FB Comment

I do have a strong preference for myself and others to error on the side of being too nice, but I also fully agree that this can be just as much a way to avoid the very real fear, challenge and pain that make up the only reality we actually have irregardless of what we try to tell ourselves our reality is or should be. And either way it equally and unfairly pushes the negatives of our actual shared reality onto others and keeps us stuck with the avoidable consequences and pain of trying to avoiding it. In other words coddling ends up having the same effects on a society as the powerful rigging things in their favor and thus oppressing the less fortunate. And our particular society at this moment seems to have a great deal of both whom think only the other ideology is to blame. (And I should put in the disclaimer that I have been greatly coddled in ways that have helped me come around to some better ways after life made continuing the old way impossible and in ways that have allowed me to stay way too spoiled still.)

Faith of our Fathers or our own

I do not think there are any safe roads (paths) to God, and that is why people normally opt for a safer alternative.

I concur with the late Carl Jung when he said, "One of the main functions of organized religion is to protect people against a direct experience of God." (I am not saying that is true among the initial creators and followers of what becomes an organized religion.)

If we do choose (or probably more likely find we have no other viable alternative) to going after the real thing we will almost certainly find we are always somewhat wrong and frequently very wrong in our beliefs and motivations. Additionally, we will find that we are often unsuccessful in living out those beliefs and motivations even when they are mostly right. As such, the only way we can actually be successful is if we are continually reflecting upon/contemplating our path with whatever connection we know from experience how to make, and then willing to admit and correct our mistakes as we realize them.

In this way, over time, our actual (as opposed to aspirational) beliefs become refined to something more and more accurate and we do improve considerably in successfully living them. At the same time we are generally drawn to new and more challenging arenas of beliefs and actions to live in and share the ever expanding Grace we find, which keeps us forever in need of a great deal of contemplation/reflection/prayer and the willingness to admit and try to correct our errors as we discover them.

Sin from the illusion of separateness

I really did not want anything to do with religion for a long time because it seemed to me that religion was trying to teach me that God created me as a sinner and then was mad at me and planning to punish me for being a sinner. I am still not sure if that is what religion was trying to teach me or not. I am sure I still want nothing to do with any religion that is trying to teach me that.

Fortunately, I was desperate enough that worrying about theories of various religions/denominations/etc became a luxury I could not afford and I had to focus on actually doing spiritual practices, such as confessing sins to the most trustworthy I could find, trying to make up for harms I’ve inflicted, engaging consistently in some sort of contemplative meditation/prayer practice, trying to be a trustworthy and generous fellow to those trying to do similar things, etc.

As a result most of my spiritual answers come from these practices, as opposed to any particular authority, whether person or scripture or textbook. I realize that makes me misguided at times, and acknowledge that. At the same time when people have completely opposite interpretations of what scripture or anything else means, I’d suggest they are being guided similarly – by their own spiritual practices or refusal to submit to spiritual practices and trying to find a way around them - and just do not recognize this or admit it. I say this to be transparent to help anyone who might read the things I write to understand where they come from. I also say it with the great hope that maybe it will encourage others to trust the process of spiritual disciplines and the answers they provide as the best and most accurate ever evolving answers we can grasp while also knowing they will always be incomplete and somewhat wrong and sometimes completely wrong.

With that disclaimer of sorts, I am going to explore what sin is, where it came from, and how we should view our continued use of it. My definition of sin is any action to gain an advantage at the expense of someone or something else. The root of all sin is seeing myself as separate from everything else, which is a good rudimentary description of consciousness, and I believe what the Bible is talking about with eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Consciousness is the ability to view ourselves as separate from our surroundings and evaluate how we fit into those surroundings. If you combine that with free will and the desire to survive and prosper we are bound to act in ways that try to gain advantages at the expense of other people and things, which again is my definition of sin. Essentially, I am saying the things that make us human are the very things that make us sinful, but also trying to present it in a way that removes an element of moral outrage from it since to be human is to be sinful by design unless or until we develop the wisdom to realize there is more to the story.

While it is true that we are somewhat separate from our surroundings it’s even more true that anything and everything is only defined and meaningful as it related to its surroundings. Each of us and everything else are inseparable parts of greater wholes and The Greatest Whole, which means if we try to prosper at the expense of our surroundings we are harming and putting up artificial boundaries with what we are inescapably a part of. As such, what I am defining as sin (and allowing ourselves or others to engage in it) is dumb as much as it is anything else. And viewing it as something dumb that we want to find wiser solutions for is often a much more helpful perspective to successfully find those solutions for ourselves and our communities.

This does not mean competition is necessarily bad. We often do not reach anywhere near our potential for ourself or our surroundings without being pushed by something like competition or calamity, and being lazy and not wanting to be pushed is as much taking from our surroundings as cut throat competition. It does mean that competition should not be rigged to favor those setting up the competition or their friends and that the loser is not crushed and is given a chance for further fair/level competition or providing other meaningful/valued contributions.

