SEEKING OTHER GRATEFUL HEARTS

Gratitude must be lived. A living attitude of gratitude shows forth as a beacon and draws others to It. It especially draws grateful people who are as yet unaware...seeking they know not what.

I have read that the measure of our gratitude is in proportion to the amount of time and effort we give to others, to other seekers.

That for sure keeps our gratitude replenished. In that way, it's like a hug: You give it to get it. Which is the best reason in the world to live in gratitude, knowing It will seek other grateful hearts.

Thank You.

GOOD NEWS V. UH-OH NEWS

[W]hen you can direct your attention, your thinking will never be compulsive again. -- "Words to Live By," Eknath Easwaran, October 30.

That quote is such old news, and yet this morning it feels like a blinding flash of the obvious...brand new and WOW.

I read it and recognized that I pray daily for God to guide (not guard) my thoughts, and that I remind me daily of the many spiritual strictures about thoughts as forerunners of actions. Then, at any given moment, my thoughts go to Gertrude's sitting in judgment of me, and I promptly sit in judgment of her.

Again, it is a matter of promptly turning our thoughts toward God, any part of God's world, when we even glance in ugly's direction.

Mental picture: We are standing on the banks of a raging, flooding Mississippi River. It cannot touch us if we back up now, and keep backing. We never know when the water-soaked ground (resentment-laden mind) will give way, even a tish, and spill us into the raging water. Caught up in the torrents, we may never get free. Those torrents take us wherever they want to go...and a river does not flow upward.

The good news is: All roads lead to God. The uh-oh news is: It is entirely up to us how direct our path to It is.

Thank You.

GOD IS NEVER LATE

Since I learned that all of our problems can be solved by spiritual principles, I've come to accept that forgiveness is the basic spiritual principle that we get to go to...to live by.

I regret that forgiveness is not my strong suit...forgetfulness is, but that's often just a matter of aging. Remind me, and I can be right back in the you-dirty-rotten-rat stage in a heartbeat.

Fortunately, God has blessed me with a couple of things I've forgiven...and I know God has blessed me because when I was reminded of one recently, I couldn't remember it right off the bat. And it was a biggie.

We often hear "forgive but never forget." I just can't buy that...if I can't forget it, I haven't forgiven it. Full and complete forgiveness is the letting go of all resistance to the act and the actor...detaching from our own selves in truth. The more we try to talk ourselves into forgiveness by prettying up our motives, dolling up our spiritual intentions, the deeper we sink into self...recalling the pain, remembering the perfidy.

This is one where talking it over with a friend (more than once, twice tops) is just keeping our resistance going. Our only hope of heaven is talking it over with God...once, twice tops...and leaving it there. Leaving it there in trust (learning that "in trust" can feel like "in despair"). There. That's the priceless gift in having no more hope...we turn to God. And wait.

In waiting, we learn our first lesson in trusting God: God is never late. He's not on our timetable, but he's never late. Trust that.

Thank You.

GOD POURS OUT FROM AND THROUGH US

They both [Buddha and Jesus] recognized that pain is the only thing strong enough to grab our attention and defeat the ego’s dominance....(I accept the common definition that our suffering is the degree of resistance we have toward our pain). Fr. Richard Rohr, “Daily Meditations,” October 28, 2013.

I was pondering “bless those who curse you…" and realized that, in my mind, those who curse me are those I am resisting for cursing me! Then there are those I am resisting who know me not, but offend me mightily; i.e., Ted Cruz, Rush Limbaugh, et al.

My pain is identical...those I feel are misusing me, bad-mouthing me, mistreating me and those with whom I have no physical contact at all…my pain is the same because it is the same resistance.

Is it all a head trip? It may only be by coming to full blessing in my head, my heart, my belly and my bones that I am healed and that heals them...i.e., stops my obsessing over (resisting) them.

Ah, and I see, said the blind man. It is not all a head trip…it is the decision to bless them that opens the gates to God to pour out from me and through me to do Its cosmic healing.

