Monday, August 30, 2010

Humor?

The economy is so bad that I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.

I ordered a burger at McDonald's, and the kid behind the counter asked, "Can you afford fries with that?"

CEO's are now playing miniature golf.

If the bank returns your check marked "Insufficient Funds," you have to call them and ask if they mean you or them .

Hot Wheels and Matchbox stocks are trading higher than GM.

McDonald's is selling the 1/4 'ouncer'.

Parents in Beverly Hills and Malibu are firing their nannies and learning their children's names.

A truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico .

Dick Cheney took his stockbroker hunting.

Motel Six won't leave the light on anymore.

The Mafia is laying off judges.

Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen.

Congress says they are looking into the Bernard Madoff scandal. Oh Great!! The guy who made $50 Billion disappear is being investigated by the people who made $1.5 Trillion disappear !

And, finally...

I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, wars, jobs, my savings, Social Security, retirement funds, and our bleak future, that I called the Suicide Lifeline and was connected to a call center in Pakistan. When I told them I was suicidal, they got all excited, and asked if I could drive a truck.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Off for a week, hooray!

My wife and I will be away for the next week. I probably won't resume blogging until 8/30. Meanwhile, please see my two novels being serialized on WritingRaw.com under fiction and let me know what you think. Thanks!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Spiritual Reality and NDEs

Saturday morning I read a review of a book on NDE – near death experiences, called, Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences, by Jeffrey Long, M.D. I’m not so interested in life after death, but rather life in life. To me the bliss and wonders of the so called ‘life to come’ – the reunion with dead loved ones, the lack of pain & suffering, and the 72 virgins if you’re a male heterosexual, or perhaps if you’re a lesbian as well – are all available right now. We don’t have to wait ‘till we die to experience our bliss, connection with God and our reality as spiritual beings having an earthly experience.

What was interesting to me in Dr. Long’s book is that he found evidence that supports life in life, our primary reality as spiritual beings. Dr. Long’s study is the most recent and exhaustive of perhaps hundreds of books on NDEs. His research extended over ten years and included interviews with more than 1,300 people, 95% of whom said their NDE was definitely real. That pretty much dovetails with previous findings. What’s important to the idea that we’re primarily spiritual beings having earthly experiences is the fact that many of that 95% considered their NDE the only real thing that ever happened to them!

In other words, the experience of bliss, ease, light, safety, peace, contentment and connection with Spirit that are the hallmark of NDEs, were considered the only real experiences that ever happened to them. In other words, their connection with God and all that goes with that was the only real thing that ever happened to them – that we are spirit first, then human. After a failed suicide one person reported, “I could only see my life through that Being’s (God’s) love…I saw the love was in me, too, not just from the Being shining down on me, it was in me as part of myself.”

Why do NDEs bring out these experiences of our reality as spirit and oneness with God and each other? Because, near death our bloated nothingness, our ego is gone, out of the way. Without our bloated nothingness and the illusion that we’re separate from God, we’re not separated. Our natural reality as spiritual beings having an earthly experience shines through. The cool thing is, you don’t to have to have an NDE to experience this. You can experience your reality as a spiritual being and your constant connection to God by getting your bloated nothingness out of the way now through things like meditation, prayer and openness and intuition. So why wait? Start practicing the presence and getting out of the way now.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Building Spiritual Muscle, Part 2

Building spiritual muscle also involves discerning then overcoming illusions. What are illusions? My bloated nothingness is an illusion – the belief that I have to have things a certain way, is an illusion. How do I know its an illusion? Because when I have things other than my way, I’m fine and often better. Having things my way – sorry Burger King – is a habit, habits enslave and keep us in a rut, small and bound to the ego, and the only difference between a rut and a grave is the length and the depth. So discerning and overcoming illusions, and unfortunately almost everything we experience is an illusion except our experiences of oneness with God – love, forgiveness, joy, creativity, gratitude, is an important part of building spiritual muscle.

“How does one overcome illusions?” the Course asks. “Surely not by force or anger, nor by opposing them in any way. Merely by letting reason tell you that they contradict reality.” The ‘reality’ referred to here is our reality as spiritual beings having an earthly experience. The ‘reason’ referred to is the still small voice deep within, our umbilical connection to God. Illusions “go against what must be true. The opposition comes from them, and not reality. Reality opposes nothing.” See Byron Katie’s ‘loving what is’. “What merely is needs no defense, and offers none. Only illusions need defense because they are weak. And how can it be difficult to walk the way of truth when only weakness interferes? You are the strong one in this seeming conflict. And you need no defense. Everything that needs defense you do not want, for anything that needs defense will weaken you.

