soma

When I was in Iran I had to go to work everyday and interact with the people at different stations in life. The reporters flew in from other countries and stayed at a hotel that was guarded and they checked people in and out. The reporters never left and everyone they interviewed came into their artificial shelter. They only saw one perspective of the revolution, the people and the country. The same goes in our countries where Time and Newsweek have an European edition, an Asian edition and a North American edition. When a war breaks out "God is on our side" is the motto when God is on both sides. When the US was bombing Iraq hundreds of thousands of innocent people, children and women were killed and we were not labled terrorist so the result was an opposition force was created. There is always an equal and opposite to every force so terror and violence creates terror and violence as a counter. The middle road would be to see both sides and walk in harmony with both so instead of taking a side and trying to defend it, it is better to conference and educate both sides so a consenses can be obtained. Arabs and Muslims are not bad people and have a lot to offer the world, but we are paying more attention to the negative aspects and not giving energy to the positives so the baby that is fed the most over powers the twin so the terrorist win by creating more terror on both sides.

UnitedLove, Thank you for the inspiration. The spiritual path is a path we walk on alone, but alone does not mean lonely, It means what your name indicates all-one, al-one, alone. I am glad you are reading the Bible with an open mind so your soul can interpret it without religion or denomination just the rapture of God’s pure consciousness which the Bible is pointing to composed of people with many different beliefs and non-beliefs in one love embracing all in atonement (at-one-ment). Christmas is coming and no one can dim the light and joy of it even though people are trying, we have a TV station that starts a war on Christmas every year here in the US. When Christ is born again in the unity of our consciousness we can establish our rebirth in it. It does not demand sacrifice, but a celebration of the perception where we are deprived of nothing or no-thing as our communication with the soul is restored. It gets hold of us because we do not feel guilt or worry about anything because our perspective has changed from looking through the filter of the mind to looking through the soul. The soul never loses its communion with the pure consciousness of Eternity and neither will we when we identify with it and put our mind in the service of the spirit. I use to work in half way houses and started two half way houses one for prisoners and one for the mentally disturbed and around this time of year we always had attempts at suicide. The expectations of Christmas can never be met especially with people manipulating us with their standards for this holiday.There is no need to feel pressured, frustrated and miserable affected by the traditions and expectations of others because there are ways to live with joy and peace by letting the spirit show the way. We are not here to just work and make a living, but to amplify the spirit and enrich the world with our consciousness by establishing the appropriate function of the mind with the thought that we are a soul with a mind. My best Christmases were in non-Christian countries where I was alone, but not lonely. Salutations to the Divinity Within you..........

