THE COSMIC WONDER OF "THANK YOU"

 [The following was previously run in my blog of September 2, 2009.]

Grant what thou commandest and then command what thou wilt. -- Saint Augustine

This is a wonderful reminder to me of the teaching that God performs that which is given me to do…that He goes before me to make the crooked places straight.

For me, the hardest part in living by spiritual principles has been the inside change…learning to let God remove my defects of character rather than working to remove them myself (which consisted primarily of me worrying about it).

I’ve heard it said a defect of character is that which I find useful and others find irritating.

I find that trying to remove my own defects of character through self-will alone really is like trying to prove a negative…in short, impossible. The resistance to the defect acts, in effect, as a nutrient…the more attention I give it, positive or negative, the more it grows.
  

That’s the cosmic wonder of “Thank You”…when I find myself in the midst of a defect of character, I’ve learned to just shoot a “Thank You” and relax. It’s not mine to worry about. It is mine to see clearly…to see exactly how it is negatively impacting me and those about me, because there is the source of all my woes.

That’s when the above quotes warm my heart, give me comfort, and let me let go.

Thank You.

WHEN SMART ISN'T SO MUCH

In Fr. Richard Rohr's today's “Daily Meditation" on paradox, he quotes a teaching of St. Paul. Rohr writes, if this is true, "then everything is a disguise: weakness is really strength, wisdom is really foolishness, death is really life, matter is really spirit, religion is often slavery, and sin itself is actually the trap door into salvation.”

This is exciting to me because of my blinding flash which I blogged about on September 20, 2010. The thought given me then was: What if all I see in my reasoning-mind world is a mirror image of God’s world…thus, left is right, bad is good, weak is strong, smart isn’t, etc.

This explains the experience that I'm guessing we've all had, i.e., the dread of a future happening that turned out to be for our best and/or the anticipation of a wonderful something that, when it arrived, was disappointing...and then some.

Rohr’s description of St. Paul’s teaching encourages me to ponder again and deeper: what if my so-called troubles are simply the result of my trying to fix what I perceive as “bad” or trying to cling to that which I perceive as “good.” 

Again I learn the value of keeping an open mind, of giving myself permission to be neither right nor wrong...yet. To actively sit and wait on the Lord. 

This surely gives impetus to acceptance as the answer…no matter the question.

Thank You.

IT'S ALL ABOUT LOVE

What if?

In the beginning, there was God, good, and from that place of good we each formed and drifted forth, landing hither, thither and yon...coming together, splitting off, growing, passing away, ever evolving.

Until...here we are today...each of us in all the world having that inner core, that pinpoint of good, God. Each of us being all the Hitlers, all the Mother Teresas, all our personal butt pains and BFFs. And the journey for each of us is to return to that inner core, God, arriving there free of blame, shame, hate or indifference.

We really would only be able to tend to self...to concern ourselves with what we each were personally showing forth...thinking, feeling, doing and being. Paradoxically, we each would need to be personally concerned with those with whom we shared space in this world in order to maintain reasonable order on our return trip to God. Which, of course, is all about love.

Love your God with all your heart, soul, body and brains, and love your neighbor as yourself. And here's me, starting out thinking I had an original concept.

Thank You.

DON'T TELL IT...BE IT

I've been pondering what steps I can take toward living the golden rule...what small steps nearer to  people I'd rather not be close to.

Recently, I shared with some friends about treating a person (whom I find irritating) with simple courtesy. Unfortunately, I'd previously run my mouth...a lot...about what a fraud this person was, and my friends had completely agreed about her. This time, as I shared, I had the creepiest feeling that I was parading myself as holier-than-thou.

Once again, I learn the same-old-same-old...whatever you are, or are striving to become, the more you tell people that, the less it appears to be true. When they can see it in you without your talking about it, then it will be true.

My golden rule has been, and I suspect is going to remain, "Don't be as nasty as you want to be." Which is kinda hard to brag about.

Thank You.

