EGO ALWAYS LEGISLATES FOR ITSELF

Things we learn, love and forget in a heartbeat [both from God Calling]:

1. "It is not necessary that you see Me as others see Me...it is necessary that you see Me, each of you, as supplying all that you personally need."
2. "It is not circumstances that need altering first, but yourselves, and then the conditions will naturally alter."   

I suspect that the truth in those quotes is so easily forgotten because it is filtered through our reasoning mind...our ego-based reasoning mind, with our free will as its advocate. 

Our ego will ever legislate for itself, God's promises be damned.

Thank You.

PRAYERS WITH TEARS

Isaac of Syria spoke of “the attainment of a merciful heart” as necessary to any spiritual life. He also said, in part, that the attainment of a merciful heart comes from constantly offering prayers with tears for the enemies of truth.

“Prayers with tears.” There is spiritual power in those three words. Prayers with tears not for me, no more prayers for me, but prayers with tears for the enemies of truth. Not my truth, but the truth of the God of my understanding.

I’m not capable of seeing where I can even start on that in my life. I am grateful to simply know it for truth…and necessary for me to personally aspire to, to walk toward.

Thank You.

IF WINNING IS THE ONLY THING

It seems to me that divorcing ourselves from our own opinions is the essence of fourth dimensional thinking. It goes against our "human condition" thinking. Most if not all fourth dimensional thinking goes against human condition thinking. It is not of the human condition...it is a raised consciousness, a whole 'nother mindset.

The question is, of course, why do we hang so tough to the human condition, i.e., our ego-based reasoning mind? All our ego wants is to prove its superiority, and all fourth dimensional thinking wants is to give and receive peace. And, for most of us, peace of mind is always at the top of the list of our most desired thing in life.

The lesson we must learn is to give over...to give in without giving up...to concede with grace. I'm a believer that that cannot be done without first coming to live our belief, our trust, that God has our back. We no longer need live in the belief that we are our own and only protector, that we must fight not just to protect ourselves but to win.

We now get to realize that if winning is the only thing then it must enfold both (or more) parties. All sides must come out the winner...if, indeed, winning is the only thing.

Thank You.

LAUGH...A LOT

I read today (as I have read every June 27 for the past 20 years and never before noticed) that "Activity is not achievement." (Words to Live By, Eknath Easwaran)

I note it today probably because friends who are considering retirement ask me, "What do you do all day?"

I tell them: "Anything I want to." Which is not all that satisfactory to them, but it is the truth. The underlying truth being that I have learned over my years that I need to have one direct, all-encompassing goal to live by, and all I do or think of doing is tied to that one goal.

Many diverse opportunities come to me most everyday...I take whichever keeps me headed toward my goal.

This is not done consciously. In fact, I only realized it as I thought about it recently, as I looked back over my day and days. It, no doubt, started out as a conscious act, but now it is...I guess it qualifies as "muscle memory," brain-muscle memory. Hold to the goal, and all else falls in line behind.

Those friends who are on the fence about retirement usually say that they have to have structure in their life, they need the discipline of structure. They immediately start looking for places to volunteer, activities to become involved with...neither of which is a bad thing. The end result is seldom satisfying though. When one is just filling up one's hours to get through the day, that is the only feeling of accomplishment one's likely to have at the end of the day: Glad this day's over, 'night now.

The proof of my goal working for me is that I have never been happier. I've never been more available to others, never been more called upon by others. And we laugh...a lot. There. That's God's proof.

Thank You.

DISTRACTIONS...THE WAY TO PEACE

I just had an interrupted meditation instant and remembered a long-ago gift. At 6:15 AM, the contractors next door who are in the building process started up all their machines. In my opinion they should not be allowed to start until at least 7:00 AM. Just that thought flashed, and a zillion furious thoughts followed...they could not wait to rush in and take over my meditation.

Fortunately, I remembered my very first guided meditation when the sirens of several fire engines started, seemingly right in the next room. The spiritual director quietly instructed us to fold those sounds in to our meditation, to become one with the sounds so that we could release them in peace. I was unable to do that, but the seed was planted, and that has been my goal with distractions of any kind ever since. Sometimes I succeed better than other times, but it is ever my goal.

