LOVING SELECTIVELY IS NOT THE ANSWER

[The following is a reprint of my blog of January 26, 2009.]

Love the whole world as a mother loves her only child. -- The Buddha

First thought: What a high standard that is.

Second thought: What other standard can there be?

I mainly concern myself with the well-being of friends within my sphere, those friends of my little world…with “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me” thrown in in the mornings just to cover my bases.

I remember my reporter friend who started out as a jerk, pure and simple, and ended as my good friend. I recall a lady, with whom I once argued (in my mind) on a daily basis, who today is a lovely person I look forward to seeing. Nothing about them changed, but when I dropped my resistance to them, they changed in my heart, in my head and in my experience.

I wonder if this is the principle by which I could be the peace that I ask for every morning…the peace on earth, not just the peace in my yard.

I wonder if this is the principle by which Jesus raised the dead, healed the sick, fed the hungry.

Thank You.

NOTHING LEFT FOR WHICH WE WISH

The crucifixion of the self is accomplished when there is nothing left for which we wish to pray.  -- Joel  Goldsmith, "The Heart of Mysticism" at p. 377.

If that be true, then it follows that the road to ego reduction in depth is accomplished by letting go of our self-determined objectives, i.e., our wants...no matter how pretty we dress our wants.

That's why "If the only prayer we ever say is 'Thank You,' that will suffice."

Thank You.

OUR READINESS IS ENTIRELY UP TO US

I need to be willing to give up that which attracts me in the first place. -- Anonymous

There is the first step in learning detachment...it's all about unlearning, and the quickest way to detach is to not pick it up in the first place. Doesn't matter what the "it" is...booze for an alcoholic, food for a compulsive overeater, a dollar bet for a gambler, or restraint of tongue, pen, e-mail, self.

All of our defects of character could be transmuted in a second if we quit using them...and now, not later, not "next time." 

How easy it is to think of that as just so many words...like my budget on paper. On paper, I should be able to save as much as I need, spend as much as I want and have some left over. The truth is the only reason my budget on paper is not reality in my life is that I do not use that which I have written as possible for me to live by...I use my want-to. The same is true of defects of character. 

I'm convinced the only thing that can change that is a deeper want to...a want to have a higher power active in our lives. That want then grows into a need, and God answers needs, not wants...on his own timetable. The key being: His timetable is based on our readiness, never His caprice.

Our readiness is entirely up to us, upon our conscious decision and our follow-through actions. That is why we need to practice spiritual principles in all of our affairs at all times...which starts with a need to be willing to give up that which attracts us in the first place. 

Thank You.

TAKING THAT LEAP OF FAITH

I woke up the other morning with a race-race, run-run mind about the Congress, the current presidential campaign, politicians in general, but most especially how I needed to set them all straight. I then prayed for them, i.e., I told God what they each needed and how soon. I don't doubt that humans are God's Comedy Central...without us, He wouldn't have any laughs at all.

It is a comfort...and pulls me back from my obsessed thoughts...to remember the law of karma and the psychological equivalent to the physical law that every action has a reaction equal and opposite to it.

I call that "what goes around comes around." It may be the only infallible truth in my life...although, depending entirely on my spiritual condition, I have noticed that it doesn't seem to operate as much in others' lives as it does in mine...for which I do not hesitate to sit in righteous judgment.

It seems to me my life today is all about unlearning, about detaching...detaching from self, from myself. Letting go.  It's a stunner to realize that to let go of something is to admit it...not only to speak it in acceptance, but to admit it into my life as my own. In short, to let go is to own it for only then can we laugh at ourselves for fearing it (holding it dear) in the first place.

An even bigger surprise is realizing that I didn't know, off the top of my head, what it was I was holding onto in order to let go of it!  That's why life is a "we" proposition. 

One just can't get there from here alone, depending entirely on our reasoning mind. Which is doubly true if we're fairly intelligent. My superior intelligence (in my own mind) was the block to believing in God originally...not that I didn't try. I just tried to believe by thinking on it, using my reasoning mind to get it. We're blessed that our reasoning mind cannot get us there. We must go beyond reason...by letting go, detaching, unlearning.

In the end, it's all about holding our nose and taking a leap of faith. It matters not how many times I've had to take that leap of faith, when I'm hanging out there in the ether, my reasoning mind will always say, "Uh-oh." But I've always landed safe in the arms.

Thank You.

RARELY AND JUST BARELY...WHICH IS ENOUGH

 I was once nobody and now I’m everybody —

There it is. That's the essence of spiritual consciousness. Which differs from reasoning mind consciousness whose goal is "I was once nobody and now I'm somebody."

Living in the consciousness of "I am somebody" is to remain alone...always with the underlying feeling of need...need to protect self, to change "them", to make what happened un-happen or to cause a wished-for to happen.

To be somebody is to live in the world of getting and giving, both being self-determined objectives. To become everybody is to live without knowledge of getting or giving. To live in the consciousness of "I am everybody" is living completely nonresistant...in peace, at ease, and filled with loving kindness.

I have touched the consciousness of everybody...rarely and just barely. But to have touched is to have "faith as a grain of a mustard seed" and that is enough.

Thank You.

SEEK NOT...REALIZE WHAT IS

It is not for us to seek the love of God...it is for us to realize the love of God already within us/without us.

When we resist the reality outside of our reasoning mind's control, we invite our own pain. Depending on our own decision to hold to our reasoning mind's picture rather than open to  it, we will suffer and our victim thinking will grow stronger.

It is not for us to fight ourselves, our victim, over the picture appearing, it is to let the Father within melt our resistance.

"Why not give up your thoughts and ways and your doubtful mind, and let the still, small voice assure you that 'I will never leave thee nor forsake thee'?" Joel Goldsmith, The Heart of Mysticism, p. 363.

Thank You.

DETACHING FROM WANTS

I just reread an earlier note I'd written to myself in my daily reader, "I realize my core defect of character...withholding self."

That was true all those years ago, it is true today...but on an entirely different level. I don't withhold myself from my world today, but I do withhold me from God. I withhold myself every time I forget that the outcome is not mine, it's God's...the outcome of every second of my life.

I have come to believe that the only prayer necessary is "Thank you." Thank you, that all that You are, I am, we are; all that You have is mine, is ours.

Our job is to become and to stay willing to put in all the work and study and prayer necessary to come into this realization. And coming into this realization is that all the work and study and prayer is not to make it happen, but to detach from our belief that we have the burden and/or the power to make it happen...to think that truth into reality.

This good is the pure activity of God, not dependent on anything we do or do not do...all the reading, studying and meditating are merely aids to open our consciousness. The only requirement on our part is that we open consciousness to receive the word of God...and that's on His timetable. (Paraphrased from Joel Goldsmith, "The Heart of Mysticism," at pp 360-361.)

My reasoning mind knows the God of my understanding is a dragfoot, because nothing ever happens as fast as I want it. It is only in detaching from that want-mind that I can realize that which I want I already have...it's me that's the dragfoot in accepting that.

Nothing can stay the hand of God.

Thank You.