The Joy of Thoughtless Awareness

I got up just before sunrise this morning to meditate. It was calm, peaceful and silent. It’s an amazing experience at that time of the morning to really listen to nature coming awake.  Suddenly, in synchronized harmony with the first burst of sunlight, birds begin to sing. Not all at once, but gradually, like a movement in a symphony that begins with a solo instrument and builds to the full orchestra. The birds announce the arrival of light.

As I listened to the birds’ song in the peaceful state of thoughtless awareness that is the fulfillment of meditation, I was vividly aware that the birds and I are inextricably linked with one life. We share this one life through different perspectives and appearances. We are not experiencing different separate lives - but rather one life through different expression.

ONE LIFE - NO FEAR

When this is experienced - there is no fear.
There is no question of evil or sense of insecurity.
It is as if everything is complete right now just as it is.

Last night I went to a Sahaja Meditation meeting in Cincinnati.  As I meditated with those people from diverse races and backgrounds there is the same sense of completeness and sense of unity of life that I experienced with the birds this morning. It is not a communion in the religious sense; where our common practice unites us, but rather the practice reveals what is always the case but hidden from us by our self-centred acquisitive minds.

REALITY IN PRACTICE

Meditation is the purest expression of the full experience of living that I’ve ever known. The beauty of it is that it does not require any system of learned belief - it is a practice that can be tried and proven without having to acknowledge or accept strange or unfamiliar dogmas as a pre-requisite. The practice itself reveals reality - and there is no compulsion to argue about it with others or threaten others with the consequences of non-practice!

For over 30 years I had searched through every religion known to man to try to possess the truth - to try and hold onto what I was told and understood about God and reality. But I did not find it to be true to my experience - the God I intuitively know is different than the God described in “other people’s mail” that is traditional religion.

At the beginning of this year I made a commitment (I hesitate to say “resolution”) to commit to cease struggling with the truths of this and that religion, and to begin the earnest practicing of Meditation, and at the time, in the back of my mind, I was concerned that I’d lose interest or that I’d lose patience because of “lack of results” (as if there is something to be achieved!!).

But, I have found Meditation to be wonderful, fulfilling and surprisingly easy to practice.

It’s been wonderful to realize that by practicing Meditation instead of religion - I’ve gained something more fulfilling than both - LIFE.

The Case of the Buddha and the Alabaster Jar

(map of the "Silk Road")

"Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment."

- The Gospel of John Chapter 12 Verse 3 (KJV)

 

TRUTH BY WAY OF THE SILK ROAD


As a student of comparative religion I have always been fascinated by the similarities between the recorded sayings of Jesus and those of Shakyamuni Buddha. i.e. both spoke in parables, some like the parable of the "Lost Son," having similar titles and themes. Both sets of sayings and parables being recorded after the fact, recalled from the devoted memories of followers and witnesses to their physical earthly presence.

WHO CAME FIRST?

However, what puzzled me is that Buddha lived about 500 years before Christ - but when I would ask "knowledgeable" Christians if it were possible that Jesus could have been inspired by Buddha's teachings, I would be greeted with accusations of adopting "New Age" speculation, or more positively, more historically educated Christians would tell me that it was likely that the stories of Jesus would have spread and been blended with the oral traditions of Buddhism and Hinduism over the years. Good answer, I thought. 


Then one day I was reading the Gospel According to St. John in the King James Version (rarely used these days) and I came across a reference to an ointment called "Spikenard" in Chapter 12 verse 3. - a Bible commentary resource offered an interesting description.

"(Heb. nerd), a much-valued perfume (Cant. 1:12; 4:13, 14). It was "very precious", i.e., very costly (Mark 14:3; John 12:3,5). It is the root of an Indian plant, the Nardostachys jatamansi, of the family of Valeriance, growing on the Himalaya mountains" - from Net.Bible


Further investigation revealed more about Spikenard's presence in ancient Egypt and Palestine as an imported spice from the foothills of the Himalayas - specifically from the area of Nepal (the birthplace of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha). Even more interesting is the historical evidence that the early traders of silk and spices that traversed the so-called 7,000 mile Silk Road were Buddhist monks during the period from the 3rd century B.C.E. to 1st Century C.E.

