First, I am going to type a little Meister Eckhart quote: There, where clinging to things ends, is where God begins to be. If a cask is to contain wine, you must first pour out the water. The cask must be bare and empty. Therefore, if you wish to receive divine joy and God, first pour out your clinging to things. Everything that is to receive must and ought to be empty.
In my situation, there has been a great stripping away at almost every level of my life, home, finances, trust in government, family, friends, and health. I have identified with Job in a profound way. But, if I look at it all from the point of view of the above Eckhart quote, it is a spiritual exercise, or maybe gift, to empty me and be made ready to receive another level of spiritual growth. This touches a spot in me, because I have daily spoken with God and continued my spiritual practices, yet the outer of my life has been in a very strange place.
I think I can say that I cling to very little now. I feel different. I await the next surprise God has prepared, trusting it will be restorative and that the emptying is complete, at least for now and a long time to come,
As for our world where crazies seem to be calling the shots, I see an emptying too, but it is only in the baby step place. I see people cling to their mobile phones, computers, cars, ideologies and all manner of material/outer things. This is without the balance of genuine spiritual practices, without study of the words of wisdom of the great spiritual lights of the centuries, with times of silence and meditation and quiet contemplation.
I see so many people completely absorbed with their cell phones - restaurants, sidewalks, cars, or wherever - their life force is bonded with the phone more than with other people or with God.
I see in the emptying in general, there arise ridiculous extremes of religions that lead people to the opposite of Love and Light, away from the Divine, God. Perhaps the caricatures of religion are so ridiculous that people will suddenly be snapped awake and see the joke and turn to spirituality.
It seems to me that we would do well to pay attention to our own emptying out to make room for the God experience and life of Joy. We would do well to note where we send our life force and make adjustments if we are "owned" by the material. The restless soul within is only satisfied by dwelling, nestling into, enfolded in the Divine Presence.
Lord, help me view my path with clear eyes and heart. Lead me to empty out that which fills me with nonsensical activity and ideologies. Fill me with You. Open my eyes and mind and heart to You. Lead me to the spiritual home within where we are One.
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Saturday, December 12, 2015
Completing the Circuit
Meister Eckhart (as you know the mystic I feel so aligned with - probably the most: 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." And St. Symeon (949-1022): I have seen the Totality, received not in essence, but by participation. When you light a flame from a flame, it is the same flame that you receive.
I could put tons of quotes from the great mystics here, but I just want to put a sample along the same line of knowing to point out the goal.
And, I would like to ask WHY, HOW did the great mystical understandings get sidetracked and lowly outer law teaching -such as Jesus railed against- get to be what is considered to be Christianity? Living from the inner place of Oneness, there no longer are relevant outer rules, they are superfluous. No one who is fully awake in God needs to be controlled by minutia.
Our path is to Oneness, to see with Spirit, to see as the Divine sees, to meld into being what God created us to be and calls us to be. Our path is to go deep and ignite our inner soul with the flame direct from God's Light and to take on that Light and shine it, ever shine it.
To find that place, I think we need to seek out mystics who speak to something deep within us, spend regular time in meditation, prayer and reading inspirational materials, Journaling is also helpful. I pray for deepening in our lives
I am that which Thou art, for You have sparked my soul with Your very Light. My Light came from You, is You.
I could put tons of quotes from the great mystics here, but I just want to put a sample along the same line of knowing to point out the goal.
And, I would like to ask WHY, HOW did the great mystical understandings get sidetracked and lowly outer law teaching -such as Jesus railed against- get to be what is considered to be Christianity? Living from the inner place of Oneness, there no longer are relevant outer rules, they are superfluous. No one who is fully awake in God needs to be controlled by minutia.
Our path is to Oneness, to see with Spirit, to see as the Divine sees, to meld into being what God created us to be and calls us to be. Our path is to go deep and ignite our inner soul with the flame direct from God's Light and to take on that Light and shine it, ever shine it.
To find that place, I think we need to seek out mystics who speak to something deep within us, spend regular time in meditation, prayer and reading inspirational materials, Journaling is also helpful. I pray for deepening in our lives
I am that which Thou art, for You have sparked my soul with Your very Light. My Light came from You, is You.
