Category: sexuality

UNITING EASTERN AND WESTERN RELIGION

The truly mature attitude is to stop fighting/

trying to eliminate your own shadow

and learning to accept and work with your shadow-energies –

all saints know they are sinners

and all sinners think they are saints

with no shadow.

 

All world religions including Catholicism and Protestantism

strive for greater spiritual freedom

but the opposite, for example

the Third Buddhist Precept on Sexuality: self-restraint –

what western religions call “chastity” –

is also meant to free individuals and society –

so many children/adults/couples

have been destroyed by sexual misconduct

and enslaved by sexual trafficking.

 

Many of the same teachings but using different words

are found in all the great religions:

chastity = sexual restraint

karma = sowing and reaping

but the challenge for western pioneers in eastern mysticism

Thomas Merton/Bede Griffiths/Raimundo Panikkar

was uniting Asian meditation

with a deep commitment to Jesus/Scripture/Tradition.

 

These pioneers who led us into the future

accomplished this union by reaching into the past

rediscovering the Desert Fathers/Mothers

and apophatic mystics like Meister Eckhart/Johannes Tauler/

Teresa of Avila/John of the Cross.

 

All these mystics, those in the West

and mystics in the East: Gandhi/Aurobindo/Rabindranath Tagore

knew that solitude and service are reciprocal:

true prayer results in service

and true service must be grounded in prayer/solitude.

 

In both East and West, small base communities

focused on spirituality and political activism

hold great promise for individual/social transformation –

all it took was the smallest base community –

twelve men and their Leader

to transform history and the entire world.

THE EROTIC UNIVERSE

In early Christianity, theology and prayer

were never divorced. Evagrius of Pontus (345-399 CE):

“The theologian is the one who prays

and the one who prays is a theologian.”

 

Later on, Thomas à Kempis wrote in The Imitation of Christ

“If you look at Creation, the Creator

withdraws his gaze from you.”

So, Christians have had an anti-Creation/

anti-body/anti-sexuality spirituality

which is ironically contrary to the Creation-centered

spirituality of the Bible.

 

But the theory of evolution changed all that –

evolution does not degrade humans

it shows us we are an integral part

of a vast web of earthly relationships.

But science only tells us ‘how’ we got here –

we need religion to tell us ‘why’ we are here – our purpose.

 

The idea of Christian cosmology

is in the Greek Fathers of the Church

particularly Irenaeus, who wrote that, in Christ,

the universe finds its meaning and goal.

 

The Uni-Verse, the One Verse, the One Poem

is thoroughly relational/communal/erotic –

wanting union even at the molecular level –

‘gravity’ is ‘mutual attraction between bodies’ – ‘eroticism’ –

its all part of the love that makes the Universe go round –

to ‘be’ is to ‘be with’ – the ‘we’ always precedes the ‘I’

just as the sexual union of a man and woman precedes children –

no one can say “I did it all on my own”

or “I did it my way – alone.”

 

Mantras are not words that mediate rational meaning –

they are vehicles that carry the spirit to one’s depths

and give us solitude to make us ‘uselessly present’ to God

which connects us to love in our depths

which connects us to others –

solitude is thus the erotic foundation

upon which community is built –

the purpose of life is the same as the purpose

of the Universe – to make love.

EAST OF EDEN

The foundation and principle of Introduction to the Devout Life

by Saint Francis de Sales is:

God has drawn us out of nothing

solely out of God’s own goodness

not because of anything we have done.

 

But in the Garden Adam and Eve

rebelled against God’s seemingly oppressive dictum

“You shall not eat the forbidden fruit”

and were expelled from Paradise

which was necessary for deepening their spiritual growth

according to God’s plan.

 

Now we are all east of Eden

and struggle to live like Christ

which is God’s purifying action in us.

All negative experiences can be elements

of the ‘passive dark night’ of John of the Cross

if approached with faith/hope/love.

