Contemplative Living- We R Already One

 Contemplative Living: We Are Already One

We are living in a time of brokenness and everyone is affected. We see brokenness in the guiding institutions of society upon which we have always depended to provide for the common good.  We see brokenness in individuals, in our families, and in our environment. During these distressing times, those whose lives have been affected by war or by a troubled economy that has created greater homelessness, unemployment, and poverty, will often seek the inner strength they need to cope and survive from their spiritual life. 

But the times are also distressing for those who want to do something about these conditions or who are trying to assist those in need.  They, too, seek inner strength and direction from their spiritual life. 

Thomas Merton saw the "illusion of separateness" in our relationships as the root cause of the perennial issues confronting humanity.  There is conclusive evidence in our culture, our society and our personal lives to support his view. In our relationships with people and organizations we encounter behaviours that create greater separateness: dishonesty, unfaithfulness, greed, addictions, self-centeredness, violence, and abuse of power. These behaviours erode the fundamentals that relationships require for personal and social harmony.

Lasting solutions will not come from fixing the economy or the healthcare system, nor from peace treaties or more legislation. Certainly these efforts may help to alleviate the pain and suffering, but they do not address the root cause. To address all the manifestations of brokenness and destructive behaviours is impossible.  They are just symptoms of something deeper, something that can be addressed and needs to be addressed by every person.

We do not need to invent a new solution. It already exists. It is within each of us. It entails living contemplatively, that is, in relationships with self, others, nature and God free of the illusion of separateness. It begins with oneself, recognizing and amending whatever we do that alienates us from our true self, each other, nature and God.  We are living contemplatively when:

• We purposefully engage in activities intended to deepen our relationships.
• We are not distracted by meaningless activity and our active life does not suffocate our contemplative nature.
• We take personal responsibility for each of our relationships and are conscious of how our decisions, actions and use of time affect them.
• Our relationships determine our life's goals and become the measure of our success.
• We find ourselves more concerned with the issues confronting humanity and less with the mundane concerns of daily life.
• We experience the freedom, joy and love that can only come from grounding ourselves in our relationships.

"We are already one. But we imagine that we are not. And what we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are."     Thomas Merton

Contemplative living can be taken to an even higher level of spiritual consciousness. If the soul has encountered previous negative religious experiences then it becomes locked to the window of opportunity that God has for that soul. Down through the centuries many individuals who were introduced to God by their family, have either directly or indirectly experienced the ‘wrath of clerical religious abuse.’ We only have to look at our TV screens to see how members of the Abrahamic Community in Jerusalem communicate God’s love to each other. Regrettably, their contact is more fuelled by ego, power to control or ignorance to the real truth behind each human story. Either way, today, because we have received so much enlightenment from embracing ‘Contemplative Living,’ we are ideally placed to challenge all forms of human misery and egoist language that seeks to separate the innocent soul from embracing a God of Love.

 
Today, there is a real spiritual hunger in all its forms at some stage in our quest for clarity and meaning to ‘who am I;’ ‘where I am going,’ etc in this faith experience.

 

Why not come and join me on Livestream where we embrace the healing energies of the Risen Cosmic Christ and Magdalene to reactivate the soul’s DNA to self heal.

 

Led by Brother Sean from 12 midnight (GMT); 07.00pm (EST) 4 personal and global Peace and Insterspiritual Unity.

 

 

Embracing the Divine Femine & Essenic Energy

Embracing the DIVINE FEMININE,

working with the CHRIST/ MAGDALENE/ ANGELIC HEALING ENERGIES, underpinned by the ancient Teachings of the Essenes

 

Article by Brother Sean

 

Embracing the Divine Feminine within our daily lives is an important part of our spiritual journey as it challenges us to Reflect, Reclaim, Release, Rekindle our love affaire with Source, the one who IS.

It is my belief that until we rediscover the divine feminine within ourselves as light workers, we will operate not from a center of balance but work from a place of imbalance. The divine feminine is primarily associated with balance and if we are not ‘balanced’ then our spiritual gifts lack clarity and our ministrations to our clients are lacking that all important spiritual life’s healing energy that will nurture pure Love and Light –Christ Consciousness.

