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Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Meaning

Amazon sent me a notice that Viktor Frankl's book "Man's Search for Meaning" was on sale for under two dollars for my Kindle. This is one of my favorite all-time books, and my copy is in a storage container waiting for our restoration. It seemed to be calling me to re-read it. So, I had to download it.

It struck me as even more amazing than when those light-filled words first spoke to me those decades ago. It is one of the books I wish everyone would read. So please read it.

He tells us that we all search for meaning, which has become more difficult in this nihilistic time and place. As a survivor of four Nazi concentration camps, he has a remarkable story to share. Even there he found meaning. He went on to create Logotherapy, which is such a sensible way to restore a life.

This edition had a lecture he gave in 1984 added on the end of the book. He calls for decency and for an attempt to join the ranks of the decent. He said that the world was in a bad state, but it would become worse unless we all try to do our best. I ask you to contemplate his ending remarks.

So, let us be alert - alert in a twofold sense.
Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of.
And since Hiroshima we know what is at stake. 

Sunday, November 25, 2018

Developing Theology

Once upon a time, as a young person, I didn't even think about how our minister arrived at what he was preaching. I guess I thought Christianity came in one swoop, all done up with a big bow on top. The theology I heard I assumed was the way it was in reality.

Wow! Was I disillusioned when I discovered there have been fights over this and that from the gitgo, and a lot of violence too. And, I discovered even now there is no consensus on many things that are really important.

Gregory of Nyssa is a case in point. Almost all of his family were named saints as was he. He is often spoken of as the founder of mystical theology. He said, "Blessed are the clean of heart,  for they shall see God." He stressed knowing God in the darkness as well as the light. The utmost, in his view, was the way of union through love. Those who thought faith was "it" argued vehemently.

But then there was Maximus the Confessor. He thought Jesus must have had two wills (since will pertains to a nature rather than a person), both a Divine will and a human will. He was charged with treason, banished, tried again, had his tongue torn out and his right hand cut off. He died shortly after this. BUT 18 years later, he was vindicated at the 6th Counsel at Constantinople and  to this day is revered as a saint.

It hurts my heart that men make up sets of beliefs we have to agree with, and do violent things to people who view  whatever it is in a different way. This has gone on from the very first.

If we just study what Jesus actually said and did and asked us to do, we can hear directly and simply. We can jettison the theology fights and obscure pronouncements. We don't need the good ole boys blustering, fighting and maiming in the name of the rabbi who taught love, generosity and forgiveness.

Let's just follow by being as much like Him as we can possibly be. Let's give the world a Christmas present this year of following Him for real.

Friday, November 23, 2018

Dilemma

This is one of those times when dilemma might be its label. It's a time when others want us to do something so much that they threaten us.

We thought we wanted something, but the funds weren't released so we couldn't do it, at least so far. We keep getting promises of our assets being released from their bizarre frozen state, but no action. It has drug on for months.

On the sellers side there has been a lot of pressure and more. There was one sort of ambush meeting including two scary mafia types. There was another attempt at an ambush today, but we limited it to a phone conversation. My husband was threatened. Maybe he'll finally listen to me and let it go.

What to do? I've been meditating and got that others are also being threatened and so are setting us up to protect themselves. I also got that this is a signpost telling us it is time to enter a new phase of life.

I've missed some important signposts in the past for sure. This one is right in the center of our path flashing lights and honking horns, so to speak. We simply cannot miss it. We can ignore it - at our own risk. I know from experience dark and awful things come from ignoring such signposts.

I think at some point in our lives we've all said, "I knew I shouldn't have done that." This time it is clear ahead of time - danger lies in this direction.

Lord, thank You for lighting our way. Thank You for clear and unmistakable signs. Fill us with the courage to go as You lead.

Monday, November 19, 2018

Guidance - Inspiration

I know and believe that we receive an array of Guidance that is the inflowing of Spirit, Inspiration. This is true of the sincere seeker it seems to me. The insincere have some sort of block that keeps them from being aware of higher counsel, at least until they set their lives on a spiritual path.

Sometimes it is an intuition. It can be something someone says or a line from a book. It can be a voice as a whisper or a shout. It can be a vision or a vivid dream. It can come while asleep or awake or in meditation. The more receptive we are, the stronger and more consistent it is.

It tells us we are not alone. Something More is aware of us and offers to help us. What I cannot see or understand can be informed by The More.

Yet there are times when it seems all is silence. What do I do left to my own devices?

Do I wait? Do I make lists of choices? Do I look through my life and seek to find Guidance from the past that could be applied to today? Do I panic?
Panic, of course, cuts off access to our higher thinking, so is not a good choice.

What about being in a situation unlike anything you've ever known or thought about and there is silence? That's where I find myself. My day involves a lot of reading, prayer, meditation and participation in activities that help others. Nevertheless, I seem to be at the end of this potent spiritual set of lessons. It needs to be solved, resolved in the next two days. I must not panic. I listen.

God of all, Divine More, Thy Will be done in our lives. Speak, for I listen. Lead me for I will follow.

