YouTube: The Coming Kingdom

For the early Christian under Roman suppression, one of the most appealing aspects of the book of Revelation was the promise of a new world full of joy and free of suffering.

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband…” (Rev. 20:1-2).

Derived from the book of Ezekiel, this vision of a new Jerusalem represents the long-held hope of the dawning of the kingdom of God. In the coming three decades, however, the Jewish revolt against the Roman empire would produce only a brief glimmer of hope, followed by complete devastation of the Jewish population.  

Among the sayings of Jesus, the kingdom of God is a central theme. If we pay close attention to what he meant by this phrase, we see in this oft-quoted passage that he was not talking about a brick-and-mortar phenomenon, but the dawning of a new state of consciousness.

“Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Lo, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is within you’” (Luke 17:20-21).

When it comes to understanding this notion of an inner kingdom, our Judeo/Christian heritage has produced a great stumbling block by indoctrinating us with the belief that we are separate from God, and that the future, saving intervention of God will indeed be accompanied with signs to be observed.

In contrast, Jesus spoke of the need for a new birth, a new way of thinking and being that is intuitively rather than intellectually experienced. During the crucifixion, this transition is symbolized by the rending of the curtain covering the temple’s Holy of Holies, the so-called dwelling place of God where only certain priests were permitted to enter.

“And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom …” (Matthew 27:51).

The universe is not striving to perfection. It is perfect now. Likewise, the kingdom of God is not a thing of the future. It is a present reality to all who have the intuitive eyes to see.

YouTube: A New Revelation

Allow me to share with you a little secret. The only reason I have ever been interested in the book of Revelation is to help people understand that it has nothing to do with the events of today. Though there are a few passages that, when taken out of context, invoke inspiration, most of it is confusing to those who lack understanding of the historical context in which it originally appeared.

Revelation is a New Testament example of the classical apocalyptic genre. The 13^th chapter of Mark, known as the little apocalypse, is another. The book of Daniel is an Old Testament equivalent. Apocalyptic writing usually appears when the authors producing it are part of a persecuted community. In the case of Daniel, the Jews were under Persian persecution. Revelation appeared during the Roman persecution of Christians.

Apocalyptic language depicts a great battle between the forces of good and evil. The apocalyptic community of the Essenes envisioned a battle between the sons of darkness and the sons of light. In their eyes, the sons of darkness included the Romans and Jewish leadership they believed had hijacked pure Judaism. The envisioned battle, which takes place on a cosmic scale, culminates under a variety of names such as the end of days, the end times, judgment day, or the day of the Lord. We must understand that these authors do not see the end times as the end of history but as the end of the present evil age, when the oppressor is overthrown and the oppressed emerge victorious.

Revelation was a promise to the Christians that Jesus would soon return and the overthrow of the great beast that was Rome would commence. The book appeared somewhere around AD 95-100. Christianity was not actually sanctioned by the Roman empire until the reign of Constantine the Great (AD 306-337). The intended message of Revelation to the early Christian community was simple: Hold fast, the days of persecution are numbered. Jesus is returning soon. “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense, to repay every one for what he has done” (Rev. 22:12). “Surely I am coming soon” (Rev. 22:20).

Because Jesus did not return as promised, Revelation fell into obscurity. When it emerged many years later, it did so disconnected from its historical context and theologians routinely began treating it as prophecy. To our present day, religious professionals have attempted to decipher the symbols in ways that inspire hope that the evil forces at work in our current affairs are about to be overthrown. A book so rich in symbolism has, through the centuries, proven to be fertile ground for the active imagination. Not a single one of their predictions have come to fruition.

One beautiful takeaway that is true of anyone under the oppression of that great beast of fear is found in these passages:

“Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:3-4).

YouTube: The Essence of Christmas

Christ is the essence of God individualized in each of us. However, we have accepted as the basis of our identity, ideas of lack and limitation. These have found expression in our minds, our bodies, and our circumstances. Our hope of glory lies in recovering the awareness of our spiritual core. We re-establish our identity in the Word (soul) so that Word may become flesh, full of grace and truth, and dwell among us.

