three christianities

First Gear: Hinayana Christianity (Small Path). I live in a split world, a subject-object world. Here is "me" and there is "everything else." God is out there. Jesus is out there. The church is out there. Other people are out there. I keep doing everything I can to make and keep the connections: me-God, me-Jesus, me-the church, me-people. I pray. I go to church. I try to do good. Sometimes the connections are here, sometimes not. Often I feel separate and alienated. I repent. I ask forgiveness. I struggle. I keep on. Jesus is out there. I worship him.

Second Gear: Mahayana Christianity (Great Path). I am the universe, the cosmos; the cosmos is me. God is in me and I am in God. I understand perichoresis and dependent origination. All is an interflow, a cosmic dance. I understand and experience that God is a circle with no circumference, a sphere with no surface whose center is everywhere. I sit in emptiness and stillness. All is interflow. All is love. Christ consciousness.

All Gears & No Gear: Zen Christianity (Path of No Path). Go straight ahead. Don't know. No mind. No theology. No philosophy. No concepts.This moment. Moment-um. No division and no no division. Inclusive of and beyond words. Compassion. Faith. Action.

r/evolution

...the ongoing battle since my childhood...the unwillingness to knuckle down (knuckles dragging on the ground) to the dogma of the social norm...the hatred of martin luther king...and now the hatred and fear of obama...the subtle and not so subtle racism...the stuffing of jesus into a theological coffin...the exclusion of all seen as different (not white, not christian, not of the born again)...dear lord, will i ever make peace with that? i think not...whatever is to be done?...let time go by...let the dead bury the dead...love and live from the heart...rise up! rise up! to where all angels dwell...merge with those beyond all human bound...

seeing through

We Christians have made an icon of Jesus. But an icon is to be seen THROUGH, not gazed AT. An icon is a window, opening to the boundless sublime.

When gazed AT, it becomes an idol, and the Christian becomes a rigid defender of a spiritual relic, guarding it against any infiltration of the different or any touch by anyone perceived as an outsider. 

Jesus is not to be gazed AT and worshiped. Such a stance turns into a spiritual club that no one but worshipers of Jesus may join. All others are relegated to the status of those to be prayed for, pitied, resisted, and saved.

Jesus is to be seen THROUGH. He is a window, a door, an opening to the boundless sublime. When one leaps through that opening, one opens into pure joy, a joy that is all inclusive, with no one or no thing left behind.

a story of our stories

In the 2012 elections, the blue counties seemed more likely to contain cities or university towns. The red counties tended to be more rural and without universities.

What this says to me is that the blue folk are in contact with a lot more stories of "reality" than are the red folk. Red folk mostly stay within the realm of stories of their own clan. Blue folk intermingle, live in a multistoried world.

As a result, blue folk are not threatened by stories other than their own; may even come to see them all as part of an even grander story unfolding.

"She kept asking if the stories were true. I kept asking her if that mattered. We finally gave up. She was looking for a place to stand & I wanted a place to fly." -- Brian Andreas

P. S. This is neither an attack on blue folk or on red folk. It is a simple sociological observation and hypothesis, another story if you will. Please be calm.

the great god

I did not make myself. The Great God did. I am not making myself. The Great God is.

If I try to make myself, a self-made man, I become a whirling drain-suck, taking all that is around "me" and turning it to my own ends. Look out! If I am a whirling drain-suck, you and all you love are fair game, raw materials for my self-making. Old America worshiped drain-sucks; its remnants still do.

I am called into being by Mystery: a loving, jovial, adventurous, and daring Mystery. He is friendly, forgiving, takes no prisoners -- I am either with him or left behind. He is always there though, laughing, smiling, dancing when I get off my butt and move again.

I love him. I love The Great God.

God's rosary

Each of the world's religions is a bead on a bracelet rosary worn around God's wrist.

the pulsing of the heart

There is only one Creative Impulse (rather, an impulsing, moving as It does in rhythmic pulse) producing abundant Life on earth, our solar system, the galaxies, the realms of the visible and the invisible. Without this Creative Impulsing, all would fall away, vanish, disappear.

Each society of humans across time and still today seeks to bag the Creative Impulsing in its own terms, for purposes of manipulation, adoration, and meaning. Little thought is given to the understanding that the Creative Impulsing deliberately looks to express Itself in the terms and form appropriate to and understandable by a given society.

