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Thursday, December 31, 2020

Goodbye 2020 and Good Riddance

Although the end of a year and the beginning of a new year actually happens every day, we say that this is the last day and tomorrow is the first day. 2020 ends today and 2021 begins tomorrow. It can be a psychological shift, a mental opening to newness.

2020 has been globally horrible in many ways. There is not only the grief of so many dying, there are also the many side effects. There are businesses lost, dreams stomped upon, isolation and depression, leaders who let their egos make them mini-despots, confusion and fear and so forth.

There us another side though to consider. People have grown closer with one another in their homes. Many have slowed down. People have learned new skills from gardening to cooking to crafts to sewing to Zoom. People have learned to pray and meditate, and a considerable number have began to explore spirituality.

In a practical manner, there has been government and private cooperation to work to get a vaccine, medicines, equipment and facilities to handle Covid. Nations have shared medical knowledge and meds and vaccines. Unusual partners have worked together.

As with most things, it is not all bad nor is it all good. Perhaps it is a spiritual opportunity or even a test. Maybe it's not so much what happens as it is how we respond.

As we begin 2021, I hope we come to it resolved to not let ego lead us, but rather to respond with love and kindness and compassion to all people and events that are ahead in our paths. Let us be the best version of ourselves.

God bless you and keep you and lead you through 2021 and beyond.

Monday, December 28, 2020

Colliding Worldviews

I regularly deal with someone I care deeply about who has an opposite worldview. His view revolves around My way or the highway. My worldview revolves more around There's another way to look at this, and another, and another... He seeks, and believes he has found, clear and irrefutable truth. I seek truth on a journey of awakening, knowing Truth is infinite and not containable in words or anything else - Infinite.

The clashing of worldviews can be painful, or in some cases exhilarating, depending on the people involved. We can have good natured debates, irate arguments or just walk away as we shrug our shoulders.

In some ways, because we each have a unique life, all of our worldviews are unique. Sometimes they are close, and we can share together. Sometimes they are so far apart that it seems the other is speaking an unintelligible foreign language or even gobbley gook nonsense.

It's difficult to give a one size fits all solution to this. For me, I listen for The More to guide me. I am shown that along this path there are souls at every level and there are many paths. Just as I cannot argue a two year old into being a 30 year old, I cannot force someone to drastically shift their understanding. So, for those whose language is barely intelligible to me, those behind me and those ahead of me, so to speak, I realize it's not up to me. It's between them and God. 

Evelyn Underhill said that God's pull in our lives is like iron shavings to a magnet. We are all drawn. We'll all get there. And we do well to remember that there are many paths to Oneness, Awakening, Enlightenment to full Awareness. Bless us all on our journey.


Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Our Christmas Life

Evelyn Underhill spoke about most people's lives being lived conjugating three verbs: to Want, to Have, and to Do. Craving, clutching and fussing on the material level, keeps most busy and also feeling like something is missing. The fundamental verb, the essence of spiritual life is to Be.

As I mused on the above, Christmas came into my mind. Many have spoken about the subversion of Christmas with materialism and sentimentality. That is so obvious that my mind slid quickly by that. Meister Eckhart's words jumped to mind. He asked basically, what good is it that Christ was born to Mary those many years ago, if Christ is not born in our hearts today? Now that seems to me to be the crux of it all.

In Christmas Eves past, in my talk/sermon, I often spoke of the Christ being born in the cradle of our hearts. Early Christianity spoke of metanoia, of transformation, of spiritual birth.  

So, what would it Be to birth the Christ personally, to Be transformed, to Be all we are intended to Be? Shackles would fall from all parts of us, from eyes, from heart, from ears, from mind... We would know that all is Spiritual. God is breathing creation every moment, including us. 

Jesus taught us, now we can have eyes to see and ears to hear the message. Finally the Universe sighs.

It's not about being politically correct, wearing the right clothes, seeking a promotion, giving or getting the "right" gift, or anything superficial. It's about genuinely Being forgiving, loving, lifting, caring, living compassionately. It's about living the Way, the Message in such a way that the Light streams from us and touches others and sets their Light free too. That's what Jesus did. Reread His words and hear them personally. You are sitting at His feet and soaking up His Way and taking it on as your Way too. That's what He asks of us.

May the Christ be born in the cradle of your heart this Christmas.

Thursday, December 17, 2020

Strains of Thought Follow Me

It seems so anyway🤔. Maybe it's because great ideas are thought by multiple people. 

This morning I was reading Gurdjieff again, and low and behold he stated something that I read decades ago in a book by Stewart Emory. That very idea was a significant pivot point in my life. I'll try to paraphrase it.

  • If someone calls you a fool or criticises you or says some negative thing, you have two choices as an aware person. 
  • Hint - One of them is not get upset.
  • If the criticism is false, it is silly to get upset. It is irrelevant.
  • If the criticism has any grain of truth, it is silly to be upset. You should be grateful that it was pointed out so that you can grow and improve.
Upset is the sign of ego, not of an awakening person on the spiritual path. Upset is the sign something not worth protecting is trying to be protected.

Just observe yourself and others to see this. It can be a key to your freedom.

Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Information and Disinformation Overload

Bombarded with television voices, internet notices,  social media, etc. - with no way to assess the accuracy of any of it - I need silence time, a sanctuary space to be still and contemplate and listen to the wee small voice.

