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Word
Gems
A Personal Statement #12:
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December 6, 2008
In Part I of this discussion I speculated on how my life might have developed had Dad sought the help of a more skillful counselor, Father John Kuhn. I had not thought of this possibility before, and I have been thinking about this. I feel that it was my destiny to learn certain lessons by making my own way - as hard as that was - nevertheless, from Dad's side of things, this was a totally botched operation.
Children need the freedom to think, as the spirit moves them; and while guidance might be a good thing, especially for younger children, when one approaches majority age, it is quite unwise to attempt to force a young adult to tow a particular view. Very unwise. Each child, if he or she is to become a fully functioning adult, must develop a keen sense of personal autonomy and independent thinking. The harder Dad pushed, the harder I had to push back, just to maintain my own respect. This was all needless. Dad's best course would have been simply to back off, and let me sort things out. I would have done that over time.
Free - but not a Slave to Freedom Knowing what I know now, in principle, I could have made this work, even as an unbelieving Catholic. I could have just hung around, and been part of the family, and participated in church things, on a strategic basis. I could have even justified this from the writings of the Apostle Paul:
Paul saw himself as free from all rituals, all sense of denominational division and sectarian spirit. In the above passage we find him saying that if he were around the Jews, he might, for a time, worship as a Jew; if around Gentiles, those "not under the law," he would act like a Gentile, with no compunction on his part to obey any of the old Jewish rituals. And he did all of this with a view toward seeking the highest and best for others. He was totally free. I could have done that, too. I could have been like a certain man who fascinated me when I was age 10 - Doc Goodman, Carrie's Dad. I could have been something like him. I watched this man in church; an educated man, an intellectual, not interested in rituals. He would read the church newspaper during mass, read anything, just to occupy himself! Such a radical idea for me then! hey, mister, you can't read a newspaper during church! Clearly, to me, even then, Doc was not into the moment during mass; yet, for his own personal reasons, he maintained contact with the local church.
I have learned that we are free. Paul saw himself as free "to become all things to all men" - that's pretty broad latitude! We are free to do, or not do, as Paul put it, to live as a Jew or a Gentile; either way, it doesn't matter to God. Religion, per se, is not important to God.
The answers to these questions will be different for each person. But even when you find your direction, this doesn't mean that you cannot change your path in the future - you are always free. For some, it might be best, at least for awhile, to maintain traditional forms of religion; but, for others, to make a clean break. Your own soul, your own sense of the spirit, will guide you into what you need to do. Your mission will be a little different from that of anyone else. This is so because the lessons you need to learn, the experiences you need to have, to grow as a person, and as a soul, are a little different from those anyone else. Also, you will see certain things, ways to serve, that another will miss. This is part of your mission. There is no one else like you in the entire universe! and you are most special and irreplaceable! and treasured! by those who look after you, those who are in charge of your growth and development, on the Other Side!
Required Course - but Take Tests When You Want To There is a book, A Course In Miracles, that claims to be an AfterLife transmission, via psychic medium, from none other than Jesus himself. I cannot vouch for the authenticity of this claim, though I suspect it may be true. In these writings, the statement is made:
I think that's a true statement. And, in the opening words of the book:
As many songs tell us, love is all around - but often we cannot see it. There are many things, many fears, which block our perception of love. Fear, not love, motivates the average person - so many different kinds of fears. And there are so many different religions because each might address a different aspect of fear; in so doing, each will attract a particular fearful membership.
What Is Religion? Paul, in his letters, explains that religion, with all of its rules and rituals, is not bad, per se... only unnecessary; at best, a temporary expedient. He compares religion to a nursery where children need to be for awhile, until they grow up. He says religion is like being under the guidance of a nanny or a guardian; an early time during which one is told what to do by some external authority - but such time will pass away when one reaches majority age. He says that religion is just the "ABCs" of life, just the most rudimentary beginnings of spiritual knowledge, something that one learns in first grade, or on mother's knee. And if Paul had written in our age, he might have said that religion is like training wheels; you know, those extra wheels on a bike that you had as a kid - just something to help a 4 year-old get started; but if you are still using training wheels at age 10, or 15, there's a problem.
