Enlightenment

I find it fascinating that insights and inspirations are almost universally referred to as “enlightenment.”  I have no idea what the origin of that expression is; however, as widespread as the usage is, it is unlikely that it comes from a single source.  Perhaps it is merely an extension of the natural observation that light makes it easier to see the details of material objects.  What I find so interesting about the expression is that, when conducting brain scans, doctors and researchers look for the portion of the brain that is “lighting up.”  So, I guess the term, enlightened, is completely appropriate.

What does it mean to be spiritually enlightened For the Christian, it might refer to the “new birth” experience or the infilling of the Holy Spirit.  For Hindus and Buddhists, it has a very specific meaning and pertains to an awareness of being one with the universe and free from all desires.

There is a funny story about an exchange between an ancient Buddhist master and one of his students.  In general, Buddhists believe that “true” enlightenment frees one from the various winds of life that can blow us about emotionally.  This particular student had studied for many years under his master’s guidance.  He had moved about 300 miles away, which in those days was quite a journey.  At one point, the student composed a poem and sent it to his master to demonstrate his profound enlightenment.  The master read the poem and wrote on the margin of the parchment, “fart, fart, fart” and returned it.

When the student saw what his master had written, he made the 300 mile arduous journey to obtain an explanation for the apparent insult.  When they met, the master asked if the student felt that he was truly free from the winds of life.  The student insisted that he was.  “Yet,” the master responded “three little farts have blown you all this great way.” 

This certainly illustrates the pitfall of setting enlightenment as a badge of accomplishment.  This, I’m sure, is what is referred to in the Tai Te Ching when we read;

24

He who stands on tiptoe

Doesn’t stand firm.

He who rushes ahead

Doesn’t go far.

He who tries to shine

Dims his own light.

He who defines himself

Doesn’t know who he really is……….

Personally, I don’t think that enlightenment is a single event or a particular spiritual level to attain. On the contrary, whatever enlightenment I have experienced has been like a cosmic road map progressively being unfolded along the way.

For me it has required an honest and open consideration of reality.  It has involved reading, thinking, contemplation, a willingness to acknowledge my mistakes, a recognition that truth may come from a variety of sources other than myself, a willingness to carefully listen to the opinions of others, and an abandonment of my desire to be the “source of wisdom.”  One thing is certain; seeking a deeper understanding of spiritual/cosmic truths is not a path for those who are spiritually or intellectually complacent.  Socrates put it this way, “An unexamined life is not worth living.”

At this point, I have come to the conclusion that the truth I have been seeking has been within me all the time.  It is a matter of clearing out the debris that has accumulated in order for the light of truth to shine.  This is by no means a new understanding, as seen in the following quotes.  From a natural standpoint, I think this knowledge is infused in the ground of being that is the underlying substance of the entire universe.  It is as much a part of us as our DNA.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood.  – John 1:1-5

“A person’s soul may be compared to a transparent ball which is lit from the inside with its own light.  This flame is not only the source of all light and truth, but it eluminates everything around you.  In this state, the soul is free and happy.  Only if it becomes addicted to anything outside you will it become troubled, darkened and impenetrable.  Distractions obstruct the light which shows you the way.” -- Marcus Aurelius (2^nd century AD Roman emperor)

“If a passion embraces you, you should remember that this passionate desire is not a part of your soul, but a dark covering that shuts out the true qualities of your soul.  You should be a lantern for yourself.  Draw close to the light within you and seek no other shelter.”   – Buddhist wisdom

“God is not a distant remote being but a living presence to be discovered in the deep

centre of every human being.”  -- George Gorman

“Do not believe that in religion you cannot trust your intellect.  The force of our intellect must support the foundations of every real faith.” -- William Emery Channing

“Personality is the mask that obscures the divine being which dwells in every person.”  -- Leo Tolstoy

Catching Up

To say that I have been busy over the past eighteen months or so would be an understatement.  During that period I have become an active member of my local Quaker meeting, re-married, sold all of my real estate properties and moved.  While these activities have not left much time for writing, I have grown a great deal personally.

I have been thoroughly enjoying my Quaker experience.  Often, when I tell people that I am a Quaker, it is clear that they don’t know much about the Religious Society of Friends, Quakers.  I get responses like, “Oh yeah, they make really nice furniture,” or, “Don’t they make their women wear bonnets?”  My knowledge was pretty limited before I started doing a little research, but many people confuse Quakers with more conservative groups like the Amish or Mennonites.  The reality is that most of the Quakers in the United States are very contemporary, socially active and often rather liberal.

For me, this fellowship is incredibly comfortable, but two things are of particular importance.  First, there are no doctrinal creeds.  So, I have the freedom to openly embrace my own understanding of the divine.  Second, one of the core beliefs is that “there is that of God in everyone.”  This promotes a wonderfully spiritual community where there is love and mutual concern among the members and toward the world at large. 