In my work as a therapist and teacher, I have come to the conclusion that the Divine Feminine is an equal partnership – a duality of healing energies balanced between Christ and Mary Magdalene as well as being the face and personality of Source. Each one of us has our own view point on what the Divine Feminine means to them. Whatever our personal views are I know that by engaging and working with the healing energies of the divine feminine, we embrace all that there is – the one who IS. 

As light workers, I believe that we each have a duty to be responsible for our spiritual lives and that we have a duty to take back our personal power and reclaim our own individuality as well as our divinity.

We know from the annals of history that man has desperately tried to captivate the essence of Source and in his quest to achieve illumination with the ‘Holy One’, has become embroiled in a head centered approach thus losing the simple message of what Love and Light is all about. Man’s attempt to make that penultimate connection with Source, the God/dess, devised ways using ritual and ceremony to help us reconnect. The downside to this has been a noticeable shift in man escaping from ‘man made religion to embracing a less complicated approach using spirituality. As one beautiful client informed me several years ago when she phoned me and asked the question, ‘what is the difference between religion and spirituality’? Her reply was awesome and indeed challenging. She went on to say that ‘religion was for those of us who lived in fear of hell and spirituality was for those of us who had come through hell.’

Religion has helped me take back my power and embrace a more heart-centered relationship with Source. In my quiet times alone with my God/dess I Behold-Enfold –Hold and Listen to the Divine Feminine of Source touch my heart –my teacher. As light workers we have a duty to care for oneself and whilst it is essential that we seek the necessary qualifications in our specific fields as holistic therapists, we are not only invited by the Divine to be great therapists but to be a people whose minds and hearts are primarily fixed on selfless love in service to the Divine God/dess. 

Several years ago I experienced a major life crisis that soon ended my career as a qualified nurse. During that time I was in a wilderness of deep-rooted pain and isolation trying to come to terms with a series of losses as well as cope with mental illness induced by a well-known anti depressant, ‘Prozac’. Looking back I now realize that for the Divine Feminine –the Christ and Mary Magdalene to use me as their hands and feet to touch lives, I too had to be broken of the self /the ego, and be transformed over a period of years to wellness and wholeness.

 

Therapeutic Channelling has its roots in the ancient teachings of the Essenes dating back to 3000 years BC and the first century of the Christian era at the Dead Sea in Palestine and at Lake Mareotis in Egypt. In Palestine and Syria the members of the brotherhood were known as Essenes and in Egypt as Therapeutae, or healers. They sent out healers, teachers and therapists from the brotherhoods, amongst them were Elijah, John the Baptist, John the Beloved and the great Essene Master, Jesus. The origin of the brotherhood is said to be unknown, and the derivation of the name is uncertain. Some believes it comes from Enoch, and claims him to be there founder, their Communion with the angelic world having first been given to him.

 

Why not come and join me on Livestream where we embrace the healing energies of the Risen Cosmic Christ and Magdalene to reactivate the soul’s DNA to self heal.

 

Led by Brother Sean from 12 midnight (GMT); 07.00pm (EST) 4 personal and global Peace and Insterspiritual Unity.

 

Namaste

Brother Sean-Barefoot Franciscan Monk

 

 

How 2 Recognize a true Spiritual Path

How to recognize a true spiritual path...

 

H. P. Blavatsky warned us against false prophets. So did many others. But knowing that there are true prophets, how can we decide who to listen to? How does one distinguish a true spiritual path from a fake one? How does one know whether a path is really a dead end and one will come to regret ever following it? There are a few signs that one can look out for. The list that follows is based on my studies of the work of H.P. Blavatsky, J. Krishnamurti, Buddha and a few others.

1.       A true path makes you ultimately more independent and sensitive. True spirituality puts the responsibility of your growth and regeneration into your hands. You will be responsible to find your own truth, or in other words: you will find out the truth for yourself. It won't consist in the repetition of set words or phrases, nor in mere devotion to some guru. Devotion to the truth as you find it can of course be expected.

2.      On a true path there may be a 'teacher', but they will never teach on any other basis than on your being ready for the teaching. Money will not be asked (other than perhaps costs covering expenses). A poor student will be accepted if he/she is ready for learning.

3.      In true spirituality right living is a number one consideration. Whichever list of virtues or vices is used is hardly important. It is important though that real learning only begins after a student has internalized them to some extent and sees for him- or herself that they are important. A student who doesn't see the importance of right living will have to postpone all else to learn the basics first.

