Principle

Our class discussion today brought up a topic that I have been considering a lot lately: the idea of God as Principle.  In order to know change, there must be something that is not changing.  The challenge is to discern what that something truly is.  In my own journey of spiritual growth, I created certain unchanging truths for my life in order to stabilize and ground my inner journey.  These were powerful guidelines that kept everything in place.  Truths such as: "God is Love." "All is One."  "Thoughts are Creative."  It is interesting for me to observe that ideas that were once felt by myself to be immutable, are now being brought very subtly to deeper places in my consciousness.  I am beginning to realize exceptions to the truths and principles that I thought were so unchanging.  As a result, vast new vistas of freedom and lightness are opening for me.

When someone has had many challenges in their life, challenges such as addiction or abuse, the idea of God as Principle is very comforting.  It gives us all something totally stable, trustworthy and all-supportive to fall back on.  It also gives our mind a rest. 

When we start learning mathematics, we must begin with counting and arithmetic.  Gradually we move on to algebra, geometry, calculus, and higher mathematics.  Eventually we reach a place where our core principles, those immutable truths we once held onto for the foundation of all our growth, are broken wide open!  We start to prove that 2+2=5.  We do things that once seemed unimaginable, and as a result, our entire understanding of math is broken wide open, and the discoveries and applications are exponentially increased.  If we began with 2+2=5, this would lead to great confusion, but when the time comes, this leads to incredible clarity and wonder. 

The same is true with thinking of God as Principle.  In my growth, I am challenging the fact that God is Love.  I am challenging the fact that God is One.  Maybe there are vast degrees of God, broken into higher and higher energies.  Maybe a set of energies that we called God created the universe in which we reside and that consciousness is changing.  Maybe there are God Beings, or sources of energy that are creating Cosmos within Cosmos beyond that.  Maybe God is evolving and changing, and at the same time is not.  Perhaps some vibrations of thought have no creative effect on the physical realm if their vibratory frequency is not in alignment with the physical matter on our planet.  And what is physicality?  From my inner experiences, what seems physical changes infinitely throughout the vast cosmos and is actual a function of our own consciousness.  What seems physical to some beings, would not even be visible to our eyes.  And what seems solid to us, would appear as light to them. 

As I grow more and more, I become very cautious about what I chose to call the "Absolute."  I have become very humble with respect to what I perceive as the unchanging, absolute truth.  And I become extremely cautious in what qualities I assign to God as Divine Ideas. 

I used to think that "I knew."  Then I thought, "I know some things."  Now I find that everything is getting to be so multifaceted, and so open-ended, that it seems like I know very little at all.  I enjoy being kind to people, serving people.  I love meditating and teaching.  I like taking care of my health, smiling, laughing, and singing to God.  But as to whether the truth that all thoughts are creative....I just don't know if I can assign that understanding to the entire cosmos.  I have become very humble about all these vast ideas we speak of in Unity.  I just don't know.

Using Jesus in Ministry

I thought that this was such a wonderful question and topic of discussion today.  As I was listening in class, all I could think of was how totally possible it is for each one of us to achieve Christ Consciousness and express it fully in our lives.  This has been a labor of love for me over the years, one in which I continue with all the passion of my being, with all the love in my heart. 

I feel that a strong emphasis on the stories of Jesus in the Bible is good to present in Sunday talks, using metaphysical interpretation, as well as adding stories from other religious traditions.  This is the first step for me.  The second involves looking at the history of our planet, researching and identifying other Christ-like beings of which we may not be aware.  Christs have tred the soil of our beloved planet each generation, all throughout our lengthy history.  The Christ was before Jesus and after, and Jesus was simply an expression of a consciousness that is and has always been present within each one of us.  Undoubtedly we each possess the ability to express the Christ, and yet I think that the knowledge of these great souls who have lived so recently who have achieved and expressed this unfathomable love and tremendous consciousness of bliss and compassion are extremely worthwhile for us to investigate.  There are many books and beautiful stories of the teachings, manifestations, and divine presence of each of these beings on our planet today.  For some unknown reason, the faith of the Indian people has attracted God-realized souls in great abundance, but they have been in every culture and every time, and they are each and every one, splendid, unique reflections of God.

It has also been my great fortune to go further and deeper in my own faith.  I wondered "If there are so many Christs who have lived since the time of Jesus...aren't there some still alive and with us today?"  As I say, we are all this, but have we fully realized that?  There are some with us in physical for who have realized some more things, and have had more experiences.  In miraculous fashion, I began to be notified by acquaintences and friends of the presence of these individuals.  I have seen them in Kansas City, St. Louis, Iowa, at Whole Foods at 91st and Metcalf and also in India.  Each one has left an incredible impact on my DNA and spiritual body, and I will never quite be the same.  The love and peace that they emit and the fine, high, whole vibrations of bliss like fine star mist helped to give me a concrete example of Christ Consciousness in manifestation.
Now I rarely visit these persons in physical form.  They are always with me in my heart.  They walk with me each day and I can feel their presence and actual vibrations.  They come in dreams or simply give me little "pointers" throughout the day.  But mostly they have awakened me more fully to my own Christ nature.

