenging approaches, like chanting the Torah portion in both Hebrew and English.

On some days leading up to the service, I was nervous, doubting myself, wondering why I has even taken the gig. I was living in the future, worried and miserable! But when the day came, I decided I was prepared enough to do what ever was needed in the moment, and I simply relaxed, and prayed, sang and chanted from my heart each moment. Technically, I made a few “mistakes” with some of the new material. But the congregation loved it all, and hearing the Torah in the vernacular. I felt calm and happy, and afterward everyone congratulated me warmly and told me I exceeded expectations! Gee, why did I worry so?

We all perform better when we are present in the present moment. Feel the fear of the future, move through the sadness of the past, but perform in the present. It’s all we’ve got.

What can you just be present to today?

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The 14th Dalai Lama (religious name: Tenzin Gyatso, born Lhamo Thondup, 6 July 1935) is the current Dalai Lama. Dalai Lamas are important monks of the Gelug school, the newest school of Tibetan Buddhism which is nominally headed by the Ganden Tripas. The 14th Dalai Lama received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, and is known for his advocacy for Tibetans worldwide and his lifelong interest in modern science.

Joe Laur is a father, husband, artist, builder, naturalist, consultant, and EcoKosher mashgiach. He lives with his wife Sara in western Massachusetts, where he serves as head groundskeeper and resident singer songwriter. Send him your favorite teaching quote for commentary. He can be reached at joe.laur@joelaur.com.

Asking Why?

06 Saturday Feb 2016

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“When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist.”

-Dom Hélder Pessoa Câmara

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Sometimes questions can be revolutionary. Asking “Why?” can make  people uneasy, as the answer may expose structural systemic issues that some powers do not want to acknowledge or deal with.

Sometimes questions can be revolutionary. Asking “Why?” can make  people uneasy, as the answer may expose structural systemic issues that some powers do not want to acknowledge or deal with. In the Bible, both the Original Testament and the New Testament, the words “Poor” and “poverty” appear 446 times, and “Wealth” can be found 1,453 times. the word “Justice,” appears 1,576 times in the Original and New Testaments. Justice is mentioned twice as many times as “love” or “heaven” – and seven times more often than “hell.” You can see where the emphasis is.

Dom Camara’s comment indicates that it is easier and more acceptable socially to apply band aids to problems, to alleviate the symptoms, but not to tackle the root causes. In systems approaches, in order to really tackle a painful persistent problem, we must look beyond individual events and even patterns, to discover the hidden structures that keep the system doing what it’s doing. Like a game of Whack-A-Mole, just responding to the events keeps us busy, but gets us nowhere.  We need to take off the back of the machine and see what gears, pulleys, and relationships keep the moles popping up.

If we don’t change direction, we’ll end up where we’re headed. Practical spiritual work demands we stop rearranging the deck chairs and get down below to see what’s causing the ship to list, realizing it’s the folks in steerage who are most at risk. Besides, systems out of balance will eventually self correct, and often with a whiplash we’d rather avoid. Just ask ask Tsar Nicholas, Muammar Gaddafi or Bashar al-Assad. Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk, by contrast, were able to address systemic injustice sufficiently to avoid a bloodbath and bring South Africa to a better, if imperfect, place. We need to look deep, find root causes, and keep asking “Why?”

What great moral issues concern you today and where can you direct your “Why?”

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Dom Hélder Pessoa Câmara ( February 7, 1909 – August 27, 1999) was a Brazilian Roman Catholic Archbishop. He was the Archbishop of Olinda and Recife, serving from 1964 to 1985, during the military regime of the country. An advocate of liberation theology, he is remembered for his social and political work for the poor and for Human Rights and democracy during the military regime.

Joe Laur is a father, husband, artist, builder, naturalist, consultant, and EcoKosher mashgiach. He lives with his wife Sara in western Massachusetts, where he serves as head groundskeeper and resident singer songwriter. Send him your favorite teaching quote for commentary. He can be reached at joe.laur@joelaur.com.

