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My Soul ~ By Brendan Mooney

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One evening I said to my soul
“What secrets do you hold? What
Have you veiled from my human
Mind”?
 
And my soul replied:
“We always have been and always
Will be. I veil our beauty
And divinity from you for your sake.
If You knew who you are
And whence you came,
You could not bear this world”.
 
And in response I said:
“Can you share a fragment of that
Beauty, a tiny votive lamp
That would make the darkness
Easier to bear”?
 
And my soul replied:
Brendan, go to the quiet place within our
Heart. Sit, observe but do not
Identify with the noise therein;
I will merge with you in that space
And we will become at oned; and
You will experience your true light

The Gift of Compassion (16 July 2023)

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When we think of the word compassion, we associate it with the attribute of kindness. Compassion does consist of kindness. However, it also consists of far more. Professor Paul Gilbert (OBE) is a renown clinical psychologist who has made significant contributions to the field of compassionate mental health care. He speaks of compassion as being an antidote to the effects of chronic self-criticism and toxic shame. He describes compassion as a sensitivity to suffering both in ourselves and others and a commitment to alleviating and preventing our own or others suffering. It is also composed of qualities such as wisdom, courage, strength, non-judgement, warmth, tender heartedness, and caring.
 
Often we associate compassion with something we benevolently offer to others. However, according to Gilbert’s definition, compassion is something we offer to ourselves, too. He says that it can help cultivate peace of mind and promote good mental health.
 
Compassion for self does not fit well within our ingrained western habit of self-criticism. Our societies are often driven by the importance of productivity, success and consumption, where value is awarded only according to what we do, rather than for who we are. Doing becomes more important than being. Failing an exam, not getting the job, not having a relationship or not progressing in a career, can evolve into a harsh, internal, shame-based self-dialogue which promotes personal suffering.
 
We often learn to be harshly self-critical early in life, and usually inadvertently, through well-intentioned parents, teachers, friends, relatives and others. We can learn it from the harshness of stories told in the media and on social media. Sadly, religion has at times encouraged harsh and relentless self-criticism too, with an overemphasis on sin and badness rather than human goodness. Our inner-critic often jabs us with words such as not good enough, could do better, you’ve failed, and so forth.
Love and compassion for ourselves is essential to good mental health and emotional flourishing. If we can learn to dialogue with ourselves and others, without attack, blame and besmirching, we heal both ourselves and others. Learning to forgive ourselves for mistakes is fundamental to being self-compassionate. To forgive is to forgo a harsh perception of ourselves or others, and not to magnify it. To forgive ourselves acknowledges our mistakes and wants us to do better, and importantly asks, what have you learned from this? In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus tells his disciples that they are light and salt for the world. Sometimes it can be difficult to recognise our inherent light and beauty in the midst of so much internal and external harshness. But recognising light in ourselves through self-compassion can be a key to transformation.

Transfiguration (6th August 2023)

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The transfiguration was a revealing by Jesus to his closest disciples of the luminous reality of the true universe of divine light and life from which we all came and to which we will all return. He is the self realised light of Christ, which is our true nature as boundless love/light but which we have forgotten. In this three dimensional world the luminous universe is veiled from our mortal eye’s. For Peter, John and James the veil was momentarily lifted. They needed to see Jesus as divine light and love as they came closer to the horror of his death by crucifixion, so that they could be grounded in the reality of who Jesus’ is. In the Gospel of Thomas Jesus says
 
“I am the light that is before all things; I am all things; all things come forth from me; all things return to me”. (Logion 77).
 
The transfiguration is linked with two other sayings of Jesus
 
“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven”. (Matthew 5:14-16)
 
And
 
Jesus said: ‘If they say to you: “Where do you come from?’ Say to them: ‘We come from the Light. The place where the Light is manifest from itself, has established itself and manifests through their image.’ If they ask: ‘Is it you?’ answer: ‘We are children of the Light, the chosen of the living Father.’ (Logion 50)
 
Jesus importantly reminds the disciples that they are fractals of the divine light present in this world. This world is not our home but it can become a school to help us remember who we are and return home.
 
Thomas Merton experienced Transfiguration one day in the town of Louisville:
 
“…In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all these people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world. . . . it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed. . . . But this cannot be seen, only believed and ‘understood’ by a peculiar gift”
(Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander)
 
May the feast of the Transfiguration remind you that you are love and light and that you ask the Father/Mother of us all to open our eyes to the love we are.

