Experiencing God In Silence, Solitude, and Stillness

The importance of silence, solitude, and stillness in the life of Jesus and his disciples is undeniable. Jesus made a habit of withdrawing, sometimes abruptly, from the crowds and his ministry of doing his Father’s will to “the hills” or a “lonely place” or “the wilderness” or a “high mountain” or to the “seashore” or to the Garden of Gethsemane. To be more like Jesus we must likewise find times of silence, solitude and stillness.

The spiritual disciplines of silence, solitude, stillness are disciplines of abstinence. In the disciplines of abstinence, we abstain in some form and for some time from what we generally regard as normal desires.

And, as with all spiritual disciplines, the disciplines of silence, solitude, and stillness are for the ultimate goal of godliness, Christ-likeness, and oneness with God.

For the purpose of spiritual disciplines we define silence, solitude, and stillness as follows:

Silence: To abstain from speaking, to listen. to be quiet.

Solitude: To be alone, to turn away from human interaction and external stimuli.

Stillness: To stop, cease, desist, to not move, to rest, to wait, to be at peace.

Experiencing God in Silence

“In silence and quietness the devout soul makes progress and learns the hidden mysteries of the Scriptures” – Thomas a Kempis.

“All writers on the spiritual life uniformly recommend the practice of silence”

“In quietness and trust is your strength” (Isaiah 30:15)

We are in a culture that conditions us to be comfortable with noise and crowds and uneasy with silence.  We have an addiction to noise. Silence is rare in our society as our lives are always filled with background noise, without which we tend to fear nothing is happening. What does it say about our souls if we have to have noise to feel as if something is happening around us?

All in all no spiritual discipline is more universally accepted as necessary than the practice of silence. In silence we close our soul off from the sounds of words, music, and noise. Silence allows us to experience life-transforming concentration on God.

The reason we seek silence is the same reason Jesus did, to be able to listen and hear what God is saying to us. Nothing like silence strips us naked and allows us to see reality through God’s eyes.

Silence is possible without solitude but very few of us can be silent in the presence of others, which speaks to the necessity of pairing silence with solitude. Richard Foster(writer and theologian) notes that “Without silence there is no solitude”

Experiencing God in Solitude

“But when you pray, go into your closet and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.” (Matthew 6:6)

In the spiritual discipline of solitude we purposefully abstain from interaction with other human beings and all that comes with interaction with others. We intentionally isolate ourselves away from the experience of being with others by going to our prayer closet, the ocean, the wilderness, or the mountain to experience aloneness with God.

Solitude also is freeing. The normal course of daily human interactions locks us into patterns of thought and action that work against experiencing God, and only solitude can free us from the ingrained patterns that hinder our connection with God. In solitude we can better see the things that trap, worry, and oppress us and we are free to return to society as free persons.

It has been said that no great work in literature or art was ever accomplished by a man who did not love solitude. Anyone who has to create music, art, lessons, sermons, presentations, or reports knows it can’t be done with excellence without some form of extended and uninterrupted solitude.

Spiritual people from every generation have agreed that it is a fundamental principle that no large measure of spiritual growth was ever attained by one who did not take sufficient time to be alone with God.

Experiencing God in Stillness

“Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.” (Psalm 37:7). Scripture implies that stillness involves waiting and that blessings follow those who wait on God. As we don’t initiate action in our own strength and timing, we experience the blessings of God’s good and perfect and pleasing will and timing.

“Peace! Be still! And the wind ceased.” (Mark 4:39). Jesus connects stillness with peace. When we experience extended periods of stillness with God, our heart rate slow down, our inner turmoil is stilled, and a deep peace that passes understanding permeates our body, mind and soul.

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations and in all the earth.” (Psalm 46:10). The Psalmist declares that we come to know God and His ways in stillness and that He is glorified and worship is experienced through God-focused stillness.

“He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.” (Psalm 23: 2-3) Scripture associates stillness with rest and healing. When we are sick the doctor usually prescribes that we be still through bed rest. When we suffer broken bones they are placed in a cast or sling to immobilize the bones. Why? because stillness promotes healing. When we are still before God we experience life-giving healing and wholeness that only He can provide.

“Now therefore stand still and see this great thing that the Lord will do before your eyes.” (1 Samuel 12:16). In stillness we slow down enough to notice where God is obviously at work in our lives, the lives of others, and in the world.

It was while Samuel was lying still in the Temple (1 Samuel 3:3-4) that God spoke to him. Likewise it is in the midst of stillness that we hear God’s voice speaking to us and respond to His call upon our lives.

