Human Suffering & God

RELIGION often puts the cart before the horse, GRACE puts the horse back in front. – Richard Rohr, on Radical Grace     

It was unfortunate that Origen was declared anathema in 553 CE since it was he who was among the first to recognize our Divine Indwelling when he said “Who among those who have read the Gospels does not know that Christ makes human suffering his own?” Had Origen’s understanding of God’s divine indwelling been accepted from the beginning others might have viewed this world in a completely different context or light. No doubt this would have allowed all of us, to quote Richard Rohr, “to connect the dots better when considering human suffering.”

    

God’s Divine Indwelling clearly implies that “this life is not about us but about God experiencing Himself or Herself through all of us individually and indeed within and throughout all of Creation”.  That profoundly illustrates that any pain, suffering, or joy we experience – God also experiences that with us.  The knowledge that God is within the soul of each human being should provide us with the comfort of knowing that we are not alone; and journeys with us every part of the way from the Alpha to the Omega.  Accepting that God is present within and throughout all of Creation may be the first step necessary for understanding the significance of our True and False (ego) self.  Only God’s unconditional love incorporates and accepts both positive and negative aspects of our human nature.  To try and understand this radical definition of God’s unconditional love is almost maddening.  But Julian of Norwich expressed this best as follows: 

  

“Humans see some deeds as good and others as evil, but our Lord doesn’t see things like this; for everything is given its nature by God and so all that is done is done by God.  It is easy to understand that the best of deeds is well done, but the least of deeds is as well done as the best, for all things happen in the way and order that our Lord has ordained for them from beginningless time; for there is no doer but Him.”

This same radical understanding of God’s unconditional Love was recently wonderfully expressed by Mirabai Starr[1] in these words:

 “When we make mistakes and create suffering, we humble ourselves and God loves us all the more.  For those of us non-Christian and post-modern types, try substituting the word sin for shame, or blame, or even karma.  In other words, we screw up, but that only opens the tender heart of the cosmos where we can find refuge and come back into wholeness.”    

Now our suffering, such as from addictions, can be approached in terms of God’s desire to bring us to wholeness through his healing love.  This unconditional love not only brings us forgiveness and the awareness of the ability to forgive, but also allows us to transform the addiction into a blessing to freely love God, others and myself.  Rohr reminds me such a transformation can only be truly achieved by turning verbal orthodoxy into orthopraxy.

It has taken me at least ten years or more to understand the full significance behind the True Self/False Self as it was first explained by Fr. Rohr at a two day conference in Cleveland, OH. sometime around 2004?  What a blessing his insights that help us Breathe Under Water- Spirituality and the Twelve Steps (2011) have proven to be for all those burdened with addictions and other trials. 

In the face of so much continuing pain and suffering in the world and because we still ask “why does God not do something about it?”  We only need to accept that God does do something about it every day – he created you and me.  We only need to activate the God within -  the True self, or higher self if you prefer.  Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) understood this perfectly well; almost 500 years ago when she said:      

Christ has no body but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours. 

Finally below you will find Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation, coincidentally for today, which may help to explain why the False self with a dualistic mind is unable to process such things as human suffering, etc.,  

Dualistic Thinking – The Egoic Operating System

Dualistic thinking, or the egoic operating system, as Cynthia Bourgeault calls it, is our way of reading reality from the position of my private ego. “What’s in it for me?” “How will I look if I do this?” This is our preferred way of seeing reality. It has become the “hardware” of almost all Western people, even those who think of themselves as Christians, because the language of institutional religion is largely dualistic itself. It is a way of teaching that has totally taken over in the last five hundred years. It has confused information with enlightenment, mind with soul, and thinking with experiencing. But they are two very different paths.

The dualistic mind is essentially binary. It is either/or thinking. It knows by comparison, by opposition, by differentiation. It uses descriptive words like good/evil, pretty/ugly, intelligent/stupid, not realizing there may be 55 or 155 degrees between the two ends of each spectrum. It works well for the sake of simplification and conversation, but not for the sake of truth or even honest experience.

