LOOKING THROUGH GOD TO GOD

The energy in the universe is not in the planets or in the protons or neutrons, but in the relationship between them. Not in the particles but in the space between them. Not in the cells of organisms but in the way the cells feed and give feedback to one another. Not in any precise definition of the three persons of the Trinity as much as in the relationship between the Three! This is where all the power for infinite renewal is at work: The loving relationship between them. The infinite love flowing between them. The dance itself. - Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," April 29, 2018

God speaks when God speaks. Or, more aptly, we hear when we hear. It was a long time ago that I first heard about God living in the space between...just in the space between. There were exercises to help realize that, and I did them. Never really got it but accepted it...and forgot about it.

Then I read the above and flashed on: It is in the space between where God lives. I just got it. It's akin to WiFi...all power is in the space between -  no wires are needed, no spoken words, either!

There. That's how I make truths my own...simplify, simplify, simplify. I have no idea if WiFi ever uses wires...I still don't know what WiFi stands for, for heaven's sake. The important thing is I get the picture, the picture of all power in the space between.

The space wherein God lives is the space between the blocks, the words, we use...most times in trying to find God.

I can know love in the space between me and my little boy who is invisible to my eyes today. For that matter, I can realize love between me and a friend who lives across country from me today. I can imagine a hardened heart being softened by forgiveness with no words being spoken, just an inner  space opens and forgiveness flows.

I'm guessing it is in that knowing, that realizing, that imagining...that space between...that I am looking through God to God.

Thank you.

NOTHING LEFT FOR WHICH TO WISH

[The following is a reprint, slightly reworked, of my post of September 29, 2012.]

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 deflation in depth is accomplished by letting go of our self-determined objectives, i.e., our wants...no matter how pretty we dress our wants.

Which is close enough for me to what in the 15th century Meister Eckhart espoused:  If the only prayer you say in your life is thank you, that would suffice. 

Thank you.

RESIST NOT...LOVE ALL

My attack mind has been unleashed. I'd justify it by my boy Ruckus going back to Heaven but that causes me to blush just to think of such a Lucy-ready excuse. I am lashing out because the discipline required to stay calm and not lash out doesn't give me the "gotcha, damn ya" feeling that I want. 

Clearly, it is not that I do not know better, it is that I do not choose to do better...not to mention for the benefit of another. 

Oooh, I just had a blinding flash of the obvious: Love your attack mind...not the Gertrudes, but your thoughts that are attacking them. 

Again, I'm given to understand that it is through love that hate is transformed...the love channeled from the Father within, not my make nice-nice thoughts. Hey, love them, too, they're trying to head me in the right direction anyway. 

I'm reminded of the Golas' story in "The Lazy Man's Guide" about his bad trip on LSD. A hideous monster came to him, terrifying him, and he was fighting to get away...to which the monster asked, What was it that you thought needed to be loved?

There's the universal question. It applies to my attack thoughts, to those my thoughts are attacking, even to my ego-victory excuses. What you resist, persists; love it, loose it and let it go.

Thank you.

A GREAT NEW READ

I just this morning started to read Cynthia Bourgeault's "The Wisdom Jesus." I'm already copying her words and thoughts, and I only just finished Chapter 1. I expect it's going to take a long time to read this book, and I hope it does.

My interpretation of just one mind-expanding sentence: [My intuitive connection with Jesus is] a transfusion from within ("one deep calling to another," in the words of Psalm 42). It is pristine and clear, and it is the basis of all true belief.

Underneath, that says all that I have come to believe; on a deeper level, higher, it is beyond my ken.

I am so excited to read more...actually, my feeling is close to exhilaration. I only love it.

Thank you.

HE CAN, NOW LET HIM

As I need, I am supplied. It is my need that supplies, that brings forth my supply...whatever that may be. 

It may be true that love of money is the root of all evil, but I find it easy to believe that it is disrespect that is evil's Miracle-Gro. Disrespect breeds evil, also known as resentment.  It is resentment that starts, channels, and speaks evil, i.e., disrespect.

A resentment cannot be wished or willed away. It cannot be dressed up to look other than it is...like the ear-worm we hear so much about today, nobody but us can hear it, and we can't unhear it.

All this leads me back to my long-ago realization that my need brings forth my supply...whatever that may be. 

It is whatever that may be that was my eyeopener...until "whatever" came to me, I was thinking of my supply as money...period. My need, however, is the ability, the willingness, to do for another, its the act of giving over, giving up, giving in against my own want-to and for the benefit of another.

Its turning my thoughts to God with a conscious desire for him to change my mind whenever an ugly enters in. It's so 1, 2, 3 simple, and a zillion x infinity hard...I just need to change my perception of the situation at hand. No peace will ever come until I upgrade my perception of the less-than-wonderful I am perceiving.

There's the conundrum...resentment will fog the memory that I alone cannot change my perception. Ah, but it's that hard-won discipline that clears the way for me to recall: God can and will if sought. 

Thank you.

SELF-ACCEPTANCE COMES WITHOUT A FIGHT

I've come to believe that we begin to realize acceptance of our own self when we "see" our same-old-same-old behavior on parade, and don't feeling guilty about it. We know something has changed, and we hope/know that the change occurred by God working through us. 

It's a eye-blinking change that often we do not realize has happened until later...sometimes even as we're again thinking about how to make the change.

Much to my ego Lucy's regret, incoming anger has ever shut me down. I have never been able to top it or stop it as it comes at me, but then I would go home and tell my bathroom mirror exactly what I shoulda, woulda, coulda said. By long ago learning the art of de-personalizing, I quit asking God to help me stand up for myself (and there's a right-sounding, guilt-producing quagmire).

But one fine day I was met by an out-of-control angry person who was determined to strip me bare for what she "heard" me say...and then put her worse interpretation on that. I stood in silence, then said, Well, God bless you, and walked away. And have had no regrets since...no coulda's, no woulda's, no shoulda's. 

Naturally, I thought about it later, and I realized without thinking, without preplanning, lo! God had given me what I never would have thought to ask for...acceptance of my self-described cowardice. My best thought had ever been that he help me hit back, harder. Ah, but God is not in any fight. 

I realized that by not responding in kind, I could have no regrets. I could actually feel good about me within and, more important, no angst (isn't that peace?) toward the other.

My self-perceived wart had become a rose. 

Thank you.

FEEL ANGST...LOVE AND LAUGH

I have a mean mind this morning. I am mentally chewing you a new one, and I feel utterly justified, you being the cause of my discontent. The trouble is that for every "you," there are half dozen names that mentally fit, but only one fits in truth...my own, of course.

The trouble with still more spiritual growth is it works. It's particularly troubling when I'm in a boxing match in my mind. I jab a mean thought toward you, and what you see is always yourself  sends an uppercut back. Gratefully, I've just run out of boxing metaphors. 

But I am reminded of the old adage, Pray for potatoes...grab a hoe.

The realization beyond the adage is: At some point we've got to put the hoe aside, and let God do his perfect work in growing those potatoes.

We can be reminded...and quote to others...all the wonderful spiritual axioms we know, but until we do them...and do them as we breathe, not after much mental caterwauling...then they are just so many pretty words. I think of mental caterwauling as hoeing those potatoes long after they've taken root. 

The great gift, that is God's Great Gift, is to realize we are caterwauling yet again and find our self smiling about it. 

It is not just right thinking, but the added love and laughter that gives us the key to let go and let God. 

Thank you.