Friday, December 11, 2015
Human Divine Relationship
The writings of Fr. Richard Rohr are exciting me for a couple of reasons. He writes and speaks ideas in alignment with many of my conclusions. In some areas, he takes my thoughts and stretches them into something larger and even more attuned to the mystics and the strain of perennial wisdom/spirituality that has graced humanity from the beginning.
I am presently reading his book (among other things) "Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self." I don't know what page I'm on, as I'm using my Kindle. It says 46% where I am right now.
He writes of the divine/human divorce which is based on incompatibility and irreconcilable differences! What an interesting way to describe it. He places this sad situation primarily on the lap of formal religion which has sold separation - God and Jesus far away but maybe we can contact if we follow what the formal religion tells us to do, or maybe if we play our cards right will one meet them after this life.
Just a brief quote from this section: You do know, I hope, that it is formally incorrect for Christians to simply say, 'Jesus is God,' although that is the way they do think. But it misses the major point and goal of the incarnation. Jesus does not equal God per se, which is for us the Trinity. Jesus, much better and more correctly is the union between God and the human. That is a third something - which in fact we are invited to share in. Once we made Jesus only divine, we ended up being only human, and the whole process of human transformation ground to a halt. That is how the dualistic mind works.
And a bit farther, he says: It killed what is the exciting inner experience and marginalized the mystics who really should be center stage... The concrete, historical body of Jesus represents the universal Body of Christ that 'God has loved before the foundation of the world' John 17:24. He is the stand-in for all of us. The Jesus story is the universe story, in other words. His union with God that Jesus never doubts, he hands on to us - to never doubt.
So many things come to mind, when I ponder these thoughts. I invite you to re-read this several times and maybe jot down in your journal what comes to mind.
For the moment, I just want to say, if Jesus handed his faith and union with God onto us, we as a people have not been willing or maybe able to accept and carry on. What would our lives look like if we lived each moment awake to Oneness with God? What would our planetary experience be if all who call themselves Christian lived aware that each moment is in God and God is in each moment and in us? If we accept Jesus' gifts, who do we become?
I am presently reading his book (among other things) "Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self." I don't know what page I'm on, as I'm using my Kindle. It says 46% where I am right now.
He writes of the divine/human divorce which is based on incompatibility and irreconcilable differences! What an interesting way to describe it. He places this sad situation primarily on the lap of formal religion which has sold separation - God and Jesus far away but maybe we can contact if we follow what the formal religion tells us to do, or maybe if we play our cards right will one meet them after this life.
Just a brief quote from this section: You do know, I hope, that it is formally incorrect for Christians to simply say, 'Jesus is God,' although that is the way they do think. But it misses the major point and goal of the incarnation. Jesus does not equal God per se, which is for us the Trinity. Jesus, much better and more correctly is the union between God and the human. That is a third something - which in fact we are invited to share in. Once we made Jesus only divine, we ended up being only human, and the whole process of human transformation ground to a halt. That is how the dualistic mind works.
And a bit farther, he says: It killed what is the exciting inner experience and marginalized the mystics who really should be center stage... The concrete, historical body of Jesus represents the universal Body of Christ that 'God has loved before the foundation of the world' John 17:24. He is the stand-in for all of us. The Jesus story is the universe story, in other words. His union with God that Jesus never doubts, he hands on to us - to never doubt.
So many things come to mind, when I ponder these thoughts. I invite you to re-read this several times and maybe jot down in your journal what comes to mind.
For the moment, I just want to say, if Jesus handed his faith and union with God onto us, we as a people have not been willing or maybe able to accept and carry on. What would our lives look like if we lived each moment awake to Oneness with God? What would our planetary experience be if all who call themselves Christian lived aware that each moment is in God and God is in each moment and in us? If we accept Jesus' gifts, who do we become?
Thursday, December 10, 2015
"Past" Experience Is Not Lost, It Is Here
I want to share an unusual moment from this morning. I'm not sure I can put it into words, but I will at least hint at it.
This morning as I stood in my friend's kitchen musing about an air flight I might soon be taking, suddenly all flights I had taken in the past sort of merged into some bubble of oneness, I had one of those between time, sort of cosmic moments. It was as if all at once I saw/knew all the flights I had ever been on.