Each grouping of people has its own religion, its own wine bag into which the wine of spirit is poured and flows, provided by the Creative Impulsing Itself. This is good. This is more than good; this is wondrous.

Perhaps the time has come for the humanimal to recognize this and stop standing in smug isolation from others. (This includes those standing in smug isolation from those they perceive standing in smug isolation.)

There is only one Creative Impulse and we, we all, are Its pulsing.

the supreme happiness

"It is he who has made us and not we ourselves" (Psalm 100:3) Whether you decide to call "he" she, thou, it, father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, maker, that, mystery, origin, source, genetic flow, tao, evolutionary unfolding, or I'd-rather-not-think-about-it, you did not make yourself. You are, we are, him embodying. We are our source sourcing. He is closer than our very breath. When we know that, truly know that, when we know him, this is the Supreme Happiness.

all things to all men

"I am made all things to all men" (I Corinthians 9:22) does not mean that one is a gutless chameleon, shifting with whatever arises, but that one has and is a strong heartfelt core, strong enough to move with the vicissitudes of all forms of human consciousness while remaining immovable. This is the essence of all relationship arts: martial, healing, spiritual.

the unborn borning

What we do not seem to get is that we are the Unborn borning. An interflow. A mutual co-arising. We differentiate ourselves, proclaim our selves as individuals. We do not seem to realize that this proclamation is all in our heads. We cluck and peck amongst other chickens caught in the same peculiarity and proclaim ourselves as wise. Wise cluckers.

Now that we have differentiated ourselves, we have created the problem of individual mortality. Shall we live on in our differentiated fashion? We fret and moan. We have faith in yes we will. We have faith in no we won't. We have faith in don't know. Faith is a bridge to the unknown. When we realize we are the Unborn borning, we need no faith bridge. We are This Now. Not only is all in our heads, All is our head. No bounds.

The little separate self dies laughing.

now is the time

A difference in understanding of "the rapture" and of "the afterlife" I seem to have with some of my good Christian friends is based on the experiencing of space and time. Rather than experiencing time as stretched out in a long line, as if it were the substance of an old-fashioned taffy pull, with a Rapture coming in the future and Heaven and Hell also out there somewhere for each of us, I experience Now.

Now is the time and is always the time. Now is the space and is always the space. Now is eternity. Now is infinity in all "directions."

God is a sphere with no surface whose center is everywhere. Everywhere includes us. Each of us is a microcosm of the macrocosm, a minicosm of the maxicosm. Each of us is a centering of the cosmos, an energetic sphere with no bounds (except the ones we set).

The imagery of Indra's Net is also relevant here. As minicosms, the quality of our being affects the entire cosmos.

"The Net of Indra is a profound and subtle metaphor for the structure of reality. Imagine a vast net; at each crossing point there is a jewel; each jewel is perfectly clear and reflects all the other jewels in the net, the way two mirrors placed opposite each other will reflect an image ad infinitum. The jewel in this metaphor stands for an individual being, or an individual consciousness. Every jewel is intimately connected with all other jewels in the universe, and a change in one jewel means a change, however slight, in every other jewel." (Stephen Mitchell)

 Hell and Heaven are Now. The Rapture is Now. Jesus has always already returned. Jesus is here Now.

jesus must stay in his jesus box

I do not know why people have so much trouble with the idea of Jesus being married. Is he not often spoken of as the bridegroom and we are the bride? I suppose the trouble comes from having a set idea of Jesus, a form to which he must adhere. He must not venture outside the box in which we have placed him. I do not know if Jesus was married or not. We know very little about his personal life. But if he was, so what? Is the discomfort felt with the idea because marriage (and sexuality) are thought of as sin?

Some who love and appreciate Jesus seem to have their own idea of purity to which Jesus must adhere. He was often bumping into this with his disciples who wanted him to be a certain way.

If Jesus, as many believe and I am no exception, was a representation of the Divine, of God, on earth, are folk saying that the Creator of all life is asexual? That makes no sense to me. So I do not get alarmed if Jesus was married. Nor if he peed and pooped or belched and farted. It just makes me closer to him and him to me.

