NOTHING LOST/NOTHNG TO FEAR

It's been a long time since I posted anything, I guess I've been internally processing a lot of things that I've not been able to express. My offering for today is my vision of nonduality patched together from many different spiritual perspectives.   Incomplete as it may be, it helps me to keep my eyes on the big picture...and fills me with hope. So here goes: 

Everything on earth is transitory – it’s passing away.  It arises, and falls.  All the things we count on, even heaven and earth, shall pass away….  “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass.  The grass withered, and the flower thereof falleth away, But the word of the Lord endureth forever” ( 1 Pet 1:24-25).  

Everything earthly is for a season.  Why do we let these things that pass away have dominion over us?  They come, they go.  But we cling to them…

Everything old is new again.  Nothing is ever really lost…it comes around again to manifest in the natural in a different form.  Nothing is ever worthless, it all has meaning and purpose, but that meaning and purpose is for a season…we just sojourn here… (Ecc. 1:9-11, 3:15).  

If we are all “passing away” but nothing is ever really lost of our essence, death really is swallowed up in victory.  We are a form through which the Life Essence (God) shines, albeit imperfectly.  Each one is different so that the glory of Life is manifested in a different way, from a different perspective, and temporarily (for a season). But when that body passes away, nothing of the essence is lost, because “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it” (Ecc. 12:7). Since nothing is lost, there is no sting and nothing to fear! 

But the carnal mind (or insert your term of preference here: ego, devil, beast, conditioning, amygdala) is a fear-monger!  And it torments us continually…never shuts up!  That’s why many “relax” by watching TV, playing games – the carnal mind is engaged with something else and is not torturing us with worry and fear.  The carnal mind is the enemy who has taken us captive and drags us to hell to torture us.  “For to be carnally minded is death: but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Rom 8:6).  At the last trump (Rev 11:15) when the beast in us has been defeated and the mind of the Christ reigns in us, we will have rest.  For those who still worship the beast, “The smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever (continually!) and they have no rest day or night” (Rev 14:9-11).  This happens in the very presence of the Lamb (v10), who is there all the time offering rest! 

It’s All Good…

There is an ancient story that tells of a student monk who began to laugh during group meditation and prayer.  The other students, horrified and embarrassed for the monk, hoped that he would stop laughing.  But his laughter grew louder and louder, until the other monks could not help but wonder what the teacher would do in the face of such irreverence.  But to the amazement of all the other monks, the teacher pronounced the laughing monk enlightened!  The monk laughed because he saw that everything is wonderful! Everything does work together for GOOD! It’s Divine play, in a way, but not as in a cruel game.  It’s a game in the sense that we shouldn’t take it so seriously, because nothing is ever really lost. There is really GOOD NEWS!  It’s only a game – there’s nothing to lose and nothing will ever be lost!  We take it all so seriously, and so cause all our own sorrow.  So we can begin to see that suffering and sorrow, although very real, are only for a season, and that everything is perfect and as it should be.  This is the peace that passes all understanding, when we see that there was never anything to fear.  

This is not to make light of the suffering in the world, just because we are in a large place and know that suffering is only for a season.  We need to work very hard to alleviate suffering, for suffering is very real.  

Right now, huge weather pattern changes are taking place, changes that could destroy millions and leave much of our planet frozen solid or an arid wasteland.  And I know it will be okay if even that happens…for nothing is ever lost.  It is all so very real and awe-inspiring; it is all also like a dream or a movie in which we are very involved.  Upon awakening, we will find ourselves in the heart of God.  Death happens, yes, but it has no sting.  There is nothing to fear.  We are on a great adventure, and we go back to where we came from.  What joy, freedom, peace, and rest is found in this knowledge:  nothing is ever lost and there is nothing to fear!

ALLEVIATING SUFFERING

Suffering bothers me....it bothers me a lot. Speaking about suffering and enlightment, in this video Ken Wilber said, "It hurts more; but it bothers you less...When we taste the infinite Absolute of consciousness, the world is seen just as it is—radiant, perfect, and whole. The relative, however, does not cease to be. Quite the contrary, the pains and pleasures of our relative lives are intensified to an unimaginable degree. We have to give ourselves PLENTY of room to feel BOTH: The ABSOLUTE PERFECTION in everything that arises.
..And yet see ONE person starving and you will start crying so hard it will kill you." The more we become aware, the more it does hurt; the more acutely the pain and suffering of all those around us is felt.  At the same time, every manifestation we see around us is sacred and part of the Divine and so nothing is ever lost.  Suffering is of the utmost horror, but not to be taken too seriously because in the end nothing can be harmed at all and even death has no real sting.

