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Got "Freedom of Religion"?
This is the third in a "series" on Freedom that began with freedom of thinking and followed by freedom from government.
Date: 6/18/2014 6:28:53 AM ( 10 y ) ... viewed 1197 times My next suggestion for freedom concerns the relationship between the individual and Christian paradigms of thought within their respective institutions.
Allow me to first say that I was both raised as a Christian and I have more intensive experience as a "brother" in the Church. (Maybe some day I can share my personal account of that.) In the meanwhile I have something I want to begin sharing with others who are attracted to living their life according to what the institutionalized paradigms of Christiandom appear to say about the bible.
Scriptures say "The word of God is living". I find that to be both a verifiable scriptural fact and a manifest living power throughout the laws of creation (that even the American "founding fathers" referenced to as "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God"). On the other hand, the scriptures are also referred to by individuals, groups and even governmental entities as a kind of force, a force that can be likened unto what the "Star Wars" story portrayed as the "dark side"! That "dark side" applies largely to how the words in the bible are used! Maybe you have heard it said that "the devil can quote scripture". Anyone who realizes the extent of the truth of this does not need another history lesson for the validation. Those who don't know the history of how reference to the scriptures has been coupled with dark forces may have some homework to consider for themselves. (Due diligence is a large part of what I encourage.)
My very first focus here regarding the terms that are used in Christiandom begins with the word: "church".
"When the Greek city states found their governments had become too corrupt and oppressive, they would call for an ekklesia, an assembly outside the civil authority of the city. If enough people came out and refused to accept the existing centralized civil authority, that (civil) government would collapse. Non participation has been a successful and peaceful means to free mankind from oppressive civil authority throughout history. ...":
http://www.hisholychurch.net/ekklesia.php
"Ekklesia" is the word that was used in the original Greek for what beacme known in English as: "church". The word "church" (and all the meaning that is imbued into it) is one example of a force that can be used to have power-over individuals if the individuals do not clear their own terms. Imagine what the world would be like today if instead of "going to church" we functioned as self-governing eccklesia that had the power to collapse government? Does this kind of "church" exist today? If so then I would be most interested to know about it!
The issue in a "nutshell" is "self-government" on a level that allows true community particiaption. A fully functioning community self-government (without an external government) would require the community to take total self-responsibility. That would include all communications (and acts) that impact the community. That in turn would require each and every community member to have all the necessary abilities for communication with the greater community.
The kind of communication that self-government requires includes the ability to have a truly complete communication cycle with whomever/whatever entity may want to engage with/within the community. A fully complete communication requires that it be done in a way that includes understanding throughout the entire cycle. When this degree of understanding is present throughout the entire communication cycle then one can see that this form of communication is much more characteristic of a dialogue. Whatever may be described about the Ekklesia one thing is certain: all the members had the ability and the responsibility to communicate and dialogue among themselves.
Does what I have described here contrast with what exisits in Christian institutions today?
Theologically - consider the Gospel account of Peter recognizing and acknowledging the Christ in Jesus and whereupon Christ declares that this is the "rock" (of realization) upon which He would build his ekklesia. I imagine it may be possible that you might never have heard of this account presented in just the way that I have done here. Yet the term ekklesia is the Greek word in that very verse and Peter positively recognized who Jesus was and Christ Jesus positively spoke
in terms of that "revelation" as divine in nature and therefore suitable for Him to "build" upon! In other words there is a consciousness factor that is required to build with and that consciousness is nothing less than the Christ consciousness and that consciousness must be in us in order for any (Church) "building" to occur.
These insights require our clear thinking! That is why we must "clear our terms" in order
to have the right building materials (rock solid, Christed realizations) within our thoughts. "Prepare ye the way" in your mind!
Consider clearing your scripture terms rather than "swallowing" them whole and especially in an unconscious way. Otherwise you may be subject to a kind of spiritual indigestion that can wreck havoc on your psyche! The "word" is like food. The more you masticate it the more enjoyable and digestible it becomes. ; ~ )
If you automatically "adopt" or "believe" terms without establishing your own direct Knowingness then those terms can "Lord it over you". That "Lording" can go "dark" just as it was depicted in Star Wars.
Consider your divine design. You may have heard that you are created in "the image and likeness" of the most awesome creative source there is! Do you think that "design" might possibly include the ability to be self-governing? That is the principal behind the Ekklesia! Each and
every individual in the Ekklesia are self-governing as well as the whole of that entity! That is at the very crux of what Christ declared He will build upon in response to Peter's direct realization!
Peter beheld "The Christ" and The Christ immediately linked and directed that individualized realization to the next stage of its development. This is includes a transformation process which is something that may not be clearly conveyed if we just use the term "church" with just its more conventional meaning.
That is why I am saying we need another term (other than "church") to fully convey what is in the mind of Christ / Christ Mind / Christ consciousness and what I will call it's "Extension". In any case the need is for a term that is distinct from any that has been institutionalized and homogenized into the present age under the conditions that exist now.
Whatever appropriate term or a phrase may be used to adequately convey the meaning of the Divine Conception presented here it needs to carry the idea of being "called out". Probably the first thing one may be "called out" from is all the institutionalized conditioning and from all of the conditioning paradigms that make certain conditions what they are.