romansh, Great and difficult question. I am sure Christians and progressives will have different responses even if they belong to the same category. In 1978 I was teaching at the Iranian Airforce and the revolution started. The Airforce said they couldn't give us a ride home as they were afraid the bus would get damaged, it seems they didn't care if we got hurt. They were doing their duty inforcing capitalism as taught by the US. The Shaw had left so people were in the streets burning the banks and liquer stores and were very emotional letting all their pent up feelings and frustrations go into their destruction. All along the way people came up to me, concerned about my mental and physical health. They said, Don't worry we are not angry at the American people just the American government." It was humanity speaking to humanity. The Shaw was a dictatorial monarchy supported by the American governement, which was oppressive, brutal, corrupt and they flaunted their wealth. The women who followed Islamic traditions wore a chador over their other clothes, which was just a large black piece of material, but underneath they wore modern clothes that were fashionable at the time. The police would take and rip up the chador from women who were wearing them.The Shaw wanted the country to be western. After the revolution the Islamic guards would throw acid in the face of women who did not wear them. There was a brief moment that the American government could have made the right decision and supported Bazargan a moderate who was a moderate and voice of reason, but the US thought he was a liberal so would be hard to control. Not like the Shaw who big oil corrupted and manipulated for oil contracts and profits. The poor and middle class suffered while the greedy ran wild. Ayatollah Khomeini appointed him the first prime minster after the revolution, but the Islamist thought he was too liberal too and they even thought Khomeini was liberal so Bazargan had to go. Bazargan was walking down the middle of the road, but it seemed people wanted their leaders to draw a line in the sand and walk to either the right or left of middle, but the extremes were the same manipulating the people under them for power. President Bush created ISIS when he invaded Iraq, which was another bad decision leading to disasterous results. People were manipulated to support an illegal war that bombed Iraq back to the stone age so it looks like if you win a revolution you are a hero, but if you lose you are a traitor and an enemy. Bush needed a war in Iraq, his popularity was low before 9/11 and he had to misdirect the anger and fear of the American people. Now, people are doing the same thing ISIS is recruiting on capitalism and democracy oppressing people and conservative Americans are using ISIS in the same way. They are the same and opposites. With all that said let me give you my spiritual feeling on your question. The Quantum Unity that we Christians call God does not sacrifice diversity for unity because the disconnected and those united in the all-encompassing energy have permission to penetrate one another so we are already intertwined so completely that they can’t be separated. One enegy in, above, below and around everything. There can be two view points of the same reality like two sides of the same piece of paper. One side is about the aspect of duality (we are right and they are wrong) and the other side is concerned with the entirety of the whole experience and its activity in infinity. You are a scientist so here is a quote for you. David Bohm, a professor of physics at Birkbeck College in London said, “The notion that all these fragments is separately existent is evidently an illusion, and this illusion cannot do other than lead to endless conflict and confusion. Indeed, the attempt to live according to the notion that the fragments are really separate is, in essence, what has led to the growing series of extremely urgent crises that is confronting us today. Thus, as is now well known, this way of life has brought about pollution, destruction of the balance of nature, over-population, world-wide economic and political disorder and the creation of an overall environment that is neither physically nor mentally healthy for most of the people who live in it. Individually there has developed a widespread feeling of helplessness and despair, in the face of what seems to be an overwhelming mass of disparate social forces, going beyond the control and even the comprehension of the human beings who are caught up in it.” (Wholeness and the Implicate Order, 1980) Therefore, my response is to walk down the middle of the road.

Wes, Interesting history and study. I am looking forward to your post and I hope you find some interesting topics here or start some on your own.

As a Christian I feel I have chosen the powerful image of Jesus Christ to represent the expression of the tangential point between the predicaments of living in a duality that exists in this world and the unity encompassed in eternity. It is not that the material world will one day dissolve into Jesus Christ, but that my ego's extroverted tendencies will disappear exposing an ocean of diverse frequencies, vibrating, and communicating on different levels united in a whole. The Christ mind expresses this unity of self I feel in the same way as the quantum physicist says that joy and happiness increases as we move towards this wholeness or the quantum self. Erwin Schrödinger was an Austrian physicist and theoretical biologist, known as one of the fathers of quantum mechanics said, “Quantum physics thus reveals a basic oneness of the universe.” as Romanash said I look on Jesus as a symbol or methology symbolizing the paradox of duality in unity. My finite mind can grasp this symbol, which is not the only one so I can see the finite in the infinte.

Many times I take steps leading in different directions, towards the interior to feel love or externally to give love, sometimes feeling pain is purification and sometimes it is joy in inspiration. I also feel we are a part of the world and obliged to help humanity in the outer spiritual realm as others have helped us to transform internally on our unique way to wholeness. “Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you.” (Mother Teresa) We can’t help everyone in the world, but we can help at least one person smile even if it is just our self.

UnitedLove, I think we are on the same frequency or at least have the same perspective. In my writings I have been quoting Nikola Tesla a lot too. I love this thread, Einstein resource and your comments. One paragraph I wrote, which is on this topic. The scientist and the mystics have discovered that the mind is a well-designed system of the body that is perceived as separate, but in their advanced systems they have perceived a unity in consciousness. The same molecules, elements and atoms found in the body and brain are also found in the external world, but many people are attracted to the concrete existence dominated by a material representation instead of the subtle consciousness within and without. The five senses have a very strong attraction to the physical concept of life where people identify as the body and mind, not as the soul where subtle energy is connected as an integral part of the whole. It doesn’t matter if we go from the energy at a low frequency or from the elevated energy inside our consciousness because it is all connected in an ocean of pure energy. We are all a mixture of the subtle and gross energies in one energy vibrating at different frequencies as the inventor Nikola Tesla said, “If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.”

