In this podcast, I talk about two sides of spirituality, truth and love. The truth side is knowledge beyond mind and one way of expressing this truth is that I accept everything as it is, as I perceive it, both the good and bad, light and dark. The love side is that enlightenment is possible, my essence is pure love, and I live my life in pursuit of an ideal. A miracle occurs when we allow these seemingly paradoxical sides to co-exist in our being. I will further explore these two sides of spirituality as well as talk about how living this paradox shapes us on the spiritual path
Showing posts with label spirituality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spirituality. Show all posts
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
The Mystery of Religion, Part 1
"Love is perfect because it exists above duality."
This is definitely going to be a multi-part post, because this topic is fairly large and touches on many of the things that I have posted about previously. In a way, I feel that my approach to the "mystery" that ties together various religions does also tie together many ideas I have put forth in my writings (although based off of and inspired by many spiritual teachers). That is my draw to writing about spirituality in the first place; it is writing about the ideal. We can never fully express an ideal, because it is ineffable. But we can approach it from various angles. Each approach offers a glimpse of the ideal for a brief moment. And it is the assimilation of these glimpses that begins to paint a vignette of the ideal that helps solidify our faith.
I cannot help but notice that religions all can be expressed in terms of us being reunited with God or the Ideal. The ideal is a state of perfection, that I simplify as a state of love. However, the idea of God is esoteric at best and it is difficult for us to conceptualize this Deity. We may lack the motivation for performing certain acts now for a future payoff. All of these things: God, heaven and other spiritual concepts have a vaporous quality to them because it is difficult to imagine them (or how they apply) in the here and now.
With a slight tweak to religion, however, we can experience a paradigm shift where spiritual teachings take on a whole new meaning. Since we are waves on the ocean of God, we are also a part of God. I invite you to look at a return to God as a return to your whole Self. Looked at in this context, things start to make more sense for me. And this is not to devalue religion at all but simply to offer another view of it.
If pursuing God is also pursuing a whole, complete me, then what do I have to lose? I am actually investing in myself through pursuing God as I am really pursuing my Self. This also brings up a paradox, which I do believe is the unseen's main device for spiritual truth. All of nature is an outward manifestation of our inward reality. When spiritual teachers say "the kingdom of heaven is inside you", they really do mean that the entire cosmos is also in your Spirit. Our human bodies are containers for a limitless space that exists within. The physical world is a model of what lies within us. So, yes, countless galaxies, solar systems, stars, planets and suns exist within us. In fact, our soul spans infinite depths.
That is also why I believe that the entire spiritual world also exists within our Spirit. God and the angels reside within us as well as demons. However, this is to realize that angels and demons are not the same. There is no opposite for God and no opposite for love and, therefor, no opposite for angels either. Any dark force is actually tied to the temporal existence of this world and exists on a different, lower plane than ultimate truth and love, which is the highest plane. This is also why, if you stay in the present moment and embody love, that we do not have to fear anything. I have gone into this previously a bit but will touch on my belief that the shadow that exists in individual and collective unconscious is the psychological component of dark forces.
This next idea opens up pandora's box because it is paradoxical in its very nature, but, if we choose to look at things from one plane alone, that is the physical plane, religious ideas can be theorized about in the following manner. This is also a nice exercise to do when you are reading any religious writing. Read it from the perspective that God is your Higher Self. In other words, God is a restored, whole You that lies within the perfection of love. You see, love does not reside in the intellect where we can say this is wrong or this is right but is seated in the emotions and extends into the spiritual realm. That is the perfection that we are talking about. Love is perfect because it exists above duality. Read anything that talks about dark forces or spirits from the perspective that these lie in your shadow.
If we continue with this idea, angels, then, also reside within you as different parts of your personality, different loving qualities that offer guidance to you. This theory begins to break down a bit when we get to shared spiritual experiences, where spirits are manifest for many people. I believe this is because the spirits come through our senses, in other words, manipulate our senses so that we can perceive them even in a group setting. So, belief is absolutely necessary when talking about the spirit world. If you do not believe, you block even your perception of such things. The paradox of this is I do think there is some cross-over where physical reality is changed through a spiritual dimension but that does not change the core of this idea much.