Silence, Stillness, and Solitude Summarized

Spiritual writers and leaders, ancient and modern, are unanimous in agreeing that the disciplines of silence, solitude, and stillness lead to a love of God, a love of self, and a love of others. More than ever in history, we must discipline ourselves to experience silence, solitude, and stillness.

We need to think of silence, solitude, and stillness as complimentary as well as transformative. They are frequently found together because silence, solitude, and stillness go hand in hand, each making the other complete. Think of them as a three stranded rope, when structured together are stronger than the sum of its parts.

In summary, we practice the disciplines of silence, solitude, and stillness so that we may:

• Seek the will of God as Jesus did before choosing his disciples in Luke 6:12-13.
• Open our minds to see God’s ways as when Gabriel responded to Zechariah’s unbelief with an enforced silence in Luke 1:20.
• Quieting the noise so we can clearly hear God’s voice as Samuel did.
• Regain strength and receive power. After expending themselves physically and spiritually Jesus told His disciples, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest awhile.” (Mark 6:31)
• Produce the fruits of the spirit in our daily lives.
• Increase our sensitivity and compassion for others, and experience a new responsiveness to their hurts and needs.
• Learn to rely more on God’s control in matters where we typically feel compelled to speak, act, or exert control.
• Participate without interruption in other spiritual disciplines, such as, to read scripture and sacred writings, meditate, pray, journal, worship, even fast.
• Experience union, communion, and oneness with God.

If we have experienced genuine silence, solitude, and stillness then we will delight in the experience of refreshment, joy, and transformation.”

Enlightenment, a Christian Perspective Part 2

The Pharisees Excommunicate the Healed Man

“13 They brought him who formerly was blind to the Pharisees. 14 Now it was a Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. 15 Then the Pharisees also asked him again how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.”

“16 Therefore some of the Pharisees said, “This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.”

Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them.

“17 They said to the blind man again, “What do you say about Him because He opened your eyes?”

He said, “He is a prophet.”

“18 But the Jews did not believe him that he had been blind and received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight. 19 And they asked them, saying, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?”

John 9:39 (KJV)

“39 And Jesus said, for judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind”.

We need to discriminate between what is right and that which is wrong and do what is right and not what is expedient. In our spiritual journey, we need to embrace a sense of awe, of faith and wonder, and seeing ourselves as co-creators with God’s plan. We ought to be as Jesus exclaimed: “I have come to do the work of Him that sent me”. We all are a part of creation and have a responsibility to the whole. In this process we have to be watchful as children of light.

1 Thessalonians 5:5 (KJV)

“5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness”.

We must be watchful. We can only get away with evil, if we explain it to ourselves as virtue. Anyone who does wrong thinks of himself with some distorted perception, like using violence in, let’s make the world safe for democracy or helping others, we always have a rationale to justify our violent nature. That is the self serving ego speaking. It does not want to admit the truth of its false perceptions. It is never wrong.

“And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.”

A look at Salvation

Another word for enlightenment in Christianity is salvation. It is the act of being saved or protected from harm, risk, loss, destruction, or an act of healing that Jesus performed on many occasions according to the bible. 

The Hebrew words used to signify salvation, yasa (to save, help in distress, rescue, deliver, set free) it is most frequently used in the Old Testament.

In contrast, the employment of salvation in the New Testament usually signifies deliverance with special spiritual significance. In addition to the notion of deliverance the Bible also uses salvation to denote health, well-being, and healing.

The most common meaning of salvation is God's sovereign and gracious choice to be "God with us" in the person of Jesus Christ, who is described as both author and finisher of salvation ( Heb 2:10 ; 7:25 ). But the movement of Jesus' life goes through the cross and resurrection. It is therefore "Christ crucified" that is of central importance for salvation (1 Cor1:23), for "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures" (1 Cor 15:3) and was handed to death for our trespasses (Rom 4:25).

Matthew 20:28 (KJV)

“28 Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many”.

In practical terms salvation became the overall word for the final healing that is experienced in life and after death that makes us right with God. Jesus healed, he mingled with all people. He did not ask what their religion was. He transformed many that were within his reach. He had no pre-requisites, but he told people to change their life style or repent.

In the New Testament there are three different passages. Some which point out, that salvation has already happened, some point out that salvation is in the process of happening, and there is a finality and future tense.

Example:

God has been pleased to reconcile all things to Himself.

Colossians 1:19-20 (KJV)

“19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell”;

“20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven”.

Ephesians 2:8-9 (KJV)

“8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

9 Not of works, lest any man should boast”.

Romans 5:5 (KJV)

5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

We need to recognize that well spring of the Holy Spirit.

