HUMILITY...THERE IS NO ENOUGH

And according to the varying needs of each so does each human see me. -- "God Calling," June 6

That statement describes perfectly the freedom we're given in having a God of our own understanding. All the world is free to have a God of his or her own understanding, yet many of us get all tangled in the mental picture of the God about which we thought we were taught as children. Then we spend our lives fighting our own judgment of the rigid, righteous and right people who forced that on us. We'd rather be rigid, righteous and wrong than simply change our mind.

According to me, that is the snare that holds an unhealthy majority of all of our problems...our refusal to simply change our mind. Probably because that is an admission that we were wrong in the first place.

It is a humbling possibility that being wrong isn't as dreaded as being caught being wrong. If I alone know my error, I can change my mind at will. However, if I've shared my wrong...just once...well, what's a body to do? Depending on how "positively" I shared my opinion, I can stay tied to my view till my face falls off. A disconcerting thought.

That's when having a God of my own understanding lifts me up, kisses me on the lips, and sets me free. For today I know that my God's hand is in everything. For instance, here's me shooting off a dumb remark that I recognize as dumb two seconds after it's out there. My head, my heart and my gut all clench...then I feel the breeze, whispering "Beloved," and I unclench. I know that dumb remark is exactly what was needed for my humility. Of which I can never have enough.

God is sooo  good to me.

Thank you.

A STRAIGHT ROAD TO GOD

If somebody hurts us and we are sore, we are in the wrong also. -- Anonymous

And if that isn't the hardest axiom to apply in life, I dread finding the real one.

By "to apply," I mean, "to live and breathe" in not responding in kind. So that when, when, when, a dear friend causes us a teeny-tiny...certainly too small to mention, just let it go, no big deal...hurt, "and we are sore" anyway...not making them pay if only in our own mind has got to belong to God. Personally, I find it increasingly difficult to do, and shouldn't it be decreasingly difficult to do after all this time and effort spent learning and pondering, not to mention preaching?

Today, it is no inordinate strain on me to keep my mouth shut rather than reply in kind to snide and snarks. And I can walk away with a smile and an easy mind...truly! It is the hours later, when the thinking it over creeps in. Then. That is when I'm "in the wrong also."

I know the axiom is true, because in that thinking it over, I've never yet felt better about it or me. I do feel sore...physically, mentally and spiritually. No way that can be dressed up as "right" or even "not all that wrong."

Giftee! I just had a blinding flash of the obvious: My most difficult to do is my twisted, and my twisted still is loved by God. We are lovable to and loved by God, twisted inside or not.

The gold in the hardest axiom to apply in my life: The twisted is a straight road to God...to God.

Thank you.

NONVIOLENCE...THE SUPREME LAW OF LIFE

[The following is a reworked reprint of my blog of April 11, 2011.]

Once again I’m running my mind on wars…and why the world keeps having them. I love the ’60s chant, ”War. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing.”

Just this morning I came across a Hindu proverb, “Nonviolence is the supreme law of life.”

I wondered if there can ever be nonviolence with just one person holding a single violent thought. That set me on a free flight of fantasy: That single violent thought shows forth through attitude with not a word spoken, starting the ugly begets ugly, hate begets hate cycle.

One violent thought sends out a sense of foreboding vibrations and echoes…causing peace, love and joy to withdraw in on itself  just a tish…which allows that violent thought to come closer, causing more foreboding, more withdrawal…until peace, love and joy are either totally withdrawn or have reacted in kind to violent thought. And we’re on the path to war.

Unfortunately, in the material world one violent thought often comes on looking hip, slick and cool, and peace, love and joy just borrring.

If only we each were willing to look at our world detached from our ego (or, put another way, for the benefit of others), that same borrring might begin to look attractive, and hip, slick and cool might then show us their true colors...camouflage and mud brown.

Thank you.

ON CHOOSING PEACE AND PEACE ALONE

I suspect we will never have a mind at peace until we make peace with our attack mind.

The way to make peace with an attack mind is to let it attack. Choose not to follow it there. Do not attach our self to it by resisting with admonitions, dread, fear, hate, etc.

If we let it attack at will, in essence giving it permission, it will have nothing to rage against. It is our resistance that nurtures it and keeps it attacking.

We find out, of course, that we cannot let it attack at will and remain unruffled within. We learn, all over again, feeling like for the first time, that we must and we must immediately turn our thoughts to God...peace, love and joy, roses and rainbows, morning dew and evening starshine. Let it be.

It is amazing and typically human that that requires so much effort...holding our own thoughts to images of nothing but good. Hard, hard, Lord, ain't it hard!..especially when it is so easy to wallow in the pig poop of our attack mind.

Let it be, let it be, let it be, oh, let it be. Speaking words of wisdom, let it be, oh, let it be. 

Thank you.

THE ESSENCE OF NONVIOLENCE

Bearing with people is the essence of nonviolence. -- Eknath Easwaran

That makes sense to me. Actually, it leads me to wonder if all violence doesn't begin with a single resistant thought. A single resistant thought, not addressed...not by going to the one we are resisting, but by going inside, to the really and truly great emancipator, God, and getting free of our own resistance.

Or, put more beautifully, not to mention succinctly, by Julian of Norwich: And thus I saw when we are all in peace and in love, we find no contrariness, nor no manner of letting through that contrariness which is now in us.

Our happiness, our peace, our joy itself is entirely ours to show and to shower. And still we war.

War. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing.

Thank you.

HERE BE ANGELS

It is said that to try to know something without first loving it is not to know it very well at all.

That is very much like something I heard some 35-40 years ago, to wit, You cannot change anything until you fully accept it. I first heard that from a friend when he was speaking of our character defects. And I thought he was nuts.

I was making the mistake of believing that to accept something meant that made it true, and I was stuck with it forever. Which, in fact, it does. The only change is internally (where God lives). When we accept our worst fear for a fact, all our inner mechanisms switch gears, going from resistance (fear) to acceptance (love).

We know from our toenails up that that is an impossible act for any individual to achieve in the head or through self-will or all alone...or all of the above. Which opens us to the great and glorious realization that our "inner mechanisms" are our angels. They live there for the sole purpose of doing our heavy lifting...the lift of self into Self. Or for any other ego-victory battle we're sure to lose without their aid.

I'm a believer that is why acceptance is the answer...to everything at all times and at any time. The very gut-bucket release of our fear into our acceptance releases our angels, and they soar!

Which reminds me of the advice from my beloved mentor so many years ago: Cling to nothing, dear heart...soar! Yes!

Thank you.

OUR ONLY NEED

There are no unanswered prayers, there is just our inability...no, it is our refusal...to accept that our want, our prayer, is not God's will.

We expend our energy pondering our want...dressing it up so, to our reasoning mind, it cannot NOT be acceptable to God. We ignore the glaringly obvious fact that God knows our needs before we do...how can he not, being God!

And if that sounds naïve (which, I've heard, is just a pretty word for stupid), then consider this (which is only my take...we each get to find our own): Our only need is to continue our transition from reliance on our reasoning mind to being in God consciousness. That is our only need...to enter into and remain in God consciousness.

All of our life here springs from that one need and our recognition that each and every fact and act that comes to us is God's gift lifting us deeper into higher consciousness. To reap the benefits of that gift, we live our "thank you"...to delay our progress, we live our "yes, but...."

Acceptance vs. resistance...our choice.

Thank you.