Musings on Divinity

Authentic Power
Now that all the excitement and rhetoric, sometimes cruel, over the elections has settled down and we have had the Thanksgiving holiday to remind us of what is truly important in life, perhaps it is time to start thinking about what we want for our planet in the coming year.  Of course that means we will have to let go of the "what can I do?" attitude and realize we all have to participate.  Perhaps a good place to start is making decisions about how we choose to treat each other, right in our own families and neighborhoods.
The Dalai Lama teaches the simple idea that we all want the same thing.  David Friedman is one of the most successful composers on Broadway with a career spanning decades.  He wrote a beautiful song titled "We Can Be Kind" which puts the Dalai Lama's idea to music.  Here are a few lines from that song.

So many things you can't control
So many hurts that happen everyday
So many heartaches that pierce the soul
So much pain that won't ever go away

How do we make it better?
How do we make it through?
What can we do when there's nothing we can do?

We can be kind
We can take care of each other
We can remember that deep down inside
We all need the same thing
And maybe we'll find
If we are there for each other
That together we'll weather whatever tomorrow may bring

 The invitation I would extend is that each of us daily examine our thoughts, words and actions toward each other for the presence or absence of simple kindness and caring.  The truth is that what we think we will speak, and how we speak is how we act.  Therefore, rather than being powerless we have total control over our own experience of life and over the influence we have in the world.  You can claim your authentic power through this simple practice.

Never forget that you are a daughter or a son of the Living God, by whatever name you call that power.  All power is yours to claim when you align with the loving force of Creation.

Musings on Divinity

Ground of Being

  Some news is so big, so very important, that it's hard to even put into words.  There are concepts that are so huge, so much bigger than what our conscious minds can get around and grasp, that finding a way to talk about them can be very difficult.  I'd like to begin a discussion on what I believe is the greatest concept of all.   Our minds can't wrap around this concept well enough to describe it, and the best we can do is make guesses or assign names and attributes.  Yet it is possible for each of us to come to a deeper understanding of it; one that goes beyond words.
   So, even though our words may fall short and our intellects are too small, there is a part of us that is infinite, that is created in the image and likeness of the Creator of all that is.  When we reach a deeper level of understanding of our connection with all that is and bring more of it into our conscious awareness, then our lives change. 
   Let's start at the beginning.  What most of humanity now calls God is an infinite presence whose nature is love, operating through law.  Two of the great world scriptures, the Hebrew Scriptures and the Upanishads, came to us at about the same time.  In the Upanishads God is described as having the attributes of Presence, Power, and Light.  This is what science now calls "ground of being".  The ground of being out of which all form emanates.  Then in Genesis, God said, "let there be," and creation was formed.  In the beginning of the gospel of John this is explained.  "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God."  John is speaking of the power of the word:  in the beginning there was a source, a power, a ground of being.  That source created all that was made, and in him was life, and that life was the light of all men.  And the light shined in the darkness and the darkness conquered it not.
  Please don't be misled;.  Don't be fooled by the masculine character of this language.  It's a social convention, not a statement of the maleness of the creator.  But it's a social convention that was necessary because it's talking about a very personal relationship with this supreme power, this ground of being.  A personal pronoun has to be used somehow, to communicate across countless generations that the relationship is personal.  You see, this Presence and this Power that we talk about is alive, and we are in relationship with it. This is a presence and power that is infinite in potential and scope and ability, yet still fully present to us, in our experience.  In this presence there is life, and that life is the light of all of us.  All people.  You and me.  This is the true light that gives light to everyone who comes into the world.

What Do You See?

Seeing

   There are many ancient teaching stories from different traditions.  The heritage of the Sufi’s contain many wonderful stories, and often the chief character is a fellow named Nazrudin.  One day Nazrudin heard about a holy man, a very wise man who sat on a mountain pass not far away.  Being a seeker himself all his life, Nazrudin decided to travel to visit this wise man, and sit at his feet to see what he could learn.  He had been sitting there all day when a traveler came up the mountain toward the pass and asked about the village in the distance. What are the people like? The wise man asked why he left his former town.  The traveler said he was leaving because it was full of unfriendly, dishonest, unkind people.  “Such as the world has become,” said the wise man.  “You will find the same people in the next town.”
   Then a second traveler stopped and asked the wise man the same question.  When asked what the town he was leaving was like, he said it was a village full of loving, wonderful people.  They even paid for his move to this new town so he could find work.  Nazrudin replied, “such as the world has become.  You will find the same kind of people in the new village.  After the second traveler passed, Nazrudin looked at the holy man in confusion, and asked “Wise one, do you speak the truth?  “Yes, of course I speak the truth,” was the answer.  “Then how can you speak the truth and give a different truth to each man?”
   And that is the question.  How can it be that we can each go to the same place and find very different experiences?  You can see it powerfully in churches in transition.  Part of the congregation thinks the minister is the source of all the problems.  Part of them blame the board.  The larger part thinks everything is just fine and can’t figure out what the others are making a fuss over.  One church, filled with people who know each other; people having a different experience of the same community.
  What each of us, as people committed to making the world a better place, has to realize is that we don’t see the world as it is.  We see the world as we are.  If I am hasty to judge the actions of others in spite of not having complete information, then I have stepped into the energy of keeping the world the tense place that it is.  Each of us is accountable for our response to any situation and quick judgment blocks us from gathering complete information.
   Having said that, we know some people are not good at boundaries.  That’s why we lock our cars and our houses.  We must learn to set appropriate boundaries, while maintaining compassion for those whose path we can only see partially, and therefore have no way of  truly understanding.  What we do, what we say, how we respond to people face to face is very important but there is something even bigger.  The energy we carry in our body is broadcast moment by moment, and if that energy field is negative, we do damage even if we never interact with anyone.  There is an old saw that's been around for years, but it's still around because it's true.  "What we focus on increases."  Let's focus on what's good.

