Futile Sacrifices

I finally found the courage to post this. I have never shown this to the public. It may be offensive to some people for different reasons. But, I feel the time is right to post it. Its an acrylic on Hardboard panel 24" x  32"


This painting has a long history attached to it. But, the story line behind the subject material goes back thousands of years.   I researched the subject material for this work, off and on for more then 20 years, with far too many days and hours invested into it, then I want to disclose. I started the painting in 2010 after all the research, and didn't finish it until 2017.  It is based on  Isaiah1:11-13  'Bring no more futile sacrifices'. Since the beginning of time man has been offering up sacrifices to their gods. They would bring animals to their temples and sacrifice them in ceremonial ritual, in hope these burnt offering would appease their angry gods. They believed in a concept of a god that was separate from them, and this separation theology caused them to believe in what has been called substitutionary atonement. A living being was sacrificed as a substitute for the tribe so they could feel in right standing, at-one-ment,  again with their distant and angry deity.  This idea carried over from ancient temple worship to modern day Christianity where the Jesus character became the symbolic human sacrifice, that would end all this futile sacrifices once and for all. Progressive Christianity have rejected this idea,of any need for atonement at all, and along with it, the old view of a vindictive and angry tribal god, out there somewhere, that needs to be appeased.  They have realized a new way to view what the Divine is. Jesus spoke of the kingdom of heaven within us. The divinity and realm of heaven is found within our hearts, not at some remote location. The loving intelligence that is at the matrix of all being is found within. Modern Spirituality has come a long way and there has been a rethinking and appreciating the deep underlying truth in the old myths. Myths in this sense is not necessarily false, but rather their symbolism brings out even greater truth, that have always been there, but not easily realized. Parables tell stories that bring out great truth but we don't believe the characters are actual persons who lived in real life, myth is similar except they are more like embellished storied that are based on oral stories, passed on through multiple generations and then written down decades or centuries later. They bring out great truths like parables, and are not meant to be always seen an historical literal fact.This painting is all about symbolism and myth and the power of myth to change lives.  I won't get into all that, here.


(detail section of the temple)

 In this painting  I have installed the Jewish holy temple which stood on the temple mount in Jerusalem, before it was destroyed by the Romans in 70CE.. The vantage point is looking westward from the slope of the mount of olives, where some historians believe the Crucifixion of Jesus took place 2000 years ago. Info here. This is the setting of the painting, based on myth and reasoning of others,  that I have researched. It is on a day when the animals were sacrificed and burnt offering were made. The sun is setting in the west over the temple and the smoke of the sacrifices are bellowing upward. I have Jesus on the cross at the same time the animals were sacrificed just before sunset. The eastern twin gates (Golden Gate) have been sealed up, off and on since the 9th century and has remained that way since 1541.click here Golden Gate In this painting I have them open. A causeway was said to have been there, according to one source, that led from the eastern gates to the mount of olives,it is believed to have intersected an old road that went to Bethany. This is where Romans crucified criminals and enemies of the empire, at a busy crossroad, so all would see.  At the moment of Jesus's death there was a myth that the temple curtain ripped in two pieces and exposed the  Holy of Holies . That is why I have a white light shinning at the temple door opening, with imagination you could say its in the shape of a divine presence Shekhinah leaving the temple.There is so much more symbolism but, I can't get into it all, here. It would take many pages to explain.I have a huge stack of research paper to back up my reasoning for this setting. Much of it is controversy, including this painting, concerning details of location, timing of events,  and whether it all happen as we have been told.  I will not judge the truth of it all. This painting cannot be based on fact, but it is more of a synthesis of myth.  The bottom line, is the fact that nobody really knows exactly what happened so long ago. The painting is based on myth passed on to our generation. I turned it all into a painting that tells a different story then all other crucifixion paintings have done. Its totally different then any other painting I have done. Its a dark subject about a dark age that not everybody will appreciate, but its a story that needs to be brought out.

I will add here also, other thoughts on design for this painting. You will notice the rays of the sun radiating outward from the sun center and upward  I fanned the original gesso brush strokes like that to create brush marks so the final paint coats would follow in those grooves. The sun setting directly over the temple is not uncommon in temple design and position, what adds to this painting is that it is seen precisely directly over the temple at the location of where the cross is placed, at the western mid slop of the mount of olives. The temple is at the 1/3 horizontal and  1/3  vertical crossing point and the cross is intentionally tilted toward the temple slightly. The temple and sun are meant to be the main vocal point. The Moslem dome of the rock temple sits at the Jewish temple site today. The olive gardens were common at this location. If you look close there are figures in the garden looking toward the cross. The cross is dark because it is in shadow and I didn't want this image on the cross to be the main point of interest.

The idea that the Jesus character was looking toward the temple adds to the whole mythology because Christianity later made the crucifixion symbolic of him being the final sacrifice to supposedly end all ritual sacrifice.  However, this sacrifice, with symbols of wine (blood) and bread (body) are re-enacted continually over and over again in Christian ritual, to this day. It still proclaims a separation between us and God and it is only through belief in this blood sacrifice of Jesus that we can have access to the divine. It is just a remake of the old temple sacrificial system rebranded to be more socially acceptable. People still need a priest and an institution to have access to the holy presence in this system of belief. The unity message of Jesus was completely misunderstood. Its hard to see the small figures on the walkway through the eastern gates  but they all have a lamb following behind them. The whole sacrificial system of atonement was barbaric by modern human standards. The sheep going to the slaughter is a little side detail that is not easily seen on the digital small image you are looking at  on your screen. The smoke is the burnt offering being offered in the fire in front of the holy of hollies. I mentioned before the large curtain that separated people from the supposed seat and presence of God was ripped asunder the same moment Jesus died, according to the legend. The white light where the dark curtain is split in the center of the temple is symbolic of the spirit departing the earthly temple of stone (hardened hearts) and the beginning of it residing in the open Spiritual Heart of the people. Or, put it this way, its symbolic in the sense that with the ripping of the veil of separation we now all have access to divinity. It resides in our spiritual heart, the true holy of holies. Jesus was the one who pointed to the new way, the new life and the new truth with his message of the kingdom of heaven found within. It was his message of individual access to the oneness of the divine Spirit, for all, that got him killed by the religion of separation theology. His message of the kingdom of heaven within all, did not fit well with both the Jewish and Roman system of ideology. For the past 2000 years it still did not fit with the ingrained idea of a separate god and the need for an institutional religion of belief and ritual, to regulate our access to the divine. The deeper story of Jesus is not  about blood sacrifice, although we can respect its symbolic effect, but, it is more about his message, the good news, that removes the veil of separation between us and the divine. His whole message in summary and the message in this painting, is the proclamation that we all have access to the divine presence, now, through the holy of holies found within our spiritual heart, it is not found in temples of stone or through tablets of clay. The message is loud and clear  'Bring no more futile sacrifices' on stone alters (with hearts clenched), for the kingdom of heaven is found within, in a open and pure spiritual heart, beyond the veil of separation woven by a false sense of  an egoic self  and beyond body and blood.This illusion of a separate egoic self is the root cause of all our perceptions of separation from others, nature and the divine presence. But, you will have to do your own research on all that. The wisdom teachings for thousands of years have been saying this, and now we have the internet full of information on this subject.