Thank You.

GOD KNOWS MY NEEDS

Remembering my years of living defensively, I am overwhelmed with joy and gratitude that I was moved from that place. And it all began when I learned my secret to life itself, which is: Go to God for God, seek God for God's sake...not for love, not for power, not for prestige, not for profit.

I walk free in my own head today...except, of course, when I stub my toe and my ego declares it your fault, and I go haring off down that trail.

The good news is that today I know that, too, is doing it right. Why else would I keep digging for still more spiritual growth? I know this to be true because every time I've gotten to a place within where I feel safe, secure, protected, I "stub my toe and my ego declares it your fault, and I go haring off down that trail."

Only when I become willing to and do acknowledge my initial part in the stubbing of my toe, do I realize I've grown just a tish deeper spiritually.

God knows my needs...my wants, not so much. (There, again, a matter for pure gratitude.)

Thank You.

GET GRATEFUL, GET GRACE

I was reminded this morning of how I once was before I learned to love my life. I used to live behind a thin layer of defensiveness, and whatever I was thinking, feeling, doing, being, I had a cover story. And it always ended with "so it's not my fault."

I can't remember when I learned that it is the love of life itself that is our key to happiness.
Until we know and show that we love life itself, we cannot love "those who despitefully use you," or "do good to those who hate you," or "love your neighbor as yourself". We cannot even want to do those things when we're living in our "it's not my fault" world.

It's not my fault, the very words, speak of our willingness to throw our own young under the bus to keep from taking personal responsibility for our faults, our mistakes...or our assets for that matter. It is amazing how hard it is to make a list of our assets (and I'm not saying "long" list...just to jot down 2 or 3, or, ideally, 4). We'd rather stay stuck in seeing Gertrude's defects, Don's bad behavior...or, for that matter, inventorying our mother, our father, our sister, our brother which, of course, is just another way of justifying, of holding onto, our own bad behavior.

But once we make that turn, once we begin the return trip home deeper to our higher consciousness, we find life itself, all life including the nitpicks of our personal journey, to be wondrous, joyful...just fine in a word, and thank you very much.

It all begins with our willingness to upgrade our attitude. Get grateful, get grace.

Thank You.

NECESSARY SUFFERING V. REASONING MIND

Some kind of falling, what I call “necessary suffering,” is programmed into the full journey….It is not that suffering or failure might happen, or that it will only happen to you if you are bad (which is what religious people often think), or that it will happen to the unfortunate, or to a few in other places, or that you can somehow by cleverness or righteousness avoid it. No, it will happen, and to you!...Losing, failing, falling, sin, and the suffering that comes from those experiences—all of this is a necessary and even good part of the human journey. -- Fr. Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," October 9, 2013.

The reasoning mind can never agree to trust God completely if it accepts what Rohr professes as the reality. It is the reasoning mind's contention that the acceptance of  "necessary suffering" would put it out of business, would be its death knell. Its very job is to reason us away from suffering...or at least away from making a mistake, a wrong decision. And its justified plaint is ever, "But what about deciding whether to leave an abusive relationship?" "...whether to put my little dog down?" "...whether to take this job?" "...whether to leave that job? Because God isn't going to, etc., etc., etc."

To ever trust that God does have our back, we begin by making our decision to turn ourselves...bodies, blood, bones and brains...over to the care of God. Then we start by acting as if we do indeed truly trust God. We simply sit and wait and listen, listen, listen. And soon...or soon enough, we don't get to judge that...we find we are being led. We call it intuitively knowing, and we act...to do the right thing or not!

Way too often it seems like the wrong action to our reasoning mind...that's the hook that keeps turning us away from trusting the Voice within. It doesn't give us a reasoning mind-approved answer, or it doesn't answer/act fast enough to allay our fears, so we follow our reasoning mind's urge to do something else...quick.

If we allow ourselves to trust God, we may have trepidation which is OK...that just turns us deeper toward God...but we will no long live in indecisive fear.

