In my New Year’s Eve post I declared: I AM A BELIEVER.
I am a believer that THERE IS A "REAL WORLD" THAT HAS YET TO BE EMBRACED BY HUMANITY.
All of this came after
talking about the absolute necessity of having a Vision of the way we want the “Real
World” to look before we can chart a path to it. In making the declaration, I suggested that
humanity has yet to consider that there can be “more” than we’ve already
experienced and “more” than we have dared to think about. People over millenia have
envisioned better ways to live and many have succeeded in creating new models of living together. And when those don’t
tend to last or change for the worse, we simply dismiss their attempts (and
often their success) as flawed or naïve.
Saw a YouTube video
recently of a young man’s “Vision for Global Restoration.” I am confident that many will see the
relevance of his ideas and go about creating sustainable communities on the
land with like-minded people. Many
people, old and young, who are drawn to the Occupy Movement are feeling a
stirring that says: “We’ve got to find a better way…”
Yet more often than
not, people still tend to ASSUME that
“This is ALL there is;
why fight it;
just make the best of a messed up world.”
Because of that, we
seem to go round and round in circles, making the same mistakes over and over,
fighting "another war" with "another enemy,” and trying to find a secure place to
“live our lives without being bothered.”
Most of us try to play by the rules, want what’s coming to us, and try
to get through life with as few mishaps and disasters as possible. We are afraid, though, of the things that can
befall us when we’re not looking. A
sudden heart attack, a drunk driver plowing into our car, being caught in a
rock slide while on vacation, or having a child born with a birth defect.
When it comes to knotty
complex social problems, we want someone else to fix it and if they don’t
address it as quickly as we’d like or fail in an honest attempt, we dismiss
them and the process and look around us for someone else who will give us a better
“quick-fix.” Many people escape into
drugs because they want a “short-relief” from all that they fear and all that
may happen to them. We say, they just
want to “escape reality.”
Interesting phrase when
you think about it. I know very few people who find today’s
“reality” to be comforting, comfortable, or conducive to productive and joyful
living. As I keep saying, today, most of
us affirm that “things are all messed up.”
And yet, if you go back in history to purported "mythical" advanced civilizations like Lumuria or Atlantis, we are told that even those fell in upon themselves
because of HUMAN CHARACTER FLAWS. The mis-use
of the technology of their times and the factions that fought for political
rule “did them in” as these things have brought down other civilizations since
before our recorded time. This isn’t
new; humanity has just been proven consistent.
Just think about our
times, with the fierce weaponry that can obliterate millions, military regimes that routinely practice genocide, and the grid-locked
Congress here in America, whose elected officials seem to not know how to
deliberate, collaborate, discourse civilly or pass laws that will benefit the
U.S. citizenry.
Everywhere we look we
see individuals exposed because of their “breaking the rules” whether it be
legislated guidelines, cheating on spouses and indecent exposure, or bilking
millions of people through Ponzi schemes.
Can anyone reading this say that humans don’t have “character
flaws?” (or as a relative of mine says:
“are all f%*&ed up.”)
Nature or nurture? These conversations surfaced during the early
days of this last wave of the Women’s Movement back in the 1960s. Are men inherently smarter than women; are
women inherently more passive than men?
What we discovered, those of us who were exploring these issues and had
plenty of first-hand experience of vast diversities within humans of both genders,
was that conditioning had a huge impact
on the personal experience and capacities of individuals. Societies, in our recorded times, have always
seemed to have a sets of rules and cultural mores that determine what is
good/bad; better/best; acceptable/unacceptable.
We shape ourselves
around the expectation of others. We take in and internalize an "idealized image" of how the world wants us to be.
In
1970 I spent two weeks at Grailville, a spiritual retreat center for lay women
in Ohio. During that time 40+ women from
all walks of life, all races, all religions, young and old got together to
explore what it meant to be a woman – in the eyes of God, in the eyes of
society, and from our own individual life experience. It was one of the most exhilarating
experiences of my life, where all of us created the agenda, talked and explored, ate
together, sang together, danced together, and worshipped the Divine Life in all
of Us.