Actually, you need your dualistic mind to function in everyday life: to do your job as a teacher, a doctor, or an engineer. It is great stuff as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go far enough. The dualistic mind cannot process things like infinity, mystery, God, grace, suffering, death, or love. When it comes to unconditional love, the dualistic mind can’t even begin to understand it. It pulls everything down into some kind of tit-for-tat system of worthiness and achievement, which is largely what “fast food religion” teaches, usually without even knowing it.

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[1] Mirabai Starr, All Will be Well:  The Radical Optimism of Julian Norwich, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mirabai-starr/julian-of-norwich_b_4115736.html

Our struggle with the False and True Self

To understand the struggle between the False and True Self, as an option, was most certainly not always obvious in my life of seventy plus years.   In fact, it is relatively new to me. And I am only slowly beginning to grasp its full significance.  For one thing it revealed the hazard(s) of thinking ‘I’m a victim’ with the entitlement of self pity, and the assumption that I am not responsible for my miserable addiction or condition, etc.? Dr. David Hawkins has said "there is a secret payoff and satisfaction in being the victim, martyr, or loser." Seeing myself in that Light I can now better understand the words from Fr. Anthony de Mello when he states: 

“Nothing surpasses the [prayers] of those who have learned perfect acceptance of everything that is. In the game of cards called life one plays the hand one is dealt to the best of one's ability.  Those who insist on playing not the hand they were given, but the one they insist they should have been dealt— these are life's failures. We are not asked if we will play. That is not an option. Play we must. The option is how.”

While these may sound like harsh words, they immediately recognize our daily struggle with the alter ego.  Nothing easy about that kind of prayer, but doesn’t it bring us toward the ‘Right Relationship With Life Itself’?[1]      

At the same time it is wonderfully balanced by yet another meditation from de Mello, entitled ‘DON'T CHANGE’, as follows:

I was a neurotic for years. I was anxious and depressed and selfish. Everyone kept telling me to change. I resented them, and I agreed with them, and I wanted to change, but simply couldn't, no matter how hard I tried. What hurt the most was that, like the others, my best friend kept insisting that I change. So I felt powerless and trapped. Then, one day, he said to me. 'Don't change. I love you just as you are."  Those words were music to my ears: "Don’t change. Don't change. Don't change. . . . . . .I love you as you are." I relaxed.  I came alive. And suddenly I changed!  Now I know that I couldn't really change until I found someone who would love me whether I changed or not.

 Is this how you love me, God?” 

Finally, it is the question in the last line “Is this how you love me, God?” that reveals to me the way in which ‘God gives us more power than answers’[2].  I know, but yet I don’t know.  Therein, I can now place my total trust.

Note: Both of the above meditations from Fr. Anthony de Mello, are from his book The Song of the Bird, (1984).

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[1] Richard Rohr, Breathing Under Water, Franciscan Media, p. 61

[2] Richard Rohr, Breathing Under Water, Franciscan Media, p. 64

Is disobedience to Church teachings a sin?

“Any form of inquisition, however subtle, not only harms the development of a sound theology, it also causes irreparable damage to the credibility of the church as a community in the modern world,” - Nijmegen Declaration (1968) co-signed Joseph Ratzinger

It is now evident that  former Cardinal now Pope Benedict has completely reversed his stance on dissent from Church teachings by calling for total obedience to church teachings as God's will. Catholics today are faced with overwhelming number of religious issues ranging from birth control to euthanasia. At the same time we are being told that to deviate from Church teaching is a grave sin. Can we know for certain who is right and who is wrong? The answer to that question for some will be a definitive ‘YES’ and for others an equally definitive ‘NO’! Confusing? Not really.

It is important to note Benedict’s warning equates ‘dissent’ from Church teachings as a direct disobedience to God. This kind of dogmatic reasoning completely ignores the primacy of individual conscience. Remember even Jesus deferred to the Father (John 8:28). Church teachings, except for declarations about Mary’s Immaculate Conception and Bodily Assumption, are and never have been infallible. Ultimately we must learn to rely on our relationship with God and the teachings of the Church. However, when there is conflict between the two we must obey one or the other.

