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Co-Creation: The Conscious Nature Of God And Humans© Dick Rauscher July, 2003Over the last few months I have received several e-mails asking if I could explain in greater detail my concept of God. First, let me say that all concepts of God are just that; concepts. As the Rabbi's warn, to know God is to be God. No one can speak about God with ultimate authority; not even the sacred texts of the worlds various religions. All of us have mental concepts or maps that explain or make sense of reality. Our maps are called beliefs, opinions, certainties, expectations, fears, and assumptions. We all have a mental map we call God. Some understand God as Yahweh, others refer to the Goddess, and some call God the Great Spirit. Regardless of how you understand God, your map is no more correct or accurate than anyone else's map; it's just different. All maps of God are valid if they help us create ultimate meaning for our lives. The important point to remember about our maps and beliefs is that they tend to be fixed, inflexible, and static; especially our sacred beliefs about God. Our maps are very difficult to change because our ego is absolutely convinced that its own personal map is the correct view or understanding of reality. As a result we often find ourselves passionately defending the maps and beliefs we learned in childhood from adults we trusted. We don't often remember how or where we learned a particular belief in childhood because we simply assumed that the adults in our lives knew what they were talking about. We just accepted their wisdom. Over time I have come to believe that my childhood Sunday school maps depicting God as a theistic, anthropomorphic person sitting up there in heaven, answering prayer requests from faithful worshipers, is a dangerous and outmoded map. It makes God all powerful and his followers helpless and unable to do anything without God's help. The primary virtue for those using this common theistic map is that of obedience. It is a map of God that essentially encourages followers to avoid ultimate responsibility for their own choices and actions. Children are expected to be obedient. This map of God no longer makes sense for me. Today I understand God to be, the name of the ceaseless, unending, ongoing, restless, creative flow of pure conscious energy in the universe that uses change to create; an intelligent conscious organizing and reorganizing energy that runs through the whole of creation; an energy we call evolution.(1) God is this conscious, intelligent, creating spirit energy that has been present from the beginning of creation and manifests in the world of form as evolution. God uses change to create form. Change is the evolutionary imperative embedded in creation. There is no permanence in this universe. Everything is in the process of changing. Creation requires change; and that includes the maps we use and the beliefs we hold to be accurate. God uses evolution to create form.
The creating spirit energy I refer to as God has three essential characteristics;
it supports and enhances life, it supports and enhances increased complexity,
and it supports and enhances consciousness. (click
to see complete article) I am learning how difficult it is to write and publish a monthly newsletter on time and stay involved in day to day life. I had the wonderful experience of marrying my son a few weeks ago down in Hot Springs, NC. We were planning to spend some time with him before the wedding, but the universe had something else in mind for us. We headed for Hot Springs with the fifth wheel in tow, but three hours south of our home in Naples, we heard a loud clunk. It turned out to be the transmission in the F-350 in the process of disintegrating. We spent the next five days in a campground watching the Susquehanna River flowing by seven feet over flood stage. It was a great time to relax and get some writing done. Fortunately, the transmission was still under warranty. We eventually got to Hot Springs in plenty of time for the wedding and socializing with friends and family, lots of white water rafting on the French Broad river, and several days of hiking on the Appalachian trail. Of course, being gone for two weeks in the rainy month of June meant that when we returned, the grass was ready for harvest. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it that tall. The bottom line of all this is that the June issue of the newsletter never got published, but the writing I was able to do in the campground waiting for the transmission to be repaired gave me a great outline for a workshop that I led for the Chaplains in the Hospital Based Spiritual Care training program at Robert Packard Hospital in Sayre, Pa. We explored the link between healing and expectant listening, the importance of story in the creation of meaning, and the dangers of projection onto patients if we deny our own vulnerability. The feature article in this issue of the newsletter focuses on a 21st century definition of God that I believe we need to cope effectively with the massive changes that our world is beginning to experience. Many say that the world of the 21st century will be almost unrecognizable to those of us alive today. The article explores consciousness and agape love as the foundation of change and evolution in our universe, and our human responsibility as Co-Creators. This issue will begin a new feature called Spiritual Practice of the Month. Many of us want to become more enlightened and self-aware, but the religions of the Western world are significantly lacking in day to day spiritual practices that would help us accomplish our goal. Each month I will offer a spiritual practice that I have found helpful. This