RIGHT HERE AND RIGHT NOW

It is resistance to what is that causes mental paralysis.

It is our ego's legislating for itself (which is its natural state so we can only recognize that, not change that) that causes us pain. It is our attempts to avoid pain that brings the unintended consequence...of pain.

It is our nonresistance to our idea/fear of pain that leads us out of ourselves into God.

Primarily, the pain we are trying to avoid is psychic pain. Psychic pain is entirely personal, based in fear, and, if our choice is freedom from the bondage of self, there is no way around it...we must go through it.

We walk through it, unresisting (sometimes known as "beaten"), we get to the other side...lo, it's a miracle, life is good. Sometimes, life is good only because we got to the other side, but the overwhelming majority of the time, life is good because we have received a gift beyond our ability to plan for...we never knew it existed. It is understanding beyond our reasoning mind. 

This is the pearl beyond price...this is God consciousness. The open field of nonresistance, acceptance, I'm not right/you're not wrong and it makes no never mind anyway since we're both winners...and this place is only available to us right here and right now.

Thank You.

GOD'S PERFECT WORK DONE

I came across a note I wrote in 1986 in a daily reader of mine: "'My mind connected today that I, the Christ, is Nancy who appears today to be my nemesis...the lesson is to love the nemesis...not to win out over it nor to beat it at its own game...love it...'agree with your adversary quickly' is my goal."

Here's me, 27 years later, and I remember Nancy and my situation with her at the job and that we parted friendly.

The best part, and the proof of the truth of my note: I remember her without bile...without the same anger I felt toward her 27 years ago...I haven't thought of her at all since then except maybe fleetingly...but without malice.

The rest of the story is whether and how well I carry that over in my today life...do I realize that about the  others I view as my nemesis du jour? In general, I do for which I am grateful from my toenails up...but in general isn't good enough, not going to bring real peace.

My mind goes to another person from my last job, and I immediately feel the same bile toward him that I felt when last our paths crossed. Because I have since retired, I do not see him, but when his name crosses my mind, my attack mind picks up where it left off...telling him off, setting him straight. The laugh-er is that I just had a "yes, but" thought, justifying my ten-year-old anger!

The end of the story is when I sincerely (humbly is the word) ask God's help with letting go of my anger, my self-centered justifications...for just knowing I need to let go, praying to let go is lip service for a self-determined objective. I reread my note of 1986 and the key words "my mind connected that..." not that I've decided, or I'm thinking about. It was a realization gifted me from within...not me pondering and pulling to cause it to happen.

My job is to make myself available for God's perfect work to be done with me, within me.

Thank You.

ON BEING TRANSPARENT TO THE NOT GOOD

I have read that to be really secure, we must begin to find a source of security within ourselves.

What strikes me about that is the word "begin." Begin this minute, and the next minute, begin again. I'm convinced being really secure is of the moment...and looking back over the day, feeling at peace within, but realizing that is not permanent. It's like all else: This, too, shall pass. For, as it says somewhere in the Bible, it rains on the just and the unjust alike. Meaning, of course, that if we're doing life right, we'll get good and we'll get not good. Many of us live in the belief that if we're doing life right, we'll never have ugly visit us again...that we'll feel "really secure" permanently.

I suspect we confuse the happenings in our life with the evidence of our security or lack thereof. It is our search to avoid the not good that magnetizes it, and sends us down that wrong road again...searching for permanent security, i.e., the not good to not happen.

It's like praying to get in touch with our feelings, then feeling really crappy. Instead of realizing we just got in touch with our feelings, we blame God because we feel crappy, not happy...and take that as still not being in touch with our feelings.

It's in giving up the search for permanent security that allows peace to be with us, within us...passing through.

"It's not what we're called, it's what we answer to," said the black man about being called "nigger." And there it is. Nothing stops the not good from coming to us, it is our nonresistance to it that deprives it of a home.

Thank You.

GRACE IN THE MIDST OF THE HUMAN CONDITION

Yesterday I did what I do. I was just me being me. I got home and realized...OMG, that was really rude. I shoulda, coulda, woulda, except...and I thought of a really good excuse. I quick called my friend toward whom I was just being me...gave her my CYA excuse, we laughed, end of story.

