I’ve been going through a rough patch physically, but have been OK emotionally. I’m grateful. In fact, looking from the place of not being dragged down by the ‘suffering’ or not suffering when my normal way of thinking about my situation would have required suffering, has been, is, an expansive experience. I see I’m not as small as I thought I was, or, I’m more than I thought I was, able to not be made a victim, able to see things differently, even to find some benefit in the difficulty, to make lemons into lemonade. So, I’m grateful for what I’m going through.
As Barbara Leger in today’s SOM says, “Gratitude can totally turn around moments of fear or distress by allowing us to shift attention from what isn’t working to what is. In every circumstance, there is something to be grateful for, and when we find it, our gazes shift and we are lifted up.
“Gratitude is the grease in tight spots, the hope in the darkness and the grace of Spirit guiding us to see more of the whole picture. Looking for the good allows us to see and appreciate the gifts tucked inside the challenge. Praising the good raises our energy to a higher, more positive vibration, which attracts more of the same. Like attracts like. Our bodies notice, our cells are happier, and we see the world through softer eyes, and amazingly, see more to appreciate.”
That’s been the case for me in my current situation. I didn’t create the situation to prove Barbara Leger right. [But perhaps, maybe I did.] Her reading this morning happened to be on gratitude and it helped me reflect on what’s been going on with me. Just a coincidence, one of those happy accidents, or was it?
Friday, September 3, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Humor?
The economy is so bad that I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.
I ordered a burger at McDonald's, and the kid behind the counter asked, "Can you afford fries with that?"
CEO's are now playing miniature golf.
If the bank returns your check marked "Insufficient Funds," you have to call them and ask if they mean you or them .
Hot Wheels and Matchbox stocks are trading higher than GM.
McDonald's is selling the 1/4 'ouncer'.
Parents in Beverly Hills and Malibu are firing their nannies and learning their children's names.
A truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico .
Dick Cheney took his stockbroker hunting.
Motel Six won't leave the light on anymore.
The Mafia is laying off judges.
Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen.
Congress says they are looking into the Bernard Madoff scandal. Oh Great!! The guy who made $50 Billion disappear is being investigated by the people who made $1.5 Trillion disappear !
And, finally...
I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, wars, jobs, my savings, Social Security, retirement funds, and our bleak future, that I called the Suicide Lifeline and was connected to a call center in Pakistan. When I told them I was suicidal, they got all excited, and asked if I could drive a truck.
I ordered a burger at McDonald's, and the kid behind the counter asked, "Can you afford fries with that?"
CEO's are now playing miniature golf.
If the bank returns your check marked "Insufficient Funds," you have to call them and ask if they mean you or them .
Hot Wheels and Matchbox stocks are trading higher than GM.
McDonald's is selling the 1/4 'ouncer'.
Parents in Beverly Hills and Malibu are firing their nannies and learning their children's names.
A truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico .
Dick Cheney took his stockbroker hunting.
Motel Six won't leave the light on anymore.
The Mafia is laying off judges.
Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen.
Congress says they are looking into the Bernard Madoff scandal. Oh Great!! The guy who made $50 Billion disappear is being investigated by the people who made $1.5 Trillion disappear !
And, finally...
I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, wars, jobs, my savings, Social Security, retirement funds, and our bleak future, that I called the Suicide Lifeline and was connected to a call center in Pakistan. When I told them I was suicidal, they got all excited, and asked if I could drive a truck.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Off for a week, hooray!
My wife and I will be away for the next week. I probably won't resume blogging until 8/30. Meanwhile, please see my two novels being serialized on WritingRaw.com under fiction and let me know what you think. Thanks!
