A SIMPLE CHANGE OF MIND CAN RIGHT US

Sages speak of the immutable Tree Of Life, with its taproot above and its branches below. -- Sri Krishna (Bhagavad Gita) from Eknath Easwaran's "Words to Live By"

I read the above this morning and had a blinding flash of the obvious: That which we seek, we must give. 

If we seek praise, we must give praise. If money is our mental need, we must give money. If we seek love, we must give love. When we're feeling unloved, unneeded, unwanted, unappreciated, we must needs look for the one we don't love, don't need, don't want, don't appreciate...for to love and give succor to.

That which we feel we are lacking, we will find with the Father within...all our needs are met within (where else can we go for them?). All of our answers are there within us for us and only there will they be fulfillable. We seek until we find, then we pass it on.

 

It helps if we remember: Seek ye first the kingdom of God....oh yes, and his righteousness (isn't that always the hardest part to remember?), and all these things shall be added unto you. (And that's the part we nevernevernever forget...more's the pity.)

Thank you.

FROM ACCEPTANCE TO LOVE AND LAUGHTER

Pondering the many depths of acceptance...doesn't acceptance sound soft, all warm and fuzzy, altogether acceptable? It is altogether acceptable, it's the getting to acceptance that is not so soft much less warm and fuzzy.

Face it, acceptance is the guiding light and the final word that spells out the necessity for changing our mind...or more like exchanging our mind.

My blinding flash of the obvious: acceptance is code for crash and burn. Now tell me that's not anathema to our reasoning mind, (We slowly learn that to be the goose for exchanging our mind.) There's not much that does that better than the Gift Of Despair...when we've run out of ideas and given up all hope of being able to fix the fix we're in. 

Without an idea, with no hope, with all of our self-determined objectives proved useless...acceptance hovers near albeit looking like our worst fear come true. That's God's will for you. If it were just another good or even great idea, it'd be implemented and forgotten. We'd have no need of a new way of thinking, feeling, doing and being. 

Acceptance of our inadequacies, of our fears, of our defects...of our very own self...can only come from a Power greater than ourself. Our block to God's gift of our self is unacceptance of that self. We fall into the egocentric trap of thinking we could or should fix ourself, and start by finding someone to blame for the way we are...look out Mom, Dad, Sis, Bro...we're coming for  you!

Crash and burn is God's gift to those who admit defeat...who realize our losing has won us the pearl beyond price...acceptance.  And not just of ourself but more importantly of others, starting with Mom, Dad, Sis, Bro and then of whomever comes into our life.

Crash and burn, that which we've fought so hard to avoid, leads to God's will, acceptance. Which invariably leads to the pearl beyond price, Love and Laughter.

Thank you.

THE DIVINE PARADOX, II

[The following is a reprint of my post of December 27, 2014.]

How privileged we are to understand so well the divine paradox that strength rises from weakness, that humiliation goes before resurrection; that pain is not only the price but the very touchstone of spiritual rebirth. -- Anonymous

There is a divine paradox and it is just that...strength does rise from weakness, humiliation does go before resurrection, pain is not only the price but the very touchstone of spiritual rebirth.

We who are forced by our own decisions to know this paradox for truth...to realize it by walking through our weakness, our humiliation, our pain...we are blessed. But the greater truth is that this is a divine paradox for all, everywhere...or it is not truth at all, it's fantasy...or luck...or magic thinking.

We who are "privileged to understand" are blessed because we gave away our choice to accept or not such as "divine" or "spiritual" or "God." If we want to live happy, joyous and free (and who doesn't?), we throw in with divine and spiritual...with God. According to me.

Thank you.

THE FATHER IS WITHIN...PROVE IT

 Blinding flash of the obvious:  'The Father is within' must live. 

My morning quiet time consists primarily of the 23rd Psalm and the Prayer of Saint Francis. The few prayerful thoughts I have and say are just words...humbling to realize, they are basically wishes made to sound holy. 

I wonder if my sliver of gold isn't that I've just been given the word to silence my so-called holy thoughts in order for a deeper realization to be birthed.

Maybe our quiet-time thoughts are directed within to the Spirit, the Soul, from which they are perfected by God, and in the silence are returned to us as we come to realize their truth. 

It is then, as we come to make them ours by living them, that we prove them.

Thank you.

THOUGHTS ON FREE-FLOATING FEAR

Fear: I doubt we are ever going to be able to completely loose fear and let it go.

