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?                        

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.

MAKING ROOM FOR QUESTIONS

Cartoon: Lost at Sea

Lately, I’ve been frequenting some blogs written by self-described Christians who are deep in the throes of doubt or ex-Christians who are now skeptics, agnostics, heretics, and/or atheists.  While some are quite comfortable in their present position, many tell heart-wrenching stories of doubt, inner turmoil, fear.  Why is this topic of interest to me?  Because for the past ten years or so, I have been going through a period where I have questioned everything. 

M. Scott Peck says that people entering Stage III in the spiritual journey begin to question the religious doctrines with which they were raised: 

Stage III Skeptic, Individual, questioner, including atheists, agnostics and those scientifically minded who demand a measurable, well researched and logical explanation. Although frequently "nonbelievers," people in Stage III are generally more spiritually developed than many content to remain in Stage II. Although individualistic, they are not the least bit antisocial. To the contrary, they are often deeply involved in and committed to social causes. They make up their own minds about things and are no more likely to believe everything they read in the papers than to believe it is necessary for someone to acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Savior (as opposed to Buddha or Mao or Socrates) in order to be saved. They make loving, intensely dedicated parents. As skeptics they are often scientists, and as such they are again highly submitted to principle. Indeed, what we call the scientific method is a collection of conventions and procedures that have been designed to combat our extraordinary capacity to deceive ourselves in the interest of submission to something higher than our own immediate emotional or intellectual comfort--namely truth. Advanced Stage III men and women are active truth seekers.  (The entire article can be read here.)

This doesn’t sound like such a bad experience on paper.  But in the nuts and bolts and guts and gore of real life, the transition can be an earth-shattering experience that affects all aspects of our beings - emotional, physical, psychological, spiritual, and social.   And to make matters worse, many who enter this stage don’t know what’s happening to them.  I know I didn’t – for the first time since I became a Christian, I didn’t know where I was spiritually.  I had always been a person of great faith, what was happening to me?  I felt lost and alone in a great sea of questions.  I ran from the questions that kept arising, and tried to fight the questions that I was unable to suppress.  Adding to the difficulty, in my opinion, is that the majority of churches are at Stage II (Formal, Instutional, Fundamental, threatened by anyone who thinks differently from them), and so there is no place in these churches where people are allowed to ask questions.  So not only do we have all these questions, but there's no safe place to ask them - we have have people all around us who think we're falling into heresy.  In fact, I was actually "churched" as it's called here in the Bible belt.  It makes a scary place even scarier! 

 In my lonely “dark night,” I grasped at anything that might shed light and help to give me understanding about what I was going through.  I read Madame Guyon and Saint Teresa.  I read the writings of George Fox and Watchman Nee.  And while all these were helpful to some extent, they also seemed to be dark writings presented in antiquated language, difficult to understand from my 21^st century perspective.   After that, I discovered the writings of contemporary mystics like Evelyn Underhill and Father Thomas Keating which explained a lot.  And thank God for the internet – I did find other crazies there, and that was of some comfort. 

I think one of the challenges is if we dare to question, if what we have previously known is NOT true, then what are we left with? Nothing? It sure feels that way… But there is a time for everything, even a time to tear down (Ecc. 3:3)…or, to use the contemporary term, deconstruct.  We must be willing to subject our adolescent faith to questions in order to make the transition into a more mature level of faith. I don’t claim to have all the answers; I’m still very much in transition myself. But I did come to a place where I stopped resisting the questions. I can remember thinking, “I’m just gooooing…” And everything as I had known it did crumble. (I won’t go into specifics – you might think me a heretic!)

I have been very fortunate that I came into what I can only term “a new place” in which I’ve found a greater faith; a greater certainty.  I like to think that at last I’m moving into Stage IV, into a more mature faith (I wrote about some of this here).  But I realize, as well, that even that is only the beginning.  And while I think I’ve been through the period of intense questioning that the skeptics describe on their blogs, I wonder.  My doubts may be as nothing compared to theirs!  In either case, I think Brian McLaren is correct in what he says in the trailer for his soon to be released book Naked Spirituality: A Life with God in 12 Simple Words: “After we complete the four stages once, we go through them again and again, each time at a higher or deeper level.”

