A Seeker Speaks

Say the Reason for Rwanda

2010-09-28T06:41:00.001-07:00

You say there's a reason
For everything
What is the reason to fight?
For sure as the seasons
The suffering
Will come back to their
Doorstep at night

Seems thou shall not kill
Is plowed under the hill
To justify glory and might
The still and small voice
Is drowned out in the noise
To prove that they're wrong
And you're right

Say the reason for Rwanda
Say the means that pulled it under
Say without the propaganda
Say why reason was abandoned
Say the reason why
Our brothers fight
Brothers in vain
The spoils of war
Bloodshed and pain

18 Principles for an Economy that is of, by and for the People

2010-09-05T14:11:00.001-07:00

1. As a general rule, the highest level of prosperity occurs when there is a free enterprise economy with a minimum of government regulations. All principles should be informed by this maxim.

2. The people, in the form of elected officials, and not the financial elite must be in charge of the monitory policy and the supply of money.

3. The economic systems and policies should always be a benefit to the people and not only the elite; its policies should encourage the primary economic producers of laborers, inventors and investors whose products are a benefit to the people.

4. The Federal Reserve, as an instrument of the elite, should be abolished and replaced with accountable agencies within the government that are directly elected and accountable to the people.

5. All economic laws and regulations should be written clearly, concisely and easily understandable by all educated people.

6. Money issued must have the backing of something of value (like gold).

7. The government should not spend more than it receives in revenue – that is it must balance its budget on an annual basis.

8. The people should not be subject to excessive and unjust levels of taxation. Tax rates higher than 10% need to be approved by a two thirds majority of the people, decided by referendum.

9. The amount of money in circulation in the economy must be equal in value to amount of available goods and services.

10. The amount of money should not exceed the amount of good and services as this is always inflationary.

11. Inflation is never an acceptable means of taxation. All taxes need to be transparent and explicit.

12. Money should never be created out of nothing. But be backed by something of value as indicated above.

13. The amount of money in circulation and the amount of good and services in the economy should be able to grow without a rise in prices. In fact, this is the only legitimate way an economy can grow.

14. Laborers should be fairly compensated and fairly protected against misuse and exploitation of large corporations.

15. Markets are not free when single corporations control the majority of the market share. Therefore, the government has a right to enact and enforce laws that encourage competition and discourage monopolies.

16. Government has a right to enact and enforce laws that assess financial products as their risk to the economy and prohibit those from reaching the market that are deemed too risky.

17. Housing Loans should only be given to those who have demonstrated an ability to pay them back.

18. All deferred or hidden fees, change of interest rates, and payment schedules must be clearly presented to buyers before they make home purchased.

Take a Walk Inside to Happy

2010-08-11T20:33:00.000-07:00

You can check out the song here: Walk Inside to Happy on MySpace

Have you ever raised your head
Above the sea of faces where
They've put their souls to bed
And of joy there's only traces there

But if you think about it
You got what you need to sprout it
Thoughts are things with wings
To take you where

You can laugh
You can sing
You don't have to be
A puppet on a string
So do what makes you happy
You can dance
You can smile
You can throw away
Your woulda, shoulda, pile
And see what makes you happy
Take a walk inside to happy

So you're orbiting around
Your mistakes as large as Jupiter
Part penitent, part clown
Have you done anything stupider?

But if you think about it
You can do without it
Mistakes are stepping stones
To take you where

You can laugh
You can sing
You can be a part
Of every living thing
And do what makes you happy
You can dance
You can smile
You can ask the questions
Like a little child
And see what makes you happy
Take a walk inside to happy

Feeling alone
I got God on the phone
And I asked him
O where have you been?
I've been here all the time
In your heart and your mind
In each breathe that you take
Out and in
Because everybody's got a gift inside
When you share it there I AM in sight

You can laugh
You can sing
You don't have to be a
A puppet on a string
To do what makes you happy
You can dance
You can smile
You don’t have to move along
In single file
To be what makes you happy
Take a walk inside to happy

Time to Fly

2010-05-07T03:48:00.000-07:00

When you open up your heart
The universe returns
To you glad tidings
The clouds begin to part
Revealing other worlds
Your soul can reach

Now’s the time to start
There really isn’t
Any other moment
As Life comes to impart
The inner joy
That's now awakening

O can't you see it’s time to fly
To pain and sorrow
Say goodbye
There’s nothing more
To hold or hide
And even though you thought
Your wings were broken
The voice within has spoken
It’s time to fly

You are always More
Then everyone believes
And what they’ve told you
But if you want to soar
Don’t be afraid
To shine for all to see

So step right through those doors
You always thought
You weren’t supposed to open
Where the love inside implores
To let it out
And help all to be free

O listen now it’s time to fly
To pain and sorrow
Say goodbye
There’s nothing more
To hold or hide
And even though you thought
Your wings were broken
The voice within has spoken
It’s time to fly

Footprints in the Snow

2010-04-26T04:38:00.001-07:00

Like the leaves that fall in autumn
Seasons turn by letting go
And for all the battles and fought and won
What remains can’t be controlled

Now as the chapter’s closing
Hear the bells of freedom ring
For the soil this garden’s grown in
Can no longer hold me in

So farewell to ways I’ve left behind me
Still I love you more than you can know
But if in yesterdays you try to find me
They’re like footprints in the snow

Within the shell of my cocoon
Grew the seeds of wings to soar
But our home had only room
For the me that was no more

And as the lantern’s glowing
In the flame your eyes met mine
As they see I must be going
So the sun can truly shine

So farewell to ways I’ve left behind me
Still I love you more than you can know
But if in yesterdays you try to find me
They’re like footprints in the snow

Only as Distant as You Think

2010-04-26T04:27:00.000-07:00

Leanne
Sits by the window
Beneath the stairs
Upon them her diary
Torn pages where
She asks is anybody there?

Ben-tan
Alone in his cube
Works till late at night
He whispers a prayer
Then turns out the light
Where is God now to make it right?

(chorus)
God is only as distant as you think he is
Not even a heartbeat away
God is only as distant as you think he is
For in a blink he is inside to stay
In truth he never went away

In every land
There's millions of souls
Who are reaching out
Yet in their hearts and their minds
There's a world of doubt
Is this what life is all about?

Every woman and man
Who knows in their hearts
That there’s something more
Can find in their minds there’s
An open door
To fulfill what they’ve come here for

(chorus)

I know the Spirit is inside
Where the one in all abides
Waiting for us to decide
To be bearers of the light
To be shining through the night
Until we open up and
Find it the kingdom within us
Rise above all our divisions
Life need not be a riddle
Until we realize

World of Sin

2010-04-25T17:27:00.001-07:00

When I was young
I asked my Mom
Why is there such pain?
Why’s there such sorrow?
Why all the wars
Where powerful reign?
From the beginning
Is this the way the world was made?
She said it’s fulfilling the promise
The price was paid

But how can we stay
In this world of sin?
Where reason, desire
Are both on fire
When we can have a new day
When we go within
Let the ego expire
Let the light take us higher
Higher and higher to mend
This world of sin

So why all this violence
Kids on kids they’re downed in the street?
With hands that are empty
So many people with nothing to eat
I’ve searched all these years
To the find the answers
Nobody gave
I spoke to the preachers
They said son
Just kneel and be saved

But how can we stay
In this world of sin?
Where reason, desire
Are both on fire
When we can have a new day
When we go within
Let the ego expire
Let the light take us higher
Higher and higher to mend
This world of sin

It’s not a dream, I know they’ll be
A world of peace and plenty all are free
We raise our hearts
Our consciousness
And send love out to heal and bless
The universe is like a mirror
Reflecting love the pain will disappear
In it’s place, come joy and grace
The more to life we all embrace

So Long to the Dark Night

2010-04-25T14:21:00.001-07:00

Good afternoon I greet the sun
A million rays from heaven
Upon the stream each will become
More beautiful today
Since I discovered how to be
A sailing on the river
Wind in my sails will set me free
Don’t swim against the waves
By letting go I let in me

So long to the dark night
The via dolorosa is done
I feel so strong in the sweet light
Like a new day’s begun
I don’t hold on to whose wrong or right
Or what’s supposed to be done
Because you can’t see in the dark night
That you’re shining like the sun

So I become his hands and feet
We’re building it together
To make it as it’s meant to be
More beautiful each day
I never put down anyone
Cause vision is a leaven
To be all that they can become
When traveling on the inner way
Where letting go you've really won

So long to the dark night
The via dolorosa is done
I feel so strong in the sweet light
Like a new day’s begun
I don’t hold on to whose wrong or right
Or what’s supposed to be done
Because you can’t see in the dark night
That you’re shining like the sun

I love you - yes I do
I’m renewed in every atom, cell is you
Then other worlds are born
When you come into the flame
Within my heart
O like a cool summer rain
Removing every thorn
Co-creating a master work of art
O imagine if you will
Exalted on the top of the hill
Ever higher mountains still
Filled with light

The Eve of Being

2010-04-13T17:52:00.001-07:00

Tonight, on the Eve of Being

I approach the light

Like none I've ever seen

Hid behind the tide

Its surfaces, its sheen

I gave up the fight

And let it enter me

I used to think the world

Was my truest friend

The glamor that beguiles

The pleasures without end

I savored every pearl

Save one without a price

And when they all were gone

I opened up my eyes - to find

That its all a disguise

See beyond the dream

When the Real is reprised

On the Eve of Being

The Five Sacred Cows You'll Never Meet in Heaven

2010-04-06T21:33:00.000-07:00

The Five Sacred Cows You Will Never Meet in Heaven (excerpt from KOG Within You Book)

Friday, September 25, 2009 at 7:12am

As a child I remember sitting in the pews of my Lutheran church with my emotions vacillating somewhere between boredom and fear. I was bored because very little of what the minister said interested me. Even at a young age it didn’t seem to resonate with what I knew was true on the inside but was not yet able to articulate. The congregation seemed to be going through the motions of the church rituals but no one seemed very happy or excited about it. It was all rather rote and mechanical. It was in a word, dead. I felt fear for a couple of reasons: First, because our minister’s sermons were typically angry in their tone and also contained a lot of references to what would happen if we didn’t accept Jesus – namely be sent to hell. Secondly, because at the center of the altar stood a large stained glass image of Jesus on the cross. In this image, Jesus was bleeding profusely and obviously in great agony. You might imagine how such a scene could well be something less than comforting or inspiring.

I’m in no way saying that my experience speaks for all Christians, but I’m sure many readers have had similar experiences and I’m sure many have had far worse experiences. A survey of recent headlines regarding the abuses of power in a number of Christian churches should tell you that something has gone terribly awry with the Christian religion. This notion is reinforced by the fact that many people are leaving the churches today to find their own brand of spirituality or have rejected religion or God altogether. The problem is that Christianity simply is not meeting the spiritual needs of many people. And if Christianity is not meeting the needs of the people then I believe it’s important to ask ourselves why.

One the main reasons that Christianity is not meeting people’s spiritual needs are that the times have moved on and Christianity has not kept up. In the modern world, most people have embraced a rational world view, where events and phenomenon are seen to have natural causes. Christianity, however, still contains myths or magical type of ideas – such as the virgin birth - that simply are not believable to the modern mind. We have to remember that the Bible was written in another era where the consciousness of the people was not at the level it is now. Therefore it’s content and style reflects the times in which it was written.

So if Christianity is not keeping up with the times, we should ask why. Here’s where the sacred cows come home so to speak. Unfortunately, the unwillingness to change is one of the hallmarks of Christianity and of course other religions as well. For this and for reasons that we will discuss shortly, it’s clear that Christianity has been influenced by the ego and the duality consciousness. One of the main characteristics of the ego is that it resists growth. And the one of main means by which is does so is to cling to fixed ideas – graven images – about life and God and then actively put down any challenges to those images.

So if Christianity contains fixed ideas that prevent growth, what are they? Many if not all of these I have already discussed, but I believe it’s helpful to summarize and analyze them in one chapter so readers more easily see the dynamics operating in Christianity today.

Let us turn then to the sacred cows. By sacred cows I mean the seemingly unassailable assumptions of Christianity - usually left unspoken – which deter our spiritual growth. A sacred cow is sacred because it can’t be touched or examined. Yet if something can’t be examined, then how can you change it when problems arise? As stated earlier, you can’t solve a problem in the same state of consciousness that produced the problem. You have to rise higher than the consciousness the produce it. The reason these sacred cows are never found in heaven is that that they prevent growth. And in God’s River of Life, all beings need to grow and transcend their present level of consciousness to move everything forward. In fact, part of God’s essential nature is growth and change. Therefore, anything that prevents growth does not come from God and never be a part of heaven.

The purpose of the chapter is to take a close look at certain assumptions in Christian theology which because they have left largely unexamined, have become significant roadblocks to the growth. In each section, I will describe each sacred cow and the reasoning behind each of these and list the antidote to the assumption – which in most cases trace back to the central theme of this book that the kingdom of God is with you.

1. Mankind is sinful by nature
The reason most often put forth by Christians for Jesus coming to earth is to save us from our sins. From this viewpoint, the reason we need to be saved from our sins is that since at least the time of Adam, mankind had fallen into sin. This state of sin, moreover, is not viewed as something that can we rise above or overcome because it has been indelibly stamped into our individual and collective character. It’s almost as if it’s been woven into the fabric of our beings or hard coded into our genes.

On the surface, this position is certainly understandable. For since the fall in the Garden, there have been relatively few individuals who have demonstrated the example of overcoming sin and the consciousness behind it. But because few have done this does not necessarily mean that it cannot be done. In fact, just the opposite is true – what one has done all can do.

I believe its helpful to clarify what we mean by sin. Christian theology and tradition has associated sin acts that we do that are morally wrong. Such breaches of morality are also accompanied by guilt and shame for committing the acts. An interesting twist here, however, is that it is a usually a given that mankind is inherently sinful. Yet at the same time we are still supposed to feel guilt and shame when we commit acts that our supposedly consistent with our nature. It seems then that sin, guilt and shame come in one package and are defining elements of our existence on earth.

Missing the Mark
I believe it is time to take a fresh look at sin. Accordingly, it’s important to note here that literal translation of the term “sin” in Hebrew is not guilt or immorality but rather “missing the mark.” One of the first things we notice about “missing the mark” is that it doesn’t come with the value judgments that sin normally does. Something either hits a target or it doesn’t and normally there is no guilt, blame or shame attached to it.

Sin, then, according to the Hebrew definition, can be seen as any act thought or deed that misses the mark – its target destination. But what is the mark or target to be hit? Well earlier in this book in our discussions on the Word we saw that something is either of from the Word or the Logos or it is not. It is either in harmony with God’s laws and principles or out of harmony with them. Something is either of the vibrations of God or it below the vibration of God. Given this, we can conclude that sin from this perspective is anything that falls beneath the vibration of God, or anything that falls beneath the plum line of the gold standard of the Christ consciousness.

Again, something that misses the mark does not come with the emotional baggage sin does. Of course, it’s not the desired outcome that we miss the mark. Yet in many cases the only way that we learn is to experience the effects of our choices that miss the mark and fall below the level of the Christ. From this perspective, there is no need to pile on the guilt for acts that committed out of alignment with the mind of Christ. Rather, we can simply say that our experiments in the use of our free will missed the intended target. We can therefore try again with the hope that next time will produce a better result. This means we don’t have to approach sin by through the all too human filter of guilt, blame and shame. When we do so, this gives us the space to examine the causes of the sin more dispassionately and objectively.

