ON BEING HARD-WIRED FOR GOD

My friend Mac says that we are hard-wired to seek God. The minute I heard that I knew it for my truth.

In the end, all our mental gyrations, the intellectual arguments within ourselves, about the existence/non-existence of God are for naught. For the hard lesson learning is that whatever we are seeking to the exclusion of all else is our god of the moment.  Food, drink, drugs, a mate, winning, being better at...anything...than s/he is, each and all is our god of the moment when it is dancing us around. 

For me, I've learned that my arguments really were not about the existence of God. Down deep, they were all about if I believe in God, am I going to get mine? Mine being whatever I intellectually believed that I needed right then in order to be happy. When we're searching for a god of the moment, our happiness will be illusory...ever fleeing away from us.

When we're searching for God in order to get...anything...we're going down that wrong road again. That road of self-determined objectives that knows no god but self. Good luck with that.

My friend's complete quote is: "We are hard-wired to seek God. That, it seems to me, is what is meant by the 'hunger of the heart.'”  Isn't that wonderful? Its truth is blinding.

Thank You.

JUDGMENTAL IS NEVER HELPFUL

The secret to living a life with no regrets is not to never do anything (my first option), but to find the gold in the things I've done that I wish I hadn't!

It occurred to me recently that there are things in my recent and long-gone past life that were less than wonderful in my memory but which have become proof of angels in my life. They only became proof of angels by my looking for their gold...in my long-gone past, they were proof in my mind that God was not present in my hour of need. (Take yourself too seriously? Yes, on occasion.)

This came to me when I was taking my mentor's inventory for not letting me off the hook for doing some of my less than wonderful things. He reminds me what my original objective was, and it wasn't still more spiritual growth. Which I need to remember, because when I realize the gold, my tendency is to believe my motives were spiritually based from the get-go...CYA in the memory.

One reason I need to never forget that my original motives were ego-based is to enable me to be empathetic to the person who comes to me with her less than wonderful screw-up, looking for understanding. Judgmental is never helpful...a universal truth.

Thank You.

A SHORTCUT TO A FRET-FREE LIFE

There's a commercial that plays a lot on TV today...about heartburn...the punchline of which is, "So don't get heartburn in the first place."

That's the perfect reminder for forgiveness...about resentments...with the punchline, "So don't get a resentment in the first place."

The instructions for how to not get a resentment are everywhere...Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, et al., all are taught, in some manner, that the way to a love-filled life is to learn to live without resistance. It is impossible to begin the process of learning to live, to love, without resistance as long as we believe we are dependent wholly on our reasoning mind. Our ego lives in our reasoning mind, and it tells us we must not let him get away with stealing from us, or her get over on us with her lies, or either of them get ahead of us in the ticket line...any ticket line.

Commonsense becomes our enemy in spiritual work.

The Sermon tells us if someone steals our coat, we must run after him and give him our cloak. And life teaches us that if someone tells a lie about us, the worst thing we can do is breath life into it by defending ourselves. If it is a lie, it will die with some people believing it and others not, and neither way makes a row of pins except if we pick it up. Don't get a resentment in the first place.

If we pick the lie up, it is now ours, and it will live forever in our resentful mind...or until it becomes so painful to us that we must ask God to forgive US and set US free.  Our very misery ensures that he is no longer a factor...even though we keep her name on it. We just need to remember the lesson of how not to get a resentment...live/love without resistance.

All this boils down to learning a shortcut to a fret-free life: Someone does you wrong...let her, love him, keep on trucking.

Thank You.

CLEAN IT UP WITHIN...WHERE GOD IS

The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. – John 5:36

I read that recently, and it has been perc'ing in my thoughts ever since. It is quoted as Jesus's, but what, in fact, if it applies to me...to me right now? If that be true, it clearly behooves me to clean up what I'm doing...or thinking at any rate. Unfortunately, my ego-based reasoning mind doesn't know what my intellect  does know; i.e., loose it and let it go, do not touch the tar baby else the tar will get all over you, etc. 

Not always, not even very often, but whenever it chooses, the memory of an ugly will come back dressed up as what we need to do to set her straight, pay him back, make them sorry (but in the kindest possible way for their own good, of course). 

Here's the good news...we can know that our stepped-on toes started with something we put out there. We'd best choose to ponder until we know what we put out there for that single fact shuts the ego's prattle down more effectively than anything else. It does not necessarily make us love the outcome but it does make it our responsibility to clean it up in our own thoughts within, not by our own words without. For that's how wars begin, and there is no God there.

Thank You.

THE GRACE OF GOD

The grace of God is a wind which is always blowing. -- Sri Ramakrishna

We cannot get the grace of God...we can only give in to the grace of God.

Thank You.

LOOSE IT AND LET IT GO

The soul that is attached to anything, however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of divine union. For whether it be a strong wire rope or a slender and delicate thread that holds the bird, it matters not, if it really holds it fast; for, until the cord be broken, the bird cannot fly.
--Saint John of the Cross

IN THE ALL IS THE ONE

What makes spiritual growth so difficult, I'm guessing, is that it requires the suspension of our ego-based thinking, our reasoning mind.

If a pretty thought comes to us, and it makes perfect sense, AND it is beneficial to us into the bargain, our ego accepts it as God's will, when in fact we can pretty much bet we're going down that wrong road again.

Mainly because our reasoning mind is built around: "We're in it to win it." Whereas, spiritual growth is built around: "We're not in it to win it, we're in it to help others find peace and/or love and/or joy." We cannot help another find those inner gifts without having already found ours. It may be that it is ours that is drawing out theirs...kinda like priming a pump.

I was with a group of friends recently, and the fact that there is never a need to try to win a debate, an argument, a fight was being discussed...that God has our back in any and all cases at any and all times, and that God has the other person's back, too. Everybody was trucking with the concept until we hit "God has the other's back, too." Disapproving sighs, hmmpffs, and loud frowns were heard. Yet, that right there is The Goal in spiritual growth...to not be concerned with winning/losing...to detach from that whole concept...to keep our focus on giving over so we both come out knowing God's hand guided the debate not for me, not for you, but for all.

It is in the All that we find the One.

Thank You.