The True Rapture
Sometimes I wonder why some people seem to be in such a hurry to have the world come to an end. I know that a great many people suffer and I have some empathy for that. But overall, the focus is quite sad, ...tragic even. That is because we have in each one of our hearts an instantaneous passageway to the divine. All of these people waiting for the messiah to sweep down from the heavens, pick them up, (if they are among the fortunate true believers that will rise into the sky to meet Jesus), and carry them away to heaven. Now, it is not so sad, if in trying to prepare for their flight, they work on improving their character to become more loving, compassionate, tolerant human beings - then that is a good thing, as Martha Stewart might say. I don't believe that an external messiah is coming to save us from ourselves. That is not why we are here. We have been given freedom to live as we choose, but we are not without assistance. Deep down in every human heart is the divine consciousness. If we but meditate upon this, quiet our minds of disturbance, we begin to get a sense of what is there. The salvation of humanity from possible self-destruction will come from the God who lives in our own hearts and minds. It will come from waking up and realizing how much we are essentially the same internally. It will come when we realize that we are one and that we must act together in our common interest of survival. We can all live together in peace and harmony. Our Love will make this possible. Our destiny is up to us, not without God, but with the God within us.
The great revelation of Christ was that God is not an all too human old man in the sky who would take to horrific smiting or obliteration if adequately perturbed, but, that God is Love. The great revelation of Buddha is that all things are one, all things change and that there is a clearer consciousness within each one of us, that we can access that will lead us to greater peace and equanimity. The great Hindu revelation is that all things are manifestations of one divine being or essence. The great message from the divine to all of us frail and fleeting humans therefore, is that the essence of the divine is in each one of us. Now, I am no egotist here, I know that no one person is the totality of God. God, I think, is a kind of collective...everything that exists. And it makes sense to me,(as much as my limited little brain can understand such things,) that the essence of God must be in everything that exists...all things are essentially made...of God.
The great gift for us is waking up, waking up to our true essential nature, that the core of what we are, is made of God. This is no heresy, I think, it illustrates a possible profound truth of our nature and points directly to the realization of the sanctity of life. All things are precious...because they are made of God. Now a great many things that exist are likely not aware of their divine nature, because they lack certain conscious ability, but that does not mean that they are at heart, any less divine. Some Native American Spirituality is really on to this, I think, because that understanding conveys a deep abiding respect for the natural world and the importance of maintaining a balanced relationship with it. I believe that every time we truly realize that we have divinity within our heart, and then express that Love from deep within out into this world, that that is a moment of rapture, that is a moment of true intimate connection with, and experience of, the divine. Every moment we behold the beauty of nature, the beauty of life, when the divine in our heart sees and feels the divine in life, that is a moment of rapture. Really, aside from our human existence with it's episodes of light and darkness, life is a continuous rapture - the constant, eternal, ecstatic, outpouring of divine essence becoming reality. Reality is the rapture of God living, the reality of Love becoming real.
The great revelation of Christ was that God is not an all too human old man in the sky who would take to horrific smiting or obliteration if adequately perturbed, but, that God is Love. The great revelation of Buddha is that all things are one, all things change and that there is a clearer consciousness within each one of us, that we can access that will lead us to greater peace and equanimity. The great Hindu revelation is that all things are manifestations of one divine being or essence. The great message from the divine to all of us frail and fleeting humans therefore, is that the essence of the divine is in each one of us. Now, I am no egotist here, I know that no one person is the totality of God. God, I think, is a kind of collective...everything that exists. And it makes sense to me,(as much as my limited little brain can understand such things,) that the essence of God must be in everything that exists...all things are essentially made...of God.
The great gift for us is waking up, waking up to our true essential nature, that the core of what we are, is made of God. This is no heresy, I think, it illustrates a possible profound truth of our nature and points directly to the realization of the sanctity of life. All things are precious...because they are made of God. Now a great many things that exist are likely not aware of their divine nature, because they lack certain conscious ability, but that does not mean that they are at heart, any less divine. Some Native American Spirituality is really on to this, I think, because that understanding conveys a deep abiding respect for the natural world and the importance of maintaining a balanced relationship with it. I believe that every time we truly realize that we have divinity within our heart, and then express that Love from deep within out into this world, that that is a moment of rapture, that is a moment of true intimate connection with, and experience of, the divine. Every moment we behold the beauty of nature, the beauty of life, when the divine in our heart sees and feels the divine in life, that is a moment of rapture. Really, aside from our human existence with it's episodes of light and darkness, life is a continuous rapture - the constant, eternal, ecstatic, outpouring of divine essence becoming reality. Reality is the rapture of God living, the reality of Love becoming real.
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