Soaring Like an Eagle

Would you believe me if I told you that within you lies everything you could ever need to survive, to thrive, to prosper, and to fulfill your potential as a human being?  Does it sound too good to be true?

The modern world is full of confusion.  Millions of human beings live lives of quiet desperation, never knowing or fully realizing who they are, or why they exist.  Under the hypnotic spell of the human race mind, they never believe it is possible to know or be anything other than the way society tells them they should be.  Many people feel that something is wrong with the world, that life should be richer, fuller, and more exciting.  They wonder why human life is so full of deceit, hypocrisy, violence, poverty, and despair.  They complain about work, about politics, about their families, or spouses.  They say things like,” life sucks and then you die.”  Many think life should not be like this, yet we do not question it, we simply shrug our shoulders and accept it.  Humans exist, but few of us ever truly live.

It is a tragedy that most people never realize that the way out of this situation lies within themselves, as a constitutive dimension of their being human in the first place.  It just seems to them to be too easy, too convenient, or silly unrealistic wishful thinking.  And perhaps it is, if it begins and ends as a wish and is not followed by steady and persistent desire and action.  However, desire and persistent action will show convincingly that it is true;  that human beings are made in the image and likeness of God, and have at their disposal powers given them by the creator, powers that are virtually infinite in scope and nature.

The answer to the problem of life, and the problems of life, are for every human being to take responsibility for his or her own life, and begin to make it a life of power and overcoming by tapping into and becoming a channel for the divine which lies hidden within them.  Until they do, life will continue to puzzle and confuse them, and send lessons which are designed to rouse them from their hypnotic sleep and awaken them to the truth. They will live as a slave, while being secretly Noble.  I will end with a fable which illustrates this fact clearly:

A fable is told about an eagle who thought he was a chicken. When the eagle was very small, he fell from the safety of his nest.  A chicken farmer found the eagle, brought him to the farm, and raised him in a chicken coop among his many chickens. The eagle grew up doing what chickens do, living like a chicken, and believing he was a chicken.

        A naturalist came to the chicken farm to see if what he had heard about an eagle acting like a chicken was really true.  He knew that an eagle is king of the sky.  He was surprised to see the eagle strutting around the chicken coop, pecking at the ground, and acting very much like a chicken.  The farmer explained to the naturalist that this bird was no longer an eagle.  He was now a chicken because he had been trained to be a chicken and he believed that he was a chicken.
 

        The naturalist knew there was more to this great bird than his actions showed as he "pretended" to be a chicken.  He was born an eagle and had the heart of an eagle, and nothing could change that.  The man lifted the eagle onto the fence surrounding the chicken coop and said,  "Eagle, thou art an eagle.  Stretch forth thy wings and fly."  The eagle moved slightly, only to look at the man; then he glanced down at his home among the chickens in the chicken coop where he was comfortable.  He jumped off the fence and continued doing what chickens do.  The farmer was satisfied. "I told you it was a chicken," he said.
 

        The naturalist returned the next day and tried again to convince the farmer and the eagle that the eagle was born for something greater.  He took the eagle to the top of the farmhouse and spoke to him: "Eagle, thou art an eagle.  Thou dost belong to the sky and not to the earth.  Stretch forth thy wings and fly." The large bird looked at the man, then again down into the chicken coop.  He jumped from the man's arm onto the roof of the farmhouse.
 

        Knowing what eagles are really about, the naturalist asked the farmer to let him try one more time.  He would return the next day and prove that this bird was an eagle.  The farmer, convinced otherwise, said, "It is a chicken."
 

        The naturalist returned the next morning to the chicken farm and took the eagle and the farmer some distance away to the foot of a high mountain.  They could not see the farm nor the chicken coop from this new setting.  The man held the eagle on his arm and pointed high into the sky where the bright sun was beckoning above.  He spoke: "Eagle, thou art an eagle!  Thou dost belong to the sky and not to the earth.  Stretch forth thy wings and fly." This time the eagle stared skyward into the bright sun, straightened his large body, and stretched his massive wings.  His wings moved, slowly at first, then surely and powerfully.  With the mighty screech of an eagle, he flew.

Human beings were made to soar like eagles.  It is time for us to claim our birthright.

The Greatest Speech Ever Made

Change is coming.  Are you ready?

