JOURNEY TO CERTAINTY
By: Joel Bjorling

Every now and then I feel the "pinch" of religion. I never felt that any religion was "the" way to God. These "pinching" moments make me painfully aware of the confusion of the spiritual marketplace, and the claims of those who contend that they have "the" way shake me to my foundations. It sets me to discovering the basics.
I don't think the basics of life are theology, chanting, revelation, or a church. What's basic is my own worth and value as a person. What's basic is the security and hope of my life. Because I am part of God, because I reside in Him, He is my wisdom and guidance. He is always beyond what people think of Him. I believe faith is up to me. It's my view of the world and of myself. Faith, in truth, transcends religion.
It's been a challenge to claim the right to believe and to be confident in it. There are those who try to show you the "correct" way--- theirs! My way will get you to God more than any other, they say. Actually, the only way to God is how I get to him. The "only way" to find God is MY way. It's like the way to maturity, to success, or to any endeavor of life. Belief can be strength or weakness.
We have the power of choice. That's true in religion, too. What we believe comes from our perception that life is part of a Greater Whole. There is a Creative Intelligence, God, but what does that mean? It means that intelligence is the basis of All That Is, and I am part of that intelligence. It exists of itself--It is not Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Baha'i, etc. It simply is. If knowledge is transcendent, it can't be labeled. "Krishna Consciousness" or "Christ Consciousness," or anything other than what is, which is Pure Intelligence and Pure Consciousness. "Christ" or "Krishna" are names we give to this Intelligence. It is our effort., for human experience to grasp transcendent experience. How do we experience transcendant experiences? Through prayer, study, meditation, the arts, even through observing life in its deepest sense.
The very basic question is, who is God? God is the Power, the Intelligence, the Creativity, of All. Yet He is beyond all! God is life, the Life from which comes all life. To say there is no God is to deny the existence of life itself! The problem comes when we try to make God "Christian" (or an adherent of a particular religion.) and when we presume that ONLY what is Christian is of God. Is the wind "Christian"? Is the flow of blood, the respiration of air, is it Christian? God is most, if not ultimately natural. God is because life is. You have God, Life, then expressions of Life into animals, minerals, and plants. You have God and indirect expressions of God; that is, how life becomes and is formulated. Life becomes wisdom and ideas; thus, it is expressed as art, literature, music, poetry, and technology. Yet where does it begin? With Life. Where does Life begin? With God. You could say that God is Christian, Jewsh, Buddhist, Hindu, Baha'i, Zoroastrian, etc., etc. The Word of God is Life and the whispers that come from Life.
As a child is of the physical essensce of his parents, so a child is, spiritually, of God. We resemble our parents in our physical build and in our looks, but as we resemble our earthly parents, we also resemble Life, Infinite Intelligence, and Perfection (in an embryonic form), for we are Life in expression. This Life is from where we came. Without it, we would not be. We must come to terms with Life. Its dimensions, possibilities, and potentialities. Similarly, in a physical sense, we must come to terms with maturity, sexuality, masculinity, femininity, and personal responsibility. To come to terms with the spiritual is to understand and to comprehend Life at its most essential level: Who am I? Why am I here? Life nags at us. Life is Intelligent. It "knows" us.
The Life in us seeks the Life from which it came, for each expression of Life is compatible with the Whole, and, thus, there is an attraction. To understand and comprehend Life in such an essential way is the basis of spirituality- knowing that we come from Infinite Life, and that we are part of the Whole. It has nothing to do with being Buddhist, Christian, Jewish or anything else, but the purpose of spirituality is to understand the Life of our being. to know from where it comes, and where it is going. We want to know these things. Peace is accomplished when Life meets life and when Life embraces life. In the embracing, where is the struggle?
Flesh perceives that it is Life, that Life comes from flesh. But that is not so, though we want to believe that it is true. Life is from Spirit, from Creative Intelligence. Flesh, itself, is a manifestation of Spirit, yet flesh perishes. Flesh has no life in iteself, but it is only a vehicle thorugh which life is expressed. It is temporary and mortal. Since we believe that life is in the flesh, we fear losing life, we fear perishing. So, we desire to satisfy the flesh, its impulses and drives. We "grab the gusto" because "we only go around once." Flesh does not satisfy. We desire more and more. But it is never enough. Flesh becomes ill, then dies. Does life also die? We fear death. Yet we fear death because we believe that Flesh rather than Spirit, is life. The pull of the flesh is persistant, but it is a false love, indeed. The Spirit and flesh, as it were, argue and contend and we listen to one or the other. Jesus said, "The Son of Man come to seek and to save those who are lost." Are we lost? Have we strayed to some far off place, far from home? Isn't "home" the peace of Life embracing Life? God, the Life of all, is your destination. The only destination of flesh is death and the grave. The gift of God is eternal life because that is how He created life to be.
The Spirit is not so hard to find. We have made it very mysterious and ethereal. We need to be still and listen. The life that is in us has a direct connection with the Life that is God. When we make that connection there is peace. The peace will last and cannot be shaken. Our hope is in the truth that we are never seperate from God, that God does, indeed, uphold us. What is there in life but which is of God? If God is All, where is the struggle, the pain, the disappointment? You are where you need to be. You are in the presence of God. You do not have to wait for that presence. God is here, unfolding to you, loving you. God says, "Be still, and know that I am God." God is very real and is infinately close to each of us.
As you come from the wilderness, the kingdom of Heaven, God's perfect peace and love, is here. By faith you can enter into the realm of Pure Spirit, beyound division, beyond separation. God is Pure Spirit, and so, essentially, are we. Pure Spirit does not create confusion, for it is self-existing and all-harmonious. If we are to have peace, we must enter the realm of Pure Spirit through prayer and meditation. Faith is touching the garment, grasping and holding to the reality of Pure Spirit. When we enter into that Spirit, we enter into the realm, the presence of God, and we are home. We have found the Way, the Way which is above and beyond all ways. It is beyond religion and all sectarianism, for at the center of life, there is only God, and life is full, abundant, and complete when it reaches that center. All life is of God. As our life seeks to embrace His life, there is hope and there is peace.

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