“For each one of us, there is only one thing necessary: to fulfill our own destiny, according to God’s will, to be what God wants us to be.”  ~ Thomas Merton

 Happy Sunday!

The other evening around 8:00 pm I went to the back door to call the cats in for the evening.  I looked out the window and there were three cats resting on cushions on my deck; my two cats and a stray that has adopted us – I have named Buddy.  I opened the door and did my ‘spst’ sound to call in the cats.  Buddy sulked away slowly but not without looking as my two cats left their seats and obediently came in through the open door into the security of the house.
I recognized this situation as a metaphor for human relationship with God; humans being the cats and me representing God.  Cats are like us humans who have free will and can be very obstinate about doing things their own way.  Buddy really made me think of a typical human whose fear causes him to flee when being offered salvation from trouble that may be outside.  My cats are older now and realize after many years of being in our home that it provides protection from storms, warmth in the winter, and a source of nourishment.  They are willing to give in to my will, symbolic of God’s will. The cats receive love from our family, sometimes it seems like it puts them off but I send my love to them anyway so that I do feel we are connected and I find that they are more willing to take direction from me.
On Monday I finished reading the 81 lessons of the Tao as my morning practice.  As my new practice I have begun the 40 lessons of Rick Warren’s “Purpose Driven Life”.  I find myself attracted and repelled by the lesson’s each day.  Rick is very direct in his lessons, in the first one emphasizing that my life is not about me.  That was a tough pill to swallow after such along period of working on myself.  Rick goes deeper into the words of the bible so, thus far, each lesson has been unexpected.
A part of Rick’s writing that touches a sensitive spot for me is his fully Christian perspective.  It is ironic that as your heart and mind open to acceptance of ideas that you don’t know that all you know, that is part of you, becomes the more difficult to accept.  I suppose that as a reaction to Christian extremists, my thoughts have turned to rejection of the faith so as to dis-associate myself.  We are always tougher on those that are connected to us as they are a representation of ourselves.
I am working on acceptance of the Christian path again by comparing how I would find acceptance of extreme aspects of the other faiths I have been studying.
This week I have been back to thinking about Jesus and his role in bringing us to God.  Rick Warren in his lessons says, as many Christians like to reference, that Jesus is the path to God.  I have such trouble with that idea as it seems to alienate so many people – I am confident that was not the intention when it was said.  One of the reasons this quote bothers me, that human’s only get to heaven through Jesus, is that it seems to have become a weapon for some social groups to manipulate others, isolate themselves, and to spread hate.
In the bible Jesus said “no one gets to the Father except through me.”  I have some thoughts on that idea that do not reflect the sentiment that you have to be Christian to be with God.
One came from a Youtube cartoon that I saw recently.  A closed minded character was trying to convince a second character that it could not get to heaven without becoming Christian.  The second character replied, if I said that you could not get into the Moose lodge except through me, my help or choice, does that mean that you have to be a moose to get into the lodge?  This shows me Jesus as helper or benefactor to aid us in finding our way to God; I wrote about this in my blog of 2-16-14, the Bridge.
The other idea I have on this biblical statement comes from what I learned of Christ consciousness from reading Yogananda’s book “Autobiography of a Yogi”.  Christ Consciousness, or Cosmic Consciousness, is that connection to all the energy of the Universe that gave the Guru’s in Yogananda’s life wisdom and the powerful abilities of saints, sages, and prophets, and the great ones Jesus, Buddha, and Lao Tsu.
I think that Jesus was referring to his “Christ” side, the part of him that was aware and connected to the Oneness of Cosmic Consciousness.  If connecting to the field of consciousness is what is necessary for us to be able to release the struggles and awareness of human life on Earth, and that this is where Jesus’s consciousness resided, then yes, we all must pass through this to get to the Father, the omnipotent knowing of All.
It upsets me that such a loving and wise being as Jesus Christ is being used as a means for separating us when his message is one of connection.  Why are his most prominent words, his one commandment so easily forgotten?
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” John 13:34
I think a lot about Jesus.  I have read about other saints and prophets who have had some of the abilities Jesus showed.  I understand that God’s Love can be found for any of us by asking for help of Holy Spirit and working to connect with Christ Consciousness, so what was different about Jesus?
My story of calling my cats in holds an answer to this question for me.  When my cats were young, before they chose to give into my will, I would have to go out and lure them in with treats and games to attract them to me so I could bring them inside.  Jesus is the aspect of God who comes into our world, to be with us, to guide us in where we are loved and secure.  He told us this in his story of the good shepherd.
“I am the good shepherd.  As the Father knows me and I know the Father, in the same way I know my sheep and they know me.  And I am willing to die for them. There are other sheep which belong to me that are not in this sheep pen.  I must bring them, too; they will listen to my voice, and they will become one flock with one shepherd.” John 10:14-16
Jesus leads us back to acceptance of God’s Will.  This was his role when he was here on earth.  This is the role of the legacy of his teachings.  I have been thinking that Jesus’s soul is the Holy Spirit, the connection that is always there for us if we just ask.  It is the energy that comes and seeks us out to open doors that lead us back home.
“We are gripped by God’s will of love, and must help carry out that will in this world, in small things as in great things, in saving as in pardoning. To be glad instruments of God’s love in this imperfect world is the service to which we are called.” ~ Albert Schweitzer