Remembering that, I was led to Fr. Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation of May 6, 2012, where he wrote of distractions as a way 'to look over our shoulder' for God:  "The 'shoulders' of the distraction become your necessary vantage point and they create the crosshairs of your seeing. What you quickly and humbly learn in contemplation is that how you do anything is how you do everything. [His emphasis.]"

The goal, then, is not to avoid distractions, problems, but to hold onto the distraction, "but not let it hold onto you." A problem is just a distraction in a hair shirt.

We learn early on that we must walk toward our fear. That's all a problem is...a self-centered fear that we give life to by resisting it. What we need to learn is how to hold on to it by giving it over to the Father within...S/He returns it as the peace which passes all understanding.

And our reasoning mind will never understand that. We must go beyond reason to love.

Thank You.

GOD IS NOT AVAILABLE ON DEMAND

Got myself a new car. Am happy with it...more happy that I'm shut of the old one. But the hassles that go with getting new/getting rid of old just drive me...period.

I fully realize why being rich as Midas would not be a bad thing...I'd never again have a hassle. I'd just throw money at it. That action that I condemn so vocally all the sudden sounds like a really good thing.

I cannot believe the number of DMV offices that are closed. I had to renew my driver's license this past March, and I wondered why my new one simply arrived in the mail. There's no office to go to in order to get it done. I think my picture on it is 10 years old which is hard to hate, and I'm not complaining. I looked better ten years ago...or maybe not better, but younger...plus, it saved me a hassle!

But getting my license plates returned...sheez. In truth, I haven't had that big a hassle yet...I'm just dreading it. I found one office that is supposed to be open but I just know when I get there it'll either be closed this day or was open for an hour and just closed  or won't open for another three hours.

Here's me, once again, married to my reasoning mind when the flea bites of life come. And I know that I have the very real option of turning my thoughts to lilies of the valley, i.e., peace in the valley of my mind, of simply moving forward, hoping (not expecting, but hoping...softer let down) for the best outcome.

There...the unbelievably humongous and difficult turn has begun to take place. I'm feeling a crack in my it's-not-fair armor, the armor I call "hassle."  Spelling all my objections out for me to see...rather than having a constant irritating screech in the back of my mind that I'm afraid to look at because it must be bad to sound that awful...solutions come to mind, options open up. God is on the field...I've been benched.

I can drive over, and if any or all of my dreads are true, go to the post office and mail those suckers in. But I can't mail them without checking because then I wouldn't have done my part...and God is not available on demand.

Thank You.

GO TO GOD OR GO MAD

All the spiritual belief in the world is useless if we're not living it. I have a friend whom I love dearly who hears any word of spirituality, and she rolls her eyes and calls it, in effect, God claptrap. She is not an atheist, she is a good church-going...and devout...Catholic.

And I'm referring to myself when I say all the spiritual belief is useless if I'm not living it because what is becoming clear to me is I am resisting her resistance to any credit given to God for life changes.

For example, just yesterday I shared an experience I'd had some 30 or 35 years ago. I was treated very shabbily (by anybody's standards), and I knew I had to let it go p.d.q. I went over to a friend's house and cried and talked and talked and cried, and she walked me through finding my part in it. I walked out of her house some six hours later absolutely free. And, in the telling yesterday, I mentioned God and grace...this peeved my friend no end.

I think she couldn't quite believe I was able to walk free...that, in fact, I was "stuffing my feelings." She did not use those words, but she was irate about the whole story. To me, she got caught in the  same thing I knew I'd get caught in if I didn't do something to release it fast...the fact of the ugly unfairness of what had been done to me with nobody getting punished.

That is life's velcro...ugly unfairness is going to happen, and it will attach itself to our ego-victory mind. It truly is our reaction to life's velcro that determines whether we walk free in our own mind. To me, it's go to God or go mad.

Which returns me to my dilemma...my resistance to her resistance. It's like justified anger...it  does not matter that I believe I'm resisting the "right" thing...she thinks she is, too!

