Presence
*PRESENT/*PRESENCE - also see EXPERIENCE, IMMANENCE, TRANSCENDENCE, COME, KINGDOM, SALVATION, REIGN, OBEDIENCE, WITHIN, WAY, GLORY, WHOLE, CONSCIOUS, REALIZE, GLORY, EXPRESSION, MANIFESTATION, ESSENCE
The 5 stages of mystic conscioussness are: 1. awakening or conversion, 2. self-knowledge or purgation, 3. illumination (or enlightenment, presence, transcendence, reality) 4. surrender (or dark night), 5. union (p203) Presence of God is betrothal rather than marriage. (p289) The Presence of God leaves only a knowledge that we have been lifted up upon That which eye hath not seen. It is not by the eyes that He enters for He is without form, but with the mind that He is blended. (p293) The illuminated vision of the world connects with the sense of "the Presence of God" or power of perceiving the Absolute. (p304) (Mysticism by Underhill)
"I can of mine own self do nothing" and "the words I speak unto you I speak not of myself; but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." Jesus did not say these things in modesty, but as actual facts. There is a Christ within the individual and Jesus was conscious of this Presence, and he found it possible to do nothing of himself, but to let this inner Presence do all things for him. (http://www.theunofficialinfiniteway.com/sios/sios_18.html)
The stages of presence are:
(http://www.innerfrontier.org/InnerWork/Archive/2007/20071112_Stages_of_Presence.htm)
The presence of God and his glory could be illustrated by the sun. In the Garden of Eden, His presence may have been the blazing, visible glory. (The God You Can Know, p33)
Heaven lies all about us, but because we are lacking in spiritual perception, we are unable to recognize it or unable to experience it. Heaven is the religious name for the Presence of God. (Sermon on the Mount, p37)
Divine sparks were lodged in item of creation, and this meant that the whole world was filled with the presence of God. (History of God, p334)
See the web at last paragraph of this Quaker site to see your savior, to see God. This results in Jesus resurrected in you, (by today's terminology, a spiritual cloning), and having His glorious Kingdom established in your heart. The world as you see it ends. It is gone. You will not see it again. You step into another dimension, and walk by the Light of God, not the sun or the moon.
By choice, two distinctive hearts bring the presence of the sacred divine into tangible form. It takes faith to create a life with another person. (http://www.journeywithspirit.com/spiritualfaith_relationships.htm)
We look forward to the day when we are in God's presence, but I wonder if we always are and don't realize it. We are in God's presence just by being in His creation and esp. when around others beings (who are in the image and likeness). We sinners, like Paul (Saul), should not want to be in the presence of Jesus because it is painful? Also, it is possible to be in the Lamb's presence, but not God (the Father/Mother) because He is not a person but the whole universe (note: in Revelation is God's throne empty but with Jesus there?). (Randy)
Living in the present frees us from bondage to old hurts and resentments. Tao people are aware of the energy around them. They know when to give a compliment, when to express gratitude, when to remain silent. (Tao Peace, p211)
Bishop Costello's 12/3/96 speech - God's presence is in:
creation - out of nothingness and providence keeps from reverting back
scripture - inspiration for righteousness (truth/correctly & justice/moral)
neighbors - if we hate neighbor who we see how can we love G who we can't see
ourselves - life of grace (via uncond love) needed to enter heaven (we chose)
church - worship, sacramental theology is encountering/mtg J the healer, ...
Bishop Costello's 12/10/96 speech - God is the Present for:
allowing us to be partakers in the divine nature
allowing us to be worthy to share in his glory
a solution to dilema of crime (sin) against the Most High
with reparation paid by an equally divine individual in JC
Jesus re-capturing paradise for mankind
God should not be experienced as a wholly etheral panacea but as a mysterious, accompanying presence that helps us to make sense of the bewildering circumstances of our liife on earth. (Beginning, p60)
The binding of Isaac by Abram, reminds us that living in God's presence requires an arduous (exhausting) struggle that can bring us to the brink of despair. (Beginning, p69)
Christ is present with his Church is the whole message of Revelation. The suffering Christain is not alone, nor are his torments to go unrequited. THERE IS ONE PRESENT, THE TRIUMPHANT RISEN LORD, WHO IS AT HAND TO PROTECT, TO PURIFY, AND PREPARED TO ENTER INTO COMMUNION WITH THOSE WHO WILL RESPOND TO HIM. The Risen Savior is the great model and consolation of the suffering Christain. (ReadingNT2, p74)
At the Last Supper Jesus spoke of his presence to the disciples. He was WITH them. He was IN them, and his presence became real THROUGH them. (ReadingNT1, p94)
Christ is eternally present and acting in and through his Church. (ReadingNT1, p67)
Light "enlightens" and it "shows up." In other words, Christ's presence in the world, as the Light, reveals humans for what thet are, good and bad. (ReadingNT1, p74)
The thought itself becomes a presence, an act of attention rather than of understanding. Our attention is simply given to the presence of Jesus, without adverting to any particular detail of his person. (Open Mind, p15)
God as He is in Himself cannot be experienced empirically, conceptually, or spiritually. He is beyond experiences of any kind. This does not mean that He is not in sacred experiences, but that He transcends them. Anything that we perceive of God can only be a radiance of His presence and not God as He is Himself like when a ray of light strikes a prism and breaks into the varied colors of the spectrum. The more one lets go of the aspects of God, the stronger the presence of the Spirit becomes. When our interior becomes empty [detached from aspects], then it can be filled with the presence of the divine. (Open Mind, p17)
The presence of God should become a kind of 4th dimension to all of life, that from which everything that exists is emerging and returning in moment of time. (Open Mind, p75)
Whenever I do a good deed: I should realize that is not I that does it, but God. As our relationship with God matures, SPIRIT BECOMES CONSCIOUS OF ITSELF, AWAKENS TO SELF, BEGINS TO RECOGNIZE ITS OWN TRUE NATURE (Everything, p10). We get closer to feeling His presence and seeing Him face to face. (Randy)
At the Fall, God "expelled us from his presence." (Gen ???)
