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.

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.