Open Letter to Rev Kyle & Schleiermacher

 

Thoughts, Ideas and Notes on Perfect Peace and Divine Alignment

 

Is 26:3:  You give perfect peace to those who keep their purpose firm and put their trust in you.  

 

“If we align ourselves with God and get hold of His assignment for our life, we will find contentment, peace and joy.”

 

Rich Note 1:  Conscious Identity with God through Christ: Ultimately, the only way to become perfectly aligned with God (not to mention God’s will and our divine destiny) is to become perfectly identified with God through the Consciousness of the Son of God I AM – that Mind which was in Christ Jesus. For is it not pretty obvious that only God can know God, and as such, the only way we in our present state of relative mind and consciousness can know God, is by allowing the Mind and Heart of God, as expressed in the Person of Jesus Christ, to fully enter our own hearts and minds, and so live in and know Itself through us?

 

[RE: Pastor Kyle’s first key to True Greatness from 5/04/03 sermon: Greatness is acquired through identification, not acquisition.  That is, we are called to identify with  Christ in you as Paul did, saying:  “I am crucified with Christ, never the less I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me…” (Gal 2:20)so that Christ can come out of us.]

 

 

Rich Note 2: Jigsaw Puzzle: With respect to the operative principle behind said alignment and assignment, I believe that when you become perfectly aligned with God, as the whole of you are a necessary part, you will automatically find your meaning, know your purpose in life, act in accordance with God’s will, and thus fulfill your individual assignment and/or destiny. This is very well illustrated by a jigsaw puzzle in which the complete picture or scene represents the whole, and a missing or misplaced piece the part.  In this regard, the ultimate meaning, purpose, role, assignment or destiny of any particular part is how God even now envisions it as fitting into the whole picture of His Creation.  This being the case, when the individual part is first correctly aligned with its intended position in God’s Vision of Creation, it will fit in perfectly and so fulfill its intended purpose in the overall picture (of which it is but one small, but integral part.)

 

How May We become Aligned and Identified with God? In terms of how and why, I actually prefer the King James Version as our task becomes much more simple and down to earth:

 

Isaiah 26:3: Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

 

Rich Notes:  

 

Mentally Fulfilling the First Commandment: I believe this to be one of the most profoundly declarations of exactly what each of us as individuals must do in order to once again know God (become consciously aware of God’s Presence in our everyday lives) and so find perfect peace in a world that would seem to be in constant conflict and turmoil, and so teaches us how to “be in the world but not of it.”  In this regard, “staying our minds on God” offers some extremely practical advice with respect to the 1st commandment, as it relates to mind.  For the key to mental self control is minding God (paying mental attention to the Lord) from moment to, in stead of minding “this to the exclusion of that” as the world constantly encourages us to do..

 

Still Waters: Ultimately, for us at least, peace is mental stillness and rest, metaphorically described in the Bible as “still waters.”  Now, continuing the water metaphor, where does the true stillness (and peace) of the ocean lie?  Why, in the singularity of the ocean, at it’s depths, where it is one, rather than in the endless multiplicity of the waves the ocean temporally assumes, on it’s surface, where it is many.

 

Unity versus Multiplicity: Now, let’s take this idea of singleness (as it relates to peace) and multiplicity ( as it relates to mental, emotional or physical disturbance) and look at two circular storms that occur in nature -- tornados and hurricanes.  Don’t singularity of both occur in the “eye or center” (one might also say at the heart) of the storm?  So the center, or central point, is unitary, still and peaceful; whereas the circumference, or surface points, are multiple, subject to endless movement and constantly disturbed.  As such, the center is not only single and peaceful, it is relatively changeless and permanent with respect to the ever blowing, movement and changefulness of the surface or circumference.  (RE: All the repeated Biblical characterization of the Lord God as a rock which is singular, as opposed to sand which is multiple.)

 

Center or Circumference: Putting this all together, if “I”, as a center of conscious awareness, focus on the many – the world and it’s limitless multiplicity – my mind (actually the focal point of my conscious awareness) will be in a constant state of movement and flux.  Whereas, if “I” as such focus or center my conscious attention on the One – stay my mind on God as Is 26-3 counsels  – my mind (mental eye) will become single (i.e., “as a man thinketh in his heart,” etc.) and my body will become full of light (pure conscious awareness of being).

