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An Intense Awareness of the Need For Spiritual Learning

12/31/2021

The past two years have provided plenty to be negative about, but they have also provided much to be positive about. For me, the most positive aspect has been an intense awareness of the need for spiritual learning.

This awareness has brought many difficulties and challenges to the fore, but it has also given rise to a joyous and exciting re-enchantment with the world. I find I am no longer in a fog when it comes to the primary purpose of mortal life.

At the same time, I feel an increased sense of personal responsibility. Everything I think and do in this time and place matters - not just for this time and place, but for eternity.

But some of the things I think and do will have to be learned and re-learned again and again despite my best efforts to "lock in" what I need to learn.

Part of my awareness of spiritual learning is the acceptance that learning is a process, not a flipping of the switch. Some lessons can be learned easily. Some lessons take a lifetime. Some will barely be approached. Some will never be completed.

What matters most is the awareness because it is the awareness that allows God to find the openings and opportunities required to facilitate the required learning.

The rest is up to the choices we make when these opportunities arise.

Note added: This post was inspired by an important and insightful comment Dr. Charlton left on my post from yesterday.

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From 'Humans as Things' to 'Humans as Beings': Shifting Our Thinking About Others and Ourselves

12/30/2021

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The much needed and long overdue shift in human consciousness is a major theme of this blog. Writing about human consciousness is a delicate issue, particularly within a Christian framework, because many Christians are prone to dismiss the subject as pseudo-spiritual psychology, new age quackery, or artless heresy.

Though I appreciate the discomfort and derision, I have steadfastly maintained that pushing through this discomfort and derision has become necessary and unavoidable – necessary and unavoidable because working on consciousness has become a necessary and unavoidable task for all Christians, regardless of denomination.

Establishing a firm grasp of what human consciousness is and what it does has been a major obstacle for Christians. For the sake of simplicity, I personally define what human consciousness is in the following way: The manner in which we perceive, understand, and think about God, the world, others, and ourselves. As for what human consciousness does (or is capable of doing): The ability to direct, aim or align perception, understanding, and thinking with God and Creation, which encompasses Reality as well as Truth, Beauty, Goodness, Virtue, and so forth.

Consciousness is crucial because it the means through which we establish our fundamental metaphysical assumptions, more specifically, our core beliefs about life, the universe, and everything. Throughout the bulk of history, human consciousness has been an inherently spiritualized consciousness, which means that the core beliefs most people have held about life, the universe, and everything have been based on the understanding and acceptance of the divine and the supernatural.

Of course, modern secular-material-atheists use this undeniable fact as a touchstone to tout the superiority of their own contemporary de-spiritualized consciousness. De-spiritualized modern secular-material-atheists view their ‘spiritualized’ ancestors in much the same way adults view children who believe in the existence of Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy. Modern secular-material-atheists may accept the quaintness and charm of such beliefs, but they ultimately reject them as mere fantasies that distort and interfere with their own cold, hard perception of ‘real’ reality.

Since the modern-material-atheist form of despiritualized consciousness repudiates the existence of the divine and the supernatural, it also denies the existence of such attributes within human beings as well as all notions of humans being created in the imago Dei. At best, contemporary despiritualized consciousness perceives and understands human beings as superior things existing within a realm of things.

Consequently, despiritualized consciousness limits its perception, understanding, and thought about human beings to matters of ethics, morality, and utility. Within this framework, the highest calling of a human being is cultivate his or her talents to be well mannered, well behaved, and useful. Since there is no afterlife, human beings must strive to be well behaved, well mannered, and useful in this world, which, essentially, boils down to human society and/or the planet.

Within this conceptualization, relationships between human beings are largely defined by material utility, which encompasses material and social gain as well pleasure seeking and pain avoidance. A good relationship is one that helps the people involved get ahead or feel good, with ‘love’ being ascribed to those people that are best able to supply the most help an individual needs to get ahead or feel good. Bad relationships are those that hinder ‘getting ahead’ or that diminish ‘feeling good’.

