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Posts Tagged ‘mysticism’

Non-Leader Leaders

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on June 24, 2014| 10 Comments »

Non-Leader Leaders

Non-Leader Leaders

 

In the previous posts in this wee series, I’ve looked at the pitfalls of being, or pretending to be, a leader within religious or spiritual groups. Both office-based and charisma-based shepherd roles tend to eventually morph into masks for our insecure egos, our fearful wounded psyches afraid to come into the Light of Divine acceptance. Of course our original motives may initially be well-intentioned but the outward and inward pressures of having ‘responsibility’ for a flock tend to take their toll.

Inside every leader lies a prisoner waiting to make a break for it. Yet, such is the ego strength of the religious or spiritual role that one can’t really make it on their own. Thankfully Divine Love has an appointment with all leaders whether they wish to keep it or not! Divine hijackings are a regular occurrence within the sacred world of the leadership tribe. One way or another Divine Love will get our attention and knock us off our leadership role. For many it’s ill health, for some an unexpected divorce, for others a nervous breakdown – all signs that our running on the hamster wheel of leadership expectations isn’t the Divine Will at all.

Once we’ve gone through our own valley of disillusionment and ego dethronement we are, at last, able to be ourselves, warts and all, without fear of what folk think. We can let all the fragmentation of our psyche-soul hang out in the Presence of Unconditional Love, the one that ultimately asks nothing of us but honesty. Healing and realignment that can follow our leadership cold turkey experience as we have our religious paradigm turned upside down. Our role as ‘God’s little helper’ is well and truly ditched as we realise that we are as broken and dysfunctional as those we once tended with our sacred medical bag of tricks.

So is that it? Is the leadership game now over for good? Well, yes and no.

Certainly our days of wearing the sheriff’s badge of  official God representation has gone for good. Divine Love was never looking for our spiritual sharpshooting skills as we patrolled the Kingdom sects of men. No, the lawgiver and law enforcer role has been decommissioned by the gracious act of Divine intervention. ‘Enough is enough’ it proclaims as it blocks our progress up the ladder of hierarchical leadership imaginings.

When ego has let go of every vestige of religious or spiritual ambition, and we have found a restored level of humanity and vulnerability, Divine Love may come calling. It’s call is one of realignment and Spirit flow. No longer the projection of strength and a Charles Atlas spiritual muscle programme, but an honest acceptance of frailty floating on the Ocean of Spirit Source. No, the days of doing and goals are over. Now we are only asked to be. Out of such a being we will soon perceive the flow of Divine Life. Here and there others will be touched by a look, a smile, a thought or an arm around the shoulder. A new channel of Divine Flow has opened up in the affairs of man. We are a walking conduit of compassion and a Presence beyond our understanding. In letting go of our leadership we have become feeders, water carriers for the hungry and thirsty among whom we dwell.

In realigning with Spirit Source, outside the Alice in Wonderland world of religious leadership, mission and belief, we’ve become transmitters of  a Divine Magnetism, one that draws the broken into wholeness. Such a flux of mimetic attraction bypasses the old ego settings, now passing through our reintegrated psyche, that which makes us truly us. We have become wounded healers as the late Henri Nouwen so aptly described our new non role. This function in the Divine Love vortex, isn’t one upon which to re-establish the kingdom of ego. Rather it is one that produces a deep contentment, a knowing that we can’t fix anyone, that Source is All in All.

So, ‘Feed my sheep’ isn’t a Divine call to action. Rather, it is a call to being. Out of such a place of rest and inner acceptance we will channel the Source from which we sprang, feeding the hungry with the multiplied loves of our broken humanity. We are all feeders of Divine Love. Give It half a chance and It will satisfy the longings of those who come our way. Non-leader leaders, non-leader feeders – sounds like Heaven on Earth to me.

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The Day Love Comes Calling

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 3, 2014| 5 Comments »

The Day Love Comes Calling

The Day Love Comes Calling

 

Most of the time we wander through life in a sleepwalk of sorts, bouncing from person to person, desire to desire and our personal addictions, the places of relief where we can get our ego batteries recharged. Shockingly the spiritual or religious among us aren’t really that different. Please let me explain.

