The word Utopia has Greek roots meaning “good place” and “no place.”

Jean-Paul Sartre described human beings as always trying to fil up a hole. Instead of being content with our freedom, he said, we are always trying to limit it by having something, doing something, being something. Sartre felt that human life was an absurd tug-of-war between trying to be free on the one hand and trying to be somebody on the other.

The truth is we can have deep and abiding peace in the midst of terrible conflict.

“To know what is and to adjust one’s life to that knowledge is the highest natural wisdom of man, a wisdom that inevitably points the way to the source of all truth.” Professor Robert J Kreyche

That experience propelled me across the threshold of discovering that my life was a tapestry, not a bunch of disconnected threads thrown into a basket.

The soul stage of tapestry reminds us that when life seems random and ugly, oftentimes we are looking at the bottom of the design. It is the work of the soul to help us see the eternal pattern, and to follow that pattern toward the realization of a beautiful handiwork.

If we are artists, we might think of eternal beauty and its three qualities so magnificently named by Thomas Acquinas — integrity (wholeness), consonance (every part contributing to the tone of the piece), and clarity (brilliance, luminosity, and accessibility to the soul) — and might make those three qualities the objects of our attention and our focus.

Quote from Nietzsche: “Anyone with a why to live for can put up with almost any how.”

In our society, it seems that this is the one thing we are afraid to do with couples, whether their marriages are fine or whether
they are in trouble. We’ll talk about trust and listening and forgiveness, all of which is fine. But we seldom talk to them about God. Seldom do we tell them that they have come together for a reason. Seldom do we tell them that, instead of being a stumbling block to growth and happiness, their spouse’s faults are a precise call to the areas in which they (not their spouse) need to grow. Seldom do we tell them that their spouse is part of their mission on earth, that missions are often difficult, and that we are tempted to abandon them just when the going gets tough.

I have seen new life spark in marriages when I have had people reflect on the John 14, where Jesus says, “I am going to prepare a place for you.” When I ask them, “Do you want to find your special place?” They often nod. “Then look into your spouse’s eyes,” I tell them.

Like the prodigal son, we know where home is, because we have been there once.

Your willingness is the key that unlocks the attic door (the upper room, that special place where we meet God and our Soul).

The word “re-enchantment” comes from the French word chanter. It literally means “to sing again.”. Once I realized that bit of etymology, it occurred to me that it is the perfect word to describe the problem of how to experience the enchantment found in the stage of attic wisdom once you have found yourself back on earth.

“Stations of re-enchantment” — places or pockets of time that enable us to reconnect with the eternal and to “stay tunes” to its beauty and joy. Stations — comes from a Latin word meaning “to stand.”. Its primary meaning is “places to stand on.”

I think I will coin two terms for two different realms. The two realms are separated by the speed of light barrier. On the side of our ordinary reality, scientists tell us:

We have many dimensions of space and only one dimension of time

The faster an object with mass goes, the MORE energy it needs.

Anything with mass going the speed of light would need infinite energy.

The faster an object goes, the slower time goes from the viewpoint of a stationary (relative to the object) observer. The greater the gravitational field, the slower time goes. The greater the curvature of space-time, the slower time goes.

Tendency toward disorder — entropy.

I will coin the name DOING TIME for this realm since that seems to be the primary occupation. On this side of the speed of light we are most preoccupied with our roles as Human DO-INGS.

On the other side of the speed of light in a realm of imagination, the shamans and dreamers and mystics tell us:

We travel any-where and any-when at the speed of thought. “Perfect speed, my son, is already being there.” (Jonathan Livingston Seagull)

The most powerful in this realm use the LEAST effort or energy.

Going backward or forward in time is done often and is no big deal.

Approaching ONEness is a theme. Disorder and separateness moves toward oneness. Humpty Dumpty would like that.

Physicists speculate that:

Particles called Tachyons which travel faster than light have IMAGINARY MASS.

A transcendent tachyon goes at infinite speed and thus is everywhere at once.

Tachyons go faster the LESS energy you give them. They would go infinitely fast when in an effortless state — Oneness.

My intuition says:

This realm probably has many dimensions of time and only one dimension of space.

