THE GIFT OF TURMOIL

'12 At the point of unexplainable is where the miracle of God appears. -- my handwritten note in a daily reader

For whatever reason, upon reading that note, the word turmoil came to mind...as in, turmoil is the point of unexplainable. In that regard, turmoil is neither bad nor is it good...it is a personal perception...personal to us and to how we perceive it and respond positively or react negatively to it.

Two levels of consciousness are laid bare... spiritual mind, love or peace, material mind, fear or worry.

 

The point of unexplainable, turmoil, spiritually is having no way to explain God's will, God's way and that gives us peace; material mind rejects that whole concept including, therefore, peace...or inviting, therefore, worry.

Simplified, spiritual mind is our boon...material mind, our bane. And here comes life riding in on its black and white horse: Spiritually, a boon often comes in disguise. rarely looking good; materially, a bane often comes looking like a million bucks. Turmoil. Unexplainable. 

  

At the point of unexplainable is where the miracle of God appears.

Thank you.

SPIRITUAL PRINCIPLES...THE FOREVER SOLUTION

Contemplative life flows in a circular pattern: awe provokes introspection, which invokes awe. -- Fr Richard's Daily Meditation, August 30, 2023

According to me, life itself flows in a circular pattern...from birth, we move out and up, are met with our life and move down, are met with our life and move up. It is the decisions we make at the point of movement that determine our physical, psychological, spiritual life experiences. 

We are heading in the wrong direction when our emotional needs rule our life. Likewise when we shut down our emotional needs and live from our own intellect. Many of us today...too many of us in my less-than-humble opinion...head for the shrink's couch, taking care of the head being our priority. That is not a wrong decision, to depend on it is the problem. That stays us in the surface answer...analyzing the problem, our momentary satisfaction our goal.

In this regard, it is not our first thought but our last thought wherein we find our answer, in the Light Divine...smaller than a pinpoint, the Light of the World. 

That is where the answer to our upside-down is found, in such as Resist not evil or Welcome! There we discover the spiritual nature of upside-down...which is beyond the reach of the reasoning mind. 

In the short prayer of thank you, we find within the divine light and accept the less-than-wonderful facing us. It is not magical, it is metaphysical that thank you solves, dissolves, resolves all our perceived problems. Not quick, fast and in a hurry as the material mind demands, but God's will, God's way in God's good time...for our benefit.

Quite as important was the discovery that spiritual principles would solve all of my problems. --- Anonymous

Thank you.

THE REST OF OUR LIFE TASK

[To know] God is largely a matter of letting go of resistance to what the moment offers or to quit clinging to a past moment. It is an acceptance of the full reality of what is right here and now. It will be the task of our whole lives. -- Fr Richard's Daily Meditation, August 29, 2023

That paragraph is an apt description of what to me is the most important instruction in the Sermon...i.e., resist not evil. 

Until we "get" that, we are living on the material plane of life. To go deeper to the higher level...well, resist not. Who's kidding whom? To resist not evil is to resist not...period. Face it, who's going to resist good, abundance, happiness?

Learning to live those three words are, to quote Fr Richard, the task of our whole lives. This is the deeper way to a higher way of living...of thinking, feeling, doing, being...that physical effort cannot touch. Ah, but we do not resist not by sitting by the side of the road, hoping for happy. We resist not by learning the lesson of, say, turn the other cheek...by living the Sermon.

The whole of the Sermon of the Mount is a virtual how-to booklet for a way to give over, give up, give in with no "what about me?" playing in our head. We have earned our trust in God, that God has our back. Without thought, we trust that all parties will come out happy, joyous and free.  

Living that trust which we have earned is the rest of our life task.

Thank you.

THE WORD OF THE LORD...THANK YOU

Blinding flash of the obvious: If, through my own actions or inactions, I am hacked, all my accounts, passwords, $$$ wiped out, unrecoverable, that, too, would be for my benefit. There. The Word of the Lord. 

I need to take that BFO deeper...let it get centered...for it is Truth. 

That being so, it is also true when, not if, I am snubbed, snarked or deliberately misunderstood, my need is to love the snub, love the snubbers...that, too, is the Word of the Lord.

The only other option on the material plane is fear. I once read that we have two root categories of feelings, love and fear, and I have since held it as my truth. All emotions spring from those two...simply put: Feeling good? Love. Feeling less than good? Fear. Accept that and let our inner work begin.

Clearly then, to hate snubs and/or snubbers is to fear them...and the answer? Feel the fear and love them anyway. 

For that, we must go to God to continue our learning to kiss it on the lips as we pray thank you. Again, and always, the Word of the Lord.

Thank you.

A LIVING SENSE OF PEACE AND PURPOSE

If the only prayer you pray in your life is thank you, that would suffice. -- Meister Eckhart

I'm a believer that that is the secret to finding peace of mind...praise takes away our resistance which is the ego's pony to ride. When there is nothing to resist, our ego can find no purchase. Without purchase, our thoughts quiet. There it is...a quieted mind is a mind at peace. -- lifted from an earlier Ari of Aslan post 

To go a step or two further: ...a mind at peace is spiritual in nature; spiritual in nature is a living sense of peace and purpose. Ah, God's will, God's way.

Thank you.

LIVING IN GOD'S HUG

Blinding flash of the obvious: We pray for a forgiving heart and are given disrespect, snarks and snubs. There...the spiritually rough and rocky road to forgiveness, a.k.a., God's Way.

It is all the responsibilities that go along with forgiveness that are our bane and our boon. 

The process begins with the bane; i.e., changing our mind. Changing our mind is our lifelong opportunity to go to God for God and that is all. Our resistant mind is being changed to welcoming...by putting another first, or walking the spiritual road, God's Way, every time. 

The boon then becomes the change in our mindset...from me to we. 

Without thought, our resistant mind will continue to be rigid, righteous and right, but meeting with love and laughter, the time is shortened, the want-to is cut down, we are being freed Now.

To live in the Now is to live peaced...in God's hug.

Thank you.

KARMA...GET READY TO GET GRACED - II

[The following is a slightly reworked reprint of my post of  June 6, 2019,]

I awoke with disgruntled thoughts toward another, a perceived heckler. Searching my own self, I got clear...until I know, feel, realize and accept within myself love for all, heckler or not, I will be stuck in my reasoning mind resisting others' behavior toward me. 

According to my understanding, others' behavior toward me is ever a direct answer to my own inner prayer; i.e., to stand silently before my judge unmoved and unresisting with love my only hope...love being the attraction of all things toward all things. 

My disgruntled thoughts are a prime example of God speaking, angels singing, and my ego Lucy still resisting. It's no secret that until I resist not, Lucy leads the way. Ah, there it is, the key: There remains something deep in my resistance that is for my benefit. 

Be grateful...be graced...be freed from the bondage of self.

Thank you.