AVATARS ARE NOT THE ONLY ONES ABLE TO GIVE UP THEIR EGO

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Babies are totally open to God – arriving in the form of pure energy. Since they come straight from God, they’re completely natural upon arrival. But after a surprise landing in this world, they need to figure out how to survive – in this given time and place. So they do, but the cost is high. They’re faced with the necessity of becoming someone people who’re already here are able to recognize and the culture use. Since they’re raised by parents – people who’ve already made the requisite compromises – the baby should ultimately find itself able to “fit in”.

So, this baby, who started out life as a tiny energy “sun,” will eventually start dimming because so much of her natural energy will be perceived as being “alien” to her surroundings. There’re no human words for the kind of energy that doesn’t fit into this world – only God has the precise words for that.

Eventually, the baby matures – becoming a “person,” developing her own ego, and eventually becoming an “integral part of society”.

By that time, the baby, unfortunately, will have lost much of the beautiful spontaneous energy God had originally provided her with.

Someday, however, that baby – once an adult – might begin wondering where all her previous energy had gone and whether it might ever be regained. She might even begin remembering what it was like to live in “the Garden,” and realize that, in order for her to return, she might have to give up everything.

Happily, though, she’ll soon come to understand that, since she’s no longer a child and is now capable of an adult’s understanding, she’ll be able, if she so decides, to start living as an adult and recapturing all her original energy – by giving up her ego and start living as her true self .

That’s when she’ll be met with the necessity of surrendering – not everything as she had at first thought – but only her self-created false ego.

If her ego presses her hard, however – and it probably will – not to let it go –
She’ll let go anyway – like a balloon that simply floats away into the blue!

That’s what Jesus, Buddha, and Mohammed did –
And that’s what she’ll do too.

JUST WHAT IS SACRED?

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“Everything!” say the Zen people
But have no idea, really, how that might work.

“Nothing” says 21st Century Man
And doesn’t give it another thought.

Actually, it’s naming a specific object or task
As being “holy” –
As if, by naming it, one can make it so.

There are those who try to eat the sacred
Believing, by swallowing it, you can bring God inside you –
Many religions practice a form of this belief.

The word “sacred” has also been used by various religions
And their faithful
As an “Open Sesame” to their proprietary collective –
A password that can get you past the front door.

Usually, when one claims something is “sacred,” they mean it’s “related to God” –
Something God has “touched” in the past and might want to touch again.

Are there people that, in and of themselves, are sacred?
Or is it only when such a person touches an object that makes it so –
For example, a spiritual symbol that can be worn on a gold chain
Ensuring that, if one suddenly dies, they’ll have a better chance of ending up with God?

Maybe sacred objects are simply reminders passed by along the road of life
Muttering: “There’s something important you’ve been missing.”

Back here, though, in the land of sunshine,
One final bit of unconscious joy is allocated just before we pass
To brighten up our final step
Into glory or, alternatively, to the place that’s quickly going dark.

Hopefully, long before then, you’ll be allowed the time to become a little more
“Sacred” yourself –
You know – along with God – in the land of the living.

JOY, THE OXYGEN OF GOD

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Just what percentage of people need to become enlightened
In order to save the world?

By “enlightened” I mean someone who sees reality,
As well as herself, as part of that reality
Without rationalizations, fantasies, or taboos.

People might appear mature, intelligent, and reasonable at first glance
But actually are none of these
Because of self-interest
Or some advantage that might be obtained by manipulation
Or, more subtly, by missing the point.

The world continues on its merry way of being “the same old same old”:
With men judging women and women judging men,
The educated judging the less educated, the rich judging the poor,
And the poor envying and half-heartedly despising the rich in turn,
While non-caring people sit at home and judge everyone who’s outside their door –
Even those related by blood.

One day, however, a great iron door will start shutting for good –
After which, all our rationalizations and judgments will not mitigate the developing rain of blame
That will probably only increase the level of pain.

Our insistence upon an impeccable stupidity, ignorance, and unconscious violence can’t be effective forever, can it?

That iron door is now nudging itself shut –
The door that, once closed, life will become truly horrible –
Where we’ll no longer be able to remember “the good old days” –
Our days of blessings and hope.