You travel in this realm in your dreams and meditations. You go wherever you want given your skill and practice with the tools of intention and imagination.

I will coin the name TIME BEING for this realm since that seems to be the primary occupation. On this side of the speed of light we are embrace our roles as Human BE-ings.

This is the realm which supports the ordinary reality realm of Doing Time. The mechanism for this occurs at the minute (Planck) level of string theory — even smaller than the level of the random quantum soup which produces matter and energy from nothing for brief instants.

In Time Being dreams are created. This is where choice exists. this is where ideas have shape and substance. It is where realityh springs from — ala quantum physics soup. And where ordinary reality returns?

The effects of Special and General Relativity are very very small in daily life at these very slow relative speeds. That does not mean that they cease to exist.

The effects of Dreams and choice on ordinary reality are similar in low levels of obviousness — yet very real.

At the speed of thought in the Time Being, these effects are immediately obvious and real.

After practicing bringing the dream to the physical world, eventually, we will be able to go to a remote location in the imagination and move our physical body there too.

Time in the dream world is not the sequence of acts in this world.

Tachyons (stuff of dreams (imagination) produce the manifestation in this world of Doing Time.

Everything we see, even close up is “in the past” — as are stars millions of light years away — if only by nanoseconds. “No thing” exists in actuality or in the present.

It depends on our Awareness. A Wear-ness: what being do we have “on” in this moment?

Choice is found in the present. The Pre-sent. It occurs just before the action — an sometimes the choice occurs before we are aware we made a choice. Once the action occurs, it is past and comes to us via light or other sensing/measuring instruments. We are never in the present moment in consciousness unless we are in the Time Being. We use our mind’s faculty of Imagination to capture/create IMAGES. These images can be a RESULT of something in the past or the CREATION of something in BEING and perhaps to be manifested in the future. Imagination is the primary faculty of interaction in the Time Being.

Don’t be too concerned that you can’t measure or quantify something for it to have value. There are a multitude of factors in our everyday lives which were unable to be measured 100 years ago, yet have functional, practical meaning for our lives. In some cases, the act of measuring destroys the very uniqueness of what we were trying to understand.

As the dream “choice” prevails in our “idea” of the world, that begins to manifest in ordinary reality — first for the one who holds the dream and then for others as they “see” the dream and share it.

We represent our selves to the universe. We re-present Who We Really Are. As we dream and learn to come from the Time Being, we are better able to re-member the scattered parts of our selves.

The universe works via the following paradigm.

BE. DO. HAVE. Not Have-Do-Be.

The emphasis on I AM in the bible re-presents the emphasis on the Being state as fundamental to creation.

The primary access point is THIS MOMENT.

NOTE: In this message, I will use the image of the Father. This is meant to include anyone caring for, loving, and raising a child.

Christmas is a special time for children – of all ages. It is written that we need to be as children to enter the Kingdom of God. I would like to spend some time taking you back there. For some of us, it may be a longer trip than for others.
You are four years old. The big hand is on the six and the little hand is between the 5 and the 6. You are looking out the window. You are waiting. The car comes down the driveway. You hear the car door shut. You hear the key in the door and hear the door opening. Your little legs are ni motion. You zoom down the hall with a cry of “Daddy!”.
Hopefully, the expecting parent has emptied their arms of briefcases, lunchboxes or whatever, so that they can be filled with the bun- dle of excited joy that is you.

Watch the FACE of this child.

Watch the EYES. Notice your self in this child.

Hopefully, you have witnessed or experienced this kind of scene.

This is the scene of a loving father and his child who knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is loved unconditionally. This knowledge is not a logically considered conclusion — it is an experientially expressed epiphany. (in several senses of that word.)
The child knows he is loved.
Past transgressions, yesterday’s mistakes. last week’s choices are forgotten as unimportant for they don’t determine the quality or quantity of love available and expressed by the Father.

SHIFT from an unconditionally loving father to a kingly figure, crowned with glory, surrounded by his court.

How might the child behave now? Perhaps, walk restrained forward, bowed head, maybe a smile — but unlikely since that lacks the proper deferential respect. Perhaps pausing at a respectful distance and drop to touch a knee to the floor or even prostrate himself before his Father the King.