Fear not, little children, for indeed I have your back.

Thank You.

AVOIDANCE IS NOT A SPIRITUAL OBJECTIVE

Human beings come to consciousness by struggle, and most especially struggle with God and sacred texts. We largely remain unconscious if we avoid all conflicts, dilemmas, paradoxes, inconsistencies, or contradictions. – Fr. Richard Rohr, “Daily Meditations”

We remain unconscious by trying to avoid all conflicts, etc., because avoidance is not the spiritual objective. The spiritual objective is to make peace with all conflicts, dilemmas, paradoxes...i.e., to divorce ourselves from our own opinions, to detach from our own resistance and learn to be open to a higher way, a selfless way.

What if all our blinding flashes of the obvious are stopped at one place within us, waiting to be released, to flow from us for our benefit and for others?

We cannot release these blinding flashes of the obvious…release is up to our God consciousness which knows when It is ready. We will be released in that instant…but we must stay focused on still more spiritual growth else all these blinding flashes of the obvious will lay fallow, never to be released.

We can, however, keep them from being released by living in our ego-victory reasoning mind (through our own self-determined objectives and such). In which case, I'm guessing, we will have to keep coming back until we get it right. 

Thank You.

LET ME WALK IN BEAUTY

 [The following is a reprint of my blog of October 5, 2009.]

O Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the winds and whose breath gives life to all the world, hear me. I am small and weak. I need your strength and wisdom.

Let me walk in beauty and let my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset. Make my hands respect the things you have made and my ears grow sharp to hear your voice.

Make me wise so that I may understand the things you have taught my people. Let me learn the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock.

I seek strength not to be greater than my brother or sister but to fight my greatest enemy, myself.

Make me always ready to come to you with clean hands and straight eyes so when life fades as the fading sunset my spirit may come to you without shame.

Chief Yellow Lark

SELF-CENTERED EXPECTATIONS

Recently, I read in Eknath Easwaran's Words to Live By, "To live without self-centered expectations is the secret of freedom in personal relationships."

I got stuck at the "self-centered" in "self-centered expectations."

When I first heard of self-centered fear, I despaired...and that was before I even heard its definition, i.e., fear of losing something we have or not getting something we want.

I've come to accept that there is no fear but self-centered fear...a big old 18-wheeler coming right at me is going to cause me fear, and it'll be fear of losing my very life. All the sudden, I understood self-centered fear not as a pejorative, but as a simple description of fear itself.

To my mind "expectations" has a pejorative ring to it. And "self-centered expectations?" Does a double pejorative work the same way as a double negative? Canceling each other out?..am I over-analyzing?

At any rate, I wonder if self-centered expectations aren't like self-centered fear...there's no other kind. And that that is for accepting when (not if) we start running our mind on "what if" and "I hope" or "oh, please." And that would fall under "the human condition."

There's an app for that...we cannot, however, order it through, say, Amazon. It is within, and it is only accessible through still more spiritual growth.

To quote Easwaran again, "It is possible, through the practice of meditation and the other disciplines, to go against these conditioned ways of thinking and actually change ourselves from the inside out."

The starting point is Now...always, ever and forever, consciously bringing our mind back to NOW. There is no "what if" there; there is only here there...but that's getting cutesy, isn't it? Albeit, true.

Thank You.

ON BECOMING TRANSPARENT

To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill. -- Sun Tzu

And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone.... -- Anonymous

Laughter is tremendously healthy. Playfulness is as sacred as any prayer, or maybe more sacred than any prayer, because playfulness, laughter, singing, dancing will relax you. And the truth is only possible in a relaxed state of being. -- Rajneesh

Thank You.

AND GOD FLOWS FORTH

According to Fr Richard Rohr, "We grow spiritually much more by doing it wrong than by doing it right. That might just be the central message of how spiritual growth happens, yet nothing in us wants to believe it."

