Seeing Through A Glass Darkly: "Then" is Now

http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/13/holier-than-they/#comment-15680

^13:11When I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child: now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things. ^13:12For now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known. ^13:13But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

Good Day Everyone!

In today's New York Times, Judith Warner addresses the essence and therefore the evidence of religion as it is being playing out in the political arena today. I love that these questions are being raised and discussed, as we are beginning to "see through the dark glass". I have opened today's blog with a quote from 1 Corinthians 13:11. It's one of my favorites and a place in the Bible where Truth is able to be felt amidst a lot of human interpretations of mind. I determine this by how it FEELS to me.

One day science will have a gadget that measures Truth/Love. It will be called the Love/Truth Angstrom Meter. It will operate much like a Geiger counter does that detects the amount of radiation. It will be a small screen at the bottom of your TV or in the lower corner of your computer screen. As a program's content unfolds, the meter will detect the level of Source or Light or Truth or whatever you wish to name It, contained in the program.

We already have that Love Angstrom meter Self contained within each of us.

This is that part of everyone of us that our Founding Fathers referred to when they said, "All men are created equal". It is our individual Godchip that is constantly and faithfully "ising" to us the Truth of anything. Our ears and eyes see words and images, but It is constantly telling us the Truth. Often - no, most of the time, what we see and hear is at distinct and diametric odds with what we feel. We struggle with labels today - Christian, Democrat, Republican, Islam, Jew - because the definitions no longer hold but rather shape-shift for convenience.

Where once I felt aligned with the Republican Party because I thought they most closely represented a thought form that believed in the power of the individual as sovereign, I left as they no longer represented that viewpoint. Now I align with no party, but rather cast my votes as an Independent. Free from the label, free to discern as it feels to me.

In America, my home, we have gotten so bogged down with these "names". I can remember my Mom saying, "Don't call people names. It's not nice." She was (and still is) wise. Names trap us into a mental construct that confines us ever into a frozen definition. Yet, we are dynamic as individuals and as a nation.

We are in the throw of growing pains as Nation. Wriggling like a two year old to get free from the stroller, yelling "Let me out!" The stroller we have been strapped into for the past 231 years is the conveyance of religion(s). God love us, we strive to know the Truth; to know God aright; our intentions are so pure, so earnest! And because of these Intentions to Know, we are growing and learning. But in order to walk, run and then soar we have to get out of the stroller.

America is moving from spiritual childhood into spiritual maturity. Nothing in the world scene is separated from the movements of spiritual growth, but indeed reveal in the physical the spiritual movement of the individual and the Nation. The "struggle" that is taking place on the world's scene today regarding religion in America is invigorating, enlightening and expanding us to a new consciousness. And it is time, for we have asked in our individual and collective intentions to know the Truth. Oh, this is what I so love about America - about Us. We are so free that we can ask these questions and allow ourselves to be transformed.

I can also remember as a teenager complaining to my Mom about this ache or that pain. Again in her wisdom she would reply, "It's nothing. Just a growing pain." Likewise America is growing, and because we are reluctant to expand, to let go of old ideas and embrace the expanded truth, we resist and experience such growing pains as a Nation. But the Intentions of our core - our true Nature of God - drive our deepest desires to be the best we can be, to do the right thing, to know More - we will expand, we will evolve, and we will and are growing into our spiritual maturity, leaving "religion" behind as the base camp from which we left long ago when we began our ascent to Know the Truth; to Know God Aright.

Religion constrains our expansion because it is a definition of human-thought labels. Likewise do politics restrain and constrict our expansion as they, too are definitions of human-thought labels. They shift like sand on the beaches. Our essence, our Core is the same: it is Source in each and every single human being. It is the Truth of our beingness that is emerging, like it or not. This emergence confounds the human mind which struggles to hang onto the labels, but if we would shift our trust from "mind" to "gut", ah then.....we Know. This is the evolution that is happening now. So allow me to update 1 Corinthians 13:12:

^13:12For THEN we saw in a mirror, darkly; but NOW face to face: THEN I knew in part; but NOW shall I know fully even as also I am fully known. ^13:13But always abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love......and love is Who We Really Are.

Exciting times to be alive. It's all so Good. (Good being a noun)

Thanks for reading!


Kath

On Faith in Ameria

Good Afternoon Everyone,

Rarely do I post twice in one day. Today, however, I was cruising headlines and ran across Mitt Romney's speech on Faith in America. Since faith is my life's work, I was eager to hear what he had to say.

Before I go into that, I want to comment on how sad it is that he even has to stand up an give a speech about his religion. Personally, I think you can find God in tree bark, if that is your intention and you way to It. My objection has been and continues to be religion.

