No More Anxiety

 

Too often I’m uncomfortable, afraid and anxious; sometimes for good reason, often for no reason at all. I don’t enjoy these feelings and want to feel differently. Do you feel that way, too?

 

I know if I can simply accept reality – my reality as spirit and awaken from the ego’s nightmare to the happy dream of my oneness with spirit and all that is, I won’t feel this way. The ego always speaks first and is wrong. I’m never upset for the reason I think. The seeming external ‘problems’ are not the problem. The problem is denying reality. The remedy, the simple acceptance of reality. My ego’s attempts to deny what is – my reality as spirit, must be fearful. Willing against reality scares and threatens the ego. When I distort reality I will experience anxiety, depression and ultimately panic because I am trying to make mySelf unreal.

 

Reality cannot threaten anything except illusions of mySelf. Reality--MySelf, is the love and wholeness I share with God, you and all that is. What seems to be the fear of God then, is really the fear of my own reality.

 

Of myself, I do not know who I am. But mySelf does know. It has left a part of itSelf in my mind. By allowing that part to guide me, I am able to realize that the ego always speaks first and is always wrong, that I’m never upset for the reason I think and to feel better by simply accepting mySelf and letting myself slip away.

 

Myself has imprisoned my will to will with spirit – to be anxiety-free and accept my reality, beyond my awareness. The guide within seeks to restore my awareness of my will to will with spirit. This guide will never ask me to sacrifice anything but illusions. If I feel like I’m sacrificing, then I’m not with the guide, but with ego. The guide always brings peace, joy, harmony and creativity. The guide shows me, and you, that we cannot be safe from the truth of ourSelves, but only in the truth of ourSelves.

The Still Small Voice

Spirit’s voice—the still small voice, is as loud as my willingness to listen. I hear it, each time I am able to lay the ego aside; and laying the ego aside, spirit’s voice is all that remains. I know that the ego is an illusion, an error a mistaken use of mind, that it dictates endless prescriptions for avoiding catastrophic outcomes. While spirit, perfectly aware of the same situation, does not bother to analyze it at all. Spirit knows the seeming situation is an error, a mistaken use of mind and reminds me that any way I handle error results in nothing; that there is only one error and one choice, to go within and chose again. Spirit reminds me that the more complicated the situation seems to become, the harder it is to recognize its nothingness.

Healing

Healing is the result of allowing the mind to use the body solely for communication. This is natural and is mind’s function - it heals by making whole. Allowing mind to be limited or arrested by the body, is to mistake cause and effect. A mind that has allowed itself to be blocked in its purpose of communication and extension, has allowed itself to be vulnerable to attack, because it has turned against itself.

 

The removal of blocks, then, is the only way to guarantee help and healing. Perceiving the body as a separate entity cannot but foster illness, because it is not true. The body is meant to be used as a medium of communication and loses its usefulness if it is used for anything else. To communicate is to join. Allowing my body and mind to attack is to separate. To conceive the body as a means of attack and to believe that joy—which is joining and communion, could possibly result, is a mistake.

 

Joy is unified purpose—one single purpose, one God, one family, everyone and everything all children of the one Source. Of course the ego goes nuts at this idea. Just look around you, it says, how can you say that? But what the ego shows me are illusions and the only freedom from illusions is breathing into them, going within--to mind, giving them over and not taking them so seriously.

Thru, Not In

Mind, which is who and what I am as a spiritual being, transcends the body. Mind works through the body but not in it. Mind cannot be made physical, but it can be made manifest through the physical. So the New Testament idea that ‘the word (or thought) was made flesh’ is a mistake.

 

If the mind believes the body is its goal, it will distort its perception of the body, block its own extension beyond it to communicate with itself in other seemingly separated bodies, which is its function and natural tendency, and induce illness by fostering separation.

 

The purpose of learning is to lead beyond the body to the re-establishment of the power of the mind in and thru it. This can be accomplished only if the mind extends to other minds and does not arrest itself in its extension. Allowing the mind to use the body only for its extension through communication, becomes a beautiful lesson in communion, which has value until communion is. This is spirit’s way of making unlimited what I have made limited.