We can hug it and kiss it and tell it we love it till our face falls off, fear is not going to feel good...fear is never going to feel good. The human condition is such that if it (whatever "it" maybe)  doesn't feel good, it's right next to impossible to love. 

I say fear's true colors are puce and brown. We can cozy up to it all we want, even calling it lilac and crème brûlée, but puce and brown are puce and brown, and renaming it in order to love it only jacks up the fear. Face it, fight fear, invite panic.

Now then, a positive word about fear. Fear's greatest asset is that nothing turns us to God faster than fear...in which case we can call fear "blessed." And without lying. 

I submit anything we can sincerely call blessed, we need to let be, try to understand...certainly not cultivate, but not deny, try to hide or lie about. 

It helps a tish when fear is on the bloom to say to ourself, "God calling!" Then turn our attention to God and things of God...lilies of the valley, rainbows, panda cubs, puppies...pick one and focus on it. That has never removed fear from me, but it does calm my racing mind...fear's playground. 

There is no standing still...our choice is to move forward toward God or backward toward fear. Keep it simple: Toward feeling good or to not feeling good.

Thank you.

THE FOREVER ANSWER...TRUST AND WAIT

For the past few weeks (months?) my life has felt pretty much at sixes and sevens. I suspected that Murphy's Law may have taken up residence not only in my thoughts but in my very home. Long/short, I didn't get to sleep until after midnight last night due to the latest (I thought) less-than-wonderful happening in my home. Through my angel Mark, everything got fixed, and I went to bed.

This morning the water in my kitchen quit...gave up the ghost...went out on strike. Without even a by-your-leave.  Not knowing whether to laugh, cry, scream or leave town, I sat down to watch a little "Morning Joe." 

As I sat there, came a blinding flash of the obvious: No matter the upset, the breakdown, the calumny, the answer is the same: Know that this is for your benefit. Trust God and wait.

I cannot even speak to how comforting that was. It gave me my answer, and I went into my quiet time. 

My first read was "God Calling," and whoa! I am gobsmacked by the message for March 26: So leave your foolish fears, and follow Me....My message to you is, trust and wait.

 

My second read was Fr Richard, and I felt personally touched by the message: It is that steadfast, unyielding, courageous commitment to the eternal Will of God for Creation—whatever the cost to themselves—that is the prophetic tradition. It sustains the eternal Word of God while the world spins around it, making God’s Word—Love—the center, the axle, the standard of everything the faithful do in the midst of the storm of change that engulfs us as we go. -- Fr Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation," March 26, 2021

Don't tell me God doesn't hold me in the palm of his hand...not to mention, have my back.

Thank you.

ON A BLINDING FLASH OF THE OBVIOUS

Transformation comes by realizing your union with God right here, right now—regardless of any performance or achievement on your part. That is the core meaning of grace. But you have to know this for yourself. No one can do this knowing for you. I could tell you that God is not elsewhere and heaven is not later, but until you come to personally and regularly experience that, you will not believe it. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," November 20, 2017

But you have to know this for yourself.

There it is. We have to know this for ourself, and our knowing comes from within not from book learning, not from hearing it said, not from other than our own consciousness...albeit each is a planted seed in our rational mind.  

We can read the Bible, we can study our personal literature, we can hear Shakespeare, repeatedly, and quote each of them with all the  commas and semicolons in the right place...but until we are actually doing unto breathing that which we are quoting, we are holding ourself from grace.

We can speak others' thoughts and convince ourself we thought of them...especially the deep ones...but there will always be someone who heard the words originally and isn't shy about saying so...in public and loudly. We learn to credit the one we're quoting as opposed to silently cursing the ratfink...hey, that ratfink is our angel in disguise. 

Until our spiritual growth is our own, until it  comes from within and never on demand, it's somebody else's pony we're riding. According to me, that's the fourth dimensional meaning of Meister Eckhart's If the only prayer you say in your life is thank you, that would suffice.

 

Thank you.

RESIST NOT...JUST SAY YES!

Contemplation teaches us how to say "yes"--yes to the moment, yes to the event, yes to the relationship. It is what it is before you analyze it, compare it to something else, or prefer it to something else. It takes much of your life to learn how to always begin with yes. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," May 21, 2016

I submit that learning to say "yes," learning to mean "yes," and learning to do "yes" are different levels of nonresistance. Born from the same root...linked, or entwined more like, by the will of God...meaning, yes is going to win out. How long it takes is up to us.