4.      On a true spiritual path there isn't any reward. The result may be enlightenment, but even that is not gained for oneself, but as 'the power to bless and save humanity'. Any path that promises reward in any form in this life, is partial and perhaps misleading.

5.      A true spiritual leader acts on the principles he or she teaches. He or she is chaste or at least faithful to wife, husband or partner. There will certainly be no sexual relations between student and teacher. This is abuse of authority and betrays the trust between the two.

The danger of sects

Then there are of course those paths that are dangerous for social reasons. Many lists have been made on how to recognize a path that will not lead anywhere other than dependence and isolation from your former friends and relatives.

1.       The first one has really already been said: in a sect you will be encouraged to let go of friends and family. On a true path one may naturally let go of certain friends as one has grown beyond them. A true path may make one change a lot. But the impulse to let go friends should come from the inside, not the outside. As for family - depending on circumstances of course - most people will find that their relationship with their family changes as well. For some all bitterness disappears and therefore the relationship becomes better. In other cases the family can't accept the changes a person goes through and will let the individual go. But in no case will a true student let go of personal love, just for the sake of the path. Love starts in the here and now, with the people we've been put into this world with.

2.      In a sect one will be showered with personal attention at first. There will be a wooing period. More than a simple friendly welcoming, there will be people who act as though they were your friend and will 'reel you in'.

Unfortunately real and fake spirituality have many things in common. Both will appeal to your sense of wanting to belong to a greater whole. Both will encourage you to devote time and energy to 'the cause'. Every organization needs people to help sustain it. On a true spiritual path such selfless service will help to understand the principles of right living. In a sect such service (if performed selflessly), may in the end help to clear the mind enough to be able to leave. The appeal of a sect is partly the fact that it perverts the true. We sense the truth behind it and don't yet realize the false ways in which it has been used. Sects will, for instance, often appeal to a realization that the personality has to be let go. (Sexual) abuse will perhaps be justified in this way. In this case what is forgotten is that when the personality is let go, it will be replaced by a true awareness of what is right and wrong. The body and the personality are linked, so anything that strengthens the animal passions will only help pervert the personality. Sex will not help in going beyond the personality (except of course, temporarily).

If your heart is guiding you to embrace God through the Natural World-the Franciscan soul where the brothers and sisters of the Tau Community of Franciscan Universal Monks endorse the U.N.’s Charter of Compassion towards all faiths and none as modern day lay monastics from your monastery without walls, then why not visit our website: http://www.interfaithfranciscans.com

Our next enrollment date for new members to our online non residential Oblate studies programme as an Franciscan Interfaith Oblate is: 4^th April 2011. Following a six month probationary period of spiritual discernment, each new Oblate, if accepted by the whole community, will be welcomed as Oblates/seminarians on the Feast of Saint Francis on 4^th October 2011 to complete their three years studies.

For further information, please email Taufriends@aol.com

Pax et Bonum

Brother Sean
Spiritual Director of the Virtual Monastery of Saint Francis

 

Why not come and join me on Livestream where we embrace the healing energies of the Risen Cosmic Christ and Magdalene to reactivate the soul’s DNA to self heal.

 

 Led by Brother Sean from 12 midnight (GMT); 07.00pm (EST) 4 personal and global Peace and Insterspiritual Unity.

Namaste

Brother Sean-Barefoot Franciscan Monk

 

Sevenfold Vows

TheTau Community of Saint Francis

 

The Sevenfold Vows taken by our Tertiary’s and Oblates when they have completed their 2 Year’s Novitiate training.                                                                                                                                  

 1)                The Vow of Simplicity of Life                                                                                                    

 2)                The Vow of Purity of Heart                                                                                                         

3)                The Vow of Obedience                                                                                                                

4)                The Vow of Non-Violence                                                                                                          

5)                The Vow of Universal Citizenship                                                                       

6)                The Vow of Providence                                                                                                               

7)                The Vow of Compassion

OPTIONAL:

Lay Monastics are invited to take the Four Vows in addition to the above 7 promises. They are:

1)                Poverty

2)                Celibacy

3)                Obedience

4)                Enclosure

 

Why not come and join me on Livestream where we embrace the healing energies of the Risen Cosmic Christ and Magdalene to reactivate the soul’s DNA to self heal.

