The entire Christian message of the Bible is summed up in this quote from, Psalm 46: 10 in the Old Testament: "Be still and know that I am God." Understanding this, however, requires some insight into God's response to Moses in the Old Testament, Book of Exodus 3:14, when Moses asks God who he should tell the people he is speaking to. God says, "Tell them, 'I am that I am' " has spoken. God says, "I AM" has sent you to the Israelites. This is God's name. He says it will be his name forever and this is how he is to be addressed.
This "stillness: that presumably we can "know," that enables knowledge of God, is also claimed by Jesus when he says in the Gospel of John 8:31, "...you will know the truth and the truth will set you free." Then at the end of chapter 8 Jesus says to the Pharisees, "truly I say to you before Abraham was I am." Of course they stoned him. Why?
Because Jesus who, you recall, says he is in us, that is, he is us, precedes all time. "He," that is, the "I AM" that he is, precedes all time even the historical time of the advent of the people of Israel marked with their founding Father, Abraham. Jesus, like God, is saying that the "I AM" that he is, is the Eternal 'I AM.' Jesus is also saying I am that "I AM." Jesus is either the Messiah, the one announcing the Kingdom of God on earth; or, he is a fraud. But he also has claimed the identity of God, Himself and you/me. He brings God down to earth; and man up to God.
Jesus is claiming to be the transcendent. He is declaring his oneness with God and yet his oneness with us. As the 23rd Psalm declares "he restoreth our souls...and we shall dwell in the House of the Lord forever." That is the "I AM," that you and I are, in Jesus Name, is the House of God, the Eternal Self which we are aware of as the "I AM that I am."
This is Ramana Maharshi's pure Self-Awareness. We just have to accept it as the gift that it is. It is "Given" and we either accept it or struggle to understand it; or doubt it; or try to prove it; or earn it; or try to deserve it.
Why not just accept it, appreciate it, be thankful, grateful and therefore full or that Grace. Then we are free, for we are the truth itself that sets us free.
Saturday, May 30, 2015
Monday, May 25, 2015
BEYOND WATERED-DOWN MEDITATION PRACTICE
True meditation begins in earnest when the unconscious is contacted. All else is relaxation exercise and ersatz spirituality. Transcendence of the unconscious determination of life is enlightenment. Then meditation is unnecessary.
Saturday, May 23, 2015
CHRISTIANITY AND MEDITATION: Part II
Meditation, then, is communion with the truth of the spirit. When Jesus says that we will see him he means that we will see the way, the truth and the life which he himself claims to be. We will enter into and become one with that Light of lights. The way, truth and life will be our own as the Light of lights, that is, the Consciousness or Awareness that is the true Self.
John's Gospel proclaims that the world can't see him nor know this truth from its vantage point. On the path of meditation, the way of meditation, one abides in that vantage point beyond the world while being able to be "in" the world. And yet, as Jesus points out, one need not be "of" the world. Nor does one need to abide in the state of bliss, of Ananda. One knows it. We know the Christ within us, the Christ which brings us to oneness with God. Jesus himself points to this special "knowledge" when in John's Gospel he says, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free." It is herein that we step out of ego consciousness as one's self and find ourselves in that Awareness, that transcendental knowledge behind which no mental consciousness can go.
Such awareness, Self-Awareness, is absolute transcendence. It is the untranscendable vantage point of all vantage points, the perspective beyond context and point of view. All phenomena of world, mind, body, emotions and willfulness pass through the Self in their impermanence as mere phenomena through the living eternal presence of the silent, still knowing Self. The self-love felt here is the presence of God, the peace that passeth all understanding, yet a knowledge not to be transcended, yet accompanied by the beauty, joy, freedom and final fulfilment, the promised salvation. Here now in your very presence.