Given the tremendous grueling effort of the monk-merchants to make the harrowing journey - it would seem very likely that they might have exposed willing listeners to the teachings of the Buddha all along their route - much like the Apostle Paul did during his missionary journeys. Especially since the entire middle-east was living in expectation of the arrival of a Messiah, and Prophets were found on nearly every street corner proclaiming new "teachings" or revelations from God.


SPICY TALES

Very enthusiastic Christians have tried to persuade me that it was the teachings of Jesus that the monks brought back to Nepal that inspired the Sutras of Buddha - but given that there is no specific historical reference to Christianity being found in Asia prior to 54 A.D., with the arrival of St. Thomas in India - I strongly suspect that it is more likely that the reverse is more likely, and that Jesus was inspired by the teachings of this Buddha and his itinerant Monks from far away. Thus, when Thomas arrived in India his teachings were not seen as strange or abstract, but merely a re-presentation of what everyone already knew.

Take these thoughts for what they're worth - I find the subject fascinating......


Here's one of the Parables of Buddha - see if you don't think it sounds familiar in some ways

THE WEALTHY MAN AND THE POOR SON 

(From The Lotus Sutra - Chapter 4)
 

"It is like the case of a boy who.
When still young without understanding,
abandoned his father and ran away,
going far off to another land,
drifting from one country to another
for over fifty years,
his father, distressed in thought,
searched for him in every direction
till, worn out with searching,
he halted in a certain city.
There he built a dwelling
where he could indulge the five desires.
His house was large and costly,
with quantities of gold, silver,
seashell, agate,
pearls, lapis lazuli,
elephants, horses, oxen goats,
palanquins, and carriages,
fields for farming, menservants, grooms,
and other people in great number.
He engaged in profitable ventures
at home and in all the lands around,
and had merchants and traveling vendors
stationed everywhere.
Thousands, ten thousands, millions
surrounded him and paid reverence;
he enjoyed the constant favor
and consideration of the ruler.
The officials and power clans
all joined in paying him honor,
and those who for one reason or another
flocked about him were many.
Such was his vast wealth,
the great power and influence he possessed.
But as he grew old an decrepit
he recalled his son with greater distress than ever,
day and night thinking of nothing else:
"Now the time of my death draws hear.
Over fifty years have passed
since that foolish boy abandoned me.
My storehouses full of goods-
what will become of them?"
At this time the impoverished son
was searching for food and clothing,
going from village to village,
from country to country,
sometimes finding something,
other times finding nothing,
starving and emaciated,
his body broken out in sores and ring worm.
As he moved from place to place
he arrived in time at the city where his father lived,
shifting from one job to another
until he came to his father's house.

At that time the rich man
had spread a large jeweled canopy
inside his gate
and was seated on a lion throne,
surrounded by his dependents
and various attendants and guards.
Some were counting out
gold, silver, and precious objects,
or recording in ledgers
the outlay and income of wealth.
The impoverished son, observing
how eminent and distinguished His father was,
supposed he must be the king of a country
or the equal of a king.
Alarmed and full of wonder,
he asked himself why he had come here.
Secretly he thought to himself,
if I linger here for long
I will perhaps be seized
and pressed into service!
Once this thought had occurred to him,
he raced from the spot,
and inquiring where there was a poor village,
went there in hopes of gaining employment.
The rich man at the time,
seated on his lion throne,
saw his son in the distance
and silently recognized who he was.
Immediately he instructed a messenger
to hurry after him and bring him back.
The impoverished son, crying out in terror,
sank to the ground in distress.
"This man has seized me
and is surely going to put me to death!
To think that my search for food and clothing
should bring me to this!"
The rich man knew that his son
was ignorant and self-abasing.

