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Winter Solstice and Christmas Weblog December 23, 2007 By Chris DiGiorgio This week we look to the birth of the Christ child and look back
at the major Earth bound religious holiday Winter Solstice. Both holidays look to a New Year. They are both light
holidays meaning they symbolize that humanity has gone through darkness and we come through darkness with light. This holiday season, I visited a Roman Catholic Church. I was visiting my mother who is Roman Catholic.
Since my coming out, I have been uncomfortable going to a Roman Catholic Church. The Church’s teaching does not
give much room for someone like me who believes so strongly in gay liberation. As a result, I became estranged from
the Roman Catholic Church and any church in general. I was angry. I took it to mean that GOD had abandoned me.
Perhaps some of you feel the same way about religious communities that you were brought up in. I realized over the many
years of my spiritual work; GOD has not abandoned me. I chose to believe that message from others telling me that.
These past years I realized no one took GOD away from me, I took it from myself. I can chose to believe GOD loves me
and created me to bring Christ light to all I meet. The birth of Christ symbolizes to
me new birth and a new cycle beginning. With this new life I must shed some old thinking. I have chosen to forgive
the Roman Catholic Church for it not welcoming my whole being and spirit. It does not mean I will rejoin the Church.
However, I realize it was a necessary step in Divine Providence for me. I chose to see the birth of Christ as a symbol
of forgiveness and chose not to carry the burden of non forgiveness to the church of my birth. These holidays of light,
remind me that light will come from times of great darkness. I have many new spiritual communities I call home and am
truly grateful for. For those of you, who are truly feeling that your religious or spiritual community has abandoned
you always remember GOD does not abandon us. Let us find religious and spiritual communities we truly can be comfortable
in. Advent Advent is the first season in the Christian calendar. It is a time of waiting
and contemplation on what the meaning of the coming of the Messiah is for Christians. I want to reflect on the
story of Mary the mother of Jesus for a moment. If you are a Christian and accept the accounts that she was a virgin
and gave birth to Jesus; then you must marvel at her courage. She is a great example for the LGBT community in this
regard. If we look at the Gospels of Luke and Matthew, we see someone who new she was impregnated by the Holy Spirit
to conceive a child. She also knew this child would be a justice seeking child and a child that would challenge existing
Jewish society to look at things differently. She accepted this challenge. Mary also accepted the fact that she
was pregnant without being married. Being pregnant and unmarried was very dangerous at that time. She was betroathed
to Joseph. In fact, in the Gospel of Matthew, Joseph was going to dismiss her quietly so she would not be disgraced.
Joseph only relented when told in a dream by an angel that Mary was impregnated by the Holy Spirit. This story’s connection to the LGBT community is striking. Here was a fourteen year old young woman who
took on a challenge against societal norms. We in the LGBT community are taking on societal norms. We can look
at the stories of Mary’s pregnancy and see how going against societal norms is a powerful example to us about justice
and faith. Even though people may not understand who we are, the Divine does and we can have faith that our lives are
meant to be lived wholly. Look to understand how special GOD made you and work to create peace and justice for the LGBT
community in this New Year. Weblog December
9, 2007 Sex By Chris DiGiorgio Many spiritual
and religious teachers counsel people who are on the spiritual path about sex. Often these teachers talk about the negative
connotations about it. The root of this for many teachers is the concept of desire. Desire is treated as evil
because it keeps you from thinking about GOD. LGBT folk are often characterized as overly desirous and that is
part of the root of prejudice, rejection and oppression by the religious community. The LGBT community has often been the
brunt of criticism from many religious leaders because our sex has been denoted as intrinsically evil and sinful in mainstream
religions. So how do we get past this as a community? First realize that sex is power. If you control
someone sexually, you control them. Our oppression in large regard is that. It has led many in the LGBT community
to addiction, depression and illness. We can not ignore this, but we must look deeper about sex and understand the divine
gift that it is and rejoice about it. LGBT folk must realize that religious or spiritual leaders who focus on our sexual
practices are using this as a tool of oppression. More specifically, that gay sex along with heterosexual sex is a gift
of the divine. It is not sinful. We must change our thoughts so we can take back this power and embrace the divine
gift sex is. Weblog December 2, 2007 By Chris DiGiorgio Recently, I
have been exploring the many different religions and have been looking at similarities between religions. Central teachings
on suffering are used in both Buddhism and Christianity. Although Christianity focus is on an external GOD and Buddhism’s
focus is more internal and not focused on GOD, suffering is a topic both religions use as a teaching. Many of us from the Christian perspective, learned about how Christ died on the cross dealt with the suffering of
his death and rose three days later in the resurrection. In the Christian perspective, Christ suffered death and was
victorious over death. He first had to deal with his suffering. He had tremendous faith even through his suffering.
