There are a number of goals one might pursue through meditation: making changes in your behavior set, analyzing the many assumptions which make up your world view, or generally advancing your ability to relate to your spiritual reality. Some of these can be pretty demanding, requiring the contemplative to grapple with weighty concerns.

Using meditation as an antidote to stress is quite a bit less demanding. Instead of identifying, analyzing and re-writing your personal storylines, the goal of stress relief meditation is simple: you set all of your storylines down. You forget your script. For the ten minutes or twenty minutes of your session, all the many demands placed upon you are gone. Place the locus of your attention on one single object, and let everything else go.

That sounds pretty easy, doesn’t it? The specifics are even easier – here is how you can use meditation for relief from stress:

• Find a nice quiet spot. This spot doesn’t have to be dead silent, but you should be confident that you won’t be disturbed by a phone or someone looking for a chat.
• Sit upright – by the end of this session you will be very relaxed, so maintaining a good posture will keep you from falling asleep.
• Choose a word or phrase you find comforting. Frequent choices are ‘love’, ‘one’, or even ‘calm’. Choosing a word with spiritual connotations is also helpful IF you are comfortable with the sentiment expressed. For instance, the very popular ‘maranatha’ means ‘Come Lord’ and will only be overtly helpful for Christians.
• Watch your breathing for a few moments. This begins the process of calming down and turning your attention inward.
• When ready, say your word to yourself on an outbreath. This can be done silently or at a low volume. Whichever feels comfortable and makes it easiest to keep your attention on the word.
• As you are drawing in breath, simply sit quietly, listening to that silence.
• Continue this cycle – say word to yourself on outbreath, sit quietly on inbreath – for the length of your session.
• As stray thoughts come along (and in the beginning they will do so frequently), don’t fret. Just note that the thought came to you, then go back to saying your word.
• At the end of your session, give yourself a few moments to enjoy the feeling of relaxed peace. Then take a nice, deep breath, open your eyes fully and let your senses spread to the world outside your body.

That’s it. Not too tough, is it? In most cases, this stress relief meditation will be the simplest thing you do on any given day – no need for special equipment, no expensive medicines, and just a few minutes to yourself required. In pretty short order you’ll sleep easier, see a reduction in high BP, and find that your emotional stability is greatly improved.

This single exercise is all that many people need. Eventually you might find you are interested in finding even more about meditation. Follow that inclination if it hits, but either way enjoy this extraordinary tool for health.

Vigilate,

Christopher Boozell

When "Do-It-Yourself Eye Movement Technique for Emotional Healing", by Dr. Fred Friedberg, Ph.D., first came out, it created quite a stir.  The underlying technique (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing or EMDR) had been kept in strict secrecy since its creation in 1989.  The rationale behind this confidentiality was that, being aimed at treating PTSD and other trauma based afflictions, EMDR could possibly elicit very negative reactions in the subject, making it imperative that a licensed professional be present to manage such an event. 

Having spent many years as such a licensed practitioner, and witnessing no such extraordinary abreaction, Dr. Friedberg published his book so that any one of us would have access to this useful technology.  He did note (pg. 6) that severe issues with post traumatic stress disorder or other critical problems still need the intervention of a capable psychiatric professional; but for the bulk of us, EMT provides a simple way of dealing with stress, tension and even some phobias in a simple, elegant way. 

The meat of the book provides a framework with which to eliminate worry, guilt or feelings of anger; manage difficult family relationships; and even reduce the stress present when suffering from chronic pain.  The technique is about as simple as can be imagined:

1. sit comfortably, with your right hand on your right thigh and left hand on your left thigh
2. close your eyes and bring to mind an image or memory which causes stress, worry, etc.  Rate the degree of emotional discomfort this stressor causes on a scale of 1 – 10
3. keeping this stressor image in mind, alternately tap your legs with your index fingers: right – left – right – left – etc.  Each leg is tapped about one time per second
4. continue tapping while keeping stressor image in mind for a few minutes
5. stop tapping and re-evaluate the emotional discomfort caused by the stressor.

Dr. Friedberg provides a lot of direction around a number of corollary issues: what to do if a reduction in discomfort is not experienced and how to achieve this effect with another person are just two.  If you are interested in using EMT specifically for this kind of intervention, I would recommend that you refer to the book in order to get his complete directions. 

