Friday, May 28, 2010

The Concentric Perspective

The Concentric Perspective is another Butterworth masterpiece that has as its central theme a focus on living from the divine within rather than from an outward focus on materialism. He begins his theological message with his observation of the human condition for more than half a century in stating that "no doubt the most difficult step in 'getting' the message of Truth is unlearning a lifetime's conditioning to the idea of God 'up there' to whom we must go on bended knee, begging for His mercy." How true this statement is for so many who have been raised in traditional Christian denominations. However, "the Truth is that God is an ever-available all-sufficiency which we experience as we consciously 'give way' to the divine flow."

Yet, this Truth is not lived on a day to day basis by most people. There is an unconsciousness about how most of us live our lives that is startling when we are awakened to the Truth. But time and again we go back to our comfortable state of unconsciousness as if this state of being is the preferred way of living with all of its discomforts, including ill-health, neuroses and financial adversities. In The Concentric Perspective, Butterworth provides his readers with a perspective that can work to bring them to a state of consciousness, if they work to incorporate the author's recommendations into their daily lives.

Butterworth's theological view is clear throughout this book from the beginning to the end. He states that "the concentric perspective helps us to realize that giving involves inner receiving and that the giving is actually a giving way to the inner flow." He speaks to the do-it-yourself age that we live in and aptly corrects the focus of many of the techniques that have been put forth by one self-help guru after another. He says that rather than relying on "putting on a winning personality as a mask to 'win friends and influence people'" we should see ourselves developing in the way that means "to unfold the inner splendor that is God."

Butterworth's own self-help approach is "concerned with helping you to understand the science of giving" rather than the popular contemporary approach to self-help that "is devoted to the goal of 'getting.'" I totally agree with Butterworth that the "what's in it for me" approach must be released in order to truly live a life of abundance. By living from the concentric perspective of "what's in it from me," Butterworth suggests that everyone is equipped to live a life more abundant than they could ever have imagined.

He says that people can be divided into two groups - the givers and the takers. The takers are those who never know peace, security or fulfillment and their total focus is on planning and scheming on what they can get from the world - money, love, and happiness. On the other hand, the givers focus on "giving themselves away in love, service and all the many ways in which they can invest themselves," and they are secure because "they instinctively know that their good comes, not from the world 'where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal' (Matt. 6:19), but from within."

Butterworth often invokes Jesus and quotes scriptural text attributed to Jesus liberally. In emphasizing the importance of giving as the way to get, he quotes Luke 6:38, "Give and it will be given to you." He goes on to explain that in the Luke verse, it is not about bargaining with God. "It is the articulation of spiritual law...your act of giving does not change anything in God...as you give you give way to the process. The divine flow within you requires but one thing of you; your consent to be a receiving channel."

One of the most powerful examples that Butterworth gives in his book as a demonstration of the concentric perspective, other than Jesus Christ, is of the story of the great tenor Roland Hayes. As the story is told, Roland Hayes had a "custom of coming to the stage and, as the applause faded, facing the audience, with his eyes closed and in complete silence stood for what seemed like minutes but probably only a few seconds. He was once asked by a reporter in an interview what this silent period was about, what was he thinking or doing?..he said, 'I simply get quiet and pray, Oh Lord, blot out Roland Hayes, that the people may hear only Thee.' The humble prayer of Roland Hayes was the meekness that compelled God," at the center of Roland Hayes!

As Roland Hayes gave way to God, to the spirit within him, he expressed the divinity through his melodious tenor voice for tens of thousands to hear. Butterworth invites all of us to give way to the God at the center of our being and in doing so, we as Jesus said in The Sermon on the Mount "shall inherit the earth."

No comments:

Post a Comment