His disciples also had to deal with the suffering for a number of days of losing their spiritual leader. However,
through that suffering we learned about resurrection—going through that suffering there is an opportunity for new life.
In Buddhism, we learn that suffering is a central part of life and how is it we deal with
suffering. The “four noble truths” are the true nature of suffering, its true cause, its cessation and the
path to its cessation. A central story of the Buddha is the story of the mustard seeds. A woman in a village where
the Buddha was staying, was crazy with grief. Her husband and child died. She lived for a time with one remaining
child and that child died. She hung onto the child and would not let the child be cremated. She was brought to
the Buddha and she said, “You are a great master, you know the secrets of life and death, and I have come with great
hope. Make my child live again.” Buddha said, “I will do it, but you must fulfill one condition.”
The woman said, “I will do anything, Let my child live.” The Buddha said, “The condition is simple,
you must go around the village and find a few mustard seeds from a house where death never has happened.” The
woman looked all around the village, desperate to find a house that did not have a death. All the villagers were willing
to give her some mustard seeds but all of them had someone die in their home. By evening she returned to the Buddha
a different woman, she realized death is a reality of life and can not be changed. After this she was quiet and serene.
She became aware that the Buddha knew well that she would not find the mustard seeds from a house where no death occurred.
In both religions, suffering is a major part of life and we can not escape it. Both
teach us when we get through it that valuable lessons can be learned. For the LGBTQ community many times we have suffered
through the fear of who we are by organized religion and our families. The lesson for us to learn is just as Christ
and the woman in the Buddha story have gone through suffering; that there are opportunities to come through it and learn from
it. Take time to look at some past incidents in your life that you have suffered through and see if you can find major
lessons that you have learned. Intuition Weblog November 25, 2007 By Chris DiGiorgio Intuition is a very big part of my spiritual exploration. The
definition of intuition is the act or faculty of knowing or sensing without the use of rational processes, in other words
it is a perception without anything other than a feeling. As I was growing up, I often was taught not to trust my intuition.
However, as the years have gone I realized how important my intuition is. Trusting my intuition does two important things
it works on my trusting the universe or the divine and also trusting myself. I often go through in my spiritual work
doubt. This is a natural by product of spiritual work. A great teaching of twelve step programs is to surrender
to GOD, intuition facilitates this. Yes many times the doubts creep in and that may masquerade as intuition so therefore
I use my meditation practice to search deeper. Spiritual Practice is always the searching of who I truly am.
Part of this has to be intuition, I learn more about myself by searching inward. Perceiving the world visually alone
only gives me part of the picture. Perceiving by intuition gives me a fuller picture. So how do I work on perception
or intuition? I do exercises during my meditation. For example, recently I was in a hall with approximately 400
people. We were meditating and waiting the arrival of Sai Maa. During the meditation I wanted to perceive when Sai Maa
walked into the room. This was a good exercise for me, could I feel if her energy was in the room. I encourage you to
find situations where you can test your perception. During your meditation, find a situation where you might be able
to test. An example might be a friend you might be meeting. Try to figure out a topic your friend might bring
up before the meeting or the clothes they might be wearing. See how it lines up. Working on your intuition and
perception are important parts of spiritual work. A Proclamation (1863) ( Thanksgiving Proclamation) The year that
is drawing towards its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties,
which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which
are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible
to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which
has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations,
order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre
of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to national defence, have not arrested the
plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of ur settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal
as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding
the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness
of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human
counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most
High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me
fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the
whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who
are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as
a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them
that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with
humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows,
orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the
interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the
Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union. Weblog November
11, 2007 By Chris DiGiorgio A very important part of my spiritual journey is awareness. Awareness is perceiving or being
conscious of your surroundings, the things that are affecting you in the present or past and how that relates to your feeling
world. When I meditate or pray, thoughts come forward. Sometimes these thoughts are making me aware of some things
in my life. Different meditation practices either allow me to put these thoughts away or work with them. I choose
many times to work with it. I feel there is a reason, these thoughts are coming forward. I take the time to figure
out these thoughts. Is this thought bothering me? Is it something I need to work on? Is it creative? Is it an overall
positive or negative thought? During the meditation process I release the thought and more on. This allows me the time
either to clear my mind or become aware of another thought. So awareness will come with this process. The key in the
spiritual path is to continue to seek and find out more about myself. Since starting my spiritual practice full time,
I find during the day I am more aware of my surroundings. I know what is bothering me or if I am happy. Knowing
this is a key component of self awareness. For me that is in a nutshell what spiritual practice is to me. What
is my relationship with myself? What am I seeking? How does this relate to the GOD of my understanding?
