Reprise

 I am in the process of turning these posts into a book, which I hope to have done in a few months.

I only share what comes to me as urgently needing to be written, I feel like much of what I write comes through me, not made by me and my individual intellect. Not exactly channeled, but from something, someplace More than just me.

I am finding myself re-inspired by the writings I have posted over the years. They read in such a way as I think to myself, I really wrote THAT!?  I hope you will go back and read some from earlier years and find inspiration there too.

Thank you for walking this journey with me.

Three Levels

So many interesting thoughts surge through me as I read the works of Origen. I want to discuss with you today one particular concept.

He says that just as humans are body, mind, and spirit, so are the scriptures! They are layered so that they speak to people who are at different levels.

The body level is where simple people take things literally, even the most absurd, and never go on to deeper understanding. He says that the law of Moses, for example, says not to eat goatstags, griffins or vultures. He notes that there are no such things as goatstags, no one has seen a griffin, and not even starving people have ever eaten vultures. So this has to mean something other than at the body level. Also, laws like the ten commandments are needed for the simple people at this level. He discusses many things in both Testaments that are absurd at the literal level. Yet, simple people accept them.

The soul level is where people go deeper. They seek to go beyond the surface. They know there is more to life than the physical. They understand the ten commandments are important, but they are unlikely to do those things anyway. They know they are accountable to a higher power for how they live. They discuss philosophy and other deeper things.

The spirit level is where people are in touch with higher wisdom. They seek to understand the allegories in the scriptures and know the mysteries contained therein can only be discovered by contemplation, study, and listening deeply. They also know that because God is infinite, all of the mystery cannot be understood, but they keep moving toward deeper and more full understanding even so.

If one has a goal to awaken spiritually in this lifetime, it may be important to consider these three and endeavor to move to the next higher one.

Triggered/Buttons Pushed Tyranny vs Freedom and Self-responsibility

We used to talk about getting rid of our buttons, taking back our power, or as Wayne Dyer said, "Pulling Your Own Strings." It was a time of understanding our personal responsibility and our power to change our experience of life.

Today, the "woke" crowd screams "I'm triggered," and expects everyone else to change. The despots want to throw tyranny on others, expecting them to jump to their demands and stop triggering them. Irrational, as Dr. Spock would have said.

What I have learned, among other things, is that it is not possible to get everyone else to agree with us 100% or even close to that, to get them to do and be as we say we want, or to control them in any meaningful way.

But, I have learned that we can control ourselves. We can stop being puppets on other people's strings. We can stop giving our power away. We can become responsible for ourselves.

How can we get there, if we are stuck in the powerless position of expecting others to shape up? First, we check our self-talk. What are we saying to ourselves? Is it about how others need to change or about how we need to not be so sensitive, or maybe about how we just need to brush the dust off of our feet and move on?  Is our self-talk empowering or disempowering? Does it lead us to magnificence or dependence on the whims of others? If it leads to not-so-good places, change it - reword it.

We need to observe our reactions. I learned a very long time ago that if a particular criticism is invalid, it is not useful and is needless to get upset over it. If it has some validity to it, then we would be foolish to ignore it, as we could improve by heeding it.

If someone states a different opinion than ours, how do we react? Do we get upset? Do we argue or name call or remove them from our life? Or, do we say, that is very interesting, I've not looked at it that way, tell me how you arrived at that?  Is there room in our heart for others to see from a different vantage point?

Do we view others as "teachers" or just "other?" Do we view others as spiritual beings having a human experience with all its ups and downs? Or do we judge others, speak negatively about them, and even enjoy their foibles and troubles?

Do we view everyone as a Divine Child of the More, neither greater nor lesser than us? Do we understand the concept of Oneness, of One Creator of us all?

A conscious life takes some work, that is, we have to be engaged in our own inner process. We have to be aware, to correct our own paths, and to rise above the pitfalls of life rather than wallow in them. 

This self-responsibility leads to freedom. We are no longer puppets on other people's strings.

Origin Still Speaks - Fertile Ground or Rocks

The grand early Christian thinker, the foundation of many understandings of Christian theology, across the many many centuries, speaks to us today via his writings. "The Works of Origin" can be downloaded and considered by anyone interested in delving into the development of Christian teachings. He is part of my study to discover when and why this and that got added to the original teachings of Jesus and the Christ teachings of Paul.