"He will never believe my words,
will never believe I am his father."
So he employed an expedient means,
sending some other men to the son,
a one-eyed man, another puny and uncouth,
completely lacking in imposing appearance,
saying, "Speak to him
and tell him I will employ him
to remove excrement and filth,
and will pay him twice the regular wage."
When the impoverished son heard this
he was delighted and came with the messengers
and worked to clear away excrement and filth
and clean the rooms of the house.
From the window the rich man
would constantly observe his son,
thinking how his son was ignorant and self-abasing
and delighted in such menial labor.
At such times the rich man
would put on dirty ragged clothing,
take in hand a utensil for removing excrement
and go to where his son was,
using this expedient means to approach him,
encouraging him to work diligently.
"I have increased your wages
and given you oil to rub on your feet.
I will see that you have plenty to eat and drink,
mats and bedding that are thick and warm."
At times he would speak severely:
"You must work hard!"
Or again he will say in a gentle voice,
"You are like a son to me."
The rich man, being wise,
gradually permitted his son to come and go in the house.
After twenty years had passed,
he put him in charge of household affairs,
showing him his gold, silver,
pearls, crystal,
and the other things that were handed out or gathered in,
so that he would understand all about them,
though the son continued to live outside the gate,
sleeping in a hut of grass,
for he looked upon himself as poor,
thinking, "None of these things are mine."
The father knew that his son's outlook
was gradually becoming broader and more magnanimous,
and wishing to hand over his wealth and goods,
he called together his relatives,
the king of the country and the high ministers,
the noblemen and householders.
In the presence of this great assembly
he declared, "This is my son
who abandoned me and wandered abroad
for a period of fifty years.
Since I found him again,
twenty years have gone by.
Long ago, in such-and-such a city,
when I lost my son,
I traveled all around searching for him
until eventually I came here.
All that I possess,
my house and people,
I hand over entirely to him
so he may do with them as he wishes."
The son thought now in the past he had been poor,
humble and self-abasing in outlook,
but now he had received from his father
this huge bequest of rare treasures,
along with the father's house
and all his wealth and goods.
He was filled with great joy,
having gained what he never had before.
The Buddha too is like this.
He knows our fondness for the petty,
and so he never told us,
"You can attain Buddhahood."

- Lotus Sutra, Burton Watson Translation

The Self-Created Narrow Way

I think that there are a lot of people like me out there.

People who had no childhood spiritual roots, from a family and peer group that was agnostic or who at best considered religion as irrelevant to life.

Yet, during a formative period in life, I had a very real, spiritual experience that left me wanting more. Seeing in that brief spiritual “encounter" more joy and sensing an awareness of reality that goes beyond description - I felt like a man who had discovered buried treasure, but had forgotten where it was and how to find it again.

So, I have lived my life with this sense of spiritual longing in the background - like an itch that I can’t reach.

My first response to my “glimpse” of reality was to explore religion. That may have been the first of many mistakes I made in my search for the “Truth.”

THEY SEEK IT HERE - THEY SEEK IT THERE


Naturally I was at first drawn to “exotic” religions - having no familiarity with the religion of my own culture beyond that of a few negative experiences from Church Sunday School.

So I began a search through almost every religion and philosophy that I could get my hands on - and I stand here today - with a lot of relatively useless knowledge about so many religions and a fairly deep understanding of most of the meaning behind so many religious practices and spiritual disciplines.

All of this means virtually nothing when it comes to making a comparison to my original experience that engendered the search. The knowledge does not make the experience. In fact, it could easily be argued that the knowledge that I have actually inhibits the chance of having the experience again.

I had made the search difficult by my own decisions and I had created a mountain path of my own invention that I could not climb by natural means.

My openness to spiritual reality - that I had at the time of my initial experience - has been seriously wounded by the Evangelical and Theological mindset that I adopted when I became a Christian. This ideal that there should be answers to everything. Doubt was never to be left unanswered; doubt was a springboard for expanding knowledge rather than an opportunity to explore or appreciate the mystery.

I have come to realize that only by living on the edge of doubt can I be open to the pure grace that is God’s gift. I can choose a belief, but a belief can block the truth just as easily as it can explain it.

NO MEMBERSHIP REQUIRED


A friend said it well - no institution can ever bring wholeness.

God’s salvation, based on unconditional love, must be world-embracing or it is not worthy of God.

My only chance of experiencing peace and contentment in my life is to totally trust that God is in control of his own creation. That is exactly the sense of well-being that was at the root of my initial experience. That all is well and that life is good as it is. I can’t make that happen - it can only be received as an act of grace in response to the total acceptance of reality.  

