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Thursday, December 31, 2015

End of the Year Thoughts

The somewhat arbitrary last day of the year, any day could have been chosen, nevertheless has meaning to us. It marks something is complete, wrap it up, go on to the new.

In some ways it is related to forgiveness where we release our attachment and feelings to some real or imagined hurt. We set ourselves free. The person/memory no longer affects us negatively. We may even move to the idea that they have been our teacher, and we have learned an important lesson.

2015 comes to an end tonight. Here in Temecula, the grapes drop. In New York it is a crystal ball. There will be fireworks, cheers, kisses and various celebrations. 

Whatever 2015 was to us, it is almost over. Let us glean the lessons that make us better, wiser, stronger, deeper, more loving, more compassionate and rejoice we were here on earth to walk through it all. Let us release all that was, whether or not it lived up to our expectations and desires - forgive it, release it, be free of it, don't let it harm us. Don't drag it into the New Year.

Confucius suggested that wherever we find ourselves, be the gracious host [hostess]. When I think about that in today's context, I think about  how that plays out in line at the store, on the freeway, in organizations, in the family, wherever we find ourselves. 

2016 has not been lived yet. It is 365 blank pages. Let's write something new, refreshing, spiritual, loving, uplifting on its pages. Let's be gracious hosts/hostesses. Let's chose this year to be the best we can be, make the most positive difference we can, grow spiritually as much as possible, and be a light wherever we are.

This is our year. Let's live it to the fullest.

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Things and Stuff

Yesterday a dear friend and I had a discussion about the things of our lives. We both noted that things we have collected in our lives and things we've kept from our heritage (Great Grandma's silver for example), are not wanted by our children and grandchildren.

At first this phenomenon was odd to me, especially when I realized many of my generation are experiencing the dilemma of - why don't they want it? But I saved it because it is our family's and want you to have it!

I had an aha about that a few weeks ago. I was going to speak to the Methodist Women's group about my ministry in Russia. My things are in storage, so I borrowed some Russian items from a friend who had gone with me on one of my many trips (to teach spiritual seminars). When we packed up our house, I gave her several more Russian things, including a little carved box that meant a lot to me (I kept one of the boxes, and it is in storage). I had gotten it in Siberia in a sort of drug re-hab center. The wonderful Natasha found herself with a son in jail because of heroin. She didn't know what to do and there was no literature about it. As I understood it, the official stance was that there is no drug addiction here, so there was no literature about how to deal with it. She got the idea to get parents together to talk and support one another and their family member in trouble. She also got the idea to teach the prisoners how to do things such as carve boxes and then have them for sale in her center so that they would have some money to restart their lives when they got out of prison and she would organize support groups to help them stay off of drugs. She got the city to let her use three rooms to start her center. I admire her soooooo much! On intuition and desperation she created something so helpful. Whenever I went to that city, I went to her center and talked with the recovering addicts and parents. It was such a moving experience for me. I wish I could go there again and hug Natasha and help her work in some way.

So I say all this, because this little wooden box was a symbol for me of profound memories. My friend, who now owns the box, forgot the story I had told her about it, and the box meant little to her other than it was a trinket from Russia, I felt so sad about that. But it led me to a new understanding.

Our things in and of themselves have little value. The memories attached to each item are the value.I thought of some of my "treasures" which are only so because of the memories hovering with them.

There is the olive wood Jerusalem cross I received in the olive wood factory in Bethlehem from the owner who discovered I knew about the Aramaic prayer of Jesus. It doesn't look like much I guess, just a little piece of carved wood, but it means a great deal to me. There is my Toni doll I got a very long time ago. I gave her many "permanents" (remember Toni home permanents) and enjoyed playing with her for a number of years. There is the hand-hammered gold bracelet with a heart dangling. Inside the heart are photos of my paternal grandparents. On the heart there are engraved the initials of both of them in fancy letters. The dent on the heart was caused by my father's first tooth. My paternal grandmother died when my Dad was 7, so I feel a bit of her with this and remember what Aunt Jeannette and Daddy told me about their parents. I have also a couple of their wedding gifts from 1905 and their dining set (which I sat around with family long ago in Pennsylvania and with my family here after it came to me). I feel connected to my family with these, and they are really deeply moving for me to "have". I thought would pass these on to the future. Also, I had the cradle that for a couple of hundred years everyone on my Dad's side of the family slept, including me, my children and grandchildren. My son had it last, and since he has gone away from us, I don't know where it is. Interestingly, my daughter dearly wants it for her grandchildren one day. But I know she wants it because she has memories that mean something to her. I doubt she recalls being in it, but she remembers her three being in it. We hope he still has it, and it will resurface.

