Hi Bob,
It’s occurred to me that religious leadership may be in charge of much less than it would appear, but if this is true, then the perversion of religion is a run-away-train. Does this then validate Bush and Blair? Who protects the sheep from the wolves? Who now is the shepherd?
JT
The shepherd JT, is not aparent to all. Only those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. It’s not that all of us have the capability to see, we can, it’s whether or not we want it. And not want it in a dogmatic fashion, want it from the depths of one’s soul. When the student is ready the teacher will appear. This is true of everything in life so indeed it is true of our spiritual life.
Peace
A
the strongest sheep is responsible for the rest of the sheep? no, arm all the sheep let them shepherd themselves…
but it isn’t in sheep nature to defy the wolf…
the sheep must learn and adapt… darwinism…
-Imp
no, no the sheep must evole… into goats.
Angel writes:
Then the fires of hatred and violence will burn for far too long. There are many who would keep the student unprepared, suspended in the chaos. Where is Confucius when we need him?
JT
In the wind and the rain, in the stars, in the leaves of every tree, in your neighbor’s eyes…in your heart! Confucius is everywhere. He lives eternally in your heart.
For those of us that refuse to prepare ourselves…even they can be inspired by your example. When you walk into the room, everything changes - we have an immense influence over people without even knowing. It is better to find your heart and shine your light. The responsibility lies with all of us. Why not become the Sage? It is afterall our purpose.
No man, when he hath lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed; but setteth it on a candlestick, that they which enter may see the light.
A
Hello A,
Well, I would, but I keep tripping over something. I think it’s me…
JT
Hi all,
I agree completely and Liquidangels short statement is what I have been trying to point out with more contemplative words. This is the time when it is down to the Spiritual to influence, even though we shun power. It is the time for all of us to ask why not me, now?
We need to listen to those voices today who are revealing the teachers, showing us what we have missed and help us return to meaningful spirituality. I still agree with Tillich, we need to be “grasped†by something beyond ourselves, that mystical call to action. Spirituality isn’t private, even though seclusion is often the source of our strength. Spirituality is influence, and personal influence needs to be expressed in a public way. For example charity is an expression of faith, not so much a product of it, but it is essential to my spiritual health. We can no more ignore “peacekeeping” than we can ignore community worship.
The connection between mystical experience and social action is not only a historical fact, but in modern times a necessary way ahead. Mystics were always spiritual counsellors, physicians, pharmacists or nurses, sometimes their roles were a mixture of these. I know of Mystics who are social workers, relief workers, drug-therapists etc. Often they have been looked to, to be charismatic leaders - but few of them are.
The difference is to be seen in the “Ecce Homo” of Pilate, and the play on words when presenting Jesus and Bar-abbas - the son of his father. Of course they wanted Bar-abbas to live, because it was power they wanted. Jesus only had influence to en-power them and enable them to walk the path of righteousness. Most people want someone who will walk it for them, and they choose therefore someone with power instead of a spiritual leader.
Shalom
The philosopher, the mystic and the thunderstorm
I have heard about two men who were lost in a forest on a very dark night. It was a very dangerous forest, full of wild animals, very dense, with darkness all around. One man was a philosopher and the other was a mystic.
Suddenly, there was a storm, a crashing of the clouds, and great lightning. The philosopher looked at the sky, the mystic looked at the path. In that moment of lightning, the path was before him, illuminated. The philosopher looked at the lightning, and started wondering, “What is happening?” and missed the path.
You are lost in a forest denser than that of the story. The night is darker. Sometimes a flash of lightning comes–look at the path. A Chuang Tzu is lightning, a Buddha is lightning, I am lightning. Don’t look at me, look at the path. If you look at me, you have already missed, because lightning will not continue. It lasts only for a moment–and the moment is rare when eternity penetrates time; it is just like lightning.
If you look at the lightning, if you look at a buddha–and a buddha is beautiful, the face fascinates, the eyes are magnetic–if you look at the buddha, you have missed the path. Look at the path, forget the buddha.
Look at the path and do something–follow the path, act. Thinking will not lead you, only action, because thinking goes on in the head. It can never become total; only when you act, it is total. Become interested in life!–living is the real thing. Don’t go on collecting information about what meditation is–meditate! Don’t go on collecting information about what dancing is–there are encyclopedias on dance, but the whole thing is utterly meaningless if you don’t dance yourself. Throw all those encyclopedias! Unburden yourself from knowledge and start living.
And when you start living, then ordinary things are transformed into extraordinary beauty. Just small things–life consists of small things–but when you bring the quality of intense, passionate love they are transformed, they become luminous.