As we begin to look for our next home, sanctuary is a key word for me. I seek a place away from the whirling egos and their opinions. I seek a place where my feet can touch the earth, where there are trees to sit with, where the sounds are of birds and rustling leaves, natural sounds. I seek a home that gives spaces for contemplation and also creativity - a spacious studio, a great kitchen, a library. I seek a home that is beautiful, for God's creation is beautiful, and I endeavor to align my life at every level with God.

This will likely be our last home. Even the thought of the actual move is a bit exhausting. This move will require lots of helpers. I'm no longer as energetic and strong as I was once. Don't get me wrong, I'm full of vim and vigor in many ways, but I cannot bend and lift as I once did. One more move is enough, before I move on to the next dimension at some approaching point.

I wonder about the information/disinformation bombardment. Did it just develop, or is there some purpose the powers that be have for it? It seems to keep many people away from deep introspection and actual engagement with spiritual practises that lead to Knowing. It keeps people busy with the meaningless. Some become outraged over people and events with which they have no personal experience and no means of verifying. It keeps people off balance, which makes them easier to control. It is fascinating to observe, and at the same time it is disturbing. Where is all of this leading I wonder?

My wish is that all of us find some quiet time in our own personal sanctuary, disengaging from the mad ego circus and finding The More. 

Be still...and know...that I am...God... the Scripture enjoins us.

Friday, December 11, 2020

Automatons

So many have hypothesized that we are automatons, walking our lives asleep, hypnotized. This can be seen a number of ways, it seems to me.

  • True believers, those who are totally enveloped in some belief, whether it be political or religious, that any contrary view sets them off in some sort of tantrum. 
  • Frequent cognitive dissonance.
  • Those who are slaves to habits of any sort.
  • Those who have triggers that others can set off, buttons that can be pushed, and always a canned reaction pours forth.
  • Those who walk life with no sparkle in their eyes, often a bit slumped in posture, having given up and just going through the motions.
  • And so forth
The first step out of this dilemma might be to notice ourselves such that we can observe our own areas of walking asleep. Follow the old injunction Know thyself.

Then we can consciously work on waking up. I have personally done a myriad of things along those lines. I heartily recommend you begin with meditation and journal writing. Deeply explore yourself, as no one can do it for you. Observe yourself and write it down, observe as neutrally as you can, not justifying yourself, simply noticing. When insights come, write them down. I have a lot of notebooks full of my writing about my journey of awakening. Don't stop. Keep waking up, keep waking at levels beyond your present awareness. The journey is thrilling at points of aha and paradigm shifts. 

It seems to me, because you read my blog, and hopefully tell others about it, something in you is calling to be awakened. What a glorious adventure, scaling inner heights and depths. There's nothing like it.

Sunday, December 6, 2020

Gurdjieff

This morning I am reading some thoughts of Gurdjieff. 

Every religion points to the existence of a common center of knowledge...

In the end, knowledge cannot be forced upon anyone, and an impartial survey of the average person's life, of what interests him and fills his day, will show immediately that the whole trouble is that people either do not want this knowledge or are incapable of receiving it...

No system or school can do our work for us...

Change of knowledge comes from change of being...

 In this teaching the first principle is that nothing is to be taken on faith. One should believe nothing that cannot be verified for oneself.

 I can see how this is easier to apply in simpler times, where people were more directly interacting with nature and one another, when there were quiet evenings spent pondering the stars and conversations were about "real" things.

Today we are bombarded with a constant stream of words and pictures and sounds. This opinion or that opinion - is it really their opinion or are they just reading a script written by some person somewhere? How can we verify anything? How can we take the anonymous opinions of a talking head as fact or truth or what?

It seems to me, I need to peel back this veneer of noise, propaganda, and distortion and look again at what actually matters. 

To me what matters includes love, kindness, truth, The Presence/The  More and knowing and being authentically me. What really and truly matters to you? Seek that.

Thursday, December 3, 2020

Life Continues

A dear friend, soul sister, frequently says, Life Continues. 

This morning, after my devotional time and breakfast, I was sitting at the table, thinking about the things I want to do today - make a sugar free chocolate pie, wash my hair, finish the Christmas tablecloth I'm making, sew some more presents, etc.

An awareness suddenly opened in me beyond our little quarantined world, an awareness that contained everything all at once. People are dying today... People are being born today... People are losing their homes, businesses, and dreams, while others are having their dreams come true... Life continues in all of its joy and sorrow. All over the world, in every city and countryside, life continues.

With that continuing flow, comes choices. Do I let go and release my iron grasp and finally learn non-attachment? Do I let my awareness shift from my head to my heart? Do I focus on what is actually important rather than on my ego? Do I listen to the deep inner knowing more fully?

This time on earth, this slowed down pandemic time, offers us more quiet time to reflect, open, grow, read, meditate, love and just be in the flow of life as it continues. Yet, we must choose to receive and be in this gift, rather than to rush on by.

I send love to my soul sister, Evelina, on the other side of the world, yet fully present in the everything of this moment, as are you. 

God is indeed with you, in you - Living Presence in whom we live and move and have our being. Thank You, God. You show me more than simple words can ever convey.