My God is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipotential. My God is OM. One Mind. Sounds like HOME. Also AMEN or ALM. We are created in the ‘image of God’. This is the imagination as it were. I was surprised by a friend still dichotomizing reality. He actually believed there was God and something else. But Phillips addressed this best in “Your God is too small.”
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth etc. In the beginning there was God and not ‘God and building blocks”. God the Creator. The creator created creation of the creator. No of nothing else there’d be God and nothing. The essence of the message of the great mystic, St. John of the Cross, who wrote Dark Night of the Soul was NADA. Not God. There is nothing in this creation that is NOT GOD and to think of some thing like money, or an individual person, or substance, or a book as God is to make that thing an IDOL. NADA means that’s ‘not god’. CS Lewis the great Christian theologian and Jew lover said, “Don’t look for the architect in the wall.”
So this computer, my fingers, the seen and unseen, the indivisible divisibleness, the alpha and omega, are all God. God is one. God is love. These are statements of God or the nature of God or attributes. Medieval theologians seriously asked how many angels could fit on the tip of a needle. That was even before electron microscopes and that was before the Haldron collider particle accelerator. Looking as deeply inward there is as much expanding mystery asthere is looking outward into the galaxy with the Hubble Space Telescope. The sacred is in the ‘aha’ moments.
Dr. Carl Jung talked about the 4th dimension, that world of synchronicity, where the 12 steppers are spiritually ‘rocketed’ , and what to the genius is commonly known as the “flow.” Right now my friends are asking if they write the poem or the poem writes them but that’s because in moments of insight the separation ceases to exist.
I like words. My schizophrenic patients were as much an influence on this as the Oxford Dictionary. But a world like “I-DEAS” holds in it the NADA truth of ’thoughts’ as ‘creatures’ the term C.S. Lewis used for them, not to be ‘idolized’, not to be given God like power, not to be worshipped. Sensations are like this. The drug addict, a true materialist hedonist, seeks that sense of ‘pleasure’ and worships it.
The idea of Jesus is profoundly different from the notion of Krisha. In the eastern religion man evolves upward, much of his own doing, reaching higher and higher to greater and greater complexity until eventually he becomes God, experiencing Nirvana and passing beyond this dimensional world, beyond time and space into the One Mind. This is contrasted by the western idea of enlightenment inherent in Jesus. For Jesus is God come to meet and lift man up as on eagles wings to be with God.
The Christ Conscious yogi or mystic chants, “I am he I am he, make me the sea”. By contrast the western Jesus aware saint says. “Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me.”
Prayer is speaking to God. Meditation is listening to God. And the Sufi's twirl. In the experiences of dissociation there is a crack in the consciousness which lets The sacred in. Carmelite Nuns meditating under PET Scans showed orgasmic brain waves enlightening all regions and special parts of the brain brightening and glowing for days after. With cocaine, like other drugs, the functional MRI shows the blast followed by the lights of the frontal lobe, or last developed, most human aspect of brain, shut off for weeks and months. Devolution as opposed to evolution. The language of the left, getting high is really getting low whereas the language of the right in going slow is really going fast but neither matters because all roads lead to Rome where there is but one God and God is both heaven and hell. The concept of eternity or infinity wasn't the true translation of the Biblical and ancient texts because that waited the mathematic abstracts of Cartesian thought, the contribution of "Zero" of the east , (the story of Zero by Given a must read for the scientifically mystically minded). To the agrarian mind , 'a long time' is all that they measured time in, more truthful in reality than the abstraction of the mathematical without all the false prophecies of computer projections and numerological worship. One goes to hell for instance 'for a long time'.
Martin Buber the great Jewish theologian and mystic described the relationship of God and human as Person and God. I and Thou. HE said the primitive experience, or paranoid experience as psychiatrists would experientially describe it would be as fear based, I and It, whereas I and Thou is love based. The immense beauty of the Sistine Chapel Ceiling and the mystical genius of Michelangelo was in showing an awakening languishing Adam reaching up with his finger as God is reaching down.
I am not Alone.
God is love.
God is chasing me as I am chasing him.
Jesus is dancing with me.
Jacob fought with the Angel.
In the dance, in the struggle, in the crisis and calamity, it is all still God but I in fear retract into my own alienation and refuse to open up to the feeling of the sunshine on my face or the breeze in my hair.
When Alexander the Great met Diogenes, the cynic he asked him what he wanted and Diogenes answered that he wanted him to stand a little out of the sun.
The Wisdom literature is great. The teaching stories are a delight. The path of virtue is the challenge. We crawl as children and walk as men and women. We have but this day that begins with a program of the past which we can not ascertain except with circumstantial evidence. The past is a linear hypothesis that science says may indeed not exist except in the changing imagination of the collective unconscious. Similarly we are part of God’s imagining of the future and can be in the here and now where the omnipotential is the greatest and we can embrace “Thy Will Be Done” or insist on ‘my will being done’. Indeed the two are inseparable because separation is an illusion. The fish in the water don’t know the water any more than we listening to a gesticulating lady are rarely aware of her using the movement of the air to massage the relationship as she might be adding perfume to the conversation. The subtlety upon subtlety is mostly beyond us unless we meditate and pray. Still the cacophony of the world. Still the senses
Be Still and Know That I am GOD.
Time to shower, another day of work, an experience with soap and water, then a rush to dress in fine clothing, the product of 80,000 years of industry and tailoring talent, then the immeasurable joy of climbing into a vehicle and experiencing the wonders of the scientific age, combustion and electricity and the pavement and city planning and law and order and a true genius of potential.
My little dog is patiently waiting for another walk that he might sniff the air and go with me to wherever I might take him today. And I am to God as he to me. I love that Dog spelt backwards, the words again, with their curious insights, spells God and the nature of the relationships. I walk with Jesus as the footprints in the sand have taught me. There is Grace, thank God.
I am not alone.
Showing posts with label mysticism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mysticism. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
Sunday, December 11, 2016
Bible Based, Christ Centered, and Interfaith Christianity
Joel Osteen closes his radio sermon with the recommendation, “get into a Bible Based Church.” There’s more to what he says but this phrase “Bible Based Church” is one that rings out. I like listening to Joel Osteen driving to work. He’s one of the greatest pastors of our day sharing the message of Jesus Christ in such a way as to reach out to a large swath of people. Often his message touches me deeply. His inspiration has helped me drive to work and start my day positively.