I deeply understand that folk who worship Jesus worship him as a spiritual being, as THE spiritual being, as one of unvarnished purity and perfection. But I go along with Meister Eckhart here: "If you want the kernel, you have to break the shell" and "Therefore I pray God that he may quit me of god."

hose and nozzle

We are nozzles on the hose of flow of Spirit into this world, the flow of the Life Force. We adjust the nozzle to various settings with which we spray all life around. The quality of spirit we bring into the world is determined by ourselves, by our nozzle settings if you will. We may even try to shut off the flow entirely by clamping down in misery and depression. Each of us has our favorite nozzle setting or settings. We call it "the way we are" as if our habit is our excuse. I pray to drop both nozzle and hose and flow directly out of and as the springing of the Wellspring.

clinging to jesus

If you are thinking about clinging to Jesus to effect your own sorry salvation, clinging like a barnacle to a boat that will take you to the other shore, forget it. You are still in kindergarten christianity -- christ-inanity! Do just like Jesus said: "Take up that cross and follow me!" Take up that cross and fling it down! Jesus no longer carried it around. Neither should you. You want to follow Jesus? He went that'away! Hurry and you might catch up.

christian

To be a Christ-ian does not mean to be a follower of Christ. It means to BE a Christ. All bread you eat is your own flesh. All wine you drink is your own blood. You are a child of the Father and you know it. You are an offspring of the Wellspring, forever springing.

The spirit you are now assumes this form, now that form, forever forming and unforming, unforming and forming. You are an embodying of the life force. The creature you create is nailed on the cross of space and time, hanging between heaven and earth, a tale of great suspense. That creature dies. The cross dies with it.

An empty tomb is left behind, the grave clothes neatly folded. Where are you now? Everywhere and no where. In particular. And at the heart of all particular is space, resonant and full and empty, no bounds. This space is the outbreathing of the Father, of the Mother. You are its offspring. You are a Christ.

everything you hold on to

Everything you hold on to is an idol -- a juju doll created by the necessities of your fear. No clinging! And especially no clinging to not clinging! We have enough religions. Pry those rigid fingers loose laughing and waving! I know. You think if you stay real still it will pass you by. You are safe. A safe: a rigid vault for storing valuables in airless doom. Throw your valuables into the air! If they don't come down, they are truly valuable. They have disappeared. Just as you.

Notice

All consciousness structures requiring belief in a past or future are hereby revoked. Only now exists. Political and religious consciousness structures requiring belief in "progress" and "a better world in the future" are hypnotic devices of death. If one is looking for salvation, salvation is now or nowhere at all. One drops the schizoid stances of me versus them (external schizomania) and of myself versus myself (the schizomanic internal). We are not at war with our members and everything existing is a member. We open as the cosmos we are. Now. This is the shift that is upon us. The end of the world is not the end of the earth. The end of the world is the end of separative consciousness.

those too-tight Jesus shoes

I cannot and will not wear those too-tight Jesus shoes that orthodox Christianity seeks to force upon me -- especially the evangelical our-interpretation-of-Jesus-is-the-only-true-one hardcore Christian orthodoxy.

The way I see and experience it is pretty simple. Jesus and Christ Consciousness are the same. Sin is separation from God. Jesus "dying for your sin" means Christ Consciousness dies when we separate ourselves from our Source. We separate ourselves from our Source by living in the realms of I, Me, and Mine and in the resultant energies of Hostility, Greed, and Stupor. I love Jesus and will open to his example forever but will not submit to a religious structure claiming exclusive rights over his franchise.

I will and do, however, open to Christ Consciousness and find myself great friends with Buddha and Lao Tzu. I could tell you more about this but only if invited to speak.

re-tired: outfitted with new tires

In the well-written and informative announcement by Anamchara Books of their publication of my forthcoming book, Zen Baptist, it is said that I am a psychologist (retired). While I understand what is meant by that (I no longer schedule individuals for sessions nor submit insurance claims nor pay dues to the local or national association), I am far from retired as a psychologist.

A psychologist studies and works with the dynamics of the psyche, of the soul. As such I am a socio-cosmo-psychologist, engaged in understanding the interplay of the dynamic spheres of the individual (both intra and extra), society, and the cosmos. Such actively engaged study transcends cultural, religious, political and all other thought community bounds. Yet it is a "boots on the ground" approach.

