Talking to My Selves in Dreams

WE ALL HAVE MULTIPLE PERSONALITIES

Thesis: Dreams are the voices of our multiple personalities.

Rita Carter’s book, Multiplicity, The New Science of Personality, Identity and Self, presents evidence that we all have multiple personalities, or more than one self or identity. We are actually many selves, each slightly or radically different. Her work provides an excellent balance to Eckhart Tolle's popular book, The New Earth, which speaks about *'the' ego. I appreciateTolle's valuable observations, however, am troubled by the mono-psychological cul de sac he leaves us in when he implies we have only a single self.

Carter says that most of us have a Major or central personality that we display publicly, and 1-20 Minor personalities who emerge in various situations and with different people. The advent of the Internet age - with email, instant messaging, dating services, role playing games, and camera phones has allowed people to experiment more with their various minor personalities. Carter also suggests that we may have one or several **Micro personalities – a self or selves which hang in our consciousness by a thread and barely exist, yet have the potential of becoming a thriving Minor personality, or less likely, a reigning Major personality. She says that some people have no Major, but rather several Minor personalities which they switch between all day long. We usually call such people ‘moody’ or unpredictable.

The dissociative disorder called MPD (Multiple Personality Disorder) is neither minimized nor dismissed by recognizing that we all have multiples. Multiples are considered a ‘disorder’ when they don’t communicate with each other and cause harm to the life of the inflicted person or those around him/her. In other words, the demure third grade school teacher who comes home from class and goes online to become the sensual Madame QueenDom does not suffer from MPD as long as she switches back to the elementary teacher when the phone rings and it is the parent of one of her students. So called normal people’s various selves know each other to at least some extent, and have some control over when and where they emerge, and do little long term damage. They may feel guilty, confused and hypocritical, but such emotions may be the result of the assumption of our mono-obsessed culture which views a single consistent 'self' as the goal of all healthy psyches.

NOT A NEW THEORY

Multiple selves is not a new theory. It has been around for ages. The ***Jesus of the ancient Gospel of Thomas suggested this in saying #84, "When you see your likeness (self), you are happy. But when you see your images (selves) that came into being before you and that neither die nor become visible, how much you will have to bear!"

Goethe, the German philosopher and poet said, “Two souls, alas! reside within my breast, and each withdraws from and repels its brother.” Saint Paul confessed that he had one self which wanted to love God and mankind, and another personality that sought to satisfy only selfish desires (Romans 7:15-20). Carl Jung spoke of discovering two selves early in life; he referred to them as Number One and Number Two. Later Jung would speak of the many ‘little people’ inside each of us. Mike Meyers addressed this humorously in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, through the character of Mini-Me. Robert Louis Stevenson’s book, Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, comes to mind as well, and Walt Whitman who wrote, "Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. I am complex. I contain multitudes."

FROM THE MEDIEVAL RACK TO MEDICAL PROZAC

Our monotheistic, monogamous, monopolistic, mono-psychological West does not typically like the heresy of anything poly (many). We will not tolerate polytheism, polygamy or polyamory. We focus on integration and wholeness. We emphasize law, order, consistency and integrity. We want complete equality between races, genders and religions. Even our professed love of multi-culturalism would have us believe that all humans are basically the same. Unity, united, union and unification are the aims of this culture. Abraham Lincoln sacrificed the lives of over half a million men to keep these states united. G.W. Bush Jr. fancies himself a sort of modern Lincoln, using force to unite the world under American democracy. Being number one is admired in sports and business, all the rest are losers. Any hint of dysfunction or fragmentation is immediately a disorder. We consider insanity (not being whole) the worst fate to befall a human being. Anything bi-, poly-, schizoid or multiple is the scientific equivalent of medieval heresy. We don't put our fragmented heretics on the rack to bring them around to religious unity, we put them on Prozac to make them socially and statistically 'normal'. Medical and Medieval are perilously closely related etymologicaly and ideologically. Both are 'medi' words - the middle, transitioning from darkness and fragmentation to healing and wholeness. These are noble aspirations, but only part of the human condition.

Carter’s theory suggests that our obsession with The One may be out of step with the facts about the human Psyche. The recent rise in interest toward mythologies, via people like Joseph Campbell and George Lucas, portends a new awareness of our multiple selves. Most ancient cultures were polytheistic because the Psyche ex-presses what it is, multiple. This modern rediscovery of myth is not about religion per se, but about our frantic human Psyche trying to recover our many hidden and neglected selves! There are many ramifications to this theory, and I would like to touch on one: the role of dreams as they relate to our several selves.

DREAMS AND OUR MANY SELVES

It seems to me that this idea of having multiple selves may explain the primary purpose of dreams. Perhaps dreams provide voices for the various personalities. James Hillman, writes:

“Dreams tell the soul’s tales in persons… psyche is using a particular metaphorical language system which is very detailed and concrete and seems to accomplish a specific end….” Re-Visioning Psychology, pp. 82-83

If you substitute the word personalities for ‘persons’, then dreams become a means for our various selves to communicate while they have our focused attention during sleep, and upon waking. We ought to pay special attention to those dreams which cause us to awaken with deep emotions. Hillman says that certain dreams cause us to be “afflicted [and] haunted through the day, psychologically on edge. The pathologized images have moved the soul in several ways.” This is reminiscent of Jesus saying, “But when you see your images (selves)… you will have much to bear!" Gospel of Thomas, saying 84

Perhaps our dreams are therapy sessions from and between our various selves on the nocturnal consulting couch. Each person is me. Even the animals and geography are metaphors for my various selves. We most often identify the observing character in our dreams as The self, as me. Perhaps that observing person is just the Major personality, while the other persons and places are the Minor or Micro selves trying to get some attention. They have some important information disguised in bizarre behaviors and symbols to really elicit attention.

Is it possible that some Minor personality is begging to be noticed in our dreams? Maybe the dominant Major personality is asking for a little time off. Perhaps an imperceptible Micro personality is asking to be developed. The human Psyche, like the malleable earth, is always shifting, eroding, dissolving, and reforming. Religions have always recognized and sought such **shifts through rituals and ceremonies.

DREAMS AND EMOTIONS

We need to pay special notice to those recurring dreams or themes, especially those evoking strong emotions. Hillman suggests that we rightly understand the guilt and shame which are inevitably induced by certain dreams, “We can let go of this style of guilt, seeing through it as a defensive business that prevents archetypal fantasies (images) from coming through. For from the archetypal point of view, the matter is less that one feels guilty than to whom: to which person (personality) of the psyche and within which myth does my affliction belong, and does it bespeak an obligation? Which figures (personalities) in which complexes are now laying claim? From this perspective the guilt brought by pathologizing (emotional suffering) takes on radical importance. It leads out of the ego and into recognition that through a pathologized experience I am bound to archetypal persons (personalities) who want something from me and to whom I owe remembrance.”

It is interesting to me that I may have a very weird dream and feel fine until I wake up, and the Major ego personality hijacks the dream. The Minor or Micro is shamed and silenced. Instead of listening, I try to get beyond my pathology and heal the aberrant images. I think this is partially what Hillman is suggesting – that we move past the guilt heaped upon us by the Major personality (Freud’s Super Ego), and ask the question, “Who are you and what do you want?”

I recently had a dream where an attractive young married woman was in love with me, and then suddenly changed her mind. She, husband by her side, nonchalantly told me that she was going back to her husband and had no feelings for me whatsoever. I awoke devastated. My Major personality told me I was a covert adulterer and a loser to boot. Then I applied Hillman’s advice and asked, “Who are you? Which neglected self is emerging? What do you want me to know or remember? What do I owe you?” Immediately, my perception shifted. It was not a dream about me, it was an aspect of me. I was not having a dream, the dream was having me. I saw that one of my feminine minor selves is an aloof lover who runs roughshod over the feelings of those close to me, rejecting them when they get too close. It was a sobering revelation. In the dream she was asking, "How do 'you' like that? That is how others feel when 'you' do that."

If you find this idea interesting, read Carter’s book, Multiplicity, The New Science of Personality, Identity and Self.

http://michaelbogar.com/pages/home.php
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Footnotes:

*Tolkien's book, The Hobbit, takes a poke at our western propensity of mono-ism when he puts the definite article before The Hill and The River where Bilbo lived, thinking there was only one location on Middle Earth. By the end of the story, with Gandalf's help, he discovered many places, and many other selves which he didn't even know he contained- a thief, a warrior, coward, etc.

