Bodhisattva

Each week I go to four recovery meetings and two or more Friend’s meetings for worship. During each of them I envelope myself in the Love of Spirit as well as broadcasting and teaching what I have learned, acting as a Bodhisattva, in Buddhist terms. In the past decades I have given up or surrendered many aspects of ego or worldly desires in order to enhance my connection with the Source and benefitted tremendously. I now encourage other to do the same. "To get we must also give, to advance we must also surrender, to gain we must lose, to attain we must resign. From the nature of things life means choice and selection, and every positive choice negates all other possibilities."(Rufus Jones)

Inner Silence

I have been taking daily thyroid medication (T3 & T4) for at least the last decade — until about two weeks ago when I stopped due to the lack of availability and a subsequent shift in medication. For now, my body seems to really appreciate being medication-free, a condition which could certainly change over the next few weeks. For now my blood pressure is down. I have a good level of energy, my strength is good and my coordination is minutely better. More importantly I have greater clarity during meditation and my conscious contact has improved. I am more able to go past and ignore the worldly part of the clamor. "From everywhere [including my own clamor!], it seems, we are bombarded with the idea that our nature is innately violent, that our chief preoccupation is with our sexuality, and that our main purpose in life is the acquirement of ever more nifty possessions.......Indeed, if is only through the practice of inner silence that we can begin to disentangle ourselves from our culture and its illusions." I am more able to achieve inner silence and listen.(Seeger)

Humility

For me, the last month or so has been a time of introspection and rest, a period of personal inventory, much needed. I can’t say that the introspection has been "dark" because the light and love have always been present, but some of the personal observations have been unpleasant. For example, I keep realizing for varied circumstances just how self-centered I am, even to the point of selfishly enjoying the feeling of selflessly giving to others. Personal inventory is very good for my humility! In the words of Gilbert Kilpack from Our Hearts Are Restless, "To resign one’s self to the fact that one must travel much in the dark and be greatly sifted and tossed about is an inevitable step in the way of spiritual growth." He goes on to say "Seek Him we must, with a headlong love, with enthusiasm and romantic ardor, but also with lowliness and patience, and that is a hard combination.". Time to meditate, explore and be Charlie.

Limit of Science

Rufus Jones, who wrote during the first half of the 20^th century, laments the fact that belief in science, reductionism and the scientific method was eclipsing the higher order, intrinsic and eternal ideals within humanity. In my opinion, that belief is much truer today, roughly one hundred years later. There is an imbalance between science or reductionism and spirituality, favoring science. Personally, I used to be a devotee of belief in intellect and am now quite aware of the void it leaves, the depth and meaning of life that belief leaves out. There is no question of the huge benefits we have gleaned from science — but it is limited. "The supreme attitudes too of a personal mind such, for instance, as conviction of truth, or joy in beauty, or awe in the presence of sublimity, or dedication to goodness for its own sake, or the personal surrender of all selfish interests for the sake of exalted love, are realities of an order quite different from changes in the orbit of a planet or from any movement of masses of matter in space."(Jones)

Loving Action

There is a fellow who attends the recovery meeting I go to on Mondays who is new to recovery, burps, farts, is loud and socially inappropriate in that he does not respond to social ques. I can also see the Love, God and well meaning in him just below the unpleasant surface. The human part of me is obnoxed by him and the God part would like to lovingly help him with his difficulties. He has not asked for my assistance so I keep to myself. "Whenever spirit appears, even in the finite form of our own personal minds, it always outreaches and goes beyond its given expression and embodiment. We always transcend ourselves. We always live beyond our margins. We leap beyond anything that is — the here and now — and we are by the necessity of our being concerned with a more yet that ought to be."

Understanding Is Not Required

Last Friday, January 19^th, having just parked our car outside the location of our recovery meetings, I noticed a beautiful but deadly adult female black widow spider in the middle of the sidewalk right in front of our car. After confirming the presence of a red "hourglass" on her underside, Maria transported her to a better location. I am not the least bit superstitious, but this is a highly unusual occurrence (adult female web-spinning spider wandering far from any web, mid January, around forty degrees, the middle of the sidewalk in front of my car) so it got my attention. It is not reasonable or logical, but it could be a sign or symbol indicating that there are dangerous waters ahead and I should be careful. "To understand better the value of silence in daily life, and its relation to this spiritual transformation for which we yearn, it is useful first to consider the limitation of language, of words.......It is next useful to contemplate the limitations of logical reasoning."(Daniel A. Seeger)