Dancing the Path of Love

 

JESUS INCOMPLETE

  We’re not here to earn God’s love; we’re here to spend it! 

Swami Beyondananda

Jesus was such a great teacher, it’s unreasonably harsh to call him a hypocrite. A hypocrite is someone who says one thing and then acts entirely opposite to it, someone who does not walk his talk. Yet according to the record in the Gospels, Jesus did not walk his talk in several significant instances, and this failure to practice the Path of Love when it was really important to do so may have had a profound negative influence on Christianity, and may account for much of the evil done in his name. We unconsciously absorb the inconsistencies that I point out, and consequently very likely conclude that it’s ok for us to be inconsistent also, not practicing what we preach.  It is therefore appropriate to see Jesus as incomplete, bringing in a great teaching but not fully acting on that teaching or understanding its implications. Of course in that regard we are all incomplete, works in progress.

The revolutionary teaching of Jesus was the promise of eternal life, which for the most part I am not going to deal with here. Besides this, the fundamental teachings of Jesus were to love God with all our hearts, and to love one another as he loved us. (Matthew 22:37ff) These teachings are not as new as some might suppose. Leviticus 19:18 says, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself,” and the Old Testament  is full of admonishments that we should love God, such as Deuteronomy 6:5: “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” However, according to the standard interpretation, Jesus loved us so much he was willing to give his life that we might be saved from the consequences of our sins, and his teachings brought the message of love to what became the Christian world. So how did he not follow his own teachings?

First, in Matthew 21:19ff, Jesus spots a fig tree on the side of the road and wishes to eat a fig. He discovers the tree has no figs, as it is not the right season. He curses the fig tree, saying “May no fruit ever come from you again!” and the fig tree withers and dies. This is clearly not an act of love toward the fig tree, which is quite understandable, since the Hebrew culture evinces no special regard for nature. However, any traditional Native American would immediately recognize this as an unjustified evil act, definitely not on the Path of Love.

To make matters worse, Jesus goes on to say that just as he withered the fig tree, if you have faith in God, you can even move mountains. In Mark’s version (Mark 11:24) “Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it, and you will.”  Now that’s as bad as the Law of Attraction. It may be true, but what he should have said is, “Whatever you ask in prayer on the Path of Love ...” Since he didn’t say that, he leaves the impression that it’s ok to pray for all kinds of crap and get it. The only folks who move mountains are the coal companies of West Virginia, and it is hardly a holy act.

To top it off, Jesus finishes by saying, “When you stand praying, forgive .. so that your father ... may forgive you your trespasses.” (Mark 11:25) Jesus certainly did not forgive the fig tree. Once again, his preaching does not appear to apply to the natural world, so that we could think we are being good Christians even as we rape Mother Nature in every conceivable way.

A second way in which Jesus is not true to the Path of Love occurs when he casts the money changers out of the temple. John puts is most vigorously in 2:15: “And making a whip of cords, he drove them all, with the sheep and oxen, out of the temple; and he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables.” Matthew 21:13 and Mark 11:17 add, “you have made it a den of robbers.”

I do not think Marshall Rosenberg would approve. This does not qualify as non-violent communication. It is not the Path of Love. By his example, Jesus shows that it is ok to get angry and violent with folks you disagree with – when you have righteousness on your side. Here we have the justification for the Inquisition and all the other evils the Church has perpetrated in the name of righteousness. It was a lost opportunity for Jesus to show what he meant when he said, “Love your enemies.” (Matthew 5:44 etc.) We may imagine that Gandhi might have handled it very differently, and achieved a more favorable result.

A third major instance where Jesus is not true to the Path of Love occurs when he is being tried by Pontius Pilate. In this case we have a choice as to what to believe. The first three Gospels give one account, but John (18:33) gives quite a different account, in which Jesus is much more reasonable and polite. In the first three, Pilate asks, “ Are you king of the Jews?” Jesus answers, “You have said so,” and then refuses to answer any more questions. (Matthew 27:11) This strikes me as a rude response. Perhaps Jesus might claim that at the time he felt it was important to give a brave response and show he was not afraid of power. But it was most definitely not a loving response and did not model for us how to love our enemies. Why couldn’t he give a gracious and respectful response such as Paul gave throughout Acts? I can imagine Jesus telling Pilate, “I am simply here to teach love. Almost  everything I have done in my life have been acts of love. I love you, and I love the priests, elders, and scribes. I love the Jewish people, and I have come to save them by showing them the Path of Love.”

