God – Page 12 – Intelligent Christian Spirituality

STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS/UNITY/LOVE

Brother Teasdale, a monk mentored by Bede Griffiths

had a vision that nondualism would create

a Christian Renaissance.

Beyond that, Ken Wilber believed

the great Wisdom Traditions: Christian Mysticism/

Vedanta Hinduism/Vajrayana Buddhism/

Jewish Kabbalah/Islamic Sufism could be united

in seeing the three ordinary states of consciousness

waking/dreaming/deep sleep

as treasure troves of spiritual awakening

if we learned how to utilize these common states.

Beyond even that, unity could go beyond this world

to what Anthony Burgess refers to as “exoChristianity” –

assuming there are trillions of Earth-like planets

outside our solar system and assuming

there would be intelligent life on many of these “exoplanets”

which would be fulfilled in unique incarnations

of the Cosmic Christ, then the primacy/significance of Christ

would be raised to a new level.

Radical amazement at all this results in contemplation

which catches us up in the Love of the Creator

who lavishes love in us/on us/around us/as us.

By its very nature, Divine Love begets

institutions like marriage and churches which are ordained

toward the embodiment and spreading of Love

in procreation and spiritual education of children

who are the ultimate crown

of any healthy institution.

The Love of God is in life-giving individuals and couples

and points towards eternal life as the whole coin

of which death is just a small part – there is physical dying

but no eternal death – everything and everyone is energy

that goes through multiple states: life/death/rebirth

and can never be destroyed.

SPIRITUALITY CONQUERS HARDNESS

The ascetic Desert Mothers and Fathers

passed their lives in silence/harsh penance/

solitude/prayer/manual labor.

The ascetics were called “Athletes for Christ”

because in Greek “askesis” means “athletics.”

Similarly, the Crusades were meant to be super-pilgrimages

and so the pilgrim Crusaders fasted/prayed

before battles/lived lives of austerity/poverty.

It is not that they were against sensual living

but like John of the Cross, they considered

the natural appetites to be like little children

always whining to their mother for this or that –

the ascetics/crusaders felt we must purify ourselves

of these restless urges so we can be empty

to be filled/fulfilled/in union with God.

Our culture’s rejection of the spiritual life of simplicity/poverty

for the relentless pursuit of material wealth

meant that when Vivekananda, a Hindu holy man

came to the West in 1893 to teach Asian mysticism

and give an address to the first Parliament of World Religions

he found westerners dissatisfied with orthodox/traditional religion

like sheep without a spiritual shepherd.

Two keys to mastering spiritual practices:

find yourself a good shepherd/teacher/spiritual director

find the time to practice as much as possible.

Whether it is western meditation with Father Thomas Keating

or eastern meditation with some holy woman or man

meditation can help us take ourselves wherever we are:

in confusion/conflict/peace/sanity –

as we rest in the Divine

contemplation allows us to be

in complete acceptance and unconditional friendliness

with ourselves – whether we are broken and lost

or whole and rejoicing in the Lord –

either way Psalm 36:8 says “They shall drink their fill

of the river of Thy delights.”

EASTERN AND WESTERN WAYS TO GOD

Buddhists should not leave the Sangha, the community

just like Christians should not leave the Church

for it is hard to practice the faith without others.

The Sangha has arhats similar to Christian saints –

both arhats and saints can help us live fully.

But Sangha and Church leaders can serve or dominate you –

dominator hierarchies such as caste systems

exploit people and prevent individual/collective growth.

Growth/developmental/actualization hierarchies

lead humans from ego/ to ethnic/ to world/ to cosmos-centrism.

Many people, particularly men, are stuck in their lives:

afraid of introspection/pleasure/repressed emotion

disconnected from their bodies

asleep in patriarchal theocracies

but starting to wake up to their vulnerability/sensitivity.

Fear of being human

and information overload, a total head trip

is making Western Civilization neurotic –

the Asian belief in the richness of silence/

wordless wisdom/human wonder

is necessary and appealing

but fast disappearing.

However, bad discontent and good discontent exist in the West –

discontent with never having enough possessions/

always wanting more

and discontent with all the injustices in the world

that call one to take action.

In the East there are three main ways to God:

the way of the head – the way of intellect/knowledge/truth

the way of the heart – the way of emotion/devotion/beauty

the way of the gut – the way of will/action/goodness.

To Jurgen Moltmann, a European theologian

Christ’s death and resurrection, according to Colossians

reconciles and unites all three ways/all Creation/all creatures

so that the Cosmic Christ flows through all

and Creation, as Eastern Orthodox theologians say

is deified/filled with/fulfilled through

the Divine.

SOLVING THE HUMAN DILEMMA

Henri Nouwen holds the mystical path

devotion to God

to be central to the life of the heart.

When morality gets too much attention

it subverts the priority of the mystical.