From that perspective, we CAN watch everything unfold almost like watching a movie, for even though pain and suffering are very real, they are not the ultimate reality...

Enlightenment is realizing that we are all ONE, all manifestations of the Divine, all sacred, all holy.,,and to treat all "others" as such.  How much suffering in the world would be alleviated if we all treated everything as a part of ourselves?  This is why Jesus said, "As you did it unto the least of these, you did it unto me." Because we are all part of God.

As I read the following article from one of my favorite authors and teachers, Thich Nhat Hanh, I thought it especially appropriate for Memorial Day. As we mourn those who have fallen in war, may we determine to be part of bringing into reality a world where violence does not take the lives of those we love and of fellow human beings.  Quotable: "A civilization in which we must kill and exploit others in order to live is not a healthy civilization. [...] To bring about peace within the human family, we must work for harmonious co-existence."   Namaste, ya'll....

Nature and Nonviolence

--by Thich Nhat Hanh (May 22, 2012)                                                          

                                                                                                                           Listen To Reading!

You don’t discriminate between the seed and the plant. You see that they ‘inter-are’ with each other, that they are the same thing. Looking deeply at the young cornstalk, you can see the seed of corn, still alive, but with a new appearance. The plant is the continuation of the seed.

The practice of meditation helps us to see things other people can’t see. We look deeply and we see that father and son, father and daughter, mother and son, mother and daughter, corn seed and cornstalk, have a very close relationship. That is why we should awaken to the fact, to the truth, that we inter-are. The suffering of one is the suffering of the other. [...] When we see that we and all living beings are made of the same nature, how can there be division between us? How can there be lack of harmony? When we realize our ‘interbeing nature’, we’ll stop blaming and exploiting and killing, because we know that we inter-are. That is the great awakening we must have in order for the Earth to be saved.

We human beings have always singled ourselves out from the rest of the natural world. We classify other animals and living beings as ‘Nature’, a thing apart from us, and act as if we’re somehow separate from it. Then we ask, “How should we deal with Nature?” We should deal with Nature the same way we should deal with ourselves: nonviolently. Human beings and Nature are inseparable. Just as we should not harm ourselves, we should not harm Nature.

Causing harm to other human beings causes harm to ourselves. Accumulating wealth and owning excessive portions of the world’s natural resources deprives fellow humans of the chance to live. Participating in oppressive and unjust social systems creates and deepens the gap between rich and poor, and aggravates the situation of social injustice. While the rest of the human family suffers and starves, the enjoyment of false security and wealth is a delusion.

It’s clear that the fate of each individual is inextricably linked to the fate of the whole human race. We must let others live if we ourselves want to live. The only alternative to coexistence is co-nonexistence. A civilization in which we must kill and exploit others in order to live is not a healthy civilization. [...] To bring about peace within the human family, we must work for harmonious co-existence. If we continue to shut ourselves off from the rest of the world, imprisoning ourselves in narrow concerns and immediate problems, we’re not likely to make peace or to survive. The human race is part of Nature. We need to have this insight before we can have harmony between people.

--Thich Nhat Hanh in "Nature and Nonviolence"

FORGIVENESS

“People are paralyzed by the tensions and contradictions in their own beliefs.  In turn, they shy away from examining their own behavior too closely…” (Sharif Abdullah, Creating a World That Works For All, p. 105).

We all need food, safety, security, belonging, love. Sometimes our need for these things is so desperate that we try to take them, maybe harming others in the process.  For me, the definition of “sin” is when we try to meet our very legitimate needs in a way that is harmful to ourselves or others. It bothers us to realize that we’ve done things in unskillful ways to get what we need; that we’ve not lived with integrity with our innermost values.  That is very difficult to face, so most people choose to run from self-examination.  We shove it down and hide it – sometimes so deep that it’s buried in the unconscious.  It takes great courage to go within and face ourselves, for when we do so, we find that our actions don’t match our values - that we’ve not lived in honesty with our own selves.  That’s why Joseph Campbell termed it “The Hero’s Journey” – to face our inner demons takes more courage than most of us have!

