ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY...IT IS TO LAUGH

If we do not live, consciously and daily, in the new consciousness we have been raised to, we will revert to our lower consciousness, sometimes our lowest consciousness, depending entirely on our own self-will, our own self-absorption...or, put another way, depending on however hungry, angry, lonely and/or tired we allow ourselves to become. For each of those at its most extreme will allow no God, no spiritual force, to exist for us...it will only allow our hunger, anger, loneliness and tiredness to be at that moment.

Unfortunately, our lower consciousness, our reasoning mind, must always have someone or thing to blame. The last place our reasoning mind is willing to look is to ourselves, our own choices, our own decisions that got us too hungry, angry, lonely, tired to begin with.

Amazingly, it is in accepting responsibility for our original choice, that we find peace...usually through laughing at ourselves.

My rule of thumb: If I can't honestly laugh at it, I haven't accepted responsibility yet.

Thank You.

EARLY TRAINING...GOLDEN YEARS

My mind is so busy this morning that it feels blank...not the good open space we find in meditation, but the hard whiteboard that is supposed to be easy-erase but always leaves the shadow of previous writings which then clouds the next.

And that, too, is a good thing for it brings me back to the long-ago training exercises used to focus the  mind into one-pointed attention.

Anything that reminds me of my early training is a good thing...for there is where my gold is.

There has never been anything added to my early learning...it has, however, deepened beyond my highest hopes. Deepened, broadened, changed in form but never in fact...for that fact boils down to "I am the image of the God I adore."

Thank You.

SURRENDER TO GRATITUDE

I read a great phrase this morning, "surrender to gratitude." I sometimes read beautiful things, love them, then think, "What does that mean to me?" I did that this morning so I thought it through.

To surrender to gratitude to me is simply to learn the art of living a non-resistant life...a turned-over life...a turned-over-to-God life.

My first thought response to learning to live a non-resistant life was resistant...the good old, "Yes, but...," and "What about...?" There's always an exception to any spiritual principle in the reasoning mind world, the ego's playground. Spiritual principles take all power away from the ego-victory mind...all power, all glory, all control.

Of course, all is given back to us through the Power within...but what if nobody else knows? Where's the ego's edge in that? There. That's the ego's siren song.

It's amazing, scary, dumb, wonderful how long we will pass on spiritual peace just to answer the ego's siren song. I can't give a definite period of time because I still answer, but my lag time is getting shorter.

And I surrender to gratitude.

Thank You.

LEARN THE ART OF GIVING OVER

According to Eknath Easwaran, "...all every one of us is trying to do is break into the bank inside...."

I believe that to be true...it is the how we break into the bank inside that is so difficult to do...it wasn't that easy to come to believe it, but to do it? Whoa. Because, of course, to break into the bank inside we must let go of all of our self-determined needs, which are simply wants dressed up as needs in order to fool God into granting our wishes.

To realize the real treasures of life, we must learn the art of giving over. It is an art, and it does not come naturally to the overwhelming majority of us. Actually, it comes more easily to those of us who have been broken by our own will...forced by our own choices to seek help not of this world.

We miss the answer because it is so simple...get over yourself and give to others. At least, that's what the prayer of St. Francis says: "Oh Divine Master, grant that I may seek to comfort rather than to seek to be comforted, to understand rather than to seek to be understood, to love rather than to seek to be loved."

The answer is everywhere...doing it is ours alone to choose.

Thank You.

GETTING PASSED THE TEMPTATION

We must take care not to judge radical thinking…right, left, middle…for as that thinking is expressed to us, we ourselves become the interpreters of that which we are hearing.

With that said, we back up and realize that we must take care not to judge…for we are the source of our judgments. All that comes to us enters our thinking mind, is interpreted by us, and is either accepted (not resisted) or rejected (resisted) by us.

If it is accepted (not resisted), it either settles in, becoming our own and bringing us comfort, or it passes on leaving not a trace behind.

If it is rejected (resisted), it settles in and becomes a burr, irritating, agitating, something that begins to do our thinking for us until we determine we must set it right.

