Friday, December 26, 2014

Who Is Jesus?


Yesterday was Christmas – the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.  I joined my wife and one of my daughters to go to St. David’s Catholic Church for the Christmas Mass.  The Reverend Fenly Saint-Jean delivered a very insightful sermon that I found presented a powerful perspective on the nature of Jesus.  He explained that the reason God had come to Earth as a man, born in a manger of all places, was to truly know the plight of mankind through personal experience.   

Humankind would never again be able to complain to God that he didn’t understand.  "How could God know what it was like to be hungry or in physical pain?"  "How could God know the pain of being turned on and betrayed by close friends?"  God knew because through the experience of his son, Jesus, he directly experienced it all.  We can thank Jesus for divine compassion and forgiveness because he lived our lives and experienced our pain and joy.  He was born of the common people because he did not want to live the Rock Star life, he wanted to know our trials and struggles.  His mission was to know us and offer some instruction as to how we could make the best of things regardless of the reality that appeared to be our life.  That is the most compelling explanation of the life of Jesus in religious terms that I have ever heard.  The logic is crisp and clear with no sense of an unknowable mystery that often makes up religious dogma.

I find no conflict with this reasoning but I would add more to define who Jesus is.  Jesus is God (infinite all knowing non-physical Source energy) experiencing a life experience adventure in a human body but so are each of us.   The huge difference and the reason Jesus became so closely identified with God – God’s only begotten Son – was because in terms of consciousness, so little separated them.  The point of consciousness inhabiting the human form of Jesus was evolved to a point that there were only brief moments of separation from the awareness of infinite creative power and awareness.  Let us not forget that Jesus was very clear about the fact that we could do everything he did and more if we had the tiniest  bit of faith in that reality.  This is the heart of the matter – we each have access to the same power and level of knowing but we have yet to close the gap of separation to anywhere near the level of Jesus for more than brief instants of awareness.  We are all on that path though and that was the message of Jesus to us – he came into our realm to let us in on the secret.  The message of Jesus is that we are all on a path to realize his life reality.   

And so, we send Jesus very joyful and grateful thanks for deciding to come live among us and shine a bright light of hope and possibility that has influenced many generations already and will continue to be the catalyst for positively transforming the Reality we experience in this physical world.   

Thank You and Happy Birthday Jesus.

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Listen In Silence and Find Yourself


Spirit whispers to us through the gap between our thoughts and the slightest sensation in our body. This is why spending time in the silence is so important. When we think of healing as the return of the memory of wholeness as the body, mind, spirit and environment, we begin to understand why we must learn to quiet our minds.


We can do this through formal meditation or through breathing awareness or just by sitting with our eyes closed, being still, and listening for fifteen or twenty minutes.
The activity of the mind may be difficult to quiet in the beginning, but eventually quiet will come. And into that blessed quietness, insight and knowledge will flow to us.
This is the truth about me: "Divine life does flow through me at all times". In the silence I become attuned to the essence of all that is.
Deepak Chopra and Ras John

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Finding Rasjohnmon - Pt 1.


There was a Bob Marley tune and some laughter on the light breeze as I pulled into the parking lot.  I parked the dinged up rental car under a tree in the dirt parking lot, glad to be off the main road.  The car had no air conditioning other than the 360 air of four rolled down windows but the temperature was pleasant.  I took a last hit from the spliff that I had found in rental car's ash tray and turned the key to shut off the engine.  Discovery of the spliff had been a nice surprise upon leaving the Thrifty Car Rental office in MoBay - even though it was Jamaica, I doubted most rental cars came so equipped.  

The spliff was dropped back into the ash tray.  I turned to get out of the car and nearly interrupted the night with a scream.  A huge bird was zooming straight at me.  I thought it was going to smack right into my head but at the last moment it pulled up and landed on the car door knocking me back with a shock and a blast of wind from its jagged wings.  I had a vision of eyes being peeked out in an Alfred Hitchcock film but quickly cancelled that thought - definitely not wanting that to be the next scene.   

The bird looked straight into my eyes with what was hopefully not a hungry look and then delivered another shock by screeching, “Who are you?” with what sounded like a pirate accent.  It was a big greenish grey parrot of some type with an menacing looking beak.  I hoped it was a vegetarian and preferred fruit and seeds to flesh.  The bird screeched again, “Who are You?”  

“JB” I replied trying to sound friendly and not frightened – I thought it wise not to show fear or weakness – confidence always helps keep situations under control.  Hopefully he was a regular here and didn’t generally harm tourists.  

“Who are you?” demanded the bird again in the same nasty tone. 
“JB” I said more forcefully. 

“Who are you?” screeched the bird for a fourth time.  

Relaxing a bit I replied this time, “Sometimes I don’t know who I am.  Who do you think I am?”   Finally I just said firmly, "go away!" and the bird flew away leaving me wondering how potent that ashtray spliff was and a bit confused at the unusual events.  Was this a bad sign? A good sign or no sign at all?  Who are you was certainly a relevant question considering my current state of mind.  