Of course if he had said that, maybe they wouldn’t have crucified him, and people would have lost an important reason to honor Jesus. John makes it very clear that Jesus knew what he was doing and knew it was necessary for him to be crucified to fulfill the prophecies. Therefore he was intentionally provoking the authorities to achieve that end. But he did not walk the Path of Love. It’s also true that according to Luke 23:34, when Jesus was on the cross, he said, “Father forgive them; for they know not what they do.” This is excellent modeling on the Path of Love. I wish it were all like that. At least Jesus was able to inspire Paul and the other apostles to act with respect and love, and that in itself is a major accomplishment. However, as I’ve said elsewhere, Christianity is full of obsolete chaff, and we would all do well to take the good stuff and leave the rest behind. Spirituality is about how we connect with God and one another, and it is good to keep other concepts out of the way.

It is valuable to point out all the ways Jesus did not walk the Path of Love. The Biblical Jesus needs to be left behind us, so that we can truly understand what the Path of Love involves. In Matthew 5:17ff Jesus is lawgiver. He affirms the Ten Commandments and interprets some of them even more stringently. In regard to “Thou shall not kill,” he says “that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be liable to the hell of fire.” These statements may have been consistent with or even an improvement upon the concepts of justice at the time, but it does not seem to be on the Path of Love to mete out strong punishments, particularly for relatively minor infractions. Isn’t it better to send love to miscreants and encourage them to practice love so as to improve their behavior than to send them to the fires of hell?

Yet following this in Matthew 5:23ff, Jesus offers perfectly sound advice: before you make an offering to God, clear up any quarrel you have with your brother and be reconciled.

In Matthew 5:27ff, Jesus makes his well known comments about “Thou shall not commit adultery.” “But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.”  He goes on to argue that “whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” He is subscribing to one of the fundamental errors of the patriarchy, which held that women are possessions and not only must remain chaste to their owner husbands but should become untouchables if they get divorced. We know now that a sizable percentage of humans are polyamorous by nature. We may choose to be faithful to only one lover, but if we choose to be free spirits, there is no particular harm in it as long as nobody is violating their vows. We know the difference between bonobos and chimpanzees. Bonobos have sex frequently with any other available bonobo, and they are peaceful and happy. Chimpanzees are possessive of their partners, sometimes kill members of their own tribe, and make war on neighboring tribes. So “Make Love not War” expresses a fundamental truth: if we made more love, maybe we would have fewer wars. Jesus’ dictums are neither on the Path of Love nor in touch with the reality of the human condition. Furthermore, if he wants us to pluck out an eye or cut off a hand, he is not in touch with loving our own bodies, and he offers up the threat of hell, which is not on the map where the Path of Love goes.

In this same Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says to turn the other cheek and love your enemy. (Matthew 5:39, 44) He thus expresses deep truths about the Path of Love at the same time he is missing it by a mile. This is what I mean in saying he is incomplete.

In Matthew 12:30 Jesus actually says, “He who is not with me is against me.” Now that’s the Christianity of George W. Bush. But it is not on the Path of Love. Love knows that all paths that have love in them work, and it doesn’t matter whether you follow Jesus or Mohammed or Buddha. He goes on to say which blasphemies will be forgiven and which will not: “blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.” This appears to be in contradiction to what St. Paul says about love in 1 Corinthians 13:4ff: “Love is not jealous ... Love does not insist on its own way... Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” To me this implies that love is not judgmental but always forgiving, unlike the harsh penalties that Jesus puts forth.

