What Color is your Christ?

Is He more like Scorcese’s Last Temptation or Gibson’s Passion?  Would your Jesus drive an Army Tank or a Prius?  Would He be in support of the war in Iraq or marching in a Peace protest?

Bruce Sanguin, a progressive minister recently featured in EnlightenmentNext magazine, has written a book, The Emerging Church  in which he explores how the changing perceptions of  Christ help to illuminate the evolution of spirituality throughout human history. 

I am excited for the emergence of this book at a time when we seem to be collectively embracing the need for change in our Western American culture.  For many people burned out, or burned by, Christianity, this book may offer a healing and resolution. (And for me this fits in with my integral view and understanding of spiral dynamics and my world)

Here are just 4 perspectives in the development of our spirituality with regards to Christ, taken from the EnlightenmentNext article:

The Traditional Christ: “I am the one and only son of God.  If you give yourself to me and me alone, you shall be saved and granted eternal life.” (where seen: The Left Behind series, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B Jenkins)

The Modern Christ: “I am an example of extraordinary human potential.  Those who strategically apply my teachings will achieve great success.” (where seen: The Purpose Driven Life, by Rick Warren)

The Postmodern Christ: “My teachings are one among many paths of Truth.  I am an example of universal Love, Compassion and Equality.” (where seen: Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time: The Historical Jesus and the Heart of Contemporary Faith , by Marcus Borg)

The Cosmic Christ: “I am the Spiritual impulse itself – an evolutionary intuition embedded within the sacred unfolding of the cosmos.” (where seen: The Phenomenon of Man , by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin)

Here is a link for an audio: http://www.enlightennext.org/magazine/unbound/media.asp?id=247
The book is available from Amazon

 

Gaining Dignity, Letting Go of Desperation

The face of impermanence is constantly showing itself.  Why do we struggle to hide it?  Why do we feed the circle of suffering by perpetuating the myth of permanence?  Experiences, friends, relationships, possessions, knowledge – we work so hard to convince ourselves that they will last.  When a cup breaks or we forget something, or somebody dies or the seasons change, we’re surprised.  We can’t believe it’s over.

… Permanence would be awkward.  There would be no beginning and no end . . .   Everything would last forever.  There’d be no seasons.  We’d never be born, grow up, fall in love, have children, grow old or die . . .

No matter how we want to cling to our loved ones, by nature every relationship is a meeting and a parting.  This doesn’t mean we have less love.  It means we have less fixation, less pain. . . we can relax into the ebb and flow of life.

We don’t have to keep imitating an idea of permanent happiness.

Understanding the meaning of impermanence  makes us less desperate people.  It gives us dignity. . .

~ SAKYONG MIPHAM RINPOCHE, Turning the Mind into an Ally

For me this dignity is essential in cultivating a heart of compassion (and Sakyong points to this also).  If my heart is full of fixation there is no room for anything else to exist.   It’s as if this letting go is a first step in taking the focus off of merely myself and opening up to something larger than myself.

I find that embracing the nature of impermanence in the seasons, in financial areas, and relationships to be easier these days.  The impermanence in knowledge is becoming more evident in this information age as “things” we thought to be true are quickly outdated and replaced by new information – it’s funny,  I still hold certain knowledge to be more permanent – I grasp this tighter; I hold on with a closed fist – especially when I do not see the difference between knowledge and my opinion or I try to make a certain knowledge “fixed” rather than unfolding (which happens when I am caught up in my blue or orange development – see Spiral Dynamics).

I hope to cultivate a bit more dignity in this area.
~John

I Opened the Wardrobe again . . .

 

 

 

It’s been awhile since I posted anything about the spiral development in which I transcend and also include the former stages of  my development (maybe because it is easier said than done – or maybe cause I think most people don’t really give a shit what I think).

I’ve resisted watching “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”, by C.S. Lewis ever since the magic and myth behind the story were made into “literal” ideas years ago.  I loved the Narnia Chronicles, however the literal interpretation stole the essence of this beautiful story and made me turn away (the baby and the bath water, yeah?). I have not looked at this story in over 10 years

I watched it this evening.

This is a truly wonderful myth of redemtion. From purple through blue (into green) and up the spiral into yellow (if you’re not sure what I am bloging about  – google Spiral Dynamics).  While not a literalist, this was for me a wonderful film – About ego, humility, the shadow, the dark night of the soul, the sacrifice of love, misunderstanding, redeeming oneself, redeeming other sentient beings, loss of hope and the inner hope of knowing. Very Joseph Campbell – who I owe much of my development to.

Why did I allow literalism to rob me of this?

Just something I need to sit with and breathe through . . .

I do know that developmentally, children (or humans in general)  have to first experience a dichotomous “right and wrong”, “good and evil” before they can move towards Oneness.  This film is in-between the dichotomy and the oneness. So mankind is moving forward, even in the West. So I include this in my development.

Going to bed, I have a hike on the side of a volcano scheduled in the morning.
Breathe,

John

Red: red wine, redrum, red rain falling down (the next video)

Moving up the development spiral from purple (see my purple post a few days back) – which is the tribal and family oriented stage of life, we can see the need to break away and be independent (and often very narcissistic in our breaking away).  In societies this was reflected in movements from tribes to fuedal kingdoms – in human development it’s the rebellion of teenage years. The Red Stage.

In arrested development it’s those people who remain so grandiose and self absorbed that unless they are a family member or boss – we rarely have anything to do with them. They never move into the next stage of development – and let’s face it, there are things you can get away with as a teenager that you can’t get away with any other time in life.  And it’s inevitable like any “developmental theory” that we hopefully move up the spiral and through the stages (both individually and collectively).

Anyway this video has both the worst and BEST of the Red stage.  This is so unlike the purple stage where the tribe or family means more than the individual – no wonder it’s so hard to let our teenagers go; it’s the reason we worry and want to keep them close to the tribe – but it’s also the reason we know we gotta let em go!  I love this video and it’s no wonder Bono picked her to cover one of his songs.  She actually lived this . . .

OK it won’t let me embed the video so here’s the link to YouTube. GO! It’s worth it:

purple: rain? people eater? barney?

Over the course of the next week or so I am going to post some of my favorite videos that I think represent some of the best stages in Spiral Dynamics (if you’re not familiar with this Theory and you want to learn more look up Spiral Dynamics and: Ken Wilber, Andrew Cohen, Don Beck or see http://spiraldynamics.net/DrDonBeck/essays/stages_of_social_development.htm  There is also a link to Joe Perez on this page and he has some great 4 quadrant, spiral news posted daily)

If evolving means incorporating the best of each level of development as we move up the Spiral and not rejecting what each stage has to offer (including the Shadow work), then I hope these videos will give some insight to a part of each stage (as represented by a color) and help you stay connected to that part of yourself . . . no matter what color you currently resonate in (as for me, I’ve got one foot in Yellow)

So I’m beginning with Purple, (the Animistic, tribal stage) enjoy: