The Bible Unlocked

Psalm Sunday - the Role of the Ass

2011-04-17T13:13:00.001+10:00

How many people happily take an Easter holiday and have no idea why it is a holiday? Today is Psalm Sunday, the doorway to the final steps taken by Jesus Christ to his crucifixion. To look deeply into this event we might need to scrape away all the mesmerising and often trivial images the church has implanted into human minds over the centuries. Palm Sunday is not a story about an event in the life of a man who lived 2,011 years ago; it is the story about what is happening within us NOW!

And when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Beth'phage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find an ass tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If any one says anything to you, you shall say, 'The Lord has need of them,' and he will send them immediately." This took place to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet, saying, "Tell the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on an ass, and on a colt, the foal of an ass." The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the ass and the colt, and put their garments on them, and he sat thereon. Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him shouted, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!" And when he entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, "Who is this?" Mt 21:1-10

This ass and its colt have not just been tied up, they have been bound, the Greek word is deo, which means tightly bound, perhaps in chains. These animals represent our animal nature, our astral or earthly ego which often behaves like an ass. This is the seat of our emotions, our feelings, our sympathy and antipathy and it can have a paralysing and polarising effect on us.

If we are to develop our spiritual nature then we must tie up our animal nature, we must bind it strongly so that it cannot work against us. We find this animal nature in our instincts, in fact, in all our behaviour that is animal-like. This is the part of us that is called our astral body or astral being and it is here that we find the human ego. The ego is an important part of us because it essentially ensures that we prevail. We live in a society where everyone is striving to prevail. Mostly we are unaware of this until we are in a situation where one person has the opportunity to go first, or get something, or be chosen and so on. Then the ego steps up and says, “Pick me!”

So the ego has ensured our survival but at some point we must have the experience that we have prevailed, that we have focussed on ourselves sufficiently and that something higher begin to operate. So then we bind the ass and any offspring it may have. This binding represents the end of a cycle in our development. Then, when we are ready to proceed we can unbind the ass which is like the symbol a spiral, it changes from the inturn to the outturn. Then we ride on it. We demonstrate that we have conquered our animal nature, our astral – which has been so necessary in carrying us thus far in our development. This ass and its colt now have a higher function; when they are conquered in our physical being they can then operate in our spiritual being as Imagination. They then represent the depth of feeling we can have when we create images in our mind to bring to life the true concepts of human nature which in the highest is our I AM. “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” The Lord is the kurios which means our I AM.

Know Yourself

2011-02-13T14:54:00.000+11:00

While I wait for some inspiration about what to write next in the bLog I have been revisiting my book “I Connecting : The Soul’s Quest”. This book is the scaffolding for the work we each must do TO KNOW OURSELVES. While I haven’t mentioned the Bible in my book, the information in my book can be found everywhere in the Bible.

To know ourselves is not a psychological journey, that is only part of it. Knowing ourselves means that we can differentiate between the activities of our body, soul and spirit. Whenever we meet the words ‘soul’ and ‘spirit’ today they are not usually referring to what is really soul and spirit.

So let’s be clear about this. In the introduction of my book I put it this way:

What is our soul? What is our spirit?

So, if we have a soul, where is it and what does it do? And what is our spirit? To be able to truly understand ourselves we need to build a picture of the place of our soul and our spirit in our being.

Have you ever looked into a coffin to see the lifeless body lying there? It is then that we realise that the personality we knew is no longer present. We usually recognise the face and then we are hit by the fact that there is much more to this person than their physical body. Yet science, demanding scientific proof, continues to ignore this part of us that is obviously present while we live and leaves when we die.

In essence, our soul is an activity within us which is created by the way we feel, think, and act. Obviously when we die we stop feeling, thinking and acting and it is this activity that leaves the shell of our body at death. Apart from that, we must ask, “Who is feeling, thinking and acting?” The answer is I am. This “I” or ‘self’ is the name we call ourselves when we refer to ourselves. This is our human spirit.

Our “I”, this ‘self’, experiences life through our soul and our body. The “I” is the artist, the soul his work of art and the body is the canvas. Similarly, the “I” is the gardener, the garden is our soul and the soil is our body.

Why study our soul and spirit?

The question is: How do we connect these things up within ourselves? When we become more conscious of how we paint the canvas or tend to the garden, we have a new lease on life. The new consciousness wakes up our soul and we become aware of the guiding, directing, ‘all-seeing’ presence of the painter or gardener; our spirit which in this book we refer to as our “I”.

We all want to understand ourselves better, we all want to know how to get along with others more harmoniously, and we all want to have loving relationships. Knowledge of our soul and spirit holds the key to developing these aspects of our lives.

The rise in popularity of self-development systems is witness to the yearning within many people to understand their being more fully. Psychology (the study of the soul) being one of the most popular courses of study today testifies to this. Yet how many psychologists are aware of the specific activity of the soul? Furthermore, the rise of so-called mental disorders, especially in young children, and the increasing use of medication for these, points to an urgency to unravel some more of the mysteries of the human being. A suburban mother, when interviewed for a current affairs programme, described her ten year old son on medication for Attention Deficit Disorder as an empty shell with no soul. This speaks of a growing awareness in the population in general that we are more than just a body, just a shell.

My book is a guide to becoming increasingly aware of ourselves. It wakes us up to the knowledge of who we really are and gives us a taste of freedom like we have never known it before.

The Purpose of the Bible

2011-01-04T08:07:00.000+11:00

When I began these bLogs my intention was to put forward various ways to open up the Bible so that it can make more sense to our modern minds. I hoped to appeal to anyone regardless of their religious beliefs as well as those who had no religious beliefs.

Many theologians and church leaders, who influence vast followers of organised religion, have a very limited view of what the words in the Bible mean. Some even go so far as to suppress its meaning so that they are in a position of control over their congregations; one example among many is Papal Decrees.
Then, even those who have glimpsed inner meanings in the Bible apply them in a narrow way. Instinctually – perhaps influenced by past life memories –when some people are presented with Biblical stories they enter into a mystical feeling element of religiosity at the expense of clear thinking. It is almost as if people get drunk on scripture and cannot see or hear into the true meaning of the words. We could call this blind belief although those who experience it would strongly disagree. For them it is a real experience but they cannot express it clearly in words indicating that it does not enter their ability to think. ie, they have no ideas about their experience.

Still others, who are able to think about what they read don’t like what they see and are unwilling to measure their own activity by what they read. Then, the other way is to reject scripture and religion – perhaps because it is seen to be nonsense; what they hear expressed by those who say that they know makes no rational sense.
This is a major problem to be faced in the immediate future as we are forced to make sense of this world and our place in it. Rudolf Steiner spoke the following words in 1912 which shed some light on our task. May I add that many of his adherents have no interest in the Bible nor what he had to say about the entrance of Christ into the man Jesus. I suggest that this is exactly the issue the church faces – picking out the bits they want to understand, the bits that suit their purpose, and discarding the rest. I speak plainly here without the intention of damaging anyone’s ego – each of us is called to examine how our ego responds to anything that we read and if we can engage our I Am and become the interested observer we will see elements of truth in my words.

It remains to be said that the deed of Christ was for all humanity, the various religious beliefs are different ways to experience this deed. If we can open our hearts and appreciate how each person experiences the presence of Christ – even if they don’t call it that – in whatever religion or philosophy they dedicate themselves to, we are standing in the purpose of the deed of Christ which at its core says, “Love one another.”

These are Rudolf Steiner’s significant words spoken almost 100 years ago. As we read them we can ask ourselves how we have contributed to the founding of this universal Christianity.

“Indeed, it has often been emphasized that in [evolutionary] developments such as those here referred to, all that has taken place since the Mystery of Golgotha is not particularly meaningful. As yet everything is only at the beginning; only during the future evolution of the earth will the great impulses that may be ascribed to Christianity make themselves felt. Over and over again we must emphasize the fact that Christianity is only at the beginning of its great development. If we wish to play a part in this great development, we must enter with understanding into the ever increasing progress of the revelations and impulses which originated with the founding of Christianity. Above all we are required to learn something in the immediate future; for it does not take much clairvoyance to see clearly that if we wish for something definite to enable us to make a good beginning in the direction of an advanced and progressive understanding of Christianity, we must learn to read the Bible in quite a new way. There are at present many hindrances in the way, partly because of the fact that in wide circles biblical study is still carried on in a sugary and sentimental manner. The Bible is not made use of as a book of knowledge, but as a book of common use for all kinds of personal situations. If anyone has need of it for his own personal encouragement, he will bury himself in one or the other chapter of the Bible and allow it to work on him. This seldom results in anything more than a personal relationship to the Bible. On the other hand, the scholarship of the last decades, indeed that of virtually the whole nineteenth century, increased the difficulty of really understanding the Bible by tearing it apart, declaring that the New Testament is composed of all kinds of different things that were later combined, and that the Old Testament also was composed of many different parts which must have been brought together at different times. According to this view, the Bible is made up of mere fragments which may easily produce the impression of an aggregate, presumably stitched together in the course of time. This kind of scholarship has become popular; very many people, for example, hold that the Old Testament is combined out of many single parts. This opinion disturbs the serious reading of the Bible that must come in the near future. When such a serious way of reading the Bible is adopted, all that is to be said about its secrets from the anthroposophical viewpoint will be much better understood. Rudolf Steiner, St Mark Lecture September 16, 1912

7. The Resurrection

2010-12-30T15:56:00.001+11:00

The whole of John chapter 20 speaks to us about our resurrection experience. How can we prepare for the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christed one in our own being? One response might be to just let it happen BUT if we are not aware of it the experience will just pass us by – read about Mary standing at the tomb.

“But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” Saying this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rab-bo'ni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” Mary Mag'dalene went and said to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.” John 20:10-18

How can we make this story real in our 21st Century lives? Read another version of the story.

But our soul stood weeping outside the body, and as she wept she stooped to look into the body; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the “I” had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, “Soul, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my “I”, and I do not know where they have laid him.” Saying this, she turned round and saw her “I Am” standing, but she did not know that it was her “I Am”. Her “I Am” said to her, “Soul, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?” Supposing her “I Am” to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried my “I” away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Her “I Am” said to her, “Soul.” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rab-bo'ni!” (which means Teacher). Her “I Am” said to her, “Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, the I am is ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” Mary Mag'dalene (the soul) went and said to the disciples, “I have seen the I Am”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Personalising these Biblical stories in this way brings them right into our life now. Our soul looks into the physical for its reality. This is a natural, evolutionary thing to do. The time has come when we can start looking to our spiritual being for a sense of reality. For this to happen the earthly sense of “I” must die and it must be removed from the tomb of the body to be resurrected as the spiritual I AM. This continual refinement is an agonising process and our soul will weep; so much so that we will find it hard to see through the tears.
Then we must hear the words “Do not hold me”. It is as if, in the refining process, we must wait for the metal to cool. This fights against the earthly inclinations to have things instantly. Fortunately the solution is given. We must keep busy: “go to my brethren and say to them, (the) I am (is) ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”

The brethren are all those processes within us that must be resurrected, that must be spiritualised; then if the “I” is missing from the grave it doesn’t necessarily mean some ‘one’ has taken him; and the man in the garden isn’t necessarily the gardener. The first process that must change is our thinking, our conscious awareness. A good way to begin it to stop having opinions and to be open to as many as twelve explanations for every situation we meet in the world. In this way we can observe deeply all that happens around us and reach a new understanding of our purpose in this life.

6. The Burial

2010-12-19T12:21:00.002+11:00

“After this Joseph of Arimathe'a, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him leave. So he came and took away his body. Nicode'mus also, who had at first come to him by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds' weight. They took the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb where no one had ever been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, as the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.” Jn 19:38-42

There is a huge demand for proof today; many people consider that something is not ‘real’ if it cannot be proved. At the same time scientists disprove what they previously proved and increasingly admit that they cannot explain many things. The demand for proof is directly tied to our ability to think, and to think something through fully. A thorough understanding of the nature of human thought will reveal that human beings have two primary methods of thinking. One way is tied to what we have previously thought, or been taught to think; the other is the kind of thinking that leads to new ideas, new inventions and a completely new expression of the way to live. The first kind can be called earthly or material thinking, the other is spiritual thinking.

Whenever we think spiritually our first inclination is to make it material, to make it conform with the all the we have previously thought. This materialistic thinking leads us a long way away from spiritual truth. If we explore our understanding of what burial means we encounter the things we say using the concept of burial. For instance, we say that someone or something is dead and buried and we mean that the object of our thought ceases to exist. It is common for people to think that a corpse is merely food for worms or ashes scattered in the wind.

Anyone who has any knowledge of a living physical body knows that it is a miraculous thing. The silent will-forces course through it to give it life; digesting food, moving blood and other fluids etc.. Among other things, the will-forces regulate the body so that it is nourished and warm and moves appropriately. Great wisdom is contained in these will-forces. Is it possible that all this is cancelled out when our soul leaves our body at death?
Of course not! These forces enter into the earth and contribute to the character of the earth. To the extent that we worked with our I AM, and to the extent that Christ is alive within us, is the quality of our gift to this earth at death.

This contribution affects the very substance of the earth. The minerals, plants and animals contain our forces from past lives. The physical substance used by mothers to create the bodies for their babies contain our forces. The forces which are the product of our life will affect this earth for years to come. This points to the significance of the Christmas greeting in Luke 2:14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men (of good will)!” The good will contained in the body of Jesus who incorporated the fullness of Christ was enough to turn the evolution of the earth around.

Surely Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus knew this and so they took great care to place him “a new tomb where no one had ever been laid.” Is that what is really being said here? If we can accept the ideas we have just read wouldn’t it make more sense for these words to say, ‘After Jesus had died he was the first one to contribute the living Christ forces into this earth at his burial.’?

The more we contemplate these esoteric truths the more we come to understand how our every action impacts on the future of the earth. External rules and laws are no longer necessary for the person has the good will to act appropriately. They are the ones connected with their I AM and in whom the presence of Christ is no longer dormant.

