A Hymn For The Season

Sages of many religions have adopted the phrase "Christ Consciousness" to describe the presence of God in all of us. In that spirit, I offer this hymn for the holiday season.

At this time of celebration, I rejoice in the blessings we all share, that are symbolized by the coming of the Christ into this world.

I celebrate the endless birth of Joy in the world and in my heart.

I celebrate the promise of forgiveness.

I celebrate the all-encompassing Love that surpasses our power to understand.

I celebrate the Oneness of all beings in Spirit.

I celebrate the power of Light to triumph over darkness.

I celebrate the immortal Soul that denies the reality of death.

I declare that Christ Consciousness shines in me and in all beings.

I declare that all beings shall unite in Love in this world and all others.

I declare that Peace glows in every heart.

I proclaim the dominion of Love and Light, and banish darkness and hatred from my Universe.

I proclaim the sovereignty of God's healing power.

I gratefully acknowledge these and many other blessings, which I accept on behalf of all beings.

And so it is.

Namaste.

"I Don't Care"

Followers of spiritual traditions often seek equanimity. We train ourselves not to feel disturbing emotions, or at the very least not to be swayed by them. We may believe that such feelings have their source in the egoic mind or the physical body and that they are distractions that can lead us astray from our spiritual paths. We may envision our life’s goal as the attainment of perfect detachment, subsiding ultimately into a state of pure awareness that is as undisturbed as a still unruffled pool. There are dangers in this approach, however. Detachment should not properly be regarded as an end in itself, but is at most an attitude that may be useful in attaining a more perfect sense of unity with all that is. Avoiding superficial distractions may help us to focus on our fundamental oneness with the Universe, but we must not detach ourselves from Spirit.

The single-minded pursuit of detachment may actually represent a form of egoism. An individual may wind up so withdrawn into himself, in an effort to avoid disturbing influences, that he walls himself off not only from other people but from the Universe itself. The ego is fed by the implicit belief that all things outside oneself are unimportant, perhaps even illusory. Detachment of this sort does not lead to unity, but to separation. Within his protective shell the individual grows more and more focused on his own identity to the exclusion of others. He withdraws from emotional contact with others and, ultimately, with Spirit. He loses his place in the Universe by denying its existence.

Other people may seek detachment to protect themselves from painful contact with turbulent emotions, either their own or others’. Detachment for them becomes a form of denial. This may occur not because they do not care about themselves or others, but because they care so deeply that the intensity of feeling is intolerable. This can be particularly true when the feeling is painful. An individual may feel his own pain, or others’, so strongly that he retreats into detachment in self defense. For him, “I don’t care” is a mantra he chants to drown out the cries for help that reverberate in his consciousness. He may feel helpless and hopeless, drowning in a sea of human suffering that he is powerless to alleviate.

The sense of despair at one’s inability to wipe out all human suffering is itself a form of suffering. Detachment from that suffering does not mean to wall it out, but to allow it to pass by and to be unaffected by it. The same is true of other negative emotions. Rather than try to shield ourselves from them, we must learn to feel their full force while denying them power over us. Oneness with Spirit in meditation facilitates this process. It also enables us to realize that we and others like us do indeed have the ability to reduce human suffering by our actions in the material world as well as on a spiritual level. Every kind act we perform in the world shifts the balance measurably in the direction of Joy and away from pain. In the aggregate, those acts have immense power. At the same time, through compassionate meditation we can lighten the hearts of all beings by sending our Joy into the Universal Spirit in which all share at a subtle level.

Open Your Heart

Don't pray for God to open your heart; that is your job. God will not enter a closed heart.

Visualize your heart as a lotus or rose opening to the sunshine of Universal Love. As its petals unfold, the Love within you shines forth to merge its radiance with that of the Universe. You are bathed and you bathe others with the brilliant, cleansing light of Love, until nothing but Joy and perfect Being remains. There you rest, your soul at peace in the heart of God.

Namaste.

Define Yourself

Don't buy into any one else's vision of who you are or what your possibilities are. Other people live in their own worlds and their visions define them; they do not define you. You are defined by your own visualization of your unique being and your special opportunities.

Problem free

You are already completely free of problems. Instead of wasting time wishing for problems to go away, realize that they cannot affect you in the essence of your being. This will allow you to deal with material concerns on a practical level without feeling threatened by them or obsessing over them.

The Name of God

Why are some people disturbed by references to God? Of course you can substitute whatever synonym you like in place of the word "God." The meaning will be the same whether you say "Spirit", "the Universe", or "All That Is." The reference is to the Source of all things, of which each being is a part. It is to you and me, and what we are in essence when our separate identities are stripped away. You cannot deny the existence of God without denying your own existence, because there is no difference between yourself and God. If you have a negative reaction to the very word, it may be you do not understand its meaning, or have had bad experiences with people who do not. Or it may be that your mind is doing its mind thing, and resisting awareness of a greater and truer reality.

Troubles are Transitory

We are so often reminded that things are temporary. This is true when people and things we love pass out of our lives, and we have no difficulty comprehending this fact of life. Why do we not regard troubles as equally transitory?

Why?

There are times in everyone's life when he or she feels compelled to ask, "Why?" At such times some turn to Spirit for an answer. It is probably true that the great majority of us who engage in spiritual practices first embarked on the Path in search of an answer to some question that ultimately resolves into "why?" Those questions include "Why am I here", "Why do I have these feelings," and the granddaddy of all, "Why did this happen to me?"

Eventually we realize that the question "why" belongs to our human side, to the mind and the small self. It is the mind that sees events happening in the world and needs to understand their causes. Only the mind is attached to concepts of causation and its implicit corollary, fairness. It is the mind that asks, "How can God/Spirit/the Universe do this to me," and that believes "goodness" should be rewarded, or that the Universe is an orderly place in which individual circumstances can or should be correlated with individual behavior.

The mind, which is supposedly the rational part of us, maintains these beliefs in the face of all experiential evidence to the contrary. We see "bad" things happening to "good" people, and vice versa, every day. We all do our very best to be "good" people yet sometimes "bad" things happen to us. We even think these "bad" things are punishment for us not being "good" enough. All this is due to the mind's need to connect every event with a cause that can be understood by the narrow logic the mind has developed, and with its corresponding need to judge persons and events as "good" and "bad".

When united with Spirit in meditation, it is possible to realize that separateness, good and bad, causation, and even time itself are artifacts of the mind and the physical universe. What we perceive as our individual selves and our lives are no more separate from Spirit than waves are separate from the ocean. There can be no good and bad souls where all souls are merged in Spirit. From the perspective of Spirit as the unified field of loving energy spanning all dimensions, individual events in the physical universe lose their significance and lines of causality fade. The foreground loses focus and eventually is seen as unreal against the background of Spirit. Nothing but isness remains. Then all questions meet their answers and are annihilated in the joy of unification with All That Is.

And so it is.

Namaste!

Living Without Ego

In the preface to "The Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi", Arthur Osborne says of the Maharshi's teaching that "those who asked whether they should renounce the life of the world were always discouraged from doing so. Instead they were enjoined to perform their duties in life without self-interest."

What would it be like to go about your daily activities without self-interest? Ultimately the goal must be freedom from the ego. How would life be different without ego? By ego is meant not just egotism, selfishness and the like, but all manifestations of the small self, eventually even the awareness of separateness. Would it really be possible to perform one's duties in life as a pure manifestation of the greater Self that is the Universal manifestation of All That Is?

A beginning would be to simply practice awareness of the presence of ego and its influence on your actions.

All Healing is Self Healing

The Teacher said,

All healing is self healing. You may use whatever modalities you like; they may have effect in accordance with your intention. But complete healing is not a matter of manipulating local energies, but of cleansing the spirit of the illusions that the subject and the healer are separate beings and that either is separate from God. If you practice Pranic Healing to remove unhealthy energies, on an esoteric level you should actually be seeking to peel back the individual personality and lay bare the Spirit behind the mask. If you focus your attention exclusively on particular ailments or particular parts of the body, you may produce temporary relief from symptoms, but you may actually do long-term harm by reinforcing the illusions of identity and separateness. Therefore, your principal focus should be on greater awareness of the unity of your energies with those of your subject, and the unity of both in God. Do not visualize a perfectly functioning limb or organ, but rather a soul in perfect union with the Universe. The soul I speak of is yours and it is your subject's; it is the soul of all beings. You cannot treat your subject fully without also treating yourself, because you and your subject are one at the level of ultimate reality.

