Life’s central task
is consciously knowing
what we already unconsciously know
who we already are:
our True Self.
We already have
everything we need
our only need
is self-discovery
not self-improvement.
Tag: Bonaventure
THE UNION OF HEAVEN AND EARTH
“Heaven and earth will pass away”
as separate states.
Teilhard helps people
be in the world
to which they necessarily belong.
He overcame the Church’s contempt
for the world
when he said “Love is
the fundamental engine
of evolution.”
The litmus test for true vision:
to see the world as a Temple
and your enemies as sacred and beloved.
In the naked now
the best way to intimacy with God
is immediate, unmediated living
in the present, which is a present, a gift.
Living in non-defended, nondual presence
connects you to Real Presence.
The Quantum Theologian’s question is not
our love for God
but God’s Love for us.
How is it
that from total otherness
comes our ultimate meaning?
Eastern religion emphasized
the search for spiritual guides,
enlightenment, the True Self.
But western religion buried for centuries
spiritual searching under dogma,
obedience, and no questioning.
All the answers to questions you never asked
are in the Catechism – just read it!
Still, there were rays of pure light:
Catherine of Siena’s Dialogue
offered a systematic process
for knowing God
within you
beginning and ending
with humility.
If by God’s grace you have
Inner and Outer Authority
like Catherine
you avoid being both
rebel or conformist.
God and nirvana
are living realities
beyond all concepts
so Buddhists never talk about nirvana
they merely practice
mindfulness in all things
and so get intimate
with the Buddha.
This gives a new vision
for western religion:
include experience/practice/community
not just believing/behaving/belonging.
Heidegger’s Being and Time
was too individualistic. There is no community
but Being-Itself constantly overcomes non-being
within it
and unceasingly creates
new things:
In intimate communion with Christ
there is always a New Creation.
The Internet as a new creation
and a convergence of Teilhard’s noosphere
could be the servant of global communion
not the conveyor belt
of global fragmentation/anarchy.
What the world needs now is
Bonaventure’s vision
that predated Teilhard:
a dynamic universe
oriented towards union
with God and human
that finds fulfilment
in Christ.
WAKE UP, WAKE UP TOGETHER
Lonergan: at end of 1600s a great revolution:
constant attacks by Enlightenment
and Anglicans analyzing
existence
balancing scripture, tradition, reason
shifted Catholic method-in-theology
from questions to certainties
theological inquiry to dogmatic theology.
Outer spiritual authority says
“You are special”
Inner spiritual authority says
“Everyone is special”
another revolutionary shift
from elitism to egalitarianism.
Too much outer authority
creates Authoritarian Institutions
which create religion’s greatest enemy:
indifference:
loss of divine will-to-be-alive
loss of heart
loss of passion
atrophying into loveless/hateless
existence.
Upon meeting, Buddhists
bow and silently acknowledge
each other as a Buddha-to-be
since all carry within
seeds of awakening.
In Confucianism, filial piety
must be practiced from
the Emperor/Empoweror
Son of Heaven
down thru princes, scholars to peasants
or disaster ensues.
Brueggemann: Christian imagination
numbed, satiated, co-opted, paralyzed by fear
cannot do any serious work.
But depth psychology and existential analysis
separate anxiety, a group phenomenon
from fear, an individual phenomenon.
So, do not fear
to follow Jesus
because of what others might think.
In fact, others don’t think
of you……………….at all.
Shed fear and become
one of the twin heroes of mythology
two basic sides of human nature:
the mild and acquiescent
the wild and rebellious
the Introvert who powerfully reflects
the Extrovert who greatly accomplishes
but either way
be humble
not self-deprecating nor self-condemning
and either way
be contemplative
the secret of which is:
life in the Eternal Now
not-Emptiness
full-of-Godness.
Bonaventure: Incarnation is
the Center of Creation:
everything preceding and following
descent of the Logos
finds its meaning in Christ.
The Universal Christ is
the Eternal Now and Love Supreme
Love: Alpha and Omega of Life
Alpha: Big Bang to God-consciousness
showing Itself explicitly in Jesus the Christ
Omega: Love drawing the universe
forward thru Christ
toward
ever-greater-Unity-in-Love.
The universe’s salvation is
corporate/universal salvation
beyond any individual.
Wake up, wake up together!
Intelligent Christian Spirituality 