John's Gospel proclaims that the world can't see him nor know this truth from its vantage point. On the path of meditation, the way of meditation, one abides in that vantage point beyond the world while being able to be "in" the world. And yet, as Jesus points out, one need not be "of" the world. Nor does one need to abide in the state of bliss, of Ananda. One knows it. We know the Christ within us, the Christ which brings us to oneness with God. Jesus himself points to this special "knowledge" when in John's Gospel he says, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free." It is herein that we step out of ego consciousness as one's self and find ourselves in that Awareness, that transcendental knowledge behind which no mental consciousness can go.
Such awareness, Self-Awareness, is absolute transcendence. It is the untranscendable vantage point of all vantage points, the perspective beyond context and point of view. All phenomena of world, mind, body, emotions and willfulness pass through the Self in their impermanence as mere phenomena through the living eternal presence of the silent, still knowing Self. The self-love felt here is the presence of God, the peace that passeth all understanding, yet a knowledge not to be transcended, yet accompanied by the beauty, joy, freedom and final fulfilment, the promised salvation. Here now in your very presence.
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
CHRISTIANITY AND MEDITATION, Part I
Meditation is fundamental and essential to Christianity. In Christianity sin means to "miss the mark." That is, to sin means that one is not aligned with the intentions of God for your life. All too often sin is interpreted as moral failure. But one doesn't sin because one fails or transgresses morally; one fails morally because one first sins. But what is sin?
If sin means 'missing the mark', this means that one has fallen off the path of living according to one's faith, belief and commitment. In the Kath-Upanishad it asserts that "the path to salvation is narrow and as difficult to walk as the razor's edge." The same is surely true in Christianity although sometimes Christians seem to understand it to be a kind of "comfortable Christianity" in which a quick repetition of a confessional acceptance of Christ as your Lord and Savor is sufficient. I suspect this isn't the case. It is well necessary but not sufficient.
It seems to me that the God of Love requires a communion with the truth of that love and a oneness with Divine Being. In short it invites one to be in communion with that Love itself as one's very own being and way of being-in-the-world. The place of meditation is to establish and maintain this communion. After all, in the Gospel of St. John, chapter 14: 19, John writes, the "spirit of His Truth" will help and guide us. Here John refers to the Holy Spirit as our Advocate. It continues:
"The world cannot accept him (the spirit of the truth of the Christ), because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. Before long the world will not see me but you will see me. Because I live you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me and I am in you."
In that last line of quotation from John, he punctuates the Oneness of the Father Divine, Jesus as the Christ who is one with God and in us,and finally, you and me who are in Christ. This "trinity" is fundamental. It is here that meditation is that practice of communion in which one realizes this Oneness with Christ and God. Any prayer which addresses God or petitions God must come from this place. It is meditation that brings us to that place, the place in which God may be authentically addressed and listened to in prayer. Finally in that "communion" of meditation, prayer and meditation become one. Father, Christ and Disciple are united in the Holy Spirit of Godhead. One abides in meditation and one's life becomes a living prayer.
If sin means 'missing the mark', this means that one has fallen off the path of living according to one's faith, belief and commitment. In the Kath-Upanishad it asserts that "the path to salvation is narrow and as difficult to walk as the razor's edge." The same is surely true in Christianity although sometimes Christians seem to understand it to be a kind of "comfortable Christianity" in which a quick repetition of a confessional acceptance of Christ as your Lord and Savor is sufficient. I suspect this isn't the case. It is well necessary but not sufficient.
It seems to me that the God of Love requires a communion with the truth of that love and a oneness with Divine Being. In short it invites one to be in communion with that Love itself as one's very own being and way of being-in-the-world. The place of meditation is to establish and maintain this communion. After all, in the Gospel of St. John, chapter 14: 19, John writes, the "spirit of His Truth" will help and guide us. Here John refers to the Holy Spirit as our Advocate. It continues:
"The world cannot accept him (the spirit of the truth of the Christ), because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. Before long the world will not see me but you will see me. Because I live you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me and I am in you."
