Inner Peace now

Wow. It's Thursday morning here. I feel rested. And as I get ready to listen to my daily dose of Tolle, I am feeling really content. Peaceful and excited, too. I feel joy and gratitude welling up in me. I can't even explain why. I just do.

Well, we know why... I'm finally "getting" what Tolle has been saying for over 20-25 years. It's sinking deep into my spirit. And my spirit is finally waking up.   Yes, there are still thoughts and ideas, but this goes beyond words.  You can feel deep within your being, not just a new mental position or belief system or dogma.

I never really thought about death much. But now, I can honestly say that I am TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY at peace with death. I am not afraid of death. At all. I mean ALL FEAR IS GONE. I guess I never realized that, even as a Christian, I had been afraid of death. It didn't consume me, but I avoided the thought of it. Now, I am at peace.

Not that I plan on dying anytime soon, but I am at peace with death. I am at peace with this moment. I can feel a subtle shift occurring in me. And I feel it subtly changing my relationships. When I feel irritation over a tiny thing, I can catch myself almost immediately. Then, I stop and remind myself that what is...is. There is no use in complaining or grumbling. I accept what is. I don't have to be controlled by my thoughts or emotions or even my pain body and its triggers ever again. I can be at peace with what is in this moment. 

If you want to find out more, you can access The Power of Now for free on YouTube. Here's The Power of Now audio book on YouTube
https://youtu.be/kgqrLg-__9M

What does my ego look like?

 What does my ego look like?  

You can tell by things/ people/ ideas/ situations that I resist.  My ego likes to define itself as “right”, super intelligent, etc. Hint: if I am arguing, my ego is still operating.  If I am trying to prove that I am right, my ego is in control.  If I am trying to change someone else, or their minds, beliefs, or ideas, my ego is in charge, not the real me, the I am that I am.  If I am boasting or showing off about something I know or did or think I am (like how spiritual I think I am or self righteous), then I am completely given over to egoic self.  

The spirit part of me accepts what is now, including others’ disbelief or egos. Jesus died to self long before he went to the cross.  Jesus accepted suffering.  Sure, he had triggers for pain body like when he angrily threw out the money lenders from the temple.  The more I resist my family, my situation, my dislikes, the more unconscious I become.  Rather than becoming more spiritual, I continue to judge and be judged. 

A translation of the Indian greeting “Namaste” is the supreme lightness of being in me acknowledges the lightness of being in you. 

When I operate from the ego-self, I forget all about Namaste, that I am so much more than what I think, that others are so much more than what I see.  We are interconnected.  

What triggers my pain body? Pay attention to my emotions: anger, irritation, grievance, self-pity, judgments, rejection by family.  

This is why Jesus said if you don’t forgive, you won’t be forgiven.  What we do to others, we do to ourselves.  This is why he said to love our enemies. Why he said to live the golden rule.  Treat others the way you want to be treated.  We are not separate from each other.  We are each other.  We are part of the whole, the whole is in us and always has been.

If I want respect, I must respect.  If I want unconditional love, I must love expecting nothing in return.  If I want acceptance, I must accept without preconditions.  

Ego, as Tolle describes it, is our pre-existing mental patterns and those things we tell ourselves about who we think we are and what we think the world should be like.  It’s a list of likes and dislikes in our heads, judgments shaped by our history, cultural identity, family stories, family preferences, all conditioned as mental structures on which most of us spend our entire lives, never stopping to examine the deeper awareness that is our consciousness, the awareness of presence, which goes deeper and beyond words or ideas or thoughts.  So much of our lives are lived unconsciously, just programmed reactions to outward stimuli, things we like or don’t like, want or don’t want.  Not lived in the moment, but in rehashing the past or in some imagined future.

Fr. Richard Rohr’s book, The Universal Christ is eye-opening, spirit-awakening.

It made me think of e.e. Cummings’ poem:

                              "next to of course god america i"

                                                              
 

      

next to of course god america i
love you land of the pilgrims' and so forth oh
say can you see by the dawn's early my
country 'tis of centuries come and go
and are no more what of it we should worry
in every language even deafanddumb
thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gorry
by jingo by gee by gosh by gum
why talk of beauty what could be more beaut-
iful than these heroic happy dead
who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter
they did not stop to think they died instead
then shall the voice of liberty be mute?