Intuition and intuitive knowing (7th September 2023)

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Holy Spirit of Creation, Save us
 
Intuition and intuitive knowing is as natural to humans as is breathing, through sadly, most of humanity keeps their precious third eye of non dual perception, tightly closed. We deny ourselves entry to the gateway of mysticism without even realising we are doing it. At the gateway divinity meets us and lifts up our consciousness into its deepest truth
 
We can know more deeply. We can know beyond thought and form. The heart centre can open the third eye. Our ability to move through the heart to third eye perception is real but it has been conditioned out of us by our education, social systems, religions and societal norms. We have been conditioned to mainly process our experience of ourselves and the world through a very conditioned left cerebral hemisphere.
 
But we can through love, humility and gentle working of the mind and heart together, see through the very eyes of God

The Early Church Phenomenon of Gnosticism (7th Sept 2023)

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Over the past year I have been researching the early Church phenomenon of Gnosticism. I have found it a fascinating and helpful study in coming to understand the diverse nature of early Christianity and the dynamics behind it. I’m currently engaged with a course of lectures by Professor David Brakkie of the University of Ohio, on what the Nag Hammadi scrolls reveal to us about early Christianity, especially the work of Valentinius. What has interested me is how this tradition has value in terms of understanding some of the problems of the world today, especially our reductionist scientific materialism leading to our rejection of the spiritual and transcendent. This reductionist approach has given rise to nihilism. In terms of societal values about what is meaningful and purposeful, our materialistic, consumer focused culture has given rise to addictions, gross consumption and global self-sabotage, (the latter seen in endless debt, the problem of climate change and vast social inequality). Filmmaker, Robert Bonomo has made a documentary that analyses how systems of political power, economics and consumption are our modern day ‘Archons’ and that these systems arise out of our conscious capacity for creation.
 
A minority of Christians in my social media friends list have been apoplectic by my finding any value in ancient Gnostic wisdom, almost accusing me of creation denial. How funny that being interested, informed and curious about something causes people to accuse you of “becoming” something.
 
I sense that the Gnostics were a minority of believers who wanted a level of spiritual depth that went beyond belief into substantial transpersonal experience. This was expressed in the religious language and thought forms available at that time and in places where Christianity was developing. Unfortunately the early Church Fathers engaged in apologetics rather than trying to understand the phenomenon which led to separation rather than integration.
 
I wonder what Valentinius and Marcion would have said about the problems of todays world?

Universe as Hologram (12th Sept 2023)

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The more I have considered the work of some very talented scientists, in particular Jude Currivan PhD and Dr Donald Hoffman, the more I am coming to be persuaded that the nature of the universe is Holographic. This theory has credibility with scientists from institutions such as Cambridge, Princeton and Columbia. Currivan more cautiously uses the word “Holographic” rather than ‘simulation’, to describe the phenomenon of the universe, with the former attributing meaning and purpose to the universe from its underlying properties of consciousness, whereas simulation suggests unreality. She speaks of the universe as “a living, sentient, conscious, non locally unified entity from it’s very beginnings”. The universe emerges from greater consciousness. Currivan speaks of physicists whose observations of the quantum world led them to the Vedas and writings of the Rishis of India, whose wisdom matched the observations of these scientists about the universe, that reality emerges from deeper levels of non locality. Currivan suggests that consciousness connects humanity to the vast interconnected aspects of cosmic information, and therefore suggests that we are manifestations and co-creators of the universe. This has resonance with Plato’s idea of the world being an imperfect representation of perfect forms of a greater reality. The universe as the manifestation of consciousness was at the heart of non dual Advaita Vedanta, the Gnostic mythology and the notion of creation emerging from the Logos. The creation myths were meant to ascribe meaning to the universe, whatever are its constituents. Intuitively this explanation holds closer to the truth to me.

Intellect of the Heart (15th September 2023)

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The human intellect, even the greatest intellect, is fallible and and limited when facing the immense nature of a limitless universe. Wisdom on the other hand has little relationship to the intellect. Wisdom doesn’t process problems through rational, deductive logic, but rather utilises and guides the intellect In the process of knowing and understanding. The foundation of wisdom is found in the human heart. The intelligence of the heart directs the rational intellect in understanding. The knowing of the human heart is the place where geniuses begin their questioning. The intellect operates in the arena of the ego, and needs the guidance of the heart to understand depth and complexity.

