KISS THE FROG...RIGHT ON THE LIPS

The lowest level of consciousness is entirely dualistic (win/lose)—me versus the world and basic survival….The higher levels of consciousness are more and more able to deal with contradictions, paradoxes, and all Mystery (win/win). This is spiritual maturity. -- Fr Richard Rohr, “Daily Meditations,” November 30, 2013.

It is moving from the dualistic win/lose to the spiritual maturity of win/win that takes time, discipline, willingness…ego reduction in depth, in short.

The eye-opener is when we realize that we will not get there by striving, working for, trying harder…no. We will (or not!*) get there by letting go, detaching, shucking our shields, holding our nose and taking a leap of faith. This is also known as practicing the Sermon in all our affairs; i.e., "turn the other cheek, agree with your adversary quickly, resist not evil." We have given up fighting everything and everybody.

*Ah, the “or not,” the trickiest part…or it is for me. It is when we make “getting” this spiritual maturity, this win/win consciousness, our goal, our God if you will, that we lose the spiritual mind and fall back into the reasoning mind for we now have a self-determined objective...for self. We forget that we are in it, not to win it, but to give it.

We are reminded that we go to God for God…that is all. 

Whatever God imparts (which is already within us), like the fragrance of a lily of the valley, flows forth without our efforts. How could one through human effort make a lily of the valley smell so sweet...or smell at all? Same way one produces love…open to the scent already there, give to others that which is already ours. In other words, sniff the air, kiss the frog.

Thank you. 

YOU DON'T...GOD DOES...LET IT

"You need not aspire for or get any new state. Get rid of your present thoughts, that is all." -- Ramana Maharshi

To be graced with God consciousness, "it is necessary to transcend thought." -- Joel Goldsmith

Both of those quotes point to the toughy that we all come to at some point if we are sincerely seeking still more spiritual growth. It's the one that asks, "Would you rather be happy or would you rather be right?"

Almost without fail our first answer is, "Both!" Which, of course, means "Right," not only because right makes us happy, but it represents "winner" or, at least, "not loser." Which is our ego's only theme.

Regrettably, right is the wrong answer...if indeed still more spiritual growth is our goal. According to me, the hardest thing life is ever going to ask of us is that we change our mind...and it's never harder than here.

The quiet truth is that there is no spiritual growth in advancement of self, protection of self, self period. Our ego has that covered, and nothing does it better. It succeeds beyond our wildest dreams when we wind up with yet another broken relationship, yet another lost job, yet another shot-myself-in-the-back-of-the-head. Wondering still, how did that happen? Praying, "Please God relieve me of the bondage of self."

And that's when we're making progress! It takes a long time to not wind up with a hole in the back of our head, wondering why/how the other one could be so wrong and so blind about it, too.

I'm of the belief that "right" is of the ego-based reasoning mind, "happy" is of the spiritually based mind.

There are times, many times, when we must rely on the reasoning mind in order to make good orderly decisions. Get up or call in sick...again? The et ceteras of daily life.

Those times are not when we're in a "discussion" with another human being. And we're not being listened to, we're being ignored, if only he'd hear me out, she'd see my point and agree with me...never at those times. Those are the times we say to ourselves, "S/He may be right" and leave the ego's arena. Not to fight another day, but to sit in the silence and ponder: How do I change my mind when I am right?

You don't...God does. Let It.

Thank you.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

 A Thanksgiving Blessing by Joyce Rupp

May an abundance of gratitude burst forth

as you reflect upon what you have received.

May thanksgiving overflow in your heart,

and often be proclaimed in your prayer.

May you gather around the table of your heart

the ardent faithfulness, kindness, and goodness

of each person who is true to you.

May the harvest of your good actions

bring forth plentiful fruit each day.

May you discover a cache of hidden wisdom

among the people and events

that have brought you distress and sorrow.

May your basket of blessings surprise you

with its rich diversity of gifts

and its opportunities for growth.

May all that nourishes and resources your life

bring you daily satisfaction and renewed hope.

May you slow your hurried pace of life

so that you can be aware of, and enjoy,

what you too easily take for granted.

May you always be open, willing,

and ready to share your blessings with others.

May you never forget the Generous One

who loves you lavishly and unconditionally.

-- from Out of the Ordinary

[I received the above blessing from a beloved friend and knew it must be shared. Happy Thanksgiving. Thank you.]

