Diversion, Dictatorship and the Concentration of Wealth

Column by Dr. Carl Krieg on 4 August 2022 0 Comments

It has been shown that wealth actually changes the structure of a person’s brain, destroying a sense of empathy for others while at the same time creating a sense of entitlement.

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Question

Writings by Progressive Christians have left me very sad and with a profound sense of loss. I always thought there would be heaven awaiting--where I would continue to exist---and see those that I have loved. Now, I know that is not true. I will "meld", for want of a better word, into the Cosmos. There is no reward for sacrifice or painful times, no reward for giving or suffering. There is not even the "God" I used to believe in, and talk to. There is no one there. Why bother to "love wastefully" ?? Why sacrifice?? Why do anything or be anything beyond being a relatively decent, law-abiding person?

Answer

Dear Reader,

I would begin by inviting you to remain with your profound sense of loss and your feeling of sadness. I’m aware that it might not feel like this now, but they are gifts. They are gifts because they are expressions of your soul here and now. I invite you to breathe into the loss and the feeling of sadness in your body. Come to know them – Are they contractions in your solar plexus? A hard pit in your belly? A lack of sensation in your pelvis? Hot? Cold? Too often we “intellectualize” our bodily experiences and miss the wisdom being communicated. So, I invite you to begin with honoring where you are. In the darkness of your loss and sadness is your path – the unfolding thread of your personal journey.
 
What I say next is not meant to make you feel better or even differently. I offer these words as possible aids to your own curiosity in your unfolding journey.
 
Each of us is an embodiment of Holy Mystery – Boundless Love. Love, as you are discovering is not an object, or a person, but the very fabric of Reality itself. When we are young the primary way we understand this love is as a God that is a person, like us, only greater. But to realize that God is Love is to slowly awaken to the truth that the fluid fabric of Reality itself is Love. And that there could never be anything more intimate than that. This is a kind of intimacy we can only discover for ourself within the loss of something familiar to hold onto.
 
We love, we care, we forgive, we sacrifice, because it’s the true nature of our soul – our being. We love, care, forgive, sacrifice not in hope of a reward, or out of fear, or because of a command; we love because love is our deepest longing, and we experience profound joy in being true to what we are. Even when that truth involves loss and sadness, such as you are experiencing now. When we don’t love, we feel hollow, cold, and lost.
 
Because Love is the fabric of Reality, no creature, no person, no friend, is ever lost, forsaken, or forgotten. Love never ends. None of us knows, or can know, how the spiritual journey continues to unfold after our body dies. But my sense is that the journey does indeed continue because Love has no end.
 
I don’t see any reason for you to stop talking with Holy Mystery. Let your heart and body express itself – its loss, its sadness, its confusion, its longing. Express yourself in words, tears, song, silence, and ritual. The response of Holy Mystery will not be in words but in your continuing journey of awakening as the embodiment of Love. The possibility is that your sense of intimacy with your soul, with the ones you love, and with Holy Mystery, will deepen in ways you never imagined possible.

~ Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D.

 

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