Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Social Darwinism - Part II

Modern robber barons followed by an army of subservient media, politicians, lawyers, chambers of commerce, professional associations, educators and religious leaders use this so-called Social Darwinism that Darwin never intended, to grow rich and fat or sadly, to just barely hold their own, by sucking the life out of everyone else, especially the poor who Jesus said you will have with you always, tho he meant the poor in spirit, the poorest in spirit being the blood suckers and their sycophants.

Look around, under stress the social Darwinist economic model has delivered the worst of all worlds, a system lacking in compassion during a crisis as schools, health care and social service are the first to be cut, yet unable to deliver the resilient wealth creation it promised.

The cachet of the cutthroat supports all the wrong incentives. It rewards unscrupulous behavior. It equates profits and real wealth, allowing many to survive or become rich without generating useful goods or services. For example, health insurance companies make obscene profits by denying care rather than providing it. It encourages quick fix, surfacey, short term thinking instead of long range in depth thinking; which in turn encourages the trend to dumbing down. It makes human beings into commodities, only “hands” without hearts and minds. It emphasizes quantitative approaches over qualitative, numbers over values. Because it’s more profitable in the short run to outsource to India, entire sectors of American engineering and computer science now lack home-grown expertise. This is cashing in our seed corn, our future, the basic R&D and trained professionals we will need, but cannot be quantified on a quarterly balance sheet.

The fact is that not only does this not work, it’s wrong – it’s not what Darwin found and it’s not what current science is finding. Social Darwinism fails in practice because it never succeeded as theory. When Darwin outlined the inexorable, cold and selfish mechanism of natural selection, he didn’t know enough to be comfortable applying it to human society. But now recent work in Biology and Social Science shows that natural selection in humans and indeed animals as well, favors traits like compassion and empathy, that in robust ape communities, for example, members diligently tend to their sick and wounded. Dog eat dog behavior poisons the trust and other traits and behaviors needed for success in complex human and animal societies.

Our system’s winner take all, zero sum adversarialism has reached a disastrous endpoint: suffocated by ideological polarization, fruitless partisan bickering, stifling parliamentary obstacles and the iron grip of moneyed interest, U.S. institutional paralysis makes us incapable of tackling the fine-grained nuances of the 21st century challenges facing our nation and the world – all because we’re using the wrong theory!

American commentators across the political spectrum misleadingly cast what’s going on in crude, outmoded, irrelevant liberal and conservative terms, as if it was all some kind of sports event; while the real, necessary discussion needs to be about our mistaken belief in Spencer’s interpretation of Darwin’s work. Unfortunately, because the powers that be own the commentators and benefit from Spencer’s version of Darwin, that discussion is not likely to happen.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Social Darwinism - Part I - The Rant

Isn’t it interesting that many of those who deny that evolution is real, is more than a theory but a scientific fact that, still accept Social Darwinism as a fact? It’s been reported that only 37% of Americans believe in Evolution. Half of those probably still believe the earth is flat. God, does this burn me!

All of America’s advantages and so-called greatness and being so called #1, and only 37% believe in Evolution! To me, that is a shame! Is it any wonder we’re slipping into third world status - # 37 in education, #54 in energy efficiency, #1 in prison population, #17 in pollution, #2 in executions, #1 in gun ownership?

No doubt, this majority of unbelievers are the same people who after eight years of Republican rule now blame Obama – who’s been in power for less than two years, for the deficits and the mess the country’s in. Let’s see what eight more years of Republican control of all three branches of government will do for us! These are the people so good at ignoring facts that they chose not to know that Clinton left a budget surplus and Bush left us a huge deficit, the financial crisis and two useless and un-winnable wars. Clinton only fucked Monica Lewinski, Bush and his supporters fucked us all.

Anyhow, Social Darwinism, the idea of survival of the fittest, that nice guys finish last, dog eat dog, eat or be eaten, is gospel with most of us, but especially with the people who don’t believe in Evolution. They’re quoting, and living by ideas rooted in evolutionary theory, while denying Evolution itself. How dumb, how stupid, how real, how totally maddeningly real. Even so-called liberals in the so-called liberal media – owned and run almost exclusively for profit without much thought for humanity or community, by the likes of greedy, selfish billionaires like Rupert Murdoch, are under the sway of the cachet of the cutthroat – the idea that there’s too much coddling going on, that as Scrooge said let them die and be done with it, that institutionalized harshness generates a more productive, adaptive, and wealthy society, that liberalism is idealistic nonsense.

