compassion, collaboration & cooperation iN transistion
THE "SPIRITUAL" CONNECTION with OUR UNIVERSE that
our species both, individually and collectively, has been
encouraged, in one way or another, to perceive as GOD
- IS undoubtedly being increasingly understood as the
field of consciousness which pervades the entirety of
our "material/non-material" ...
multi-verse of parallel universes
God’s Purpose in Creating Us
My purpose in creating you, My spiritual offspring, was for Me to know Myself as
God. I have no way to do that save through you. Thus it can be said (& has been
many times) that My purpose for you is that you should know yourself as Me.
This seems so amazingly simple, yet it becomes very complex - because there
is only one way for you to know yourself as Me - and that is for you first to
know yourself as not Me.
Conversations with God, Book 1 by Neale Donald Walsch
James Atwell's, 2007 Eucharist Sermon, delivered in Winchester Cathedral
in the U.K. concluded that ...
" THE BIBLE has particular and specific vocabulary which captures the
connectedness of things, and describes a world where our priorities are right,
equilibrium is safe, and things are working harmoniously.
ONE is a word we translate as righteousness, but in the Old Testament it
really means ‘right order’.
It is the opposite of disorder and sickness. There is right order when the appropriate connections are being made and things are properly related. When Psalm 96, for instance, says of God ‘He will judge the world with righteousness’, it means that he will sort it out and put it into right order. It will not be topsy turvy anymore. He will rescue the poor. He will vindicate the truth.
Then the standing crops in the field will laugh and sing as the gentle wind blows down the valley.
The complementary word to right order is the little word ‘peace’ or ‘shalom’.
It means universal global peace in the sense of harmony, right relationship, wholeness.
When things are rightly ordered they are integrated, healthy and wholesome. They work together. That IS peace.
‘The lion and the lamb shall lie down together & the little child shall lead them.’
That is why we share the peace at the Eucharist:
we seek to be
a community that
models NOT tranquillity,
but rather right relationships.
The world was created by God in relationship and actions for good or for evil in one sphere might have quite unexpected and unintended results in another. It is an insight which was lost and has been recovered in our contemporary environmental awareness.
When the world is properly a wholesome environment, then in the words of Psalm 85
‘righteousness and peace will kiss each other’ (Psalm 85 v10).
That is right order and harmony reign across a complex and unified world.
But there is one more biblical word to add to this collection to make a trio, it is one final
ingredient if the world is to have a sound ecology. Beside right order and harmony one
must place justice.
It is used globally in the Old Testament. Such is the moral nature of the Creator, that the
world’s ecology is not safe unless justice rules. The ideal king, reflecting the rule of God
himself governs ‘with righteousness and justice’ (Psalm 72:1, Isaiah 9:7).
Without justice our environment is damaged. There can be no healthy ecology
at the expense of the weak and vulnerable. Human moral actions affect the
integrity of creation.
The great words of the prophet Amos are universal in scope and a prayer for the integrity of our environment:
‘Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness
(‘right order’) as an everlasting stream.’ "
"Our deepest fear is NOT that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are
powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually,
who are you not to be? YOU are a child of GOD. Your playing small does not serve
the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so other people won't feel
insecure around you. WE are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to
make manifest the glory of GOD that IS within us. It's not just in some of us; IT IS
in everyone. And as WE let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence
automatically liberates others."
You must learn to be fearless enough to drop what you think you know about God.
You must be fearless enough to step away from what others have told you about God.
You must be fearless that you can dare to enter into your own experience of GOD.
In other words, DECENCY, MORALITY & LAW
must BE acknowledged as integral components of the
BIG PICTURE GLOBAL SOLUTION of UNDERSTANDING that ...
SO THANKS be to GOD and ...
because
I AM THAT I AM - I AM YOU
because as Martha says
"What I come back to IS UBUNTU"
First published by Michael Grove @zaadz 30th November 2010
Access: Public
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2012 has been a much–anticipated year for many people in progressive spiritual circles. Given all the attention this turn of the calendar is getting, there are a few key reflections I'd like to share about how we can each make the most out of the coming year.