UnitedLove, I like the way you approach Christianity and the Bible, it seems many Christians use the Bible to shut down and bring to an end spiritual consideration when it is a means to open spiritual reflection. I like the way you take it in, digest and contemplate the material. May we let the Bible expand and deepen our minds with its mythology in order to go beyond it to a spiritual experience and a desire for more light.

United in Love, I am inspired by your love and courage to enter the unknown journey within to have a direct experience through the unity of love and by dropping the the mind's filter of apprehension. The good thing is when we find ourselves acting in the being of our consciousness instead of acting out in the mind, a human being observing the mind. Our paths are so different because we are different, but they are the same because we have to go through the same things in different ways to get to the same place.

Martin i am excited about your energy and experiences having grown spiritual wings and your soaring above your previous self. May you give us insights from your lofty perspective. We are lucky you landed here, I hope you stay for awhile.

Bill, My condolences for losing someone who gives you so much to remember and my respect for facing your difficulties with it. I share you feeling about the church and I feel it uses laws and authority to reach a mind conditioned to the five senses in order to bring people to God while our spirit uses multidimensional, spiritual experiences to develop a spiritual consciousness inside that goes deeper within the soul. In other words, the institution is finding God in the outward expression of our mind, separate for our inner being while spirituality is discovering the innermost secret of God in the deepest privacy of our soul. God turns Herself/Himself/Itself inside out for the mystic demonstrating that everything is a part of God, agreeing with science that matter can also be considered to be energy. “It is in God that we live, and move, and have our being.” (Acts 17:38) At this level of awareness the mystic and for that matter the atheist contemplates the whole creation with no restrictions except those that are self–imposed, which can include anything that integrates and gives meaning to the different experiences of life. The Kingdom of Heaven is with us now in our consciousness so the mystics intend to discover how to make ourselves open enough to accept and become aware ofthis revelation that we are all one in an eternal birth that continues without end. The medieval German mystic Mechtild of Magdeburg said, “The day of my spiritual awakening was the day I saw–and knew I saw–all things in God, and God in all things.” Bill, I feel in the privacy of your soul you are diving deep into the meaning of the different experiences in your life and I can only say I respect you deeply for it. “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” (Charles Darwin) Science is not competing or against religion and religion should not be against science because they can work together to find and describe the truth. People who set out to find truth and in the process have to lay down their former beliefs are dedicated to truth, understanding and awareness, being brave and courageous due to the threats of everlasting damnation. Science not only changes, adapts and fine-tunes its understandings, but aligns them with studies, experiments and perceptions to form hypothesis, theories and projections on what might exist. Therefore, Religion and science can help each other where science can show, explain and demonstrate connections and interactions among phenomena, religion working with noumenon can push science to new frontiers in order to understand the first cause beyond the tangible world. We Christians can use science to purify our institution from miscalculations and misconceptions that we have learned and made about creation, which science studies carefully. Becoming a Christian does not mean that we have to spray paint our eyes shut or believe false prophesies that millions of people have repeated taking one book literally, but being humble enough to look at the universe and what it has to offer with an open mind to accept what it has to teach us.