Well, the idea of survival of the fittest and the cachet of the cutthroat are not even Darwin’s. They are Herbert Spencer’s. He coined the phrase, “survival of the fittest” in 1864, and it has been used ever since to justify the worst abuses of capitalism: child labor, substandard wages, union busting, monopolies, no regulation of any kind, caveat emptor – buyer beware. If you thought all these rights of capital were tamed, look around you, they’re back, every one of them, bigger than ever.

Modern robber barons followed by an army of subservient media, politicians, lawyers, chambers of commerce, professional associations, educators and religious leaders use this so-called Social Darwinism that Darwin never intended, to grow rich and fat or sadly, to just barely hold their own, by sucking the life out of everyone else, especially the poor who Jesus said you will have with you always, tho he meant the poor in spirit, the poorest in spirit being the blood suckers and their sycophants.

Look around, under stress the social Darwinist economic model has delivered the worst of all worlds, a system lacking in compassion during a crisis as schools, health care and social service are the first to be cut, yet unable to deliver the resilient wealth creation it promised.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Abundance

“For faith is always given what is treasured, and what is treasured is returned to you.” What is my treasure? What is being returned to me? What am I putting out? It’s scary to think how often I condemn when I might forgive, censure when I might praise and thereby reduce the possibilities of my own experience. The Universe is infinite, holding much more than we humans can experience. Dogs hear more, cats see more; microscopes and telescopes expand the capacities our limited sensory equipment. Yet I know, as perhaps you do too, that there is still much more out of reach. Even at the most mundane level, I still cannot count the grains of sand on the shore, leaves on trees, or blades of grass. There is amazing abundance! Celeste Frazier says it takes ten billion snowflakes to make a snow man.

But we ignore this abundance and take it for granted. Because our treasure centers on our narrow self interest, what we can experience directly with our limited senses, which tends to focus us on a limited, non-infinite universe, we think we hear scarcity and competition when, in fact, the call from the universe and spirit is to be more. The “uncomfortable squirming” we feel, Celeste Frazier says, is not because there is not enough, the universe and spirit are infinite and abundant, but because spirit is seeking to break free through us. Spirit Itself is compelling us to expand. God is moving through each of us, but unless we are attuned, open and forgiving, with our egos and bloated nothingness out of the way, we will not allow God to be fulfilled through us. It is for me and you to allow God. That’s quite a shift. But try it and see. Act as if your are a unique way that God is expressing, and there is more to be revealed through you.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Guilt Blocks Light [Rock breaks Scissors]

Light is blocked by guilt and linking the future to the past, the Course says. “Guilt remains the only thing that hides the Father, for guilt is the attack upon His Son. The guilty always condemn, and having done so they will still condemn, linking the future to the past as is the ego’s law. Fidelity to this law lets no light in, for it demands fidelity to darkness and forbids awakening. The ego’s laws are strict, and breaches are severely punished. Therefore give no obedience to its laws, for they are laws of punishment. And those who follow them believe that they are guilty, and so they must condemn. Between the future and the past the laws of God must intervene, if you would free yourself. Atonement [at-one-ment – being at one with our and everyone’s reality as spirit] stands between them, like a lamp shining so brightly that the chain of darkness in which you bound yourself will disappear.

“Release from guilt is the ego’s whole undoing. [To be free of the ego and one with spirit, stop doing things that make you feel guilty] Make no one fearful, for his guilt is yours, and by obeying the ego’s hateful commandments you bring its condemnation of yourself, and you will not escape the punishment it offers those who obey it. [Cause and effect, be in an ego place, experience ego results.] The ego rewards fidelity to it with pain, for faith in it is pain. And faith can be rewarded only in terms of the belief in which the faith was placed. [Again, cause and effect, be in an ego place, experience ego results. If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got.] Faith makes the power of belief, and where it is invested determines its reward. For faith is always given what is treasured, and what is treasured is returned to you.”