Our own resistance says that the only way to set it right is to take it to the one who first sent it out…rather than simply change our mind about it. Which in no way means we all the sudden marry up with that which we cannot abide…it means we give it back, with blessings, to the person we picked it up from. We can do this without fanfare, without explanation, without words…without our own spin in other words. We can do it by humbly asking God to bless the person and to change us.

The thought or expression of our agitation does not need be mentioned…God knows already. And, if we mention it, we’ll just start justifying to God why He needs to change the other and bless us. Resistance works that way…it’s like picking up mud and slinging it in our own face.

The beauty of non-resistance is that it leaves no footprints. If it fits, we wear it without thought. Someone somewhere benefits without our ever consciously knowing about it, and we are blessed without effort.

No matter how bizarre, ugly, disgusting…wrong…something sounds to our  reasoning mind, all we need remember is that it is our own interpretation that is irritating us. It’s like trying on a dress…if it’s puce and brown and out of style into the bargain, why try it on in the first place? If it’s stunningly beautiful and a size 2 or a 52, why try it on in the first place? 

A conscious, “No, thank you,” gets our “thank you” in there, and gets us passed the temptation…and on to peace.

Thank You.

NO PEACE, NO SPIRITUAL GROWTH

As irrigators lead water where they want, as archers make their arrows straight, as carpenters carve wood, the wise shape their minds.  -- The Buddha

Discipline of yourself is absolutely necessary before the power of God is given to you. -- May 26, "Twenty-Four Hours A Day"

The discipline of oneself is not to hone our thinking...our reasoning mind is as honed as it needs to be. Our discipline lies in detaching from our reasoning mind as the source of our solution.

We turn to a power greater than ourselves, e.g., God, in trust that It can and will intervene in our lives in our behalf.

If we do not discipline ourselves to trust that by doing that, we will of necessity continue to rely on our reasoning mind, our ego's home. That ensures that we will continue to live a life of blaming and shaming whoever crosses our reasoning-mind field including, of course, ourselves.

There is no peace there for there is no spiritual growth there.

Thank You.

HUMILITY IN GIVING OVER

I read in this morning's Daily Meditations of Fr. Richard Rohr: "Hardly any of us would say God is humble, but Francis did."

Blinding flash of the obvious: Only a truly humble person can live the Sermon's dictates to agree with your adversary quickly, turn the other cheek, give over, give over, give over...and be stronger within through those actions.

Thank You.

ACCEPTANCE IS NEVER NOT THE ANSWER

Recently, within a day or two, three different people raised the question of whether they needed the courage to change a situation or to accept it. The answer is that we cannot change anything that we haven't first fully accepted.

The very quandary keeps us attached to the problem.

And, if we learn nothing else in life, we must needs learn that acceptance is the answer to everything. It is that acceptance that opens us to God's perfect work being done in us and through us. This is how our foundation of faith is built...by God Itself doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

The very slow may think they have done this or that in the building...their only part was in making the decision to drop their self-will and to let God have at it.

May I quickly add that I am the self-appointed spokesperson for the very slow for I speak from experience, long and repeated experience...and, there, too, I am grateful.

Thank you.

PEACE OF MIND, THE HOLY GRAIL

A friend of mine, when visiting the Grand Canyon some years ago, in awe and wonderment thought, "All that glory is within me right now." Yes.

The gift is in recognizing that we do not need to be at the Grand Canyon to realize all that glory is within us right now, too.

Again I am reminded that all the other wonders of God's world are within us right this minute...all peace, all love, all kindness, all patience, all joy, all happiness...all we need do is use them. The question then is how? How do I go about using that which my reasoning mind does not feel and actually resists?

My answer is to practice calling up an unwonderful thing that is already present in my life, then using my imagination to see me meeting the unwonderful with all the peace, love, kindness, patience, etc., that is said to be within me already. I call it, kissing it on the lips...imagine my surprise when that worked and continues to work.

I've found my key to opening the door to all God's goodies is learning to laugh at myself. Paradoxically, the quickest way to that end is through taking responsibility for the decision I made based on self that got me in this unwonderful place to begin with.

