FEAR, A POWERFUL MOTIVATOR

It is said that fear is an evil ally; ah, but fear is a powerful motivator, too. We think fear is an ally when we attempt to use it against another...which is a no-win situation. It is our motivator, our golden goose, when it directs us toward God...a win-win situation.

It's hard to come up with anything but fear that turns head, heart and actions toward God more quickly. The turning, of course, is ever inward for Who, What, When, Where that we see as the problem is not. Our nemesis lives within.

It is an oft-quoted spiritual axiom that whenever we are upset, no matter what the cause, there is something wrong with us.

We cannot find what that something wrong with us is by focusing out there...we must needs look inward. There we will find...eventually, the time it takes depending entirely upon our willingness to look and keep looking...our very own nemesis. With our name on it.

Simply put, we look inward to discover what it is we have attached to that we must hug, kiss on the lips and let go. It is tamed by our accepting our defect, specifically our attachment to it, thus taking responsibility away from the other in order to own it, as it were.  Incongruously (or, best) through love and laughter.

Thank you.

CHOOSE GOD INSTEAD

The quality of loving kindness is already within you, but if you don’t practice daily and deliberately, it is unlikely that a year from now you will be any more loving. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," November, 2017

Interestingly, all the qualities that we pray for...patience, peace, joy...are within us, are ours, right this very minute. Even more interesting is that they are useless to us unless and until we practice them as we breathe.

There will ever be reasons to resist, deny, refuse their being...but each are ego-victory reasons. There is no God there, no spiritual growth, the foundation upon which we are building our new life.

As Easwaran has written, But [for spiritual seekers, each irritant] is an opportunity for learning the skills that matter most in life: patience, forgiveness, and freedom from likes and dislikes. 

Those who are seemingly the cause of our irritation are transformed into our angels...he is our personal teacher of forgiveness; she is our personal guide to patience. Just because that is not their conscious intent does not mean it cannot count toward our good. Ah, but only by our own response do we benefit.

It happens simply by our willingness to get over our own self. And choose God instead.

Thank you.

HEADING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

If anything is true, then it has always been true; and people who sincerely search will touch upon the same truth in every age and culture, while using different language, symbols, and rituals to point us in the same direction. The direction is always toward more love and union—in ever widening circles. - Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," August 12, 2018

I had a thought this morning that all I have written over the years may prove to be wrong. I felt relief with my next thought...it can't be too wrong for nothing is original to me...or to any of us.

There is no new truth, just different ways of coming to it.

Then I read Rohr's "Meditation," and I take particular comfort in his words of being pointed in the same direction, The direction is always toward more love and union

My checkpoint for me and mine has even been, Are you heading in the right direction? Ah, and here's truth: The direction is always toward more love and union.

Thank you.

GOD IS SO GOOD TO ME

[The following is a reprint of my post of March 23, 2012.]

I just spent an hour writing my blog, but it'll likely never get posted. Too angry, too self-righteous...I became too much like those I was angry at. I'll just say that denying women's rights and young black men shot down dead just for being young black men leaves me baying at the moon.

I guess I need to go back to what I awoke thinking about this morning...me, of course. 

A friend came over to help me move some furniture yesterday, and I started talking about a resentment of mine. Must've gotten a tish carried away, because my friend asked, "When did this happen?" I, red-faced, said, "Nine years ago."

I did some serious work looking at that this morning...I think the resentment is about to be "lifted." Purely because I've finally embarrassed myself into being willing to let it go. As my mentor says, "Showing your butt is also spiritual." Sure proved to be in this case.

And God bless friends...I have very rarely talked about my resentment, so I truly hadn't realized how fat and happy it had become. And my friend wasn't in my life nine years ago, so her question was just one of curiosity, not pointing me out to me...which is the best way a friend can teach.

God is so good to me, and I am so grateful.

Thank you.

...IF TURNED OVER TO

I went to the root of things,

and found nothing but Him alone.

