Monday, 26 September 2011
The Upanishads (8th?-5th? century BC) Part I- "Perfect"
"That is perfect. This is perfect. Perfect comes from perfect. Take perfect from perfect, and the remainder is perfect. May peace, and peace, and peace be everywhere."
Real Simple: You have perfection inside you. You were created in the image of your creator, and you have unlimited access to His Spirit of perfection.
"Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect."-Matthew
"We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone as perfect in Christ, to this end I labor, struggling with all His engergy, which so powerfully works within me."- Paul
Intro To The Upanishads- "Full Tank"
"The first four sentences of this first selection are an epitome of all spiritual teaching, a sword to cut through the Gordian knot of theodicy, and a great delight. As for the Self: call it self, God, Buddha; say that it is everywhere, say that it is nowhere; describe it as darkness or describe it as light, it doesn't matter. What matters is to taste and see."
I want to preface those four lines that the editor, Stephen Mitchell, is speaking of, with a few words on the paragraph above. How many of us know what it is like to truly taste and see? I'm reminded of one of my favorite cinematic quotes from a film called Layer Cake; "Life is so (cussing) good I could taste it in my spit."
Have you ever felt that way? That life is going so good that even the nasty crap in it still tastes good because it's life. If life is never really like that for you, I'd recommend having a look under the hood, because we were wired for just such sweetness.
"Taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him."
"The theif comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."
Ask yourself, "Do I have life, and have it to the full?"
I want to preface those four lines that the editor, Stephen Mitchell, is speaking of, with a few words on the paragraph above. How many of us know what it is like to truly taste and see? I'm reminded of one of my favorite cinematic quotes from a film called Layer Cake; "Life is so (cussing) good I could taste it in my spit."
Have you ever felt that way? That life is going so good that even the nasty crap in it still tastes good because it's life. If life is never really like that for you, I'd recommend having a look under the hood, because we were wired for just such sweetness.
"Taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him."
"The theif comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."
Ask yourself, "Do I have life, and have it to the full?"
Prologue Part IV- "Playtime"
"The distinction between heart an mind is just as artificial; Chinese for example has only one word for our two. So I hereby retract "mind" in The Enlightened Mind and "prose" in An Anthology of Sacred Prose. And come to think of it; I'd also like to retract Enlighsacred; tened. (The Buddha said, "Please don't think that when I attain enlightenment, it was anything that I attained.") As for sacred; "Throw away sacredness and wisdom," Lao Tzu said, "And people will be a hundred times happier."
What are we left with? Let's just say that this book is a testimony of those who have seen God's face in the mirror, a collection of good words from the kingdom of here and now: much ado about nothing."
"The Kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation; nor will people say, "Here it is" or "There it is", because the Kingdom of God is within you." -Yeshuah
I'm going to repeat that, just to ensure it permeates your consciousness. "The Kingdom of God is within you." Do you realize what that means? Does any of us truly grasp the levity of that statement? We are always taught that heaven is this magical place with gold lined streets and mansions everywhere. Why? Why do we imagine a heaven that is based on material, worldly wealth?
Oh if only we could see. Have we learned nothing? His essence embodies us. Heaven is within us. His goal, is that it would bubble out of us and cover this dying earth, thus creating, "heaven on earth". The ball is in our court. Let's play.
What are we left with? Let's just say that this book is a testimony of those who have seen God's face in the mirror, a collection of good words from the kingdom of here and now: much ado about nothing."
"The Kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation; nor will people say, "Here it is" or "There it is", because the Kingdom of God is within you." -Yeshuah
I'm going to repeat that, just to ensure it permeates your consciousness. "The Kingdom of God is within you." Do you realize what that means? Does any of us truly grasp the levity of that statement? We are always taught that heaven is this magical place with gold lined streets and mansions everywhere. Why? Why do we imagine a heaven that is based on material, worldly wealth?
