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Liberation Community
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Awakening the
Community of Bliss
(Yes We Can!)
Perfect Joy (a.k.a.
Nirvana)
That Wonderful Gift of Tears
There is a Happiness that is
greater than all other
happiness, a Joy that is higher than
all other joy. It is the highest and
happiest that it is humanly possible
to be, a state of such perfect satisfaction
and fulfillment that all desires evaporate
into unimportance having nothing more
to add. This state of Perfect Fulfillment
simply cannot be improved upon. When a
person experiences this Perfect Bliss,
they do not smile or laugh – They Cry!
The tears flow out of us like an excess
of blessings pouring forth,... like a
bucket held under a waterfall, incapable
of containing the abundance that keeps
being added. We get a taste of this
perfect happiness when we find ourselves
crying at weddings. It is especially
significant that the joy we feel is for the
couple getting married; we have no concerns
or desires for ourselves whatsoever.
We might be inclined to look at pursuit of such
great happiness as a self indulgence or
selfish pursuit, however the path that
leads us to this ultimate state is not a
path of selfishness, on the contrary as
it nears its goal it increasingly becomes
a path of selfless love. Remember that
when we cry at weddings, it is not our
personal desires that we are indulging,
but rather our love for and abundant joy
for the happy couple who are joining,
and our personal desires have evaporated.
Desires motivate us. Desires cause us to
associate happiness with the object of
our desires. We think of our desires as
a vehicle to happiness, but actually our
desires do not make us happy.
On the contrary, they tell us that
we cannot be happy until we get this or
achieve that, or are in the process of
getting or achieving this or that.
Our desires are part of an
internal system the function of which
is to
make certain that we are taking care of our
survival needs, that we have enough to
eat and drink, that our bodies are comfortable,
safe, secure and able to
procreate, and that these needs along with the
safety and security of our
families are being met now and into the future.
Unfortunately this internal system
doesn't have the intelligence to realize
when all true material needs have been
met such that it really should
let us sit and rest in complete peace,
joy and perfect contentment. Having achieved
whatever goal our desires set in front of
us, it seems that we barely have time to enjoy our
success before our desires kick in again
and motivate us to seek the next (usually
senseless) goal, telling us that
we shouldn't be happy until we achieve
it... How sad!
There is a Chinese saying that,
"Those who know that they have enough, are
rich." This saying dovetails well
with a wonderful Aboriginal saying that,
"The more you know, the less you need."
The knowledge in question
that will overcome our needs is a knowledge
of ourselves, for the better we
understand ourselves, the easier it will be
to let go of the desires that make us miserable,
and thus we will have
better control over our lives, and be far
happier and much richer.
(Of course we always
assume that we are in control of our own
lives, even as we desperately search
out the next bauble.)
This website began in 1995 (initially under
a different domain) to serve two purposes.
First was to provide a template for building
an intentional spiritual community around a set of rules or
guidelines designed to hold such a community
together while providing
for maximum spiritual growth and minimal Ego
growth for all concerned. The original
community for which these rules were written did
not continue (but because of problems unrelated to
the guidelines provided.) Several other communities
said that they liked the guidelines and wanted to
be listed as Liberation Communities, so they have
been listed. Therein lies the Community part of Liberation Community.
The Liberation part came about because I was incredibly
fortunate to have an opportunity to live
with some very wise (and extremely powerful and
astonishingly humble) Native
American Medicine People who were kind
enough to share their teachings about their
spiritual connection with me. They made it very clear
to me that all of the spiritual paths are valid.
They were not the least bit interested in finding
converts to their religious practices. One of
these great Holy people when asked, "How should I Pray?"
responded, "However you believe -
Pray That Way!"
Accordingly I am not interested in passing on
the specific cultural practices of these native
people as those practices relate to how they and
their ancestors lived and will not have the same
meaning to people whose ancestors never hunted
buffalo (for instance). What I do want to share are
the living parts of their culture that are
common to almost all religious cultures, such as
the Vision Quest which has roots in most religious traditions,
but has been abandoned and forgotten in most religions.
What has also been lost that needs to be restored
are the instructions to prepare
someone to undertake a Vision Quest.
The underlying content that I am
sharing on this website is a Western
reinterpretation of that great wisdom with
supporting content from many sources (Chinese,
Aboriginal, Biblical, Islamic, Buddhist,
Hindu, Taoist, Freudian,
Jungian, Carl Rogers, Soren Kierkegaard, Martin Bell, Antonio Damasio, etc.)
Truth can be found
in many strange, wonderful and unexpected places.
You may notice on these pages that I make
abundant references to Jesus Christ. It is
not that I favor Christianity above other
religions and beliefs. The reason for this
is that I live in the United States and many
of our Christians really need a little extra
help and explanation in order to have things
make sense for them. (Most American Christians
know exactly what I'm talking about.)
One of the Medicine People gave a
teaching that went like this, "You
know, all of our human religions are like
spokes on a wheel. They all take
different paths to the Great Mystery who
is the center of all things, ["Great
Mystery" is one of the names that Native
Americans use for God] but they all
get there. When you are on the spoke, you can
go one of two ways. If you go away
from the center, you get caught up in the
differences and minor details. Rules,
scripture, dogma, doctrine, judgement
and holiness become important. You feel very
spiritual and holy, especially compared to
all of the evil people around you. People
who move away from the center
often believe that their path is the only true
spoke on the wheel, that everyone
else is wrong or even evil, and as the
wheel turns they have to hang on for dear
life. If you move into the center of the wheel,
love, compassion, understanding,
forgiveness
and mercy become important. At the sacred
center of all things it becomes
apparent how all of the other spokes of
the wheel lead into the center, and you
can lightly step from one spoke to the next,
easily recognizing the sacredness
and truth of each path to the Great
Mystery."
That is the end of the introduction.
The part about building a community is
further on. Much of the rest of this website
(that is slowly being developed and
revised) is in sections to make it
easier to print (and share.)
To begin to approach an understanding
of who we are, we should look at the
formation of our understanding of right
and wrong, or good
and evil, as they have a surprisingly
strong influence on us. Check out
It is fine to talk about bliss and the heights of
nirvana, but sometimes we humans need to deal
with the other end of the spectrum,
the end with sadness and despair. This section
is about
There are other topics to check out as well,
including
Here's an essay written shortly after September
11, 2001 about religious fanaticism titled
And Finally We Come To....
Liberation Statements
These Liberation Statements and
their associated comments
were written around 15 years ago and have not singnificantly
changed since then. I have wanted to revise them because I
am led to believe that our communities should be open and
completely welcoming to everyone, including Atheists and
Agnostics, and the language in these Liberation
Statements may come across as overly "religious" for the tastes
and comfort level
of people unaccustomed to church beliefs and teachings.
Because of the
adoption of these principles by the communities that have
identified themselves as Liberation Communities, I would like
to run any changes to the language in these Statements by those
pastors / leaders before making those changes,
so it may take a while.
Here, then are the
And Here Are
As I am typing this I am riding
on a bus on my way
to work. I would like to be working
full time developing more
spiritual transformation content for this
website, and toward that end as well
as some other goals that you might find
interesting (or not) we have set
up a Goals and Donations
Page to tell you about
our strange ;-) plans
and give you an opportunity to make
a TINY donation if you feel so
inclined. Seriously.......Tiny!
If anyone would care to provide a translation
of the content of this website to another language,
this would be greatly appreciated (and rewarded) please
send an email to
Questions, Comments and Suggestions about this website
will be greatly appreciated and can be sent to
(The address above
has been changed from
the W E B M A S T E R address
since that address was generating too much spam.)
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