**This paradigm helps to explain the phenomenon of 'conversion' or radical psyhic shifts which some people experience. A Minor or Micro personality suddenly acquires 'the straw that broke the camel's back' and like a techtonic continental shift, replaces the old Major personality. This gives hope to those of us who would like to experience such a shift, though it is most likely to take place gradually through re-education and psycho-spiritual practices. (cf William James and Big Book of AA)

***One Bible translator suggested that the metaphorical meaning of Jesus’ saying in John’s Gospel, “In my Father’s house are many mansions…” may refer to more than one reality or self. The word mansion is used in other ancient sources to refer to a teacher’s classroom; perhaps Jesus was suggesting that this life contained a number of classrooms or selves, each bringing a different lesson to the growing soul. Keep in mind that those who took Jesus literally in John’s Gospel were considered spiritually ignorant (John 3, et al).

IS THE MEDIA THE NEW CHURCH?

THE BIRTH OF A NEW RELIGION

I am reading a most fascinating socio-religious assessment that rings true to me on many levels. The title of the book is Entertainment Theology by Barry Taylor, and the author suggests that we are in the midst of a nascent, barely perceptible new religious institution in the making. Yes, institution.

It is easy today to observe the huge Catholic Church or Muslim Community, each claiming over one billion adherents; but there was a time centuries ago when each was growing incrementally and would not have been seen for what they would eventually become. Taylor suggests that a new religious movement is growing up around us right now, a whole new organization is forming one little cell at a time which will become a sort of global equivalent to the Catholic Vatican or Muslim Caliphate.

Most of us can't see it because this new movement is not overtly religious, not local, not limited to one culture nor using the usual forms and content of the standard religions. Ideas and forms from all religions and no religions are being utilized. Taylor sees the media as eventually becoming the main pulpit/classroom for teaching the new spiritual ideas. The current sessions with Oprah and Eckhart Tolle foreshadow this new edge approach. The other day, while waiting at a bus stop, I saw a guy reading Tolle’s book, The New Earth. People who have never been to church are tuning into the internet sessions to hear Oprah speak with Tolle about the role of ego in mental suffering.

Mike Meyer's new movie, The Love Guru, was inspired by his attendance at a Depak Chopra seminar after Meyer's father died - and Meyers now values Chopra's teachings, enough to veil the spiritual truths he has adopted in his whacky brand of comedy. Comedian Jim Carrey has become a very strong advocate for a spiritual approach, using comedy to teach universal truths. See Jim Carrey's Secret: Less Prozac, More God By Todd Peterson

A 2005 Barna Research Project Confirms This:

"The reshaping of Americans’ lives is evident in various facets of their life, including the spiritual dimension. A new nationwide survey conducted by The Barna Group indicates that while 56% of adults attend church services in a typical month, a much larger percentage is exposed to religious information and experiences through various forms of media. Radio and television are the most popular Christian media, but faith-related Internet sites as well as religious magazines, newspapers and books also enjoy significant exposure. Although these religious media are a supplement to a church experience for most people, millions of individuals rely upon one or more of these media as their primary source of spiritual input."

I AM SPIRITUAL BUT NOT RELIGIOUS

There has never been a time in human history when there has not been some sort of mainstream religious organization. Many people today like to say they are ‘spiritual but not religious.’ I fully understand this phrase, yet what it really means, when translated, is “I don’t like any of the narrow, boring organized religious groups I have experienced or stereotyped so far.”

Humans organize. That is what we do. As long as there is the spiritual impulse, we will create organizations with places, principles and people to facilitate helpful spiritual experiences. In the emerging paradigm, such experiences are increasingly being mediated via movie theatres, the internet, concerts and other such events. Eclectic spiritual media teachers are gradually rivalling television evangelists. People like Wayne Dyer, if not replacing, are reaching as many as Billy Graham once did.

THE NEW FUNDAMENTALS

Aldous Huxley touched on the future need for focusing on the universal basics of the spiritual life in his book, The Perennial Philosophy, where he enumerated the fundamental global religious truths. We might call this the emerging ‘New Fundamentalism’. Fundamental means foundational. It is a beneficial word when seen in context. It is time to develop a religion which captures the foundational spiritual truths for all humans.

Carl Jung predicted the need for such a new religious shift in his 1933 book, Modern Man in Search of a Soul. Jung rightly pointed out that fewer and fewer modern people are finding the experience of spirituality in their churches. Bill Wilson was a prophet of this new edge spirituality, founding Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935 as a movement which focused on the basic building blocks of a spiritual life without creedal tests and theological union cards for belonging.

We are in the midst of a religious birthing. We are on the edge of something powerful. It has the potential to become very beneficial, or very evil, as with all religious movements. Many will oppose it as the one world church predicted in the Book of Revelation; others will see it as the universal spiritual body predicted by Jesus and the Apostle Paul. Many will not even notice it since the shift is so subtle. Others will perceive it, adopt the universal principles of spirituality, and find creative and personally unique ways to spread the experience of Spirit wherever they are. These people may or may not currently be in traditional churches which will not be going away anytime soon. In fact, the traditional religions will play a huge role in birthing this new religious order, just as Greco-Roman paganism played a huge role in assisting the nascent Christ movement.

The biggest challenge in this new religious movement will be to find personal connection with other people. The media and internet cannot replace the interface of human spirits face to face, eye to eye. Perhaps movie theatres will one day add Conversation Rooms with a Starbucks to their buildings where people can meet after a movie and discuss it, or hear someone speak about it.

Imaginal Realm

The Imaginal Realm

The Imaginal Realm is the region of pure Forms located between the region of pure spirits and psychological archetypes, totally unconnected to matter, and ordinary physical reality.

Concerning this Imaginal World, Muslim Suhrawardi's commentator Qutbuddin Shirazi says:

"It is there that the various kinds of autonomous archetypal Images are infinitely realised, forming a hierarchy of degrees varying according to their relative subtlety or density....On each of these levels species exist analogous to those in our world, but they are infinite. Some are peopled by Angels and the human Elect. Others are peopled by Angels and genii, others by demons. God alone knows the number of these levels and what they contain. The pilgrim rising from one degree to another discovers on each higher leveel a subtler state, a more entrancing beauty, a more intense spirituality, a more overflowing delight. The highest of these degrees borders on the intelligible pure entities of Light and very closely resembles it."

Interviews from Beyond the Grave: Jesus and Jim Morrison

Interviews from Beyond the Grave
brought to you by
The Academy of the Dead



MICHAEL: Good evening, I am your host and welcome to another edition of Interviews Beyond the Grave from The Academy of the Dead. Here, we are limited by neither space, time nor geography, and able to access the Imaginal Realm without the forms required by the usual sensory organs. We always bring you some of the most unlikely match-ups imaginable.

Tonight we have Jim Morrison, a co-founder of the popular 20th century band, The Doors, and Jesus of Nazareth who needs no introduction. Let’s begin with Jim, welcome to Interviews Beyond the Grave Mr. Morrison, or should I say Mr. Mojo Risin?

JIM MORRISON: Thank you, great to be here, and I just wanna say how privileged I feel to be hanging out with Jesus, the original Door, the real Mr.Mojo Risin, if ya know what I mean.

MICHAEL: I don’t know what you mean, unless you are referring to the resurrection.

JIM MORRISON: Yep, that’s the risin I’m talking about.

MICHAEL: So Jesus, welcome, and let me ask you about this controversial miracle of the resurrection; we moderns aren’t too keen on this idea that dead men come back to life – did it really happen?

JESUS: Good to be here, and yes, it did happen.

MICHAEL: Can you prove it to modern readers who have evolved beyond the fairy tale mentality of gullible primitives?

JESUS: They are reading an interview with a couple of dead guys aren’t they?

MICHAEL: I see, but they will say that this is an imaginary interview.

JESUS: I prefer the word Imaginal.

MICHAEL: Meaning?

JESUS: Imaginary assumes we made it up and that it never existed apart from our brains; Imaginal recognizes a Realm that actually exists beyond normal space and time – you know, like dreams.

MICHAEL: But could people have touched your body in the first century, was it real?

JESUS: Are your dreams real?

MICHAEL: Yes.

JESUS: Can you touch them?

MICHAEL: Well, not really, but they do touch me.

JESUS: Exactly…the resurrection really happened.

MICHAEL: But Jesus, come on now, we all know now that dreams are just biological burps in the restless brain during sleep, or, how did Ebeneezer Scrooge put in when he saw his first ghost, “You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There’s more of gravy than grave about you, whatever you are.”

JESUS: Have you never wondered why so many people who wrote about seeing me experienced the same biological burp simultaneously? Do you suppose that they all ate from the same underdone potato?

JIM MORRISON: Whoa! Dude! See why I say he is the Original Door!

MICHAEL: Jim, say more about that, why do you call Jesus the original door?

JIM MORRISON: Well, the door metaphor comes from the Gospel of John, as I recall. I was reading it the night I accidentally overdosed in the tub in France - John 10:9 in the King Jimmy Version where Jesus says, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” At that point in my life I knew I was no door, more like a bloated alcoholic boor.