AND THE BEAT GOES ON

There have been days of rain, gray unending around here. This is the time I know to find the gold...seek the light. There was a time when nothing would sink my spirits quicker than a gray day. I am so grateful that I've learned I have a choice...whatever is happening, or appears to be happening, I have a choice in my response to it.

Sunk spirits or light and laughter?...choose ye this day. The gray day is, let it be. We find the light within. In order to do that, we turn our thoughts away from the rain, the gray, and we just envision sunshine, roses, laughter....

OR:  Batkid in the City...and the citizens of the City of Love still bringing it! I can live on that if I live to be 200. All of us who left our hearts in San Francisco sure saw them put to good use, didn't we? I joyed in the fact that my heart was right there with them for him...ah, the beat goes on!

Days of rain, gray unending...pish-tosh! I've got my glory days...1967, the summer of love...alive in my heart again.

Thank you.

LIVING IN GOD'S LIGHT

Oh divine Master, grant that I may seek to comfort rather than seek to be comforted, to understand rather than to be understood, to love rather than to be loved. -- from the Prayer of Saint Francis

If those three things were our only goals in life, we would be successful beyond our wildest dreams even if we lived in a two-room walk-up, dependent on the generosity of others and the Food Bank.

This is one I fairly well know to be true from my growing-up experience. My grandparents lived up a "holler" in Kentucky. Neither was educated beyond grade school, my grandfather farmed the rocky land, my grandmother did all else...with ten children to boot.

She knew all about the seasons, as in planting, when to reap and when to sow, when to slaughter the hogs, shear the sheep [they didn't have sheep...just saying]. She didn't learn any of that from a book, this was lore passed down. She couldn't say how she knew what precise amounts of cloves or dill or mint, etc., to put in whatever she was canning but her pickles, her beets...ah, to die for.

But her one inner desire was to please God, and she knew that we only please God by, her words,  "doing right by others." She did not seek to be comforted...she was as comfortable as she wanted to be; she did not seek to be understood...that'd be a concept totally unfamiliar to her; she did not seek to love or to be loved, she just loved and was loved, no seeking about it.

Materially, she did not have two extra pennies to bless herself with; spiritually she lived in God's light. There. That is the pearl of great price.

Thank you.

OBTW...do wrong to one of her kids, and stand back!...a mama grizzly could takes notes.

UNEXPLAINABLE BY REASON

I was held back by mere trifles, the most paltry inanities, all my old attachments. They plucked at my garments of flesh and whispered: 'Are you going to dismiss us? From this moment we shall never be with you again, forever and ever. From this moment you will never again be allowed to do this thing, or that, for evermore.' -- Saint Augustine

If it weren't for the fact that this is a saint confessing, I'd be embarrassed at how much I can still identify with his experience. My ego whispers, "You're very much like a saint," and God laughs. I still kinda preen...who's kidding whom?

But isn't that the most perfect description of our thinking when we desperately want to quit thinking, feeling, doing, being, eating, drinking, smoking, snorting, shooting, sniffing?...and the list goes on. Here's the paradox: Wanting to doesn't count...until we do it. Then we realize that it is the wanting to that is the first step. We just wouldn't accept that the first step is all about crashing and burning. Which is the right (only?) road to freedom from self.

And today I'm only talking about judging others! But it's always the same process...ego dies hard, and I am ever my cross to bear.

It's no wonder our reasoning mind will never get us there...it is unexplainable by reason. Only still more spiritual light can clarify it and that light comes from within. It lights our path and leads us out of our own way.

Thank you.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

Here's an I-wish-it-weren't-so quote: "The grace of God sometimes comes in the form of sorrow."

Making it mine thought: "We need to make wise choices every moment just to keep from being swept away." The brain-buster is realizing the speaker was referring to foods. In fact, we must make wise choices especially as to whether to take anything personally or not. Not is the wise answer, but the doing, the choosing, is where the spiritual work begins...just begins.

Then there's: "[Like the fragrance from a flower] love from within us radiates towards everybody and manifests as spontaneous service." Spontaneous service. Every time I go back and reread that entire quote, I'm struck by those two words. For they are the perfect description of getting out of our own way, letting go and letting God. Spontaneous means without forethought...or it does to me, and I'm not looking it up in the dictionary. Love as "spontaneous service" has no "me" attached...it's purely God flowing  from his container, me, you, each and all of us. It begins when we connect with our core, God, infinity on the head of a pin, our center, love.

Thank you.