I realized quite recently that truth does not require membership.

A Growing Commitment to Reality

"It is very difficult to try to determine what it is that makes a person want to meditate. It has puzzled me over the years. There seem to be so many reasons why people start to meditate. But I think there is only one reason that keeps people meditating. That I think we could describe as a growing commitment to reality."

- from "The Way of Unknowing" by Dom John Main, Benedictine Monk

My first experience with Meditation was not what I had expected. I had no experience of visions, or “flashing lights” - it was quite ordinary and relatively easy. I was drawn to it because of the Beatles’ focused interest in it back in 1967 - as a means of reaching an altered state of consciousness without the influence of drugs. Unlike many of my peers though, I stuck with it, even though for years I did it "incorrectly," or practiced ineffectively. It wasn't a daily practice - although I tried to be disciplined about it. 

My interest in Meditation expanded to an interest in religion, as I began to question life's "meaning" and sought a "purpose" for everything. Religion seemed to give answers to difficult questions and provided a means of finding value for life. 

UNORGANIZED RELIGION

"I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members." - Groucho Marx

Just recently (in the past nine months) - I have found that I do not fit the mold of any institutional form of religion. I have really tried to be Orthodox - to be obedient to the formulas of the Church and other religious authority, but I see too much, and experience too much, of the natural human desire for control within these institutions; where the principals that were first developed to preserve the truth, have become the very means of its distortion. In my own opinion, I think that many of the rules and regulations of the various religious organizations are the result of an attempt to "lock down" reality into a desired formula. When those who lack the REAL personal "experience" of God or Spirit are placed in positions of leadership - there is a natural tendency to want to define truth in concrete terms.

Over the past couple of weeks - while away from home on vacation - I've been looking at the practical aspects of spiritual practice - not as a means of attainment, but as the means of "experiencing" reality. I do not feel distant from God as I once did - I no longer experience any space between God and Creation. I hasten to point out that I'm not a pantheist. Rather, I have become firm in a position as a Panentheist. God is not equal with creation - which is pantheism, rather I see God as containing all - all is in God.

Although I am unable to JOIN any particular religious group or order - I find myself able to appreciate them all when I see that which is consistent among them. 

NO RESOLUTIONS - JUST RESOLVE

"The longer you meditate, the the longer you persevere through the difficulties and false starts, then the clearer it becomes to you that you have to continue if you are going to lead your life in a meaningful and profound way. You must never forget the way of meditation: to say your mantra from the beginning to the end. This is basic, axiomatic, and let nothing dissuade you from the truth of it. In your reading you may come across all sorts of variants and alternatives. But the discipline, the ascesis of meditation places this one demand on us absolutely: that we must leave self behind so completely that we can be totally at the disposition of the Other. We must do so in an absolute way and that is the demand that the mantra makes upon us: to say it from beginning to the end, in all simplicity and in absolute fidelity.”

- from "The Way of Unknowing" by Dom John Main, Benedictine Monk

I'm not one for making New Year’s resolutions or vows - but I do like to make commitments to transformation for the better.  So I've come home to that which was the foundation of all my seeking - the practice of Meditation. It has been the one constant in a life of seemingly endless searching and seeking which I've determined has come to an end. There is no religion that does not fall short of its own definition of reality. 

As John Main astutely observes: the practice of Meditation places one absolute demand on us, and that is: "we must leave self behind so completely that we can be totally at the disposition of the Other.”

2010 is the year for Meditation - for experiencing more of this wonderful reality that is complete, as it is.   HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

There's no U in This!

"The mind says 'to get rid of this feeling of incompleteness, I must find answers.' 


And so can you see how this actually maintains the feeling of incompleteness? 

In reality, there is no incompleteness there, that's just a story, a belief. And really the incompleteness is your search for answers! Can you hear this?"

- Jeff Foster, Life Without A Centre, p.87

IN THE SHADOW OF DOUBT

I used to be a straightforward, if not traditional, "believer."

