The Christmas Star In Our Hearts

There is a night in most everyone's life when you look up into the vast expanse of the universe and gaze into the night sky as if hypnotized. It appears to be an endless dome of impenetrable darkness broken and splattered with billions of glittering sparkles of light. Some are extraordinarily bright and visually staccato and others are so faint we are not sure we even see anything.

At these moments we are like fish taking time to become aware of and to wonder about things above the surface of the water, our known world of action and reality. It is as if we are trying to reach beyond our limits or everyday understanding to fathom something we know is there, but which defies our known, familiar, and collectively agreed upon logic.

Yet, there it is, that night sky, so vast and deep, filled with brilliant darkness and wonder. These are moments in which we realize that there is very little that we truly understand. The night sky, therefore, has come to represent the reality of the mysteries of life.

Harry Emerson Fosdick had this perspective about life as we are experiencing it:

     "I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it."

Sir James Jeans suggests in his book, The Mysterious Universe that "The universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a great machine."

Just as we can observe the stars on a clear night, we can also place ourselves in the sky and observe ourselves looking up. What we can imagine from this opposite viewpoint is equally as vast and unknown as the night sky. We see land and sea and mountains, fields, plants, animals, and humans. Why are we creatures with the ability to reason, remember, act, feel, cry, and laugh the way we do?

Why we are what we are seems another of the unknowns of our universe. Therefore, we are one with the universe in its mystery, if nothing else. Being part of the unknown, however, is not at all satisfying. We naturally yearn for a solid place to put our understanding, our feet of faith. It is as if we have only quicksand abilities on our own, but will not be satisfied until our understanding rests on firm ground.

Surely we are greater than the unknown, because we feel and we do understand, expect, and remember. Such feelings and reactions come from something. They represent an appreciation and sensitivity to events, to order, to discipline, and to those intangible qualities called kindness, friendship, and love.

We can communicate with others and with the universe. When we communicate with the universe we are communicating with the unknowable God of creation and life. Although our thoughts and conclusions are heavily influenced by our experiences and our human intelligence, they are at the same time part of the absolute Truth of the universe which speaks to us in moments of inspiration, meditation, prayer, and selfless consideration of others.

Being part of universal intelligence does not mean we encompass all of it, but it does mean we are in harmony with all of it. Norman Cousins wrote, "I may not embrace or command this universal order, but I can be at one with it,  for I am of it." No wonder then, that Truth is recognized or sensed when we are exposed to it or when we seek it.

Stars: Revelations of Truth that are as yet remote. The human mind cannot conceive the wonders and immensity of the universe of stars in the heavens. The star that pointed the way for the Wise Men to find Jesus was in the east. It symbolizes our inner conviction of our divine sonship. When the Jesus ego first appears in the subconsciousness it is a mere speck of light, a "star in the east."
                                                                        --Metaphysical Bible Dictionary

We can cooperate with the Truth as we sense it, or we can try to deny it, but we cannot change it, so matter what. Truth will always light our way, even if we try to shrink it to the size of a star in a huge black sky of human efforts. Our star may become faint, but it will not go out, because it is the Truth of the known and unknown. The Christmas star is God's promise that the Christ spirit is always ready to be born in the hearts of all people as soon as they are ready to nurture it.

Christ is the divine-idea man. Jesus is the name that represents an individual expression of the Christ idea. Christ is the only begotten Son of God, or the one complete idea of perfect man in Divine Mind. He is the embodiment of all divine ideas, such as intelligence, life, love, substance, and strength. This Christ, or perfect-man idea existing eternally in Divine Mind, is the true, spiritual, higher self of every individual.
                                                                                --Metaphysical Bible Dictionary

When seen from the metaphysical viewpoint, the Christmas story is actually a story of Godly tough love. The perfection of God's love and peace is our individual and collective spiritual heritage, whether or not we want to accept such perfection. Harmony is natural, inevitable, and the only path that supports life. The more we reject love and peace in our dealings with others and our world, the more severely we will be rebuffed back towards love and peace as the only ultimate solutions.

This is not something we can control, or even influence. All we can do is observe it, accept it, and cooperate with it, or suffer. This is the solid foundation on which we can stand. This is the Truth for world history, for the evolution of societies, as well as for our personal lives. The path of love and peace is the only option that supports life. This is the ever-present Christmas star in our hearts.

PONDERING LIFE AND RELIGION

Life is not hard to figure out. The answer we are all looking for is, we mostly don’t know. Going even further, we probably are not capable of knowing, even if we were shown.

We all do agree that life has occurred in the universe, at least on one planet, Earth. But, how did this happen and why?   When we are really honest, in our heart of hearts, we simply don’t know.

