Continuing with yesterday's I AM and that is enough, my second blinding flash of known news: We must prove truth. Which means, of course, that we can have blinding flashes of the obvious till our face falls off, but until we're walking those truths, proving them in our life, they are, in effect, intellectual Tinker Toys.
That's the uh-oh, slow down word. The move forward in gratitude word is: If we will but look back over the years, we will recognize that I AM has always been the way. The years I was tasked with taking care of the IRS, I did not borrow a penny...how was that possible, I am often asked today. Then, I just lived the life I had, paid the piper and moved forward. That's called living in the Now, and that, too, I only recognized as such much later.
Never for a minute did I consciously think to myself that this is possible because I AM and that is enough. However, I awoke to the fact that I live in a consciousness of enough sometime after that period and have often said that the IRS was a spiritual gift because I have never since (may tomorrow, but to this moment, never since) had fear of financial insecurity. There it is...the pearl beyond price.
All this means is that we live spiritual truths without realizing it. That is why it is for our own benefit that we take time each morning to ponder God and the things of God. Meditation, however we personally do it, brings us up into our deeper self, whether we know it in the moment or not. We will know it by its fruits.
Thank you.
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
I AM...AND THAT IS ENOUGH
I'm getting wonderfully new blinding flashes of the obvious through things I've read for years and years, and I am loving it.
Today's new flash from an oldie: Those who eat too much or eat too little, who sleep too much or sleep too little, will not succeed in meditation. But those who are temperate in eating and sleeping, work and recreation, will come to the end of sorrow through meditation. Sri Krishna (Bhagavad Gita)
No wonder I missed my new BFO. The words that awakened me this morning are the last nine: will come to the end of sorrow through meditation. I confess that all the rest of that quote I've ever read pretty much as a lecture from my mother. To which my response was, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, Mom, I hear you," as I continued eating my pizza, Coke and Snickers bar.
But will come to the end of sorrow through meditation opened a skylight into my spiritual hidey hole. As we have been told often and repeatedly, the Open Sesame to that hidden place are the words I AM.
That which I have thought and taught for oh so long became clearer. I recognized me, you, each of us as our own healer, our own little ATM, our own student interpreter of our preacher/teacher...we are our completion. We can go within at anytime to meet any need, we are sufficient unto our self, we are the enough.
It is not when we need a dollar or a doctor that we get to say, "Hey, I am," and get our need met, of course. It is through our personal daily practice of meditation that brings the end of sorrow.
The end of sorrow, the end of want, lifts us into the consciousness of enough...into the realization that I AM, and that is enough.
Thank you.
Today's new flash from an oldie: Those who eat too much or eat too little, who sleep too much or sleep too little, will not succeed in meditation. But those who are temperate in eating and sleeping, work and recreation, will come to the end of sorrow through meditation. Sri Krishna (Bhagavad Gita)
No wonder I missed my new BFO. The words that awakened me this morning are the last nine: will come to the end of sorrow through meditation. I confess that all the rest of that quote I've ever read pretty much as a lecture from my mother. To which my response was, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, Mom, I hear you," as I continued eating my pizza, Coke and Snickers bar.
But will come to the end of sorrow through meditation opened a skylight into my spiritual hidey hole. As we have been told often and repeatedly, the Open Sesame to that hidden place are the words I AM.
That which I have thought and taught for oh so long became clearer. I recognized me, you, each of us as our own healer, our own little ATM, our own student interpreter of our preacher/teacher...we are our completion. We can go within at anytime to meet any need, we are sufficient unto our self, we are the enough.
It is not when we need a dollar or a doctor that we get to say, "Hey, I am," and get our need met, of course. It is through our personal daily practice of meditation that brings the end of sorrow.
The end of sorrow, the end of want, lifts us into the consciousness of enough...into the realization that I AM, and that is enough.
Thank you.
Monday, May 29, 2017
THERE IS NO PEACE IN VIOLENCE...EVER
Why is it, when there's a disagreement, the one who wins seldom looks or sounds happy about it? Gets the last word, and usually ends it with the equivalent of SO THERE, YOU TWIT! with a fierce scowl on his/her face. Now, where's the happy in winning there?
I thought of this recently when I saw the jailhouse picture of a man who had walked up and stabbed a total stranger to death...he did not appear pleased with himself. Matter of fact, the only one I ever saw who looked happy in his jailhouse picture was Tom Delay...but there's a whole 'nother prayer card.
I've been pondering this, and I've had enough experience with getting my tail feathers clipped by another that I know whereof I speak. The clipper never ever looked, sounded or acted pleased about "winning." And who's kidding whom, I've been in the clipper's seat, and I invariably walked away in a rigid, righteous and right huff. Here's the kicker for me...without fail, guilt will follow. That feeling of good-about-myself-cause-I-put-another-down never lasts. Which, count on it, will lead to another round of kick butt/cry like a baby.
Geez, I have just now flashed on the memory of Mahatma Gandhi and of Martin Luther King, Jr., both of whom learned and taught the power of nonviolence. I believe they each learned it through the grace of inner enlightenment which is how they were able to teach it with such authority. Nonviolence is not a head trip. It may be caught by the reasoning mind, but it cannot be held by the reasoning mind.
The personal enlightenment of each of those two men formed their individual outward cause...both of which movements changed the world. Interestingly, both have statues and streets in their honor all over the world...cosmically, each died by an assassin's bullet, Gandhi in 1948, King in 1968.
There is our paradox: They are honored to this day, remembered by many as saviors in the flesh, their movements live on...yet each died by violence. It is that paradox that proves the truth to me...the truth that nonviolence is the only answer for lasting peace in this world, and, unless we become willing to change our mind, there will be someone stuck in self who opposes it.
Thank you.
I thought of this recently when I saw the jailhouse picture of a man who had walked up and stabbed a total stranger to death...he did not appear pleased with himself. Matter of fact, the only one I ever saw who looked happy in his jailhouse picture was Tom Delay...but there's a whole 'nother prayer card.
I've been pondering this, and I've had enough experience with getting my tail feathers clipped by another that I know whereof I speak. The clipper never ever looked, sounded or acted pleased about "winning." And who's kidding whom, I've been in the clipper's seat, and I invariably walked away in a rigid, righteous and right huff. Here's the kicker for me...without fail, guilt will follow. That feeling of good-about-myself-cause-I-put-another-down never lasts. Which, count on it, will lead to another round of kick butt/cry like a baby.
Geez, I have just now flashed on the memory of Mahatma Gandhi and of Martin Luther King, Jr., both of whom learned and taught the power of nonviolence. I believe they each learned it through the grace of inner enlightenment which is how they were able to teach it with such authority. Nonviolence is not a head trip. It may be caught by the reasoning mind, but it cannot be held by the reasoning mind.
The personal enlightenment of each of those two men formed their individual outward cause...both of which movements changed the world. Interestingly, both have statues and streets in their honor all over the world...cosmically, each died by an assassin's bullet, Gandhi in 1948, King in 1968.
There is our paradox: They are honored to this day, remembered by many as saviors in the flesh, their movements live on...yet each died by violence. It is that paradox that proves the truth to me...the truth that nonviolence is the only answer for lasting peace in this world, and, unless we become willing to change our mind, there will be someone stuck in self who opposes it.
Thank you.
Sunday, May 28, 2017
MIGHTY OAK OR HIGHLY POLISHED ACORN
There is nothing worse than someone who knows all there is to know and considerably more than you about your health, your dog, your way and ways...and cannot shut up about it.
Not to put too fine a point on it.
For whatever of his give-me-a-break reasons, God has gifted me with not one, not two, but three of these fine people...one being my acupuncturist! She barely knows me, never has met my dog, yet she's insisting she knows what my dog needs, and I'm not doing it right.