This child has “learned” the role of “subject” of the King. This person is a “king” first and his “Father” second. He has learned that he is not “worthy.”. He is not enough.

ONE MORE SHIFT of scenes to the authoritarian, powerful “God-Father.”. This father is very stern — in the sense that his Justice is swift and unrelenting. He carries a no-nonsense attitude and it is widely known that his judgments will ultimately determine your long-term — even eternal future. This is very serious since you could be judged as deserving/earning eternal punishment. To a child, a week is a long time. Even to an adult, eternity seems like an excessive amount of time.

The child approaches this God-Father in fear. This Fear of God-Father is based on the unknown — on uncertainty. What might make him mad? Which situations will be judged harshly when they seemed to be harmless?

The child may tremble in his presence. He may whine, cry, cower. He may try to manipulate, lie, fake-it or do whatever he things is needed to survive.

It becomes very important to “do the right thing”, “say the right words”, “have the necessary experiences” — or he just doesn’t know what might happen.

This child must quickly become “street-wise.”

IMAGINE A COMBINATION of ALL THREE FATHERS.

You’re just not real sure who is showing up when. You liked the Loving Father the most, but who is this person — really? If he can transform into those second two, that love must come with conditional strings attached.

OK. It’s tough being four years old, so let’s switch to who you are right now. You are still a Child of God. You go to the Bible for further help and clarification. You find lots of references to support all three of these Gods.

You find a God who forgives 70 times 7 and one who says, “Yea, though you did works in my name, I know you not…and you’re going to hell.”

You are conditioned and coached to believe that God is someone who “needs” your worship — like an insecure king.

He loves us all unconditionally and issues “loving” warnings that he “might” also condemn us to eternal damnation if we fail to meet certain conditions?

We are supposed to “love our neighbors as ourselves” — and we proceed to do just that. The problem is that we have such a tough time loving our selves — particularly through the worthless eyes of Father the King or the fear-filled eyes of the God-Father.

Where does this leave us? Confused and therefore acting from a place of little conviction or boldness and rarely from a posture of unconditional love or oneness.

When we consider our treatment of our fellow human beings, we are free to love them under the Loving Father. There are no conditions for those “other” people to receive God’s love and there are no conditions for us to receive it either. There is plenty of love to go around for everyone. It’s not a zero-sum game.

We must, however, compete with the “other people” under the Father the King or the God-Father. If we’re basically worthless sinners, then maybe we can be a little “less worthless” than that other person by behaving a certain way. If there are only a limited number “chosen,” we must strive to be one of those few. So, we must “win” out over those others. We are told to do this while we “love our enemies” and help “save” those who would otherwise be doomed. If we did a perfect job of this, there would be no one to condemn or save…? That would be a fine state of affairs.

We are confused about our attitude toward God. We life UP our hands and voices in spontaneous praise and BOW DOWN our heads in respectful prayer.

We “ask” for his presence and attention when we say we believe that he already IS present and hears our very thoughts. We come into his presence as unworthy, awed, fearful, subjects and ask for forgiveness and pardon from “our manifold sins and wickedness.”

The life of the child of the Loving Father is far richer, more complete, more loving than the other two children.

The life of the child of the Father the King is spent trying to measure up, to be filled with the power and glory, to find worth from an external source.

The life of the child of the God-Father is spent dealing with the fear of judgment. How do you give too or love others from that place?

WE MIGHT CONSIDER:

A God who loves us Unconditionally — not with this or that exception.

A God who created us in the Image of God with the incredible potential and value that implies.

A God whose creation is so perfect that the consequences of our ill-advised behavior is built in to the creative and evolutionary process. That means that the “judgment” and consequences are totally our response-ability. They are not dependent on a schizophrenic God who is loving us one minute and banning ur from his presence for eternity in the next minute.

A God who is well aware (omniscient) of his creation. He’s NOT saying, “Un, ohh!” or “Wow, I didn’t foresee that snake/apple situation messing things up.” or “Geez, this ‘free will thing’ go WAY out of hand. I never thought these people would actually ACT on all those impulses, desires and feelings that I made an integral part of being human.” or “A part of my own creation, my opponent, Satan grows stronger each day? Whew, I hope I’m up to winning this battle.”. God continues to say, as he did at the beginning. “It is Good.”