Take away the person we're naming and blaming and find peace of mind, the Holy Grail.

Thank You.

BE STILL

In spiritual growth, it is never a good idea to tell people, "I've changed." If and when we have indeed changed, they will tell us.

If they're not telling us, it just doesn't show yet which doesn't mean we haven't changed, it just means it is too early to be apparent. We need to keep focusing on our spiritual goal (which never is to brag about our changes...or anything else for that matter).

In fact, to try to convince others of our changes is to ensure they will not see them, and we will lose that which we're so proud of. Their resistance to our brag invites our resistance to their unbelief...and it's same old, same old all over again. There is no growth there, spiritual or otherwise.

Be still, and know that I am God.

Thank You.

LET...LET GO...LET GO AND BE

A word of helpful advice was given to me at my first spiritual retreat. Words of truth were being spoken, as in, "He goes before me to make the crooked places straight," which I loved. So I told my mentor there that I would use that as my mantra. She cautioned me that truth must be proven. If we don't prove it, it's just so many words.

I am grateful that I knew on the hearing that that was true.

My next question was how? How do I prove truth? And wouldn't you know, in my God Calling that very day was the sentence: "My disciples must work out their own salvation [truth is proven through my efforts] though this is not possible without My Strength and Help, and without converse with Me." [My reasoning mind is not going to get me there...turn again to the Father within.]

Later that same day, I was led to the sentence in my Easwaran daily reader (that I am drawn to and repelled by at the same time): "If you curse him, he will bless you; if you harm her, she will serve you; and if you exploit him, he will become your benefactor."

There. That is how we begin in the proving of truth...to be led out of our own solutions, our goal must become for the care and feeding of others.

Let's face it, there is no way we can consistently fake the Easwaran way. Through sheer self-will, if I am cursed, I can bless you, if I am harmed, I can serve you, and if I am exploited, I can become your benefactor...once. But you will rue the day eventually...then I will rue the day forever after.

That is the nature of self-determined objectives, a.k.a., ego-victories...they are under the rule of karma. Our every action will bring us our just reward and our just punishment.

So our goal must be to honestly turn self out...sincerely seek to do for others. And it is a good thing if we know we're a million years away from there...the closer we think we are, the farther away we take ourselves by the very thought. That is true only because the very thought proves we're still believing that we're in control. We're not, God is...and He can lift us there in an instant.

Let Him.

Thank You.

UPGRADE OUR ATTITUDE

Be vigilant; guard your mind against negative thoughts. -- The Buddha

I like to think that The Buddha had some negative thoughts Himself to have known to warn against them.

I also take His warning as permission to not fear negative thoughts...used to, when I caught myself with a negative thought, I'd visualize that thought being picked up by butterflies and flown way, dropped in a newly planted field of flowers and left to fertilize them into full beauty.

Negative thoughts aren't bad in and of themselves...it is the fear of negative thoughts that we need to turn from. For fear breeds fear which spreads throughout our body, brains and bones, making no sense at all, just leaving us feeling overwhelmed and powerless...not to mention unloved, unwanted, unneeded and unappreciated, and, the worst, all alone.

Once again, gratitude to the rescue! Gratitude for butterfly wings and fertilized fields and the gift of imagination. For all we need to be free of fear is to simply change our mind. In other words, develop an attitude of gratitude.

Thank You.

OTHERS

[The following is a reprint of my blog of November 29, 2011.]

Back in the day, whenever I noted the passing of anyone, I thought of that life as just a bump in the road…which left a fairly what’s-the-use aftertaste, if you will.

Then I was gifted with the prayer of Saint Francis. In that prayer, he asks to be made an instrument of God’s peace. That’s when I got my first glimpse of life having a personal reason…that my life had a purpose. I saw that God answered that prayer at birth…we are each an instrument of God’s peace. Our job from birth is to do exactly that…be an instrument of God’s peace.

