We are Light: Unplugging from the beast

All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.  

There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 
                                                                                      John 1:4-5, 9-10

You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.   Matthew 5:14-16 (NIV)

As often as I've written about the light, it never came to me as clearly as just recently when I was forced to unpack a deeply painful situation. 

"Why do these things happen to good people?" I asked rhetorically because I knew the answer.

Because it is only through suffering that we learn.  It is a hard fact of reality.  Only when the pain gets really tough, really hard to bear,  so difficult that we can't avert it, drug it, dim it or shut it up,  it is bound to get through to us. Then, there in the deep caverns of our soul, it works its alchemical magic. It wizens and changes us, always for the better. It wakes us up and helps us see another piece of the truth. When you can't push the pain away, it's going to get your attention and then you can listen to its message. Ultimately, it wakes you up more.

St. Thomas More said to his distraught daughter on the night before his execution by the English King Henry VIII, "One does not get to heaven on a feather bed."

We are all, in our perfect ideal nature, beings of pure light.  If you were to cut open a hand of a light being, there would only be more light.  That's all they are.  That's all we are.  We are light beings living in earthen bodies.  The difference among us is as wide and diverse as the levels of our awareness of this truth.

Ok.  You probably get that.  I get it, but here's the missing piece to really driving that awareness into the greater depths of your consciousness where it will actually catalyze and activate a profound change in your life.

Jesus told us, "do not judge, lest you be judged."  Why?  What is judgment, really?

It is an abuse of power.  It is imposing one person's power over another.  And, it creates an abusive, controlling power paradigm.  As children we are all taught to submit to authority, and we try or else.  What happens if we don't?  In our dark world, we may get punished, beaten, deprived of things we enjoy, and so we learn to obey authority through fear of punishment.  We also, sadly, learn to associate the authority we know here as the authority of God. 

So, we have to unlearn all that, and as Morpheus said in The Matrix, we are enslaved and controlled, living in an unreal, imaginary world that is feeding off us. We have to free our minds.

It may be like quitting smoking after 30 or 40 years, that's if you live long enough to get to that point.  We are controlled by judgment, which is a terrible corruption of your authentic being and of your understanding of God. We have to unplug from it - both internally and externally.

I realized, that like most of us, I had internalized a lot of guilt if I stood up for myself to an abusive person. I realized that I wanted peace at any cost and that cost usually meant me giving in.  That became a life long pattern of acquiescence. 

But, God wanted to take me to the next level, and unplugged me from that mindset and gave me a  vision of a light being and told me that's what you - and all other humans - really are.  Every time you give in, submit, to an external authority, you are allowing them to impose their control over you, and that is darkening your being.  After a lifetime, you discover that you have a lot of buried insults and hurts.  

As you have learned to submit to others' judgment of you, you have also found an inner reaction to them.  You find that your reactions blind you and you stay caught on authority's fishing line, feeding them your power, while you thrash in the air wondering what happened.

If we knew that only God deserves our worship, then we would not submit to the authority of our world. That, quite simply, is idolatry - the very worst kind.  Yet, we've all been taught to submit.

A friend of mine pointed out to me recently that all the states in the United States are "at-will" states in terms of employment (well, with the exception of Montana).  That means that any employer can fire you for absolutely any reason.  Even if they want to fire you because of your race, they can make it about the color of your socks rather than the color of your skin.  We are at the mercy of our employers, our bosses, these false gods in the corporate world. 

I often wondered why people are so afraid to speak up to their mean and abusive bosses.  Because life on the street isn't so pleasant.  You can be in debt, on a long term lease, living pay check to pay check, and your boss can kick you out the door with one minutes notice.  You're cooked.  It's over.

So, what are we to do?  That's a very real issue that our social justice people who talk and talk about economic justice, and helping the homeless, etc. should look at.  But, it underscores why corporate America, which is built on the masculine power down structure needs to be turned upside down. 

I believe this is what Jesus came to teach us.  We need to unplug from the authoritative power of the ruling powers of our world, and tune in to the beautiful music of heaven within us.  We can begin by honoring our own innate right to be wrong.  We can accept we are not perfect and we make mistakes and we can be honored despite that.  We need to never allow another fellow human being have power over us and we need to begin to detox from all the internalized hurt and woundedness we all share because of this system that runs completely unchecked, and has for thousands and thousands of years. 

