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General Discussion: Sitting on Top of the World

Posted December 10th, 2008 by Corey deVos

In Reference to:

Rollie Stanich, the Chief Facilitator of Integral Spiritual Center and longtime student of Father Thomas Keating, shares his remarkable path toward contemplative Christianity. He and Ken explore the esoteric contours at the core of the world's largest religion, and offers new ways to interpret and practice this rich tradition in the 21st century.

Rollie has played a vital part in the emerging Integral movement as the Chief Facillitator of Integral Spiritual Center, as a former managing editor of Integral Naked from 2004-2005, and as an ongoing contributor to Integral Life. Rollie's spiritual path is that of contemplative Christianity—he is a practitioner of Centering Prayer and a longtime student of Fr. Thomas Keating; he co-wrote and co-produced the 2008 Integral Life DVD The Future of Christianity; and he is currently writing a book about Integral Christianity entitled Who Do You Say That I Am? Rollie is an extraordinary friend, teacher, and role model; an exemplar of clarity, compassion, and grace; and is dearly beloved by all who have been fortunate enough to feel the tender warmth of his heart.

When Rollie was 25 years old he made a personal pilgrimage to Egypt. He climbed to the top of Mt. Sinai, where Moses is said to have had his world-shaking encounter with the burning bush over three thousand years earlier. He found himself discussing the essence of love with a Jewish couple and a Bedouin Muslim—about as hopeful an image as one could possibly ask for. After awhile, Rollie found himself alone on the mountain, contemplating the meaning of it all, searching for the hidden doorway into his own heart. Looking up to the heavens, he saw the very same stars that had painted the sky in Abraham's time—an ancient canopy of light, infinitely patient, infinitely still, cradling the world in the gentle glow of cosmic radiation. Looking down, he saw the rock and soil beneath his feet—the protean clay of Creation, the mutable source from which all life emerges, and to which it inevitably returns.

It was here, on top of this hallowed mountain, that Rollie found himself at the intersection of two very different realities, smeared like a bug on a windshield between a heaven that seems to remain forever changeless, and an earth that is forever changing. Sitting on top of the world, on top of history itself, he made the most important decision of his lifetime: to give himself fully to both realities, devoting himself to time and eternity alike. And so Rollie discovered his deepest calling: to offer his life and his heart toward becoming a living conduit of love, a love that is at once radically transcendent and immediately immanent; a love that itself reflects the sacred union of heaven and earth.

This, it could be said, represents the essence of Christ's message to humanity. It is a simple recognition that we are all of two natures, both fully human and fully divine. However, as a mountain cuts into the sky without ever actually touching the sky, and the heavens embrace the earth without ever touching the earth, Christ understood that only love can possibly bridge the immeasurable gap between the two; that only within God's most sacred heart can both our natures be brought into phase with each other. In this sense, Jesus Christ was one of the most extraordinary spiritual teachers the world has ever seen, having found a direct path to the majesty of God's love, and inviting us all to follow.

But what does following Christ really mean? For many, following is as simple as naming Christ as the world's one and only true savior, adopting Him as some sort of mythic messiah to watch over our lives and rescue us from sin. For others, following is as simple as separating the man from the myth, and recognizing Christ as one of the world's greatest forerunners of humanistic morality. And for others still, following is as simple as asking oneself "what would Jesus do?" on a regular basis, treating other people with a kindness and respect that stems from an implicit understanding of the inherent goodness of mankind. These are each perfectly valid ways of interpreting Christ's role in our lives, completely appropriate (if limited) to various stages of spiritual and psychological development. But they are also incomplete, insofar as they each treat Christ as an object of awareness, existing somewhere in the stream of time outside of our own consciousness—Christ the disembodied messiah, Christ the historical personage, and Christ the proto-hippie. To truly follow Christ is not to merely walk behind Him as a sheep to a shepherd, but to follow Him as we follow our hearts and our dreams—following Christ by stepping into Christ; following Christ by becoming Christ. We should consider taking the much more difficult road of actually subjectifying ourselves with Christ, inhabiting Christ consciousness in a direct and immediate way, and experiencing for ourselves the mysterious union of earth and heaven, of time and eternity, and of humanity and divinity that Christ Himself was able to experience.