With this knowledge how does it help me to know myself better? With this knowledge how do I serve GOD better? Take the
time to do spiritual practice and see if you become more aware. Weblog October 28, 2007 By Chris DiGiorgio Recently, we had a discussion in church
whether or not prayers are answered and is it even useful to pray. One church member felt, many times prayers were not answered,
so why bother? There are many answers to this question. Here are a few thoughts. When we pray or meditate, we
are changing our thoughts. For me, I know that I am more at peace when I do this practice. It is a chance for
me to touch the Holy Spirit or create an atmosphere when love and understanding come in. For the last forty days, I
have increased my spiritual practice including prayer and meditation. I know that I have been more at peace. I
also know that love and understanding have come into my life in unexpected ways. I believe that the meditation and prayer
I have been doing has allowed me to be more receptive to it. Another answer that my clergy person offered is even if
prayer does not work it can uplift the person you are praying for. By doing this prayer can foster community.
In many Christian Churches for example, we pray for the sick as a church community. A person in that community who is
sick or has a loved one who is sick feels a measure of support and comfort knowing that their spiritual community is thinking
of them. Prayer and meditation are important parts of any spiritual practice. Many spiritual
traditions have various prayers and meditations. Using these spiritual tools can bring greater love, peace and understanding
into your life. Take the time to investigate the different prayers and meditations that will work for you. October 21, 2007 By Chris DiGiorgio Here are three CD’s I chant to: Title: Pilgrim Heart Artist: Krishna Das Title:
Inside Chants Artist: HARC Title: Shma Israel Artist: Sai Maa
Lakshmi Devi Blessings! Creating Spiritual Practice by Chris DiGiorgio Keeping Spiritual Practice fresh and new can be a challenge. Many times I have lost motivation
for doing spiritual practice because I used the excuse of being too busy. For me taking the time to put in my mind that
this is an important was key. Also, keeping the spiritual practice fun was also a part of it. My guru has said to me
that if spiritual practice does not bring you joy find another spiritual practice. This is great words of wisdom.
That has been part of the problem with me not keeping my spiritual practice in the past. So here are some ideas: Have a basic template of what your spiritual practice entails. Recently, I have
decided my spiritual practice has morning meditation with breathing and chanting. Also during the day, I take a minute
or two to think of GOD and then do it another four times a day to center myself. To accomplish this I have started going to
bed earlier and waking up at 6AM. I start my meditation time by circular breathing and consciously trying to clear my
mind. I then go through the Chakras and consciously breathe through each Chakra. I then go through Priyama breathing
which is a breath that focuses on the exhale and becomes progressively rapid. From there, I just meditate and try to
clear my mind. Enviably thoughts pop up in my mind, I try to clear those thoughts and focus on my circular breathing.