“God is born in the Heart and the Heart is born in God,” as the great Christian mystic Meister Eckhart


Luke 17:20-21  (the kingdom of heaven/God is found within you)

My painting web site is here:My paintings


 

A new kind of Christianity

This is what is written on the amazon write up about this book:


'What would Christianity look like if we weren't afraid to ask questions'

"Wherever the willingness to rethink has been squelched, wherever that sense of quest has been buried under convention and complacency, the Christian faith in all its forms is in trouble. But even there, something is trying to be born. Even now, right here, among us, inside you, inside me. You may feel it as a curiosity, a desire for better answers than you inherited so far. You may experience it as frustration, knowing that there must be more to faith than you currently know. You may know it as hope, hope that God is seeking humble people whose hearts and lives can be the womb of a better future.... In you, your family, your faith community, and circles of friends, among people of peace and faith everywhere, something is trying to be born."
We are in the midst of a paradigm shift in the church. Not since the Reformation five centuries ago have so many Christians come together to ask whether the church is in sync with their deepest beliefs and commitments. These believers range from evangelicals to mainline Protestants to Catholics, and the person who best represents them is author and pastor Brian McLaren.
In this much anticipated book, McLaren examines 10 questions facing today's church - questions about how to articulate the faith itself, the nature of its authority, who God is, whether we have to understand Jesus through only an ancient Greco-Roman lens, what exactly the good news is that the gospel proclaims, how we understand the church and all its varieties, why we are so preoccupied with sex, how we should think of the future and people from other faiths, and the most intimidating question of all: what do we do next? Here you will find a provocative and enticing introduction to the Christian faith of tomorrow.

https://www.amazon.com/New-Kind-Christianity-Questions-Transforming/dp/B004XXVSNI
   
Here are my thought on this.



I like the title of this book 'a new Type of Christianity'. A honest critique of core beliefs has been lacking in Christianity, since its beginning. To 'question more' concerning what Christianity teaches as truth, has never been encouraged within the institutional church. Maybe this is why the 'spiritual but not religious camp' has been growing in recent years. When trapped in our certainties of belief, we become enslaved in our mental concepts of what reality is. When we believe we have the whole truth, all other perspectives will have to be discarded as false, or something coming from the perceived enemy in another. Perhaps greater truth can be realized when we look more closely, with critical thinking, at what it is, that we have been conditioned to believe.

I am no longer involved with the church and mainstream Christianity.  I went through a process, over the years, of deep inquiry into what it is that I truly believe. This happened over a very long period of time, perhaps 7 years. I became more concerned about truth and reason rather then blind faith in what I was conditioned to believe over a 35 year period. I have always had a good relationship with all Christians that I knew. Half my family are Christians. I had a lot of questions that my local church pastor, or  Christian apologetics  could not answer. I searched long and hard concerning core beliefs in Christianity. I researched the history of Christianity and the church, I studied what other world religions have to say and was pleasantly surprised at what I found.  I admire the Jesus character and his  teaching. However, I can no longer  fit my current view of what God is inside a narrow box of belief anymore. I became obsessed about God and spirituality, all through this process. I have read perhaps over 200 books and listened to hundreds of video's on the subject.  I dared to crack open the door of perception and developed an open mind on other ideas. I dropped my certainties on perceived truth and embraced 'not knowing' as my position to most deep subjects.  The search for truth did something unexpected ..it brought a tremendous sense of freedom in my spirit. The search for truth set me free.  I no longer have fear and guilt brought on by not living up to some unrealistic divine ideal. I accept myself the way I am, a work in progress. I no longer feel any separation at all from an external God who is way out there somewhere. I feel the presence of the divine all around me, most of the time. There is a peace that passes all understanding. Jesus said the Kingdom of heaven is found inside us, not out there somewhere . I have sensed a glimpse of this state of being Jesus talked about.  My method of prayer is more meditative/contemplative, with a lot of silence and being still before the great unknown. Life is a journey of many seasons and I love it .

What is truth?

I started asking deep questions about life at a very early age . When I was in my early preteen years I was asking, who am I?, and why am I here? As a late teen, I was asking what is true?

What is truth? This is a question that has been asked by the deepest thinkers throughout history. There has always been a great debate among philosophers and theologians on what is truth.Then, there is this idea of subjective and objective truth ... what the heck is that ?... philosophy jargon. I won't get into all that.  Basically for the average person, it comes down to what we have been conditioned to believe, the supposed truth of science, politics, ideology or religion  and its scriptures (law) and the perception of truth as a result of experience (Life).  My focus in recent years has been, on the truth of personal experience. Perhaps we all have our own window into truth. Maybe truth is not not always absolute and objective, there may be a case for the truth being more personal or subjective. The whole purpose of humanity may be experimental. Are 'we' living 'our' life or is life as 'a greater consciousness' living in these mortal bodies in order to grow and experience life. Maybe real personal truth is found, in real life, in open minded inquiry, looking within and being less judgemental, in loving and being compassionate toward all forms of life. If there is a choice between the letter of Law (literalism) or Love, wouldn't Love be the highest human-divine ideal and truth?

For most of my adult life I followed a path that seemed to demand that I live a life that strived after some divine ideal. I was trying to meet unrealistic goals that I had set for myself in order to meet a certain standard, to satisfy external expectations.

It has been proven over and over again in history that our need for "the safety of certainty in our beliefs" has killed creativity, innovation and the search for truth. The dark ages in Europe was a good example of how an ideology, one warped version of Christianity, based on a certainty of belief was forced on the masses and it restrained all growth in its wake for 1000 years. For over ten centuries all other spiritual and scientific ideas were persecuted, their books burnt and hundreds of thousands of humans were slaughtered and even burned alive for not believing the same way as this orthodox church. We will never search for greater truth as long as we hold absolute certainty in our current perceptions and beliefs. If we do search for truth beyond what we already believe to be true, it will cause a discomfort to such a degree that we may be forced to abandon our former beliefs and assumptions. This is a very painful process and most of us would rather continue to rest in the safety of our certainty (belief system) then search for the mystery of truth which by its very nature is uncertain. However, it is a paradox that its only when we embrace uncertainty that we can then experience truth and freedom.The truth will set us free to explore the mystery of life. As long as we are trapped in our certainties, we are enslaved in our mental concepts of what reality is.

I believe there is a reluctance to accept what others have to say when we feel our view is the only truth. If other views don't fit inside of our data set of belief, then it gets discarded as false or something coming from 'the enemy'. This dualistic thinking of the imagined enemy, in the other, keeps people in their own dark age thinking. To love our neighbor is to hear what our neighbor has to say. When we hear the world, outside of our conceptual box of belief, and listen to their truth, then we may begin to see clearly, the bigger picture. We may realize greater truth when we clean the dirty window of our perception and see others face to face.


