The ego moves forward by contraction, self-protection, and refusal, by saying
no. The soul, however, does not proceed by contraction but by expansion. It
moves forward not by exclusion, but by inclusion and by saying yes. -- Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," July 14, 2014
I love when I get a blinding flash of the obvious, and shortly thereafter it is validated when I read something written by a respected authority. I awoke this morning with my almost-first thought being, "Until I feel no resistance at all toward Herkimer's agitation, I will be tied to his agitation."
Later I read Rohr's Meditation, above, and I knew again that it is my ego dictating my resistance.
Here's my good news: I now believe that knowing it "again" is doing it right. I no longer expect (I still want) upon understanding an ego-mire, that, by that understanding, henceforth and forever I will walk free. No. I will henceforth be heading in a new direction...away from ego, toward God. The road, however, is rocky and the path is steep, and we take our rest stops as necessary. It is the rest stops that become less necessary!
Another paradox...the rest stop, our once longed-for respite, becomes our "Oh no, not again," and morphs into our, "I'm still heading in the right direction...thank you."
God is so good to us.
Thank you.
Monday, July 14, 2014
Sunday, July 13, 2014
LAUGH...THE BEST WAY TO LIVE LIFE
I have just finished a wonderful book, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, and I have found myself in it.
Background: An old farmer was nattered into joining the book club and into reading Marcus Aurelius. Here's his take on Marcus:
"Marcus Aurelius was an old woman -- forever taking his mind's temperature -- forever wondering about what he had done, or what he had not done. Was he right -- or was he wrong? Was the rest of the world in error? Could it be him instead? No, it was everybody else who was wrong, and he set matters straight for them. Broody hen that he was, he never had a tiny thought that he couldn't turn into a sermon."
“Forever taking his mind’s temperature!” I don’t know which line I love more...that one, or “he never had a tiny thought that he couldn't turn into a sermon.”
Isn't that exactly what we do when we find a personal defect in our own self or any other? Sit down and reflect on it, analyze it, determine who's at fault, what's to be done about it, how to do it...with the defect continuing to fester. The last thought in our mind is asking God's opinion on the matter...much less his help in fixing it.
I totally, completely, absolutely identified with so much in this book which is written so that we see the humor of it all...the best way to look at life itself and ourselves in particular.
Thank you.
Background: An old farmer was nattered into joining the book club and into reading Marcus Aurelius. Here's his take on Marcus:
"Marcus Aurelius was an old woman -- forever taking his mind's temperature -- forever wondering about what he had done, or what he had not done. Was he right -- or was he wrong? Was the rest of the world in error? Could it be him instead? No, it was everybody else who was wrong, and he set matters straight for them. Broody hen that he was, he never had a tiny thought that he couldn't turn into a sermon."
“Forever taking his mind’s temperature!” I don’t know which line I love more...that one, or “he never had a tiny thought that he couldn't turn into a sermon.”
Isn't that exactly what we do when we find a personal defect in our own self or any other? Sit down and reflect on it, analyze it, determine who's at fault, what's to be done about it, how to do it...with the defect continuing to fester. The last thought in our mind is asking God's opinion on the matter...much less his help in fixing it.
I totally, completely, absolutely identified with so much in this book which is written so that we see the humor of it all...the best way to look at life itself and ourselves in particular.
Thank you.
Saturday, July 12, 2014
HOW CAN WE BLAME GOD IF THERE IS NO GOD?
This God that Israel—and Jesus—discovered is consistently seen to be 'merciful, gracious, faithful, forgiving, and steadfast in love.' -- Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditations," July 12, 2014
I read that this morning and wondered why it is for so many that we can desperately want to believe that God, that our own personal God, is “merciful, gracious, faithful, forgiving, and steadfast in love,” yet at our first molehill/Mount Everest, we immediately dismiss that idea and know, just know, that God is mean, vindictive, angry, and punishing. Plus, doesn't exist in the first place...has never existed for that matter.
