THOU SHALT NOT STEAL

Most everyone will recognize that the above statement represents one of the commandments of the Decalogue. However, few have taken the time to probe this divine law beyond its literal and obvious meaning.

The Ten Commandments, in fact, contain three distinct levels of meaning. Take the issue of theft (the seventh commandment) as our example. There are three levels of stealing. We can steal physical things, psychical things, and even divine things.

If the commandments were only to be taken literally then a mother stealing bread for her hungry children would be eternally damned to hell. Many of us correctly sense that this would be an injustice coming from a God of Infinite Love and Mercy. So there must be more damning ways to steal that would justify separation from God.

Because all humans are spirits living in physical bodies, God’s commandments were wisely designed to guide our physical and spiritual realities. We can become spiritual thieves by robbing people of the means to salvation—either by distorting God’s teachings or even persuading other people that God’s laws are meaningless.

On the highest level of thievery, one can steal from the Lord. This stealing involves taking God’s power and claiming it for oneself. (We certainly experience individuals who try to act like God in the world through their dominance, possessions and imagined self-worth.)

But each form of stealing also depends on the motive within one’s heart. One could even steal someone else’s bread from a principle of contempt and hatred for others as well as contempt for God (and what God stands for). So one can steal physical bread and practice thievery on all three levels!

This is why the Lord said that loving God and love towards the neighbor contain everything relating to all Ten Commandments. One does not wish to steal or do ill (on any level) when one sincerely loves God and the neighbor.

http://www.innergardening.net

Religion vs. Spirituality

On one particular Sunday a few years ago I had attended a church service to be in community with old friends, but more importantly, to experience the greater sensation of Holiness that I feel in God’s House.  While I was taking in the sounds of the church organ and the voices of the congregation singing, I suddenly felt an elbow to my rib cage.

The person standing next to me noticed that I had not picked up a hymnal book and offered me one so that I could join in the singing. This person obviously had loving intentions but had unknowingly interfered with my personal “spiritual” experience of the service. This is the problem I have with institutionalized religion—it seeks conformity.

Having attended both an art school and later a seminary I see my relationship with God as an intensely creative one.  What makes things difficult for me in attending church on a regular basis is that when I express my creativity I run the risk of making the congregation feel uncomfortable and gaining the reputation of being a “disturbance.”

Traditional religions would label me as a Gnostic—one who seeks deeper knowledge and participates in personal evolution (at the expense of official church doctrine). However, I do see drawbacks to developing one’s personal spirituality because it can often be confused with simply feeling good about oneself and worse, embracing a false sense of “enlightenment.”

But forget the negatives of each. That is not why I wanted to write this post. Both approaches—religion and spirituality—play a valuable part in God’s grand scheme! In fact, I think both terms can even share a common meaning.

Scientist/theologian Emanuel Swedenborg stated that a single person represents a “church” as its smallest unit. With such a definition, spirituality and religion are actually the same thing—with the exception that the first term addresses particular beliefs and the latter, shared or common beliefs. The challenge for all of us in this confrontational world is to “marry” high creativity with conformity.

Science is faced with the same problem—novelty versus constancy. Somehow God’s universe has successfully married these two fundamental features of reality. The manifest universe shows us causal processes that reflect both constancy of law and openness to evolution and change. Yet miraculously, these two seemingly opposite influences give us the perfection of unity through distinctiveness (diversity).

There is much, much more to discuss concerning this most important topic. I hope I have thrown out some ideas as a brain-starter.  Please chime in with your thoughts—all views are valid and important to the discussion!

http://www.provinggod.com

The thistle and the goldfinch

Once upon a time there was a precocious young lad who wanted to know where one could find real wisdom. So the boy went to see an aging man in the neighborhood who had a reputation for being wise.

The boy asked the old Sage why wisdom was so rare and so hard to find.

The old man looked deeply into the boy’s eyes and smiled. “It is not where to look but how to look,” explained the Sage. “Wisdom can be found everywhere in God’s created world.”