Children of the earth

An email arrived a few days ago that I must share with you.  No author was credited so I can only say "anonymous" or "unknown.  This is an excerpt from the story of the end of the life of Lawrence Anthony.

"Lawrence Anthony, a legend in South Africa and author of 3 books including the bestseller The Elephant Whisperer, bravely rescued wildlife and rehabilitated elephants all over the globe from human atrocities, including the courageous rescue of Baghdad Zoo animals during US invasion in 2003.
On March 7, 2012 Lawrence Anthony died.
He is remembered and missed by his wife, 2 sons, 2 grandsons and  numerous elephants.
Two days after his passing, the  WILD elephants showed up at his home led by two large matriarchs.
Separate wild herds arrived in droves to say goodbye to their beloved man-friend.
A total of 31 elephants had patiently walked over 12 miles to get to his South African House.

Witnessing this spectacle, humans were obviously in awe not only because of the supreme intelligence and precise timing that these elephants sensed about Lawrence 's passing, but also because of the profound memory and emotion the beloved animals evoked in such an organized way: Walking slowly - for days -Making their way in a solemn one-by-one queue from their habitat to his house.
Lawrence 's wife, Francoise, was especially touched, knowing that the elephants
had not been to his house prior to that day for well over 3 years!
But yet they knew where they were going.
The elephants obviously wanted to pay their deep respects, honoring their friend
who'd saved their lives - so much respect that they stayed for 2 days 2 nights without eating anything..
Then one morning, they left, making their long journey back home............"

The day I read this email I found an issue of National Geographic my husband left on the kitchen counter.  The lead story was about 25,000 elephants killed in the past year for their ivory.  With an aching heart I can't help wonder how many "dumb" animals are slaughtered each year for money or for sport.  No, I am not a vegetarian.  I know all beings on this planet must consume other living things in order to survive.  But we can stop the tortures of factory farms and useless, so-called sport and consume the gifts of life we are given by these other children of the earth with prayerful respect and gratitude.

Those we call "dumb animals" feel what we do.  Fear, love, gratitude, respect, joy, pain and perhaps some more feelings we humans have not evolved enough to access.  Truly we humans are too often the "dumb animals."  I hope we learn soon.

 

 

 

 

Becoming

Who am I?

   I am not trained in the science and discipline of astrology but I've learned a lot from a good friend who is very well trained and very good at it.  So here's a tidbit from astrology that I learned from her. Everyone's birth chart is divided into 12 areas of life expression called houses. The 10th house indicates our career, what we're supposed to be when we grow up. The sixth house details the work we do, which may or may not be how we achieve our career, and may or may not be how we earn a living. Income can come from several places, such as the eighth house of shared resources.  Florence Nightingale is a classic example. Her 10th house pointed to compassion and healing as her career, her sixth house pointed to physical labor as her work, and her eighth house accurately pointed to family wealth. She achieved her ultimate career by doing the physical work leading to the founding of the nursing profession, which was made financially possible because she inherited a lot of money.
   The principle at work here is "remember who you are," and learning about your natal astrological chart can help you do that.  Become intimately familiar with the callings of your heart, the values you will not compromise, and the understanding that those things are gifts meant to be expressed.  You will find these things detailed and supported in your natal chart if you get yourself a good astrologer to read it for you.  If you don't remember who you are, how can you become all you're meant to be?
   We live as the presence of the divine by expressing our true nature. We could express it joyfully and effectively in a number of jobs. We will not enjoy any job or career not in alignment with our true nature. Our true nature is this; we are spiritual beings, ideas in the mind of what we have named God, created in that same image and likeness.  This divine idea is the Christ, or Brahman, or Buddha, all names for the part of us that is divine. Our inner Christ nature is what is real about every human being and is the source from which all life takes shape. That divinity expresses uniquely through each one of us.
    If anyone ever tells you again that you were born in sin and need redemption, you simply look at them gently and say "that's not possible. I am made in God's image and there is no sin in God's image."  Those who can see that you know who you are will believe you.

Response-Ability Our Dreams

What and How?

   Chris and I are traveling from Arizona to British Columbia in a few weeks.  We are going by car and taking our time along the western coast.  Chris has created an itinerary that includes daily driving time, overnight stops and special sights.  We have a desire to see all of this country and we have the ability to respond to that desire.

   Many of us have had dreams that we never really reached for because we just couldn’t see how they could come true.  We are such a task oriented society that we want to be able to see the whole road, from the first idea that struck us all the way to its final outcome; manifesting our dream.  We want road maps and time lines and motels along the way.  Launching our dream can be sort of like driving across country without a map or GPS.  If we can’t see the entire path we have a difficult time taking the first step.  Yet we do have the ability to respond to the urge contained in that dream.

   There is a quote from Laurence J Peter, which goes something like this:  “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll probably end up somewhere else.”  That speaks to the most important part of making dreams come true.  You have to know what it is.  You have to be able to pin down your final destination.  For instance, I want to be interviewed by Oprah Winfrey about one of my books.  Do you suppose I have any idea how to make that happen?  Not so much, but its clear the first step is writing the book and getting it published.  The next step is calling attention to it.  That could be steps three through umpty-hundred.

