Simplicity, patience, compassion

Simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

I think this profound quote sums up the greatest treasures within us very well. It reminds me of the kingdom of God that is within us Jesus spoke about, which is similar to the inner treasures of simplicity, patience and compassion Lao Tzu mentioned, that each of us has. 

Maybe when Jesus said to become like little children in order to enter this kingdom that is within us, he could be referring to simplicity in actions and thoughts which connects us to the source of our being, contrasting with the ways of religious institutions which tend to complicate life with their rules, rituals and doctrines. 

As for patience and compassion, I realise both come from remembering our true identity as Love because Love is patient and kind/compassionate according to 1 Corinthians 13, so when we start by being compassionate with ourselves, our kindness and patience naturally flows to others. As Lao Tzu says, we accord with the way things are and reconcile all beings in the world, as we reconnect with our true self and know we are Love - be still and know you are God, as the psalmist also would say.

Christianity and its repression

Christianity tends to cause followers to repress their feelings. For example, there is often a pressure being put on people to forgive others in Christian circles, without giving them room to come to terms with their feelings. Maybe those who condemn others for not forgiving have forgotten or ignored the fact that the book of psalms has a number of examples of the psalmists calling upon God to take revenge of their enemies or destroy their enemies. It is testimony that humans need to find outlets for expressing their hurts and sufferings in safe ways. It is unfortunate that there are Christians today who do not encourage others to feel their feelings and instead shame them for not following their so-called "positive" messages about forgiving others and moving on, without giving them freedom to do so in their own time and space. This only tends to cause the feelings of resentment to bottle up and explode later on. Maybe it is why Christians who repress their own feelings become callous towards others because they have not been in touch with their own humanity too.

"For what it's worth; in Hebrew the word for Spirit is ruach, grammatically, it is feminine"

"For what it's worth; in Hebrew the word for Spirit is ruach, grammatically, it is feminine."
 ~ Jeanne Schlumbohm

"Patriarchal language cloaks the maternal heart of God.
-Like a mother eagle (Deut. 32:11)
-Like one who gives birth (Deut. 32:18)
-Like a midwife (Ps. 22:9)
-Like a woman in labor (Is. 42:14)
-Like a nursing mother (Is. 49:15)
-Like a comforting mother (Is. 66:13)
- Like a mother bear (Hosea 13:8)
-Like a mother hen (Mat. 23:37)" ~Pam Hogeweide

Also, wisdom, as expounded throughout Proverbs, is portrayed as a woman and is a feminine noun.

~ Julie Ferwerda

The feminine grammatical meaning of the Spirit or Ruach, according to the email heading, reminds me of the novel "The Shack", in which the author William Paul Young  also uses a female character to represent the Holy Spirit. 

"3. “’Speaking of Sarayu, is she the Holy Spirit?’
‘Yes. She is Creativity; she is Action; she is the Breathing of Life; she is much more. She is my (Jesus’) Spirit.’
‘And her name, Sarayu?’
‘That is a simple name from one of our human languages. It means ‘Wind,’ a common wind actually. She loves that name.’” (pg. 110)" 

 

(From "Meeting “Sarayu” – God the Spirit")

Incidentally, the author also uses a female character Sophia to represent wisdom, just as the book of proverbs also personifies wisdom as a woman.

 

The secret of being free - Embracing our hurts and pains and letting things unfold in their own way and time

I agree that the secret of being free is to let things unfold in their own way and time. I think the reason some people judge us or hate us is because they have some issues that are unresolved, long before they even met us, and we happened to come along and witness their unresolved issues surfacing in the way they treat us (and others), at this stage of their journey. We realise that we are not their problem, and there is nothing wrong with us actually. Their vibrations therefore don't resonate with us at this point in time. Their jealous attitude and their shallow nature stems from the fear and separation mindset in them. We can free ourselves from their negative energy, like what you are already doing. In this sense, we are leaving them to work out their own unresolved issues.

Yes, as we leave them to work out their own issues, we will get to focus on rebuilding and enjoying our own life and health and well-being. We will look forward to living a brighter and better future towards the last chapter of our life, as mentioned in the quote. It is ok to embrace our hurts and pains along the way, even as we look forward to a better future, as it is what makes us humans who are compassionate, broken and empathic.

All Religious Books Are Man-Made Nonsense

One must consider the fact that, even now, there are religious zealots and ordinary people still entrenched in a control belief system that is so far removed from reality that it borders on madness. There is no rational or scientific way that organised religions can have a modicum of truth or factual reality because of the very reason that these books are entombed in the time that they were written. These books should therefore simply be viewed as limited parables and historical fiction, as well as a lesson in how millions of people can be so easily controlled."
 
