06/27/2020

01
All religion is based on the premise
that if we make God happy,
God will make us happy.

This has been condensed to the principle:
Give To Get,
and explained by saying,
"If we give to God we will get back blessings
by the boat load,
pouring over,
spilling out."
Never mind that God's very own son
"was crucified, dead and buried."
Or that Baruch  (Jeremiah 45) was chastised 
for looking for favors.
Or that Habakkuk (3:17) grounded his faith on,
"Though the fig tree does not bloom,
and no grapes appear on the vine..."
we are told if we do everything just right
we will accumulate great merit
and be rewarded handsomely in the end.

All we have to do is keep the 11 Commandments.
That's for Christians.
Other religions have different stipulations.
The 11 Commandments for Christians
are the usual and customary 10
plus "believing in the Lord Jesus Christ
as the literal Son of God
and our own personal Savior."

Now, some would tell you that #11 
voids the other 10
because it earns you forgiveness
for all of your violations of every one of them.
But.
When you get to the fine print,
you see that not only do you 
have to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,
but you also have to 
"Live a Godly, Righteous and Sober life,"
go to church every time the doors are open,
where you will hear that you will die and go to hell
if you don't come back whenever the doors are open
and hear that you are going to die and go to hell
if you don't come back...

It gets to be tedious, 
toeing the line all the time,
which is what we had to do before
we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ,
and we still have to do it
in addition to believing in the Lord Jesus Christ,
so what does believing do for us actually?
We can't ask the question.
We have to bow our heads
and take it on faith 
that the Ones Who Know Everything
And Must Be Pleased Or Else
know what they are talking about.

It turns out that not only do we have to 
make God happy,
but we have to make God's spokespersons happy as well.
But.
We are assured that heaven is worth every sacrifice
in the end.
In the meantime, well...
Keep your head down and do what you are told.

And the closer we examine religion,
the less healthy it appears to be.

And that is where The Non-Subscribing Church 
of What's Happening Now
comes in.
No Doctrine.
No Dogma.
No Theology.
No Creeds.
No Hymns (Hymnbooks are Books of Doctrine Put To Music).
And Worship takes whatever form
your joy, thanksgiving, gratitude, wonder, awe, marvel, amazement, fascination, etc.
in response to the experience of being alive
are best expressed in,
through and by.

The focus of our living in The Non-Subscribing 
Church of What's Happening Now
is on our life,
on our lived experience,
right here,
right now,
moment-by-moment-by-moment,
day-by-day,
in each situation as it arises.

There is only the present moment,
the right-here-the-right-now, 
which transforms,
transitions,
morphs
and becomes
the right-here-right-now
on and on forever.
The Eternal Now.
The Eternal Present.

With each moment/situation/here-and-now calling for something.
Asking for something.
Needing something.
For each of us to serve and bring forth
with the gifts/genius/daemon/virtues
that come with us from our mother's womb.

We step into the moment,
look and listen,
see and hear,
perceive what's what
and what needs to be done about it,
in response to it,
and do it as best we can
with what we have to offer,
and that leads us directly into 
the next moment,
in which we do the same things...
All our life long.

The Non-Subscribing Church of What's Happening Now.

Is built around what we need to do that.
Is here to help us find what we need and do that.
And that's that.

–0–

02

What are the compelling urges
that guide our boat
on its path through the sea?

Alcohol is a compelling urge.
And every other addiction.

Fear is compelling urge.
And every other emotional obsession.

Our life is "nothing but"
one compelling urge after another.
Things we must-do-have-to-do-or-else
drive us,
hound us,
chase us,
without ceasing,
and leave us with no time
to live at all,
existing as we do
to serve all that coerces,
oppresses
and owns us.

How to free ourselves
from all that owns us
in order to give ourselves
to that which has need of us--
and in whose service
we come alive,
at one with ourselves
and in tune
with the times and places
of our living,
is the question
that sets us free
and binds us to ourselves
in an eternal dance
of dying to all that is not-us,
and living to all that is-us,
in each situation as it arises,
world without end.

It is a choice, you see,
the only choice,
our only choice,
choosing the One
whom we serve--
in a "choose this day
whom you will serve"
kind of way.

Joseph Campbell said:

“The myths by which we live must support us through our personal crises in life. They have to sustain us and enable us to go forward with our lives. When we find what sustains us through those crises, we find our myth.

"We have to live out our story in light of a Greater Story that holds things together for us and enables us to make sense of things.

"What is it that supports us in the face of total disaster? To know that, is to know your myth.

"Our myth is what we tell ourselves about the way things are that enables us to live with the way things are.

"What is our mission? For what would we sacrifice ourselves? What is it that 'works' for us? To answer these questions is to find our myth.

"The problem is to find within ourselves the thing that moves us, that we are really pushed by.”

Abraham Maslow said that people live for five things: Survival, Security, Personal Relationships, Prestige, and Self Development.

And Campbell said

"These are precisely not the values that a mythically inspired person lives for.

"A person who is really gripped by a dedication, by a zeal, will sacrifice all these things for the sake of his or her own passion.

"These five values are the values people live for who have nothing to live for. Nothing has seized, caught, or driven these people “spiritually mad.”

"These people, aren’t worth talking to."

The people who are "worth talking to,"
are the people who are living their own life,
out of their personal affiliation with,
and commitment to,
living their own life
beyond every other consideration.

They are grounded upon the bedrock
of their own virtues and character,
they know who they are
and what is theirs to do,
and they live to do it
in each situation as it arises,
in season and out of season,
and in all weather conditions.

They have chosen to serve
what has chosen them.

And they are highly worth talking to.
Knowing.
Living with.
Being.

If you are going to be anything,
Be one of those people.