 

Led by Brother Sean from 12 midnight (GMT); 07.00pm (EST) 4 personal and global Peace and Insterspiritual Unity.

Namaste

Brother Sean-Barefoot Franciscan Monk

 

Reflections from the Monastery Pews

PEOPLE WILL DO ANYTHING THAN FACE THEIR OWN SOULS

 

There is something archetypal about St. Francis, something that rises from deep within us when we meet him, something we find in Assisi itself. It walks the streets unseen, it comes invisibly around corners wearing a fiery cloak that fans the air like the wings of seraphs hot with God. 

What is this something, and why do so many feel it rising within them as they pass through the gates of a medieval mountain town whose very name is a variation of the old Italian word “ascesi,” which means, “I have risen”? Dante says it is Francis himself, who, like the sun, rose upon the earth and was still a mere dawn when we began to feel the warmth and light his rising brought us: 

Therefore, whoever seeks to name this place

Should not say, “Assisi.” That would not do it.

Rather say, “The Rising,” to name what happened there.

For the sun wasn’t long in its rising

When he began to warm and lighten the earth

With the comfort of his great power.  

People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls. They will practice Indian yoga and all its exercises, observe a strict regimen of diet, learn theosophy by heart, or mechanically repeat mystic texts from literature of the whole world – all because they cannot get on with themselves and have not the slightest faith that anything useful could ever come out of their own souls. Thus the soul has gradually been turned into a Nazareth from which nothing good can come.... 

But something good does come from Nazareth, and so I close my eyes and lips and pray in that secret place called soul, waiting for him to come who is Son, and for him to raise me up who is Father. And therein begins all mystic experience in me, instead of doing frantically all sorts of things to “make “ him love me. I keep trying to prove I’m good by doing, giving, thereby pre-empting God, not letting him come to me first, not receiving. And I do this because I am afraid he really does not love me as the beautiful work of his own loins, but only if I win his love. 

The so-called Peace Prayer of St. Francis has the line, “It is in giving that we receive,” but that can only be prayed well by one who knows that it is only “in receiving that we give.” For God has first loved us, and given himself to us, and that is what we learn from the mystics like St. Francis, who are brave enough to close their eyes and lips and listen. Then what begins to rise in us is that which has been lifted up by him who comes in love, and what he lifts up is the heart itself, rising from within to meet the Love descending to embrace it. 

This is what I’ve learned in Assisi, in the unhurried land of Umbria, from St. Francis, who in summer gave of himself in compassion to others on the road, but in winter returned to the mountaintop and entered the cave with closed eyes and lips, and waited. Had he remained on the road, his giving would only have been to prove to himself that he was as good as his good works proclaimed he was. Had he remained always in the cave, blind and silent, he would only have proved his own self- absorption instead of that meeting with him who raises up and draws out the heart to follow him down the mountain where he summers in those his embrace has led us to embrace. 

This, too, then I have learned. And these pages are the words of him who taught it to me, of him who learned the lesson and the words by closing his eyes and lips and waiting. These are the words St. Francis spoke after that prayer which is a closing of the eyes and lips to pray to one’s Father in secret. These are the words I’ve heard wherever or whenever I read the words of Francis with my own eyes and my own lips sealed.

 

 

Why not come and join me on Livestream where we embrace the healing energies of the Risen Cosmic Christ and Magdalene to reactivate the soul’s DNA to self heal.

 

Led by Brother Sean from 12 midnight (GMT); 07.00pm (EST) 4 personal and global Peace and Insterspiritual Unity.

 



Why not visit Brother Sean's series of over 600 short videos on Youtube. Maybe there might be something there that will inspire your heart further

 

Namaste

Brother Sean-Barefoot Franciscan Monk

 

Set My People Free From Religious Oppression

Set My People Free From Religious Oppression

Article by Brother Sean

God says this to all our hearts today, ‘Desolate is the whole world laid desolate, because mankind does not reflect on the Divine in their hearts.’

What is this saying to our hearts today?

Could it be that we have lost sight of who God actually is by adhering more to the written or spoken word from our religious leaders instead of going back into our hearts and listening to the same small voice of God?

Or have we become like sheep without a shepherd walking aimlessly in life without clarity, integrity and genuine conviction based not the truth that already is within our soul?