Psalm 14:1-3

The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none that does good. The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any that act wisely, that seek after God. They have all gone astray, they are all alike corrupt; there is none that does good, no, not one.

Does God exist?  This is an absurd question, and fundamentally meaningless, a question that is essentially impossible to prove either positively or negatively.  Simply put, if God does exist, then how do we define what we mean by that existence?  What type of existence does God have?  Unless we ourselves are God, which is unlikely given our reality as an earth bound and limited creature, then our understanding of existence is also limited to what we understand and experience as earth bound and limited creatures. Religious people claim that God is an infinite being. What do they mean by the term infinite being?  Beyond limits?  Try to imagine that.  You cannot, because humans are limited, and finite.  Essentially, human beings cannot know what it means to say God exists, therefore to speak of it is folly, because if an infinite God exists then God requires no one to assert God's existence, since God IS existence.  Moses asked God’s name and God replied I am Who I am.  The name means I AM Existence , with no beginning and end, a reality which is so outside of human experience that the only response that is truthful and appropriate is one of silence.

And arguing against the existence of God is equally impossible and absurd, for the same reasons.  The atheist claims science has shown more evidence against God’s existence than for God's existence. Again, what does science mean by the term existence? If science means existence which can be observed by earth bound limited beings, then we cannot ever know anything beyond our earth bound observations.   Science can only describe existence as it is observed and tested, and develop theories on how they believe existence evolved, but it can never define that which could exist beyond its observations and theories. Again, the best response to this paradox is silence.

Ultimately, as I observe the two poles of the existence or non-existence of God, in both cases I am confronted with a mystery which my mind cannot solve.  And since human beings find it difficult to exist in a world of mystery, we lean on faith as the vehicle by which  we can explain the mystery.  The religious person extols the virtue of faith in their creeds, rituals, scriptures, and religious practices.  The atheist extols faith in human reason, science, evolution and progress.  Both camps settle on opposite sides of the poles of God’s existence, and resign themselves to further ignorance and error. The answer, as always, lies in the balancing of the poles.


If God exists then the only way to truly know it is to experience it.  You cannot think about the existence of God as a concept, since God's existence is the source of all conception and all thought.  Atheists and agnostics deny this fact at their peril because God is all life, all existence.  So how do we experience it?  By living our lives in love and service to God, ourselves, and our neighbor. By living faithfully not to a set of dogmas, creeds, and church regulations but instead to a deep belief in the law of love. A life lived in this manner reveals that God is present within each person, aye every atom in the universe is filled with the prescence and power of God.  We see that existence itself is the proof of God's existence.

Religious people often feel that God demands that they believe in Him and the doctrines of his church, and in doing so they are justified by faith.  However, a closer examination shows us that it is by engaging life postively and with love in our hearts that we are justified, and made partakers in the eternal life of our creator.

The Greatest Commandment

Jesus said that the Greatest Commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. In this, Jesus said, was the totality of the law and the prophets.  But what does it mean to love God this way?

The heart is the center of one's being. In it are contained a person's desires which are the engines of motivation and accomplishment.  To love God with all one's heart means to center one's emotions, desires, needs and wants entirely in God, or under the control and guidance of God. What we desire for ourselves is not the problem, but instead the problem is where are the desires directed and for what end? For example, if your desire is to be successful in business, then that desire does not need to be changed, just transformed by one's love for God into an avenue which serves the greater good. God wants us to be prosperous and happy, but if we lack love we will find that our success will quickly turn to failure, and our desire will no longer serve us.  Our sexual desires are normal and nothing to be feared, however if they are used for selfish purposes and not for love, they can destroy us.  So you see, desire and emotion are not the problem, the problem arises when they are directed away from love of God and towards some other love, usually love of self or material possessions.

The mind is the center of thought activity.  By thinking we allow suggestions to filter to the heart, where desire and emotion can generate energy to bring those thoughts into being.  If our thoughts are wild and undisciplined, then our desires, emotions, and motivations will be as well.  If, however, our thoughts are centered upon the love of God, then we will think rightly and send good and powerful suggestions down into our heart, which will result in great success and achievement both for ourselves and our neighbors.

