THE PROCESS as a Journey of a Soul

In the beginning….. (pun intended) all I wanted to do was discuss from my personal perspective what I felt was a topic of interest; What is Religious versus Spiritual? I have come to understand that people could be Religious without necessarily being Spiritual and that people touting that they were “Spiritual not Religious” may not necessarily be correct in that statement but perhaps they are more seeking Spirituality instead of Religion but all of this was going to require some explanation. So I decided to start with what I felt was at the core of the word “Religious”, which is dogma, and from there the can of worms opened up. That plus searching for what others had written on this same subject seemed to be coming up short for me so I set off to “fill in the gaps” and now I am finally writing Part 3 of what’s turned out to be an expansive discussion of this topic. In order to assist the conclusions I’m making here, I’m including recaps of Parts 1 & 2 (along with some additional commentary) but at the same time am suggesting that you take the time to read them in their entirety as they both comprehensively contribute to the final conclusions I’m making below.

Recap of Part 1 – “Dogma” first appears to be at the core of what’s used to define the word “Religious” because it determines what “faith” you follow as in Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Native American, etc. Dogma much of the time is assumed to be “law” because in the various definitions of it you find “authoritatively laid down “ or “set forth in an authoritative manner” not to mention “considered to be absolutely true” yet if you look at it from the Etymology perspective (aka the root origins of the word) you consistently find “philosophical tenet”. My old yellowing Random House dictionary says it the best for the meaning of tenet, “A belief or theory held as true.” Tenet also appears quite frequently in the various definitions of dogma I found along with “doctrine” and “code”. I originally summed it up as follows, “These (definitions) have used the words “system”, “specific”, “authoritatively laid down”, “prescribed”, “settled or established”, “doctrines….morality and faith”, “principle or belief”. Sounds pretty concrete, yet in the (other) definitions…it is stated more tenuous using “proclaimed as true without proof” and “accepted as authoritative”.” Think about it for a minute and realize that thousands of people have died at the hands of “dogma” because my dogma is better than your dogma because it has been “authoritatively declared” as the “official word of God”. Yet when adding all of the root elements to the various meanings you get that dogma is “A philosophical belief, principle, theory, established opinion, or doctrine held, established, prescribed, and proclaimed to be absolutely true without proof and accepted as authoritatively laid down as by a church relating to matters such as morality and faith.” So many meanings so little time for understanding.

Recap of Part 2 – My initial 30 mins of poking around online for the meaning and root origin of dogma showed me, to my surprise, just how subjective it really is and from there it’s not much of a stretch to say that the various versions of how dogma is used is done to suit the specific needs of each religion. This then forced me to ask the question of who’s doing the thinking when it comes to Religion, you or the dogma. Not only that but from a comment I made in my blog post, “Oprah vs Christianity” about The Believing versus The Feeling that when relating it to dogma the conclusion is if The Dogma is doing the thinking for you, then it’s also doing the feeling for you and now that brings into question of who’s really in control of how you feel about God. This is particularly true when you consider that the veracity of many faiths is not allowed to be questioned. For example I’ve read that the Bible was not allowed to be questioned until the early 1900’s and to some degree many still never really do. As a result of my own personal experience in conjunction with what I’ve witnessed with others, more and more people seem to be concluding that their innate feelings of The Divine are not in alignment with what their traditional dogma has been telling them and the bravest of those are seeking answers outside of their previously established dogmas. This why Part 2 focused on the discussion of why so many are leaving “dogma” and turning to “spirituality”.

The core of Part 2 centered around how The Feeling and The Believing can create conflicts in those that attain a personal relationship with The Divine that slowly begins to conflict with the teachings of The Dogma but the fear of ridicule or even banishment can cause much stress with many either remaining quiet or “adjusting” themselves accordingly in order to fit within the mainstream The Dogma requires (is it any wonder why sheep, shepherd and flock are used?). One of the most commonly cited conflicts in Christianity is how can a loving God have such wrath and vengeance? Or how can a loving Father send his only begotten Son to his death in order to redeem the world of its sins through his blood? Yes, there are many answers to these questions much of the time citing The Dogma as the source of the answer but for many this ends up not being enough in the long run. This is demonstrated by a growing number of seekers looking for something more in response to their questions that their original Dogma just isn’t sufficiently answering (see survey in Part 2). The conflict comes from The Believing being the determinant for The Feeling when in actuality it is not required because The Feeling is innate and requires no dogma for its existence.

