Meditation

Couldn't sleep because of a pinched nerve literally caused by stress.  My muscles were so contracted that they pinched a nerve!  So I am reflecting on how out of perspective I have allowed myself to become.  I have a beautiful home and loving family.  As I watch friends separate after years of marriage, or suffer through disease, I realize how very fortuante I am.  I attribute my fortune to Spirituality.  Not that this will prevent bad things from happening but that this will provide a forum for me to get through whatever happens.  It will also guide me directionally so that I can avoid choices that will lead me to unhappiness.  Jesus suffered, was crucified but he rose again  Such a poignant illustration of how connected we are and how it is the Spirit that is who we are, not the physical body.  

While I want to learn more about other faiths and desparately want to be part of something that educates and promotes tolerance across multiple faiths, I am extremely grateful for my Catholic-Christian faith.  It is this faith which saved me - truly.  The concept of rising from physical death is what drew me to explore my faith more fully.  How could someone have impacted so many and not have had something truly profound happen.  So even if you rationalize it, something big happened.  If you let yourself go on the premise that yeah - this guy came back and Thomas touched the wounds of the crucifixtion, then you MUST believe that there is something beyond the physical body.  Let's combine this with all the smaller experiences that so many have had (probably yourself if you allow yourself to recognize it) and it's fairly easy to let yourself go with it for at least the purpose of our initial exploration into Christianity.  I have seen miracles personally and with my recent exploration into meditation, I am more fully aware of my spiritual self, so the concept of rising from physical death seems more rational.  But it isn't the miracles that matter.  The miracles are the attention grabbers so that we will explore the Spirit more fully.  

This post is about the difference between moral and spiritual.  At one point I would have considered the two nearly synonymous.  But I no longer think that at all.  While the two are not mutually exclusive, they are also not integrally the same.  I  think that someone who is Spiritual (and I will define that as someone who is connected to the whole) must be moral.  If for nothing else than self-preservation.  That is to say, if you are Spiritual, then you recognize that you are a piece of a greater being - the "whole".  So you will act morally and not kill others because you are killing yourself in doing so.  However, I think there are many moral people who are not Spiritual.  So what?  Why do we care?  They are moral; they aren't killing others; they aren't adding disease to the whole.  So What?  Why should we try to show them any different path?  Compare this to a person's body.  Let's say there is a diseased person (let's say an alcoholic) who is contributing unhealthy content into his body.  You want to intervene because he is killing himself.  Then let's say there is a person who isn't smoking, drinking or eating fatty foods.  But they are sitting on a couch watching TV all day.  Do you need to intervene?  Can they be living a healthier life?  Of course they can!  Get up, take a walk, excercise your body and you now feel alive and invigorated.  This is the agnostic - the morally sound but spiritually devoid human.

I have struggled with Christianity because it seemed too exclusive - I am the Way, the Truth and the Light (or Life depending on where you look).  No-one gets to the Father except through Christ.  Always seemed like the one and only path and I had a hard time reconciling this.  I no longer interpret this as exclusionary, however, Jesus is the Way the Truth and the Light, and if you don't see this then you won't be part of the whole.  But He isn't the only path to holiness.  There are many paths and guess what - if you follow them then you are really applying common tenets.  SO if you follow those tenets then you are following Christ so therefore you haven't gotten to the Father except through Christ's teachings.  They happen to be taught in other classes and that's OK.   Do good, don't hurt other people love others as yourself (because guess what they ARE yourself) and recognize that you are just a part of the whole.  That is such a HUMBLE concept.  It's the humility that is so difficult for us and THIS is the way, the truth and the light.  Holiness, is being united with the Whole.  

Through meditation, I have felt more connected to the Whole than ever before, even moreso than when in dedicated prayer to Christ.  I see now that Christ is a path, a very powerful path and one which has positively influenced so many people in a profound manner.  Christ is EXTREMELY important and holy indeed.  He brought me to spirituality.  And through spirituality it is very easy for me to exhibit moral behaviors.  But my morality could exist with or without my Spirituality.  It is enriched through Spirituality but I can be very morally rich and still remain devoid of spirituality.  It is this that came to me as I couldn't sleep because my physical body was enduring stress that I permitted through lack of focus and intention on my spiritual self.  I meditate, I read the Bible, I read many writings on being present in the moment, but you have to BE in the moment to truly be connected to your spiritual self, the self that rose from a painful crucifixtion; the self that is in fact ONE being, one spiritual system that we all belong to whether we nurture it or not.  It is this spiritual self that is united with all others and who suffers when other physical beings suffer, whether we recognize it or not.

I  struggled with Christianity and then I struggled with other faiths as I explored because they too were exclusive.  Each religion had to be right and then they all pretty much said that if you didn't follow their rules then you were dead when your physical body stopped operating as a physical system.  I couldn't reconcile this either.  What about my family?  60-80% are agnostic at best and some are professed atheists.  How could something that I felt as a reality - I KNOW there is a spiritual being and that Christ rose from the dead - how could someone I love not see this and more importantly, how could I help them because Holy COW - if they don't buy in them bammo when they die they lose their opportunity!  How could that be true though?  They are morally good people.  They love others; they help others; they sacrifice.  I know there are all sorts of scripture (no matter what your religion they all say some form of this) that says action without faith ain't enough and faith without action ain't enough.  And I think that is true but I don't think there is a doomsday when the physical body dies - merely a realization of the lost opportunity when reunited with the Spiritual Whole.  And THAT is what you want those folks to recognize.  We have such a precious opportunity in Life to live it fully with all the Power of the Universe.  I don't want anyone I love to miss out on that.

I believe that we are here to learn and to make the unified spirit healthier and stronger.  If we act in faith (don't care which religion you choose - but know that you are a part of a greater and eternal whole) then that is like excercise to the physical body and the Spiritual whole becomes stronger and healthier.  If we ignore this, then it's like junk food to the physical body, it makes it fat, lethargic and unhealthy.  We can see physical manifestation of this (like a pinched nerve due to physical reactions to stress caused by my lack of maintaining a focus on the now - on my FAITH in the spiritual whole) in our day-to-day lives.

Jesus, therefore is the best darn spritiual excercise leader in my life.  He gets people off the spiritual couch so that we can be healthy and strong.  He takes moral people and makes them spiritual, he takes morally devoid people and guides them back.  He and all of us who recognize the greater unified self (Mohammed, Ghandi, Mama T, you and me).  

I, personally,  owe Jesus a lot and on this Easter morning, I thank and Love Him and dedicate myself to focusing on his teachings - which, by the way, are incredibly tolerant.  The Man took in the lowest of the low and showed them Love - this isn't exclusive or exclusionary.  Our religious houses and tenets should reflect the same in practice.  Finally, this includes tolerance of the Catholic Church who is made up of humans who make mistakes like any other.  I know Jesus would show forgiveness and be looking to heal not destroy.  God Bless our new leader in Francis.  I pray for unity in the Catholic Church, across all Christian denominations and across all faiths.  ONE Grace in Motion. 

Happy Easter!