Hi everyone. Welcome to another Thursday's Child. Thursday's Child because of the nature of the content, but I guess we should call this Sunday's Child because of the day of the week. I started this yesterday(Saturday afternoon) then I got a couple of phone calls that took me into well into the evening. I'll be absolutely finishing today. I hope no one kept checking Thursday to see if there was a post. Things came up and time just slipped away. I apologize for that. As promised though, let's talk about the topic of salvation. To get an understanding on salvation, it may be a good idea to get an understanding of what or who God is. I listened to a video recently by Alan Watts, a writer from mainly the 1950's and 60's. He spoke about Taoism, Zen, Hinduism, Christianity and various other topics not necessarily all spiritual related. His view on God was, Although we say He when we refer to God, God is not a white haired bearded man in the sky handing out healings and punishments. Since a lot of us grew up in christian churches, and we see pictures of Jesus sometimes sitting at the right hand of the father, the picture also makes the father an older man, and they are sitting among angels in the clouds on a moonlit starry night. Like we've mentioned before, as humans it helps if we have something visual to relate to when learning about something.
Watts, like Yogananda, talks about God as Consciousness. A consciousness that we can experience because we are God/Christ Consciousness in human form. That's what Jesus meant when He said "The Kingdom of God In within." Watts has said "The God you seek is the very "you" experiencing life right now, just viewed from a limited perspective." He says like many religions describe, God is Omniscient, Omnipotent, and Omnipresent. We can think of it like a wave being part of an ocean, when in fact it is the ocean performing an activity. Yoganada teaches that when Jesus quoted Psalm 82:6 saying Ye Are Gods, He was referring to the fact that we have souls created in God's images and have divine potential, but most people are asleep to this reality and need to awaken their true potential We also then are God performing our daily tasks. When you look at it in that perspective that means everyone you experience personally or on tv is also God Consciousness. That should give us a different view on how we see and relate to people. Even writing that right now speaks to me because of a discussion I was having with someone on messenger that I used to go to church with when I was in South Dakota that has changed his belief 180 degrees from back then. As humans it's hard not to feel animosity towards someone, but knowing they are also spirit having a human experience, we/I need to search our heart to let love overcome hard feelings.
If we recognize God in this way, an omnipresent source in the universe, how does that fit into what we have been taught concerning our salvation? Taken from the book "Revelations Of Christ" by Swami Kriyananda Chapter 11 is titled "Saved From What." I love this chapter so, Warning!! this may get long. In this book Swami Kriyananda has written down the words of Paramahansa Yogananda. Someone asked Yogananda once, "What does it mean to be saved?" They asked "Do you believe Christ died for your sins?" Naturally they meant Jesus the man and not Jesus's title as the Christ. Yogananda asked 'How can God die?" They wanted to know was Jesus sacrificed so we can repent and be saved from eternal damnation in hell. We are taught that we are sinners saved by grace, but the Bible doesn't say we are. The Bible says All Have sinned and Ephesians 2:8 says we are saved by grace. Romans 12:2 says Be Transformed by the Renewing of Your Mind, meaning if you become saved the way the Christian community classifies it, you should be studying Jesus's words and gradually start to learn how to live with the mindset of Jesus.
Yoganada says if we are going to identify as sinners, then we might as well keep sinning. In a biblical counseling course I took, the case study of a woman who was bulimic went for counseling. She said she was bulimic and wanted to be cured. The counselor told her if she is identifying with that condition and that's what you're calling yourself, just eat and puke, because that's who you are. If you aren't willing to accept that and want to identify as a Child of God then we have a starting point on how to make you better. When you use the words I Am you identify with what comes next. I Am Sick, I Am Poor... Identify on how you want to see yourself, not on your current view of what's happening.
If you have an issue with the word "Saved", like I do, you can omit that terminology and just recognize that you are a Child Of God, spend time in meditation, and start to recognize the new feeling and outlook of how you're viewing the world around you. I don't mean to imply that I'm able to spend hours or even a portion of that in meditation. I also have just as much trouble sitting still meditating and keeping my mind from thinking about everything else like everyone else. Jesus says Be Still and Know That I Am God. My meditation time is usually after I read at night, turn off the light and spend 10, 15 minutes or more thinking about things and people I'm thankful for, and asking for a better understanding of my Christ Consciousness and be able to know better what that really means. However you feel is your best way for you to connect to the energy, frequency or Christ Consciousness that we call God that is how you should do it.
Yoganada says focus your gaze either with your eyes partially closed or closed, on the area of the forehead between the eyes, which is the Third Eye, Christ Consciousness area. A few years ago, without knowing this information, I would do this and see images. I called it looking into the dark. I started drawing them on a sketch pad because I was pretty amazed that this was happening and didn't really know why. Edgar Cayce says when you wake up in the morning read The Lord's Prayer, Psalm 22, 23, 24 and 91. There are some more but If we try to read them all before starting our day we my not start til after lunch. We'll go through them here at some point. This gives me ideas to write about.
I'm also trying to read a book called Dominion. Let's say I'm gradually reading it. The way the author writes is hard for me to grasp. The point of the book is how political leaders and religious leaders in history were the ones who determined what was allowed in the Bible. Some of the things Jesus taught weren't allowed because he taught how to get to know your Christ Consciousness, and that wasn't good for the people in power. They needed people to think they were condemned to Hell to keep them coming to church and giving their money, kind of like how many still do today
Yoganada also says God would never send a perfect manifestation of the Christ Consciousness to earth. That manifestation had to come as a baby who grew and had to discover His own divine self. If that were the case we would always be discouraged that we couldn't accomplish our own divine consciousness and wouldn't be able to love others unconditionally. This is what is meant by Namaste. The Divine in Me Honors the Divine in You.
I'm interested in your thoughts on this topic. Where you live. What you've been taught and the conversation we can have learning from each other, so as always feel free to leave a comment.
I'll make a point be better disciplined in getting my thoughts out on a regular basis.
Have a Great Week and Keep Searching
Paul
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