“How could anyone ever tell you, you were anything less than beautiful? How could anyone ever tell you, you were less than whole? How could anyone fail to notice that your loving is a miracle? How deeply you’re connected to my soul.”  Lyrics by Libby Roderick

What if you didn’t need anything? What if everything you believe to be missing is already right here? What if you are already a most remarkable, creative, beautiful and powerful force? What if the purpose of your search was to make you pliable enough to accept this truth? What if you surrendered your sense of lack and your hopes for something better and settled deeply into your experience of life, trusting it to hold only abundance, health, wholeness and harmony? What would that mean to you? How would that feel deep within your bones?

The mystics who embody the Whole Truth, mostly the lesser known amongst the names lining my bookshelves, have been clear in their uniform message. “Stop! You are what you’ve been looking for.” Their answer is simple and requires a simple response. Stop. Guess this mind and body had years of habit to undo, what I have come to call research, because I read it innumerable times and yet it still didn’t stick. Stopping wasn’t in my vocabulary. I still had many miles to go wrapped within the notion of needing to be transformed.

After this morning’s meditation a dear friend said, “I am so aware right now that I am in pre-school.” I laughed out loud, “Not only pre-school but pre-school on a remedial planet.” We exchanged telling glances and smiled broadly. It is beyond understanding when the desire to transform our lives, to get somewhere, to become something stops, and we understand how fortunate we are to be here, how blessed we are by each other.

I am not insane. I do see our world and its physical appearance. I have no immunity to the pain and suffering in our world. I live amidst cancer and unanswerable aches, at the heart of sleeplessness and the possibility of loss. The hopelessness of poverty, the doggedness of fear’s message, the searing wounds as relationships rip apart are not lost on me. Throngs of people are leaving this planet now and there is a sense of destiny closing in.  I not only see it, I feel it – intensely, utterly. No place to run and hide exists for me any longer, for if offered, I could not accept.

Recognizing these words as the words of a consummate beginner, a burgeoning appreciation of this moment and everything within it, relaxes the idea of a separate me and simultaneously expands Knowledge of Oneness. With what I now call God – Divine Word embedded as human form, as the multiplicity of plants and animals, as the ample, robust earth and the fullness of our magnificent sky … Oneness, God as All That Is – the idea of separation, the idea that there is anything wrong with my experience of life is inaccurate. There is nothing other than Oneness. There is not two-ness. There is nothing other than God.  There is only this moment and whatever it holds. And, it is filled with Creative Juice pouring through every one of us.

“The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him — that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free.” Swami Vivekananda

Your comments are welcomed and responded to!

Finding Our Way Home to That Place Where Christmas Always Lives

 

Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love. – Hamilton Wright Mabie

 

We feel the joy and listen with adoration as choirs sing ‘Hark the herald angels’ and ‘O come all ye faithful’. Hearts open as we bow before the baby Jesus in the manger. Eyes light up as Christmas tree lights flicker and turn on. This is a special time. Crimes against others drop. Soldiers from opposing fronts have been known to stop warring and share what little they had. What is it about Christmas that is so powerful that it evokes a sense of world-wide community, even among non-Christians? If we can figure the answer to this question, we can change our world. Imagine what would happen, what our world could be like, if everyday was Christmas?

 

What does Christmas stir up within you? Does it remind you of the scent of cookies baking, or gifts brightly wrapped and placed under the tree? Does it bring to mind midnight services or the sparkle of children’s eyes upon spotting Santa Claus? Is Christmas a time for us to reunite with family and friends, even those that have pushed our buttons or from whom we have separated ourselves in the past? What stirs?

 

At Christmas time there is a heightened expectation of good just around the corner. Good smells, good gifts, and the goodness of each other and of God. It is a sense so palpable that it permeates the air. The cookies and presents, when seen clearly, are our gifts to others and our selves. Our actions become prayer-in-action when given generously, in adoration of each other. Our daily lives soften with our willingness to see the presence of good rather than evil. These are our responses to God’s gift to us—freely given back, the flow of love entered into, the spirit of Christmas coming alive. 