1) yes, they considered that if nature/the universe is "in God", then God also changes with nature. It is more of a Greek notion (Aristotle) to consider God to be the immovable mover. But Judaism, Christianity, and Process Theology posit that God does respond to us and our world. My own thoughts on this are that, if God responds, then God does so through us. 2) So when *some* (not all) Christians assert that we can't be like Jesus because we have sinful natures or we just human, I think they distort the main message of Jesus which was a call to join him in loving God and loving others and working for transformation in this world. Process Theology says that God cares about the world, but he/she is not going to step in and save us, that we need to grow up and do what Jesus and the gospel calls us to do. This is quite different from *some* gospels that say to sit back and wait for Jesus to return to fix everything. 1) Bill I like that phrase that God is the immovable mover. I like to refer to God as an ocean of pure consciousness, which includes everyone, nature and all of creation so if my consciousness or form changes in that ocean of pure consciousness, I change, but the ocean does not. God does not move, I am moving within Him/Her/It. The ocean does not move similar to the Quantum Unified field containing subtle and crude energies that move within it. I agree with you that God responds through us. I feel our minds deal with the cruder energy forms so we use it to analyze, categorize, seek shelter and food ect. dealing mostly with the iceburgs in the ocean,which are also H2O a cruder energy component, but we have a soul that deals with the subtler energies which is where God would respond through us. I feel our problems come when we identify with our mind influenced by the senses so the cruder energies overwhelm our circuits and we don't hear the subtle messages coming from the soul, but every now and then we get a short and have a mystical experience beyond the mind.The ocean doesn't move, but the energies in the ocean are active. Our egos pushing up out of the ocean saying we are different, separate and unique a wave that is still part of the ocean but when we leave the mind on the surface and dive deep within we have that spiritual experience that we are all connected, one in God the Father. Back on the surface I look over the top of my wave and say no we are separate and different because I identify with the wave, but when i go beyond the mind dive deep within the unity appears. 2) I also agree that Jesus was trying to get us to step out of the ego boat and dive deep within the Divinity within and have that experience, "I and the Father are One" Our creater created us to solve the physical/spiritual dilema, not to rescue us but for us to figure it out our self. The paradox of At-One-Ment. Deborah on another thread you said your husband and you have different ways to have communion with God, I agree my wife and I are totally different in our ways to commune, and we both totally respect the different ways we have knowing we are uniting in God, I think this is what Jesus was driving at when he answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." We say he is God and Man, which is mind and soul with Jesus identifying more with the soul. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said, " We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, but we are spiritual beings having a human experience." We think we are minds having a mystical experience, I think Jesus was saying we are souls with a mind and body and not the other way around. There is only one way which would be throught the soul, but God being Infinite has an infinite number of ways as individuals demonstrate to commune with the ocean of pure consciousness or God. So there are many rivers pouring into the sea and many paths up the mountain, but when we get there it is only one way in the unity that is so broad it connects everything.

It's when I reconnect with the sensation of my experiences with God that my mind stops churning and I feel completely ok, with no fear. Perhaps its a useless endeavor, but I'd like to get my brain to catch up to my heart and spirit. I guess that's why theology and spirituality is so intriguing to me.Did you manage to find a theology and world-view that closed the gap between your mystical experience and your mind? Deborah you are experiencing the spiritual already, but by your interest to understand the mind you will be able to enjoy it more often. My mind has and had many questions and they can't and should not be ignored because if we don't face them they will just come up again in a different form so to quiet the mind we must face them if we want to remember our spiritual nature. The journey from the head where we make representations and concepts to the soul sometimes symbolized as the heart is where we learn to love. We can see in the cycles of our life’s experiences the intention of science and spirituality to find the truth, which leads us to the growing amount of knowledge that is outside and inside the awareness of our consciousness. It is not that we are going to try and measure the spiritual, but simply understand that science is the language of the material world that is temporary and love is the language of the spiritual world that expands to Eternity. Ralph Waldo Emerson who started as a minister in Boston before being an American essayist, poet, and popular philosopher presented intellectualism and transcendentalism to our continent said, “Men love to wonder, and that is the seed of science.” Science is a step in a journey of experiences that is unpredictable and far-reaching beyond our sight bringing a surprise at the end where we become aware that we never traveled at all, we are already there. It is only a journey from here to the same place in the present moment. Albert Einstein agreed, “All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.” It is interesting that Bill a scientist seemed to arrive at a spiritual experience through scientific symbols leading to a mystical experience beyond words. My major was also science so my questions come from this view point and are answered by science. Once answered my mind quiets down and the spirit can be heard or as a Christian we might say God. Science has a profound impact on all aspects of life spreading into our thoughts and culture, transforming paradigms, inspiring and changing our perceptions about the universe and our relationship with it. Christian mysticism on the other hand, is about developing a direct insightful experience, relationship and communion with the beautiful, reasonable energy of the universe and its awe-inspiring power deep within, calling it God. Science and mysticism offer us the depth to be able to change the direction of our basic concepts and outlook of the world around us by pointing to Infinity and something beyond matter. With my Christian background I have benefitted from Buddhist and Vedic thought which helped me navigate the psychology of the mind to help it qiet it down, but only you know your backgroundd and interest and which way to pursue to get to the point where you are witnessing the mind observing its thoughts from the soul. In Christianity we stand very close to the picture so we see only a small part of it so taking a step back with another theology or science can usually help one to see a bigger picture that does not destroy Christianity, but expands it beyond our narrow vission.

