"Our Own Heart is Our Temple"

Quite some time back, I got ordained through an online ordination service. I didn't do it out of piety or out of a desire to start a church, I had done it because I was at home with the kids and got bored. Lately thought, I've been thinking about that. About what it means to minister. What it means to be a reverend. And what it amounts to, for me, is little more than what I do here in this blog. For me, it comes down to noticing something about the world at large, sharing my thoughts on the matter with those who are willing to listen, and holding an open discussion on what exactly the implications of those thoughts are.


I don't generally have the right answers. Nor do I ever feel that my answers are the only answers. But what I do feel is that I am occasionally on to something that might in some way effect the human experience in some small way, and that this is my outlet for sharing these thoughts. And as much talking as I do about what I feel being human is all about, I try to do at least that much listening. The world is my congregation, and my minister, all at the same time. I am all the time reaching out into what the world has put before me and taking away what I can use to make me a better person, and then I come back here and find a way to articulate (however sloppily) those thoughts to you, not to tell you to change your life, not to tell you you're doing it wrong, but to tell you how I perceive the world, and how I have grown as a person.


The Dalai Lama once said "There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; my philosophy is kindness."


We don't need to go and learn everything about any given religion and all the rituals and rites that go with that. We need to learn to be better people. We need to learn to constantly be growing and developing as human beings, and looking to positively impact the world we live in. I'm not saying that I am the one to lead us down that path. I'm simply saying that we can take our learning from anything and everything around us, not just from a minister or a sage or a rabbi or a witch doctor, but from experiences, our own and the experiences of others, and use that to mold ourselves into what we perceive "goodness" to be. Inspiration is all around us, we just have to be receptive to it.