It's not that I think 2012 is destined to be an extra special cosmic year. It's that, despite the Mayan prophecies and all the excitement they've catalyzed within the new–age movement, I'm pretty sure it won't–at least not on its own.
A quick scan of the press surrounding the arrival of 2012 tells us that we can expect everything from a cataclysmic increase in natural disasters to an unprecedented global shift in consciousness ushering in a new era of peace on earth.
And while I lack the advanced scientific education I would need to weigh in on the likelihood of imminent geological or meteorological Armageddon, I do have a few thoughts concerning the potential for a "global shift in consciousness"–and the role each of us might play in it.
First of all, as you probably already know, I am a passionate advocate for the evolution of consciousness and culture.
And, in my mind, any myth or narrative that has the potential to galvanize people toward positive change is a good thing.
So, the fact that so many are feeling ignited by the notion that everything could change in one year, and are even feeling called to participate in catalyzing that change is good news for all of us.
The world needs a lot of change, and that is going to require a lot of passionate change agents, whatever their religion might be.
However, the popular notion that, with the arrival of a key "tipping point," we're all going to pass through a momentous and noticeable collective shift in consciousness (from "fear" to "love" or from "separation" to "oneness") needs some updating in light of what we now know about evolution.
Studies of how consciousness and culture evolve have consistently shown us that human beings and human cultures evolve through predictable stages on what psychologist Clare Graves called a -
"never–ending upward quest."
Integral developmental theory also tells us that these stages can't be skipped. You can't, in other words, jump from a "pre–modern" or "traditional" worldview to a "postmodern" worldview without first embracing a "modern" worldview.
Put more simply, you aren't likely to get from tribalism to "global consciousness" without first embracing individualism–at least for a while.
SO, the problem with the notion of a "collective shift in consciousness" is that, as a species, right now, we are spread out across a broad spectrum of at least five distinct stages of development: "tribal," "traditional," "modern," "postmodern," and "integral."
If you do the math, that means that for humanity to go through a collective shift in consciousness, we'd really have to catalyze at least 5 distinct shifts in consciousness at once–and even if we did, we still wouldn't all be going through the same shift to arrive in the same place.
So, if we're interested in helping consciousness and culture evolve, rather than hoping for a single global shift in consciousness, we would probably do well to turn our attention to the kinds of changes that are actually within our collective reach.
As individuals, we can each engage in the challenging transformative work to evolve own consciousness-and more importantly, our own behavior –– beyond the ancient, survival –driven habits that still influence us every day.
We can also band together with small groups of other people and work together to evolve our collective consciousness and our collective behavior.
And if enough individuals and enough small groups do enough work to transform their consciousness and behavior, we can certainly begin to generate a positive collective momentum in the direction of real evolutionary change.
We might even begin to exert what Andrew Cohen calls "evolutionary tension" on the larger collective, visibly and invisibly pulling everyone in the direction of humanity's emergent higher potential.
Could such a momentum eventually lead us all to a "tipping point?"
It's not outside the realm of possibility. The good news is that tipping points are a well–documented phenomenon.
Social diffusion research pioneered by sociologist Everett Rogers consistently shows that when a key "social innovation" is adopted by a certain percentage of the population, that innovation begins to rapidly permeate the broader population through a process of diffusion that also proceeds through a predictable series of stages.
It's not exactly a "global shift in consciousness," but it does mean that if enough of us begin to embody a new level of consciousness, the motivations and values of that new level will gradually be adopted by many others who have not necessarily themselves awakened or evolved to the same degree.
As Ken Wilber has recently pointed out, the percentage of the population that has reached "integral consciousness " is rapidly approaching 10%, and that number has been well–documented as a key tipping point threshold.
So, if you're excited about the possibility of a large sector of humanity embracing a more integral perspective, then now might be a very important moment to lean in and make a little more effort to help us get to that threshold.
So, whether you're galvanized by the 2012 spirit, or simply eager to use any leverage you can to help serve humanity's higher evolution, it's hard to imagine a better time to seize the moment and use that energy to fuel your own commitment to doing everything in your power to make this year count.