ON ROACHES AND RESENTMENTS

I'm of the belief that those who don't or won't believe in God simply have an ego problem. Happiness is all about ego reduction in depth, according to me. I'll never ace that course, but I know the right answer, and I aspire to do it. That answer, of course -- "Others...for the benefit of others."

Here are a few of the things I've heard that help me remember that all I need do is get over myself:

• You know you're not in the now when the one you're talking to is not in the room.
• Message to be taped to the bathroom mirror: "You are looking at the problem."
• The recorded message on a friend's answering machine: "It's not them."
• Silent reminder to self about one you're resisting: "S/He may be right."
• The only way to do your inventory wrong is if you come out the victim.
• The hardest thing life is ever going to ask of you is to change your mind.

That last one is particularly important because the need is not to change our mind in order to agree with whomever we're resisting. No...for we both may be wrong. The need is to open our mind to God...to get a perspective from a higher consciousness altogether.

The fact is if we don't believe in a power greater than ourselves, by whatever name we choose to call it, we're going to be purely peeved...a lot. Ego always legislates for itself...each walking around ego is legislating for itself, and somebody's is going to lose. Resentment aborning. 

The only thing harder to get rid of than roaches is a resentment...don't let either in to begin with which takes our sincere cooperation with a power greater than ourselves...else roaches would have been eradicated long ago and resentments wouldn't STILL be our number one offender.

Thank you.

I REMEMBER...AND WEEP STILL

As are so many Americans right now, I'm remembering fifty years ago this day...the assassination of President Kennedy. The unspeakable horror, the unimaginable...blank. I just draw a blank...my feelings back then refuse to be categorized.

I do remember I followed others out of the office into the streets of Los Angeles. People were just milling around, and here came the Los Angeles Times with its Extra, along with the Herald Examiner (I think was its name...now gone, of course).

I remember at first we only knew he had been shot, and there was a low-murmuring which I finally recognized as prayers, and several of us headed for a church...any church...to pray. My prayer was that he live, and then that he not be incapacitated. I don't really remember, but I don't think I prayed for America, maybe not until I witnessed on live television Lee Harvey Oswald being shot before the entire watching world.

I do distinctly remember, as if it were now, standing on a street corner crying. An older black woman was standing next to me, and she, too, was crying. We were talking to each other...just words, not whole intelligent sentences..."Why?" and "Horrible" and "Please" just fell from our lips.

Then she said to me (and this is the indelible now-feeling memory): "You're crying for yourself; you should be crying for me. You're young...you may see his like again. I'm old...I never will." And we hugged and sobbed.

I thought of her the night of President Obama's first presidential win...I thought of her and cried again, this time in joy.

Thank you.

TAKE COMFORT IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

I'm in the middle of my yoga exercises (my first-thing every morning discipline), and I find my attack thoughts going after my sister with the news of the unexpected gift to me from our mother's estate, which was a sum of money. I mentally remind my sister of the dirty trick she played on Mom shortly before she passed having to do with Mom's memory. I let my sister know that the gift was designated for me alone, which it was, and the reason was no doubt payback for the dirty trick which my sister thought Mom hadn't been alert enough to figure out. I know my sister, the atheist whose god is money, would ask how many dollars, and my gleeful punch line: "You don't want to know."

How mean is that? Can I tell you I love it? At least there's no doubt that "Get thee behind me, Satan" is all about my own self.

Whoa! It is now a short time after I wrote the above, and I just read my today's Easwaran, the last line of which is, "Love means that regardless of what someone does to us, we will not strike back in anger." I had written out to the side, dated 2006, "Get thee behind me, Satan."

No one will ever mistake me for a quick study, but I take comfort in the proof that I'm still heading in the right direction.

Thank you.

DECISION BASED ON SELF

That which makes sense to me may be whoo-whoo to ten other people. God's personal gift to me is that I no long feel the need to convince the ten other people...or any one of the ten...that that which makes sense to me is right. It simply is...if only for me.

Ponder this: I'm of the opinion that I made a decision before conception for my entire life, and every fact and act in and of my life from then to now stems from and was/is in support of that decision.

So that every event of our lives happened by invitation only, based on a decision we made on our behalf while we were still in the before-conception spiritual consciousness pool. As we came into the world, we selected every single fact and act that would happen in our lives in support of that decision.

As we come to understand that everything happens by invitation only, our rues, regrets and remorses are transmuted. We can finally realize why that which causes us regrets seemed like a good idea to begin with. This is the first step toward ownership of our own lives.