A God who is NOT separate from his creation, Satan, Evil or us.

A God who would much, much rather be the UNAVOIDABLE, instead of the UNATTAINABLE.

A God that understands WHY we do what we do and that we are ultimately “safe” in his creation.

A God who is able to love and forgive WITHOUT a BLOOD sacrifice.

A God who is not in such a hurry to limit the available time that each of us has to “get it right” and then to “wrap it all up” with the final, eternal separating of the wheat and the chaff or sheep and goats.

I BELIEVE THAT GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE SENT HIS SON…

To show us God’s inherent loving nature and how we can access that each moment.

To offer a new covenant without “offerings”

To put an end to sacrificial practices aimed toward earning grace and forgiveness from a petulant Kingly God. The acts of this New Covenant perfectly matched his death, resurrection and ascension with the dates of existing festivals with similar symbolism.

In this special time of the Christmas season, it is easier to re-member, to re-present ourselves as “children” of our Loving Father.

Go there is quiet.

You may get a glimpse of your self feeling your unworthiness and your fear of God washed away in loving exuberance.

You may even get a heart-felt look into the eyes of God. You will see that He would much prefer to receive our freely given Love rather than our deferential worship or our uncertain Fear.

If you got this far, you will probably RUN to the Father — bursting through the mental constructions of courtly pomp and circumstance and the fear of judgment — and leap into his arms!

There you can snuggle. Warm and safe and loved for Who You Really Are.

A CHILD OF GOD.

It seems that when we look around us at ourselves, at our world, and at our God, we find a number of rough edges. Where two parts might fit together nicely, there are arbitrary divisions. Where the overlap should be almost invisible, the “so-ing” makes an obvious border. Where the colors might blend,lines of demarcation are drawn. Where the shading appears to change in infinite gradations, it is arbitrarilv ended. Where the limits appear un-ending, they are abruptly ended. Where the whole seems
more than the sum of its parts, someone sizes up each part. Where the grandeur and magnitude is unseemly, it is cut, tied and marked with seams.

This is about seams, it seems. The interface, border, meeting place, or meeting time where two or more apparently different somethings meet. This is about Love which welcomes salvation or wholeness. It is about Fear which encourages division, separateness and judgment. It is about choosing Love over Fear.

We are constantly sewing the fabric of our fears with the choices we make and miss-taking the garment for our Being. We send the thread of our actions into the situational cloth of fear with our needle of judgment.

[SO…] “There, that’s right!”
[SEW..] “Oh, that’s good!”
[SO…] “Man! Don’t do that!”
[SEW..I”You dummy!”

We are constantly SOing, judging, crimping, tying, bundling, fastening, binding and attaching.

In time, it seams. We have a garment or costume that seems real enough to be us. We put many hours into its making and we identify strongly with it. It is simply what we have done as a result of a serious expenditure of time and energy. It is our DOing –not our BEing.

Our primary fear is that it might perish or be torn or injured. What then would re-present us to the world? We have so identified with this garment that it literally “pains” us when it gets hurt. We fear for its safety and associate that to mean our safety.

Who We Really Are beneath the gaudy garment of Fear and Doing is a wondrous, vibrant, multi-hued Light hiding underneath a bushel of “seems.”

George McDonald, a Scottish novelist, poet & Christian writer who was key in the conversion of C. S. Lewis, writes in the Diary of an Old Soul…
“With every morn my life afresh must break
The crust of self, gathered about me fresh;
That thy wind-spirit may rush in and shake
The darkness out of me, and rend the mesh
The spider-devils spin out of the flesh –
Eager to net the soul before it wake,
That it may slumberous lie, and listen to the snake.”

As we re-act to the situations that present themselves, we form habitual patterns of behavior — habits in the use of our senses and our thoughts. After much DOing, our performance is pre-formed AND usually out of our conscious awareness. We are unable to choose something different because we are unaware that a choice is offering itself this moment. We become less and less resource-full as we become less aware of our actions — and the alternatives available — in this moment.

If we use our Intention, instead of the needle of judgment, to pierce the garment of Fear, we begin to perceive that the garment’s basic nature is illusion. We are actually Beings of Light clothed in a seam-less Coat of Many Colors.

To the extent we Remember Who We Really Are, our Coat of Many Colors is turned out and lined with Love. And Love is all there is.

We learn that our response-abilitv to situations is our opportunity to Create (not just re-act) and choose new choices. If our choice does not serve us. we simply choose again.

We pose a question of behavior and suppose (so-pose that creation is a certain way and then limit ourselves to that obstructed view of the world.

Technologically, we can send a laser (coherent) light beam across a room and let it carry digitized information including the video and audio of a movie. The “receiver” on the other end reads and converts the information into the analog version of the movie we watch on the viewing “screen.”

Tachyons are theoretical particles which travel faster than light. The physics works in a kind of reverse. The LESS energy you give these tachyons the FASTER they go. If you give them zero energy, they travel at infinite speeds. Something traveling at infinite speed is every-where at-once.

I expect the current progression ofcommunication on the Internet to move from wires to wireless to mental/emotional. This may take several hundred more years unless people begin to practice “tuning their receivers.”

I bet these transcendent tachvons are Love and that they compose the fabric of the universe and that they carry information about the entire universe at once.

Refer to Table: View from Wholeness and Love // Loose Ends // View from Separateness and Fear

It’s dark inside. There’s a great deal of activity going on in there. Excitement even. Lots of
chaos becoming life (repetitive pro- duction of ordered heterogeneity).

It’s a struggle between bits of this and bits of that trying to arrange themselves into a meaningful whole which will become greater than the sum of the parts.

The pressure builds as the structure grows. It’s suffocating, the cramped space. The push is on to break out to a new world. At first it seems too tight and too hard a shell to break through. The first crack occurs! Another and another. Freedom…it’s a new world. So much bigger than the last one. Wow!

Not much light in this cave. Especially after that stone of assumptions was rolled across the opening. Transformation in progress.
Humpty Dumpty searching for all the pieces to recreate the whole. Holographic images scattered about relative points of view. Salvation. Wholeness.
The psyche is under great ego pressure to incorporate the various pieces of my being. So much try-harder. Need more let-go.

Let go of fear and choose Love. The stone is fragmenting. The cave is dissolving. What a neat world. A now moment stretching to and from eternity.

Science has gloried and succeeded in its ability to create “closed systems with limited and manageable variables — whether actually or theoretically. By limiting outside “interference” predictable results can be obtained and laws deduced. A tacit “cause and effect” linkage is established and a sense of control of the event given the right “starting” conditions.
This view of the world has prompted our rational test for reality to require “empirical evidence.” Lacking that, especially if it is difficult to replicate, its “reality” is questioned.
On the sub-atomic level of quantum physics, it is much more difficult to “contain ” or “close” the system — so the “laws” at that level include probability and distributions of “likely” behavior — both in energy and location of particles. Since we are dealing with huge samples of particles, we can claim “reality” and “law status” — and of course the exceptions are always included somewhere on the continuum of possibilities. The “cause and effect” linkage here is much more tenuous because when X happens, Y may or may not happen — within some probability distribution. If we do X in high enough numbers, we generally get what we’re looking for as a result. Consider the system of the human being and our energy fields. Consider the force, fabric, field which we label love (or fear). This may be the ultimate continuously OPEN system. So open as to have each particle or piece of energy able to react or be changed by EVERY OTHER particle or piece of energy in the entire universe.
Our thoughts, feelings, intentions, dreams, etc. are instruments of interaction with this
universe. There are ample documented examples of our thoughts and emotions influencing the biochemistry of our bodies and that of others.
For those who have mastered the art of conscious dreaming, in the dream world things happen as fast as thought. Thinking/feeling it makes it so. This highly subjective realm is nevertheless one where mystics down the ages write of “knowing” with certainty. This gnosis is not a deductive reasoning, it is an experience of that reality. A self-verification of its truth for that person at that time. Subject to change in the next moment — in a dynamic, open system.
Of what utility is this concept in our lives? I suspect that it would encourage a greater trust of and acceptance of what we see and feel at any given moment — regardless how different from the last look we had. It probably involves an acknowledgment of the heart’s wisdom – even while absent the mind’s logical verification.
The sudden, unpredicted remission and disappearance of a sizeable tumor in a short time has no “normal” explanation. Ironically, it still “happens” by some means at the physical level. So, although the initial steps which led to the tumor’s improbable disappearance were launched in the realm of love and higher dimensions, planes, etc., it eventually works itself out in the physical world. When we are lucky enough to be there watching with enough resolution, we can say what “caused” it to disappear. What caused the final observable, physical steps to begin in the first place — against all predictions or past histories — is what we should seek in other realities beyond the locally measurable and the logically explainable.
God’s place in this scenario? It brings up and interesting discussion for another time. In what kind of creation do we live? Is it good and perfect as it is in this moment? Is it a creation where all creatures are ultimately safe and free to learn, explore and evolve and whatever course that takes, it is as it should be?
Or is it flawed, gone awry, in need of redemption, screwed-up-by-man using his free will and making bad choices which God certainly must have expected us to make? In this description of creation, most people have us in the midst of a war between good and evil, God and Satan, right and wrong.
A bit of miscalculation on God’s part or just a sporting gesture to encourage a good fight? If we’re at war, the fear part is very real. If not, it’s an illusion getting in the way of genuine come-union with God in a universe composed of nothing but love.

