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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 hope 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 please 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.
You are invited to join Brian at his fellowship group on Facebook. The group is called OneLife Ministries – An Interspiritual Contemplative Fellowship. Hope to see you there. Blessings.
Today's Scripture
Be complete and whole, as your heavenly Parent is complete and whole.
*Matthew 5.48
Quote
Authentic spiritual or mystical transformation is not a psychological process. Mystical teachings go deeper than that — they refer to the nature of consciousness and the structure of our deepest interiors. They are not just helpful psychological principles and practices invented by the human mind — they point us to the discovery of natural or inherent laws that become apparent to anyone who awakens to the deeper and more subtle dimensions of the interior of the cosmos. All authentic teachings that come from mystical insight are really describing subtle principles, structures, and laws that already exist in your own deepest interior, which is the interior of the evolving cosmos we are living in.
*Andrew Cohen. "Transformation is not a Psychological Process": www.andrewcohen.org .
Spiritual Teaching
Once upon a time a great king had a close adviser, who was, also, his dear friend. The adviser was a renowned sage. The other advisers were jealous of the sage. So, they would try to out argue him.
One day they argued with him, claiming an animal could be trained to be human. The sage cited how birds fly, snakes crawl, fish swim, cows chew cud, rabbits hop …, each creature acting according to its inner nature, as designed by the Creator.
The wisdom of the sage only angered the other advisers more. So, they gathered to develop a plan to prove the sage wrong. For several months the other advisers treated the sage kindly, only behind his back scheming to prove him wrong. They hoped to sever the close relationship between the king and the sage.
After these months the scheming advisers surprised the king with a great banquet. The sage was invited. Suddenly, a cat walked out to serve the first course. Then, the cat served the second course. “Surely,” the jealous advisers thought, “we have proven the sage wrong and will sever the king’s loyalty to him.”
The sage thought of something and, thus, left the room, to arrive back after a few minutes. He had a little box in his hands. Just as the cat was walking toward the table to serve a tray of desserts, the sage let down the box. He opened it, and out dashed a little mouse. The cat dropped the tray of desserts and chased the little mouse all over the room and over the table, as the jealous advisers looked aghast at the behavior of their well-trained cat.
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All spiritual practice is based on the assumption that our inner disposition can be changed for better or worse. We are not animals. Animals change behavior based on reinforcement. A cat will act according to its essential disposition, which cannot be transformed, though it can be modified to a degree. A cat would have to become another animal to lose its catness; otherwise, a cat is a cat.
Transformation practices of all traditions assume that we humans can undergo what Christian contemplatives and their monastic traditions call conversion of the heart. This conversion is not merely modification of behavior.
Psychology often deals with adjustments based on modification: I am speaking of transformation. Our essential disposition that guides emotions and choices can be transformed through enactment of particular Spiritual Disciplines.
Thus, the following is a universal principle - a universal law, attested to in all major spiritual traditions.
Outer behavior will naturally change consequent of an inner transformation of disposition, or character.
This universal principle points to the hope of religions and their failure, likewise. Most spiritual practice in religion, generally, is not transforming enough or not transforming at all. That is, much religion does not transform beyond transformation of thought. The heart, or the essential disposition, is largely left untouched and free of the transforming energies of Grace.
This is one reason some persons can be aligned with religion and show little or no change of essential, consistent attitude, even after years of being “faithful.” However, this same occurs on so-called non-religious spiritual paths.
Make no mistake, I have truly Christlike persons whom I have served as pastor in churches and who question, stunned at how some “Christians” act, wondering, “How can a Christian have that attitude and act that way?” One answer is, “They are not Christians consistently undergoing transformation into the likeness of the Spirit of Christ.”