I, the ‘you’ referred to here, is me in my spiritual reality as the Son of God, and remember, the Course says all human beings are the Sons of God. “Who can attack the Son of God and not attack his Father? How can God’s Son be weak and frail and easily destroyed unless his Father is? Do you not see that every sin and condemnation you perceive and justify is an attack upon your Father? You do not see this because you think the Father and the Son are separate. If you were one with God (which you are) and recognized this oneness, you would know His power is yours.”

The great illusion which we are building our spiritual muscle to overcome is the belief that we are separate from God and separate from each other, when in reality, we are not separate but connected to God and each other. We are all the Sons of God, connected to our Source and each other, spiritual beings having an earthly experience.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Building Spiritual Muscle

“Be yourself,” Oscar Wilde wrote, “everyone else is taken.”

Wow! How cool! Don’t you love that, both funny and true? Blogging has been a big help to me in being myself. Who and what am I, and you, by extension? I work through that when I blog. Am I a spiritual being dreaming I’m a person, or a person dreaming I’m a spiritual being? What does it mean to be ‘human?’ It means being compassionate, angry, loving and fearful – all of it, not either spirit or person, but both spirit and person. That’s what it means to be human – ups and downs, highs and lows, thinking and feeling, intangible spirit and tangible physicality - contradictions.

But, I’m discovering, believing and trying to live from the place that says I’m essentially a spirtual being dreaming I’m a person.

Here’s how its been working for me: as I blog, publicly wrestle with my contradictions, thinking and writing about them here, I’m discovering how my own thoughts and feelings, my non-physical aspects, create my physical reality and experience. Sure, there are physical facts, like my desk and computer, but what these things mean, to me, and how I react to them is my choice. For example, I’m discovering that if I ‘make an issue’ of something it becomes an ‘issue.’ If I choose not to see it that way, its not that way to me.

But it takes effort, dedication, a sense of humor and a sense of what’s lost and gained with each thought, feeling and decision to act or not act as if I’m essentially a spirtual being dreaming I’m a person. What’s lost when I act as if I’m not a spiritual being, get caught up in the world, take things very seriously, believe I am alone and must do something or else, is the peace of God, my sense of connection, my joy and creativity. Not much to lose for the privilage of believing in original sin, feeling guilty and judging myself and my neighbor, is it?

It takes dilligence, joy, humor and constant gentle self-awareness (mindfulness) to break free from the the negative messages I’ve (we’ve) internalized and the belief that I’m an earthly being having a spiritual experience. Courage too, it takes courage to question perceptions and to ask is this really what spirit would want, do, think, feel, or is this just my ego, my bloated nothingness, my habitual perception? It takes an inner strength I didn’t know I had to get my bloated nothingness out of the way of the divine circuits and go against what I’ve been told all my life and experience all around me. But the rewards are worth the effort!

Once moving along the path of spiritual beingness, allowing ourselves to know who we really are, connecting with, cultivating and nurturing our spiritual reality, the rewards – the peace of God, absence of stress, fear and worry, and the blossoming of creativity and joy – are abundant. Problems cease being ‘problems’ and become opportunities to connect and shine. Living from this place is worth all the effort, it takes to live in this place. But it gets easier the more I, you, we do it. It’s like building muscle - building spiritual muscle; it takes practice, regular, minute-to-minute joyful practice.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Incarseration, Part 2

One of my buttons is, in case you haven’t noticed from reading my posts, is the gap between the promise and reality of the USA, and how I see that gap widening. Yet even with that, I’m wanting to take responsibility for and deal with that gap from a centered, spiritual place, by practicing the presence and getting out of the way, daring to live as if grace were real – betting it all on black, if you will.

