Who do you say I am?

Matthew 16:12-16 “When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"

¹⁴They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."

¹⁵"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"

¹⁶Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ,^[a] the Son of the living God."

 

Who do you say Christ is? Not what you heard at church, not what you have always believed, but right now.

What if the most powerful, loving, intelligent, creative force in the Universe was sitting in the room with you. Would you pass off some glib answer? Or would you recognize your infinite smallness and fall on the floor, humbled into eternity?

Would you casually keep watching TV and live tomorrow as you did today?

Somehow, I know that if what I say He is doesn’t shake me to the core and shatter me open with fresh death and rebirth, then I have forgotten what it means to be in relationship with God, and I have fallen back into relationship with my pride.

Just think. What if you knew God was really in the room with you. Who would you say He is?

If I say He is God who suffered and died for me, does my heart reflect this truth, or am I a liar?

Disciples

Today I thought about spreading the kingdom. What came to mind were the words of Christ from John 13 vs34-45

“34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Love is the kingdom of Christ.  I see Christ established on this earth when we live in healthy relationship. We encourage and support each other. We hold each other to our highest truths. Our hearts are open and we live our lives in service and honor of a greater truth, of The Way of Christ.

In the kingdom our small self-centeredness, our pride, will have gone. In the kingdom I see us open, Gods love pouring into us, Gods love pouring out of us, and this flow creating life for us and those around.

My inquiry is simple, yet the answer is nothing less than the complete dissolving of my separate self.  “How do I love like Christ?”

In this is the miracle. If I can allow my little human self to get out the way (which is all Christ is asking), I am released into Love, I am released into discipleship of Christ.

The non-duality of Good and Evil

 

 

This is a repost from my friend Marci Mattes blogsite.

By David Loy

If only there were evil people somewhere, insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

– Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Because it emphasizes mindfulness of our thought processes, Buddhism encourages us to be wary of antithetical concepts, not only good and evil, but success and failure, rich and poor, even the duality between enlightenment and delusion. We distinguish between the opposing terms because we want one rather than the other, yet the meaning of each depends upon the other. That may sound abstract, but such dualities are actually quite troublesome for us. If, for example, it is important to live a pure life (however I understand purity), then I need to be preoccupied with avoiding impurity. If wealth is important for me, then I am also worried about avoiding poverty. We cannot take one lens without the other, and such pairs of spectacles filter our experience of the world.

What does this mean for the duality of good versus evil? One way the interdependence of good and evil shows itself is this: we don’t feel we are good unless we are fighting against evil. We can feel comfortable and secure in our own goodness only by attacking and destroying the evil outside us. And, sad to say but true, this is why we like wars: they cut through the petty problems of daily life and unite us good guys here against the bad guys over there. There is fear in that, of course, but it is also exhilarating. The meaning of life becomes clearer.

We all love the struggle between good (us) and evil (them). It is, in its own way, deeply satisfying. Think of the plots of the James Bond films, the Star Wars films, the Indiana Jones films. In such movies, it’s quite obvious who the bad guys are. Caricatures of evil, they are ruthless, maniacal, without remorse, and so they must be stopped by any means necessary, We are meant to feel that it is okay – even, to tell the truth, pleasurable – to see violence inflicted upon them. Because the villains like to hurt people, it’s okay to hurt them. Because they like to kill people, it’s okay to kill them. After all, they are evil and evil must be destroyed.

What is this kind of story really teaching us? That if you want to hurt someone, it is important to demonize them first – in other words, fit them into your good-versus-evil story. That is why the first casualty of all wars is truth.

Such stories are not just entertainment. In order to live, we need air, water, food, clothes, shelter, friends – and we need stories, because they teach us what is important in life. They give us models of how to live in a complicated, confusing world. Until the last hundred years or so, the most important stories for most people were religious. Today, however, the issue is not whether a story is an ennobling one, a good myth to live by, but the bottom line: will it sell?

The story of good and evil sells because it is simple and easy to understand, yet from a Buddhist viewpoint it can be dangerously deceptive. It keeps us from looking deeper, from trying to discover causes. Once something has been identified as evil, no more is there a need to explain it, only a need to fight it.

By contrast, Buddhism focuses on the three unwholesome roots of evil, also known as the three poisons: greed, ill will, and delusion. In place of the struggle between good and evil, Buddhism emphasizes ignorance and enlightenment. The basic problem is one of self-knowledge: do we really understand what motivates us?

In a passage from the Sutta Nipata, Ajita asks of the Buddha, “What is it that smothers the world? What makes the world so hard to see? What would you say pollutes the world and threatens it most?”