You will know the degree of your success in achieving proper focus by the effects you observe in yourself and your subject. True healing is complete healing. Your subject may have sought you out because of a particular symptom or condition. But you should observe changes not only in that condition, but in your subject's overall wellness, and your own. If you feel your energy has been drained from you after a treatment, it is because you have focused on transferring energy from your illusory self to the equally illusory self of your subject. Rather focus on the awareness that you are both manifestations of an infinite field of energy that provides you with limitless vital resources. You both should feel energized, lighter, and more fully alive after a treatment. You may find that any pains you may have been feeling in your own body are no longer present. You or your subject may also experience the relief of painful emotions, or the release of buried emotional pain that initially manifests as tears. It is this sense of wholeness that is the sign of a successful treatment.

Spiritual Freedom

Independence Day

Today is Independence Day in the United States, and across the country speakers will be paying tribute to the ideal of freedom. Most will understand this in a social or political sense: as a reference to the freedom of the nation as an independent state; or to the individual freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution. It’s worthwhile also, however, to reflect on the greatest freedom of all, which is the freedom of the spirit. This is a freedom that, while sustained and protected by political freedoms, can flourish and grow even in their absence. Indeed, there are many inspiring stories of the power of Spirit to achieve freedom even while enduring oppression, persecution, and torture.

My purpose today is not to pay tribute to those heroic examples, but to examine the ways in which spiritual freedom is accessible to each of us in everyday life. Before discussing the many ways in which spiritual freedom manifests, I want to say a few words about the tools we use to achieve it.

Tools of Spiritual Freedom

Meditation

Meditation is the doorway through which anyone seeking spiritual freedom must pass. There are many forms of meditation, but all have in common the goal of calming the small mind of the small self and allowing the Big Mind or the Higher Self to come forward. In other words, it allows the individual to become aware of his or her oneness with all that is.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is, in a sense, a way of carrying your meditation practice with you at all times. It means being aware. Specifically, it means being aware of what is happening in your mind and body. It is essential to the ability to express the attitudes and qualities of the Higher Self in your daily activities. Mindfulness also means being aware of those attitudes and qualities to which you dedicate yourself during meditation, but which tend to slip out of your attention under the pressure of ordinary life. Your mind is always reacting to stimuli from the environment. Between stimulus and response, there is always a fraction of a second in which you have the ability to choose the response you will express. The mindful person will always be on the lookout for the opportunity to guide his responses into the path set before him by the Higher Self. As Rabbi David Cooper said, "there are few, if any, fully enlightened people, . . . but there are untold numbers of enlightened acts."

Love

Love is the pervasive presence of God in the Universe. Through meditation, you become aware that Love is available to you at all times and in all places. By incorporating Love as the fundamental value of your own life, you become a manifestation of God’s Love and evidence of the oneness of all things. The knowledge that Love is everywhere, that you are never without Love, becomes the bedrock on which your spiritual freedom is built. Knowing you have Love, you know you have everything.

Forgiveness

Forgiveness is inseparable from Love and is its inevitable consequence. However, Forgiveness is also one of the steps to becoming aware that Love is everything. It is such a powerful tool for achieving spiritual freedom that it must be included here. Forgiveness cuts through many obstacles to the attainment of spiritual freedom, including anger, jealousy, and resentment. Developing the ability to forgive anyone or anything -- including especially yourself -- is literally the equivalent of growing angel’s wings to fly above the barriers to freedom that the ego erects for itself. By practicing Forgiveness, you internalize the principle that all beings deserve Love.

Surrender

It seems paradoxical to say that surrender is a tool for the attainment of freedom. Yet the ability to practice surrender is essential to that end. The Serenity Prayer of Reinhold Niebuhr asks for "grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed." Surrender means the acceptance of what is. Not in the sense of passively accepting the dictation of an impersonal Fate, but in the sense of being mindful. Many people spend far too much energy in denial. Even if we intend to work to change our conditions, we cannot do so effectively until we recognize what those conditions are. Surrender is therefore a practical tool for establishing a baseline against which our progress toward spiritual freedom can be measured.

Surrender also means the acceptance that everything in the Universe proceeds according to God’s Law. How could it be otherwise, when God is all that is? This is not fatalism or belief in predestination, because the Law dictates consequences, not actions. The Law presents us with choices at every step. Because each of us is an individual manifestation of God’s Love for itself, we also are a part of the Law and are able to use our knowledge of it to attain spiritual freedom.

Aspects of Spiritual Freedom

What then does spiritual freedom consist of? If freedom means the ability to act, what actions evidence the presence of spiritual freedom in your life?

Freedom From Attachments

Great spiritual teachers have always taught that we must release our attachments to worldly things in order to become free. As long as you believe a particular person or thing is essential to your happiness – or even to your existence -- you are a slave to that person or thing. This does not mean you should not enjoy the people you are close to, your favorite pastimes or your personal belongings; it means only that you should recognize that your happiness is independent of these things. Since all things and all beings are one in God, you cannot own them anyway. Clinging to the illusion that you can possess a person or thing only guarantees eventual unhappiness when it is lost. Surrendering that illusion sets both of you free. Meditation on oneness is a way to empower yourself to release attachments.

Freedom From Desire

Desire is an attachment to something you don’t have. Or perhaps you have it, but you don’t believe you have enough. Either way, desire enslaves your mind and prevents you from being free. Desire is inconsistent with surrender, and so impairs your ability to see the world as it is. Desire prevents happiness, because it implies that you need something you don’t already have in order to be happy. Meditation on the presence of God’s Love at all times and in all places loosens the grip of desire and allows you to release it.

Freedom Of Choice

When you banish attachments and desires from your Universe, then you are free to choose the path you will follow, or to follow no path. You can be happy as you are, particularly if you practice the tools of Love and Surrender. Or you can use those tools and others to break down any barriers that stand between yourself and your happiness. You can choose your surroundings and your companions. You can choose the ethical rules that you will follow in living an upright life. Most importantly, you can choose your attitudes and the ways that you react to the things that happen around you. You can choose to be happy knowing that Love abounds and Love is sufficient to your joy.

Freedom To Trust

The ability to trust is a great freedom. It frees you from fear and anxiety. Trust is the knowledge that you will not be hurt by the actions of others, or of the Universe. By sending out vibrations of trust you increase the likelihood of positive outcomes. Knowing they are trusted makes those around you want to deserve that trust. Trust instructs the Law to bring you outcomes that support your happiness. Trust also describes the knowledge that, whatever the outcome, you will emerge free and happy. Trusting that Love is the foundation of all that is enables you to see the positive elements in any outcome. Trust in yourself as a perfect manifestation of Spirit gives you the understanding that nothing can harm you in your essence.

Freedom To Be Well

Illness of body, or mind can be a prison. Pain and discomfort can block out the realization that you are living in the midst of Love and Joy at every moment. It is easy to become attached to one’s illness, since it seems to make your own needs the most important things in the Universe. Illness can also be attractive as an excuse for indulging in behaviors we would otherwise consider unworthy. It is one of the main tools used by the egoic mind and body to try to reclaim the attention we have taken away from them in our focus on Spirit. By directing our attention to themselves, they seek to distract us from Oneness.

The antidote for the negative effects of illness is, first, to practice Surrender, and recognize it for what it is: a temporary condition of body or mind that does not affect your essence that abides in Spirit. Forgiveness can then be brought to bear in order to sweep away any underlying causes in the form of fear, attachment, or guilt. Practicing self-Love enables you to see that the illness is not a part of you, but rather a stain that can be cleansed by shining the Light of Spirit upon it. Mindfulness assists in each of these practices.

