What Others Are Saying
It was a breath of fresh air to hear that the pope has chosen to step down, the first pope in 7 centuries to do so. What he and his predecessor wrought to the Catholic Church as we know it is nothing short of devastation. But as a Christian I see their 42 year reign as so destroying the church we know that now the Holy Spirit can give birth to a community far more attuned to the revolutionary Gospel of Jesus than the current and dying structures ever could be. Those structures are as passe as the Berlin Wall.
Thinking of Benedict the man, I think this was a very wise decision indeed for before he “meets his Maker” he surely has a lot of soul work to accomplish. Below is a short list of some of the issues history will hold him accountable for both as cardinal and as pope. Were I his confessor, I would start work on them very soon. (Since this is a list, I offer page numbers of my study on his life and papacy to see the back up evidence.)
1. His silence for years about the notorious pedophile priest Father Maciel who was so close to Pope John Paul II that he was invited on his plane often and was feted to a mass ordination of his seminarians by the pope in St Peter’s Square. This man, who sexually abused dozens of his seminarians and had two wives on the side and sexually abused his own children (though a priest with vows of celibacy), was not fully investigated until 2005 even though a New York bishop wrote Ratzinger’s office in 1995. (125-130)
2. His and the previous pope’s unwillingness to divorce themselves from the politics of Father Maciel who was a great admirers of the blood-soaked dictator Pinochet in Chile.
3. His attacks when head of the CDF (formerly “Office of the Holy Inquisition”) on theologians the world over who dared to do their job which is to think. He denounced, fired, hounded, at least 105 theologians not only from his chair of CDF but also as pope (they are listed on page 238-241 of my book The Pope’s War ).
4. He and his predecessor brought back the Inquisition and in fact killed theology, reducing it to 1) a catechism and 2) Saying Yes to whatever the pope (or his curia) said.
5. His unrelenting attacks on base communities and Liberation Theology (thus fulfilling Ronald Reagan’s plans to “split the church” in Latin America) even though this movement, like the civil rights movement of the U.S., was the most Christ-like movement for democracy and justice and freedom in centuries. One side light of these attacks has been a void of genuine Christianity in Latin America, a void being filled by Pentecostal (and right wing political) churches there. (pp. 41-62)
6. His (and the previous pope’s) complete pushing of neo-fascist sects as the new “religious order” and shock troops of the pope beginning with the secret “Opus Dei” which is embedded in places of great power including cardinals and bishops all over the world and also financial headquarters of EU, the US Supreme Court, the CIA (especially under George Bush the first), FBI, and the US mainstream media. (pp. 106-124)
7. His and the previous pope’s rushing the founder of Opus Dei, Fr. Escriva, a card-carrying fascist who actually praised Hitler, into canonization faster than any saint in history (and destroying the age-old process of canonization in the process by eliminating the “devil’s advocate’s” role which is to bring up the shadow side of the candidate). Books by former Opus Dei members include his personal secretary of 7 years were completely ignored and their testimony was never asked for.
8. The cover-up of pedophile clergy in the US, in Ireland and elsewhere. The recent HBO film tells the facts about some of these horrors and how the buck stopped with Ratzinger. All the cover up put an Institution ahead of the rights of young children. (pp. 134-174)
9. His and the previous pope’s putting wind in the sails of extreme right wing groups from Maciel’s Legion of Christ to Communion and Liberation to Opus Dei and their support of zealots such as neo con and theo con George Weigel. (pp. 130-144)
10. The end of religious ecumenism. Ratzinger as pope managed to insult Islam; Judaism; all Protestant churches (he says they are not churches); also as cardinal Thich Naht Hahn (whom the Vatican called “the anti-Christ”) and yoga—wrote Ratzinger—Christians should not do it because it “puts you too much in touch with your body.”
11. The dumbing down of the church not only by condemning thinkers but by appointing Bishops and cardinals world-wide whose only qualification for the job is to be a loyal Yes man, thus the loading down of church decision makers for generations who don’t have a conscience, an intellect or a clue about the spiritual needs of people.
