Being just beyond your personal reach,
but morally good and attractive and experienced as a presence, is available to us
in music, art, morality, and science. This transcendent depth to all
human experience manifests in a slow vibration called matter, and is thereby reduced to a personal story, a time bound narrative based on geography, employment, family, friendships and physical encounters as‘my’
individual imagination and memory. This is seen in retrospect like a driver in a rear-view mirror, but being itself is not subject to this
un-becoming and re-becoming, and the great I am is really one knowledge, one truth and love,
one conscious bliss for whom there
is no death. This is what we mean by God. Individuals are
the imagination of this eternal divine Self who is kind to the wicked and the ungrateful (Luke 6:35). No foolish thoughts, no false imagery, no fears and
no forebodings come near this divine I behind the Christian religion, who became a historical human being so that historical human beings could
become this divine I (2 Pet 1:4), “the light of the world” (Matt 5:14) If you don’t let kindness and truth leave you (Proverbs 3.3) this eternal love is nearby.
Tuesday, 11 July 2017
Tuesday, 14 February 2017
Surprised by Hope...
Thursday, 29 December 2016
Tuesday, 27 December 2016
Relax, no-one is in control!
To grow is to let go, and you can only be happy in the world, give, trust, if you are free of the world, because you cannot be capable, simple, and free from fear and desire, until God the Holy Spirit is your being, and you don’t care whether you exist or die, which is eternal life, Jesus' timeless teaching encapsulated in his advice: “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (Jn 16:33).
A worldly definition of religion, such as the worship of a Higher Being, is a bit like psychology, because it assumes your 'I' is of the world, and needs to surrender, adjust, get better, get relief, find self-esteem, approval, healthy attachment or whatever, without ever realising that whatever is perceived, felt, touched, seen, heard, smelt, tasted, or thought, cannot be who you are anyway. You are the perceiver, feeler, toucher, seer, hearer, smeller, taster or thinker, and this 'I' alone is Love, but people don't want this Love, because people think they need something else, such as to be loved, or to be recognised, or approved of.
Worldly religion teaches belief in Jesus, but wouldn't you rather have his spirit than have him as an imaginary friend? Passion for him without compassion for everyone is not what the New Testament calles Pistis [faith], his living trust: “Why do you call me Lord, and not do what I say”? (Lk 6:46).
So relax, no-one is in control, you nor anyone, God's eternally present I is the only Self scripture witnesses to, when it says Be Still, and know that I am God (Ps 46:10), I am the Vine and you are the branches (Jn 15:5), I am, the way, the truth, and the life (Jn 14:6), I and the Father are one (Jn 10:30), Before Abraham was, I am (Jn 8:58) I have learnt to be content under all circumstances (Phil 4:12), you may participate in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4) , and let this mind be in you which was in Christ, who made himself nothing (Phil 2:5).
Don’t be trapped or blocked off, 'I' does not refer to a separated body or mental image, and if you think otherwise, that is a thought, not who you really are. Possibly it is an anxious thought, caused by the tightening of that body.
So let it go, because anything you perceive as separate is not who you are. The Christian desert Fathers and Mothers used to say that if you want rest both here and hereafter, "always ask yourself 'Who am i?' and never judge anyone."
In the sermon on the mount (Matt 5-7) Jesus taught a state of happiness, blessedness, where you are not a body mind, but poverty, empty of ego and therefore truly allowing God to be the only I am.
“I am” is not a thought or an experience, it is the uncreated essence that manifests as matter energy and psyche, losing no potential at all in doing so.
A worldly definition of religion, such as the worship of a Higher Being, is a bit like psychology, because it assumes your 'I' is of the world, and needs to surrender, adjust, get better, get relief, find self-esteem, approval, healthy attachment or whatever, without ever realising that whatever is perceived, felt, touched, seen, heard, smelt, tasted, or thought, cannot be who you are anyway. You are the perceiver, feeler, toucher, seer, hearer, smeller, taster or thinker, and this 'I' alone is Love, but people don't want this Love, because people think they need something else, such as to be loved, or to be recognised, or approved of.
Worldly religion teaches belief in Jesus, but wouldn't you rather have his spirit than have him as an imaginary friend? Passion for him without compassion for everyone is not what the New Testament calles Pistis [faith], his living trust: “Why do you call me Lord, and not do what I say”? (Lk 6:46).
So relax, no-one is in control, you nor anyone, God's eternally present I is the only Self scripture witnesses to, when it says Be Still, and know that I am God (Ps 46:10), I am the Vine and you are the branches (Jn 15:5), I am, the way, the truth, and the life (Jn 14:6), I and the Father are one (Jn 10:30), Before Abraham was, I am (Jn 8:58) I have learnt to be content under all circumstances (Phil 4:12), you may participate in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4) , and let this mind be in you which was in Christ, who made himself nothing (Phil 2:5).
Don’t be trapped or blocked off, 'I' does not refer to a separated body or mental image, and if you think otherwise, that is a thought, not who you really are. Possibly it is an anxious thought, caused by the tightening of that body.
So let it go, because anything you perceive as separate is not who you are. The Christian desert Fathers and Mothers used to say that if you want rest both here and hereafter, "always ask yourself 'Who am i?' and never judge anyone."
In the sermon on the mount (Matt 5-7) Jesus taught a state of happiness, blessedness, where you are not a body mind, but poverty, empty of ego and therefore truly allowing God to be the only I am.