The one who has a vested interest in our sleeping state is of course our wounded self or ego. Sworn to protect us from further pain and rejection ego often chooses the sedation of sleep to keep us from the risk of facing our inner pain and its authentic solution. Like zombies we bounce off others without much true feeling, the goal being to conserve our sanity at all costs. Of course, if we belong to a zombie tribe we enjoy the buzz of fellow travellers, the reinforcement of our sleeping state through the camaraderie of our fellow snoozers. We are masters at communal dreams, those roller coaster visions of  Divine moves just around the corner. These dreams make us think we  are bang in the centre of the Divine Will, soldiers in a religious-spiritual army that will soon bring the Kingdom to earth. Yet all is done in a state of sleep with ego smiling benignly on our nocturnal fantasies.

Of course, the depth of sleep is heightened by our subliminal absorption of the desires of others. Infused by the psychic energies of others we foolishly perceive ourselves to be filled with the Divine Spirit, that enthusiasm that drives our personal and communal adventures. Without this constant top up by external desires, we might lie down in a heap and eventually awaken, so ego makes sure we jump straight into the cauldron of our in crowd, those who provide our desire juice. Much religious and spiritual community involvement is the setting for such desire transfers. Our sleep identity within the group is established by the desires of others and if they are happy then so are we. Yet, shockingly desire transfer is the unconscious sleeping pill that keeps us locked into psychic slumbers.

When absorbed desires reach a certain level we are possessed by them. In the sleeping state there is no space between them and our felt identity. We are that desire. It has been incarnated in our psychic skin. This is the stage of addiction, ego’s final and most effective psycho-spiritual tool for keeping us under. As I sit here in my local coffee shop, watching the outside world pass by I see the face of addiction in the obese and smoking folk who stroll by oblivious to their condition. I see a street preacher, ranting and raving at those who quickly run by, avoiding eye contact with the tract distributing zealot. Another addiction, one that ego well and truly trusts to keep us in the hypnotic depths of sleep. These and the vast array of potential addictions just do enough to dull our psychic pain and keep us from awakening to Reality.

Sounds like we are well and truly trapped by the perceived reality around us, one that lulls us into the continual highs and lows of ego-scripted dreams. We are fast asleep and, it would appear, unable to waken ourselves from ego’s seductive sedation. What or perhaps more pertinently, who can awaken us? Well, let me make a somewhat bold assertion. Whilst self-help strategies and other religion-spiritual techniques are useful, I believe that they are only of benefit after a dramatic encounter with Love. In other words they belong to the realm of our post-operative care. No, I believe that Divine Love has an appointment for all of us – a day when it comes calling, whether we like it or not. Having politely knocked at the door of our pained psyche, it will use stronger measures if necessary, all flowing from the nature of its own Being. Many of us have had our psychic doors kicked in, before being hauled off into the Light. A Divine hijacking of sorts!

Initially this crisis event that pulls the mattress from under our sleeping frame is unwanted and perceived as a dark place. Yet, this shadow valley through which we are carried is a necessary stage in our Awakening. For in this place of fear and despair, ego is flushed out and dethroned from its place of control. Often in such a state we believe ourselves to be dying or losing our sanity. The reflex action of ego programmes want us to run or fight, yet we are powerless in the embrace of Divine Love. Like a caring counsellor walking an addict through cold turkey, Presence will be there, though we can’t sense it. Our day has come. We are on our way to a new psycho-spiritual place – a place of freedom and adjustment. A place of health and Self Awareness, the table spread before us in the midst of our psychic fragmentation.

Divine Love has been at this rescue game since time immemorial. It loves nothing as much as going after the ego lamb that has left the security of its flock. Re-centred around the spirit fire of our inner Self, we can rest easy without falling back into the delusions of our sleeping days. Once awakened we know things have changed. We’ve been through the hell of leaving addictive delusion, only to find a Silence in our inner Self, the meeting place of Source and man.

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The Big Picture

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on February 4, 2014| Leave a Comment »

The Big Picture

The Big Picture

Most of us have an eye for detail. We love to poke around the minutiae of life, observing and giving our two cents worth on every issue under the sun. Frankly we tend to stick our nose into all that comes our way, even if it is to dismiss it out of hand in order to maintain a pseudo sense of security and inner peace.

Yes we are daily bombarded by a multitude of ‘issues’ whether relational, social, economic, political, indeed even religious, all demanding our attention. This flood of external and often inner stimuli is a hard one to handle. In our youth we tend to deal with them all, one by one, knocking them each into the ball park without any consequences to our state of equilibrium. The older we get, and especially for those of us who have passed through major life changes, it’s not so easy. Some days the idea of being castaway like Robinson Crusoe sounds very appealing indeed, with only the sea, beach and jungle for company!

So how are we to approach this phase of our space-time sojourn?

Well may I suggest we leave our analytical, belly button-obsessed powers behind and set our eyes on the Big Picture.