Look at the things that seem important, and I imagine you will notice that it is the memories that hover around them that really matter. If we don't want our treasures to end up in a thrift shop, we need to somehow pass on the memories that make them shine to us and hope our descendants will pass on the stories - and maybe even the things themselves.

Sunday, December 27, 2015

Do You Remember T.A.?

Back in the day when my children were small, Transactional Analysis, T.A., was a big thing. Maybe it still is, but I've not heard of it lately. Actually I hope it is because it simply describes how we relate to one another in a way almost anyone can grasp. In fact, my daughter's 3rd grade teacher had the whole classroom set up on that theme. Part of it was two basic ways to interact - warm fuzzies or cold pricklies. Just reading the words, a person can get the gist of it. A person who gives warm fuzzies is different than a cold prickly kind of person. Of course, we are all somewhere on a continuum between the two, however, some seem stuck on one side or the other.

This morning I awoke with someone vividly on my mind. It is someone I love, yet who is stuck on the cold prickly side of life. He wants so desperately to be loved, and at the same time, he pushes people away with his cold prickly way of relating, combined with a rather large pinch of paranoia. I spent quite awhile praying for him. I saw he has an essential, profound need to be enfolded in love. But, he finds something wrong with everyone and pushes away with caustic rages and attacks.

Then I began to see that so many push their good away with similar tactics. Then I saw those who live far (in their minds) from God, have cold prickly reactions toward God. But, I'm pretty sure their cold prickly God relationship is based on some of the history of religion, which has often been led by those with no spiritual understanding at all and so distort the meanings. So many have become religious leaders for all the wrong reasons - feeds the ego, is a good living, etc. and not - I am called, I have felt the hand of God, I have seen the Light, It seems to me that the ego-led religious leader becomes a religious tyrant who has tons of rules to control others. This is opposite of the founders of their religious traditions who taught setting people free to love and live and be all they can be, knowing they are living in the Presence of God,

In my journey I have met many agnostics and atheists. They tell me they don't believe in God. They talk about the strange god that people have made in the image of the worst of humankind, This god is jealous, angry, violent at times, keeps score and eventually will put some subset of people into fire for the rest of eternity. You'd better not upset this god, or you'll be one of those people in the fire. And on an on, I'm sure everyone is acquainted with this incredibly sick idea of God.

I tell them that I don't believe in that god either, I believe in an Infinite Presence who is pure, unconditional Love, This God lives and has Being in all of us. This God has given us freewill. This God participates in our lives with Guidance and Insight, Forgiveness and Love, pure Light and is also the Creator, Creating and re-Creating every moment. This God is limitless, thoroughly good, always with us as Divine Energy, the Holy Presence. This God does not judge, but rather encourages us to grow and expand and make ever more holy choices. Since God gave us freewill, there has to be a contrast, so there is darkness/evil. Without the contrast, there is no actual freewill, for there would be nothing else to choose. So, we are free to choose the light or the darkside, and there are consequences, which are our feedback, our teachers. In some ways, its a giant bio-feedback mechanism set up for us to learn what happens when we choose well and what happens when we choose poorly.

So I ponder this morning, how can we heal the cold prickly situation that binds people in a lonely place seemingly far from God. I think I've mentioned before, that the word "hell" is an old English term meaning walled off. There are people walking this planet who walk in hell because they are walled off by crazy notions about God. Jesus told us the Kingdom is within. There are people walking this planet who walk in heaven.

Guide us out of any remnant of a cold prickly kind of life. Open our hearts to live a warm fuzzy kind of life. Open us to live aware of the Holy Presence every moment, THE Presence. We release old, superstitious, strange notions about God. We open to know the actual God, the God of Love and walk this earth in a heavenly way.

