Category: religion

THE GREAT REVERSAL

There was a development from first generation Christians who

focused on the special relationship of Jesus to God

to second generation Christians who

to counter growing Gnosticism

focused on Jesus as the Cosmic Christ 

as the only way to redemption

the kingdom/queendom/kindom of God

is available to us here and now 

because Jesus is the door 

thru which we enter the kingdom/salvation/life everlasting

and we do not go to the kingdom – the kingdom comes to us –

since Jesus not only is the door – he stands at the door/knocks/and asks

will we let “Thy kingdom come” to us?

this is the Great Reversal: Jesus showed us 

we cannot deduce anything about Jesus

from speculation about God – everything about God

must come from what we know about Jesus 

Jesus unconditionally accepts sinners –

he does not condemn them

but gives them a strong challenge: 

he will not tolerate 

objectively destructive behaviour that ruins people

therefore repentance – turning from sin –

is the key to Christ’s door 

of a new beginning –

Jesus unconditionally accepts sinners

but does not unconditionally accept their sin

“Besides the ‘Communion of Saints’

we should also affirm the ‘Communion of Sinners’

since all of us firmly belong to both groups”

– Richard Rohr

“God says ‘Abide in me, abide in my love,

make your home in the love 

of the homemaking God

and you will bear much fruit’”

– Canadian folk music legend 

Bruce Cockburn

THE PARADOXICAL GOOD NEWS

The deeper and wider our knowledge of God

the greater our love of God

 

but Christians tend to limit love to humans

and not see it in other species or in the universe itself

therefore we focus on inner love and outer darkness

another classic duality/division in our thinking

 

true nondual language is paradoxical

like a Zen koan – “I am different from all others

yet the same as them” – this is true in life

because life itself is paradoxical


and even though Christianity stands or falls on Christology

we couldn’t handle the paradox of Christ:

both human and God – and so we spiritualized Jesus –

we couldn’t handle the humanity of Jesus

like the docetist heretics – so we made Jesus into pure God

rather than the God/human

and we made salvation totally spiritual

so that Christianity had only a limited impact on the world

and we didn’t have to change – so far

 

but when we divorce theology from cosmology

we get just an idea of God

rather than the living God

and there exists a tremendous gap

between the transcendent/religious dimension

and the material/science dimension of life –

life becomes divided against itself

 

but contemplation opens our dualistic minds

to the paradoxical Good News

of intelligent Christian spirituality:

our fulfillment/salvation is received not achieved

but we have to work out our salvation

with fear and trembling

“for it is God who works in you

both to will and to work

for God’s good pleasure”

Philippians 2: 12-13.

 

FALLING AND RISING CONSCIOUSNESS

 

If there is such a thing, “original sin” would be the fall

of the human person from contemplative union with God

and “kyriarchy” would be the fall from union with others –

it is “lordship” – it goes beyond male patriarchy –

white women have lorded it over

both black women and black men for centuries –

lordship is a deeper problem than patriarchy

 

Ken Wilber’s Integral Vision has color-coded levels

of consciousness that explain all our falls and risings

and cause us to interpret divine beings differently

depending on our level:

red: the magic Jesus

amber: Jesus the lawgiver

orange: Jesus the world wisdom teacher

green: Jesus the savior through multiple paths

turquoise: Christ-consciousness in all people

violet: Jesus the Eternal Self beyond all suffering

 

similarly, the Enneagram, a powerful tool for alleviating suffering

distinguishes three different types of human beings:

gut/sexual

heart/social

head/self-preserving

who develop/grow/love in different ways

 

since love is the drawing and driving force

which activates and empowers the universe

it is seemingly contradicted

by “survival of the fittest”

plus nature’s other ways of being violent:

volcanoes/hurricanes/tornadoes/earthquakes –

but love is not always a purely positive force –

it often involves suffering in its movement

towards greater wholeness/greater being

 

in all our ordinary activities

sin and grace contend

so what we need is sober realism

rooted in the hope the Holy Spirit gives us

rather than naïve optimism – we need to:

despite trying family problems exercise charity

despite deadening routine find meaning

despite the frustrations of daily life nurture contemplation

despite powerful oppressive systems work for justice.

