A New World

The Indian philosopher Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) adopted a vision of spiritual as well as material evolution, and pointed toward a transformation of humanity, bringing about "divine life on earth."  The Jesuit biologist Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) thought that the entire evolutionary process was moving toward an end point of "maximun organized complexity," which he called the Omega point.  The Omega point was the attractor of the entire cosmic evolutionary process, and through it consciousness would be transformed....Philosophers like Teilhard de Chardin and Sri Aurobindo point to new possibilities that go beyond the speculations of scientists by seeing consciousness as central to the evolutionary process. -- (Quotation from Rupert Sheldrake)

The Perennial Philosophy

One, Spirit exists. Two, Spirit is found within. Three, most of us don't realize this Spirit within, however, because we are living in a world of sin, separation, and duality -- that is, we are living in a fallen or illusory state. Four, there is a way out of this fallen state of sin and illusion, there is a Path to our liberation. Five, if we follow this Path to its conclusion, the result is a Rebirth or Enlightenment, a direct experience of Spirit within, a Supreme Liberation, which -- six -- marks the end of sin and suffering, and which --seven--issues in social action of mercy and compassion on behalf of all sentient beings. -- (Quotation from Ken Wilber)

Regaining Your Essence

...any deep loss is an opportunity to grow, to understand more about yourself, to experience holes that you believe can only be filled by someone else....People don't know that the hole, the sense of deficiency, is a symptom of a loss of something deeper -- the loss of Essence, which can be regained.  They think the hole, the deficiency, is how they really are at the deepest level, and that there is nothing beyond it....People will do anything to not feel the hole.  But...when we stop defending against feeling a hole, the actual experience is not painful.  We simply experience empty space, the feeling that there is nothing there.  Not a threatening nothingness, but a spaciousness, an allowing.  This spaciousness allows Essence to emerge, and it is Essence and only Essence that can eliminate the hole, that deficiency, from the inside.  -- (Quotation from A.H. Almaas)

Contemplative Reading

According to Thomas Merton, "Reading becomes contemplative when, instead of reasoning, we abandon the sequence of the author's thoughts in order not only to follow our thoughts, but to rise above thought and penetrate into the mystery of truth which is experienced intuitively as present and actual."

Trusting Your Essence

Most of you still don’t trust your essence. Most of you don’t believe it will be enough to take care of you. You don’t believe it is what you really need. You don’t believe it is what really knows.... Jesus said, “Leave your parents and follow me.” That’s what he meant.... Jesus had nothing against mothers and fathers. Jesus meant you should listen to the teachings present in your essence rather than listening to your superego. - (Quotation from A.H. Almaas)

The Great Within

"The more deeply I go into myself, the more I am not myself,and yet this is the very heart of me. Here I find my own inner workings functioning of themselves, spontaneously, like the rotation of the heavenly bodies and the drifting of the clouds. Strange and foreign as this aspect of myself at first seems to be, I soon realize that it is me, and much more me than my superfical ego. This is not fatalism or determinism, because here is no longer anyone being pushed around or determined, there is nothing that this deep "I" is not doing. -- (Quotation from Alan Watts)

Your Natural State

Let's close our eyes and be open to the possibility that there's no one there, that there's simply awareness - silent, still, impersonal awareness -and whatever seems to be happening is arising in that. Just be the watcher...

Let your questions fall away and stop trying to work anything out. Drop everything, including the person who's been sitting on your shoulder and passing judgment on your life. Let there be no boundaries, just space... You are the stillness; you are the silence in which everything arises. -- (Quotation from Tony Parsons)

Beyond Your Thinking Mind

Since resistance is inseparable from the mind, relinquishment of resistance - surrender - is the end of the mind as your master, the impostor pretending to be "you", the false god.  All judgment and all negativity dissolve.  The realm of Being, which has been obscured by the mind, then opens up. Suddenly, a great stillness arises within you, an unfanthomable sense of peace. And within that peace, there is great joy.  And within that joy, there is love.  And at the innermost core, there is the sacred, the immeasurable, That which cannot be named. -- (Quotation from Eckhart Tolle)

Beyond Religion

Former Episcopal Bishop John Spong, in his new book, "Eternal Life: A New Vision", makes some interesting comments about religion. He sees religion as a stage which must be transcended.

"Our ultimate destiny was never to be religious human beings, as we once thought; it was simply to be fully and totally human. Religion, that activity to which we once entrusted our destiny, is now revealed only as a stage of life that had to be transcended before we could discover our destiny. Humanity is not alone, as we once thought, separated from God and thus in need of rescue. We are increasingly aware that we are part of what God is and we are at one with all that God is. Suddenly it made sense to me that the ancient name of God found in the Hebrew scriptures was part of the verb 'to be'. God, the great 'I Am', blends with the 'I am' affirmations that each of us must make on our journey into self-understanding....For God is ultimately one, and that means that each of us is part of that oneness."