The experiences of my own death, of my own lifeforce being fully possessed by the power of the universe and expanding into Infinity have come as results of my efforts and the examples and faith that each of these Christs has helped to instill in me.  It is a peculiar feeling to feel the mind and ego temporarily dissolve and die.  "You" are no longer "you."  Who are you?  All that is left is pure being.  That mind that you have become so comfortable living in has been shattered!!!  There is nowhere to hide.  Do we know ourselves beyond our minds, beyond our bodies, beyond our egos?  This is one experience of tremendous freedom, lightness, purity, expansiveness, comfort and peace.  It is the expansive feeling of All-Love.  All knowledge is accessible, all space is your body, and the eternal river of peace and consciousness flows uninhibited within you.

Learning about the teachings of Jesus, researching the history of the Christs of the last few centuries, meeting those who are carrying that high consciousness in their own physical forms walking across our planet today (in this country!!), and having one's own experiences of the Christ nature, all can help one to minister to oneself and one's congregation.  The overall goal being: IT IS POSSIBLE!!
It is truly only as hard as we make it, as distant as we want to see it, and as mystical or practical as we choose to believe.  In truth, it is all of it.  We are Love.  We are the Christ.  We must simply let it out of us.  As living human beings, it helps to see in physical form someone who is manifesting this consciousness.  They are here for us, not for us to lose ourselves in their teachings, or to worship their every word or action, but for us to remember the possibility, the glory, and the experience of our own Divinity.  Jai Ma!  I bow to the entire existence.  One thousand pranams to you O' Christed reader. 

Process Theology

Today's mention of the concept of Process Theology was very intriguing to me.  I have often wondered if God is really actually evolving or changing through us and through the evolution of the creation itself.  If everything is God as in pantheism, or everything is within God as in panentheism, this to some degree this must be true.  Is it possible that as we experience new things, Spirit experiences new aspects of Itself?  Because we are each created as unique individual expressions of God, perhaps Spirit is always experiencing itself in totally new ways.  I also wonder if it is possible that amidst all of this, at a deeper level Spirit knows all the possibilities of these expressions beforehand, but the expressions themselves are always new and divinely surprising and delightful to God.  I envision God looking at the whole drama of the Cosmos as an ever-delightful, ever-new unfoldment of Itself as an opportunity to know Itself infinitely in new ways.  I also feel that Unity's concept of Principle can support this.  Maybe there are many levels at which Spirit is working and at which Spirit is conscious.  Perhaps at one level Spirit is unchanging, and perhaps at another, Spirit is always changing and knowing Itself anew.  At the unchanging level, law and Principle is set as the backdrop and under girding of the divine drama of the changing realm.  Maybe a part of Spirit even temporarily forgets the unchanging in order to temporarily enjoy the changing realm.  It seems that both are existing simultaneously.  There seems to be the assurance of deep unchanging Principle operating throughout all creation, and at the same time a continual unfoldment of God in ever new ways in expression as us and as all changing phenomena. 

Ethnocentrism is Not Necessary

In this week's reading (Chapter 4 of Glimpses), some statements raised "red flags" for me:

"Every group assumes their way (is) the proper, correct, natural way for humans to live.  This called is ethnocentrism, i.e., the tendency for each group to assume the superiority of its beliefs and practices."
"Some degree of ethnocentrism is necessary for group cohesion and self-respect."
"In their eagerness to leave ethnocentrism behind, some religious liberals have moved so far from narrowness that they have become wishy-washy..."
 "At what point does tolerance become lack of commitment?"
"If your faith is as true as mine, why follow any?"

I think that it is indeed quite possible to have a clear set of beliefs and not necessarily think that one's beliefs are necessarily "the" proper and correct way to live, nor to think they are superior.  I think it is possible to simply live by a set of beliefs because they resonate with one's soul, mind, body and entire being.  There can be a middle ground, a middle path, between thinking one's beliefs are "superior" and being so open-minded that we are "wishy-washy, or "suffer from a "lack of commitment."  This middle ground can simply be an understanding that one's beliefs work for oneself to produce peace and happiness, and yet, are simply one particular path to God, not better, or worse than other paths.  I think this is a goal that we can strive toward.  In certain cases, it is already a reality for me. 

Group coheasion can still exist without ethnocentrism.  One can have a successful, clearly- defined group that does not think of itself as superior to other groups, and yet knows that the practices of that group work well for those who are involved in that group at this particular time.  For instance, I practice a form of meditation called kriya yoga which stems from the Hindu tradition.  However, vipassana meditation in the Buddhist tradition is not inferior to kriya yoga, and kriya yoga is not superior to vipassana.  Both lead to illumined states of consciousness.  Spirit has simply guided me to practice this technique.  It works better for me, however, I do not think that the technique itself is inherently superior, or that Hinduism is superior to Buddhism.  If vipassana meditation and Buddhist practices resonate with others, then I would say that they should practice what feels right to them.  I don't think
e needs to be any feeling of superiority in order to have a well-defined individual and group practice and to have cohesion as a group. 
I think that superiority creates some degree of negativity between spiritual groups, and is really unnecessary.  I think we can be more mature than this and still retain our cohesion as a group.