MANIFEST TRANSFORMATION

Buddhists talk about rebirth not reincarnation

but things are not born nor do they die –

they are manifest/remanifest/transformed –

flowers are manifest (latent) within sun/soil/rain/seed

remanifest in flowers of stunning creativity/color

transformed into soil when they wither –

reality contains no birth/death/being/nonbeing/

no something out of nothing/no nothing out of something

things are always everywhere all at once

 

but things do emerge – the new paradigm/scientific story

of the universe expands our imagination/causes us to let go

of anthropocentric views of God and humans

allowing us to embrace the entire cosmos

 

we all emerge as apprentices – we learn everything we do

by imitation: smiling/laughing/walking/eating/feeling

 

“We all long to be filled with endless joy and bliss

for we are made for this”

– Julian of Norwich

 

we all long for the happiness

the Beatitudes of Jesus made manifest

and God is the only one who can remanifest us in bliss

 

in the Incarnation God completes what God began

with the creation of the cosmos

and crowns it with eternal significance –

the Incarnation is the realization

of what is manifest in human nature –

union with God

 

in the Second Vatican Council the Catholic Church

reminded us the Holy Spirit

is active in the whole world/cosmos –

in all religions/art/science/technology/politics

and most of all in peoples’ consciences

where the still small voice of God

subtly transforms our minds/hearts/actions/

communities/civilizations

transforming hate into love

war into peace

that surpasses all understanding.

 

 

PROPHETS CRYING

In The Integral Vision, the greatest book of the 21st century

because it puts all knowledge together in a single system,

Ken Wilber asserts that all human potential

can be simplified to five essential elements:

quadrants (I/We/It/Its)/ levels (of consciousness)/

lines (of development)/states (of experience)/

types (of personality) which are existential realities

not theoretical concepts – we can experience all of them

 

similarly, all Christology has to be experiential

not just academic because prophetess Ilia Delio claims

all mystics arrive at a profound experience

of Christ in the universe – Christ experienced in daily life

as millions of believers testify

 

by the end of the 17th century our experience

of our place in the cosmos had radically shifted:

humans no longer occupied the center of the universe

and since spots were discovered on the surface of the sun

we knew the heavenly realm had blemishes

and so the heavenly and earthly realms

were no longer distinctly different –

there was no longer “a perfect realm up there”

versus “an imperfect realm down here”

 

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was a prophet

crying in the wilderness of a scientific/evolutionary age

“Make way for the Lord”

as well as a Desert Father

working lifelong in China’s vast deserts

telling us about new ways to look at Christ

which the Church had difficulty embracing

 

staunch Catholic tradition was unbroken/unbreakable

and behind/underlying/in front of contemporary Catholicism

Franciscans today carry on the tradition of St Francis of Assisi

and Catholic philosophers wrestle today

with similar problems to St Thomas Aquinas –

 spirituality and religion still search for the sacred

not ego-based values of health/happiness/success

but for a person/law/principle that transcends the self –

spirituality in the world but not of the world

not purely imminent pantheism nor purely transcendent theism

but imminent and transcendent panentheism –

prophets still cry for the human/God or God/human.

THE BROAD AND NARROW GATES

 In our scientific age “More than knowledge

that comes from research, we need wisdom

that comes from prayer” – William Johnston, SJ

 

“To know your origins is to know your True Self”

– Lao Tzu

 

“hell” is “perpetual alienation from the True Self” –

it is constantly living in the False Self

so that your whole life is false

 

the True Self is hidden in God

so that most of us don’t discover our origins

until we die –

“Broad is the gate that leads to destruction

and many enter through it;

narrow is the gate that leads to eternal life”

– Jesus in Matthew 7:13-14

 

to enter by the narrow gate/find eternal life

we must understand Teresa of Avila’s

first four mansions in her Interior Castle

which can be summarized by reference to the will:

First Mansion: will marked by self-indulgence

Second Mansion: will marked by spiritual growth

but not steadfastness

Third Mansion: will marked by beginning of resolution

Fourth Mansion: will marked by steadfast union

with the Divine Will in prayer

 

every day every one out of ignorance and fear

mentally or physically strikes out at “the enemy”

and so the pain in the world goes on –

before the broad gate of aggression we could rather ask

“Do I want war or peace in my inner and outer worlds?”

 

fear always fears

that what it loves will be taken away

regret always regrets

that what it loved was taken away

but nothing God loves

can be taken away from God –

so that if you are in God

there is nothing to fear or regret.

 

PARADOX AND PAROUSIA

Paradox allows us to understand realities too complex

to be explained from a single point of view –

it allows us to speak the whole truth by juxtaposing

two seemingly contradictory statements –

Jesus is both fully human and fully God

 

it is paradoxical that through deeply living/looking into

our own religion we become free/able

to deeply look into/listen to other traditions

and see the beauty in both

 

our worldview is not just a system of thought

but a way of imagining the world –

how it is and how it ought to be –

and it is prescriptive – it informs/is informed by

our actions in the world

 

“Nothing is just a part or a whole –

everything is both whole in itself

and a part of something bigger –

a ‘holon’ – an integral system” – Ken Wilber

 you are whole in yourself yet part of society

your religion is whole in itself yet

part of the world which is whole in itself yet

part of the solar system/galaxy/universe

 

although science is just beginning

to understand integral systems

the idea that everything is interconnected

has been around in mysticism

in every major world religion for millenia –

science is finally catching up/catching on

to religion – science and religion are becoming one

 

the New Testament writers did not run wild

with their interpretations of Jesus –

rather there was a gradual deepening of insights

into his Message and who He was

 

the “Parousia” – the coming “kindom” of God

is already here

just not fully developed yet –

we are in a time of decision and choice –

do we get the Message of Paradox

or not?