EXCEPT...this morning I had a blinding flash of the obvious. I realized that as long as I get away with CYA excuses, I will never find self-acceptance for myself...of me just being me. For there was no malice, no manipulation in my action...I was just me being me. If I keep CYA'ing for me being me, I will ever get home and play "gotcha" with myself...I shoulda, woulda, coulda...then become the God of my own understanding by fixing me with CYAs.

I picked up my Goldsmith book of Letters from 1955-1959. As so often happens, there (at page 540) is the answer to what I'd just been pondering: "...the secret of the Sermon on the Mount [is] where we learn that although the law teaches...the indulging of human-sense -- grace is attained by refraining from the law and abiding in the spiritual Presence."

As long as I depend on my reasoning mind, on human-sense, I will never be graced with self-acceptance or anything else...I will never know God's grace in the midst of the human condition.

Thank You.

THE GIVING OVER IS TO GOD'S WILL

I do believe that everything that happens to us happens by invitation only. I feel insulted, slighted, embarrassed? What did I do originally that set that in motion? I'd not believe that if it hadn't been set down as fact by Gautama the Buddha, Jesus the Christ, Lao Tzu, Bob Dylan...all the biggies.

The reason it is so important to believe that unto walking-around-acceptance of it is that our minds will be on the attack of the perceived insulter until we let it go. And it is next-door to impossible to let it go by our unaided will. If we do not let go our harsh thinking about her, our revengeful wanting, we  will never be free of him. Every resentful thought, every resentful plot to set her straight...it's all the same. It is our judgment on us...which feeds it into more frenzy.

We can think, we can believe, we have "forgiven" an insult, the insulter, but until we take concrete action giving over to that person, our thoughts will remain the same...resentful. We will not know peace and that insulter's name will be in our thoughts as the very cause of our woes...s/he is not, of course, it is our ego, seeking victory.

We can come to understand this...indeed, we must...but the crucial step that we need to take is still missing. This is when we give over to God, asking for His will, not ours, to be done...whatever His will might be. For, and I know this from experience, if we come up with a self-determined objective for showing our forgiveness, we will be legislating for ourselves...it will not bring peace, it will bring still more feeling slighted, insulted, embarrassed.

So the crucial step is...yet again...surrender. And the result, of course, is peace of mind and heart.

Thank You.

QUOTES FROM "CHOP WOOD, CARRY WATER'"

The following are various quotes from "Chop Wood, Carry Water, A Guide to Finding Spiritual Fulfillment in Everyday Life."

To understand truth one must have a very sharp, precise, clear mind; not a cunning mind, but a mind that is capable of looking without any distortion, a mind innocent and vulnerable. Only such a mind can see what truth is. Nor can a mind that is filled with knowledge perceive what truth is; only a mind that is completely capable of learning can do that. Learning is not the accumulation of knowledge. Learning is movement from moment to moment. -- J. Krishnamurti at p. 22

So when the shoe fits, The foot is forgotten,
When the belt fits, The belly is forgotten,
When the heart is right, 'For' and 'against' are forgotten. -- Thomas Merton at p. 194

The Dalai Lama, as quoted at p. 56:
The purpose of life is to increase the warm heart. 

If you can, help others; if you cannot do that, at least do not harm them.

Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only. Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul. -- Henry David Thoreau at p. 130

The lack of money is the root of all evil. -- George Bernard Shaw at p. 140

Thank You.


   

FINDING OUR JOY IN THIS DAY

I think it was St. Paul who said if we are ever to live happy, we must drop all thoughts of yesterday's rues, regrets and remorses, and press on to our Now, to this very moment (which is definitely paraphrased).

At any rate, I know that to be true. The best part in living happy is learning to laugh at yesterday's rues, regrets and remorses,  at us  in the midst of our RRRs. As long as we're not laughing, they are our God of the moment. They not only determine what we're thinking, feeling, doing and being in that moment, they rule our negative side which, by its nature, chooses to follow the path downward.

As long as we live in the regrets of yesterday, we delay living in the joy of today...and there is joy to be found in every day. Our job is to find it.

Thank You.

NOTHING IS TOO LITTLE FOR GOD'S ATTENTION

I am a big believer that God has already solved all of our problems...whether the problem is on its way to us or already in our life. Our job, then, is not to try to think our way around, or out of, the problem, but to open ourselves to Him. Just open...to Her, to It...go to God for God, that is all.

Case in point: We are having a fairly drastic cold spell here…as in,19 degrees when I awoke this morning, and in the very low 20s now at 1:30 PM. At 6:00 AM some of my electricity went out…including the heat…and at 7:00 AM everything went. Did not come back until 1:30 PM.

