EGO-STANDARDS V. GOD'S STANDARD

[The following is a reprint of my blog of  April 14th, 2010.]

As I was brushing my teeth this morning, I got a blinding flash of the obvious: “You need to lower your standards.”  Since my standards aren't extraordinarily high to begin with, I knew that could not mean what it seemed to say.  

I realized that I was being told to lower my ego-standards.  It is in letting go of ego-standards that one reaches God’s standard…Love.

Deep in the center of one’s being is that standard which brings perfect peace. It is known by various names…The Golden Rule, Service, Loving kindness are a few. The practice of any one of those can and will bring one perfect peace, but, I've learned, one cannot practice them in order to get perfect peace…or indeed in order to get anything.

One practices love in order to love…ah, perfect peace.

Thank you.

THE ART OF SELF-DISCIPLINE

Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results...that is the current definition of insanity. Everybody knows that by now. It is gleefully repeated to others who are doing their insane thing, and, if we're wise, laughingly admitted to ourselves when we're the doer.

Why do we think, act as if, in fact, that the definition is the important thing?

Knowing the definition of insanity is, in truth, irrelevant. Before we ever knew the definition of insanity, we knew what we were doing...after doing it enough times, that is. Plus having loving friends drop a hint in our ear. That's when we truly began looking to change...other people seeing it in us and saying so.

I think it was when the definition became so popular, plus being attributed to Einstein, for heaven's sake!, that we got stuck in the definition. It seems it gives us permission to stay stuck. We forget, or never accepted, that the reason for the definition is to point us in the right direction; i.e., to stop doing our insane thing already. Or at least start thanking God for His help in stopping.

It all comes back to discipline...a word I still quake before, but I do seek it, I do apply it. Mainly because most every spiritual direction I've ever been given started with just that admonition: Practice self-discipline.

Learn to love discipline. - "God Calling," April 11.

Thank You.

LOVE, THEN LOVE, LOVE MORE

Nonviolence is the supreme law of life. - Hindu proverb

But what about our Second Amendment rights? Oh, it's Hindu...that doesn't count.

I will fight no more forever. - Chief Joseph

Just another uneducated Indian's ravings.

Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you - Jesus Christ

And we know where that got him.

Just Do It. - Nike slogan

Love. In the face of our own selves...love.

Thank You.

KARMA IN ACTION

A truth: The ego-based reasoning mind will always oppose fourth dimensional thinking, a.k.a., the will of God.

Example: [This is a little vignette a friend shared with me recently, and I love it.] Way back in the day, when my friend was in the 3rd or 4th grade, she rode the school bus, and the bus driver was an obese, meaner-than-a-rattlesnake man. One day one of the other kids wrote on a piece of paper "FAT MAN" and taped it to the back of the driver's seat. My friend quick went up, took the paper off, tore it into little pieces and threw them down. The bus driver saw only that part, chewed her a new one, and made her pick up the pieces. She, of course, felt like a fool. She's over 50 today and has never forgotten that "I'm a fool" feeling. The knowing she had to destroy the hurtful note isn't remembered except as a vehicle for playing "I was a fool" in her memory.

There. That is my idea of the perfect 4th dimensional act being snuffed by the ego-based reasoning mind.

Think about it...4th dimension: even that young, she knew in her heart, soul and gut that that note would be hurtful to the driver and she had to destroy it before he saw it. Ego-based reasoning mind moved in immediately to show off how good she was (better than the note-writing guy, in fact) and she had to parade her goodness...for which the ego got punctured by the very guy she was protecting!

It was God who inspired the good act; it was not God who did the punishing. The Father within walked her through to destroying the hurtful note at which point her ego-based reasoning mind took credit. That invited the driver's ego-based reasoning mind (loudly shaming the one who was messing up HIS bus) to punish her. Karma in action.

I love this story.

Thank You.

PEACE OF MIND...OUR FOREVER GOAL

Here's my today's poser for me: What if consciousness is simply our attitude, and God is simply an attitude of gratitude?

That flashed yesterday and has stayed with me...a rarity. So I ponder it. At the moment, those are the only two things I can think of that are purely good, no downside, no exceptions, no matter what.

I'm reminded of the book, "An Interrupted Life," by a woman in a Nazi prison camp. My memory is of her being in a cell next to a man who was petrified of the oncoming...oncoming everything...and was very vocal about it. She realized, as the prison guards were nearing and he was getting more hysterical, that his problem wasn't the guards, the camp, the situation...it was fear, his fear that was making him crazy. She died in that camp, hence the book's title, but she died in a state of acceptance, calm.

I think one reason it is so hard to accept a simple thank You as a worthwhile answer is that we expect the  situation, that which we're fearing, to change, as in stop. All thank You changes is us, not that which we're dreading, hating, fearing...experiencing.

It is, however, the change within that changes our perception of the problem, and we know peace...the one thing we've ever sought.

Thank You.

THOUGHTS THAT BRING ME COMFORT

It comforts me to know that I do not need to be a Bible-believer to take comfort from writings from the Bible. I don’t know a thing about Buddhism but I take comfort from many sayings of the Buddha.

Three singular thoughts from the Bible that I turn to a lot:

When we feel the road before us is too difficult:

Isa.45:2 - I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight....

When an unexpected or scary situation pops up:

Matt.14:27 - ....it is I, be not afraid.

When called upon to meet a life situation that weighs heavy over our head:

Job.23:14 - ….He performeth the thing that is appointed for me....

Thank You.

WAIT FOR DIRECTIONS

What a busy morning I've had...and it's all been in my head!

I've registered for a course, paid my $200 (which, may I say, ain't pocket change to me), and now there's some doubt that the course will be held. Already my personal uh-oh projector is sending signals that I'll not get my $200 back, they'll want to substitute another course, I don't want another course, this is the only course I can do, I am going to....

And I run out of steam because I really don't have a battery of ugly what I'll does to fall back on anymore.

So I said to God that I'd rather lose the $200 than fight about it...and I meant it. But then came the thought that that is just another self-determined objective masquerading as spiritual discipline...or, covering a bad motive with a good motive.

Before I ever heard of spiritual growth, I avoided hassles. Someone once said if breathing required more than an inhale/exhale, I'd be dead because I'd consider it too much of a hassle...which was true at the time. I still don't want a hassle, but I don't want a resentment more than I don't want a hassle, so I do for me today.

I pondered my problem, and knew that I really would rather lose the $200 than fight about it...that's the door to the right direction. I need to open that door within me for God to flow out and do Its thing.  I "prime the pump" for me by deciding what I DO NOT WANT God's will to be, in this case to substitute another course, then I work on welcoming that. I get there, then it really does not matter the outcome.

All I need know is that I'd rather have God's will done in my life than my will done in my life...then wait for directions. He knows where I am.

"Grant what thou commandest and then command what thou wilt."  -- Saint Augustine.

Thank You.