The common heart - spiritual paradigm shift | Rabbi Chava Bahle | TEDxTraverseCity

Rabbi Chava Bahle - spiritual leader, story teller, humanitarian - speaks about the paradigm shift towards the common heart. She invites the listener to consider the question of the ages: who are we in relation to the natural world? Through story telling, she shares insights that lead to one-ness, that basic goodness that it at the center of our being.

In Traverse City, Rabbi Chava Bahle is the first rabbi in history to serve as the permanent spiritual leader of a Unitarian Universalist congregation. She is a twice-ordained rabbi and a maggid – a Jewish inspirational preacher and story teller. Rabbi Chava Bahle works monthly at the Jewish Catholic Family School of Chicago, a unique Sunday school program for children of intercultural marriages, and she serves Temple Beth El (Reform) in Midland, Michigan. She is on the board of directors of OHALAH Association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal and is a proud member of Rotary International.

Rabbi Chava Bahle teaches courses in religion, spirituality and writing at Northwestern Michigan College Extended Education, and she blogs as yogarabbi. She was a volunteer chaplain for the Michigan Department of Corrections for 18 years and a recipient of the city of Traverse City’s Sara Hardy Humanitarian Award for her work in human rights.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx.

Paradigm shift.

(Laughter)

Friends, let's begin in the tradition

of the Vietnamese Buddhist monk
Thich Nhat Hanh.

Can I invite you to uncross
anything you're sitting with crossed.

Now, a reference to a religious tradition
just creates some openness.

And let's begin together in his tradition
of receiving three good breaths

to remind ourselves
of the preciousness of this moment

and to just absorb some of the amazingness
we have already received today.

I want to extend a special shout out

to the people who are joining us
through the miracle of technology

in remote locations.

I got to thinking that
at the State Theatre over there,

they're getting, you know,
soda and popcorn and Jujubes,

(Laughter)

and over here, you've just got Jew.

(Laughter)

But it is through
the miracle of technology

that once insurmountable distances

have created an opportunity
for a shared experience,

a wonderful metaphor for the idea

that across what once were
insurmountable distances and differences,

we are able to come
into a spirit of oneness.

A few weeks ago,

I had the privilege of being with a group

of 40 or so Protestant ministers
and deeply committed lay people

from across several
Protestant denominations.

We had Baptists and Disciples of Christ

and Lutherans

and several brands of Methodist -

I didn't know that that existed.

And they came together
across these denominations

in a Catholic retreat center

to spend at least part of their day
learning with a Jewish rabbi.

And I realized that the game
has already begun to change.

Sometime during that week,

we took a moment
to unroll the Torah scroll,

the sacred stories of the Jewish people,

and when I stood
in the Catholic retreat center,

looking down the roll of the scroll

at these beloved friends
from across Protestant denominations,

I realized that the game
has really changed.

And that each and every one
of those people,

having come into this shared experience,

will then go back out into the world

and light a little bit of that light

for the people in
their home communities as well.

This was a real game changer.

Friends, no scientists tell us
that in the course of any given moment,

in the course of any sentence,

we are literally showered
with 11 million pieces of data.

And at best, on a good day,

we are able to pay attention
to about seven of them.

So the question arose in human evolution:

How do we take this shower
of information, this shower of data,

and turn it into something
that is manageable, that is handleable?

Because from the most ancient times
in human consciousness,

we have been asking the question

who are we?

These ancient cave paintings,

some of them dating from 40,000 years ago,

already asking the question who are we?

And who are we in relation
to the natural world around us?

How do we learn to not only survive
but thrive in the world?

Evolutionarily, this problem
of how to take all of that information,

all of that data,

and make it - in the words
of Timothy Wilson -

"persuasive, useful and transmissable,"

that problem was faced
and a solution was found.

And the solution was storytelling.

The storytellers of all cultures
are the keepers of the wisdom

that is passed from
one generation to the next,

and it didn't stop
with asking the questions

about this world and day-to-day existence.

Storytellers,

even in the most ancient times,

were beginning to ask the question

who are we in relation to the cosmos -

to the things that are much bigger than us

and what we can see
and experience in the world?

I'm reminded of a wonderful comedy routine

when Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks
were at a dinner party

and Mel Brooks was playing
the 2000-year-old man.

Carl Reiner was interviewing him

and asked him about
a number of different subjects,

and finally the conversation
turned to religion.

And Carl Reiner said,

"Well, did you have
a, you know, a supreme being?"

And Mel Brooks said,
in his beautiful Yiddish accent,

"A supreme being?

Of course we had a supreme being,

and his name was Phil."

(Laughter)

Carl Reiner said,

"Wow. That's amazing."

And Mel Brooks said,

"Oh yes. Phil was incredible.

You could go to Phil for anything -
for food, water, shelter -

whatever you needed."

Carl Reiner said,

"Well, whatever became of Phil?"

