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grounded in a mystical, interfaith-Christianity inspired by Emanuel Swedenborg
We’re One with All Life
Pets ground us in a way that we often underappreciate. What we call a pet, an animal or insect living in our home, is often a living embodiment of nature – something we miss in ourselves. Through our inculturation and indoctrination, our thoughts tend to wear well-worn paths, and much of our living and thinking becomes somewhat mechanicalistic (even if we don’t think so). To our mechanized mind, this provides a sense of safety and a structure that we hope provides some peace. But what happens when our typical ways of living don’t serve us or our earth? When what we’ve been doing and are used to doing undermines the very foundations of life around us and within us? I think that we must return to nature and return to the wisdom teachings that are close to the ground if we are to have any hope to survive as a planet.
Uncover the Rock of Consciousness
There’s something in all of our experiences that is as solid as a rock, even amidst the trials of life. Something that we all share, no matter our beliefs, but is often overlooked. What has been with us, exactly as it is now, since before we even knew our name? That is the very light of awareness itself, the seat of “I am” in our lives. Even our sense of our body changes, identities change, feelings and thoughts obviously change, but there is something that sees all that. Tell me, are you aware right now? Even just this simple question can help us take a step back into an awareness of our awareness, something that by its very nature is expansive and as solid and peaceful as a rock. Our sages tell us that just noticing this seat of awareness (i.e. ourselves) more can lead to its peace pervading our lives, as well as opening us to the joy, love, and wisdom inherent to our consciousness, our spirit, what some may call the light of God.
Reverse the Big Bang, Find Genesis Within
Up until the James Webb Space Telescope came online recently, most of us science-oriented people were pretty sure that the universe started about 14 billion years ago with the “Big Bang.” Now that we can see further out and further back into the universe, not only is our idea of the age of the universe scrapped (it’s clearly much older!), but we have to go back to the drawing board about how the universe might have started. One thing we can learn from this monumental moment in science history is the importance of being flexible, and not investing too much in any one idea – even a popular one. All ideas and all concepts are beliefs and subject to the whims of time, revelation, and perspective, even the most seemingly obvious ones. Even our beliefs that we are mortal, finite, fallen, separate, individuals, right, wrong, false, or true may be subject to revisiting. And perhaps, the truth of the matter, about us and about the universe, is ultimately beyond words: as words at their best only approximately point to the reality of things. Perhaps this revelation about the Big Bang serves as an opportunity to let go of our tight sense of knowing and of judging, and to return to a recognition of the peace and joy of life when we’re not so “in our heads.”
Turn to the God in Your Heart & Find Yourself
Sages throughout cultures and religions often share wisdom that points to the heart of what it means to be spiritual and find our true selves, things that many of us followers of theirs find hard to stomach. There are a couple of places in the Bible where Jesus warns his followers that just saying God’s name is not enough, and that word service or even service to “God,” “Jesus,” or “the Lord” is not a qualifying act for heaven at all. In fact, as our reading from Matthew illustrates, Jesus told these followers that not even prophesying, driving out demons, and performing miracles in God’s name are enough for the Lord not to cast us away. I don’t know about you, but for most of us, I think it’s been a while since we’ve driven out anyone’s demons! So, what chance do we have? Well, as Christ’s words often attest to, finding the heaven within and uncovering our intrinsic relationship with God is less about outward trappings of belief and religiosity, and more about turning away from our emphasis on outward manifestation and turning within to our very core. You see, it is our choice to step away from hell and enter heaven. This means quieting our minds and opening ourselves to God’s Will, God’s Compassion, and God’s Truth – whatever we may call it.
The Ego Worries, Let It
“Worrying is carrying tomorrow's load with today's strength - carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worrying doesn't empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.” These words were written by the author Corrie ten Boom, who knew something about worry as she and her family helped Jews escape the Nazis by hiding them in their home. At least, until they were caught, and she was placed in a concentration camp. It’s a testament to her experience and her wisdom that she came out of these situations espousing the importance of letting go of worry. It’s something that the sages have told us throughout the ages, from Buddha to Christ, and yet I think we often resign ourselves to our worry. Today we look at how we might truly let go of worry, coming to notice that the part of us that worries isn’t truly us, but more like a thundercloud in the sky of our mind that we’ve decided to follow around in our over-identification with a limited idea of who we are, what we call “ego.”
Crash Your Money-Centered Mind
I entirely relate to worrying about money. With debt, current obligations, and future ambitions, it can seem inescapable. That’s what makes Christ’s open and interreligious teachings so poignant for us, in a way he’s striking at a source of a lot of our frustrations, personal and interpersonal. Like the teachings of the Buddha, Krishna, and others, many of Christ’s teachings do this: strike at the heart of what keeps us away from our heart and the peace inherent to it. If we follow his pointings, we find that our “burden is light,” but how might we follow something so at odds with the way our minds so often work?
