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grounded in a mystical, interfaith-Christianity inspired by Emanuel Swedenborg
Find the Heavenliness Within
We’re told that any journeying to God(dess) or God’s journeying toward us is just a metaphor since there’s no true distance between us and that Holy One that transcends any religion. But I think both are helpful parables as they describe how we often feel and other truths of the process toward wholeness and peace. Indeed, it seems to us that we have to work at finding peace within, even though it’s already there at the root of our consciousness. And it also feels like we must often wait for God to act, for that descending holy city to get mysteriously closer before a new stage of compassionate awareness and flow reaches us (or perhaps we’re not sure what will come!). However, we’re told that sometimes the most effective way of journeying to God is to journey within into a state of sabbath or rest (whatever we may be doing). This means resting in the peaceful, spacious consciousness that we use to observe our mind’s chatter and all the things that we perceive through it, letting go of identifying with our lusts, attachments, perceptions of our bodies, or random thoughts. Interestingly, our favorite mystic, Emanuel Swedenborg, believed that the Palm Sunday image of the Lord riding on a donkey represented our natural mind subordinating itself to our spiritual awareness, similarly to this.
The Woman Clothed in the Sun: Find New Life in Divine Warmth & Light
Sometimes it feels like we’ve been left out to dry. We feel exposed and let down, vulnerable, depressed, and undersupported. And unfortunately, often we are undersupported and underappreciated – on an earthly level. But funny enough, as we lean into the compassionate warmth and the enlightening truth of God in our lives, we can find that we feel spiritually protected, cared for, and more and more mentally sound, even amidst great trials. Further, as we lean into care, oneness in God, and compassion, we’ll find that we ourselves are able to better support and appreciate those around us – while empowering that in others.
How to Shine Like the Sun
The ancient Tao Te Ching states, “The Master keeps her mind always at one with the Tao, that is what gives her her radiance.” We see an important example of one who becomes one with the Tao, the uncreated life force that gives rise to everything, in Christ – who not only says as much throughout the gospel, “I and the Father are one,” but who also literally shines like the sun when his inner self is revealed. Further, we as living beings are also invited through many traditions to become a shining one at one with the Tao, one with the Master, the Buddha, with the Christ who is one with the Father. But we might ask, “The Tao is dark and unfathomable, how can it make her radiant? Because she lets it.”
Release Your Imprisonment
We can all feel trapped at times, whether due to a pandemic, a work environment, a relationship, or an internal oppression or depression; most of us know something about feelings of imprisonment. Our society is slowly coming around to inviting more tools to help us through these situations and moments. And yet there’s an exceedingly long way to go and many improvements we can make to better enable and empower people – from promoting more effective psychological and spiritual tools to just becoming more aware of the unrightfully oppressive natures of our economic, social, and justice systems. In a way, we can see an embodiment of our collective oppression in the “least of these:” the disregard and unrehabilitative attitudes we hold for the truly imprisoned, which are often the poor and the disempowered.
Romantic Awareness
I think we can often find the essence of Divinity, no matter our belief tradition, in our romantic and loving relationships – although sometimes we can allow our yearning for love or sexual connection to bring us out of the moment and away from healthy connection. Indeed, many ancient spiritual teachings (including many Tantras) encourage us to engage with life itself, our every moment, with present, loving engagement, for our own spiritual health and the health of our families. Coming into the moment and letting go of distracted thinking, yearning, and worries, allows us to be present to our loved ones and ourselves in new and surprising ways, as it also helps us to heal our hearts and minds in loving connection with the spiritual light and warmth of God, known by many names.
Don’t Worry, Enter the Moment
The idea that we should “stop and smell the roses” is an ancient and popularly expressed one, and yet, it can be incredibly difficult to take it to heart! Many of our religions and spiritualities tell us this in a variety of commanding and detailed ways – expressing how we should rely on God(dess) and our own God-given present awareness to navigate our days and not get ahead of ourselves. But how can we lean into this state of mind when there’s so much to plan and do, and is it actually worth striving to follow such a radical approach to life? Well, to start to answer this we must ask ourselves, “do I enjoy being anxious and yearning for the future, or would I rather find peace and a sense of wholeness today?”
How “40” Represents Temptation and Illuminates the Bible
There’s an interconnectedness in scripture that is often lost to us when we read it purely literally, a tendency of both Hebrew and Christian bibles to use recurring images and symbols to point to deeper spiritual truth. This multilayered structure is often made plain by the gospels themselves, but in our desire to use scripture for our own purposes and avoid personal reflection we never seek these threads nor see where they lead. One example of these spiritual symbols is the number 40 (which I mention regularly), often used to describe a state of temptation in scripture, just as Christ is said to have spent 40 days in the wilderness overcoming three key temptations from the Devil.
Why Does Divinity Insist That It Takes a Process?
The process of spiritual transformation takes time and patience, as they say, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” But often our spiritual teachers tell us that the infinite Divinity that we each express in our own finite way has always existed, and so why does our reception of it seem to take so long? Why does becoming our “best self” tend to be riddled with setbacks, process, and seeming disappointments on both individual and societal scales? Well, we’re also told that the Divine One is a God of process – and that this allows for our freewill and deep engagement of compassion, social justice, and wisdom from a place of individualized love and acceptance. Indeed, we read that even “Jeh-with-us,” Jesus, underwent his own process of growth in the Christian gospels, which helped him “fulfill all righteousness,” and we discover similar stories in many of the world’s scriptures revealing how God works and helps us to work as well.
Reclaiming Christianity & Our Ancient Traditions
There’s a deep, living tradition within our scriptures themselves. One that speaks to love and a transformation of heart and action, even if the text itself is sometimes weighed down by its characters’ bad habits and hurtful decisions. This is similar to the slow awakening of today’s modern acceptance of cultural and identity diversity, which corresponds to a reawakening of the heart of many of our major traditions in the minds of young and old alike. This spirit of Christ doesn’t accept the moneychangers in the temple, or the dominating Pharisees in society, and points out that “Christian” and “religious” count for more than we’ve cast onto them. Like Christ, these should point to love for everyone, deepening our understanding of reality, and opening our hearts to the diverse wellspring of God within and around us under many guises.