Truth is so expansive, isn't it , it cannot be fully grasped at all, we can know " a truth " but not all truth, because it encompasses all of life. The more we seek after truth the more we realize how little we know, we seek but we cannot find. But, when we surrender to the uncertainty of the "truth", because it is so clouded by untruth, we enter into the freedom talked about in the phrase " the truth will set you free. When we surrender to 'not knowing', after all our seeking, searching and grasping, for that which will satisfies our longing, we will find true freedom. When we stop the seeking and accept, not knowing, then we will find life in its fullest. The surrender to "not knowing" fully is perhaps the most liberating experience in life. When the mind is stilled and the seeking is over, we have found true salvation. It frees us up to be still, and silent before the great unknown power behind life, to the greatest mystery of all, that which is called by many names. "Truth" is just one name among many for this mystery.

The real trick to life is not to be in the know, but to be in the mystery- Arjun Walia

The realization of  truth is really more of a process of learning what is not true. Perhaps the greatest untruth is the idea that we are separate from others and 'God'. The word 'God' is a very loaded word.  My view of  'God' is, more like the source of life, the ground of all being, Tao or universal consciousness. This is a more universal accepted view of what God is. Even atheistic scientists can warm up to the view of a universal intelligence or consciousness that is the matrix behind all that is. How can we be separate from this source of life? What is Life?  We don't have a life, we are life. It is our thoughts that create the illusion of separation. When we see beyond this illusory mind set we find  no separation, at all, and  this allows us to experience unity with God and others. When we allow our egoic mind, the separate self, the false construct self, to control us, we in a sense edge the awareness of God out of our lives. This egoic thinking mind is what causes within ourselves a mere perception of separation. When we see the illusion of the false ego self, it will slowly dissolve, because it has been exposed as false. Our true self, once again, comes to the surface and it becomes so obvious, that this deeper essential self, is who we really are at our core. This essential self, is connected to what has many names, universal Self, universal mind, infinite intelligence, divine intelligence or God Self. When we live from the true essential self also called many names.. the soul,the heart, the center, the essence, the core of our being, there is now no sense of separation from our creator, our source and others. We realize we are all one and we share that oneness with all life. Jesus called this state of awareness, the kingdom of heaven, and he did say it was within us.


I will spend the rest of my earthly life peeling back the many layers of untruth that I have been conditioned to believe. It is this deliverance from illusion that sets us free. I am convinced that  we should all question our core beliefs to see if they can stand the test of truth. It may result in  a loss of certainty but it will open up our door of perception, and we will gain a greater understanding of reality.

Cosmic Intelligence

https://www.scienceandnonduality.com/relationship-with-the-silence/

Relationship with the Silence

• by Paul Mulliner
• in Dialogues, Space
• 0 Comments

by Paul Mulliner



The conventional explanation for the existence of consciousness is that it’s generated somehow by the brain. It’s possible, though, that the brain acts as a window into a field of consciousness which is present everywhere in the universe. Indeed, if we gently hold a focus of attention in the inner core of ourselves, we can quite easily reach an intuitive realization that the conscious awareness we have inside us exists also in the space around us.

It seems that the ‘I am’ awareness, which exists, apparently separately, inside each one of us, is an intrinsic property of all space everywhere and is simultaneously present inside all of us. Cosmic consciousness seems to be a core attribute of all space everywhere and the primary stuff of the universe, and this consciousness isn’t something limited to our human brain or to planet Earth. Our brain is immersed in this spatial consciousness, allowing each one of us a unique window into the cosmic field-awareness.

We can’t think our way to this realization though, because it’s not a concept. Instead, we need to pay attention to the presence of the conscious space inside ourselves. This is easy to do, and requires that we focus our attention inwardly for a few minutes occasionally rather than just exclusively focussing on the world around us.

If we find time every day to let our thinking subside and take a focus of attention inward, we can begin to intuitively realize a connection into the living cosmic intelligence which is generating the universe out of itself.

A spatial cosmic intelligence seems to be the core stuff of the universe and everything visible is a continuously generated expression of it, a real time vibrational altering of itself that allows it to become visible and touchable as trees, flowers and human beings. Cosmic intelligence seems to be making itself visible to itself.

The cosmic intelligence field-organism, which fills all space everywhere, is expressing itself as a visible world by facilitating the continuous dynamic emergence of clusters of quantum-scale resonance vibrations, which we interpret with our senses as the branch of a tree or the shape of a flower. Tuning in to this field helps us to know ourselves as cosmic intelligence expressing itself as a living being, and this can help us both live better and re-consider our notions about dying. Rather than the onset of an abrupt nothingness, we might consider that dying in a meaningful, living universe is a dissolving into an immense intelligence that we suddenly recognize and know – an intelligence that seems very familiar and has always known each one of us, during every moment of our life, as an expression of itself, a cosmic intelligence that helps us know ourselves as expressions of itself who took on a human form for the lifetime of a human being.

Keeping in touch with the living cosmic field-intelligence organism which is our source, by taking a focus of attention inward, is an inner work which helps us be happy, a crucial part of our everyday life in the world.

The living presence of cosmic intelligence always exists within us, waiting for us to reach into it with our attention. As we inwardly focus our attention, the deep silence of this intelligence field tugs us into itself, dissolving our separation from it, helping us into itself. As we reach into the silence with our attention, we become the silence.

During our life, as we tune in to this intelligence, we can begin to feel more at home in the universe and on this planet. Our connection with cosmic intelligence re-awakens an intuitive realization that we are cosmic beings, the continuously generated vibrational expressions of a field of cosmic intelligence. Human beings are allowing cosmic intelligence to consciously realize and know itself within the context of a sentient living being.

Even though the events of our daily life on planet Earth can seem challenging, regular contact with the cosmic intelligence which is generating all of us in real time out of itself can help us find the resilience and intuitive inspiration to find solutions to the issues we have to deal with.
One conscious, no-boundary spatial cosmic intelligence, which exists prior to thought, is present in all space and is where all seeing and knowing occurs. As we take a focus of attention inward, we become conscious of this cosmic intelligence or, we could say, it becomes conscious of itself within us.

Within each one of us is the whole conscious space in all of us

Loss of illusions

illusion definition: 1. an idea or belief that is not true: 2. something that is not really what it seems to be: 3. an idea or belief that is not true, or something that is not reality

We spend our lifetime learning how to live, but, if we live long enough, we must learn to die gracefully.

Most people don't want to think about aging and dying until they have to. We live in a youth worshiping and death denying culture.

Why do most people fear aging? It is often thought of as a time of deteriorating physical and mental health  and agility, and  a giving up of control and a  loss of freedom.