Actually, yesterday's incident is God's gift to me. Here is a friend I love who fundamentally disagrees with my foundation...my basis in life. And I disagree with hers. God's gift is knowing that all I need focus on is the fact that our disagreement does not change by a hair our equal freedoms to our foundational beliefs, that resistance only muddies the fact in our own minds.

Apparently, resist not evil begins with not resisting another's resistance.

Thank You.

THE TRUE WIN/WIN

In an adverse encounter, it is important to remember that we are not responsible for what s/he heard us say…which is not necessarily what we said. Nor are we responsible for how he interpreted what she heard us say.

We are responsible for our reaction to the one who is confronting us about what she heard and how he interpreted it. When our reaction is a flippant "that's on you" in any form, we are buying into the other's anger, resentment. We have just made it ours, and ours of the worst kind; i.e., a silent attitude of rigid, righteous and right. In a word, superior.

We have just been given The Pearl...an opportunity to detach from our ego-victory reaction. We get to immediately turn our thoughts to God, silently thanking Him for guiding, first our attitude, then our words through the encounter.

A simple, "I regret you heard it that way," or (this is advanced) "I'm sorry." Our ego resists saying "I'm sorry," because...and we're off, justifying, building our own resentment.

Why is "I'm sorry" so difficult? It probably makes more sense to ponder how "I'm sorry" could and would be the better thing. For surely we must be sorry that the entire contretemps arose...there's no need to go into exactly what we are or are not sorry for. Just a simple "I'm sorry" could end it all with both sides coming out the winner.

When we walk away a winner because we got over on another, we get our ego-victory and lose our spiritual ground. When both sides walk away a winner, we know God's hand is in it. We keep our spiritual ground, and the other one gains a spiritual insight. There. That's the true win/win.

Thank You.

NO GRADUATION...ONLY COMMENCEMENT

There has never been a time when you and I have not existed, nor will there be a time when we will cease to exist. As the same person inhabits the body through childhood, youth, and old age, so too at the time of death he attains another body. The wise are not deluded by these changes. -- Sri Krishna (Bhagavad Gita)

A friend once told me of a time she was planning an across-the-ocean cruise, and she asked her spiritual director how she could be certain she would be safe...if there was anything she could do, say, think that would protect her.

Her spiritual director replied, "There is no you to protect."

There is no graduation...there is only commencement.

Thank You.

THE PROPER USE OF THE REASONING MIND

The reasoning mind is God's tool. As long as we're wrestling within the reasoning mind (worrying, nattering, regretting, obsessing, etc.), we are into God's business. He allows us there...that is our free will, His gift to us. 

We must always remember, however, that while he is allowing us to roam free mentally, physically, spiritually, we are on our own...we have shut God out.

The proper use of the reasoning mind is to regift it...give it back to God. All that requires is to make a decision to turn our will and our life over to the care of God...that's it. 

The rest of our life is the carrying out of that decision. All of our zigs and zags, stumbles and falls, trips of the foot and the mind are going in the right direction...we're bringing it back to God. 

It is when we get stuck in shame and blame for our trips of foot and mind that we've landed back in the ego-driven reasoning mind, and we already know there is no God there. Here again, we say our "Thank You" for the reminder which is as painful as it needs to be; we recall our decision, and we move on up.

Thank You.

THY WILL BE DONE...THE FOREVER ANSWER

It is not God I have trouble trusting...it is other people, specifically the other people with whom I walk the same spiritual path. When push comes to shove, I suspect (know) they're going to revert to self and sabotage whatever situation I'm pushing and they're shoving. Which, of course, means I've just reverted to self.

Thy will, not mine, be done.

Thank You.

STAY OUT...GOD AT WORK

I need to put a sign on my brain: "Stay Out...God At Work"

I keep learning...over and over again, so is it learning or is it rejecting what I need to learn?...that love is the answer. My tripwire is I keep thinking that to love is to love something...it is not. It is to love.

Maybe everything starts with crash-and-burn, surrender, and ends with peace toward everything, love:

Surrender

|

Acceptance

|

Gratitude

|

Love

I'm guessing that in the end all that matters is how willing were we to love...all the crooked places, the detours, the ruts in the road, the potholes and sinkholes, the deserved and undeserved slings and arrows of life itself. Any and all glory without pride, any and all failures without shame. 

