The Center for contemplative practice
A Lay Cistercian Looks at Spiritual Reality
IT IS A WASTE OF GOOD TIME TO PROVE THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
I never know what will present for my examination and reflection during my Lectio Divina. (Philippians 2:5). Today, I am sitting in the bathtub (that is how people who are 81.7 can take a bath), and the thought of how ridiculous it is to try to prove the existence of God popped into my mind. God doesn’t need proof. God is. I don’t need to justify God to anyone but myself. In fact, for me to argue the existence of God (talking at my opponent and not listening to what they say) is impossible. St. Thomas Aquinas seems to agree with me. I have neither the capability (the tools to measure pure energy) nor the capacity to understand it if I indeed would ever be in a position to know what I am observing.
What I can and do do (I know, I like the sound of it) is to try with all the tools I have and discover what it means to be fully human and what the end product of my intelligent progression is. In short, I just concentrate on myself and how I can decipher The Divine Equation with the life choices I have made. The Divine Equation, for those who don’t follow my adventurous thinking, is my attempt at discovering who I am meant to be as a human, using all of my capability and capacity. I call it Divine because I conjecture that the questions and the answers come from a source outside ourselves. I liken my quest for The Divine Equation to that of a theoretical mathematician or physicist. Six progressive postulates need to be solved to complete the equation. Here are my six postulates that must be solved with the correct answer to achieve resonance and move to the next one.
- What is the purpose of life?
- What is the purpose of my life within that purpose of life?
- What does reality look like?
- How does it all fit together?
- How do I love fiercely?
- You know you are going to die; now what?
I received these six postulates in various Lectio Divina sessions during the past eight years. I wrote several books about these postulates and what I have discovered on Amazon.com. Again, I don’t need to prove these postulates to anyone, but I do share them with the understanding that you draw your own conclusions (which you would do anyway).
I wrote a book entitled, The Divine Equation, as I mentioned. I have not solved The Divine Equation, as much as I think I have answered them correctly, giving my life experiences and knowledge. The search for a more profound truth is always ongoing, which is one of the reasons I applied to join the Lay Cistercians of Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Monastery (Trappist) and follow Trappist practices and charisms, I am not a monk, but I follow the Rule of St. Benedict as interpreted by Cistercian (Trappist) covenants and constitutions. http://www.trappist.net
Humans have reason and the ability to choose what they think is good for them. These two characteristics of humans over animals are one reason I see humanity evolving from its collective DNA of animality to something much grander. It is why some humans of the species are despicable, and some are saints inspiring in us the noblest sentiments of what humanity could be.
My thoughts have led me to look for a range of humanity from being more like animals to more like what are species was intended to be. Here are some ideas about those three levels of being human.
| THE ANIMAL SELF: The dominance of our Animal Self, and We don’t even know it. | THE RATIONAL SELF WHO CAN CHOOSE WHAT IS GOOD OR BAD: Choice to be something more than our worst behaviors. | THE SPIRITUAL SELF DENIES SELF TO FOLLOW CHRIST. The choice of putting to the death your animal self and abandoning the allurements of the World to gain the fullness of what being human means now and in the life to come. |
| Physical Universe | Physical and Mental Universes | Physical, Mental, and Spiritual Universes |
| The World of Emotions | The World, the mind, and the heart | The Spirit is the fulfillment of the mind and heart. “Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.” |
| Humans are not aware of good or evil and act their animal nature | Humans are aware of their human nature and enact societal or tribal laws to keep from killing each other | Humans are aware that their human nature has another step to make them adopted sons and daughters of the Father. |
| Birth of the physical body | Birth of the awareness of what is good or evil | Birth of the Spirit |
| Natural Law | Human interpretation of Natural Law. Good societies have good laws, but evil societies make bad laws. | The Church Universal safeguards God’s interpretation of the Natural Law. |
| Animal instincts of survival, and power, without any thought of morality. | Human awareness that there must be ways to regulate behavior that protect both society and individuals | Awareness that those who choose have a citizenship that transcends living in the World (dual citizenship) |
| More animality as a human than rationality | Intelligent progression toward more civility and awareness of respect for others | The Law of loving others as Christ loved us. |
| Pleasure and pleasing human emotions are primary. Doing what is easy. | I am postponing pleasure for future gain, suffering discomfort but doing what is right sometimes versus what is easy. | I am dying to my false self so that I might be fully human and do what God thinks is right. |
| I am choosing what is good for me. | I am choosing what is good for me and will enable others to choose what is good for them. | I am choosing what is good for me regarding my perception of The Christ Principle. |
| Nobody tells me what to do. | My choice is informed by what others tell us is good or bad. | My choice is informed by Faith and influenced by reason. |
| The rule of hatred, fear, the dominance of others, lust, jealousy, orgiastic sex (Erich Fromm), murder, | The morality of the moment and what society or factions are in it have current sway. | The rule of preferring nothing to the love of Christ is my center, and maintaining it consumes all of my time until I die. |
| I never grow past being human at the lowest level of humanity. | I want to be more than all the false prophets and useless promises of what it means to be human, but I am not sure what to put at my center. | I can grow to what my humanity intended by intelligent progression. Even if there is no God as I was taught (which is not my position), I have led a life at the whole level of what it means to be a human. |
| I don’t know that I am even in this condition of animality. My reason has accepted assumptions that cause me to be narcissistic in my approach to the World. | I try to love those that love me and keep myself from ending up as totally animal. I open myself to the love of others and being happy with who I am. | I try to die to my animal self and convert my rational self to become more like the mind of Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5) |
| Life is what I can grab from it and covet. | I want to be all I can and help others do the same. | I choose a power outside of me that is the way, the truth, and the life. |
| I live in two universes (physical and mental). | I live in two universes, The World, and will spend whatever time I have | I live in three universes (physical, mental, and spiritual), but one reality. I am a citizen of the World (my base) and also a citizen of the kingdom of heaven by Faith and Belief. |
| We live, love, get what we can take from life, then die. | We aspire to be someone who loves others, treasures family, and makes the World a better place, then we die. | We only want to have in us the mind of Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5) to live in the presence of Christ while we live. The purpose of life is to love God with our whole heart, mind, and self; to love our neighbor as ourselves. (Deuteronomy 6:5 and Matthew 22:37) |
| I covet my free choice and will not give it to anyone. | I choose to use my freedom to choose to help myself but also to help others. | I give my choice as a gift to God and exclaim: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” |
| Love is fulfilling my instinct for sexual pleasure and procreation. | Love is sharing who I am with who you are. | Love is. I define the Art of Love by practicing authentic love each day. Love is wanting to be in the presence of the real presence of Christ in Eucharist and Eucharistic Adoration and just wait. |
| Peace means I am calm. | Peace means the absence of conflict. | Peace means the presence of love. |
LEARNING POINTS
- All of these categories comprise what it means to be human. There are levels of intelligent progression to being human depending on the choice each of us makes and how we deal with its implications.
- In terms of geographic time, humans transitioned from full animality to preliminary humanity very recently.
- Intelligent progression means my race is evolving in its collective maturity.
- Within that river of progress, I have a unique chance to discover what it means to be fully human as intended by my species.
- My reason and freedom to choose are key to my discovering what is good for me or bad for me. I learn from my mistakes.
- By using The Christ Principle as a key to unlock the Divine Equation, I can approach what it means to be fully human before I die.
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