There are many more implications of looking at spiritual matters through this lens, which is the physical manifestation of these realities through humans. To summarize, there is much value in considering restoring our full humanity as achieving unity with God. This makes spiritual matters practical. This is not the only plane on which we can consider truth, but a valuable one and one that is often suppressed because it is considered "heretical" by some religions.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Victors In Life
"We are victors in life when we receive bad news with as much joy as good news and see the blessing in trials. You have risen above this world and cannot be moved."
This is part of the paradox of spirituality. To many, they look at a statement that we can be happy during sad times and do not understand it. This is foolishness to many. This is because there are many hidden truths that undergird this statement.
Since we are spirit, in essence, we do need to fear anything. We will live eternally without any effort on our part and we cannot lose our lives. If we consider our earthly existence to be our life, then we have something to fear. However, our earthly existence is but a shell for our spirit.
A recurrent theme that I am experiencing now is learning to think outside of duality. Some say this is how supreme consciousness thinks, and that this is the ideal we should all aspire to.
The essence of suffering is attachment to outcome. Attachment to outcome is being tied to our earthly existence, that is duality. In its basic form, duality consists of labeling things. We label this good and that bad. However, labeling prevents us from experiencing the "subject of our labeling" fully. We do not see it as a unique experience but want to categorize it with prior experiences, even before we get a chance to experience it!
We are victors in life when we receive bad news with as much joy as good news and see the blessing in trials. You have risen above this world and cannot be moved. To not be attached to outcome means that we truly our joyous in all things, which is our basic nature anyways. If we are filled with joy in trying times, how easy is it to be filled with joy in the normal, everyday life?
To have attained such an ideal, is truly living in heaven while you are still on earth. An undercurrent to this topic, which I will touch on briefly, is the reason why we have trials. A trial is only "trying" if it touches a part of us that is identified with pain. The blessing in a trial is the opportunity to heal this pain through forcing us to confront why we are feeling it in the first place.
Once we receive healing for this pain, we then break the cycle of karma that led us to put ourselves in a situation that would stir the pain up. That is the joy we must have when in a difficult situation. Feel the associated pain but realize that it is really joy that has been disguised and that you are making progress on your spiritual path.
This is part of the paradox of spirituality. To many, they look at a statement that we can be happy during sad times and do not understand it. This is foolishness to many. This is because there are many hidden truths that undergird this statement.
Since we are spirit, in essence, we do need to fear anything. We will live eternally without any effort on our part and we cannot lose our lives. If we consider our earthly existence to be our life, then we have something to fear. However, our earthly existence is but a shell for our spirit.
A recurrent theme that I am experiencing now is learning to think outside of duality. Some say this is how supreme consciousness thinks, and that this is the ideal we should all aspire to.
The essence of suffering is attachment to outcome. Attachment to outcome is being tied to our earthly existence, that is duality. In its basic form, duality consists of labeling things. We label this good and that bad. However, labeling prevents us from experiencing the "subject of our labeling" fully. We do not see it as a unique experience but want to categorize it with prior experiences, even before we get a chance to experience it!
We are victors in life when we receive bad news with as much joy as good news and see the blessing in trials. You have risen above this world and cannot be moved. To not be attached to outcome means that we truly our joyous in all things, which is our basic nature anyways. If we are filled with joy in trying times, how easy is it to be filled with joy in the normal, everyday life?
To have attained such an ideal, is truly living in heaven while you are still on earth. An undercurrent to this topic, which I will touch on briefly, is the reason why we have trials. A trial is only "trying" if it touches a part of us that is identified with pain. The blessing in a trial is the opportunity to heal this pain through forcing us to confront why we are feeling it in the first place.
Once we receive healing for this pain, we then break the cycle of karma that led us to put ourselves in a situation that would stir the pain up. That is the joy we must have when in a difficult situation. Feel the associated pain but realize that it is really joy that has been disguised and that you are making progress on your spiritual path.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
The Miracle of Religion
"The miracle of religion is how the voice of the One can still come through vessels that constantly mix in ego and personality into the transmission."
Religions are systems that have been applied to spirituality. Usually, a teacher comes along that is in direct contact with God or merges with Divinity. Such teachers rarely write down their own teachings as they are just so content with life. In that space, they are just content with the state of being. Later on, people come along and interpret, recollect and paraphrase the lives of these prophets. They create elaborate systems that were never the intent of the original teacher. These systems are primarily intellectual in nature. They are a way for the mind to relate to the teachings and then how to make that make sense in the light of contemporary thought and culture.
