Our Bodies

As the various systems of my body begin to fail, some words came to me to share with you, dear soul friends.

Our bodies are temporary appendages for our souls. They are sort of like spacesuits for our souls, so that we can navigate here on earth in this dimension. 

They can also be considered to be precious gifts. As such, it is important for us to honor and cherish them. It is important to treat them well and take care of them the best we can. Feed them with the most nutritious foods you can, rest them, take them for walks, avoid harmful substances, enjoy them.

I know the young think themselves invincible, or at least there is time to later in life to take better care. But that later in life time comes quicker than imagined. And there we are with variously damaged bodies, not able to live as fully as we want in our waning years.

I don't know what caused me to have Guillain Barre, or Conn's disease, or low thyroid, or other maladies, or now stage 3 kidney disease, but I do know I have not always taken perfect care of this beloved body. 

This body has taken me on many adventures, tasted many foods, heard glorious sounds, viewed breathtaking beauty, enjoyed pleasures of this earth. And I am grateful to it. I will do the best I can to take care of it for whatever time I have left💗

Can We Figure It All Out?

All of my life I've had this need from deep inside of me to figure things out. How does this happen?  How does this work? What happened? What is the truth about ______? How can I make a positive difference with my life? etc. etc. etc.

I know that it is highly unlikely for anyone to arrive at ultimate and final truth and understanding. For one thing, everything is complex and at some level connected to everything else. For another, we don't have access to all information, all facts, all data about anything. But still, my mind quests after understanding as much as I possibly can.

This requires me to be willing to give up a cherished belief when I discover that it does not hold up under scrutiny, new information, the application of logic or one of life's great aha moments. I have long realized that The More is pure Intelligence, and has no notion that I should not use my portion of it. By virtue of being a part of the grand scheme of the universe, a part of The More, I am actually obliged to hold any little partial truth lightly, always willing to let it go when a bit of more understanding strikes.

It is always startling to me when I come across a person operating under the dictum - My mind's made up, don't confuse me with facts. Or a person who deliberately skews the facts to shore up their particular point of view. There seems to be some, perhaps delusional, part of me that seems to think that everyone wants to know the truth and grow and expand. 

How do we navigate this path with a wide spectrum of truth seekers, sometimes truth seekers,  plus those with closed hearts, minds, ears - those who are spiritually and intellectually lame? It is not useful to have heated arguments. That just takes people to the limbic brain of emotions and no logic and opens no minds to the joys of an actual quest for truth.

Example is one way. I've been told numerous times that I am believed because people watch how I walk my life, and I am congruent, and so what I say carries some weight.

Gently redirecting the conversation sometimes works. Yes, and there is another way to look at that too, for example....

Sometimes a tiny tidbit of education is helpful. A day or so later, email a bit of information, such as I found this, and the majority of scholars say....  It's something to consider.

I often think of Jesus saying The well have no need of a physician. The intellectually closed and lame need gentle surgery to open them to possibilities beyond their closed systems. Their closed hearts cannot just be ripped open.

Of course, there are also those grand epiphany moments in life, when all of a sudden a person KNOWS. They seemingly happen on their own, perhaps facilitated by a lifetime of little hints that suddenly come together.

To answer my question in the title - NO. We cannot figure out all of that which is infinite by nature, if we could, then it would be finite. We have to come to be comfortable in the quest and enjoy the ride. And, we have to allow others to be wherever they are on their journey of awakening without making everyone with a different awareness bad and wrong. We're just all here on earth to grow and expand and above all to learn unconditional love.

I send you my love, dear friends across this little blue planet. How blessed I am to be here with you.

 

 

Portable Hell

In recent days, I have been distraught, close to overwhelmed by seemingly intractable circumstances that go on and on. This week I notice my patience shredding and who I am and how I deal with it all simply not me. Also, I have been having flashbacks of some of the horrors in my past. I share this to set the scene.

At 4 something this morning I awoke sneezing and then shifted into crying. I began to pray. I had a vision that is the point of this post.

Hell - a pit, darkness, fire, ice, torture, nightmares, separation from God, in old English being walled off.