The research paper also came to the conclusion that reward/punishment religions, as control systems, were losing their grip on most of the population of the world and only a few die-hard fanatics and delusional maniacs were carrying on with the flame of idiocy.

"The game is up for all religions, how long can this sham carry on, with their ridiculous outdated ceremonies? The priests are deceivers, and they need to come up with some pretty radical solutions to their thousand year old magic trick. People aren't as dumb or easily swayed as they used to be thousands of years ago, they actually have reasoning powers and can see through the utter nonsense of organised control systems like religion."

(From "Scientists Prove That All Religious Books Are Man-Made Nonsense" by B. Delaire)

I think with the continual progress in scientific discoveries, technological advancement, literacy developments and expanding consciousness of humanity, it is inevitable that more and more people begin to realise that organised religions are fundamentally man-made, and their concept of God had been religionised and institutionalised. The perception of God itself had been evolving over thousands of years, varying among different cultures. It reminds me of some thoughts I shared some time ago, in one of our email discussions, and I have blogged about it here.

In my blog, I wrote:

Come to think of it, those people in the olden days thousands of years didn’t have modern day conveniences such as computers and cars, so life was very slow-paced. No wonder they had a lot of time sitting around and telling stories, and comparing their own culture’s stories with other cultures’ stories as they travelled and interacted and traded with one another, and they inevitably added and modified some elements from one another’s stories, and formed new stories. I suppose that’s how we have many religions today containing a mixture of elements, since they all borrowed some plots and characters from one another, and created their own characters’ names and backgrounds.

(From "The mythological nature of the Christian Bible")

At the most, I see that myths and stories serve a purpose in conveying deep truths, even though they are not the truths themselves. They are only a finger pointing to the moon. At the core of every religion, the commonality shared among them is love and compassion, which is known intuitively by every person, regardless of their belief system. Any other element added to their religion, such as conditions for reward and punishment, is only a man-made device designed to control others, as noted by the article.

Deep joy and deep pain in the density of life

"The possibility of deep joy requires a commitment to the density of life. This however means an openness to the possibility of deep pain"

~ Peter Rollins

Yes, the density of life is deep and wide, and contains the possibilities of both deep joy and deep pain. One cannot truly exist without the other, and so it is by embracing deep pain that we experience deep joy. It is one of the paradoxes of life, just like it is by embracing fear that we experience peace.

This quote reminds me of a devotional by Henri Nouwen I read recently about mourning and dancing - like deep pain and deep joy, both have their place and belong to each other.

"[There is] a time for mourning, a time for dancing" (Ecclesiastes 3:4). But mourning and dancing are never fully separated. Their "times" do not necessarily follow each other. In fact, their "times" may become one "time." Mourning may turn into dancing and dancing into mourning without showing a clear point where one ends and the other starts.

Often our grief allows us to choreograph our dance while our dance creates the space for our grief. ... Let's trust that the beauty of our lives becomes visible where mourning and dancing touch each other."

~ Henri Nouwen

It appears that we need the seasons of life for a complete growth and an experience of diversity and variety in life. The summers produce harvest and fruitfulness while the winters produce strength and steadfastness. It enables us to maintain a balanced perspective of life, such that in our moments of deep joy, we maintain our human empathy to relate to the sufferings of deep pain, and in our moments of deep pain, we retain our human capacity to relate to the experiences of deep joy.

"shame-based conscience may sound like the voice of God and condemn us when there is no condemnation"

According to this illuminating blog, the shame-based "conscience" is often a result of learned conditioning based on one's background, upbringing, culture and so on, in which one is exposed to conservative views of family, schools, churches and society. Unfortunately organised religion sometimes propagate the erroneous idea that the "conscience "is the voice of god condemning us when actually there is no condemnation. The gospel of grace and peace hence plays a part in liberating people from this crippling sense of shame and guilt by declaring we are already innocent, blameless, beloved and whole. Our true identity of innate perfection never changes regardless of our performance. This is good news for everyone indeed.

Courage, integrity and authenticity in sharing our struggles

I think the common unifying force that connects people is our human frailty and struggle because everyone goes through their personal struggle, and we may relate to one another better when we see others going through similar struggle as we do when they share about theirs. While some institutional church pastors may have shared some of their struggles with the congregation, it is usually in the form of testimony that describes how they met with some crisis and then they found faith in God whom they claimed to have turned things around for them, or how they struggled with some habits or addictions and then they claimed "God delivered them". While it might sound encouraging to some, in retrospect, this doesn't really give encouragement to those who still have doubts about God or are going through spiritual crisis or are coming to terms with their own sexuality, especially for those who are gays. In fact, such testimonies might even give the hearers the impression that there is something wrong with themselves that needs to be "fixed".