Part 3 – For me it again comes down to the emotional connection you make. When you have made an undeniable connection with The All That Is, you will obtain a sense of the Unconditional Love that is within The All That Is, regardless of how you choose to see it. It is from this place that I’m making the distinction between The Believing versus The Feeling. I realized after many years of seeking that The Divine will appear to you in the form you need to see him/her/it. If that is a White Man with a White Robe, White Beard, and White Hair what I like to call “The 4 W’s God” then that is how The Divine will appear to you. If you need to see The Divine as a burning bush; then so be it. If you need to see The Divine as The Great Spirit; then so be it. In other words all that is required is the emotional connection to The Divine and the form it takes is irrelevant because it’s all about THE FEELING!!! Because I no longer adhere to any kind of pre-established dogma, I choose to see The Divine as The Formless Form. It is an essence, an energy that is everywhere at once. It is in All Things, at All Times, in All Places. There is nowhere it is not. I have recently seen The Divine referred to as “The Isness” a version of which I’ve also used in the past.

What I have come to realize about the difference between Religious and Spiritual is that you can be Religious and not Spiritual or Religious and Spiritual. There are also those who say they are “Spiritual not Religious” but in essence many are really seeking the Spiritual in lieu of Religious if for no other reason than The Dogma has become insufficient in answering the Call of their Hearts. The difference in all of these is determined by the emotional connection. The very first time I got to experience this was at my second Firewalk 16 yrs ago. A young woman showed up who was a devout Christian. She walked the fire with no incident and claimed it was her faith and love for Jesus that got her through it. I, on the other hand, had gotten an intense blister on my previous Firewalk from which I learned to “Get out of my head and into my Heart” as that was the cause behind how it happened. I was pissed that this “First Timer” who hadn’t done all the things I had done got through it with such ease. I was, of course, in Judgment of her and had to admit it during the Firewalk. What I eventually realized years later was that her emotional connection is what gave her the “Faith of Protection”. Over the past 16 years being involved with energy work, I’ve developed the ability to “sense” people. As a result of that, even though I may have absolutely no reference to The Believing that someone is adhering to, I can sense that The Feeling it produces in them is the same or similar to the one I feel. This then allowed me to see differences in how I was coming to understand The Divine in comparison to those that were following some kind of Religion and from that I eventually realized that difference was based on the emotional connection. Everyone who is intimately connected to their faith has an emotional connection but too often it contains Judgment, many times thanks to both The Dogma and the ensuing ego reactions, which I’ve discovered affects the overall connection. This is why I say that “Judgment is the unwillingness to accept another unconditionally” and why I believe it is one of the core elements of what differentiates Religious versus Spiritual. Any unwillingness to accept another unconditionally is directly related to your unwillingness to see The Divine in another and in turn your Self if for no other reason than “We Are All One”. Once I realized this I vehemently searched and removed any and all Judgments I had. Today I can feel when I’m in Judgment of another and then have to make a choice as to what I will do about it which more often than not involves me looking to where I’m sharing the same energy that my Judgment is projecting onto this person. Once I discover that, the Judgment immediately dissolves and is replaced by Unconditional Love for that person.

Regardless of the ascribed dogma or not, those that have come to understand the Unconditional Love of The Divine then not only see but feel and live that unconditionality as the Oneness in All Things; you no longer see or feel any separation. You know that we are all connected and what you do to another you so do to your Self, what I have come to call “The Golden Rule v2.0”. When you come to understand this you cannot hate another for then you are hating your Self. You cannot bring harm to another because you are bringing harm to your Self. Essentially you see, feel, and live that ALL life is precious and from there you honor and respect the Sanctity and Sovereignty of ALL Life. This then becomes easy to discern because your actions speak louder than your words because they are being supported by your emotional connection to The Divine. It purely becomes a way of Being.

