1.  I know who I am…

2.  I question everything

a. The stuff I’ve been taught to believe

b. The thoughts my mind thinks A pretty high percentage of the time, both are wrong.

3.  I do unto myself as I’d have myself do unto me Everybody bitches and complains about the world and the need for change. That in you which incessantly bitches and complains IS the world that needs changing and THAT change will only come from within.

4.  I’ve let go of my regrets (and I’ve had more than my fair share) Anybody who’s been asked, “If you could live life over, would you change anything?” and they respond, “No.” Know this one thing! They’re lying through his/her teeth. Which makes them the same people who’d steal your wallet and never bat an eye. Honest people have many regrets and, given the opportunity, would make different choices.

5.  I look for the lesson in every life experience. There really are no mistakes, said Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

6.  I meditate more often than I medicate…usually!

7.  I practice living in space, not time.

8.  I am FOR – GIVING I am forgiven; I am forgiving; As a consequence, I am FOR – GIVING – if there’s a deficit in generosity, there’s a deficiency of grace.

9.  I think about DEATH daily It is only ever the ego in you that is afraid to die. The deeper you that came from God knows it will one day return to God. How could it ever be fearful of Perfect Love out of which it merged and to which it will return. The ego, on the other hand, your illusory self, what Martha Beck calls “your social self,” well it has plenty to fear but especially death. The ego dies at death. Jesus said, however, the key to life is “to deny self” (his way of saying, let the ego in you die). Muhammad put it like this, “Die before you die or you will die a thousand deaths.”

10.  I die daily, too. I’ll show you how to do the same. This is the ONLY way to, as Gandhi said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” Jesus said, “Take up your cross daily” – that’s death daily. But, death to what?

11.  I know why I’m here. The greatest disservice our culture (and that includes the church’s culture) is to teach people, and so create within everyone the expectation, that they showed up for some grand purpose in life that only they could fulfill. Almost daily new books are written on helping you find your destiny, fulfilling your purpose. It’s a whole lot of bullshit, to put it as plain as I know how. You showed up for one purpose and one purpose only: I’ll share what that is in the book.

12.  I am One with all that Is – the UNIVERSE is UNI “one” VERSE or “song” So, the universe is “one song.” This is the enlightenment or, as Christians call it, salvation that changes the world. It is the profound awareness that we are all really ONE – as long as there is the feeling of separation in you to anything or anyone, that’s your growth curve. I’ll show you how to remove the barriers and build bridges. The survival of humanity depends on it. I thought about the Unity pendant being part of the design on the cover too.

Like to know your thoughts. So, what do you think? On the right track? Dump it? Keep going? New title? Other points I’m missing? I’m open to all your wisdom. (Copyright)

Me, too. But, for much of my adult life, knowing God, knowing mind, or feeling connected to something grander than myself escaped me, eluded, even evaded me. Then, one day, something happened to me and I made a remarkable discovery. Meister Eckhart was right: “The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me.”

So, I write this blog today assuming two things: 1) That God is; and 2) she is knowable. I call God, God but, you might prefer something else as in Being, Transcendence, the Eternal, the Mind, whatever…I have long suspicioned she has many names and aliases.

I’m hardly looking for widespread agreement on these suppositions. Some of you will agree and that’s fine. Others of you won’t and…well…that’s fine, too. If you don’t share these assumptions, you’ll not likely read anything else in this post you agree with either.

What follows in bold text are a few of those things I’ve learned about knowing God or living a Divine life, or being enlightened, or awakened, or, as the Christians love to say, “being saved.”To know God is simply the deep, inner feeling of inexplicable oneness with what is, a kind of wholeness and connectedness with life itself…with God.  I love the way Eckhart Tolle puts it:  ”The word ‘enlightenment’ conjures up the idea of some superhuman accomplishment…it is really just your natural state of felt oneness with Being.”

Here’s what I’ve learned:

Knowing God is the purpose of human existence. It’s why you showed up. It took me half a lifetime of searching before I got this.  I had always thought, and had been taught, there was some “grand purpose” for which I appeared on planet earth…some job nobody else could do…would do…that I was supposed to do. So, I wasted a big chunk of my life looking for what it was.  Perhaps you’ve lived with similar expectations.  When I awakened from this illusion however, I realized there was nothing I was supposed to “do.”  The Divine had done it all. I had shown up to simply enjoy it–that is, to just be.

When you get this, you’re at peace.  The search is over.  The expectations are lifted. Life begins to be genuinely celebrated.  Then, you go on to “do” whatever you wish while enjoying who you are in the process. It is only after you stop looking for what it is that will define who you are…that one big moment or task or recognition that the ego in you craves and so deludes you into believing awaits you just around the “next” corner that you begin to live.

We show up for one reason and one reason only–to walk with God, as did Enoch of old (Gen. 5:24). This is an anthropomorphic way of describing what is the natural experience of deep connectedness with God.  If you read all of Genesis 5, you realize the writer is making the point that Enoch’s contemporaries were born, lived, begat, and died…but, they never got it.  That is, they never quite figured out the simplest, yet the most profound truth about life. It’s all about knowing the Divine, being one with oneself and with what is.

There is something else.  Knowing God takes no effort whatsoever. Effort is the stuff of religion.  Virtually all of them, too. While most religions seem to start out right – that is, with the purpose of helping people know and feel oneness with themselves…with life itself…with the Divine – it isn’t long before they turn this grant from God into some kind of loan that must be repaid with obligations, offerings, obedience, and so forth.

So, with those who’ve left religion for reasons associated with abuse (and those may number in the millions), the real reason most people have left organized religion (but have not left their spiritual longings), is because they’re frankly tired of trying to know a God their religion says requires still more sacrifices…still more duties…still more doctrines to debate over…still more rules to keep…lifestyles to conform to…and so on.