Institutionalized churches are not "called out" of the conditions plaguing the world for these institutions are where conditioning paradigms are re-generated and perpetually imparted! The institutionalized paradigms are a conditioning element that homogenize the thinking of the individual into the world's socialized matrix that the Christ Mind calls the individual out of and into "phase two" of the individual's Christed realization.
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July 26th - the need for transformation
"... explorations of the nature of experience have played a central role in the formulations of Christian spiritual writers throughout the ages. When such writers have delineated particular spiritualities, they generally have taken care to offer for each one something I have called a 'spiritual anthropology,' a description of what it is about the nature of the human being that allows for connection with the Divine. Such descriptions usually have included detailed attention to the nature of human experience, careful attempts to identify the discrete, granular characteristics of human experience. But why has this been so important to them? It has been important because the Christian spiritual traditions have insisted that the more fully human beings understand their own experience, the more fully they may come into communion with God. ... In every case (as far as I know) they insist that human transformation can not happen apart from paying close, conscious attention to the nature and characteristics of the process of human experiencing.":
http://www.wisebrain.org/contemplative-traditions/christian/explorations-of-the-brain-on-god-1
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Sunday, February 2, 2014 -
From my search for terms (that included "id and psyche"" I found
"the psychology of religion":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology_of_religion
and have appreciated reading the introductory material that is
presented there.:
"The science attempts to accurately describe the details, origins, and uses of religious beliefs and behaviors."
I appreciate the idea that:
"... dialogue between psychology and theology may foster greater understanding and benefit both fields."
I find this following statement validating to what I am presenting here regarding the need to clear our terms:
"The first, descriptive task naturally requires a clarification of one's terms ..."
"Dialogue" is back on the forefront of my mind. I am truly amazed when I consider that my journey over the last forty-four years has had a predominant central theme of "community" running through all of it and the fact that I have really changed my thinking on what the term "community" means to me now.
A pivotal junction (in my way of thinking on this) came to me through my hearing (plus transcription and contemplations) of part of a talk by Dennis Klocek's presentation in his class on Consciousness Studies (that he is professor of at Rudolf Steiner College). I have blogged on this earlier. He says that "dialogue is the new community"! He also says that we need to learn dialogue and if we don't have dialogue then the door to psychopathy is left open!
A major part of my message here (in light of all that I have shared in
this blog) is that this "door" can be "located" anywhere! That is why I soon included the arena of "churchdom" following that of government. The four major arenas I intend to address (and from now on to tie what I am presenting to the need for dialogue) are governmental systems, financial institutions, corporations and religious institutions. These are the predominate arenas that condition the three-fold society with the Rights, Social, and Economic spheres.
The spiritualization of our thoughts with our intuitive knowingness is true freedom! May you know your own true freedom and live that within all spheres of life!
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July 9th -
I wonder how many former "Unitarian Universalist Nichiren Buddhist atheist" there may be in the world.:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Buddhism/comments/1xcy87/theravada_buddhism/
I don't have a background in Buddhism in this life however I did chant "Nam Myoho Renge Kyo" in 1970 in Chicago on the North Side once at a gathering that apparently met for that purpose. I don't think that qualifies me as a Buddhist. However, I think that what the Buddha contributed to the collective may be accessible to all. Rudolf Steiner's "From Buddha to Christ" is certainly one book that I would like to read! I intend to make mention of the eight-fold path(1) in the book I am preparing to write. The first foundation of my book is true communication and I see that the eight-fold path supports this very well!
Now reading another lecture by Steiner.:
"... Who was the first man to see Christ in the aura of the earth? It was St. Paul, who did more than anyone else for the dissemination of Christianity. What caused Saul to become Paul? Neither the teachings nor the events that took place in Palestine, but the event at Damascus, which was of a super-sensible nature. Before that experience, Paul could not believe that the one who had died so disgracefully on the cross had been the Christ, but as an initiate of the cabala he knew that the Christ would be visible in the aura of the earth once He had appeared on earth. That was the experience of Paul, which transformed him from Saul to Paul. Paul said of himself that he was born prematurely, and the same is also said of the Buddha. This means that such an individuality does not descend too deeply into the physical realm. When Paul became clairvoyant before he came to Damascus, he saw and knew who Christ was.":
http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/Dates/19090531p01.html
(1)"... there is only one way to escape from sorrow, and that is by conquering the thirst for life. And this thirst for existence can actually be overcome when, according to the teaching of Buddha, men can learn to unfold within themselves the so-called ‘Eight-fold Path,’ which, so it is generally said, consists of right judgment, right discrimination, right speech, right deed, right living, right aspiration, right thinking, right contemplation.":
http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/19091202p01.html
"Right speech" is one part that most obviously related to communication. Also the dyad form of communication includes contemplation and therefor "right contemplation" relates as well. Then with additional awareness we can see that
"right thinking", "right judgment" and "right discrimination" can relate to "right speech". If "right speech" forms the basis for action then "right deed" and "right living" can also relate. last but not least I see "right aspiration" as an additional support for all the above.
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