I belong to the Christian Medical and Dental Association. EMAS Canada is a “Christ Centred” medical organization that provides international medical services to under serviced areas. It is inter denominational with doctors coming from Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox faiths. I look forward to one day serving in a medical mission capacity.
Before the Roman Catholic Church there was nearly 300 years of Christian ministry,churches and persecution. I first learned of this era from reading Dr. Paul Johnson’s History of Christianity. The Bible itself ends not with the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross or with his Resurrection and the witnesses who saw him but rather with the evangelism of the apostles going out to spread the story along with the newly converted Christian persecuter, Saul, who came to be known as St. Paul.
The Roman Catholic Church began after Constantine had his Christian vision in 312 AD before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. Constantine became the Emperor of the Roman Empire, convening the first Ecumenical Council of Nicea in 325 AD. Constantine made Christianity, the State Religion of the Roman Empire, having not that long before fed them to the lions in their Coliseum games. It is said that Constantine had less interest in the church than the unification of the Empire. The concept of “Orthodoxy” followed because there was from that point a ‘Consensus’ teaching in the church influenced by the authoritarinism of the Emperor.
The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in eleven of the Quamram caves between 1946 and 1956, some 981 texts dating from the three centuries BCE to the first century AD. These were mostly Hebrew and Aramic texts of the Jewish bible extending knowledge of the historical teachings of Jerusalem. The Nag Hammadi library was a collection of 54 ancient texts found sealed in a jar in Upper Egypt in 1945. They have been called the Gnostic Gospels representing the teaching of various spiritual leaders between 2nd and 4th century AD. Gnostic Gospels was the first of several of Elaine Pagels books I would go on to read. Elaine Pagels, a religious historian, is the Princeton Professor of Religion,
There are many writings and bibles through history, our present Holy Bible (I prefer the NIV) is a product of scholarship and censorship and selection. I was blessed to see the Book of Kells in Trinity College, Dublin a couple of years ago. The Book of Kells is the 9th century medieval manuscript of the Gospels. I had been so impressed by the Thomas Cahill’s series including How the Irish Saved Civilization talking of the monks travelling back across Europe carrying with them little hand printed gospels. We saw that day, part of the Book of Kells exhibition, these little hand printed gospels the monks carried.
I’ve read the Bible through several times having first studied it with Dr. Carl Ridd at University of Winnipeg, which began as a United Church seminary. I actually found the Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda in their library having been given a copy to read by my first mother in law, Maija, a nurse midwife. Paramahansa taught that one must develop a “Christ Consciousness” within. Paramahansa Yogananda had been India’s representative to the International Congress of Religious Liberals in Boston in 1920.
The International Association for Religious Freedom (IARF) is the world’s first international inter religious organization founded in 1900 in the UK. A quote from Vaclav Havel is “Seek the company of those who are searching for the truth and avoid those who have found it.” The purpose of the IARF is "to work for freedom of religion and belief because it is a precious human right that enables the best within our religious lives, or our search for truth or enlightenment, to flourish."
Evelyn Underhill wrote “Mysticism: A Study of the Nature and Development of Man’s Spiritual Consciousness.” in 1911. Underhilll laid out the foundation of what today would be called “spirituality’. I studied "Christian spirituality”, once called Christian mysticism, with Dr. James Houston at Regent College. His book called " Transforming Power of Prayer” is now a classic. After much blessed learning from this great and humble man, and discussions with my most enlightened colleague and friend Dr. John Christianson , a catholic often guided most by the teachings of St. Francis, I gathered insights into the depth of their faith,
I’ve recently began studying St. Thomas, the ‘doubting Thomas’ of the Bible. One of the 12 Disciples, he travelled through the East sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. The Eastern church was much larger than the western church. I had been to Cappadocia visitting the monastery of St. Gregory of Cappadocia so I knew something of the importance of the eastern church. But the extent to which it had spread and how many Christians had been there was not apparent to me till I studied the conquests of Mohammed and his followers seeing just how many Christians and churches they had destroyed. They forced conversion to Islam on all. They really were conquerers in the modern ISIS tradition. Those who resisted were still persecuted but a remainder survived as a strictly restricted minority. Yet once the whole region of what is now known as Islam had been thriving with Christians. The Crusaders only stopped the conquest of Islam at Venice Italy, and later pushed the Muslims out of Spain.
St. Thomas himself was crucified but his church lives on in Kerala India. I am reading St. Thomas, the Divine Light of India and enjoying it thoroughly.
Christianity's major early divisions had been Rome and Constantine as the Roman Empire moved it’s centred the church followed. The Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox divisions followed along with the Orthodox Christian which spread to St. Petersburg and Moscow regions. Each of these three divisions of Christianity in their own right claim to be the direct descendent of the Rock of St. Peter. As well there was this Eastern spread of the church and another southern major division of the church represented by Alexandria, Egypt and the Coptic Church . I have yet to explore the teachings of this division having just read the extraordinary tale of the eastern Armenian Church which survived such persecution under the Muslims. I visitted Armenian churches when I was in Istanbul a couple of years ago visitting the centre of the Greek Orthodox church which still resides in Constantine despite the Muslim invasion and conquest in 1453.
Personally I understand Christianity as a religion to have three foundations. I sometimes think of them as compass points of reference . These can be considered the pillars of the religion. Obviously there is Jesus and the Gospels, his life and teachings as recorded by Mathew, Mark, Luke and John. Further there is the New Testament of the Holy Bible which includes these Gospels but also the work and teachings of Jesus’ immediate apostles and St. Paul. These are the written works and there is much commentary and interpretation of them over the years by various leaders and teachers of the church. This is the intellectual, philosophical, theological, historical, book learned, academic basis of Christianity. It really is an immense and rich study. I am thankful mostly to Dr. James Houston for his Regent College course on the fathers of the church and the basis of Christian Spirituality as well as the courses at St. Mark’s Catholic College with UBC Professor Emerita of Classics, Shirley Sullivan.
The second pillar is the church itself. It’s this congregation of people and teachers and fellowship of followers and students of those teachings, central to which is the “Holy Bible”. The Holy Bible is a combination of the New Testament and the Old Testament. The Old Testament is the Jewish Bible, or it’s collection of works including the Torah and prophets and selected historical teachings and the psalms or songs that the Jewish people sung up to and including the time of Jesus on to today. Jesus was a Jew and a Rabbi of the Jewish religion and Jews for Jesus today see Christianity as the extension of Jewish teaching. Indeed this was the way St. Mathew principally saw it but it was mostly Paul that saw Christianity as more of a new ‘world religion’.
