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[This is a copy of the Sutra that I obtained from Terence Buie in 1987.  I do not know the source of this particular version.]

May I be free from  greed, hate and delusion.
May I be full of self-sacrifice, love and understanding.

I charge my heart, that is now temporarily pure, with thoughts of Loving Kindness.
I charge every cell of my being with thoughts of Loving Kindness.
I build a healthy, happy aura of Loving Kindness around me that no wicked thought nor evil intention can penetrate.
Now I am protected.

I now send forth thoughts of Loving Kindness
 to all beings and creatures
 to everything animate and inanimate
 to everything that has taken rise in consciousness
 and to everything still in its causal state.

I send forth these thoughts around me
 around my dwelling
 around my district
 around the continent
 around the world.
Loving Kindness to all, Loving Kindness to all.

Around the universe, Loving Kindness to all.
Around the cosmos, Loving Kindness, Loving Kindness to all.

Loving Kindness to all who dwell above and
Loving Kindness to those who dwell below.

May all beings and creatures
And everything animate and inanimate
And everything still in its causal state,
May all be happily minded.
May none hurt each other in anger and in ill-will.
May their minds be wholesome.
May all have sufficient for their needs.
May all be fortunate enough to encounter the Dharma.

Humbly I accept the loving thoughts of everyone in return
None excluded.

And now I share the benefit of this meditation with everyone.

Spiritual aspirants are like deep sea divers.  We keep going deeper and deeper into ourselves searching for the One who can satisfy our need for love and connection.  And, as we attain greater depths, we discover that all mystical traditions lead us Home by the same route.  The Way lies in self-transformation and self-realization.  We discover that our very nature is divine and that there is really no other place to which we need to go.  What we are seeking lies within our own hearts, and there are well-traveled paths that can help us to find it.

Many of the contemporary religions are in trouble  nowadays because they do not seem to realize that people yearn to go into much more depth spiritually, looking into their very souls, to find the Divine One.  And that means they want someone to teach them how to find out who they are and who God is.  Mystical traditions do that and religions do not.

Religions seem to deal with external behaviors while mysticism manifests its power within.  For confirmation of this fact, find out where the young people are going for their spiritual support and education.  They are attracted to Yoga, Sufism, Buddhism, mystical Christianity and the Pentacostal churches.  Swami Chidvalasananda (Gurumayi) draws crowds in the thousands whenever she is in residence at the Shree Muktananda Ashram in South Fallsburg, NY.  The Dalai Lama has an international following.  Vipassana meditation from Buddhism is the spiritual practice of choice for large numbers of people.  Mother Meera in Germany attracts thousands of people, and she teaches by silence.  Amritananda also draws thousands of people when she does her annual tour of the United States.  She does not even speak English, yet her presence is so compelling that her blessing can bring grown men to tears.

What all these teachers have in common is that they teach us how to access the One and how to cherish our own divinity.  This means, not rules of behavior and information about how sinful we are, but actual spiritual practices that enable us to achieve higher levels of consciousness and self-transformation.

Do you not think it is time for the conventional religions to study what is successful, so they can join the worldwide transformation that is already occurring?
 

Ecumenicalism

The Parliament of the World’s Religions was formed around the turn of the twentieth century and had its first meeting in Chicago then.  They had another meeting in Chicago back in the mid-nineties and yet another in South Africa in December 1999.  All of the religious and mystical traditions were represented.  Those who were able to attend were triumphant about the connections and support they achieved at those meetings.  So there is hope yet for worldwide peace and harmonious co-existence.

I know many people who were part of the New Age movement in the 1970s, and often they feel like what they did made no difference in our materialsitic society.  But I can see that their pleas and pressures seeded a great worldwide movement toward transformation that is already gathering steam.  The hatred and resistance to it that is mounting now is testimony to the power of its magnetism.

Salvation

“Salvation” is a worn and tattered word that, I think, has long since lost its true meaning through sheer repetition.  In the Judeo-Christian religions, we have been told over and over for the last four or five thousand years how sinful and ugly we are.  And we have been urged to repent and seek salvation.  Jesus was seen to be a savior by whose death we all may be redeemed.  This message does not attract me because all my life I have done my best to be good and truthful.  We all make mistakes, but life corrects them for us with its laws of cause and effect (karma).

What we need is a rephrasing of the old terminology, a decoding so to speak.  What does “salvation” mean to me in terms of my own life and what I can understand?  Is it something I want, or something I must have because it is good for me?

I have, in my old age, returned to attendence at a Christian church.  And I listen to the Bible readings and the sermons which have not changed an iota since I was a child.  However, now, after considerable training in the mystical traditions, I am able to decode these offerings in terms of my own soul’s journey Home.  So, when I hear the word “sin,” I think “separation.”  And when I hear “salvation,” I know it means reunion with the Beloved One.  The cross represents, for me, the death of ego and self-will.  The resurrection means the joy of the soul at its homecoming.  The season of Pentacost reminds me to be grateful for my contact with Spirit.  Jesus’ sayings take on new meaning when they are set in the context of mysticism.  Jesus was a mystic as was Buddha and the Hindu rishis.  We have mystics among us now.  They are everywhere, and the number is growing exponentially as perfectly normal, average people are learning how to find Divine Love for themselves.

Symbolism

I think one important thing that is missing in modern churches is an appreciation of the powerful role of symbolism in religion.  Long before there was a written language, there was a symbolic one, and folks understood what the symbols stood for in their everyday lives.  However, now, in the American culture in particular, we have become so verbal and intellectual that the symbolic aspects of life have fallen by the wayside.  They need to be recovered for their exquisite and meaningful powers to communicate and to move us emotionally and spiritually.  Perhaps we also need to learn how to generate new symbols that speak to our present needs for growth and connection.

We have another misperception that modern seers have been trying to help us change.  That is that the earth is dead,  resource material for us to plunder.  There is ample evidence all around us that this is not so.  The earth is a living, and probably a conscious, intelligent organism that supports us in her mercy.  The reductionism of modern science is finally being challenged as physicists discover things they cannot explain on purely physical levels.  The speed of light is not the fastest thing in the universe.  Time and  space and causality do not exist except in human minds.

If we view the universe as a living organism that may even be conscious in itself, our entire worldview and philosophy of life must change to one of mutual co-creation and reciprocity.  Everything is in the heart of God and thus worthy of awe and respect.  We are all One and the power of Love is within us all.

Love is the Force.

 The kingdom of which Christ spoke, therefore, is tied to the realization (the

 making real) of the inherent consciousness of the universe.  And its coming

 has to do with a human awakening to the very reality experienced by mystics

 and described by scientists. (La Chapelle, 2001, p. 18)

1.  Read “Trusting the Web of Life” in the IONS Noetic Sciences Review, June-August, 2001, 17-20.

2.  Read Memories and visions of paradise by Richard Heinberg (1985).  Loveland, CO: Emissaries of Divine Light [available at Amazon.com].  Heinberg is saying that the "Fall" is due to humanity's loss of consciousness of the oneness of God and man, i.e., our divine identity.  He goes a bit further and says that recovery of that consciousness is essential for survival of the planet because otherwise we will not be able to reverse the destructiveness of our culture.