From the perspective of despiritualized consciousness, human beings are not really beings, but things. The purpose of interacting with other human things is foster the end goal of being the best, most useful, and happiest human thing an individual can hope to be in this world of otherwise random, purposeless, and meaningless things. Yet the importance of relationships between human things remains a central feature of despiritualized consciousness, which still intuitively understands that the material health and survival of all human things depends almost exclusively on the relationships human things are able to establish between each other for the purposes of utility and hedonism.

In light of this, the attack on human relationships over the past two years is particularly intriguing. In early 2020, human things were reclassified as potential biological hazards to other human things. This reclassification flipped the entire secular-material-atheist human thing value system on its head. Suddenly, the health and survival of all human things depended almost exclusively on limiting or destroying the relationships human things are able to establish with each other. The most useful thing a well-mannered and well-behaved human thing to do for other human things and the world was to regard other human things as potential hazards. Getting ahead and feeling good suddenly meant limited contact and self-isolation, even from those one professed to ‘love’ – nay, more so for those one professed to ‘love’.

The past two years have provided us a masterclass on the fatal perceptions that govern despiritualized consciousness, most notably, in how it views humans and human relationships. If humanity continues obstinately adhere to this limited consciousness, it surely lead to death – spiritual and physical.

The much need and long overdue shift in human consciousness is vital not only to the development of human beings on the spiritual plane, but also to the very survival of human beings on the material plane.

In a post from mid-December, Dr. Charlton argued for the establishment of a cosmic perspective as an antidote to the dead end perspective of ethics:

Our fundamental way of thinking ought to be a matter of imagining and picturing our-selves in a cosmic perspective - where we came from, where we are going; what are the real and eternal things and how do we personally relate to them.

Cosmic perspective is a good way to conceptualize the much needed and long overdue shift in human consciousness. For too long, Christians have limited their fundamental way of thinking, especially in matters concerning how we relate to others and see ourselves. The way Christians imagine and picture themselves, others, and human relationships is practically inseparable from the way in which despiritualized secular-material-atheists imagine and picture themselves, others, and human relationships.

For proof of this, we need look no further than the way in which many Christians and nearly all Christians churches responded to the birdemic crisis in 2020 – and continue to do so even today! What do these responses say about how Christians and Christian churches understand human beings? How about real or eternal things? What do these responses reveal about how Christians and Christian churches relate to human beings? To real and eternal things?

Christians simply must – and I do mean must – shift their perceptions, understanding, and thought, and they can begin by expanding the way in which they perceive, understand, and think about themselves and others.

This is something I have been actively pursuing for well over two years now. Instead of perceiving, understanding, and thinking about myself and others as merely human beings or, worse, human things, I have started to think about and understand others and myself as eternal beings first and temporary humans second. This does not entail any disparagement of the human form – because I believe we maintain our human forms when we are resurrected into everlasting life – but it does entail a forthright rejection of our temporary human forms in this mortal world as the be all and end all of our existence.

This ‘shift’ in thinking means I try to view people as beings who possess an inherent divine spark through which they are capable of achieving divinity in life everlasting. This ‘cosmic perspective’ often bleeds into how I relate to others and how I perceive others relating to me, which has led to a deepening appreciation of the relationships I have, have had, and hope to have. These relationships include living people, but also the dead, including my interactions with various remnants and works the dead have left behind in this mortal world.

Shifting the focus onto ‘being’ has also added depth to the concept of spiritual learning. No relationship, encounter, or experience is random or meaningless. I resist the modern urge to view people as means to social, material, or hedonistic ends, and focus instead on them as beings with whom I can interact to deepen spiritual learning. I spend a great deal of time meditating about human beings I would like to meet – not specific people, but rather kinds of people. I have become aware of many relationships of mine that seem to have reached a being-to-being level communication. This is rarely, if ever, stated explicitly, but the implicit understanding within the relationship is impossible to deny.