“It is ignorance which smothers,” the Buddha replies, “and it is heedlessness and greed which make the world invisible. The hunger of desire pollutes the world, and the great source of fear is the pain of suffering.”

Because this view offers us a better understanding of what actually motivates people – all of us – it also implies a very different way to address the problems created by ignorance and desire and violence: not a new holy war against evil, but a less dramatic struggle to transform our own greed into generosity, ill will into love, and ignorance into wisdom.

David R. Loy is Professor in the Faculty of International Studies at Bunkyo University, Japan, and a Zen student. His most recent book is A Buddhist History of the West: Studies in Lack (SUNY Press, 2002).

Washing the self away.

There is no escape from the self. Stop trying to escape into the future of an idealized self image and realize there is nothing you can do under your own power to attain happiness. Any illusion of being special is an illusion.

 

I heard the testimony of a humble man on Tuesday. Wednesday I felt disconnected from God and felt the pain of my resistance. Today I woke and connected into the bible not knowing what I would find, simply seeking understanding. I was drawn to the Gospel of St John, and I read with a type of Ignatian Visualization, trying to feel into  the events of the time, imagine them, smell them, trying to feel Jesus. There is a good likelyhood I would have been one of those who did not recognize Him, one of those who turned away from Him and did not believe Him.

 

As I read I was struck by the story of Jesus washing his disciples feet before the last supper. He said to Peter in John 13:12-16 “When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. ‘Do you understand what I have done for you?’ he asked them. ‘You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you should wash another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”

 

I spent much of today with the intention to connect to Christ, his teaching, his message, knowing that I did not know and I was willing to learn.

 

During prayers at church tonight, our church leader said he felt the spirit of Christ the strongest he had felt it in 20 years. One of the elders mentioned Christ the servant. Driving home, my mother told me that in biblical times, the lowest servant in the house had the job of washing the dusty feet of travelers.

 

I remember when Christ first presented himself to me in my dream states. He came washing my feet, preparing me for the Masters Chamber. That vision takes on increasing depth and texture through time. Today I saw it as Christ recognizing me as His disciple long before I was fully committed to Him. Yes, I am honored, but Christ’s words are demanding. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.

 

My resistance these last few days has clearly shown me how I am not really willing to be the lowest servant in the house. My resistance is wanting to trust myself more than wanting to trust God. Tiffany’s and Sparrow’s posts have shown me this recognition from a different angle.

There really is no escape here. Nowhere to go. Nothing to be. Nothing to aspire to. Accepting the lot of the lowest servant; its liberating to know your place. Enter meditation and offer whatever arises to Christ, as it arises, allowing Him to liberate it.

It seems that those with true belief in Christ are those with true humility. The greatest belief is the most authentic humility, as in this lowest place, there is no trust, no power in the small self. All trust and honor comes from the Master. To serve His way is the only way.

 

I trust the Holy Spirit will continue to show me my pride, and by  the Grace of the Divine, remove it.

Love

Bruce

The Man Watching

by Rainer Maria Rilke

I can tell by the way the trees beat, after
so many dull days, on my worried windowpanes
that a storm is coming,
and I hear the far-off fields say things
I can't bear without a friend,
I can't love without a sister

The storm, the shifter of shapes, drives on
across the woods and across time,
and the world looks as if it had no age:
the landscape like a line in the psalm book,
is seriousness and weight and eternity.

What we choose to fight is so tiny!
What fights us is so great!
If only we would let ourselves be dominated
as things do by some immense storm,
we would become strong too, and not need names.

When we win it's with small things,
and the triumph itself makes us small.
What is extraordinary and eternal
does not want to be bent by us.
I mean the Angel who appeared
to the wrestlers of the Old Testament:
when the wrestler's sinews
grew long like metal strings,
he felt them under his fingers
like chords of deep music.

Whoever was beaten by this Angel
(who often simply declined the fight)
went away proud and strengthened
and great from that harsh hand,
that kneaded him as if to change his shape.
Winning does not tempt that man.
This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively,
by constantly greater beings.

Collective Transformation.

I am drawn to the way of the shared heart. I see the shared heart as the way of the future.

Currently we live in a world dominated by individualism, exploitation, a worship of materialism and divisiveness. Fear based, greed based and power based psychological structures, which served our survival for so long, are beginning to threaten the survival of the human race.

Success has often  been characterized as the ability to be immune to physical threat and the fortification of self through material gain.

We see divisiveness in racial tension in South Africa, revolutions and civil war in Africa, tension in the Middle East, the Iran situation, American politics and most religions, to name but a few.