Today there are those who seek safety in their faith by submitting to a strict obedience to Church teachings. However there are also those who have matured beyond the need for ready answers. Jesus reminds us that “no one can be a slave of two masters; he will hate one and love the other; he will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money”. (Mat. 6:24) In either case God, through his unconditional love for humanity will respect the basis for our individual decisions. The role of the Church is to reflect that unconditional love and bring us to a mature understanding of our faith. As adults we are called to take personal responsibility for the growth of our faith. Anything else merely keeps us dependent on the opinions and decisions from people we probably do not even know or understand. In modern terms this is known as a co-dependency! This cannot bring us to a healthy relationship with God or with ourselves. Jesus recognized this problem when he said “No pupil is greater than his teacher, but every pupil when he has completed his training will be like his teacher”. (Luke 6:40). The Church at times has been an excellent and very necessary teacher, but like any good parent, the time comes when it needs to let go and let God. Perhaps this point is best illustrated when Catholics begin to understand the Sacraments as a starting point rather than a destination. The rest is the responsibility of the individual adult.

Confirmation (Latin confirmare, make firm) is the sacrament of initiation through which baptized Christians receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit which strengthens them in their faith. Accordingly this is the time an individual commits or awakens his or her self to the Divine Indwelling, a.k.a. the ‘Internal Guidance System’, or the ‘True-Self’. Traditionally this is the point at which the ‘confirmed’ take full responsibility for the future growth of their faith and marks the beginning of the formation of the individual conscience. The primacy of the individual conscience was clearly recognized by Vatican II and therefore part of todays church teaching. It can be found in  PastoralConstitution on the Church in the Modern World, Par. 16. 

At this point we need to learn to rely and trust in our ‘Internal Guidance System’ whenever an emotion resonates be that positive or negative. Whenever we are responding positively, we can know that we are in alignment with our True Self/Guidance System. Alternatively, if we find ourselves responding negatively to a situation/question, we can know that we are out of that alignment. The greatest affirmation we can receive is God’s promise that “The Helper, the Holy Spirit, will teach you everything and make you remember all that I have told you” (John 14:26). While God set us free, our ego or ‘False-Self’ can easily deceive us and cause us to chose wrongly or out of alignment. There certainly have been times in Church history that it too was out of alignment. But Benedict’s silencing of dissenting voices may also shut out the voice of the Holy Spirit at a time when it is needed most.

Christ experiencing himself through you

Ten days ago while lying in a hospital bed, soaked with fear, a voice came to me in the middle of the night that said ‘the life you live is not about you!   The life you live is Christ experiencing himself through you’. This brief message continues to sustain and strengthen me throughout my physical and emotional struggle. It simply could not have come at a better time.

I don’t know exactly when and where the idea of God experiencing itself through us came but realized it has a lot to do with the True Self and the False or Ego Self.  In order to connect with the True Self we are called to deny our Ego (which is not easy or obvious). The Bible speaks of the False Self in terms of ‘Flesh’ and the True Self as the spirit self.  Therefore we are all Holy Creations capable of great unholy actions, thoughts and deeds.  But did God not create us with a free will?   Scripture tells us when we re-learn to trust in God “it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now lives in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God,^* who loved me and gave himself for me. Gal. 2:20.  Jesus said that children already live in the Kingdom, which also suggests that most of us lose the ability to trust in God as we mature into adulthood.  So, to regain that trust we must re-learn what we already knew as a child.

With the awareness that God rests in every soul we can be assured that “if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit^* is life because of righteousness. ¹¹If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ^* from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through^* his Spirit that dwells in you. Romans 8: 10-20

Now don’t get caught up in the religious term ‘sin’ as fearing the wrath of  God, but rather as opportunities to help you recognize your True Self from the False Self. God does not ever leave your presence just because you ‘missed the mark’!   (that's what the word 'sin' means from the original Greek) God does not punish, reward or hand out favours. In fact each time we sin he draws us closer because he desires nothing more than your whole self.  Believe me God is more interested in our potential than in our mistakes.  In fact scripture reminds us that God does not remember our sins.