Knowing that we are light is the first step in our own awakening.  Realizing our worship is of God and only God, whether you call God, Allah or Krishna.  (You know, "A rose by any name smells as sweet.")

The second is checking ourselves, catching ourselves when we gossip, judge, condemn, criticize or have a negative self righteous opinion about anyone else. 

When we talk about changing global systems of exploitation and control, that's not an opinion or a condemnation. That is a fact that is calling for the transformation of our global political and economic systems which are destroying the world. It is a power-down system, which controls us like slaves, each one afraid of losing their job.  So, each one prostitutes their truth to the great wizard of the corporation.  That is evil.  The whole system is corrupt. Period. It is no wonder that the Book of Revelation talks about the Great harlot and the beast at the end times. Do you see a correlation here?

I think, and all of this I remind myself of constantly and am only sharing it here on Tiger Lilies to stretch my awareness and share it with anyone interested enough to read these long-winded pieces.  I have learned to listen carefully to what I'm thinking and watch my reaction to others.  Any reaction of mine points to the place in me where I have buried pain.  And, it is in this deep inner place where the wound is, like a sunken ship in the mouth of the Columbia, and this is when and where to apply the beautiful Hoponopno prayer.  (Published on Tiger Lilies on April 20, 2011)

Mystery school

Rest on the Flight into Egypt*

Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.”

When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”

Matthew 2:13-15 New King James Version (NKJV)

If anyone thought that all you needed to know about this extraordinary story about the birth of a baby who would change the world is in the Gospel, think again. There's so much more to the story.

Throughout the story there are clues to a deeper message. In Matthew, right after Jesus' birth, the Magi arrive having followed a star and after inquiring of Herod of the birth of the new king. After they depart, Joseph has the dream. Clearly they gave the Holy family more than incense, gold, and myrrh. Those may be symbolic. But, they must have talked to them about going to Egypt. They knew the meaning of the baby's birth and that he was sent to lead his people back to the original spirituality they left in Egypt. 

The wise men were Magi of the Priesthood of the Biblical Melchizedek dating back to 12,000 BC.** They were Gnostic mystics with close ties to the Sufis whose origins are unknown, yet may have stemmed from before the great flood. (Which is true according to latest archeological and anthropological findings). 

There was a time in the ancient past when Yogis, Hindus, and Sufis all shared a highly spiritual and powerful enlightened mysticism. They were from the last Golden Age which would have been within that time frame. Their teachings were almost lost with the rising power of the Egyptian and later Roman empires. 

Also, preserved in the Torah are traces of an ancient mystical Judaism, from before the flight out of Egypt led by Moses. Judaism's Star of David, which is a complex element of spiritual geometry, further suggests this. 

Those ancient Hebrew mystics could never have imagined the Star of David, their sacred symbol for God, would one day be on the national flag of Israel. The star, which reflects the merged and overlapping symbols for the male and female principles of creation indicating the divine is a perfect balance of both, points to the existence of an ancient mystical path. I think there are hints in this story that point directly to that ancient path.

So, the Magi followed the star, and the star may have been an inner vision as much as an external real star. In Yoga, in meditation, you will see an inner star and as you focus - which maybe only the Yogis can - you are able to enter the inner realm through that star. 

Then, also, the holy family was directed to go to Egypt. Those are hints or road signs suggesting there is so much more to the story, and signs of a much deeper mystical message or story buried within this one. Did the gospel writers and the fledgling group of Jesus followers realize their lives, and Jesus' message, would be in danger if the story was more fully revealed? Why is this deep mysticism so threatening to the oppressive ruling powers like the Romans and Egyptians? Again, it seems then (as now) an unbalanced masculine principle, which is rampant external control, is threatened by the feminine which is a deep mystical inner spirituality.

So, the myth was preserved in these hints to protect and preserve the story from the corrupted Jewish leaders of the time and Romans. Both were threatened by Jesus' message. The real meanings, hinted at in this shadowy mythic birth narrative, would not be revealed until they could be understood by an awakening age when humanity would have "the eyes to see, ears to hear" the real story. That time is now.

The era was as rife with corruption, control, and exploitation then as now. At the time, the authentic Zadok priesthood had been deposed by Herod and replaced by Sadducean priests who could be bribed to comply with Herod's orders to ensure his own selfish rise in the Roman ranks of power. 

