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Welcome to OneLife Ministries. This site is designed to lead you prayerfully into a heart experience of Divine Presence, Who is Love. While it focuses on Christian teaching, I pray persons of varied faiths will find inspiration here. Indeed, "God" can be whatever image helps us trust in the Sacred, by whatever means Grace touches us each. Please share this ministry with others, and I hope you return soon. There is a new offering daily. And to be placed on the daily OneLife email list, to request notifications of new writings or submit prayer requests, write to briankwilcox@yahoo.com .
Blessings,
Brian Kenneth Wilcox
MDiv, MFT, PhD
Interspiritual Pastor-Teacher, Author, Workshop Leader,
Spiritual Counselor, and Chaplain.
Brian encourages support of the 4-Star Christian organization Compassion, which supports children worldwide; see www.compassion.com .
Opening Prayer
Grace me a graciousness natural and, therefore, most holy. Help me never to seek to draw attention to myself as a spiritual person. Some of what You and I share is between only us two, and I wish to treat that as such. Some are meant to share, but not with everyone. Grant me wisdom to know what to share and not, and to whom, of the experiences I have with You. I do love You, and pray that in the most natural way my way of living will attract others to a simpler, less stressful way of being in the world. And I would like my life to show others that being an enlightened person does not mean being out of touch with everyday life, but, rather, being awake to the beauty and ecstasy of appreciating the most simple things of Life and Creation. Amen.
Today's Scripture
"Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!
*Matthew 6.22-23 (CEV)
Enlightened Quote
*If you want to be one with the cosmos, Ken, instead of one with only a single female body, then don't see the mountain, be it. Like this: Feel my naked body. Now feel the same way about the entire world in front of you. Erotically unite with everything that is arising.
*Boomeritis. A fictional work by Ken Wilber.
Spiritual Teaching
A man desperate for spiritual enlightenment went to the Sage. The Sage was sitting near a grove of trees. The man said, “Master, I want so much to be a spiritual man. Please, help me.” Replied the Sage, pointing to a tree: “Pick that apple off that tree.”
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The following selections are from Ken Wilber, Grace and Grit. The selections look at the ever-present, pervasive Presence of Spirit and our seeing Spirit fully present, everywhere:
If Spirit has any meaning, it must be omnipresent, or all-pervading and all-encompassing. There can't be a place Spirit is not, or it wouldn't be infinite. Therefore, Spirit has to be completely present, right here, right now, in your own awareness. That is, your own present awareness, precisely as it is, without changing it or altering it in any way, is perfectly and completely permeated by Spirit.
We are all already looking directly at Spirit, we just don't recognize it. We have all the necessary cognition, but not the recognition. … Spirit is already completely and fully present in the state of awareness that you have now; nothing needs to be changed or altered. And, indeed, the attempts to change awareness is like trying to paint in the faces in the puzzle instead of simply recognizing them.
Any attempt to get awareness is totally beside the point. “But I still don't see Spirit!” “You are aware of your not seeing Spirit, and that awareness is itself Spirit!”
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A person once approached the Sage, asking,
"Sir, what does it mean to be spiritual?"
The Sage replied,
"When praying, pray. When eating, eat. When sleeping, sleep."
The befuddled seeker protested,
“But, Sir, that does not sound spiritual at all!”
“That is why it is spiritual,” spoke the Sage.
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What does it mean to be spiritual? The words “spiritual” and “spirituality” are much used now. Almost never, however, do we hear a discussion about what the terms mean. For some persons spirituality is fundamentalist, literalistic religion. For other persons spirituality is some vague inner feeling of connection to Nature. Many think spirituality is about a change in awareness, so that one transcends ordinary life.
Persons from a myriad of ideological persuasions claim to be spiritual, often claiming those unlike are not spiritual. A person claiming to be spiritual may be seeking guidance from Allah, God, the stars, a saint, a deck of tarot cards, a guru, a palm reader, or the universe.
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To me, spirituality pertains to every aspect of our lives. That is right, every aspect of our lives. Spirituality is not an arena of private life apart to itself. Spirituality is not some esoteric experience that marks one as enlightened or saved, while others are nonspiritual or, worse, damned.