Genesis 2 (KJV)

“2 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them”.

Unfortunately in some of the Christian teachings, salvation or enlightenment is largely taught as an evacuation plan for the next world.

Instead religion needs to be taught in a manner that transforms people now so that they can experience God’s presence through the guidance of the Holy Spirit in their daily lives.

We need to look at the deep present tense passages like

John 1:9 (KJV)

9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

Philippians 2:12 (KJV)

“12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”.

This is what keeps one on the journey.

Then there are future passages.

1 Corinthians 15:22 King James Version (KJV)

“22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive”.

On incarnation,

The incarnation did not begin with Jesus’ birth. The incarnation of Christ started the moment God decided to materialize; where we have the eternal Christ, the combination of matter and spirit.

An enlightenment experience must be observable. The people project a glow, they change in personality, and they also change others just by being who they are.

Unfortunately many Christians limit the Christ mission to their own vision. Few realize that Jesus’ mission continued beyond his incarnation. He showed that he is able to materialize his body at will in the world or on any other level of existence at any time. This is why He could say to his disciples;”Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world”. He immortalized His body as well as His spirit. Any true devotee can see him as Jesus Christ or know Him as one with the Infinite Christ. Saint Francis, born centuries after Jesus, used to see him every night. St. Teresa of Avila knew him as one with the Infinite Christ.

Some people are blessed with ultimate visions, where they can touch the body of Jesus and talk with him, just as truly as when he walked on earth. The intimately real sensation of touching the materialized form is not the same as contact with the gross matter of the incarnate form, but the realization of the true essence of the body as a combination of spiritual vibrations of Bliss impart a wondrous elevating sense of joy and blessings. Any sincere devotee can and should have an intimate relationship with the living Christ. Christ is now and forever, He is eternal. One can have a daily experience of His presence.

Romans 1:20 (KJV)

“20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse”.

Our knowledge of God is certainly partial at best, but we cannot plead complete ignorance. His creation reveals enough of Him to make a major difference in our lives.

For the invisible things of him - The expression “his invisible things” refers to those things which cannot be perceived by the senses. It does not imply that there are any things pertaining to the divine character which may be seen by the eye; but that there are things which may be known of him, though not discoverable by the eye. We judge of the objects around us by the senses, the sight, the touch, and hearing.

We have examined Enlightenment from a Christian Perspective, stated that Mysticism is the belief that union with or absorption into the Deity or the Absolute is possible. We have said, that the

Eastern Church, contemplation consisted not merely in negation and renunciation, but in a union with God's Spirit, in an experience of spiritual illumination

We have touched on, that experiencing the Holy Spirit is a feeling of inner peace and joy. We presented some of the teachings of Jesus and said that God is light, and in Him is no darkness and that we are “Ye are all the children of light”, and that Enlightenment in Christianity is also spoken of as salvation.

Our knowledge of God is certainly partial at best, but we cannot plead complete ignorance.

An elaboration on the Holy Spirit I

I will tell you of that which is to be known, because such knowledge bestows immortality. Hear about the beginning-less Supreme Spirit, He who is spoken of as neither existent nor nonexistent. He dwells in the world, enveloping all, He is present everywhere, shining in all the senses, yet transcending them; unattached to creation, yet the source of all creation.

He is within and without all that exists, the animate and the inanimate; he is the Indivisible One. He appears as countless beings; He maintains and destroys forms, then creates them anew. He is the light of all lights, beyond darkness; he is knowledge itself, that which is to be known, the goal of all learning, He is seated in the hearts of all.

An explanation of the Holy Spirit II

Spirit is motionless, vibration-less, both in thought and energy. It has no dimensions, no relativity; it is like nothing in creation. It knows neither pleasure nor pain. It is beyond the relativity of the four ordinary states of human consciousness, pleasure, pain, indifference, and temporary peace.

It is bliss, which is deeper than peace, and is always new and unceasing. That is the only quality of Spirit. When we feel that and nothing else satisfies; then you have true spiritual consciousness.

Spirit is nameless and formless. If we try to name Spirit, we immediately limit it. Spirit is not knowable by the limitation of understanding, but that does not mean that Spirit is entirely unknowable, because Spirit can be felt.

From the human point of view of time, Spirit is, was, and ever shall be. In Spirit there is no past or future, only the present. Spirit is ever conscious. Spirit's Cosmic Consciousness does not cease to operate actively, as does the consciousness of man in sleep. Spirit has no alternating consciousness of wakefulness or sub-consciousness like that of man, but has perpetual, enjoyable, active and inactive wakefulness combined within Itself.

