Sunday Sermon

Who am I?

January 22, 2012

          Brothers and sisters, before you read further I would like for you to listen to the following:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qbZUM5caCk  you may stop at the 2:00 mark or listen in full.  Either is fine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoYeFeAzgCo&feature=related

  “Risk! Risk everything! Care no more for the opinion of others, for those voices.  Do the hardest thing on Earth for you.  Act for yourself.  Face the Truth.”  -Katherine Mansfield

            Each of the preceding has a very important message and one that I am sharing with you.  In this day and time there are many people that want to tell you who you are, who you should be, or who you will be in the future.  There are television commercials and shows that portray a specific image of what you would have to look like to be successful.  It is all around us and we cannot escape the feelings that maybe they are correct.  They tell us how we should show our faith.  What type of food we should eat and so much more.  My question is why.

            In my travels I have met many people.  I have met people of all classes, nationalities, ages, genders, and both health and sick.  Can you guess what every one of these people had in common?  None were the same and none were perfect.  Why then do they feel it is their place to judge you and offer unsolicited advice?  I had a recent loss of control that some may have seen if you are part of my Facebook friends where I finally had it with people telling me how to raise my child and that my techniques were not suitable.  Brief explanation: We don’t make her believe in fairy tale stories like the ones surrounding Christmas and Easter, or even teeth if you follow me there.  And, for a punishment my 7 year old does push-ups, wall squats, or other exercises (I was a Marine, sue me).  They tell me that if I don’t lie to my child then she will have no imagination and I will ruin her childhood.  They tell me that push-ups are a form of child abuse.  I say my child, my rules and exercise is not abuse.

            So here it is in the short version.  You are a very special individual.  There is nobody in this world now, in the past, or in the future that will ever be like you.  It is time now for you to decide who you are and who you choose to be.  You have dreams that only you can dream.  Nobody can choose for you what passion lies in your heart and mind.  My parents told me I was not smart enough to live my dreams and called me a loser but, I found a way to rise above it and fulfilled my goals.  My father-in-law in contrast told me (as well as all his kids) that the only person that can stop you from living your dreams is you.  The minute you say I can’t do it or you choose not to try that is the point in which you fail.

            Even though you have your own dreams and I say don’t let anyone tell you what to do or who to be, it is still advised and encouraged to seek guidance on how to accomplish what you want to do.  I wanted to be a pilot so I had to find someone to show me how.  The difference in this and my opening statement is intent and the line between solicited and unsolicited advice.

            I submit to you one further quote from Benjamin Franklin “I did not fail the test; I found 100 ways to do it wrong.”  As I said you only fail when you quit or do not try.  So my brothers and sisters find who you are and be who you choose to be.  However, as a disclaimer to this I must say that laws are there for a reason and if you are under 18 then your parents still have a say over what you can and cannot do.  Other than that, dream as big as your heart allows.  And when you find who you are don’t let anyone take that from you.  You are and individual that is as special as a snow flake or a finger print.

So here we are, freshly arrived in 2012, a year of portents and predictions. The most famous of these is probably that of the Mayan Long Count, an ancient calendar said to measure the “ages of humankind”. Throughout the years many people have dissected this information and there is widespread consensus that it ends this year (around the 21^st December, to be exact). However, Mayan tribal elders acknowledged that the actual date was at the end of October 2011, putting us well on the journey of the New Age.

Prophecies about the “end time” abound – from the Hopi Indians to the Book of Daniel and many sources and legends have been woven into this myth, such as St. Malachy's Prophecy of the Popes. After this service, I would encourage you to look through the discussion on this topic at the following link and add your own thoughts to what this may all mean:

http://www.templeofthejediorder.org/forum/General-Discussions/26213-Mayan-Calendar-Explained#31882

You may also find some interesting information at the following site:

http://www.diagnosis2012.co.uk/

Terence McKenna, a philosopher and self-confessed “psychonaut”, had this to say about the topic:

“Human history represents such a radical break with the natural systems of biological organisation that preceded it that it must be the response to a kind of attractor or dwell point that lies ahead in the temporal dimension.

Persistently western religions have integrated into their theologies the notion of a kind of end of the world. And I think that a lot of psychedelic experimentation sort of confirms this intuition. I mean it isn't going to happen according to any of the scenarios of orthodox religion, but the basic intuition that the universe seeks closure in a kind of Omega point of transcendence is confirmed.

It's almost as though this object in hyperspace, glittering in hyperspace, throws off reflections of itself, which actually ricochet into the past, illuminating this mystic, inspiring that saint or visionary, and that out of these fragmentary glimpses of Eternity we can build a kind of a map of not only the past universe and the evolutionary ingression into novelty, but a kind of map of the future.

I mean I think it's fairly profound, it's fairly Apocalyptic. History is ending, I mean we are to be the generation that witnesses the Revelation of the purpose of the Cosmos. History is the shock wave of the Eschaton. History is the shock wave of Eschatology. And what this means for those of us who will live through this transition into Hyperspace is that we will be privileged to see the greatest release of Concressed Change probably since the birth of the Universe.

The twentieth Century is the shudder that announces the approaching Cataracts of Time over which our Species and the destiny of this Planet is about to be swept.”

Before I continue with this sermon, please take a moment to visit the following link and listen to the track “Destination Eschaton” by The Shamen. The lyrics follow the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn7lo00LjH4

Oh nobley born, let the mind be not distracted

Though the road ahead is hard and long

And the journey seems without ending

Oh that which thou art, let they gaze be not deflected

Fix thy attention on the goal,

And light that shines so celestial

Onward ever ever on

Destination Eschaton

Nowhere to hide, nowhere to run

From alpha into omega

Pilgrim take heart,

There's a strange attraction, keeping strong acceleration

See the light, enter the light, become the light and shine

Like the star you know you are

Be ready for the storm

As confusion ushes in a time of chaos

But up out of the turbulence,

A better order surely will emerge

Synergy and harmony and wisdom will come in time terrestrial

Onward ever ever on

Destination Eschaton

Nowhere to hide, nowhere to run

From alpha into omega

And on, across the Rubicon

So imminentise thy Eschaton

Unto Ragnarock or Nemeton and beyond

In the name of Adam Kadmon you move on

Ego gone be as one

Transformation to a solarisation

Towards the final confrontation

Eschaton is thy destination

The notions of this "endpoint" have been discussed for many years and that track was born from the rave culture of the 1990s, a synergy of music and tribal consciousness with spiritual ideas. 17 years later and the concepts are becoming ever more realised.

So what does this mean for us? Will there be, as Hollywood has chosen to portray, a world-wide apocalypse and almost total annihilation of our species and planet? Will we evolve into beings of pure energy? Or is this simply a chance for us to redeem ourselves and begin to take charge over those that are continuing to poison the Earth and humankind with greed and consumption?

All of this remains to be seen and it may well be that 2012 is a self-fulfilling prophecy. So many more people are becoming aware of the concepts of spiritual freedom, global compassion, and ecological responsibility. As the old saying goes: “energy flows where attention goes”. The Force manifests itself according to will and intention and if enough people believe that positive change can occur, then that may well become our reality.

Please take a moment to consider your own highest potential. In a world without limits and with imagination unchained, think about all that you could be. Craft for yourself, if only for a moment, an ideal image of a perfect state of being.

If you are on Facebook, you may wish to visit the following group. The aim is to send these positive intentions around the world at key times during the year, each one building on the last to create a crescendo of potential. It only takes a moment of your time but the results could be world-changing:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/52380784168/