21st Century Musings

As we enter July I am absolutely captivated by the idea that our understanding of God is biologically based. I'm seeing and hearing this idea everywhere lately. The implications are enormously important! I can't help but wonder if this understanding could be the cornerstone of ending all the inhumane things we do to ourselves and each other. There are six billion different people in our world. It seems so logical to me that there are six billion different definitions of God! As we stand in that Truth we are passionately called out to live from an openheartedness that makes peace a worldwide cherished value! As an educator and mental health professional all of this means so very much to me. How can we not be called out to live in Love, Joy, and Peace? As far as we know we only have this one time to do things “right”; that is, from the very highest Love we know. Can we empower ourselves to get to know ourselves at our true depths so we can cherish our sisters and brothers all around our globe?

In June I had an opportunity to teach a class in self-empowerment. It was so much fun because there were clearly people there who had different attitudes and ideas than I do. We all had an opportunity to listen, share ideas and values, and be respectful. It was an opportunity for us all to educate ourselves on the vast diversity of ideas and values we hold. This is important because research shows that the more education a person has, the more well-travelled and informed a person is, the more openhearted and openminded a person is! As we get out of the shadow of our own boxed in reality we see there is far more than just one perspective! It is so very important to understand how biologically based we are; how our survival instinct is linked to fear, and how our fear-based survival instinct has outlived its usefulness. We have cognitive ability for a reason! Every stranger is not an enemy! Many strangers are simply friends we have not met yet! In the 80s I wrote a poem titled, “The Lightness Of The Dark Side.” I said “the dark side is simply the aspects of God we do not yet know.” I believe that to this very day! I am determined to live a Love-based life. I am determined to live a life of peace, joy and generosity of spirit, and to help others do the same! It is the only way to be happy and get the most out of life and give the very best to life. Why would we want to live any other way?

I'm reading a book titled, “Misquoting Jesus”. The author is Dr. Bart D. Ehrman. Dr. Ehrman is an authority on the history of the New Testament. One idea he shared leaped off the page at me. Dr. Ehrman addressed the idea of the Bible being the inerrant words of Jesus. He said, “Not only do we not have the original writings of the New Testament, we don't have the first copies of the originals. We don't even have the copies of the copies of the originals, or the copies of the copies of the copies of the originals.” That's how far removed we are from whatever Jesus said! Dr. Ehrman points out that the King James version “was based on corrupted and inferior  manuscripts that in many cases do not accurately represent the meaning of the  original text.” He said, “There are more differences among the manuscripts than there  are words in the New Testament.” He points out that the Bible was written by scribes  hundreds of years after Jesus died and these scribes couldn't even read well enough to copy correctly! Doesn't that shed new light on the importance of what I have always believed to be true anyway; that we must be responsible for our own spiritual growth. We can't hand it off to some book, no matter how revered someone else says it might be. This information helps me understand all the more how sacred life is. I am responsible for my own life. I am responsible for my own choices. I am to listen to my own Inner Wisdom. I am to live a life of Love, Joy, Peace, and Wisdom just as Jesus did so many years ago. This understanding is why I love the Gnostic and Earth-Based traditions so much. They say we are to rely on our own inherent Inner Wisdom. We intuitively know what's right and wrong. We don't need a book to tell us! We can see by the impact on our lives what brings peace and joy and what brings utter chaos and confusion and self-hatred. We don't need a book to tell us! The Animating Principle of Life within us gives us all we need!!!

Another piece of this dynamically unfolding spiritual picture comes from Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox. I had the enormous privilege and pleasure of listening to him speak at Unity Church of Overland Park last month. He is one of the foremost thinkers and change agents of our time. He presented a service titled, “In Search of the Divine Masculine”, and a workshop titled, “Mysticism And Authentic Christianity Today.” In his words, “the Goddess has returned and She's pissed!” He spoke of the necessity of men waking up to their heart, the real Divine Masculine, inherent Wisdom! He said: 1) Jesus was considered illegitimate by his village! He couldn't go to the synagogue, so He went to Nature! 2) Elders must mentor the youth, and the youth must educate their elders. He spoke of Professor Pitt, a young rapper he's mentoring. Professor Pitt is putting Dr. Fox's message to music so the kids can incorporate this message into their lives. He spoke of the A.W.E Project he's begun, Ancestor-based, Wisdom-based education. 3) Use meditation in our schools to calm down our fear-based reptilian brain that is geared to act-react. Spend time in solitude like Buddha did. Make friends with the Via Negativa. We must recognize that our entire species is in the Dark Night of the Soul. Despair is the prelude to breakthrough! As part of the service we did a grief exercise to connect with our 3rd chakra. We watched a short film on “The Green Man”. We did a spiral dance. In all of this Dr. Fox emphasized the necessity of physical and emotional movement to connect with ourselves and each other! 4) Educate our underdeveloped mammalian brain where compassion lives and link it with our creative brain, our right brain. 5) The impact of global warming is massive! We have nine years to get it right! 6) The fundamentalist energy is so crazy right now because they know that society has awakened to the reality that fear is not the way to live; that 4500 years ago Chaos was considered a Goddess. Her Energy was incorporated into Life so society could learn from Her! He concluded with, “We are at the edge of an enormous Renaissance!” In so many ways he said we cannot live healthy lives by pretending to be disembodied heads, living only from the neck up! We have bodies. We have feelings. We are wounded. We must recognize, share and heal our woundedness! To say the very least I am so thrilled by all he shared with us! We are at a time of enormous opportunity for healing! Climb aboard! The Goddess is back. Our full bodied awareness of ourselves is back. Now's the time! We are the change we wish to see in our world! Bravo, world changers!! We are not alone! We are here together. Our joy and our “response-ability” is to continue to bring Love, Joy, Peace, Empowerment, Togetherness into full blown expression! We can do it! We must do it!! Namaste!!!!!!!

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