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This is a group for people who recognize in a profoundly personal way that we are all actually facets of one whole interacting with itself, or more accurately, Ourself. It is a place for peer discussion and exploration as we move through the challenges and insights we encounter while participating in the awakening of ourselves to our common fundamental identity, Ourself. As indivisible aspects of the single, infinitely diverse entity of everything/reality/creation we all have an opportunity and a responsibility to deepen humankind's awareness of Ourself, and to enrich our language with new terminology/ideas to more accurately portray that which truly is. We want to support each other as we discover wholeness while living in a society that defines everything (including God) as separate when in fact the creator and creation (including all people, animals, plants, minerals, and seen and unseen forces of spirit) are not in any actual way separate. So don't be shy... your vantage point of the whole is completely unique, and is just as valid and important as anybody elses. Enlightenment is the recognition of the wholeness, which by its very all-inclusive nature negates the validity of any kind of exclusive spiritual authority or guru. To allow ourselves to truly feel and be aware of ourselves as part of the great wholeness we need to stop putting others on a pedestal as a way of avoiding being accountable for shining our own light. Let's get the orchestra of the wholeness playing diversely, brilliantly, and powerfully enough to wake up humankind from the illusion of separateness. We can only accomplish this as a community of distinct voices and insights singing out in the harmony of the whole, and not by silencing our own special voice because we have decided some other "enlightened" teacher has a monopoly on authenticity! So sing out your insights, your questions... cry out your pains and frustrations... and love your neighbor as yourself because in truth they are; we are all precious dimensions of one whole. Let's respectfully, gently, and lovingly be Ourself together.
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Was Jesus an "awakened" individual?
JeffreysmallOne of the great mysteries of the New Testament is what was Jesus doing during the majority of his life that we know nothing about. Leaving aside the story of his birth, the only information we have about the younger years of Jesus comes from the Gospel of Luke who describes an occasion when a precocious twelve-year-old Jesus speaks in the temple, impressing his elders. The Bible is then silent about the following twenty year period of Jesus’ life until he reappears on the scene around the age of thirty when he is baptized by John and begins his ministry.
What happened during these missing years of Jesus’ life? What experiences might have shaped Jesus into the man he became? Why do we find so many parallels between the teachings of Hinduism and Buddhism and the teachings of Jesus, who was considered a subversive in his Roman and Jewish community? Why do the contemplative practices of Jesus, which seem to confuse his disciples, seem so similar to Eastern meditative techniques? Could a clue to these missing years come from a controversial discovery over a century ago by a Russian journalist?
In my new novel, THE BREATH OF GOD, I example the implications of this journalist’s historical discovery through a fictional story of suspense, mystery, and mysticism. If you are interested in learning more about the book Library Journal has called "Visionary Fiction" and RT Reviews has called "A thought provoking masterpiece," please visit my site:
www.JeffreySmall.com
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