And what could be a better use of time.
Silent Awareness
This brings us to the third option for Now mentioned above - a moment of non-thinking. Let me repeat this because it seems so foreign - a moment of non-thinking. Non thought. Silence. Stillness.
We've become so ingrained with our cerebral processes that we've lost sight of what's beyond and behind our thoughts. Awareness. Maybe we call it "life force." We tend to confuse awareness and thinking, but they're far from the same. Thinking is like computing, a linear process for solving a problem or improving a situation. Awareness is.
It exists at a deeper level than thought. It is the thinker, connected to the unconscious source of our bubbling thoughts. As such, it can't be experienced through thoughts. Only when thoughts are reduced or still.
I vividly remember, when introduced to these ideas some fifteen years ago, believing that the idea of living without a constant churn of thoughts was impossible. I have friends who still believe that's the case. But I know better Now. I have long moments without thought, and they are some of my favorites. I know that through forgiveness, breath, and cultivating positive energy we can experience a lovely peace, in spite of this trying experience we call life on Earth.
Let's see if we can take this one step further.
Necessitates
Here in America we are a self-described "Christian nation" where even our money states "In God We Trust." But our concept of God is all over the place. Some even think "God" was responsible for our tragic hurricane season. Here's what I think. Interpret the value by how true it rings.
God (if we can stomach a historically abused term) is our Source, and created the Big Bang, which necessarily created time. My sense is that this was to expand his/her/it's experience of Self. Sentient life forms developed because God's essence is Life, constantly seeking growth and expression on higher and higher levels. In other words, we experience God as we experience Life. God is Life. God is the Life within each of us. How could something as initiating and omnipresent as Life not offer a glimpse into Our Source?
So far, then, we can conclude God is Life and God can only be experienced Now. Also suggested, 1) thoughts fall into two categories, Love or fear, and 2) awareness is greater without a constant stream of thoughts.
If we accept the premise that thoughts necessarily pertain to either Love or fear, and that God is an Omnipresent Source, then God must be connected to fear, Love or both.
The Old Testament suggests "a wrathful God" and similar monikers.
That would suggest a God of Fear. Yet the New Testament, the testament of Jesus, says very clearly that God is Love. Both cannot be true, as Love and fear are in opposition.
Is God connected then, to fear? Hardly. God's peace is so complete fear is neccesarily a foreign concept. If this is true, can we then reach God through our fears? Can we plead with Our Source when we're scared shitless? Oh, I suppose. But we certainly can't commune with All That Is at such times.
Fear is incomprehensible to those without bodies. Indeed, if we look at ourselves, our thoughts and our fears, we find they are all somehow wrapped up in our physicality. What have The Eternal to fear?
(If we are children of this Eternal Source, mustn't we be "like" our Parent - essentially eternal ourselves?)
The founder of Christianity, Jesus Christ, contended that God is connected to Love, or more aptly God is Love. Hence we touch God with our loving thoughts. Further, if we suspend our thoughts and reach quiet awareness, our touch with God becomes a recognizable experience of peace and joy. (By extension God is Peace, God is Joy.) All this suggests our best efforts toward peace, love and happiness come from finding the quiet place within, where we link with God.
Where does that leave preachers and pastors and leaders of churches?
Clueless, and worse useless, unless they point toward our direct connection to God, and teach how we can enhance that connection. All else is misguided. (See Christians and Biblicists)
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