 

In the body of another, I can see the use to which I have put mine. Seeing others as only bodies, belittles them and me. Spirit interprets the body only as a means of communication, a link between Itself, Its children and Its children with one another, enabling each seemingly separate part of It to join with every other seemingly separated part of it to make contributions to a world that works for everyone and everything in it.

Experienced, Not Explained

The truth of our reality as spiritual beings having earthly experiences can only be experienced. It cannot be described and in cannot be explained, even tho I keep trying to do that in these blogs and elsewhere. The ego’s world, even with the best of everything—health, wealth and happiness can add nothing to who we really are already – without further effort - children of God. But the ego’s world can blind us to spirit when we identify with it.

 

It is not possible to identify with the ego world and know our reality. Only one is true. Our experience of our reality as spirit--grace, unconditional love, deep calm, certainty and knowingness saves us, not from ourSelves but from our illusions of ourSelves. Our joy in the ego’s world, even with the best of everything—health, wealth and happiness is fleeting, leaving us with an ‘is that all there is?’ feeling, because nothing but the realization of our reality is worthy of us.

 

This is not to suggest we renounce life and go live in a monetary. We believe we are here in the ego’s world and will go on seeking the best of it for ourselves and everyone and everything else. But it is to suggest that we seek our truth and reality first, understanding that the whole power of ourSelves lies in all of us and not in anyone of us alone. Our function as spiritual beings first, is to work together, because apart from each other we cannot function at all.

 

Just as the truth of our reality as spiritual beings having earthly experiences can only be experienced, not described nor explained, so our reality as one child of one father/mother must be experienced to be known. We’ve all had a taste of this in group activities and teams when somehow, miraculously, it all comes together and we accomplish something grand, something none of us could have accomplished alone.

We Are Never Alone

“We are never alone. We are not isolated fragments of creation, but part of one great Whole. We may always turn to the greater Whole and accept more and more of Its good, abundance and right action of which we have been unknowingly depriving ourselves.

 

“In using our thought, the function of our minds, we need always remember that it is not our mind that we use. Rather, it the individualization within us of the One Mind that we use at the level of our awareness of It.

 

“We attract to ourselves experiences corresponding to the nature of our thought.” Excerpt from A New Design for Living by Ernest Holmes.

Middle Men

 The ego, myself, always speaks first and is wrong. It says things like: “When the pain stops, you’ll feel better,” or “when you get the new house, you’ll be happy,” or “if it doesn’t rain, then it’ll be a great day.” All conditional, all based on the outside-in thinking and believing, all middle men, as if my experience depends on them. I don’t need these or any other middle men. I can go directly to awareness of mySelf.

 

I can go. Do I? Not often enough. I get bogged down in addressing the middle men – taking care of the pain, getting the new house, hoping and praying it won’t rain. My attention is drawn away from mySelf which is the ego’s goal. If I’m busy fing around with the ego’s middle men, feeling alone and victimized, I’m not with mySelf and my reality as a spiritual being having an earthly experience.

 

I want to eliminate the middle men. I’m sick and tired of buying retail. I want to go direct to the supplier, the manufacturer, the Source. And I can! How cool is that? I can and you can! We can know we’re dealing with middle men, but not alone and not as victims.

 

When we hear the ego and experience its middle men, we can understand what’s happening, agree that I’ll feel better when the pain stops, or whatever, breath into it, give it over to spirit and with spirit, take whatever action spirit—that deep inner knowing and intuition, suggest. Often no action other than releasing and giving over is needed. Trusting the Source, releasing the blocks—the middle men, giving them over and experiencing mySelf instead of myself is so good and works so well! I want to do it more often!

Namaste

Consistent experiences of spirit’s blessings cannot be forced upon me, but come when they are all I want. And to want only that I need help. Yes it’s a choice, and I have the capacity to choose, but the ego’s nightmare illusion is so strong and I am so invested in it, I need to feel the love of God supporting me to make the best choice. “Who with the love of God supporting them would choose madness and murder?” No one. Certainly not me and not you. The difficulty is tho the love of God is always there and always supporting us, we don’t feel it. And not feeling it, not knowing we are spirit first, we choose madness and murder.

