Tag Archives: material world

Love and Material Reality

2016-12-31_cascading-water-1183847-1278x855God is love and God is Spirit.  Each member of the human family is also created in this image or pattern.  Turning water to wine, multiplying food, and healing the sick are all results demonstrated by Jesus of Nazareth while a member of our human family.  Likewise, any person with a deep spiritual understanding also has the capacity to make material reality subject to spiritual law.

Love for example is a spiritual law that is simple enough for any human to exercise, experience, and experiment with. In the same way, that the laws of flight overcome the laws of gravity, love is a law that over comes most laws of material reality. This is the reason Jesus demonstrated and taught the spiritual truth of love as the basic way of living. Jesus used the condition of blindness as both a literal and a metaphorical teaching object. The material reality of blindness is powerless when confronted with the spiritual understanding of the power of the law of love.

Spiritual understanding is simply conscious awareness of an existence beyond this material world. Faith in the possibility of spiritual truth is a start, but it is not until one has a conscious experience with spiritual truth does this material world begin to yield and reveal its weakness. During the holiday season of Christmas there is an atmosphere of love, if one can become consciousness of it. When we allow ourselves to get caught up in the spirit of the season any impediments to our peace and happiness that was erected in the material realm, seem to dissolve. However, most people dismiss such disillusions as Christmas magic.

Because very few of us humans have attained the understanding or awareness of the spiritual realm, we settle for the peace and happiness that the illusions of material wealth and health give. If those that claim to be disciples of Jesus obtain even a little success in the mastery over this material reality, a joy unspeakable would reverberate within their being. To be able to pass on an inkling of this consciousness to their children would be an inheritance fit for a king. Imagine a generation of humans having beliefs beyond what passes as normal religious faith.

Jesus said, “Love others as self”

Yet, He always demonstrated,

“Love others before self”.

So the question becomes how can, any human operate a love that transcends this material reality. First, we must awaken to this simple insight. Jesus said, “Love others as self” yet, He always demonstrated “Love others before self”. Secondly, one must make an effort and assault the common notion that love is a two-way street. Holding that belief as truth will make it impossible to walk on water, disappear through a crowd, or walk through walls. When love flows from God, through you, toward others it is an indescribable feeling. In that moment, we need nothing from material reality, and there for we are no longer subject to its laws.

Galatians 5:23 (NKJV) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

We hold beliefs that God is infinite and that we are created in His image or pattern. Yet most religious and scriptural interpretation does little more than give an infinite God the human attributes of a face, arms, and legs. Very few if any appropriate the infinite qualities of God like an infinite conscious, one that does not slumber or sleep, or infinite presence. We lay down to rest the body and our consciousness soars as it returns to the greater realms of what we misname as the realms of dreams and deep sleep.  When we return to the smallest realm of the material reality, we say we are awake, all awhile we are blind and dismiss the greater realms we just left.  We must let go of the belief that the “I” of our being shares the limits of our material body

Psalm 82:6-8 (NKJV) I said, “You are gods, And all of you are children of the Most High. But you shall die like men, And fall like one of the princes.” Arise, O God, judge the earth; For You shall inherit all nations.

Luke 6:40 (NKJV)  A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher.

We humans were created for so much more, yet we are stuck in our traditions. A box of no escape may be good for building an earthly organizations and protecting its membership, but it will never get humanity to see itself as sons and daughters of God.

Escape velocity is a term of violent revolution for earthlings that have not achieved travel at the speed of light.  Likewise, we humans holding a set of beliefs that exalt the laws of material reality need a violent revolution of love as demonstrated by Jesus in order to become transformed.  We need to redefine the common definition of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. My suggestion:

A Disciple of Jesus is a believer, motivated by the belief that within a single human lifespan, any human could be trained to replicate any of the works of Jesus, and live as the child of God they were created to be. Upon graduation the child of God lives out the remainder of their days in the office of Ambassador to God’s Kingdom.

If humanity is to complete its evolutionary journey and reach its full potential, we need a constant update of our beliefs, as we consistently become more conscious of spiritual reality. Love is the doorway out of a belief system that material reality reigns supreme.