God was outside the world - as the primary Cause and Sustainer of everything. I used my "faith" to make intercession through prayer for people and things that I cared about. I prayed for change in myself and circumstances, and I really believed that God heard and interceded. I thought that my prayers really made a difference. In certain cases, prayers did work - they worked on me to change my thinking.

Believers do not acknowledge that they live in the shadow of doubt. They place their trust in a set of rules or "agreed-upon" understandings that others have passed onto them through traditions and the recorded memories of an ancient people.

But I am no longer a believer because "belief" is to deny the obvious nature of reality. Reality does not agree to pre-defined interpretations - reality is just things as they are.

Beliefs limit the changeable nature of real life. Beliefs do not determine the truth - they merely describe our preferred interpretation of reality.

THE SENSE OF SEPARATION

Religions are one of the solutions that man has devised to address the symptoms of a deeply felt sense of separation that we feel within ourselves. Other solutions are not so obvious; involving obsessions that do not seem so "healthy." Alcoholism, Workaholism, Drugs, Sex, Gambling, and other actions that seek to totally absorb our sense of "self." All are attempts to end this unrelenting awareness of being incomplete.

Religion drives the believer to seek salvation, or liberation. In this liberation is seen future fulfillment, so begins the earnest drive to attain that which will fulfill. In this "path to the truth," the believer finds temporary relief from suffering by momentary acts of surrender, found through periods of deep meditative prayer or contemplation - but still the persistent sense of lack continues.

Some of us went deeper into the search - believing that it was a matter of finding the "Right" religion or, by practicing our chosen religion in a more "Orthodox" or diligent way. But, ultimately, this led to a deeper awareness of the apparent separation. We read this as a sign of spiritual progress - we thought we had become more aware of the spiritual divide between man and God. More self-denial and self-sacrifice was necessary. The sense of lack grew as the path became steeper....... it seemed like an endless journey or one that could not be fulfilled in this lifetime. We did not lose hope at this, because religion had an answer for this apparent deepening longing for wholeness; we are on a spiritual journey to an eternal life beyond this one - where there is closeness to God, eternal fulfillment.  A fulfilled destiny is the promised hope of religion.

THE GREAT (SURPRISE) AWAKENING

Some of us -  perhaps as a result of the futility of our earnest search and perhaps by a pure act of grace (an event with no purpose) - became aware of the perfectly obvious.


The sense of separation is not fulfilled by spiritual seeking - it is fueled by it!!!


Our mind tells us that we are on a journey through time - but if we really look deeply into this without judgement, we can see that it is an illusion that we have created and maintain. Our egoic-mind filters the information that it receives through our senses and uses this distorted view as a means of self-preservation.

• - The whole universe appears to be on a journey to completeness:
• - Planets revolve, as if they are wheels moving toward a destination.
• - Gravity pulls and holds as if to fulfill a purpose.
• - Flowers stretch upward toward the sunlight - as if they are trying to get closer.
• - Life appears to evolve to higher forms of itself

All of this appears to have a meaning, but it can have no meaning other than that which we think we decide.  We are lead to believe by our thoughts that life is a journey with a sublime purpose, but we are mistaken - because reality is always a full-on present existence right here and right now. The idea that our lives are heading somewhere sometime in the future is a trick of our imagination. Where else could it go? Time is not real, but an imagined process. Nothing happens anywhere but in the present.


BUT WHAT ABOUT GOD, THE BIBLE, AND EVERYTHING?

The religious books are full of pointers to nondual reality. For example, let's look at "The Parable of the Lost Son," one of the most beloved stories from the New Testament found in St. Luke 15:11-32 - the words in italics are my commentary.

"There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them.

The parable does not share the background motive for the younger son’s demands – could it be the drive for fulfillment, or happiness – that he thought was elsewhere?

 "Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.


His seeking of fulfillment elsewhere turned into the experience of greater lack – he did not find what he was looking for – only more dissatisfaction.


 "When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.' So he got up and went to his father. 


      "But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.


“he came to his senses” – in other words, he became aware of reality and accepted that happiness was not elsewhere – the fulfillment that he sought was where he had started. What he sought was what he already had, in the presence of the Father.


Religion focuses on the journey of repentance – the path of earning back, or restoring the Father’s approval. However, consider the significance of the last few well-chosen words of this passage:


"I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.' So he got up and went to his father. 
 
