The Pitfalls of the Higher Self, and why "The Name of Jesus" is the Solution

Quiet, if it is complete enough, is revelatory. But practitioners may not dig what it reveals: "Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Sorrow, Lust, Wrath, Vanity, Pride"--these are the bits that add up to the ego.  Fine and good--it's important to figure out what our relationship's going to be with our basic needs for food, shelter, security, affection.  And it's important to feel the anxious uselessness of our manipulations at need fulfillment.  Letting go will be easier if "waiting on providence and the Spirit" are the only paths that create serenity. ...

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Christ and Oneness: Tools for Inner Quiet from the Transfiguration and the Adulterous Woman

Were I to say, as I do indeed say, that "All that is, is Christ," it'd be a fair thing if you replied "hogwash, bollocks and nonsense! Prove it!" I'd certainly fail at any efforts in that direction.  Basic acceptance, like belief, requires a receptive disposition.  To the unwilling, no proof exists, to the willing, none is necessary. But it's still important to say "all that is, is Christ" and I practice that because it pays dividends in increased serenity.  Both self and other are Christ. Paul said "I live, but not I, Christ lives in me." Jesus said "whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, you do to me." Motivation is Christ. To the Philippians, Paul said "I press on toward the goal of the heavenly call in Christ Jesus." All that you're attracted to is Christ, to be let go of, and all that you're averse to is Christ, though realizing it takes a bit of fortitude. The epistle tells us we're "always carrying in the body the death of Christ, so that the life of Christ may be made known in our mortal bodies also."  ...

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When Christ speaks to me, through me: a careful, apologetic, grossly long-winded missive.

 

Prologue

God called all things good and holy, revealed himself as “I am,” then called you to self-emptying, in imitation of your teacher.  And that begat a fair question.  You looked at holiness and goodness, at everything that makes up your self, and said “if I give all this up, what will you use to guide me?”  I watched the question play hell on mind, emotions and nervous system. I kept whispering “give up self, do not judge.” I kept saying “prophesy to the dry bones, the flesh and the breath,” so that every level of your embodied existence could let go and hear what I am telling you.  In reality, you will be listening ever more deeply until your last breath.  So settle in.  Eat something–lest the journey be too much for you.  “Who you think you are” will not get out of this alive.  But rejoice, because the rest of you has a fair chance at it. ...

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Letter in a time of difficulty

Guruji, you are before all else that is. In you all things hold together, though I am falling apart. I am troubled now, but it is for this hour that I came into the world. The glory of the Lord is the opening of the ear, a serene and expansive compassion. I hear you calling me to everything, and I cause myself suffering by wanting the things of God to be exclusively pleasant. If the mountains are where my help comes from, they will be leveled, and the valleys raised–there is no place I could go that isn’t here. And remembrance isn’t a reaching to the past, much less a nursing of the hope that God do, again and in the future, what he did before. On the day of the Lord, expectations and mental work will sit quietly. On the day of the Lord, past and future will cease. What can be a time of fulfillment, other than now? ...

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