Great teachers instruct us that illness is not an attribute of Self. This is evident once you realize that the body and mind are not the Self; it is attaining this realization that is difficult. Meditation on Oneness leads eventually to the understanding that the Self is perfect, eternal, and united through Spirit with the Love that is all that is. It is this awareness that finally releases us from all limitations and brings perfect Freedom.

And so it is.

Change your thinking, change your life

One of the most often repeated sayings in the New Thought movement is, "Change your thinking, change your life." Often this is said in explaining the Law of Attraction. It is also a fundamental principle of Religious Science as taught by Ernest Holmes. It has been said that if you keep doing what you've always done, you're going to keep getting what you've always gotten. The same is true of thoughts -- if you keep thinking the same way you always have, then your life will continue along the same track it has always taken.

If you have been plagued by negative thinking for a long time, it is very difficult to change. It's also difficult to internalize the understanding that negative thinking is a self-fulfilling prophecy. A person who always expects the worst is likely to get it. When he does, he is likely to see the outcome as validating his expectations, when in fact it was his expectations that created the outcome. If he can find a way to break this vicious circle for once, and give up his negative outlook even temporarily, he may learn the truth that what you put into the Universe is what you get out of it.

How can someone who has never experienced positive outcomes adopt a positive outlook? The first thing to do is to examine what you consider a positive outcome. Are you a glass-half-full or a glass-half-empty person? If you are always looking for something to complain about, you are always going to find it. On the other hand, if you are always looking for something to be thankful for, you will also find that. So even without changing a thing in the "outside" world, you can change the amount of enjoyment you get out of life by changing your focus.

There are a few things you can do to help with this change. First, you can consciously affirm the presence of good in your life. Make a mental inventory of things you are (or should be!) grateful for -- in other words, count your blessings. Be generous in this exercise. Don't let the words "but" or "except" creep into your thinking about the good things in your life. Just look on the bright side for once -- you've already given the dark side too much of your attention for too long! Later, when you are ready for more advanced techniques, you will affirm the good that is not yet tangible but nevertheless is just around the next corner.

Second, start watching your thoughts. Don't try to suppress any negative thoughts that come to you; just try not to react to them at all. Detach yourself from them and allow them to fade and vanish. Without your attention, they will. Become aware of how often you think about past unhappy events, compared to how often you enjoy happy memories. Be aware of the attention you are giving to the unpleasant aspects of experiences you are having today, right now, and of how many opportunities for even a moment's pleasure or happiness you are passing up. Notice how often you have gloomy thoughts about the future, and how often you generate positive expectations. Don't react or try to force your mind into a different way of thinking; just observe.

Once you have gotten into the habit of watching your thoughts, then try to discern where the negative ones are coming from. Is there a place in you that always seems to see clouds where there could be sunshine? Focus on this place for a time, not in such a way as to encourage or develop it, but simply to see how it operates. Knowledge is power, and knowledge of yourself is power over your Universe. Look also for the parts in you that seem to generate mostly positive thoughts and feelings. Why aren't they getting the same attention as the others? Shine the light of your love on these fertile fields, and count the beautiful flowers that spring into view. The things to which you give your attention are those that will flourish in your life.

There really is no such thing as a dark force. There is only love and the absence of love. You don't have a demon inside you making you think negative thoughts; you just have some places that haven't been exposed to the sunshine enough. There are places within us where we store pain. Disappointments, losses, abuse and mistreatment hurt us, and most of us have tucked away the pain from those events in various nooks and crannies of our psyches or our anatomies. When you have a negative expectation, ask yourself why, then observe the thoughts that come up from your subconscious. They may seem to be random, disconnected ideas, but noticing them may give you some clues to the buried pain tangled up in those sore muscles and that wounded ego. The more you learn about yourself, the easier it will be to release that hidden pain and free yourself from the pall it is casting over your life.

Once you feel you have gotten a handle on what is going on inside you, then it is time to start gently shaping your world by shaping your thoughts. When you have a positive thought, encourage it; turn it over in your mind, enjoy it, watch it develop and grow into a bright spot of happiness. When you see a negative thought coming, allow it to move right past. Don't try to shove it back down where it came from; that will just prolong the process of ridding yourself of those unwanted ideas and feelings. Just don't give it your attention and it will wither to dust and blow away.

While you are doing all this inner work, try to do the same with the world around you. Greet every person you meet with warmth and love. Look for things to be glad about, and shrug off those less-desirable things you would have obsessed about before you began this self-rescuing program. Above all, don't take on any new pains that you can avoid. If friends are in trouble or in pain, offer them sympathy but don't allow yourself to take on their suffering. That is their karma to work out, not yours; you have plenty of your own. On the other hand, share your own happiness with others, and allow them to share theirs with you. You'll find that happiness is not diluted but is multiplied by being shared. It's well known that changing your behavior can change your attitudes. Changing your outward interaction with the world will help you change yourself inwardly as well.

There's so much more to be said that hundreds of books have been written on the subject. If you'd like some recommendations, write me and tell me your story. I'd love to hear from you.

Namaste

Why are we so interested in the personal lives of celebrities?

The ego is constantly comparing itself to others. It is jealous of everyone, but particularly of attractive, wealthy celebrities. It takes pleasure in the misfortune of anyone, but again, especially celebrities. The ego does not understand that it is reinforcing its own unhappiness by focusing on the misfortunes of others.

Control

You cannot always control your circumstances, but you can always refuse to be controlled by them.

Mp3

Harmonious Oneness

The Teacher said,

"When I say you must find the God within yourself, I do not mean that God is hidden somewhere within you. Every cell in your flesh, every breath in your lungs, every sensation and feeling is God. What is needful is for you to become aware of this. When you meditate, be mindful of the energy that animates you. Feel the vibration of the Universe in your body. Let it resonate through your nerves and your veins. Let that resonance build until your body cannot contain it, and feel it bursting forth into the surrounding Universe. Then be aware that the same energy resonates in every being and every thing, and of the profound harmonies between your vibrations and theirs. Learn to ride those harmonies like ocean waves, to sustain their crescendos, and you will know oneness with the divine."

Mp3

Drawing Lines

The mind seeks to draw lines between people; the soul seeks to erase those lines.

Mp3

Live Beautifully

The essence of spiritual living is not to find a beautiful environment in which to live, but to find a way to live beautifully in any environment.

Selfless Love is Self Love

There are those who seem to love and think only of themselves. Fewer are those who seem to take no thought for themselves, but care deeply about others. The truth is that in order to truly love others, it is necessary to also love and care for yourself as a cherished child of God.

I was struck recently by the statement in a recorded lecture that Mother Teresa spent five hours a day in prayer and meditation. That means five hours devoted to developing and maintaining her personal connection with God. Was that selfish? Surely she derived unimaginable bliss from her daily practice. Anyone who has spent any amount of time in close communion with Spirit has felt some intimation of the peace and joy she experienced. Such a daily practice over many years must have opened her soul so wide as to encompass the entire world, and sustained her in her saintly path. She must have seen clearly her place in the heart and mind of God and known God as her beloved, herself as the beloved of God. Knowing God's love, who can withhold self love? It is no stretch of conjecture to suppose that it was this experience of oneness with God that enabled her to live the life that she did. By loving herself as a part of God, she was able to see the diseased and poverty-stricken people to whom she devoted her life -- her brothers and sisters, our brothers and sisters -- as equally deserving of love and compassion.

John Paul II asked: "Where did Mother Teresa find the strength and perseverance to place herself completely at the service of others? She found it in prayer and in the silent contemplation of Jesus Christ, his Holy Face, his Sacred Heart." Few of us will follow closely in Mother Teresa's footsteps either as a servant of the destitute, or as a devoted child of God. But we can learn from her example that a daily practice of prayer or meditation can help bring us closer to the loving Spirit of the Universe, to an awareness that we are one with that Spirit, and to the knowledge that every soul we encounter is likewise a beloved part of God and therefore a part of us as fully deserving of love as we are ourselves.

