We spend much of our time building our material houses.
What then of our spiritual house? Which gives the greater
protection from the storms and tempests of the mind?
-Joseph Raffa
What matters most?
Tag Archives: Enlightenment
A new day dawning
Kitchen Table Philosopher JOSEPH RAFFA looks ahead to a time of transformation.
A new day is slowly dawning for humankind. The day of the humanist, of the materialist, of the intellectual dominance of the human expression is on the way out. The day of a spiritually awakened humankind is on the way in.
As it takes over, every social aspect will be transformed. Relationships, science, medicine, politics, day to day living – every social strata will be affected.
The old attitudes will be bulldozed aside by the influx of a new understanding. Resistance to change will melt away before the awesome power of the new spirit that will be abroad in humankind.
Look out selfishness, envy, greed, everything negative and disruptive in human nature. Love, like you’ve never known before, is coming. God’s love – Universal love – open wide the channels tightly closed for centuries and let it through.
Step out of the darkness, humankind, into the light of a brand new living that glows with the Sunshine of Love.
Step aside, hard-headed intellect. You’ve had your way. The suffering has been too much. Intolerable, the separation from all that is warm, gentle and considerate.
A new spirit is urging to show what it can do. There’s enthusiasm inside, a youthful outlook, all the desirable qualities that have been dammed back – wanting to surge outwards.
Who wants to dance the new steps of love, in tune with a universal melody? Come then and join the universal rhythm. Blend with its timeless beat, then dance out and express the joy that arises.
Cast aside the pain of living, the intellectual struggles and striving of the vagabond that travels the highways and byways of time looking for a home.
Humankind, too long you’ve been lost in time. Come on home. Love is waiting to enfold you – to smooth away all the heartaches caused by separation.
Castaway that you are, leave the vale of time. Join the Sunshine of Love, just for a moment. See how it opens your eyes.
You’ve heard the saying “Home is where the heart is.” Go then, to the Silent Heart of humankind and there you will find love waiting to greet you. You will never be the same again.
The end of dreaming
Kitchen Table Philosopher Joseph Raffa asks what is left of the knowing mind when the dream is ended…
Every concept shattered beyond recall. You, me, God, Void, Ultimate Reality. All projected by the mind as stepping stones to feed its urge for knowledge, its need to relate to something.
What is left now the dream has ended? The creative flow of experience, crystalising through the senses as forms, colours, shapes. Feeling to the touch. Sight for the eyes. Sound for the ears. Smells for the nose. A world for the mind. This is our life.
When all this ceases, what is left for the mind to know? What is left of the knowing mind?
We say “God is left, or the Ultimate, or a Strangeness”. We speak with such certitude of the unmentionable, the unseeable, the unknowable, the unthinkable.
How did we get into this? What lure is cast our way? We drift along life’s highway, singing or sorrowing as we go.
Then suddenly, a voice speaks out: “Man – you have a spiritual nature.”
We pack our bags and go. Where? Away from space and time. Away from mind.
To land where? Into uncertainty. Into a vast unknown.
How can we say this? Because it happens. Because it is so.
Don’t ask for explanations. Just go and see what follows.
And if perchance you find the words to express the wonder of that strange unknown, well, good luck to you. For those before you who dwelt there for a moment, were silenced by its nature, all they would say was “It is”. That’s all. “It is” or “That I am”. And perhaps, even this is far too much to say.
If you would like to read more of Joseph’s spiritual writing, it is now available from Amazon.com and other online retailers.
In listening, we learn
by Joseph Raffa
Weaving its way through history is an inspirational thread of human endeavour. A story of humans who have reached out for the spiritual stars and touched the Divine. They have returned, afire and astir to urge their fellow humans to do likewise and come back to the land of the spiritually alive.
They have not always been greeted with open arms. They have been scorned, ridiculed, tortured, even murdered. Yet, they have not yielded in their missions. Such was the support, the strength, the love and understanding that came their way. They were truly people of steel – spiritual steel. Resilient and bright, like polished metal cast from a special mould – a universal One.
