STRETCH...April 2018

STRETCH

Sponsored by:  the PILLAR Institute for Lifelong Learning

facilitated by:  Charlie Coon

charlesrcoon@gmail.com

polarityinplay.com

Where/When:  The Myron Stratton Home

South Highway 115 

Third Monday of each month, 3:30 to 5:00 PM

For Monday, April16th, the topic is:

The Perennial "Light" 

“When he awakened from sleep, he said, “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it.... This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” (Genesis 28:16–17). In the Celtic world that gateway is present everywhere. In every place is the immediacy of heaven. In every moment we can glimpse the Light that was in the beginning and from which all things have come. As Oliver says, “The threshold is always near.”3 We can step over this threshold and back again in the fleeting span of a second. In a single step we can find ourselves momentarily in that other world, the world of eternal Light, which is woven inseparably through this world—the world of matter that is forever unfolding like a river in flow.” 

― John Philip Newell, The Rebirthing of God: Christianity's Struggle for New Beginnings

http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/book-reviews/view/26853/the-rebirthing-of-god

MO video:  Make of Yourself a Light, Buddha's Last Instruction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gn4ngWs2Sz0

MO Video:  The Journey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr785gBEtng

MO Video:  Sunrise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ato15zwJVws


RS video:  The Light of Pure Knowing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df1vjEifNlo


RS essay:  Awareness Shines in Every Experience
http://non-duality.rupertspira.com/read/awareness_shines_in_every_experience

RS:  on the Perennial Tradition!
https://www.youtube.com/user/rupertspira?annotation_id=annotation_756070653&feature=iv&src_vid=S53mwl13u24

________________________________

For Monday, March 19th, 2018, the topic was:

"The Perennial Teachings of John Philip Newell"

"May the deep blessings of earth be with us.

May the fathomless soundings of seas surge in our soul.

May boundless stretches of the universe echo in our depths,

to open us to wonder..."

--John Philip Newell

Just as God speaks to us through the words of scripture, so God speaks to us through the elements of creation. The cosmos is like a living sacred text that we can learn to read and interpret. Just as we prayerfully ponder the words of the Bible in Christian practice, and as other traditions study their sacred texts, so we are invited to listen to the life of creation as an ongoing, living utterance of God.


~~John Philip Newell, Christ of the Celts

“Humanity’s great wisdom traditions are given not to compete with each other but to complete each other. We need each other as much as the species of the earth need one another to be whole. Rebirthing will happen within our Christian household when we reverently approach the heart of other traditions. It is what Griffiths in his work in India calls the “marriage of East and West,” a conjoining of what has been tragically torn apart.” 
~~John Philip Newell, The Rebirthing of God

“Bede Griffiths says of the way of relationship with other faiths that we need to stop living from only “one half of our soul.” We need to open to the treasure of wisdom in traditions other than our own. Not only have they much to teach us, but they also hold the key to unlocking depths within our own religious inheritance that we know nothing of as yet. Jesus says, “You must be born anew.” Rebirth means letting go of the cords of confinement so that newborn vision may emerge.” 

~~John Philip Newell, The Rebirthing of God

“But we will be aware of life’s oneness only to the extent that our ego is developed. At birth, our ego has not yet formed, so everything is experienced as a sea of undifferentiated oneness.  Only gradually do we become aware of life’s differentiations. And it is the development of the ego that enables us to do that.  Part of what we deeply owe our children and one another is the fostering of a strong sense of selfhood that can distinguish between the one and the many, the parts and the whole.  The ego must first learn to distinguish before it can then reunite.
The problem for many of us, however, and the problem that faces many of our religious traditions and cultures norms, is that development of our consciousness has been arrested. It has stopped short…We have graduated from undifferentiated oneness, but have neglected to move on to differentiated oneness.” 
~~John Philip Newell, A New Harmony

“When he awakened from sleep, he said, “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it.... This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” (Genesis 28:16–17). In the Celtic world that gateway is present everywhere. In every place is the immediacy of heaven. In every moment we can glimpse the Light that was in the beginning and from which all things have come. As (Mary) Oliver says, “The threshold is always near.”3 We can step over this threshold and back again in the fleeting span of a second. In a single step we can find ourselves momentarily in that other world, the world of eternal Light, which is woven inseparably through this world—the world of matter that is forever unfolding like a river in flow….
~~John Philip Newell, The Rebirthing of God

Showed the following 3 videos...

JPN:  The Rev. Dr. John Philip Newell (introduction)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4KK4i1r7eQ 
JPN:  Sermon:  Listening for the Heartbeat of God 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACXweYygR_o&list=PLI5_n6iA4RUS_fetND5SZCcazO1up4nMv&index=4&t=0s
JPN:  The True Self:  The Marriage of East and West 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5qcFHcm3Xk