What might the OldTestament writers have meant by “the sins of one generation will be visited upon the next generation” and why did the Buddhist & American Indian traditions place such emphasis on the continuing presence of their ancestors. It is both weird and comforting to be in a “feeling place” where I can sense the presence of all the other “me’s” that existed “before” and “after” the one in my present moment’s awareness. They can be asked for advice because some of them have already “been there and done that.” They can provide support in decisions and lifestyle. They can be thankful that “I am making decisions NOW which will cause them less hassle. They can provide numerous role models in all shapes and forms. They can give me a greater sense of the consequences of my current thoughts and actions. They can share premonitions of what’s to come, if the same path is followed. They can provide guidance about what they’ve learned and what they “see” from their viewpoints on the “time spindle” of the Eternal Now. Feelings & intuition allow us to slide up and down the “spindle” to access these other me’s.

The Map is NOT the Territory

 

Getting Oriented

Exploration of the Territory aided by a Map		Experience of God aided by the Bible and Tradition
Map	Territory	Bible/Tradition	Experience of God
Using a compass pointing to magnetic north, orient the map to True North	Verify landmarks are properly placed in case compass is miss-directed	Using What Would Jesus Do/Say, orient the reading toward God’s Love.	Verify the Presence with God’s Peace and Joy in case Ego miss-directs.

 

Symbols

Exploration of the Territory aided by a Map		Experience of God aided by the Bible and Tradition
Map	Territory	Bible/Tradition	Experience of God
Lean-to, spring (fresh water), privy, Red/Blue states	Only being there confirms the reality for each symbol	Salvation, Love, Sin	Fewer words and labels, more awe and One-ness

 

Topographical lines

Exploration of the Territory aided by a Map		Experience of God aided by the Bible and Tradition
Map	Territory	Bible/Tradition	Experience of God
Detail of cliffs, gorges, contours of land	May be real terrain challenges unseen at the detail level of the map.	Well-worn lines of traditional interpretation can obscure details of the actual walking & waking experience.	Real life challenges might need miraculous solutions unavailable at the level of our symbol interpretation.

• No purpose to debate the reality of the symbols.  We will better know their reality when we experience them.

• This is offering a different experience of God – not right/wrong – a view from a different perspective.  If you like it and it serves you, use it – otherwise, discard it.  It’s more than OK to say, “I sure don’t see that from where I’m standing.”
• Ask “What was my experience of God in that situation?”  Most likely, I’m experiencing judgmental Ego-talk drowning out the “still small voice.”

 

When we see the moon reflected in a still, clear pool, is it real or a reflection?

What can change the quality of the image?   

Clouds passing before the moon.  Breeze/rain disturbing the pool surface.  Our viewing position, our eyesight and dirty window glass?

Do we confuse the reflection with the reality? 

We have framed the reflection with our chosen beliefs. 

