Category: Uncategorized

COSMIC SHIFTS IN CONSCIOUSNESS

The only direction of evolution is “convergence” –

which is both positive and creative –

the creation of evermore complex life forms

the “Axial Period” within that positive direction

happened between 800 and 200 years before Christ 

in China (Confucius and Lao Tzu)/India (Buddha)/

Persia (Zoroaster)/Israel (Prophets)

all arose and transformed everything

that human beings could be

Hugh and Richard Saint Victor

Christian philosophers/mystics 

wrote in the 12th century that there are three eyes:

the first eye of flesh gives us sight

the second eye of reason gives us meditation/reflection

and the third eye of contemplation gives us true understanding –

the ability to see with the eyes of the heart –

the brothers Saint Victor continued the God-given

unfolding of human consciousness

but in Buddhism and Christianity there has also always been

a “contemptus mundi” – a contempt for the world

however, churches in the postmodern world 

can no longer pretend they are the only sources of grace 

and that the Holy Spirit is not active in all civilizations

or churches will continue to become irrelevant/fringe groups  

the tradition of churches condemning their best thinkers 

like Meister Eckhart (who in 1329 was labelled a heretic)

means that the real victim was not Eckhart himself 

but Christianity since Eckhart’s “Creation Spirituality “

which is Jewish/biblical/prophetic

was replaced by an anti-intellectual asceticism

which is apolitical/dualistic/introverted not world-shaking

still, conscious evolution goes on – 

Christianity finally shifted from the fall/redemption 

Era of Peter from Constantine’s Holy Roman Empire 

in 310 AD to the 1960s – the beginning of the Era of John

a mystic of the Cosmic Christ

who promoted Cosmic Consciousness

and noted that even Peter was a mystic –

for he repeated three times

“Lord, you know that I love you” (John 21:15-17).

LOVE IN EAST AND WEST

In Buddhism, Warrior-Boddhisattvas

(those who delay entering Nirvana 

to help others on Earth get there)

train in: interdependence –

if I hurt others I hurt myself –

it is love not aggression that will save the planet –

others are not different from themselves –

we are all one –

and they train their hearts to open 

in increasingly difficult situations

getting in touch with our True Self/God within

enables Boddhisattvas and us to listen/speak/act from the heart

“For without compassion all religious beliefs and practices

are useless and empty” – Albert Nolan

we now have so many tools to help us be compassionate

such as the Enneagram which exposes the hidden worldviews

we have been unconsciously operating out of our whole lives

and thus helps couples to view 

their partners foibles more compassionately

and their own foibles more critically

in previous cultures  

belief in God had nothing to do 

with the modern obsession with weighing evidence 

for the existence of God –

God must laugh at our attempts  

to weigh God in the balance

as if our thoughts or intellectual choice of doctrines

determined whether God existed or not –

in previous cultures

belief in God

was like a marriage vow –

“I do” commit myself 

to love and serve you, my God

mindful presence 

spent with the one we love

is the fullest expression of True Love

and mindful generosity

is the greatest gift 

we can offer our loved one –

the gift of our True Presence.

SECRET SOCIETIES

Spirit is not something that goes on in time forever

but rather is a Timeless Moment, an Eternal Now

a Pure Present that never ends

and is timeless yet holds all time in its hands

across the aeons, the Holy Spirit

who John MacQuarrie refers to as “Unitive Being”

has been the principle linking the macro and micro –

the Cosmic Christ and Jesus of Nazareth

Karl Marx would criticize the above as just religious philosophy

since he criticized philosophers as a group

that just interprets the world but never changes it

changing the world takes courage and persistence

which is why boys who want to become men

must go through rituals of initiation

be separated from the Mother

experience an ordeal of pain such as circumcision

in order to be admitted 

into the Secret/Sacred Society of Men

girls on the other hand are naturally initiated

into the Secret/Sacred Society of Women

through the pain of childbirth

philosophy may seem useless to some

but Integral Theory gets its hands dirty with Earth

by linking the three main schools of environmental ethics:

– the bioequality school: all creatures have equal value

– the animal rights/Whiteheadian school: not all creatures

have equal intrinsic value – there exists a hierarchy of values

– the stewardship school: those with a higher intrinsic value

have greater responsibility for taking care of all creatures

but right-wing Christians would think this was too “communal”

too close to “communism” – acting like a community of care

so, our biggest threat comes not from secular atheists 

but from fundamentalists, Protestant or Catholic

whose absolute certainty about their beliefs

based on their belief in the infallibility of scripture or the pope

has made them into a Secret Society of Religious Atheists

so secret they don’t realize what they have done 

and what they have become

because they have stripped God of all mystery.