Saturday, November 17, 2018

Rereading John in The Message Translation

I love the mystical understanding the author has. He (highly unlikely a woman 😢 impossible really) wrote in Greek somewhere in the Mediterranean area near the end of the first century. I do wonder what would be said by a woman of The Way. What would her take be? In what way did she understand Jesus? I'm pretty sure we'll never know.

We can see how the understandings morphed from Paul to Mark to Matthew to Luke and then to John. It's an interesting exercise to read Mark (the first Gospel written) and then to immediately read John (The last Gospel written).

I adore the Message translation. It is a modern translation from the Greek in modern language. It shares a different way to understand the familiar verses because it is in today's words.

For me, pondering, praying, meditating, studying all things spiritual are essential parts of my life and have been for as long as I can remember. It feels to me like I'm reborn over and over in the course of my life. Who I am and what I know are continually being updated so to speak.

God, being Infinite, offers us endless opportunities to grow, expand and enter more fully into the Great Mystery. So off I go into today's mystery.




Monday, November 12, 2018

Bible Ideas

I want to share some of the ideas I spoke about yesterday. I'm still contemplating them. (See some more of these ideas in my October 30th entry.)

First of all, it was the 100th anniversary of the Armistice. Over the course of WW1, 9 million combatants and 7 million civilians died - mostly Christians killing Christians. I wonder who thought that was a good idea? I try to imagine the conversation as maybe a sales pitch. How do people get convinced to do such horrible things?

I moved into persons in the Bible and some of their turning points. There are many ways to read the Bible, and one is it is the story of humanity and our struggles to move into relationship with God. It is our story.

Adam and Eve, symbolizing the beginning of human life, born innocent, lost their innocence and lived the rest of their lives east of Eden, wanting to return. We too are born innocent, but we learn things like we're not good enough and also want to return to innocence, but also live east of Eden.

Or think of Abraham. He lived in Ur and experienced God guiding him to pick up all his possessions and people and move to Palestine. Because he listened, prosperity and many good things came to him. Like Abraham, our ancestors heard the call and moved to a new country or city. My dad's ancestors heard the call and moved to America from Ireland in 1730. We hear the call to a profession, to a spouse or to write a blog. Sometimes we answer the call, or sometimes, like Jonah, we resist.

There are prophets in the  Bible, mostly scolding. We are prophetic too. Think of the times you said, " I knew I shouldn't have done that! " You knew, you were prophetic.

There many examples of applying their stories to our lives as we discover our shared human story. I hope I got you started and you can carry on with applications to your life.

I want to consider Jesus of history, what he did and what he taught, in distinction from what others later said it meant to follow The Way. The original teaching  could be called Alpha, the first. It came to me that he gave us to do lists. These things invite us into his understanding of God and life and how to live it. His parables draw us in and suddenly we see with new eyes. Reread Mark, Matthew and Luke, plus James  and make a list of what he suggests we do in one column and what he tells us we have to believe in the other column.

Later people made up lists of what to believe. We could call Beta all that came second or hundredth as people created rules, regulations, and theologies. Most of them were well meaning. They couldn't seem to cope with the simple to do list from Jesus, so they had many convoluted theologies including the  ridiculous (how many angels sit on the head of a pin?)

Jesus asked us to help create the kingdom of God here in earth, a kingdom of justice and compassion and relationship with God. If we focused on the Alpha, the original teachings, I think we could answer that invitation to enter in to a sacred relationship that calls us make this world a wondrous place for everyone. Just as surely as God called Abraham, he calls us this very day. The invitation has been issued. What will we do? How will we repond?

Thursday, November 8, 2018

Cosmic Physician

A vision came to me this morning in the shower. If a Cosmic Physician took the temperature of our earth, the diagnosis would be fever so high that hallucinations would be inevitable.

At so many points on our earth, there are feverish goings on accompanied by distorted views, maybe even hallucinations.

What could be the cure?

On the other hand, the vast majority of us are good people with no intention of doing dastardly things. It could be that with social media and 24 hour news, it all seems more dire than it actually is. Perhaps the antifa folks are really a tiny group. Perhaps the threats of politicians are just cries for attention to feed their egos. Maybe the villains on TV are just characters in the earth soap opera. Perhaps it can all be sorted out.

Divine One, Holy More open us to Your ideas on how to lower the fever raging across our planet. We dream of peace on earth, but we seem to be going the other direction. We need Your Wisdom and Guidance. Open us fully to You. Open our ears, our eyes and our hearts. Give us courage to walk in your Ways.

Tuesday, November 6, 2018

A Huge Day

Today is a huge day in the USA. It is election day, though many of us voted early with absentee ballots or at early voting sites. We voted at the mall last week. I like the actual process of going to vote rather than mailing in my ballot. Our church is all set up as a place to vote today. It is exciting and a bit scary - what will the outcome be?

I LOVE this country and the ideas behind it. I am concerned over the strange things happening.

Normally I don't discuss political things here, but today I feel strongly led to say something exemplified in the hearings to confirm Justice Kavanaugh. He was accused by several women of sexual misconduct. Within this past week 2 of the accusers admitted they lied, and today the main accuser, the one "everyone" found convincing, said she doesn't know who it was that treated her so badly. I've heard these women have been referred to the Justice Department.

