Do mystics withdraw from all community to a solitary and independent life, or do they find deep oneness in community? What kind of community?
Category: Jesus
A Bodily Resurrection of Jesus? or of Christ? A Mystical View
Did Jesus come back from the dead, or should we look deeper for the truth of resurrection?
What is the “true” church?
Is there "one true church," and if so, who or what is it?
The Next Chapter of ThyMindOMan.com: Living in the Gift
What's in store for ThyMindOMan.com? Where have we been, and where are we going? The Gift is being invited into my life and yours, as are some great new offerings.
Reflections on Rohr’s opening of “The Universal Christ” Conference
These are some of my notes and reflections on Fr. Rohr's opening address at the conference a couple weeks ago.
The many "Christs" and "Messiahs" that preceded Jesus
And, what many may not know, there were many "Christs" who came prior to Jesus, and who were not Jesus, nor do I think they were prefiguring or foreshadowing Jesus. They were the "Christs" in their own right, who came in their own time, who developed what it meant to be a "Christ" or "Messiah" in ancient Israel long before the word was ever applied to Jesus. I think it may be helpful to become acquainted with these "Christs/Messiahs" to better understand who Jesus was.
A Mystical Interpretation of the Messiah Rebuilding the Temple, or Christ Coming to the Temple
A prominent belief in Jewish tradition is that the coming Messiah will "rebuild the temple." Jesus too said he would "rebuild the temple." But what temple?
The Two Deaths in Mystical Christianity
I think that Christianity may have conflated Jesus's mystical experience of an ego death, perhaps at the time of his baptism when the "heavens opened," in which his individual psychological self "died" and he was was "reborn" of Spirit, or "raised up" (resurrected) to his identity in Christ consciousness (a consciousness of nondual union in God/Reality), with his biological death on the cross. These two deaths seem to have been conflated at some point, resulting in a supernatural conception of the resurrection.
Qualia, Consciousness, Christ, and Cosmos
What is qualia? What is the source of individual instances of subjective conscious experience, like seeing the redness of an apple? Where does the redness come from? I don't know, but here are some ideas. Energy in our environment impinges upon our sense organs causing a cascade of electrochemical reactions and nerve impulses that are [...]
Paul/Silas? our Super Hero Identity vs. our Alter/Secret Identity
I wonder if Silas/Silvanus could be Paul's nickname for his own alter ego, the "Saul" of his prior persecuting life, his shadow side, his human side, his "sinful" side, prior to perhaps taking a "new name" of Paul after his conversion experience.