This morning I read a review of the book, Beyond Vengeance, Beyond Duality: A Call for Compassionate Revolution, by Sylvia Clute, a call for revamping the American judicial system and got my buttons pressed big time! What an opportunity to practice the presence! The USA has 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of the world’s prisoners. One out of every hundred Americans is currently in jail. For adults in their twenties, its one out of fifty three. One of every fifteen African American males is incarcerated. For African American males between 20 and 34, its one in nine. Are blacks really so different from whites? Some would say yes. But I doubt it. God is in them to the same extent It is in everyone else. What we have here is a failure, not only to communicate (Cool Hand Luke), but a failure, among other things, to live out our American ideal of equal justice under the law.

Hispanics are also disproportionately affected. The cost of incarceration is staggering. Imagine what else we could do with that money? Why, we could fight more foreign wars that really have nothing to do with preserving the existence of the US, maybe even finally attack Iran and North Korea! Sorry for the sarcasm, it just slipped out. Each year an inmate spends in prison costs roughly one teacher’s salary.

One of the ways Clute suggests we deal with this is spiritual. We can transcend the perception of duality and otherness. Even practising this in our individual lives can help. How we punish and even the belief in the usefulness of prison terms as a punishment (do they really do what we want them to do?), reflects our core values. By closing the gap between our espoused values and our behavior, by working to make our core values real both in our individual lives and our community lives, we can release the current structures based on duality, separation, fear and blame and transform them into structures based on grace, pracising the presence and getting out of the way.

It might be cool to continue jailing people as we currently are, if it worked. But it doesn’t, does it? So why are we still doing it? Who’s benefitting and who’s afraid and who doesn’t want to take responsibility for building a world that works for everyone?

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Incarceration, Part 1

I love the idea of grace and ease, loving what is and getting my bloated nothingness out of the way. If you’ve been reading this blog or go back and read earlier posts, you’ll know that. I love the idea of it. The doing is something else; its more difficult. In fact even loving the idea is something I had to grow/evolve into. I’m hoping, no knowing, that that growing and evolving will continue with my attempts to live the idea.

How could one love what is, I thought in the beginning, there’s so much bad shit going on? And grace, give me a break, if grace was real wouldn’t people be better off? And my bloated nothingness, given the lack of grace and all the bad shit, I didn’t need to get rid of it, I needed to strengthen it!

But gradually as I reflected on my thoughts and behavior, and developed a more compassionate realistic spiritual practice, I came to see, not only were those ideas good and powerful, they worked. As I took responsibility for myself – my life, feelings and behavior, guided by my growing commitment to SOM and the Course, I experienced improvements, even in the face of serious challenges like cancer.

Now practicing the presence and getting out of the way – knowing God is good all the time and that I am part of that good and can access It at any moment, being responsible for how I use the power of God, not being a victim or a puppet, that no matter what happens the final freedom (Victor Frankel) choosing how to react, is mine and I can always choose to act as if grace was real and God is good all the time – is becoming the central focus of my life.

That’s not to say I sit around and do nothing, navel gazing. I work, I have projects, I write, I race walk, bike ride, etc. But before, getting things done, crossing them off my to do list was the central focus. Now doing it, whatever it is, with Spirit is the goal; acting as if grace was real; watching my thoughts flit across my consciousness and giving them the same significance as I give the clouds passing across the sun, is the goal.

I have a long way to go and a lot of painful difficult work to do. I’m getting so many ‘opportunities’ to practice the presence and get out of the way; the phrase, be careful of what you ask for, you just may get it, comes to mind! My buttons still get pressed many times a day and I fall into feeling afraid and victimized, and I still like blaming. Yet I do sense progress.

One of my buttons is, in case you haven’t noticed from reading my posts, is the gap between the promise and reality of the USA, and how I see that gap widening. Yet even with that, I’m wanting to take responsibility for and deal with that gap from a centered, spiritual place, by practicing the presence and getting out of the way, daring to live as if grace were real – betting it all on black, if you will.