The question "If your faith is as true as mine, why follow any?" is simply answered: because my faith resonates with me and yours resonates with you.  The forms and practices of kriya yoga resonate with me.  I am open to analyzing, evaluating, re-adjusting them, etc. as all good theologists do, and I do this frequently.  I also continue to learn more about other spiritual practices. 
I don't agree with all the practices of the religions on our planet, and so there may be certain ways in which I am ethnocentric.  I don't think that one religion should verbally attack members of another religion simply because they have differing beliefs for instance, and this occurs in our world.  However, I am loathe to say that I am "superior" in my spiritual beliefs because I choose not to do this.  I would simply say that in my experience, discussion rather than verbally attacks, creates more peace and love, and allows for constructive results.  Is this superior and ethnocentric?  Perhaps, but maybe we can think in terms that don't use the word "superior."  I think there is a respectful way in which we can dialogue with people of differing beliefs without being ethnocentric, respecting another tradition, and yet not choosing it as one's own practice.  Having a feeling of superiority puts the other group in a defensive stance before the dialogue has even begun, and deep listening and loving communication are much more difficult to achieve.  It is healthy to find things that one disagrees with, but to think that one is superior because of this, I feel, is a mistake.  I think we can avoid these labels, and simply try to find what works for us.  This will always vary from group to group, but we can at least take the judgments of superiority and inferiority out of the equations. 

I think that all religious paths can be practiced with such integrity and beauty that eventually we will be able to look around at all of them with deep love and respect.  We will be able to practice our path, with our concepts and forms, knowing that it resonates with us, and yet have a deep sense of reverence and respect for other religious paths, not seeing them in any way as inferior and ours as superior, yet still practicing and being true to our own method because it resonates with our being. 

During this week's reading and lecture I was intrigued by the paradox: human/divine.
As with all paradox, it seems that the understanding is that we are both, and the more gracefully and skillfully that we learn to recognize both and apply both in our lives, the happier and more rich our lives will be.

History shows us such things as the Holocaust, the two world wars, the A-bomb, the Inquisition, the burning of tens of thousands of people at the stake, and the decimation of the Native North American population by warfare and disease.  Most people would look to all of this and see nothing of the divine in it.  I wonder, however, if the capacity to do such harm and destruction is actual the use of a divine power that has been channeled in a negative way.  If there is the propensity for such darkness in the human race, then it's opposite (light and goodness) must surely be there as well to enable this darkness to even exist.  In other words, there must be tremendous goodness in us all if we can create such destruction.  That balance must exist.  I see these events as a misuse of our own divine power, and in this sense an ignorance of our own divinity, thus our humanness.  It is similar to using one of the twelve powers.  We can either use them in a destructive, ego-based, human way, or in a divine way that produces expansion and more life.  It is the same power, but the manner in which it is used is entirely different.

I think their is also an argument that so much of life is mundane and that the mundane is not divine, therefore life and human beings, who spend so much of their time eating, going to the bathroom, sitting in traffic, and sleeping, are also not divine.  To balance this view there must be an awareness in us that the divine is also present within the mundane.  When that awareness dawns on us, we can see the divine at Taco Bell, or in the shopping mall.  A smile, or a simple gesture can be divine, if one is at the same moment aware and deeply open to the divinity within themselves.  When we open to this truth, divine energy will be transmitting through that smile!

I have practiced bringing the Presence of Spirit into my daily life so as to see the Divine Presence in all of these things for the last twelve years.  It is an extraordinary experience to be fully present to the physical experience of eating a hamburger, or walking through a shopping wall, while at the same time seeing divine light within and around the hamburger and knowing that God is eating God.  Likewise, it is an incredible experience to walk across a college campus with one's heart so open that one connects with the hearts of all the individuals around them, sending out an energy like a tractor beam that creates a palpable physical sensation in one's heart as it connects with others.  These are ordinary, mundane life experiences that (due to the acceptance that we are both human and divine at the same time) have been allowed to merge with divine ones.  The two are existing simultaneously and have unified.  What an incredible way to live!

In this manner we are immersed in the world, in the college campus, at the hamburger joint, or around the dinner table, and at the same time immersed in the Divine.

Certainly human being have used divine energy in destructive ways (we do it frequently).  However, I feel that the divine is always present in every atom of our bodies and every particle of creation.  It simply takes an opening of our hearts, an opening of our consciousness, and a willingness, a courageousness, and a calmness of mind to observe it and bring it into our daily lives.  We are always human and always divine.  We clearly do human things, and in moments of deep meditation, or in moments of incredible expressions of art, intelligence and energetic expression, we clearly express the divine.
I think the key is merging the two, balancing the two, and then bringing them both into each moment.