Speaking of Spirit

Tree of Life Tapestry https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/64.101.1305/ “We Are But One Thread”    by Rev. Linda M. Rhinehart Neas © 2018    Chief Seattle, the great Native American medicine man, said, “Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.” I love that imagery. Close your eyes for a moment…picture an awesomely beautiful tapestry, rich in color and texture. See each human, each plant, animal…all of creation as individual threads within the tapestry.  Tapestries are weavings that often tell stories of a great event. We don’t have a tapestry here to demonstrate our interconnectedness, but, if we were to pull just one thread out of what weavers call the weft and warp, it pulls on all the other threads, taking them out of balance. If we pull on several threads, before long, our tapestry is a mess!  This is what is happening to us today. The v...

Image via Wikipedia   Chinese depiction of  Jesus and the rich man (Mark 10) - 1879, Beijing, China - The one tenet almost every religion has in common is to Love one another.  A simple rule, yet so difficult to follow. While the various religions and faith paths have said this in many ways, the meaning is the same.  Here are some sacred writings from around the world.  These are listed by the approximate dates they were written based on texts found by scholars. Hinduism : 3200 BC, From the Hitopadesa - "One should always treat others as they themselves wish to be treated." J udaism: 1300 BC, from the Old Testament, Leviticus 19:18 - "Thou shalt Love thy neighbor as thyself."   Zoroastrianism : 600 BC, From the Shast-na-shayast 13:29 - "Whatever is disagreeable to yourself, do not do unto others." Confucianism : 557 BC, From the Analects 15:23 - "What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others....