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Summer Solstice

Yesterday, 6/21, is considered the Summer Solstice in the USA; other parts of the world consider 6/23 the Solstice. The Summer Solstice is the time of the year when the Northern Hemisphere of our planet is closest to the sun and is therefore the longest day of the year. It is celebrated as the day of greatest inclination toward the sun.

As individuals, we too, have our moments of greatest inclination to the light. The light is always there, but we are not always inclined towards it. We stumble around, asleep, forgetting that the light is always there for us to turn to. We get pulled down by the weight of the world, forgetting that we are first spiritual beings having an earthly experience. We have what Celeste Frazier described as “holographic experiences” of lack, limitation, poverty and struggle.

None of these experiences lasts, because they are temporal conditions, not states of being, nightmares, not waking reality. We are spiritual beings having a human inclination. The inner spirit is not turned around by circumstances and conditions. The Rabbi Jesus, who in the Course called himself the great example rather than the great exception, knew this. He was able to access the consciousness of oneness, the Christ Consciousness, as we all can, and was able to say, “I am the light of the world.” When we incline to the truth and the light, we know we too, are the light of the world, more than the conditions that surround us.

The ‘resistance’ we experience in this earthly temple is the light seeking to expand Itself through our human existence. When we understand this, allow it, cease resisting the resistance and incline to the light, not only do we feel better, we are fulfilling our destiny and life purpose. We are God in the flesh. God must become more of Itself. Each bit of negativity and resistance is actually an opportunity to become more attuned to the spirit within and go where it is leading us. God as light waits for us to incline to it. Like the father of the prodigal son, God prepares a celebration each time we come home, come to ourselves – each time. Not one time, not at the end of our lives, not in ‘heaven’, but right now, each time you and I choose to incline to the light, the light welcomes, blesses and renews us. Each time, right now.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Father's Day

Yesterday was Father’s Day. I don’t have any kids, but I was a kid. I’m quite comfortable and grateful for my life and glad I don’t have kids. Every blue moon I sometimes wonder what I’ve missed; but most of the time I’m deeply grateful, as is my wife, that I do not have children. When we were first married, 41 years ago, we tried furiously to have kids. It didn’t work out, so we didn’t have any. Adoption didn’t resonate for us.

Thinking back on my childhood, I’m extremely grateful to my mom and dad for how I was raised. There were plenty of difficult times and lots of negative judgments on my part. But basically, my parents were descent people who had kids and did the best they could. My dad modeled things that were good and strong, and things that weren’t so good and strong, but mostly things that were good and strong. I credit him and his wife for giving me an excellent send off! Some of who they were, a lot really, is alive and well in me today. It’s more than a mere physical, genetic or cultural heritage, its something deeper, a vibe in my core, my beingness.

Similarly, as Celeste Frazier wrote in SOM yesterday, “whatever is in God is in us. That’s an awesome thing to know. And sometimes we are daunted by that idea. The single drop of water has the same qualities as the ocean from which it came. It’s easier for us to see it our gene pool as we inherit all of the good and bad qualities from our family members. Yet all the attributes and qualities we inherit from God are the Good [and only the Good] – and I, for one, am grateful for it.” Me, too!

That’s why I want to get my bloated nothingness out of the way, resign as my own teacher, and know that it is not I, but my father in heaven who doeth the work.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Where is the Wisdom?

Continuing the conversation on knowledge and perception, George Moffett in the June 7 Christian Science Monitor quotes TS Eliot, “Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information.” How poignant now in this age of information overload, how essential to have the wisdom needed to discriminate between the trivial and the consequential; to provide points of fixity in life, a sense of context, and anchor in a society swirling in a sea of relentless change. Wisdom: that sees through the erroneous presumptions of human science, theology and medicine to discern a different reality based on the bedrock truth that humanity is spiritual, reflecting spirit.