• If we are looking at the pool from a window and the window frame is very thick, we have only a small opening to see through.
• If we make the belief system frame thicker, we go to a distorted image (bad) eventually to darkness (evil).
• If we diminish the belief system frame and enlarge the window, more light can come into our lives.  It is still reflected light.
• If we get really preoccupied with the frame (body, outward appearances) and make it really elaborate and ornate, no one notices the Face of Christ the frame was meant to display.
• Christ is the One True reflection of God in Creation and in each of us.

 

Another image of the illusion in our lives is a projected movie that we get “in to” as if it is really happening now or the dreams we have at night.

 

In what sense can I believe that Evil is not ultimately real?

• We understand that our bodies are composed of atoms constantly being replaced by atoms from around the world.
• The outward “form” of our bodies seems to change slowly in time – slow enough for us to usually be re-recognized.
• The substance of that form is cosmic dust originally from the stars which will eventually return to the stars and space.  Ashes to ashes.  Dust to dust.
• Most Christians believe in something about us that is permanent.  Soul?  Spirit?  This permanence is created by God in His Image.
• Evil is as “real” as this physical body and its suffering  — and as impermanent.
• Personally, my experience of God has never included the dark side of judgment, vengeance, or any hint that God “created/allowed” evil as a co-power.
• My reason cannot accept ONE God Who “really” fell and was humpty-dumptied into separate pieces struggling to re-join.  Our perception and understanding is mistakenly fragmented – not the reality of God.
• My reading of world scriptures, including the Bible, provides ample passages attributing God and His Creation with characteristics from good to evil – clearly the best descriptions the writers could manage given their available vocabulary and culture.  Spirit is tough to communicate in worldly terms.  It is easy and natural to create god in our own image.
• Traditions around the world have always described a necessary protagonist with which the powers of Good and Light must struggle.

The Oneness of God

Dictionary Definition

Oneness: n. 1. being one, singleness.  2.  unity, union, agreement, concord

Some thoughts on our use and understanding of the word Oneness:

• Because we can label parts doesn’t interfere with the truth of oneness.
• Because we prefer specialness (good children of God or bad sinners) doesn’t impact the reality of God’s Oneness.
• Is there concern with the idea of Oneness implying Sameness or Equality?
• Is there concern that if we acknowledge our God’s oneness with creation and humanity, that we somehow demean God or artificially elevate humankind?
• Is there concern with the use of “oneness” with God while it is OK to say that Creation is composed of or one with the Holy Spirit?

Perspective

Looking from the outside, we would say, “Yep, there’s only ONE of them.”  Only one God.

Looking from the inside, we would talk in terms of unity union, agreement or concord.  It doesn’t have to be just singleness.

In the Sacrament of Marriage, two become one.  What converts two to one?  Love. 

 

Jot down responses to questions A thru D. 

A.  With Whom or with What is God unable or unwilling to:

• offer amazing grace?
• extend forgiveness?
• share love?  (His Enemy Satan?)
• be present with?
• be connected?
• “know” intimately?

 

 

B.  By what is God limited?

• time?

[ God must wait for…

[ God “hopes” for…

[ God regrets and judges the past, makes corrections and does better with…

• chaos in Creation – disasters, sickness, etc.?
• Evil – Satan’s actions?
• Human Disobedience?

I AM THAT I AM…

except for…?

C.  What in REALITY is outside God’s sphere of influence/connectedness/love?

(Real, not imagined or illusory (e.g. I can “imagine” that God is limited because He can’t

make a rock so big that He can’t lift it.)

 

 

 

 

D.  What remains permanently unrelated or disconnected?

Some other ways to understand Oneness:

• Overlapping circles which share a common area can be said to be One.
• Geometrical shapes which “contain” different shapes within the larger shapes integral structure.
• Parts in a whole

[ is my heart “one” with my body?

[ are my cells “one” with my body?

[ are the planets “one” with our solar system and galaxy and universe?

• We can be said to be “unified” or “one” because of a high percentage of the same shared components, traits, etc.

[ One in the Spirit

[ One in composition of atoms, DNA, etc.

• Oneness over Time:

[ Is an acorn “one” with the oak tree it becomes?

[ Is the baby “one” with the man into which he grows?

[ Is the sinner “one” with himself who moves through Wesley’s stages of Grace to Perfection and who then reflects the Image of God?

