Tag Archives: True Self

SEARCHING FOR GOD – WITH BOTH MINDS

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We possess two minds: a logical/mathematical/scientific mind and a creative artistic one:
Joined at the brain’s center they function best when acting together
Because it takes both to encompass reality.

Today, many people are using just one of their minds in their search for God or for understanding reality – the “logical” one –
And that’s true whether we’re speaking of believers in orthodox religion or atheists –
Since both can be quite comfortable construing reality in a purely logical manner.

Atheists – being materialistic – use “Occam’s Razor” to crop spirit entirely out of life’s picture,
While Fundamentalists and Conservative Evangelicals proselytize a “god-given” faith
composed of ancient superstitions systematized into a “take it or leave it” religion.

Both are dead-ends.

I propose that people should start searching for God and their true self by using both minds. A new post-“postmodern” field of human endeavor will be necessary to accomplish this: a freely creative and artistic, yet inherently rational, spiritual discipline of using both of our minds.

In the past, artists convincingly portrayed various aspects of God, but restricted their images and stories to their culture’s predominant religion – whether Christianity, Buddhism, or Islam.

Today, however, artists need to widen their scope of work to encompass all human religions, spirituality, thought, and emotions. Human beings’ highest and most joyful levels of creativity could then be used to “paint pictures” and “tell stories” about God, and to discover their true selves – with absolute freedom – while grounding this new“ spiritual-art” in a profound and rational understanding of reality.

This “Two Minds spiritual discipline,” however, will never be included in the course curricula at Princeton Theological Seminary or Oral Roberts University because this combination of a rational scientific approach with spontaneous and free artistic creativity, by its very nature, could never be the subject of academic systematization.

The best thing would be for each person to become a “scientific-artist” or “artistic-scientist” (depending upon one’s natural preference), and to go and search for God and one’s true self on their own – using both minds. If they happen to learn about someone who might be helpful to them in that search – they should go and talk to that person – one on one.

Repeat, as often as necessary, until radiant with joy!

“LIVING IN SIN” – AND DECIDING TO WALK BACK OUT OF IT

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Most of us, today, find ourselves “living in sin” because, at some point,
We misplaced our “true selves” –
Relinquishing what God gave us as our very own.

We were drawn to this path by our parents –
Who wished, initially, for us to survive, and then, later on, to thrive –
But, until the world, one day, becomes “God’s Kingdom” – once and for all –
That was probably the right call to make at that time.

So, we never made a conscious choice about exchanging our original true self
For a conventional adult ego –
The exchange that resulted in our losing “everything” truly meaningful to us.

The only possible cure is for us to admit the hard truth
That we actually have lost our true self, sometime or somewhere, during childhood,
And, now, don’t know how to find it again.

It’s a lie we’ll be able to recover our true self in one faith-soaked stroke –
Whether in this life or even in passing from this one to the next –
In truth, it may only be retrieved one step at a time –
The first one being the most important!

That first step by a true self,
Is like trying to put a tiny foot inside God’s huge shoe
And having faith it’ll fit.

At the heart of all religions is an implied promise to get your true self back –
It’s what we’re supposed to spend our entire lives accomplishing –
However, religion never comes out and says this openly
Because it would also mean, eventually, giving up on religion itself
And religion has way too much invested in us to ever reveal that!
So it doesn’t say anything –
And, instead, asserts that each individual needs religion in order to be “saved” –
Even though the promised salvation only begins after one’s life is over –
Or, perhaps, needs to be provided by someone else.

The truth is – all you actually need is God – and the heart of a courageous human being –
The truth is you can have everything – just for the asking –
That when you’re given a “green light” by God –
Which everyone who asks eventually receives –
You’ll be able to start walking – backwards – retracing all the steps taken by your false self –
Back through religion, society, parents, and even your physical birth –

Until you’re completely free (that is, “reborn,” in the language of Jesus) –
To the point where you no longer belong to anyone but God
And, of course, your true self – the “pearl” –
God provided us with originally – as our own individual and exclusive gift!