We seek forgetfulness in many ways – watching TV, shopping, busy-ness, etc.  We try to like ourselves in spite of the things we’ve done that bother us.  Some self-help teachings even advise looking in the mirror and saying, “I like you!” to build self-esteem.  It would be healthier to face those behaviors and find ways to live in alignment with our innate desire to live with compassion toward all. 

We have such a deep need to forgive ourselves that we’ve created a God “out there” who can forgive us and wipe our slate clean…what we really need is to face ourselves, understand ourselves, forgive ourselves, and move forward in alignment with our innermost values.  It’s an internal thing of facing it, understanding it, and finding forgiveness…

The truth is we have all tried to meet our perfectly legitimate needs with unskillful means, bringing harm to others and/or ourselves.  Some traditions call this facing the "shadow" or dark side.  Christian teaching puts it this way: we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. This has been interpreted to mean that individuals are evil and deserve to die, when in fact we have all learned to live in ways that are not beneficial to ourselves or others.  How freeing it is to see that, face it, forgive ourselves because we were ignorant of any better way, and learn more skillful and less harmful means of getting our needs met.  In Scriptural language, this process has been described as confession, repentance (turning), forgiveness, and sanctification (the process of learning to live righteously). Whatever we call this process, may we find the deep courage to forgive ourselves for past mistakes and to live in alignment with the deepest desires of our hearts...

PUTTING ON THE MIND OF CHRIST

The journey into awareness (or coming into the Light, as the Bible would describe it) is a fascinating, exciting, sometimes confusing, often difficult, frequently discouraging, and many times frightening, journey.  Joseph Campbell termed it "The Hero's Journey" because it takes great courage to face ourselves and our inner demons or shadows.  I recently read Putting on the Mind of Christ - The Inner Work of Christian Spirituality by Jim Marion, which been a tremendous help to me in understanding my own path along this road to awakening.  Of course, the journey has many "dark nights," meaning periods of obscurity where we just don't know what's happening. Marion says "One can never see with exactness where one is going; one can only see afterwards where one has been" (p. 93).  I'd like to share a portion of this book that was especially enlightening for me.  The author is detailing the new understanding gained when experiencing resurrection from the Dark Night of the Soul.  He says:

"We see that our own selves and all humans are made of 'God-stuff'...begotten of God and made of the same substance ad essence as God.  We see that this has always been so, but up until now, we have been too blind to see it...I'd been picturing the inner God as a sort of invisible extra appendix, a God within but definitely separate.  Now I saw that the opposite  was a fuller and better expression of the truth: God isn't so much within us as we are within God. We are actually cells in God's body, God's Incarnate, or Created, or Only-Begotten Body, the Christ (1 Cor. 12:12-27).  I saw that what St. Paul said to the Athenians is true, that we live and move and have our beings in God (Acts 17:28). 

"I realized that what some Christians call the 'Mystical Body of Christ' wasn't an exercise in fanciful poetry but was a cosmological description of the actual physical (and non-physical) universe.  It is the way things really are, the way they operate.  As Jesus had promised, I saw a whole new world, and I saw that this world, all of Creation visible and invisible, is nothing less than the Christ, God's 'Only-Begotton Son,' God's Word Made Manifest or Flesh (Gen. 1:1, John 1:1-3)...All the great Christian mystics speak the essential truth that is realized upon coming into Christ Consciousness...we realize that 'only God is and we are not' as in 'I live, now not I, but the Christ (God Manifest) lives in and through me' (Gal. 2:20).

"Many things follow automatically from this new understanding, this new vision of reality.  In all one's dealings with others, from now on, one is always aware that one is dealing with God's Son, and that whatever one does to others, one does to God's Son (Matt. 25:35-40); in fact, not only to God's Son but to oneself (since we too are one substance with that Son).  One sees that in this world there are not 'others,' there is only Christ.  One sees that this has always been the case but up until now, we had been blind to this truth. 