All very well, many will say, but IS there a big picture and if so in what Cosmic art gallery is it hanging?

Well, first let me suggest that it does exist and is somewhat accessible to the honest enquiring heart.

The key of course is to discover the Artist or rather let the Artist discover us!

The world’s great, and not so great, religions and spiritual minds have tried for millennia to tie this Artist down.

I reckon though that the Artist has set the whole canvas up so that only glimpses of their essence can be observed by the curious. A face to face meeting with the Artist seems to be on their terms and indeed on their own terms.

For me I see this Artist in the life, death and claimed resurrection of the Nazarene, Yeshua bar Yosef.  It is in the teaching and actions of this man which channel the Presence of the Artist into the darkness of my lonely psyche-soul. Subjective? Yes indeed, but isn’t all of value ultimately subjective. The Nazarene communicates the unconditional Love of the Artist for his Work, those living, breathing psyche-souls that reflect the glories of  His/Her creative urges. In other words, the Artist is 100% for us, committed to bringing us into an awareness of both His/Her Being and our own spirit Self.

The Big Picture?

Well, I reckon that we are the big picture, set high above the pseudo world of ego etchings. All that has flowed out of Divine Creativity is the big picture, that which truly is. When mystics, both past and present are granted a Divine showing, they are seeing both the Artist and Their work. A momentary exhibition that unveils the mysteries of the Ages , even for a split second. The darkness lifts and the Shekinah Glory bathes the weary soul.

So as we travel the highways and byways of our busy lives, let’s remember to look up. The invitation of our open hearts will be answered in the Artist’s own Time and Way. One thing’s for sure though; our meeting will be perfectly placed on the Big Picture’s Divine canvass.

 

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Bread of Life and all that!

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on April 4, 2013| 2 Comments »

Bread Of Life And All That!

Bread Of Life And All That!

I AM the Bread of life.

He coming toward me should under no circumstances be hungering,

And he believing into me will under no circumstances be thirsting……..

Everyone that the Father is giving to me shall be arriving toward me,

And those coming toward me I should under no circumstances be casting out,

That’s why I descended from the heavens,

Not that I should be doing my will but the Will of him sending me.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

In today’s post I wish to look at a mysterious saying of Yeshua that many of his present day followers find difficult to understand. I believe that many  Christian interpretations have missed the key to grasping the practical lessons embedded within this esoteric gem from the Nazarene. The key that I will use to reveal the hands-on applications that lie within this supposed mystical discourse is the recently discovered psycho-spiritual tool known as mimetic theory. Let me explain.

Yeshua has just fed the multitude with a multiplied sardine bread combo that satisfied their natural hunger. Having just discovered a new miracle worker in their midst the grasping crowd are now chasing him down for more of his mystical magic. However, the Galilean prophet isn’t carried away by the adulation of the throng as he engages them in discussion; a revealing heart to heart about their founding fathers’ eating habits on the way to the promised land. Back then, their starving ancestors were just glad to get their bellies filled with miraculous daily manna, a gift from their Deliverer God, YHWH. The Nazarene holy man hints that the Hebrew travellers had missed the whole point of their manna diet, just like his present audience, those baying for more Messianic thrills. This is where we encounter the above declaration from Yeshua.

I AM the Bread of life.

Most Christian comment claims that Yeshua is here declaring his divine nature, claiming that he too came from the Divine realm, like the supernatural manna of the wilderness. I have no problem with that but we can, if we wish, read it slightly differently, seeing YHWH, the I AM THAT I AM, as the Bread of life. Most interpretations perceive this life to be eternal in nature, the life of post death experience, yet surely this life is in the here and now, our day-to-day space-time adventure as lived through our soul-psyche. In the Eternal Now of Divine perspective perhaps both these forms of life are one and the same.

He, coming toward me, should under no circumstances be hungering,

 

Here Yeshua unpacks a great mystery, one with earthly applications. The Galilean realises that all human relationships are mimetic or imitative in nature. We find our perceptions of Self in the other, being drawn to the apparent metaphysical solidity of their personhood. The Self image that we currently hold is a collage of all that we have admired in others to date. No-one is truly their own man. The autonomy of the psyche-soul is a delusion, one that brings in its wake much psychological suffering and pain.