What can you do?
Make it the year you go all the way every day with your own spiritual practice.
Make it the year you close the gap between your highest ideals and the life you're living each day–even when things get challenging.
Make this the year that you finally commit to evolve beyond your own ego–for real.
Make it the year you show up consistently as an example of the kind of human being the world needs most–a courageous, passionate, committed evolutionary–an inspiration to everyone around you.
If enough of us make the choice to go all the way to our own evolving edges, then indeed we might look back on 2012 as the year when an important threshold was crossed, or at least the year when a new momentum began.
Thank you for your commitment to the evolutionary path.
I look forward to sharing the journey with you, through this year and beyond.
To our evolution,
Craig Hamilton
Redefining God
Using the word God is always tricky as it's a very charged term that means different things to different people. I like to use that word to represent the idea of an absolute principle. In an evolutionary context, we could choose to describe that absolute principle as "the energy and intelligence that initially created and is continuing to create the universe." In the way that I understand it, that driving force is more an impulse than it is a divine being. In that impulse, there is no predetermined plan at work. It is a directionality, a momentum, a reaching towards. This definition of God does not depend on any kind of metaphysical belief or faith. All we need to do is look into the truth of our own experience and what science has revealed to us. 13.7 billion years of cosmic evolution has given rise to 3.8 billion years of biological evolution, which has given rise to tens of thousands of years of cultural evolution. We're on a moving train.
We're all part of a process that's going somewhere.
We don't have to believe in a metaphysical deity to feel the drive of an evolutionary impulse as a tangible energetic presence in our own experience at different levels. At the lowest level, the sexual drive can be recognized as an evolutionary impulse. At a much higher level, the uniquely human compulsion towards innovation can be recognized as an evolutionary impulse. And finally, at the highest level, the spiritual impulse, which is a compulsion towards higher consciousness, can be recognized as an evolutionary impulse.
Something miraculous is going on here and it's trying to happen in and through all of us in every moment.
—Andrew Cohen
The ever flaming confrontation between science & spirituality
"no decisions that affect an entire nation of people" -(or I would say family of nations of people)- "should be built on such a precarious contingency that can never be proved or disproved."
God's Choice
It is my firm conviction that Spirit as the Uncreated, Unborn, Unmanifest, timeless Ground of Being "chose" to create the universe. How do I know this? Because from our vantage point in the 21st Century, we can look back and see where we all came from, which is no-thing whatsoever. God or absolute Spirit must have wanted to do something after doing absolutely no-thing whatsoever for eternity. That's why, when we experience the creative impulse in the universe vibrating and pulsating in our bodies and minds, we experience a powerful sense of purposefulness. When you awaken to evolution, you awaken to a profound sense of directionality that is inherent in the life force, that is inherent in existence itself. At the lower levels, the purpose of existence is to survive. At the highest levels, the purpose of existence is to create. God or Spirit as manifestation is the felt desire to create and give rise to that which has never existed before.
—Andrew Cohen
Does God Exist?
I am convinced that God exists. Usually the way I define God is as "the energy and intelligence that created and is still creating the Universe." So God's capacity is to give rise to everything that exists. But we also have to remember what we're calling God came from that which we would call non-existence or timelessness and spacelessness, so we'd also have to say that God is also that which does not exist. So God is that which exists, meaning the entire manifestation of the evolutionary process, and also, that timeless, formless void from which everything emerged.
—Andrew Cohen
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the notion that the evolutionary process is ultimately driven by a spiritual impulse is continuing to gain traction, with a growing number of progressive philosophers, scientists, and mystics exploring its implications.
To many, it is simply a compelling philosophy, uniting the revelations of science and spirituality in a way that no other theory can. But others, like Aurobindo before them, are beginning to reach beyond a theoretical discussion to wonder: What might human life and culture look like if we fully took to heart the reality of this view?
Freed from the mythic dogmatisms of premodern religion, transcending the materialistic biases of modern scientific thought, and liberated from the narcissistic self-absorptions of postmodernity, what kind of new world could human beings aligned with the trajectory of a spiritually evolving cosmos actually create?