Jesus challenged them with his awareness of their plot to deceive and cheat the people of both their money and the empowering spirituality in the authentic teachings of Judaism. When they realized he was on to their religious fraud, they set out to trap and eliminate him.*** 

The true story of the birth of the inner spiritual self, the inner child, threatened by external powers of control that attempt to limit its creative potential and freedom, had to be framed as a nativity narrative, I think. While it may have been actually a true story about Jesus' birth, the myth carries a more important message, consistent with Jesus' teachings.

There are other hints carved on the walls of ancient ruins and temples, pyramids and religious sites, some of which are under water. They point to a time of great mystical enlightenment, a time so beautiful one can only imagine what it might have been like. I think the truth is accessible through our imaginations, which are fueled and informed by the Holy Spirit. It seems clear that we are on the way back to rediscovering these ancient mystery schools and the profound truths they hold.

The birth narrative of Jesus, who was wrapped in simple swaddling clothes, points to a worldview based on the rich wisdom of surrender to the divine and non-attachment to materiality. It shows humility is the ultimate wisdom, and closer to the divine kingdom than the temporal power of that time.

In Luke's story, there is the juxtaposition of a vulnerable baby born in the humblest of circumstances set against the threatening monster of world domination then, Caesar Augustus, the epitome of unbalanced control and psychopathic excess. The power of the world contrasts the power of heaven evident in the divine birth, born in humility and truth. The story is clearly the feminine principle facing off with the masculine.

I recall in the story of Solomon, which was part of the Melchizedek priesthood, who prayed for wisdom, and wisdom was given him. In the story, God says to Solomon that wisdom will always be granted to those who ask for it.

That sounds similar to, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." (Luke 11:9)

When you explore the deeper meaning of that passage, Jesus is saying, whenever you ask for the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit (who is ultimate wisdom) will be given to you.  It's not, if you ask for a Ferrari, you'll get a Ferrari. 

So, entrance to the path to enlightenment is hidden in the birth narrative.

In the inspiring painting (at the top) by Merson is an imaginative depiction of the young family's exhausting flight from Herod's threat to kill the newborn, into the ancient land of wisdom.  

It reflects the journey back through the desert through which the ancient Hebrews would have fled from Pharaoh, who was a lot like Herod in his power paradigm of oppression, control, and slavery. 

This painting, which is one of my favorites, is on display in Boston's Museum of Fine Art.  Many of Merson's critics considered him "strange." He was suggesting something in this painting that was still lost to the common scholars of the time.  It seems Merson was well aware of the ancient mystery schools, whose teachings on enlightenment would be restored. 

Now 2,000 years later, we are again returning to the original teachings of Jesus. He directed us to look for God's kingdom within our hearts, where we would find our true selves and connect with each other and all of life in that limitless inner realm. As we embrace the beauty of the divine within, we will increase our courage and inner power, reduce or eliminate our fear, and bloom in our newfound creativity. This deeper awakening and greater creative enlightenment will give us the direction we need to balance the rampant externally driven masculine principle threatening to destroy our world today.  

_______________________________

For simple clarity, the feminine principle is the life-giver, the birther, the creative allowing. The masculine is the protector and defender of life. Both must be paired in equilibrium. Too much of one, without the presence of the other, is destructive.

Addendum:  As I was writing this, I saw the attempt by the oppressive, controlling masculine principle in the Nazi regime to wipe out the Jews in the 1930s and 1940s. The Jews who were being exterminated were marked and identified with the Star of David.  Unknowingly, they represented the perfect balance of the divine feminine and divine masculine in that symbol. 
 _______________________________

*     Rest on the Flight into Egypt, 1879, by Luc Olivier Merson (French, 1846–1920)

**   As a result, the Magi Priesthood of Melchizedek of the Templar Order (as restored from the 12th century) is the direct continuation of the 12,000-year-old Priesthood of the Biblical Melchizedek, possibly the oldest ecclesiastical authority in recorded human history.

*** Jesus, Politics, and Society: A Study of Luke's Gospel by Richard J. Cassidy

Christmas love

Out beyond this joyous busy season, in the silent night of eternity, love's elegant, magnetic, electric presence softly resonates between two lovers. As two lights in the night sky, they embrace the sweetest Christmas love ever known. Their love is, as it always has been, even after all these years, a perfect mirror of God's purest passionate and abounding love for each of us.

Rising within each soul, like the full moon at midnight, is a breathless love, gasping in awe and surrender with each heartbeat, as strong as the mountains and raging rivers that cut their way through the earth's soft surface, carving green valleys, as they empty themselves into the vast ocean.