For if God exists, is indeed "merciful, gracious, faithful, forgiving, and steadfast in love,” and we find ourselves all alone, jobless and homeless, isn't that the very time we most need all the merciful and steadfast love we can get?
Why would we then, at such a dire time of need, decide to go for a God who is mean, vindictive, angry, and punishing? Or no God at all?
Which reminds me, how can we blame God for all our woes if there is no God? That leaves our very own self alone to blame if blame we must. Our ego, of course, does not allow for the blame to be ours; it can and will find somebody out there to blame...a friend, an enemy, our spouse, our boss, a co-worker, terrorists. Our ego's sources of woe are endless with the focus always being outward.
Apparently we'd rather hold onto our own ideas than change our mind. For that is essentially all that is necessary...we must become willing to change our mind and than do it. Change our mind...then, trickier, keep it changed.
That, however, is the hardest part of all, changing our mind...for, just like acceptance/surrender, we cannot self-will a changed mind, just because we "know better" or just because we want to. Actual acceptance requires pain...psychic pain, in that no blood is let, no skin is broken, no bumps show. Changing our mind feels much more painful than that caused by mere bumps and bruises...after all, they go away fairly quickly.
I remember a story a friend told me long ago of when she was a little girl and went to the beach for her first time. She ran into the water and was promptly knocked down by a wave and couldn't get up. She fought till she was exhausted, and she knew...had the conscious thought...that she was drowning. She just gave up, had to just quit fighting...with which the next wave picked her up and brought her into the shore...to safety on the sand.
That's a picture we can try to hold to when we want, but are unwilling and cannot will ourselves willing, to change our mind...to surrender. Give up and wait for the next wave...to swamp us or save us.
The gift comes when we realize God may or may not bring us to our idea of safety. We find our peace when we pray for God's perfect idea of safety. And, in its coming, when it looks like a shark not an inner-tube...welcome that. Think "thank you."
Now that is a changed mind.
Thank you.
I read that this morning and wondered why it is for so many that we can desperately want to believe that God, that our own personal God, is “merciful, gracious, faithful, forgiving, and steadfast in love,” yet at our first molehill/Mount Everest, we immediately dismiss that idea and know, just know, that God is mean, vindictive, angry, and punishing. Plus, doesn't exist in the first place...has never existed for that matter.
For if God exists, is indeed "merciful, gracious, faithful, forgiving, and steadfast in love,” and we find ourselves all alone, jobless and homeless, isn't that the very time we most need all the merciful and steadfast love we can get?
Why would we then, at such a dire time of need, decide to go for a God who is mean, vindictive, angry, and punishing? Or no God at all?
Which reminds me, how can we blame God for all our woes if there is no God? That leaves our very own self alone to blame if blame we must. Our ego, of course, does not allow for the blame to be ours; it can and will find somebody out there to blame...a friend, an enemy, our spouse, our boss, a co-worker, terrorists. Our ego's sources of woe are endless with the focus always being outward.
Apparently we'd rather hold onto our own ideas than change our mind. For that is essentially all that is necessary...we must become willing to change our mind and than do it. Change our mind...then, trickier, keep it changed.
That, however, is the hardest part of all, changing our mind...for, just like acceptance/surrender, we cannot self-will a changed mind, just because we "know better" or just because we want to. Actual acceptance requires pain...psychic pain, in that no blood is let, no skin is broken, no bumps show. Changing our mind feels much more painful than that caused by mere bumps and bruises...after all, they go away fairly quickly.
I remember a story a friend told me long ago of when she was a little girl and went to the beach for her first time. She ran into the water and was promptly knocked down by a wave and couldn't get up. She fought till she was exhausted, and she knew...had the conscious thought...that she was drowning. She just gave up, had to just quit fighting...with which the next wave picked her up and brought her into the shore...to safety on the sand.
That's a picture we can try to hold to when we want, but are unwilling and cannot will ourselves willing, to change our mind...to surrender. Give up and wait for the next wave...to swamp us or save us.
The gift comes when we realize God may or may not bring us to our idea of safety. We find our peace when we pray for God's perfect idea of safety. And, in its coming, when it looks like a shark not an inner-tube...welcome that. Think "thank you."