Sin and Responsibility
And when we look at sin more objectively, we can see that God did not create us as sinners – just the opposite. We were created in the image and likeness of God with inherent sense of self worth. From this point, however, we stepped outside of the protection of oneness into the sense of separation where the human ego and the duality consciousness were born. This is the point where all so called sin began. Since we could not longer see the truth, it follows that we failed to act according to its precepts.

The missing link in the discussion on sin was that it was our own free will decisions that led us into the state of mind where sin is possible. However, if sin is seen as something that we are born with or something that’s an inherent part of our nature then we are not responsible for it. And if we are not responsible for it, we can’t correct it. Therefore, the idea was born that we needed some external savior – namely Jesus - to rescue us from sin. Yet even after he somehow saves us, it seems that we are not through with sinning as Jesus supposedly carries our sins for us until the day he takes us to the heaven this is outside of ourselves.

Yet what we need to understand is that if we take responsibility for the fall that led to sin, then we are also responsible for making the decisions that lead us out of sin. This is very good news indeed. It means that we can control our own destiny. It means that we truly can go and sin no more (John 8:11) because we can make the decisions to transcend the duality consciousness of that is the cause of sin. Why do you think that Jesus told us that simply refraining from adultery was not good enough but we needed to overcome the lusts in our heart as well (Mathew 5:28)?

It is because that he knew that behind every act are thoughts and feelings, and behind those lie a state of consciousness and behind this lies our sense of identity. Therefore we need to change our identity and our consciousness to overcome sin – to go and sin no more.

To change our identity we need to understand that the kingdom of God is within us. We need to understand that this kingdom includes our I AM Presence, our Christ Self and that we have the potential to become one with this higher identity within. We change our consciousness by walking the inner path to oneness with our higher identity which includes taking the beam of duality and separation out of our own eye. And when we do raise our consciousness we will no longer miss the mark. Our target practice will be infinitely more effectively because we are one with the target.

Remember, you can’t be in heaven and be in the consciousness of duality or sin at the same time. You are either one with God or separate from God. When you overcome the fixed ideas – the sacred cow of sin – then you are on the true road to heaven – which as Jesus said, is actually within you.

2. Jesus is the Only Son of God
While there is possibly some debate over the concept of sin, historically and to the present, the assumption that Jesus is the only son of God remains almost entirely unchallenged in the Christian community. This idea is reinforced in the Nicene Creed which has been recited by millions of Christians each week since the time it was brought forth. It’s reinforced from the pulpits. It’s reinforced throughout Christian traditions, literature and music. The concept that Jesus is the only son of God is an inescapable part of Christian culture and theology. But there remains a question that few Christians have dared or cared to ask: Is it true? Is Jesus in fact the only son of God?

If you look at passages in the scripture, it is remarkable how little support there is for the idea that Jesus considered himself the only son of God. Indeed, with the exception of John 3:16, there are few scriptural passages where Jesus refers to himself in this manner. And in the case of that particular passage, readers could only infer that it might refer to Jesus, but as we have seen earlier that a much broader interpretation is possible.

Far from declaring any type of superiority or distance from us, it is interesting to note that in most cases Jesus took pains to emphasize his oneness with humanity. In a number case Jesus refers to himself as the son of man (Luke 9:22). Also, he strikingly emphasizes his oneness with us when he says Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me (Mathew 25:40).

Did he not also say pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you (John 17:20-21)? Again we can return to Jesus statement that the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father (John 14:12). As I’ve stated earlier, how could we do the works with that Jesus does if we are somehow fundamentally different from Jesus?

If you need more biblical support for this idea, once again we note that in the book of Genesis it states that the God created us in his image and likeness, male and female created he them (Genesis 1:27). I cannot see who we can be created in the likeness of God and not be a part of God. And if we are all created by God, don’t we all deserve to called his sons?

The answer is - not quite yet. You see, while all of us have the potential to be sons of God, many of us have not lived up to that potential. Instead we accepted a lower identity of the human ego born from the consciousness of separation from God. Therefore, as was explained in the chapters on the fall of man, in reality, the sons of God are those who have transcended or never descended into the duality consciousness. The sons of God are those whose have become the Christ, meaning their hearts and minds are totally attuned with the Living Word, the Logos, the same mind that created the heavens and the earth, worlds without end.

So in one sense it may have been true that Jesus was the only son of God walking the earth at the time of his Palestinian embodiment. But Jesus was not the exception to the rule but rather its proof that what one has done all can do. Otherwise, he would not have commanded us to do likewise. Otherwise he would not have told us to be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect (Mathew 5:38). So you can see that the fact that there may have been only one Son of God walking the earth two thousand years ago in no way precludes people from claiming that title today. In fact, I believe it is Jesus’ true desire that thousands if not millions of people today leave their nets of the human consciousness and follow him into the full realization of their Christhood.

Lets look at this from one final perspective. If God created us as miserable sinners as many believe, would he really want to send his only Son down to us to demonstrate who truly miserable and low we are in comparison to his Jesus who is so special? Is that the type of God who is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34)? If so, would that be the kind of God you would want to love and worship?
Once again when we realize that the Kingdom of God is within us, we understand that is indeed God’s good pleasure to give us that kingdom. All we have to do is give up everything that is unreal about us – including the graven image that we can never be Gods sons or daughters - and accept all that is real about us and continue to multiply our understanding of God as we grow on the path.

Excluding yourself from God’s sonship will keep you out of heaven. Meaning if you cannot accept that you can be the Christ you will not enter the kingdom of God within you. It’s really that simple. We must begin to see the Christ in ourselves and not just in Jesus. So, my hope is that for all who have ears to hear that you surrender this illusion move as high as the Spirit takes you. And where will that lead? Well, it not only leads to your Christhood where you can without hesitation call yourself a Son of God, but more importantly it leads to the state of being where all who embrace this consciousness can truly Be S-u-ns of God walking the earth. You become messengers for the light and love of God. And when you are in this state you are perpetually shining the your light to your fellow man and woman, blazing a trail that all might find a way back home – back to the kingdom of God within.

3. Jesus Saves
There’s a rather cynical joke that goes: “Jesus is coming – look busy.” Although some might take offense at this, the joke is funny because it contains an element of truth. Namely the belief that it’s what we do and what we believe that saves us, not who we are. It really points out how ludicrous it is to believe that looking busy could somehow fool God or Jesus into saving us when he comes. Although it’s made in jest, it’s not too far from reality. For as we have seen when we discussed doing versus being, most Christians assume they can believe or do there way into heaven.

But let’s think about that for a minute. If the kingdom of God is within us like Jesus said it is, doesn’t that mean that we have to seek it out and find it for ourselves? Does it not also mean that we actually have to experience that kingdom to be in it? And if experience is necessary, in what way does it make sense that doing or believing outer things can somehow catapult us into the kingdom?

It would seem that Christians prefer to passively be taken into heaven rather then entering it by their own free will choices. But I think we need to take a firm stance on the whole kingdom of God is within us concept. Either the idea that
the kingdom is inside of us is and waiting for us to enter is true or the kingdom of God is outside of us and we need to an outer savior to get us there is true. Both concepts cannot be true as they represent completely different approaches to God. Let us compare and contrast some of the essential elements of each position.

Please take a minute to examine the chart above. If we look at this objectively, if we zoom out at look at the various characteristics of the traditional Christian versus the inner path approach to God, it should become very clear the traditional approach is decidedly at odds with Jesus message about the inner kingdom. If this is correct, I think we need to ask ourselves, am I following the true path of Jesus? Is it possible that I may be following a path that may have nothing to do with Jesus’ true teaching? And if I’m not following the true teachings, why is that?

The answer goes back to the tendency for Christians not to look at themselves objectively and take the beam of the ego out of their own eyes. For if you look at the characteristics shown in the second column, it becomes clear that these are all approaches of the ego. The ego thinks it’s separate from God. The ego will wants to raise its separate sense of self and have that self be saved. The ego is all about control so it will never ask the essential questions that necessary to see beyond duality. The ego believes it can be automatically saved by doing ever thing right. And of course, the ego will never take the beam out of its eye because the ego is the essence of the beam. If the beam goes, so does the ego. And, if you remember what we said earlier, that is not going to happen on its own because the ego has a survival instinct that will resist this until the bitter end.

But even beyond this, getting back then to our discussion about the ego in earlier chapters, we can see that ironically the approach taken by Christians and that of the Scribes and Pharisees are really identical in the end! Both groups believe they can be automatically saved. The Scribes and Pharisees of Jesus day believed with absolute certainty that they would be saved by the following the outer rules and rituals of Judaic law. Christians, on the other hand, believe they are saved by believing in Jesus as their savior and the only Son of God. They too are absolutely certain of their salvation by this belief.
But what drives this need for certainty?

It is always the ego. Why? Because as we discussed earlier, the ego has a fundamental need for security as it was created from our sense of separation from God and therefore has no inherent self worth. Unlike ourselves, it was not created by God and therefore can never be saved by God. In truth, the ego days were numbered the minute it was born. It can never ultimately survive as it was created from the death consciousness itself – the best it can do is prolong its existence but not indefinitely. For it will either die when a person rises above the ego and the dualistic consciousness or it will die in what we referred to earlier as the second death.

Thus, in an attempt to offset this destiny and the insecurity that goes with it, the ego drives certain individuals to invent religious doctrine that allow people to feel there is absolute security where their salvation is “in the bag” - either through following some outer rules or by declaring that someone outside of themselves can save them.

Am I then saying that the traditional approach to Christianity is a false teaching? Well, let’s look at this logically. The chart above strongly indicates that ego is what underlies the characteristics in the second column - the traditional approach where Jesus presumably guarantees our salvation by our belief in him. And since the ego was born out of the duality consciousness where truth cannot be known and everything is relative, and since we have since traditional Christian doctrine is heavily if not entirely influenced by the ego, how can we say there is any truth in it?

And if there is no truth in it, do we really believe that these doctrines came from Jesus? We know that above anything else, Jesus spoke truth, even very unpopular truth that upset a number of powerful religious leaders to the point that they went so far as to kill him in attempt to silence him. We know that by and large Jesus was above the ego as his tests in the desert (Luke 4:1-13) as well the statement that the prince of this world cometh and have nothing in me (John 14:29) attest.

In fact, Jesus went out of his way to challenge the mindset that Christians take regarding salvation in his interactions with the Scribes and Pharisees. The religions leaders were waiting for a Messiah to come – but they had a very fixed idea about what their version of the Messiah should say and do. They wanted a Messiah who upheld and affirmed their rigid rules and doctrines and reinforced their belief that they could be automatically saved by adhering to them. In truth they wanted a Messiah who was created in the image and likeness of their egos. Yet Jesus rebuked them saying: Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered. (Luke 11:52).

The approach of the Scribes and Pharisees effectively killed the desire for people to look within and find truth for themselves which is the key of knowledge that Jesus is referring. Again, in their minds there was no need to find the inner kingdom because the way to heaven was to follow all their outer rules and rituals. Take note here that Christian approach is nearly identical to the Scribes and Pharisees. Both look for something outside of themselves to be saved without having to enter into the spirit of truth and also without having to remove the beam in their own eye which prevents them from seeing the truth.

So it is truly ironic that Christians have criticized Jews for rejecting the Messiah sent to them when they have effectively rejected the same Messiah’s true message. And I probably don’t have to tell you what that is but I’ll say it again anyway: the kingdom of God is within you. All beings who truly are in heaven have internalized this truth. Salvation is achieved not by looking for any type of automatic salvation but rather by raising our consciousness. Salvation is a state of being in the here and now, not a future guarantee in the hereafter.

Yes we are indeed redeemed by the only begotten Son of God – which is the Word of God, the Living Word that we internalize when we become one with Christ Consciousness. But this only Son is universally available to all where each of us can become one with the Son. In the process, we can truly BE the Suns of God shining the light of truth that will draw all people unto their own divine reality.

4. You have to die to get to heaven
We have already seen how the notion of automatically salvation has been subtlety woven into the fabric of Christian thought and doctrine. There’s little point in rehashing this except to say that I hope that my thoughts on the subject have been clear. Namely, that there is no such thing as automatic salvation as salvation is always an inner state of being, not an outer achievement or the result of a set of beliefs.
If this is true then, it follows then that the notion that if we’re good Christians that when we die we go to heaven is really just as an illusory notion as the idea that our salvation is guaranteed. If heaven is a state of consciousness, and if we haven’t achieved that state of consciousness prior to death, there is no reason to believe that when we die we somehow will.

As written in the Old Testament, he who is filthy, let him be filthy still (Revelation 22:11). I believe this means that if someone is in a low state of consciousness when their physical body dies, they will still be in a low state of consciousness after that. God does not magically strip away all our faults and raise into full Christ awareness simply because our spirits have left our physical bodes in the change called death. In fact, God cannot do this as this would be a violation of our free will. Free will is one of the foundational laws of the universe and God does not violate his own laws.

Think about it. What would we possibly learn if God were to magically transform us into a being worthy of heaven after we die? The answer of course is that we wouldn’t learn a thing. Therefore, nothing would be achieved as all of life is about learning and growing. Remember, God always wants us to multiply our talents and be More. But we can’t be More if we somehow bypass the very process by which becoming More is possible – namely, by transcending our current state of consciousness for a higher state of consciousness. This perpetual process is what keeps the River of Life flowing in what is called eternal life.

Death is no more a condition to enter heaven than so is so-called life. This does not mean to say there isn’t a place where souls travel after the physical body dies. There are indeed dimensions to the spiritual universe where souls go after death. However, we will not permanently reside in the higher realms until we have found the kingdom of God with us. Instead, the higher realms we journey to between embodiments serve as places of learning, where we can review our mistakes and strengths from previous lifetimes to prepare ourselves for the next.

What I’m saying here is that there certainly are numberless numbers of beings who permanently reside in higher dimensions that most would call heaven. Yet without exception, each of these beings has realized the kingdom of God within themselves. Likewise, not one of them was automatically saved by Jesus or by any other spiritual being. All of them earned their place in heaven – which is not a fixed place mind you – by the direct experience of God within themselves. All have manifested the Christ consciousness. All have overcome the ego and dualistic illusions if in fact they ever fell into it. All are capable of doing the works that Jesus did and greater works, not because they are somehow artificially elevated to a status beyond their attainment, but rather because like Jesus they have become one with God and therefore manifest the natural fruits of that oneness.

We have seen that death does not guarantee our permanent ascension to spiritual realms. Yet is it true that we have to die to get there? The answer, of course, is an unequivocal no. As we said before, the kingdom of heaven really is a metaphor for a state of consciousness. That state of consciousness, moreover we have referred to as the Christ consciousness. The Christ consciousness is characterized by a state of inner wholeness, oneness, peace and bliss wherein we have the capacity to discern the truth of God. This means that if we can achieve this state of consciousness like Jesus did in his Galilean embodiment, then we are already in heaven. This also means that we can be in what is called heaven right in the here and now and we don’t have to die to get there.