It is said, that Spirit was Joy, but there was no one else to taste of this Joy, so Spirit divided Itself to become the Enjoyer, the act of enjoying, and the thing enjoyed, the Knower, the process of knowing, and the thing known.

This triune division of Spirit into Knower, Knowing, and Known was accomplished by the law of relativity. Spirit, being one and indivisible, had to imagine and will Itself to be many. Expressed another way: Spirit divided Itself into God as the Father, the Cosmic Consciousness or "Knower" remaining beyond all creation; and into God as the Son, the Christ Consciousness or cosmic intelligent subjective "knowing" power in creation; and into God as the Holy Ghost, the cosmic intelligent objective creation itself, the thing known.

Manifesting in creation, Spirit divided Itself into subject and object, the Knower and the Known.

What is the difference between Spirit as subject and object?

Spirit as God in the aspect of Christ Consciousness manifests subjectively in creation as the power of perception of thoughts and feelings; and Spirit as God the Cosmic Intelligent Vibration manifests objectively to produce the universe. Everything is One, but when that One Infinite Spirit differentiates Itself into many, It has many forms and many names. But Spirit, the great One Reality, cannot be named.

The word "God" means the manifested, transcendental Being beyond creation, but existing in relation to creation. Spirit existed before God. God is the Creator of the universe, but Spirit is the Creator of God. Spirit is not the universe; Spirit is that which was and will be whether the universe does or does not exist. Spirit includes everything.

Enlightenment, a Christian Perspective Part 1

Most people would readily identify the term Enlightenment with eastern religion, for Enlightenment is not a word in the Christian language, even though it ought to be. However, many people of all ages have been blessed with enlightenment experiences.

Let’s take a look at the definition of Mysticism.

Mysticism is the belief that union with or absorption into the Deity or the Absolute, or the spiritual apprehension of knowledge is inaccessible to the intellect, but it may be attained through contemplation and self-surrender. In Christian terms, it would translate to be a living experientially based on Oneness or union with God.

What are mystical experiences?

Mystical experiences are states of knowledge, insight, awareness, revelation, and illumination beyond the grasp of the intellect. One experiences awareness of unity with the Absolute or God, of immortality of the soul and of great truths. Time and space are transcended.

Mystical experiences of Eastern adepts

Some Eastern adepts are able to sustain prolonged periods of samadhi (enlightenment), a mystical state of one-pointed concentration. Some reportedly are able to sustain the highest states of nirvana (satori in Zen) and even the rarely attained nirodha ("cessation" or "removal”.) in yoga.

Patanjali used this term in his legendary definition of yoga in the second sutra of the Yoga Sutras: “yoga-citta-vritti-nirodha,” which can be translated as “yoga is the removal of the fluctuations of the mind.”

Orthodox Mysticism:

The mystics of the Eastern Church included the Church Fathers, for in those days the theologians were among the most spiritual of Christians, and the phenomena of mysticism were evident in all levels of clergy, monks, and laity.

In the Eastern Church, contemplation consisted not merely in negation and renunciation, but in a union with God's Spirit, in an experience of spiritual illumination after all intellectual activity had ceased.

A word on prayer of the heart as a union with God

"Prayer of the Heart" must be understood as a prayer of the total person. In using the term "heart" in the Hebraic sense, the earliest Christian mystics meant that prayer was not merely a mental activity, nor merely a physical one, but rather it was a prayer on all levels of one’s being. It was the total response of man to God, and one did not pray merely with the intellect, or merely with the lips. Through discipline, prayer became a spontaneous offering of the whole being of man.

In current Western practice humanity is primarily locked into an intellectual and or emotional, dualistic mind set, which has also crept into the Christian thought. The issue with this is that one focuses on the differences, which often leads to non productive disagreements. To demonstrate this, the dualistic mind separates spirit from matter, man from God, people from one another and from all of creation.

Yet when realized, that matter is an outflow of the manifesting Spirit, one can see, that everything in creation proceeds from the one Spirit.

In our relationship with one another if we see ourselves as being connected by Spirit we are no longer separate, but in union with one another.  Then nondual or Spirit guided consciousness transports us into a state of holistic knowing, where mind, heart, soul, and senses are open and receptive and non judgmental to one another at every moment. Or to what is, and not to what should be which allows one to love things as an expression of Spirit.

Jesus always talked of mercy, not judging, forgiveness, and grace, because these are the things that, if experienced, break down the idea of separation or dualism.