Here's how God solved the problem I didn't even know I was going to have: I was at Target for my paper products yesterday and saw a pair of extra-warm fuzzy knee socks...looked at them and decided I didn't need them since I have a pair of fleece booties (that I put on in September and don't take off till May), but I put them in my cart and bought them. I have them on with my fleece booties right this minute...they may be the only thing that saved my feet up to my knees from frostbite.

Further, I have a winter coat that weighs at least a ton and, because it is so warm, I haven’t worn it in years. Just last month I took it out to give to Salvation Army but didn't get around to donating it. I wrapped Ruckus and me in it this morning, and I'm sure it saved our bodies from being found someday, frozen stiff.

It really is the little things that prove Truth…the little things that we so easily consider coincidences, or certainly too little for God to be involved in. Listen, if He can be involved with the likes of you and me, nothing is too little for His attention. For which I am grateful.

Thank You.

OUR NATIVE STATE IS FREEDOM

The message of the Bhagavad Gita is 'simple but profound: our native state is freedom. What we want most from life is to be free of all the mental compulsions that keep us from living in peace with ourselves, with others, and with the environment.' -- Eknath Easwaran, "Words to Live By," January 23.

I seek to walk free in my own mind. The fact, though, is that of myself I am incapable of that...I must go to a power higher than myself or higher than my belief in my reasoning mind at any rate.

Unfortunately, it is easy to believe that if we just think fast enough, be wily enough, not be hampered by the truth, we can get out of any of our self-imposed disasters. No, on second thought, the unfortunate part is that it is hard to let go of that belief...even when we have been proven wrong or, more especially, have proven ourselves wrong.

That, I believe, is our journey back...back to the God consciousness from whence we were born. Our journey takes us out from before-conception God consciousness into the material world where the ego takes the reins and the reasoning mind reigns. Our journey, our life, is all about making the turn back to before-conception God consciousness.

There is no ego in before-conception God consciousness...which is probably why it is so hard for us to make that turn.

Thank You.

GOD IS ALWAYS RIGHT

Truth is within ourselves and we must open out a way for the imprisoned splendour to escape. -- Robert Browning

Consider this: What if truth is just another word for kindness, patience, love, understanding, forbearance, consideration, empathy...they are all inside of us right this very minute. If not, where would we go to get them? To pray for any one or all is a wasted prayer, in effect.

The minute we recognize a need to be kind, be kind...a need to be understanding, be understanding...a need to be patient, be patient. Loose it, and let it go forth from you.

I'm told that we cannot even utter the highest form of prayer...we can only receive it from within. It comes in the form of realization of that which is is perfect just as it is. Our job then is to accept that, and then learn the how of it, the why of it...in other words, we are simply looking at it from the wrong perspective (i.e., our own).

We are not always wrong, but God is always right.

Thank You.

THIS I BELIEVE

Bless her, bless him...change me. 

Until we can pray that prayer with a sincere heart and mind, we will not make the necessary turn from wanting to get over on him, on her, to needing to give over to her, to him.

And until we make that turn, we will never know peace of mind and heart.

And until we know peace of mind and heart, our soul will be and will remain bankrupt.

And a bankrupt soul can never know God.

Thank You.

LET GO AND LET GOD

As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world -- that is the myth of the 'atomic age' -- as in being able to remake ourselves. -- Mahatma Gandhi

Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. -- Psalm 127

Thank You.

THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

[The following is a reprint of my blog of  February 24, 2012.]

What if your worst fear and your greatest hope both came true simultaneously?

Would you realize them both for the same?

What if that is the “kingdom of heaven?”

Would you still seek it first?

Thank You.

TO GIVE OVER OUR ALL...THAT IS SUCCESS

I was thinking about the Westboro Group, and it occurred to me that I tend to believe that the ego is the source of all evil. That little kernel of ego, that tended to and nurtured by making it our God, grows up and grinds down everything resistant to it.

Has the ego been located in a specific place in the brain? There are pathologics, psychotics, neurotics, alcoholics, addicts of every shape and kind...is the ego the place in the brain where those disorders are born? I can believe it, but I don't know that it has ever been proven...may well have been disproved for all I know, but it makes sense to me.

