Christianity

This evening I find myself musing over what it means to be a Christian.

As a bit of personal background, I was raised Roman Catholic, but I am no longer a church goer. This is a familiar story in this time period! I have my own personal reasons why I no longer attend a faith gathering, but suffice to say that although the road was initially rough, for the time being I am satisfied to be a lone seeker.

I think that being a Christian, or at least being someone who lives with Christianity within his or her being, is a wonderful thing. I believe that if one is truly in tune with what it means to be Christian, then that person is filled with an enthusiasm for living. This enthusiasm comes from knowing that there is a powerful force acting in our lives, and in creation itself, to move things in a certain direction. Knowing this helps alleviate the basic existential fear of being that all humans suffer at some point and at some level.

We are lucky as Christians to have our faith built not only on the words of the Master, but also on what came before, namely, the morality of Judaism. I respect Judaism very much for the depth of its discourse on its own beliefs. In fact unlike Church-based Christianity, which has often been loath even to examine itself, Judaism never rests, but is always reexamining itself which I believe is an admirable quality.

Islam has the virtue of not needing to rest on any kind of supernatural "wonder". (I will get to what I mean by this in relation to Christianity in a moment). Mohammed when asked to prove his words by a miracle simply said that this world is evidence enough of the Creator's power, and that these "things" were enough. I like the elegance and simplicity of such a statement, and Christianity could actually learn from this core tenet instead of needing to prop itself up with false beliefs.

Getting to what I mean by "wonder", I think Christianity suffers by its insistence on certain "wonders" such as the virgin birth, the turning of water into wine, and the feeding of the five thousand. None of these things are necessary to accept the core Christian message, which is: God is real, God is loving, and God is watching over and caring for humankind. Let me explain more what I mean.

At the Council of Nicea in 325, the early Church of Rome sought to strengthen the new religion of Christianity by codifying its beliefs. Namely, it sought to fix the date of Easter and more importantly, to decide on the exact nature of Jesus. Was he truly the Son of God, or was he simply a man, as the Arian heretics of the time believed. This decision was of course pivotal in setting the course that Christianity would take over the next 1,700 years.

The Church sough to emphasise that Jesus was a being of Light, of Spirit, that he had truly come from the Divine Father. Therefore, as the custodians of the truth of that Light, the Church was the organisation to whom all Christians should look for salvation. The problem today of course is that the Church is being seen publicly to fail on many counts. Protection of children, popular dismissal of its wonders in the face of secular materialism, and failing to provide comfort for its congregation are the most common charges.

The core problem I believe is this: that the Christian faith has accustomed itself to propping up its valid and vital message with unnecessary structures of belief. The Church Fathers of old naturally did this to protect the precious truths that they felt were in danger of being lost. They no doubt felt that to survive in a civilisation such as Rome, with its incredible diversity of beliefs, but also to compete with the existing state religion of sun worship, that wonders were needed. To give the Christian message any validity, it had to be seen to work, to have tangible effects on creation, and to demonstrate the power of the divine. Therfore, at the First Council and then later, beliefs such as the virgin birth and the divinity of Christ as Son of God were promulgated.

But herein lies the main issue - a great lie was perpetuated in order to protect a great truth. This is the decision the early church took and that it has had to defend ever since. That is why, in this modern era, that some feel that God is simply the "God of the gaps"; that is, the gaps left in reality after science has supposedly filled in all the blanks with so-called "facts" (and it has, of course, done no such thing).

So what is the great truth of Christianity? I believe every religion has a great truth; in Judaism, it is that God is moral. In Islam, that God is pure. In Christianity, it is that God is love - powerful love!

Cna you see how each religion offers one form of tribute to God? Each religion describes a particular aspect or quality of God; put 'em all side by side and you begin to build up a picture of what God is. There's no need to believe in silly magic tricks; we can see, as Mohammed did, just by looking around us, by listening to the air at sunrise, by watching the mighty ocean, by observing how animals operate with awareness and intelligence, that something must be behind all this. And indeed there is! We know him as God.

But too much simplicity can be a bad thing. There must be depth in our understanding of God, not just surface beliefs and mindless platitudes. We need depth both in time and in space; historical depth, to know where we have come from and how we got here; and present depth, depth in our understanding, our thinking, and in our feeling. We must engage intelligently, as in Judaism, with our faith, not just - God forbid! - accept without question what we have been told. Think for yourself! Read! Search. Look. The Master says that they who ask, seek and knock will be rewarded.

