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."