See, originally I thought Aldous Huxley came up with the door idea when he was writing about mind expanding drugs and his 1954 book, The Doors of Perception, which by the way is where we got the name of our band ya know – well, actually Huxley borrowed if from the mystical poet William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, "If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern."

In 1965 I was reading Huxley’s book one night, trippin out on Mescaline, looked up at the television, and that funky door from the Twilight Zone came spinning onto the screen and Rod Serling was sayin, “You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension. A dimension of sound... a dimension of sight... a dimension of mind. You are moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You've just crossed over into... The Twilight Zone.”

I think that is the Imaginal Realm Jesus was talking about – it’s not imaginary, or a figment of human fantasies, but an actual realm that is seen with an organ most modern people don’t even know about.

JESUS: I called it the Kingdom of Heaven.

JIM MORRISON: Sounds about right…so I just wanna say I know more now what those guys were sayin, about doors to infinity, narrow chinks in the cavern, other dimensions and crossing over and stuff like that. Jesus was talking about that door a long time ago, and he wasn’t even trippin!

MICHAEL: Jesus, anything to add to that?

JESUS: Not really, it is good to be here, but I do want to take issue with one thing you said in the beginning of the interview…

MICHAEL: Please do.

JESUS: You said that I needed no introduction, well, that may not be so true.

MICHAEL: Meaning?

JESUS: After 2,000 years, there are a few misunderstandings about me. People assume that I was always some sort of mystical do-gooder and lover of humanity - that I dropped from my mother’s womb turning water into breast milk. Nope, I had a very human life before I became Jesus ‘the Christ’. People forget that to become a mature Human or Son of Man and Son of God is to experience the process of going through real life stuff.

MICHAEL: Tell us more about that.

JESUS: Well, Jim Morrison and I are not so different in some ways. I was also pretty wild in my teens and twenties. I have read all those modern books that said I went to Babylon or Egypt and studied with great spiritual masters - one book said I practiced Buddhism for twenty years and another said that I was abducted by aliens and taken to a planet in the Pleides and instructed in esoteric interplanetary wisdom. Nah, all false. I was actually, how do the modern kids say it, ‘partying hearty’ for a number of years. That’s why the Pharisees were always accusing me of hanging out with drunks and hookers; I was.

JIM MORRISON: Whoa! You serious man?

JESUS: Very serious. Remember the parable of the prodigal son? That’s autobiographical – that’s why there is so much detail in that story. I spruced it up a little bit since my father Joseph didn’t have that much money, but I took what he had saved and went to Sepphoris near Nazareth and raised holy hell for a few years. That's where I met Matthew, the drunken, cheating tax collector. He still laughs when people call him Saint Matthew!

I was pretty wild, but always interested in God, and I hated religion! I partied until I was physically, financially, emotionally and spiritually broken in spirit - literally ended up in a pig pen, feeding and sleeping with the hogs. The only thing I had left of any value was a pearl ring given to me by mother, which fell off of my finger into the muck; a herd of hungry pigs knocked me over to get to it and swallowed it before I could pick it up. That’s why I later told people to never cast pearls of wisdom before swine; don’t waste your time on people whose egos are still in tact, especially some religious people. Many of them couldn’t have seen the truth even if God had showed up in the flesh, which is what God always does by the way.

MICHAEL: This admission is not going to be received too well by most of your loyal followers. They say you were sinless; in fact, I am more than a little shocked and disappointed myself.

JESUS: My followers? My followers are those who do the will of God, those who have experienced ego deflation and a broken and contrite heart. That rarely comes to a man or woman without some sort of personal crisis. What kind of Savior would I be if I hadn’t suffered like other ordinary people? Many of my followers are stuck in religious and theological egoism, the most insidious and most difficult egoism to overcome. Those people would rather worship and read about me than examine the demons in their own souls. And let me just add, not every one needs to end up in a pig pen to wake up…but it sure helps.

JIM MORRISON: Amazing! That’s exactly where I was when I died in France. Dude, I was so depressed, discouraged, deflated and in deep despair, but couldn’t kick the smack and Jack Daniels habit. I had tons of money, but my soul was in the pig pen, and I was praying everyday. Why did God fail me?

JESUS: Your death Jim, like mine, did more to move people to God than if you had lived.

JIM MORRISON: Huh?

JESUS: John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens and thousands of people read the headlines the day after you died and looked at their own hearts and behaviors in ways they never had before. Evangelism, as some call it, happens in many fascinating ways on planet earth. Every single action is either an expression of Spirit or a motivation toward the Holy Spirit. You motivated people to evaluate their paths Jim. Your life wasn’t a waste. Everybody is a door for somebody in one way or another. That’s what I meant when I said the ‘first shall be last and the last shall be first.' You got more me people through the Door than most preachers!

JIM MORRISON: So is that what Blake meant when he said, "the road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom?"

JESUS: Partly, yes, but he forgot to add that the road usually contains hospitals, jails, courts, treatment centers and morgues. It’s not the road I’d recommend.

JIM MORRISON: Modern versions of pig pens...

JESUS: Potentially, yep.

MICHAEL: Well, our time is up for today’s show. I want to thank you gentlemen for a most fascinating conversation from the Realm of the Imaginal.

JIM MORRISON: My pleasure.

JESUS: Me too, and I was wondering Jim, could you play that ‘Jesus is Just Alright With Me’ song?

JIM MORRISON: That’s the Doobie Brothers, but I can play 'The End'.

JESUS: Cool.

[Overheard as the credits roll:]

Michael: So I understand Janis Joplin and Mary Magdalene are in the Green Room, perhaps the five of us could go out for a bite to eat after the show.

Jesus: Great idea. My friend, Peter, runs the To Hell and Back Hard Rock Café.

Jim Morrison: Cool, is that the place across from the Next Whiskey Bar?

[End of Credits - Screen Freezes]

In truth, all modern education consists of conversations with the dead from the Imaginal Realm. Every eternal Idea or memorable Deed originates from this Realm and is recorded, bound in a tome, and exhumed or resurrected by somber seekers, otherwise known as grave robbers...

Prayer for My Damn Enemies?

One of the most difficult obstacles to peace is learning how to deal with difficult people, also known as enemies. This is especially true when they are family members. Someone recently asked me for advice about how to deal with family members who are abusive and inconsiderate. I am able to share only what I have experienced in this arena. I never claim to have solutions for anyone but myself. If they help another, I am glad.

I once spent years telling horror stories about my members of my family, and I actually believed them all; I had facts to prove my accounts were true. I had the evidence. However, as my personal pain and misery escalated, I eventually learned through various teachers and hard lessons to release the anger, sadness and justified resentments toward these people. This was not easy, until carrying them around year after year became more difficult than letting them go. These incidents, when held in mind, will destory our bodies and souls.

PRAY FOR THEM?

My suggestion, which will initially sound ludicrous, is to pray for them. Even typing it looks like such a religious platitude that I want to erase the suggestion and find a more profound response. But returning to my personal agonizing experience, this has been the key solution. When Jesus, and Ghandi were assailed by enemies, they prayed. We are familiar with Jesus telling us to pray for our enemies and those who persecute or abuse us; and we recall his words from the cross to those who were executing him, "Father, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing."

Ghandi said:

"I had attended the Christian service in South Africa, but it had failed to grip me. I could not join them in prayer. They supplicated God, but I could not do so, I failed egregiously. I started with disbelief in God and prayer, and, until at a late stage in life, I did not feel anything like a void in life. But at that stage I felt that, as food was indispensable for the body, so was prayer indispensable for the soul. In fact, food for the body is not so necessary as prayer for the soul. For starvation is often necessary in order to keep the body in health, but there is no such thing as prayer-starvation.... "

"In spite of despair staring me in the face on the political horizon, I have never lost my peace. In fact, I have found people who envy my peace. That peace, I tell you, comes from prayer; I am not a man of learning, but I humbly claim to be a man of prayer. I am indifferent as to the form. Every one is a law unto himself in that respect. But there are some well-marked roads, and it is safe to walk along the beaten tracks, trod by the ancient teachers."

"Prayer has been the saving of my life. Without it I should have been a lunatic long ago. My autobiography will tell you that I have had my fair share of the bitterest public and private experiences. They threw me into temporary despair, but if I was able to get rid of it, it was because of prayer."

"Now I may tell you that prayer has not been part of my life in the sense that truth has been. It came out of sheer necessity, as I found myself in a plight when I could not possibly be happy without it. And the more my faith in God increased, the more irresistible became the yearning for prayer. Life seemed to be dull and vacant without it."

PRAYER IS NOT EXCUSING BAD BEHAVIOR

There is much more to dealing with abusers, but praying for them is a good beginning. That does not mean excusing them or pretending they did not hurt us or do wrong. It does mean that we begin to see how sick, miserable and terribly wounded they are, and we begin to express compassion for them in their chaotic and miserable lives. They may seem happy at times, but they are soul-sick and on the verge of despair. We pray for their recovery, for their eventual happiness, for their peace of mind, for their addictions, for their wounded childhoods and dysfunctional adulthoods, for their antisocial behaviors, etc.