"Second, we see that, since humans are made of eternal 'God-stuff,' there is no death (1Cor. 15:54).  Our mortal self is now clothed with immortality exactly as St. Paul says (1 Cor. 15:54). We no longer have to believe in life after death.  We see not only that we will never die but that we have never been born...we are now totally identified with our eternal soul, our true Christ self. Living in the Christ Consciousness we know we will never die (John 11:26).  All fear of death is therefore lost.  As St. Paul said, 'Death has lost its sting" (1 Cor. 15:55). 

"Third, as St. Paul says, sin is conquered.  Since we now see that humans are made of  'God-stuff,' and have always been divine, we see that sin does not exist.  God after all, cannot commit sin.  Nor can God's only-begotten Son, the Christ we all are...From this point on, when face with our own or others' negativity, the Christed person sees not sin but ignorance, that is, lack of awareness.  We see that all the negativity people bring onto themselves and others results from a lack of awareness.  Whenever we encounter negativity, with respect to both self and others, we join with Jesus on the cross in saying, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do' (Luke 23:34)" (p. 166-169).

"Does the non-existence of sin mean we can do anything we please?  Two answers: Yes, we can do anything we please.  And we have been doing just that since Adam and Eve, including murder, rape, war, cannibalism, and all manner of other horrors.  Free will means precisely that: we can indeed do anything we please...There is a second answer: Since God is all in all  (1 Cor. 15:28) and everyone is divine and has God for their being (Acts (17:28), whatever we do to anyone else we do to God, to Christ, and to ourselves (Mat. 25:40).  There is no other.  Whatever we do to the supposed other, therefore, necessarily comes back to the self.  As Jesus said, 'He that lives by the sword shall die by the sword' (Matt. 26:52). That is why Jesus also warned that we should 'Do unto others what you wish to have done unto you' (Matt. 7:12).  St. Paul admonishes that 'A man will reap what he sows' (Gal. 6:7-8)" (p. 243).

These things I have seen.  Dimly, and from afar.  But I have seen, and wrote about here...

“…seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all” (Col 3:9-11).

Previously, I looked at these verses as meaning that when “they” all come into Christ, there will be no more divisions.  Now I have seen that it is when “I” shed the old man (a.k.a. carnal mind, ego) and come into renewed knowledge, this is a place where “I” see there ARE no divisions – only unity in diversity.  Where I can look with renewed perspective and see there is no Barbarian, Scythian, Buddhist, Hindu, etc. but that Christ IS all and is IN ALL.  

I have seen...and I have hope that I'll come into ever greater understanding of this Reality and be able to live more and more in the beauty of this vision.  The journey continues....

THE CHRISTIAN MEANING OF ENLIGHTMENT

This video was recorded at Science and Nonduality Conference in 2011. Father Richard Rohr is a Franciscan Priest and an Author. In this excellent talk he presents the similarities, the differences, and the complementarities between the Eastern and Western understandings of transformation. Some have called the goal enlightenment, some salvation, some ecstasy, nirvana, or heaven. What is the goal of the spiritual journey according to the main line Christian tradition? What Christian spirituality has called the unitive way has often described as non-dual consciousness by Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism. Are we often seeking the same thing? How can we honor and respect each of these spiritual traditions?                        

FINDING CONNECTION THROUGH SOLITUDE

A couple of years ago, I read Thomas Merton's New Seeds of Contemplation.  Merton (seeing as how he was a monk) was big on solitude, and said that it's only by spending time in solitude that we can truly come to love others.  At that time, I couldn't understand how solitude could contribute to a greater love for our fellow beings...

But when it comes right down to it, isn't unity with the Divine and with fellow beings what we're all looking for?  Isn't that the essence of the spiritual path?  Michael Brown, author of the Presence Process, said "It was not enlightenment I was looking for at all; it was intimacy.  I was desperately seeking intimacy with myself, with God, with nature, with my family, with all humans I encountered, with my cats, with my writing, with plants, with the falling rain, with my pain, with my dreams and visions, and with all the minute aspects of this experience we call 'living our life,' like washing dishes and doing laundry.” It is not enlightenment we all crave, it's intimacy.  But to achieve intimacy, we've got to overcome what separates us.  That's why we have to "go inside" and get to know all the aspects of ourselves, become self-aware.  Humility develops as we face those inner demons common to all of us.   Only in becoming conscious of the forces that drive us we can conceive of the forces that may drive others.  In so doing, we come to see that we're all deeply the same, each of us capable of the greatest good and the greatest evil.  As we develop compassion for our own failings, compassion for others grows.  From this perspective, we become capable of genuine forgiveness; the barriers come down and we can end the separation! 