Just as we are not perfect in our outer manifestations, we may have difficulty seeing the perfection in others through their disguises formed of ego, pain, and fear. But just as prayer and meditation can show us to the perfect God within ourselves, they can also teach us to find and worship the stainless manifestation of Spirit within every other person.

Prayer and meditation, in other words, are the path to love, acceptance, and joy. The more we indulge in those delicious practices, the greater is the joy that is accessible to us. But any amount of daily practice, be it five minutes or an hour, can help us set foot on the Path that leads to peace and fulfillment.

And so it is.

Namaste

Teaching release of negativity

The Teacher said,

"When you begin the instruction of a new student, do not tell him to release negativity. He would probably misinterpret your teaching and try to suppress his negative feelings. This is how most people deal with fear, anger, and stress. The result of course is that negativity builds up under pressure, which leads to increased stress, anger, and dis-ease."

" Tell your student instead to express his negative feelings to you. You can absorb and release them, and your student will feel his burden lightened. In this way we teach the student not to deny negativity but to be mindful of it without becoming attached to it. He will no longer need to feel unworthy because of his natural sentiments, by being released they will not fester and grow into bigger problems."

"As he becomes increasingly mindful of his negative thoughts and feelings, he will learn to recognize and release them at an earlier stage, before their destructive power has been magnified by being suppressed. This will lead to his feeling less threatened by them, and enable him to learn to release them more easily. Eventually he will learn to distinguish between those thoughts which require him to take action to remedy an undesirable external condition, and those which are unnecessary whinings of the egoic mind."

"These last he will eventually be able to release without even expressing them verbally. For those thoughts requiring action, he will be able to act without rancor or fear, without the pressure of so many other repressed complaints."

There is no negativity

The Teacher said, "Do not say, 'I abandon negativity', for then you are giving respect to a phantom. Say, 'There is no negativity.'"

Love and Acceptance

In our hearts, we all desire love and acceptance more than anything else, and therefore it seems the most natural thing in the world would be for all of us to love and accept each other all the time. So why is true unconditional love so rarely seen?

Sometimes we are separated by fear or distrust. We know and trust our own motivations, but how can we read the mind of another person to know whether he or she will return our love, rather than seeking to take something from us? Who should love first?

We are afraid someone may "take advantage" of us. Yet how can that be so long as we first love ourselves unconditionally? Self-love is not selfish, and it is not sinful. It is in fact a commandment from God. Jesus taught that we should love others as we love ourselves -- not more than we love ourselves, but just as much. Yet he also taught us to love others deeply and unconditionally. He was telling us to have the same complete and unqualified love for ourselves.

If we follow this commandment and love ourselves unconditionally, then there is really no risk in loving others. Our self-esteem will not be dependent upon how others feel about us. If you extend a loving hand to a brother or sister in Spirit and it is refused, should you be hurt? No, because you know what a precious child of God that you are. The rejection does not mean your love is undesirable or that you are unlovable, but only that the other person is not in a position to accept love from you at this time. You can leave the door open for him or her to return seeking your love and acceptance at another time, without any risk of damage to your own love of yourself.

Another important fear about relationships is the fear of loss. We may hesitate to give anything of ourselves to another person out of fear that he or she will leave us and there will be a hole in our existence that cannot be filled. This causes us to cling to the relationships that we have, as well as to resist entering into new ones. This fear also is totally derived from doubts about our own worth. If you love yourself fully and unconditionally, nothing another person does can shake that love. Therefore, you are free to open yourself to another knowing that if he or she later needs to withdraw for a time, you will remain perfectly whole.

One way to minimize the fear in relationships is to be open, trusting, and accepting of literally everyone. You may find, as a particular relationship develops, that there must be limitations on these attributes; but each should be approached initially in a way that demonstrates the total absence of fear or doubt. If that is your standard practice, then people will be able to see their perfection mirrored in your own, and will be eager to enter into the same kind of relationship with you.

Argue

The Teacher said, "Argue against these principles. Bring forth every argument you can, and do not cease arguing until your arguments have exhausted themselves. Then you will see the principles still standing before you pristine and untarnished, as shining emblems of eternal Truth."

Pain is not real

Intellectually, I am aware that pain is not real. The body is a manifestation of God's perfection, and God cannot create pain. Nevertheless, as long as we believe in pain, it exists for us, and we will be burdened with its apparent reality.

I mention this because my physical age and condition are such that aches and pains appear to be real with increasing frequency. However, I made an interesting observation today.

I woke up feeling soreness in my lower back. I pampered it as I started my morning, holding myself stiffly so that I would not move the affected muscles more than necessary. Then I got more involved in my daily activity, specifically washing dishes and making breakfast. I noticed that when I focused on one of those activities, I did not notice the ache in my back. Once a task was finished, my attention would return to the pain and I would feel it again.

The thought came to me that pain is only a bodily sensation. One realization that followed this observation was that I did not identify my self with my body. The pain affected my body, but it did not affect me.

The second realization I had was that, since the pain is not part of me, there is no need for me to be concerned with it. If I focus my attention elsewhere, I should not notice the pain, and if I do not notice it, the pain does not exist. Pain is not something that is real independent of the body which experiences it. To the extent I can -- as I have been trying to do anyway -- concentrate on the Christ spirit within me rather than on its physical manifestation in the body, I should be unaffected by pain.

I hope that this will help me understand Joel Goldsmith's teachings better.

Namaste.

God is everything

There is nothing that is real that is not God. You and I are manifestations of God's creative force. Because God is perfect, you and I are perfect. There is nothing that is real that is not perfect. If we can fully grasp this truth, then everything is possible.

Allow yourself to experience darkness

If you have not known the darkness, how can you lead others through it?

Right Action

Every time you do the right thing makes the next time easier.

Thoughts on revenge

The Teacher said:

The impulse to revenge and striking back is so ingrained in us, that it's hard to believe that it is possible to exist without it. The only way to do so is to be the change you want to see in the world -- practice mindfulness and compassionate connection at all times and in all situations. As humans we will always be at risk of sliding back into the revenge reflex, but if we are aware of what we are thinking and doing, and of what we want to think and do, we have the best chance of sticking to our principles.

The Four Agreements of Don Miguel Ruiz are excellent guidelines for life. They are:

Be impeccable with your word.

Don't take anything personally.

Don't make assumptions.

Always do your best.

These principles don't leave much room for revenge!

Nevertheless, it's very hard to avoid the knee jerk reaction to strike back when someone hurts us. All we can do is try, and practice, and be confident that we will get better at it over time. Mindfulness is more important than good intentions here. As long as you observe your reactions and take advantage -- when you can -- of that instant between stimulus and response to decide how you are going to react, then you will eventually be able to choose all your reactions.

Finally -- never judge yourself. You know you are doing your best.

A student said,

I believe this to be inherently false. When you have been harmed by someone physically or emotionally, it absolutely does ease your own pain to strike them back.

The Teacher replied,

In my experience, inflicting pain on another does nothing to ease any pain I may be feeling, but instead makes me feel worse. It is possible that for some the mind can be temporarily distracted from its own suffering by projecting it upon others, but the only way suffering can be permanently relieved is by removing it from one's Universe altogether, through forgiveness and compassion. This truth is as inflexible as anything found in physics. Anything else is delusion.

You won't understand what I am saying until you have had the experience yourself, and then no explanation will be necessary. You will know the difference between the hollow temporary distraction of taking revenge and the fulfilling peace that comes from forgiveness.

Don't Believe Me

The Teacher said,

Don't believe anything I tell you about God. Don't believe anything I say about energy, the Universe, or your own Spirit. I don't tell you these things so that you will believe them. My teachings are meant to show you what is possible for you to achieve by your own practice.

When I say to you, "God is Joy", it's no use for you to repeat that over and over unless you are able to experience it yourself. If you practice the meditations I have taught you, if you are able to still the mind for even a second without being distracted by a random thought, then you will know what I'm talking about. You will begin to sense the infinite peace that oneness with the Spirit of the Universe can bring.