More important to me personally, I realized that to be an instrument of God’s peace, I would need to make myself available to others. That was not particularly good news to me but I knew it to be true for me. The simple fact that I did not particularly like people forced me to accept that I needed people. It was just plain fact that I could not be an instrument of peace, God’s or my ego’s, with no one to interact with. Left alone too long, I can get into fierce arguments with myself and wind up hurting my own feelings…repeatedly.

I also knew that, after the fact, a life may look like a bump in the road, but each life-bump was useful…was necessary…if it touched somebody else. Even as a bad example, maybe especially as a bad example (since everybody has to learn acceptance someway), if somebody else was affected by that life, it was an instrument for God’s peace.

That was then, and is to this day, my “new day a-dawning” feeling. I know my purpose in life. I know my life counts…through my dependence on others…and others’ dependence on me.

Thank You.

SURRENDER OF SELF

So I'm sitting chatting about this and that with an acquaintance, and she says, "There's an awful lot of surrender of self that has to happen if we want to receive the spiritual gifts."

There it is.

Most everybody, I'm guessing, wants peace of mind...peace within...peace without...peace. Yet the last thing we think of in order to receive peace is the surrender of self...even a tiny little bit of self surrendered suggests to our ego that we are losers, less than, nothing. Which thinking requires we resist those thoughts...fight in a word. That is our reasoning mind in full gear...at it's sharpest, honing in on the problem...which, to our ego-victory thinking, is not us, is never us.

The truth is, our answer is never out there...nor is it in our self-determined objectives. Our answer is in still more spiritual growth wrapped in spiritual principles.

Our reasoning mind, driven by our ego, requires us to always look outward for the solution. God consciousness invites us to look within, to release the peace that was given us before birth and has always been ours...all we need do is give it.

Thank You.

THE GOOD IN TAKING RESPONSIBILITY

I like to think of God as a no-fault insurance policy. If we’re into blame and shame, we’re into ego-victory thinking…there is no spiritual growth there.

Who is responsible for the decision we made to do, to say, to act, to not act? Remembering always that in our day-to-day living, no one can make us do anything. The choice is ours to make...and, thus, to take responsibility for...and there's the no-fault part. Taking responsibility promptly for our own decisions eliminates blame and shame.

So we get to choose...whose side will we line up with, ego or God? And why is that such a hard choice when going with ego always carries a 50-50 chance of whipping back and slapping us silly...and going with God always carries a 100% chance of our hurting no one. One (and possibly the only) reason is going with God usually takes so much longer to learn the result. 

Why wait an unknown period of time to not get hurt when we can hurt ourselves in a minute? Not to mention the others we hurt in that same minute...and, oh yeah, here comes our amends part. Some choice. 

Thank You.

KNOWING AND SHOWING

[This is a reprint of my blog of February 26, 2012.] 

Years ago, in a spiritual setting, I heard, “I know it, and I show it.”

More and more lately I have been saying, “If you know it, you must show it…else you don’t know it.”

Blinding flash of the obvious: If you know it unto realization, It shows Itself…you have no control over it.

Thank You.

TELL NO WO/MAN

Having the goal of living the Sermon is all well and good, but we must accept that the  biggest block to actually doing it, actually living the Sermon, is, of course, our ego.

We are asked to agree with our adversary quickly. To agree with our adversary quickly can give our adversary a reason to believe s/he is right...and our ego writhes. To turn the other cheek is to be thought a wuss in the extreme...and our ego agonizes.

Until we are freed from following our ego's dictates, accepting, or course, we will never be free from our ego's squawks, our ego will always try to make an end-run around our spiritual needs. In being thought wrong or being thought a wuss by X, we go to Y and explain our deep spiritual intention, knowing Y will tell X, and, if X has a brain, s/he will be shamed, envious and sorry. There is no spiritual growth there...there is only another reason why "tell no wo/man" is essential.

Therein, however, lies the gold. This is the impetus we need to keep us focused on becoming fully God conscious. Our own thinking is here in the material world; God is in a higher place deeper within us, without us. It is in our denial of our ego-victory wants that God fulfills our every need.

Thank You.