My advice is: don’t make knowing God into a problem…into a performance…into some kind of duty or ritual.  Know that you know God already.  Knowing God is nothing more than the progressive realization of Presence itself, which is why Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is within you” (Lk 17:21). You could not get any closer to God than you are now. So, know that every thought of God, every impulse is grace itself…IS God.

Give your attention to the inclination you feel to know God. I love what Thomas Merton said, “As soon as people are disposed to being alone with God, they are…no matter where they are:  in the monastery, in the city, in the country…in the woods. At the moment it seems they are somewhere in the middle of their journey, they have actually arrived at the destination already.”

Give your attention to the questions you have about God, too…even the doubts. See where that takes you. Your religion might tell you that you should accept the things you’ve doubted or questioned on the basis of faith alone. But, that’s nonsense.  God does not ask you to ignore your questions or disregard your doubts. Faith does not preclude doubt.  Real faith is learning to live in ambiguity…with paradox…with questions for which there may be no answer.

Your questions might frighten the faithful. But, I assure you that your questions are welcomed by God.  She created you with a mind.  Use it.  As I say in The Enoch Factor, “Doubt is no more disbelief than questions are compromise.” The most faithful followers of any faith have been those whose minds doubted, questioned, and so contemplated the inexplicable mysteries of life.

Meditate more often than you medicate.  It is so unfortunate in our western world but, as Christiane Northup has said, “The only acceptable form of western meditation is hospitalization.” I suppose it is conceivable that life would give you whatever you need–even a hospital bed–to help you look within–which is, of course, the only place where you could ever really find yourself or experience the Divine presence. The rabbis say, “God has but one synagogue…the human heart.”

Although I am a devoted follower of Christ, I regularly practice eastern meditative disciplines.  There is much Christians could learn from the spiritual traditions of the east. Ignore those Christian leaders who warn you against meditative practices or yoga or whatever. They’re only admitting they live more from a place of fear and suspicion than they live by faith. For me, and many other practitioners of the Christian tradition, I have the highest regard for those spiritual traditions that, while different from mine in many ways, have enriched my journey nonetheless.  In fact, the more I learn from other traditions the more devoted I am to my own and the more I realize the similarities in all of them.

While Benedictine monks in the Christian tradition know this, most other Christians do not. But, Jesus himself regularly practiced meditation just as his eastern counterparts. What do you think he was doing for forty days and nights as he wandered in the wilderness? (Lk 4:1-13).  On a hunting expedition?  His temptations grew out of his inner impulses.  And, to deal with them, he had to go within in order to find his way out.

You will have to do the same.  Learn to meditate.  To meditate will mediate God’s presence faster than anything I know. Lao Tzu said, “Where there is silence, one finds the anchor to the universe.”

Know that every experience carries within it an expression of the Divine presence.  I am not suggesting that everything you might encounter in life is sent by God.  But, I am saying that everything that happens in life can be the occasion for connecting deeply with the Divine. When I experienced a profound shift in my spiritual life a few years ago, I did so with the realization that life has a way of unfolding as a series of synchronous events that, seemingly coincidental or even random, are actually conspiring together to bring you into union with the Divine. This understanding has been transforming my reaction to and interaction with every experience of life–the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Make it your daily spiritual practice to bring your awareness into the present moment.  When you are here (and not somewhere else in the mind), you will be at peace…in presence. If you haven’t discovered this already, you will likely learn that one of the greatest challenges to living with a felt sense of oneness to God is disciplining the mind and so training it to the “here and now.”

To be in union with God may take no effort but to know that union and so enjoy its blissful benefits…well…that will likely take a lifetime.  Which is why it’s important to get started now and why the sixteenth century Carmelite monk, Brother Lawrence, called this “practicing the presence of God.” Think of this in the way Ernest Hemingway said to think of yourself: “As an apprentice in a craft where you could never become a master.”

Again, don’t make a problem of this.  Just know that knowing God unfolds naturally as you train yourself to give attention to every thought, impulse, or inclination you feel to know God. Recognize the thoughts.  Acknowledge the inclinations, however faint they may be.  It is here you will find peace, enter presence, and so know God.

The ancient sages said that Enoch walked with God (Gen. 5:24).

If he did, so may you.

There is something I must say:

I abhor your actions and, as a devout follower of Jesus Christ, I am embarrassed and ashamed that you would tarnish the larger Christian family with actions so obviously contrary to both Jesus’ spirit and teachings.

Were he here now, I have no doubt but what he would show love and compassion to you in spite of your hateful behavior. But I’ll confess: I’m struggling to find much forgiveness or tolerance for you whatsoever. I’m working on it and I’ll get there. But I don’t mind admitting that, at this juncture, it has been difficult for me.

And, frankly, I find it strikingly ironic that other Christians in this country, many of whom are constantly calling on moderate Muslims to denounce the bloody actions of the extreme elements within their fold, are so seemingly silent in publicly denouncing your actions as an extreme element within the Christian fold.

Maybe it isn’t entirely their fault. Perhaps the media bears some of the responsibility for this. Mr. Jones, I travel all over this country consulting with church and parish leaders and speaking to religious groups of virtually every faith tradition imaginable. Most people of varied faith traditions that I meet, and none more so than other Christians, are repulsed by your actions and they wish the world to know that you represent neither the best in Christianity nor in any of them.

So it may just mean that the media is giving too much attention to the extreme behaviors of people in our culture. I’m clueless, too, as to whether anything can be done about it. But I want to go on record as voicing my disapproval of your actions and my deepest desire that your intolerance of other faith traditions and the violence you are perpetrating cease and cease now.

I am a follower of Jesus Christ. But, like many other believing people in this country, I am open to and respectful of all spiritual traditions. Furthermore, I am an ardent student of Buddhist philosophy, as well as that of Lao-Tzu and others. And I stand side by side with the streams of tradition they and others represent. Furthermore, I stand with Desmond Tutu, Thich Naht Hanh, Gandhi, the Dalai Lama and other contemporary spiritual masters whose calls for peace, justice, tolerance and cooperation have been heard and are being heeded by many of us.