12. A complete reaffirmation of a “morality” of Sexism (no women priests ever; Catholic sisters in America are now subject to investigations like theologians have been); and of Homophobia—Ratzinger composed not one but two documents as head of CDF that were mean-spirited and spiteful about gay persons and ignored scientific research even as pope that has created another Galileo moment in church history. He stuck by his “no condoms even in an age of AIDS” position that is all about St Augustine’s silly sexual ethic and not anything Jesus ever taught. Even birth control in a time of excessive human population on a crowded planet remains, in his rigid world view, the law of the church and any theologian (or bishop) who questions such matters is suspect.
13. The interference in the presidential election of 2004 wherein Ratzinger instructed American bishops to read his declaration that any “catholic politician” (i.e. Kerry) who did not denounce gays and abortion could not receive communion. The result was three states had very unusual Republican votes from Catholics—if just one of them had had more normal Catholic vote, Kerry, not Bush, would have been president.
With such a trail of devastation as this, Father Ratzinger, ex-pope and ex-Inquisitor, is right to retire. Hopefully, beginning in this time of Lent, he will do some soul searching and asking for forgiveness. Unfortunately, because he and his predecessor appointed only Yes Men as cardinals, one should not expect any improvement in the next pope. Instead we should recognize that history has passed the papacy by and that now is the time for the Holy Spirit to push the restart button on Christianity, both Catholic and Protestant versions, so as to strip down to the essence of Jesus’ teaching and the Cosmic Christ tradition.
Toward this end, Andrew Harvey and myself are starting up a series of “Christ Path” seminars available on line or in person (see info@christpathseminar.org) This restart of Christianity can be done without basilicas on our backs but mere backpacks. Travel lightly. Walk humbly. Do justice. And peace will follow.
(Matthew Fox is a former Catholic priest who is the author of Original Blessing and the creator of the “techno-mass” he developed at the University of Creation Spirituality. His newest book, The Pope’s War: How Ratzinger’s Crusade Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved, details much of what he has summarized above. Fox is a member of the Advisory Board of the interfaith Network of Spiritual Progressives — www.spiritualprogressives.org)
(We recognize that the above opinion offers a controversial point of view. If you have an opposing point of view (or a different topic altogether that you wish to explore) and would like to contribute an article you have authored to the Guest Column, please submit it to our Managing Editor, Lisa McCormack, for possible publication in this space. Not all submissions can be published, due to the number of submissions and sometimes because of other content considerations, but all are encouraged. Send submissions to Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com. Please label the topic: “Guest Column.”)
Fear has been on my mind a lot lately, especially when it comes to this venture of Pajamas Notebook. I started out as I always do, like a firecracker, but as time goes on I find myself getting fearful again. This time around, it is a different type of fear than I am normally accustomed to. Usually, I would get scared of failure. “What if no one likes me?” “What if I fail miserably?” Those feelings I am used to and have become really good at handling,so they don’t bother me anymore. What this new fear does deal with is the fear of success! Odd, isn’t it?
This time around I find myself saying, “What if I become successful?” or“What if my message takes off and the spotlight starts to shine on me?” How do I handle that? Being a humble person, the thought of “all eyes on me” is a bit daunting, as I have never wanted to outshine anyone else in my life. I suffer from “feeling bad for those around me when I start to take the lead so I step back” syndrome. This was even stronger when I became a Wife and Mother. I always wanted to be a Stay-at-Home Mommy (which I am), a supportive wife (which I am), a loving sibling (which I am), and a loving daughter (which I am)…which is why my mind keeps putting me in checkmate by saying, “You have everything you ever wanted… why push it and try for more? How will you balance your home with a business? How will you care for your husband? How will you make time for your kids?” It is those moments where fear starts really knocking at my door.
With that being said, I ended up spending the entire weekend thinking about this subject. What fear is, what common fears are, and how it affects different kinds of people. Through this process, I was finally able to muster up enough courage to no longer allow this emotion to get the better of me. How did I do this you may ask? Simply, by deciding to put all TRUST in me, so that I will be able to answer any knock at my door with a smile and with love. You see, the truth is that fear is constantly knocking at our doors if you really take time to listen. We can either choose to ignore that it’s there and just keep pressing on, or we can finally stand up with all that we are and open the door to invite fear in!
