friction

This world is friction. Walk is friction. Talk is friction. Thinking is friction. Relationship is friction. Even love needs a lubricant. The move toward homogeneity (sameness) and the move toward heterogeneity (difference) is ongoing. Neither goes away nor should or this world will disappear. These two simultaneous counter moves creating such friction are balanced by a third force: stillness. A dynamic stillness moving with (not against) the friction. This stillness is at our core.

framed

Our physical body has a skeleton, a framework for supporting it. So does our spiritual body. The spiritual body's frame is called a religion or philosophy. Whatever it is called, our spiritual body has a skeleton. It is a handy device for holding one's place, for getting around. One day it will dissolve too. Then where will the spiritual body be? Where it is right now when it has no frame.

Question: Why were you like you were?
Answer: I was framed, Your Honor.

who

Cosmotheophilosphy 101. Some believe there is a Divinity. Some believe there is not. My question is: Who is this believing? Who is this believing there is? Who is this believing there is not? Who? You might say "I" or "me." Who is this I? Who is this me? You might start to give some explanation, but that just sets up the same question: Who is it giving this explanation of who they are? Who is it that has a mind made up?

Jesus and Buddha

Jesus gave me love. Buddha opened my mind.

mister awake

To my Christian friends who may not know: Buddhism is not a religion and Buddha is not seen as a god. He was walking along after his awareness opened, noticeably different, radiant. Someone asked, "Are you a god?" He said, "No. I am awake." Buddha means awake. He is Mister Awake. Buddhism is a philosophy of life. One of its teachings is that attachment is suffering. He also said, "Don't listen to me. Go find out for yourself."

the three stooges of the mind

Amongst all the cosmic realms, the realms of conscious awareness, we live in the Realm of Desire. Three forces keep us here. One is wanting what we do not have. This craving, this never fulfilled greed, is a hell of eternal dissatisfaction. A second is not wanting what we do have. Hostility and anger. The willingness to throw it all away. The third is stupor, the willingness to shut down awareness. Ignore-ance. These are the three stooges of the mind: Greed, Hostility, and Stupor. They come in both subtle and blatant forms. We see them operating in others more easily than the mind rotting that takes place within ourselves. To escape their hold, a first step is to become aware of their existence. I learned this from Buddha, Mister Awake, the great psychologist. Jesus, the great heart, fully agrees.

relational christianity

Orthodox christianity is based upon sin being obliterated through sacrifice. Relational christianity is based upon ignorance being obliterated through awareness.

the same infinity

No answers exist "out there" that are not also "in here." The outer infinity and the inner infinity are the same infinity.

theological filter

A theology is a developed system of religious belief and theory. What many folk who say they rely upon the New Testament writings about Jesus as truth do not comprehend is that those writings are a theology, a developed system of religious belief. That system, composed of Greek, Roman, and Jewish thought, is superimposed on Jesus. Only writings about Jesus that fit that organized system of thought and belief were allowed into the New Testament. All other writings were excluded. In reading the New Testament, one is looking at Jesus through a filter.

conversion

On Conversion. A simple way to experience conversion (change of consciousness state) is, if you are sitting down stand up, or if you are standing up take two steps in any direction (watch out if you are standing atop a tall building), or go to the next room. We are "converting" from our old selves all the time yet may think we are the same.

what is man?

"What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" (Psalm 8:4)

Or as the genderly correct might say: What is a human, that thou art mindful of him/her? and the offspring of humans, that thou visitest her/him? But if you take the deeper mystic understanding that these two questions go beyond mere gender differences and their bounds we so love to defend, these two questions reverberate in a deep cosmic cry. Who are we? Who is this breathing us? Why are we alive? What is going on?

Being a psychologist, a mystic and a mythopoet, I see two consciousness realms referred to here. One is ordinary everyday make-a-buck linear eat-and-poop consciousness. The other is mythopoetic cosmic mystic supramental consciousness. The one deals with hardcore matter (condensed lifeforce); the other opens to boundless mystery.