Corrosion and corruption are not part of their expression. Not a trace of the self marrs the inner serenity of what they are. They are beyond all that. They are the happy people, stirred by a great love for mankind. Not for them the ways of a mind estranged from its source. They live in the heart, the Silent Heart of mankind – the Universal Heart, true home of all that lives and breathes, of everything that is.
Should they pass your door, either in human form or in the writings they have left, pause from your busy work or play schedule, listen deeply to what they have to offer and in the silence that follows, join them in a holy communion. You will be surprised at what opens out, at what you have within you. Yet, you knew it not. Not only surprised, but joyful too, oh so joyful. How your spirit will lift and dance. Like a child who delights in the world about, so you will take off, young and full of bounce.
The old will be brushed aside – dissolved. The ways of thought, encrusted attitudes, the scales of time – out of the old skin you will step, resplendent in shining Being. You will glow with the Sunshine of Love and marvel at the magic of it. The methods, the ways, the preparations, the rituals and traditions of the mind do not come into it. Mind is out. Heart is in. The Sunshine of Love is beyond explanations. It IS. You hear. It IS. Just BE and you will discover for yourselves. Do not ask why, what or wherefore. That is the mind wanting to come into it, wanting to get into the act.
Little mind with its thoughts, body, face, appearance, parading as the self in time, the knower, the troublemaker of time. It wants to continue. If you listen with this mind, you will stay anchored in mind, in time. The Sunshine will pass you by. Rather listen with your whole being, not with the ears of time. This kind of listening cannot be practised, imagined or thought. It just happens when there is deep interest and you are deeply absorbed – just deeply absorbed.
Everything you appear to be, every known aspect, fades. It is a delightful moment of discovery. Of what? Do not ask. Mind cannot know. All that matters is, that it happens. Then you’ll see what it’s all about. Your song will join the universal song. The refrain will go out and out, without end. You will be one of the happy people without a care. Your heart will be full and overflowing. What you have, you will give out for others to share with you.
For love is uncontainable and reaches out to embrace all. That is the way of it. It cannot be otherwise. Such is its nature – to share with – to bless all until all are happy.
Love’s blessings on you.
To read more of Joseph’s spiritual writing, visit his Amazon author page. https://www.amazon.com/Joseph-Raffa/
Image by Aaron Cabrera from Pixabay
An Easter interlude
by Joseph Raffa
Image: Gerd Altman, Pixabay
Good Friday – the day the body of Christ was crucified. Little did the perpetrators know what they were setting in motion. They believed they were protecting their positions of
power and authority. Were they not the religious trustees of the day – the guardians of religious traditions?
And wasn’t all this threatened by this Galilean, this supposed performer of miracles, this healer of the sick? Why, it was even said that he raised a man from the dead, brought him back to life
before his grieving family and friends.
My, how silly can you be. It’s just not possible. The dead are dead. Or they were in those days without the techniques of modern medicine. Now-a-days, with injections of drugs, heart
massage, artificial resuscitation and maybe even an electrical charge, it sometimes happens that the seemingly dead are brought
back to life.
Still, in those days it was some feat. So the Galilean became quite a centre of interest wherever he walked, talked and performed his miracles.
What a nuisance he became to the religious authorities of the day. Not intentionally of course. He just went about doing his Father’s business, (as he so simply put it) dispensing love and
truth regardless of the consequences.
Perhaps it wouldn’t have been so bad if he didn’t mention in an offhand way that he and the Father were one. In the eyes of the guardians of the day, this was blasphemy of the highest order.
So, off with his head or, as was the delightful custom in this particular place and time – off to the cross with him. But wait – a whipping first, just to add injury to insult – mock the man
and what he represented, then leave him there, high in the air, exposed to the elements till nature took its course.
The trouble was, after it was all over, he stubbornly refused to stay dead. No – he had to compound the situation by coming back to life, (just as he had forecast, mind you). And everything
about the man, his life, his words, his actions, the miracles, the crucifixion, refused to die away too.
In fact, what the priests tried to destroy took on a new lease of life, spread from that centre of a beginning, to travel around the world. Much like a tiny seed grows into a mighty Oak tree.
Which just goes to show that Divine love and truth are irrepressible elements in human nature and in the universe – that they will persist as long as the universe and life persists.
