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As far as I am aware there are no divine geographic borders - they are all man-made. Man's identification with a geographic land mass is one of the many things that reinforces separation between man and man (and thus man and God) as they fight and war to gain power/control/wealth or whatever their underlying agenda is .....however, for me it is a fallacy to attribute this to some sort of divine agenda! God is love and is that which brings unification not separation - therefore, for me, anything that promotes separation (like nationalism) is not of God/divine.

Not that I want to be awkward, Eunice, but, "therefore, for me, anything that promotes separation..." which means you'd want to be separate from it.

To clarify my position Peter (I hope!) -I mean anything that promotes separation from God specifically, that which promotes separation from God is, in my view, not of true divine origin.....one understanding of evil is anything that fosters separation from one's soul, from God.....so yes, I do not wish to be united or aligned with that which promotes separation from God....I endeavour (but definitely do not always succeed!!!!) to make choices from, with and in love, rather than that which is not love. We have the power of choice to express in ways that are healing or harming, that promote separation from God/love or unification with God/love, that permit the expression of evil through the human vehicle or that come from the kingdom of God/love within .....if we were all to express from the kingdom of God within, then evil would have no vehicle for expression ....but as long as we in humanity are ignorant of our true divine heritage and live less than the true sons of God that we are - then we are puppets for the forces/energies that seek to promote separation from God - to keep us ignorant of the truth of our being as sons of God! In-truth we cannot be separate from God, but we can and do express as if we are separate. Perhaps an analogy will help....say each person is a radio with 2 channels.....God/love and that which is not God/love can be played .....we also have the power to choose which channel gets played but most people dont realise that and so both get played ad hoc........once we know which is which and that we are the ones that can choose which channel to play .....then there is only one channel that gets played (most of the time!!).....the other becomes defunct through lack of use.....so it could be with evil if we all re-connected with and expressed from the kingdom of God/love within. Hope that helps!

ps. the 'it' I want to be separate from (as you put it Peter) in-truth does not exist ....hence I am not in-truth promoting separation ......'it' only has a reality in our current existence because we give 'it' one .....if we all chose to live in unification with the One that lives (love) 'it' would not be.

Eunice

The 鈥榠t鈥� I was referring were the kind of things you mentioned which reinforce separation, nationalism, wealth, power etc. If these and other 'many things' separate us from one another, and from God, we can鈥檛 say they don鈥檛 exist, unless you鈥檙e saying that they don鈥檛 have to exist, which is something different.

The other curious thing you speak of is tuning in to God. I am, to a degree, familiar with some of the Christian mystics who spoke in a similar way, they also spoke of the Kingdom of God within, of 鈥榗entering鈥�, of 鈥榣istening鈥�.

I guess I get what you鈥檙e saying, but to be honest my tuning in led to very little and I was left thinking, like Brutus, in 鈥楯ulius Caesar鈥�, 鈥淚nto what dangers would you lead me, Cassius, that you would have me seek into myself for that which is not in me?鈥�

To be honest, my faith doesn鈥檛 look inward anymore, it looks outward to Jesus, the one in whom God is not separate.

You are right Peter - they do exist but they don't have to exist. I know that seems like a far stretch of the imagination as things currently stand but things will only change if we make different choices and for eg become more co-operative instead of competitive. Re the tuning in .....I am not speaking of anything dramatic, so yes- it may seem like there is nothing there as nothing happens .....it is just a re-connection to your innermost self .....to stillness .....to love......different words same thing.....no flashing lights, voices or epiphanies.....by using a gentle breath technique .....that enables one to become more centred, more still and less emotional, more able to observe what is going on in the world and be less absorbed by it. Jesus said the 'Kingdom of God is within' .....and to my understanding he endeavoured to empower people to know this for themselves....so just as God was not separate in Jesus neither is he separate in you.....nor any other person. The creator lives in the created. Your essence is love and nothing can harm that - accepting that your essence is love (based on teachings of Christ etc) is one step on the way to experiencing and knowing that to be true for yourself. And yes we have to deal with our 'stuff' on the way - all part of the healing process. In my view everyone has the potential of Jesus ....it's just that in ignorance/contraction and separation we choose to live less than who we really are. So know that what you see in Jesus when you look outward is also within you.

