Turn Inward & Find Your True Self
by Rev. Cory Coberforward
Readings
John 5:19-21
Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.
John 14:6-10 (Responsive Reading for our Live Service)
Jesus answered,
“I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.
If you really know me, you will know my Father as well.
From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time?
Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.
How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?
The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority.
Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.
Read the written message below with music videos
Cause and effect often seems like an easy concept, aim the bat and hit the ball, the ball flies away – however, this is only because we summarize. If we were to truly start to describe the causes of that effect the explanation may never end: you would have to describe the history of the bat, where does the wood come from, how was it formed and sanded? What about the ball - why didn’t the ball fly into space and how does gravity work? What about the person hitting the bat, what are all the histories and causes that allowed a being made of star-stuff to stand there, breathing air, hitting a ball with a bat using hands and arms? Indeed, a true account of the causes of any one simple thing we do would have to be an account of much of the history of the universe itself, and if it needed to include a description of human motives, we’d have to further acknowledge that we hardly know the roots of our own motives at times, let alone someone else’s. That said, awakened beings throughout history (and some not so awakened) have attributed their actions to God, saying that the Divine is the root and cause of everything they do and say. How are we to understand this in such an infinitely complex world of cause and effect, and could it inform our own living?
In a word, the explanation of how God guides the universe is often called “providence,” but like any word, this only serves as a symbol for the possible truth of the matter – what does it mean? Swedenborg believed that Divine Providence was the way that the Lord governed the cosmos, writing that although the Lord (known by many names) guides every detail, God allows us to seem to have freewill - he calls it an “appearance” - and to even choose evil at times. He said this is so that we may feel like we are separate beings for a time and because lessons and loves earned will stick with us in a way that they wouldn’t otherwise. Ultimately, he believed that as we uncover our inner-angelic selves, we come to perceive that God is in control of all things and we celebrate that.
When we truly believe and perceive that God’s providence is in everything, our motives and actions come to better reflect God’s purpose: to share love and the light of wisdom with everyone. One could say that these things come hand in hand, since a truer wisdom comes from a greater embodiment of love and vice versa, according to him. But he also believed that evil had its other purposes besides allowing for freewill: to serve as a motive for desiring more goodness and truth, to serve as a comparison for learning purposes, and to attract other destructive things to itself so that these things could be overcome over time. Thus, every deed falls within the guise of providence.
However, Christ and the sages that we mentioned (see the Buddha, Padmasambhava, Nisargadatta, and Moojiji, among many others), weren’t just saying that they believe in providence when they stated they were entirely led by the Divine and, as Jesus described, were one with “the way, the truth, and the life.” No, Christ was telling us that his mind and actions only perceived and acted upon what God willed and was not obscured at all by a sense of selfish freewill or evil. Does this mean he was controlled and not free? Not at all, as Christ, Swedenborg, and others describe, this state of accepting our unity with God and with God’s will brings with it the ultimate sense of freedom - true freewill - because we find our true self in God. They say that it is from this mountaintop that we come to see how enslaved we had been to our attachments, judgments, and our false ideas of self before.
We are called to a similar state of “Godly functioning,” as Jesus said: “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”
These words themselves are dictated by the will of God, according to Jesus, but could a similar unity really be possible for us? Yes! We’re told that, in fact, we are already in a unity with God’s will, but in order to clearly embody and feel that unity with God (to be “in God and God in us”) we must come to centre in this truth and accept it. This allows us to rise above being a “living lesson” to a state of wholeness and goodness. This also involves letting go of the distorted will that comes from our false sense of separate personhoods, and all the wanderings, judgments, and attachments that come into our minds thanks to that.
Thankfully, the sages we’ve mentioned describe practices that help with finding this state. Swedenborg called it becoming “spiritual” and then “heavenly.” The process is said to start when we “discover the light,” some deeper spiritual truth in the world, and continues as we start to realize that part of our mind tends to be centered on the opposite of such light, and so we start to shirk our mind (in a sense) and become more centered on love, wisdom, and peace. This actually allows our minds to start behaving as they were meant to, as helpers for the divine light of our awareness. One practice that seems to be shared among these sages is a practice of “turning around” from our false autonomy and selfhood (what’s translated as repentance in most Bibles), and meditating or silently praying on the infinite and mysterious presence of God. These teachers describe this as synonymous with meditating on awareness itself, as our deep-seated awareness can perceive infinite things and yet stays fundamentally peaceful, open, compassionate, mysterious, and stable (not to be confused with our attention, nor our mind’s ramblings, all of which are perceived from our seat of awareness!).
Working to find this state within is somewhat counter-productive, as it’s closer than our perception of things. In a way, this type of prayerful state tasks us with letting go of tasks, intent, and striving – instead, opening ourselves up to the peace of the light of God at our core that’s already there. It can be easy to miss because our mind can’t make sense of its silence nor its mysterious fullness, our minds are addicted to analysis and divisions, but things like music, meditative practices, and deep teachings can help us tune into it. Our minds are also addicted to processes of cause and effect, not realizing that everything that happens truly has infinite causes. This can get us bogged down by our lack of understanding or a need to become a better person before turning more fully to God. There are indeed times that we need a better understanding and to let go of hurtful habits, but we can get caught in these weeds instead of becoming aware that we’re already deeply connected to the peaceful light of heaven, a light that is the transforming light of truth and goodness itself.
The world strives to convince us of the necessity of how we often do things: with an anxious headiness and a desperate grasping, saying that one day all our striving and yearning might get us what we need to feel at ease and fulfilled. But this cause and effect doesn’t add up, as Jesus said, God’s yoke is light and easy. In actuality we are already fulfilled where we sit, no other cause is needed. Jesus served and serves as an embodiment of Divinity, the very thing that we are all called to by birthright, asking us to turn away from our distortive thinking. Unfortunately, with our adopted sense of division and false selfhood, we grasp at our minds’ illusions and yearnings, not realizing we are much greater than our picture of ourselves – meant to be aware of our oneness with the Father, with Jesus, with the Buddha, with each other, and they with us.
Peace and presence to you,
Rev. Cory