TRUST GOD'S WILL, GOD'S WAY

Perhaps those whom we value least have the most to teach. -- Barbara Holmes  

If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate. -- Nikka, age 6 

In talking with friends, I'm finding that many of us are having the devil's own time getting "back to normal" after the pandemic shutdown. We have agreed, half joking but way too true, that we need to be resocialized. 

Seeking the sliver of gold, I realize why my inner voice has been whispering to me, "Go small" and "Littler is better." The reasoning mind, receiving that, gets a tish nervous.

God, being always on the job, comes to our aid and reminds us of what Nikka, at age 6 (!), said about love (quoted above). We recall having to accept that just because it didn't make perfect sense to us, didn't mean it wasn't true. Came the realization...in essence, Nikka's advice could lead us free from resistance to anything. 

Plain speak: If you want to learn to love, start with that which you hate is resist not evil.  

That expanded our understanding of Holmes' quote...perhaps that which we value least has the most to teach us...or, even further, that which we most resist is our best teacher.

All of this comes down to our contention that the spiritual mind flows in the opposite direction of the material mind...unconcern for self spiritually transmutes to concern for others. 

There it is...welcome the trust we seek as already ours to give.

Thank you. 

UNKNOWING IS OUR GOAL

Until the mind is freed from the multitudes of thoughts, and has achieved the single simplicity of purity, it cannot experience spiritual knowledge. —Isaac of Syria

Upon reading that saying of one of the Desert Fathers, I knew it for true...slowly I recognized I'd always known that, I just hadn't realized it yet. I expect I'll be three days dead before it is wholly mine. 

The idea of my mind effortlessly "freed from the multitudes of thoughts" brings a boatload of thoughts...all named "how?" Then comes the biggie, achieving a "single simplicity of purity." 

"The Impossible Dream" comes immediately to mind. 

Followed by a blinding flash of the obvious...all my resistance is the reasoning mind, afraid, unwilling, knowing full well it cannot do that. 

There...that is the "spiritual knowledge"...that is God on a pinpoint encompassing all in all eternity. No, our cluttered mind cannot get us there. "Cluttered" meaning centered on aught but God.

Right here, right now, that impossible dream has just been transmuted...it is now a possible dream. Ah, unknowing is our goal, not trying is our nemesis. 

...with God all things are possible. (Matthew 19:26)

Thank you.

THERE IS NO DESTINATION...ONLY LOVE

Cling to the thought that, in God's hands, our dark past is our greatest possession. -- Anonymous

There is a journey you must take. It is a journey without destination. There is no map. Your soul will lead you. And you can take nothing with you. -- Meister Eckhart 

The way looks like failure. In fact, we could say that spirituality is about how to win by losing, how to let go creatively, how the only real ascent is descent.  -- Fr Richard Rohr paraphrased

Ah, the Way is two spiritual journeys—the interior one toward knowing our true self and knowing God, and the one directed outward into the world to enact God’s justice and love...There is no destination, only the enveloping presence of love. --  Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, February 23, 2023

All my trials, Lord, soon be over. --  American folk song of the 1960s

Again, cling to the fact that, in God's hands, our dark past is our greatest treasure. There it is...evidence of God's love. 

Thank you.

WHEN REASON FOLLOWS GOD...HAPPINESS

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

Looking back, I am fairly certain that the hardest thing life has ever asked of me is that I change my mind. I suspect that'll prove true for most everybody when they get to the place of looking back.

I'm reminded of the old cliché, "Would you rather be right or would you rather be happy?" It is amazing how we twist logic as we try to have both. All the while, our trying is the block not only to our ego's demands, right, but to any spiritual growth, happy. Trying is the trapdoor through which self-determined objectives must fall.

Yes, but!  In one of my favorite books, it is written that we must try with a will or fall by the wayside. On first read, first few reads, that is true. However, as we grow, mature, age, we change...in particular our spiritual nature grows its wings...lets go, ego detaches...or trades for humor. 