This love, this gift, arrived in our oppressive and weary war-torn world as greatness wrapped in simplicity, wealth hidden in humility, divinity embedded in humanity, a glistening radiant diamond in a dark coal mine. 

His glance across the hillside, filled with masses eager to hear his message, drew her to him, igniting something within her heart she had never felt before. The sweet blue bird lifted from its sleepy perch within her breast, dispelling all the lies, deceit, betrayal, exploitation and oppression she had only known. His glance met hers, and the world was never the same. They found a secret in the love they shared, one from which the world is still reeling and yet still does not comprehend. They knew the power of creation in the movement of their breath driven by a deep inner knowing only they understood.

The false version of power with which the world had been grappling was never real. It was a terrible, twisted lie, oppressive and soulless, masquerading as real. It had no power of its own. It only had what it stole from the people it had enslaved through fear, control, manipulation, guilt and deception. 

The authentic power of love which would one day be ignited within us, the same as that shared between those two first lovers, is the free abandon of life itself only the creator can give. The seed for it, which he later would liken to a 'mustard seed' was already there as part of humanity's original design by God. It was prolific, drawing each soul into flight, well beyond the known boundaries of the time, then and now. 

"Where does the sky end?" she asked him, smiling softly into his dark brown eyes in the coolness of the evening in the garden where they whispered to each other.

Human beings always had the capability of loving this way, but remained blinded to it by the controlling powers who hardened our hearts through fear. The love remained ungerminated, only ever in a state of potential, never rooting and blooming. Igniting that awareness of who we really are and the great potential for wisdom and love we contained within us, only needed to be switched on by our awareness and perhaps lit as a candle is lit, by God's love. 

He was born a lover, ever so much more than a king.  His regal and divine power was woven with compassion, courage, wisdom and gentleness.  Everything he said, everything he did was composed of love, a love that knew no boundaries.  It was always about love, right up until the end and even beyond.

So is it such a surprise that he would love a woman?  Women then were not respected for their wisdom or intelligence. Then, as now, it was very much a man's world, polarized, steeped in the rigidity of control and legalism.  It couldn't move with the gentle breeze that swept the reeds in the shallow marsh. It was hard and merciless, cold and sterile.  He loved her as the dance loves the dancer, as the song loves the singer and the sun loves the amber hues reflecting off the horizon at the end of day.

Why wouldn't he have loved her with this great passion he contained in his divine heart?  If he could love a leper, a blind man, a dead man and a child, along with all the other good, bad and ugly of his time - genuinely and passionately love them - why wouldn't he have loved a woman?  Aren't women deserving of love even as much as a corrupt tax collector or diseased person?  What is it about the man's world that just can't believe that he could love a woman? 

But, there is so much evidence that he did love her. If he were a man who loved so much that he would allow his life to be taken rather than renounce his truth, with an astounding force of heroic courage, wouldn't he engage in this dance of cosmic divine love? His love for her must have been profound. The light within him must have radiated like the sun at noontime, and she, in response, must have glowed like the full moon shimmering outside my window on this cold December night. 

Those who have written about the two lovers described him as solar and she as lunar, two halves of the cosmic whole meeting. Her glow was his reflected light. While she certainly had her own light, she had the capacity in her own regal divinity to receive the intensity of his love and return it to him. The cosmos must have delighted in their passionate light dance spinning stars and galaxies in tune to their own music.

Love is stirred within us when we look into the eyes of another and listen deeply to their heart, their joys, their hurts and their longing. It is our heart flowing with theirs. It is a merging of the spiritual with the earthen. It is God's immeasurable love for humanity that is celebrated in a very human kind of love. 

Mary's prayer

Breath of Heaven by Amy Grant

Maybe it always was our Father's plan for the world. Maybe Mary's baby, who once turned the world upside down, can still be heard in our hearts. Maybe now we have the ears to hear and eyes to understand His message today and through it find our way out of the bondage of this oppressive world and into the beautiful rich creative lives of love and joy, which we were always meant to live. And, maybe when we realize how awesome all of this is, how powerful and beautiful the love given to the world on that cold winter night in Bethlehem was, we will sing joyously this Christmas.

Christian enlightenment

The following is a reflection on the Christian mystical path  to enlightenment.  It's a jaunt through thoughts on orthodox Christianity and Christian mysticism. 