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Spiritual Reality and NDEs
Saturday morning I read a review of a book on NDE – near death experiences, called, Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences, by Jeffrey Long, M.D. I’m not so interested in life after death, but rather life in life. To me the bliss and wonders of the so called ‘life to come’ – the reunion with dead loved ones, the lack of pain & suffering, and the 72 virgins if you’re a male heterosexual, or perhaps if you’re a lesbian as well – are all available right now. We don’t have to wait ‘till we die to experience our bliss, connection with God and our reality as spiritual beings having an earthly experience.
What was interesting to me in Dr. Long’s book is that he found evidence that supports life in life, our primary reality as spiritual beings. Dr. Long’s study is the most recent and exhaustive of perhaps hundreds of books on NDEs. His research extended over ten years and included interviews with more than 1,300 people, 95% of whom said their NDE was definitely real. That pretty much dovetails with previous findings. What’s important to the idea that we’re primarily spiritual beings having earthly experiences is the fact that many of that 95% considered their NDE the only real thing that ever happened to them!
In other words, the experience of bliss, ease, light, safety, peace, contentment and connection with Spirit that are the hallmark of NDEs, were considered the only real experiences that ever happened to them. In other words, their connection with God and all that goes with that was the only real thing that ever happened to them – that we are spirit first, then human. After a failed suicide one person reported, “I could only see my life through that Being’s (God’s) love…I saw the love was in me, too, not just from the Being shining down on me, it was in me as part of myself.”
Why do NDEs bring out these experiences of our reality as spirit and oneness with God and each other? Because, near death our bloated nothingness, our ego is gone, out of the way. Without our bloated nothingness and the illusion that we’re separate from God, we’re not separated. Our natural reality as spiritual beings having an earthly experience shines through. The cool thing is, you don’t to have to have an NDE to experience this. You can experience your reality as a spiritual being and your constant connection to God by getting your bloated nothingness out of the way now through things like meditation, prayer and openness and intuition. So why wait? Start practicing the presence and getting out of the way now.
What was interesting to me in Dr. Long’s book is that he found evidence that supports life in life, our primary reality as spiritual beings. Dr. Long’s study is the most recent and exhaustive of perhaps hundreds of books on NDEs. His research extended over ten years and included interviews with more than 1,300 people, 95% of whom said their NDE was definitely real. That pretty much dovetails with previous findings. What’s important to the idea that we’re primarily spiritual beings having earthly experiences is the fact that many of that 95% considered their NDE the only real thing that ever happened to them!
In other words, the experience of bliss, ease, light, safety, peace, contentment and connection with Spirit that are the hallmark of NDEs, were considered the only real experiences that ever happened to them. In other words, their connection with God and all that goes with that was the only real thing that ever happened to them – that we are spirit first, then human. After a failed suicide one person reported, “I could only see my life through that Being’s (God’s) love…I saw the love was in me, too, not just from the Being shining down on me, it was in me as part of myself.”
Why do NDEs bring out these experiences of our reality as spirit and oneness with God and each other? Because, near death our bloated nothingness, our ego is gone, out of the way. Without our bloated nothingness and the illusion that we’re separate from God, we’re not separated. Our natural reality as spiritual beings having an earthly experience shines through. The cool thing is, you don’t to have to have an NDE to experience this. You can experience your reality as a spiritual being and your constant connection to God by getting your bloated nothingness out of the way now through things like meditation, prayer and openness and intuition. So why wait? Start practicing the presence and getting out of the way now.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Building Spiritual Muscle, Part 2
Building spiritual muscle also involves discerning then overcoming illusions. What are illusions? My bloated nothingness is an illusion – the belief that I have to have things a certain way, is an illusion. How do I know its an illusion? Because when I have things other than my way, I’m fine and often better. Having things my way – sorry Burger King – is a habit, habits enslave and keep us in a rut, small and bound to the ego, and the only difference between a rut and a grave is the length and the depth. So discerning and overcoming illusions, and unfortunately almost everything we experience is an illusion except our experiences of oneness with God – love, forgiveness, joy, creativity, gratitude, is an important part of building spiritual muscle.
