The Light in the Woods

2/23/10 Inspirations          Politics is the ultimate reality show – hype disguised as the real thing. We watch it because it’s real enough to be thrilling and fake enough to be safe. The trouble is we never seem to learn that when politics makes its own reality it takes on a life of its own; the power-people can twist things whichever way they want them to be, and that is the basis on which they make laws. And how they love to make laws! When there’s an opportunity to make another law, if the facts don’t support it other facts must be manufactured.

The same can be said about any facet of life on Earth – politics, religion, science, finance, health, history – the power-people decide reality, and present it to the rest of us as truth so there’s no conflict in their control.

When I think about the fraud on us that might never have been revealed if not for a brave few, I can’t help but think of the deception that is not discovered and how we’ve formed our beliefs on it. I get to the point where it’s wiser not to believe anything anyone tells me, but the yammering is so intense I would have to retreat into an empty cave to get away from it. What good am I in an empty cave? Are we really put on this Earth to be good to one another? If we are, why is power so historically oppressive?

Maybe we do all need an empty cave; one containing an empty chalkboard on which to write only what we can believe for sure. There in the depths of quiet we may have a chance to capture truth and reality. There where there’s only one Power we might begin to receive what we really need to know and something we can really believe. There where we live on only what we’re given without striving on our own, we become humble enough to see clearly what is necessary for us to see.

Mystics enter this empty cave of contemplation whenever they can. With no distraction and no voice other than The One Who Knows, the empty chalkboard receives truth direct from Reality. The hard part is for the mystics to retain this truth and this focus on reality when they leave the cave to return to the world. But that is precisely what keeps the mystic going back to contemplation – the intrusion of a discordant world that never seems to fit right. The more the world yammers at us, the more mumbly it sounds and the clearer God’s voice comes through. That’s the Power I can believe, the Truth that’s without conflict, the Reality that feels right, the Light for which I long.

12/19/09 Inspirations               When it comes to the things of God, how much can we human beings really know? What portion of what our ancestors said is really true? Given what we know of the history of mankind, and through our own experiences of human nature, what are we to believe?

As in everything pertaining to the mystical life, the first thing necessary for reflection is to put God first, ahead of worldly considerations and human input, because through this door lies only what God desires for us to hear. That means mystics, because they come from many beliefs, must as always pare down dogma and build up intuition. As we honor the Creator, we honor His methods, which are shaped to the individual and are varied beyond our comprehension. Our trust is in God’s word to us and through others with God’s inspiration in our spirits.

Remembering that Devotional Mysticism is an attitude of worship and not a religion itself, we must also remember that it is a practice open to all faiths, all denominations, and all individuals – excluding no one, as does God. Many mystics are Christians, and many non-Christian mystics believe in Jesus. Because of the varied interpretations God gives us, a discussion of Jesus and mysticism, to be relevant to all mystics, starts out simplified in the masses and will be built upon by the individual from within his own belief system.

A mystic interpretation may be that in Jesus God was saying “I will meet you where you live. I will come to you; to be among you and within you. In doing this, I will show you the things that I admire so you can follow my wishes through your free will. I will show you that if all in this life is not pleasant, you can look with joy to your own resurrection. From My manifestation on your level – separated as you are from Me by deception – you will find I’m a loving God, a merciful God; dedicated to you even when you turn your back on Me. I teach you compassion for others; I show you your own weaknesses so you too can be merciful to My other children. I bring you the promise that I will keep coming to you asking for your love — being pleased anytime you show it and merciful anytime you don’t. In other words, I have the capacity to communicate with you, and I do it in many different ways – ways that conform to what you can relate to. You call these manifestations of Myself by the names that mean something to you – Son of God, nature, Jesus, miracle, inspiration, Holy Spirit, co-incidence – because if my glory is beyond you I can have no real meaning for you. I am first your Creator, and I care for you in many ways while you’re away from me. Nothing pleases me more than that you would wait patiently for me with total confidence, see what I am to you, dedicate yourself to my will, and most of all love me with all you have.”

The important thing is that God can speak to us as Jesus and we will hear a powerful message. Christmas is a perfect time to reflect on this message in awesome wonder that God can and does put all His love into mankind despite what mankind can do.

11/7/09 Reflections             Jesus was God manifesting Himself in the world in order to reach out to us in a familiar way so we can benefit by a divinely-apportioned measure of understanding. The Holy Spirit does this as well; it is God making Himself available to human experience in order that we may benefit from divine capabilities.

Why can’t we just leave it at that and absorb the grace in which this gift is given? No, people have to butt in and make up things so the explanation of God is sure to be done “the church way”, leaving any unchurched spirit open to judgment and condemnation.

