Today, I discovered that Nancy in San Antonio is blogging again. She always has great things to say. Check her out at:
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-eoBtP_c_RKSRjsVpi2NFaAA8Pw–?cq=1&l=6&u=10&mx=20&lmt=5
If you’ve registered on Yahoo, you can comment there. Her link is also listed in my "Links" sidebar.
Great to have you back, Nancy. Blessings to you and yours.
Are you always fighting against the current? Get in the flow of life and allow yourself to proceed gently down the stream.
Instead of believing that you know what’s best for others, trust that they know what’s best for themselves.
If you need rules to be kind and just. if you act virtuous, this is a sure sign that virtue is absent. Don’t act virtuous, be virtue.
Change your life by consciously choosing to be in a state of gratitude.
*comments by Dr. Wayne Dyer
The only thing worse than the fear of speaking the truth is the fear of finding it.
Dr. David Hawkins, author of "Power vs Force", has created a Map of Consciousness, in which he has calibrated levels correlate with specific processes of consciousness- emotions, perceptions, attitudes, worldviews and spiritual beliefs. His research results have proven the map to be mutually corroborated. The map begins, at the bottom, with "Shame", which calibrates at 20, moves upward through "Guilt", at 30, "Apathy", at 50, "Grief", at 75, "Fear", at 100, "Desire", at 125, "Anger", at 150, "Pride", at 175, to the mid-point of the scale (map),"Courage, which calibrates at 200. A calibration of 200 is said to be where empowerment begins, the critical line between positive and negative influences of life. This is the zone of exploration, accomplishment, fortitude, and determination. At the lower levels, the world is seen as hopeless, sad, frightening, or frustrating; but at the level of "Courage", life is seen to be exciting, challenging, and stimulating. From the level of 200-1000, man exhibits increasing levels of consciousness. Witness these examples of the high levels of consciousness: 400- the level of "Reason". Nobel prize winners, great statesmen, Supreme Court justices; also, Einstein, Freud, and many other great thinkers of history function on this level. 500-the level of "Love", unchanging, unconditional, and permanent. All viable religions calibrate at 500+. Only .4% of the world’s population ever reaches this level of consciousness. 600-the level of "Peace". Only 1 in 10 million reach this level. The words transcendent, self-realized and God-conscious are often used of them. This is where "saints" reside and others like them. 700-1000-the level of "Enlightenment". Persons on this level are usually associated with "divinity". The level of powerful inspiration. There is transcendence of Ego which serves by example to teach others how it can eventually be accomplished. This level can calibrate up to 1000, the highest level attained by anybody who has lived in recorded history.
The purpose of the above, short discourse is to clarify human kind’s commitment to principles, which we commonly see as unchangable, static concepts.
The attempt to impose standards of would-be absolute Good and Evil is one of the greatest moral pitfalls. We can plainly state that whatever calibrates above 220 supports life and may therefore be functionally defined as "good"; whereas whatever calibrates below 200 is destructive, nonsupportive of life and can thus be declared functionally "evil".Testing can prove that a false premise such as "the end justifies the means" is operationally evil, yet this is a routinely accepted justification for much of human behavior, from the peccadilloes of commerce to the enormities of war. Such spiritual ambiguity, leading ultimately to irretrievable confusion between functional good and evil, has always been the Achilles’ heel of human society.
An individual’s level of consciousness is determined by the principles to which one is committed. To maintain progress in consciousness, there can be no waivering from principle, or the individual will fall back to a lower level. Expediency is never an adequate justification.
The process of perverting truth (a principle) through a failure of discernment is responsible for providing the vehicle for the decline of the world’s great religions. Religions that fall below the level of 500 may preach love (a principle), but they won’t be able to practice it. And no religious system that encourages war (a principle) can claim spiritual authority without the blatant hypocrisy that’s made atheists of many honest men.
I once was an avid supporter of the "death penalty"; no longer… If you believe (principle) it’s wrong to kill another human being, that principle can allow no exceptions, regardless of how emotionally appealing a construct may be used to justify the exception. Thus, a society that condones capital punishment will always have a problem with murder- both are products of the same level of perception. After all, to the murderer, the killing of the victim is a justifiable exception.
Once a principle is breached, its mutated form propagates like cancer. A society that supports killing -whether in war, by the police, or by the penal system- can’t at the same time effectively stop "criminal" killing. To kill is to kill is to kill; there’s no escaping that fact. The decision to kill or not is a basic issue on the path to higher consciousness (power). However, this rudimentary step hasn’t been addressed by 85% of the world’s population or by virtually any of its governments.
An interesting scenario:
Koko- the famous simian resident of the Primate Research Institute, who has worked for some years with a psychologist and developed a sophisticated sign language vocabulary- is truthful, affectionate, intelligent, and trustworthy; her integrity calibrates at 250. Thus, one is safer with Koko, a gorilla, than with 85% of the humans on the planet (who fall below the level of 250)
*material and ideas for this post were taken from, "Power vs Force", by David Hawkins, M.D., PhD
A statement may be true at a high level of understanding, but can be incomprehensible to the person operating at the average level of consciousness. Its value may therefore be corrupted when the statement is distorted by the limitations of the listener.This has been the fate of religions throughout the ages, when pronouncements or teachings originating from high levels of awareness were later misinterpreted by followers vested with authority, operating at lower levels of consciousness.