That is what I have chosen to do. I have decided to walk straight up to my door, open it up, and invite fear inside. I am going to ‘trust’ that this feeling knocking means I truly am on to something with my business…I am going to love the crap out of this scary emotion until it’s so full of love it has no choice but to love me back…I am going to put all my light towards the fear, and whatever else walks through my door, that it will be overrun with the warmth of which I am.
I have decided right here and now, to no longer live life by constantly ‘exiting stage right.’ Instead, I choose to harness the gifts provided to me and get to gettin’ when it comes to sharing my message with all of you!
Since I have made this declaration to myself and to the universe, I am overrun with pure joy for what lies ahead and am excited to have ‘fear’ along for the ride. Maybe, just maybe, I can finally teach IT a thing or two about how the soul really works!
What would you do, if you knew you wouldn’t fail? What would you do, if fear no longer conquered your life?
(Jaimie Schultz , a/k/a Pajamas, is a fun-loving, passionate, adventure seeker who loves life and loves helping others see how much they should love theirs. She is passionate about all things mystical and out of her control. You can visit her website at www.pajamasnotebook.com)
(If you would like to contribute an article you have authored to the Guest Column, please submit it to our Managing Editor, Lisa McCormack, for possible publication in this space. Not all submissions can be published, due to the number of submissions and sometimes because of other content considerations, but all are encouraged. Send submissions to Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com. Please label the topic: “Guest Column.”)
“We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves” ~ Dalai Lama
What comes after peace?
Have you ever stopped to think about this?
We spend so much of our time and energy working to attain both inner and global peace, but have we ever stopped to think about what this really means?
What is on the other side of Peace?
Twice in my life, I have broken a board with my bare hand. There is one simple rule to this technique. You must not focus on breaking the board but rather on breaking through the board. This means placing your attention not on breaking the board but on seeing your hand on the other side of the broken board.
Perhaps we need to apply this technique to our quest for peace.
Several years ago, when my son was eight years old, we were discussing the possibility of creating a video game that did not include war and violence.
As the discussion moved into the possibility of world peace, my son in his infinite wisdom said,
“People are not ready for that. Without conflict there would be no plot. And without a plot, no one would know what to do.”
I was speechless.
My eight year old son had just summed up in one simple sentence why the world has continued this cycle of war and conflict since the beginning of time. I could not get this thought out of my head for weeks.
I realized that our children are being taught to live in the cycle of conflict. Not only through propaganda, video games and media. They are learning the importance of conflict in English class!
The foundation of every paper they write is that a plot must consist of an introduction, conflict, and resolution. In fact, every story that we read is based on this core principal. It is our collective story!
How do we write a new story?
I dedicated the last four years of my life to mastering a new story; not for the world, but for myself. In fully dropping a storyline that clings to conflict, I free myself to imagine a world beyond peace. As I dropped my attachment to conflict, I discovered that not only were my actions tied to the cycle of conflict and resolution, my desire for intimacy was woven into this same cycle.
Stop for a second and think about relationship. Most intimate moments come from joining together around conflict. We have a problem; reach out to a friend for comfort. The friend either commiserates by sharing her/his own similar problems or helps us find a resolution. We are comforted by these moments of intimate bonding.
So how do we create intimacy beyond conflict?
A few weeks ago, I had the honor of being present at the Common Grounds of Peace Forum, with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and several world peace advocates.
I smiled when the moderator, Ann Curry, read this question,
“We focus so much attention on attaining world peace. What comes after peace?”
After four years of contemplating this very question, I anxiously awaited the response from these notable peace leaders.
One by one, each person attempted to answer. Yet, each answer simply reiterating the need for peace. Not one of these renowned peace advocates actually answered the question. Even more significant is that not one of them even seemed to realize that they were not answering the question.
Then His Holiness, The Dalai Lama, with his brilliant smile and light-hearted nature spoke. He shared that when you have peace at your core, you will be happy and you will have more friends.
“And,” he said, “everyone likes more friends.”
Simple and true.
Yes, after peace comes joy. We must start by finding this joy within ourselves.
As we release our attachment to storylines of conflict, we will discover a whole new way of connecting to others. We will discover a new way of seeing this world.
Begin by imagining a new and vibrant world. See a world that is more vibrant and colorful than you have ever before imagined. This world has unlimited possibilities and its only plot is to explore and create beauty. In this world, everything moves naturally into its most perfect form.