IT COMES TO US BY OUR INVITATION ONLY

Life is all about taking responsibility for what comes to us, not being overly concerned with what flows from us. It is a paradox...but then isn't all spiritual growth a paradox?

If we will live the very first spiritual principle, the Golden Rule, we will never again need be overly concerned with what flows from us. Plus, we will be able to understand that which comes to us comes by our invitation only, which is the principle behind the truth that when someone steps on our toes, seemingly without provocation, invariably we will find that we have made a decision based on self that later placed us in a position to be hurt. That's the nut. That's how, when and where we start taking responsibility for what comes to us.

The trick is to not get wrapped up in blame and shame...wrong road, danger, detour! Blame and shame are two emotive feelings that have no basis in truth...they are like the old rocking chair syndrome where we just sit, rock and think, "Look at me, I'm really traveling." No we're not...that's the road to nowhere, or self-hate more like.

When we can give up our belief that we must protect ourselves, then our inner growth can begin. We cannot give up the idea that we must be our own protection without having accepted the truth that God within/without has our back, knows our needs, has already intervened in our life in our behalf...and before we ever knew we needed the intervention.

"He performs that which is given me to do."

"He goes before me to make the crooked places straight."

We need to repeat those two sentences until they sing in our Soul...for they work, and so does He.

Thank You.

IF ONLY I HAD LISTENED....

The importance of listening from the novelty song, "It Pays to Listen," by Ronnie Barker, partially quoted below:

The fact is I must mention cause I didn't pay attention

When the angels were a handin' round the parts

When the angels gave out brains, I thought that they said trains
And I missed mine as I usually do

When they handed out the eyes, I thought that they said ties
And I asked for one of brown and one of blue

When they passed out the chins, I thought that they said gins
And I ordered a double one for me

When they gave out the noses, I thought that they said roses
And I chose a great big red one as you see.

Oh what a mess I'm in

Oh what a mess I'm in

If only I had listened to them angels when they spoke

I would not be in the mess that I am in

Thank You.

IN GOD'S GOOD TIME

New discovery again. Meaning I have realized this about myself before, but it feels like a brand new insight. That happens when we do nothing about that which we find...it keeps coming back until we get it right.

I've got a couple of people-puzzlers in my life that I am less than enchanted with. I've decided to let God give me the quiet word on handling them.

When my mind is free of thoughts about either of these, I feel no special interest in which way they turn out. However, when I just touch either with a “what if?” thought, as in, “what if I did this or that?,” I can feel the agitation roiling, urging me to do something, right now, and my immediate next thought is “I know what I can do….”

New/old discovery:  I'd rather fix it p.d.q., chancing breaking it completely, than sit and wait on the Lord who, in my less than humble opinion, is a drag-foot. My way is quick, usually dirty, and utterly self-centered, but quick swings the hammer.

It is too clear that I would rather risk a friendship than wait on God's perfect outworking…even when I know that God’s perfect outworking would benefit both of us. Not because I want to get my way, but because I don’t want to wait...even for God's good.

That is right ugly. But, if I know nothing else, I do know it will not change until I air it for me to see. Can't own it till I see it, can't get shut of it till I own it. 

Thank You.

OF GRATITUDE AND GRACE

If I live to be 200 and never receive another material gift, that is good. I have received enough material gifts for three peoples' lifetimes. And I am grateful.

The real gift, the pearl of great price, is knowing that there is only one gift, and that is God. We cannot stop receiving the gift of God for It is within us/without us. We can, however, remain unconscious of It...that is our choice.

It matters not how into our material world we go, sinking or rising, we are always one with God.

Thank You.

ON CHANGING OUR MIND

It is a tish humbling to realize that the hardest thing we will ever do in life is simply change our own mind.

In my continuing efforts to keep my mind open, I was gifted with the perfect reminder to self: "He may be right." Sometimes I say that to myself when one of my angels just walks into the room...saves me time and effort later.