And even beyond that for they have their source in that which is imperishable, in that which is sacred and unprofaned.
Christ came from that source, was one with it as indeed all things and all life are one with it. All he did was speak the truth and for that he was crucified, by the blind, the arrogant
and the ignorant.
But the spark that took off then is with us still. It burns like a flame in the hearts of those who travel inwards, who rediscover the Cosmic Christ within.
That’s what it was all about – to bring mankind together with truth, love and the Universal Nature. So the cross, instead of signifying the end became a guiding beacon, a signpost for
mankind to rediscover itself, to disentangle itself from its home in time and find its true home in that strange nature beyond
space and time.
From Beyond the Cross, The Christ Collection by Joseph Raffa
Available in various links from
What is wrong with us?
Joseph Raffa, the Kitchen Table Philosopher, asks “Where is love?”
Isn’t it remarkable how quickly humans can change their environment. Need housing or industrial estates, harbours constructed, dams built, cities and towns refashioned, forests cleared, whatever it is, mind and technology will do it. Out with the old or the natural order, in with the new. Often this is done regardless of how citizens feel. Rarely is there unanimous consent. People are divided according to how they are affected. But change marches on: the energy in mankind surges onwards, ever onwards.
Not always is it used for useful purposes. Destruction too, runs riot – cities destroyed, people massacred as technology geared to war and death dealing is unleashed. What a mixture mankind is, capable of love and caring and also of hate, prejudice and cruelty. And always there is controversy on who is right, who is wrong, even on how best to constructively develop and meet human needs in an orderly way.
It makes you wonder, what is wrong with us? We argue and fight, abuse other races and nature, treat others with little regard or respect. Where people differ or there is deep resistance to change, bring in the bulldozers, the police, the army, enforce political will nevertheless. What’s it matter that people are hurt, maimed, killed or jailed in the process.
Troubles erupt here and there, refugees flee, the bombers fly on their deadly missions, the military mind takes over and mayhem shatters the former fragile peace.
Haven’t they heard of “Love they neighbour” or, “Do to others what you would prefer done to yourself?” No way, just ride roughshod over deep human feelings for gentle and peaceful living. Justify yourselves in any way you will for what you do but it’s wrong, wrong, wrong. How can we be living rightly when so much agony, contention and controversy surges like a raging river in flood?
Sincerely I ask, “Where is love, that wonderful quality that lifts humans out of their misery, banishes conflict and indifference to another’s pain and brings about harmony in human relationships?”
Where indeed, as force, coercion and political power continue to be used to settle human differences.
- The Kitchen Table philosophy series of Joseph’s spiritual writing is available now from Amazon.com and other online retailers.
Spiritual learning is difficult
Joseph Raffa, the Kitchen Table Philosopher, contemplates the difficulty of spiritual learning
What is disturbing about some of the New Age publications is that they are overflowing with bright, confident ads suggesting how easy a spiritual awakening is. Even the articles tend to glow likewise but these rarely deal with the ugly, the disturbing, the self-acquisitive features and mediocrity of the mind.
With the intention of improving the quality of their lives many build their homes close to nature, or surround themselves with green-filled gardens. New approaches are tried to awaken the latent spirituality but until the human expression is anchored in spiritual stillness, it will not draw on what it needs to keep the darkness of the mind at bay.
The journey to our spiritual heartland is the most difficult of all. It is not always smooth sailing, all sweetness and light, joy and sunshine. The mind throws up too many obstacles for that, is too prone to create difficulties through its self-centred obstinacy. Often, the journey turns out to be a travel through much that is disturbing, dark and certainly self-centred, taking the self through all the shades of darkness the mind is capable of.
For sure, the light breaks through strongly at times and irradiates the mind with its own brand of sunshine. If this didn’t happen we would never see our way clear at any time. But the self is persistent in its return. It has so much capacity to disrupt, to re-establish itself in its own right and this is not quickly diminished regardless of expectations or intentions.