Today the Church is the place of worship and fellowship and discussion and where one works out ones own Christian behaviour in an "adopted family” so to speak. We call ourselves Brothers and Sisters in Christ in this community. One is baptized into the church as John the Baptist baptized Jesus. Some ancient rituals are a part of the worship and prayer and despite variations there is a commonality that is comforting as in the sense of coming home. It has indeed been said that there are two things one definitely can’t do alone, be ‘married’ and ‘be a Christian’.
(My own churches have included Dufferin Street Baptist in Toronto, Trinity Baptist in Winnipeg, Fort Garry United, and later St. John’s Anglican Chilliwack, Christ Church Cathedral Vancouver. In Saipan I attended the Methodist Church and the Pentecostal Church. In Vancouver in recent years I have been a member of Christ Church Cathedral and St. James Anglican. With the departure of Farther Mark and his family from St. James I’ve been looking about again for a church family falling back on Christ Church where I was baptized some 15 years ago. As a baptist I was Christened in the Baptist Church but as an adult was baptized Anglican. To complicate things I was further baptized in the Jordan River in Israel. One baptism is considered sufficient but some of us are more unwashed than others it could be argued.
The third basis of Christianity is a personal experience of Jesus Christ, which some call ‘conversion’. C.S. Lewis described this as ‘surprised by joy’. Dr. Houston calls this the personal relationship one has with the trinitarian God, three gods in one, God the Father , in relationship with God the Son, Jesus Christ, and in relationship with the Holy Spirit. Christianity is monotheistic. But Dr. Houston makes clear that its a personhood religion, God is three person’s and it is in our personhood, in relation we meet. This is where the whole idea of mysticism, prayer, meditation and spirituality are central. Central to all major religions there is this ecstatic or meditative direct conscious with God experience which is the nectar of spiritual life. Dr. Houston states that one needs a spiritual director to guide this aspect of the development of Christian awareness.Certainly St. John of the Cross, the great Christian mystic was the spiritual director for St. Theresa of Avila the other greater Christian mystic who began the Catholic Carmelite order of monks and nuns noted for their deep meditative practices.
When neuroscientist Mario de Beuregard wanted to study the meditative state with neuroimaging and PET Scans he did research on Carmelite nuns and showed that their whole brains literally lit up in the ecstasy of their inner peace. His book Spiritual Brain discusses his studies and work. St. Theresa described the experience of mystical communion with Jesus as the Inner Castle.
Thomas Merton the Trappist Monk and mystic studied and meditated with the Buddhist monks describing their relationships at variance with the often erroneous idea of the drug induced mystical experience of the psychedelic era, Alone kids ‘tripped out’ with often quite negative experiences of grandiose delusions or ‘bad trips’. The Lazy’s Man’s Guide to Enlightenment by Thaddeus Golas charted the positive discovery of those years. William James classic, Varieties of Religion Experience, a Study in Human Nature would document man’s religious search.
In the mystical practices of aboriginal experiences the various tribal groups using hallucinogens and other sometimes painful means would induce altered consciousness which would then be guided bymedicine men, myths and stories. The point is, these experiences were not in isolation but guided and part of the community. Tantric Yoga, a form of Kundalina Yoga using various consciousness altering and centering techniques accepted the use of hallucinogens but only under the guidance of masters as alone the practices even in ancient times were considered dangerous. .
Having learned the practices of meditation with the Self Realization Fellowship as taught by Paramahansa Yogananda I found these same teachings in those of the Desert Fathers and specifically in St. Gregory’s writings. The Mind Body study at Harvard University with Herbert Benson MD looked at the physiological health benefits of meditation using techniques I’d learned in my 20’s taught by the Desert Fathers and by HIndus and Buddhists. I meditated with a Benedictine monk using the same practices as the Indians. Most recently I was studying “Mindfulness Meditation” a psychiatric variation on a Buddhist based form of meditation which I’d found a variation of in the works of St. John of the Cross.
I have been interested as a martial artist and hunter in the hunter warrior training of meditation and peace which has always made Christianity attractive to the greatest of military leaders. A Constantine scholar actually argued that Constantine converted because the best fighters of the day were Christian Centurions. It’s not surprising that a Centurion of faith is featured so prominently in the Gospels. Mere Christianity is the book that followed the radio talks C. S. Lewis gave to the soldiers and beleaguered England in the Battle of Britain. St. Joan d'Arc and the Crusader Saints had no difficulty with the discipline of Christian religious study. Equally interesting is the Quaker and Mennonite pacifist sects of today’s Christianity where so many heros of war come from. These men commonly serve as stretcher bearers in the heat of combat but will not kill.
In Cappadocia I was able to watch a group of Sufis, the mystical Muslims Sufi, dance together into a state of bliss. As a professionally trained dancer, having known the mystical state that can come with the highest levels of physical training, I had no doubt that they had reached the state of bliss, that entering place that is indescribable to those who having experienced it ,nonetheless often attempt to describe it. One of my personal favourite descriptions of this was the Cloud of Unknowing, described in a book written by a medieval monk. The Inter Faith community and ecumenical movements have sought to find common cores of experience and teaching. In the mystical experiences there is commonality commonly but the differences arise in the interpretation and meaning ascribed to the experience.
Together these pillars of experience and revelation are to me like compass points which I use to guide my own course of spiritual development. As a Ships Captain and Ocean Navigator I need points of reference to plot my course. I can use points along the land when I am sailing along the coast or can take lines of reference from sun, moon and stars to see where they cross as I do in Celestial Navigation. So in traditional or orthodox Christianity a Christian uses these pints of reference.
Martin Luther, the priest who broke from the Roman Catholic Church to begin the Lutheran Church and the Protestant Christian revolt felt that the Catholics were depending too much on the fellowship of the church and not paying attention to the teachings of the Jesus as taught in the Gospel. St. Francis felt the same. Commonly there is a course correction in religion at different times and in Christianity this usually results in a more Bible Based Christianity.
In each case of revolt people have looked back to the Bible or the Book to restore the direction they feel they or the church should be heading.