We get daily opportunities to practice this...which is not to say we will practice it daily, we just get the opportunity. How often we choose to remember it depends on how comfortable in our own skin we choose to be.

It is surprisingly most difficult to practice this on those we love. Apparently, our ego wants the best (our way) for them...or wants them out of our life. Because, for sure, if we don't learn to give over to those we love, they will be out of our life. Which is just exactly as it is if they don't learn to give over to us...we skate.

The lesson we want to learn is when someone we love presents an idea that we disagree with, immediately and silently say, "He may be right." Then in our quiet time, we get to ponder how she was right, how he came to his conclusion, how it agrees with my point of view, no matter how minuscule the point of agreement. It is a given, if we don't ponder how she's right, we will obsessively worry, fret and stew about getting him to see his error and to agree with us.

Paradoxically, the process is simpler when we practice on someone toward whom we have no good or bad feelings. Apparently not having a history with the person, we're not invested in swaying, or impressing?, her.

It's a starting point, and that's the goal...decide to give it an honest effort, and God can and will walk us through it.

We may never come to agreement which is actually the least important part of our lesson.  The most important part is we are learning (1) how to give up fighting and (2) how to rein in our ego's need to be right. There...the pearl beyond price.

Thank You.

WAIT IN QUIETNESS AND CONFIDENCE

I'm resisting a friend who is resisting me. She disapproves of the way I celebrate an important day in my life. I know it is none of her business. I am trying to rise above it...and BINGO. Ain't gonna happen. I have never in this life risen above anything that my ego got invested in. This is just another self-determined objective with another's name on it causing me aggravation.

I consciously bring myself, my thoughts, back to: "Most important is the discovery that all my problems can be solved by spiritual principles."

And the still, small voice speaks: "X stays with you for you to overcome the X in you."

I stay agitated/resistant to X because I "forget to wait in quietness and confidence for that inner assurance and release...."

That inner assurance and release is my self-determined objective giving over to God's will...truly and completely, and I get to walk away happy, joyous and free.

Thank You.

SEEK HIGHER HELP

More and more I realize how important the work of our conscience is in and on our lives.

I remember in high school my friend's mother warning a group of us that our plan to play a mean trick would come back to haunt us...what a hoot, and how we did laugh at that. The fact is it did haunt me years later...it was mean, we were thoughtless, the other person did not deserve it.

I ran into the person years later on the street in my hometown. I confessed to the mean trick and apologized. The punchline: She said, "Oh, I'd forgotten all about that. I knew who did it and I knew it was because you were all jealous of me. I felt kinda sorry for you." We both knew she'd scored big, that she'd gotten over on me. We laughed and hugged and went about our lives.

The rest of the story...that is exactly what my ego/reasoning mind this very day would want for me in any similar situation...to pay "them" back in kind. My knowing from my toenails up that that kind of payback perpetuates that kind of payback...repeatedly, until someone breaks the circle...does not stop my ego from wanting it.

I am so grateful I have broken that particular circle and will not need to send it out again. I am even more grateful that I know I can and will send it out again if I don't keep in fit spiritual condition on a daily basis.

Just knowing better does not cause me to do better...it just slows me down long enough to seek higher help.

Thank You.

SHUCKING SHIELDS

[The following is a reprint of my blog of September 8, 2009.]

In my quiet time this morning, I was thinking of a friend who is going through hard times. She is a very inside-and-outside beautiful lady and a genius many times over. Her genius is her shield, and she reads obsessively to learn more and more and still more. The thought came to me that she needed to give up trying to learn and start trying to experience.

As I was pondering how to bring her this truth that would surely change her life, fix her, make her life wonderful, another thought came to me…that is me, and I’ve known that for years. Has that knowledge changed my life? Fixed me? Made my life wonderful? Well, it hasn’t hurt it, but it surely hasn’t made me any better than I’m meant to be.

I believe the gift of truly seeing me is in my acceptance of what I’m seeing, what I am, not so I can get busy and dig that out, change it, make it pretty so I’ll be more acceptable. It’s so I can laugh with God at how I take myself too seriously.

