...for it is in self-forgetting that we find. Ah, therein hides the secret of the ages. For what are we looking to find? If not self-forgetting, i.e., God, then we search in vain. According to me.
Further, according to me, in my perfect world, doctor-scientists would stop with the seeking, researching...spending!...to find ways for us old people to live longer. Why not start searching ways for dogs (cats, too) to live longer? Face it, 15 years is a long time for a dog to live, but it's the equivalent of 15 minutes to us older folk.
Not only that, since I'm on a rant, I may not wholly believe but I do not doubt that seeking for ways to extend the life of seniors is fear on two levels: for the scientists, it's fear of failure...not being good enough in their profession ("good enough" equals garnering profit and glory for all the world to see); for the elderly, it's fear of dying...that scary unknowable.
Or, it may be that I'm catching too much News-of-the-Day. The possibility is proof that I need a dog to hug.
Thank you.
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
LOVE IS THE ANSWER...THE ONLY ANSWER
According to the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) our inner attitudes and states are the real sources of our problems. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," October 30, 2018
I am grateful my spiritual life started with the instruction to have...to build if you will...the God of my own understanding. I was fairly broken at the time so I was blessed to be advised to find and stay with one source for my primary guide in seeking my own...then I could remain open to other spiritual material...if it enhanced my primary guide, incorporate it.
I chose the Sermon on the Mount...I tend to believe the Sermon chose me. Gratefully, I have learned from the Buddha, Kris Kristofferson, Brother Lawrence, Chief Joseph. The list is all but endless, but at the top, ah, I continue to learn from F.X., my mentor, my love, who speaks the Sermon, but in my language, a tish profane but always with love.
I have become convinced that the primary source of all my woes is my inability...no, I am able, it's my ego-victory refusal...to tame my attack mind. That's what clicked when I read Rohr this morning, for I have come to believe that our inner attitudes and states are the real sources of our problems.
The proof of that is the fact that if we will but change our mind, our problem will go away. I was gifted with a blinding flash of the obvious once awhile back which I am still learning to lean on...upgrade your attitude, upgrade your problem.
We cannot change our mind, we cannot upgrade our attitude, relying solely on our reasoning mind. Common sense tells us if we believe we are right, we're not going to change our mind...for why?
We must go beyond reason to love.
Since love is the answer no matter the question, the problem, the other, we need to find a way to look at our "right" from another angle. To look with the inner desire to find a way not to be wrong but to be in agreement with that which or whom we are opposing.
Our intellect is our friend here. It takes some serious thinking to come to complete defeat. Just coming to the right answer will not give us peace...that's begrudging, and begrudging is Lucy bitching about it. No. Complete defeat is the changing room in God's hidey hole...the place where we can exchange surrender for acceptance and walk free in love.
Learning to give love in order to accept love is going to God for God...and that is all.
Thank you.
Learning to give love in order to accept love is going to God for God...and that is all.
Thank you.
Monday, October 29, 2018
EGO DEMANDS vs. GOD'S WILL
I was told at the very first retreat I ever attended that truth must be proved. I had just begun to understand that Truth, with a capital T, was not precisely the same as the truth we need tell when we'd rather CYA...as in, blame, shame and split.
My understanding is that Truth must be proved else we are into magic thinking. The measure of the Truth we have proved is demonstrated by our life and how we live it, not by our thinking it so or by telling others it is so...if any telling need be done, others tell us it is so by what they see in us.
It seems to me that proving Truth pretty much boils down to going against our ego's dictates...those wants of ours that are self-based and usually all dressed up, looking spiffy (which to ego is spiritual growth or close enough).
Recently my frenemy Gertrude made an unwanted demand of me...already we know where I'm going here. I had the devil's own time divorcing myself from my instant decision to set her straight, to do the exact opposite, to flip her the bird, to split, saying nothing but never ever going near her again. All that in a heartbeat.
End result, after some arm-wrestling with God, I did what Gertrude demanded without hassling her, which means without giving Lucy airtime.
Here's the surprising punchline: I've found myself belittling my efforts. Thinking because I didn't immediately soar above Lucy's demands...or not have had them to begin with...that there was no positive here or the result was negligible.
As I went into my quiet time this morning, I was gifted with the thought of Saint Paul saying (something like) don't hassle yourself with self-described uglies, think on the good; there's nothing not wonderful in your life that doesn't have some good in it...find the good and think on those things.
I'm taking that as permission to realize my decision to turn from Lucy's wants (the dross) to God's will (the gold) as proof of Truth in my life.
I pray that my life may be a demonstration of what the grace of God can do. -- Anonymous
Thank you.
My understanding is that Truth must be proved else we are into magic thinking. The measure of the Truth we have proved is demonstrated by our life and how we live it, not by our thinking it so or by telling others it is so...if any telling need be done, others tell us it is so by what they see in us.
It seems to me that proving Truth pretty much boils down to going against our ego's dictates...those wants of ours that are self-based and usually all dressed up, looking spiffy (which to ego is spiritual growth or close enough).
Recently my frenemy Gertrude made an unwanted demand of me...already we know where I'm going here. I had the devil's own time divorcing myself from my instant decision to set her straight, to do the exact opposite, to flip her the bird, to split, saying nothing but never ever going near her again. All that in a heartbeat.
End result, after some arm-wrestling with God, I did what Gertrude demanded without hassling her, which means without giving Lucy airtime.
Here's the surprising punchline: I've found myself belittling my efforts. Thinking because I didn't immediately soar above Lucy's demands...or not have had them to begin with...that there was no positive here or the result was negligible.
As I went into my quiet time this morning, I was gifted with the thought of Saint Paul saying (something like) don't hassle yourself with self-described uglies, think on the good; there's nothing not wonderful in your life that doesn't have some good in it...find the good and think on those things.
I'm taking that as permission to realize my decision to turn from Lucy's wants (the dross) to God's will (the gold) as proof of Truth in my life.
I pray that my life may be a demonstration of what the grace of God can do. -- Anonymous
Thank you.
Sunday, October 28, 2018
FINDING PEACE...HEARING ANGELS
We do not know how His plans are laid, we only need to believe that if we trust Him and accept whatever happens as His will and in a spirit of faith, everything will work out for the best in the end. -- Anonymous
There it is: We only need trust Him and accept whatever happens as His will, and everything will work out for the best in the end. This I do believe...it is my truth. Also, it is all but impossible to just tell another that truth convincingly. Apparently, the reasoning-mind response to that is either Yes, but..., or, No way.
Actually, this is reasonable since we live in the material world which consists of provable facts...things we can hug or not hug but see for sure.
That's exactly why we must needs be open to seeking still more spiritual growth even as we breathe...not just a half-hour every morning, or an hour or so every day. No. As we grow our life...as we flow with our life...the instant we feel resistance from or to whatever, we have learned to not take it personally. Our new watchword has become, take nothing personally.
We think our thank you and move with the perceived block which often disappears with our acceptance of it. However, those times when the block remains, and there will be those times, we learn to offer no resistance as we smile and remove our self...shake the dust off your feet and move on is the word we get from the Bible and from my favorite, The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment. (Likely from a lot of other sources but if I get it from those two, I quit searching...I've found my answer.)
Everybody wants peace of mind, nobody wants to do peace. Face it, a fret-free life is a self-free life. Short course in freedom from self: trust, accept, believe in God and his will, take nothing personally, detach and get grateful.
We shall find peace, we shall hear angels, we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds! -- Chekhov
Thank you.
Saturday, October 27, 2018
A DAILY FOCUSED COMMITMENT
Relying on our reasoning mind leads to resignation. Being powered by self-will, resignation gets us the same-old-same-old...period. The s-o-s-o often ends with us looking for someone to blame.
It takes a daily focused commitment to still more spiritual growth to get over our own self. Ah, but the learning is in what we are focused on...what we are committed to. Say a self-defying problem arises...we tend to want to give that to God to fix...in our favor. And Now.
God can and will solve the problem in our favor...in his way and in his time. Say we, or a loved one, are diagnosed with a dreaded disease...the usual response there is, "Please, God, remove this...take it away...heal me." But dreaded diseases kill and/or maim a lot of people...that may be ours to face.
