awareness – Feminism and Religion

A Blinding Light? by Sara Wright

Nature is a Living Being. Animals and plants have souls, and a spirit. Each species is unique, and yet we are all interconnected, human and non – human species alike. This is more than a both and perspective; its multi-dimensional.

Many books are written about using nature to heal humanity of its ills. ‘Recreate’. Climbing a mountain, or taking a walk are common examples of using nature to help ourselves, but how many of us are asking the question of how we can give back?

This is a question I was obsessed with for about thirty years and may be the reason I gained entrance into this seemingly secret world that we call Nature.* When I experienced unconditional love from both animals and plants I needed to reciprocate in kind. This idea of reciprocity between humans and the rest of Nature is probably similar to what Indigenous peoples experienced because they loved (or feared) and learned directly from animals, plants and trees. They respected animals, for example, for their unique qualities. Indigenous people never psychologized Nature the way westerners routinely do.

I rarely read books about Nature anymore because I am so troubled by this psychologizing. From my point of view psycho-babble is just another way of dismissing the reality of Nature as a living feeling, sensing, sentient Being.

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Emerging Energy Wisdom by Oxana Poberejnaia

We women of this blog, of this movement to bring Feminism to Religion and vice versa, are planting seeds of a better future. One part of this future is educating young people. I do not want my daughter to repeat some of the mistakes I have done in my youth. One thing I would most certainly urge her to do would be:

Conserve Your Energy

One of the Foremothers of the Goddess movement said that it is very easy to observe Goddess in everyday life: just look at teenage girls. They are uninhibited, creative, playfully sexual (I do not promote underage sex here, I am just emphasising that people can be sexual in their life cycle before and after they practice sexual acts with other people). Most of all, teenage girls are bursting with energy.

The question is: where would this energy go? What would it be spent on?

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#IceBucketChallenge – Raising Awareness While Being Good Stewards by Michele Stopera Freyhauf

In a space that has been flooded with negativity and scenes of war and violence, I find my Facebook newsfeed lit up with people from all walks of life engaging in this challenge. For those that may not be aware of how this works, you are invited to take the challenge by either donating $100 to ALS research or dumping a bucket of ice water over your head. Those with means seem to be doing both, even exceeding the minimum donation amount. However, despite millions of dollars raised for important research, there are critics of this challenge. They vary widely from diverting donations from the ALS Association because foetal stem cells are used in their research, a violation of Catholic Social Teaching, to objections to a display of privilege; watching those with means wasting precious resources to perform this challenge.

For me, I have been torn over this debate. I think today, more than ever, we are in desperate need of levity. More than that, we need to rebuild our sense of community and can do so while raising awareness about ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, an incurable, progressive degenerative neurological disorder. I think that this challenge has accomplished all of these goals. From former presidents to billionaires, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies to professional sports stars (even teams), movie stars and musicians, to my neighbours, friends, and family members – there is something about this that ties everyone together – a common bond, if you will, forged by this challenge. Not to mention, over $90 million has been raised to support research so far, with a record breaking $10 million raised in one day alone. To put this in perspective, the annual average annual donations received by the ALS Association is usually around $2.1 million. Continue reading “#IceBucketChallenge – Raising Awareness While Being Good Stewards by Michele Stopera Freyhauf”

Mindfulness of Putting Ourselves Down by Oxana Poberejnaia

From the Buddhist point of view, all phenomena are conditioned, i.e. they arise, carry on, and come to an end because of other phenomena. Buddhism does not look at anything we experience as “things”, but rather as processes.

Confusion arises due to various factors, chief among them : 1) vague sense of “ego”, and 2) language. The vague sense of ego is portrayed in Khemaka Sutta as the last delusion that a monk drops before getting Enlightened, so we won’t worry about it now. Where language is concerned, Buddhism stands on similar positions to those of postmodernism and feminism, i.e. our social world is defined by how we speak about it. One can say that we actually create society by the act of speaking.

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On Being in the Moment By Ivy Helman

Time. We mark years, months, days, hours, minutes and seconds. We mark seasons. We mark life events. We live our lives in time: both circular and linear. Time began before we did and time will continue after we cannot experience it any further. Some say we repeat time with rebirth. Others suggest that we only have one lifetime of which we should make the most. Still others suggest there is existence outside of time with concepts like infinity and eternal life. We sure do write, discuss and ponder time a lot, but do we ever really experience it? Meaning: what would it be like to live in the moment, to be aware of and completely conscience within an instance of time, not thinking of the past, not worrying about the future, but being fully present in the here and now?

Sci-fi geek that I am, I often recall the Star Trek: The Next Generation movie entitled Insurrection when Captain Picard and Anij discuss experiencing a moment of time. Anij explains to Captain Picard, “You stop reviewing what happened yesterday. Stop planning for tomorrow. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever experienced a perfect moment in time?” A few lines of dialogue later, she picks up the topic again by describing what being present is like. ”We’ve discovered that a single moment in time can be a universe in itself. Full of powerful forces. Most people aren’t aware enough of the now to even notice.” The visual effects show water stopping and a butterfly’s slow flight if I remember correctly. Captain Picard is obviously caught up in these moments of time as well as being mesmerized by Anij herself. The power of both the moments of time and Anij herself is palpable. Continue reading “On Being in the Moment By Ivy Helman”