However, what does have to die is our ego, our false sense of identity that we have built out of our sense of separation from God. You can’t drag the ego into heaven with you. You have to remove the beam in your own eye that is the ego. Remember that the ego represents the death consciousness of separation from God – the duality consciousness – as there is no real life outside of God. Therefore, for us to obtain the inner kingdom, what has to die is the death consciousness itself! Only when we let death go can we truly embrace life. Therefore, it behooves us all with all our getting, to get understanding of the ego and how to let it go, how to let it die. We can only have the victory over death when we are willing to face the cause of death and surrender it. We will never find the ego when we look for salvation outside of ourselves. The ego can only survive if it goes undetected. The reason the ego drive us to seek the outer path is that when we do so we never look within ourselves to see it hiding behind all our false beliefs and desires. The solution is for us to walk the inner path where both the ego and the Christ are discerned because we are willing to forsake the one and embrace the other.

So in the end, if we choose the life of Christ, meaning raise our consciousness and put on the mind of Christ while at the same time we shuffle off the mortal coil of the ego, we will then find eternal life. And the best part is we don’t have to die to get there. In fact, the only way to get to heaven is through life not death.

Spiritual Procrastination
The sacred cow that death is our ticket to heaven is a particularly pernicious one because it has the effect that it causes us to postpone our spiritual path. Quite naturally, if you believe that only death will bring you eternal life and happiness, then there is little reason to search for kingdom of God in the present. Why work to transform yourself in the here and now if you have to wait until you die to find the peace you want, the peace you’ve been promised. In this model, there really is no reason to pursue the spiritual path because it’s all done for us anyway and nothing happens until after we die - so what’s the point?

Well the point is that we need to overcome this illusion because when we do so we will find that our divine reality is waiting for us to be who we are today! It’s not waiting for us in some forever after that never comes. Thus, we can begin the process of putting on our Christhood right now and the key is to actually be in the now.

You see, in our divine reality there is no time or space – only Being. This is referred to as the Eternal Now. We connect with our Christ Self and I AM Presence by being in the eternal now. Yet we understand that one of the tricks of the ego is to keep us either forever in the past or forever in the future. You can’t be perpetually in the future or the past and be in the now. And if you’re not in the now, you’re not in your true Being. So the way to Being is being in the now where you effortlessly and spontaneously commune with your Higher Self

Know this. Spiritual procrastination is death. Physical death is not the ticket to eternal life. The belief that our death is our passport to eternity is just another game of the ego. Eternal life is attained within you in the eternal now of oneness with your higher being. So don’t put off your Christhood. Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2). Today is the day to begin the inner path back to oneness, for the tomorrow of vicarious or automatic salvation truly never comes.

5. The Bible is the Infallible Word of God
I recently visited a Christian church and I was intrigued by a couple of the rituals. First, the congregation still recited the Nicene Creed – which is essentially a hold over from the Middle Ages. Second, before the scriptural reading, there was an elaborate ritual which culminated with one of the church elders raising the Bible up in their hands for all to see, then leans over and kisses it. I had to say that it was eerily similar to depictions of ancient rites of human sacrifice.

I think these two rituals are not unrelated. The Nicene Creed was established by an early church council designed to rid all of its doctrines of “heretical teachings” – reincarnation being one of them. Even though Jesus never wrote down his teachings, it seemed imperative to the early church fathers that all doctrine be codified and that any thing that dared challenge establish this new orthodoxy – which really was the old Roman empire reborn in clerical clothing – be crushed.

The Nicene Creed is a fairly obvious and overt attempt at defining very tight parameters around acceptable Christian beliefs. It clearly establishes both the supremacy of Jesus and our sense of separation from God. For the most part it has worked. Yet I don’t think reciting this creed has been nearly as effective in achieving the same goal of keeping God outside of ourselves as the idea that the Bible is the infallible, unalterable and final word of God. Let’s examine this further through the lens of the second commandment.

Graven Images
The second commandment states that thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image (Exodus 20:4). Many Christians and Jews alike have interpreted this to mean that statues and artistic renderings of religious themes should not include a direct image of God. Another interpretation says that while such depictions are in fact allowed, even encouraged, yet one should not in any way profane or ridicule God’s image.

But if you think about if, if God is the Infinite God of the universe, why would he care so much about artistic renderings of his image? Why would God make this the second commandment and not the tenth – why is it so important? Is it really logical to assume that the Infinite God of universe would say something like “above nearly everything else, don’t create images of me, and if you must do so, don’t create disrespectful images of me?”
From this perspective, this interpretation seems ludicrous. The interpretation implies that God could somehow be offended by what humans do – that God has such a big ego that he would angered at artistic renderings that are not up to snuff. The focus here is on God and not us. But do we really think that God created the Ten Commandments for himself or for us? Of course the answer is that the commandments were created for our edification, not God’s. What then is God trying to tell us by stating in no uncertain terms that we should not create any graven images of him?

This goes back to earlier discussions on the inner versus outer approaches to God. The outer approach to God states that we are separate from God. It tries to bridge this separation by creating mental images that supposedly describe God. So instead of directly experiencing God in our being through our sense of oneness, the outer approach provides only a mental idea – an image – of God. Since this image is not derived from a direct experience of God within, it can only come from one place – the ego. And what is one of the central characteristics of the ego? It is that it designed to prevent growth. And what better way to prevent growth than to create concepts that are fixed – that cannot be alternated, challenged or transcended as the supposed only means to reach God.

This is precisely what has been done with Christian doctrine. First, fixed doctrines like the Nicene Creed and other rituals were given to the masses creating a very dogmatic and inflexible description of our relationship to Jesus and God. On top of that, for a thousand years or so, Catholics were not even allowed to read the Bible so they would never have a chance to challenge the fixed doctrines, if in fact discrepancies did exist. Around the time of the renaissance when the King James Bible was written, the common people finally were allowed to read the Bible for themselves. However, the powers that be saw to it that the Bible was interpreted through a very narrow lens – namely through the perspective of separation from God and the establishment of the authority of an outer church.

Progressive Revelation
But these practices really had nothing to do with purposes of God. God gave us the Ten Commandments and all true spiritual teachings with one purpose in mind – to help us raise our consciousness. As discussed earlier, the idea is that we receive one level of teaching in order that we might raise our consciousness and where the next level of teaching can be given. Yet if we have in our minds fixed or graven images about the nature of God and ourselves – like God is an angry being in the sky and we are miserable sinners – then these images become a substitute for the direct experience of God and inhibit our spiritual growth. The reason then that God was so adamant about us not entertaining fixed ideas about religion and God is precisely because it will stop our spiritual growth. Once again, growth and self transcendence are the essence of true spirituality and you can’t really be spiritual if you are in a mindset that prevents growth.

Again, God never intended spiritual teachings to be infallible. Spiritual teachings are a tool designed to get us to the next level on the path, not to be a millstone around our necks. We can see that the nature of spiritual teachings is progressive. Revelation from God never stops as long as there are people on earth who have raised their consciousness to the point where they can receive it. Therefore while the Bible may be our starting point – and it is a good place to start – it was never intended to be the ending point. It was written to be transcended. Just as you wouldn’t expect a college math student to still be studying arithmetic, so too should we not expect spiritually advanced students to limit themselves to this one spiritual text to the exclusion of all others.

And it should be noted that God – and the spiritual beings who are mankind’s true teachers – never give a revelation that it too far beyond our current ability to understand. The spiritual teachers who guide the earth are wise teachers. They are pragmatic teachers and deal in the realistic terms of what is possible. Therefore they always give us a level of teaching that reaches just beyond our current understanding but not too far beyond it. This makes it possible to reach and assimilate the teachings given to us by raising our consciousness to that level. As we progress - that is assimilate and transcend the teachings -
progressively more advanced teachings are given to the point where we are ultimately able to get our answers directly from inside ourselves.

This is the entire goal of providing spiritual teachings. Namely, to use what Jesus called the key of knowledge to obtain the answers we are looking for inside ourselves. It is to help us have a direct experience of God from when all true knowledge is derived. God doesn’t want us to be co-dependent on the Bible or any other spiritual tool. God wants to give us higher teachings that will assist us on the path of oneness. However, this can’t be done until people are ready to raise their consciousness. So, if they are stuck in the mindset of a fixed outer idea about God, then a higher teaching cannot be released.
It’s a catch-22 which can only be resolved when people tire of what the mirror of life continues to mirror back them – that is the fruits of their graven images that mankind has been sending out for thousands of years. It can only be resolved when we desire to reach beyond the graven images given to us by established religions – be it Christianity or otherwise.

Entropy
Another problem with graven images is that they produce a closed system – meaning they create systems that are impervious to change, whether from within or without. Science has told us that when systems become closed, they inevitably break down. This is the concept called Entropy described in the second law of thermodynamics.

Thus we see this dynamic played out in the rise and fall of civilizations and religions throughout history. Whenever a system becomes closed – as Christianity has become, it will begin to break down. Certainly we have seen it in the breakdown of Catholic Church and some fundamentalist churches as well, for example, with many sex, drug and financial scandals that have rocked the foundations of these organizations. We have also seen it in recent surveys of religion that suggest that many people are moving away from the rigid dogmas tradition Christian churches and looking for their own brand of spirituality or rejecting God altogether.

The problem is that in closed systems there is no room for God. There is no room for the Holy Spirit as the true spirit of God within each of is rejected in favor of the graven image of the outer God. There is an element of pride here is well that says that all we need are the descriptions – graven images of God – and nothing else so don’t bother us with whatever you may have to say as we already have the truth. And so, whenever the descriptions of God are preferred to the experience of God it is inevitable that things will eventually break down as it is not revitalized by light of God. Remember, true life is flowing and transcendent – like a mighty rushing river. Graven images are static, unchanging.- like stagnant pool of water. Therefore they defy the verify foundations of the reality of God. They are the hallmark of those who kick against the pricks of life as some do to the bitter end.

In fact, many Christians are unfortunately completely attached to the idea that the Bible is the unchanging, infallible word of God and will become highly indignant if you suggest otherwise. This is because the entire basis for their spiritual life is the outer approach where you don’t have to use your discernment. The infallibility approach has the seeming advantage where you don’t have to think and make decisions based on your discernment – you can as it were coast along in the black and white consciousness where everything is decided for you. The infallible approach also engenders a sense of superiority over other beliefs. For after all, if the Bible is absolutely right than any other spiritual teaching that is not from the Bible must be absolutely wrong. So you can see from the perspective of the ego, there is much to be lost. Many people are either unready or unwilling to take responsibility for their spiritual path. Thus if you tell them that you need to make your own spiritual decisions they will quite naturally balk at this.

Having said all this, I don’t mean to take a black and white posture on the black and white consciousness itself. As I said earlier, many Christians are black and white about religion, but less so about other aspects of life. Also, it is true that God has in past ages brought forth relatively black and white teachings – like the Ten Commandments themselves – to help people come back into alignment with an outer teaching until they are ready to accept an inner teaching. Yet in this day and age, I believe there are many Christians who are ready to move on to the inner path which is why I’m writing this book. No doubt that many are not yet ready for this step.

Yet many are ready. And so I hope they can come to the understanding that whether the Bible is absolutely true or not has nothing to do with who they are at inner levels.

This is because the Bible is consists of a series of descriptions of God – some more accurate than others, depending on the consciousness of the people who were the instruments for the teaching. Descriptions of God are just that – descriptions, mental images which may or may not have any basis in reality. They cannot define our being. Our being is a formed by our direct experience of the kingdom of God within – not by mere descriptions of an outer God in a text written anywhere between two and five thousand years ago. Words on a page does not being make. We can only manifest true spirituality when we experience God for and in ourselves. An ounce of being is worth a thousand pounds of dogma. A million words in the Bible cannot save you or make you whole. Yet a single insight that you are actually one with God might be the catalyst that will lead you to your Christhood.

So I would ask all open minded Christians to be willing to reexamine the sacred cow of infallibility. My hope is that people can see this concept for what it really is – just another trick of the ego. And when I mentioned the ritual of the Bible being likened unto a human sacrifice, what I meant to imply is that what is sacrificed on the altar of infallibility is our true being, our true identity in God. This has been sacrificed for far too long and at a great price. Isn’t it time to lay down all our nets of attachments to outer doctrines and dogmas for the pearl of great price of the Christ consciousness - the pearl of our real identity? Ask yourself what is more important, the sacred cow or the Living Word? For truly you cannot have both.

Naked Cows
Hopefully this chapter has helped you to see that a sacred cow exposed is a naked cow. And a naked cow should have no power of you. This does not mean that life itself is not sacred because as it comes from God and most decidedly is, but it does mean that sacredness has nothing to do with ignorance. You can’t make a truly informed choice when you don’t know all the facts. That’s because the deck will always be stacked against you and for the ego. The ego wants you to have sacred cows that it can hide behind. If you think about it, all sacred cows contain an element of fear. It is something that we fear to examine for it might upset God or more importantly overturn the entire applecart of the outer path.

We know there is no fear in love. As God is love, there can be no room for sacred cows that keep us in fear. You are on the road to enlightenment when you are willing to examine any and all sacred cows you have and discard them as your inner direction suggests. There are no sacred cows in God’s world, only sacred beings. You are a sacred being. And when you walk the sacred adventure of the inner path, you can then realize just how sacred life truly is as you progressively experience the transcendent love of God.

Some Do's and a Couple of Don'ts for the Spiritual Path

2010-03-27T08:17:00.000-07:00

The following is a response to an email to "StevetheSeeker" from a dear friend who is getting very interested in the spiritual path and the teachings on the ego. He remarked that my initial response to him was long on "BE-ing" but short on "Do-ing" types of recommendations, which he thought would be helpful for a beginner on the path. So I gave the Do's some thought and this was I've done:

Your analysis is right on. Yet if I was half the sage you think I am I would have thought of this myself, namely, to be a little more concrete with some DO's in the beginning:)

Even so, when we connect to our inner God selves, we are all sages in the making, all on a journey to re-remember what we already know inside of us, and then make that More.

Now, there is a reason I'm somewhat resistant to DO's, and that is the ego will always attempt to turn even the most casual of recommendations into some infallible rules or doctrines that will supposedly save you - but I trust a word to the wise is sufficient in this regard.

Having said that, here are some general DO's that have worked for me - meaning they have helped me grow. You can, if you decide, experiment with one or more of these recommendations and see if they work for you.

You already understand that BE-ness is the goal, opening yourself up to the spontaneous creative flow of the Spirit by walking an inner path, so hopefully these DO's will help you enter and grow on this path.

So without further ado, here's some of my DOs. I'm putting numbers on them for future reference, but they are not necessarily in order of importance.

1. Observe yourself objectively, dispassionately, as if you were watching yourself on a movie screen.

2. Take note of what your reactions to things others or circumstances in your life

3. Don't be obsessive about 1 & 2:)

4. Watch for the ego. How do you know when there's ego? Here are some hints or symptoms:

defensiveness
feeling like a victim
rationalizations
desire to control others
always needing to be "right"
desire to hide things from others or from God
critically judging others or yourself
dishonesty
fear
anxiety
anger
depression
addictions
"sacred cows" where you offended if someone challenges it
unwillingness to hear other points of view
automatically rejecting new ideas
needing to "save" others
fearing anything outside your mental box
contentiousness
intellectual or spiritual pride
stubbornness
desire to run away from your problems
looking for the past, the "gold old" days
longing for the future
wanting others to change
black and white thinking
gray thinking

5. If you a see a "mistake" don't condemn yourself, simply note it, look at what might be behind it, and let it go. See your so-called mistakes as stepping stones to growth. Better yet, see your mistakes as an experiment in life that gave you a learning result.