Now that is a changed mind.
Thank you.
Friday, July 11, 2014
ON FEELING LIKE JOB
I note in my "God Calling" this morning that I wrote in 2005 that I felt like Job...then I listed a slew of reasons why. Interestingly, I also wrote in 2010 the exact same thing: "I feel like Job" with another list of reasons why. I've noted a "skin-on-crooked" feeling recently, and I thought this may just be what, back in the day, we called the "summer doldrums."
Which may be the whole story right there, but I'm reminded way back when I wrote: "If I will make the effort to remember to turn to God when I sense any unknown coming, good or bad, and simply say 'thank you,' that can open the door for God’s perfect will to come forth.
"There are times when I’m searching for God’s will in a given situation…I talk with my mentor, my friends and confidants, I pray about it, I journal…in short, I do all the 'right' things. I go forth thinking I've got God’s will here, and KA-BOOM…wrong, wrong, wrong. That, too, is God’s will.
"If the end result initially looks wrong to me, I need to look deeper. I can’t think of any mistake I’ve made (and I’ve made way more than my share) that hasn’t eventually been beneficial to me…if only through a deeper sense of humility (of which I am never going to have too much).
"God uses what I give him to use…what I am is what He perfects."
"There are times when I’m searching for God’s will in a given situation…I talk with my mentor, my friends and confidants, I pray about it, I journal…in short, I do all the 'right' things. I go forth thinking I've got God’s will here, and KA-BOOM…wrong, wrong, wrong. That, too, is God’s will.
"If the end result initially looks wrong to me, I need to look deeper. I can’t think of any mistake I’ve made (and I’ve made way more than my share) that hasn’t eventually been beneficial to me…if only through a deeper sense of humility (of which I am never going to have too much).
"God uses what I give him to use…what I am is what He perfects."
Thank you.
Thursday, July 10, 2014
GIVE TO GET
Our world today seems to me to be going backward with "peace" seen as merely a panacea to speak of but not a reality to achieve. Which seems to prove the truth that everybody decries the bully and his ways, yet when the bully turns his hard eyes on them, they quick line up with the bully's ways.
"When will we ever learn? When will we ever learn?"
Truth to tell, all the pretty words have already been written, spoken, sung...now we're just looking for new ways to string them together.
It's not the learning we're lacking, it's the will to do.
Many of us go weekly to church, synagogue, temple, mosque hoping to hear new ways to do the words we already have heard and know to be true. Many of us just study our navel hoping enlightenment will spring from there.
It could not be surprising (shocking, maybe, but not surprising) to find 50,000-year-old graffiti on a cave wall saying pretty much what the Sermon says. The Sermon, which was spoken some 2,000 years ago, that we're still quoting, but not doing. I myself preach it way too much in comparison to how often I walk it. Seems like I'm forever catching disrespect from someone and responding in kind. And I know it is not what is said or done, it is our reaction to it that causes our interminable pain. Apparently, it's just that I know it for you...it's still elusive for me.
The doing is so hard, of course, because its only requirement is that we give over, give in, give up...GIVE.
We cannot get God until we give up our sense of self...hug it and kiss it and let it go. For self alone is the block to the higher power within...ready to flow forth.
Thank you.
"When will we ever learn? When will we ever learn?"
Truth to tell, all the pretty words have already been written, spoken, sung...now we're just looking for new ways to string them together.
It's not the learning we're lacking, it's the will to do.
Many of us go weekly to church, synagogue, temple, mosque hoping to hear new ways to do the words we already have heard and know to be true. Many of us just study our navel hoping enlightenment will spring from there.
It could not be surprising (shocking, maybe, but not surprising) to find 50,000-year-old graffiti on a cave wall saying pretty much what the Sermon says. The Sermon, which was spoken some 2,000 years ago, that we're still quoting, but not doing. I myself preach it way too much in comparison to how often I walk it. Seems like I'm forever catching disrespect from someone and responding in kind. And I know it is not what is said or done, it is our reaction to it that causes our interminable pain. Apparently, it's just that I know it for you...it's still elusive for me.