   The point is, each step you take reveals the next step.  You see, we are not responsible for the “how,” we are only responsible for the “what.”  When you nail down your “what” and begin taking steps in that direction you might get a great surprise.  The “what” just might morph and change into something else; something so great you never would have dared to dream it in the beginning.  As you are guided in the steps to take, you may also be guided to a higher path and that higher path is guaranteed to give you greater joy.  That always happens when you choose your “what” and trust to Spirit to guide your steps.  You’ve got the ability to respond to your dreams.  Let’s get walking!

Response-Ability Our Elders

Our Elders

Chris and I have a delightful habit on mornings when the weather is good, which it is most of the time.  We take our first cup of coffee out on the back patio and sit surrounded by flowers and birds and the amazing Arizona sky.  Most mornings it takes us an hour or more to drink that first cup (thermal mugs) because we tend to slip into a meditative state for a while.  Yesterday was one of those long mornings.  We were still sitting out back, in our jammies and coffee in hand when an elderly gentleman I will call Ron walked in our front door, through the house, and came out to the patio.  We had never seen him before.  We engaged him in conversation.  He knew his name but not much else.
We asked to see his wallet and it had some cards in it.  Two of them were employee ID cards, one from Allied Signal and one from Honeywell.  Another was a 1996 insurance card for a 1996 Cadillac.  Seems he did well in his working years. He said he was somewhere in his 90’s, probably 95, which would be my father’s age if he were still alive.  Dad also worked at Allied Signal and Honeywell at about the same time as Ron.  Bit of a chill from that one.  There was one card in his wallet with a local phone number, which I called while Chris called the police.  The phone number belonged to his sister and the police had a missing persons report on a man fitting Ron’s description.
The two officers who came within minutes were very gentle with Ron and asked his permission to take him home.  They stayed and chatted a few minutes to make sure Ron wasn’t frightened of them, then drove him home.  Turns out Ron lives on the block just behind our house and had wandered away and didn’t know how to get back.  Our front door was probably the only one unlocked in the neighborhood and I’m glad it was.
This got me thinking about our society and its potential direction for the future.  In China, Japan, some European countries and among most indigenous people the elderly are revered and cared for.  Their wisdom is sought, respected and often heeded.  Here, we stuff them away out of sight.  Now some want to take away the pittance of the social safety net called Social Security and Medicare, even though the money for that safety net came out of their own wages for years.  No wonder many societies consider us barbarians.  In the matter of care of our elders, we are.  I pray we learn and grow enough to rise above this.

Peace, Passion, Purpose

Get Started Now

   Take a moment and bring to mind something you have not yet fully accomplished that is very important to you.  It could be a relationship with a friend, spirituality, world peace, physical health, education, business success - just one big thing that’s on your to-do list.  Don’t try to define everything you care about right now, just pick one thing that has high value for you.  Just one! 

   I have a challenge for you.  Look through your checkbook and your credit card statements for the past 12 months.  How much of your money have you spent on that one thing?  If you have a calendar or a Palm or any regular way of organizing your time, look through it for the past year and see if you can estimate how much time you have spent on this one, important thing.  If you don’t have something like that, search your memory and come up with your best guess.  How much of your resources have you committed to something you feel is very important to you?

   I’m willing to bet every one of us has at least one thing we say is very important to us, but it gets little of our resources; financial or time & energy.  Why is that?  One possible answer is that it really isn’t that important.  Maybe it’s really a “should.”  Something we feel we should believe is important, some sort of obligation.  Another possible answer is that it means so much to us we hardly dare try.  What if we fail?  It seems emotionally easier to hold this wonderful thing out in the land of “someday” than it would be to give it up altogether because we just didn’t make the grade.  Or maybe we think it’s going to require more of us than we have right now.   You know, all of the "too young, too old, too poor, not enough education, too fat, too thin, too tall, too short" series of beliefs.

   If you want to live with peace, passion and purpose, schedule that one thing.  Start a savings account for it, block out time in your calendar every week, make that first call, shop for those first healthy meals, whatever it takes for your one important thing.  Just start right now.  First thing when you wake up each morning bring that one thing to mind and tell yourself something about it.  “Today I will……………"

Then do it.

Peace, Passion, Purpose

Let Go of Control

To have more peace in our lives requires authenticity and self-mastery.  More passion is kindled through relationships and growth.  For a sense of purpose, we need to clarify what is meaningful to us.  That all sounds like the work of a lifetime, and it is.  But don’t forget it’s a journey, not a destination.  If we are seeking more peace, we may work on living authentically and developing self mastery for the rest of our lives, and day by day, as we get better at it, we will experience more and more peace.  Through improving our relationships, and living on a growing edge we create a life that becomes more passionate as we get older.  The more we understand what is meaningful to us and why, the greater our sense of purpose.

   Do you know how many people have worked all their lives just so they could have a good retirement, then they die just a few years after retiring because they feel useless and have no purpose?  Or the opposite example; those who retire and begin a second career, maybe even a volunteer career, and find more meaning and satisfaction than ever before.  My parents belonged to an Airstream club that built its own retirement motor home park in the mountains of Arizona.  It was easy to tell which people had a sense of purpose and which ones were just waiting to die.  I don’t want to tell your story for you, but I would bet you are not one of the people who is going to be willing to spend your last years just waiting to die.  I’m certainly not going there!

   Oddly enough, in order to find the song in our own soul and live in a state of peace, passion and purpose, we need to let go of control.  Control is nothing more than the ought to’s and shoulds that made us forget our soul’s song in the first place.  This doesn’t mean we go unconscious and say ok, God, you’re in charge.  We become very conscious and discover Spirit leading us exactly where our hearts yearn to be.  Our letting go is only into the presence and power and love that gave us life in the first place, and it is done with a willingness to become the full grown potential carried in the seed that has been planted in us with the breath of the divine.

