Be the Change You Want to See

“Be the change you want to see.”

“We see the world, not as it is, but as we are.”

“To have a friend, be a friend.”

“Change your thinking, change your life.”

“I am, that I am.”

 

There’s a common thread in all these sayings. Which would you say it is?

 

Inside-Out?

The at-one-ment?

We are all one?

Life is an interconnected whole?

Projection makes perception?

Take responsibility?

 

The good news is: the force is with us, we have the power! Things need not be as they are. See Darth Veder as an opportunity. Do what it takes to accept the guidance of your god-given talents, desires and gifts, to share and express them and you will transform Darth Veder and make a contribution to a world that works for everyone and everything.

In the Silence, Part III

But you can only claim the silence and the at-one-ment for yourself. You can’t do it for anyone else, nor can others learn only from your words or judgments. They learn most and best from your example, from the reality of your choice. When in a difficult situation with another, don’t ask spirit, “what shall I say to her?” Rather ask, “help me see this person from within the silence, through the eyes of truth (the at-one-ment), as a spiritual being having an earthly experience, not as a being trapped in a body.”

 

We pray and keep asking spirit to make us feel good here; to solve our problems here; to bring and end to pain and suffering here; give us things here. But things here do not last. Better to ask to change our thinking here, to shift figure/ground here—to let our special, ego needs recede into the background; and our spiritual reality move to the foreground.

In the Silence, Part II

In the silence you get that all you really want is the silence itself—the peace, quiet, calm and blessed stillness. You understand if you could only live from this place, everything else would take care of itself, that you need nothing, but have an endless store of loving gifts to give. In the silence, you get that it’s about you, not everybody and everything else. You get that if you could just claim the silence and share your gifts, heaven would emerge and you would be in the world, but not of the world.

In the Silence, Part I

In the silence we find what’s necessary to continue living. The silence doesn’t ask us to deny our experience, but to choose a teacher who will help us realize we are never upset for the reason we think. Outside the silence, we believe there are choices in the world that have to be made. In the silence we get that there is only one true choice, the choice between teachers, between ego or spirit. In the silence we get that what we take to be unforgivable sin—choosing the ego over spirit, was only a mistake. In the silence we see that this mistake requires a simple correction—forgiveness instead of attack, spirit instead of ego, heaven instead of hell.

Be Still and Know

Be still and know that I am God*.

 

The great, famous and mysterious ‘I am;’ what God is said to have replied to Moses when Moses asked the burning bush how he, Moses, could know that it was truly God speaking to him from the flames.  “I am that I am,” the story has God saying.

 

One of the metaphysical interpretations and lessons of this is that God is what he says he is, and that being made in the image and likeness of God, the same is true for us. So, if I think, feel and say I’m sad, I am sad, and if I think, feel and say I’m happy, I’am happy. Lincoln is reputed to have said something similar -- most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. Thus, I am that I am.

 

If I identify with mySelf—with compassion, love, radiant good health, inclusion, fearlessness and creativity, then that is my experience of life. But if I identify with myself—with littleness, fear, hate, blame, sickness, disease, weakness and lack then that is my experience of life.  Who are you identifying with right now?

 

So be still and know that I am God means that when we are still, we know our true Self, our true Identity as spirit. In the inner stillness, all the ego clutter is gone and only spirit remains. Be still, let everything—thoughts, feelings and actions, go, hold on to nothing simply be still. Know that most of what we take to be reality is the raucous shrieks of the ego. When we are still, empty of ego, we are automatically one with spirit, and from that place, we may re-enter the world and with every need we perceive, turn within and have no fear for Its grace will suffices us.

 

*Dear readers, please know that in most instances, except when quoting the bible, when I refer to ‘God’ I’m not referring to an old, bearded white man sitting on a throne in the clouds surrounded by cherubs and angels. I’m referring to a malleable neutral power, a life energy, the substance and source of all that is and beyond all that is, the great Mystery of Life.

Winning and the Orchestra

In the current issue of the Intelligent Optimist magazine, which I highly recommend, Ben Zander, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and co-author of The Art of Possibility, also talks about winners and losers in the same way I did in my last post.

Talking about the importance of intelligent optimism to creating winners, Zander asks if anyone knows a five year old pessimist? Most of us don’t. But, “around 6, children enter what I call the world of the downward spiral.  At school you start getting compared to other children, and suddenly it matters to parents that one child does better than another.  Before school, your family gets excited about everything you do. But then you get grades and with grades come fear and insecurity.

 

“There’s nothing objective about a grade. It’s an invented measurement to decide that one child is better than another. Of course that’s nobody’s intention. Everyone will say that education is about opening children’s hearts and minds to new experiences. But grades stand in the way. It is a devastating experience for a child. Unfortunately, from that time onward the deck is stacked against [winning as an] intelligent optimist.

 

“Most motivational material, images and metaphors are from war or competitive sports, from competitive situations where the aim is to kill or beat the other person. It’s extraordinary how many metaphors for war we have in our language.”

 

Zander offers the symphony orchestra as the metaphor for the future. “The aim of the orchestra is not to win; the aim is to make sure that every voice is heard. If both the trumpet and viola are to be heard, the trumpet has to listen to viola because the trumpet is much louder. This requires great discipline. An orchestra is a conversation about ‘we’.”

 

We need more stories about ‘we’, community, inclusion and cooperation; about both the individual and the community, not either the individual or the community. We need more metaphors from endeavors like the orchestra and less from war and competitive sports. We need a bit more both/and thinking, and less either/or thinking.  Of course, both kinds of thinking have a place. But clearly we’ve spent too much time and energy on the either/ or and it’s time for the pendulum to swing back towards the ‘we’ and both/and.

Winners and Losers, or Just Winners?

Last time I posted, I wrote about it’s not how the world is, but how we think about the world. Instead of coming from a mental/emotional place of stewardship, compassion, inclusion and at-one-ment, we come from a mental/emotional place of win/lose, either/or and duality. If we could know, and we can, that spirit has given us-- all of us-- dems and reps, black and white, male and female, free-loaders and hard workers, everything—that we all ready have everything, what would we do? Would we still struggle, strive and compete, or would we just share our talents, skills and gifts? Would the game of life be about winners and losers or simply about winning?

 

“In your own mind, though denied by the ego, is the declaration of your release,” the realization that we are one with spirit right now and not only have everything spirit has, but are everything spirit is.  “This one fact means the ego does not exist, and this makes it profoundly afraid.” To ease its fear and preserve itself, the ego will do everything it can to keep us identifying with it and its nightmare illusion of the world. It will give us cancer, start a war, and create the idea that some people are better than others and that there are winners and losers.

 

But each of these is an opportunity to awaken, to return to the decision maker in our minds and choose again, this time choosing spirit instead of ego. “In the ego’s language, ‘to have’ and ‘to be’ are different, but they are identical to spirit.” In our identity as spirit, we both have everything and are everything. We are one with our Source right now, always have been, always will be. The ego is a mistake, a mistaken choice. Part of us knows that right now. That’s the part we want to recognize, identify with and encourage. There’s nothing to prove, no hoops to jump thru and no waiting required. Just chose again, now.