“Please sir, teach me how to look for wisdom.”

The great Sage smiled again and led the boy on a short walk to a field of thistles. “What do you see?” asked the Sage of the boy.

“I see a field of worthless thistles,” responded the boy.

“Look closer,” said the Sage.

“I also see some Goldfinches eating the seeds from the dried thistle flowers.” The young boy thought about this more inclusive observation and exclaimed, “Oh, I get it.  The thistles are not worthless after all, because they provide food for the goldfinches. Is that your lesson in showing me how to see God’s wisdom?”

“This is just the beginning of my lesson. There is more to finding true wisdom than discovering that nothing in God’s creation is wasteful,” replied the Sage. “There are even deeper things to observe in this field.”

“What deeper things?” inquired the boy.

“One can observe this thistle field and discover the secrets of the human heart and mind.  All nature’s processes symbolize something of the human mind and its different qualities.”

“I don’t understand,” said the boy scratching his head.

The Sage was still looking at the boy, but his focus seemed to go inwards. “The field—or ground—represents the information we possess in our memory. The plants, which grow in this field, represent the thoughts we entertain—that are rooted within and grow out from the memory.”

“But thistles have hurtful thorns,” complained the insightful lad.

The Sage continued. “Thistles, like other weeds, are often the first plants that take over the ground. Similarly, before one acquires true wisdom, selfish ideas come forth. These ideas serve to protect our first feelings of self-importance over others and make us “prickly.”

“What do the Goldfinches teach?” asked the boy.

“Humans can possess spiritual ideals, which allow the heart and mind to soar above our selfish thoughts and gain a higher viewpoint of what is most important. Like the Goldfinches, spiritual love not only functions above earthly selfish love and its thorny disposition, but can transform those hurtful ideas into a new quality. When a Goldfinch eats a thistle seed it is transformed into the more noble structure of a beautiful bird,” said the Sage. “Nature lets us see things about ourselves that would otherwise remain invisible.”

The young boy took this all in, then asked, “Can nature teach us more than the Bible?”

“They actually teach similar lessons—if you know how to look,” volunteered the old man. “For instance, when Adam and Eve were expelled from Paradise to live on a cursed ground of thorns and thistles, that same symbolic language is being applied.”

The boy’s eyes widened as his brain began to form new synapses.

“You now have a taste for how to find true wisdom,” said the delighted Sage.

http://www.innergardening.net

My dying mom snubbed healthcare

Around February 1995 I received a dreadful call from my mother. She gave me the news that her doctor “thought that she had pancreatic cancer.”

My first response to her was “What do you mean he thinks you have cancer?” She then told me that her doctor would have to perform a biopsy to be sure. So I asked her if she was going to get the procedure. Her answer indicated to me that she was uninterested.

“Don’t you want to know for sure?” I asked.  She still seemed ambivalent towards this invasive procedure. I then got my youngest brother on the phone (who was living with her at the time) and said that we had to convince mom that she should get the biopsy. He agreed.

It took both of us a period of two months to finally convince our mother to get the biopsy. I was relieved.

So the next time I talked to her on the phone I asked how things went. She replied, saying that the doctor somehow missed the tumor and would have to do it all over again.

I was pissed to hear this.

How could such a thing happen? After having twisted my mother’s arm to get the biopsy in the first place I knew there would be no way to convince her to have a second procedure performed on her. My heart sank.

I was confused as to why she did not want to know exactly what her status was. I was about to learn that she had accepted her fate and that she would tough it out. She refused all treatment, even though she had good healthcare insurance.

I visited her that spring. She acted normally but had some trouble eating. While taking a shower I developed a severe nosebleed. I suspect it was part sinus infection and part strained emotions. I ended up going to the emergency room to stop the bleeding. For the next few days it was my mom who was looking after me! How could this be?

I returned home, still alarmed at her condition. However, knowing that my brother was there to look over her brought a degree of calm to the situation. I had heard that pancreatic cancer was painful and assumed that she would seek treatment when the pain grew unbearable.