 

Things are broken

so we need compassion toward others

which starts with compassion toward our self –

being open to whatever you feel – positive or negative –

makes you open to whatever others feel.

Spirituality must be able to handle hard times

as well as easy ones

in order to be deep.

 

In fact, spirituality could impact every aspect of our lives –

when we approach our food with reverence and mindfulness

our daily bread becomes Holy Communion

the Last Supper and the First Supper

since this is the dawn

of a fresh spiritual approach to a basic necessity.

Spirituality could also include sexuality –

in musical legend Bruce Cockburn’s songs

sexuality has spiritual/sacramental meaning –

it is “spirits open to the thrust of grace”

a medium for God’s Divine Presence

even in, or particularly in, our sexual life

so God becomes our All in our all.

THE ENERGY THAT UNITES ALL

Though humans are made of both body and soul

they are one

and through them the material world

reaches its crown

and raises its voice

to praise its Creator.

 

Therefore, the only gift God requires of us

is our being – with all its imperfections.

When we realize we are lovable

because God loves us

despite our weakness/sin/imperfection

it quickens our self-love.

 

For the great Anglican theologian John Macquarrie

even our limitations and death point to transcendence –

death gives structure and perspective to life

and raises the hope of immortal life.

 

Therefore, we should approach our earthly life

not as a problem to be solved

but as an adventure to be lived

with our mind and heart open to whatever arises

until Sister Death welcomes us into life forever

in the glorious presence of our Creator.

 

Spirituality is giving life one’s all.

Therefore, anyone who gives their all

to their family/work/country/justice/art

is a spiritual person – whether they acknowledge God or not.

 

For many men, all-out devotion to their work or their family

is their way of being good/spiritual/a saint –

maybe they are not workaholics

maybe they are addicted to love.

 

After all, deep erotic energy exists at the heart of the cosmos

and becomes manifest in human ministry/family life/marriage/sexuality –

the desire to love and be loved – the One Source of spirituality and sexuality –

this desire is the cosmic energy  

that unites God/humans/the universe.

RECONNECTING SEXUALITY AND SPIRITUALITY

 In medieval times the Church made a theoretical separation

of the sacred and the secular which was a brilliant political move

to preserve the Church’s power in the “Investiture Conflict”

that is, the Church wanted priests and bishops chosen by the pope

whereas politicians wanted them chosen by kings and the state.

The state would then have been in control of the Church

with clerics kowtowing to the wishes of whatever politicians wanted.

 

However, this sharp separation meant the last thing seen as sacred

was sexuality. The word “sexual” comes from the root “secare”

which means to “cut off” – we are all cut off from the whole

and so we all have this constant longing for union and communion

with everything, which is the essence of sexual desire.

 

Sexual morality is a key concern of quantum theology

but not in terms of dualistic right and wrong behaviour

but rather how foundational values

like love/justice/freedom/peace/truth/equality

are socially and sexually incarnated.

 

Loneliness for humans is a taste of death

a form of solitary confinement

so no wonder the lonely sometimes lose themselves in violence

as a way to retaliate against the pain:

“No one loves me? I will show them how little I love them.”

 

Our shadow projections can make the world into a mirror

that shows us our own ugly face.

If we project our negative intentions/motives onto others

we will be hostile toward them

and they will be hostile toward us.

What we do to others will be done to us –

the Law of Karma/Consequences/Sowing and Reaping.

 

The only time to be enlightened/wise/kind/loving

is right now. So let us live in the Now

which does not separate the sacred and the secular

the union of body/heart/mind/soul

sexuality and spirituality –

both come from the desire to love and be loved.

 

“God has made us for great things – to love and be loved.”

– Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta

 

FALLING (SUPER-SPIRITUAL) STARS

Many people have a multi-faith identity:

Catholic/Protestant; Buddhist/Jewish;

Baptist/Episcopalian; Christian/Hindu.

