My Spiritual Journey

Life is indeed a journey, a journey of transformation much more than mere education about anything.^6,p16

Reality / God

The world (or “system” as we use the word now) is a hiding place for unconsciousness or “deadness” in the words of Paul. Both Thomas Aquinas and C. S. Lewis taught that the triumph of evil depends entirely on disguise. Our egos must see it as some form of goodness and virtue so that we can buy into it. If we do not see the true shape of evil or recognize how we are fully complicit in it, it will fully control us, while not looking the least like sin. Would “agreed-upon delusion” be a better description?(Rohr,10/13/20)

If we agree to hold opposing energies creatively until they transform us, it becomes redemptive suffering.^6,p19

As long as we keep trying to deal with the mystery of evil in some way other than forgiveness and healing, we will continue to create negative idealogies.^6,p11

Any “mystery,” by definition, is pregnant with many levels of unfolding and realization. (Rohr)

Quantum physics now says that the uncertainity principle perhaps more truly express the final mystery of reality than classical physics ever did.^6,p14Our uncertainity is the doorway into mystery, the doorway into surrender, the path to God that Jesus called "faith."^6,p16

“The material and the physical can be trusted and enjoyed. This world and even this body are the hiding place and the revelation place of God! After the Incarnation, we hopefully realize that the material world has always been the privileged place for divine encounter. (Rohr,6/6/21)

Perfection cannot be perfect without the potential for perfecting!^3,78

Through grace we can possess similarity to God which is the same thing as to attain UNION with God, for the Way of Knowledge works through LIKENESS. As we come to resemble that which we know, the more we are ONE with it.^11,p95

God is a verb. The closest we can come to thinking about God is a process (God-ing, Loving, Creating) rather than a being.^3,p69

Without a sense of the inherent sacredness of the world—in every tiny bit of life and death—we struggle to see God in our own reality, let alone to respect reality, protect it, or love it. (Rohr, 5/20/20)

Knowing God

So faith must come through the knowledge of God. That’s the reason Romans 10:17 says faith comes by hearing the Word of God. The amount of faith that you operate in is directly proportional to the revelation knowledge that you have of God through His Word.

Information from outer authority is not necessarily transformation, and we need genuinely transformed people today, not just people with answers. Prayer was meant to be a descriptor and an invitation to inner experience. When spiritual teachers invite us to “pray,” they are in effect saying, “Go inside and know for yourself!” The interior experience of God’s presence activates our capacity to perceive [the divine] in everything else—in people, in events, in nature. A practice of slowing down, of reflection, of asking “big questions” about our desires, our wounds, our values, and our relationships helps us to discover and trust in the truth and authority that lies within us.(Rohr)

Love is the highest form of knowing,” Saint Augustine wrote.Bernard McGinn, who writes, “Love and knowledge are intertwined in Augustine’s mystical consciousness.”⁶

To be united to God we must “break through” the sensible world and pass beyond the human condition to move beyond knowing to unknowing, from knowledge to love.⁵

Buddha said: “What you have become is what you have thought.”

Meister Eckhart said, “Let us pray to God that we may be free of God.” is a beautifully humble prayer because we know that our present notion of God is never all God is. Augustine said “If we comprehend it, it is not God”. Our present experience is never enough, but it is gratefully where we begin, and these mystics teach us that we grow with each experience of God. (Rohr, 8/7/20)

Like knows like (Meister Eckhart)

The Bible contains “God's thoughts” which are strange and yet marvelous spiritual teachings. Among them are paradoxes. A Paradox is defined as a seemingly self-contradictory declaration but is in fact true, ie. the Holy Trinity

God, it seems, cannot really be known, but only related to. Or, as the mystics would assert, we know God by loving God, by trusting God, by placing our hope in God. It is a non–possessive, non–objectified way of knowing. It is always I-Thou and never I-It, to use Martin Buber’s wonderfully insightful phrases. God allows us to know God only by loving God. God, in that sense, cannot be “thought” at all.¹

Faith

Faith and godly wisdom are viewed as co- occurring and in harmony with each other. God is ultimately the source and focus of both and they can, and should, be used together in the decision-making process.

Faith involves a stance toward some claim that is not demonstrable by reason. Thus faith is a kind of attitude of trust or assent. So faith must come through the knowledge of God. That’s the reason Romans 10:17 says faith comes by hearing the Word of God. The amount of faith that you operate in is directly proportional to the revelation knowledge that you have of God through His Word.