I was faced with a need for yes recently. and my head was set on no. The Sermon came to mind and incredibly my need was addressed...my head, my heart, my body and my bones were resistant. Not to put too fine a point on it, I felt like I was arm wrestling with God. I quibbled, I justified, I sulked...but Thank You Great God Almighty, I came to yes. 

I shuffled forward to do that which I needed to do, less than delighted but willing. Glory be! I could have fallen to my knees in wonder: the need had been transformed...it was not present, it did not exist. 

The entire transaction had been transmuted. And for the benefit of all concerned...nobody was elevated, none left out.

There's our proof:  Our wants are our resistance, and resistance just delays our good. Since it signifies nothing to God, it is our resistant self that blocks his incoming blessing.

The willingness to do God's will is our keys to the kingdom.

Loose it and let it go!

Thank you

REASON...JUST ONE MORE OF GOD'S TOOLS, II

[The following is a reprint of my post of December 28, 2012.]

We cannot solve the problems of the mind with the mind. -- The Buddha

Whenever I come across that quote, I know it for true...then I spend the next ten minutes pondering how it is true, why it is true....

Our reasoning mind will not retire quickly, nor quietly. It is interestingly pathetic how long we will cling to the belief that reason is our safety net...that "victory can be ours for the thinking." When it is the detachment from reliance on our reasoning mind that sets us on the path to freedom.

Reason is essential on the long and winding road to the realization that reason is just one more tool of God's, not our safety net, not our security. Reason, if used properly, clears the channel for God's thoughts to pour through. Reason is God's Roto-Rooter, if you will.

Our mistake is relying on the Roto-Rooter instead of God.

Thank you.

RESIST NOTHING, II

[The following is a reprint of my post of November 3, 2013.] 

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

This morning I read from The Illuminated Rumi:

Late, by myself, in the

boat of myself,

no light and no land

anywhere.

Cloud cover thick.

I try to stay

just above the surface,

Yet I'm already under

and living

within

the ocean.

Thank You.

ON FINDING STANDING GROUND OUTSIDE

Somehow our occupation and vocation as believers in this time must be to first restore the Divine Center by holding it and fully occupying it ourselves. If contemplation means anything, it means that we can “safeguard that little piece of You, God, in ourselves” as Etty Hillesum describes it. What other power do we have now? --  Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," March 21, 2021

I wonder if I'm not again coming to that place of surrender of my mind..."maybe I'm supposed to go crazy, lose my mind, wind up at St E's...if that be it, let it come...I give up." My very words in 1973 or thereabouts while I sat sobbing, waiting to go crazy...nothing outwardly happened. 

Later I inwardly found my pearl beyond price...it was that complete surrender of my mind that freed me of the bondage of reliance on my mind. Loose it and let it go. 

It may well be that to safeguard that little piece of You, God, in ourselves is to release my mind, my idea of safety. If that be God's will already made manifest, what good can come from  resistance? 

As God wills, I walk...with fear or without...makes no nevermind...God's will in me made manifest by nonresistance is all.  

 ...the tricky work is to find standing ground outside the totalism from which to think the unthinkable, to imagine the unimaginable, and to utter the unutterable. -- Walter Brueggemann

Thank you.

NOT DELIGHTED BUT NOT DESTROYED

Failure and falling short are the best teachers; success has virtually nothing to teach us on the spiritual path. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," February 26, 2021

That quote is a perfect example of why changing our mind is essential. Essential to our peace of mind in fact. 

We resist failure and falling short, we feel shame and look to blame when (not if) it happens to us...all the while the thank you prayer is all we need to be freed. It never hurts to add, Welcome, ego, my old friend...nice to sit with you again. The power of nonresistance gains momentum the less we resist.

Just as an aside since I know less than a little about saints, but I have read that Saint Teresa of Avila wrote about the necessity of loving our ego...specifically our ego. Once we have loosed our dual thinking, love all becomes an "of course," doesn't it? 

Back to Rohr's quote...I'm convinced failure and falling short are the best teachers because, just like fear, nothing turns us to God quicker or more sincerely than an utter inability to think of a fix. Which is as ego-threatening as it gets...ah, and there's our blessing, ego running on empty. 

That is how we come to befriend the ego. Not by beat down, nor by hate...no spiritual good ever came from either...but by God. Make a quick U-bie from ego's fear, shame and blame, and there's God with arms open, welcoming ego's all...ourself in a word, and we know love.

Afterword: It's not that we come to want fear, failure and falling short, it's that we can accept them as we accept rain on a picnic day...we're less than delighted but not destroyed.

Thank you.

