EASTER V John 15:1-8

"I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing."

The Rational thought does not know how to abide or why it is important to do so. Just do what Jesus said to do and we will abide.

The Spiritual understanding knows how to abide and that we cannot do what He said to do apart from abiding.

As a young priest out of Seminary, I had that feeling deep inside that there was something missing. I found out what was missing when I read this passage, "Abide!" I wondered, "How do you abide?" I was sure I could get the old books on theology and find it in the index. Nowhere was there any mention of abiding. I looked though old notes, nothing. I spent about ten years searching for the answer. I listened to tapes from some of the greatest preachers of my time, went to teachings and workshops. Never was there anyone telling how to abide.

The problem here is, if one does not know something, and they do not know they do not know it, they will tend to think they know it. This is the missing link in the Church today. We do not teach our people how to abide. And we do not know we do not teach them "how". We think teaching them "what" to do is the same as "how" to do it.

Granted there are some who say they know how to do it. They believe "how" is doing things such as prayer and mediation, spiritual exercises, going to church, taking communion, going on retreats, or camping in mountains or beaches. There is no doubt people do get into the Presence by doing these things, but this is not how it is done. We can say prayers and not pray, sing praise hymns and not praise, go to all sorts of places, do all sorts of exercises and at times not get into the Presence. If you cannot do it every time, then what you are doing is not it.

There is a logic that explains how spirituality works. Insight is extremely different than the way we learn rationally. Conscious insight is not rational. We do not discover through rational forms of traditional psychology, morality, theology or traditions. We discover through the conscious nature of our insight. What we learn from inside is custom designed to be relevant and speak directly to us. It helps to take a new look at how our conscious thinking works.  In rational thinking, our thought about an event creates our feeling.  In conscious thinking, the feeling of our inner Peace creates the insight of our Wisdom in the event. Becoming conscious of the Presence turns out to be profoundly important after it is accomplished.

That is why we talk about two kinds of thinking. The rational is learned, the conscious is discovered. In the rational, we learn first and then do. Spiritually, we discover by doing first and then learning afterward. We do not learn how to abide first and then abide. We must start with abiding by conscious wondering and then we will receive understanding on how it works.

Try it now without any attempt to rationally understand what you are doing. Wonder what difference it makes in your life when you are feeling upset and depressed about some event or person, or when being in the Presence of His Peace and Love?