contemplation

Thinking about God and the challenge of evolution

Thinking about God and the challenge of evolution

How do I, do we, do you, do other people, think about God (and Jesus)? I know I think differently about God from other people. We all have our own conceptual version of God. Churches, bishops, theologians, mystics, men, women, gay activists, homophobes, misogynists, etc., each have their own version of ‘God’. Some claim their version to be the unique, unquestionable, authorised, ‘true God’’. ‘He’ isn’t. It’s their version of a truth. We think we ‘know’ God, but we don’t. We know God in the same way we know ourselves and other people – partially, incompletely, and elusively.

Evolution and Energy Fields

Evolution and Energy Fields

For fourteen years I worked episodically, writing a book, attempting an inclusive account of evolution that placed the Hebrew and Christian narratives within a holistic, cosmic framework. It was an ambitious enterprise. I never managed to find a publisher. Perhaps elements of what I have written will eventually find their way into a simpler, more publishable book. Meanwhile, I will post sections of the book here, ingredients of my faith in unadulterated love.

The cosmos, planet earth, consciousness, and energy – life’s spiritual adventure

The cosmos, planet earth, consciousness, and energy – life’s spiritual adventure

We, homo sapiens, matter. We, us, me, our souls and bodies, feelings and energy, our consciousness and self consciousness, our self-awareness and our breathing, the well-being and health of our body systems equally with our environment, all this matters, and contemporary culture encourages addictions rather than awareness of just how much we matter.

Boris kippers and sacred truth

Boris kippers and sacred truth

We are living through a three-decade long period of regression in our national life, a regressive movement found in other countries. I observe regression taking place in the social, political and religious realms. Fewer people speak with an independent mind, rooted in the wisdom that comes from commitment to truth-telling, integrity, and a deeply embedded set of values, whether they are grounded in Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Moslem, Hindu, philosophical, agnostic or atheist traditions. The regressive era we are living through needs an infusion of Wisdom teachers and practitioners. Without them, we lack the people capable of teaching us about ourselves, our behaviour patterns, insecurities and anxieties and addictions.

The Christlike God – seamless creation and evolution

The Christlike God – seamless creation and evolution

I’ve been reading The Christlike God written by John V. Taylor, formerly Bishop of Winchester and published in 1992. There is much in the book that echoes my own ideas about God, creation, evolution, and contemporary contemplative life. In the penultimate chapter, Dwell in me, I in you, (John 17.21,22), Taylor writes about the author Charles Williams and his use of the word coinherence to describe the relationship between God, the divine other, and us, human kind, Homo sapiens. I believe the universe, the divine Mystery and human life are seamlessly interwoven, coinherent, as Charles Williams describes.

The mystical Jesus and non-dualism

The mystical Jesus and non-dualism

In his book “Arise My Love . . .”: Mysticism for a New Era, William Johnston says that the mystical author of John’s gospel, after “many years spent in prayerful reflection and profound mystical contemplation . . . under the guidance of the Spirit” achieved a state of non-dualism, able to make no distinction between  Jesus the man - the Jesus of history and the Jesus of glory, the Christ of faith, Jesus who had lived on earth in the here and now and Jesus who lives in the non-dual here and now of interior presence and existential essence. My intuition, the internal voice, the Spirit guide in me, has been telling me for a long time that creation is a seamless unity, despite appearance or teachings to the contrary or the commonly held assumptions and mind-set of the institutional church that we live in a dualistic creation.

Unconditional Love – a New Year Resolution for 2019

Unconditional Love – a New Year Resolution for 2019

We can become too easily (and understandably) trapped in the binary, good and evil, us and them, loving God and punitive God dynamic on which the dualistic faith of conservative traditionalist Christians is founded. It’s New Year Resolution time: and for me it’s renewed decision time. Do I – do we – opt for and choose to construct from our interior conviction and from the Biblical evidence – a God of unconditional love who is entirely and unconditionally for creation and evolution and for us, we the diverse human community living on planet earth?

Teaching meditation or mindfulness in the CofE

Teaching meditation or mindfulness in the CofE

An article about mindfulness in schools in last Sunday’s Observer raised again a persistent question for me. Why isn’t the teaching of meditation or mindfulness a core part of the Church of England’s teaching programme? Teaching meditation ought to be an integral part of life in every parish. It needs to be taught and it needs to be practised, integrated with prayer and worship.

Life in all its fullness and meditation in the body

Life in all its fullness and meditation in the body

I have recently been writing about my contemplative practice and what happens in the twenty-five minutes or so of silent awareness each morning that is for me an encounter with presence of God. My presence is very embodied, emotionally and physically aware. Given all the claims Christianity makes about God, the potential for deep, creative change should be even more present in Christian life and prayer. But this experience people seem to find elusive. Why? Why isn’t the church very good at knowing from experience the presence of God? Why is it not very good at acknowledging our bodies as integral to spiritual life?