It has taken years and years and years of spiritual study for me to get a glimmer of the light...to try with a will is our reasoning mind and the God of our understanding working together for good. 

Short version: God uses reason to reveal our need, reason takes charge, finds it is powerless, gives over to God, takes it back, gives over again, takes it back, gives over, etc., gets grateful...voila serenity is ours. We are happy. 

The rest of the story: This is not a one-shot deal. This is the rest of our life. God leading, reasoning mind following, stumbling, begging...but God leading always and all ways.

Thank you.

GOD...THE ANSWER, THE SOLUTION, THE PEARL

...trust descending religion....here the primary language is unlearning, letting go, surrendering, serving others, and not the language of self-development—which often lurks behind our popular notions of 'salvation.' -- from a Rohr Daily Meditation

What a comfort it is to find myself in the spiritual writings of others. Fr Richard's quote above describes me, where I am and have been for some time now. I am happy with less-than, welcoming smaller for my deepening spiritual Way.

I was talking with God this morning before my meditation sit, and I owned up to the guilt I have begun to feel after simply sharing with others...a harsh regret, a painful judgment on me about my words...none of which were of prime importance to begin with. 

This is new for me which causes me pause...I asked if it was God's way of getting my attention for his reasons. 

To examine it fully, guilt excoriates me, accusing me of storing up the spiritual answers of the Sermon, writing about them, quoting them, but in the privacy (secrecy?) of my own self, I "forget" them to writhe in self-judgment.

Blinding flash of the obvious: I feel guilty with every word because I speak without boundaries...with a freedom of spirit. Which can only be of God. 

Oh my. Ego just got its comeuppance!...and that, too, can only be of God. 

A spirituality of 'descent' frees us to surrender to God our often-messy lives. -- Ibid, Rohr above.

Thank you.

FEAR OF TRUSTING, II

[The following is a reprint of my September 29, 2016, post.]

I dreamed last night:

I am living in poverty. I am gifted with the Hope Diamond. I am ecstatic…all my worries are over. I’m told its value which is more money than I ever dreamed of having. I’m also told that the value may double or even triple within a day or two. Of course I hold onto it because if a million is good, etc. Weeks pass. I do nothing but worry and check on the value…has it gone up yet? How bout now? Any movement today? I do not have a buck to buy a dollar meal with. I am starving as I clutch my Hope to my heart. I think of how much more money I will get if I just hold on to my fortune another day or two. As I lay dying, I realize my death is not from starvation but from fear. Fear of trusting God. I hear again, 'God can and will intervene in our life on our behalf.' And I realize that before God can and will...anything...I must let go. God will not force me...I have free will to choose.

Choose ye this day....

Thank you.

ON GIVING LOVE...BY HIS HELP

Be patient. The path of self-discipline that leads to God-realization is not an easy path: obstacles and sufferings are on the path; the latter you must bear, and the former overcome -- all by His help. His help comes only through concentration. Repetition of God's name helps concentration. -- Swami Ramdas

Long, long ago blinding flash of the obvious: We have all the patience there is within us now...all we need do is use it.

It's a sobering realization that that is true of kindness, compassion, thoughtfulness...there is no inner goodness for which we need pray...all were gifted us at birth to be shared with others.  

It is in the sharing of those gifts that we receive the peace of mind that ego promises yet can never deliver. It is our not sharing that causes us to pray for them...we never consider that we already have them within us. 

Simply put, all those inner goodnesses are of no use to us if we are not sending them out by our thoughts, our words, our acts. It is the giving to others that returns to us.

The pearl of spiritual life is in nonresistance...or, the love we give. Nonresisting, I give to you, you give to Ed, who gives to Gertrude who, etc. The unbroken circle of spiritual love is the world's best hope of recovery. 

Without spiritual insight and, face it, personal grit, that will not happen. Ah, but help is already with us, within us...obstacles and sufferings are on the path; the latter you must bear, and the former overcome -- all by His help.

All by His help.

Thank you.