Then I realized that all of them contributed to this moment in a way that made them not past but now. I understand and absorb what it is to fly in an airplane. The many moments come together to make a rich understanding. From the rickety airplane to Tatarstan to the elegant 2nd story business class flight to Hong Kong to all the other flights - they are still alive in me and give me a broad experience/knowing that make my understanding here and now unique. Every millisecond lives here. My experience/knowing is only mine, no other has had the exact same flight experience as me. My friend, who is a commercial pilot, has an even deeper and wider experience/knowing of what it is to fly in an airplane.
And then I saw/knew this is so of all of my experiences in this life. They are alive. They give me experience/knowing in many, many arenas of life, and they are unique to me. Each of us live in this moment with widely different combinations of experience/knowing in many areas. And also we have widely divergent bubbles of non-experience/not knowing. For example I know very little about gymnastics first hand. My experience is not really knowing but rather experience/observing. I watch gymnastics on the Olympics broadcasts, so my experience is not first hand but rather is from observation. I therefore have very little credibility speaking about gymnastics. I might add that there are people who experience/observe and still pretend to speak with credibility.
What I saw was that there is a challenge in our accumulated bubbles of experience/knowing if they are not sufficiently updated or are slanted to one direction or the other rather than being wide and deep. Bias, prejudice, ignorance live here. For example, if we immerse ourselves in a group that has a strong point of view about something that may or may not be accurate, we may find ourselves in a narrowed down life and uncomfortable discussing with people not in the narrow path we've been on.
I think, for example, travel helps widen and deepen our experience/knowing. I also think the study of various religions and cultures and visiting them widen and deepen our experience/knowing. There are many paths to Godliness, not just whatever ours might be (which is usually whatever one is in our culture and early home life). One thing I know is that for spiritual depth, prayer and meditation are essential.
Anyway, we come to this moment with all of our past experiences/knowing alive and dancing in our consciousness. Who we are is a mixed bag of many bubbles. The past lives in the here and now in us, in our choices, in our beliefs, in how we approach life.
If we find ourselves upset, angry, hating, hurting or expressing any negative energies, we would do well to look at that bubble and bring it in prayer and meditation to the Light. There release and open to receive that which is Light and Love. Enter the Christ and invite the Christ to enter in. Be lifted up to live as we are meant to live. As Paul said, The Christ in you, the hope of glory.
We would do well to aim our lives as fully as we are able in the direction of being our piece in the puzzle of the Cosmic Christ. Weigh our choices - is this Christlike? Fill our bubbles with the spiritual, the holy, the loving. Be as Christ-like as we can be. Really. Actually. Don't talk about it. Be it.
This was a bit of my morning between the moment experience/knowing. I pray I explain it so it might also have meaning to you. God bless you.
This morning as I stood in my friend's kitchen musing about an air flight I might soon be taking, suddenly all flights I had taken in the past sort of merged into some bubble of oneness, I had one of those between time, sort of cosmic moments. It was as if all at once I saw/knew all the flights I had ever been on.
Then I realized that all of them contributed to this moment in a way that made them not past but now. I understand and absorb what it is to fly in an airplane. The many moments come together to make a rich understanding. From the rickety airplane to Tatarstan to the elegant 2nd story business class flight to Hong Kong to all the other flights - they are still alive in me and give me a broad experience/knowing that make my understanding here and now unique. Every millisecond lives here. My experience/knowing is only mine, no other has had the exact same flight experience as me. My friend, who is a commercial pilot, has an even deeper and wider experience/knowing of what it is to fly in an airplane.
And then I saw/knew this is so of all of my experiences in this life. They are alive. They give me experience/knowing in many, many arenas of life, and they are unique to me. Each of us live in this moment with widely different combinations of experience/knowing in many areas. And also we have widely divergent bubbles of non-experience/not knowing. For example I know very little about gymnastics first hand. My experience is not really knowing but rather experience/observing. I watch gymnastics on the Olympics broadcasts, so my experience is not first hand but rather is from observation. I therefore have very little credibility speaking about gymnastics. I might add that there are people who experience/observe and still pretend to speak with credibility.
What I saw was that there is a challenge in our accumulated bubbles of experience/knowing if they are not sufficiently updated or are slanted to one direction or the other rather than being wide and deep. Bias, prejudice, ignorance live here. For example, if we immerse ourselves in a group that has a strong point of view about something that may or may not be accurate, we may find ourselves in a narrowed down life and uncomfortable discussing with people not in the narrow path we've been on.