From there, generations of followers of these religions create different flavors of it; they break off from the original religious branch and create their own. Some religions may be combined with others to create hybrid religions. In the end, it is all the same. Religion is an intellectual system of thought that systematizes a vast body of knowledge that came about as a result of an enlightened teacher.
Some of us mistake religion as God. We misinterpret the enlightened teacher and think that our religion is the only way to God. We think that if we focus on the words of our religious writings, that that is the voice of God. We do not allow God to talk to us in any other way than the channels which our religion approves. In this way, religions can be idols that take us away from God.
A religion may be useful for the vast majority of us to bring us to the One force in this world, the First Cause at it were. Religions make things very palatable for our minds. They predigest the concepts of God and spirituality for us. A system has been created that we just have to follow to achieve union with God, or whatever the goal the religion espouses. Religion is like spirituality with training wheels. After some of us learn to ride the bike of spirituality, we are then ready to get rid of the training wheels.
We see that the world is our religion. Life is our spiritual practice. At that point, we look up and see that the world is full of religions, just like ours, that are also paths to the Divine. Ours was but one path. We may leave the religious path and enter a wider spiritual path.
At some point, we may choose to re-visit our religion of origin and are amazed at what we see with our new spiritual eyes. The miracle of religion is how the voice of the One can still come through vessels that constantly mix in ego and personality into the transmission. How is it that we were able to see past the stumbling blocks of ego and narrow viewpoints that flavored our religious writings and teachings?
That is the true miracle. That we could see through to the truth about our Beloved, despite all of the additives that were put into the mixture. This is testimony to the Light that is inside each of us, that we can learn to discern true teachings by the light of this flame. In a way, the light of God is able to illuminate the truth of God; light attracts light. May we forever appreciate that the Supreme cut through the entanglements of dogma to show us her true nature and guides us on our spiritual path.
Religions are systems that have been applied to spirituality. Usually, a teacher comes along that is in direct contact with God or merges with Divinity. Such teachers rarely write down their own teachings as they are just so content with life. In that space, they are just content with the state of being. Later on, people come along and interpret, recollect and paraphrase the lives of these prophets. They create elaborate systems that were never the intent of the original teacher. These systems are primarily intellectual in nature. They are a way for the mind to relate to the teachings and then how to make that make sense in the light of contemporary thought and culture.
From there, generations of followers of these religions create different flavors of it; they break off from the original religious branch and create their own. Some religions may be combined with others to create hybrid religions. In the end, it is all the same. Religion is an intellectual system of thought that systematizes a vast body of knowledge that came about as a result of an enlightened teacher.
Some of us mistake religion as God. We misinterpret the enlightened teacher and think that our religion is the only way to God. We think that if we focus on the words of our religious writings, that that is the voice of God. We do not allow God to talk to us in any other way than the channels which our religion approves. In this way, religions can be idols that take us away from God.
A religion may be useful for the vast majority of us to bring us to the One force in this world, the First Cause at it were. Religions make things very palatable for our minds. They predigest the concepts of God and spirituality for us. A system has been created that we just have to follow to achieve union with God, or whatever the goal the religion espouses. Religion is like spirituality with training wheels. After some of us learn to ride the bike of spirituality, we are then ready to get rid of the training wheels.
We see that the world is our religion. Life is our spiritual practice. At that point, we look up and see that the world is full of religions, just like ours, that are also paths to the Divine. Ours was but one path. We may leave the religious path and enter a wider spiritual path.
At some point, we may choose to re-visit our religion of origin and are amazed at what we see with our new spiritual eyes. The miracle of religion is how the voice of the One can still come through vessels that constantly mix in ego and personality into the transmission. How is it that we were able to see past the stumbling blocks of ego and narrow viewpoints that flavored our religious writings and teachings?
That is the true miracle. That we could see through to the truth about our Beloved, despite all of the additives that were put into the mixture. This is testimony to the Light that is inside each of us, that we can learn to discern true teachings by the light of this flame. In a way, the light of God is able to illuminate the truth of God; light attracts light. May we forever appreciate that the Supreme cut through the entanglements of dogma to show us her true nature and guides us on our spiritual path.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Choose Peace
"Our thoughts and words produce reality, so, by speaking of a war, we indeed are creating a war by this intention."