No wonder I need that sign on my brain. I am capable of thinking that, but doing it? Heavy lifting...God at work.

Thank You.

PROVIDENCE MOVES TOO

Again, I am reminded of the following quote by Goethe:

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now. - Goethe

Thank You.

GO TO GOD FOR GOD...THAT IS ALL

"Everything is profane if you live on the surface of it, and everything is sacred if you go into the depths of it—even your sin. To go inside your own mistakenness is to find God. To stay on the surface of very good things, like Bible, sacrament, priesthood, or church, is to often do very unkind and evil things, while calling them good." -- From Fr. Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation, May 26, 2013

To stay on the surface of very good things is an especially easy trap to fall into. To do our digging into our past, find our uglies, confess them to our mentor or other is a good thing. To learn our spiritual lessons from that place is our sacred.

Too often we stay on the surface, though. Here comes the opportunity to do one of our uglies again, and we take that opportunity, justifying our behavior by blaming our upbringing that caused us to be this way. We change not, we just have somebody to blame now. There. That is our profane.

We cannot change that by our unaided self-will no matter how high our intellect, how big our brain, how deep our desire. We go to God for God, and our life changes.

A forever truth: "Most important is the discovery that all of our problems can be solved by spiritual principles." -- Anonymous

Thank You.

RESIST NOT EVIL

Our resistance to the one with whom we disagree will always do our thinking for us...thus we become that one with whom we disagree. What we see is always ourselves.

Agree with your adversary quickly.... -- from the Sermon on the Mount at Matthew 5:25

Thank You.

ONLY WITH GOD IS OUR ACCEPTANCE POSSIBLE

My fantasy: We find when we die that there really is a heaven, there really are golden gates, St. Peter really is at the gates, and he has a long list of our past sins of omission and commission.

He asks if we have any unforgiven acts from our past, and we remember John or Joan, the one we dated in high school and dumped publicly and then laughed at his/her hurt. He tells us the rest of the story…John/Joan used that humiliation to build a life of joy, of helpfulness, and of incredible profit…s/he is a billionaire purely and simply because of our action way back then.

He goes on to ask if we remember Sylvia from the day before…the day before we made our transition. And no, we really don’t. We have cleaned up our life by now, and there’s no one we remember that we need to make amends to.

He tells us the rest of the story: Sylvia, a young single mother, had cut us off on the freeway yesterday. This was the second or third time we’d been cut off, and we were furious. So we floored it, got ahead of her and kept her from taking her intended exit. He told us she was on her way to the ER…she had a life-threatening problem that needed immediate aid, and, because of our actions, she wasn't able to get to the ER in time to save her life.

“That’s her over there,” he says, as he points out a young lady sitting all alone. And we know if we want to enter Heaven, we need to make our actions right with her. How?

We know that only God can make that right. Our job, then, is to become ready, willing and eager to do His will, whatever it may be.

What if it means we come back to this world as Sylvia...a young single mother who had a life-threatening problem? Now become ready, willing and eager for that to be our life.

Again, we either learn that only with God is our acceptance possible...or we keep coming back until we get it right.

Thank You.

OUR "NAUGHTED AND TRANSFORMED" SOUL

My morning BFO: It is not to understand the Holocaust...it is to understand the me I see in the Holocaust. It is not to forgive Charles Manson, it is to forgive the me I see in Charles Manson.

Thank You that my Soul is becoming unhooked, untied, unlocked..."naughted and transformed" (Saint Catherine of Genoa).

Thank You.

HUG IT AND KISS IT AND LET IT GO

More suffering comes into the world by people taking offense then by people intending to give offense. -- Ken Keyes as quoted in "Falling Upward" by Fr. Richard Rohr, at p 7.

It is not to respond in kind to my dear friend Gertrude, who has offended me (as in, hurt my feelings), it is to bless the offense I see...remembering that my hurt begins, always, in: I See Me.

Hug it and kiss it and let it go.

Thank You.