 Is there a positive side to aging? Aging can be thought of as a process of stripping away all that which is false, all that which is not necessary, to get at what is real. Who are we ..really? Throughout our life we built an unrealistic and unsustainable sense of self. Looking back at our past, if we are already aged,  we were the strong one, the healthy one, the intelligent one. We had the beauty of youth, and the virility of muscle. We had ambition and a drive to succeed.  With aging there is a slow erosion of all that was so important to us, in youth. Many grow distrustful, bitter and cynical as they age. Many people suffer from anxiety and depression as they face up to the fact they are getting old. It can cause a feeling of emptiness or loneliness. Its painful to have to lose the vigor of youth, through the process of aging, we have to give up hundreds of things, and all of our attachments. We have to deal with the lost relationships of  friends and loved ones if they pass before us. The process of aging is a continuous stripping away of everything, until  we get to the final dropping of the the physical body. The trick is  "you must die before you die".

 It all sounds so dismal. But, it need not be a negative process. It comes down to our attitude. If we view aging as a process of dying to the false self and  all that is temporal, in order to find what is the true eternal Self, it becomes a time of spiritual growth. The body gets old but the mind, the spirit and the soul can grow in maturity. What do we lose as we grow old? What is taken away? Our control?  Our freedom?...How much control and freedom did we really have? ...or are we merely losing our long standing programmed Illusions? ..maybe this is a good thing . To become disillusioned means to become free of illusion, it may not be as negative as we may think . It is the gateway to liberation and truth. Its about letting go of the illusions of control, the false and the temporal in life and trusting the flow of life that leads to truth.To simplify, simplify, simplify may be the greatest freedom we could ever experience. Less may be more. Letting go is true freedom. The universe is not against you, it is life sustaining and nurturing.  Aging can be a blessing if you want to grow in awareness of what is real, what is eternal, and what is truth.

With age we lose our illusions and a little bit of skin but we gain a whole new perspective on Life

The clip below dramatizes what I am trying to say:


Life may seem violent at times but it is our greatest teacher.

Learning “Presence”: The Greatest Gift

 

 

Below is an article written by Richard Enos, it is posted on the collective evolution web site.....very interesting

 

 

Learning “Presence”: The Greatest Gift You Could Ever Give Yourself

Published
3 days ago on
August 30, 2018

By
Richard Enos

In my life coaching practice, whenever I am able to help a client to understand presence, the entire conversation takes on a new shape. Suddenly, there is an anchor point to which the conversation can moor itself. A context can be created whereby problems, grievances, obstacles, and negative emotions can be seen as being the product of a mind that has wandered into regrets from the past or fears about the future, far away from the present moment.

Often the coaching conversation itself serves to create presence for a client. A particular problem or concern from the client is heard, and with poignant questions from the coach, the client is able to examine the roots of the ‘problem’ and strip away the illusory ideas and false beliefs that are holding that problem in place. The client’s own realization that the ‘problem’ is not connected to the present moment, along with the emotional relief that comes as a result of that awareness, reinforces the notion that connecting to the present moment–which is actually the only moment we can ever truly connect to–is all that is needed.

Surrendering To The Moment

When working by ourselves, the Zen koan, ‘What, in this present moment, is lacking?’ can be helpful to ponder. Indeed, it is impossible to truly be in the present moment and actually object to something that is present–all things of that moment are accepted and taken as part of the perfection of that moment. To feel the harmony of all things that make up that moment is to be one with the moment. A sense of peace is an inevitable consequence.

The motto of spiritual teacher Ram Dass is one of my favorites: Be Here Now. A phrase so simple it belies its own profundity. Ram Dass emphasizes that presence is surrendering power and control over then moment, and detaching ourselves from any ‘preferred’ present state and simply aligning with the present state that is.

The most exquisite paradox… as soon as you give it all up, you can have it all. As long as you want power, you can’t have it. The minute you don’t want power, you’ll have more than you ever dreamed possible.

If we are able to follow the imperative to be here now every hour of every day, we would no longer experience guilt, suffering, regret, judgment, grievance, or any other negative emotion.

Rising And Falling

Alas, learning to be present is not usually a one-shot deal, although a few people, including some who have had near-death experiences, have had a sudden and significant shift into presence that imbues their daily experience.

For most of us, learning about presence is a gradual experience that comes and goes like waves rising and falling on the shore. To even be seeking presence in our lives, many of us need that first, seemingly random magical experience, often in natural surroundings, in which we intuit a tremendous connectedness and oneness with everything around us, and feel a great sense of peace, well-being, and compassion for all things.

When the feeling fades, sometimes after many hours of bliss, we seek a reunion with this experience for the rest of our lives. This becomes an incentive to forge ahead on our spiritual journey, where we search for how we can reunite with this experience, and hopefully more permanently.

Awareness Beyond Thinking

Eckhart Tolle, one of the pre-eminent speakers on the subject of presence, explains it this way:

Presence is the arising of a dimension of consciousness from where you can become aware that there is a voice in the head. That awareness is beyond thinking. It’s a space of consciousness where you can be the observer of your own mind—the awareness behind the thought processes.

For human beings to discover this dimension is extraordinarily important. It is in fact, as I see it, the next step in the evolution of humanity.

Tolle discusses practices where you simply sit silently and pay attention to the next thought that comes to you, and then the next. With focus, it becomes possible to notice that we are not really thinking most of our thoughts–often they are thinking us. The realization that we are more than our thoughts creates in us a more authentic identity, one that frees us from many of the addictive thought patterns we otherwise consider an unavoidable part of who we are:

When you no longer look to the mind to provide you with your sense of identity — because your sense of identity now comes now from a deeper place — that’s the shift that changes everything, dramatically. It is the most important thing that can happen in your lifetime.
As Presence arises you’ll find in many areas of your life enormous improvements. One is that the voice in the head that before created such anguish and unhappiness no longer has that power over you.

This is a bit of a different way to arrive at presence: recognize that we have an egoic ‘mind’ that can only reside in the past or the future, and see that who we actually are transcends the thought patterns of that egoic mind. Essentially, when we catch ourselves in states of distress and anxiety, we can remember that we are in this state because we give credence to the thoughts we are thinking as representative of who we are. Moving away from these thoughts and our habit of identifying with them opens the gates of presence.

Developing A Trigger Into Presence

Like most, I still get caught up often in distraction and judgment and feel the negative emotions that come with it. Sometimes I have enough awareness to ask myself the rhetorical question, “Did you forget that everything, in this moment, is perfect?” Because I deeply believe this to be true, this reminder often has the power to snap me quickly out of a state of negative emotion and more fully into presence and the acceptance of the moment.

We each have to develop our own triggers that help us to re-enter presence. But these triggers cannot be mere words, they must be deeply held beliefs which, through your own critical thought and experimentation, you hold to be true.

When we look at this critical thought and experimentation as the foundation of the journey of evolution that spans our lifetimes, we no longer have to be in any ‘rush’ to find presence. Indeed, when we stop rushing to find presence and experience inner peace, that’s when we find it.

Part of my own critical thought and experimentation has been enriched by regular and ongoing digestion of great writings and oral presentations on the matter, from traditions such as Zen Buddhism, and from spiritual teachers like Ram Dass, Eckhart Tolle, Dr. David Hawkins, Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, and a great list of others.