ON CHOICES

A friend once asked me what we would do when/if we ever had a serious disagreement. The answer, of course, is we each agree that the other is right...then use all our efforts in understanding why the other is right. Otherwise, we're just going to use all our efforts obsessing about why and how the other is wrong.

We already agree with ourselves that we are right. Now, we start learning the art of divorcing ourselves from our own opinion; i.e., we bring God in.

I must bring God into it, because it is my impossibility to sincerely declare myself wrong and believe it. My lips can say wondrous things, but my ego will just puff with pride at how great I art to be giving over so magnanimously. And there I go down that wrong road again...breeding a resentment.

God is the necessary ingredient to get to the understanding that we are both right...that neither is wrong...that we both can walk away winners. The ego is incapable of allowing that.

The rest of the story is we get to do this many, many times...70 times 7 and then some. The ego never dies, nor does it fade away...it just hides in the open and takes over at will. But then so does God hide in the open...and takes over whenever we get out of the way.

Choose you this day whom you shall serve.

Thank You.

GOD CANNOT NOT SHOWER LOVE ON ALL

I never understood the Biblical admonition that lust committed in your thoughts is lust committed. I’m beginning to get the reasoning behind that.

I had a run-in with an acquaintance, and I was able to not respond in kind to her real reaming me out. And I remained silent without effort…I knew in my mind and in my heart that this was not personal to me.

My hard lesson learning now is to continue in my thinking to let it stay “not personal to me.”

I awoke this morning with an unquiet mind. Once I took the time to sort my thoughts, I realized I was starting to chew her a new one, pay her back, shame her…all my favorite self-poisoning thoughts.

I quick turned my thoughts to things of God, i.e., a bed of lilies of the valley, Ruckus, my young friend James.

Once my thoughts got settled, I could see that I was feeling pride over remaining silent, not responding in kind, etc. And it was not mine to feel pride about. I know full well I am incapable of remaining calm in the midst of a storm not even aimed at me. What I had was the opportunity to praise my acquaintance for being the instrument through which God worked to show me that is a possibility…and He did it through me, for me. 

Then the BFO: If she doesn't benefit, too…if she doesn't come out a winner, too…then neither of us wins. As long as my thoughts are that God did for me, through me, and not for us, through us, I am still in the place where resentments get born. They just spring out full grown one fine morning…like this morning when I awoke with an unquiet mind. That was a resentment looking to form.

Which takes me back to lust committed in your thoughts is lust committed. As long as I am saying naught to anybody about it just silently obsessing over my righteous behavior, I am still judging her.

My need is to detach from my own thoughts about it. When the thought arises, and it will, I get to simply turn to God with the desire that both my friend and I realize God’s love in this situation, however that manifests.

God cannot shower love on only one side. Since God is love, all sides get to come out the winner. [Personal, and slightly sanctimonious, note to all warmongers.]

Thank You.

WE ALREADY HAVE THAT WHICH WE PRAY FOR

I read somewhere once an analogy of supply and trees. I wrote it down because it made so much sense to me:

"In the autumn, the fruit on the trees is plucked, and the leaves drop away, but nobody is alarmed. Everyone knows that nature is at work, and that in a few months the leaves and the fruit will reappear. This we all know, but we fail to recognize the analogy between this cyclic activity of nature and our own supply."

That brings to mind kindness, thoughtfulness, patience, love...we each have an endless supply within us right this minute (else, where would we go to get it?). The deal is we have to get over our own self-concern in order to simply give that which we already have.

Gertrude treats you less than wonderfully...give her some of the kindness you have within you. Sam is being impatient with his world...give him some of the patience you have and aren't using. For...here's the miracle...that is how we get filled up with more of that which we've just given away!

Thank You.

ON WELCOMING THE UNWELCOME

A person often meets his destiny on the road she took to avoid it. -- Jean de La Fontaine, French poet, 1621-1695

Thank You.

JUST DON'T TAKE YOUR OWN BAIT

Mine to remember: Each of the defects that I see in others is just my bait to accept as Your gift to me to return to You unused.

Thank You.