So take a look around you and in the world in general. Where do you see Spirituality in Action? Is it in the acquisition of Wealth and Power via Endless Greed in the Wealthy, Ultra Wealthy, Global Elite or whatever you want to call them? No because absolute power corrupts absolutely and when the Sanctity and Sovereignty of human life is superseded for wealth and power there is no essence of Spirituality there. Is it in someone who will kill another in the name of whatever their god is? Absolutely not because the dogma of these religions has ascended up into the ranks of the ego which then isolates them from the others as the ego loves a good separation due to its “better than” nature. Is it in another who condemns you to hell or won’t talk to you because you don’t follow the path of “the one true god”? Absolutely not because when The Divine is in All Things, at All Times, in All Places there is no where The Divine is not. This is why in Part 2 I quoted Ex. #29 from A Course in Miracles, “God is in everything I see”. This means that The Divine is contained within the totality of the diversity of All Life, a concept that many have a hard time seeing at its extreme levels. The Divine awaits you through the connection of your Heart. If you haven’t done so yet then what are you waiting for?!?! The Christian Dogma says it very succinctly, “Seek and ye shall find; knock and it is answered.” It is there for the taking and all you have to do is open your closed Heart and the wonders of the Unconditional Love of The Divine will greet and embrace you. Let it find you without any others telling you what or how and in that you will completely and fully establish your own personal connection that will be unlike any others because pure and simply it is your connection and that is a wondrous thing indeed!!! I was told many years ago that I have a “Customized Spirituality” and I wouldn’t have it any other way as it allows my Heart to seek this emotional connection to The Divine (aka The Feeling) in any and all ways using whatever tools are at or will be at my disposal. When The Divine is The Infinite then this is a never ending process of unfoldment into and towards The Infinite Unconditional Love of The Divine. Every day brings yet another opportunity for discovery. Now go and find it for your Self!!!

BE THE MIRACLE!

“A date which will live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked.”…”Very many American lives have been lost.”…“Always will we remember the character of the onslaught against us.”…“I believe I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make very certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again. Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger.

On Monday December 8, 1941, Theodore Roosevelt spoke these words about the bombing of an American military base on Pearl Harbor in Oahu Hawaii the day before. (Listen to President Roosevelt’s actual speech)

Sound familiar?

Today is the eighth anniversary of what some have referred to as the “New Pearl Harbor” and what has simply become known as 9-11. Both involved surprise attacks killing many Americans that resulted in war with the main difference being that the 2001 event was entirely civilians and the 1941 event was a World War versus a Global War on Terrorism which has mainly been an “American War” with some support from other countries initially but these days it seems like it’s only our war; one that some say is more about American Imperialism than protecting us from terrorists, an enemy that we can’t see or apparently find well enough to finally end a war that’s been going on for most of the past 8 yrs with some saying no real end in sight anytime soon.

Heroics and bravery are somewhat expected of soldiers but what about a business man/woman? Or a janitor, security guard, salesman? Aka civilians. This comment is not meant to detract from soldiers but that it’s part of their job but not really for the average civilian. Men and women of all race, creed, color, social status, and occupation were suddenly required to find within them this heroics and bravery.

This is what I noticed watching all of the coverage of the aftermath. That regardless of who they were, they rose to the challenge of assisting not only a fellow American, but most importantly a fellow Human without any question of who they were, what their social/economic status, etc was. It was Humans helping Humans. I was watching The Collective in Action!!

What followed was a very serious question. If we could drop all of our supposed boundaries that make us different, from which myriad judgments and condemnations result, for one day, just what would it take for that to happen permanently? Would it then take humanity to be on the brink of annihilation in order for this to occur permanently? It almost seemed too much to ask much less consider because that day was a lot of Death, Devastation, Destruction, and Mayhem much less the latter question; but that wouldn’t ever happen right? If you truly look at the world over the last 8 yrs it seems to be a lot worse. Not just this endless GWOT (which BTW is still killing endless civilians, just not “ours”) but economic collapse resulting in job losses, foreclosures, growing loss of individual freedoms; the list seems to get longer and longer as time goes on.

As a result of this, last year I wrote a blog post called “The Spirituality Behind 9-11” where I explored in detail this idea in conjunction with the other “aftermath”; many, many people seeking the reasons for this horrific event by looking to whatever their idea of God was. It essentially was the beginning of a Spiritual Revolution because due to how technology connects us to the entire world, we were not the only ones witnessing this event as it was happening on live television so as The Collective it was a single occurrence that aligned us all via the horror of Death, Devastation and Destruction and now the question is just what are we still doing about that?

I have witnessed an explosion of this Spiritual Revolution over the past 8 yrs and thanks to places like Twitter we can come together and communicate with each other but I still have to ask if it’s enough because there still seems to be so much apathy in the world in conjunction with so much destruction. Is it really someone else’s problem when it’s so rapidly approaching your backyard (literally!) Sure there are people like Kimberly May Jones who is organizing “One Minute for Peace: The 11:11 Global Peace Project” to occur on 11/11/2009 @ 11:11 which should be a very powerful demonstration for and of The Collective. The question still remains as to whether it’s enough to result in a permanent shift. Only time is going to tell the Real Story.