Oh if only we could see. Have we learned nothing? His essence embodies us. Heaven is within us. His goal, is that it would bubble out of us and cover this dying earth, thus creating, "heaven on earth". The ball is in our court. Let's play.
Prologue Part III- "Immortal Skin"
"But it is only a stage, an arrow that points inward, to the experience of God. It is not the experience itself; just as seeking is not finding, although we must seek in order to find. And if we seek the Kingdom of Heaven anywhere else, ("It is here!; It is there!"), how can we truly realize that it is truly Here? "Reality and perfection, spinoza said, are synonomous."
2 Corinthians 5:1-5
For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, 3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
My earthly tent was destroyed along with my health and the posterior cruciate ligament in my knee, which has driven me to erect a new tent, on a firm foundation, in communion with all that is around me. This foundation, this tent; they are being built by the hands that molded the universe. They're being built of stone, bone and brick like a castle keep; rather than the hand, sand and straw that built the previous dwelling of mine.
"We do not wish to be unclothed, but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling."
We feel this way because it was the first time that we were caught in deception; when we told God, "I was afraid because I was naked."
"Who told you you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"
Busted big-time bro. Funny to think in terms that all everyone is trying to do is find that place in the garden where we first decided we had to hide ourselves from others with our own version of fig leaf fashion. We are fancily clothed, driving in our fancy cars to our fancier homes where we fancifully dream of finding the fountain of youth. What we need to do is find the fraud that sold us our clothes, and the dressing room we used to put them on. There, and only there, will we find our true, immortal skin.
2 Corinthians 5:1-5
For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, 3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
My earthly tent was destroyed along with my health and the posterior cruciate ligament in my knee, which has driven me to erect a new tent, on a firm foundation, in communion with all that is around me. This foundation, this tent; they are being built by the hands that molded the universe. They're being built of stone, bone and brick like a castle keep; rather than the hand, sand and straw that built the previous dwelling of mine.
"We do not wish to be unclothed, but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling."
We feel this way because it was the first time that we were caught in deception; when we told God, "I was afraid because I was naked."
"Who told you you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"
Busted big-time bro. Funny to think in terms that all everyone is trying to do is find that place in the garden where we first decided we had to hide ourselves from others with our own version of fig leaf fashion. We are fancily clothed, driving in our fancy cars to our fancier homes where we fancifully dream of finding the fountain of youth. What we need to do is find the fraud that sold us our clothes, and the dressing room we used to put them on. There, and only there, will we find our true, immortal skin.
Prologue: Part II
"This anthology, and its companion volume; The Enlightened Heart, collect the poetry and prose, not of longing, but of fulfillment. The men and women that speak to us from these pages have each, to a greater or lesser extent, entered the Kingdom of Heaven. In order to tell us about what is unknown and unknowable, they have to speak in terms of the known. That is why metaphorical language is so indispensable and why the distinction between poetry and prose finally breaks down."
Not longing, but fulfillment. I searched for fulfillment when I realized that I hadn't found it in the "Christianity" that I was raised in. I had grown up in "Christian" churches and schools my whole life in a family full of Christians, yet nobody ever asked me, "Does this life fulfill you?" And I never asked where to find it. So I set out on a solo search for the answers I sought.
I trudged through the tempestuous wind and torrential downpour of the twirling twister of drugs, sex and slavery to sin. I swam through the storm, barely staying afloat for 8 long years, and I swallowed to much of that sea I was drowning in, yet didn't find fulfillment in any of it.
Then I was led to New Zealand and from the first week I spent here, in a little town called Kaiwaka, I knew I was finding the fulfillment I had been searching for. I found it when I first dug my fingers into the life giving soil that we were created from. I found it at the beginning.
Matthew 13:11-18
He replied, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables:
“Though seeing, they do not see;
though hearing, they do not hear or understand.
In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
For this people’s heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.
But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.