If we resign our self to our fate of death by this disease, we will die unresolved within...meaning unhappy and often angry...at God. Acceptance of our fate, however, opens us to God's solution in our favor: the mysterious ways of the Lord...a mind at peace, a quietly joyful heart...as we lie dying. Or not. God's will.
This is not "according to me," nor is it a theory. I have been with both cases more than a couple times. It was for me a life-changing experience...in all cases.
Our daily focused commitment is ever: We go to God for God and that is all.
Thank you.
It takes a daily focused commitment to still more spiritual growth to get over our own self. Ah, but the learning is in what we are focused on...what we are committed to. Say a self-defying problem arises...we tend to want to give that to God to fix...in our favor. And Now.
God can and will solve the problem in our favor...in his way and in his time. Say we, or a loved one, are diagnosed with a dreaded disease...the usual response there is, "Please, God, remove this...take it away...heal me." But dreaded diseases kill and/or maim a lot of people...that may be ours to face.
If we resign our self to our fate of death by this disease, we will die unresolved within...meaning unhappy and often angry...at God. Acceptance of our fate, however, opens us to God's solution in our favor: the mysterious ways of the Lord...a mind at peace, a quietly joyful heart...as we lie dying. Or not. God's will.
This is not "according to me," nor is it a theory. I have been with both cases more than a couple times. It was for me a life-changing experience...in all cases.
Thank you.
Friday, October 26, 2018
WHEN GIVEN A CHOICE, CHOOSE GOD
The promises that we are given in our quiet time, that we receive from deep on high, are true. But they cannot be true for our self alone...if they are not true for the universe, they are akin to the devil quoting scripture...just ego whispering ego-victory wishes to our self.
I read in Fr Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation this morning that it is written we must be ground like wheat, and once we have recovered, then we can turn and help others. I'm taking ground like wheat to be our ego resisting the need to give over, give up, give in.
My prayer concerns a petty, infinitesimal pushback that my ego Lucy is wrapped around. Having to do with another, of course: God grant that I be willing to give over, give up, give in to her will...let it be...resist not are just words if I'm not going to do them...starting within my own attack mind and walking it all the way through. I can mentally ask him what I can do to help when I walk in the door. What's your suggestion, please and thank you?
There. That's me being ground like wheat. I do not want to mentally ask him what I can do, I want to physically tell her what she can do. Oh, wait...BFO...is this maybe God in him inviting God in me to love and laugh...together? As One? I'm going with that...when given a choice, choose the one with the less ego.
You must be ground like wheat; once you have recovered, then you can turn and help the others. -- Luke 22:31-32
Thank you.
I read in Fr Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation this morning that it is written we must be ground like wheat, and once we have recovered, then we can turn and help others. I'm taking ground like wheat to be our ego resisting the need to give over, give up, give in.
My prayer concerns a petty, infinitesimal pushback that my ego Lucy is wrapped around. Having to do with another, of course: God grant that I be willing to give over, give up, give in to her will...let it be...resist not are just words if I'm not going to do them...starting within my own attack mind and walking it all the way through. I can mentally ask him what I can do to help when I walk in the door. What's your suggestion, please and thank you?
There. That's me being ground like wheat. I do not want to mentally ask him what I can do, I want to physically tell her what she can do. Oh, wait...BFO...is this maybe God in him inviting God in me to love and laugh...together? As One? I'm going with that...when given a choice, choose the one with the less ego.
You must be ground like wheat; once you have recovered, then you can turn and help the others. -- Luke 22:31-32
Thank you.
Thursday, October 25, 2018
GET GRATEFUL...OR LOVE AND LAUGH
If the seemingly unjustified regrets of our life (the unfairs, the not-my-faults) are never resolved to our liking, that is our glory...the result we get is the result God wills. That is the reason God invented gratitude.
It is my ego Lucy which holds the grudge, slings the mud, and winds up hurting no one but me just as long as I hold the grudge and sling the mud...if only in my own attack mind.
It is forgiveness (which is the whole of life right there) we need, and we must needs seek to extend it rather than seek to receive it. Toward that end, we learn the art of forgiveness which plain and simple is learning to take nothing personally. If all is God and all is of God, there is nothing we spiritually can take personally. And all else is but a dream.
We tend to give short shrift to forgiveness, using our get-out-of-jail free pass...I cannot forgive, only God can forgive. Ah, but how does God do forgiveness but through our own words, thoughts and deeds?
We begin our gratitude journey toward forgiveness by consciously deciding to replace our egoic wants with our needs, or a willingness to seek and accept God's will. The hard work on our part is letting go of the hard work...of trying to do the forgiveness.
Our awakening comes with our first glimpse that God is Love and sees nothing to forgive. We come to accept that we are forgiven...more importantly, we know this can only be held by passing it on. Forgiveness is passed on when we realize that there is nothing to forgive.
We love and laugh.
Thank you.
It is my ego Lucy which holds the grudge, slings the mud, and winds up hurting no one but me just as long as I hold the grudge and sling the mud...if only in my own attack mind.
It is forgiveness (which is the whole of life right there) we need, and we must needs seek to extend it rather than seek to receive it. Toward that end, we learn the art of forgiveness which plain and simple is learning to take nothing personally. If all is God and all is of God, there is nothing we spiritually can take personally. And all else is but a dream.
We tend to give short shrift to forgiveness, using our get-out-of-jail free pass...I cannot forgive, only God can forgive. Ah, but how does God do forgiveness but through our own words, thoughts and deeds?
We begin our gratitude journey toward forgiveness by consciously deciding to replace our egoic wants with our needs, or a willingness to seek and accept God's will. The hard work on our part is letting go of the hard work...of trying to do the forgiveness.
Our awakening comes with our first glimpse that God is Love and sees nothing to forgive. We come to accept that we are forgiven...more importantly, we know this can only be held by passing it on. Forgiveness is passed on when we realize that there is nothing to forgive.
We love and laugh.
Thank you.
Wednesday, October 24, 2018
GOD GOES BEFORE US AS BACKUP
I and the Father are one...ah, but i am the vessel that holds I, the Father within, and it is incumbent upon that little i to keep I the Father holy...to run interference on my own ego, the driver of i, to think holy and wholly of I the Father for whom i am the representative. -- my morning BFO
Without conscious effort, my thoughts will ever go on the attack...like a lion on the prowl. Oh, I'm glad I thought lion...I can name it Aslan and gratefully consider my attack thoughts as seeking the ones whom I need to love. Akin to the monster in Golas' LSD trip who, when repulsed, said, "What was it that you thought needed to be loved?" That is one of my all-time favorite examples of learning to think from a different perspective.
I came across a note I wrote to myself on October 7, 1985. It's all about a co-worker with whom I was in constant discord. At the time, I described our problem as, We're in a personality conflict...he doesn't have one. Which is a clue of just how far I had to come to even begin to turn my thinking around.
I am most grateful I kept that note for it is my hard-copy proof of how and when I began my journey of consciously seeking to do love instead of to do hate. The note is all about me seeing me, not the co-worker...and I listed each thing about him that I was resisting, and I named them Me or Mine. And I asked that God's will be done through me...whatever that might be.
On the back of the note, dated September 24, 2005, I wrote: The punchline: B and I became friends and when he departed the job, we split with a hug in love and laughter.
It fills me with joy just to read and remember that time. It calls to mind since then the times I've been forced to go there again...and have received God's own blessing each time. By simply giving over, giving up and giving in.
Lose self-consciousness, gain God-consciousness...which is ephemeral. We can only access it Now. That's why we find our self going back again and again...ego is always driving the bus, God is ever heading it in the right direction.
He goes before us to make the crooked places straight.
Thank you.
Without conscious effort, my thoughts will ever go on the attack...like a lion on the prowl. Oh, I'm glad I thought lion...I can name it Aslan and gratefully consider my attack thoughts as seeking the ones whom I need to love. Akin to the monster in Golas' LSD trip who, when repulsed, said, "What was it that you thought needed to be loved?" That is one of my all-time favorite examples of learning to think from a different perspective.
I came across a note I wrote to myself on October 7, 1985. It's all about a co-worker with whom I was in constant discord. At the time, I described our problem as, We're in a personality conflict...he doesn't have one. Which is a clue of just how far I had to come to even begin to turn my thinking around.