THREE RESULTS OF CONSISTENT PRAYER

The irony is that if we consistently pray like this, three things will happen: First, what we request for them, we gradually begin to experience for ourselves. Second, we may actually see changes in their lives, suddenly or over the years. Thirdly, if we faithfully do these prayers every day, after a month or so the resentments melt away and peace reigns. This is the power and necessity of the kind of prayer that Ghandi learned through trial and error.

Lastly, keep seeking. This essay is not a band aid or quick fix. Soul-making requires time, many failures, openness, willingness to try new approaches and humility. Ghandi and Jesus both loved and served people who treated them like crap - however, they didn't keep a list of the sins and failures, and they were able to love them as they were. In other words, they held no resentments for being taken advantage of. Most of us are not there yet. In my opinion, it is best to avoid such abusive people and simply pray for them. As our hearts soften and bodies heal, then we may expand to be of more service to those who are ungrateful and very seriously ill.

Really Good Quotes That Apply and Brief Comment

DISINTEGRATION

Referring to the settling of the American western frontier, one old timer said, "It's big and pretty and I helped make it; but by damn, wouldn't it be fun to tear it down and build it back up again?"

The Universe is so constructed that our various selves over the course of a lifetime, whether in minutes or years is a process of building and tearing them down to build them up again.

JOURNALISM AND THE NEWS MEDIA

GK Chesterton said, "Journalism consists largely in saying 'Lord Jones died' to people who never knew Lord Jones was alive.”

Most news has nothing to do with us. I remember visiting my grandmother when I was about eighteen. She let me in her house and then placed a chair in front of the door with the back wedged under the door knob. I asked her what she was doing. She told me that she had just seen a news report about a rapist who had escaped from a mental institution in a town over 100 miles away. She didn't want him getting into her house. Most news creates unnecessary fear and anxiety. It keeps us externally focused so we don't have to deal with the most significant news - the news going on between our own ears and in our hearts.

True Understanding Means to Stand Under: The Ego Surrendered

DANCING SHIVA AND THE CRUSHED DWARF

You may have seen the statue or picture of Shiva, the Hindu God dancing in a circle of fire with one foot firmly pinning a tiny dwarflike creature to the ground. This is often interpreted as the struggle between divinity and the heroic ego self, with divinity eventually conquering and burning away the rascal ego.

This same archetypal image is found in the biblical story of a terrified and subdued Jacob wrestling with the Angel of the LORD in the dark of night.

1,000 FORMS OF MANIPULATION

Jacob means deceiver or manipulator in Hebrew. The name was assigned to him at birth as he emerged from his mother’s womb holding onto the heel of his twin brother, Esau. Jacob the ‘tripper’ or manipulator of men and God would spend his life in one scheme after another, conniving through force or kindness to get what he thought would make him happy. For twenty four years Jacob was very successful - amassing wives, concubines, wealth and children. That is what the ego does; it complains like a sinner or compliments like a Pharisee to get what it wants.

Jacob is an archetype of the inflated heroic ego which runs on self will. This is not the evil ego of so many Christian and New Age harangues, but the normal and necessary ego of human soul-making. Carl Jung said, “We spend thirty five years acquiring an ego and thirty five more getting rid of it.” We are each born with our inner Jacob and a certain amount of conniving and manipulation. No human is exempt, though those who fancy themselves 'nice people' often have a difficult time seeing their subtle forms of manipulation. These folks are frequently in emotional pain, but unaware that they are causing it through self centered 'love and kindness'.

THE TWO COMMAND CENTERS IN THE PSYCHE

The LORD said to Rebekah, "Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger." Genesis 25:23

In addition to the ego-self, there is a second Self or center in us. Some call it conscience, some call it the social gene and others call it the God gene. Whatever it is, it whispers or shouts through our increasing discontent that something is missing.

Our self obsessive anxious thoughts, fearful life problems and manipulative behaviors come into conflict with that other internal Higher Self - the dancing Shiva or Angel of the LORD which calls for our surrender. This is not some God ‘out there’ who wants to obliterate our existence and rule over us with religious laws or self help formulas, but rather a second command center found in every normal human psyche. That is what Jung meant when he said we must experience ego inflation before we can experience ego deflation. Just as the garden seed must swell and crack apart beneath the dark soil, so the swollen ego must eventually crack apart and bring enough pain into an individual’s life so he/she can evolve spiritually.

Eckhart Tolle writes, “Suffering has a noble purpose: the evolution of consciousness and the burning up of ego.” [Without suffering we would] “not evolve as human beings and would remain shallow, identified with the external form of things. Suffering drives you deeper. The paradox is that suffering is caused by identification with form and erodes identification with form. A lot of it is caused by the ego, although eventually suffering destroys the ego – but not until you suffer consciously.” A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle, pp. 101-102

THE NECESSITY OF WOUNDS

Look again at Shiva dancing on the ego-dwarf which is being burned away, and you will have a visual of what Tolle is talking about. This is a painful process.

Jacob falls to his knees after his hip is wounded. He is then able to ask for and receive the blessing of peace of mind. A new creation came into existence. His name was changed from Jacob (ego manipulator) to Israel (overcomer of ego). The story says he ‘wrestled with God and man and overcame.’ In other words, the lifelong struggle between the two centers of self, ego-self and Divine Self, has been resolved in that moment. Those who understand this image find the process ongoing throughout life. A few rare souls, like the Buddah, seem to fully 'bud' with their ego-self continually under the Higher-Self.

UNDERSTANDING IS STANDING UNDER

True understanding is the experience of ‘standing under’. The dwarfed ego ‘stands under’ the almighty Shiva. The manipulating Jacob with the displaced hip ‘stands under’ the God-Self. When we have genuinely understood or stood under the Higher Self, we existentially know peace and joy in the midst of any situation, especially anxious and fearful situations. This is infinitely more than intellectually 'understanding' the spiritual concept of surrender; this is gnosis. The will of my little dwarf self stands under the Wisdom and Will of the Higher Self. Freedom from fear, resentment and anxiety result, always.

SO WHAT, I'M INSANE

“When we remember we are all insane, the mystery disappears and life stands explained.”
~ Mark Twain

The word insane does not mean we need to be institutionalized; it means that we are not ‘sound’ or whole. The root idea of the word insane refers to being ‘out of order’ or ‘displaced’. It was originally used of physical ailments, especially broken bones and dislocated joints. This notion of displacement is similar to the first noble truth on the Buddhist path to serenity and bliss, dukkha, which suggests that each human being, especially in adolescence, experiences a sense of alienation. An ancient Gnostic teaching suggested that Ultimate Reality broke into a billion pieces, and each human is one of those fragments. The aim of life is for Ultimate Reality to be put back together again one piece or life at a time. That means each of us must do his or her part to reassemble Reality. Each of the various religious systems and modern psychological models is motivated by this ubiquitous desire to ‘come together right now’ as John Lennon sang. Even though it feels quite wrong, there is nothing cosmically Wrong. In other words, imperfection is perfect. Taoism speaks of this:

If you want to become whole,
let yourself be partial.
If you want to become straight,
let yourself be crooked.

Tao Te Ching, 22

This does not negate the wholeness message of New Thought, but rather explains the appeal of it. The aim of life is to be expelled from and return to wholeness in Eden, to be cut up and reassembled like the fragmented corpse of Osiris, to reunite the divided yin and the yang, to create a new heavens and earth, to integrate the fractured body, soul and spirit, etc.

We are here to become sane. Humans in general have a sense of separation or insanity – that is normal. As Mark Twain recognized, “When we remember we are all insane, the mystery disappears and life stands explained.” We actually become more sane when we recognize and admit how insane we really are.

Archetypal Depth Psychology suggests that the reason for this experience of separation or dislocation is to make a Living Soul which has never existed before. The English poet John Keats suggested this just before his death when he wrote that we are on this earth to go through experiences in order to 'make an intelligence into a Soul.' In other words, we are on this planet as a fetus in a womb being formed through the fractured events of this life. This gives the notion of Mother Earth an even deeper significance.

Scott Peck began his best selling book The Road Less Travelled with this line, “Life is difficult.” Peck went on to say that the moment one realizes this fact of existence, life becomes less difficult. If you want to become whole, let yourself be partial; if you want to become sane, let yourself be insane.

I FEEL GREAT, UNTIL I WAKE UP

PLEASURE, POWER AND PRESTIGE

I woke up this morning feeling rested, peaceful and free - until I was awake enough for my conscious mind to kick in; then problems of money, relationships, health, work and the like took over, clamoring for attention. Within seconds I was engaged in the troubles of my life. I am not talking about planning a day of meeting my basic survival needs or engaging in healthy, purposeful activities which can take some effort, but of planning how to satisfy what I thought I was lacking compared to others around me - usually pleasure, power or prestige.