 

Mind Stayed on God: This particular Scripture is also a perfect description of meditation.  For we are called to mentally focus on one particular object (in this case the Ultimate One, Center, or Singularity – the Absolute One) to the exclusion of a “multiplicity of others (other ones which are all to some degree temporal). This will eventually result in a “stilling of our mental waters”, allow all the mental sediment (flotsam and jetsam might be better) in the primal field of our awareness to settle, allow our muddy mental waters to clear, and so enable us to once again see and know God, experientially, as a heartfelt presence. In truth, could such a practice, faithfully followed, possibly fail to unitize ones mind (as a never ending series of attention shifts – of minding this to the exclusion of that) and thereby bring (restore is much better) perfect peace?

 

Related Scripture that came to mind.

 

KJV Matthew 6:21-25

 21.  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

 22.  The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

 23.  But if thine eye be evil (double), thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

 

Rich Notes:  Another profound (aren’t they all) verse whose profundity may be missed if you don’t do the “math” (algebra actually) and see that this is really a simple formula which equates “single to good, intelligence, light and God” and “double to evil, ignorance, darkness and Carnal Mindedness.”

 

24.  No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

 25.  Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

 

Rich Notes:  So there are only really two masters I can serve (and worship) with my conscious attention and awareness. I can focus my conscious attention on the world (and so “mind” an endless multiplicity of ever changeful constituencies), or I can “stay my mind” on the One, Never-Changing, Eternal God.  If I choose the latter, I will be serving One instead of many masters-- the Center or Heart, instead of the Surface.  My mind, and thus I as center of conscious awareness, will stabilized, unify, and so become still and peaceful accordingly. 

 

KJV John 1:1-5

 

 1.  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

 2.  The same was in the beginning with God.

 3.  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

 4.  In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

 5.  And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

 

Rich Notes:  And why does the darkness, not comprehend the light?  Simply because it’s mental eye is not single and it’s body (and itself as it thinks it is) is therefore full of darkness.  Equating life with light also seems rather revolutionary until one considers the characterization, “the light of awareness and/or understanding dawns”.  Particularly when one realizes that life may be very accurately defined as the “degree to which one is consciously aware of being in relation to environmental stimuli in any give moment.”  In this regard, one can say that most of the Biblical references to light and life can be esoterically interpreted to mean “consciousness or awareness of being.”

 

KJV John 9:5

1. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

 

KJV John 8:12

1. Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

 

 

Rich Notes:  One could also say that “I am (or Christ is) the Mind or Consciousness of the God in the world” or “God’s conscious awareness of being” in the world.

 

 

KJV Philippians 4:6-7

 6.  Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

 7.  And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

 

Rich Notes: To be “care-full” is to be full of care and worry about a “remembered past” and an “imagined future” and so to miss the “present moment” (the Eternal Here and Now) which is the only place God and Eternal Life (and Heaven, if being in Heaven is living in God’s Presence, and Hell living in God’s imagined absence). It is also to divide (double and/or multiply) ones mind accordingly, and so live among the storm tossed surface waves of ones mind, instead of the still and peaceful waters of the Mind that was in Christ Jesus – the Oceanic Father Consciousness of All.  Thus, when I am being “care-full” I am, by definition focusing my mind (and my heart will naturally follow) on the multiplicity of the world, and not the “unity of the Spirit” – the Ultimate Singularity of God’s Being Everywhere Present.

 

 

KJV James 1:6-8

 6.  But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

 7.  For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.

 8.  A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

 

 

Rich Notes:  (See the “Still Waters” metaphor below.)  Again, to be double (carnally, worldly, or surface oriented) minded, as the “single eye” Scripture above suggested, is not only to have a “restless, dis-eased mind,” but an “evil mind” subject to darkness (and ignorance).  It also suggests that said “single eye” actually refers to ones mind as the mental window (frame of reference) or lense through which we gaze at creation, ourselves and God. 

 

KJV Ephesians 4:2-6

 2.  With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;

 3.  Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

 4.  There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;

 5.  One Lord, one faith, one baptism,

 6.  One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

 

Rich Notes: Once again “unity and peace” arise mutually, and both, ultimately, arise from, relate to, and are essential characteristics of the “One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”  As such, the one and only way I and the fragmented mental state of mind with which I presently identify will ever find peace is to focus upon and exclusively identify with that One God Father of All, through the Consciousness of the Son of God I AM. 