FREEDOM FROM SELF

Humans are the apex of the created world

are open to the Infinite

seeking fulfillment in God

and this openness and seeking of God

constitutes the very nature/structure/meaning

of what it is to be human

spiritual transformation has two movements:

self-appropriation – owning who you are

and what is going on inside you

and self-transcendence – becoming God-centered

not ego-centered

intellectuals and sceptics never think

to check out the Source of their intellect

in their pride they reject God and religion 

they never slay the dragon 

of their ego

our one desire should be to seek God’s will for us

not pleasure or wealth or fame 

or even virtue or wisdom

liberation theology is about not just 

struggling for others

which suggests paternalism

it is also about self-liberation:

realizing you are not completely fulfilled

without others

and you are living in a society 

that alienates you from others

and therefore from your true self 

which always needs others 

for fulfillment

prayer is the best way 

to step out of self-centered living

into the big picture: God 

and a vision of peace and love 

for all

prayer is

“Enlightenment:” freedom from self.

INTERSPIRITUALITY AND LOVE

“Spirituality itself is the real religion of all humans

because it is the source of all the major religions

and interspirituality – the sharing of amazing spiritual experiences

across traditions is the religion of the third millennium

that may make for a united and enlightened planet”

– Brother Wayne Teasdale (Catholic monk)

“It is our duty to transcend words and concepts

to enable us to encounter reality” 

-Thich Nhat Hanh (Buddhist monk)

Thay (Hahn) had a deep respect for concepts

but as a means not an end

thus the emphasis in Zen is on practice not theology

simple prayer in all religious traditions is a radio dial –

it tunes you into the always present Message Sender

and if you tune in properly you resonate

with whatever the message is

and contemplation is a larger radio dial that makes you 

not just resonate but vibrate with the Sender’s energy waves

and prayer/contemplation do not depend on your worthiness

or what tradition or group you belong to –

the Sender is compassionate and merciful to all

“God is too big to fit in a book

but nothing is too big to fit in my heart”

– Bruce Cockburn (Canadian folk legend)

“The Tao [Way] that can be told is not the eternal Tao

the name that can be named is not the eternal name

the Nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth”

Lao Tzu (Taoist priest)

God is love and the Tao is love

and this still leaves the Tao nameless since

“You cannot define love –

you can only know it by entering into it”

– The Cloud of Unknowing

spiritual directors in examining dreams 

are meant to be masters of mythology

like ancient mystagogues/soul-guides/

medicine men/women leading initiates thru the adventure

directing heroes/heroines to the shining sword 

that slays the dragon-terror

that guards the treasure of Pure Love.

WOMEN ASCENDING

According to the great theologian Paul Tillich

anxiety appears in three forms:

anxiety of death

anxiety of meaninglessness

anxiety of condemnation

another great theologian Karl Barth

wrote that God condemns no one to hell – 

we create our own hell –

thus in Church Dogmatics Barth radically departed

from John Calvin’s doctrine of double predestination –

God predestines some to heaven

and some to hell – what kind of God would do that?

so, Barth favored a simple predestination to heaven

however, people can create hells for other people –

going beyond Barth, higher education allowed women 

to create postcolonial/liberation/inculturated theologies –

the spread of women’s voices across the world

gave them the power to address unjust global structures

of finance and business

and to connect capitalism/colonialism/racism

the basic motivation in healthy Christianity 

is based in union with God –

from there the sacred water keeps flowing

and washes away all women’s sense 

of inferiority/unworthiness/low self-esteem

but women today can get caught up

in perfectionism – “having it all” – 

making unrealistic demands on themselves

the pursuit of excellence on the other hand 

allows women to take pleasure 

in striving to meet their own high standards

without castigating themselves 

they learned that loving themselves

means embracing their own

strengths and weaknesses

insights and stupidities

successes and failures

body and soul

badness and goodness

finiteness and infiniteness

so there is no longer any shame or self-condemnation.

