Point Of View

Today I was reading about concerns over the possibility of a nuclear exchange and the hopes of the Trump administration to reduce restrictions on a limited exchange. When I take a limited, short term or temporal view the possibility and what that could mean for this planet and the people on it, I feel very disturbed. On the other hand, when I take a long term or eternal view, I can sense that everything is fine. Both seem true to me. In my life I lived within a period of "darkness" for many years before moving into the "light" of love and God. "I [George Fox] saw the infinite love of God. I saw that there was an ocean of darkness and death, but an infinite ocean of light and love which flowed over the ocean of darkness. In that also I saw the infinite love of God; and I had great openings"

Meditation 2

Yesterday I spoke of "the warm and powerful feeling of God or unconditional Love" that I focus on when I meditate. I meditate on that feeling at least once a day and often several times. I have realized that the feeling is a part of me that was, previously, undeveloped and is now growing. I make use of that feeling during exercise, for physical healing, when working with spirits and in my relationships. There is a lot of power there. Power that helps me in everything I do. "Few things — no things that I know of — are so completely and effectively restorative as the discovery that this World of the environing Spirit is verily closer to us than breathing and is charged with the resources of Life for which we pant."(Rufus Jones)

Meditation

Yesterday Maria, my wife, and I went to a local park and took a short walk through the brambles of a fallow field down to the bank of the Patuxent river. Once there I joined with the plants, animals and forest, told them how magnificent they were and meditated on the warm and powerful feeling of God or unconditional Love, a feeling near but just below my heart center that I was shown during my sweat lodge experience. It was a wonderful, joy-filled experience. I allowed that feeling to grow and then broadcasted it. "The very fact that such a mighty experience [mystical worship] as this is possible means that there is some inner meeting place between the soul and God; in other words, that the divine and human, God and man, are not wholly sundered."(Rufus Jones)

Life's Process

I have had several contacts in the last few days which have reminded me of several important guiding principles. Some of those are that God's Love is absolute (no sign of duality) and unconditional (no levels of love, pleasing or displeasing, judging or any other variation for any reason, just love) and much stronger than anything of human origin. If I encounter anything other than that, it is human, not God. Another is that I need to respect and not try to alter someone else's life process out of Love for them and because I do not truly understand their process. "Some course of action which seems so clearly to be leading to disaster may contain a twist of fate which lifts it to success. That accident whose cause was so apparent may have had an inner meaning we cannot see. That sudden death which we think could have been so easily avoided with greater consciousness may not have been the tragedy it appears. The man who died may have been needed elsewhere. We simply do not know. Scientists discover and theologians affirm; but faced with the mystery of life and death we know almost nothing. We can learn from the experts, but our experience may not fit their theories and it is our experience and our experience alone that we should trust."(Claremont deCastillejo)

Spiritual Path

Other than my exercising and regular household duties, I spend most of my time in activities of service to others or working on my own spiritual condition. I also do a lot of self care but even then minimize distractions from spiritual pursuits. I watch one or two movies a week and prefer fantasies of various types finding that I get enough realism in my daily life. In all of this I never lose track of the fact that my primary goal is to develop my spiritual condition. I am quite aware of how easy it is to become involved in worldly pursuits and lose track of my goal. "The most awful calamity which can befall our Religious Society is not a split in the unity of organization, not a loss of social prestige, not persecution by civil authorities, not loss of all our wealth. It is rather the subtle, unseen, slow, everyday weakening of our testimony and practice of absolute devotion." (Kilpack)

Joy

Every morning, at dawn this time of year, I go out the back on our deck and experience the "joy of being" along with all of the other plants and animals. The air is usually chilly and full of the moist smells of the beginnings of spring. Birds are just beginning to sing the spring song. I carry that joy and Love with me during the day. I distinguish between joy and pleasure since I have access to joy but cannot do many of the activities associated with pleasure, things like dancing, snow boarding, running or long walks in the woods. There are also many pleasurable activities that I can do such as eating or sitting in the woods but the pleasure is short-lived while the feeling of joy lasts. "Seek not pleasure neither of body nor of soul. This too is a gift, eluding those who seek it, seek God, for He alone is able to give joy, which is infinitely finer than pleasure.

Growth In Love

This morning we had a meeting of our reading group in which we are reading and discussing Healing The Heart Of Democracy: The Courage To Create a Politics Worthy of the Human Spirit, by Parker J. Palmer. He takes a very loving and spiritual approach to democracy which, as I mentioned this morning, many people are not ready for. The recent election and our now president demonstrate that people are continuing to embrace their dark or shadow sides, including judgmentalness, anger, racism, materialism and selfishness. These "urges", as John Yungblut calls them, are part of all humans and, often, part of our movement or growth to a more loving and spiritual approach to life on this planet. "It was the revelation that not only might good be wrought from the darkness of the unformed abyss, the unconscious, but that part of the very energy of the evil urge in man, if one would but wrestle with it, as had Jacob with the angel, would yield its own peculiar blessing." It is my hope that we can continue without destroying the earth we depend on. "It is not that the demonic forces within the unconscious are not capable of destruction and disintegration. It is rather that within the mystery of the conjunction of opposites their sting can be drawn, their poison drained, and their very energy harnessed to realize a more profound individuation.

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.