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Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Dismay

I am watching in dismay the expressions of out of control emotions. Seemingly crazed and ignorant youth attack statues of our cultural heroes like Abraham Lincoln. In a frenzy they shout slogans and carry pre-printed signs. They don't know how erasing history has worked out in other countries (really, really badly). They don't know we learn from history, even the bad stuff. But we have to study history to learn from it, that is, not with a spin on it, but with real intent to understand.

My mind began to contemplate extremism. I saw a circle. Extremists, right and left, meet and are basically the same. Intolerant. Wanting everyone to agree with them, or else. Violent and destructive. Ruled by emotions and prejudices. Easily manipulated by others who want them under their control. One dimensional in thinking. Willing to destroy all in their way. Sure they, and no others, are absolutely right.

Aristotle popped into my mind. His influence in Western culture has been huge. One of his thoughts that has stuck with me since Ethics class in the University is 'The Golden Mean." The happy and healthy way to live is the middle, neither too far to the right nor too far to the left. Balance. Freedom. Oneness.

And, we are all children of God. Time to grow up, give up sibling rivalry and love one another.


Monday, June 22, 2020

I'm Right - No, I'm Right

The who is right struggle goes on constantly. Mostly, the arguments are one dimensional. The argument often assumes there is only one or maybe two causes or variables that produce the outcome being "discussed."

I hear political "pundits" and "experts" on about any topic arguing one-dimensionally. We'll get to religion in a minute. Let's start with climate change. The one-dimensional argument is carbon emissions are THE cause. Let's add texture to this topic. Sun flares and storms and quiet periods have the largest effect on earth's weather. But, of course, we have no known  control over the sun. Trees and plantlife in general take in CO2 and give back oxygen. We do have control over the protection and planting of trees and other plantlife. Climate has continually changed, sometimes drastically, even before there were humans. Volcanoes and meteorites can create huge climate changes. For various reasons, the ozone hole is closing. We could go on, but hopefully we see the need to go beyond one-dimensional thinking here and on all topics.

My particular interest is in spirituality. One-dimensional thinking is rampant in many areas of religion, especially in what is called the organized religions. My personal preference is to look for spiritual principles found in a wide range of places. However, for many people, it is heresy to go beyond the bounds of their group's (tribe's) dogma. So I hear things like, God said it and I believe it; If you don't believe Jesus is God you will go to hell; You are condemned from birth because of original sin, etc. Strange dogma upon even stranger dogma.

I have been on a quest for Truth for most of my life. I have studied history in order to know how these dogmas were formed, asking questions such as: when were these ideas added to the official line, who originated them, what was their purpose, how do they relate to the beginning inspiration and person, who profits from them, how freeing or how manipulating are they, how do they fit with actual personal experience, how universal are they, etc etc etc????

It would be accurate to say, that upon close study and observation, almost all dogmas can be discarded, and should be discarded. They create a mental prison. Instead, in order to free ourselves spiritually, we need to reset our spiritual quest and vision.

Spiritual goals can be explored. For example: I want to draw closer into personal relationship with God; I seek Truth; I want to know God as the Great mystics knew God (of all times and cultures); I want to be as spiritually awake as one can be here in earth, etc.

I truly urge you to go for it. Find the kingdom of God in your very soul.

Saturday, June 20, 2020

A Virtual Life

I'm a delegate from our church to the annual CalPac conference of the United Methodist Church. We meet at the University of Redlands, but not this year. We meet at this new place called "Zoom." It seems so odd. We're on a break right now, but we will be soon Zooming again.

Our Sunday service is now on Facebook. Our committees and small groups of spiritual studies are now on Zoom. Some meetings are not happening at all, as you really have to be there, like making prayer quilts together. Sure, I keep making them and taking them to our cupboard at church, but it's really not the same.

Our world is becoming a virtual experience. A new concept has emerged, "the new normal." No one knows how this will be expressed, except we know things are and will be different.

I miss my previous freedom to go where I wanted, to see people and hug them and share thoughts and ideas, to walk in the park or stroll through the mall, to have civil discussions even with those with a different point of view.