It is a spiritual environment that promotes personal growth and development with no pressure to conform to prescribed beliefs.  Instead, there is a focus on “Quaker testimonies.”  These are core values that include simplicity, peace, integrity, community and equality.  I find this to be a much more rational approach to spirituality because values, after all, are the most important aspects of religion.  The stories are merely the symbols used to convey the underlying spiritual truths.  Yet, too often people argue about the details of the stories while the underlying values are trampled underfoot in the tumult.

My hope for our world is that we can progressively move towards a greater acceptance of our differences, a greater awareness of our shared dreams and a greater sense of our interconnection and mutual dependence.

The Next Chapter

My current theological/cosmic understanding is bittersweet.  On the one hand, I am incredibly relieved that I have been permitted to recognize the connection between the spiritual truths of various religions, my personal experience and perceptions, and contemporary scientific knowledge and theories.  While I am fully aware that my understanding is woefully incomplete, I do feel that I have reached a new plateau of understanding.  Nevertheless, the joy of this enlightenment is tempered by the awareness that this knowledge has arrived so far along my personal journey.  It reminds me of the old saying attributed to the Pennsylvania Dutch, “Too soon old and too late smart.”

I definitely have a sense of entering a new phase of my life.  With a keen sense of who God is, I am striving to apply my concepts to the world around me.  This involves recognizing my misconceptions and either discarding them or redirecting the thought process.  The clearest example of this is the “I-ness” I have lived with throughout my life.  At present it is necessary for me to consciously recognize my connection to everything around me.  However, I find that as I practice this awareness, it becomes increasingly integrated into my sense of self.  That self is gradually becoming a universal Self with a capital “S”.

I am extremely thankful that a recent development in this unfolding adventure has been my involvement with a local Quaker meeting.   There, I have found others who are engaged in their own journeys along this spiritual pathway.   It is very comforting to be part of a spiritual community that does not impose specific doctrines or dogmas, but recognizes that we are all enlightened by the same cosmic source and that our divine experience and knowledge is individually unique.

I am quite certain that an association with like-minded individuals is essential for personal growth.  Like Tolstoy, I believe that true spiritual knowledge comes through personal introspection and contemplation coupled with their application through social interaction.  Theories and philosophies lack significant value if they are not relevant to the world in which we live and the people who inhabit it.  Therefore, interacting with others who are striving to live an authentically spiritual life provides us with a marvelous opportunity to share, learn, and grow together.

Who Am I?

This has been a very difficult entry to write because my sense of self has undergone a significant transformation over the past few years through reading, reflection, and realization, and I am quite certain that I am nowhere near finished because life itself is comprised of continual change.  .  After several attempts to express my present understanding, I have discovered that conveying this process in this brief format is quite challenging. 

For years, I, like most people in western civilization, viewed my body as “me”.  I saw myself as a separate and distinct entity defined by the limits of my physical being.  Though I had genuine concern for others, I viewed all events, relations, activities, possessions, etc. as they pertained to me, my desires, goals, and well-being.  However, as I have considered the teachings of eastern philosophy and explored current scientific cosmology, my perspective has changed dramatically.

In light of the fact that our natural perceptions do not accurately reflect reality (as I presented in my posting Is Perception Reality), I now believe that the Hindu/Buddhist teaching regarding duality is quite accurate.  Our sense of individuality is an illusion.  We are, in fact, interconnected with everything in the material world through an energetic and conscious source.  The challenge is to embrace this reality and nurture this realization on a conscious level.

For me, it is necessary to deliberately rethink old concepts.  For example, several years ago I learned that the elements that comprise the world around us were forged in a star billions of years ago.  That is a concept that I have to revisit periodically.  As I consider the things around me, I contemplate the fact that it all is stardust and once existed in the midst of a thermonuclear fusion reaction.  The fact that that awareness does not present itself automatically does not detract from the reality of the situation.

I go through a similar process regarding the identification of myself with my body.  I look at my hands, arms, torso, etc., and my natural tendency is to think of it as “me”.  In one sense “I” am 60+ years old.  However, the cells of my body are continually dying and being replaced.  Consequently, almost every cell in my body is probably less than 10 years old.  Furthermore, the elements that make up the atoms that comprise my body are over 14 billion years old.  Am I my body?  No.  I am viewing the material world through this life form at this point in time and space, but it is not me.  For thousands of years, the sages have been pondering this very issue, “Who is it behind my eyes that is asking the questions?”

I happen to believe that God, the universal consciousness, energizes every living thing and is the self behind the eyes.  Similarly, many people believe that the universe is becoming progressively aware of itself through evolving consciousness in the material world.  If this is true, the implications are enormous.  It means that there is no “me”, only “we”.  It means that we are all part of one another and what we do to others, we, in fact, are doing to ourselves.  Oddly enough, that is precisely the message that has been presented to us through various religions for thousands of years.