Humans just don’t seem to get along and revert so easy to factions, of ‘we are right and they are wrong’ or ‘lets get and keep what we can no matter what the cost to others’.

The way forward must be a way in which we can all feel safe, blessed and live our dreams and happiness. The questions are ‘how do we begin to do this as a culture?’

How do we work together, with God and with Love, to create a new future?

The answer is spiritual. The promise of spirituality is that there is a creative, abundant, infinite source which supports life, if we can align ourselves with it. This is not a way for rampant egoic accumulation to get what it wants. This is a way that is open to us humans if we can transform our fear, greed and sense of separation and live according to the way of the heart, interconnection and enough for all.

So, how does this become real? Not everyone can go and spend ten years getting enlightened. We need a real and immediate path forward, that offers a full hearted engagement with the world and a provision of what will make us happy and fulfilled. How do we begin to do this? How do we begin to immediately live this new spirituality? And how do we do this in community, not as an island?

I believe the answer is simpler that it appears.

• Simply create a heartfelt vision (which I will share how to do at the end of the article).
• Feel into the vision being real  using the body, not the mind.
• Share the vision with others who support it.
• With feeling, bless and feel into the visions of others.
• Feel into your own vision and the visions of others as a daily practice (20 minutes a day).
• Keep your vision and that of others in mind throughout the day.
• Keep a sense of lightness, ease, surrender and non-grasping, trusting the vision is bought through Gods power, not your own.
• Act appropriately.
• Wait for miracles.

Doing this in core groups of ten to twenty people, committed to each others highest potential, will begin to show the power of God to provide for us what we need to actualize our highest possibilities.

Studies have shown that prayer is effective for sick people. We spend so much time praying for problems and sickness to be gone. Lets shift the prayer energy to pray for God-guided success and bring in a new culture where happiness and abundance is bought through relationship to God and surrender of the way.

 

Love

Bruce

Setting a heart vision

• Write down a page of what you desire. Feel into the heart as you do this.
• Look at it and rewrite it the next day, refining it. Take out what doesnt fit and add in what does.
• Do this every day for up to a month. This will create a clear heart felt vision which becomes your target to go forwards, and which you hold in mind through the day.
• Without the clear vision its easy to get sidetracked and not make progress.

Choose life

Something which has come clear the last few weeks is the seemingly simple question "Do you choose life or death?"

Particularly in relationships. Do your relationships make you feel drained, tired and keeping you hanging in waiting for a promised land, or do they free you, liberate you and release you into your highest possibility.

You can also look at relationships with money, time and health. With these, the key to life is to first understand why you resist. Release the struggle and life will flood in.

I feel the best judge of character is the kind of people you hang out with.

And if you are in situations of disempowerment? Start to ask yourself how this is your mirror and why you are choosing this.

The only think stopping you stepping out of disempowering situations is fear.

Gods love is stronger than any fear and will provide for you. Stay connected to the Light.

Love

bruce

Non-dual prayer

I been fascinated by how to pray effectively. I spent last weekend with Uncle Dave, and he gave me some tips, about knowing that it is already done. Some friends suggested I explore Gregg Braden, and his teaching is that prayer is a feeling. One has to feel the end result.

Braden used a verse from the bible to illustrate his point. In the NIV version, John 16:23-24 is “I tell you the truth, my Father will give whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete”

When translated from the orginal Aramaic, the verse reads “Ask without hidden motive, and be surrounded by your answer. Be enveloped by what you desire, that your gladness may be full. So far, you have not done this, and your prayers have not been answered.”

What does this mean to be enveloped by your desire, to not be separate from it, even when its not yet tangibly real? And how do you do this without faking it, without ‘trying to believe’?

My question is how to pray effectively. The ability to effortlessly hold a vision (a mental visual) has been emerging strongly recently. I know prayers must be heart felt. The prayer must be in present tense. How do you pray knowing you have it, when you don’t have it yet? I have long struggled with this sense of separation from my vision, not knowing how to bridge the gap in an authentic way.

Today I rested in the feeling of the heart center, opening, feeling gratitude. As I stayed connected to the feeling, I allowed a visual of what I wanted in my life to form. Usually there would be a sense of ‘me doing it’, and that feeling of me doing it would be coming from my mind. The visual and I would appear separate in time and space, and appear held in place by my mind. Today I stayed with the heart feeling, and allowed that heart feeling to fill all of my experience. I imagined the visual of what I desired resting in my heart, made of heart energy, pulsing with heart energy. The vision was connected to the heart. I was the heart. I felt into the sensations of the vision being real. The mind dropped and the vision and the heart and I were one. It seemed obvious. The future and the present were one experience. In the non-dual state of all embracing love and unity, the vision was embraced and felt, and experienced as real and part of me.