Jesus’ teachings are full of strange inconsistencies. As I quoted above, in Matthew 5:22 “whoever says ‘you fool!’ shall be liable to the hell of fire.” Then in Matthew 23:17 he says, “You blind fools!” referring to the scribes and Pharisees. How is it that if we call one another a fool we’re liable to be thrown into hell, but it’s ok for Jesus to call the scribes and Pharisees fools? For that matter, Jesus is constantly name calling, over and over again calling the scribes and Pharisees hypocrites, serpents, and a brood of vipers. In Matthew 12:31 he calls his audience, “You brood of vipers!”  In Matthew 16:4 he describes the times as “An evil and adulterous generation...” In Matthew 17:17 Jesus seems to refer to his own disciples as “O faithless and perverse generation...” In one dispute with Jews who don’t believe in him, he says, “You are of your father the devil ...” (John 8:44) This is how to win friends and influence people?  Name calling is hardly nonviolent communication and most certainly not on the Path of Love. Why would we want to offer this role model to our children?

In Matthew 10:34 Jesus says, “Do not think I have come to bring peace on earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”  Yet in Luke 2:14, when Jesus is born, the heavenly host sings, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men...” So which is it? Love spreads love and brings peace: it does not provoke the sword. But Jesus spoke, and sanctioned 2000 years of warfare, a good deal of it over religious issues. This is the man we call “The Prince of Peace?” He may be realistically facing the harsh constraints of the time, but it is as if he has not fully grasped the power of the love he is teaching.

How can Jesus possibly say his second great commandment is to “love your neighbor as yourself,”(Matthew 22:39) and then say (Matthew 10:35) “For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s foes will be those of his own household”? What kind of love turns our family members into enemies? His love was in healing people, very heavily manifested, but apparently he was more concerned that we love God than with practicing love in human relations.

Still, it is puzzling, because at times Jesus could express the message of love with such spiritual depth, as in Luke 6:28ff: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also...” However, he follows these beautiful words with “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same ...” Excuse me, but loving and doing good to one another is not for the purpose of gaining credits. We love one another and do good because that is how we want to behave. It generates the holy vibration of love and we bathe in Holy Spirit. It’s the most ecstatic thing we can do, and brings us closer to God. Jesus continues, “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great...” If Jesus is talking about your reward in heaven after you die as suggested earlier in Luke 6:23 where he says, "for behold, your reward is great in heaven,” my response is no. The reward is intrinsic and immediate. It is just fine to love those who love us. The more we practice love, the better we get at it. But as Jesus says, we must expect nothing in return, because if we give love expecting to get love back, nothing happens. If we give love freely, expecting nothing, God can mirror back that love tenfold, a hundredfold. This is one of the great mysteries.

In Matthew 21:23ff  the chief priests and elders ask Jesus by what authority does he preach and heal? Jesus responds with a trick question that they cannot answer, and then says “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.” Now it’s possible that if Jesus had said, “I act by the Grace of God Almighty,” the priests would have accused him of blasphemy. Nevertheless, I see no love in the answer Jesus gave; it seems more like he’s telling the priests to shove it. He most certainly is not spreading his message of love in this situation. Shortly thereafter, in Matthew 23:3, Jesus says “the Pharisees ... preach, but do not practice.” Perhaps he should look in a mirror.

In Matthew 15:4  Jesus reiterates the Commandment to honor your father and mother, but in Matthew 12:48 he refuses to speak to his mother and brothers and leaves them standing by the door so he can make a rhetorical point. How is that honoring his mother? Likewise, in Matthew 23:9 Jesus says, “And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.”  That may be a very nice sentiment to show our relationship to God, but it makes it a bit difficult to honor our physical fathers. Jesus’ commandment appears to be, “Do and do not honor your fathers and mothers.” Where is the love? In Luke 14:26. Jesus says it even more strongly: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” Followed by Luke 14:33: “So therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”  It makes no sense to me to argue that you must hate yourself or hate God’s creation in order to love God. When you recognize God’s creation for what it is, love flows in every direction.

In Matthew 7:1 Jesus says, “Judge not that you be not judged.” There is nothing particularly wrong with this advice, it’s standard Law of Karma. If you don’t want to be judged by others, don’t judge others. However, it doesn’t go as deep as it might. The problem with judging others is that we are so often mistaken in our judgments. It might be better to say, “Do not judge another until you have walked a mile in their moccasins.”  Until you really understand another, it is hardly fair to make judgments about them. But even deeper than that, judgment implies censure. It is looking for what is wrong in another. So much better to look for what is right, for what is on the Path of Love, and support that!