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Michael said
Hear warming translations of devotional starnza's by …
Brumanund Swami and Premanund Swami …
”a single candle can light a million unlit ones; but a million unlit ones cannot light a single candle”
So which one R U ? the single lit one or the million unlit ones ?
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Michael said
Bai Jian, who is a 34 year-old physical education teacher in Number Two Middle School, Anshan, Liaoning Province, and has just been involved with the Olympic Torch “FREE TIBET” Demonstrations in London & Paris over the week-end, exemplifies THE LEADER that HE HIMSELF has BECOME.
Bai Jian, as most of the chinese people and for that matter most of the peoples of our planet, stuggle with their daily illusions but sometimes blossum and come to terms with the fact that …
I AM WHO I AM thanks to the help of others. So I also hope that my kids will one day help other people too …
I would highly recommend that ALL @zaadz should read & INWARDLY digest this whole
Daily Telegraph article.
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Michael said
PEACE must depend not on freedom from distress but on the ability to submit to
suffering humbly. IT IS the one who knows best how to endure, who will preserve
the deepest peace.
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Terrill said
Hello Michael,
As usual when I read your posts, the speed with which I am engaged in your writing quickly leads me to a place where I say to myself… okay, take one of Michael's references and explore just that idea and then go
to the next one.
Today I have taken… GOD IS manifest throughout the multiverse of parallel universes as … LOVE
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Samme said
Indeed “do not kill the messenger.” Spirituality has been taking a back seat in a lot of people's lives. This is a shame because the gods and
goddesses are the ones taking the blame for the shortcomings of our so
called religious and spiritual leaders. Do not kill the messenger.
And I do not mean the priests and the bishops but the “messengers” of
love themselves, the one true God. In my native tounge we do not have
too much of a problem with translations of the ancient scriptures as to
their gender or pronouns. We do not have the debate whether the god we
are praying too is a male or female. That can get and has gotten in
the way of spiritual development for almost all of modern history. We
should not let language or semantics and their shortcomings shortblind
us to the one true god. Love is a universal language that everybody
should be able to understand without translation. We should keep that
in mind and act in ways that foster love towards humanity and all of
god's creatures. When we are in harmony then we are ready for the
multiverse of parallel universes. We must master this one first.
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Michael said
I DO NOT mean the priests and the bishops but the “messengers” of love themselves, the one true God … LOVE is a universal language that everybody should be able to understand without translation … WHEN we are in harmony then we are
ready for the multiverse of parallel universes … We MUST master this one first … INDEED
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cHAngeL said
A master… is humbly knowing you can never be one…that is for God.
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Samme said
It is nice to reread this again. Wisdom and love are timeless. They never go out of style.
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jenni said
I found myself here. I enjoyed the video.
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Michael said
A New God, infact, the concept of which IS EVOLVING as LIFE IT SELF evolves and the problem with the NEW ATHEISTS, equally evolves !
BEING and BECOMING as ONE with GOD
” THIS IS the New God which includes and unifies ALL. This is the New God whose TIME has come. The New God, the True God is not some NEW Super-being in a far off heaven [BUT consciousness
supreme]. IT IS rather YOU and ME and ALL and EVERYTHING.
The New God embodies and expresses the eternal truth that there IS ONLY ONE.”
Master Charles Cannon
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rich said
as always, Michael, i am blown away with your words. i can only HOPE that i reive each & every bit of this as you intended it to be received
& perceived. thanx, my friend!
about 1 year later Michael said
God IS Love
God is Love. How many times have we heard the word "love" being used to define that which is ultimately indefinable? I suppose it is because that's the only word that can even bring us close to grasping the ungraspable. When we use "love" to define that which is transcendent, absolute, and metaphysical, we're using it to describe qualities and attributes that are non-ordinary, that represent a higher dimension of human experience, intuition, and cognition. That is why the love that is God is transpersonal, because it points us far beyond our unique individuality or the unique individuality of any other.
—Andrew Cohen