Religion is what confuses the issues of Faith. Religion is all man man doctrine. All of it, with the Truth deeply buried in small tiny segments. Can one find God through religion. Yes. If that is your clear and focused intention. Your Godchip will navigate that course, naturally. But you will probably find yourSelf at odds with many of the "teachings" while the Truth you feel will resonate with yourSelf.

God did not establish any religion. God is present in all of them somewhere.

But there is a movement in America away from religion, not away from God; in fact this movement moves closer to God on a personal level without the intermediary of religion and its doctrines.

Mr. Romney talks about secularist being wrong. So I had to look up the word secularism to understand its meaning. According to Wikipedia:

This article is about the condition of not being specifically religious. For other usages, see the Secularity (disambiguation) page.

Secularity (adjective form secular) is the state of being separate from religion........

........One approximate synonym for secular is worldly; another could be phrased as neutral in religious matters. Approximate antonyms for secular are religious and devout.

Despite occasional confusion, secularity is not synonymous with atheism

Many over the past 40 years have embarked upon personal, spiritual journeys which have led us into and through the personal and deep exploration of many disciplines, philosophies, histories and practices in a seriously focused personal pursuit of Truth. The quintessential of "religious freedom" in practice.

I have come to a place after all these years of this singular pursuit of a new synthesis of my understanding of God and Truth. I am not a religious person. Although I give all credit to my platform of growing up in the Serbian Orthodox Church as my launch point for more. The credit lies in that the services were in Serbian, which I did not understand; in the beautiful 2 hour liturgy every Sunday with the candles, incense and choir that set a vibrational countenance for knowing God aright...personally; the credit goes to the fact that the sermons and readings were all in Serbian, to which I never heard one single word of human dogma. By the time I was 16 years old I had a very personal and intimate connection with Source, God, It. And it was my own. Religion - "their" interpretation of God was not involved.

I was in my twenties when I first heard that "we were born in sin". I was astonished that anyone would or could even convey that as a truth.

Religionists assume God is unchanging, but the corollary to this is that religion doesn't change either, which is to say, they assume that what they were taught is true...from hundreds of years ago to even the beginning. What if what was laid out by the "founding fathers" of a certain religion was only partially true or not true at all? The religion doesn't allow for any updating or "evolution" or expansion as we come to know more. It is assumed they knew the absolute truth from day one and there was no more to know, ever. I question that premise in everything.

This is an expanding Universe, and there is always more to know. It is infinite and eternal. What hubris to think that what we know and believe now is all there is or ever was. If that were the case we wouldn't be using the wheel and would never have found electricity or the atom.

We are dynamic beings, constantly growing and changing if we would allow. This clinging to old dogma and doctrines as absolute truth is what has caused most wars in the years since Jesus walked the planet and delivered his message of LOVE. Yet we still fight about "my God" and yours. Religion is at the heart of this and its intractability.

Faith is not owned by religionists. Faith belongs to God and spirituality, which are intimate and personal. Religion is public and a group activity. People who move away from the group activity to find their own Truth are not wrong. Martin Luther, Brigham Young, were amongst those who moved away from the "group think" to find a higher truth. And their movements were not the end of finding the higher truth, it continues and will continue forever, amen.

Mr. Romney talks about the beautiful churches in Europe that are relatively unattended, that people don't stop in to pray. It's because we have learned that we can pray anywhere, and don't need an audience or a group to validate this communion. Even I love to stop into a church now and then. On a recent Good Friday I very much wanted to be in church. So I stopped at the local Catholic Church service on my way home. I was sorely disappointed. Long gone was the Latin mass, the mystery, the sacred feeling. Instead it was cold and matter of fact, without Life. I left.

Religion has lost sight of what it was intended to be: a place holder for the individual to find their own personal way to God; not a proscribed set of beliefs and behaviors for living. That comes with an intimate communion singularly and personally with Source.

Some of the most moral and Real people I know do not step food in an organized religious church.

I acknowledge that it is a step on the path, but it is not the destination. I acknowledge that it can be a place on the journey, but it is not the place in my heart.

Faith is the domain of all people, not just religionists'. Do I think we should have prayer in public schools? We should provide a time for silent introspection, meditation, or prayer for everyone to do with as is real to them. Should we have "In God We Trust" on our coins? Of course. Because the word God belongs to all of us, not any singular religion. We all agree about the word God in some form. Should we have it in the pledge of allegiance? Absolutely. This Nation is all about God....not religion. And it is all about my own interpretation of God, personally.

As to the politics of religion. There's the worst possible combination of ideologies. Politics cannot be trusted with the word God and religion cannot be trusted with politics. These two are human-mind constructs. But a man's faith, his personal intimate connection with Source, the Creator, unimpeded by either politics or religion, inform and reflect profoundly his life and his works.