So – my question is:

What percentage of enlightened people will it take
For us to start believing in God again –
To hear, once again, the brilliant bird of the heart
That never stops singing?

I believe it’s the exact percentage of people
Willing to sacrifice themselves for everyone and everything else,
Plus one, (are you that one?),
That’ll bring in universal Joy, like some unimaginable dawn,

The kind of joy
That God breathes –
That actually keeps God alive!

HOW QUICKLY CAN CHANGE COME – IN INSTITUTIONAL RELIGION?

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Are religious institutions subject to evolution? And, if so, how quickly can change come within them?

In species evolution, it can take millions of years for a significant change to occur, but, sometimes, it can come much more quickly, e.g., in just a few generations for bird beaks that can no longer effectively open naturally-available seeds. (See, The Beak of the Finch, by Jonathan Wiener, Knopf, 1994).

But religions seem to roll along for millennia without much change even though, today, if humanity doesn’t soon begin experiencing a world-wide democratic spiritual transformation, the earth may be in serious danger from the collective grave military, environmental, and health threats currently confronting us.

Today, though, priests still find themselves standing behind their sacramental tables holding up what they believe is holy.  Or reciting age-old stories, with a bit of effort to make them fresh. However, only once in a very long while, does an individual person come into the world and propose major spiritual changes. But, unfortunately, soon after they die, they’re replaced by previous ancient spiritual mechanisms that have been re-formulated by the kind of people who want to earn a living and gain respect from the management of religion.

Because so few people have ever seriously attempted a major revision of religion – and they have usually arrived so far apart in time – there’s always been plenty of room for the managers of religion to manipulate the new spiritual ideas and images into something else entirely.

That’s why we need to have a lot more of these people – a really lot! And they need to keep coming.

If that happened, perhaps in just a few generations, like the finches, human beings as a species might start experiencing profound and permanent spiritual change. And later, looking back, people might wonder what took so long.

So, are we ready to take a peek outside our seemingly unchangeable false selves and religious institutions to begin a fresh search for a true God, as well as for our true selves?

Wait a minute, you mean now?

Yes, now – why not now?!

THEY’VE GOTTEN WAY TOO BIG!

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They’ve gotten too big! – I mean Jesus, Buddha and Mohammed – like a succession of Macy’s Day Parade balloons. But how did this happen since, at one time, they were human beings just like us? Continuous attention by large numbers of people over a long period of time accomplished it. Hundreds of millions of minds and hearts focused on a few individuals over millennia and, eventually, you’ll create something that’s no longer human – just giant light projections bouncing off the dark insides of people’s heads.  The psychic wattage has just been enormous.

In turning attention back to ourselves, we seem so small in comparison.  All three of these people repeatedly told us that they were just human beings. But that made no difference once they physically left us – because institution-building in each case had gotten well underway.

So how can we get them back down to earth without seeming disrespectful?  We’re certainly thankful for their existence – for their time with us – it was a good thing.  But such deep and largely unreflective worship has gotten us diverted from our duty to respect ourselves, as well as being a major distraction from God – who lives in our own hearts.

We’ve been on the way a long time now, and we’re finally ready to arrive!

We’ll begin by engaging with God and our true selves directly – not with a giant projection. Then, we’ll open up the colorful gift of joy secretly placed in our hearts – that little present God provided us at birth – to be opened only on the day we wake up spiritually.

This present was not one given to Jesus, Buddha, or Mohammed – because they’ve already opened their own special gifts –

No, this present was given solely to us –

A personal joy – straight from God!

IF GOD IS “SPIRIT” THEN, BY DEFINITION, GOD IS ABSOLUTELY FREE

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God needs this kind of freedom in order to be God. But, if that’s so, then religion and spirit may be incompatible.  Jesus taught that God is “Spirit,” like love – or truth, justice or beauty. But isn’t it true that Spirit can never be experienced by insensate institutions – but only by individual human beings?

Each institutional religion provides a “spiritual” foundation for itself by adopting a set of ideas (orthodoxy) and practices (orthopraxy).  But if God is absolutely free, then how is it possible for people belonging to such an institution to find God simply by agreeing in advance where God can always be found – both in word and deed?  Since God is “like the wind,” always on the move, we also have to be ready to move at any time if we ever hope to stay close to God.