Mr. Jones, this world cannot tolerate your hate. It may be your Constitutional right to express yourself as you do, but it is anything but appreciated. You may think you are justified in doing so, but you are not. You may feel you’re helping usher in the “end of the world” or some kind of apocalyptic notion of armegeddon, but you will not. It is time that you, and the minority fringes in every religion like you, end your madness of believing, “We’re right! You’re wrong!” “We’re in! You’re out!” “We’re the chosen ones, you’re not!” The survival of humanity is at stake.

If you would but take time studying the religions you so hatefully abhor, you would discover there is far more that unites us than distinguishes us. So I would plead with you to end this madness. You actions are clearly contrary to Christ, whom you claim to represent. This kind of insanity must end. The Dalai Lama is right. “Until there is peace among the religions, there will be no peace in the world.”

I grew up in a very conservative Christian environment. But, if you regularly read my articles, you know I have moved beyond many of those early beliefs, most of which can work as long as you live in a very small, narrow, exclusive, and illusory world.  Which, of course, I did. But, no longer. Given my exposure to other cultures and religious traditions, and at a very young age, I can remember wondering how Christians alone could be right and everyone else wrong. But, I tried for some decades to ignore those inner questions. And, so, I went the way of most Christians. I tried to conform to everyone’s way of thinking and believing, graduated college, went off to seminary, earned a doctorate in theology and pastored for nearly twenty years among Baptist people.  All the while, wondering in my heart, do I really believe all this narrow-minded nonsense I’m expected to preach every Sunday?

You don’t ignore such questions or live an inauthentic life for long. Life will give you whatever you need, or so Eckhart Tolle reminds us, to bring you to a place of awakening.  And, of course, that’s exactly what happened to me. It took the unexpected death of my father and my world crumbled beneath me.  I left the ministry and divorced. And…well…the rest is history, as they say. I wandered and wondered for many years.

Then, one day, I quit struggling, looking, searching and then it happened. I woke up. Might be why I like the Buddha so much. His name means, as you perhaps know, “the awakened one.” In a little way, I think I know what his name means.

Today, I am a devoted follower of Christ.  His way of knowing God is the path I follow. However, I also know that Jesus said, “I have other sheep that are not of this fold…”(John 10:16) meaning, as the Sufi poet said, “There are many gates into the garden; and you need pass through only one.”

So, I prefer to refer to my beliefs today as “perspectives,” as that leaves room for growth and change.  That openness has enabled me to embrace what’s wholesome and good about the diversity one finds even within the Christian community.  In fact, I can say today, “I am Christian, first, as well as a Baptist, a Roman Catholic, a Methodist, a Lutheran, a Presbyterian, an Independent, and so forth.  It also enables me to affirm and embrace the spiritual truth I find in other traditions.  This is what Gandhi meant when he said, “I consider myself a Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Jew…and, so forth.”

If this resonates with your spirit, permit me to make a few recommendations that might help you continue growing in the same direction.

1. Stay open to everything and attached to nothing.  It’s our attachments, in this case to a particular belief system or way of thinking, that creates much of our mental suffering. You can have firm convictions, provided the platform upon which you build your life is made of wood, not cement.

2. In the Christian tradition, St. Paul said, “Work out your own salvation.”  Most Christians misread his meaning. What he’s not saying is that one’s experience of transcendence is manufactured by you or me. Grace is grace because it’s surprising. It shows up the moment you stop struggling to know God, as I try to make clear in my book, The Enoch Factor.

What Paul does mean is that your spiritual growth, in whatever tradition seems right for you, does depend on the attention you give it.  This is the real meaning of the Law of Attraction. There’s so much nonsense written about this fundamental spiritual law. Most of it from very greedy little egos looking for some magical way to make their dreams come true.  The real meaning is that the universe will work with you–it can’t do otherwise–in helping you advance in self-realization and God-realization but…and this is a big but (pardon the pun),–when you make it your intention to awaken and so give your attention to your spiritual awakening.

3. Then, I would suggest you meditate this day, and a little every day, on the rich diversity of spiritual truth experienced and expressed through countless spiritual traditions–not just your own. Sure, affirm your own perspectives and spiritual convictions. But, ask God, or, if you prefer, the universe, to give you an open heart, an open mind, and open hands to embrace all whose perspectives and experiences might be different.

Just a little wisdom today from the myriad of rich and wonderful spiritual traditions – and this from a former Baptist minister.  How’s that for openness?

In the second part of this two-part series, I’ll outline a few of the perspectives I hold today. I no longer call the things I believe “beliefs” because the word connotes too much rigidity and inflexibility to me. “Perspectives” feels a little softer, more pliable, as if there might actually be openness in me to a new way of understanding something. If either part of this two-part series is helpful to even one reader, for what more could I ask?

It is not my intention to stir a reaction, to debate with anyone, or to cast stones at a belief system or at those who may embrace it as I did once with much passion. I wish only to help those who have become disillusioned by a faith tradition or a belief system that no longer works for them. I wish only to help those who want to walk with God beyond the narrow path of understanding that they may have followed in their childhood and youth. My only desire is to show those who are open to it how they might embrace a faith, know God and themselves in a spiritually healthy fashion, as well as make room for those who hold to a different belief system or who may not believe in God at all. It is my hope to build bridges between people, religions and cultures. The Dalai Lama is right. “Until there is peace among the religions, there can be no peace in the world.

Both parts of this two-part series are taken from my book, The Enoch Factor, I will add only a little commentary on a few of the beliefs listed below. My commentary is wrapped in parenthesis.

