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July 10 - August 15, 2022
Paul says, “We are joint heirs with Christ.”39 A
Thomas was quite likely the earliest gospel to be written, with parts written around 50 C.E. Jesus said, “Whoever drinks from my mouth will become like me. I myself shall become that person, and the hidden things will be revealed to him.”40
Jesus, speaking as the Universal Christ Consciousness, said that whoever drinks from his mouth will become like him, which means to know, embrace, and live one’s own humanity and divinity.
First, it was difficult for them to comprehend, much less teach, because their stage of spiritual development was nowhere near the level of Jesus. Secondly, Christians who were manifesting their own divinity would weaken the priests’ authority as guardians of the true faith. After
Said before
Jesus served as an escalator between the previous floor of traditional Judaism and a new one that incorporated parts of the previous floor and transcended other parts to make up a new level. He also introduced a number of new floors which are still unfolding.
you have to pass through all the other floors. That
“amused anticipation”
But perhaps the most significant feeling associated with integral consciousness is the way it makes you feel about other people. The practice of integral consciousness definitely results in an increased sense of compassion, sympathy, and respect for those about whom you previously felt consternated. However, accompanying this enlarged feeling of compassion is also a new sense of realism about the inherent limitations of those who dwell in these older worldviews. . . . As integral practitioners we have to see ourselves as ambassadors of the future. . . . It’s an exciting time to be alive!1
Integral church understands that the purpose of the church is to create a community which accelerates our growth in stages of understanding God and states of experiencing God.
It appears there will always be fundamentalism, because we all go through that stage between the ages of seven and adolescence, and some people stay there.
“I have tried Eastern religions and found some help. But I found that I didn’t know their stories. I know the Christian stories. So I decided to come back to my roots and see if anything new has developed.” She found out that, indeed, something new had developed!
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them, now. When the Spirit of truth comes, that Spirit will guide you into all the truth.”
The mystical allows us to connect with spiritual realities and, ultimately, to the divine reality that we are all a part of God and one another.
is Jesus himself who points us away from previous lower stages of development and releases us to more evolved levels of spiritual growth.
integral church also embraces the postmodern value of going beyond the Bible and has opened its heart and mind to other Christian writings
Most Thomas scholars believe that parts of it were written as one of the first accounts of Jesus’
sayings, along with a hypothetical document named “Q.” Jesus scholar Marcus Borg places the first edition of the Gospel of Thomas at around 50 C.E. and the canonical gospels from 70 C.E. to 100 C.E.5
The Bible is best discerned through the life and teaching of Jesus.
“Do you experience God?” Or, “How do you think about God?” Or, “How do you get in touch with Spirit deep within yourself?”
Jesus is the personification of the Christ consciousness.
“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship.
It is good to worship Jesus, but it is even important to become like him.
Buckminster Fuller said, “Never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
Jesus talked about hell (Gehenna) more that anyone else in the Bible (11 of the 12 times). However, we have changed from Jesus’ use of the word to outlandish and oppressive meanings. Note the following
At the integral level, the Kingdom of Heaven, for the first time, is now understood as the great nondual vision of Jesus that there is no separation between us and God or between us and one another. Jesus did not come preaching Christianity was at hand. Instead, he preached the Kingdom of God was at hand. The traditional church believes that the goal of the spiritual life is to get us into heaven. Integral church believes that the goal is to get heaven into us!
If those who lead you say to you, ‘See, the Kingdom is in the sky,’ then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fish will precede you. Rather, the Kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living Father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty.27
A mystic is someone who experiences God.
Jesus was first a mystic.
Traditional Christianity today is a doctrine-based, fear-based faith which warns against the mystical. There are relatively few mystics left
Unity churches are the largest New Thought group and generally maintain their Christian identity. Religious Science, also referred to as United Centers for Spiritual Living, focuses on the powers of the mind rather than any distinct Christian identity. Interestingly, its founder, Ernest
Holmes, based his Science of the Mind primarily on Jesus’ teachings.
Our shadow is composed of the weaknesses, strengths, shortcomings, and instincts that we have found unacceptable and have disowned and buried deeply inside ourselves. We then tend to project this out onto others as their parts, not ours.
SHADOW
wounded healer.
When something bothers you about another person or situation, it is most often about you, not them!
We are unable to tell what is real about others and what are the disowned parts of ourselves that we project onto them. The more defensive we are about how accurately we see a situation, the more likely it is all about our log and not their speck.
What produces strong feelings in you? That’s the clue that you are dealing with your shadow, your projections, not reality.
Angrily observing a speck in another’s eye is always a grand opportunity to rid that inside ourselves and discover long-repressed parts within us. We can literally learn to make friends with those parts of us, instead of seeing them as enemies. Jesus told us to love our enemies and one way to begin is with what seems like our closest enemy—the shadows hiding within us.
In the book Integral Life Practices it is called the 3-2-1 technique, or face it, talk to it, and be it. Here it is.
Jesus said that we shouldn’t get stuck worrying about the past or future, just live in the present, one day at a time. That we can always handle.2
Healing happens inside of us when we begin to own the feelings which we have placed on another person or situation. Doing your own shadow work can move you through both stages and states in an accelerated way because it removes emotional blocks to your own evolution.
What would happen if I owned how powerful I am?
Marianne Williamson’s words came to me. “Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.”
As Ann Lamott says, “You can safely assume that you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.”
Our most devastating projection
Jesus has all the divinity that he needs. He not only doesn’t need ours, he came to help us recognize our own.
My spiritual life would be enriched by the addition of Jesus as older brother and guide to my more familiar experiences with the Spirit.
“You shall love the
Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.”
Temple Maintenance: Taking care of your physical self
I take loads of supplements recommended by a doctor who
