This website is about the value of love, spirituality, the potential of the mind-body connection and the connection with all things. These are my daily thoughts about my life, my feelings, and my spiritual journey. I post these "Daily Journals" on a regular basis, so please come back often to read my latest posting.
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
Gratitude
Today I performed some simple tasks like shopping, exercise, weeding gardens, bed repair, cooking and other household tasks. For me, being disabled, these activities were very difficult, time consuming and I felt extremely grateful that I could do them at all. I also did some reading of spiritual literature and meditating to maintain my "conscious contact" for which I am also grateful. In the words of Meister Eckhart "A man should receive God in all things and train his mind to keep God ever present in his mind, in his aims and in his love. Note how you regard God: keep the same attitude that you have in church or in your cell, and carry it with you in the crowd and in unrest and inequality.....In your acts you should have an equal mind and equal faith and equal love for your God.....If you were equal-minded in this way, then no man could keep you from having God ever present."
Monday, May 29, 2017
Life
Today was Memorial day and Maria and I attended a cookout gathering of Friends. Once again I was reminded of how different I am. As I commented yesterday, most people prefer their "nifty possessions, technology and other distractions I tend to stay away from." Most of the talk was about those distractions. As they talked I felt fondness and love for the human condition. Living, being alive, is a wonderful and beautiful adventure - so is getting old and dying.
Sunday, May 28, 2017
Spiritual Life
There are a goodly number of people in the world that are moving away from the sort of spiritual life I suggest in my book in favor of nifty possessions, technology and other distractions I tend to stay away from. There is also a growing group of people who are moving away from material possessions in favor of love, inclusiveness and relationships. I continue to do everything I can to support the latter. In the words of Patricia Loring "We can cultivate an environment among us which will foster one another’s spiritual growth by directing and redirecting intention and attention to God; by discouraging what draws us away; by loving support for each other in the vicissitudes of our utterly human lives; by respecting and cherishing the uniqueness of each life."
Saturday, May 27, 2017
Meditation and Contemplation
Several hours of meditation and contemplation are a major part of my daily practice. It is through those practices that I listen for guidance and where I find peace, joy and contentment. I arrive at a place of inner silence regardless of the chaos that surrounds me in the world at large. I generally begin by focusing on the peace and presence of my own breathing and then allow my thoughts to wander to life’s events, peace, love and gratitude. "It [inner silence] is to establish an inner peace, an inner harmony, which will allow us authentically to contribute to the establishment of an outer peace and an outer harmony in the world at large." (Seeger)
Friday, May 26, 2017
Meditation
Over the last couple of days I have realized that within me there is still some sort of emotional and spiritual connection with the spirits of Gettysburg. It is quite clear to me that my work there is not over but I do not know any detail beyond that. The feeling is one of responsibility and a job not done. I am committed to doing what I can to be of service to them and the world in general. It is time to ask for guidance, meditate and listen. I will clear myself of worldly concerns and do that.
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Spirits
Maria and I just returned from our mission to Gettysburg, PA and I feel spiritually depleted. While there I worked, therapeutically, with numerous troubled and traumatized spirits, exhilarating, exhausting and very weird. I realize that some people do not believe in spirits and I questioned the belief until I had numerous very striking experiences of spirits during my sweat lodge days in AZ. Many of them are just as emotionally stuck as living people, who I have also been privileged to work with. As with my living clients, I listened, expressed compassion and understanding, made suggestions and beamed love at them. Because of my own near-death-experience I can, and do, show them what Godly Love feels like, an experience beyond words. My hope is that by helping the spirits I will also help the living who they impact and influence.
Monday, May 22, 2017
Discernment
Many years ago I prayed for discernment, the ability to detect whether a message or action was from Spirit/God or from some aspect of self, some form of self interest not the general welfare. I have since been granted that gift, if I have the clarity to listen. On those occasions that I cannot achieve that clarity, I check with others that I trust. If I get a message, what a Quaker would call a leading, that intuitively feels like a clear, joyful mountain spring, I generally go ahead. Such messages are almost always other directed and sometimes at the expense of self. If, on the other hand, the message feels like a turbid, sluggish lake, I know to take no action. I also make use of the three questions that are the central focus of my book (would I do this in front of God, or whatever you call that power/force?; is my name really on it or is it really my responsibility?; will this increase the integrity of the universe, or is this loving?).
Sunday, May 21, 2017
Love Is Honest
As I prepare to visit Gettysburg, PA I want to remember that fear causes biases, distortions and tends to not be honest, thus causing confusion and tension. Love, on the other hand, is honest and causes a release of tension and a feeling of clarity. I suspect that the monument that we are going to visit presents part of the story behind the civil war. However, like other "historical" accounts, it does not present the whole picture, the truth for everyone involved. As I approach the trip I want to remember what I call the "rainmaker ideal" "We have forgotten how to allow. The essence of the Rainmaker is that he knows how to allow. The Rainmaker walks in the middle of the road, neither held back by the past nor hurrying towards the future, neither lured to the right nor to the left, but allowing the past and the future, the outer world of the right and the inner images of the left all to play upon him while he attends, no more than attends, to the living moment in which these forces meet.
"In those rare moments when all the opposites meet within a man, good and also evil, light and also darkness, spirit and also body, brain and also heart, masculine focused consciousness and at the same time feminine diffuse awareness, wisdom of maturity and childlike wonder; when all are allowed and none displaces any other in the mind of a man, then that man, though he may utter no word is in an attitude of prayer. Whether he knows it or not his own receptive allowing will affect all those around him; rain will fall on the parched fields, and tears will turn bitter grief to flowering sorrow, while stricken children dry their eyes and laugh." (Claremont deCastillejo).
"In those rare moments when all the opposites meet within a man, good and also evil, light and also darkness, spirit and also body, brain and also heart, masculine focused consciousness and at the same time feminine diffuse awareness, wisdom of maturity and childlike wonder; when all are allowed and none displaces any other in the mind of a man, then that man, though he may utter no word is in an attitude of prayer. Whether he knows it or not his own receptive allowing will affect all those around him; rain will fall on the parched fields, and tears will turn bitter grief to flowering sorrow, while stricken children dry their eyes and laugh." (Claremont deCastillejo).
Saturday, May 20, 2017
Detachment
A major part of my morning meditation and prayer is to "free me of the bondage of self" since it is only then that I can truly and objectively listen to guidance and be free to act accordingly. Yesterday I spoke of hurt, fear and anger and two days before I spoke of attachments, either of which can cause me to act out of self-interest, rather than the good of all, "increasing the integrity of the universe" as I say in my book. In addition, acting out of self-interest is fear-based and does not feel good. I have detached enough from self so that these impulses are mere whispers compared to earlier in my life, but they are still present.
Friday, May 19, 2017
Growth
Earlier in my adult life I was reacting to the events in my life out of hurt, fear and anger that I did not even realize I had. For example, as an assistant professor at a woman’s college I was very harsh, judgmental and demanding of my students and similar in my committee work. I thought my behavior to be right and proper and I was proud of my status and the way students feared me. I had no idea that my behavior at that time was due largely to residual hurt, fear and anger at the way I was raised. I was very much afraid of appearing incompetent and being judged. I then went through a lengthy period of increasing awareness and shedding the hurt, fear and anger. I still have high standards for myself but also know that if I try and fail - it is no failure at all. I love myself and everyone else and will do what I can to help us all grow. A position that no longer creates more fear.
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