     "But while he was still a long way off…..


In other words, the father had no expectations of behavior on the part of the prodigal son, … his return home was enough.


"The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'


"But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate.


Once again, the son tries to repent of his behavior – and again the Father’s UNCONDITIONAL love is revealed:  


"... But the father said....


 "Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 'Your brother has come,' he replied, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.'


  "The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!'


 " 'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' "


This last passage reveals the paradoxical truth of nondual reality – we are never separated from love, the source of our lives – everything we have is already here. The fulfillment of our seeking is in the realization that what we seek is already the case. It is the very act of seeking for it that causes the dissatisfaction! The prodigal son was lost only in his own delusion – the end of his seeking was his finding. Like the older son, our first reaction when we discover our true nature may be anger, or frustration - because it seems so unfair when we have been so diligent in our seeking - but our discovery should be a reason for celebration.

Thoughts of a Non-Denominational Human

The other day I was flipping through some of my old journals and found this. I wrote it a few years ago - perhaps as a chapter of a "some day in the future" book....... enjoy..
   
Let me begin by saying that what follows is not a basis for forming a religion, cult or organization in the future. When my words leave my mouth - they should go to your ears - be processed, and interpreted by your brain and you should decide then and there whether you accept them or not. To reject them is just as valid as to accept them - there is no middle ground. I either speak the truth or I do not.

What I want to share is my understanding of reality - not that you should adopt it, but so that you can use if for a springboard for the development of your own understanding.

Everything that we hear, see, or read is interpreted by our thought patterns that have developed over the years through observation and evaluation. Usually we validate all things by something that preceded them. Truth cannot be new - it is always a re-statement or re-cognition of something that has preceded it. One cannot really "discover" a new truth - they can only re-interpret what already is.

If you're anything like me - you were raised with the idea that there is a purpose for our lives that we must seek in order to find. For some of us it may be a calling or vocation - others may just seek to better themselves and live a happy life. In all cases we are programmed by our culture that there is something that we must attain - something apart from us that requires effort on our part to reach fulfillment. No more is this apparent than in the search for spiritual awakening or enlightenment, or to use the more traditional term; salvation.

THE ENDLESS PATH OF SEEKING

The first point of departure is usually some sort of seeking - these days it's via web or via the library - to review our options. We also start attending various religious meetings and gatherings to see what they have to say. Each of them usually present a sincerely intentioned view of reality and solicit some sort of belief that what they say is true. Usually some kind of commitment is necessary in order to be fully included.

I have spent what is now the majority of my life seeking and finding - rejecting, then seeking and finding - and rejecting again, along all the spiritual paths in search of fulfillment of this longing to be complete as a human being.

I have had many false starts - I enter a path - join a religion, and find after a few months or years, that the religion is offering only more confusion and creating more obstacles in my path that create distance between me and the goal of my search. All kinds of hoops and ladders require my attention in order to get to the right level of acceptance within the community.

What I've discovered through all my searching is that all religions teach love, compassion and forgiveness. All religions teach that their founder is the perfect expression of the virtues of the practice - yet all members of the religion fall far short of the virtues of the founder, and rather turn the message of hope, love and fulfillment, into a means of dividing one group of people from all others. Each one has "scriptural proof" that all the others are false or corrupted.

So, I've come to the conclusion that although seeking is a good thing - the finding is a problem.

THE REVELATION OF SEEKING

Seeking has revealed a few things to me:

Seeking:

• Reveals that I have a sense of lack in my life.   
• Stirs a sense of longing within me.   
• Evokes mysterious recollections of how things should be - as if I already know.   
• Draws me back to someplace that I'm not aware of having been before.   
• Implies that there is distance between me and that which I seek.   
• Creates a sense of fear of failure, or purposelessness.   
• That I fall short of my own expectations that I unrealistically define.   
• That the mind, emotions and senses cannot be trusted. 

Shaykh Idries Shah has a wonderful saying:

"People seeking mystical attainment expect it on their own terms, and hence generally exclude themselves from it before they start. Nobody can hope to arrive at illumination if he thinks that he knows what it is, and believes that he can achieve it through a well-defined path which he can conceive at the moment of starting."

