Religion involves beliefs
and organization/institution/hierarchy.
Spirituality involves inner experience
of transformative guidance of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit may show up as the ageless guardians
that manifest themselves on the Hero’s Journey
reassuring the hero that the Paradise
they knew in the womb
will be there at the end.
Alpha and Omega are real.
The Buddha’s disciples were upset
his life was ending, but Buddha said
“My physical body being with you
is not important – if you have my teaching
the Dharma, I am always with you.”
And Christ is always with us through the Gospels.
Institutional religion has given us three misconceptions
about shadow: that shadow is evil/
focussing on your shadow is navel-gazing/
and if I get in touch with my shadow
it will dictate my life.
However, the opposite is true:
greater awareness of shadow means
the more you integrate it into
your ethics/values/freedom.
Acting negatively comes from unconsciousness.
The “fall” took humans upwards
into higher/broader/more complex
states of consciousness –
the emergence of free will
and therefore of evil
is in the fossil records
of a more complex neocortex.
But fossil science eventually stripped humanity
of a God who is personal and intervenes
that is, a God who takes action in the world.
The god who was left was at best
a soulless/mechanistic/Newtonian god of the law:
obey and be blessed
sin and be condemned.
But you transcend Newton
when you live out of your soul, your True Self
which is bigger than every-day-you –
you know you belong to God and the universe
and all claims of exclusivity and superiority fall away.
You no longer need to work to be important –
you are intrinsically important
and it all has been ‘done unto you’ as with Mary.
Faith is not about believing unbelievable things
or renouncing rationality. It allows you to suspend
your dualistic mind so you see
holistically/inclusively/intuitively.
But if you do not return to reason
you become a mystifier, not a true mystic.
True mystics are political as well as mystical
and learn to use the great tool of constructive argument
that allows educational/political/religious communities
to passionately yet rationally discuss significant ideas.
When your heart is open you want to be fully human
and take care of others – then you discover that
beyond pleasant and unpleasant/
good or bad/hope or fear/disgrace or fame
there is an immense sense of unconditional well-being.
Self-worth is not created, it is discovered –
you are already worthy
and ‘erotic,’ that is, ‘related in love’ –
everyone is born related in love:
eroticism is broader than sexuality –
we are all naturally erotic.
Christ was fully erotic
that is, totally related in love to all people
to the point of dying for all
and the Holy Spirit, in ways unknown
makes the erotic passion of Christ
the Paschal Mystery
accessible to all, so that through Christ
all are saved.
The ultimate vocation/calling/destiny
of all humans
is to be divine and one.
Intelligent Christian Spirituality 