Meditating on this “Vibrant New Earth” immediately brings life into harmony. More than that, meditating on this Vibrant New Earth is the greatest gift we can offer our world in its quest for peace.
We are co-creators of this Universe. We must be able to see a world of joy in order to move through peace and create the world we desire.
John Lennon understood this in the 70’s when he planted the seed of intent with his song Imagine.
We have all heard the song. We have felt the vibration of peace it carries: But have we actually taken the time to Imagine?
Take a moment to contemplate these lyrics. Really let the images of a joy filled world penetrate you. Let yourself feel the world you imagine.
“Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace
You, you may say
I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one”
John Lennon
Imagination is the gateway to creation. Let’s join together and imagine a world beyond peace. Let’s co-create in this moment a world filled with playful and creative joy.
(Sheila Applegate, MSW, is a clinical therapist, motivational presenter, author and teacher. Sheila’s passion is to provide a forum for people to process emotion and integrate spiritual understanding into their daily lives. For over 20 years, Sheila has combined her broad formal training with her continual personal awakening to bring forth the message of Oneness through Divine Love. Sheila’s first book “Enchanted One: The Portal to Love,” released in December 2012, is a work of love that weaves together messages from the Divine Feminine and highlights her personal experiences in embracing the full spectrum of human emotion as a gateway to living in Oneness. www.sheilaapplegate.com)
(If you would like to contribute an article you have authored to the Guest Column, please submit it to our Managing Editor, Lisa McCormack, for possible publication in this space. Not all submissions can be published, due to the number of submissions and sometimes because of other content considerations, but all are encouraged. Send submissions to Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com. Please label the topic: “Guest Column.”)
Most people think that to meditate, you have to sit quietly in a lotus position (legs crossed, the right foot resting on the left thigh) chanting a mantra. When I learned Transcendental Meditation in the 80’s, that’s exactly what I did, 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the evening.
Sitting like that gave me the feeling that I was in a meditation pose meant exclusively for meditating, and if anyone were to come into the room and see me, it would be rather obvious what I was doing. But what I was doing had more to do with what was going on in my mind, than the position I was sitting in, and that, I’ve come to realize, is something you can do in any position, including sitting down drinking your morning cup of tea or coffee.
Meditation is designed to quiet your mind and put you in a state of relaxation and peace. By focusing on your breathe, your thoughts can come in and out of your mind more easily without attachment to them. This focus and concentration allows for inner transformation to take place, which can take us to a higher level of awareness.
The discipline of sitting quietly to achieve this kind of relaxation, peace, and awareness has wonderful benefits like reducing stress or anxiety, but not everyone has or makes time to sit on the floor with their legs crossed and eyes closed, but would like to realize the advantages of meditating. So, can you, if you don’t sit in a traditional meditation pose like a Buddhist monk? I think you can, and here’s how:
1. When you wake up in the morning be aware of your thoughts. Allow them to come in and out of your mind by observing them.
2. Continue being aware of your thoughts when you do your morning ritual like brushing your teeth, showering and getting dressed.
3. Make a cup of tea or coffee.
4. Find a quiet place to sit.
5. Focus your attention on drinking your tea or coffee.
6. Feel the warmth of your drink on your lips, and going down your throat.
7. Be aware of how it tastes.
8. Feel the pleasure it gives you as you drink.
9. If a thought distracts you from enjoying your tea or coffee, put your focus back on the pleasure it gives you by the taste and feel of it.
10. Be aware of not rushing to finish your tea or coffee.
11. Stay present as you drink what is left of it.
12. Take a moment to hold your finished cup of tea or coffee, feeling the appreciation and gratitude of it as a gift to being alive.
13. Get up from your chair slowly.
14. Put your cup down and begin your day with the mindfulness you feel being in the present.
Meditating is something everyone can do. Whether you’re sitting in a lotus position chanting or drinking a cup of tea or coffee, you can put your focus on the here and now by concentrating on what you’re dong with awareness. Practicing a form of meditation will help you go through the day staying in the present and remaining mindful of everything around you.
