christ-directed buddhism

This imagery, a painting (Christ Our Pilot) by Warner Sallman, had powerful effect on me as a boy and young man. I looked at it from time to time, feeling its power and directive. Only in looking back decades later could I see its deep message: I was to head for the shores and seas of Buddhism. As the young man in the painting, I would eventually firmly grasp the eight-spoked Buddhist Wheel of Life with its strong core and center. This would be done under the direction of Christ my pilot. I was on my way to becoming a Zen Baptist and did not know it.

How interesting too that the Wheel became the symbol I used in my first book, Embodying Spirit: The Inner Work of the Warrior, for framing the eight principles and practices for applying the martial arts to daily life (nine, including the Wheel center). I did that unconsciously with understanding coming later.

I am so grateful for the Mystery that unfolds within us.

the harrowing of hell

(Excerpt from "The World's First Ever Baptist Crime Novel")

In his deep inner being, Gregor knew that he had doomed himself into his current condition, a remarkable insight for a demon. He had been, even more than now, a rebellion hellion. But Gregor carried a small glimmer of light, a teeny sliver of hope, even though hope and light caused his dark heart burning pain. 

Oh, it was still easy for him to lapse into blame of others for his devilish predicament. He had full access to and continued to wallow in the seven deadly sins of Christianity, to cultivate the unwholesome mental factors and cognitive afflictions warned against in Buddhism, to delight in the infidel status ascribed to him by the Quran, and to enjoy being the poster demon child warned against by all religions and spiritual paths.

But Gregor knew that the Universe has an excellent recycling program. These bursts of insight came from a unique event – the visit of Jesus to Hell. Gregor had been present when the visit occurred and his future had changed forever.

In the church bulletin all had received from the diligent ushers at the little church’s front door, they saw that Gregor’s sermon was entitled “Rescued From Hell.”

After the required prayers and announcements and hymn singing and the taking of the offering, Gregor took the pulpit. His deep bass voice rolled through the congregation.

Have you ever been in that place where life itself is like a living hell? I’ll bet everyone here has felt that at one time or another. (Nods of agreement) Well, I’ve been in that place a lot. In fact at one time I was a prisoner there.

(He had their attention right away with that remark.).

But I wouldn’t be talking with you here today if that was all there was to it. You know how they say that in the darkest night a candle glows? (Amens were spoken.)  And every cloud has a silver lining?

I’m here to tell you that there is a little bit of heaven in the depths of hell! (Not a single amen on that one. It went against popular theology. But Ted began to smile.)

Now you might not be used to thinking that way. I hope I can make it clearer to you here tonight.

My life was once in the pits! But something happened and I stand before you now. I think you will be startled by my story.

Will you please turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 24:22?

It says, “And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit,

and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.”

That’s the pit I’m talking about! Imagine yourself down in that pit milling around in the foul waste of yourself and others, sleep-deprived, taken out and tortured, agonizing over your unknown fate.

(Junior nudged Thelma, “Is he one of those Ay-rabs we captured?” “Hush, Junior! Just listen!”)

And then, wonder of wonders, totally unexpected, you get a visitor!

I don’t know if you grasp the full implications of that. You are alone, without hope, the only thing keeping you going is some kind of stubbornness deep inside that won’t give up. Days and nights go by indistinguishable from each other. All you know is suffering and uncertainty and fear.

Then you notice a difference in the atmosphere. The pit-keepers seem both agitated and excited. You are taken with the others and hosed down with cold water, washing away your filth. Clean prison garb is given.

The word is in the air. Visitor! A visitor is coming! All of a sudden you are reminded that there are worlds other than the hell you are in. Your head lifts up a little bit. Something begins to stir in the numbness – the numbness that has allowed you to survive.

It’s like when your arm has gone to sleep from laying on it the wrong way and that feeling like tingling painful needles that shoot through when it begins to wake up.

Except that now it’s not your arm, it’s your soul. The familiar numbness can seem more like your friend than this painful awakening.

(The congregation gave him full attention now. They knew exactly what he was talking about.)