Fr Richard Rohr writes (Job and the Mystery of Suffering) “God loves us so perfectly he lets us be the heroes. God lets us wrestle with the angel of Yahweh, lets us struggle with God and win. When we try to let go and give our life to God, God gives it back to us. Should we be surprised? That's what love does. That's the only thing you can get excited about when you're in love--giving your life to the other and seeing enjoyment in the other. That's the union toward which God is calling us. The lover delighting in the beloved and the beloved delighting in the lover”.

If you are still stuck on the ‘sin’ rather than your potential know that you are totally entitled to claim your inheritance of the True Self  at any time because   “you are no longer a slave but God's own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir. Gal. 4:7

Simply by trusting  in and accepting God’s unconditional love we can allow ourselves to transformed into the very image of God. 2 Cor. 3:18  We may never completely succeed but God knows our heart and keeps us close to his.

Negative thoughts keep you awake?  Claim the mind of the Lord, its free.  “for who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. 1 Cor. 2:16

The choice is entirely yours, but remember You are responsible... for creating your own belief system and internal map of the world. For interpreting situations however you do and creating feelings based on those interpretations. For your choices, decisions and actions. For being true to your own judgment but never being judgmental of others. For communicating with honesty and integrity, developing and maintaining an open mind, and promoting understanding and empathy. For never compromising your freedoms and rights nor trampling on another's. For always acting from the primary motivation of love. That's all and quite enough.  Brother Mandus Before leaving this posting please watch: http://zanylol.com/ad.html Finally in our daily struggles it may be helpful to recall that ‘the life you live is not about you!   The life you live is Christ experiencing himself through you’. BTW. By truly recognizing that God resides in all humans we have to accept that God comes in many disguises and that's certainly not always easy.

Transformation of the Ego

Butterfly emerges

 

When the Bible speaks of transformation I believe it talks about the necessity of a spiritual change. However such a change can mean different things for different people but both directly affect how we allow the Ego to influence our response to others and even ourselves. Kabbalist Yehuda Berg writes ‘the Ego is not just someone’s inflated view of himself or herself. Yes, conceit, self-importance, and over-confidence are part of ego. But ego also includes low self-esteem, shyness, and feelings of inferiority. The ego creates extroverts and introverts. Ego makes you feel you are the best, and it makes you feel like you are the worst. It grows when you feed it, and then it converts its energy into feeling of conceit or feelings of inferiority.’

Regardless, Wayne Dyer reminds us ‘It is our Ego that prevents us from seeing the good that lies beyond appearances.’ How frequently do we allow the ego to control our life? Well, again according to Yehuda Berg, some 99% of our everyday behaviour follows the dictates of ego. Is it any wonder then that the world today remains in such a mess? Have you ever wondered why after almost fifty-eight hundred years of Judaism, two thousand years of Christianity, and fourteen hundred years of Islam our major world religions have failed to bring us the peace we all so desperately desire? You guessed it. It is the ego that prevents us from rising above our self imposed limitations. It is the ego also called the adversary, Satan or the devil that supports our false belief systems. It is our ego that keeps us locked in fear of life itself. It is the Ego that calls for separation and war. It is the Ego that is responsible for so much pain and suffering in this world. It is the Ego according to Dr. David R. Hawkins, that thrives on shame, guilt, apathy, grief, fear, desire, anger and pride and prevents us from experiencing our True Self. Only courage, neutrality, willingness, acceptance, reason, love, joy, peace, and enlightenment will return us to our God driven True Self. While most enlightened people today recognize the destructive influence ego’s have in our relationships we (including our religious institutions) find it more convenient to keep on operating at the 99% level causing the fall out and suffering to continue on a worldwide scale.

Marianne Williamson’s latest book ‘The Age of Miracles – Embracing the New Midlife’ (2008) provides a perfect insight of how the Ego constantly creates a false image of who we really are and keeps us painfully imprisoned despite the fact that God desires nothing more than to set us free. The following excerpt from her book reveals how we can begin to transform our ego based False Self to a healing experience of our God given True-Self.