• The Christian religion is the correct religion. That is to say, all other religions are wrong and the people who believe in them need to be converted to Christianity or face the dire consequences that await them in eternity — which means, of course, they will go to hell;

• Jesus is the Savior of the world, the only possible way to God. After all, he said himself, “I am the way … no one comes to the Father but through me” (John 14:6). (While there is an alternative way to understand these words of Jesus that I’ll discuss in Part Two, for most Christians this one is the deal breaker — the one non-negotiable). All other paths may lead to some kind of spiritual experience, but they do not lead one to God. If you want to go to heaven when you die, you’ll have to believe in Jesus;

• God’s word is in the Bible. God’s word is only found in the Bible. You should be suspect of anything that anyone else may call sacred scripture;

• Furthermore, the Bible is infallible (which means “without error”), at least in its “original manuscripts,” referring to the actual parchments on which the Biblical writers wrote their words. (Although many fundamentalist Christians do not know this, the fact is, no original manuscripts have ever been found. So, to argue something that no one can prove or disprove is hardly credible. Furthermore, the earliest manuscripts we do have date from the second century and are distinguished by the innumerable discrepancies between them);

• The family God has ordained is made up of one man and one woman. A few other arrangements may be permitted, but they are hardly preferred. Furthermore, God made them Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. Homosexuality is a sin against nature and an abomination to God. Any more questions?

• The Creation Story in Genesis is an actual account of how the universe was created by God in six literal days of 24-hour duration. Evolution is suspect and those who accept it typically become materialistic, even atheistic.

• Abortion is murder. It’s always murder. No exception. No debate. Next question;

• If America wishes to remain strong, it had better be on the side of Israel, no matter what. Israel is God’s chosen nation. Again, no exception. No debate. Next question;

• The Second Coming of Jesus could occur at any moment. (Never mind the fact that Jesus said his return — whatever that really means — would occur only when people least expect it. Since most fundamentalist Christians are expecting Jesus’ return at any moment, even praying for it, they are most likely unaware they are responsible for his delay);

• God is not finished with Israel. So the nation of Israel will play a pivotal role in a pre- or post-tribulation Rapture-of-the-church-view of the end of human history. (Many fundamentalist Christians believe in what’s known as the premillennial view of history, a few believe in what is known as the post-millennial view and, fewer still, an a-millennial, meaning “no-millennium.” It isn’t important to go into detail here about the meaning of these different views of history but, if you’re familiar with the Left Behind series of fictional books released a few years ago, you’ve met the most popular of these complicated apocryphal systems of thought. The series of novels themselves are based on the “pre-millennial” view of history, with its special devotion to the most suspect of all futuristic notions known as the “Rapture.” If you’re not familiar with this notion called the “Rapture,” you are not alone. If fundamentalist Christians knew where this fairytale about the future actually originated — which, of course, they do not — they would repudiate it immediately);

• Christians will go to heaven; everyone else will go to hell. Hell is real, a place with fire where disbelievers burn for an eternity;

• God is not associated with any political party (but, everyone knows He’s really a closet Republican. In fact, any God-fearing soul knows there’s no way she would ever be a Democrat. Oops, did I just refer to God with the feminine pronoun “she”? An obvious slip of the pen! While fundamentalist Christians know God is neither male nor female, they are typically quick to remind women which of the two God created first).

Of course, there are many other beliefs common to fundamentalist Christians, but these are a few of the more common ones. If you’re guessing that I’ve given up on most but not all of these, you’ve guessed correctly.

So, what do I believe? That’s the subject of Part Two.

The spiritual wisdom expressed below has not only been around for centuries but is available to anyone.  The key is to know it for yourself and this kind of knowingness is more than head stuff.  It is the kind of knowing that could only eer be fashioned in the crucible of your spiritual practice.  In other words, to live the life you really want means you must make the following wisdom your spiritual practice.  Daily.