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Where Is God?

St. Bonaventure said many amazing things, including this: God is an intelligible space whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere... God is within all things, but not enclosed, outside all things but not excluded, above all things but not aloof, below all things but not debased... God is supremely one and all-inclusive.

Acts 17:27-28 states: So that they should seek and search after God, and find him by means of his creations, because he is not far from any one of us; For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as some of your wise men have said, for we are his kindred.

I could give hundreds and hundreds of references saying similar things. God is here, now, with us, in us. We may turn and act as if we are alone, but we are not. We may have forgotten, but God is still present. God is The Present our soul longs for.

So much of "modern" life keeps us busy with nothingness, so that few of us seem to have time to sit quietly listening, watching, being. The path of the mystics, the deep path requires some investment in what does matter and turning from what does not matter.

I love the statement in Acts "find him by means of his creation." That is in alignment with Celtic Christianity that says there are two places to read God - in the scriptures and in nature/creation. I have often been comforted, guided and awakened while contemplating in nature. One such time was a couple of months after my husband had died suddenly of an aneurysm in the main artery of his brain (many years ago). I was in the mountains on a retreat, but I just couldn't participate, so I went outside to be away from people. I sat on a rock and just was there with an evergreen tree. I was pondering why he had died, what happened, etc. Suddenly I heard a message - Your life is like this tree. Some people just stop by and caress your branches (as the butterfly I watched). Some run around quickly and leave (as the squirrel I had just met). Some build a nest and stay awhile (as the birds I was watching). None stay with you the whole way except for yourself and Me.

Where is God? Here. With us. In us. We live in the Presence of God. Whatever we do or say or think is done in the Presence. The catch is we have to listen, watch, be still, be in the moment, believe. I also know that part of the deeper path requires kindness and compassionate participation in making the world a better place for everyone. I am sure that James is right that faith without works is nothing, In fact, I wrote an entire chapter about his book and point of view in my latest book and found a formula for living in it. He tells us how to live the Christ Light, be it, show up as a point where God can be known.

Here on Christmas Eve, the Present awaits. Open the Present from your Kin, the Divine Presence.

Lead me to the quiet place wherein I may find You. Clear my eyes so that I see the meaningless and release it from my life. Show me the meaningful things that You would have me do. 

Guide me to receive The Present which is You and so live a Christ-filled life.

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

What On Earth Is Going On - Spiritually Speaking?

I was thinking of my book of the above title, which my dear, dear friend, Sveta, is translating into Russian for me. My dear physicist friend, Wm. Gough, wrote the forward (I hope you read it - one thing he said was science is catching up with my ideas! Wow!), and my spiritual discussion group went through it with me and challenged me to make the ideas ever clearer. And then it went up on Amazon for all with Kindle apps to be able to read. I hope and pray that it will touch and lift many people.

Someone remarked to me that my books there are not very much money, and I replied that I just want to share the ideas and make them accessible to as many people as possible. I suppose my book on forgiveness most especially is in that category as everyone has hurts that need to heal, and I have heard so many testimonials as to what a difference that book has made in so many lives in various countries. It made the ugly twists and turns of my early life worth it to be able to write authentically about forgiveness and be able to be of help to others.

So many things I want to share and discuss and lift to a higher level. Ideas swim into me from somewhere, I think often from a spiritual dimension. In fact, often when I re-read something I've written, I am surprised by it as if I had not written it but it is as if someone far wiser than I did. It is an odd feeling.

Anyway, I just want to share a bit of my intro in the book of the title of this day's blog:

I didn’t want to write this.

It kept nagging at me. I ponder life on earth, as have countless billions I suppose. As far as we know, human life has been on this planet since the cave people days, hundreds of thousand years ago. We have records of some of those who have gone before and their thoughts on ---what on earth is going on?

It is remarkable, I think, the consistency of the woes, challenges, answers and journey of us humans. Why is this I began to wonder???