But wait...there's more: Since we made our decision before conception, that means with God, within God consciousness. So that God is and has been with us every step of our way...we just never thought to turn to him first as we were carrying out our decision.

Here again, I'm of the opinion that we never thought to turn to God first because we knew God legislates for all...ego legislates for self. If we turn to God first, we're probably going to need to let someone else go first, get over on us, win. We made a decision based on self that later placed us in a position to be hurt.

Thank you.

FLYING HIGH...AND SPLATTERING

I'm reading some really high-flown spiritual material, and I'm underlining in red, highlighting in yellow, putting exclamation points out to the side in green...I am flying.

I put my head back to rest and to ponder all this, and my first thought? My very first thought is that I've got to tell Gertrude how wrong she is, how disrespectful not only to me but to blahblahblah. It was, or it felt like, an hour before I caught myself...before I reined my thoughts in and brought them back to reality. The reality that God is ever with me and so is my ego.

The good news...no, the great news...is, that God loves me so much he encourages me to laugh at myself. My ego? Not going to happen, not only no....

"Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they shall never cease to be amused." 

Thank you.

MY PEACE I GIVE TO YOU

[The following is a reprint of my blog of February 25, 2012.]

My brother died when he was 12 years old…I was 10, my sister was 13. He died of a tumor on the brain and tubercular meningitis.

Paul was the center of our family…we each considered him “my best” friend and/or child, and we paid little, if any, attention to each other. None of us in our singular grief could understand God’s purpose in calling him home…at age 12 yet. But this was a long time ago, and families did not question God out loud then…or families in my neighborhood at any rate.

A very few years later, I was given an insight, a gift of understanding. In the short time since my brother’s death, my sister and I had become good friends…my father doted on us as did my mother. One day, in a blinding flash of the obvious, I had a mental image of my brother as a sort of May pole…as he was lifted up into heaven, the tie to my sister, the tie to my father, the tie to my mother, the tie to me drew us together. We had become a family unit.

That gave me peace, and I never questioned it.

In dealing with another grief recently, I realized that although that picture had given me peace, it did not answer why my brother had to die so young and in such a painful manner.

My thoughts immediately kicked into raceracerunrun…why?why?why?

Again I was given an insight: None of us have any way of knowing another’s God-path. Paul lived and died as he lived and died. I simply get to accept the peace I was given in the certainty that God was the giver, and it is, therefore, reasonable to assume that Paul was given the same peace…then in the midst of his illness and now.

Thank You.

20-20 VISION, WALKING 'ROUND BLIND

Loving means to love that which is unlovable,

Or it is no virtue at all.

Forgiving means to pardon the unpardonable,

Faith means believing the unbelievable,

And hoping means to hope when things are hopeless.

-- G. K. Chesterton

So live with Me, in that Kingdom of Joy, My Kingdom, the Gateway into which may be service, it may be suffering. -  "God Calling," November 17

Twenty-twenty vision, walking 'round blind. -- from an old country love song

The desire to love and be loved is the human condition, according to me. The trouble is the human condition is based in the human mind, meaning driven by ego and adverse to surrender...to anything not of its own understanding and/or approval.

Love, like God, cannot be fully understood by our reasoning mind. Check the "God Calling" quote again. It says quite clearly the gateway into the kingdom of God (which we're told is nothing more nor less than love) may be service, may be suffering...who when she's thinking "I want to love and be loved" is thinking "service" much less "suffering"?

"Twenty-twenty vision, walking 'round blind"...we must go beyond the reasoning mind to love, i.e., to the kingdom of God.

Thank you.

BLESS THEM, CHANGE ME...AGAIN

[The following is a reprint of my blog of February 28, 2012.]

A couple of quick thoughts that I read this morning really caught my attention. The first was just four words: “fascinated by our sins” and the other, “the attainment of a merciful heart.”

Each of these was personal to me…”fascinated by our sins” spoke of my, back in the day, getting bogged down in my rues, regrets and remorses. I would never have put that label on it because “fascinated” has such a glitzy sound to me…like, something good I’m seeing or experiencing. I am reminded of the snake…is it the cobra?…that the story says holds one in thrall in order to strike…and kill. Which pretty much describes getting bogged down in regrets. Caught up in a fascination of my sins leads to a deadening…a deadening of spirit, mind, want to…want to do anything but mull those regrets.