This shield, this live-by-the-book, I learned about me at least 30 years ago, and here’s me, seeing me yet again, now thinking it is someone else doing that. It is me I am seeing, still striving to learn from books, not to live it, but to know the answer of how to live it should the need arise…and I can tell “them” how to live it…or at least not look stupid for not knowing.

It’s all about shucking shields…or, as they sang in the 60s, “Let the sun shine in.”

Thank You.

PAIN IS PART OF THE DEAL

The following is from Fr. Richard Rohr's, Daily Meditation, August 18, 2012 :

Remember this: no one can keep you from the second half of life except yourself. Nothing can inhibit your second journey except your own lack of courage, patience, and imagination. Your second journey is all yours to walk or to avoid. My conviction is that some falling apart of the first journey is necessary for this to happen, so do not waste a moment of time lamenting poor parenting, lost jobs, failed relationships, physical handicaps, gender identity, economic poverty, or even the tragedy of any kind of abuse. Pain is part of the deal. If you don’t walk into the second half of your own life, it is you who do not want it. God will always give you exactly what you truly want and desire. So make sure you desire, desire deeply, desire yourself, desire God, and desire everything good, true, and beautiful. Adapted from "Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life",  p. 160, by Fr. Richard Rohr.

SELF-SATISFACTION, THE BLOCK TO GOD

Blinding flash of the obvious: It is not fear that keeps us from being free, it is self-satisfaction.

Self-satisfaction with the hidey hole we have built, the safe room we have constructed, the shields we hold dear...never letting anyone or anything in, but, worse by far, never letting us out.

Old adage: We get in a rut, get comfortable, decorate our rut, hang curtains, get a pretty little throw rug, some pillows...why would we ever leave our rut?

Self-satisfaction is the ultimate block to still more spiritual growth...indeed, to God Itself.

Thank You.

ON HAVING A LIFE GOAL

Came to believe that God could and would intervene in my life in my behalf. The hard lesson to learn is that "in my behalf" always is in behalf of others, too, if it is of God and not just another self-determined objective.

There is a fourth dimension within/without that can and does manifest for our benefit 24/7. "For our  benefit" is always in benefiting others. It is never (1) for gold in our pocket for later security; (2) for a person in our life for our pleasure now, to keep us company later; (3) for the companionship of friends in order to feel socially acceptable.

To fully, internally realize that and show that forth has been, is, and, I trust, ever will be my life goal.

Thank You.

FROM ATTACK TO INTERACTIVE

One of the greatest gifts I've been given is the realization that I can change the way I'm looking at anything...that is acceptable behavior in this world. Back in the day, if I formed an opinion, which I could do before you could snap your fingers, I was stuck with it, had to defend it, and walked away from more than a couple friendships because I was right, and she wouldn't admit it.

I was then left with my attack thoughts...a constant rerunning of justifications for my behavior and/or judgments on his behavior. A resentment's hallowed ground.

It has been  an important learning tool for me to call my defects by their most basic, i.e., harshest, meaning...in order to get my attention that this is a defect of my character, not an insignificant bump in my road.

Only after I fully accept that defect and all my consequences around that defect, can I call it by a softer name...else I start beating myself up with it. It is very easy to sit in judgment of another, but once we learn that we're picking up mud and slinging it in our own face, those attacks turn on us and beat us up because (chants our attacker), we should know better, we're never going to become a decent person, etc., ad nauseam.

The first step is to stop slinging the mud. Then we find, what a surprise!, that does not stop the attack thoughts. The second step, then, is to remember that "all our problems can be solved by spiritual principles." All spiritual growth begins in our mind, through our raised consciousness. Which takes time, time and more time along with diligent, daily effort. Very simply, that means we sit down daily and make ourselves available to God. Just ten minutes each day to start is sufficient.

Learning to change the way I'm looking at whatever I am resisting means I no longer regret my attack thoughts for they are the way I walk toward freedom from self. It is in having those thoughts that I can experience the un-ness of them...unhealthy, unwise, unproductive and unholy into the bargain.