He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water

                By: E.E. Cummings

We see the ultimate outcome of unconscious living: war.  

I’m listening to Eckhart Tolle read “Stillness Speaks”. Oh, this…

I'm listening to Eckhart Tolle read "Stillness Speaks". Oh, this little book is so profoundly beautiful. Beautiful seems too small a word to point to the deeper reality that is hidden in us, in the moon, the cosmos, this rock upon which my physical body (form) is resting... I had to stop. Rewind. Replay the intro and chapter one again and again.

It's just so sweet. I feel the unending, eternal grace, divine presence, universal Christ presence, the divine sweetness and light, whatever you want to call it, as I listen to these opening words. It's like a call to return home, not a physical home or even home with our sadly dysfunctional, yet beautifully broken family home. It's like a call to our real home, home in the divine sweetness and light and creativity and joy that has always been in us and through us and in and through everything.

I'm listening to Mandisa in the morning now. Her lyrics start to get to the heart of this:

From Dance, Dance, Dance

"Maybe you don't understand why I gotta dance

There was something had me down but it's over now

I'm a throw my hands up

Wave 'em all in the air

'Cause all I wanna do is dance, dance, dance

They told me you ain't good enough

Don't look good enough

Don't sing good enough

Maybe you should give it up

And if I would've then I never could've received

None of the things that He planned for me

So I waited a little longer

Grew a little stronger and then

I realized something was happening

It's so incredible, it's unexplainable

You oughta try Him for yourself and see because

Maybe you don't understand why I gotta dance

There was something had me down but it's over now

I'm a throw my hands up

Wave 'em all in the air

'Cause all I wanna do is dance, dance, dance..."

With songs like True Beauty, What If We Were Real, The Definition of Me, Shine, Joy Unspeakable, Never Gonna Steal My Joy, Overcomer, What You're Worth, Stronger, Keep Getting Up, What Scars Are For, Free, and Good Morning, Mandisa's music appeals to the inner you. You can feel spirit awakening.

I am mountain

I am budding tree

I am crumbling rock,

Raging river,

Ebb and tide.

I am moon,

I am fading flower,

Eternal dance,

Ephemeral song.

I am spirit hovering over the deep.

I am form and formless.

I am Alpha and Omega,

Beginning and end and

All the nows in between

World without end.

One day this form will pass away, 

but who I am can never die.

I am the cosmos,

the stuff of stars.

I am life,

the universal Christ lives in me. 

I am created in God's image,

part of all creation,

yet never ending,

always existing.

I am that I am.

I am, but though I exist now in this limited body,

I am eternal.

I am connected to the whole of creation.

We are one.

I am the wind.

I am the red-tailed hawk upon the breeze.

I am the awareness.

I am peace, stillness, joy, love.

I am my brothers and sisters 

and mother and father.

I am my "enemy".

I am all and none.

I am the dash on my gravestone!

I am the space between 

those etched, but fleeting years.

Knowing this, I am free!

I am that I am, now.

I always am.

Selah.

Today's lesson: learning to accept what is and relinquishing "my" story. 

 What did I grumble about today? My sister worked in the yard. Yep, now that I say it out loud, I can see the absurdity of my ego railing against help.  

 Instead of rejoicing that she is participating in creation, I grumbled and complained and resisted what is. No acceptance. Instead, I filled my mind with judgments and imagined judgments from her. "I don't like the way the flower beds look, they are all chaotic, tangled, trashy." Instead of being happy that she was getting involved, I took offense. In my mind, I complained and defended myself and told myself over and over, with every snarky complaint from her, "Well, at least I TRIED to do something!" 

 I did not say it out loud, but I get why Jesus said, "If you say it or do it in your heart, you've already done it." I was defending my bruised ego all day, taking offense at everything she said, implied, or didn't say. "She didn't even thank me for spending hundreds of dollars every year on new plants and hours and hours planting them. Hmmmph!" See? I was totally identified with defending my sense of "self" or ego, instead of just accepting what is.