Even if having your morning tea or coffee is at your local Starbucks or Coffee Bean, you can sit there, although it may not be quiet, using this meditation technique to transcend the noise or talking around you by focusing and concentrating on mindful drinking. There’s a great story about a Taoist master teaching his sons how to meditate at a busy, crowded park. When they questioned their father as to why he was teaching them how to meditate in such a noisy place, he replied “If you can learn how to meditate here, you can meditate anywhere.”
Everything we do is an opportunity to turn it into a meditation by allowing ourselves to be in the present, and focusing on whatever we’re doing with awareness. If you’re someone who would like to meditate, but don’t feel you have time to do it, you can experience it while you’re doing something like drinking tea or coffee, and it will become more than just drinking. It becomes mindful drinking, which takes it to a whole other level. You become aware of yourself drinking your tea or coffee with clarity of mind and a feeling of inner peace.
It sure beats drinking a cup of tea or coffee in your car, rushing in traffic, trying to get to where you need to be, your mind racing everywhere other than being in the present. I call that drinking on the go, not drinking in the now.
(Posted on Huffington Post 11/14/2012)
(Ora Nadrich is a certified Life Coach with a private practice in Los Angeles, CA. Her unique, practical method helps her clients attain happiness and fulfillment by teaching them to look inward and connect to their authentic selves in order to reach their goals. Ora is also a writer, speaker and facilitator of a popular women’s group focusing on inner awareness and a constructive, alternative approach to dealing with life’s challenges. A book detailing her method will be available in 2013. In the meantime, to learn more about Ora and read her previous blogs, visit www.oralifecoach.com. Email: ora@oralifecoach.com)
We may as well face some facts. Back in the old days people would be born, live and die in the same village. Everyone they knew was of the same nationality, ate the same kinds of food, wore similar clothes and, most likely, was of the same religion. Some may have been vaguely aware that other cultures exist, but lacking any real contact with them, it was almost as if people from those other cultures were not really real. Back then it was common and acceptable to perceive one’s own culture and religion as central — and to see all others as somehow not “counting” quite as much. Few people had reason to think any more widely than this: provincial worldviews were the norm.
But as transportation options improved, people began to move from place to place. Then suddenly they were exposed to people who were different. Some wound up with neighbors from a different country. Some might have had coworkers, or even supervisors, from a different religion.
This brushing up against different world cultures would have caused people to compare their own customs and beliefs against those of these strangers. Generally speaking, two types of reaction were possible: 1) people could retreat into their comfortable and familiar worldviews, resisting and resenting the influx of these strangers into their awareness. They could dig in their heels and insist their own ways were more real, more right, and more valid than all the others. Or 2) They could forge relationships with the strangers and seek to understand the differences. They could try the strangers’ foods, listen to their music, even engage in conversations about their contrasting religious beliefs. People choosing this more transformative response would find themselves seeing commonalities with these strangers. They would likely come to see that there is good and bad, truth and falseness in all cultures — and all religions. This most likely would loosen the stronghold of religious exclusivity, and weaken the fences between people with different beliefs.
People choosing the first option above would be refusing to allow themselves the opportunity to learn about others. They would be excluding a part of the truth from their awareness. They would be reinforcing their own provincialism and limiting their own growth. Conversely, those choosing the second option would be allowing more of the truth about our existence into their awareness, expanding their own horizons, growing.
Now, these days with global communications as they are, people don’t even need to move to be exposed to other cultures and religious views. We need only turn on a computer or TV to be immediately thrown up against huge numbers of issues, people and cultures from all over the world. Their religious beliefs and practices will conflict with ours. This leaves us the same choices as listed above. We can choose to see only the differences, and retreat in fear from these others. Or we can broaden our worldview to include them in our common humanity.
But how to include these others on the religious front when their beliefs and practices seem so different? How to move forward when some of our religious leaders are still insisting their own particular belief system has the only right answers? Admittedly it can be hard to rise above the divisiveness and triumphalism — and the attempts to convert everyone — when certain factions are blowing up our buildings with thousands of people in them.
But there is another way to view this.
Every religion has a literal level where all the beliefs and practices are specific to that faith. From within the literal level, one’s own creed appears very different from — and superior to — all the others. This can lead a person to conclude that his religion is the only right one, or at least the best one. Seeing only the literal level leaves us mired in discord, trying to assert the primacy of our beliefs over those of others.