 

People are called in many different ways

but if you refuse God’s call

you turn the adventure/your true life

into meaningless boredom/a wasteland/

death.

 

Our only true greatness lies in

the humility of living faithfully.

The purer our faith, the closer we come to God.

The one who desires to exalt herself/himself

with extraordinary sexual or mystical experiences

becomes less/not more in the eyes of God.

 

If you can abandon all desire 

for the fruits of your actions/results

you can perform freely/without attachment

your duty – to love.

 

One’s duty may be to be a good spouse –

the intimate partnership of married life and love

has been established by the Creator

and is defined/qualified/bounded

by the Creator’s laws/thou-shalt-nots –

THOU SHALT NOT: lie/steal/covet thy neighbour’s

wife/husband/commit adultery.

 

Like Ravi Zacharias, Jean Vanier was a super-saint –

his work with the developmentally delayed

in L’Arche/the Ark became world-wide

group homes for those rejected by society

and his book Becoming Human

helped us discover our common humanity

the journey from loneliness to belonging

and to a love that includes all –

people of multiple faiths and no faith

people able/differently abled/disabled –

Vanier was a saint until the MeTooMovement

caught him with his pants down

with multiple women. Another spiritual superstar

had fallen – to everyone’s utter dismay.

NEW ADAMS AND NEW EVES

Gandhi’s doctrine of nonviolence

came from his optimistic view of human nature –

truth is the law of our being

nonviolence is more natural for us than violence

love is more of our essence than hate.

The Cloud of Unknowing:

love must receive primacy in prayer

ahead of cogitation.

We must pray out of love

not out of a quest for knowledge.

And we must love God for God’s self

not for what God does for us.

To meditate to feel good is a common mistake –

every time you don’t feel good

you will feel like a failure at meditation.

Even the most experienced meditators

feel pain and frustration.

But non-dual seers hold contraries together

like pain and pleasure

and since they experience everything as One again

they are New Adams and New Eves

in the garden naked and unashamed.

Men in particular need to grow

into spiritual maturity, becoming New Adams

by exploring ancient wisdom

about the spiritual life of men

and relaunching the Sacred Masculine.

The medieval view by men like Aquinas and Eckhart

went beyond intellect and will

to the divine spark in the soul.

The soul is naturally godly

and designed to know ultimate perfection.

This is the true knowledge that transforms:

God made us for perfect holiness, grace and truth.

EMBRACING SHADOW AND FALLING UPWARD

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.

THE GREAT LOVER

The Great Lover calls all of us

the outsider/sinner/violent

into the Ocean of Mercy called God:

“I did not come to make the virtuous

feel good about themselves,

I came for those who need healing.”

– Jesus

Once in the Ocean you can dive to the depths:

“There are two healing demands

if you take up the contemplative life:

forsaking the world’s evil

and purifying your conscience of all sin

through the sacrament of reconciliation.”

– The Cloud of Unknowing

Both Christianity and Buddhism encourage people

to reject all earthly aspirations.

Instead, people rejected religion

which works well for them

until there is serious suffering.

People losing their religion

may be entering a spiritual wasteland

or travelling into a mythic desert

where they can start a new spiritual search

for the God old, ossified institutions have lost.

Perhaps religion is all made up anyway –

our minds cannot grasp infinity

so we invoke concepts like beginning and end

Alpha and Omega, Incarnation and Resurrection

as dominant myths to help us cope

with our Infinite God and infinite universe

even though God is fully present everywhere

including in your own heart and soul.

Though God is in, over, through, and as us

“We do not see things as they are,

we see them as we are. We hear religious texts

according to our own level of consciousness

which is always developing.” – Richard Rohr

The first worldwide developmental Axial Age

was 500 BCE to 100 CE –

the rise of the great religions, east and west.

The second Axial Age began in 1600 CE

with the labor pains of science –

a massive revolt against Aristotle

and his deductive method of arguing from effect to cause.

