ONE AND NOW ARE ONE

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank You.

AND GOD'S CIRCLE GROWS

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

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

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

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

Thank You.

UNKNOWABLE TO THE REASONING MIND

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

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

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

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

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

Thank You.

BE NOT AFRAID, ACCEPT IT

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

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

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

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

Thank You.

GOD DISCLOSES HIMSELF TO US AS LOVE

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank You.

RESIST NOTHING

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

This morning I read from The Illuminated Rumi:

Late, by myself, in the 

boat of myself, 

no light and no land 

anywhere.

Cloud cover thick.

 I try to stay 

just above the surface, 

Yet I'm already under 

and living 

within 

the ocean.

Thank You.

GOD IS THE PERFECT RECYCLER

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank You.