But she continued to tough it out. She suffered greatly, yet consciously.

That December I got a call from my brother that mom had finally said “It is time to take me to the hospital.” This did not mean she was ready for treatment, but ready to die.

By the time I was able to fly into New York from St. Louis, she was lying in her hospice bed, unconscious. Mom’s face was startlingly shrunken. I knew that her life force was receding from her corporeal body. What really caught my attention was her labored breathing—with each breath she gave out a straining sound as if she were punched in the stomach.

I asked my brother if she was on any painkillers. He said that in the hospital she had finally agreed to painkillers but that they gave her nightmares. She died in less than a week at the hospital. She simply had embraced a belief system that was different from most others. My mom did not see it as important to cling to this world. She had lived a full life and accepted God’s providence.

She died as a truly liberated woman.

I would gladly give up every post on this blog (and my two books) to be able to prove I had an equally strong inner constitution.

http://www.provinggod.com

Do animals possess morality?

Back in March ’09 I published a post entitled “Where does morality come from?” I offered some evidence to show that morality comes from God and represents a conscious spiritual principle.

The argument against such a transcendental claim usually comes from those who embrace Darwin’s theory of evolution and a materialistic philosophy about reality. They will point out that animals display a moral genetic disposition, such as social cooperation, protecting their young with their own lives and rendering various services for the betterment of the species. These acts of “goodness” are simply explained as the strategies of genes to ensure that they will have a future.

First of all, such a genetic disposition in animals seems like an appropriate outcome from a universe created by a God of Love. However we should not confuse “service” or instinctive acts of “goodness” with ethics or morality. Morality goes much deeper. Humans can provide helpful services from opposing principles. We can be helpful to others from a spiritual principle of mutual love or from another principle, which is egocentric and values self-gain.

Humans are not moral because of outward acts. Humans have an inner and outer reality (spirit and body). This double dynamic allows for hypocrisy, deceit and hidden agendas. Animals are what they are. But humans can hide their motives from the world. For a human to act morally, he or she has to be good inside and out.

Religion addresses the special inner world of the human heart and mind. Humans are free to choose what they value most. Religion is God’s wise strategy for guiding the human race as to the best values to choose—and for a scientific reason.

It is often said that science deals with facts and religion deals with values. But human evolution is tied to value systems. What we inherit from our parents mostly determines our physical characteristics. But what we personally choose from our free will determines the characteristics of who we really are.

What do our chosen values have to do with evolution—a science that addresses the dynamical adaptation of bio-complexity? Well, what we seek most in our lives represents HOW our inner or spiritual reality is organized. Values create belief-systems, which represent our thoughts, feelings and convictions arranged into real coherent structure. This higher-level structure represents a new embodiment for the soul (spiritual body).

So the real purpose of religion is to allow humans the opportunity to evolve inwardly for a life specially adapted to a non-physical realm (called heaven). In God’s grand scheme, nature’s incessant compulsion for self-organization and bio-complexity continues into the spiritual realm through humankind’s special relationship with God.

http://www.provinggod.com

Are there one-night stands in the spiritual world?

Unfortunately yes. But God goes to great lengths to minimize this bad behavior, starting with people’s particular education on earth. To understand God’s strategy in this matter we must first grasp that there is a big difference between one-night stands on earth and those that take place in the spiritual realm.

On earth, one-night stands involve physical sex—then the departure between the two participants. In the spiritual world, a one-night stand involves a more profound type of coitus and separation. Because humans have both a physical and spiritual reality they can have one-night stands in each realm.

The human spirit consists of the qualities of one’s heart and mind. Therefore, the information that we desire most represents that which we most eagerly hop into bed with. (We instinctively know this to be true when we utter words like “Politics makes strange bedfellows.”)

