Q&A: If I’m New to Metaphysics & Spirituality, What, Who, or How is a Good Way to Learn More?

I applaud you for deciding to challenge your inherited wisdom and to seek it out for yourself. I used to like the New Age but later became disenchanted and believe that it strips the feel good truths of various religions at the expense of confronting the harder truths of life. Life ain’t all sunshine and rainbows and manifesting your destiny thru intent. If it were, there would be a lot of rich mystics out there and historically most of them have been poor. Even so if walking this path helps you to question and clarify, I say go for it.

I don’t believe in organized religion myself and have no “places” to recommend. Personally, I think it’s better and more authentic to keep your worship private and in the comfort of your own space. I recommend creating a nice space for yourself to meditate and pray, your altar to the Higher if you will.

I know you’ll dig this book and even tho it’s New Age (and I just told you I have no real use for it, this is a very insightful book nonetheless: Return To Love by Marianne Williamson.

I also highly recommend “Confessions” by St. Augustine. It chronicles the life of a solitary mystic who became a counselor to kings and contains nuggets like this, “Like all young men in love, I chased after the things that would not last and then agonized to lose them.”

Thomas Keating is a good person to know. He’s a Christian monk, who take things to a much deeper place and preserves the good in the Christian background. Contemplative prayer is one of his beliefs and he has written several good books: http://www.snowmass.org/keating.htm

“Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” by Robert Persing is outstanding and addresses the metaphysics of quality.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance

Pema Chodron is a buddhist who has written many books on meditation and a must-read for people like you. Visit her website and check her out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance

Please read Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer-Bradley. It’s a retelling of the Arthurian legend by the women & it’s outstanding. Lots of the spiritual and the battle between Christianity & Paganism in that masterpiece. Very well worth your time.

Learn about the great female mystic Hildegard of Bingen: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance

Well that’s it for now. Good luck on your spiritual quest.

Over the years I, too, have had wrestling matches with myself concerning my beliefs. This is what I learned to do with them. I realized that there is an impetus within Mankind which drives us to create philosophies (or religions or sciences) at all…..the insatiable desire to KNOW (not merely to postulate, theorize, “believe”, or have faith in..) the Truth of Ourselves. IT IS AN ITCH that MUST be scratched…..and which can only be satisfied when YOU scratch it….YOUR WAY !!

Do I have any recommended reading? The set of books I cite as a reference has changed my life and how I see EVERYTHING. I strongly believe they will have a similar effect on yours. (especially when you get to page 21 of Vol 1) ! Please bear with this detailed answer….to your important question,

Our Creator did not create human beings as Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, or any religious faiths we associate with these or any other names (whether I’ve named them here or not!). These names, believed and acted upon as if relevant, only serve to hide the FACT that the Creator made ALL OF US of His Spirit and AS His Image….

Our Creator created human beings, AS HIS VERY SPIRIT AND IMAGE. We are Who the Creator is in Spirit….not subservient adherents to whatever religion or philosophy we profess to include ourselves or exclude one another from or fight over.

No faith, organization, person, or religion can own or change ANY of the principles of Life or can claim that their interpretation is the sole arbiter of the Truth revealed in the principles.

THAT is the part you won’t hear from those who’ve sought to keep access to the Truth about ourselves limited to ONLY a self-approved “credo” of beliefs espoused in some religion’s scripture, filled with sanctioned interpretations about it.

It is the Spirit of God in us Who reveals the Truth of Himself to us, not the scripture we fight about!. Whether called the Qur’an, or the Torah, or the Bible, or the Upanishads, or the Dead Sea Scrolls, or the spoken traditions, Mother Nature, or what have you, these are nothing more than manuals, PREPARATORY INSTRUCTIONS for the real lessons.

These tools are only mirrors pointing back to THAT inside of us from which the real inspiration comes. Our own being, or Self, is the “book” to learn from, where our Creator placed Himself within us to answer all questions, directly.

We don’t have to go anywhere else for the answers we seek, OR bait one another over “jots and tittles” missing from or added to this or that version of some religious tradition’s scripture, regardless when or where, or by whom it was written, or translated, transcribed, or published. There is no need to quibble about explanations gleaned from the Bible or any other book that is used to codify the tenants of a religious faith. The sole purpose of the books can only be to reflect the Divinity of the I AM within OURSELVES.

Similarly, “Church” has come to symbolize a place you must go in order to receive “its” teachings and “its” blessings. It is, not therefore, surprising for “church”-goers to realize that one need go NO WHERE but within ONE’S SELF to be taught the truth by the Creator Himself, directly. You are not “in” the church. The “church” is WITHIN YOU!

Knowledge is what you find out for yourself is true (or not) about these answers.

Jesus came to show us the error of the lies we had adopted as the truth about ourselves. He came to show us that the way back to His and Our Creator has ALWAYS been awaiting WITHIN US….EVEN though we had forgotten Who we are! Our Creator is the life of each and every one of us, regardless of the name we call ourselves. It is in Him and through Him that we ALL have our Being. That is why Jesus said, “Of myself, I can do nothing. It is the Father in me who does the works.” I believe that statement is the very Truth about ALL of us. Of ourselves, we can do nothing. It is the Father within us who does the works, too! No different than it is for our Brother, Jesus. Or for our Sisters, either. Male AND female made He (our Creator) them. It’s what Jesus came to show us; this way to perceive ourselves aright. But we got sidetracked and mislead to accept that Jesus, Himself, was our salvation, instead of understanding through the example of His life and resurrection that His and our Father is the very Life of all.

