A Simple Explanation of "Stay Centered"

We are often advised to "stay centered" in order to better deal with life's challenges. This is timeless advice. Most ancient philosophies, in the West and the East, incorporate some version of "staying centered."

Both the Bible and the Tao Te Ching promote the memes "stay centered," and "walk the straight and narrow path." For example, during the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said,

Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Matthew 7:13)

And Lao Tzu similarly recommended,

The great Way is easy, yet people prefer the side paths. Be aware when things are out of balance. Stay centered within the Tao. (from verse 53, Tao Te Ching, Stephen Mitchell translation)

In the examples above, "staying centered" refers to keeping to a narrow field of possible action, as opposed to broader or more diverse paths.

Another way to "stay centered" is expressed by the Golden Mean, which Aristotle described as keeping to the beneficial middle and avoiding extremes. In Chinese philosophy this is called the Doctrine of the Mean. In Buddhism the same meme is called The Middle Way. Each tradition uses slightly different words and metaphors, but they all articulate the same meme.

Here is the Simple Explanation of "Stay Centered":



Staying Centered Near the Vortex Maintains Alignment with the Metaverse

Staying centered means keeping your conscious focus on the here and now, remaining poised in the present between past and future. Staying centered means allowing your Unit of Consciousness to align with the Universal UC, rather than with your ego. Staying centered acknowledges that the answers lie in the immediate present, not out there in some other place or time.   

According to the Simple Explanation, information from the metaverse flows into our universe through the dynamic patterns of the Universal UC. In our model, the patterns of our space-time continuum emerge fractally from the zero-point field at the center of the Universal UC. These patterns are both ideal and material. Idealistic patterns include, for example, the laws of physics, mathematics, and karma. Material patterns are expressed in the 3-D universe with which we are all familiar.

Spiritually, the best solutions arise from God, also known as the Universal UC, or the metaversal fractal. Answers to problems are not found in the broad pathways of the world; attempting to find answers "out there" will not align you with the metaversal plan. Keeping to the center aligns one with God's will.

When I image nestling backward into the Universal UC, I imagine falling smaller toward the ananda/joy direction, while still feeling the outer skin of the Universal UC holding from the outside and flowing through the middle. Perfection and possibility emerge from the middle as the universe instantiates around me. This would be the truest expression of the meme "stay centered".

A Simple Explanation of the Lord's Prayer

When his disciples asked Lord Jesus how to pray, Jesus taught them the following prayer. Here is its most common translation, from the King James Version of the Bible (Matthew 6:6):

Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name.

Thy kingdom come, Thy wll be done, in earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory for ever.

Amen.

For a few years now, I have only prayed the Lord's Prayer and no other. For me, prayer time is not a time to petition God for favors. I figure God already knows better than I do what needs I have. I also have an abiding faith that God/the Tao/the Universe has my best interests at heart, and so I trust in God/the Tao/the Universe to take care of me. My husband and I recite the Lord's Prayer out loud together after each morning's scripture study and meditation. We recite the King James version above.

I provide the Simple Explanation translation below, not as a replacement for traditional versions, but simply for mapping Simple Explanation terminology to Christian memes for purposes of clarification.

Here's my Simple Translation of The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father from the metaverse, we address you with humility and respect.

We invite your plans and principles to inform and bring order to our universe, trusting that your intention for us is best.
We acknowledge that you are the source of all that is needed to nourish and sustain our lives.
We realize that our karmic shortcomings can only be forgiven to the same extent we forgive others for their shortcomings.
We desire to avoid any memes that stand in the way of doing what is best for ourselves and others.
We trust you in all things, for your authority and power transcend this universe, and we are but humble echoes of your perfection.

Amen

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The section of this article, Praying within the toroidal flow, has been moved to its own blog article. You may read it there.

The Problem with Religion

The problem with religion is that too often, ritualized memes have replaced personal communion with the Holy Spirit. Religious doctrine or dogma falls into the category of meme chords. Yet memes obscure access to one's spiritualized Self or governing unit of consciousness. Since it is the Self UC that seeks union with God (the universal UC), beclouding the Self UC with meme chords is the last thing the seeker wants.
Merely surrounding oneself with religious meme chords and performing works out of duty to the meme chords does not grant access to God.
Here's how the Bible puts it in Matthew 7:
21 Not every one that said to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? and in your name have cast out devils? and in your name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess to them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity.
What does it mean, to "work iniquity"? It means putting your mud's desires ahead of God's will (or the metaversal plan). When a UC puts its own well-meaning-but-limited plan into action, a karmic debt is created. Seekers after God desire absolution from sin/karma/iniquity. Building even more karmic debt out of personal effort is the last thing the seeker wants.
Here's how the Tao Te Ching puts it in Verse 18:
    When the Tao is lost, there is goodness.
    When goodness is lost, there is morality.
    When morality is lost, there is ritual.
    Ritual is the husk of true faith,
    the beginning of chaos.
The Tao Te Ching, or Book of the Way, is an ancient Chinese collection of 81 wisdom verses. In “The Simple Explanation” model, the Tao spoken of by Lao Tzu refers to the metaversal information and principles of organization that have informed our universe since the moment before creation. 

This verse describes ritual's fall from grace. 

The highest state is to be at one with God and God's plan, called herein the Tao. 

When one loses touch with the universal UC, one loses the Tao's information pipeline. But, says Verse 18, even if your UC has lost its way, you still know goodness when you see it, and your heart may still be in the right place.

