Tag: Christ

COMPASSION – SOURCE OF SCIENCE

According to Meister Eckhart

the 13th century Rhineland mystic

Compassion is the Original Source of the universe/

the Earth/and our own individual life –

God made us because God wanted 

to share God’s Love

Love is the Source of Godhood – 

God made us because God loved us

even before we were born –

“God chose us in Christ 

before the foundation of the world”

(Ephesians 1:4)

Compassion is salvific because it unites us 

with our Origin

coming home to Compassion 

is coming home to our True Self

when we are confronted with a new paradigm

it shakes up our world

so we resist it out of fear

but the universe/science/religion 

come from the same Source –

from God’s Love –

if there was no Love there would be no universe

and if there was no universe

there would be no science 

and no religion

through rooting them in the Divine Source

we could reconcile science and religion

develop a “theology of science” 

and live lives of radical amazement

also if everyone engaged in “narrative theology”

that is, narrated their own faith story to others

and if the poor were allowed 

to tell their faith stories

it would create solidarity among all people

release new power to fight injustice –

the Vulture of Injustice would fly off –

and we could all live in amazement and peace.

YOUTH BASE COMMUNITIES

Christianity is moving from being a religion

of belief about God

to being an experience of God

whereas fundamentalism is a reaction against this –

trying to shore up belief about God

which is eroding – as the pounding of ocean waves

causes more and more cliffs along the shoreline

to collapse

 

as Christianity spreads in waves thru Asia

rooted in scripture and Xian tradition

it will include the mysticism of Ramakrishna/

Aurobindo/Ramana Marshi/Lao Tzu/Chuang Tzu/

Vedanta/Upanishads/Bhagavad Gita/I Ching

which will enrich and renew Xianity

far beyond what Plato and Greek philosophy did

 

however, because of rapid change in every society

Buddhist and Christian leaders lag behind

Buddhist and Xian youth

and no longer speak their language –

as at the Tower of Babylon

people are scattering in confusion

and youth have nothing good/true/beautiful

to ground their beliefs in

and abandon their parents’ Churches and Sanghas

 

but youth are more awake/more woke

than previous generations –

more interested in serving the poor

than in attending musty/dusty church rituals

but they need to wake up even more

to the Eucharist of Service as Mother Teresa said:

“In holy communion we have Christ

in the form of bread and wine

and in our work we find him

in the flesh and blood of the poor –

it is the same Christ”

 

youth also need to re-discover/re-invent “theology of liberation”

which first dawned like a Rising Son

at the 1968 Conference of Latin American Bishops

youth need to form “base communities” –

small bands like that of the Twelve Apostles –

mystic/activists who revolutionize the world.

THE EVOLUTION OF BROTHER LAWRENCE

Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection

decided at eighteen years old

to make God’s love the goal

of all his actions

but he suffered for ten years

due to his preoccupation/anxiety over his sins

despite God showering him

with graces

 

if he was seeking God with his whole/undivided heart

he would have found God

and God’s Love

in all things:

positive and seemingly negative –

in warm sun

and in winter days

when he was healthy

and when he was cold and sick

in bread he ate

and in being hungry

in the song of birds

and in the noise of cities

in his virtue

and in his sin –

“For God hath made Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin for us

that we might be made the righteousness of God in him”

(2 Corinthians 5:21)

 

Brother Lawrence eventually learned

that it is acceptable in God’s sight

to be imperfect

and that we are all subject to

a Higher Law

hidden in every human heart:

that life is all about growth

and we can all evolve

out of chaos and darkness and sin

into Order and Light and Love.

 

GRATITUDE, A COUNTERCULTURAL RESPONSE TO THE WORLD’S DESPAIR

The best thing you can do for yourself, others, and the planet is: be grateful.

    Gratitude is a countercultural response to the scarcity mentality we are brainwashed into in subtle ways every day.

    While I realize that capitalism, business, and advertising underlie our whole culture, they seem to thrive on keeping us unhappy with whatever we presently have so we are in a constant state of dissatisfaction.

    Mary Jo Leddy, a Catholic theologian, social activist, and Order of Canada recipient, noted in her 2002 book Radical Gratitude that the hidden message that drives our culture is “you do not have enough, you do not do enough, you are not enough.”

    Gratitude gives you the strength to combat this message because it shows you how abundant your life already is. By teaching you to appreciate what you already have, gratitude prevents the feeling you must frantically get, do, and be more.