But another way of looking at this issue is emerging to the forefront in several camps. Thanks in part to global communications, some people are beginning to see beyond the literal level of religion. They are beginning to see through the specific symbols of their religion, to emerge with a far more general metaphorical understanding. They come to realize the allegorical nature of the stories in their religious texts. Then when they are faced with comparing those stories from other faiths, they can see that the religions are not so very different in intent.
All religions contain a common core of values. Opening our minds and hearts to this truth allows us to realize that all religions arose from a common human search for connection with something greater than ourselves.
All the elaborate rites, rituals and beliefs that make up each individual religion were created by humans according to their own local culture, but arose from a common universal quest shared by everyone. In this sense we must admit that all religions are but different localized ways to express a basic human need. Seen this way, insisting our religion is the only correct one begins to sound downright limited, parochial and immature; imposing specific rules from our particular holy book on others who have not chosen to follow it begins to sound ridiculous. When we can expand our worldview to include people of all religions, and those of no religion, into our human family, we become more mature in a spiritual sense. We move toward a position of seeing all people as cut from the same cloth. This is one little step on the road to unity — or the Oneness expressed as a goal of some religions like Buddhism.
Some proponents claim that a general spiritual transformation is afoot where people are moving more and more quickly toward this realization. As more and more people are exposed to other belief systems, they are coming to appreciate that each religion contains some truth, but none has the whole and entire truth. They are coming to see that there is no chosen people, no one religion that is right over all the others. This transformation is being helped along by global communications, which increasingly exposes us to all different religions. Many people are confused, overwhelmed or turned off by competing religions all claiming superiority. But still recognizing their own search for connection with something greater than themselves, they adopt the “spiritual but not religious” label.
Religious leaders interested in maintaining a vibrant flock would do well to adapt their message to this snowballing trend of globalization, which they cannot fight. Traditional religion will soon render itself irrelevant if fails to adopt more universal, more unitive themes into its teachings.
(As a practicing optometrist, Margaret Placentra Johnston has been helping people see better in the physical world for the last thirty years. Now she writes to help people see more clearly in other ways. Captivated by the depth and beauty of the universal worldview described by various spiritual development theorists, Margaret used ten real life stories from real people to illustrate steps on the way to that worldview. Her book, Faith Beyond Belief: Stories of Good People Who Left Their Church Behind (Quest Books, October, 2012,) is the result of that search. Available wherever books are sold.* Visit FaithBeyondBelief-book.com for more information. *(Ebook format available at http://questbooks-ebookstore.net/Books/9780835640589?FromPage=search)
There is more love around. I can feel it. Or is there more love in myself?
Love and joy have no upper limit. You can carry only a certain amount of hatred, sadness and grief inside you, because at some point they will all change into love. This will happen either during this life or the next one. Universal love is infinite freedom. It is freedom to choose and to learn from one’s own choices.
You are never alone. You are always accompanied by love which manifests itself in different energies and forms of life. What you feel and perceive is different from what reality is. Your feelings and perceptions are but partial truths. The more you manifest love, the more you will feel and perceive yourself to be part of a whole, which is a good deal greater than the world you are living in.
There is much more love in the world than what is usually thought. People would be able to live in a much greater love for themselves, each other, nature and the whole planet if the distorted structures in our societies all over the world did not limit and suppress the expression of love.
Someone says that we are living in a loveless world. I say that we are living in abundant love. It is a different thing than whether we are able to discover and recognize the abundant love in ourselves. We are living in a world of illusions. The value system around us may rather be more destructive than loving. We are being sold self-esteem without love. Our yearning for love is appealed through our self-esteem.
Commercials and advertisements make us feel unhappy unless we acquire this and that. Those that we call charity organizations may say, ”Buy yourself a good feeling, donate for charity.” Love has been turned into merchandise. Yet love is free of cost. We can show love and radiate love around us all the time, and totally free of charge. If you saw the impact of love energies, you would understand their power. The spirit is stronger than matter.
Joy is free.
Joy is love.
Joy is in your attitude.
The more you feed joy and love, the more you will be them. This must happen unselfishly, without compulsion or artificiality. The world is full of pretension, smiles and promises which are not real. The world is also full of honesty, smiles and being which are real. You must recognize them in you and in others. You must recognize yourself. Do you know yourself? Many think that they recognize themselves, their expectations and needs although they only recognize the needs and expectations that the environment has
created for them.