In Celtic Christianity there is said to be another pillar or point of reference and that is Nature. Creation Christianity has picked up on this same point. God first created the heavens and the earth and the Garden of Eden. It is in this creation that one can see the hand of God. To the Celtic Christian one could see God’s meanings and teachings in the laws of nature and in the glory of nature. So as a scientist and Celtic Christian I am also seeing the teaching of God in the laws of science. I don’t see a division between science and religion as that which caused the Coppernican conflict. Einstein believed in God as did Newton and Pascal. Most of the greatest scientists of all time have been the most godly of men. Most recently I enjoyed reading Proof of Heaven by neurosurgeon Eben Alexander.
So my personal journey is to seek the truth and Iam very thankful to follow in the footsteps of greats. I am so thankful to have the likes of Dr. Carl Ridd, Dr. Lam, Dr. Willi Gutowski, Dr. John Christiensen, Dr. Phillip Ney, , and my various pastors and priests, Father John, Father Mark, Dean Peter, to guide me. Those who I have turned to for guidance have always been the kindest and finest of souls who have encouraged both love and truth. Indeed the two are not separate. One can be said to be more of the mind and the other more of the heart. My spiritual adviser Dr. Bernie liked to pray, Come Holy Spirit Come,for Jesus said that he would leave the Holy Spirit to guide us. It is in prayer that I know God and St. Paul taught us to pray unceasingly.
I belong to the Christian Medical and Dental Association. EMAS Canada is a “Christ Centred” medical organization that provides international medical services to under serviced areas. It is inter denominational with doctors coming from Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox faiths. I look forward to one day serving in a medical mission capacity.
Before the Roman Catholic Church there was nearly 300 years of Christian ministry,churches and persecution. I first learned of this era from reading Dr. Paul Johnson’s History of Christianity. The Bible itself ends not with the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross or with his Resurrection and the witnesses who saw him but rather with the evangelism of the apostles going out to spread the story along with the newly converted Christian persecuter, Saul, who came to be known as St. Paul.
The Roman Catholic Church began after Constantine had his Christian vision in 312 AD before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. Constantine became the Emperor of the Roman Empire, convening the first Ecumenical Council of Nicea in 325 AD. Constantine made Christianity, the State Religion of the Roman Empire, having not that long before fed them to the lions in their Coliseum games. It is said that Constantine had less interest in the church than the unification of the Empire. The concept of “Orthodoxy” followed because there was from that point a ‘Consensus’ teaching in the church influenced by the authoritarinism of the Emperor.
The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in eleven of the Quamram caves between 1946 and 1956, some 981 texts dating from the three centuries BCE to the first century AD. These were mostly Hebrew and Aramic texts of the Jewish bible extending knowledge of the historical teachings of Jerusalem. The Nag Hammadi library was a collection of 54 ancient texts found sealed in a jar in Upper Egypt in 1945. They have been called the Gnostic Gospels representing the teaching of various spiritual leaders between 2nd and 4th century AD. Gnostic Gospels was the first of several of Elaine Pagels books I would go on to read. Elaine Pagels, a religious historian, is the Princeton Professor of Religion,
There are many writings and bibles through history, our present Holy Bible (I prefer the NIV) is a product of scholarship and censorship and selection. I was blessed to see the Book of Kells in Trinity College, Dublin a couple of years ago. The Book of Kells is the 9th century medieval manuscript of the Gospels. I had been so impressed by the Thomas Cahill’s series including How the Irish Saved Civilization talking of the monks travelling back across Europe carrying with them little hand printed gospels. We saw that day, part of the Book of Kells exhibition, these little hand printed gospels the monks carried.
I’ve read the Bible through several times having first studied it with Dr. Carl Ridd at University of Winnipeg, which began as a United Church seminary. I actually found the Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda in their library having been given a copy to read by my first mother in law, Maija, a nurse midwife. Paramahansa taught that one must develop a “Christ Consciousness” within. Paramahansa Yogananda had been India’s representative to the International Congress of Religious Liberals in Boston in 1920.
The International Association for Religious Freedom (IARF) is the world’s first international inter religious organization founded in 1900 in the UK. A quote from Vaclav Havel is “Seek the company of those who are searching for the truth and avoid those who have found it.” The purpose of the IARF is "to work for freedom of religion and belief because it is a precious human right that enables the best within our religious lives, or our search for truth or enlightenment, to flourish."
Evelyn Underhill wrote “Mysticism: A Study of the Nature and Development of Man’s Spiritual Consciousness.” in 1911. Underhilll laid out the foundation of what today would be called “spirituality’. I studied "Christian spirituality”, once called Christian mysticism, with Dr. James Houston at Regent College. His book called " Transforming Power of Prayer” is now a classic. After much blessed learning from this great and humble man, and discussions with my most enlightened colleague and friend Dr. John Christianson , a catholic often guided most by the teachings of St. Francis, I gathered insights into the depth of their faith,
I’ve recently began studying St. Thomas, the ‘doubting Thomas’ of the Bible. One of the 12 Disciples, he travelled through the East sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. The Eastern church was much larger than the western church. I had been to Cappadocia visitting the monastery of St. Gregory of Cappadocia so I knew something of the importance of the eastern church. But the extent to which it had spread and how many Christians had been there was not apparent to me till I studied the conquests of Mohammed and his followers seeing just how many Christians and churches they had destroyed. They forced conversion to Islam on all. They really were conquerers in the modern ISIS tradition. Those who resisted were still persecuted but a remainder survived as a strictly restricted minority. Yet once the whole region of what is now known as Islam had been thriving with Christians. The Crusaders only stopped the conquest of Islam at Venice Italy, and later pushed the Muslims out of Spain.
St. Thomas himself was crucified but his church lives on in Kerala India. I am reading St. Thomas, the Divine Light of India and enjoying it thoroughly.
Christianity's major early divisions had been Rome and Constantine as the Roman Empire moved it’s centred the church followed. The Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox divisions followed along with the Orthodox Christian which spread to St. Petersburg and Moscow regions. Each of these three divisions of Christianity in their own right claim to be the direct descendent of the Rock of St. Peter. As well there was this Eastern spread of the church and another southern major division of the church represented by Alexandria, Egypt and the Coptic Church . I have yet to explore the teachings of this division having just read the extraordinary tale of the eastern Armenian Church which survived such persecution under the Muslims. I visitted Armenian churches when I was in Istanbul a couple of years ago visitting the centre of the Greek Orthodox church which still resides in Constantine despite the Muslim invasion and conquest in 1453.