I think, for example, travel helps widen and deepen our experience/knowing. I also think the study of various religions and cultures and visiting them widen and deepen our experience/knowing. There are many paths to Godliness, not just whatever ours might be (which is usually whatever one is in our culture and early home life). One thing I know is that for spiritual depth, prayer and meditation are essential.
Anyway, we come to this moment with all of our past experiences/knowing alive and dancing in our consciousness. Who we are is a mixed bag of many bubbles. The past lives in the here and now in us, in our choices, in our beliefs, in how we approach life.
If we find ourselves upset, angry, hating, hurting or expressing any negative energies, we would do well to look at that bubble and bring it in prayer and meditation to the Light. There release and open to receive that which is Light and Love. Enter the Christ and invite the Christ to enter in. Be lifted up to live as we are meant to live. As Paul said, The Christ in you, the hope of glory.
We would do well to aim our lives as fully as we are able in the direction of being our piece in the puzzle of the Cosmic Christ. Weigh our choices - is this Christlike? Fill our bubbles with the spiritual, the holy, the loving. Be as Christ-like as we can be. Really. Actually. Don't talk about it. Be it.
This was a bit of my morning between the moment experience/knowing. I pray I explain it so it might also have meaning to you. God bless you.
Monday, December 7, 2015
Oh I Love This!
Still reading Richard Rohr this morning. I just read: Salvation (salus: healing) is not dependent on feeling or an person's response to me. It is not a theory believed, a theology proclaimed, or a group that gives one identity. Is is an inner clarity that forever allows one to recognize bogus authority and pseudo-surrender.
Salvation is healing, especially of the mind and heart. Salvation is being able to discern between the charlatans and the genuine spiritual ones. Salvation keeps us from being gullible to the spiritual snake oil salesmen/women. Salvation brings new eyes and ears to life.
This all seems to be so to me. I have been reading the mystics for many decades, and my spiritual understanding is greatly informed by them as well as by my personal spiritual experiences and my study of scriptures. The mystics do not speak the fire and brimstone, come to Jesus kind of things that some still spew. They speak of the Christ Presence awakening within. They do not spout fear and superstition, they speak of God's Love.
Theology is basically what other people said about God, and they did not necessarily know what they were talking about. A person can say most anything, whether or not we believe what is said is highly dependent on our inner clarity and direct connection to the Holy Presence. What do you say? What do you know? How do you live when you know you are living up to the highest and best? What does a healed you look like?
There is a story at Teresa of Avila, when being questioned by the church, was asked if she believed in hell. She answered "yes," and turned to the nun beside her and quietly said, "but it is empty." She knew God directly and was not morally bound by the theology of the day. It only spoke of what men of old said was the way it is.
The choice between good and evil is necessary in order to give freewill any meaning. That does not mean that the God of Love is really going to put the ignorant in eternal fire. It is ridiculous to argue that God is pure Love and will do awful things that humans cannot even do and be named good. Too many have made God into a giant human, sometimes into the worst kind of human.
Well anyway, the upshot of what I want to say this morning is this: Beware of those who try to control you, use fear and superstition to hold you, and do not urge you to explore and study and seek. Seek that inner clarity that sets you free. Walk with the Light of God. Be the beacon of Love and Light and Clarity into this world. Remember Jesus made it all quite simple with his 2 great commandments, which are basically LOVE LOVE LOVE. Be healed. Walk out of the fog of fear. Dare to live awake in God.
With the strange times we live in, it is perhaps more important than ever that as many people as possible reach inner clarity. I think we need to lift up our civilization, our core values and the actual life lived with the Cosmic Christ.
Holy Presence, I give thanks that You are with me, in me, with and in us all. Quicken in us that inner clarity that sets us free from nonsense. Free us from ourselves, from accumulated false beliefs, from ignorance. Set us on the path of awakening to You in real ways. Heal us.
Salvation is healing, especially of the mind and heart. Salvation is being able to discern between the charlatans and the genuine spiritual ones. Salvation keeps us from being gullible to the spiritual snake oil salesmen/women. Salvation brings new eyes and ears to life.
