Archive for the 'Daily Commentary' Category

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Thinking Allowed

Published on January 29, 2012 in Daily Commentary. 0 Comments

Thinking Allowed was a TV series wherein psychologist Jeffrey Mishlove interviews men and women from various academic disciplines. They are challenging and enlightening interviews. These interviews no only cause one to THINK, but to ACT.

Now, can we do that in the religious realm as well?

I know THINKING is ALLOWED and even mandatory in SPIRITUAL disciplines, but in religious circles it’s frowned on. The two largest monotheistic religions (Christianity and Islam) still cling to ancient concepts that simply don’t pass the smell test when it comes to intellectual integrity.

A loving God kills his son?

The whole ancient metaphor wherein a HERO comes to the rescue of his people through some sort of substitutionary sacrifice worked well thousands of years ago; however, it’s not very appealing to the citizenry of today’s world. Our consciousness has increased to the point that we see WAR as not good (understatement).

The God of LOVE is a WARRIOR?

If God was a LOVER and not a FIGHTER maybe we would have a better model to follow. Maybe we wouldn’t think killing others would be such a good think if we couldn’t use God as our model. Maybe it’s time that we RETHOUGHT some things that we’ve taken for granted, which means we’ve really not THOUGHT about at all.

Think maybe?

Sacred Truths?

Published on January 28, 2012 in Daily Commentary. 0 Comments

I have SAID many times that the Bible is sacred.

What was left UNSAID was that consciously or not, I had made the Bible an IDOL! Once the Bible is taken off the worship altar and put in the context that it rightly should hold, the Bible comes ALIVE to many deeper and awesome meanings. Until we bring into question many of the ancient sacred truths, we’ll stay imprisoned in old superstitions.

Sacred means to me something that is to be respected and is inspiring.

Thus, the Bible is sacred to me for those two reasons: it definitely is not without error and many of the stories and rules are way outdated. It’s up to each of us to separate the wheat from the chaff- spiritually. That’s why John says that we’re given the Holy Spirit (among other things).

To stay fundamentally rigid to physically impossible ideas (the sun standing still in the sky and other geocentric ideas) is to build a wall around 2,000year old ideas with no door or window. Most theologians and scholars have long since given up the idea of an eternal hell.

Have you?

Instructed or Discovering?

Published on January 27, 2012 in Daily Commentary. 1 Comment

The question above applies to ALL of our life; however, I am going to limit my scope to religion and or better yet, spiritual matters.

I spent a couple of decades of my life being instructed, preached at, and told one absolute after another. I was a babe, well, actually a teenager, so who was I to question my authorities? As a young adult I wanted to fit in and not face peer-pressure so, I didn’t question though doubts were increasing.

Can you relate to what I’m saying?

Finally, in my thirties, there was so much tension and turmoil going on within me (can you say Spirit?) that I began to see outward expressions and question boiling to the surface without any control. Lifting my hand in a denominational church when moved by a song (called special music), caused a lot of non-Christian stares.

So, I moved on, before being kicked out.

Of course wherever we go we find we’re still there.

Starting my own church was freedom with one exception. I was now the INSTRUCTOR and not the pupil. I told people what I BELIEVED, which was what a new group of theologians were saying. Actually they weren’t new, I had just discovered them. And it was in that “discovering” that I realized that if I was going to help people discover, I had to do less INSTRUCTING.

Thus, for the last five years or so, I now share, discuss, and exchange ideas with those that want the same. And talk about amazing discovering. Wow! And, we’ve just begun. We all need GUIDANCE, but we also need to take responsibility for our life and the things we CHOOSE to embrace. Where are you on the journey of spiritual life?

The Jesus Archetype

Published on January 26, 2012 in Daily Commentary. 0 Comments

Every major (and most minor) religion has an archetype!

