John 6:35, 41-51
Proper 14 (19) - Year B
There is complaint about your person. You knew that, right? To be self-differentiated is to be able to recognize that complaint as on target and you need to change (we all need our Nathan's) or to recognize that complaint as a projection by whatever system you are dealing with (we all need to stand and say, "this is what I said and this is why I said it" without lapsing into defensiveness).
So what complaint have you recently heard and in which category does it fall?
May you make the needed change. May you stand firmly for change to a larger perspective.
From another tradition, another way to come at this same thing is:
The Relation of States of Consciousness and Stages of Consciousness: No Model Is Complete without Both Ken Wilbur Online
"As both lucid dreaming and lucid sleeping start to occur (usually as one progresses and develops in meditation), one can begin to experience these higher states and realms and bring them into consciousness during the waking state . For example, in a type of meditation known as savikalpa samadhi (or mediation with an object of awareness), one can directly (while fully awake) experience the higher reaches of the subtle realm; in states of nirvikalpa and jnana samadhi, one directly experiences the causal realm; in states of sahaja samadhi, one directly realizes the nondual (which we will discuss in a moment).
"In all of those cases, one is developing one's capacity to experience higher states by converting them into permanent acquisitions. States that are normally unconscious have been made conscious; states that are normally temporary have been made permanent. One progresses from a Wakefulness of the waking state, through a Wakefulness of dream state, to a Wakefulness of the deep sleep state: one's consciousness fluidly unfolds from gross to subtle to causal embrace, with each expansion of consciousness including and enveloping more and more realities. (For the stage- or wave-like nature of these developments, see below, Part II.) One thus increasingly gains a liberation from the binding torment of being identified with lesser, smaller, shallower states; one gains an increasing liberation from their binding spell, until one can transcend and include all states in pure empty Consciousness as such--an ultimate realization or enlightenment that is known by many names, but the Great Liberation will do."
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/august2003.html
Somehow our desire and greed for life has gone bitterly astray. We run until we are surprised by a noose disguised as a tree; until we fall exhausted of all reserve; until we find ourself in the disinterested grasp of despair; until our waiting only brings forth more waiting.
So it has been for us and for all of our image (read G*D). The imitation of our own image imagines another way beyond the stillness of an overly humid day with a hazy gray sky hanging featureless over our heads.
This alternative presses back against the anger of unmet desire and greed - limiting it to this day, this moment; presses back against our thieving actions until they come out another side as sharing. In shorthand, we "live in love" and shift our experience from claiming others as our daily bread to being such daily bread - unconcerned for cosmic, heavenly authority for so being, and simply believing/claiming/acting eternally in each moment available.
- - -
["-- Who can tell truth from falsehood any more?
I say it, and you feel it in your hearts:
no man or woman on this big small earth."
- e.e. cummings]
am I not
but the gene pool
of mother and father
narrowed down
to one option
masquerading
as all other options
am I not
a feast
for generations to come
opening a broadening way
willing one form
to dive deep
into each next
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html
As we read the poetic language of John, it is important to remember Jesus as teacher, mentor, and leader of disciples. This will continue to ground us as we listen in on images of bread, life, eternity, and magnetism.
Jesus, as sage and wise one, has enough teaching to chew on that a follower will always have a next syllabus. To come and live with Jesus will be fulfilling whether or not you buy the "bread" identifier.
As you read this passage it will be helpful to translate "taught" and "come" as "drawn to", "believes" as "lives with", "eternal" as "present", and "raised" as "revealed". Go ahead, mark your bible – cross out words and write in new ones.
As you reflect on the way this passage now reads, there are two additional perspectives to add.
The first is, "I have come from heaven." The next time someone asks where you are from, use this line. Our identified starting place is important and if you don't see G*D (euphemism, "heaven") as part of your start you are likely to settle for coming from Madison or somewhere else and be bound by its limitations, your pedigree. In some sense, our start is what magnetically aligns us with our best intention and allows us to be drawn by it. For John our start is pre-creation.
Secondly, "bread from heaven" is an extension of the creation tale of a by-passed tree-of-life (that one may eat of it and not die) we have been guarded against. Imagine, a walking tree-of-life pursuing us even East of Eden as we are hesitant to glance back at it lest we are tempted to run back only to be sent away. At some point our moving ahead will intersect a tree-of-life and we will better recognize the good and evil we thought so desirable to know and set out on a journey less traveled – presently being drawn by G*D to become our part of G*D - from before creation to right now.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html
To be “bread of life” is a very strong image. It is self-image, not a claim to power. Note that this self-affirmation takes place within a context of others who have experienced Jesus but don’t get all that he is about - they haven’t yet claimed their own sense of also being “bread of life”.
To understand that we won’t lose anything is a statement of faith, not a claim to power over others.
At best we can say that self-identity is wrapped up with eternities. Our sense of meaning is extendable.
“Bread of life” is not something to vote upon or to disparage. It is motivation to act, not a guarantee of position. There is no taking away what is so deeply understood.
This is not about being a singularity to which all is drawn, but a whole constellation or solar system of “bread of life” loci.
We have eternal life when we claim “bread of life” as our experience. Eternity is not belief in someone else’s sense of “bread of life”, but our own.
What is “bread of life”? - it is freedom to walk away from enslavement. Death is not the measuring spot here for even Jesus died. “Bread of life”? - simply our meaning and enactment, enfleshment of internally-fed authority.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/08/john-635-51.html