Such distortion can be seen today in fundamentalist Christianity. The fundamentalist’s interpretation of religious teachings stresses negativity, and is removed from this negativity only by truth. The lowest depictions of deity are of a God who is jealous, vengeful, and angry, a God of wrath far removed from the God of mercy, grace, and love. The God of righteous negativity represents a glorification of the negative, and provides for his followers a disavowal of responsibility through justification of human cruelty and mayhem, through religious justification. The truth of each level of consciousness is self-verifying in that each level has its range of perception, which confirms what’s already believed to be true. Thus, everyone feels justified in the viewpoints that underlie his actions and beliefs. That’s the inherent danger of the general usage of the term "righteousness": anyone can be righteous, from the killer who justifies his rage by some vague religious teaching , to ecclesiastic demagogues and political extremists of all persuasions. By distorting context, it’s possible to rationalize and justify almost any human behavior. All wars are stated to be "righteous" by their perpetators. *
*essential information from: "Power vs Force" by Dr. David Hawkins
We cannot (as of yet) communicate directly from mind to mind, and so misinterpretation is a perennial problem. Motion, signs, talking and the written word are all encumbered by miscommunication. Evidence of this fact is seen everyday in the blogworld. There seems to be a plethora of miscommunication and it twin, misunderstanding when we try to express ourselves about our beliefs. A dozen eyewitnesses to the same event cannot agree on a single account (witnesses to the Kennedy Assassination prove this point). Therefore, we are, perhaps, forever imprisioned by our subjectivity.
The fact remains that all communication is relative. We should understand that words are imperfect and therefore give them limited importance: The symbol is not the same as the reality.
#4 and the last of Steve Jones’ articles which I will post at this time. I realize this one is quite controversial, and some will not agree with it. That’s OK. It is posted simply to present another idea about the subject. Again, it is Steve’s ideas and does not necessarily reflect my own belief. Thank you for contributing to the dialogue here.
The cross has long been the chief emblem of Christianity. The New Testament writings give it a preeminent place. The death of Christ is said to have reconciled us to God, defeated the principalities and powers, destroyed death, provided a ransom, removed our sins.
Out of this language come atonement theories that attempt to explain a nagging perplexity: How can a Jewish preacher’s death two millenia ago effect our redemption?
Many give a ready answer here. They say that Jesus in some mysterious way took our sins onto himself and was punished in our stead. A perfectly just God must punish sin, so He punished a substitute instead of us. Golgotha drained the cup of divine rath so that the Creator could treat us favorably.
Penal Substitution flawed
I won’t launch into a lengthy disputation of this view, known historically as penal substitution. But I will point out one glaring flaw in the theory: It annihilates free forgiveness. Under penal substitution, God forgives no one, He instead exacts payment from another.
An analogy may frame this objection better than anything. You have amassed an unpayable debt. A generous rich man hears of your plight and pays the creditors, freeing you from a hopeless obligation. Now it’s true that this gets you off the hook; but no one can rightly argue that your creditors forgave your debt when the rich man paid them off. There was, in fact, no forgiveness at all. That’s the conundrum that this theory saddles us with.
Forgiveness, in its essence, means remitting offenses freely without getting paid, without punishing anyone. It is an act of mercy, not the transfer of an obligation from one person to another. That’s the way you and I are expected to forgive and it’s the way I believe God forgives.
Besides, it is unreasonable to demand one simple explanation of Calvary and its relationship to our redemption. After all, many different views of atonement have ascended and fallen over the centuries of church history. The ransom to Satan theory, Anselm’s theory and many others have come and gone. Currently, penal substitution is dominant.
But the implications of the cross are too vast to fit into a credal "one liner." Christ’s death is multi-faceted. The following is an attempt to approach the truth of that staggering event from several directions.
The Cross and "The Powers"
One of the aspects of the cross seldom appreciated is its role in defeating "the powers" or "the authorities". In Colossians, Paul writes, "Jesus disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it (the cross)" (2:15)
The system crucified Jesus. First, the religious authorities handed him over to be killed. Then the Roman government, the most powerful secular force on earth, carried out the deed. The evil system of this world – the one that adheres to "might makes right", that seeks power over others and crushes its rivals – fastened our Lord to the tree. The authorities sought to wipe him out the way it had done with thousands of others: brute force.
Jesus stood up against the authorities with weapons of humility, nonviolence, and trust in God. He defied the sword, the spear, the lash. And, he triumphed. he started a movement that swept across the globe, despite all efforts of the system to destroy him. Now the name of Caesar is little more than a curiosity of history buffs; the name of Jesus holds sway over millions.