GO BEYOND REASON...TO LOVE

I keep going back to the quote that the human condition requires us to live by a higher standard than we'd naturally choose. It occurs to me that that is what living by spiritual principles is...which brings to mind the other quote I love, "Most important was the discovery that all my problems could be solved by spiritual principles."

That's hard to hate.

And being hard to hate, why are spiritual principles the last thing I turn to when my mind gets wrapped around your latest slight of me?

I'm guessing because my ego has a louder voice than my Spirit...isn't stronger, tougher, righter...just louder. Louder, more insistent of its rightness, doesn't listen, won't give an inch. Holy moley, I've just described you.

Quick before my reasoning mind kicks in with my ego and breeds a resentment, I get to say, "Thank You." For I have learned that all it takes to shut the ego up is to "agree with my adversary quickly" (a spiritual principle). The ego will never understand nor agree with that principle...and that's all I need to know to realize I'm going down that wrong road again when I resist it.

Go beyond reason...to love.

Thank You.

LIVING BY A HIGHER STANDARD

We often hear that in the spiritual world, all worthiness is given, that our only job is to fully and freely receive.

Correction...we don't often hear that. We need to often hear that. Because it takes some serious clearing of the reasoning mind to even hear that the first time. 

The reason it is so hard to hear in the first place is the ego must cede power...which requires our willingness, another toughie because the ego ceding power is just a lot of words for surrender, a fairly uninviting prospect. 

Few of us, faced initially with a serious problem, accept that our best answer is surrender. Even when we have admitted defeat, surrendered and found the gold in that, life continues to give us opportunities to grow through surrender, and we fight again. 

The reasoning mind is such that it links with the ego and cannot...no, will not...accept that it is powerless...that this, too, can be healed, set right, through giving over. Simply giving over to that power that we know, trust, and want to know and trust more and better, yet resist every step of the way.

It is the human condition to resist surrender, but "the human condition is such that we need to live by a higher standard than we'd  naturally choose." That, really, is the lesson we need to learn...that in the end surrender is a higher standard than we'd naturally choose.

Thank You.

FINDING THE GOLD IN MISERY

I am the blessing.

It is our job to show that forth in whatever manner we choose (free will). If we choose our way, i.e., self-determined objectives, that is what we will see, experience in those about us. We will call what we are seeing in them, their character defects, what they need to change, and we will remain self-centered and all alone…unnaturally.

Finding the sliver of gold in that...that is what will goad and guide us to seek to change. For the misery of self-centered cannot be overcome alone.

Thank You.

MEDITATION AND EXPANDING MY LIMITED MIND

[The following is reworked from my blog of September 15, 2009.]

I get great comfort from the 23rd Psalm. I use it as my meditation base, and I've found changing the name of my focal point ever so often is a helpful tool in expanding my limited mind.

For instance, instead of “The Lord is my shepherd,” I sometimes use ”The Great Spirit is my shepherd,” or “The Christ,” or  “Allah,” or “God,” or “The Buddha.” It’s interesting how varied my insides feel depending on the name I use…not elevated and not depressed, just different…always comforted though.

Since I’m still trying to learn to live at ”the core of the coin,”  i.e., not on one side or the other, calling one side “good,” so the other must be “bad,” but at the core, as one, I’m experimenting with this.

I call to mind the Psalm and change it to: [The Great Spirit] [the Christ] [Allah] [God] [the Buddha] is my Shepherd, I shall not want. It makes me to lie down in green pastures, It leads me beside the still waters, It restores my soul. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil for It is within me. Its rod and Its staff, they comfort me. It prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies. It anoints my head with oil, my cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the consciousness of [the Great Spirit, etc.] forever.

One beneficial side effect already…this practice helps focus me on the Psalm itself. It may be just to keep the exchanged word(s) in mind, but anything that keeps my mind focused in the moment is good, according to me.

Thank You.

LOOSE IT AND SET IT FREE

Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me. 

Thank You that peace is within us all here and now. Thank you for releasing it here and now...for it cannot grow if it is not released.

Thank You.