WE DETERMINE THE LENGTH OF OUR PAIN

Two thoughts this morning:

1. Anger is personal victim thinking. 
2. It is not change that we resist...it is the transition. 

It is my belief that anger, stemming from fear, makes victims of us all. Anger masks the fear of a change we realize we must make. It always justifies our resistance.

It is the transitional period between the realization of the change we must make and the resultant change when the victim does our thinking for us. This is the crash-and-burn stage.

During this stage, we are moving toward the change; we are resisting, but we are moving forward. It is that resistance that brings the tears, the attempts to halt, stall, and/or alter the necessary change. Our resistance determines the length of time the transitional period (our pain) lasts.

Once we accept the change that has already been made, we adjust, adapt to the new, move on...and quite often find the change we resisted has brought our most desired wish-come-true.

Thank You.

KEEP COMING BACK UNTIL WE GET IT RIGHT

We are equal beings and the universe is our relations with each other. The universe is made of one kind of entity: each one is alive, each determines the course of his own existence. -- "Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment," Thaddeus Golas.

What if our lives are God's mirror, and God looks out from within us? What if what God sees is the mirror image of Itself...in every human, animal, rock, plant, waterway?

What if all of God's images exist by God's will with only humans having "free will," the power to chose God's will or our own will? And it is our blessing to tend to the others using God's will and God's ways as our guide?

What if, being the image of God, it is our personal responsibility to align our free will with God's perfect will? 

What if, being given free will, we chose not to align our free will with God's perfect will, but to live with our free will as our guide?

I'm guessing we'll keep coming back until we get it right.

Thank You.

BOTH SIDES COME OUT THE WINNER

My morning's BFO: Both sides come out the winner when he will not cede his point, and I within cede my point. The winning is in the ceding.

Thinking it through: We cannot give over just by deciding to, for that keeps it a self-determined objective, and ego drives that bus. It is in giving over without thought for our point, with still more spiritual growth as our objective that we win..and he wins. Ours is the spiritual peace; his, the reasoning mind peace.

Thank You.

EVERYBODY WANTS TO GO TO HEAVEN....

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

Everybody wants to go to Heaven, nobody wants to die. From an old spiritual song, author unknown.

There is an illusion to be removed - that happiness can be without suffering, that well-being can be without ill-being, that right can be without left. Thich Nhat Hanh, "Going Home - Jesus and Buddha As Brothers"

To be truly secure, we must begin to find a source of security within ourselves. Eknath Easwaran, "Words to Live By, Inspiration for Every Day" (January 29)

Your very extremity will ensure My activity for you. "God Calling" (January 29)

I am fascinated by my continuing desire, when I hit a rough place in my road, to either castigate myself for hitting a rough place or to quick shoot a prayer to Santy-God to get me out of it…when I know full well, from my own personal experience, that “this, too, shall pass.”

I know that there is no Santy-God out there, that this rough place/difficult person is my angel, here by my own invitation, to help me shuck my shields, i.e., detach from my reasoning mind solutions…to realize, yet again, that it does rain on the just and the unjust alike, and I am getting my rain at the exactly right time in the exactly right place and amount.

My own Rainmaker within is right on time…doing what It does for my own personal, spiritual growth.

Thank You.

GOD'S WILL...OUR HIGHEST DESIRE

Remember, always remember, that the heartfelt desire to do the will of God is, in fact, the truest will of God. At that point, God has won, and the ego has lost, and your prayer has already been answered. -- Fr. Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, June 8, 2013

It is always a great comfort to me when I find something that affirms what I already have been led to believe. 

It was at my first spiritual retreat around 1978 that I wrote in my journal that I'd rather have God's will done in my life than my will done in my life no matter how pretty, right and good my will sounded to me. The above confirms that desire as solid...as pretty, right and good.

Thank You.

LOVE...AND THAT IS ALL

Perhaps many of us do not like it where we are in the universe now, but we can all be certain that we got where we are by our own decisions to expand in love or withdraw from it. – "The Lazy Man’s Guide to Enlightenment" by Thaddeus Golas

The only change we'll ever need to make is expanding our capacity to love.

The secret is not in deciding what needs to be loved, but in accepting that everything, without exception, that we see, touch, feel, hear, smell...sense in a word...needs our love. And that is all.

Thank You.