Not knowing something, however, is contrary to our human nature. We feel compelled to have answers for everything, primarily so we can control them in case they are potentially dangerous to us. That’s right, that evolutionary urge to survive trumps all motives, when push comes to shove.

Even though we may all agree that the universe and life do exist and were created in one way or another, from that point on, our various decisions on what reality actually is could not be more diverse. Each of us sees only what we prefer to see or what we’ve been taught to see.

 Religions emerge from our human efforts to define the indefinable. Even though religions are totally man-made institutions their existence is important. We need assemblies where we can gather together with others of like mind and share our spiritual understandings. As we learn what works and doesn’t work in life, religious teachings can give us guidance and suggestions that tend to make us less selfish and more sensitive to the needs of others. That’s a good thing.

When religions teach that we should deal with each other from the perspective of unconditional love, they are at their best and this is what is important in understanding life.  Most religions do this at some point in their teachings and they usually do it very well. These efforts deserve our participation and support. We should participate in religious assemblies that speak to our personal spiritual insights and convictions.

The problems, however, are with dogma. When religions create creeds demanding allegiance to magical histories or events, God ordained rituals, or the sacred handling of religious icons, or divinely inspired scriptures or anointed church leaders, they are attempting to capture and limit truth to specific words, objects, and actions. You cannot limit what is beyond your capacity to understand.

Let’s just agree that God is the ultimate love, truth and power of our existence and leave it at that.  We can make it more detailed and even write down our fundamental statements of belief as we search and learn, but we need always keep these open for revision. Otherwise, we, too, will simply create our own unrelenting verbal dogma and have progressed nowhere.

As I said earlier, life is not so hard to figure out as long as you realize there is little that we know and much we'll never know. Except, love does appear to be an important part of whatever the ultimate answers are. So, let’s stay with that and learn from there.

Christian Faith Based On Fantasy Versus Objectivity

Fundamentalist Christian dogma is fantasy faith because it demands you imagine things that are impossible then accept them as truth. The only explanation given is that this imagined reality has to be  “accepted on faith, alone.”   Just think about what that means. It’s the same as saying,  “If your spiritual beliefs are rational, then they can’t be real.”  My personal response to that is, "You must be kidding."

Christian fundamentalism is passed from generation to generation via unrelenting indoctrination and close personal scrutiny, all under the imaginary but constant threat of eternal damnation. If the wrong words are uttered or the wrong actions observed corrective measures are taken. 

        You are not only told what the questions are, but you are also told what to think and how to answer the questions. It is a total package, preassembled through generations of religious tradition. Fundamentalism requires that you turn your spiritual decision-making over to an organized church family and you are to celebrate that, or else.

Contrasting with that, objective faith is faith based on the results of spiritual teachings when applied to the events of one’s own life and rationalized in the light of what is known about our world and universe. Objective faith must be acquired within the span of a person’s lifetime. It cannot be directly passed on to following generations. 

        Objective faith requires personal commitment, observation, inquiry, learning, practice, and demonstration. All of these elements develop uniquely within each person, individually, during your life. Suggestions and general guidelines can be taught, but spiritual conclusions are reached by a person’s own insight gained from your own knowledge and experiences.

Each of us seems to have within a natural desire to develop some type of faith, either objective or fantasy. Many people appear to opt for fantasy. Perhaps it is just easier to accept and become dogmatic about what someone else says they have already figured out.  Unfortunately this leads to disappointments, disagreements, and all too often, civil conflicts and outright war. 

        It is amazing to me that such large numbers of people around the world confidently hold on to faith systems that are so irrational that they are openly willing to commit atrocities against each other.

Perhaps the first step towards objective faith requires a personal decision to look beyond tradition and that may be too much to ask for some. The good news is, the moment you make that decision you start moving toward a life centered on love, inclusion, and acceptance and away from a life demanding fear, separation, and condemnation. As long as what you believe depends upon what others believe (tradition) you have not yet started your journey of personal, objective faith.

It is also true that many religions actively support fantasy Christian faith because it helps perpetuate their worldly existence. The more complicated and magical the dogma, and the more difficult the membership requirements of a religion, the more dedicated and protective its adherents tend to be. They've given up too much through their commitments to allow their dogma to appear false.

Unfortunately, those who cling to traditions of fundamentalism appear to be the most serious threats to the survival of humanity, because irrational beliefs lead to irrational acts towards others.   How can you reason with those who believe it is God’s or Allah’s command that everyone must be a Christian or a Muslim, respectively? You cannot. Many other fundamentalist groups make their own claims that they are in sole possession of ultimate truth. 