There is no God in the ego for to the ego it is God...as in, Edging God Out. To the ego it is being humble when it declares the brain, the intellect, is all powerful but, in fact, the unchecked ego is that place where the reasoning mind is utterly powerless...knowing better has no say at all.

Only a conscious decision to put God first, and then, most important, putting God first in every aspect of our lives, can edge ego out.

[Give over] your heart, mind, intellect, and soul even to your smallest acts. This is the secret of success. -- Swami Sivananda  [NOTE: I have no idea who the Swami is, but I believe this.]

Thank You.

ON BEING TOTALLY FREE

[This is a reprint of my blog of February 10, 2010.]

Fr. Richard Rohr has written, “If there is nothing in your life to cry about, if there is nothing in your life to complain about, if there is nothing in your life to yell about, you must be out of touch. We must all feel and know the pain of humanity. The free space that God leads us into is to feel the full spectrum, from great exaltation and joy, to the pain of mourning and dying and suffering….The totally free person is one who can feel all of it and not be afraid of any of it.”

That speaks to my soul.

I never thought I could be a totally free person…I never thought anybody could be a totally free person, now that I consider it. But it is possible, and I know this to be true purely because I’ve learned the art of “Thank You.”  

I’m sure that this is not absolute, but in general whenever my thoughts start to ask God for this or that…health, wealth, wisdom, chocolate…I consciously turn my mind to “Thank You for everything in my life just as it is right this very minute.” At which point I do not feel totally free or cosmically lifted…in truth, that simply starts my thoughts on a different path…it’s the best way in the world to forget whatever I was hankering for.

It may not be that “Thank You” is cosmic, it may just be that age and interruptions are great aids in forgetting. Whatever, it works!

Thank You.

RESENTMENT IS BORN IN RESISTANCE

I'm convinced all our problems start with that first resistant thought. It doesn't each and every time result in a resentment, but if a resentment is born, that resistant thought was its seed.

Resistance is of the reasoning mind...the mind that lives in "I'm right, you're wrong" which, I'm betting, has never brought true or lasting happiness to anyone anywhere. And yet we continue to rely on our reasoning mind as if it were our only hope in a world run amok.

The only hope of happiness begins with ego deflation...the teeniest bit of  willingness to give over to rather than get over on is all we need to start the process of ego deflation. There will come a time when we can say, and mean, "You're right, I'm wrong." Our reasoning mind flinches at the thought.

I remember a job I left, and on the leaving, management did a dastardly thing...which I'd go into but I don't remember the details. And there's the proof of the gift. Because I went home, talked with my mentor and my friends, and fairly quickly decided I did not want to go to my new job with this muck and mire in my mind, dripping off me. I examined the whole situation from their point of view until I could understand where they were coming from. Since I already agreed with me, to keep looking at it from my point of view would only sink me deeper into resentment. I wrote them a short note which said, in effect, "You're right, I was wrong," mailed it and forgot about it. One of my greatest gifts to me.

The hardest part to remember when on the trail of ego deflation in depth...the ego never dies. One great gift to myself, and one would think that is now nailed...but a couple years later a friend and I were disagreeing about something. I didn't want  it to get out of hand so I self-determined I'd fix it by just saying she was right, I was wrong...whoa. Imagine my surprise when I found that that was an ego trip in itself.

The starting point for ego deflation in depth is to go to God, to seek Thy will, not mine. Then feel the resistance and kiss it on the lips...kiss it good-bye. This is not a one-shot deal. Be prepared to sit and wait on the Lord. Then wait some more. The trick is to do something for somebody else while waiting.

Thank You.

TRUE THEN, TRUE NOW...WE HAVE A CHOICE

I was talking with some friends recently, and they each by their individual stories was explaining, justifying, in fact, to each other and to themselves why they are stuck in their own stuff.

I was reminded of a dream of mind from back in the day: I was blindfolded and held to what? a tree, it seemed. There were heavy gray steel chains holding me there, immobile. I couldn't make a sound so only my head heard my cries. I was terrified.

My grandmother, who was part-Cherokee and who lived in her third-eye world, walked by and said, "Oh for heaven's sake, girl. You've stood here so long, you're covered with cobwebs...shake those off and get going."

My blindfold disappeared. I looked down at myself and realized I'd invited my rues, regrets and remorses to masquerade as heavy gray steel chains...they were nothingness, just gray wisps of fear.