Each individual is regarded as a sphere of influential energy affecting all other spheres. World views are seen as enhancing or restricting the quality and volume of energetic flow. Transformation of individual consciousness is produced by application of specific practices and principles of the martial arts, contemplative arts, and other consciousness disciplines. Attention is a major tool of transformation and increasing Awareness is the continuous result.

As a cosmo-socio-psychologist, I am not just a studier of these realms, some intellectual egghead in an ivory tower. I am a practitioner (applying these methods to my own consciousness realm) and a teacher of these methods and practices to others. I would say I am very much an unretired psychologist.

an uncivil war

A religion is a world view which has swallowed the heads of its members. A political party is a world view which has swallowed the heads of its members. This is more readily seen in an opposing political party or in someone else's religion. In both instances, the members of the "other" groups are viewed as benighted souls wallowing in ignorance and needing salvation. But...! you say, that's not true for my religion, my political party! We have the truth and wrapped in our religio-political flag, we march on to the world's salvation. If it were not for those others, we could more readily do so! That is exactly what the "others" are saying. My point is this: a political party is a religious structure, a religion is a political structure. Both swear allegiance to a world view and look for its dominance on earth. Whose religion is the "right" religion? "Mine!" you say. Otherwise you would be a hypocrite. And this is where we are stuck. We are in the midst of an uncivil war, each group proclaiming its own righteousness and looking to inflict its views on the rest of us, views backed by law and law enforcement. Each is looking to be the Supreme Church. I think we have been here before.

total surrender, openness, and vulnerability

The only way Christianity as a religion can redeem itself from the swamp into which it has fallen is for Christians to turn away from the dogma of Christianity, to stop following Christ, and to become Christs, to put on the mind of Christ. Embodying the consciousness of Christ is an ongoing process requiring total surrender, openness, and vulnerability. This means discarding all previous thought of what it means to be a Christian. The ego cannot do it but the experiencer of the ego can. Two states of being are required: humility and attentiveness. This is not easy. It is easier to lollygag along, to do "good works," and to insist that others live up to your standards of moral virtue -- the path of death.

the post-christian jesus

Marcus Borg writes eloquently and well of the pre-Easter Jesus (the human historical Jesus) and the post-Easter Jesus (the experiential Jesus of Christianity). I write of the post-Christian Jesus, who has escaped the mindset, dogma, and doctrines of Christianity, who has gone beyond human consciousness structures, who cannot be captured by a net of moral values and triumphant righteousness. I know and love all three.

my idol can whip your idol

Idolatry is created where the eye stops, becomes idle, eye dull. One's consciousness state becomes framed and bound. An eye doll is created and one succumbs to its attraction. This is a danger for us all, but especially for those swearing to a political or religious doctrine. One swears one's idol is the only true idol and is no eye doll at all.

There is some energy in this. One is encased in a form, in armor and enjoys the companionship of others encased in similar form. Uniforms are recognized. Passwords are given. Those in other uniforms are shunned, regarded as barbarian or heathen. Solution? Get naked. Open to the eternal now. But I can't say too much or more clothing will be manufactured and another eye dull formed.

sin: a matter for theologians caught in outworn definitions

The definition of sin as missing the mark is erroneous, or rather, of shortened vision. One cannot miss the mark. The Mark is everywhere. Sin is separation, separation from the Source -- from the One, thus from Intelligence and from Soul, to use Plotinus's terms. One has isolated oneself from the Current, from the Flow. One has made oneself a separate god, a false image, an untrue idol. Sin is not a physical action. Sin is an attitude.

There is no mark out there (or in here) that one is trying to hit, no X marks the spot, no bulls-eye. You are not missing the mark. You are missing Soul.

We could dispense of the concept of sin altogether and speak instead of losing Soul. We shift instantly from living or not living up to a code of moralistic standards (the law dead without spirit) to the embodying or disembodying of Soul itself, the life force or current ever flowing from the One, the current that we are, without which we do not exist.

It is not that we are "full of sin." It is not that we are "missing the mark." It is that we are not living with Soul.

the cross as symbol of human transformation

As a prime symbol of human transformation, especially for Western consciousness, the Cross immediately shows the human situation. Anchored in the ground, both in the ground of Earth and the Ground of Being, and open to the Heavens, the Cross depicts a firmly implanted vulnerability.

