Hope and Disapointment

Thanksgiving is the holiday of our hopes, dreams, ideals and aspirations as well as our disappointments, fears, anger, blame and victimization. All holidays partake of this, but Thanksgiving seems to partake of it more. We ‘should’ on ourselves more on Thanksgiving: it should be perfect or not like this or better than this. I shouldn’t feel this way, they shouldn’t feel that way. But then there are moments like Goldilocks’ porridge, when it’s just right and the shoulds are gone. God bless and may your porridge today be just right.

Gratitude

“Gratitude turns around moments of fear and distress, shifting attention from what isn’t working to what is.  In every circumstance, there is something to be grateful for. Find it, praise it and feel the shift. Happy Thanksgiving!”  HQPubs.com

The Wizard

“And there will come a great Wizard,” Devorah said. “And a young woman will go to him and ask him to return her to her home. She will go through many ordeals only to discover that she herself possessed the power to return home all the time.” Devorah smiled. “Deep within our hearts each of us knows the truth; that the spirit within us is greater than anything in the outer world. The power of your life is in your own hands where it has always been. Like Dorothy, you had it all the time, even now.”
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Devorah's Webinar

Devorah has suggested that we invite you to a free 45 minute webinar that would be an open discussion and exploration of her unique way of thinking about spirituality. If you’ve been following the posts and are curious, this would be a fine way to ask questions and learn more.  

Please reply if you’d be interested in attending such a webinar the second week in January and what day and time would be best for you.

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History is not Destiny

“Your history is not your destiny,” Devorah said to the multitude. “Until your life is completely over, you lack the information to truly understand how everything in your life fits together. To live more fully, think of yourself as an explorer visiting unknown territory, within and without. Travel lightly, without baggage, allowing your present and future to be totally unlike your past. Be willing to say that wherever I find myself, is home. Resist longing for the safety of the past. You are exactly where you need to be to live the life that is best for you. Life is an opportunity, not a punishment.”
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Flowers and Bees

“So,” Devorah repeated, “don’t rush it or judge yourself and allow each thought to be an opportunity. This is a difficult process with much uncertainty while we identify with the ego. ‘Allowing’ means letting the ego and its way of thinking go, so spirit’s way can emerge. Doing this feels wrong, risky and dangerous. But we have to go through it and know that the ego speaks first and is always wrong. Besides,” Devorah said, grimacing, “uncertainty won’t kill you. It’s uncomfortable, but a necessary part of the process of shifting from ego to spirit.

“For example, I no longer know which thoughts I have and which thoughts have me. The thoughts that have me are the ones I want to question; the obvious self evident ones. The thoughts that shake me up, that make me re-think are the thoughts I want to encourage.

“Consider the flower,” Devorah smiled. “It pours out its fragrance to attract a bee to pollinate it and spread its seed. The flower has no wings but the bee does. The bee has no nectar but the flower does. There would be no flowers without bees and no bees without the nectar of flowers. Can you truly say the nectar belongs to the flower, or that the wings belong to the bee? Were they not made for each other? If it were not for the appearance of separate bodies, wouldn’t you see them as one?”

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Your Responsibility

“Your responsibility is to claim your power and yourSelf,” Devorah said. “To realize you are not a victim and understand this experience of the world as a bad dream, the ego’s nightmare, to give each experience, ‘good’ or ‘bad’, over to spirit; to allow ourselves to experience the dream differently with ourSelves, with spirit, as a happy dream.

“For the world and our experiences are as all things are in dreams, illusory, impermanent and neutral, and who we choose to identify with determines whether we have a nightmare or a happy dream. 

“But the goal of our spiritual practice is not to have a dream at all, happy or sad, but to return to our minds, forgive our own and everyone else’s illusory trespasses, and accept our oneness with spirit. This is a process, a one thought at a time, step by step process. So don’t rush it or judge yourself and allow each thought to be an opportunity.”

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The Witness

“The first step is to forgive myself for the mistaken thought; to not take what I see and experience here as immutable; to understand that these experiences are of the ego and their purpose to keep me out of my mind; and then give the thought over to mySelf so that I may see it with mySelf, be guided and know what to do. Realize that the world is a witness to your state of mind, the outside picture of an inward condition. Your state of mind, a choice you have made. You are not a helpless victim of forces beyond your control. You are not alone. You are response-able, you have power, you can choose again and see and experience the world differently, with yourSelf instead of yourself.”
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Form Follows Thinking

Devorah smiled. “When I’m able to remember that all thinking produces form at some level - internal and/or external, I’m better able take responsibility for my thinking and my experience of the world. Form follows thought because the ‘thinking’ I normally do is with the ego in my brain and not with spirit which is in my mind. Since mind is spirit, mySelf, outside of time and space, I know that if I’m ‘thinking’ I’m identifying with ego and creating form. The goal of my spiritual practice is to realize this and that form is irrelevant except as feedback about which of the two realities I’m identifying with – myself or mySelf, ego or spirit.

