Wednesday, March 19, 2008

BEINGNESS BLOG: PATTERN OF RESURRECTION

As this is in the Christian tradition what is known as Holy Week, I have been reflecting on the religious teachings of my earlier life, and feeling the relationship that I have with that theology at this point in my spiritual emergence. I am blessed to have been reared in a home that, despite its many challenges, gifted me with a deep and profound immersion in a church that provided for me a great foundation for what would be a life-long quest for all that is sacred. I spent large amounts of my youth active in that church, and even toured nationally performing gospel music in a wide array of venues. This background, coupled with a year of Christian Seminary, gave me a solid base of Biblical information that would play a vital role in where I spiritually live today.
I recognize now that I have had a profound and ever changing relationship to the theology of crucifixion and resurrection, and with the role that Jesus plays in the broader scheme of Cosmic awakening. I was taught as a child that Jesus was a perfect man, the only begotten Son of God, who came to redeem me and my sinfulness from an eternal punishment in the fires of hell. Easter was a celebration of the literal and miraculous overcoming by Jesus of the death that occurred via crucifixion, a sign that the price for all of humankind’s evil ways had been paid. Jesus had appeased
the wrath of God, and now all who believe and testify to his supremacy will rise up at the final judgment to live eternally in a geographic heaven. Those who deny his name will be banished to an eternal suffering, made very graphic in the religion of my youth.
A significant percentage of the world’s population embraces this theology, as indeed does my family of origin. I honor and reverence that belief as a perfect place of unfoldment for all those on that particular path. I certainly see it differently now than I did in my youth, and I continue to notice an ongoing evolution of that theology as it relates to my own personal relationship in the One.
I have come to know for myself that the death of an innocent and compassionate avatar named Yeshua (Hebrew) by such hideous means had nothing to do with the Will of the One that Is and can only Be prefect, all-enveloping Love. In the Sight of G-awed, there is no ransom to be paid, and no evil to be redeemed. Those are shadow perceptions of a guilt-laden human race, trapped in the chains of ego guilt and self-aversion. The crucifixion was a deed of people: people who greatly feared the message of self-empowerment that Yeshua came to deliver. He was an actualized Jew, and didn’t come to create a new and divisive religion. I believe he came to merge his own I Am identity In Source, and then to demonstrate the Power of the Union to as many who would listen. It was a message of transcendence, of overcoming. The resurrection that he spoke of was an energy pattern of transformation, of breaking free of the identification with the ego thought system that has us nailed to the forces of the world. He took his place in the middle of the horizontal and vertical axis of human experience, (the cross) and showed how complete devotion to awakening could result in a radical transformation in consciousness. This transformation resulted in his ability to see right through the human drama, and he was able to forgive even those who murdered him. He knew deeply that it was human unskillfulness coming from a forgetfulness of Source. He quite literally embodied the I Am Presence. Had he remained in judgment of those who killed him, he would have energetically been aligned in crucifixion, which is a mind pattern of ego duality, guilt, judgment, condemnation, retribution, and an identification with the perceptual story of the separate self. His forgiveness freed him from the forces of the mind and of the world, and I actually see that the resurrection occurred before the crucifixion, on the level of his Soul. Whether or not a physical resurrection occurred is secondary for me. His transcendence in consciousness uplifted the entire race heart-mind, regardless of what religious tradition you do or don’t identify with. The message, though often bogged down in theology, is most relevant to me today as I embody the demonstration he made for humans who are called to his example: complete and total devotion to the Source of All Is One. Coming to Know Absolute Union, my human experience is dedicated to spiritual awakening and to being a channel of Sacred Light while here in my human incarnation. I am here to release any misperceptions of evil, guilt, judgment and shame, and to allow my Self to shine through any situation that seems to be devoid of the Allness of G-awed.
Today I recognize that crucifixion and resurrection are energy patterns in consciousness. When I am in Remembrance of Source, and seeing the world and all who dwell here as Essence emanations of One Holiness, I am a living example of resurrection. When I fall into the forgetfulness of ego-mind identification, I sense that I am separate from Source and so suffer the myriad effects of that false and often tragic belief. That is my crucifixion. The only salvation I am in need of is the notion that I need to be saved. Though often unskillful in my humanity, my Essence Divinity is never dimmed. This transcendence of mind could as easily be called the Passover as it is the resurrection. Though they fall at different calendar times this year, they symbolically are the same message. In the Ultimate sense, there is no death, and certainly not one that is ordained by the Source of All Life.