 

Even though the lost, the frightened, and the lonely around the world find Christmas and other holidays hard to handle, the Christmas experience triggers the 100^th monkey effect as more than enough numbers tip the scales to love. The effect though, is not only due to our world’s Christians. December is a special month for many religions, making it undeniably, a very sacred month.  December 5^th is the celebration of the Buddha’s day of enlightenment.  Hajj and Eid Al-Adha, Islamic religious holidays, both fall in December, as does the Jewish celebration of Chanukah. At this blessed time of the year adoring eyes across the world and across religions, are raised to God in love.  This miraculous effect is a result of us all!

 

Was Jesus born to inspire us in such amazing ways for just one month each year? Is the annual build-up to December 25^th all that we can or should expect? What would Jesus say if we could ask Him? What would Jesus do about poverty? What would he do about the banking implosion and all the hands looking for 700 billion dollars in handouts? What would he do about illness and the inability of so many people to access help? What would he do about our persistent belief that war is necessary, that it is our answer? What would he do about the frail health of our planet? As he stood silently looking at our creation, what would he ask of us? Would he ask for more from us, perhaps asking for even as much as he gave? 

 

We are inspired at Christmas time. We are inspired to give to the needy. We are inspired to lay down arms, locally and globally. We come together in our workplaces and find ways to expand our personal ability to give into larger, more meaningful capacities. We are on the right track. Even the air we breathe gives testament to this truth. When we stop and pay attention we can feel love in the air and it touches us and reconnects us to what is important. We know what to do. We already do it and it makes us feel great to be good again! Our hearts know this way of giving, is the way.

 

Christmas is not just a once a year feel-good, feel-love time. It holds within it another gift. It has the power to show us the way back into real community, into the possibility of honoring each other equally as ourselves. When we are willing to see, it will show us that love is the only answer and that anything other than love comes up short and precipitates a fall from grace. If nothing else during Christmas this year, stop and acquaint yourself with this love you plainly give and that makes you feel so wonderful. Recognize its caress—how it touches your body, your heart, your soul. Memorize every curve and contour and become conscious that this gift comes freely when you love, when you are willing to give of your self to others. And, when descended into distrust and old modes of self protection, use this memory to find your way home to that place where Christmas always lives.

 

Are you willing to believe that love is the strongest thing in the world – stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death – and that the blessed life which began in Bethlehem nineteen hundred years ago is the image and brightness of the Eternal Love? Then you can keep Christmas. – Henry Van Dyke

Would love your comments and thoughts!  Gayle

It is time to focus on what you are rather that what you are not

 

We all need to decide whether to “play it safe” in life and worry about the downside, or instead take a chance, by being who we really are and living the life our heart desires. Which choice are you making? Charlie Badenhop

 

Choice is a loaded word in that it is always operative.  Regardless of our conscious or unconscious attention, we are making choices with each breath. There is an addiction that unwittingly occurs with many spiritual seekers, a title I only recently relinquished. In fact, I didn’t realize that I was still a seeker, when I thought I was not. The fact that I was playing it safe, choosing the downside over the reality, only became clear when at last I took what appeared to be a giant leap of faith, and landed right in the lap of God. With that step there was a new understanding of choice, of what it means to actually choose Love over all other possibilities.  

 

For most searchers, and that includes most everyone of us even when we don’t see ourselves as one, life is lived at the effect of what we think we are not. We spend our lives consciously or unconsciously on the look-out for everything that is wrong with us—an uncaring thought, corroboration of our unworthiness, physical proof of the status quo—our evidence that aspiring to awaken into an enlightened state is out of reach and for what it’s worth, most likely always will be. The decision is clear.  Don’t stop practicing. We skip right past proof to the contrary, the proof that who we are is Love incarnate, Christ Consciousness, the Buddha nature.

 

There is nothing to practice. To know yourself, be yourself. To be yourself, stop imagining yourself to be this or that. Just be. Let your true nature emerge. Don’t disturb your mind with seeking. - Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

 

Even when we look back across time and realize how much more fully we live in the present moment, we still judge ourselves as ‘getting there, but not there yet’. Despite evidence to the contrary, I withheld this same approval and thereby failed Love. “Patience”, I told myself. “Perhaps you will be love when all selfish thought dissolves.” I was not willing to assert that I had vanished into Love.  With that refusal I unconsciously chose to deny the truth of who I am, and with that, the truth of each of us. I was in fact more willing to deny myself than I was to say, “Yes God. Of course I am and now I see what has always been”.