You will find that all great thinkers on the matter of presence are saying almost the same things using different words, and you will recognize the words not as truth themselves but as pointers to the truth. From there you gradually hone your own truth, which could be put into a phrase like I do, or could just be an inner knowing that, when remembered, allows you to move into presence at your leisure.

 Source:

https://www.collective-evolution.com/2018/08/30/learning-presence-the-greatest-gift-you-could-ever-give-yourself/

Wasp Nests

I had three separate wasp nests under the siding and soffits of our house. There was two types , the common yellow jacket and the mud dabber. They would build a huge nest before summer was finished . Something needed to be done.  I profess to love 'Life' and I do believe that in its very essence, all life is 'one'. But what is 'one', ( pun intended) to do when you know you have an infestation being built into your house exterior. I know a person who does not believe in killing mice ( he's a Buddhist wantabe) and his house is infested with these creatures. He has mouse dropping all through out his house and it doesn't seem to bother him. I don't share his love for mice.

Where is the balance??? I wish I could flick a switch and get rid of the wasps without killing one of them. But, the option to do nothing, and let the problem grow, from past experience, I concluded, was not the best choice. The best I could do is destroy the nest early, before they multiply, and by sealing off all holes in my house, I will prevent them from coming back.

To kill or not kill them was the choice.  I bought a can of hornet and wasp spray and got rid of them. I feel somewhat bad about it but relieved that I may have alleviated a greater hazard to human life.  It was the lesser of two evils in my thinking. Life decisions are not always black and white . There are gray areas of our human existence here on this planet, and getting rid of some creatures that produce a threat to our families is one of them.

Was it the right thing to do, destroying the wasp nests....maybe or maybe not?

There are a lot of issues in life that I say  'I don't know' about these days . I believe 'I don't know' is the best position to take on most of life's tough questions. To say 'I know'  closes us off from further truth. It is also somewhat arrogant.  So, if you ask me,  was it right to kill these wasps?...........my answer is .........I don't know for sure.


   

Solitude and social interaction...the balance.

 

Jim Carrey woke up to reality and he is influencing many people all over the world .Some thought he was losing his mind, when he moved past the thinking mind, toward his deeper sense of self, in reality he just woke up to understand the truth about life.

I was at a social gathering last night with about 30 people . Its great to see old friends again and learn about what has been happening in their lives. I talked to about half of these people, mostly the men, with good conversation . The problem is about 4:00 am, I woke thinking about these conversations and began rehashing them in my mind. I have learned to watch thoughts in meditation and get them under control. For a couple of hours I kept thinking about all that was said in these earlier conversations . Finally I drifted off to sleep again. I woke a few hours later not feeling very well rested, and very groggy.

I am beginning to believe that Solitude is very addictive as Jim Carrey mentions in the above quote. When you spend most of your time in the quiet, alone you do get addicted to the peace and calm. People all let off a field of energy. I could visualize each individual conversation I had earlier, as being like a small vortex of energy. Most of the talking was very positive but it is still energy in thought form. 

I read somewhere that monks who live in remote areas in total solitude have a problem processing all the extra info and energy when they occasionally venture into the busyness of a city. One monk said it takes him a week of meditation to get back to a settled state in his inner being, after being in the city.  

So, I understand why Carrey states that being around people drains your energy and I do understand the dangers of solitude.  But, what is a person to do ...solitude is a gateway into inner stillness. Inner stillness is the path to heaven on earth. The secret I believe, is balance. We need human contact in order to avoid insanity, and to experience and share love and compassion for others, but too much contact will also have its negative effects.  So my conclusion on this matter is we probably need to keep a balance of solitude and human interaction. Too much or too little of either is not healthy. 

The fear of slience

An ad by SiriusXM radio states:

Without SirusXM  by your side, driving doesn't feel the same. The streets are quieter, communities are duller and road trips aren't fun. The good news is,  you don't have to drive in silence any longer. ......

I grew up in the era of rock and roll in the 60's,70's and 80's, music was a big part of my life. I couldn't live without some music on, especially when driving in a car. But, as I got older I learned to prefer the quiet more and more.

Now, I can drive for hours without music. Road trips are still very enjoyable and the communities I pass are not dull. I love to drive in silence. Am I abnormal? , maybe or maybe not. Our house has become very quiet since the children moved out. I rarely watch TV or listen to music. I am content with silence. In fact, when I go out in public almost every store, and eating establishment has music blasting. I find it all disquieting and it tends to produce anxiety in  my inner core of being. Why is it that the modern human being has become so afraid of silence?  Are we addicted to noise? ....

We know that the thinking mind does not want to be still. People are controlled by thought, they are lost in thinking about past and future . Most are dwelling on the problem of the day rather then enjoying the mystery of "Now". The voice in their head is constantly chattering on... one thought after another.  Music and all multimedia continuously feed us more and more information and stimulus. It adds fuel to our thoughts. Its no wonder that our society is so stressed out?

The idea of becoming still in order to  know the inner reality of who we really are is foreign to most people. Yet, all deep spiritual teaching point to the fact that in order to realize inner truth of our true nature, we need to be still. To "be still and know" is a repeated phrase in spirituality.

So, am I abnormal in loving silence?......maybe  or maybe not ...Regardless I am OK with being abnormal.

Space is not empty

• The Facts:A study published in Physics Essays shows how matter is created out of the non-material. There is energy in what we call "empty" space and it can also be used to generate energy. The acknowledgement of the non-material is a big step for science.
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• Reflect On:Why has non-material science been shunned by the mainstream community when it has such strong validity? These concepts are now moving out of the theoretical realm, and being confirmed. It opens up metaphysical and spiritual realities as valid.
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The search for the “God” particle has been underway for quite some time. Smashing particles together to learn more about the true nature of reality seems to be the only discussion brought up within the mainstream when it comes to discovering the origins of our universe or at least attempting to do so.

There’s one problem, however, and that’s the fact that non-material forces might actually govern the universe, factors associated with consciousness may be a key role in the creation of matter, and this is something that’s been emphasized for decades by numerous scientists who’ve acknowledged these non-material forces. If this is true, looking for a “God” particle is almost useless, because it suggests that our universe has a non-material origin, so looking at physical matter for the answers might not be the best idea, instead, we need to look, examine, and continue to study non-physical phenomena.

“The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade that in all the previous centuries of its existence.” – Nikola Tesla

For years, science has assumed that empty space is just that, empty space, but this isn’t true, and as John Wheeler, one of the world’s pioneering quantum physicists once emphasized, “No point is more central than this, that space is not empty, it is the seat of the most violent physics.”  Fast forward to today and we now know that energy can be extracted from this “empty” space, that we can tap into this “ether” (Casimir) that’s been referred to as one of the most fundamental aspects regarding the nature of reality for thousands of years.