The voice of the Spirit can best be understood as

a subtle inner intuitive voice. It is a felt sense to which, if people pay attention, will come into communion with the Spirit of God.

In the bible we read John 14:26 (KJV)

“26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” Experiencing of the Holy Spirit is a feeling of inner peace and joy in all circumstances.

We need to listen to one’s inner voice, trust and act upon it. Luke 17:21 “The kingdom of God is within you”.

John 3:5-8

Jesus Teaches Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council.

5 “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

The experience of the Holy Spirits in one’s life is the humming sound that one hears in the inner ear in deep meditation, the Om, Amen, Revelation 3:14 (KJV) “These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.

Within this sound one is aware of the Christ intelligence present in all creation.

John 14:17-19 (KJV)

Jesus –“17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you”.

The Holy Spirit can be received only by those who have the spiritual discernment. The unbelieving world, caring only for things of the senses, has lost its spiritual perception. It has no eye to see and no heart to know spiritual things, for they are spiritually discerned.

The spirit of truth is experienced in the heart, one’s inner essence, which needs to be awakened.

What does the Bible say about light?

Let’s take a look at John (KGV)

“The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world”.

Here we have God as the light that transforms itself into love and comes to all people who are open to receive it.

Does God love everyone or only Christians, the following passages speak for themselves.

1 John 2:2

2 He is the propitiation (conciliation) for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Romans 5:8

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

1 John 4:8

8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Romans 3:23

23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

John 8:12 (KJV)

Teachings of Jesus

“12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life”.

All who live a Christ like life (follow me as He has taught) shall have the light of life. These words are a great comfort

Matthew 5:14-16 (KJV)

“14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid”.

We are the light which shines in the heart.

“15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house”.

“16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven”.

 On the sermon of the mount, Jesus makes it clear, how we should participate in the world. “You are the light of the world. Let your light shine before others.”

1 John 1:5(KJV)

“5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all”.

Light in this instant is the true light by which we see clearly, because God is light.

Jesus also uses the term enlightenment in a very similar way as in Eastern religion; He used it as a shift in one’s seeing. It is not so much what we see, but how we see.

This is why meditation and or contemplation are important in one’s spiritual life. It teaches one to develop a different way of seeing, as it evolves into intuition. The cultivation of intuitive calmness requires unfoldment of the inner life. When developed sufficiently, intuition brings immediate comprehension of truth. Meditation and contemplation has nothing to do with being pious; it leads to a different kind of consciousness, or a different way of seeing in a more holistic way. It brings us into the moment, the eternal now.

Matthew 6:22-23 (KJV)

“22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light”.

This points one to the need of concentration in the higher brain centre, leading to one-pointedness, and wisdom.

“23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness”!

Being intentional and being aware to what we pay attention.

We have to get our seeing right, or we distort the best teachings, even our love for God. In darkness we use our vision for ego satisfaction, with a sense of superiority, separateness or whatever it is.

We have an illustration of this in John 9: 3-5 (KJV)

A Man Born Blind Receives Sight

9 Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. 2 And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. 4 I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”.

God and Jesus

The prompting of this paper is based on my great love for the Triune God and the apocalyptic view with which so many Christians are currently preoccupied.

My wish is that the Christian community expands its vision of God and Christ to embrace the whole of creation. I trust that in this paper I am able to keep the mystery of God alive.

Ezekiel 12:2

“Son of man, you are living in a rebellious house. They have eyes to see but do not see, and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious house.

Jesus sent his first disciples on the road to preach to “all the nations” (Matthew 28:19 (NIV) -19 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations” and Luke 24:47 - and to “all creation” (Mark 16:15) 15 “He was also training them to take risk by leaving their own security behind. This becomes even clearer in his instruction for them “not to take anything with them” (Mark 6:8)  "Take nothing for the journey except a staff--no bread, no bag, no money in your belts and to submit to the hospitality and even the hostility of others” (Mark 6:10 -11). 10 “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. 11 And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them”. Jesus says the same of himself in John’s Gospel (10:7) where he calls himself “the gate” where people “will go freely in and out, and find green pasture” (10:9).

What an amazing permission! He sees himself more as a place of entrance and exit than a place of settlement. It is strange that pastors only notice the going “in” but never the going “out” message.

There is a place and time for being outside, or we never really understand or appreciate the inside. A gatekeeper keeps the gate open in both directions, and knows the right motivation and timing for opening both. Like a good shepherd, he/she leads one to the best pasture at the best time.

Jesus clearly was much more concerned with the journey and integrity, than with presenting mere ideas or belonging to the correct group. 