Many humans feel they never have enough pleasure, power or prestige - so we find ways to manipulate life to get them. And when we don't get them, we become frustrated, resentful and irritated. Sometimes we are blatantly selfish in our manipulations, but usually we disguise our tactics with good motives and kindness.

Recently I have become aware of how often I am dissatisfied and discontent over many small things. I felt some frustration today as I compared my place on the road with the person who pulled in front of me, the number of nice deeds I did for someone at work compared to their's for me, the slowness of the checker in the market compared to my expectation of promptness, my guests idea of a clean room compared to mine, etc. These little frustrations, based on my self-referencing comparisons, build up in the course of a normal day and I may not realize why I feel so agitated and raw by the days end. I have generally been polite, considerate and civil - but inwardly I felt lack all day long.

CHRONIC SELF OBSESSION

This is the point of the Eden story and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This Hebrew parable teaches that the source of human suffering arises from 'knowing opposites' and feeling lack as a result. Good and evil represent all opposites. The moment the human mind begins to compare one thing to the other, it discovers where it is deficient. Then it wants more. I want more control over traffic, supermarket lines and countless people and situations during the day.

The Buddhists call this state of mind ‘the hungry ghost,’ the vacuous specter that ceaselessly drops goodies into the psychic hole with no bottom. The result is a paradoxical situation where I always want more, yet there is never enough, and I am always in mental and emotional pain from comparing what I receive with what I expect.

God did not kick Adam and Eve out of the garden, they kicked themselves out by entering a state of chronic self obsession and deficiency through comparison of opposites – seeing their nakedness, shame and finally resorting to blaming others for their lack. A friend recently said to me that he no longer watches television commercials because he sees a bunch of people telling him he needs things he doesn’t want to impress people he doesn’t like. He has stepped away from the Tree of Comparison and diminished his pain.

Mercifully, God took away access to the Tree of Life in the Eden parable. Imagine living forever in that state of chronic discontent, perpetual self reference and the incessant impossibility of getting your needs met! Adam and Eve were escorted into a world of problems in order to find that self centered desire through chronic comparsion and manipulation doesn’t work. The way back to Eden is almost always through perspiration and pain, through plowing fields that never yield the crop we want, and birthing children who never fill our needs. The way back to Eden is to release self will by rediscovering the original satisifed God or Christ Self which is still in each of us. Each of us is capable of returning to Eden through releasing our thoughts of comparison, and by the acceptance of what is in each moment. It is not easy. Pain and failure are the gracious teachers.

THINE, NOT MINE, IS THE KINGDOM, POWER AND GLORY

How I respond within the first few moments of awakening each morning will typically set the tone for the rest of the day. If I develop a habit whereby I pray or do something to turn the people and circumstances of the day over to a Higher Power, I can often have a peaceful experience no matter what happens. It is also a good way to end the day before bed.

This is what Jesus taught his disciples in the so called Lord’s Prayer, a spiritual practice to derail self obsession which causes emotional pain (being led into evil). The familiar version of the prayer ends with, “For Thine (God’s) is the kingdom, the power and the glory.”

Notice: Thine, not mine. Without that awareness, the only other alternative is to spend the day thinking that “mine is the kingdom, the power and the glory.” From that mindset, I will reap varying degrees of pain (be led into temptation) by building my kingdom at the expense of others, using my power to manipulate people and situations, and seeking my glory through maneuvering others with anger or kindness; and I seldom take into account that most of the rest of the world is doing the same thing I am trying to do. The result is that I am inevitably in conflict with other self obsessed humans, posturing to use various kinds of power to establish their own little kingdoms so they can be glorified. The end experience is most often hours of frustration, resentment and mental agony punctuated by brief moments of getting my way.

SUGGESTED PRAYER TO MEMORIZE AND USE

Here is a suggested prayer to begin and end your day: “God, I offer myself to You to build with me and do with me as You will. Relieve me of the bondage of self obsession that I may better do Your will. Deliver me from my difficulties and increase my serenity that I may reveal Your Love, Your Power and Your way of Life. Amen.” I have this memorized and try to use it throughout the day in those moments when I am in conflict with a person, idea or situation. The irony is that the more I move away from self, the more I get what I want! But that can never be the motive. Tricky, isn’t it? God’s best for you.

For more articles: www.michaelbogar.com

Emerging Evangelical Christians: An Alternative to Fundamentalism

In 1990, I left the evangelical movement. Had there been a movement as that mentioned by Tony Jones, I might have stayed. ~~ Michael Bogar

By Tony Jones

Emergent is a loose collection of folks who feel that true, robust conversation about issues that matter has been chilled out of modern Christian institutions (seminaries, mega-churches, denominations, and para-church groups, to name a few). We're trying to make a place to bring conversation back.

Thus, we have friends among us who think that small government, free market economies are the solution to poverty, and others who favor federal programs and higher taxes—honestly, this is an ongoing conversation within the Emergent friendship. But we all agree that something must be done about extreme poverty, especially in Africa.

Within Emergent are Texas Baptists who don't allow women to preach and New England lesbian Episcopal priests. We have Southern California YWAMers and Midwest Lutherans. We have those who hold to biblical inerrancy, and others trying to demythologize the scripture. We have environmental, peacenik lefties, "crunchy cons," and right wing hawks.

I suppose it's easy for those who stand outside of Emergent Village looking in to credit the politics or theology of a few to the whole group, but that's inaccurate. And I can understand the frustration of those who want to criticize us and box us in when we say that we don't play by the old rules, that we can't be categorized as "left" or "right," "evangelical" or "mainline."

But, I think those same critics will only be more frustrated as the tide of those rebelling against a commodified and domesticated Jesus gain momentum. If the mainstream media is a harbinger, then I'd say that recent columns by Gary Wills and Andrew Sullivan show that a tipping point is just around the corner. Jesus really wasn't a Democrat or a Republican, and he won't be domesticated by political agendas. I do, however, believe that he will inhabit the robust and respectful dialogue about ideas that matter.

Accepting The Discords of God

"The discords of the world are God's discords and it is only by accepting and proceeding through them that we can arrive at the greater concords of his supreme harmony…"
Sri Aurobindo

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PRINCIPLES OF SUFFERING

I sometimes come across teachers who make it their goal to end suffering in the world. That is a wonderfully compassionate and noble aim. The irony for me is that those who dedicate their lives to this mission have typically been in the depths of hell like few other humans have. Most have spent years in the depths of despair, anxiety, fear and depression. Most of them have been suicidal, addicted to something or someone, in and out of institutions (hospitals, treatment centers, jails, courts, asylums) or had excruciating near death experiences. But once they came to their senses, or experienced some sort of an awakening, they sometimes think that they can spare others the same painful trip by giving them ten principles or five steps to stop suffering.

Here are my principles:

1. The Cosmos is constructed through and for meaningful suffering.
2. Suffering is necessary to make souls, sometimes called character.
3. No one else can ultimately suffer for another.
4. There are no principles to end suffering on this planet.
5. Personal suffering transforms selves into Soul.

BE WARY OF PROMISES

Yes, there are teachers who can provide teachings that guide us through suffering toward the making of our own Soul; but be wary of those who state directly, or imply that they can teach you to avoid suffering altogether. And I don’t care if they make the distinction between ‘pain’ and ‘suffering’.

You see, some might say, “Well, we can’t stop pain in this life, but we need not suffer.”

The principle is sound enough, but the practice doesn’t pan out in real life. This idea must be learned via a certain amount of suffering. I have seen this belief that suffering can be ended cause some people deep depression, and some eventually to chuck the whole spiritual enterprise. Some come to believe themselves to be failures or faithless because they can’t “apply” the principles to end suffering to their daily lives. Others will see the failures of their esteemed teachers, call them hypocrites and also forsake the so called spiritual life altogether. The fact is, soul-making requires a certain amount of suffering and you can’t avoid it!

THINKING MY WAY OUT OF NEGATIVITY AND PAIN

There will always be those optimists who will say they can mentally deny their way out of suffering by affirming calmness, turning away from negative darkness and toward the light of Spirit, reuniting with the Source of Love. They will tell you that you can short circuit suffering with positive thinking. Yes, I agree, we can…for a short time. But these folks, and I have been one of these too, will be right back in gossip, resentment, frustration, lust, greed, jealousy, anger, guilt and immeasurable suffering - sometimes within minutes of reuniting with the Source. Don’t get me wrong, I am for good tools and techniques to get one back to God, but they rarely last. They are great for a respite from mental and emotional turmoil, but they are not long term solutions. They may postpone the suffering, but they never end it. Suffering will return until it has done its work. As Sri Aurobindo says, "The discords of the world are God's discords and it is only by accepting and proceeding through them that we can arrive at the greater concords of his supreme harmony…"

THROUGH DEATH VALLEY

All of the great healers of pain have had to go through their suffering to get to the other side. Even the Hebrew Psalmist said, “Yes, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil.” He didn’t say he would walk around or over the painful valley, or go through a different valley; he said he would go through it and not be afraid of the tribulation found in death valley.