When I say to you, "God is Love", you will not understand it unless you practice love and compassion. When you look every stranger in the eye and smile, when you pray sincerely and constantly for God's blessings to rain upon those you formerly called enemies, when every being's happiness is your own, then Joy will suffuse your soul and you will know the sweetest aspect of divinity.

And when I tell you that illness and dis-ease are only the result of separation from God, and that healing is no more than seeing the true light of God's perfection shining through and manifested in each of God's children; you will not know this until you have banished the clouds from your own sight and witnessed for yourself the cleansing power of your perfect Vision of Universal Truth.

And so I tell you again, do not believe in anything you have not yourself experienced. When you teach others, be sure to tell them the same. Knowledge of God cannot be distinguished from God itself. When you have God with you, you have no need of Teachers.

And so it is. Namaste.

I am a sinless child of God

I am a sinless child of God

And I am perfect now.

Repeat this many times a day as a mantra. If you hear a voice in your head denying this, that voice is not you, and it is not God. Therefore, it does not exist, or rather it did not exist until you willed it into being. Although your will created it, you cannot silence this voice by willing it not to be. That would only create conflict and greater disturbance within you. Look deep within yourself until you find the place where it arises. Look deeper still and you will find the buried pain that gives it strength. By understanding this pain, releasing it, and forgiving yourself for any thoughts or deeds that preceded it, you will deny it the force that it needs in order to exist. You will cease to intend to suffer that pain and endure that voice, and they will be no more.

Joy and Truth

A student asked the Teacher, "How is it possible for one to feel happiness when other souls are suffering?"

The Teacher replied, "Compassion does not require that you take another's suffering unto yourself, for doing so does not relieve the other's pain, and simply increases the amount of pain in the Universe. Compassion consists entirely of recognizing and strengthening the connection between souls, and between each individual soul and Spirit. Those connections spontaneously create joy, or rather allow the joy that is always present in Spirit to suffuse throughout the network of souls."

"Therefore, in meditation, do not seek to take over another's pain, but to convey your joy to that other. Recall that pain is not real, but only the result of separation. This is why spiritual connection seems to create joy and remove pain."

"It is not possible for one person to create joy in isolation; for all joy derives ultimately from connection to Spirit, either in its universal undifferentiated form, or in its manifestation in Nature and in other beings. On the other hand, pain, being created by separation, cannot be shared. A person can make pain for himself, but any other person who accepts that pain as his own does so voluntarily and as a further act of separation."

"So-called selfish pleasures do not add joy, because they create or do not diminish separation. It is possible to experience transitory pleasure at the cost of another's pain, but ultimately the pain returns to its creator and negates the illusion of pleasure. Therefore, seek those pleasures that create joy and do not create pain."

"The love of partnered souls is such a pleasure. So are the joy that comes from acts of charity, and the ecstasy of uniting with Spirit in meditation. All these add to the shared joy of Universal Spirit."

The student then asked, "What if my pleasure makes my neighbor jealous, or angry? Is my pleasure still adding to the amount of joy in the Universe?"

The Teacher answered, "Those whose consciousness is overcome by separation -- by pain -- may indeed create more pain for themselves by failing to acknowledge or partake of their share of the joy that is there for them to experience, including the joy you offer them through your own pleasure. Rather than allowing your happiness to warm their souls, they may seek to freeze it out by deepening the separation between you. This is pain acting to protect itself. But you did not create that pain; on the contrary, you offered your neighbor the gift of your joy."

"If he is so distracted by pain as to refuse the gift, do not respond with resentment and create pain for yourself. Allow the warmth of your soul's joy to continue to shine upon him, and wait patiently for the icy shell to melt. Love the Spirit within, and ignore the illusion that has temporarily encased it. In this way the pain he creates will not pollute the joy that you contribute to the Universe, and will eventually lose the ability to perpetuate itself."

"The source of joy in Spirit is infinite. Joy must ultimately overcome pain, because joy is the truth, while pain is falsehood. Even the soul that is dominated by pain throughout a mortal lifetime must return to the unfettered joy of Spirit when that lifetime ends. Knowing that joy, love and truth are one will allow you to maintain an attitude of compassionate openness towards all other souls, particularly toward those whose sense of separation and need for compassionate connection is greatest."

Judging

Ernest Holmes wrote:

"It is only when we have completely forgiven others that we can get a clearance in our minds, for we are judged by the judgment with which we judge. If we criticize, condemn, and censure, these are the attitudes that occupy our thinking, and they will not only reflect themselves outwardly, they will also reflect themselves inwardly."

"If we want a complete clearance of forgiveness, we must give a complete clearance to everyone and everything. Whether we like it or not, this is one of the great truths of life. Not only should we forgive others, but we should equally forgive ourselves and not carry the mistakes of the past into the future."

The phrase, "judge not, lest ye be judged" appears to carry the implication that God reserves the power of judgment unto itself. However, I believe that God does not judge souls, any more than a soul aligned with Spirit judges other souls. I understand the phrase in the context of the power of intention. Judging means to label a thing as immutably "bad". By judging, I allow badness to become a part of my universe. If I create a world in which judging plays a part, then I must expect to be judged by others as much as I judge them. By excluding judgment from my experience and my intention, I can begin to create a non-judgmental universe around me, one that is pervaded only by goodness.

"The most fundamental question we can ever ask ourselves is whether or not the universe we live in is friendly or hostile."
--Albert Einstein

The truth that Einstein did not reveal is that it is our choice.

Compassion For the Uncompassionate

A student came to the Teacher and asked, "How can I feel compassion for evildoers, and those who feel no compassion themselves?"

The Teacher replied, "There is no being that is not capable of compassion, though some appear to have nothing but hatred or lust in their hearts. Even the cruelest tyrant may behave quite differently with those he loves, such as his children. But that is not the reason for your compassion. Cruelty and avarice are signs of separation. Separation is painful, and the soul that has temporarily lost its ability to connect with Spirit is in a state of constant torment. In its suffering it turns upon itself and upon Spirit, as Spirit is manifested in other souls around it. Like an animal caught in a trap, that may chew off its own foot to escape, such a soul may seek even to destroy itself, but generally succeeds only in bringing itself to the point of maximum suffering. In a misguided attempt to lessen its pain, it drives itself even farther into chaos and dis-ease."

"How can you contemplate such agony and not feel compassion? If such a soul in torment is near you, it may try to hurt you. This is the only way it can see, in its blind state, to try to remove the separation and bring you closer to itself. Do not allow ego to make you react out of hurt or vengeance; for then you will be pulled into the trap. It is at such times that your compassion should be felt most strongly, for only with the force of love and compassionate connection can the vicious cycle be broken. Pray for the evildoer, and do not answer evil with more evil. Probe the defenses the misguided being hides behind; if not in this life, then perhaps the next, a crack will be found, the shell will be broken, and the perfect sinless soul within will be released into the light of compassion and love."

The student persisted, "But what of truly monstrous beings, such as Adolf Hitler or Osama Bin Laden? Surely they do not deserve our compassion?"

The Teacher rebuked the student, saying, "You are mistaken if you think compassion is a gift that you bestow upon others. Compassion is your obeisance to God, the recognition of the universal spirit that unites you with the other. If you lack compassion for any child of God you are choosing to separate yourself from God to that extent."

"Even those who seem to have come into this world only to cause pain and destruction are sinless children of God at the core of their being. Encrusted and bound as they are by the scars of past pain, the soul within still glows and yearns to be released. Osama's soul is like a man buried alive; his hatred is like a coffin blocking out all light and even air, and the weight of Separation bears down like tons of earth heaped upon him. Wrapped in ropes of pain, it struggles only to find itself held tighter. It will require much compassion and lovingkindness from others to free that soul from the crushing weight of all the pain its thrashing about has caused. But if Osama and the millions of others like him are ever to be deflected from their destructive course, it will be by the true force of love and compassion, which is Spirit, and not by the false and hollow means of further death and destruction."

"This lesson is of critical importance, and I urge you to include such souls especially in your lovingkindness meditation."