That was a powerful dream that is still giving me gifts. For I've come to understand that those gray wisps of fear, like cobwebs, are really hard to get rid of completely. They will cling to us, hiding in the most unexpected places...in our minds, of course, in the unexplored hidey-holes of our minds.

I believe the reason they are so hard to be rid of is that once found we immediately begin to justify them, give them provenance, if you will. We loose our reasoning mind on them, trying to fix by figuring out...why? Why do I do, think, feel, say, believe, act, react this way? That's just giving life to the cobwebs, binding us tighter to the fear.

The exact moment that we recognize a cobweb is the exact moment to say "Thank You," and turn our thoughts to things of God...sunshine, seashores, kitty cats and puppy dogs. It is in that instant that we have a choice...go with an unseen power who has proven to be loving, beneficial and on our side...i.e., God? Or with an unseen power who has proven to be harsh, with talons of torture and on our back...i.e., our reasoning mind?

It is proof of the power of our reasoning mind that we stick with it for so long...pride of ownership, I reckon.

Again...true back in the day, true today: choose ye this day whom ye shall serve.

Thank You.

GETTING TO POINT PERFECT

Fr. Richard Rohr wrote one of my all-time favorite lines: "The most amazing fact about Jesus, unlike almost any other religious founder, is that he found God in disorder and imperfection - and told us that we must do the same or we would never be content on this earth."

I have pondered that, and I've concluded that that is exactly what goes on sometimes in the appearance of disorder and imperfection...when we are caught up in our own self-determined objectives.

I remember almost fifteen years ago when I had finally found and furnished an apartment that was perfect in my mind. The only thing that was not wonderful there was I could not have a dog. 

Then one night, or one very early morning to be exact, the woman upstairs started moving furniture...or playing basketball or some such. Woke me up at any rate. I got my broom & pounded up on my ceiling. She stopped, but the next night/morning she started again, and, long story short, this continued for a couple of weeks. 

This was during a period of time that my goal in life was to trust God for my solutions...to any and everything that was problematic in my life. The promise is that the Father knows our needs...fret not over what you'll eat, drink, wear, your father knows your needs. That's the promise, but no matter what the need, there's always someone who's going to pooh-pooh, saying, "God doesn't wash windows," or "God doesn't find parking places," or He doesn't do whatever it is I have a need for at the time. So I quit talking about it and made it my goal to wait on the Lord and trust I would be led to what I needed to do. I believe we are God's hands and feet, and if hands and feet why not brains and heart...we just need to be still long enough for Him to give us the quiet Word.

Well, He wasn't giving me the Word, and I was simply unable to take any forward action...and I'd long ago learned how to push back, stand up for myself, not get run over by ignorance or arrogance, etc. But…other than buy earplugs…I did nothing, 

Then, out of the clear, comes an opportunity to buy a condo. Which I'd never really thought about doing because I never thought I could do it. I'd always rented and been happy, plus I now had my perfect apartment. But here's the condo of my dreams: four walking minutes from the Metro, a pet building, assigned parking, own washer/dryer and close to grocery and shopping...ideal. 

I found it, and in a heartbeat, which is an even greater God story, it was mine, and three months after closing I had a dog. 

Here's the Point Perfect: All the while, in the midst of apparent disorder and imperfect, God had already prepared the way for me to find something better than what I was calling perfect. And using the appearance of disorder and imperfection to cause it to happen. The second nearly as perfect point, if I had resisted the woman upstairs, caused a fuss, fought about it, I don't doubt I'd have won...and I'd still be there. Without Ruckus.

Thank You.

ONE

If you can't “get” being one with the Father, can you accept being one with the power of love? For that is all that is necessary to be one with the Father.

“If you keep listening to the love, if you keep receiving the love, trusting the love—even with all your limitations, with all your unworthiness, with all your limited intellect or whatever you feel holds you back—you start to experience within yourself a sense of possibility. Whatever life is inviting you into, you have this sense that it is still okay and, even better, that you can do it!” – Fr. Richard Rohr

Thank You.

THOUGHTS THAT LEAD US OUT OF SELF

It comforts me to know that I do not need to be a Bible-believer to take comfort from writings from the Bible. I don’t know a thing about Buddhism but I take comfort from many sayings of the Buddha.

Here are three singular thoughts from the Bible that I turn to a lot:

When we feel the road before us is too difficult:

Isa.45:2 - I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight....

When an unexpected or scary situation pops up:

Matt.14:27 - ....it is I; be not afraid.