Jesus said, “In the world you shall suffer tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome (gone through) the world.” One can take that saying in one of two ways:

1. Jesus suffered, and if we trust him, we won’t have to suffer.
2. Jesus suffered and made it to the other side, so can I.

Given the fact that Jesus constantly told his disciples to take up their crosses and be prepared to give their lives for their brothers, I suspect that number 2 is what he meant – Jesus himself made it through the necessary suffering, so can you.

THE NECESSITY OF SUFFERING IN THE GREAT TEACHERS

Think of all the great teachers who actually practice what they preach. I am not talking about some of those those you see on TV, or read about in books, or listen to on tapes, or see at a retreat, church or conference. I am talking about those who really have something to say about healing and suffering, those who exhibit a genuine calm in the midst of life’s tempests. Without exception, if you hear their whole story, they went to Hell and back, probably more than once. Or they are the very rare soul that enters this life with most of their work completed.

Look at the life of Siddhartha Gautama, The Buddha. Most see him as the compassionate, enlightened teacher who shows the way out of suffering – symbolized by chubby statues with a smiling or blissful countenance. Few people stop to look at the early years of his life. As a young man he spent many sleepless nights agonizing over poverty, old age, disease and death; he made a heart wrenching decision to leave his beautiful young wife and sweet child; he left his palatial life of wealth and ease and nearly starved to death mastering meditation techniques. Legend has it that he was nursed back to health by a young woman who fed him a single grain of rice at a time. Purportedly, in his own words, he said he could press his finger into his stomach and feel his backbone. The skeletal Buddha is a common work of art. After years of depression, anorexia, worry, stressful seeking, failure and near death - he came to an awakening. It was not in the palace, or a class on meditation, but through much personal suffering and seeking.

In Greek mythology, Psyche (soul) was one of a few mortals to be deified on Mount Olympus, but she had to go to Hades and back. Even Jesus is said to have spent three days in the underworld before his resurrection.

VICARIOUS SUFFERING

No one can suffer for you. One gets the impression from some westerners who think they are Buddhists that one can transcend suffering by reading a few books or by going to a Buddhist retreat, or by learning a few meditation techniques. Some teachers and gurus would have you believe that for only $199.99 you can buy their program or book and end your suffering.

Some Christians preach a gospel which says outright that God’s son suffered vicariously for their sins, putting an end to all suffering for those who trust Him. “By His stripes you are healed.” They say that if we accept Jesus and trust in him, we don’t need to suffer any longer. Unquestionably the Gospel of Christ provides an entrance into the life of Spirit, but neither Jesus nor any of the other New Testament authors taught that Christians would avoid suffering in this life.

I was once among those ranks, yet I could not figure out why it never really worked. I trusted Jesus’ death and resurrection for me. I shared the gospel with others. I prayed, read the Bible, wept for my sins and mustered up every ounce of faith I had – still I got angry, jealous, lustful and depressed. Every Christian I knew had no better luck than I did avoiding the usual litany of painful sins and failures. Those who were most vocal about the Savior and His Gospel were often the most cranky, vicious, back stabbing, gossiping and mean spirited of the bunch. They were in chronic pain and misery. But they excused it as 'suffering for Christ'.

SUFFERING IS NECESSARY

You cannot learn to stop suffering by another person's suffering. The theory is appealing and I wish it worked, but it’s about as logical as saying you can lose weight by reading about someone who has successfully lost weight. No one can do it for us.

Hear this well – suffering is necessary for soul-making. I am not suggesting that you go out and seek suffering or become one of those religious masochists who glorifies suffering and persecution. I am not advocating that you affirm, attract or intend suffering. We don’t need to seek it. The universe is so constructed that it will find us no matter where we hide or how often we medicate. It is part of the curriculum in the Cosmic University. Again I quote Sri Aurobindo:

"We have to look courageously in the face of the reality and see that it is God and none else who has made this world in His being and that so He has made it ... The discords of the world are God's discords and it is only by accepting and proceeding through them that we can arrive at the greater concords of his supreme harmony, the summits and thrilled vastnesses of his transcendent and his cosmic Ananda (Divine Joy).”
The Adventure of Consciousness, p. 163


SPIRITUALITY OF DENIAL

There are those who will call me a pessimist and traitor to New Thought principles. I disagree. Real positive thinking affirms that we get through our suffering into greater God consciousness. Most often those who practice a spirituality of denial have become almost blissfully unaware of their own chronic suffering. Some have learned the proper metaphysical terminology and techniques to avoid or ignore their suffering which pops up like a Jack-in-the-Box all week long. I have been one of these too. They drink, overeat, stay busy with religious tasks, spend money, stuff their chronic anxiety, study books on suffering, take prescription drugs, practice avoidance meditation, memorize sacred texts, and keep the spring tightly wound - sometimes for years. Some are really unaware of the disconnect between their pretend spirituality and the amount of pain they have stuffed under the religious lid. They so want to appear pain free, and have so perfected the act of public spiritual euphoria that they aren't even aware how unhappy they are. This is the spirituality of denial. It is a very lonely place to live. I recently heard such a woman tell me that her counselor told her she was done with therapy because she seemed so happy. This woman was shocked because she was depressed and miserable. She went home and looked in the mirror and she was smiling. She said she suddenly realized that she had learned to act happy externally, but internally was filled with doubt, loneliness and sadness.

I remember studying the life of one of my favorite metaphysical New Thought teachers, the brilliant Emma Curtis Hopkins. She worked with another famous spiritual teacher, Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy, who fired Emma out of jealousy. Emma left and became a very successful Christian Science teacher on her own, later calling her movement New Thought. She couldn't continue using the title 'Christian Science' because Mary Baker Eddy put a copyright claim on it. Emma eventually started a seminary in Chicago. The school was in a house with about 20 women living and studying together. After a very short time, Emma closed the seminary and moved to New York to live alone. When asked why, she confessed that she couldn’t stand being around the negativity and noise of all those students. I remember feeling disappointed that Emma couldn’t seem to apply her own teachings and deny away the negativity. I realized that suffering was not an intruder or obstacle to spirituality as she had taught, but a necessary aspect that she was trying to deny away or escape. Perhaps Emma had some lessons to learn, or a soul to make by facing her irritations in the socially upsetting situation.

KEATS ON SUFFERING AND SOUL MAKING

The English poet John Keats was dying of tuberculosis at the age of twenty five. He was a brilliant writer who knew that he would not live long enough to complete the body of poetic work he longed to create. Extremely ill, financially broke and recently abandoned by his fiancé, he struggled to make sense of this thing called life and dying. In a letter written to his brother in February 0f 1819 Keats was seeking to understand a world that seemed cruel and unfair. He couldn't accept the usual Christian view which he described:

"The common label of this world among the misguided and superstitious is "a vale of tears" from which we are to be redeemed by a certain arbitrary interposition of God and taken to Heaven…"

Keats suggested an alternative vale or valley:

"Call the world if you please, "The vale of Soul-making", then you will find out the use of the world."

He went on to explain soul-making as a process where the basic seed of divine intelligence which is in all humans goes through necessary experiences, especially suffering, in order to transform the intelligence into a unique Soul:

"I say "Soul making'', Soul as distinguished from an Intelligence - There may be intelligences or sparks of the divinity in millions--but they are not Souls till they acquire identities, till each one is personally itself. Do you not see how necessary a World of Pains and troubles is to school an Intelligence and make it a soul! A Place where the heart must feel and suffer in a thousand diverse ways! - As various as the Lives of Men are--so various become their souls, and thus does God make individual beings, Souls…"

Keats recognized that this world was a place of difficulty of necessity. I am not talking about difficulties we bring on ourselves by foolish choices or pessimistic thinking, but of life as it presents itself with a plethora of trials and obstacles we all have in common - stubbed toes, tragic accidents, inexplicable diseases, the aging process, economic twists and turns, wars and rumors of wars, natural disasters and eventually death.

MY MOTIVATION

Some have questioned why I am so passionate about this topic of soul-making as it relates to suffering. They wonder whether or not I am just trying to rain on the positive thinking parade. Some call me a pessimist and cynic. Actually, I am a committed believer in positive thinking and the work of intention. I do affirmative prayer and guided visualizations for health, wealth and peace. These practices are part of the vale of soul-making as well. It has gotten lots of attention from Oprah, Depak Choprah, Wayne Dyer, Robert Schuller, Joyce Meyer and Joel Olstein – but little has really been said about the positive role of suffering as Soul-making. Eastern religions sometimes seem to imply that suffering is an illusion to be transcended, and western religion wants to be delivered from it by Jesus' sacrifice or right thinking. Might there not be an additional paradigm – not negating the others at all – but expanding our view of suffering? I think this is the paradigm that Jesus, Buddha, Aurobindo and Keats talk about – suffering as a necessary element in the school of soul making.