A flash of lightning does not light your path, it does not serve you like a lamp in your hand; it only gives you a flash, a glimpse of the road ahead. But this single glimpse is very precious; now your feet are firm, now your will is strong, now your resolve to reach your destination is strengthened. You have seen the road and you know it is there and that you are not wandering aimlessly. One flash of lightning and you get a glimpse of the road you have to travel, and of the temple that is your journey’s destination.
A
Hello Angel,
It would seem then, that realization occurs when, in the lightning flash, one sees that there is no path. There is just the The…
JT
Hi Angel,
those words serve very well to illustrate what I have said (and much more):
How beautifully simple truth can be …
Shalom
JT,
When our journey becomes One, there is no path. For those of us like myself who still have much work to do, while there is still hatred in the world, the journey is not over yet, the path leads to peace, every step on the path is an opportunity to have that realisation, having that realisation is one thing, acting on that realisation is quite a different matter.
Bob,
We understand each other.
A
A,
Then it would seem that Kierkegaard summed it up perfectly; “Silence is truth.”
JT
Bob wrote
When did we ever have this “meaningful spirituality” that we can return to?
What is a mystical call to action? The mystic sees their nothingness in relation to God. Their concern is for what they are rather than what they do.
You say that personal influence must be expressed in a public way. But lacking any depth its value is purely secular as Christ pointed out in discussion with the Pharisees concerning their being limited to the appearance only of understanding.
Why should anyone worship a community if the community like most is of the world and will hate the higher truths? Respecting a situation and worshiping it are distinctly different.
Bob, there is nothing wrong with Secular Humanism. It can do a lot of good in the world and its ethics can inspire many. but why try and equate it with Christianity? Onion soup and peanut butter are both good but throwing a jar of peanut butter into a kettle of onion soup won’t do justice to either. It is better to keep them separate and let those acquire what suits their needs.
Nick,
Thank you for telling me what my concerns are. Just to think, all this time I thought that what I do is what I am.! 
JT
Hi Nick,
I don’t know whether “you†ever had meaningful spirituality. I just think that Christianity has had, at varying periods in its history, bouts of meaningful spirituality. Very often it was those who saw their authority questioned that had them removed. Of course, it would have been more significant for some if these bouts had been more accepted – but is what is noteworthy always popular?
Evelyn Underhill writes, “Each great religious tradition, when we follow it back, is seen to originate in the special experiences or some soul who has acted as the revealer of spiritual reality; for the great mystics never keep their discoveries to themselves. They have a social meaning, and always try to tell others what they have known.â€
Sometimes I have a vague feeling that I understand you and then you have me wondering about your agenda. The fact that Mystics have often had a social calling, are healers and spiritual counsellors, helpers and physicians, seems to be evidence to me that they were not caught up in their ivory towers, but at the front of the social struggle. That is really why they had to be silenced in many occasions – not because they were particularly subversive, but they were quietly influential amongst those who took the brunt of social imbalance.
So I don’t really know what you are pointing at. The mystical call to action is in keeping with scripture and spiritual calling:
“… wiser than all the consultants in the world … and more brilliant than any mission statement I have ever read is the Mission Statement of Jewish life. It is shorter than 2 sentences, able to be memorized with ease, and worthy of a lifetime of dedication. Indeed, the Mission Statement of Jewish Life is just these two words: Tikkun Olam. Tikkun Olam. Repair of the World. It is what you were born for. Tikkun Olam. It is what we were born for. It is the meaning of life. It is the meaning of your life. It is the meaning of our life. It is our mission as Jews…
…I love that our rallying cry for social action is rooted in a concept that is essentially mystical at heart. I love it because it is a reminder that religious practice is not so easily bifurcated between acts of justice and acts of spirituality…
Mysticism and social action lead to each other. The mystics of old were prophets of social justice. And the prophets were mystics of deep spiritual awareness. Tikkun Olam, to repair a broken world, is a spiritual task…â€
shirtikvah.net/5765_sermon_o … ission.pdf
I would rather that you actually quote scripture and not refer to some biblical context that I have to discern, along with trying to understand what point you are making.
I didn’t speak about worshipping community, but worshipping in community, since the message is not just a personal one. In fact, it is the loss of community that is having the most detrimental effects on spirituality today. The more individuality takes over, the less we have in common, and the less we can co-operate to make things better. The more we are scattered, the less we can effectively oppose the disadvantageous developments that our society is making.
The basic aims of secular humanism are not so far away from basic spiritual endeavours. It is a false understanding of spirituality that suggests that there are those who need it and those who don’t. We are spiritual! It isn’t a question of choice and many of the modern ailments can be explained by our failure to address the existential requirement of what we call being spiritual. We need to reconnect to the unity of the spirit, whatever way we find to do that. Those that feel threatened by that will, of course, try to ridicule it and undermine people who promote spirituality.
Shalom
Hi JT
I never read you refer to yourself as a genuine mystic. Are you?