Seekers of truth ask these questions:

All religions and faith have some element of truth and knowledge.

Why is it that we are more divided?

Why is it that we are unhealthier?

Why is there increase in war and killing?

Why is the overall condition of humanity worsening?

Millions of faithful followers call on who they believe to be the Creator daily through prayer and positive meditation. Prayer and positive meditation has been proven to save lives in the medical field. Irregardless of personal religious dogma, collectively this energy should be producing extraordinary change in the condition of this world. So has humanity lost contact with the Supreme Being?

Over 519 billion believe in a Supreme Being. Let’s say 4% of these people represent the enlightened and benevolent, and the rest of the masses are unlearned in their faith and are simply following tradition. You still have over 207 million followers of these faiths sincerely meditating, praying, petitioning, lamenting 24 hours a day 7 days a week. 

Has God stop listening to us in our insanity?

What should our response be as seekers of truth representing an interfaith community be?

God is waiting for people to stop waiting to be fed and grow up emotionally and spiritually. When the people start to walk on there own two feet they can then teach their souls to fly hand in hand with the divine. Humanity are like birds in the nest of 'feed me' mentality and the mother is having problems pushing them out of the nest because they like to huddle together under the wing.

Man not God created religion. God is a spiritual reality not a religious one. When religious people start serving others then they are serving God, 2,000 years after Jesus humanity still doesn't get it. God said 'It is not a one-way street'.

Religion keeps people in separation from God.

Prayers have been heard but are humanity listening and then doing?

Last year the Lord said this about the religious.

'Ask him why he needs a man to hold his penis for him".

The seeker asks...........

"Why is it that we are more divided?"

Our response: Religion divides "Why is it that we are more unhealthy?"

Our response: Religion does not teach people how to heal the self.

"Why is there increase in war and killing?"

Our response: Wounded leaders that have not healed the self.

"Why is the overall condition of humanity worsening?"

Our response: People are not listening because their wants, needs and desires are more important to them then human rights, equality, divine love, spiritual and self development. In the NT it says that the only religion that God accepts is one that takes care of women, children, orphans and does not pollute the world.

Name me one religion that does the above? The Lord said “Christianity was never born it is still in the womb.”

Humanity has a wonderful mystical heritage. However, as soon as one mentions mysticism to many orthodox they run a mile. If religious people knew the truth there would probably be very few religious people. However, at least then people would be integrity and moved beyond the illusion of their perceptions. Then they might start seeking the Kingdom of Heaven within.

Seek and you shall find, knock and the door will open.

Our vision is to send Love and Healing to Israel-The Solar Plexus of the World. 

The vision of the Tau Community of Saint Francis is the same vision that God has continuously shared with mankind since the beginning of time. That vision is for all who believe in a loving selfless Being of Divine Love; unite as one family to sing and glorify the God through shared celebration of our core values as children of the same loving God.

That same vision demands total respect of each other’s cultural and religious differences and that ‘politics, human ego and agendas’ are not brought into that spiritual partnership but left outside. We are invited to sing the same praises from hearts that reflect what our personal beliefs are and that we embrace the Divine within each other not through dogma, outdated religious hatred that instigates separation and isolation around the table of Love and Light.

In truth, we are all asked to leave behind anything that impedes that spiritual unity so that the family of God is totally one in service to the Divine. As with Taize some 50 years ago, the cry within the Christian community for healing reconciliation within the many divisions were heard by God through one man and his followers when Brother Rogere established the Taize Christian Family of monks representing all groups within the Christian family to unite and love the same God through shared worship daily.

When the Founder of Tau, Brother Sean entered monastic life as a young inexperienced nursing monk in the mid sixties, he heard the same call from God to pray not for Christian unity but for total unity of all religious groups to stop their religious indifferences and come together as one family of God to love God within each person regardless of religious persuasion.

In 2006, Lord Kutumi, (Saint Francis), spoke to Sean’s heart to establish the Tau Healing Community based on the ancient teachings of the Essenes especially the Johannine Essenes of Mount Carmel invoking the assistance of the Angelic realms and Mother Earth to reconnect hearts and minds with God. Saint John and Magdalene formed this group with spiritual guidance and mentorship from Jesus. The core values of this branch of Essenes was more about sharing God’s love through communal fellowship without the restrictions of the Nazarene Essenes whose philosophy of guilt, fear and negativism permeated the teachings of the early Christians under the leadership of St. Peter down through the Catholic Church today.