Mira Bai

Your nemesis is the root of all your  good...resist it not for it is the Shepherd leading you Home. -- my morning blinding flash of the obvious

I wonder if the root of all things isn't in that infinitesimal space between stuffing our self-interest and living a turned over life. There, between the material and the spiritual mind, is the pinpoint upon which our raised consciousness rests, from which our raised consciousness flows.

The kicker, of course, is that even when we know and agree with our higher knowledge, we delay or detour its expression by trying to make it happen. That's still self wanting to control the outcome. 

Our reasoning mind, fed by our ego, does always legislate for itself...it cannot not. Even when we kid our self, say by remaining silent for Gertrude's peace of mind or donating to a cause to prove our spirituality. All self-determined objectives...none bad, probably better than not, but we get no points in our spiritual bank to draw on later. 

Those points come in our trusting God when God seems not there...when our nemesis, our fear...is in our face, riding herd. There. That is the infinitesimal space between acting and trusting. From which all blessings flow...some well-disguised, ah, but those are the pearls.

It is one thing to say...to know...God can and will intervene in my life in my behalf...it is another thing entirely to let him do his thing when the point of the sword is at our heart. 

Instead of saying, God can and will if sought, we should practice God can and will if allowed. 

Thank you.

GRACE, OUR TICKET TO HEAVEN

I recently read, The Jungian aphorism holds true: 'The greater light you have, the greater shadow you cast.'  Personally, I never knew that was a Jungian aphorism. However, many years ago, when I was into macrobiotics, I heard someone say of a guru-wannabe, The bigger the front, the bigger the back.  I pretty much thought of it in that negative sense until I came across another paradoxical gem: We must remember that our dark past is our greatest treasure.

To me, that puts a much deeper light on the aphorism. Now I could see our dark past...our regrets, or our shadow...is our blessing. The purchase price for our angel wings.

As Rohr has written, ...forgive within yourself, which can only be done by the grace of God--and which grace is always given.

It is our regrets that break us...and let in the light of grace, our ticket to heaven. Which is forgiveness of self and other undeservers.

Another paradox: Although grace is always given, I, the receiver, can block it...by continuing to pray for grace. Say thank you, Gracie.

Thank you.

SHARING THE UNDILUTED LOVE OF GOD

One of my favorite Fr Richard Rohr Meditations, entitled Losing Is Winning, was posted on June 19, 2015. His opening paragraph is everything we need know unto breathing about self-acceptance, also known as ego-deflation in depth:  We don't come to God by doing it right. Please believe me on this. We come to God by doing it wrong. Any guide of souls knows this to be true. If we come to God by being perfect, no one is going to come to God. This absolutely levels the playing field. Our failures open our hearts of stone and move the rigid mind space toward understanding and patience. It is in doing it wrong, being rejected, and experiencing pain that we are lead to total reliance upon God. 

To me, full understanding of that requires acceptance that our reasoning mind driven by ego, which always legislates for self, will invariably chastise, scold and natter when we do make our mistakes. 

To our ego, if that quote is right, deliberately doing it wrong would be our goal. No. That's just another self-determined objective. Leading to a boatload of trouble. For which we'd blame God.

Our reasoning mind must be gentled into accepting that God's will is in the spiritual risk of doing our best to live by spiritual principles, seeking guidance from God and friends, becoming willing to give over, give up, give in...and ofttimes to end up feeling What was I thinking? I must look the fool. There. God's will in a unwanted flash...to risk looking like a fool in the search for still more spiritual growth is grace...probably only appreciated through ego-deflation in depth. 

In our fear of looking the fool, we more often overlook the pearl beyond price...that our peace comes in our doing what we are learning...in our giving over, up and in. In risking giving over, we feel  immersed in love...as we give love, we receive love. We are a child of God...and so is our former foe with whom we share the undiluted love of God.

Thank you.