1. Know your real purpose in life.  Leo Tolstoy said, “Without knowing what I am and why I’m here, life is impossible.”  Your purpose has nothing whatsoever to do with career or calling, your profession or position.  Virtually everyone looks for it in such things because our culture is wired this way.  We tell people that there’s some grand purpose that only they can fulfill and that their first task is to figure out what it is. Unfortunately, however, most people who believe this nonsense spend the greater part of their lives searching for this purpose but seldom finding it.  You showed up for one purpose—to know and to walk in oneness with the Divine, in self-unity and oneness with all that is.  I describe all of this at length in The Enoch Factor.
2. Question all of what you hear and most of what you think.  Why? Until you question what you’ve been taught or learned by osmosis, it cannot be yours—really yours.  Also, most of what we think is not accurate anyway, which is why Byron Katie counsels people in whatever situation they’re in or whatever the thoughts they might be having about the situation, to do “the work,” as she calls it. The “work” is a series of questions you should ask yourself: “Is what I’m thinking true?” “Can I be absolutely certain it’s true?” If you’re honest, you’ll admit to yourself at this point of self-inquiry that you cannot be absolutely certain about much of anything. Then, given that reality, there’s the question, “What do I feel or think, or how do I react, whenever I believe this thought is absolutely true?” And, finally, “Who would I be, or how would I feel, if I gave up this thought?” What Katie calls “the work” works. Euripides said, “Question everything; learn something; answer nothing.”
3. When Saint Paul said, “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 4:13-17), he was not suggesting that we kneel continually or lock ourselves in some synagogue, temple or church and recite prayers all day.  He’s talking about a way of living, a kind of meditative practice…what easterners would describe as “mindfulness.”  So, meditate at least twice as often as you medicate.  The former is foreign to most westerners; the latter isn’t.  Furthermore, most of us could use a whole lot more of the former and a lot less of the latter.  What’s the point of mediation?  Pema Chodron answers that best: “We sit in meditation, not to become good meditators, but to become more awake in our lives.”
4. “For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these: ‘It might have been’,” or so wrote the abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier.  In other words, Let go of your regrets.  When asked if they’d change anything were they to have the opportunity to live their lives over, those who say, “No, I would change nothing,” are lying. Everyone has regrets. And, most of us have many of them. Regrets are normal.  But, to carry them around like one would tote a backpack is not.  Think of regrets as Divine reminders of what’s needed now—some kind of action, as in first and foremost self-forgiveness.  Write the letter. Make the phone call. Instead of waiting on their apology, reach out to the person who offended you.  Take action and do it now.
5. Do unto yourself as you would have your self do unto you.” Slightly different twist on an old truth.  Jesus said, Judge not (Matt. 7:1).  Make no mistake. He’s not suggesting you never exercise discernment or make choices or even judgments about what’s right for you.  Instead, he calls for an end the incessant fault-finding, complaining, and finger-pointing that’s so characteristic of many interpersonal relationships.  You do to others what you do to yourself.  You do to yourself what you do to others. So, do unto yourself what you’d have your self do unto you. Try it and see what happens, both in your relationship to yourself and in your relationship to others.
6. There’s something else Jesus said, “Love your enemies” (Matt. 5:43-48), which means, have no enemies. The Buddha put it like this: “My enemy is really my friend.” These are radical teachings, which is why they’re almost universally ignored. To live like this, however, is transformational.  And, what is transformed is YOU.
7. When you have the choice of being right or being kind, choose kind. Can’t remember who said this but I’ve never forgotten it.  It’s the key to avoiding needless arguments and debates and the resulting division that too frequently occurs between people.  Words are like arrows. Once released, they can never be reclaimed. Their harm can be almost irreparable, too. So, choose to be kind.  Kindness is always a choice.
8. Know that there are no accidents.  Saint Paul said, “All things work together for your good…” (Rom. 8:28).  Know that everything in your life is not a coincidence but a Divine-cident.  This is why, in A Course in Miracles, the question is asked, “How would you live if you but knew that everything that happens to you is planned by One who has nothing but your best intest at heart?”  Or, to state it another way, as it is in The Enoch Factor, “All events in life, though they may seem coincidental or random, are actually conspiring together to bring you into unity with the Divine.”  The more you come to know this, the less you will resist what is.  Or, in the words of Pema Chodron, “Nothing you are experiencing disappears until you learn the lesson it was sent to teach you.” When you learn the lesson, the consequence of that kind of knowingness could only ever be tranquility and peace.
9. Think about death at least as often as you think about life.  Does that sound morbid?  If you deny, or simply disregard the reality of death—your death, it will.  Woody Allen once quipped, “I’d like to achieve immortality through not dying.”  Cute, but the fact is, death is your destiny—your only real destiny. So, work on knowing for yourself what Leonardo de Vinci said. “All my life I’ve thought I was learning how to live; now I realize I’ve really been learning how to die.”
10. Be For-Giving.  There are two ways to understand this. One is to be on the side of generosity—that is, to be for giving.  Why? It’s the secret of happiness. You will never meet a genuinely generous person who is, at one-and-the-same-time, an unhappy person.  The two realities cannot coexist in the same person. Miserable people are miserly people. The other way to understand the words, “Be for-giving,” is to be forgiving—that is, to practice the art of forgiveness.  What I’ve learned is that the deeper your experience of forgiveness, the higher your capacity to be forgiving.  If you cannot forgive, know that there’s something inside of you that you’ve never forgiven.

These are the secrets to living the life you’ve always wanted.  But again, they’re not really secrets; instead, simple wisdom to the pathway of living.  So, think of yourself, as Ernest Hemingway put it, “as an apprentice in a craft where you could never become a master.”  Life requires practice.  Daily.

In eastern religions, and to a lesser degree in the mystical traditions of Christianity, meditators use mantras to center themselves and so bring health and wholeness to the inner self (or, greater unity between the mind, body, and spirit).  Benedictine monks regularly use scripture in this fashion.  For example, they might recite in meditation over and over again the words, “The Lord is my shepherd” (from the 23rd Psalm).

In my own experience, I have made it an every-morning practice to meditate and recite the following mantras.  This is the first time, however, I’ve actually written them down. This was itself a wonderful discipline.

In many respects, a New Year’s Resolution is a kind of mantra.  But, like mantras, resolutions must be practiced daily if you’re serious about them becoming your way of living.  Which is why, my first mantra is…

1. I will practice meditation every day. This is no longer difficult.  But, in the early days of becoming a meditator, it was extremely difficult to shut down the mind with its propensity to chatter almost incessantly.  With persistence, however, and with time, my mind began to slowly shut down whenever I entered a state of meditation. Today, I would no more consider starting the day without first meditating than I would to go through a day without eating.  Meditation is to my innermost self what food and nourishment is to the outer self, the body.  Pema Chodron, the Buddhist monk, said, “We don’t sit in meditation to become good meditators; we sit in meditation to become more awake in our lives.”  It is in meditating on the following mantras that the miracle of inner transformation takes place. I become that which I imagine. Or, in the slightly altered words of R. W. Emerson, “The antecedent to every behavior is a mantra.” You are what you think about. So, practice meditating on the following and see what happens.

2. I will be one with all that is. Why? Because I am, in spite of the fact that the ego in me wants to regard itself as separate or, more accurately, distinct and different.  The way some spiritual teachers put it is, “I am that; you are that; all this is that; and, that’s all there is.”  What is meant by this is that, since we are all the same, it would be helpful to practice seeing yourself, not as separate from everyone and everything else, but as one-and-the-same.  It is amazing what this sort of mindset does to your relationship to yourself, to others, and to the environment.  You are much more awake, alert, and attentive to all things, as well as people, plants, and animals.  I used to love to hunt but I could no more hunt today, even as a sport, if I wanted to. I’m not saying this is the way it must be for all. But, for me, everything, as well as everyone, is becoming more and more sacred to me. I cannot help but feel the practice of meditation is changing my view of all things.

