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Sunday, September 24, 2017

Cosmic Christ

The Cosmic Christ is thought and spoken of in many circles these days. What does it mean? Basically that the Light that is within is the Cosmic Christ. It is Eckhart's seed of God in everyone. It is the historical Jesus' understanding that the Kingdom of God is within. It is the knowing of Oneness of God. It is mystical and also practical.  It is our hope for the continuance of our earth and of our species.

With the enormous static of this world, particularly this "modern" world, I see a vast majority of people who have no idea what this means, why it would be important, what it would take to move through the static to the place of peace and the knowing of God, our Source, our very life. I have concern for our future, but also I have a hope for spiritual awakening - in time.

We are bombarded with "news" which is almost totally opinion and spin and pretty much on the dark side aligned more with Darth Vader than with God. We are bombarded with ugly, violent, hateful movies, and music. We are bombarded by busyness, by the trivial, by shallowness. We are in some ways fractured and yearn somewhere deep within for restoration and freedom from all of this.

People are leaving churches and other houses of worship because most sermons are book reports, sometimes written by others and purchased from a sermon service; because little actual Biblical scholarship (think cultural context, language, idiom, etc) is explored and taught; because the pre-modern, pre-rational, pre-scientific thinking is taught as actual and literal rather than the myths and parables that they are, and can teach so much more and make sense only in that light; because the teaching and the actions are not congruent, don't match and are not actually taught as maps and goals leading to awakening; because few are teaching how to get out and beyond the static to an actual experience with God; because the great mystics of each tradition are not studied and so most are spiritually illiterate; because people give up on this all and turn to other things - sports, television, gaining wealth, nationalism, etc.

My prayer and contemplation seeks an answer as to how to shift us all out of the traps that lead away from God, from finding the Cosmic Christ within and into releasing the imprisoned splendor of God's Light within each and everyone.

I turn this day, once again, to You, my Creator, my Source, seeking Your Guidance. What am I to do to participate in a spiritual awakening among the people of this earth? What am I to do in my own journey to hear You more fully and act more consistently as You would have me act? Lift my awareness.

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Preparatory Lessons, Spiritual Development and/or Child Abuse?

The past few days I've been rolling some personal thoughts over in my mind.

So here I am, over 3 years of frozen assets. I still function, participate and even lead. How do I do it?

It came to mind that I am somewhat used to not having my things because of my early life - and I ask myself what was the purpose long ago?

Examples: I came home from school one day and my treasured box of comic books, including "My Friend Irma" that had my name in it for designing the fashions for that month, gone. In panic I discovered mother as the culprit who simply told me "you're too old for comics, so I got rid of them." No discussion, no warning. Just gone. In maybe 4th grade, I came home from school to discover my beloved violin was gone. I loved it. Mother again the culprit, "You're tone deaf, you don't need it." No discussion, no warning, just gone. I could go on, but I think the pattern is clear.

Why? I have asked why so many times. So was this preparation for this time when I do still have my money and my belongings, but I cannot use them because they are wrongly frozen? It bears a strong resemblance to my childhood except they are not gone but out of my reach. Did those tearful and stressful days of my youth steel me for this present restriction? Or was it simply child abuse?

Or am I living the Book of Job and getting non-attachment, spiritual muscle development, faith and other spiritual lessons?

All I seem to be able to do is take a deep breath, pray, participate as much as I can and keep on going. Each week is supposed to be THE week all is set free to come to us, but it passes and the next week takes its turn to be THE week. Perhaps one week will actually be THE week, maybe even this week. In the meantime, I live.

Dear God, One and only Presence, the very Breath of my being, lead me onward. Help me be the person You call me to be. Lead me out of this valley of restriction into the arms of freedom. Lead me to use the freedom well to make a positive difference on this earth in the hearts and minds and lives of earth's inhabitants. Freedom, Lord, Freedom.

Monday, September 18, 2017

Plato

In my studies, I sometimes return to the Greek philosophers. They are interesting in that they represent the first rational thought and have a developing range of views, plus Hellenistic thought and language were prevalent when the New Testament was born. You know that I am very interested in the 1st century CE and what really happened. It seems to me that context is essential in understanding the goings on of humans, for in many ways we are products of our times. It may not be possible for us in the 21st century to totally take off our 21st century glasses in order to view any past time the way the people of the time viewed their world, but we can take steps in that direction.

Today I want to consider Plato in our times to bring his thinking here to bear upon our lives and predicaments.

One of the things he said was basically this: No real reform of the fundamentals of political thought could take place without a corresponding reform of man's ideas about the whole nature of reality.

We see a bit of chaos here and a large dose of it there. We see breakdowns of how it was and see morphing into something else. From black masked hooligans destroying and terrorizing to crazed dictators to unreliable media and politicians and leaders of all stripes, it is a different world than the one into which I was born. There has been strife afoot in all times. This seems more intensified maybe because of the instant access to information and disinformation.

From all that and more, I conclude that we also need some reform of fundamentals of political thoughts, and if Plato is correct, we need to look more deeply into the nature of reality.

We have the advantage of scientific research to tell us some of the fundamentals of physical reality, which were totally unknown by any human until very recently.

But the philosophic quest into the nature of reality and Reality is fractured, it seems to me. Christianity is in decline. Its premises along with the Judaic premises have been the root of our own national take on reality/Reality. There are overt attacks on that version of reality. Plus, as Christianity declines, religious fervor turns elsewhere - think climate change, sports teams, celebrity, etc.

Plato and Socrates thought if you didn't know the nature of a thing, the person for whom it is made and the purpose for which it is made, you didn't know it. Take a shoemaker. To make shoes he/she has to know these things.

