UNFATHOMABLE INFINITY

We shall find peace.

We shall hear angels.

We shall see the sky sparking with diamonds.

-- Chekhov

At the point of unfathomable is where the miracle of God appears...infinity on the point of a pin. -- Blinding flash of the obvious.

Thank you.

JOY IN THE CAMP

When I meet a really rigid person (whether on the street or in my bathroom mirror), I try to remember to think: Your core must be a ball of insecurity right now because your surface is rigid, righteous and right. If I don't remind myself of that asap, I become rigid with my race-race, run-run mind actively and obsessively sitting there...in judgment. Another paradox.

That reminds me of Fr. Rohr's definition of paradox, which is "order within disorder, redemption through tragedy, resurrection through death, divinity through humanity."

My definition is nowhere near as good, as complete, just a lot simpler. To me, paradox is complete opposites getting the desired result. A simple example being, "You've got to give it away to keep it." Another (referring to character defects), "You've got to accept it as your own in order to let it go." And "You've got to kiss the unkissable right on the lips."

I was reminded of all that this morning when I read a Sufi epigram: When the heart grieves over what it has lost, the spirit rejoices over what it has found.

Realizing that this is exactly the gift we get upon entry into the Fellowship of which I am a member, my heart grins, sings, dances, laughs, shouts, hugs the moon, and wants to share it with my world.

In the words of the old gospel song: There's joy in the camp!

Thank you.

ON BECOMING ONED

When the external life and the inner life are working together, we always have beauty, symmetry, and actual transformation of persons—lives and actions that inherently sparkle and heal, in part because they can integrate the negativity of failure, sin, and rejection and they can spot their own shadow games. -- Fr. Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditations," August 28, 2014.

Becoming a fully integrated person is our journey. When our insides, God's world, become one with our outsides, ego's world, we become a fully integrated person. This cannot happen unless and until our ego bows to a power greater than itself...namely, God.

I tend to believe that takes many lifetimes to achieve, and we keep coming back until we get it right.

Now...what if that is true? What if that's not just me on a flight of fantasy, but it is true?

What if we keep coming back as each and every person we could/would not forgive? What if we are that person today, right now? Are we unforgivable...or do we think we are? What then?

What if we keep coming back as the person we once put upon a pedestal...had loved beyond reasoning? How well, if at all, are we showing forth the qualities we once adored?

When the external and the internal are oned, the external must needs have given over and the internal shines through, leading the way as peace, love and joy.

Thank you.

WE MUST SHARE IT TO GROW IT

I'm rereading the notes I wrote in a little book that I read from 1971 to 1991...my notes are enlightening to me. For instance, in 1989, I had underlined in the book the sentence, "Continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment and fear."

I suspect, when I underlined that in 1989, that I understood that, and I thought by my understanding that I got it. Clearly (I say today)  "watch for" was what I got, never realizing that meant that we need to ever watch for all those things.

The core issue of our lives, then, is we watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment and fear because they are there...not were, are. They will be there until three days after we're dead. It is what we do with them when we find them yet again that determines our happiness or unhappiness.

Our level of happiness is determined by how completely we show forth peace, joy and love. It is in that act of giving that they grow within us...to share again.

Thank you.

SECRET, FEAR'S OTHER NAME

Mercy. I recently ran into a friend from some thirty years ago. He has not changed one iota...no wrinkles, no grey hairs, no hitch in his get-along, and I remembered that he had shared a secret with me all those years ago; namely, his age. He looked thirty then, he looks thirty now.

Interestingly, our conversation was all about age and aging, the effects of age on our thinking, feeling, doing and being. As we talked, it became clear to me that his secret was still his secret, as in he dodged mentioning That Number...and, therefore, so did I.

I thought he seemed to be a not unhappy man, and there are worse stages of life to live in, but happy is way better. I figure he is not unhappy because his secret is still protected, hidden, secure. But, oh my, the effort that takes...keeping the god of our understanding a secret is some kind of hard work. And that is what a secret is...our god. Our entire focus is on that secret, hiding it, protecting it, in effect nurturing it.

A secret is, in fact, just fear...pure and simple. Chances are (there are no guarantees), my friend could be a happy man if he'd loose his secret and let it go. Just to see what the feared consequences would actually be if for no other reason.

I thought about secrets this morning and keeping them. Because they are based entirely in fear, it is our ego's need to hide them . Our spiritual need is to disclose them...to exchange them for freedom, freedom from the fear we clothe ourselves in.

Take it over to Egypt and set it free. Loose it and let it go. Take it to the river, put it in a basket, and let it float away. All of these are my very imperfect images from the Bible, all referring to us being the god of our own understanding until we let that very idea go.

There is only one God. It is love, It is unfathomable, It is the air we breath, the light within us, without us...and so much more. It is I.

It is not fear, and that is no secret.

Thank you.

BECOMING A TRANSFORMER

From Fr. Richard Rohr: Until you find a way to be a transformer, you will pass the pain onto others.

There. That is the answer to why we constantly and consistently need still more spiritual growth. The reasoning mind gets just enough spiritual growth to know just a little and is satisfied to hunker down right there...enough is all to the ego-based reasoning mind.

As we grow in spiritual growth, however, we learn that there is no enough. There is only the need for still more spiritual growth...else our ego co-ops our spiritual growth as its own. I'm guessing that's why the ego named itself "i" after the I of our Father/Mother/Sister Moon/Brother Sun.

It is in the transmutation within our mind, our heart and our soul of "i" into "we" that our spiritual growth begins. We get a glimpse of "we" as our personal answer...which grows into I, the Father and I are one. And that includes you and them. One. Each is I. All one.

Transformers every One.

Thank you.

SPIRITUAL MATURITY II

Well, it's come to this. I'm now quibbling with my own blog...specifically, "Spiritual maturity is doing the next right thing, doing it with our whole heart, doing it with delight." (I found that in my notes from 2002 and have no idea where it came from...because I didn't have it in quotes or attributed, I assume it's mine.)

This morning my version is: "Spiritual maturity is doing the next thing, doing it with our whole heart, doing it with delight, and not having a hissy fit when it proves to be the not right thing."

That's where our spiritual maturity comes in. Our peace comes in knowing when (not if) we are wrong, to promptly admit it, to make our apologies and/or amends, and to keep moving forward with certain trust in our heart and our mind that God has our back even when we are apparently wrong.

We never need fret, worry, panic again...we never needed to in the first place, but that's a whole 'nother story. Not to mention that just because we don't need to now doesn't mean we won't...that's when the spiritual maturity come to save the day.

Thank you.