The soul is our true self.  It is the I which hides behind the false me which was created as protection from the pain of this world system.  The false me cannot exist in the light of God's love; it is burned in the fire of the Spirit. By loving God with all my soul, the true I is set in a prominent place, and the false me is slowly transformed in love.

One's strength is the totality of their gifts.  It is the means by which I express power in the created realm.  When I am unfocused and undisciplined, my gifts go to waste, and my strength is weakened or used by another for their benefit.  However, when I love God with all my strength, and offer my gifts to him in service and love, then I am truly powerful.  I am free to express my power as I see fit, and to use my gifts properly and completely.

Loving one's neighbor as oneself is the ultimate revelation of a true interior love of God.  If one does not love one's neighbor, then they truly do not love God.  And if they do not love God, then their religion is based on a love of self.  They have received their reward, as Jesus said so well.

As the presidential election season progresses, all the Republican candidates continue to claim to follow God and Christ.  Yet they act as people with no love for their neighbor.  They advocate war with Iran, economic policies which enrich the few at the expense of many, and social policies which divide us into sinners and saints.  Compassion, which for a Christian should be the whole of one's existence, is not evident.  One can say with certainty, that while these men claim to be Christians, they have no love of God in their hearts.  Their religion is reflected in love of self through the achievement of earthly power.

Let us learn from these men.  If we claim to follow Christ, then we must love God and one another.  Anything less is not only dishonest, but highly dangerous for our spiritual progress.

An Open Letter to the Bankers

For those who take things in the internet literally, this is intended to be a parody.  Its a joke. 

This is for the Occupunks

This is my post in defiance of the un-American and un-fun movement called Occupy Wall Street.

Seriously, what do these people want?  I mean, this is America, the country where you are free to speak your mind (provided it is not between the hours of 10PM and 6AM, and done with out those unsafe structures called “tents.”) where there is a free press (that is for profit, which of course is their right, even though it does not technically make it free, but who cares commies) and you have the option of becoming whatever you want to be.  If you want to be a smelly hippie who like getting his head bashed in by the police, then you can.  Welcome to the constitution baby.

Hey if they don’t like it here , then they should move to France where they make men dress like women and women dress like 12 year old boys.  It’s the law, look it up!

            By the way,  Jesus died for America, so therefore it is our divine right given to us by God Almighty to allow certain people to get really rich while everyone else has to struggle for survival.  That’s God’s evolution, and if they don’t like it then they are going to hell.  It is in the Bible, somewhere.  Oh yeah, and they should take a shower. No one likes the way people smell, we prefer to smell chemical soaps and deodorants manufactured by God-Fearing, Jesus approved Corporations, you know the job creators.  Corporations give you both a job, and a smell free environment.  Who cares if the chemicals in the products might cause cancer, or the plastics contribute to global warming?  Do they think we are going to live forever?  You think the dinosaurs thought to themselves, “hey we should stop, you know, doing dinosaur things because we might go extinct?”  No, they kept working their jobs until the comet smashed into them and they went extinct.  That’s what Jesus wanted.  So I say, shut up and keep consuming, and don’t question the financial industry, like a good Christian dinosaur would do!

An I wish they would stop whining about police brutality.  Don’t they understand that the police have invested untold millions of citizen’s tax dollars in high tech riot armor and weaponry?  That’s my tax dollars, and I expect them to be used!  What were they going to do, leave them in the armory and negotiate with smelly hippies?  That would be a waste of valuable tax resources.  Better to use them against defenseless protesters than go to waste.  After all, we won’t be able to use them when we go extinct.  Just ask the dinosaurs. They used their body armor and claws and teeth right until the end! 

Work is Freedom.  If I were the mayor of New York, I would herd those Occupunks on train cars, and ship them off to a place where that motto is taken seriously.  A place where they can be reeducated on the divine plan which enthrones the few to rule the many.    A true workers paradise.  

Contacting Your Higher Mind

What does it mean to say that human beings are made in the image and likeness of God?  This is a difficult question to answer because in order to answer it properly one has to know what image of God is being reflected in the human person.  Some would say for this reason it is an impossible question to answer.  I disagree, and I believe that the answer to this question can provide great spiritual knowledge to the one who understands it.  The answer can be trans-formative.

