Dualism or Oneness?

 

Only when freed from hate and love does it [the Way] reveal itself fully and without disguise...To set up what you like against what you dislike— this is the disease of the mind. .. Be serene in the oneness of things, And dualism vanishes of itself. --- de Caussade

 In many traditions, the ultimate goal is the realization of Oneness. One of the practices then is to eliminate duality in our thinking. ~That means nomore"Us"vs"Them"mentality. We do not draw a line --- on this side of the line I love, but on the other side I hate.

In other words , division and hatred have to go. It is essential we realize that all is sacred, the divine is in each and every thing, each and everyone, even though wre may not be able to see it. What to do?

St. Paul gave us a clue in the gifts of the spirit. The last one he listed is  is self-control. I think that is true but little considered.We have to get control of ourselves, our thinking, our minds, and our lives, so that we can let go and welcome Spirit without resistance. It is a great paradox, relaxing and letting go lead to serenity, and serenity leads to being able to hear the guidance that's coming to us. 

I have come to realize every moment of my life is an opportunity to grow, to see differently, to expand, to move closer to God. Everyone and everything is my teacher. When I relax into that knowing and stop resisting my life, then amazing things begin to unfold. As de Caussade  said, "Be serene in the oneness of things, And dualism vanishes of itself. "

I would add - actually have faith/trust in the More/God/Higher Power. Life here is a  temporary gift. None of us stay here forever. We are to go beyond appearances, develop spiritually, and prepare our souls for the next thing. Let us not waste our precious time. 

Seeing Resurrection

 As I have noted in the past, Resurrection is all around us all of our lives, if we're but paying attention.

We can see it in the transformation of the caterpillar to the butterfly, in the dry desert coming to life with a riot of wild flowers every springtime, this morning's breakfast being turned into us in all parts of  bodies, two half cells turning into a human being, and on and on.

Everywhere we turn we can see the miraculous. We are told the atoms In all things are, relatively speaking, as far apart as the stars and planets in the galaxy, so that material things are actually mostly empty space. 

On this spinning planet we orbit our sun traveling about 584,000,000 miles a year, plus our solar system is moving at Incredible speed through the Milky Way, and the Milky Way is moving at fantastic speed, everything's moving rapidly, and yet we think we're standing still.

Our brains are only 2% of our body weight, but they use about 20% of the body's total energy and oxygen intake. The average adult brain weighs about 3 pounds. And yet it contains every memory we've ever had, vast amounts of information, so much information it would take a tower of stacked of CD's, each packed full of data, to go past the International Space Station in order to contain an equal amount of information as the average adult brain. 

We've just looked at a tiny tiny bit of what we know about life in the universe. But with even this amount,of information,how can we not believe the miraculous? It seems to me we live within the miraculous, we are filled with it, surrounded by it. It is what the universe is. So to believe that resurrection is going to happen to all of us, that is, that life continues beyond the physical existence, does not seem to be much of a stretch to me.

Jesus did it visually so people would know. A good many people on earth alive right now have seen people who have left their bodies. Many people have had near death experiences that all have very similar qualities. I absolutely know that life continues beyond our physical experience.

 Let us join with the rest of the world today and say - He is risen, He is risen indeed. And add so will I.

Have a blessed Easter.

Resurrection

 Christ himself does not act as a dead or passive point of convergence, but as a centre of radiation for the energies which lead the universe back to God through his humanity, the layers of divine action finally come to us impregnated with his organic energies... In it we recognise an omnipresence which acts upon us by assimilating us in it, in unitate corporis Christi.  --- Teilhard  de  Chardin, "The Divine Milieu"

The 1st thing that stood out to me this morning in the above quote is the word radiation. I had just read an article about new scientific research on the Shroud of Turin which basically says the image was created by radiation in a way unknown to us. The  writer of the article felt that it validated the shroud as having been the burial wrappings of Jesus Christ. If true that it was radiation that created the image, this is an astounding result, an earth shattering reveal about the shroud.

 Teilhard de Chardin  of course did not have access to modern studies at the shroud. His reference to radiation however was interesting to me. He goes on to say that we get infused, impregnated with the divine energies. It is reminiscent to me of Paul speaking of putting on Christ, the Christ within, and his various Cosmic Christ references. Paul seemed to move away from the person of Jesus. He wrote practically nothing about his life and teachings. But he went on to experience and write about a more Cosmic Christ whose energy we can reach. take on, incorporate in us, and be ncorporated into.

It is the general mystical idea of Unitive experience. In general this is the aim, whether realized consciously or not, of all spiritual practice. In other words we come to live in the idea and experience of Oneness - Oneness with God, Oneness with all life, part of the Cosmic Flow.

Perhaps this is our personal resurrection. In Oneness We live a new kind of life We know who we are and what we are about. The veil has become thin. We live a tune to the infinite.

May you find your way to this place this Easter season. God bless you!

Divine Milieu

 I am enjoying Reading The "Divine ilieu",  I I want to share with you today some ideas that came to me while reading his book.

 One, he says that our intention behind anything that we do is important.  Whether it's a small thing or a major thing, our intention permeates it and sets its character. It is important that we don't do things from an ego position but from, as far as possible, an unselfish, and God centered perspective. 