I am most grateful I kept that note for it is my hard-copy proof of how and when I began my journey of consciously seeking to do love instead of to do hate. The note is all about me seeing me, not the co-worker...and I listed each thing about him that I was resisting, and I named them Me or Mine. And I asked that God's will be done through me...whatever that might be.
On the back of the note, dated September 24, 2005, I wrote: The punchline: B and I became friends and when he departed the job, we split with a hug in love and laughter.
It fills me with joy just to read and remember that time. It calls to mind since then the times I've been forced to go there again...and have received God's own blessing each time. By simply giving over, giving up and giving in.
Lose self-consciousness, gain God-consciousness...which is ephemeral. We can only access it Now. That's why we find our self going back again and again...ego is always driving the bus, God is ever heading it in the right direction.
He goes before us to make the crooked places straight.
Thank you.
Tuesday, October 23, 2018
ON REFLECTING PEACE TOWARD OTHERS
Between human and human, only spiritual forces will suffice to keep them in harmony. -- Anonymous
Ultimately, we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it toward others. -- Etty Hillesum
Love protects us from nothing, even as it unexplainably sustains us in all things. -- Saint John of the Cross via Fr Richard Rohr
....release the imprisoned God-Power within you. That Power, once operative, will immediately perform miracles. -- Anonymous
All of the above are quotes from my various daily readings. Each and all say the same thing to me; namely, there is a Higher Power within our very own self that is always available, always there for our own benefit, is most often the exact opposite of what we think we need (or what our ego is seeking), and it is that Power that produces miracles in our life.
Interesting to me, it seems a small but solid ego-block to our accessing that Power is our refusal to let each other know it by whatever name that speaks to us. I call It God and/or Jesus. My friend Gertrude calls it Buddha...and gets furious when she hears the name Jesus. An acquaintance calls it Allah and thinks others bigoted for not. Etc.
It seems that when I try to let the Gertrudes be Gertrude (i.e., Wrong), I wind up with a resentment looking to do my thinking for me.
My peace has been enhanced mightily when I quit resisting their resistance...not by silent and superior judgment, but by sincerely asking God to bless my thoughts and heart about their thoughts and heart. He can! He has! He does! Equally important: I can't! Ah, but I can through the God Power within me.
We go to God for God and that is all. That Power, once operative, will immediately perform miracles.
Thank you.
Love protects us from nothing, even as it unexplainably sustains us in all things. -- Saint John of the Cross via Fr Richard Rohr
....release the imprisoned God-Power within you. That Power, once operative, will immediately perform miracles. -- Anonymous
All of the above are quotes from my various daily readings. Each and all say the same thing to me; namely, there is a Higher Power within our very own self that is always available, always there for our own benefit, is most often the exact opposite of what we think we need (or what our ego is seeking), and it is that Power that produces miracles in our life.
Interesting to me, it seems a small but solid ego-block to our accessing that Power is our refusal to let each other know it by whatever name that speaks to us. I call It God and/or Jesus. My friend Gertrude calls it Buddha...and gets furious when she hears the name Jesus. An acquaintance calls it Allah and thinks others bigoted for not. Etc.
It seems that when I try to let the Gertrudes be Gertrude (i.e., Wrong), I wind up with a resentment looking to do my thinking for me.
My peace has been enhanced mightily when I quit resisting their resistance...not by silent and superior judgment, but by sincerely asking God to bless my thoughts and heart about their thoughts and heart. He can! He has! He does! Equally important: I can't! Ah, but I can through the God Power within me.
We go to God for God and that is all. That Power, once operative, will immediately perform miracles.
Thank you.
Monday, October 22, 2018
ALL PATHS LEAD TO GOD
Here's my stand: We each are given our own choice of how to go to God, but getting to God is the outcome for all of us.
There is only one beginning, God consciousness, and one ending, God consciousness...the filling between, i.e., you and me (or ego), is innumerable, with newbies being born every instant.
It is our ego that legislates for itself ever and always...ergo, there's our spiritual workplace. The work, of course, is ego deflation in depth which starts with our conscious decision to deny self. In our daily walking around world that means we need to deny our perspective, our wants, our opinions. Fairly puny matters in fact. But to my ego Lucy...that's my truth, on which rests my self-esteem, for which I must stand and fight.
This, then, is our spiritual work: To give up analyzing our resistance...a stuck place for certain sure, since analyzing is just another word for justifying. The light breaks through when we realize analyzing is resistance, that we must needs give thanks for it...in another word, surrender.
In the moment of our surrender, our decision is made in favor of the Lord's outcome whatever it may be. We give up, we give in, we give over. It matters not who "wins," or who "loses," because with Lucy out of the picture, there is no winner or loser. There is only grace. Our burden, self, is lifted.
We can choose to live dependent on our own self, on our reasoning mind, or to live dependent on a power greater than our self...that which we cannot see, touch or hear...or, fortunately, prove. We have made our choice and in this sacred place we realize our life is just beginning...our spiritual work has just begun. There. Faith is born.
We must all carry the cross of our own reality until God transforms us through it. -- Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, October 17, 1018
Thank you.
There is only one beginning, God consciousness, and one ending, God consciousness...the filling between, i.e., you and me (or ego), is innumerable, with newbies being born every instant.
It is our ego that legislates for itself ever and always...ergo, there's our spiritual workplace. The work, of course, is ego deflation in depth which starts with our conscious decision to deny self. In our daily walking around world that means we need to deny our perspective, our wants, our opinions. Fairly puny matters in fact. But to my ego Lucy...that's my truth, on which rests my self-esteem, for which I must stand and fight.
This, then, is our spiritual work: To give up analyzing our resistance...a stuck place for certain sure, since analyzing is just another word for justifying. The light breaks through when we realize analyzing is resistance, that we must needs give thanks for it...in another word, surrender.
In the moment of our surrender, our decision is made in favor of the Lord's outcome whatever it may be. We give up, we give in, we give over. It matters not who "wins," or who "loses," because with Lucy out of the picture, there is no winner or loser. There is only grace. Our burden, self, is lifted.
We can choose to live dependent on our own self, on our reasoning mind, or to live dependent on a power greater than our self...that which we cannot see, touch or hear...or, fortunately, prove. We have made our choice and in this sacred place we realize our life is just beginning...our spiritual work has just begun. There. Faith is born.
We must all carry the cross of our own reality until God transforms us through it. -- Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, October 17, 1018
Thank you.
Sunday, October 21, 2018
RUES, REGRETS, REMORSES...LOVE 'EM & LAUGH
Suffering is the only thing strong enough to destabilize the imperial ego. -- Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, October 21, 2018
I need to be clear that the God I write about, speak of, think of, ponder is I, the Father within.
It is I, the Father, who knows my needs, who guides me today, this instant, for whatever unknown-to-me purposes later. And the purpose is always for my benefit no matter the reasoning mind's resistance to that which I need to walk through today, tomorrow, a year from now, this instant.
It is always I, the Father within, who comes to save the day, using my hands, my feet, my tongue, my brain. It is, therefore, incumbent upon me to ever realize still more spiritual growth for how else is the ego deflated?
The reasoning mind will likely never accept suffering as a welcome tool. So we change it up...just as we learned that surrender is acceptance in better clothes, we can now know suffering as grace. Because it is. There. That's our spiritual-growth gift.
God, I, the Father within, loves us. Think about it: I love me, and all My gifts are for my benefit. Now apply that to any unresolved rues, regrets and remorses. Ah, it is to laugh...and love.
Thank you.
I need to be clear that the God I write about, speak of, think of, ponder is I, the Father within.
It is I, the Father, who knows my needs, who guides me today, this instant, for whatever unknown-to-me purposes later. And the purpose is always for my benefit no matter the reasoning mind's resistance to that which I need to walk through today, tomorrow, a year from now, this instant.
It is always I, the Father within, who comes to save the day, using my hands, my feet, my tongue, my brain. It is, therefore, incumbent upon me to ever realize still more spiritual growth for how else is the ego deflated?
The reasoning mind will likely never accept suffering as a welcome tool. So we change it up...just as we learned that surrender is acceptance in better clothes, we can now know suffering as grace. Because it is. There. That's our spiritual-growth gift.