I’m observing that we are at a tipping point and the future of Humanity is at stake which is why I stated in my The Spirituality Behind 9-11 post that “a storm is coming” because if we’re not actually killing each other, we are also killing our way of life via greed and corruption resulting is the slow degradation of what we believe to be freedom. It is only with The Collective standing up and speaking as a whole that things will truly and totally change but from my perspective this requires Personal Responsibility in a world that appears to continue to scream to be “saved” by either their government and/or their religion neither of which is doing a very good job.

So I first invite you to read The Spirituality Behind 9-11 and again ask you, What level of Death, Devastation, Destruction, and Mayhem will it take for us to permanently drop our boundaries of Separation and live as The Collective?…and then ponder if it really has to happen at this level or can we come together before it gets to that point. Free Will is a God given Gift so we all must make the same choice and it’s as simple as that. A Course in Miracles teaches that your life is the result of your choices and if you don’t like the results to keep on choosing until you do.

The Choice is ours to make.

BE THE MIRACLE!!!

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

If you have not done so, please read Part 1 before reading Part 2.

If you have read Part 1 and found it to be thought provoking, get ready to get your mental socks blown off!! There is a high probability with this post that you’re going to be shaking your head in disbelief and saying “No way is this true!“, which by the way is a common reaction when people’s beliefs are being seriously challenged. This is why the previous post delved into the various areas that I have come to realize are involved in Truth Seeking.

The next level of Truth is just below your current level of Truth and upon your initial arrival there it’s going to be confusing and sometimes hard to accept.

During the ensuing days after 9/11 the one thing that a lot of Americans did was to reinforce their Patriotism by displaying the flag and saying “God Bless America”. From my perspective, the blessings of God are bestowed upon you continually without fail, 24/7, whether you are asking for it or not. Why? God so loves his children that not loving them is never a consideration.

As a parent, when your child does something wrong, do you stop loving them? You may not agree with what they are doing and even attempt to circumvent it, but ceasing the act of love is not a consideration. Being made in the image of God, then it follows that God does this on an even more expansive level.

I tried to convey to some that the fact that the presence of God is in your life with or without the asking. In other words you cannot not have the presence of God in your life that it is actually impossible to disconnect from God. Hence there is never a reason to ask for Blessings that have continually flowed into your life without ever having to ask for them. All I got in response to this was the “deer in the headlights” look because the big question that resulted from all of this was “How God could let this happen?”

Let’s go back to the parent analogy.

God created this playground called Earth in which his children are allowed to play freely, as in the use of their Free Will. As any parent would do, there are times when intervention is required (aka Divine Intervention) and times when it’s best to let them work it out. How many times do parents tell their children incessantly to not do certain things, but they thought they knew better or even could get away with it? When these scenarios become excessively chronic, the loving and wise parent needs to let the child learn the lessons the hard way as in Tough Love. Sometimes this involves getting hurt mentally, emotionally, or physically, and in the most extreme cases all of these. Some of Life’s Lessons just end up being learned the hard way. Most everyone can attest to it at least once.

This is going to result in the response that in this analogy God let those people die. Before I address this issue I need to preface it with some other information.

The reason that I continually discuss The Believing versus The Feeling in some of my previous posts is because I have come to understand that The Believing currently is what is establishing The Feeling but most importantly it is the main driver of what separates us. I stated in “Religious versus Spiritual Part 2” that “God is The Infinite, a concept our tiny minds can’t grasp because everything around us is finite. If dogma says that God is This and Only This or That and Only That, does this not limit the Unlimited?” If your Believing refuses to accept anything outside of it, then the result is that you are limiting the unlimited feeling of The Divine.

If that is okay with you, then let it be so. In contrast to that are the constant comments I hear or read about how so many people are looking for more. Which one are you?

When you are constantly seeking more and more ways to understand The Divine the result is more and more revelations which are feelings of The Divine. This is why I’m asking you to suspend your disbelief because that may well be what’s limiting the presence of The Unlimited in your life. Many people have a hard time stepping outside the boundaries of their Believing of God because of the fear of the affect it will have on their Feeling of God; something they cherish and hold as sacred. What I’m saying to you is to give it a chance for there is nothing to lose and everything to gain. I am consistently awed and humbled by the continuing expansion of the presence of the Divine in my life to the point that my eyes will overflow with unabated and overwhelming Joy!!!