However, in the spiritual world everything is oriented to God (or against God). Those on earth who listen to God’s teachings then reject them—as soon as they cramp one’s style—actually participate in spiritual one-night stands. Since this has horrible consequences for a soul’s eternal well-being, God limits the spiritual knowledge some people are exposed to for their own protection (what a person doesn’t know can’t be screwed with).

Yes, God is guilty of dumbing-down the human race—especially concerning Sacred Scripture. What is not generally known is that God’s Holy Word contains three distinct levels of meaning. On the lowest level, Scripture contains a literal level of meaning. Above this, all the narratives in Scripture contain a spiritual message embracing deeper details concerning salvation. At the highest level, every story in Scripture refers to the Lord God’s glorification and process by which He united His Divine Essence (Jehovah) with His Human nature (Son) while living in the world.

If this divine information is shared too prematurely with the world, it could lead to too many one-night stands with God’s deepest secrets of faith—and their ultimate rejection. The Holy Scriptures warn against spiritual one-night stands in the Old Testament story of King Abimelech commanding his people not to “lightly lay” with Abraham’s “woman,” then later, Isaac’s “woman.” These warnings symbolize (on a spiritual level) that God’s deeper truths are not to be adulterated and profaned, and therefore, many are withheld from learning such things and wisely spared from engaging in something that would amount to spiritual perversion.

Good grief! I hope you didn’t stumble onto this blog by mistake. If you did, please accept my apologies, and leave before I reveal more things to you!

Stepping back from political hatred

When I opened up my Yahoo page this morning I saw an article about how some Democrats who regularly appear on Fox Cable News were becoming the target of hatred.

Back when I was attending Seminary someone asked me if I was Republican or Democrat. Since this seminary was aligned with the liberal agenda I felt the pressure of sensing that this question had a right and a wrong answer. However, being in a “spiritual” environment I felt obligated to give a sincere answer.

I found myself looking back at all the presidents I had voted for since I had turned 21. It included both Republicans and Democrats. However, in 1992 I voted for Ross Perot.

In the same way that the Lord God’s “Oneness” embraces a Holy Trinity of qualities, I believe a three-party political system could help towards unifying the nation. Duality is never a good thing (and always leads to vehemence). Furthermore, why should voting one’s principle and voting one’s party be two different things?

Easy—the current dual political system in America places winning elections over offering lasting solutions. The American public, thanks to a gloomy economy and high unemployment rates, has finally been awakened to the finger pointing, fraud and corruption of both parties! This, I believe, will inevitably lead the country to a permanent three-party system.

But let’s quickly look at two equally related but conflicting belief-systems that have fueled lots of hatred—Capitalism and Socialism. I see nothing inherently wrong with either—creating wealth or sharing it.  Yet, if we allow ourselves to look at history objectively, we have to admit that both systems have led to abuses of power. This tells me that the problem is ultimately spiritual.

In contemplating scientist/theologian Emanuel Swedenborg’s wonderful descriptions of heaven, it seems that God has made creative use of both socialism and the individual acquisition of wealth to create the ideal realm. The key here is wealth that one accumulates in one’s heart—not in one’s pockets. This deeper kind of wealth is created to be shared!

Angels are the servants of all and consider themselves the “least” in heaven. At the same time, those who become God’s angels through unconditional love and service do not live in broken-down shacks in the other world. They live in palatial mansions—because in heaven, the living quarters one lives in reflect all the qualities and largeness of one’s heart. To be “upwardly mobile” in heaven is an ambition to make one’s love more inclusive.

In heaven we create wealth according to our individual efforts and worth within God’s spiritual economy of mutual love. On earth we create wealth based on material values, which become the ends rather then the means towards finding happiness and peace. Filmmaker Woody Allen correctly observed that only a person with money is taken seriously (and good people are quickly dismissed). The inescapable truth is that money is the blood that runs the modern world. But Love is the currency that runs heaven’s economy. The point is, while cash is important, it would not get wasted in the hands of angels! Again, the problems in modern life are essentially spiritual.