In any case, true morality flows out of oneness

the Law of Karma rules:

“You cannot do good or evil to your self

without doing the same for your neighbors”

– Catherine of Siena

To the extent we can look at our self

clearly/compassionately, we can confidently/fearlessly

look into someone else’s eyes – and into their soul

since eyes are the mirrors of the soul.

For Teilhard de Chardin love is not

an epi-phenomenon – something humans can acquire

rather it is what we constantly bathe in

something closer to us than our breath

which includes agape/eros/philia (brotherly/sisterly love)

and undergirds/supports the rise of consciousness –

deepening love and rising consciousness go together.

Similar to Teilhard, theologian John Macquarrie

illumines the human condition

by his main theme of self-transcendence

which simultaneously opens us to God the Infinite

while recognizing our essential finitude.

We humans are always a problem to ourselves

because we are finite yet longing for infinity –

longing for the Godhead, for Infinite Love

the living God beyond our images/idols of God.

This is where we need faith –

because according to Simone Weil

“Faith is the ability to hold creative tension

between paradoxes that are irresolvable

such as being finite but longing for infinity.”

Faith in God is the solution

to the otherwise unsolvable human dilemma.

COMMITMENT/FREEDOM/MERCY

Wholeness and liberation not perfection and control

are the goals of authentic human spiritual development.

Individuals/societies that affirm

existentialist autonomy from God

think they are supporting life/hope/

freedom from sin/guilt

but they really move people

toward death and destruction.

The supposed freedom of casual sex

is not love, which requires commitment –

true freedom involves committing yourself to lifelong love –

conjugal love in marriage involves the good

of the whole person – it enriches their body/mind

expresses the unique friendship of spouses

and opens them to the healing and grace of God.

Without commitment you remain not in love

but in the prison of your own ego.

God draws humans to each other and to God

in hidden/subtle/wonderful ways.

The supposedly good self and bad shadow

are not opposites – just as the self/ego

can have destructive attitudes

so the shadow can have good qualities –

moral instincts and creative impulses.

Thomas Merton, the great rescuer of contemplation

and mysticism, constantly wrestled with his shadow

but ultimately found it liberating

to realize his whole life was one

of paradox and self-contradiction

and that, although this caused constant insecurity

it was his greatest security

for it was the sign of God’s mercy

and the only way God could deal with someone

so complicated and confused

as he found himself to be.

God loves and liberates the whole person

shadow and all.

WAR AND PEACE

In the Torah, Koran, and Aztec records

God was interpreted as being on our side

and therefore, when we go to war

it is a holy war and God’s will.

In the Trojan (Greek) and Mahabharata (East Indian) wars

God is on both sides, but you are called upon to do

your marital duty to free or reclaim a stolen spouse.

Humans always come up with some excuse

to make things better by killing other humans

therefore, we are always in a state of perpetual warfare.

Achieving justice and peace within major institutions

and religions cannot be achieved by individuals

it requires rigorous networking with others.

If not achieved that way, eventually there will be

serious revolt/storming of the barricades that protect power.

In spite of constant warfare and injustice

our lives are a process in which God

transforms us into holiness in ordinary ways –

holiness is God’s work

but requires our constant prayerful attention.

The two Saint Catherines: Genoa and Siena

made it clear that severe penance does not delight God

but rather unflagging reliance on God’s mercy.

The greatest gift of mercy to someone suffering

is your presence – full presence comes from either

Buddhist mindfulness or the Holy Spirit.

Mindfulness is like the Holy Spirit

in that both allow us to touch Ultimate Reality:

Trinity in Christianity and Nirvana in Buddhism.

Christ on the Tree of Redemption

and Buddha under the Bo Tree

are archetypal counterparts of the World Savior.

Whereas scientific truths are communicable

religious truths are not – they must be experienced

in silence and solitude. The solution to perpetual war

is to quietly promote the nonviolence of the Buddha

and the Prince of Peace.

SYNTHESIS

Newton’s mechanistic universe was the harbinger

of Nietzsche’s “death of God” – God was replaced

by the inexorable laws of physics as the means

of explaining things – no need for God anymore.

The abandonment of God and religion

is no longer unusual – it is seen as a requirement

of scientific progress and a new humanism

which has affected the arts/literature/history/law

and has left people shaken not stirred.

However, the great role for religion

in our postmodern world is to move people

from pre-rationality to rationality to trans-rationality

from child to adolescent to adult spirituality.

There have been great religious thinkers

trying to bring about a new synthesis

by including everyone. Rev. Dr. John Macquarrie

put us in touch with traditional wisdom

through Augustine and Aquinas

but also with contemporary great thinkers:

psychologists Freud and Jung

neo-Marxists Bloch and Marcuse

theologians Tillich and Rahner

philosophers Wittgenstein and Sartre.

