Aldea Spiritual Community

Mixed Blessings (Part 3) | Jake Haber

Check out Part 3 of our Mixed Blessings series as we look towards the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future, and all they have to teach us. 
 
Quotes: 
Charles Dickens: 
“squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous...hard and sharp as flint... secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster."
“(Our) courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead," said Scrooge. "But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change.”
“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.”
 
Alan Watts:
"Time is a social institution and not a physical reality. There is no such thing as time in the natural world - the world of stars and waters, clouds, mountains and living organisms. There is such a thing as rhythm - rhythm of tides, rhythm of biological processes... There is rhythm and there is motion. Time is a way of measuring motion."
 
Brian Mclaren: 
“Before Christianity was a rich and powerful religion, before it was associated with buildings, budgets, crusades, colonialism, or televangelism, it began as a revolutionary nonviolent movement promoting a new kind of aliveness on the margins of society.”

Mixed Blessings (Part 2) | Jake Haber

Join us for Part 2 of our "Mixed Blessings" series as we explore the mixed blessing of our shiny, red noses. Like Rudolph, we all have things that make us special - yet the world will often tell us to hide our light. One aspect of the spiritual journey is rediscovering and reclaiming these parts of ourselves.
 
Quotes:
 
James Baldwin:
"It is necessary, while in darkness, to know that there is a light somewhere, to know that in oneself, waiting to be found, there is a light.”
 
Matthew 2: 13-14, 19-23:
“After the wise men left, a messenger of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream.
Messenger of the Lord (to Joseph): Get up, take the child and His mother, and head to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you it is safe to leave. For Herod understands that Jesus threatens him and all he stands for. He is planning to search for the child and kill Him. But you will be safe in Egypt.14 So Joseph got up in the middle of the night; he bundled up Mary and Jesus, and they left for Egypt.
And after Herod died, a messenger of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt:
Messenger of the Lord: You may go home now. Take the child and His mother and go back to the land of Israel, for the people who were trying to take the child’s life are now dead. So Joseph got up and took Mary and Jesus and returned to the land of Israel. Soon he learned that Archelaus, Herod’s oldest and notoriously brutal son, was ruling Judea. Archelaus might not be any friendlier than Herod had been. Joseph was simply afraid. He had another dream, and in this dream, he was warned away from Judea; so Joseph decided to settle up north in a district called Galilee, in a town called Nazareth.”
 
Leonard Cohen:
“Ring the bells that still can ring, forget your perfect offering, there's a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in.”
 
 

Mixed Blessings (Part 1) | Jake Haber

Join us for Part 1 of our new Christmas series - Mixed Blessings - as we look at the full emotional experience of the holidays, focusing on freeing ourselves from expectations.
 
Quotes:
Mignon McLaughlin:
“Life is a mixed blessing, which we vainly try to unmix.”
 
Buddha:
“In life, we can’t always control the first arrow. However, the second arrow is our reaction to the first. The second arrow is optional.”
 
Zen Proverb:
“The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences.”
 
John Lennon:
“Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans”
 
Luke 2: 1-7:
"About that time Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Empire…Everyone had to travel to his own ancestral hometown to be accounted for. So Joseph went from the Galilean town of Nazareth up to Bethlehem in Judah, David’s town, for the census. As a descendant of David, he had to go there. He went with Mary, his fiancée, who was pregnant. While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to a son, her firstborn. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger, because there was no room in the hostel."
 
Laura Vanderkam:
“Every yes is a no, and every no is a yes”
 
Thomas Huebl:
“The crisis and the miracle are very close to each other”
 
Discussion Questions:
1. When did the holidays not go as planned?
2. What are some expectations you can drop this year?

The Frequency of Gratitude (Part 2) | Jake Haber

Join us for Part 2 of the Frequency of Gratitude as we think about what it actually means to express gratitude, how to enjoy life knowing that it's temporary, and letting gratitude be a call to action towards addressing the suffering in our world. 
 