6. Be willing to consider the validity of an idea even if you don't initially agree with it. Be willing to put ideas that you don't understand "on the shelf" without automatically rejecting them until you have time to process them at a later point.

7. Meditate (or pray) daily on your God Self and oneness with that self. If you like I can make some suggestions. Commune in such a way that you start getting answers to your questions about life and the Spirit. Seek an understanding of what currently keeps you believing you are unwhole and the next things to work on.

8. Seek to have direct experiences of God within you via 7. above or any other means. As one example, there is a fire of God that burns in all our (spiritual) heart centers. Most people do not experience this because, for want of attention, the flame has not been expanded to point that it breaks through to conscious awareness. I know by personal experience however, that this beautiful transcendent fire can be experienced perpetually day in and day out. Once you have experiences like that, the need for intellectual proof of God becomes totally irrelevant.

8. Keep a journal for a time of the types of things I've been discussing.

9. If you find yourself in a struggle with one thing or another, take the time to step back and see what got you to that point.

10. Study spiritual books and articles. I have some recommendations if interested.

11. Always be willing to take the next step. Don't get too comfortable with any point on the path. Question your current perception of things.

12. Be of good cheer. Be good to yourself even though you are looking at yourself with an eye to letting go of some things. Don't take yourself too seriously - as Jesus said "my way is easy and my burden is light."

Finally and perhaps most importantly (even if it is a little bit Be-like) the key to your victory is surrender. Keep surrendering the unreal as you discover more of the real.

I think that's enough for now.

Hope this helps. Thanks for showing me how to make this a bit more useful to you.

All my love,

Steve

Be One With Me

2010-02-28T09:12:00.000-08:00

Always I’m knocking
At the door of your heart
Even when you are flocking
To the world’s wares and marts
Always I’m calling
To find me within
And when your have found me
Our journey begins

O be one with me
I’m in your heart
There’s no need to run and hide
When you run with me
We’ll co-create
A new world where love abides
O be one on the inside
You’re not unworthy or small
Be one with Infinite
And be one with all

Always be searching
And open your mind
My words they are living
Leave the doctrines behind
I’ll help you surrender
The beam in your eye
So there’s no fear and no doubt
With new wings to fly

O be one with me
I’m in your heart
There’s no need to run and hide
When you run with me
We’ll co-create
A new world where love abides
O be one on the inside
You’re not unworthy or small
Be one with Infinite
And be one with all

No you’re not separate you’re part of the River Is
From the ocean the waves were sent forth
You think I am far away in heaven above the fray
I’m closer then ever before

For two thousand years and more
The Pharisees have locked the door
And thrown away the key
In hopes you’d never find me
But seasons come and seasons go
Now the Spirit wants to flow
The doors blown open wide
So my love can’t be denied

O be one with me
I’m in your heart
There’s no need to run and hide
When you run with me
We’ll co-create
A new world where love abides
O be one on the inside
You’re not unworthy or small
Be one with Infinite
And be one with all

Standing in the Sun

2010-02-03T20:22:00.001-08:00

I heard in the wind that you’re running scared
Though you try, the past won’t get behind
Your head’s in a spin cause you wouldn’t dare
To feel the deeper longings you deny

But I love you more than yesterday
No matter what you’ve done
And even if you turn away
You’re always standing in the sun

The pavement you pound no it wouldn’t bend
The more you fight against it the more you fall
Then down on the ground you might look again
And see the cracks of light break through the wall

Cause I love you more than yesterday
No matter what you’ve done
And even if you turn away
You’re always standing in the sun

I know in your mind
You think you’re abandoned
Please understand I’ve been right here
All the time
And life isn’t random
Just open the door to your heart
And let it shine

So you wake with the thought is this all there is?
As you struggle to make everything seem right
Then you let down your armor that shields you in
When the morning comes to get you past the night

Cause I love you more than yesterday
No matter what you’ve done
And even if you turn away
You’re always standing in the sun

All About Eve - The Role of Women in Christianity

2010-01-19T14:34:00.000-08:00

The fall of man supposedly began when Eve was tempted by the serpent and took a bite out of the forbidden fruit from the tree of life. There is truth to the idea that the feminine aspect was related to the fall as we see. However, if taken literally – as it has been for thousands of years – this idea essentially says that fall of mankind was due to Eve in particular and by association all women in general.

It is simply a fact that historically most societies, nations and religions have been dominated by males while women have played a subservient role to men. Why has this been so? Well, I submit that is largely due to the notion that women are to blame for the fall so many eons ago. Thus the idea was born that women are inherently inferior to men. After all, if woman are to blame for the fall, how can they be entrusted to lead others in spiritual, political, family or societal matters? There is also a hidden anger and contempt for women that further reinforces the idea of male superiority where men are somehow seen as the victims of the weaknesses of women who could not resist the temptations of the serpent in the garden. And of course women have historically not only seen as spiritual seductresses but sexual as well. It seems that the concept of original sin is an admixture of both of these concepts.

Due in no small measure to this supposed original sin; women have historically been viewed as unworthy of leadership or equal standing with men. Unfortunately, Christianity like the Jewish and others religions, has done much to cement women in this subservient role. The Catholic Church, for example, has never allowed women to hold ecclesiastical positions of authority in the church, be it priest, bishop, cardinal or pope. They claim this is because they say they can trace their lineage back to Peter as Jesus’ first disciple. And because Peter was a male, this somehow confers God’s exclusive preference for men as spiritual leaders.

Peter as the Foundation for Christianity
In some ways the Catholic Church is correct in saying the Peter was their foundational spiritual leader. Not necessarily because he was Jesus’ closest disciple – as he most likely was not as we will see shortly – but rather because Peter represents a state of consciousness that lies at the heart of institutionalized Christianity.

On the positive side, Jesus recognized Peter’s spiritual potential and that was one of the reasons he picked him to be one of his disciples. Peter had the discernment to recognize the Christ in Jesus and this is why he accepted Jesus offer to follow him. And as we know, Jesus once said to him Simon, thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build this church (Mathew 16:18). But what kind of rock was Jesus talking about here? Of course, it is not the rock of the ego, the rigid, solidified stone that is the beam in one’s own eye. Rather, Jesus was talking about the rock of the Christ consciousness, which does not turn this way with the shifting sands of the duality consciousness. Yet of course Jesus knew that the same potential to connect with the inner Christ that was in Peter is in all of humanity. Therefore, Jesus was not elevating Peter above the rest and saying that he was the sole torch bearer for Jesus teachings for all time. Instead, Jesus was saying that his teachings rest upon the foundation of the Christ that is in all people, not just in Peter. So the Christ within is the rock that Jesus would build on and not Peter’s outer person.

Though the statement about Peter being the rock of the church is often quoted to establish the authority of Catholic Church as well as the justification for the exclusively male clergy, less often quoted is Jesus stern rebukes of Peter. Did you ever wonder why Jesus said the Peter get thee behind me Satan! (Mathew 16:23) and then later prophesied to him: Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice (Mathew 26:75)?

The reason is that while Peter could recognize the Christ in others or least in Jesus, he wanted that Christ to conform to the expectations of his ego. He thought he knew better than Jesus and sought to control him. So, for example, when Jesus told his disciples that he would go to Jerusalem and in the three days would be crucified, Peter objected essentially telling Jesus he should not do this. When Jesus was washing the feet of his disciples, Peter initially objected though ultimately relented. In both these examples Jesus was not conforming to Peter’s expectations of the Christ should do in this world. You can see that he Peter wanted Jesus to conform to his own expectations which were typically on the side of displaying power and not acts of humility or surrender.

When the Romans came to arrest Jesus, Peter cut off the ear of one guards, essentially violating Jesus teachings of with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you (Mathew 1:11) Again, we see that Peter could not accept the fact that Jesus would surrender himself in humility and was willing to use violence to stop this from happening. In a final act of betrayal, Peter actually denied that he knew Jesus three times when questions by authorities during Jesus crucifixion.

Now, it is probably true that Peter denied Jesus in part to protect his own life, but I believe he also did this because he felt betrayed by Jesus. Peter denied he knew Jesus because he truly did not know the Jesus that failed to conform to his expectations. He was angry at Jesus because he couldn’t control him. And the reason that Peter could accept Jesus decisions is that he internalized the Christ in himself. He rejected the Christ within in favor of the false image of an outer savior who would crush his adversaries rather than surrender to them.

So you can see that if the Catholic Church began with Peter, then you can understand that the denial of Christ lies at the very heart of institutionalized Christianity. And this denial of Christ has continued for two thousand years where even today there is hardly a single Christian church, Catholic or Protestant that teaches that Christ is to be found within you. For Christ not internalized is Christ denied. You cannot truly know God if you deny God within yourself as you will always accept a false image of an outer God as a substitute. Yet it could have been different. There was a higher potential for the followers of Jesus than what eventually became institutionalized Christianity. Christianity could have followed the example of someone who did internalize the Christ consciousness to a far higher degree than Peter. And that would have been the example of Jesus closest disciple – Mary Magdalene.

Mary Magdalene and Jesus’ View of Women
Mary Magdalene is usually depicted as the penitent prostitute or the woman out of who was cast seven demons. Whether these stories are true or not misses the point. The point being that Jesus knew that God was no respecter of persons (Jude 1:11) and thus understood that women had the same spiritual potential as men to become the Christ. He also knew that women had been suppressed for thousands of years and therefore a part of God was being suppressed.

Earlier we discussed how God has two essential aspects, the Father, Alpha or masculine aspect and the Mother, Omega or the feminine aspect. Both aspects are essential for divine balance and wholeness and you really can’t have one without the other. So what you had in Jesus day as well as contemporary society is a religion that is out of balance in that it elevates the masculine aspect of God – although a highly distorted view at that – while almost completely denying the feminine aspect of God. This has had the effect that the perversions of the masculine qualities, such as fanaticism, intolerance and the abuse of power, have dominated religious life while the balancing effects of the feminine, such as nurturance, compassion and wisdom, have been actively suppressed.

Part of Jesus’ mission, therefore, was to help restore this balance in the Jewish religion so that women could play their rightful role in helping to raise the consciousness of humanity. Doing so, moreover, would ultimately help all souls obtain the necessary balance between the masculine and feminine aspects of their own beings. Jesus was never bashful about bucking societal norms so that the Christ in himself and in all might be expressed. In fact, Jesus went out of his way to encourage women to fulfill their spiritual potential. It’s clear from certain passages in the canonical gospels and the so called Gnostic writings that women played a major role in Jesus life and teachings. Consider the following passage from Luke:

And it came to pass afterward, that he went throughout every city and village, preaching and shewing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God; and the twelve were with him, and certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom was cast seven devils, and Joanna the wife of Chuzra Herod’s steward, and Suzanna, and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance (Luke 8:1-2)

Here we get the picture of Jesus, his twelve disciples and a number of women all traveling together from city to city throughout the holy land preaching the gospel that the kingdom of God was at hand and within them. Think about how radical of approach that was. It must have been a great shock to see women teaching and preaching along side of Jesus and other men in a society where women were treated as second class citizens.

Yet Jesus was not concerned about shocking people who are stuck in their egos. In fact, it probably served to his advantage that people were forced to deal with their rigid mental boxes about women when confronted with this scene. He was more concerned with raising up the divine feminine in both women and in men then he was for respecting the established social mores of the day. And as a part of Jesus plan to assist women in realizing their spiritual potential one woman in particular played a unique role in this drama. That of course being Mary Magdalene.

Even in the canonical gospels there is plenty of evidence to suggest that Mary Magdalene played a special role in Jesus life and mission as the following examples suggest:

• Mary witnessed the procession of Christ as he was carrying the cross and collapsed under its weight (Mark 15:40)
• Mary Magdalene was present at the foot of the cross with Jesus' mother Mary and the apostle John. Mary was mentioned first among women at the crucifixion in the gospels. (Matthew 27:56, Mark 15:40, John 19:25)
• Mary was present at Jesus burial at the tomb, and witnessed the stone being rolled to seal its entrance. (Matthew 27:61)
• Mary was first to appear at the tomb the next morning to witness the stone had rolled away. (Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:1, Luke 24:10, John 20:1)
• Mary Magdalene was the first to witness the risen Christ, in fact, the first to preach the resurrection, to the apostles themselves. (Mark 16:9, Luke 24:10, John 20:18) – citations courtesy of marymagdalene.net

I believe the fact that Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene after his resurrection is especially telling regarding the importance of her role. Why didn’t he appear to Peter first or to one of the other disciples? To me, it says that Jesus appeared to the one he was closest to just as most of us would tell our closest friends – our spouses or otherwise – when something wonderful has happened.

There is no doubt that Jesus and Mary had a very special relationship. Many believed they were married and even had children. In fact this was the central premise for enormously popular novel The Da Vinci Code. So the idea resonates with people, especially today when many Christians are beginning to awaken to higher truths and are searching for something more than what they have been given through institutionalized Christianity. Personally, because of the intensity and condensed nature of Jesus mission, I doubt that they were married during his Galilean embodiment, though I would not rule out the possibility that they were married sometime after his resurrection as some scholars have suggested.

I do believe, however, that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were soul mates or twin flames as some have called it. The concept here is that when God created our souls, we were always created in pairs – one primarily holding the masculine polarity of God and the other the feminine polarity. Note that both have masculine and feminine aspects, but each has slightly more of the quality that there are destined to manifest. The idea is that each of has a twin flame out there somewhere and when working in harmony whether in or out of embodiment then accomplish more together than apart.

So this is the type of relationship that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had. And it was the love of the twin flame relationship that helped sustain and uplift each other through the trying times of Jesus’ final incarnation. Though they have great love for each other born from this eternal tie, I think they both used that love in a working relationship with the goal of bringing the teachings of the inner kingdom to the people.

The following passage taken from the fragments remaining to what is referred to as the Gospel of Mary suggests just such a post resurrection role for Mary and she describes a vision she received from Jesus:

When Mary had said this, she fell silent, since it was to this point that the Savior had spoken with her. But Andrew answered and said to the brethren, Say what you wish to say about what she has said. I at least do not believe that the Savior said this. For certainly these teachings are strange ideas. Peter answered and spoke concerning these same things. He questioned them about the Savior: Did He really speak privately with a woman and not openly to us? Are we to turn about and all listen to her? Did He prefer her to us? Then Mary wept and said to Peter, My brother Peter, what do you think? Do you think that I have thought this up myself in my heart, or that I am lying about the Savior? Levi answered and said to Peter, Peter you have always been hot tempered. Now I see you contending against the woman like the adversaries. But if the Savior made her worthy, who are you indeed to reject her? Surely the Savior knows her very well. That is why He loved her more than us. Rather let us be ashamed and put on the perfect Man, and separate as He commanded us and preach the gospel, not laying down any other rule or other law beyond what the Savior said. And when they heard this they began to go forth to proclaim and to preach.

Take note that the very same apostle who Catholic Church uses to justify their discrimination against women turns about to be the most vocal critic of Mary’s proposed leadership role. Again we see here the denial of Christ but this time it is the denial of the Christ within Mary Magdalene as there was definite opposition to her leadership almost exclusively based upon the fact that she was a woman. I don’t want to be too hard on Peter here as he and the other disciples were definitely products of their cultures which placed women in a subservient role. Nevertheless the opposition to women even at that time was not inevitable as Levi’s comments suggests. Levi recognized that Jesus had picked Mary for a very good reason. He understood that Jesus was no respecter of outer personalities, even when it came to his twin flame. Therefore it must have been Mary’s spiritual attainment – her own connection with her higher self – that earned her the right to lead the apostles.