When called upon to meet a life situation that weighs heavy over our head:

Job.23:14 - ….He performeth the thing that is appointed for me....

Thank You.

OUR EGO DOES NOT STAND IDLE

Relationships break down...because [we] are illiterate in love. To become literate in love, we must learn how to reduce our lifelong preoccupation with our own needs and feelings.  -- Eknath Easwaran, January 11, "Words to Live By."

That, to become literate in love, is also known as ego reduction in depth. Upon reading that, most of us think, "That's what I want." But when the time comes, when we are face-to-face with the choice of giving over to or getting over on...ah, there's the test.

And it is ours to choose. What we need to understand, though, is that ego reduction in depth is not just  inevitable, it is mandatory if we are to grow spiritually.

We're going to need to hold our nose and take a leap of faith, and the longer we delay, the harder it is to do...to become willing to do. Our justifications harden...our ego grows denser. Like a lot of things, if it is not growing weaker, it is growing stronger...it does not stand idle. It is up to us to choose which way we want to grow...or flow.

Let go and let God is not just a pretty slogan...it is the best advice. Again, choose ye this day whom ye shall serve.

Thank You.

LISTENING FOR THE WHISPER FROM WITHIN

I  once was told that until we learn to reject, we'll never be able to handle rejection. I now know that to be true.

Further, I've found that we must learn how to reject. Our concern must be in leaving the rejected one with some measure of dignity...and we can only do that by rejecting in a dignified manner...as opposed to screaming like a fishwife or barroom bouncer and storming out the door and down the street.

This requires a lot of practice...actually, it more requires our sitting in silence, listening for the whisper from within. I once heard that since rejection has such a pejorative sense, it is a good thing to substitute for "rejecting,"  "passing on by" or "not participating in." I've never said to someone that I'm rejecting you, and it doesn't hurt to train my thoughts to use softer terms.

We need to learn to reject with love, with peace, with honor...given. For it is only by learning to live with those as our goal that we will ever know love, peace and honor...whether we receive them from out there or only from within, the real pearl beyond price.

Thank You.

I WILL FIGHT NO MORE FOREVER

Joy is the result of faithful trusting acceptance of My will when it seems not joyous. - God Calling, January 8

That's just one good reason why we give up fighting anything and anybody. I can't imagine anybody finding joy in fighting... exhilaration, blood lust, any number of negative highs, but not joy. And the quote goes on to say that joy is the daughter of calm.

I've known very few people who haven't acknowledged that they seek peace of mind...actually, I've never heard anyone say they did not want peace of mind, but, by their actions, I can guess there are some. By my actions, I don't have to guess that I have not always sought peace of mind...but, in my unthinking consciousness, I have always wanted it.

All this is by way of acknowledging that my attack mind is ever looking for a fight. There's a person in my world who is not "doing it right" (i.e., my way) right now. And I have people who agree with me. There are a lot more I haven't even spoken to, but I know they think the same way I do. I vote with my feet. I'll just leave, not say a word, just leave...he'll get my message and rue the day he tangled with...with what? My attack thoughts that he's totally unaware of?

It is really not all that difficult to bring our thoughts back to center, to not-my-way, Thy-way, thank You.

Just that thought calms the attack mind. Lets the attack mind know, yet again, it is not, never will be, in control if we're doing it right. Doing it right is relinquishing, detaching, giving over, because we have experienced the truth...God has our back.

I had a refreshing (for me) example just yesterday of not fighting, but not being a patsy. I had lunch scheduled with a friend. He forgot. I did not give my attack mind first crack at my feelings...I just knew this was to laugh about. So I called him when I got home and said, "You owe me a lunch." There was a second of silence and then..."Oh crap. I forgot." He was apologetic, and I got to admit that since I turned 50, I don't hold feet to the fire over forgetfulness for much any more. And I’m getting a free lunch.

I want to live the words that Chief Joseph declared, "I will fight no more forever."

Please and thank You.

PEACE IN THE MIDST OF DIFFICULTIES

"What goes around comes around" is a universal truth also known as karma.

I remember back in the day when I was just beginning to learn spiritual principles, and someone needed my mouth to chew them a new one. I thought it might not be spiritually right, but, hey, I could always make amends later if it turned out not to be.

