The Secret Garden of Eden

"Secret - Not known or seen or not meant to be known or seen by others." (dictionary)

Gardening in the most powerful symbol in the Bible because we are a garden - diverse, thriving in different conditions and all beautiful in our own way with a unique purpose.   When we ate from the tree of knowledge, the Garden of Eden was cloaked.  We became blind to seeing each other as spirits.  Instead we saw our nakedness or humanity and became ashamed.   The Garden of Eden and our eternal nature was hidden from us.   Our Earth is in peril because the garden is not only physical, but a spiritual state of being that transforms our surroundings.    The Garden of Eden has always been our home and within us the power to see it.

We Must Love as Jesus Loves

"Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins."  1 Peter 4:8

Part of my thinking of spiritual warfare is to summarize it at a high level where there is a battle for our consciousness, one based on love and the other on fear.  I believe we need to acknowledge that this battle underlies our existence and that this battle has very real human consequences.   Our behaviors are influenced by the spiritual as well as our environment, biology and chemistry.   In my opinion, you can't heal a human being without acknowledging the spiritual warfare within and surrounding us.  In a society where we dismiss the old notions of a demonic influence or loving spirit guiding us, as well as the physiological impact of the energy surrounding us, we are reduced to our biology, chemicals, and environment.   We are relegated to nothing more than animals walking an earth in a universe with no meaning past our mortal existence.  

Psychiatrists place behaviors in a category within a psychological framework ignoring  the spiritual influences on our minds and our behaviors.   In a society which looks to judge and punish behavior, how do we come through it with spirits whole and loved and not utterly destroyed?  In this battle the enemy wants as many destroyed spirits as possible and we need to acknowledge this reality.  I've seen people serving God through love, destroyed by the enemy who preyed on their weaknesses and their sense of helplessness in the face of evil.  They don't feel deserving of the love of others and God and therefore cannot resist.   And when this happens, we need to acknowledge this underlying dynamic while treating their very human conditions.  We must love as Jesus loves.

There are No Limits

I wrote this years ago....

"Emotion and hope are as essential to life as the air we breathe.  Without mental, emotional and spiritual growth as individuals or as the human race we are suicidal.  I believe God has blessed us with love and therefore, the ability to grow.  The discipline over choosing positive paths despite evil is necessary to our survival and because of the love instilled within us, we chose our path of growth.

Our paradox is - innocence or pure love must be with complete knowledge and to know is infinite.  Our evolution is limited by what we think we know.  Our limited knowledge is reflected in our behavior.  Therefore, studying our behavior or systems based on current knowledge imposes limits.  How can we evolve when God's limits are infinite and we are confined by our mental and emotional limits?

There are no limits.

There is love."

Elizabeth Winchester

The Time is Now - An Expansion of the Mind and Spirit

"A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions." 
     Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr

"Great spirits meet violent opposition from mediocre minds."  
      Albert Einstein

Based upon my experience I know the following to be true  I do not have a mental illness.    I have a gift that needs to be released, not a spirit to be broken.  My experiences are an expansion of my mind and spirit.

• I am aware of other realities in the deeper order of things.
• I can intuit the intent of others by the presence of positive or negative energy.
• I experience shared thoughts and energy which I call knowing.
• My brain is capable of rapid analysis of pathways and outcomes.
• I am a conduit of energy both positive and negative.  
• I have the ability to absorb and process negative energy into positive energy which drains my ability to emit positive energy. 
• When I feel deeply loved, I can radiate immense positive energy into the Noosphere.
• I am extraordinarily creative.
• I have experienced spiritual singularity.

Realty can be transformed by not only our thoughts resulting in actions, but also solely by our thoughts and emotions.  Einstein said the reality (thoughts) we focus on, is the reality we create.   When we view mental experiences outside a set of prescribed norms as pathological, we fail to see that these experiences are actually breakthroughs of the mind and spirit.   My dream is to open doors for those  spirits who are locked within their minds.  We are in an inflection point in humanity.  We must go universal in spirit or humanity will not survive this century.  The time is NOW.   