THERE IS NO STANDING STILL

All that is human must retrograde, if it do not advance. -- Edward Gibbon

Gibbon puts it more elegantly than we do. We say, If you're not moving forward, you're moving backward...there is no standing still.

Then I read that each of us is asked to make our own contribution to giving flesh to faith in the world. Isn't that excellent? What a succinct reminder that faith without works is fantasy.

One difficulty in "making our own contribution" is in trusting our contribution is acceptable...good enough in fact. 

What if our acceptable contribution is that which we deem stupid? Or just another mistake that we feel we must correct somehow. What if that is God's will for us, and here's us trying to change it? 

If it be true...and it's proving to be so daily...that acceptance is the full and complete answer never mind the question, then it follows that acceptance of our apparent mistakes is how we give flesh to faith in the world.

There's where our spiritual trust comes to our aid...for acceptance is not just standing still, nor is it simply laying down our sword and shield. No. Acceptance is walking toward our mental battleground sans sword and shield. Proof that there are multiple ways for us to give flesh to faith in the world...all of which consist of moving forward.

Thank you.

TO LOVE AND LAUGH WITH GOD

Blinding flash of the obvious:  To believe, begin to do.

Faith is not gettable...it is, however, givable. Faith arrives not by conscious thought but by our actions. So it is our actions we must clean up...starting with our thoughts, our attack thoughts in particular. Attack thoughts birth dissension birth egos in resistance thus in control. Clearly, there is no God there.

Once we become willing to practice nonresistance, our path seems to straighten out a tish. We find ourself agreeing with surly clerks, unpleasant neighbors, the darker side in general...by just being agreeable, we do not react in kind. We lean on our Golden Rule: Try not to be as nasty as you want to be.

I have two people in my life with whom I need to get clear. One needs an apology from me, the other I need to get clear with about his actions. I prayed my thank you, and received some insights on my necessary actions...no clear answers, though. 

That was a week ago...just this morning I realized by calling it "getting no clear answers," I've been waiting for God to do the dirty work. 

Comes the dawn, since what I got were insights, follow them...put them into action. It is how I do that...not to get my desired result but with an honest desire to leave the other comforted...or not more peeved than before we spoke at any rate.

The how we comfort in a dicey situation is how completely we follow directions. The directions being entirely spiritual, i.e., agree with your adversary quickly, resist not evil, love your neighbor as yourself. All the quotables that we so rarely do.

The lesson...the really hard lesson to accept...the end result may not look or feel like sunshine and roses, but it is the root of an unshakeable faith. That we ask, wait, receive, do...with no reasoning mind assurances...is faith aborning. 

Just Do It does not end with And Then You Win Over The Other. We have already won...not over him, her, them...over our own self. Our reward? We get to love and laugh with God.

Thank you.

GOD MEETS US WHERE WE ARE

We like to imagine that Jesus did not doubt or ever question his Father’s love. The much greater message is that in his humanity, he did flinch, did ask questions, did have doubts—and still remained faithful. This is the path of wisdom. -- Fr Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation" of February 21, 2021  

I choose to believe this is the path I am on today...the panic attacks, the free-floating anxiety, fear...all are God calling me to God. And I am grateful. Grateful because I remain faithful which is close enough to perfect for me.

I also choose to believe that the path I am on at anytime, not just the less-than-wonderful times, but the fun times, the quiet times, the loving times, all are God calling me to  God. When I call that to mind, I am peaced.

The question is, why don't I call it to mind before I go into panic-mode? I'm convinced that is me doing it right...God knows what I need, and since nothing turns me to God faster than fear, I go there first. 

God meets us where we are.

Thank you.

ON SETTLING FOR BEING UNSETTLED

People wish to be settled; only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

That quote of Emerson's reminds me of another favorite of mine, We must go beyond reason to love. 

Our reasoning mind is not always wrong, often it can and does head us in the right direction, but inner chaos erupts when the ego, which always legislates for itself, gets our ear. Truly, we must go beyond the reasoning mind, where the ego keeps a pied a terre, to find the higher Power.

Clearly, to find a Power greater than ourself we must go beyond reason...beyond the ego...to love.

Following our spiritual consciousness, we begin to recognize the rightness of the opposite of our sense-life. That's our starting point, and it takes as long as it takes to find our comfort there. 

Oh, wait...it may not be finding our comfort there that is the hook, finding our comfort may be the proof of Emerson's quote: We want to be settled in that, but it is only in being unsettled that keeps us seeking...our only hope.