This morning I read a review of the book, Beyond Vengeance, Beyond Duality: A Call for Compassionate Revolution, by Sylvia Clute, a call for revamping the American judicial system and got my buttons pressed big time! What an opportunity to practice the presence! The USA has 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of the world’s prisoners. One out of every hundred Americans is currently in jail. For adults in their twenties, its one out of fifty three. One of every fifteen African American males is incarcerated. For African American males between 20 and 34, its one in nine. Are blacks really so different from whites? Some would say yes. But I doubt it. God is in them to the same extent It is in everyone else. What we have here is a failure, not only to communicate (Cool Hand Luke), but a failure, among other things, to live out our American ideal of equal justice under the law.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Humpty Dumpty, Part 4

We still have a consensus that murder is morally wrong along with rape and robbery (of a bank. If it’s a large corporation, like Haliburton and they rip us off by ripping off our tax dollars or making us pay for their environmental messes and outsourcing costs with unemployment insurance, then its OK.) Illegal immegration is a problem and we have to deal with it. But it’s a complex problem, not solvable by blaming and demonizing people, depriving them of their humanity, or by simple slogans. It would be nice if the wall against the dark skinned, Spanish speaking, Catholic illegals from Mexico could do the job, but it can’t.

Why must American’s always avoid complexity and intellectual challenges? Why must everything be over simplified and reduced to either/or, good/bad terms? Damn! Where’s John Wayne when you need him? We not only avoid complexity and intellectual challenges, we think they’re unAmerican, French, perhaps, Yech! a plot to keep us from being strong and #1. Blaming, over-simplifying and demonizing are simple solutions that no longer work, if they ever did. We have to face up to the fact that we have to live and learn, have humility, realize that we as Americans – as a conservative, white, heterosexual, christian nation - don’t always know best and can’t go around imposing our morality, solutions and institutions. We are in fact a minority in the world and that type of American - conservative, white, heterosexual, christian – may soon be a minority in North America as well.

So how do we save the best of American civilization, our hopes, ideals and dreams, the concepts in our Consitution and emblazoned on the Statue of Liberty? By building walls, blaming, demonizing, and focusing on legal technicalities? No! We safeguard our treasurers by living them and sharing them, by honoring them in our hearts, minds and deeds; by confronting fear, racism, hypocracy and pandering, comparing them to what we value most, praying for guidance, not dogma or sermons, then working through the complexity together, Democrats and Republicans, so-called liberals and conservatives.

There is no question if we start with the belief that we are all children of God, all loved equally, none superior in revelation or system, with self and ambition out of the way and wrapped in a sincere desire to express only God’s grace and love that we will succeed. Falling back on dogma, bibles, and holy books that require exclusive obedience won’t work. Seeing that God – not the christian or muslim god – but the universal God is the source of all help, the only truly reliable help, will break the bottlenecks of fear, loathing and beauracracy. Seeing that the essential nature of humanity is spiritual, we will know we have been inspired and guided when we transcend our smallness, bigotry and fear and include all of humanity and the planet in our solutions, moving toward a world that works for everyone.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Humpty Dumpty, Part 3

Here’s something else for the people who want to knock Humpty off his wall to consider. They may think that the aftermath of the broken egg will somehow be better or that they can control what follows the egg breaking. This is like letting the genie out of the bottle – once out, he cannot be controlled. The rich industrialists who backed Hitler and all he stood for, and don’t say they didn’t know ‘cause Mein Kampf was written early on, thought they could control him, and maybe they did for awhile but the price paid by the German people and the world was a high one. Of course, the rich got richer even during and after Hitler. Are the leaders of the Republican Party making the same mistake, thinking they can control the maniac fringe they’re currently supporting? Is that a conscious strategy on their part, to sink the ship and get away in the life boats?

More about the President’s ‘legitimacy.’ The current President was elected with a clear majority. That’s more than can be said for the previous President. Al Core had more votes, but the quirky electoral college thingy, tripped him up. Then, in the Supreme Court, the swing vote, Sandra Day, went with her bias instead of the actual voting plurality so we end up with the man that converted the Clinton budget surplus into the largest deficit ever, didn’t follow-up and end the Afghan war when he had the chance and put us into Iraqu and its bogus WMD. Talk about illigitimate!! But did Democrats carry on and do the horrible things Republicans are doing now? No! No, they stayed within the consensus, choosing to keep Humpty up on his wall, rather than ‘win.’ In fact, Democrats are regularly criticized in our macho war-like culture as being too wimpy and not going for the kill.