The two questions contain their answers. When we are in ordinal consciousness, everyday consciousness, we are locked into ourselves, and our Source can only be mindful of us. We allow no more than that. We are a private universe chugging along on our own mission.

When we open awareness as the "son of man," as that which is emerging from ordinal consciousness, we are visited by an awareness that goes beyond all human societal definitions, aims, wants, and wishes. We become not only planetary, but cosmic citizens. We move from being a closed system to open interflow with all that is. Our education has just begun.

night and day

Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. (Psalm 19: 2)

During the night, we dissolve our bounds. We open to new knowledge, new understanding. We no longer wear our ideological clothing. We see freshly, anew. Knowledge is shown, revealed. Our hearts, as organs of understanding, are happy.

During the day,we solidify, congeal. We go about our business, our busyness. We move both against and in accord with other's daytime demeanor. We leave behind the blessed open ignorance of the night. We take our positions. We act as if we know what we are doing.

shall a child be born?

"Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?"(Genesis 17: 17)

As we get older, we can still bear spiritual fruit. Perhaps even more so. Though we have stumbled and fallen many times over the course of our decades, we have learned and are learning to walk in a more centered and radiant fashion.

The-One-Who-Breathes-Us is still with us, ever patient, ever compassionate, ever requesting that we open to the joys of existing, allowing us to know, to experience that the burning flame of suffering is also radiant light. The flesh of aging suffers but the compassionate open heart is consumed with quiet and radiant joy.

A child is born. Who and what is this child? It is ourselves. We are born again and again. Newness unfolds. Like a flame rising upward from a burning log. The log is decomposing and will eventually return to ground, even as the flame leaps into the air.

We are born into a realm in which we already are. All comes from the One. All lives in the One. All returns to the One from which it never left. We gain experience embodying as flesh. Our woundings are mouths that speak our truth.

We fall on our face and laugh. Partly in disbelief that newness will come, is coming again, and again. Partly in surprised joy. We rise up, give birth to the newness of our being.

Dialogue

Most of you won't be at all interested in this, so go on about your business. If Eastern-Western dialogue is to succeed, Buddhism and Christianity have to understand each other. Buddhism is founded on NoThingNess, Christianity on the One. O and 1. The basis of the Buddhist experience and view is nothing, no thing. The basis of the Christian experience and view is something, some thing. The Buddhists have no name for the nothing, saying if and when you give it a name, it becomes a something. The Christians call the something God. What is the common ground in these world views, these experiential stances? Perhaps it will prove to be the O. Some Christian philosophers have adopted the definition of God (the Ultimate 1) as a circle with no circumference whose center is everywhere. 1 = O.

Bible

Since I am in what is sometimes called the advancing years and sometimes the declining (no wonder we Geezers get confused), I am looking to give back to the community what I can before I kick the bucket, throw in the towel, buy the farm, fall into grave disorder. 

The "what I can" part is my take on various realms. I've already given my comments on the application of martial art principles to daily life, on the Gospel of Thomas, on the Bhagavad Gita, and on the Tao Te Ching, so why not dive into the Bible? After all, I cut my eye teeth on it, having grown up as a Baptist in the deep South.

So despite and even because of the heaps of excrement thrown these days at folk who follow the teachings of holy books, here I go!

Turn in your Bibles to Micah 6:8. 

This is a verse that brought me much comfort during my existential angst back-of-hand-to-brow years. I had pretty much soured on all churches, but still derived some understandings and some heart glow from this verse in Micah. 

The latter part of that verse: "what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" gave me direction..

I read that and thought, okay, I can do this or at least keep at it as a spiritual practice. All that is required is to do justly (heck, I learned that in the scouts -- Scout Law: A scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.), to love mercy (that's a deep one, I'm still understanding what that means), and to walk humbly with thy God (a continuous practice).

