Monday, June 23, 2008 at 5:05pm
You have the name of being alive, but you are dead!
Column: PERFECTBALANCELIFE
Are you truly alive? If you are not aware of your continual interaction with God’s love, then for all intents and purposes you are a walking dead person. To be always conscious of one’s inseparable relationship with God is to be truly alive. When you are blind to your inherent oneness with God, you are dead, even though you appear to be alive.
The Bible gives us two explanations about life and death (Luke 9:60). The first one tells about the death related to one’s physical heartbeat and breathing pattern. When the Spirit no longer manifests through the physical body, the body no longer expresses life and is deemed dead. Then there’s the second idea about death. This deals with “spiritual” death. This idea of death deals with our lack of awareness of God’s love. In this state of consciousness we can be walking around breathing and expressing life through our physical body, yet we are dead on the inside—spiritually dead (Rev. 3:1). Being spiritually dead has something to do with lacking an awareness of our ever-present oneness with our sacred source, our divinity.
Many authentic religious traditions speak in both myth and legend about how human beings have lost their connection with this divine love, and how crucial it is for us to reconnect with this power. Bruce Olson, Christian missionary for the past thirty-five years has been living with the Motilones Bari Indian tribe, of northeast Colombia. This tribe lives deep in the mountains and for centuries had little contact with modern-day civilization. After Bruce learned the language of this tribe, he discovered that one of their legends describes an event long ago where a false prophet misled the people away from God, and ever since this time the Motilones have been trying to find their way back to God. Hearing this story as told by Bruce through his book, “Brunchko,” amazed me. Here, in the remote jungle of South America, a group of people acknowledge their need to reconnect with the sacred source of all life, love, and wisdom; a connection lost long ago.
It is very, very important that we attend to our innate longing to be ONE with the source of all love and life-the Sacred Source. Such longing is part of our legacy as a human family.
Jack LaValley is a practitioner of the martial arts, physical cultivation exercises, and sitting meditation. Although currently working in the hospitality industry, he spends much of his free time helping and working together with those who are pursuing the spiritual path. Jack and his wife, Wha-ja Oh-LaValley, a native of South Korea, reside in Westchester County, New York, and are the proud parents of three beautiful children. Jack is completing his book manuscript, "A Perfectly Balanced Life: Living Each Day with Wisdom and Strength," and expects publication to be in October 2008. You can reach Jack at: perfectbalance1@optimum.net © Copyright 2008 by Jack LaValley.
The Bible gives us two explanations about life and death (Luke 9:60). The first one tells about the death related to one’s physical heartbeat and breathing pattern. When the Spirit no longer manifests through the physical body, the body no longer expresses life and is deemed dead. Then there’s the second idea about death. This deals with “spiritual” death. This idea of death deals with our lack of awareness of God’s love. In this state of consciousness we can be walking around breathing and expressing life through our physical body, yet we are dead on the inside—spiritually dead (Rev. 3:1). Being spiritually dead has something to do with lacking an awareness of our ever-present oneness with our sacred source, our divinity.
Many authentic religious traditions speak in both myth and legend about how human beings have lost their connection with this divine love, and how crucial it is for us to reconnect with this power. Bruce Olson, Christian missionary for the past thirty-five years has been living with the Motilones Bari Indian tribe, of northeast Colombia. This tribe lives deep in the mountains and for centuries had little contact with modern-day civilization. After Bruce learned the language of this tribe, he discovered that one of their legends describes an event long ago where a false prophet misled the people away from God, and ever since this time the Motilones have been trying to find their way back to God. Hearing this story as told by Bruce through his book, “Brunchko,” amazed me. Here, in the remote jungle of South America, a group of people acknowledge their need to reconnect with the sacred source of all life, love, and wisdom; a connection lost long ago.
It is very, very important that we attend to our innate longing to be ONE with the source of all love and life-the Sacred Source. Such longing is part of our legacy as a human family.
Jack LaValley is a practitioner of the martial arts, physical cultivation exercises, and sitting meditation. Although currently working in the hospitality industry, he spends much of his free time helping and working together with those who are pursuing the spiritual path. Jack and his wife, Wha-ja Oh-LaValley, a native of South Korea, reside in Westchester County, New York, and are the proud parents of three beautiful children. Jack is completing his book manuscript, "A Perfectly Balanced Life: Living Each Day with Wisdom and Strength," and expects publication to be in October 2008. You can reach Jack at: perfectbalance1@optimum.net © Copyright 2008 by Jack LaValley.