In the end I believe something which would shock many Christians but it again goes to the core problem we face today and it is this: was Jesus the Son of God? Yes. But are we also sons and daughters of God? Yes I say we are. That's why the early Church was right - but the Arians were also correct. Jesus truly is a great Master, but he is no more a son or child of God than me or than you. The being that is Jesus may be a greater adept than you or me, more advanced in spiritual development. But there are others. And truly God has created each one of us, has he not? Therefore, we do not need a Church to intervene for us. Does a child need to seek a third party to ask its parents for what she needs? Of course not.

In the real world naturally it helps that we have an institution that can minister to us, baptise our babies, marry us, bury our dead. All that is fine but I guess I've always been an inward looking seeker. If the Church that does all these things cannot even give a decent account of itself in terms of its beliefs then it becomes very hard for me to be a part of such a thing.

For this is the age where humanity is awakening. We are learning to use our own abilities, finally, after centuries of being mollycoddled by the Church. Like an overprotectivve, smothering parent, the Church's hold over our lives is finally broken. But again there is this dichotomy that some of what the Church says and does is plainly wrong, but the basic morality it espouses is sound. Today as we see people like Charlie Sheen seeing nothing amiss in having porn stars around his small children, morality is needed now just as much as ever. As a new parent myself I consider it a disgrace that this man even considers himself a proper father. So there remain elements of Christianity that we sorely need, but there are other things frankly that we could do without.

The "wonders" of the early Church were introduced to ensure the survival of the message. Perhaps now, to ensure its survival, these are the very things we need to jettison to preserve the truth?

Role of the Angels

Well now the people of our sister nation, New Zealand, have been hit with their worst earthquake disaster in living memory. This is truly a shocking thing to behold, with probably more than 100 people losing their lives, including infants. The centre of the city of Christchurch is reduced to rubble.

The sheer savagery of the quake is mind numbing, but its a sobering reminder that we humans live on the surface of this planet subject to the earth's good graces. I work in the centre of Sydney and as I admired the beautiful buildings during my lunch break today, it suddenly hit me what it would be like if the same thing happened to my town.

Yet as reports come through, there are stories of people just getting out of the way of danger in time, of being protected even though they were on the fifth floor of a building that collapsed to the ground. As is becoming usual in these terrible tragedies, I can discern the presence of wonderful helping angels doing as much protecting work as they can.

Some might say well why don't they save everyone then, and of course I can't answer that. All I can say is that I believe the angels do what they can within the boundaries of what they are allowed, and it's my opinion that they do an amazing job.

Add that to the incredible human helpers on the scene - many of which I am proud to say are my countrymen - and it's plain to see that the human spirit continues to endure.

Spare a thought for those suffering through the destruction of their home at this time. We can help heal the world with prayer, and by looking upon the world with a gentle optimism.

Power of prayer, power of intention

As some of you may be aware, Australia was recently staring down the barrel of a category 5 cyclone - one which was going to destroy major cities in the state of Queensland and be bigger than Hurricane Katrina.

But then it veered away from the path of major destruction and its rage was vented on a few smaller townships along the coast. Not that this didn't cause much terror and heartbreak for the residents of these towns, it certainly did. But it could have been a lot worse.

I pray a lot, and as the cyclone was bearing down on Queensland, looking the whole time like this was going to be our biggest ever natural disaster, I said a prayer. As you may also know, Queensland had also just suffered its worst ever floods, with a dozen people dead and thousands without a home. This had already caused such great suffering and sorrow that it seemed that Cyclone Yasi would just be too much for a state and a nation trying to rebuild.

So I said a prayer, and in the prayer I affirmed that the forces of nature have mercy on us, that the cyclone not create harm and instead dissipate harmlessly over the sea.

Now while Yasi did travel inland, it missed the bigger towns and within a couple of days was downgraded from category 5 to 3, from 3 to 2 and finally, 2 to 1.

I am definitely not saying that my prayer alone caused this! But I have a feeling that a LOT of people were praying, not least the people of Queensland who had already suffered so much. I think Australians are a people with a gruff exterior but also very heartfelt, and I have no doubt that faced with the terrifying prospect of this massive cyclone, many of us were praying to be spared.

In the end there was just one casualty of the storm, and sad though that is it is nothing to what could have been. At times like this I feel its so important to have empathy - I imagined what it would be like for me and my family to have to shelter in a shopping centre (mall) along with thousands of others unable to return home. I can barely imagine it but I can imagine the despair and the pain.

