My Spiritual Journey (Ways/Paths) is via this Journaling of my Learning, Understanding, and Practices
THE JOURNEY IS BOTH DESTINATION AND WAY
see It's a Sacramental Universe
All you need is love and humilty
see my meditations and prayer along the way, especially gratitudes
Jesus explains how he embodies a way of being in this world [that is] so close to the heart of God that God can be known in and through Jesus. Two spiritual journeys—the interior one toward knowing our true self and knowing God, and the one directed outward into the world to enact God’s justice and love. These two movements comprise the way of Jesus. This quest is a mapless journey—there is no single road—the only guides to it are nature, saints, poetry, song, and Spirit. It is a journey without destination. There is no map. Your soul will lead you.(Rohr)
My journey is really my ways or my paths. I stay on the ways/paths via the following practices:
- journaling of my learning and understanding with this website
- spirit moving music, especially where I interpret lyrics spiritually
- reading books, web, emails of religion and spiritually
- attending educational classes and seminars
- prayers, reflections, and meditations
- Christain rituals like going to church, baptism, weddings, funerals
- realizing my need for more/better people connections
- realizing my shadows and vices
If you do not encounter radical grace, being loved in your unworthiness, the spiritual journey will not continue. See Grace (Rohr)
Authority ultimately rests on the individual, who must live and embody the teachings in their own fully realized way. (p17, Zen end the Gospel of Thomas) See Gospel of Thomas logion 12
Jesus does not save us; becoming like Jesus saves us. Jesus is our spiritual guide to this end.
Writer Joyce Rupp offers different metaphors for discovering the True Self, a journey that requires opening a door from within.
The journey of discovery has the power to change not only individual lives, but can transform our entire world.
That is why the journey to our true identity is a journey along the way to contemplation. (p55, Merton's Paradise Journey)
There is nothing that is not spiritual for those who have learned how to see.(Rohr)
See Suffering is how we get to Love
See Nonduality incorporates the negative
See a Sacramental Reality and the Sacramental Principle
See Presence via Grace and Practice
Journey Definition and Purpose
Life is a mystery
Everyone must stand alone
I hear you call my name
And it feels like home
When you call my name, it's like a little prayer
I'm down on my knees, I wanna take you there
In the midnight hour, I can feel your power
Just like a prayer, you know I'll take you there
I hear your voice
It's like an angel sighin'
I have no choice
I hear your voice
Feels like flying
I close my eyes
Oh God I think I'm fallin'
Out of the sky
I close my eyes
Heaven help me
When you call my name, it's like a little prayer
I'm down on my knees, I wanna take you there
In the midnight hour, I can feel your power
Just like a prayer, you know I'll take you there
Like a child
You whisper softly to me
You're in control
Just like a child
Now I'm dancing
It's like a dream
No end and no beginning
You're here with me
It's like a dream
Let the choir sing
When you call my name, it's like a little prayer
I'm down on my knees, I wanna take you there
In the midnight hour, I can feel your power
Just like a prayer, you know I'll take you there
When you call my name, it's like a little prayer
I'm down on my knees, I wanna take you there
In the midnight hour, I can feel a power
Just like a prayer, you know I'll take you there
Life is a mystery
Everyone must stand alone
I hear you call my name
And it feels like home
Just like a prayer (oh-oh), your voice can take me there (oh-oh)
Just like a muse to me (oh-oh), you are a mystery (oh-oh)
Just like a dream (oh-oh), you are not what you seem
Just like a prayer, no choice your voice can take me there
In Christianity the way/path/journey/practice is about transformation - dying to old way of being and born into a new way of being both individually and the world. (p198, Days of Awe and Wonder)
Journey is an act of traveling from one place to another. (Dictionary)
The tendency of goals is to become more important than the quality of process through which they are realized.Living Presence, p150
A spiritual journey is a process of reconciliation and education through enlightenment. It is as unique and individual as each individual is unique. (Google)
The purpose of a spiritual journey is rarely to find an answer; rather, it is a process of continually asking questions. (Google)
Life is indeed a journey, a journey of transformation much more than mere education about anything.6,p16
The movement beyond oneself as the reference point is the only real foundation for any spiritual journey.7,p43
When the self is transformed, it is a journey into powerlessness, the mystery of the cross. The cross is finally about how to stand against hate without becoming hate ourselves.6,p43
If, when the wounding happens, we find the grace and the freedom to somehow see that it’s not just a wound, but a sacred wound, then the journey progresses. (Rohr,9/14/20)
Ecstasies are essential; they are seeds, glimpses of that fullness to which we are called. However, they are not the Journey itself, not transformation, not mystical union, not enlightenment. They set us on the road—perhaps they are even glimpses of the destination—but we have not yet arrived until the seeker is transformed into that which she seeks. (Rohr,6/11/21)
“How you get there is where you will arrive.” In the whole scheme of things, it seems that how one gets there is the important part. When it’s done with God at the center, it will lead to arriving exactly where we need to be.