    It could be argued that this constant desire for more is causing the over-consumption of the world’s resources such as land, forests and fuel that underlies climate change. And many wars have started because some political leader thought he needed more. A case in point is Vladimir Putin, who although he is the president of Russia, the largest country in the world, decided that was not enough, he needed Ukraine.

    I have found that keeping a daily gratitude journal can be revolutionary. Writing down things I am grateful for from each day has gradually positively shifted my awareness.

I used to be like Charles Schulz, creator of the Peanuts cartoon, who once quipped “I have learned to dread one day at a time.” Now, before I get out of bed, I anticipate the blessings of the day because I know I will be recording them that evening before bed.

    There are so many things one can be grateful for: births, birthdays, graduations, work, promotions, having a spouse or partner, children, groups you belong to, friends, health, education, travel, a place to stay, movies, sports, the list is endless.

    There are lots of both common and unusual things we could be thankful for: butterflies in our garden, hummingbirds at our feeder, podcasts that shed new light, fixing a computer glitch, learning a smartphone trick, our pets, books, receiving a drawing from a grandchild or funny card in the mail, documentaries about whales or fungi, a walk in the woods, learning a new way of exercising, and on and on.

    As an abundance mentality, gratitude tends to loosen up peoples’ purse strings: when they realize their life is already overflowing with things to be thankful for, they more easily give to those who are in dire straits caused by war or poverty.

    Scripture is full of verses calling us to gratitude: “In everything give thanks, for this is God’s will for you” (I Thessalonians 5:18). “O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever” (Psalm 30:12). God has created a world of abundance not scarcity, but as Jesus said, it is “for those who have eyes to see” – seeing abundance or scarcity are choices we can make, for better or worse.

    At this time of year, despite all the emphasis on consumption of physical gifts, churches try to help people be grateful for the greatest gift of all, given to us out of God’s infinite abundance: “For God so loved the world that God gave God’s only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

    The greatest thing to be grateful for is God’s overflowing love, manifested in a physical way we can understand, God in the form of a human being, Jesus the Christ.

    With political chaos. climate problems, and wars, the world seems dark and depressing right now, but let’s open our eyes this Christmas season and choose to see how abundant our lives already are, be grateful, and open our hearts to God and others.

 

Bruce Tallman is a London religious educator of adults and spiritual director. http://www.brucetallman.com

 

CHILDLIKE MINDFULNESS

Trungpa Rinpoche, like many Buddhist monks

never got trapped in unnecessary hope

or groundless fear

was never for or against results

not attached to things working out

just lived life freely/with curiosity/

as an experiment/like a child

 

children were always the models Jesus used

to teach his disciples the spiritual life

and the children’s story of Jonah in the belly of a whale

was Christ’s only metaphor for transformation –

you have to go into the dark

before you can see the light

 

if while practicing mindfulness we are not aware

of all the darkness/suffering in the world

it is not mindfulness but escape

and if we could peer into the minds/hearts/souls

of those causing suffering we would realize:

we could be just like them and they know suffering too –

peering always creates compassion/love for our enemies

 

we are somehow connected to all humans

no matter how despicable

and this reveals a fundamental truth about life:

mutuality/interdependence/connection

are woven thru and thru the cloth of creation –

even quarks can only exist in dyads and triads

 

if integrated wholeness/oneness/consciousness

are the heart of cosmic personalization

they naturally lead to selfless/altruistic love

and, contrary to popular belief, Darwin himself

saw the survival benefits of cooperation:

if I help others I get helped

 

the “Hsaio Ching”/“Classic of Filial Love” –

a Confucian approach to the Tao

sees brotherly/sisterly love

as the greatest taproot

into the mysterious

“Will of Heaven.”

 

MYSTICISM CURES RELIGION

Unhealthy and dysfunctional institutions

breed codependency in people –

the need to have others give us a sense

of identity and self-worth

 

as Christians reduced faith to belief –

assent to a list of ideas/doctrines

about God/Jesus/Church –

some extended it to belief

about women/science/politics

and we lost sight more and more

of “love your enemies”

and so became oppressive hypocrites

 

religion is only healthy

when it is about ego-transformation

not group superiority –

“my religion is better than your religion” –

or having correct doctrines

or being morally worthy enough to enter an afterlife

 

most people (80%) think civilization should move

toward a global vision

and in that regard

mysticism is the comprehensive “theory of everything”

people long for – something that makes sense

out of reality for everyone

just as Christianity used to do

 

the basic Christian understanding is that

you find your true self/true identity

by surrendering all your individual autonomy

to Christ

who makes you right with God

thru his Love and Penance

on the Cross for your sins

 

in God and God’s Love –

not in the Church and the Church’s love –

we and everything

become stabilized and eternalized –

if not established in God

we, and all things,

including the Church

perish.