In Luke 9:59ff Jesus tells a man to follow him, and the man replies “‘Lord, let me first go and bury my father.’ but he said to him, ‘Leave the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’ Another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those in my home.’ Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’”  Now Jesus may be emphasizing how important it is to orient to the kingdom of God, but where is the love?  Burying one’s father or saying farewell are important to family members. What good is it to align with the kingdom of God if you alienate your family? These are the words of a fanatic, not one who wants to balance love in all directions. No wonder he has come “to set a man against his father, etc.”

Shortly after this Jesus instructs his disciples to go empty handed into the towns ahead and stay with those who are willing to receive them. Then he says in Luke 10:10, “But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you; nevertheless, know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ I tell you, it shall be more tolerable for Sodom on that day than for that town.”  So if folks won’t receive his disciples, he curses them, and continues to do so in Luke10:13-15. How is this loving your enemies? Who can call this the Path of Love?

Yet remarkably, this passage is followed by the tale of the good Samaritan. The man who was beset by robbers was evidently a Jew; Samaritans were foreigners looked down upon by Jews. The question was, “who is my neighbor?” The answer is the Samaritan who showed mercy on the robbed man. Then Jesus says, “Go and do likewise.”

(Luke10:25-37) Again we have this curious mix of excellent advice on how to follow the Path of Love and failing to follow it.

In so much of Jesus’ discourse, he argues that we should do good because if we don’t we’ll go to hell. Typical is Matthew 25:31-46, about giving the needy food and drink and clothing and help when sick. If folks fail to do this, “they will go away into eternal punishment.” As I have said, hell is simply not on the map of the Path of Love. Love does not punish; it saves. The real reason to do good deeds is that it feels good to do them. So often a good deed inspires a deep recognition that we can be loving, and a holy vibration of love fills the air between giver and receiver, and creates a bond between them. Charity is its own reward. The threat of hell is a total distraction.

As far as spreading love is concerned, in the last 2000 years, Christianity has at best been minimally successful, basically a failure. It has probably been more successful in its promise of eternal life. Much of what Jesus talked about was this promise. He taught that if you want eternal life, love one another and obey all the rules. However, the desire for eternal life is totally selfish. You have been given perhaps 100 years of an absolutely incredible opportunity and experience of life. A tremendous gift! So instead of saying, “Thank you God! This is more than sufficient. I realize how much I have been blessed just to live for this long,” greedy folks say, “Oh yeah! This life has been great! I want more, more more!” That is part of our insane culture that is always wanting more.

So the equation is, if I want to go to Heaven, it’s important for me to love one another; it’s important for me to give to the poor and help one another and be a good neighbor. Thus these folks don’t love one another, help one another and be a good neighbor for its own sake, for its own reward, even tho its own reward is beautiful and incredible. Oh no! They’re only doing this so that they can live forever! Thus the motivation is not pure, and of course therefore their actions are not pure and don’t work very well. They don’t discover and appreciate the rewards of loving for its own sake. So by feeding the greedy selfish desire for an afterlife, Christianity has corrupted its message of love. This may be a major reason why it is such a failure.

How much more time do we want to give Christianity? It’s a well known assertion in our culture that those who keep doing the same thing over and over again in hopes of a different result are insane. I wouldn’t put it quite that strongly: they’re merely stupid. Love is its own reward. Forget about an afterlife! Maybe there is and maybe there isn’t. Be here now! If there is an afterlife to achieve, the best way to do it is to make the most of every day, and by “most” I mean most in walking the Path of Love, where lies the greatest joy, the greatest and lasting satisfaction with one’s life. Don’t love one another in order to get to heaven! Love one another because it’s good in itself.

I believe that almost all the trappings of the Biblical Jesus should be left behind. In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6:9ff,  Jesus gives us The Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our debts, As we also have forgiven our debtors; And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil.” Now this has got to be altogether strange. Why should the name of God be hallowed? What difference does it make whether God is called Jehovah, Creator, the Great Mystery, or even the Void? Hallowing His name may just be a convention of the time, but if I want to follow Jesus’ commandment to love God with all my heart, I want to hallow God, not His name.