- Shaykh Idries Shah - The Sufis

Christianity, of which I am most familiar, is a religion about transformation of character - the traditional and quite beautiful message of Christianity is that Jesus Christ, both God and Man, chose to incarnate and die a sacrificial death in order to re-establish the pure divine nature in mankind that had been damaged and splintered by the sins of our primary ancestors - the mythical prototypes of humanity, called Adam and Eve. The uncreated, eternal and timeless God entered time to restore all things.

When I read the words of Christ - recorded a few decades after the event - I hear in them the loud announcement that heaven (the divine world) has come to earth - it is at hand - it is in our reach - it is here.

"The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand"

- Mark 1:15

The words of the "greatest" Apostles tell us:

"For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

- St. Paul, Epistle to the Romans Chap. 8:38-39

"Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust."

- St. Peter, Second Letter to the Syriacs, Chap 1:3-4 

When I read those words it seems to me that the Apostles were telling everyone that Jesus' manifestation had delivered everything, i.e. full salvation, or enlightenment to us, and that nothing can take it away from us. Yet, when I go to Church I hear that salvation is a process - that we must work toward it, strive for it.

The Church (that we know today) didn't really organize itself as we know it today until nearly the middle ages, some several hundred years after the events that the bible describes. Indeed, the Gospel accounts were written to support the churches and not the other way around.

So, is it possible that the bible and the teachings of Christianity do not reflect accurately the nature of the full teachings of Jesus? I'm not saying that they don't - I'm just raising the question.

Other religions have the same heritage. Their writings coming after their verbal expression, the writings support the traditions and not vice versa.

The purpose of these written works; these scriptures, appears to serve the thinking, questioning mind. To seek requires a tangible path to follow - a path built on written words is solid and indisputable.

I'd like to propose another possible way of looking at scripture. A way that doesn't deny them - but draws life from them.

What if we viewed scripture as an interpretation of the founder's words?

The words, instead of becoming dogma, then become the words that were recorded through the mind of another - just as you might be recording and processing my words - interpreting the meaning for you personally.

Thus a Christian should be a follower of the intentions of Christ - and not a follower of the bible's interpretations of Christ. I propose that the intentions of Christ are found clearly expressed through the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount and in his interactions with others found in the gospel accounts.

How can I assume to understand the intentions of Christ? Is this presumption on my part?

Yes and No.

Yes, it's presumptuous on my part if I do it from my own volition.

No, however, if Jesus has promised that on his departure from our plane of existence that the Holy Spirit would complete his work and provide guidance for his followers.

True faith then would make it seem natural to let go of my own efforts and trust the Holy Spirit to guide the outcome of my well-intentioned actions. Religion in its traditional rule-keeping role then becomes unnecessary.

THE GOOD NEWS OF THE PRESENT MOMENT

All throughout Christian scripture there is the description of the element of process; gradual transformation from one state of being to another. Even Jesus is portrayed as "growing in wisdom" (Luke 2:52) and as "becoming" the source of salvation (Hebrews 5:9). Reality is always present - the Truth is not somewhere else that we have to go get it - it is always right here and right now. The process is not a movement but a coming into the ever present moment.

Did Jesus become the Son of God or was He always the Son of God?

This was a discussion that caused a lot of suffering and confusion during the first few centuries after Christ. The church councils decided that He was ALWAYS the Son of God; of the same nature as the Father.

Although I do not profess to know the answer to the debated question - I do agree with their decision - because, in reality, there can be no such thing as time; past, present and future - everything happens now. So in describing God, there can be no progression or expansion - logically that which defines perfection itself can have no process of improvement. The only thing about Jesus that changed over time was His awareness of his nature. In this I can see how we are created in the image of God. Imminently possessing the nature of God but unaware.

Jesus, in fact, quoted Psalm 82 when He said: "Has it not been written in your Law, 'I SAID, YOU ARE GODS'?" - John 10:34

Here's perhaps an alternate view of Christianity for you to consider:

Did Jesus became one of us that we might come to know that we are united (at One) with Him?


Is this the "at-one-ment" of salvation?

..... to be continued ......