THE FEAR-BASED EGO GATHERS EVIDENCE AT EVERY TURN, mak­ing forgiveness hard. The ego is obsessed with two big cases: one against everybody else, and one against you.

Sometimes the face at the center of your bull's-eye doesn't belong to anyone else. Yours is the name on the docket of the case you feel compelled to pros­ecute—you, for your past errors; you, for your past stu­pidity; you, for your past immaturity; you, for your past irresponsibility; you, for just being you.

Prosecutorial witnesses are everywhere, and the courtroom is in your head. The ego is not on a search for justice but for guilt, for that is what it feeds on. Its case against you is not just based on the notion that you did something wrong, but that in some fun­damental way you are wrong. That's a hard rap to beat. Who could ever sleep well if convinced that everything about them is just wrong?

You feel you've blown it on so many levels, in so many ways, and on some nights for whatever reason it all comes back so clearly. . . . What a lovely life, hav­ing 20-year-old bad memories shooting through your brain like bazookas from hell—which, in a way, they are. And you have nowhere to put them except in that big fat file called "All the Ways I Screwed Up." How can you feel that there's goodness ahead when you feel that in the past you have been so bad? How can you have much hope for the future when your take on the past is so relentlessly vicious? And how can you really defend yourself against a ruthless prosecutor who is an aspect of yourself?

You know the religious image of "burning in hell forever"? Well, now you know what it means: anxiety and guilt and self-hatred without end. It wasn't God who sent you there, but rather the enemy in your own mind. The ego, the fear-based self, the shadow—what­ever name you choose to call it—is on active patrol to burn down your peace of mind.

The reason for faith that you can and will escape those flames is that God guarantees your fundamental innocence. He created you innocent, and what He cre­ates is changeless and indestructible. Have you made mistakes? Who hasn't? But God's will is to correct our mistakes, not punish us for them. We are punished by our sins, not for them. It's the ego that both sets us up to do the wrong thing and then punishes us savagely for having done so.

An all-merciful God has already dismissed every case against you before the ego has a chance to mount it. Your mistakes, no matter how bad you might think they were, did not emanate from your self as He cre­ated you. That's why remembering who you truly are is the key to deliverance from the flames of self-condemnation.

You're no better or worse than anyone else. No matter how much you might regret your past, there's someone out there who regrets his or hers more. The path to happiness is not determined by whether or not we made mistakes in the past. What paves the way to happiness is whether or not we turn our mistakes into catalysts for personal growth and illumination.

Think of everything you've ever been through, and try to reinterpret it gently. All the love you ever gave was real. All the love anyone ever gave you was real. Everything else was simply an illusion, no matter how bitter or cruel it might have been in your experience.

I'm not going to insult you by saying, "Just for­give yourself." God forgives you, because He never saw you as anything but innocent. Your mistakes did not change the ultimate truth about you or alter the per­manent nature of God's universe. Your ego is not that powerful. Truly atone for your errors, make amends where possible, and you'll be free to begin again.

According to A Course in Miracles, in the moments when you were not your best self—when you didn't stand up as the most loving you could be—then all the good you deflected is being held in trust for you until you're ready to receive it. God will return to you the years that the locusts have eaten. And the past as you know it shall be no more.

Wherever there was fear, love will ultimately pre­vail. Whether in response to your own mistakes or to the cruelty of the world, God will always have the final say. And His say will always be how very much that you are loved.

 

Sources:

Williamson, Marianne ‘The Age of Miracles – Embracing the New Midlife’,   Hay House, 2008

Hawkins, David R. M.D., Ph.D., Power Vs. Force, Hay House, 2002

Dyer, Wayne W., M.D., Your Sacred Self – Making the Decision to Be Free, Harper Collins,1995

Berg, Yehuda, The Monster Is Real, The Kabbalah Centre, 2005

  

What is the Ego?