 

Interesting phrase that – “The love of God.” It goes two ways, God loving me and me loving God….

 

With the love of God supporting me I can know that when I meet anyone it is a holy encounter. As I see you is how I see myself. As I treat you is how I treat myself. As I think of you is how I think of myself. Every encounter with you and everyone and everything is an opportunity to experience myself or mySelf.

 

The purpose of life is to ‘Know Thyself’. There is nothing else to seek. Everything else is illusion. We are looking for the Self we all share and think we have lost. And we are looking in the wrong places. The ego’s motto is: ‘Seek but do not find.’ The ego has us look only at ourselves. But that is not enough. If I look only at myself, I will not find mySelf for mySelf is in everyone and everything. Until I allow the love of God to uphold me and see It in, thru and around me, I will feel lack and limitation, pain, anger and frustration.

 

Namaste – the God in me salutes the God in you!

First Things First

When I experience the wholeness and love of spirit within me, I will experience it everywhere outside of me: in everyone and everything. Going within first and accepting responsibility for my choices and experience and not experiencing myself as a powerless victim is the first step. When I fail to do this, I attack, first myself feeling sick, stressed, weak, deprived, lacking and victimized then you, blaming you, certain that if only you were different or the Republicans were different, then what a wonderful world it would be.

 

This is bull shit, the ego’s nightmare illusion designed to keep me busy in the illusion so I don’t go within, take responsibility and choose mySelf. There is only one way out of the ego illusion just as there only one way into it – to become aware of the horror and disfunctionality of it, want something different, go within and choose mySelf instead of myself. Wanting only this, I will have only this. I will know that instead of being alone and having to do it all on my own, with all the stress and fear that goes with that; I will have access to and be supported by the power that makes the stars shine and the seasons change.

Faith

The gift of life is mine to give, because it was given me. It is my birthright as well as yours. And I in turn want to give it, to feel the joy of sharing and seeing everyone and everything as whole, healthy and happy. What I want like that, is what I am. But I am not aware of the gift and feeling this way because I do not give it. The gift must be given first trusting and having faith in the fact that what we give, we have. We have so much corruption, fear, loathing, conflict, blame, and guilt, because, mistaking ourselves for the ego, that is what we have been giving. This need not be. We can turn away from this and give from our reality as spirit instead of our illusion as ego.

 

Every perceived attack is a call for the infinite love and patience that is mySelf. When I attack or perceive myself as attacked, I am unaware of mySelf and the gift of life, love and patience that is mine to give. When I share the illusions of attack, lack and scarcity, I am unaware of mySelf and the gift of life, love and patience that is mine to give. Turning away from these illusions and giving freely from mySelf no matter what seems to be happening, not only enable me to claim my reality, but you to claim yours.

 

Suddenly we see grace and ease and abundance, possibilities, creativity and innovation all around us! We are free! We know things need not be as they are! We can envision a world that works for everyone and everything and know how to make a contribution to it. All things are possible for mySelf! Wanting only this, I will have only this and giving only this I will be only this.

Doctor, It Hurts When I Do This

I do not need God’s blessing, the Course says, because as a spiritual being I have that forever. But I do need my own blessing. The ego’s picture of me, and you, is deprived, unloving and vulnerable. We cannot love this.

 

Yet we can fairly easily escape from this false image by leaving it behind. I am not there and that is not me, or you. If I do not see this image in anyone else, I will not see it in myself. Given reality as a holograph, what I see in others, I have accepted in myself.

 

All the ego’s nightmare illusions are dispelled together as they were made together by the choice of the decision maker in my mind. I don’t want to teach anyone that they are what I would not want to be. Other people and my experiences in the world are mirrors in which I see my perceptions of myself and my decision maker’s choices.

 

Illusions are investments. They will last as long as I value them. The only way to dispel illusions is to withdraw all investment from them. Then they will have no life for us because we have put them out of our minds—the source of all life.

 

The gift of life is ours to give, because it was given us. We are not aware of this because we do not give it. What we give, we have. We have so much corruption, fear, loathing, conflict, blame, and guilt, because that is what we have been giving. This need not be. We can turn away from this and give from our reality as spirit instead of our illusion as ego.