My mentor explained to me that that's the kind of thinking that sets karma in motion. What goes around comes around is not my setting Gertrude straight and Gertrude immediately shooting it right back at me, which she probably would do, and that ends it. No. By my actions I've set in play vibrations that will continue out far beyond me and my current awareness. The effects of my first shot may go around the world thirty times and take ten years to get back to me, but get back to me they will...with thirty times and ten years worth of ugly collected in it when I receive it.  I will have long forgotten my first shot, and call what's happening to me my rotten luck, proof that there is no loving God...no God at all, in fact.

It is my belief that karma is of the material, third dimensional, world. Making oneself available to fourth dimensional world living, i.e., practicing spiritual principles in all our affairs, does not guarantee freedom from the results of our actions, it simply guarantees we no longer are as nasty as we want to be...or, if we are, expect to get away with it.

As  is written in "God Calling" today, "Life with Me is not immunity from difficulties, but peace in difficulties." Learning to live within that promise brings us one of our greatest freedoms: Taking responsibility for our own behavior...the Draino for resentments.

Thank You.

ON BEING BETTER THAN WE WANT TO BE

Long ago my mentor taught me to believe and to say daily, "I am the image of the God I adore."

Just recently I came across a writing of Fr. Richard Rohr who advises that we use the following as a  mantra: "Your image of God creates you."

I get such gifts from that visual: I am the image of the God I adore. Your image of God creates you. (Which are the same difference to me.)

When we are into our  own nefarious self-determined objectives, or playing mental pay-back, or even (actually, especially) when our self-determined objective seems pretty, unselfish, for your own good or the good of all humanity, that's when we need to stop our thoughts. Consciously stop our thoughts. Turn mentally inward and ask, "What is Your will here?" Then wait. Sit in the silence and picture roses and rainbows, butterflies and kitty cats...the image of kitty cats jumping for butterflies always makes me laugh, gets me out of myself. Closer to the image of the God I want to know...I want to show forth.

If we can keep that mantra in mind, our image of God creates us, we can be more detached from our ego's need to protect, defend, legislate for itself (us). We become aware of being God's hands and feet on this earth...His representative, and thus responsible for showing better than we want to be at any given moment.

Thank You.

NOT FOR ONESELF, BUT FOR ANOTHER

My morning's blinding flash of the obvious: Singularly, everybody legislates for him/herself. It is only in a community of like-seekers that we legislate for the common good...i.e., not oneself, but another.

Thank You.

GRATITUDE FOR THE GRAY DAYS

[This is a reprint of a blog of mine from May 23, 2010.]

I am convinced that gratitude…feeling a deep sense of Thank You…for the good, the bad and the ho-hum is the secret to peace of mind.

It is, of course, no great shakes to feel gratitude for the good. But what a surprise when I found out that by simply saying “Thank You” when I’m met with a whole lot of uglies, defangs the uglies. A sincere “Thank You” upgrades the ho-hums so I can even smile at my “borrrring.”

It’s like the teaching to love our enemies…as in, what’s the big deal with loving our friends? Same principle for gratitude.

It’s not that I don’t love my friends, that I don’t feel gratitude for the good…of course I do, everybody does that. But for a fact my still more spiritual growth comes in totally trusting God…trusting that I can feel grateful without quibble for everything that comes to me, that I can let all who come into my awareness be fine just as I perceive them to be (which takes me longer, because I have to work on my perception, but is worth more).

At any rate, an unselective attitude of gratitude certainly calms my attack mind and that alone is priceless.

Thank You.

LOVE IS....

A friend and I made a "study" of love once. We had come to the sad conclusion that the only thing we knew or even thought about love was how boy-girl love felt...which is to say, good. Anything that didn't feel good, if not dislike or hate then, was simple indifference.

We came to the conclusion that love is simply a non-resistant welcoming...to everything. Pretty much an impossibility for walking-around humans, but an excellent goal to use in training for still more spiritual growth.

On a practical level, i.e., in daily life, love is not reacting in kind to perceived slights, snubs, barbs and put downs. And here's a key: It is also not accepting those things in order to win the other over, or to shame the other, or anything, any action that we know very well is ego-based.

Our spiritual goal is to know oneness with the universe...with God, in short. I personally don't know how many people achieve that, but I do know it is achievable. I do know I have experienced spurts...short spurts (or is that redundant?)...but in those spurts is the hook that keeps that as the only worthwhile goal.