God has spoken to us through the modern day prophets such as Martin Luther King, Ghandi, Mother Theresa, Pope John Paul 2 and even Princess Diana of Wales before her untimely death.

Our response is that we have a duty to not listen to our heads/ our egos but embrace the heart and soul representing the voice of God.

The Tau Tree of Life Healing Community is one such avenue that we can use to unite and join one another as brothers and sisters of the same Loving, selfless, reverent God who asks us to embrace unconditional love without the baggage of religion and dogma, leaving mankind shackled and spiritually impoverished. Our vision is to establish small healing communities in every village, town and country where there are religious tensions and facilitate a meeting for minds and hearts to discuss openly religious intolerance and indifferences through shared spiritual values uniting one family-God’s family. 

The members of the Tau Healing Community consist of ordinary men and women who are totally committed to their spiritual pathway and who meet regularly for spiritual meditation, healing, fellowship, laughter and conclude with a shared meal celebrating God’s love, thanking God for their prosperity abundance as well as prayer for peace, sending love to Israel, the solar plexus of the world.

Members live in their own homes with several members choosing to live a solitary life (in a cloister without a monastery) and are focussed more on living a spiritual life, detached from materialism, negativism and religious indifference and intolerance. The members of the Tau community are passionate about global issues as spiritual eco warriors for God and believe that as we are responsible for the survival of our planet, we as Light Bringers of Hope, have a duty of care even for those who are spiritually impoverished in need of practical support without judgement or having to convert to a philosophy that is alien to their core beliefs. All religious groups are welcome to share their love without fear of recrimination or rejection. Most of the membership comes from many of the world’s religious family where they too have been rejected by their religious family for daring to be different and not conform to an outdated way of life that is no longer spiritually alive or receptive to God’s Holy Spirit of Truth.

Membership is open to everyone. However, we do invite new members to make a small contribution towards the admin costs, as we do not have paid staff, as we are all volunteers.

As Light Bringers of Peace and Hope for all mankind, we should not depend totally upon Politicians or Diplomats to facilitate this. We as ambassadors in service to Source, should take seriously our sacred contracts and instead of sitting on the fence debating what to do, let us rise up together and like David with Goliath, trust not in our human resources but upon the Power and Majesty of God working through ordinary men and women who are ready to do something Beautiful for God.

So, when you next hear that religion is the sole cause for the world’s crisis, maybe you are right and again, maybe there is scope to challenge that statement. I accept that ‘Religion’ is man made! I believe that our ancestors in their naivety they desperately needed a focus for their devotion and we know that everything made by God would have become an object of sorts for veneration. Today, despite the progress that man has made in the sciences including the technological arena, we are ashamed by the way members within the global village disrespect the Divine within the other person.

So, I believe that as with all groups made up of human beings, there are good, and the not so good that enjoy fellowship of sorts within the religious family. In this generation, we have seen how politics, hidden agendas of paramilitary groups infiltrated religious families to perpetuate their vendetta against the opposition but used ‘religion’ as being the sole cause for that conflict. If we take Northern Ireland as an example, see how the cries of God’s people have been answered and that despite over fifty years of strive, death and imposed occupation, the ‘power of prayer’ and the generosity of a God loving people triumphed over the greatest of adversities that was to signal HOPE for an imprisoned people. Eventually, it was discovered that it was not technically ‘religion’ that caused the real problems but man trying to exert his will and evil agenda through the infiltration of a religious family trying to please their God.

In most recent times, the world has seen the real face of evil resurface in many of the world’s trouble hotspots like Israel, the Middle East, Africa, India and Pakistan to name but a few. The most horrific evidence of how evil can touch the lives of ordinary and yet innocent lives was when the twin towers in New York were blasted from the landscape before our very eyes. That was a day when the world had a rude awakening to what depths man will go too in order to further hate over love-God’s love for his/her people. Religion is once again misquoted and instead of blaming religion, we should question why so many fundamentalists are encouraged by mainstream religious groups to desecrate the God of Love from man’s heart. Within certain religious groups, unknown to the majority of law abiding believers, there are core groups who defy reason and logic for daring to use the name of religion to persecute others in the name of God or Allah. How evil is that?  To safeguard the integrity of a religious group be it Catholic, Jewish or Islam, religious leaders have a duty to safeguard the members form ‘fundamentalists’ who infiltrate their religious family and use it for the spread of hate not love. If God is a God of Love, then how can anyone say that such atrocities are God’s will? Until such drastic actions are taken by the membership of such groups, then the name religion will continually attacked by society and generate fear in the minds and hearts of all who actively engage with religion.