Here we find the mystical roots of the religion, the secret Holiest of Holies at the core of the tradition, the Tootsie Roll center of the Christian Tootsie Pop. It is not enough to accept salvation as hearsay—we must taste it for ourselves, be it for ourselves, and ultimately find the Kingdom of Heaven within ourselves, the infinite stillness within our hearts that Christ told us we would find if we simply cared to look. While we should always remain cautious as to which parts of Scripture we take as literal truth, it would be difficult to find a more straightforward account of what it truly means to engage the heart of the Christian tradition than the words of the apostle Paul: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus."

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skipping stages ?

Posted December 11th, 2008 by Dee Black

thanks for another gorgeously wrtten intro, corey

in this dialogue, rollie says to ken " i was pushing into rational .. and what i realized from reading your books was i was on the doorstep of integral and u just catapulted me into it "

did rollie skip green ?

just like the early developmentalists didn't have enough samples of the higher levels to recognize their existence .. could the same thing have happened with skipping stages ? not enough to register in the studies in the beginning ?

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Seeing

Posted December 30th, 2008 by Darrell Moneyhon in response to skipping stages ?

Dear Dee,

I have commented all over the larger discussion about sitting on top of the world - the place where the absolute meets the relative, or of "incarnational mysticism", and integral's role in helping the absolute and the relative meet. But I am only now, much later in the discussion, tackling your idea about stage skipping. Why so slow to respond? Because I knew I had nothing to say yet, insufficient understanding to even attempt a comment. But, finally, now I do have an idea or two that may have at least an inkling of understanding.

I believe that culture, the bottom left quadrant of Ken's matrix of in-out x individual-collective (I now wonder why we haven't included a third philosophical debate of flow-fixed, as epitomized by Herriclitus and Parmenides, sp? - which would make the 2-dimensional box into a 3-d box; probably a bit too hard to conceptualize, although I have seen flat versions of matrices that show interactions of much more than 6 cells), can pull people up or down the stages at an accelerated rate.

I have had, and have heard from others, of elevator dreams. The interpretation which seems to fit best is that these dreams depict a vertical mind capacity to travel, to "see", higher or lower stages of understanding. An individual may, in his or her dream, ride the elevator to various floors of consciousness or world/self "views", or vantage points (as on top of the world, midway up the world-mountain, at the base of the world-mountain, etc.). I believe that culture, collective mind, can also act as an elevator to view different "floors" of world views.

In effect, each floor or paradigm is a "cognitive reframing" of life and all of life's events/happenings/things (the ten thousand things of Taoism?). I have witnessed the power of simple cognitive reframing in my own life and in the life of others as clients (I retired as a prison mental health counselor). Seeing things from a different perspective (or "floor"?) can make all the difference in one's mood and attitude.

So, if Ken Wilber, as a cultural agent (a "culture-shaper"), acted as a catalyst to Rollie's inner version of an "elevator", it seems concievable that certain floors could be looked at as though from an express elevator - sampled or summarized, perhaps like a compressed computer file? - enough to move faster than normal to a higher floor of understanding. There is, of course, a risk of shadow effects from a stage not fully experienced enough to become a foundation for the next higher stage.

But what if the mind's eye can "see" the gist of the floor as the express elevator moves the individual (or groups of individuals in an enlightened culture) into higher cognitive frames? Once you "see", for example, that a rainy day is an opportunity to relax and read a good book, you don't have to wallow through all the dreadful and/or traumatic thoughts you had when seeing a rainy day as loss or confinement. Just as a person can "see" the tragic mistake of becoming a heroine addict without actually having to experience the addiction and recovery from it.