5. Mystical Death

2010-11-23T08:08:00.000+11:00

Read John 19:23- 42 “After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfil the scripture), “I thirst.” A bowl full of vinegar stood there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, “It is finished”; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” Jn 19:28-30

The thing most people fear more than anything is death – physical death that is. However we also fear the many small deaths that are part of everyday life. When we are enjoying ourselves we want the enjoyment to last forever. We don’t stop to think that the real source of enjoyment arises in the birth of a new moment and its subsequent passing away. Then we can look back on the moment and savour it. It is impossible to look back on it while it is happening.

There are other things within us that need to die; they need to be crucified ‘on the cross’ and the cross is a symbol of our physical body which we are nailed to while we are incarnated in this world.
In my original Reflections on the seven Christian Initiations I wrote the following. “Often we know within ourselves that we are acting out of character when we interact with some people. We also know that they are not seeing us as we truly are but we are powerless to change this.

It is our dull consciousness that directs us to express ourselves through past life memories - memories that didn’t die with our body in that past life. Memories whose core lies within our I AM.

We have to ‘kill off’ these memories. The way to kill them off is to become conscious of them. But beware; during this process we experience the content of our soul in all its suffering and pain. We have to face our agony and there is no way we can withstand it if we do not have a strong and vital relationship with our I AM. We also need a living experience of the presence of Christ in our life.

Courage and daring is required to experience the mystical death. There is no room for false pride or even embarrassment. We have to accept the conscious view of ourselves and give birth to the new personality that can be ours through our I AM.

This, of course, is really the meaning of forgiveness of sins – we forgive ourselves for missing the mark. We accept our karma. Our I AM recognises that all we have experienced, life after life, was necessary to bring us to this point. And this point is, of course, that moment in the aeons of history when the presence of Christ in the life force of this earth can appear before us in the twinkling of an eye.”

4. The Crucifixion

2010-10-24T09:58:00.000+11:00

“So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called the place of a skull, which is called in Hebrew Gol'gotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them.” Jn 19:17-18

In some ways it seems odd that Jesus had to carry his own cross. In fact, we could even wonder how heavy it was and if he had the strength to carry it up a hill, especially after he was knocked around by the scourging and slapping. The other gospels say that Simon of Cyrene was ordered to carry the cross but John doesn’t mention this. John is revealing something here of our own initiation.

This cross really represents our own body to which, as beings of soul and spirit, we are ‘nailed’. We have to carry it wherever we go while we are awake and only when we lay it in our bed at night can our soul and spirit escape it.

The place of the skull, kranion, is the place that can represent our mind, that place where we can become aware of our thoughts. At night when we go to sleep it is our thoughts that die. If we continue to think when we lie in our bed we cannot get to sleep, we cannot disconnect from our body. This gives us an idea of the strength of our thoughts, yet there is much more to discover through the use of the powerful ability to think.

Through our ability to think we can experience the difference between our body, soul and spirit. As we try to work through this it can be helpful to assign the faculties of thinking, feeling and willing to these three. Our body is the domain of our will or actions, our soul is the domain of our feelings and our spirit is the domain of thinking. By contemplating these associations we can become more aware of the different parts of our being that are at play in our daily activities. My book I Connecting : The Soul’s Quests explains this very clearly.

Then we can apply these ideas to the scene that John describes here. It is as if we have to fight our way through the image of the crucifixion. If we only engage with our feelings we get caught up in the image of the bleeding and battered body. We might even get caught up in a religiosity that clouds the cosmic purpose of this deed. If we only engage with our will we get stuck on the logistical actions of the event. If we use our thinking to balance feeling and will we will have an inner realisation of the true purpose of crucifixion in our lives.

Our task is to become aware of our entire being, and when we do, our body will crucified, in other words, it will no longer hold the prominent position that it does by eclipsing our soul and spirit in everyday life.

3. The Crowning with Thorns

2010-10-18T07:26:00.002+11:00

“And the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and arrayed him in a purple robe; they came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands.” Jn 19:1-3

Imagine wearing a crown of thorns on our heads! How painful would it be? Our thoughts can be this painful especially those nagging thoughts that play over and over again in our mind when we are upset. When we experience something unpleasant we replay it like soldiers replaying their manoeuvres to prepare for battle. It is quite fitting that it should be the soldiers who plaited the crown of thorns, soldiers who are trained to act automatically without thinking. So the soldiers within us are all the automatic thoughts that cause pain to our head, and probably give us a headache.

If we are to act out of our higher self, which is what initiation is, then we must be able to bear this painful, repetitive thinking with equanimity. This process of connecting with our higher self, is, of course, about walking in the footsteps of Jesus. What was inflicted on him by all the various people will now take place within us. All the agony we have experienced in our lives brings us closer to what is higher within us. Whenever we become aware of the repetitive, unforgiving thoughts in our mind we can re-mind ourselves. We can prompt our mind that we are moving through the steps of initiation that Jesus moved through and in this way see the purpose of the pain.

When the crown of thorns is firmly placed on our head the purple robe is thrown around us. This could represent the array of emotions that accompany our thinking. This is the mocking and humiliation we begin to feel as we gain a higher insight into life’s events. Our responses to life are not always appropriate. We can easily curse someone who takes advantage of us, or impinges on our ‘space’, then afterwards as we contemplate what occurred we can feel humility for the way we acted towards the other person – even if it was just the way we thought about them. Of course we are not the king - the ruler - of our emotions when we have derogatory thoughts and feelings about others. The king represents our will which must continually be strengthened so that we can remain as peaceful as possible through this initiation process.

When we become more aware of our thinking, feeling and willing we are able to see life’s events from a higher perspective. It can be very painful to see how we acted in some situations. Through our higher self we move into a level of honesty that is not always easy to bear. For this reason we need to be very committed to the process always confirming our intention to connect to every moment of our life in a higher way. This is a personal effort; it is not for anyone else to impose their views by giving advice etc. By deeply contemplating these seven steps we will find the strength to move forward to death and resurrection.

2. The Scourging

2010-10-04T09:55:00.001+11:00

“Then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him. … and [they] struck him with their hands.” John 19:1,4

When we read the account of the scourging and slapping with intense feeling we experience the deep humiliation and mocking that was inflicted upon Christ Jesus. From humbly giving reverence to all the supports us (washing feet) we are now knocked off our feet.

A great secret lies hidden in the scourging of Jesus who is in the process of receiving Christ into his being. If we do not understand this secret we will not be able to awaken the presence of Christ within ourselves. The Bible is full of guidance about what we can expect as we take the necessary steps to express our Higher Self in our daily life. This is initiation.

One of our first priorities during our initiation is to examine our thinking. We don’t need the thought police; government, church, community for this, but only self-monitoring. To examine our thinking means that we become aware of what we are thinking. We become consciously aware of every single thought that we have, moment by moment. It is astounding how many thoughts zip through our mind unnoticed.

Soon we become shocked, as if beaten, to observe how often we think, “What an idiot so-and-so is” or some other judgmental thought. Then we reach a point where we realise that these thoughts actually affect the other person. Certainly our body language would register what we think of them, even if it is just an eye movement, and they feel our rejection as we have felt the rejection of others in this way. In our judgment we have imprisoned that person with our insensitive thoughts. When the truth of this hits us we ourselves feel scourged. The metaphorical slapping of the other person’s face that arose in our thinking is then felt by us, painfully.

Then we must bear this pain. This is not the only pain we bear but also the pain that come towards us as a result of being able to express our Higher Self more and more. We join the ranks of those who can stand in the face of pain, the ones who are connecting up with their I AM, the ones who as a consequence become a threat to those who are not. They respond by saying, “Who do you think you are? ie King of the Jews?” If we are expressing ourselves through our I AM then we wouldn’t defend ourselves, we would understand that the other person is actually recognising the work we are doing to raise ourselves up, and at the same time acknowledging the work that they know they will have do to.

When we respond to this inner and outer scourging in a higher way a peace flows from us that is palpable. If we read John chapter 18 carefully we can see that Pilate, who is actually delivering the scourging, is at the same time receiving his own inner scourging. Read his questions, “what have you done?” Jn 18:35 “So you are a king?” Jn 18:37 “What is truth?” Jn 18:38 We get a sense of Pilate's equanimity as he is able to stand in his experience and observe, such is the power of true peace.

If you would like to read more about this topic please order my Reflection series Christian Initiation http://bit.ly/9K5bzE

Foot Washing

2010-09-26T10:05:00.000+10:00

Read the full story in John 13:1-20
Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. And during supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper, laid aside his garments, and girded himself with a towel. Then he poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. He came to Simon Peter; and Peter said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not know now, but afterward you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part in me.” John 13:1-8

This is the first of the seven Christian Initiations – Initiation is simply about expressing ourselves in a higher way through our higher self which in the bible is called the I AM; ego eimi in the Koine Greek. To experience our higher self we must rise above our instinctual passions (associated with our astral or causal body) and our habitual thinking (associated with our etheric body or life force).

It is worth considering that this first Christian initiation occurs during the Last Supper. The meal shared by the twelve less perfect and the perfected One. What do these thirteen represent?

Each time we incarnate we develop certain characteristics which in our current life serve to assist us to move closer to the purity of the I AM. Each characteristic must be integrated into the present. The twelve disciples can represent those twelve past lives which produced the characteristics which must now work in harmony to assist the thirteenth; the most developed expression of the I AM. Disharmony, distraction and disintegration result if any one of the ‘disciples’ wants to act on his own.

By looking at the qualities that the disciples represent we can identify areas in our life where imbalance occurs. If we allow, for example, too much disorder in our lives, the I AM cannot develop to its fullest potential. If our weaknesses prevail, or if we are doubting, unloving or faithless, in other words, if we allow the individual characteristics of the disciples to dominate this will be at the expense of the I AM. However, each less than perfect characteristic contributes to our individuality. We can only love ourselves if we embrace our challenging characteristics as a work in progress.

So, during the meal, the gathering of the thirteen, we find this first step towards the ultimate integration of the I AM. The highest, the Christed I AM, washes the feet of disciples. The I AM honours all the characteristics that have contributed to the present. Imperfect characteristics, lower characteristics, yes, but still an essential part of our ultimate goal. In this way each of us is unique, the twelve characteristics are developed differently in each life.

How difficult is it for us to be grateful for our less perfect parts? We squeal every time we have to deal with the consequences of a past life. Each difficulty we face must become a foot washing, we must, with our higher consciousness, gird ourselves with a towel and honour these lower challenges.

A good exercise is to observe the natural order in the world. See how the soil supports the plant, how the plant supports the animal, the animal and plant support the human and so on. We, who have the potential of I AM-ness, can only attain it through the support of these lower kingdoms. Knowing this makes it hard to understand how the world insults the lower with its greed, thoughtlessness and ignorance. Consumerism contributes to land degradation, to genetically modifying plants, to the destruction of our natural resources etc., all in the name of profit. How far are we from stooping down to reverently wash the feet of that which supports us so that our I AM can be revealed?

Worse than this, we degrade other human beings, beings who also have the I AM potential. Human recklessness and carelessness can cause death, injury and disease. Greed and selfishness cause us to seek advantage over the other person. Through our judgmental thinking and our lack of love (hatred) we spiritually poison each other. Self interest, which paves the way for the individualism of the I AM, has become a goal in itself. Jesus says “If I do not wash you, you have no part in me.”

In the celebration of the last supper, when the bread and the wine are consecrated, the priest bows down over the elements and says “He said this is my body, this is my blood”. This is a foot washing and we acknowledge that Christ blesses the lower and in this way he dwells is in us, which, as St Paul puts it, is “the hope of glory” (Col 1:27).

If you would like to read more about this topic please order my Reflection series Christian Initiation http://bit.ly/9K5bzE

The Mystery of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection

2010-09-05T09:48:00.000+10:00

The Bible is bursting with riddles just waiting to be solved. The greatest riddle of all is the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, or as I prefer to call him, Jesus the Christed one. Why was he treated so badly, mocked, nailed to a cross and even deserted by his closest disciples? How would we deal with such treatment if it happened to us? Can we even imagine what it would be like to have nails hammered through our hands and then have the weight of our hands pull on those wounds for hours!

How does the twenty-first century mind comprehend this and give it relevance? Obviously the church doesn’t explain it very well which is why church attendance dwindles. Science certainly cannot explain it, and even such an eminent scientist as Stephen Hawking has written a book about how science not God has created the universe. Isn’t this like the scientist ignoring his own role when conducting an experiment?

The crucifixion of Jesus and the resurrection of Christ – which is exactly how it should be thought of – showed us in the most graphic way possible a process that will take place in human consciousness over time; no longer physically painful but now mentally painful. This happened in seven specific stages:
1. The Foot Washing
2. The Scourging
3. Crowning with Thorns
4. The Crucifixion
5. The Mystical Death
6. The Burial
7. The Resurrection

It is not a coincidence that these take place after the raising or resurrection of Lazarus. In fact the raising of Lazarus and the resurrection of Christ stand like two pillars at the gateway of a huge change in the development of human conscious awareness. In the ancient temples when initiations took place the candidate entered a state of unconsciousness for three days and when they were awakened by the initiator they have a different conscious awareness from the general population.

We see parallels in the story of Lazarus who was said to have died and remained in the cave for three days before Jesus called him out. The resurrection of Christ did not require an initiator; this is the story of changed conditions where a self-awakening could now take place. We are left to work out how this might happen in our own consciousness.

One answer is available to us if we deeply contemplate the seven events in St John’s Gospel listed above.
1. The Foot Washing
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper, laid aside his garments, and girded himself with a towel. Then he poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. John 13:3-5
2. The Scourging
“Then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him.” John 19:1
3. Crowning with Thorns
“Then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him. And the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and arrayed him in a purple robe; they came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands.” John 19:1-3
4. The Crucifixion
“So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called the place of a skull, which is called in Hebrew Gol'gotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them.” John 19:17-18
5. The Mystical Death
“After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfil the scripture), “I thirst.” A bowl full of vinegar stood there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, “It is finished”; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” John 19:28-30
6. The Burial
“After this Joseph of Arimathe'a, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him leave. So he came and took away his body. Nicode'mus also, who had at first come to him by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds' weight. They took the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb where no one had ever been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, as the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.” John 19:38-42
7. The Resurrection
“Mary Mag'dalene went and said to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her. John 20:18

The Parable of the Lost Sheep

2010-08-15T12:06:00.000+10:00

The Bible presents us with so many mysteries that we can hardly know what to make of it. We could study all the ancient principles that poke their heads through or we could apply stories like the parables to our lives today. I choose the latter because it seems more relevant but this is not the only way. What truly amazes me about the Bible is that you can look at it from so many different angles and by painting another view, and another view, eventually see that it is the same picture. Let’s take a look at the famous parable of the lost sheep.