It occurs to me that period between sense-life comfort and divine-love comfort is life in this world...we can believe in God till our face falls off, we're still going to have muddy paths, rocky roads and periods of I say it's spinach, and I say fuhgeddaboudit 

Maybe that's God's guarantee that we'll keep coming back...unsettled is doing it right.

Thank you.

STOP WAITING...LEAP

Isn't it time to hold our nose and take a leap of faith? But then, it is never not time to hold our nose and take a leap of faith. We need stop waiting for the feeling of God in our life, and start allowing as how the Father does live within, that the Father does know our needs. 

The egoic resister is we're never going to experience that until we put ourself out there...go for it...just do it...and so forth and so on and blah, blah, blah. Apparently, it's easier to believe an ad campaign for Nike than it is the Sermon...howsomever, the chances of getting to heaven on Nike's wings are slim to nil.

Indeed, we are free to believe what we believe, but we'd do well to remember the decision we made to return our freewill to God in exchange for His will.

Of course, the big block to our making any leap is our fear of being wrong. What we fail to recognize, or possibly to accept, is that we will be wrong, because we already are! 

We've been nursing our spiritual wants for years. They only sound right to our own ears...even when they are right, they're wrong, for there is no God there. Just us trying to convince God our want is a need, thus holy, so please grant it already, thank you very much.

Coming to believe that the Sermon means exactly what it says...and then trying to live that...may well be a rest-of-our-lifetime proposition. Ah, but what better use of our life? 

Thank you.

JOY IN FEAR

[The following is a reprint of my post of March 21, 2014.]

Joy and fear are on my mind this morning.

I have learned to welcome my fears…and to welcome them with joy. I remember when I used to try to rid myself of fear by shaming me..."If I have faith, I can't have fear; if I have fear, I don't have faith" was my mantra.

My mentor reminded me of the story of the Main Man in the New Testament. He went into the Garden where he prayed so hard that he sweat blood. As my mentor said, that wasn't joyous, fear-free praying, and he had a lot more faith than we're going to have in this lifetime…and very likely the next.

When I heard and understood that, I opened to the possibility of welcoming my fears of which I have my share and then some.

The fear that has become dear to me is my fear of insanity…it’s become dear because it has driven me to my knees and to God more completely than most anything in my life. I’ve never consciously feared death. But, in fact, fear of losing my mind…dementia, Alzheimer’s…are just fear of death, of losing me, losing control of me. As are thoughts of how I may die, of going broke trying to stay alive, of looking like a weasel in the whole process…comes to that, my rues, regrets and remorses are just fear. Fear of my past and my inability to change it in the memory of others.

I welcome the realization that all these are mine and are special to God for they need him the most...and it is my joy to deliver them to him.

Thank you.

BE PREPARED TO BE SURPRISED

Blinding flash of the obvious revisited: Living our spiritual growth takes practice...every day, every single day. And every day, every single day, we will be released...whether we feel it or not.

What's the good in accepting that God is within, that the Father lives within us, if we don't step back, open up and rely on that? 

In not relying, we're not accepting. We're just mouthing words, hoping we're not lying. Ah, but not trusting that we are not lying. 

Our problem is that we are relying on our feeling the Father within, even when our hard-earned lesson has proved...repeatedly...that feelings are not facts. We can feel like a piece of turkey tripe but for sure we are not a piece of turkey tripe. 

Think about it...what would "the Father within" feel like? What are we wanting? ...that is standing in the way of the truth. We are wanting peace, love, joy everlasting...no-hassle insurance, in fact. Think about it...lacks a tish in spirituality, doesn't it?  

We may want that to be where our spiritual growth is leading us, but you can lead spiritual seekers to Truth, you just can't make them not think. And analyze. Looking it over...and over...and over. With the last word being, "Just not feeling it."

That's no doubt why living our spiritual growth takes practice...every day, every single day. Comes a minibreak, and we realize practicing spiritual growth is living it...that is our life today. 

Whether we know it or not, whether we feel it or not, God is, and He loves us. All He asks is that we let Him.

Trust...just be prepared to be surprised.

Thank you.

THE CIRCLE OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH

In our rising consciousness, we're slowly realizing that trying to be a good person...or just a better person...is a spiritual dark hole. The desired end result is all well and good, it is the trying that sends us down that wrong road again. 

"Trying" is code for "self-determined objective," and, in general, self-determined objectives oppose God's perfect will. 