My whole day could have been different if I had just said to myself: "Hey, it's a good thing that she is participating. So what if she gripes about the way I did it? She can't help it anyway. She is unconscious. Not that I am superior. But I can accept what is. It is as it is. Complaining or grumbling will not change anything for the better. Stop seeing only her ego structures. Stop imprisoning your sister. Set her free by seeing the weight of glory in her. Let go of judgments against her, the situation, and me. Let it go. "

I can see now.

That anger was my pain body just reacting to a trigger which may or may not have been there. I have a choice moment by moment to settle for arguments, drama, ego v ego, and fighting against forms, or to live in my deepest presence now just letting go, accepting what is, and relishing the deep peace of inner self.

 And doing so, I set not only myself free, but I set my sister free from all my judgments against her.  I release her to be the divine presence that is her true self.  

Jesus and the ego self

In Lecture 6 from the Omega series: Tolle talks about presence as non-resistance to what is.  Jesus’ talk about turning the other cheek.  Turning the other cheek is exactly about this: not getting caught up in the drama of self-identity.  Not defending your ego.  It’s about being fully, deeply present now.  Letting go of the past and the future and accepting what is. 

Tolle points out that this does not mean that if someone is threatening your actual physical existence to just let them stab you, for example.  Being fully present may mean that I take evasive action, but I do it calmly without getting all caught up in some emotionally charged story about this moment.  I do not attack the other person out of a sense of self-identity preservation.  If I defend my body, I do that without the drama. I don’t turn the other person into my enemy in my mind.  And this is the critical piece of Jesus’ example: not making enemies in my mind of others.  See Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 6(?). 

Imagine Jesus before the Sanhedrin with all their accusations, violence and drama.  They were beside themselves with indignation, self-righteousness, blame, trying to guilt or shame him.  They were livid, furious. 

Yet, because Jesus was fully practiced in non-identification with egoic self or the form of ego, he said nothing.  Not a word in his defense.  

When Pilate questioned him and repeated the accusations, Jesus asked, “Is this what you say or are you just telling me what others say?” Pilate replies,”So, you are the King of the Jews?” And Jesus basically says, “That’s your story.”  Because Jesus is not defending his image, his sense of self, because he is deeply present in this moment, calm, not dragged into the drama, Pilate recognizes this and pleads with the people to let him go, “He has done nothing wrong.  I find no fault in him.  He certainly has done nothing to deserve death.”  

But when we are caught up in our egoic self, our sense of self-righteousness often takes over.  We spend so much time and energy trying to prove our “rightness” to the world. And when we are identified with constantly having to prove how right we are, we make enemies in our own minds out of everyone else.   We are no different than these Pharisees and Sadducees who made an enemy out of a Jesus.  Jesus was not their enemy.  But in their minds, he was the enemy.  And when we make someone else into an enemy, it becomes much easier to murder or kill that person and feel fully justified and righteous in doing so. This is the drama of the ego mind. 

See the previous entry on Cain and Abel.  

Dying to self

Jesus once asked "Who do you say that I am?"  Was he trying to boost his self-identity, his ego self?  When Peter declares "you are the son of God", Jesus says "yep!  That's it!"  He even goes on to say that heaven revealed this to Peter.  In other words, Jesus knew his true self. His eternal self.  Not the stories or lists of accomplishments or what the world tells us is who we are.  Even Peter got a brief glimpse of this eternity in the now, a glimpse of who Jesus really is. 

Jesus' friends came to him at one point to tell him that his mother and brothers had come to take him away.  Where were they taking him? To an asylum? To his father's funeral?  Who knows? But it used to seem so harsh to me that he would respond with "who is my mother?  Who are my brothers? Only those who follow me are my brothers and sisters".  I think I'm beginning to understand (and this also is a mental process, possibly an illusion).... who we are inside is not defined by relationships. Dying to that concept of self "I'm the child of so-and-so.  I'm the sibling of such-and-such"... these are just labels which we tell ourselves are who we are, but I am that I am. Even this idea comes with a warning against dualism.  Though we are not defined by our relationships, at the same time, we are.  This is paradox.  It is and it is not, both.