Personally I understand Christianity as a religion to have three foundations. I sometimes think of them as compass points of reference . These can be considered the pillars of the religion. Obviously there is Jesus and the Gospels, his life and teachings as recorded by Mathew, Mark, Luke and John. Further there is the New Testament of the Holy Bible which includes these Gospels but also the work and teachings of Jesus’ immediate apostles and St. Paul. These are the written works and there is much commentary and interpretation of them over the years by various leaders and teachers of the church. This is the intellectual, philosophical, theological, historical, book learned, academic basis of Christianity. It really is an immense and rich study. I am thankful mostly to Dr. James Houston for his Regent College course on the fathers of the church and the basis of Christian Spirituality as well as the courses at St. Mark’s Catholic College with UBC Professor Emerita of Classics, Shirley Sullivan.
The second pillar is the church itself. It’s this congregation of people and teachers and fellowship of followers and students of those teachings, central to which is the “Holy Bible”. The Holy Bible is a combination of the New Testament and the Old Testament. The Old Testament is the Jewish Bible, or it’s collection of works including the Torah and prophets and selected historical teachings and the psalms or songs that the Jewish people sung up to and including the time of Jesus on to today. Jesus was a Jew and a Rabbi of the Jewish religion and Jews for Jesus today see Christianity as the extension of Jewish teaching. Indeed this was the way St. Mathew principally saw it but it was mostly Paul that saw Christianity as more of a new ‘world religion’.
Today the Church is the place of worship and fellowship and discussion and where one works out ones own Christian behaviour in an "adopted family” so to speak. We call ourselves Brothers and Sisters in Christ in this community. One is baptized into the church as John the Baptist baptized Jesus. Some ancient rituals are a part of the worship and prayer and despite variations there is a commonality that is comforting as in the sense of coming home. It has indeed been said that there are two things one definitely can’t do alone, be ‘married’ and ‘be a Christian’.
(My own churches have included Dufferin Street Baptist in Toronto, Trinity Baptist in Winnipeg, Fort Garry United, and later St. John’s Anglican Chilliwack, Christ Church Cathedral Vancouver. In Saipan I attended the Methodist Church and the Pentecostal Church. In Vancouver in recent years I have been a member of Christ Church Cathedral and St. James Anglican. With the departure of Farther Mark and his family from St. James I’ve been looking about again for a church family falling back on Christ Church where I was baptized some 15 years ago. As a baptist I was Christened in the Baptist Church but as an adult was baptized Anglican. To complicate things I was further baptized in the Jordan River in Israel. One baptism is considered sufficient but some of us are more unwashed than others it could be argued.
The third basis of Christianity is a personal experience of Jesus Christ, which some call ‘conversion’. C.S. Lewis described this as ‘surprised by joy’. Dr. Houston calls this the personal relationship one has with the trinitarian God, three gods in one, God the Father , in relationship with God the Son, Jesus Christ, and in relationship with the Holy Spirit. Christianity is monotheistic. But Dr. Houston makes clear that its a personhood religion, God is three person’s and it is in our personhood, in relation we meet. This is where the whole idea of mysticism, prayer, meditation and spirituality are central. Central to all major religions there is this ecstatic or meditative direct conscious with God experience which is the nectar of spiritual life. Dr. Houston states that one needs a spiritual director to guide this aspect of the development of Christian awareness.Certainly St. John of the Cross, the great Christian mystic was the spiritual director for St. Theresa of Avila the other greater Christian mystic who began the Catholic Carmelite order of monks and nuns noted for their deep meditative practices.
When neuroscientist Mario de Beuregard wanted to study the meditative state with neuroimaging and PET Scans he did research on Carmelite nuns and showed that their whole brains literally lit up in the ecstasy of their inner peace. His book Spiritual Brain discusses his studies and work. St. Theresa described the experience of mystical communion with Jesus as the Inner Castle.
Thomas Merton the Trappist Monk and mystic studied and meditated with the Buddhist monks describing their relationships at variance with the often erroneous idea of the drug induced mystical experience of the psychedelic era, Alone kids ‘tripped out’ with often quite negative experiences of grandiose delusions or ‘bad trips’. The Lazy’s Man’s Guide to Enlightenment by Thaddeus Golas charted the positive discovery of those years. William James classic, Varieties of Religion Experience, a Study in Human Nature would document man’s religious search.
In the mystical practices of aboriginal experiences the various tribal groups using hallucinogens and other sometimes painful means would induce altered consciousness which would then be guided bymedicine men, myths and stories. The point is, these experiences were not in isolation but guided and part of the community. Tantric Yoga, a form of Kundalina Yoga using various consciousness altering and centering techniques accepted the use of hallucinogens but only under the guidance of masters as alone the practices even in ancient times were considered dangerous. .
Having learned the practices of meditation with the Self Realization Fellowship as taught by Paramahansa Yogananda I found these same teachings in those of the Desert Fathers and specifically in St. Gregory’s writings. The Mind Body study at Harvard University with Herbert Benson MD looked at the physiological health benefits of meditation using techniques I’d learned in my 20’s taught by the Desert Fathers and by HIndus and Buddhists. I meditated with a Benedictine monk using the same practices as the Indians. Most recently I was studying “Mindfulness Meditation” a psychiatric variation on a Buddhist based form of meditation which I’d found a variation of in the works of St. John of the Cross.
I have been interested as a martial artist and hunter in the hunter warrior training of meditation and peace which has always made Christianity attractive to the greatest of military leaders. A Constantine scholar actually argued that Constantine converted because the best fighters of the day were Christian Centurions. It’s not surprising that a Centurion of faith is featured so prominently in the Gospels. Mere Christianity is the book that followed the radio talks C. S. Lewis gave to the soldiers and beleaguered England in the Battle of Britain. St. Joan d'Arc and the Crusader Saints had no difficulty with the discipline of Christian religious study. Equally interesting is the Quaker and Mennonite pacifist sects of today’s Christianity where so many heros of war come from. These men commonly serve as stretcher bearers in the heat of combat but will not kill.