It offers a feminine-principled understanding rather than the traditional and orthodox masculine-principled Church which has been the dominant interpretation through the ages. The feminine is a sharing of the love-power, innate in us and among us as equals likened to sharing a meal around a dinner table. The masculine is a fear-driven, power-down model that literally starves people of the truth.

In my opinion, Jesus knew how radical his perspective was.  It's no wonder the masculine Romans persecuted the Christians until they converted Jesus' message into masculine terms.  Here, I share the message from what I believe is the original one, in the feminine perspective. 



A Muslim friend recently showed me a youtube discussion between two Muslim women and a Christian man from whom they were seeking clarification about the basic teachings on the Trinity, Holy Spirit, and Jesus as Son of God. 

As I listened, I felt an overwhelming urge to correct the man as he spewed Nicene creed theological dogma at the two young Muslim women who had no framework for understanding what he was saying.  At one point he said, "It might be hard to get your head around this."  You think? I wonder if rather than think our way to understanding, if a clearer and more helpful understanding would be found in our hearts. Isn't that where true wisdom is found?

I felt we need to translate what we find in our hearts into common analogies to help someone who is unfamiliar with Christ and Christian language to understand some of the awesome depth of the mystical path and not further confuse them, especially those who have been taught that following Jesus is idolatry.

I wanted to share how I understand what it is to be a Christian in language that makes sense to me, and language that I thought explained some of the depth to someone completely unfamiliar with its spiritual mysticism.

I asked my friend if he wanted to hear the short version? To my absolute amazement, he said yes. I asked him to please listen with an open mind.

I dove in.  I explained to him that an authentic, fully realized Christian is one who is "Christed," enlightened, aglow with the light, love, wisdom and power of the divine. I said such an enlightened person would have resolved and overcome his issues to a considerable extent and dismantled the ego's negativity through self-acceptance, self-love, and acceptance of God's perfect, comprehensive, unconditional love. 

I refrained from elaborating on the scriptural references we hear in the Gospel in which Jesus calls us on the way by confronting the "log in our own eye," and unbinding "the strong man within"* in order to see what is authentic, rather than the dark reflection of the inner ego projected outwardly. Then, we are able to see the truth and beauty of God's divine nature which would flow into us as "a stream of living water," a metaphor for the flow of authentic life, leading to an on-going heightening of consciousness and deeper awakening.  

Instead, I simply told him he would know a mature Christian by the power of the love he or she radiated. It would be palatable, powerful, and magnetic. 

As the ideas flew at me, I reflected privately that at some point, a person who is on the path taught by Jesus, could reach that high state of enlightenment, akin to a Buddhist who has reached Buddha-hood because he embraced Buddha's way to enlightenment. At that point, he might be considered Christed. 

It made sense, perfect sense.  Suddenly, all the pieces of the Christian message were coming together like a thousand-piece puzzle. I realized a Christian is someone who is on a path headed toward enlightenment or Christing, but may not yet be at full enlightenment.

The Church's idea that a person is Christed at their Christening, or infant baptism, doesn't fit. It doesn't call the person to actually do the work, the hard interior work of cleaning the inner sanctum and then intentionally and deliberately inviting in the presence of the Holy Spirit, the Christing agency. Even in Confirmation classes, this idea is not presented clearly. 

So, Christians are, in a sense, pilgrims or travelers on the way to enlightenment. That is their goal.

I turned to my friend, who remarkably was still listening, and said, Jesus realized he was the Son of God because he was enlightened. I added that I thought Jesus came to teach us the way to God, and might never have wanted us to worship him or focus our lens on him in an idolatrous way. He might have hoped we would learn from him as the Teacher that he was and join him on a level playing field.  It makes sense that he wouldn't want us to elevate him above us and live in fear of him.

I realized He was teaching us how to love, exemplified as dining together, sharing a meal, rather than bowing down or trembling in fear of judgment and punishment. He wanted us to commune with Him and each other and share freely and lovingly. I think he was teaching us by example what authentic relationship is - with Him, ourselves, each other and with God.

He wanted a brother-to-brother relationship with us rather than a master-to-slave relationship. He wanted a relationship based on love and mutuality rather than fear and subjectivity. He wouldn't want us to see him as equal to God unless he saw us as equal to God as well. There's the awesome surprise in the Gospel.  He wanted us to see ourselves as equal to God, not because we're so great, but because God's love is so great. "Did I not say you are gods?" remember, he asked in John 10:34.