Jesus was not only teaching or maintaining a purity system (which is to say a “belonging system”); but Jesus used everything, even people’s mistakes and impurity, to bring them to God. That’s good news for everyone. He practiced a process of transformation more than a belonging system.

For example, he says lovingly to an inquisitive scribe, “And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, you are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions. ”(Mark 12:34).

Jesus was affirming his particular stage on the journey, without telling him that he must travel all the way.

He wanted searchers more than settlers, prophets more than priests, He wanted honest journeyers.

All of these situations are describing the unique and rare position of one who is in tune with the Spirit of God. He/she is always on the edge of the inside. Not an outsider throwing rocks, nor a comfortable insider who defends the status quo, but one who lives precariously with two perspectives held tightly together: the faithful insider and the critical outsider at the same time. Not established safely inside, but not so far outside as to lose compassion or understanding.

The true disciple must hold these perspectives in a loving and necessary creative tension.  It is a unique kind of seeing and living, which will largely leave the disciple with “nowhere to lay his head” (Luke 9:58) while easily meriting the “hatred of all”—who have invariably taken sides in opposing groups (Luke 21:16 -17) - 16 “You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. 17 Everyone will hate you because of me.                   . 

The true disciple clings to God, and almost no one else.

People hiding inside of belonging systems are very threatened by those who are not within that group.  They are threatened by anyone who has found the answer to his/her being in places they cannot control. 

Matthew’s Gospel refers to this larger place as “the kingdom of heaven.” Where one has found his/her treasure, and is utterly grounded in the “passion” of the transcendent God, which is indestructible and uncontrollable by worldly systems. 

People being attached to the world, will seek their treasures and payoffs in the world. We need to let self centered opportunism pass and focus instead on loving God then all things will be given unto us.

Instead of loving God, many are watching life happen from afar and judging it in accordance with their limited understanding.

Yet God is inherent in life itself? God is the Life Force of everything? God is not an object like any other object. God is subject, the Life Energy in each and everything, which we call Love or Spirit.

No longer should we hold punitive images of God or one that impels us to think that God is apart from us, which has long dominated the Western churches. But instead of the triune God who flows through everything, without exception, and who has done so since the beginning of time. In this regard everything is Holy, for those who have learned how to see with their inner vision. The implications of such a spiritual shift are staggering: every vital impulse, every force toward the future, every creative momentum, every loving surge, every dash toward beauty, every running toward truth, every ecstasy before simple goodness, every bit of ambition for humanity and the earth, for wholeness and holiness, is the eternally-flowing life of the Triune God.

Whether we know it or not! This is not an invitation that one can agree with or disagree with. It is a description of what is already happening in God and in everything created in God’s image and likeness. This triune God allows us, impels us, to live easily with God everywhere and all the time: in the budding of a plant, the smile of a gardener, the excitement of a teenage boy over his new girlfriend, the loving nuzzling of horses, the tenderness with which eagles feed their chicks, and the downward flow of every mountain stream.

This God is found even in suffering and in death of those very things! How could this not be the life-energy of God? How could it be anything else? Such a big definition of life must include death in its great embrace, so that none of our labors will be wasted. In the chirp of every bird excited about a new morning, in the hard beauty of every cliff, in the deep satisfaction at every job well done and even in a clerk’s gratuitous smile to a department store customer or in the passivity of the hospital bed, “the world, life or death, the present or the future—all belong to us; and we belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God,”

That’s the great moment in all divine revelation, when beautiful ideas drop in through intuition to the mind and to the heart, which happens when we move from the level of dogma to the level of experience; when it is not something that we merely believe, but in a real sense something that we know. This is how the divine dance of God can be experience by us all, believers and non believers alike.  

God’s joyous unveiling can melt even the most hardened constrictions, illuminating the way toward union of Spirit, Self, yes even society.

Let us be clear that God is not a being among other beings, but rather Being itself. Nothing human can stop the flow of divine love; we cannot undo the eternal pattern even by our worst indiscretions. God is always winning, and God’s love will win. Love does not lose, nor does God lose. No one can stop the relentless outpouring force of the Divine grace.

God is relationship itself. Our task is to trustfully receive and then gradually reflect the inner image of God unto the world around us.

This divine mirroring will never stop; mirroring is how the whole transformation process is personally initiated and finally achieved. But we have to be taught how to “gaze steadily into this law of perfect inner freedom, and make this our habit.

Jesus the enlightened one:

John 12:35-37 (ESV)

35 So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”

We must realize that we can know and love God on many levels. Some are the transpersonal level (“Father”), the Personal level (“Jesus”), and the Impersonal level (“Holy Spirit”) and never forget to love our neighbor and all of God’s manifestation.