The most obvious answer would be that this is a school or a correctional planet or insane asylum or an incubator for souls, some even say this IS hell, some say this is the lowest plane of the Divine Ray emanating from Pure Consciousness. At best, we all seem not quite put together yet. And, we seem to be experiencing the same kinds of positives and negatives that people have always experienced here. So, as some have said, this is third grade for souls. We cannot change it because the next batch of souls needs third grade. When you really think about it, that is hard to disagree with. It doesn’t ever seem to change. There must be a reason, a purpose buried in it somewhere.

With the craziness ever flooding us from the daily news, this opening thought came to mind today. And, I ask myself, and you, once again - What on earth?????? Anyway, I do dig into that in this book and offer some original thoughts on it all. What do you think is going on here on this little blue planet????

Sunday, December 20, 2015

This Moment

This morning I saw this moment at the top of a pinnacle. This moment is the culmination of all that has gone before. And, in this moment we have the thoughts, decisions and actions that determine the next moment atop its pinnacle, and on an on. The points of the pinnacles are this moment, here and now. The rest of the pinnacles are filled with what has gone before.

I also saw multiple pinnacles - the world's, the various nation's, the various religion's, the various family's, the individual's, etc. 

We can learn from what has gone before, but we cannot change it really. We can of course change our perspective via forgiveness, compassion and love and thereby change the effect upon this moment. What has gone before can seem to be changed by historians who write what they think happened, --- which is never what happened because their version is the version of the winners or sometimes the bitter losers, plus it is filtered through the eyes and understanding of those recording what may or may not have happened.

But this moment, yes this moment, has not been written yet. This is the moment of possibility. My question to myself is -- am I able to come to this moment freshly, without bias, and fully listening to the Holy Presence?

Whatever I do in this moment can make a tiny or maybe even a major difference. It changes things because out of all the possible futures laid out before me, this choice, this moment sorts out some of those and makes others more likely.

Life is lived only in the present moment. We can live imaginary lives in the past or in various possible futures. But this moment is here, now and it is our place of empowerment. Here and now we can do something new, something loving, something holy.

Can I stay awake enough to live this sacred here and now in alignment with the Holy Presence? Can I grasp the courage and truthfulness to be in this moment, and the next, and the next... so that the impact I have on the direction of my life and the life of others is what God calls forth? Or do I sink into ego and separation, otherwise known as hell?

I suppose this is a spiritual practice that takes a lifetime. Be here now. Be fully here now. Be fully present to the Holy Presence and be One. Let go of what the world distorts, and open to the lens of the One. See with holy eyes. Speak with holy words. Act as a holy one. That is what is the truth of us. Love, forgive, be the Light, let go and let God be God in us.

This is what I saw this morning. Sitting on top of the pinnacle of all that has gone before, being empowered in this moment to alter the direction of the next moment, is a sacred challenge. I shall do my best. Lord help me. Lord help us all.

Friday, December 18, 2015

John Wesley

Yesterday I had the joy to be at the local Methodist Women's Christmas meeting and luncheon. One of the parts of the program was to install the 2016 board. The ceremony concluded with all of us reciting a quote from John Wesley (the founder) that I LOVE! Here it is:

Do all the good you can; by all the means you can; in all the places you can; 
at all the times you can; to all the people you can; as long as ever you can.

My mind was afire with what a world this could be if we all lived this quote. If we put muscle and bone and heart and soul into being such a person, the world would be immediately lifted into a new age.

That would be a Christmas/Hanukkah present that shines above all other gifts we've ever given. Perhaps it could also be the top ever New Year's resolution for all of us.

Imagine!

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

How Would A Mystic Look At Recent Events In My Life and the World?

First, I am going to type a little Meister Eckhart quote: There, where clinging to things ends, is where God begins to be. If a cask is to contain wine, you must first pour out the water. The cask must be bare and empty. Therefore, if you wish to receive divine joy and God, first pour out your clinging to things. Everything that is to receive must and ought to be empty.

In my situation, there has been a great stripping away at almost every level of my life, home, finances, trust in government, family, friends, and health. I have identified with Job in a profound way. But, if I look at it all from the point of view of the above Eckhart quote, it is a spiritual exercise, or maybe gift, to empty me and be made ready to receive another level of spiritual growth. This touches a spot in me, because I have daily spoken with God and continued my spiritual practices, yet the outer of my life has been in a very strange place.