I believe the human mind contains a "seeing" function, even if it is lying dormant during a lower stage. Thomas Merton, Christian mystic and author, writes about seeing, being, and doing as three spiritual modes or aspects. I now wonder if "seeing" (with mind's innermost "eye") is not a potential stage jumper. I further speculate that it has something to do with a connection to the absolute, to God. There may be a capacity within to "see" higher stages. While Ken's "states" are temporary being modes, a vertical-mind intuitive grasp of higher stages via "seeing" may be somewhat more permanent, having more "roots" in understanding than a mere temporary being-state.

The biblical reference to the "word" may be a metaphor of higher/deeper things "seen" with this mental function (of a third eye?). We may be able to sense the "word", the deep patterns or formats of energy from which matter comes. We may, thusly, gain an intuitive sort of knowledge which accelerates normal means of understanding. If Ken activated Rollie's third eye or vertical mind, then such an acceleration may have occurred - an express elevator. I believe an enlighted culture can do much of the same for the individuals within it. Integral life can help the culture lift up individuals to stages faster than they could achieve without such enrichment.

I believe the seeing capacity of mind can see the aspect of the Father (God beyond, the full maturation of spirituality). Ken acted as the Son to Rollie, by reflecting God with, via Merton's doing (incarnate, or horizontal-mind, mode). The Holy Ghost, I believe, is "God in", not necessarily well connected to the conscious, horizontal, mind, but bubbling up to it in the form of a spiritual being-state.

At the beginning of the spiritual growth journey, the bubbling effect is great, but there is little with-work to connect the inner glow to the outer awareness. In the middle of the journey - the Son moving toward the Father, but not yet the Father - the Absolute is able to be experienced in a less bubbling way, but in a simmer of "incarnational mysticism"in which the absolute is seen in everyday life, similar to Zen mindfulness of the here and now. Our full maturity as a spiritual being can only be "seen" prophetically with the third eye, as a beyond to which we are moving.

The "God in"(inside being) helps. The "God with" helps. And the "God beyond" (but "seen") helps. Each of these three aspects of the the Absolute, or Ultimate Reality, helps us along our spiritual growth journey.

Well, that was a convergence of a lot of strands of thought. I don't know if the weaving together of them was done well enough to be coherent or useful. But at least I gave it a shot.

Thanks for the thought-provoking question that was so good that it took me this long to accept the challenge. If I miserably failed to answer the question, that is perfectly OK. The quest is as important as the answer/destination. Still, I do hope you got some use out of it.

Darrell

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express elevator

Posted January 1st, 2009 by Dee Black in response to Seeing

dear darrell .. your metaphor of "express elevator" makes me ask how fast can the conveyor belt go ? the analogy of recognizing the tragic mistake of becoming a herion addict without having to first experience addiction and recovery .. is a thought-provoking one

and many kids these days seem to zoom thru amber and orange into green

and tee hee .. rollie may have been green for a day or two

and yes, culture certainly can be either a conveyor belt or can cause one to be stifled

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Heat or Light distinction

Posted January 11th, 2009 by Darrell Moneyhon in response to express elevator

Dear Dee

A friend of mine told me of the distinction of learning by heat if you can't learn by light. I recalled hearing that heat vs light metaphor in a Jars of Clay album, Good Monsters. Our question of how fast can the conveyor belt or elevator work (really, sustainably, work) relies on the limits of learning by light, vs how much we need heat/failure/suffering to learn our spiritual lessons.

Just this morning Meet the Nation reviewed the Obama administration direction in terms that seem a blessing, and I thought that perhaps God is trying to bless us. But then, I thought, it only becomes a blessing if we bless the blessing by seeing/understanding well enough to take advantage of the opportunity to "get" interdependence/interconnectedness as a new social (and economic, see Paul Kugan's work for which he recieved the Nobel Peace prize) . Heat has led to this potential blessing. Will we bless it by having enough light to see its significance?

Darrell

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Differential Line Development ...

