I believe that life's spiritual test is how well we can comprehend and live the promise that the God we seek is already ours...already within me, within you, within us which includes every living thing, and every living thing includes stone and steel. Cats even. Everything. Everywhere.
The word is that there cannot be a place that the living God is not. This becomes ours to prove, and the battle begins...within. Between the reasoning mind's view and the spiritual view.
"Ours to prove" takes a lifetime for most of us. It is life itself that teaches us that only through surrender do we reach our gold. The paradox is that we learn to resist not, yet the only way to surrender is to resist! For how are we ever going to surrender if we never resist?
We can accept that our road to God is to resist a little less each day. To find within our self daily the love necessary to give over to another, specifically to give over to the one we are resisting...there's always someone to our ego-victory mind.
Maybe God's gift to use is an attack mind and the spiritual tools to overcome it. We get to supply the want to.
Thank you.
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Monday, October 26, 2015
TO CONQUER SELF, SURRENDER
The way of conquest over the material, the temporal, which all should know, is learned by the conquest of the physical, the self-life, in each of you. -- "God Calling," October 25
There. That is the main message of spiritual growth itself: Conquer self.
My concept is that in conquering self, all good within is unblocked...and will flow out from our center (where God lives) to others, returning to us with twelve bushels full left over.
Conquering self to me starts with not being as nasty as I want to be, not responding in kind to less-than-wonderful remarks, acts or attitudes, and then moves up to being...truly feeling...care and concern for the other. The other being the original slinger of the less-than-wonderful.
Amazingly, I have been able to do that today...with an extremely few others. I just give me points big time that I've gotten over myself with two or three. And that's all it is...getting over our own self. No matter what mud is slung, if we don't take it personally, it is not ours, it cannot touch us.
This I know from my own experience, so I can guarantee it...so why are there only "an extremely few" I've succeeded with? Because getting over one's own self is not a job for self...and our ego does not cede its control period.
We must go to God. Ah, there's the hook. It is really, really hard to remember that we go to God for God and that is all when we see our problem, we know the solution, and we cannot do it. So we go to God and ask him to help us, to do something about it, to even help us accept it as unfixable, to do this, that, etc., etc., etc.
Until we can go to God for God and that is all, we're being our ego's spokesperson...going to God to ask for that which cannot touch our ego...our will. We were gifted with free will at birth, our journey is ever to give that free will back. As long as we're asking for our will's solution, we're playing our ego's game...there is no God in that.
To conquer self, surrender self. And that is all.
Thank you.
There. That is the main message of spiritual growth itself: Conquer self.
My concept is that in conquering self, all good within is unblocked...and will flow out from our center (where God lives) to others, returning to us with twelve bushels full left over.
Conquering self to me starts with not being as nasty as I want to be, not responding in kind to less-than-wonderful remarks, acts or attitudes, and then moves up to being...truly feeling...care and concern for the other. The other being the original slinger of the less-than-wonderful.
Amazingly, I have been able to do that today...with an extremely few others. I just give me points big time that I've gotten over myself with two or three. And that's all it is...getting over our own self. No matter what mud is slung, if we don't take it personally, it is not ours, it cannot touch us.
This I know from my own experience, so I can guarantee it...so why are there only "an extremely few" I've succeeded with? Because getting over one's own self is not a job for self...and our ego does not cede its control period.
We must go to God. Ah, there's the hook. It is really, really hard to remember that we go to God for God and that is all when we see our problem, we know the solution, and we cannot do it. So we go to God and ask him to help us, to do something about it, to even help us accept it as unfixable, to do this, that, etc., etc., etc.
Until we can go to God for God and that is all, we're being our ego's spokesperson...going to God to ask for that which cannot touch our ego...our will. We were gifted with free will at birth, our journey is ever to give that free will back. As long as we're asking for our will's solution, we're playing our ego's game...there is no God in that.
To conquer self, surrender self. And that is all.
Thank you.
Sunday, October 25, 2015
GOD CAN AND WILL...ALWAYS AND ALL WAYS
In his Daily Meditation of this past October 22nd, Fr. Richard Rohr wrote that we must come to "an awareness that I am the enemy and the enemy is me. I cannot destroy the other without destroying myself. I must embrace my enemy just as I welcome my own shadow."