 

I’m reminded of that old joke: Patient: Doctor it hurts when I do this. Doctor: Don’t do that.

Reality as Holograph

I am never upset for the reason I think because the real reason I, and you, are upset is because we have identified with ego instead of spirit and are mistaking events in the ego’s nightmare world as real. We need to wake up and claim our atonement with spirit, our true identities as spiritual beings having earthly experiences. I, and probably you too, am able to do this sometimes - to awaken and feel the grace and know the truth, but it is the exception, not the rule.

 

“Reality cannot be partly appreciated,” the Course says. Denying any part of it means I have lost awareness of all of it. It’s like a holograph—one piece of the whole contains the whole, just as a drop of seawater contains all that the ocean is. Yet on the other hand, like the holograph, recognizing part of it means I am aware of all of it.

 

So it is that when I deny my own reality as spirit, I am denying yours and when I deny your reality as spirit—condemn, judge, fear and hate you—see you with ego—I am doing the same to myself. I need to see you as a spiritual being in order to see myself as a spiritual being. The blessing I withhold from you, is the blessing I need and withhold from myself.

 

There is no way for me to have the blessing, except by giving it to you – or the Republicans, or the so-called militants, or the bankers, or the Wall Street criminals. When these people act insanely believing that events in the ego nightmare are real, they are offering me an opportunity to see that I have denied my own reality, and their need for blessing is my own.

 

My ego says: ‘No way! I’m not a Wall Street criminal nor a T Party radical!’ And that’s true from the ego perspective. But that is a limited perspective, one that denies the greater holographic reality we all share. It is not the truth and not the whole story. “Reality cannot be partly appreciated.” This is the law of life and has no exceptions. What I deny either in myself or you, I lack, not because it is lacing in truth, but because I have denied it and am therefore not aware of it.

 

Every response I make is determined by what I, and you too, think we are. And what I want to be is what I think I am. So, what I want to be – either ego or spirit – determines every response I make. I have but to look to my experience to know what I want to be. Hate, fear, judgment, guilt, and doubt are of the ego. Love, trust, appreciation, cooperation and innovation are of spirit.

I'm Never Upset for the Reason I Think!

My experience shows me that my mind divides its allegiance between the ego and spirit and is totally committed to neither. According to the Course, my identification with spirit is totally beyond question except by the ego.

 

I really want to believe this—that I am a spiritual being having an earthly experience. And further, I want to believe that what and who I am, and what and who you are, is not established by perception, nor influenced by it at all.

 

Perceived problems are not problems of fact, the Course says. They are problems of understanding, since their presence implies a belief that who and what we are is up to us to decide—which it is when I ID with the ego. Tho the ego believes this fully and is totally committed to it, it is not true. If my inner decision maker was as committed to spirit’s wholeness as the ego is to separation, I’d be in heaven all the time.

 

That’s good to know! Because, when I’m sad and depressed I can allow myself to remember it’s because I’m committed to the ego instead of spirit and this is not God’s choice, but my own. The truth is I’m never separate from spirit but simply asleep and dreaming I’m separate. So when I, and you, are sad and depressed, we need to know it’s not what’s happening ‘out there’ that’s doing it, it’s the decision I made in here to be with the ego and separate from the Truth. So, a useful thing to do when feeling depressed or sad is to pause and say: ‘I am never upset for the reason I think!’ then chose again.

Parenoia

We missed the time change yesterday. When we woke at our usual time, it was an hour later. My wife found out first when she put the TV news on. She didn’t believe it so she called the time & temp phone #. They confirmed it. Still, I was vaguely uneasy about it.

 

How could we have missed it? We usually know well in advance. It made me feel paranoid. I owned that feeling and let it drift around my consciousness for awhile then realized why I felt that way and this is what I want to share.

 

I was paranoid because I had no way to verify on my own--by my own experience - that the time really did change. It was still dark, there was just no way to know. I had to depend on the external man-made sources and worst of all, the media. I couldn’t know and believe on my own or use my own sense experience to validate. I had to trust and that need to trust what I considered an unreliable source and my inability to verify with my own experience made me paranoid.