And Paul's point was that all of these are forms of external guidance! forms of someone else telling you what to do, like telling a little kid what to do! And he explains that religion in all of its forms is not what God had in mind as a permanent place to live! And that the very coming of Jesus was meant to be the end of this kind of fearful and childish attempt to reach God; that, with the coming of Jesus, we have reached the New Age of living in the Spirit... that new internal guidance system... a system that has only one law - a new law for each individual, which is to determine how to serve the highest and best interests of all!
That's much different than just showing up at Church for an hour each week because we are afraid to offend an angry god, afraid of going to hell... isn't it? All of this is actually not a new law, but the oldest law, one from the beginning - the original legislative intent of Divinity, right from the start. But, as Paul explains, because of the fear in people's hearts and until the coming of Jesus - this one law, for a time, was shunted to the side in favor of a temporary "after school kiddie program" - which is religion.
This is news to many Most of you haven't heard these things before. Local religious teachers will not tell you these things from the apostle Paul. They aren't paid by their superiors to talk themselves out of a job and to reduce church revenues. Cult religions are threatened by Paul's writings - they are terrified that the common man might find out what Paul actually taught. They literally are Churchill's figure of the nervous potentate scared out of his wits at the thought of this little mouse, mere words and thoughts, entertained in broad daylight! And they will name their schools and churches and cathedrals and universities after the august name of the apostle Paul; but, all the while, stand in opposition to everything that he fought for; and was killed for! This is how propaganda works.
This one law, this new law, of life in the Spirit - this life of total freedom to live as one wants to live, with the only requirement that of seeking the highest and best for all, is that "universal experience" of which The Course speaks. And that universal experience is to know love; that the universe is designed to teach love, and to deliver love; and that we were made to love, and that we are loved. All of this regarding love is already true, is already the Ultimate Reality, and has always been so; but, "there are blocks to the awareness of love's presence." And these blocks are the essence of fear.
The Universe and the Big Smiley Face I spent almost 30 years searching - a search often prompted by my own dark forces - for hidden mysteries in words, mere words. But, had I understood what I just explained in the above few paragraphs, I could have spent my time in better ways; like riding a good horse, with a friend, for instance; because in such activity, one can get much closer to ultimate reality than with what I was doing. You don't have to become a Greek scholar to find the purest and rarest forms of Truth. All you need is a willing heart, a fervent spirit, an openness to face fears, allowing one to finally see the true nature of Reality - and if you do this, if you decide to face life with an openness, it will be scary at first, like your first plane ride; but you will find that the answers will start flowing in... faster and faster... and you will begin to finally see. I have spoken of my culture and its hell-bent ways; and the darkness that hurt many of us - we thought that the universe was harsh, and unforgiving, and merciless - and we created our own version of god in this image; and so, living under this terror, we had to rely on ourselves and our own vaunted work ethic; because we dared not trust anyone, or any angry god, to help us. This truly is why we honored work so much, in such an extreme, neurotic way, as if it were life itself; because, subliminally, we believed, that it was life itself ... and the only Reality. Believe what people do, not what they say! We, of our culture, like most people, would say that God and religion and church were most important... but that's not how we lived... because, when the rubber hit road, we worshipped work, our self-reliance, the only thing that we could really trust.
But we are different now, more and more. And once you begin to see that cosmic giant smile, and how things really work, you will start to breathe much easier; and you will stand a little taller; and you will sleep less fitfully; as you finally allow yourself to hear the whisperings of the universe, all around you; that you are loved; and you will sense this, even in the midst of temporary, personal sufferings.
And in this atmosphere of total acceptance, you will finally begin to make decisions without fear and guilt; and that heavy baggage, a burden for so long, will begin to drop from your tired fingers; and you will consider many issues, now, more dispassionately; including, whether to remain with a present church, or not to remain; because you will know, whatever your decision, that you will still be loved... and that everything is ok... everything is ok... and that you can relax, and that you don't need to do anything in particular to deserve this gift. You just have to learn to receive... and that's all.
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