The really sobering reality is that we all must meet our own personal crucifixion if we are ever to detach from our ego-victory mind...which houses our pathetic belief that we must protect self.

Fear of "doing it wrong" is entirely ego based, and can only put us on that circuitous road to still more ego building. Our own idea of exactly what "doing it right" is becomes our god...there is no God there.

I'm guessing it all comes down...yet again...to trusting our Father within: Live in the Now. Hold your nose and take a leap of faith. Fall flat on your face. Get up. Bitch (we are, after all, human). And...yet again...trust our Father within. Live in the Now, etc., etc., etc.

That may just be this world's road to Calvary. Because with each fall flat on our face, if we do get up, we do move forward...toward God consciousness, away from self consciousness. It is in our decision to get up, that we accept our own personal crucifixion (also known as, I can't, He can, Let Him).

The doors are then open for God to flow out from within...to live our lives.

Thank You.

THE TWO SIDES OF "WHY ME?"

It seems I'm forever hearing how God has three answers to our prayers...those being, yes, no and not yet.

I don't buy it. I believe that's our reasoning mind trying to make God sensible to us. God is not nor will God ever be sensible, reasonable, understandable...It is GOD for God's sake!

We cannot dream what God's answer will be to anything...we cannot fathom the very ways of God. We can only take on faith that his ways are and will be good, beneficial, right, just and merciful...for all concerned.

If, in the end, it does not feel good, beneficial, right, just and merciful, we need to change our mind. For it is never God nor God's ways that are off kilter.

Such a simple act that is required of us. Quite simply we must upgrade our attitude. Divorce ourselves from our own opinion. Acknowledge what is as of God...no matter what is before us. If indeed it is before us, it is of God. There's the hook...seeing what is and not what we perceive it to be.

We must start now in upgrading our attitude, from, say, "Damn...a red light!" to "Thank You for this red light" without trying to justify the red light. It just is. Get grateful.

We need to start this training asap because we never know when something may happen that our reasoning mind is incapable of accepting right off the mark. We'll need all our years of self-discipline to even remember that God's ways are said to be good, beneficial, right, just and merciful...for always and in all ways.

Our answer is always the same: Just say, "Thank You." We get there by upgrading our attitude, which upgrades our problem.

Remember that a pitiful "Why me?" is always an ego trip; a grateful "Why me?" is always of God.

Thank You.

EGO REDUCTION IN DEPTH...STILL

Geez, I crack me up.

I just reread my yesterday's blog, and realized I'd forgotten to make my point about imagining the Big 3 praying for their own petty wants. The reason I was given the fantasy was: That is an impossible picture to imagine!..because each of them did the work of turning self out in order to live from Self. That is why we bow to them, that is why we seek them, that is the whole point!

I've been mentally lecturing various and sundry people on the need to do that which "they" are reading. "They" need to practice the principles, not just read to memorize and get the answer right in class. There is no class! There is only life. Live it...with spiritual principles as our guide.

Whoops...I'm lecturing again. I need to get my own self back to basics. The first basic being I am me, God is God...I Am that I Am and me is not.

Thank You.

PRAY FOR A DEEPER KNOWING

Flight of fantasy: Imagine the Buddha or Jesus or Mohammad praying for himself...himself alone...on bended knee so God would know he was really serious, that he was really, really in need. Picture it: My finances are really shaky and taxes are due. Or I've gained ten pounds and cannot stop eating sweets. Or one of my friends is being a pain to me and needs fixing. All ending with, "Please do for me what I can do for myself...I just don't want to."

That's like holding our breath and begging God for air. Then when we're forced to gasp for air or die, we declare there is no God...because "He sure wasn't there for me when I needed Him." Yet we got our air...it just felt like we had to do it alone.

It is in our connection with, our realization of, a higher power within/without, ever present, and present for our own personal benefit, that our sense of separation is closed...the hole in our soul is filled. That, then, becomes our only prayer...for a deeper knowing that God is.