That latter one snags a lot of people who think of God as some kind of floaty creature out there who doesn't have the sense of a billy goat in heat and has screwed up the world something terrible. 

It didn't take me long to realize that what that ("God") means is my source, our Source (whether you capitalize It or not). The Great Mystery, The Wellspring, The Eternal Mother, Father, The One Who Breathes Us, The Original Kin.

And it doesn't say I have to walk humbly with people. I am only required to walk humbly with God. 

The rest takes care of itself.

Sufi Sunday at the Zen Baptist Church

"Today we have a visiting minister. A Sufi joins our Zen Baptist journey. I would like the congregation to welcome Nasruddin, who has the sermon for today. Take it away, Naz!"

"Thank you, George. How many of you here know what I am going to say?"

Silence. Then murmuring. Then finally a response. "None of us do."

"If you don't already know what I am going to say, then the situation is hopeless, and there is no need to proceed further. Back to you, George."  And Nasruddin sits down.

George stands up. "Well, that's it, folks. You had your chance and blew it."

"Wait! Wait! Please give us another try."

"Okay," says Nasruddin. How many of you here know what I am going to say?"

"We all do!" they exclaimed.

"Then I need say nothing." And Nasruddin sits back down.

Now the people are starting to get into this thing. They had been sitting like empty vessels waiting to be filled, for Nasruddin to unscrew their tops and pour clear wisdom into their containers. Now they are getting a little riled up and beginning to be who they really are. Some are grinning. Some are perplexed. Some a little angry.

They confer amongst themselves.

"Give us one more try," they say.

"Okay," says Nasruddin. "How many of you here know what I am going to say?"

"Some of us do and some of us don't!" was the instant reply.

"Fine," says Nasruddin, "Let those who know tell the others."

And he and George walk out into the sunshine and the beautiful day singing one of their favorite songs (composed by their buddy Rumi), "Whoever brought me here will have to take me home."

the Bible

The Bible is the story, the mythos, the journeying of my own soul. It tells of internal dynamics. All its voices are the voices within me, within us. The soul's struggles with being born, its journeyings toward understanding, embroil within its pages.

The Bible is not about "out there." The Bible is about "in here." A delicate yet profound truth is that in here is out there, but out there is not in here. Out there cannot touch in here, but in here continuously touches and transforms out there.

Amen, Selah, and Yes Indeed.

gate way

"Lift up your heads, O ye gates!" (Psalm 24:7)

Stop just plowing along on the horizontal. Open to the vertical.
Lift up your spiritual head. Aspire to the Above!

You are a gate between two worlds, two fields. You are a gateway to the Divine.

Be a gateless gate. Come unhinged.
Drop the snug little identity you have created for yourself,
your little cocoon of self satisfaction.

Open to Full Awareness! Allow the visible and the invisible,
the physical and the spiritual, the exoteric and the esoteric to be as one!

Lift up your heads, O ye gates!

consigned

"For God has consigned all men to disobedience so that He may show mercy to all." (Romans 11:32)

I know this verse is conventionally interpreted with the focus on the latter part of the verse: God's mercy.  I understand that and greatly appreciate the mercy of the Cosmos, of the Tao, of the Source, of God.

Yet, when one reads these words without the supporting frame of conventional Christian doctrine, they portray a quite different scenario. We humans are CONSIGNED to disobedience. Why? So God may have the quality of mercy. Without us, God could not be merciful. Our disobedience (to which we have been consigned) is essential for the bringing into existence of a distinct quality of God. In other words, we are co-creators of God and with God.

Much has been made in literature and plays and movies and sermons and poetry of "The Fall" of humankind as an explanation for our situation.   This is not just a Christian motif, but can be found worldwide across cultures.

But if we rely on this verse as stating a truth, whether we call it a fall or disobedience, we are serving an important role in the Cosmos. Through our very nature, consigned or no, we call mercy into existence.

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.