CHURCH LIKE A MUSEUM

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Jesus had this idea
That, one day, we might become complete human beings
Instead of remaining, in some part, human animals –

That we might set aside our materialistic desires and fantasies
And live in “reality,” that is, in spirit.

To Jesus – spirit was God,
And the reason we’re prevented from seeing God, face-to-face,
Without dying,
Is the very real danger of seeing ourselves.

In light of this, Jesus preached death to artificial selves
And the rebirth of our true self –

The “pearl” –

After he died, Church officials rushed to designate him as “God” –
But, of course, by then, he was no longer able to stop that from happening.

His finest gift to us was the validation of an active, open, loving human spirit –
While his successors spent their time constructing a spiritual/materialistic empire.

Everything they did, at least in part, led away from God –

So, today, we attend church, reverentially, like entering a museum.

JOY

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… since there is no joy without God, but all joy is in God,
and God himself is wholly joy, it follows that the first speaker
said first and before anything else ‘God’. Dante

The greatest love affair a person can experience is with God. When we begin to fall in love with God and start searching for our true self, the confirmation that we’re going in the right direction will be the amount of joy we feel in our hearts – a fountain of sparkling, radiant “life” that starts bursting through our broken self.

Pleasure and happiness are good things to experience, but joy far surpasses them. Nothing comes close: not sexual orgasms, superb food, high art, or incalculable wealth. That’s because no one can buy God or one’s true self. This is the “pearl” for which we should be willing to sell everything because, without joy, what’s the point of living, no matter how successful or famous we become? Joy is a dance with God that takes place in our hearts – a dance that, once begun, never ends.

The further along the path towards God and the true self you travel, the greater the feelings of joy you’ll experience. You can see it in faces of the “saved” – the saints and enlightened ones – who literally become suffused with radiant joy. When you’re overloaded with joy, when you simply can’t take a single drop more, what arrives next is ecstasy – when you feel as though you’re flying high above the ground. Ecstasy means “standing outside yourself,” while simultaneously remaining firmly grounded inside yourself.

Joy is experienced at the core of our being – in our heart of hearts – in our true self. Living in the spirit is like attending a wedding celebration that never ends. Jesus repeatedly used weddings and celebrations as metaphors: people are invited to a wedding, but fail to come; or they come, but aren’t properly dressed for the celebration – a celebration in which Jesus is turning water into wine – i.e., turning the material into the spiritual. Weddings symbolize hope for the new life that will be created by entering into this new relationship. The weddings and celebrations Jesus was referring to are the ones where you discover your true self and then decide to go on and “marry” God.

“No one knows the source of joy” says Rumi. Actually, we do know – joy comes from experiencing God. Happiness may arise from many different things, but joy derives solely from our relationship with God. In the material, once-born world, everyone strives for happiness, but it’s in the world of spirit that we find the true source of joy. We actually can measure the health of our relationship with God by the amount of joy in our lives. An objective test as to whether you’ve repented (i.e., turned to God) is whether you’ve fallen in love with God. If you’re still joyless after you think you’ve turned to God, then you haven’t, no matter how religious you might appear to be or think you are.

from “Diner Mystic”

GOD LOOKS AT GOD WITHOUT HARM

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I want to be someone who, effortlessly, falls through interstices –
Who enjoys tumbling through –
Because God is alive there, and, pretty much,
Nowhere else.

You might believe a spiritual life can be built
One brick at a time –
But this is an illusion –
Instead, you’ll find you’ve only built a wall
Separating yourself from yourself.

It’s been said that no one who looks directly at God can survive –
But that’s incorrect –
No “false self” can do it –
Since artifice immediately dissolves upon the appearance of God.