   A life of peace, passion and purpose is our heritage as sons and daughters of life’s longing.  Anything less is waiting to die, no matter our age.  What we are born to, our heritage, is to live in a state of peace, nurtured by the power of divine love no matter what outer circumstances we face.    To spend our days passionately, with relationships that challenge us and keep us on our growing edge makes our later years outshine our youth by megawatts.  To discover our deepest values and live according to their calling give us a sense of purpose that is not dependant on anything but the joy and satisfaction in our own hearts.  In the words of my faith tradition, “Life is an upward, progressive movement of Spirit.”  All things are possible, including a life of peace, passion and purpose.

Peace, Passion, Purpose

The Song In Your Soul

I have often said that for the first time in recorded history, humanity is living long enough to grow up.  It’s even better than that.  Mid life is no longer somewhere between thirty-five and fifty.  It is possible now to have a thirty year career, retire, and still have an entire adult life ahead of us before we get really old.  We can start looking at midlife as between fifty five and sixty-five, or older.  That means we have lots of time for lots of changing!  Isn’t that wonderful?  I would like to share a passage with you on midlife from the book “Create a Life that Tickles Your Soul,” by Suzanne Willis Zoglio.   “In midlife the need to accumulate material things becomes less significant than the need for time to enjoy what we have.  The need for the approval of others becomes far less compelling than the need to follow dreams of our own.  …… As we assume positions of leadership in our careers and communities, we want to exercise that same level of influence in our personal lives as well.  We become more insistent on living deliberately and according to our own rules.  As we begin to lose parents, older siblings and even peers, we become keenly aware of our own mortality.  Just as we hit our stride, time starts to really fly.  Suddenly we have an urge to do what we’ve always wanted to do, before it’s too late.  We want to taste life more fully, connect with others more honestly, and somehow have a hand in making the world a better place.  So we set out to reinvent our lives, seeking peace, passion and purpose.”

   Peace, passion and purpose.  We are seeking to regain what we were born with, then had trained out of us or forgot as we were growing up.  Let me give you a little reminder lesson on the 1960’s in middle class America.  Not the part about the hippie generation, rather the part about conventional social expectations.  Education for girls was still not necessary, but most of society had recognized by then that girls who went to college were more likely to marry the really successful guys, the doctors and lawyers and such.  If you find a college town movie from the ‘60’s, many of the girls would be wearing suits that Jacquie Kennedy or Barbara Bush would have considered socially appropriate for the upper class.

   I grew up being told that whatever my life was like, that was God’s will for me, and my job was to live that life in humble service, hoping to die free of sin so I could then spend eternity in paradise. 

   Do you know how far away eternity feels to a 10 year old in Sunday School?  And just how much weight will that teaching carry with a 16 year old, in love, or maybe it was in lust, for the first time.  Of course it didn’t help that the young man was three years older, drop dead gorgeous, and a natural born smooth talker.  Motherhood, here I come.  Funny, a hundred years earlier I would have been the success of the community, bagging a husband with a job at such a young age.  In 1960-something, it was a shameful stigma that locked the door to church that I had already slammed shut.

   I can remember hitting my first round of mid-life crises.  I was directed to a psychic – the first time I’d ever met one – and the first words she said to me were; “You’ve spent years trying so hard to fit into all the little boxes other people built for you, and you almost succeeded.  If you had, you would have killed yourself in the process.”  That was the beginning of me reinventing my life, and I began a long search for the peace, passion and purpose that had for so many years been buried under obligation, duty and, yes, resentment.

   When you give up the song in your own soul in exchange for pleasing others, or for what looks like the easy road to success, resentment becomes a growing cloud that darkens your days and separates you from joy.  The only cure is to find your own song again and start singing it.  Stay tuned.

Peace, Passion, Purpose

Changes

   If you had been raised as a Hindu boy at the same time Gandhi was, you would have been taught that there are natural stages to life that were relative to your age and learning.  The first twenty years were for your education and developing your skills for work in the world.  The second twenty years were to be spent supporting and raising your family.  The third twenty years were for the purpose of prayer and spiritual growth.  These classifications make perfectly logical sense.  Men learned first how to earn a living, then used that ability to continue the human race by raising children, then completed their lives by focusing on spiritual practice and perhaps even benefit the world in some way by the wisdom they discovered and taught.  That certainly was the pattern that Gandhi’s life followed.

   There were two basic assumptions in that culture; in fact in most cultures at the turn of the 20^th century.  One was that there was no point in educating women, because their purpose was to bear children and serve their husbands.  The second was that living to be as old as 60 was a much longer life than many people experienced, so guidelines didn’t exist for the next 20 years, or the next.  Today with advances in medicine and nutrition, experts are now talking about an average life expectancy of 110.

   So let’s extend those guidelines a bit.  The first 30 years are for getting educated, the second 30 for raising a family, the next 30 for spiritual pursuits.  That leaves 20 years at the end to figure out what’s next, or just play around.  However there is a third basic assumption in categorizing life in this way, which is clearly inaccurate; the assumption that life as it is will always continue in pretty much the same way.  That assumption is the seed of hopelessness and the antithesis of faith.  An old, simple affirmation is a guide out of the rut of hopelessness.  It goes like this.  “Life is an upward, progressive movement of Spirit.” We are on a journey and we have a purpose.   Yet we humans often step into the rut of hopelessness and get stuck there, unable to find our faith.  The way we do that is called resisting change. 