A Meditation For Rough Seas

I am a creature of energy. This ship is made of steel and its energy is tightly bound in material form. It has no choice but to resist the waves and fight its way through as best it can. As a result, the passive energy of the ship's hull and the active energy of its engines clash with the energy of the ocean, creating and magnifying disturbing forces.

As pure energy, however, I have the ability to merge synergistically and enthusiastically with the energy of the sea. In meditation, I seek to release all resistance to that energy and to abandon attachment to my rigid material form. I attune myself to the movement of the waves and flow with them, following the course that Spirit has chosen for me, rather than try to fight through on a course of my own choosing.

Like a dolphin riding a powerful ocean current, I add my own energy flow to that of the spiritual sea in which I am immersed. I visualize myself as an aquatic being in harmony with the living energy of the ocean, or sometimes as an aerial creature, soaring and diving in the currents of the atmosphere. When the waves rise, I allow myself to be borne upward, sensing the moment when the wave will carry me to its crest, the resting point where the potential energy is the greatest. Poised at the peak of the wave, I sense the direction of the next trough, and allow myself to begin to slide in that direction. Making the energy of the wave my own, I release the stored potential and accelerate downward, feeling the exhilarating rush of the ocean's power as it propels me smoothly forward, twisting and turning through the lesser transitory currents and eddies that are contained even in this powerful mountain of water.

As the speed of our descent diminishes, I feel the ocean gathering strength again to bear me skyward on another magnificent swell. Propelled and guided by enormous forces, I am yet powerful and free, for I am one with the Spirit that informs everything in the Universe, manifesting as wave and ocean, wind and sky, animate and inanimate, and all beings including myself. The forces of Nature are my forces, and I am theirs; knowing this allows me to exist in harmony with them. I am secure in the awareness that Spirit holds only love and that love is accessible to me at every time and in every place.

And so it is.

Oldies

Sometimes when I hear music from my teenage years, or from my young adulthood, I feel sad. Why is that? The explanation that I have always given myself is that I am mourning past mistakes and lost opportunities. At some level I think of the possibilities that lay before me at that age. Something in the depths of my consciousness feels that I have failed, that I have not wound up in the place that I could have been, and that I might have been happier if I had acted differently.

These are false beliefs. At every moment, at every age, I did the best that I could at that time. No doubt I made mistakes, but every soul makes mistakes. I have caused pain, but I swear I never acted with the purpose to do so. I have caused disappointments, but it was not I who created the expectations that were not met. I have not achieved financial security, but that has never been my goal.

If I regret anything, it is that I lived fifty years and more out of touch with Life. Spirit was at hand all those years, and I turned away from it. Yet this too must have been because this is now the right time for me to make my peace with the Universe and to join the chorus of souls. What would have happened if I had turned this way rather than that at any given point in my journey is irrelevant, for Spirit guided me otherwise.

How many blessings have been bestowed on me in those years? It is impossible to count. Six children, academic honors, professional respect, experience in many places and cultures, the joy of music, millions of smiles exchanged, and a love to last forever -- these are things that Spirit has brought me. And as I write these words, love and peace fill my heart as I experience the sense of unity with all creation that waited for me to welcome it into my life.

And so I affirm that I am not the past, but the Now of limitless possibility. This is not the possibility of an uncertain future, but the blooming and unfolding of the eternal present. Within me and around me, the Universe reveals itself in ever greater detail and manifests beauty that I need only observe to appreciate. My heart fills to bursting with amazement and gratitude, as I am warmed by the Source of all warmth.

And so it is.

Procrastination

Procrastination comes from negative emotions that are based on fear. Knowing there is nothing to fear removes the basis for procrastination. When faced with the desire to procrastinate, first clearly identify the task you need to peform. Then visualize the task as completed. Feel the pleasure of having done the best job you can do. In Spirit, all tasks are already complete. Allow Spirit to guide you along the path it has already taken. This does not mean to perform work mindlessly. On the contrary, work is accomplished by being mindful of the voice within you that already knows what to do. The first step is clearly marked before you if you focus on it. When you have taken that step, the next will be just as clear. If you feel stuck or blocked, calm your mind, go within, and wait peacefully for guidance to come.

Transition

Recently a beloved family member made his transition. We comforted each other for our loss; some of us also voiced our concern for the one who had passed on.

We the survivors -- not yet face to face with the reality of our own transition -- think of the next life as a misty shadow of this one. We fret that those who make transition will be deprived of the things and the souls that they are leaving, and will find on the other side only the ghostly remnants of those who have gone before them.

I suspect that such pity is misplaced. I would go so far as to say that those who have gone before us must pity our narrow vision of what lies ahead (or, indeed, exists just beyond our perception).

I believe that the truth awaiting us all is that it is this world that is a shadow, this existence that is an illusion. It is said we are spiritual beings having a human experience. We will undoubtedly return from this experience enriched -- why else would we have sought it? But I believe we will also be grateful to have shed the shackles of our bodies, the limits of our senses and our three dimensions, and the phantom demon of earthly time.

Only the mind fears death. The mind and its co-dependent, the body, are unable to imagine an existence beyond this material universe. The mind fears extinction; and yet, as it is only a construct of the body, it is already unreality founded upon unreality. The spirit must welcome the passing of the mind and body, for they stand between spirit and genuine awareness. How strenuously the saints and swamis, buddhas, krishnas and Christs must labor to overcome the restraint of mind and body and to achieve liberation and power. How effortlessly must the spirit soar, what depth and intensity of joy it must experience, once those bonds are loosed.

One thing that is certain is that the world we experience now is illusory. Not just the science of spirit, but also physical science, has established that fact. We see solidity where there is mostly emptiness; matter where there is only energy; separateness where there is only the underlying unity of the universal spirit, the Unified Field. We organize the world around us into the appearance of discrete objects because of the limitations of our senses. How can we believe that they are more than convenient icons that will vanish -- or rather, whose artificiality will be exposed -- once those limitations are transcended?

So, while I felt deep sympathy for the physical suffering that accompanied our loved one's transition, and I will mourn his passing for my sake and others', I do not pity him. He has done what he came here to do; it is now time for him to reawaken from the shadowy dream he shared with us awhile. When we too have accomplished our purpose in this life, may we have the wisdom to know it is our time to return to closer communion with the loving warmth of Spirit that is genuine Life. Then may we also have the strength to release our clinging hold on materiality, and fall trustingly into the loving, welcoming, comforting embrace of God.

Falsehoods

A student complained to the Teacher that another had wronged him. The Teacher asked, “How have you been wronged?” The student explained that the other had insulted him, and spread false rumors about his character. The Teacher said thoughtfully, “How do you know it was you who was being insulted and slandered?”

The student looked puzzled. “I told you – he insulted me directly to my face. Then he told the same story to my friends – he used my name.”

“Were these things that he said true?”

“No – of course not. That’s why I am angry at him.”

The teacher smiled. “Sometimes it upsets us more to hear the truth about ourselves than to hear falsehoods. And sometimes another person gives voice to what we secretly fear is true about ourselves. That may be the most upsetting of all.”

“But if these things that were said are not true, then they cannot have been said about you. This person is trying to create another you that is false, to deceive your friends and even you yourself, into accepting this artificial creature as you.”

“If you and your friends are deceived at all by this ruse, it can only be because you are not convinced of its falsity. This happens because your ego is aware that it too is a fabrication. If you identify with your ego, then you must think of yourself as something that can be created or destroyed. If your friends see only the ego you project – or whatever parts of their own egos they have projected upon you – then they may be as likely to believe in the new projection as in the old.”

“However, if you know yourself as a faultless manifestation of the divine, then you cannot be fooled by falsehoods constructed by your ego or another’s. Moreover, if you allow the true light of Spirit to shine into the world through your being, no one who is capable of seeing the truth will believe that you are possessed by depravity or evil.”

“Falsehood cannot exist in the presence of truth. The remedy for any pain you feel when someone tells lies about you is to stop believing lies about yourself. You are a perfect child of God, and nothing can change that. If you will only align your perception with that truth, you will not be troubled when other egos seek to pull you into the web of their suffering by projecting their own faults upon you.”