Doubt when grounded in an experience of Love, doubt does not represent a step backwards, but is a necessary condition for any movement forward. (Rohr,6/2/21)

Our failings and transgressions are simply an opportunity to learn and grow, and should be honored as such, but not dwelled upon. (Rohr,4/6/21)

The virtue for living in the in-between times Jesus calls “faith.” He is talking about the grace and the freedom to live God’s dream for the world now—while not rejecting the world as it is. The secret of this Kingdom life is discovering how we can live in both worlds simultaneously. (Rohr,11/16/20)

Our uncertainity is necessary and holy. If we could somehow dispel it, WE WOULD ALSO DESTROY MYSTERY - THE VERY THING WE SEEK. Mystery is the deep companion of our journey. It is God. Our journey will be walked through unknowing and the ways we choose to contend with our fear about this will constitute the greatest peril of our pilgrimage.^9,p74-5

Love by God is not something we need to earn, but only a matter of opening our hearts to an ever-present invitation of God's call. The tests we undergo arise as we remove the obstacles within ourselves to hearing the voice of love more clearly. As we succeed, in small steps, the ELATION we discover along the way helps to sustain our resolve.^9,p72

Our uncertainty is the doorway into mystery, the doorway into surrender, the path to God that Jesus called “faith.”(Rohr)

Wisdom

You’ve got to admit, a big part of love is humility. It takes humility to be affectionate and to receive affection. If you want to fall in love and accept real love, you have to be humble enough to let go of your pride and receive that love. We have to humble ourselves to receive God’s love. Receiving salvation is a humbling experience. Those who humble themselves receive not only forgiveness, but also an infilling of love they could never have imagined. But those who are too proud miss out on both, for “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6). (activated.org/en/relationships/from-the-heart/love/love-and-humility - Love and Humility)

Love is impossible without humility. If I want to excel at love, I first need to learn to be humble; to learn to count my own joy and pleasure as less important than the joy and pleasure of someone else. Perhaps the key to love is learning to derive pleasure from someone else’s pleasure. Selfless love is to find pleasure in another person’s pleasure. (www.challies.com/articles/love-humility - Love and Humility)

Because pride has wounded us, humility maketh us whole. (Augustine)

God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble (James 4:6)

C S Lewis stated 'Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.'

The Kingdom of Heaven is really a metaphor for a state of consciousness; it is not a place you go to, but a place you come from. It is a whole new way of looking at the world, a transformed awareness that literally turns this world into a different place. . . The hallmark of this awareness is that it sees no separation—not between God and humans, not between humans and other humans. (Rohr,11/18/20)

Creation, beautiful and enchanting as it is, is like a veil over the face of the naked presence of God. These two faces of God—veiled and unveiled—live in symbiotic unity, and out of that unity everything pours into existence in a cascade of sheer delight.(Rohr,10/20/20)

Jesus' truth is about right relationship and his proclamation of the power of powerlessness will save the world from self-destruction.(Rohr,11/19/20)

We are saved, ironically, not by doing it right as much as by the suffering of having done it wrong. We come to God not through our perfection as much as through our imperfection.^6,p22

When we get to the more mature stages of mystical union everything becomes a metaphor for the divine, and we grab for metaphors to make concrete the mystery that is now in everything and everywhere! “Our redeemer has become our bridegroom!” Mechthild exults. (Rohr,5/12/21)

Wisdom is about inner work and transformation. Wisdom isn’t knowing more; it’s knowing more deeply, with more of yourself. Wisdom is caught more than taught. (cac.org)

Wisdom is knowledge deepened by love. The wise person knows more deeply by way of love than by way of argument because the eye of the heart can see the truth of reality. Hence the wise person is one who knows and sees God shining through everything, even what seems ugly or despised. ⁹

We are indeed 'saved' by knowing and surrendering to this universal pattern of reality. Knowing the full wisdom pattern allows us to let go of our first order, trust the disorder, and sometimes even hardest of all - to trust the new reorder. ^6,pxv

The value of nonduality: a way of thinking, acting, reconciling, boundary-crossing, and bridge-building based on inner experience of God and God’s Spirit moving in the world. We’re not throwing out our rational mind, but we’re adding nondual, mystical, contemplative consciousness. When we have both, we’re able to see more broadly, deeply, wisely, and lovingly. We can collaborate on creative solutions to today’s injustices.

But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Cor 3:16,18)

While we primarily use the word “apocalypse” to mean to destroy or threaten, in its original context, apocalypse simply meant to reveal something new. You cannot hold onto the old all the while declaring that you want something new. There is only one way to bring in the new. You must make room for it. Apocalyptic writing deconstructs the “taken-for-granted world” by presenting a completely different universe. (Rohr,4/25/21)

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. (1 John 4:18)

It’s been said that the opposite of love is not hate, but fear. Fear may protect us, but love releases us. It completes us. (Post Std, 9/6/20)

If we cannot calmly hold a certain degree of anxiety, we will always be looking for somewhere to expel it.^6,p32

African proverb that a patient man has all the wealth in the world.