3. I will practice forgiveness, starting with myself. Recently, an obituary in the newspaper referred to the deceased as a person who “lived with no regrets.”  For me, however, I could not imagine such a life.  I have many regrets.  Today, I’m 55, I regret not having taken better care of my health.  I wish I had quit smoking sooner.  Exercising longer. Eating healthier.  Spending more time, or better quality time and attention with my children.  I have other regrets that are too personal to share with you or anyone else.  Sometimes, the regrets become overwhelming.  So, I have to practice the art of forgiving myself.  What you do to yourself, you do to others.  What you do to others, you will also do to yourself.  These two sentences alone are enough to meditate upon this entire day.  If you cannot forgive others, let that be a clue there’s something in you that you haven’t forgiven.  Mark Twain once said, “Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet shed on the heel that crushed it.” Words have never been more beautiful.

4. I will be kind, even when the impulse is to be right. In the past, I have found myself in frequent arguments with my spouse or someone at work.  It’s not the problem today that it used to be, fortunately.  And, I think it has something to do with the practice of kindness, as well as the practice of meditation.  I now realize, for example, when I’ve been in an argument in the past, it was nothing more than the ego in me feeling under threat and so lashing out or defending its illusory position or point of view. None of this is necessary and none of this is helpful. So, as someone once framed it, “If you have a choice of being right or being kind, practice choosing kind.”

5. I will judge or criticize no one, not even myself. So much of my unhappiness in the past has been the constant self-judgment, second-guessing that went on and on in my mind, almost without ever stopping.  Again, you only ever do to others what you frequently do to yourself.  What this means is this: whenever I meet a person who is constantly judging others or situations or criticizing others and complaining about how things are, I know I am meeting a person who has very little regard for him-or herself.  Knowing this helps me to be more understanding and less judgmental myself.  For me, I’ve learned that to overcome the habit of judgment-making, I have to practice awareness-enhancing.  That is, when I catch myself judging others or some situation, I simply acknowledge the judgment in me.  That’s enough.  In the early days of my spiritual practice, however, I would catch myself judging others and then turn that judgment in upon myself.  That never helped much.  Then, it wasn’t two  person or situation I was judging, but two – the person or situation creating the upset in me and the self-judgment for being judgmental.  Pretty insane way to live, if you ask me.  Don’t catch yourself judging others and then judge yourself by saying, “You idiot, there you go again judging others.”  Instead, just observe the judgment in yourself. The observation alone is enough to cause it to diminish and, eventually, to disappear.

6.  I will resist nothing. Practice the art of acceptance.  The Buddha reminded us, “All suffering is resistance.”  In other words, whenever you feel discontent within, or unhappiness, or just an underlying feeling of unease, meditate and go within.  There is something in you, most likely, resisting something outside of you – some circumstance, situation, person, and so forth.  See if you can identify what it is.  Then, ask yourself, “Is there anything I can do to change this situation or make it better?” If there isn’t, then practice acceptance.  It takes practice but, if you can do nothing to change the situation, or remove yourself from whatever it is that is causing the inner upset, then acceptance is the only way to move beyond the suffering.

7. I will practice presence. This is the secret to worry-free living.  Learning to be present–truly present–in this moment is the greatest gift you could ever give yourself.  I saw a woman interview recently on television.  She has a rare form of cancer and her prognosis is not good (but, of course, this is a judgment I am making – how do I know what is a good or bad prognosis?).  She has elected not to undergo additional treatment because the medical people are telling her that the cancer will eventually take her life in spite of their efforts to the contrary.  In response, she said, “If I have learned anything from this illness, it is to treasure each moment of life–in other words, life for me is more like brief snapshots of the present moment and I take great pleasure in each snapshot, studying it carefully and living it fully.”  I was amazed as I listened to her.  And, then, it occurred to me, “But, does it take going through a life-threatening illness to wake up to this present moment?”  It need not.  When you learn to live in the present, there is no worry or anxiety.  It disappears.  Worry is a thought with emotional and physical consequences.  It’s the price your emotions and body pay for thinking thoughts about the past you cannot change and the future that does not exist.  The past is over. The future, whenever it does materialize, will materialize only as this present moment.  So, live in this breath.

8.  I will think about death every day. This may seem the strangest of mantras.  But, really, it isn’t.  Death is not the opposite of life; it is the opposite of birth.  Which means, just as you were born, you will die.  All the great spiritual masters throughout history and in every tradition have taught us to contemplate death.  It is only morbid to those who deny it is their REAL destiny.  You were born to die.  Death is not the consequence of the first couple’s screw-up in the Garden of Eden.  It wasn’t God’s punishment on their, or your, wrongdoing.  God no more intended for you to live forever on this plane of existence than she did any of the other things or persons in creation.  Life is preparation for death and whatever may be beyond it. So, think about death.  It’ll do two things: For one, it’ll make how you live your life more meaningful; and, two, it’ll make the way you face death less fearful. Leonardo de Vinci said, “All my life I’ve thought I was learning how to live; now I see I’ve really been learning how to die.”

9.  I will look for the synchronous events of life. The late E. Kubler-Ross, who gave us the wonderful psychological insights into the “stages of grief,” said just before her death, “There are no mistakes. All of life is a blessing given to us to learn from.”  Carl Jung coined the word “synchronicity,” to refer to those “acausal connecting realities.”  In other words, Saint Paul said, “All things work together for good to those who those God” (Rom. 8:28).  Imagine the difference it would make to your daily life and happiness if you viewed everything that happens, not as a conspiracy out to steal your joy, but as “planned by One who has your best interest at heart” (A Course in Miracles).  Look for the Divine in everything and everyone.  When you do, then you can do the following…

10. I will be thankful for everything. Gratitude, as I’ve written about extensively in The Giving Myths: Giving then Getting the Life You’ve Always Wanted, makes you generous and generosity is not something God wants from you, it’s something God wants for you.  Make it your practice to give every person you meet a gift.  Could be as simple as a smile, a kind word, a handshake or greeting that is warm and personable.  I try to live my life in such a way so as to view every person and situation that crosses the path of my daily journey as no accident.  So, whenever someone asks me for a dollar, I try to give them one, or two, or whatever I have available. I remember one day my daughter objecting, “But, Dad, how do you know that man won’t go buy drugs with it?”  I responded, “I don’t.  He might.  That’s the risk I’m willing to take to live from a place of thankfulness and generosity.  If I am going to err, I wish to err on the side of grace.”

