LIFE IS YOUR OPPORTUNITY TO BECOME

By Rev. Dr. Arthur Chang

 

 Life is your opportunity to become. Quantum science informs us that in each moment the whole universe changes—it comes into being and perishes. Miraculously, we have the power to guide change for manifesting our best life. Paraphrasing Hindu mystic, Aurobindo, “We do this to the delight of God!”

 Nonetheless, guiding change through our thoughts and beliefs is challenging. Like an Olympian preparing for an event, the life we choose for our best becoming demands the best consciousness and application of which we are capable. This does not mean it has to be perfect.

 As part of the universe in its eternal springtime of becoming, the life process is one of constant change. The Law of Change cannot be hindered or stopped. It is also the Law of Actuality or Reality in which we live, move and have our becoming. When change is experienced as loss, it can bring about great anxiety and hurt. However, only change can bring us our most rewarding life. The great secret is in realizing that the Law of Change is, at once, the Law of Creativity, which we can use through the power of thought.

 As redesigning the landscape of our yard brings a happy transformation of mind, even more so, will redesigning the chaotic landscape of our mind bring a profoundly spiritual vision to direct our best becoming.

 Though fear is rendered as the culprit that will stymy our best becoming, this is a profound misrepresentation of fear’s true function. Fear is designed as an early warning system for an ancient world that was far more dangerous than it is now. Mental disease resulting from fear is an abused use of this alarm system.

 As a car alarm can be timely turned off after serving its warning function, so must the fear warning function be controlled. We should not dismiss fear resulting from change as a mental disease. Jesus’ poetic rendering of neutralizing fear is beautifully stated as follows,

 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? (Matthew 5:25-26)

 Do not be anxious about your life means, do not be anxious about change because change is life in process.

 Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? means your greatest gift is life itself. Don’t put other things above your life.

 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? To “look at” means to shift your attention. In this case, be aware of how the invisible air supports the bird’s flight as the invisible god supports your life. This turns off fear and turns on faith.

 Jesus was aware humans cannot responsibly ignore sowing, reaping, and storing, or they will physically starve. However, time must be made for the mental and spiritual nourishment needed by taking a Sabbatical from duties. To do so will be to discover our right becoming rising naturally from the depths of our souls. Lao Tzu, the great Chinese sage, puts it this way,

Can you be still until the mud settles

And the water is clear?

Can you be unmoving

Until right action arises by itself?

 To guide your becoming is to work from your peaceful mind.

 

THE HUMBLE DONKEY OF HOLY WEEK

By Rev. Dr. Arthur Chang

 

THE DONKEY

By G. K. CHESTERTON

 

When fishes flew and forests walked

   And figs grew upon thorn,

Some moment when the moon was blood

   Then surely I was born.

 

With monstrous head and sickening cry

   And ears like errant wings,

The devil’s walking parody

   On all four-footed things.

 

The tattered outlaw of the earth,

   Of ancient crooked will;

Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,

   I keep my secret still.

 

Fools! For I also had my hour;

   One far fierce hour and sweet:

There was a shout about my ears,

   And palms before my feet.

 

On Monday of Holy Week, I woke up thinking about a poem that had not crossed my mind since high school. That is a long time ago. It is shown above. It took some time to get past the title, to retrieve the poet’s name, to be able to recite the first verse. I even got into the second verse. So here it is!

The Gospel writer, Matthew, laid out the commencement of Holy Week as follows:

Jesus Comes to Jerusalem as King

 

As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”

This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

 

           “Say to Daughter Zion,

‘See, your king comes to you,

gentle and riding on a donkey,

and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ” 

 

The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them.  They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

“Hosanna to the Son of David!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”

The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.” (Matthew 21:1-11)

 

Poets and mystics are enablers, bringing to our attention vital reflections of stories, secular or sacred, that we would be inclined to miss. Poet G. K. Chesterton’s parody of the oft-disrespected donkey is an example. The poem features the donkey’s voice recognizing the priceless gift he has received, a new sense of self eternally synchronized with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

Matthew’s Gospel tells of Jesus requesting the colt, a young undisciplined donkey.  Jesus riding the undisciplined colt, tells us the Christ presence within each of us must take charge of the body, the donkey, and ride it in the path toward achieving our highest spiritual objective.