My attack thoughts have been transmuted...they are now my "interactive thoughts." I use them now to find the gold, the God, in the person, the activity, the thing I was sitting in judgment of originally.

Thank You.

TO PRAY FOR IS TO RESIST WHAT IS

Our new life begins with the realization that the degree of our unfoldment is not up to us. The hard work is individual acceptance of spiritual principles and the subsequent overcoming of self required to reach acceptance...that is up to us. To sit and wait on the Lord while doing the Lord's footwork is the paradox.

The biggest danger may be when we unconsciously decide what we want, mistake that for a need,  then pray for and work toward achieving our want. This is trying to make an end run around God's will. We call it spiritual work. We go to retreats, join meditation classes, prayer groups, the list seems endless. What we're doing, in fact, is striving to get our want which has never been our need (God's will) in the first place.

The first indicator that we are going down that wrong road again is when we start praying for...anything. Praying for is simply resisting what is...here and now.

We make our U-bie and immediately start thanking God for our everything just as it is right this very minute. Throw in an Amen, then go about doing that which we thought we had to pray for.

Thank You.

THE PARADOX OF UNCONDITIONAL LOVE

I suspect the reason unconditional love is so difficult to do is because it requires us to go against our  pseudo "survival" instinct. The reasoning mind will always legislate for itself, and getting our own wants met masquerades in our mind as survival. Putting another's needs before our wants just feels wrong...especially when the other is someone who has just stepped on our toes or who makes us uncomfortable in any way.

On paper, unconditional love is like my budget on paper...nothing but good, personally beneficial and reasonable into the bargain. Doing unconditional love, like sticking to my budget, is a horse of another color.

Everybody wants to get unconditional love, everybody thinks they want to give it. It is in the trying to do it that we learn the truth...it requires a total denial of self.

The paradox of unconditional love: We cannot get it, we can only give it, and the only thing standing in our way is our willingness to do it.

Thank You.

RELEASE TO RECEIVE

If we are to have any lasting spiritual growth, we must learn to get closer to those who irritate us.

There is the place, that is the way we learn to live patience, forgiveness, freedom from personal wants...the either/ors, the likes/dislikes of life...freedom to love...unconditionally.

It is in letting go of protection of self...which is different from self-protection...that one finds the freedom to love...unconditionally. Until we realize unconditional love is within us right now, we will ever seek and not find unconditional love.

We must release it to receive it.

Thank You.

LEARNING TO RESIST NAUGHT

We ought to fly away from earth to heaven as quickly as we can.... -- Plato

I need to break statements like that down to my level of understanding. We ought to fly away from earth [self] to heaven [Self] as quickly as we can...is my beginning to make that my own.

How to do that? To fly away from self we must become transparent.

How to do that? By learning to resist not...anything.

There's where time comes in...learning and accepting that God's time is not our time. There is no 24 hours in a day in God's world. There is only now. So now is the acceptable time to practice the art of becoming transparent...to give up resisting anything and anybody.

The biggest block to the idea of transparency is the reasoning mind. It cannot, nor will it ever, accept transparency as a viable way of life because there is no control there...no ability to move things about...no chance to win.

Here again, we must go beyond reason to love, to God, where we learn to resist not...anything. Which is one more impossibility to the reasoning mind...whose greatest weapon is its immediate ability to find the worst case scenario in any suggestion wherein it feels threatened. As in, "If I give up resisting everything, I could be raped, robbed, murdered, sliced and diced, abused beyond human understanding, etc."

The fact is every time we think we've made a decision to turn our will and our life over to the care of God, we've made a decision to go beyond reason...to love, to God. We've made a decision to give the art of becoming transparent a chance, to try non-resistance.

Like everything else in life...there is no perfect. We simply become willing to try...to resist naught.

Thank You.