Understanding this, Yeshua reveals himself as an object of human desire. For those drawn into the sphere of his Being, those attached by a gut-felt, metaphysical desire, will not be disappointed. All human relationships of Model and follower eventually end in tears of separation and rivalry. Expulsion and broken relationship is the norm in the world of skewed desire. However, Yeshua claims that ultimately it won’t happen to those attracted to him. Ultimately, because it often happens to the most zealous of disciples along the Way. Simon Peter is a classic example of one who entered the dangerous role of Monstrous Double or Adversary, one who rivaled with his Master Model in attempting to stop him going up to Jerusalem to die. Yet, even such a head strong follower as the Galilean fisherman, finally got it, albeit after his Model’s future demise and unexpected comeback.

The reason that we can desire what Yeshua desires and come into his freedom, is because the Nazarene will never rival back. He will never become a Monstrous Double, one fighting us for a share of Being, for all Being resides within him, the incarnated Tao-Logos. When we understand this newly revealed gravitational dynamic and its accompanying realignment process, we are free to move into a world of desire that is ‘vertical’ rather than remain in the horizontal version where rivalry and ultimate violence prevail.

And he believing into me will under no circumstances be thirsting……..

At first glance this little nugget only seems to echo the radical message of the previous hungering statement, yet there resides here a subtle but important further unpacking of the whole mimetic or imitative process. In this declaration Yeshua replaces coming to with believing into. Modern day Yeshua followers are frankly obsessed with belief. Doctrine and dogma have become the battle fields upon which much spilt spiritual energy and blood lies crying out from holy ground, like the blood of the mythic Abel, the victim of the Founding murder. For many of us intellectually believe the right things concerning the Nazarene has replaced the believing into of this poignant statement.

So what’s the difference?

Well, intellectual belief is always operates in the sphere of the psyche-soul, our interface with this space-time realm. Hence it always contains the potential to be a weapon of our defensive and often counter-attacking ego. In ancient Middle Eastern spirituality belief was a process of trust or letting go, a lying back into the object believed into. Yeshua’s words reflect such a release, with its resulting movement into the very essence of his Being. Like Han’s Solo’s Millenium Falcon being drawn into the hold of the giant Death Star, only flipped from the Dark Side!

I would suggest that such a believing into Yeshua releases something fresh and altogether other within our weary psyches; an unlimited watering from Divine Source itself, a thirst quenching drink of Holy Breath that heals our psychic pains.

Everyone that the Father is giving to me shall be arriving toward me,

Here Yeshua suggests that the mimetic process at work in his followers doesn’t originate with him; rather, all those drawn into his desire field have somehow been placed there by his God, the Father or ‘Abba’ with whom he himself was in mimesis. Once touched by Yeshua’s all-consuming desire matrix the only way to go seems to be towards him. Perhaps this gives a Divine slant on the whole free-will ~ destiny debate that continues to confuse those of a theological bent!

And those coming toward me I should under no circumstances be casting out,

 

This little phrase has been hijacked by many Christian interpreters to build a case for eternal salvation, the great escape from the dreaded fires of hell. Such a fundamentalist  fire insurance  take on Yeshua’s words  is, I believe, extremely wide of his original meaning. Here is what I believe he is saying.

‘Those who are realigned into my desire field and grow into my likeness through desire exchange will never have to worry about me turning on them. Even though they become like me, I will never expel them or do them violence, unlike human Models. I will never become your Model Obstacle, the one to scapegoat you out of my Presence and Being.’

In other words, the desire link up with Yeshua is the only truly safe relationship that we can have during our space-time journey.

That’s why I descended from the heavens,

Yeshua claims here that, like the miracle manna, his Being is sourced in the Divine. The psycho-spiritual freedom that he enjoys has its origins in his Divine connection with the Transcendent Father, the One who, being Being itself, doesn’t need to rival with anyone for a sense of Self. Such a Divinity has no need to measure itself against the creatures that it has birthed. It is supremely Self-defining, yet wishing to share this freedom with its mirror images. For such a mission was the Nazarene sent – an awakening to the possibility of a rivalry free communion with our Source Spirit.

Not that I should be doing my will but the Will of him sending me. 

In taking on this task Yeshua reveals the secret of his commissioning; he has voluntarily been absorbed by the mimetic desire or will of the transcendent Other, the very passion that holds the Cosmos together. In other words, Yeshua the man, demonstrated that once a desire connection is established with Divine Love, and the skewed desire of ego set aside, we can all return to the freedom of the sons and daughters of God. Realigned with Holy Breath, the Divine essence in space-time we can run through life, free from Model Obstacle and Monstrous Double relational constraints, loosed from the gravitational pull of others who vie for psychic clones. Now if that isn’t life abundantly then I don’t know what is!

Dylan’s Author page ~ https://www.amazon.com/author/dylanmorrison

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