God, I, the Father within, loves us. Think about it: I love me, and all My gifts are for my benefit. Now apply that to any unresolved rues, regrets and remorses. Ah, it is to laugh...and love.
Thank you.
Saturday, October 20, 2018
ON BOUNDING AROUND HEAVEN ALL DAY
I'm realizing the proof of the value of my endless notes to myself in my daily readers.
This morning I found my "God Calling" note for this day last year regarding the first diagnosed signs of my little guy's doggie dementia. He had to spend the night in the emergency hospital, which I had totally forgotten about, and I now recall telling the vet about several unexplained, seemingly unimportant, things he had done that helped lead her to the diagnosis. I returned him to God on April 18, 2018.
This is important to me because recently I have been relying on my unreliable memory and suffering rues, regrets and remorses, because my memory is that he was diagnosed with cognitive disorder and a heartbeat later I shipped him Home...way too soon.
The more I relied on faulty memories, the more my ego, Lucy With The Football, nattered in me, and the more certain her voice became.
Ah, here comes God to save the day!
I am a believer that the Father, who knows my needs, guided me in writing those notes because he knew I'd be needing them later. The pearl beyond price is the Father also knows Lucy and her persuasive voice...her voice is louder but his voice is truer. Louder never will mean better.
I don't fight her, old Lucy, not only because I invariably lose, but fighting her just gives me permission to fight another something or someone. I have given up fighting, so I let God deal with her. See how perfectly he made an end run around her?
I know this morning (again) that I made the right, the only, decision for my boy, in the exactly right time. He is gratefully bounding around Heaven all day. And I miss him still.
God is so good to me. And to Ruckus.
Thank you.
This morning I found my "God Calling" note for this day last year regarding the first diagnosed signs of my little guy's doggie dementia. He had to spend the night in the emergency hospital, which I had totally forgotten about, and I now recall telling the vet about several unexplained, seemingly unimportant, things he had done that helped lead her to the diagnosis. I returned him to God on April 18, 2018.
This is important to me because recently I have been relying on my unreliable memory and suffering rues, regrets and remorses, because my memory is that he was diagnosed with cognitive disorder and a heartbeat later I shipped him Home...way too soon.
The more I relied on faulty memories, the more my ego, Lucy With The Football, nattered in me, and the more certain her voice became.
Ah, here comes God to save the day!
I am a believer that the Father, who knows my needs, guided me in writing those notes because he knew I'd be needing them later. The pearl beyond price is the Father also knows Lucy and her persuasive voice...her voice is louder but his voice is truer. Louder never will mean better.
I don't fight her, old Lucy, not only because I invariably lose, but fighting her just gives me permission to fight another something or someone. I have given up fighting, so I let God deal with her. See how perfectly he made an end run around her?
I know this morning (again) that I made the right, the only, decision for my boy, in the exactly right time. He is gratefully bounding around Heaven all day. And I miss him still.
God is so good to me. And to Ruckus.
Thank you.
Friday, October 19, 2018
OUR ONLY NEED IS LOVE...TO GIVE
As we seek spiritual growth, we grow spiritually...whether or not we fully realize it. It usually takes some personal ego-defier for us to awaken to our spiritual answers already held within. Using them, then, is the Whoa, Nellie! Also known as, getting over our own self.
This may well be the paradox...our need is seldom what we want. Our need (ego deflation in depth) is God's invitation. It's just that our want is in gold and glory, and our need is in puce and brown.
Ah, but this need is where self-will proves to be a friend...we must try with a will or fall by the wayside.
This may well be the paradox...our need is seldom what we want. Our need (ego deflation in depth) is God's invitation. It's just that our want is in gold and glory, and our need is in puce and brown.
Ah, but this need is where self-will proves to be a friend...we must try with a will or fall by the wayside.
Ego will ever push for payback, and, since ego's voice is louder than God's, it takes real effort (not to forget, a little help from our friends) to recall that to follow the dictates of the ego is to remain enslaved.
I'm a believer that we cannot "ask for" without already having: There are three things I seek for my attack (fear) thoughts in order to feel love instead of fear...that God clarify, purify, gratify, howsomever he so chooses. Then I start doing that for which I've asked...and receive the dreaded gift of patience.
The Father knows our needs...he also has a wicked sense of humor.
Thank you.
Thursday, October 18, 2018
LOVE, JUST LOVE
I have read, and I do believe, that all of our problems can be solved by spiritual principles.
If, indeed, that be true, why do we not apply spiritual principles to our everyday life? Or to corporate problems? Or national and international problems?
Elementary question, complicated answer...actually, the answer is equally elementary, i.e., ego. The problem being that ego is individualized. Each person has one, and each one is legislating for itself.
I suspect the nut of the legislation for self boils down to each one's understanding of God...starting with whether one accepts that there is a God and then whose God has the most power, does it right, can beat all others in nuclear war or in arm wrestling, etc., etc., etc.
New rule: All problems are ego-based. Get over our self, we get over our problem. Or, love.
Better rule: Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and love thy neighbor as thyself.
Thank you.
If, indeed, that be true, why do we not apply spiritual principles to our everyday life? Or to corporate problems? Or national and international problems?
Elementary question, complicated answer...actually, the answer is equally elementary, i.e., ego. The problem being that ego is individualized. Each person has one, and each one is legislating for itself.
I suspect the nut of the legislation for self boils down to each one's understanding of God...starting with whether one accepts that there is a God and then whose God has the most power, does it right, can beat all others in nuclear war or in arm wrestling, etc., etc., etc.
New rule: All problems are ego-based. Get over our self, we get over our problem. Or, love.
Better rule: Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and love thy neighbor as thyself.
Thank you.
Wednesday, October 17, 2018
IS IT A BOON OR IS IT A BANE?
[This is a slightly reworked reprint of my post of January 19, 2014.]
There's a line in Rudyard Kipling's poem, If, about treating victory and defeat the same. I'm told it is over the players' door that leads out onto the tennis courts at Wimbledon...something about being able to meet victory or defeat and "treating those imposters the same."
That pretty much answers one of the trickier questions in life: Is it a boon or is it a bane? The answer is, both. The answer is, neither. It just is. In getting to that acceptance, I'm reminded of the line in the country song about being an old lump of coal "but I'm going to be a diamond some day." Bane to boon.
I love the line in the Introduction to God Calling: "...He will not remove the gold from the crucible until all the dross has gone...." It goes on to say, "...you are taking the glorious shape of your true self which His eye alone has foreseen."
If that is true, and if we're seeing ugly in our life right this minute, we need only remember to turn it around a tish...lift it up...view it from another angle. Look at it through God's eyes. When we're seeing ugly, we're just seeing the dross that is already in the process of being removed. Lest we forget, it is in the process of being removed by God. If we work with him, we walk free...if not, alone again, naturally.
Coal has the same splendor as gold...it's just not completed yet. Same as you and me.
Thank you.
There's a line in Rudyard Kipling's poem, If, about treating victory and defeat the same. I'm told it is over the players' door that leads out onto the tennis courts at Wimbledon...something about being able to meet victory or defeat and "treating those imposters the same."
That pretty much answers one of the trickier questions in life: Is it a boon or is it a bane? The answer is, both. The answer is, neither. It just is. In getting to that acceptance, I'm reminded of the line in the country song about being an old lump of coal "but I'm going to be a diamond some day." Bane to boon.
I love the line in the Introduction to God Calling: "...He will not remove the gold from the crucible until all the dross has gone...." It goes on to say, "...you are taking the glorious shape of your true self which His eye alone has foreseen."
If that is true, and if we're seeing ugly in our life right this minute, we need only remember to turn it around a tish...lift it up...view it from another angle. Look at it through God's eyes. When we're seeing ugly, we're just seeing the dross that is already in the process of being removed. Lest we forget, it is in the process of being removed by God. If we work with him, we walk free...if not, alone again, naturally.
Coal has the same splendor as gold...it's just not completed yet. Same as you and me.
Thank you.