Quotes: 
Meister Eckhart: 
“If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is - Thank You- it will be enough”
 
Karl Barth:
“Joy is the simplest form of gratitude” 
 
Carl Jung: 
“If our religion is based on salvation, our chief emotions will be fear and trembling. If our religion is based on wonder, our chief emotion will be gratitude.”
 
Vision (Marvel):
“What is grief if not love persevering?”
 
Discussion Questions:
What are some ways that you can show empathy & compassion this Thanksgiving?
How does gratitude inspire us into loving action? 
 
 

The Frequency of Gratitude (Part 1) | Jake Haber

Is gratitude just something we feel now and then, or is it a perspective-shift that can change our reality? Join us as we talk about radios, scarcity vs. abundance, all it took to get you here, and the Greek word with 19 letters!
 
Quotes:
 
Cicero:
"Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others"
 
Roger Birkman:
“The reality of life is that your perceptions – right or wrong – influence everything else you do. When you get a proper perspective of your perceptions, you may be surprised how many other things fall into place.” 
 
Amy Poehler: 
"I looked around and thought about my life. I felt grateful. I noticed every detail. That is the key to time travel. You can only move if you are actually in the moment. You have to be where you are to get where you need to go."
 
Stephen Covey: 
“Most people are deeply scripted in what I call the Scarcity Mentality. They see life as having only so much, as though there were only one pie out there. And if someone were to get a big piece of the pie, it would mean less for everybody else.” 
 
Eckhart Tolle: 
"Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance."
 
Sheryl Crow: 
"It’s not having what you want, it’s wanting what you’ve got"
 
Ephesians 1:9:
"He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth" 
 
Anakephalaiosasthai 
 
Discussion Questions: 
What helps you tune in to the frequency of gratitude?
What difficult moments in your life can you find gratitude for?
 
 

(Re)arranging (and spaceships) with Rob Bell

For this week's episode we are joined by author & speaker Rob Bell! Rob's work has been very influential for Jake and many in the Aldea community, so it was such a gift to get to chat with Rob about his new book — Where'd You Park Your Spaceship? 
This conversation is also a great conclusion to our (Re) series, as Jake and Rob chat about (Re)arranging our world, taking big leaps, and trusting your deep knowing. 

(Re)integrating Shadow | Jake Haber

Join us for our Halloween-themed message as we explore our inner shadow, the meaning of the word "monster", and how to embrace the dark and light aspects of life. 
 
Quotes:
Robert A. Johnson: 
“The persona is what we would like to be and how we wish to be seen by the world. It is our psychological clothing and it mediates between our true selves and our environment just as our physical clothing presents an image to those we meet. The ego is what we are and know about consciously. The shadow is that part of us we fail to see or know.”
"We divide the self into an ego and a shadow because our culture insists that we behave in a particular manner."
"Unless we do conscious work on it, the shadow is almost always projected; that is, it is neatly laid on someone or something else so we do not have to take responsibility for it"
 
Roshi Joan Halifax: 
“‘The secret of life,’ say the Utes, ‘is in the shadows and not in the open sun; to see anything at all, you must look deeply into the shadow of a living thing.’” 
 
Paul Selig: 
"You cannot be the light and hold another in darkness… What you damn, damns you back. What you curse is your own curse reflected right back at you."
 
Stephen Mitchell: 
"Give evil nothing to oppose and it will disappear by itself."
 
Jeffrey Jerome Cohen: 
 “The Monster signifies something other than itself - it is always a displacement - always inhabits the gap”
“A monstrum is a message that breaks into this world from the realm of the divine”
 
Gabrielle Bernstein: 
"The qualities I dislike in others are disowned parts of my shadow."
 
Discussion: 
What are some ways that we can get to know our “shadow”? 
Has your “shadow” ever shown you something helpful?   

(Re)imagining God | Jake Haber

What are we talking about when we talk about "God"? Is there a way of understanding that word that goes beyond our commonly held images and concepts? 
 