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, "This man receives sinners and eats with them." So he told them this parable: "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.' Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. Lk 15:1-7

Here we have two opposing groups of people; team 1 is the tax collectors and sinners, and team 2 is the Pharisees and scribes. It would seem that Jesus Christ is saying that the team 1 is the lost sheep and team 2 is the 99 he doesn’t need to worry about – or is he?

Sheep are defenceless and innocent animals; they can represent within us the purity of the human spirit. Christ Jesus was described as “a sheep led to the slaughter” Acts 8:32

One way to look at this story is to see how we are all sheep, we have been herded onto this earth and here we huddle in one big flock. Some of us collect taxes, some (most of us actually) sin – harmatia which means to miss the target –, some of us join elite religious (or political) groups and some of us study and write about the laws which guide life. We are all in eremos, the wilderness, alone, disconnected from our spiritual home. Our humanity is lost apollumi, we cannot see who we really are, we have lost that conscious awareness of our place in the universe. We all think we have the right job, whether we collect taxes or preach religious or political maxims; we are a cosy part of the flock. If we are to restore what is lost we have to leave the flock. We have to die to the flock and be resurrected to the experience of who we really are.

The target that we are aiming for is our I being, our I Am, that part of us that is necessary to becoming fully human; anthropos is the word translated as ‘man’ and it points to the human being who has reached full humanity. This anthropos makes the discovery of what is lost and when he discovers it - heurisko translated as 'find' speaks of discovery – of course the response is to rejoice, to be glad, chairo. It is like a home-coming and we gather our friends, philo, those with whom we share a brotherly love because they have also made this discovery, along with our neighbours – those who are nearby and who have an inkling of what we are experiencing, to sugchairo, to rejoice with us. This rejoicing is about experiencing the other as if we were them. It is a very intimate sharing that belongs to the human I Am which gives us the ability to stand in the reality of each other’s experience.

Then verse seven should read: there will be more joy in heaven over one person who changes their mind metanoia (repent) about missing the target - the target being to connect up with our I Am - than the 99 who HAVE echo (this word does not mean need) no repentance; they are those who cannot change their way of thinking.

Will God determine who wins the Australian Election?

2010-08-07T12:31:00.000+10:00

In Australia at the moment we are preparing to elect a new Government. The two main political parties here are called Labour and Liberal. The Labour party essentially supports the workers and the Liberal Party the middle and upper classes – to put it very simplistically. However, society has changed so much that there is very little difference between these two political parties. Whichever one of them wins office will govern pretty much the same as the other one would have. This similarity poses the problem of the basis on which to decide which of these similar parties to vote for.

The two basic differences to surface are gender and personal belief. The leader of the Labour party, and our first female Prime Minister (President) is female. The leader of the opposition is male. The female does not believe in God or go to church; the male trained for the priesthood when he was young. We could add a third issue, the female Prime Minister lives in a de facto relationship and sees no need to get married, the male is a family man, married with children.

It occurred to me the issue of belief could be pivotal in deciding who will lead our country. Would this mean that all religious people regardless of their particular beliefs would vote for the man who did not complete his training for the Catholic Priesthood? Would this be a coming together of religious ideas and ideals? From my perspective this would be a positive thing. This is what esoteric Christianity is all about. The Christ from which the word Christianity stems becomes the Christ for all people regardless of any specific beliefs.

In his lecture series on the Gospel of St Luke in 1909 Rudolf Steiner speaks about this issue in a compelling way.
“It may happen that the representative of some religious body comes to a lecture on spiritual science ... what I am saying is quite understandable and is not meant as censure. He listens to a lecture let us say on the nature of Christianity, and says afterwards: ‘It all sounds very beautiful and fundamentally speaking is not at variance with what we ourselves preach. But we put it in a way that is intelligible to everyone, whereas only a few individuals can understand what is being said here.’ This statement is frequently made. But whoever says or believes that his is the only right way of presenting Christianity overlooks one essential, namely that he must judge according to facts, not according to his personal inclinations. I once had occasion to reply: ‘No doubt you believe that you are presenting the truths of Christianity in a form suitable for everyone. But beliefs prove nothing; only facts decide. Does everybody go to your Church? Thus facts prove the contrary. Spiritual Science is not there for people whose spiritual needs you are able to satisfy; it is there for people who demand something else.’
We are living in an age when it is becoming impossible for human hearts to accept the Bible as it has been accepted during the last four or five centuries of European civilization. Either mankind will receive spiritual science and through it learn to understand the Bible in a new way, or, as is now happening to many who are unacquainted with Anthroposophy, men will cease to listen to the Bible. In that case they would lose the Bible altogether and with it untold spiritual treasures — actually the greatest and most significant spiritual treasures of our Earth evolution! This must be realized. We are now at the point where a jump is to take place in evolution; the human heart is demanding the spiritual-scientific elucidation of the Bible. Given such elucidation, the Bible will be preserved, to the infinite blessing of mankind; without it the Bible will be lost.”

An esoteric (beneath the surface) understanding of the Bible is urgently required if we are to make sense of the Bible and of God. Such an understanding looks at the original Greek words (and Hebrew words in the case of the Old Testament) seeking in them the truth that is already lost to many religious leaders and their followers. They all follow God, but it is their own God. Thus translators of the Bible down the ages have used words that agree with their own bias. But at least the original words can still be found, mostly. The Dead Sea Scrolls are a great help in this regard. The other great help is the knowledge of the human being as body, soul and spirit that Rudolf Steiner explained 100 years ago. Now it is up to us to explore these matters so that they become a reality in our own lives. Then we will discover the one God and his diverse work for ourselves.

7. I am the True Vine

2010-07-24T09:48:00.000+10:00

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. Jn 15:1-6

If the I AM is the true vine don’t we have to feel ourselves to be part of a larger reality. Each branch surely represents each life that we live on this earth and the vine is all these lives working towards the full expression of who we really are.

Who is this Father? It is a difficult concept to understand. We could say that the Father is the first principle; the one with the highest conscious awareness and through his thinking created this diverse universe. We could also say that the Father as the vinedresser is a governing principle. Vinedresser is not the Greek word used here. The word used is georgos from ge, earth, and ergo, to do or to work. This is a cultivator, an earth worker, one who is cultivating the whole earth where the earth represents a state in the evolution of mankind. To say that georgos means tiller of the ground is severely limiting the concept of the Father which is probably why the translator chose vinedresser instead because he (presumably) didn’t understand the esoteric meaning of what was being expressed by John.

We can only really understand the concepts of the vine and the Father if we have a concept of what our I AM really is. Each of these seven I AM sayings can assist us to experience its reality. Some people say that we are really part of the One, which this Father can represent. But what does that really mean in terms of our life today? If we think that we are just part of the whole we might be tempted to sit back thinking that the Father is doing all the work. The text here makes it clear that this is not the case.

The first work that we have to do is to have an understanding of what our I AM actually is. Each of the I AM sayings in St John’s Gospel assists us to build the right images of this I AM and the seventh one is a particularly graphic image. Our I AM is a vine which experiences life on earth through its many branches. In each life we have the opportunity of bearing fruit. If we don’t the life is taken airo, to lift, to carry away; if we do, the life is not pruned but cleansed kathairei, impurities are removed.

What seems to be the case here is that if we can see from the perspective of the vine then, when things are taken away from us, or painfully purged of impurities, we know that it is for the good of the whole. Yet, of course, we feel the pain in the isolation of the branch rather than from the perspective of the whole vine. From that perspective the pain may really be joy.

These posts are a quick view of the I AM sayings, you can purchase the full series for AU$7.50 or US$6.50 delivered as a pdf file. http://esotericconnection.net/Reflections

6. I am the Way, the Truth and the Life

2010-07-10T17:04:00.001+10:00

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also; henceforth you know him and have seen him.” John14:6f

There are two main principles in this I AM saying. The I AM is the way, the truth and the life which bring us to know the Father of the I AM.

“I am the way”, the word ‘way’ in the Greek is ‘odos’, it means the natural way and metaphorically it is a course of conduct and way of thinking. A ‘way’ always has a destination and this time the destination is the Father. Not the father Abraham that the Jews spoke of at the time of Christ but God the Father, the originator of the I AM. How can we find this way and then know this Father?

In these words, “the way, the truth and the life” we meet the elements of our own soul; our ability to use our will, our ability to think and the nature of our feeling. We also find the Trinity entwined in these; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The ‘way’ is the Father and requires the will; the ‘truth’ is Christ the Son which requires thinking; and the Holy Spirit is the ‘life’-giving spirit that is felt. Willing, thinking and feeling are the tools which the I AM uses to spiritualise that which has become too earthly, too physical and too instinctual.

We cannot know how the I AM is the way, the truth and the life until we experience exactly how the I AM changes the way we use our will, influences the way we think and how it guides are feelings along different paths. These three human faculties are carried out in our soul so automatically that we barely notice. If we could slow them down a bit, which isn’t always practical of course, we would realise just how automatic all our responses are.
There are many good exercises to assist us with this awareness. Take feeling for instance, each time we are about to say, “I don’t like that” we could pause and see if we could find something to like about it. Or each time we think a regular thought, for example if we hope we get a parking space right outside our destination, we could think how beneficial a walk might be. It is in these simple moments in our life that we can become aware of alternatives to our habits.

Then, as our soul becomes more pliable and more receptive our I AM can influence us more and more. This however is not always a pleasant experience because when we are faced with a challenge, which our I AM wants, and even engineers; we gravitate back to our comforting old habits. This causes a crisis in our soul and a great deal more discomfort than we experienced at first.

The I AM is the way to freedom but only when we realise that freedom must be self-won. When we are able to accept the experiences that come our way and deal with them differently we will know the Father who is the source of this I AM. That will give us the most comfort of all.

These posts are a quick view of the I AM sayings, you can purchase the full series for AU$7.50 or US$6.50 delivered as a pdf file. http://esotericconnection.net/Reflections

I am the Resurrection and the Life

2010-07-04T10:36:00.001+10:00

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26

From the depths of the Gospel of St John we find this fifth I AM saying. Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary has died. They blame Jesus for not coming earlier to save him. When Jesus finally comes, Martha goes to meet him while Mary stays in the house. This is a lovely image of Mary, who represents our soul, staying within the house with her feelings while Martha moves outwards to where the I AM is to be found. Our Higher Self, this I AM, is still in the process of uniting with our soul. Before it can do this a few things have to happen. One of these things is to do with the process of resurrection.

Jesus says (the) I AM is the resurrection and the life … but only if we believe it!

The problem is that we don’t like things to die. The basic character of our soul is never to let things die. We find the proof of this in our feelings. Once we start to feel something, especially anger, we cannot stop it, it will not die until a certain amount of time has passed. If it were up to our thinking, then we could think of something else and the anger would be replaced by another thought.

There is a very different outcome when our I AM is engaged in the process. Our I AM will always let the anger, or any other feeling, die. The intensity of these feelings is directly linked to a karmic situation anyway, which is why something can make one person angry and not have the same effect on another person. Our I AM wants us to face our karma because it is our opportunity to balance and harmonise the past and become a better person.

Taking this example of anger, if we allow the anger to die and then experience the resurrection we have the life of our I AM in our soul. Our soul is raised up from the instinctual response so that choices can be made. But we can only believe it if we experience the reality of it. This can happen if we can test it out as we go about our daily life.

The following quote speaks very powerfully about this process.
“We must eradicate from the soul all fear and terror of what approaches Humanity from the future. We must acquire serenity in all feelings and sensations about the future. We must look forward with absolute equanimity to everything that may come. And we must think only that whatever comes is given to us by a cosmic-guidance full of wisdom. It is part of what we must learn in this age, namely, to live out of pure trust, without any security in existence. Trust in the ever present help of the spiritual world. Truly, nothing else will do if our courage is not to fail us. And let us seek the awakening from within ourselves every morning and evening.” -Rudolf Steiner

These posts are a quick view of the I AM sayings, you can purchase the full series for AU$7.50 or US$6.50 delivered as a pdf file. http://esotericconnection.net/Reflections

4. I am the Good Shepherd

2010-06-26T11:02:00.000+10:00

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hireling and not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. Jn 10:11-12

If this text is to be relevant to us then we must identify what each of the different elements in this story represent within us. Our I AM shepherds all the different activities within us. It watches over our feeling, thinking, and willing always at the ready to protect them from what is wolfish within us.

If our I wasn’t available to do this work then something would have to fill in for it. This is the hireling. The hireling is our lower ego, it serves a good purpose but when it comes to the crunch it only thinks of its own comfort. We can call this part of our being our astral, particularly our lower emotions. It is the good shepherd that gives dignity to our lower emotions and instincts.

The sheep could be our innocent human inclinations that are developing within us. They are our natural feelings that will lead us onto the wrong path without the presence of the shepherd. They are the thoughts that are not complete, when we don’t think things through thoroughly enough and need higher guidance. They are also the will to eat what appears to be greener pasture on the other side of the fence.

The wolf is all that distracts our efforts to become more consciously aware of who we really are as human beings. The wolf is always there, watching and waiting for us to make the wrong decision, or no decision. We could say that the wolf is the devil, which put very simply it is. We haven’t talked about the devils in this blog yet and it is a big subject. Let’s call the devil an opposing force that really seeks to bring the best out in us. The devil is like that force without which a kite could not fly high in the sky.

If we are to reach our potential we need the interplay of all these elements within us. Furthermore, we need to be aware of how they are interplaying. Our development depends on our becoming consciously aware and we can only do this through the shepherd, through our I AM.