Tuesday, October 16, 2018
RELEASING THE GOD-POWER WITHIN
...the path of descent is the path of transformation. Darkness, failure, relapse, death, and woundedness are our primary teachers. -- Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, October 16, 2018
We must see, acknowledge, BE the darkness, failure, relapse, death and woundedness in our little piece of our own universe...nonresistance leads us free. We get bogged down in comparing our littleness to the incomprehensible courage of the likes of Ira Hayes or Etty Hillesum, et al. No. Our courage comes in how we overcome within our own self the snarks, slurs and slams of our life...by which I See Me and judge at 3:00 AM. It takes courage to kiss it on the lips and praise the Lord at 3 AM...but that's how we find our courage, by using it.
I am realizing more and more that my everyday message is all about getting over my own self. I feel dissed, I feel honored, I feel less than, I feel oh so superior, I feel all alone, I feel crowded, I feel...but then don't we all?
The great and glorious, stand-up-and-shout answer to those feelings, i.e., life's problems, is: Resist nothing, welcome all...that is what we are, the clay God has to work with...our sole job is to let him.
We let him when we feel, say, fear of financial insecurity. We consciously recall that fear is God's camouflage. This fear of financial insecurity has naught to do with money, it has to do with fear...fear for our security. God is our security. We immediately turn our thoughts to God and the things of God...stay our focus there until God is our only thought. Fear is banished, we are secured.
This is what "God Calling" describes as releasing the imprisoned God-Power within you. It goes on to say, That Power, once operative, will immediately perform miracles. I am here to attest that is true.
Thank you.
Monday, October 15, 2018
OUT OF SELF-WILL, INTO GOD'S WILL
Rabbi Harold Kushner explained in his foreword to 'Man’s Search for Meaning': Suffering in and of itself is meaningless; we give our suffering meaning by the way in which we respond to it. . . . Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation. You cannot control what happens to you in life, but you can always control what you will feel and do about what happens to you. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," October 15, 2018
That is now accepted as fact by searching people. Personally, though, I don't believe the whole story is told when he says you can always control what you will feel and do about what happens to you. No. No, we cannot always control what we feel about what happens to us. That's the entire point heading us toward a Higher Power...God. According to me.
I contend that to always try to be in control of what we feel is to preclude the need for a spiritual power...God...in our life. We expend our very self...spiritual, mental, physical...on the trying for control of a feeling. Or, more like, a projected feeling...fear of suffering.
It's akin to trying to change our mind by our own will power alone. No. We must needs go to God...to a power greater than our self...seeking not to change our mind from A to Z, which is just another self-determined objective, but to upgrade our thinking. To lift our thoughts up to whatever they need to be in love.
Here comes my golden rule to ease the way: Just try not to be as nasty as you want to be. That's doable. It also heads us in the right direction...away from self toward God, toward God's will, a.k.a., grace. It is in our hands, our mind, our control no longer.
Thank you.
That is now accepted as fact by searching people. Personally, though, I don't believe the whole story is told when he says you can always control what you will feel and do about what happens to you. No. No, we cannot always control what we feel about what happens to us. That's the entire point heading us toward a Higher Power...God. According to me.
I contend that to always try to be in control of what we feel is to preclude the need for a spiritual power...God...in our life. We expend our very self...spiritual, mental, physical...on the trying for control of a feeling. Or, more like, a projected feeling...fear of suffering.
It's akin to trying to change our mind by our own will power alone. No. We must needs go to God...to a power greater than our self...seeking not to change our mind from A to Z, which is just another self-determined objective, but to upgrade our thinking. To lift our thoughts up to whatever they need to be in love.
Here comes my golden rule to ease the way: Just try not to be as nasty as you want to be. That's doable. It also heads us in the right direction...away from self toward God, toward God's will, a.k.a., grace. It is in our hands, our mind, our control no longer.
Thank you.
Sunday, October 14, 2018
IN GOD WE TRUST
You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom. . . . And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble. —Matthew 5:10,12, The Message -- (Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, October 14, 2018)
There have been three times in my adult life, my spiritually seeking life, that I have provoked persecution...albeit, unintentionally, but persecuted nonetheless. (I Googled persecute to be sure I'm not overly dramatizing: to subject (someone) to hostility and ill-treatment, especially because of their race or political or religious beliefs. Nope, not overly dramatizing.)
The first time, which happened some 30 years ago, I resisted...pushed back, got in her face, set him straight...and even when I "won," I felt like I'd "lost."
The second time, having learned a tish, I suffered in silence...which I do not regret today because it taught me that suffering in silence is just encouraging my own dark and dirty thoughts to attack me...from the inside. (And there's an argument we cannot win.)
The third time...ah, the third time I call blessed. For I did not resist, I did not suffer in silence. I did seek the advice of my mentor, I did follow that advice (in essence, sit and wait on the Lord), and I found peace.
Here's the punchline: The result of the first "persecution" came some ten years later when I was publicly honored by the people at the place where I had been dissed.
The second only affects me when I touch it, when I refer to it. I forget it for years on end...then, it comes to mind, I speak of it and ugly blooms. Which is an excellent reminder that I am indeed the source of all my own woes.
The third time I choose to believe is part of our necessary initiation...which grows gratitude unending so why not believe?
The acceptance, the welcoming, the opening to all that comes our way is our proof to our own self that In God We Trust. Proof to our own self...God does not need it.
Thank you.
There have been three times in my adult life, my spiritually seeking life, that I have provoked persecution...albeit, unintentionally, but persecuted nonetheless. (I Googled persecute to be sure I'm not overly dramatizing: to subject (someone) to hostility and ill-treatment, especially because of their race or political or religious beliefs. Nope, not overly dramatizing.)
The first time, which happened some 30 years ago, I resisted...pushed back, got in her face, set him straight...and even when I "won," I felt like I'd "lost."
The second time, having learned a tish, I suffered in silence...which I do not regret today because it taught me that suffering in silence is just encouraging my own dark and dirty thoughts to attack me...from the inside. (And there's an argument we cannot win.)
The third time...ah, the third time I call blessed. For I did not resist, I did not suffer in silence. I did seek the advice of my mentor, I did follow that advice (in essence, sit and wait on the Lord), and I found peace.
Here's the punchline: The result of the first "persecution" came some ten years later when I was publicly honored by the people at the place where I had been dissed.
The second only affects me when I touch it, when I refer to it. I forget it for years on end...then, it comes to mind, I speak of it and ugly blooms. Which is an excellent reminder that I am indeed the source of all my own woes.
The third time I choose to believe is part of our necessary initiation...which grows gratitude unending so why not believe?
The acceptance, the welcoming, the opening to all that comes our way is our proof to our own self that In God We Trust. Proof to our own self...God does not need it.
Thank you.
Saturday, October 13, 2018
GOD, THE SENDER AND THE RECEIVER
BFO: Pray thank you for Pope Francis and any ills directed at him. Same goes for our own self and all the perceived ills ever directed at us. For God the Father is the sender and the receiver.
If the perceived ills of any of us are never straightened out to our liking, that is our glory...the result we get is the result God wills for our spiritual benefit.
According to me, when first we started to build sandcastles in our Id, we accepted our Ego as our necessary leader. Which decision put the period to the idea (or the want-to) that the meek shall inherit the earth. [Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. -- Matthew 5:5]
According to me, when first we started to build sandcastles in our Id, we accepted our Ego as our necessary leader. Which decision put the period to the idea (or the want-to) that the meek shall inherit the earth. [Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. -- Matthew 5:5]
I'm a believer that the meek indeed will inherit the earth...without qualifiers such as meek really means mighty or some like interpretation. Meek means meek...to me. Praise that. Love that. Nothing will get us out of our own way more completely than the acceptance of that fact...go with it.
We have ceased fighting anything and anybody. -- Anonymous
I will fight no more forever. -- Chief Joseph
To win 100 victories in 100 battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill. -- Sun Tzu
Why else would those statements give us such peace in our heart?
How else can we know God's love? God knows naught of fighting.
Thank you.
Friday, October 12, 2018
LOVE THE UNKNOWING
I sought the comfort of the rosary this morning...I know nothing of the rosary but it was gifted me by a beautiful soul, and I treasure it. This morning as I held it, I trembled not, I sought not, I felt the grace of gratitude, and I knew peace.
In the silence came: We do no wrong, it is our interpretation that is in error.