As I understand it, what a person does is a result of their understanding which may or may not have anything to do with what they are.
Hi Bob
Christianity always provides meaningful spiritual experience but it is not a cultural phenomenon which is the domain of Christendom.
The Christian calling for re-birth is not life in an ivory tower but the evolution of ones being. It recognizes that the preoccupation or attachment to earthly concerns is really a life in prison. The social calling is secondary to aiding the experience of metanoia or the direction of human freedom from this prison, and the experience of human meaning, and purpose for those having begun to experience something beyond themselves. Consider how Meister Eckhart relates the value of what we do in relation to what we are:
Secular concerns will consider this irrelevant since its prime consideration is for what is done. This real Christian mystic goes beyond secular concerns into “being” potential.
Bob, consider the whole of Matthew 23 but in part:
For the Pharisees represented here, image was of prime importance.
The seven woes are quite direct in their condemnation of appearance.
Reading scripture from the esoteric perspective invites us to experience our own hypocrisy within ourselves as an aspect of self knowledge.
Actually it is the opposite. True individuality reveals both our differences and commonalities providing the opportunity for the development of a realistic appreciation of the human condition of which we are a part. Such understanding brings realistic meaning to “make things better.”
Spirituality is not necessary for life in the world. A person can be spiritually dead and be celebrated by culture. We are primarily carnal with spiritual potential. This is why Jesus said to let the dead bury their dead. Many, for whatever reason, have no interest and openly reject higher influences. Who knows, maybe they are right. If it isn’t wanted, it is no insult to agree that it isn’t wanted. The fact that these differences exist is no reason for people to start killing one another. All that is required is the simple respect for differences that genuine individuality would immediately acknowledge.
I think Nick that there are layers here. It really depends on our intentions does it not? Normal people who do not take their spiritual life very seriously might not only do according to their understanding but rather according to their conditioning, their karmic paths - they may only be responding to their situations - we have patterns that we play out over and over again until we become aware of ourselves and choose to change those responses or not. This is where an awareness of spirit comes in. The spiritual cultivator will recognise pattern within their own minds and (their trained responses) and will deliberately ‘cultivate’ the spirit by adhering to their conscience. The conscience bridges the True nature and the human nature, it is the voice.
The first type of person strives for individuality, needing very much to be something special, something different from the others to define himself, the ego is very much in control here. The second type of person and there is a blurred line between the first type and the second type. Even the adept has attachment and operates much like the first, only he has awareness yet is not always able to remove himself wholely.
The deeper we are able to introspect ourselves and act against the programmed nature, the deeper we are able to ‘hear’ God’s voice and the more we are able to integrate that into our daily lives the more God’s voice becomes our own voice. Of course humility is essential. The more we are able to hear God’s voice, the more we are able to recognise the unity of our souls. When Bob talks of the more individuality we have and the less we have in common, he is referring to the understanding/knowing that it is God’s voice that speaks in our hearts, in all our hearts. It has always been that way and it will always be that way. We just have to stand aside to hear it (break our patterns). Now when God speaks though us, the message for all is One. Thus we have more in common than the individual who is striving for individuality, we are striving for unity.
It’s a matter of process, however once the medicine has cured the illness we throw the medicine away.
Hence, when Meister Eckhart tells us that:
He is expressing that the real work is the inner work which is manifested in our actions and behaviour. We focus on understanding the mystery, everything about us changes. Our entire world changes because our thoughts change and it is the thoughts that are the key to creation. Our thoughts change because they align with God and when they align with God, there is no difference between you and me and the entire world.
In order to reach this point we embark on the journey of process. We understand what must be done and we do it. Just as everything is manifested from ONE, if we wish to return to ONE, we simply follow the the path.
A
Nick,
Nick, do you ever really read what you write? My original comment was a tongue-in-cheek observation that you were making some broad sweeping generalizations about what a mystic is and isn’t. And now you ask if I am a genuinemystic. Just what part of labeling and pigeon-holing don’t you get?
I’ll ignore the mystic issue, but who I am is what I do, and what I do is who I am. That is being Nick. All accomplished without labels.
JT
Hi there LA
I think I should clarify what I mean by understand. A person may understand that it would be advantageous to lose ten pounds so decides to diet. He then understands that he loves chocolate chip cookies and eats a box of them. So in reality he understands both.
It is the same with our intentions. What do we really understand if we live in opposition to ourselves in the way Paul described as the “wretched man?”
JT
Do you really believe I thought you may be amystic? 
Quite true. We don’t “do” anything. Lacking consciousness, everything happens as it does with the rest of organic life. We don’t have a central “I” that can “am”. We are, as Buddhism suggests, a plurality. So since we are what we do and don’t really do anything, as we are, we are nothing. Welcome to the human condition.