Tag Archives: Jesus

HOW TO BE “LIKE” GOD

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It’s certainly not about being powerful –
A few spiritual masters have said that, after death,
Each of us will be able to create our own universe –
But that’s just silly.

We’re not ever going to be God –
Even though it is possible for us to be “like” God
By getting “free” of all the “not-God” surrounding us.

After all, God is absolutely free – and doesn’t have to ask before acting –
We can be just as free – and in the same sense.

Wouldn’t it be thrilling to be as free as God –
To start thinking and acting, as a human being,
The same as God would if God were in our place?

What’s the main impediment for doing this?
It’s the ego, which we have mistakenly identified as our “self”
But the ego is not our “true self,” it’s only one of our own creations –
And being “man-made” – is not part of what God originally gifted us with.

We feel as if we’d disappear without our ego –
That we’d be a no-body, a no-thing –

And that would be right!

Because we aren’t an ego, a body, or a thing,
We are spirit – potentially, totally free –
If we accept being our “true self” –

Free as God, if we choose to be.

In such case,
What we’d lose is our artificial “self” – our ego –
And what we would gain is our “true self” –

Jesus called it “the pearl.”

IS “HEAVEN” ONLY A CARTOON?

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Every “outer” God is a false God
And that’s why “Jesus” can’t be substituted for our own soul.

Everyone needs to walk by themselves –
To talk, and to make things –
At some point, each of us simply has to let go of all the “outer hands”
And trust to one’s “inner self.”

This might be taking a big risk, however –
Because if we’re not fully ready –
We might fall down –
Yet, without discovering our true self, we would be nothing –
Other than an imitative puppet – even though fairly effective in the world
And acknowledged to be such.

There’s really no approach to the real God without being one’s true self –
Isn’t that obvious?

Jesus tried to explain this, in his teaching and life –
But people didn’t “get” what he was talking about
And so developed theologies of dutifully following “Others” –
Sometimes called “God” or “Jesus,” and, in other religions, something else –
But it’s still the “Other” – and not our true selves.

We know this is a serious problem
That the world religions, by their very nature, have been unable to address –

The essential problem is that many of us live too much like “puppets” –
In which case, “Heaven,” for us, would be a cartoon too.

JESUS DID IT FIRST

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After, spiritually, we’ve fallen fast asleep –
Suddenly, God will open a door
Where, apparently, there had been no door –
And, with a good-natured chuckle, surprise us back to life!

Inside God’s voice may be heard another – more distant voice –
We hear it by being able to glimpse a face
Behind the face of society’s accepted quotidian “God.”

At times, though, it can seem like we’re a leaf floating downstream – just being carried along –
Sometimes exhilarated, at other times, getting stuck –
No matter how fast we go, however, usually we’re pretty passive –
So that what seems to us like “action” – is more like being a stone flung up into the air.

Given this, how much work and courage would it really take
To become fully conscious and fully alive –
To even start such an effort?

It might be easier than you think!
First, just wake up –
And then wake yourself a second time to your highest state of “awakeness” –
Walk to the nearest window
And look out –
If you’re fully “awake” by that time – more than you’ve ever been before –
At that very moment, you’ll get hit “right in the puss” with joy –
Human beings’ natural state.

It takes only a single moment to pass into eternity
Where we come to “life” without passing through a womb –
Avatars call this “life beyond life” –
Jesus called it pretty much the same thing – “being born again” –
But no one has described, specifically, what it’s really like.

Jesus lived through these peak experiences many times –
Especially, and finally, when singing the 22nd Psalm on the cross –
“My God, my God, why ….”

A touch of joy in death – unimaginable –

But Jesus did it first.

A FEMALE HERO

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Women are becoming steadily more free –
And this is a good thing –
Yet, there’s still no female world hero
To model ourselves upon.

No female avatar.
Or messiah.

Women will only become completely free
When we can see a woman act as God would act –
Talk as God would talk –
And look as God would look –
If God were a human being.