The way to that realization is the way of praise, of gratitude. "If the only prayer we ever say is 'Thank You.' that will suffice," so said Meister Eckhart.

Thank You.

GRATITUDE AND GRACE

I am reminded this morning of life imitating (so-called) art.

I see Ted Cruz's continuing antics and can't help but remember sometime back...i.e., Charlie Sheen's self-destructive behavior all the while braying, "Winning!" Regrettably, it is not just himself Cruz is bent on destroying.

And this, too, is a dust bunny in the desert to God. Let it be...bless all, wish ill to none, and move my conscious thought to gratitude and grace.

Thank You.

WALKING FREE IN MY OWN HEAD

I have an awful lot of resistance to various people going on in my own head.

It may be that the prettier the words I read and write and study, the uglier my attack thoughts...which makes sense. It's the same old, same old actually.

One coin, two sides, but it's the same coin...ego on one side, spirituality on the other. We cannot live on one side of that coin...we must meet in the middle, living spiritual principles in an unspiritual world. It is in keeping the blend as unselfed as possible that we walk easier in our own head.

My exercise is to show a grateful face mentally to the various people I am resisting...when they are nowhere around me. Then when they walk into my life, that mental gratitude has a chance of showing forth.

That has worked so many times in my past, it is proof of my ego that it is still the last thing I remember to do.

Thank You.

GOD MAY BE RIGHT

The October 14 God Calling has a line, "...realize that in Me you have all, complete forgiveness, complete companionship, complete healing." In 1993 I wrote out beside that, "Exactly my prayer," and now, 20 years later in 2013, I know that is still my only prayer.

Inside, I believe I am already there (and probably was 20 years ago). But walking around? There's not a lot of evidence that I live there. It is that material world pull...the ego-based reasoning mind that can or will only believe itself...and/or in itself.

To paraphrase that great Groucho Marx line, "Who are you going to believe...God or your lying eyes?" Let's face it...our lying eyes are hard to refute.

Again, it is in the willingness that all belief begins. A simple, "God may be right" is all it takes...if we can get beyond feeling so silly in saying that. Sigh.

Thank You.

DETOURS ARE ACCEPTED...ACCORDING TO ME

[Continuing from my yesterday’s BFO; i.e., “It may be that the reasoning mind says be sweet, kind, considerate, lovable and generous to others at all times so others will like us. And fourth dimension thinking says be sweet, kind, considerate, lovable and generous to others at all times because we love others.”]

Going deeper still: “.…to others at all times because there are no others to love: We are One."

We are, therefore, sweet, kind, etc. We don’t “be” sweet, kind, we ARE. There can be no negative emotions…fear, envy, hate…resistance, itself…in the being of love. The human condition does not exist in the fourth dimension.

This may or may not be true in the fourth dimension; it clearly isn't on this plane. And, if true, most of us…me, I…will have to come back a whole lotta lifetimes before I ever live there. But, wow, do I ever love the concept!

And here’s the thing…just because I’ll never get there in this lifetime is no reason not to start now heading in that direction. Because, hey, ANOTHER BFO…I've already started! Any seeking whose objective is away from self, from ego-victory thinking, is on the right path…with however many detours it takes. Detours, apparently, are an accepted part of the journey…at least according to me.

Thank You.

GO TO GOD FOR GOD...A WAY OF LIFE

Some kind of falling, what I call “necessary suffering,” is programmed into [life's] full journey…It is not that suffering or failure might happen, or that it will only happen to you if you are bad (which is what religious people often think), or that it will happen to the unfortunate, or to a few in other places, or that you can somehow by cleverness or righteousness avoid it. No, it will happen, and to you! – Fr. Richard Rohr, Daily Meditations, October 9, 2013

A friend e-mailed me "Ten Guides to Good Human Relations," and, in short, the Guides are: Be sweet, kind, considerate, lovable and generous to all at all times. 