I was born in 1948 and I am lucky because my compass was shattered, I guess you can call it baptism if one thinks baptism is an introduction to spirit consciousness. That is when my life started as a leaf blowing in the wind as I went with the flow. As a young idealistic kid I became a monk and was sent to Morrocco to teach meditation and yoga. There really is/was nothing to fear as the Holy Spirit is universal and takes care of us giving us exactly what we need. Muslims, Buddhist, Athiest and especially the common people took me in since I was young and alone, taught me, took care of me and helped me mature opening the doors so I could feel the wind, the spirit flowing through everything and was taught to enjoy the moment that there is nothing to fear. It seems to me that once we get rid of the fear and obstacles occupying our mind everything becomes clear. I don't think we need a compass just a still mind, quiet so we can hear God whispering sweet nothings. The emphasis is nothing.

I label myself Christian, but I am attracted to all kinds of thinking even backward thinking can make a point. The problem is thinking has got me into a lot of trouble, not only with the pain and suffering, but with the hard lessons that repeat if you don't get it the first time. The sixties was a great instructor which taught me many lessons on different levels. Went to Catholic shool my whole life, got a working scholarship for high school sports, but was kicked out of school my senor year so sports were erased. Then my partents kicked me out of the house and dis-owned me, thinking I was a communist because I was against the war. My senor year at the university, I was in pre-med and our government arrested me for having long hair, lied and mess up my records so I would never get into medical school, but everytime I found I was rejected from something good, I was re-directed to something better. Went over seas for 20 years searching. I studied the philosophies and spiritual practices of the many religions of the countries I lived in. The people, teachers and spiritual practices were all beneficial all pointing to the same place, but one experience will sum it up. In India I was trying to learn sitar, but couldn't get the concept of no beat, the western rythems were so ingrained in my mind. All the spiritual philosophies at the top of the mountain recognize and say the same thing, I found science and humanism also holds the same concepts so I brought it all into my Christian upbringing and it all has made me a better Christian.

Deborah Greeting and salutations to the force within you that swings the pendellum back and forth giving you insight from both sides. It seems you have found the good and limiting nature of Christianity. The church has had a dim, narrow view of nature, man, and God for over a thousand years so I place it at the base of the mountain. Mark Twain expressed it well when he said, “The so-called Christian nations are the most enlightened and progressive ... but in spite of their religion, not because of it.” The Church has opposed every innovation and discovery from the day of Galileo up to our present time at one time even the use of anesthetic in childbirth was regarded as a sin because it avoided the bible’s curse against Eve. Every step in science has been unremittingly opposed by the narrow-mindedness, superstition and the limited understanding of our church leaders. The power of church authorities was challenged by great men, women and mystics who moved our Christian faith forward as far as it could go at the time. The work of Copernicus was banned by the church and Galileo was held in custody and threatened with jail for declaring that the earth revolved around the sun. He was found guilty, and sentenced by the Inquisition on June 22, 1633. On the next day his prescribed imprisonment was commuted to house arrest where he remained under arrest for the rest of his life. “It is so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood,” Ralph Waldo Emerson said. Nicolaus Copernicus said, “To know the mighty works of God, to comprehend His wisdom and majesty and power; to appreciate, in degree, the wonderful workings of His laws, surely all this must be a pleasing and acceptable mode of worship to the Most High, to whom ignorance cannot be more grateful than Knowledge.” The church has built a wall around a small part of the infinite and has called it God with itself as the authority. I think when the church did this they divorced science and expelled it from their walled compound out of ignorance to the fact that science is describing the same phenomenon while updating its discoveries. I feel everyone is the authority of their experience of the infinite which is expanding in relation to their awareness. In my mind the people who say they know God are expressing their experience which is not the total view because they would not be able to talk, write or express it in anyway. To know the totality of eternity one must become one with it beyond the mind in a state of unity. I hope you enjoy, grow and learn from the diverse views expressed on this forum, I find them enlightening myself because they are challenging.