“Nor will you be concerned that others may believe empty falsehoods about you. Emptiness multiplied a thousand times is still empty. But if you truly know yourself, those around you will not be able to ignore the brilliance such knowledge brings to your soul; they will be as aware of your perfection as you are.”

"Finally, if you know who you truly are, there is no way you can be troubled by falsehoods that are spoken about you. When you hear something that triggers the beginning of resentment in you, remind yourself of its emptiness and your peace will be restored."

If you would have peace, do only good.

Affirmation:

I do only good.
I desire only good.
I release all desires that are unworthy of a child of God.

It seems at first that I am setting an impossible goal for myself. The body and mind have desires that do not promote peace and compassion. Those desires are deeply seated and may never go away.

All I ask of myself, however, is to release any attachment to those desires, and any misconception that appeasing them will bring me greater peace. Those desires create inner turmoil, and attempting to satisfy them would only make the problem worse. The body and mind do not crave happiness, but only distraction. Obeying their desires would not bring happiness, even though they insist that it would. Moreover, it would cause a conflict within me and drive me farther away from peace, not bring me closer.

I do not condemn these desires; on the contrary, I bless and forgive them. But I understand deeply that inner harmony can only be achieved by adopting the good as my only purpose, and acting only in ways that will do no harm to myself or others.

Right thought, right action consist not of suppressing unworthy desires, but of contemplating and understanding them fully. Once the true effect of satisfying them is understood, they lose their attraction. Then it is easy to release them. In fact, releasing them becomes the only natural course of action.

It is not always clear which desires are worthy and accord with the good. The true test in any case is whether acting on a desire will increase the kindness, goodness and compassion in the world, or will bring unkindness, hurt, and unhappiness. You cannot answer that question without understanding your desires completely.

Once you have felt the inner peace that comes from acting for good, as well as the dis-ease that flows from acting otherwise, it becomes easy to act only for good. This is true so long as you remain mindful of your intentions, your actions, and their likely consequences.

Logic and Truth

Aristotelian logic is like Newtonian physics. It is a powerful tool for understanding ourselves and the visible, tangible world in which we live. Because it has such power, particularly with respect to thoughts and events we encounter every day, we often forget that logic itself is just a theory -- a working hypothesis. Therefore, when we encounter things that cannot be explained “logically”, we reject them and deny their existence.

Just as quantum physics has disclosed the existence of a level of reality that transcends Newton’s theories – a universe of energy that does not obey the laws he propounded (which many thought were absolute and incontrovertible) -- spiritual thinkers are aware of a world of conscious energy that obeys a logic beyond Aristotle. In this world, miracles are commonplace, and there is no distinction between thoughts and objects or events.

In this world, and only in this world, free will exists. The world of Aristotle and Newton is inherently deterministic, though philosophers tie themselves in semantic knots trying to incorporate free will into that mechanistic universe. In the transcendent reality of Spirit, there is no such difficulty, for that reality begins and ends with Will. The will of Spirit to manifest itself in us and in our physical universe is the basic creative principle. The Universal Field of energy, in which our individual pesonalities are transient eddies, is constantly engaged in creative acts. By our own wills we draw, direct, and contribute to that creation. Through it we create our own individual universes according to our wills.

When an adherent of Aristotelian determinism faces the assertion that Spirit exists – and is all that exists – he is likely to consider that belief totally unfounded. He may deny or simply refuse to consider it because he cannot understand how its truth can be demonstrated. Indeed, there is no way to demonstrate the universality of Spirit by the methods of syllogistic thought, any more than there is a way to explain the esoteric phenomena of quantum physics in Newtonian terms. This does not mean that those phenomena do not exist. It is one’s belief system, not reality, that must be adjusted to resolve the conundrum.

To those who have experienced, even momentarily, contact with the bedrock reality of Spirit and Universal Mind, the truth is incontrovertible. There may be no way to convince the disciple of Aristotle of that truth, but to relieve his frustration and pain we can counsel openness and exploration of alternative means of understanding. Meditation, the study of the self, and acceptance of the peace found in stillness, if practiced lovingly and without reservation, will reveal the truth to the skeptic. Then there will be no further need of demonstration, of reasoning or of logic. One who has experienced the Truth knows it and will strive, to the limits of his strength, to retain and deepen that knowledge throughout his physical lifetime.

Each person must discover the truth in himself. I told a person that each of us is a manifestation of Universal Spirit; a shining soul that has chosen to surround itself with its own particular interpretation of a physical universe. He replied, “that is only your belief; you cannot know it to be true.” For a moment I was taken aback as I struggled to recall the false distinction I once made between knowledge and belief. Finally I replied, “If that is what you believe, it is true for you.” Recognizing the impossibility of explaining my truth to one who lacked the vocabulary of Spirit, I could say no more.

Blessings

Two students came to the Teacher to announce that they planned to marry, and asked for the Teacher's blessing.

The Teacher smiled and said:

"From this day forward may you sustain one another on the Path."
"May each of you draw strength from the other when you are weak and tired, and each be a fountain of energy for the other when you are strong."
"When one of you loses the Way, and begins to wander, may the other offer a loving, guiding hand."
"If one loses confidence, let the other offer reassurance."
"If one falls into the darkness of self-hatred, let the other be a beacon of revitalizing love."
"May you find that peace and compassion are more readily accessible together than they ever were when you were apart."
"May your love grow unselfishly to encompass all beings, physical and energetic."
"May you jointly cast your light outward to illuminate the Path for others."
"May you each better understand your perfection as a child of God through the loving eyes of the other."
"Finally, may you realize there is no blessing greater than the one you bestow upon yourselves through continuously strengthening your practice, and your union with Spirit."
"And so it is."

************************************************

Two students brought their infant to the Teacher and asked, "What blessing should we offer for this child?"

The Teacher answered:

"Gather your friends and family, and say together these words:

"You are not alone.
"When the night is dark, we will be there.
"When the road is rough and narrow, we will be there.
"On stormy days, we will be your shelter.
"On sunny days, we will be your shade.
"The Light that shines upon us all will be your guide.
"The Spirit that unites us all will bind you to us.
"May you wander far and know that we are with you.
"And may your wanderings bring you home,
"Full of wisdom, full of strength,
"And full of love to share."

"And so it is."

***********************************

A Christmas Grace

Bless this food, and all the living energy that brings it to this table for our nourishment and joy.

Bless this celebration of the God that is manifest in us.

And bless us all, in the knowledge that we are one with Spirit, with each other, and with all the vibrant energy of the perpetual Now.

And so it is.

Enduring criticism

Have you ever been criticized or ridiculed for talking about your spiritual experiences? It's hard to conceive how a simple reference to a personal experience of God can stir up such negative expressions, when it is the one concept that unites all religions. It is easier to understand, however, when you have learned about and experienced the conflicts that can arise when truth, which is always positive, meets the negative forces within us that are threatened by it. Whether you believe those forces are generated internally or externally, no one has achieved knowledge of God without overcoming fierce resistance from them. When the negativity comes from others, it is because they are experiencing the struggle within themselves.

If a person is willing to endure that conflict, then he or she has taken the first step on the road to fulfillment and peace. The outward repudiation and denial of the truth is a sign that the inner struggle has begun. Why waste the time to deny what you claim is nonsense, unless there is something within you that responds warmly to it? The only way to separate your true feelings from those that have imposed themselves upon you is to allow both to surface. This will bring discomfort and even pain, but it is the only path out of dis-ease into enlightenment. If you allow truth and falsehood to wrestle for control of your spirit, truth will eventually win because it is strong while falsehood is weak and empty. You can perpetuate the conflict by attempting to suppress it, or you can hasten its joyous conclusion by making it the focus of prayer and meditation. Peace is always within your grasp, and with peace comes indescribable bliss.