I then do some chanting with some mantras that speak to me. All three mantras I chant speak to me about things that
I want to focus in my life. After I am done with my morning meditation, I go through the day at particular times during
the day I stop what I am doing and think of GOD. I then focus on giving love to GOD, I do this by focusing to my heart
center and focusing in my mind love and giving that love to GOD. The main thing is finding a practice that is comfortable
for you and making it a part of your daily life. Blessings! by Chris DiGiorgio First, find a place in your home where you would like to meditate or pray, in my
case it is my home office. Next find a small table, I found an adjustable personal table at Staples for $20, I then
put a table cloth over it. Now you are ready to put, the various objects for your altar. My altar has many things
that symbolize my spiritual journey at the present and past. Do not feel fixed on keeping objects on your altar that no longer
serve in your spiritual journey. At present, I have been involved with some in depth spiritual work with two groups
so my altar reflects that. Here are some of the items I have on my altar. I have a small
bowl of water. Water symbolizes life and washes things away. I have a few drops of rose oil on my altar,
which represents love. I have various gem stones. Clear Quartz represents mental clarity. Aventurine represents
grounding me emotionally and Jade represents connection to God or the spiritual world. Also on my altar is a red rock from
Sedona, AZ, this symbolizes to me my brotherhood with the Red Rock Men group I belong to. I also have icons on
my altar of spiritual masters, such as Jesus Christ and the Buddha. I also have a picture of my guru Her Holiness Sai
Maa Lakshmi Devi with Satchua Baba. I have my mala beads and a bottle of Ganga River water. I also have Sai Maa’s
book Petals of Grace on my altar and a daily Christian prayer book. All of these objects help me keep focused on my
spiritual path. So now it is your turn to figure out what you should have on your altar. Create
a place in your home that continues to call you to meditate and do your spiritual practice. Blessings! I guess for those who have read some of my blogs maybe you have an idea of my personal beliefs.
As the years have gone along, it is hard to define me. Some will say I am Christian because of my background and the
Church I go to. Some may say I am Hindu because of some of the practice I use and my special reverence to a divine being
Sai Maa Lakshmi Devi. Then some would say I am Unitarian Universalist because of my work with GAYLA and my embracing
of many of UU beliefs. What I believe I am called to do is to explore many beliefs and find the truth that is right
for me. Too many times in the past, I have gotten caught up in this is not Christian therefore I should not explore
this. That somehow, I am a traitor to Jesus or GOD because I did a Buddhist or Hindu chant or prayed to some Native
American GOD. I believe GOD is universal, so if I am praying to a Native American GOD or chanting to a Hindu GOD, it
does not matter I am praying to the same GOD. I know that is contrary to some of the writings in the Torah or Bible,
but I believe the Torah and Bible are so contradictory it is hard to ascribe what is truly a prohibition. Even if it
is a prohibition, since GOD is all knowing, don’t you think he would know what I am doing? The more important
point for me is; am I creating the spiritual connection and state of well being I am seeking? Spiritual exploration
for me is just that seeking a connection to the divine to enhance my life and create a softer heart. I find when I do
the spiritual work, that I am more compassionate and more able to face life challenges. Therefore, the best I can say
is that I am a spiritual explorer who believes there are many valid paths. Alexander J. Shaia in the Book Beyond the Biography of Jesus:
The Journey of Quadratos Book 1 So, can we trust organized religion again? That in
fact is why this website exists. It is to make clear, there are religious institutions out there that do welcome us
and embrace us. That does not mean however we still do not have to educate and ask the difficult questions to clergy
and lay people. There are still well meaning people that still have false assumptions about queer people. I believe
a paradigm shift is in order here. Instead of not trusting the people in these institutions, we must believe they will
welcome us and if they don’t we find places that will. Churches and other religious institutions only survive
when there are people willing to go to them. We have the power to walk away, if a community does not serve us.
Give religious institutions a chance to welcome us, educate them on how to welcome us and above all else expect it. By Chris DiGiorgio Do you think? That is the question my minister asked us this
past Sunday. On the face of it, it is quite an odd question. However, this was his point. Many of us go
through our religious or spiritual lives, without really questioning what we believe. Also, I bet if you ask people
in your own religious or spiritual community a number of questions of what they believe, no two people would have exactly
the same beliefs. You would think that people of the same religious background for example would believe the same things,
but if you ask ten questions dealing with religious and spiritual belief to ten different people you would find the answers
would be surprisingly different. This is relevant to our spiritual journey because we too must come
to grips with what we believe. We also must give ourselves permission to change our beliefs and not feel bad in doing
so. Changing beliefs with new information that you have derived from life experience is called growth. I believe
life can not sustain itself if you don’t grow. Why not your spiritual life? We say we want to grow
spiritually so why not change our beliefs. In the past, you were told being queer was morally wrong. I hope by this
time you realize that was a false belief. Now is the time, to challenge the belief if necessary about what you believe
spiritually. I know in the past number of years, I can firmly say my belief in GOD and my spiritual life have changed.