Mary represents the spiritually receptive intuition. She is the higher Self that is open to the things of Spirit. She is our intuitive nature, that part of us that knows there is more to life than this human, physical existence.

Joseph represents the intellectual aspect of our spiritual awakening. We must reassess the function of our intellect. Before, it was the leader, the teacher, the presenter of new ideas. Now it becomes the observer, the student, the discerner of eternal truths. It beholds divine ideas that are untouched by the limitations of human thought, born out of the virgin regions of the soul.

The shepherds represent our ability to watch over our thoughts. They represent our innate ability to discern and judge from the spiritual perspective. In the same way the shepherd keeps watch over his flock by night, so we keep watch over the flock of our thoughts and feelings. In daily periods of quiet, we remember that we are spiritual beings, here to express the highest and best that is in us. We let go of all that is not constructive, so that we may focus this wonderful energy and power of our spirit on the good.

The wise men from the east represent the innate wisdom of the soul. Just as there is a wisdom that knows how to unfold a mighty oak tree from within a tiny, insignificant acorn, so there is a wisdom that knows how to unfold the full potential of the soul through the mind and heart of each one of us. Sometimes we are afraid to move out of current conditions of limitation because it doesn’t appear that we have the knowledge to successfully pull it off. When we commit ourselves to growth, to changes that will encourage the bringing forth new dimensions of the emerging soul, the wisdom we need is given, as we need it.

YouTube: Intelligence and Order

Advent Series, Part 4 of 4

In this four-part series, we are treating Advent as an intuitive awakening. Our focus is on the meditative process. Follow the same preparations from the first week. Bring your awareness into the region of the solar plexus using the simple statement, I Am.

Open your mind to the quickening presence of intelligence. Your entire being is already permeated with intelligence. The functions of your body are all governed by it. You see and experience intelligence as order in your breathing, the beating of your heart, and all the many activities within the universe of your body of which you are not even aware. You see intelligence in the flower, in your pet, in the birds, and the clouds that sail across the sky.

As you relax and let go, get the sense of this truth that you are completely immersed in intelligence and that your life is now unfolding in perfect order. Affirm:

The very essence of my being is intelligence. My mind is clear. My thinking is orderly. My vision is clear. I see things in their highest relation to the whole. My soul is vibrant with the wisdom of the universe. In all I do, I move forward in confidence and in peace.

Release all feelings of uncertainty about your life and know the intelligence of your soul is guiding your every step. Lift your spiritual eyes away from all appearances and see yourself as a conduit through which infinite intelligence is expressing as you.

Everyone and everything becomes part of your success in living. If your life seems to be pushing you to the left when you think you should go right, then know the intelligence expressing as your soul is now at work. Do not strain to work out plans or struggle to control events. Hold fast to the truth that the wisdom of your soul is directing your life, that the order and success you desire is unfolding with every new development.

YouTube: Power & Strength

In this four-part series, we are treating Advent as an intuitive awakening. Our focus is on the meditative process. Follow the same preparations from the first week and bring your awareness into the region of the solar plexus using the simple statement, I Am. See and feel your soul radiating power. Power manifests in a wide range of ways, from the unfathomable power of the sun to the simple unfolding of a leaf. Power divides our cells and fuels all aspects of our being.

Power rises in your being as physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual strength. You may call on strength to hold a steady course, to take one more step when your world seems to crumble around you, or to steady your faith in the well-being of a loved one. Strength may manifest as the courage to make an apology or it may express as the power to say no to behavior you know as destructive.

With your attention focused at your center, sense the power of your soul rising from your innermost depths and radiating throughout your being. Affirm:

I am an expression of pure power. The full radiance of my soul empowers me to steadfastness in all that I am and all that I do. My strength is boundless, my power has no limits.

If you are feeling powerless to do anything about some condition in your life, release the emotional energy of helplessness as you use this affirmation. Again, do not try to make anything happen or even look for changes in your life. Simply allow the flow of power to rise in your being and know it expresses as the strength you need, as you need it. Take a series of deep breaths. With each one, breathe in power and breathe out strength. Power is the essence of your being. You are never without it.

