BY GRACE AND BY GOD

Where are you searching for me, Friend?

Look! Here am I right within you.

Not in temple, nor in mosque,

Not in Kaaba, nor Kailas,

But here right within you am I.

-- Kabir, a 15th-century Indian mystic poet and saint

All that is necessary to make the mind pure is to undo the negative conditioning to which it has been subjected; then we will be left with pure, unconditioned awareness. -- Eknath Easwaran, "Words to Live By," August 8

Though Easwaran's words speak true, it is our negative conditioning we must overcome. We can accept, even welcome, the words; it is the immediately following Yes, but...that stops us. As in How? How do I undo? 

The underlying message is that which we've been learning for these many years (assuring our self that since we agree with the words, we can teach it to others). What we're agreeing with and resisting both at the same time is all that is necessary. 

The reason we're resisting is that this is God's work, God's to do. All that is necessary is for us to turn our mind in utter trust to the Father within which does the work, leave it there, and we will know completion. 

We are, however, not given a timetable. Ah. And uh-oh. 

Remember, God works on his own time schedule his wonders to perform. By grace and by God occur when they occur...our blessing comes by our trusting that.

In the meantime, do something about something. For another optimally.

Thank you.

TO HOLD THE LESSON WE ARE LEARNING

Our conscious need for daily mercy is our only real boarding pass for heaven. The ego does not like that very much, but the soul fully understands. - Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," June 19, 2015

Learning to love our self in the midst of our self-doubts, our rues, regrets and remorses, may be our life's most trying lesson. It all goes back to that word love. In this case, I think of learning to love our self means to accept our self, to humbly accept our self, warts and all. Humbly keeps us honest...otherwise, it's resignation, and that's just passive-aggressive defiance in camouflage.

Our conscious need is the key. I think of that as God's GPS...awareness of  our own daily need for mercy stays our focus inward, even as our ego focuses outward.

As a for instance: Just yesterday I was lunching with friends, one of whom is very competitive...and proud of it. I was exhausted afterward and, thinking about it, I realized I had been in competition with her competing. Rather than not resisting her, I was keeping count of each time she topped or stopped another...there I was, mentally stopping her by topping her, and judging her into the bargain.

We both stood in need of mercy...forgiveness. Forgiveness in the form of laughter. I say we laugh in order to learn...to hold the lesson we are learning in order to continue learning the same lesson.

It is to laugh...and love.

Thank you.

ON WELCOMING WORLD PEACE

I awoke this morning with stark fear speaking in my ear: What if America is right now on the same path as Nazi Germany in the '30s? 

I read my "God Calling," and there is my comfort: Did you not know that I am here? Your hour of need is the moment of My Coming.

My comfort lasts just as long and as well as I hold that truth...not cling to it in fear, but hold it as I would a babe...or a puppy. Nourish it by my thoughts...embrace it through my words...show it in my actions.

And my thoughts, words and deeds will not be of overcoming but of welcoming. Ah, that spells out the fact of my powerlessness...makes clear that a power greater than myself does the work through me...and you.

We needs must follow that which we have learned and are learning: Trust  God; resist not evil; love and laugh; go beyond reason to love; trust God; try not to be as nasty as we want to be; clean house, help others; trust God.

Not for me and you, not for America...for God in me and you, in America...in the world.

Thank you.

GOD AND HIS MYSTERIOUS WAYS

In the Eknath Easwaran daily reader, "Words to Live By," there is a vignette of Saint Francis teaching a disciple what perfect joy is. It's a bit of a shaggy dog story, going on about what perfect joy is not, with the punchline being: Brother, suppose we go to that  monastery across the field and tell the gatekeeper how weary and cold we are, and he calls us tramps and beats us and throws us out into the winter night. Then, Brother, if we can say with love in our hearts, 'Bless you in the name of Jesus,' then we shall have found perfect joy.

Every year on this day, August 4, I read that and marvel that I knew it to be true the first time ever I read it in 1996 when the book was given to me. I used to think the real marvel was that I never thought less of me for not being anywhere near able to do that. Today, I know the pearl beyond price...I am no longer "nowhere near...."

This year, my angel JoB came to my aid in this regard, and I have held her in my prayerful heart every day since.

Even better, the gift she gave me is multi-tiered: First, I do know that my material mind can be seduced by reason in a heartbeat. Second, the spiritual directive to tell no human is the antidote to my reasoning mind getting seduced...which is priceless and really hard to remember. Third, the difference between psychological (self-care) and spiritual (God care) could not be clearer. Fourth through a gazillion will come as long as I continue practicing it.