I find the celebration of Jesus’ humanity especially disturbing the way it is done by churches. It’s as if we can never learn what the coming of Jesus was meant to tell us – that the God/man relationship is a thing perfected in heaven but we are welcome to it even if we can only experience it imperfectly in this life; that it’s not meant to be fully understood by us in order that we keep striving for it.

Instead we see Jesus treated as the Son of God with duties separate from God, as if he was not God. We humans have to give Him human attributes and human names in order for Him to be palatable to us. The Catholic faith is one kind of offender, in that it takes the essence of Jesus and then constructs all sorts of scenarios around Him so that He makes sense to us. The unknown circumstances of His humanity must be filled in and cataloged in such a way as they fit both scripture and human experience. What we end up with is not the awe and wonder of God reaching out to mankind, but a fully logical, and fully made up, explanation of God’s plans.

The same goes for those churches who think they need only to churn out Bible slaves in order to please God. Instead of filling in where scriptural information is lacking like the Catholic church does, these people take each sentence of scripture as the final, exact word, no matter how the sentence got there or how it fits in with the rest of the concept around it. The fact that there is so much infighting among them should be a clue that this method of understanding God isn’t the answer either. One would think, listening to them, that Jesus’ role was to perform a task for man so that people who don’t follow him can be condemned by God.

It all comes from trying to fit God’s plan into human understanding without consulting God. When you base your relationship with God on scripture only, you will probably be too intimidated to listen to God another way, and may never experience what God wants to say to you as an individual. Our churches frighten us with scripture in order that we do not become tempted to accept what God says to us personally. They fear losing control of us when God communicates with us directly. They tell us we open ourselves up to the devil when we pray for God’s guidance. They assure us that if it isn’t in scripture – and this is true in many religions – then it doesn’t exist, because God is incapable of having anything else to say. Really?

Many of us have tried to remain in our churches and still go to God for spiritual guidance. Many churches profess to encourage this, but we have found that when push comes to shove, we are not considered sophisticated enough to receive what God wants to give us. And so many of us have given up the pretense of church religion and gone the way our hearts have told us to go. 

I’m convinced that the Creator sees this as a step in the right direction and works with us in a special way in order to encourage this kind of spirituality worldwide. I believe this is His plan and it gives me a satisfying feeling of hope to know that it’s OK to step out of the feedlots our religions have fenced in for us. Nothing else is needed from man, because all is provided by God anyway. When God works in an individual, it doesn’t take many individuals to become a powerful, self-replicating force for good reaching across any and all human-made boundaries..

10/9/09 Insights from Study          I could never work up a good dose of animosity toward atheists even if I needed and wanted to. They are so wrong-minded that I feel sorry for them. They are missing the greatest gift available to mankind – love from his Creator. The love is there, but they are missing it.

You cannot be angry with someone who insists the moon is made of green cheese. They are so content to be deceived that only the supreme joy of discovery of truth can conceivably be in the works for them. It’s the same sort of uplifting mystic theology that welcomes humility because only the humble person can accept and enjoy God’s rescue.

It seems like every time I hear atheists use science to prove the non-existence of intelligent design, they always wind up validating my belief in God. The most recent example is the declaration that science, having found that all life forms stem from a single cell structure, has proven we all evolved from the same source. But without considering intelligent design, how then, if it all began with a single type of cell, did some of us become scientists and some become liver flukes? If evolution begins with only one cell, what force kept us from all being great white sharks?

For me as a spiritual person believing in the immanence of God in the world, science is interesting but not necessary. And atheistic beliefs cannot alter God’s master plan, so in the great scheme of things, atheistic hatred for that which it denies exists is pitiful. Atheists do have a role to play in God’s design, and I defer as always to God’s plan. We all occupy the same place in the mind of God – we are all understood, and loved anyway. If he’s good enough for God, the atheist is good enough for me to accept. It’s just too sad when his hatred makes him so nasty he can’t afford to accept enlightenment.

6/30/09 Reflections        When I wonder why God doesn’t use me more than He does, it comes to me that I’m holding myself back by not fully accounting for my failings. While I’m diligent that I don’t go out and actively commit a sin, I may overlook the human weaknesses that can lead to sin or at least to prevent a perfect union with God.

I’m the type of person who has an inner view of themselves different from what they really are. My ego thinks I’m young at heart so I’m often shocked by a glimpse in a mirror that shows I’m older than I think I am. I suspect it’s the same with my personality – to myself I appear quiet and docile; others treat me as a commanding, even controlling, presence.

Spiritually, I’m either worried that I’m making myself into something I’m not, or amazed that I truly am a spiritually-obsessed person. Sometimes I feel like the holiest person I know; sometimes I think I’m a shameless fake. Amazingly, my commitment towards God never varies even in the thick of confusion.