I have not tried to solve America’s political rift and economic crisis in a single post. This important topic embraces many belief systems from the secular to the religious. So, I’d like to hear what you have to say about solving the problems we all face in our lives.

http://www.staircasepress.com

The Magic Window

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Debbie. She was looking out of the window of her room while thinking about God and the things that she had learned in Sunday School that day. These spiritual lessons had a powerful effect on her.

Suddenly an angel appeared before her. “Why are you looking out this window?” asked the angel.

Being young and in innocence, the little girl still believed in the reality of such miraculous beings and, instead of fear, delighted in seeing this heavenly visitor.  “I am not just looking out my window, I am thinking about God and things I learned in church,” answered Debbie.

The angel smiled. “Because you are such a bright little girl and open to learning new things, I have been sent from heaven to take you to another room, even more special, and show you a magic window,” explained the angel.

“I don’t think my parents will let me leave the house,” said the good little girl.

The angel replied, “You don’t have to move for me to take you to your real home. Just take my hand.”

Debbie reached out and clasped the angel’s soft, inviting hand. Suddenly there was a brilliant flash of light and Debbie found herself in another room. This new room was completely different from her other room, yet she recognized everything in it. Debbie felt completely at home in this new room. “Where is this place?” asked the inquisitive youngster, “It all looks wonderful and familiar!”

“Before I brought you here, you had simply been indoors. Now you are in a room even more inside than indoors,” came the amazing words of the angel.

“Wow,” exclaimed Debbie, “how can I be more inside a place than indoors?”

“You are now in your spiritual home,” answered the angel. “The Lord God built this home for you from the quality of your faith.” Then the angel pointed to a window in this fantastic room. “Go there,” said the angel, “that is the magical window I promised you.”

Debbie rushed over to the window to see what it showed her. Again, she recognized everything that she saw from this window—except it all looked particularly familiar and special to her.

“You are now inside a room that is inside you,” explained the angel. Noticing that Debbie was a bit confused by how this could be so, the angel spoke further, “You are now in your spirit. Now, your outside world consists of all the things in your mind’s memory. The magical window you are looking out from reveals all the thoughts, ideas and wishes contained in the your memory.”

“That’s why everything looks so familiar to me!” marveled the excited little girl.

“You are exactly right,” answered the angel who looked obviously pleased. “Now look closer at the things the window is showing you and describe to me what you see.”

As Debbie looked more carefully outside the magical window of her spirit, she noticed things changing and being reorganized. Then Debbie made a remarkable discovery and exclaimed, “Gee, every time I think about the lessons I have heard in church it causes the things I see from this window to change.”

The angel had a wonderful explanation for what Debbie was experiencing. “Every time you learn something new in church, you can see deeper into the ideas of your memory and arrange them into a more beautiful and heavenly order. As this happens God can make your spiritual home—that is, your faith—more beautiful as well.”

Debbie then turned from the magical window and noticed that the room she was in had become more beautifully arranged and furnished.

“I must take you back now,” said the angel as she held out her hand.

A week later when Debbie was back in her Sunday School class, the teacher was reading from Scripture the passage in Genesis (26:8,9) describing King Abimelech looking out through a window. As Debbie listened carefully to the teacher reading these words she noticed the same angel again—in the back of the room. The angel gave her a quick wink and a reassuring nod.

To everyone’s shock and dismay, Debbie blurted out the words, “I know exactly what kind of window King Abimelech was looking through!”

Website: http://www.staircasepress.com

A new kind of solar energy

Solar energy is often touted as a wonderful source of sustainable energy. In our current energy crisis, which is caused by our dependency on finite fossil fuels, sustainability of energy to keep the wheels of our economy running and preserve our quality of life is a high priority.

But true sustainability and quality of life must extend to the world beyond this one. If humans do not enjoy eternal life and blessedness then sustainability is meaningless.

There is another kind of alternative and sustainable energy source that can keep the wheels of economy running and improving the quality of our lives for an eternity. To tap into this infinite source of energy requires a new type of solar panel. This new solar panel represents a new array within the human mind.