Affirmation – The Covenant

I am in love with Life and with this Universe, with every being and every soul within it. I have a covenant with the Universe; a covenant of love. I share the glow of my spirit with everyone and everything that I encounter, and the Universe offers me its glow in return. When I offer the world my soul’s unconditional love, it returns to me burnished and enhanced; the Universe absorbs and retransmits it amplified a hundredfold. There is no limit to the power of this love. It brings me comfort, accomplishment, and joy, just as it contributes to the development of those attributes in those on whom it falls.

I keep this covenant by dismissing all selfishness, all jealousy, and all rancor. The body and the thinking mind urge me to take advantage of the open givingness that my love engenders in the world around me. They want me to hoard the joy the Universe freely offers me, to gather it unto myself and shield it from others. They do not know that love and joy exist only in the measure that they are shared. Any happiness that I take away from another being is a subtraction from my own; any love that I withhold evaporates from my being. I pursue only those pleasures that promote the ease and happiness of all.

My love is innocent and untarnished. Its light surrounds me; my aura is enhanced by it. Those I meet respond to its warmth in kind. My covenant extends to every other soul, to keep this purity intact. I wear visibly the knowledge that all is safe, that the Universe is good, that each of us is God’s perfect child; and everyone I meet is warmed and reassured by it. I draw in the boundless loving energy of Spirit, cleansing and renewing my physical and energetic selves. With the miraculous power of my energetic self I return to the Universe more cleansing energy than I absorbed.

And so it is.

Positive Focus

The whole world is a unified field of vibrational energy. That energy is love and the potential for unbounded goodness. The mind can create either joy or suffering from this energy; this is the nature of free will. All things manifest in this Universe, from this energy, contain within them the potential for suffering or for joy. Some minds seek out the potential for suffering and that is what they manifest. This is true whether the mind perceives itself as seeking to create suffering for itself, or as seeking to eliminate suffering. So long as your focus is on the negative aspect, it is that aspect which will manifest. If you seek to eliminate from your experience all things that have a potential for negativity or suffering, then your experience will be impoverished and barren, because that potential exists in all things. Rather seek to manifest the love and joy that are also latent in all things. Then you will experience transcendent pleasure. Place your focus on the potential for positive action, and richness will manifest in your life.

Why does energy healing work?

I personally believe that life and the world as we perceive it are myth and metaphor, and that all techniques by which we who believe ourselves to be individuals attempt to influence that which we believe to be "other than ourselves" have validity to the extent we intend them to.

Science has proven beyond contradiction that the world which we perceive through our senses is not the ultimate reality. What we see as solid objects are mostly space; what we suppose to be matter and energy are simply two different ways of looking at the same phenomena; and so on. As illustrated in the popular indie film "What the Bleep do we Know Anyway", there is a startling convergence underway between the cutting edges of physics and spirituality, both of which now accept at least the hypothesis that the Universe is a single unified field of energy.

Our bodies are designed to perceive this energy field in certain ways, and the collective consciousness of all beings on Earth over its history has interpreted and organized those perceptions into the material objects, sounds, and other sensations that we agree that we perceive all around us. This consensus interpretation -- by which we assign attributes such as solidity, color, etc. to the collections of energy that we call objects -- is what I refer to as metaphor. I would use the term myth to describe the various interpretations that we adopt to explain how the Universe functions and how it came to be the way that it is. Each of us has our personal mythology which determines the methods by which we seek to implement our intention to make changes in the Universe around us -- to redefine the metaphors, if you will.

I should also explain my reference to intention. Intention is the tool by which our individual consciousnesses transfer to the universal consciousness the changes that we wish to perceive in the Universe. Pranic Healing and reiki "work" because the practitioner intends them to and is able, through innate ability or through practice, to focus that intention sufficiently that the Universe understands and translates the intention into action.

I have likened individual consciousness to an eddy in the universal energy field. Because the field is universal, what happens anwhere in it affects what happens anywhere else. Gravity is a physical example; the movement of a pebble on Earth has a mathematically describable effect on the motions of distant galaxies. Drop that pebble into the ocean in California, and the ripples will reach Japan. Intention extends the effects of individual consciousness beyond the individual into the surrounding energy field. This happens constantly, but the ability to produce focused results usually requires practice and training.

God gives you the sea, the ship and the wind. All you're expected to do is steer.

Our greatest duty and our greatest joy is to love one another.

What you see in the world depends upon the lens through which you look.

Creating your physical health

Until very recently I would watch my body closely for any sign of a developing illness or other negative physical condition. As soon as I thought I saw one (uh oh, runny nose!), I would predict the course of the condition (great, next comes the sore throat, then the fever and headache ...) and adopt the mindset of a person who is ill. More often than not, my predictions would come true, and I would be sick and miserable for a week or more.

Religious Science (along with other schools of New Thought) teaches that the Universe sends you what you expect. By treating my body as a seed bed for disease, and predicting the growth of illness in it, I was inviting the creative principle to send me just that.

I no longer allow myself to predict that my body will become ill. I am still mindful of my physical condition; in fact, more mindful than ever. But if I feel a twinge in my body or a tingle in my nose, I do not create in my mind a course of predicted negative consequences for the compliant but neutral creative principle to fulfill. I may acknowledge the possibility that a virus has crept into my body and increase my intake of vitamins or zinc. But I also adopt the view that the twinge or the tingle will go away, and will not return along with more severe symptoms. I predict that my body will remain healthy, and more often than not, it does.

Of course, I don't believe that I have a permanent shield of immunity from all disease or other adverse physical conditions. One of the greatest students of energy healing alive today, Grandmaster Choa Kok Sui, has been severely ill with pneumonia twice in the last few years. I am sure he thinks of himself as a healthy person, but perhaps he did not live his life consistently with that belief, because of his constant travel and teaching schedule. He has now announced that he is taking a sabbatical, and I wish him a full recovery and many more years of blessed productivity.

While the Universe tends to deliver what you expect, there is always the chance that a negative condition will slip through. You can demonstrate your belief in, and help ensure the manifestation of, your expectations by living the life of a healthy person, with good food, exercise, sleep, and moderate behavior; as well as regular medical checkups and medical treatment for any physical ailments that do arise.

Since negative conditions arise in the energetic body before they manifest in the physical, it can also be helpful to perform regular hygienic cleansing of the energetic body in the manner described in the followin post (immediately above). Whatever practices you adopt, do not forget to offer thanks to God for the health that you possess, and pray for the blessing of health to be bestowed upon all others.

And so it is.

Namaste

What you are "now" is what you always have been and always will be. Only your level of awareness of this changes.

God is the combined manifestation of all the souls in the Universe; and all the souls in the Universe comprise the entire manifestation of God.

All the purposes and all the pursuits of humankind can be seen as either seeking God, or avoiding God. To stay on the Path, it is only necessary to be mindful of this at every moment.

The Mind's Self-Importance

Have you ever read a science fiction story about a computer that became self-aware and ran amok? That is what the human mind has done. We evolved the mind as a survival tool. It is an adjunct and outgrowth of our physical bodies. However, once the mind became aware of its own existence, it decided that it was the reason the body existed, not vice versa. The mind has been on an ego trip ever since. It continually creates new excuses for inflating its own importance. The mind does what it can to suppress awareness of Spirit, which existed before bodies and minds and will exist forever after they have passed. When spiritual awareness is able to shine through the smokescreen of endless monkey mind chatter, it shows the mind for the hollow implement that it is.

The mind is like a computer that programs itself into an endless loop. It creates problems so that it can divert attention to itself as the supposed sole source for resolving those problems. It is only necessary to step back into the point of view of Spirit to see such issues as mere word games. Spirit has no need of words, and is not troubled by verbal paradoxes. Spirit is aware already that mind is a limited tool, and is no more than amused when mind points to itself and says, "See how important I am, I have created a problem even I cannot solve!" Spirit is aware that problems do not exist until they are created by mind.

If you find yourself asking, "What am I if I am not my mind?" you are in a state of unconsciousness. This is where meditation comes in. Once a person falls into unconsciousness, it is only through meditation that Spirit can become conscious of itself again. When the mind is still -- or when you can detach your awareness from mind -- and you realize that what is essentially you exists as the observer, then you will have the answer to the question.