In the end, however, history tells us that the leadership role of Mary Magdalene in particular and women in general did not last as it was actively resisted and suppressed by the male dominated culture. And it was this same male dominated and ego based culture that ultimately destroyed the early Christian movements with its more Gnostic, Being based approach advocated by Jesus.
In its place, through the efforts of Emperor Constantine and others, Christianity became institutionalized with much of it derived from the traditions and customs of the Roman Empire. The idea, for example, that the Roman emperor was the only divine being on earth was replaced by the idea that Jesus is the only Son of God elevated above the rest of us.

The Role of Mary, the Mother of Jesus
Jesus’ mother Mary – referred to here as Mother Mary – is somewhat of an exception in how women have been regarded in the Christian church. Clearly a special role and honor is afforded her for having given birth to and raising Jesus. She has also been venerated for centuries by Catholics, and in more recent history she has been said to appear to certain of the faithful providing special messages and dispensations. The upside of this is that at least there has been some veneration of and raising up of the Mother energy through dedication to her heart.

Despite this special status, there are certain ideas about her that are problematic from a spiritual perspective. First, as everyone knows, it is said that Mary conceived Jesus in the womb by the agency of the Holy Spirit without having any marital relations with her husband Joseph. This is the so called virgin birth story. One of the unfortunate side effects of this story is that it sends the message that the Christ cannot be conceived by the normal reproductive process. In essence, this means that normal human sexuality is not pure enough to produce the likes of Jesus, and more importantly we are not good enough, we are not worthy to bring forth the Christ. It is another way to separate us from Jesus - another way of putting Jesus on a pedestal and making an idol out of him. The story also separates us from Mother Mary, as she too is put on a pedestal. It essentially says to other women that unless they are specially singled out by God they cannot be like her and give birth to the Christ.

In short, the story is just another way of keeping the Christ out of this world – which truth be told, has been the desire of the forces of antichrist since the time of the fall and beyond. I would like to go on record here stating that the virgin birth is a myth and that Jesus was conceived in the normal way like any one of us. Therefore you don’t have to born in a special way to reach your spiritual potential. And in the end, it’s not so much how our body was born but that the Christ is born in each of us through the decisions we make on a daily basis.

Although the story does elevate Mary above most of us, it doesn’t elevate her as high as Jesus. You can see that in accounts of Jesus and Mary assent into heaven. Both presumably made it to heaven. Yet when we look at the scriptures we see that while Jesus was said to have ascended Luke (1:11) into heaven, Mary was merely assumed (Luke 1:11) into heaven. To me, the term “ascended” sounds active and superior, while the term “assumed” sounds passive and inferior, somehow less deserving. At any rate “assumed” is not the same as “ascended” and since Jesus is the highest being in the Christian hierarchy, one can only assume that “ascended” is better. The concept sends a dual message that Jesus is higher than even the best of us and that a woman could not be treated by God the same way as a man.

As stated above, the Catholic Church has maintained some connection to the Divine Feminine by keeping a tie to Mother Mary, since the Reformation, the Protestant church has severed this tie altogether as they rejected the Catholic tradition of the veneration of the saints. It’s understandable that the Protestants sought to remove themselves from all ecclesiastical roadblocks to their relationship with Jesus – as they may have seen the saints as just another extension of the oppressive Catholic hierarchy. However, their decision to reject Mother Mary is like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. In the process of rejecting unwanted spiritual authority, they also discarded whatever tenuous tie to the Feminine aspect of God that remained in the Catholic Church. Even today, my own experience growing up Lutheran is that many Protestants are almost suspicious of Mary as one who somehow competes with the special status of Jesus. Many see the Catholic Church as cult like due in no small measure to their veneration of Mary.

This is most unfortunate as she is a being who could render them tremendous assistance on the path of personal Christhood. You see, Mother Mary ascended into heaven just like Jesus did because she united with God in the own being as Jesus did. Today, Mother Mary is an ascended being like Jesus and like him remains with the earth to assist all in reaching their spiritual potential. She is not Catholic, she is not Protestant, and she is not even Christian. Like Jesus and all ascended beings, she cannot be fit into the narrow box defined by any of the world’s religions as she is constantly transcending herself while flowing with the River of Life. She has on occasion delivered messages through certain Catholic visionaries because they were the only traditional Christians open to her message. However, she cannot deliver an unedited message regarding the inner kingdom to these emissaries because it is outside their understanding of God so they would therefore reject it.

Understand that Mother Mary can help all who are seeking God to find that God within themselves. She is very involved with helping raise the light of the Divine Mother in each of us and the planet as a whole. In fact, she represents the Divine Mother to the people of earth. If you meditate on her immaculate heart she will show you how raise the light up in yourself and manifest the abundant life which as the scriptures say is the Father’s good pleasure to give us. She should not, however, be idolized because when you idolize someone you can never internalize and become what they have become. Therefore, I highly suggest you avail yourself of her assistance and see how she can help you surrender every beam in your eye that is preventing you from being here below all that you are above.

The Feminine and the Fall
Returning to our discussion of Eve, was it really Eve or women that caused the fall? Well, we have discussed earlier in the book that the fall was not the fall of only one or two people, but it was really was an event or perhaps we should say process that happened to untold number of souls throughout history. So it cannot be said that one person caused the fall, be it a woman or a man. What did happen however, and the reason the story persists that Eve caused the fall, is that feminine aspect of our beings that fell into the duality consciousness – which is what we really mean by the term “the fall of man.”

So how did the feminine cause the fall? This can be seen from different perspectives. From one perspective, our relationship with God can be viewed a polarity between ourselves and Spirit. God or the I AM Presence can be seen as the masculine or directing aspect of our beings while our Conscious Self or souls can be seen as the receiving or feminine aspect of our beings. From this perspective, it is undoubtedly the feminine side of us that fell. The masculine aspect, the I AM Presence could never fall into duality as it beyond the dimensions of form and time and space where duality can exist.

From another perspective, even in the lower aspect of our beings below there is both a masculine and feminine side to each of us. Ideally these aspects of our being need to be in balance to maintain proper spiritual growth and awareness. The masculine aspect is more active side of beings multiplying our talents and energy in the world of form while the feminine side is more passive receiving side open to the suggestions of higher self. What happened during the fall is that the feminine aspects of our natures became open to suggestions outside of our spiritual teachers and our higher identity. The feminine part of our beings became open to the suggestions of the Serpent – which, as explained before, is the conglomerate consciousness of those beings who embodied the mind of antichrist. The Serpent projected thoughts and feelings of doubt into our minds which our feminine side, normally open to receiving the vibrations of the mind of Christ – internalized. This caused our consciousness to gradually fall into the consciousness of duality – a condition from which few on this planet have escaped since that time.

So we see here that is the feminine aspect of our beings in both women and men that fell and not women in particular. Therefore there is no need to blame Eve or all women for the condition that we found ourselves in after the fall as we are all responsible for allowing this to happen. I don’t say this to condemn or blame anyone but is simply a fact that each of us lowered our consciousness to the point where we lost direct contact with our higher selves. Therefore it is up to each us individually and to some extent collectively to once again rise above the ego and duality consciousness and reconnect with the higher aspect of ourselves.

Restoring the Divine Feminine
So how do get back to the garden, as it were? Of course, we have already discussed a number of ways which we make our way back to the Infinite by walking the inner path of oneness. Yet, when we realize that we fell by lowering the feminine in ourselves, it’s logical that the way back to oneness is in part the path of restoring the feminine – both individually and in society as a whole. We need to both resurrect that feminine and bring it into balance with the masculine aspects of our beings. Only when doing so can we really be whole.

Therefore, we need to take the beam out of our eye of those conditions that suppress the feminine qualities, such as purity, abundance, nurturance, wisdom, compassion, understanding and intuition. These conditions can be both cultural and psychological but ultimately they can be traced back to the ego. Therefore, we need to actively seek to heal the parts of ourselves, such as pride and anger that prevent the divine feminine from manifesting in ourselves and in society.

From a societal level, one thing that would help provide perspective is the fact that all have reincarnated in both feminine and masculine embodiments. So to say that the same soul is somehow superior to women when embodied as a man but inferior to men when embodied as women just doesn’t make any sense. We need to recognize that both genders are equal in value but have different roles to play. We also need to recognize the all us have both masculine and feminine characteristics so it is not meaningful to place a higher value on one gender than the other.

For humanity to reach its God given potential, the divine feminine must be raised up in all aspects of life but especially in religion. As discussed, Christianity has historically suppressed the divine feminine, both theologically and organizationally as it has not allowed women to be placed in leadership roles. Even today, when the women’s movement has permeated almost every aspect of Western society, Christian churches have been relatively slow to allow women equal opportunities to lead. It’s unfortunate fact that even the churches that make it a point to reach out to young people and try to be culturally relevant and trendy often are dominated by male clergy.

This needs to change. But it probably won’t change until Christians understand that the very nature of God is both masculine and feminine. Remember, we were all created in the image and likeness of God and that both male and female created he them (Gen. 1:26-27). Thus, God must be both masculine and feminine if we are created in God’s image and likeness. Sometimes the problem is in the language is most of our terms describing God are male oriented. It becomes somewhat difficult to overcome this male bias with these limitations but not impossible. It is possible, however, as our God language evolves, so too will our image and understanding of God.

But until that day there’s much room for improvement and growth in how women are treated in Christianity. In fact, I submit that women should be allowed into any and all leadership roles available in our churches today. Not just in Christian churches, however, but I would advocate for this change in all religions, especially the Muslim religion where we see the most severe repression of women of any organized religion.

So I would hurl this challenge to all of Christendom: Raise up the Divine Feminine in within all and raise it up in all the organizational hierarchies and structures. Tear down the wall of separation that lies between women and their true spiritual destiny and potential! After all, if Jesus treated women as equals, can modern day Christians do any less? Jesus had great reverence for the Divine Feminine, which he also referred to as the Mother of the world. Meditate on these words attributed to Jesus (respectfully referred to as St. Issa) as was reportedly told to travelers in India some years after his crucifixion:

At this time, an old woman approached the crowd, but was pushed back. Then Issa said, "Reverence Woman, mother of the universe,' in her lies the truth of creation. She is the foundation of all that is good and beautiful. She is the source of life and death. Upon her depends the existence of man, because she is the sustenance of his labors. She gives birth to you in travail, she watches over your growth. Bless her. Honor her. Defend her. Love your wives and honor them, because tomorrow they shall be mothers, and later-progenitors of a whole race. Their love ennobles man, soothes the embittered heart and tames the beast. Wife and mother-they are the adornments of the universe."

It this is accomplished, if we revere and upraise the Divine Mother in each us and in Christianity as well, I believe we could experience a veritable renaissance in spirituality in all Christian churches. When we unleash the power the Divine Mother balanced by the Divine Father, there is literally no end to the growth and rejuvenation that can take place. All it takes is a few enlightened souls to get this movement started. When you elevate the Divine Feminine in yourself, perhaps you will be one of them.

Love is Calling Out Your Name

2010-01-16T09:55:00.000-08:00

Used to be

Part of me went to sleep

Dreaming of better days

Charging at windmills

So unfulfilled

Gazing into the haze

The bottom rocks cut me

I cried out “who touched me”

Into the rays

Like Lazarus trembling

The dove is descending

And then it says

Love is calling out your name

When you hear it you can rise

In the Spirit everything can change

Come up higher then the mire

Of the muck and mar

Feel the fire’s desire to be who you are

Let the sun in and come in

From the rain

As love is calling out your name

Listen to me

You can be, I can be

One with infinity

It’s no desecration

To claim it

Our native divinity

Turn a deaf ear to the fears

That tell you

What cannot be

It’s all an illusion

So pierce the sword through them

And then you’ll see

(chorus)

No disguising the sun is rising

The new day is on its way

You can find it, be reminded

The path is clearing

The voice your hearing

(chorus)

KOG: Be There of Be Square

2010-01-02T14:43:00.000-08:00

Jesus was not a religious man. Nor did he come to start a new religion. He did not come to uphold the status quo of priests and prelates who lorded over the people, interjecting themselves between the people and their relationship to God. Those who believe that Jesus was a pious Jew who followed all their rules are simply in denial of what Jesus said and did in this regard.

Jesus was, in fact, in constant conflict with the religious authorities of his day. He healed on the Sabbath. He overturned the tables in the temple. He rebuked the Scribes and Pharisees. These actions flowed from Jesus’ inner connection with God - all for a purpose.

He came to shake things up. In doing so, Jesus desired to awaken and liberate the people from their dependence on the fixed ideas of the outer authorities, as well as an attempt to reform the Jewish religion. For much like the Christian religion that followed it, Judaism had become ossified by demanding a rigid adherence to outer rules, customs, and mores. In Jesus day, following these rules to the letter was presented as the only means to salvation while the priests were setup as the judge and jury over it.

Yet Jesus knew that God – a God of unconditional love – accepted no outer rules or conditions to enter his Kingdom. In other words, Jesus understood that no amount of prayers, rituals, fasting, sacrifices, pilgrimages or position of authority could guarantee entrée into God’s kingdom. Nor can not doing these things necessarily keep you from it.

So where then is this kingdom, how does one find it? Well, in perhaps the most profound of all Jesus’ statements recorded in the gospels, listen to what he says to the Pharisees as they question him on this subject:

"And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, 'the kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you!"(Luke 17:20-21)

Clearly, Jesus is saying that the kingdom of God does not come from observing outer rules and rituals alone; but rather it comes from your own inner connection to God. For the kingdom of God is not outside of you. It is not in some remote place in the sky. Rather, its right where you are – right within you!

This is not to setup a false dichotomy between following outer religious customs and seeking an inner connection with God. Obviously, outer rituals can be highly beneficial to spiritual progress. But such practices were never meant as a replacement for one’s own direct inner experience of God. Instead, outer practices are meant to be a stepping stone or tool to help us achieve the inner connection.

By declaring in no uncertain terms that the kingdom of God is within us, Jesus is telling us that we can and are meant to have a direct experience of God - that we have the capacity for such spiritual experiences right within our hearts and minds. Further, this inner experience requires no outer authority to achieve, be it from a minister, scripture or ceremony.

This is because the kingdom of God that’s within you is not a physical place. It is rather, a state of mind, a state of consciousness. Consciousness is something that is a natural part of us. It doesn’t require outer authorities or churches, nor can it be controlled by these authorities or institutions if we don’t let them. So the kingdom of God is really something that can be reached by anyone. Anyone, that is, who is willing to give up a state of mind that keeps them out of the kingdom; anyone, who is willing to have a direct experience of God within themselves.

The Pharisees, however, were not looking for God within themselves. For them – and indeed for most religions throughout recorded history – their man made descriptions of an outer God served as a substitute for the reality of the inner experience of God. It’s important to see here that a great gap can exist between a description of something and the actual experience of something. For example, if someone had never tasted an apple and only had the taste described to them, this experience would not be the same as actually tasting the apple itself. In other words, you really don’t know what and apple tastes like unless you take a bite out of it.