This, to me, is a perfect example of reasoning-mind thinking. The Guides are good, true and necessary, but if we stay/live in this consciousness, and succeed to any extent at all, we will become parodies of righteousness...self-righteous in a hyphenated word. For humans cannot sustain consistently this way of life by our good intentions (self-will) alone, and any minor success bars our ever thinking to go deeper to a higher consciousness. We just try harder to do what we keep proving we cannot do.

It is in failing to maintain that we get to the "necessary suffering" that sends us to God...repeatedly. It is going to God for God...repeatedly...that transmutes the "guides" into a way of life. 

Thank You.

[BFO:  It may be that the reasoning mind says be sweet, kind, considerate, lovable and generous to others at all times so others will like us. And fourth dimension thinking says be sweet, kind, considerate, lovable and generous to others at all times because we love others.]

MOVING FORWARD AND DETOURS

….people addicted to their own mind will find contemplation most difficult, if not impossible. Much that is called thinking is simply the ego’s stating of what it prefers and likes—and resistance to what it does not like. Narcissistic reactions to the moment are not worthy of being called thinking. Yet that is much of our public and private discourse. -- Fr. Richard Rohr

I believe that the biggest impediment to any spiritual growth is the fear of making a mistake. It is pretty much a given that we come to God not by our perfection but by our imperfection. The more "perfect" we see ourselves, or even aim to see ourselves, the more certain it is that our ego is our mirror...there is no God in human perfection. 

The trouble is that few of us truly seek still more spiritual growth in our walking-around world. When we're dealing with that mean girl Joan or that horse's patoot Joe, our ego-victory reasoning mind is in control and on parade.

In truth, we only seek still more spiritual growth when we're in our morning quiet time or sharing our high-flying thoughts with others. Truly seeking to give over to another who has wronged us, or snubbed us, or snickered at us...especially in our mind as we're going to sleep that night...now, that's seeking still more spiritual growth. 

It's all about changing our mind...not to better, prettier, happier thoughts. No (but that is not a bad thing). We exchange our reasoning mind for a higher state of consciousness. That's a within matter of subtraction rather than addition...letting go rather than holding on. 

Divorcing ourselves from our own opinions is a good first step. Learning to "Just say No" to our own self, our own opinions, likes, preferences, is a life-long journey no matter when we start, I'm guessing. 

The good news is we start the journey the instant we seek help...from anybody for anything! We will have detours up the gump-stump, but we will have started our journey. Life itself will slap us around enough to keep us going in the right direction. According to me.

Thank You.

NO ALTERNATIVE SITUATION

We seek still more spiritual growth not for knowledge of God but for the realization of God.

Those who read spiritual works, memorize spiritual passages, just to quote by rote are worshiping their own mind...showing off what they have learned in order to impress. That's the ego-based reasoning mind and it is what's called "doing your alms in public." It may lead to spiritual arrogance, although it often leads to the exact opposite...to self-doubt, self-hate...all the "selfs." We know what we're showing forth is just spiritual frou-frou. Even with the purest of intentions, we know ourselves to be phony...and so does everybody else, not to mention God.

When we learn a spiritual principle, it is simply pretty words until we prove that spiritual principle in our walking around world. Not by telling others...that'll never get us there. It's pretty much by others telling us what they observe in our lives which may even come as a surprise to us.

I'm of the belief that the one thing that holds us back...that impedes our spiritual growth...more than anything else is the fear of making a mistake. Not just in spiritual growth but in any and all things. Fear of taking a forward action...uh-oh, that may be a backward action in disguise...better not move at all. And we stay stuck...stuck in our own indecision...our own self.

At some point, we do have to put all our learning into practice...shut-up and move out. Out from self...out from fear of self. According to Goethe, once we make our decision, then providence moves too: "All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred."

Again with the Nike, "Just do it." Or, equally effective, "Hold your nose and take a leap of faith." Because, if we are to grow, there is no alternative.

Thank You.

THE PATH OF UNKNOWING

Why do we continue to fear failure...to fear even making a mistake? Probably because making a mistake proves we are not in control...it is clearly a loss of control. 