Judging

We can only be whole with/connect to/experience others and God to the extent we can be whole with all parts of ourselves in their presence. The things we judge in others are the things we feel/believe prevent us from being whole/honest/open in their presence. Often good reasons exist from our experience with them or others we project them to be similar to to feel/believe the parts we hide will be rejected if we expose them. So we need wisdom (a certain type of judgment) to help guide us to people, places, and ways that will be somewhat safe to explore and share the parts of ourselves we are (justifiably) scared to share and Faith in this wisdom, our fellows, and God to overcome this fear and move towards communion. To the extent we are able to become whole in this way with ourselves, others, and God we will also be gaining compassion for those that we once judged too harshly.

Grace and Justice

I completely agree that one of the most common ways for people to misunderstand God or Jesus's teachings is to take an anthropological perspective and yet we really have no other choice because we have to understand things through our own perspective which comes from experience while realizing that is limited.

I disagree with the way we normally error when taking this unavoidable anthropological approach. One of the major underlying themes of all Jesus's teachings was that God doesn't punish and is not interested in or even condone retribution. The father wants to heal and redeem only and we continually misunderstand this because we try to use God for our own ends.

Now people might say that God only wants to heal and redeem but he can't make us turn to him to do that. that seems to be true in ways for this earthly life (although if totally true would be inconsistent with saying it is all Grace.) If ECT is true though God either is not the God Jesus taught who only wants to heal and redeem or He is not very powerful, letting that get set up and not being able to change it.

Crazy as it seems I'm certain He has overwhelming mercy for all aka Grace. It makes no sense to say it is all Grace and then say some should be punished for not having received that Grace. And those who have received that Grace and are not doing everything they can to share it with others (especially since if you have received It you will know it is mostly transmitted by those who have received it acting graciously) are the most guilty of something, including me who lives a very spoiled life.

It would seem that I am discounting the value or importance of justice and I guess In a way I am, as an end in itself. Justice is extremely important, but this is because without a common struggling for justice among people here on earth doing God's work will mostly lead to being exploited rather than successfully sharing God's Grace. The parables of the prodigal son and the vineyard owner demonstrate that justice for its own sake is not important. They basically say all God is interested in is bestowing Grace and placing justice on the same level often blocks us from that Grace rather than help us embrace It or share It.

Brief FB Comment

We actually ought to be at least a little different version of ourselves in each area of our lives because in each area we have to try to figure out how to fit into that area in a way that is true to our core, but also useful or productive to that area when taking the long view of things. If that’s true it takes a lot of reflection/contemplation/prayer and patience (spending time with our core) considering where those 2 objectives meet, and then a lot of courage/faith to actually live the answer we receive while constantly reassessing if our initial answer actually still seems correct. Sharing the answers we think we are receiving with trusted others makes those answers much more likely to be fruitful and also helps a bunch with the courage/faith.

Separate or Connected

I do not know about at the sub-atomic level much, but the cause of the separation at the more visible levels is trying to avoid our own inescapable vulnerability from being hopelessly connected to everything else. We have no reality separate from our surroundings. Our reality is only in how we fit into and relate to our surroundings, the things we interact with, whether that be alone in nature, with one other person, with groups, or with the universe as a whole. We are in some ways also separate and unique and that is part of our reality, but that can only ever be part of our reality. We have no reality that does not include how we relate and fit into things beyond ourselves.

Being hopelessly connected to everything else means we are dependent upon everything else, but for my purposes here I want to focus mainly on our immediate surroundings, and the fact that it means we are vulnerable to our surroundings, including people. This vulnerability is what we have been trying to cheat, deny, suppress, and otherwise avoid since we developed consciousness (the awareness of being somewhat separate). Trying to avoid that inherent inescapable vulnerability is original sin or the fall. This includes our own natural inclination to deny and avoid it as well as all the worldly systems we have created and live under that are built upon its denial and suppression.

As such, vulnerability is the stone the builder refused, which becomes the cornerstone. This is of course a near perfect analogy since a cornerstone is the foundation stone or first stone from which everything else is built up from, and vulnerability is the inescapable fact that binds everything together for good or ill depending upon if we acknowledge it and maybe even celebrate it or deny and suppress it. I do not mean celebrate it as in trying to achieve or increase vulnerability for its own sake, but rather celebrate being united with everything else, which can only occur after we accept the inherent vulnerability of being part of something greater than ourself. In other words celebrate the key step or stumbling block of truly being in union because of where it leads.

I am not saying anything new here when I say that our troubles are caused by our attempts to avoid this inherent vulnerability, which we experience as pain/discomfort/suffering. However, we all seem to need to be constantly reminded, most of all me. The jumping off place for Buddhism are the noble truths regarding this suffering from our inescapable vulnerability. In Christianity, this jumping off place is the way of the cross or taking up our cross, which is essentially accepting the pain, discomfort, and vulnerability inherent in the LIFE Jesus came to share with us. And of course neither religion stops there and both say if we jump and follow where it leads we will find ourselves a new creation that is exactly what we have been looking for and beyond our wildest dreams all at the same time.