 

Seeking becomes a new identity. To give up the chase, even in the face of undeniable proof, feels like giving up the self-improvement project, something that has supplied great entertainment for quite some time. It feels that way because it is. Our focus for years, perhaps lifetimes, has been on getting somewhere good and if we were willing to vocalize it, on going Home to God!

 

In the process we have created pictures of what it would look and feel like when we arrived. These pictures were a necessary part of the seeker’s dance. They heartened us to let go of old beliefs and to face our fears. They primed us for Truth to sweep in and make us its own. There is nothing wrong with the pictures. They were perfect. They were essential. They helped us all to create an amazing shift in awareness. They have brought us to this moment together. 

 

Now, standing here collectively, it is time to refocus. It is time to focus on what we are rather than what we are not and that takes a willingness to let go of the old, even though it has brought us far, and step into the unknown. Proof can only lay claim to the known. It can tell us what happened in the last moment. It cannot take us any further on our journey. It has brought us here, now and it is time to move forward into a grander version of ourselves than what we believed possible.

 

As long as we continue to see ourselves as seekers we will be obliged to continue the quest. The adventure is fun, sometimes joyful and at times painful. That cannot be argued. It also becomes a lifestyle. Being a seeker has lots of perks, not the least that it gives us access to a community and a place to belong.  Hanging onto our title and our memberships though means we prolong the illusion and miss the truth standing right in front of us.

 

We each have an original blueprint and it IS divine. It is the truth that calls to our hearts. Love as our foundation is what allows us to feel the pang of separation. It is that part of us being led to stand and be counted for and with each other. Yes we can change our world and move from fear into love, and will as we stand together in support of the whole, in service to this greater good.

 

We are this love that we seek. As we all stand together and claim this truth, that we are this love and no longer need to seek this love, we make it a possibility for all those still struggling in our world. We are the standard bearers for a new reality. The time has passed for waiting. It is time to choose. It is now time to live as the love we have desired. 

 

Realization is to get rid of the delusion that you have not realized. – Sri Ramana Maharshi

 

 

The Original Blueprint

 

Return at last

To what you have

Always been

Deny yourself

No more

 

Are you tired

Of this game

Small and unimportant

Are you ready

To come Home

 

Come Home Now

Acknowledge

The truth that

Is always here

With your choice

 

Simple choosing seems

To be an impossibility

You choose now,

Only now you

Choose your mind

 

Choose instead

With all the knowing

That lives within you

With your open heart

That cries out loud

 

Your heart already

Knows this as truth

Your heart is ready

To lead you

Into your birthright

 

You were born God

Have lived as God

Are living now

As God

Can you see this?

 

This is no game

No idle play

This is deadly serious

To your master

The selfish ego

 

Choose now

Deny yourself

No More

Allow yourself to be

Your original Divine blueprint!

 

You are love

You are God

You are YES

You are selfless

You are this Oneness

 

 

Your comments are welcomed!

 

 

Lessons from the little children

There’s nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child. ~ Erma Bombeck

Erma Bombeck’s words depict two possible scenarios. One paints a picture of carefully worded letters to Santa, children breathlessly waiting for the sound of tiny hooves on the roof, shiny wrapping paper and bows tossed all about to the tune of seemingly endless shrieks of joy—the sounds of Christmas morning in a home blessed with small children and full of love!

He said to them, “let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of god belongs to such as these.” Mark 10:14

The second possibility held within and perhaps unmeant, in Erma’s last few words is quite different. It brings with it a childhood joy and innocence not reliant on age or physical stature. This joy relies on a message boldly obvious, when one looks, an answer inherent in the question. Is it possible for us, as grown-up children, to wake on Christmas morning, to stretch and awaken each morning, and be a child to whom the kingdom belongs? And if we could, what would that look like? Better yet, what would that feel like?