 

KJV Exodus 8:22

 22.  And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there; to the end thou mayest know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth.

 

KJV Hosea 11:9

1. I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee: and I will not enter into the city.

 

Rich Notes:  The “Holy One in the midst of thee…” is “Christ in you, the Hope of Glory…”, the Lord God I AM Who spoke to Moses from the burning bush.  Stay your mind on that One, and thou will be kept in perfect peace.

 

KJV Matthew 6:25

1. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

 

Rich Notes:  It is the nature of relative mind, thought and consciousness to “think things apart,” not only from you, but from God.  As such, to divide ones God given awareness of being, ones consciousness of existence or life, is to create and project a fundamental sense of alienation from the objects of conscious awareness and so mentally separate oneself from God.  Yet, can an Absolute God – the One God of Israel – every truly be so divided “in Spirit and Truth”, or can that Absolute One only be divided in the vain imaginings of His ignorant Children?

 

 

KJV Psalms 46:10  

1. Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

 

Rich Notes:  If I as I now think I am -- one caught in a constant state of mental flux occasioned by endless conscious attention shifts -- become firmly and consciously fixed on God as the Rock of Ages, at the Center of my being and all being, I will quite naturally become mentally still and silent, and so once again be able to see the God as the One underlying Presence of All.

 

Related Metaphors:

 

Peace Related:

 

**47. Still Waters:  A peaceful state of mind is like unto the still and unmoved depths of a vast ocean.  Alternatively, a restless and disturbed state of mind may be likened to the constantly churning, storm tossed seas that arise on the ocean's surface.  Expanding the metaphor by likening consciousness to water, peace would naturally abide in the still and silent depths of pure, unmoved, oceanic awareness, and necessarily be absent in the endlessly restless waves of surface thought and consciousness.  Thus peace, which is born in the still waters of the oceanic depths of pure awareness, necessarily dies among the surface waves of relative mind, thought and consciousness.  U/D 5/96; 11/18/99; 4/28/03

 

**48. Peace of Mind:   While we may have peace from mind, we may never have peace of mind.  For peace is mental stillness and mind mental movement, with the former actually the polar opposite of the latter.   As such, peace, as an essential state of mental stillness or no-mind, is a condition of consciousness that necessarily pre-exists any and mental movement, conscious or unconscious -- a sense or state of being that will only resurrect when the constant shifts in mental attention we call mind cease.  Peace itself being that still, silent, open state of pure awareness that remains at the center of being when all mental surface chatter of mind stops. U/D 4/5/96; 4/20/03 

 

Double Mindedness Related:   

 

*62. Moving Parts: "Too many moving parts" is a perfect metaphor for the human dilemma. So many things to think about and so little time to think. Our response is often a meager attempt to reduce variables, rather than establishing some constant relationship among them.  While reducing or ignoring variables is one way of regaining mental control, finding a constant relation that affords unwavering self-reference offers much more hope.  For any equation of life that contains no constant will never yield true answers or ultimate conclusions.  U/D 12/5/97

 

**12 a. Mental House Divided:  Mind is a mental process, not an object; a conscious movement arising in a much broader field of awareness.  As such, minding is something we do, not something we have -- this by first narrowing the focus of our awareness, minding "this" to the exclusion of "that", and then constantly attending to shifting mental focal points. With all mental movement itself the result of said linear sequential shifts in attention from one focal point to another.  All of which occurs within the single field in which all such centers naturally arise.  Mind, as such, is a continuous process of mental self-polarization, reflection and conception with respect to the over all field of awareness one truly is -- a rather miraculous process of self-creation enabling pure awareness to reflect upon itself, and in so doing give birth to its own self-consciousness, or awareness of being. 9/02; 5/03

 

Alignment Related

 

**9. Laser Beam: A laser beam is a state of coherent light in which all the light waves align and cease to impinge upon themselves.  Said light waves may be likened to a collective group of energy vectors, which, when perfectly aligned, cease to lose a portion of their aggregate energy due to internal friction. Conceiving mental energy in a similar fashion, perfect alignment of mental energy vectors would necessarily yield the mental equivalent of a laser beam and thus produce a perfectly coherent state of mind -- a unified condition of consciousness in which internal non-alignment, friction and energy loss no longer arise.  9/02