The other, “the attainment of a merciful heart,” spoke to my today’s focus…finding understanding within me for Rush [Limbaugh] and Franklin [Graham]. The quote is attributed to Isaac of Syria who said, in part, that the attainment of a merciful heart comes from constantly offering prayers with tears for the enemies of truth.

I felt both comforted and electrified by the words “with tears.” I doubt Isaac meant that the way I’m experiencing it, but for today I've got to believe that the tears are for my inability to move off of my resistance to those two. I still just have a strong desire to smack them.

Bless them, change me…sigh.

Thank you.

ON GOING BEYOND REASONING

Friends and enemies merge into the one Self, and that Self is the God-Self appearing as infinite individuality...as an infinity of people and things. -- Joel Goldsmith, "The Heart of Mysticism," p. 760.

To realize oneness...all there is is One...we must realize the universality of God. When we realize that God and I are one, all enemies (and friends) disappear, melding into the One.

It is the ego-based reasoning mind that resists the very concept of oneness. Its need to feel unique, special, important, better than you in a word, will ever question the very idea that oneness is even a desirable thing.

The person stuck in the reasoning mind, self-identified as "analytical," will argue endlessly, not until he understands the proposition, but until she approves it. And the ego-victory mind can never approve giving over its power to an unseen, unprovable power...or just plain giving over. It will fight until three days after the last dog is dead.

We must go beyond reason to love.

Thank You.

SLOW DOWN

A friend tells me that we talk about two years ahead of where we are. I hope that is true because what I talk and what I walk are sometimes in two different centuries...no, in truth, that's a feeling not a fact. Sometimes it just feels like two different centuries. So if it's only two years...hooray!

I am reminded of a wise old man I knew some 40 years ago who was forever saying, "The most spiritual thing you're ever going to do is slow down." I, of course, thought he was full of it and sped away from him.

But I never forgot that, and it may well have been two years before I realized that as truth...whatever we are speeding to get...or to lose...becomes our god of the moment. We are 100% focused on that self-determined objective...probably praying, "Please, God, help me get/get away from this that I have determined is necessary to my life."

Be patient. The path of self-discipline that leads to God-realization is not an easy path: obstacles and sufferings are on the path; the latter you must bear, and the former overcome -- all by His help. His help comes only through concentration. Repetition of God's name helps concentration. -- Swami Ramdas

Thank you.

THIS TOO SHALL PASS

We honor that which we resist by giving it presence...it is nothing, it has no power nor presence except that which we give it by resisting it. And that only in our own mind.

I awoke this morning saying, "Resist nothing." And I immediately thought of three different people I am resisting because they are wrong (and disrespectful into the bargain) and I am right (and being very decent about it…according to me at any rate).

I then thanked God that he knows my needs. Out loud I said "Yes...yes to each of the three, and I invite them each to be exactly and to do precisely what they are being and doing according to my judging eyes so that I can, with you, overcome my own self that I am seeing in them."

I then picked up my Goldsmith, "The Heart of Mysticism," and at pages 756-757, I read: It is a constant remembrance that 'This too shall pass,' and then...carrying on one's affairs in the realization that whatever the name or nature of the 'this,' it will pass, not by any concerted effort of our own...but by virtue of the nothingness of this 'it' which we have been honoring by fighting.

That's it! I honor that which I resist by giving it presence. It is nothing; it has no power nor presence except that which I give it by resisting it. And that only in my own mind.

God loves me so much.

Thank you.

RETURN TO OUR DECISION...REPEATEDLY

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

My BFO: Staying power - the only thing that determines personal staying power is our own willingness...even when there is no desire.

The big whoop is learning that the willingness is not to stay with our own idea of what we believe we need. No. The key is to be willing to open our mind...to admit that although we know what it is we want, we do not know what it is we need. 

The fact is that deciding what it is we actually want takes a lot of pondering. Once we can make a decision as to what it is we want, then we let God do his perfect work in and through us. The other big whoop, is that what we get is often not be what we thought we wanted...but we will know that it is exactly what we need.

God can and will intervene in our lives in our behalf...it is just that the reasoning mind doesn't always recognize God's perfect work right off. That's when our staying power comes in...we rest in our admission of utter defeat and...repeatedly...return to our decision to let go and let God.

Thank You.

FORGIVENESS...GRACE RELEASED

My morning's blinding flash of the obvious: We will never know peace until we let go of our personal sense of right and wrong.