Give yourself permission to challenge your beliefs. You may find that will give you a greater understanding and
comfort about GOD and yourself. Undoing the First Twenty Years By Chris DiGiorgio Is it not true the first twenty or so years of our lives are being defined by someone else and the last
sixty or so undoing the first twenty? Often that is what it seems like to me. One of the points, I have brought
up before in previous blogs and the website is the theme of exploration. Queer people out of necessity have had to be
explorers. We must continually go out of our comfort zone to find true liberation in our lives. It affects how we live
and how we perceive the world. Leaving a church or religious institution we were raised in is so difficult. Many
of us have also lost family along the way because of who we are. The experience of coming out gave us the tools necessary
to deal with change in our everyday lives. Yes we dealt with pain and suffering, but we came out with growth. Growth
never comes to us without pain. Now it is time for us to embrace a new chapter in our lives that embraces our spirituality.
Queer people have always been pioneers. We were the first to understand the AIDS crisis and also some of the pioneers in the
civil rights movement (Bayard Rustin comes to mind). We can chose to act like victims for all the transgressions civil
society and religious institutions have heaped on us or we can do something more radical; we can chose to move on and forgive.
I think Queer people’s path is exploration. It is hard for Queer people to
trust based on our experiences with religious institutions. However, that does not mean we should not explore and find
spiritual places that welcome and embrace us. Find that spiritual explorer in you! 1. Breathing- This can be your five minute exercise or longer. Just taking slow deep breaths or circular breaths
can be a great spiritual practice. Circular breaths are breaths where you take an inhale then exhale and go immediately
to inhale in a circular type of pattern. Make sure with all breathing you don’t hyperventilate. This practice
is geared towards relaxation not stress creating. (see Weblog from July 1, 2007) 2.
Mantra- This practice is
very common in Eastern spiritual practice. There are many books and compact discs on the subject. Mantras can
be as short as one word or many words. Usually they are repeated in cycles of 16, 64 or 108. 3. Journaling is another technique of spiritual discovery. Take a pad of paper and just start writing anything
that comes into your head. It does not matter if what you write does not make any sense. Try to write three pages
of 8 ½” x 11”; what generally happens is you might get insight into some of your subconscious thoughts. You can also create your own spiritual practice. What is important is to take time
to make that connection that will link you to the divine or give you peace in your life. My hope is that you can create
the sacred safe spiritual space in your life. Part of my spiritual journey is to find places where I can nurture that God within me.
In my mid twenties, I found a gay men’s spiritual retreat called GAYLA. It has been of great comfort to me.
Every July for the last 14 years except for one, I have been making my pilgrimage to Saco, ME at the Ferry Beach Park Association
Conference Center. Ferry Beach is a magical place, it just exudes spirituality for me. Ferry Beach is located
on the Southern Maine Coast, a beach front property with the Maine Woods. Its Chapel is located in a clearing in these
woods. Imagine participating in a sermon that you look up in the air and see these beautiful soaring pine trees with
pine needles on the floor, squirrels scurrying around, seeing birds fly and chirp and having a simple altar with the words
inscribed, “GOD is Love”. Many times during those years, various UU Ministers would discuss their Spiritual
Journeys, how they reconciled being gay, being spiritual, and living their every day lives. How powerful it was for
me to hear a message that had a minister validate my life and my spiritual life. I keep coming back to GAYLA not only
for the chapels but more importantly because of the men. GAYLA brings together men from all walks of life and welcomes
them as brothers. It is a wonderful gift GAYLA gives each year to newcomers and people like me who keep coming back.
We speak truthful about our experiences, we laugh and have fun, but we also do some serious work with our own lives.
We explore and share our spirituality, our past, our talents, our losses and new friendships. Lives have been changed
at GAYLA and every year I look forward to seeing my GAYLA brothers. One
of the goals of this website is to help you find safe spiritual spaces; GAYLA is one of those places. There are many
others. In the near future, I will be adding more links to spiritual retreat centers that welcome the LGBT community. ( For Women, Ferry Beach Park Association offers a Women’s Week which includes a
group called Sappho Sisters, they have similar spiritual offerings) Weblog
for July 15, 2007 Does this Serve You? Just as in coming out and being comfortable with our sexual orientation
or gender expression, we can get comfortable with coming out spiritually. We have it within us. Remember many
of us, forged a new way of living coming out of the closet. We can do the same with the spiritual closet. If there
is one thing LGBT folk know is the closet can get very lonely and depressing. Our fears are heightened even more by
the isolation we put on ourselves. So we have to always ask ourselves—Does isolating ourselves from religious and spiritual
community serve us? Societal changes occurred when we came out of the closet in the general community. It can
certainly happen in spiritual, faith and religious communities. With the same dogged determination of living our authentic
lives, we can forge a new reality within many of these communities. We just have to take that first step. So why bring this up? Some clergy and congregations may say they are welcoming but are they? It
is hard to tell. Many may have signs saying they are or have gone through a program by their particular denomination
(Christian Churches usually). However, it might have been a long time ago or with a different clergy member and different
church members. So questions need to be asked. I know it is hard, because many of us have been burned before.