Spiritual learning is a long, slow hike through difficult country, through rough mental and emotional stretches with wonderful splashes of sunshine in between. In no way do we dodge the ugly, distressing side of human nature. If we do not face and understand the disturbing features we reflect, they will always surface and hinder the free-flowing expression of our spiritual nature.
Be prepared then, those who would travel the spiritual path. The way is lined with pitfalls, with rough travel over difficult terrain. Inevitably, because we are creatures of the Sunshine, the brightness will come through and triumph over the dark overtones cast by the mind in its individual journey through life. Just do not expect to escape scot free, without a severe mauling from time to time. A mauling thrown up by the mind’s persistence to dominate its own movement in its own way in defiance of the higher spiritual directive, which decrees otherwise.
If you are interested in reading more of Joseph’s spiritual writing, visit his Amazon author page: https://amzn.to/2Abk9w6
A deeper significance
By Joseph Raffa
There is a hidden agenda in the world, a deeper significance, not usually noticed as the mind goes about its daily business. Through surface perception the world is clearly demarcated. Our surroundings, the things we do, our appearance, all this is familiar and with many this is as far as they go.
It’s the world we live in. The eyes, the ears, the bodily based senses inform us of this world. Through the senses we do not receive clear evidence of a deeper significance, of anything different from the usual run of manifest phenomena.
The mind dwells in contact with an ocean of sensations, forged into perceptions that are the basis of the experiences it knows. Thinking takes its cue from this reservoir of imprints. It arises in response to the known. It is from this known base that it seeks to expand, to go wider and deeper and get down to ultimate answers. Its movement is conditioned by the known and by its measure of understanding. It seeks solutions and conclusions that its understanding agrees with. What else can it do?
To go beyond its understanding would leave it in a void of uncertainty. It would be like a fish out of water, not knowing what, where or how nor itself in the process. Could the mind come to grips with a deeper significance that is beyond its normal range of understanding, beyond the process of knowing that it is accustomed to, beyond the awareness it has of itself, its surroundings and the interactions that take place? And where would the evidence come from if not from the mind’s acknowledgement of what this is?
The sensitivity we are (mind) is the basis for living,for knowing ourselves and the world. Deny this and where are we? This sensitivity is included in the hidden agenda, the deeper significance mentioned earlier. It cannot be left out, to stand aside and be a reality in its own right.
The sensitivity we are and its relationship to the Universal is the hidden agenda, the deeper significance not noticed by surface perception. With the surface mind we are linked to appearance yet in essence we are one with this hidden reality. Thinking deals with the imprint of life, with the footprints left by life’s moment to moment flow. Thinking cannot go beyond itself and apprehend the unlimited. In this deeper significance all things are at rest in an unbroken state. Appearance is not an absolute. All phenomena is a passing parade. While it holds the centre stage of attention the hidden significance cannot reveal its nature.
Revelation breaks this impasse, takes the mind beyond. The known is discarded for a moment. With this out of the way, there is nothing to prevent the realisation of the deeper significance. The problem created by the mind is solved, but not by the mind. Mind, in its essence and the deeper significance are One.
Is it beyond understanding?
Call it grace, enlightenment, realisation. It happens, and because of this happening, so individuals set to and in spite of the limitations of language, as much as they can convey to others, they do so.
By Joseph Raffa
There have been imaginative attempts to explain the creation of the universe. The explanation in the bible is shrouded in difficulty. The language does not clearly convey the how.
Science comes up with its own explanation – the big bang theory – also very difficult to understand. Scientists are reasonably satisfied with it but will humans ever clearly understand the way of it?
We are on the wrong side of the process, on the outside as it were, trying to look back with a mind conditioned by sense-based experience. To such a mind, one thing proceeds from another, known cause to observable effect. This is how the mind explains phenomena.
For a state of non-existence to precede existence doesn’t make sense. Religion goes back to the pre-existence of God as the cause of the universe. Science goes back to a compact ball of dense matter – or is it energy and electrical particles? – suspended in space. Then, a big bang – expansion – evolution – hey presto! Stars, planets, the universe of appearance forming, reforming, our sun, the earth, life, more evolution. Along came homo sapiens and here we are today, with the kind of mind trying to find absolute answers.