Our personal sense of right and wrong is our petty fears...not getting or losing ours, someone getting over on us, getting unfairly slapped down (has there ever been a "fairly slapped down"?)...any one of which, when we're in the midst of it, is our God. We focus totally on it and will not allow ourselves to know peace until we win or it loses.

More important to me today, though, in knowing peace is the fact that we lose, or never build on, our childhood sense of wonder at life itself. To me, that is simply encouraging our own intuition to blossom, to grow. It seems we are "sore afraid" of our own intuitive sense.

I have discovered that I am a very intuitive person. I like to think of myself as the Grandma Moses of spiritual growth...meaning I am unlearned, self-taught, simplistic..."no frills," in fact. But early on I intuitively knew a truth that set me on the spiritual path of my life. I relied on that and it has never failed me.

I also learned, however, to check myself out...because at first we can't be sure if we're getting God's word or our own wishing/dreading thinking. We learn to build on our intuitive thoughts, nourish them with spiritual readings, take careful first steps at trusting them...until we get that click-click, and we know.

We spend way too much time trying to rid ourselves of our uglies while ignoring God's pearl within. I'm convinced that it is within our intuitive sense that the capacity to forgive lives. It for sure doesn't live in the reasoning mind...or in my reasoning mind at any rate. I have never been able to think my way into forgiving any person even associated with my personal sense of being wronged.

I have forgiven, however, and even wondered how I got so blessed as to give that. Of course it was, of course it is, grace. Grace released and blessing the forgiver and the forgiven, and I am grateful.

Thank You.

THE BEST: EGO REDUCTION IN DEPTH

Both "God Calling" and Eknath Easwaran today are about resisting, the need to resist wrong...to overcome, conquer, wrong.

Easwaran - We need to be able to recognize wrong desires and resist them.

"God Calling" -  Whatever it is must be surmounted, overcome....Do not let a difficulty conquer you. You must conquer it.

Both seem to spit in the face of the one claiming, "Resist not evil," and "We have given up fighting anything and anybody." "Seem" is the word to pay attention to there.

They are both right, they just don't go all the way through to the farthest side where we find that rising to conquer is, in fact, surrendering. All through the rest of both books is the same theme of giving up to win, ceding our ego-power to God-power.

It is that our reasoning mind gets first crack and generally goes the way of the ego, which is always in it to win it, and thus does not like "We have given up fighting" one little bit. However, when we slow our thoughts down to think it through, we recognize that this advice is the first paragraph in the "How To" book of life.

This is the paragraph where we make our decision to conquer through another way than the way we've lived so far; i.e., by our ego-based reasoning mind.

Again, per "God Calling," Remember that life's difficulties and troubles are not intended to arrest your progress, but to increase your speed. You must call new forces, new powers into action.

Easwaran goes on to quote St. Teresa of Avila: We can only learn to know ourselves and do what we can -- namely, surrender our will and fulfill God's will in us.

I believe, as so many spiritual leaders teach, that we win by giving up. Giving up self-determined objectives to be precise. We must let go to get...let go of the good to get the better...let go of the better to get the best. This is also known as "ego reduction in depth."

Thank You.

TRUDGING THE ROAD

A human being is part of the whole, called by us 'universe,' a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest -- a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. -- Albert Einstein

In Paul’s letter to the Colossians we have the premier texts of the evolving concepts of the Cosmic Christ: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation” (Colossians1:15). Did you get that? The firstborn of all creation! So what happened in him, and what it means to be born again, is to be born into this new experience. He was the firstborn and we are the second-born. “For in him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth” (Colossians1:16). Here we have the Cosmic Christ. He is not just saving “human beings.” But all of Creation is included—Earth, birds, and animals, too. Now we have a truly Cosmic Christ. Now we have a notion of salvation that includes everybody and everything that exists on this planet. Finally history coheres and “in him all things hold together” (Colossians1:17) – Fr Richard Rohr, “Daily Meditations,” July 1, 2013

To me, these two separate quotes say in essence the same thing...Einstein, from the material world; Rohr's quote of Paul, from the spiritual world. They both state quite clearly, to me at any rate, that there is only one mind, one world, one concept, One...and as long as we chose to live in our own idea of me AND you, right AND wrong, good AND bad, we will live in our own world of resistance to reality.

When I say they both state quite clearly to me, I do not mean I therefore walk, talk, eat and breath that which I can understand "quite clearly." No...I can understand from my eyebrows up. The walking it, the as-I-breath consciousness is slooow slogging...but I give myself points that I'm heading in the right direction, "trudging the road of happy destiny."