Why should I pray for His kingdom to come? This is God’s kingdom, He’s creating every bit of it. Why ask for His will to be done? His will is always done; nothing happens except by God’s will. Sure, He has given us free will, so what this line really means is let us align our will with the Path of Love, but it is a long ways from saying that. God does not will that we walk the Path of Love: it is our choice.

“Give us this day our daily bread” seems like a supplication for God to feed us. It misses the mark. God gives us the opportunity to feed and clothe and house ourselves, and rather than asking Him to do those things for us, I would much rather thank Him for making our very comfortable lives possible. Where is our thanks to God in this prayer? Where is a direct expression of our love for Him?

“Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors” is a request for the Law of Karma to apply. The Law of Karma always applies: we get back what we put out. We don’t need to ask for it to apply, but it is very good to be reminded that it always does apply. Christianity generally sees the Law of Karma as the Golden Rule: “Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.” (Matthew 7:12) Thus Christianity makes the Law of Karma out to be a moral precept, rather than a law of physics. Karen Armstrong conflates the Golden Rule with the principle of compassion. While practicing the Golden Rule by compassionately imagining the position of the other is certainly excellent, it actually is simply practical advice: if you wish to be treated well, treat others well. You don’t have to be compassionate at all. However, following the Golden Rule with compassion and respect is an integral aspect of the Path of Love.

“Lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil” is the strangest line of all. It suggests that God might lead us into temptation?  Not likely, except indirectly. Even James says, “God ... himself tempts no one.” (James 1:13)  Since God has given us free will, our free wills lead us into all kinds of temptation. That’s the challenge. It’s not up to God to keep us out of temptation but our own judgment. So the request is incomplete and misleading. And why should we be delivered from evil? Adversity makes us stronger. Our challenge is how we deal with the evils or adversities we face. It’s not up to God to deliver us, but up to our own courage, values, and judgment.

Jesus’ prayer does not seem to focus on loving God, thanking God, loving one another, or facing our challenges. So forget it! It is just one more example of how his message is incomplete. I could make a similar analysis of the Beatitudes, but perhaps you can figure that out for yourselves.

The deficiencies of the Lord’s Prayer raise a question: what should be in a prayer? First, to give thanks for life, for this wonderful opportunity, for knowing our connection to God, for all our abilities, for all our loved ones, for all our adventures, and for everything we learn. Second, affirmations that we may use our time and talents well and that we walk the Path of Love. Third, a request for Guidance when we need it. It may be appropriate to ask that the Law of Karma always be clear to us, so that we can plan accordingly, and that we always see and feel God in everything. I always end my morning prayer with this affirmation: “It feels good to be here, praise God! it feels good to be.” Then I sing it as a hymn: “Rejoice, rejoice, it feels good to be here! Rejoice, rejoice, it feels good to be!” I think everyone should create their own prayers to suit their own circumstances, but if a general prayer is desired, it might go something like this:

Great Holy Mystery! Thank you for life! Thank you for free will! Thank you for this day! May I make the most of it!

Thank you for revealing that I am part of you, and that I can tune in to Guidance whenever I ask, as long as I don't ask too often.

Thank you for love, and joy, and beauty, and bounty, humor and health and memory, strength, intelligence, courage, compassion, and all the rest.

Thank you for my parents and all of my ancestors, for giving me the spark of life, my hard wiring,  my initial programming, and all the love and nurturing and guidance that I have received from all sources.

Thank you for all my friends and loved ones. (It’s good to name them.)

Thank you for all my adventures and challenges, and all my successes and failures, and all that I learn thereby. May my challenges become adventures!

I align my free will with the sacred Path of Love in all my thoughts, decisions, actions, and relations; and I radiate love, or joy, or peace in all that I do, and all that I be.

It feels good to be here, it feels good to be here, praise God! it feels good to be alive, and embraced by You! How may I dance the Path of Love today?

