I’m saddened by how divisive we have made spiritual things. What was announced as “good news of great joy which shall be to all people has become an angry message of judgment and exclusion for most.

For instance I have people who want to straighten me out with a verse, and if I show them a verse that totally contradicts “their” verse, they just ignore it and quote another verse, to which I could do the same but I don’t. I don’t/won’t play religious ping-pong with scripture in hopes of “one-upping” you. I am perfectly ok with whatever someone else sees but they are never ok with what I see. Remember leading up to the crucifixion Pilot said, “I can find no fault in this man”, yet they crucified him anyway. It’s not about being right as much as a “spiritual” reason to destroy someone and express the hatred in your heart without owning it. Just do it and think yourself holy for it. I don’t try and change anyone but they certainly want to change me. Legalist must have the final word or they feel less than.

I have so many people who read my post and watch my video but won’t hit “like” simply because they don’t EVER, want anyone to think they agree with me. We tend to love our beliefs, way more than we love one another.

The western church has become preoccupied with telling people what to know more than how to know, what to see rather than how to see. We have ended up seeing great things small and small things great, claiming to love with our small and divided heart. It’s like trying to study the galaxies with a $5 pair of binoculars.

When I use the word “contemplation” or “mystical seeing”, its my word(s) for larger seeing, which keeps the field open while remaining vulnerable in the moment to the event or to the person before dividing it and attempting to conquer and control it. I refuse to divide for the sake of quick smug comfort.

Contemplatives and mystics do not rush to polarity thinking in order to take away their mental anxiety. They are like Nicodemus and Gamaliel, well trained Jewish lawyers, solid in their own tradition, who were still willing to respect and listen intently to Jesus even though all their associates were final in their damning judgment of Jesus. They were early stage contemplatives, breaking through to nondual seeing.

Contemplation refuses to be a reductionist. To reduce all of God to a few verses and to reduce mankind to the smallness of my egotistical three verse theology. Contemplation pauses us long enough to have another thought different than our previous thoughts. Allows us to see and hear what we have previously not made room for nor considered.-Stan Tyra