Not longing, but fulfillment. I searched for fulfillment when I realized that I hadn't found it in the "Christianity" that I was raised in. I had grown up in "Christian" churches and schools my whole life in a family full of Christians, yet nobody ever asked me, "Does this life fulfill you?" And I never asked where to find it. So I set out on a solo search for the answers I sought.
I trudged through the tempestuous wind and torrential downpour of the twirling twister of drugs, sex and slavery to sin. I swam through the storm, barely staying afloat for 8 long years, and I swallowed to much of that sea I was drowning in, yet didn't find fulfillment in any of it.
Then I was led to New Zealand and from the first week I spent here, in a little town called Kaiwaka, I knew I was finding the fulfillment I had been searching for. I found it when I first dug my fingers into the life giving soil that we were created from. I found it at the beginning.
Matthew 13:11-18
He replied, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables:
“Though seeing, they do not see;
though hearing, they do not hear or understand.
In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
For this people’s heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.
But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.
Sunday, 14 August 2011
Examining Snowflakes
The Enlightened Mind: Prologue
The modern indian sage Ramana Maharshi once defined a genuine seeker as someone who has,
"A constant and passionate longing to break free from life's sorrows,- not by running away from it, but by growing beyond his mind and by experiencing in himself the reality of the Self which knows neither birth nor death." (Read that again, slower, without judging based on linguistics and verbage. Read it with open eyes.)
It was a huge part of my lifefor as long asw I can remember. Longing. For Love, Fulfillment, Pain, Pleasure, etc., but in the end, when it all came crumbling down; my monument of stone built on the shifting sands of uncertainty, it was all just a vain quest to validate myself. Little did I know there was one person and one person only that had the power to do so...... and it was me, but only because the Spirit lives inside me. All that was required of me was to allow Him to live in and through me. To let that true Self shine through, because the true Me, was Created in the image of God, Bathed in the Blood of Christ and Embodied with the Power of His Spirit.
The quest for validation is the vehicle that drives most of us down the paths of life, isn't it? Nothing but an all-out witch hunt for the answer to the question that puzzles and stumps most earthlings, "Why am I here and what is my purpose?" That's all we want to know. The answer is curiously simple and basically profound: I am here, now, to bring pleasure to the one who created me. Therein lies your answer, followed by an unrelenting army of more questions. Answers to which, won't be quite so synonomous. Write them down. Then Answer them. All of them. It's the only way to dig beneath the crap that's been pumped into our brains for so long and explore the childlike qualities of our brain that are able to see every experience through clear eyes, feel every emotion as if for the first time. And it's not some spooky spiritual magic that alllows us to do this; it is the magnificent power of the brain that was put inside our skulls that give us the mental capacity to break down every experience to a point that all we are doing in realizing a fact. Every experience is a brand new experience. Like a fingerprint or a snowflake, (which I caught on my tongue today in Wellington), no two are the same. So wake up, rub the sleep out of your eyes and start examining some snowflakes.
The modern indian sage Ramana Maharshi once defined a genuine seeker as someone who has,
"A constant and passionate longing to break free from life's sorrows,- not by running away from it, but by growing beyond his mind and by experiencing in himself the reality of the Self which knows neither birth nor death." (Read that again, slower, without judging based on linguistics and verbage. Read it with open eyes.)
It was a huge part of my lifefor as long asw I can remember. Longing. For Love, Fulfillment, Pain, Pleasure, etc., but in the end, when it all came crumbling down; my monument of stone built on the shifting sands of uncertainty, it was all just a vain quest to validate myself. Little did I know there was one person and one person only that had the power to do so...... and it was me, but only because the Spirit lives inside me. All that was required of me was to allow Him to live in and through me. To let that true Self shine through, because the true Me, was Created in the image of God, Bathed in the Blood of Christ and Embodied with the Power of His Spirit.