Peck says "Knowledge of these stages is so important because it facilitates the acceptance of others even though they may be in different places spiritually." Doubt is natural; doubt can even be very good and necessary for growth.  There is a great need to make room in our diverse faith communities for people on all levels of the spiritual journey, even the skeptical level!  And I think that’s what the emergent church folk are doing – they don’t claim to have all the answers, but they ARE trying to make a place where people can feel free to ask some of their questions.  

Update!  This "late-breaking video" just in from Reflections blog.  I just had to borrow it and add it to this post.  I realize it's an extreme example, but it is a sad example of what happens when there is no room for questions..."Westboro Baptist Church Family Disowns Daughter"

MANY NAMES, ONLY ONE GOD

For quite some time I have been coming  into the realization that "there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all" (Col. 3:11).   One Scripture I had trouble integrating with this wonderful truth is Acts 4:12,  which says there is only one name under heaven by which men may be saved.  But I have come to understand that both God and the Christ are called by many different names in Scripture.  As a matter of fact, depending on how they're counted and what is included, there are over 120 names and titles for God  and over 700 titles and different names for Jesus in the Bible.   Have we missed the proverbial forest for the trees?  Could there be ONE God that humans, with our limited perception, have called by many different names down through the ages?  I was delighted to read the following excerpt from "The Mystics, God -Realization Through the Ages" by Swami Abhayananda.  He makes this point more eloquently than I ever could:

"Often, men take the names of God, which accumulate over the centuries to represent separate and distinct entities, and then pit them one against the other.  This was true of the early poets and mythologizers... As soon as one tribe or civilization absorbed another, it established its own name for God as the superior, and relegated the subjugated people's name for God to an inferior position.  In this way, a polytheistic mythology accumulated in no time, peopled with all manner of anthropomorphized gods.  This, however, is the work of the priests and mythologizers, not of the seers.  As one mystic put it: "With words, priests and poets make into many the hidden Reality, which is but One."

"...It is often seen that those who have only a cursory knowledge of mystical philosophy become confused by the many different terms used to connote the Absolute by peoples of differing languages, and fail to penetrate beyond linguistic differences to grasp the common significance of words like "Brahman," "Purusha," "Tao," "Godhead," etc.  But, just as, in various languages, the words, pani, jal, agua, eau, and water, all signify one common reality, so do the above words of various linguistic origins connote one common invisible Principle.  All of the mystics of whatever time or cultural tradition have experienced the same one, indivisible, Reality; yet, because language is infinitely variable, they have called this One by various appellations.

"The understanding of the one Reality expressed by the authors of the Upanishads and the Gita is expressed in a remarkably similar manner by Lao Tze and Chuang Tze.  This should not be surprising, however, since everyone who is graced with the transcendent vision experiences the same eternal Unity.  What Lao Tze and Chuang Tze saw and wrote about is precisely what all other mystics have seen and wrote about.  Their language is different, but their meaning is the same. 


"As the 15th century Islamic saint, Dadu, put it, "All the enlightened have left one message; it is only those in the midst of their journey who hold diverse opinions."'  

The entire book can be read online here.

STAGES OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH

by M. Scott Peck, M.D.

Just as there are discernible stages in human physical and psychological growth, so there are stages in human spiritual development. These stages will be discussed here in general, for individuals are unique and do not always fit neatly into psychological or spiritual pigeonholes.

  

STAGE I:


Chaotic, Antisocial. Frequently pretenders; they pretend they are loving and pious, covering up their lack of principles. Although they may pretend to be loving (and think of themselves that way), their relationships with their fellow human beings are all essentially manipulative and self-serving. They really don't give a hoot about anyone else. I call the stage chaotic because these people are basically unprincipled. Being unprincipled, there is nothing that governs them except their own will. And since the will from moment to moment can go this way or that, there is a lack of integrity to their being. They often end up, therefore in jails or find themselves in another form of social difficulty. Some, however, may be quite disciplined in the services of expediency and their own ambition and so may rise in positions of considerable prestige and power, even to become presidents or influential preachers.