Looking at a child’s face on Christmas morning might provide a clue. Look closely and you will find the innocence of unabashed engagement of life—no holding back, no waiting for an invitation, no worry about yesterday or tomorrow—just this moment fully entered into. The really young ones, the little ones untainted by growing older and more wary, clap their hands in glee at the least provocation—a fun box in which to hide, a glossy bow dangling from their small head and tickling their ear, your smile, your tear when you open that special gift they so carefully wrapped for you. These little angels sit in awe and inspiration, the breath of God flowing freely through them, pure of judgment, fear, want, desire, and most importantly, the strong sense of ‘me’ those emotions of separation evoke. These little ones sit in love. They sit within the kingdom of God. It is the reason we look into a baby’s eyes and fall into love ourselves. Their innocence is our portal.

“I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” Mark 10:14-16

Christmas—Joy—Love! How do we adults birth Christmas joy within? If Christ were standing next to you, what do you think He would say? Would he tell you to stand back and wait? Would he tell you to protect and defend yourself or would he ask you to care for the least of us as you care for yourself—or perhaps, even better? What would He say? Would He tell you to lay down your judgments of all others so that you could at last find the kingdom of heaven? Would He tell you to die to all your silly beliefs of separation and live in Love? Would He take your hand and sit you down, look into your eyes and let you look into His? If He did, what would you allow yourself to see? Take a moment and be with that question and see what insights appear. It is the gift of Christmas.

This is the message of Christmas: We are never alone. ~ Taylor Caldwell

They say we can never go home again…perhaps we should

Everything material is also mental and everything mental is also material. David Bohm

For several weeks I had been hearing a voice telling me it was time to jump in the car and go visit my mother. Going home is always interesting for me. I love my mother dearly and as I was shown last week, I still held out a desire for her full understanding and acceptance of me. I knew that she loved me in her way, but I still wanted her to love me ‘in my way’. I wasn’t aware that I held out a desire for this ‘appreciation’ of me—for her to ‘get’ me—but on the trip that fact became undeniable.

The entire trip I felt as if I was on the cusp of understanding something amazing, of having a big breakthrough, and yet it didn’t come. My husband and I went up to the boat show in Seattle the next weekend and I told him about my insight and the feeling of impending deliverance. We are rather used to my process now and trust that something good—although rarely what I expect—will come of it. We laughed and talked about the child’s need to be accepted by the parent and how intricate the dance is. When you are committed to the hunt, it is quite fascinating to watch old patterns as they maneuver to maintain their grip.

Later that night as I sat in meditation this story was still present so I asked Source to help me let go of this need for mother’s acceptance and I clearly heard God’s voice say, “When are you going to accept you?” Along with the question came an energetic cleansing—another level of constriction around my heart fell away as I accepted the truth of the question. I was the one who hadn’t accepted my self. It was never about Mother. There is no Mother who doesn’t accept me. There is only my lack of acceptance of myself.

It is never about another. It is always about our story. We project our story onto others—Mother, Father, son, daughter, friend, stranger—and make it about them. We make it about someone other than ourselves to keep the stench from smelling up the fantasy in which we live.

As I watched this understanding unfold I saw how I create and speak the words of each layer in my dream world—in my mind’s world—like a puppeteer staging a play. I could feel the energy of anger, sorrow, frustration with which I imbued each character and how it translated into this body I call mine. They were not speaking; I was speaking to myself through them.

In fascination, I continued to observe the understanding unfold. I saw how these perceived slights created my energetic body and generated the physical reality in which I found myself. They created my entire experience: my sense of worth, my state of abundance or scarcity, my world view, my response to events and whether I saw them as opportunity or problem, my connection or lack thereof with each person I came into contact. They created my experience of everything. My interpretation created my happiness, my sadness, my ranting and raving, my compassion, my understanding, my willingness to love or to withhold love. They created my experience of God!

My heart opened wider in awe and I felt my head bow in reverence to this Truth. There was no other person—no mother, son, husband, friend—there was only my version of them. As I saw this it dawned, with the brightness of an angel’s wing, that if there was no other person, then this person who was creating the other people did not exist either. It was all mind. It wasn’t my mind. It was ‘separate’ mind, endlessly creating. And…it would continue until I forgave it—giving it all back to the Divine.

Quite a story and one with a very happy message! Who you are, who we all are, is so magnificent! When we are willing to step into the fear, it dissolves. With each voyage into the darkness we emerge brighter, wider, more expanded into the Truth of who we are. There truly is nothing to fear but fear itself. And that is not quite right in its wording, for if we fear ‘fear’ then we will leave it alone to grow and fester and create a reality for us that prevents us from experiencing the love we desire.