Eunice

I鈥檓 afraid I think of Jesus rather differently.

You quoted, for example, 鈥淭he Kingdom of God is within.鈥� Trouble is we can鈥檛 just go lifting a quote out of context, like I did rather naughtily with the Shakespeare one applying it to something different entirely.

In context the Pharisees were looking for a National Kingdom, that (as the OT course helps us understand) was what they expected. Jesus however replies and asks them to think differently (this much we agree on) but the wider context is about a person rather than a nation. Jesus is speaking about himself: here I am 鈥榳ithin鈥� you... 鈥榠n your presence鈥�... 鈥榠n your midst鈥�...

Speaking to the Pharisees he says, in effect, the Kingdom of God is present with you in the person of it鈥檚 King, and I am that King.

All I can say, Eunice, is that I used to be a gnostic of sorts (there鈥檚 quite a bit of it in the Christian tradition) but not any longer. I don鈥檛 trust me, you see (which is doubt, and there鈥檚 a lot of that on this blog, taken to it鈥檚 logical conclusion) and I don鈥檛 want to withdraw from the world, be 鈥榣ess absorbed by it鈥�, this world needs people prepared to roll up their sleeves and get stuck in, like Jesus, which would be the incarnation, but that鈥檚 enough theology for one day.

It is a wonderful thing to be freed from having to 鈥榝ind myself鈥� much easier just to get on with things... like laughing and cooking and loving and enjoying the world...

Best wishes, Peter.

Put it another way, Eunice, we don't need to go looking for the 'Kingdom of God' because God has come to us and he brought his Kingdom with him.

Peter we do agree on some things ....eg
'I don鈥檛 want to withdraw from the world, be 鈥榣ess absorbed by it鈥�, this world needs people prepared to roll up their sleeves and get stuck in, like Jesus, which would be the incarnation, '

I totally agree with you there .... when I say be less absorbed by it I mean being able to be fully present in the world, serving in, with and from love ......but not absorbed in the sense of emotionally absorbed and reactive with anger/rage/frustration etc etc for then we are not serving with the love of God. So yes - fully incarnate.

I also agree with

'like laughing and cooking and loving and enjoying the world...'

absolutely!! see you have already found yourself!! God is love and joy .....so being playful, being joyful (childlike) that is our essence.....and so we do not need to seek the kingdom as such (agree) as we already are that which we seek in my view. It's more a case of letting go that which we are not (anger, saddness, frustration, rage, jealousy, self doubt and all the conditioning etc etc etc) , in order to reveal that which we are....love, joy, harmony, stillness.....we tend to make something that can be simple (but perhaps not easy) complicated!

For me, putting Jesus on a pedestal (King) is disempowering.... 'he has it and I dont', 'he has the power(love) and I dont.'....whereas understanding or knowing that the kingdom of God/love is within each of us is empowering ....says I have the power (love) to change things, to make a difference, to be love .....to be able to get stuck in as you say in a way that will truly serve....over to you.

Eunice, I do hope that you find what you are looking for, but there are those who can鈥檛. There are those who have reached the 鈥榚nd of their tether鈥� so to speak, those who mourn, those who are poor, dispossessed, forgotten, misused those who need someone to speak up for them. They have no bootstraps by which to pull themselves up, they need an advocate, someone with enough power to rescue them from their predicament yet someone with enough grace to relinquish using that power for themselves and use it instead for the good of another, someone who for the sake of another will become poor.

I can live with a King like that.

That鈥檚 the odd thing about Christianity, it鈥檚 supposed to be for those who can鈥檛 fight for themselves, a call to those who have power to put it down for a while, and a call to be unassuming enough to be able to receive from those who are less powerful than us, not that you'd guess by looking at the church!! :-)

