JOAN TOLLIFSON: on ‘radical simplicity’ – religion as simple attention, awareness, healing and presence

In the three quotations below we have a view of religion, or at least of its essential spirituality, that is radically simple. It seems to me that together they express the healing heart of the universally mystical that is essential to our discovery of our true Self via healing at-one-ment.

They also constitute pointers to the essential mystical core of all of the great Traditions, now so often buried or banished beneath Churchianity. (Make up your own term for each of the other great Traditions. ‘Churchianity’ refers to the usurpation of the essential Christ story and teachings in which like the mystics we are asked to Awaken more, Detach from egotistic self more and Serve others better. Just that.)

For Joan, and others, meditation, brilliantly, is; “moment-to-moment presence that excludes nothing and sticks to nothing”. ‘Bare-Bones Meditation: Waking up from the Story of My Life’.

“Maybe that is the purest and most radical kind of religion – simple attention. Present-moment awareness. Instead of a belief system, awareness sees through all beliefs.”
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“….we maintain awareness, whether we know it or not, healing is taking place… a door that has been shut begins to open…. As the door opens, we see that the present is absolute and that, in a sense, the whole universe begins right now, in each second. And the healing of life is in that second of simple awareness…. Healing is always just being here, with a simple mind. ‌—‌Charlotte Joko Beck” ― Joan Tollifson, Nothing to Grasp
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“In simple presence with what is right here now, be it joyful or painful, an amazing freedom reveals itself. It cannot be described or explained in words. It is the freedom to be totally, effortlessly the way things are at this moment. ‌—‌Toni Packer” ― Joan Tollifson, Nothing to Grasp

BUT 24/7 NONDUAL EXPERIENCE IS NOT THE (ONLY?) GOAL IN THIS WORLD – BELIEFS and THE DUAL ARE ALSO VITAL
We are citizens of two realms as taught us by Rebbe Abraham Heschel.

This is by design not by mistake. It wasn’t God having an ‘off-day’! In these teachings we ordinary mortals share the life of the mystic.

SEE: http://www.satyana.org/pdf/SongoftheEartheBook.pdf 1

JOAN TOLLIFSON, religion, simple attention, awareness, nonduality, consciousness, advaita, healing, presence, attention, Charlotte Joko Beck, Toni Packer,

The difference between religion & spirituality – Richard Rohr

“Religion is lived by people who are afraid of hell. Spirituality is lived by people who have been through hell and come out enlightened.”

https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/639712-radical-grace-daily-meditations-by-richard-rohr

“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind” – Albert Einstein Guardian article

“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind” – Albert Einstein

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/may/12/peopleinscience.religion

John Hick said Religion consists primarily in experiencing…

John Hick said;

Religion consists primarily in experiencing our life in its relation to the Transcendent and living on the basis of that experience….

…..in terms of Ninian Smart’s six-dimensional analysis – distinguishing the

ritual,
mythological,
doctrinal,
ethical,
social and
experiential dimensions of religion

– mysticism is a general name for religious experience together with part at least of the network of religious practices which support it.

Hick, John, (1981) Mystical Experience as Cognition in Understanding Mysticism, ed. Richard Woods, London: The Athlone Press

Are we each trying to make our representation…

Are we each trying to make our representation of religion good? – Religion as: ‘the psychological process which continuously reconnects what we know and what we believe to our thoughts and actions.’

“In The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran, Almustafa, a wise and gentle teacher is about to leave the city where he has lived for twelve years and return home. The people of the city gather and ask his final advice on many topics: Love, Marriage, Giving, Joy and Sorrow, and a number of others. Near the end, a priest asks him to speak of Religion; he says, ‘Have I spoken this day of aught else? Is not religion all deeds and all reflection…?’ Or to phrase it less poetically, ‘”all actions and all thought’,”

“If we use this idea, we can further define ‘religion’ as: ‘the psychological process which continuously reconnects what we know and what we believe to our thoughts and actions.’ This definition is neutral; it does not differentiate between good and bad. It is up to us to make our religion good.”

Bruce D. Aikin – SEE – http://www.religioustolerance.org/rel_defn2.htm

No religion is an island A…

“No religion is an island.” – A J Heschel

When I read the Bhagavad Gita and…

“When I read the Bhagavad-Gita and reflect about how God created this universe everything else seems so superfluous.” Albert Einstein

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The experience of separation is a kind of optical delusion of one’s consciousness
Albert Einstein | April 2007 (Vol. XX, No. 4)

A human being is part of the whole, called by us the “universe,” a part limited in time and space. One experiences oneself, one’s thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of one’s consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the Oneness of nature in its beauty.

Albert Einstein

Just look at us Everything is backwards…

“Just look at us. Everything is backwards; everything is upside down. Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the major media destroy information and religions destroy spirituality.”

Michael Ellner

Progressive Revelation and the Changeless Faith of God…

Progressive Revelation and the Changeless Faith of God

The second pathway is that of religion, the road of the divine Kingdom. It involves the acquisition of praiseworthy attributes, heavenly illumination and righteous actions in the world of humanity. This pathway is conducive to the progress and uplift of the world. It is the source of human enlightenment, training and ethical improvement; the magnet which attracts the love of God because of the knowledge of God it bestows. This is the road of the holy Manifestations of God for they are in reality the foundation of the divine religion of oneness. There is no change or transformation in this pathway. It is the cause of human betterment, the acquisition of heavenly virtues and the illumination of mankind.

Alas! that humanity is completely submerged in imitations and unrealities……………..

(Abdu’l-Baha, Baha’i World Faith – Abdu’l-Baha Section, p. 237)

Every “Christ” came to the world of mankind. Therefore we must investigate the foundation of divine religion, discover its reality, re-establish it and spread its message throughout the world so that it may become the source of illumination and enlightenment to mankind, the spiritually dead become alive, the spiritually blind receive sight and those who are inattentive to God become awakened. FWU AB p105

Religions to a large extent became divisive rather…

Religions to a large extent, became divisive rather than unifying forces. Instead of bringing about an ending of violence and hatred through a realization of the fundamental oneness of all life, they brought more violence and hatred, more divisions between people as well as between different religions and even within the same religion. They became ideologies, belief systems people could identify with and so use them to enhance their false sense of self. Through them, they could make themselves “right” and others “wrong” and thus define their identity through their enemies, the “others,” the “nonbelievers” or “wrong believers” who not infrequently they saw themselves justified in killing.

ECKHART TOLLE, A New Earth