Our Father does the works...our ego interprets. The works of the Father glorify the Father...which, of course, pleases my ego, Lucy With the Football, not at all. Our reasoning mind will not easily let go of its own interpretation of our perceived wrongs, names them in fact: Rues, Regrets and Remorses and holds them fast.
To loose them and let them go requires but one thing...that we change our mind. How else do we become as little children, children of God?
Here comes the relief pitcher, love...love is the only answer. If love be the answer here, it must needs be the direction in which we love that needs clarifying. Ah, it's Lucy we need love, our very ego, the source of all our woes! But why? Because it is Lucy's interpretation that brings us to right size, miniaturized, if you will. Children of our Father.
The love we now know is an impersonal, all-encompassing Unknowing. Pondering will not get us there. Let It Be.
Thank you.
In the silence came: We do no wrong, it is our interpretation that is in error.
Our Father does the works...our ego interprets. The works of the Father glorify the Father...which, of course, pleases my ego, Lucy With the Football, not at all. Our reasoning mind will not easily let go of its own interpretation of our perceived wrongs, names them in fact: Rues, Regrets and Remorses and holds them fast.
To loose them and let them go requires but one thing...that we change our mind. How else do we become as little children, children of God?
Here comes the relief pitcher, love...love is the only answer. If love be the answer here, it must needs be the direction in which we love that needs clarifying. Ah, it's Lucy we need love, our very ego, the source of all our woes! But why? Because it is Lucy's interpretation that brings us to right size, miniaturized, if you will. Children of our Father.
The love we now know is an impersonal, all-encompassing Unknowing. Pondering will not get us there. Let It Be.
Thank you.
Thursday, October 11, 2018
LET, LOVE AND LAUGH
The rattlesnake is not venomous just to be mean, it evolved that way, it's just being a snake.
When we try to fix another's misinterpretation of our actions, either by faux apology or by ratting on them to others, that is akin to the snake trying to make its venom nonvenomous...whether the strike was in anger or in reflex, venom results.
Being a tish more evolved than a snake, we have choices as to what to do when our actions or just our self is being wrongly perceived.
We can turn to spiritual principles for guidance in getting over our self (which is the answer to most prayers), or we can continue to depend on our reasoning mind which is ever out for payback.
With spiritual principles we seek God...we praise what we are perceiving...we ask for his interpretation and that he bless our thoughts and our heart about the other.
Staying in reliance on our reasoning mind, we try to fix the other's perception of the problem by apologetically explaining how s/he misinterpreted us. Or, usually the preferred way, we rat them out to others, telling all about their wrong, mean and vindictive ways. And compound the problem exponentially.
Relying on our reasoning mind seems akin to the snake trying to make its venom nonvenomous...ain't gonna happen, Snake, try not striking in the first place. (See how easy it is for the reasoning mind to correct the error of another's ways? Now, God...he just lets, loves and laughs.)
I'm reminded of an old song...live, love, laugh and be happy. Spiritual principles get us there.
Thank you.
When we try to fix another's misinterpretation of our actions, either by faux apology or by ratting on them to others, that is akin to the snake trying to make its venom nonvenomous...whether the strike was in anger or in reflex, venom results.
Being a tish more evolved than a snake, we have choices as to what to do when our actions or just our self is being wrongly perceived.
We can turn to spiritual principles for guidance in getting over our self (which is the answer to most prayers), or we can continue to depend on our reasoning mind which is ever out for payback.
With spiritual principles we seek God...we praise what we are perceiving...we ask for his interpretation and that he bless our thoughts and our heart about the other.
Staying in reliance on our reasoning mind, we try to fix the other's perception of the problem by apologetically explaining how s/he misinterpreted us. Or, usually the preferred way, we rat them out to others, telling all about their wrong, mean and vindictive ways. And compound the problem exponentially.
Relying on our reasoning mind seems akin to the snake trying to make its venom nonvenomous...ain't gonna happen, Snake, try not striking in the first place. (See how easy it is for the reasoning mind to correct the error of another's ways? Now, God...he just lets, loves and laughs.)
I'm reminded of an old song...live, love, laugh and be happy. Spiritual principles get us there.
Thank you.
Wednesday, October 10, 2018
THE FROG AND I, WE ARE THE EXCEPTIONAL ONE
In the silence, I hear...Lord, hear my prayer...thank you. Lord, hear my prayer...thank you. I pray the prayer...it is I praying...I cannot not hear my prayer for it is I praying my prayer...thank you.
On this date in 2013 I wrote in my God Calling: '13 - we seek still more spiritual growth not for the knowledge but for the experience...to experience the Father within/without...thank you. .
Today's Eknath Easwaran's daily, Words to Live By: The knower and the known are one. Simple people imagine that they should see God, as if He stood there and they here. This is not so. God and I, we are one in knowledge. -- Meister Eckhart
Fr Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation today: God is not added to you, but you are added to God. God is the foundation onto which your soul is built.
On this date in 2013 I wrote in my God Calling: '13 - we seek still more spiritual growth not for the knowledge but for the experience...to experience the Father within/without...thank you. .
Today's Eknath Easwaran's daily, Words to Live By: The knower and the known are one. Simple people imagine that they should see God, as if He stood there and they here. This is not so. God and I, we are one in knowledge. -- Meister Eckhart
Fr Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation today: God is not added to you, but you are added to God. God is the foundation onto which your soul is built.
All those words have but a singular meaning...we are one. One, not only with God but one with each other. With our dear friends. With our perceived enemies. With the animals in the field and the birds on the wing.
Interestingly, the words that right this very minute speak loudest to me are in Eckhart's God and I, we are one in knowledge...specifically, in knowledge.
Is that, then, the key? I know as the turtle knows. I know as the robin, the eagle, knows. I know as you know...as Gertrude knows...as the Father knows. For I and the Father are one.
I cannot deny...resist...the knowledge of the camel, nor can I interpret it. It is the knowledge of the camel. I can be grateful the camel knows what it knows, as do i. Same goes with Gertrude who is so often wrong to my mind...only, of course, because i am right...to my mind.
There is no wrong or right, no black or white, in God's world. There is just the exceptional One.
Isn't that freeing? Why not live there? Or maybe practice living there to start.
Can't you sense God grinning? And doesn't that feel exceptional?
God loves us so much. But then he can't not. God is love.
Thank you.
Tuesday, October 9, 2018
TO BE LOVED JUST SO...BUT TO LOVE?
This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. -- 1 Corinthians 2:13
Learning to love (to accept with joy?) that which our reasoning mind rejects is my personal idea of the path to enlightenment. As in, it is an Oh, rats! reality that the way to freedom from fear of financial insecurity is to be in financial insecurity. And there's a reasoning mind reject.
The hard lesson a-learning is that to be the cause of our own financial insecurity for the purposes of reaching enlightenment is insanity...or self-will run riot, whichever. There is no God there, for sure. Of course, financial insecurity is any self-determined objective that we choose to use...or misuse actually.
I have long believed that our ego is the essence of good intentions run amok. Face it, our ego wants the best for self, but it allows nothing but self to decide what the best is. God, who?
Just this morning I read a great line in Rohr's Daily Meditation: One of the conditions of enlightenment has always been a willingness to let go of what we thought we knew in order to appreciate truths we had never dreamed of. (Karen Armstrong, The Case for God)
That speaks to me of the inadequacy of our intellect to open to the transcendent divine mind. It is fear of our inadequacy, I'm convinced, that keeps us tied to our reasoning mind. Or simply our not daring to believe that there is a mystical, transcendental Presence within us (as taught by Joel Goldsmith).
Reminds me of the great old gospel-hymn, Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven...Nobody Wants To Die...everybody wants enlightenment, nobody wants to risk face for it.
And God loves us anyway...just so.
Thank you.
Learning to love (to accept with joy?) that which our reasoning mind rejects is my personal idea of the path to enlightenment. As in, it is an Oh, rats! reality that the way to freedom from fear of financial insecurity is to be in financial insecurity. And there's a reasoning mind reject.
The hard lesson a-learning is that to be the cause of our own financial insecurity for the purposes of reaching enlightenment is insanity...or self-will run riot, whichever. There is no God there, for sure. Of course, financial insecurity is any self-determined objective that we choose to use...or misuse actually.