This earth was born in a blast of flaming gasses, and if it weren’t for change, consistent, progressive change, you and I would not be living here today.  What if you and I had never learned to tie our shoes or feed ourselves or crawl?  What if we had so resisted change that we still needed someone else to change our diapers?  The changes in the earth and the changes in us have been an upward, progressive movement of Spirit that has led to more and more possibilities, more and more life.  Change is the very activity of being, doing and becoming.

   One truth that comes through loud and clear from the Hindu teaching is that there are life stages and our life will change from youth to adulthood to old age. 

Paths of the Gods

Changing our actions

   You know, every time we come to the beginning of a new century, we humans expect great or terrible things to happen.  All sorts of prophets arise with all sorts of predictions.  The world is going to end, there will be cataclysms, the rapture is coming when some will be lifted to heaven with Jesus and the rest of us will suffer eternal damnation, a new wave of consciousness will transform us all, and on and on and on.  And those expectations come true, although not always as we imagined.  Just looking at the last few hundred years, we find a new wave of spirituality sweeping the world at the beginning of the last century, not the least of which was introduction of the Hindu tradition of meditation to the western world.  The one before it was the industrial revolution and the beginning of modern science.  The one before that was political revolution, carrying a wave of democracy.  The one before that was a wave of exploration and settling the earth.

   Now here we are approaching December 21, 2012 and those expectations are wilder than ever.  And I like what I’m hearing.  Some of it is incredibly exciting, and it is you and I, ordinary people living ordinary lives, that are going to bring it about.  We are going to do it by changing our minds about our beliefs, and once our minds are changed, our actions and our lives will change.

   The following is from futurist John L Peterson.  It is from a presentation made to the Unity Worldwide Ministries board of trustees in 2009.  “I believe we are entering one of those punctuation points in the evolution of our species that will rapidly propel us into an unimaginable new era.  This new world won’t work at all like what we currently find familiar.  Because this shift is so fundamental and acute, the most positive option will not make sense at all from this vantage so early in the transition.  In the face of almost certain uncertainty, our job is to rise to the occasion, to evolve – in our thinking, our perspectives and in our commitment to make this transition as positive as possible.  We will probably become some new kind of human at the end of it all – it is that big and important.”

   This was followed by a list of possible breakdowns and breakthroughs over the next 20 years, and the breakthroughs are so astounding and positive it almost makes the breakdowns seem piddly.  Of course, each of us has a hand in this.  It does depend on us.  The critical question we have to ask ourselves is have we each attained enough ethical and spiritual evolution to handle these startling new changes in a way that is moral and just?  They are going to effect our lives.  Can we deal with it?

Paths of the Gods

Mastery through Changing Our Minds

The great teachers of all time say pretty much the same things.  Life is good, relationships are holy, and all we want in an abundant universe is ours for the claiming.  If each of us could fully accept those three ideas, what would our world be like?

I have an idea what our world would be like.  We would live without fear.  We would live without anger, without competition, without war, without hatred and discrimination, without pollution and crime.  The only reason we experience these things, hatred and fear and war and the rest, is because we believe that there is not enough to go around, we believe some people are dangerous and bad, and we believe mistakes are inevitable and deadly.  Are you ready to give up those beliefs?  Let’s see if I can tempt you.

Without fear and anger and competition, we would all be free to live our lives in an ecstasy of creativity.  Remember for a moment how good it feels to do something really creative.  Wouldn’t you like to feel that way all the time?  Creativity and fear cannot live in one mind at the same time.  The only reason for fear is a belief in lack, in not enough for me.  Not enough money, not enough resources, not enough love.  War is simply ongoing scrabbling for the top of the heap which we are compelled to do because of our belief in “not enough”.

Without war and hatred and discrimination, all of our resources could be spent on making this a better world.  For example, an international study was done that concluded every human being on the earth could be provided with adequate housing, food, medical care and education, and it could be done in six years.  The total cost for this huge project is less than the nations of the world spend on armies and defenses in a single year.  What’s it going to take for us to give up our belief that some people are evil and war is necessary? What is it going to take to realize that if enough of us change our beliefs and begin to live fully creatively, experiencing abundance and safety, we will be able to handle the relatively minor problems such as crime and pollution easily?

Stay tuned.  More next week.

Paths of the Gods

Mastery

   Each of us is on a sacred path; a path to freedom, a path to growing, a path to the heart of love that lives at the very center of our beings.  A path to knowing we are an extension of the energy field that created the universe, and as living extensions of Divine life, we are, in the daily lives we share with each other, walking among the gods.

   Our journey is toward mastery, the state of being in which we no longer see events as happening “to me” or even “through me,” but “as me.”  As Nelson Mandela proclaimed, “I am the master of my fate, the captain of my soul.”  We come to realize that the energy field we generate with our thoughts and feelings creates our human experience.  The great gift we must discover and learn to trust is that every experience, joyful or painful, brings us growth.  Our human understanding grows into the mastery that is our souls, stretching and enhancing our souls as we do so.

    Mastery is a state of pure grace and can't be forced.  As spiritual masters, we model a pattern of life fully in harmony with the greatest good possible.  We live at the "As Me" level when we experience no separation from Creator or Creation.  The dreams we build on the earth are temporary, but the transformation in our soul is eternal.  Building our life as a co-creator within the creative force of the universe is the most important thing we will ever do.  As you move through each step of building your dreams, you grow not only closer to achieving a harvest you can smell, taste, and feel, but into the eternal harvest of awakening.