The Visitor was unlike anyone I have ever met. He was powerful, of radiant heart and mind. His eyes were piercing but emanated a force, an energy I knew little about. His gaze would have been unbearable except for his deliberate softening of its intensity. For the first time in my life, I knew mercy. I knew love.

(Eyes were tearing up. Tissues were retrieved from purses, handkerchiefs from pockets.)

It  didn’t take me long to understand the purpose of His visit. You can read it for yourself in Isaiah 42:7.

(Gregor allowed folk time to find it. Many of them being good Baptists and having participated in Sword Drill in the Sunday evening Training Union found the passage immediately.)

I will read it aloud.. “To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison,

and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.”

(People began murmuring. Who was this preacher? That verse they just read was generally interpreted as referring to Jesus. Was he saying he was there when Jesus visited hell?)

Some in our group stayed in their numbness, not ready to hear what he had to say. Others, like me, attuned to him right away.

I know what you are thinking. Is this true? Did Jesus really preach to those in hell?

First Peter 3: 18 through 20 says that after Jesus’ crucifixion, he was “quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, ….”

Jesus had just gone through hell on earth. Tortured in the worst way possible. Abandoned by everyone. By everyone! So he knew what hell was. And when he came to visit, we knew he knew. That made all the difference. In a sense he was one of us.

(People were spellbound now, not knowing what to think. You could hear the sparking fizzle of minds short-circuiting.)

Now I know you are going to be judging me, once all this sinks in. Not only is it the nature of humans to pass judgment, though Jesus taught not to do so, but in this case, my case, it is foretold in the scripture I am about to read.

My last Bible text for this preach-off sermon (Gregor was reminding people where they were, bringing them out of the hell-visitation imagery to the here and now) is I Peter 4:6.

“For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.”

Jesus visited hell to preach the gospel, the “good news.” And some of us heard it and some of us didn’t. Those of us who heard stayed behind and talked with him a little more.

He told us many things. I share two with you. He said that we had done so much wrong that we would always be judged harshly by most people. We understood that and accepted it. But he also said that we were not to be taken down by those judgments.

And this is the really good news! We did not have to stay in hell but could “live according to God in the spirit!”

And if that is true for demons in hell, think how true it is for you!

Brother Ted, will you lead us in prayer?

“Heavenly Father, we are thankful for this message we have heard preached here tonight. We ask your blessings on the one who delivered it. Everyone of us here has been in one hell or another in our brief lives here on earth. And we greatly appreciate your mercy and lovingkindness in visiting us there. We know that we are the ones who give ourselves hell, not you. All we get from you is life and breath and forgiveness and joy. Thank you for you, Dear God. Amen!”

crucial

We exist on the cross of time and space, nailed to the spot. And yet we are eternally resurrecting, forever transforming. The I we are today is not the I of yesterday nor even the I of a few seconds ago. Crucifixed and resurrecting, the crux of the matter and no matter at all.

anything but that, o lord, anything but that

After the Minister of Music had done his job of assisting the individual consciousnesses of the folk showing up for Sunday morning service to move from scattered personal interests to a more unified attentiveness through the singing of hymns, and the announcements made, the tithes and offerings collected, and a rousing rendition by the choir of "Jesus Saves," he arose and stood behind the pulpit.

Many had their Bibles in their hands ready to turn to the text he would announce.

"I am going to do something different today," he said. "Some of you are not going to like it. But I ask that you listen to the spirit of what I am saying and you will recognize the same spirit that flows through the orthodox version of the Bible.

"I wish to tell you a story that comes from the Acts of Thomas, a beautiful work that contains the powerful 'Hymn of the Soul.' It is not the Hymn of the Soul which I wish to address today. I will do that at a later time.

"A little background first. Many writings of the early Christians exist which were not included in the writings selected by the group of men that set themselves and their choices up as orthodox and all others as heretics. We are beginning to see their short-sightedness. They threw out many precious babies with the rejected bathwater. The Acts of Thomas is one.

"I could have told you the story I am about to tell you without telling you its source. I even considered telling it to you and revealing its source later, but that felt too much like trickery. I am up front with you and always will be.