The astute reader will probably have a couple of questions.  First – "where is the eye movement?"  Since its inception more than twenty years ago, practitioners have found multiple ways to alternatively stimulate each side of the brain.  Originally, moving the eyes from side to side was thought to be necessary, but now use taps on the legs, the hands, the shoulders, and even alternating tones in each ear are also used.  The important thing appears to be this back and forth stimulation of the brain’s hemispheres. 

The next important question is likely to be: "what does this have to do with meditation?"  In chapter 12, Dr. Friedberg develops the notion of using EMT as a simple, yet effective, aid to rapid relaxation.  Instead of focusing upon the relief of a specific memory or phobia, in this chapter he proposes using EMT to simple let go of general stress – and as any new meditator can attest, releasing stress and tension prior to a meditation session can be a real challenge.

There are different ways each meditator gets past this first hurdle; some listen to soothing music first, some stretch a bit before beginning a session, others will begin with a short prayer.  All of these are good, and I recommend trying each of them.  The Eye Movement Technique offers another approach, one that is simple and can be done anywhere, anytime.  Incorporating the technique into your meditation pattern by simply tapping your legs for a few minutes prior to meditating in earnest – if this strategy is effective for you, any mental turmoil will be soothed and you can move into the rest of your normal contemplative pattern.  

Whether you incorporate this into your meditation regime, or not, it never hurts to have another took in your chest.  "Do-It-Yourself Eye Movement Technique for Emotional Healing" can provide such a tool. 

Vigilate,

Christopher Boozell
http://www.TantricChristianity.com

Once upon a time, a young man decided to pursue the path of enlightenment.  He asked many people if they knew a teacher who could teach this path.  Everyone in his village told him to seek out a particular guru in the next village.

He did so, asking the spiritual teacher to become his master and show him the path to enlightenment.  "Certainly", replied the guru.  "Here is what you do – every morning when you get out of bed, look at yourself in a mirror and ask yourself ‘who am I?’  If you do that, soon you will be enlightened."

"What?" cried the young man.  "That’s silly – it would never work!"

"Hmmm," said the master.  "OK.  Maybe you should go see the master another village over.  I hear he is even wiser than I am."

A bit disappointed that first master wasn’t able to help, and a little insulted that the man would even have suggested something so foolish, the young man went to the next village where he found the second guru.  "Will you help me find enlightenment?"

"Of course!" said the second guru.  "But I must warn you – the path is very demanding.  You will be challenged in ways you can’t even imagine right now.  Are you willing to give up everything you have and do whatever I say?"

"Yes! Yes!" said the young man.  Finally!  This teacher obviously knew what he was talking about.  So the young man settled into discipleship with the second guru, dutifully performing every meditation, every prayer, every ascetic act demanded of him. 

After five years of rigorous study and deep meditation, the guru said to the young man, "You have been a fine student, and done everything I have assigned you with excellence.  Are you ready for the final instruction?"

Excited, the student assured his master that he was ready for this last step to enlightenment.  His guru told him, "OK, here it is: every morning when you get out of bed, look at yourself in a mirror and ask yourself ‘who am I?’  If you do that, soon you will be enlightened."

"W-what??" sputtered the young man.  "That’s it?  You could have told me that five years ago!"

"You’re right, I could have – but you were not ready to hear, yet.  That is why you came to me, instead of doing what the first teacher told you."

Beside being mildly humorous, this story has a couple of lessons for us, if we’ll hear them. 

1. the spiritual path is not necessarily complicated, or esoteric.  Zen teachings work to drive this point home relentlessly: "Stop fooling around.  You are living smack dab in the middle of Truth – just get it!"  In other words, it is possible to come to spiritual realization without jumping through tons of hoops.
2. as simple as spiritual Truth can be to experience, it usually isn’t easy and we often can’t get at it without significant preparation.  This is why study, meditation, prayer, and ethical behavior are so critical to our development.  Such practices are intended to give us the perspective necessary to recognize what has always been in front of us. 

On top of that, the exercise offered by both teachers in this story really is useful as a pre-cursor to investigative meditation, which is related to meditating on emptiness.  Try it the next time you look in a mirror.  Look yourself in the face and ask, "Who am I?" 