“How does one overcome illusions?” the Course asks. “Surely not by force or anger, nor by opposing them in any way. Merely by letting reason tell you that they contradict reality.” The ‘reality’ referred to here is our reality as spiritual beings having an earthly experience. The ‘reason’ referred to is the still small voice deep within, our umbilical connection to God. Illusions “go against what must be true. The opposition comes from them, and not reality. Reality opposes nothing.” See Byron Katie’s ‘loving what is’. “What merely is needs no defense, and offers none. Only illusions need defense because they are weak. And how can it be difficult to walk the way of truth when only weakness interferes? You are the strong one in this seeming conflict. And you need no defense. Everything that needs defense you do not want, for anything that needs defense will weaken you.
I, the ‘you’ referred to here, is me in my spiritual reality as the Son of God, and remember, the Course says all human beings are the Sons of God. “Who can attack the Son of God and not attack his Father? How can God’s Son be weak and frail and easily destroyed unless his Father is? Do you not see that every sin and condemnation you perceive and justify is an attack upon your Father? You do not see this because you think the Father and the Son are separate. If you were one with God (which you are) and recognized this oneness, you would know His power is yours.”
The great illusion which we are building our spiritual muscle to overcome is the belief that we are separate from God and separate from each other, when in reality, we are not separate but connected to God and each other. We are all the Sons of God, connected to our Source and each other, spiritual beings having an earthly experience.
“How does one overcome illusions?” the Course asks. “Surely not by force or anger, nor by opposing them in any way. Merely by letting reason tell you that they contradict reality.” The ‘reality’ referred to here is our reality as spiritual beings having an earthly experience. The ‘reason’ referred to is the still small voice deep within, our umbilical connection to God. Illusions “go against what must be true. The opposition comes from them, and not reality. Reality opposes nothing.” See Byron Katie’s ‘loving what is’. “What merely is needs no defense, and offers none. Only illusions need defense because they are weak. And how can it be difficult to walk the way of truth when only weakness interferes? You are the strong one in this seeming conflict. And you need no defense. Everything that needs defense you do not want, for anything that needs defense will weaken you.
I, the ‘you’ referred to here, is me in my spiritual reality as the Son of God, and remember, the Course says all human beings are the Sons of God. “Who can attack the Son of God and not attack his Father? How can God’s Son be weak and frail and easily destroyed unless his Father is? Do you not see that every sin and condemnation you perceive and justify is an attack upon your Father? You do not see this because you think the Father and the Son are separate. If you were one with God (which you are) and recognized this oneness, you would know His power is yours.”
The great illusion which we are building our spiritual muscle to overcome is the belief that we are separate from God and separate from each other, when in reality, we are not separate but connected to God and each other. We are all the Sons of God, connected to our Source and each other, spiritual beings having an earthly experience.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Building Spiritual Muscle
“Be yourself,” Oscar Wilde wrote, “everyone else is taken.”
Wow! How cool! Don’t you love that, both funny and true? Blogging has been a big help to me in being myself. Who and what am I, and you, by extension? I work through that when I blog. Am I a spiritual being dreaming I’m a person, or a person dreaming I’m a spiritual being? What does it mean to be ‘human?’ It means being compassionate, angry, loving and fearful – all of it, not either spirit or person, but both spirit and person. That’s what it means to be human – ups and downs, highs and lows, thinking and feeling, intangible spirit and tangible physicality - contradictions.
But, I’m discovering, believing and trying to live from the place that says I’m essentially a spirtual being dreaming I’m a person.
Here’s how its been working for me: as I blog, publicly wrestle with my contradictions, thinking and writing about them here, I’m discovering how my own thoughts and feelings, my non-physical aspects, create my physical reality and experience. Sure, there are physical facts, like my desk and computer, but what these things mean, to me, and how I react to them is my choice. For example, I’m discovering that if I ‘make an issue’ of something it becomes an ‘issue.’ If I choose not to see it that way, its not that way to me.