"The disciples were gathered together in Jerusalem after Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection to determine who should go where in the world to carry out Jesus' commandment to go into all the world and preach the gospel, the good news. India fell, by lot, to Thomas.

"We know Thomas, right? He had a stubbornness in him that we might recognize in ourselves. He was the disciple who said he would not believe that Jesus had come back from the dead unless he could touch the wounds in Jesus' hands and put his hand in Jesus' wounded side. So it is not surprising that his response to going to India was this: "but he would not go, saying that by weakness of the flesh he could not travel, and 'I am an Hebrew man; how can I go amongst the Indians and preach the truth?'"

"Sound familiar? Not only do I recognize this same reluctance in myself and all us humans to not follow what we are called to do, I am also reminded of the story of Jonah and his refusal to obey what he was asked to do. We know how that turned out.

"Thomas went home firmly resolved to not go. He was not let off the hook so easily. Jesus appeared to him that night and said: 'Fear not, Thomas, go thou unto India and preach the word there, for my grace is with thee.'

"Thomas replied: 'Whither thou wouldst send me, send me, but elsewhere, for unto the Indians I will not go.' A stubborn man. We might hear that echoed in ourselves: 'I will do anything you require of me, O Lord, but not that to which I am truly called.'

"I suppose Thomas thought that might be the end of it. But Jesus is far more stubborn than Thomas.

"This time Jesus appears at noontime; the time when earth's business is being carried on. He appears to 'a certain merchant come from India sent from the King Gundaphorous (an actual historical person who reigned over a part of India) to buy a carpenter and bring him unto him.'

"The plot thickens!

"Jesus, in human form, walked up to the merchant in the noontime  marketplace and said I hear you are looking for a carpenter. The man said yes. Jesus said: 'I have a slave that is a carpenter and I desire to sell him.'

"Now at this point in my initial reading of this story, I burst out laughing. The audacity of Jesus! Thomas, who has promised to follow Jesus everywhere and thus in one sense, the slave of Jesus (Jesus is his Master), is being sold by Jesus into slavery. Thomas is going to India!

"The story continues: 'And so saying he showed him Thomas afar off, and agreed with him..., and wrote a deed of sale.'

"Jesus then went to Thomas and led him over to the merchant who asked Thomas if Jesus was his master? Thomas said yes. At which point the merchant said I have bought you and we are going to India.

The preacher bursts out laughing once again and many of the congregation do the same.

"And guess what? Thomas said okay!

"The next morning, Thomas rose early, in prayer, and said: 'I will go whither thou wilt, Lord Jesus; thy will be done.'

"And Thomas left with the merchant bound for India taking nothing with him except 'his price,' the money the merchant gave to Jesus to buy Thomas. 'For the Lord had given it unto him, saying: Let thy price also be with thee, together with my grace, wheresoever thou goest.'

"Amen, And may it be so with each and everyone of us. Let's stand and sing the closing song: 'In the highways, in the hedges, I'll be somewhere working for my Lord.'"

And the congregation did. And the preacher was not run out of the church for using a non-canonical text for his sermon.

from where do we come?

From where do we come?

Some are not bothered by such a question. Nor ever want to be. Living in the here-now and/or in the buzzing arena of the mind and multitasking body is plenty enough, thank you. No curiosity exists about how all this came to be. Perhaps it has all been settled by their birth story, the story they were born into and accepted without little or further thought.

Fine. But as for me, I am interested. I enjoy opening my consciousness within such realms.

Where do we come from? (Forgive me, third grade teacher, for ending my question with a preposition.) Several stories exist: a large grouping of them (see the Laurasian story) with common themes. First there was nothing. The nothing (no thing) gave birth to all that is. All that is is continuously emerging.