Consider these things in relation to our religion and our nation and our world. Let us think on these things and with sincerity, courage and curiosity apply the best of our thinking skills to the nature of reality in its various forms. What is the purpose of a nation? What is the purpose of a religion?

Saturday, September 16, 2017

On Being Still

In preparing for next Saturday when I lead a prayer and meditation workshop, I have put together a Power Point presentation. It is basically ready, and as I go over it, my excitement grows. I wonder what breakthroughs people will have. I wonder what things I'll be led to say beyond my prepared ideas. 

It is exciting to me on many levels. I used to do quite a few week-end or week-long retreats in various places from California to Colorado to Hawaii to Minnesota to Russia, and more. I haven't done that for awhile. I love doing it, and am so glad to be able to do it again.

The theme is a line from a Psalm - Be Still and Know That I Am God. Oh, how I love that line. It has meant so much to me over the course of my lifetime. It has walked with me through great times and deep valleys too.

We will start with contemplating that line and then writing about what comes to us. I suggest that readers of this do the same. Read the line several times, close your eyes and silently say it to yourself, then be still. In a few minutes open your eyes and write whatever comes to mind ---- stream of consciousness it is called. Then read what you've written.

Continue this practice by opening the Bible or other inspirational reading and read until something sort of grabs your attention. Repeat it, roll it over in your mind, be still, then write. This is called "Lectio Divina" or "Divine Reading." It is a powerful, yet simple, spiritual practice that I highly recommend.

Saturday, September 9, 2017

More Thoughts on James

From my book, "What On Earth Is Going On, Spiritually Speaking?"
I am thinking that for us to rise above the circumstances of our lives and do as James urged, we need to face what it is that we are resisting. What holds us down and keeps us in our enclosures? What keeps us in the fog? What keeps us busy, so we don’t even aim for full understanding? What weighs us down so that we don’t allow ourselves to rise up? 
In my experience, the beginning of a journey requires knowledge of where we are now. Facing ourselves honestly is a huge part of the spiritual awakening journey.
The idea that we often live in a fog came to me years ago. The fog creates a kind of amnesia mist, so that we forget we are children of the Most High, made of stardust with a seed/spark of God within.

Especially in this modern world, there is so much frenzy that can keep us down. There is busyness, all kinds of technology, hysteria in media and social networks, flowing mountains of information and misinformation, on and on.

Somehow we must (if we actually want spiritual awakening) pierce through this veil of fog bombarding us and walk into the Light, the Truth, the Freedom, the Love that IS.

We can use the tools of critical thinking, contemplation, meditation, prayer, listening and rising above the din. I suppose there is only so far we can go in this life on this planet in these times, but strive we must not only for our own souls, but also for the soul of the planet.

Let us journey to the edge of the fog, pierce it, peer out of it, move into the Light.

Thursday, September 7, 2017

Exploring Non-Attachment, Again!

On the top of my list seems to be the lesson of non-attachment. For 7 years now my son and family have been far away in miles and heart, leaving us in the dust as they run away in anger and misinformation. For 3+ years our assets frozen, the money from our previous house in some suspended place, my decades-long savings locked down, this past 2 weeks off and on my checking account (the tiny bit of liquidity we currently have/had) under attack by hackers and so frozen, expense money for my husband's business hung up for weeks and weeks with no reason given, and trying to buy a Juki sewing machine since March with one cockamamy excuse after the other from the store. Me teaching sewing to children in July at a local store, with the promise of a check in a week to 10 days, but no check as of today. Many, seemingly unrelated things in some state of suspended animation.

Then there is the experience that I am calling "emotional water-boarding." The bank guy says within 24 hours a big portion of our money will be available or next Friday my savings will be free or or or or... but no reality behind the promises. The government making promises, but no action. Always tomorrow or next week, but that passes and passes and passes and passes.

Okay, to the best of my thinking the pattern here is for me/us to learn non-attachment.

Intellectually I seem to understand that our bodies are fluctuating dances of atoms, stardust in motion. I know our bodies are earthly and will stay here, as do all of my "possessions." Jesus told us not to take stock in things that rot, afterall. My essence, my spirit, my soul also is in a dance of change as I grow and expand understanding over the course of this life adventure.

All is change. So what is there to hold onto? God is the only answer I can find. God is always God. Change is in the dimension of incarnation but not in the Ground of Being.

So I read and think and write and contemplate all that is spiritual, that is of God, weeding out the false understandings of others and of myself. God is not the words in a book or a blog, but hints can be in the words. Words can be true or false. People can teach flawed things that become accepted generally. Paul said to test the Spirit. I do my best to do so. I only want to know and teach the Truth. Words seem to be the most effective way to communicate, even that which really cannot be put into words.

The times I have known the Light and seen through the Veil, I cannot tell you in any effective way the immense, expansive, incredible feelings and knowings. I can only tell you I have touched the Infinite, and I know you can too. I know with Teilhard de Chardin that indeed we are spiritual beings having a human experience. We can flow gracefully through this adventure of a human experience or we can grab and grasp onto the set decorations, thinking them the things we want and need. But, they are merely set decorations and will rot. Let us turn to that which is the very Ground of Being.

Oh my dear God, what a chapter in the book of this life it is! These years have been so deeply challenging. Yet, I do feel some things dislodged in me that needed to go and the filling of those spots with You. Help me complete this lesson and move into a more personal space, into our own home. The things in storage I know are things that rot, yet they also are symbols of memories, lessons, history and ideas that have developed over the years. Your weary daughter surrenders. Your Will be done.