THE PEARL: ACCEPTING WHAT IS...NOW

To participate in the reign of God, we have to stop counting. We have to stop hoarding in order to let the flow of forgiveness and love flow through us. -- Fr Richard's Daily Meditations, February 6, 2024

Here's a new thought on the February 6 entry: To participate in the reign of God, we have to stop resisting...to let the flow of forgiveness and love flow through us.

To arrive at a doable life of nonresistance requires a boatload of resistance...we are, after all, detaching from reliance solely on our reasoning mind, the home of our will. That is a slow, steady peeling back of our resistance...till we get a tiny little yes.  

Seeking to detach from our will, our self-determined objective, is seeking within to find the pearl beyond price, God's will.

We are finding that true detachment from our will requires but one thing...that we change our mind. That we are incapable of by our unaided will...our aid coming from the Power greater than self.

 We're reasonably good with when wrong promptly admit it, but the toughie is when right promptly forget it. We are learning, inch by cautious inch, that there is no right, no wrong...there is only Is. 

Acceptance of what is right now...only reachable right now, only reachable by thank you, only reachable coming from our heart, not our head. Ah, the pearl beyond price...never reachable only realized, as needed, Now.

Thank you.

GRATITUDE LIVES IN OUR SOUL

Never fear being thrown into the lion's den for the lion in the den is Aslan. -- Long-ago BFO

That blinding flash of the obvious returned this morning...just as I was having thought-fear of covid making an uninvited stop here. I originally received what I consider to be the world's most complicated covid test kit...I'm dreading having a go at one of them again.

Actually, I shoulda, woulda, coulda used it immediately, then, when it didn't work, I would've been cleared to go to CVS...and wait in their long line to be tested. Oh...there's my why not.

Amazing how our personal lion's den changes...when, almost invariably, whatever we're wrenching from God's care can only be healed by God's care.

When will we ever learn? And there's a canard. We have learned...repeatedly! 

When will we ever do...without dragging our feet? We justify by blaming the human condition when we well know it is lack of faith that is our dilemma. Well, rats...

Never leave a dilemma with rats...God loves us just exactly as we are. The more convoluted our feelings and thoughts, the deeper our search for God. 

I feel gratitude in my Soul right now.

Thank you.

IF IT'S A NEMESIS, IT'S AN ANGEL

Self-acceptance has a rough road to walk. True self-acceptance requires a strong connection with a Power greater than our self...else it's still self-will pulling our strings. 

The bane of self-acceptance is an unspiritualized ego. Just as God is, ego is ever with us. God is with us for the benefit of all...human, animal, flora, fauna...all. 

On the other hand, ego lives in humans only, also is ever with us, and is for the benefit of one, namely, the imperial me. Each of us separately has our ego whose only role is for our benefit, whatever it takes and however we get there. It often feels that ego builds us up just to beat us down. 

Thankfully, God has providence over ego, too. Raising our unspiritualized ego is our life's primary responsibility.

Ego cannot be defeated by self-will...cannot even be lessened a tish on occasion or as needed. Ego can only be lifted by our own spiritual growth...in short, by God.

Ego reduction in depth is our goal, and how-to is spelled out by Easwaran in today's "Words to Live By":  Meditate and put others first and learn to be detached from the results of action, all together. 

One is not more important than another but learning to be detached from the results of action has been my nemesis. Ah, blinding flash: If it's a nemesis, it's an angel...nothing turns us to God like a nemesis does.

It’s not your fault, but it’s your responsibility. How you experience whatever conditions life hands you correlates directly to how much responsibility you choose to take. -- Buddhist teacher angel Kyodo williams from Fr Richard's Daily Meditation, February 5, 2024 

Thank you.

GO BEYOND REASON...TO GOD

We must go beyond reason to love... -- Thaddeus Golas

That is one of my favorite quotes. I quote it a lot although I may be just beginning to inner understand it.

Taken to a deeper level higher, we realize we must continue to surmount our material-mind concept of love. My understanding of love has changed dramatically...but it is still a fairly material-mind concept. 