There are variations on the story, different words for speaking it, and the use of capitalization to indicate importance. Here is one (the story I was born into):

The nothing (Godhead) gave birth to something (God) which gave birth to a plethora of somethings (gods, angels, humans, earth, earth creatures, the heavens, etc.). Then the humans screwed up, or one of the angels, or both or if you prefer, the something (God) was dissatisfied with the plethora of somethings and decided to erase the plethora like a child erasing a drawing of a tree and starting again. The story goes that there was some good stock in the brew and it was saved for further use. We are the descendents of that stock including some angel-human intermarriages along the way. The story continues that we are all going to get zapped one day but nobody knows exactly when that is. We can throw a lifeline to the something (God) and in doing so we have already swung to safety. Makes for some suspense, doesn’t it?

Now I am sure you have your favorite story, including a story of no-story. I recognize that. So don’t start jumping my case about I didn’t tell the story right or telling me that isn’t the right story at all. Unless you really want to. I’m always up for a good story.

stone casters

Saying for those with calcified spiritual kidneys:
Let those who are a paragon of virtue cast the first stone.

pope go

How does the Pope's resignation affect the Baptists? Hunh? What pope?

psalm 2

Read Psalm 2 this morning. Interesting difference between the Tanakh (Hebrew-English) and the King James (Christian) versions of verse 7. Tanakh: "You are My son." King James: "Thou art my Son." Note the difference in capitalization. The Tanakh emphasizes the one speaking, God. The KJB emphasizes the one spoken to, Son. Subtle but not so subtle differences in translation.

scout meetings

"And David danced  before the Lord with all his might"  (2 Samuel 6:14)

Each of us sets up our own little structure of what is right, what is wrong, and what we think we can get by with. We worship religiously within that structure. Christ consciousness blows up the church. Buddha consciousness evaporates the temple. Rumi consciousness dissolves the mosque. And so on. When all our walls fall down, so do our rigid rules and our playing of sanctimony. You do not know what is best for me nor I for you. Keep going to your Scout meetings if you wish but come on out here and dance!

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.

becoming mary

Warning to the Overly Sensitive! Christian symbology is in use here! Hey, you Christians! When we give our assent, as Mary did, the Father approaches us and the Son and the Spirit merge within our spiritual womb. Every nanosecond a virgin birth! This is a mystery. But if you know what I mean, you know what I mean.

reading

The Bible read with a scoffing eye is not the same Bible as that read by the natural eye. The Bible read by the natural eye is not the same Bible as that read by the spiritual eye. The first is a mockery. The second is a semipermeable wall. The third is infinite depth of vision.

opening to the Sea

Jesus, through his own personal resolve, will, and steadfastness, became the Christ. A Light shone in the world. A similar path of personal effort occurred with Gautama becoming Buddha and Muhammad becoming the Prophet. Rather than dropping anchor in neighborhood ports of conventionality, they opened widely and completely to the Sea. So it is and can be with each of us. This is little known and even less understood. We would rather trail around forever as followers staying in our small containers.

how odd!

How odd! I love the story of God becoming Man and walking among us, but I do not ever wish to be a Christian.

the forming of Jesus

Just as water assumes the form of its container, so does the comprehension of Jesus assume the form of the comprehender. Thus you have the phenomenon of a Jesus who carries a gun and votes Republican.

sin and salvation

Regardless of one's religion or philosophy of life, the universe is one dynamic interflow. Inwardly, we are in relationship with and as that interflow. Outwardly, we express the nature and depth of this relationship.

When we lapse into contracted constipation, this is what is traditionally known as "sin." We become knot heads. No interflow for us. We clench our teeth and tighten our jaws and, by damn!, make our way. All is difficult and an obstacle.

When we move with the interflow both inwardly and outwardly, this is what is traditionally known as being "saved." Our open heartmind pulsates in rhythm and synchrony with the open heartmind of the universe. All becomes simple and easy.

Why didn't the evangelist in the lime green pants and lemon yellow coat explain it this way to me as a child? He did do one thing though. He got the interflow moving in that little Baptist church.

And where is Jesus in all this? Laughing and saying things like "Right on!"

what about this rapture thing?

Rapture. The very word immediately prompts images. Rapture. Along with the images come feelings. Tears of joy, scoffing, indifference. Those indifferent are caught up in images of greater import (to them). Those who scoff are touched by rapture images but due to wounds of the heart protect themselves through disdain. Those with tears of joy are perhaps looking for the event known as rapture to take place out there in the sky and descend to the earth.