I suppose in institutional churches, pastors are generally tied to their pay checks, church committee and peer acceptance by other church pastors in the Christian circles, unfortunately, so they may be constrained to how much struggle they can afford to share with the congregation. If a pastor were to share with the congregation he is currently struggling with his doubts about God, or is questioning the church doctrines such as the literal hell doctrine, or is considering the fact that he might be gay, he risks being expelled from the institution and rejected by his peers in the Christian circles.

But if a pastor decides to be true to himself and be intellectually honest with his own doubts about certain doctrines as well as his own struggles in personal life, he would be willing to count the cost and bear the stigma of being ostracised by the religious fraternity and follow Jesus and find true freedom and peace. This act of courage, integrity and authenticity would also be an inspiration to those who are going through similar struggles themselves.

I rest in this assurance - Acceptance

I rest in this assurance-
Acceptance:
God in His infinite wisdom
Did not make me very wise-
So when my actions are stupid, They hardly take God by surprise
- Langston Hughes

Yes we can rest in the assurance of a full and unconditional and unreserved acceptance in the love of God, for God is love and love believes the best of us. We are made in the image and likeness of God/Love so we are already perfect, complete and innocent. We are growing in wisdom, understanding and knowledge of our true identity, so it is a process we all go through and God, our highest self, understands that and is hardly taken by surprise when we make mistakes, so to speak. It doesn't change our identity as beloved and blameless children of God/Divine/Universe because as Jesus is, so are we in this world. I have come to learn that this is how we are perfected in love that casts out fear, including the fear of being judged by ourselves or others - to know and believe the love God has for us, that we are of God, that Christ is manifested in every one of us in the flesh, that nothing shall separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our true Self.

Thoughts on book review and background of Rob Bell's "What we talk about when we talk about God"

Thoughts on Brandon Robertson's book review of "What we talk about when we talk about God" by Rob Bell

I have read through the book review by Brandon Robertson. I think it is a fairly balanced review of the book, as the reviewer recognises that the book is "paradigm shifting", and he has rightly noted that "It will be wholly rejected by the conservative community (unfortunately). But none the less- it is still a thoroughly Christian work that can and will help countless people renew their faith in God."

 I also like the book reviewer's conclusion in his review here:

"It’s about time we rethought the notion of God. Not because we need something intrinsically new to say and believe- good luck finding that- but because we are so often blinded by our own lense with which we view the world. Rob Bell paints an image of God in this book that I am certain thousands upon thousands will find refreshing, revitalizing, and worshipful. I know I do. Rob makes it okay to believe in modern scientific discovery and hold a  robust faith in God. He makes it okay to doubt as a healthy and vital part of faith. He makes it okay to embrace paradox and unknowing. He does just what the early Christians themselves did- proclaims the mystery of our faith.
...
This book will offend those who are looking to be offended, inspire those who seek to be inspired, and will spark a new conversation about what we really talk about when we talk about God."

Yes, it reminds me of the four stages of spiritual growth in which a person's worldview changes and evolves as he or she matures in spiritual growth and learns to ask questions and look within oneself for inner guidance instead of depending on religious institutions and dogma, or on scientific theories alone.

The reviewer also rightly noted that his new book will offend who are looking to be offended, and inspire those who seek to be inspired. Indeed, we have witnessed how some people who have not even read his book for themselves have chosen to be offended and posted judgmental comments on Rob Bell's Facebook page. They are only projecting their own fears and insecurities through quoting bible verses out of context; in fact, the bible is a mirror - how people interpret the bible will reflect on the kind of person they are. Those who are mean and small-minded will see their god as mean and small-minded, and those who are loving and gracious will see their god as loving and gracious.

I think some of the detractors have also quoted 2 Timothy 4:3 out of context - from my understanding, Paul was exhorting Timothy to preach the word in season and out of season - and the word is concerning the mystery of Christ in us the hope of glory - that is to me sound doctrine. Contrary to what the followers in evangelical or fundamentalist christianity say, having "itching ears" is actually referring to desiring to listen to teachings and fables about the outdated, mean, violent and vengeful god that was thought to be separate from man, which is based on the illusion of separation and duality of knowledge of good and evil, and the rituals and sacrifices borrowed from pagan traditions. Such teachings and fables appeal to itching ears probably because they stroke the ego of those who like to feel they are exclusively handpicked for a certain heaven.