      Until all religions take responsibility for their own thinking and teachings and humble themselves, their demands for strict allegiance to only their own traditions keeps the world in peril. Ultimate truth is clearly something greater than Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism or any other religious or nonreligious organization.

I have met many individuals who have taken personal responsibility for their own thinking and developed deep and abiding objective faith. Many of these individuals grew up in families that attended different houses of worship, or none at all. Still, their personal searches led them to writings and experiences of many faith communities, which they took into consideration.

Through study, prayer, and meditation they searched for answers that made sense to them and that fit with the realities we all experience. Despite considerably different religious backgrounds from which each of us has emerged, our expressions of objective faith as adults are surprisingly similar and compatible. Some are still members of the religions of their youth, but their personal faiths are based on their own experiences and clear rational thinking.

It is interesting that the search for objective faith tends to lead toward agreement with each other on many matters of faith. It is as if a personal search for meaning within the center of one’s own being reveals truly universal truths and understandings. The very knowledge fundamentalists tend to claim that they possess, but really can’t seem to grasp without irrelevant dogma.

Fantasy faith requires a commitment to participating in systematic indoctrination because it cannot be rationally presented or acquired, otherwise.  Objective faith requires personal involvement, insight, honesty, and a commitment to objective inquiry.  Which approach to defining faith you select is totally up to you.  

On which foundation have you built your faith?

Religion And Spirituality Are Not The Same

Each of us has a personal belief system that guides how we act towards others. We may or may not be consciously aware of what our beliefs are, but they form the foundation for our feelings and the motives for our actions. This is essentially our personal spiritual belief system.

The moment you become aware of your personal beliefs and consciously consider them, you could say that is the moment you become a spiritually active person.  Spiritual thinking will lead you to seek out others with the same kinds of self-awareness. Humans have a natural desire to share feelings and experiences in a friendly, accepting environment.

Religions provide opportunities for like-minded individuals to form communities for this very purpose. However, religions also provide theological definitions, histories, and disciplines that members must accept and follow on faith.  Most of us will accept church doctrine, even if it contains elements that conflict with our own personal beliefs, if we find joy and satisfaction in a particular religion, denomination, or house of worship.

The point is, religious doctrine and individual spirituality, though interrelated, are not the same thing.  One is institutional and created to grow and develop as a corporate entity within a human world.  The other resides in your own mind and heart and determines how you will live with and react to others.  By necessity, religious institutions are materialistic even though they were created for matters of the spirit.

For me, there is no question that individual spirituality is far more important than religious doctrine and institutional theology.  But that does not mean that religions and places of worship are not important. On the contrary, they can be extraordinarily important to your spiritual growth. We need communities of faith where we can express, discuss, and develop our spiritual understandings. This helps us face and work through real life events.

We learn something about ourselves when we agree with dogma and we also learn something when we disagree.  But spirituality demands that only that which makes sense in your own heart and mind be maintained as your truth, your reason for being, and your motive for actions.  All else can and should be respectfully set aside.

If your personal sense of spirituality starts conflicting with the teachings of your place of worship, you should consider looking for another. It really doesn’t matter the history behind your membership in any church or organization, you should respond to your own awareness of a need for change.

Too many of us don’t make that change when we should. For a variety of reasons we resist change. Most of that has to do with the comfortable social ties we have established. 

Some even become so devoted to particular religious organizations, that whatever is presented by their religions as truth, is accepted, without question. Sensitive discussions with those of other faiths gradually devolve into a series of pat answers because you are saved and they are lost.

Let us remember that our personal lives are altered by the decisions we make.  Also, we tend to find spiritual guidance through personal prayer and meditation, even when we are at church. The next time you are inspired notice that all those feelings you experience come from within.

It seems to me that being spiritual is the more important understanding than being religious.

What Does It Mean To Be Made In The "Image Of God?"

       All of us realize that ultimate truth is beyond our human capacity to completely understand. However, we can and have labeled this ultimate truth and power as God because we know that the world and universe exist as a result of some kind of progressive, creative process. The human mind doesn't like uncertainty so some of us write out our own explanations of life and its purpose. When these explanations include traditional stories, dogma, rituals, and "orthodox" discipline, we create religions. Religions tend to turn God into a supernatural male personality. If God is defined by the image of man, then, of course, mankind can be viewed as made in the "image of God." 

       I believe that when we individually accept what we know, stand on the edge of our knowledge and openly seek new, higher understandings, that leads to individual spiritual growth that actually does raise our thinking toward God (ultimate truth and power). From that perspective we tend to realize that even though we are limited by the earthly scope of our knowledge and power, the ultimate knowledge and power of God includes, at the very least, all that we are and all that we can be.  I think that is what the writer of Genesis meant by describing man as made in the "image of God."