The wisdom we need is waiting within us. We can access it now. We can give our bloated nothingness and so called human wisdom over to it, right now. Instead of being the exception, it can be our norm. With It to guide us, we can use words and works to point to that which is dimly perceived by the human senses but clearly visible to spiritual sense. It can redeem us from the belief that we are irresistibly inclined toward discord and death and enable us to realize our spiritual reality here and now, building a world that works for everyone.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

The Course

From Perception to Knowledge – the Course
“When you have seen your brothers as yourself you will be released to knowledge, having learned to free yourself through Him Who knows of freedom. Unite with me under the holy banner of His teaching, and as we grow in strength the power of God’s Son will move in us, and we will leave no one untouched and no one left alone. And suddenly time will be over, and we will all unite in the eternity of God the Father. The holy light you saw outside yourself in every miracle you offered to your brothers, will be returned to you. And knowing that the light is in you, your creations will be there with you, as you are in your Father.

“As miracles in this world join you to your brothers, so do your creations establish your fatherhood in Heaven. You are the witnesses to the Fatherhood of God, and He has given you the power to create the witnesses to your fatherhood in Heaven. The miracle that God created is perfect, as are the miracles that you established in His Name. They need no healing, nor do you, when you accept them.

“Yet in this world your perfection is unwitnessed. God knows it, but you do not, and so you do not share His witness to it. Nor do you witness unto Him, for reality is witnessed to as one. God waits your witness to His Son and to Himself. The miracles you do on earth are lifted up to heaven and to Him. They witness to what you do not know, and as they reach the gates of Heaven, God will open them. For never would He leave His Own beloved Son outside them, and beyond Himself.”

As I said in an earlier post, I am a student of The Course in Miracles. I do not claim to know and understand all of it. Part of what I’m learning about is what the Course means by our “creations.” I have left it in the above excerpt, even tho I don’t fully appreciate its meaning, because I wanted to maintain the integrity and beauty of the quote. Each time I read it, I feel a resonance and an intuitive understanding that perhaps one day, I will be able to articulate and share.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Today is Flag Day

Today is Flag Day. I wouldn’t have known that but for today’s reading in Science of Mind magazine. Celeste Frazier is writing the Daily Guides this month and doing a fine job – as do all the people who write the Guides each month! She talks about an incident that inspired Martin Luther King to write a sermon called, “The American Dream.” The incident is described in the book, A Knock at Midnight.

Driving past the Jefferson Monument, and recalling Jefferson’s words in the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness,” King came to realize, “Never before in the history of the world has a sociopolitical document expressed in such profound, eloquent, and unequivocal language the dignity and worth of human personality.”

In his sermon, rooted in the best American ideals, Martin Luther King challenges us to make the American dream a reality, and engaged us to “meet…physical force with soul force,” promising to “transform… dungeons of shame to havens of freedom.” Ms. Frazier goes on to say, “That is freedom. To know ourselves as powerful spaces of truth is freedom. When we know who we are, there are no lies that will move us. There is no force that can threaten us. There is no will that can oppress us. We are the Thing Itself.

“Today is Flag Day. More important than the red, white or blued, greater than the blood or the first colonies represented therein, is the intention behind it. This freedom is not given by governments, nor won through wars, but is inherent in everyone’s being.”

Friday, June 11, 2010

Holographic Reality

“Apart from the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit has no function. He is not separate from either, being in the Mind of Both, and knowing that Mind is one. He is a Thought of God, and God has given Him to you because He has no Thoughts He does not share. His message speaks of timelessness in time, and that is why Christ’s vision looks on everything with love. Yet even Christ’s vision is not His reality. The golden aspects of reality that spring to light under His loving gaze are partial glimpses of the Heaven that lies beyond them.

“This is the miracle of creation; that it is one forever. Every miracle you offer to the Son of God is but the true perception of one aspect of the whole. Though every aspect is the whole [like a holograph], you cannot know this until you see that every aspect is the same, perceived in the light and therefore one. Everyone seen without the past thus brings you nearer to the end of time by bringing healed and healing sight into the darkness, and enabling the world to see. For light must come into the darkened world to make Christ’s vision possible even here. Help Him to give His gift of light to all who think they wander in the darkness, and let Him gather them into His quiet sight that makes them one.