Then a friend has found it necessary to tell me...again...that acupuncture is useless, and if it is helping me at all then I must have an extremely mild case of stenosis...if indeed I have it at all.
Another friend just keeps repeating, in a totally disbelieving tone, "Well, if you know what you're doing...." This when she learns...again...that I have not yet taken her advice to take her miracle med that will heal me...now.
Interestingly, I just read Fr Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation" in which he describes Saint Francis' bottom-line belief: One of the earliest accounts of Francis, the 'Legend of Perugia,' quotes Francis as telling the first friars, 'You only know as much as you do.' * * * 'Why aren’t you doing what you say you believe?' the prophet invariably asks. As the popular paraphrase of Francis’ Rule goes, 'Preach the Gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.'
Not to put too fine a point on it.
For whatever of his give-me-a-break reasons, God has gifted me with not one, not two, but three of these fine people...one being my acupuncturist! She barely knows me, never has met my dog, yet she's insisting she knows what my dog needs, and I'm not doing it right.
Then a friend has found it necessary to tell me...again...that acupuncture is useless, and if it is helping me at all then I must have an extremely mild case of stenosis...if indeed I have it at all.
Another friend just keeps repeating, in a totally disbelieving tone, "Well, if you know what you're doing...." This when she learns...again...that I have not yet taken her advice to take her miracle med that will heal me...now.
Interestingly, I just read Fr Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation" in which he describes Saint Francis' bottom-line belief: One of the earliest accounts of Francis, the 'Legend of Perugia,' quotes Francis as telling the first friars, 'You only know as much as you do.' * * * 'Why aren’t you doing what you say you believe?' the prophet invariably asks. As the popular paraphrase of Francis’ Rule goes, 'Preach the Gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.'
There. That is my actual proof that God loves me beyond measuring. He knew (because I've for sure told him) I had all this résistance abuilding, so, Saint Francis being my role model, I was led to his credo. I could see how all of my examples of "nothing worse" are, according to my sincere desire to attempt to live an unselfed life, "nothing better."
Each of these people and their ways are exactly what I need in order to learn how to "agree with your adversary quickly" without being a doormat...how to consciously but silently invite God into the mix so all concerned come out the winner. Those are my earnest desires for I know that is the certain road to peace. [I'm also grateful to have learned that God doesn't hold it against me for carping, grinding and pouting...I'm just giving Lucy her due before I get down to it. (She claims facetiously.)]
My winning over any of them, or giving in just to "keep the peace," are self-determined objectives, the same-old-same-old which has never, will never permanently change anything beneficial to my spiritual growth.
When we realize unto acceptance that we are in this life for transformation not just to make the same person look better, we have made the turn toward home. I'm reminded of a goodie I once heard: We get to choose whether we want to become a mighty oak or a highly polished acorn.
And then there's the other great one: Choose you this day whom ye will serve. --Joshua 24:15
God loves me (and Lucy) so much.
Thank you.
And then there's the other great one: Choose you this day whom ye will serve. --Joshua 24:15
God loves me (and Lucy) so much.
Thank you.
Saturday, May 27, 2017
'TWAS GRACE THAT TAUGHT MY HEART TO FEAR
Morning blinding flash of the obvious: We must become un-selfed. We cannot un-self our self. We are un-selfed by grace.
Hmmm. I wonder if inadvertently un-selfing our self, i.e., those moments when we show our butt in public, count up there in the great beyond...or if they are just ego-worms for our always a-quart-low humility.
If that is all they are, ego-worms, then that, too, is our gold for who's kidding whom?...if we think we can say about humility, "I have enough, thank you," then we're lying blind. Clueless in a word.
I was reminded recently of a time nearly 35 years ago when I was publicly picking up a small medal for eleven years of service with my fellowship. I was talking with a lady who was very new to the fellowship, and she noted as I held the medal that my hands were shaking. I was less than happy because to my mind shaking hands detracted from my looking good for eleven years of service.
As mentioned, I was reminded of that recently, and I was reminded of it by that very same lady who has been around now for 35 years. We realized together that my shaking hands...showing scared...at eleven years gave her permission to be as scared as she was at one year, and we were both warmed and awed by that.
My fear was precisely the gift she needed, that very fear that I would have traded in a heartbeat in order to look hip, slick and cool, i.e., phony. There. I was un-selfed by grace; my friend was reassured by grace, and that grace was made manifest by fear...hers and mine.
We have laughed about the incident over the years, but it took all of the 35 years for us to tie the bow on it. It's a wonderful thing that the bow will continue to be tied as we open our mind and memory to other ego-worms in order for the gold to show forth there.
Thank you.
Hmmm. I wonder if inadvertently un-selfing our self, i.e., those moments when we show our butt in public, count up there in the great beyond...or if they are just ego-worms for our always a-quart-low humility.
If that is all they are, ego-worms, then that, too, is our gold for who's kidding whom?...if we think we can say about humility, "I have enough, thank you," then we're lying blind. Clueless in a word.
I was reminded recently of a time nearly 35 years ago when I was publicly picking up a small medal for eleven years of service with my fellowship. I was talking with a lady who was very new to the fellowship, and she noted as I held the medal that my hands were shaking. I was less than happy because to my mind shaking hands detracted from my looking good for eleven years of service.
As mentioned, I was reminded of that recently, and I was reminded of it by that very same lady who has been around now for 35 years. We realized together that my shaking hands...showing scared...at eleven years gave her permission to be as scared as she was at one year, and we were both warmed and awed by that.
My fear was precisely the gift she needed, that very fear that I would have traded in a heartbeat in order to look hip, slick and cool, i.e., phony. There. I was un-selfed by grace; my friend was reassured by grace, and that grace was made manifest by fear...hers and mine.
We have laughed about the incident over the years, but it took all of the 35 years for us to tie the bow on it. It's a wonderful thing that the bow will continue to be tied as we open our mind and memory to other ego-worms in order for the gold to show forth there.
Thank you.
Friday, May 26, 2017
THE BANE IS THE BOON
There is a page in "God Calling" where it is set forth that we must take joy in the gray days...that our hard lesson of the gray day will be repeated until we do.
There are those who believe that welcoming, that the Thank You prayer, that joy in the dark is just malarkey, plain and simple. Whenever we hit a rough patch, we can count on one or more to rather gleefully ask, "So where's your good in this?!"
The bane is the boon.
The resulting gift from looking our Monster in the eye, calling it by its name, "Monster," comes with our changed mind...in effect, we see it for the "puddy tat" it is, or a raised consciousness if you will. How else can we learn to never try to dodge a fear (which is all the Monster is, of course), or to desperately call it Good, hoping that'll change it? That changes neither "it" nor our mind.
Most everybody I know feels at some point in life that they have gone through the crucible, crashed and burned, and emerged as gold. It was that bane that gave them their boon. There. That is my God's instruction book for us for life. Use it or lose it.
Thank you.
There are those who believe that welcoming, that the Thank You prayer, that joy in the dark is just malarkey, plain and simple. Whenever we hit a rough patch, we can count on one or more to rather gleefully ask, "So where's your good in this?!"
The bane is the boon.
The resulting gift from looking our Monster in the eye, calling it by its name, "Monster," comes with our changed mind...in effect, we see it for the "puddy tat" it is, or a raised consciousness if you will. How else can we learn to never try to dodge a fear (which is all the Monster is, of course), or to desperately call it Good, hoping that'll change it? That changes neither "it" nor our mind.
Most everybody I know feels at some point in life that they have gone through the crucible, crashed and burned, and emerged as gold. It was that bane that gave them their boon. There. That is my God's instruction book for us for life. Use it or lose it.
Thank you.