These posts are a quick view of the I AM sayings, you can purchase the full series for AU$7.50 or US$6.50 delivered as a pdf file. http://esotericconnection.net/Reflections

3. I am the Door

2010-06-19T10:17:00.002+10:00

“I am the Door of the Sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not heed them.” Jn 10:7-8

It certainly seems strange to describe the I AM as a sheep-door. It seems easier to connect up with ideas of the I AM as the bread of life or the light of the world. We must take these descriptions literally and explore every angle of the words that are used. So what is a door and what does it do? The most fundamental idea about a door is that it can be closed or open. A door fills an opening and gives the option of closing off the opening or allowing free passage.

We could then ask if we are open to things or closed to things. Some words of Tennessee Williams came to my attention recently: We are all sentenced to solitary confinement inside our own skins, for life. However, isn’t our choice to maintain this condition of isolation? Isn’t it about how we keep our own door shut and if we let anyone in it can only be on our own terms? This is the antithesis of the nature of the I AM. The I AM could never be confined within us, the I AM fills the universe and gives us a sense of at-oneness - which suggests atonement - with everything, good or bad.

Perhaps we cannot experience our I AM until we stop shutting ourselves off to things. Jesus says that the sheep did not ekousan, hear not heed, the thieves and robbers. Think about this act of hearing for a moment. Whatever we hear draws our attention to it. We are so attentive to the thieves and robbers, those forces which want to steal from us, that we set up a barricade to many other things that approach us just in case they too want to steal from us.

Surely the sensible way to deal with this is to learn to recognise the thieves and robbers – perhaps by shining the torch on them, the I AM light. Jesus goes on to say, “I am the door; if any one enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” Jn 10:9 So if we can use the higher awareness that is associated with our I AM we will happily leave our door open knowing that we are safe because we can see the true nature of things. Then we can know the true meaning of trust.
These posts are a quick view of the I AM sayings, you can purchase the full series for AU$7.50 or US$6.50 delivered as a pdf file. http://esotericconnection.net/Reflections

2. I am the Light of the World

2010-06-06T10:17:00.001+10:00

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Jn 8:12

The first I AM saying used the idea of bread to help us to understand what the I AM actually is. The second I AM saying uses the idea of light. Light is actually invisible, through it everything becomes visible. This truth is ignored when we say things like, “turn on the light” “shine the light over here” “I need more light” or “dim the light”. So we talk about light as if it was the emitter instead of referring to the object that is emitting the light.

This is why light is a good analogy for the I AM – invisible but can make all things visible. This is actually what happens with we have an idea that illuminates our understanding. When we have such an idea it is usually the result of the activity of thinking. Thinking is the most conscious of our three soul faculties and has developed in us through the unseen activity of our I AM. So when we are not lazy with our thinking, which is often the case, but by actively thinking we can engage our I AM in the process and have ideas of our own. It is like a light bulb turns on in our mind.

We can also look at how light is produced to come to another idea about our I AM. Light is created by fire and our daylight comes from the fiery sun. Therefore, if the I AM is light then the I AM is created by fire. Fire is warmth so it must follow that as warm blooded beings we have fire within us and that from that fire light can be created. Perhaps it is a matter of fanning the flames to increase the heat of the fire.

So Jesus was/is saying to us: “That which is able to say “I AM” to itself is the light of the world, and whoever follows my example me will see in clear, conscious awareness.” We could also say that the more we connect with our I AM the more ideas we will have to assist our understanding of who we are and what our purpose is.
These posts are a quick view of the I AM sayings, you can purchase the full series for AU$7.50 or US$6.50 delivered as a pdf file. http://esotericconnection.net/Reflections

1. I am the Bread of Life

2010-05-30T12:01:00.001+10:00

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.” Jn 6:35
It is certainly a struggle to make sense of these sayings with our 21st Century mind. We might even wonder why we would bother. When I spent every week for nine months writing about these sayings I was astounded to discover that they were a guide to freeing our mind from the decayed thinking of our 21st Century.
Jesus is saying that the I AM ego eimi is the bread, the substance of life, zoe. When we find the word zoe in the bible it is pointing to our spiritual life. Other words for life are bios which is physical life and psuche which is soul life. This life is actually a life force and if this force leaves us we die and shrivel up. If you have ever looked at someone who has died you see how much they shrivel up. So we could also say that this life force has raising properties, just like bread rises when it is baked.
We actually need to work on these three levels of life in our being to give them more life otherwise we will use up our life force; we could compare it to refuelling. The thing that gives them life is when we become consciously aware of our higher self, our I AM, ego eimi. In the bible we can say that Jesus represents the I AM, he is the one who worked and worked to become fully conscious and aware of truth. This is why he got the starring role in the story of Christ.
So what work do we need to do? Jesus says that we need to come and believe. ‘Coming’, motion, movement speaks of the work of our I AM in our astral body – that part of our being where motion, emotion and consciousness is centred. ‘Believe’ is about knowing, knowledge, thinking (not blind belief) is to do with the work of our I AM in our etheric body – the centre of our life force which is connected to our organs that alert us to hunger and thirst. It really is amazing how a simple passage in the bible comes alive when these principles are applied to it.
When we look at stories like this and peel away the religious connotations we can read the map for the journey of our daily life. We know that we must continue to move forward to “come to our I AM” and we must also think vigorously about what things really mean so that we truly believe, ie we know.
Yet this is often not the case as we must admit. We like to take quite a few rests on our journey, as well as little detours that distract us from experiencing our I AM. And thinking is pretty tiring too. The thing is that we get tired because we are so focussed on hackneyed physical explanations, if we can drop this heavy baggage our journey will be so much easier. In fact, there is always a point at which we can feel as if we were being assisted in our coming and our knowing – that is the moment when we connect with our I AM.

These posts are a quick view of the I AM sayings, you can purchase the full series for AU$7.50 or US$6.50 delivered as a pdf file. http://esotericconnection.net/Reflections

The Seven I AM Sayings in the Gospel of St John

2010-05-23T09:52:00.002+10:00

Since 2003 I have written weekly reflections, mostly covering themes that can be found in the Gospel of St John as well as the last series I have just completed, which took three years, which was on The Revelation, the mysterious last book in the Bible. During this time I also wrote a book. The focus of all this work has been to try to make sense of the human I AM which we must all become aware of if we are to become fully aware of who we are as human beings. We don’t need to go to counsellors to find this out, we can do this work ourselves and all that I write seeks to assist you in this work.

I thought that it would be useful to retrace my steps through the first series of reflections I did in 2003 on the seven I AM sayings in John’s Gospel. You can purchase this series for AU$7.50 or US$6.50 delivered as a pdf file. http://esotericconnection.net/Reflections

These I AM sayings give us many clues about how to be more aware of how we experience this I AM every day. If you follow me over the next seven weeks you will discover how these sayings play out in our lives if we can step over the biblical tone in the words and unlock their hidden meaning.

These seven sayings are as follows:
1. I am the Bread of Life
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.” John 6:35
2. I am the Light of the World
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12
3. I am the Door of the Sheep
So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not heed them. I am the door; if any one enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” John 10:7-10
4. I am the Good Shepherd
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hireling and not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hireling and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again; this charge I have received from my Father.” John 10:11-18
5. I am the Resurrection and the Life
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26
6. I am the Way, the Truth and the Life
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also; henceforth you know him and have seen him.” John 14:6-7
7. I am the True Vine
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned.” John 15:1-7

In the Bible when the Greek words ego eimi are used for ‘I am’ we can read this to mean the fourth member of our being, the I AM. The fourfold human being comprises physical, etheric or life forces, astral/soul or consciousness and I AM or individuality. The present purpose of evolution is that we become more strongly connected with this I AM and allow it have more influence in daily situations. If we don’t, our habitual soul/astral forces often make life difficult by responding to life in a lower (instinctive) way. The seven I AM sayings show how we can develop ourselves to respond to life in the highest way possible.

Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

2010-05-01T10:36:00.000+10:00

Some say that this is the ninth Beatitude. Does it really matter if there are eight or nine, surely what matters is how the words speak to us and assist us in our personal growth. This eleventh verse of Matthew 5 tells us that if we listen to what Jesus taught and put it to work in our lives we will be reviled, persecuted and wrongly accused through lies pseudomeno. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? This is exactly what happened to Jesus before he was crucified.

If we accept that the word ‘blessed’ means expanded, indicating that we have expanded the limits of our being out into our environment so that whatever is in our environment is now ‘within’ us, and if we are implementing what Jesus taught, then anyone in our vicinity who is not doing the same will become very uncomfortable. It is as if we shine a light into the darkness to reveal what lurks there. Take for example how uncomfortable it is if we are discovered to be lying. Every child knows this experience. It is hard to understand that after the discovery of the first lie we ever told that anymore would ever be told. Here lies a mystery which we could explore in later bLogs.

The fact is, the more we work with spiritual truth the less we will be able to lie. And this is exactly what this beatitude is saying, when we are able to be totally truthful about all our characteristics without wanting to disguise them, our honesty will cause discomfort in others. This inherently means that we must be strong enough to be this honest. One of the hardest things to bear in this world is criticism, yet we must be able to critique our every feeling, thought and deed. In fact, if we have been able to criticise ourselves first, the criticism of others will lose its sting.

To be honest is a very hard thing today because the media constantly encourage us to lie. This means that we lie without realising it and these lies imprison us. Our freedom from this disease of lying can only come when we are consciously aware of who we really are through being honest with ourselves first of all. This way of being can be called ‘I’ beingness, expressing our higher self and within that we come to the mystery of the I AM. (Try saying the words I AM, it can give you sense of being genuine.)

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

2010-04-17T16:34:00.000+10:00

This is the eighth beatitude, some theologians say that there is one more, others disagree. This suggests that perhaps there is not the depth of understanding about what the bible is really speaking about to be decisive about the number of beatitudes and what they really mean. There is a way to look at the human being as a ninefold being that could support the fact that there are nine beatitudes. Then each beatitude could be referring to the way in which we need to develop each of these nine areas.

I find it quite alarming that the way some people interpret the Bible alienates us from it. More than ever we need a way to crack the code so to speak and get into the Bible and see how it is relevant for our modern lives. Otherwise the Bible is just a relic. It is certainly not a tool to moralise as some people point out, it is a tool for personal development. Not the kind of personal development based on a skewed interpretation of sin, but the kind that helps us personally develop our own conscious awareness of truth.

One aspect of truth that can assist us to make much more sense of the Bible is to have an understanding of reincarnation. This beatitude makes a lot more sense if we can apply the idea of reincarnation to it. I know that many people find the concept of repeated lives on earth difficult to understand. However, we have reached a point in the development of our conscious awareness that we can begin to remember snippets of past lives. I think these are the déjà vu moments. Déjà vu, according to Wikipedia, is a French phrase meaning "already seen", and it refers to the experience of feeling sure that one has witnessed or experienced a new situation previously.

For those unfamiliar with the basic concept of reincarnation let me briefly explain. Our actions in previous lives cause consequences in future lives – we can call this karma. So if we looked down on others in a past life, in this life we might be short so that people physically look down on us. If we didn’t take in what we heard in a past life, now we may be deaf. So this gives us the idea of having to embrace our experiences and be in harmony with them. This is what this beatitude is saying.

The ‘ones having been persecuted’, dediogmenoi in Greek, indicates the ones who are driven away. Who are we inclined to drive away from us? The ones we have karma with. We have incarnated so many times now that most of the people we come into contact with have a karmic connection to us. This karma needs balancing.

Place this in the context of righteousness, dikaiosune, which means justice; being just, balanced and in harmony. In this sense, justice is a continual series of adjustments to restore balance and harmony. It means that we have the ability to judge when things are ‘just right’. If we can apply these ideas then we will spiritualise our being and be at home in the spiritual worlds.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.

2010-04-12T16:39:00.002+10:00

To be a peacemaker, eirenopoios, is to make peace, to be harmonious. This is not so that we can make others peaceful but that we might be peaceful ourselves. If we are peaceful we are free from disturbance, we have inner stillness, we are calm. This is not easily achieved in this modern world which can make us jittery in an instant. Read my earlier blog about peace http://bibleunlocked.blogspot.com/search/label/peace
The operative word here is ‘make’. Perhaps the world is as it is today to assist us in our peacemaking. What would be the purpose of being naturally peaceful? To be naturally peaceful suggests a certain weakness or impotence. To strive to be peaceful speaks of strength.
Each time we become anxious or irritable we could imagine our being expanding, embracing all that is around us if we can make ourselves peaceful. Anxiety has a contracting quality and irritability is totally self-focussing. Of course, there is a process involved here and we can start with the small things that irritate us or make us anxious. We will each have our own way of doing this. If we extend our view to encompass the other person or situation, placing the situation within our being instead of seeing it outside us and separate, we will feel more at home with it.
To be blessed is to be expansive and embracing of all our experiences. When we are able to make peace with our inner conflicts then we will be called sons of God.
To be a son of God would be to have God’s genes in us so to speak. We would be like him. We might wonder why we aren’t already sons of God if he is our maker. Here lies the difficulty, however. If we are made by God we are not free. Human beings were given freedom in the Garden of Eden and this is why we need guidance, like these beatitudes, to reach the highest human potential. When we have done this work through our own efforts we earn the title son of God and with it we receive our inheritance.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

2010-04-05T11:47:00.001+10:00

The Greek word for pure is katharos and the word itself suggests catharsis, purging, purifying and cleansing. We clean ourselves because we are dirty, or unclean yet we prefer not to acknowledge that we are unclean. This modern world is obsessed with cleanliness and it is suggested that we lose our resistance to bacterial infection because of this. So it is not a matter of being clean but the process of ‘cleaning’ that gives us an experience of God.

The dictionary tells us that catharsis is “according to Aristotle, a purifying of the emotions that is brought about in the audience of a tragic drama through the evocation of intense fear and pity.” Again, we can see that it is the experience not the conclusion that produces the results. Yet there is something in us that does not want to engage with the experience, we always want the experience to end.

We might wonder why it is the pure in heart and not the pure in mind, or the pure in heart and mind, who will have this experience of God. This could be because our heart and mind are becoming one – or should be. They become one through love, love that develops out of a highly developed conscience. Conscience is our ability to share the experience of others; it is not only a sense of what is right or wrong. It is about experiencing both what is right and what it wrong, and then experiencing the results of our action in ourselves first. This means, for instance, that we wouldn’t laugh at someone so as to offend them because we would feel the discomfort of that offence first.