Release Stilted Promises and Ideas
Christ’s words about never making oaths or promises can be a bit unsettling. We should never make a promise? What about promises already made? That’s why I think it’s no accident that he couches these statements between telling men of the time that they shouldn’t divorce their wives, and a missive on staying non-violent. He wasn’t trying to encourage us to “do whatever we want,” but instead, to let go of our calcified assumptions. To let go of the oaths and endorsements that only continue our blindness and suffering.
You are the Space that God Shines Through
The once-famous scientist turned mystic, Emanuel Swedenborg, wrote that during his explorations of the spiritual realm evil spirits could not attack and control him only because they found him to be nothing. Why is there such a trend with sages, this tendency to report on their “nothingness”? And how might it speak to us in this moment? Perhaps, inviting us to look past all the “somethings” we tend to identify with (in thought, body, and form), and returning our attention back to the very “empty” peaceful space that we are always looking from.
Let Go of Resentment to Find Peaceful Inner Space
Anger can sometimes be a natural, healthy reaction to something, just as fear, happiness, and other feelings can be. But when the tie of anger binds our hearts (often, without us knowing it), by our returning to it again and again – stoking the flames and identifying with the feeling toward any one situation, we don’t allow ourselves the peace of our inner transcend-essence and the natural joy that can arise no matter the circumstances. Like with any feeling or thought, it is our identification with them that keeps us circling out of presence and peace into rumination and anxiety. Instead, using the ancient practice of Self-realization, may we let go of our hold on our mind’s unhelpful habits, and find the peace of our inner stability and the natural spaciousness of our loving hearts.
You are the Light of the World
“You are the light of the world.” These empowering words were spoken by Christ, not as an elitist view of his “Christian” followers, but as a description of the very nature of each of our spirits – especially when we allow ourselves to shine. Like the Buddha, Krishna, and the voices of God across the ages, Christ seemed to have made it his mission to point to the Great I Am inherent within each of us, our rootedness in Divinity and its angelic light. He tasked us, as many sages do, to turn to this light within, noticing continuously that it is from this very light that we see our issues, attachments, conditioning, and both the good and the bad times. From there, we can let our light shine in all its cascading beauty, as it naturally should.
Is “Father God” a Distant God?
On Father’s Day we celebrate our fathers and fatherly figures, celebrating how Divinity shines through the diverse expressions of masculinity and fatherhood, just as it shines through femininity and motherhood in infinite ways as the source of these qualities (as well as gender-neutral expressions). Indeed, the Christian Bible often describes how Christ used “Father” to denote God when speaking with his family and friends two millennia back, although it is hard to say if these ancient Jewish people used the term more broadly at the time. Christ seemed to be expressing how close we are to God by using this important familial distinction, emphasizing that we are all children of God, and expressing that God is the seed of all life – particularly, the source of “the light of the world” and love itself. And, like a good father, this day in particular rejoices in the empowerment of freedom and the light of love in many diverse ways, as we also celebrate Juneteenth and New Church Day today.
Grow Up, Into Childhood
Often, we lose the thread of childhood bliss, as though the pressures of adulthood were more important than remaining in contact with the peace and childlike play and joy we had as a kid. But who could blame us for thinking this way, when it is often as a child that we are encouraged to iron out our natural, playful self – that is if it even survives the early traumas in our life – to better meet the demands of society? Funny thing though, the childlike state of awareness itself can never be ironed out or killed, just seemingly layered over with “personality,” “responsibility,” as well as other limited, defensive constructs that keep us circling in anxiety, fear, and appropriated id-entity. We are called to reawaken to our childlike state of being, of life, love, joy, and presence, by turning to something very simple and important, but beyond words or works, that we intuitively know the moment we’re born: “I am,” not “I am this and that, name, thought, and form.”
Exploring Revelation: Dispel Your Dragon to Find Your SELF
There’s a reason that the book of Revelation is often associated with a mushroom or hallucinogenic trip, because the images found throughout Revelation seem to come straight out of one. What’s further interesting about the book written by John when he was “in the spirit,” is that the images of the book of Revelation are all references to other moments of the Bible but blended into a psychedelic mixture. Our reading from Revelation 12 today is one of the most iconic images from that trippy book, describing a woman clothed in the sun who is set upon by a seven-headed red dragon. And like many images in Revelation, although it resembles a crazy dream, the parable that it expresses invites us to overcome our personal dominating, distracted, destructive demons to allow our creative, heavenly Self and God to shine through.
Exploring Revelation: The Two Witnesses
Imagine if the biblical book of Revelation were a true, literal prophecy. It would mean that one day we as a species will battle a seven-headed dragon, as well as locusts with human faces, and will also be confronted by two “witnesses” who prophesy to the entire earth, killing anyone who tries to harm them with fire from their mouths. Not only that, but once these witnesses are martyred, the entire earth rejoices over their deaths, to eventually be stunned to silence when the witnesses are resurrected and then fly into heaven in a cloud. But what if these messages were not meant to be taken literally, but were symbolic parables connecting to a rich tradition of symbolism found throughout the entire Hebrew scriptures – from the seven days of creation to the final holy city descending from the sky? What if they, like the seven days of creation, were meant to invite us to listen to our higher internal witnesses, the love and truth at our core, and allow all our delusions to be stunned into silence and to fall away for the heavenly light of resurrection, peace, and renewal (no matter our religion)?