Yet, all spiritual growth is about ceding control...giving over...giving up...in despair usually, but in despair or not, it doesn't matter. 

I'm guessing it is near impossible for the ego-centered reasoning mind to consciously give up control to an unseeable, untouchable...in short, unknown...force, and not feel despair...or at least pea-green purple petrified.

Underneath it all, that is acceptance, and the nature of acceptance, stripped to the bone, is surrender. Surrender is the realization that the reasoning mind cannot help us here...or ever really get us there. ("There," the place we need to be...need being of God, want being of self.) 

Holding our nose and taking a leap of faith is consciously going for the path of unknowing...the way of all still more spiritual growth.

Thank You.

SPONTANEOUS INSIGHT

All my ALL is within me now...the only way to access It is to give it away...offer it up!!!...I never understood that phrase...offer it up and let it go, whoever gets it, up to and including Manson, good on 'em...not mine, God's. If I don't have it within me where do I go to get it??

There is no out there...there is only within...we can only access our Father within by letting go, giving It forth, holding onto nothing...we are One not with God but as God...the Father and I are one....

Thank You.

GOD MAKING DEMANDS ON GOD

The thought passed my mind that a dear friend or a mortal enemy exhibiting rude or unkind behavior toward me requires my not attaching to the behavior but to my holding to the thought that his soul is the same as mine, that her being and mine are one...one with God.

My second thought: I know that to be true, but I'm nowhere near proving it, as in walking it consistently without thought.

Third thought...I suspect that this is what Goldsmith means when he writes that demands made on us are God's demands made on God...and he has already fulfilled his demand. It is not mine to strive for, to attempt to get, it is mine to accept...loose my grip on my "want" and accept my "need" as fulfilled.

What makes that so hard to do is my reasoning mind's picture of what it should look like, and to my reasoning mind, it should look like my want.

Loose it and let it go.

Thank You.

THE ONE GREAT SIN

More suffering comes into the world by people taking offense than by people intending to give offense. -- Ken Keyes

That is one of the most profound things I've ever heard...at least to my thinking right this minute.

I was laughing at myself this morning, over a self-pitying thought I'd just had, and I considered sharing it with a friend. Fortunately, God, or something like it, spoke in my ear, and said, "She'll take that personally."  And I knew it to be true.

It had nothing to do with her in reality, it did have to do with a single thought of mine about her, and the thought did not show me in best light. That's why it was so funny. But I was gifted with a glimpse of how it could (likely, would) play out, and just had to grin.

I had to grin because the reason I knew how it would likely play out is that is exactly how I c/would react under the same conditions. Ego would tell me there had to be a less-than-wonderful reason I was being told this, and POW...hurt/anger/justified resentment full-blown born.

We're often advised not to think too much, and that is excellent advice...but we must learn to think first before we act, before we speak. And the thinking is about the other...the other to whom we're speaking or with whom we're interacting.

The one great (possibly only, according to me) sin is to give a resentment, to cause a resentment. It is almost a surety that the resentment we cause is the resentment we're holding toward that one, knowingly or un...for aren't resentments always directed outward?

Having thought it through, my little self-pitying thought this morning was, in truth, an itch for a resentment toward my friend's inaction toward me! She'd done nothing, and I was itching to resent that. Now that is funny...but only to you and me. She need never know.

Thank You.

THE PARADOX

Real peace begins and ends with our being other-oriented. Inner peace begins with self-acceptance so that we can be other-oriented...that's the paradox.

If we cannot or will not accept ourselves just as we know ourselves to be, we cannot in truth accept others just as we perceive them to be. Any part of us that we do not accept, we will see in others. We will resist it, name it them and believe it to be the reason we cannot accept them.

And we can never fully accept ourselves just as we are by relying on our reasoning mind alone. Our reasoning mind is driven by ego, and ego always legislates for itself. We must go beyond reason to a higher power.