This happens because what we experience as pain/discomfort/suffering is actually from trying to avoid and deny this vulnerability and when we stop doing this we experience the LIFE Jesus was talking about, which is embracing the messy and unpredictable world as it is, as well as the messy and fragile (alone by ourself) person we are. When we do this we will be and feel embraced back and what we thought was pain and suffering that we had to avoid at all cost becomes wholeness internally and with everything else, the Entirety that I call God, but it does not matter what we call it, the process and results are the same.

When we avoid this process (which I most commonly still do) we are avoiding what actually is (LIFE) and thus the dead burying the dead. Part of being in this sense dead is being blinded to the possibility of any other way. Ever since we developed consciousness (the ability to see ourselves as separate and evaluate how we fit in or ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil if you like) we have been using that to try to hide our own inherent vulnerability from being part of everything else. Fortunately this makes us miserable and we search for better answers. Unfortunately, finding those better answers requires a lot of luck (grace), courage (action in spite of fear, aka faith), perseverance, and a lot more luck (grace).

As you mentioned each of our struggles are somewhat unique, although there are many similarities in the process. Generally some combination of suffering and love, mostly suffering for most, makes trying to continue to avoid our vulnerability impossible and we surrender to it at least a little, most commonly without knowing that might be fruitful. Then if we are lucky we find someone or a small group of people who seem to accept us even in what we probably view as a hopelessly defective state (and alone it is that). This could be a friend(s), therapist, clergy member, or in the beginning might even be an animal, like a dog. Sometimes it is also God alone, especially in nature, but there are no absolutes here.

From here we need more luck to recognize it is only when allowing ourselves to be vulnerable that we are capable of connection and still more luck to find people and places that allow us to practice that and find it fruitful. The still blind dead will try to kill it and we’ll need a lot of courage, perseverance, and luck to continue and find places where we can fruitfully practice it and grow strong in our faith individually and collectively. Part of this will be finding others to support in their own fledgling attempts to do likewise and push back against the institutions and practices that exploit any vulnerability they can find to continue their lonely pursuit of avoiding their own vulnerability.

Always going on way way too long I’ll stay true to form and start in from a little different angle. I do not personally like the term true self because all of me and everything else is true, the good, bad, and ugly. I used to prefer the deepest self and now prefer to refer to it as simply wholeness, but I think I mean basically the same thing by wholeness that others mean by true self. They are all about being unblocked and whole.

Even if we were never hurt by our experience of the world we would want to and try to hide our vulnerability. It is simply part of what makes us human. However, we are often hurt deeply by our experience of the world and this makes us develop barriers or blocks to protect our self and our vulnerability from actually experiencing the world. And as discussed above to the extent we are avoiding experiencing the world/our reality we are in an emotional/spiritual sense dead. Our own collection of barriers/blocks is what some refer to as our false self, another term I do not like because if they are my blocks they are a true part of me.

Anyway, these blocks are both what keeps us from wholeness and also our path to wholeness with ourself and everything else. The different methods and specifics of them are beyond my scope here (thankfully something is, right?) However, to generalize it is always by processing the hurt in some way that led to needing the block that the block is removed, and even more importantly we learn from the vulnerable part of us that was hurt and is involved in the processing how to interact differently with the world as to prevent re-injury much of the time and know even when someone hurts us going forward it is that person rejecting their own vulnerable self and not really about us at all. So we may be wise to avoid that person but it does not actually have to hurt or threaten our own wholeness/core/true self/etc.

As we get unblocked we experience our observing and integrating mind, which is very different than our thinking mind. For most of us our thinking mind mainly tries to justify and support our blocks, but when trained can learn to become a powerful tool for translating and articulating the insights from our observing and integrating mind.

Our observing and integrating mind is what actually experiences our reality though, moment to moment, to the extent we are unblocked. It is the part of us that automatically knows we are part of everything else and experiences that connection and union through its very being and its origin, from the big bang and evolution for example, as well as through our senses and awareness itself of our surroundings and hence our connection to those surroundings.

Addictions (as the word is commonly understood) are one of countless ways of masking, denying or otherwise avoiding our inherent vulnerability, all of which turn into something like addictions themselves.

Life's Messy

Most of our avoidable problems are related to people not being willing to be with the messy muddled middle ground of real life, whether internally/individually, between people or between groups, and thus try to pick an ideal (fantasy) to champion and fight for. This is true at all levels of life and relationships (marriages, families, friends, charitable organizations, churches, workplaces, politics, etc), and we never really arrive at the truth from both (or more) sides of an issue because of this. Democracy is dependant upon finding and implementing these truths from all sides of an issue that are not completely at odds with each other, as people initially assume, but we only find this out when we are willing to somewhat open mindedly experience the mess and discomfort of real life rather than retreating to our fantasies of how it ought to be or is supposed to be.