Fraticelli (Italian for “Little Brethren”) 24th Sept 2023

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I have recently learned of a Franciscan movement that existed for a short time after the death of St Francis, called the ‘Fraticelli’. The Fraticelli (Italian for “Little Brethren”) or ‘Spiritual Franciscans’ who desired to live more closely to the original ideal of poverty, as lived by St Francis (and dare I say St Clare too) but were repudiated by the institutional Church for their position. Sadly, some members were burned at the stake and others excommunicated and persecuted. The Fraticelli felt justified in conscience to reject the authority of popes and bishops claiming the gospel as their authority over the ideas of the papacy. They had a flavour about them akin to some of the early Church movements that scorned the materiel wealth and imperial power of the church and who came into similar conflicts with ecclesiastical power and control. I have come across a historical analysis of the history of the Fraticelli called ‘The Spiritual Franciscans: From Protest to Persecution in the Century After Saint Francis’ by David Burr: https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/0-271-02128-4.html

 

Musings During Illness (24th September 2023)

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For the past two days I have been resting in bed after picking up a virus on the way home from Ireland, on Friday. I am aware that since the pandemic three years ago, this was the first time of my being around large numbers of people in close proximity, especially on a crammed air flight courtesy of Ryanair. My immune system isn’t used to being around large numbers of others and a part of me was expecting the possibility of picking up a bug.
 
The immune system of my body has had a crash course with the world. However it will be just fine with a little care and tenderness.
 
The immune system of my soul is another matter. This last couple of days has helped me to make contact with my deep consciousness and how I have been experiencing life in the world since the pandemic. I am cognisant that the world has weighed deeply on my heart. I have been ploughing on with life and feeling fatigue with the world, but I didn’t really know how much it has affected me. I don’t do Pollyanna very well. Human suffering has felt all the more intense when I encounter it, (and suffering goes with the territory of my work). Life on planet Earth life isn’t alright and good. I don’t believe that the language of the soul – which includes intuition and empathy- wants me to ignore these feelings and pretend. Oneness and solidarity doesn’t come easily.
 
There is a cost. What has been depressing?
 
– indifference and sociopathy from our systems of power who are now more brazen than ever in fleecing the peoples
– economic injustice and vast levels of social inequality – especially in third world nations
– hunger and poverty
-the pay cheque to pay cheque reality of many peoples lives and the stress this brings to them
– young people who face a future of never being able to own a home
– identity politics that seems to have taken on a gargantuan and oppressive role in western culture, which is not concerned with human flourishing, economic justice and transformation but with pushing meaningless agendas
– climate change – and our global leadership failing to make the culprits causing ecocide to pay for the plague repair
 
And so much more
 
I can’t do a Pollyanna on this. There is too much suffering. I would rather face the reality for what it is, head on, and know that my soul is being more drawn more and more into compassion, than to pretend. Simultaneously with this angst I know also that we will change, eventually. I know that something inside of us will change life on earth forever. But I refuse to live in a Pollyanna mindset until this happens. I won’t refuses to feel pained by the suffering all around us. When I stop noticing, I relinquish solidarity with all life on earth.
 
May all beings know their value and find happiness and wholeness 🙏

The Martyrs of Languedoc

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The Cathars of Languedoc have been very near to my mind and heart since I first heard about them in 2011, and then started learning more about them in recent years. My sense of closeness to this medieval group has grown considerably in the past few months. This is not because of their creed or beliefs, but because of their ability to be a real community to one another; to love their spiritual beliefs despite the threat, power and dominance of the medieval Catholic Church, and their willingness to confront the corruption of the medieval Church. The Cathars endured torture and extermination beyond what the reformation martyrs endured. A million men, women and children killed, many burned alive at the stake on huge pyres or made to walk into huge fires. The inquisition said “The smallest trace of “sin” had to be extirpated and the corrupt body had to be destroyed and evil exorcised in the flames….”. The power of love, the gift of community and the repudiation of worldly power mark their life and witness. They were loved by their fellow non Cathar citizens.
 
Martyrs of Languedoc ~ pray for us 🙏