At the same time, shifting the focus onto ‘being’ has also added depth to the great tragedy of modern despiritualized consciousness. Every day I have experiences and encounters with human beings who deny the reality of others and themselves as beings – beings who simply refuse to budge from their obstinate stance. I also have experiences and relationships with beings who understand themselves as beings, but have actively chosen the side of evil rather than good. These experiences and relationships are few in number for me personally, but they are by far the most instructive as well as the most demanding.

Interestingly enough, my work on perceiving and understanding humans as ‘beings’ rather than mere humans or human things has gradually spilled over into other parts of Creation. Into a world filled with alive and thinking beings, and a world of unseen but equally present alive and thinking beings.

I know some Christians will continue to dismiss what I have noted above as pseudo-spiritual psychology, new age quackery, or artless heresy, but before they do, I humbly ask them to consider something Dr. Charlton noted in the same blog post I referred to earlier:

The cosmic perspective is also the level at which Jesus Christ's teaching is primarily directed. He was not primarily an ethical teacher, nor was his work an ethical work . . . Until we can - this time consciously and by choice - recover that 'cosmic' attitude; it seems that Christ's message and offer will continue to fall on deaf ears; or merely be translated into the feeble and cowardly 'pseudo-faith' we see dominant among the leadership of all the major 'Christian' churches.

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The Birdemic Peck Pushers Tap Into Their Inner Vicky Pollards

12/28/2021

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Those pushing the birdemic and the peck agenda are starting to sound a lot like Vicky Pollard, don't you think?

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Christian Creativity: From the Internal to the External, Not the Other Way Around

12/28/2021

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One simple way to discern good and evil is the direction of spiritual movement.

The unprecedented evil of our age is clearly evident in the motivation to transform the internal via the external. Satanic forces have re-engineered the System to craft a totalizing force through which they aim to impose their program for humanity upon all individuals and society.

Though the expressed external aims of an improved human life may appear noble on the surface, the vision driving the aims relies solely on obtrusion - on the harnessing of external forces to invade, conquer and, consequently, occupy the internal realm. The movement can be described as the obliteration of the internal in favor of a seamless absorption into the external.

The core objective of this movement of the outward toward the inward is transformational. It wants to convince people that the inward is insignificant or, better still, non-existent. It wants to convince people that the external is all there is. It yearns to assimilate everyone into the external, and it will use every external means at its disposal to make that happen.

The end goal behind this movement is spiritual death.

Christianity, on the other hand, instructs us to work from the internal out toward external. Christian influence upon the external world must emanate from the inner seat of the spirit. A true Christian understands that internal transformation must precede external change.

While external imposition on the internal is a product of slavery and sin, internal change that extends into the external proceeds from freedom and grace. Thus, the Christian movement from the internal toward the external does not enter the world as an imposition, but as an invitation. It invites the world to understand that the internal is not merely a part of the external, but that the internal also encompasses all that is external.

The end goal of this invitation is spiritual life.

The unprecedented external pressure we are experiencing now can only be overcome through spirit - and spirit is precisely where the external pressure is ultimately aimed. The assault is predominately a movement of the outward desiring to vanquish the inward.

The only viable response to this challenge is to work from within toward the outward.

But what is within must first experience a spiritual rebirth. This requires a real and complete change of heart as well as a thorough reassessment of how we understand ourselves, others, and God.

And that is where spiritual creativity comes in.

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Mise en Scene Brilliance

12/27/2021

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In my mind, the best examples of mise en scene in film are those in which the arrangement of all the components come together to form the kind of scene you would only expect to see in a beautiful, captivating, or haunting painting.

The still above, taken from David Lean's film adaptation of Boris Pasternak's Dr. Zhivago, is a good example of what I mean. The scene itself depicts the last time we see the character of Lara, who, as General Yevgraf Zhivago explains in his narration, "came to be lost".