All three overlook the understanding that the rapture occurs within. When one withdraws from the hurtling burbling of the world into quietness, one can and does become enrapt. What is rapture but full delight, ecstasy, radiant awareness?

The site of rapture is the location just above one's crown chakra (the top of one's head). One's awareness is focused there. (Focusing awareness in one's butt or feet or stomach will not do it.)

Paintings of holy (enraptured) people often show a radiant light around their heads. One climbs the chakra ladder and takes the leap. One is still in the body while out of the body. Just as in the story of Jacob's ladder, angels (light energy) descend and ascend upon the ladder that you are. This is rapture.

For followers of Jesus (those who follow the path he took), this is a meeting place with the radiance and loving powers of Jesus. One is raptured -- taken out of the body. The heavens split open and the Son of Man descends. One rises to meet him and a merge occurs. This is rapture.

I write of delicate and sensitive things here. Those who scoff can stomp them with their boots. But those who hear can hear.

revisiting "drinking Jesus's blood"

I removed the post "drinking Jesus's blood" from Zen Baptist a few days ago because I evidently did not give it enough context to allow full understanding of its intent and meaning.

Here it is back within the context I was envisioning. Zen is brief and to the point and slices right through. It is sometimes called the grandfather approach. Here is an attempt at a little grandmothering. It is from my blog "the bubbling spring" of this very morning.

Jesus said: Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the son of man has no place to lay down his head and rest. Saying 86, The Gospel of Thomas (Tr. Stevan Davies)

For those who follow the path that Jesus walked, there is no place to lay down one's head and rest. What is this path? It is the path of the "son of man," the path of those who are evolving beyond ordinary consciousness. The son of man is a further developing of man, a birthing beyond man. Ordinary consciousness opens to integral consciousness.

As this transition occurs, one finds there is no place to lay down your head and rest. There is no doctrinal matrix, no set of rules of worship, no ritual formula to follow, no ritual. While others may find comfort in such, one has moved on down the road. All falls away and one stands transparent and open in a full disclosure cosmos. Nothing is hidden. One's awareness continues to open.

To lay one's head down in a hole or nest is death to a son of man (gender is not an issue here), to one who has moved on. That is why rituals and creeds have lost meaning and are no longer necessary. When one opens to participation in and as the cosmos, one does not look back. Once the goose has escaped the bottle, it does not turn around and try to fit back in.

It is from this standpoint that I wrote "drinking Jesus's blood" as a post in my blog Zen Baptist which produced offense in some and an opportunity for unnecessary derision in at least one other. I reproduce it here:

If Jesus visited a church on communion Sunday, would he drink his blood and eat his flesh? I doubt it. I think he would say: Enough already! Quit toasting my demise and resurrection! Stop slamming down shots of my blood! Cease munching on dry wafers of discontent! Get off your butts and out into the street! The time has come! Stop drifting off into some realm of spiritual euphoria! Wake up! I'm here!

The son of man has no place to lay down his head and rest. Once one goes through a door, it is not necessary to go through it again and again. One does not become attached to the door, no matter how sacred or holy it appears. One moves through to the other side, to the next room. Nor does one make a nest there. No need. The nest of the son of man is a sphere with infinity in every "direction." One's nest is the eternal ever-expanding cosmos of radiance, grace, and mercy with a strong sense of loving humor. One is at home so needs no home.

the baptist crime

Here is the Preface I originally wrote for "The World's First Ever Baptist Crime Novel." I focused instead on how the novel came into being.

Preface

In writing a Baptist Crime Novel, the question eventually arises: what is the Baptist crime? Upon reflection, one sees that the Baptist crime is the carrying out of the crime embedded in a much larger system – the Judeo-Christian-Islam system. Though those three subsystems may not like being put into bed together (as evidenced by their continuous warring with each other), they are nevertheless based upon the same premise: a great gulf exists between God and man. This premise of alienation and separation of man from God automatically requires that the gulf be breached. It is insufferable otherwise. And each of the three has its formula for and path of reconciliation.