Make these your mantras, or come up with your own.  Then, meditate.  In fact, if you have only one resolution this New Year’s, make a resolution to meditate every day.  Your mantras will manifest on their own and in their own good time.  Blessed journey.

I wasn’t expecting much.  I got to the first scene, however–the one where the author, Elizabeth Gilbert, cries out to God in prayer–and I was hooked. In a marriage that isn’t working, Gilbert is an emotional train wreck waiting to happen. Since her life makes no sense to her whatsoever, she does what many of us have done when we can’t think of what else to do–she prays.

“Hello, God.  How are you? I’m Liz. It’s nice to meet you…I’m sorry to bother you so late at night…but I’m in serious trouble…I’m not an expert at praying, as you know. But can you please help me?…I don’t know what to do. Please tell me what to do.”

Who hasn’t prayed this prayer?

It’s appeal is in its familiarity. But, what hooked me most is the fact that this first prayer, or cry, to God, isn’t Gilbert’s last, as it is with many in circumstances equally as troubling. Rather, it is the first of many prayers she offers to God–prayers that evolve into an on-going conversation in a year-long journey through Italy, India, and Indonesia.  Each prayer is but the next step she takes in the search for herself and a life that matters.  As she journeys and converses, the consequence is self-discovery, self-acceptance, and an awareness of the Sacred presence.

Not a bad spiritual practice, if you ask me.

If a spiritual life is really about learning to accept yourself, learning to live compassionately, and becoming so aware of the Sacred presence within you that you converse with this Presence the way two friends would sharing a fine wine in a corner cafe, then Eat, Pray, Love could be a guide to any seeker after a sacred life.

Gilbert prays the way Jesus prayed.  The Buddha, too.

So, what kind of praying is this?

Silence. Stillness. Some call it meditation — the kind of praying Jesus instructed his followers to practice (Matt. 6:6).  It’s also the only kind of praying we ever see Jesus doing (Matt. 14:23; 26:36ff).  Yet, strangely, go into almost any church, synagogue, or temple today and you’ll hear plenty of public prayers (in spite of Jesus’ discouragement against it – Matt. 5:5); but, little or no provision for silence, stillness, or meditation. Most worship is distinguished by its chaos — loud music, continuous chatter, lots of substance but little sustenance.

With very few exceptions, religious leaders almost universally overlook this kind of prayer and it is likely because they know little about it themselves. It is this kind of praying, however–and perhaps only this kind of praying–that results in self-awareness and Divine consciousness. The Buddha said, “He who meditates attentively will attain abundant joy.”

Jesus said, “The Kingdom of God is within you” (Lk.10:27). If that’s true, then to know yourself, as well as to know God, you must make it your spiritual practice to go within. The rabbis say, “God has but one tabernacle–the heart.” It is there, in the secret place (what Jesus likened to a “room” – Matt. 6:6) that you practice slowing down the mind, (that virtual stream of thought-making) and to relax and rest in the Sacred presence.  The psalmist put it like this, “Be still and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10).

“Is it easy to learn to pray this way?”

Ask Liz. If you make this your spiritual practice however, the discoveries will mirror those made by Elizabeth Gilbert and will be equally remarkable.

Then, if you ever visit Italy, India, or Indonesia, you’ll do so for different reasons.

Dr. Steve McSwain is the author of The Enoch Factor: The Sacred Art of Knowing God (2010, Smyth & Hewlys). For more information, please visit www.stevemcswain.com.

For an interview or to receive a review copy, contact Tolly Moseley at Tolly@prbythebook.com or (512) 501-4399 x708. Visit us at www.prbythebook.com or www.twitter.com/prbythebook

You’d have thought I just made off with the Mona Lisa from the Louvre.

I promised to protect it, to handle it with as much care as a paleographer would an ancient text—no bending of the edges, no underlining, circling, or writing in the margins—things I typically do with my own books.

Negotiations failed, however. “Put it back,” she ordered, “and get your own.”

So, I did. Wasn’t expecting much, either. “What could Eat, Pray, Love contain,” I asked myself, “that would cause her to guard it like it was the Holy Grail?”

I barely arrived at the first scene, however–the one where Gilbert is sleepless, sprawled across a cold bathroom floor at 2AM–and I was hooked. In a failed marriage, she cries out to God, the first of many conversations the author, Elizabeth Gilbert, has with God.  From there, she acts as a guide on a journey the two of you take through Italy, then India and Indonesia, in search of her soul, in search of a life that matters. There’s no pretense with Gilbert, which is why I like her. You’re invited to peer into her soul, and your own as well.

Sitting in a corner cafe; sipping the finest wine made of the Sangiovese grape; sharing secrets and disappointments, readers feel like they’re best friends with Gilbert. That’s because it’s easy to believe in her. When she describes her marital failings, not those of her spouse, she’s brutally transparent. When she talks about her love affair with David, even before her own divorce is final, she hides nothing. It is this honesty that makes what she says about faith, about God, just as believable.

In an era of religious dishonesty, corruption, and cover-up, where the morning news is as likely to reveal the latest religious scandal as it does the political or economic ones, it is understandable why westerners are weary of the dishonesty in much of organized religion today.