In order to understand the God whose image we were made to reflect, we need only look at God’s main attributes, like infinite goodness, love, joy, peace, etc. How do we know that these are God’s infinite attributes?  Because human beings seek what is good, and loving, and what will bring them happiness.  Human ideas of love, and the good, and what will truly make them happy are in a state of error and disorder, however, no one can deny that all human beings seek good things in abundance. Therefore, they must be the attributes which show us what image of God we were made to reflect.

We can then conclude that since we all desire these things, then human beings were made to reflect infinite goodness, mercy, love, compassion, forgiveness, happiness, life, health, etc;  that is, we were made to reflect any positive idea or attribute you can think of. These attributes are what God IS, and therefore this is what humans SEEK, and thus comprises the image we were made to REFLECT.  However, our errors, lack of faith, fear, encounters with evil, and other problems of life cause us to reflect other things into the world, bringing trouble, pain, suffering, death, and other negative experiences to ourselves and others.  This happens because humans have freedom, which is attribute of God, and as a result they can choose things which they believe are good and will make them happy, but these choices are made in error.  For example, the modern world is in obsessed with material prosperity, because they believe, in error, that it will make them happy, provide them access to love, fame, adoration, etc. What it brings, however, is a deeper slide into error, and pain, and unhappiness.

The unfortunate side effect of the human propensity to choose that which appears good, is that people begin to believe that life is a mixture of good and evil, joy and pain, which is symbolized wonderfully in the story of the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve eat from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  The reason God warns Adam and Eve not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is because we were not made to reflect good and evil, we were made to reflect good and as a result, experience God’s infinite life.  Through freedom, human beings choose both good and evil, and through this error leave themselves outside the garden, cut off from the Tree of Life, trapped in a world of struggle, frustration, pain, and lack. 

The path back to the Garden, the Way to the Tree of Life lies in realizing the central, foundational truth of the Bible which calls us to become images of the infinite and invisible God. We can do this because Jesus has shown us the Way, through Love, Works of Charity, Service, and Prayer.  We can train our mind to depend on God alone, and to think and act on thoughts of infinite love, happiness, joy, health, and know that the more we think these thoughts and act on them, the more we become transformed into the image of the Infinite God.  And if God is with us, then truly who can stand against us?

                                   

Psalm 40 and Psalm 50

Are you happy?  Are you experiencing life as full, abundant, joyful, and full of infinite possibilities, or are you living a life of struggle, frustration, pain, apathy, and lack? Do you wish life could be different, but have resigned yourself to the race belief that life is a trial to be endured, not an adventure waiting to be lived?  


You are not alone.  Millions of people around the world live lives of quiet desperation, working jobs they hate, ruled by corrupt institutions, living in substandard conditions, and dealing with family members and loved ones who bring them nothing but pain. Most accept fatalistically that this is the way life is, or how God intended life to be, because we have been taught this idea from the moment we came forth from our mother's womb into this world.  The powerful in society, the governmental, business, and religious leaders, continue to tell this story because it leaves them in control of the vast resources of the world while they resign the majority of humanity to a fight and struggle for the crumbs that fall from the master's table.  As a result, most people never dare to dream that life can be anything more than a struggle for survival, or a test to be endured until death finally comes to bring us eternal rest from our pain.


But what if this story of life is a false story?  What if life is only perceived as difficult because those in power have controlled the way we think, and if we could perceive life differently, if we could throw off the shackles that the powerful have put on our minds and hearts, then life would be abundant, happy, and full beyond our wildest dreams? What if God is waiting, patiently, for people to call on him with confidence so that he can unleash the awesome, infinite power of the spirit into their lives, which would begin to transform them, their circumstances, and the very world which the powerful have forced us all to inhabit? Would it be worth trying to see if it is true?

 This experiment is enacted by the author of Psalm 40.  The Psalm begins with the phrase:

I waited patiently for the LORD;
   he turned to me and heard my cry. 

The Psalmist is letting us in on a great secret, if we have ears to hear and eyes to see.  He is telling us about how he waited patiently for the Lord, which is another way of saying he believed with conviction that God was good, and righteous, and compassionate, and holy, and as a result God would answer his request.  The Psalmist tells us that because of his firm conviction, shown through his patience, the Lord turns to him.  What a wonderful image!  Before this, he experienced God as having turned his back to him, but now the Lord turns and shows him his face. He sees for the first time that the God he was introduced to by the leaders of Israel was a false God, and for the first time in his life he meets the true God of Israel, the Lord.