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Christianity and The Middle Ground: Looking Ahead to 2022

12/26/2021

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I firmly believe that "things came to a point" in 2020. The ever-shrinking gray area separating good from evil melted away. The distinctions between good and evil became remarkably perceptible. The side for God and Creation and the side opposed to God and Creation became easily discernible. A choice between the two sides became inevitable and unavoidable.

If recognizing and acknowledging "the point" was the point of 2020, then what is/was the point of 2021? I would posit 2021 is/was all about the big question:

Which side are you on?

And side means side. No middle ground!

Those who continue to frame the sides the point has revealed as 'fanatical extremes' are on the wrong side.

Those who desire to act as some kind of fair and balanced mediating voice of reason between the 'fanatical extremes' are on the wrong side.

Those who offer thoughtful takes on complex situations when situations are simple to the point of requiring no real thought at all are on the wrong side.

Those who continue to bow to experts, trust the science, praise democracy, support System Christianity, and disparage 'conspiracies' are on the wrong side.

Those who treat evil as "issues" that demand rational debate are on the wrong side.

Those who deride individuals who are able to discern good and evil are on the wrong side.

Those who believe the middle ground is superior to either side is on the wrong side.

Those who write articles and blog posts that come off sounding like warmed over Platonic dialogues are on the wrong side.

Those who refuse to call spade a spade are on the wrong side.

Those who believe the middle ground is the only hope for saving Western civilization or Christianity are on the wrong side.

Those who believe the System is neutral or good are on the wrong side.

Those who advocate for the middle ground because it allows them to maintain their status and comfort within the System are on the wrong side.

Those who believe in the middle ground as a means to salvation are on the wrong side.

Those who envision Heaven as some sort of middle ground are on the wrong side.

Those who believe that the middle ground has anything to do with Christian love, tolerance, charity, virtue, morality or truth, beauty, and goodness are on the wrong side.

Those who believe Jesus wants us to dedicate our efforts to maintaining the middle ground in this time and place are on the wrong side.

Those who believe Jesus had anything to do with, has anything to do with, or would have anything to do with the middle ground are on the wrong side.

Those who actually believe the middle ground to be a viable Christian choice in this time and place are most definitely on the wrong side.

2020 made the sides extremely clear and distinguishable. 2021 demanded a choice between sides. 2022 will lay bare the consequences of that choice.

And one of the most significant things 2022 will reveal is the undeniable non-existence of that cherished middle ground.

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Happy Christmas!

12/25/2021

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My son has scaled the children's Nativity play hierarchy at our small village church. He began participating in the annual play four years ago and was always assigned to the role of a shepherd. This year he was chosen to be Joseph.

Though my son enjoyed his new role, he informed that playing Joseph had pushed him to the limits of his acting abilities. His biggest challenge? Pretending to be a loving husband to the "silly, annoying girl" who had been cast to play Mary. To his credit, he managed to pull it off quite convincingly.

His performance filled me with hope.

I mean, if my son can convincingly pull off being the loving husband of a "silly, annoying girl", well, then I guess there's no limit to the Good that is possible.

I wish everyone a Happy Christmas.

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Christmas Eve: Comprehend the Light Shining in the Darkness

12/24/2021

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Much has been written about the superimposition of Christmas over ancient, pagan celebrations of the winter solstice. A great deal has also been written about the antithesis of darkness and light within this superimposition. A great deal more about the symbolic meanings behind this antithesis. Yet as I sit here and write these lines on the morning of Christmas Eve, I acknowledge that being aware of darkness and light antithesis and imagery is one thing; comprehending and living the Truth behind the antithesis another thing entirely.