Love is, in fact, the absence of fear. The trouble with knowing that is we tend to make love our self-determined objective in order to avoid fear...in which case we shoot down the whole thing. That avoidance of fear becomes our god, our focus, our one-ness.

Self-determined objectives are different from goals...self-determined objectives depend on our own efforts. Goals are our hoped-for plans if it be God's will. If we are honest with ourselves, we know the difference...if we don't, just run it by a friend.

Love is also the absence of ego. It may be in this lifetime the best we can hope for is the deflation of ego...which is never gifted to us although it only comes by grace.

Thank You.

THE EVOLUTION OF OUR CONSCIOUSNESS

Every year I find in my daily reading the scrap of an Agnes cartoon that I tore out of the newspaper on this day in 2009. It reads: "Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness." It is a partial quote of Eckhart Tolle.

This backs up my blinding flash of the obvious that everything that happens to us happens by our own personal invitation and by our invitation only. This is one of the most helpful shortcuts we have to get to gratitude, the base of humility, the healer of our pain.

The shortcut is simple...not easy, just simple: The instant we feel resistant, we shoot our Thank You prayer. That prayer eases our resistance and opens our mind to question how did we invite this?, what is really going on?, is what we're feeling really about that which is happening here and now?

In other words, it takes our focus off the negative, our perceived problem and how disrespected we're feeling...a mental and spiritual shutdown, and puts it on the positive Thank You...an opener.

I'm convinced the only reason we don't do this quicker, more often, as we breath, is because it takes the onus off our ego-identified offender, thus depriving us of our self-justified poor, pitiful, put-upon me feeling of victim.

We must decide what we really want...for our offender to be punished, or for us to go free.  It's amazing what a tough choice our ego-victory minds make that.

"Choose ye this day whom ye shall serve."

Thank You.

FREEDOM FROM BONDAGE TO SELF

The mistake we make when someone slights us, even slightly, is to react in kind. That reaction sets up the ugly chain reaction...because then s/he will react in kind to us which invariably escalates our re-reaction, etc.

The first thing we must learn to do when we feel slighted, even slightly, is to use our reasoning mind (here's a good use for it), and consciously remind ourselves that that is only our interpretation of what just took place.

Short of someone walking up and spitting in our eye, we cannot be certain that the slight we perceived was intentional. And, if we're following the directions of the Sermon and other spiritually based reads, if someone does walk up and spit in our eye, we get to detach our self-based reaction...and get on down the road or at least according to me. Why try to make sanity out of insanity? And, clearly, that's not a sane action.

That, of course, is not likely to happen. It is, however, a good example of extreme thinking just to throw up barriers to doing that which we know is the right thing to do...we just don't want to do it; i.e., in the course of a day when slighted, even slightly, give over. Let the perceived offender off the hook. Detach from our resistance. Divorce ourselves from our own opinion.

We begin our spiritual work by simply reading, say, the Sermon...not agreeing with a lot of it, but some. Whatever little bit we agree with becomes our base...our opening for expanding our minds. Expanding our reasoning mind until we can accept that our reasoning mind is not going to get us there...there being, in short, into wanting God's will done in our life more than we want our will done in our life.

It is the perceived offenders in our life who are our angels in disguise. Agree with them quickly. Then let our inner Self show us the gift in that. There's our road to freedom from bondage to self.

Thank You.

TO LOVE THE ME I SEE

I noticed one of my hand-written notes in today's "God Calling." It was dated 1990, and I'd written, "To love the me I see." I must say I was impressed that I knew enough 23 years ago to seek to love the me I see...which today I see as the answer to X percent of life's problems.

I've been pondering that this morning, and when I sat down to write this, I reread the note.

I did not even notice that the full sentence read "to love the me I see in Joe Doaks."  Joe Doaks in 1990 was the bane of my existence. I was all but struck mute. No wonder I don't remember writing that or rereading it every year since...that is way above my walking around self.

But it is, of course, the real answer. Self-acceptance. It isn't Sylvia Schloppenhaufer we need to accept...Sylvia and all her ignorant ways. It is us and all our ignorant ways...that we see so clearly in Sylvia and Joe, et al,  and miss so completely in ourselves.

I hope I make that my new year's goal: To love the me I see in you when you're reflecting the less than wonderful part of me. Geez, it's not even noon on the first day of the new year, and I've made my goal too complicated already! I'll be successful if I just love the me I see and trust the rest to God.

Thank You.