Thursday, May 25, 2017
TO ASPIRE TO LESS...THERE'S THE PEARL
In a half awake state this morning, I drifted into my memory of Pope Francis on his trip to America walking through a throng of cheering people. He stopped at one man, obviously a stranger, a working man, and he grasped the man's hand and asked, then begged, that the man pray for him. [I've named the man "George" for my own convenience.] Of course, George agreed...like, he was going to look the Pope in the eye and refuse that request...on nationwide hook-up, yet?
Apparently, the Pope realized that for he stayed with George, holding his hand, and repeatedly asking for George's promise to pray for him, the Pope..."Will you? Will you pray for me?" he asked, even as George was nodding his head in agreement.
And I knew even as he asked George for his prayers, that he was asking for my prayers, for your prayers, for any and all people's prayers. I realized in that instant that in the Pope's eyes, my prayers count. My prayers are important to him...to his very body of work. He needs my prayers as he needs air, water, food. My prayers are his sustenance. Yours, too.
More importantly, I realized that for truth because I then understood that his truest prayers are for us...his prayers are our sustenance. We must walk in them even as he walks in ours.
As I have said more than once, too often probably, I am not church people, but I know (to my own satisfaction at any rate) a saint when I see one. I believe Pope Francis was a saint before he achieved popedom...let's face it, he hasn't been pope long enough for just that to get him there. He's put in his footwork. The pearl that proves it is he continues to walk the working man's walk, do the common woman's tasks, speak with the tongue of a toiler on this earth...plus his smile is of God.
The capstone: He was reported to be suffering his entire trip here from sciatic nerve pain, spinal stenosis, that which is my bane right now. (Lucy just this minute reminded me of that...we take our glory where we can find it, and we don't even blush.)
Thank you.
Apparently, the Pope realized that for he stayed with George, holding his hand, and repeatedly asking for George's promise to pray for him, the Pope..."Will you? Will you pray for me?" he asked, even as George was nodding his head in agreement.
And I knew even as he asked George for his prayers, that he was asking for my prayers, for your prayers, for any and all people's prayers. I realized in that instant that in the Pope's eyes, my prayers count. My prayers are important to him...to his very body of work. He needs my prayers as he needs air, water, food. My prayers are his sustenance. Yours, too.
More importantly, I realized that for truth because I then understood that his truest prayers are for us...his prayers are our sustenance. We must walk in them even as he walks in ours.
As I have said more than once, too often probably, I am not church people, but I know (to my own satisfaction at any rate) a saint when I see one. I believe Pope Francis was a saint before he achieved popedom...let's face it, he hasn't been pope long enough for just that to get him there. He's put in his footwork. The pearl that proves it is he continues to walk the working man's walk, do the common woman's tasks, speak with the tongue of a toiler on this earth...plus his smile is of God.
The capstone: He was reported to be suffering his entire trip here from sciatic nerve pain, spinal stenosis, that which is my bane right now. (Lucy just this minute reminded me of that...we take our glory where we can find it, and we don't even blush.)
Thank you.
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
GOD CAN MAKE EVERY WRONG RIGHT
Tell no man. -- somewhere in The Bible
I read a book by that title way back in the '60s. As I recall, it was about experiencing God (God hugs as I've come to know them). The gist being that we were to "tell no man" about a God hug for that brought it down from the spiritual plane onto the reasoning mind level. That's where we lose the gift because there is no way to describe with reasoning-mind words the wonderful works of God...we can only show it forth through our lifeworks, daily.
On occasion over the years, I would make a conscious decision to tell no one about a particular God hug but I'd get so caught up in my head, I'd intellectualize it to death. I'd wind up feeling neither particularly good nor bad about it after all that.
I may have made my turn yesterday, however. I shared with a friend a spiritual exercise I do which requires me to pick one non-friend, shut up, listen and love whatever comes forth. I call that one my emery board because, done right, my resistance hones my ugly and leaves the other unslimed.
Well, I have had feelings of uh-oh, wrong-way, turn-around ever since. I kept blaming it on my hurting spinal stenosis, until I got a clue (i.e., God hug). I realized the problem was in my share...not in the share, per se, but in the way I had shared: I had bragged about my spiritual exercise, in particular about how well I am doing it.
"Tell no man" flashed in my mind like a neon sign. I was about three feet into my wrong road again...the one where I natter at me for screwing up...when I realized I had to do it exactly the way I did it. No other way, apparently, was I going to get the less-than-wonderful feeling that proved the point...my error helped me experience what I needed to learn.
So I'm grateful I've now got first-hand knowledge of that particular truth. I'll forget, of course. But I've experienced the way I'll be reminded, and I won't forget too many times. God's hugs are gentle, kind and loving, but they sure do pack a wallop.
Thank you.
I read a book by that title way back in the '60s. As I recall, it was about experiencing God (God hugs as I've come to know them). The gist being that we were to "tell no man" about a God hug for that brought it down from the spiritual plane onto the reasoning mind level. That's where we lose the gift because there is no way to describe with reasoning-mind words the wonderful works of God...we can only show it forth through our lifeworks, daily.
On occasion over the years, I would make a conscious decision to tell no one about a particular God hug but I'd get so caught up in my head, I'd intellectualize it to death. I'd wind up feeling neither particularly good nor bad about it after all that.
I may have made my turn yesterday, however. I shared with a friend a spiritual exercise I do which requires me to pick one non-friend, shut up, listen and love whatever comes forth. I call that one my emery board because, done right, my resistance hones my ugly and leaves the other unslimed.
Well, I have had feelings of uh-oh, wrong-way, turn-around ever since. I kept blaming it on my hurting spinal stenosis, until I got a clue (i.e., God hug). I realized the problem was in my share...not in the share, per se, but in the way I had shared: I had bragged about my spiritual exercise, in particular about how well I am doing it.
"Tell no man" flashed in my mind like a neon sign. I was about three feet into my wrong road again...the one where I natter at me for screwing up...when I realized I had to do it exactly the way I did it. No other way, apparently, was I going to get the less-than-wonderful feeling that proved the point...my error helped me experience what I needed to learn.
So I'm grateful I've now got first-hand knowledge of that particular truth. I'll forget, of course. But I've experienced the way I'll be reminded, and I won't forget too many times. God's hugs are gentle, kind and loving, but they sure do pack a wallop.
Thank you.
Tuesday, May 23, 2017
TRANSFORMATION OF CONSCIOUSNESS
[The following is a reprint of my blog of October 7, 2015...and never have I needed the reminder more.]
The main interest of my work is not concerned with the treatment of neurosis, but instead with an approach to the numinous [Transcendent God experience]. The approach to the numinous is the real therapy, and inasmuch as you attain to numinous experience, you are released from the curse of pathology. Even the very disease takes on a numinous character! -- Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) from Fr. Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditations," October 7, 2015
That. Is. It.
That is the key to my gratitude for the bad side effects of meds. I am apparently one of the "two percent of the population" who will experience everything from halitosis to lockjaw if I take any of the new "miracle" drugs. This is my experience, not my "with my luck, I'll bet that's true." I have undergone two major surgeries due entirely to the side effects of prescribed meds. I still get nose ulcers every winter from a nose spray I was prescribed ten years ago and used for less than a week. There's more, but if I get too enchanted with my uniqueness, I'll miss my point.
My point being...if not for my bad side effects, I would have turned to any number of the new meds any number of times...and likely missed my numinous.
The main interest of my work is not concerned with the treatment of neurosis, but instead with an approach to the numinous [Transcendent God experience]. The approach to the numinous is the real therapy, and inasmuch as you attain to numinous experience, you are released from the curse of pathology. Even the very disease takes on a numinous character! -- Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) from Fr. Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditations," October 7, 2015
That. Is. It.