Solitude is a tough discipline that takes great courage.  Most of us would rather do anything than spend time alone in self-reflection in order to face ourselves!  It's one reason we tend to keep our minds so busy with activities; keeping our minds busy prevents us from seeing ourselves as we really are (warts and all). It is only in solitude and stillness that we can connect with what's really going on inside of us.  And connection to other beings is not possible unless that self-connection is first established.  Spending time A-Lone leads to the understanding that we are All-One...this heart-felt knowledge enables us to relate to one another with Love and Intimacy.   And, isn't that what we're all really longing for?

WHAT IS THE BODY OF CHRIST?

Spiritual Insight from the David Ord's book Your Forgotten Self:

The body of Christ isn’t synonymous with Christianity.  It isn’t correlated with the churches. What it may be hard for many Christians to accept is that the body of Christ can be found among people of all faiths: Christians, Jews, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Jain, Sikh, and so on.  The body of Christ is far more encompassing and includes the entirety of humanity.

“Christ” is a term, not a surname for Jesus of Nazareth. It’s the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew term messiah, meaning the anointed one. It used to be the term used for Israel’s kings, who were anointed with oil to signify their choice by God for the throne.

The messiah—the savior of the world—isn’t an individual, but is the whole of humanity empowered to at last be true to themselves as the image and likeness of God.

Jesus is definitive of what the Christ reality looks like, and in that sense he’s the “head” of the body. But a head is useless without the rest of the body. The body of Christ—that which will save humanity from its broken state—is comprised of all who begin to move out of the normal unconsciousness of human beings and into the enlightenment of consciousness. They become aware of the divine presence at the heart of their being, the heart of all being.

The term “Adam” doesn’t refer to a real person but is a symbol of humanity in our unconscious state. So too the Christ isn’t a single individual but is a symbol of humanity as we become conscious. This collective reality is made up of all who have become conscious of their oneness with God. When this awareness takes over our lives, we become a more evolved human, as was Jesus. He represents the next leap in our development as a species and is definitive of the new humanity emerging on the planet.

When we read that there's "no other name given by which we must be saved," it's not about saying a name, but about becoming what Jesus was: a conscious person. "In Jesus' name" isn't a statement to be tacked onto the end of prayers like a magical charm. His name represents the divine nature. When we awaken to the divine nature in ourselves, the image and likeness of God that we have always been but lost sight of, we become as Jesus was. It's in this sense there's "no other name." You have to become conscious in the way he was.

As awareness of our oneness with God increases, the impact isn’t just personal. It changes how we relate to each other. Recognition of our oneness with God leads to oneness among us. All barriers between the world’s peoples are broken down. The future of the human race involves the gathering together of all races and creeds to form one new human being. This collective “one new human being” is the Christ. You can read about this new humanity in Ephesians 2:15-22, where it’s likened to a house in which God dwells.

The divine dwells in us. As we recognize this in ourselves, we become the Christ that will save the world from its turmoil and usher in what Eckhart Tolle calls A New Earth—or in more ancient language, the kingdom of God.

This entire article can be accessed at The Body of Christ Means Conscious Individuals.

SCIENCE AND NON-DUALITY

I have been pondering the subject of nonduality for quite some time now.  It's something I know is true, but can't quite seem to wrap my mind around! The following, from the Science and Nonduality Website, has been very helpful:

"Nonduality is the philosophical, spiritual, and scientific understanding of non-separation and fundamental intrinsic oneness.

"For thousand of years, through deep inner inquiry, philosophers and sages have came to the realization that there is only one substance and we are therefore all part of it. This substance can be called Awareness, Consciousness, Spirit, Advaita, Brahman, Tao, Nirvana or even God. It is constant, ever present, unchangeable and is the essence of all existence.

"In the last century Western scientists are arriving at the same conclusion: The universe does indeed comprise of a single substance, presumably created during the Big Bang, and all sense of being - consciousness - subsequently arises from it. This realization has ontological implications for humanity: fundamentally we are individual expressions of a single entity, inextricably connected to one another, we are all drops of the same ocean.