I saw how it COULD be:
all respected, all listened to, all taken seriously. Gifts and talents recognized and appreciated,
all paths honored, and all “cherished” because we knew we were human/divine,
even though our individual churches didn’t necessarily proclaim that. It was this spiritual dimension that drew us
together. We knew we were all “beloveds
of Creation” – “beloveds of the Divine” – “beloved Children of That Which is
All Sustaining.”
Much earlier than that,
when I was a very young child, I experienced God’s Presence as an Uplifting
Energy that expanded me out to the edges of the Universe and held me as tenderly
as my own mother did. I knew I was not
alone in the Universe and found myself nestled in a small family where I was
loved. Being an only child, with my
father a sign-painter and my mother working at our Methodist Church to save
money for me to go to college, we attended church every Sunday and I was active
in all of the youth activities up through college. It was a sheltered life in many ways and I
didn’t realize that we were “poor” because we had little money.
The words I heard in
a Christian Church and the words whispered in my heart from that Unseen Presence made me
feel whole and dearly loved. I could
sing “In the Garden” and actually feel the Presence of Jesus walking beside me
in my life.
And I didn’t know until
much later that not everyone had this experience of Abiding Presence. Ironically, as I got older and a lot of
people my age were questioning the Church and condemning the “character flaws”
of the leadership, I can honestly say, I separated out that which I knew was
“not of Love” and simply named it that.
I held only several themes in the Center of my Heart and tested
everything against those and “forgave” that which was off track or hurtful or
destructive. It was all in the “new
covenant” that Jesus said God desired to establish with humanity: “Love God and Love your Neighbor, as you Love
yourself.”
Parable after parable
he talked about how humans are meant to act when they live “as the Father”
wishes them to live. Taking care of
others, being our “brother’s keeper,” being humble, being generous, sharing,
and TRUSTING that God is more like a Parent than a Judge. Jesus said that "we are all God’s
children.” That we are made in “His
image” – that the Spark of Divinity that is placed in our bodies at birth is
our own Soul that comes from God, is “of God,” and LINKED WITH GOD at all
times.
Whether we realize it
or not, he implied that God was nearer than hands and feet and closer than
breathing. He said we are meant to reach
God by going inward and reaching out to this “loving heavenly Father” and we
could anchor a connection there. He said that each one of
us is loved by God, so much so that like the father in the wayward Prodigal’s
Son parablem, He FORGIVES US and WELCOMES us back into that Abiding Presence from
which we originally came. This is
assured every time we turn away from the path of materiality, greed, violence,
selfishness, and ego-centered living and back towards the Ground of Being.* (*phrase that theologian Paul Tillich used to represent a much larger Reality than
humans had attached to the idea of a heavenly-father-who-is-male-white-old-and-keeps-score.)
And because we have
been given Free Will, each human must be the one to determine their own character by the choices they
make. Jesus admonished people for being
greedy, for separating themselves from each other through their ethnic
heritages, for being judgmental, for all the things – and more – that were outlined
in the societal and spiritual commandments of their times.
He said things like “Be
ye perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” He KNEW that we had the capacity to grow into
the most loving, authentic beings possible and he encouraged us to strive for a
conduct of living, loving and serving - putting others first and seeing other fellow
humans as other “children of God.”
He also said, “I and
the Father are One” and “do as I do":
“Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven.” Many
of our Christian theologians have interpreted that to mean
“seek-to-go-to-heaven” by obeying the rules and “work your way into
heaven.” He said that the "Kingdom of God
is within.” And for the last 2,000+ years
we’ve simply not known what to do with that one!
He was constantly
linked to God; he prayed and encouraged us to go within and meet God as he
did. He’s basically pushing us to get by
ourselves, to reach inside and into our inner hearts to acknowledge and FIND
that Abiding'" Presence that never leaves us.