On this spiritual journey, we discover the "clues" that help us discern teachings that are of a higher quality. When it comes down to it, pure teachings should resonate with you. There are certain attributes that we can look for, such as do we feel more peaceful after hearing it? Does the teaching promote love and acceptance of others? Is the teaching inclusive rather than divisive?
Within organized religion there are a myriad of teachings that have been accepted as fact. Like a house of cards, these teachings are stacked upon each other. Usually, the card you are seeing is near the top, whereas the core truth that it was built off of is hidden far beneath. In other words, there are certain truths that underly all teachings of organized religion and we need to look to these truths that undergird the others.
One teaching that I hear a lot, mostly by organized religion but also by some spiritual teachers, is that we are engaged in a war in this life. The teaching goes that there is a war for our souls, good vs. evil, heaven vs. hell. We need to act now to prevent these eternal consequences. If we look at this, we see black and white thinking, divisiveness, a sense of urgency, and a need for immediate action. These fruits look more like fruits of the ego, rather than fruits of the spirit.
Spiritual truths are holistic, inclusive of all people, patient and require no action on your part. Spirituality is a process of letting go, of giving up our pursuits, so that the Universe may fill the void. Our thoughts and words produce reality, so, by speaking of a war, we indeed are creating a war by this intention. By even declaring war on our ego, we are alienating a part of us rather than lovingly bringing our ego back into the fold of our consciousness.
If we live life in peace, then we will have peace. There can be no war if you have forfeited the battle in your mind. It has not even progressed from that space into reality. The next time you hear divisive talk that segregates people into warring factions, know that the spiritual life is above this talk.
This does bring up the topic of Satan or demonic influences. I cannot speak as to the existence of negative spirits but know that the Universe is a good, safe place. If such spirits do roam, they are the exception rather than the rule. The One who gave you form is inside you and is capable of dealing with such issues. A more pertinent issue is the way in which we mistreat others through the blindness of our collective egos, rather than the debate about a kingpin of evil. We do not need to launch a war yet need to bask in the peace of a God that is beyond our understanding. This God calls for peace, love and compassion for others so that these flames of war may be extinguished.
On this spiritual journey, we discover the "clues" that help us discern teachings that are of a higher quality. When it comes down to it, pure teachings should resonate with you. There are certain attributes that we can look for, such as do we feel more peaceful after hearing it? Does the teaching promote love and acceptance of others? Is the teaching inclusive rather than divisive?
Within organized religion there are a myriad of teachings that have been accepted as fact. Like a house of cards, these teachings are stacked upon each other. Usually, the card you are seeing is near the top, whereas the core truth that it was built off of is hidden far beneath. In other words, there are certain truths that underly all teachings of organized religion and we need to look to these truths that undergird the others.
One teaching that I hear a lot, mostly by organized religion but also by some spiritual teachers, is that we are engaged in a war in this life. The teaching goes that there is a war for our souls, good vs. evil, heaven vs. hell. We need to act now to prevent these eternal consequences. If we look at this, we see black and white thinking, divisiveness, a sense of urgency, and a need for immediate action. These fruits look more like fruits of the ego, rather than fruits of the spirit.
Spiritual truths are holistic, inclusive of all people, patient and require no action on your part. Spirituality is a process of letting go, of giving up our pursuits, so that the Universe may fill the void. Our thoughts and words produce reality, so, by speaking of a war, we indeed are creating a war by this intention. By even declaring war on our ego, we are alienating a part of us rather than lovingly bringing our ego back into the fold of our consciousness.
If we live life in peace, then we will have peace. There can be no war if you have forfeited the battle in your mind. It has not even progressed from that space into reality. The next time you hear divisive talk that segregates people into warring factions, know that the spiritual life is above this talk.
This does bring up the topic of Satan or demonic influences. I cannot speak as to the existence of negative spirits but know that the Universe is a good, safe place. If such spirits do roam, they are the exception rather than the rule. The One who gave you form is inside you and is capable of dealing with such issues. A more pertinent issue is the way in which we mistreat others through the blindness of our collective egos, rather than the debate about a kingpin of evil. We do not need to launch a war yet need to bask in the peace of a God that is beyond our understanding. This God calls for peace, love and compassion for others so that these flames of war may be extinguished.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Spirituality and Religion
"The difference between religion and spirituality is religion is a heart led by the mind whereas spirituality is a mind led by the heart."