The light and darkness antithesis is a major component of the Fourth Gospel. The imagery appears in the fourth verse of the very first chapter to describe the preincarnate work of Christ:

4 In him was life: and the life was the light of men.
5 And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

Life and light are a part of the Fourth Gospel's fundamental diction to describe the essence, work, and mission of the Word made flesh. Juxtaposed with this are death and darkness, which do not mean mere physical death or committing acts of sin, but rather the wholesale rejection of the life Jesus brings into a dying world, and the eternal life He offers to those who choose to follow him to Heaven.

The antithesis of light and darkness is the choice between spiritual life and spiritual death; the willed and active choice to believe on and follow the Light of the World or to be content to live under the reign of the prince of this world.

The light shining in the darkness marks the arrival of Jesus in this world when darkness in this world is at its peak. As described in John 3:18-21, the light shining in the darkness compels a choice. Comprehend the light and believe on Him, or hate the light and love the darkness:

18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deed should be reproved.
21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deed may made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

The darkness of this year's winter solstice and Christmas has been palpably darker than in previous years. The explanation for this "darker" darkness is not physical, but spiritual. Too many men love the darkness rather than the light. Too many men hate the light. Very few go to the light.

The Christmas of 2021 is the Christmas of peak darkness. Yet the light continues to shine in the darkness. Understand that the light is also the light of men, and you will comprehend that this Christmas is also the Christmas of peak light.

Beyond thinking about verses from the Fourth Gospel this Christmas Eve, I find myself thinking a great deal about a few verses from the non-Canonical Gospel of Thomas:

24 His disciples said, 'Show us the place you are, since it is necessary for us to seek it.' He said to them, 'Whoever has ears, let him hear. There is light within a man of light, and he lights up the whole world. If he does not shine, he is darkness.'

Light does not simply symbolize Jesus; it is also defines the place He is. This place is also within us.

Do not spend this darkest of Christmases trying to comprehend the darkness. Instead, focus on comprehending the light. Find the Light of the World and concentrate on finding this light within you.

Become a man of light, and once you become that man of light, proceed to light up the whole world.

Shine.

Show the world you are not darkness.

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A Little Time Off

12/18/2021

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I'm taking a break from blogging during the week leading up to Christmas. I'll be back on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

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An Open Invitation to a Funeral . . .

12/16/2021

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. . . for humanism, which surrendered to anti-human totalitarianism without a fight and timidly (and predictably) succumbed to the evil that originally spawned it.

I took the following excerpts from The American Humanist Association which, among other things, promotes "good without a god". These passages, which offer various definitions of humanism, make for some 'cringe-inducing' reading, particularly in light of everything that has transpired since the 2020 global totalitarian coup.

Let's not mince words - humanism is not merely a fail, it is an epic fail; and its epic failure has everything to do with its faulty metaphysical assumptions - starting with the absurd notion that good is possible without God.
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Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without theism or other supernatural beliefs, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good.
– American Humanist Association

Humanism is a rational philosophy informed by science, inspired by art, and motivated by compassion. Affirming the dignity of each human being, it supports the maximization of individual liberty and opportunity consonant with social and planetary responsibility. It advocates the extension of participatory democracy and the expansion of the open society, standing for human rights and social justice. Free of supernaturalism, it recognizes human beings as a part of nature and holds that values - be they religious, ethical, social, or political - have their source in human experience and culture. Humanism thus derives the goals of life from human need and interest rather than from theological or ideological abstractions, and asserts that humanity must take responsibility for its own destiny.
– The Humanist Magazine

Humanism is a democratic and ethical lifestance which affirms that human beings have the right and responsibility to give meaning and shape to their own lives. It stands for the building of a more humane society through an ethics based on human and other natural values in a spirit of reason and free inquiry through human capabilities. It is not theistic, and it does not accept supernatural views of reality.
– Humanists International

Humanism is an approach to life based on reason and our common humanity, recognizing that moral values are properly founded on human nature and experience alone.
– The Bristol Humanist Group