The concept I will now present to you has to do with The Perfection of The Divine. I first learned about this 10 years ago and it totally changed the way I look at it. There’s a bit more to it than what I am about to state, but the crux of it is that God is incapable of creating anything less than God. That pure and simply is an impossibility. A molecule in the body of God has the exact same capacity to create unlimited Universes as the entire body of God. There are many places this train of thought will lead you (assuming you are willing to accept it) but for now I’m going to associate it with the previous playground example.

The answer to the question of God allowing those people to die in the sense of letting his children work out their issues on their own is “Yes”. How can that be? If God cannot create anything less than itself and God is an Infinite Being, then to create you as a finite being is less than that and hence an impossibility. Therefore God does not view death in the same way you as you do. You view it from the place of Finite where God views it from the place of Infinite. God sees that you just changed from your Finite form to your Infinite form and the only thing you left behind was your finite physical body. In doing so God sees that all you did was leave the playground and returned home.

I’m not done yet, it gets even crazier than this!!!

Read the rest of this entry »

You can be assured that by coming here you will be constantly challenged in how you look at life and your role in it. The result of this is can be that I run the risk of losing you as a reader, so the question I ask of you before proceeding any further is Are You a Seeker of Truth? If so, then as a Seeker of Truth it is imperative that you be diligently prepared to have your Belief Systems obliterated on a regular basis. The payoff for this is the continually unfolding connection to The Infinite in ways you could have never conceived of.

If you are not a Seeker of Truth, then your time here will be limited….or will it? In other words, why did you come here in the first place? Perhaps forces outside of you have guided you here as one of the next steps in your evolution. I’m saying this because of one VERY important fact; THERE ARE NO COINICIDENCES!!! Look at it this way, a coincidence is a co-incident as in a shared incident, so then who is sharing the incident with you? A better way of looking at it is a co-created incident and then again, who co-created it with you?

Going back to the theme of the Spirituality behind 9/11, if The Collective in that single incident turned to The Divine (or whatever you choose to call it) for answers to “How could this happen?”, how would you know that it responded? My response to that question would be the yearning for more which may in turn start as the feeling of emptiness in your life’s direction. Who are you? Where are you going? What’s life about anyway? That in turn would then put you into the energy of seeking for answers. So again I ask you “Are you a seeker of Truth?”

Do I have all the answers? Humility dictates that I respond with “No” and the reason for that is as soon as I think I have a handle on it all, it’s only a matter of time before it expands again. This is an evolving process that never ceases, so to say that I have all the answers is a fallacy because if that was the case then the evolution would cease because there would be nothing more to learn. To date, that has not happened and I don’t ever expect it to happen? Why? It’s a thing called “Root Assumptions” meaning that I am living in what appears to be a Finite Universe. I see and experience beginnings, middles, and ends yet I’m seeking to understand my connection to The Infinite which has no beginnings, middles or ends, hence so do my discoveries.

I am just a Seeker of Truth, nothing more, nothing less. So all I’m doing here is sharing with you what I’ve learned so far.

As a Seeker of Truth you must be prepared that when presented with Truth that is outside of the current belief structure you have aligned yourself to, that it will be extremely easy to pass it off as entirely untrue at which time your Seeking will at least be disengaged if not halted completely. I know this to be true because it has happened to me countless times. I react to something I read or learn about with “No f***ing way!!!” only to eventually discover some time later, the potential possibilities that lie in this newly discovered Truth.

I’ve also witnessed people who seek truth to a point and then their deeply held beliefs become a barrier to further expansion at which time their growth ceases. This is the risk that all Truth Seekers must be willing to take on. I can tell you from my personal experience that there is more to this reality that you live in than you could ever have imagined and the only thing that is currently stopping you from experiencing it are deeply held beliefs that say “This cannot be!”. If you remove this from your vocabulary then be prepared to uncover entirely new ways of perceiving existence which WILL eventually lead you to learning to see the Oneness in All Things.

The most important lesson to learn about this is that Truth is a choice. Truth is actually contained in the Soul but too often is impeded by deeply held and protected personal beliefs. This can then create the challenge of choosing Truth a difficult one when deeply held beliefs are directing your actions. When seeking it on the deepest of levels it becomes the most extreme use of Free Will but in turn frees your mind to perceive The Divine in ways that were previously believed to be unimaginable.

I mentioned in the Spirituality behind 9/11 Part 1 about the ego. Read the rest of this entry »