Then we are told that if we experience this catharsis we will see God. Now St John quotes Jesus saying, “No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known.” Jn 1:18
Could it be that if we purify ourselves that God will see us? The Greek text could be read this way. Oti autoi ton theon opsontai – for them God shall see. Rev Mario Schoenmaker once said that when God looks at his creation all he sees is Christ. This would suggest that until we experience the presence of Christ in us and in this world, which would be totally cathartic, God does not see us. Perhaps we could not withstand the power of God seeing us. Perhaps it would be like our present experience of sunlight; it burns our skin and destroys our sight if we look directly at it.

Expanded we shall be if we can bear the cleansing necessary to withstand the gaze of God.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

2010-03-29T11:54:00.000+11:00

These Beatitudes are the means to expand our conscious awareness so that we can experience a greater reality and understand the events in our daily lives with more clarity. We can be so contracted within our being sometimes, so concerned with ourselves, that we find it difficult to expand beyond the perimeter of our skin to be in touch with what is outside us. If we think about our understanding of mercy we might find that we would prefer to draw mercy to us rather than show it to others.
Mercy is not a word that is used very often in the English language. If we are religious and we do something wrong we might be inclined to pray, “Lord have mercy on me!” Or we might hope that the judge shows some mercy when sentencing someone. This would indicate that we think of mercy in terms of forgiveness.

Yet forgiveness speaks to us of one person having more power than the other and this leads us away from the true meaning of mercy. Mercy actually speaks more about equality than superiority. To be merciful, eleēmones, really means that we feel the same as the other person. We are at one with them, we are so harmonised with them that we share their experiences as if we were them. If they are feeling sad we experience their sadness as if it was our own. We feel the exact pain of their sadness within our own being. It is in the sharing of experiences that the pain is lifted; what was contracted now expands. Such experiences are deeply compassionate and arise out of a deep love for our fellow human beings.

Compassion is experienced when mercy and judgment are in harmony with each other. We find it in the harmony of the two extremes; not too soft, not too harsh, not too cold, not overly enthusiastic and do on. Then our judging becomes discernment and our mercy becomes kindness. Furthermore, we don’t only express this mercy towards others; we express it toward ourselves as well. It isn’t about doing anything to anyone, it is about a state of being that is silently experienced by all concerned.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

2010-03-20T09:45:00.001+11:00

The word ‘filled’ chortazo really means to be fed. This is one of the hottest topics for humanity today: what are we being fed? With regards to food: is it genetically modified, does it contain harmful additives, does it contain gluten or other substances that are no longer tolerated by some people, or do we have enough food? With regards to the media: what stories are truthfully reported and what stories are made up? Whose opinions have been thoroughly thought through or who just shoots their mouth off with no thought at all? Or do we seek to be fed by having others understand us or appreciate us? What about our own ability to feed ourselves, what occupies our mind and our time?

Hunger and thirst are very powerful forces within us. They ensure our survival in this physical world. They are an alarm telling us to feed ourselves or face death. When we experience either hunger or thirst we cannot rest until they are satisfied. Chortazo also speaks of the satisfaction from being fed. The other thing that hunger and thirst do is make us inwardly aware of ourselves. We realise that we are self-enclosed beings; individual units which are separate from everything outside us. Then we have a choice. Do we experience only ourselves where we might fight others to have the food and the drink for ourselves, or do we experience ourselves as part of a community and share the food and drink?

Righteousness, dikaiosune, means justice in terms of being just, balanced and in harmony. Justice is not about an ‘eye for an eye’ but rather it is about a continual series of adjustments to restore balance and harmony. We could also call it just-right-ness. In my reflections on the Beatitudes in the Gospel of St John written in 2006-7 I wrote the following:

“In the third century BC Aristotle wrote an entire book about dikaiosune. Aristotle’s philosophy was a guide to living in a free society as equals rather than under the care of the tribal elder. This was a time when human consciousness went through a great upheaval. Direct experience of the spiritual world was diminishing so that human beings could develop their ability to think. In these terms, Aristotle was actually the herald of the I AM because he was preparing humanity to become self-responsible, self-directed citizens. Through his insight into human nature he could see, however, that self-interest could sway human motives. He knew how important it was for us to be able to judge when things were ‘just right’.”

It is when we find our connection to our higher self that we will no longer hunger and thirst. We won’t look to be fed by what we eat or drink or by the approval of others, or by the way we use our time. We will experience satisfaction beyond imagining when we are able to adjust our feeling, thinking and willing bringing them into harmony so that our I AM has a place in our daily life.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

2010-03-07T14:11:00.003+11:00

Modern ideas of the meaning of words lead us so far astray when considering the truth behind biblical statements. If we stop and contemplate what the ancient Greeks meant when they used these words (as far as we can), and apply that to a deeper understanding of human evolution, new lights come on in our minds.

Mourn pentheo means to grieve, to feel sad about something that we have lost. If we were perfectly honest with ourselves we would recognise that we grieve constantly. We don’t face this grieving because we don’t know what it is that we have lost. It is far too simplistic to say that we have lost our connection with the spiritual worlds, or we have lost God. It is also simplistic to say that we have found God, or found Jesus, for that usually means that we have become intoxicated with an idea. Even if we have a vision of say, Mary or Christ, can we be sure that that is what we have seen? Spiritual visions can be very deceiving.

At this stage in our evolution we must see with our thoughts. We must be able to think things through logically, and continue thinking things through to the very end before we can meet the reality of spiritual truth. The trouble is though, that we don’t think things through thoroughly because it takes a lot of effort. We jump out of our thinking too early and then have half-baked ideas. If we engage our will and continue thinking a thing through to the end we will see our grief and be able to bear it because we understand it.

When we are able to bear the grief immediately we will be comforted. The comforter parakletos is another name for the Holy Spirit. We find a reference to this in the Gospel of St John.

But the Counselor, (parakletos) the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Jn 14:26

This gives us a real sense of not knowing why we feel sad and hence looking for distractions to take the sadness away. This beatitude is clearly suggesting that we must fully experience the sadness otherwise we will not experience the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Blessed are the poor in spirit

2010-02-27T14:20:00.002+11:00

In the Gospel of St Matthew Chapter 5 we find what is referred to as The Beatitudes which contain profound advice if we explore beneath the surface of the translation. After he had been baptised and spent time in the wilderness being ‘tempted’, Jesus gathered disciples and began teaching and healing. Great crowds flocked to him St Matthew reports, “from Galilee and the Decap'olis and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan.” Mt 4:18-25

In 2006-7 I wrote a series of Reflections called The Beatitudes in the Gospel of St John. I wrote about how the nine Beatitudes can be used as a path of development for our ninefold being. Let’s have a look at the meaning of the Greek words used in these beatitudes and then we will see how Jesus is giving us advice about our own spiritual development.

The first beatitude is “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Mt 5:3

Blessed, makarios from the root mak meaning large, long or expanded. Today we might say macro, big.
Poor ptochos from ptosso to crouch. It speaks of a contraction.
Spirit, pneuma, breath or wind which is invisible but we can feel the power of it.
Kingdom basileia, having the authority to rule
Heaven ouranos, the ordered universe

To make sense of these words we also need to understand that we were spiritual beings who progressively condensed into the physical bodies we have today. During this process we gradually separated from the guidance of the beings in the spiritual worlds so that we could become self reliant, creative, responsible beings. A big step in this process was taken when Jesus took into himself the Cosmic Christ. He did this for us so that we could actually take on the responsibility for our own development.

Therefore we could say that those who crouch from spirit, crouch from being guided by external spirits, will be enlarged and have the authority to rule in their own universal environment. Another way to put this would be to say that the human beings who take personal responsibility for the way the think, feel and act in the world will be the great contributors to human evolution. These are the ones who don’t look for outer guidance; they understand that everything they do creates the society that we live in. In this sense we can also say that human beings are the tenth level of the spiritual hierarchy we have been considering.

Another thought that arises from this is that since human beings have been given this responsibility then some of the work of the higher spiritual hierarchies has become redundant, or they are now occupied with other matters. This would be a similar situation to the bookkeeper who no longer writes the accounts in a cashbook but uses a computer programme to report on the financial situation of a company. Human beings who do not take responsibility for their rightful place in the universe, ouranos, are still looking for advice from the handwritten cashbook which has had no entries for years.

Enlarged are those who contract into the inner being and find the inner authority to be responsible citizens of the universe. This authority can only be experienced through our ‘I’ which I spoke about in this bLog http://bit.ly/bfqs5X. Only when we experience this inner authority will we know that we will not be blown around by all the external forces of this world that want to make us subordinate.

The Spiritual Hierarchy 3

2010-02-21T15:55:00.001+11:00

Thrones, Cherubim and Seraphim
While the first hierarchical group are concerned with human consciousness, and the second are concerned with the outer environmental patterns of the universe, the third and highest group, who look into the face of God, the three in one, are concerned with the highest spiritual values of creative will, harmony and love.

The Trinity pour out their ideas into the order of Seraphim who then share them with the Cherubim who figure out what the ideas mean, and then the Thrones transform them into action. It is this action of the Thrones that we experience as creation. Yet it isn’t the Thrones who do the creating, they pass on the creative impulses to the spirits of Form, the creator gods referred to in the Bible as Elohim or Exousiai.

It is very helpful to see how these different angelic orders work in concert. Even this highest group of beings, who look into the very face of God, are so removed from us we can experience them through the angelic orders closest to us; the angels, archangels and archai.

Since the work of these orders is all about the development of human consciousness – and it is awesome to think of all these beings focussing their efforts on ‘man’ – it should be the least that we can do to try and have ideas about their work.

So how can we form some relevant ideas about love, harmony and will and make them part of our own lives? It doesn’t help to form these ideas from the modern usage of these words because these beings are the highest and purest of all the angelic orders. We could say that they hold the archetype of Love, the plan of what love should really be in its purest form; the same for Harmony and Will. However, we do find these three things in our everyday lives, they are the faculties of our soul; feeling, thinking and intention. Love is the highest feeling; Harmony is the combining of ideas, which is thinking which enables judging; and Will the highest creative action.

At present these three faculties work mostly unconsciously in our soul. If we are to become consciously aware then this is where we start. As soon as we become conscious of the feelings that course through our soul, and as we are able to guide them in different directions, we begin to touch on the work of the Seraphim, the Spirits of Love. When we become aware of the thoughts that occupy our mind continually, and can concentrate enough to change them into more constructive and productive thoughts, then we connect up with the work of the Spirits of Harmony, the Cherubim. When we are able to direct our intentions most creatively with the purest motives, and become consciously aware of the power of our own will, then we begin to understand the work of the Thrones, the Spirits of Will.

Hopefully these short notes on this mighty spiritual Hierarchy will be food for thought. We can find them mentioned throughout the Bible and if we apply the things that they represent to the story in which they are mentioned we will unlock a deeper meaning to this sacred book. The common refrains, “Praise God”, “Praise Jesus,” or “Praise the Lord,” are just empty distractions from our everyday life. Don’t leave your troubles at the door and get high on praising an unknown God. Get to know the gods and the work they do, you will be rewarded. Instead of standing outside the door of a house and saying, “Praise the house”, we can enter the house and give thanks for all the individual effort that make a home clean, orderly, safe and nurturing?

The Spiritual Hierarchy 2

2010-02-14T15:43:00.000+11:00

Powers, Mights and Dominions
The next three members of the spiritual hierarchy are the least known but they appear many times in the Bible. We could refer to these nine groups of beings that comprise the spiritual hierarchy as grades in the angelic orders. As part of a hierarchy we could also say that they do what is required of them according to the beings above them, who receive their direction from the Trinity. I sometimes imagine them as a pyramid of champagne glasses and the champagne cascades from the top to the bottom filling all the glasses. In the case of the angelic orders, each glass would have different properties because each of the orders has their own particular realm of operation. They would also relay the prevailing conditions below them up through the hierarchy to those above them so that everyone is informed. This would be a necessary condition of human free will and there is much to be said about this topic.

This middle trio works more in creation as a whole using wisdom (dominions), to set things in motion (mights), and create form (exousia). We find a fine example of their place in the scheme of things in Colossians.

He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones thronos – (part of the top trio) or dominions kyriotetes or principalities arche – (part of the bottom trio) or authorities exousia --all things were created through him and for him. Col 1:15-16

N.B. It will not be accidental that in this text thronos are placed next to kyriotetes and archai are placed next to exousia, for that is how they are connected in the angelic orders.

The first of these three, the ones closest to the Archai, are the Powers or Exousia. Exousia denotes freedom of action, the right to act, and they are what I call the creator gods who work with the element of fire or heat. They are the ones mentioned in Genesis 1. The Hebrew term for the Greek exousia is elohim translated as God in Gen 1:1. This term is also plural which supports the notion of members of an angelic order. They are the Spirits of Form working through heat to create the physical substance of this earth.

Mights, dunamis – can be found to be translated as power in Bible which confuses their role with the exousia, the creator gods. They are associated with the element of air and have their domain in motion and therefore work in the wind and movement of the clouds among other things. The clue to the way they work in motion is found in the way their name relates to dynamite. There are many translations for the Greek word dunamis; ability, abundance, deed, meaning, might, miracle, strength, violence, virtue and work.

Dominions, kuriotetes essentially means lordships (kurios, Lord) and indicates authority. They are associated with the element of water. Here is an example of how they are mentioned in the Bible in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.

...according to the working of his great might which he accomplished in Christ when he raised him from the dead and made him sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule arche and authority exousia and power dunamis and dominion kuriotetos. Excerpt from Eph 1:15-23

We could say that the Mights give motion to the form created by the Powers under the lordship or wisdom of the Dominions. In this way our universe is regulated – but with orders from above according to prevailing conditions below in human beings, nations and the needs of evolution.

The Spiritual Hierarchy 1

2010-02-07T11:09:00.003+11:00

Angel, Archangels and Archai

For thirty years I have studied the spiritual hierarchy, these nine levels of beings that regulate this universe. In all this time I have tried to see their place in my life because knowledge like this must have a place in our lives otherwise it is empty theory. Naturally these beings are complex and since we hardly understand our own makeup we can hardly know theirs.