Only a true self
Can look at God and survive
Because a true self is spiritually indivisible –

In other words,
“God” is able to look at God
Any time at all.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GOD AND THE TRUE SELF

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“The Kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.” Luke 17:20-21 (Emphasis added)

Do we become “God” when we have achieved the highest/best level of humanity?

No.

Do we become “God” upon enlightenment or, much more rarely, upon arrival as an Avatar of the Age?

Again, no.

Are human beings such a key part of reality that we may serve as a symbol for everything else – at least intellectually – and so, from that perspective, might be viewed as “equivalent to God”?

Good heavens, no!

***

God doesn’t want us to aspire to be “God”. God wants for us only to be our “true self” – so that we may gain entry into that “kingdom of God” that’s “within” us.

***

This “true self” is what God always intended for us to be – that is, the person we were destined to become if we ever stop working so hard at embellishing our ego self.

A true self is what God desires for everything and everybody – after all, cardinals, bees, and galaxies all exist exactly as God intends – however, none of them are given the freedom to become “something else,” i.e., to change themselves – like we are.

One day, when we decide to drop our false selves – like discarded clothes – we’ll be able to make an initial appearance into that innermost “kingdom of God”.

Upon returning to this interior “Eden,” and thereby gaining the self-reflective intelligence, spontaneity, and freedom that’s natural to human beings – it’s true that we’ll become “like” God – but only in the sense that we’ll have become as “natural” as God.

Listen – I’ll say it one more time since there’s so much confusion about this (especially from the world’s self–appointed, self-enriched gurus) – the point is not for us to become “God” – but only, while remaining a normal human being who has given up their artificial ego self – to become as natural as God.

IF YOU’RE ABLE TO DO THIS

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In some senses, you are who you look at –
When you meet someone, in a way, you become whom they’re experiencing –
Because, if you truly look –
You’ll see what they are seeing when they look at you –
So be careful about who you look at!

My advice is to look at God as much as possible –
When God returns your attention, God sees “perfection” –
Meaning all your potential in fully-flowered form –
Of course, that’s hard for you to accept
Because, in such binocular vision (looking through the eyes of God and self),
You’ll see yourself through the eyes of both –
And, of course, end up attempting to reconcile these two disparate visions.

So, if you dare to look at God,
You’ll experience God looking back at you –
It’s amazing, really, that you can do this
And not die!

You won’t – but it takes a lot of courage not to look away.

It can result in the sweetest “death” you’ll ever experience –
Because it’s only the death of an artificial entity – your ego,
While, simultaneously, your “true self” will be in the process of being born –
Something about which you dreamed your entire life
But could never remember – until this very moment.

When you look at God and discover
God looking back, it’s so wonderful
That, immediately, you’ll start singing: “Thank you,” “Thank you,” “Thank you,”
Letting gratefulness stream wildly out of your heart
That, otherwise, might explode
With Joy.

This is what I mean in saying: “Look at God” –
and not just a sidelong glance –
I’m saying: “Look, Look straight into God’s face.”

If you’re able to do this
You can have everything!

THE “STILL SMALL VOICE”

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What does it mean when the Bible says God speaks in a “still small voice” or a “whisper”?

I think it means that you won’t commonly discover God speaking through the pulpit of a church, synagogue, mosque or other institutional religious setting – much less through the electronic media.

It means God prefers to talk “one on one” –
So you’ll need to find the right kind of space and silence
Necessary to hear what God’s been trying to say to you.

I think only a “true self” is able to actually “hear” God
Because if it’s our ego that’s doing the listening, all it will ever hear is its own ego self –
Refracted back onto itself –
Along with affirmations of self,
Accolades for self, and
Lots and lots of justifications for self.

The kind of space and silence needed by a true self to hear God
Is spiritually known as the “sacred ground of being” –
For example, if you are asking to hear the truth from God
That’s what you will hear.

If you respectfully request the presence of God, you’ll always get God –
However, it’ll usually be in a still small voice or quiet whisper –
Heart to heart –
One on one.

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?!