Exploring the Spiritual Depths of Revelation
It says that John was “in the spirit” when he had the visions described in the quite trippy book of Revelation, and the images described there (often about the future, as well as a new heaven and a new earth) bring to mind hallucinogens as well as the visions of my favourite mystic, Emanuel Swedenborg. For many, especially for many Christians, the book of Revelation has been a tough nut to crack, and many of its most famous elements are misconstrued due to things like Left Behind and other narratives that play up added stories about the antichrist. The book has been interpreted on many levels (even by my grandfather, who wrote a book on how it’s a hidden critique of the Romans!), but these interpretations often lack a good throughline or cohesiveness with the rest of scripture, seemingly missing the opportunity to tie the clearly metaphorical Revelation with the metaphors found throughout scripture. However, there’s one interpretation that does just that, in fact, this interpretation (written in 1766 by Emanuel Swedenborg) is the very same book that opened my eyes to the depth of scripture and its interconnectedness with the heart of other traditions. Moreover, he describes how, just like Jesus’ metaphorical parables, the entirety of Revelation is an allegory for human transformation, inviting us to allow a new heaven and a new earth to descend into our very lives in this very moment.
The Treasure of Our Mothers
Our mothers treasure our lives in their hearts, often there as a listening ear and a loving, wise presence. Even if we can’t relate to that statement, the motherly love and light of the universe is with us whether we know it or not, not part and parcel with our very own consciousness and inner light. The motherly ones in our lives often feel like a warm hug with their caring and spacious personalities, and often this is because they truly do treasure us – we have much to learn from that kind of life and that kind of love.
Turn to the Infinite Light of Love to Find Resurrection Today
When I think of Easter I think of celebrations of life with vibrant colors and the diversity of community expressions of joy – and even for those of us not Christian or perhaps still wondering about religion, spirituality, and God, I think there’s a profound message of awakening and resurrection in the Easter story. Christ himself hadn’t set out to “start a religion” but to return us to our natural state in unity with love and God (known by many names and many stories), inviting us to a type of resurrection of spirit, society, and life. Even as we count Christ dead in modern culture due to the ignorance and horrors sometimes offered by those who take his name, I think we’ll find he’s not down for the count.
The Joy of Uncovering the Divinity Within
Our spiritual teachers have a very important job to do and when they are fruitful in helping us awaken to Spirit and Love we can’t help but rejoice, this is because intrinsic to the Spirit of God (known by many names) is joy. We recently saw a joyful and historic teaching moment when one of the world’s foremost spiritual teachers, Pope Francis, along with various Catholic bishops met with indigenous people from Canada over the course of a few days. During this visit, the indigenous peoples shared their stories and the lasting impact that residential schools and other colonizing efforts have had on them and their friends and family. The trip ended in a heartfelt speech and apology from the Pope, affirming the indigenous peoples’ experiences and expressing how much he’s learned in those few days, vowing to be a partner in decolonization and with indigenous peoples. In this example, we see that even the Pope has a learning journey and that often our best teachers are the most overlooked, as the humble and oppressed have some of the most potent messages to learn. The very light of our own being is similarly too overlooked and disregarded, but hopefully, we can change that just as the Pope is seeking to continue to listen and learn.
Humanity’s Natural State? Children of God (Known by Many Names)
It says in the scriptures that God gives light to everyone and is the true light. This clearly metaphorical phrase, although perhaps also literal, seems to point to a number of things that we call light: truth, wisdom, understanding, spiritual insight, perception – which all come back to the most fundamental light of all, the light of consciousness itself, without which none of these could be perceived. Despite being so prominent in the Christian scriptures, delving into this line of thinking and further inquiry seems to often take a backburner to more surface understandings of Christ, which can keep God at a distance from us while also limiting our understanding of the shining unity at the core of most religions. Even more pluralistic approaches can miss this important point, that God is the pure light of consciousness itself – at no distance from our seat of perception – and that coming to better know this Alpha and Omega of our lives can awaken us to all to our birthrights as children of God, not stepchildren.
Swedenborg’s Secret to Awakening to the I Am
The 18th-century sage, Emanuel Swedenborg, has greatly influenced many impactful, peerless thinkers and influential progressive radicals (from Immanuel Kant and Helen Keller to Emerson, Blake, and William James), but he himself is little known to modern history. And although there are countless biographies of the ground-breaking scientist-turned-mystic, there is one important aspect of his history that I think could use a little more exploration and emulation, his spiritual awakening. His deep meditative approach to his quest for the seat of the soul resembles the types of inner inquiry that many ancient and modern sages invite in order to awaken from spiritual slumber, into what a Swedenborgian may coin “angelic flow,” or “Christ-consciousness,” or just plainly, Buddha.