THE THREE LANGUAGES I USE TO SIT NEXT TO GOD AND THRIVE

To solve the Divine Equation correctly, I must use the correct language. This language does not come from human nature because the questions and their correct answers originate from pure knowledge (beyond our pay grade). To solve anything about God, we must use the language of God to have it makes sense. This language is the opposite of what the World thinks will allow us to become fully human. It originates within the Godhead and is translated and transmitted through The Christ Principle. Philippians 2:5. There are three approaches to THE TRUTH, which I use, depending on the focus of my inquiry. All three of these are good and have unique characteristics. In my toolbox, there are hammers, screwdrivers, and wrenches. All valid by themselves but together for how I approach The Divine Equation to seek how all reality fits together. These three languages I use to listen to God “with the ear of my heart” are:

• SCIENTIFIC APPROACH TO REALITY
• THE ACCUMULATED LIFE EXPERIENCES AND LESSONS LEARNED FROM MY LIFE OF TRIAL AND ERROR
• THE CHRIST PRINCIPLE.

The problem comes when we single out one of these languages to exclude the others. In my search for the Sacred within (contemplation) and without (service) me, I have found that these three languages must be used in order, the deepest part of reality being the final one because it contradicts reason and demands Faith informed by reason to access it. Not everyone can get there. Each person may use only one, two, or three languages due to their accumulated life experiences and the mini languages they learned to solve the six questions each of us must answer about our short life span.

As my gaze about what is a reality today focuses on the notion of “assumicide,” I see layers of mental constructs with each question I ponder and ask the question, “What are the assumptions behind that statement.” “Assumicide” is a term I coined many years ago to describe how it is possible for three people to all say the word “God” and have different views. I wrote a book about it at the time. In my thinking, “Assumicide” is NOT considering that all human thoughts, all reasoning, and free will, are based on the assumptions held by that individual. These assumptions may or may not be actually factual or accurate.

Typically, Humans hold that anyone is free to choose any idea or thought they want. They have the right to hold anything, despite how despicable. This does not mean that whatever you or I think is right, just because we can choose our destiny. Each of our choices has consequences. Over time, we learn what is right and what is wrong. If we choose something terrible, we can change it until we die and make it new or better. The default in all of this is our humanity, as we morphed from animality to rationality. We have emotions, traits, DNA, learned behaviors, and our history of choices (good and poor) that make up who we are. We choose based on the fulfillment of who we are, our assumptions about what is good for us, and the purpose of life. No one can choose something for us. However, we can give others our choice and assimilate their ideas as our own. A complex animal is a human being.

Assumptions underly all of our cognitive thinking and inform our choices. I offer three different types of thinking (you may know of more) based on my notion of The Rule of Threes: there is one reality that has three separate and distinct universes. These are consecutive to our human senses but have different characteristics and measures.

Belief depends upon the assumptions you select as accurate. Assumptions depend upon those core principles on which you base your belief. This is why two Methodist people can hold slightly different views of their Faith while being faithful to their core confession. If you know the core principles and your assumptions about them or why you believe what you do, you will know what you can and cannot change without losing your Methodist identity. Two people in a marriage can hold different a set of faith assumptions and have their marriage survive, even flourish. Here’s how. This plain-speaking book helps you identify the assumptions underlying your thinking. In this way, you can know what the core of your belief is and what is negotiable. This book is a quick read and perfect for discussion starters in your adult learning group. Some themes are: Ten Assumptions About Assumptions What Is the Basis for What You Believe? The World Runs on Assumptions How to Stop Assumicide How to Play the Assumption Game How to Start an Adult Learning Program In business, relationships, religion, and politics, committing assumicide can lead to polarizing outcomes. Learn how to stop assumicide and think creatively without destroying your core beliefs.

Here are three ways of thinking from which you might make your assumptions. I use all three ways to look at reality and make conclusions.

THE SCIENTIFIC APPROACH TO REALITY: Assumptions are those mental consequences of reality that are based on reasoning, logic, plus specific theories contained in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and all scientific inquiry. For my hypotheses, scientific inquiry is a language with assumptions used by many, but not all, of its users. Our collective human reasoning came up with this way of thinking only recently. I use scientific thinking, not rigorous proofs, but rather an approach that says physical reality has laws against which hypotheses are tested, and results are indicated. This is the language of the physical universe, and our tools and newly developed computer-generated assistance help us probe what and why something is.

In the physical universe, that of matter, time, energy, space, and life forms on earth, those who use this way of thinking make assumptions that may or may not be visible to those who understand the language. If I ask someone who uses this way of thinking what reality looks like, I will get various answers from various people, all of them correct to the individual. In a bit, I will give examples of each way of thinking by fictionalizing a conversation between three people, one of whom uses scientific inquiry.

ASSUMPTIONS: Here are some of my assumptions about scientific thinking.