I invite you this Holy Week to know and to celebrate your own Holiness, and to see all you encounter in this same, Sacred Light. If the bondage of self-identification places you on the cross, know that resurrection is a breath of prayer away. Holiness is the Essence of the True Self, and it is in and to that Holiness that we are here to awaken to.

TALKS WITH TAYLOR
THURSDAY, MARCH 27TH 7:30 PM
"HUMBLE MAGNIFICENCE"
MUSIC: SUZANNE WALZER
UNITY IN THE PINES
6073 SUMMIT BLVD. WPB
BETWEEN HAVERHILL AND JOG
$10.00 MINIMUM LOVE OFFERING SUGGESTED AND APPRECIATED


Monday, March 3, 2008

MARCH E-ZINE

The beginning days of March often remind me of an oldwives tale common in the Midwest of my childhood; if March begins like a lion, it will go out like a lamb. The reverse of that simile is also said to be true. In the unpredictable early spring of Ohio, I remember wishing for a lion-like March 1, so that the beauty of the “lamb” would usher in the friendliness of a passing winter.
Sacred texts also use the illustration of the lion and the lamb, although in a very different context. It is said that in the “end-days” of the human age, the lion shall lay down with the lamb in perfect tranquility. While I do not embrace the usual prophesies surrounding this image, I have and continue to love the metaphysical meaning behind this peace-filled picture.
The lion is symbolically representative of COURAGE, while the lamb represents INNOCENCE. Spiritually, COURAGE and INNOCENCE, shall “lie down,” or co-exist perfectly when the dualistic, warring mind has been stilled. The INNOCENCE that is referred to here is not what is usually thought of as innocence. In fact, it is an INNOCENCE that is beyond the thinking mind altogether. At the level of perception, innocence is known only in contrast to guilt. This is because perception is born of the dualistic mind, and therefore is expressed in terms of comparison. Spiritually, INNOCENCE is not known in contrast or comparison. The Supreme One is the author of all INNOCENCE, and what is One can know no contrast. INNOCENCE doesn’t refer to the realm of mind or its perceptions. It isn’t in opposition of guilt or the subsequent unskillful attitudes or behavior. INNOCENCE refers to ESSENCE, and ESSENCE is Divine by Its very nature. The mind cannot know True INNOCENCE. Only the sacred heart can recognize the Essence of Divine INNOCENCE. It can only be perceived via Inspiration and Divine Illumination. As we look at the world and its myriad appearances of separation and dislocation, there is much evidence of what appears to be guilt, darkness, and even evil. Again- this is due to the fact that the world is of the dualistic mind, and is usually perceived through the mind. A different and expanded Vision is called for if we choose to see the INNOCENCE of the lamb. We are called to evoke the Presence that is in Truth all Knowing and everywhere present, and is beyond notions of right/wrong, dark/Light, and good/bad. It takes great COURAGE while in this world to see through the perceptual chaos of appearances, and to hold to a Vision of Divine INNOCENCE that is indeed transcendent of the world. In Eastern thought, this Vision is referred to as the single eye focus. When with our sacred-hearts we decide to only look for INNOCENCE, a new and expanded lens of Illumination becomes available to us, and we no longer confuse appearances of unskillfulness for the Essence of Truth. Our internal COURAGEOUS lion co-exists perfectly with the lamb-like Essence of INNOCENCE, and that Vision begins to create the reality of heaven-consciousness right here on earth.
While it is tempting to embrace and to think of extending this spiritual COURAGEOUS INNOCENCE into the world we see around us, it is our very own withinness that is first in need of transformation. We are called to weed out every bit of perceptual guilt that has taken root in our dualistic perceptual minds. This guilt is mostly in the depths of the unconscious, so spiritual devotion and expanded Stillness are requirements for this type of clearing. We must tease out the stories we have made of ourselves, and the primordial guilt of separation we feel as a result of our forgetfulness of Source. Again, this type of deep forgiveness demands the COURAGE of a lion, and the INNOCENT Surrender of a baby lamb. The result is a blossoming springtime in consciousness in which buds of higher perception begin to naturally come forth from our renewed inner realities.
I invite each of you reading this to adopt the COURAGE to Know your own innate spiritual INNOCENCE, and then to expand that inner Vision to include everyone and everything you look upon this day, this month, this NOW. A great age of INNOCENCE is coming forth from a mass Awakening in consciousness, and this Awakening will give birth to a new earth and a now INNOCENCE of the human race. It begins in each and every one of us. It is a choice for Vision. It is in fact a choice for G-awed. Choose the COURAGE of Faithfulness in what is Truth, and release the illusory appearances of what can never be Real. In Truth there is only INNOCENCE, and in INNOCENCE, there is only Love. As contradictory as this is to the perceptions and even theology of this world, it is the COURAGEOUS evoking of INNOCENCE that will usher in the new age of Truth sometimes referred to as heaven on earth. See only with the single eye of Truth, and INNOCENCE is all you will see.