Jesus did this, so did Buddha and Mohammed –
But, now, it’s a woman’s turn.

For humanity, as a whole, to become fully human
Women have to start becoming so “like God”
That we can actually see them living this in real life.

Recently, there’s been an increasing desire for women to achieve this –
Just look at all the movies filling up with female action heroes
Reflecting this long-repressed human desire.

It’s important, though, for the first one to actually arrive –
It might be “the purest-hearted girl in the world” from the Southern Hemisphere –
Who’ll teach us everything we need to know –
Who’ll embody God so we can see
What’s been lacking that can save us

Now.

FEEDING FIVE THOUSAND

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There was no real “physical” miracle here –
So this shouldn’t be seen as qualifying Jesus as “God.”

However, there was a profound teaching –
About sharing.

As the day wore on –
The disciples started wondering
How the thousands of people who had come to hear Jesus were going to be fed.

At first, the disciples considered going out and buying food at nearby villages –
But, instead, Jesus said: “You feed them” –
Instructing his disciples to start sharing their food as an example
Of how followers of Jesus should respond to a common need.

This particular teaching, at the time, was such a striking “symbolic action”
That, eventually, it became established in Christianity as the Eucharist –
Illustrating that followers of Jesus, when meeting to share teaching about God,
Should also share a meal-in-common – that included everyone –
Men and women, poor and rich, old and young.

The Gospels refer to 5,000 men being fed,
But the heart of the story actually centers on the biblically-invisible women –
Without which there would have been no food to share.

The men came to listen to Jesus without (like men sometimes do) thinking ahead about food –
While the disciples only started becoming concerned about it later in the day –
But the women had already planned ahead
And brought enough food to feed their families and friends.

Jesus intuited this, of course, because his soul was both male and female.

This first “all-people” spiritual dinner turned into a big outdoor picnic –
Celebrating God’s word as taught by Jesus –
Along with the sharing of food by the women enabling everyone to be fed –
With plenty of leftovers.

This was a teaching about spiritual democracy –
That all persons, of whatever age or sex, stand equally before God –
Symbolized by their common sharing of food.

There was no “magic” here at all –
The teaching was simply that Jesus’ followers, using their initiative and faith,
Should simply share what they had with others –
(As opposed to the segregated eating by classes and sexes common at the time).

This teaching eventually was included in all four Gospels – establishing a new social pattern for Jesus’ followers –
Ultimately becoming the Eucharist (which, unfortunately, over time, has largely lost its original meaning).

Neither the Christian Church nor the rest of the world, has yet to fully embrace this teaching –
That followers of Jesus (whether Christian or not) are called upon
To start the reign of God –
By starting to share what they have.

If America, for its part, could drop its primitive faith and reliance on military and economic power
And start sharing what it has with the rest of the world
Wouldn’t we – especially under the leadership of women (who respond naturally to people’s physical needs) –
Be capable of successfully feeding, clothing, and housing all eight billion of us?

Wouldn’t that be the miracle God wants –
For human beings to thoughtfully and lovingly share the world’s resources with one another.

As I said, Jesus didn’t believe in physical miracles like the “magical multiplication” of loaves and fishes –
But he did believe in spiritual miracles involving the kinds of changes possible for a human heart

If just given a little “spiritual push”.

APPETITES

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Over time, God’s biblical names have turned to ashes –
And begun drifting down –
Each ancient name a wasted universe.

Even though the names are “pretty dead” by now –
God doesn’t miss them – at all.

People don’t want an original God anymore – it’s just too much reality to bear –
Instead, they’ve substituted smaller, ersatz Gods – stuffed animals, really –
In order to get themselves to sleep – while still being awake.

Since most people will never be privileged to see, hear, or experience God themselves –
They’ve authorized the construction of large stone structures –
Each topped by a white arrow that points straight up –
Symbolizing that something’s up there!

But actually nothing’s there.