Given that we need to stay on the move in order to be holy, we should resist the temptation to define ourselves in a formal way or to accept any kind of set identity – because, in doing so, we’ll eventually get frozen in place, even though the Spirit will continue enjoying ongoing “play” in the universe.  We also shouldn’t try to define God either because that would only be a futile attempt to “stop” God’s movement (even if only in our minds) – which is impossible.  If God ever “stopped,” and became a stationary idea, image, or name, then God would no longer be “like the wind which blows wherever it pleases,” as Jesus described the nature of God in John 3:8.

What I’m trying to say is that religion may be antithetical to Spirit, that is, to God.  Whenever a person commits himself or herself to a specific religion, they almost immediately abandon (at least for a time) their individual search for God.  Religions offer us packaged “Gods,” and broadcast to the world that they have all the answers to life’s most important questions. But, actually, they don’t have these answers because our questions are constantly changing, we are constantly changing, and God is also constantly changing as well. Consequently, many (or most) of our accepted conventional ideas about religion may be wrong.  If God is “like the wind,” it makes no sense to dedicate ourselves to religious orthodoxy or orthopraxis, much less to church buildings, holy books, creeds, or academic credentials required to become a religious leader.  Unfortunately, we have gotten this all wrong!

The first thing we need is to become as free as possible – in our souls, our spirits, and our lives. Spiritual evolution is contingent upon how much freedom we’re able to attain for ourselves. For human beings, freedom opens the door to attaining everything worth having: the ability to tell the truth – all the time; to love and to be able to actually achieve it; to be as spontaneous as children; to be just – that is, able to do the right thing at the right time; and to end up living lives in “heaven on earth” – experiencing and fully enjoying all the beauty that surrounds us.

With sufficient freedom, even if starting off basically as human animals, we’ll eventually be able to become human beings – just like Jesus, Buddha, and Mohammed and many others have done.

In sum isn’t it obvious that it’s largely impracticable for us to reach God by committing our time and energy to an external “social vehicle” like religion?

This is the principal reason why spirituality is becoming ever more popular and institutional religion increasingly less so.  Religion, historically, has not been able to resist getting itself mixed up with power, with the consequence that people have not been as successful as they might otherwise have been in tasting the “sweetness of spirit” in their lives – the kind of infinite joy that’s potentially available for all of us.

The incontrovertible proof that religions have been “anti-spiritual” in nature is the fact that, in all of them, asking critical questions is strongly discouraged. But how anyone thinks they can reach God without first asking a lot of questions and making many mistakes is beyond me. Why aren’t all questions valid, at least for the asking, no matter how stupid or naïve they might be?

God, like the wind is always on the move – everywhere and at all times. That’s why some religions refuse to countenance any image of God, or even word for “God”. How can you name or picture “Spirit” that, by its very nature, is unceasingly on the move? Humans have wanted to mold and worship a stationary God who’s “dead in the tracks” so they can believe it might be possible to exercise some form of control over such God. Well, even though the managers of these religions have been able to control the language and images their particular religion uses for God – such people will probably never be able to actually encounter, much less develop a deep relationship with the divine.

So, my question is, is it possible for us to start all over again – even though it would be painful to acknowledge wasting so much energy over millennia on a wrong idea – i.e., the attempt to institutionalize “Spirit” – which by definition can’t work? In fact, isn’t it true that the greater effort we put into institutionalizing Spirit, the farther we’ll eventually end up from God.

Let’s try spiritual freedom – trusting in the spirituality of actual individuals. If this happens, it’ll be alright. No – more than that – it’ll be really good!

I promise.

THE NECESSITY OF FREEDOM IN ACHIEVING SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION

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The more I think about what’s required for us to evolve spiritually, the more I have ended up thinking about freedom.  In Diner Mystic, I included a Zen quote by Lin-Chi, that says:

“O you followers of Truth! If you wish to obtain an orthodox understanding of Zen, do not be deceived by others.  Inwardly or outwardly, if you encounter any obstacles kill them right away.  If you encounter the Buddha, kill him; if you encounter the Patriarch, kill him; … kill them all without hesitation, for this is the only way to deliverance.  Do not get yourselves entangled with any object, but stand alone, pass on, and be free!”