Posted January 11th, 2009 by Darrell Moneyhon in response to Heat or Light distinction

as Explanation of the Hypothesized Accelerated Spiritual Stage Actualization/Evolution:

I was just now re-watching part of the well-made DVD The Future of Christianity - the part where both Ken and Father Keating explain how Christ appears at the various stages, and how a crises of faith typically happens between mythic and rational for many evolving Christians, and to some extent, for the overall organized faith tradition of Christianity itself. Upon watching this section again, I had two philosophical insights which may account for the rapid conveyance from the spiritual stage of mythic to the spiritual stage of pluralistic and beyond. Below are the insights. Judge them for what they are worth.

First, Ken made a statement that indirectly reminded me of "lines" of development. As you probably already know, the overall integral map includes quadrants, lines, and stages. The DVD emphasizes only one of these - the spiritual stages, by alluding to how western developmental psychology offers a useful model for viewing some differences of Christian belief as being attributable to developmental stages of faith (Koler? - the stages of faith scale guy - not mentioned thus far in the DVD which I have not seen yet all the way through).

When Ken mentions in the video that many Christians develop intellectually, especially in high school and college, to the rational stage long before their "spiritual intelligence" can catch up, he is is implicitly introducing the integral concept of different developmental lines. This concept of different lines of development could account for acceleration effects. Why? Because if the individual has been practicing ration on the intellectual line for some time, then he or she may have what is called "transfer of learning" when it is eventually transplanted into the spiritual line. Much of the stage work has been done on another line, so when it is moved over, the spiritual stage moves along quickly.

It would be somewhat like a teacher teaching his or her second year. Much of the curriculum was developed in the previous year, so the teaching time is greatly reduced the second year. To use this analogy, the learning that took place on the intellectual line would be analogous to the teacher's curriculum from the year before (where "the year before" is a metaphor of a different line).

Another analogy might be the economic concept of economy of scale - analogous, loosely speaking, in the sense that a confluence of "factors" (analogous to other Integral map lines and/or states and quadrants which may contribute indirectly to accelerated or slowed stage advancement in a given line of development). In the case of economy of scale, once the initial (high/expensive) development costs for manufacturing and infrastructure for, say, hydrogen fuel cells has past, then the production costs of the hydrogen fuel cell will be less and less, and it will become "economically feasible" at an accelerated rate. Paul Kruger's Nobel Peace Prize was, as I understand it, related to that principle of economy of scale, and how a pooling of group money/resources can shorten the time for the upstart hurdle of new products (and new economies based on those innovations).

Much of the thinking structure required for the spiritual growth acceleration has been developed in other lines, or perhaps in different quadrants. Once the person realizes that he or she can apply it in his or her spirituality, the elevator or conveyer belt may move fast. The same may be true on the collective level. Green thinking, using a new dynamic view of how things are (interfacing with nature will require this ecosystem and field-effects and chemical interaction type of thought) may be able to be transfered relatively quickly to spiritual and intellectual growth. We can think like the Tree of Life, instead of the thought-boxes of the Tree of Knowledge (of good and evil or other dichotomies).

Does any of this make sense? It strained my little mind to formulate it!

Darrell

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[Comment Deleted]

Posted December 12th, 2008 by admin

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Hi Astrid

Posted December 12th, 2008 by Corey deVos in response to [Comment Deleted]

Hey Astrid!

another informing and well written summary, thanks a lot. It is especially helpful for me to use your texts as a written guideline to the audio pieces which would be otherwise much more difficult for me to understand, as they are spoken in a foreign language.

Sweet! That makes me happy.

How can suggestions and wishes be applyed, and answered? Is there already a person responsible for communicating with the members?

You can either submit requests like these to memberservices (at) integrallife (dot) com (as i think you have done, Astrid) and they will pass them on to me. Or you could email me directly at cdevos (at) integrallife (dot) com, with the understanding that i am most likely buried under a mountain of emails, and might be unable to respond right away. But i do take all requests seriously, even when they are outside the realm of possibility to make happen.