This is just one more aspect of reality that does not reveal itself naturally.  However, I have discovered that as I ponder this concept, I am developing an ever increasing sense of connection with others.  At times, I really do have an awareness of being one with them whether they share this perspective or not.  It has given a whole new meaning to what Jesus may have meant when he said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Does this mean that I think I am God?  Is a wave the ocean?  Is a leaf the tree?  Is one brain cell my entire body?  I believe that I am an aspect of God, but that is all.  However, through prayer or meditation I have access to the entirety of God and can become all that I am designed to be, fulfilling my purpose whatever that may be.

There are 10 clips associated with this video.  I would recommed viewing them all.

Speaking of God......

1

The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.

The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.

Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.

Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.

Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.

                               ---- Tao Te Ching

What a dilemma.  We exist in a material world and from our childhood are taught to attach names to everything around us.   Under most circumstances this approach enables us to communicate with others more effectively.  Yet, when it comes to God, our ability to use words when referring to Him is woefully inadequate.

For the past couple of years I have avoided using the term “God” because of the traditional connotations associated with it.  In an effort not to convey the concept of an anthropomorphic being I started using expressions like, “the universe, cosmic consciousness, cosmic intelligence” and other non-theistic terms.  However, these seem so impersonal and do not convey the intimacy that exists between the universal source and all that is sustained by it.  I find that the difficulty becomes even more complex when I try to make a reference using a personal pronoun.  Certainly this cosmic entity is neither male nor female, so using terms like He or She seem inappropriate.  Yet, referring to God as “It” seems to lack the proper respect for this pervasive consciousness.

I like the term “Universal Source.”  We could shorten that to “US”, which would also convey the idea of the connectivity that exists between all conscious beings.  Unfortunately, that would probably be confused with “U.S.” which is already associated with the United States, so that’s out.  We could make up a name like Tsoe (The source of everything), but then people would think we were referring to Chinese food or something.  Some people use the term “Mother/Father God”, but I can’t bring myself to do that because if you say it too fast, it just sounds like profanity.

So I have come full circle and have decided to merely use the term, “God”, knowing   full well that it is inadequate but gets about as close as I can to what I currently believe.   I am going to use the masculine pronouns simply because that is most commonly used and understood.  In my personal communion with Him, I generally refer to Him as “Father” because I know implicitly that He is the source of who I am, whatever that may be.

God Is Hiding In The Quanntum Field

14

Look, and it can't be seen.
Listen, and it can't be heard.
Reach, and it can't be grasped.

Above, it isn't bright.
Below, it isn't dark.
Seamless, unnamable,
it returns to the realm of nothing.
Form that includes all forms,
image without an image,
subtle, beyond all conception.

Approach it and there is no beginning;
follow it and there is no end.
You can't know it, but you can be it,
at ease in your own life.
Just realize where you come from:
this is the essence of wisdom.

                  ---- Tao Te Ching

About 10 years ago, I felt that I had reached an impasse in my desire to have a deeper understanding about God.  I had spent many years attempting to reconcile the obvious discrepancies in the Bible, but had finally concluded that the deity portrayed there was merely an ancient concept that simplistically projected the characteristics of earthly monarchs onto a heavenly being.  I was quite certain that there was a universal presence, but I had no idea where to find genuine knowledge.  It appeared that I would have to be content with unanswered questions.

Then, while reading Quantum Healing written by Deepak Chopra, I encountered a statement that caught my attention and directed me down a new path.  Chopra was merely writing about the number of subatomic particles that fill the universe and pass through our bodies every second.  Suddenly I was struck with the thought that those particles could be god’s neuro-network.  It became quite obvious why we could not perceive Him in the material world because He exists at the sub-atomic level.

At the time, I knew very little about quantum physics and had no idea that my “revelation” was already being promoted by well established quantum physicists like John Hagelin and Amit Goswami.  As I began following various leads, I discovered websites like IONS and EnlightenNext where research and theories of cosmic consciousness are reported.

I have found this information extremely comforting because it has confirmed what I have sensed for a long time.  God is not some transcendent being dwelling in a realm separate from this universe.  Instead, He is the universe.  Based on the “string theory,” the prevailing unified field theory, I am quite certain that God is the ground substance in which energy strings vibrate and form sub-atomic particles which become increasingly complex atomic structures and ultimately comprise everything in the material world.  Furthermore, I believe that that substance is pure consciousness and the source of the consciousness that is manifested in all living beings.    This conscious energy field is what has been rightly perceived as God because it is the source of everything.