It makes sense that you would only be able to accept such a seemingly grandiose notion if you were no longer enslaved by the belittling and highly critical ego.  It seems only a humble, enlightened person can receive the gift this idea brings which may be why He challenged us to become authentically empowered by becoming genuinely humble. 

He does not say His sonship is exclusive to Him. Again, He says, "did I not say you were gods?" He says we are also all sons and daughters of God, due to our innate original perfection, which remains buried under our egos, and therefore in a state of potential. Our divine nature is perfect as God is perfect. If that perfection is blocked due to a heavy ego, the light cannot or does not radiate outward. 

The Jesus we meet in the Gospels had been "Christed" by the Holy Spirit during His baptism in the Jordan (a metaphor for the river of life) and is consequently fully enlightened. My friend, incidentally, is from Jordan.

Jesus is full of God's spirit yet is not the totality of God. This is like saying, "the glass is full of water, but is NOT the whole ocean."  Neither is the glass the source of water, but the water within the glass is the same substance as the water in the ocean.

And, further, it seems the universe is holographic which means the whole nature or quality of its substance is contained in a fragment of it. There's more on that which is truly awesome and inspiring. Every aspect of the universe is magnetically connected to the whole.  Fragments are in communication on some level with the larger whole. All of life is magnetic, magical, and alive with varying degrees and levels of consciousness. One's power is directly related to the degree and level of consciousness he or she has attained. 

In a holographic universe, what is true on a cosmic level is also true on a microscopic level. A teaspoon of water has the same substance as an ocean. So, the Spirit of God who fills the universe and creates life, is the same substance, with the same catalyzing, life-giving wisdom and power, as if it were in a single human being. Jesus was full of God, or "fully God," but is not the whole universe. He contains, fully, God's spirit in his self-realized divine nature, a nature we all have. Needless to say, this is incredibly rare and unique.  Maybe a handful of human beings have ever reached the zenith of enlightenment. Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, and ?

If you are not enlightened, or even awakened - and few are - you may not be able to teach what enlightenment is. I think it has to be experiential to some extent. What these mystical terms really mean and how we can reach a high level of consciousness are complex. We are not going to be able to explain our faith to someone if we don't really get it and are unable to translate it in modern terms.  And, even if we do fully get it, those who aren't awakened enough, may not understand what you're saying anyway. (That was what happened to Jesus). 

I continued sharing what I see as the Gnostic way, which is equally Christ-directed. It reflects the simple idea that within all human beings are two natures.  One is your instinctual nature, and the other is the Divine in-dwelling host or your eternal nature. The Divine nature is like a candle planted within you that is lit by our Divine parent. It is in all of us, and when it's lit, the journey begins. The awakening process, or way to enlightenment, is a long road full of twists and turns mostly due to the darkness and lack of love in our age. Through perseverance and wisdom, we can eventually reach higher levels of awareness, consciousness and spiritual wisdom.

My friend, who is usually resistant to engaging in religious conversations because of the potential of them becoming oppositional, listened to me for 10 minutes, and got it. He understood the idea that we all have a light within us that we can turn up. He thought about the idea of Jesus being a Son of God, as we all are. That was a new idea to him which I don't think threatened his belief in Islam. As we talked, we found there is a place where Christianity and Islam can be compatible. If we both go to where our faith leads us, we might find we have arrived at the same place.

The question I wondered aloud was, "should anyone worship religion over doing the hard work of moving toward enlightenment, where you would encounter and become one with God, and each other?"  He replied, "We need religion."

"But, if we worship a religion, isn't that idolatrous?" I asked him, adding, "Then, who comes first? God or your religion?  So, the question really is, 'What does God want?' "

It was dawning on me that worship, elevation, in a power hierarchy like the Church or a legalistic Sharia as some forms of Islam is the opposite of what God is really calling us to. It seems to me God just wants us to come commune with Him. So, the bottom line is, what's more important, the way we get to Him or getting to Him and being in communion, total immersion in Him? 

I could see this idea might open us all to reach out to each other, without an agenda to convert the other, and honor God as we honor each other's unique path to Him. It seems obvious that it's the work of the ego to elevate oneself, and one's path, above another.  That's separating and anything that separates the body of God, is not of God.  So, this idea seems it might help us to enter into a loving dialogue for a mutual understanding that benefits us both. 
______________________

* another way of saying, "freeing the captive," or giving sight to the - spiritually - blind"

Ending enmity

While reflecting on what it means to "love our enemy," it suddenly occurred to me, that, maybe in reality, there are no enemies.