But it takes effort, dedication, a sense of humor and a sense of what’s lost and gained with each thought, feeling and decision to act or not act as if I’m essentially a spirtual being dreaming I’m a person. What’s lost when I act as if I’m not a spiritual being, get caught up in the world, take things very seriously, believe I am alone and must do something or else, is the peace of God, my sense of connection, my joy and creativity. Not much to lose for the privilage of believing in original sin, feeling guilty and judging myself and my neighbor, is it?
It takes dilligence, joy, humor and constant gentle self-awareness (mindfulness) to break free from the the negative messages I’ve (we’ve) internalized and the belief that I’m an earthly being having a spiritual experience. Courage too, it takes courage to question perceptions and to ask is this really what spirit would want, do, think, feel, or is this just my ego, my bloated nothingness, my habitual perception? It takes an inner strength I didn’t know I had to get my bloated nothingness out of the way of the divine circuits and go against what I’ve been told all my life and experience all around me. But the rewards are worth the effort!
Once moving along the path of spiritual beingness, allowing ourselves to know who we really are, connecting with, cultivating and nurturing our spiritual reality, the rewards – the peace of God, absence of stress, fear and worry, and the blossoming of creativity and joy – are abundant. Problems cease being ‘problems’ and become opportunities to connect and shine. Living from this place is worth all the effort, it takes to live in this place. But it gets easier the more I, you, we do it. It’s like building muscle - building spiritual muscle; it takes practice, regular, minute-to-minute joyful practice.
Wow! How cool! Don’t you love that, both funny and true? Blogging has been a big help to me in being myself. Who and what am I, and you, by extension? I work through that when I blog. Am I a spiritual being dreaming I’m a person, or a person dreaming I’m a spiritual being? What does it mean to be ‘human?’ It means being compassionate, angry, loving and fearful – all of it, not either spirit or person, but both spirit and person. That’s what it means to be human – ups and downs, highs and lows, thinking and feeling, intangible spirit and tangible physicality - contradictions.
But, I’m discovering, believing and trying to live from the place that says I’m essentially a spirtual being dreaming I’m a person.
Here’s how its been working for me: as I blog, publicly wrestle with my contradictions, thinking and writing about them here, I’m discovering how my own thoughts and feelings, my non-physical aspects, create my physical reality and experience. Sure, there are physical facts, like my desk and computer, but what these things mean, to me, and how I react to them is my choice. For example, I’m discovering that if I ‘make an issue’ of something it becomes an ‘issue.’ If I choose not to see it that way, its not that way to me.
But it takes effort, dedication, a sense of humor and a sense of what’s lost and gained with each thought, feeling and decision to act or not act as if I’m essentially a spirtual being dreaming I’m a person. What’s lost when I act as if I’m not a spiritual being, get caught up in the world, take things very seriously, believe I am alone and must do something or else, is the peace of God, my sense of connection, my joy and creativity. Not much to lose for the privilage of believing in original sin, feeling guilty and judging myself and my neighbor, is it?
It takes dilligence, joy, humor and constant gentle self-awareness (mindfulness) to break free from the the negative messages I’ve (we’ve) internalized and the belief that I’m an earthly being having a spiritual experience. Courage too, it takes courage to question perceptions and to ask is this really what spirit would want, do, think, feel, or is this just my ego, my bloated nothingness, my habitual perception? It takes an inner strength I didn’t know I had to get my bloated nothingness out of the way of the divine circuits and go against what I’ve been told all my life and experience all around me. But the rewards are worth the effort!