There’s something extremely false about me that I can never pin down. Is God showing me how fragile my spirituality is, or am I just a person trying to talk themselves into thinking they’re better than they are? Are my motives pure, or just motives that I wish were pure? And where do they fit in, the times when I feel abased by my own worthlessness? Should someone who spends much time concerned with spiritual matters even strive to examine their human nature this way? Do we get confused and go wrong by mixing the two realms? Or is the disconnect between two natures something to be expected and accepted?

I thought I was pleasing God by ignoring my ego and not engaging in introspection. Now I’m wondering if introspection is actually what’s right for me this minute in God’s eyes.  As long as I feel there is something missing in my relationship with God that keeps me from being more useful in life, I owe it to myself and to God to discover what it is and ask for God’s help on it. So I open up my human nature for God to show me where I need to improve. It must be up to God, because I tend to falsely perceive my own image. I need the truth most urgently right now and I can get that only from God.

6/26/09 Insights from Study       What are the attributes of God? They are what He reveals to you. He may reveal them to you by personal revelation or by enlightenment from those who have received personal revelation and passed along the experience. No matter how God reveals Himself to you, it is through the filter of individuality which God created when He created you from His own mind.

How close we are to the Creator just by means of our very creation; how blessed we are to be given spirits that can discern God and His attributes! It is through this filter of individuality that God’s will for us is disclosed. It is why two people can read scripture and come up with two degrees of worldview. It is why in spirituality there is no right or wrong belief once we have humbly and obediently asked for recognition of God’s presence and welcomed God’s control in our lives. If we would stop now and again to reflect on the enormity of the consequences of our ability to have a personal, loving relationship with God, we would feel His love greatly and recognize His presence constantly, all in the course of our daily lives.

We will not be deceived by God in this state – only by slavish devotion to someone else’s interpretation of God’s attributes cans we go astray. Through this well-intentioned restriction we deny ourselves the joy of fully and freely responding to God’s desire to deal with us personally. Our relationship with God becomes based on what someone other than God tells us is right. Why do we stand for this? We stand for it because it’s easier and we feel righteous for having fallen in line behind people who seem to know a lot about God. This is backwards! Better we should go to a quiet room and shut the door against the world, to welcome God through personal prayer and a desire to follow Him and Him only. Then we will be the ones who know a lot about God because we do not need anyone else in order to learn from him and to love Him.

This will be our God; the one who counts for us. God’s uniqueness to each of us is not because He is changeable, for He is what He is, but because we are changeable and confused by the diverging directions religions claim we cannot have. He is all things to all people – He adjusts the way His word comes to us because we are each unique in His creation. The more we build on this recognition the clearer God will be to us as we allow Him our very essence. Our differences don’t matter because our focus is on the only important thing – to know God as He wishes to be known and to love Him above all else.

4/14/09 Insights from Study             Mysticism does not fly in the face of scripture in the way some would have you believe. Anytime scripture mentions the work of the Holy Spirit in man, it’s talking about mysticism. The Holy Spirit is the power of God working through His creatures and His creations. The Holy Spirit indwelling in man is promised over and over, and how this would show up in God’s plan was predicted many times and evidenced throughout the Bible. The actual words used by the Holy Spirit to individuals visited by Him can not always be found in the Bible, but the Bible is clear in it’s teaching — that the Holy Spirit would be clear in His teaching.

Where fundamentalism and Christian Mysticism part company is that fundamentalism rests solely on the very words of the Bible with no new input acknowledged, while Mysticism allows inspirational work of the Holy Spirit in the individual as a valid way that God speaks His mind to us.

It doesn’t help that the true meaning of Mysticism has been clouded by people using the term incorrectly when speaking of the paranormal and secular self-help, and also by people, especially those in the media, who use the term “mysticism” when they mean “mysterious”.

Fundamentalists also do not like the doctrine that there are many paths to God. To them, the law is clear and all that’s needed is obedience. But “many paths” spoken of in Mysticism doesn’t mean we’re free pick and choose what we want to obey so much as that God has a role for us in His plan and He doesn’t work with us all in the same way.

Mysticism, which is a process, often gets blamed for beliefs that diverge from Biblical interpretations. But when you are on fire for the Holy Spirit it would be just as unBiblical to ignore His offerings as to deny God’s purpose in Him.  I think if the devotional aspect of mysticism were better understood there would be less objection to it. We just give our whole selves to God and are at peace because we hold Him in our hearts as we go about our daily tasks. We pray, but we contemplate as well. We read scripture, but we read as well the testimony of those who have received God’s enlightenment throughout history. We tend to be individualistic, but as long as we’re following virtue and love, we feel sure our guidance is holy.

In short, the devotion of mysticism is honest of itself. Like anything else, those who profess it are not perfect. But this can be said of any spiritual doctrine, dogma, or process.  We shouldn’t fault the faith for the sins of the faithful. And we shouldn’t miss out on the beautiful gifts of the Holy Spirit from fear of deception. Protection from deception is one of those gifts.