In Cappadocia I was able to watch a group of Sufis, the mystical Muslims Sufi, dance together into a state of bliss. As a professionally trained dancer, having known the mystical state that can come with the highest levels of physical training, I had no doubt that they had reached the state of bliss, that entering place that is indescribable to those who having experienced it ,nonetheless often attempt to describe it. One of my personal favourite descriptions of this was the Cloud of Unknowing, described in a book written by a medieval monk. The Inter Faith community and ecumenical movements have sought to find common cores of experience and teaching. In the mystical experiences there is commonality commonly but the differences arise in the interpretation and meaning ascribed to the experience.
Together these pillars of experience and revelation are to me like compass points which I use to guide my own course of spiritual development. As a Ships Captain and Ocean Navigator I need points of reference to plot my course. I can use points along the land when I am sailing along the coast or can take lines of reference from sun, moon and stars to see where they cross as I do in Celestial Navigation. So in traditional or orthodox Christianity a Christian uses these pints of reference.
Martin Luther, the priest who broke from the Roman Catholic Church to begin the Lutheran Church and the Protestant Christian revolt felt that the Catholics were depending too much on the fellowship of the church and not paying attention to the teachings of the Jesus as taught in the Gospel. St. Francis felt the same. Commonly there is a course correction in religion at different times and in Christianity this usually results in a more Bible Based Christianity.
In each case of revolt people have looked back to the Bible or the Book to restore the direction they feel they or the church should be heading.
In Celtic Christianity there is said to be another pillar or point of reference and that is Nature. Creation Christianity has picked up on this same point. God first created the heavens and the earth and the Garden of Eden. It is in this creation that one can see the hand of God. To the Celtic Christian one could see God’s meanings and teachings in the laws of nature and in the glory of nature. So as a scientist and Celtic Christian I am also seeing the teaching of God in the laws of science. I don’t see a division between science and religion as that which caused the Coppernican conflict. Einstein believed in God as did Newton and Pascal. Most of the greatest scientists of all time have been the most godly of men. Most recently I enjoyed reading Proof of Heaven by neurosurgeon Eben Alexander.
So my personal journey is to seek the truth and Iam very thankful to follow in the footsteps of greats. I am so thankful to have the likes of Dr. Carl Ridd, Dr. Lam, Dr. Willi Gutowski, Dr. John Christiensen, Dr. Phillip Ney, , and my various pastors and priests, Father John, Father Mark, Dean Peter, to guide me. Those who I have turned to for guidance have always been the kindest and finest of souls who have encouraged both love and truth. Indeed the two are not separate. One can be said to be more of the mind and the other more of the heart. My spiritual adviser Dr. Bernie liked to pray, Come Holy Spirit Come,for Jesus said that he would leave the Holy Spirit to guide us. It is in prayer that I know God and St. Paul taught us to pray unceasingly.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Master of Divinity
I obtained my Master of Divinity degree through Almeda University a few years back. Having been a Christian as a child attending sunday school and later teaching Sunday school I did Bible Studies at United College, then did night and summer courses on spirituality over a half dozen years at three university seminaries, one a liberal Christian College, one a Catholic College and the last an Evangelical college. In addition I'd received accreditation in the spirituality of yoga and tai chi, studied hinduism, Taoism and Buddhism and took courses in comparative religion. I'd taken a variety of courses in spirituality offered in the churches I belonged to as well as doing meditation retreats and writing post graduate papers on spirituality. I have further had a formal relationship with a spiritual director over many years. I was teaching courses in spirituality as part of university curricula and had published papers on spirituality in internationally acclaimed academic journals as well as many papers in more secular journals and doing research in spirituality. I had been involved in 12 step programs reading and studying and participating in the spirituality associated with these.
As a psychiatrist I had trained in spiritual psychotherapy and pastoral counselling and was working as a psychotherapist for many years in areas overlapping with the religious. I'd had dozens of priests, ministers, medicine men, holy men and women as patients requiring me to understand and discuss their concerns in a more than secular context. I'd taken pilgrimages and increasingly my life was made richer by focus on the spiritual.
I thought I should formalize my spiritual studies as I'd done with my Medical Degrees, Specialty Degree and Subspeciality Degrees. There was no 'spirituality' subspecialty at the time though there is a division of Spirituality and Psychiatry in England and courses and conferences on Spirituality. I approached a variety of bible colleges and Christian diploma offering schools but found that each of these was specifically attached to a religious perspective. I had been raised Baptist, taught and studied with the United Church of Canada, studied Yoga, Tai Chi, Philosophy and Psychiatry, attended Pentecostal Church and Methodist Church, been baptised in Israel, and later in the Anglican Church where I was now attending. My principal interest was 'ecumenicalism' and 'spirituality' rather than any particular 'religious sect'.
I was offered degrees from diverse institutions but chose Almeda because I could have a degree in divinity that emphasized my focus on Christian spirituality and ecumenicalism without committing myself to a specific liberal, conservative, evangelical position. Perhaps some I'll be more 'subspecialized'.
I have continued my studies formally and informally. So far the best part of having the MDiv is that it's on my wall and I don't anymore have to explain the 'Serenity Prayer' that's on the wall, the Bible, Koran, Mishna, Bhagad Vita in my bookshelf or my referencing the Bible in my work. There is less pressure on me by secular religionists to conform to their practices. More people who have an interest in spirituality are discussing this with me. Ironically I feel like I've come out of the closet in doing this and feel less inclination to explain myself in my writing, studies or work.
I once said too that I felt I knew Christ and some time later came to know Jesus. I considered the experience of a higher power certainly more important than my experiences of lower powers. I've felt that students of theology in general were further along than those consumed by money or alcohol. Scientically there is clear evidence of the benefits of spirituality in general but not so clear evidence for the benefits for one denomination over another. My personal faith is more specific than my general studies so this degree served to clarify more what it is I am doing in my work and writing.
As a psychiatrist I had trained in spiritual psychotherapy and pastoral counselling and was working as a psychotherapist for many years in areas overlapping with the religious. I'd had dozens of priests, ministers, medicine men, holy men and women as patients requiring me to understand and discuss their concerns in a more than secular context. I'd taken pilgrimages and increasingly my life was made richer by focus on the spiritual.