This does not mean just the life of those who call themselves Christians, and TO HELL WITH EVERYONE ELSE!

We ALL are Sons AND Daughters of the Most High, but we have forgotten Who we, and EACH OTHER are!

Our Creator, I AM, is EQUALLY accessible to ANY and ALL, regardless of who they think they are, or what they call themselves or someone else….WHOSOEVER WILL MAY COME.

Many have misunderstood what Jesus meant when he said: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.”

This does NOT mean that Jesus is STANDING IN THE WAY to our Father.

This means that Jesus is SHOWING US THE WAY to our Father….through the I AM inside of US!!!

This means we are not supposed to just follow the Master, Jesus.

This means we are invited to follow the Master’s EXAMPLE!!!

This means we are invited to FOLLOW WHAT HE FOLLOWED, which is….His and Our Father…..the I AM which is in Him, as well as in us!

….in order to REAWAKEN and REALIZE our OWN mastery AS SPIRITUAL BEINGS, not to subjugate ourselves to His. We are ALSO as Jesus is, which is as our Creator endowed us all to be, and that is as immortal, spiritual beings who are the Spirit and Image of our Creator.

The I AM in US is ALSO the same I AM Who is in our Brother, Jesus!!

We are to FOLLOW THE I AM residing in ourselves, just as He does!

We are supposed to realize this Truth within, and for, OURSELVES, that Jesus also realized as Truth within Himself.

We are EACH to realize the Christ within OURSELVES, even as Jesus did. Our Creator did not intend Jesus to be the ONLY ONE who realizes this. We ALL are included in this. No one, ANYWHERE, is excluded….because our Creator INCLUDES US ALL IN HIMSELF….

WHOSOEVER WILL MAY COME…..Come to the Father, I AM, through the Christ in Yourself.

What if you DON’T BELIEVE OR ACCEPT THIS?

Neither our belief or disbelief affects THE FACT that the ONLY way you can know this for yourself is to see the perfect principle in operation IN yourself.

TRUTH is, and has been, TRUE BEFORE human beings even invented books, filled with scripture to fight over!

TRUTH does not even NEED scripture or our disparate, “after the fact” interpretations to validate it!!

PROVING TRUTH FOR YOURSELF is, and always has been, the acid test of validation…..regardless what you believe or what you call yourself.

Belief is what we choose to tell OURSELVES is true about Reality until we experience what IS true regardless what we believe.

Experiencing what IS true about Reality is knowledge.

We can choose to believe that 2+2=5 for eternity until we have acquired FOR OURSELVES the necessary knowledge of the immutable principle that correctly sums the answer.

Prove these things to yourself. Put them to YOUR TEST.

There is absolutely no need to be confused. One need go NO WHERE but within ONE’S SELF to be taught the truth by the Creator Himself, directly. How else can you then say FOR YOURSELF what is or what is not?

Gain the KNOW-ledge for yourself….and the “point” proves or disproves itself irrefutably within YOUR OWN experience….

As author Baird Spalding says in the reference, ”Becoming aware of yourself as a spiritual being, offspring of an infinite spiritual system and one with all the powers and capacities within that system, is the very essence of attainment. To grow from the present state of awareness of himself as a material being and into the consciousness that he is a spiritual being contains the full secret of man’s attainment.’ Man’s nature cannot be reversed for he always remains a spiritual being. He can only reverse his notion of himself. Instead of doing this, he should reverse his mistaken idea that he is a material being and retain the truth that he is a spiritual being created in the image and likeness of God.”

Though WE may have forgotten Who we, and each other, we are yet Sons and Daughters of the Most High. Again, we are Who the Creator is in Spirit….not subservient adherents to whatever religion or philosophy we profess to include ourselves.

He, Who IS your very Life, created you to BE WHO YOU ARE…..

….to show you, THROUGH your life, how to be His perfect, loving message WITH your life…..

As such, we could only, and always, be: “Beloved of our Creator”……….never coerced or forsaken by our Creator.

The most sacred homage to the Truth of that Love that you can offer is to honor the I AM within yourself by loving the I AM Who is equally omnipresent within ALL your Brothers and Sisters throughout the Earth….

THAT IS WORSHIP……worthy of a Creator who lovingly created us ALL out of His Own Perfect Divine pattern; Who includes us ALL within Himself; and Who loves each one of us as Himself…

….which requires no ritual or ceremony OR religion whatsovever; just a loving heart willing to do so…..

That’s how we were ALL created….. by the One Who loves us so much that He has given us His Own power….

…..to love Him and EACH OTHER back…..by ourselves…..for ourselves….by OUR choice.

Again, it is the Spirit of God already IN us Who reveals the Truth of Himself to us.

….as Jesus, Himself discovered, and LIVES, even this very day, while you are reading this, and Who would have us know and understand the Truth, in ourselves, for ourselves…..