PERILS OF DUALISM

Brother Wayne Teasdale thought the unitive experience

found in all major religions

could form the common ground

for interreligious dialogue

 

on the other hand, dualistic thinking begets sin

since it divides up the oneness of life –

to sin is to separate yourself

from Earth/your true self/others/God

 

dualistic thinkers use knowledge –

even religious knowledge –

for ego-enhancement/shaming others

for their ignorance/controlling others

 

thank God healing is now holistic/unitive –

heal the whole family system

not just the individual who may be a “GOAT” –

not the “Greatest Of All Time”

but a “scapegoat” –

an outlet for the family’s sickness/dysfunctionality/rage

to flow to and through

 

all rage and even what we call the “wrath of God”

stems from falsely disconnecting natural and supernatural –

we only connect the two in so-called “acts of God” –

earthquakes/floods/avalanches/tsunamis –

this disconnection means the only “supernatural”

action is saying prayers

and social/Earth justice/transformation

are conveniently avoided as “secular”

 

dualistic thinking splits matter from spirit/

nature from grace/psychology from religion

when in fact they interweave

 

for example – every religious event

takes place in the “psyche”

which in Latin means “soul” –

there is an intrinsic religious factor

in every psychic development

but we have separated the soul from religion

and then we wonder why

religious institutions are in trouble!

 

BEING/EMPTYING VS SUFFERING

The Cross and Resurrection are the Christian solution

to the problem of evil – this is far more satisfying

than Carl Jung’s solution of making evil part of God

Zen Buddhists love the “kenosis” passage (Philippians 2:7)

where Christ empties himself – even to death –

death on a cross –

because Zen is all about emptying oneself 

of all attachments/passions/thoughts

and learning to just sit for hours or days

to “waste time with God”

as Christian monks call it –

like old friends who don’t need to speak

they just enjoy BEING together –

this is all God asks of us: “Please BE with me” –

“To just BE alive is sacred, to just BE is holy”

– Abraham Heschel

besides emptying, part and parcel of Zen  

is awareness of suffering

caused by peoples’ unmindful speech/inability to listen

Buddhists therefore vow 

to cultivate loving speech/deep listening 

that alleviates suffering

the intellectual nature of the human person 

is perfected by wisdom 

for the intellectual drive 

is not confined to observable data alone – 

wisdom gently leads all our drives 

beyond the visible world to what is invisible –

what is honestly true/honestly good

without this humble inner quest

without interior spiritual integration

even something as spiritual as a pilgrimage

can turn into a divisive/destructive/alienating journey

just as forsaking of self/emptying of ego 

unites you to God

so giving up external things

brings you peace.

EMPIRES OF IDEAS

In Carol Gilligan’s model of moral development

the order is: selfishness/care/universal care/integrated care –

the integration of masculine and feminine energies in the soul

 

dualism – separating things – causes us to project

our personal and social shadows onto goats –

scapegoats –

instead of integrating our shadow –

if all things are one, which they are –

you have to own your own shadow – you cannot escape it

 

the fact that nondualism is central to 3 major world religions –

Hinduism/Buddhism/Christianity –

and that Christianity taught it for 16 centuries –

“I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you”

(John 14:20) – proves that nondualism

is absolutely important

 

dualisms like spirit vs body/human vs animal/sacred vs secular

falsify the holism of life/nature/God – God works thru

both-and polarities

not either-or dualisms –

God is in the body/nature/secular

just as much as in the spirit/the human/the sacred

 

but atheists separate God and man – they cut God

out of the picture completely – as Wayne Dyer liked to say

EGO means Edging God Out –

the famous atheist Bertrand Russell

was even more cynical than John Calvin who professed

humanity’s “total depravity” –

Russell believed the soul’s foundation had to be built

on ironically soul-killing and unyielding despair

since every human accomplishment will be wiped out

because the universe will eventually disappear

 

but take courage  – for empires of ideas like dualism

just like empires of power and wealth

come and go –

“In the world you will have trouble, but take courage

I have conquered the world – these things I have spoken to you

so that in me you may have peace” – Jesus in John 16:33.