It was OK for the Supreme Court to overturn Al Gore’s plurality and decide for Bush, but when a Federal judge appointed by Bush senior, overturns the plurality in California that sought to make gays second class citizens, that’s wrong and unfair. Talk about hypocracy!! Humpty Dumpty before the fall – the previous social contract and political consensus, was that we are a nation of laws, with three co-equal branches of government with a Constitution designed to protect the rights of minorities against tyranical, small minded majorities, and that under the Constitution, judges, more than the other two branches have the duty to protect the rights of minorities, like gays and Muslims, to equal justice and fair treatment from injustice and unfair treatment, legislated or not.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Humpty Dumpty, Part 3

I heard a report yesterday on the Ed Schultz show that only 22% of Republicans believe the President of the United States is an American citizen. I am amazed and scared! Talk about Humpty Dumpty having a great fall! Wow, what happened to our social contract? I guess for the other 78% it’s OK to snipe and criticize and demonize the President, to work against him and hope he fails. To be fair, it isn’t only Republicans that believe the President isn’t a citizen, but it is only they and their fellow travellers who are trying to profit from the craziness.

Now think about that, to snipe and criticize and demonize the President of the United States, to work against him and hope he fails, as if the President can be made to fail and the country will be fine. And who else besides 78% of the Republicans and their leaders in Congress are actively working against the President of the United States, sniping, criticizing, demonizing, and hoping he fails? Al Queda, perhaps? Narco-terrorists? Terrorists of all sorts. Criminals, gangs and gangsters? Aren’t these the people who want the President of the United States to fail and the nation along with him? Do the 78% of Republicans and their leaders in Congress count themselves among these? Perhaps not, but their beliefs and actions give aid and comfort to these enemies of our nation.

Somehow, we’ve got to stop the horrible, destructive rhetoric, demonization and obstructionism in Congress. Humpty is totterring, our social consensus, the understanding that we may disagree, but we’re all Americans first, that we do not deliberately distort the truth or ignore facts, that we do not trade off future generations and civility in the name of short term political gain, must be restored.

And to those who want to knock Humpty from his wall, who would destroy our social contract and political consensus to win an election by appealing to hate and fear, consider this – how will you govern when the very thing that allows government and cooperation – the social contract and political consensus – is gone? How will you govern when Humpty has his great fall? With marshall law, in a police state? Will it be America then? Will all the king’s horses and all the king’s men be able to put Humpty together again?

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Humpty Dumpty, Part 2

I’m sharing this article from the Christian Science Monitor of 6/28/10 by William R. Polk almost verbatim. Polk has taught at Harvard and the U of Chicago.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s me
Couldn’t pu Huupty together again.

As long as this egg – this social contract - exists and we accept it, we do not need massive and intrusive military or police force – all the king’s horses and all the king’s men - to keep from robbing, raping or killing one another. Under its benign influence, we mostly continue to do what we do and refrain from what we should not do.

But, if Humpty Dumpty is knocked off his perch, we lose our implicit agreement on what is right and proper. English philosopher Thomas Hobbes likened living outside the social contract as a state of war, ‘of every man against every man;’ and the only way to keep order in such a state is the use of overwhelming and intrusive force. But that seldom works.

As we have seen in the attempts to impose order in Baghdad, New Orleans, and Hati, overwhelming military and police froce fails. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men, couldn’t put Humpty together again. History shows that the very act of attempting to impose security often has precisely the opposite effect. For example, the trigger of the American Revollution was the Brits attempt to restore order in Boston.

If Humpty’s fall is not long term, if people do not have a chance to adjust to the new lawless reality, he and the social contract can be resurrected. Thus in New Orleans and Hati, their descent into chaos was momentary, and while the effects were horrifying, they self corrected. That happened because even the pessimist Hobbes says, people everywhere really want peace.

But, if Humpty and the social contract are shattered and remain inoperable for a long time, relations between groups – particularly if they are easily identified by racial or religious differences – become fixed in new modes and the old consensus around shared values is virtually irreparable. For example, Somalia; this is a fine explanation of what’s happening in Somalia.

We have to be careful of pushing Humpty off his wall, both here at home and abroad. In fact, looking at the irrationality in domestic politics, the rise of extremes and extremism, the low approval ratings and the virulent attacks on the President and other institutions of our democratic system, it seems that perhaps the election of a truly compassionate (not a so-called‘compassionate’ conservative) Black, Domocrat has weakened our political social contract and pushed Humpty off his wall. Hopefully, this will be a temporary loss of consensus, as in New Orleans.