I suggested a male and female spokesperson, because I think it shapes the way of how and what is communicated about over here. I think if the staff members who are visible do not talk from a professional, nevertheless authentic perspective with the members, it might be experienced as less whole and "inviting" to participate, for example for young female members like me

I understand this sentiment, and agree in many important ways. It is a ball i certainly have my eye on....

personally I had difficulties to get involved throughout years, unfortunately out of private reasons.

I hope you are able to work through whatever personal circumstances you are experiencing, and i'm sure that I and the rest of the community would love to offer whatever means of support you might need, however appropriate....

My writing is not at all meant as a critique about also expressing private views, and contributing a colorful cocktail of interests and ideas next to the professional writing which you already do. It's more the wish to see also representing integral women who are in dialog with the members in a forum like this.

Received!

Do you think these suggestions are feasible in a way that they are beneficial to the IL members?

In a word, absolutely! Again, it may take some time before we can make suggestions such as these actionable, but i do very much appreciate you offering your perspectives.

Much love to you Astrid, and don't hesitate to let me know if there is anything else i can clear up for you.

Warmth,
Corey

Corey W deVos
(dj rekluse)

Managing Editor, Integral Naked
Writer, Content Producer, and Audio Manager, Integral Life
Managing Editor, KenWilber.com

"Include the Values, Negate the View!"

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The Community in Communication

Posted December 15th, 2008 by Darrell Moneyhon in response to Hi Astrid

Dear Astrid and Corey,

In one of his books, Ken referred to an author who differentiated between "agency" and "communion". I find this distinction very useful.

I also like an article that I read in an anthology called The Psychology of Human Consciousness, by Ornstein. The author of the article is Aurther Diekman (sp?). Diekman suggests that there are two main psychological "modes" which cut across many systems within the human mind and body. He provides reviews of research which evidence these two modes.

The two modes he identified are: the action mode vs. the receptive mode - similar, I feel, to "agency and communion". It would seem that the receptive mind is low resistance enough to take in and relate (more fully) with the surrounding environment, rather than overpowering it and squelching it. Receptiveness leads to "with-ness" (my word) - to a sense, and/or state, of communion and community.

The anthropologists sometimes speak of "hunters and gatherers". The hunters would seem to match "agency" and the "action mode". The gatherers would seem to match "communion" and the "receptive mode".

If the individuals of any group, organization, or system shift to the gatherer/receptive/communion modes, then a sense of community and belonging would be created. This is a person-to-culture approach. Spiritually-evolved people (who have reaped the fruits of disciplined spiritual practice, and who have gradually learned to see the interconnected aspect of things) would tend to generate such relatedness.

Of course it can work the other way around - from culture to person. Instead of activating a communion mode via spiritual training and growth, actual friendly community events (such as support groups in which people can speak in their own voices) can help each participant's mind open up and become more receptive. Empathy is often greatly increased, because there are real and whole human beings there.

I applaud Astrid for pointing out a need for forms of communication that foster community. As a new IL member myself, the established members can seem intimidating at times with their highly differentiated, advanced, tools (for growth) and weapons (against ignorance and stagnation). To me, the suggestion is that we need to remember the gathering as we hunt.

Both "hunting" and "gathering" are needed if we are to grow, and a balance of the two is truly integral. We do need to passionately seek truths, and pull out the stops when it comes to learning and growing. On the other hand, such passion can get in the way of a welcoming sort of grace, and can get in the way of nurturing the sensitive soul.

I once conducted a men's spirituality group, and found that we would often "hunt" the truth so passionately that we had to stop and "gather" ourselves, because we realized that we were hunting truth in a non-spiritual manner (arguing against each other's points, etc.). It was fascinating to see the disconnect between content and mode. It was also fascinating to see how the group-awareness could help shift the individual participants back into the gist of the group, as though a greater truth was revealed in spite of our individual efforts.