Finding the way to where our true heart lies is the great journey of spiritual life.12,p34
The quest (search for meaningful patterns and any divine origins) is real and the myths were anchored in reality. What true religion has always done is open the door to this symbolic universe, to the world of the soul that is the primary access point for the spirit world. Healthy religion teaches us how to see, how to see more clearly, and how to see things all the way through. Every person and every event the man encounters is a necessary and grace-filled occasion. There is no wasted time, no useless characters, no random happenings. All has meaning. It is a wholly enchanted universe; God is in all things waiting to speak and even to bless. The quest is always a descent, always a terror, and for those who know the bigger story, always participation in a miracle.(Rohr)
It was called a “quest”—seeking the right question, unlike today’s insistence on the right answer. To go on a spiritual quest is inherently tied to asking life’s deeper questions: We cannot go on a quest until we know what the question is. Unless we feel it, unless we go down into the grief, into the depths, into the great unconscious, we won’t usually know the deeper answers. (Rohr)
My Transistion from religious to spiritual:
I continued reading the bible, commentaries, cathecists, Pope books, Saints, Mystics, history of the church, and Eastern religions and books not included in Bible (apocrypha), ie. Book of Thomas
Some favorite authors were Thomas Merton, William Barry, Borg, Fox, Johnson, Keating,
and Willigis Jager: Search for the Meaning of Life: Essays and Reflections on the Mystical Experience, Contemplation: A Christian Path
My Current Point in the Journey:
I'm still Catholic because I don't want to shoot out the baby (Jesus) with the bath water (Religion/Dogma/Catholicism)
I'm trying to be more 'humble'
and I'm trying to do 'minimalist living'
I'm trying to know God Mystically
Recently realized that being receptive is the key.
Recently learned that the body, mind, and heart (emotions) all need to be active together.
For 1 of my most recent inspiration, see Love and Redemptive
One of my most recent reflection was the Gift of gifts as being our appreciation/gratitude for our gifts, see 'Seek the Treasure' chant
Another recently, walking with God again, like in the Garden, see see God's presence
Meditating on what 'divinity within' really means see 'Know the Treasure Within'
My daily routine of practices consists of:
- reflecting on Richard Rohr's email
- more development of this website
- creativity with other programming projects
- my prayers while walking/jogging, especially if doing so reflectively
- learning and reflecting on what I'm reading
And then occasional practices by:
- a church ritual, such as a baptism, wedding, or funeral
- more learning by googling or taking a course
- reflecting on a song where I imagine God doing the singing/speaking
- awe/wonder/gratitude of an event or nature
In the world, but not of the world (John 17:15)
Also see CAC.org / Richard Rohr's True Self
see Practices since they are the journey
ALONG THE WAY - Some Enlightening / Reflective Thoughts:
Sacramental universe (SU) is a conception of the universe as sacred, a holy temple wherein divinity and creatures play, co-create, and bestow grace. According to the medieval Christian philosopher Thomas Aquinas, "God has produced a work in which the divine likeness is clearly reflected—the universe itself." All beings possess intrinsic worth, participating in divine beauty; each being is a "Cosmic Christ" or "Buddha nature," reflecting divine radiance.
The opposite of faith isn't doubt, it is certainty. (p 200, Freeing Jesus)
The opposite of fear isn't courage, it is love. Following Jesus is moving away from fear and toward love. (p 200, Freeing Jesus)
The journey is BOTH a destination (goal) AND it is the way/path (practices).
Beginner’s mind is one’s mind before the hurts of life have made us cautious and self-protective. Jesus says the only people who can recognize and be ready for what he’s talking about are the ones who come with the mind and heart of a child. It’s the same reality as the beginner’s mind. Otherwise you’re not seeking truth; you’re seeking to be in control. (Rohr)
We don’t need to know — which is faith because it is willingness to live with a certain degree of humility.
The canonical gospels emphasize 'right belief' as the basis for salvation, whereas wisdom gospels emphasize 'right practice'. (p40,Mary Magdalene)
I try to meditate on the Lord's "Our Father" prayer daily