I dreamed last night that I came face-to-face with a person unknown to me yet I realized her as an alienated friend who clearly wanted to set me straight...again. Among other things, I knew we had not seen each other in over 30 years, yet she had stored deep within her the original peeve, plus 30 years of raging self-pity with my name on it.
When I awoke, I felt the alienated friend's presence, and I said, "You're just going to have to let me off the hook. That's your only road to freedom." With which I recognized my alienated friend as a stand-in for my undeserved suffering, my nemesis as it were.
I felt my heart and soul soar with the certainty that God can and will...always and all ways...find a way to speak my truth to me.
Thank you.
I dreamed last night that I came face-to-face with a person unknown to me yet I realized her as an alienated friend who clearly wanted to set me straight...again. Among other things, I knew we had not seen each other in over 30 years, yet she had stored deep within her the original peeve, plus 30 years of raging self-pity with my name on it.
When I awoke, I felt the alienated friend's presence, and I said, "You're just going to have to let me off the hook. That's your only road to freedom." With which I recognized my alienated friend as a stand-in for my undeserved suffering, my nemesis as it were.
I felt my heart and soul soar with the certainty that God can and will...always and all ways...find a way to speak my truth to me.
Thank you.
Saturday, October 24, 2015
SIMPLIFY...AND LAUGH
My little guy is at my feet, sound asleep. Apparently he has absolute faith that he is taken care of and that he will be taken care of.
I don't think that his faith comes from the fact that he can see me. I think he just uses the love he was born with, lets it grow and flow like the proverbial mustard seed whose only job is to grow, so grow it does. No nattering, coaxing, worrying, analyzing...it grows because God formed it, gave it its job to do, and set it free to be. Which, if we would only accept it, is just what he did for you and me.
So here's my theory: Animals, plants...all nonhuman living things...do God so well because they neither want nor believe they need to think about it...plus they don't have opposable thumbs.
Simplify. Detach. Love. Laugh.
Thank you.
I don't think that his faith comes from the fact that he can see me. I think he just uses the love he was born with, lets it grow and flow like the proverbial mustard seed whose only job is to grow, so grow it does. No nattering, coaxing, worrying, analyzing...it grows because God formed it, gave it its job to do, and set it free to be. Which, if we would only accept it, is just what he did for you and me.
So here's my theory: Animals, plants...all nonhuman living things...do God so well because they neither want nor believe they need to think about it...plus they don't have opposable thumbs.
Simplify. Detach. Love. Laugh.
Thank you.
Friday, October 23, 2015
LOVE THE UNLOVABLE, LOVE OUR SELF
You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; in just the same way, you learn to love by loving. -- Saint Francis de Sales
What the good Saint does not say is that the one we need to love is the one least lovable to our reasoning mind. We must go beyond reason to love. To go beyond reason is to divorce our self from our own opinion, according to me.
The unfortunate truth is that there is always and without fail someone we believe who is not our friend...and it is not our fault. Here's an exercise: Imagine that one's face, then say, "I can love you" to the mental image. Thus begins the process of allowing our self to go within, there to experience the freedom in changing our mind.
We can think the exact opposite of what we're believing if we are willing to give up our rigid, righteous and right self-justification for believing ill of the other to begin with, i.e., s/he said or did it first and worse. Our goal now is to return goodwill for ill will...and we will need inside help.
I'm convinced the hard-to-bear-with is so difficult because she is me. What we see is always our self...we find that difficult to accept because we refuse to take the necessary time to really look...to look with newly opened eyes and an inviting mind. We generally are so put off by the difficult one that we will not allow that we are anything like him, thus we refuse to look behind the façade.
It'll probably take a "thank you, God" or two to get started, but the payoff is priceless. We wind up feeling really, really good about our self...because our Self is at the wheel!
Thank you.
What the good Saint does not say is that the one we need to love is the one least lovable to our reasoning mind. We must go beyond reason to love. To go beyond reason is to divorce our self from our own opinion, according to me.
The unfortunate truth is that there is always and without fail someone we believe who is not our friend...and it is not our fault. Here's an exercise: Imagine that one's face, then say, "I can love you" to the mental image. Thus begins the process of allowing our self to go within, there to experience the freedom in changing our mind.
We can think the exact opposite of what we're believing if we are willing to give up our rigid, righteous and right self-justification for believing ill of the other to begin with, i.e., s/he said or did it first and worse. Our goal now is to return goodwill for ill will...and we will need inside help.