Not a place we go after leaving earth, a place we carry with us. The pit is in us. The memories torture us. We know the ice of fear, the hot flames of despair, the terrible stabs of betrayal, the ache of failures, the terror of separation from all that is good and holy. Hell is portable. We torture ourselves with our memories.

Eastern Christianity teaches Jesus harrowed hell and took all of the souls with him at his resurrection. I saw this in my vision, as also an individual event. I saw the Christ bring Light and clear out our own portable hells, when we invite him in sincerely and willingly. I experienced my hell being wiped clean. This morning is a very new day.

"Come to me all who are weary and heavy burdened, and I will give you rest."

Marcus Borg Brings Jesus and Buddha together

If Jesus and Buddha were to meet, they would recognize one another as fellow prophets because they were teaching the same truths.

This fascinating book by one of the primo Christian experts, Marcus Borg, compares the lives and teachings of two of the most enlightened beings in our known history.

I used to do a workshop comparing what great spiritual lights said on specific subjects from Lao Tse, Buddha, Jesus to various mystics. My premise, now and then, is that they/we tap into the same Cosmic Energy. Some are more fully connected than others of course. And, furthermore, they all agree with one another in amazing ways, so that if I gave you a quote, it could have been said by any of these great lights and be consistent with their teachings.

It is enriching for our souls to know what is the spiritual consensus across the eons of time and the expanses of cultures. It is freeing to go beyond tribal limitations and embrace the workings of the Divine in hearts and minds everywhere and at all times.

Just a couple of examples: 

Jesus “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

 Buddha “Consider others as yourself.”

Jesus “Give to anyone who requests it.” 

Buddha “Give when you are asked.”

Seek Truth or ...

Lately I have seen numerous examples of seemingly intelligent people seeking to cling to biases, preconceived beliefs, and to ignore or shout down what would more likely be the truth. In a state of cognitive dissonance, they become agitated.

As a person who has sought, searched for, closer and closer approximations to truth, it is astounding to watch. It is fascinating, and yet disturbing. It is almost as if the particular bias is a religious tenet of some high and noble, but yet unknown religion. The mythical altar is strewn with protections of the sacred tenets.

I ask you, please, if you have some belief or other that you protect from all questions and alternative ideas, go for it - dare to consider it from other perspectives. If it is true, it will hold up to any investigation. If it is not true or partially true, it is best to know. Dare to question. Step out of any box that restrains. Be all you can be. Be free.

This Struck Me This Morning - Reaching Me From the 200's CE

We worship, therefore, the Father of truth, and the Son, who is the truth; and these, while they are two, considered as persons or subsistences, are one in unity of thought, in harmony and in identity of will. ---Origin

Oh my goodness, I love this point! It makes so much sense when considered with many things Jesus is reported to have said, such as: The kingdom is within you, Greater things than this shall you do, (calling us) brothers and sisters, Our Father, It's not I it's the Father within doing the work, etc.

Jesus as one in unity of thought with God and in harmony and in identity of will with God, that's what he asked us to do, to become. That's what it means to be a follower of The Way.

As Paul suggested, we need  to put away childish things, to stop looking through a dark glass and see face to face, and we need to be transformed by renewing our minds.

We need to do the spiritual work to move in the direction of unity with The Divine One. Listen with your heart...

Dark Nights of the Soul

One of my favorite writers of the 20th century is Rufus Jones. As a person who has walked, or sometimes crawled, through the valley. I appreciate this quote.

If you have not clung to a broken piece of your old ship in the dark night of the soul, your faith may not have the sustaining power to carry you through to the end of the journey.

Rufus Jones

I know for certain that every valley, every dark night of the soul, has been my teacher. Every wounding makes me stronger in its healing. There have been times I have barely been able to cling to the broken pieces of my faith. But I did manage, sometimes as a seeming miracle that I held on at all.

I also know that without those times, I  would not have been able to go through recent dark nights - I was given the sustaining power to keep on going by the faith developed in me by previous dark nights. I know I'll be able to be sustained for the remaining course of this life journey.

Perhaps there is a new way to look at your valleys too. May God bless you and lift you.