2/16/09 Inspirations               You might want to run to God in these unsure times, because He can make it all better in a heartbeat. You might want to promote God’s goodness by being goodness itself – to be as generous with your spiritual lights as God is with His power to give you this gift of goodness to pass on to others.

You might feel overwhelmed by theological logistics, the nooks and crannies where understanding hides, to the point that you feel powerless to try to please God, Who is so unknowable. But your deception doesn’t lie in what you have not been told about your Creator. You are deceived because you assume there’s something you can do to receive God’s gift of holiness, other than be willing to accept this gift.

You don’t have to know theology, or the history of religion, to have a right-relationship with God. You don’t need to be instructed in the doctrine, the ritual, the language of worship of God. All you need is to humbly and obediently give to God what He wants from you and has already given to you to freely offer.

This is the main reason contemplative prayer is so valuable – in silent focus you see all you have and how unimportant what you don’t have is to God. Contemplation is placing yourself before God in willingness to absorb the insight He gives you. This insight is greater than anything you can get by study or practice. It all points to the mystic principle, the only necessary thing, the powerful ability you have to do what you should.

Love God by wanting only what He wants above anything you may wish for yourself. It’s simple, it’s available, it’s painless, and it’s complete — abandon your will to God’s will and you have done all that’s in your power to do to please God. Theological scholars have no greater ability than this. Great philosophers, psychologists, or sociologists cannot know God better than this or do more to please Him.  Pastors, priests and popes have no more ability for this than you have.

And having done what you are called to do, you will gain further insight and perception as God uses your holiness in His work. Revisit the basic principle of abandonment in silent prayer and do your living in concert with God, and you will be living your purpose perfectly. Many will never enjoy this contentment; not because they’re unable, but because they have not been moved to do the one thing God asks of them. But often they will find themselves in despair, asking for God’s help without really knowing how wonderfully He can give that help. Often that is the opening they need. With the power of God behind you, you can bring others to this point of asking before the despair becomes necessary. It’s something we do not know unless we examine our hearts – often what is needed is for you to suggest a person go to God in prayer to ask for guidance.

1/16/09 Reflections                    We are often warned of the dire consequences of mistaking our own thoughts for those of God. Much more spiritually devastating is to dismiss, as our own, the thoughts infused by God for His purposes.

In trying to not be deceived, we are in danger of missing what God is telling us. Our very thoughts would logically be the medium God would use to impart knowledge, for we turn our thought into words in order to express feeling. It’s for this reason that besides placing ourselves in a position to recognize God’s desires, we would also profit from listening to what others say of God, then analyzing that in the light of what’s already in our spirits.

We give deference to what seems right, but we can still value all thoughts as either affirmation or denial of our inner intuition. This isn’t allowing ourselves to be talked out of what we know of right and wrong; it’s protection against false teaching that may have already taken place, and a way of clarifying the myriad nooks and crannies of discernment that is only gradually being formed within us.

Our spiritual knowledge is never complete; there is progression which doesn’t end in this life. You may argue that further instruction isn’t necessary; that the Bible contains all we need to know. But we’ve all experienced dramatic clarification of Bible passages – sometimes as inspiration during our own reading, and sometimes through the words of others. We nurture the seeds of inspiration, see what comes up, and pick out the weeds. If it doesn’t appear right to us, we know it and reject it. This is what we all encourage, as personal understanding is a progression. We know this is how spiritual education takes place.

To mystics, these seeds of enlightenment are everywhere, not just in the Bible. We can catch the flavor of Godliness in just about everything we experience, because we see God’s design in all His creations. We may not understand it, but we see that the master plan exists, and we trust that it exists for our good. The point is that we don’t turn our back on God’s help just because we are prideful and we don’t see that this guidance is really coming from God.

1/13/09 Insights from Study                        A Bible student is someone who reads about the love of God and His absolute power to make that love known on Earth. A Bible slave is someone who can witness the voice of God in his very spirit, but must run to the Bible to find a verse that would verify what was said. Some people are using the Bible to limit what they might experience of God. They admit that the only way the Bible could validly come about is through the inspiration of God, but when personally faced with that inspiration, they assume it’s delusional. They have declared that God’s window of opportunity to directly communicate with His people is closed, for fear that He might say something extra-biblical. Who professes humility of humanity and still respects this decision?

If we do not allow God to inspire us through every avenue He wishes to use, our faith is a dead thing. What is faith if not the trust that if we humbly and sincerely abandon our will in favor of God’s, He will not deceive us? What more do we have to give, if not our human convictions of what God is or isn’t; of what God does or doesn’t do? Let God fill your spirit – in His way, at His time, by His method. If you don’t trust Him to do that with your good in mind, on what do you base your faith?