We are driven by need to seek a power greater than ourselves...wants are of self, needs are of God. So we are driven by God to seek God.

In short: Get over ourselves and love the next person in our line of resistance.

Thank You.

WORDS TO LIVE BY

Don't take life so serious, son, it ain't nohow permanent. - Pogo

Thank You.

KARMA DOES NOT PLAY FAVORITES

Uncommon valor was a common virtue - Iwo Jim Memorial

We call our Marines' actions "virtue," i.e., God's will; yet the actions of Al Qaeda on 9/11 were clearly evil self-will. To God, what is the difference?

I wondered as I thought that this morning if I dared blog it. I immediately thought, and what does that say about my understanding of the state of America today?

Now here comes the government shut-down...members of the Tea Party spoke of their determination to shut the government down upon arriving here in 2010. And they have.

Then they learned that meant all government facilities, including the WWII Memorial so the WWII veterans who were brought here to visit their memorial could not legally do that. Several members of the Tea Party immediately got themselves on television to inveigh against a government that would so heartlessly shut down the government, thus mistreating its veterans.

The Tea Party will go one step too far...they will fail in their mission. They will learn, as we all must, that karma does not play favorites.

Our bad behavior is what bites us in the butt. It is not the Tea Party, it is not Ted Cruz, it is not Al Qaeda, it is not Gertrude Gangelhoffer. It is not them...it is us. And I feel right righteous on seeing that...and so clearly!

We have met the enemy and he is us. - Pogo

Thank You.

The name "Westboro Baptist Church" just flashed in my brain like a neon sign. Rats. And thank You.

GOD GUIDES, NOT GUARDS

My morning’s blinding flash of the obvious: (From Fr. Richard Rohr's morning meditation on "the Risen Christ") The Risen Christ is the Christ within me when i am transformed: I Am the Risen Christ.

Pondering that: The Risen Christ is me, it is we as we go through ego reduction in depth to our highest place, the center of our being...where our single purpose in living is to become unselfed, for the benefit of others.

Geez, I have such beautiful thoughts when I’m sitting in the silence. Then I read a note I wrote in my “God Calling” on this date in 1989 (and I have no idea who first said it, but tell me it’s not God calling to me this very instant): “We teach best that which we need to learn.”

That fits me so well today…too well today. My ego-victory thoughts have been swamped with Gertrude and how I must set her straight…she is not doing it right, and somebody needs to tell her, and I wanna be the one, so there.

There it is. That’s the me I need to love…not the one who is blessed with pretty thoughts (for which I am grateful), but the self-willed one who knows better but hasn't yet learned…no, hasn't yet fully learned unto living those thoughts.

I take comfort in knowing that God has my back. If he didn't, I wouldn't know when I start down that wrong road again. He’s guiding me…not guarding me, I still have free will…but he is guiding me. So that when I start down that wrong road again, he nudges me back…like, to little notes written by me in 1989.

Thank You.

NON-RESISTANCE, A.K.A., SELF-ACCEPTANCE

I can read, study, ponder righteous stuff till my face falls off, but until I accept myself just as I am feeling criticized for being, I will know no peace. I will blame you, I will inventory you, I will pick up mud and sling it in my own face…at you.

It is a hard fact but invariably true that the criticism I am hearing from you is self-criticism…it is in my hearing, in my interpretation of what I am hearing, wherein my problem lives.

We get upset with her. We fuel our upset by obsessing over what we need to say/do/think/be to correct him...to change them. Therein lies our Velcro, our (aptly named) Crazy Glue. Our freedom is 100% in our accepting the self that we are hearing criticized...which brings the understanding that acceptance does not make it true or untrue. We are simply not resisting the criticism as we hear it...and naming it "You."

Wherever people differ from you and aren't shy about letting you know it, don't run away. Move closer to them. (Eknath Easwaran, "Words to Live By," October 1.) There. That is non-resistance, a.k.a., self-acceptance.

Thank You.