Here are a couple of ideas about reaching God given by the Course in Miracles workbook. They are very simple; hence I though worth sharing.
WB 41: “In the morning, as soon as you get up if possible, sit quietly for some three to five minutes, with your eyes closed. At the beginning of the practice period, repeat today's idea very slowly. Then make no effort to think of anything. Try, instead, to get a sense of turning inward, past all the idle thoughts of the world. Try to enter very deeply into your own mind, keeping it clear of any thoughts that might divert your attention.
From time to time, you may repeat the idea if you find it helpful. But most of all, try to sink down and inward, away from the world and all the foolish thoughts of the world. You are trying to reach past all these things. You are trying to leave appearances and approach reality.
It is quite possible to reach God. In fact it is very easy, because it is the most natural thing in the world. You might even say it is the only natural thing in the world. The way will open, if you believe that it is possible. “
WB 44: “God is the light in which you see. You are attempting to reach Him.
Begin the practice period by repeating today's idea with your eyes open, and close them slowly, repeating the idea several times more. Then try to sink into your mind, letting go every kind of interference and intrusion by quietly sinking past them. Your mind cannot be stopped in this unless you choose to stop it. It is merely taking its natural course. Try to observe your passing thoughts without involvement, and slip quietly by them.
While no particular approach is advocated for this form of exercise, what is needful is a sense of the importance of what you are doing; it’s inestimable value to you, and an awareness that you are attempting something very holy.”
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Spiritual Sobriety
It is lunch time here in my office. I have spent the morning breaking my brain. I had to make decisions about which operating parameters are critical for one of the processes I completing a Process Hazard Analysis for.
I’ve been listening through the wall to my co-worker; who was on the phone several times this morning. He gets very heated when someone doesn’t agree with him.
As I finish my lunch (a couple of pieces of bread and hot tea), I decide to stop and think for a moment; reflect as it were, listening to the inner voice. What are the critical operating parameters for my life? What life process are they parameters for?
One critical operating parameter is spiritual sobriety. I thought about this a lot during my 90 minute run this morning. I don’t drink alcohol for spiritual reasons. One of the critical operating parameters for my spiritual life is physical sobriety. The decision to drink is an act of spiritual death. The presence of alcohol, subsequent to taking a drink, is actually a post-mortem on the spiritual death.
The decision to drink is not the only decision which causes spiritual death. I need to look within my own thought /belief system and see what thoughts are killing me spiritually. I look for thoughts which God would not have thought or placed in my mind. The non-God thoughts are mine. I am responsible for putting them there. They are killing me.
In 8 days, I will drive to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and participate in a 24 hour running event. I’m terribly curious to see what this experience will be like. How far I go and how long I stick with it are big question marks. Distance and time, symbolizing perseverance or enduring desire, have their parallels in the program of spiritual sobriety. The question for spiritual sobriety is “How bad do you want God?” Spiritual sobriety is a lonely business because hardly anybody wants to go to any lengths to know God intimately.
Selah!
I’ve been listening through the wall to my co-worker; who was on the phone several times this morning. He gets very heated when someone doesn’t agree with him.
As I finish my lunch (a couple of pieces of bread and hot tea), I decide to stop and think for a moment; reflect as it were, listening to the inner voice. What are the critical operating parameters for my life? What life process are they parameters for?
One critical operating parameter is spiritual sobriety. I thought about this a lot during my 90 minute run this morning. I don’t drink alcohol for spiritual reasons. One of the critical operating parameters for my spiritual life is physical sobriety. The decision to drink is an act of spiritual death. The presence of alcohol, subsequent to taking a drink, is actually a post-mortem on the spiritual death.
The decision to drink is not the only decision which causes spiritual death. I need to look within my own thought /belief system and see what thoughts are killing me spiritually. I look for thoughts which God would not have thought or placed in my mind. The non-God thoughts are mine. I am responsible for putting them there. They are killing me.
In 8 days, I will drive to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and participate in a 24 hour running event. I’m terribly curious to see what this experience will be like. How far I go and how long I stick with it are big question marks. Distance and time, symbolizing perseverance or enduring desire, have their parallels in the program of spiritual sobriety. The question for spiritual sobriety is “How bad do you want God?” Spiritual sobriety is a lonely business because hardly anybody wants to go to any lengths to know God intimately.
Selah!
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Listening Christ Woman
Normally my weekends are spent listening to the haranguing of my ego and believing its frightening statements about what a piece of crap I am. This weekend, I spent in gratitude for a realization of my Truth.
The spiritual text I study is of dubious background. It comes NOT with any authorization. The denominational religious and the atheists both are aghast. They ask how I could be so dedicated to such unprovable and outlandish proposals.
