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« Rejected slogan for the United Methodist Church advertising campaign | Main | COMING OUT OF FUNDAMENTALIST CHRISTIANITY: An Autobiography Affirming Sensuality, Social Justice, and The Sacred, by Carolyn Baker »

August 18, 2007

Comments

CJM

I really can connect with the rug being pulled from under you feeling. Being gay or not, it's amazing as you open yourself from within to explore Source/God/Being there is a deepening which can shake the ego into a place of fear and discomfort as you begin to experience Life more authentically.

I asked my teacher and shaman, "How is it that I have lived in this world and never noticed the planetary unconsciousness? Now I walk and feel everything. I feel uneasy and confused about who I am now. How can I now serve the world knowing what I know within? How can I serve to make the planet more conscious?"

She answered, "Simply by being. Simply by working on deepening and observing within yourself that which flows through us all, you are in Presence with Being, consciousness is present with you in union with the planet. It isn't easy always and one has to honor that our ego does not want to crumble and be re-sculpted. You can re-scuplt, and this truly is the relationship (serving) with the world and God."

I've never been to this site before. I'm glad I've come across it. :)

CJM :)

joe perez

Yes! It's good to hear your voice from Shirt of Flame again, Ko!

Joe

Steve

This was truly lovely, challenging and enlightening. I look forward to reading more like it.

Thanks.

Steve

Phil in Princeton

I did more than "read" your post, Ko. I Read it. Aloud. Twice, in fact. I Read it. I Heard it. I was touched by it.

Your thoughts are positively transformational. Thank you for reminding me that my being "shaken up" is simply evidence of my "rising up." As a dear friend told me: "You're giving birth to your Self ... and labor is a process that's always accompanied by discomfort."

pennyjane

indeed a lovely post and interpretation. i would caution: do not underestimate the power of organized religion, nor overestimate peace and tranquility.

community is essential to the human condition and continueing struggle is personal growth itself. as a christian transwoman and a member of a traditional church i have done that battle with acceptance and have arrived. i did this not by challenging the fundamental beliefs, but by acknowleging them and swearing my own allegence: by being a living christian and a transwoman at the same time, knowing there is no conflict in that and demonstrating it. i need the community and i know that, i am not strong enough nor smart enough to be the kind of christian i know i need to be without the love, support and fellowship of the community of the church. a church should focus first on worship and then on caring for the community. any church that gets that priority wrong, in my opinion, is struggling against the wind.

i hope i never find peace and tranquility on this earth. that would mean i have arrived at my destination and there would be nothing left needing done. (poof)...it is finished. may i leave this plain asking God for just a few more minutes to get just one more thing done to improve the lives of my fellow travellers here. may i struggle and toil in conflict, may i never avoid temptation, may i never be fully loved nor fully love until i land in His arms. this is the kingdom of God on earth, this is His will for me and i am both thrilled and humbled. He does live in me and works through me...and so he is and does in us all.

ned

Hi, Ko -- I can completely relate to the journey you are describing. I grew out of a strict sort of Islam, and was an atheist for a while, after which spiritual experiences led me to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother (and also Ken Wilber on the side), and truly it feels like the rug is pulled out from under one's feet when these things happen!

It is not that organized religion is wrong, it's just that it was a stage humanity had to pass through because of its limited nature, and now its time is coming to an end. Like all human endeavours, religion is limited. The human intellect is inherently limited and can never grasp the Absolute Truth. This is what postmodernism is really trying to tell us.

Each organized religion really just presents one relative/temporal lens to the Absolute which is beyond time and space. And each religion is valid within the parameters that it chooses, but becomes a tool of falsehood and evil when it is reduced to a set of doctrines and dead dogmas. I'm reminded here of a quote from Robert Bellah's excellent book "Beyond Belief: Essays on Religion in a Post-Traditionalist World":

"We may be seeing the beginnings of the reintegration of our culture, a new possibility of the unity of consciousness. If so, it will not be on the basis of any new orthodoxy, either religious or scientific. Such a new integration will be based on the rejection of all univocal understandings of reality, of all identifications of one conception of reality with reality itself. It will recognize the multiplicity of the human spirit, and he necessity to translate constantly between different scientific and imaginative vocabularies. It will recognize that in both scientific and religious culture all we have finally are symbols, but that there is an enormous difference between the dead letter and the living word."

Amen! Dead letter versus living word -- that is the difference between organized religion and a dynamic relationship with a living Divine Presence in a nutshell! And the amazing thing is that with the proper mystical awareness, every scripture in the world can be reclaimed and reinterpreted in ways that are appropriate for the present moment ... because the truth is that each moment has its own law, and only true surrender to the Divine within can guide us to make the right choices on a moment to moment basis. It is these higher states of communion with the Divine that we ought to aspire to -- such that every living moment becomes a revelation, and every form in creation begins to speak to us and reveal to us the happy laughter of the Supreme.

Thanks for this lovely post!

pennyjane

when i was little bazooka bubblegum came with a funny in the wrapper. i don't know if they still do or not, but i'm sure if they do, reference to "the little moron" has been updated. used to be, though, that those were pretty popular little riddles for us kids. for instance; one was "why did the little moron take a knife and a gun to town?" answer: "because he wanted to cut down the alley and shoot up the street." pretty cool, huh? another was, "why is everything always in the last place you look?" answer; "because you stop looking." seems the little moron took the simpleton test and passed.

simpleton that i am, the few questions i have found answers for i don't question anymore. that i am a transsexual and what a transsexual is are questions i spent years and years trying to sort out. i now believe i have the answers so i don't visit the questions anymore. i spend much of my time dealing with the consequences, but the question itself is never anything more than academic pursuit anymore. when i was blessed with the knowledge that Jesus Christ is the risen son of God and the way of life for me i stopped seaching for other answers, that quest is satisfied. i continue my inquistition into the life of Chirst and strive to understand His message and how to make it work on earth, but i no longer question His authority or His truth.

that being said, this is the truth as i see it. others may have different views and i will continue to respect them as i do my own. anyone, in my opinion, who berates or belittles the views of another is a part of the problem, not the solution. that's what causes all the religious wars and the carnage within. arrogance and disrepect. if one cannot debate issues respectfully and forward their own beliefs without disparaging another, then in the name of God.....remain silent. big words don't hide contempt and contempt breeds contempt.

organized religion got it's start when the first human realized there was mystery in the universe and began to search out what it was. he shared and religion was born. as long as there is mystery and searchers there will be organized religion, we are human...we share and as we convince ourselves of answers we convince others that we are right about it all, that's our nature. perhaps there are a few individuals in the world who know all the truths already and need no further instruction, but the billions and billions of the rest of us are more then willing to listen and learn from others. we will continue to share our beliefs and search in tamdem as long as there is mystery. in other words, organized religion ain't goin' nowhere, it's here to stay. just my opinion, but what do i know? i'm just a girl. much love and hope, pj

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