In establishing the Tau tree of Life Healing Interfaith Community for Light Workers in 2007, our aim was to unite and support each other in the face of great atrocities whether these acts of pure unadulterated evil be directed towards mankind, Mother Earth or the pursuance of religious intolerance, our first duty is to acknowledge that God lives in all things both animate and inanimate. In the words of Damphada, ‘Hate is not overcome by hate – Hate is overcome by Love.

The symbol of the Tau Community is one of Peace for all regardless of ethnicity, colour, and sexual orientation, religious or cultural differences. As we are all created in the image and likeness of God, then we have an inherent duty to safeguard this sacred promise by ensuring that we aim to see the face of God in everyone, anyone, everything or anything without resort to violence.

As a Light Bringer of Hope and Peace to our troubled world, we take heart by not engaging with the world’s dramas but remain detached from a head response and engage more with our hearts in solving the world’s problems through daily prayer. We know too that The Holy Father Mother God is deeply saddened by the way we on earth conduct ourselves when we engage in such atrocities towards each other and to planet earth and the animal kingdom.

The Holy Spirit of God will have the final say about man’s fall from grace, ‘Desolate is the whole world laid desolate because no one stops to think of God in his/her heart.’ As Jesus said, ‘Vengeance is mine says the Lord.’  Let us remember this and live lives that are worthy of being the ‘Holy Grail’ wherein the Godhead lives, moves and breathes each day.

Like Martin Luther King, his dream was that ‘all mankind be accepted as one.’ Today, you and I can make God's will a reality by uniting our minds and hearts to listen to Mother Mary, Queen of Peace, who inspires us achieve God's plan that all will be set free from oppressiveness, injustice, poverty and disease!

Those that waste money will want money.
Those that waste energy will want energy.
Those that waste life will want life.
Those that waste human resources will want human resources.
Those that waste food will want food.
Those that waste natural resources will want natural resources.
Those that waste do not preserve anything.
The sands shift under the feet of those that have not built their lives on strong foundations.
All will pay the price.

Are you listening?

 

Why not come and join me on Livestream where we embrace the healing energies of the Risen Cosmic Christ and Magdalene to reactivate the soul’s DNA to self heal.

 

Led by Brother Sean from 12 midnight (GMT); 07.00pm (EST) 4 personal and global Peace and Insterspiritual Unity.

 

We Are All Monks

We Are All Monks

 

Since my early youth I have seen myself as a monk, but one without a monastery or at least without walls other than those of the entire planet.   And even these, it seemed to me, had to be transcended—probably by immanence—without a habit, or at least without vestments other than those worn by the human family.  Yet even these vestments had to be discarded, because all cultural cloths are only partial revelations of what they conceal:  the pure nakedness of total transparency only visible to the simple eye of the pure of heart. ~Raimon Panikkar 

Raimon Panikkar reminds us that we need—perhaps more than ever—to rediscover the wisdom of monasticism for our time.  While most of us will never live in a monastery or take monastic vows, we can learn to master the spiritual virtues and qualities of being that flourish in solitude and silence.  As we walk through the imaginative doors of the monastery, and figuratively enter its enclosure, we are immediately struck by the absence of superfluous noise.  There arises an intuitive recognition that much unhappiness in life is the result of never experiencing one’s own silence or the freedom of solitude.   In crossing the threshold between worlds, we discover a desire that is deeper and more fundamental than the attractions of material things.  We discover that passion for truth is the force or intention that leads us to practice spiritual disciplines and to uncover ancient structures of consciousness that purify our hearts and deepen our minds.