God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform.

Thank you.

THE ESSENTIALNESS OF FORGIVENESS

Pope Francis insists that mercy is at the very top of the Christian hierarchy of great truths  and everything falls apart whenever mercy is displaced by anything else or anything less. - Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," August 3, 2018

Mercy - Compassion or forgiveness given when it is within one's power to punish.

I suspect our tendency is to think of extending mercy only in the biggies of life...for the murderer of the babies at Sandy Hook, of the church people at Mother Emanuel. And our "to think of extending mercy" is to wonder how in the world to do that...or, more honestly, how to ever want to. Who's kidding whom? That's what preachers and popes are for. But there it is, our cross to bear: to ever want to.

The saying that old age ain't for sissies is just as true for mercy. Mercy is never on our bucket list, but neither old age nor forgiveness is a choice if we're doing it right.

Just like old age, which comes on us in an instant, and there we are all unprepared, the need to be merciful needs preparation...a lot of preparation...and still we're often caught flatfooted when the need arrives.

We need to start preparing early on. Not for mercy per se, but for the willingness to change our way of thinking...to detach from reliance on our reasoning mind in order to seek the spiritual mindset.

The secret is in the need (God's word) to use mercy as our every-day-in-every-way yardstick. Ah...there's the key to the peace of mind we seek. Which we cannot get without giving.

We get peace of mind by extending mercy to the snarker (don't respond in kind), the bore (pull up  our unused patience), the cut-in-line one (extend a silent thank you)...which we fail more often than not.

And there's our gift!...we receive God's mercy. We learn to extend mercy by our very need for it.

Thank you.

FEAR NOT, HATE NOT...LOVE

An effective way of dealing with a disagreement is simply to listen with complete attention even if we don't care for what the other person is saying. - Eknath Easwaran, August 1, "Words to Live By"

BFO: love the Confederate flag for it set us free. That was a note to myself in the early days of my realizing that the answer is love not hate no matter the question or the conundrum. Love will reduce its power, hate will grow it more so.

According to me, the same is true of the swastika, the "N" word, and other signs and symbols that generate our fear-born hate. It is our fear that consumes us, our fear which we choose to call hate.  Hate sounds stronger, less cowardly, plus bringing a feeling of justified.

In our willingness to give over to the hated, our hate burns within us, and love is lost in its ashes. Our Father which art in Heaven is still within, but we have built us another god, the god of Other...not you, not them, not theirs...just Us, fortified by our fear.

I submit that we diminish ourselves when we fight or ban symbols of hate. Let the Confederate flag stand for what it is...an historic symbol for an unjust cause that lost...lost because it was a wrong cause...lost to the just cause of love for all humans who are created equal...lost because God created all humans equal.

I doubt any such fear-filled hate symbol would stand for very long...without the passion of hate, it has no reason for being, no meaning.

Thank you.

THE SECRET TO ACCEPTANCE...LAUGHTER

There's a new song on my country radio station...I think the name is Life Changes. That's what it's all about at any rate. Yesterday as I was driving and hearing that song, I recalled how my life changed almost the instant I realized (which took long years to get to) that I have but one character defect: I take myself too seriously.

All other defects of character come and go in my life but they are as little orphans in the dark...alone and harmless...until they bump against that Big One. Ah, they've found a home. Yes, self-centered is mine...oh, and fear of being wrong in public? Ummm, ummm, ummm. But why list them? They're all there. However, sitting in my favorite chair, reading the latest J.D. Robb,  do they bother me? No. Put down the book, and, just in passing, remember the mistake I made in front of Gertrude, my nemesis,  SPROING...they have a home, and they're building a fire in the fireplace.

Here's the good news...that's what happens if we're doing it right! How else do we learn our powerlessness? Why seek a power greater than our self if we don't need one?

Our reasoning mind's plan of action: Have a regret? Stop it. Now, walk free.

Who's kidding whom? If we could do that, we surely would do that...and miss completely the wonder of God's forgiving love, not to mention the warmth of a friend's identifying with us and our regret. And laughing with us about it.

The great and glorious gift of rues, regrets and remorses is that they are not only harbingers of spiritual growth...they are one with our spiritual growth.

As Fr Richard Rohr wrote in his July 27th Daily Meditation: If we deny that the spiritual can enter the material world, then we are in trouble, since that is exactly what we are—fully spiritual and fully material human beings. * * *  We are supposed to struggle with this, otherwise, we are not sincerely engaged with it. 

Short form: Trust God, love, laugh, and get over our self.

Thank you.