I have long believed that our ego is the essence of good intentions run amok. Face it, our ego wants the best for self, but it allows nothing but self to decide what the best is. God, who?
Just this morning I read a great line in Rohr's Daily Meditation: One of the conditions of enlightenment has always been a willingness to let go of what we thought we knew in order to appreciate truths we had never dreamed of. (Karen Armstrong, The Case for God)
That speaks to me of the inadequacy of our intellect to open to the transcendent divine mind. It is fear of our inadequacy, I'm convinced, that keeps us tied to our reasoning mind. Or simply our not daring to believe that there is a mystical, transcendental Presence within us (as taught by Joel Goldsmith).
Reminds me of the great old gospel-hymn, Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven...Nobody Wants To Die...everybody wants enlightenment, nobody wants to risk face for it.
And God loves us anyway...just so.
Thank you.
Monday, October 8, 2018
BACK HOME AGAIN IN HEAVEN
Just as a flower gives out its fragrance to whomsoever approaches or uses it, so love from within us radiates towards everybody and manifests as spontaneous service. -- Swami Ramdas
Isn't that a lovely thought? A lily-of-the-valley does not choose who gets to glory in its scent...the devil or an angel, makes no nevermind to the flower. It just gives.
We learn early on that we are the source of all our woes, but it is ever a surprise when we're reminded that we are the source of all our happy, too.
Most everybody has experienced a time when, for no known reason, everyone we met smiled at us, or spoke a friendly Hey. Doesn't it feel all's-right-with-my-world to know we were radiating the love that was returning to us?
Same goes, of course, for the times when we were getting nothing but grief from friends, foes, strangers and pets. There it is...just as a flower's fragrance...we were giving the grief we were getting.
Doesn't this confirm what we have learned...that we already have all the patience, all the kindness, all the love there is to have stored within us right this very minute? That all we need do is use it?
Uh-oh. That opens our mind to the fact that all ugly, all hate, all disrespect is stored within us, too. All we need is to not use them...or to not respond in kind as our fragile ego demands.
It's no surprise that our life lesson is probably all about learning to flip our own inner switch from self to un-selfed. From personal to impersonal. From me to thee...to Thee. Ah, to Thee...back where we began...where we belong.
God loves us so much.
Thank you.
Isn't that a lovely thought? A lily-of-the-valley does not choose who gets to glory in its scent...the devil or an angel, makes no nevermind to the flower. It just gives.
We learn early on that we are the source of all our woes, but it is ever a surprise when we're reminded that we are the source of all our happy, too.
Most everybody has experienced a time when, for no known reason, everyone we met smiled at us, or spoke a friendly Hey. Doesn't it feel all's-right-with-my-world to know we were radiating the love that was returning to us?
Same goes, of course, for the times when we were getting nothing but grief from friends, foes, strangers and pets. There it is...just as a flower's fragrance...we were giving the grief we were getting.
Doesn't this confirm what we have learned...that we already have all the patience, all the kindness, all the love there is to have stored within us right this very minute? That all we need do is use it?
Uh-oh. That opens our mind to the fact that all ugly, all hate, all disrespect is stored within us, too. All we need is to not use them...or to not respond in kind as our fragile ego demands.
It's no surprise that our life lesson is probably all about learning to flip our own inner switch from self to un-selfed. From personal to impersonal. From me to thee...to Thee. Ah, to Thee...back where we began...where we belong.
God loves us so much.
Thank you.
Sunday, October 7, 2018
ON CHANGING WITHIN AND WITHOUT
Before God, our wounds are our glory. -- Lady Julian of Norwich
Cling to the thought that our dark past is our greatest treasure. -- Anonymous
The key to living a complete and fulfilled life lies in the realization that there is a mystical, transcendental Presence within us that has already provided our infinite supply unto eternity, that contains within Itself our companionship unto eternity, and that has within Itself the power of fulfillment. -- Joel Goldsmith, "A Parenthesis in Eternity"
What we see is always ourselves. - "The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment," Thaddeus Golas
It matters not how deeply we believe the truth in each of those quotes, it's how well we walk what we're knowing.
And to think our self a failure if we're not walking each one perfectly at all times is to miss the mark entirely.
We aim our self in the right direction...change direction as needed...and learn from that which caused us to change direction. That which our ego names wrong, big mistake, stupid. They are in fact God's building blocks toward our learning to love and laugh.
Welcome them. Kiss them on the lips. Before God, they are our glory for what we see is always our self, beloved of God.
Thank you.
Cling to the thought that our dark past is our greatest treasure. -- Anonymous
The key to living a complete and fulfilled life lies in the realization that there is a mystical, transcendental Presence within us that has already provided our infinite supply unto eternity, that contains within Itself our companionship unto eternity, and that has within Itself the power of fulfillment. -- Joel Goldsmith, "A Parenthesis in Eternity"
What we see is always ourselves. - "The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment," Thaddeus Golas
It matters not how deeply we believe the truth in each of those quotes, it's how well we walk what we're knowing.
And to think our self a failure if we're not walking each one perfectly at all times is to miss the mark entirely.
We aim our self in the right direction...change direction as needed...and learn from that which caused us to change direction. That which our ego names wrong, big mistake, stupid. They are in fact God's building blocks toward our learning to love and laugh.
Welcome them. Kiss them on the lips. Before God, they are our glory for what we see is always our self, beloved of God.
Thank you.
Saturday, October 6, 2018
PRAISE OUR VERY NEED
Our need is God's command.
America's need is God's command. Thank you, Father, that this day we stand before you with the President of the United States of America an admitted sexual predator, with one accused sexual abuser seated on the Supreme Court of the United States, and with another accused sexual abuser about to be voted thereon. Our need is great. Thank you.
Thank you, too, for blessing our hearts and our thoughts about each and all.
Please and thank you. Ah men.
America's need is God's command. Thank you, Father, that this day we stand before you with the President of the United States of America an admitted sexual predator, with one accused sexual abuser seated on the Supreme Court of the United States, and with another accused sexual abuser about to be voted thereon. Our need is great. Thank you.
Thank you, too, for blessing our hearts and our thoughts about each and all.
Please and thank you. Ah men.
Friday, October 5, 2018
NOW. NOW, EVER OUR SAFE PLACE
It's seems fairly certain that which we can see, touch, smell and hear will ever be more real to our reasoning mind than any promise of spiritual peace, love and joy...doubtless because we can see, touch, smell and hear it. And a promise, after all, is just a promise to the reasoning mind.
It was a slow awakening for me to realize that seek ye first the kingdom of heaven gave me a sense of peace until I heard the rest of the sentence, and all these things shall be added unto you. Invariably, the desire for the kingdom of heaven was lost in the immediate thought after I heard the rest of the sentence...lost in the thought of diamonds and dollars. Security in a word. Material security. Security that I could hold to...depend on...use as collateral if and as needed.
It was (and is!) frustrating to me whenever I hear that sentence, that thoughts for my personal security trail right along behind. Try as I do to not go there, there I go. It's like the old "try not to think about a camel" routine.
I wonder if that's precisely why and all these things will be added was made contingent to seek ye first.
Maybe it is that once we can truly seek first the kingdom of heaven, we can have no thought for any other things...the kingdom of heaven being our physical, mental and spiritual all-in-all. In that realization, there are no other things to be added unto us. (In a perfect world, she thinks cynically.)
Hey! Here's a thought: Now. Now is our perfect world.
There is no kingdom of heaven in tomorrow when things will be added unto. The instant we turn our grateful heart to the kingdom of heaven, we're home. Shut the door, light the fire, say our thank you, and be at peace. I'm going with that.
Thank you.
It was a slow awakening for me to realize that seek ye first the kingdom of heaven gave me a sense of peace until I heard the rest of the sentence, and all these things shall be added unto you. Invariably, the desire for the kingdom of heaven was lost in the immediate thought after I heard the rest of the sentence...lost in the thought of diamonds and dollars. Security in a word. Material security. Security that I could hold to...depend on...use as collateral if and as needed.
It was (and is!) frustrating to me whenever I hear that sentence, that thoughts for my personal security trail right along behind. Try as I do to not go there, there I go. It's like the old "try not to think about a camel" routine.