Peter - "i was lost and now I'm found' ......and I was truly lost ....and I did plenty of seeking ....but that part has stopped in the way that it was before ....I would say I continue to unfold and evolve, to learn and understand and endeavour to live the ways of love and gentleness (and that is a journey!)....so I know what it's like to be at the end of one's tether etc.....and whilst we all can assist (or harm!) others on their journey, each person in my view does have the power within themselves to save themselves....even if they seem and feel powerless.....to say they don't keeps them lesser than who they truly are and imprisons them further. For me. all people are equal, all have the same potential power (love- not ego based destructive power).....BUT we have all made choices over many lifetimes (in my view) in separation to the truth of who we are and we then have the consequences of our choices through the energetic law of cause and effect, not divine punishment/reward. God is love, and loves us all equally.....but we reject that love on a daily basis through our own lovelessness towards self and other in all our choices - what we eat, drink, think, say and do etc , by keeping small, contracted in fear and self doubt - we accept a lesser life! Hence we perpetuate the suffering we wish to escape from and which we brought upon ourselves in the first place! How crazy is that!

ps to link this back to the course - I have just listened to lecture 9 (catching up)....in one part Prof mentions an interpretation by ?Milgram (I think- sorry if that is incorrect!) re humans chart their own destiny, that nobody gets away with anything and that everything an individual does affects the individual and the collective .....I would agree with all of that ....energetically every choice is lived by the body and affects it......and also impacts the whole....hence the importance of living with energetic integrity and responsibility in all our choices...challenging! We reap what we sow is another way of putting it...

I really enjoyed reading your comments Eunice & Petermorrow!!
I totally agree with both of you!!
Not that i know much on gnostics but I think in the mayonnaise of life theres alot of Eunices' gnostic views and Petermorrows King in the Golf Balls.
I see alot of Peters view of gnostism (or higher grace or whatever u would like to call it) in the coffee

The Mayonnaise Jar
A professor stood before his philosophy class
and had some items in front of him.
When the class began, wordlessly,
he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar
and start to fill it with golf balls.
He then asked the students if the jar was full.
They agreed that it was.
The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured
it into the jar. He shook the jar lightly.
The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls.
He then asked the students again
if the jar was full. They agreed it was.
The professor next picked up a box of sand
and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else..
He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded
With an unanimous 'yes.'
The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table
and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively
filling the empty space between the sand.
The students laughed.
'Now,' said the professor, as the laughter subsided,
'I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life.
The golf balls are the important things - God, family,
children, health, friends, and favorite passions
Things that if everything else was lost
and only they remained, your life would still be full.
The pebbles are the things that matter like your job, house, and car.
The sand is everything else --
The small stuff.
'If you put the sand into the jar first,' he continued,
'there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.
The same goes for life.
If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff,
You will never have room for the things that are
important to you.
So...
Pay attention
to the things that are critical to your happiness.
Play with your children.
Take time to get medical checkups.
Take your partner out to dinner..
There will always be time
to clean the house and fix the dripping tap.
'Take care of the golf balls first --
The things that really matter.
Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.'
One of the students raised her hand
and inquired what the coffee represented.
The professor smiled.
'I'm glad you asked'.
It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem,
there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend.'

Thats strange William

I always understood the biblical record said the Israelites came into Cannaan in a series of waves.

I dont understand why this is now an argument against the integrity of the bible???????

OT

wedwabbit - perhaps if we practised and practised with the one golf ball that is God.....the rest would naturally fall into place....?? ie. if we were able to live according to our true nature (instead of the false misbeliefs and misperceptions that we hold) life would perhaps be a truly joy-full game!!

wedwabbit,
love the mayonaise jar! tho it puts me in mind of trying to get the concept of how you can have some infinities that contain but are not exhausted by other infinities. i wonder how many higgs bosons you could get in the jar after you put in the coffee?
after a happy, exhausting, weekend filled with grandbabies, i have only just watched and read lecture 12. and i am confused.
We are told (end of lecture 11) that deut 10:14 introduces the idea of israel as the chosen people. the term *bachar* is used. but how is this different from the chosing of abraham and all his decendants that came up back in genesis? We have had quite a bit of 'i am your god and you are my people'. Strangly, the jewish study bible has absolutely no commentary of this verse.
Back to this week's lecture, I like kaufmann's description of these books as historiosophy. I suppose much of what came before might be thought of as mythiosophy (sorry O T). Are we moving into a period of extrabiblically attested history? When Hayes says '...the idea of the central sanctuary really took hold in 622, with Josiah ...' is this a date from the bible or elsewhere. And anyhow, they were not counting back from the birth of jesus; what were they counting forward from?