What is unknown to most theologians (not to mention scientists) is that God’s heaven has its own source of light and heat. It is called the Spiritual Sun. Rather than giving off physical light and heat, it emanates God’s Love and Wisdom. The human spirit is sustained by this energy source in the same way that one’s physical body is sustained and maintained by the astronomical sun’s thermodynamic processes.

We sense the ontological reality of this Spiritual Sun when some passion or love generates inner “warmth” in our hearts, and when we “see” mental concepts from a rational source of light that affects the mind’s eye. Human intelligence (and interiority) is different from that of other animals because our minds are constructed to be more sensitive to the influence of the Spiritual Sun. Without such a metaphysical source of heat and light we would not be able to think or feel in a human way.

But growing up in the physical world only prepares our mind to act as a “low-tech” solar panel when it comes to tapping into the inexhaustible energy of the Spiritual Sun. There are special instructions available for those who wish to upgrade the efficiency of this spiritual technology. It amounts to an upgrade in the values we choose to guide our hearts and minds.

These special instructions, mentioned above, are generally made available to us in the form of “religion.” But more specifically, these instructions represent following God’s tenets of sincere spiritual love. (Any doctrine that separates knowledge from love is a false doctrine.) When we adopt God’s tenets of Love into our lives we fine-tune our spiritual solar panels to be more sensitive to the Spiritual Sun and the sustaining influence of the warmth of God’s Love and enlightenment from God’s Truth.

Those who tap into this non-physical sun will have access to an energy source that can sustain a noble quality of life through this world and the next! The angels of heaven are simply humans who have traded their worldly behavior for an upgrade.

Website: http://www.innergardening.net

ZOMBIES

With Halloween just several days away I thought it would be appropriate to look at the phenomenon of our fascination with Zombie horror movies. Having written a screenplay myself I am well aware that the creative process often taps into the collective unconscious. There is something about Zombies (and other horror film creatures) that touches a powerful chord in us.

We instinctively sense something real and dangerous about the notion of Zombies. The human mind, which has a spiritual level of operation, perceives and distills a real and deeper horror portrayed by Zombies.

Deeper horror?

Yes, Zombies symbolize a threat to the human soul and our spiritual well-being. The terms “living dead” and “walking dead” represent soulless creatures that have a gruesome appetite for human brains. There is a theological message hidden in this symbolism.

While it is a horrific thought that a creature could munch on human brains, our souls sense something far worse. Having one’s brains eaten by a “dead” form of humanity symbolizes to our soul the horrible result of having one’s intelligence feeding a dead (false) belief system.

The story of Adam and Eve in Genesis actually depicts how people can become Zombies. If you are familiar with this biblical event then you know that God warned Adam and Eve not to eat fruit from a particular tree, or they would surely die. But they ate the fruit and seemingly remained alive.

But they disconnected themselves from God, which is spiritual death. This whole unfortunate event is predicated from Adam’s first being lonely and then put to “sleep.” During this sleep—in a state of diminished cognitive ability—God creates Eve from Adam’s rib. This operation cleverly symbolizes what happens when humans long to exalt self-prudence over God’s wisdom. A rib is relatively dead compared to the heart and lungs, which means that God permitted Adam to partner with something less vital (because it was longed for). Eve represents the love of self and egoism (which is like a supportive “wife” to such a false belief system). By eating the forbidden fruit, they “swallowed whole” the flawed idea that they had wisdom from self, rather than from God. As a result they became the walking dead.

A similar metaphor is expressed in horror movies showing people having their brains eaten by the living dead. Symbolically speaking, such victims represent souls who sacrifice their minds and values for a dead principle and become Zombies as well.

The real horror is that spiritual Zombies have multiplied throughout the world and take part in every aspect of human life. The only antidote is spiritual transformation and acknowledging that all LIFE comes from the Lord God in heaven.

Website: http://www.provinggod.com