Later, when he says, "I have not come to bring peace, but a sword", this takes on a whole new meaning.   If the sword is dividing our thought form from our spirit self, our ideas and mental patterns of "should and must" from the real us, the inner eternal us, then yes.  I can see that mother, brother, sister... all these labels and false histories and unreal concepts of "other" and "self" will be in conflict.  It takes practice (not time, because the only time that exists is now continually unfolding) to let go of our mental constructs and social constructs.  When I let go of every idea I have of who I am: past experiences, body, fears, mental ruts, possessions, relationships, religion, belief systems, words to describe me, everything I used to define myself, I am left with inner presence now.  As I let go of all those conceptions of self, I find freedom.  And this brings the peace that passes all understanding that will guard your hearts and your minds.  

When Jesus met Pilate, Pilate asked him "Are you the king of the Jews?  Are you guilty of everything I hear your religious leaders telling me?"  Jesus responds with "That's the story you tell yourself."  He does not defend himself.  Because he has already died to this sense of self long ago.  So murderous accusations fly... so what? Jesus knows who he is.  He knows that this human body with all its thoughts and emotions and constructs, even this world, the social structures, and the physical universe are only a temporary form.  The real Christ is formless, eternal, in all and through all, without him nothing was made that was made, the entire universe is suspended and held together in his being.  

  

Jesus dying on the cross understood this, that even when terrible things happen, something greater in us arises.  Being in the power of this moment, he is able to say, "Father, forgive them.  They don't understand. Don't hold this against them" (this was probably more for the humans standing around the cross). This is the something greater, infinitely vaster than that which only appears temporarily in the moment, the form — the disaster. ...- Tolle 

John the Baptist got this, too.  He said, I must decrease and he must increase.   He knew what dying to self meant. John recognizes the real self and "dies" to the Ego self.  So even though John was also facing imminent death, he also understood this incredible peace.  If he had been still attached to his ego-self, he would have railed against the injustice being done to him.  He would have rallied his supporters and denounced Herod and his wickedness.  And when John's disciples came to him to ask about this upstart Jesus (who does he think he is anyway?), John did not try to cling to his disciples and say, "Don't follow him.  Stay with me.  Only I have insight."  No, he said, "I must decrease so that he may increase. My time is up.  I'm letting go. I'm at peace with what is."

John the Baptist knew this Deep Silence, stillness amid chaos, noise, distraction.  You can hear the silence in the midst of chaos. Psalm 46:10.  This is the peace that passes all understanding, that fills you up.  You sense it.  You know it is in you and is greater than you, greater than your body, greater than your mind.  You know it is there.  

Jesus said to seek the kingdom first, then what you need will come, too.  He also said, If someone tells you, 'Oh, Jesus is over here or over there or on this mountain.'  Don't go looking for me.  I'm not there.  When I come, you will know it."  He said the Holy Spirit would be with us, comfort us, and guide us into all truth.  He is in us.  The eternal one is here now.  You don't have to go looking for him.  He is with the broken hearted.  When you tire of your false self, he is here now. 

This is why The Lord's Prayer makes sense now. 

• Our father in heaven —- God is not in some other place .  Jesus pointed this out in John 4.  God is in you.  The kingdom of heaven is near, in you, now. 
• Hallowed be your name.  What name?  The I am that I am.  Names just point us in the right direction...
• Thy kingdom come (now). Thy will be done (now) on earth as it is in heaven.  This is a surrender to what is, not a giving up.  It’s not a "Oh I can never change this situation."  It's a, "Yes to you in me now".  I surrender in this moment.  
• Give us today, this moment, our daily bread, what we need.  This is not about the future.  The story of the Israelites wandering in the desert and getting manna on a daily basis is a perfect example of this.  No one was to hoard more for later.  It had to be gathered daily or else it began to rot. Manna was another great example of this kind of provision which cannot be named.  In fact, "manna" means "what is it?".  Now is the only time.  The past does not exist anymore.  The future never comes, except as this moment, now, continuously unfolding.
• Forgive us as we forgive others... as we let go of all judgments against ourselves and others.  We are one.  We are interconnected.  All of life flows in us.  We are not separate from “others.”  So we love, forgive others, treat others as ourselves.  What we do to others, we do to ourselves. 
• and lead us not into temptation... the temptation of seeing others as objects or the stories and opinions I have about them.  The temptation to see myself as only my thoughts or emotions, and not the real inner presence that is me.
• But deliver us right now from evil— if my negative thoughts and constructs limit me, how much more do I imprison others with my ideas about them? Help me to accept what is and not label it: good or evil.  But surrender in this moment to what is.  
• For yours is the kingdom (the infinite), and the power (of being), and the glory (the incredible vastness of light and love) forever (now infinitely unfolding).   Amen.