I think a key component in looking for a welcoming spiritual/religious place is to ask some of the following questions
to the clergy. If a gay couple comes to you and asks for a “marriage or blessing ceremony” will you perform
it? If I ask you as a member of this congregation, to speak to legislators and the public about equal rights for the
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and questioning community would you do that? Would you talk about equal rights
or allow others to speak about this during church services? Would you being willing to counsel me compassionately about
all aspects of my life? Is your liturgy or words you use in your services truly inclusive of everyone? If we want to be truly liberated in what we will call our spiritual or religious home,
it is time we feel comfortable in asking these questions and not be afraid of the response. Jesus said, Mark 6.12
“If you’re not welcomed, not listened to, quietly withdraw. Don’t make a scene. Shrug your shoulders
and be on your way.” (Translation by the Bible in Contemporary Language the Message
by Eugene H. Peterson, publisher NavPress) Last blog, I gave you a list of some of the meditations I have experienced. This blog will
go into detail of two breathing meditations you might incorporate. Breathing
meditation is probably the easiest to start off with. Firstly, most of us have probably been in a meeting where the
meeting became heated for whatever reason. Someone says ok, lets all take a deep breath. Well, without you realizing
it you did a meditation, you and everyone in the room reset your mind. Now take that a step further, now take two breaths
and consciously breathe in and out. What happens if you continue to do this? You are consciously thinking only of the
breath. All of a sudden, you are only thinking of that one thing. That is meditation in a nut shell.
It is getting you away from other thoughts and concentrating on a single thought (the breath) or in some meditations no thought
at all. Here are two breath meditations you can try: Command Breath is to take a deep breath and tense up and exhale. One way to do this is
to concentrate on a particular part of the body or a particular thought and then release. For example, you can do a
full body meditation. Start with the feet and concentrate on the feet, take a full deep breath in tense up the
feet in thought and then exhale hard and release the tension of the feet. Go next to your calves; take a deep breath
in, tense up the calves’ then exhale hard. Move up the body all the way to the head. Remember the command
breath is a hard deep breath with a hard exhale. You should hear your exhale loudly. Circular Breath is another breath you can try. This one is a continuous breath. The key here is
to breath in, then breath out in a circular pattern. Circular breath works great with a binary thought process such
as a mantra or a saying that you can focus on. Mantra means free ones mind- so saying a mantra while doing circular
breath is a good way of doing just that. A simple thing to do is to breath in “Man” and breath out “tra”.
In Part Two, I will go through some of the different types of breathing meditation. This week was an amazing week of learning for me. On Sunday, I saw an amazing movie
called Save Me. It is about a gay man’s struggle with substance abuse and his brother sending him to an ex-gay
ministry called Genesis House. Also this past week, I hosted an Interfaith Service; clergy from eleven different
backgrounds’s participated. This is the second year; I have hosted such an event. I think it is important
as part of any pride celebration that we bring clergy together to celebrate our community. In Save Me, the central characters interaction with the heterosexual couple running Genesis
House was a humanistic look at the issue. No stereotypes were in the offering just a compassionate view of how a gay
man struggles with faith, substance abuse and how he finds himself unexpectedly. This movie showed that we can discuss this
issue even with people who may not totally understand us in a compassionate way and therefore lives may be transformed. In our interfaith service, we had the pleasure of listening to Rev. Damaris Ortega, the
coordinator for Pride in the Pulpit for Empire State Pride Agenda. The teaching tool she used was that of the Buddhist Principle
of Ying and Yang. The principle that struck me the most is that Ying and Yang are total opposites, yet they need each
other. That message needs to be highlighted in our daily lives. Although we have differences and that we can be
opposite in every way, we have an interdependence to one another. So
many times, our community does not get positive messages from clergy and people of faith. Our message therefore should
be a simple one—GOD is love, GOD has created us in his own image and GOD does not make mistakes. We can live lives
based on faith and love. During my coming out process, I had difficulty reconciling my Roman Catholic faith and being gay.