But my face you cannot see, for no man sees me and lives. (Ex 33:20)
At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. (1 Cor 13:12)
Lo, I am with you always. (Matt 28:20)
They do not see, because they do not look within. They do not hear, because they do not listen. I have given the greatest gift of all...the gift of My Holy Spirit. If they would invite My Spirit to dwell in them, people would see and hear according to what I wish for them to see and hear!" (IAM, p38) "My people are waiting for an event which they have structured in their minds. They do not realize that it IS happening, and it is happening now! (IAM, p54)
God comes by a presence (parousia) overpassing all knowledge. The sense of presence seems to be a state of mind and a perception that are natural and endlessly sought by human beings. (Hist, p104)
God is present both powerfully and gentlely. Powerfully and obviliously He is present in nature, cosmos, and mircles, but we don't recognize these and take them for granted. Gentlely and subtlely He is present by His transcendance, immanence, and providence. We can know God by feeling His presence within us, when He uses us as a vessel to do something good or even when we think of divine thoughts, by realizing that He is the source as well as destination (alpha and omega). However, because of our sinfulness, we don't deny/empty our selves to allow room for Him. God doesn't let unholiness to be in His presence, as seen at the Fall when Adam and Eve we expelled from the garden and we in our sinfullness don't see/feel God's (HS) presence. (Randy)
We can see and understand only a little about God now, as if we were at his reflection in a poor mirror, but someday we are going to see him in his completeness, face to face. (1 Cor 13:12)
However, in our day-to-day living God seems to speak more often in the quiet whisperings, almost unnoticed stirrings, of our heart. Therefore, we need moments of quiet, solitude, and stillness to hear God's quiet heartbeat. By developing our ability to listen in prayer, our heart expands. (Experiencing God's Tremendous Love by ???????, p100)
What could the "something" be that not only brought about the turnaround in Jesus's disciples, but which also changed the content of the proclamation from the message OF Jesus to the message ABOUT Jesus (that he was triumphant, was exalted and/or raised from the dead)? They experienced something that they could - and did - understand as the PRESENCE of Jesus. (Common Sense, p262)
Spirit gives itself to every point in this vast body and vouchsafes its being to every part, great and small, though these parts are divided in space and manner. BUT THE SPIRIT IS NOT DIVIDED, NOR DOES IT SPLIT UP IN ORDER TO GIVE LIFE TO EACH INDIVIDUAL, THE SPIRIT IS SIMPLY PURE PRESENCE AND IS ALL PRESENT EVERYWHERE. [All in All?] (Everything, p253)
Ironic that our spiritual authorities are actually some of the great forces sabotaging Spirit's modern and postmodern embrace. They are not beyond the postmodern mind, but beneath it in that rejection of Spirit's all-pervading PRESENCE [in all four quandrants or I (beauty), We (morals), It (science)]. (Everything, p324)
Some people are doing whatever evil enter their hearts, without awareness of the presence of God to inhibit them. Evil was kept under by our forefathers by their faith in God. (PS Editoral, 9/17/96)
Be totally in the present. Drop every thought of the future, drop every thought of the past-in fact, just drop every thought and become totally present. Be aware that you are drawing in a deep/shallow/medium breath. Awareness. Attention, Absosrption. No more. This kind of absorption one observes in little children. They have easy access to the Kingdom of Heaven [by being totally involved in the present moment]. (The Song of the Bird by Anthony deMello, The Bamboos, p20-21)
*PRESENT (ie. gift)
*PRESENT (ie. moment)
We wait until we finish high school, then college, then a job, car, house. We are not capable of being alive in the present moment. We always postpone being alive to the future and it is possible we will never be truly alive in our entire life. (Buddha, Christ, p17)