Brief FB Comment

Everyone I’ve met that has a faith that is attractive and contagious seems to have had that faith primarily formed struggling through overwhelming emotions, most commonly some variety of pain. So carry on and I'm sure your faith will become even more attractive and contagious.

Violence

I’ll start by asking why we resort to violence and it seems like the answer is almost always because we are scared or hurt (probably for very good reasons). This is easy to see in most of the typical scenarios that seem to pop into our heads with strangers threatening us or strangers or past relationships or life in general hurting us. It is a little harder to see in our close current relationships, which it seems you are trying to focus on without much luck.

While hidden better the same basic dynamics are at play in these close current relationships, basically fear that we will be hurt and exploited if we do not keep our guard up and ready to fight if needed and actually fight when the threat gets to a certain point. This of course is exacerbated by the fact that we have all been hurt and exploited a lot by various things that have happened in our lives. So basically it is our current real vulnerabilities magnified by our past unresolved pain that causes our current fear (of that vulnerability).

Before moving on lets look at where our very real vulnerabilities at any given time come from. They come from the fact that we are hopelessly an inseparable part of everything else, the alpha and omega - aka God, if you wish, but it is an undeniable fact whether we believe in God or not or whatever God we believe in. And the absolute core of Jesus’ message was that trying to hide or eradicate this vulnerability is what leads to death/hell/evil, and conversely that since God is the alpha and omega (Entirety including Eternity in both directions) embracing these vulnerabilities – the things keeping us separated from/broken off from/lost from God (the Entirety) is the path to the Father/Alpha and Omega/LIFE.

Unfortunately, the church lost this message when if became powerful and did not think it needed to be or embrace vulnerability anymore at the individual, collective, or institutional levels, and has been greatly focused on trying to come up with fancy and complex doctrines and dogmas to rationalize this path in the opposite direction of Jesus ever since. That theology would say that it does embrace vulnerability between individuals and God, but this is a complete lie if it does not embrace vulnerability in and with their immediate surroundings.

I am getting off track though. So let me get back to how this denial of vulnerability at all levels is what leads to violence at all levels. Let’s start with individual close relationships since I think that is what you wanted to focus on and where it all starts. Trying to hide, mask, deny, etc our vulnerabilities is the very thing that makes us guarded/defensive/etc and then leads us to withdrawal or lash out when these vulnerabilities feel threatened. We of course do this for very good reasons, we humans are master manipulators and the best (and maybe only) way to manipulate others is to in various ways (mostly subtle and unknown to all parties involved including the manipulator) prey upon their vulnerabilities.

So the answer is not to simply expose our vulnerabilities in personal relationships or publicly and hope for the best. The answer is to expose the vulnerability and to the extent needed highlight in the most visible and outlandish ways possible if others try to take advantage of that vulnerability. This is what those 200 methods of non-violence have in common and of course what Jesus, MLK, Mandela, and Gandhi were masters at. What really set those 4 apart (and probably others) though was that they did not view the people they were in conflict with as an enemy to be overcome, but rather as a valuable part of the same Entirety to be won over and embraced.

Non-violent methods can be very effective even without the last part, but then are often mitigated by the fact that when they work the person or people who were successful still view the other side as an adversary. And the only answer to this is that they must heal from their past injuries of being hurt and exploited. Until they heal they cannot embrace the other side and inevitably will act from it and try to subjugate the other side (maybe with less violent methods) keeping the conflict simmering for a future eruption.

So how does a person and group heal. It is almost always some flavor of confessing sins (things done to mask, deny, suppress, protect their own vulnerabilities) and trying to make amends or make up for those things done, as well as graciously allowing the other side to do the same thing when it seems they are sincere.

I mostly fail at doing the above things, but do actually try to follow that path in my relationships at home, with friends and at work – allowing myself to be vulnerable, pointing out when people are taking advantage of my or others’ vulnerabilities, confessing when I am taking advantage of them and trying to make amends, as well as trying to graciously allow others to do the same. And I regularly reflect on how I am doing and how I might be able to do better.

Expanding a bit in reply to a comment

I do not think we disagree at all that the powerful that are corrupt and oppress should be fought against.

I am saying that shinning as large of a light as possible on that oppression and corruption that exploits the vulnerable is the best answer – taking the emperor’s cloths to expose what everyone will recognize as vile. To be in solidarity with the vulnerable, as the people we most revere have been. This is the type of fighting that the powerful truly fear and that creates change if there is enough solidarity from the masses.

The problem with fighting with violence is that it does not highlight and expose the oppression, corruption, and exploitation because most people accurately view it as simply two sides fighting for dominance and to impose their will on as much as they can. And when the masses get restless the powerful always try to bait them into this violent fight for this exact reason.

And unfortunately unless someone has embraced their own vulnerability as their own path to solidarity with everything else, they inevitably are blinded to most of the above and think if only they had sufficient power they would rule magnanimously. And yet they will not rule magnanimously unless they have embraced their own vulnerability as the only path to connection and union with the Entirety, aka God.