• Scientific thinking is valid and must be used and encouraged as a way of thinking that looks at physical reality.
• Scientific thinking uses various languages (mathematics, physics, chemistry, logic) to look at reality.
• Scientific thinking, in my view, does not look at all of reality but only the physical and mental universe.
• Scientific thinking does not have the mental energy to open the mind to the possibility of the manifest ability of unseen yet existing reality.
• Scientific thinking is open to developing new hypotheses based on new data. It is not a closed system but the most open of systems to look at visible reality.
• Scientific thinking does not do well in looking at the invisible realm of emotions, values, and meaning.
• Scientific thinking is superb at using the mental universe with the advances afforded by human reasoning aided by computer capability to view the physical universe of matter.

THE ACCUMULATED LIFE EXPERIENCES AND LESSONS LEARNED FROM MY LIFE OF TRIAL AND ERROR: This second way of looking at reality is what I usually use in my thinking. Again, I am using my assumptions to explain how I make decisions and observations about reality. These are not your assumptions. If I share my rationale for using this method, you may disagree with me but at least know from where I am trending. Suppose the first way of viewing reality is scientific inquiry. In that case, this second way does not use scientific language to describe life but rather logic, observation, assimilation of ideas and assumptions about what is or is not good, and historical track records. The language of this second way is using reason to formulate assumptions which in turn are the basis for hypotheses and conjecture.

Mental constructs and logical thinking can be the collective knowledge and conclusions about what life is all about; it is also about how I, as an individual, take the knowledge, choices, and lessons learned about what is good for me or wrong and make assumptions about the purpose of life. I have the free will to choose what path I want to take in life. I may be influenced by parents, social mores, religious mores, college, and wins and losses in the consequences of my choices, but they are my choices. My assumptions are the result of my cumulative experiences. I am not you; you are not me; God is not us; we certainly are not God.

Based on my being human in the physical universe, I live in the mental universe. Each individual has the same ability to reason and make choices. What differentiates us is the choices we make. For example, if I am either Democrat or Republican, I assume that my understanding of either party’s platforms is the totality of who I am. This big ball of experience is my humanity. What makes it good or bad comes from inside or outside me. I am free to choose what key I want to measure myself against to determine if I have value or not. I have a reason for the reason that I can choose whatever key I want to place at my center. No one can tell me what to do or place me at my center. My center is not a one-time choice, but I need to keep it focused or lose it daily. This center, a whole bunch more conditions, play into what makes me human.

MY ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT MENTAL CONSTRUCTS AND LOGIC:

• The mental universe contains only humans with human intelligence and the ability to choose what they think is good for them.
• God intervenes in human affairs not to try to control us but to give us the ability to have options that will not damage our fulfillment as a human as nature intended.
• I give God the gift of my humanity to die to my old self so that I might fulfill the destiny my nature intended.
• I place God as my one center (I call this The Christ Principle) because my reason tells me I don’t have the power to lift myself up to the next level of my evolution, that of adoption by God as heir to the spiritual universe.
• There is the next step to my human evolution, which requires me to deny my humanity (abandonment) and embrace the opposite of all that my corruptible human natures cling to as fulfilling my purpose. This is the spiritual universe. It does not make sense to the mental universe by itself until I use the Christ Principle as the sign of contradiction and unlock that which is blocking my humanity from realizing its full potential. That which makes no sense at all becomes the measurement to move beyond mere humanity towards our destiny, to “know, love, and serve God in this world, and be happy together in the next.” (Baltimore Catechism, Question 6) Using these assumptions about mental reality, I step out before my reasoning and experience and take a step into the murky and somewhat unknown future.
• Science and the mental constructs around which we find meaning are the springboards to entertaining the idea that there is an additional step in evolution, one revolutionary and requiring humans to give up their humanity to possess the fullness of what it means to be human.
• Scientific reasoning, by itself, does not possess the energy to lift human nature up to the next level of its evolution, one that uses the opposite of what it can see and prove. The invisible parts of life are essential to discovering who I am as an individual and the last steps in the evolution of my race. It takes Faith (God energy) informed by reason (my energy as an individual human–belief) to breach what cannot be seen by the eye but experienced by Love in the heart.

THE CHRIST PRINCIPLE:

I exist because of a physical act by my parents some eighty-two years ago. I am born into space and time with “a particular set of skills” (the ability to reason and the freedom to choose my destiny). I assimilate experiences and accumulate what I think is good for me. I am the sum of my choices and their consequences. I can reflect on these changes and, at any time, correct them to what I think should be the purpose of what it means to be human. I know there is intelligence that overshadows all reality and still keeps it moving forward with its DNA fingerprints all over it. I know that I must discover the six postulates of what it means to be fully human. They are:

• What is the purpose of life?
• What is my purpose within that purpose?
• 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?

Both these questions and their correct answers come from outside my life experiences. When I apply different centers to try to unlock what I describe as The Divine Equation and discover what it means to be fully human as nature intended, not all fit nor do any but one correct key has the power to transform me from rationality to spirituality, just as I have been transformed from animality to rationality at birth. I have human reasoning and the freedom to choose what to place at my center. Over a lifetime of trial and error, of replacing centers of lust, jealousy, power, arrogance, pride, control, money, fame, adulation, and even myself as my center, the choice I have made is The Christ Center. To do that, I have had to die to my human self as it presents itself to me, good as that is, to move to the next level of my evolution. This is not an evolution of the species but an intelligent progression of me and what I have done with my eighty-two years (so far) to solve The Divine Equation. This Equation does not tell me who God is but what God has to say about who I am as an adopted son of the Father through Baptism and forgiveness of my constant attempts to replace The Christ Principle with the Golden Calf of myself.

ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT THE CHRIST PRINCIPLE

• Suppose the physical universe houses matter and physical energy and use the Laws of Nature to police itself. In that case, the mental universe is one where only humans have reason and the power to say YES or NO to nature, logic, and any value system presented to them.
• This mental universe is where humans have the capacity and capability to look at the physical universe they inhabit and ask the Interrogatories (Who, What, Why, When, How, and So What) and make conclusions based on their experiences.
• The mental universe is one in which individuals can change their minds if new information emerges. Humans alone can make all things new.
• As a language to solve The Divine Equation, The Christ Principle is the only way, which is true, leading to a life that has the power to lift humans to the next level of their evolution, to be adopted sons and daughters of the Father.

This third way that I look at spiritual reality as a Lay Cistercian comes from a power beyond what I possess or even outside my lifetime experiences, which is why I should pay attention to it. Is this way of thinking correct? Correct against what other center? My Lay Cistercian experiences have taught me HOW to access the Holy Spirit and HOW to sit in the presence of pure energy and wait for my humanity to catch up to what the Holy Spirit is trying to tell me. I gain a drop of two, but that is enough for a hundred lifetimes. I know there is a destiny called The Christ Principle that I alone must choose to enter, but the power to do that is outside of myself and by invitation only (Faith). I must die to my humanity, and everything I know is accurate (abandonment), to be able to enter another universe, one that is the opposite of my experiences. This is a leap of Faith, one that is a choice. My choice (Belief) is to give The Christ Principle (the way, the truth, and the life) my human ability to reason and my freedom to choose, the only aspect of my life that is voluntary and totally dependent upon Love to give away my essence of what it means to be human. In doing so, I lose everything; as Saint Paul writes in Philippians 3:

7[But] whatever gains I had, these I have come to consider a loss^* because of Christ.^g

8More than that, I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ

9and be found in him, not having any righteousness of my own based on the law but that which comes through Faith in Christ,^h the righteousness from God, depending on Faith

10to know him and the power of his resurrection and [the] sharing of his sufferings by being conformed to his death,ⁱ

11if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.^j

Forward in Christ.^*

12^k It is not that I have already taken hold of it or have already attained perfect maturity,^* but I continue my pursuit in hope that I may possess it, since I have indeed been taken possession of by Christ [Jesus].

13Brothers, I for my part do not consider myself to have taken possession. Just one thing: forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead,

14I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus.^l

15Let us, then, who are “perfectly mature” adopt this attitude. And if you have a different attitude, this too God will reveal to you.

16Only, with regard to what we have attained, continue on the same course.^*

Wrong Conduct and Our Goal.^*

17Join with others in being imitators of me,^* brothers, and observe those who thus conduct themselves according to the model you have in us.^m

18For many, as I have often told you and now tell you even in tears, conduct themselves as enemies of the cross of Christ.ⁿ

19Their end is destruction. Their God is their stomach; their glory is in their “shame.” Their minds are occupied with earthly things.^o

20But our citizenship^* is in heaven, and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.^p

21He will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body by the power that enables him also to bring all things into subjection to himself.^q

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/philippians/3

LEARNING POINTS

Language is there for two people to communicate. I can’t communicate with God except through Christ, one of my two advocates.

Because the condition in which I must live out the rest of my life is original sin, being tempted to overthrow my Christ Principle each moment I am alive, I am also aware that I am an adopted son (daughter) of the Father.

I struggle to move from my false self to my true self daily. I know the three languages that I use to solve the Divine Equation. This Equation is dynamic in that once solved is not forgotten.

I have all the help I need if I ask, knock, and seek help.

Three languages help me to look at the physical universe, the mental universe, and the spiritual universe. Science is my “go to” to learn about creation and its properties of matter. My life experiences help me how to discover my purpose in life and ask the right questions. My Christ Principle is the stone the builders rejected that has become the cornerstone. It is the key that unlocks The Divine Equation.

In the end, the purpose of all my physical reality, mental reality, and its fulfillment in spiritual reality comes down to three things: Faith (the energy of God in me); Hope (the energy of the Holy Spirit in me that the words spoken by Christ are true); and Love (the energy of Christ in me to sustain me now as an adopted son (daughter) of the Father—forever. The greatest of these is Love. Read the text of Holy Scripture in I Corinthians.

If I speak in human and angelic tongues^* but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.^a

2And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.^b

3If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.^c

4^* Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated,^d

5it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,^e

6it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.

7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.^f

8^* Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing.

9For we know partially and we prophesy partially,

10but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

11When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things.

12At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.^g

13^* So faith, hope, love remain, these three;^h but the greatest of these is love.

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1corinthians/13

Praise the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. The God who is, who was, and who is to come at the end of the ages. Amen. –Cistercian doxology