If we strive to understand and even experience their work this effort connects us with them and assists them to experience the human condition. The thing is that even through these beings guide and regulate the universe they have a different consciousness to ours. It is as if we are in another room and the thickness of the walls depends on the level of our own conscious awareness. The more we can connect to our I AM – see this bLog http://bibleunlocked.blogspot.com/2010/01/do-we-really-know-ourselves.html and my book I Connecting – the more we can connect up with these beings and understand their roles.

This spiritual hierarchy is best viewed as three teams of three: Angel, Archangels and Archai; Powers, Mights and Dominions; and right at the top Thrones, Cherubim and Seraphim. The Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit are above that again.

So let’s look at the group closest to human beings, Angels, Archangels and Archai. To put it simply; Angels guide people, Archangels guide nations and Archai regulate human evolution.

We could say that while we remain unaware of our I AM our guardian Angel acts on behalf of our I AM leading and guiding us through life. As we connect up with our I AM our Angel can stand back a bit. What a comforting notion, that we are held and guided by an angelic being in all that we do. If we have any prayer life at all it should be directed to this being who lovingly embraces all that we do, even our shortfalls. You will find some more ideas about Angels in a previous bLog http://bibleunlocked.blogspot.com/2009/12/angels.html

The Archangels are a step higher than Angels. When a person has a great influence on a nation, either by leading it or by influencing it, we could say that they are connected to an Archangel. They have their archangelic being within them assisting them to do their work. Whenever a new leader of a nation is elected I have always watched them very closely to see how the Archangel of the nation changes them, and when they step down you can see that the Archangel has left them. Of course, it isn’t the same Archangel for every leader.

The Bible only uses the term Archangel twice, in 1 Thess 4:16 and Jude 1:9, in other places is just uses the name Michael or Gabriel, eg At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. Dan 12:1 Note that his passage points to the task of the Archangels “charge of your people.” There are various orders of Archangels and each has a leader. Michael is the leader of all the Archangels, some of the other leaders are Gabriel who cares for mothers preparing to give birth, and Raphael the guardian of healers.

The Archai lead mankind as a whole and their work is influenced by the numbers of human beings who become consciously aware, or not. We find reference to these beings in the Greek word Arche or beginning. This word is sometimes rendered ‘principalities’ or ‘rule’ and indicates the work of these beings to change human consciousness.

This is a big topic and I will endeavour to expand what I have written here by giving examples from the Bible in future blogs.

Angels, Archangels ....

2010-01-31T09:58:00.001+11:00

There is so much to consider when trying to unlock the Bible. Firstly, there are many concepts that are not part of our modern life like the unseen spiritual beings at work in the heavens and in the earth. We can look back to the work of Dionysius the Areopagite, the anonymous theologian and philosopher of the late 5th to early 6th century who described these beings in his work called The Celestial Hierarchy http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/areopagite_13_heavenly_hierarchy.htm The Austrian philosopher, Rudolf Steiner, also described their functions very clearly.

This is what I wrote several years ago at the beginning of my contemplations on The Revelation, the last book in the Bible.

“Before we continue on we should take a moment to consider the many spiritual beings mentioned in these first six verses of this Revelation of Jesus Christ to John. Our modern intellect has difficulty straddling the concept of beings that are not visible. Although, consider that for some people, God, Jesus Christ and the Devil are perfectly acceptable spiritual beings, and, for some others, angels exist. For the most part we don’t really have adequate images of the different spiritual beings or powers that are an integral and essential part of life in the universe. As we travel through this Revelation we will meet many of these beings and come to understand something of their role in our existence.

Ed Smith, in his wonderful reference book, “The Burning Bush” lists them. He explains them in this way, “Between (the) Trinity and Humanity were the Hierarchies ... The Hierarchies are ninefold, being in three ranks of three. The highest rank comprises, in descending order, and using their names as reflected in scripture, the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones; the second rank (though variously ordered by different Christian authorities) comprises the Dominions, Powers and Authorities; and the third rank the Principalities, Archangels and Angels. (Rudolf) Steiner gave each of these a name in keeping with its character in the creative process. The Greek terminology corresponded with the English terms, but it is noteworthy that the Hebrew term for “Authorities,” or for the “Exousiai” in Greek, was “Elohim,” the plural term used for God in Gen 1.” It is these Elohim that John is referring to when he says “and from the seven spirits who are before his throne”.

Many of the spiritual beings in the bible are broadly considered to be God. However, understanding that God can have different expressions gives us a much clearer picture of the spiritual company we keep. We start to see how we are affected by the actions and functions of these beings who we could say stand above us (as we stand above plants and animals) yet exist in our environment - but in a different dimension. We could also say that these beings have a greater or different experience of the universe than we do.

We should not take lightly the different ways these beings are referred to, for here we find the clues to their roles e.g. dominions, powers and authorities.”

In the following bLogs I will try to explain the functions of the different beings and show why they are mentioned in the Bible and how that relates to our life today.

Jesus Saves

2010-01-23T11:20:00.001+11:00

The words, “Jesus Saves” are prolific. This phrase would have more meaning for me if it was used in an advertising campaign for a bank.

I cannot believe that every time I sin that Jesus will save me – and everyone else who is sinning. What would be the point of that! What would we learn from it – there is a level of unconsciousness about it. If I have learnt anything about the Bible it is that there is a very important point behind every single word. So clever is the Bible that not even the misguided translators have been able to skew the real meaning.

In the New Testament the statement that Jesus saves is first found in Mt1:20-21, when the angel speaks to Joseph about what is about to happen, specifically “... she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."

The name Jesus is said to mean saviour or deliverer. The question is: does the saviour do the actual saving? A deliverer simply takes something from one place to another. It seems to me that we must save ourselves which is made easier now because Christ was able to unite himself with this earth; in fact Jesus delivered him here!

Now the word ‘sin’ in Greek is hamartion and it means ‘to miss the mark’. If we had a quiver full of arrows, and these arrows represented our thoughts, how often would we hit the mark because our thoughts were true? We must admit that, left to our own devices, we don’t know what to think about some things. The reason for this is that we are not consciously aware. Essentially, the birth of Jesus heralded in a new era of human consciousness. Unless we understand that human consciousness changes we cannot understand the significance of the birth of Jesus, the crucifixion of Jesus so that he could receive the Christ spirit into himself fully, and the subsequent resurrection.

In a nutshell, before Christ (BC) we didn’t think our own thoughts. Whatever thoughts we had were instinctual. We did not have the ability to make our own concepts from all that we saw in our environment. This instinctive process began to fade away and we started being able to put two and two together in our own minds. This process has reached its zenith in present day sciences. Now many scientists are admitting that there are answers beyond their ability to prove their concepts. We could say that a higher instinct is entering into human consciousness, but this time it must be thought through. We could call this awareness higher imagining, higher inspiration and higher intuition. In order, these are our ability to create pictures from our own ideas, our ability to hear new ideas echoing within us, and our ability to experience something new so that we know it intimately. Many people who invent things will tell us that this is how they came to understand their invention in the first place.

So the term “Jesus Saves!” doesn’t mean that we can sit back and hand over to him. It means that we must understand what he did and its implication for our consciousness. We could say that Jesus has saved us from the abyss between the death of unthinking instincts and the birth of these higher faculties of picturing, hearing and experiencing beyond what physically meets our five senses

God's Creation

2010-01-16T11:51:00.000+11:00

For most people, the idea of God begins with the story of Adam and Eve – oh, and the rib, but that is another story. Did life as we know it start in the Garden of Eden? When Eve surrendered to temptation was that really the downfall of the human race? See Genesis 3

The main problem with understanding what actually took place is that we think that human beings then were the same as they are now. How could that possibly be! For a start, who can talk to snakes now? Seriously, we need to understand the true evolution of the human being in body, soul and spirit. St Paul gives us many clues in Corinthians 15. Let’s take a closer look at verses 45 and 46.

If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual which is first but the physical, and then the spiritual. 1 Cor 15:45-46

In the Greek it actually says if there is body soma and soul psuche there is also spirit pneuma. The word natural is not there. Then it says that the first man protos anthropos became a living soul, zao psuche. This is suggestive of a soul that is alive and breathes and is not dead and we could take it that it means that the first Adam was able to exist for the first time in the atmosphere of this physical earth as a soul-being with a physical body. Paul tells us that this is a crucial step in the process, the first step.

The last Adam, which is a reference to Christ crucified, became spiritually alive, pneuma zoopoioun. So this story tells us in detail about the evolutionary process of human beings. If we are to fully understand ourselves as members of the human race we need knowledge about how these three areas, body, soul and spirit function. There is a process going on in which we can participate.

At this stage we are very aware of our body, our senses are alive and we spend a lot of time seeking physical pleasure – in food, in contact with others, in keeping comfortable and warm etc. We have a dim awareness of our soul, as if in a dream. We are mostly totally unaware of our spirit. Until we can wake up our soul and become consciously aware of its functioning, we will never be able to experience the life-giving spirit that Paul speaks of. It took me 25 years of study and six years of writing to put this information into a format that we can work with in our daily life – you will find it in my book I Connecting : The Soul’s Quest.

If we ever wonder what is wrong in the world today it is that these guiding principles are for the most part unknown. Once we start to work with these three areas of our being we have a much greater control of the way we respond to life and then we start to experience true freedom. This is why St John reports Jesus’ words in Jn 8:32 “you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free”. If we become aware of all the principles the disciples represent in our being (see disciples in this bLog) we will experience the freedom that comes with being consciously aware of our body soul and spirit. See full quote Jn 8:30-32

Where is God?

2010-01-09T11:30:00.002+11:00

When someone says they are praising and worshipping God, where exactly is this God at the time? Sometimes it seems to me that people are escaping themselves when they defer to a higher being outside themselves. It takes the pressure off, but it doesn’t deal with what caused the pressure.

We live in a society of people that thrives on placing things outside themselves. If we trip on a step and break our leg the first thing we do is look for the fault in the step. Each time we experience misfortune our instinct is to place blame elsewhere. Doesn’t worshipping God fall into this same category? Certainly in the face of misfortune many people question the presence of God.

What if God is actually within us? St Pauls seems to think so. “For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, "I will live in them and move in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” 2 Cor 6:16

Paul is the one who opposed Jesus Christ until he had a firsthand experience of the presence of Christ which caused him to fall to the ground and become blind -we could say that he fell off his under-stand-ing and he could no longer look outside himself. See Acts 9:1-5

How amazing that we should be the temple of the living God! What does this really mean? Naos, the Greek word for temple, refers to the inner shrine or sanctuary of the temple, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. A more accurate translation would be, “We are a holy place of a living God”. So we should then ask, what is a living God? The word ‘living’ zao, has a connection to the resurrection. It was the resurrected Jesus Christ that Paul experienced. He spoke of this in Colossians “the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Col 1:27 The living God could be Christ and Christ is IN us, we are his temple. So instead of placing our issues at the feet of an external God perhaps we should be dealing with our issues within us to make our temple, our inner shrine, the perfect dwelling place for Christ, the living God.

Do we really know ourselves?

2010-01-02T09:52:00.001+11:00

One of the reasons the Bible doesn’t make sense in places is because we don’t really know ourselves. We think that we are a body and we hear people say that we have a soul but we don’t know where it is or what it does. I have written a book about this and many of those who read it and study it have really come to know themselves.
Let me try and give a quick overview. The human being is a being of body, soul and spirit and each of these has three parts. The body is physical, it grows and it moves to put it very simply. The soul feels, it thinks, and it has intentions. The spirit gives us higher imagination, inspiration and intuition. All of these things are governed by what the Bible refers to as the I AM. This happens mostly unconsciously and it is our job to have conscious awareness of it.
The first time we hear about this is in Moses’ famous conversation with God when Moses asks God what his name is (Exodus 3:14) and the response is Ehyeh asher ehyeh I AM that I AM. In the New Testament we find the Greek expression ego eimi which also means I AM.
So what is this I AM, is it God or is it human? Well, simply put, it is both. The I AM is that part of God that is in us. And the main thing that it does in us is make us creative. Whenever we express our talent, in those amazing moments when we do great things, it is the I AM expressing itself in us and we can become aware of it. The most powerful example I can give about this is from a conversation between Michael Parkinson and Paul McCartney which went like this:
“This is just me in here. Paul McCartney is some guy over there doing amazing things. If I thought that was me constantly it would blow my head off.”

Our I AM is certainly a mysterious and powerful thing. Knowledge of it has been hidden from us by the churches and secret societies down the ages. The time has come for us to become aware of it and to use it to the fullest possible effect in our lives. The trickiest thing is that we have to discover it ourselves, no one can teach us what it is, they can only point to it and then we must experience it. The Bible is the best handbook I know to assist with this discovery as I will show you over the next few posts. I must stress here that this is NOT about any specific religion; each religious expression is a path up the mountain to the pinnacle of this knowledge. Nor is it about dogma and definition, this knowledge can only live in us if we strive to experience the reality of our own being and come to really know ourselves.

The true nature of peace

2009-12-27T09:12:00.001+11:00

There is a word exchanged between us at Christmas which we rarely use in the way for the rest of the year. It is the word ‘peace’. Of course, this word is heavily used throughout the year in connection with war.
The strangest thing about peace is that we always expect it to come from an external source, “We want peace!” or “Let us declare peace!” we hear people say. Then this peace comes at the price of compromise which can rarely be agreed upon. So then we need a peace treaty, a contract that imposes conditions for agreement.

Why is Jesus Christ referred to as the Prince of Peace or the Lord of Peace? His path to the cross was less than peaceful. So we can ask, is peace given to us, or is it up to us to find this peace? Indeed, we could say that the higher response would be to be peaceful in the face of adversity, and the lower response would be to expect someone else to do something so that we experience peace.
Eirene is the Greek word for peace and indicates freedom from disturbance, stillness. Shalom is the Hebrew equivalent and means soundness. We could say that peace means inner harmony which we achieve by harmonising all that is discordant within us. Imagine if each person took it as their responsibility to create this inner harmony, to be peaceful.