"Well," says Mel Brooks,

"one day, Phil was walking
through the valley

and a thunderstorm rolled in

and he was struck by lightning.

And in that moment, we knew

there was something bigger than Phil."

(Laughter)

Now, friends, a lot of what
is paradigm shifting in my business,

or my vocation,

is the idea that there is something
a lot bigger than Phil.

At the heart and center of all religious
and spiritual experiences,

the longing that each of us has
at the center of our being

to touch into that basic goodness
that is our true nature,

to touch into that little bit
of the infinite

that lives at the center of our being.

For the moment,

let's use the Hebrew letter "aleph"
as an abbreviation of this.

It's the first letter
of the Hebrew alphabet,

and so it is the number one.

It stands for "one-ness."

And it also is important
because it makes the sound ...

Not "ah."

It makes the sound ...

It is the sound of silence.

(Laughter)

Because silence is really the only thing

that is large enough
to contain the infinite that we seek,

that longing that we seek.

And so we find ways
of coming into this oneness,

and it might be prayer or meditation
or sacred times or sacred places,

and over time,

we start to want to transmit
these ways into that oneness -

to our community, to our children -

and so we create a little membrane
around our ways into oneness.

But over time,

that permeable membrane
that at one time allowed in what was new

and allowed us to release

what no longer served
this coming into oneness,

that membrane can become
a very solid wall.

And perhaps worst of all,

you get people like me,
who are keepers of the way,

and our job is to protect the institutions

and to protect the denominations

and to protect our ways
of coming into that one,

and our institutions get so busy
running around the outside of the circle

that we forget that the purpose
of the endeavor

is to help one another
come into that basic goodness

that is at the center of our being.

And when people come to visit,

sadly,

they step through our doors,
often, in religious institutions,

and that oneness at the center

has shrunk to be so small
as to be almost invisible.

Sadder still, we build walls
between our way into the one

and your way into the one,

and we say,

"Keep your ways into the one
out of our ways into the one

because our way is the way."

This is when triumphalism -

"our way is the way,"

"it would just be better
if you thought like we think" -

we build walls between our ways
into the infinite oneness.

And when people approach us
who are spiritual seekers,

they often come and they see the walls

and forget the center
that is at the heart of the endeavor.

But there have always been people
who were game changers.

There have always been people
who saw beyond the walls.

A Protestant wife and a Catholic husband
who could not be buried together

chose to have their graves built
next to the wall

and asked that their children
put above that their hands joined

because they remembered and they knew

that, yes, there is a wall
that divides Protestant and Catholic,

but it is the love
and the goodness and the oneness

that is the real message of their lives.

There has always been game changers
who saw beyond the walls.

And one of the things
that's really interesting right now

in the evolving history of religion

is this group called the "SBNR"s,

the "spiritual but not religious."

(Laughter)

Does this describe you?

What? Is this funny because it's you?

(Laughter)

And these are the people who are demanding

that the people who work
in the vocation of religion

change the game.

Because they are longing
to enter into that infinite oneness,

that basic goodness,

but on Friday morning
and Saturday morning and Sunday morning,

you will not find them sitting
in mosque and temple and church.

You will find them sitting
on the beaches of Lake Michigan

or walking in the woods

or listening to beautiful music

or sitting quietly with friends
and having holy conversation.

And these people are game changers.

The paradigm-shifting,
game-changing moment that we are in

is called deep ecumenism:

the ability that we can honor
our own tradition

while also being comfortably inspired
by the truths of many traditions.

And this game changing
is the sacred technology

that will change every single one
of our institutions.

Now, I have to admit to you,

I have always been drawn to this.

Even as a young child,
I really felt the need to stretch

although I was raised
in a very committed Jewish home.

But with the help of my family,

I was taught to stretch and grow.

(Laughter)

Oh, Catherine, you thought
your picture was amazing ...

My brothers were trying
to help me be taller -

(Laughter)

what was actually going on here,

God bless them.

But even at a very early age,

I felt drawn to exploring
and stepping into new places.

A number of years
after this photo was taken,

I had been dropped off at the mall
for my hangout time,

and there I ran into
a group of Hare Krishnas.

And I was fascinated with their ecstasy.

I was fascinated with their joy,
with their song and their dance,

and one of them came over

and gifted me with a copy
of the "Bhagavad-Gītā As It Is,"

and I tried and I tried to read the text,

but I simply could not
penetrate it at that time.

Luckily for me, there were pictures.

(Laughter)

One of the pictures that appeared
in that version of the Bhagavad Gita

is an illustration
of the 5th chapter, the 18th sloka,

which says that the wise person
looks into the heart of all beings

and there sees the same oneness
at the center of all beings.

And this picture changed my life,

and it changed how I saw everything.

One of the ways that this has manifest -

and I am very, very blessed

to be the co-clergy of a wonderful
20-year-old experiment.