Under the "tent", Mr. Romney, is a pole for us "secularists" and we are a growing number, who have no faith in religion, but infinite and limitless Faith in God.

Indeed this country was founded on the tenet that "all men are created equal". And that equality is in one way, and one way only - spiritually. We are each born with that Godchip of Source that is Who We Really Are. That is what levels the playing field everywhere. Each of us is God having the physical experience here on planet earth. We love Earth; we love Life; we love America. We have Faith...in us.

That is Applied Spirituality.

Thanks for reading!

Kath

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/06/us/politics/06text-romney.html?pagewanted=2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular

Fear Not

Good Morning World!

I have discovered International Rugby! What a great sport! Friends of mine from Scotland turned me onto rugby one day when I was visiting them. We got to talking about the ancient Hawaiians who did "HA" breathing before they did anything. I did a little demo and Jack exclaimed that was what the New Zealand Team did before their games. Quickly he flicked through his satellite channels and found the "All Blacks" vs some poor team. And there they were in all their powerful glory doing their "HAKA" breathing. If you've never seen it, check it out online.

The story I've been told is this: when the white settlers were cruising around the Hawaiian Islands, they would ask at each island, "Where do you live?" The Hawaiians would answer, "I live on the life force that is carried on my breath"....all that is comprised in the single word, Hawaii. In the Hawaiian language each syllable has a full meaning like a word does in English. Hence,'hale' does not mean white person, it is literally translated as he without breath. Simply put - and therein is a giant flag where Truth abounds - it is SIMPLE - the ancient Hawaiians as did the other indigenous peoples know God intimately as one with themselves.

How could they know this? The better question for us is how could we NOT know this?
How could we not know how loved we are, how good we are, how divine and powerful we are?

We've been enculturated out of it. I never wanted to study history until I wanted the answer to where did religion go so wrong? Then I delved into European history and looked hard and long. It all started there and maybe at the great meeting in Constantinople. Many gospels were left out according to who wanted the masses to think what. And beyond that with every rewrite it became more and more manipulated.
I do think there are wonderful Truths left standing in the Bible. The Psalmists for example understood Love, which was Jesus' sole message. After that to my mind, the Old Testament should have been taught as only an old history book, as what people used to think and believe in the "olden days".

It really shouldn't matter what they wrote, though, as within each of us is our God-chip whispering Truth to us any time we're willing to listen. The catch is that it is a whisper compared to the human mind (the enculturated mind) that is fearful, lackful and caught up in doubt.

I suppose I ought to state here at some distinctive point what Applied Spirituality is to me. When I was a very young girl I was struck by the inconsistencies of religious people. No one, I might add, pointed them out to me, I just noticed. We were a "Christian" nation and we believed in the death penalty. Hmmm. We went to war....hm....The Irish Catholics were at war with the English Protestants. Hmmm.
Good church-going people were jealous, talked gossip about their friends. We even had "sides" in Church politics. Hmmmm.

I grew up in the Eastern Orthodox Church where the liturgy was always in Serbian, which I did not understand. So for about the first 15 years of my life I got to go to this beautiful place every Sunday, listen to the angel voices of the choir singing in Serbians and get to know God my own way. What I came to know was only Love. I never had to recover from any doctrine or dogma. I was a clean slate. I was actually stunned when I got to college and found out that in some churches they were teaching something called "original sin". I couldn't even fathom such a thing being perpetrated on people, let alone children. Bunk. Hogwash. LIES! Hearing this began my quest to understand Who We Really Are.

So Applied Spirituality is following the God-chip of you in everyday 'real' world life. It often looks the opposite of human mind. It is living every moment listening to the whispers of your Heart, which is where It resides. It lives alive and full on your breath. It is not the linear, fearful mind of human thinking.

John Lennon wrote a song called, Imagine. If you've not heard it or listened to it recently, do it. For this is what I ask you to do. Imagine a world where everyone was taught that they were loved beyond measure from day one. Imagine a world where everyone was taught to hear their own God-chip speaking and guiding them individually. Imagine a world where we were all taught to follow the joys of our heart from day one. Imagine a world where people worked at what they felt was play and joy. Imagine a world where we knew about Infinite Supply. Imagine a world where we understood how when we Asked, It answered. Always. Imagine a world where we understood how to create in joy and no one knew fear. Imagine your life if you would Remember Who You Really Are. God, having a physical adventure and loved beyond measure, infinite and eternal being. Imagine if you were to do your HAKA breathing and know you were flowing LIFE powerfully through you to focus it wherever you delighted.

Breathe! You live on the life force that is carried on your breath, too. Quiet your human mind. Ask. Feel the answers. You will know It by the joy and peace you feel.

Thanks for reading! k

I invite your comments. Tomorrow I'll talk about how to Apply your own Spirit.