This is not a rhetorical question.  Answer yourself.  Who are you?  There will be a lot of quick, easy answers: you have a name, you are a husband or wife, a son or daughter, a father or mother, an employee, a friend, an enemy . . .   You are many things.  When you have run through those obvious answers, which come easily and are just as easily dismissed as incomplete answers, keep going.  Keep digging.  See what you find.  Where is the truest you, the ROOT you? 

Do this every day.  At first, you could feel a bit narcissistic, but you’ll soon realize this exercise is not even close to that kind of self involvement.  (By the same token, any temptation to criticize perceived flaws will quickly fall away).  As you continue searching for anything concrete on which to rest the answer to this question of who you are, your idea of self can begin to change.  The storyline about your own reality will morph, possibly leading to a fresh relations with yourself, the world around you, and the Divine. 

Ultimately, this is just another technique, as is meditation.  But every time you use one of these special practices to make a shift in perspective, you become healthier.  See where this one can take you. 

Vigilate,

Chris

In his book, Ninja Wisdom from the Village of the Cold Moon, Stephen K. Hayes includes the following admonition:

"There is a game you can play with death

in order to more fully know life.

Pretend that you have the knowledge

that you will meet your death

one week hence.

Use the pretended urgency

to give vitality to your hours."

In this season of New Year’s Resolutions (NYR), I find this passage particularly useful. Every year, in a collective masochistic ritual, millions of resolutions are made. Most seemingly made to be broken, but everyone somehow disappointed they didn’t follow through.

"This year I will lose weight!"

"This year I will get a better job!"

The making and unmaking of our goals has become a cultural joke. There are two primary reasons these resolutions die stillborn:

1. Because so many things not related to our goals demand our attention. Can’t exercise today? No problem, I can walk a little longer tomorrow. Work on resume for job hunt? Can’t today – too busy with current job I hate, but I’ll have some time next week. Of course, the same thing happens tomorrow or next week, as well. Without focus on the bigger need, the desired outcome, all the little things nagging at us will swamp our goals.

2. Because we pick goals that we really don’t care about. Losing weight, better job, quitting smoking or drinking, getting more organized, etc. Good arguments can be made for any of those resolutions, but if you really don’t care about them, why would you spend any energy on them? If you resolve to do something which means nothing to you, you will be looking for any excuse to ignore it.

So let me make a suggestion. Stop with the NYR routine. Odds are you’ll just keep frustrating yourself by making and breaking those resolutions every year anyway.

Instead, come up with what I call Gravestone Resolutions (GR). A GR is what you hope OTHER people will put on your gravestone when you have given up this mortal form. What do you want to be remembered for? What sort of legacy will you leave? How will the world have changed because you lived?

How would you like this on your grave marker: "Here lies John Smith. Everyone he knew was jealous of how far he could jog."  Or how about something like this written on your stone by your children: "Buried here is our father Tom Jones. We never really knew him, but we understand his boss really relied on him."  Maybe this one: "Helen Wills – she had the most neatly kept home of all her friends."

Obviously, there is nothing wrong with being physically fit, a great team member at work, or having a well kempt home. Those are desirable things and increase the satisfaction you find in life. But if something like these picayune goals are the scope of what you hope for by the time you’ve drawn your last breath, I’m going to propose that you spend some time thinking bigger.

By ‘thinking bigger’, I don’t necessarily mean ‘thinking high-profile’. Starting a Fortune 500 company, becoming a player in international politics, or writing the next blockbuster novel are all swell, but they aren’t necessary to have a fantastic gravestone. You just need to know what YOU want people to think about when they remember your life:

1. if you are a parent, what will your children miss about you?

2. if married, how did you make your spouse’s life extraordinary?

3. will your co-workers be missing someone who brought a lot of value to the workplace?

4. was anyone who knew you inspired to be a better person because of your example?

5. your community – will it be a better place to live because you were there?

6. will you be someone who communicated a sense of spirit to everyone around you?

There are just my thoughts. I don’t know what you might want to be remembered for. But it should be great. It should make the world a better place. It should be something that, if you hadn’t lived, people would be poorer for. Be bold in thinking this out. Make it something that inspires you; something which energizes you. Thinking about your GR should thrill you!

Once you have your GR thought through, the next step is simple: do something about it. Every single day, do or say or think something which makes the impact you are looking for. Some days it will be easy – you’ll love being that special dad or the person who inspires others.