month we will take a look at the spiritual practice of listening in the moment. I hope you find this new Spiritual Practice of the Month feature of the newsletter helpful. I am already getting the next article ready for the August issue of the newsletter. So hopefully issue #4 will be sent on time. I encourage feedback on material covered in the newsletter and I do try to answer everyone that writes; either by email or by responding to your questions in future issues of the newsletter. For those of you who are responding by e-mail with comment and encouragement, many thanks! Several readers said that they found the recent article on the Primitive Ego that I published on the website to be very helpful. My ultimate goal in publishing the newsletter is to develop a community of people who are interested in pursuing and developing contemporary concepts for the integration of spirituality and mature mental health. I believe that authentic spiritual growth is growth in self-awareness, and all growth in self-awareness is authentic spiritual growth. We will evolve as humans only as we become self-aware and increase our ability to love. See you next month. Spiritual practices are simply exercises we incorporate into our day to day life to tame our primitive egos. Our primitive ego is primarily concerned with success, attention, being right, insisting on the illusion that it is a separate and independent “ self”, defending its many black and white beliefs, and avoiding the pain of criticism. As such, our primitive ego is a very poor listener; nor is it in the moment with the other person. When we are working out of our primitive ego, we often find ourselves caught in a duel-ogue rather than a dialogue when speaking with others. We spend most of our “listening time” preparing what we are going to say next, getting ready to defend our beliefs, and yea-butting what we perceive to be criticism. We can’t wait to get our two-cents into the conversation. Because we are not really listening to the other person, we often interrupt them and either change the subject or fail to respond to what they were saying. The following spiritual practice is a powerful way to tame the primitive ego and develop the skill of deep listening. Simply learn to leave 5-10 seconds of silence after the other person stops speaking before you respond to them. Initially you will find this to be very difficult, but over time, you will begin to experience a calming inside. You will find yourself actually listening to what the other person is saying, and you will be perceived as someone who really listens. Deep listening is a spiritual practice very few know how to do. Don’t be fooled. This is a very effective and powerful spiritual practice. It is easy to practice, but very difficult to do. The primitive ego does not like to listen! So begin your practice leaving 2 or 3 seconds of silence, and then build up to 10 seconds over time. Learn to pay attention to your primitive ego in the silence. You will grow in self-awareness. Authentic spiritual growth is simply growth in self-awareness. See you next month. GOALS OF THE STONYHILL NEWSLETTER The only thing we can say about God is our own experience about god. The god experience is eternal. Our explanations (e.g. the Gospels) about those experiences is limited and distorting. Bishop Spong, Hobart College, June, 2002 Man discovers that he is
nothing else than evolution become conscious of itself. The consciousness
of each of us is evolution looking at itself and reflecting
upon itself. We (humans) are being integrated into one interactive, inter-feeling body by the same force of evolution that drew atom to atom and cell to dell. Every tendency in us toward greater wholeness, unity, and connectedness is reinforced by nature’s tendency toward holism. Integration (increased complexity) is inherent in the process of evolution. Unity does not mean homogeneity, however. Union differentiates. Unity increases diversity: we are becoming ever more connected as a planet while we seek further individuality for our cultures, our ethnic groups, and our selves. Barbara Marx Hubbard. All spiritual growth is simply growth in self-awareness. All growth in self-awareness is simply spiritual growth. As Co-Creators, we will create what we think about; consciously, and unconsciously. We must learn to intentionally support human evolution through the spiritual transformation of our human consciousness; a consciousness that is reaching for the stars with one hand and powerful entropic weapons designed to destroy consciousness with the other hand. Dick Rauscher If you’re suffering, you’re asleep. Do you want a sign that you’re asleep? Here it is: You’re suffering. Suffering is a sign that you’re out of touch with the truth. Suffering is given to you that you might open your eyes to the truth, that you might understand that there’s falsehood somewhere, just as physical pain is given to you so you will understand that there is disease or illness somewhere. Suffering points out that there is falsehood somewhere. Suffering occurs when you clash with reality. When your illusions (beliefs) clash with reality, when your falsehoods (beliefs) clash with truth, then you have suffering. Otherwise there is no suffering. Anthony de Mello Your privacy is important to us. We will NEVER sell or share our mailing list with anyone.
The Stonyhill Newsletter / Blog and the videos related to each Newsletter are designed to teach the insights and everyday wisdom contained in Primitive Ego Psychology. For more technical, in-depth articles on Primitive Ego Psychology and Primitive Ego Theory go to the Stonyhill website at www.stonyhill.com/articles.htm |
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