As Fr Richard Rohr so aptly puts it, If we ourselves try to 'manage' God or manufacture our own worthiness by any performance principle whatsoever, we will never give birth to the Christ, but only more of ourselves. 

To "give birth to the Christ" is to be invited into God consciousness...by God. For which we are ever  preparing with our daily meditations, spiritual readings, studying the Sermon...all of which started with a self-determined objective. We come to accept that self-determined objectives are often necessary in daily living, but it is our even more necessary humility that transmutes them into God's will. 

The nature of still more spiritual growth is that it is open-ended. For instance, when we think we've finally nailed down a rule that guarantees us anything, that rule becomes our God. Invariably, that rule falls apart.

It's been said that all spirituality is about letting go. Per Meister Eckhart, spirituality is more about subtraction than addition. Let go and let God is repeated by thousands and thousands...probably done by fewer but we know the words.

Usually, self-determined objectives are about self-protection regarding health or wealth or wisdom. Loose it and let it go, and we will be filled to overflowing. Not necessarily with our want but with our need...God's perfect will. Ah, the pearl beyond price.

Thank you.  

TO LIVE THE TWO GREAT COMMANDMENTS

I can’t imagine that God expects all human beings to start from zero and to reinvent the wheel of life in their own small lifetimes. We must build on the common 'communion of saints' throughout the ages. This is the inherited fruit and gift that is sometimes called the 'wisdom tradition.' - from Fr Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation"

It is God-confidence that I need, not self-confidence. There. My blinding flash of the obvious that came to me midday yesterday. It answered many of my unformed questions. 

With that BFO, I realized that I have self-confidence enough, I need double-down building my God-confidence. Building my trust in God. With the inevitable, how? following right behind. 

Which led to my second BFO: Start doing that for which you're praying.

It has taken me till this very minute to realize that for which I so desire is not that secret want I keep doing the wish dance with. That's just another I-want which I'll get or I won't, and neither harm nor heaven will be affected.

My deepest desire is to live the two great commandments...to love the Lord my God with all my heart, my Soul, my body and my brains, and to love my neighbor as myself. 

That is not a deep dive, it is an impossible dive...for one clinging to the reasoning mind for her answers. Ah, looky here...here comes an old-time favorite BFO: Hold your nose and take a leap of faith. 

Don't I just love it?! I'm building my God-confidence even as I breathe. Or, in truth, God's building my Self-confidence. 

Hallelujah! God loves me so! You, too, World!

Thank you.

LIVE LIFE ABOVE THE FRAY...AGREE

Just because s/he's wrong doesn't mean I'm right. -- blinding flash of the obvious, redux

Nothing turns us from our own hurt, anger, resentment faster than that little BFO. Nothing heads us toward taking responsibility for those feelings faster than that little BFO. Which no doubt explains why that little BFO is so hard to remember. 

We don't want to.

That we each accept full responsibility for our own feelings...hurt, anger, resentment, et al...is almost a how-to manual for living life above the fray...or close enough. 

We have learned that it is not what happens to us, it is how we react to it that determines our mood, our attitude...our life. 

There's a boatload of difference, however, in learning materially and doing spiritually. Learning means we understand what the words mean...doing requires the action dictated by the words. As in, give up our justified hurt, give up our justified anger, give up our justified resentment. In fact, doing requires us to give over to the other...give over in kindness by not reacting in kind.

Agree with your adversary quickly. There. That's living life above the fray.

Thank you.

RESENTMENT-FREE ASSURANCE

To heal our relationships, we have to move closer to people we do not like, learn to work with them without friction. -- Eknath Easwaran, "Words to Live By,"  May 1

There it be. The quiet word. I don't doubt if we made that our daily desire, with nothing more added, we would still be daily desiring it three days after we're dead. 

That's one problem with desiring...it's the old rocking chair syndrome...we write down our desire, we ask God to help us do that...daily. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Going nowhere, doing nothing, but feeling noble, righteous in fact, because we're aiming for excellence. 

Aiming is not doing.

New pact with ourself: When (not if) we feel that someone has done us wrong, we need go immediately if not sooner to our secret place and right out loud call their name blessed. Name them our angel since they soon will be as we let go of our desire and, by thought, word and action, welcome our new friend into our active life.

Ah, but what about the person who may not want to be our friend...that does not let us off the hook with our commitment. Recall...we made a decision to be a forgiving person. Here's our chance to learn how. Gently back off, keep them in our soft thoughts, and silently repeat our Golden Rule: Just try not to be as nasty as you want to be.