That is the key to my gratitude for the bad side effects of meds. I am apparently one of the "two percent of the population" who will experience everything from halitosis to lockjaw if I take any of the new "miracle" drugs. This is my experience, not my "with my luck, I'll bet that's true." I have undergone two major surgeries due entirely to the side effects of prescribed meds. I still get nose ulcers every winter from a nose spray I was prescribed ten years ago and used for less than a week. There's more, but if I get too enchanted with my uniqueness, I'll miss my point.
My point being...if not for my bad side effects, I would have turned to any number of the new meds any number of times...and likely missed my numinous.
Over the years, I have felt anxiety beyond imagining. I got to sit and wait on the Lord...who came in his own perfect time. I don't fear anxiety any more. I still get visited by anxiety on occasion, but only rarely. I do not love it, I just do not fight it. I've learned to rely on my "Thank You" prayer, and I feel One'd.
I've been depressed...I've felt unwanted, unneeded, unloved and unappreciated with my own set of facts backing my feelings up. I got to sit and wait on the Lord...who came in his own perfect time. I don't fear depression any more. I still get depressed on occasion, but only rarely. I do not love it, I just do not fight it. I've learned to rely on my "Thank You" prayer, and I feel One'd.
That is what is known as a transformation of consciousness, i.e., numinous. And numinous is the real therapy, and inasmuch as you attain to numinous experience, you are released from the curse of pathology. Even the very disease takes on a numinous character!
Let me admit here and now, never before in my lifetime have I heard of numinous, but when you hear Truth, you know it.
God loves us sooo much.
Thank you.
I've been depressed...I've felt unwanted, unneeded, unloved and unappreciated with my own set of facts backing my feelings up. I got to sit and wait on the Lord...who came in his own perfect time. I don't fear depression any more. I still get depressed on occasion, but only rarely. I do not love it, I just do not fight it. I've learned to rely on my "Thank You" prayer, and I feel One'd.
That is what is known as a transformation of consciousness, i.e., numinous. And numinous is the real therapy, and inasmuch as you attain to numinous experience, you are released from the curse of pathology. Even the very disease takes on a numinous character!
Let me admit here and now, never before in my lifetime have I heard of numinous, but when you hear Truth, you know it.
God loves us sooo much.
Thank you.
Monday, May 22, 2017
AND THIS, TOO, IS OF GOD
Whatever you do, make it an offering to me -- the food you eat, the sacrifices you make, the help you give, even your suffering. -- Sri Krishna (Bhagavad Gita)
Interesting that that quote came to me this morning because, just in the last couple days, I have begun picturing my spinal stenosis as akin to my rues, regrets and remorses...God's pot of gold, in truth.
It's a fact...regrettable maybe, but fact nonetheless...that there is very little that goads me to seek God quicker or deeper than physical pain. Self-inflected mental pain I toy with before I turn it over...who's kidding whom, it hurts too good to let go of in a hurry.
I know of myself that I am really susceptible to suggestion so I decided to use that on myself...with every pain, I remind myself that God knows my needs, ergo, I must need this to get where I'm going. It doesn't take away pain completely, but it is lessened for periods of time. Since I'm a believer, I give all credit to God...unbelievers get to work out their own.
All I know, and I know from my toenails up, is that I'm willing to go to any lengths to get my little boy back quick, fast and in a hurry.
Thank you.
Interesting that that quote came to me this morning because, just in the last couple days, I have begun picturing my spinal stenosis as akin to my rues, regrets and remorses...God's pot of gold, in truth.
It's a fact...regrettable maybe, but fact nonetheless...that there is very little that goads me to seek God quicker or deeper than physical pain. Self-inflected mental pain I toy with before I turn it over...who's kidding whom, it hurts too good to let go of in a hurry.
I know of myself that I am really susceptible to suggestion so I decided to use that on myself...with every pain, I remind myself that God knows my needs, ergo, I must need this to get where I'm going. It doesn't take away pain completely, but it is lessened for periods of time. Since I'm a believer, I give all credit to God...unbelievers get to work out their own.
All I know, and I know from my toenails up, is that I'm willing to go to any lengths to get my little boy back quick, fast and in a hurry.
Thank you.
Sunday, May 21, 2017
THE GREAT COMFORT
If you curse him, he will bless you; if you harm her, she will serve you; and if you exploit him, he will become your benefactor. -- Eknath Easwaran, "Words to Live By," May 21
I don't want to be the "you" in that quote, I want to be the "him." the "her." The first time ever I read that, I knew it for my truth.
I first read that in 1996, and I'm closer today...oh, but, who's kidding whom, I have a far piece to go. We all do if we're doing it right, at least according to me.
I do count myself blessed that the majority of the time...that's 51% sometimes but that's the majority...my desire is for still more spiritual growth. That being so, the only direction to head is away from self, toward Self.
I personally love that we are told, repeatedly, when we choose to walk toward God, he will already be running to meet us. Isn't that a comfort?
Thank you.
I don't want to be the "you" in that quote, I want to be the "him." the "her." The first time ever I read that, I knew it for my truth.
I first read that in 1996, and I'm closer today...oh, but, who's kidding whom, I have a far piece to go. We all do if we're doing it right, at least according to me.
I do count myself blessed that the majority of the time...that's 51% sometimes but that's the majority...my desire is for still more spiritual growth. That being so, the only direction to head is away from self, toward Self.
I personally love that we are told, repeatedly, when we choose to walk toward God, he will already be running to meet us. Isn't that a comfort?
Thank you.
Saturday, May 20, 2017
BLESSED, BELOVED AND GRATEFUL
Well, here it is. I awoke early, early Thursday morning almost unable to breathe without shooting pains down my right leg. Spinal stenosis letting itself be felt. It's Saturday morning, I still have shooting pains down my right leg, but I'm doing all I can to help the pain go away...as in acupuncture, bed rest, heating pad, Tylenol and an incredible outpouring of love from friends.
It is true...love conquers all, even the resistance to physical pain. I have never been known to suffer in silence, be the cause physical, mental or spiritual, but I know this morning that I am wrapped in the love that truly passes understanding, and I am mute in wonder.
The worst part, for the duration of this siege, is that I am without Ruckus to hug and kiss and tell him I love him. I have entrusted him to our friends who love him dearly. On the other hand, the best part, for the duration of this siege, is that I don't have to walk Ruckus. Our friends who love him and he loves are delighted to give him a home...and to walk him. And he is happy.
Don't tell me we're not loved beyond measure, cared for before we know we need it, beloved by God. That is "We." We being everyone unto One.
Thank you.
It is true...love conquers all, even the resistance to physical pain. I have never been known to suffer in silence, be the cause physical, mental or spiritual, but I know this morning that I am wrapped in the love that truly passes understanding, and I am mute in wonder.
The worst part, for the duration of this siege, is that I am without Ruckus to hug and kiss and tell him I love him. I have entrusted him to our friends who love him dearly. On the other hand, the best part, for the duration of this siege, is that I don't have to walk Ruckus. Our friends who love him and he loves are delighted to give him a home...and to walk him. And he is happy.
Don't tell me we're not loved beyond measure, cared for before we know we need it, beloved by God. That is "We." We being everyone unto One.
Thank you.
Friday, May 19, 2017
TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR OUR GOOD
[The following is a reworked reprint of my blog of April 22, 2015.]
Blinding flash of the obvious: Free speech need not make anyone angry. My interpretation: The spiritual lesson to learn is how to take responsibility for my individual response to another's free speech. I take responsibility by not resisting it, by inviting God to do my responding, my thinking, feeling, acting, being. Be the light that brings others to victory over self that It may bear witness to others of Its love, His will, Her way of life.
I wonder if all the people-problems of the world couldn't be solved if each of us would take loving responsibility for our own response to what we are seeing, feeling, hearing, saying.
Picture it: We thank the Source within that just for today we assume the best...we hear only kindness...speak only caring words in response to what we hear from others and from our own head...see only the best in others and in our bathroom mirror.