The Hebrew prophet, Zachariah, wrote about the donkey as noted above. The king, he says, is gentle, riding a young donkey. While orthodox Christian teaching will say, as Matthew suggests, that Jesus was fulfilling the prophesy of Zachariah, religious scholars familiar with the Jewish  Midrash writing style will recognize it here.

Whether one does or does not recognize this style of sacred literature, all can appreciate the lesson of Holy Week that the humble donkey, one’s body, will serve best under the mastery of the Christ presence within each of us.

 

PRAYER IS A COSMIC THRESHOLD

By Rev. Dr. Arthur Chang

 

Imagine entering your Consciousness Station, the ubiquitous center of the universe to be empowered and refreshed. That is what prayer does for you. This reestablishes our affirmative relationship with God, especially after the stresses of life tend to wear us down. Observing electric cars at charging stations or our dinosaur gasoline cars filling up at gas stations, should remind us that we, too, need to fill up at our Consciousness Station. As an energy fill-up empowers a car, so does a consciousness fill-up empower our creativity, resilience and compassion for our chosen mission. Does the Sun not provides its life-giving energy to our world? Similarly, does the Invisible Presence provide the consciousness for us to participate fully in our lives.

 

The key to our effective participation is to realize we are living in a process-relational world where everything is related to everything else. This includes the Infinite Source. Our engines of consciousness can demand more energy to achieve seemingly miraculous results. Everything we desire to create will be from our empowered consciousness. Recognizing our enormous creative power inspired the priestly writer of Genesis 1 to declare that God made humans in his image and likeness. This was the genius behind our godlike action of being fruitful and abundant and having dominion to create our lives. On a secular level, William James said of this consciousness or attitude,

One of the greatest discoveries of my generation is that a man (male and female) can change his attitude and change his life,”

 

James’ offered the secular version of prayer. However, the spiritually brilliant Hebrew prophet, Isaiah, gave the more traditional version of prayer in saying,

So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:11) 

 

The words of James and Isaiah, and the priestly writer of Genesis 1, revealed the creative consciousness accessible through prayer. The astonishing achievements of our civilization are evidence of our evolution of consciousness.

 

Alfred North Whitehead, process philosopher, speaks of two fundamental aspects of process, “concrescence” and “transition.” This means things come into being and perish. They materialize and then transition into the future for the next manifestation. This is process or reality. Isaiah’s “Word” is like the transitional power of prayer. It is like our expressed idea or an architect’s plan, or a musician’s sequence of sounds, or our affirmation of our better health. The Gospel of John says, “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” However, quantumly, this is not a onetime event, but is forever occurring. William James saw this as desirable change. Prayer can direct process or creativity. This is why Isaiah knows his word will result in a demonstration or concrescence. There are great similarities among these thinkers.

 

Prayer, however, works with immutable universal principles. Consciousness must include knowledge of principles and feelings, which our beliefs become. Principles are of science and feelings are of the mind. They form the consciousness for our demonstration.

 

Creativity to life is fundamental and creativity breaks out where prayer rings the bell of the Cosmic Source. Jesus’ expression of our consciousness from the Source was, “It is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Here, Process Theology says that the Infinite is forever putting options before you for your choice.

 

The first choice is to let your prayer bring you to your Cosmic Home to recharge your consciousness for the work at hand. After your prayer rings the bell, you will be able to enjoy leaving your doubt and stresses behind so that you can be filled with the consciousness to achieve.

 

Cross this Cosmic Threshold into your greater becoming by means of your prayer!