The key to simplifying life is to make sure love is your #1 priority. Love redirects our focus and unravels the complex, overextended lifestyle that keeps us ever running but never arriving. Through doing less because we love more. As you learn the practice of loving people, you will experience a shift from complex to simple, from hurried to peaceful, from “never enough time” to “time enough for those you love.” (Chip Ingram)

I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. —Lao Tzu

We are in Heaven now by falling, by letting go, and by trusting and surrendering to this deeper, broader, and better reality that is already available to us. We’re in Hell now by wrapping ourselves around our hurts, by over-identifying with and attaching ourselves to our fears, so much so that they become our very identity. two-thirds of the teaching of Jesus is, in one form or another, about forgiveness. Forgiveness is simply the religious word for letting go. Eventually, it feels like forgiving Reality Itself for being what it is.(Rohr,12/18/20)

The great task of religion is to keep us fully awake, alert, and conscious. Staying awake comes not from willpower but from a wholehearted surrender to the moment—as it is. To be truly conscious, we must step back from our compulsive identification with our isolated selves. This may be the most difficult “letting go” of all, for the idea of our individual “selves” is the primary illusion of our lives. (Rohr,12/16/20)

When the Higher Self works lovingly with the Lower Self, then the ego will eventually loosen its grip and learn to defer to the guidance of the Higher and thus merge as one.¹

Once the veil of our limited perception has been removed, there is space for us to experience a more whole and integrated version of reality. Experiences of ego death and merging with all of existence.

To know thyself is to know God

Overview: Gnosis is not intellectual knowledge, but that which is personal, like "I know that person, or do you know so and so." So this gnosis is self-knowledge; you could call it insight. It's a question of knowing who you really are, not at the ordinary level of your name and your social class or your position. But knowing yourself at a deep level. The secret of gnosis is that when you know yourself at that level you will also come to know God, because you will discover that the divine is within you.

Commentary: Jesus imparts a secret, hidden wisdom to those close to him, so that they can perceive a new truth and be saved by it. 'The Thomas Christians are told the truth about their divine origins.

3: Rather, the kingdom is inside of you and outside of you. Once you come to know yourselves, you will become known. And you will know that it is you who are the children of the living father.

5: Recognize what is within your sight, and that which is hidden from you will be disclosed to you.

70: If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.

113: The Kingdom of God is already present for those who understand the secret/hidden message of Jesus

Commentary: It's like a state of consciousness, but the Kingdom of God here is something that you can enter when you attain gnosis.

Practices and Contemplation

Ascension

Oneness

We are often at war with ourselves, but we have to find that balance between our heart and our mind (?)

A single word that sums up the entire Christ message is 'reconciliation'.^2,p53

Oneness is an experience that transcends the mind. When we experience oneness, we feel a connection with everything in existence on every level. In other words, we feel ‘at one’ with all things.

We are already in heaven. When we die we no longer have the input from our physical senses that distract most of us from being fully aware of the spirit body that’s been with us all along. (www.physicsandgod.com/heaven-is-a-hologram)

It is necessary to accept, work with, and even love an apparent duality in order for us to achieve a transcendent non-duality.^2,p6

The suffering born of love: Every form of love invites suffering. (ePost,9/22/20)

The Grace / divine Love that provides for our needs is God being itself. God is our consciousness by which we co-create with life.^2,p78

Evil has divine nature within it. Rather than destroy it, our task is to uplift it.^3,p160

Oneness is attained not through an even more intense experience of union, but through a simple suspension of the subject/object polarity that created the perception of twoness in the first place. Any moment you can break through to the underlying unity which is God’s gift in Christ. In the end, Praise praises. Thanksgiving gives thanks. Jesus prays. Openness is all.(Rohr,10/27/20)

When you make the two one and when you make the inner as the outer and the above as below, and when You make the male and the female into a single one, then you shall enter the kingdom.(The Gospel of Thomas)

How can the divine Oneness be seen? In beautiful forms, breathtaking wonders, awe-inspiring miracles? The Tao is not obliged to present itself in this way. If you are willing to be lived by it, you will see it everywhere, even in the most ordinary things. (Lao Tzu)

The end of a journey, as the final veil of separate selfhood—“self” consciousness itself—is drawn back to reveal at last the riddle of the true self. (Rohr,10/26/20)

In Oneness it is no longer merely like God, it has become God.^11,p23

God is the coming together of opposites.^11,p26

When self goes out, God comes in. What is blocking our union with God has to be surrendered for the UNION to take place. Surrender the selfish clinging to inner pleasure which is blocking the way to God.^11,p99-100