The assurance through all this...we won't walk away with a resentment. There. The pearl beyond price.

Thank you. 

THE CURSE IS THE BLESSING

Blinding flash of the obvious: It matters not who represents the thorn that turns us around...our childhood bully, our current nemesis,  whomever...each was but the thorn...we do not need to blunt the thorn to call it friend...each served its Now purpose...loose him and let her go.

Finding a home in our heart for our own self is a useless search. To find that home in our heart where our Father lives is our God-goal. Which can only be realized Now. Can only be sought today...can only be caught in the instant. For It to live forever. 

There is our today's purpose...to be at peace with the Father within...to be realized here and now and only here and now. To seek for future peace is trying to find Soul security in tomorrow. It is not there. It is here. And that is all.

Our very innards feel the gift of love and laughter for the Father is here, the Father is Now. And we are blessed.

Thank you.

LET IT BE

Fear, anxiety, death, dementia, the fall of America, a feeling of deep spiritual change taking place within me, an opening of my heart-sense about Jesus, God and me...all are swirling in my head and within my chest...along with acid reflux.

I read my "God Calling" and there is my note dated 3/7/19: Death is not when we are left alone... death is when we rejoin the mix...thank you. Amen

Let it be.

Thank you.

GOD IS LOVE AND LOVE IS NONRESISTANCE

Fear is on the rise. Fear seems to be the chosen tool of the rulers and the wannabe rulers all around the world down to the head-of-household in the homes in villages, towns and cities...even when there is only one person living in that home.

There is more information arriving daily on the various mental conditions...now including dementias and the various forms there be.

 

With our expanding awareness of the uncontrollable nature of these dementias, we are given the sad news that there is nothing we can do about it. The disease is in control.

According to me, and I hope to stand on it, fear, dementia, sociopathic rulers, and my own ego have no more control than they ever have had. God has and will ever have more. 

We just don't hear of new and different and ever-more powerful controls of God because there are none. God has all control through love and love alone.  God is love, and love is welcome!, love is thank you, love is laughter, love is infinite...love is nonresistance,

Fear and all the manifestations of fear will travel faster than the hope of Heaven. Good news gets pooh-poohed and hidden...we dare not hope in case our dream falls apart and we wind up looking foolish. 

The hard lesson we need to learn is that love does not fall apart...it is our perception that betrays us. 

Remember one of my three truths, what we see is always our self. Just this past Tuesday, 

Fr Richard put it this way: We don’t see things as they are; we see things as we are.

It is said that God helps those who help themselves. If fear is going to take us over anyhow, why not welcome it? The best place to start is by changing our mind. We rewind our attitude of gratitude which opens us to the grace of an unharried mind. We stop trying to hide from our fear, we see it and resist it not...we welcome it with our thank you. 

With a lightened outlook, the grace of God is invited to enter. By grace and by God we can walk forward, not totally unstressed but peaced for sure, heading in the right direction.

Upgrade your attitude, upgrade your problem.

Thank you.

THE GREATEST GIFT IS IN GIVING

According to me, there are three "rules of the road" that determine our attitude on a daily basis. It takes willingness, daily discipline and an uncensored trust in God to open ourself to these truths for they are the core of our new way of thinking, feeling, doing, being. Those three truths? 

1. What we see is always our self.
2. What happens to us happens by invitation only.
3. We are the source of all our woes.

It takes daily discipline and great courage to take full responsibility for our own self...because full responsibility means giving over, giving up, giving in to a Power greater than ourself.

In walking-around terms, we need to divorce ourself from our own opinions...become willing to doubt our own ears before acting or reacting. Probably we've all been misheard and misquoted, maybe more than once or twice. That's pretty much how we learn to let it be...it's well-nigh impossible to convince someone that you did not say what they believe they heard you say. 

In the reasoning-mind world, it's fight with words or resent in silence...both losers in our spiritual growth. 

One way to walk away without recriminations on either side is to silently know, "I am not responsible for what you hear me say; nor am I responsible for how you choose to interpret what you hear me say." While out-loud saying any variation of, "You may be right."  It helps if we remember to smile...better yet is to mean it.

It is a mysticism of wide-open eyes. . . . God calls upon the soul to give away its own ears and eyes and to let itself be given those of God. -- Dorothee Sölle

Thank you.

IT IS FORGIVENESS THAT FORGIVES

Practicing our new life...living primarily from our Soul instead of our head...is to invite the dreaded  humility out of its secret place within. 

Humility is like a brand spanking new useful toy...looks great, but where's the fun in useful?