The Four Movements of the Eucharist - To Be Broken

Definition of broken The Free Dictionary

1. Forcibly separated into two or more pieces; fractured: a broken arm; broken glass.
2. Sundered by divorce, separation, or desertion of a parent or parents: children from broken homes; a broken marriage.
3. Having been violated: a broken promise.
4. Subdued totally; humbled: a broken spirit.
5. Weakened and infirm: broken health.
6. Crushed by grief: died of a broken heart.

Dr. Hsin hsin Huang, a spiritual advisor and counselor, gave a wonderful presentation of the four movements of the Eucharist. Her symbolism and analogies were beautiful especially in her descriptions of the process of becoming bread and wine.   I had never heard of communion described this way.  Her website can be found at www.Hsinhsinhuang.com. 

She said the four movements of the Eucharist are:

1. The taking of the bread (hospitality and sharing with others).
2. The blessing of the bread (receiving the bread as a gift).
3. Breaking the bread (to become open out of brokenness).
4. To eat and drink (the process of taking it in).

In our small group discussion during Magis, we discussed brokenness.  To be truly open to God, we must experience brokenness.  Why?  Because we owe our life to God.  This life on Earth as humans is a gift to feel, hear, see and experience the wonders of creation.  Until we recognize our vulnerability and our dependence on God for our life, we will never experience the full joy of the gift he has given us.  In the process of breaking, we are emptying ourselves out so that God can enter in and we can become whole.

However, sometimes others are completely broken because they have been so evilly violated, the process of fully healing that can restore joy and hope cannot occur.  The best we can do is to walk with that individual in love as they pass through into the next life to be fully healed by God and work to see it never happens to another. 

The Six Levels of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

In a wonderful presentation by Dr. Hsin Hsin Huang at the Ignatian Magis Program on Saturday, she discussed Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.  Maslow's theory taught in psychology is that humans have five levels of needs starting with physiological needs.
1. Physiological needs
2. Safety needs
3. Social belonging
4. Self-esteem
5. Self-actualization

In later years, Maslow added a sixth level - transcendence which is the need for surrender to God.  "Transcendence refers to the very highest and most inclusive or holistic levels of human consciousness, behaving and relating, as ends rather than means, to oneself, to significant others, to human beings in general, to other species, to nature, and to the cosmos" (Farther Reaches of Human Nature, New York 1971, p. 269).

I believe we are both human and spirit possessing not only our human gifts from God, but a soul which resides within us in this temporal space and time, but is eternal.  To be eternal is to be neither in past or future, but always with God in the present.   When we reach the sixth level, we recognize we are spirits first and humans second.  We transcend our humanity to become one with each other and God in spirit.

Ignatian Prayer

"Prayer is simply a two-way conversation between you and God."  Billy Graham

I participate in a small group called Raise the Bar that meets twice a month to discuss topics related to spirituality and community.  It was started by a group of parishioners at Trinity UCC in Belleville.  At each meeting, a group member leads us through a discussion of prepared questions.   Last night's topic was prayer.   The questions posed included what is prayer, how to pray, and what to pray.   As the discussion evolved, the group defined prayer as any conversation with God and that if we consider God, who is love, in our actions, our actions become a prayer.   The group also felt that even if we are not praying, God is listening to our hearts.

In my prayer journal I no longer ask for specific outcomes.  Instead I ask for strength, wisdom, love, and peace for myself and others.  The Ignatian prayer life has taught me that each one of us has been granted unique gifts (talents) by God and that within us is placed a dream.  When we work hard to strengthen our skills consistent with our gifts, make choices out of love for God and others, be open to other paths, work towards our dream, and then release the outcome to God, we can reveal the Kingdom of God on Earth. In this way we find peace knowing God is at work in this life and the life to come.   This is what Jesus meant when he said the Kingdom of Earth is near.