I'm convinced the hard-to-bear-with is so difficult because she is me. What we see is always our self...we find that difficult to accept because we refuse to take the necessary time to really look...to look with newly opened eyes and an inviting mind. We generally are so put off by the difficult one that we will not allow that we are anything like him, thus we refuse to look behind the façade.
It'll probably take a "thank you, God" or two to get started, but the payoff is priceless. We wind up feeling really, really good about our self...because our Self is at the wheel!
Thank you.
Thursday, October 22, 2015
LIFE REALLY IS LIKE A BOX OF CHOCOLATES
Life is a conundrum, a paradox, an enigma:
How do we get love? We give love away.
How do we get a vibrant, alive and spirit-filled mind? Through silence.
How do we overcome our enemy? Embrace him.
How do we win an argument? Agree...quickly.
How do we know for certain sure there is a God? We don't.
How do we accept not knowing? We laugh.
How do we laugh when reliance on God is apparently essential in our life? We love and laugh.
Where do we go to learn how to love and laugh? Within...to God.
Thank you.
How do we get love? We give love away.
How do we get a vibrant, alive and spirit-filled mind? Through silence.
How do we overcome our enemy? Embrace him.
How do we win an argument? Agree...quickly.
How do we know for certain sure there is a God? We don't.
How do we accept not knowing? We laugh.
How do we laugh when reliance on God is apparently essential in our life? We love and laugh.
Where do we go to learn how to love and laugh? Within...to God.
Thank you.
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
BE SILENT...DO NOTHING
Do nothing.
A friend told me that is an ancient Japanese or Chinese adage, I don't remember which, and it doesn't really matter, it is the direction that is important. That direction speaks to me of learning detachment...about which we can never learn enough.
My favorite lesson in learning detachment is, "Sit and wait on the Lord." That's in the Bible somewhere, and it is fairly hard to do. Mainly because our reasoning mind is continually nattering, wanting to know when the Lord is going to do something, and what, and how, etc.
Which reminds me of the other toughie...listening. Speak not, slow the mind, and...listen. Sitting with all those questions racing, rounding them up, bringing them back to zero, starting over...that, according to me, is how we go about learning how to sit quietly and listen.
We are in the process of building trust in the Lord. Because having faith and trust and belief... all the necessary intangibles... are gifts that aren't ours to get just for the asking...or for the wanting. It takes diligence...concentrated effort...to do nothing, to sit and wait...on the invisible, untouchable Lord.
Finally we understand. It is putting in our time...silently, reverently...that lets those necessary intangibles flow from the inside out. I have found the hardest part in spiritual growth is not outward activity but inward receptivity. How do we get a vibrant, alive and spirit-filled mind? We still our thoughts. Stilled thoughts bring a silenced mind is a receptive mind,
A receptive mind is open, allowing our inner Self to inform us...if, as and when It chooses. There. That is the pearl beyond price.
Thank you.
A friend told me that is an ancient Japanese or Chinese adage, I don't remember which, and it doesn't really matter, it is the direction that is important. That direction speaks to me of learning detachment...about which we can never learn enough.
My favorite lesson in learning detachment is, "Sit and wait on the Lord." That's in the Bible somewhere, and it is fairly hard to do. Mainly because our reasoning mind is continually nattering, wanting to know when the Lord is going to do something, and what, and how, etc.
Which reminds me of the other toughie...listening. Speak not, slow the mind, and...listen. Sitting with all those questions racing, rounding them up, bringing them back to zero, starting over...that, according to me, is how we go about learning how to sit quietly and listen.
We are in the process of building trust in the Lord. Because having faith and trust and belief... all the necessary intangibles... are gifts that aren't ours to get just for the asking...or for the wanting. It takes diligence...concentrated effort...to do nothing, to sit and wait...on the invisible, untouchable Lord.
Finally we understand. It is putting in our time...silently, reverently...that lets those necessary intangibles flow from the inside out. I have found the hardest part in spiritual growth is not outward activity but inward receptivity. How do we get a vibrant, alive and spirit-filled mind? We still our thoughts. Stilled thoughts bring a silenced mind is a receptive mind,
A receptive mind is open, allowing our inner Self to inform us...if, as and when It chooses. There. That is the pearl beyond price.
Thank you.
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