Jesus and the Tao (6)

Judge not (get out of your head, thoughts), lest you be judged. This statement deals specifically with our thought self, the stories and narratives which run continually in our minds about others.  See Matthew 7.   Want to know what Jesus really thought, how he lived?  Re-read Matthew chapters 4-7.  When we let go of this egoic self, life takes on a whole new meaning.

Jesus also said, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light”. What does that even mean? Why? When we let go of our “thought self”, we don’t have to be driven by this false sense of self which our minds construct about not only us but also others.  We are not what we think.  “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he” is true only on the level of false construction.  

But who we are is light, not heavy.  Do you feel heavy, burdened down? Let go of your egoic self. Letting go of these fake identities or distractions and illusions is liberating.  This is real freedom!  Tolle talks about these constructs or forms (made up in our thoughts) as being like massive steam engines on the Titanic.  Massive, enormous, space consuming, HUGE, powerful engines which do NOT stop on a dime.  There is momentum when people are so identified with their ego-self, that is their ideas of who they think they are and who they think others are.  They will chug right at you, hoping to pull you into their wake with powerful emotional energy or to feed on your pain energy.  This egoic self is destructive to myself and others.  

Sure, at times, my ego feels temporarily satisfied, but watch how quickly it turns into desire (a future want or don’t want or projection) or regret (focus on the no-longer existent past). The terrible thing is that this emotional energy which is all tied with these fictitious stories about myself and others is destructive and all-consuming.  Once these engines have fired up, there is little to stop them. They perpetuate themselves, feeding on pain energy from self and others, like those Titanic engines heading toward the hidden iceberg.  “And you know what happened to the Titanic,” he quips (See the Omega retreat 2001).  

The good news is that we don’t have to stay in that heaviness anymore, the heaviness of those mental engines.  By practice of presence now, by staying in this moment, we can be free. 

Tolle says to practice presence with nature first: a tree, a rock, a flower.   It’s easier than people. It takes a lot more presence to deal with people and not get sucked into their thought engines, their stories.   Jesus said, “consider the lilies of the field how they neither toil nor spin.”  So, today, I’m contemplating a tree.  Just accepting what is.  Not judging it or trying to make it fit into some grand design or plan or end goal.   Just observing.  And when I focus on right now, I’m less consumed with worries about what will happen later or what happened in the past.  

Form and formless: the shape of water

Form and formless

Even in the Old Testament, we see numerous examples of God showing us that forms are only temporary pointers to the formless. I was dreaming about this last night. In my dream, I was reminded that when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, people began to grumble and complain, asking, "Why are we following this madman Moses out into the desert? We are going to die. Slavery was better than this..." So God appeared to them in a formless form, right? He appeared as a Cloud of Smoke by day and a Pillar of Fire by night. Interesting that God chose a shifting, ethereal form which could not be held or sculpted, eh? Even then, the people still wanted a solid form to worship. They made the golden calf with the help of Aaron. It's such a human mindset, isn't it, to want to cling to something external to feel content?

I also dreamed about the story of Jacob (later named Israel) and his twin brother Esau. In the story, Jacob convinces Esau to give up his birthright. And Esau readily consents. Why? And why was Esau then furious later when Jacob tricked his father into giving his blessing to him instead of Esau? I never understood this weird dynamic before. Why was Jacob, a deceiver and manipulator, considered the hero of this story?