This is especially true of spiritual matters. You have to experience God to know God. Many spiritual concepts, however, are primarily derived from mental images of God and not from a direct experience of God. These mental images in turn are usually established by religious leaders who may or may not have had any direct connection with God.

Furthermore, principles derived from these mental images that are not tied to the reality of God and can easily be manipulated by spiritual leaders to fit their own agenda. This often causes spiritual blindness, both in the leaders themselves and their followers. In the case of the Pharisees, since their concepts of God were based entirely on descriptions of God and not actual experience, they kept both themselves and their followers squarely inside a mental box of what was right and wrong as defined by their own relative outer standards.

The Key of Knowledge
The Pharisees were unwilling to apply what Jesus called the "key of knowledge." The key of knowledge – the thing that Jesus said the Pharisees were hindering the people from finding - simply is the ability to discover spiritual truth within ourselves independent of some outer authority. In the Old Testament, it is said that I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts (Jeremiah 31:33).

This helps us understand that God has written truth within each of us – we just need the ability and the confidence to find it. The key of knowledge is the inner confirmation of what we already know to be true. It is the remembrance of what we once knew at deeper levels of our being. Note that this concept in no way excludes information coming from sources outside of ourselves; it only requires that the information resonates with the Spirit of Truth within us.

The importance of using the key of knowledge cannot be underestimated. Think of all the suffering that has been wrought in this world because people have been led to believe that truth can only be found only within a particular religion, church, clergy, doctrine, custom, creed or political philosophy. This is because these various institutions, dogmas and philosophies where not fashioned out the Spirit of Truth within but rather out of spiritual blindness – out of the “fleshly” mindset. When you use the key of knowledge to find truth, however, you can never be enslaved or controlled by any outer authority as the only authority you can accept is the authority of God within you.

Can you see now how Jesus message of the inner kingdom was such a threat to the Pharisees authority? They hated him because they could not control him. They couldn’t control Jesus because he used the key of knowledge and found the kingdom of God within him. And because of this Jesus turned their whole world upside down simply by being who he already was - true to his real identity.

He refused to be imprisoned inside their rigid mental boxes. He could not be controlled by their fixed ideas – their graven images - of whom and what God had to be. Jesus did not need their authority or their validation because both were derived from his oneness with God within. He also knew that his followers could do the same and he encouraged them to do so.

Can you imagine what would have happened if hundreds, thousands or millions of people starting doing the same as Jesus did? Can you see how the earth would be dramatically different today if that had taken place then or now? If you really contemplate Jesus’ statement "the works that I do shall ye do also; and greater works than these shall ye do; because I go unto my Father" (John14:12) can you see that this is precisely what Jesus wants for his followers?

Far from setting himself up as an idol to be worshiped, from the very beginning Jesus has always wanted us to follow in his footsteps, awaken to our true identity, enter the inner kingdom and walk the earth as sons and daughters of God who can say with him, "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30). He has wanted us to know the same oneness with the Father that he had. And thus he prayed: "Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are" (John 17:11).

As it was then so today, I believe Jesus wants us to Be in the kingdom in the here and now and not wait for the hereafter. You will only wait for the kingdom of God when you feel it is outside of yourself, beyond your ability to enter on your own. Yet truly the kingdom of God is at hand (Mark 1:14) because it’s always inside of us – waiting for us to enter.

So what’s preventing us from Be-ing there? Well, if the kingdom of God is inside our own hearts and minds, is it not logical to assume that something inside our hearts and minds keeps us from finding and entering it? But if that’s true, what is that something? What’s keeping us squarely inside the mental prisons, immobilized on a cross of our own making, right where the Pharisees, lawyersand their latter day descendants want us?

To answer that, we need to go back to the beginning. Back to the Garden and beyond. If you have the courage, I invite you to come along.

Human Causes of the Economic Crisis and Spiritual Solutions

2008-11-27T08:14:00.000-08:00

In recent months, we have seen unprecedented upheavals the US as well as the global economy. Big banks have fallen, as have insurance companies and brokerage companies followed by huge losses in the stock market. It is estimated US citizens have lost over a trillion dollars in their pensions and 401K plans. As matter of fact, I know a number of families, including our own, whose 401K funds were diminished by 20% or more in a matter of a few short days.

The government’s response, which was supported by both presidential candidates, is notable in that it chose not to address the underlying causes of the crisis, but rather to prop up a failing system with its 700 plus billion dollar bailout. Yet it could have chosen another route and that is to take a serious look at what really is wrong with our economic system and what can be done to fix it.

The fact that the government did not do this, however, really is not surprising as the public at large is generally unwilling to face these problems themselves. Of course, those who have the most to lose in all this – the big banks, brokerage companies, insurance companies and various conglomerate institutions who comprise what might be called the financial or power elite in America certainly don’t want to address the causes as they have a vested interest in keeping the system running just the way it has been – with the deck stacked decidedly in their favor.

The symbiotic relationship between the haves and the have-nots
This unwillingness to look at systemic problems of this nature is essentially a spiritual problem. Jesus talked about the necessity of taking the beam out of our eye as an essential part of our spiritual growth. This means being willing to fearlessly examine any and all conditions that prevent us from seeing the truth about ourselves, society and all its institutions, customs and mores. And then do what’s necessary to replace our incomplete and/or distorted ideas with a higher understanding.

And regarding the current crisis, while there certainly has been outrage at the government’s actions and actions of the financial elite, it wasn’t enough to carry the day to prevent the bailout from happening. And so far, it hasn’t been enough for most people to seriously question the modus operandi of the economic system itself. For many, the current system cannot be challenged as it is seen as unpatriotic and un-American. They equate the current economic system - which as we will see has been designed by and for the elite - as equivalent with free enterprise. Thus for many the system is a sacred cow that cannot be examined for fear that it might be undermined or compromised and with it the American way of life.

Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results. If our economic system has failed so miserably this time and in years past (think the Great Depression as well as the never ending cycles of inflation and recession) why then do people insist on doing the insane thing of not questioning what is clearly not working? I submit it’s because they have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo and therefore dare not question the beam in their own eye which prevents them from seeing the futility of their actions. And in regards to the economy, what is the nature of the beam that blinds us?

Before addressing this, we need to establish the fact that economically and spiritually speaking, there are two general groups of people. There is the 2 percent of the population that controls 98 percent of the wealth in this country – whom I call the power elite – and then there is the rest of us. Please note that when I discuss the concept of the power elite, my purpose is not to emphasize individuals who comprise the elite, but rather my focus is on the mindset or consciousness behind it.

By and large the power elite are untroubled by the fact that they hoard the wealth. It doesn’t bother them that two thirds of the world’s population lives in poverty while they have great wealth. Why? It’s because they need this disparity to maintain the illusion that they are better or superior to the normal people. This desire stems from the free will choices that many have made to cut themselves off from God – as they think they know better than God - and with it the abundant life that is given freely to all. And to maintain the illusion that they know better than God, they do all they can to keep God from acting in the earth.

Nevertheless, without this connection to God, they feel incomplete. Thus, they obtain a temporary reprieve from the gnawing sense of unwholeness by gaining a relative advantage over the people by acquiring more power, money, privilege, prestige, wealth, etc. compared to the masses. They also maintain the sense that they know better than God because they can demonstrate how powerful they are without God’s help. But their gain over us is always relative. And when it comes to money, they feel superior when they can reduce the amount of abundance we have compared to them. When we are lowered in economic stature they are raised in stature – relative to us. They do this even at the expense of lowering the total amount of wealth on this planet. For by keeping the people down, the built-in natural flow towards greater abundance is thwarted.

Yet the power elite can not maintain this sense of superiority in a vacuum. They need the regular people to play along with their illusion of superiority in order to sustain it. The regular people, however, generally do not have a desire to feel superior to others but rather they have the polar opposite need to feel inferior to the power elite. They have a subconscious belief that the power elite will take care of them. The regular people are happy that they don’t have to worry about running the economy because after all it’s too complicated and so they are grateful that the people whom they perceive to be higher than them will mange the economy so they don’t have to think about it.

Unfortunately, the people have entered into a mindset of an idolatry of the elite and so they believe that we must not let the elite fail. And so the government bailout of huge financial institutions and more recently the push for the bailout of the auto industry are acceptable to many due to the blindness of idolatry.

The central dynamic here causing this sense of idolatry is that the regular people on earth have also – to greater or lesser degrees - cut themselves off from God’s natural abundance. Not because they don’t believe in God or that they feel superior to others but rather because they don’t want to be responsible for making core decisions in life. They refuse to take dominion over their part of the earth and therefore the power elite are all too willing to do that for them.

So in the end, the people do not want to open the Pandora’s box of the money system as they are afraid that ultimately this will mean they have to make crucial decisions about it and thus be responsible for it. And this is something they have avoided for much of their sojourn here on earth. Instead, many people have been running more or less in an unquestioning automatic pilot mode. So you can see here that ignorance really is bliss - our ignorance (ig-nor-ance) is the power elite’s bliss.

To sum up, the power elite need the regular people to be in lower economic state so they can feel superior to them. The regular people have a need to feel inferior to the elite so they don’t have to take responsibility for themselves and the economy. Both groups have an interest in maintaining the status quo to prop up their unholy alliance. The power elite are the blind leaders. The regular people are the blind followers. The result is a symbiotic relationship between the blind leaders and blind followers that has lead to the fact that both groups have now fallen into the ditch of the current economic crisis.

So how do we break this gridlock between the two groups? I believe that like many things, knowledge is the key. As it says in Proverbs, “with all thy getting, get understanding.” I believe people will be far less fearful of challenging the elite if they are armed with correct information. Because when they truly understand what is going on, they will see that the elite only have as much power over people as we are willing to give them. Truly the elite are like the emperor without any clothes where the illusion of clothes was only maintained by those who wanted to see it that way.

Why am I suggesting that it is the people that must change and not the elite? Two reasons: First, the people have far more to gain (at least in the short term) from constructive change in the economy than the elite do. Second, the elite are typically too selfish, rebellious and proud to be open to positive changes that benefit everyone and not just themselves. This doesn’t mean the elite cannot change, but being a realist I think the probability of them changing in the near future is in fact very small.

Multiplying our talents to produce economic growth
One thing we need to understand about God’s design of the matter universe is that there are built in natural forces that move things forward even without our intervention. For example, there are built in evolutionary forces that drive species towards diversity and greater complexity. There are also built in economic forces that lead to greater and greater abundance in the earth. The main factor is that mankind simply needs to understand the principles behind this increase in abundance in order to flow with its tide rather against it by blocking its flow.

I could see how this could very well be a bit of a surprising statement to many. This is because most of us been programmed to believe that lack is the natural order of things and that there simply isn’t enough for everyone. As we’ll see later, this is a belief that has been perpetrated by the elite to block the flow of our abundance so they can maintain their relative superiority over us.

Of course right now it’s not so easy to see this natural economic force at work. However, if you look at two thousand years ago as compared to today, there is no doubt we experience a far greater amount of material abundance and a higher standard of living today then for example when Jesus walked the earth. So we must be doing something at least partially right, so what is that something?

Jesus’ parable of the talents eloquently expresses the main dynamic here. In this parable three servants are given varying amount of talents by a king and are told to go out and use those talents to the king’s benefit. Two of the three servants increased the talents which were then multiplied by the king saying to them “well done thou good and profitable servant, thou has been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many.” However, the third servant was fearful of the king and instead hid his talent in napkin whereupon the king promptly dismissed him as “unprofitable.”

The lesson here is that God has designed the universe in such a way as to increase our abundance. The principle is that when we put forth the effort to increase our own talents God multiplies all our talents accordingly. This is how individuals, society and economies grow and prosper.

Regarding economics, there are essentially three types of efforts that produce this multiplication effect:

1. Putting forth labor to produce goods or services.
2. Introducing new ideas, inventions and systems
3. Investing time, energy or money in endeavors that stimulate the first two. In other words taking some risk to promote economic projects even though you can’t be a certain of a return.

Any one of these three separately or in combination can have the effect of more abundance being created on earth. The fact that there is a greater material wealth on earth today than centuries ago proves the point that there is not a fixed amount of abundance on this planet and that God has multiplied it in accordance to the efforts we’ve put forth.

Yet even though the standard of living is higher today than ages past, many people are still living paycheck to paycheck, struggling to get by, and many others are still living in abject poverty. If there is a built in force in nature to increase abundance, why are so many people not experiencing this increase?

The answer lies in understanding how money works and how the money system can be turned on its head to benefit the few and not the many.

Money as an instrument
It has been said that money is the root of all evil. But if you also look at the good that has been accomplished through the use of many we can see that this is not a balanced statement. A more nuanced approach sees that money can be used for both good and evil and therefore is a tool for either and not the cause of it. I would say, however, that the love of money for its own sake is evil as we see shortly.

Money can be seen as a tool for economic transactions. As such, it has two primary functions:

1. As medium of exchange for goods and services
2. As a short term storage of value

In the ideal economy, the purpose of money is seen as a tool and not and end in itself. For money to flow properly, the amount of money in circulation should be roughly equal to the amount of goods and services currently produced in the nation or economic system. Also, money is meant to keep flowing and should not be hoarded. It serves as a temporary storage of value because it is meant to circulate through the people somewhat like blood in our veins.

In the ideal, spiritual economy, there is essentially a one-on-one relationship between the amount of money and the amount of something that has real actual value, be it goods or services. Or even, in the case of gold money, that the gold itself has a certain value. So the point here is there should always be a direct relationship between money and something that has real value.

And when people actually multiply their talents, they can, as a result of that multiplication, accumulate a certain amount of money which they can then choose to store for times when they may not be able to make the money. Even this is legitimate, as long as the money was created as a result of providing a real service to life, be it an invention, taking the initiative, or performing physical labor. There is nothing wrong with storing that money. Even so, it is only when it is put to use in investing will it will help the economy grow. And thus, savings should really only be a temporary thing and should not mean that the money is permanently taken out of circulation.

For money is indeed meant to flow and thereby help the entire economy grow.But you see when there is a direct correspondence between money and something of real value, it is not possible to create money out of nothing, money that has no real value associated with it. And that means that even though the money supply can grow, the value of money is not degraded, for you still only have the money needed to buy goods and services.

And therefore, in a spiritual economy, you can actually have a society that has a steadily growing economy and a steady increase in the money supply without actually having an increase in the prices of goods and services. For why would we need an increase, when you do not have excess money that has no correspondence to real value? You still only have the amount of money needed to exchange goods and services, which means that the value of the money – what you can buy for that money – will remain constant.

For an example of a correct use of the money system, we need to look no further than the colonial economy prior to the revolutionary war. During this time, Ben Franklin gave a speech before British Parliament where he outlined the remarkable prosperity of the American colonies. He attributed this economic success primarily to the fact that there was only enough money printed to make the transfer of goods and services possible.

Franklin remarked: “In the Colonies we issue our own money…in proper proportion to make the products pass easily from the producers to the consumers. In this manner, creating ourselves our own paper money, we control its purchasing power, and we have no interest to pay to no one.”

During his speech, he maintained that there was very little unemployment, the public was well educated and the people were happy. The British were stunned and even outraged upon hearing this news and in response, quickly imposed their dysfunctional economic system (run by a Central bank) upon the colonies. The predictable result was that in a very short time the colonies experienced an inevitable economic decline. Franklin himself cited the imposition of the British money system as among the primary causes of the revolutionary war.

