Tag: liberation

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.

THE MAGIC ELIXIR

Tremendous change has happened since the Middle Ages:

Renaissance/Reformation/Enlightenment/Evolution/World Wars –

which makes theologians ask 

“What is modernity?/theology?/Christianity?”

but whatever it is, theology is secondary to liberating praxis –

solidarity with the poor must be the center of Christianity –

theology is subordinate to justice –

Jesus, like Buddha, came to liberate 

not speculate

another major development is Technology

which increases our ability to meet every human need

but hypnotizes the Masses into believing 

life is only about meeting economic needs –

we have gained the world 

but lost our souls

long before this, right back in biblical times

Christianity was corrupted by unconscious worldliness –

scholars agree on three “Pauls” in the Christian scriptures: 

the radical/conservative/reactionary Pauls –

Paul probably did not write Colossians and Ephesians –

fake authorship was common throughout the ancient world

and Paul goes from a theology of liberation in Romans/Corinthians

to a theological conservative in Colossians/Ephesians

who in these later books believes Christians can own slaves

for their own economic gain

but the Quran says “The riches and progeny of unbelievers

will profit them nothing when it comes to Allah –

they will inhabit the Fire –

believers put their trust in God”

so being Christian (or Muslim) never ceases to be challenging 

we always get pierced by the horns 

of scientific materialism or world-escaping piety

however modern theologians such as Ileo Delia 

avoid the conservatizing/privatizing/sickening of the Masses

and allow us to drink a magic elixir

made by swirling together central ideas from some august believers:

Merton/Teilhard/Panikkar/and Griffiths

that give us a robust/healthy modern faith.

THE POVERTY OF THE RICH

Biblical salvation is about liberation –

the Book of Exodus is the prototype

of God liberating us

but people often prefer the security of slavery

to the uncertainty of freedom –

God meant the Israelites to be a beacon of light

to the world – a liberated community

dedicated to peace and justice –

but their need for “security” is undoing them

 

we could be secure/happy/content

with God’s grace and the life God has given us

but in our culture we need approval

which comes from having truckloads of money –

if you are poor, capitalism excludes you –

you are excommunicated

from the heavenly banquet of western culture

 

but the poor have a spiritual advantage over the rich

since the rich can take away their pain too easily –

they can fill their emptiness with travel

distract their loneliness with shopping or fine dining

whereas the poor must face their poverty

and learn its lessons

 

the “Fifth Buddhist Precept: Mindful Consuming”

reminds us to not ingest toxins like

violent movies/mindless television/

numbing netsurfing/cynical books

 

in the 1960s, just as Asia ran headlong

into the craze for money and industrialization

Asian meditation poured into the West

because westerners were desperate

for things of the spirit

but the West has always had its own mysticism/mystics

which organized religion largely ignored

and so churches have emptied to the East –

more people practice yoga/meditation than go to church

 

although some spiritual experiences happen

as random insights or miraculous encounters

most experiences of God come through prayer –

prayer is a way for westerners to find God

and become liberated from their spiritual poverty.

THE GREAT LOVER

The Great Lover calls all of us

the outsider/sinner/violent

into the Ocean of Mercy called God:

“I did not come to make the virtuous

feel good about themselves,

I came for those who need healing.”

– Jesus

Once in the Ocean you can dive to the depths:

“There are two healing demands

if you take up the contemplative life:

forsaking the world’s evil

and purifying your conscience of all sin

through the sacrament of reconciliation.”

– The Cloud of Unknowing

Both Christianity and Buddhism encourage people

to reject all earthly aspirations.

Instead, people rejected religion

which works well for them

until there is serious suffering.

People losing their religion

may be entering a spiritual wasteland

or travelling into a mythic desert

where they can start a new spiritual search

for the God old, ossified institutions have lost.

Perhaps religion is all made up anyway –

our minds cannot grasp infinity

so we invoke concepts like beginning and end

Alpha and Omega, Incarnation and Resurrection

as dominant myths to help us cope

with our Infinite God and infinite universe

even though God is fully present everywhere

including in your own heart and soul.

Though God is in, over, through, and as us

“We do not see things as they are,

we see them as we are. We hear religious texts

according to our own level of consciousness

which is always developing.” – Richard Rohr

The first worldwide developmental Axial Age

was 500 BCE to 100 CE –

the rise of the great religions, east and west.

The second Axial Age began in 1600 CE

with the labor pains of science –

a massive revolt against Aristotle

and his deductive method of arguing from effect to cause.

Science was inductive/experimental/observational/pragmatic

thus, studying people’s approach to God (religious studies)

began to displace the science of God (theology) –

God became an object of academic study

instead of the Author of Living Faith.

Reason has overcome myth

and been a handmaid of Spirit

in achieving real freedom

rather than mythic freedom.

A person might worship an Egyptian god

but must overlook the great pyramids

were built by slaves.

Like the United States, Egypt was

“The land of the free

and the home of the slave.”

The mythic God – the angry old Sky-Man

brought hierarchical oppression to slaves and Catholics

but the Spirit brings democracy and real liberation.

With real liberation has come

bodily and sexual liberation –

It is not right for a human to act like an angel

denying all desires and pleasures.

God has designed us so that

certain desires and pleasures are natural for us –

to be human is more godly than to be angelic.

The lingam, the giant stone phallus in Hindu temples

represents the mythic god Shiva

and is an all-encompassing symbol

representing a multitude of ideas and emotions

which have little to do with penises and sex.

Other religious symbols like the Cross

represent many ideas and emotions other than

human cruelty and suffering.

The courage to suffer is an affirmation of one’s essential nature

but courage may require the Cross in your own life –

sacrificing other essentials such as pleasure or happiness

or even your life.

When you accept that ‘everything belongs’

you can accept suffering and death –

only the ego fears suffering and death –

whereas your true life, your soul

is hidden with Christ in God

and All things, even death, work for the good

for those who love the Great Lover.