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Love’s Revolution

2016-06-26_water-ripples-bubbles-5-1393323-1599x1034It is June 2016 and the tension leading up to American elections in November is growing. In the shadow of the European Union is dealing with the Brexit, one could say that there is revolution is in the air. I was too young to experience the tensions in 1964. I have only read about the tensions leading up and through the American civil war. Yet, what I do know is that this experiment in democracy called America is being tested once again.

Matthew 12:24-26 (NKJV) Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, “This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.” 25 But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. 26 If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?

The big challenge in America is simply one of perception.  If we all agree that experience is real, then perception is the lens through which we interpret the cause and effects of our experience.  We may all be a witness to events globally and nationally but our perceptions of those events can be different for each. In 1776, there were 2.5 million perceptions in America and today it is estimated that we have just over 324 million perceptions. The big question we all need to ask is, what is fueling all these points of views? Is it fear or is it love.

“We the people”, is a point of view that I seldom hear invoked in my network of global consciousness. Even the “pursuit of happiness” has lost the sub-context of a collective endeavor. In my opinion, the deceitfulness of riches has become the opiate of the masses and the mantra of our capitalistic society. The prevailing perspective has de-evolve toward dog eat dog race for riches and or personal financial security.

The fear of losing this race has so gripped the American mindset that very few believe the structures of our society support their personal success. Therefore everyone is in a cover your own rear-end mode of living. In fact many perceive that supporting the American infrastructure is like adding more competitors to a race in which we all perceive ourselves to be further behind than the previous generation. What passes as politeness today is the idea that I am going to get mine and when it is all said and done me and mine will be safe and secure. With that mindset, many will buy and store extra ammo to ensure the security of material gains in order to hang on until the end.

However, there comes moments in every human culture that experiences revolution where societies decide that we are better together than we are apart. Those moments usually happen twice. Once before the revolution begins and once following the effects and momentum to change that all revolutions bring. However there is no guarantee that at either moment the correct choice will be selected.

Love has been waging a revolution with in the single culture of humanity since Adam and Eve left the garden. In the end, the Love of God for the children of God will win the day. We who are alive in 2016 are experiencing such a moment. We all will have to decide if winning the materialistic race is more important than “We the people”. We each have to decide if love will inform our perception more than the fear circulating in our atmosphere.

The revolution waged by love for humanity is as old as the relationship between God and his first children Adam and Eve. Love is asking each of us. Who told you were naked or separated from Him? Out of compassion, God will not let his children enter into eternity with a mindset that they are not loved by him. “Oh how He loves us” is a set of lyrics sung in the religious tradition that has been reduced to a song that people sing but when they step into the parking lot the materialistic fear in the global consciousness of this world tries to reassert its authority.

Love is a faithful revolutionary force that causes the human ego to die and the infinite nature of our being to flourish. We are created in the infinite nature of God but we mostly live with a finite perception, going about our ways as creatures doing. If however, as we open to the radiance of love, the true nature of that which we call “I” strengthens its awareness to the presence of God that dwell inside all his human children.

If we choose light over darkness, we live as beings with perceptions of love. Children are able to love like their Father. Our Father in heaven is waging Love’s Revolution for every heart on this planet. At this moment in human history we all have the opportunity to take advantage of the moment before us and sense love in order to choose love. In the end God’s love will win.

Psalm 82:5-8 (NKJV)

They do not know, nor do they understand;
They walk about in darkness;
All the foundations of the earth are unstable.

I said, “You are gods,
And all of you are children of the Most High.
But you shall die like men,
And fall like one of the princes.”

Arise, O God, judge the earth;
For You shall inherit all nations.

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Non-Local (Infinite) Love

One of the qualities of being human is our ability to exist simultaneously in the realm of the infinite (non-local; spiritual) and the realm of the finite (local; material; 3 dimensions + time). Western thought traditionally separates these realms and relegates mystical and supernatural events to the spiritual realm. This perspective has given rise to a culture that has a preference towards a rational and scientific approach to life.  Or does it?

