Tag: fear

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.

FLOWING WITH THE DIVINE

The cure for fear is to keep your eyes on God:

when Peter looked at Jesus

and trusted

he walked on water

when he looked at the storm/wind/waves

he feared

and sank

 

with the help of Spirit and prayer

we can face reality

and the symbolic crosses of life

squarely

 

the difference between a shaman and a schizophrenic:

the shaman on his/her visionary journey

meets symbols that match reality

their inner and outer worlds jive –

with the schizophrenic there is a break

between the inner world and outer world

they struggle

with wild/psychic/symbolic forces

that do not match reality

 

people who try to control everything

set up resistance:

one foot on the gas

one foot on the brake

like those who burn out

do not overwork, their heart is divided

going forward and resisting going forward

at the same time

 

much easier to keep your eyes on God

surrender control

and go with Divine Flow –

you can achieve much more

without tiring or sinking

 

worry about money creates resistance to Spirit –

let go of money

don’t resist the River –

let God’s Spirit Current

carry you away!

 

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.

 

GOD’S SWEETNESS CONQUERS FEAR

Allah told the angels to bow before humans

which they did, except for Iblis (Satan) who waxed proud

and led Adam and Eve out of the Garden to where

everyone is everyone’s enemy.

 

Still, there is some friendship and joy

but apocalyptic dread predominates more than joy right now –

anxiety and some delight

are the two basic ways/feelings/

life-experiences of contemporary humans.

 

But there is nothing to be fearful/worried/anxious about –

DNA and RNA show we are all connected –

we have all evolved from common sources

and if you go back far enough

you get to the One Common Source.

 

And there is nothing to fear because

in a static world, God is independent from Creation

but in an evolving world, the world is not God

and God is not the world

but God is in the depths of all things

and leading them to growth/fulfillment.

 

Every aspect of life is an invitation

to radical amazement

which goes beyond knowledge

and is a Doorway to the Divine.

 

Enlightened people/saints/mystics

like Saint Bernard or John of the Cross

describe the experience of God

as restful/peaceful/sweet/delightful/even erotic

and Muslims like Rumi/Hafiz/Kabir

and Hindus like Rabindranath Tagore

describe life with God as

fun/fantastic/ecstatic

and Jews like Jesus

proclaim “My yolk is easy

and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30).

 

Jesus is the Light of the World (John 8:12)

who tells us we are the Light of the World (Matthew 5:14)

and there is nothing to fear (Matthew 10:31).

THE DIVINE FEMININE RISING

Jesus: God is nowhere

exclusively.

But religious power-leaders

maintain vested interest 

in (unconscious) dualism: 

We (superior) versus them (inferior)

“We have true religion, they don’t.

(Our pay depends on this).”

The Bible: do not fear.

But religious power-leaders 

invent code names for fear:

reasonableness, prudence

loyalty, obedience.

Reinhold Niebuhr: sin manifests in

power-pride

intellectual-pride

moral-pride

spiritual-pride:

“I am holier than thou.”

Curia: Church is hierarchical/juridical.

Second Vatican Council Fathers:

Church is historical, dynamic, biblical

vitally alive.

William Johnson: civilization is destroyed

by violence to the feminine:

endless war, rape, oppression of women

slaughter of the unborn 

of Mother Earth.

Friedrich Nietzsche: now the horizon of meaning

within which people lived and moved and had their being

now that God

is gone

masculine and feminine mythologies 

collide.

Authentic obedience: 

grows out of freedom, to hear

make a conscientious decision

and where appropriate, say “no.”

False obedience: 

knuckles under out of fear.

Authentic nuns lead the revolution

against curia.

David Bohm: a change is needed: 

the Divine Feminine needs to rise

because consciousness 

is more fundamental than matter

the unmanifest quantum memory network

builds matter around itself

from molecules to humans –

the unmanifest knits the universe together

like a child in the womb.

Diarmuid O’Murchu: change and decay 

surround us

but at the unmanifest quantum level

nothing is ever lost –

continuity in a transformed state

is the rule.

Uncentered people are easily hurt

their lives filled with

drama and tragedy.

Saints are hard to upset

because their unmanifest center is God

they have no need 

for protection.

Richard Rohr: We have no access

to who we really are

except in God.

John Chrysostom: Nothing

is equal to prayer, for prayer

makes the impossible 

possible.

Prayer makes sinners saints.

John XXIII: The Church is meant to be

the Mother of all people

spreading the fullness of Christian charity 

everywhere.

The Church is meant to be

the Divine Feminine Rising.

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!

RETHINKING GOD AND EVIL SPIRITS

The older I get the harder I find it to say what our “ineffable” (unsayable) God is like. A long time ago I dropped the “God is an old man in the sky waiting to punish me if I do wrong” narrative. That god is really Zeus not the God of the Bible. All that the old man image needs is some lightning bolts.

Christians often say that “God is love” and indeed it says that throughout the scriptures. Lately I have been thinking that God is not just love, God is also wisdom, patience, forgiveness, trust, etc. In fact, the Dalai Lama said “My religion is kindness.” God is all virtues.

So, whenever someone is engaging in virtues or “spirits” like gentleness, peacemaking, compassion, justice, fortitude and goodness, God is manifesting through them. God is incarnate (embodied) in them. God is all these good spirits. This liberates God from being restricted to any one church or religion. Anyone engaging in these virtues/spirits, whether they are a believer in God or not, has God working in them, whether they acknowledge God or not.

As a believer, I can therefore comfortably relate to atheists or anyone who exhibits these spirits, basically to “all people of good will.”

On the other hand I am starting to think of evil spirits not as beings in red tights with horns and pitchforks (I never thought of them that way but I did not know how to say what they are either) but rather as spirits of lust, anger, gluttony, pride, deceit, greed, fear and so on. Anyone engaging in these vices has an evil spirit working in them.

God is manifest or incarnate in the world in anyone who has the good spirits/virtues working in them. And evil spirits are manifest/incarnated in anyone who has chosen to let the evil spirits listed above to go to work in them. So devils/evil spirits might manifest themselves as a greedy banker, corrupt politician or lawyer, schoolyard bully, etc. There are indeed evil spirits among us, just as God is among us.