Now you begin to awaken to the truth of you.  So enter freely and safely into the halls of the Gods.  You are one of them, one of us.  You belong here.  Love is your source.  Love is your nature.  It is the ground of your being, and the lens of your life.  Walk, and be welcome, on the paths of the Gods.

Prayer

What is prayer to me; my personal experience of prayer?  In childhood I thought my family was the universe and I was the center, literally with “Now I lay me down to sleep.  I loved praying as a child, especially the rosary.  Then in my late teens, it seemed to me that all that praying didn’t do much, and that was the beginning of resistance.  Life became busy, and there were more important and effective things than prayer that I could do.  It was the stage of believing the illusion that I could consciously master my fate, and that no one out there was listening anyway.  My universe had gotten much larger than my family, but I still had the unconscious perspective of being the center of that universe.

Robert and Janet Ellsworth defined three major types of prayer.  The first is results oriented prayer, in which you pray for specific requests for yourself or someone else.  The next is defined as consciousness expanding prayer, or affirmative prayer and prayers of praise and thanksgiving.  The third is defined as non-directed prayer, or meditation and the experience of the silence. 

All three of these types of prayer have a place in my life.  When I am troubled, or when another is in need, results oriented prayer brings me great comfort.  God is within me, but God is also much more.  I turn within to find Divine contact and surrender my concerns and the needs of others to that one Presence and Power which sustains all of us in love.

Consciousness expanding, or affirmative prayer, is a tool to break down the barriers in my own mind to the good of God’s will.  It is my path to discovering and activating the power of creation in and through me.  It is a method to transform my own negative thoughts, my fears, my false beliefs, into realization of the love and power active in my life, often in spite of me.

Non-directed prayer, or meditation and the experience of silence, is the source of my joy.  This is where the thoughts of my mind, the feelings of my heart, and the knowing of my spirit come together and meet a “something” that is so great and so beautiful that touching it, even for just a few moments, sustains me and give me a serenity which lasts for days, sometimes weeks.

I invite you to examine your own prayer history, and your prayer life now.  Which forms of prayer seem to work best for you?  What brings you the most joy, the most comfort, the most growth?  Is it different kinds of prayer at different times, or is there one way that always suits you best?  Become familiar with what stimulates you to pray, which forms of prayer you use, and which kinds of events lead you to the various forms of prayer that are a part of your prayer life.  This is where the conscious mind and will can make a positive contribution to mastery of your fate.  Know yourself, become consciously aware of the truth of who you are, and use your will to make the choice for comfort, for growth, and for joy.

Making a Difference 2

On Eagles Wings

Did you know that an eagle knows when a storm is approaching long before it breaks?  The eagle will fly to some high spot and wait for the winds to come.  Then, when the storm hits, it sets its wings so that the wind will pick it up and lift it above the storm.  While the storm rages below, the eagle is soaring above it. The eagle does not escape the storm.  It simply uses the storm to lift it higher. It rises on the winds that bring the storm.

When the storms of life come upon us - and all of us will experience them - we can rise above them by setting our minds and our belief toward the Divine living as us and through us. The storms do not have to overcome us.  We can allow the power planted in us by the Creative Force of the universe to lift us above them. We are invited, encouraged, called, to ride the winds of the storms that bring sickness, tragedy, failure and disappointment in our lives.  We can soar above the storm, and call forth the Good even in the midst of tragedy.

In doing so, we contribute to lifting up all our brothers and sisters of the earth.  Our lives become not only an example for others, but even more importantly, a powerful force of energy helping the human race shift the balance toward evolution of the spirit.  Hold in your heart the thought that every difficulty that plagues you is presenting an opportunity to grow in strength and achieve greater spiritual power.  It is the only true power.  Remember, it is not the burdens of life that weigh us down, it is how we handle them, and we always have a choice.  

This is not a new idea. "Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles."  Isaiah 40:31

Making a Difference

Thoughtful Evolution

In the spiritual communities which have aligned themselves with a philosophy called “New Thought” one of the primary tenets is that we are energy beings; spirit wearing a space suit we call a body.  Mind you, New Thought is only new to the western mind.  It is a compilation of principles taught and proven in countless societies, since before recorded history.

So far in this world physical power has dominated, or so we thought.  Let’s take a look at the evolution of thought and how it relates to human physical evolution.  If we look at humanity’s history, with all its beauty and horror, courage and cruelty, we can see significant shifts along the way.  How many hundreds of generations passed when we didn’t even have language?  Then over time  we shifted from rule of the strongest male, rule of magic and superstition, rule of city states and kingdoms, rule of law, and so on.  Each shift in our community interactions was an evolutionary shift and each one began with an idea.  A new thought.

Here is the key concept.  None of those shifts could have happened unless enough people accepted and believed the new thought.  Whatever the thought, it had to be accepted and energized by Spirits in bodies before it could show up in the physical world as what appeared to be physical power and physical reality.

The evolution of though has carried us from grunting survival to where we are today.  Along the way there has been much beauty and horror, courage and cruelty.  Heroism and greed.  There still is.  Here is the good news.  In spite of our faults, in spite of our seeming detours into destructive errors, we have come a long way.  Kindness is growing.  More people have food and hope.  More people show up to offer food and hope to others than ever before.

To paraphrase Einstein, we need to decide whether the universe we live in is friendly or unfriendly.  Each of us must make that decision and as we do, each of us will be a force to bring into physical reality that which we hold as true in our hearts and minds.  Ultimately, this is a friendly universe and our fearful or greedy thoughts can do no more than create temporary detours in an evolutionary process which is an upward spiral toward more and more good.  Choose your thoughts carefully.  They carry the power of your spirit and join with others of like kind.