Humanism is: A joyous alternative to religions that believe in a supernatural god and life in a hereafter. Humanists believe that this is the only life of which we have certain knowledge and that we owe it to ourselves and others to make it the best life possible for ourselves and all with whom we share this fragile planet. A belief that when people are free to think for themselves, using reason and knowledge as their tools, they are best able to solve this world’s problems. An appreciation of the art, literature, music and crafts that are our heritage from the past and of the creativity that, if nourished, can continuously enrich our lives. Humanism is, in sum, a philosophy of those in love with life. Humanists take responsibility for their own lives and relish the adventure of being part of new discoveries, seeking new knowledge, exploring new options. Instead of finding solace in prefabricated answers to the great questions of life, humanists enjoy the open-endedness of a quest and the freedom of discovery that this entails.
– The Humanist Society of Western New York

Humanism is the light of my life and the fire in my soul. It is the deep felt conviction, in every fiber of my being that human love is a power far transcending the relentless, onward rush of our largely deterministic cosmos. All human life must seek a reason for existence within the bounds of an uncaring physical world, and it is love coupled with empathy, democracy, and a commitment to selfless service which undergirds the faith of a humanist.
– Bette Chambers, former president of the AHA

Humanism is a philosophy, world view, or lifestance based on naturalism - the conviction that the universe or nature is all that exists or is real. Humanism serves, for many humanists, some of the psychological and social functions of a religion, but without belief in deities, transcendental entities, miracles, life after death, and the supernatural. Humanists seek to understand the universe by using science and its methods of critical inquiry-logical reasoning, empirical evidence, and skeptical evaluation of conjectures and conclusions - to obtain reliable knowledge. Humanists affirm that humans have the freedom to give meaning, value, and purpose to their lives by their own independent thought, free inquiry, and responsible, creative activity. Humanists stand for the building of a more humane, just, compassionate, and democratic society using a pragmatic ethics based on human reason, experience, and reliable knowledge - an ethics that judges the consequences of human actions by the well-being of all life on Earth.
– Steven Schafersman

Humanism is a philosophy of life that considers the welfare of humankind – rather than the welfare of a supposed God or gods – to be of paramount importance. Humanism maintains there is no evidence a supernatural power ever needed or wanted anything from people, ever communicated to them, or ever interfered with the laws of nature to assist or harm anyone. Humanism’s focus, then, is on using human efforts to meet human needs and wants in this world. History shows that those efforts are most effective when they involve both compassion and the scientific method – which includes reliance on reason, evidence, and free inquiry. Humanism says people can find purpose in life and maximize their long-term happiness by developing their talents and using those talents for the service of humanity. Humanists believe that this approach to life is more productive and leads to a deeper and longer-lasting satisfaction than a hedonistic pursuit of material or sensual pleasures that soon fade. While service to others is a major focus of Humanism, recreation and relaxation are not ignored, for these too are necessary for long-term health and happiness. The key is moderation in all things. Humanism considers the universe to be the result of an extremely long and complex evolution under immutable laws of nature. Humanists view this natural world as wondrous and precious, and as offering limitless opportunities for exploration, fascination, creativity, companionship, and joy. Because science cannot now and probably never will be able to explain the ultimate origin or destiny of the universe, I think Humanism can include more than atheists and agnostics. The lack of definite answers to these ultimate questions leaves room for reasonable people to hypothesize about the origin of the natural universe, and even to hope for some form of life beyond this one. In fact, two of Humanism’s greatest luminaries, Thomas Paine and Robert Ingersoll, maintained a hope for an afterlife. On the issue of whether God exists, Ingersoll was agnostic, and Paine believed in a deistic God who established the laws of nature but then stepped away and never intervenes in the world. Those beliefs did not interfere with their ability to lead outstanding humanistic lives. Thus, in my opinion, people holding such views can be Humanists if they believe that humanity is on its own in this world, and the lack of any evidence for an afterlife means this life should be lived as though it’s the only one we have.
– Joseph C. Sommer

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