It's like John Lennon's Imagine. All he asked is that we imagine world peace. Here, all we're asking of ourselves is to picture personal peace.
And the ever-resistant ego whispers, "That'll never work." There. That's exactly the point where we take responsibility for our own thoughts, words and deeds...by agreeing with the ego then doing the God thing.
Thank you.
Blinding flash of the obvious: Free speech need not make anyone angry. My interpretation: The spiritual lesson to learn is how to take responsibility for my individual response to another's free speech. I take responsibility by not resisting it, by inviting God to do my responding, my thinking, feeling, acting, being. Be the light that brings others to victory over self that It may bear witness to others of Its love, His will, Her way of life.
I wonder if all the people-problems of the world couldn't be solved if each of us would take loving responsibility for our own response to what we are seeing, feeling, hearing, saying.
Picture it: We thank the Source within that just for today we assume the best...we hear only kindness...speak only caring words in response to what we hear from others and from our own head...see only the best in others and in our bathroom mirror.
It's like John Lennon's Imagine. All he asked is that we imagine world peace. Here, all we're asking of ourselves is to picture personal peace.
And the ever-resistant ego whispers, "That'll never work." There. That's exactly the point where we take responsibility for our own thoughts, words and deeds...by agreeing with the ego then doing the God thing.
Thank you.
Thursday, May 18, 2017
COBWEBS...JUST ANOTHER GIFT FROM GOD
We pray to be relieved of the bondage of self, and the fact is, anyone who has walked through the fire of their own making and arrived at the other side a changed person has been relieved of the bondage of self...through a power greater than self.
That's the jump-up-and-shout-hallelujah news. The uh-oh news is, now we walk it...daily. That lesson takes a long time learning, the length of time being entirely dependent on our want-to.
We are told that we need to love our enemy as our self. Now there's a change-your-mind lesson. But we're willing; so. starting small, we ask: Do we really want to give over to our current enemy Gertrude who is being snarky, mean and selfish? Of course we don't...we're not entirely stupid.
Our lesson has just begun: We must needs take it a tish lower to reach our higher self. Are we willing to see what in us is being...uh-huh...snarky, mean and selfish? And we find that teensy tiny sliver, now we hang on to it because there's our gold. That's what we keep turning to when our mind again and yet again goes to Gertrude's ugliness.
Our beginning to break comes when we realize that we simply cannot let Gertrude off the hook by our thinking, talking, self-willing, me-wanting. That brings our breakthrough...we see Gertrude as our angel in disguise for it is her snark that opened our eyes to our snark and our utter inability all on our own to change that.
Our inability cracks our tightly self-sealed door and a force for good seeps forth changing everything...our outward view, our inner being...and Gertrude.
There it is...our ah-ha moment. We recognize the iron chains that formed the bondage of self are just cobwebs, and our job has just become to keep them swept away. Cobwebs cling, and they will cling probably till three days after we're dead. Considering they were our unbreakable iron chains just yesterday, that's to welcome...and grin about.
Another lesson in realizing the gift of love and laughter...and there's our freedom.
Thank you.
Wednesday, May 17, 2017
COMMON SENSE...AN UNDERRATED ASSET
It is immaterial to God whether or not we believe in him. God takes nothing personally.
God is love and love cannot hate...anything. Rattlesnakes or rainbows...it is all the same to love. There it is, the principle of One. We are all One in love.
Only don't lie down with a rattlesnake and expect to feel loved. Just sayin'.
Thank you.
God is love and love cannot hate...anything. Rattlesnakes or rainbows...it is all the same to love. There it is, the principle of One. We are all One in love.
Only don't lie down with a rattlesnake and expect to feel loved. Just sayin'.
Thank you.
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
THE WAY OF THE CROSS
My two blinding flashes of the obvious:
There is another level of awareness only found within us. My interpretation: That level is where the Kingdom of Heaven is found. Heaven, that hidey hole of all that is holy, that is God and is of God.
President Trump is the proof that God loves us immeasurably. My interpretation: Trump as proof that God loves us immeasurably is the melt-down surrender to the fact that God has given us the gift we need in order to get over our own self...through love.
I claim the Sermon on the Mount as my own Book of Knowledge. I try, sincerely and with no conscious reservation, to live by the principles set out by the Sermon. I need and use all the other authors, books, spiritual leaders, etc., that speak to me. There aren't that many, and they are everywhere. They are, collectively, the pearl of great price. Which fact ties my two BFOs together.
When we finally are able to give up our resistance to President Trump (or anything), it will not be through analyzing, thinking, pondering, talking...all of which being necessary in order to get us to surrender, i.e., complete despair of ever getting there.
All it takes is to divorce our self from our own opinions, likes, dislikes...to get over our self in other word. It is only then in complete surrender that we can see our self-described problem in a new light...through God's eyes.
So there it is. My new goal: To see President Trump as proof of God's love for me and to mean it.
God has already done my heavy lifting here else the idea would never have come to me. (New BFO.)
Thank you.
Monday, May 15, 2017
ON FEELING LOVE...ON LOVING
Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. --The Bible
I'm reminded again this morning of that admonition that we must seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and then all our wants that masquerade as our needs will be ours.
I wonder if finding the kingdom of God isn't realizing His righteousness? And if realizing His righteousness doesn't send "all these things" packing?
I tend to think of the kingdom of God as love. I can't imagine truly realizing the love of God and just holding it close...savoring, never sharing. That has to be an impossibility.
Having been awakened to the full knowledge and feeling of that love, why...how?...could we desire any other thing? I know from experience that when I am feeling love...incoming/outgoing...I know no want. I feel complete, at peace, and I want...no, I need...for others to feel the same. Loved. Loving.
In that light, there is naught else.
Thank you.
I'm reminded again this morning of that admonition that we must seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and then all our wants that masquerade as our needs will be ours.
I wonder if finding the kingdom of God isn't realizing His righteousness? And if realizing His righteousness doesn't send "all these things" packing?
I tend to think of the kingdom of God as love. I can't imagine truly realizing the love of God and just holding it close...savoring, never sharing. That has to be an impossibility.
Having been awakened to the full knowledge and feeling of that love, why...how?...could we desire any other thing? I know from experience that when I am feeling love...incoming/outgoing...I know no want. I feel complete, at peace, and I want...no, I need...for others to feel the same. Loved. Loving.
In that light, there is naught else.
Thank you.
Sunday, May 14, 2017
WE ARE THE KEEPER OF THE KEYS
[The following is a slightly reworked reprint of my blog of December 31, 2014.]
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.... from The Lord's Prayer
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.... from The Lord's Prayer
That passage is the only one in the Lord's prayer in which we commit to doing our part...all the rest we're just stating our expectations of the Lord. Letting him know he's got his work cut out for us. But on those eight words hang all the rest of the prayer...all the rest of our lives in fact.
Broken down to the specifics, the prayer states:
thy kingdom come
thy will be done
give us this day our daily bread
forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us
lead us not into temptation
deliver us from evil
I submit if we live to forgive...friend or foe, known or unknown...Thy kingdom is ours because Thy will is being done through us.
We will be forever fed by that forgiving heart which cannot be led into temptation, and we are thereby delivered from the evil of our ego -- in a perfect world.
Ours to remember: We are the keeper of the keys to that perfect world.
Thank you.
Saturday, May 13, 2017
WELCOMING OUR CHANCE TO LOVE OUR ENEMY
According to me, the hardest part of spiritual growth is that at every stage, every minute in other words, we are asked to not only look at but to accept that which we see is the exact opposite of that which we see.
The beginning though, the first step-up-deeper point for me, was akin to the lightbulb over the head when I realized that all the world's a stage and we're merely players on that stage was not just my garbled Shakespeare, it was, in fact, a spiritual principle. I saw if I were ever to make any progress in my spiritual growth, I needed to study that as a principle until I understood it inside out.