I find nothing in the Bible that speaks directly to this except through the action of Love and the statements about God/Christ (Alpha and Omega, I AM THAT I AM) that fail to end with qualifiers, exceptions or limitations.  Also Christ’s parable about “doing unto the least of these, you do unto me.”

The scripture about “in whom we move and breathe and have our being” and the image of the birds of the air immersed and supported in their environment like we should feel supported in God.

You asked me a question about “Why, over all our years of discussions, do I have such a problem with the existence of evil?”  My response is “because from my EXPERIENCE OF GOD in prayer and otherwise, I continue to see no evidence that it is real in the way that God is real.”

In terms of my beliefs, I rely first on my Experience of God, second on my experience of the Mind of God as witnessed through my Reason, third through my experience of God as I read Scripture, and practically never on Tradition.

Two questions for you. 

Why is compatibility between Christ’s teachings and the teachings of Eastern thought of concern to you?  The Judeo/Christian thought system can be shown to have sprung from those seeds.  There are many Biblical metaphors, stories, parables, images, etc. recorded long before the Bible in Eastern scriptures.

Have you noticed in your struggle over the pastorate last year, that it was when you opened to God’s Word “to your heart-experience” rather than just what you could find printed in the Bible, that you began to know God’s Will for you?

The Bible isn’t a manual for heart surgery.  Many things are not confined and limited to “Biblical.”  Oneness is one of those.  Our experience of God has only the limits that we impose.

 

 

 

^{Ge 2:24} For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united ^b  to his wife, and they will become one flesh. ^c  

 

^{Mt 10:29} Are not two sparrows sold for a penny ³⁹ ? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.

 

^{Mt 10:40} “He who receives you receives me, ^m  and he who receives me receives the one who sent me.

 

^{Mt 19:4} “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ ^{79 w}   

^{Mt 19:5} and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’ ⁸⁰ ? ^x   

^{Mt 19:6} So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”

^{Mk 10:18} “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.

^{Mk 12:28} One of the teachers of the law ^l  came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

^{Mk 12:29} “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. ⁵² 

^{Mk 12:30} Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ ^{53 m}   

^{Mk 12:31} The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ^{54 n}  There is no commandment greater than these.”

^{Mk 12:32} “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. ^o  

^{Jn 3:13} No one has ever gone into heaven ^r  except the one who came from heaven ^s  —the Son of Man.

^{Jn 5:22} Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, ^o   

^{Jn 5:23} that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.

^{Jn 8:15} You judge by human standards; ^j  I pass judgment on no one. ^k   

^{Jn 8:16} But if I do judge, my decisions are right, because I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent me.

^{Jn 10:14} “I am the good shepherd; ^a  I know my sheep ^b  and my sheep know me— 

^{Jn 10:15} just as the Father knows me and I know the Father ^c  —and I lay down my life for the sheep. ^d   

^{Jn 10:16} I have other sheep ^e  that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock ^f  and one shepherd.

^{Jn 10:27} My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, ^v  and they follow me. ^w   

^{Jn 10:28} I give them eternal life, ^x  and they shall never perish; ^y  no one can snatch them out of my hand. ^z   

^{Jn 10:29} My Father, who has given them to me, ^a  is greater than all ⁵⁴ ; ^b  no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 

^{Jn 10:30} I and the Father are one.”

^{Jn 10:38} But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”

^{Jn 17:11} I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, ^f  and I am coming to you. ^g  Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one ^h  as we are one.

^{Jn 17:20} “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 

^{Jn 17:21} that all of them may be one, ^w  Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. ^x  May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ^y   

^{Jn 17:22} I have given them the glory that you gave me, ^z  that they may be one as we are one: ^a   

^{Jn 17:23} I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me ^b  and have loved them ^c  even as you have loved me.

^{Jn 17:24} “Father, I want those you have given me ^d  to be with me where I am, ^e  and to see my glory, ^f  the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

^{Jn 17:25} “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, ^h  I know you, and they know that you have sent me. ⁱ   

^{Jn 17:26} I have made you known to them, ^j  and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them ^k  and that I myself may be in them.”

^{Rev 1:8} “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” ^x  says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, ^y  the Almighty.”

^{Rev 22:13} I am the Alpha and the Omega, ^z  the First and the Last, ^a  the Beginning and the End.