STILL MORE SPIRITUAL GROWTH...AND LOVE

I was with friends last night and Joe shared a story about our recently deceased friend, Sandy. Joe said that many years ago, when he was going through his own personal hell, he'd invited Sandy to share with him how he, Sandy, had gotten through his time in the crucible.

Sandy told Joe that he was not going to like the answer which he then laid out: Still more spiritual growth and love. That's all. There's the answer to any and all of life's muddles, puzzles and problems.

Not by speaking words of acceptance or of denial but by the unresisting silence of love can the slings, arrows and accolades of life flow through and disperse leaving nothing but a memory...in the form of our still more spiritual growth.

Thank you...and thank you, Sandy.

FROM LOVE TO LOVE

Blinding flash of the obvious: I will never be free of judgments as long as I continue to personalize anything. Even if/as/when I am snubbed, publicly scorned, humiliated by name, I can, with God's grace, not take that personally and not think of it again.

I know this is possible because my BFO just told me so, plus the Sermon teaches it...turn the other cheek, agree with your adversary quickly, resist not evil...all the how-tos for not taking anything personally.

I talk to God often about my judgmental mind...as in how to get shut of it. I heard a long time ago that we need to judge people in order to know if we're sticking with a "winner" or a "loser." My reasoning mind liked that...a lot.

But common sense knows that there is a difference between a judgmental mind and a discerning mind. A judgmental mind puts a price on its own perceptions...buying them for use later; a discerning mind simply understands and lets stand its perceptions without a lot of mental racket...knowing God will fill it in as needed.

It's hard to accept but nothing is personal to us. Nothing. Unless we chose to believe it is and then act or react as if it is...thus staying in our reasoning mind.

Depersonalizing is all about looking out at our own life through God's eyes...from love to love.

Thank you.

MIND MUST BE SUBSERVIENT TO HEART

I am fascinated by the repellent magnetism of some words...back in the day, the word "ain't" made teachers froth at the mouth and mothers freak out. So, of course, we kids used it as much as possible out of their hearing.

Today, there's a word we cannot say aloud at all...we call it the "N" word. Unfortunately, it is used behind closed doors by closed minds as often as possible.

Then there's the word "Jesus." Quite often today people hear that, and their minds snap shut...they quietly put distance between themselves and the speaker. I personally had such an aversion for years until I made the connection that it wasn't Jesus I objected to but Christianity as practiced by too many of its followers.

My heart, my mind and my seeking soul came together when I read that Gandhi, whom I admired long before I connected with Jesus, "admired the Sermon on the Mount (which shaped his whole philosophy of life)." That confirmed my acceptance of the Sermon as my go-to in life. The Sermon together with the only two commandments of Jesus sealed my spiritual base.

The simplicity...thus the mental impossibility...of those two commandments, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, body and brains, and love your neighbor as yourself, proves Gandhi's contention that "Culture of mind must be subservient to the culture of the heart." Else, according to me, we'll stay in our mind, trying to think it through to our satisfaction, and miss God completely.

Thank you.

THE PAIN IS IN THE PUZZLING

The storehouses of God are full to overflowing but you must see this in your mind. Be sure of this before you can realize it in material form.

When we open our mind's eye to the "storehouses of God" as being our very own selves, we begin to understand our endless supply of kindness, of patience, of love that we were born with, have within us now, can release at anytime simply by using it.

It takes some prior proper planning to get started using any of God's gifts in the material world. For instance, we can picture a friend who has been snippy toward us...and our response being the opposite of snippy. How can we see our personal self doing that? Not Jesus or Mother Mary or Pope Francis, but us...me, personally. Get the picture to where it is realistic to us and our knowledge of our own self. Then the next time it happens (and we know very good and well there will be a next time), we'll have a better chance of being kinder than we would have been...that's what we get to build on. There are very few one-shot-to-perfect in spiritual growth.

There is a spiritual principle behind this, and it is found in the Sermon on the Mount: If somebody slaps you upside your head, turn the other cheek. I doubt anyone gets there from a standing still place...it requires practice. And the practice starts with choosing to let go and let God...in other words, become willing to detach from our own ego.