We have read, and from our eyebrows up we believe and repeat often, God is Love. Our big Ah-Ha moment came when we realized that the love we must go beyond reason for is not available to our reasoning mind. 

 God...which we are incapable of fully understanding...lives within us whether we know it or not. There it is...the key opening us to the inner kingdom of trust. 

Our life now is building on the trust that we are living today, knowingly more often than not.

Thank you.

A PEACED MIND THE MAJORITY OF THE TIME

Time is what keeps the light from reaching us. There is no greater obstacle to God than time....  --Meister Eckhart

Now. We live Now and only Now...whether we realize it or not. 

Knowing from our eyebrows up that we live in the Now often feels like useless information, but it is not. It is akin to kiddiegarten for spiritual growth. We hear it, we get it, we do not do it...because how?

A reminder here of the old but ever-practical joke questioning how one gets to Carnegie Hall...the answer, practice, practice, practice. In general, the same goes for learning to live in the Now. Learn, learn deeper, learn deeper higher, repeat. Repeatedly. 

My take on Meister Eckhart's "Time is the greatest obstacle to God" is that time invites us to rue the past or dread the future yet rarely stand silently in the Now. To be thought-free in the moment is of God. 

We pray for our dear one's future, our own financial upturn, our pet's long-term recovery...and there is nothing wrong with that if it peaces our mind. Trouble is it does not bring lasting peace...we're left feeling unfulfilled, disgruntled, alone and so lonely. Blaming God.

Meister Eckhart gave us what to my mind is the perfect prayer: If the only prayer you ever say in your lifetime is 'thank you' that would suffice. 

From my own experience I know that praying thank you for my dear one's future, my own financial upturn, my pet's recovery did not bring answered prayer as I perceived it. It did, however, bring me timely peace of mind.

I was gifted with that which I'd longed for since before I knew I needed it...a peaced mind. I have lived with a peaced mind the majority of the time ever since. I return there as needed. 

Thank you.

LIVING LIFE'S PROBLEMS...NOT FIGHTING THEM

Having problems and overcoming them is what life is about. -- from a daily reading 

The hoped-for human condition on the material plane: The more educated we become, the more intellectually fit we are, the more self-confidence we will have...the more healthy, wealthy, wise and loved we will be. This pretty much ignores the fact that problems and overcoming them is the human condition.

Many living locked on the material plane found only failure and a defeatist life. Many others were led to an inner failure that, shockingly, delivered the success we did not know we sought. We were raised to a higher plane and found our heart home.  

It was in trying and failing and trying again unto crash and burn that we found a Higher Power where we slowly realized we have ceased fighting everything and everybody. That sums up the beloved promise of Chief Joseph: I will fight no more forever. 

The following two quotes lead Eknath Easwaran's entry today, and, in effect, are both in agreement with this:

For the outer sense alone perceives visible things, and the eye of the heart alone sees the invisible. -- Richard of Saint-Victor

I found Thee not, O Lord, without, because I erred in seeking Thee without that were within. -- Saint Augustine

There...God's assurance that we are on the right track heading in the right direction.

Thank you.

TRUST GOD, BEAR WITH OTHERS, BE FREE

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

There it is. Truth on the hoof. 

Recently, I went through the devil's own mental mishmash, getting a personal offender told, set straight, sorry, shamed, not to mention grateful for my setting them straight, sorry, etc.

Their offense was they weren't doing it right, and the it changed by the minute. Of course, in that mental mishmash, I was shooting prayers like Annie Oakley doing her thing at the county fair. Prayers for the offender, prayers for me...all of which boiled down to words, just words. 

Lesson learned: Never discount those words...we can't rely on them spiritually, but we need to love them anyway. Love will lead us free from our mishmash...resistance will keep us there. 

Plus, why waste our breath and God's time beating up on our self for not being good enough? That's all beating up on our self is about, not being good enough. Be better. 

Trust God and for sure we will be better. The shortcut to trusting God? Bearing with people.

Thank you.