How strikingly different is this image from the image of God presented to us by our religious leaders, an image of a  God who demands worship and sacrifice (mediated of course by his churches), a God who supports the powerful and demands money, a God who encourages those who are not in power to be submissive and accept their lot in life, a God who keeps score and cannot wait to punish humans for the least little transgression.  For his whole life the Psalmist was taught this image of God, a deity who was distant and could only be approached by offering sacrifices through the mediation of the Temple Priesthood.  For all intents and purposes, God had turned his back on him, for he did not know him, nor did he feel that God cared about him.  But something inside him tells him that the Lord is not a distant, uninterested, deity of the powerful and he acts with conviction on this faith. He waits patiently for the Lord, and amazingly God turns his face to him and hears his cry.  


The next verses of Psalm 40 tell us how the Psalmist's world, and his circumstances, have now changed forever because of his new found knowledge of the Lord.  

He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
   out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
   and gave me a firm place to stand. 

This firm act of faith by the Psalmist changes his worldview and his world. God has lifted him out of the slimy pit, the mud and mire of limiting human beliefs about God and the world, and into a world where anything is possible because the Lord is waiting to make it so.  This is symbolized by the rock he now stands on. He no longer ascribes to the race view that life is a slimy pit of despair, suffering, and death, but he now stands firm on the rock of conviction that life is good, that God is good, and that what he formerly believed was an illusion.  This belief is expressed when God:

put a new song in my mouth, 

   a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear the LORD
   and put their trust in him.
 
Fear of the Lord is not a state of anxiety, but is instead a response of awe and reverence.  When we meet the true God for the first time, we are rightly awed at the power of the Lord, the Power of his Spirit.  We realize that anything is possible, so we put our trust in him. The Psalmist tells us that his testimony will enlighten many others to put their trust in God.  They will see his face as well, and their lives will be forever changed. They will become vessels for the infinite Power of the Spirit.  


We cannot wait for the rich and powerful to mend their ways, and honestly we have to admit at this point that many will not.  We should pity them because they suffer from the same illusions of lack, struggle, pain, and suffering as everyone else, the difference being that they have sold their souls to the illusion and created institutions dedicated to it, which makes it harder for them to get out.  They are trapped, where as we, because of our lack of power and influence, have a way out.  


Our world is changing.  The world of lack, pain, suffering, and death is crumbling around us.  The powerful are raging because they cannot control the runaway train of change that is sweeping through the world.  Economies are in free fall.  Governments are going bankrupt.  Religions are in decline, both in membership and influence.  God seems to have turned his back, or is instead turning his face towards us in wrath.  People wander as if in a daze, full of apathy, violence, ignorance, and greed.  Many ask, is this the end of the world?

For the world of pain and lack, yes the end is in sight.  But we do not need to go down with it.  We can wait patiently for the Lord, we can believe and trust in his goodness, mercy, love, concern, and infinite power and ride through the storms raging around us and live lives of victory, abundance, joy, and peace.  We can, like the Psalmist be lifted out of the muck and slime of this world of death and be placed firmly on the rock of truth.  And if we trust, with conviction, believing that God can do anything, and that God wants us to be happy and live full lives, we will become a new creature, worthy to step out of the ashes of this crumbling world system into a new age of human life without limitation, without suffering, and that transcends death.


This verse from Psalm 50 should give those who hold the reigns of power pause:

 ¹⁶ But to the wicked person, God says:
   “What right have you to recite my laws
   or take my covenant on your lips?
¹⁷ You hate my instruction
   and cast my words behind you.
¹⁸ When you see a thief, you join with him;
   you throw in your lot with adulterers.
¹⁹ You use your mouth for evil
   and harness your tongue to deceit.
²⁰ You sit and testify against your brother
   and slander your own mother’s son.
²¹ When you did these things and I kept silent,
   you thought I was exactly^[c] like you.
But I now arraign you
   and set my accusations before you.
 ²² “Consider this, you who forget God,
   or I will tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you:
²³ Those who sacrifice thank offerings honor me,
   and to the blameless^[d] I will show my salvation.”