The theology of a healthy religion refuses to break the wholeness of reality into the fragmented bits and pieces of reality called right and wrong, good and bad.
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When our spiritual journey is authentic, it opens us to a depth of wisdom we are unable to imagine when we take those first steps on the journey to a deeper life. I have learned that our individual spiritual journey is often very similar to those who walked the spiritual path ahead of us. Because of that simple reality, they have much to teach us if we are willing to empty our personal ego and listen to their wisdom with an open mind.
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As any true mystic will tell you, if your goal is to become fully human, the spiritual window you use to view the world must include two important spiritual questions. The first being what have you noticed and the second, what have you learned?
To effectively answer these simple questions, we first have to transform our consciousness and learn to see into the depths of reality. Stated simply, we have to learn to “see the real world”, not the world our ego expects to “see”.
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The sheep were always docile—-not unlike my more conservative classmates who seemed intent on doing what was expected of them and following the rules. Compliant and openly accepting of church theology and doctrines, they seemed focused on being perfect Christian’s. Like the sheep from my homesteading days, compliance and obedience seemed to be important values for them. And being right often seemed more important to them than love and compassion.
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Whenever we enter into a conversation about God and prayer, it’s helpful to remind ourselves that despite what some religion’s would have us believe, the Creator or Initiating Consciousness that created of our universe, the Ground of Being we refer to as God, is in fact, Ultimate Mystery. Thus, the concepts in this article are my thoughts and ideas, not absolute truth.
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All of the great mystics and spiritual teachers like Jesus and Buddha were clear……authentic spiritual growth is not something that can be given to us. No one else can do the work for us. We have to discover, and then embrace, the courage required to take the inner journey; to shine the light of our consciousness into the shadows of our egoic mind. This is not a journey for the feint of heart.
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A middlepath spirituality is a spiritual path that has nothing to do with religious doctrines, religious beliefs, religious creeds, or the need to embrace any of the teaching’s contained in the world’s sacred texts as “absolute truth”.A middlepath spirituality is the authentic spirituality that emerges when we adopt a level of consciousness that embraces the intentional decision to search for, and then fully embrace, the contradictory truths found on both sides of every issue—–without having to label one side as “right” and the other as “wrong”.
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When it comes to authentic spiritual growth, one of the most common questions I receive from readers is about prayer. Does it work? Would God actually change the outcome of the next football game just because I …
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We have a choice to make, and that choice will define each of us as a person, and who we are as a country. We experienced an act of terror last week that traumatized our nation and …
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When we use either /or thinking, it feels like justice and compassion are opposites; that justice would not be served if we offer this young man too much compassion. But I would suggest we also have a third choice——the middle-path of justice and compassion.
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The public prayers of conservative Christians are embarrassing to me, and I find myself uncomfortable sharing with strangers the fact that I am an ordained member of the Christian clergy. I was recently in a situation in which I once again experienced this unsettling, self-conscious feeling.
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As an ordained elder in the United Methodist church I was pleased last week by President Obama’s stance against prejudice and homophobia and his support of gay marriage. At the same time I was dismayed and saddened to read …
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