Love is what we all search for and our stubbornness in blaming others makes certain that we never find it. Until we are willing to see our fear and then step right in the middle of it we are doomed to our present reality. But…if we are tired enough of hiding, tired enough of holding it together, tired enough of the knot in our stomachs, tired enough of failing ourselves, tired enough of settling for less than what we know is possible, then and only then, once we have let go of our defense—God can find us.

Subject and object are only one. The barrier between them cannot be said to have broken down as a result of recent experience in the physical sciences, for this barrier does not exist. Erwin Schrodinger, physicist

For Our World
Mattie Stepanek, From ‘Hope Through Heartsongs’, Hyperion 2002

We need to stop.
Just stop.
Stop for a moment.
Before anybody
Says or does anything
That may hurt anyone else.
We need to be silent.
Just silent.
Silent for a moment.
Before we forever lose
The blessing of songs
That grow in our hearts.
We need to notice.
Just notice.
Notice for a moment.
Before the future slips away
Into ashes and dust of humility.
Stop, be silent, and notice.
In so many ways, we are the same.
Our differences are unique treasures.
We have, we are, a mosaic of gifts
To nurture, to offer, to accept.
We need to be.
Just be.
Be for a moment.
Kind and gentle, innocent and trusting,
Like children and lambs,
Never judging or vengeful
Like the judging and vengeful.
And now, let us pray,
Differently, yet together,
Before there is no earth, no life,
No chance for peace.

Believe you have the means to offer your whole self.
Fill this life with your whole Love.
Elle Collier Re

 

This week has been a time for looking at relevance. The thesaurus lists several synonyms for relevance, among them: significance, meaning, importance, consequence. For me it comes down to two words—to matter. Isn’t that what we all want? Don’t we all want to matter, to make a difference? If we disappeared from the face of the earth, wouldn’t we want to know that someone would go looking for us? Sounds like a worthy goal—to matter—but as I found this last week, it comes at a fairly high price.

I should go back a bit and shed a little light on my latest life lesson. The lessons seem to come from every direction lately, generally like a thief in the night—with no warning and hell bent on stealing what I hold dear. This time God was serious, either that or I wasn’t listening the first time, because I was given two ‘opportunities’ to pay attention.

The first lesson took the shape of a comment from my teacher. As she mentioned an old friend’s return I was reminded of a past that failed to live up to its promise. My heart clutched and closed. As we talked memories darted in and out of their hiding places. I obviously had not hidden them deep enough. I heard my teacher’s voice; caught a few words in the middle of her sentence…you can’t withhold your love…and was swept back into the hell of my mind’s creation. As her gentle words broke the spell of memories and mind-stuff the cause of my heartache was evident—I had closed my heart whose only purpose was to unfold in love and be of service. Yes… her words felt right.

Perhaps to make certain that I got it this time—thank you God—the lesson was repeated just two days later. This time it took the shape of a broken agreement and being left to deal with a responsibility alone. Isn’t it funny how one broken promise opens the floodgate to similar recollections? It is so easy to grab the high ground and assume the role of the wounded. I would never do that…I don’t understand what she was thinking…Doesn’t she understand commitment? Don’t I matter? Again, the swirl of memories and mind-stuff, designed with one purpose—to protect and defend this sense of self, to insure that I had relevance, to protect myself from being hurt by another’s rejection—to hold the fear at bay.

This was the prize the thief in the night was after. It wanted my whole self. It wasn’t satisfied with all that I had given; it wanted more. It wanted me to let go of everything I held dear, of any claim to relevance, significance, or meaning and it was showing me the cost of clinging to my self-importance—the turning away, the closed heart, the ache of isolation, the denial of Wholeness.

The choice is always present, always waiting for us to step out of fear. We can choose to be right, to safeguard our importance, and in doing so we choose separation, or we can choose love above all else, regardless of what we fear might happen, knowing only love can fill the emptiness. In choosing love we allow the hurt to heal; we allow our hearts to open and satisfy their purpose; we allow this miracle of life to unfold. Isn’t this what we really want?

Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking.
It is not easily angered; it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails.
I Corinthians 13:4-8