I think I had come here on a search for enlightenment.  It was all very strange.  In my head I sang "what a long strange trip it's been" - the Grateful Dead song but to a Reggae beat.  I’d been playing one of the “Fire on the Mountain” CD's of Reggafied Dead tunes while I navigated the dark roads alternating from coast road to stretches of overgrown pavement deep in the inland’s lush tropical foliage.  All of these elements combined to create a surreal and uncertain sense of where I was and where I was going.  I felt a little like a puppet moving to an unseen hand.  I deliberately shook that feeling off – I was coming to realize that for better or worse I was the one behind the steering wheel.  Somehow I just needed to learn how to be a better driver and navigator.   

There are said to be many roads to enlightenment and I had given up looking for a map.  I was just going on instinct and possibly clouded perceptions.  A little herb often helped or maybe it hurt.  The important insight it had provided was that reality could totally shift in moments depending on state of mind.  So, if reality was not fixed and was only a matter of perception, then, all kinds of life experiences were available it would seem.  The trouble was that it often felt like you were being tossed around on a sea of uncertainty with no control over what was going on. 

It still seemed better than being one of the masses that were cock sure that their sense of what reality was at a given moment was all there was for anyone and everyone.  Anyone that didn’t see it their way was simply wrong.  That was definitely not the road to enlightenment.  In fact, I was totally certain that anyone who thought they had all the answers was mentally and spiritually deficient.  

I had made a lot of twists and turns on his road and wasn't at all sure of where I was going but I had a lot of questions seeking answers. Jah only knew why I thought I might find some answers way off the mainstream at Club Tropical.  Any of my friends would have felt it was pretty far fetched and that I was just going to chill out and party in the tropics.  Well, if that was all it turned out to be, that would be fine too.  It would just be one more little side trip.  I sat back to collect my thoughts and try to get centered.  I could hear lightly crashing waves in the distance and the rustle of the breeze through the dense tropical foliage.  It was soothing after the bird incident and the long drive from the hotel.   

The car door creaked as I finally opened it sending some other unseen birds and other night creatures scattering in alarm.  In the distance, I heard the opening bars of a song called “Celebrate Life”.  The timing was perfect.  It was a favorite of mine for the music and the message.  I’d been lucky enough to see the song’s creator, Lucky Dube, live several times.  His performances were always a joy to behold.  Lucky was from South Africa and his blend of African riddums with Reggae was infectious.  His message, like Bob Marley’s, was one of hope and the determination to rise above despair and the hardships of life.  Both of them came out of often cruel societies.  The apartheid in South Africa made things even worse for Lucky than Bob growing up in Trench Town, Jamaica.  In Trench Town there was poverty and violence but not the intense racial hatred and separation of South Africa.    

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Why are we here?


Why are we here?  For an adventure.  It’s like why you – in this 4D reality - play a video game or get involved in any new adventure… it’s for the fun and excitement (and to play a part in the positive evolution of creation).  This is a challenge.  We are each powerful creators and we are actively building on all the creation that has preceded us, attempting to move it forward… attempting to add new energy and excitement, joy and fun to the collective adventure.  You don’t have to of course; it’s generally just more fun that way.  Not everyone is here to do good – some of us are here to challenge and test the rest of us – the bad guys and bully’s are important to us if we are to build our strength and skill as guardians and builders and caretakers of the Universe. 
                         

So, nice to meet you – we share a great adventure, a heroic quest of vanquishing demons and becoming masters of the magic of deliberate creation.  We are at the leading edge of all creation, right here, right now.  Moment to moment we are creating new realities whether we choose to accept the responsibility or not.  This story is about learning and discovery and hopefully has a happy ending.  It’s our own choice of course.  Now, one important note:  the voice that is constantly talking in your mind is not you – the true YOU is the observer.  That voice in your head is just a bio-computer output that is constantly scanning, labeling, storing impressions, interpretations and opinions it is exposed to.  IT believes it knows all about reality but its limitation is that it believes “reality” happens to it.  IT generally accepts no responsibility for what’s going on and even if it does “intellectually”, it still can have great difficulty getting around appearances.  If a doctor tells you that you have six months to live, that bio-computer “you” that you have created to control your avatar in the story you are creating has a hard time saying and BELIEVING that appearances do not have any real substance – you can reject any outcome and do something else if you can accept it and expect it to become reality. 

It is a difficult situation.  You have created this persona and put it at the controls.  You do need it to operate in this virtual reality world we inhabit.  The problem is that all of us start to believe everything it says and since the basic program we have to work with is designed to protect us from threats – it would rather hide in a cave to be safe than to boldly go where no one has gone before – we are more likely to expect the worst rather than the best and that then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.   

And so, here we are with this particular life story – not that unlike yours although the events were things I dreamed up – we may have only slightly affected each other or some of us may have been prominent characters interacting in this play. 

Monday, December 1, 2014

Unfolding the Story


This is the story of a Life Adventure that is unfolding as I write these words – you are in the midst of creating your own story as you read this and new chapters are being written each day by both of us.  Whether you recognize it or not, you are writing a unique story right now and this story and yours are intertwined in an elaborate tapestry of creativity.  It is hard to always be clear on why we are here and it is very easy to get off course.  There are no accidents... nothing actually happens by chance.  You are doing it all... we are connected in the real reality and we are out here on the cutting edge of creation trying to become really good players at this game we have chosen to play. 
Following along if you like and we will create a new adventure together... please use the comment area to add your parts to the story...