Other days . . . not so easy. Those around you will want something different from you. People will expect you to be smaller. Many days YOU will want to be smaller. You’ll be a couch potato watching a show you don’t really like because changing the channel is too much effort. You’ll say something petty about a coworker or neighbor. You’ll be tempted to make excuses for yourself – after all, you’re only human, right? Why push yourself? How arrogant to think you should be more!

Every time you feel this temptation, remember your tombstone. Some day (you don’t know when – it could be next week, or it could be 50 years from now) you will have one. You could succumb to those temptations regularly, capping your life with a stone that says something like:

"Tom Jones

Born 1950 Died 2015

He was an OK guy"

Or would you prefer that it says "Here lies a giant. He made a difference. Our world is less than it was now he is gone, but so much more than it would have been without him." You choose your stone every day.

Then, once you’ve remembered this future gravestone, act to make it a reality. Do something for someone you love. Share some laughter with a friend who is down. Think about things in a new way; find fresh possibilities in static situations. Act, and be remembered for making the world a better place.

If you don’t know what to think, say or do – learn. Read books that hold the knowledge you need. Befriend people who will also have remarkable gravestones. Find a mentor. Install new habits. Meditate to find your own wisdom (a favorite of mine).  Refuse to be limited today by the weaknesses you had yesterday.  Get bigger.

The irony here? You can still make those pesky NYRs. But if you make those resolutions goals which serve your GR, you’ll actually see them through. And you’ll be happier because of it!

Vigilate,

Chris B

Note: the wonderful book "Ninja Wisdom from the Village of the Cold Moon", mentioned at the beginning of this post, is no longer in print.   Readers interested in learning more about this unique expression of martial philosophy can purchase an audio CD rendition, read by the author (with accompanying music by another friend, Todd Norcross) at this site: http://www.skhquest.com/store/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=27

[Note: the following post is based on an email I sent to those who have signed up for my free online meditation lessons.  If you would like to sign up for these lessons, go to http://www.tantricchristianity.com/lesson_signup.html and enter you name and email address.  You’ll receive a confirmation email almost immediately after this has been submitted.  Be sure to click that confirming link!]

We celebrated Thanksgiving Day here in the U.S.A. today. It’s a time to reflect on our blessings and express in some way our gratitude for them. Many of us have the day off of work, and we go out of our way to spend time with family and friends, gorging on good food.

My family and I were in on that, and I hope that whatever the specifics of your day, you were able to spend some time considering the elements of your own life for which you are grateful. Doubtless, you’ve heard that same sentiment more than once today.

It’s good to be reminded, today of all days, to review all of the things that we can point to which make our lives something we are happy about. But rather than simply be one more voice reminding you to ‘give thanks’, I thought I might offer you a simple generative meditation exercise which will help you experience that gratitude more profoundly.

The following steps are all that is involved:

· Find a quiet time and place where you will be undisturbed for however long you wish to meditate.

· Spend a few moments simply breathing. Experience your entire torso as air comes into your body through your nose, and leaves again. No tension is required, or attempt at controlling your breath. Just breath and experience the action.

· Spend a few more moments feeling your heart beat in your chest.

· Identify something (anything in your life will do) for which you are grateful. Big or small, something that saved your life, or something of little ‘real’ import – makes no difference, so long as it is something which prompts gratitude in your spirit.

· Now, seeing an image of that thing, or saying its name silently to yourself, imagine breathing that feeling of gratitude into the spot in your chest where your heart is beating.

· Breath that gratitude back into the world on the out breath. Don’t hold your breath, draw it out, or otherwise try to manipulate the natural rhythm of breathing; just follow it with this feeling of gratitude.

· Continue this process, refreshing the image of the thing you are grateful for, or repeating its name to yourself, to keep the feeling of gratitude fresh.

Feel free to allow other ‘items of gratitude’ to suggest themselves to you – the point of this isn’t so much to focus on what makes you feel grateful, but the gratitude itself. Allow as many different things which prompt that feeling as you like.

In his book the Heartmath Solution, Doc Childre uses human physiology to build a strong case for the benefits of a similar exercise. He talks about the heart’s brain, and gives a lot of the usual health improvement citations for why we might want to pursue this.

That is more than fine, but I would also point out that developing a vibrant sense of gratitude for all the good things in our lives helps our spiritual growth, too. When we feel like we have a lot going for us, it’s easy – almost automatic – to exhibit many of the other values our religious traditions prescribe. Generosity, loving kindness, justice: all of these are easier to express naturally when we are operating from a sense of plenty, rather a sense of being threatened by lack or scarcity.