So, when people decide they no longer want a real God any longer –
And begin worshipping their own fabulous human productions instead –
They begin feeling an increasing spiritual hunger –
That is, a strong desire to eat everything in the world –
Whether money, fashion, wearable computers,
New ideas, exotic food, foreign vacations, and much much more –

As a result, it’s getting pretty hot – and heating up even more –
In a sort of reverse Vesuvius effect –
Each person an upside-down volcano – pulling “hot” materials back inside themselves.

God is appalled at this, but can do nothing
Because these people no longer exist as ordinary human beings –
Having become primarily appetites.

It is natural to eat – so long as it’s in suitable proportions –
It only becomes unnatural when it’s gotten completely out of control –
For example, when one tries to “eat” enough to fill the gap left by a missing real God.

Jesus, Buddha, and Mohammed all warned us against this –
When our appetites become more important than other human beings, or even God –
When appetites take over and start devouring our human spirit.

The strongest materialistic forces in the world have been steadily pushing this –
With global capitalism out in front –

The advertising and public relations campaign runs as follows:

“Become appetites, little ones –
Don’t even think about God –

After all, you can’t “eat” God,
Can you?”

TEARS OF JOY

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Evangelical Christians talk about being “born again” –
As if it’s easy.

And that suffering and dying are nothing more than just saying the words
“Jesus Christ.”

But this is all a sham.

Suffering and dying are very difficult –
As Jesus so graphically demonstrated.

But that’s what it costs –

Dying, to make way for the birth
Of the kind of people God meant for all of us to be –

Pretty much everything in the ancient world had to be destroyed
To make room for that.

It’s the same for each one of us – it won’t be easy –
Giving up and
Starting all over again –

Arriving straight out of a spiritual womb
Into a sky we’ve never experienced before.

At birth, everyone starts crying,
You, your friends, the entire world – everyone –

Tears of joy.

SURFING

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Human beings desire control in their lives –
Which is both a good, as well as a bad thing.

Actually, life is more like surfing –

If you go too far forward –
Or too far back –

You fall in.

It’s the same with our attempts at control –
Not enough, and life starts to fall apart,
Too much, and it can freeze up.

Western culture teaches that we should strive for as much control in our lives as possible
But this has led to embracing a “material” God.

It’s similar, isn’t it, to what Jesus said about the birds –
Which don’t have to worry about what they eat or wear.
Jesus knew people had to work –
But thought it just wasn’t the most important thing.

The paradox each of us needs to solve
Is how to become our “true self” –
The child that’s still able to play –
In the midst of a responsible adult life.

It is a lot like surfing, isn’t it –
Balance being the most important skill.

Playful as a child –
Responsible as an adult.

This takes a lot of practice
Like all other critical life skills.

STUNG INTO LIFE

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We believe it’s impossible to “be like God” –
So, instead, we dissolve into puffy white clouds
And float across endless blue skies.

We’ve also come to believe that it’s impractical for us to “die”
In order to live,
But, on unique occasions, we’re able to do it anyway.

After all, Jesus did it, and not just at the end of his life –
But every moment of every day –
So, logically,
So can we.

Overhead, “death” circles
Like a buzzing blue-bottle fly.

Go away death!
We don’t want to be stung
Into life
Today.

WHO’S ETERNAL?

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Here’s the question:

Can we be like Jesus –
I mean really like Jesus?

Or will he, instead, need to be eternally
Praying and paying
For us?

In other words,
Is it possible for each of us to communicate directly with God,
Or will we need to continue reciting denominational prayers
And forwarding them on to Jesus
For some later delivery?

Should we really be anxious about experiencing God individually –
Since, if God is Love, shouldn’t we feel free to run right to God –
Knowing God’s there, waiting for us?

Theology, steeples, sermons, and hymns –
All, in their varied ways, repeat: “Jesus is Lord” –

But that isn’t what Jesus prayed for –
Instead, he wanted each of us to become our own miracle.

He taught:

In this life – it’s you – and only you – who are eternal!