And William McLoughlin outlined five stages

of religious awakening:

doubting the old ideas
seeing institutional malfunction
a new vision of human nature/spirituality/God
new practices/ways of life/being emerging
the transformation of institutions.

Universal oneness/we are all one/all connected

was described by the ancient mystics

and now is being discovered anew

by modern physics.

Thesis: religion

Anti-thesis: science

Synthesis: religion and science as equals.

“I AM” IS GREATER THAN “AI”

The small ego – the things we identify with –

our education/work/marital status/wealth –

our possessions can possess us

and hand the reins to EGO (Edging God Out):

our attachment to our self-image instead of to God.

The small ego is a necessary part, but not the whole

of who we are, and breaking free of it into the whole

liberates us from just being a part.

Even the small ‘I,’ the ego, cannot love

because it is always in one of four small ‘c’ modes:

calculation/control/competition/comparison.

Comparison with others = judging = anti-love.

To end the violence all around us

we first need to end the violence within us –

technology will not save us but “I AM” can

and meditation – listening to silence – the language of God

within us and around us – can help.

Quantum theology believes:

the ‘shadow’ is a real and powerful dimension of all life
the shadow cannot be eradicated
the more we try to eradicate it, the more power we give it
the shadow is a powerful force for creativity if we integrate it.

Because our shadow and God wrestle within us

most people relate to the sacred

with a sense of ambivalence – a mixture of

trust/antitrust/approach/avoidance.

But there is no need to be afraid –

the Godhead is a Goodhead.

In fact, it’s all good – Teilhard de Chardin saw that

even technology can provide a ground for religious development –

something that, rather than destroying us

with AI like CHATGPT

technology could take us to a higher level

of consciousness and union in love –

telescopes let us see into the past

and just how great/good/glorious God is

and always has been

and always will be.

KNOCKING ON THE PEARLY GATES

On all the key issues in spirituality:

the equality of men and women/

the harmony of body and soul/

the holiness of being/the goodness of humans/

the compatibility of mysticism and prophecy

Meister Eckhart exceeded the Aristotelian Thomas Aquinas

and so Eckhart was definitely not a Neo-Platonist

as he is often portrayed – he sought the unity of opposites –

the unity of Heaven and Earth.

But Newtonian physics separated all things –

and thinking of matter composed of hard separate atoms

impacted our view of self – the individual against community

and our view of Spirit – as somehow opposed to material science

and our view of nature – as a product to be exploited for gain –

the result has been massive alienation

from self/God/nature.

The Jewish world of Jesus thought of all things

as created/hierarchical/anthropocentric/

governed by fixed laws with a fixed beginning and fixed end.

But modern evolutionary physics sees reality

as a dynamic interplay of chance/law/interconnection –

Aristotle’s fixed reality of matter and form

has been deconstructed by relativity and quantum mechanics

into a never-ending/interconnected/flow

of energy and information.

The creative union of God and matter

is not a metaphysical doctrine as much as a

pragmatic explanation of the universe –

the religious paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

had an innate tendency/power to see God

not apart from the physical world

but in it/through it/as it.

The Kingdom/Queendom/Kindom/Presence of God

is within us and all around us

so we do not have to die

to get to the Pearly Gates

(owned, conspirists claim, by Bill Gates –

therefore the “Gates of Heaven”)

we only have to be fully alive with God

in this present spiritual/material world.

GOD LOVES YOUR SHADOW

Trying to find absolute rights and wrongs is a trick

we play on ourselves to feel secure and comfortable

but it is far more daring to keep your heart open

and not make anyone the ‘enemy’

not even your shadow.

Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle says the soul

is a mansion of many rooms, but there is a room

in which we should always dwell – self-knowledge –

coming to consciousness of the dark side

of one’s personality is, according to Fr. Thomas Keating

the ‘sine qua non’ – the ‘essential condition’ for

psychological/spiritual growth/humility/wholeness/holiness.

Our shadow only becomes hostile

when ignored or misunderstood –

like any human being you have to get along with –

often you have to give in/resist/show love.

Holy men and women have unconsciously written whole books

claiming it was all dictated to them by Jesus/Mary/the Holy Spirit

but John of the Cross would be sceptical about this

and Fatima/Medjugorje/end-of-the-world predictions.

Kick at the darkness/the shadow not out of illusion

not out of triumphalism, but out of grace –

kick at the darkness because it is ubiquitous

but it is not sovereign – it will not have the final word.

God’s way of being just is to show mercy/unconditional love

to those who were loved conditionally

and therefore repressed the ‘unacceptable’ parts of themselves

and so developed a shadow.

God loves all of us, even our shadows

and this formed the basis for Karl Barth’s belief

that we can at least hope for

the salvation of all souls.

God is patient with us

not wanting anyone to perish (2 Peter 3:9).