 

Wow, having to trust the media! What an eye opener! And for something so basic as the time of day. The news is similar. Like the time change, because I can’t verify the so-called news with my own experience and sense data, I’m paranoid about what is distributed by the media and called ‘news.’ That’s why it’s so important if I’m to keep my paranoia at an ‘acceptable’ level and avoid the severe paranoia infecting so many people, that I, and you too, have many different sources of news and information, stay mindful and use scientific techniques like General Semantics.

I'm grateful

I had surgery yesterday to repair a hernia in my right groin area. It went very well and I’m grateful! The surgeon was simpatico, compassionate and skillful as were all the professionals at Baptist. I am grateful! The actual surgery itself was 40 minutes. The doc found that my appendix was in the hernia so he removed it. Again, I’m grateful, two for one! The prep—paperwork, etc was 2 ½ hours, the actual surgery, 40 minutes….

 

 On a scale of 1 – 10, the pain last night was a 12, made worse by movement and I had to get up to pee every hour. I took a large dose of homeopathic Arnica early in the evening. I’m pretty sure it helped. I should have taken in it the day before and the day of; better late than never. When the pain was most intense, I breathed into it, surrendered to it and gave it over. That let me sleep. Gradually, as the night grew older, the pain eased.

 

Now, I’m a six on the pain scale. Ice before bed and a little while ago helped also; as did the Alleve. I’m grateful. I put the surgery off for approx a year because of fear of the recovery. But as the condition worsened, I had no choice. I’m glad it’s done and I found the courage to get it done. All in all, I’m grateful.

Christopher Columbus: The Map is Not the Territory

Whatever I do, I can do it better by understanding that the map is not the territory--being more objective and clearer about how I’m thinking about things. You, too. Where are our biases, prejudices and other tendencies not to see things as they are but as we expect or want them to be? Do our values and standards work for the general good now, not in the future, and enable us to contribute to a world that works for everyone and everything, not just some special group? If not, am I willing to take responsibility for my thinking, values, biases and prejudices and change them?  Here is another example General Semantics debunking a cherished American myth written by Martin H. Levinson: The Map: Christopher Columbus Discovered America. A review of the territory: A national American holiday and two centuries of school-history lessons have led many to believe as true that Christopher Columbus was the first to reach America. But most scholars thing Columbus actually landed in Cuba, Hispaniola and on an island in the Bahamas during his 1492 voyage. Archaeological evidence suggests that Norse sailors led by Leif Erickson reached North America five hundred years before Columbus, establishing a colony in Newfoundland around 1000 AD.

 

It is interesting to note that Columbus’s bravery, persistence, and seamanship have earned him a prominent place in American history. But many school-books gloss over the fact that in his obsessive quest for gold he enslave the local population. With other Spanish adventurers, as well as later European colonizers, Columbus opened as era of genocide that decimated the Native American population through warfare, forced labor and European diseases to which the Indians, a name Columbus bestowed on Native Americans, had no natural immunities.

 

Considering Columbus’s prominence in our nation’s history, one might ask, why don’t we live in the United States of Columbus? The answer is that Amerigo Vespucci, and Italian who captained four voyages to the ‘New World’ beginning in 1499, recognized that the New World, a term that he coined, was a landmass separate from Asia. To honor his revelation, Vespucci’s give name was placed on the first map of the region. While Columbus may have found the new world first, Vespucci understood that is was a new world. Columbus went to his grave thinking he had reached Asia.

Betsy Ross - The Map is Not the Territory

 

General Semantics involves thinking about thinking—a self-awareness and realization that most of the time we mis-take the map—our words, for the territory—the thing itself. It’s about moments of conscious awareness during which I am aware that my words and language involve selective perception—taking things out of context, isolating them and acting as if, if I could just do this one thing, everything would be OK.  General Semantics helps me take responsibility for this kind of abstracting and enables me, and you, to see the interdependence, interrelatedness and complexity that is really there. It enables us to take responsibility for our over simplifying stinkin’ thinkin’ and change it.