I wondered, "Could we eliminate our enemies by realizing that in truth there are no enemies?" Do they only exist as a figment of our fear, born in our separated, fortressed imagination? Is our perception of them as enemies only a misguided idea based on an incomplete and fractured perception of ourselves? Are they only imagined as enemies out of a perception of ourselves as weak? Has their emerging anger terrorized us, and in our weakness, we have deemed them enemy?

But, is our weakness real or only a perception? Is our  flawed fear of impotence, projecting as fear of them, based on the erroneous belief in their overwhelming strength and power because we think we're not strong or worthy enough to hold our own ground?  Is it all just a mind game? And, none of it is true because we are all innately imbued with the power of creation within us. The dissonance comes when neither of us - them or us - realize who we are as co creators of life itself.

So, an enemy ceases to be an enemy as soon as we love (honor, value ourselves) and them, and make them a friend. When we listen to their story, hear their pain, their need for love with compassion and understanding, we walk with them in their pain, journey alongside them in their story. When we hear and understand their perspective, molded by their interpretation of what has happened to them, leading them to erroneously perceive themselves as victim or victor, we become a kind of companion to them. 

By walking with them in their brokenness and their struggle, a divine compassion is drawn from within us bonding us to them, first as a companion and then, hopefully, even as friends. Then, they become neighbors, and brothers and sisters, all of whom we will grow to love in greater levels of truth, mutuality, and intimacy.

The idea of someone being an enemy has more to do with our sense of "us versus them," a kind of duality, a barrier we set up as defense. 

Our enemy isn't an enemy to everyone - not to his or her spouse, friends, neighbors, other like-minded people, their children, their parents. Our enemy is only an enemy to us, and that may be more a reflection of our relationship to them which is primarily a reflection of our relationship to ourselves. 

Maybe, more simply, someone is our enemy because they push a button in us, stir an unrecovered painful memory. If that memory or button weren't there, all their pushing in the world wouldn't - because it couldn't - push it. And, they could never be anything other than a friend, a companion on this journey in life.

I think that anyone we determine and name as our enemy is merely an outward expression of an inner presence. I wondered if our relationship with ourselves is shadowy and conflicted, stemming from a fractured sense of self, then wouldn't our relationship with them be a kind of anti-sacrament? But, if our inner presence is the presence of the Beloved, the Holy Spirit, the Divine Light, then all outward expressions would be manifestations of that divine love-light, which embraces all people, equally in love, connecting us all in that divine love-light. That very idea just blew me away in its incredible ability to mend the many huge broken divides everywhere in our world.

If that were the case, then, there would be no more enemies, either because we wouldn't perceive them as such or because we would be attracting into our lives magnetically those who reflect what is already in us, which would be the divine love-light.

It seems that if we first uncover our buried pains contributing to our brokenness and fear, love and heal ourselves, we would be able to love others.  I guessed, if we face our own insufficient sense of personal identity and innate divinely-bestowed power, we might be able to heal our prejudice, hurts and brokenness. Then, as we practice this heightened kind of unconditional love and acceptance of ourselves and each other, courageously opening our hearts, quieting our minds, listening with our ears, hearts and minds, enemies might suddenly not be people in armor but people in love. 

Marching orders

But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! Matthew 5:44

But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. Luke 6:27

And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. Mark 11:25

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. John 13:34

Sounds like marching orders. He certainly spoke these words. They're in three of the gospels, and similar versions are in the Gospel of Thomas and Paul's writings. How do we interpret this?  

What does it mean to love?  

I think it is comprised of both the masculine and feminine principles. It is gentle as a dove and wise as a serpent. It's a passionate, persevering, enlightened willing determination to not be brought down to their level of fear, terror, and hatred. It is a strong, intentional transmission of love, combined with a strong courage not to hate them, despite how terrible they are.

Maybe we need to stand up with a sure determination to love ourselves, and each other. Then, as we build up higher and stronger, increasingly radiant in the power of God's love,  we can send that powerful love out to wrap "our enemies, those who persecute us."  God's awesome power to heal, to create, to give life, can transform them. I believe this and it seems Jesus did also. Gandhi proved it can work. 

Our love has to be powerful and intentional, proactive and assertive.  We cannot afford for one more minute to react to their terror. Maybe we've done that in the past, but we cannot react and allow ourselves to be lured to their level of hatred.