Science was inductive/experimental/observational/pragmatic

thus, studying people’s approach to God (religious studies)

began to displace the science of God (theology) –

God became an object of academic study

instead of the Author of Living Faith.

Reason has overcome myth

and been a handmaid of Spirit

in achieving real freedom

rather than mythic freedom.

A person might worship an Egyptian god

but must overlook the great pyramids

were built by slaves.

Like the United States, Egypt was

“The land of the free

and the home of the slave.”

The mythic God – the angry old Sky-Man

brought hierarchical oppression to slaves and Catholics

but the Spirit brings democracy and real liberation.

With real liberation has come

bodily and sexual liberation –

It is not right for a human to act like an angel

denying all desires and pleasures.

God has designed us so that

certain desires and pleasures are natural for us –

to be human is more godly than to be angelic.

The lingam, the giant stone phallus in Hindu temples

represents the mythic god Shiva

and is an all-encompassing symbol

representing a multitude of ideas and emotions

which have little to do with penises and sex.

Other religious symbols like the Cross

represent many ideas and emotions other than

human cruelty and suffering.

The courage to suffer is an affirmation of one’s essential nature

but courage may require the Cross in your own life –

sacrificing other essentials such as pleasure or happiness

or even your life.

When you accept that ‘everything belongs’

you can accept suffering and death –

only the ego fears suffering and death –

whereas your true life, your soul

is hidden with Christ in God

and All things, even death, work for the good

for those who love the Great Lover.

THE INTIMACY OF GOD

Atheists believe we cannot make

any absolute statements about God

so the word ‘God’ is meaningless

and science can explain everything

so God is unnecessary.

Modernity separated the big three:

art, morals, and science

but its big mistake

was leaving out the big fourth:

religion, which draws the big three together –

there was no cohesion

so science dominated art and morals

and became the new religion of intellectuals.

But science and technology have no room

for the human person –

by kicking humans out of world center

into a vast impersonal universe

they kicked God out too –

they not only displaced God

they displaced humans

as God’s image.

What satisfies the soul is not knowing all

scientific knowledge

but doing the purpose

for which we were created: to love God.

The spiritual exercises of Ignatius of Loyola

are thus far more important

than any science textbook.

Catholic theology has always been pro-science

and insisted that faith and reason

are not opposites or enemies –

if you cannot give reasons for your faith

you become extremely devout

but an irrational/dangerous fundamentalist

who loves God

and blows people to Kingdom-Come.

Christians should be pro-science and pro-evolution

since evolution constantly drives toward

spiritual transcendence –

higher/more inclusive/more conscious orders

from atoms to senses to neocortex.

The Hindu Dance of Creation is all around:

clouds streaming, trees swaying, sunlight sparkling

on water and snow.

The Incarnate God shows God’s face everywhere –

God’s passionate embodiment demands

whole new ways of relating to bodies:

healing/sexual tenderness/compassionate justice.

The masculine in us tends toward

agency/rules/individualism/visions.

The feminine in us tends toward

communion/connection/relationships/touch.

Each person needs their whole self

and sexual relations between women and men need

the energies/polarities/excitement

of opposites becoming One.

The truth is: certain desires and pleasures

are willed by God – to not accept pleasure

is to not accept our humanity

and to arrogantly oppose God’s will.

Buddhists, on the other hand

preach detachment from pleasure and pain –

their key is not doctrines

about God/self/no-self

but nonattachment to illusion –

seeing the nature of reality

living according to reality

not words or concepts.

For Celts, reality is not

immediately visible/quantifiable by science

but the invisible world of

symbol/sacrament/myth.

To Celts, you are already holy

through the free gift of the Holy Spirit

the Divine Indwelling.

Authentic religion is about subtraction

letting go of the False Self

not creating a new Holy Self

not addition – with religion less is more –

letting go of the ego

and letting the Flow

carry you.

Surrender to the Great Mystery

is the key that unlocks

all world religions.