How Rob Bell deals with his critics

I was reading about a recent interview with Rob Bell during his talk at Mars Hill Bible Church last Sunday - apparently he is aware critics are already up and about busy bashing his book even before they have read it, and he questioned whether they are really serious Christians since they have spent a lot of time and energy criticising other people of faith when they could have made use of their time more productively such as addressing social issues.

The author of the bestselling and oft-demonized “Love Wins” also talked a bit with MLive and a Publishers Weekly reporter about criticism he gets from some fellow Christians.

“It’s just important to be about your work and, hopefully, it brings you great joy. And if somebody doesn’t respond well to it, OK, they have the freedom to spout off about that,” Bell said.

He went on to question how “people who would consider themselves serious Christians would have that kind of time and energy” to bash his teaching.

“What is there, 800 million people who don’t have access to clean drinking water? Or what is it, a million people committed suicide last year?" Bell said. "Like, if you’re a serious person of faith and you wake up in the morning and the best possible use of your energies is to shred other people of faith, I don’t know, that’s sort of losing the plot if you ask me.

"So I try to be about my work.”

(From "Watch Rob Bell 'Talk About God,' read how he responds to critics")

Why Rob Bell left Mars Hill Bible Church and wrote his new book

I have checked out this article in which Rob Bell has clarified the reason he left Mars Hill Bible Church - that he wanted to talk about the things that matter most and to create the space for that. I suppose he sensed that Southern California has many people who want to know about God they can believe in but do not want to connect with organised religions, hence he and his family decided to locate there "to pursue other ministry work and begin development of a talk show with Carlton Cuse, a former writer and producer of the popular show "Lost", as mentioned in this related article. 

According to the article:

"This is a book for people who can’t buy the traditional concept of a judgmental, thumbs-up-or-down God, or the new atheism that says the world you see is all there is. It’s for people who want to believe in a God they can believe in."

(From "Rob Bell's new book is for people who want 'a God they can believe in'")

 So, it looks like his book is targeted for mainly postmodern people and progressive thinkers who are not at stage 2 or are no longer at stage 2 of fundamentalism and are also ready to move on beyond stage 3 of atheism to embrace stage 4 of mysticism and mystery of the universe, if I may interpret this according to M Scott Peck's theory of the four stages of spiritual growth. 

Spirituality, religions and fundamentalisms

"Spirituality is awareness of the water in the ocean, and religions are the currents in the ocean that fish can choose to swim in to go faster and further than they otherwise could. Fundamentalisms are aquariums that keep fish confined." – Roger Wolsey

I think it is an apt description of the nature of spirituality, religions and fundamentalism. It reminds me of a similar parable by Anthony de Mello about a fish wanting to find the ocean, and going about asking where the ocean is, until one day it realises it is already in the ocean. That is to me spirituality - an awareness of the water in the ocean. 

Religions to me, on the other hand, are subjective mental constructs and spiritual practices meant to help people become aware of the water in the ocean - to realise God or Divine is already in us, with us, around us and as us, in the here and now. 

Finally, fundamentalism is creating walls of an aquarium, as the quote says, and limiting the divine to a particular time and space and to a particular creed for an elect group of fishes that like to feel exclusive to experience that oh-so-elusive divine that comes once in a while and disappears when they think they miss it.

 

What is fundamentalist christianity?

My understanding of fundamental Christianity is the elementary teachings aboutChrist and have not moved forward to maturity. 

Hence fundamentalists are a group of people who are stuck in old ways of thinking, don't want to put away childish things and those who have refused to progress, grow and mature. 

It is based on Hebrews 6: Therefore let us go on and get past the elementary stage in the teachings and doctrine of Christ (the Messiah), advancing steadily toward the completeness and perfection that belong to spiritual maturity. Let us not again be laying the foundation of repentance and abandonment of dead works (dead formalism) and of the faith [by which you turned] to God,"

Fundamentalist Christianity holds on to the outdated traditions of Judaism and borrowed traditions of paganism that revolve around rituals and sacrifices. In a recent video on YouTube, Carlton Pearson pointed out that Christianity itself is a combination of ancient traditions, including astrology, and so it is not so much about a historical Jesus but about the principle of Christ in every person.

Spiritual progress, maturity or evolution then, is about moving beyond the illusion of separation and beyond religious rites and institutions, and embracing the mystery of Christ in every person, and reconnecting each person to Love and our true divine self in consciousness.