I have written about this process in my reflection series by suggesting that each time our equilibrium is disturbed we can place ourselves in the upper room where the disciples met after the crucifixion and Christ appeared among them. It was as if he walked through the wall (because the doors were locked, and the disciples would have experienced intense fear. Read the story in the twentieth chapter of the Gospel of St John, Jn 20:19-31. Three times Jesus says, “Eirene humin”, “Peace to you” which essentially means remove the disturbance within you and reinstate soundness.

Now this was all very well for him to say. The human condition is one of fear (which we will explore another time) and therefore we need all the help we can get to deal with fear. I have suggested that whenever we experience inner disturbances that we create in our minds an image of Jesus standing before us saying “Peace to you.” This reinforces our own ability to reinstate inner harmony. By repeating this practice over time it will become second nature and be of great assistance whenever we are alarmed. So we have to create peace within ourselves, if we wait for it to approach us from outside we will never experience it.

Angels

2009-12-19T16:06:00.001+11:00

Today the major Australian newspapers report the results of a survey about what people believe in http://www.theage.com.au/national/god-is-still-tops-but-angels-rate-well-20091218-l5v9.html In this survey (which of course is never representative) it says “51 per cent of respondents say they believe in angels”. I would like to ask those 501 people what exactly they think angels are.

The Greek word angelos means messenger. A messenger takes a message from one place or person to another and the purpose of a message is to inform. Therefore we must ask several questions. 1. What is the source of the messages that the angels receive? 2. In what form (language if you will) will it be conveyed to us?
It would be over-simplifying the situation to say that the angel carries a message from God. In an earlier post I showed that there are different ‘gods’ or spiritual beings who have certain responsibilities in the universe to keep everything in balance. Dionysius the Areopagite listed them, and in later posts I will explore them.
Angels feature often in the bible and seem to have quite a bit to say about the birth of Jesus which we are about to celebrate.

But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; Mt 1:20

The key to understanding angels is that they are the closest spiritual beings to man. Angels are beings one stage higher than human beings, as animals are beings one stage lower than humans. As we care for our animals, so angels watch over us. Archangels like Gabriel and Michael are one stage higher than angels.

Angels are intermediaries who help and guide the evolution of human consciousness. We could even say that they are interpreters, what higher spiritual beings might want to convey to us is made intelligible through the angels. Of course, they wouldn’t use language; they speak to us in images – the universal language. The picture of a tree means the same thing to every human being on earth.

While some people might doubt the validity of what I say, I could point out that animals communicate with each other, and with us, in a way that we do not understand either. If anything is needed in the world today it is to remain open to notions about the presence of angels and other spiritual beings that cannot be seen with our physical senses. Rejecting these ideas leaves us in a darkness that our mind cannot penetrate. If we accept that there may be angels, and we listen out for their messages, we may be surprised by what we come to understand. This kind of understanding is an inner confirmation that something is true for us. We do not need to convince others of it; others must come to their own experience of the angelic beings in this universe.
May you hear the Christmas angels and come to understand something more about the purpose of the birth of Jesus who became the Christ.

And what is sin?

2009-12-06T10:04:00.004+11:00

Sin is one of the most misunderstood concepts we have today. Sin is not about adhering to what other people tell us is right or wrong. The Greek word sin, hamartia, literally means ‘to miss the mark’. So we need to work out what the mark is. What is the target that all human beings are aiming for? Take the story of the woman who committed adultery and was brought to Jesus by the religious leaders of the time.

Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." Jn 8:2-7 RSV

This bible passage is deeply mysterious and would take hours to interpret fully. However, it is a very good example of the nature of sin. It shows how spectacularly unsuccessful the law of Moses is, which is still used today by so many religious leaders, for adultery is committed everywhere, golfer Tiger Woods being this week’s most prominent example. Is Tiger Woods an adulterer or was it about breaking the agreement he had with his wife? Some married couples allow each other to have relationships outside the marriage.

So why did Jesus intervene in the woman’s punishment? We could say that she was just spreading a little love here and there and love is the new commandment. We could also say that Jesus could have been using the scribes and Pharisees as an example for his teaching and that they were big enough to take it.

All this aside, it is clear in the above passage that the woman wasn’t missing the mark and that the religious leaders were. One way of looking at it would be that we no longer need religious leaders to tell us how to behave; each of us must take on this responsibility for ourselves.

This, in fact, is THE target for all human beings. It is up to us now to know what is right and what is wrong. Not by any law of government or religion, but by our own understanding of who we are as human beings and where we stand in the universe. There is an ancient saying, “Man, know yourself!” and as we work towards knowing ourselves we become much more aware of how we think, feel and act. Then we are able to place ourselves in the other person’s shoes and share their experience as if we were them. Perhaps this was the sin of the scribes and the Pharisees and Jesus was showing that he was able to deeply know the woman’s experience when they were not.

When is the Judge the Killer?

2009-11-29T10:27:00.005+11:00

While we are on the topic of God it would be good to have a look at the word judgment which is so often linked with him. The image of the man with the long beard sitting on a throne watching and judging everything we do is a bizarre concept. God is not a giant stickybeak! In fact, it is the stickybeaks of this world who will experience the full force of judgment.

Take these words that Matthew records Jesus as saying:
"You have heard that it was said to the men of old, 'You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.' Mt 5:21

Let’s ask what is being killed and who is judging? Sure, Matthew’s report continues about being angry with your brother but the logic of my ideas about verse 21 applies also to the subsequent verses when we identify who the brother within us is.

The specific Greek word used here for kill is phoneuo which means to murder. Now murder means to kill secretly when no one is aware of what we are doing. What happens within us secretly that no one is aware of? Our opinions. All day long we decide what is good and bad without being fully informed. So in our consciousness, with our thoughts, feelings and intentions, we secretly take the life from people and things that displease us. What is more we think it is our right to do this while at the same time demanding that someone who physically kills another person be punished with a jail sentence or a death sentence.

So who is the judge? The judge has to be the killer. Judgment krisis means a separating (analysing) and then a decision. Yet how often do we separate out all the facts? Each time we are poised to take the life out of something we must take the time to do the separating.

This Greek word krisis is similar to the English word crisis which means a critical moment or a turning point. In daily life it is our opportunity to be fully conscious, fully aware so that we stop, separate out all the facts and put them back together differently each time before we make our decision - then the judge is no longer the killer.

Who or what is God?

2009-11-21T12:23:00.002+11:00

One of the most astounding things that I heard when I began to really study the Bible was that there were many gods. Not in the sense of the ancient Greeks and Romans looking towards Olympus, although that could hold some answers as well, but in the sense that God-God, the highest one, needs other beings to implement his intentions.

Take for instance the first verse in the bible, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” which in Hebrew goes like this, “Bereshit bara Elohim et hashamayim ve'et ha'arets.” Who is this Elohim character? The Hebrews considered Jehovah or YHVH to be their God but they also had other gods as described in Wikipedia: El Elyon ("Most High God"), El Shaddai ("God Almighty"), El `Olam ("Everlasting God"), El Hai ("Living God"), El Ro'i ("God of Seeing"), El Elohe Israel ("God, the God of Israel"), El Gibbor ("God of Strength") - it will be no accident that there are seven. Then there is Moses’ famous conversation with God when Moses asks God what his name is (Exodus 3:14) and the response is Ehyeh asher ehyeh I am that I am.

When I hear people say, “I don’t believe in God” I can perfectly understand that. They have the courage to admit that, so far, no one has given them an understanding of God and each time they come across ideas about God there is no inner confirmation within them that what is said makes sense. When I first heard that about the Elohim-God I felt liberated. These Elohim are one level of the nine levels of spiritual beings that put God-God’s intentions into action. These nine levels of spiritual beings were described by Dionysius the Areopagite and using his list we can find them identified throughout the Bible, specifically when the words, power, authority, might, principalities, among others, are used.

The Greek word for Elohim is exousiai and is rightly translated as power – the power to create. I was also told that the Elohim were plural and feminine. Since then I have come to understand why that is. They are the creators of form, like a pregnant woman, and we see their work in every form on this earth. It is also like seeing the finished house from the architects plan. We will explore these gods some more in the future.

When should women be subordinate?

2009-11-15T10:54:00.003+11:00

Someone knocked on my door this week wanting to explain the Bible to me. I told him that I was already a student of the Bible at which point he enthusiastically suggested that he come in to compare notes. He then quoted St Paul to me and I responded that St Paul didn’t like women. He looked shocked. I wonder if he has been studying 1 Corinthians ever since to try and work out why St Paul speaks about women the way he does.

Take this verse: "the women should keep silence in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as even the law says. If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home." 1 Cor 14:34-35

How can a doctrine like this stand in our modern world which recognises the importance of gender equality? If we look at the words St Paul uses a new meaning becomes apparent.

Church ekklesia literally means ‘out of a calling’ and indicates that we hear the presence of Christ within us and all our various forces (emotions, thoughts, intentions) gather or assemble in a focussed way.

Not permitted, permitted is epitrepo, epi, to, trepo, turn which Vines suggests means to entrust.

Not speaking, speaking is laleo and can mean to keep secret what we are experiencing. So perhaps St Paul is saying that we must not trust what we might speak of this new experience and so should keep it a secret.

The wife and the husband are within us and could be designated as feeling and thinking.

Subordinate, hupotasso means hupo, under, tasso, to arrange, and so we arrange our emotions under our thoughts which keep them in control.

Then, to understand more fully what has happened within our consciousness we should ask questions of our thinking in the privacy of our own home, i.e. our inner being.

What does this say about knocking on people’s doors with our own ideas about what the Bible means? Unlocking the Bible is now up to each individual. Asking the husband thoughts within us to assist us to make sense of what we read is imperative.

Love

2009-11-08T08:49:00.002+11:00

Clearly it was no easy task that Jesus took on. I am constantly thinking about my own struggle to experience the presence of Christ within myself. The gospels are full of stories about this experience; how Jesus was berated, mocked, scorned and immobilised on a cross to name a few. How often do we do this to the Jesus in ourselves? That part of us that always tries to act in a higher way, that part of us which yearns for purity. We must ask how it was possible for Jesus to bear all this. The answer also tells us how we can recognise the presence of Christ in this world, in us and in each other.

The clue is in St John’s Gospel, "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." Jn 15:12

There are four different Greek words for love.

1. Eros - Erotic physical love. This is a passionate love, with sensual desire and longing. The procreative urge arises for survival of the species.

2. Philia - Brotherly and sisterly love which can be supportive and nurturing but also exclusive. It is usually a gentle, life-giving love that is found in true friendship.

3. Storge - Love of family, tribe and nation. It can be defensive and aggressive to those outside the group. This is the kind of love we also find in the animal kingdom.

4. Agape - Divine love, Christed love, this is the love expressed by those who experience the highest in themselves, they express it without fear or favour. It speaks of unification and intense compassion. It may not always be interpreted as love because in its expression it can cut like a sword.

Trying to identify each of these types of love in our lives can be very revealing. The more we can experience and express agape the more we will become aware of the presence of Christ. In Australia at the moment all the churches seem to have joined together to promote Jesus http://www.jesusallaboutlife.com.au/ I can’t help but wonder what would be the effect of a campaign called Christ all about love.

Thinking about Christ entering the body of Jesus

2009-11-03T08:50:00.000+11:00

Looking still more closely at this being of Jesus the Christ, it should be fairly safe to assume that the Jesus part of the being is long gone – certainly physically he is. However his deed lives on. This deed of receiving Christ into himself enabled this high spiritual being, Christ, to have a new relationship with this earth and all who live here.

So what did Jesus mean when, at the end of the Gospel of St Matthew he said, “and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age." Mt 28:20 We know that it is impossible for a human body to live this long. Does Jesus mean that concurrent reincarnations will ensure his continual physical presence on earth? Or is Jesus pointing to the presence of Christ which was able to experience life in a physical body for the first time by entering into the body of Jesus?

We should not take this idea of Christ entering into a human body too lightly. If we read the accounts of the crucifixion from the point of view of Christ’s difficulty rather than Jesus’ difficulty a new picture comes to light. Would it be like a university professor suddenly having to use the mind of child?

Then take Jesus’ experience in the Garden of Gethsemane “And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." Mt 26:39 Think about Jesus as the cup about to receive the presence of Christ. Could he hold steady enough, could be withstand the pressure of this mighty presence in his body?

Who is Jesus really?

2009-10-31T15:08:00.004+11:00

Let’s take a closer look at the being of Jesus the Christ. We can read that Jesus is a Jewish man who was a teacher and a healer, part of ancient history. In this way he can be placed alongside any other religious teacher and thereby occupies a role in particular belief systems. Christ then is some sort of accessory. Although, for others, Christ is the incarnate Son of God and is recognised as part of the Trinity; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But what does this mean for me I must ask? How is this relevant in the 21st Century?

Let me explain in very simple terms what I have come to understand and experience about these two beings over the last 25 years. Jesus was the most perfect human being ever born, his purity exemplified by his mother the Virgin Mary. His journey to the cross was a series of events that prepared him to receive into himself the Christ. So he was a vessel prepared for generations so that he could be the channel for the Son of God to enter into a human body. This became possible at a certain point during the crucifixion and when it did, the blood of Jesus became infused with the Christ spirit which then flowed into the earth and infused the substance of this earth. This also explains the Last Supper when Jesus explained that the bread, a product of the earth, was his body, and the wine made from sun-ripened grapes was his blood.

The point and purpose of this is so that we might strive to perfect our human being to a point where we are able to bear within us the presence of Christ. Since Golgotha Christ is within us as a potential, as a seed, to which we must give life. As we know, no seed can survive without being nurtured. In the New Testament we can find much advice about ways to do this.

Disciples James Alphaeus, James Zebedee and Simon the Cananaean

2009-10-29T08:33:00.001+11:00

These are quite short explanations for the twelve disciples and we will meet them again in this blog. It is a good exercise to look for the disciple in us and discover when one/s are dominant and which ones stand in the background. In this way we can become much more aware of who we are. It is good to get to know ourselves in this way and at the same time to accept our character as a work in progress. We can be so critical of ourselves sometimes that it is crippling. The last three disciples speak strongly about choice. Having a choice is so freemaking; if we can make a choice in one direction then we can also make it in another.