We have a rare opportunity to cultivate this contemplative dimension outside the monastic enclosure, and even outside a religious or denominational form.  We are blessed to be able to draw upon the wisdom of the world’s spiritual traditions and the thought of great contemplative masters.  It is as if the doors of our imaginative monastery were flung open and we were granted access to the collective storehouse of human spiritual possibility. This development in spiritual consciousness, that offers us a new monastic form for the uncloistered and the religiously unattached, grows out of silence itself.  For in meditative awareness, we find a radical emptiness that is more primordial than religious identity, and more nameless, writes Panikkar, than the qualification of being Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, and so forth.

Fr. Zossima, in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, says that monks are not a special sort of person, but only what all persons ought to be.  While to some this may be a startling claim, it is nonetheless true that the monk is not a separate kind of person from the rest of us.  Rather the monk symbolizes one dimension of the core of our natures, and the possibility that every one of us can reach this dimension.  Although not everyone is suited to the formal monastic life, we all have a contemplative dimension that is worthy of cultivation.  We all have the capacity to experience something of the silence that precedes religious forms.  Inherent in the human person, contemplation is essential to our natures and to discovering who we are.  It is a reality of which we are made and for which we yearn.

The challenge of being modern, uncloaked monks consists in the attempt to integrate "what every person ought to be" into the wider social and personal circle of our lives.  Not content with the historical isolation of the monk, or with extreme forms of ascetical renunciation, the contemporary seeker desires to return to the original simplicity of the contemplative ideal.  As we push open the monastic doors we discover that these ancient resources can assist us in integrating all aspects of contemporary life--work, family, friendship, and sexuality--into the holy dimension of being.

It is intrinsic to human nature to be better, more holy.  To find the deep source of meaning and the quality of being that are essential to live authentically, we must be willing to be new.  The image that Panikkar offers—that we all have a monastic dimension—upholds a certain quality of life and a certain freedom of being that flourish in stillness, detachment, and rest.  For the monastic heart is solitude, and grace.  ~Beverly Lanzetta 

Today, it would appear that within the psyche there is a hungering for a more simplified lifestyle. Many ‘highflyers’ from the city are so desperate to abandon the fast lane for peace and tranquility and return back to nature. Also, many men and women who at heart, remain deeply spiritual, have become disillusioned with conventional religion and its practices. They continue to return to more ancient spiritual beliefs such as Shamanic and Celtic traditions to nurture their longing for personal intimacy with the Supreme Source through Nature. 

In conclusion, we believe that the Tau Community of Saint Francis is a self-governing interfaith monastic community which has no denominational ties except as they pertain to each individual member. We believe that the flexibility of the Order enables a person to find the right mixture of supports to live the religious life successfully.

We are convinced that we are a viable model of religious life for the future and we believe that God has called the Members of the Tau Interfaith Franciscan Community of St. Francis to unite as one spiritual family whose love will empower mankind embrace the Natural World- The Franciscan Soul and lead by example of what interfaith unity and compassion represents in a spiritually impoverished century.

The questions I put to your heart today:

Ø      Are you seeking personal intimacy with God?

Ø      Are you ready to live in the world but not engage with its dramas?

Ø      Are you considering a simpler lifestyle change?

Ø      Are you led to follow your heart?

Ø      Are you thinking about becoming a lay monastic from your own home- your monastery without walls?

Ø      Are you ready to make such a commitment to embrace life as a modern day monastic?

Ø      Are you mature enough to commit to such an undertaking as this?

Ø      Are you searching for a lay monastic family; one that would accept you as you are regardless of belief, sexuality or disability?

If you have answered YES to any of the above, then why not consider joining our online lay monastic community- the Abbey of Saint Francis of Peace and Compassion………

For more details, please visit our website: http://www.interfaithfranciscans.com

Or, you could email me at: Brothersean2012@aol.com

In a nutshell, when we reach the crossroads of our life, so many times we sense a deep inner longing within our heart to reflect on why I am here and what my life’s purposes are……..

If you are still on that road of self discovery and would like to test whether or not you have a monastic calling to live as a modern day lay monastic without having to leave family or friends, then seek divine guidance within your heart-then honor it and explore the choices right for your spiritual pathway. Why miss this golden opportunity today.

Pax et Bonum

Brother Sean 

Why not come and join me on Livestream where we embrace the healing energies of the Risen Cosmic Christ and Magdalene to reactivate the soul’s DNA to self heal.

 

Led by Brother Sean from 12 midnight (GMT); 07.00pm (EST) 4 personal and global Peace and Insterspiritual Unity.