It seems we have willingly given up our freedom. Fear has struck our world - fear of each other, fear of a virus, fear of disobeying those giving us orders, fear of angry mobs. Apparently, freedom is quite fragile and easy to stop in a way we did not previously know.

Before it is too late, let's claim our freedom. Let's be considerate of others and their freedom, but let's not live in the land of fear.

Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Healing the Collective Unconscious

There are some interesting theories I've read about consciousness I want to share. Carl Jung hypothesized that every thought and word and energy of all time exists in a sort of energy field he named the collective unconscious. It's chaotic, being the storehouse of boogeyman and great thoughts, of fears and hopes, of all range of thoughts.

We can and do tap into it.

There are people who suggest that as we rise in consciousness, we help to calm the chaos in this energy field. To me, this is a hopeful possibility.

Just as evolution may refine our genes, there is a conscious consciousness evolution, and it affects us all, therefore the arc of history. It is conscious because we must choose to move beyond our egos, beyond our conditioning, into the adventure of the spiritual quest.

Each drop of awakening is like a drop of clear water in a glass of muddy water. Each moment of peace, each act of kindness, each choice of selflessness, each hour of meditation, each prayer, each act of forgiveness, all we are and all we do are drops after drops of clear water into the murky pond of hundreds of thousand years of human energies.

Sometimes I see sparkles of clear water in our world. Often I see the hysteria of ego and the dark shadows of conditioning move across the faces of the slumbering mass of humanity - and we are tribal again, just as our ancestors were. But then another clear drop comes, and I have hope again.

Probably not in my lifetime, but maybe in some future time there will be a drop that tips the balance in the energy field and awakening will open like a contagion. All across the planet people will rub their eyes, stretch and see Oneness. Clarity will reign and there will be no more human contributions to the dark side. It is possible, however unlikely. An old lady can dream.

Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Conclusions/Hypotheses

The turmoil in the world whirling around many vortices has led me to share some of my conclusions/hypotheses about humanity. In no particular order:

  • Earth is a school for souls. The main curriculum revolves around love, agape, unconditional love; and around spiritual awakening.
  • We all have a Divine origin.
  • We all have purpose.
  • We most likely have been to earth before and will return again, as we strive to embody the curriculum.
  • All experiences are teachers.
  • We likely set up a general outline of this life before coming here that is suited to our personal growth.
  • We are also tasked with remembering our oneness with the Divine and therefore with each other.
  • Our lower energies of anger, lust, greed and power need to be tamed.
  • We are responsible for our thoughts, words and deeds. 
  • How we respond to events tells us about how far or how close we are to living our purpose.
  • Everyone is a member of the spiritual family and is to be loved, encouraged and treated with kindness.
  • Great awakened beings have come here to be bridges out of the illusion of appearances into Reality.
I hope you think on these things. Namaste

Sunday, June 7, 2020

Lao Tzu

I have long been an admirer of Lao Tzu. This morning I came across an old favorite quote.
Watch your thoughts for they become words. Watch your words for they become actions. Watch your actions for they become habits. Watch your habits for they become character. Watch your character for it becomes your destiny.
Of the many people with whom I've had the honor to counsel and lead through various mental and spiritual exercises, I'd say most had little understanding of the immense power of thought and where it leads.

Thoughts are nowadays often referred to as self -talk. Most people say things to themselves they would not say to a friend. Many self-denegrating words are spoken silently in the privacy of our minds. Many judgmental silent comments are hurled as bolts of unspoken daggers toward others. There are many discouraging words rolling around in minds of men and women.

But the energies are felt by others. They are not so silent afterall. Our frequencies are picked up. And then, the negativities often move to action.

Let's look at just one example. internal anger toward self and others festers. Tempers flare, often way out of proportion to the situation. Habits form. We think we can get our way by being angry. We become a person others tip toe around, and we become known as an angry person. We all know people like this I imagine. I know and have known some angry people.