So keep in mind that as we look at the Baptist crime, it is embedded in a much larger crime system – a system of alienation. You might object and say, no, it is a system of redemption. But there is no need for redemption if there is no alienation. And that is precisely the Baptist crime – basing an entire world view on a dualistic premise. God is over there. Humans are over here. This is schizophrenic (split-mind) thinking. One starts with a splitness, a fracture that must be healed, a gulf that must be spanned. A religion is born. Many religions. Each claiming to be the healing of the splitness that was manufactured in the first place.

Now if you are a firm believer in any one of these subsystems (Jewish, Christian, Islam) you are not going to want to hear this. Your entire life has been based on alienation and redemption. You are probably also under the illusion that you are, or have (which is even more peculiar, for who is doing the having?), a separate free autonomous soul. This separate self concept is a requirement of any alienation-redemption theological or metaphysical system. Something has to be alienated and redeemed and that would be you, right?

In this Baptist crime novel, the crime is not Bagston’s lifestyle, nor his selling out the church, nor his possibly being murdered. The crime is in the alienation - redemption mindset.

bottom of the food chain

By the time communion got to us Baptists, drinking the actual blood of Christ had downshifted to drinking wine and then to the low gear of drinking Welch's Grape Juice. Eating the actual flesh of Christ had transformed to eating a nice communion wafer to our eating a dry morsel of crumb from a bread heel. We might sing of being washed in the blood but we weren't about to drink it nor wine either -- too many reformed alcoholics among us. We might eat hog and chicken and even rabbit and squirrel but drew the line on eating Jesus's body. And forget those fancy paper-thin wafers. We figured Jesus didn't have those things at the Last Supper. He had loaf bread.

The Gospel of Campus 47: 13 - 16

            13 And the henchmen came to the Lord God and said “Verily, those trees in front of Peterson are in our way.” And the Lord God saw the trees as an abomination and said “Remove them from the sight of my eyes.”

            14 The henchmen said, “Should we not, O Lord God, proclaim thine edict to the ones who live there?” And the Lord God became wroth and said, “Fools! No one lives there now. Only some low echelon henchmen like yourselves who work there.”

            15 And the henchmen were sore afraid to tell the Lord God that working there and living there were the same, and did as the Lord God bid.

            16 Much mourning was in the land as the Peterson henchmen regarded as low echelon henchmen of no power by the Lord God arrived at their work life home and found the trees destroyed, removed.

immovable mind

In Zen practice and in the martial arts, much is made by the old masters of cultivating Immovable Mind. Immovable Mind means that one's attention is not caught by anything. One's mind is not stuck in a memory. One's mind is not caught in a fantasy. The mind is not caught in fear or anger or any of the emotions. The mind is not caught in reflection or in how one is doing or in what someone thinks. The mind resides where it resides and all else moves. The mind is like water reflecting the moon. The water does not hold on to the moon and its reflection. Immovable mind is moving meditation.

Meditation is not a hypnotic state. Meditation is wide awake awareness. Awareness without being caught, without catching oneself. Immovable Mind is a necessity for creative rebellion. What one is rebelling against is being caught in any of the "tar babies" described above and any others with which you may have famil-iarized (made part of your family) yourself. Energy is freed up and creative juices begin to flow.

God's Blog

God's Blog

kissing yourself on your lips

Christianity's seeking of salvation of the soul and secular society's pursuit of goodness for the self are similar arrows shot from not very different bows with the same motivation: self-preservation and self-enjoyment. Both are perversions of Spirit.

A human, like all life forms, is a conduit for Spirit to unfold. The LifeForce itself seeks salvation, from us and from all form.

We humans have not been around all that long. For us to make the purpose of life to be our salvation, our fulfillment, is pitiful and laughable. We are conduits through which Spirit flows. Forget the salvation of your soul. Forget trying to kiss yourself on your lips. It's not about you. It's not about us. It's about Something Much Bigger.

Our only duty is to embody That Which Breathes Us, the Formless which assumes (and passes through on Its journeying) all form. All else is a sucking of our thumb.