 Also, he focuses on the importance of our development of our souls.  Everything we think, say, and do either develops our souls or diminishes our souls. I have often said that earth  Is a school for souls, sometimes a mountain climbing school, and we are to flex our spiritual muscles here and develop ourselves in a unique situation that we find on earth in the 3rd dimension. It is a privilege and and an honor to be given the gift of life on earth. 

Some come here and forget. They bat their heads against the walls of earth's challenges and wail and scream, sometimes becoming violent. But some see this opportunity is a challenge and dig into it and do their best, thereby they develop their souls, And oftentimes make a positive difference for others as well as themselves. 

Just a small shift in perspective can change our experience while here in earth. To see this is an exciting challenge, an opportunity to develop our souls, a gift from God, leads us to live a different kind of life than the life of those who resist the exciting opportunities and challenges offered here on earth just for us.

Discovering Spirit and Healing Our Shattered World

 Rufus Jones said, "We shall not be able to rebuild our shattered world until we recover Our faith in eternal realities and we shall not do that until we discover spirit within ourselves."

This past weekend I led a retreat entitled "Practice the Presence of God." I began the retreat By asking everyone to pick a number between 1 and 14 because  I wanted them to learn to listen within and select something they felt guided to choose. 

I have discovered That most people, when they speak of regrets, say I knew I shouldn't have done that. How did they know? Because they had guidance, but they didn't listen to it.

I chose 14 quotes from 14 different mystics that have influenced my life. I told them to intuitively to pick the one that was right for them for today. Then I handed out the paper that had all 14 quotes, and told them they could contemplate the other ones as they felt led in coming day,s but today they had one that was their mystic. Everyone reported after the exercise that they indeed had picked the perfect one for them.

The beginning quote on this entry , from Rufus Jones, was one of the 14. Rufus was a Quaker mystic, and I deeply love his writings. Part of the purpose is to train ourselves to realize the Holy Spirit is always speaking, always guiding, and the thing we need to do is to be still so we can hear it and then follow it.

We are part of this shattered world.  We can begin to heal our own shattered mess. ,In fact we cannot help heal a shattered world, if we are shattered ourselves. I can just hear someone thinking that they wonder what exactly does she mean by shattered? Fractured -  unfocused - fragmented - inconsistent - broken - ineffective -  insecure - all or some if these.

what to do? Begin some regular spiritual practices for a starter. We began with Lectio Divina._So begin with me with the quote above. Read 'it slowly at least five times. Close your eyes, let those words fill your mind. Be with them five minutes or so. Then write in journal for five minutes without censoring what you write. Just write. Then read what you wrote.

Do this everyday with a quote that has some meaning to you or you'd like to understand the meaning. It could be from scripture or poetry or the writings of some enlightened person. And in a short time you'll discover that wisdom is coming to you, that you know more than you knew on your own. And in a short time you'll discover that wisdom is coming to you because you joined with the Holy Spirit. Once you experience this, you'll realize you're never alone, and the shattered pieces are coming together to form a beautiful you.

Prophetic Wisdom

 Jesus’ own Wisdom teaching was not a doctrine of ascetic renunciation, but rather an invitation to reckless self-abandon to love. Jesus modeled a life of faithful surrender to the unpredictable movement of the divine Spirit. --- The Gospel of Q, Jesus' Prophetic Wisdom 

 When we examine the teaching of Jesus that we know about, we see his instruction about how to be, how to live, what to be. We do not see a description of what we have to believe,  or of any dogma in particular, other than love and surrender to God's Way.

His teaching is very much aligned with the wisdom teachings of the ages. Of course he has his unique view of it. In agreement with most wisdom traditions, he includes time apart, being still, emptying of the little self, listening to God's voice, following God's guidance, being good to everyone, and continually trying to be a better person. 

I recommend the book from which I took the quote at the top of this entry. Q is generally agreed upon by the majority of Biblical scholars to be the document that Matthew and Luke used for the material they have in them but it is not in Mark. In this book he pulls out that material, so you can read it all together, and so you can see the great wisdom and teaching that he's offering and calling us to. 

I think throughout history some, maybe many,  have belabored and mutilated some of his points, so that it's hard to know what he really taught.  It is thought that Q was written between the year 50 and 70, so, if this is accurate, it predates the Gospels. 

Even before I knew about Q, I was particularly drawn to the parts that turned out to be from Q. I find this material from Q has been the guiding light of my life. I hope it will be for you too. It cuts through the murky twists and turns of theology, back to a time before speculation distorted Jesus: precious message.  Just maybe this gives us a glimpse closer to sitting at his feet. 

How Many Moons?

In every puddle , in every lake , In every ocean, and in every. body of  water  there is a reflection of the moon each night. Yet there is only one moon orbiting our earth.

So it is with God. There is one Supreme Divine Energy reflected in all beings, all creation. 

It is up to us to clean out all sludge accumulated in us so that we can clearly shine that light. 

Forgive, release, take charge of thoughts, words and deeds, spend time in silence, send send deep roots into the Infinite One. 

You will thereby be the best person you can be. The Light of God will shine without distortion through you. And you will realize all, everyone is sacred, seeded with this Light. All will be well