Brief FB Comment

Much of the problem is that we are bombarded from all angles for almost all of our lives with the idea that doing what we want and what we ought to do are at odds when in fact a lot of overlap exists. The overlap is actually the good news, which is hidden by bombardment from all angles, often foremost from religions. Even when you know to shoot for the overlap though, trying to live there is scary and hard. Looking anywhere other than the overlap though makes the good news impossible.

I do not mean to imply there is a big conspiracy and most of the people with power realize they are doing what I am suggesting. Rather I am saying that we are taught all along to resist our desires and focus instead on what those with authority think we should be doing (which is generally how those in authority got to where they are, which seems to be a desirable position and thus they think they are giving generous advice.) 

 The result is having to exert a great amount of energy both on suppressing our desires and on pushing ourselves to act in ways that will please/satisfy others, which then leads us to also need various escapes from all that effort fighting ourselves. Just as importantly we never learn to find the overlap (which takes a lot of practice, discipline, and reflection) where we are fulfilled by acting benevolent, which is the transformation people seek. 

 The only way to be transformed is to be acting on our own deepest desires in ways that benefit others without demanding things from them. In this way we get what we most want by being benevolent and without regard to what anyone else does, which is the gospel. It seems to have mostly been replaced by trying to valiantly fight our desires and make sacrifices for others that feel like sacrifices rather than fulfilling/rewarding, which explains why many churches/religious organizations have lost the power to attract and transform.

Brief FB Comment

Yes, in order to thrive in the realm of the Spirit we seem to need a secure home (circle/trusted friends) and foundation (beliefs we actually practice), as well as to regularly question/challenge both in various ways.

Re Asking God for help with our petty problems.

While true, where this leads is uncomfortable and challenging to our very core. If God cares more about our petty conveniences and comforts than about the estimated 100,000 children in the US trapped by human trafficking, most of which are regularly raped by adults, or all the other atrocities here and abroad, that God is nothing short of callous and cruel. So the theology is not just shallow it is at least one aspect of a good definition of evil and where evil comes from.

Even more uncomfortable and challenging is that if I am using most of my energies and resources for my own comfort and enjoyment (which is most often true of me) rather than using them to try to help alleviate those atrocities we humans inflict upon one another, I am acting in a scared, dumb, callous, and cruel manner (probably in that order).

The Gospel is nothing less than facing this (the cross) and allowing the mustard seed of faith to grow into something strong enough to more and more overcome my fear, stupidity and selfishness as I learn to act from it to bring healing and wholeness to those I encounter and in turn myself. Understanding that sometimes helps, but not much. Mostly it just explains why we all try so hard to create an alternative gospel that is not so demanding, until life (if we are lucky) makes us surrender to the only True Reality.

However, if as I believe Christ within is a wholeness with our core (God’s image) that knows we are hopelessly an inseparable part of everything else (the alpha and omega, aka God) then the path to God is through our vulnerabilities - needs and fears from being this hopelessly inseparable part of everything else. So opening up our needs and fears to Our Creator is the path to growing our faith, which could also be described as our ability to be united with things beyond ourselves. Encouraging others in this same process, especially when they have been hurt/traumatized by trying to be a part of things beyond themselves, as we all have, is what a faith community is all about, along with demanding that vulnerabilities are not exploited by those with power.

Putting those two seemingly opposed concepts together we might arrive at the idea that we should open up our petty and deeper needs to God and find they are the connecting thread to Him through His creation, but not ask for them to be satisfied so we do not actually need Him.  It is only to the extent we come to understand that we are hopelessly inadequate (and miserable) alone and decide to join His creation, moment to moment, that we become one/united with Him.  

Brief FB Comment

It is ridiculous that a religion that is supposed to be about Jesus and his way to the Father acts much more like the few he railed against rather than embracing people where they, are as he did and STILL DOES.  

Disagreements

Email to a friend regarding disagreements.  

Your last paragraph has had me wondering if my expressing my own views and what might be considered theology, is offending to your own.  A little of this might be inevitable in any relationship that does a lot of sharing of beliefs/theology, which can probably be beneficial or detrimental depending upon various things, including the open-mindedness of each person, and probably above all the faith in the other person's path even if it seems to conflict or is expressed in different words and ways. 

I personally have great faith in what I know of and intuit regarding your path, and would love to hear more about the underpinnings (beliefs/theology) whenever you care to share them.  It is one of the things that has made our relationship so valuable to me.  When you express your beliefs it often expands my own because since I believe in you and your path I also believe in the things underlying it, and this makes me expand my own underlying beliefs/foundation to incorporate yours in some way, which allows me to be whole/unified with a new segment of people and things, which to me is what it is all about. 

I am happily finding that as far as you are concerned I naturally operate on what Fr Rohr would conceptualize as “both, and” rather than “either, or.”  This essentially means that even though our views (beliefs/theology) often are very different my natural assumption (which I also think is correct) is that both of our views are mostly correct and generally what seems like conflicts or contradictions are just a lack of full understanding (we all only know a little/the more we know the more we know we don’t know/etc), which might be due to not having it be revealed yet or sometimes due to it being beyond human comprehension. 