I wonder if that's precisely why and all these things will be added was made contingent to seek ye first.
Maybe it is that once we can truly seek first the kingdom of heaven, we can have no thought for any other things...the kingdom of heaven being our physical, mental and spiritual all-in-all. In that realization, there are no other things to be added unto us. (In a perfect world, she thinks cynically.)
Hey! Here's a thought: Now. Now is our perfect world.
There is no kingdom of heaven in tomorrow when things will be added unto. The instant we turn our grateful heart to the kingdom of heaven, we're home. Shut the door, light the fire, say our thank you, and be at peace. I'm going with that.
Thank you.
Thursday, October 4, 2018
GOD IS LOVE AND LAUGHTER
What you seek is seeking you - Rumi
Forgiveness. I suspect...no, I'm becoming convinced...that forgiveness is the whole of life...period. That's not the only uh-oh...equally important: The rough and rocky road to forgiveness is mapped with the need to take nothing personally.
Looking back, my belief probably started as I sat in the silence pondering that only our unleashed ego can personalize...because that's its job, apparently. Which led me to intellectually get that all is God and of God, so there is nothing we can take personally.
With that mini-breakthrough, I was gifted with my first inkling that spiritual growth, and ever more spiritual growth, is my path to peace. And that is the only splinter of gold I need seek.
In the midst of any ego-victory battle with self (it is never with another), seek that splinter of gold. The battle will continue until we accept that we have personalized whatever we are fighting (resisting) and let go (which takes as long as it takes but longer than it takes to think it, for sure).
It is that single splinter, that blinding flash of the obvious, of spiritual growth as our perfect goal that we are led to freedom...from self.
Forgiveness. I suspect...no, I'm becoming convinced...that forgiveness is the whole of life...period. That's not the only uh-oh...equally important: The rough and rocky road to forgiveness is mapped with the need to take nothing personally.
Looking back, my belief probably started as I sat in the silence pondering that only our unleashed ego can personalize...because that's its job, apparently. Which led me to intellectually get that all is God and of God, so there is nothing we can take personally.
With that mini-breakthrough, I was gifted with my first inkling that spiritual growth, and ever more spiritual growth, is my path to peace. And that is the only splinter of gold I need seek.
In the midst of any ego-victory battle with self (it is never with another), seek that splinter of gold. The battle will continue until we accept that we have personalized whatever we are fighting (resisting) and let go (which takes as long as it takes but longer than it takes to think it, for sure).
It is that single splinter, that blinding flash of the obvious, of spiritual growth as our perfect goal that we are led to freedom...from self.
Sidenote: It was on this day in 1988 that I wrote in my God Calling, "This is my day of realization that denial of self is the answer." And here's me, 30 years later, realizing that still, just deeper.
God never stops teaching, leading, loving and laughing.
Thank you.
Wednesday, October 3, 2018
FEAR MIRES US IN SELF
Idle thoughts: There is no bulletproof-shield-God between the material world and us...we will feel every bullet, every rotten egg, every snark...every hit, justified or unjustified. God is inside/outside so as each hit lands, it is depersonalized and does not stick but becomes nothingness. It is our trying to avoid incoming or to respond in kind to the incoming that invites the fight and our fear takes hold.
Another idle thought There is no magic-wand that God waves over the material me changing my every dread into his precious gift to me...transforming every fearful thought into a bye for me. That is whistling-by-the-cemetery thinking and mires us in self.
God lets us choose our own path...he goes before us to make the crooked places straight but we must walk our chosen road, crooked places and all.
It is our thank you as we put one foot in front of the other each day that seals the deal. Thank you confirms to our own self that God is on the field, that wonderful and/or less-than-wonderful will come and it will go but naught will stick to us because it is not ours.
By grace and by God.
Thank you.
Another idle thought There is no magic-wand that God waves over the material me changing my every dread into his precious gift to me...transforming every fearful thought into a bye for me. That is whistling-by-the-cemetery thinking and mires us in self.
God lets us choose our own path...he goes before us to make the crooked places straight but we must walk our chosen road, crooked places and all.
It is our thank you as we put one foot in front of the other each day that seals the deal. Thank you confirms to our own self that God is on the field, that wonderful and/or less-than-wonderful will come and it will go but naught will stick to us because it is not ours.
By grace and by God.
Thank you.
Tuesday, October 2, 2018
GUIDE, NOT GUARD, MY THOUGHTS, I PRAY
The senses have been conditioned by attraction to the pleasant and aversion to the unpleasant: we should not be ruled by them; they are obstacles in our path. -- Sri Krishna (Bhagavad Gita) [from Eknath Easwaran's Words to Live By, October 2]
I am becoming unruled, and it does not feel pleasant. Ah, there it is...the unmoored feeling is my assurance that I am on the right track, going in the right direction.
Perhaps the most universal way to name the two spiritual traditions of knowing and not-knowing is light and darkness. The formal theological terms are kataphatic or “affirmative” way—employing words, concepts, and images—and apophatic or “negative” way—moving beyond words and ideas into silence and beyond-rational knowing. -- Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, October 2, 2018
Here's my permission to accept that this, then, is my time of undoing...of rebirth...of becoming who I was at birth, perfect in God's eyes, not so much in mine own. Which would make my current unease being me fitting myself into my original birthday suit.
It's not so much the fit that causes dis-ease, it is letting go of my own ideas about the right...or wrong...of it.
Thank you.
I am becoming unruled, and it does not feel pleasant. Ah, there it is...the unmoored feeling is my assurance that I am on the right track, going in the right direction.
Perhaps the most universal way to name the two spiritual traditions of knowing and not-knowing is light and darkness. The formal theological terms are kataphatic or “affirmative” way—employing words, concepts, and images—and apophatic or “negative” way—moving beyond words and ideas into silence and beyond-rational knowing. -- Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, October 2, 2018
Here's my permission to accept that this, then, is my time of undoing...of rebirth...of becoming who I was at birth, perfect in God's eyes, not so much in mine own. Which would make my current unease being me fitting myself into my original birthday suit.
It's not so much the fit that causes dis-ease, it is letting go of my own ideas about the right...or wrong...of it.
Thank you.
Monday, October 1, 2018
THE GIFT OF UNKNOWING
There seems to be nothing harder than letting one self be known in all our humanness. Defects of character that stand in our way nine times out of ten turn out to be God's little giftees. So I ask...how are we supposed to know a defect from an asset when God has such bass-ackward standards?
Ah...see my hand waving in the air? Teacher, teacher...I got the answer!
The answer is in unknowing.
I know that's right because some anonymous 14th century monk wrote an unreadable classic, The Cloud of Unknowing, and spiritual giants quote it freely. I have it on my Kindle. That's how I know it's unreadable.
So yesterday I'm teasing a friend. He's a fairly new friend and does not yet know my (some say perverted) sense of humor. Ticked him off! Unfortunately, he's too well-mannered to say so...it was the clenched teeth and steam hissing out of his ears as he walked away that gave me a clue.
Today, my notes on this day in my "God Calling" bring me wondrous news:
2013 - It is not to accept 'them' in their 'wrong' but to accept me just as I am being criticized for being.
2014 - BFO - not to get 'Rude to understand me or to jerk his chain for being wrong but to understand 'Rude and accept her as s/he is in the criticizing of me.
2018 - The above was answered ...and perfectly...just last week with a deep and loving share between 'Rude and me. Thank you.
There. Problems can be solved by patience, trust, love and more patience...with no harsh words, no conciliatory (later resented) words, actions or attitudes being displayed. Here's the thing. We must needs begin the process by seeking still more spiritual growth for the sake of still more spiritual growth. Not to placate, not to win friends nor to influence anybody, not even to gain God's favor (we already have that).
We make our decision early on as to whether we want to live in reliance on the material mind or on spiritual standards. We get jerked back and forth from one to the other, going with one forever until we hit hard rock and switch to the other forever, etc., etc., etc.
At some point, we set our self here, just here... often when we aren't even fully aware that we have...and we are shown God's perfected will. That is the wondrous news I realized this morning...which quieted my ego's pestering about my new friend's peeve and me fixing him.
Detach. Unknow. Resist not.
God loves us so much.
Thank you.
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