I have always found it interesting that Christ/Christian idea of "fishers of men" referenced a subtype of hunters who used literal nets (as in networking), rather than spears, and who hunted in the element of the ocean (the oceanic mind?). It seems as though they are "gather-ified", "relate-y", hunters who are modulated by love and receptiveness and wholeness - the stuff of communion and community.

We newer IL members are still in a more gathering mode, picking a few ripe berries here and a few delicious nuts there. We still have the gift of the mysterious first stage of a journey. And, as systems go, it is a fruitful, "fresh new blood" state, that often invigorates the "community" aspect of the "organization".

In my own local way I am trying to build the integral life community with a group that supports writers and searchers. The group is still in a formative stage. The first meeting is being planned. So far, there are only 3 interested participants. A blog was set up as precursor and supplement to the support group. Below is an introduction (posted on the blog) to the group:

Welcome to Jar. This blog is devoted to "welcoming the right brain to thought", to supporting writers of poetry and prose, and to encouraging philosophical ideas, especially those pertaining to spirituality, or "whole-mind activity".

Jar is named after Wallace Stevens' poem Anecdote of the Jar. The jar in Stevens' poem seems to represent an open and receptive mind. In general, Wallace Stevens was noted for combining intellectual thought with poetic imagery and poetic logic. I don't have permission to copy his poem, so please look it up online, so you can compare it to the translated version (below) which is a kind of vision statement for this blog, and for the proposed support group by the same name - Jar.

Anecdote of the Jar Group

We placed a group devoted to contemplative thought in Ohio.

And it was unified toward developing higher consciousness

Which transcends the part-mind activity of formal thought,

But includes such intellectual processing.

The group mind lifted up the regular activity of thought

By integrating those thoughts into a larger whole.

The consciousness was based upon contemplation/meditation, upon the ground of being,

And was transcendent and open.

The group mind was expansive, exploring all sorts of possibilities.

It was nonjudgmental and non-biased.

The group didn't limit itself to particular beliefs -

Not at all typical of mid-western culture and thought.

The plan is to have quarterly meetings at a coffee cafe in Powell, Ohio. The blog will be a supplement to the face-to-face meetings, and can accommodate those who may be too far away to attend the quarterly meetings. Special group-sponsored poetry readings and "searchshops" (philosophical discussions/explorations) may occur in time, as the Jar group grows.

This and other similar offshoot groups could act as both an informal feeder system and as supplemental support groups to serve long-term IL members. These support groups would remain independent enough to provide local variations on the larger IL themes and techniques. They are one possible way to meet the communion need that counterbalances the agency (and formal words) of spiritual "hunters"of truth.

Thanks for discussing the need for dialogue and community. I believe it serves IL well.

Darrell

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Unexpected Subjective Experience Related to the Intellectual Content of Sitting...

Posted December 15th, 2008 by Darrell Moneyhon

I fully expected to have intellectual insights from this blog/discussion about "Sitting on Top of the World". I had just listened to Ken's interview of Rollie Stanich, The Sacred Heart of Christianity, and had two or three mental associations which I knew would likely carry over to this discussion.

I was surprised when the reading of Mr. DeVos' blog resulted in a very concrete (rather than my typically abstract) thought/sense of a similar mystical experience I once had. I suppose I never fully psychologically or spiritually processed my own mountaintop event. This blog became a positive "trigger", or cue, to do so.

Early in my (now) long marriage (33 years and counting) my wife and I had one of those arguments which a young husband feels is the end of the love, and the end of my world. To deal with the intense unhappiness, or sense of cold loss, I decided to take a run, both as a momentary distraction, and to pump a few feel good endorphins into my depressive brain. We were living in the gateway region of the Appalachan Mountains in Kentucky, where my wife and I attended college, Morehead State University, Morehead, Ky. So it was not hard to find a nearby mountain road to run up. Clack Mountain was one of the higher local mountains, at least of the ones that were easy to access by road.