Yet I am grateful that yesterday, I took an affirmative action in denying both the ego and the world. I decided that I was going to stop listening to the ego, especially as it attempts to defend or attack based on what others say. I decided to stop these thought attacks and listen only to the Voice of peace which I am able to hear whenever I stop for it.
So I reached a point of extreme buoyant happiness in gratitude for The Course. The Course has helped me with the continuously punishing inner beast, my ego. AND it gives me a way to look at the world which extends spirit into every person and situation I encounter. AND it gives me a way to connect with my hearts desire: that ineffable, intangible, higher order consciousness, present throughout the human mind. It goes by various names: Christ, Atman, Tao, Buddha, etc. It is much squabbled over by those who have never realized it. Those who have realized it merely watch and wait, speaking only to genuine listeners.
This weekend, I was challenged in my dedication by 3 different people. I am astounded at my own newly found confidence in my decision. Without anyone's approval and in the face of disapproval, I know what's best for me and I am doing it. Ultimately, it is my inner being which is deciding what I should study, how I should see things and what I should do. I stand on firm ground, strongly faithful to this inner quiet thinker.
I am the Christ woman. The Christ woman alone, lifting weights in the living room, is the Tao. The Christ woman, eating austere as a way of life, is the Sunnyasa renunciate. The Christ woman, running on the levy and nodding at the other runners, is part of a great Sangha community. The Christ woman at work is distributing aid to the poor. The Christ woman studying her text and reflecting is a deep listener. My life is founded on listening, nothing more.
Ye Ha! Go Girl! I am free!
Listening is my act of love and my way of loving Love. Selah.
The spiritual text I study is of dubious background. It comes NOT with any authorization. The denominational religious and the atheists both are aghast. They ask how I could be so dedicated to such unprovable and outlandish proposals.
Yet I am grateful that yesterday, I took an affirmative action in denying both the ego and the world. I decided that I was going to stop listening to the ego, especially as it attempts to defend or attack based on what others say. I decided to stop these thought attacks and listen only to the Voice of peace which I am able to hear whenever I stop for it.
So I reached a point of extreme buoyant happiness in gratitude for The Course. The Course has helped me with the continuously punishing inner beast, my ego. AND it gives me a way to look at the world which extends spirit into every person and situation I encounter. AND it gives me a way to connect with my hearts desire: that ineffable, intangible, higher order consciousness, present throughout the human mind. It goes by various names: Christ, Atman, Tao, Buddha, etc. It is much squabbled over by those who have never realized it. Those who have realized it merely watch and wait, speaking only to genuine listeners.
This weekend, I was challenged in my dedication by 3 different people. I am astounded at my own newly found confidence in my decision. Without anyone's approval and in the face of disapproval, I know what's best for me and I am doing it. Ultimately, it is my inner being which is deciding what I should study, how I should see things and what I should do. I stand on firm ground, strongly faithful to this inner quiet thinker.
I am the Christ woman. The Christ woman alone, lifting weights in the living room, is the Tao. The Christ woman, eating austere as a way of life, is the Sunnyasa renunciate. The Christ woman, running on the levy and nodding at the other runners, is part of a great Sangha community. The Christ woman at work is distributing aid to the poor. The Christ woman studying her text and reflecting is a deep listener. My life is founded on listening, nothing more.
Ye Ha! Go Girl! I am free!
Listening is my act of love and my way of loving Love. Selah.
Friday, March 5, 2010
The Soul's Sleight of Hand
Nothing is required but inner silence; and that is indispensable. Safety and peace are owned from within. Everything I thought I wanted is given by that Great Silent Beauty: divine union, contemplatio, Holy Eucharist.
That paltry faker, enlightenment, the fools gold of the new age, can be thrown in the dirt. I will take the abundance of Silence, the rich beauty of peace, the holy instant of eternal life.
The silent song of my soul gushes forth into that infinity of all; the eternity of an instant. I was there. I am here.
Who needs a mountain, a pristine wilderness, a forest, a private island. Here, wrapped in freeways and jet airplanes and other people's rap, I exist; and nothing more.
The footfalls of the runner slapped against the wet pavement. How far had the ghost of a woman come? Where was the shadow of a person going. The soul's sleight of hand never stops running.
That paltry faker, enlightenment, the fools gold of the new age, can be thrown in the dirt. I will take the abundance of Silence, the rich beauty of peace, the holy instant of eternal life.
The silent song of my soul gushes forth into that infinity of all; the eternity of an instant. I was there. I am here.
Who needs a mountain, a pristine wilderness, a forest, a private island. Here, wrapped in freeways and jet airplanes and other people's rap, I exist; and nothing more.
The footfalls of the runner slapped against the wet pavement. How far had the ghost of a woman come? Where was the shadow of a person going. The soul's sleight of hand never stops running.