And it is not easy to reach beyond our acculturated beliefs and our lack
of faith to do this in earnest.
It is my belief that
the one of Jesus, who was born into flesh and blood, was destined to be our
World Teacher by embodying that which he had been taught inwardly by God and telling
all who came to listen to him about God’s Desired Way of Living for humanity. He said it was what God
expected and wished for forHis
children. Jesus lived a life dedicated
to God’s Guidance, given to him in his inner Heart, and because he acted in
accordance with this Desired Way of Living – of his own Free Will - he actually
became the embodiment of
God-Consciousness, which many call the Christ-Consciousness.
So close to the
Presence did Jesus live, listening for the guidance of that Divine Presence,
and living a LIFE THAT EXEMPLIFIED LOVE AND SERVICE, the Light of His Soul
became so expanded that he was joined directly to the Godhead. Jesus was a human who reached for God and he
merged his human identity with his Divine Soul which is ever connected directly
to the Abiding Presence. He said: “Do as
I do…” He became the Christ, a
fully-realized God-Conscious human.
“Do as I do…”
translates to me that
translates to me that
you and I and every human being has the same opportunity
to become God-Connected -
so fully, so completely, so aligned that we will be able to
see the Divine Vision for the Earth.
And if we are
able to do this we can behold
what a Glorious Future humanity is meant to have.
Then we are able to
know that we have “returned” to the Father’s House and know this is where we
belong. And even as we have joined with
God, at-one-with-God, we are still right here, in physical form. We are not "taken away" - "swept up into heaven, away from this Earth." (I have no doubt that after our Souls leave
our physical bodies that they are amazed to find that Life is even greater beyond the physical plane and
nothing like we imagined – or “denied” because we believed that “this is all
there was.”)
Even though we have risen
in awareness and realize our True Natures, we are still on the Earth in
physical bodies. Even though we FEEL
different inside, we still have to deal with our surroundings. And yet, we have new eyes with which to see and new yearnings to love that which we behold, no matter how "bad" it looks.
Earth environment still
looks, feels, and manifests as the same kind of place where the prodigal son
lost his hope, his money, and his respect for himself. WE ARE MEANT TO bring the God-Consciousness
into this world – this world as it is – and do what we know how to do, if we invite
ourselves to be transformed by the Touch of the Abiding Presence.
That's why I say, WE HAVE ALREADY BEEN
GIVEN A VISION of how the Earth and humanity is meant to be and yet we haven’t
been able to grasp the magnificence of it.
If you remember the work of the Catholic priest Father Theilard de Chardin,
you know through his prayers and inner communion with God, that he was given
to understand that humanity was evolving
and that we were nearing the point where humanity could make a giant leap into a New
Time. He said the time would come when we would have
evolved into A New Human. One he
called the Omega man.
The time has come – the
time is crucial – for humankind to open to an expanded VISION of what is intended
by the Creator and Sustainer of All of Life and begin to conform our lives to
the simple Way of Life, when lived fully that has always resulted in joy,
companionship, and harmony. It’s our
CHOICE to aspire to see the “more” and become the “more.”
We can decide to move
toward that VISION of a more humane, joy-filled, contented world where we can
grow into NEW HUMANS who together can bring that VISION to “Life” to uplift
us all into a new "REAL WORLD" here on Earth.
I am only one Voice, sharing
from my heart. I invite neither debate
nor questions, and for this post, ask for only individual comments spoken by
those who choose to do so – from their own heart-inspired VISION for humanity’s
future. (It's free and easy to join google in order to make comments.)
I would also ask that if this resonates with you that you join with me in exploring this VISION and that you pass this invitation on to others whom you think might be interested. We can be yet another Circle of people who join together at this momentous time in Earth history to move toward a NEW HUMANITY and a NEW WORLD."
In Faithfulness and Trust,
Marcella/Maria
One Voice / Relentless Truth Seeker / Truth Speaker
One Voice / Relentless Truth Seeker / Truth Speaker
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