And in the way the mind thinks of it, none of it makes completely satisfying sense so that doubts do not linger. Change there has certainly been – construction and destruction. But overall the process continues to maintain and sustain itself. A strange energy, on the move as the universal expression. What we see via the senses is our side of the universal presentation.
Science expands the senses with its instruments and the scene changes. Solid matter disappears, gives way to electrical particles and these in turn to energy in motion (whatever that may be ).
Coming to rest in a final reality dances out of reach of the space/time mind. The more it tries to grasp, the more a tangible reality slips away. And why? Is it because the mind tries to project a reality that does not include itself? The picture it tries to construct is one that appears to a separate observer. How far can you go in this manner?
Surely the final step is one in which observer and observed merge in the one and same reality or, is the observing mind to be put on a pedestal apart, as something that preceded creation and stays apart? It is just not possible to observe the state that precedes creation when reality is of one nature without difference or distinction. Separate points of reference haven’t been set up. Where then is the dense ball of matter or the observer to know and acknowledge its existence? For us the universe does not begin until we are aware of it. How can we question anything we are not aware of?
We not only need a universe we know but we ourselves have to be capable of knowing. It’s because we separate the two that we compound our trouble in understanding. We put the self on one side of the fence and the universe on the other. And we try to fit the evidence of universal existence into the framework of our limited understanding.
Stretch out understanding as much as we will, the reality of it will escape us until separation vanishes and then the unbroken reality of universal existence reigns supreme, just as it now is, as it has always been. Time, space, separation, life, these emanate out of it. Such is its nature.
Before the spontaneous arisal of creation – untouched by time, unobserved and unobservable, the Eternal existed. What we see and know of the universe, the changing face of life, forms and energy, this is the reflection cast in the mirror of space and time – all a reflection of our own state of awareness.
And that in turn is grounded in the universal awareness, The Eternal is a uniform sensitivity. No personal sense resides there, neither human or greater God. No wind blows, nor sun shines. No bird calls. The movement of life is still, deeply still. Starry systems, vast nebulae, the flow of energy, none of these mar the serenity of such repose, nor disrupt the tranquility of Being.
Our language fails to convey this essence. The mind deals with concepts, ideas, appearance, not with the reality as such for this includes the mind within its nature. Where all is one and distinction is dead what can be said to make it clear to another?
Yet, when thought is still and sensations cease to rise, when the observer loses distinction, that’s when it becomes clear and not till the mind returns to the world it knows does it realise the wonder of what has happened.
Call it grace, enlightenment, realisation. It happens, and because of this happening, so individuals set to and in spite of the limitations of language, as much as they can convey to others, they do so.
And they leave it to something deep within those they address to respond in like fashion and discover the way of it.
Climb the Spiritual Mountain
by Joseph Raffa
Image courtesy marcuso at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
There are people who love to climb mountains. When asked why,
some may say “Because it is there”. There is another kind of
mountain that others seek to climb – the mountain of Ultimate
Reality. They do not know why, only that they have to go.
The mountains of time are well defined, the destination sure, the
equipment is available. Ultimate Reality has no defined pathway
leading to it, the equipment necessary is the nature that we are.
This journey we travel alone. Gurus can only take us so far,
then we must be left to face our own uncertainty, our weaknesses
and fears, whatever we are.
We move this way, we move that, try this, try that. When we come
to cul-de-sacs we turn, retrace our steps then start again, over
and over. Gradually it dawns that we are journeying through
ourselves, that we create the obstacles and the mountain to
climb. When we’ve exhausted our efforts, when we are at the end
of the line with no more stations to travel to, we pause, and sit
and let go.
Effort falls away – everything is shed – the tiredness, the
struggle, the striving. We just let go and then suddenly we are
there on top of the mountain. We have been transported all in
one instant and we are basking in the full sunshine of Being.
Our journey is over, without sense of movement or achievement.
We didn’t do a thing except to be still. That’s it, just still –
the stillness of a mind not seeking, not striving. a sudden
unexpected, unexplainable stillness and we are on the top of the
mountain.
We know what we come from and we know where we are going. Never again will we be
lost in time. We are home – home where we belong.
Towards the Silent Heart 
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