 “It also helps to remember that I am never alone, that I do not have to shift from brain to mind on my own. That I merely have to be willing to do this to claim my atonement with spirit, for it is spirit Itself that doeth the work.

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Two Views of Reality

“The Covenant, the other, non-traditional way of looking at things, teaches that God did not create the world, we did.” Malachizer shook his head and grumbles of “blasphemy” shivered around the crowd. But most of the people were receptive and wanted to hear more. After all, Devorah was a good person, an effective Judge, and an excellent prophet so there had to be something to what she was saying.
 
“In a single instant, long ago past, the ego – an ‘idle’ thought that we were separate from God - wandered into our minds. Instead of ignoring that thought and laughing at the ridiculous idea that such a thing could be possible, we took the idea seriously. We thus became separate bodies in a world of separate things. But our minds, not our brains, but our minds, which share reality with God, remain with God.

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Idle Thoughts

The tent was full for the Sabbath Eve service. The High Priest, Malachizer, had finished his sermon and gestured for Devorah to give her remarks.  “There is no such thing as an ‘idle’ thought,” Devorah said, gesturing inclusively. “All of you know I live in this world with you; but that I see it and experience it differently.” A murmur of ascent. “Malachizer, our good High Priest, sees it one way as do most of you, I see it another. The way most people see and experience the world, the traditional way embodied in the Law and the Scrolls, is that the world is real and outside us. It is and we react to it.
“The other way of seeing and experiencing the world, the non-traditional way that I call the Covenant, is that the world is not real, but a product of our thoughts...."

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Struggle

“And,” Devorah said, “if you find yourself struggling as we all do too much of the time, remember, the essence of struggle is to become new, rather than simply to become older.”

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Tone of Voice

“When I pause and go within for guidance,” Barak asked, “how do I know it’s the still small voice – mySelf – I’m hearing instead of the ego?”

Devorah smiled. “The tone, my general,” she said. “What is the tone? Is it loud, strident and demanding, or soft, calming and soothing? Does it come from your head or heart? Does it make you feel smart, brilliant and in control, or comforted, peaceful and grateful? Is the advice good for all concerned or will some people and things be harmed or punished? Are you concerned that you not embarrass yourself and be right, or have faith and trust, going forward in spite of your doubt and fear? In other words, are you proud or humble?  Are you letting go and letting yourSelf do it, or are you holding on and struggling?”

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Immune to Facts?

“Have you ever noticed how some people, especially true believers like the T Party, are immune to facts?” Barak asked Devorah. Devorah nodded. “Why is that?”

“Making something visible to those who don’t believe in it does not mean it will be seen. Making something like global climate change visible to those who don’t want to believe makes them afraid. When people are afraid, they become defensive and look for reasons to be angry, and the anger makes frightened people feel safer.” Barak nodded. “The best we can do,” Devorah continued, “is allow a thing to just speak for itself so that when people do find it they feel like discoverers.”

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Humility is Smart

Devorah continued, “Humility isn’t a ‘nice’ thing you do, to please your parents or God or show what a good person you are. Being humble is a practical useful thing intelligent people do to find peace, be successful and seize opportunities. Think about it – the world is a complicated place, zillions of variables. Even in your own small life, zillions of variables. What should you do now, five minutes from now? Which variables should you manipulate, which first, second? The one power that is these variables, in and through them as it is in and through you, knows. It alone knows. Being humble and accepting how small and relatively powerless your self is and allowing yourSelf to guide you, is not ‘nice,’ it’s smart. Having humility, letting go and letting God, is the intelligent thing to do.”

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Faith and True Guidance

Devorah smiled. “I close my eyes to see,” she said. “Then am I truly guided. Our lack of faith can be a way of accepting the status quo, a failure to move beyond what is comfortable and familiar.  We cling to what is, rather than seeing what could be.  The spiritual path is a process with no final destination.  It is one long opportunity to learn and grow.  In difficult times… our faith can transport us to new levels.  We emerge on the other side of problems transformed and renewed.” 

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