Wu Chi Ku

Note to all concerned: I hereby change my soul name (the name which best represents this felt flow of mystery, imagery, energy) from Zen Baptist to Wu Chi Ku. The Z. B. name has become too rigid of confinement, a soul prison. "Wu" and "Ku" mean empty and empty is the only way to continue opening to the felt flow that is. "Chi" means energy or life force. Wu Chi Ku is imaged as a sphere with no surface whose center is everywhere. The soul is freely forming. -- If this does not concern you, be on your way.

Going Soul-ar

Restoration of soul: "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind." (Romans 12:2)
What is the world but the imagery produced by the party lines of a consumer society? The verse above is revolutionary. Do not be conformed to this imagery though bathed in it, though washed in the ongoing blather of its continuous churning.

Con-formed means to be formed by the con, to adjust our shape to the shape that is called for by those who seek profit from our conformation. Do not be con-formed.

Instead, use soul power. Move from being a fossil to soul-ar. We can trust the core of our being, of our soul. At our core is light and truth and goodness. We toss away the conformation and allow our light to shine through continuous transformation, through moving with a continuous renewal, an eternal opening of our heart-mind.

How do we do this? Through attention. Whatever we attend to, we become. Want to continue attending to the world? Fine, but put it in your peripheral vision. For transformation of our soul and of the world soul, we already know what to give attention to. If you have lost touch with that, sit quietly, listen, and open. Or, my preference, go outside and walk around. Solvitur Ambulando! It is solved by walking around.

As a Zen Baptist

As a Zen Baptist, my relationship with Jesus is direct, immediate, open, with little or no doctrinal interference. The parables of Jesus are regarded as koans, problems to be solved, not on any intellectual or emotional level, but in the realm of paradox. The parables "solve" themselves deep within, exploding and imploding, creating transformations of consciousness not to be predicted or foreseen. Jesus is the Zen Master refusing to rigidly instruct, even casting you away as a student or rather allowing you to cast yourself away if you insist on superficiality or concretized judgment. Jesus is a warrior of spirit, THE Warrior of Spirit, who teaches by example: compassion, strong stance, crucifixion on the cross of time and space, going to the wilderness for contemplation and meditation and demon wrestling but always coming back to face it all again one more time. Jesus, my Teacher, my Sensei, the one who loves me with a fierce love of deep understanding and the willingness to take me back into the dojo, the training hall, the arena of Now, when I fall. He looks at me with stern eyes of compassion and says, "George, here we go again!"

Bread

"Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." Matthew 4:4

In this story, the Adversary is trying to get Jesus to focus on material bread. Jesus gives this strong reply -- a sword slash cutting through a narrow focus. Without spirit, we are effectively dead.

"Man does not live by bread alone." Man means all humans. We need the life force of physical food to survive. But by itself it is not enough.

"but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." This means the continuous outpouring of life producing all that is -- from the vastness of the subatomic to the infinity of the metagalactic. Ever-changing, ever being born while ever passing away. Rising while falling.

This is the Formless producing form. This is the Formless forming. This is who we are.

Look in people's eyes. The eyes tell the depth of spirit. Sense your own soul. At times you are more alive than at other times. Ice cream and doughnuts are a temporary fix.

We do not live by pizza and coffee alone (or by arugula salads). But by the energetic life force producing all that is. 

Embodying

Zen Baptist Sunday Sermon: I regard myself as an embodying of the Cosmos. And you as well. When we use the word "God" as a name and sound to represent the Source of this continuous unfolding of the Cosmos, we are embodyings of God. This is no new news amongst many religions or spiritual paths. Jesus himself said "You are gods." Some of us act as if we are IPBs (Isolated Protoplasmic Blobs), dancing around and shaking our fists at It All. But that is just another embodying of the Cosmos, of God. Alan Watts said that we are nerve endings of God. Some of us have a lot of nerve. That's okay. I think Jesus in his time on earth loved them best. They were just entangled in their birth caul.