Somebody, maybe Hugh Prather, once wrote that what we see is always ourselves, which probably gave me permission to get started in detaching from my own view...to divorce myself from my own opinions, actually.
This is really in my face this morning because the path for James Comey's spiritual growth is so clear, so obvious, to me...and yet Gertrude is riding herd (and hard) on my ego Lucy. Regrettably, Lucy's first option is never spiritual growth.
Gertrude is my Trump, I am Comey, and our, Comey's and my, need is to realize Trump/Gertrude as our angel in disguise...God, in essence, giving us our chance to love our enemy...to resist not our enemy.
The spiritual growth begins it seems by our staying our mind in gratitude for the actions of Trump/Gertrude rather than continuing to hone our reasoning mind by justifying our resistance to their less-than-wonderful behavior.
God's giggle: Comey may well be on his knees in gratitude that he's out of that mare's nest, and here's me solving his non-existent spiritual problem. Hey! There's a perfect example of someone helping another without ever knowing he has.
Thank you, Comey, Gertrude and Lucy. Oh yeah, and Trump. (Uh-oh and sigh...back to that first step.)
Thank you.
Friday, May 12, 2017
GOD'S CLARION CALL
Face each day with Love and Laughter. Face the storm. -- "God Calling," May 12
In 1990 I underlined that sentence in red and understood it (from my eyebrows up anyhow) to be the Way.
When reading that again this morning, I was lifted by the rest of the entry: Joy, Peace, Love, My great gifts....Any soul can feel those in a harbor, but real joy and victory comes to those alone who sense these when they ride a storm.
I was brought up short by the memory that the only way there is through love. The answer to everything...the way out of self...is love. And love is nonresistance plain and simple.
There will ever be storms in life. Fight them, curse them, try to avoid them...that is the certain path to lonely despair. A just as certain path to despair is to deny the storms...calling a storm a ray of sunshine is self-will at its most extreme. As the book says, "Face the storm."
Real joy comes to those who sense the peace that passes understanding "when they ride a storm."
According to me, riding the storm is to feel the fear, wish it were sunshine, remind God he's got the power, and he can use it anytime, please and thank you. Then move forward doing the next apparently right thing.
There. That's the God of my understanding's clarion call.
Thank you.
In 1990 I underlined that sentence in red and understood it (from my eyebrows up anyhow) to be the Way.
When reading that again this morning, I was lifted by the rest of the entry: Joy, Peace, Love, My great gifts....Any soul can feel those in a harbor, but real joy and victory comes to those alone who sense these when they ride a storm.
I was brought up short by the memory that the only way there is through love. The answer to everything...the way out of self...is love. And love is nonresistance plain and simple.
There will ever be storms in life. Fight them, curse them, try to avoid them...that is the certain path to lonely despair. A just as certain path to despair is to deny the storms...calling a storm a ray of sunshine is self-will at its most extreme. As the book says, "Face the storm."
Real joy comes to those who sense the peace that passes understanding "when they ride a storm."
According to me, riding the storm is to feel the fear, wish it were sunshine, remind God he's got the power, and he can use it anytime, please and thank you. Then move forward doing the next apparently right thing.
There. That's the God of my understanding's clarion call.
Thank you.
Thursday, May 11, 2017
FINDING FREEDOM FROM SELF
When all we choose to depend on is our own mind-power, we are ever caught in that mind's inability to lift us out of our own self. To be lifted into God consciousness does not happen as wanted...it happens as needed, and we are not the determiner of our own need.
Our mind, driven by ego, will, like as not, always believe a want is a need. The kicker is that we spend an inordinate amount of time trying to fend off the need with our own self-determined fixes.
I remember in high school trying to get over a broken heart. Instead of accepting that guy is gone, my best friend and I got caught peeking in his windows one fine night. Then trying to stop eating chocolate over him, I was smoking close to three packs of cigarettes a day. After which, trying to stop smoking...how many classes, patches, doctors, substitutions did I buy into in my unsuccessful attempts to quit? I can't count them...I even went to a hypnotist. And, of course, there are more examples...so many more.
It wasn't until, driven by divine despair, that I met my heavenly doom (have I ever mentioned that I love a paradox?). But that's precisely what it is that causes us to crash and burn...despair and doom. As long as we have an idea in our reasoning mind that can head that crash off, we will avoid our feared surrender...and freedom.
It is only after surrendering that we realize we have accepted the absence of that which we believed we could not live without. If we are honest, we accepted, too, that it was through no clever thinking on our part that we found our freedom. Then, then our still more spiritual growth begins.
To paraphrase the Buddha, "It is mine to show the way, yours to do the trudging."
Thank you.
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
WHAT WE RESIST PERSISTS
Today we are all James Comey.
I doubt there is a soul anywhere who doesn't have an overlord niggling their psyche right this red-hot minute ...a demanding employer, a peeved spouse, an un-understanding friend, an unjustified enemy, a drug (alcohol, sugar, tobacco in any and all forms), a misbehaving pet, a God who doesn't understand...the list is endless.
Can we accept that overlord, the one who apparently has our fate (for sure our mind) in its control? Are we willing to call that overlord, who is apparently crushing us at its whim, our angel? Can we know that one is present in our life to set us free? Free of our resistance to it?...by surrendering to it?
We must, you know.
My heart goes out to Comey, not because he was fired...all of us good people have been, she says, grinning. I do speak from experience, though...getting fired can be grace with his name on it. My only prayer for him is that he knows, or soon learns, that the actors in his axing are his angels. Not to be fought, but to be thanked.
To fight is akin to mixing it up with a tar baby...that stuff sticks to us for a long, long time, and it doesn't get better as it ages on us. To welcome is akin to standing in a warm and gentle Hawaiian rain...feels like being kissed by butterflies. Don't tell me that isn't freedom riding in on a rainbow. There it is. Gratitude. That's how we get free from our own self, free to opt for God's will. And it is good.
Resist not evil. -- Matthew 5:39
Thank you.
Tuesday, May 9, 2017
FOLLOW THE LEADER
I name Jesus as the go-to Source in my life. I am not church people, but I never heard of the many other spiritual peeps till I was over 30, and at least Jesus has been in my consciousness all my learning life. I was fairly certain he'd know my name, and the others wouldn't, not to put too fine a point on it.
Frankly, I consider myself blessed that I never got the so-called Jesus Freak movement. I must admit that back in the day I lived in fear I was going to "get the call"...and there'd go me in my Jesus boots, banging my tambourine and seeking lost souls. I'd heard the hymn "Bringing in the Sheaves," and I just figured they were hiding fallen folk in that word sheaves.
I'm here to testify...so to speak...that it's probably a good thing I did not know then how hard it was going to be to make conscious contact with any higher power. I've never been known for my staying power...don't get it, forget it was my m.o. (That may should be is my m.o. sometimes still.)
It's a great comfort to me to recognize my inner growth in accepting the God of my understanding as the Buddha, Jehovah, Allah, Muhammad, Jesus, Joseph and Mary (they're one), not to mention Saint Paul and Mary Magdalene and Our Lady of Fatima and Pope Francis...and never forgetting my mentor who moves up to first place more than often...and rightly so since I can reach out and touch him.
All of this is about looking back...seeing now where I was then and how my life has come to be. And it is good...purely and simply because I chose still more spiritual growth as my path to trudge. I know, too, and without question, that I alone did not make that choice. My mentor told me to.
Thank you.
Frankly, I consider myself blessed that I never got the so-called Jesus Freak movement. I must admit that back in the day I lived in fear I was going to "get the call"...and there'd go me in my Jesus boots, banging my tambourine and seeking lost souls. I'd heard the hymn "Bringing in the Sheaves," and I just figured they were hiding fallen folk in that word sheaves.
