Contemplation Seed 20

Saying 20: “Confess thy ignorance”

This contemplation embraces humility and surrender.

The ego wants to crown us with greatness. There is the old saying “He is famous in his own mind.”

We take partially accurate knowledge of persons, things, or conditions and believe we know all about the issue at hand. We become know-it-alls.

We jump to conclusions and often trip over our ignorance of unknown aspects about the matter or subject. Sometimes we embarrass ourselves.

We can then take the opportunity to admit that we really know not; that we err.

Admit to whom? Ourselves. Others. We can also confess our ignorance before God.

Humility makes the ego kneel.

Commune with that which is greater than thou. Surrender to It.

We surrender our finitude before spiritual greatness; that which is greater than us; God. God is the reality of Total Consciousness.

Surrendering the chattels and play-things of our ego to God we can thereby uplift our consciousness closer toward Total Consciousness.

Toward Total Consciousness we may live, move, and have our being.

In God we trust.

Amen.

Contemplation Seed 19

Saying 19: “Be a good story teller”

The root word for Myth is the Greek “muthos,” meaning “true word, true story.”

If we disregard one modern sense of story as a false, but entertaining tale, we are left with a truthful account; even a history.

One of the ways we learn is through stories. Father Anthony de Mello once observed that “the shortest distance between a human being and the truth is a story.” (paraphrase)

We are to speak the truth by living in Truth with all of our thoughts, feelings, and actions.

So embodied, as we bend toward the True, our words bend toward truth.

Our purpose becomes clear; our aim in life becomes true.

We are not here for clicks, likes, money, or the applause of the mob.

We are here to practice truth, and share it.

This, we will take with us after death.

Truly.

Christianity

“I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God, who is sending a love letter to the world.” Mother Teresa

As instruments we can choose what consciousness we will bring forth in this earthly world and the inner worlds.

Created in His image (Imago Dei), we inherit the creativity to fashion and draw the outlines, pictures, and scenes of the greater Life.

We participate in Divine creation. We are as mid-wives helping to give birth to new states of consciousness.

Be a clear vehicle for Total Consciousness; let IT use you to assist in His expression.

We are but passing sojourners; our time is brief. We are here to observe, learn, assist others, and learn how to love better …and better.

This wisdom of love, earned and precious, we take with us to give and share beyond the gates of death.

It is our contribution.

Desert Island Reading

You are a castaway on a deserted island and after much struggle have stabilized into an existence with sufficient shelter, water, food, and garments.

If you also had the luxury of seven books that have influenced you and you would read again, which seven would you choose?

Here are my seven.

1. Plato’s Dialogues,
2. Bible (both early and later testaments),
3. India’s Upanishads,
4. Buddha’s Dhammapada,
5. Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu,
6. Analects of Confucius,
7. Plotinus’ Enneads,
8. …and as an honorable mention, The Gnostic Scriptures by Bentley Layton, comprising the Nag Hammadi library.

What are your seven books?

Shinto

”A mirror has a clean light that reflects everything as it is. It symbolizes the stainless mind of the kami, and at the same time is regarded as a sacred symbolic embodiment of the fidelity of the worshipper towards the kami.“

– Sokyo One

Note: In Shintoism, “Kami“ are the spirits or deities behind natural objects, natural forces such as wind or rain, and can also be some renowned ancestors. Shinto mythological beings are Kami.

Kami are the essences behind all things that inspire wonder, awe, and upliftment. They inhabit a realm known as “Shinkai” which corresponds to this world.

Kami are what humans should strive to be.

Perennial Philosophy

The Soul is inborn, innate, and indestructible. It has no agreement with earthly measurements and It transcends time, space, and causation.

The Soul is your key to unlocking Peace and Renewal in the spiritual here and now.

It is your legacy; a priceless inheritance.

Just tune in.

Buddhism

“There is no path to happiness: happiness is the path.”

–Buddha

Hinduism 2

“Feel nothing, know nothing, do nothing, have nothing, give up all to God, and say utterly, ‘Thy will be done.’ We only dream this bondage. Wake up and let it go.”

Swami Vivekananda

“If you meditate on your ideal, you will acquire its nature. If you think of God day and night, you will acquire the nature of God.”

Ramakrishna

–Total Consciousness is the movement from one state of consciousness to another. This is evolving unfoldment. Our truth is our being expressed in word and story.

Mythosophy, the Wisdom of Myth, is made up of our individual true words and true stories as well as the wisdom and stories of the culture from which we spring.

Jewish

From the Geneva Bible, 1587, un-redacted english prose:

The (Ten) Commandments

“1Then God spake all these wordes, saying,

2I am the Lorde thy God, which haue brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

3Thou shalt haue none other Gods before me.

4Thou shalt make thee no grauen image, neither any similitude of things that are in heauen aboue, neither that are in the earth beneath, nor that are in the waters vnder the earth. 

5Thou shalt not bowe downe to them, neither serue them: for I am the Lord thy God, a ielous God, visiting the iniquitie of the fathers vpon the children, vpon the third generation and vpon the fourth of them that hate me:

6And shewing mercie vnto thousandes to them that loue me, & keepe my commandemets.

7Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lorde thy God in vaine: for the Lorde will not hold him guiltles that taketh his Name in vayne.

8Remember the Sabbath day, to keepe it holy. 

9Sixe dayes shalt thou labour, and doe all thy worke, 

10But the seuenth day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any worke, thou, nor thy sonne, nor thy daughter, thy man seruant, nor thy mayde, nor thy beast, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.

11For in sixe dayes the Lord made the heauen and the earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seuenth day: therefore the Lorde blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.

12Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy dayes may be prolonged vpon the land, which the Lord thy God giueth thee.

13Thou shalt not kill.

14Thou shalt not commit adulterie.

15Thou shalt not steale.

16Thou shalt not beare false witnes against thy neighbour.

17Thou shalt not couet thy neighbours house, neither shalt thou couet thy neighbours wife, nor his man seruant, nor his mayde, nor his oxe, nor his asse, neyther any thing that is thy neighbours.”

Geneva Bible, Exodus 20: 1-17, 1587

Each mythology (sacred story, sacred words) accents certain Ideals. Judaism embodies the Ideals of Covenant and Law.

Hinduism

All religions are true. God can be reached by different religions. Many rivers flow by many ways but they fall into the sea. They all are one.

–Ramakrishna