As far as God being the Greek logos or Word that was made flesh with Jesus, I would also borrow concepts from Fr Rohr and say that the Word may have become flesh with Jesus, but that accurately implies it was around before Jesus and operating the same before Jesus.  Jesus may have been it and demonstrated it perfectly for the rest of us to follow, but he did not create it or change what had always been and always will be the Truth and the Path, and I think he says as much a few times when he talks about the Father doing the work and his claim is that he and the Father are one.  He is simultaneously the Word (aka Father/Holy Spirit) and expressing and demonstrating it. 

All of this is to say that from my standpoint please never shy away from expressing your own beliefs/concepts/theology even, or maybe especially, when they seem to conflict or contradict my own.  I doubt I will believe that they actually do conflict or contradict my own and they will probably push me to expand my own and become more whole and unified with larger parts of The Entirety.  Diversity in all its forms somewhat paradoxically is one of the best paths to connection/unity/wholeness.

Now with all of that said, if the way I express things or the things I express seem to wholly conflict or contradict your own beliefs and perspective such that our relationship seems constricting or suppressing towards your indwelling spirit, I hope that you will let me know, thereby freeing your indwelling spirit from the constriction/suppression.  

Image of God and Forgiveness

The image of God imprinted within us desperately yearns to fulfill its destiny of being a generous, valuable and integrated part of our surroundings. However, throughout life (starting early) in at least most of our human relationships we find that trying to fulfill this destiny often leads to feeling exploited and other negative emotions.

We often respond to this by trying to adopt rules for relationships (sometimes with religious backing) that will make them safe enough that maybe our imprinted image can manifest itself. At the extreme end of this is the appeal of fundamentalism to common folks. However, we find that trying to control things with rules and then the rules themselves are not compatible with the image.

Sometimes we go to the other extreme and think freely giving all of ourselves to relationships irregardless of how we are treated must be the answer and that this offering of ourselves will be enough to transform the relationships into something where our deepest self (God’s image imprint) will be able to be the generous, valuable and integrated part that it knows it is. However, we normally find that we (including the image) are trampled.

Commonly we vacillate between the extremes, thinking the answer must be in balancing them.

If we are dedicated, lucky, and have good mentors/friends we find ways to let go of the scars from past relationships and in the process realize how our image imprint (and our spirit emanating from it) were ignored, disregarded, and trampled upon to produce those scars. This is the process of forgiveness, for as long as the scars are still present we will at least somewhat react from them. Whereas once we go through this process of forgiveness, we realize the process has also taught us how to have relationships that nurture the image and emanating spirit of all involved.

Unfortunately, most are not taught how to go through this process of forgiveness or are unwilling to do so and seem to think forgiveness is a simple decision and done. In actuality it is a decision to start and continue to go through the process of forgiveness but much more than a simple or quick decision in totality. Most tragically, they thus lose out on learning how to have different nurturing relationships and often repeat the same mistakes over and over.

If a genuine reconciliation might occur, the process for the offending party to ready themselves is very similar since any objectionable behavior is just as repulsive to the image imprint of the offending party. Until both are well into their own such processes it is almost always better for each to focus on their own scars and learning from them, rather than rush a premature reconciliation without each having the necessary foundation.  And longing for reconciliation is often the best and sometimes only sufficient motivation for either or both to continue on their own processes.

Sin

Another comment to a FB post

Sin is viewing ourselves as separate from everything else, especially our immediate surroundings, and thinking, feeling and then acting from that perspective, which puts us at odds with our surroundings and trying to maximize our own situation, often at the expense of those people and things around us. While in this mindset we try to make god into something that will justify the path we are on, and that ends up having to be a confrontational god that must be rule based with the assignment of winners and losers, with each getting their “just” rewards and punishments.

This is what we must be born again from or awakened to realizing we are a little bit separate and our own entity, but much more so slightly unique and valuable, hopelessly connected, parts of The Entirety, which is God.

When we think, feel, and act from the perspective of being separate and at odds with our surroundings we put barriers between us and our surroundings. That is why we must “repent” and go through the reconciliation process, which generally includes the things we most resist, like confessing our sins to one another and doing whatever we can to rectify and heal the hurt and harm we have caused while acting from a separateness perspective. However, to the extent we have been saved or born again or have awakened this reconciliation process is actually a joyful process.

Please do not misunderstand and think I am saying I have mastered or do any of this reconciliation process well (or often). And even when I do actually do it fairly well I generally start to do it grudgingly. At the same time at some point I sometimes surrender to it fairly fully for at least a short period of time, and in those fairly short periods of time I experience what all the Saints are trying to share with us, that we normally misconstrue.

Saying that seems to great lack an essential humility, which is one of the pillars of the whole experience, as the saints/transformed always emphasize, and the only way to explain that is by remembering that getting to the experience occurs by surrendering the self, as apart from everything else, and the Majesty belongs completely to The Father/Entirety and not to the slightly unique, valuable and connected part (each of us). This is because each of us is extremely feeble and of almost no significance until we claim our spot as part of greater wholes and ultimately The Greatest Whole or Entirety. Whereas to the extent we do claim our spot we become a part of Something infinitely wonderful and tap into the Power to move proverbial mountains.