I'm here to testify...so to speak...that it's probably a good thing I did not know then how hard it was going to be to make conscious contact with any higher power. I've never been known for my staying power...don't get it, forget it was my m.o. (That may should be is my m.o. sometimes still.)
It's a great comfort to me to recognize my inner growth in accepting the God of my understanding as the Buddha, Jehovah, Allah, Muhammad, Jesus, Joseph and Mary (they're one), not to mention Saint Paul and Mary Magdalene and Our Lady of Fatima and Pope Francis...and never forgetting my mentor who moves up to first place more than often...and rightly so since I can reach out and touch him.
All of this is about looking back...seeing now where I was then and how my life has come to be. And it is good...purely and simply because I chose still more spiritual growth as my path to trudge. I know, too, and without question, that I alone did not make that choice. My mentor told me to.
Thank you.
Monday, May 8, 2017
NO-ALTERNATIVE SITUATIONS
To know God aright is to ask nothing of or from him but to live in a state of grace-filled gratitude.-- "Ari of Aslan 1" blog, December 28, 2011
This morning I realize, not for the first time, that my nemesis is me...came with me at birth. It is fear. It is one fear in particular, and it runs through my entire life...with God-in-Heaven-only-knows how many different people's names I have slapped on it over the years.
The grace-filled realization about my nemesis this morning is: This, too, is of God.
What if I've been mislabeling it all these years?...instead of welcoming it, hunkering down with it, letting it show me whatever I need to learn. Can I do that now? No, will I, is the question. And, of course I will. I used to brag that I was terrific in no-alternative situations until I realized, who isn't? "No alternative." Duh.
Talk about the good news and bad news both together...I'm feeling fairly excited and really apprehensive about making this turn. Starting to make this turn, actually, because I have not a clue where and how to begin. And there it is. The reason why I need ask God for nothing: He's already perfected it, just been waiting for me to get with the program for lo these many years.
Now I am really excited. There is nothing more relieving than remembering it's not my load to carry, just my path to walk. I have the book of directions, and I do follow those directions (speaking of no alternative).
God loves me so much. Right back at you, Lord!
Thank you.
Sunday, May 7, 2017
TO KNOW AND TO SHOW: GOD'S HAND IS IN IT
A major stumbling block to spiritual growth is our inability (or refusal) to understand the difference between resignation and acceptance. We can even have an enlightening experience that shows us the difference and still falter and fight it at some point later.
Resignation is our belief that we cannot help but do that which we are doing even though we do not want to do it. Ergo...we keep doing it. Against our own good sense. Actually having a sense of self-justification for, after all, we "can't help it." So we continue doing the same-old-same-old...sometimes unto death.
Acceptance is our belief that we cannot help but do that which we are doing even though we do not want to do it. We keep doing it up to that point divine: We crash and burn. With a plea within for help to anybody, anything, anywhere, God or the devil on horseback, makes no never mind, please, please, please, please, please. We've got to stop, and we cannot.
It is that hopeless, helpless realization that we need help that slams the door on our self-determined resignation and opens the door to the hidey hole of God. That is when we turn over our own self, guts and glory, without reservation as to who gets us. Whoever takes us up and relieves us of the unendurable pain of being is welcome to us. And that is surrender.
Paradox Alert: We pretty it up later and call it acceptance because surrender sounds like we lost and acceptance sounds like we won. Both are true. Proving the truth of when both sides come out the winner, you know God's hand was in it.
The surprise is the realization that our surrender amounted to a simple exchange...our will for God's will.
The stunner is how many times during the day that we are faced with the same decision...to resist or to accept...and how often we still choose to resist.
We have ceased fighting anything and anybody. -- Anonymous
Thank you.
Resignation is our belief that we cannot help but do that which we are doing even though we do not want to do it. Ergo...we keep doing it. Against our own good sense. Actually having a sense of self-justification for, after all, we "can't help it." So we continue doing the same-old-same-old...sometimes unto death.
Acceptance is our belief that we cannot help but do that which we are doing even though we do not want to do it. We keep doing it up to that point divine: We crash and burn. With a plea within for help to anybody, anything, anywhere, God or the devil on horseback, makes no never mind, please, please, please, please, please. We've got to stop, and we cannot.
It is that hopeless, helpless realization that we need help that slams the door on our self-determined resignation and opens the door to the hidey hole of God. That is when we turn over our own self, guts and glory, without reservation as to who gets us. Whoever takes us up and relieves us of the unendurable pain of being is welcome to us. And that is surrender.
Paradox Alert: We pretty it up later and call it acceptance because surrender sounds like we lost and acceptance sounds like we won. Both are true. Proving the truth of when both sides come out the winner, you know God's hand was in it.
The surprise is the realization that our surrender amounted to a simple exchange...our will for God's will.
The stunner is how many times during the day that we are faced with the same decision...to resist or to accept...and how often we still choose to resist.
We have ceased fighting anything and anybody. -- Anonymous
Thank you.
Saturday, May 6, 2017
FEAR FEELINGS AND HOW TO LOVE THEM
My followers must be prepared not to sit on My right hand and on My left, but to drink of the cup that I drink of. Poor world -- teach it that there is only one cure for all its ills -- Union with Me. Dare to suffer, dare to conquer, be filled with My sublime audacity. Remember that. Claim the unclaimable -- "God Calling," May 6.
When, not if, we're feeling put upon, betrayed (fascinating that "betrayed" comes up, I'd venture to bet, more often than any other fear feeling), it is for sure our first response is to analyze ways to prove our accuser wrong...either by pay back or by justifying our resistance.
Claim the unclaimable.
That means, in short, to claim the ability to say not a word, nay: THINK NOT A THOUGHT in resistance, as in by talking them over to our way of thinking. To just do that from our place of nonresistance, a.k.a., love, is our goal...and it doesn't count if we self-will our way. That's the whole purpose of being "prepared not to sit on My right...but to drink of the cup that I drink of."
Our lesson begins when we can do that without feeling self-righteous about it.
Thank you.
Friday, May 5, 2017
THERE ARE NO MISTAKES
Too often, it seems, we are led to believe, or lead our self to believe, that we must be rid of our will...that our will is wrong period.
The problem, according to me, is not that our will is wrong, it is in the difference between going for our own will and for God's will.
If we are serious about still more spiritual growth, we are told we must try with a will or fall by the wayside. The rest of the story is made clearer by Easwaran in his today's "Words to Live By" entry: ...after years of training, our will has become an invincible ally, ready to take on the almost superhuman challenge of stilling the mind. That to me is the two wills being reconciled within.
Our will is perfectly used when we are aligning it with God's will. When we have a want that we feel is a need, we learn to let God decide which it is.
If it is a want that feels like a need then it deserves serious attention. I do that by writing about it, by talking it over with my mentor and with friends...I ponder it for awhile. If it gets through all that still feeling necessary, I go for it.
Here's the payoff: If it turns out less than wonderful, as in not at all what I wanted, I know that, too, is God's will. I figure that's what I needed to go through for God to get me on the other side of my want to where he needed me to be.
When we accept that, we rest in the knowledge that there are no mistakes.
Thank you.
The problem, according to me, is not that our will is wrong, it is in the difference between going for our own will and for God's will.
If we are serious about still more spiritual growth, we are told we must try with a will or fall by the wayside. The rest of the story is made clearer by Easwaran in his today's "Words to Live By" entry: ...after years of training, our will has become an invincible ally, ready to take on the almost superhuman challenge of stilling the mind. That to me is the two wills being reconciled within.
Our will is perfectly used when we are aligning it with God's will. When we have a want that we feel is a need, we learn to let God decide which it is.
If it is a want that feels like a need then it deserves serious attention. I do that by writing about it, by talking it over with my mentor and with friends...I ponder it for awhile. If it gets through all that still feeling necessary, I go for it.