In meditation I had a conversation with Jesus. He said, “You do not understand at all. Your concept of the Path of Love is totally beyond the consciousness of people in my age. They simply would not have heard it. I made an appeal in terms of the consciousness of the people of my time. They needed mystery and confusion to communicate. The inconsistency catches them. As Augustine said, ‘I believe because it is unbelievable.’ They needed the promise of the afterlife in order to change. Thus they could keep doing what they were doing at the same time they learned how to love. It has taken a couple thousand years for human consciousness to develop. Now you are ready to launch much more purely onto the Path of Love, knowing your connection to God.

“You are welcome to differentiate the Jesus of the Bible from the two thousand year old being that I am today. You rightly observe that God is the entire universe. I am a spokesman for God on Planet Earth, alive and well, and perfectly in tune with the Path of Love. You can consult me any time. I will be happy to give you Guidance. It is good to let go of the Biblical Jesus. Keep the jewels that can be found there, and do not trouble yourself about any perceived inconsistencies. They do not matter. You can walk much more clearly and purely on the Path of Love, and know much more clearly who you are.”

I said to Jesus, “Well, how about having your words written down as if they were graven in stone, creating the future for the last couple thousand years in all its mayhem?"  Jesus answered, “I wasn’t worried. My words would last for awhile, my energy would have its effect. And then when it was time to change, the change would come. Innovation inevitably rejects part of the past. You are part of that innovation. I gladly pass the call forward. May you, and all the awakening Spirits of your age, carry the call forward magnificently. You have my blessing! You seriously want to put love into all areas of feeling and action. That is highly laudable. It changes how we relate to one another.  Together let us forge the consciousness of God in this sector. Here we are His farthest advance. Let us live up to the infinite potential He has given us!”

I was surprised, although I’ve gotten used to being given the totally unexpected. All I could do was give thanks and appreciate that I receive such messages. You could say I’m just making it all up. It doesn’t seem that way to me, but if I am just fantasizing, then so are all the rest of the folks who claim to be channeling. I don’t particularly care if I am, because messages such as this one feel so good, so encouraging. I could just as easily have received a message from Jesus totally disapproving and telling me I’m just a nutcase whose wild ideas will never go anywhere. I didn’t, but sometimes I do receive pretty severe messages. I think it’s worthwhile to share one another’s realities, to do the best we can to describe what we have learned about being. So I offer my observations and invite you to take them for whatever you think they’re worth.

I had assumed that I was going to leave Jesus behind and forget the church. Let us be lovers instead of Christians! But Jesus is always with us, as undoubtedly are Buddha and Mohammed and a host of other spiritual guides. Only let Jesus be the 2000 year old living being who is beautiful and incredibly full of love, like a great transmission tower, beaming out in all directions: I love you! Discover love! Feel love in all your thoughts and actions!

What to do? As a beginning of the Pilotopia Rings, I would like for us to get together in one another’s homes, in small groups of  10 or 12, and talk about our experience of becoming conscious, of awakening, of becoming connected to Spirit. We could talk about our discoveries, talk about what’s working in our lives, talk about the ridiculous jams we get ourselves into, and the experiences of beauty, joy, and connection. Let us talk about how we can walk the Path of Love ever more fully, and if Jesus or others advise us on our paths, let’s talk about that. Make sure everyone gets a turn to tell their adventures and perspectives, and how they are feeling the joys of love in their lives. This is how we can develop our consciousness more fully, groom ourselves to tread well on the Path of Love, learn to see one another’s Spirits, and love one another deeply. The Awakening is happening, and how swiftly and well it proceeds is entirely up to us. Ask yourself, are you called? Find an answer in the deepest part of your being.

For comments or questions, contact

donangelo@spiritualadventurer.com

For further exploration of the deficiencies of the Bible and Christianity, see Christopher Hitchens’ God is not Great

( www.hitchensweb.com ) or Jason Long’s www.biblicalnonsense.com and www.thereligiouscondition.com . However, these guys are both atheists, which I am obviously not. I think life being formed by the accidental combination of the right chemicals and temperature has about as much chance as a room full of monkeys randomly hitting keyboards and typing out Hamlet.