“All perceptible matter comes from a primary substance, or tenuity beyond conception, filling all space, the akasha or luminiferous ether, which is acted upon by the life-giving Prana or creative force, calling into existence, in never-ending cycles all things and phenomena.”– Nikola Tesla, Man’s Greatest Achievement, 1907

 Source (excerpt from an article at collective-evolution today)

 https://www.collective-evolution.com/2018/07/11/new-physics-study-finds-the-real-god-particle/

Trust

It was 36 degrees C, with very high humidity. I had walked across the airport tarmac to a small 19 passenger commuter plane that would fly from Sarnia to Toronto. It was so unbearably hot as I sat in my seat . I thought the AC will be turned on soon and it will get cool. I could feel a tension coming from other passengers. I could feel an anxiety arising within the body. The mind wanted to be in control. There was a problem and it needed a solution, my mind was saying. So, there was a choice. Can the mind be trusted?, which always needs to be in control and in this case it would surly lead down a path to high anxiety.  Or, can there be a trust in the universal intelligence that is greater then 'I'?.  Sitting  there, just observing anxious  thoughts and the body's reaction to those thoughts was revealing,  the whole body and mind was tense. The hand kept moving the vent to try and get some air flow. The thoughts were saying the AC is broken , you are going to suffocate.  The plane door closed and what air flow was coming out the little vent stopped completely, as the pilot started the engines.. At this point , the thoughts were trying to get control of the situation. but an amazing thing happened . A trusting of the power that controls all of life began to take place. I began to watch the breathing of the body and the muscles all over the body  began to relax . There was an acceptance of what was , all anxiety disappeared . A trust came over this whole being and I was able to relax in this sense that all is well. I felt as if what I refer to as 'self'  was not just in this body but it was also outside the body. The plane took off and the air was flowing again but it was not working well in the extreme heat. I felt that my being was everywhere, it extended outside the aircraft. I felt a total peace. Life or death  had no meaning anymore. There was just this awesome presence of peace that passes all understanding. The thirty minute flight was over so quickly and we landed in Toronto. This was an experience of trust. It was a choice to not believe thoughts but rather to trust in the  intelligence that is greater then the little 'I 'of a separate self. There is a universal self and we are all it. Trust it and  a newly perceived world opens up. This greater sense of Self is always there but we cannot see  it clearly. When we learn to move beyond the thinking mind  and see life as it is , we realize there is no separate self , everything , everywhere is all one being.

Be Nobody

Recently, I woke up in the middle of the night with a thought on my mind . I wrote it down:

"We start life as nothing, a nobody , yet we spend a lifetime chasing something to become somebody"

I often wonder why we have this drive to be a somebody. We are born a perfect nobody, with very little sense of being an independent self, we are free to be our true happy self. We are very comfortable in our nobodyness. We live in the present with no concept of past or future....free as a bird.  Its interesting that most genuine spiritual teachings for thousands of years, encourage us to be as the little child, in order to enter a higher state of being. But, we are led to believe by our culture that we are not good enough, as is. We need to be educated, in order to become somebody. So, we enter somebody school and get trained to be a separate individual with a strong self identity. We are even admired by society and family for our independence, and separate sombodyness. The collective ego encourages us in our drive to become a somebody. But, unfortunately our capacity to love deeply with a unity or oneness with all, diminishes as we grow in this somebodyness. We may be successful from a world perspective, with all our achievements and attachments, but we have become separate from life as a whole. It leaves us with an underlying and often undetected  emotion of  fear with anxiety. There seems to be a never ending sense of lack with somebodyness.

So, to the extent you identify with your somebodyness, there is fear.- Ram Dass

Gratitude and happiness comes easy for a nobody, who is content with what is, having  less grandiose ideals to live up to, then that of a somebody.  A nobody cares less about other peoples opinion of them and lives under less pressure to conform to what society considers normal.

We spend most of our lives striving for one thing after another, to become that special somebody. In this state we  never get a complete satisfaction with life. We will never be good enough or have all the expectations met. It is a life of mental suffering. There will always be something missing in the fulfillment of our desires. We will need more and more,  and we will be in a constant search for something to give us happiness and contentment.

As we mature we begin to realize that this formula for living is very shallow, and we get weary of the constant struggle and the suffering it causes in our lives. This way of life has evolved from an ancient multigenerational type of groupthink, a cultural collaborative insanity, that has been with us for thousands of years. It is like a house built on sand without a solid foundation or like a mini personal empire which is destined to eventual failure, caused by an internal structural dysfunction.  When we finally wake up from this illusion, this dream, of the separate self, we begin to realize that to grow in spirit we actually need to become less of a somebody, and more like a contented nobody. When we realize this delusion and begin the long difficult process of  diminishing the ego identity, disguised as an independent somebody,  we can now have an increased capacity for joy, love, humility, gratitude and peace.  We can now lose ourselves in the flow of life, much like the athlete who loses themselves in the action of the sport. When we lose our identity with the false finite self, we realize the way of truth, and we become one with 'Life', as it happens, in the moment, now. The realization of a universal infinite Self, with its Joy, love, peace and bliss are possible when we become the contented selfless nobody with nothing to prove and less need for gain. You are now ready to find the entry point to the gateless  gate that leads to the fullness of life. You begin to realize that the greatest deception ever cast on humankind, the false belief of separation, with its guilt and fear was just illusory, and you can just enter in, to what appears in your perception as a whole new world of beauty, love and aliveness. This is the portal, the metaphorical wormhole to an opening, a glimpse of heaven while still in a body, here on earth. Heavens gate has no barrier, the only blockage is the thin veil of fake somebodyness , that was created by the personal ego self. Drop it and you are free.. enter in, through the portal, to liberation from suffering and the only salvation you will ever need.

Ram Dass, American spiritual teacher, former academic and clinical psychologist, and the author of the 1971 book Be Here Now. sums up what I am trying to express here, very well in this excerpt below :

The Predicament of “Somebodyness”

There’s a great line from a wonderful teacher who died some years ago named Kalu Rinpoche, a lovely Tibetan monk. He said, “We live in illusion, the appearance of things, but there is a reality and we are that reality. When you understand this, you see that you are nothing, and being nothing, you are everything. That’s all there is.”
What happens to most of us, and I say most of us, is that when you and I were born, we were born into a social-psychological world, a world with feelings and thoughts, that was inhabited by people who were very identified with their separateness. They were somebody. They were mummy or daddy. They were also this and this and this and this, and they were all the different identities they had, and they trained you about those realities, because those are the realities that were real to them.
Let’s say you started out with completely undifferentiated awareness, and then in the process of socialization, you cultivated your cognitive capacities of this versus that and all your conceptual models that are called your ego and ego structure, and then you got caught in them. You got lost in them, so you thought they were real. You got caught in your own creation, because everything around you supported you becoming somebody. You went into somebody training when you took birth, and you ended up somebody. I bet you think you’re real. I really think you think you’ve got a personal history; you think you’re going somewhere; you think you’ve got problems and neuroses and hopes and relationships; it all sounds real doesn’t it? …Boy were you taken for a ride.
Now, it’s not unreal; it’s just relatively real. The predicament is, you bought into the planes of reality that are all in time. That’s a problem because there’s at least another plane where you’re One with it all, and no one is going anywhere. There’s no time – it’s behind time. So there’s a part of you that is not in time, even though the rest of you is in time, and you bought into the part of you that’s in time, so you think time is passing.
When you get caught in your somebodyness, you as a separate entity, relative to the game of form, are pretty tiny. There are galaxies, and you are pretty tiny, you know, and it’s kind of frightening to have your awareness in something so small when everything around you is big and so unpredictable, and you can’t control it. So to the extent you identify with your somebodyness, there is fear. There is fear of what changes, it turns out, because you can’t control it when it changes. There’s fascination with it, but there’s fear in it. There’s fear of death. That colors almost everything everybody does in a subtle way, all the time. Wanting to leave something behind, wanting to get as much out of the moment as you can because you are fleeting; feeling you’re running out of time because there is too much to do.