An archetype is a universally understood symbol, or prototype upon which others are copied, patterned, or emulated. Archetypes are often used in myths and storytelling across different cultures. For me Jesus is the BEST! I state it this way- “God is best EXPLAINED by Jesus, but God is not CLAIMED by Jesus alone.”

Religion is both GEOGRAPHICAL and COSMIC!

In other words people embrace the religion to which they adhere primarily based on where they were born on the planet. Additionally, as Peter Russell says, his story shows that our view of God is as large as our view of the universe-cosmos. For the fundamentalist regarding of religion, this is heresy.

The common archetype is the “Suffering Servant” who saves the world.

Christians call is substitionary death. Jesus suffered the sins of the world so that he could redeem the world. I never understood the legality, not the practicality of such a paradigm. It’s the same as the Bodhisattva who sacrifices his or her own spiritual liberation to help others.

I prefer the Jesus is the Light archetype (as well as metaphor). But with today’s scientific discoveries, maybe that’s more of a literal reality than a metaphor! Do you feel like you’re beginning to get lost? :-)

The Night Sky

Published on January 25, 2012 in Daily Commentary. 0 Comments

When you live in the city there’s really not much to say (nor SEE) in the night sky.

Head to the country and all of a sudden the verse in Romans 1 comes to life. It’s a BIG solar system, galaxy, and universe. If you go to the mountains or higher elevations and God becomes so much more majestic. It goes back to what philosophers and theologians (few as they may be) have said for centuries, “God is as big as our concept of the universe.”

Unfortunately, too many think that WE (us individuals) are the center of the universe.

Oh, so, so wrong!

Christopher Bache writes, “Without knowledge of the NIGHT SKY, we have a deeply incomplete understanding of the larger cosmos within which we live.” Did you know that there’s a thing called the BIG DIPPER and an assortment of interesting configurations above us in the night sky?

If you live in the city, you might have read about it, but seldom seen such.

But, what’s so interesting is not just how magnificent God becomes (out there), but how greast the divine within you emerges.

Interesting Times!

Published on January 24, 2012 in Daily Commentary. 0 Comments

The year 2012 has grown in myth for a decade now, if not before by a minority of people. Of course all of the discussion has centered around the Mayan calendar date of December 21, 2012. Will the world end, will there be a new awakening, or will nothing happen at all?

You can get some heated discussions for any of the above scenarios.

But where the rubber meets the road and where boots on the ground come into play, the question is more about what might happen BEFORE 12.21.2012.

>Will the EU’s decision today to place an embargo on Iranian oil cause Iran to shut of the Strait of Hormuz and run oil prices up to $150 a barrel?
>Will Israel take advantage of any Iranian action to attack their nuclear plants?
>Will the M9 coronal mass ejection (just short of an X flare) of yesterday, and due to arrive in two days, cause telecommunication disruptions?
>Will Greece implode and be the domino that spirals the world economies into a major depression?

Gregg Braden writes, “The human race is at a unique turning point. Will we choose to create the best or all possible worlds, or something devastating”?

Indeed we are faced with some life-transforming situations which have consequences that are one hundred and eighty degrees in direction. What is obvious is that we can longer afford the luxury of “kicking the can down the road”. Will we follow the spirit that’s within each of us or will we listen to our ego? Has our conscience been so seared that we can no longer identify spirit from ego?

Or, do you not see 2012 and these times wherein we live all that serious?

A Bigger-Greater Paradigm

Published on January 23, 2012 in Daily Commentary. 0 Comments

We’re told (not just us Christians- yes, I am still one) that we were created in the IMAGE of God.

I believe that too!

The problem though is that we have returned the favor and created god in OUR IMAGE! What? The concept is called anthropomorphism. It’s a big word that basically means that we ascribe HUMAN traits and attributes to God or the divine. Hey, it’s about the best we can do. Since we’re not infinite, as we say the Creator is, then we have to do what finite does which is speak in metaphoric terms.

It’s not easy to do, but we can go deeper- further.