Forgiving Ourselves

02 Tuesday Feb 2016

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“We achieve inner health only through forgiveness – the forgiveness not only of others but also of ourselves” – Rabbi Joshua Loth Liebman

The Prodigal Son, Rembrandt

Usually when we think of forgiveness, we think of it in terms of others; either forgiving others who have wronged us, or asking forgiveness of those we have wronged. But what about forgiving ourselves for our “trespasses” against our own ideals?

I find self forgiveness the most difficult. I can usually find a way to forgive others without too much difficulty, especially if they acknowledge the hurt they caused me and ask for forgiveness. That melts my heart. If i’m aware of hurting others, I want to make it right between us as well. I don’t like to leave accounts unsettled, or be at odds with people I care about. But what about settling scores with my self?

I’m  my own harshest critic, as many of us are. A friend once told me she had an “inner prosecutor” who reminded her continuously of everything she’d done wrong. She got the idea of hiring an “inner defense attorney” to handle her case! Can we treat ourselves as well as we want others to treat us? As well as we want to treat others? How can we find ways to forgive ourselves, and genuinely return to our highest ideals?

I usually start by imagining how I’d treat a dear friend. If we are supposed to love others as ourselves, that means we have to love ourselves! I ask myself, if someone else had done this thing, fallen short of their ideals with me, would I forgive them? The answer is almost always yes. So why should I be harder than that on myself? Extending forgiveness to ourselves also makes it easier to extend it to others. And we all know that practice makes perfect.

What can you forgive yourself for today, and let it be as dust in the wind?

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Joshua Loth Liebman (1907–1948), was an American rabbi and best-selling author, best known for the book Peace of Mind, which spent more than a year at #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list.

Joe Laur is a father, husband, artist, builder, naturalist, consultant, and EcoKosher mashgiach. He lives with his wife Sara in western Massachusetts, where he serves as head groundskeeper and resident singer songwriter. Send him your favorite teaching quote for commentary. He can be reached at joe.laur@joelaur.com.

Some Are Guilty, But All Are Responsible

01 Monday Feb 2016

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“…morally speaking, there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings, that indifference to evil is worse than evil itself, that in a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.” –Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

Refugee camp in Damascus, Syria

I have a cartoon I use in my teaching about understanding systems. In it, a boat is sinking, going down at the bow, while two men in the bow furiously bail water. In the stern, which is still high and dry, two other men sit relaxed and smiling, and one comments to the other, “I’m sure glad the hole isn’t in our end of the boat!”

Rabbi Heschel responds to this kind of indifference by flatly stating that there is no “our end of the boat”, that there is no limit or boundary within we can retreat and not feel concern for others. In fact, he asserts that indifference to evil is worse than evil itself! Those who permit or enable evil are as responsible as those who perpetrate it.

When I visited Birkenau and Auschwitz some 20 years ago, I was struck by the slogan “Never Again” that was adopted by the survivors of the Holocaust. Never again will we be victims. But the rabbi I was with insisted that that did not go far enough. She insisted that the mantra “Never Again!” should mean Never Again a Victim, Never Again a Perpetrator, and Never Again a BYSTANDER. Without all three legs, the “stool” of evil will topple. There are no innocent bystanders. When we become aware of evil anywhere, we are obliged to do something, anything, be cause we are “response-able”, able to respond.

As a friend of mine likes to say, there’s no “them” there, there’s no “there” there, there’s just us, here.

Where can I take “response-ability” in my life to ease suffering?

Abraham Joshua Heschel (January 11, 1907 – December 23, 1972) was a Polish-born American rabbi and one of the leading Jewish theologians and Jewish philosophers of the 20th century. Heschel, a professor of Jewish mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, authored a number of widely read books on Jewish philosophy and was active in the American Civil Rights movement.

Joe Laur is a father, husband, artist, builder, naturalist, consultant, and EcoKosher mashgiach. He lives with his wife Sara in western Massachusetts, where he serves as head groundskeeper and resident singer songwriter. Send him your favorite teaching quote for commentary. He can be reached at joe.laur@joelaur.com.

