ON SETTLING FOR HAPPY

It is not that everybody wants to be a winner, it is that nobody wants to be a loser.

Still more spiritual growth promises win-win, the reasoning mind is in it to win it which explains the hold-back for accepting a win-win situation...the reasoning mind cannot accept that there can be two equal winners.

What is important to recognize unto realization is that the reasoning mind is the home of our ego-victory thinking. Still more spiritual growth is a higher consciousness level, deeper. Win-win to the spiritually based mind equates to peace...to a loving mind, for all to be happy, joyous and free.

The reasoning mind wants what the spiritually based mind gives, but it wants to get it and to be the winner at the same time. This is no more evident than in petty disagreements between friends...the more shallow the disagreement, the deeper the resistance to giving over.

I sometimes believe that the hardest thing life is ever going to ask of us is to just change our mind. There's an old cliché, "Would you rather be right or would you rather be happy?" I am constantly amazed at the twisted logic that we can come up with to get right and happy at the same time...which is, of course, possible if we're willing to "settle" for happy.

Thank You.

SEEKING OTHER GRATEFUL HEARTS

Gratitude must be lived. A living attitude of gratitude shows forth as a beacon and draws others to It. It especially draws grateful people who are as yet unaware...seeking they know not what.

I have read that the measure of our gratitude is in proportion to the amount of time and effort we give to others, to other seekers.

That for sure keeps our gratitude replenished. In that way, it's like a hug: You give it to get it. Which is the best reason in the world to live in gratitude, knowing It will seek other grateful hearts.

Thank You.

GOOD NEWS V. UH-OH NEWS

[W]hen you can direct your attention, your thinking will never be compulsive again. -- "Words to Live By," Eknath Easwaran, October 30.

That quote is such old news, and yet this morning it feels like a blinding flash of the obvious...brand new and WOW.

I read it and recognized that I pray daily for God to guide (not guard) my thoughts, and that I remind me daily of the many spiritual strictures about thoughts as forerunners of actions. Then, at any given moment, my thoughts go to Gertrude's sitting in judgment of me, and I promptly sit in judgment of her.

Again, it is a matter of promptly turning our thoughts toward God, any part of God's world, when we even glance in ugly's direction.

Mental picture: We are standing on the banks of a raging, flooding Mississippi River. It cannot touch us if we back up now, and keep backing. We never know when the water-soaked ground (resentment-laden mind) will give way, even a tish, and spill us into the raging water. Caught up in the torrents, we may never get free. Those torrents take us wherever they want to go...and a river does not flow upward.

The good news is: All roads lead to God. The uh-oh news is: It is entirely up to us how direct our path to It is.

Thank You.

GOD IS NEVER LATE

Since I learned that all of our problems can be solved by spiritual principles, I've come to accept that forgiveness is the basic spiritual principle that we get to go to...to live by.

I regret that forgiveness is not my strong suit...forgetfulness is, but that's often just a matter of aging. Remind me, and I can be right back in the you-dirty-rotten-rat stage in a heartbeat.

Fortunately, God has blessed me with a couple of things I've forgiven...and I know God has blessed me because when I was reminded of one recently, I couldn't remember it right off the bat. And it was a biggie.

We often hear "forgive but never forget." I just can't buy that...if I can't forget it, I haven't forgiven it. Full and complete forgiveness is the letting go of all resistance to the act and the actor...detaching from our own selves in truth. The more we try to talk ourselves into forgiveness by prettying up our motives, dolling up our spiritual intentions, the deeper we sink into self...recalling the pain, remembering the perfidy.

This is one where talking it over with a friend (more than once, twice tops) is just keeping our resistance going. Our only hope of heaven is talking it over with God...once, twice tops...and leaving it there. Leaving it there in trust (learning that "in trust" can feel like "in despair"). There. That's the priceless gift in having no more hope...we turn to God. And wait.

In waiting, we learn our first lesson in trusting God: God is never late. He's not on our timetable, but he's never late. Trust that.

Thank You.

GOD POURS OUT FROM AND THROUGH US

They both [Buddha and Jesus] recognized that pain is the only thing strong enough to grab our attention and defeat the ego’s dominance....(I accept the common definition that our suffering is the degree of resistance we have toward our pain). Fr. Richard Rohr, “Daily Meditations,” October 28, 2013.

I was pondering “bless those who curse you…" and realized that, in my mind, those who curse me are those I am resisting for cursing me! Then there are those I am resisting who know me not, but offend me mightily; i.e., Ted Cruz, Rush Limbaugh, et al.

My pain is identical...those I feel are misusing me, bad-mouthing me, mistreating me and those with whom I have no physical contact at all…my pain is the same because it is the same resistance.

Is it all a head trip? It may only be by coming to full blessing in my head, my heart, my belly and my bones that I am healed and that heals them...i.e., stops my obsessing over (resisting) them.

Ah, and I see, said the blind man. It is not all a head trip…it is the decision to bless them that opens the gates to God to pour out from me and through me to do Its cosmic healing.

Thank You.

GOD KNOWS MY NEEDS

Remembering my years of living defensively, I am overwhelmed with joy and gratitude that I was moved from that place. And it all began when I learned my secret to life itself, which is: Go to God for God, seek God for God's sake...not for love, not for power, not for prestige, not for profit.

I walk free in my own head today...except, of course, when I stub my toe and my ego declares it your fault, and I go haring off down that trail.

The good news is that today I know that, too, is doing it right. Why else would I keep digging for still more spiritual growth? I know this to be true because every time I've gotten to a place within where I feel safe, secure, protected, I "stub my toe and my ego declares it your fault, and I go haring off down that trail."

Only when I become willing to and do acknowledge my initial part in the stubbing of my toe, do I realize I've grown just a tish deeper spiritually.

God knows my needs...my wants, not so much. (There, again, a matter for pure gratitude.)

Thank You.

GET GRATEFUL, GET GRACE

I was reminded this morning of how I once was before I learned to love my life. I used to live behind a thin layer of defensiveness, and whatever I was thinking, feeling, doing, being, I had a cover story. And it always ended with "so it's not my fault."

I can't remember when I learned that it is the love of life itself that is our key to happiness.
Until we know and show that we love life itself, we cannot love "those who despitefully use you," or "do good to those who hate you," or "love your neighbor as yourself". We cannot even want to do those things when we're living in our "it's not my fault" world.

It's not my fault, the very words, speak of our willingness to throw our own young under the bus to keep from taking personal responsibility for our faults, our mistakes...or our assets for that matter. It is amazing how hard it is to make a list of our assets (and I'm not saying "long" list...just to jot down 2 or 3, or, ideally, 4). We'd rather stay stuck in seeing Gertrude's defects, Don's bad behavior...or, for that matter, inventorying our mother, our father, our sister, our brother which, of course, is just another way of justifying, of holding onto, our own bad behavior.

But once we make that turn, once we begin the return trip home deeper to our higher consciousness, we find life itself, all life including the nitpicks of our personal journey, to be wondrous, joyful...just fine in a word, and thank you very much.

It all begins with our willingness to upgrade our attitude. Get grateful, get grace.

Thank You.