So this Thanksgiving Day, and on lots of other days too, spend a few minutes breathing gratitude. It will be one more thing you can be glad for in your life.

Vigilate,

Chris B.

www.TantricChristianity.com

Greetings!

Just a few days ago, I attended an evening meditation class hosted by Stephen K. Hayes (see more about Stephen here).  The focus of the session was our senses – the information channels which connect us to the world, and the framework within which our normal thinking process operates. 

Mr. Hayes presented several exercises: focusing on our senses of smell, taste and hearing.  In each exercise we focused our attention on a particular stimulus (like the smell of incense) AND we noted any reactions to that stimulus.  Did any memories present themselves?  Was the experience positive or negative?  What other sensations followed the primary stimulus?

For me, the timing of this class was serendipitous.  I have just completed an informal meditation mini-course (click here to sign up for this ten lesson course), and I present a lot of material about how to manage your senses to maximize your meditative efforts.  What kinds of images, sounds and feelings do we focus our attention on?  Are we in charge of our experiences, or do they drive us around like sheepdogs?

In the class the other night though, Stephen took the complementary approach: 1) take time to observe the impact that physical sensations have on the content and quality of our consciousness, and 2) use those observations to make healthy decisions about what kind of sensations to surround yourself with. 

He used an example of music: loads of people listen to music specifically engineered to arouse a sense of agitation (think of those cars driving down the street with the base turned up so loud you feel it, as much as hear it) – and wonder why they always feel keyed up!  The same effect can be seen with the foods we eat, the TV we watch, the tone of voice we use, etc., etc., etc.  

The bottom line is – don’t pretend that what you consume through your senses leaves you unaffected.  It DOES affect you, so do a good job of surrounding yourself with healthy and enlivening stimuli. 

It seems like a simple thing; try it out in your own life and see what the effect is. 

Until next time,

Vigilate,

Chris B

But there are also things we can do when we are NOT meditating which will help our practice.  One of the simplest such practices is to periodically break out of our ‘thought rut’ by intentionally directing our senses to different elements of our surroundings than is our personal norm. 

Try this several times through the day: take a few moments to really notice whatever you are looking at, then move your eyes to notice something you would normally miss in your surroundings.  Don’t worry about analyzing whatever that might be; just see something you wouldn’t normally notice.  If you are normally looking at objects near you, shift your focus to notice something far away.  If you are normally looking down, look up at the sky or the ceiling. 

Do the same thing with what you are hearing and feeling, as well.  Just spend a few seconds noticing some of the pieces of your world which are typically swallowed up as part of the background for all the stuff demanding your attention. 

Moving your attention around like this is a great warm up for meditation.  You’ll find that when you break out of the habits your senses have established (you’ll start to find patterns in what you regularly notice to the exclusion of the rest of your world), you simultaneously break some of the hold your thought habits hold over your experience. 

That is a huge help for the spiritual seeker.  Every time you weaken those habits (of thought and sensation) you strengthen the muscles you will be using for meditation. 

This isn’t a meditation exercise, per se, but try it out and see what impact stretching your senses has on your internal practice.  And let me know what you think!

Vigilate

Chris

Do you feel it?  We just hit bottom: not in politics or economics, but in the sun’s path through the sky.  Two days ago was the shortest day of the year, the day that we start to see a little more of the sun, receive a little more light each day. 

And in just a few days time we’ll be celebrating Christmas: for many, a day on which it is a bit easier to see a little more of the Son in our lives.  Perhaps see a little more of His light, and feel a little more of His warmth. 

It’s no coincidence that the new year, Christmas, and the winter solstice are all so close together.  Historically, they are linked, but just as importantly they are emotionally linked for us: in the same way that the northern hemisphere of the Earth is most completely blanketed in cold and dark before things turn around,  human feelings of being most surrounded by the cold and the dark of our problems peak just in time for the Son to bring light, warmth and love.  He brings a new beginning. 

This new beginning is, of course, the very reason that Christianity exists.   If we take the message of the Good News to heart, every day is a new beginning; every day is the day we see more Son light than the day before.  Every day can be Christmas.  That is the spiritual goal of all religions (though only Christianity focuses on Jesus as the source of that renewal).  Step out of old ways of relating to self, world, and God, finding new ways to relate to each. 