"Science and Nonduality is a journey, an exploration of the nature of awareness, the essence of life from which all arises and subsides.

What is nonduality, anyway?
"There are many shades of meaning to the word nonduality. As an introduction, we might say that nonduality is the philosophical, spiritual, and scientific understanding of non-separation and fundamental oneness.

"Our starting point is the statement “we are all one,” and this is meant not in some abstract sense but at the deepest level of existence. Duality, or separation between the observer and the observed, is an illusion that the Eastern mystics have long recognized and Western science has more recently come to understand through quantum mechanics.

"Dualities are usually seen in terms of opposites: Mind/Matter, Self/Other, Conscious/Unconscious, Illusion/Reality, Quantum/Classical, Wave/Particle, Spiritual/Material, Beginning/End, Male/Female, Living/Dead and Good/Evil. Nonduality is the understanding that identification with common dualisms avoids recognition of a deeper reality.

So how can we better understand nonduality?

"There are two aspects to this question, and at first glance they appear to be mutually exclusive, although they may be considered two representations of a single underlying reality.

"The first aspect is our understanding of external reality, and for this we turn to science. The word science comes from the Latin scientia, which means knowledge. The beauty and usefulness of science is that it seeks to measure and describe reality without personal, religious, or cultural bias. For something to be considered scientifically proven, it has to pass exhaustive scrutiny, and even then is always subject to future revision. Inevitably human biases creep in, but the pursuit of science itself is intrinsically an evolving quest for truth. But then quantum mechanics turned much of this lauded objectivity on its head, as the role of the observer became inseparable from the observed quantum effect. It is as if consciousness itself plays a role in creating reality.  Indeed, the two may be the same thing. As quantum pioneer Niels Bohr once put it: “A physicist is just an atom's way of looking at itself!”

"The second aspect is our inner, personal experience of consciousness, our “awareness of awareness.” We have our senses to perceive the world, but “behind” all perception, memory, identification and thought is simply pure awareness itself.  Eastern mystics have described this undifferentiated consciousness for thousands of years as being the ultimate state of bliss, or nirvana. Seekers have attempted to experience it for themselves through countless rituals and practices, although the state itself can be quite simply described. As Indian advaita teacher Nisargadatta Maharaj said: “The trinity: mind, self and spirit, when looked into, becomes unity.”

"The central challenge to understanding nonduality may be that it exists beyond language, because once it has been named, by definition -- and paradoxically -- a duality has been created. Even the statement “all things are one” creates a distinction between “one” and “not-one”! Hardly any wonder that nonduality has been misunderstood, particularly in the West."

Humm, maybe that's why ancient orthodox Jews would never say the name of God, and

The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.

THE EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS PART 3

The following is the third and final part of an excerpt from The Christ Is Not A Person The Evolution of Consciousness And The Destiny of Man by J.C. Tefft:

The flowering of conscious awareness is the story of the evolution of Consciousness bearing fruit, ‘some an hundred, some sixty, some thirty fold. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear…. Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice.’ The death of the old allows for the birth of the new, which is a birth ‘not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of [the will of ] God.’ ‘Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ ‘He that findeth his Life shall lose [his life in self ]: and he that loseth his life [in self ] for [the sake of Christ] shall find it.’ One day ‘ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with … but it shall [only] be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father,’ which is in Heaven. ‘Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’

As one awakens to the living Christ within, one is shown how to approach Life with Love in one’s heart. In this inner state of Awareness, one is no longer fooled by falsehoods created by thought. One’s mind is no longer closed to that which is in the moment, actual and real. Instead of darkness, there is Light. Instead of emotional fervor, there is harmony, Peace, and Joy. Instead of distractions in the parts, there is stillness in the Whole. Instead of hatred and prejudice, there is Compassion and Love.

Considering Creation as a Whole, each of us is a microscopic center of life in which the evolutionary cycle plays out from beginning to end, from formlessness to form, back to formlessness again. Like snowflakes whirling through the winds of time, each of us is a miniature, but unique expression of the Whole. No two of us are exactly alike. Thus each of us has our own unique cross to bear – whatever that may be. Wherever we are, or whatever circumstances we find ourselves in, we all face the same evolutionary test, and we must face it alone. No one else can live our life for us, just as no one else can die for us. We all face life and death alone. This being so, each of us is held personally accountable for awakening to the Spirit of Life and Love within us. No one else is held accountable to this task. We can either think our way through life, or we can live life in a manner that allows for God’s evolutionary work to be done, as in ‘Thy Will be done.’