Sin is ignoring, suppressing, avoiding our indwelling spirit/Christ within/deepest self/soul/heart (whatever you want to call it) in all the crazy and harmful ways we do that with the worst being when we harm another and make them more reluctant to live from and share their own.

Faith is following our indwelling spirit/Christ within/deepest self/soul/heart that knows what Jesus and all the great spiritual teachers taught is the Truth. As Jesus taught, this starts off like a mustard seed or yeast in size and significance, but if we prioritize it (spend time, effort, resources on it), share it with others and help each other find more of it and live from it, that is the Kingdom. And to the extent we have faith in that Truth and process and build the Kingdom, we have the proverbial Faith that moves mountains and we join God’s Benevolent Eternity, which collectively is The Good News.

I personally have a smidge of that Faith and unfortunately still spend most of my time ignoring, suppressing, and avoiding. Fortunately, even that smidge has been enough to change my life from being about 80% tough/miserable, 15% decent, and 5% good, to about 60% good, 20% tough/miserable, and 20% mountain top, for many years.

Sin, Free Will, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation

I am replying to a FB post about God being furious about free will. 

If God destroyed sin wouldn’t he also be destroying free will in the process, which would in turn make everything meaningless? If that is true (and I think it is) then having sin be something we can choose would be part of God’s plan and not something to destroy or get rid of. If that were true I don’t think God would be furious about it although I do think God would be sad since it separates Him from something He loves, us.

If God is “furious” why shouldn’t we also be furious? And anyone who is furious (probably including God) wants retribution, don’t they?

Any transgression (sin) puts distance between us and God because it blocks us from the part of ourselves that experiences God because that part of us knows everyone and everything deserves dignity and to the extent we act contrary to it we move away from being able to experience God. The path back to God then is to realize how we strayed and the pain this caused and then do whatever we might be able to do to correct our wrong and the pain caused.

All the work is ours and as soon as we have reconnected to our spirit by the above process God is always waiting with open arms, and actually He was calling, guiding and rooting for us through the whole process.

When someone else is trying to correct their own wrong against us, we ought to try to follow this same paradigm, rooting for them to succeed and being ready to embrace them to the extent they are successful. Of course most people (including myself most of the time) are looking for a free pass for our past transgression that we call forgiveness but is really just enabling us to not reconcile with our own spirit and God. And we are correct to intuitively reject this because it is simply not how reconciliation and forgiveness occurs, whether that is between a person and God or between people or groups of people.

Generally, our own spirit can tell what the other intends and their sincerity and is quick to act correctly if we let it. At the same time wisdom (learning from our own and other peoples’ experience) cautions that we ought to be cautious and allow reconciliation to proceed slowly, even though we do not like the prolonged uncertainty and time spent where souls meet. If we try to rush it though we often short circuit this reconciliation and forgiveness process and set everyone up to fail.

Continuing

I figured we mostly agreed. And I definitely agree about Him being relentless and ultimately it being Grace. My point that I did not make well was that this Grace is always available with Its hand outstretched to us for the very instant we decide to go through the process of reconciliation. So when I said all the work is ours I meant the decision and process never fail and as soon as we get desperate enough to fully commit to it, we will know union with our Creator.

And even before I saw your reply I was thinking I needed to correct another error of mine. Our Creator’s forgiveness, as ours ideally ought to be, should always be present and require nothing because it is only due to any one of us being in some degree of hell (separated from our spirit that is the only part of us that can experience God) that we act in objectable ways and we are generally blind to this – “forgive them for they know not what they do.” And to the extent we are with our own spirit and communing with God, we know this.

At the same time what I previously said about forgiveness and reconciliation is true for reconciliation, and trying to give ourselves or another a free pass for our misdeeds turns out to be anything but generous because it blocks the very path to experiencing and thus knowing wholeness with our Creator (and fellows).

So we ought to forgive quickly and then be cautious and deliberate about reconciliation, not to punish, but because that is actually the generous/loving path. And we ought to be rooting for them (us) and yearning for them (us) to dig deep enough and be courageous enough to succeed on that path, while also having faith that they (we) can follow that path if they (we) choose.

Unity

A few FB comments added together

We need much less unity than most believe. Most disguise their efforts to protect themselves by tell others (whether that be friends, family, or others in society) how they ought to do things by claiming they are looking for this unity (for country, god, family, business or any number of reasons).

The only unity we need is a very basic common decency that is prioritized above everything else. When we think we need more or demand more unity we inevitably lose the basic common decency in the process.

To elaborate further, unity is an unmistakable fact, which we generally cannot see.  We are each hopelessly inseparable parts of the Greatest Whole and lots of smaller wholes (like marriages, families, friends, community groups including churches, workplaces, etc).