– Ram Dass

For further reading on this subject here is a good one :

 https://www.spiritualawakeningprocess.com/2013/08/be-nobody.html

Interstellar Love

"Love is the one thing were capable

of perceiving that transcends dimensions

of time and space maybe we should trust

that even if we can't understand it yet"

"...it means something more, something we can't yet

understand, maybe it's some evidence, some

artifact of a higher dimension that we

can't consciously perceive"

 

 

Interstellar A Spiritual Analysis based on the Philosophies of Vedanta

Samadhi - Film Trailer [9 minute excerpt from film]

Raimon Panikkar: The Window

Richard Rohr: "Go Deep in One Place"

"Christ is not Jesus' last name" - Richard Rohr

Nature, Infinite Intelligence, Space and the Creation

 

This is the milky way our galaxy with our star, the sun, just a small unseen dot, it is just one of trillions of stars and galaxies out there.

Yesterday, a baby blue jay fledgling had left its nest and it could not fly yet . It was sitting under a tall maple tree on my front lawn. I was cutting the grass and it moved under one of our cars to get away from the danger. It sat there for hours under the front wheel as its mother was trying to coax it to fly. The next few hrs would determine wither it will survive or not . A huge hawk was flying over head and we have stray cats that always come out at dark. If I didn't see it and moved the car it would have been crushed.  Anyway, I have learned over the years to not interfere with nature. It will either fly or die. Sounds cruel, but, its natures way.  A large percentage of these young small birds and animals do not survive more then a few hrs or days. But, somehow their  species do survive and they often thrive. Blue jays and Orioles are here in larger numbers, for some reason this year. This morning the baby and mother was gone. I will never know if the little thing learned to fly or if it became a food source for another bird or animal.

Nature has an intelligence which we do not understand . It does not think like humans, but, it has an infinite intelligence that is in control of  massive ecosystems all over the earth. It knows how to keep everything in perfect harmony and balance. I am sure it can handle mankind too. We are part of the global ecosystem, and yes, we do a lot of damage to nature, but, I will venture to say that long after mankind has disappeared from this planet life will still be flourishing here. The earth as a whole is like a single organism, it is a living planet and it is self organizing and self adapting.  We are on this little blue ball, floating in space in the middle of a small solar system with planets spinning around an insignificant star in an insignificant galaxy that is in a remote region of our universe. Our galaxy is just one among billions. Life on our little spec of a planet is amazing and nature just like our universe is being managed with an amazing, infinite intelligence, and it  is beyond our finite, intellectual understanding. We can only appreciate its mystery and stand in awe at its glory.

The power of Thought

I was talking to a friend recently as we fed squirrels in a local park about the fact that there are no chipmunks in our home town. In 27 years I had never ever seen a chipmunk in our town. Others may have seen them but I had not. Chipmunks are mostly located further north in pine woods and are not common in my hometown in southwestern Ontario. Well guess what a day or two later after that conversation, I saw a chipmunk in my own backyard right beside the house where I sit in my favorite chair. Today I saw it again and it lingered around me for a couple of minutes . Now what is that about? It proved to me the power of thought.  When I  thought about this animal it appeared in front of me. If that can happen with a delightful thought in seeing a beautiful animal like that, what do negative thought do to us. Do we manifest what we think about?. Maybe ! I am sure its not as simple as that but it does show the power of thought. We should be very careful about negative thought. Maybe that is why we have been told in scriptures and all spiritual paths to think only positive thoughts , thought of love , peace, harmony, joy, balance, oneness  and  forgiveness. These thought have the power to heal, and produce happiness in our lives. Negative thought like fear, hate, greed, guilt and feelings of separation can all cause dis-ease if dwelt on long enough.  So this is the thought of the day. Be careful and mindful of your thought , it can affect and have an effect your way of  life. 

All You Need Is Love: Peter Russell

Peter Russell reflects on fifty years of increasingly global exploration
of consciousness since the Summer of Love in 1967. He charts the phases of this
awakening, beginning with the focus on a change of consciousness, and
deepening into the understanding that we don't need to go anywhere to
find inner peace and joy. He points to our interpretation of the
Sanskrit word anand, usually translated as bliss, but literally the much
more accessible "great contentment."


Much of my own spiritual  journey is really happening to millions of people in my generation . Its the search for truth of what is really important in life . After watching this video I realized what I am going through is really a global shift in our perception of spirituality. Its 19 min long but well worth listening to . Russell speaks for my generation on this matter.

Did Jesus come to start a fear-based religion?

Jesus’ message of love

 By Kim Michaels

 

(This is a small excerpt of a much larger large article I found today that ties in with my last post)

It can be somewhat difficult for a person who has grown up in a modern Christian religion to see Jesus’ message as a love-based message. The reason is, of course, that after Jesus’ time, the Christian religion was indeed turned into a fear-based religion. It is an undeniable historical fact that the Catholic Church of the middle ages was indeed an institution that sought to control people’s minds through fear. Thus, it may take a mental retooling, a new perspective, to see how truly love-based Jesus teachings are.

One of the pillars of a fear-based religion is that it presents God as a remote being who is beyond the reach of most people. The people of Jesus’ time clearly believed that their God could not be reached by them individually, which is why they needed the external religion and its priests to mediate between themselves and God. So how did these people look at the following statement from Jesus:

"And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. (Luke, Chapter 17)"

In these short statements Jesus is attacking two of the pillars of a fear-based religion. The people of his time obviously believed that the key to entering the kingdom was to faithfully observe the tenets, the rituals and the rules of the external religion. If you did so, you were pretty much guaranteed to enter the kingdom, which they obviously saw as a location far away from themselves. Yet Jesus is clearly saying that observing an external religion is not enough to get you to the kingdom. And in the second part Jesus is basically saying that we will never find the kingdom of God as long as we are looking for it outside ourselves. This was revolutionary stuff to the people of Jesus’ time.

As modern Christians we now have two basic options. We can either reason that Jesus was wrong and didn’t know the first thing about how to enter the kingdom of God. Or we can use our intuitive faculties to seek a deeper understanding of what is hidden behind these outer words. What was Jesus really trying to tell us here?