YouTube: Love & Understanding

In this four-part series, we are treating Advent as an intuitive awakening. Our focus is on the meditative process. Follow the same preparations from the first week and bring your awareness into the region of the solar plexus using the simple statement, I Am.  See and feel your soul radiating love. This beautiful energy of love works for the highest good of all concerned, sometimes attracting and sometimes repelling or dissolving, depending on how the highest good is to manifest. Whether love attracts or dissolves is not a decision you make, but one you trust love to sort out as it flows in and through every aspect of your being and your life. Love lifts your vision in a way that imparts the understanding to see and know what needs to be done. Affirm:

I am guided by the understanding that love imparts.

Love is my essence. Love is my being.

Love is the balancing action in all my relationships and all conditions in my life.

See your body immersed in love. See every aspect of your life, especially those areas that are troubled, completely engulfed in the love that radiates as your soul. See love doing its perfect work and become willing to do your part in that work when the understanding dictates. Loving your neighbor may result in strengthening your relationship or dissolving it. This is a much better alternative than trying to force yourself to love them because you think you are supposed to. You may not always be able to muster the kind word or take that right action that will bring agreement with another. Still, you can know that invoking love will fit all the pieces together, will tie up the loose ends, and move all concerned to their best and highest good. Love reveals that this is true even when your good intentions at diplomacy fail miserably, or fear drives your own actions. The love that expresses as your soul is greater than all human frailty. Your unloving thoughts and actions or the unloving thoughts and actions of another do nothing to alter love itself. Love does not depend on how loving or unloving you are.

Let all of this go and simply see your entire being immersed in love. Experience love’s healing warmth. Let it melt away your stress and your struggle to be loved. You are more than loved. You are love itself.

YouTube: Life and Enthusiasm

In this four-part series, we are treating Advent as an intuitive awakening. Our focus, therefore, is on the meditative process. Choose a regular time and a place where you will not be disturbed (allow 30 minutes to an hour). Relax your mind and body. Bring your awareness to the area of the solar plexus (abdominal region) and focus your attention with this simple statement: I Am. Slowly repeat these words, letting go of all stress-inducing distractions. After a time, begin speaking quietly the affirmations that follow. Allow yourself to envision and experience the action suggested by each line before you move on to the next:

My soul radiates the pure, unrestricted energy of life.

There are no blockages. There are no restrictions.

I am filled with boundless life and unbridled enthusiasm.

The pure radiance of my soul shines in its fullness now.

In perfect peace, I let this pure energy rise.

As you relax with your awareness at your center, see the radiating energy of your soul as the energizing life that permeates all aspects of your being. It is natural to visualize life as the light that animates and heals every cell of your body and brings a sparkle of enthusiasm to your eye. You need not direct the energy of life, for life knows how to express itself. We see it animating countless forms at a variety of levels everywhere in the world. Life never stagnates. It is only our mundane focus of attention that becomes dull and lifeless. Acknowledge the free reign of life as it radiates its natural expansive movement through and as your being.

Don’t try to pump up your enthusiasm and strive to be the life of the party. Doing this will expend your energy by directing it to that bottomless pit of your unenthusiastic self-image.

Any forced positive attitude you generate will be short-lived and costly. A forced expression of enthusiasm is a performance you’ll have to continually maintain. Those who do this might be entertaining, but they can also be quite wearisome. You don’t have to instruct fire to be hot and you don’t have to inform life that it needs to express as enthusiasm. This is what it does naturally.

Natural enthusiasm manifests as genuine interest in whatever you happen to be doing, from creating a piece of art to taking out the trash. Enthusiasm is as unconditional as the energy of life itself. You need no particular reason to be enthusiastic. It is life’s gift to you. As you affirm life in your meditative experience, quiet enthusiasm will naturally grow.

YouTube: Spiritual Reality

 And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.”

Mark 9:1

As we study the sayings attributed to Jesus, we quickly see that one of his key themes involved the kingdom of God. What did he mean by this term? We know Jesus did not usher in the classically understood kingdom of God. Those who embrace this model still believe he will return and do it then. So, when he said there were some standing before him that would see the kingdom come in their lifetime, did he get it wrong?