But, once your heart loses its way, you no longer have true goodness. Morality is what you are left with once love departs. Morality is a system of rules meant to engender Godly behavior in those who no longer know God.

Once morality is lost, empty ritual takes its place. Ritualistic behavior no longer serves to bring one closer to God. At this stage, the Way to God has become replaced by meaningless gestures.

"Ritual is the husk of true faith." Lifeless, dried-up memes have replaced morality, goodness, love, and access to God. Verse 18 declares this state to be chaos, anarchy, entropic, because when the Word of God cannot pass its organizing principles through your UC, the opportunity is lost to accomplish whatever part your UC was to play in making things better. This is the last thing the seeker wants.

A Simple Explanation of Christianity

Prior to reading this post, please acquaint yourself with "Start Here: A Simple Explanation--Basic Principles" in the column on the right side of the screen.

The Simple Explanation can be applied to traditional spiritual teachings, including Christianity. For those of us who are Christians, here is how this would work:

When the model speaks of “the metaverse,” this is God the Father, Creator of Heaven and Earth, infinite energy and non-localized consciousness.

When the model says the metaverse “vibrated with every organizing principle needed to shape and sustain space and time, energy and mass,” this is God the Son. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Word is Logos, Greek for information and principles of organization—The Law.

When the model says that consciousness wrapped itself around our universe and took on a shape, this is God the Holy Spirit, hereinafter referred to as the "Universal UC" in the Simple Explanation. At the macro scale, the Holy Spirit surrounds all of creation at the border of the metaverse. This “shape” of God’s mind can be visualized as the universal Unit of Consciousness. Within our universe, the Holy Spirit instantiates an echo of God’s mind at the birth of every subsequent UC. Thus, the universe is pervaded, within and without, by the presence of the Holy Spirit.

When the Bible speaks of a person’s spirit, this refers to the Self’s unit of consciousness. This UC is “made in the image of God,” and is a replica of the spirit of God, or the Holy Spirit. As such, God’s Law is written on the heart of every thing in creation.

According to the New Testament, Jesus the Christ was “fully human” and “fully God.” This means that the UC associated with Jesus of Nazareth was a fully realized copy of the UC of the Holy Spirit. Jesus never allowed his personal will to contradict the will of God streaming in from the metaverse. As a fully-realized UC, Jesus was entirely coherent with God’s will, which is to say, Jesus was without sin. Thus, Jesus never accrued karmic debt. Since Jesus did not live for himself but for God alone, he never enshrouded his UC with personal meme bundles and karma.

When asked his central message, Jesus responded that we were to “Love God and to love one another as we love ourselves.” In terms of this model, God would like us to embrace the information and patterns streaming in from the metaverse whenever we make a decision; when we do this, we are “loving God.” Then, God would like us to love ourselves. This means that we are to love our flesh’s aggregate UCs and do what is best for our organism. We are also to love our Self’s UC and act with wisdom in concert with God’s will. Finally, we are to take the focus off of ourselves and our treasured memes, and to reach out laterally with love and information to our brethren UCs.

Jesus came that we might not perish because of the law (of karma) but that we might live life more abundantly. He demonstrated through the example of his life that it is possible to be a fully-realized UC, living moment-by-moment in the service of God’s will. “Believing on Christ” for salvation is an invitation for the UC of the Holy Spirit to dwell in fullness in your UC—to allow the energy of God to shine unobstructed through your UC. To be “Born Again” is to make a decision to lay down your personal meme bundle and to allow the Holy Spirit’s UC to live through you. Baptism is a ritual enactment of washing away your undesired meme chords so that God’s memes may flow through you.

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A Simple Translation of The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father from beyond, Creator of this material world, we address you with the utmost respect.

We invite your plans and principles to inform and bring order to our universe, trusting that your intention for us is best.

We acknowledge that you are the source of all that is needed to nourish and sustain our lives.

We realize that our karmic shortcomings can only be forgiven to the same extent we forgive others for their karmic shortcomings.

We desire to set down any memes that stand in the way of doing what is best for ourselves and others.

For your kingdom transcends this small universe, and your power is infinite, and we are but humble echoes of your great loving spirit.

Amen

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Metaverse -- God the Father

The Word

Personal Note: Acknowledgements

This is an entirely original work, inspired by decades of prayer and meditation upon a variety of sacred and secular texts. Here is a sampling of the books and thinkers that have most influenced me in the past:

• The Holy Bible, various versions

• The Tao Te Ching, various translations and commentaries

• The Bhagavad Gita, translation and commentary by Paramahansa Yogananda

• The Second Coming of Christ, by Paramahansa Yogananda

• The Lazy Man’s Guide to Enlightenment, by Thaddeus Golas

• A number of popular physics books, including Geometry, Relativity, and the 4th Dimension by Rudolf Rucker; Dancing Wu Li Masters by Gary Zukav; and The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra

• And assorted works by Carl Jung, Fritz Perls, Baba Ram Dass, Echkart Tolle, Wayne Dyer, Aristotle, Plato, Cicero, and Kenneth Burke

I have also “sat at the feet” of dozens of inspired individuals who did their best to satisfy my insatiable intellectual and spiritual hunger. These teachers came in many guises, from university professors to preachers to my 7th grade homeroom teacher, Mr. Bond.

Lastly, I would like to thank my favorite philosophical sounding boards—my infinitely patient and loving husband, Gary Ropp; and my brothers, David Puett and Dr. Bill Puett, with whom I have shared a lifetime of inquiry, faith, and love.

Cyd Ropp, Ph.D.
November, 2009
Ashland, Oregon