Aldea Spiritual Community

True Community (Part 2): Embracing The Chaos | Jake Haber - Extended Version

Join us for Part 2 of our series "True Community" as we look at the journey from "pseudo-community" to "chaos community". Along the way, we'll be challenged to live with authenticity, stop avoiding conflict, and show up as our true selves—no matter the risk. 
 
Quotes: 
 
Tim Keller: 
“To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything.”
 
M. Scott Peck: 
“Pseudocommunity is conflict-avoiding; true community is conflict-resolving.”
"Chaos is not just a state, it is an essential part of the process of community development… In the stage of chaos individual differences are, unlike those in pseudocommunity, right out in the open."
 
Carl Jung: 
“In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order” 
 
Anais Nin:
“In chaos, there is fertility.”
 
Deepak Chopra: 
“All great changes are preceded by chaos"
 
 Friedrich Nietzsche:
 “You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.”
 
Robert Drake: 
"Look deeper through the telescope and do not be afraid when the stars collide towards the darkness, because sometimes the most beautiful things begin in chaos.” 
 
Luke 12: 49-53
 “I’ve come to start a fire on this earth—how I wish it were blazing right now! I’ve come to change everything, turn everything rightside up—how I long for it to be finished! Do you think I came to smooth things over and make everything nice? Not so. I’ve come to disrupt and confront! From now on, when you find five in a house, it will be—Three against two, and two against three; Father against son, and son against father;Mother against daughter, and daughter against mother, Mother-in-law against bride, and bride against mother-in-law.”  
Crisis = 危机 (wēi jī)
危(wēi) = "danger
机 (jī) = "a crucial point, when something begins to change.”  

True Community (Part 1) | Jake Haber

Join us for part one of our new series "True Community" as we envision a type of community where diversity is celebrated and individual paths of spiritual growth are encouraged! 
 
Quotes: 
 
Romans 12:4 
"In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around."
 
Ram Dass:
“The satsang is - within the mass culture - like little mushrooms here and there, and somebody, maybe a Christian and a Hindu and a Buddhist, come together; doesn't matter, because those are paths. They're paths to the One. But those satsangs are what the world needs. And as I say - heart to heart - that's what satsang is”
 
Frances Vaughan: 
"As we become increasingly aware of our global interdependence as a species, we can also deepen awareness of our spiritual interconnectedness. We cannot live in total isolation. The crosscultural communion of awakened souls may be a key to cocreating a sustainable future and living in harmony with the earth."
 
M. Scott Peck (A Different Drum):
“it recognizes that we are called to individuation, power, and wholeness. But it denies entirely the other part of the human story: that we can never fully get there and that we are, of necessity in our uniqueness, weak and imperfect creatures who need each other”
“A community of sixty can usually come up with a dozen different points of view. The resulting consensual stew, composed of multiple ingredients, is usually far more creative than a two-ingredient dish could ever be.”
“A real community is, by definition, immune to mob psychology because of its encouragement of individuality, its inclusion of a variety of points of view.”
"Because a community includes members with many different points of view and the freedom to express them, it comes to appreciate the whole of a situation far better than an individual, couple, or ordinary group can. Incorporating the dark and the light, the sacred and the profane, the sorrow and the joy, the glory and the mud, its conclusions are well rounded. Nothing is likely to be left out. With so many frames of reference, it approaches reality more and more closely. Realistic decisions, consequently, are more often guaranteed in community than in any other human environment."
"Put a human being in a truly safe place, where… defenses and resistances are no longer necessary, and the thrust toward health is liberated. When we are safe, there is a natural tendency for us to heal and convert ourselves.”
 
Howard Gardner:
“Discover your difference—the asynchrony with which you have been blessed or cursed—and make the most of it.”
 
 
 
 
 

(Re)solutions (New Year’s Eve) | Jake Haber

Check out our last message of 2023 as we usher in the new year by looking at the deeper meaning behind the word "Resolutions" and introducing our first series of 2024! 
 
Quotes: 
 
Albert Einstein:
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
 
John 16:33:
“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
 
Mark Manson: 
“A good life is not a life without problems. A good life is a life with good problems.”
 
M. Scott Peck: 
“No community can expect to be in perpetual good health. What a genuine community does do, however, because it is a contemplative body, is recognize its ill health when it occurs and quickly take appropriate action to heal itself.”
 

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?