The quest for validation is the vehicle that drives most of us down the paths of life, isn't it? Nothing but an all-out witch hunt for the answer to the question that puzzles and stumps most earthlings, "Why am I here and what is my purpose?" That's all we want to know. The answer is curiously simple and basically profound: I am here, now, to bring pleasure to the one who created me. Therein lies your answer, followed by an unrelenting army of more questions. Answers to which, won't be quite so synonomous. Write them down. Then Answer them. All of them. It's the only way to dig beneath the crap that's been pumped into our brains for so long and explore the childlike qualities of our brain that are able to see every experience through clear eyes, feel every emotion as if for the first time. And it's not some spooky spiritual magic that alllows us to do this; it is the magnificent power of the brain that was put inside our skulls that give us the mental capacity to break down every experience to a point that all we are doing in realizing a fact. Every experience is a brand new experience. Like a fingerprint or a snowflake, (which I caught on my tongue today in Wellington), no two are the same. So wake up, rub the sleep out of your eyes and start examining some snowflakes.
Intro to The Ninevah Project
This project was born from my thought and musings after beginning to re-read a book I’ve carried with me since day one of this Kiwi adventure; The Enlightened Mind: An Anthology of Sacred Prose. I’ve decided to hand-scrbie my way through this book, and with each paragraph I read, and re-write in my notebook, I write how the piece moved me; the thoughts and ideas it inspired, as well as the Holy Scriptures that it brought to my mind.
The purpose of these papers is to seek solid common grounds on which we can agree and unite to build a firm-foundationed future, rather than a quest for unstable battlefields on which to disagree and wage war, where we have been dividing and spilling blood and spreading death for countless centuries.
Please share how, if at all, these words affected you, the thoughts they inspired, and hopefully, eventually, the change they inspired; as well as your Holy Scriptures that they bring to mind, whether they be from The Koran, or the Tao. Mine just so happen to come from the Holy Bible, as that’s what I was raised on and grew up learning, (or so I thought).I welcome and encourage any and all responses, from people of ALL backgrounds and beliefs to anything scrawled on these pages.
Let’s stop doing what we’ve always done and start doing what’s never been done before. How many cities and civilizations over the course of history, ancient and modern, been given the very same opportunity that is staring us in the face right now? I can think of a few; Sodom and Gomorrah, Ninevah, Atlantis, and those who lived during the time of Noah. Only one of those mentioned actually saved themselves from destruction; Ninevah, but only once Jonah quit running from God and accepted his fate as the one to bring sense to an evil, destructive city. We’ve ignored the messengers for ages; Orwell, Huxley and Bradbury. Their writings weren’t simply works of fiction. They were warnings of the storm that’s brewing in the cauldron of the earth. He was the messenger of warning, and they heeded his warning and they were spared. The question is; will we heed the warnings, will we be spared?
The purpose of these papers is to seek solid common grounds on which we can agree and unite to build a firm-foundationed future, rather than a quest for unstable battlefields on which to disagree and wage war, where we have been dividing and spilling blood and spreading death for countless centuries.
Please share how, if at all, these words affected you, the thoughts they inspired, and hopefully, eventually, the change they inspired; as well as your Holy Scriptures that they bring to mind, whether they be from The Koran, or the Tao. Mine just so happen to come from the Holy Bible, as that’s what I was raised on and grew up learning, (or so I thought).I welcome and encourage any and all responses, from people of ALL backgrounds and beliefs to anything scrawled on these pages.
Let’s stop doing what we’ve always done and start doing what’s never been done before. How many cities and civilizations over the course of history, ancient and modern, been given the very same opportunity that is staring us in the face right now? I can think of a few; Sodom and Gomorrah, Ninevah, Atlantis, and those who lived during the time of Noah. Only one of those mentioned actually saved themselves from destruction; Ninevah, but only once Jonah quit running from God and accepted his fate as the one to bring sense to an evil, destructive city. We’ve ignored the messengers for ages; Orwell, Huxley and Bradbury. Their writings weren’t simply works of fiction. They were warnings of the storm that’s brewing in the cauldron of the earth. He was the messenger of warning, and they heeded his warning and they were spared. The question is; will we heed the warnings, will we be spared?
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