We are etheric beings. Our physical body has been constructed within the cocoon of an etheric body that modern-day instrumentation can view. Historically, the gods of all religions have been formed geographically. If you’re born in India, changes are you serve a Hindu god. If you were born in Iran, you serve a Islamic god, and so forth.

Comprende?

But, there’s a much larger dimension to how we can SEE god. We’re too earth bound because we seen god from the third rock from the sun. We fail to see God from the universe. As we grow in consciousness, we begin to see beyond of solar system, beyond the galaxy, and into the never-never land of energy, torsion field, and light.

Why not? After all we are LIGHT!

Never Born?

Published on January 22, 2012 in Daily Commentary. 0 Comments

What do you mean never born?

How could we be “born again” if we’ve never been born in the first place?

Where did God come from? How’s that for an opening explanation? Okay, the first four sentences have been questions. Could we please get on with some declarative statements (ops, another question)?

The divine nature of the universe always has been, there’s never been a time that God wasn’t, and since we’re one with the Creator, we’ve never, NOT BEEN! Thus, we were never born. Better yet is the fact that there’s a part of me that’s NEVER SINNED! For those that know me, I am sure you have a different assessment.

However, I’m talking about that divine spark within me, not the Ernie that you know, or think you know.

We spiritual beings (all of us) are literally beyond space and time. The problem though is that we’ve been taught to THINK SMALL. We’ve been taught to see the world and life from our vantage point and not from above: or deeply from within. Until we enter that true liminal space (Buddhists call it BARDO) wherein our consciousness is not connected to our physical body, we’ll have difficulties see such.

We need to suspend our normal mode of operations frequently.

In other words, we need to meditate and contemplate the nothing, the void. Say what? We need to get outside of our physical self and spend more time with who, and what, we are. It’s not easy, but it sure is exciting. Are you interested in taking that journey?

Fractal Beings?

Published on January 21, 2012 in Daily Commentary. 0 Comments

What in the world is that?

That’s you and me! We’re fractal beings. In the most simple definition, we’re a “chip off the old block”. We’re that acorn that didn’t fall far from the tree. Hebrews chapter one says that we’re the “express image” of the Creator. We vibrate and resonate with the divine nature of the universe.

Is that too big for you to comprehend?

The universe is pretty BIG, I give you that; however, so are we. I find it interesting that modern day physicists are now catching up with some of the ancient spiritual masters who described the universe as one, a hologram, non-local, and light. Of course they didn’t use those exact terms, but they did express those characteristics and attributes.

And the universe is waiting on us to get our act together!

Romans, 8 speaks of the universe groaning in anticipation of us taking up the responsibility of being a part of the divine universe and brining all of the parts into the collective whole. It sounds a bit pretentious to think we can do that, but what else are you doing that more worthwhile right now?

Ready?

Don’t Stop Now!

Published on January 20, 2012 in Daily Commentary. 0 Comments

I have this message that I repeat to myself when I arrive at a certain state in life.

The message is so simple and yet so hard to do. Whenever things are going GREAT, whenever I have attained a goal, or when accolades come my way for some excellence, I have to remind myself of the movie Patton! There were so many good lines in that movie and George C. Scott will always be more Patton-like than Patton himself.

Don’t stop now!

Patton relates the story, as he walks past the windmills, of the returning warriors enjoying the adulation of the crowd. As the conquerors bring their defeated enemies into the crowded streets, one of the slaves whispers to the emperor, “Victory is fleeting”.

Today we use the phrase “fifteen minutes of glory“.

My greatest temptation is to stop short of the ultimate goal which means we can never stop, for the goal is never within reach. Denominations are classic examples of stopping short of the goal. Doctrines about truth are not true. Metaphors about God are not God. However deep one has gone in the rabbit hole, it’s not deep enough.

Never assume you have ARRIVED, for you haven’t: you’ve just advanced a bit further down the road. Worse yet are those that aren’t even aware that they’re on a journey. Do you know people like that?