As we progress on this spiritual path, we see that this is a journey from the mind to the heart. We can say that we try to operate out of the heart-mind rather than the ego-mind. Religion is a form that was set up to take you into the
If we get caught up in a method, even a spiritual practice, we miss the point and are trapped. The point is to go beyond the method and learn to operate directly from your Self. We learn there is not anything to do, that it is the ceasing of doing that brings us to God.
The paradox is that we need a method to give us a taste of the Divine. The best thing that can happen is for us to immerse ourselves in that method and then for that method to fail us. Then, we can abandon the method altogether if we wish and realize that the method itself is not needed. Religion is a tool to bring us to God. Yet it is not religion itself that brings us to God; it is God Herself.
That Spark of divinity within you instantly recognizes the Truth. This realization comes from the heart, not the mind. Of course, we can then participate in religion, if we wish, realizing it is but a tool we can use if we desire. This is also not to say that spiritual people do not think. Rather, our mind is a tool like religion that we may use if we desire. We operate out of a place of feeling and expansiveness, of pure Love.
Religion attempts to give form to the Formless. This is a necessary endeavor to attempt. However, we must realize this. We must not allow our minds to cling to the forms of religion and arise above it to connect directly to the One that is above all religions.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
The Heart of Spirituality
"Loving yourself and loving others is only possible by living in the present moment."
Spirituality is very interesting, because the words that we use when talking about it seem very religious. The funny thing is that this is the opposite of the truth. It can sound very "churchy" and new age-y and all of that. However, these are the most down-to-earth and practical teachings in the world. This is because they are truth and true wisdom. It is so difficult to communicate intangible truths to others at the risk of seeming "out there" and the simple fact that teachings are trying to make these truths concrete. This is, of course, impossible. No one can fully express spiritual truths in words that we can fully understand; the words are meant to be guideposts so that you can come to the realization yourself. Any "out there" teaching can be communicated in "material" terms just as well as it can be communicated in "spiritual" terms. In other words, the truth can take on any form so that anyone can see the guideposts.
A belief in "God" is not even necessary as spirituality can be communicated in language of this world, using only tangible things and concepts that you are already familiar with. Buddhists, for the most part, do not believe in a god as many define that term. We get so tripped up on these terms, because they have been over-defined, defined poorly or even incorrectly defined in some cases. I think we all need to learn how to not get hung up on words. We need to look to the meaning behind the words. Even Atheists believe in a god. Their god may be the rational mind, nature or science. It's very silly, really, that there is this war of words when it comes to spiritual things.
I firmly believe that someone who does not even believe in a spiritual world can master concepts that arise from the spiritual world on the physical plane. There are countless examples of this. Just look to any popular, successful person that does not believe in anything beyond the 5 senses. Famous actors, philanthropists, and artists are but few examples. The reason for this is that any plane of existence, such as spiritual or physical can be explained in its own terms without overlap. They are mutually exclusive.
The heart of what I see as the most beneficial message that I can communicate is the root of all problems in this world. I have written about it in the past but need to address this directly. The Western world's main problem is addiction to the mind. You see 12 step groups for every addiction but, it is my belief, that any religion has been created to address this problem. We are so stuck in our head most or all of the time, that we are not living our lives. We are living our lives in our head, which is no way to live.
Addiction to the mind means that we are slaves to our mind. We do not have direct control of the mind. We do not know how to turn it off. All spiritual teachings come from this one problem. If you solve this one problem in your life, you have solved the problem that that has given rise to all religions. If addiction to the mind is the problem, what is the solution? The solution is self-control. We must learn how to control the mind so that our mind is slave to us. At the same time, we must love our mind. Once we are able to be more present, love is then possible. Learn how to love yourself and love others. True love is only possible if you can quiet your mind enough to let the love through. Loving yourself and loving others is only possible by living in the present moment. If we are stuck in the past or future, dwelling on these endlessly in our mind, we are incapable of living a life of love for ourselves and other people. A life of love is only possible through learning self-control.
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