Once moving along the path of spiritual beingness, allowing ourselves to know who we really are, connecting with, cultivating and nurturing our spiritual reality, the rewards – the peace of God, absence of stress, fear and worry, and the blossoming of creativity and joy – are abundant. Problems cease being ‘problems’ and become opportunities to connect and shine. Living from this place is worth all the effort, it takes to live in this place. But it gets easier the more I, you, we do it. It’s like building muscle - building spiritual muscle; it takes practice, regular, minute-to-minute joyful practice.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Incarceration, Part 2
One of my buttons is, in case you haven’t noticed from reading my posts, is the gap between the promise and reality of the USA, and how I see that gap widening. Yet even with that, I’m wanting to take responsibility for and deal with that gap from a centered, spiritual place, by practicing the presence and getting out of the way, daring to live as if grace were real – betting it all on black, if you will.
This morning I read a review of the book, Beyond Vengeance, Beyond Duality: A Call for Compassionate Revolution, by Sylvia Clute, a call for revamping the American judicial system and got my buttons pressed big time! What an opportunity to practice the presence! The USA has 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of the world’s prisoners. One out of every hundred Americans is currently in jail. For adults in their twenties, its one out of fifty three. One of every fifteen African American males is incarcerated. For African American males between 20 and 34, its one in nine. Are blacks really so different from whites? Some would say yes. But I doubt it. God is in them to the same extent It is in everyone else. What we have here is a failure, not only to communicate (Cool Hand Luke), but a failure, among other things, to live out our American ideal of equal justice under the law.
Hispanics are also disproportionately affected. The cost of incarceration is staggering. Imagine what else we could do with that money? Why, we could fight more foreign wars that really have nothing to do with preserving the existence of the US, maybe even finally attack Iran and North Korea! Sorry for the sarcasm, it just slipped out. Each year an inmate spends in prison costs roughly one teacher’s salary.
One of the ways Clute suggests we deal with this is spiritual. We can transcend the perception of duality and otherness. Even practising this in our individual lives can help. How we punish and even the belief in the usefulness of prison terms as a punishment (do they really do what we want them to do?), reflects our core values. By closing the gap between our espoused values and our behavior, by working to make our core values real both in our individual lives and our community lives, we can release the current structures based on duality, separation, fear and blame and transform them into structures based on grace, pracising the presence and getting out of the way.
It might be cool to continue jailing people as we currently are, if it worked. But it doesn’t, does it? So why are we still doing it? Who’s benefitting and who’s afraid and who doesn’t want to take responsibility for building a world that works for everyone?
This morning I read a review of the book, Beyond Vengeance, Beyond Duality: A Call for Compassionate Revolution, by Sylvia Clute, a call for revamping the American judicial system and got my buttons pressed big time! What an opportunity to practice the presence! The USA has 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of the world’s prisoners. One out of every hundred Americans is currently in jail. For adults in their twenties, its one out of fifty three. One of every fifteen African American males is incarcerated. For African American males between 20 and 34, its one in nine. Are blacks really so different from whites? Some would say yes. But I doubt it. God is in them to the same extent It is in everyone else. What we have here is a failure, not only to communicate (Cool Hand Luke), but a failure, among other things, to live out our American ideal of equal justice under the law.
Hispanics are also disproportionately affected. The cost of incarceration is staggering. Imagine what else we could do with that money? Why, we could fight more foreign wars that really have nothing to do with preserving the existence of the US, maybe even finally attack Iran and North Korea! Sorry for the sarcasm, it just slipped out. Each year an inmate spends in prison costs roughly one teacher’s salary.
One of the ways Clute suggests we deal with this is spiritual. We can transcend the perception of duality and otherness. Even practising this in our individual lives can help. How we punish and even the belief in the usefulness of prison terms as a punishment (do they really do what we want them to do?), reflects our core values. By closing the gap between our espoused values and our behavior, by working to make our core values real both in our individual lives and our community lives, we can release the current structures based on duality, separation, fear and blame and transform them into structures based on grace, pracising the presence and getting out of the way.
It might be cool to continue jailing people as we currently are, if it worked. But it doesn’t, does it? So why are we still doing it? Who’s benefitting and who’s afraid and who doesn’t want to take responsibility for building a world that works for everyone?
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