We have a part of us that knows of this unity that people variously call our true self, indwelling spirit, deepest self, soul, part of the Holy Spirit, Christ within, etc.

This unity and the fact we have a part of us that can experience it and thus know it, is the essence of what all great religions where founded. As such the religions teach how to find, experience and live from (collectively integrate) this part of us that can experience and thus know this Unity and a little of the Greatest Whole or Entirety.

However, over time religions end up getting contorted and used by those with power for their own purposes, most commonly without poor intent. This happens in religious groups and something very similar happens, sometimes with slightly different language and concepts in most other groups, whether that be families, workplaces, etc. As mentioned previously this is often done under the guise of unity, but it has the effect of suppressing the part of us that can experience and know actual Unity, which is the floor and basis of everything else.

The most unity that can be demanded without suppressing this part of ourselves is common decency, and ends up being enough if our goal really is what the great religions were founded upon, rather than our own safety and prosperity. Common decency demanded for everyone allows each to find this place within them that knows Unity and act from it, and surprisingly gives no other path.

Knowledge of Good and Evil

Another email to a friend

As far as consciousness, the knowledge of good and evil, original sin and becoming like a child again to enter the Kindgom:

My view is that there are individual and community aspects to the fall or original sin that are both separate and intertwined.  I believe the best basic definition of consciousness is simply awareness, which quickly leads to the ability to see ourselves as separate from everything else and then evaluate ourselves in relation to everything else.  From this we developed the ability to 

1 - be selfish and gain advantages for ourselves at the expense of others (evil), which leads everyone else to want or feel they need to do the same and endless conflict (worldliness).  Or 

2- to look out for the benefit of The Whole more than our own individual or separate interests (good), which of course turns out to be good for us also since we are part of The Whole and leads others to want to reciprocate, which becomes the Kingdom when embraced by a community. 

So the individual aspect of the fall or original sin is that we use our awareness of being separate and thinking to maximizing our own safety and interests.  This starts young, probably around the terrible twos when kids are testing their boundaries to see how advantageously to themselves they can arrange things.  Kids this age also like to be generous, but generally trend towards being spoiled selfish brats if not led in various ways towards looking out for others.  And of course we should not forget that life is full of unavoidable pain and suffering (starting with child birth from the child’s perspective), which everyone tries to avoid.  Basically all I am saying here is that we have an inherent tendency to be selfish to the extent we have not been taught by our community and life to be more concerned about a greater good than our own and we probably never get rid of it completely.*

When this inherent tendency towards selfishness (getting as much as we can and avoiding as much pain as we can) mixes with the same in others we get endless conflicts, including holding emotional currency over others (basically subtle emotional hostage taking and blackmail).  This is the corporate/community part and the trauma/pain/suffering that we as humans needlessly inflict upon one another, which teaches us that we must hide the part of us that wants to be a part of rather than separate because that is the part of us that can and often will be hurt as well as manipulated and exploited for others selfish ends if not hidden.  This is what we must unlearn or let go of and “turn and become like a child again” in order to enter the Kingdom.  I do not think that Jesus meant that is the only thing necessary (because we will still have our inherent selfishness), but that is one component necessary. 

And it is probably the first thing necessary, because it is only after we let go of this pain and the fear it creates, that we are capable of starting to live from our secret place where we know we are united with everything else.  As we start to live from that place (which of course is not supposed to stay hidden) and experience the joy of being found, whole, and connected (at least to an extent) this is the fuel that convinces us to relinquish our separate based motivations and prioritize how we might enrich things beyond us.  And as we do this we experience more joy and faith that further propels us. When we get off track by looking out for ourselves more than others (even if doing generous things for the wrong reasons or recognition) we will quickly know because we will experience the pain of being separated from the place within that connects to everything else and will thus go back to feeling lost, broken, and separate, which is often all the more excruciating after experiencing the opposite.

*There are beneficial functions of looking for advantages and competing with others. 

1 - It pushes people beyond what they would normally think they were capable of and thus would attempt to achieve without the competition, which ends up being good for the community as they achieve more than they otherwise would.   

2 – They look for better ways to do things in order to win, which leads to innovations that can serve humanity and beyond well if used for that purpose. 

3 – In being pushed to dig so deep and find strength beyond what they knew they had during the preparation or competition or after losing, they will often tap into the place we connect to things beyond ourselves, which is the part that connects to God.  In indigenous cultures that do not encourage competition, often various rites of passage serve this function to some extent.

Along these lines I love the saying, “Success is failure turned inside out” and the poem it comes from, which I think is trying to express what I am here with some of the benefits of competition and tough challenges.  In my own words that would be something like, the accumulation and then coalescing of tiny partial successes within what seems like failures is what leads to finding ourselves and success, all at the same time, if we persevere through what seems like failures, but is actually our necessary journey.  This is the process of chiseling away at the things that keep us separated to see glimpses of who we are in God, as we learn from great challenges that push us seemingly beyond ourselves to this source of greater power within us and beyond us.