Although the success was short lived, it did demonstrate that an economy could prosper based on principles mentioned above. Certainly the Americans were industrious and ingenious and thus their efforts were multiplied accordingly. Secondly, they only printed enough money – called Colonial script – to grease the wheels of the economy – and no more. Thus there were no cycles of inflation and recession because there was not the intervention of the elite to create the conditions for such aberrations of the natural economic order to occur. Here we had the makings of an economy that was of the people, by the people, and for the people as opposed to of the elite, by the elite and for the elite. So how did the elite manage to create the economic conditions that benefit them to the total disregard of others?

Undermining the money system
Although the power elite have had their influence and grip on society throughout all recorded history, it is helpful to begin this discussion of the modern economic system during the middle ages and the feudal society.

In those days, the power elite were able to suppress and control the people through physical coercion. Anyone who rebelled against the system found themselves against the strong arm of unjust laws. Here, instead of multiplying their own talents, the people were basically slaves who worked so the nobility could maintain their privileged status. The power elite designed the system in such a way to reap the rewards of other people’s labor – basically reaping without sowing and thus stealing from the people. They were also in the mindset of getting something for nothing. Both of these conditions – reaping the reward of other people’s labor and wanting something for nothing – are two primary perversions of the natural economy and the money system that continues to this day. Essentially the power elite in that day as in the present see the people as worker bees whose main purpose is to provide them with lifestyle, shall we say, of the rich and famous.

Creating money out of nothing
Although this unjust system was in place for centuries, from the power elite’s perspective, there was a fundamental flaw in its design. Namely, when people are physically forced into a type of slavery they can’t help noticing that they are in fact enslaved. This will inevitably lead to rebellion and eventually did lead to the undoing of the system. The elite eventually recognized that it was far better for them to enslave people in such a way that they don’t notice that they are enslaved. And so this is what they did.

Centuries ago when the European kings began to go to war against each other, they realized they didn’t have the financial means to do it. So where did they get the money? Well around the same time, a concurrent but related development evolved which served the kings purposes. This development came from the fact that gold smiths (merchants who stored gold for a fee) in that day began lending out the gold in their reserves. They soon discovered that it was highly unlikely that all the gold in their reserves would ever be lent out at the same time – so they began to secretly lend out more gold than they actually had in their reserves and charging interest on it as well. This eventually led to writing promissory paper notes against these reserves which became the forerunners of the modern economic system known as fractional reserve banking.

Knowing that the kings needed money to finance their wars, these financiers convinced the kings to solve their financial problem and finance their wars by taking out loans from them. The loans themselves consisted of money that these financiers created out of nothing. What’s more, on the advice of these money changers, the king declared that this new money created out of nothing – or fiat money or money by decree – needed to be accepted by the king’s subjects as legal tender.

The result was that there was now more money in circulation than was needed to facilitate the transfer of goods and services. There was no longer a one to one correspondence between money and something of real value. The effect of this is that prices invariably go up - for three primary reasons:

1. There is now more money chasing after the same amount of things of value.
2. The first to receive the newly printed money - the power elite - bid up the prices of commodities as they compete for them while prices are still relatively lower.
3. The money changers charge interest on money created out nothing which can be viewed as an added tax on all commodities purchased through the loans.

The devaluation of the people’s labor
The problem with this back then which has continued to this day is that the effect that too much money in circulation disassociated from something of real value is that the value of the people’s labor is degraded. This is because when the price of goods and services goes up, people still only work x number of hours for x amount of dollars. So at the end of the day, their money simply doesn’t buy what it did before there was the influx of money into the system. This is why people have to work harder and harder just to make ends meet. They don’t understand why this is happening, they only know that their money doesn’t stretch like it used to and so they have to roll up their sleeves and work harder just to stay afloat.

So this is how the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The rich are the first to get the newly printed money before prices increase and before these increases filter through the economy and effects the prices of all goods and services. This gives the power elite the advantage of purchasing commodities at lower prices than the rest of us enabling them to acquire more and more while the people struggle for a smaller and smaller portion of the pie. So essentially what what has been going on for centuries is a hidden but nonetheless massive redistribution of wealth from the poor and middle class to the weathiest of the wealthy. Americans tend to get up in arms, and rightly so I might add, when socialists attempt to forcibly redistribute the wealth from rich to the poor. However, few protest when it is the other way around, as it has been for hundreds if not thousands of years on this planet.

War and hidden taxes
So this increase in prices and the degradation of the value of the people’s labor was and remains to this day a hidden tax on the people to accomplish the objectives of the power elite. This is how most of the wars for the last several hundred years have been financed. If the leaders went to the people and told them they would have to be taxed to finance their wars, the people would likely revolt and the taxes would not be levied and wars would not be fought. Yet because the tax is disguised as inflation, the people don’t notice they are being taxed because it doesn’t appear on their tax bill or paycheck. They only notice they have to work harder and harder for less and less – then the power elite have a far better chance of getting them to not only finance their wars, but to fight in them as well.

For example, do you think in 2003 if George Bush would have went to the people and told them that everyone in the United States would be taxed, say, $2,000 to finance the war in Iraq – a war that many people were unsure about – that the people would have approved this? Not likely. So instead of taxing the people, the power elite (in the form of the US government) simply fired up the money machine and created money out of nothing to finance the Iraq war as they have done for hundreds of years.

In fact, if you want to look for the driving engine behind wars, follow the money trail. If you do, you’ll see that in most cases wars are funded by banks are other financiers who often times fund both sides of any given conflict. For example, although there was supposed to be a great ideological divide between capitalism and communism, it is a not so well known fact that the Bolshevik revolution and the subsequent build up of the Soviet army (as well as the US military build up in response) was funded in part by Wall Street and other powerful interests in the West.

And when it comes to war, the power elite are able to convince the people to fight them because of some supposed differences over ideology, race, religion, land, politics, resources etc, but it is always the people who fight the wars and not the elite. Most wars are in fact, the result of infighting among the power elite where a dominant elite is being challenged by one or more aspiring elite groups or when any of them want to expand their power over the people. The power elite use the age old strategy of divide and conquer to get the people to fight their wars for them. Once again, the people suffer at the expense of the elite’s gain. And the people doubly suffer because ultimately war cannot produce something of value it only destroys something of value, e.g., the destruction of people lives, their livelihoods, their land, property, means of production, culture and entire way of life.

Another advantage for the elite is that when they fund wars, they know that governments are willing to spend far more to achieve their ends then when not at war. Once again, when war is on the horizon, follow the money trail and you’ll often find the true cause behind most military conflicts.

And of course there are many occasions where the elite create money of nothing to fund government programs that are not war related. In that case the dynamic is the same; the people pay a hidden tax when the government does not want to tax us directly thereby stealing from the people the value of their labor. For example, where do you think the money came from for the recent stimulus package, or for that matter the financial bailout of Wall Street? It of course came in the usual manner of rolling the printing presses and then charging interest on the money created out of nothing which has the inevitable inflationary effect of devaluing the people’s labor and purchasing power.

Underwriting the dysfunctional economy
One would think that if the power elite consistently created money out of nothing that the resulting inflation would eventually make all money virtually worthless. This has in fact happened in the last century in pre-Nazi German and later in Argentina where it took a wheelbarrow full of money to buy goods. The money wasn’t worth the paper on which it was printed proved by the fact that some even burned it for fuel. Incidentally, during the 1800’s and for 100 years thereafter Argentina relied on a gold standard to back their money supply and never had these problems. It was only when they switched to a fiat based money system that they did experience the severe inflation and the devaluation of people’s labor.

Yet for the most part, the western economies have managed to avoid this calamity (though with far less abundance then there could be) essentially because it is the hard working people who have, so to speak, underwritten the money system of the power elite. What has happened is that regular people, those who do not believe in getting something for nothing, have actually multiplied their talents and have thereby have managed to keep the power elite’s economy limping along to a greater or lesser degree.

So through the multiplication of our talents, we have all been underwriting or you might say enabling the power elite’s economy and thus it hasn’t totally collapsed. And if it weren’t for this fact, this economy would have done so centuries ago. This is because the greed of the elite who control the money supply and policy will not stop until they have killed the goose that laid the golden egg – which is the industry, creativity and ingenuity of the people.

The Federal Reserve – of the elite, by the elite and for the elite
In one sense, the history of the United States is the story of who controls the money supply – the people or the elite. Although America had the historical example of unrivaled success of the colonial economy, with the influence of Alexander Hamilton and financier Robert Morris, they chose to implement a system that incorporated a strong central bank as the backbone of the economy. This despite the fact that the Constitution stipulates that only Congress should have the power to print money. To me this was an effort by the framers of our constitution to ensure accountability to the people inasmuch as they are represented by Congress. Yet the United States nevertheless sided with the banking interests in forming their monetary policy. This virtually ensured that at least to the degree that banks and special interests were unaccountable; they would most assuredly manipulate the supply of money for their own selfish purposes.

Prior to 1913 however, there wasn’t a Central bank quite like the Federal Reserve. In fact, the control of the money supply went back and forth eight times between the bankers and the government before to this date. There was in fact the first National Bank of America founded in 1790, the same year that the European monopolist banker Mayer Amschel Roschild boldly declared: “Give me control of a nation’s money and I care not who makes the laws.” This system had the predictable effect of causing cycles of inflation and recession.

The Central bank was in power up until the time of Andrew Jackson who after great political battles in the 1830’s was able to root out of the Central bank and return the power of creating money to the government. During this fight for the money supply, the gold standard was put in place to a certain degree and did have some positive effect on balancing the economy. Even so, the fiat system was still the primary method used to create money as the Central banks still had significant reigns on the economy even if they weren’t officially sanctioned by the US government. This of course resulted in a number of economic downturns and debacles, including but not limited to the following:

Panic of 1797-1800
Depression of 1807-1804
Panic of 1837-1843
Panic of 1857-1860
Panic of 1873-1879
Panic of 1893 -1896
Panic of 1907-1908

Supposedly, the Federal Reserve was created to prevent these economic meltdowns. Yet since it’s inception in 1913, we have seen the following:

Recession of 1920 -1921
Great Depression of 1929 -1939
Recession of 1953
Recession of 1973 -1975 during the oil crisis
And of course the crash of 2008

It’s obvious that the Fed has failed to live up to its goal of preventing such calamities. So what is the Federal Reserve and what are its real purposes?

First off, we need to understand that the Federal Reserve is not Federal and it really has no reserves. From its inception the Fed has been and still is a consortium of unelected private bankers – whose identities are largely unknown - who are therefore unanswerable to the people. I’m sure you’ve noticed, for example that no one cast a vote to make Alan Greenspan or Barnard Bernanke chairmen of the Federal Reserve as this is an appointed position.

There are no reserves in that there is no backing for the money that the Fed creates out of nothing. The only backing is the implicit promissory note of American people to keep multiplying their efforts to keep the money machine afloat. The only backing is the perpetual burden of taxation placed on the American people to fill its coffers with money. For without their effort and these taxes, the Fed and the entire economic system would surely collapse under its own corruption.

It was brought into being by a secret meeting of private bankers and politicians on Jekyll Island in Georgia and later stealthily slipped through legislature on December 23rd 1913 when most representatives had gone home for the holidays. In fact there wasn’t even a quorum present when it passed the Senate.

So the entire enterprise was based on a deception of the American people. And as I said, it really is not a branch of the government. In reality, the Federal Reserve is an instrument of the power elite that serves three main purposes:

1. To enforce the fiat money system where money is created out of nothing, lent to the Federal Government, the interest of which is then placed on the backs of the American taxpayers.
2. To control the money supply and thereby control the people.
3. To prop up the major banks and protect them from risky investments.

All of these purposes have the effect of keeping the power elite in a superior status and keeping the people toiling for their bread. It is important to note that all money currently in circulation is created by the Federal Reserve. And the Fed – which is again a consortium of private bankers – makes enormous profits off of the interest they charge for printing our money. The money the US taxpayers owe to the Fed is the national debt that we keep hearing about. The Fed does not care if we ever pay off the debt they just want the magic money machine to keep rolling so they can keep making off the interest they charge us for creating money out of nothing.

The Fed controls the money supply by tightening and loosening lines of credit to business and the public. In times when money is more freely available, people multiply their talents, the economy expands and businesses thrive for a time. When the reigns of credit are tightened however, businesses fold and people lose their jobs. The Fed and the elite profit in either scenario. In good times they make money off the interest paid to the money machine. Yet in hard times, the elite are right there to buy up the lost businesses at bottom bargain prices and thereby expand their control over the people and the economy.

Relatively few people today are aware of the Fed’s negative influence as the power elite now controls much of the major media where people get there information. Yet this has not always been the case. The following are quotes from prominent citizens regarding the role of Central banks in the economy.

If the American People allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the People of all their Property until their Children will wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered.
- Thomas Jefferson

"I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale."
- Thomas Jefferson.

You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the Eternal God, I will rout you out... If people only understood the rank injustice of the money and banking system, there would be a revolution by morning.
- Andrew Jackson

"The money power preys upon the nation in times of peace & conspires against it in times of war. It is more despotic than monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. It denounces, as public enemies, all who even question its methods or throw light upon its crimes. I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me & the financial institutions at the rear; the latter is my greatest foe.
- President Abraham Lincoln

"It is well that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."
- Henry Ford

"We have, in this country, one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board. This evil institution has impoverished the people of the United States and has practically bankrupted our government. It has done this through the corrupt practices of the moneyed vultures that control it." - Congressman Louis T. McFadden in 1932 (Rep. Pa)

"By this means government may secretly and unobserved, confiscate the wealth of the people and not one man in a million will detect the theft."
- British Lord John Maynard Keynes

"The financial system has been turned over to the Federal Reserve Board. That Board administers the finance system by authority of a purely profiteering group. The system is Private, conducted for the sole purpose of obtaining the greatest possible profits from the use of other people's money"
-Charles A. Lindbergh Sr., 1923

"All the perplexities, confusion and distresses in America arise not from defects in the constitution or confederation, nor from want of honor or virtue, as much from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation - John Adams

"Whoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of all industry and commerce."-James A. Garfield

I cannot emphasize enough how important it is for the American people to understand how our economy works and how the Federal Reserve and the power elite are stealing the wealth of the people. Even as I’m writing this, the headlines read that the Fed has recently spent over 4 trillion dollars in bailing out the financial elite in this country. This will have the predictable inflationary effect of putting too much money into circulation that has no correspondence to something of value. Unless something is done quickly, the Fed, out of their greed and their need to keep the elite in a position of superiority, will bankrupt America.

We need to take back the money supply from the elite and give it to the people where it belongs. We need to overcome our idolatry of the elite and recognize the power of God in each of us. God can and will turn around the economy but it won’t be by a blinding flash of a miracle from the sky but through multiplying our illumined efforts in creating a balanced and sustainable economy by utilizing right principles.

For these interested in a far more detailed and thorough analysis of the Federal Reserve then provided here, I would highly encourage you to watch the following video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7757684583209015812&hl=en

The causes of current economic crisis
While the fiat money system is the major instrument for the manipulation of money supply and can therefore be considered a meta-cause of our economic ills, I would say that the current crisis was precipitated by more local factors consisting of a combination of greed, arrogance and fear.

