ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY...IT IS TO LAUGH

If we do not live, consciously and daily, in the new consciousness we have been raised to, we will revert to our lower consciousness, sometimes our lowest consciousness, depending entirely on our own self-will, our own self-absorption...or, put another way, depending on however hungry, angry, lonely and/or tired we allow ourselves to become. For each of those at its most extreme will allow no God, no spiritual force, to exist for us...it will only allow our hunger, anger, loneliness and tiredness to be at that moment.

Unfortunately, our lower consciousness, our reasoning mind, must always have someone or thing to blame. The last place our reasoning mind is willing to look is to ourselves, our own choices, our own decisions that got us too hungry, angry, lonely, tired to begin with.

Amazingly, it is in accepting responsibility for our original choice, that we find peace...usually through laughing at ourselves.

My rule of thumb: If I can't honestly laugh at it, I haven't accepted responsibility yet.

Thank You.

EARLY TRAINING...GOLDEN YEARS

My mind is so busy this morning that it feels blank...not the good open space we find in meditation, but the hard whiteboard that is supposed to be easy-erase but always leaves the shadow of previous writings which then clouds the next.

And that, too, is a good thing for it brings me back to the long-ago training exercises used to focus the  mind into one-pointed attention.

Anything that reminds me of my early training is a good thing...for there is where my gold is.

There has never been anything added to my early learning...it has, however, deepened beyond my highest hopes. Deepened, broadened, changed in form but never in fact...for that fact boils down to "I am the image of the God I adore."

Thank You.

SURRENDER TO GRATITUDE

I read a great phrase this morning, "surrender to gratitude." I sometimes read beautiful things, love them, then think, "What does that mean to me?" I did that this morning so I thought it through.

To surrender to gratitude to me is simply to learn the art of living a non-resistant life...a turned-over life...a turned-over-to-God life.

My first thought response to learning to live a non-resistant life was resistant...the good old, "Yes, but...," and "What about...?" There's always an exception to any spiritual principle in the reasoning mind world, the ego's playground. Spiritual principles take all power away from the ego-victory mind...all power, all glory, all control.

Of course, all is given back to us through the Power within...but what if nobody else knows? Where's the ego's edge in that? There. That's the ego's siren song.

It's amazing, scary, dumb, wonderful how long we will pass on spiritual peace just to answer the ego's siren song. I can't give a definite period of time because I still answer, but my lag time is getting shorter.

And I surrender to gratitude.

Thank You.

LEARN THE ART OF GIVING OVER

According to Eknath Easwaran, "...all every one of us is trying to do is break into the bank inside...."

I believe that to be true...it is the how we break into the bank inside that is so difficult to do...it wasn't that easy to come to believe it, but to do it? Whoa. Because, of course, to break into the bank inside we must let go of all of our self-determined needs, which are simply wants dressed up as needs in order to fool God into granting our wishes.

To realize the real treasures of life, we must learn the art of giving over. It is an art, and it does not come naturally to the overwhelming majority of us. Actually, it comes more easily to those of us who have been broken by our own will...forced by our own choices to seek help not of this world.

We miss the answer because it is so simple...get over yourself and give to others. At least, that's what the prayer of St. Francis says: "Oh Divine Master, grant that I may seek to comfort rather than to seek to be comforted, to understand rather than to seek to be understood, to love rather than to seek to be loved."

The answer is everywhere...doing it is ours alone to choose.

Thank You.

GETTING PASSED THE TEMPTATION

We must take care not to judge radical thinking…right, left, middle…for as that thinking is expressed to us, we ourselves become the interpreters of that which we are hearing.

With that said, we back up and realize that we must take care not to judge…for we are the source of our judgments. All that comes to us enters our thinking mind, is interpreted by us, and is either accepted (not resisted) or rejected (resisted) by us.

If it is accepted (not resisted), it either settles in, becoming our own and bringing us comfort, or it passes on leaving not a trace behind.

If it is rejected (resisted), it settles in and becomes a burr, irritating, agitating, something that begins to do our thinking for us until we determine we must set it right.

Our own resistance says that the only way to set it right is to take it to the one who first sent it out…rather than simply change our mind about it. Which in no way means we all the sudden marry up with that which we cannot abide…it means we give it back, with blessings, to the person we picked it up from. We can do this without fanfare, without explanation, without words…without our own spin in other words. We can do it by humbly asking God to bless the person and to change us.

The thought or expression of our agitation does not need be mentioned…God knows already. And, if we mention it, we’ll just start justifying to God why He needs to change the other and bless us. Resistance works that way…it’s like picking up mud and slinging it in our own face.

The beauty of non-resistance is that it leaves no footprints. If it fits, we wear it without thought. Someone somewhere benefits without our ever consciously knowing about it, and we are blessed without effort.

No matter how bizarre, ugly, disgusting…wrong…something sounds to our  reasoning mind, all we need remember is that it is our own interpretation that is irritating us. It’s like trying on a dress…if it’s puce and brown and out of style into the bargain, why try it on in the first place? If it’s stunningly beautiful and a size 2 or a 52, why try it on in the first place? 

A conscious, “No, thank you,” gets our “thank you” in there, and gets us passed the temptation…and on to peace.

Thank You.

NO PEACE, NO SPIRITUAL GROWTH

As irrigators lead water where they want, as archers make their arrows straight, as carpenters carve wood, the wise shape their minds.  -- The Buddha

Discipline of yourself is absolutely necessary before the power of God is given to you. -- May 26, "Twenty-Four Hours A Day"

The discipline of oneself is not to hone our thinking...our reasoning mind is as honed as it needs to be. Our discipline lies in detaching from our reasoning mind as the source of our solution.

We turn to a power greater than ourselves, e.g., God, in trust that It can and will intervene in our lives in our behalf.

If we do not discipline ourselves to trust that by doing that, we will of necessity continue to rely on our reasoning mind, our ego's home. That ensures that we will continue to live a life of blaming and shaming whoever crosses our reasoning-mind field including, of course, ourselves.

There is no peace there for there is no spiritual growth there.

Thank You.

HUMILITY IN GIVING OVER

I read in this morning's Daily Meditations of Fr. Richard Rohr: "Hardly any of us would say God is humble, but Francis did."

Blinding flash of the obvious: Only a truly humble person can live the Sermon's dictates to agree with your adversary quickly, turn the other cheek, give over, give over, give over...and be stronger within through those actions.

Thank You.