May the peace that transcends all understanding be with us - Amen

Ethics and development of consciousness

Ethics typically focuses on defining right and wrong behavior. But despite centuries of work by major schools of thought disagreement about the nature and content of such criteria has proven to be the rule rather than the exception.

Two major approaches of ethics can be distinguished, duty based and happiness based. The duty based is supported by Kant which emphasizes performance and the following of rules; the happiness based depicted by John Steward Mill, emphasizes the promotion of general happiness and well being. Each of these approaches has its strengths and reflects and reflects deep aspects of intuition about ethics.

But there are problems with both. Advocates of the happiness based approach often point out that following rules and duty without consideration of other people’s happiness and suffering is too complex to be defined and used as a base for ethics and the life based on the pursuit of happiness makes one a slave to circumstances and violates human dignity.

Mill expresses his view on freedom by illustrating how an individual's drive to better their station, and for self-improvement, is the sole source of true freedom. Only when an individual is able to attain such improvements, without impeding others in their own efforts to do the same, can true freedom prevail. Mill's linking of freedom and self-improvement has inspired many. By establishing that individual efforts to excel have worth, Mill was able to show how they should achieve self-improvement without harming others, or society at large.

The theory, developed as a result of Enlightenment rationalism, is based on the view that the only intrinsically good thing is a good will; an action can only be good if its maxim – the principle behind it on which to act – is duty to the moral law. Central to Kant's construction of the moral law is the categorical imperative, which acts on all people, regardless of their interests or desires.

Kant an outlook or system of thought attaching prime importance to human rather than divine or supernatural matters. Humanist beliefs stress the potential value and goodness of human beings, emphasize common human needs, and seek solely rational ways of solving human problems.

German philosopher G. W. F. Hegel criticized Kant for not providing specific enough detail in his moral theory to affect decision-making and for denying human nature. German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer argued that ethics should attempt to describe how people behave and criticized Kant for being prescriptive. Michael Stocker has argued that acting out of duty can diminish other moral motivations such as friendship, The Catholic Church has criticized Kant's ethics as contradictory and regards Christian ethics as more compatible with virtue ethics.

Worship God in Spirit and in Truth

God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

For The Spirit is God, and it is fitting that those who worship him worship in The Spirit and in The Truth.”

Aramaic Translation

In reference to the woman of Samaria: 23, Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

John 4:24-26

Many religious believers take part in ceremonies or rituals, but never know the Object of their worship. It is those who have God consciousness, who commune with God that can truly speak of worshiping God.

We need to know, that when we are sincerely devoted to God, no matter what words we use, God will answer. Unfortunately most people do not worship God with conviction based on the experience, that God is real and that He is listening to our prayers; that He is just behind our thoughts. If we pray with all our heart and mind concentrated on that indwelling Presence, we will know the One we worship.

Why does God remain unknown to people who worship him in temples and churches?

Churches and temples talk about God as if He could be comprehended by our restless mind. Divinity itself is perceived through intuition, the soul’s God given power of knowing truth. When mental restlessness is stilled and our consciousness is interiorized, in touch with our soul, the God revealing intuition is awakened. When we find God within, He is no longer a mystery concealed by his various material manifestations.

The most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet, (Acts 7:48) heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? Has not made my hand made all these things? Isaiah 66:1(KJV)

Worldly people have build temples on hilltops and lived in places of pilgrimage, only to find that their inner environment is still a place of sense and thought based matter worship. Worshippers, who by meditation interiorize the out flowing consciousness, by withdrawing their attention from identifying with the body and material nature, discover through direct experience what God is. They know what it means to truly worship Him; they have found the way to salvation.

When Jesus said:”God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”

The term God and Spirit based on mystical insight, are mutually exclusive, but are interchangeable where no distinction is required.

Spirit signifies the Unmanifested Absolute, void of even the slightest ripple of thought or vibration, where even space, time and dimensions are nonexistent. There abides only ever - existing, ever – conscious – ever – new Bliss that is Spirit.

God implies the transcendental Creator, beyond creation but existing in relation to the manifestation that evolves from Him. When relative creation is dissolved again into its Creator, then God becomes Spirit, the Unmanifested Absolute. 

God remains transcendental as both the source of becoming and imminent as the sum and substance. In manifesting creation, when Spirit becomes God the Creator, His transcendence is reflected in creation as the guiding Universal Intelligence. Thus God is Divine Intelligence manifesting creation. Spirit is Divine Intelligence with creation dissolved in It.