By the time I ran to and up Clack Mountain, I was feeling better, but still conflicted. When I reached the top of the road, I continued off road to the solid rock knoll at the very top. I suppose I sensed the need for healing, and I was no stranger to doing my own personal psychodramas (I call it "acting through", as opposed to acting out), and the most effective had been ones involving a reconnection with nature.

My intuition led me to lay flat on my back on the mountaintop, view the wide-open sky, and meditate in anticipation of spiritual healing. In the manner of Gestalt therapy "shuttling", I shifted my awareness back and forth from the ancient earth and the gravity beneath me and the lightness, expansiveness, and the vast possibilities of the sky above. After awhile my body/self seemed to become a connecting link between these two modes. I began chanting the words "wrapped in the harmony of earth and sky". At one point I even saw the clouds separate in an inside out manner at the point of my gaze, as though I had burnt a hole in the cloud. The whole mystical experience did, in fact, "burn a hole" in my "cloud" of hopelessness and depression.

Thirty some years before I heard Ken Wilber's interview of Rollie Stanich, and their mention of "incarnational (Did I get the word right?) mysticism", I had such an experience. The universe breathed into, and through, a particular being -me- who was grounded in existence yet connected to spirit. The transformative effect of this deep and wide experience (one of my favorite church songs is "deep and wide, deep and wide; there's a fountain flowing deep and wide") is still being felt this thirty some years later!

Thanks, Corey, for following your heart to write the blog and to "jog" a powerful memory which I needed to revisit so I can continue to evolve. You "reincarnated" the me who, like Rollie (and, I am sure, countless other human beings), had an "On Top of the World" experience.

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The Kingdom of God is like...

Posted December 15th, 2008 by camfree

For those interested you can click here for a related blog post that outlines a new perspective on Jesus and the Kingdom of God... Cam

"Become passers-by" (Jesus of Nazareth)

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The Second Commenting, Sitting Under the Christmas Tree

Posted December 17th, 2008 by Darrell Moneyhon

Dear Corey, I am a believer in both intellectual and spiritual "processing". Sometimes the second and third and fourth takes on an issue reveal a little more of the "tootsie pop". In revisiting your General Discussion, Sitting on Top of the World, I was able to get hold of portions that I can highlight in my mind, and place on my heart. Below is an excerpt from you blog that I plan to carry with me and live:

"To truly follow Christ is not to merely walk behind Him as a sheep to a shepherd, but to follow Him as we follow our hearts and our dreams—following Christ by stepping into Christ; following Christ by becoming Christ. We should consider taking the much more difficult road of actually subjectifying ourselves with Christ, inhabiting Christ consciousness in a direct and immediate way, and experiencing for ourselves the mysterious union of earth and heaven, of time and eternity, and of humanity and divinity that Christ Himself was able to experience.

To further convict myself to the above message, I recalled some other (than literal mountaintop) spiritually intimate experiences with which I have been blessed to have, and to have recorded via journalling/writing. I have found that true processing involves making "matches" to other similar points of meaning. The stars don't shine alone, they fill the whole sky. As I connected your message-star to my journal-shine, I felt like I was reliving the story of the shepherds and wise men following the star to the Christ child. And isn't that what you hoped or intended? - that we could all "re-live" the Christ stories?

The end product from the second coming of the message I read on your blog post amounts to a kind of Christmas gift I would like to give you and other IL members. I made a post called "A Sacred Heart-Space of Christmas ...". The three journal entries weave various forms of the sacred Christmas tree which incorporates spiritual truths (as personally encountered/experienced) from both Christian faith practice and from natural, pagan, forms of faith practice (Yes, I am one of those Christian tree huggers!).

Here's the link to the stories. I hope you enjoy them and receive some meaning from them. A Sacred Heart-Space of Christmas, Experiences Surroundilng the Symbol of the Winter Solstice Tree

Darrell

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The Second Commenting, Sitting Under the Christmas Tree