I think I can say that I cling to very little now. I feel different. I await the next surprise God has prepared, trusting it will be restorative and that the emptying is complete, at least for now and a long time to come,

As for our world where crazies seem to be calling the shots, I see an emptying too, but it is only in the baby step place. I see people cling to their mobile phones, computers, cars, ideologies and all manner of material/outer things. This is without the balance of genuine spiritual practices, without study of the words of wisdom of the great spiritual lights of the centuries, with times of silence and meditation and quiet contemplation.

I see so many people completely absorbed with their cell phones - restaurants, sidewalks, cars, or wherever - their life force is bonded with the phone more than with other people or with God.

I see in the emptying in general, there arise ridiculous extremes of religions that lead people to the opposite of Love and Light, away from the Divine, God. Perhaps the caricatures of religion are so ridiculous that people will suddenly be snapped awake and see the joke and turn to spirituality.

It seems to me that we would do well to pay attention to our own emptying out to make room for the God experience and life of Joy. We would do well to note where we send our life force and make adjustments if we are "owned" by the material. The restless soul within is only satisfied by dwelling, nestling into, enfolded in the Divine Presence.

Lord, help me view my path with clear eyes and heart. Lead me to empty out that which fills me with nonsensical activity and ideologies. Fill me with You. Open my eyes and mind and heart to You. Lead me to the spiritual home within where we are One.

Saturday, December 12, 2015

Completing the Circuit

Meister Eckhart (as you know the mystic I feel so aligned with - probably the most: The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God's eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love."  And St. Symeon (949-1022): I have seen the Totality, received not in essence, but by participation. When you light a flame from a flame, it is the same flame that you receive.

I could put tons of quotes from the great mystics here, but I just want to put a sample along the same line of knowing to point out the goal.

And, I would like to ask WHY, HOW did the great mystical understandings get sidetracked and lowly outer law teaching -such as Jesus railed against- get to be what is considered to be Christianity? Living from the inner place of Oneness, there no longer are relevant outer rules, they are superfluous. No one who is fully awake in God needs to be controlled by minutia.

Our path is to Oneness, to see with Spirit, to see as the Divine sees, to meld into being what God created us to be and calls us to be. Our path is to go deep and ignite our inner soul with the flame direct from God's Light and to take on that Light and shine it, ever shine it.

To find that place, I think we need to seek out mystics who speak to something deep within us, spend regular time in meditation, prayer and reading inspirational materials, Journaling is also helpful. I pray for deepening in our lives

I am that which Thou art, for You have sparked my soul with Your very Light. My Light came from You, is You.

Friday, December 11, 2015

Human Divine Relationship

The writings of Fr. Richard Rohr are exciting me for a couple of reasons. He writes and speaks ideas in alignment with many of my conclusions. In some areas, he takes my thoughts and stretches them into something larger and even more attuned to the mystics and the strain of perennial wisdom/spirituality that has graced humanity from the beginning. 

I am presently reading his book (among other things) "Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self." I don't know what page I'm on, as I'm using my Kindle. It says 46% where I am right now.

He writes of the divine/human divorce which is based on incompatibility and irreconcilable differences! What an interesting way to describe it. He places this sad situation primarily on the lap of formal religion which has sold separation - God and Jesus far away but maybe we can contact if we follow what the formal religion tells us to do, or maybe if we play our cards right will one meet them after this life.

Just a brief quote from this section: You do know, I hope, that it is formally incorrect for Christians to simply say, 'Jesus is God,' although that is the way they do think. But it misses the major point and goal of the incarnation. Jesus does not equal God per se, which is for us the Trinity. Jesus, much better and more correctly is the union between God and the human. That is a third something - which in fact we are invited to share in. Once we made Jesus only divine, we ended up being only human, and the whole process of human transformation ground to a halt. That is how the dualistic mind works.  

And a bit farther, he says: It killed what is the exciting inner experience and marginalized the mystics who really should be center stage... The concrete, historical body of Jesus represents the universal Body of Christ that 'God has loved before the foundation of the world' John 17:24. He is the stand-in for all of us. The Jesus story is the universe story, in other words. His union with God that Jesus never doubts, he hands on to us - to never doubt.