For Love to come into the world, mankind must cease to hate. To hate is to shut down on the coming of Christ. When the urge to hate arises, rather than identifying with it and acting it out, observe it dispassionately. See it for what it is. In the very act of detached observation, Awareness arises in the Now, and in the Light of that Awareness, hate cannot take root. Rather, it withers and dies on the vine. Through detached observation we surrender the self, thus hate is overcome. In its stead, Pure Awareness comes forth. This is the process through which one evolves in Awareness from that of self to that of other than self. As Jesus pointed out, only the ‘pure in heart … shall see God,’ just as the impure in heart shall not. It is up to each of us to discover for ourselves what Jesus truly meant when he declared that we must ‘love others as I have loved you.'

The Evolution of Consciousness Part 1

The Evolution of Consciousness Part 2

"The Christ Is Not A Person The Evolution of Consciousness And The Destiny of Man" by J.C. Tefft can be purchased in ebook form for $6.00 here.

THE EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS PART 2

The following is second in a three part series excerpted from The Christ Is Not A Person The Evolution of Consciousness And The Destiny of Man by J.C. Tefft:

The fact that the vast majority of ancient people lacked the same level of Awareness as the enlightened sages of their day made the teachings of enlightened beings seem all the more incomprehensible, mysterious, otherworldly, and unclear. To compound the problem, lesser lights, failing to understand the deeper meaning of enlightened teachings, tended to add their own spin to works they later wrote long after the enlightened ones were gone. Thus they corrupted the original, enlightened teachings all the more. Instead of finding Truth in themselves, as all enlightened beings have done, they established doctrines, rituals, and beliefs in an effort to inadequately comprehend what they did not understand. This, in turn, has entrapped others into believing that a system of belief will somehow ‘save’ them from the fires of ‘hell,’ when it does not.

Regardless of these obstacles, as Consciousness has evolved, an evergrowing number of individuals have walked the Earth, and continue to walk the Earth, who have awakened in the Light. The earliest of these continue to be revered, even worshipped beyond the rest, as they were the forerunners of a new race who are even now being resurrected out of self into a new dimension of cosmic reality.

THE EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS PART 1

The following is first in a three part series excerpted from "The Christ Is Not A Person The Evolution of Consciousness And The Destiny of Man" By J.C. Tefft:

Considering the evolution of Consciousness, as set forth in ancient scripture, the Biblical story reveals that the evolution of conscious awareness in Man is not about a chosen people who found their ‘Promised Land,’ but about the transformation of certain individuals in Hebrew society from lower to higher levels of conscious awareness in their lifetime, and in generations that followed. First one, then two, then four, then eight, and so on, as ever-greater numbers awakened in the Light. But someone was the first, and that someone, whoever he or she was, was the forerunner to a new race of Man. That someone had awakened to a higher calling, and following that awakening, most likely described it to others, as best he or she could, in conceptual, metaphorical terms in an attempt to communicate at least something of the experience, even though it was not the experience itself.

One problem that the earliest of enlightened beings continuously faced is that others in their societies were either thoroughly unenlightened, or at most, less enlightened than they. This meant that the others did not truly understand what the enlightened ones meant when they spoke of the ending of sorrow, or of denying self, or of realizing Nirvana, or of entering the Kingdom of Heaven, even though some may have sensed something of the Truth of it, albeit in more limited ways.

If we trace the history of conscious awakening in ancient, Biblical lore, we learn first of an individual named Adam (which interpreted means ‘Man’) who metaphorically represents early Man in whom the capacity to think emerged. This is indicated by his ability to ‘name,’ which is to say, to perceive and conceptualize outer things. Much later, another Man, metaphorically referred to as Noah, is said to have lived ‘five hundred years … and was perfect in his generations,’ for he ‘found grace in God’s eyes.’ This is to say, he awakened to a level of Awareness in himself that was above and beyond Adamic Man. After Noah there arose yet another Man, metaphorically referred to as Abraham, the ‘exalted father of many,’ of whom God said He would make ‘nations out of thee’ because Abraham was more consciously Aware than those who had come before.