"If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose, it and those who lose their life for my sake will save it." Luke 9-23-24

“Knowing Yourself as the Awareness Behind the Ego – That is Freedom!” -Anon

By now some readers may be asking what do I mean by ‘Ego’ anyway? If you think that the Ego affects only extroverts with arrogant self serving attitudes you are dead wrong. If on the other hand you think introverted people, lacking obvious self confidence, are not suffering due to Ego problems you are wrong again. In fact, I was quite surprised to learn that all fear, stress, anxiety, pain, doubt, and suffering in this world has its direct roots in our individual Ego’s! Isn’t that amazing? What is even more amazing is that you and I can do something about it. And you really won’t need a therapist or psychiatrist to help you find the answers.

For the best explanation of the Ego, and how to deal with it, I happily recommend a little book called ‘The Monster is Real’. Written by Yehuda Berg it is readily available through any of the well known on-line bookstores. How prevalent is the Ego in our ordinary dealings with people? According to the author 99% of our everyday behaviour follows the dictates of Ego! Looking at the state of the world and our collective suffering you will now hopefully begin to understand that THE MONSTER IS REAL! Kabbalist further tell us that there are five extensions of ego: anger, hatred, judgment, control and pride. These are the branches of the tree of ego.

Though the Ego or False-Self may sometimes provide us with an inflated image of ourselves; it especially thrives in an atmosphere of negative behaviour. Through our false- self we often see ourselves as victims, less than deserving and always needy. We have a difficult time forgiving others especially ourselves. In a society pre-occupied with material success we have become increasingly dependent on how others see us. As a result we find ourselves in constant competition with our friends and neighbours. The false self is now convinced that it cannot be considered a ‘success’ if, for example: it doesn’t acquire the latest electronic gadget, the latest model car, a spacious house (instead of a home) or able to afford an annual cruise( instead of an inward spiritual journey) on the ocean. While all of us will quickly agree that these ‘wants’ do not provide lasting fulfillment we have not yet discovered how to scale the impregnable fortress called the Ego and experience the True Self!

So why do we have Ego's? Well according to Yehuda Berg we chose it! “Well that was stupid” some might say in retrospect. Why would we chose something that might cause ourselves and others so much harm? The answer to that question is not as simple as it might seem. But basically it is because we learned not to share – to keep things for ourselves and ourselves alone. A form of self preservation you might say. That in itself is the very evil that exists in everyone’s heart. On the other hand when we resign to our self created fate and play the part of a ‘victim’ instead of sharing the universal joy that is available to all humankind, we are also giving in to the Ego.

When we think that evil is a force outside of ourselves, and that Satan is a separate entity, we are giving in to our Ego. When we ‘scapegoat’ and blame events on others we again have missed an opportunity to bind our Ego. Several years ago I attended a two day seminar featuring Fr. Richard Rohr on the subject of ‘True Self’ versus ‘False Self’. His presentation solidified my understanding of the damaging role the Ego plays in our everyday lives. In a nut shell I learned that the false-self represents the Ego self while the true-self reveals to real or God given self that resides deep inside every person. When Fr. Rohr was questioned whether the false-self was ‘bad’ he stated: “It is just not as good as the true-self! “

Learning to understand how to deal with both is of course a life long journey and does require practise and determination but more so a deeper sense of awareness. Practice makes perfect. According to Mr. Berg ‘when we feed our reactive qualities we give energy to the Ego. If we feed our pro-active nature, we give energy to love, gratitude, and sharing’. As Christians we can now better understand what is meant by the need to ‘die to self’.

Dying to self is of course extremely difficult and can perhaps only be found through trial and error. And the following insight may help us to grasp the pain sometimes involved in coming to one's true self. It will surprise you to discover its original biblical roots.

As a child the biblical narrative about the sacrifice of Isaac held a particular if not a forbidding fascination for me. Later as an adult I began to doubt that God would actually ask anyone to sacrifice their son. Therefore it seemed reasonable when I heard some experts suggest that the early Israelites merely wanted to teach neophytes that their God did not demand human sacrifice. The latter was once a common practise in neighbouring pagan cultures. More recently however I began to understand the much deeper and demanding meaning behind this cryptic tale.


