During agape meditation the word that surfaced for me was “invitation.” I was aware of the spiritual power of agape as an invitation to the Presence. And of course, as I had realized many times before, agape is also the access to Presence, so it functions with a double purpose: as both the invitation and the fulfillment of the invitation.
Another reason “invitation” is a good way to approach meditating on agape has to do with the previous approach I talked about of seeing agape as a divine gift. The approach involves seeing agape given into our hearts as the basis and means for inviting us to be drawn into the intimacy of Presence.
Then further meditation led me to see how the gift of agape also invites us to follow it out to share with others. That stretches the meaning of invitation so that we become the agents to invite others to feel the impact of agape in our relationship with them, and also for them to accept the invitation of letting agape flow in their life. So as we spend time with that relationship of sharing agape, we can think of the profound spiritual quality of that time together as “agape time.”
Monday, July 8, 2013
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
My Agape book arrived
The 121 copies of my book arrived. So I can start distributing The Seven Steps of Agape Prayer.
This has been such an exciting time of publishing and then setting up new social media channels about my book that I haven’t had time to post to this blog. The names of those social media sites are
Wordpress: robertwestblog.wordpress.com
new Facebook site: pages/Robert-A-West/139320849605372.
Also I have a MySpace account (Robert.A.West),
LinkedIn account (/pub/Robert-west/25/477/566),
a Twitter account (agapeworker)
and the special website is agapeprayer.net.
This has been such an exciting time of publishing and then setting up new social media channels about my book that I haven’t had time to post to this blog. The names of those social media sites are
Wordpress: robertwestblog.wordpress.com
new Facebook site: pages/Robert-A-West/139320849605372.
Also I have a MySpace account (Robert.A.West),
LinkedIn account (/pub/Robert-west/25/477/566),
a Twitter account (agapeworker)
and the special website is agapeprayer.net.
Monday, May 27, 2013
Agape and life changes
Everything changes! Lately I’ve seen reflected in many books that most ancient of profound truths. But also I’ve run into people trying to resist that perspective on existence.
The origin of the resistance seems to be a very human need to accept only the changes we like, but fight the changes we don’t like. Of course, not everyone reacts to life changes the same way. Some people seem more capable of handling change than others.
So what causes the difference? My readings in child psychology and brain development lead me to conclude that for children receiving loving nurturing, their brains develop differently from those who haven’t been nurtured lovingly. But I’ve also learned that it’s possible to overcome such brain development.
Constant change can be turned to a person’s advantage. But first it’s of utmost importance to accept change. An amazing number of problems develop in people’s lives and in history when people try to stop change.
The ancient philosophers from around the Mediterranean regions carried on running, heated arguments about accepting change. The basis for all of that philosophizing was laid during that remarkable 500-year period that has been label the Axial Age, or as Karen Armstrong called it in the title of her deeply researched and inspiring book, The Great Transformation. That 500 years witnessed more profound change, throughout the societies of the planet, than at any other period of history except for our own. So it’s not surprising to find philosophers and religious geniuses reflecting on change in such far flung places as Greece, Israel, Persia, India, and China.
The first Greek philosopher to make the concept of change a key part of his work was Heraclitus (around 500 BCE). He not only talked about the constant flux that kept everything changing, but he also talked about “logos” as the ruling principle of nature (very much like we find at the beginning of the Gospel of John). Plato quotes Heraclitus as saying, “all things pass and nought abides.”
But of course, when I turn to agape, I find the spiritual power that abides. As Paul wrote: “Agape never gives up; and its faith, hope, and patience never fail. Agape is eternal.” (1 Cor. 13:7-8 Today’s English Version). But what agape does for us is give us the spiritual power to deal creatively with change -- to be able to handle change as challenge, and not have to think weakly that changes have to be either good for us or curses. We know from many of our modern philosophers that our best well being is based not on what happens to us but on what we do with what happens to us.
The origin of the resistance seems to be a very human need to accept only the changes we like, but fight the changes we don’t like. Of course, not everyone reacts to life changes the same way. Some people seem more capable of handling change than others.
So what causes the difference? My readings in child psychology and brain development lead me to conclude that for children receiving loving nurturing, their brains develop differently from those who haven’t been nurtured lovingly. But I’ve also learned that it’s possible to overcome such brain development.
Constant change can be turned to a person’s advantage. But first it’s of utmost importance to accept change. An amazing number of problems develop in people’s lives and in history when people try to stop change.
The ancient philosophers from around the Mediterranean regions carried on running, heated arguments about accepting change. The basis for all of that philosophizing was laid during that remarkable 500-year period that has been label the Axial Age, or as Karen Armstrong called it in the title of her deeply researched and inspiring book, The Great Transformation. That 500 years witnessed more profound change, throughout the societies of the planet, than at any other period of history except for our own. So it’s not surprising to find philosophers and religious geniuses reflecting on change in such far flung places as Greece, Israel, Persia, India, and China.
The first Greek philosopher to make the concept of change a key part of his work was Heraclitus (around 500 BCE). He not only talked about the constant flux that kept everything changing, but he also talked about “logos” as the ruling principle of nature (very much like we find at the beginning of the Gospel of John). Plato quotes Heraclitus as saying, “all things pass and nought abides.”
But of course, when I turn to agape, I find the spiritual power that abides. As Paul wrote: “Agape never gives up; and its faith, hope, and patience never fail. Agape is eternal.” (1 Cor. 13:7-8 Today’s English Version). But what agape does for us is give us the spiritual power to deal creatively with change -- to be able to handle change as challenge, and not have to think weakly that changes have to be either good for us or curses. We know from many of our modern philosophers that our best well being is based not on what happens to us but on what we do with what happens to us.