So many things come to mind, when I ponder these thoughts. I invite you to re-read this several times and maybe jot down in your journal what comes to mind. 

For the moment, I just want to say, if Jesus handed his faith and union with God onto us, we as a people have not been willing or maybe able to accept and carry on. What would our lives look like if we lived each moment awake to Oneness with God? What would our planetary experience be if all who call themselves Christian lived aware that each moment is in God and God is in each moment and in us? If we accept Jesus' gifts, who do we become?

Thursday, December 10, 2015

"Past" Experience Is Not Lost, It Is Here

I want to share an unusual moment from this morning. I'm not sure I can put it into words, but I will at least hint at it.

This morning as I stood in my friend's kitchen musing about an air flight I might soon be taking, suddenly all flights I had taken in the past sort of merged into some bubble of oneness, I had one of those between time, sort of cosmic moments. It was as if all at once I saw/knew all the flights I had ever been on.

Then I realized that all of them contributed to this moment in a way that made them not past but now. I understand and absorb what it is to fly in an airplane. The many moments come together to make a rich understanding. From the rickety airplane to Tatarstan to the elegant 2nd story business class flight to Hong Kong to all the other flights - they are still alive in me and give me a broad experience/knowing that make my understanding here and now unique. Every millisecond lives here. My experience/knowing is only mine, no other has had the exact same flight experience as me. My friend, who is a commercial pilot, has an even deeper and wider experience/knowing of what it is to fly in an airplane.

And then I saw/knew this is so of all of my experiences in this life. They are alive. They give me experience/knowing in many, many arenas of life, and they are unique to me. Each of us live in this moment with widely different combinations of experience/knowing in many areas. And also we have widely divergent bubbles of non-experience/not knowing. For example I know very little about gymnastics first hand. My experience is not really knowing but rather experience/observing. I watch gymnastics on the Olympics broadcasts, so my experience is not first hand but rather is from observation. I therefore have very little credibility speaking about gymnastics. I might add that there are people who experience/observe and still pretend to speak with credibility.

What I saw was that there is a challenge in our accumulated bubbles of experience/knowing if they are not sufficiently updated or are slanted to one direction or the other rather than being wide and deep. Bias, prejudice, ignorance live here. For example, if we immerse ourselves in a group that has a strong point of view about something that may or may not be accurate, we may find ourselves in a narrowed down life and uncomfortable discussing with people not in the narrow path we've been on.

I think, for example, travel helps widen and deepen our experience/knowing. I also think the study of various religions and cultures and visiting them widen and deepen our experience/knowing. There are many paths to Godliness, not just whatever ours might be (which is usually whatever one is in our culture and early home life). One thing I know is that for spiritual depth, prayer and meditation are essential.

Anyway, we come to this moment with all of our past experiences/knowing alive and dancing in our consciousness. Who we are is a mixed bag of many bubbles. The past lives in the here and now in us, in our choices, in our beliefs, in how we approach life.

If we find ourselves upset, angry, hating, hurting or expressing any negative energies, we would do well to look at that bubble and bring it in prayer and meditation to the Light. There release and open to receive that which is Light and Love. Enter the Christ and invite the Christ to enter in. Be lifted up to live as we are meant to live. As Paul said, The Christ in you, the hope of glory.

We would do well to aim our lives as fully as we are able in the direction of being our piece in the puzzle of the Cosmic Christ. Weigh our choices - is this Christlike? Fill our bubbles with the spiritual, the holy, the loving. Be as Christ-like as we can be. Really. Actually. Don't talk about it. Be it.

This was a bit of my morning between the moment experience/knowing. I pray I explain it so it might also have meaning to you. God bless you.

Monday, December 7, 2015

Oh I Love This!

Still reading Richard Rohr this morning. I just read: Salvation (salus: healing) is not dependent on feeling or an person's response to me. It is not a theory believed, a theology proclaimed, or a group that gives one identity. Is is an inner clarity that forever allows one to recognize bogus authority and pseudo-surrender.

Salvation is healing, especially of the mind and heart. Salvation is being able to discern between the charlatans and the genuine spiritual ones. Salvation keeps us from being gullible to the spiritual snake oil salesmen/women. Salvation brings new eyes and ears to life. 