The doing is so hard, of course, because its only requirement is that we give over, give in, give up...GIVE.
We cannot get God until we give up our sense of self...hug it and kiss it and let it go. For self alone is the block to the higher power within...ready to flow forth.
Thank you.
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
ALWAYS AND ONLY: NOW
This morning's blinding flash of the obvious: The human mind always wants to benefit itself. The illumined mind cannot even entertain a want...it can only know fulfillment.
It is in the rocky road that we walk away from our origins, God, that makes the trip back so painfully fruitful. For it is in the trip back that we learn, among other things, the power of paradox...probably starting with the realization that all of our rues, regrets and remorses are our gold. And that we cannot fake. It's like acceptance; just saying "I accept this" has never brought anyone to acceptance...to resignation, maybe, but not acceptance. And resignation is just resentment aborning.
It's a full life lesson to realize that we go to God for God...that is all. Our human mind may grasp that fairly quickly, and it is that same mind that resists it right afterward. For where's the glory? We get God and that is all...where's the I-got-mine-which-is-better-than-yours in that?
I'm guessing we get it for good on arrival back home. It is comforting to know that we don't have to die to arrive back home. The illumined mind knows it is available now...always and only: Now.
Thank you.
It is in the rocky road that we walk away from our origins, God, that makes the trip back so painfully fruitful. For it is in the trip back that we learn, among other things, the power of paradox...probably starting with the realization that all of our rues, regrets and remorses are our gold. And that we cannot fake. It's like acceptance; just saying "I accept this" has never brought anyone to acceptance...to resignation, maybe, but not acceptance. And resignation is just resentment aborning.
It's a full life lesson to realize that we go to God for God...that is all. Our human mind may grasp that fairly quickly, and it is that same mind that resists it right afterward. For where's the glory? We get God and that is all...where's the I-got-mine-which-is-better-than-yours in that?
I'm guessing we get it for good on arrival back home. It is comforting to know that we don't have to die to arrive back home. The illumined mind knows it is available now...always and only: Now.
Thank you.
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
ON CHANGING OUR PRAYERFUL MIND
"All power is in the word of God within me." - Joel Goldsmith, The Heart of Mysticism at p. 994
One of the most important thoughts to use in building the God of our own understanding is that God is Spirit...not human, not of a certain form even..and that Spirit is presence itself, such as the wind, as the beams of the sun, as the air we breathe.
That Spirit is within us, without us, always present, and our only desire needs be to let it speak to us, to let it do for us as it wills.
As Fr. Richard Rohr writes this morning in his Daily Meditations, "Jesus was not changing the Father’s mind about us; he was changing our mind about God." There it is. We must change our mind about God.
In the changing of our mind (per Joel Goldsmith, The Heart of Mysticism at p. 993), "[w]hen you pray, remember that God is Spirit, and pray only for the word of God and its spiritual fruitage."
That, of course, means that we pray not for money, prestige, companionship or even good health...we pray only for knowledge of God's word and will.
The biggest change may well be in learning that our prayer starts...always...with "thank you."
One of the most important thoughts to use in building the God of our own understanding is that God is Spirit...not human, not of a certain form even..and that Spirit is presence itself, such as the wind, as the beams of the sun, as the air we breathe.
That Spirit is within us, without us, always present, and our only desire needs be to let it speak to us, to let it do for us as it wills.
As Fr. Richard Rohr writes this morning in his Daily Meditations, "Jesus was not changing the Father’s mind about us; he was changing our mind about God." There it is. We must change our mind about God.
In the changing of our mind (per Joel Goldsmith, The Heart of Mysticism at p. 993), "[w]hen you pray, remember that God is Spirit, and pray only for the word of God and its spiritual fruitage."
That, of course, means that we pray not for money, prestige, companionship or even good health...we pray only for knowledge of God's word and will.
The biggest change may well be in learning that our prayer starts...always...with "thank you."
Thank you.
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