Ministry

For some reason, which is not clear to me, the spirits at and around the Friend’s meeting house in Sandy Spring, MD are pivotal to my work with spirits. What I do with the spirits I encounter is to radiate Love and dispel their negative thoughts and feelings. I then suggest they influence the living by doing the same thing, energetically. My plan is to shift the energetic balance from the negative, anger and hurt into a more loving direction. The spirits around Sandy Spring are leaders in the process and they inform me that the work is having an impact.

Holistic Healing

Today I was with someone who had fallen and could not get up. In response my subconscious automatically went into healing mode and I could feel the healing energy being drawn out of me and sent to her. She then got up with the aide of a chair. I usually generate and channel a healing energy based on love and God which I then direct through my hands to whatever needs healing. In this case the healing was done without thought or intent on my part, It felt like I was a merely a tool in the process. Understanding is not required!

Spiritual Growth

My intuitive sense is that it is now time for me to expand what I do, say and believe as far as spiritual matters. I am doing that by going past my intellect which deals with logic, reason and knowledge, very limiting and limited. I then venture, largely through meditation, into the realm of simple knowing and intuition using my listening skills and allowing myself to feel lost which sounds simple but it is certainly not easy. I have to shut down my intellect in order to proceed. "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)

My Role

I understand that anyone and everyone can feel and live within God’s kingdom, the feeling of Love, power, peace and presence, to the degree that they commit themselves to being in it. In my case I spend time each day in worship and am consciously aware of the kingdom 24/7. Most people do not have that level of commitment, which seems to be OK (though not in my case). I encounter many people who admire my commitment and the results — but are also unwilling to commit themselves to that degree. I will do everything I can to help them feel and live within the Love regardless. I gather that is my role.

Distraction

Tonight I was doing my "daily devotion" as described yesterday and focusing on the positive or loving aspects of the grief process when I got distracted and temporarily lost my connection. I am struck by how easy it is to become distracted. I could feel the Loving presence and strong connection as I recalled the deep, loving, sadness I felt after various losses in my life and a recognition of their eternal nature. It felt sad but in a very positive, forward moving way. Then I turned on my computer and began looking at some current events with the result that my connection evaporated — temporarily. Distraction is very easy to do!

Practice

As a part of my "daily devotion", I get out of bed around midnight for a period of prayer and meditation during which I spend about an hour broadcasting the power and healing love I believe originates with God. In addition to broadcasting, I turn that feeling on myself for my own health and healing. Tonight, while doing that, I also turned that feeling toward the spirits around me who received it like an energetic spiritual cleansing shower. In sending that feeling out into the night around me I believe it has a positive impact on the universe.

Abiding

The topic for our reading group which met yesterday was abiding or living within God’s love. Most of the members had experienced the feeling of living within God’s love for a period of time and then stopped doing the necessary footwork to maintain the connection. One woman when speaking of a time when she felt the presence of God commented that "unfortunately the connection required daily devotion". I suspect she was correct though I have not risked finding out. Personally I benefit greatly from abiding and hope I will not stop. "A mystical touch is a deep, intimate contact-union-experience of God in one of His attributes such as power, light, goodness, beauty, or joy." (Thomas Dubay, S. M.)

Love

My understanding of love has certainly evolved over time beginning with what I now call "country song" love and ending with my understanding of God’s Love. When I was much younger love meant a deep longing for the other person, a feeling that I now realize was dependency which put pressure on the other person and that it tended to result in emotional pain. Then love meant always wanting "sunshine and roses" for the other person which was unrealistic and hollow. Finally the Love I have learned from God is to devote myself to everyone’s mental and spiritual growth, especially people close to me. I find this to be a deeply fulfilling experience for everyone which recognizes and respects their need to work through and overcome the challenges of life, including unpleasant feelings.

Abiding

My method of abiding in God and God’s Love is to continually ask for guidance, act on that guidance and be grateful. In my process of abiding it has become clear to me that I do not understand God and that abiding is not as simple as I thought. The guidance I receive is not always what I would expect. For example, I asked for guidance while responding to one of the people I mentor who was having some emotional pain. I was planning to attempt to alleviate his pain but was told to "leave it alone", because his working through the pain himself would result in growth and out of respect and love for him. I did what I was told and the result was him getting emotionally much stronger and the pain passed quickly. God apparently Loved him enough to let him have his own pain and process.

Listening

When I was a boy I learned that in the process of exploring the contents along the bottom of a stream, I could lift a rock and allow the disturbed mud to flow away and clear until I got a clear view of what was there. For me, the process of listening is very much like allowing the mud to clear so I can arrive at a clear understanding. In this case the "mud" consists of my previous ideas, biases and prejudices which obscure my view. During my exploration of the unseen realm of spirits it has become clear to me that I do not understand and I am allowing previous ideas to muddy the water. In order to really hear and understand I need to be an open vessel, having let go of all previous ideas — I’m not there yet. "Listening is a far more difficult process than most people imagine; really to listen in the way that is meant by the masters is to let go utterly of ourselves, to let go of all the information, all of the concepts, all the ideas and all the prejudices that our heads are stuffed with." (Sogyal Rinpoche)