OUR EGO'S HIDEY-HOLE

 ....a true Christian has to be an optimist. In fact, if you are not an optimist, you haven’t got it yet.  -- Fr. Richard Rohr, May 4, 2013, "Daily Meditation"

My take: "...to be happy, joyous and free is to be an optimist. In fact, if you are not an optimist, you haven’t got it yet."

I don't believe we need to be Christian, Muslim, Buddhist...any religious denomination, in fact...in order to be  an optimist or to be happy, joyous and free. I do believe we must have a God of our own understanding which cannot be our intellect or our reasoning mind for there is the hidey-hole of our ego.

I believe we need to be spiritually based with our goal being ego reduction in depth. It is ego, which always legislates for itself, that will inevitably stand between us and freedom, i.e., peace of mind. As "God Calling" so aptly puts it, "Kill self now." Which admittedly turns a lot of people off...but that's just their resistant ego. Here again, ego always legislates for itself; i.e., for our own self-interest.

Thank You.

THANK YOU BRINGS COSMIC CHANGES

See Him as the First Cause of every warm ray, every colour in the sunset, every gleam in the water, every beautiful flower, every planned pleasure. -- God Calling, May 2

After "every planned pleasure," I once wrote in my book, "every not wonderful thing." In truth, I think that needs to come first: "See Him as the First Cause of every not wonderful thing, of every warm ray, etc." Then a simple Thank You in the first seeing (first dreading) is all that is needed to open our heart and our mind to the f-a-c-t that this, too, is in our behalf, for our benefit, our pearl beyond price.

It is in our Thank You that cosmic changes take place in our consciousness.

After that blinding flash of the obvious, we can relax in the comfort of seeing Him as the first cause of sunshine, sunsets, rainbows and roses.

Thank You.

THE CORE OF THE COIN...ONENESS

Offer unto me that which is very dear to thee --which thou holdest most covetable. Infinite are the results of such an offering. -- Sri Krishna (Bhagavatam)

It was a new way of thinking for me when I realized that that which I hold most dear can be that which I obsess about having God remove, i.e., my current defect of character.  And my current defect of character includes my revisiting a long-ago regret. I finally understood that that qualifies as that which I hold most dear else why would it still be with me? Why would I still be holding onto it?

The other side of the coin, that "most covetable" item, is also covered by a new way of thinking. For that which I hold most covetable is often my idea of an asset that in truth is putting my friends off...losing me friends, in fact.

I especially like "Offer unto me" for that represents willingness...willingness to visualize the simple gesture of letting go...letting go of the coin of good and bad for only then can we get to the core of the coin, oneness.

Thank You.

ON THINKING OF THE OTHER PERSON

We do not find our own center; it finds us. Our own mind will not be able to figure it out. – Fr. Richard Rohr

All we can do is make ourselves available to the Spirit within, our Soul if you will, silence our mind, and wait. The hardest part for me is loosing my own timetable and letting it go…releasing the nattering of now.

All the aids for silencing my mind I’ll ever need are laid out in the Sermon…a veritable handbook for achieving ego reduction in depth. It’s a pity this veritable handbook is nearly impossible for my reasoning mind to even grasp, let alone achieve. My gratitude lies in my personal realization that it matters not how successful I am, it only matters that I walk with the directions spelled out there…that I try on a daily basis to “not be as nasty as I want to be,” for that’s pretty much what it boils down to in our walking-around world.

Every year on May 1, I read in Easwaran’s daily reader, “To heal our relationships, we have to move closer to people we do not like, learn to work with them without friction.”

What a shock it was to me when I recalled my best friend in high school. I had no use at all for her until I found out she lived next door to the boy I had a crush on…she became my best friend quick and is still a dear friend. So it matters not why we get over ourselves “to move closer to people we do not like,” it only matters that we do it!

Again, it’s simply a matter of changing our mind, changing our mind to think of the other person first and last which the ego-based reasoning mind cannot unaided do. Just another reason why our most basic need is to learn to trust without exception that God has our back, that our problem has already been solved.

Thank You.