Thank You.

ONE AND NOW ARE ONE

If we are not prepared to realize the unity of life, the Lord in his infinite love will let us suffer until we are forced to change our ways. -- Eknath Easwaran, "Words to Live By," November 8.

The "realization of the unity of life" is awakening to the reality of Oneness. That awakening opens us to the realization of Now, the fact that One and Now are inseparable...one is now is one.

Further, per Easwaran, The grace of God sometimes comes in the form of sorrow. Since the qualifier is, "If we are not prepared to realize the unity of life...," I'd say that by our degree of resistance to sorrow, to pain (to anything our ego-victory minds will not accept, actually), we set the bar for our own misery.

I've ever been drawn to the movement of non-violence...victory through non-violence (to me, non-resistance). The Civil Rights movement, the life and acts of Gandhi, for example. It seems to me one's very soul must be prepared to accept the fact of pain if one is truly resolved to achieve victory through non-violence. I can't imagine how one could do that without an equal resolve to forgive, to live forgiveness for those dealing out the pain as they are dealing out the pain. 

I remember the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, and the fact that those who boycotted...non-violently...won sang in my heart. The best part, I've come to realize, is that by their winning, both sides won for they all came out the better for it...whether or not all knew it.

Keeping it simple (for my own self), resistance is self-will, non-resistance is God's will, and I'd rather have God's will done in my life than my will...no matter what my ego-victory mind says.

Thank You.

AND GOD'S CIRCLE GROWS

"If we are resentful, we will be resented." That's a clearer way of saying, "What goes around comes around" which is what is known as "karma."

The best way to work with karma is to take nothing personally...taking nothing personally makes one transparent. To be transparent (non-resistant) is to let resentment flow through us; when we are resistant, we become opaque and are as Velcro to resentment...ours, yours, theirs. 

However, we cannot live in this world on only one side of the coin...every action has a reaction. That is one reason we seek still more spiritual growth. It is learning to live by spiritual principles (of the Sermon, say) that when, not if, we are wrong, we can lovingly (or without undo dramatics at any rate) extract ourselves from our own skunk-junk. 

Our job is to keep constant contact with our inner Self in order to pull ourselves back from living in another's resentment. This clears the way for God to do Its perfect work in and through us so we can help others to keep constant contact with their inner Self...and the beat goes on, God's circle of love keeps growing.

Thank You.

UNKNOWABLE TO THE REASONING MIND

Per Fr Richard Rohr, "spiritual power is always hidden inside of powerlessness," and yet we often hear so-called gurus pontificate on how to "get your power back," like that's an asset.

We're going down that wrong road again if we're wanting our power back...once we've truly given our so-called, self-identified power over, we leave it there. The rest of our journey is all about leaving it there and building our trust, our faith, on the personal power and promise of God within us/without us. Your power, my power, our power is God power, i.e. love...non-resistance, acceptance, gratitude, grace.

Our humanness will not easily let go of the belief that we need to protect ourselves. The reasoning mind's "need to protect" is code for resist, fight or at least get over on. No. We rest in the assurance that God can and will intervene in our lives on our behalf. Then let It.

We begin again detaching from our own opinion about the person, the situation...begin again taking ownership of our part in it...and if we truly can find no way do we own any part of it, then we ponder why we cannot accept that. Finding no suitable-to-our-reasoning-mind answer, we turn again to God who in a blinding flash of the obvious blesses us with Its answer of peace, unknowable to the reasoning mind.

This only fails when we fail to do it...to take the necessary steps.

Thank You.

BE NOT AFRAID, ACCEPT IT

I keep recalling the answering machine message someone told me about awhile back. You call, his answering machine picks up with, "It's not them."

That's the answer to life itself, according to me. It is never him. It is never her. It is never the taxman, the boogeyman, the scarecrow...it is ever and always I.

Reminds me of the New Testament story of the Main Man walking across the water, and the men in the boat being scared silly...Main Man says, "Be not afraid...it is I."

Whatever we're seeing that is scaring us silly, with the fear feeling like hurt/anger, try to remember: It is I. It is peace, joy, love coming to our rescue...be not afraid, accept it.

Thank You.

GOD DISCLOSES HIMSELF TO US AS LOVE

My morning blinding flash of the obvious: Just call His name. That's all.