LOVE YOUR ENEMIES AND FIND PEACE

In faith, there is no possibility of an uninterrupted success story. The only way you’re going to face your wild beasts and your shadows is by failure and rejection, by people not loving you, by having to learn how to love your wife and your children and those who hurt you—the enemies—those who make you aware of your own incapacity to love. -- Fr. Richard Rohr

It's a humbling fact but my wild beasts and shadows today are my own petty ego fears...what Gertrude meant when she said blah, blah, blah. Or Jim Dandy when he gave me that look. That kind.

I can't even remember how long ago it was that I faced a really serious wild beast. I do remember that it was yesterday...literally yesterday...when my mind was rehearsing how to let Joe Doaks know he had offended my delicate sensibilities, and that was not OK, not acceptable to me, and the trouble with him is....

Fortunately, today I seldom get further than that...that's what still more spiritual growth has gotten me, and I don't even blush when I admit that that is enough. I rarely react to my ego fears today, nor do I respond to my ego-victory wants.

I've learned to call my wild beast aborning my angel, say "Thank You," and move on...move my thoughts on.

BFO! That's why I seldom have wild beasts and shadows in my life today!

God is so good to me.

Thank You.

GOD IS...NOW TO TRUST THAT

[This is a reprint of a blog of mine from July 21, 2008.]

I was talking to myself this morning, rattling on about the fine line between my spiritual world and my ego-victory world, and it occurred to me that there is no fine line. There is a moment in time…that moment when I make my decision to throw in with God or to hold to my reasoning mind for my security. (That moment of time comes more than once, thank God.)

It’s akin to living at the Grand Canyon, living fully and happily on this earth, but seeking more. So I keep enough distance from the rim of the Canyon to be able to see it, risking nothing, but occasionally edging closer…then darting back, then venturing closer…and still closer. And there I am at the rim, looking down, stomach feeling like it has already jumped…and I know, if I am ever going to fully realize the God I seek, I’m going to have to take that leap of faith…trusting that I will be caught, held close, secure.

Then my reasoning mind, bolstered by fear, kicks in with all of its questions…how do I just DO it? What if my leap of faith is just another self-determined objective? What if God’s true way is something entirely different, and here’s me, hanging out there without a net?

Good news: there is no “without a net” when I’m seeking still more spiritual growth. Better news: God does not care how I come to him…just seek, keep seeking, seek some more. Best news: God already is…within me, without me.

Now to live that, trusting.

Thank You.

CHANGE WE MUST OR CHOKE WE WILL

Healthy religion is always telling us to change instead of giving us ammunition to try to change others. -- Fr. Richard Rohr

I read my Easwaran daily reader this morning, and the entire writing is on resentments...how easily they form, the harm they do, and, specifically, how to detach from them.

As an aside, the page had not one mark of mine on it. I didn't check, but I do doubt there is another page in that book that doesn't have an underline, an exclamation point, a question mark...some mark of mine...somewhere on it. And I know that resentments are my number one offender...that which I must let go of before they form.

It is very interesting, enlightening really, to watch a resentment in another grow, fester, become a "serious" offense. I was reminded of my friend Sylvia with Gertrude's unthinking remark to "Pay attention" made to Sylvia. That remark has now grown in Sylvia's retelling to Gertrude shaking her finger under Sylvia's nose and yelling at her. This is after Gertrude, realizing Sylvia had taken offense, called her, apologized, and they talked about it. Every time they are together, Sylvia's voice is harder, she actually seems more opaque...and Gertrude becomes more tentative.

This may be how divorces are born...wars are started...friendships are ended.

I wrote about this in my journal this morning, then I thought again of something I'd said recently that may or may not have offended. No one has said anything to me about it, which has not  stopped my mind from deciding who was wrong to take offense and why I was justified in saying what I said. I'd just started a rerun, and the words, "Agree with your adversary quickly" flew through my mind.

Clearly it was my taking the time to write down what I was seeing with Sylvia's resentment that opened my answer to me. I can, without making a big deal of it, acknowledge that I misspoke, allowing anyone who may have taken offense a chance to so say or not...his/her choice. And I can simply acknowledge that I regret it.