James Alphaeus: James the son of Alphaeus represents order, especially creating order in chaos. He is also known as James the Less, or James the Just and is a half brother of Jesus. James is connected with the use of the word; speech is a very creative thing, primarily because it gives us a choice. We can choose to speak or not to speak, and we can choose what to say or what not to say. We can also release a power in what we say, as Jesus did when he said, “Laz’arus, come out.”, for instance. James is associated with the power in us to say something, perhaps something difficult. James is also the discipline in us not to say something. Our speech will be orderly according to how conscious we are.

James Zebedee: James the son of Zeb’edee represents the faculty of judgement or discrimination within us. Judgement is that higher ability not be swayed by our self-will, or the will of others; to resist being drawn back to the past and to stand in the present, in the new situation, and seek to express our higher will. Within us our will is our intentions; without it is visible in our actions.

Simon the Cananaean: Also known as Simon the Zealot who probably belonged to the Zelotes, an extreme Jewish sect. This sect was also called the Cananaeans. Simon was the brother of James and Jude. After the martyrdom of James, Simon became head of the Church at Jerusalem. In hermetic tradition, the zelator is the one who is able to approach the fire. Simon the Cananaean stands for zeal, enthusiasm; this motivating energy is optimism for the future.

Disciples John, Thaddaeus and Matthew

2009-10-27T08:34:00.002+11:00

These three disciples give us a better idea of the real nature of love. John Lennon was right when he sang, “All you need is love.” Through love we can be gracious, harmonious and free.

John: The name John means ‘the grace of the Lord’ and he represents love (he was the one Jesus loved) and grace. This love is agape, one of four Greek words for love. This love is the highest, it loves everyone equally; it does not favour family over friends and acquaintances nor does it favour one’s own culture over another. This is an objective love which can withstand offence. Grace is that capacity of our soul for doing what is right, what is good, out of our inner self, not through externally imposed rules and regulations. Grace says, “How can I be so that you can be free.”

Thaddaeus: Thaddaeus represents elimination, letting go of things so that we can keep moving forward. The name Thaddaeus means ‘of the heart’, big-hearted, warm-hearted. Thaddaeus is St Jude and was a brother of St James the Less, and a relative of Jesus. It is the heart can eliminate things that mesmerise the mind. Thaddaeus within us works continuously to restore harmony by eliminating that which disrupts. A large part of this work is tied up with forgiveness.

Matthew: Matthew represents will within us - human intentions and actions. Matthew collected taxes. He works in the depths of the community to sustain the body, the infrastructure, of society. He was called away from that to serve in the innermost circle so that human will could become freewill. The other thing about will is that it reveals ourselves to us. Our acts of will, when, for example, we dig the garden or rearrange the furniture, give us a glimpse of ourselves, our ability and our place in the world. This is the start of loving ourselves more completely.

Disciples Nathanael Bartholomew, Judas and Thomas

2009-10-25T09:51:00.000+11:00

The next three disciples show that the conventional interpretation of who they are is actually the opposite of what they really stand for in our developing consciousness. This is often the way when we investigate under the surface to discover spiritual meanings.

Nathanael Bartholomew: Nathanael means gift of God. He is known by his family name, Bartholomew, in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. St. John calls him Nathanael. In my series on the disciples I show how Nathanael is the faculty of imagination within us. Not imagination that is really fantasy but a spiritual faculty of imagination that can see concepts as living images. By creating moving pictures in our mind when we try to understand a concept it can come alive for us. Also, they will also be much easier to remember. This means that we ‘see’ things differently. Here is an excerpt from my reflections about Nathanael seeing, “Jesus points out to Nathanael that this is only the beginning: “You shall see greater things than these”. This must always be our expectation, to see greater things. We should always strive to have first hand experiences, by hearing Philip within us saying, “Come and see.”

Judas: Judas is said to be the Greek version of the Hebrew Judah which means praise Jehovah. When his mother Leah gave birth to him she praised Jehovah for his birth, hence the name Judah or Yehudah Gen 29:35. This is how Judas comes to represent the generative energy within us. The reproductive force within us is motivated by conservation; survival of the species. Judas is also associated with betrayal, however, the word ‘betray’ also means to ‘reveal’. Judas gives us the opportunity to act in a higher way. “There are two sides to the Judas energy within us. He can assist us or assail us. Mostly he works within us without our knowing. It is up to us to become conscious of what he is doing. Jesus was.” Living Disciples by Kristina Kaine

Thomas: Thomas stands for reasoning, understanding. The purpose of Thomas’s central role in some of the bible stories is to alert us to the pivotal place of reasoning. He doesn’t take things at face value, he wants to understand and experience things fully. His questioning is described as a lack of faith or disbelief however blind faith is like a blind person crossing a busy road alone. The Thomas in us keeps testing the facts from every side to come to a full understanding. Generally people do not do this, the first understanding they meet satisfies them and that is usually only a fraction of the truth. This happens because we like to take the easy way out, to have instant answers so that we don’t have to put in much effort. The thing is, it is the effort that we put in that awakens our consciousness. We don’t need to find the ultimate truth, or have it given to us by others, what we need to do is to strive.

Disciples Andrew, Simon Peter and Phillip

2009-10-23T09:38:00.004+11:00

If we are to become like Jesus there are 12 characteristics we need to develop. The characteristics are found in the nature of the 12 disciples. We could say that the perfection of the 12 make the 13th. Each week during 2005 I wrote about the 12 disciples, unlocking their qualities and showing how we can develop these ourselves. Disciple in Greek is mathetes, meaning a learner, and it indicates thinking that is accompanied by endeavour. Most thinking today is not accompanied by endeavour. In fact many people are very lazy with their thinking which is why they never fully understand this world – or themselves.
Over the next few blogs we can have a look at the nature of the 12 disciples who followed Jesus. We can observe these qualities in ourselves throughout the day to see how they work in our consciousness.

Andrew: In the Gospel of St John references to Andrew reveal that he works away in the background, he is a companion. Andrew represents strength of mind and humility; therefore these two faculties must always be our companions. Andrew is from Bethsaida, a fishing town. Fish represent our thoughts, our ideas, our concepts, and so Andrew comes from a place where ideas and concepts are caught.

Simon Peter: Simon means hearing and Peter means faith. He captures the essence of our ability to hear and see beyond the physical sounds and images that meet our senses. The Simon nature becomes active when we deeply contemplate something and a new understanding seems to speak to us from within us like an inner voice. This is the true nature of inspiration; we hear the new idea. The Peter nature means that our faith becomes knowing, not blind faith. We are able to confirm our inspirations again and again in our contemplations.

Phillip: The name Philip means lover of horses just as the word philosopher means lover of wisdom. Philip speaks to us about inner power, courage and an ability to weigh things up. Philip is the challenge within us to use our mind purely intellectually or to allow in a spiritual element that doesn’t rely so much on physical proof but can certainly be tested over and over again in our thinking.

When I use the term spiritual I do not mean something airy-fairy. By spiritual I mean something that can’t be physically touched, for example, love is spiritual, a hug is physical. This points to a notion that behind everything physically present in this world is something spiritual. If we look for the spiritual component behind all that is physical in our lives a whole new world can arise.

Jesus and Christ

2009-10-21T10:54:00.002+11:00

Probably the next most important thing to consider is the central character of the New Testament, Jesus Christ. If we ever think that we are misunderstood in life these feelings pale into insignificance compared with the misunderstanding of Jesus Christ. If we make a survey of the NT we rarely find the names Jesus and Christ expressed together. In the Gospel of John for instance the name Jesus is used alone except in two places; Jn1:17 “grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” and Jn17:3 “And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.” This could suggest that Christ is a title. In fact Paul reverses the names to Christ Jesus. This is like saying President Obama or Queen Elizabeth.

So if we read the NT with this in mind a whole new story unfolds. Here is a man called Jesus Iesous meaning saviour who becomes Christ Christos or anointed. This is further supported by the use of the word pseudochristos or false Christ in Matt24:24 “For false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray”. If we take the Bible as a manual for evolving our consciousness then we could have a goal to become like Jesus and then achieve the status of Christ. The New Testament is full of descriptions of the nature of Jesus and how to attain it or follow it. This word follow akoloutheo literally means alike-way and gives the sense of becoming like Jesus, copying the way he is. The way he is is one of the most misunderstood things in this modern world as we shall discover.

Human Consciousness and the Soul

2009-10-19T10:38:00.001+11:00

When considering human consciousness it isn’t enough just to say that human beings are conscious and have consciousness. This state of being awake and aware clearly differs from person to person and changes within each of us throughout the day. Nor is it sufficient to say things like: I am health conscious, I have a national consciousness of shared beliefs and feelings, or that I lose consciousness if I faint, or that the way I think represents the kind of consciousness that I have. This is skimming the surface. To be fully aware of our consciousness means that we must consider it in detail.
Human consciousness has three core activities; thinking, feeling and willing. Each one of us uses these activities differently, and in different combinations. It is these three activities that actually make up the human soul. In the biblical Greek there are more than 30 different words for these three activities. If we look up “An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words with their precise meanings for English readers” by W.E. Vine, M.A. we find 15 words for think, 5 for feel and 7 or more for act, commit, do. Each particular word reveals a specific quality of human consciousness, and a particular aspect of our soul, and it is in the specific use of these words that the real wisdom of the Bible unfolds.
Aristotle 384BC-322BC was among the first to write about the human soul. Prior to this it wasn’t necessary to write anything about the soul because the soul wasn’t differentiated into different activities. Aristotle was aware that a differentiation was taking place and he described the soul as having three qualities which he called: Orektikon, Kinetikon, and Dianoetikon.
1.    Orektikon refers to desires, appetites, sensations, impulses which is the soul activity of feeling.
2.    Kinetikon means to set in motion, to try every way, reasoning which is the soul activity of thinking.
3.    Dianoetikon is about intention which is the soul activity of will.

Human Consciousness Evolves

2009-10-18T09:41:00.000+11:00

One thing that obstructs our understanding of the Bible, and in fact the human being in general, is that we do not understand the way in which human consciousness evolves. Yet we experience this in our own lifetime. Apart from the difference in our own consciousness as we age, just think about the difference between the way we think and the way our grandparents and even our parents think. We could say that human consciousness changes over thousands of years in a similar way that it changes in one human being during a lifetime. For example, this would mean that if primitive man thought like a 10 year old then at present we might be thinking like a 35 year old.
If we accept this it would mean that when the New Testament was written people thought differently and this might lead us to ask what relevance the Bible has for us today. I have been writing reflections on the Bible since 2003 and studying it since 1983 and I look at the Bible as a map of developing human consciousness. Furthermore, it gives us guidance to navigate the upheavals that naturally occur when we have to think differently either in changed circumstances or as we grow and develop. Just as we re-engineer the work place, we must also re-engineer our mind. AND, when we start to understand how our consciousness can change, that in itself changes it! We become more aware of our own thoughts, feelings and actions.
Plus, I am sure that it hasn’t escaped anyone’s notice that these things are speeding up. Just as technology becomes outdated quickly so do certain patterns of thinking and ways of living. The human race has reached a point of intensity in its development, as if we are being called, as St John in his Gospel puts it, to repent. This word means something totally different from how it is used in modern language. It isn’t about being sorry or regretful. ““Repent then.” Metanoeo, which literally means to perceive afterwards. It implies that we can see the results of our actions before we act. This assists us to change the way we act, and think, and feel because we see its effects.” The Revelation – a way of life. By Kristina Kaine
It becomes increasingly important for us to consider what will result from actions. Each day the news reveals how people do not consider the consequences of their actions. This situation appears to be escalating and in my posts I hope to give some reasons for this.

Human Being: Body, soul and spirit

2009-10-16T16:08:00.005+11:00

One of the first hurdles to be overcome when reading the bible is our understanding of the true nature of the human being which is usually limited to its physical substance or flesh and blood. If we look closely at human nature we can distinguish three different human characteristics; body, soul and spirit. This means that we need to enter into unknown territory, or do we? If we think about ourselves and how we function in the world we could say that we are beings who think ideas, have feelings and emotions, and who act according to how we think and feel. It is these three essential human faculties that we should keep centrally in our mind at all times. They are tangible, we experience them every moment of each day.

So how do these three basic faculties relate to the human body, soul and spirit? And where do we find them in the bible? We find them in the Greek words soma, psuche and pneuma. Psuche is soul, from which we have the word psychology and pneuma is spirit. Psuche can be translated as heart, life, mind or soul and pneuma can be translated as breath, life, spirit or wind. Psuche, our soul nature, gives us a sense of our capacity to feel, while pneuma, our spiritual nature is suggestive of thoughts that can blow through our mind. While our body, which is the vehicle of the soul and spirit, in Greek is soma, the centre of human activity and mobility which we can identify with the human will.

This text from 1 Thessalonians mentions spirit, soul and body .
May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit (pneuma) and soul (psuche) and body (soma) be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1Th 5:23

In 2 Corinthians we can see how these bodies are referred to in other ways. It is interesting to note that without our spiritual body we are naked which is a direct reference to events in the Garden of Eden.
“For we know that if the earthly tent [earthly body] we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God [spiritual body], a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Here indeed we groan, and long to put on our heavenly dwelling, so that by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we sigh with anxiety; not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed” 2 Cor 5:1-4

Introduction

2009-10-15T13:13:00.007+11:00

When I was 10 years old I was given my first Bible. A beautiful leather bound King James version, a requirement of the school that I was attending. It had my initials engraved on the front cover and it looked very impressive. I made a resolution to read it from cover to cover. Half way through Genesis chapter 1 I closed the cover and resolved to read it when I could understand what was being said.
Twenty three years later I met Reverend Mario Schoenmaker, a minister and theologian, who taught what he called Bible Metaphysics. For fourteen years until his death I listen to his sermons and lectures which opened up a new world for me. The 10 year olds resolution now became possible.
Several years after Rev Mario's death I began writing short reflections, exploring themes from the Gospel of St John. Then, each week since April 2006 I have been exploring The Revelation to John. In the introduction I say, "The Revelation to John can be shown to describe how human beings are becoming more conscious and differently conscious."
In this blog I will discuss my method of unlocking the Bible so that it comes alive with other meanings. It is not my intention to be definitive; in my experience definitions are a locking process rather than an unlocking process.
I hope my blogs will inspire you with new ideas.