Yet overseas, when we invade and push Humpty off his wall, shatterring what we deem tyranical ‘undemocratic’ social contracts to replace them with ‘better’ ones, more like our own – which isn’t working all that well and which probably is not appropriate for an African or Arab context – we risk leaving anarchy in our wake and creating a breeding ground for the very forces we thought we were taming. Food for thought.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s me
Couldn’t pu Huupty together again.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Hupty Dumpty, Part 1

I’m sharing this article from the Christian Science Monitor of 6/28/10 by William R. Polk almost verbatim. Polk has taught at Harvard and the U of Chicago.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s me
Couldn’t pu Huupty together again.

Over the years, people have found the verses of this rhyme memorable because they remind us of important truths. For our times, it is something so taken for granted that we often overlook it: the ‘social contract.’ The social contract is the basis for a healthy, functioning society. Yet it is fragile. It is Humpty Dumpty, the fragile egg, sitting atop the wall.

American foreign policy in the past decade has been rooted in the notion that overwhelming force –‘all the king’s horses and all the king’s men’ – could in fact fix a broken social contract (Afghanistan) or create a new, improved on (Iraqu). The results have been uneding and tragic costs.

Sometimes written out in contitutions, laws, and treaties, but more often just unwritten cutom, the social contract is the convention in which we manage to live relatively peacefully next to one another. Whether written or not, it is based on a consensus of what we think of as ‘normal’ or ‘right.’ In more traditional societies, it is referred to as ‘the way.’

Historically, the idea of a social contract probably grew out of kinship. Our remote ancestors, who lived in small clans, were able to get along with one another because they were fathers and children or brothers and sisters. Few were more remote from one another than first cousins.

Then, about 4,000 years ago, clans grew into villages and towns grew into cities. Kinship became too vague or too remote to explain or enforce social peace. Some new means was required. In the urban revolution, the idea of kinship was transformed into neighborhood. The emerging fragile social contract was that one was supposed to treat his neighbor as though he were a kinsman rather than a foreigner for foreighner often meant an enemy.

That was not an easy transformation and is still incomplete, but over the few thousand years, society after society has struggled with the challenge of making this notion effective. That’s why Humpty Dumpty, the social contract, is depicted as a fragile egg. Where societies succeded they created what the rhyme pictures - Humpty sitting up on a wall, above the occasional rough and tumble, the push and shove, the give and take of daily life, a presence that in some abstract and idealized way facilitates and bring order to the challenging process of living together. But….

Monday, August 2, 2010

If, then

If, then…. If it doesn’t rain, I’ll have a good time at the beach. If I get the job, I’ll be able to pay the mortgage. If I marry person X (or perhaps, XXX), I’ll be happy. If we win the war in Afghanastan, then we’ll have peace and justice. If, then….

Is this proposition - if, then – an effective way to think and feel? It’s the way most of us do think and feel, but how well does it work for us? Are we getting what works best for us, what we want and need, a world that works for everyone? To me, it’s a loser’s script, a movie we write, direct and star in ourselves that gives our power away. We literally give our inner power to be happy, succesful, live meanigful lives contributing to a world that works for everyone, to conditions outside ourselves.

If XYZ happens, outside ourselves, then we’ll be happy, happiness being an inner, spiritual state. Can’t you be happy without XYZ happening? Of course you can! Sure, we want XYZ, think we ‘need’ XYZ, but do we need them to be happy? No, not really. “Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be,” Lincoln said. What if we decided to be happy first and then, from that place of inner contentment and connection to our spiritual source, worked to have XYZ? Would that work better? It absolutely would. You’ve probably done it a few times, too.

I’d lose my edge, some people say. I need the external to motivate me, a goal to strive for. Yes and no; more no than yes. Giving your power away to externals with the if, then proposition is still an outside/in approach. It works, but it is so inefficient and painful. The inside/out approach of claiming the inner good you want first – the peace, joy, happiness, love - works much better. This is about taking responsibility and claiming your spiritual power.

“Projection makes perception,” the Course in Miracles says. It doesn’t start out there, it starts in here, inside us. We wrote the movie script, direct and star in it, not god, not your parents, bosses and friends, you and I, and if we want it to be different, we’ve got to re-write it, direct in differently and act differently. The world “is the witness to your state of mind, the outside picture of an inward conditions. As a man thinketh, so does he perceive. Therefore, seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world. Perception is a result and not a cause.”