The key is to ask “Are you praying from the heart or the head”? Prayers from a mind locked in duality will continue to entrench the divide between current and desired reality. The mind can’t pretend or fake non-duality; its very nature is separation and division.

Prayers from the heart are feeling based. Feeling is a non-dual experience. You simply feel before the mind judges. Feeling is immediate knowing, without an opposite. So the trick is to feel the prayer and the vision, born of love. In this prayer there is no division between you and your desire. Feeling into the prayer as though its already answered, is what it means to be 'surrounded by your answer, and enveloped by what you desire.

love

Bruce

Lovers

This made me think of those hearing the call of awakening...(and, like me, sometimes not liking to be too disturbed..lol..).. its a little poem by Rumi..

:)

O lovers, lovers it is time
to set out from the world.

I hear a drum in my soul's ear
coming from the depths of the stars.

Our camel driver is at work;
the caravan is being readied.

He asks that we forgive him
for the disturbance he has caused us,
He asks why we travelers are asleep.

Everywhere the murmur of departure;
the stars, like candles
thrust at us from behind blue veils,
and as if to make the invisible plain,
a wondrous people have come forth.

Clear Vision

In an earlier post, I wrote about what Uncle Dave (a master spiritual healer) taught me about prayers. He also gave me a couple of other useful creative tips.

Setting a vision is the first critical step in getting what you want in life, yet if you are anything like me, you have had trouble at times figuring out what you really want. Maybe you were caught between different options, doubt or you just weren’t sure if you could do what you wanted because you didn’t have the resources. And if you aren’t sure what you want, you will get mixed results.

Uncle Dave gave me a great method for getting clear on what’s most important. Simply write down what you most want to do or create next in your life. Try and write down about a page describing it. (You probably won’t feel much as you write this)

Then, come back to it the next day, and go through what you wrote. Edit and change it if necessary, until it’s what you feel you really want. (don’t use any negative words).

Keep doing this for up to a month, until you have clarity combined with a felt connection to your heart. This is your true motivation. A heart connection tells you that this vision will give you life, whereas fear based vision takes away life. This will help you get past the layers of doubt and fear that the mind throws up. And don’t worry if you can’t see how this will come true yet.

He said we are powerful creators and the heart is the seat of life-giving creation.

The relationships you have in your life are the most powerful indicators of whether you will be successful or not. Relationships that give life and support you empower you, and relationships that take life away disempower you. Uncle Dave said that you must only share your goals with people who will support you, and be impeccable with your speech.

Creation

I spent the weekend with my uncle Dave, a charismatic Christian, the leader of several churches, and with powerful healing gifts.

We were chatting about prayer, and how come so many prayers seem be unanswered, for Christ says in Mark 11:24 "Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them." Dave said that all his prayers are answered, and are often answered quickly.

He said that when you pray your heart must be in it. You must say your prayers aloud and say them confidently. And once you have said the prayer, never say anything that doubts or contradicts it as this will break the power of the prayer.

So, for example, if you pray for healing, then it must be your will. You must say, 'Father, I desire healing. Let me be healed' and not 'If its your will, then let me be healed'.

Once you have said it, never say something like 'I am still sick' or 'I wonder if the prayer worked'. Dont cast any doubt. Say something like 'Thank you God for receiving my prayer and I know you have acted on it" And be careful who you tell. If others say negative things about your desires their prayers can influence yours.

He said the battlefield is in your mind. There you must turn all thoughts towards success of what you want, and when you speak, everything you say must affirm what you want. You can use this for anything you desire which you want to bring into your life. Even though you may not see the results you want in your life, the prayer is first answered in the spiritual realm before its bought into manifestation. Negating the unseen result with doubt or the opposite will block it coming in..

Love

Bruce

Blessed Easter

Namaste,

I went to church tonight, and I felt the message of death through suffering and rebirth into innocence. We read Psalm 20. May your trust in the LORD ever increase.

Psalm 20

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

¹ May the LORD answer you when you are in distress;
may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.

² May he send you help from the sanctuary
and grant you support from Zion.

³ May he remember all your sacrifices
and accept your burnt offerings.
Selah

⁴ May he give you the desire of your heart
and make all your plans succeed.

⁵ We will shout for joy when you are victorious
and will lift up our banners in the name of our God.
May the LORD grant all your requests.

⁶ Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed;
he answers him from his holy heaven
with the saving power of his right hand.

⁷ Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.

⁸ They are brought to their knees and fall,
but we rise up and stand firm.

⁹ O LORD, save the king!
Answer us when we call!