God is so good to me.

Thank You.

WELCOME THE PAIN

[The following is from Fr. Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation: The Art of Letting Go" -- August 3, 2012.]

‘The Welcoming Prayer’ encourages you to identify in your life, now or in the past, a hurt or an offense: someone who has done you wrong, or let you Feel the pain of the offense the way you first felt it, or are feeling it in this moment, and feel the hurt in your body. (Why is this important? Because if you move it to your mind, you will go back to dualistic thinking and judgments: good guy/bad guy, win/lose, either/or.)

Feel the pain so you don’t create the win/lose scenario. Identify yourself with the suffering side of life; how much it hurt to hurt. How abandoned you felt to be abandoned.

Once you can move to that place and know how much it hurts to hurt, you would not possibly want that experience for anybody else.

This might take a few minutes. Welcome the experience and it can move you to the Great Compassion. Don’t fight it! Don’t split and blame! Welcome the grief and anger in all of its heaviness. Now it will become a great teacher.

Thank You.

FINDING GOD IN DISORDER, IN IMPERFECTION....

My keeping power is never at fault, but only your realization of it. -- God Calling, August 7

One reason why I am so attracted to Jesus and then to Francis is that they found God in disorder, in imperfection, in the ordinary, and in the real world—not in any idealized concepts. -- Fr. Richard Rohr

The first quote explains how the second quote is true.

When something appears to go wrong in our life, we immediately either find someone to blame or sink into self-hate. In fact, this is the very place we can find God, i.e., "in imperfection, in the real world." This is our basis for "thank You" to the unwanted that shows up in our life...whether it was due to our own faulty thinking, thus behavior, or to ten other people's.

The basis for "thank You" when good shows up needs no explanation. It's when the good goes south that we need to double up on our welcoming.

Thank You.

RESTRAINT OF REACTION

Restraint of tongue and pen begins with detaching. Detachment is the basis for restraint in all our reactions. It begins with a willingness to change our minds, to divorce ourselves from our own opinions.

Restraint of reaction requires more than just keeping our mouths shut while letting our attack thoughts race, gathering steam. Too often we give ourselves credit for saying nothing when we've, in effect, simply stapled our lips together. There is no spiritual growth in that for that steam will continue to gather until we simply blow up...hurting ourselves and/or those around us, but not necessarily our perceived offender. 

It is during that time of restraint that we call to mind the spiritual directions we have been given; i.e.,  find where and when we  made that decision based on self that later placed us in the position to be hurt, angered, afraid...the place where we find ourselves here and now.

This, of course,  needs some quiet time. We say nothing now but as soon as possible, we sit down, invite God in to do our thinking with us, and ponder until we find that decision...that decision we made and the action we took based on that decision that got us going down that wrong road again.

Restraint of reaction...a learned art, also known as detachment.

Thank You.

FOLLOW DIRECTIONS

What if every little hateful thought we have is non-existent to God? If that be true, we'd best not waste time and breath seeking His aid there. He gave us the Sermon for this very reason. Ours to walk it, breathe it, become it...but not to pray for it to be removed. How to remove it is already our gift, the directions already given to us to follow, to use.

If that be true, too, then it must follow that every rue, regret, and remorse is non-existent to God for each started with a not-of-God thought. Not necessarily hateful, but full of self...therefore, leaving no room for God.

Look to yourself this day to do, to behave, as you want God to do for you. He already has. Again, it comes back to the fact that all our thinking has been done for us...just follow the directions.

Thank You.

THE DISCIPLINE OF SPONTANEITY

[This is a reprint of my blog of November 1, 2011.]

…true spontaneity is not simply doing what we feel like doing and not doing what we don’t feel like doing. That is simply reacting…. - Eknath Easwaran, “Words to Live By”

Spontaneity is living in the now which requires training, the self-training of bringing the thoughts back to God, over and over and over again. It may be that that is the only acceptable self-determined object, giving our thoughts over to God until it is no longer a self-determined objective but a way of living.