Yehuda Berg as editor of 'Genesis: Technology For the Soul' provides this profound reflection:


In place of Isaac, a ram caught in the thicket was sacrificed to God. This sacrificial ram is a code for the actual eradication for our wicked and prideful traits-the sacrificing of our Evil Inclination. Thus we learn that a man must constantly utilize the power of his soul (Abraham) to bind his own ego (the binding of Isaac upon the altar) and then to eliminate all his selfish and self-destructing traits from his nature (the slaughtering of the ram). This entails sacrificing short-term material pleasures for eternal spiritual joy.

The Bible (Genesis 1:26-27) tells us that God said ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness’. So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them (NRSV). I doubt many people today believe that God was talking about our physical appearance. Rather, I believe God was referring to our spiritual make-up or our True Self. Our true essence therefore is of God and our spirit eternally belongs to God. Our role in life then is to overcome the EGO and discover the True Self in our self as well as in all others. We are all One as beloved sons and daughters of God. For many years I have struggled with meaning behind Jesus' sermon on the mount when he said "blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall inheret the earth". Now I am convinced that he was talking about attaining a poverty of the ego. When we live out of our true self we can accept that we no longer need to change the world but ourselves.

Finally, I find it not just incidental that so many people are beginning to talk about the illusory role of the Ego in our society and how it affects world events so negatively . The time has come for us to face the ‘real monster’ and learn to discover who we truly can be for each other.

additional resources: Dr. Wayne W. Dyer - Your Sacred Self: Making the Decision to Be Free, HarperCollins, 1995

On Prayer

 Until we let go of verbal prayer and enter the realms of silence we are nowhere near maturity in our prayer - Teresa of Avila

Quit flapping your gums about God - Meister Eckhart

 ;

Can prayer change God’s mind? Or, do we need to change our mind about God? We have all heard the story about the two opposing football teams each praying to God for victory. What do we expect God to do in such a situation?

All prayer requires dialogue as opposed to monologue. silently or otherwise. Fr. Vincent Dwyer in his book 'Lift Your Sails', said: The real meaning of dialogue is that it attempts to unite, to unite persons who want to be united. Dialogue is realized in an authentic, loving encounter between persons wanting to be one. Prayer brings us into a relationship with a loving and healing Creator as opposed to a relationship with religious 'rules'.

Christians and most other world religions ask us to dialogue with the Creator. Jesus himself prayed to his Father and instructed his disciples to pray. But what does it mean when Jesus said “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."?

If we pray fervently to God for a something, be it for the most worthy and unselfish reasons, should we trust or believe that we will automatically receive God’s blessing and wait until this request or intent is duly honoured? Is prayer simply a matter of petitioning God and presenting him with a grocery list of all our needs trusting that he will generously and miraculously answer all our prayers in due time ?

But, what happens when these requests are not satisfied, particularly in the case of more tragic circumstances. Must we assume that God did not want to save that child, that parent or prevent this or that disaster? Or did God not answer our prayer because we did not deserve his blessing? Or, should we accept that God fulfills our every need but not necessarily our wants?

When we escape disaster, is it because God looked upon us favorably? Or, was the outcome just plain luck or fate?. If God ‘saved’ me but not the other is he rewarding me but not the other person? In other words, when prayers are answered, as they sometime are, is it the result of God rewarding us for our faithfulness or worthiness? There are many wonderful stories about prayers that were answered. Have you ever wondered about those prayers that seemingly were not answered?

Christians today use several types of prayers during their collective celebrations: petition, Intercession, thanksgiving, repentance, adoration and praise. Personal prayers may also include prayers of recitation, spiritual reading, recollection, contemplation and Journaling. All prayer, many of which could be ‘prepared’ or ‘traditional’ prayers, may be expressed vocally, mentally or even passively. All Christian explanations of prayer agree that the initiative comes from God, who moves people to the act of praying.

If we accept that God initiates the call perhaps it is best to listen first before presenting our prepared wish list. This acceptance was probably best expressed by the following wise individuals:

Prayer is when you talk to God; meditation is when you listen to God. ~Author Unknown

The value of consistent prayer is not that He will hear us, but that we will hear Him. ~Willam.McGill

Prayer may not change things for you, but it for sure changes you for things. ~Samuel M. Shoemaker

In this context I now better understand what Yehuda Berg meant when he recently stated: God does not answer our prayers. God IS the answer to our prayers.