One of the interesting things that I have found is that he frequently quotes the Gospels - some passages worded almost identical to the ones we read today, some identical, and some not in what we have today, that is new to me and not in the current writings we call the Gospels. He develops what he thinks each means in interesting ways, some new to me. Sometimes he adds really interesting perspectives.

One of these is his discussion of Jesus' teaching on seeds falling on various kinds of soil, from fertile to rocky and producing good crops or little or just weeds. He goes on to write of good and bad husbandry. A good farmer tills his ground, takes out rocks and weeds, and tends his seeds and crop. A bad farmer doesn't prepare his soil, just randomly throws seeds, and does not care for them. He says that is how it is with us and spiritual growth. Some of us prepare ourselves to receive spiritual understanding by living virtuously and engaging in spiritual practices. Others are busy with earthly excitements and do not prepare. Included here are those who are said to have a closed or hardened heart, exemplified by the Pharaoh in resistance to Moses. 

To me, that explains a lot of why so few people across history have had genuine spiritual experiences of connection to the More. Today, and maybe always, few know the need and importance of preparing their heart and mind for More. Few seem to know that hole they feel can only be filled with God. Few know of the incredible rewards of walking this life while awake in God. Let us decide this day to be good farmers and prepare the soil of our hearts and minds through virtuous living and spiritual practices. Let's see what happens.

Peace and Spirituality

 Along with love and joy, peace is one of the fruits of the spirit. But it is also one of the roots. In other words, peace is a necessary condition of spirituality, no less than an inevitable result of it. In the words of St. Paul, it is peace which keeps the heart and mind in the knowledge and love of God.   "The Divine Within" Aldous Huxley

I like Huxley's commentary on Paul's Peace. Paul wrote of the fruits of the spirit as indicators of whether we are of that Tree, that God-Tree, that Vine and its Roots. He included Peace as one of those key fruits in at least two ways - to grow spiritually, it is a necessary condition, and Peace is the inevitable result of spiritual growth. 

If we are to take Peace seriously, we need to do an honest self-inventory. Are we peaceful? Do we give ourselves excuses to be not peaceful? Do we blame others and refuse our own responsibility for our unpeacefulness? Do we strive to turn our unpeaceful tendencies around, or do we like to be disruptive and unpeaceful? The chemicals surging through our bodies when we are angry and disruptive can be addictive.

Or, can we honestly say that we are making progress in a life of peace? Can we say that we are more and more at peace? In the arc of our lives, do we see a trend toward peace? How close are we to being peace/Peace that passes understanding? Huxley says that Peace is God, as we cannot actually understand God, but we can live in close harmony.

Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me...

Hypothesis Dilemma

No working hypothesis means no motive for research, no reason for making one experiment rather than another, no way of bringing sense or order into the observed facts. 

Contrariwise, too much working hypothesis means finding only what you already know to be there and ignoring the rest. Dogma turns a man into an intellectual Procrustes. He goes about forcing things to become the signs of his word-patterns, when he ought to be adapting his word-patterns to become the signs of things.       

                   ---Aldous Huxley "The Divine Within"

I am re-reading this book, and I came to the above statement in Chapter 1 this morning. It struck me that the second situation is where we currently find ourselves as a culture - with press, government, religion, media, etc etc etc.

The newly emerged "cancel culture" shouts that only the "approved" ideas can be spoken or written. "Don't believe your lying eyes", we used to say. Force your ideas to fit into the "approved" ideas. Shout down others who disagree with you. 

The cherished bedrocks of American life of free speech, inquiry, testing hypotheses, open and honest intellectual debate, innocent until proven guilty, equal justice for all, integrity, work ethic, meritocracy and more are under attack by loud mouth ideologes who require obedience to their Marxist positions.

If we are to preserve our way of life, we must bravely refuse their screams and threats. Our principles are worth standing for and with. We have not always lived up to our ideals, no one has, but we know where to aim and re-aim until we hone in and get ever closer. This wonderful experiment, initiated by our brilliant ancestors, has been a beacon of hope and dreams to the world over our centuries. We must keep that light burning.