“I am” is not a thought or an experience, it is the uncreated essence that manifests as matter energy and psyche, losing no potential at all in doing so.
Because, I am that I am (Ex 3:14), lowly, meek, yet all powerful.
Amen +
Amen +
Friday, 2 December 2016
ON LETTING GO D
Try this interview with writer John Butler in Bakewell parish church in Derby diocese, where he meditates daily. The son of a Russian refugee was a farmer but he explored the deserts of the world and then Russia, where he discovered the Jesus prayer, and also the presence of God.
Sunday, 30 October 2016
The spirit of God is the life of nature, consciousness
A crematorium worker told me he didn’t believe in God,
claiming there was no evidence, so I asked him if he had a mind. He said yes, and I asked him how he knew. “I
experience it,” he said. “And I
experience God,” I replied. Later, I was
invited to explore the furnaces which burn away human flesh, and the machines
that crush up human skulls and bones into powder.
And outside the crematorium, contemplating nature in squirrels,
trees, birds, grass and sky and clouds, trying to understand the nature of
death, I experienced a sudden, lovely, gentle, intuitive voice; “I have given
you the clues,” it whispered. Now, what is
the experience of a sudden, lovely, gentle intuitive voice, if not an Angel?
Angelos means messenger, and in the Bible, messengers interact with our minds, in dreams, visions, and the events in nature. The theologian Thomas Aquinas said Angels learn though intuition, they don’t have schools and books, we encounter them intuitively, in prayer, creativity and ritual.
Aquinas also warned that if you ever make a mistake about nature, it will lead you to make another mistake, about God. The mistake is regarding nature as unconscious. Not only is nature conscious, but God is consciousness, and as the Orthodox Church says; “the spirit of God is the life of nature,” so true life is union with God’s consciousness. All experience is only infinite consciousness, God’s infinite being.
Creatures cling to life, but life does not cling to creatures, and as St Paul wrote to those Corinthians; “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,” he said, but “if there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.” This means nature transcends the gross physical body, the mental body, the subtle energy body. If this sounds irrational, or unscientific, remember...
Biologist Wallace, who discovered evolution with Darwin, thought intellectual beings guided it. Quantum theory has made Physicists realise matter is a field of invisible interactions. Einstein thought about light being timeless, how light moves from sun to earth in no time, but to external observers like him, it seemed to take eight minutes.
What if Angelic, internal being, light, like photons, moves timelessly without mass in space, in the kind of life Jesus called eternal? An Angel could not help but love you, and inspire you to rise above the lower angels of your own nature, lower because motivated by fleshly pride greed and fear, not by a love stronger than death.
Traditional theology has nine levels of consciousness governing this universe, the top three called cherubim, or divine knowledge, seraphim, or love, and thrones, or presence. Knowledge, love, presence surround you, and when the Bible asks; “What is man, that thou art mindful of him,” it answers, “we are a little lower than Angels.” Jesus said in resurrection, we are as the angels.
So despite vulnerability or pain, don’t cling, love is letting people be where they are, as 1 Corinthians says, a perishable body is sown, an imperishable body raised. True nature is peace, hidden with God in Christ (Col3:3). The world cannot give this peace and it cannot be grasped or defended. All experience of the apparent physical mental world is only infinite consciousness, God’s infinite being. Do you live like this?
Angelos means messenger, and in the Bible, messengers interact with our minds, in dreams, visions, and the events in nature. The theologian Thomas Aquinas said Angels learn though intuition, they don’t have schools and books, we encounter them intuitively, in prayer, creativity and ritual.
Aquinas also warned that if you ever make a mistake about nature, it will lead you to make another mistake, about God. The mistake is regarding nature as unconscious. Not only is nature conscious, but God is consciousness, and as the Orthodox Church says; “the spirit of God is the life of nature,” so true life is union with God’s consciousness. All experience is only infinite consciousness, God’s infinite being.
Creatures cling to life, but life does not cling to creatures, and as St Paul wrote to those Corinthians; “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,” he said, but “if there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.” This means nature transcends the gross physical body, the mental body, the subtle energy body. If this sounds irrational, or unscientific, remember...
Biologist Wallace, who discovered evolution with Darwin, thought intellectual beings guided it. Quantum theory has made Physicists realise matter is a field of invisible interactions. Einstein thought about light being timeless, how light moves from sun to earth in no time, but to external observers like him, it seemed to take eight minutes.
What if Angelic, internal being, light, like photons, moves timelessly without mass in space, in the kind of life Jesus called eternal? An Angel could not help but love you, and inspire you to rise above the lower angels of your own nature, lower because motivated by fleshly pride greed and fear, not by a love stronger than death.
Traditional theology has nine levels of consciousness governing this universe, the top three called cherubim, or divine knowledge, seraphim, or love, and thrones, or presence. Knowledge, love, presence surround you, and when the Bible asks; “What is man, that thou art mindful of him,” it answers, “we are a little lower than Angels.” Jesus said in resurrection, we are as the angels.
So despite vulnerability or pain, don’t cling, love is letting people be where they are, as 1 Corinthians says, a perishable body is sown, an imperishable body raised. True nature is peace, hidden with God in Christ (Col3:3). The world cannot give this peace and it cannot be grasped or defended. All experience of the apparent physical mental world is only infinite consciousness, God’s infinite being. Do you live like this?
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