To start in another, positive, loving, spiritual direction, go back to the beginning of the chain to thought. "Change your thinking, change your life" is a proven principle.

I encourage you to print out Lao Tzu 's quote and ponder it daily. It can change your life.

Saturday, June 6, 2020

Urgent - Di-conditioning Needed

There are so many major challenges hitting all of us right now: Covid19, demonstrations both peaceful and violent, plagues, weather, our planet, artificial divisions and more.

In order to deal with these challenges, I think we need to move beyond our conditioned mind and it's reflex responses. I think we need desperately to wake up beyond the reach of propagandists. People are shouting ridiculous things that only the conditioned mind can rally to. A free, thinking person is not easy to control or incite.

A mind is conditioned from many sources - All the voices and lessons of our childhood; our culture; our religions or lack of them; media (which tv channel we select conditions us one way or another according to its bias), until we can not think beyond the conditioning.

You know I'm going to tell you meditation is essential to awakening. Still those inner voices. Find your core. Touch the Divine.

What will you find? Peace. Freedom. Your purpose. An expanded understanding of what is going on. A context of More.

What if this planet is soul school? What if you and I are part of Divine Life on a journey here for a relatively brief time? What if you came here with a purpose that can only be found and lived from a state beyond conditioning? What if that yearning you have always felt was actually a call to come home to spirituality? What if all of our souls are made in the image and likeness of God? What if we are spiritual siblings?

What if we knew and lived this? Imagine what a world 🌎 it would be.

Friday, June 5, 2020

Perspective

The other day I read an example of perspective that I've been mulling over.
Imagine you can take a picture of the sun from your yard, and from the space station and also from deep space. Each of the pictures would be of the same sun, but each would give you a different perspective and so different ways of understanding the sun and it's relationships. There is our sun, the center of our orbit; our sun the center of our solar system; our sun one of billions of stars, etc.
We might view our lives similarly. Within this life we are the center of our life story. We tend to view others as participants in our own story. As we expand a bit, we notice the interdependence of us all. Eventually, we come to realize we are on an infinite soul journey that has meaning far beyond the borders of this particular life. Our ego/skin borders are temporary. There is something divine in it all. A higher consciousness beckons.

Our readiness to step fully in the spiritual quest has arrived.

Tuesday, June 2, 2020

A Mentor of Mine

One of my many teachers and mentors came to mind this week. I even named my beloved Dalmatian after him. My dog came to me within days of learning of the passing of Dr. Joseph Murphy, and for some reason I just had to name him Murphy.

He wrote a ton of books (Dr. Murphy, not my dog😄), probably the most well-known was The Power of the Subconscious Mind. He helped a huge number of people, including me when I was a brand new ordained minister in 1978. I was going to Honolulu to found a new church without the faintest clue how to do so, but I had a strong calling that I could not ignore. He spent a day with me in his home, sharing his vast knowledge. He made a huge difference in my life.

The above named book was one of those life-changing books in my life. I had been untangling painful and strange experiences of my life, and found most of my problems laid deep in my subconscious at almost every level, right where I had buried them. At the time of their happening, I was not able to resolve them, so as a survival tactic, I buried them, as do most people it turns out.

The memories buried in my subconscious, were not so difficult to resolve, once I knew what to do. It took some years to resolve some, but with each step, I became freer, clearer, and more and more joyful. I discovered that each moment of my life is, and has been, my teacher. Everything works together on my path to awaken.

All of this to say, I encourage you to heal your subconscious and reap the amazing benefits. Learn how the subconscious works, how it affects everything you do and think and say and feel.

Begin to detoxify it by feeding it affirmations - short, positive, present tense "I" statements, such as: I am all right, right now; I forgive myself; Each day I grow more and more positive. (There is more detailed information in my book on forgiveness regarding affirmations). Forgiveness is absolutely essential! Learn self-hypnosis and give yourself healing suggestions. Read and gather information. As you take responsibility for the contents of your deeper mind, be prepared for truly miraculous things begin to happen.

God bless you. My prayers are with you wherever you are. We are one in Spirit.