Quotes: 
 
Barry Taylor:
"God is the name of the blanket we throw over mystery to give it shape."
 
Rob Bell:
“Whatever we say about God always rests within the larger reality of what we can’t say; meaning always resides within a larger mystery; knowing always takes place within unknowing; whatever has been revealed to us surrounded by that which hasn’t been revealed to us.”
 
Ken Wilber: 
“Every holon is not only a whole, it is also a part. And as a part, it has value for others—it is part of a whole upon which other holons depend for their existence”
 
Thomas Stark: 
“It's time to think anew about the nature of the universe. This is a thinking universe, a self-solving cosmic organism, and we are all nodes, or cells, in this organism, providing our part of the collective answer.”
 
Paul Selig: 
“The denial of the divine is the only real problem that we face."
 
Meister Eckhart: 
"The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God's eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love."
 
Richard Rohr: 
“We do not think ourselves into new ways of living, we live ourselves into new ways of thinking.”
 
Rabbi Adina Allen:
“We should each hold two slips of paper in our pockets, a well-known saying in Jewish tradition goes. On one should be written, “The world was created for me,” on the other, “I am but dust and ashes.”
 
Alan Watts:
“Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.”
 
Discussion Questions:
What does the word "god" mean to you? 
What images of "god" have you let go of? Which have you held onto? 
 
 
 
 
 

(Re)designing Church | Jake Haber

What would it look like to re-design church? What does that word even mean? Join us for a crowd-sourced conversation as we discover what people are looking for in a spiritual community. 
 
Quotes: 
Robert A. Johnson:
“The wonder of the story is that the water is always flowing somewhere and is available to any intelligent person who has the courage to search out the living water in its current form”
 
Rob Bell:
“Churches and religious communities and organizations can claim to speak for God while at the same time actually being behind the movement of God that is continuing forward in the culture around them without their participation"
 
Black Elk: 
"The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the Souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that its center is really everywhere, it is within each of us"
 
Jeremiah 23: 23
"I am a God who is everywhere and not in one place only"
 
Acts 7:48 
"However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands"
 
Richard Rohr:
"How you do anything is how you do everything"
 
Discussion Questions:
Do you disagree with any of the redesigns? Any suggestions? 
What steps can you take toward redesigning your life?
 

(Re)constructing Religion | Jake Haber

Is religion "totaled" or is there something worth salvaging? Where would we start? Join us as we dive into our (Re) series with Part 1: (Re)constructing Religion.
 
Quotes: 
Pete Holmes:
“I could have called the book, "Saving Baby Jesus From the Bath Water," It's about saving the core message of all spirituality from the bath water. Let's get rid of the bath water. Let's get rid of the shame, the judgment, the feeling that you're unworthy.”
 
Sarah F. Hoyt (1912):
“Roman Philosophical Poet Lucretius (96-55 BC)….considered ligare - to bind - to be the root of religio...the Century Dictionary, though referring to the uncertain origin of religio, cites the English ligament as perhaps allied”
 
Dalai Lama:
"This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness."
 
Epictetus: 
"All religions must be tolerated... for every(one) must get to heaven in (their) own way."
 
Pew: 
“A new survey by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, conducted jointly with the PBS television program Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, finds that many of the country’s 46 million unaffiliated adults are religious or spiritual in some way. Two-thirds of them say they believe in God (68%). More than half say they often feel a deep connection with nature and the earth (58%), while more than a third classify themselves as “spiritual” but not “religious” (37%), and one-in-five (21%) say they pray every day. In addition, most religiously unaffiliated Americans think that churches and other religious institutions benefit society by strengthening community bonds and aiding the poor.”
 
Albert Einstein: 
"True religion is real living; living with all one's soul, with all one's goodness and righteousness."
 
Discussion:
What “babies" do you want to rescue from the “bathwater” of religion?
Are we done with the word“religion” or should we try to reclaim it? Why?