I thought I should formalize my spiritual studies as I'd done with my Medical Degrees, Specialty Degree and Subspeciality Degrees. There was no 'spirituality' subspecialty at the time though there is a division of Spirituality and Psychiatry in England and courses and conferences on Spirituality. I approached a variety of bible colleges and Christian diploma offering schools but found that each of these was specifically attached to a religious perspective. I had been raised Baptist, taught and studied with the United Church of Canada, studied Yoga, Tai Chi, Philosophy and Psychiatry, attended Pentecostal Church and Methodist Church, been baptised in Israel, and later in the Anglican Church where I was now attending. My principal interest was 'ecumenicalism' and 'spirituality' rather than any particular 'religious sect'.
I was offered degrees from diverse institutions but chose Almeda because I could have a degree in divinity that emphasized my focus on Christian spirituality and ecumenicalism without committing myself to a specific liberal, conservative, evangelical position. Perhaps some I'll be more 'subspecialized'.
I have continued my studies formally and informally. So far the best part of having the MDiv is that it's on my wall and I don't anymore have to explain the 'Serenity Prayer' that's on the wall, the Bible, Koran, Mishna, Bhagad Vita in my bookshelf or my referencing the Bible in my work. There is less pressure on me by secular religionists to conform to their practices. More people who have an interest in spirituality are discussing this with me. Ironically I feel like I've come out of the closet in doing this and feel less inclination to explain myself in my writing, studies or work.
I once said too that I felt I knew Christ and some time later came to know Jesus. I considered the experience of a higher power certainly more important than my experiences of lower powers. I've felt that students of theology in general were further along than those consumed by money or alcohol. Scientically there is clear evidence of the benefits of spirituality in general but not so clear evidence for the benefits for one denomination over another. My personal faith is more specific than my general studies so this degree served to clarify more what it is I am doing in my work and writing.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
My Relationship with God today
My God is everything and nothing. I believe in a Creator who made the heavens and the earth. There was no Creator and building blocks. So today there is just God stuff. The Bible says I am made in the 'image' of God. Genesis 1:27 "So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them."
"Image" to me is the 'imagination' of God. Dr. Carl Ridd taught me this in my first theological class at University of Winnipeg, "Literature of the Bible." I never forgot that insight.
I am by nature God stuff and God dream. It's good to remember in a hierarchal world where authorities are forever belittling, humiliating and dominating you to secure their own position and priviledge. In the eyes of God we are equal because there is no less and no more than God.
Science tells me that E=MC2. Energy and matter are one, matter just slow energy in reality. My sense of the duality of self is that of thought which is like energy and body which is like matter. I believe that duality is a product of my mind which divides the indivisible. I am a spiritual being living in a material world.
I further believe that I am like the orobunga (?spelling - the snake eatings it's tail). The story goes that God being lonely divided itself creating the first duality. In this God who knows himself as God is half and God who doesn't know himself as God is half. So the journey is from God unknowing to Knowing God. This is spiritual evolution. There is no need for this 'progress'. Indeed much of our sense of the spirituality is 'arbitrary' and based on the learning of childhood and culture.
What I know further is only this time for yesterday is gone and mere memory while tomorrow is yet to come. All divisions are intrinsic or arbitrary.
I live in this flow. God is a good word for the stream in which I'm becoming more aware of my liquidity one might say. There are countless images of the transformation of self.
When I studied chemistry in the lab I enjoyed the process of changing solid to liguid to vapour and back again. I like that rain becomes cloud becomes rain.
It gives me hope for my own transformation. I feel mostly forgetful of Godness. I live in a secular limitted gravity dominated world with expectation of death among those who insist that everything is heavy and there is but death and taxes.
What I want is to soar free, levitate and dream manifestations. My friend wants to pray a person alive or restore their lost limbs. I confess I'd settle for the capacity to manifest a porche. I am amused at my own materialism and the fear that underlies all such consumerism. Trungpa, the great Buddist spiritual teacher describes the modern westerner as a 'spiritual consumer'. I would hope that I could be more.
In the Christian sense this is 'disciple ship'. The essence of 'black magic' versus the 'white magic' of Wiccans is that the 'ego' of the dark megalomaniac master is trying to make things go their way whereas the white witches work with the forces of creation and are trying to 'right' matters in the best interest of others. The Christian message, I think, goes even further. Jesus was the 'servant king'. A great parable and image from the Bible is of God Incarnate washing the feet of his human disciples.
Bob Dylan sings that great spiritual song, "You've got to serve someone, maybe the devil or it may be the Lord, but you have to serve someone."
Dr. Willi Gutowski in his recent ebook at Amazon, called Living Life, says that we are all listening to a spiritual radio and have to learn to keep ourselves tuned to the God channel.
In the meantime I muddle along.
God is a kind of central office parental relational thing. I pray and talk with God and thank God and try to remember God and life is better. It seems that way. Certainly there is extensive research to support the benefits of spiritual life. Less pain, less fear, better mental and physical health and all statistically significant.
I am always asking for guidance. I think there's a better way. I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe God became human and resurrected. That like chemistry is a message about my nature and my eventual return to Godstuff. Death then is a passage. But it may be a loss of ego. I believe also the Bible is a Holy Book that can guide me on this journey in life. Days also go better when I consult this regularly. I've read it cover to cover several times but daily make a point of reading some passage and reflecting on it. I learned this as a child and lost it sometime as an adult. I was glad to return to the practice. There's no 'resting on one's laurels' in the spiritual life. I have to take care of my spiritual health on a daily basis just as I do my physical and dental health. If I don't I'm that fat old man with poor teeth talking about his last football game in high school.
The Yogi sings "I am the bubble , make me the sea'. In Hinduism there's much talk of the separation of self from the whole and the isolation of the ego. Hindu's don't see Jesus as the son of God but see him as an enlightened one as with Buddha. His teachings are ranked high in India along with their own home grown truth. Jews recognise Jesus as one of their own but don't see him as the messiah. He's ranked as best as a great prophet. I loved studying at Regent College where despite the ecumenicalism of the day I heard it very distinctly taught , "The Jews are wrong" when it comes to Jesus. No doubt in a Jewish school they same the same thing about Christians. It's easy to forget that Moslems have been influenced by Judaism and Christianity. The 'twist' they take on Christianity is 'wrong' in my mind but I think the Suffis have alot in common with the mystical traditions in Christianity. The great Catholic monk, Thomas Merton who studied with the Buddhists saw the similiarities.
Ecumenicalism is searching for similiarities. The fact is Adolf Hitler and Mother Theresa were 99.9% similiar according to DNA and genetic mapping. There is difference in the detail. So while one must keep an open mind, hopefully it won't be so open that one's brains fall out.