I am motivated from a desire to see people find a framework for living life free from the escapist religious philosophies or spiritualities of denial. Our spiritual paradigms must make room for more than the successful, western middle class American who thinks his way to perfect health and financial freedom.

Most of the world lives in what we would call poverty. Are these people living unspiritual lives because they are not healhty and wealthy? Our paradigms must account for tsunamis and the end of solar systems, cancer and war, old age and poverty, depression and death. We must account for the countless young men who have died in battle, young women who have died in childbirth, and countless others who have died seemingly senseless deaths if we live in a world where suffering can be avoided. Many western religious systems view suffering as the result of original sin, or humanly caused annoyances - humanly instigated hindrances to spiritual wholeness. The emphasis is on healing or eliminating the suffering rather than befriending it. We can do both in my opinion.

Christians come right out and say that suffering is because of our sin and that we deserve it. This doesn't explain a Cosmos rife with chaos and entropy. New Age folks often attribute pain to a sick and negative human consciousness. These folks imply that if we could all just think good thoughts and change our consciousness, the suffering would go away. This sort of approach reminds me of the school boy that said school was fun except for the reading, writing, arithmetic and homework! School is more than eternal recess; life is more than chronic happiness.

CONCLUSION

I close where I started. Remember that every enlightened spiritual teacher, let me call them teachers who have grown large souls, has suffered greatly. He or she has been to hell and back. Using Keats words, they have had their small human intelligence turned into a Soul. Such teachers may currently exude a rare peace, tranquility and calm demeanor in the face of all adversity. But they earned it. There was a time when they walked, collapsed and crawled through the valley of the shadow of death, or the vale of soul making, or the world of tribulation. It can be done. It takes work. It takes humility, patience, self reflection and surrender to a Higher Power.

You will not memorize their answers or gather the answers through osmosis. There is no technique to end suffering. You will not make soul just by reading their books or listening to their tapes. You will not arrive by the same route they did, or find a shortcut. You will be tempted to mimic them, to deify them, to vacillate between admiration and disappointment. These teachers often cause us as much pain as they give provide solutions. They disappoint us and leave us disillusioned…good for them. They are part of the vale of soul-making – proof that we have to go through it, not around it...even through our teachers.

How Does Positive Thinking View Emotional Anguish?

“Jesus said, ‘I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.’” John 12:24

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GOD IS IN THE PAIN POD

Some would have us believe that Positive Thinking is eliminating any discussion of or reference to pain and suffering. This is not positive thinking, but potentially harmful negative thinking. Positive Thinking includes the realization and affirmation that all pain and suffering contain a kernel of awareness and new life. Like the seed pod containing the flower, bursting apart in the dark, dank soil, so too the soul expands by dying to the former self, often in darkness which we call depression. From the disintegration springs a completely new self, a unique re-integration of the fragments of the former identity.

In this view, our experiences of loneliness, fear, loss, confusion, sadness, depression and the like are spiritual realms that exist to reveal the failure of former patterns of thinking and behavior. These emotions comprise the soil for making soul, those experiences that take us down into the dark underworld. Then, like the seed pod, we crack apart and begin to extend roots in the dark soil, releasing the stem of the new self that gradually rises into the light. I say ‘gradually’ because it often occurs very slowly; sometimes over years, decades, maybe lifetimes.

We must remember that the potential new self always resides in the former ego-pod, or our old limited self centered ideas. This truth of gradual emergence is seen in the image of the Eastern lotus which begins its journey toward unfolding in the dark sediment of a murky pond. That is why the Buddha, from which we get our term ‘bud,’ begins his teaching system with the first noble truth: Life is suffering or dislocation. Only then does the lotus rise into the light, form buds and blossom.

I MOVE THROUGH LIFE WITH EASE

I hear some Positive Thinkers affirm that we ‘move through life with ease’. I think this is a good affirmation, but if ‘life is suffering’ as the Buddha taught, then we are actually affirming that we ‘move through our suffering with ease.’ This statement need not affirm or attract suffering! Of course there are martyrs and victims who create much unnecessary pain and agony, but that is not the intention of such an affirmation. To affirm that I ‘move through my suffering with ease’ is a positive approach to the human condition that brings its measure of grief, disappointment, frustration, anger, resentment, loneliness and fear to each of us. 

The spiritual teacher Osho writes: “This pain is not to make you sad, remember. That's where people go on missing.... This pain is just to make you more alert--because people become alert only when the arrow goes deep into their heart and wounds them. Otherwise they don't become alert. When life is easy, comfortable, convenient, who cares? Who bothers to become alert? When a friend dies, there is a possibility. When your woman leaves you alone--those dark nights, you are lonely. You have loved that woman so much and you have staked all, and then suddenly one day she is gone. Crying in your loneliness, those are the occasions when, if you use them, you can become aware. The arrow is hurting: it can be used. The pain is not to make you miserable, the pain is to make you more aware! And when you are aware, misery disappears.”

HONORING SUICIDE

This also means that feelings of suicide need to be honored and listened to. The disintegrating old life is accurately telling me that something must die – yet not the physical body as suicide victims mistakenly assume, but rather the death of the old way of life. All suicidal people are filled with agonizing remorse. This too is necessary. The word remorse is related to the words mortal, mortem, murder and mortician – words referring to death. Remorse is the act of mentally returning over and over to an actual or potential loss of something or someone valuable--usually a way of living to which we have become accustomed. The feelings of being fixated on loss is often so overwhelming that a person might feel the only way out is to kill the body and brain that contains the mind which chronically revisits the old painful loss, or potential future loss. If a person can realize that the primary purpose of life is to experience and emerge from such losses, s/he can wait for the cracking open to pass, the roots to be established, and the new life to flower. Carl Jung observed that we develop egos in order to shed them, like snakes sluffing off old skin. Some call this molting process soul-making.

The Chinese Tao Te Ching says it like this:

If you want to shrink something,
you must first allow it to expand.
If you want to get rid of something,
you must first allow it to flourish.
If you want to take something,
you must first allow it to be given.
This is called the subtle perception
of the way things are.

Poem 36, Mitchell translation

THE WAY THINGS ARE

This is the nature of soul-making life. We spend years developing an ego or self identify, and then it must dissolve. Dissolution is almost always difficult. This does not mean that the old ego self is bad, but that it is just too small to contain infinite joy, patience and love that we may become. My old life, like the seed that contains the flower, must break apart in the soil of suffering and grow into the light of an expanded soul. This is the way for humans on a planet of soul-making. This point of view is true positive thinking when it comes to pain. We do not deny pain, but we affirm it is a means to an end. Times of great sorrow contain the potential to be times of great transformation. But in order for transformation to happen we must go deep, to the very roots of our pain, and experience it as it is, without blame or self-pity. To know this makes the process easier than to resist it, or to think it ought be different. M. Scott Peck began his book, The Road Less Traveled, by observing that "Life is difficult," and then paradoxically adds that, "once we realize that life is difficult, it becomes less difficult."

Growing Down To Grow Up

“If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,’ even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like day, for darkness is as light to you.” Psalm 139:11-12

Growing Down To Grow Up

Each person, a seed of infinite potential,
Skin encircling soul, containing all essential
Gifts and possibilities, undeveloped rose,
A bundle of curious petals anxious to unfold.

Unique and wondrous flower, embryonic pod,
Drawn out by Gaia's power, fertile womb of God.
Neath the crushing earth we wait then break apart,
Alone in perfect silence, peculiar way to start.

Each seed must burst asunder, shed its fragile skin,
Lose its perfect circle then begin again.
A skein of tangled roots emerging into birth,
Threads alive in darkness on a tapestry of earth.

Embroidered by an Angel, within and out of sight,
Silence wrapped in darkness, moving into light,
Pushing through the soil, the Gardener stands above,
Sending rain and weeding, each an act of love.

Delicate nascent bud pierces the emerald lawn,
Finally rising upward, after wending down.
A shoot, a stalk, a blossom…then the full bloom,
Symphony of brilliance, supple bursting plume.


Michael

Eros to Saint Teresa

Eros spoke, "May I touch your flesh,
sear your breast with a lovely dart?
You will swoon dear one,
my poison will infect your heart
and make you forget the mundane,
those who watch your eyes roll back
will surely think you insane.
This world with all her woes will disappear from sight,
you will find ecstasy
as you slip from your body, through each kiss,
soaring into the velvet calm of the ethereal night."