Weary enough to leave, that is. According to the American Religious Survey, thirty-four million Americans  want nothing to do with religion, a system that has repeatedly demonstrated a far greater interest in saving itself than in saving the world.

Still, there are many spiritual seekers. All they really want is an uncomplicated relationship with Transcendence. What you call God is irrelevant to them. So are the doctrines and distinctions that divide instead of unite people.

What’s most amazing is that religious leaders still don’t get it. Instead of softening their rhetoric, their endless dogmas, doctrines, and distinctions, they become more fixed, rigid, separated and exclusivist. Meanwhile, scores are leaving this insanity, perhaps to protect what little remains.  In exchange, they read Eat, Pray, Love, where insanity meets Sanity, where respect and inclusiveness are actually practiced, where they can relax, take off their shoes, enjoy themselves, others, and God.

That’s why this book, now a major motion picture, is so popular. In the end, it matters not whose religion is right, especially if it doesn’t guide you to live in this world, or with yourself, or help you to get along with others.

It is away from this kind of religious madness that seekers of the Sacred are walking.  Today, their paths are taking them toward something real, toward that which connects them to others and to God, and away from the labels and differences that have divided people for eons.  To many, Gilbert and writers like her have become unique spiritual gurus on this path toward what I think of as “the sacred art of knowing God.”

Jesus said, “The way to life is narrow…and few there will be who find it.” If that’s true, Eat, Pray, Love is the quintessential promise that seekers of the Sacred will find the narrow way–even though it’s off the beaten path.

How else would you explain the phenomenal success of Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now, Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love (soon a major motion picture), or the writings of the Dalai Lama, Deepak Chopra, or others like them? Just because people are fed up with organized religion doesn’t mean their appetite for spiritual things has been swallowed up, too.

I know because I was one of these millions who dropped out of active involvement in organized religion.  But, unlike the majority of the other 33,999,999 dropouts, I was a religious leader when I did.

I grew up in the church, the son of a Southern Baptist minister.  When I graduated from college, I went to seminary and, after several years of study, I began my career as a professional minister.  It wasn’t long however, before I discovered the church was more lost than the world it was trying to save.

Go into many churches today and, instead of finding an institution interested in saving the world, what you may find is an institution vastly more interested in saving itself.  For example, people go to church to find God.  Instead of finding God, however, followers are often saddled with a catalogue of “do’s” and “don’ts” as onerous as the US tax code.  They are told what to think, how to believe, as well as how they’re supposed to live.

In many places, the church is still the most segregated place in America.  Where I grew up, some forty or so years ago, many of my neighbors attended the Baptist church my father served. That is, if they were white Baptists; the black Baptists had a church of their own. Or, they attended one of the other three, mostly segregated churches that occupied one of the four-corners of Main Street.  Today, however, your neighbor is just as likely to be black as white, or Muslim as Christian.  Maybe people are leaving  the church because they’d prefer to live in the real world—the de-segregated one.

Then, there are those church leaders who seem obsessed with having the biggest church, the largest crowds and the most expensive campuses.   While 40,000,000 people died of starvation in the last decade, churches spent $10,000,000,000 (that’s ten billion) on campuses.

Perhaps some churchgoers departed because they’d rather their charity actually make a difference in the world.

If you went to church looking for relief from the stress and burdens of living, you might have found more of the same, only dressed as beliefs and dogmas, rules and expectations  Then, there’s the debating, disagreement, and division that goes on between churches, as well as between people in the same church. I call it the “We’re right! You’re Wrong!” syndrome.  Each group insisting their beliefs are right which, by implication means, everyone else’s beliefs are wrong.  “We’re in; you’re out!” “We’re the chosen ones; you’re not!”  Maybe those who came looking for some sanity in life are leaving the church to preserve what little remains.

What about the seemingly endless clergy scandals? It may be several years yet, before we know the full impact of this demonic debacle.  I suspect scores of people are just plain fed up with an institution that “would condemn gays and lesbians for coming out of their closets,” as someone characterized it, “while hiding clergy pedophiles in its own.”

Some fifteen or so years ago, I, like millions of others, dropped out of active involvement in the church.  Soon thereafter, I began wondering where to go to find God.   For a few years, I went nowhere.  I just wandered around in a kind of spiritual wilderness.  Then, one Sunday afternoon, completely unexpected as well as outside the church, I had a deeply profound spiritual awakening. I even describe it in my book, The Enoch Factor.

Among the many realizations to which I awakened, was this:“You don’t have to go to church to know God.”  For reasons too obvious to mention, this isn’t the kind of message the church, or any religion, wants spread around.  But, it’s true nonetheless.  There is no religion, not even the Christian religion, holding the title deed to God.  God’s grace is not limited to a select few.  The moment any religion believes it is, you can be sure that religion knows nothing of God.

If there is anything Jesus, and the Buddha, made abundantly clear it is that the Wind blows where it wills.  You can hear it, see its effects, as well as feel its power, but you could never contain it.  In other words, the moment I stopped trying to find God, God found me.  I love the way Deepak Chopra once framed it. “God is not difficult to find; God is impossible to ignore.”

Even the title to this article–Finding God after Religion—seems to imply there’s something you must “do” to know God.  But, the real truth is this: there is nothing you need to do to know God. You know God already.  The mistake virtually all religions make, including Christianity, is to confuse beliefs for faith and, as a consequence, condition people to think there are things they must do, duties they must perform, etc., for God to be pleased and her presence to be known.

Finding God after religion? Remember the following:  In eastern thought, there’s something called “the law of least effort,” or “do less and accomplish more.”  If you will give up the “doing,” and, instead, just enjoy “being” I think you’ll make a great discovery.  The psalmist said, “Be still and know…”  In my own experience, I have found when I’m present (and that’s my spiritual practice) I’m immediately in Presence, the real and sacred sanctuary of God.

What more would you want?  What more would religion ever give you?