Knowing Jesus

What does it mean to know Jesus? Not to know of Jesus but to know Jesus. It means to share consciousness. To share the same consciousness state, the same consciousness process. This is not so strange as some might think. Your consciousness is not a closed system. Far from it. Your consciousness state is an interflow of all the people you have met, all the books you have read, all the movies you have seen, all the experiences you have had, and are having, with all that exists both near and far. 

No matter how much some of us like to think so, we are not an island unto ourselves, independent separatenesses standing alone with a fist raised to the sky. The entire cosmos is a web, a matrix of ongoing relations.

To know Jesus means to enter his consciousness, to share his view point, to stand where he stands and look out through his eyes. This is done in the same way that one knows Socrates and Buddha and Lao Tzu and Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung and Emily Dickinson and Ibn ‘Arabi and the person who wrote that letter to the editor. It is a familiar process. One we engage in constantly.

To know Jesus I read his words. I read them carefully, slowly. I read them with my heart as well as with my eyes. My consciousness merges with his consciousness. I understand what he is saying. I do not stand out here and look at him and worship him or revile him. I merge consciousnesses. This is how I know Jesus.

Of course, you may not wish to know Jesus. That is your affair. Relax. No one is trying to shove Jesus down your throat. You may wish to know someone or something else. Do it. Do it well and thoroughly. 

As for me, I have become well acquainted with those other folk mentioned above, but the one I love the most and with whom I continue to be engaged in ongoing conversation is Jesus. I love his consciousness: a great sense of humor, of irony, of paradox, of empathy, of understanding, of forgiving while taking no shit. Our relationship continues.

not my will but thine be done

"Not my will but thine be done." What does this mean, this prayer that is not only Christian but also Taoist, Buddhist, Islamist, Judaic, Vedic? How can you surrender to the will, to the influence of your Source? You know how not -- to be crusty, self-reflective, self-absorbed, to dummy down into a small and dense container, to go through each day with a continuous taking of "selfies," a poser of self-disgust mixed with self-admiration.

How can you allow the Source That Births Us to have Its will be done? Why should you even want to? You may awaken to the understanding that you do not know what you are doing, that your actions, including your very thoughts, have far-reaching consequences of which you are not aware. A higher wisdom has birthed you, continues birthing you with the unfolding of each nanosecond. Yet this wisdom is constrained by your obtuseness, by your unpreparedness to receive, by your undeveloped capaciousness. Water takes the shape of its cup and can fill the cup only to the cup's capacity.

The way you live according to the Higher Wisdom rather than to your short-sighted fumbling is through first of all, recognizing that it is possible; secondly, to want to; and thirdly, to develop the capaciousness, the room for this to happen. You do not have to join a religion to do this. It is a direct encounter between you and your Source. 

Making Room

My Mom used to say that God is a gentleman. God will not come where God is not wanted. If you want to know God, you must WANT to know God. Otherwise, you sit within your ego-mobile, your ego-sphere, surrounded by your halls of mirrors and your ongoing "selfies," enamored with your own reflection, both despising it and pumping it up to your orgasmic satisfaction.

The way out is to burst that bubble and open to infinity in every "direction." This is automatically done when you open with Love and with Compassion.  This capaciousness allows room for our Source, the Wellspring, That-Which-Breathes-Us, God. No longer are we alone, looking to fill our date book with every distraction. When continuing to fully open, we are the Cosmos Itself, with the wisdom and energy needed to transform the world we are. 

the warp and woof of spiritual endeavor

The warp and woof of spiritual endeavor: For each person has their conceptual schema, their thought helmet, their consciousness state which places them squarely at the latitude and longitude of their spiritual geography, the triangulation of their soul. As true for you as for everyone, thus view each other with equanimity rather than with triumphal stance or prideful derision. We are each a light within the cosmic heavens.

even in hell

Our Source is everywhere, not just the goody goody places. "If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there." (Psalm 139:8)

that by which

Our Source is not that which one knows but that by which one knows.

zeneration

Observation without identification is zeneration.

the mocking of Jesus on the cross

"The mocking of Jesus on the cross continues to this day. 

We stare into the mirror at our own Medusa reflection and turn to stone with our eternal selfie or we open to the continuous flow of birth and death and resurrection of That-Which-Births-Us-And-Gives-Us-Life." 

(From my forthcoming book, "The Hidden Third: The Story of God.")

rooting and grounding in love

Spiritual Practice (Qi Gung):
"Rooting and grounding in Love." This is an actual whole body movement with the condensing of rooting and grounding then the opening and expansion of Love. It has its own rhythm. You can hear it and feel it in the words as you repeat them: rooting and grounding in Love, rooting and grounding in Love. Get up and do it. Condense. Expand. Condense. Expand. Do the body movements that come naturally. Breathe!

the hidden third

I am enamored of "The Hidden Third" which can resolve much division. For example, imagine a triangle. At its flat base, place "Buddha" on the left of the baseline and "Christ" on the right. On this straight line they are eternally divisive, forever apart. Now, at the apex of the triangle, put "The Hidden Third." The Hidden Third gives birth to both simultaneously. Separate unto themselves but not separate at all. The Hidden Third gives birth to and resolves all paradox, all duality, with no resolution.

zen name

My Zen name was once Nothing Doing.
Now it is Wreck Loose.

on the mark

Zen Baptist -- "Thy words have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee." Not the head brain. The heart brain. Not the genital brain. The heart brain. "Sin?" A much derided word. All it means is "missing the mark," one's aim is off course. Breathe and stand as pure heart, no separation from the Interflow of Now, and the arrow you are has already struck the mark before and during release. "Thee" and "thy?" Our Source, the One-Who-Breathes-Us, now and every nanosecond.