It was at that time, I became a gay rights activist. In the early 1990s, we were working mostly on hate crimes laws,
non discrimination laws and domestic partner registries. The Roman Catholic Church was the most rabid opponents of gay
rights legislation in my area. Since my childhood, the Roman Catholic Church became more and more conservative and many
different people including LGBT have been disillusioned by the Church. I took the opposition very personally.
I was a gay rights activist and I could not reconcile supporting a church that was so visibly working against my strongly
held beliefs. So, I left the Roman Catholic faith. I was angry at GOD. It
took me a few years to realize that I missed Church and the connection to GOD. The Roman Catholic Church gave me a strong
connection with GOD. I realized that I needed to start looking for a Church that could accept me for who I am. I went
to many different Churches and Spiritual communities to find a community that I lost. I became a spiritual explorer and found
many communities that accepted me. Ultimately, I found spiritual nourishment in many different places. This spiritual
nourishment includes my UU Gay Men’s retreat, my Episcopal Church, my Red Rock Men’s group, and a Hindu Saint
named Sai Maa. All this leads me to say, it does not matter how the spirit moves you, if it comforts you, if you find community
and you feel at peace that is truly grace and something to be thankful for. |
My Beginning as a
Spiritual Explorer by Chris DiGiorgio I was born and raised by a Roman Catholic Family. Like most Italian families,
the Roman Catholic Faith is part of the family dynamic. Growing up, it was not in my consciousness but
looking back it certainly was in my unconscious mind. I was a different child growing up from the rest of the family; I was
the youngest and therefore had older parents who were tired. I also had difficulty learning, though mom
never let me feel that way. So it came time to enroll me into Kindergarten, and of course having an extremely
tired mom, she enrolled me late into St. Paul’s Apostle School. In fact, so late the Nun said we
have no room for Christopher. Looking back it seems to me to be both a biblical (Jesus reference abound
no room at the Inn) and also a divine event. Ultimately, I did not belong at that school! God
certainly knew it and probably mom knew it unconsciously. My brothers and sister went, but I was different.
I was gay although I was not aware of that fact at the time. More importantly, I had learning difficulties
and the place I needed to be was in public school, where I could learn in a resource room my first few years and get the extra
help I needed. Why is this part of my spiritual journey? Because the first step in any
journey for me is the knowledge where to begin and making sure the first steps are the steadiest. If I
went to that Catholic school, I probably would be very different today. I probably would be more guilt ridden about being
gay and being a Christian, as I see with so many of my Catholic raised gay friends. I probably would not be as comfortable
about being the Spiritual explorer I am. As you will find in my later entries, I certainly have been to
places that my gay Catholic friends might have difficulty exploring. I make no value judgments here, only
to say that this early experience tells me there were no coincidences in my initial spiritual path. That
even early in life can shape later experiences… Happy exploring! Blessings Chris DiGiorgio.. Thursday,
May 24, 2007 Welcome to the first weblog for our organization SAFE- Spirit and Faith for Everyone. SAFE has been created because of the feeling on the part of many Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual,
Transgendered, Questioning, and Heterosexual (LGBTQH) allies that God has abandoned
them and that they are not SAFE in their religious and spiritual communities.
But the news SAFE wants to send is that God is available to us. God
is love and has never abandoned and can never abandon us. Unfortunately,
LGBTQH folks translate the message of conventional religion, spoken by the many that represent various mainstream religious
organizations, that they are not welcome, into the impression that God has abandoned
them. That must change! SAFE is dedicated to being a bridge. We will not change all the voices who tell
us we are not worthy of God's love, but we can change some. Let's also make it clear LGBTQ
folks will not change our own identities and who we are. We can't, we won't and it is not for us to change!
Our identities are God’s gift to us; therefore we must celebrate that gift and give back to the various communities
that gift. We do this by living our truth, by speaking with conviction, by being in community with others, by sharing our
talent, our love and our faith. LGBTQH folk can also do this by changing their thoughts; by understanding that the relationship
with the higher power is not something that anyone can ever take away from us. No one should tell me God
has abandoned me! Therefore, no one can take God away from me other than myself. If we truly believe this, we
can live in true faith! |
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