This inconsistency is a reason the famed Danish philosopherr Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813-1855) spoke of the difference between confessing Christianity and being a Christian. To him, to share in the institutional church of his time and place amounted to betraying Christ, as much as Judas did. He saw Christendom as a group of persons lacking the commitment and inner directive to be Christian. To be Christian, a person has to engage in a subjective - or, inner, infusing – passion, and this cannot be mediated by the church or a church leader, affirmed Kierkegaard.
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A cat has catness; a Christian has Christness. Otherwise, that person is not following Christ, even if that person is a “good Christian” or a “faithful church member.” Would a Buddhist say that a member of the sangha – group of practicing Buddhists - was following the Buddha, if the person violated the very attitudinal principles of Buddhism? No. A Buddhist is growing in enlightenment, and freedom from inner “poison,” or he or she is only professing Buddhism. A Christian is becoming more like Christ Jesus, or he or she is not Christian.
Anyone associated with the institutional church, for example, knows that there is, in many cases, little to no difference between those inside and those outside. And, Jesus did most of his work with the outside kind-of folk: Did he not? So, let me say this to all you Christians, and as a Christian myself: The institutional church in itself – that is, apart from an inner, conscious intent and consent - is not transformative, anymore than the institutional sangha or the institutional mosque is transformative – without the same consent and intent -, or the grocery store is transformative. Indeed, institutional forms of religion are often co-conspirators in blocking deep spiritual transformation of the heart, of which I speak, through maintenance of the institution, at the cost of transformation.
* * *
In the West, generally, transformation does not get from the head, or cognition, to the heart, inner nature. And, if the heart is taken into account, often it is little more than a facile tantalizing of the affections by the inducement of emotions that pamper, rather than challenge with the true meaning of heart, as understood in contemplative, mystical Christianity. Remember, heart in historic Christian contemplation has to do with the inner disposition, not the affections.
If a person is about to have a car accident, you do not want him or her to feel good in having it. Rather, you want a change of course,so the accident will not happen, even if the person does not feel good about his or her feelings not being validated or pleasurable feelings being induced by you. So, some transformation, frankly, does not make us feel good, at all. Some does, but some does not.
St. Paul writes to the Galatians (4.18-20, NLT):
Now it's wonderful if you are eager to do good, and especially when I am not with you. But oh, my dear children! I feel as if I am going through labor pains for you again, and they will continue until Christ is fully developed in your lives. How I wish I were there with you right now, so that I could be gentler with you. But at this distance I frankly don't know what else to do (translation: “I’m totally befuddled by you folk”).
The process of transformation in Christian contemplation is to be formed in the likeness of Christ. Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew 5.48 (NLT): “But you are to be perfect (Gk., telios, complete), even as your Father (or, parent, Gk. Pater) in heaven (by extension, eternity) is perfect (telios).”
As the cat in the above story had the inner disposition of catness, the Christian will have an inner disposition leaning toward becoming more like Christ: Christness. We do not become telios instantly, this is a spiritual gestation. The joy is in the process – so is the tension.
Contemplative, mystical Christianity- a way of referring to a much neglected aspect of Christianity - calls us from attachment to the form of Christianity to the formation of Christ: Christness.
The writer of II Timothy 3.5 (NLT) cautions against those - "Having the appearance of godliness, but [are] denying its power.” Indeed, institutional forms of religion are often co-conspirators in blocking deep spiritual transformation of the heart, of which I speak, through maintenance of the institution, at the cost of transformation.
Through enactment of these means of Grace, the entire self and life, even the structure, of the institutional church will take upon itself a re-form-a-tion, releasing a revitalizing energy and efficacious spirituality that is redemptive and healing. Then, churches that act more like going-to-church, doing-church, goodwill, or social club centers will take on the form and process of spiritual transformation centers.
May that day be hastened, Spirit of Life. And, may leaders arise who are themselves aglow with the transforming Grace of God, the Life of All. Amen.
Responding
1)What is the difference between an informational practice and a transformational practice?
2)What are aspects of the wholeness that our opening Scripture referes to? How would this be like and differ from wholeness in a purely psychological sense?
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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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