Seeing Peace

29 Friday Jan 2016

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“I could see peace instead of this.” – A Course in Miracles

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Following my cousin David’s death in a car crash caused by a drunk driver, my deep sadness was mixed with fiery rage. That drunken, speeding, SOB! That party boy! I stare at his Facebook page, at him smiling in front of the big Mercedes that killed David and his love Liz, and I am obsessed with this smiling hot shot, his sharp clothes, the young women he poses with, pictures of his Bloody Mary he’s calling “lunch” on his page. I am enraged, full of judgment, and it’s starting to obsess and eat me alive.

There is another way. When the Course in Miracles says I could see peace instead of  horror, anger rage, revenge, it offers me a way out of hell. Without denying the outrage and injustice of David’s death, I can channel my righteous action into anger, telling my friends never to drink and drive, donate to M.A.D.D., go for a run to get the energy moving in a positive direction. This is not forgive and forget. It is forgive and remember. Remember that people, all of us, are capable of mindless acts that can do irreparable harm. Remember, that there were times in my youth, when I drove after too many drinks. Times when I sped. Times when I sleepwalk through life, unawares.

Suddenly my anger gives way to deep sadness. I’m sorry this happened, to David, to Liz, even to young playboy Vladymyr in his Mercedes. He’s dead too, his young life extinguished. As I let the tears flow, I see a path out of hell. Channel the anger into right action. Let the grief have its way with me until I find release. Remember my cousin for his life, not just his death. Had I been offered him for 51 years with the understanding that he’d be taken away afterward, would I have signed the deal? Absolutely. His presence in my life has been huge blessing. Why let anger at his passing eat me alive and negate that?

I can see peace now, even through the tears. I can see the blessing that David has been to so many, see the needless loss that many have suffered, and live my life with an awareness that bad things can happen to good people; but if I’m on point, it can happen less. Just like David, I can bring some peace to this world. It eases the sting a little. I know it’s the right thing to do. Channel the anger into positive action, forgive, remember, and stay awake. In David’s name, I can make peace. It’s what he’d do.

What can you make peace with that is eating you?

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A Course in Miracles is a book written and edited by Helen Schucman, with portions transcribed and edited by William Thetford, containing a self-study curriculum to bring about what it calls a “spiritual transformation”.

Joe Laur is a father, husband, artist, builder, naturalist, consultant, and EcoKosher mashgiach. He lives with his wife Sara in western Massachusetts, where he serves as head groundskeeper and resident singer songwriter. Send him your favorite teaching quote for commentary. He can be reached at joe.laur@joelaur.com.

Perfection and Evil

20 Wednesday Jan 2016

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“Those who insist on perfection or nothing will surrender the world to evil…”

-Rabbi Irving Greenberg

Rabbi Irving Greenberg, also known as Yitz Greenberg, is a Modern Orthodox rabbi, Jewish-American scholar and author. He is known as a promoter of greater understanding between Judaism and Christianity.

I only spent a few hours one weekend studying with Rabbi Greenberg, but the teaching above was a major takeaway. I once had a man come up to me and tell me that I didn’t care about the environment because I wore a watch with a battery instead of a windup one. Never mind that I run my house on solar power, compost everything, recycle the rest, drive an electric car and work with major corporations on sustainability issues, I was less than perfect, and therefore no good.

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Well, I’m guilty of that charge of lack of perfection. While I’m always striving for a positive impact on the world, I leave a few scars now and then. I am far from the ideal. But the point is to always make the effort, however big or small, to move the needle in the right direction. One small course correction can send us to an entirely different destination. And giving up ensures that I won’t have much of an impact on the things I care most about.  I’m reminded of this lesson time and again in raising children. While the good may be the enemy of the perfect, insistence on perfection may destroy the good.

Let’s not let ourselves off the hook, but let’s not hang ourselves on the hook, either! We were born to be real, not perfect.

What imperfect good thing can you begin today, and build upon tomorrow and the days after that?

 

Joe Laur is a father, husband, artist, builder, naturalist, consultant, and EcoKosher mashgiach. He lives with his wife Sara in western Massachusetts, where he serves as head groundskeeper and resident singer songwriter. Send him your favorite teaching quote for commentary. He can be reached at joe.laur@joelaur.com.