I feel a person's experience with truth, religion, no religion, Christianity or no Christianity is the standard to go by so we need to challenge where we are as we move from one experience to another. I don't think the faith matters as we are not really going anywhere, just changing our perspective on the present. Science and philosophy are both useful in explaining the same principles and lessons in different ways as we learn that the world awards and gives us exactly what we deserve. Jesus said, “Whatever you sow you shall reap.” Spirituality is the physics we observe, and science explains it by revealing the workings of cause and effect in the same way that our consciousness exerts a pull on the beneficial and unpleasant forces around us. What we experience in our consciousness is reality and it then is projected in the external world, for example, a person saying he/she loves God, but has a severe aversion to loving everyone is a hypocrite. Therefore, we truly know others by their behavior and actions and not so much by their belief because for some it is easier to fight for what they believe in than to live up to it, in contrast, a spiritual experience lives the truth instead of claiming and declaring it. Thomas Merton a Christian Mystic said the same thing in another way, “To be grateful is to recognize the Love of God in everything He has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of His love, every moment of existence is a grace, for it brings with it immense graces from Him. Gratitude therefore takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, it is constantly awakening to new wonder and to praise the goodness of God. For the grateful person knows that God is good, not by hearsay but by experience. And that is what makes all the difference.” I feel atheist also have the same experience, but they just dress it in different clothes that is why we can learn from them and their humanity.

Tariki nicely said, In the grace and comfort of unity, a spiritual experience encounters a new heaven and a new earth where everything is united. The confusions on the physical plane, the duality of the sins and miseries of the mind are not remembered or renewed in a state of grace. In the present moment harmony we see the balance and unity of opposites because a center of heaven on earth has glory even in our sorrows because when we are at our lowest point we are also the most open to change to a new life. As our thoughts and their manifested objects dissolve in the state of grace, our consciousness becomes acquainted again with infinity and its limitlessness without thinking, as we transcend time and space.

I feel Jesus and Buddha's teaching are similar in that they recognize the exterior and are guiding us inside to an experience beyond the material. We are beautiful on the outside, but have overlooked and failed to see the importance of nurturing the awareness of our inner being as a result there remains a lot of frustration and anger underneath the exterior. Living on the physical plane our personality needs to interact with matter, but we need to awaken from our prejudices and immaturity to recognize our soul or wholeness inside in order to be brought into love or wholeness by way of the present moment or state of grace.

Just adding two cents to the conversation. It might only be worth two cents to me. A holograph lives in every part of the whole in light interference patterns on the material plane so in a holographic universe we can’t run away turning our backs on the world, but with active attention we can be more effective, joyful and useful in our relations. David Bohm’s explanation for this is that the subatomic particles can keep interacting with each other no matter what the distance is between them, not because they are sending messages to each other faster than light, but because their separateness is a misconception. His theory is that in a more profound experience of reality the fragments are not individual pieces, but are expansions of the same basic mechanism. In a holographic universe every electron that came from the big bang would be entangled and linked to every electron in the universe in one big quantum soup. Living things would be coupled with organic and inorganic material in a big web with hearts, minds, stars and planets all joined together. Everything is joined together and can see into everything else even the past and the future where nothing is separate, everything is together is an ocean of vibrations existing simultaneously in the present moment. This means that at a deeper level of reality in the holographic universe fragments are not solitary and disconnected except in the mind where we categorize the different parts, but in the whole everything is inseparable and united. The ground of our being includes the mind, but is also beyond it. “I” would symbolize the pure being, the ground of all beings. Without the “I”, we can’t say I am a student, father, daughter, theist or atheist. What comes after the "I" would be what the mind identifies with the cup that separates the ocean from the water inside it.

I like your diversity of presenters on a great topic. It looks like a great conference to attend.

I agree with what Bill posted and stated so elegantly. When a person finds God in their own way they don’t have to talk because it is broadcast loud and clear through their being, but this Divine relationship is sacred, confidential and the mystery should be respected in oneself and others. Words do not do the state of grace justice, but it is observable through the consistency and unity of the body, mind and spirit because people are searching for this truth and they can see it if it is lived on a regular basis. We can be tricked by words telling us what we want to hear, but truth appears inside when we are silent and it cannot be proclaimed because it can’t be described with words. When we declare spiritual truth, it is really is to convince ourselves to sit and align with the soul where we listen and receive infinity from our own being. We can point and show people where they might encounter the experience, but we can’t tell them what they will see or feel. To withdraw and turn off the mind is difficult, but when we find the interior silence the journey begins with the soul raising our consciousness to a place where we can be approached to receive truth from the source. God turns herself inside out so everything turns out to be a part of a Unity Consciousness in energy, light and awareness. “For God alone my soul waits in silence; from Him comes my salvation.” (Psalm 62:1) This presence of God is not a practice or ritual to carry out, but a dynamic letting go and receiving of grace. Christ does not have to be defended, explained, publicized or broadcast to the masses; he just needs to be experienced by taking on the mind or consciousness of His most sacred Heart. It is sad that Christians switch God for religion and The Infinite Reality for dogma when the Divinity within is calling, but the line turns out to be busy.