Wisdom versus False Religion

Spirituality is about growth without limits/

/waking up/blessing others/gratitude

we would not think to do good

if God had not already moved us to it –

good spirituality always gets you in touch

with what God is already doing within you

the only true joy in life is to escape

from the prison of the False Self

and by love enter into union

with God who dwells within you

love cannot remain blind –

it has to become conscious

to see reality as it is/people as they are

and go beyond disillusionment to commitment

to love all there is

despite all the flaws

particularly in human beings

if we want growth in friendship/marriage/religious life

Richard Rohr equates internal resurrection

with finding our True Self

which may cause one to not fit in 

with any particular religious system

since a lot of religion is obsessed

with the False Self

since the opposite of faith is not doubt

but certainty/thinking you have all the answers

and you/not they are right about everything

the ego/small/False Self

loves to be right/safe/not uncertain

Seneca, a statesman/dramatist/Stoic philosopher 

of ancient Rome wrote extensively about

the relationship of courage to religion:

“Undisturbed by fears

and unspoiled by pleasures

we fear neither death 

nor the gods.”

the beginning of wisdom

is to love/not fear God.

The Fifth Awakening

Awakenings occur when society’s old institutions break down:

the First Awakening (1730-1760) in North America

ended European forms of religion

and ushered in Protestant Evangelicalism

the Second Awakening (1800-1830) 

ended Calvinist dominance of theology

the Third Awakening (1890 – 1920) had two parts:

the social gospel and Pentecostalism

the Fourth Awakening (1962-1965)

was the Second Vatican Council

the Fifth Great Awakening has been happening 

since the 1970s thru the new science

which does not prove or disprove the existence of God 

nor does it contradict the basic beliefs of our faith

what the believer looks for in science is not proof

but a more accurate understanding of reality

The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra showed how 

outstanding scientists shocked by 

relativity and quantum theory

turned to Eastern mysticism to understand reality

and Carl Jung’s belief that all humans 

are communally connected and interdependent 

led to his theory of the Collective Unconscious

which fit well with the quantum universe

and Jesus, like mystics everywhere, was a unitive thinker 

who talked about his unity with the poor: 

“To the extent you took care of one of these 

sisters and brothers of mine, even the least of them, 

you did it to me”

– Matthew 25: 31-46

to love Christ is to take care of the most needy –

that is why ministers of the gospel, as Henri Nouwen put it 

must be “wounded healers” 

or they cannot enter authentically into the suffering

of a dislocated world/

a rootless generation/

a dying person

unless they have experienced the awakening of suffering 

in their own heart.

Preferring the Poor

If we believe that science and religion are incompatible

we will live in one world

and pray and believe in another

the Newtonian view of the world

did not include the human person –

everything was mechanical

and even when the new physics gave us a dynamic cosmos

religious consciousness was stuck in a medieval cosmos:

a perfect/immutable/unchanging/hierarchical/

anthropocentric world

evolution may be a painful movement forward

marked by dramatic suffering and losses

the losses cannot be ignored

but neither can the progress

from hunter-gatherer

to mythic religious empires

to pluralistic informational societies

spiritual regress happened with Nietzsche’s

“will-to-power”

which is not “will” in the psychological sense

nor power in the sociological sense –

for Nietzsche will-to-power

is ontological/basic reality/the way things are

spiritual progress happened after the death

of Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection in 1691

when his Abbott published Lawrence’s Practice of the Presence of God

and it exploded around the world

spiritual progress also occurred with Gustavo Gutierrez

and his radical theology of the poor –

theology from the perspective of poor people not victors

the polar opposite of Nietzsche’s will-to-power

and mirrored in the Second Vatican Council’s

“preferential option for the poor.”

 

Authentic Spirituality

Spirituality should move people from 

mortality to immortality/

sin to salvation/

law to grace/

bondage to freedom/

ignorance to enlightenment/

suffering to fullness of life

without transformation religion is merely

the institutionalization of spirituality –

a belief and belonging system –

there is no change of consciousness/motivation –

conversion means moving from outer to inner authority

– from “the Church says”

to “given what the Church says

what also does the Holy Spirit/my conscience/

my experience say?” –

inner authority leads to the True Self/God within

true piety is not turning our face from West to East

true piety gives of its substance:

alms to the needy/strangers/travellers

ransoming of slaves

when I seek God, every event/moment/

sows God’s seeds in my will

and eventually Bibles burst out of my mouth

we are paradoxically both empty and full

full of emptiness/empty of fullness

and there is satisfaction in being empty

if we let God come in and fill us up

the divine/human encounter 

in the Sacraments

is with my own True Self/the Church/God

and therefore should change 

planetary/cosmic consciousness

transform the small/egoic self/the Church/

and the world’s cosmic messiness.