We can be truly spontaneous by the God thoughts that occur for the benefit of others…or at least not solely for the benefit of ourselves. The trouble with writing or speaking this is the reasoning mind rolls its eyes and calls it sanctimonious or some such. The reasoning mind does not automatically do “for the benefit of others.”  The reasoning mind is all about “what’s in it for me?”

The reasoning mind legislates for itself…that’s why therapy is so sought after. Therapy lets us do what we want to do to begin with (talk about self), charges us money which we can ill afford to pay...which relieves us of the guilt of being self-absorbed.

Therapy, however, does not bring us true spontaneity. According to Easwaran, “We are being truly spontaneous when we can respond calmly, constructively, and compassionately to a difficult situation.” Also known as, living in the now.

Thank You.

LEARN TO LAUGH ABOUT IT

I'm reminded again that every situation has two interpretations...mine and God's. I am feeling resistance  to a situation that my ego-victory mind wants to set straight...i.e., shame the offender in front of her world (which just happens to be my worst fear for me...being called to account (shamed, to me)  in front of others).

Knowing that, I also know I will not do that...because that want-to is really the unimportant part. It is the home in my own mind that want-to has made that needs correcting, or healing.

I go back to: "I stand at the door and knock." I remind myself I, the Father within, is knocking at the door of my consciousness to be let out, not to be let in...It is already in, already within. It needs to be let out to go before me to make the crooked places straight.

I remember that all I need do is change my mind. Consciously remind myself that I can look at this in a different way...I can interpret the situation in my best lights. My conscious "thank You" opens the door to my remembrance that my Father within has already interpreted this rightly, i.e., as a blessing to me.

This is where discipline starts...expect not to immediately be there, i.e., free of resistance, full of forgiveness. It is to turn again, turn again, turn again to the conscious remembrance that my Father within has already rightly interpreted, for my benefit, the situation that I am resisting...then praise that fact with a simple thank you.

Nothing is a one-shot deal. Even that moment of surrender when we are rocketed into the fourth dimension must be revisited...maybe daily for the rest of our lives, maybe until three days after we're dead, and maybe just once. That's none of our concern. We just do, praise, and learn to laugh about it.

Thank You.

THE TOUGHEST TEST

Going against the reasoning mind. That is the toughest test…going against what my best thinking tells me…actually, going above my best thinking, deeper. I think it is the toughest because it feels like the riskiest…when, in fact, there is no risk (we find, after we’ve learned the how of it).

As Thaddeus Golas wrote, “We must go beyond reason to love.”

Pema Chodron has written: “When things fall apart and we’re on the verge of we know not what, the test of each of us is to stay on that brink and not concretize.”

Fr. Richard Rohr calls it “holding the tension.”

It’s all about learning to trust the Spirit within. Holding the tension between thinking, which too often is simply worrying, and intuiting…waiting to hear, to know the still, small voice.

The resistant mind will usually throw up any number of awful possibles so that waiting cannot possibly be an option. But it is…and we learn it through practice, through disciplining the mind, through practicing the art of patience.

Thank You.

INTO THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING

My morning's blinding flash of the obvious: At the instant we surrender...from knowing to unknowing, from self-control to God-control...we are rocketed into the fourth dimension.

Since the human condition is not in the fourth dimension, we are rocketed out of the human condition for that one nanosecond of utter surrender into the cloud of unknowing. Here we start our journey of  consciousness raising, going deeper into before-conception consciousness, i.e., God consciousness.

It is, in general, not possible to sustain perfect fourth dimension consciousness...we turn again and again to our reasoning mind...the human condition. If we do not grow spiritually, learning to live ego reduction in depth, then ego victory thinking will be our guide.

We must master our ego or indeed we will be mastered by our ego. At which point we start the surrender process all over again...it keeps coming back until we get it right.

Thank You.