The problem basically is that many of the elite (and also many of the people in general) want to get something for nothing. They are all hoping that a minimal investment will produce a large return. This is essentially the gambling consciousness where everyone wants to win the big prize by investing relatively small sums of money compared to the sum of the prize. The trouble is, of course that in gambling only a few can win the big prize because if everyone won it the gambling industries would all go under.

So investors were essentially gambling on their investments – and these investments were largely held in debt based products derived from the mortgage industry. A few years ago, a number of new financial products hit the market that went almost entirely unregulated by the government (due to intense lobbying in Congress by many large financial institutions). The products, termed “derivatives” because they were derived from the reselling of debt (primarily mortgage based) leveraged across a variety of complex financial instruments.

The trouble is, as recently corroborated by the G-20 economic summit, the risks on these debts were hidden and while large profits were taken on them, these debts eventually came home to roost because the risk could not be adequately assessed, even by the elite. So what essentially drove the investors was greed and the idea that they could get something for virtually nothing. And that nothing really consisted of the mortgage debts which essentially came from money created out of nothing. Arrogance played a role as these financial institutions thought they had the sophistication to adequately assess the risk when they obviously did not.

So what inevitably happens when greed goes too far and things begin to collapse is that the polar opposite of fear rears its’ head. Fear then drives the investors and stakeholders to begin pulling out their investments when the financial industries start to go south. What we need to realize, however, is that all these psychological conditions of greed, arrogance and fear and the concept of lack itself are all illusions which only exist as a result of mankind believing in the ultimate illusion that we are in fact separate from God.

It is only when we realize as Jesus said long ago that the kingdom of God is within us that we can remove the beam of separation and all the psychological baggage that comes with it from our individual and collective psyches and begin to heal ourselves of all illusions including the illusion that only the elite can run the economy. For surely God can and will inspire the economy but it is only when each of us makes ourselves the open doors through which divine light and ideas can flow that this will occur. Again, we must not passively wait for a miracle to occur as each of us needs to become the miracle and then the economic ship of this nation as well as the world will be righted.

Monopolies and the proper role of government in the economy
The power elite not only control our economy through monopolizing the money supply but through acquiring vast monopolies in the business sector as well. We need to realize that we cannot have a truly free economy when other businesses are not free to compete against large corporations. If one or a handful of corporations control 90% or more of the market share in any sector of the economy, how can any smaller company effectively compete against that? And if there is not competition, what incentive is there for corporations to reduce prices? And so we see that not only is the value of our labor and spending power being degraded through the fiat money system of the elite, but our pocketbooks are further emptied through the high prices that many monopolist industries charge for their products and services.

Now before I continue, it should be noted that in last 15 years or so, there has been enormous influx of relatively cheap goods coming into America from China and as well as various third world countries. This has given Americans and other Western nations the illusion of prosperity where no real prosperity exists. This has the effect of lulling the West to sleep believing that all is well in the economy, which as the dramatic events of the past few months have shown, nothing could be further from the truth.

There is also the added problem that these cheap goods are being bought for a price. And the price is the welfare of the workers who produce these goods. For as everyone knows, most of the workers are paid sub standard, near poverty level if not slave wages and therefore when the West purchases these goods we end up subsidizing the injustices done to these workers by the power elite in those countries. This is clearly not a sustainable system. We must know that the universe acts like a mirror and so it will inevitably return the effects of the unjust conditions of our brother and sisters to our doorstep - some of the effects of which we may be witnessing today.

Returning to monopolies, the history of United States is unfortunately replete with them. From the railroads, to the steel mills, to the auto industry, to the energy companies and now technology companies (ever wonder, for example, why one software company has their operating system installed on 99% of the world’s computers?), gigantic corporations have been allowed through certain government regulations, to gain an unjust hold on market shares and after that no regulation is needed as these companies can effectively undercut all other potential competitors through the control of the market share and all the subsidiary industries and suppliers that feed it.

Again, free competition is the enemy of monopolies so the latter will do all they can to stomp it out. Therefore, the government can play a legitimate role in regulating industry and trade in such a way that no single company is allowed to obtain more than a certain amount of the share of a particular market. Now, there are some anti-trust laws on the books but these are typically either ignored or circumvented altogether by the large corporations. We need to tighten these rules and enforce them in such a way as to create a level playing field where all can compete. And when we do, not only will consumers get better products, but they will get them at better prices due to the competition among businesses who are given a fair chance to compete.

Look what happened in the 1970’s when the Bell telephone monopoly was broken up by the Supreme Court. Many new companies emerged and phone rates were by and large dramatically reduced. However, this safeguard against this particular industry was not sustained as today we are also faced with virtual monopolies by the likes of AT&T and a few others.

This means we need to be vigilant for as we know, perpetual vigilance is the price of freedom. This also means that the media needs to reform and start playing a far greater role in all of this again, as today they are basically the lapdog of the elite and not the watch dog that will sound the cry of alarm when such shenanigans and crimes in high places occur. If you don’t believe me, when have you ever heard any of what I have discussed in this article in the popular dominant media? My guess is almost never. When have you ever heard a criticism of the Federal Reserve by any major newspaper or major media outlet? Of course you haven’t because these outlets are controlled by the elite. Government can play an important role here by regulating what percent of any medial outlet can be owned by a single or corporate conglomerate.

The government needs to also play a role in regulating financial products. New products that enter the market need to be vetted for viability and risk and if the risk is too high or they threaten the stability of the entire economy then they should not be allowed on the market. The present crisis that stemmed from the derivatives based on housing market debt could have been averted if these products would have first been assessed using the above criteria.

So in a modern economy it is clear that government must play a major role to prevent the system from collapsing as well as helping the entire economy grow by it’s insistence on sound economic practices. This means that we need men and women of wisdom, honor and intelligence to step up into roles in the government. I believe there are indeed people with these qualities that God has prepared and are so to speak, waiting in the wings. And so part of our job as citizens is to help find these individuals and raise them up and then put pressure on the government to involve such people in the day to day governmental operations and decision making regarding affairs of the economy.

But ultimately, a government can rise no higher than the people who elect it. And, inasmuch as the government is a reflection of the people – and we get the government we deserve – we need to rise higher to deserve better. Therefore it behooves us all to raise our consciousness regarding spiritual matters and from this knowledge about economic matters as well.

And while on the subject of control, it must be recognized that very few people in this country are learning about the history of money and it’s manipulation in our nation’s schools. If we are to be and remain a free people, we must be an enlightened people. This will only come about when parents demand that children stop being programmed in the mediocrity of the mass consciousness which encourages students to blindly accept every lie spoon fed them by the powers that be. Parents must insist that children be properly educated about the economy and government in the schools or remove them from these schools altogether as many Americans have already done.

Conclusions
For surely it is the Father’s good pleasure to give us the abundant life – but we need to reach for it and multiply our understanding and love that the Father may multiply our own efforts to produce the abundant life here on earth. Clearly, God is infinite and so is God’s abundance. There is more than enough for all, we just need to bring it into manifestation by making ourselves aware of spiritual principles and how the abrogation of these principles have produced an economic slavery in modern society that far surpasses that of the Israelites who toiled in the land of Egypt.

Let us all demand that our government follow sound economic principles, many of which are outlined here. Let us rise above the consciousness that we need an elite group to run our economy when we know that the power of God can run the economy through us. You can't solve a problem in the same state of consciousness that created the problem. Therefore, we must entirely rethink how our economy is run and tear down the towers of Babel erected by the elite and replace it with the rock of Christ principles. When we do so, we will once again have an economy and a government that fulfills Lincoln’s vision so eloquently expressed over a century ago - that is truly of the people, by the people and for the people.

Beyond Global Warming: Consciousness as the Ultimate Cause of Earth Changes

2008-06-08T10:43:00.000-07:00

There is no doubt that earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes and other natural disasters are on the rise in this age. Where doubt and controversy exists, however, is in the determining the cause behind all of this. Environmentalists insist that global warming is the root of the problem, which in turn is said to be caused by greenhouse gases resulting from pollution and over reliance on fossil fuels for our energy and transportation needs. Global warming skeptics, usually conservatives, contend that these trends of nature have nothing to do with greenhouse gases and global warming, but are rather, the result of natural cycles that occur completely independent of the influence of mankind. Some religious fundamentalists, moreover, see the hand of God in all this, punishing mankind for its sins and perhaps leading up to some ultimate Armageddon that would be end of the world as we know it.

So which of these positions is the correct one? I submit that while each has elements of truth, the correct answer is none of the above. The religious are correct in that there is a cause-effect spiritual component to this, but it is certainly not a predestined or necessarily apocalyptic one. The conservatives are correct in suggesting that there are cycles in the earth, but are mistaken in the belief that these cycles are completely independent of our actions. The environmentalists are perhaps closest to the truth in suggesting a link between the actions of mankind and earth changes, but are misguided in their belief that fossil fuel use is the ultimate culprit behind earth’s recent travails.

I believe the real cause is something that everybody has, but few understand its pivotal role in shaping life on earth – and that is our individual and collective state of consciousness. Why is this so? In some ways, both modern and classical physics are instructive here. One of the most profound, but often overlooked, implications of Einstein’s equation of E = mc2 is that there is an equivalency between matter and energy. And since energy cannot be created or destroyed while matter obviously can be, it follows that matter is derived from energy. Matter then is a form of energy, energy that is slowed down, as it were, to a point where it becomes solidified and takes on shape and form. We can say then that ultimately everything is energy – and therefore everything has a frequency, a rate of vibration.

Since everything is made up of energy we are also made of energy. And the most influential, identifying and integral part of this energy – which we might call our energy field or aura – is our state of consciousness. With everything we think, say or do we put energy into motion, we send out energy into the world – into the universe. And whatever we send out reflects our state of consciousness. Therefore, if we are angry, irritated, jealous, hateful, annoyed, fearful, worried, proud, arrogant, complaining, controlling, stubborn, resentful, defensive, self-pitying or any of the negative states that humans are prone, then this is the type of energy that we send out into the world. What’s more, the energy you send out has the stamp of our consciousness on it and if you could measure it, you would find that these types of energy have a low rate of vibration.

Think how often you might find yourself in one or more of these negative states of consciousness – even in just one day. Now multiply that by 365 days a year times the number of years you’ve been on this planet and there’s your individual quotient. For the collective quotient, take that hypothetical number and multiply by 6.5 billion representing the number of people currently on earth. Finally, take that figure and multiply it by the thousands or millions of years humans have been on this planet and you begin to get an idea of how much negative energy has been sent out into the earth, both presently and through all time. How much negative energy? Let’s just say lots and lots.

So what happens to the energy we send out? This is where classical physics comes into play. One of Newton’s laws of motion states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. So at a certain level, we can say that for every erg of negative energy that is sent out, an equal and opposite amount gets returned to us. You see, the universe really acts like a mirror. Whatever we send out gets returned to us. As they say, what goes around comes around. But it is not simply a mechanical mirror, as the returning currents have been dare I say, “intelligently designed” to help us learn the lessons of overcoming the state of consciousness that sends out negative energy.

Unfortunately, the return current doesn’t come in neat packages that say “this is a lesson, please process accordingly.” It’s up to us to discern the lessons from whatever is returned to our doorstep. The smaller individual lessons come in the form of all sorts of struggles and challenges that we all face on a daily basis. Each of these events had an earlier cause that we sent in motion that has now come back to challenge the state of consciousness that produced the problem in the first place. The larger collective lessons come back in many forms. They return to us as natural disasters like droughts, floods, earth changes and violent storms or as man made disasters such as poverty, famine, or war. This is what the Hindus call the “law of karma” as it basically states that every effect that you see in your life and on earth has a cause that was set in motion at some earlier point in history.

This law cuts both ways of course. Meaning if we send out harmonious, loving and peace energy, the universe will return that to us as well. The profound implication here is that our consciousness determines what is returned to us, meaning that we are entirely in control of our own destiny on earth. Therefore, the solution to the current turmoil and suffering in the earth does not lie in cutting back or eliminating fossil fuels, it does not lie in waiting for the “natural” cycles of the earth to turn in our favor, nor does it reside in waiting for the final judgment from an angry God in the sky. Notice that these are all solutions which lie outside of ourselves – which is the reason why they are preferred by most people.

Instead of looking for a solution outside of ourselves, which ultimately never works, the real solution is to look within us for therein lays the cause of the problem. The real solution is to raise our level of consciousness to the point where we cease to send out negative energy into the world and instead send out the positive energies which is the spiritual potential of all on this planet. How do we do this? Well, this is a very large subject indeed and many books have been and could be written about it. But the short answer lies within the realization that we can’t solve a problem in the same state of consciousness that created the problem. We need to look beyond and outside of the mental boxes that cause us to perpetually send out negative energy and look at the cause of this condition. We need to understand that there is a higher consciousness available to everyone. The possibility of manifesting this higher consciousness, moreover, comes from our connection to the Infinite which many call God.

This approach does not advocate one religion over another or even a single approach to whatever you might call God. Yet it does recognize two fundamental concepts. First that all of mankind’s problems stem from the sense of separation from the Infinite. This sense of separation has created in each of us a false sense of identity – called the “human ego” by Eckhart Tolle, Kim Michaels and others. It is through the filter of the ego, moreover, that all negative energy is created. This is because the ego is in a constant state of struggle as it sees itself as separate from life and in competition with others. The ego is also in a sense of struggle because it can only know relative truths of the material world. It is essentially dualistic. And because of this, people are perpetually bandied about between one or another of the polarities of relative good and evil which are not defined in any absolute sense but are, rather, only defined in relation to each other. In this process people are constantly sowing negative energy and reaping negative results – until they finally decide that they’ve had enough and begin to look for another way outside of the dualistic boxes.

And so the second concept is that everyone on earth has the potential to spiritualize their consciousness. This is true because we were all created in the image and likeness of the Infinite and cannot actually be separated from it. Thus, if all problems stem from our sense of separation from the Infinite, then all real solutions begin with the idea that we can actually be one with the Infinite. For in the consciousness of the Infinite, there are no divisions, no separation and no competition as the abundance of the Infinite – which is the Father’s good pleasure to give – is available to all. We can achieve this state of mind only when we look at ourselves objectively and “take the beam” of the ego out of our eye – as Jesus suggested. This is not done overnight but can be done by walking a systematic yet entirely creative path of surrender and self transcendence. In the process, we learn to look beyond the mental boxes of separation that we have created to find the non dualistic truths of the Infinite. And when we do so, we send out high frequency energies of love into the universe which effectively neutralizes the low frequency energies of anti-love. And after the negative energies are eventually cleared, there is literally no end to the love, creativity, joy, wisdom, and peace available to us all as we merge our consciousness with that of the Infinite.

So in the end it is not higher taxes that will restore balance to the earth, but higher consciousness. No amount of money and conservation programs will solve the problem of earth changes because they don’t address the root cause of all imbalances in the material world. In fact, they may make matters worse by increasing the sense of lack in the people as well as inviting untoward restrictions of our freedoms by the powerful elite in this world. Rather, in this age I believe it is imperative that mankind awakens to the fact that everything they see in the earth today – both good and bad – is a reflection of the state of consciousness of the people. The sooner we accept this concept that our consciousness is the cause of earth’s problems and raise our consciousness accordingly, the sooner we will see an end to earth’s troubles and in it's place begin to see a new day of planetary harmony and abundance for all.