Once when I was pondering how to become willing to let go, to detach, the image came of my grandpa wringing the neck of a chicken for grandma to prepare for Sunday dinner. And I realized that is the mechanics of detaching from my ego. The picture seems painful (especially for the chicken) but I remember that it happened, it was over, in a flash. It is the mental gyrations, the thinking, puzzling, trying to find an easier, softer way (in short, trying to placate the ego and get God, too) that causes us the pain.

We must go beyond reason to love.

Thank you.

ALWAYS AND ALL WAYS...FOR OTHERS

When we're feeling lack of anything we must give from that place of lack...not by our self-determined objective but by our unwavering faith in God to fill that place of lack to overflowing...so that without conscious thought it passes from our hearts, our soul, to whomever is open to receive it...not necessarily the person we had identified as the one we want to show love to...for that self-identifying is still the ego victory mind wanting to dictate, to control, to get back that which we're supposedly freely giving.

The goal always and all ways is "for others."

Thank you.

STAYING MY FOCUS ON GOD

Just bits and pieces that help me stay my focus on God:

1. Fr. Richard Rohr wrote one of my all-time favorite lines: "The most amazing fact about Jesus...is that he found God in disorder and imperfection -- and told us that we must do the same or we would never be content on this earth." [My note to me: That to me is the first step toward self-acceptance, finding God in my own imperfection.]
2. My one desire: to know and to show that wo/man "shall no longer live by bread alone or by the sword but by the grace of God without taking thought, without supplication, but in the understanding that He that is within you already knows your need, and it is His good pleasure to give you the kingdom." [My note: This was stated in Joel Goldsmith's biography, @ p. 91, as his one desire, and I want it to be true for me.]
3. Fr. Rohr wrote "Parables, like Zen koans, are almost always counter-intuitive and resist your common sense intellect. That is their whole point." [My note: This is exactly why paradox is so vitally important to me...it does the same as parables, turns me from my reasoning mind toward a higher mind.]
4. Don’t think about this too much, and don’t compare, which is always the work of the ego. The Holy Spirit can only be experienced. Faith is not really for problem solving. Faith is that attitude which allows you to fully experience your experiences, and not to eliminate the mysterious, problematic, and threatening parts of those experiences. [My note: This was either Rohr or Easwaran...maybe my blending of their words...I try to remember always to note when I've lifted something, and there is no note here.]
5. The closer you get to the Light, the more you see your own darkness. And the closer you get to your own ordinariness (darkness?), the more you know you need the Light. [My note: Same goes here.]
6. Also from Rohr: Spirituality is always about you changing your own way of seeing and your own way of hearing (not changing other people!). [My note: This sure brings No. 1, above, home, i.e., that we must find God in disorder and imperfection or we will never be content on this earth.]

I spell these out for me. I need to keep God-focused now more than ever.

Thank you.

WE WILL BE CONTACTED

Some less than wonderful news has come to me having to do with Edra, a relative of mine. I'd recently had lunch with her and her daughter, and she seemed a tish confused. I later asked her daughter if I was being overly concerned or was she as confused as I thought. Her daughter said that I'm right to be worried, that she is confused about everything.

Since her daughter lives out west and was only visiting, the idea occurred that I might be able to be of some help in keeping her up-to-date by going to visit Edra on occasion. Unfortunately, Edra is less than enchanted with me...she has had a hard, hard life and I haven't is her take.

So, I'm journaling this morning and getting all wrapped around my own control-engine (brain): Edra lives an hour away. I'd have to go via the freeway to get to her, I avoid the freeway in good conscience for the benefit of myself and others, she doesn't like me to begin with, she has a son who lived at home until six months ago and now lives in Peru, he knew this was coming and split, that little weasel, but she has no one in this area except me...what to do, what to do?

I just at random opened Joel Goldsmith's "The World is New" to p. 69, and read: Ultimately, we shall realize that any and every obligation -- family or otherwise -- is not our personal responsibility, but that of the Christ***. No demand will be a drain...if we catch the central point that the demand is not being made upon us, but upon the Christ, and we shall look upon ourselves as instruments -- transfer agents-- through whom our family, friends, or relatives are supported."

I can offer to do anything that I want without fear, doubt or dread...I just need to remember first to thank God for whatever his will may be in this. After all, he might have other plans entirely. He might want me to stay away...or he might want me to go live with her. (Let it be noted, we'd have some serious talks before that'd happen...so says my control-engine.) Either way, it's not on me, it's on the Christ within me.

That is where my focus will be now...and I do know I will be contacted.

Thank you.