SPIRITUAL GROWTH...FOR OTHERS

It's wonderful when we finally catch the wonder of paradox..."you've got to give it away to keep it" may be the first idea of paradox that most of us connect with. The power of paradox, however, comes in actually living what we think is so wonderful when first we hear of it.

For instance, "the more we live for others, the healthier our mind, body and spirit becomes." Sounds good...but my friend Gertrude is doing it wrong and that's adversely affecting me, and I've got to resist, push back, set her straight for my own peace.

The reasoning mind will always resist spiritual action because spiritual action is always for others...for the benefit of others.

Our test then is not just to change our actions toward Gertrude even if we give over with apparent grace...our test is to change our mind, upgrade our attitude, about Gertrude's behavior toward us. (Her behavior toward others is the least of our worries except to use as justification for our own resistance.)

We cannot change our attitude just by wanting to, wanting to being the necessary first step in the right direction. The wanting to must be bolstered by our willingness to accept the disciplining of our thoughts, of our own mind: "Not for me, for others" becomes our goal.

If we stay stuck in the place of our thoughts resisting while our mouths are accepting, we're the same old bald-faced liars we ever were, only dressed up prettier. We fool no one but ourselves.

If, however, our thoughts are resisting while our mouths are accepting and our thank You prayer acknowledges that, God can and will carry us over to the place we need to be...to our desired goal, for the benefit of another.

It is purely because the reasoning mind will always resist spiritual action, that it must be God who completes our journey, the carrying us over to our goal, for others. Of ourselves, we are incapable of that.

That is why it is called spiritual growth.

Thank You.

DISCERNING GOD'S WILL

There is never a fight, an argument, a disagreement to be won...there is only God's will to be discerned. And God's will is rarely what either party is originally thinking is the "right" way...i.e., his/her way. It always benefits both sides...the problem, of course, is that each side must be willing to give in, give over, before s/he can receive the experience or realization of that benefit.

The reasoning mind cannot get us there.

Thank You.

TO BE FREE, TO KNOW PEACE

Someone has to make clear to us that homes are not meant to be lived in -- but only to be moved out from. -- Introduction to "Falling Upward," Fr. Richard Rohr, at p. xvii

Now there is a many-layered statement. I've been thinking on it for a couple of days now, and I asked myself: What is my home? What is my home that I need move out from? Is it my sense of security, my safety-net, my hidey-hole...my self-protection where nothing of God lives, just self...ego-victory self?

I suspect that will be ever with us...it may be that is the backboard we work against in seeking still more spiritual growth. Interestingly, I can tell you in a heartbeat what any one of my friend's "home" is...but mine? Mine is multifaceted, varied, complex...unique, in a word. I crack me up.

Because my friend's home to me is, of course, my interpretation of the picture that person presents to me...another side s/he presents to ten other people for them to interpret as they will.  Making all of us multifaceted...unique. And if each of us is unique, none of us is unique. Like snowflakes, none looks the same but all together they are one and the same snowfall.

To me, the last is the best part of Rohr's statement..."but only to be moved out from." That's the part where we hold our nose and take a leap of faith...out from ourselves, our idea of safety, our known into God's great unknown, the only real safety.

I'm guessing the reason God's safety is so difficult for us to leap toward is it is unknown, unsee-able, unhear-able, untouchable, unprove-able...except within our own self, and what if we are wrong? We're going to look like a bunch of fools. And the ego strikes again.

That's the old home place. The home we must needs move out from...our reliance on our ego-victory reasoning mind. It will never cede to God, God will always cede to it. Therein lies the free will we must choose to turn over to the care of God if we are ever to be free, to know peace.

Thank You.

REMINDER...AGAIN

If the heart wanders or is distracted, bring it back to the point quite gently and replace it tenderly in its Master's presence. And even if you did nothing during the whole of your hour but bring your heart back and place it again in Our Lord's presence, though it went away every time you brought it back, your hour would be very well employed. -- Saint Francis De Sales

Thank You.

GOD'S FULL REIGN

I pray for a deeper channel into my Soul, and I am graced with a blinding flash of the obvious:  I dig the ditches that allows God full reign.

Thank You.