This all seems to be so to me. I have been reading the mystics for many decades, and my spiritual understanding is greatly informed by them as well as by my personal spiritual experiences and my study of scriptures. The mystics do not speak the fire and brimstone, come to Jesus kind of things that some still spew. They speak of the Christ Presence awakening within. They do not spout fear and superstition, they speak of God's Love. 

Theology is basically what other people said about God, and they did not necessarily know what they were talking about. A person can say most anything, whether or not we believe what is said is highly dependent on our inner clarity and direct connection to the Holy Presence. What do you say? What do you know? How do you live when you know you are living up to the highest and best? What does a healed you look like?

There is a story at Teresa of Avila, when being questioned by the church, was asked if she believed in hell. She answered "yes," and turned to the nun beside her and quietly said, "but it is empty." She knew God directly and was not morally bound by the theology of the day. It only spoke of what men of old said was the way it is. 

The choice between good and evil is necessary in order to give freewill any meaning. That does not mean that the God of Love is really going to put the ignorant in eternal fire. It is ridiculous to argue that God is pure Love and will do awful things that humans cannot even do and be named good. Too many have made God into a giant human, sometimes into the worst kind of human.

Well anyway, the upshot of what I want to say this morning is this: Beware of those who try to control you, use fear and superstition to hold you, and do not urge you to explore and study and seek. Seek that inner clarity that sets you free. Walk with the Light of God. Be the beacon of Love and Light and Clarity into this world. Remember Jesus made it all quite simple with his 2 great commandments, which are basically LOVE LOVE LOVE. Be healed. Walk out of the fog of fear. Dare to live awake in God.

With the strange times we live in, it is perhaps more important than ever that as many people as possible reach inner clarity. I think we need to lift up our civilization, our core values and the actual life lived with the Cosmic Christ.

Holy Presence, I give thanks that You are with me, in me, with and in us all. Quicken in us that inner clarity that sets us free from nonsense. Free us from ourselves, from accumulated false beliefs, from ignorance. Set us on the path of awakening to You in real ways. Heal us.

Friday, December 4, 2015

Ideologues

Front and foremost in the news right now are huge stories about people who are ideologues.


According to Webster:  someone who very strongly supports and is guided by the ideology of a particular group: an impractical idealistan often blindly partisan advocate or adherent of a particular ideology.


So we have people so tilted, brain washed, that they slaughter proudly?!?!?!? How such rationalization works inside of a strong ideology is dangerous.

On the other hand, we also have stories about so-called "normal" people (college students, the extreme left, the extreme right, the press, some "religious" people, etc.) who are clinging with clenched teeth to ideologies that preclude the possibility of rational discussion.We have college students so delicate and so brain washed they want to silence all points of view except theirs and are even talking about changing the 1st Amendment that gives us free speech, guarantees free speech! We have politicians and press who report terrorist violence as possible militias or local groups or workplace violence??? We have so many people in politics, religion, education, etc that are truly ideologues and bound by whatever is deemed politically correct from within their ideology,

I wonder if we can survive the ideologues. I wonder if the true thinkers, the critical thinkers, the people who know we don't know it all can rise again. Can civil dialogue be restored? Is sanity possible at this time in history? I think it is up to us. Stand up. Speak up. Be the next America's great generation.

It is time to dig deeply and enter prayer in a sacred way. I hope you read the link I posted yesterday.

God, I know You are here with me, with us, in every moment. My desire is to be awakened in Your Wisdom, to be Guided so that all I am and say and do is in harmony with the highest and best, with You. Lead me to live aware that Your Presence is present. I stand before and within You. I stand for Wholeness, for Love, for Beauty, for Faith... for the gifts of Spirit working in and through us all. Lead us to stand strong.




Thursday, December 3, 2015

Richard Rohr's email for today

This writing on prayer/contemplation is incredibly fascinating to me. I hope you will click on it and read it. I have read it twice this morning and want to explore it more. Quest into his ideas on prayer with me.

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Richard-Rohr-s-Meditation--Step-11--The-Contemplative-Mind.html?soid=1103098668616&aid=N1_yl6nusXQ