Life Everlasting

Some ten years ago I felt compelled to write to a former dear friend of mine about a wrong that I had done to him over twenty years ago. I knew at the time of the action that what I was doing was wrong but in my youthful arrogance I ignored my better judgment and behaved in a manner that I knew was wrong. My letter to my friend was humbling to write and heart-felt in content. I did more than say “I’m sorry” I asked for his forgiveness.

My friend was very gracious. He promptly wrote back and communicated the he held no ill will and that, indeed, he had forgiven me. Of course, I was relieved. But then he said something that I have considered and reconsidered ever since. He said he was “so pleased to know that the real Greg, the kind, caring Greg was back.” I was intrigued by his comment because although I had certainly behaved in a manner that I deemed as wrong I knew the “real Greg” had never left. The real Greg had been present at all times regardless of the behavior I demonstrated. Even in the midst of my regretful actions the “kind, caring Greg” was there, observing. (more…)

Thirty Five Years and Thirty Five Minutes?

The other evening I checked out Tom Brokaw’s television special on the baby boomers. I am a boomer so I have an inherent interest. He went back more than thirty five years to the late sixties and early seventies to review what boomers had experienced in their adolescence and early adulthood and to consider how those experiences had affected them.

He highlighted the impact that the assassinations of JFK, Bobby Kennedy and MLK had on my generation. He spent a significant chunk of time on the message boomers sent with that massive love-in, drug-fest, rock and roll concert called Woodstock. Of course he covered the effects of the Vietnam War and the anti war protests as well as the Kent State shootings. As I sat watching a chronicle of the defining moments of my early life I had this strange sense that while 35 years had passed I was still twenty and really no time had elapsed at all. It was a sort of time warp. (more…)

Anguish is an inevitable experience in our human experience. It is universal and ubiquitous. It is also known as misery. Although it is subtle it underlies our everyday experience. On the surface we look all right. We smile, joke and seem to have our wits about us but if we are really honest we sense something is just not right.

Anguish is one of the reasons we frantically search for distraction. Eat more, drink more, work harder, buy more things but, above all, stay busy. Patients tell me that they can’t afford to be in quiet solitude for fear of the overwhelming uneasiness. Some call it anxiety. Others call it depression. But is it really either? They come for treatment. But is it a psychomedical problem or is it anguish? (more…)

“…the knowledge of the heart, the unified center of the inner life is the instinct that carries us upward…without it religion remains an uncertain struggle.”
Pascal

There is a center. Every one of us has a center. In the center, our center, there is “peace that passes all understanding,” a joy beyond description, and wisdom of a divine quality.

There is that of God in every one. We are all made in God’s image yet even more He resides with us. God is so close that we most often take the Divine presence for granted. Rarely will He somehow manifest directly before our senses in the perceptual world. But it is then that we “see” Him. In fact, He’s always been there.

God’s indwelling is experienced most profoundly at our center. As we slow down, quiet down, center down and open our selves to “knowing” we experience His presence as surely as we breath.

The Inward Light exists with all and for all. It is Christ, the Messiah, in all. Jesus brought us the way to the center, to that of God in all of us.

Even before Jesus lived on this planet Christ, the Messiah, lived in each and every person, always holding the promise of peace, joy, wisdom and, of course, salvation, in this life and the next, through reunion with our Heavenly Father. Because we have been seduced and continue to be seduced by our desire for control, to play god, we don’t “see” Him although he’s right there. Jesus came, divinity in a physical form, so that we, the blind, might see.

In the quiet, the solitude, and contemplation, with appreciation for His sovereignty and the ever-present intimacy we become aware, some say awakened, to the presence, God’s presence. And inevitably our consciousness, our focus of faith is changed. We “see” that all comes from Him. We give up our illusions of control. We are undeniably and unalterably changed.

“God is like your kindly old physics professor.” Considering my dislike for physics I find the word “kindly” to be incompatible with the study of physics. The Hobbit is an engineer by training, a Purdue University mechanical engineer at that. He
enjoys and understands physics. He often speaks of the “physics of consciousness.”

Truth is I didn’t try very hard at physics. It really never captured my interest. Psychology, now I was fascinated by psychology. Much of what he says I eventually understand but this “physics of consciousness” business is different.

Now, he also says, “Jesus was God’s audio-visual” of what life is really all about. I get the idea of an audio-visual. Actually, I’ve always thought that Jesus’ life was more the point than his death and resurrection. But I think I’m in the minority on that one. Don’t get me wrong, I think his final three days and his forty days on earth after his death are a critical part of the whole story but may be not the most critical. (more…)

Jesus came for “ME.” Not “I” but “ME.”

“ME” is soul. My soul is the point, the very first moment, of consciousness or awareness of life, before any perception, before any actual sensory experience. Never seen, always present but largely unrecognized, my soul is nothing that “I” am.

Everything “I” am is worldly. “I” is created. Just as all that I see, hear, touch, smell and taste was created. Of course, all that is created has a beginning and an ending. And in the middle is entropy, that gradual process of deterioration and decay. Death! (more…)

There are, for me, two levels of living. One level is perceptual, all things sensual. This aspect of my experience is referred to as “I.” This is persona. It is that which I see of myself in the world. For many years persona, “Greg,” was all that I knew myself to be.  

I had a number of other “different” experiences. The first of these experiences occurred when I was about five years old. Others occurred sporadically through out my life. They were not perceptual but yet were real experiences.  

These experiences were of such a nature that I was confronted with the undeniable fact that some other process was acting through me with which I was not perceptually in touch.   (more…)

Now I see! I was blind but now I see. Losing your life in order to find your life. For the first time in my life I have a glimpse of this! Oh, this is so very rich.

It never made sense to me before. I understood the concept of losing your life of materialism in order to find your life of the spirit but how to do so always seemed vague. Oh, sure I understand living a life of simplicity but that can be legalistic. I dread legalism.

Actually, I think it’s vague to everyone, all of us, but we’re afraid to admit it. What if some one stood up in church and said “Hey pastor, tell me how this happens.” The answer would be something like, “Empty yourself of your self and open up to the Holy Spirit.” What?! That’s opaque at best, nonsense at worst. (more…)

Life is like a ride on a bus. We are embarking on a journey that we must take to a place that we have never been before. I am three or four years old and seated next to the driver in a special child’s seat. I have before me a toy steering wheel connected to absolutely nothing. The driver is a great guy who loves kids, and me especially. He talks with me during the ride of routes, road conditions, almost as if he needed my consultation. I hold my toy wheel and pretend to drive the bus along with him. (more…)

Why can’t I just relax? Just be myself? Can I ever be comfortable with the way I am without flinching, wishing that I would have been different, that I wouldn’t be the way I am?

I know that at my core, in my “self,” I am whole, complete, Divinely inspired and my life is a gift. I also “know” that if others could only know the real me, what some would call the authentic me, then I’d know who I can really trust and I’d be able to relax and just be comfortable with what ever I was made me to be.  (more…)