Archive for October 2022
Question 201: Is it important to believe in the virgin birth of Jesus?
No, it isn’t important at all. There is no way to prove a virgin birth. The story may have been added later to reinforce the view that Jesus was the actual son of God. However, to think that Jesus was a special person who came straight from God and was not an ordinary person like everyone else detracts from the example he set. How can we expect to follow in his footsteps if he is God and we are not?
Jesus came to show us the importance of raising our consciousness and finding our inner connection to the Infinite Spirit. That is something we can all do whether or not we were born unto a virgin mother.
The Gospel of Oneness says that we all have an immaculate conception from the very beginning of our existence, whenever that was. Every soul is a unique identity in Spirit. This is what needs to be emphasized, rather than idolizing one person as being the only son of God.
Besides Jesus, other religious figures have also been given origin stories that are rather fantastic, such as Padma Sambhava, the Tibetan yogi was said to be born in a lotus flower. Krishna and Buddha also have stories about them being born in miraculous ways. Even some famous secular persons, such as Alexander the Great and Augustus Caesar have background stories about being born of virgin mothers that were impregnated by divine beings.
If you go back to the last Golden Age, the people may have developed ways to bring forth new life either in or outside the womb of a woman. Cloning is a real process and has to be taken into consideration in producing new life, in animals and human beings. Since Spirit is the only reality, all physical forms will pass away. We are in the process of increasing our realization of Spirit.
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Question 200: About being God
Posted on: October 11, 2022
Question 200: If we are one with God, aren’t we all God?
Yes, we are, or, to put it another way, God is us. The Supreme Spirit is the only reality. We are individual identities within the whole identity of Spirit. As self-aware beings we are co-creators within the whole as the endless creativity of the Spirit continues on forever.
As co-creators, we have an ultimate responsibility for manifesting the powers of God. As human beings with so many faults and plenty of ignorance, how can we be expected to take on our full responsibility? We are expected to do that, but not necessarily in one lifetime, or even in thousands of lifetimes. It is the journey of our souls to find our way back to the full realization of our Godhood.
From the testimony of the saints and avatars who have lived on earth, we hear that they have made the realization of being one with God. Jesus is a prime example. He said, “I and the Father are one.” Krishna is so identified with God that he gave the Bhagavad Gita talk to Arjuna while speaking as the Supreme Spirit.
Jesus and Krishna are the most well-known examples. However, there are many other people who have testified about reaching a state of cosmic consciousness wherein they realized they are part of the Eternal Spirit.
Modern-day examples include Paramahansa Yogananda and his line of gurus, Swami Sri Yukteswar, Lahiri Mahasaya, and Babaji. Other examples from India include Swami Vivekananda and his guru Ramakrishna. Ramana Maharishi is another well-known saint from India.
These great people are the ones who made the effort to find their way back to Godhood. I say effort because there are definite ways to proceed on the path to Self-realization. The beginning step is learning how to behave with love and kindness toward all. We all know the importance of learning how to get along with others with honesty, sincerity and all good attitudes of true friendship.
After that, we need to learn how to control our inner life force and to interiorize our minds in order to focus on our true spiritual selves beyond our egos. We need to develop our inner relationship with our higher self and with our spiritual teachers and with the Supreme Spirit. It is an evolutionary journey to realize that we are expressions of God on earth.
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As far as religion goes, I feel like everyone should have their own one-on-one with God.
Question 199: What does wearing a hijab have to do with the oneness of life?
Nothing. The recent protests against the wearing of a hijab and the morality police in Iran (Sept 2022) have brought this to the attention of the whole world. The rule that women need to cover their hair while in public areas is a means of control over women by the theocratic government of Iran. The rule is also meant to keep men from lusting after women if they see the beautiful hair of women. So it is also an attempt to control the lustful thoughts of men. It shows that organized religions can entirely miss the point about the purpose of a religion, which is to lead people to the realization of their oneness with our Creator.
When a religion is tied to the government, then the religion becomes a means to control people. Whether or not a woman chooses to wear a hijab has nothing to do with her relationship to the Infinite Spirit. It should be a matter of choice for style, modesty, or following a custom. Our Creator God, by whatever name you call out, Allah, Yahweh, Brahma, or Great Spirit, does not require women to wear a hijab anymore than it requires men to have beards or hats on.
Islam isn’t the only religion that discriminates against women. Almost all of them do. The protests in Iran will bring much-needed attention to the problem of how religions treat women. This is a time for the rising up of women to demand and claim their true equality with men, before the law and before our Creator God.
The Gospel of Oneness teaches us that all souls are part of the One Spirit of creation. The purpose of religion is to help people realize this. The legalistic ideas that come up such as not working on the Sabbath day, wearing certain clothes, or praying in one direction have nothing to do with the inner realization of our oneness with Spirit.
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Let us recognize that we can no longer tolerate violent oppression of women in the name of religion and culture any more than we would tolerate violent oppression espoused by any other bully in the name of a twisted rationale.
Any religion which sacrifices women to the brutality of men is no religion.
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