GO BEYOND REASON TO NONRESISTANCE

The purpose of the law is to make us struggle with it long enough so that we can find its real purpose. It's in the struggle that we learn. -- Fr Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation, June 17, 2016

Well, isn't that true of spiritual growth itself? Think on it: The purpose of spiritual growth is to make us struggle with it long enough so that we can find our real purpose. It's in the struggle that we learn.

The world today seems to be giving us ample reasons to struggle. The problem is, as it has ever been, we the people believe the purpose of the struggle is to win. 

It is not.

It is for all sides to come out the winner...or the loser. Makes no never mind when all sides are together...one'd.

This cannot be captured by the reasoning mind...we must go beyond reason to love. The no-frills fact is we must go beyond reason to nonresistance. 

Nonresistance...the journey to raised consciousness.

Loose it and let it go finally speaks the truth we understand. We must change our mind...exchange our mindset...seek deeper to go higher.  

We do not seek for self, God has our self; we seek with God for the benefit of others...and we are one'd.

Thank you.

ON FINDING OUR OWN DIVINE CENTER

Blinding flash of the obvious: We are each caught in our own maelstrom, i.e., life...we each must find our Divine center from which to be guided.

Making changes. Some time ago, I felt the need to make a change in my life...just that. I did not resist, I did wait for clearer guidance. 

Out of the blue, I found myself being moved to make what seemed to be minor...a change in my getting up routine, and I have been well-satisfied with my getting up routine. However, I have found that routine, set back when I had a career with my schedule set by others, no longer fits...it hinders rather than enhances, my spiritual director's long-ago warning.  

So I have been allowing myself to be guided...either get up on awakening as I have for nearly 50 years, or lie abed, dozing on and off. 

One direction that has come to me I suspect was God's original goal for my making a change...it has proved to be of primary importance: When making changes, we must have in mind a spiritually determined goal or outcome. 

With my "getting up" in particular, to have no higher goal within was to wallow in self...with no thought other than "sleep" or "laze," attack thoughts come unbidden. 

So, when I decide to stay abed, I have a pre-determined spiritual goal in mind on which to concentrate my thoughts. Just lying in or "oversleeping" becomes self-centered fear in disguise...and some poor soul's inventory is about to get scorched.

Turns out that having a pre-determined spiritual goal in mind is good daily practice, too. We find we need to remind our self of our goal on occasion to get it set in mind...what better way to pray without ceasing?

Change...maybe there is no such thing as "a" change. Make one and others invariably follow...mayhap one of those following was God's chosen one. 

Thank you.

TO HAVE A SENSE OF PEACE AND PURPOSE

To quote Fr Richard Rohr, Duns Scotus called consciousness intuitive cognition, which he distinguished from rational cognition.   

It is a comfort beyond words to read Duns Scotus' definition of the two cognitions. My comfort is that my thoughts are, and have been, following in the path of Duns Scotus...before I ever heard of Duns Scotus. 

My definition of raised consciousness is spiritual mind as distinguished from material mind.

Spiritual mind is intuitive, present in the so-called blinding flash of the obvious...each, to me, a gift from the Divine Source which I call God. The material or reasoning mind is our daily walking-around mindset...where we have learned to keep thank you going to have a sense of peace and purpose.

The deeper we get into life, the clearer it becomes that spiritual perception is vital to the peace we seek. We learn our ways in the world in the first half of life. It is in the second half of life that we make a decision to turn our eye inward...trusting God to take care of out there.

Learning unto living our spiritual nature is God's will, God's way. Our spiritual nature is having a sense of peace and purpose for others. That is peace of mind, God's campground.

Thank you.

GOD'S LOVE...ALL ENCOMPASSING

Blinding flash of the obvious: I release all thoughts of my rues, regrets and remorses...they that plague me intermittently unto relentlessly. They are with the divine Source within to be done with. I now speak, think, feel...I Be...guided by the divine Power within.

Then the first thing I read: It is incumbent upon us to expand our experience of faith to embrace the full reality of our predicament and to inform the decisions we make from here on out. * * *  We seek…a place for an experience of the Divine within.... -- Margaret Swedish writing on climate change in the CAC Daily Meditation for today.

Here's the great and glorious result of still more spiritual growth: I trust my own  "experience of faith" to lead me...or push, as needed...in the way necessary for me to experience the Divine within.     

 In her article, Swedish also wrote, We are coming to the end of the world, or at least to the end of a world.

Yes...that is precisely how my BFO left me feeling. In loosing my regretful thoughts, in letting them go, that walking-around world is coming to an end...is being upgraded so to speak. 

This I know...I will experience rues, regrets and remorses again, but I'll be able to love and laugh in the midst of them. Hey...I've had real-life experience with this stuff...as in, taking myself too seriously? I love and laugh with me when (not if) I go there yet again. 

God loves me sooo much. You, too...and our little dog Toto.

Thank you.

GOD'S WILL, GOD'S WAY...EVER BENEFICIAL

As I awoke this morning, the thought flashed that my friend's experience yesterday was so awful to the material mind that it had to be God's will, God's way. 

Later as I pondered that, it occurred that it would come to be realized as beneficial both materially and spiritually.

As I was reading Fr Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation, that thought was enhanced by a quote of his: The power [is] to recognize that there is always another way for the promise to be fulfilled, another way for Divine Love to reach us. 

Over the years I have learned to accept that my solution to a sticky situation will ever seem to be the exact opposite of God's. That's when I learned we can't out-think God and to pray thank you for what is rather than continue to beg for my self-perceived good.

That has become the basis for my spiritual growth. 

Actually, here's the short form of my spiritual growth:  fight tooth and toenail to get my want (self-determined need), lose, drag foot into well-okay-then, find acceptance, commence to preach, cease that and begin to practice, repeat preach/cease/practice until I get it right..."it" being God's will, God's way. 

We know when we are ready to cease squandering our energy on self-will...the Father within takes back the wheel. 

God: Never late, never wrong, ever unexplainably beneficial...for all.

Thank you.

ON GETTING OVER OUR SELF, I

[The following is a slightly reworked reprint of my post of  October 21, 2017.]

The "enemy" that is out there is the "enemy" that is within. When the enemy remains out there, we name it "you" and resist it by trying either to win you over or defeat you.

My enemy today is JoB who sees me as her enemy. It is difficult not resisting JoB's perception because my ego Lucy/Lucifer loves resistance (i.e., a fight).

My prayer is for JoB to walk free in my head and for me to walk free in hers. I give thanks that each of us connects with the impersonal love that ever flows in and through everything and everybody. OBTW, that impersonal love is the anonymous peace of mind.

But who's kidding whom...our first step is to not take our self so seriously.

Thank you.

SPIRITUAL MIND PUTS THE AUTHORITY INSIDE US

The established and dominant culture [material mind] does not have authentic promises because it seeks to maintain itself. . . . . God’s promises [spiritual mind] energize and expand the heart, deepening our capacity for life and our quality of being in this world. They put the authority inside us. -- From a 1980 talk by Richard Rohr

The material mind keeps such a strong hold on us because we can see, touch, hear...feel...everything it has to offer. 

The spiritual mind is based on our inside insight...not simply intuition but closer than not. 

Our search for God through spiritual growth builds our trust in spiritual over material without our ever being able to explain how. It is as Rohr said in his 1980 talk that God's promises energized and expanded...put the authority inside us.

The authority inside us is the goal...of the material mind. Spiritually, the authority inside us is God using our hands and feet, mouth and mind, to do for us for others. 

"Ask for" no more, give thanks and live peaced.

Thank you.