God's love is who He is. When we interact with God, we interact with His love. When we experience the bliss of the Eternal Life, or the fires of Gehenna; whether we are comforted in our sorrow, rebuked in our errors, or purged through fire, we are encountering the love of God. The only thing which changes throughout all of these experiences, is ourselves and how we perceive Him and encounter His love. This all penetrating, all-consuming love surrounds us and fills and penetrates us, because He surrounds us fills and penetrates us. God has no other mode of operation. He is love.
Why then can we experience Hell? Because of His love. The Fires of Gehenna are what we experience when we all we encounter is this all consuming devastating love and instead turn towards physical and transient cravings and desires which leave one continuously craving for more. The fires of Gehenna are what we experience when we refuse to let go of our fears and delusions of control and just accept His all consuming love on His terms. His all-consuming devastating love for us is also an all-consuming devastating hatred for the sin malfunction which afflicts every one of us, in the same way that the parent of a child with a disorder loves that child fiercely while at the same time curses and fiercely hates the child's affliction.
God does not move, we do. His love does not move, it is always there because He is always there. Why then do we not always feel it? The answer is that we do, but do not always understand what we are feeling, or we ignore it for the impermanent and relatively meaningless things our senses are telling us. We don't slow down long enough to pay attention to what is right in front of us.
The Love of God feels harsh at times, just like my love for my children feels harsh to them when they disobey. I hate their disobedience because I love them fiercely and I have a particular vision of the kind of people they can be if not for their disobedience. I want them to always experience my love in a positive way, but that depends on their perception, and I know that my love can't waver even if they have a misperception of it.
The love of God is purifying, and it can be painful in its purification as it burns away everything we still grasp for and crave. This is why a purgatory and a hell often feel the same, the difference between them is our response to this devastating and terrible Love. The difference between a purging and a damnation is literally whether we are willing to surrender to the Love of God and let go of all else.
He rages because He is love. He burns away all that we desire because He is love. He hates because He is love. He is still, unmoving, uncompromising, and unwavering because He is love. He comforts, encourages, pushes us onwards, and is unrelenting because He is love.
The love of God is devastating, terrible, and terrifying in its power, scope, and absoluteness. In the face of such love, we can either surrender and be enraptured and consumed by it, or be destroyed with all else we cling to.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Yet Another Ramble
As I've been meditating, I've noticed that, while the practice itself is relatively simple, understanding and actually fighting my way through it each day is not. Truth is, I come away with feeling a little fried by the end of it. It however hasn't been fruitless, just difficult. This is something I gleaned from it recently;
We will either die now, or we will die later. Either we suffer the loss of our selves now, or we will suffer it later.
Our intelligence, our experiences, our fears, our desires and appetites, our wealth and possessions, our family and friends -- when we die we lose all of these things, because when the physical brain dies, so dies everything housed within it, and all that remains is the sense of distinction, the "I and you," between myself and God and all other people. Some of this can be seen with Alzheimer's patients, for example.
This will happen whether we choose to cooperate or not. The Path of Jesus Christ is the choice to cooperate with the release of these things now, in this life, in surrender and abandonment to God.
The pain of death comes with the loss of everything we are attached to. In death, these things are consumed before our eyes, and we are drawn back into the love and life of God, retaining the distinction between He and us, but losing all else.
For the worldly person, this process is terrifying. Because of his attachments, as he is drawn into union with God, he goes into Eternal Misery because he refuses to let go. He doesn't want to be united with God, he wants to be an individual ego, and burns with craving for things he can no longer experience. The love of God becomes an eternal torment for that person, as he refuses to accept it.
For the Godly person, this process is welcome, and rest, and returning home as he accepts and enjoys the love and being of God.
Living the Eternal Life is seeking this release in the here and now by abandoning attachments to one's ego, possessions, and relationships -- becoming one with Christ in His death -- and as the obstacles to the love of God and union with Him are removed, we realize and experience that we are surrounded and filled with Him, wrapped and full of His love. And as this occurs, then His love pours out and through us.
No one comes to the Father without first voluntarily making the Cross of Jesus Christ his or her own. No one. No one experiences the life of Jesus Christ, without first experiencing His death within themselves; and as His death becomes more and more manifest within us, so then His life becomes more and more manifest within us.
Ultimately, we will die, one way or the other. This is the reality of human existence. We can choose to begin the process of letting go of everything now, and welcoming the full experience of God when it comes; or we can choose to lie to ourselves, hang on to everything we can, and then have it all ripped away in eternal misery. It's our choice.
We will either die now, or we will die later. Either we suffer the loss of our selves now, or we will suffer it later.
Our intelligence, our experiences, our fears, our desires and appetites, our wealth and possessions, our family and friends -- when we die we lose all of these things, because when the physical brain dies, so dies everything housed within it, and all that remains is the sense of distinction, the "I and you," between myself and God and all other people. Some of this can be seen with Alzheimer's patients, for example.
This will happen whether we choose to cooperate or not. The Path of Jesus Christ is the choice to cooperate with the release of these things now, in this life, in surrender and abandonment to God.
The pain of death comes with the loss of everything we are attached to. In death, these things are consumed before our eyes, and we are drawn back into the love and life of God, retaining the distinction between He and us, but losing all else.
For the worldly person, this process is terrifying. Because of his attachments, as he is drawn into union with God, he goes into Eternal Misery because he refuses to let go. He doesn't want to be united with God, he wants to be an individual ego, and burns with craving for things he can no longer experience. The love of God becomes an eternal torment for that person, as he refuses to accept it.
For the Godly person, this process is welcome, and rest, and returning home as he accepts and enjoys the love and being of God.
Living the Eternal Life is seeking this release in the here and now by abandoning attachments to one's ego, possessions, and relationships -- becoming one with Christ in His death -- and as the obstacles to the love of God and union with Him are removed, we realize and experience that we are surrounded and filled with Him, wrapped and full of His love. And as this occurs, then His love pours out and through us.
No one comes to the Father without first voluntarily making the Cross of Jesus Christ his or her own. No one. No one experiences the life of Jesus Christ, without first experiencing His death within themselves; and as His death becomes more and more manifest within us, so then His life becomes more and more manifest within us.
Ultimately, we will die, one way or the other. This is the reality of human existence. We can choose to begin the process of letting go of everything now, and welcoming the full experience of God when it comes; or we can choose to lie to ourselves, hang on to everything we can, and then have it all ripped away in eternal misery. It's our choice.
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