When we are dealing with personal relationships that at the moment feel tight, opaque, confining...the answer is ever the same: Turn our minds and our motives inward...and wait. According to Eknath Easwaran, "Calling on the Lord in our heart by repeating his Name, we find access to our deeper reserves of devotion, firmness, and love."

Every idea, every solution that comes to the reasoning mind, is still a self-determined objective. It may be right, but even when right, by depending on our own self, we're going down that wrong road again. Even the relatively simplistic book (and thus my favorite) "God Calling" states, "Do not seek to realize this...as the result of effort."

And while we're waiting on the Lord, we can take a look at this person(s) who has stepped on our toes, seemingly without provocation. If we look, we will invariably find that we have made a decision based on self that later placed us in a position to be hurt. (That from another spiritual source that is never failing.)

Owning our part is the for-certain-sure way to clear our access for God's "deeper reserves of devotion, firmness, and love" to flow forth.

The eternal question, of course, is, why don't we leap to do that? Why do we linger in that ego-victory land of angry hurt (right's righteous masquerade), where we hurt so justifiably and so futilely? After all, if we simply change our mind, we can immediately know God disclosing himself to us as love.

Thank You.

RESIST NOTHING

I had a dream once that I was at the shore, wading in the ocean. A wave knocked me down; I was immediately caught in the riptide and pulled out to sea. I knew I was drowning, and I heard me say, "Just breathe through the water, just breathe." And I did and walked away.

This morning I read from The Illuminated Rumi:

Late, by myself, in the 

boat of myself, 

no light and no land 

anywhere.

Cloud cover thick.

 I try to stay 

just above the surface, 

Yet I'm already under 

and living 

within 

the ocean.

Thank You.

GOD IS THE PERFECT RECYCLER

All of us are so liable to human error that unless we have some capacity to bear with the errors of others, we will not be able to maintain a lasting relationship with anybody.... - "Words to Live By," Eknath Easwaran, November 2

I was with a friend I love yesterday, and she was just irate over the petty carping and whining of others. The more she thought on it, the more irate she got...and the more she carped and whined about it. God loves me so much that he let me be satisfied with just making listening noises.

Why I believe that God loves me so much is not only that I could be satisfied with just making listening noises...it is that I saw me so clearly in her carps and whines in regard to another's carps and whines!

And just this morning, here comes Fr Richard Rohr in his "Daily Meditation," saying, "God's one-of-a-kind job description is that God actually uses our problems to lead us to the full solution."

I'm of a mind that God uses our problems as a mirror...whoever or whatever we're resisting at the moment stands before us as our mirror. Whatever we're seeing as wrong, petty, horrific, disgusting...we're doing it in the judging of it. It is cosmic and it is without fail. I've tried my best to prove this wrong and have failed consistently.

Some years ago, I almost quit a job because of a co-worker who disrespected me daily. (I disrespected him right back, "but he did it first.") One day, in a blinding flash of the obvious, I wrote a note to me that said, "I am seeing X as real. X is not real, X is me. I am seeing me, and I am resisting me. I cannot stop that, change that, make that in any way different. I can, however, now that I've realized it, take it into my consciousness and let it perk. God can and will perfect it." And God did. That co-worker and I parted that job sometime later as friends.

The rest of Fr Rohr's quote is worth noting: "God is the perfect Recycler, and in the economy of grace, nothing is wasted, not even our worst sins nor our most stupid mistakes. God does not punish our sins, but uses them to soften our hearts toward everything."

Thank You.

ON SETTLING FOR HAPPY

It is not that everybody wants to be a winner, it is that nobody wants to be a loser.

Still more spiritual growth promises win-win, the reasoning mind is in it to win it which explains the hold-back for accepting a win-win situation...the reasoning mind cannot accept that there can be two equal winners.

What is important to recognize unto realization is that the reasoning mind is the home of our ego-victory thinking. Still more spiritual growth is a higher consciousness level, deeper. Win-win to the spiritually based mind equates to peace...to a loving mind, for all to be happy, joyous and free.

The reasoning mind wants what the spiritually based mind gives, but it wants to get it and to be the winner at the same time. This is no more evident than in petty disagreements between friends...the more shallow the disagreement, the deeper the resistance to giving over.

I sometimes believe that the hardest thing life is ever going to ask of us is to just change our mind. There's an old cliché, "Would you rather be right or would you rather be happy?" I am constantly amazed at the twisted logic that we can come up with to get right and happy at the same time...which is, of course, possible if we're willing to "settle" for happy.

Thank You.