-tes



DO YOU EVER FEEL AS THOUGH THERE IS A BIGGER, BROADER, GRANDER, GREATER EXPERIENCE OF LIVING THAT YOU AREN’T QUITE TAPPED INTO?
DO EVER PONDER WHETHER OR NOT YOU ARE IN ALIGNMENT AND HARMONY WITH THE PURPOSE AND THE MISSION THAT BROUGHT YOU HERE TO INCARNATION IN THIS EARTHLY REALM?
DO YOU EVER SUSPECT, IN THE QUIET OF YOUR CONTEMPLATIVE SELF, THAT NO MATTER HOW LONG YOU HAVE BEEN ON THE SPIRITUAL PATH, THERE IS MORE SERENITY AND JOY JUST WAITING TO BE EXPRESSED?
DO YOU REALLY KNOW IN A GROUNDED WAY WHO AND WHAT YOU ARE IN TRUTH, AND YET YOU FEEL WITHIN YOUR HEART A CALL TO MORE?

MAYBE IT’ TIME TO RE-DISCOVER AND TO RENEW THE INNATE GREATNESS THAT IS THE VERY ESSENCE OF SPIRIT-BEING!
I invite you to join me for a day of exploration and celebration of these very inquiries. In the tranquil setting of the Cenacle Spiritual Life Retreat Center, on the Intracoastal in Lantana, we will share in a time of discovery and reflection of what it means to Live and to Love each day in the GREATNESS of the expansive, Soulful Self. We will allow five powerful energetic frequencies to guide us into a wider clearer, more focused vision of what is calling to us at this demarcation of our Souls journey.
The workshop will consist of a mixture of lecture, discussion, personal reflection, individual coaching, and group visioning.

BEING GREAT IN 2008!
SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 2008 10:00AM-3:00PM
THE CENACLE 1400 S. DIXIE LANTANA
$75.00 TUITION INCLUDES LUNCH
CALL: 561.585-7491 or E-MAIL tes@taylorestevens.com to register before 3.11.08





TALKS WITH TAYLOR: LECTURES ON UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLES
"HUMBLE MAGNIFICENCE"
THURSDAY, MARCH 27TH, 2007 7:30 PM
UNITY OF THE PINES
6073 SUMMIT BLVD BETWEEN HAVERHILL AND JOG
MUSIC: SUZANNE WALZER
10.00 MINIMUM SUGGESTED LOVE OFFERING