Judging by this and other similar passages, we surmise that he was not talking about an era ushered in with trumpets and clouds full of angels. He was referring to an inner experience, one’s awakening to a spiritual reality. He was saying that some of his audience, not all, would experience a genuine spiritual awakening in their lifetime.

The more I study Jesus’ use of the kingdom of God, the more certain I am that he was referring to omnipresent, spiritual reality, the creative life force that underlies and animates all living forms. This creative process is already in place, fully functioning, and known to those who have the eyes to see and the ears to hear. As the Gospel of Thomas says, “The kingdom of the Father is spread out upon the earth and men do not see it.”

The term, kingdom of God, can trigger misleading preconceptions, stirring images of the old man in the sky finally coming down to take control of a dysfunctional earth. As a teacher, Jesus saw his primary mission as one of bearing witness to the true nature of the omnipresent, spiritual reality. An awareness of this spiritual dimension can heal, can bring order where there is chaos, can manifest as plenty where there is lack. In other words, understanding the true nature of God can establish conditions in one’s earthly experience as they are in this spiritual reality. “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” (Matthew 6:6).   

YouTube: The Narrow Gate of Self-Discovery

Maksim Klasanovic interview: In this interview, Klasanovic talks about why he was arrested, what he experienced in prison, and how one particular consciousness experience shaped his life.

“Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

Matthew 7:13-14

Jesus often used opposing imagery to illustrate the principle of oneness with God. He referred to old and new wineskins, houses built on rock and sand, good and bad fish, wheat and chaff, sheep and goats, and so on. Here he employs the imagery of wide and narrow gates.

The immediate impression we get is that Jesus is issuing a warning about simply following the crowd. Mainstream religion is indeed a wide gate that opens to a clearly marked, superhighway of beliefs that much of the world follows. In contrast, the individual pursuit of a direct relationship with God is a narrow gate that opens to a footpath that is often only vaguely discernable to the one who takes it. 

The wide and narrow gates are our intellectual and intuitive faculties. Mainstream religion, forged out of centuries-old statements of faith, rituals, and a tenacious hold on tradition, is by and large an intellectual pursuit. Yet at the beginning of each of these canonized systems of belief we find the lone, intuitively awakened mystic who took the superhighway offramp and traveled instead their own unique footpath of direct revelation.

Jesus spoke in parables to provide his own intellectually based society mental handles on principles that can only be discerned intuitively. The intellect builds its reality based on material appearances. He said, “Do not judge by appearances.” He pointed out that “God is spirit.” Like the wind you cannot see it, but you see its effects. To worship in spirit is to go alone into your inner room, to be still, and come to know God as your living source.  

It was the towering intellectual, Albert Einstein, who came to know, “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind (the intellect) is a faithful servant.” While today’s academic standards reverse these values, it is through our intuitive faculty that we experience direct exposure to the spiritual reality that opens the narrow gate to true self-discovery.

YouTube: The Myth of Divine Favoritism

Does God do special favors for those who please Him?

This is the essence of a question that was raised as a possible subject for a Sunday message. Because it involves our understanding of the nature of God, it is a topic well worth exploring.

We can start with this question: Does a spiritual practice such as prayer or tithing influence the behavior of God, or does it influence the way we relate to God? Those who think of God in anthropomorphic terms will likely believe their practices influence the behavior of God. Those who think of God as Spirit will see their spiritually-related practices as a way of aligning with the nature of God.

There are numerous places where Jesus indicated that human behavior had no influence over the behavior of God. Addressing the subject of unconditional love, he said “… for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). Elsewhere he reminds his listeners of, “… those eighteen upon whom the tower in Silo′am fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who dwelt in Jerusalem?I tell you, No” (Luke 13:4-5).

In both cases, these responses sound like something a mystic would say. First, they run against mainstream thinking that insists divine retribution is the fate of the sinner. Second, he is pointing to the changeless nature of God, a key feature of the mystical tradition.

And of course, we have the parable of the prodigal son where neither the bad behavior of the youngest son nor the good behavior of the oldest son influences the love of the father. James also describes God as, “The Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17).

It is good to question our own approach to God. Are we still trying to appease the man upstairs or are we seeking to align with the Creative Life Force whose sole intention for each of us is that we “… may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).