The Christian mystic longs to experience God more fully. There's that sense of 'grokking God' which was Heinlein's word for the mystical ineffable union. The Medieval called this also the 'cloud of unknowing'. I have a connection but it's often vague whereas sometimes it's crystal clear and absolute. I don't know why or what makes for the maintenance of that state of knowing the sacred so directly so that it 'works' all the time. I have to be present, that's for sure. There's much that can be done. Certainly prayer and meditation, reading spiritual works, studying the Holy Bible, sharing in spiritual practices, becoming a regular attender and follower of a spiritual tradition. It's too easy for one to consider spirituality as a 'smorgasbord' which may be fine at first but as one progresses in their spiritual life there is room for greater selection.
Personally, I'm too often too mundane for my own liking.
So God fill me with your awareness. Guide me today and always. Thy will be done.
"Image" to me is the 'imagination' of God. Dr. Carl Ridd taught me this in my first theological class at University of Winnipeg, "Literature of the Bible." I never forgot that insight.
I am by nature God stuff and God dream. It's good to remember in a hierarchal world where authorities are forever belittling, humiliating and dominating you to secure their own position and priviledge. In the eyes of God we are equal because there is no less and no more than God.
Science tells me that E=MC2. Energy and matter are one, matter just slow energy in reality. My sense of the duality of self is that of thought which is like energy and body which is like matter. I believe that duality is a product of my mind which divides the indivisible. I am a spiritual being living in a material world.
I further believe that I am like the orobunga (?spelling - the snake eatings it's tail). The story goes that God being lonely divided itself creating the first duality. In this God who knows himself as God is half and God who doesn't know himself as God is half. So the journey is from God unknowing to Knowing God. This is spiritual evolution. There is no need for this 'progress'. Indeed much of our sense of the spirituality is 'arbitrary' and based on the learning of childhood and culture.
What I know further is only this time for yesterday is gone and mere memory while tomorrow is yet to come. All divisions are intrinsic or arbitrary.
I live in this flow. God is a good word for the stream in which I'm becoming more aware of my liquidity one might say. There are countless images of the transformation of self.
When I studied chemistry in the lab I enjoyed the process of changing solid to liguid to vapour and back again. I like that rain becomes cloud becomes rain.
It gives me hope for my own transformation. I feel mostly forgetful of Godness. I live in a secular limitted gravity dominated world with expectation of death among those who insist that everything is heavy and there is but death and taxes.
What I want is to soar free, levitate and dream manifestations. My friend wants to pray a person alive or restore their lost limbs. I confess I'd settle for the capacity to manifest a porche. I am amused at my own materialism and the fear that underlies all such consumerism. Trungpa, the great Buddist spiritual teacher describes the modern westerner as a 'spiritual consumer'. I would hope that I could be more.
In the Christian sense this is 'disciple ship'. The essence of 'black magic' versus the 'white magic' of Wiccans is that the 'ego' of the dark megalomaniac master is trying to make things go their way whereas the white witches work with the forces of creation and are trying to 'right' matters in the best interest of others. The Christian message, I think, goes even further. Jesus was the 'servant king'. A great parable and image from the Bible is of God Incarnate washing the feet of his human disciples.
Bob Dylan sings that great spiritual song, "You've got to serve someone, maybe the devil or it may be the Lord, but you have to serve someone."
Dr. Willi Gutowski in his recent ebook at Amazon, called Living Life, says that we are all listening to a spiritual radio and have to learn to keep ourselves tuned to the God channel.
In the meantime I muddle along.
God is a kind of central office parental relational thing. I pray and talk with God and thank God and try to remember God and life is better. It seems that way. Certainly there is extensive research to support the benefits of spiritual life. Less pain, less fear, better mental and physical health and all statistically significant.
I am always asking for guidance. I think there's a better way. I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe God became human and resurrected. That like chemistry is a message about my nature and my eventual return to Godstuff. Death then is a passage. But it may be a loss of ego. I believe also the Bible is a Holy Book that can guide me on this journey in life. Days also go better when I consult this regularly. I've read it cover to cover several times but daily make a point of reading some passage and reflecting on it. I learned this as a child and lost it sometime as an adult. I was glad to return to the practice. There's no 'resting on one's laurels' in the spiritual life. I have to take care of my spiritual health on a daily basis just as I do my physical and dental health. If I don't I'm that fat old man with poor teeth talking about his last football game in high school.
The Yogi sings "I am the bubble , make me the sea'. In Hinduism there's much talk of the separation of self from the whole and the isolation of the ego. Hindu's don't see Jesus as the son of God but see him as an enlightened one as with Buddha. His teachings are ranked high in India along with their own home grown truth. Jews recognise Jesus as one of their own but don't see him as the messiah. He's ranked as best as a great prophet. I loved studying at Regent College where despite the ecumenicalism of the day I heard it very distinctly taught , "The Jews are wrong" when it comes to Jesus. No doubt in a Jewish school they same the same thing about Christians. It's easy to forget that Moslems have been influenced by Judaism and Christianity. The 'twist' they take on Christianity is 'wrong' in my mind but I think the Suffis have alot in common with the mystical traditions in Christianity. The great Catholic monk, Thomas Merton who studied with the Buddhists saw the similiarities.
Ecumenicalism is searching for similiarities. The fact is Adolf Hitler and Mother Theresa were 99.9% similiar according to DNA and genetic mapping. There is difference in the detail. So while one must keep an open mind, hopefully it won't be so open that one's brains fall out.
The Christian mystic longs to experience God more fully. There's that sense of 'grokking God' which was Heinlein's word for the mystical ineffable union. The Medieval called this also the 'cloud of unknowing'. I have a connection but it's often vague whereas sometimes it's crystal clear and absolute. I don't know why or what makes for the maintenance of that state of knowing the sacred so directly so that it 'works' all the time. I have to be present, that's for sure. There's much that can be done. Certainly prayer and meditation, reading spiritual works, studying the Holy Bible, sharing in spiritual practices, becoming a regular attender and follower of a spiritual tradition. It's too easy for one to consider spirituality as a 'smorgasbord' which may be fine at first but as one progresses in their spiritual life there is room for greater selection.
Personally, I'm too often too mundane for my own liking.
So God fill me with your awareness. Guide me today and always. Thy will be done.
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