 

 

Here is an example General Semantics debunking a cherished American myth written by Martin H. Levinson: The Map: Betsy Ross Sewed the First American Flag. A review of the territory: The legend of Betsy Ross as the first embroiderer of the American flag was originally brought to light in 1870, when one of her grandson, William J. Canby, reported a story his grandmother had told him. According to Canby, George Washington and several others visited Betsy’s upholstery shop in Philadelphia and showed her a crude drawing of the flag, which she then produced. After Canby’s death, a book called The Evolution of the American Flag, published in 1909, presented the claims for Betsy Ross made by Canby in 1870.

 

While Betsy Ross did make some flags in the late eighteenth century, it is known that she made ‘ship’s colors’ for which she was paid, no one has been able to verify that the Canby story is true. Furthermore, some evidence exist that a Philadelphia poet named Francis Hopkinson designed the Stars and Stripes in 1780. However, Betsy Ross is still thought of by most as the sewer of the first American flag, and her house in Philadelphia has become a historical site. There is even doubt among historians that she even lived in that house.

 

 

 

The Map is Not the Territory

We believe that what we say about things is the Truth about them. That is, that there is a one to one relationship between the words and the phenomena—that a ‘tree’ = a tree. Yet no two trees, even those of the same species, are the same. We know this yet we act as if what we say about things is the Truth about them. Words are symbols of symbols twice removed from reality. Words are maps and the map is not the territory. Again, we know this, but think and act as if our maps DO represent the territory – that Republican is this and Democrat is that. Words are a fine starting place, the ball park if you will. But then if we really want to communicate and get things done we’ve got to know the section, row and seat number.

 

Today I’m beginning a series on words and language inspired by the science of General Semantics, a science that sounds more academic and useless than it is. Here is an example General Semantics debunking a cherished American myth written by Martin H. Levinson: The Map: The Pilgrims Landed on Plymouth Rock. A Review of the Territory: On December 16, 1620, the Pilgrims on the Mayflower reached their new home in America. Nearly all scholars put the Pilgrims’ landing about 10 miles north of the lumpy scrap of stone known as Plymouth Rock. There is no mention in any historical account of that rock, a large boulder located in Plymouth MA, into which, in 1880, the Pilgrim Society carved the year 1620.

 

The legend of Plymouth Rock was started in 1741 by 95 year old man who said his father told him about it. Twenty-eight years later, celebrating the Pilgrims’ landing a Plymouth Rock became an annual event in New England. By 1835, Alexis de Tocqueville reported pieces of the rock were being venerated in different American cities, and it was established as an American icon.

 

Offers for chunks of Plymouth Rock have occasionally popped up on eBay, where asking prices have been as much as $900. However, while it is true that lots of souvenir hunters did carve off parts of the Rock during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, there is no way to differentiate a real hunk of Plymouth Rock from a fake one. For those interested in seeing what is left of Plymouth Rock (it is estimated to be only about one-third to one-half of its original size), it is preserved today in a state park near the mouth of Plymouth harbor.

Friday Funnies

These are kind of retro and sexist, but hey….

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Side of Life 



1. 

Good: Your wife is pregnant. 

Bad: it's triplets. 

Ugly: You had a vasectomy five years ago.

2. 

Good: Your wife's not talking to you. 

Bad: She wants a divorce.

Ugly: She's a lawyer.



3. 

Good: Your youngest son is finally maturing. 

Bad: He's involved with the woman next door. 

Ugly: So are you.



4. 

Good: Your wife and you agree, no more kids. 

Bad: Your wife can't find her birth control pills. 

Ugly: Your 13 year old daughter borrowed them.



5. 

Good: Your oldest son understands fashion. 

Bad: He's a cross-dresser. 

Ugly: He looks better than your wife.



6. 

Good: You give the 'birds and bees' talk to your 10 year old daughter. 

Bad: She keeps interrupting. 

Ugly: With corrections.

7. 

Good: Your son is dating someone new. 

Bad: It's another man.

Ugly: He's your best friend.



8. 

Good: Your 15 year old daughter got a new job 

Bad: As a hooker.

Ugly: Your co-workers are her best clients. 

Very Ugly: She makes more money than you do.