Can you distinguish real love from market values? You can if you only want to. Can you distinguish between desire and love? For love is much more of the attitude “how I love” rather than “how I am loved.” The need to be loved has prevailed for too long over expression of real love in humanity. All kinds of means for being loved have been and are being used. People do things, buy products, and choose attitudes in order to be loved.
In the course of history many distorted attitudes have become generally accepted laws and patterns of behavior. The world is so full of these norms restricting love and freedom, rites and attitudes that an individual who expresses love may seem as unfit for the society…because love and freedom are one.
When we express love, we are free. There is no wrong in love. Real freedom is absolute love. The notion of freedom as well as that of love is distorted in our world. There are attempts to buy and attain both of them in ways that are nothing but delusion when compared with real love and freedom. In the most extreme case, nations think that they can buy freedom by reinforcing their armed forces. In doing so, are they imagining that they are buying love, too? For freedom is love. Freedom attained through life-destroying methods is dependency and fear. Fear is a challenge for reaching real love. Love has no fear. How could love have fear because love is eternal, infinite power and wisdom? Infinite love, infinite wisdom, and infinite power are in you. So why would you be afraid?
Fear is not in you. It is in the societal, social and economic structures. Fear is energy which maintains these structures. These structures are so distorted that they are sustained by life-destroying energies. They are antiquated energies which are having their death struggle, when at the same time life-constructing energies of love are manifesting themselves ever more widely.
(Timo Teide is an artist, author, and spiritual guide who lives in Finland. He has had dozens of art exhibitions and he has done meditative music and books about love. The healing power of art and the multidimensional impact of colors, forms and sounds are the most important elements of his art. Visit: www.teidegallery.com. Contact Timo: timo.teide@gmail.com.)
We are not a Godless society–that would be impossible. God, as we call the source of which we come, is All, Everything. Nothing would exist if there were not God/Source (whatever you call your personal belief system of our Creator). Now, being given Free Will and CHOOSING to forget that we are complete Love because God/Source exists is quite another thing altogether.
“If a madman wants to kill innocent people, he will find a way.
Killers don’t need guns to kill people.
Timothy McVeigh used fertilizer.
9/11 terrorists used box cutters and planes.
Nazis used cyanide gas.
Taking guns from innocent people will not protect innocent people.
The problem is NOT guns, it’s the Godless in a society.”
This quote comes from Facebook. I’ve noticed a number of people posting this since the massacre this last week. What is surprising to me is a lot of people are acting as if this massacre is the surprise. We have had so many senseless public murders that I’m losing track of them all. I know you are, too. Yet each time one happens, we pretend it’s the first time and are shocked it’s happened.
We are not living in a world that is Godless, without God. No, my friends, we are not. It just appears that way because WE ARE THE ONES WHO HAVE FORGOTTEN WHO AND WHAT WE ARE. Events like this are our opportunities to show ourselves who we really are. This is where we get to show that we can love EVERYONE, including the shooter because we hold so much compassion in our hearts.
God created us with a veil so that we have forgotten what we really are, LOVE AND LIGHT. We are here experiencing our pure spirituality as humans. We are not humans having an occasional spiritual experience. No, it’s the opposite. We are spiritual beings having a human experience; to feel what duality feels like. Love/hate, clarity/confusion, black/white, etc. Without this duality, we don’t know what we are. If you don’t have a room with objects in it, you have nothing to show you what you are in relationship to anything.
I know you’re thinking, crap, she’s off on her “love and light” and “God” baloney again. But keep your mind open, because it’s things like this last week and the multiple other shootings and murders that we think are the problem. The problem is us, our way of believing and thinking.
We watch the news over and over and wonder why we feel so exhausted. We build brick walls around our heart and create grievances against the shooter. Grieve, for sure, but then what are you going to do about your feelings? Are you going to volunteer to help the mentally ill? Are you going to volunteer at schools so those who feel ostracized are given attention? Are you going to keep your stories that people who are bullies should be bullied by you? Are you going to keep your stories that you don’t have time? What about the story it’s someone else’s problem to solve for you? Then you can create even more stories that those people are letting you down, too. Do you choose to NOT hear the cries for help BEFORE it becomes a national crisis? Do some soul searching and find out why you keep burying your head in the sand instead of stepping forward and doing something, anything. Anything but complaining and creating more stories of why you can’t. Why can’t you? What is holding you back? I know who: you. You are holding YOU back from saving the world. It takes all of us. We all helped in this mess and we all need to stand up and do whatever it takes to make it better.