My concern, maybe fear, is the political theater put on by one party as they screamed SHE IS BELIEVED without a shred of concurring evidence. A pattern emerged: Shouting those who don't believe her are misogynists and worse; Intimidation of Congress members who dared to believe something was not right with her vague and conflicting recollections;  Congress members recommending harassment by the public of other Congress members of the other party; Also ignoring the mountain of people who knew him well and spoke only in glowing terms; and not in the least, ignoring the details of his life and humble service. Where oh where is integrity? What drove them to such madness?

Some of these horrid acting people stand to be heads of committees, if their party gains a majority today. Who else would they try to railroad? What emotional and ignorant things would they profess in unison? What economic disaster would they create? What hatred and violence would they promote?

They showed us their hand in the so called hearing on the Justice. I hope and pray the good people remember that ugly circus as they vote.

God save us from the political class.

Saturday, November 3, 2018

The Witness

There is a clump of ideas in my mind of such things as The Witness, The Over-soul, The Cloud of Witnesses, Christ Consciousness, Buddha Consciousness, Cosmic Consciousness, and so forth. I realize that in many minds there are distinctions, one from the other, within this list.

The idea of the Over-soul first came to me, I think, from Ralph Waldo Emerson and the American Transcendentalists that I read in college. Later I had a lot of fun with it as I read the series on "Over-soul 7." It seems to me that I've had some personal experiences that lead me to concur that what is incarnated here is not all of me, not all of us.

The Witness idea is in various scriptures, in writings of medieval mystics, and in modern attempts to understand what is going on, such as Ken Wilbur's ideas. One strand says there are other worldly beings watching and guiding, our Cloud of Witnesses. Another strand tells us that it is spiritually healthy to be our own Witness that observes and feels and engages with what is going on here on earth, both personally and globally, BUT takes none of it seriously for it is just a play.

The Christ, Buddha, Cosmic Conscious ideas are the awakened soul's understanding in the awareness of Oneness. We breathe in the atoms of the cosmos, of one another, of the past, of the future for they are one dance. We are not only connected, we are in a cosmic dance of Oneness. God and I are one. You and I are one. There is no one here but God.

BUT the vast, vast majority of sentient beings on this particular planet are content in their own little versions of what life is about and, so stay in their fiefdoms, never seeking, never questing to Know. I pray for ideas that might spark awakening to humanity.

I know we cannot move forward much longer with crazy ideas, crazy actions, violence, etc. Daily on the television I see screaming people telling people who disagree with them to shut up, even calling them fascists  all the while being the ones exhibiting fascist behavior. I see supposed leaders inciting attack against those with a different point of view. I see talking heads on television saying outlandish and untruthful things. I see increasing hit and run attacks, as well as knife and gun violence. I see South African leaders going down the crazed road of Zimbabwean confiscations of lands. I see hoards of invaders going into European countries and into our own country, people with a different culture and values who want to destroy the West. But, we are destroying it ourselves, for we seem to have abandoned our spiritual and historical roots, let alone pursuing the journey farther.

Civilizations come and go over the course of history on this planet. Somehow we seem to learn little from history, so we repeat it in endless variations. I am certain the way forward and the end of the ad nauseum repetitions involves authentic spiritual growth and understanding that leads to awakening, to wisdom, to compassion. We are capable of such an awakening. Will we do the work to heal ourselves?

Thursday, November 1, 2018

Assessing Today

An array of things shining upon my morning made up a rather odd recipe for a morning. 

Books: "Waiting for God," "Let There Be Light," and "Practicing the Presence" each have taken my attention for considerable time. TV cooking shows intervened for almost an hour. My email caught my eye, especially the one from Richard Rohr.

He wrote a tribute to Fr. Keating who passed on Oct. 25th. A strange thought fluttered across my mind, "I knew him." I realized I didn't know him by being physically present with my body in the same room as his body. Then I thought about the way I knew him. I knew him from his writings, from what others said or wrote about him, from practicing Centering Prayer, I knew him from YouTube, and so I felt him in some deep place that made him a friend, a spiritual friend. This world was made better by his sojourn here. I suppose we all hope that in the end that can be also said about us.

Then I read an email from my husband that contained an article about the growth of New Age thinking coupled with the demise of traditional church and its theology. Even those still in churches hold some New Age beliefs, the majority of them it seems, and even Evangelicals do, almost half of them!

I saw a snipet about Google employees walking out because a big mucky muck was accused of sexual misconduct. I tremble at the loss of due process and the new mindset that accusation is proof of whatever.

Then I read an article about the raving, raging, irrational on the verge of taking over the politics of our fragile republic. This amazing experiment here, long known to be the land of opportunity for all those willing to work hard, is tottering. Never before had this occurred to me in my lifetime. I thought the magnificence of our Constitution would speak in the hearts of us all for a long, long, long time and we would stand with it and before it in reverence and with courage.

Perhaps this planet is the insane asylum of the universe. Perhaps we are incapable of learning from history and the folly of those who have gone before.

But, perhaps we can turn around and find the Spiritual and work together to make this planet the Kingdom of God planet, the place everyone wants to be.