This all seems to be so to me. I have been reading the mystics for many decades, and my spiritual understanding is greatly informed by them as well as by my personal spiritual experiences and my study of scriptures. The mystics do not speak the fire and brimstone, come to Jesus kind of things that some still spew. They speak of the Christ Presence awakening within. They do not spout fear and superstition, they speak of God's Love.
Theology is basically what other people said about God, and they did not necessarily know what they were talking about. A person can say most anything, whether or not we believe what is said is highly dependent on our inner clarity and direct connection to the Holy Presence. What do you say? What do you know? How do you live when you know you are living up to the highest and best? What does a healed you look like?
There is a story at Teresa of Avila, when being questioned by the church, was asked if she believed in hell. She answered "yes," and turned to the nun beside her and quietly said, "but it is empty." She knew God directly and was not morally bound by the theology of the day. It only spoke of what men of old said was the way it is.
The choice between good and evil is necessary in order to give freewill any meaning. That does not mean that the God of Love is really going to put the ignorant in eternal fire. It is ridiculous to argue that God is pure Love and will do awful things that humans cannot even do and be named good. Too many have made God into a giant human, sometimes into the worst kind of human.
Well anyway, the upshot of what I want to say this morning is this: Beware of those who try to control you, use fear and superstition to hold you, and do not urge you to explore and study and seek. Seek that inner clarity that sets you free. Walk with the Light of God. Be the beacon of Love and Light and Clarity into this world. Remember Jesus made it all quite simple with his 2 great commandments, which are basically LOVE LOVE LOVE. Be healed. Walk out of the fog of fear. Dare to live awake in God.
With the strange times we live in, it is perhaps more important than ever that as many people as possible reach inner clarity. I think we need to lift up our civilization, our core values and the actual life lived with the Cosmic Christ.
Holy Presence, I give thanks that You are with me, in me, with and in us all. Quicken in us that inner clarity that sets us free from nonsense. Free us from ourselves, from accumulated false beliefs, from ignorance. Set us on the path of awakening to You in real ways. Heal us.
Friday, December 4, 2015
Ideologues
Front and foremost in the news right now are huge stories about people who are ideologues.
According to Webster: someone who very strongly supports and is guided by the ideology of a particular group: an impractical idealist, an often blindly partisan advocate or adherent of a particular ideology.
So we have people so tilted, brain washed, that they slaughter proudly?!?!?!? How such rationalization works inside of a strong ideology is dangerous.
On the other hand, we also have stories about so-called "normal" people (college students, the extreme left, the extreme right, the press, some "religious" people, etc.) who are clinging with clenched teeth to ideologies that preclude the possibility of rational discussion.We have college students so delicate and so brain washed they want to silence all points of view except theirs and are even talking about changing the 1st Amendment that gives us free speech, guarantees free speech! We have politicians and press who report terrorist violence as possible militias or local groups or workplace violence??? We have so many people in politics, religion, education, etc that are truly ideologues and bound by whatever is deemed politically correct from within their ideology,
I wonder if we can survive the ideologues. I wonder if the true thinkers, the critical thinkers, the people who know we don't know it all can rise again. Can civil dialogue be restored? Is sanity possible at this time in history? I think it is up to us. Stand up. Speak up. Be the next America's great generation.
It is time to dig deeply and enter prayer in a sacred way. I hope you read the link I posted yesterday.
God, I know You are here with me, with us, in every moment. My desire is to be awakened in Your Wisdom, to be Guided so that all I am and say and do is in harmony with the highest and best, with You. Lead me to live aware that Your Presence is present. I stand before and within You. I stand for Wholeness, for Love, for Beauty, for Faith... for the gifts of Spirit working in and through us all. Lead us to stand strong.
Thursday, December 3, 2015
Richard Rohr's email for today
This writing on prayer/contemplation is incredibly fascinating to me. I hope you will click on it and read it. I have read it twice this morning and want to explore it more. Quest into his ideas on prayer with me.
http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Richard-Rohr-s-Meditation--Step-11--The-Contemplative-Mind.html?soid=1103098668616&aid=N1_yl6nusXQ
http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Richard-Rohr-s-Meditation--Step-11--The-Contemplative-Mind.html?soid=1103098668616&aid=N1_yl6nusXQ
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