Here's the payoff: If it turns out less than wonderful, as in not at all what I wanted, I know that, too, is God's will. I figure that's what I needed to go through for God to get me on the other side of my want to where he needed me to be.
When we accept that, we rest in the knowledge that there are no mistakes.
Thank you.
Thursday, May 4, 2017
IT'S ABOUT TAKING NOTHING PERSONALLY
It seems every year on May 4 when I read my "God Calling," and I see Claim big things. Claim great things that my ego Lucy does her happy dance, thinking, I can claim a million bucks! No, a billion!
The very next words are the ice water in our face: Claim Joy and Peace and freedom from care.
I do take comfort that joy and peace and freedom from care, after I'm reminded, are preferable to me. They're the "OMG...that's right!" in my reasoning mind world.
Here's the gold...the minute I read "claim big things" and Lucy starts her happy dance, I start laughing. There it is, the proof of my spiritual growth, puny as it seems. Back in the day I would all but weep at my shallowness, utterly disgusted at Lucy (who was my nameless ego then and the embarrassing bane of my life).
I do feel absolute freedom when I recall the blinding flash that named Lucy, that said Lucy cracks God up so why not laugh along. I can know from that very experience that is worth...well, it is priceless, who's kidding whom?
The freedom to love and laugh at myself is joy and peace and freedom from care. God loves me (and Lucy!) so much.
Thank you.
The very next words are the ice water in our face: Claim Joy and Peace and freedom from care.
I do take comfort that joy and peace and freedom from care, after I'm reminded, are preferable to me. They're the "OMG...that's right!" in my reasoning mind world.
Here's the gold...the minute I read "claim big things" and Lucy starts her happy dance, I start laughing. There it is, the proof of my spiritual growth, puny as it seems. Back in the day I would all but weep at my shallowness, utterly disgusted at Lucy (who was my nameless ego then and the embarrassing bane of my life).
I do feel absolute freedom when I recall the blinding flash that named Lucy, that said Lucy cracks God up so why not laugh along. I can know from that very experience that is worth...well, it is priceless, who's kidding whom?
The freedom to love and laugh at myself is joy and peace and freedom from care. God loves me (and Lucy!) so much.
Thank you.
Wednesday, May 3, 2017
ON RECOGNIZING GOD'S WILL
To honestly seek to do God's will requires our complete trust in the goodness of God. This is the reason we meditate, the why that we must needs discipline our own self daily to sit and wait on the Lord...to come to that basic trust. For it is a surety that the day will come when God's will looks less than wonderful...dire, ugly and let-this-cup-pass awful. When that hour comes, our ego-based reasoning mind will be out the door and down the street...and there it is. This is the reason we meditate.
It does no good to resist our resistance...that just builds it stronger because we're giving it our complete attention through our resistance. Negative resistance gets negative results.
It takes a great deal of mind-emptying to witness the opening of the gates within...we cannot think grace into consciousness. We can only welcome it once it appears...and sometimes not till afterward do we recognize it.
The reasoning mind will always fear the appearance of any unknown if on its face it looks dicey. It will accept the appearance as reality and mentally resist either by fight or flight, both of which are barriers to God's will.
The answer? Same-old-same-old. Welcome that fear, kiss it on the lips so to speak, and detach...that's what's known as unlatching the gate. Then just sit quietly with or without a smile on our face for God is on the field.
Thank you.
It does no good to resist our resistance...that just builds it stronger because we're giving it our complete attention through our resistance. Negative resistance gets negative results.
It takes a great deal of mind-emptying to witness the opening of the gates within...we cannot think grace into consciousness. We can only welcome it once it appears...and sometimes not till afterward do we recognize it.
The reasoning mind will always fear the appearance of any unknown if on its face it looks dicey. It will accept the appearance as reality and mentally resist either by fight or flight, both of which are barriers to God's will.
The answer? Same-old-same-old. Welcome that fear, kiss it on the lips so to speak, and detach...that's what's known as unlatching the gate. Then just sit quietly with or without a smile on our face for God is on the field.
Thank you.
Tuesday, May 2, 2017
HEAD FOR THE DREAD!
Spiritual growth infinitesimally opens the hidey hole of God within us. More spiritual growth allows us to realize that that infinitesimal opening may be all we will ever get. With still more, we realize it is all we will ever need.
I'm convinced the first realization ever I had (or that I remember having) was the blinding flash of the obvious: Not to be a winner, not to be a loser, to Be.
I ignored that for years...and years. No, I really ignored the importance of it. I never forgot it...and it came to mind often when I was on the losing side of any "debate." Now that I'm pondering it, I don't recall thinking about it whenever I was winning.
I suspect it came to mind now because I am in the midst of a realization of powerlessness. I have all the right words, thoughts, doubts and certainties...we all do for there aren't that many. What we must accept is that we're choosing to stay in our spin cycle of fear, a.k.a., our comfort zone, praying for God to come save us from our own picture show...refusing to accept that he already has.
That is how we remain stuck in our own reasoning mind consciousness never risking to Be in God consciousness.
To Be in God consciousness is to move on up...a tish deeper. Head for the dread! Be who I be...me!
Be.
Thank you.
I'm convinced the first realization ever I had (or that I remember having) was the blinding flash of the obvious: Not to be a winner, not to be a loser, to Be.
I ignored that for years...and years. No, I really ignored the importance of it. I never forgot it...and it came to mind often when I was on the losing side of any "debate." Now that I'm pondering it, I don't recall thinking about it whenever I was winning.
I suspect it came to mind now because I am in the midst of a realization of powerlessness. I have all the right words, thoughts, doubts and certainties...we all do for there aren't that many. What we must accept is that we're choosing to stay in our spin cycle of fear, a.k.a., our comfort zone, praying for God to come save us from our own picture show...refusing to accept that he already has.
That is how we remain stuck in our own reasoning mind consciousness never risking to Be in God consciousness.
To Be in God consciousness is to move on up...a tish deeper. Head for the dread! Be who I be...me!
Be.
Thank you.
Monday, May 1, 2017
GOD'S PERFECT WILL...IN AN IMPERFECT SETTING
Well-grounded peeps seem to be able, with God's grace, to take their calamities of life in stride and turn them into their demonstration of faith. -- Anonymous
That garbled quote qualifies as my security blanket. The first time ever I read that, I felt like I wanted to crawl into the book, wrap the words around me and know myself safe forever.
I had a worriting possibility come to me this morning. My ego Lucy jumped on it and was half way to hysteria before I could think the possibility all the way through.
Interestingly, just yesterday I'd been talking with a friend and mentioned that quote and how important it is to me...how important it is period. So it was right there this morning to quiet Lucy and head her back to her bunker...not to mention and give me peace.
There. My proof once again that my Father knows my needs long before I am aware that I even have such. So, if my worrit proves a reality, my Father has already got it in hand. Which means, of course, my worst case scenario may be God's will for me.
I remember and reaffirm that I would rather have God's will done in my life than my will. Always and all ways.
Thank you.
That garbled quote qualifies as my security blanket. The first time ever I read that, I felt like I wanted to crawl into the book, wrap the words around me and know myself safe forever.
I had a worriting possibility come to me this morning. My ego Lucy jumped on it and was half way to hysteria before I could think the possibility all the way through.
Interestingly, just yesterday I'd been talking with a friend and mentioned that quote and how important it is to me...how important it is period. So it was right there this morning to quiet Lucy and head her back to her bunker...not to mention and give me peace.
There. My proof once again that my Father knows my needs long before I am aware that I even have such. So, if my worrit proves a reality, my Father has already got it in hand. Which means, of course, my worst case scenario may be God's will for me.
I remember and reaffirm that I would rather have God's will done in my life than my will. Always and all ways.
Thank you.
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