In an act of nonviolent resistance, Jesus defied the evil world system of domination, and won out. Calvary’s cross has beaten the principalities and powers in a public display of meekness.
The cross is an open and graphic condemnation of the violent world system.
The Cross and Ethics
There is another simple way of looking at the cross, one that remains true to Hebrew figures of speech. It also takes seriously the ethics of Jesus as a crucial part of redemption. It is simply this: Jesus went about preaching the Kingdom of God, calling his hearers to radical love, peace, and selflessness. he introduced God as a loving Father in heaven. he befriended the lowest of sinners, urging them to repent. Throughout his ministry, he wonderously transformed lives and set people free. Despite his knowledge that certain death awaited him were he to continue his ministry, Jesus pressed on. He laid aside self-interest to do the will of his Father, and was crucified for it.
The death was a manifestation of everything God calls us to be. Like Jesus, we must lay aside our own interest for the imperatives of love. When we do this,we experience redemption from what we once were. Had Jesus lived out a long life, modifying his message to keep himself alive, his words may no longer reach us through the ages. But he sealed his words in his own blood, forever imprinting them on the human consciousness.
While some criticize the "moral example theory", there can be no denial of its biblical status, as I Peter 2:21 attests: "To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps."
The Cross and Ratification of the Covenant
Jesus ratified a New Covenant with his death. His blood was the stamp upon the proclamation of a new era – an era of unmatched grace and forgiveness. The cross is a marker suspended in history, dividing the age of ethnic favor and the age of "whosoever will". Therefore, the blood of Christ cleanses us from our sins.
We sometimes hear this kind of language applied to patriotic themes. "The blood of the patriots has made us free", someone might say. Does he mean this in a mysterious sense, a literal sense? Everyone knows this is not the case; he is saying that the deaths of these people set in motion events that led to our freedom. If we can understand such usage in secular language, why not in sacred?
Calvary set in motion the events that gave birth to the Christian church. It was also a symbol of inclusiveness – the Old Testament sacrificial system that built walls between Jew and Gentile, male and female, was fulfilled. Christ was "hanged on a tree", a cursed condition under Old Covenant law (Gal. 3:13). Therefore, he could relate to the needs of the "cursed" Gentiles who wished to know God. The death of Christ, accordingly, brings redemption to those once shrouded in darkness.
The Cross as a Way to the Resurrection
The cross was also the vehicle to the resurrection appearances that so galvanized the disciples. Without his death, Jesus could not have risen. The hope of life beyond death is bound up in the fact that Jesus died and yet now lives. therefore, the death of Christ brings us to life.
Why do we need a doctrine of atonement beyond this? Is the beauty of Jesus’ resignation to death not obscured when we turn it into a cosmic transaction that automatically "fixes" our legal standing with God?
The Cross Focused on Santification, NOT Metaphysics
I believe that we preserve the grandeur of Calvary when we view it as a means of sanctification. Jesus’ death works a change in us so that we give up our sinful, self-absorbed life and walk in his steps. This is salvation, the life of cross-carrying discipleship.
The New Testament, however, supports the idea that Christ died chiefly to bring us into a state of transcendent goodness. Note the following:
"He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniqity and purify for himself a people who are zealous of good deeds." (Titus 2:14)
"He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed." (I Pet. 2:24)
"And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them." (II Cor. 5:15)
Conclusion
The message of the cross should always be coupled with the message of discipleship. We must take up our cross and follow Christ in a life of servanthood and love. It is common for the New Testament authors to speak of the cross, then to speak of our need to "die" to sin and self-centeredness. And that is the crucial point – the grand objective of the crucifixion. It is for our sanctification that Jesus gave his life. Paul’s declaration "I am crucified with Christ" should be ours.
But is there no place for the idea that Jesus in his death effected our redemption in a way that goes beyond ethics? Is the forgiveness of sins not tied in some way to Calvary? This I will not deny. I leave room for that possibility in my belief system. But I will say that such ideas must be regarded as mysteries hidden within the Divine.
When we speak of the crucifixion, we ought not devise theories, but sit in awe of such great condescension.
If waters are placid, the moon will be mirrored perfectly. If we still ourselves, we can mirror the divine source perfectly (be still and know that I am God).
But, if we engage solely in the frenetic activities of our daily lives, if we seek to impose our own schemes on the natural order, and if we allow ourselves to become absorbed in self-centered views, the surface of our waters becomes turbulent. Then, we are not receptive to God, the universal source. There is no effort that we can make to still ourselves. True stillness comes naturally from moments of solitude (meditation) where we allow our minds to settle. Just as water seeks it’s own level, the mind will gravitate toward the holy. Muddy water will become clear if allowed to stand undisturbed, and so too will the mind become clear if it is allowed to be still.
"365 Tao"
"Facts are accumulated by effort, but Truth reveals itself effortlessly"….
Dr. David Hawkins, "Power vs. Force"
Be sure to read Chaplain Roy’s post. (here’s the link)
Stumble it!