Thoughts of God
My Course in Miracles lesson for the day is: My mind is part of God's. I am very holy.
This morning, I read in the ACIM Text (6.II):
- ...the Holy Spirit is in your mind...
- ...the peace of God lies in you...
- Each of us is the light of the world...
I need to pause and give these thoughts some consideration. How difficult it is to allow my mind to leave its worldly bondage and think of itself as in God.
The major spiritual practice of ACIM is forgiveness; expressed as looking beyond the worldly illusions and seeing everyone as one thought of God. As I think of today's lesson, I think it for or in the mind of everyone else. In this way, we are joined in my thoughts and the frightening illusion of the ego world loses its grip.
When I go out into the world, I face others. Relationships are like hot stoves to me. I seem to always get burned, yet I go out each day and attempt to get along. My help is in the thoughts which ACIM gives me and the practice of forgiveness.
Weekday Evening Lament
Lament the human being; the worthlessness, the waste, the futility. Only quiet will suffice. Only silent solitude is magnificent.
What a difficult time I have achieving peace in solitary confinement. I feel my fears and the judgment of the world. What good am I alone in a spiritual cocoon with spiritual texts and meditation? What good is it really that my professional work is praised?
My soul is forlorn, like a leaf blowing along a sidewalk, underneath the ego's punishing attacks. My soul is eager, like the first song bird to awaken the morning. Sometimes my soul is a wet cool fog; or sometimes an unseen humid swelter.
I run down a road in pre-dawn darkness under a full moon. My identity is lost in my unseen passing. A ghost of a woman, I am the soul's sleight of hand.
Running expresses what cannot be explained.
What a difficult time I have achieving peace in solitary confinement. I feel my fears and the judgment of the world. What good am I alone in a spiritual cocoon with spiritual texts and meditation? What good is it really that my professional work is praised?
My soul is forlorn, like a leaf blowing along a sidewalk, underneath the ego's punishing attacks. My soul is eager, like the first song bird to awaken the morning. Sometimes my soul is a wet cool fog; or sometimes an unseen humid swelter.
I run down a road in pre-dawn darkness under a full moon. My identity is lost in my unseen passing. A ghost of a woman, I am the soul's sleight of hand.
Running expresses what cannot be explained.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Identities
At issue: identities.
Yesterday, I was visiting with the lady who did my taxes this year. I picked her because I know she is experienced and knows what she is doing. I worked as a preparer in the same office for one year and that is how I met her. But, then I met her at church. So yesterday as we were chatting, she changed the subject to church. She knows me as Catholic. I pretended to be what she thought because it didn't seem necessary to ruffle her up.
I do this alot: hide behind identities. Identities are my safety shield because I am afraid of recriminations. That is, as long as people think I am one of them, they treat me favorably; but if they think I am strange, they treat me another way. The insiders get the privileges. Can you see that I accept privileges rather than be true to myself? How sickening?
First, what I see in the world is my projection and my decision. I am responsible for the world I see. Second, I cheat myself when I do not be myself. Third, I must be afraid of who I am.
These statements are huge. They provide a good touchstone for contemplation. I need to change my projections by changing my thoughts. I need to look inside and see who is really there and be that. The identities are my ego protective devices. Hence, I can't use my ego consicousness to correct the problem. I need spiritual help. I need to use a higher consciousness. The consciousness which is not ego is in me. If I give that consciousness a space to speak, it will.
I begin merely by sitting quietly and listening with non-ears to non-words which flow continuously from that spirit who I really am.
Yesterday, I was visiting with the lady who did my taxes this year. I picked her because I know she is experienced and knows what she is doing. I worked as a preparer in the same office for one year and that is how I met her. But, then I met her at church. So yesterday as we were chatting, she changed the subject to church. She knows me as Catholic. I pretended to be what she thought because it didn't seem necessary to ruffle her up.
I do this alot: hide behind identities. Identities are my safety shield because I am afraid of recriminations. That is, as long as people think I am one of them, they treat me favorably; but if they think I am strange, they treat me another way. The insiders get the privileges. Can you see that I accept privileges rather than be true to myself? How sickening?
First, what I see in the world is my projection and my decision. I am responsible for the world I see. Second, I cheat myself when I do not be myself. Third, I must be afraid of who I am.
These statements are huge. They provide a good touchstone for contemplation. I need to change my projections by changing my thoughts. I need to look inside and see who is really there and be that. The identities are my ego protective devices. Hence, I can't use my ego consicousness to correct the problem. I need spiritual help. I need to use a higher consciousness. The consciousness which is not ego is in me. If I give that consciousness a space to speak, it will.
I begin merely by sitting quietly and listening with non-ears to non-words which flow continuously from that spirit who I really am.
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