Humility we all claim to want, but getting it? Humility is pricey, takes as long as it takes for us to begin to think kindly toward it, but once we do, once we get over our own self, humility is the pearl beyond price.    

Say we've made a decision to be a forgiving person. When the time comes to forgive, and it will come and it will hurt, we begin the forgiving-person process by turning our eye inward. We must go deep and deeper still to find another decision, the one based on self, we once made that later placed us in a position to be hurt. 

It is that reactive decision for self that slithered out and hurt another, inviting that other to react in kind toward us. 

The grace of realization of the origin of our pain humbles us, and the door to acceptance opens. In all humility, we own that decision. And we know peace.

Humility births acceptance which brings along its BFF, peace. Humility wants that peace for the other, too. 

Humility unto acceptance unto forgiveness unto peace...God's cycle.

Thank you.

DON'T RUN AWAY...MOVE CLOSER

The nearer you get to Me, the more will you see your unlikeness to Me. So be comforted. -- "God Calling," March 3 

Often it seems that the deeper we grow spiritually, the farther we feel from the Father. Our mistakes loom larger, our missteps more obvious...and wasn't it just yesterday we were knowing I am free of me. I know it and I show it? 

New lesson learning: I am free of me, but I need only consciously show it to me. If we truly have it, it will show itself; it is not to be paraded on the street. 

We learn when wrong promptly admit it...out loud for the other to hear.  As we are moved on, we find admitting it to the other often offends...uglier, though, too often we respond in kind. There is the fruit of our spiritual step up...we are led to another way. 

In the first instance, we are not wrong to voice our error, but our voiced admission can quickly become our God. In effect, we expect our apology to bring peace, love and joy...or at least forgiveness.

We find we can silently acknowledge that we were wrong and why, and let our kinder actions show it,  not only for them but for our own Soul. Their response is immaterial which allows us to seek a way through God to move closer in love to them for all our sakes.

Where people differ from you and aren't shy about letting you know it, don't run away. Move closer to them...You need to smile, too. -- Eknath Easwaran, "Words to Live By," October 1

Thank you.

GOD'S FOREVER HUG

When life is walking us down a patch of rough road, it takes all of our hard-earned discipline to remember to pray thank you. Not thank you for the rough road, not thank you for any material thing...just thank you. 

To consciously welcome God's seeing our need, not our want, clears our resistance. Then we can look within, way way way deep within, to find what decision we made based on self that brought us to this rough patch. 

There...we are on the Way toward finding God's perfect will and release from our bind.

The Way takes as long as it takes. Still more spiritual growth can feel wrong a lot of the time...sticking with it, we find it's not wrong, it's just new...daily...and different to our senses. The more resistant we feel, the deeper we are in self-will...clinging to our idea of spiritual probably. We need to change our mind not the teaching.

Living our spiritual growth takes practice...every day, every single day. And every day, every single day, we will be released...whether we feel it or not. 

Then one fine day we find our rough patch has become sunshine and roses. Be assured, that is God giving us a hug. 

Thank you.

GET QUIET, PRAY THANK YOU, WAIT

Consciousness Bias: Some things simply can’t be seen from where I am right now. But if I keep growing, maturing, and developing, someday I will be able to see what is now inaccessible to me.  (Brian McLaren, Why Don’t They Get It? Overcoming Bias in Others (and Yourself) (Self-published: 2019), e-book.) 

The paradox of answered prayer...we pray for peace and get war, pray for wealth and get poverty, pray for health and get ill, pray for...our wants, pretty as they are, they are our wants, plain and simple. 

I say that our need is to concentrate our singular want on trust, on trusting God's will (i.e., whatever is before us right Now) as better for us than our will no matter the contrary evidence to our eyes.  

Whatever comes to us comes by invitation only. Unrealized, unknown, unanticipated...but invited nonetheless. There...we start to trust right there. To trust that as true and our personal truth.

That is where we must needs begin...to dig within, to change our mind, to make our U-bie away from self-will toward God's will, away from self to become One'd with the Father,  Which, face it, is a rest-of-our-life journey which cannot be made but by still more spiritual growth.

We begin in earnest when we make a decision to shuck our shields...to trust God no matter what. Then comes the necessity to make a decision to become a forgiving person...and trust God no matter what.

The beauty of spiritual growth is we don't get it by making sense of it. Face it, if we could get to God by just thinking...a lot...we'd all have angel wings. 

Get quiet, pray thank you, wait on the Lord.

Thank you.