Grounded. Made of earth and feet firmly planted on earth, I fulfill one of the defining characteristics of the Cross: grounded being. I spend the days of my life as an earthling, as earth touching earth. Following ancestral practices, I settle and sink. Weight underside. For now, this is where I belong. And now is all I know.

When I settle, I settle down. The gravity of my situation gets to me. I allow it, encourage it , get more grave. I become dead, thoroughly dead, and thus more alive. The portal, the opening to life is through this death. The rule of opposites works here. The more I sink, the more I release.

The Cross is planted into the earth to bear and to release. I walk the earth and bear up. The more solidly I am grounded, the more up I can bear. Symmetry. A positive correlation between deep grounding and expansive opening. The greater, the greater.

How firm is my foundation? As firm as I allow.

I breathe deeply. I settle. I settle down.

Down, the nether region, is looked down upon. In this “have a nice day” society, one is not supposed to be down. One will be called on it, told to cheer up. A vast entertainment industry awaits. Drugs will “cure” you.

And yet the Cross, great transformation symbol that it is, does not come with a smile button. Unless it is a grinning death head. For the Cross means my death. It does not fool around. To be on the Cross, or more intimately still, to be the Cross is death. To be on the Cross is to be grounded for life.

That is not all there is to it. If it were a matter of being grounded and nothing more, the Cross would be a Hole that I would jump into, pull the dirt over my head and snuggle in. No, it is more fiendish than that. I am elevated. I am in the Hole but raised up.

I am anchored not only in this Earth as a living sacrifice. I am anchored in this Cosmos. Infinity extends from the Ground of my Being in all “directions.” It is vast. I see no end to any of these lines, no circumference of this circle, no surface to this sphere. I am anchored and grounded with no bounds.

Horizontal. The horizontal beam is the linear plane, the plane of history, where my incarnation story is told, is acted out. Like all the crucified, I am destined to carry the horizontal beam through town, through Vanity Fair, through the masses for entertainment and viewing pleasure.

This beam of horizon energy convinces me there is a past, a future, that I came from somewhere, am going somewhere. I am a straight arrow shot from some distant bow aimed at some unknown target. I come from my mother’s womb and am headed for a certain grave. Once again it is a grave situation.

Make something of yourself, they say. You only have so long. Gather stuff in piles. Couple in orgasm. Run around and do things. Plan your security. Attend violent events. Be somebody. Build an erection to yourself that will last.

Soon enough. Soon enough. I will lay me down in horizontal posture soon enough.

Pardon me. I need to get through here. I have a stake in my future.

Vertical. Affix that cross beam to that stake. Don’t hesitate. Now stretch those arms out. Drive those nails in. Not that way! Not that soft little pity tapping. One blow each nail maybe two should do it. Yeah! Like that! You see why you need help. That last hand hangs loose.

What’s that? No. Your horizontal days are about over. It’s all vertical now. You are on the pathway of the Divine. The Present. You are the present for the present.

A line of light, of energy, moves through the infinity “above,” through the top of my head, through my body, through my feet, through the earth below, and extends infinitely through the infinity “below.”

I am transfixed, pinned to this spot, this spatio-temporal location that is mine, truly mine and no one else’s. No trespassing is allowed simply because no trespassing can occur. I am this universe that spins around this axis. Others have their own spin, their own axis. This is my Cross, my Cross to bear.

taking IT personally

Yes, we are "children of God." One can and does experience this. In stepping back, we can see that it is also a metaphor, a vehicle of transformation, for a species that bears children and thus knows what it means to be a child.

We are "children of the Living God." That warms our hearts more than to say we are "fractals of the Fractal Interflow." Yet both say the same.

Personal. We want it personal. We open more to person metaphor than impersonal, though the latter are just as true, point to, and will carry us to the same Truth.

Part of us wishes to feel that we are in our snuggy pajamas close to God rather than to walk by His side as friends. And we would rather walk by His side as friends rather than suffer the loneliness of the advance scout of God emerging. Snuggy pajama children, friends, advance scouts. All metaphors.

A next move is to step outside all metaphor and be nothing, no thing at all. We cannot handle this. It has no handle to grasp. It cannot be grasped at all.