I find it impossible to imagine what thought is like when time, space, being and non-being are irrelevant.  However, Hindus have taught for millennia that our bodies are a reflection of the cosmos.  If that is the case, then we might liken this consciousness to what takes place in our bodies.  Respiration, circulation, digestion, cell division, immune response, and much more occur within us and require no conscious thought on our part whatsoever.  Perhaps this is the way God interacts with us on a cosmic scale, being aware of the existence of the material world and directing it in some manner without having specific “thoughts” about what is going on.

To me, the implications of this are extraordinarily profound.   I no longer have to wonder where God is because He is in everything I see, feel, smell, or hear.  This is something I reflect upon as I go through my day.  He is all around me and in me as well.  For a long time I have sensed a deep connection to the eternal.  Now I understand that perception.  This awareness is not the result of extensive meditation.  It is merely due to a greater understanding of the composition of the universe and my relation to it.

                                        

Note: Several of the video clips presented here are only the fist in a series.  To understand the full significance of their information, please follow the related links.



Looking For God

As far back as I can remember I have had a desire to understand God.  I know that seems like a rather lofty goal, but there has simply been an underlying sense of connection with the eternal.  This is somewhat surprising because I was raised in a liberal mainstream denomination and was taught in Sunday school that the Bible was merely a compilation of material written by various men, not a divinely inspired source of truth.  Consequently, by the time I was a teenager, it seemed absurd to attend church if the doctrines and worship were merely based on myths and human ideas.

As an older teenager, I briefly became involved with the Mormon Church because it was supposedly based on a more contemporary connection with God.  This appealed to me because I reasoned that if God is real, then He should still be active in the universe today and potentially interacting with mankind.  Eventually, I drifted away from the Mormon Church and my spiritual interests and became involved in many of the activities that were prevalent among young adults during the late 1960s and early 70s.

Ultimately, I encountered and became actively involved with a Pentecostal church.  There I had some amazing spiritual experiences that confirmed my underlying sense that there was a divine presence in the universe that can be perceived by people today.  For nearly 30 years I remained involved with several different congregations, but I struggled with the fundamental Christian doctrines.  I was quite certain about the validity of my experiences, but could not accept that the Bible is “inerrant” and the only source of spiritual truth. 

As I have continued my effort for spiritual growth, I have read a variety of religious texts from many of the major religions of the world.  One thing I have noticed is that it is easy to identify the myths and contradictions in religious writings that are not part of one’s upbringing.  However, it is harder to step back from scriptures that one has been raised with and accepted as “truth” and evaluate them with a purely objective eye.  It really is more satisfying when someone else’s sacred cow is being gored.  Nevertheless, I have had to be honest with myself and objective in my search.

Many have written works examining the origin of the Bible and/or challenging its claim of divine inspiration.  I have found two that have been very enlightening.  They may not necessarily be the final word on the subject, but they were quite interesting.  The first, Age of Reason, written by Thomas Paine in 1794, has extensive historical significance.  Paine was a proponent of British deism, an eighteenth-century philosophy that espoused faith in a divine being but rejected formal religion.  The objective of his book was to point out inconsistencies and contradictions in the Bible, thus refuting the divine authority attributed to it by “the church.”

It was not an easy book to read.  The first section was written hastily while he was in a French prison during the French revolution and had no idea whether or not he would survive the ordeal.  He had to rely on his memory because he did not have access to a Bible; consequently the arguments and conclusions presented in the first section are often weak and flawed.  However, the second section of the book is thoroughly thought out and extremely well done for someone who was not trained as a Biblical scholar.  Although I found it difficult at times to endure the disdainful tone of his writings, I learned a great deal.

The second book that has been very helpful is Misquoting Jesus:  The Story of Who Changed the Bible and Why, written by Bart D. Ehrman in 2007.  This is truly a scholarly work on the compilation of the New Testament.  Written to be understood by non-scholars, it clearly elaborates many of the factors that influenced the variations contained in the numerous texts of the New Testament that have been discovered over the years.  After reading this book, it was quite evident that what is presented in the current Bible is merely what the orthodox church promoted and cannot be viewed as an accurate or complete source for the original teachings of Jesus. 

My conclusion has been that what I was taught in my Episcopal Sunday school class is generally true; the religious texts from around the world were compiled by human beings and convey the thoughts and opinions of the individual writers.  However, what I was not taught in Sunday school but now believe wholeheartedly is that much of what appears in the original writings reflect a sincere effort to know God and convey their understanding of His nature to others.  What is quite amazing is the continuity of the underlying principles contained in these numerous works.  In Tolstoy’s last major book, A Calendar  of Wisdom, he gives us a brilliantly simple means of evaluating the truth in these various scriptures.  He wrote, “Only the spiritual teachings of religion are true.”  I appreciate this approach and have discovered that when I apply this, I begin to see God peeking out at me from various sources.