Fundamentally and traditionally we westerners still dream of a love that never dies and we blindly enter marriage relationships with a fantasy like expectation of a love that will last beyond our human lifetime. Even today, when gifts are exchanged as token of marriage they are forged with materials such as diamonds, gold and titanium. These materials are used because they symbolize our hope for relationships to last beyond our physical lives.

Western civilization rests its stability on the foundations of these marriages that produce families, which in turn produce communities, which in turn produce the nations of the earth. These fundamental relationships of love are expected to transcend the current generation and leave an inheritance, which is an expression of love, for the next generation. Institutions that memorialize persons who have moved into the next phase of existence provide expressions of love that transcend and strengthen the foundation for future generations.

Even though love is eternal or non-local it requires an expression in the real-time. Any husband that forgets a birthday, anniversary or valentine’s day is quickly reminded just how long-term a relationship can be. When the spark of love begins there is a hope that it will never die and there is an expectation that each love will be continually expressed to reinforce its existence. The fact that God created the universe as an act of love, or a proposal for marriage however unique or grand the gesture holds very little meaning as we proceed in time without subsequent expression.

So what happens when the chain of love is broken?

We humans create and imaginary timeline that began with the big bang and it stretches towards the infinite (non-local) future. This current moment of “Now” is where we reside. This universally agreed slice of time has no standard duration but is imagined to be moving along the timeline towards the future. For each of us there was a spark of love that created our being. The big question is what person, what culture or what religious or secular institution is responsible to express love to us as individuals?

Before I answer that question, let me inject 2 points. The first has to do with language and the way we describe the reality in which we exist. Albert Einstein documented the principles of relativity and its language continues to dominated the context of western thought. An example would be the way you would describe the relationships and interactions of pool balls on a pool table. During the cold war nations and cultures related in a paradigm of the pool table and the ball with the greatest momentum had the greatest political influence. Religious thought also operates in this paradigm. However, Einstein also discovered the principles  for quantum physics providing us with another language context with term like entanglement, non-locality and de-coherence. This posting uses the term non-locality to describe love as an object in hopes that we can discover its operations outside of our dimensions of time and space.

The second point is a real-time example of a broken timeline. If you are in relationship with a person suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, you are as witness to someone who experiences non-locality.  People with Alzheimer’s are unable to communicate in-synch with you and our universal concept of the timeline. Short term memory storage areas of the brain is where each human correlates space and time and when we lose access to this we become separated from others that are bound to these universal dimensional constructs. These constructs vary for every individual, every culture and every religious and secular institution.

Today we are living in inter-national global societies and regardless of where you find yourself on this planet at any moment technology is making that place a nexus of multi-cultures and institutions. It used to be that home was where our heart was, that singular place of time and space, where we left behind and sent the expressions of our love.  That collapse of distance and awareness, creates an entanglement between individuals cultures that were once isolated. For many people today home no longer has a fixed location, in other words home has become non-local as it relates to time and space.

What’s love got to do with this?

So right where we stand in this moment, who or what culture or what religious or secular institution is responsible to express love to us as individuals? If “God” is not the answer to that question you have just discovered why there are problems in the world. Simply put the definition of being lost is the inability to see God and His love for us in the moment and in that space. Traditionally we humans look to people and objects to generate the forces that influence feelings of love. However, in the quantum state all things are entangled and all things are possible and all things that exist, are from God.

As disciples of Jesus we are authorized to love everyone. Yet, we live on a planet of 7.5 billion people who are looking for love in all the wrong places. The thing that is supposed to set followers of Jesus apart from the crowd is their ability to love and reveal the true source of love. God is the source and for persons that understand their connectedness to God’s love should flow easily. If I could encourage anything it would be for every person to discover that they are linked to God as either His daughter or son. Like the air we breathe His love flows through each of us. Understanding God and His love of all is a privilege and honor I hope each human experiences God’s love the local and the non-local realm of reality.

Gen 1:27, 31 (NLT)

27So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

31 Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!

John 3:16 (NLT) “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

Romans 8:31-39 (NLT)

Nothing Can Separate Us from God’s Love

31 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? 32 Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? 33 Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. 34 Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us. 35 Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? 36 (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) 37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. 38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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