Making a Difference

You want me to do WHAT??

   When we give of our time and talent through volunteer work, or our resources through donations, we are making a difference in our communities in a very important way.  How many people would starve on the streets of the United States if there were no food banks? 

How much more would the people of New Orleans and other disaster areas  suffer without the donations and help of private individuals?  Some kids have a backpack, new jeans and school materials only because of Back-To-School collections in churches.  New England and other areas have been graced for many years by our volunteer fire departments.  The list could go on for pages.  We are a generous nation, both at home and abroad.

   There is, however, something else we can do that does not take any time or any money.  That might sound like an oddball statement in a world consumed with busyness and nervous about high costs.  What value could possibly exist without the commitment of time and money?  We all know the buzz words.  “You get what you pay for.’  “No pain, no gain.”  “There’s only so much you can do.”  “I’m only one person, and I have a family and obligations.”  “You want me to do what?”

   Perhaps we could ask ourselves if we are engaged in a dance of survival or in a dance of creativity.  People caught in survival mentality see all the ways they can lose.  People engaged in creative mentality continually search for better options.  Sometimes those better options can be stunningly simple. 

   This “something else we can do” is about a shift in how we see the world and our own place in it.  It is not about finding a way to do more or give more.  This idea simply requires a specific focus of our attention.  Quantum Physics has rocked the scientific worldview by proving that the smallest particles of matter change behavior in the presence of human attention.  That means your attention counts whether you know it or not, and your attention can count for a lot when you choose to use it consciously for positive change.  If you have ever walked into a room full of people and been able to sense either a very positive or negative feeling, what follows will make perfect sense to you.  Let me set the scene.

   The world is not in a very happy state right now.  Volatile might be an apt word to use.  Fear, distrust and hatred, leading to hunger, suffering and death are in every newscast.  But fear, distrust and hatred are only possible when people agree on them.  What if some of us started changing our agreements?  That begins with changing our own thoughts.

   For instance, I go into a store to shop several times a week, usually rushed and distracted.  You know what that looks like.  There are a lot of us rushing around, looking distracted and bumping into each other.  Suppose I, or you, take a deep breath on the way in and choose to focus my/our attention on looking for something positive to comment on while shopping.  Or we could deliberately make eye contact as often as possible and offer a smile.  What might people sense from us when our focus is consciously directed toward being a kind and smiling presence?

   And then, suppose I or you convince a friend or two to try the same thing, and they liked it and started telling more friends, and then……….  How long might it take for this idea to move around the world?

   “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.  Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”   Margaret Mead, 1901-1978

Time Travel

Boundaries of Space and Time

So, here’s something to consider.  What if time as we understand it isn’t real?  What if it’s just a game we made up?   What if the boundaries of time had no power over us?  What might happen if we taught ourselves to think outside of time?  Maybe we could create new realities with looser boundaries.  How would you arrange your thinking if there were no time fences constraining you?  Beyond that, what might you believe is possible if neither time nor space could not contain your mind?

Some years ago two university students, a computer scientist and a budding physicist devised an experiment.  Both of them were familiar with studies focused on psychic abilities and other paranormal activities but realized none of those studies were conclusive.  There were already a number of accepted scientific devices in common use that could measure brain activity and the resonance of energies in the bodies.  Then one day a prominent scientist proposed that the brain itself did not have enough cells to manage even the physical needs of the body, let alone go beyond that into the realms of thought and creativity.  There must be an  intelligence in the very cells of the body itself running most of the “works.”

The two students created a software program which proved this was true.  The cells contained not only a basic intelligence, but also awareness and the ability to communicate; in other words, cells possessed consciousness.  Their excitement carried them to the next step, which was to try to determine how far each individual human consciousness reached into the universe.

They discovered that the concentration of measurable consciousness dispersed as distances increased, but they were unable to find an outer limit; a boundary where it stopped.  I wonder how much farther they would have gone if it had occurred to them they were measuring the wrong thing.  How real is time?  We certainly assign it a great amount of reality.  What is space, really?  The sky looks mostly empty, but we are awash in the midst of it.  What might you believe is possible if neither time nor space could not contain your mind?

Spring Cleaning

Witnessing

When we cleanse an area of consciousness through prayer, fasting and speaking words of power, a void remains which needs to be filled.  The void created as we release old habits and beliefs that no longer serve us also creates a void in the energy patterns we use to connect to our world.  This can leave us feeling lost and isolated.  Some would call it a dark night of the soul.  We all enter that dark night from time to time; it is a natural result of the cleaning we have done.  But there is no need to wallow in it.  The way out can be quick and easy.

Become a witness to all the good news you know.  In every one of the world’s religions we find some reference to witnessing; some reference to sharing the good news, not just keeping it for ourselves.  When we have a spiritual experience, we’re wired up to share it with others, to be an example of what is possible.  This practice is called testifying, or evangelism.  What we’re going to explore today is being a different kind of witness.  Often, witnessing has the purpose of converting others to MY religion.  I tell someone my experience in order to get them to change to my path.  This approach is entirely different.

   When you share the good news or when I share it, in my jeans and sweatshirt at a garden shop, at a movie, on an airplane…if any of us shares the good news in the context of our daily life, you and I are creating new connections.  We’re sharing the good news for a whole different reason.  This kind of witnessing is not about getting anyone else to become or do anything.  It’s not a result oriented witnessing.  This is about sharing our experience, our good news, for its own sake.