“They are all the same; all beautiful and equal in their holiness. And He will offer them unto His Father as they were offered unto Him. There is one miracle, as there is one reality. And every miracle you do contains them all, as every aspect of reality you see blends quietly into the one Reality of God. The only miracle that ever was is God’s most holy Son, created in the one Reality that is his Father. Christ’s vision is His gift to you. His Being is His Father’s gift to Him.

“Be you content with healing, for Christ’s gift you can bestow, and your Father’s gift you cannot lose. Offer Christ’s gift to everyone and everywhere, for miracles, offered the Son of God through the Holy Spirit, attune you to reality. The Holy Spirit knows you part in the redemption, and who are seeking you and where to find them. Knowledge is far beyond your individual concern. You who are part of it and all of it need only realize that is is of the Father, not of you. Your role in the redemption leads you to it by re-establishing its oneness in your mind.”

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Aspects of Reality

From Perception to Knowledge

“All healing is release from the past. That is why the Holy Spirit is the only Healer. He teaches that the past does not exist, a fact which belongs to the sphere of knowledge, and which, therefore, no one in the world can know. It would indeed be impossible to be in the world with this knowledge. For the mind that knows this unequivocally, knows also it dwells in eternity, and utilizes no perception at all. It therefore, does no consider where it is, because the concept ‘where’ does not mean anything to it. It knows that it is everywhere, just as it has everything, and forever.

“The very real difference between perception and knowledge become quite apparent if you consider this: There is nothing partial about knowledge. Every aspect is whole, and therefore, no aspect is separate. You are an aspect of knowledge, being in the Mind of God, Who knows you. All knowledge must be yours, for in you is all knowledge. Perception, at ist loftiest, in never complete. Even the perception of the Holy Spirit, as perfect as perception can be, is without meaning in Heaven. Perception can reach everywhere under His guidance, for the vision of Christ beholds everything in light. Yet no perception, however holy, will last forever.

“Perfect perception, then, has many elements in common with knowledge, making transfer to it possible. Yet the last step must be taken by God, because the last step in your redemption, which seems to be in the future, was accomplished by God in your creation. The separation has not interrupted it. Creation cannot be interrupted. The separation is merely a faulty formulation of reality, with no effect at all. The miracle, without a function in Heaven, is here. Aspects of reality can still be seen, and they will replace aspects of unreality. Aspect of reality can be seen in everything and everywhere. Yet only God can gather them together, by crowning them as one with the final gift of eternity.”

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Journeying

“Leave, then, your needs to Him. He will supply them with no emphasis at all upon them. What comes to you of Him comes safely, for He will ensure it never can become a dark spot, hidden in your mind and kept to hurt you. Under His guidance you will travel light and journey lightly, for His sight is ever on the journey’s end [our awakening to our reality and oneness as spirit], which is His goal. God’s Son is not a traveler through outer worlds. However holy his perception may become, no world outside himself holds his inheritance. Within himself he has no needs, for light needs nothing but to shine in peace, and form itself to let the rays extend in quiet to infinity.

“Whenever you are tempted to undertake a useless journey that would lead away from light, remember what you really want, and say,

The Holy Spirit leads me unto Christ [unity and oneness with God and all humanity]
And where else would I go?
What need have I but to awake in Him?

“Then follow Him [be still and know] in joy, with faith that He will lead you safely through all dangers to your peace of mind this world may set before you. Kneel not before the altars to sacrifice, and seek not what you will surely lose. Content yourself with what you will as surely keep and be not restless, for you undertake a quiet journey to the peace of God, where He would have you be in quietness.

“In me [here, Jesus, who is said to be the author of the Course, is speaking of himself] you have already overcome every temptation that would hold you back. We walk together on the way to quietness that is the gift of God. Hold me dear, for what except your brothers [all of humanity] can you need? We will restore to you the peace of mind that we must find together [it can not be found alone or for oneself alone]. The Holy Spirit will teach you to awaken unto us and to yourself. This is the only real need to be fulfilled in time. Salvation from the world lies only here. My peace I give you. Take it of me in glad exchange for all the world has offered but to take away. And we will spread it like a veil of light across the world’s sad face, in which we hide our brothers from the world, and it from them.