The main teachings of Jesus are love and the Divinity within, but we Christians seem to choose the path of least resistance and project Christianity through a superiority complex that we are right, have all the anwsers and everyone else is wrong. Mcarans, I like the tone of your last post. If we are looking for a way to identify with Christianity it is simple, love and the Divinity within. The institution sells Christianity as the only true path, religion and I think it only cheapens the church. We Christians need to stop trying to convert anyone and just try to follow the teachings of Christ which is a hard road if we are sincere. I see no problem helping a Moslim, Hindu or Atheist become true to their faith as it will bring them to the truth. As a Christian I have chosen Jesus as my master of wisdom, but I can also learn wisdom from others making me an even more devout Christian. While resting in the Divinity within we make acquaintance with true generosity, tranquility, peace, and happiness before returning to our body and mind where we gain an insight into the impermanence on the physical level. A spiritual vacation helps us to take in pure consciousness and bath in its light, a sense of well-being and calm before returning to the material plane. Peace is not something we wish for or can find outside of ourselves because it comes from within; therefore we can choose to be in peace no matter what is happening outside. We can make a peace sign, but not with a clenched fist so we need peace and with the spiritual practice of resting in the soul where we gravitate towards harmony and serenity as enjoyment.

We have learned to allow other people’s views, especially the negative ones to bring about change in our life when we need to shape our own life as human beings. Our society, religion, teachers and parents tell us that life should be a certain way by putting limits on everything we do physically, mentally and spiritually when there are no limits in Eternity. My fellow Christians use the Bible to shut down and bring to an end spiritual consideration when it is a means to open spiritual reflection. The following quote was attributed to Isaac Newton just before he died, “I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.” We Christians read the Bible as a Holy Book, but many instead of taking it in, digesting and contemplating the material, we spit it at others to show superiority, authority and dominance. Bishop Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, a South African opponent of apartheid said, “When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said "Let us pray." We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.” Instead of using the Bible to take advantage of people and close their minds, we need to let people and science advance and progress to expand and deepen the mind in order to go beyond it to a spiritual experience and a desire for more. In John 14 in the larger context Jesus is giving his farewell discourse to his disciples. He answers Thomas’ question about the way to where he is going (his Father’s house) by saying: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." This phrase has been used to get people to worship the image of Jesus without thinking. I think Jesus is identifying with the experience of Eternity through a pure consciousness, being one with the Father which is beyond words so he is saying I am the way to the experience, through pure consciousness. 8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” 9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13

I feel we choose our path when we are aware and react to the path someone else chose for us until we are aware. Every human being is on their own journey to self-actualization and inner peace because we are all guided by our own inner voice, our own consciousness that makes the decisions to follow or adjust until we end up in the right place for our being. Therefore, we all have to make life changes regardless of our belief system to allow our mind to go beyond our beliefs and restricted ideas that keep us apart and separate from a direct experience with the living universe. Yes, we draw people and concepts to us that confirm our beliefs, but they also keep us within the restrictions of our opinions, reputation, status, prejudice and judgments. When we overcome the fear of the consequences of our convictions, we can proceed beyond them and will once again have the direct experience of joy, bliss and the immediate awareness of the moment. As a Christian I feel Jesus did not come to create a religion, but to guide us to a direct experience with the Divinity within. The Truth does not care if we believe it or not, it just is absolutely and unconditionally true, we will never be able to understand it with our mind, but we can awaken to it. This might be a lesson that will come and go, but at this time I have chosen it. There is no right or wrong path just different with different lessons so we learn a lesson and move on or stay and learn the same lesson over and over. We are lucky we are changing, evolving because if we aren't we are dead physically.