Remember the void in energy patterns which comes from clearing our consciousness, leaving us feeling lost and isolated?  This kind of witnessing creates new energy patterns which connect us to a higher level of being, shifting the relationships we have and bringing new people and opportunities into our lives.  The only things we change are what we think and how we speak about it.  The rest of the world will take care of itself.

How many tales of woe and fear cross your awareness every day?  Perhaps you and I can bear tales of possibility and encouragement.  It only takes a small number of people to tip the balance away from negativity and toward peace and joy.  Will you be one of them?

Spring Cleaning

Speak the Word

We live in a generous universe, conspiring for our good, and yet many of us have settled for mediocrity; we settle for just getting by.  Today lets open to a greater abundance and live in the free flow of creation.   The practice for this week is “speaking the word,” sometimes called affirmations.

The first affirmation is I am worthy of all the good I can imagine, and more.  Say that out loud and notice what comes up for you when you say/hear that statement of truth.  Most of us have attached our sense of worthiness to what we do, or what others think of us, or have said about us, or our education or our wealth.  We measure our worthiness by something in the world, outside ourselves.

The truth is our worthiness is attached to only one thing, and that is we are a Divine creation.  We are born worthy.  We can’t earn it and we don’t need to.  No matter how much we can imagine, the universe promises more.  This is a worthiness that’s not based on behavior or history.  It’s a worthiness that’s based on identity as sons and daughters of the force that created all of life.  I am worthy of all the good I can imagine, and more.  That’s the truth.

   The second affirmation this week is I release the past and bless it as a stepping stone to my highest good.   That one might stir something up.  For most of us, there is something that is hard to let go.  What if that one thing is the foundation of all the good awaiting us?  As we hold on to an experience as a failure or injury, the flow of the good that is meant to come through that experience is closed down because we have not yet learned to bless it and call it good.  What is it in your life that most needs to be blessed so it can be released?

   Affirmation 3, I give and receive freely and fully.  Knowing my source is Divine, I give and receive freely and fully.  Well, sort of?  On a scale of 1-10, how am I doing?  Are the channels in my life completely open in both directions or am I limited?  Do I give in relationships and then watch for that person to give back to me?  “I’ve given, now it’s your turn to give.”  Do I financially support the thing I believe in, even practice tithing, then immediately look for that raise at work or a windfall or something else to prove it’s going to come back to me, or do I give  knowing that freely and fully giving opens channels that cannot be blocked?  If I’m stuck in linear thinking, “I’ve given this much here and that much there, so I’m supposed to get this relationship and that lottery winning,” then I’m blocking the flow by limiting the possible channels of good.  But when I know I’m worthy, when I release the past and move into gratitude, I can’t help but express that gratitude by giving, and the universe cannot help but respond with abundance and the good pours in.  The trees in the orchards don’t give just to those who are deserving.  They give to live.

Spring Cleaning

The Pause that Refreshes
This week our spiritual practice is prayer, and discovering what living a prayerful life can mean to each of us individually. In examining prayer, it’s important we consider a basic truth about life. For instance, mind creates what it contemplates. Mind creates what it contemplates? The old Unity phrase is “thoughts held in mind produce after their kind.” Well, almost nearly but not quite hardly. When Emerson was asked, “what is prayer”? he responded, “Prayer is the contemplation of the facts of life from the highest point of view.” That’s an important point but it’s missing something.

Have you ever been handed “the diagnosis?” Some examples might be, “you have cancer,” or, “your grades are not good enough for you to graduate,” or perhaps, “I’m really sorry but I’m not happy. I want a divorce.” Maybe the worst one of all is, “I have some bad news about your kid.” Facing devastating news like this leaves most of us unable to pray in any way other than “Oh, God, please, no!” That is a kind of prayer which focuses on life from the scariest point of view, which is not only less than useful, it can actually be destructive, and I’ll tell you why. “Thoughts held in mind produce after their kind” is only half the formula. The other half of the formula resides in two words, “with feeling.” The sacred marriage of mind and heart, thought and feeling, must take place for prayer to be effective.

Now here is the gift. When we receive “the diagnosis” our loving Creator protects us from manifesting the worst of our fears by sending an angel with numbing juice for our minds. We can’t pray. Our feelings may be running wild and contemplating the worst, but we lose the ability to marry mind and heart, thought and feeling. We can’t even think clearly. How many of us can focus on the highest point of view when faced with a child in trouble or devastation in our relationship? Our answer comes from two directions. The first is to surround ourselves with a trusted circle who can hold a vision of the highest outcome and who will pray with us and for us. Hopefully that circle is a part of our lives before we need it, and never forget the rest of the circle needs us as well.

The second is, in the words of early New Thought leaders, to be “prayed up.” Fill your spiritual tank with your prayer practices when life is calm and you can use your mind for visioning and your heart for filling the vision with love and delight. You wouldn’t attempt a coast to coast trip without putting gas in your car. Please don’t attempt life without gassing up your soul! But we’re all so busy! Where will the time come from? It takes no more time than is required to breathe if you are present in the moment.

As you button your shirt in the morning, use that time to deliberately connect mind and heart, then, reach for Spirit. Waiting for a traffic light or an elevator, holding on the phone, waiting for the microwave to heat your cup of water, standing in line anywhere…..you get the idea. Pause and connect. Pause and connect. Learn to use the time you usually spend on what I call the mindless merry-go-round and create a power pause. You will be amazed at the strength and serenity you will possess when life challenges you. Get prayed up while building your trusted circle of prayer partners, then when life throws you a steep uphill challenge, as it will, you will have the gas to make it.