We are sitting around waiting for our creator to come save us, yet we NEVER LISTEN to the messages that are giving to us continually on how to solve the plight WE CREATED for OURSELVES.
We either don’t believe in God because of all the negativity we believe is around us or we lament that God is not saving us. Well, you can’t be given free will and then say, “Nope, not this time, I don’t want free will, I want you to take care of me. However, when I think it’s convenient, I want the free will back.” This is just another way of humans creating some bizarre story around God so they can say God is letting them down. We are nuts.
Soon as you take that first breath of life, my dear ones, you got free will. What you CHOOSE to do with that free will is how you either consciously or UN-consciously choose to live your life and show yourself and all others who you really, truly are.
Are you one who thinks someone else should protect you and take care of you? Are you the one who offers to assist others without a story attached? Can you actually really truly do something for another and NOT SAY “except” this or that?
No, we don’t live in a world that is Godless or where God doesn’t not listen to us. In fact, there are many beings who we are not aware of, other beings that are watching over us with much compassion, love and concern for us and our choices. We can believe in the devil, but let’s not believe there are beings concerned with our well-being. That would be totally absurd. Only our old cultural stories are true, there is nothing we are missing or don’t know. Right.
Where we are stuck is in our fear. I read and hear all this talk of how the shooter should still be alive so we can torture that person even more than they were tortured living in their own mind while there were here on earth. Where is the compassion for how horrible his life must have been? And where is the compassion for all you who would hate someone in so much more pain than you? Can you not reach inside and if you feel this much pain? Imagine how another would hurt so deeply to do something so horrendous. Yes, this is the story that I’m telling myself because I feel so deeply in my heart that as horrific as this is, this is the spot where you, personally, begin your path to open up your heart instead of building a thicker wall from your fear.
Can you honestly believe that God would not love this person who has done this terrible thing? Do you really think God would not have compassion knowing the complete story that we don’t know? Why do you suppose you believe you can build that armor around your heart and then believe you could possibly understand the reasons why this occurred? How do you come to your conclusions you understand a loving Creator when you identify with your hate and anger so much? How can you open you heart to feel God’s messages when you have this wall around your heart?
Do you really think the hell this person was living here on earth should be punishable by even more hell from God? No. I think the God I desire would have so much love for this person because the source of our creation knows all and understands much more than we do, the whys of all this, that there is redemption. Our Creator has total understanding, love and compassion for this person. This person does not deserve more anguish, and neither do you.
We are living behind a veil of forgetfulness of who we are. And until you stop and face your fears and anger, you won’t be conscious enough to be choosing to love. You’ll continue in your stories, justifications and grievances that you are right and everyone else who doesn’t say they believe like you are wrong. The evil is your ego. Let go of that ego. Open up to the possibility that our cultural story is wrong. What you believe and how you justify your negative beliefs isn’t really happening at all. You are choosing hell on earth, my friends…you.
This is not for us to lament God is not saving us. This is not about gun laws. This is about YOUR CHOICES. You want a better world? Stop bringing all these negative thoughts with their stories to us. Change your words to positive outcomes. Believe there is love, because once you start looking, it starts growing. . .
I know these murders are horrific. My heart just aches for us all. But on the other hand, I see this as such an opportunity for us to open our hearts with love and change our story. Change our story in such a way that it isn’t about just the families of the children or the families of the shooter, but to include the shooter and include you, too, for all the pain and walls around your heart.
There will be many more senseless deaths in the years ahead unless we consciously change our story. . .and we can, person by person, sending love and light and prayers to all:
Prayer by St. Francis of Assisi:
Lord, Make me an instrument of they peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury; pardoned;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love,
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.
(Trisha lives in Tooele, Utah. She is an avid reader, enjoys meditation and enjoys the walking on the desert trails in her area. She writes several blogs. She gets a kick out of sharing what she is learning about why we are here and what and how we are creating together.)