Yehuda went on to say:

From the Kabbalistic perspective, God is more noun than verb. If God answered our prayers, God would be a verb, taking action, getting involved. Instead, we are the verb.

We need to take action in order to connect with God and draw the Light of the Creator to our lives. We have had this backwards for two thousand years, which is why our prayers have gone unanswered for so long. We keep waiting for an answer from God, but God cannot answer. God just is.

So how do we connect to God?

Transformation. Each time we resist our ego—our self-centered nature that wants to react, scream, cheat, yell, worry and abuse—we connect our soul to God. However, when our buttons are pushed, when some annoying individual incites us to anger, there’s almost no way to prevent a reflexive response.

So God came up with an idea, a way to help us out. He gave us a technology that we mistakenly called prayer. The kabbalist who prays is not offering a plea, or making a request. The words and letters that compose a prayer literally link our soul to unseen spiritual dimensions from which we summon spiritual help to rise above our ego, our reactive nature, and all the nasty character traits that keep us from connecting to the Light of the Creator.

My favourite stories about Prayer:

A man was climbing a tree when suddenly he slipped and then grabbed at a branch that caught him. After an hour or so of hanging there he felt himself getting exhausted. The man looked up to the heavens and cried out: “God, help me please, help me.” All of a sudden, the clouds parted and a voice boomed out from on high, “let go!” said the voice.

The guy paused, looked up at heaven once more, and asked, “Is there anyone else up there?” - Anthony de Mello

A man was lost in a desert. Later, when describing his ordeal to his friends, he told how, in sheer despair, he had knelt down and cried our to God to help him.“And did God answer your prayer?” he was asked. “Oh, no! Before He could, an explorer appeared and showed me the way.” - Anthony de Mello

Perhaps the most powerful and positive means to experience prayer, is through genuine dialogue and to belief that your prayer has already been answered. God only desires that we live our life ‘holistically ‘ or to the full! God does not need our suffering, sacrifices or martyrs, nor help to defend him.

For me one of the most positive ways to connect with the Light of the Creator is through journaling. In simple terms it allows me to present, in writing, my most intimate concerns to our Creator – and then wait for his ‘personal’ response to the issue at stake. When I am prepared to wait and listen, the written response will come, without fail, from the God deep within. However, I do not wish to suggest that journaling is the only effective means of hearing God. Each one must find their own path to experience a ‘burning bush’ moment. The challenge , for me, is to begin each day by seeing myself as God experiences himself through me and others– not as I experience God through the ego or false self!.

Prayer is not about changing God, but being willing to let God change us, or as Step 11 in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous says: “Praying only for the knowledge of his will.” Jesus goes so far as to say that true prayer is always answered (Matthew 7:7-11). Now we all know that this is not factually true—unless he is talking about prayer in the sense that I will try to describe it. If you are able to switch minds to the mind of Christ, your prayer has already been answered! The new mind knows, understands, accepts, and sees correctly, widely, and wisely. Its prayers are always answered because they are, in fact, the prayers of God, as well.

True prayer is always about getting the “who” right. Who is doing the praying, you or God-in-you, “little old you” or the Eternal Christ Consciousness? Basically prayer is an exercise in divine participation—you opting in and God always there!

Richard Rohr

Adapted from Breathing under Water:
Spirituality and the Twelve Steps

Finally, Kabbalah teaches us- BE CAREFUL NOT TO PRAY FOR THE WRONG THINGS

There are two ways to receive answers to your prayers. One is to pray on behalf of the ego-in other words, to indulge it. The second is to pleasure the soul, or to fulfill it. The choice is yours.

When you gratify the ego, the joy will be intense and immediate. But there is a trade-off. The joy will only be temporary. Short and sweet. Not only that: every time you make the choice to pleasure your ego, you’re passing up a chance at something much more valuable-something that you can’t put your finger on, yet it has the ability to soothe your soul for the long haul.

Yehuda Berg, God is a Noun, Weekly Kabbalah Tune Up, March 15-21, 2009