THE THIRD WAVE

The second major arc of human development

after the pre-rational and before the trans-rational

is the anti-religious/atheistic stage

which is all about reason and science

and which brings seemingly staggering benefits

to humanity in terms of reducing suffering

 

but we are right on the edge

of the third wave of transformation:

from farming to industry to information –

from the suffering caused by the rational-industrial

to the visionary-informational

 

the visionary Paul Tillich developed and applied

the “Protestant Principle:” vigorous protest

(which is why they call it “Protest-antism”)

against all distortions of the Truth –

particularly rational ones against the Gospel

particularly the “demonic tendency”

to make the Church into an Absolute replacing God

and manipulate God with sacraments

 

since World War II modern society has gone thru

an “expressionist revolution:” replacing external authority

with inner authority – each person expresses

their authentic self/individuality/personal choices

of purpose and meaning

in a fractured commercialist society –

old loyalties to family/nation/religion are gone

and others revolt mindlessly against this loss

of the old values and the old Church

 

our formerly simple world has changed

to one of pluralism – both culturally and religiously –

consequently, the meaning of Christ must be changed

and expanded exponentially

beyond all protest

 

the humble scientific researcher

even though s/he is unaware of it

as he/she tries to penetrate

the secrets of the universe

is being led by the Cosmic Christ of Divine Love –

into the Third Wave after religion and science:

the perfect marriage of science and religion.

THE VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

Humans are so deep

that it is easier to count the hairs on one’s head

than the emotions and passions of our hearts

 

and we constantly expand –

Brother Teasdale always saw the big picture

the “meta-level”

beyond the present surface chaos

and rejoiced that today

many forms of interspirituality

replaced monasteries

 

in fact, the Wilber-Combs Lattice*

developed by Ken Wilber and Allan Combs

explains 28 types of religious/spiritual experiences

by combining 7 stages of consciousness

throughout human history:

archaic/magic/mythic/rational/pluralistic/integral/super-integral

with 4 states of consciousness:

gross (nature mysticism)/

subtle (deity mysticism)/

causal (formless mysticism)/

nondual (unitive mysticism)

 

when Jesus spent the whole night in mystical-unitive prayer

he listened to God call him all night long

“Beloved”

the One Word that

totally unites us to God

 

accepting God’s gracious Word

awakens our conscience/illuminates our intellect/

brings us into a new relationship with God the Father/

helps us put on the mind of God the Son/

makes us sensitive to the promptings of God the Holy Spirit/

and divinizes us

 

Julian of Norwich wrote that we have a duty

to delight God

and one of the things that pleases Christ the most

is when we comfort ourselves

with our laughter

and our sense of humour.

 * https://integrallife.com/glossary/wilber-combs-lattice/

THE REFUGE OF DIVINE LOVE

In Eastern Christianity they dwell on the cosmic significance of Christ

but in the West we focused too much on his saving work –

Augustine and Anselm claimed that Jesus came

only because we were ill – no illness, no Jesus

but contemporary theology believes Jesus came

to show us how to live/our true self – divine love –

repeat after me – “I am divine love”

 

the tremendous energy of love by which the universe

converges on itself passes through human sexuality –

the Christ comes to us through sex –

that is why Jesus performed his first miracle

at the wedding at Cana – Jesus saying symbolically:

“Before marriage/union/sex your life was water

now it is wine!”

 

but our sexuality is often dysfunctional

our wisdom is forever mixed up

with our craziness/neurosis/delusion/confusion

we need to wake up and accept this more and more –

this is better than constantly trying to change/perfect ourselves

peace lies in humble acceptance of our brokenness

and our need of God to put us back together

 

“The deadliest sin is to swim on the surface

for grace is found in the depths and death –

in falling/failing/not being in control/going down/not up”

– Richard Rohr in Falling Upward

 

too much security or insecurity leads to death

we need a healthy balance so we don’t become

either stagnant or overwhelmed by change

so we are not killed by the “future shock” –

the culture of constant change we live in

 

a prayer in Buddhism that is as common

as the “Our Father” in Christianity:

“I take refuge in the Buddha

I take refuge in the Dharma (the teaching)

I take refuge in the Sangha (the community)”

translated into Christianese:

“I take refuge in the Christ

I take refuge in the Beatitudes

I take refuge in the Church.”

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