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grounded in a mystical, interfaith-Christianity inspired by Emanuel Swedenborg
See the Unity Within and Find Joy
There’s something about the holidays that speaks “joy.” Whatever we celebrate and for whatever reason, when it’s with family and friends (with treats and music) we can’t help but find some level of joy – at least, most of the time! In fact, it’s when we find a sense of oneness, setting aside our personal issues, as well as our political differences, historical arguments, and reactive judgments, that we often find the most joy during the holidays. For good reason! In a way, when we do this, we are setting aside our deep sense of personality (our ego) for our family and friends, or, in other words, we find the greatest joy and love when we “lay down our lives for our friends.”
Notice the Heart of the Present Moment is Peace-Filled Love
We each have different ideas about love. I think about loved ones, like my wife, when I think about love. I think about friends and my family. In these thoughts there’s a sense of unity with these other beings which I think is indistinguishable from love itself. This is perhaps why we can treat those we love not always so lovingly, because we treat ourselves not quite so lovingly. Why is that? Some sages tell us that the same reason we don’t treat every living being as a loved one is the same reason we often beat ourselves up, marinating in fear and suffering of some kind or another: we believe and fear that we are separate, isolated beings, defined by our passing minds and bodies, at risk of losing our very light of love when we die. The life of Christ (as with others) serves to remind us that we are not separate from God or each other, that we are one in the body of Divinity and only experience the sense of separation to the extent we believe in it, forgetting the heart of love that we all share and are.
Hope to Uncover Your Infinite Light
When I think of hope I think of my big white dog, Ghost. Always hopeful that we’re about to go outside. Hopeful for food, a good rub, and sometimes for play. She’s always hoping for greater joy, what some sages call peace in action, which she gets from the things that she loves with the beings she loves. She’s not concerned (at all) about differences in opinion, or a multitude of other concerns that plague us “more advanced” humans. And yet, it seems pretty clear that hope is there. Hope is natural because as living creatures we are all seeking happiness and joy within and embodied around us in some way. And whatever we call God, be it Christ, Allah, or Krishna, God’s further advent into our lives often starts with hope for just that.