Teresa whispered from her sleep,
"I have never known a man,
nor will I defile the flesh,
such love will never scorch my soul,
no palm nor lip shall cross my breast;
please take your dart and fly away,
let me wake another day
to love my God and serve my Lord,
mumble my prayers and read His Word."

Eros held his arrow aloft,
tilted his head and exposed her heart,
"Dear Teresa,
do you not understand?
Your God always comes disguised as a man,"
and drove his arrow home.

end/Michael

NECESSARY DESCENT

Desire imparts the sweet gift of expansion,
drawing me to a higher ledge
while this forbidden urge and the passing

Seasons shove me over the edge,
from summer to fall
into the Realm of Persephone’s sad call,

And my thoughts like porcelain tendrils
splinter the glassy soil
until it is time to rise…

Man is made to soar, to pierce the stratum
of the impossible sky,
to leap from the garden into the sun.

Icarus is in our blood, and his plunge
was not an end, but rather
the nudge to devise inflammable wings.

end/michael

The Organ of Soulful Perception

I have been reading a book by Henri Corbin, Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth, the guy who was so influential in Hillman's Archetypal psychology, besides Jung. It has been difficult-treading, but there are nuggets that have given me a much deeper understanding of what Hillman means by Psyche. This sentence in particular was very helpful,

"Such perception through the Imagination is therefore equivalent to a "dematerialization"; it changes the physical datum impressed upon the senses in a pure mirror, a spiritual transparency; thus it is that the Earth, and the things and beings of the Earth, raised to incandescence, allow the apparition of their Angels (Messengers) to penetrate to the visionary intuition."

I translate that to mean that every material incarnation is clothing worn by Psyche, adorning the Archetypes - and there is an Organ in us, perhaps the Heart, which can dematerialize and see through the clothing into Soul, or the Anima beneath all that is.

What is Real?

I was riding the ferry from Bainbridge Island to Seattle the other day. A little boy of about four years of age ran up and jumped into the seat of one of those car driving video games; he grabbed the steering wheel and yelled over his shoulder to his dad that he wanted to ‘drive the car’. His dad said, “It’s not a real car Jason.” The little boy looked at the machine and mumbled to himself, “But it’s a real video game.”


Reality comes in many shapes.

New Thought and Suffering

“The word "good" has many meanings. For example, if a man were to shoot his grandmother at a range of five hundred yards, I should call him a good shot, but not necessarily a good man.”
~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

The New Thought movement originated in the latter half of the 19th century. In 1902, the American psychologist William James called it the 'Religion of Healthy Mindedness' because of its emphasis on curing disease and creating external reality through one's thoughts. At about the same time, Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung referred to it in his book, Modern Man in Search of a Soul, calling it a religion whose time has come. Jung meant that modern people were abandoning dogmatic religion and seeking scientific spiritual principles based on pragmatic results. I am an unapologetic student and follower of New Thought teachings. Several New Thought principles helped me to stop being a victim, to take personal responsibility for my life and to pay attention to my thoughts as being creative or destructive. That being said, no religious movement is complete. We are always evolving or degenerating. Thankfully, his is a reognized principle of New Thought. One area that New Thought needs to address more fully, in my opinion, is that of suffering, pain and evil. The internationally recognized sociologist of religion, Peter Berger, has noted that the success of a religous venture is always measured by the way it addresses the issue of suffering.

In the following essay I will be critical of some New Thought approaches to suffering as only a devoted follower can be. Someone recently reminded me that New Thought honors suffering, and I completely agree. However, after twenty years of grateful involvement in the movement, I have noticed some discomfort around the the subject.

Yes, New Thought does honor suffering, and each church and minister has his or her own approah. However, I have experienced a general trend which sees most if not all of our suffering as unnecessarily self inflicted. This position is blatantly stated in the runaway best seller, The Secret, which I have evaluated elsewhere. There is often a tacit if not unconscious separation between God the Good and humanly caused suffering which is not a part of the ideal Universal plan. As Holmes says, "The world is beginning to realize that it has learned all it should through suffering and pain. Surely there can be no Intelligence in the Universe that wishes man to be sick, suffer pain, be unhappy and end in oblivion. Surely if God or Universal Intelligence is imbued with goodness, then It could not ordain that man should ultimately be other than a perfect expression of Life." SOM, p.107

Most New Thought teachers place a lot of emphasis on free will as the primary if not sole cause of all suffering, essentially creating a metaphysical chasm between God's Good world and humanly caused suffering. These teachers emphasized, as did Holmes, that we suffer because of free will and conscious choice. There is clearly some truth in this as our attitudes, actions and ideas bring pain into our individual and collective experiences. But is free will the solution to all suffering, chaos and destruction?

Free will never explained the chaotic nature of the wild cosmos which began with a Big Bang, and with 125 billion galaxies filled with colliding debris fields as the means to creation, or the earthly tsunamis and myriad 'natural disasters' which kill countless millions apart from any free choice. The Universal Cosmic Intelligence appears to be filled with exploding stars, meteorite crashes into planets, dark chaos and laws which cause injury or fatalities to living beings without the free will choice of those beings. The millions of dinosaurs and other species that have gone prematurely extinct were not destroyed because they had bad thoughts.

I never could accept the metaphysical speculations that people who were killed by natural disasters made a choice before they incarnated to die this way. These disasters were occuring long before humans evolved. The free will explanations for all pain and suffering seemed nearly identical to the doctrine of original sin I was taught in the Christian seminary. The Christians blamed all problems on Adam and Eve, New Thought blames it on the ego. Where did that rascal ego come from? And were there not disasters and chaos before the human ego showed up?

A UNIVERSE WITH NECESSARY PROBLEMS

It seems to me that if the Universal Intelligence created math and science problems to be solved, problems which caused me no end of suffering in high school and college, then It could also create life problems for the same end - to be overcome with a view to achieving some soul-making purpose. This is the position of Sri Aurobindo, “The discords of the world are God's discords and it is only by accepting and proceeding through them that we can arrive at the greater concords of his supreme harmony, the summits and thrilled vastnesses of his transcendent and his cosmic Ananda (Divine Joy).” The Adventure of Consciousness, p. 163

Eckhart Tolle writes that without suffering we would “not evolve as human beings and would remain shallow, identified with the external form of things. Suffering drives you deeper. The paradox is that suffering is caused by identification with form and erodes identification with form.” A New Earth, pp. 101-102

Jesus recognized that horrific events were a necessary part of God's world of soul-making, and people would be held responsible, "Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to fall (suffer)! Such tests must come, but woe to the person through whom they come." Matthew 18:7

Buddhism begins its whole system of teaching with dukkha, or displocation, the prerequisite for getting conscious and achieving enlightenment. This sounds a lot like Carl Jung's comical obervation that we spend the first half of life growing and ego and the second half deflating it. The Buddhist might say we spend the first few lifetimes achieving 'endarkenment' that we might seek enlightenment in the next several incarnations.

NEGLECT AND DENIAL

In some of my New Thought classes, I felt there was a neglect, if not outright denial, of the necessity and normalcy of such problems. Even Jesus said that some sufferings are not the result of any human will, but that the 'work of God' might be made manifest (John 9), and he seemed to be quoting God's words to Moses in Exodus 4:11 which say that God "makes people blind and deaf as well as seeing and hearing." And I do not believe it is true just because it's in the Bible, but New Thought teachers put a lot of stock in Jesus' teachings, as do I.

I see life as a soul-making process which includes the so called positive and negative as equally normal and necessary. That does not mean that we should seek, create, remain in or glorify pain and suffering – but neither should we deny that it is a central piece of the Creative Design for soul-making. I can agree with Holmes when he writes that there 'can be no Intelligence in the Universe that wishes man to be sick, suffer pain, be unhappy and end in oblivion,' but I see two separate ideas in his statement. No Intelligence may 'wish' for humans to suffer, just as no algebra teacher may 'wish' for her math student to agonize over the algebraic formula. But it has nothing to do with the teacher's wishes or personal feelings, and everything to do with the nature of a learning course which requires some amount of struggle in order to advance to the next level.

I see Spiritual Mind Treatment as a means to remind us of our Union with God the Good even when we feel disconnected - to *affirm healing, prosperity and wholeness – and to give thanks, then to let go of the outcome as Jesus did in the garden of Gethsemane, surrendering to the perfect will of God the Good even when it meant crucifixion. Yes, the resurrection did follow - but prior to that outcome, Jesus apprehended the Good through a mind founded on faith while in the midst of unimaginable suffering. As Aurobindo says, "...it is only by accepting and proceeding through them..."

See Part II

*The word affirm is etymologically related to the Indo-European root word dharma (foundation), which morphed into adhere and eventually affirm. The idea seems to be that an affirmation is adhering, by faith, to a universal, purposeful foundation.