“We cannot sing redemption’s hymn alone. My task is not completed until I have lifted every voice with mine. And yet it is none mine, for as it is my gift to you, so was it the Father’s gift to me, given me through His Spirit. The sound of it will banish sorrow from the mind of God’s most holy Son, where it cannot abide. Healing in time is needed, for you cannot establish its eternal reign where sorrow dwells. You dwell not here, but in eternity. You travel but in dreams, while safe at home. Give thanks to every part of you that you have taught how to remember you. Thus does the Son of God give thanks unto his Father for his purity.”

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Is that all there is?

“Everything the ego tells you that you need, will hurt you. For although the ego urges you again and again to get, it leaves you nothing, for what you get, it will demand of you. And even from the very hands that grasped it, it will be wrenched and hurled into dust.” This is about, noticing how often things seem hollow after you get them, and after you get what you want, you don’t want it, and is that all there is? “For where the ego sees salvation it sees separation, and so you lose whatever you have gotten in its name.

“Therefore, ask not of yourself what you need, for you do not know, and your advice to yourself will hurt you. [Resign as your own teacher.] For what you think you need will merely serve to tighten up your world against the light, and render you unwilling to question the value that this world can really hold for you.

“Only the Holy Spirit knows what you need. For He [this pronoun could be gender neutral. I prefer, ‘It’.] will give you all things that do not block the way to light. And what else could you need? [Sounds like my grandma, there] In time, [this does not mean ‘after awhile,’ it means in this world, time-bound and illusory] He gives you all the things that you need have, and will renew them as long as you have need of them. He will take nothing from you as long as you have any need of it. [We need not sacrifice anything] And yet He knows that everything you need is temporary, and will but last until you step aside [get your bloated nothingness out of the way of the divine circuits] from all your needs and realize that all of them have been fulfilled. Therefore, He has no investment in the things that He supplies, except to make certain that you will not use them on behalf of lingering in time. He knows that you are not at home, and He wills no delay to wait upon your joyous homecoming.

“Leave, then, your needs to Him. He will supply them with no emphasis at all upon them.” Consider then, the lilies of the field, they neither toil nor strive and yet they are fed.

Monday, June 7, 2010

More Real world

“You will first dream of peace, and then awaken to it. Your first exchange of what you [the ego] made for what you want is the exchange of nightmares for the happy dreams of love. In these lie your true perceptions, for the Holy Spirit corrects the world of dreams, where all perception is. Knowledge [which is different and ‘realer’ than perception and comes from the truth of who we are, the experience of our oneness with God] needs no corrections. Yet the dreams of love lead unto knowledge. In them you see nothing fearful, because of this they are the welcome that you offer knowledge. [Love in this world is also a dream, but one that can lead to knowledge of reality.] Love waits on welcome, not on time….” That is sooo important! Love comes when we welcome it, not when enough time has past – when we’re older and wiser; and we can welcome it, anytime. It is our choice.

“The real world is but your welcome of what always was. Therefore the call of joy is in it, and your glad response is your awakening to what you have not lost.

“Praise, then, the Father for the perfect sanity of His most holy Son [you and all humanity]. Your Father knoweth that you have need of nothing [that you are in perfect peace, asleep with him in Heaven, dreaming you are here]. In Heaven this is so, for what could you need in eternity? In your world you do need things. It is a world of scarcity in which you find yourself because you are lacking. Yet can you find yourself in such a world? [without the Holy Spirit, yes; but we are never without the Holy Spirit; like love, It merely waits upon our welcome]

“As mediator between the two worlds, He knows what you have need of and what will not hurt you. Ownership is a dangerous concept if it is left to you [and the ego]. The ego wants to have things for salvation, for possession is its law. Possession for its own sake is the ego’s fundamental creed, a basic cornerstone in the churches it builds to itself. And at its altar it demands you lay all of the things it bids you get, leaving you no joy in them.

“Everything the ego tells you that you need, will hurt you.”

Friday, June 4, 2010

Real world

From the “Attainment of the Real World” in the Course.