I am just thankful that our collective prayers were answered! My intution had said at the time that they would be, and that's what eventuated. I think we need to rediscover the power of prayer, at this time in history we need the help of the angels and the divine powers more than ever! Let's get their loving energies into our lives where they are needed. This kind of prayer need not even be denominational - just pray! And let the divine emissaries of heaven do the rest. That's all it takes!

Galactic Consciousness

As someone who was raised Roman Catholic, I have in the last decade seen the proliferation of material relating to the Templars, the Gnostics, the theory that Jesus was married and had children, bloodline conspiracies, Illuminati conspiracy theories and so forth.

I have to say that to me all of these things smack of the great illusion – the program to which the whole world has been blindly running these past two millennia. Greed, violence, deception, political intrigue, war, religious arguments. A person could spend (and waste) their whole life in pursuit of answers to these illusions.

I believe the program that governs all these things is due to end and end soon. I’m tired of them – the world is tired of them. The only thing I know in my heart of hearts and soul of souls that truly matters, is what I (and others) call galactic consciousness.

In my memories of what life is like on the other side, God is a presence that underlies and permeates all of reality. It’s not like on Earth where there is this terrible feeling of separation. We chose that experience in order to learn to exercise our free will, and to grow in strength of personality, “away” from our cosmic parent. No, in the heaven worlds there is a constant awareness of the beneficent presence of God. As a result everyone is happy – everyone sees the importance of love for one another, it’s automatic, and the only real concern is for those incarnated souls undergoing learning on the different planets of the galactic system.

Most especially, however, the concern is for souls living on Planet Earth. Earth is known as the most dense, the most physical, of all the planets upon which a soul may live an incarnated life. As a result the earth is the most difficult of all the planets to be on. As I said the feeling of separation from God is the keenest here. And what is religion, if not the cry of so many lonely infants separated from the cosmic Love of God the parent? The word galaxy means Way of Milk in Greek – hence The Milky Way, the ever-flowing sustenance of God’s love that sustains all souls in heaven.

We come here, every one of us, on assignment. God has a plan for Earth and each one of us chooses to participate in this great design. Every so often, a soul will receive the “call”; as if deep within, the cosmic mother calls out to one of her own, summoning that soul to go forth and minister to her children on earth. The soul can choose a different assignment; but speaking for myself, when I received the call the thing that impelled me the most was knowing that in order to feel truly worthy of God’s love, I owed it to the suffering souls on earth, who are working so hard in their lives, to at least come to earth and contribute in whatever way God needed.

I remember that I felt greatly intimidated at coming to Earth again, and frankly if left to my own devices I probably would never have come - mostly for the reasons I have outlined above! Earth is difficult, but of course the rewards of personal satisfaction in staying the course and maybe even making a small difference are immeasurable to a developing soul.

This leads me to another point, which is the reason souls come here. I believe that Earth represents the most dense, the most stubborn, and the most hard-to-transform energy in the consciousness of the All, of God. We can see this by how many messengers of God are persecuted through history, and even those people who try to battle corruption in more limited spheres of life seem automatically to attract negative attention. This earth does not appreciate being made to change. And as humans we all share in that lot – we are all stubborn and slow to embrace change. In a sense the earth represents that part of each of us that is most in need of working on, to transform it into light (and enlightenment).

Our main job is firstly to awaken – to wake up to our true, cosmic origins. Not in some strange alien sense – this is a materialistic interpretation of a spiritual truth, the truth that we are all soul and we come originally from God and from heaven. The more we can awaken in this life, the more chance we have of remembering our true purpose on this Earth and maybe start to live it more consciously.

Esoteric traditions maintain that we all need to work on the Four Elements in ourselves – the Fire of Will, vision and enterprise, the Air of Right Thinking and Logic, the Water of Right Feeling and Compassion, and the Earth of common sense, practicality and Right Judgement. By working on these elements within our beings, it is predicted that we can transform every material atom of our bodies and of the universe gradually into Light. (This is the meaning of the Tarot card The Universe (or the World), where the four living creatures – the four primal elements – gain wings after the many trials experienced by the Fool.)

This year of 2011 is the time to activate our memories – to awaken to galactic consciousness, the moral of which is simply, Love one another as I have loved you. This is the only antidote to greed, to conflict, to war, to disharmony. The harmony of galactic brotherhood must – and will – prevail.