Spirituality is not something we attain by climbing a spiritual ladder. No, to stay with the ladder image, very popular in the history of spirituality, the entire ladder is a spiritual experience.
Spirituality is of the Spirit. Spirituality is any experience of the Spirit, in whatever form that occurs.
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I recall the naivete of my earlier ideas of being spiritual. As a teenager I longed to be like the Apostle Paul. To me, that was an ideal of spirituality. That meant being fundamentalist and evangelical, which entailed trying to convert as many as possible to my religious tribe.
Later in life, I discovered the contemplative path and monastic ideal. I became a monk in the world – and still am, living under vows that seek to embody that ideal in everyday life. Early on this Path, I thought of being such a monk in the world as an austere, very serious mode of living, wherein other persons would be impressed with this unique way of being holy. No – that is wrong. Over time, that ideal dissolved and the self-consciousness that comes with it.
For years I meditated and read a plethora of materials, devoting hours daily to silent meditation. Well, I do not do that anymore – not in a formal sense. See, I could not be spiritual that way either.
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I have come to see that being spiritual is very simple. Ready? Spirituality is being you. That is right – you. Spirituality is about fulfilling into fruition the divine potentials inhering in you and meant to manifest through the uniqueness of who you are, no one else.
See, spirituality makes us less self-conscious, and being focused on unnatural ways of being “spiritual” is another mode of ego-centering. The really spiritual person blends right in with the rest of the world, though, still, with a consciousness that sees all things through a different lens of awareness.
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Anytime you find yourself trying to act spiritual, then, that is not being spiritual. Being spiritual is a most natural state of being, and being spiritual is how we approach graciously and gratefully the whole of our lives together. Reflecting the Gospel – being spiritual is being full of light, but a light that is suited to the human in a way that does not make him or her feel anything other than what a human is meant to feel naturally, in the first place. So, if spirituality feels other-worldly to us, that only shows how unnaturally we have lived our lives.
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A student approached the Sage, after the Sage had completed the lesson for the day. The student asked, “Sir, why did you say you do not meditate as you once did, for I see you spend a lot of time alone in Silence?” “Well,” asked the Sage, “what is the purpose of meditation?” The student replied, “To become enlightened.” “No,” said the Sage, “but to show you that you are already enlightened.” “Then, why do you spend so much time alone in Silence?,” asked the student. The Sage laughed and smilingly said, “To practice the enlightenment.”
Quietly Responding
1.Write your own definition of “spirituality."
2.Do you know someone who is naturally spiritual? What impresses you about that person?
3.What are the traits of Jesus’ actions and way of being that help us decide what is “spiritual” and “spirituality” in a Christian context?
4.Have you ever met someone outside your faith tradition that impressed you as being a spiritual person?
5.Have you ever met someone not aligned with any faith tradition that impressed you as being a spiritual person?
6. Do you agree with the following statement? Why? Why not?
A person might become less religious, while becoming more spiritual.
7.Would you like to be more spiritual? What would that mean to you?
8.How might religion help or hinder in nurturing a natural spirituality?
9.Do you, based on your experience, believe the church is doing well in helping persons be more spiritual beings? Explain your response.
Brian Kenneth Wilcox August 3, 2009
briankwilcox@yahoo.com
Facebook: Brian Kenneth Wilcox
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*OneLife Ministries is a ministry of Brian Kenneth Wilcox, SW Florida. Brian lives a vowed life and with his two dogs, Bandit Ty and St. Francis, with friends and under a vow of simplicity. Brian is an ecumenical-interspiritual leader, who chooses not to identify with any group, and renounces all titles of sacredness that some would apply to him, but seeks to be open to how Christ manifests in the diversity of Christian denominations and varied religious-spiritual traditions. He affirms that all spiritual paths lead ultimately back to Jesus Christ. He is Senior Chaplain for the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office, Punta Gorda, FL.
*Brian welcomes responses to his writings or submission of prayer requests at briankwilcox@yahoo.com . Also, Brian is on Facebook: search Brian Kenneth Wilcox.
*Contact the above email to book Brian for preaching, Spiritual Direction, retreats, workshops, animal blessing services, house blessings, or other spiritual requests. You can order his book An Ache for Union from major booksellers.
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