Monday, April 22, 2013
An Agape ‘coincidence’
The publication is going to happen. I’m satisfied enough, finally, to sign a contract to publish the book I’ve mentioned here that I wrote based on this blog. The decision was made in a most unusual way.
A publisher contacted me on Thursday to talk seriously about publishing my book. Then on Sat. evening my youngest son phoned to ask me to substitute for his wife as liturgist in our church’s worship because she had the stomach flu and was throwing up. The next day I decided to take 2 copies of my manuscript to church for the Pastor and Asst. Pastor to read. Then when I told the Pastor I was filling in to read scripture, he showed me the reading would be Rom. 5:1-5! What an amazing coincidence (or was it)! He was gracious enough to let me explain about my book before reading the scripture that was the basis of the book.
So the next morning I phoned the publisher, to sign the contract for publication.
A publisher contacted me on Thursday to talk seriously about publishing my book. Then on Sat. evening my youngest son phoned to ask me to substitute for his wife as liturgist in our church’s worship because she had the stomach flu and was throwing up. The next day I decided to take 2 copies of my manuscript to church for the Pastor and Asst. Pastor to read. Then when I told the Pastor I was filling in to read scripture, he showed me the reading would be Rom. 5:1-5! What an amazing coincidence (or was it)! He was gracious enough to let me explain about my book before reading the scripture that was the basis of the book.
So the next morning I phoned the publisher, to sign the contract for publication.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
3 years of this blog about Agape
To start this 4th year of writing this blog, I think that one of the most liberating aspects of my long searching about agape has come from separating agape from love. I’ve written a lot in this blog about why the English word ‘love’ is not the right translation of ‘agape,’ but I haven’t written about my personal experiences with finding different meaning in the power of agape.
The more I experienced the deep spiritual aspect of agape, the more I realized the profound consequences of agape not being generated by human emotions. Even though there are enough similarities between agape and love to cause the historical confusion of translating agape with the word ‘love,’ that very confusion brought about a slight “detour” in the spiritual development of the human race.
The problem came from a shift in focus. The major focus, for advancing the overall flowing of agape among people, was meant to be on the spiritual source of agape. But by confusing it with love, the focus shifted to human emotions. Once I began to see the extent of that problem, I was able to shift my focus back to the spiritual source for agape. Then I was able to detect the presence of agape in relationships where it was not named as such but the meaning was there.
An example of that was a report by Pierre Pradervand in “Chicken Soup for the Soul: Stories for a Better World.” He used a quote from the Sermon on the Mount to start a practice of blessing people. In that section about having agape for enemies, he used the KJV “bless those who curse you.” For him that became a spiritual breakthrough to end his resentment against someone who had caused him to quit a job. He wrote about the changes in his perspective brought about by blessing everyone around him: “to bless is to acknowledge the unlimited good that is embedded in the very texture of the universe and awaiting each and all. … To bless means to wish, unconditionally, total unrestricted good for others and events from the deepest chamber of your heart. It means to hallow, to hold in reverence, to behold with utter awe, that which is always a gift from the Creator. To bless is to invoke divine care upon, to speak or think gratefully for, to confer happiness upon -- although we are never the bestower, but simply the joyful witnesses of life’s abundance.” (p. 270-271) Then he concluded by referring to an encounter he finally had with the person he had resented so much: “This person, whom I had seen as my tormentor and enemy, suddenly appeared as what the universe had always intended: my teacher on the path of greater love.” (p. 272)
Based on the description of how this impacted his life, Pierre was actually referring to agape when he talked about “greater love.” His comments were so similar to ones I have made at times in these blog postings, that I was very moved by his report on what unfolded in his life.
The more I experienced the deep spiritual aspect of agape, the more I realized the profound consequences of agape not being generated by human emotions. Even though there are enough similarities between agape and love to cause the historical confusion of translating agape with the word ‘love,’ that very confusion brought about a slight “detour” in the spiritual development of the human race.
The problem came from a shift in focus. The major focus, for advancing the overall flowing of agape among people, was meant to be on the spiritual source of agape. But by confusing it with love, the focus shifted to human emotions. Once I began to see the extent of that problem, I was able to shift my focus back to the spiritual source for agape. Then I was able to detect the presence of agape in relationships where it was not named as such but the meaning was there.
An example of that was a report by Pierre Pradervand in “Chicken Soup for the Soul: Stories for a Better World.” He used a quote from the Sermon on the Mount to start a practice of blessing people. In that section about having agape for enemies, he used the KJV “bless those who curse you.” For him that became a spiritual breakthrough to end his resentment against someone who had caused him to quit a job. He wrote about the changes in his perspective brought about by blessing everyone around him: “to bless is to acknowledge the unlimited good that is embedded in the very texture of the universe and awaiting each and all. … To bless means to wish, unconditionally, total unrestricted good for others and events from the deepest chamber of your heart. It means to hallow, to hold in reverence, to behold with utter awe, that which is always a gift from the Creator. To bless is to invoke divine care upon, to speak or think gratefully for, to confer happiness upon -- although we are never the bestower, but simply the joyful witnesses of life’s abundance.” (p. 270-271) Then he concluded by referring to an encounter he finally had with the person he had resented so much: “This person, whom I had seen as my tormentor and enemy, suddenly appeared as what the universe had always intended: my teacher on the path of greater love.” (p. 272)
Based on the description of how this impacted his life, Pierre was actually referring to agape when he talked about “greater love.” His comments were so similar to ones I have made at times in these blog postings, that I was very moved by his report on what unfolded in his life.
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