Consciousness

I should clarify what I mean by "spirit", as mentioned in my last post.

When I say spirit I mean Consciousness - the faculty of awareness, the inner Being who Knows. As an idealist I believe that Consciousness comes first, and it is one's state of Consciousness - feelings, thoughts, beliefs, attitudes - that determines what kind of life one lives.

Modern scientists are trying to tell us that our consciousness is merely secondary - that it is an epiphenomenon of matter, just an illusion of biochemistry. I feel very sorry for people who put forward this as a philosophy of life; they must be very sad and lonely people. One who believes that matter is primary over consciousness lives a very lonely life indeed - and in fact this is what we see in today's western society, where materialism as a mindset appears to rule and as a result we have social isolation, depression, alienation.

But one who believes that Consciousness comes first is never lonely! Why? Because that person knows they are never alone. Everything is made of consciousness ~ the whole universe is consciousness. This is why people of past generations believed in the beings who tend to the trees and flowers, who live in the streams and rivers. That is why the ancients believed in mighty Jupiter and tricky Mercury. That is why Christians today believe in Christ as Redeemer, because everything is consciousness. Because consciousness rules matter, and matter can be saved through consciousness.

We find ourselves confronted with a marvellous challenge-opportunity at this time. Our consciousness has the chance to grow and expand to a new level as the galactic Consciousness makes contact with the Earth. I believe that 2012 will see an influx of uplifting spiritual energy which will boost those who are ready for it into a new existence. 2011 is the year of final choice, where those on the side of dark firm into their positions, and those on the side of Light do likewise. Those who choose Light are going to experience the certainty and comfort that comes from being re-attuned to Galatic Consciousness, which is God and which is Us.

We are the answer - what was the question?

The Twelfth Insight

A new book is coming out by James Redfield, the author of The Celestine Prophecy. It's called either The Hour of Reckoning or The Hour of Decision, depending on which website you go to, but either way it will talk about the long awaited twelfth Insight.

As I see it the world is at the most important of crossroads at this time in history. There are forces at work that want to see human kind lose its sense of the spiritual forever and to sink into an orgy of materialism, where matter rules and spirit is squeezed out. I also believe that another, counter-movement is underway, led by sensitive souls who feel that the world is on a precipice and that we need to re-acknowledge that we are spirit first and foremost. Matter is and should only ever be a vehicle for our spiritual and creative expression.

To me this is truly the only "war" going on in our world today. The only one that really matters.

Technology has reached a stagnation point as far as I'm concerned. Nothing that is truly innovative or helpful in easing the suffering of the human race is coming forward. Nothing inspirational or edifying - just more self indulgence, with i-phones, i-pads, more ways to keep us distracted.

The Twelfth Insight, therefore, is a hopeful vision of a new world. A world created by humans who desire a spiritual world, an organic, free-flowing world, where awareness is everything, compassion is vital, and the integrity and purity of the human spirit is foremost in every heart.

In other words, it is a time of choice - do we want to keep rocketing into a world of self-indulgence, a materialism that could destroy what we are meant to be, or do we want a new holistic world, where spirit matters more than matter.

It's up to each one of us, you and me and everyone we come into contact with. Let's promise ourselves something today - that in our deepest selves we will hold the intention that the world can be healed. That technology will serve mankind and not the other way around. That we will once again recognise that we are spirit and that this earth is only a testing ground for that spirit. In this way we can restore our priorities to sanity and to health.

Let us pray!

Long time away

It has been quite a while since I last posted, but boy so much has been going on that I haven't felt it was the right time to post anything. Until now.

I became a Dad last year, a wonderful little baby boy was born at 8.07am Friday 30 April 2010. After a scare due to him not breathing at first (he was born caesarean), we welcomed little Jack into our world and could not be happier.

Being a father has been a deeply satisfying experience for me. I can see much more clearly that the life I used to live, having to satisfy only myself, was a shallow and rather meaningless one. Having Jack has brought me happiness because its my job to look after him, and I feel proud that I have this responsibility.

And to see his happy smiling face when I come home is the best thing in the world.

So thanks for understanding while I've been away. Throw in a house move, job changes, and that makes 2010 a very hectic year for me! It was a journey through the spirit on the earth plane, learning those crucial lessons that only life on this earth can provide.

In my next post I will mention some of the intellectual highlights that 2010 held for me.