Obviously, I use tools like meditation to work on those relationships (see http://www.tantricchristianity.com/Articles.html  to see other thoughts on related methods), but others might work for you.  However you work on your relationship with the Divine, just be sure you are really working on it.  Over time, you will find the Christmas spirit really CAN be everywhere.  Revel in it. 

And, as you walk that path, vigilate!

Merry Christmas,

Chris

In a word, the answer to their question is “no”.  Meditation and relaxation are not the same things, but we can’t really leave it at that,  since they do impact one another.  It’s tough to say that you are really meditating if you are all keyed up, and one of the benefits of meditating can be a profound sense of rest.  But it’s no more true that they are the same thing than it would be true to say that sleep and relaxation are the same thing.  If you’re not relaxed, you’re not really going to sleep well, and sleeping well can have a person feeling very rested and relaxed, but they are hardly the same thing. 

I liken this to a claim that is bandied about the internet quite often: sellers of CDs which use sophisticated audio tones to produce specific states of mind often claim that you’ll be meditating like a Zen monk (or yogi, or Christian mystic, or whoever their preferred contemplative system is) with just the push of a button.   Personally, I love those audio technologies, and use them with regularity, but they do NOT make you meditate!  They use a phenomenon called entrainment to encourage a particular set of brainwaves in the listener.  There is value there, and the experiences can be wonderful, but they are not the same as meditating. 

The mistake made in each of instances, whether it’s equating meditation with relaxation or with the effects of these entrainment technologies, is a confusion between symptom and cause.  For instance, if I go out and run a mile, my body temperature will be elevated.  If I come down with a case of the flu, chances are good I will also have a higher temperature than normal.  But it should be pretty clear that going out for a run and having my body invaded by a virus are not the same thing. 

But that is exactly what is being claimed when people suggest that meditation is the same as relaxation or hypnosis or listening to the sounds of binaural beats (the entrainment technology).  Please don’t take me to be likening these things to a disease; they each have a good role to play in living a healthy lifestyle.  They just aren’t meditation. 

Wrapping up, I’ve spent these handful of paragraphs discussing what meditation is NOT.  In other areas, I’ll go into greater detail about what meditation IS, for those who are not already fairly conversant with that technology. 

Until then – vigilate!

The first day of the Dalai Lama’s Madison, WI teaching just wrapped up a bit ago, and I had a bit of time to reflect on his opening remarks as I spent 40 minutes getting out of the parking lot. 

His Holiness often seems to speak extemporaneously, so even when there is an announced topic for the training you can never be quite sure how he’s going to kick things off.  Today, after some humorous remarks, he began by noting that most Americans and Europeans have a Judeo-Christian background.  By itself, not a very unique observation, but he quickly moved into a quick discussion about the importance of NOT leaving the spiritual tradition you grew up with on a whim. 

He also spoke for a bit about the importance of gaining familiarity with other spiritual traditions: in today’s world of historically unprecedented economic and cultural interconnectedness, a level of familiarity and respect is not a luxury.  It simply makes sense to have some literacy in the outlook of those who we are working with around the planet, whether directly or indirectly. 

The Dalai Lama finished this part of his talk by suggesting that while each of the world’s religions are broadly capable of helping people establish an ethical system and grow as caring individuals, there will be individuals who are not served by the faith of their parents and neighbors.  When a person finds that the religion they are culturally associated with simply isn’t working for them, then it makes sense to assess the possibilities of other traditions, with an eye to converting if something that fits better is found. 

This is not the first time I’ve heard a similar sentiment from His Holiness.  For years he has been asserting that his visits to the West are not for the purpose of converting people to Buddhism (though they have undoubtedly helped that process), and insisting that his students here encourage people to find value in their own established tradition, whether that be Judaism, Christianity, or Islam. 

Perhaps this message jumped out at me a bit more this time because of my work in making the sophisticated spiritual techology of Vajrayana Buddhism available to Christians.  There are many wonderful things that can be said about Christianity; having a strong set of tools which directly foment emotional and spiritual change in believers is not one of them.  With those tools in hand, events like today’s teaching can become approachable by many who today consider listening to HHDL, or other prominent non-Christian leaders, with some fear that their own beliefs will be threatened.  That can certainly lend strength to our ability to treat other traditions with respect and admiration, even where we acknowledge differences in outlook. 

Vigilate,

Chris