As many of you know, every other week
for the last nine and a half years,

I have flown to Chicago
to work Friday night in a synagogue -

Friday night and Saturday in a synagogue
that welcomes interfaith families,

and on Sunday morning, I work
at Old St. Patrick's Catholic Church,

just in case.

(Laughter)

My father, of blessed memory, used to say,

"You never know who's
going to turn out to be right."

(Laughter)

At Old St. Patrick's Catholic Church

is a wonderful experiment called
the Chicago Interfaith Family School,

and we are perhaps 80 or 90 families

with one parent Jewish,
one parent Catholic,

raising the kids in both religions,

and I am honored to be
the co-clergy of this school,

and I'd like you to meet
some of my students.

(Video) Boy 1: Being Catholic
and Jewish isn't that hard actually,

especially when you're in Family School

and you see some of the other people
that are both Catholic and Jewish.

It doesn't seem like a challenge:

it seems like a blessing.

[20 years & Growing The Family School]

Father Tom Hurley: The Family School

really has, I think, unveiled
something absolutely beautiful

in terms of how families can do this.

It's not picking one over another.

It's saying this is the gift
that we give to each other

and it is the gift
that we give to our children.

Chava Bahle: How do you answer
somebody who says, "You can't be both"?

Girl 1: Well, I say, "Yeah, I can."

(Laughter)

Girl 2: Family School has helped teach me
which parts I like of a religion

and which parts I want to be in.

Girl 3: It's been really nice
knowing about both religions

and kind of get to know
about the history of both

and how they're different, alike.

CB: I think that any time

people step into and choose
their own faith lens,

it's much stronger than if
it's just merely imposed on them.

Boy 2: Family School -
it makes you curious to learn,

not just about your religion
but about who you are.

Boy 3: It's a way to find out
who you really are,

not just like what your parents are.

You can learn what to be for yourself.

TH: I think it's giving
the child and the family together

a place to take this journey,

a place where it's okay to ask

and that all the answers are given.

Girl 1: I can now, like, question things
and [inaudible] things about my religion,

which is something
a lot of people can't do.

And I've always felt really safe here

in having people just like me
to grow up with.

TH: God created it;
God calls us into this mystery.

And I think all of us enter
the mystery of God through various ways,

and it's not to say that one way is right
and one way is wrong:

every way is right.

Every way that we celebrate
through our religious tradition

is a way of mystery of God.

I believe that's what God desires.

That brings God to life.

Girl 2: Family School

brings people together
from different opinions

and lets you share them.

Woman 1: I think that acceptance
is a huge part of Family School.

Girl 3: So many other people grow by -

have such discrimination
against other religions

because they only believe in theirs

and they really don't understand
what it's like to be different religions

and they don't accept it.

And it's just so nice
coming here to Family School

and having those beliefs from the start.

Woman 2: After 25 years of marriage
and 20 years of the Family School,

I actually see myself
as both Catholic and Jewish.

Man: And I do too.

TH: People who are
various traditions fall in love,

and I think that the Family School
is really a great, great testimony

of how, you know, we can say,

"Hey, we can be a gift to each other."

It doesn't mean we have to check
somebody's tradition at the door,

but it means we can continue to live
in the mysteries of our traditions.

CB: And so, for all of you as a group,

I bless you to remember that it is vital

that you trust your own experience
of your inner world.

There will be many times
and forces and people

who try to talk you
out of knowing what you know,

and I bless you to trust
the experience of your inner world.

Boy 4: My view is ever changing,

and I don't think
it's going to stop changing.

I think that there will be days
when I lean more towards Judaism

and there will be days
when I lean more towards Catholicism.

I think that's the beauty of being both -

is that, you know, you can believe both.

You can believe what you want.

[www.the-family-school.org]

(Applause)

Every year I cry
through the entire graduation,

as you can see,

because this work is one
of the great prides of my life.

The idea that we are raising
a generation of people

who are able to think in both/and

and not just the paradigm of either/or

is a game changer.

But, beloveds, as you know,

game changing doesn't just happen
in the big cities:

it's happening right here
in our own community.

There is a group of game changers

at the Unitarian Universalist
Congregation of Grand Traverse

who, for the first time
in the history of their denomination,

have hired someone of a different religion
to be their spiritual leader.

Now, I admit it didn't hurt
my chances at all

that one of the requirements of the job

was that my hair color
had to match the pulpit cover.

(Laughter)

But one of the things that is true

of all of the game changers
that you will hear today

is that game changers are the people
who are seeking the common heart.

And ultimately, in the area
of religion and spirituality,

game changers are the people who look
at the brick walls that separate us

and who realize that with just
a little bit of rearrangement,

those brick walls can be rearranged
into stepping stones

that remind us of the greatest truth,

and that is that there is no them anymore.

There is only us.

Thank you.

(Applause)