In that last line of quotation from John, he punctuates the Oneness of the Father Divine, Jesus as the Christ who is one with God and in us,and finally, you and me who are in Christ. This "trinity" is fundamental. It is here that meditation is that practice of communion in which one realizes this Oneness with Christ and God. Any prayer which addresses God or petitions God must come from this place. It is meditation that brings us to that place, the place in which God may be authentically addressed and listened to in prayer. Finally in that "communion" of meditation, prayer and meditation become one. Father, Christ and Disciple are united in the Holy Spirit of Godhead. One abides in meditation and one's life becomes a living prayer.
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Meditation, Religion and Philosophy
Religion is the way of love and faith. Philosophy is the way of reason and truth. Meditation is the way of love and truth through experience of the mystery.
Monday, May 11, 2015
AT PLAY IN THE FIELDS OF THE LORD
When one forces, strains or tries hard, efforting to achieve, change or avoid something, it's likely that the ego-self, the ego-judge, has taken over. It is propelled by that voice that says "should" or "should not." That part of ourselves that is unaccepting and sees lack in the self, drives us onward without ever being really fulfilled. Why? Because it runs anxiously from pain, fear, doubt and guilt, rather than passionately toward anything real, anything that actually resides within the truth of the self.
Rather than allowing ourselves to be playfully aligned with the intentions of god, the universe or authentic desire for the joy of the dance, this "ego-judge" coerces a painful, strident effort that destroys the joy of the journey. Rather than first feeling our desires and what we love to do and be, we strive to find something that will give us love. Rather than starting with love's direction, we calculate what will make us loving and loveable and try to effect it from without.
But when we honor the simple honesty of the immanent feeling of life itself, then we find that love of self that opens to the beauty of it all. Abiding in the heart, the feeling of life itself, the way that we can effortlessly walk blossoms in its truth. The ego-self wants the best for us but has been taught not to trust. It must be asked, "What do you really want for yourself, when the fear, belief in lack and emotionalities of all sorts are put in abeyance, and the heart is allowed to feel, speak and act?" When one lets go of the reproach of the world, the mind and the emotions, what do you really want? Go there. Let what you know be there.
Rather than allowing ourselves to be playfully aligned with the intentions of god, the universe or authentic desire for the joy of the dance, this "ego-judge" coerces a painful, strident effort that destroys the joy of the journey. Rather than first feeling our desires and what we love to do and be, we strive to find something that will give us love. Rather than starting with love's direction, we calculate what will make us loving and loveable and try to effect it from without.
But when we honor the simple honesty of the immanent feeling of life itself, then we find that love of self that opens to the beauty of it all. Abiding in the heart, the feeling of life itself, the way that we can effortlessly walk blossoms in its truth. The ego-self wants the best for us but has been taught not to trust. It must be asked, "What do you really want for yourself, when the fear, belief in lack and emotionalities of all sorts are put in abeyance, and the heart is allowed to feel, speak and act?" When one lets go of the reproach of the world, the mind and the emotions, what do you really want? Go there. Let what you know be there.
Friday, May 1, 2015
TWO REALMS, ONE REALITY: THE SELF
In our experience there are two realms or dimensions of experience, phenomena and awareness. A phenomenon is anything that appears in awareness. It may be stuff of the material world, mind stuff or emotion. Nevertheless it is all phenomena, appearances within the realm of conscious awareness. The second realm or dimension is awareness itself. I am awareness essentially. Of course I am also of the nature of the stuff of the phenomenal dimension but only insofar as it appears as a function of awareness. When I show up as awareness, then the world appears. We may assume or believe that the world is there no matter what, that is, whether awareness or consciousness is present or not. But that the world is there may be a given. What the world is depends upon awareness. My awareness is also the phenomenal and therefore Reality itSelf. In that fact it follows that I am that Real and that the unity of the two realms is the Self. Therefore rest and abide in the pure awareness of one's true Self.
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