 Not that I condone lying and manipulation, but I think I'm beginning to understand...maybe. It's not so much a story about Jacob as it is a cautionary tale about Esau. Esau was so caught up in his own head, his "identity" as a mighty hunter, his thought patterns. So he goes out hunting for big game for days on end, alone. Esau has hung his whole identity on this image of himself and others' image of him as a great hunter, the guy who is capable of taking care of business, the guy who gets things done, the winner, the big, good-looking athlete. We know from the story that he is hot tempered, easily angered, complaining. And when he fails at his task, his self image is shattered. He comes home, really hungry, and finds his little twin cooking with momma. Jacob has a pot of lentils. When Jacob says that he'll trade the food for Esau's birthright, Esau readily agrees. It had to be a joke, right? Just sibling rivalry? But this rivalry went deep. And Esau’s fatal flaw, so to speak, is that he glibbly trades the intangible glory of "birthright" for a pot of beans. Here is where the verse "Man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" comes into play. Esau only looked to the external forms to sustain him, to satisfy him. He readily gave up the intangible for something external and tangible. He traded eternal glory for something temporary. He later regrets that choice, but according to their own traditions, what's done is done, no take-backs.

I dreamed also about Cain and Abel, another sibling rivalry, at least it was in Cain's head. In this story, too, one brother is content, serving at home, doing what he does with joy, while the other is caught up in the blame/shame/complain game in his own head. The "rule" or directive was that they should bring the first fruits (the best of the best, too) as a sacrifice to God. It was even supposed to be a perfect lamb. Abel wasn't into animal husbandry but into growing fruits and veg. And he gave joyfully of the best of the first fruits to God, the immortal, invisible one. Cain raised the sheep. But he didn't see the point in giving a perfectly good lamb to an invisible God. He grumbled and complained and fussed and got angrier every time his mind dwelled on it. He festered in his mind. Why should I give up something perfectly good? Why not give the lamb who is lame or stillborn? Who will know? I'm not giving up MY hard work for nothing!

Abel went about with joy, gladly giving the best as a sacrifice, while Cain grumbled and gave the least that he could. And when the day came that God accepted Abel's vegetarian sacrifice over Cain's stingy "meat" sacrifice (which technically was supposed to be the proper sacrifice), Cain lost it. He became completely unhinged. So lost in his thought patterns of complaining and making excuses for himself and trying to prove himself "in the right" that he decided in his heart to kill his brother. Of course! That's the only solution when you are caught up in the form of your thought patterns! Because changing an external, i.e., getting rid of your brother, is the logical solution to an internal problem, right? So, rather than deal with his internal issues by removing his attachments to the self-identity or the egoic self, he removed his brother...permanently.  Murder.  He was so consumed by his thoughts of jealousy and rage and his sense of offense (totally imagined according to the story), that he killed his brother, rather than deal with his own heart problem, the disease of his rotting soul.  Epic fail!

This is where the forms, or our inordinate dependence upon forms, fails us.  It is the great disconnect that we often speak of in sustainability.  The great disconnect occurs when we rely upon externals to try to fix what is essentially an internal or spiritual problem.  

This is not a type of gnosticism which says that only spiritual things are good and all material things or physical things are bad.  Again, the forms which are sometimes physical are there to point us in the right direction and indeed are a part of our identity, too.  But forms are only temporary pointing to the eternal formless one in us.  They are intrinsically tied together, but at the same time, the form is not the formless.  It is and it is not at the same time.  This is the paradox.  It is like trying to describe the shape of water.  If water is in my pool, you could say that water is the shape of my pool.  It conforms to the form it is in.  But at the same time, water is formless in its liquid or gas states.  The formless cannot be described only by the form it is in.  In the same way, my identity form (whether body or thought patterns and emotions) “holds” the formless (spirit) in me, and is a part of me, but at the same time, the eternal formless part of me cannot be described by my body or my ego identity.  This is the paradox of the form and the formless, like the shape of water.

The Buddha, The Tao, & Jesus

Here is a simple comparison of what the three have said about wealth, greed, or treasure. 

 Jesus: “Do not store up for yourselves treasure on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal.” 

Buddha: “Let the wise man do righteousness: A treasure that others cannot share, which no thief can steal; a treasure which does not pass away.”  The Buddha preceded Christ by almost 500 years, passing away around the year 483 BCE. 

The Tao Te Ching says (Chp 81), “The sage does not hoard. The more he does for others, the more he has. The more he thereby gives to others, the ever more he gets”.  The Tao was written about 300 years before Christ. 