Remember, that the basic claim of a fear-based religion is that you cannot enter the kingdom of God by your own, inherent powers. You are somehow fundamentally deficient, and thus you can enter the kingdom only through the external religion. It is only through this belief in your own powerlessness that fear of an external authority comes into the picture. If you believe that you have the powers within yourself to secure your entry into the kingdom, why would you fear other people or an earthly institution? You might still fear that you would not qualify to enter the kingdom, but you would not fear that external forces could keep you out of it.

Now let us look at another basic pillar of a fear-based belief system, namely the idea that God is a judgmental God. Imagine how people who firmly believed in the Old Testament God would have reacted to the following statement by Jesus:

 For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son. (John 5:22)

It seems Jesus is directly challenging the Old Testament image of the angry and judgmental God in the sky, the God who visited plagues upon Pharaoh, who told the Israelites to massacre the men, women and children of their conquered enemies and who threatened to smite people with this or that if they did not obey him. In fact, the angry God of the Old Testament could very well be seen as a being who is seeking to control people through fear. Or perhaps this God is the invention of an institution who is seeking to control people through fear. Yet can one love such a God?

Some modern psychologists say that there are only two basic emotions, namely love and fear and that we cannot truly love something if we also fear it. It is clear that the established religion of Jesus’ time wanted people to fear God, as that fear would naturally be transferred to the institution that had placed itself as the only mediator between the people and their angry God. Yet it is equally clear that Jesus did not want people to fear God. If he did why would he have made the following statement:

"Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment. (Matthew, Chapter 22)"

Can you really love the Old Testament God with all your heart, soul and mind? Yet Jesus clearly do want his followers to love God this way, thus Jesus’s God cannot be the remote, angry being in the sky. Also, if Jesus had preached a fear-based message, why wouldn’t he have said, “Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind?”
Jesus also seems to have wanted people to understand that God’s love for us is not a conditional love but an unconditional one. Otherwise, why would Jesus make the following statement:

Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. (Luke 12: 32)

Imagine how revolutionary this statement must have seemed to a person brought up with the Old Testament image of the angry and judgmental God in the sky. What is Jesus actually saying here? Is he not saying that receiving God’s kingdom is not a matter of observing the external, fear-based religion, a religion whose main means for reconciliation with God was animal sacrifices? Instead, of all these external observances, Jesus seems to be saying that God truly wants to give us his kingdom, which means that the only condition we need to fulfill is that we must be able and willing to receive it. Yet this is not an external but an internal condition.
Again, imagine how this must have seemed to the leaders of the established religion of Jesus’ time. If the people had started believing what Jesus was saying, their fear of the external religion would have evaporated as the morning dew under a rising sun. Is it any wonder they started seeing Jesus as a direct threat to their power over the people, a power clearly based on fear?


Source:  http://www.askrealjesus.com/how-we-can-help-jesus/75-help-jesus/897-did-jesus-come-to-start-a-fear-based-religion

Jim carrey's secret to life. Love Not Fear

 


So many very knowledgeable and enlightened people all over the world,  over many thousands of years , have come to the conclusion that the universe is run by some sort of universal intelligence.Its called by many different names depending on our cultural background.  It is a system that would appear to be love based in the sense that it is cooperative rather then competitive,  and it is by its very essence a unity of oneness rather then dualistic.  My conclusion after many years of looking at this, is that in spirituality all fear based teaching may be an illusion and false. Whatever we call the love based intelligence that runs the universe, it doesn't matter . What really matters is, are we as a human race ready to move past the fear based belief systems which seem to dominate our thinking and begin realizing the Love based reality of life. This view of life, lets call it the most common name  "God", is love based not fear based.  I can't see why we would have to fear this Life source or why we would need to feel separate from it. Would this love based intelligence want us living under judgement, guilt,  or fear? I don't believe so. Would it be for us or against us?  Jesus said "a house divided against itself will not stand". Can any system be against itself? ; we are made in its image, a fractal of itself. When something is against itself it is in a diseased or dysfunctional state. Would a system run by "God" be dysfunctional? No! Man is dysfunctional because we are run by the lower nature of fear(false ego self ) not love (Spirit or True Self). We need to diminish the fear based ego and allow the Spirit to run our lives.

The original teachings of Jesus were love based and non-dual, it was the mind of man that turned his teaching into something totally different over the centuries until it became contaminated with fear based teaching. Many people are trying to discern what was the true teachings of the Christ in Jesus and what is man made religion. Its very interesting that this generation are slowly waking up to Truth. Love is real , fear is illusory.

Marianne Williamson - A Return To Love

 For perhaps a decade, I have been branching out, on my own, on a spirit led inquiry into the unknown, away from the comfortable pew and the conventional means of accepted religion. I have been seeking a truthful vision of what  ...God,  and truth... really are . I became obsessed with this search and read over 200 books and listened to hundreds of video's.  I had  gotten disillusioned, after 35 years, with  my conceptual view of a human like God out there somewhere in the heavens, who we were separate from, who judges us as unworthy sinners, and evil doers which  results in our response of fear and guilt. There was some vague idea of love toward us in the Jesus figure as compared to the vindictive and angry Yahweh,  but it was all an uneasy sugar coated love that depended on his grace or judgement concerning our actions and sinfulness. I was led to believe we were viewed by this god as filthy rags, a pile of dung in comparison to him and that we could never ever be good enough. We had to just believe in Jesus, as the only way to the father,  and his righteousness, along with his human blood sacrifice and we would be saved from his wrath.  Even the idea of Jesus as the sacrificial lamb who covers over our human sins, as a blood sacrifice, and atonement, did not sit right with me. I have felt at times like an heretic, a backslider, and certainly a non-conformist, who strayed from the known sanctuary of belief and home,  out into the unknown desert as a seeker after this inner truth. I have been slowly moving away from the fear-based belief system to a more love-based understanding of reality. There are two main emotions and forces that we experience as humans, fear and love. Fear is driven by the false egoic mind construct and love is driven by the true self  that resides in the heart and spirit. The choice is ours we are either moving in the direction of love or fear. Fear is the opposite of Love. What I am realizing more and more is that multitudes of people over many  generations  have been on  a similar search out in the spiritual wastelands, they are waking up from the dream created by the false ego self and coming into a realization of love in the spirit which is coming from what we have always called God. I had never heard of Marianne Williamson until recently when I came across some of her quotes to fit along with my expressions in this blog. So, I thought I would like to get a copy of her book "A return to Love" at some point and read it. I found a copy yesterday at Value Village (coincidence) . I started reading it and I can't put it down. Almost all my positive conclusions, about truth concerning spirit and God, much of what I have already expressed in this blog and certainly in my personal journal, over the years, are all being expressed in Williamson's book. Without realizing it, I had tapped into the same truth source that she did and she has revealed it so well in "A return to Love".  What I had  discovered through my personal inquiry over many years, was confirmed  for me by this author, who I was not even aware off  until a few days ago. Below is a six minute summary of quotes from her book.

Is God A Mathematician? - Fractal Geometry of Nature

Could our universe be fractal?