At the time, I thought he was right, but hadn’t yet thought all the way through just why he’s right.  Ultimately, I have come to the conclusion that the essential nature of God is freedom – that it’s impossible for God to exist without absolute freedom.  Any ideas that we have of God that are less than this, or that restrict God’s freedom in any way, are just plain wrong. It’s difficult, however, for human beings to think clearly about a God who has this kind of absolute freedom – because it’s difficult to think about what possessing that kind of freedom would mean for human beings themselves.  Without this freedom, God is not God and, equally so, without it, it would never be possible for human beings to discover their true selves.  It’s that important!

I intend to address this issue of spiritual freedom more fully in my next post.

SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION

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Isn’t it becoming clear that evolution in the material world has taken us just about as far as we’re going to go – and that this obviously will not be enough?  Sadly, our prospects as a species are probably going to be pretty dim if that’s all we’re ever going to have.

Only by humanity evolving spiritually gives us a good chance of surviving “over the long haul”.

If that’s true, the main issue is how to do it – how can we evolve spiritually? We’ve had the benefit of some pretty amazing spiritual teachers, long ago, who arrived in the world and dedicated themselves to helping us – and this certainly has had a largely positive effect – but now, spiritually, we seem to be stalled – just drifting.

So what’s the next step?

Most of us believe that the only real path available is that of material evolution – i.e., we need to become even more intelligent and harder working – which, after all, gets us into a top universities and, ultimately, allows us the best chance of entering on important and prosperous careers.  Yet this path, if continued over an extended period of time, could actually lead to the separation of humanity into different “species,” distinguished by high IQs and broad cultural knowledge, on the one hand, so that only highly intelligent, hardworking manipulators, and, ultimately, maybe even self-programmable computers, as opposed to spontaneous, loving, truthful, and just human beings, will eventually end up inheriting the earth.

I think it’s time that we make a conscious choice as to which evolutionary path we should take. For example, in Diner Mystic, I wrote: “Spiritual evolution … enable[s] humanity to escape the hard steel rails of material evolution.  Spirituality won’t necessarily increase our intelligence, or our ability to manipulate the material world, but it could eventually evolve us into an entirely different type of humanity – the kind envisioned by Jesus, Buddha and Mohammed.”

Let’s take that path and relinquish a materialistic one that ultimately ends up in a non-human, non-God kind of world!

Would You Be Kind Enough To Call In Now?

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For the ancient Greeks, there must have been a time when the name “Zeus” suffused people with awe, especially when gazing up at rugged Cretan mountains and seeing frightening flashes electrifying the night sky, along with hearing deep-bass rumblings rolling out into the distant horizon like huge heavy metal balls.

When Roman civilization succeeded the Greeks, however, “Zeus” got translated into “Jupiter,” and the numinous began to fade in light of this new rapidly-expanding world power. What were “gods,” then, compared to people’s actual experience of Roman world power – the power relied upon by successive Caesars to justify declaring themselves to be “gods”?

Today, in America, as Rome’s successor empire, “God” has gotten as dim as the evening star – barely visible through vast metropolitan conurbations of “light haze”. When any of us ever does bother to look up from our ongoing daily affairs, we usually only see the spiritual equivalent of phosphorescent streetlights.  All the earlier “bright-line” moral/spiritual distinctions set down by the ancient spiritual masters, prophets and saints are no longer clearly distinguishable by us through this society’s electronic media haze.  Tragically, the numinous – that is, the direct individual experience of the “Holy” – is no longer even imaginable for most of us.

Why am I talking about a Nineteenth/Twentieth Century “God” who’s apparently already started on “his” count-down to retirement, on the way to becoming just another of civilization’s memory-relics?

Isn’t it true that the entire Western religious infrastructure, along with all the people supporting it, has now entered a process of irreversible collapse – and is rapidly becoming part of the past?

The main question for us, now, is: does anyone out there know what’s coming next? Who might be capable of spotting incoming bits of joy somewhere out there on the horizon traveling fast enough and hard enough to break through our protective-concrete traditions and bring us a hint of fresh spiritual life?

Who’s out there and, if you are, would you be kind enough to call in now?