Form and formless -Jesus and the Tao (part 4)

Today, I’m pondering this idea of forms and the formless.... this is why in the OT, God commanded that the people of Israel make no “graven image”.... do not make an idol out of a thing, a form.  Forms may point us in the right direction, but they should point us to the Eternal One, the formless, the Great I am.  Forms, like names,  may point us toward the God, like Jehovah Jireh, god my provider, but God is not only my provider.  That’s why there are hundreds if not thousands of names for God.  God is not the name.  

If I cling only to one name for God, I end up making a cult out of it, to the exclusion of other names or forms.  I cling to the form, rather than the formless.  

If I make an idol out of a certain teacher or guru or pastor, and I say to myself, “Only this teacher  has ‘real’ insight, everyone else is on the wrong track...” I have made an idol out of a form.  The teacher may point me to God, but the teacher is not God. 

If I say to myself, “my religion, my sect, or my denomination, my culture, my nation, my people, my political party are the only ones who really seek truth or are the only ones who follow truth”, then I have taken a potentially good thing like that denomination or group and I have turned that form into an idol.  

God wasn’t saying, “never carve anything or paint an image”.  He was saying that “forms can point you toward me, but do not worship the temporary form.” 

Though my Christian family members do not understand, this is how I can have a statue of a Buddha or Madonna and child or crucifix and NOT BE TEMPTED TO WORSHIP IT, at all.  The Buddha statue may remind me to focus on inner peace when I look at it.  The statue itself does not bring me peace.  That does not mean that I worship it or look to it to be my god.   

The antique Madonna and Child music box, a simple tool for reminding me to take a moment to meditate, is not my god.  I do not worship it simply because it is currently in my possession.  This Spezialgeschaft fur devotionalien is not my god.  Just because I look at or keep it around does not mean I worship the Virgin Mary holding Baby Jesus.

In the same way, having a crucifix does not mean I worship the cross or that I pray to the cross. No, it is simply a form that may remind me of the formless, eternal One.  

The Tao Te Ching states, “Clay is formed into a vessel.  It is because of its emptiness that the vessel is useful....Therefore, what is present is used for profit.  But it is in absence that there is usefulness” (chp 11).  The form is only a vessel.  It is the formless which we seek. 

We are eternal, formless beings in a physical body (which is just a form) and with mind patterns and thoughts (also just a form).  If I capture fog or mist in a bottle, do you say, “Aha!  The mist is the bottle. Or the mist looks like the vessel it is in”? The mist is not the bottle, yet we believe our bodies to be our true identity.  At the same time, the form of our body is also a part of us.  It is temporary. The stories we cling to are also a kind of bottle.  We take great hope or wallow in despair, depending on how we see ourselves, how we perceive this bottle.  Yet, the thoughts and words are also part of us.  They are not us. They are a form for the formless. Forms do not last forever.

  2 Corinthians reflects the teaching of the Tao above: we hold this treasure, this mystery, this glory in jars of clay, to show that this all-surpassing glory is not from us (the projected mind-body image) but from God (the eternal who is in us).  

2 Corinthians 4-  “Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. 2 Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.13 It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. 15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. 16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 

This is the good news.  We have forms which point us to the formless.  But we do not fixate on the forms, they are only temporary.  And when we recognize the eternal one living in us, we have peace. We can accept with grace any situation that arises, because we are no longer attached to the old self or the outward forms.  

Can you capture the vastness of the sky in a bottle?  No more can you capture the formless, infinite, eternal one in a temporary, finite form.  Can you catch the sky and put it in a bottle?  It is vast. Infinitely vast.  Without end.  Jesus talked to Nicodemus.  What is spirit? Can you catch the wind?  

I think a better interpretation would be “can you catch it, hold on to it, name it, tame it, make it your property, put it in a vessel and store it?”  You may try.  It might even work temporarily, partially.  But you cannot hold on to it or make it yours.  As soon as we say, “Aha! I’ve got it.  I understand spirit”, it slips from our grasp.  

Our minds, words, thoughts, belief systems, and bodies are forms or vessels for the formless. They are not the formless.  They can point us in the right direction, but they cannot “hold on to it” or truly contain it. It’s like trying to fit the entire sky into a little glass jar.  You can capture some air and seal it in, but as soon as you do that, it is no longer the infinite vastness of sky.  It may be a part of it, but the infinite cannot be contained forever in the finite.