So in truth, God is Spirit becomes the Father of Creation. He is all things in creation; but the manifestations of creation are not God. His Spirit nature never changes, though a portion of that consciousness is present in nature.

The wave distorts the ocean only in appearance, but not in its essence. The true vision of God lies in the Spirit Ocean without the waves of creation, the realization of God as Unmanifested Spirit: the only existing substance, Truth, without the delusion of matter or phenomena.

As long as our consciousness is limited to creation and its inherent delusion of separate things, we have not attained enlightenment. We live in delusion absorbed in the ever changing phenomena. We need to lift the veil and see God first as transcendent in His creation, following that, we can realize God as transcendent beyond creation.

As Absolute Spirit is reflected as God’s guiding Intelligence in macrocosmic creation, so is Spirit reflected in the microcosm of the body as the soul, the individualized spirit image of Spirit in man. True worshippers who actually commune with God, who experience his presence in meditation, realize that the soul and God the Creator are reflections of Spirit.

Another spiritual insight informs us, that God the Father of manifestation can be known by the soul either by perception of or oneness with any of His manifested attributes. Spirit, the Unmanifested Absolute, can be known only by oneness with Spirit.

God in relation to the soul presumes a duality, the Object to be perceived, God; and the perceiver or experiencer, the soul.

I AM

All things in the universe are manifested by light. The light is consciousness. Consciousness is the One, expressing in an infinite number of forms. There is no real separation or gap in consciousness. It is referred to in the bible as the “I AM or God, the One without another”.

Man may conceive himself to be rich or poor, but at the center of his being, he remains the same regardless of the concept he holds of himself. There is only one I AM, manifesting in countless forms or concepts. I am that I am. I AM is the Self definition of the Absolute, the foundation on which everything rests. I AM is the first cause and substance. I AM is the self-definition of God. It is the “I AM that” sent me into existence.

I AM THAT I AM. Be still and know that I AM God. I AM is a feeling of permanent awareness. The very center of consciousness is our feeling of I AM, Existence, Being. Joy. I may not know who I am or what I am, but I cannot forget that I AM. The awareness of being remains, regardless of the degree of ignorance. I may experience forgetfulness of my existence as a result of my identification with body and mind, instead of with my essence, which is ever the same and eternal.

Man is actually the arbiter of his own fate, and it is the concept he has of himself that determines the world he experiences and how he responds to life. As an example, if he is experiencing chronic ill health, knowing the truth about his existence, he cannot attribute the illness to anything other than to the concept which was produced by his own reactions to life, and his proclaiming "I am not well." This is why we are told: "Let the weak man say, I am strong" (Joel 3:10), for by his assumption, the cause and substance I AM is re-arranged and must therefore manifest that which its rearrangement affirms.

This principle governs every aspect of our life, be it social, financial, intellectual, or spiritual. I AM is that reality to which, whatever happens; we must turn for an explanation of the phenomena of life. It is the “I AM's” concept that determines the form and scenery of its existence.

Everything depends upon its attitude towards itself that, which it will not affirm as true, cannot awaken in its world. That is, the concept of ourselves, such as "I am strong," "I am secure," "I am loved," determines what we experience. In other words, when we say, I am a man, I am a father, I am a doctor, we are not defining the “I AMs”; we are defining different concepts or arrangements, we speak of name and form identification instead.

When we know that consciousness is the one and only reality and that we are a part of it, we are free, free from the belief that there are causes outside of us that can affect our lives.

In the consciousness of the individual we find the explanation of the phenomena of life. If man’s concept of himself were different, everything in his world would be different.

If on the other hand his concept of himself is, that everything in his world must be as it is, it becomes clear that there is only One 1 AM and we are that I AM also. And while I AM is infinite, we, when having a limited self concept, are displaying only a limited aspect of the infinite I AM that we are.

Unfortunately in our daily lives we use the personal pronoun “I am” for all we do and think, not realizing that the powerful “I Am” used in a negative manner could be harmful to our very existence.

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The great I Am is the all embracing Divine Spirit whose creative power lends form to all beings and all things, and gives to man his consciousness. Every being is destined to live the I Am of the Divine in his own way. We must live in the world of space and time, but in it we are indented to manifest the transcendental in our being. Our nature is transcendental, yet we can only fulfill it in the natural world.

Life on earth can only be fulfilling as long as we do not fall out of the cosmic order and by maintaining our contact with the Infinite.

Transcendence can be viewed as super natural reality. Or as an interior attitude of which all one does, or perceives takes on a superior meaning.