“No one is this distracted world but has seen some glimpses of the other world about him. Yet while he still lays value on his own, he will deny the vision of the other, maintaining that he loves what he loves not, and following not the road that love points out. Love leads so gladly! You wait but for yourself. To give this sad world over and exchange your errors for the peace of God is but your will.

“It is God’s Will that nothing touch His Son [all of humanity] except Himself, and nothing else comes nigh unto him. He is as safe from pain as God Himself, Who watches over him [us, all of humanity] in everything. The world about him shines with love because God placed him in Himself where pain is not, and love surrounds him without end or flaw. Disturbance of his peace can never be. In perfect sanity he looks on love, for it is all about him and within him. He must deny the world of pain the instant he perceives the arms of love around him. And from this point of safety he looks quietly about him and recognizes that the world is one with him.” We’ve all experienced instants like this; this is the ‘holy instant,’ and the miracle in the title of the Course.

“The peace of God passeth your understanding only in the past. Yet here it is, and you can understand it now. God loves His Son forever, and His Son [us – all of humanity] returns his Father’s Love forever. The real world is the way that leads you to remembrance of the one thing that is wholly true and wholly yours. For all else you have let yourself in time, and it fade. But this one thing is always yours, being the gift of God unto His Son. Your one reality was given you, and by it God created you as one with Him.

“You will first dream of peace, and then awaken to it. Your first exchange of what you made for what you want is the exchange of nightmares for the happy dreams of love.”
How deeply comforting.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

News

News got ya down? It does me. But at a personal level, I’m well and grateful. That kind of takes the edge off the news, takes the sting out. The news is still ‘bad’ but, it doesn’t hurt as much and seems less personal. I can get some perspective on it. That reminds me of what Don Miguel Ruiz said: “Even when a situation seems so personal, even if others insult you directly, it has nothing to do with you.” Wow! That has meaning on so many levels.

First, don’t take it personally – even if it is – ‘cause when we do, we lose perspective and with it, our ability to respond and make things better. Second, its really not about you, it’s about them. Sure you and I are complicit in the oil disaster in the Gulf in that we rely on inefficient, non-renewable, polluting forms of energy. But we weren’t cutting corners, avoiding safety rules and taking unnecessary risks running a deep sea oil rig. I also feel complicit at a life style level and on a community level because I could do more to get Congress to regulate properly. But my real failure, and perhaps yours as well, is the failure to stay centered and connected to spirit; my real failure is that I feel guilty about what I’m not doing, get angry to cover my guilt and project it out and seek to blame.

Not that blame isn’t warranted: eleven people are dead along with countless innocent animals and plants and an entire eco system is likely to be destroyed, perhaps for our life times. No, blame and punishment have a place, but I need to deal with them from a centered connected place. I need to manage my guilt on my own and with spirit’s help, not make the error real, not take it personally and realize that on the everyday level, it has, as Don Miguel Ruiz said, nothing to do with me.

I can also understand that at this point in time in American and Western culture, the so-called news in all its forms: web, print, radio, TV, seeks to do just the opposite. The point of the news now seems to be to inflame and provoke. Gathering facts and sharing information, encouraging rationality and dialogue instead of inflaming prejudices takes second place. There are organizations and people who just love to talk trash.

They want to be first to bring the doom and gloom, to describe in great detail what went wrong and whose to blame. They always point out the negative side of everything. They are like garbage trucks. They load up with negativity and when they’re full, need to dump it somewhere, usually on us. But we can refuse to take their garbage personally. We can know that pure spirit is at the center of all form, always responding to our thoughts. Either we dwell on the garbage and create more garbage, or we dwell on goodness and create more goodness.

This is not about denial or wishful thinking, garbage is garbage. Its about being responsible and centered and learning from our mistakes. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. Shame on us for trusting corporations to care more for the environment than they do for profits. Shame on us for not seeing that we have the best government money can buy. Shame on us for not taking responsibility and making our democracy stand up for our environment and not honestly building a world that works for everyone. Shame on us! Enough garbage; As Paddy Chayevsky said, I’ve had enough; I’m sick and tired of it and I’m not going to take anymore.